Trevor Anderson: What it Takes to Build a Winning Agency

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What does it take to start an award-winning agency and what are the latest trends for 2021? He’s built two successful agencies and has now been recognized as one of the best in Miami. His name is Trevor Anderson and in this conversation, we discuss how he did it and some powerful marketing trends for 2021.

More About Trevor:

Experienced beyond his years, Trevor is known for his broad set of skills that he has acquired from his accomplishments in marketing, real estate, tech, and management roles. A natural problem solver, his unique approach to setbacks allows him to quickly overcome obstacles in his way. Dedicated, relentless, and a forward-thinker, Trevor’s determination to deliver above and beyond results sets him apart from the competition.

Trevor graduated from the University of Mississippi with a BA in Marketing, as well as minors in both Spanish and International Studies, his academic career speaks for itself. After his education at Highland Park High School, Trevor entered college as a Provost Scholar with multiple accolades and scholarships for academic excellence, athletic achievement, and philanthropic endeavors. Trevor acquired significant leadership experience within his board of director roles with multiple on-campus student marketing organizations and as a Facility Manager of the Campus Recreation Department receiving awards from his supervisors for his quick positive impact on the team.

From a young age Trevor worked closely with his family on a diverse assortment of successful entrepreneurial pursuits in Photography, Film, and Web Development. Trevor developed powerful communication skills in both English and Spanish and an astute understanding for business through his work with D Magazine and various projects in Residential Real Estate. His success in digital marketing, implementing innovative strategies with brands both large and small, has allowed him to acquire unrivaled expertise and proficiency in technology.

Learn more about Trevor and his work at > andersoncollaborative.com

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Transcription of Interview

(Transcribed by Otter.ai, there may be errors)

Adam G. Force 00:03

Welcome to the Change Creator podcast where entrepreneurs come to learn how to live their truth, get rich and make a massive difference in the world. I’m your host, Adam forest co founder, Change Creator and co creator of the captivate method. Each week we talk to experts about leadership, digital marketing and sales strategies that you can implement in your business and like to go big, visit us at Change creator.com forward slash go big to grab awesome resources that will help drive your business forward. Hey, what’s going on everybody? Welcome back to the Change Creator podcast show. I hope you had a relaxing and rejuvenating holiday break. Happy New Year to everybody. So much exciting stuff to do for 2021. Hope you’re thinking about the success milestones and goals you have for the year, and you know where you want to go and who you need to become right. So if you guys missed the last episode, don’t forget to circle back and check it out. It is a good one, it’s with Richard Lau. And it’s about choosing the right logo for your business. There’s so much and how that the way we design logos is evolving, you know, with digital design and stuff like that, and what is the intentions behind it? What do we need to know about them, He is also a guy that sold built and sold resume.com. He’s building and selling logo.com. So we talked about his model for buying a building and selling businesses as well. Okay, so the conversation we’re gonna have today, which I’m excited about, is with Trevor Anderson. So Trevor is actually the founder and CEO of Anderson collaborative, not this is his second agency that he has built. And they’re doing really well, they were recognized with honors, as one of the top marketing companies in 2020. In Miami, that’s where I am. So I’ve connected with Trevor here out in Miami. And I’m always, you know, I love talking about, you know, just business as around like branding and marketing and different things like that. So we’re gonna dive into some key topics and how he’s built up his agencies, and some of the trends that are taking place in the market today. And we’re going to talk about branding and things like that. So hang in, and we’re going to connect on that stuff. Our team has been working really hard and planning for a big 2021. And some of the things we’ve been focusing on are really just how we’re serving our students in some of our educational areas, which is like our captive a program, and how that’s evolving. And it’s exciting, because it’s a newer offer. But we’re now getting renewals with students and having people start year two. And it’s been really exciting to see the progress. You know, we, we help people supercharge their marketing with storytelling. And it’s interesting, because it’s so much more that comes out of it, because we’re building a full business system right through that program. But what has been really, I guess, powerful for people, what we’re learning through the program is that we do three live coaching calls a month, right? I mean, and so the exciting part of it is that it’s just kind of like the fraction of a cost. And this is how we set the model up to make it a low barrier for entry. And seeing the results and being able to help people at that kind of intimate level has been very excited for, for me and the team. And we love helping and seeing people actually start getting their final financial earnings where they want it to go, getting clarity on their brand, telling their brand stories, being authentic understanding the marketing world because they’re all masters of their craft, but they haven’t mastered their business skills, right. If you don’t have the business skills, you’re going to struggle. And that’s where our team comes in to talk about all the different areas around branding, brand storytelling, marketing, setting up your website, all that kind of good stuff, email systems, you name it. So this year, we’re going to be really leaning in and we hope maybe we can connect with more of you guys through that program and help more people out. So keep an eye out for those things and if you guys go to change credit comm forward slash go big. There is a a masterclass that I put on just to kind of talk about brand storytelling. And I also introduced the program and kind of explain what it’s all about. So if you want to check that out, you’ll have an opportunity just go to that URL change twitter.com forward slash go big. Alright guys, I’m going to stop blabbing. We’re going to get into this conversation with Trevor. Okay, show me the heat. Hey, Trevor, welcome to the change credit podcast show how you doing today, man?

