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VideoAsk Link (affiliate) + Get 10% off using coupon code KesFBt6L >>> https://typeform.grsm.io/videoask9903 Sign up for podcast email reminders here  >>> http://brightentrepreneurpodcast.com/email Join the Insider's Telegram Channel Here  >>> http://brightentrepreneurpodcast.com/telegram Transcript: Recently, my friend assumed Stu McLaren reached out to me and asked if I'd be willing to contribute a very short little clip, explaining my best marketing tip for 2020 so that he could include it in his 200th episode of the marketing, your business podcast, which should be live right now. If you want to go check it out. But it got me thinking about how everything has changed and how I'm building my business differently this time than I did the first time and how it's so much easier in some ways to build a business today than it was 10 years ago, even though there's just so much more competition now than there's ever been before. But the beautiful thing is there's so many more softwares and marketing techniques and all of these things to make it easier than ever to reach the people you want to reach and connect with them. And my tip was all about how I've been using personalization and building relationships with my prospective clients to get more sales. And I thought I would do a podcast episode on that with you both because it is really powerful, but also because I want to go a lot deeper than I was able to in a little three minute clip. So that's what we're going to be talking about today. And I cannot wait to dive in ? We all know that the internet has changed, how things are sold forever. The whole invention of online businesses and our ability to sell anything to anyone, anywhere in the world. It's utterly incredible. And it's never been easier to start an online business than it is today. when I started 10 years ago, I had to learn all of this crazy WordPress coding from scratch. And, I mean, YouTube, I don't think was even around. So hosting videos was. Almost unheard of and having video on your website and gosh, it was, it was a totally different landscape. It is so much easier now with the softwares and the tools we have available to get something up and running fast. But there's one thing that absolutely has not changed over all of those years. And that is the same today as it was 50 years ago. And that is that people buy from the people that they know. The people that they like and the people that they trust now this phrase gets thrown around a lot and it's really easy to say. Yeah. Yeah, I know. We know, but it's so easy when we're working in the online space, especially as our audience grows and we have to scale our business and we have to scale our messaging and we start. Using marketing techniques that can welcome thousands of people to come and watch us at the same time or to get our emails or whatever it is. Right. We have this mass audience potential that makes us feel a little bit disconnected from who we are really serving in some ways, because we can't have a conversation with each and every one of those people in fact, it's impossible for a single person to have conversations with thousands of people a day. We just literally do not have the time to do that in and of ourselves. However, the more personal touches that we can do means the more trust that we're going to build, which means the more sales that we are going to get, people would rather buy from people. Then random companies, because when we connect, we feel like somebody actually understands us. And when we feel like somebody really understands us, especially when they can show that they understand the problems that we're dealing with. We feel more confident that they actually know the solution as well, when they say they do, because they understand the problem. So we're more likely to buy from them. Plus, I mean, if it comes down to buying from some random person or company that I've never met or have no connection with versus buying from somebody that I know, and I like, of course, I'm going to buy it from the person I know, especially if everything else is similar, I'll probably even buy it from the person I know, like, and trust, even if it's more expensive. Because I know like, and trust them. So this is why things like having a personal brand is really great because it can really help you scale that connection and that trust. And I talked a ton about growing a personal brand in the first season of this podcast. In fact, this podcast was originally named the personal brand journey because it was all about how I was growing my personal brand behind the scenes. So if that's something that's interesting to you definitely go back from the beginning and start listening. Because you're going to get tons of tips on how to do that. But what I have found is that when we can be ourselves, when we can be more casual, more authentic and just more real. People feel like we're more like them. And this is a difference that I've seen from when I started 10 years ago versus now. And even I see this in beginning entrepreneurs versus more established entrepreneurs is that, in the beginning we think we have to be super polished and we need to have this level of perfection or that nobody's going to take us seriously, that it's going to undermine our authority, that it's going to make our expertise seem less. Legitimate. If