3 Reasons Why Everything You Have Ever Learned About Business Is Wrong

0:00 The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are solely those of the hosts and their guests and not those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services, or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability explicit or implies shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing W FOURCY Radio. Welcome to Powerful Business Strategies, where you will find out that everything you have ever learned about growing your business is wrong. Finally, a show where you'll learn the right way to grow your business by learning business and financial strategies that your competition isn't doing. And now here is your host. President of NeXTSTEP CFO Michael Barbarita and joining Michael for today's show as an executive moderator is chooky obio.

1:00 Yes, this is chookey, and I believe that gratitude is undefeated and growth is about the next step. It is an honor for me to moderate today's discussion with my good friend Michael. Michael, how are you fantastic turkey? How you doing I'm doing well. So my name is Michael Bob Reader and I am president of Next Step CFO, and next Step CFO is a fractional CFO and strategic implementation firm. Our vision is to ensure overwhelmed business owners achieve the time, freedom, and consistent profits to build a legacy and live the life they desire. Our mission is dedicated to guiding small business owners to leveraging their time, exploding their profits, and build a meaningful legacy. You know, the show Powerful Business Strategies in our book of the same name is a step toward accomplishing that vision and mission. And so with that, I'd like to hand it back to my co author and moderator for the show, Shooky Obia.

1:56 Great, so very excited Michael about today's episode. And can we remind our audience. We've got a good group of business owners and leaders really across the country that it's uned in. Can we remind our audience of today's topic? Yes, well, we're finally I thought it was time for us to finally talk about what we mean by everything you've ever learned about generating leads and growing your business is wrong. Everything you ever heard, everything you ever tried, and everything you've ever done, it's all wrong. And I what we really want to accomplish today is to talk about a system for marketing and growing your business to a point where it becomes instantly obvious to your procests and that they would be nuts to do business with anyone other than you at any time, anywhere, or at any price. Yes, And those three reasons today that we're going to cover is strategic marketing versus tactical marketing, outside perception versus inside reality. Yes, and crush the competition versus copy of the competition. And so I'd like to go through those today. But before I do, Chooky, one of the businesses I completely fell in my face on was a comprehensive outpatient rehabilitation facility called Freedom Therapy Center. And one of the reasons why I failed is because I implemented

3:27 business and financial strategies that my competition was doing. I act incessantly about how we had top notch therapists, how we had a medical director on staff, how we were in a convenient, modern location. I even talked about free parking, and knowing that my competition knowing that, and I would despite that, despite knowing that my competition was saying the same thing, I didn't change it. And I even marketed the same way as my competition was through doctor networks.

4:08 And because we offered health insurance rebursements just like everyone else, I couldn't even offer the lowest price, you know, which would have been the only differentiation I had. So here's the thing. If I had put together a marketing strategies that circumvents the doctors and marketed directly to the consumer using the strategies that we will talk about today, I would still be in that business today. I could guarantee you. Wow. So yeah, yeah, So the three reasons once again, why everything you've ever learned about growing your business is wrong, is understanding strategic marketing versus tactical marketing. That's one second, outside perception versus inside reality. That's two and third, crushed the competition versus copy the competition.

4:59 Yeah, Michael, look, you've got me really energized about today's episode, and I imagine we'll go through these three reasons. We'll try to do as much back and forth as possible to really substantiate those three reasons. In addition to that, folks, we do have a segment towards the end of today's show called Business Compliments. Again, this is really in high demand from a number of listeners, so we will get to that towards the end of our discussion today. So Michael, let's start here with just like a quick disclaimer. You and I are both affiliated with a number of different organizations. I currently serve as the managing director of business Developments for. Better Price, which is a global business focused law firm.

5:41 In addition to that, Michael, it's really an honor to collaborate with you strategically on a number of business roundtables as well as with the book Powerful Business Strategies. Now, today's discussion does not necessarily based on our personal success stories, but in addition to our personal success stories, on learnings from the work that we've done with business owners really across industries across the country. So very excited by that. And then just another quick point of reference, adds the Fearless moderator. For today's show. I will try to ask you some questions, Michael, so be prepared, Michael.

6:23 I'll do my best. We like, we like when people bring genius to the show. There you I appreciate I appreciate that's setting the expectations. Also the listeners and audience members. You folks can participate by sending your questions. So we already get in a number of really good questions and comments, so we'll power through. So with that, I'll toss it back over to Michael. Thank you too, Key. So I want to show you how to leverage what you're already doing just by making a few tweaks to your marketing and advertising. I'm not talking about radical changes here, just simple common sense shifts, maybe three percent in one area, five percent in another, small changes that enable you to exponentially leverage your marketing's results and in the process, dominate your entire industry. I'm going to show you how to achieve massive leverage with your marketing, meaning that you'll make more money for the same time, the same investment and the same effort that you're expending right now. Once again, these are just small little tweaks. And why will this enable you to dominate your local market? Well? Simple, you know, most businesses simply don't know how to do this. This is clearly doing what your competition isn't doing. Business owners simply don't understand the tremendous untapped potential that lies within their marketing. No,

7:55 most businesses today spend some money on marketing and advertising and then decide whatever results they get from that marketing is probably about as good as it's going to get. And I'm here to tell you a point blank that nothing could be further from the truth. The marketing system that we'll talk about today is based on unchanging principles of human nature that dictate that people always want to make the best buying decisions possible, and therefore marketing's job. Your job is to not yack incessantly like I did, about how great you are or how low your prices are.