Trevor Anderson 04:58

Hey, I’m doing well. Thanks for having me on.

Adam G. Force 05:00

Absolutely appreciate you being here. You know, it sounds like you’ve done some pretty cool work and with the agency that you have and you are in the Miami area right?

Trevor Anderson 05:13

I am. Yeah, I’m in sunny Miami. It’s it’s pretty nice here right now.

Adam G. Force 05:17

I live in Miami Shores

Trevor Anderson 05:19

That’s awesome. There you go.

Adam G. Force 05:21

Yeah, so I’m not too far. And I was just in Brickell, I lived in Brickell key just less than a year ago I just moved into Miami Shores once we had we had a baby boy just back in April so we’re like Alright,

Trevor Anderson 05:34

Congrats. That’s cool

Adam G. Force 05:34

Thanks. Yeah, doing the house thing.

Trevor Anderson 05:37

Yeah. Yeah, probably not good for a baby.

Adam G. Force 05:41

Yeah, you know, Brickell Key is amazing. I never knew even knew it existed until I moved there. I was like, I was living right in Pembroke Pines, and then Davey and we started looking, and my wife and I were like, holy shit. And I was like, this island. There’s an island in Miami.

Trevor Anderson 05:54

Yeah, it’s cool. It is fun.

Adam G. Force 05:57

So anyway. So just just so people who are listening, just give a little background, because I know you’ve started a couple companies, correct me if I’m wrong. And just give us give the rundown of like that, and just where you are like what you’re doing today?

Trevor Anderson 06:12

Sure. So yeah, exactly. Right. I’ve started two different marketing agencies, this is the current one that I’m working on. Really just have a background in marketing and marketing, consulting, doing that for you know, other agencies doing that for publications, and then kind of dove into the entrepreneurship side of things. here back in 2017, I believe. Yeah. So I started a start a marketing agency with a really good friend of mine in Dallas, we ran it for a few years, and ended up just making the decision to part ways mutually, and go out on my own. And start this agency I here in Miami, which is a little over a year and a half old. And, you know, we’ve we’ve been really fortunate to kind of have a lot more growth than I expected, especially with the COVID situation, everything like that. And I think it’s, I think it’s because we we’ve kind of really simplified what we do, and really tried to focus on providing value. And, you know, thankfully, we’ve been able to build a lot of really great case studies on that. So, right now, we’re just we’re focusing on building that up and sort of, you know, treading the waters as the COVID situation continues. And, yeah, it’s been, you know, I’ve done a lot of different stuff. But this is, it’s been very enjoyable. And just, this is my focus right now.

Adam G. Force 07:27

Yeah, yeah. So I’m curious, you know, from the first agency to your current agency, what did you do different in the approach meaning now you have some experience after the first agency, so like, what did you learn from it? And what are some of the things you did differently the second time around?

Trevor Anderson 07:47

Yeah, man, there’s so many that would there be a whole episode on that one. Well, I mean, that’s important thing. Well, first of all, it was, I started that with, again, a really good friend of mine in college. And, you know, we’re, I think we’re both pretty well versed in what we were talking about. So it’s not like we were faking it, but we did have sort of this mantra of like, fake it till you make it when we were younger, just were really young. And I think that, that sort of the, we trended towards trying to do a lot of things that we shouldn’t have been done. So somebody would say, you know, hey, we need we need some designers, right? Like, we need somebody design some graphic design stuff, or like, Oh, yeah, let’s do that. So we just say yes to a bunch of different stuff. And, you know, that put us into situations where we really weren’t providing as much value just by kind of sticking to the core principles of why we started the business. And so I think that’s a danger for a lot of people. You know, there’s a, there’s a mantra, if you try to be everything, to everyone, you’re gonna be nothing to no one. Yeah. And so with this agency, I’ve really tried to just focus in on kind of three core areas, that kind of all, you know, cohesively fall together. And that’s really promotion that’s building digital experiences. And the data, that’s the glue between that. So when it comes to anything that kind of falls outside of that realm, we stay away from it, we’ll refer to other people, and we’ll be very transparent and just say, hey, that’s, that’s not our thing. And because of that, we’ve been able to really deliver a lot more value make people happy, because we’re not trying to do stuff that we’re not good at. Right?