we don't have the super polished, super high quality brand, and yes, we want to have high quality products. We want to get our people results, but. The trend that I've seen happen is that when it's all so polished and it's all so dry in corporate, it doesn't really connect with people in the same way that more authentic, sometimes less polished things really can. Now I say sometimes because I absolutely think the best is when you can have both the Polish. And the authenticity. So you have a high visual beauty in your set in your stuff, but also still have that high level of authenticity with your people. And a lot of that comes with just being real with them, having. Stuff out there like a podcast or, Instagram stories or whatever it is, Facebook lives, where they can get more of what you're doing real time and it's not super edited. It might still be beautifully lit. And aesthetically pleasing, but it's, it's still very personal and authentic and that that's actually better than if you're trying to do everything super scripted, super polished, and really formal. bright entrepreneurs know that Don is better than perfect and that showing our imperfections. Honestly, it builds connection and trust better than trying to have everything polished and scripted and storyboarded and all of those things. Now, I'm not saying you shouldn't have intention in this, but I think so many people at the beginning of growing their business or, you know, even. A few years ago, it feels like this is something that's developed more. But I think a few years ago we saw this in general, even with super successful people that we felt like we had to have this polished quality, because if we didn't, um, we thought that it would make our authority and expertise lessen. It wouldn't be as legitimate. And so people wouldn't buy from us. it's something I'm super passionate about because as I've been growing this new business, personalization has been everything building real relationships with my people has been everything and I would much rather have AC. Smaller audience that I have a real relationship with, or that is absolutely the right fit for me. And then buys a high ticket item. Then having a massive audience that barely connects with me at all that I don't really know on any personal level. I mean, you can't know everybody. I don't know. No, all the photographers who are in my photography business who've ever signed up for my email list. I think we've, we were nearing 126. That was in people on our email list, by the time COVID came and kind of shut all of that down. And I didn't even come close to knowing a fraction of them. Right. But that doesn't mean I couldn't be personal with a handful. So even if you have a massive audience, Even if you have more people than you could ever reach out personally to, uh, I think that this is important to continue doing, even on a small scale for a certain number of people, for the ones that you can connect with on a personal level, you don't have to do it for everybody. You can do it for a small number of people, and that can still be incredibly valuable. So here are three different ways that I personally have an adding personalization into my business. And plan to continue doing that going forward as much as I am able to do that because it's so powerful. number one, I am using video, ask for email opt-ins for this podcast right now. So video ask us this amazing software. It allows you to collect a name and an email address and have conversations via video. With the people who use it. So you can check this out and see exactly how I'm doing it, you can go to the link. That's bright entrepreneur podcast.com/email. It's in the show notes and go to sign up. You'll click a button saying, yes, I want to opt in and you'll enter your name and your email. And then you'll see a little video from me. That allows you to respond. You can actually press a single button and respond either with a voice message or a video, which is what I prefer. So I can get to know you a little more or even a text. you can answer the questions that I ask you and help me get to know you a little bit more personally. And then I get a notification on my phone as soon as that's been sent. once it's been sent, I can actually click reply and send a quick video message back. Now, I, I tend to do this wherever I'm at, within certain limits. Right? So for example, this morning, I got a response from somebody who actually sent me a case study. It's really great for collecting case studies as well. I've been using it for all sorts of things. Actually, video ask is amazing, but I saw that I gotten this response overnight, so I'm literally sitting in bed with a cup of coffee. I have got bad head. My hair is all over the place. It's a little wild I'm bleary-eyed from not having been awake. That long coffee hasn't kicked in and I grabbed the phone and I click record and I send a quick little, thank you, video back, thanking them for sending me that case study and sharing a couple of little things. And then I click send. And off it goes via email to them right away. And it doesn't bother me. Here's the thing it's real like when we can share those real little moments, no matter where we are, what we're doing we're walking down the street or waiting in line at the supermarket, whatever it is, it only takes literally 30 to 60 seconds at most to click that button, record a