Adam G. Force 09:20

Yeah, of course, of course. And I guess so. Just, I think a big struggle that people have, and let me know, I guess if you face the same thing, probably more so with the first business with your college buddy. is getting those initial clients before you have all the case studies and all this stuff. And like is the service you’re providing, like you said, you were kind of taking on whatever you could, you know, like, you know, sometimes you have to wonder, am I providing a service that people actually want, you know, or am I a dime a dozen, do I have to be more unique? You know, so The positioning factor and just getting clients on board any any tips for people?

Trevor Anderson 10:06

Yeah, well, so when I when I started that business that was in Dallas. And so I came from an area called Highland Park, which is this has a massive amount of luxury real estate and luxury realty got the chance to work with a lot of different agents and brokerages out there. And that’s really how I got my start. And so the thing was, like, where the value really was, was sort of taking these old school types of people that really operated in like print mail, and just very traditionally, newspaper advertising for the publication of you know, the different properties or marketing and things like that, it’s I had a really close relationship with a few of those people. And so when we had the idea of sort of starting that, and I had some background, and Facebook ads and things like that, and so that was like a big change for them, right, like they’d never done any kind of digital marketing or anything like that. And so we were actually able to, you know, help. One of the teams we worked with really early on, get a ton of success, really build them up in the brokerage. And that got us some attention, build it up. So I think the important thing, there is one, like, where we got hot water with them, it’s like, we tried to do a lot of stuff again, like I said, that we shouldn’t, yeah, wasn’t really like our core area of where we were helping them, right. But the important thing to do, when you’re sort of looking for that right person to work with it’s one, make sure there’s really a need there, make sure he really can help them. And to, you know, sellings not really the hardest part, you can go in there. And if you can speak pretty well, you can speak and get a lot of people excited about what you’re saying is that delivery, right? It’s like a dog chasing a car, we do any get that car. So I my biggest thing I’d say to people is like, you know, don’t be afraid to price yourself, right? Don’t do things for cheap. But also don’t pigeonhole yourself away from that, you know, do some opportunities for cheaper, so you can build on that. But, you know, just make sure that, you know, whenever you’re approaching that sort of thing, that it’s focused on value, it’s about providing value to the person you’re working with.

Adam G. Force 12:11

Yeah, no, I think that makes a lot of sense. And I know, historically, we’ve had times where, you know, I just actually made a video about this, talking about some of the our historical mistakes. And, you know, we have like a $50,000 deal on the table. And at that time, you know, we were under the gun to get some cash in the company. And, you know, we got what we like to call money breath. And, you know, we push too hard, too fast, and so on and so forth, then it kind of like it just kind of put the deal put them it’s kind of like a girl who consents a guy that’s desperate, you know. It’s like, and then later, we have like a much bigger deal. But like they actually like, this is just an example, they offered a retainer. And their retainer was we actually rejected it was bigger than what the first deal was, we rejected, this is $120,000 deal. And we were rejected retainers. And listen, we’re just gonna do a three month partnership, and here’s what it would cost. And let’s just test the waters. See if our partnership is good. Let’s see if we can actually get the results and help you the way that we hope we did the three month thing it crushed it, and then boom, we got the next deal. We got their smaller commitment, and it all kind of like fell into place.

Trevor Anderson 13:28

Yeah, it’s it’s really that snowball effect you’re talking about. I mean, that’s the thing. It’s not that like people the money breath. Before you put it’s funny, definitely you can come off super desperate visa. I mean, that check looks pretty good, right? Yeah. But you got it ends up being such a better relationship. One, your goal should be to build a case study, because then you can go on and get that next plan, right. But by building a case study, you’re actually providing value, right? And so if you focus just on that piece, like, hey, let’s figure out how we can provide them value, then you got somebody who’s your advocate to write and then that client is going to refer you to other people. So yeah, I mean, with that first business, we tried to scale really fast and hop, like, cool. Let’s skip the next big deal. And next big deal. Next Big deal. And then we forget about the people behind us that sort of got us to that point. Yeah. So that’s a good point.

Adam G. Force 14:20

Nice. It’s tough. And you know, I’ve been down a few of those roads, and I work with a bunch of people who are running agencies and businesses like like yours. And, you know, it takes a little I think a major part of it is to be patient to right. It’s like when we’re impatient. We have this culture of impatience. And we may or may not realize it, but that really can hurt the business. If you’re not willing to play the long game. It’s like stocks, like be willing to play the long game. It makes a difference. Man, so So how long now has your current company been up and running?