message and click send, and you can always rerecord it if you don't love it, whatever, but I don't worry about it. I really don't worry about it. And it's so stupid, simple. So right now I have a video set up for people who subscribe to the podcast so that I can send them a little welcome message right away. And so you can actually go and check that out, subscribe to the podcast while you're there. Absolute shameless promotion for sure. And at the moment, I've been able to respond to everybody who subscribes. Now I just set this up recently. And so I haven't been doing it since the very beginning. So if you've been subscribed for a while, I didn't see it. That's why go check it out now, if you want to, but it's been really effective for building relationships. And a lot of the people I have done this with have gone on to either join my course. Or join the mastermind that I've created because we had that personal relationship right from the beginning. And as I scale my business and as the number of subscribers starts to grow in a big way, there's two ways that I can continue using this instead of ditching it all together. One I can take, you know, 10, 15 minutes a day, set it aside and welcome as many people as possible and not worry about trying to reach everyone. I can just do, the most recent number of people and just call it good. There. And not get worried about it, not stress about it or too. I can actually ask other people to welcome others with me because the app allows you to invite team members. And so I could invite alumni from my courses or other people in my mastermind or team members to actually send personalized videos back Without me having to do all of them. And even though it isn't me directly, it would be somebody from my team and it would be a personal, customized response, not an automated response that says their name in it and answers any questions they have. Even though it's not as powerful as if it would have come from me directly. It's still incredibly powerful and people are still blown away by the fact that a real person took the time to send them a welcome video and say, hello and answer any questions that they have. So that's something that. Would not be very expensive to have to hire somebody. Who's just literally there to answer those questions via video and to welcome people that during video cause paying an hourly rate, even if you're doing a hundred people and you're spending one minute on each of them, which is very reasonable because you could do this in 30 seconds, if you wanted to within the app, it's crazy simple. So what's that that's less than two hours. So two hours to, maybe pay what 50 to. Seventy-five dollars for somebody to spend two hours sending quick little welcome videos to all your new email subscribers. That's a pretty worthwhile investment in my book because. The people who feel like they've gotten a personal connection, they buy, they do, they buy, they feel like you genuinely care. It's the start of a relationship. And it's so, so powerful. So you absolutely can scale this. So that's one way is using video asks. Now I use it for email opt-ins. I use it for collecting case studies, answering sales questions. When I have them getting client feedback and all sorts of really fun things, highly recommended. Check it out. The second way that I do, this is on Instagram. Now. I'm not heavily active on Instagram in terms of posting content. I don't have a regular content strategy. I'm not actively trying to promote my Instagram account because honestly, I feel like having a lot of followers, it's just vanity metrics and I don't love Instagram. I talked about that. Oh gosh. At the very beginning of this podcast and season one, I don't remember the exact episode, but originally I thought I would spend a lot of time on Instagram and grow that, but I realized that I love podcasting more. So this is my primary platform, the one that I'm growing this an email. And so I'm not really worried about Instagram at all. That being said, when people do seek me out there and follow me. I do try and send them a quick little voice message via a DM and just thank them for following me and try and get to know them a little bit. And it doesn't take very much time. I love the voice message feature because it's so fast and easy. It's so fast and easy and it builds relationships. I can trace back specific people. Who've joined my course this fall. Because I welcomed them with a voice message when they started following me on Instagram. I figure if they've gone out of their way to find me on Instagram, since I'm not trying to do a lot there, they probably are somebody who's very interested in learning from me and interested in what I have to say. And so I'm, I'll be honest. I'm not always as good at being disciplined on there because I'm not on Instagram all the time, but I do try and send voice messages to people. And anytime someone reached out directly with a voice message. Or a DM in general, I always am responding to them unless it's spammy, you know, I've been getting plenty of spam stuff. I don't bother with those, but any legitimate person, who's just reaching out to say hi, I absolutely respond back to them. So by the way, that's totally an invitation. If you would like to talk to me personally, Go send me an Instagram DM do it. I'll answer. I'll respond to you now again, I know as I continue to grow, I might