Trevor Anderson 14:59

So it’s been About a year and a half or so, but I’ve been kind of leading into finally before it was really Incorporated. I was kind of doing the consulting side on my own. So it feels like it’s been a little bit over two years, kind of with the same players being around. Yeah. I guess like the Anderson collaborative brand, really a year and a half old.

Adam G. Force 15:19

Okay, cool. And now, let’s get clear for people who your typical client may be maybe multiple at this point, I don’t know, if you have a very, like niche focus on who you work with, and what type what your bread and butter service is for them.

Trevor Anderson 15:34

Yeah. So I mean, we work with a lot of different people, I wish we were more niche. My favorite kind of verticals are e commerce and b2b. And that’s really where I’m trying to focus us on. And when it comes to sort of the bread and butter approach, I mean, I really think it’s the promotion side. And that’s, you know, the biggest need I see right now, is there’s so many people that, you know, anybody can go and make, like Facebook ads, you know, you can boost a post. And so people have this perception that it’s not that hard. And you know, it, I wouldn’t say like, there are aspects of it, like going in and creating a campaign that are kind of easy, but it’s, it’s the cohesion between like, all these different channels we have now, there are many, there’s so many, the the user base of where people are today is so fragmented, with so many different communication channels. It’s like how do you integrate all of those together? Right? Yeah. And so our whole kind of like bread and butter services? How do we make promotions that are not just, you know, effective? And they’re driving results? But how are they multichannel? How are they integrated? And how are they personalized to people based on how they’ve interacted with your business thus far. And also doing that in a way that you know, what you’re getting out of it? Right? So I would definitely say like the digital advertising side, driving relevant traffic, and, you know, creating some sort of conversion out of that, whether that’s a sale or a lead. That’s really what that’s like the area we really try to focus in on. Big time.

Adam G. Force 17:06

Got it. So you are? So are you doing, like, the creative development of assets? Are you just managing the distribution strategy?

Trevor Anderson 17:19

Yeah, at this point, we’re really not doing much on the creative side, like if we’re with somebody, and they said, Hey, we really need this, like, I’ve got, I’ve got a great network of people that can do that. They’re like I said, like, we don’t do creative in house, we’re trying to stick to what we do best. So it’s really more like the implementation of that like structure. Right, that strategy on a high level?

Adam G. Force 17:40

Got it. Got it. And so have you done in the past year any work with startups? Or is it then? You know, maybe it’s companies who are more than five years old? Or, you know, whatever it might be?

Trevor Anderson 17:52

Yeah, I mean, I would say our sweet spot is kind of like, it’s sort of companies that are evaluate at the 50 employee range. A little bit on the on the medium side, we’ve worked with a few startups, the problem is a lot of the on the startup side, a lot of those folks don’t really have the budget yet to really do what they can. So with those kind of people, you know, we’ll come in sort of like in a consultation level one sort of say, you know, let’s, let’s help you try to build a team that can do these things internally, or, you know, what are some some helpful ways that you can sort of get off the ground. But when it comes to more like, day to day management, and really doing those things, like done for you services, we stick in that kind of middle area?

Adam G. Force 18:35

Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. So I guess at this point, I’m curious, where you see the business going, in the next, you know, 12 months or so?

Trevor Anderson 18:48

Yeah, well, I think my biggest problem when I was younger, and, and just trying to build the businesses, I have, I have a almost kind of like a perfectionist syndrome, I guess, where I really want i the urge to want to put my hands in all the different cookie jars and, and, you know, keep my hands on things. And my last business really saw that kind of hurt it right, because I was spreading myself super thin. Yeah. And so this time around, I’ve really tried to focus more on finding experts that can do the things that we want to do. And so I have, I have some really great team members that, you know, I’ve just really tried to empower and let them do what they can do, and let them do it best. And, you know, I think it’s important to remember that you know, the best people for your business, you don’t have to motivate them, they the best kind of people that are going to work for your company shouldn’t have to be motivated. They should be motivated to do a good job. And if you’re trying to motivate somebody, I just think that’s the wrong way to manage them. So I’ve really tried as we’ve grown, to just sort of let go of the reins and let those people do what they do best. And so I’m just Trying to keep doing that putting the right people in the right places as we scale up, and just continue to deliver on our promise. Right. So, again, I’m trying to do it slowly. And we have some, some really great case studies that have come out of that, getting a lot of press and media coverage in Miami because of that, because we got some good work going out. And I think if we keep doing that, and we just keep it kind of steadily, steadily, steadily growing, that could really take us to a great spot. But like you said, I’m in it for the long haul, right? I’m not trying to find some secret shortcut or whatever. Those don’t exist.

Adam G. Force 20:36

Yeah, exactly. They don’t exist. Everything is a build up of lots of small steps, not just one big step. Right. So, yeah, and you know, and when did you know you were ready to hire your first employee?

Trevor Anderson 20:55

Yeah, I think I think it was really ready. I tried to kind of pull them in on something where I knew I could test them enough to sort of see if it would work. And, and also sort of create a job for them. So there have been, there have been times where like, financially, I was, like, Man, this person is awesome. I really want to pull them in, I’m not sure if I can, and I kind of throw it out there and be like, Look, there’s, there’s this opportunity here, I can’t pay you right now. But if we can, we can find a way to pull you in on it, right, and you can kind of almost build that job out of what we’re doing together. That’s actually worked for me a few times where like, we’ve been able to sort of build that ideal position out of just an opportunity, or even just, you know, working on one account and just kind of pulling them in, ya know, I think I think it’s really, you know, the moment you know, somebody’s ready to kind of take that step with us. they’ve proven themselves not just by like, you know, coming in an interview and having the right credentials or whatever, but actually doing the work they say they can do.

Adam G. Force 22:00

I think that’s smart. I think that’s smart. And you hear that too, a lot. And I’ve always, you know, felt the same way. I’m like, What do you really know about somebody? Just from an interview, besides your maybe you can connect with them? Maybe not? Maybe they’re just a good interviewer? I don’t know. You know, I’ve now worked with a lot of people do our own business, whether you know, it’s not even for hiring but partnerships, different things. And, you know, you really get to know someone by working on a project. So hearing you say that, I think anybody listening, anytime you can get someone to test the waters for a month or work on a project, I think is absolutely critical, especially when it comes into understanding. Are they reliable? That’s like a biggest thing for me. Are they really? Do they do what they say they’re gonna do? Are they on time? Like, those things drive me nuts?

Trevor Anderson 22:54

Yeah, well, I think the other big part of that too, is there’s, there’s this certain kind of, like, breed, I don’t know, there’s, it’s like this special kind of person. That just they are so they got dreams, you know, like, they really have ambition to go do something and there’s just this like fire. And sometimes you find those people and you got to grab them. They’re really rare. And it’s kind of a goal at our company. There’s, there’s our mission is not really like drilled down into sort of like that corporate typical structure, we actually just have a quote, it’s one of my favorite quotes. It’s, I don’t know if you know, T. Lawrence’s but his quote is all men dream, but not equally as a dream at night and the dusty recesses of their mind wake up to find it was all vanity. The dreams of the day are dangerous men for they may act on their dreams with open eyes to make them possible. So that’s my favorite quote. And I want I want dreamers on my team. I want people that are dreamers of the day that have really big goals. And if me as an employer could help them accomplish those goals, that would make me feel like my life had a lot of really great purpose. Yeah, that’s sort of my goal.

Adam G. Force 24:06

Interesting. Yeah. That’s a cool quote. I haven’t heard that. Who was it? Again, I want to write down.

Trevor Anderson 24:11

It’s T. Lawrence. It’s, yeah, it’s one of my favorites.

Adam G. Force 24:14

T. E is an Edward?

Trevor Anderson 24:16

Yeah, it’s Thomas. Edward Lawrence. I think I could totally butcher that. But I just know the T part.

Adam G. Force 24:23

That’s cool to get started. So I’m curious. You know, we all kind of have our failures, like what I mean, it could be losing a client from money breath. It could be, it could be other things to a bad hire. It could be the execution of a project in the wrong way. Anything stand out to you. I mean, we’re all human. So maybe we can get some dirty laundry out here from you about a failure to make us all feel like you know, we’re not alone.