not be able to respond to everybody and that's just going to be how it is, but for now, and for as long as I can, I want to try and personally connect with anybody who wants to personally connect with me. Because I want to build that relationship. Relationship is everything. And not just because I want to make the sale, but because I really love people. I want to help them. And I enjoy it. I really do care about my people and whether they buy or not. I want to see them succeed. I want to see you succeed. I genuinely believe that we are brighter together. So that's the second place that I get really personal. And then the third place that I get more personal is within my course when I'm doing my Q and A's, I've made a very conscious switch from doing a Facebook live where it's just me talking at the camera and lots of peaceable listening. To doing my Q and A's as more of a coaching style zoom session. So on zoom, everybody shows up, it's not broadcast live on Facebook, which is fine. I do have to upload the recording later, but it allows me to interact with my people personally. They can actually ask me their questions. I get to see their face. I get to ask followup questions and I can engage with them in a more back and forth manner. That builds a deeper level of relationship and trust and connection truly. And that has allowed my people to connect more deeply with me and the movement that I'm creating around my products, because my products are designed to help entrepreneurs become the bright entrepreneur that I know they can be and that they need to be if they truly want to scale. Yes, I want to make money. But more than anything, I am driven by making an impact and really helping them transform into the person they need to be into the leader. They need to be to grow their business because what got you here is not going to get you into the higher levels of business, because if it worked, you'd already be there, right. You have to do the personal growth and you have to transform into the entrepreneur that you need to be to run a highly scaled. Business. That's just how it is. That's how it is. We have to do the internal work. If we want to see that reflected in our business, we need to become the kind of entrepreneur who has a seven figure business or an eight figure business. And we have to develop and become in deep ways. And that's hard work. And most people think, Oh, no, no, no, I just need this strategy or this tool or this thing. And yeah, you might need those, but even more important as the personal growth that needs to happen because we all have this. Junk in us, that's going to limit our success. We're going to hit these plateaus. We're going to feel like we can't let go of anything and we need to do all the things. And yet it's not going to give us traction and we're going to burn out. And there's just all this personal junk that gets in the way tons of it. And so that's my goal. My goal is yes to sell stuff, but also to see people truly transformed and I've created products, I've created a business that genuinely helps that transformation come to life. That's why I'm so excited about my mastermind, because I know how transformational that can be. I had no idea when I signed up for stews impact mastermind, how incredibly valuable that would be, how much I would change as a person by being surrounded by other entrepreneurs who were crushing it. And how much that would help me to both believe that it was possible, but also to see exactly what that looked like. So I could start becoming that person as well. And as I did the internal work, as I started becoming the entrepreneur, I needed to be, to run a seven figure business, lo and behold, my business became a seven figure business. Right. And it started to grow fast and it started to grow really, really quickly. And that's what I want for you. So today, my friend. Right now, what I want from you is to go check out my email list and sign up for it. If you aren't already would love to grow that. We'd love to give you a little sample of the personalization that I'm doing. if you have any questions, you'll actually be able to ask me there directly. And I would love to answer them. If you want to know more about video ask or more about my masterminds, or if you just want to hear a bad joke, super lame joke. I've got some really, really not funny, super lame. Dad jokes. I mean, it's not, I'm not a dad, but you get the idea. I've got some good ones, feel free to ask whatever it is. I would love to connect with you personally. So go check that out today and sign up for my email list. What you will be getting is not just, you know, more emails that clog up your inbox, but you'll get a reminder of when new podcast episodes are released. And you'll be the first to know when I have either my mastermind open or I'm selling my course or whatever else. You'll just be in the know for everything that's going on. And we'll never miss out on something because of that. So definitely go check that out today. If you have any questions, ask me when you sign up for my email list, I'll reach out to you or you can feel free to send me a DM on Instagram too. Now, you know, secrets out. I'm the one managing my Instagram inbox and I am responding to as many people as possible. So without my friend, just remember, we are brighter together and the world needs us. So let's go out and let's make it brighter. ?