Trevor Anderson 24:55

Yeah, no, I think that’s such an important question asked like what I was When I was starting to sort of dabble with the idea of entrepreneurship, I spoke to a lot of people that I grew up with, like parents and business owners I knew. And I knew that the failure component is so important. I think it’s through a lot of them off, because I would ask them like, hey, what was your biggest failure? And I learned so much from that, first, I learned that people are lying. If they say they don’t fail, I fail all the time. Yeah. And it’s the big thing with failure is how you bounce back from it. So I’ve done I’ve had failures where I was like, Oh, this is it, you know, there’s no coming back. For example, one that comes to mind is I had a probably the biggest client opportunity that I had had at that time. And at the moment, I was managing, like all of their PPC spend and stuff like that. And Google had like, rolled out this update where it would double spend, if it thought it could optimize for conversions. And so it ended up spending, like, I think it was, like $20,000 over their budget, or something like that. It was absurd how much money it’s been over. And obviously, like, the thing that was funny, it kind of ended up working out for them, because they got leads out of it. But I was like, they were so upset, right? Because I mean, we just we totally blew it. I mean, it’s like unprofessional, and everything like that. And you know that it kind of gave me a feeling of like even imposter syndrome. I’m like, man, should I really even begin this? Like, how did I mess up that bad? I mean, that’s the thing, like, we’re all human, right? Like everybody, everybody has those mats up. Like I say, you just gotta you gotta take those things in stride. And you got to learn from them. And you got to not make that same mistake again, right? So if you make it twice, then it’s not a failure, you’re just an idiot. If you fail once, that’s okay. And that’s the other thing too, like, you gotta understand, like, a lot of people don’t have an employee, you fail. And they fire them. And it’s like, you got to understand, you know, just like you fail, they fail to, yeah, you got to empower them to learn from that mistake. And sometimes, you know, that’s moving what they’re doing, or, you know, the solution isn’t just to fire that person. All right, you got to give people chances. And when you do, and you’ll find that a lot of people will bounce back from that. So…

Adam G. Force 27:20

Yeah, yeah, I think you nailed it, man. I mean, you know, we kind of learned that failing is a bad thing throughout school, right? Oh, you fail. That’s terrible. Yeah. Now, you can’t do this, you can do that. And it’s kind of this like, subconscious cultural thing. And I always say that the idea that failing is bad as a bad idea. But like you said, you know, you have to learn from it. If you’re the dodo, that makes the same mistake over and over. Well, that’s on you. But yeah, those failures are, it’s, it’s just that inevitable part of the process, like you can’t I mean, okay, you can go on and on, and look at all these famous people from Michael Jordan to Steve Jobs, or even Milton Hershey, they failed more than anybody.

Trevor Anderson 28:10

Yeah. Big time.

Adam G. Force 28:12

You know, whoever fails the most, tends to be the most successful.

Trevor Anderson 28:16

Yeah, and you’ll notice those people, they’re not scared of failure, either there. They’re the kind of guys that, you know, you’re gonna run through that, that glass ceiling, and they might get cut on the way, but they’re gonna do it.

Adam G. Force 28:27

That’s it, man. I mean, it makes a huge difference. And that just comes down to perspective. So, you know, I think a lot of people get nervous about starting a business because, oh, there’s a lot to it, right? If I look back at Change Creator of past four years, or I look at it, and if someone told me, this is all the stuff you’re gonna go through, I probably been like, hell no. I mean, oh, my God, just so much stuff. And I’m sure you bend down the same same road of just figuring things out. So those are the early stages. I think there’s like that tipping point of trying to establish revenue streams. So I’m curious, like, it sounds like to me, you did it right. Meaning you started even your first business with your buddy in college, and you just went in? And you guys were focused on creating a revenue stream right out of the gate, right? Sure. And I feel like a lot of entrepreneurs really start businesses and they’re like, I’m gonna do this podcast, I’m gonna, I’m gonna create this blog, and they have no real plan for monetization and making money. They’re just doing stuff that they think they should be doing.

Trevor Anderson 29:37

Yeah, I mean, I think that’s super true. I mean, just just to people that are looking to even start a business. I think there’s two types of individuals. I think there’s one person that is scared to make the leap, which was kind of me. I was like, oh, man, this is, you know, I’m too young to be an entrepreneur or whatever. Then I think there’s another type. It’s kind of like you I’m gonna be an entrepreneur and they don’t, they don’t really understand, okay, what does that actually mean? And it The reality is not attractive, right? Like, you know, you may see people on Instagram or whatever and you know, they’re driving cars and whatever, like they’re just they’re living their best life. The reality is, I mean, it’s late nights, it’s working hard. It’s sometimes losing your sanity a little bit. And it’s, you know, receiving panic texts and calls or whatever. I mean, even today, like, just before the podcast, I had a text and call this morning, and we’re having this big issue, and I was like, Oh, my gosh, just while I roll over and turn my phone on, do not disturb, but like, you gotta, you know, react to that. And you got to, you know, sort of take that and enroll it. And that’s an answer reality like it, there’s no, like I said, there are no shortcuts. I hate all this, like, kind of get rich quick schemes and things like that. It sets people up for failure is like, Man, I’m not making it. It’s like, yeah, you’re not gonna make it in the first month. And it takes time. And you gotta, you gotta set like little baby goals for yourself, right? Like, it’s like teaching baby walk, like one step and then do this stuff. And when you set those little micro goals, and they start achieving them, they snowball on each other, right? And then all of a sudden, that’s building into a bigger snowball, and you just keep going, and keep going.

Adam G. Force 31:22

Yeah, I mean, we’ve noticed that a lot of entrepreneurs, essentially, we built up this magazine, and you know, it did well, we decided, like, we had to get another revenue stream, because magazines, just it’s not much. And we surveyed our audience. And one of the things we learned by getting on the phone talking to all these people, is a lot of entrepreneurs are excited, and they have this, this willpower to do what they need to do. And they’re masters of their craft, right, just like an artist is a master of their craft, but they don’t have the business skills. So now they’re just out there doing all this stuff. And they don’t have the business skills, and they don’t know how to communicate their brand, like their brand story and positioning and all these things. And this is a big gap for them. And that this is the number one thing that we saw that was causing them to struggle and fail.

Trevor Anderson 32:17

Yeah, I think I think branding is one of the hardest parts of starting something. I mean, I think that’s where people really go wrong. A lot of the times, I mean, even just like the day to day business side, like, you know, how do you do accounting? How do you you know, make sure you’re paying the right taxes, like all that stuff, right? Like, it could be a master your craft, but you got to you got to, you know, figure out all those other things. And the thing is, you just gotta people focus just on growing way too fast. You gotta keep your startup costs low. And the beautiful thing is, in the world of the internet, your startup costs could be so low. I mean, they really could like minus starting your LLC, or whatever. I mean, you’d be up and running on Shopify with like, 79 bucks. Yeah, yeah. You know, like you can, you can really go and start something out of nowhere. But like you said, you got to find a revenue stream, you got to find a need. And you got to build a brand. If you don’t have a brand, and a story behind what you’re doing. You’re not going to go anywhere, at all makes sure you listen, your podcast, he talks about story brands, and the story is important part. I mean, I totally agree with you just even listening a little bit. It seems like you really get to value that through.

Adam G. Force 33:31

Yeah, I mean, that’s, that is our bread and butter here is because and it’s because of that, that research we did with our audience and hearing that gap. And we’re like, no, our team me, Danielle, Amy, like, we all have tons of experience in branding, brand storytelling and things like that. And I do, you know, design and all that stuff. So that was an area, we were able to help people and we built up part of our business, a educational program around that for people. But I love branding and design. I love that kind of stuff. So let’s take a few minutes, because we’re almost at the 30 minute mark. But we’ll take a few minutes just to touch on branding, because it’s such an important part of the business. And I think there’s misconceptions around what branding really is, especially when we start talking about brand storytelling. You just mentioned that you think it’s critical part of the business. So tell me just you know, your thoughts about branding? You know, just off the cuff.

Trevor Anderson 34:25

Yeah, well, I think I think branding in its essence is responsible for leaving that first impression on the customer. Yeah. So, you know, back in, like the reptilian brain or whatever, you know, just like the very simple brain that we have, you know, there’s that immediate reaction to what you see the look and feel. You know, if somebody is trying to communicate to you that they are a luxury brand, and they don’t look at theirs like that disconnect, right? Yep. And so there’s there’s so much to that. It’s like you got to build culture. He’s in a look and feel with your offering, you’ve got to build that perception. Like, you have to know what that perception is that you’re trying to build, right? Like, you got to know, how do you want people to perceive your business? And what does it need to look like, and not just look but feel like, in order to really communicate that, and then beyond that, you gotta, you can’t just like be this empty vessel. Like, that looks pretty cool, right? Like, you gotta have some juice in there some story. And, and you gotta, you know, make that cool, and you don’t even like, that’s another thing, like, people always focus that guy that’s really good logo. And the colors gotta be on point. And all that’s great. Trust me, like, that’s awesome stuff. But, you know, you see companies out there that have kind of cheapo looking logos, and not really the best image overall look, but it’s because they’ve got such a rich story, right? People, they just get pulled into that. And so it’s important for people to really figure out like, Hey, what’s your story? And what are you selling people beyond just like your product, right? Like, what? What’s your what’s your, your goal? What’s the organization’s goal? Like? What are some of the things that you guys are doing outside of just the business? I’ll be overly promotional, and provide value outside of just the product you’re selling, whether it be content or whatever. So yeah, there’s there’s so much to it. It’s I love branding. It’s a personal passion. It’s fun.

Adam G. Force 36:23

Yeah

Trevor Anderson 36:24

I designed all our stuff.

Adam G. Force 36:25

Oh, nice. Nice. Yeah, I found the same. I do a lot of this stuff as well. And yeah, you know, I only because I like it, I like to do it, you know, so there’s no way I would want to outsource if I can do stuff like that. Not that I want to spend all my time just doing those things. But I do see it as part of building brand equity, which does tie into, you know, generating revenue in the end, because, you know, everyone says, can you sell you could sell without a website? Sure. Is it easier? No, it’s not easier. But it’s like you, you don’t need a pretty website. You know, like to to do well, but first impressions do matter to people in this world. And I know, there was the Edelman report came out for in 2020, that Edelman report for 2019 came out. And it’s all about trust and business. And I don’t remember exactly the numbers. But I will tell you right now that a ton of people like more than 50% of people don’t trust brands. And when they don’t have a good website, and those times it’s they check out almost immediately because they lose trust.

Trevor Anderson 37:38

Me and that’s, that’s a big philosophy of ours. Like, it’s like where does that first interaction happens today, with customers. And for us, like we feel like that is most often going to be with the website, like the website is really at its core could be like your ultimate 24 hour a day salesman that speaks your brand’s assets, maybe even better that you could write. And so it’s so important that that website doesn’t just look good, that has, you know, a great user experience. And you really start to build trust and having like the right little nuggets of information, right like having persuasive copy, having great testimonials, you know, showcasing all these different things that make your business great. websites are so important. And yeah, that’s that’s really foreign on going to be the first time that somebody really gets to know who you are and what you’re about today.

Adam G. Force 38:33

I agree, man, I mean, it’s like the center of the hub, right? I mean, he got traffic around all the social media and all the other digital areas. And you know, we we used to talk a lot about doing sales funnels, and all these things. And obviously, we have all that stuff. And we kind of reframed it, you know, if you think about the door to door salesman is knocking on the door, and he gets to sit down and talk to you. So whatever you’re saying he can deal with the objections or whatever misconceptions you have, and all that stuff. And you can adapt the stories you’re sharing, right to talk about your products and whatever. in that conversation, you have an hour or whatever. But today, we don’t have that we have very little time. And we have this whole digital thing. So we started saying, instead of looking at it as a sales funnel, where we’re looking at targets clicks and conversions, we started calling it a digital conversation saying we’re not it’s no different than the door to door sales guy, but now we’re just digital. So what part of the conversation are they having where right and and now we’re just having we’re humanizing marketing a little bit, right?

Trevor Anderson 39:38

I really liked that. I might have to steal that from you.

Adam G. Force 39:41

I’m trademarking that man.

Trevor Anderson 39:44

That’s a great way of playing. I mean, it really it is and people’s attention spans are so so low today. You know, he really got to figure out how to how to pull them in and then yeah, like, how do you how do you tell that? What’s your elevator pitch right with you? Whatever you’re showcasing them.

Adam G. Force 40:02

That’s key man there. I just did an interview with Brendan Kane. He wrote this book hook. And he did like marketing work with people like Taylor Swift, MTV, like all these big players. And it’s all about how you only got three seconds to get someone’s attention and hook them. And then your story becomes, you know, very important, but you got to get the hook, you know?

Trevor Anderson 40:25

Yeah, I mean, that’s critical. It really is.

Adam G. Force 40:27

It is. It’s good. It’s good. All right, man. Listen, I’m glad we got to touch on some of the branding stuff. I think it’s important. appreciate you sharing some of your, your wins and your failures and stuff like that. It’s really good stuff that you’re working on. So I appreciate you jumping on here today.

Trevor Anderson 40:44

Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate you having me on. It’s been fun talking to you. I feel like we can do this all day, man. We’re speaking the same language.

Adam G. Force 40:50

Yeah totally. Hey, listen just in case, you know, we got some companies out there that want to check you out, you know, work with you or see what you got going on? Where do they where’s the best place for them to find you?

Trevor Anderson 41:03

Yeah, I mean, of course, they could go to our website, Andersoncollaborative.com. I like to point people to just go ahead and do a Google search, because we’re on a lot of different listings and things like that where you can actually see case studies and reviews and kind of paints like an overall larger picture of some of the stuff we’ve done. So if you really want to check us out, get to know us outside of what we talked about kind of the salesy side on the website. Just google search Anderson collaborative Miami, you’ll find a lot of great info on ourselves

Adam G. Force 41:34

Awesome all right there you have it guys Anderson collaborative check it out. They’re doing some good stuff here in sunny Miami. It’s been freakin cold the past couple of days.

Trevor Anderson 41:43

It has. They declared like a weather emergency which is funny because it dropped below 50. Apparently that’s a weather emergency.

Adam G. Force 41:50

It is in my world. Okay brother take care appreciate your time.

Trevor Anderson 41:57

Hey, you as well.

Adam G. Force 42:01

Thanks for tuning into the Change Creator podcast visit us at Change creator.com forward slash go big to get access to free downloads and other great resources that will drive your business forward.

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