8:37 Your job is to position your perspective buyers so that they have total control over the decision making process based on them having enough quantity and quality of information to determine that they're receiving the most value for the price that they pay. And so what I'm going to talk about today may very well be a breakthrough in marketing and advertising. Yet it's simple and easy to understand, and this literally works every time it's implemented correctly, regardless of what business or industry you're in. And yes, you know it's a qualifier when I say it works literally every time it's implemented correctly, and that is a qualifier because it has to be implemented correctly otherwise you know, and you must go through the proper steps otherwise it's not going to work. So I'm going to introduce to you some very common sense principles of marketing that you'll be able to instantly validate and embrace. Principles that will give you a clear vision of what your marketing is supposed to look like and just as importantly, what it's not supposed to look like. I want to show you the fundamental formulas and strategies not only make your marketing work better, but to enable you to create what we call well competition crushing marketing. I want you to see how powerful all this is allow you to comprehend what the possibilities

10:08 are for your business and what a significant advantage you'll hold over your other competitors. So let's get. Started, Yes, let's absolutely get started. So there are two main components to any marketing plan, strategic marketing and tactical marketing. So this is that first reason that we talked about strategic marketing is the content of your message it's what you say and how you say it, including the concepts that you choose to focus on, the words and images you use to communicate those concepts, and the tone in which the message is delivered. Tactical marketing, on the other hand, has to do with the execution of the strategic marketing, such as placing ads, building a website, attending trade shows, focusing on colors, sponds, and things like that.

11:03 If I ask a business owner about their marketing plan, the answer almost always comes back in terms of tactical marketing. You know, they send direct mail, or they run radio ads, or create a website, those kinds of things. But the key to effect of marketing is to master the strategic side, not the tactical side. What you say in your marketing and how you say it are almost always more important than the marketing medium where you say it. The tactical part is important to a point of course, but the real leverage is in the messaging itself, and that's the strategic side. In fact, yeah, in fact, when a marketing campaign fails, the tendency is almost always to blame the marketing medium like the TV or radio station, which is the tactical part of the plan without any regard to how good or bad that strategy is behind that marketing piece.

12:05 During this show, you'll learn how to see differently in a way that will make a profound difference in your marketing results. This system has been successfully implemented in over four hundred different industries, including social media consultants, contractors, business brokers, accountants, financial companies, retail stores, retail real estate companies, home builders, restaurants, software companies, doctors, dentists, remodelers, internet companies, manufacturing companies, to anything and everything else you can think of. This works for all sizes of companies. The system will let you finally quit competing on price and start selling your product or service for what you're really worth. You'll drive in more leads and often see an increase in your advertising response by two to more than one hundred times. You'll also convert a higher percentage of those leads and make your salespeople into superstarves. You'll also increase the amount of your average sale, and your list of clients that pay, stay and refer you will increase. In short, you'll get a bigger bang for your marketing buy. But maybe best of all, you'll finally have total control over your marketing and lead generation results. So let me start by asking what's the actual purpose of marketing. I mean, what is marketing really supposed to do well? In a nutshell, marketing

13:35 is supposed to help facilitate your prospect's decision making process. There are prospects out there that need to buy what you sell. Sometimes they need to be educated to the fact that they need to buy what you sell in the first place, and other times they already know that they want it, but they need help deciding who they should buy it from. Often they think they might you know, they might want you to sell, but they have questions and concerns that need to be overcome before they pull out their credit card or checkbook. But consider this, because these prospects are not experts in in what you do, or their exposure to what you sell is quite low, they don't really know the relevant issues surrounding the purchase.

14:28 They don't know how to make the best decision because they can't tell the difference between the best deal and a major mistake, Which leaves you the opportunity for you to provide them with this information and guide them through the buying process. Now, all prospects and customers want the exact same things, and it really doesn't matter what type of business you have. They just want to feel confident that their money is being well spent. They just want to get the best deal, not just the best price, but the best deal in terms of overall value. People instinctively want to make the best decision possible and they don't want to feel like they got second guests on their buying decision. So all you have to do is the marketer is figure out what's important to your prospects, Educate them as to what constitutes the best deal when it comes to buying what you sell, focusing on value, of course, and then show them quantifiable proof that you actually provide the best deal in terms of price and value.

15:39 All of this has to be communicated to them in a way they'll pay attention, to, believe in, and then take action on. So perspective, buyers want and need to be educated so they can feel confident when making their purchase decision, and no one's providing it. Here's the good news. The first one who does provide prospects with this information wins all the profitable customers available. When marketing is done improperly, the end result is one hundred percent predictable. You start to feel intense pricing pressure from your prospects, and typically you're forced to cave in and lower your prices, destroy your margins, and make less money than you should have.

16:27 And so and so if you spend more time at work and away from your family than those who are winning those customers. Yeah, Michael, look a number of really good questions and comments here, So let's pause and take on some of these. So first, is this idea of competing on price right? So it seems like what they're asking is, how do I actually not compete on price when all of my competitors are competing on price and the way that I lose customers is based on price? Right? If? If? If that's your only differentiator, And I'm going to explain in a minute why price is right now, price is your only differentiator and how to change that.

17:17 It's basically about solving customer problems. And there are problems that your business is solved that you haven't. It hasn't been brought to your attention or your consciousness, that conscious consciousness yet because you know your business so well hm hm okay, And there are problems out there that your customers are having that are just second nature to you in terms of the service should provide service or product should provide. Okay, so that's that's. Uh. That that's and I'm going to answer that more in a few minutes.

18:01 But the brutal truth is is that if you're always competing on price, it's because there's no discernible difference between you and your competition. There have been no additional parameters or relevant issues introduced to educate prospects as to what really constitutes the best value when it comes to buying what you sell. And if you feel like you're always competing on price, it's because price is the only relevant variable that you've given your prospects to consider. So from the prospects perspective, all things appear equal, so they default to the business offering the lowest price. It's not your fault because every business school teaches the same old theory based on a broken model. However, I'm about to show you how to fix that once and for all. What we're going to talk about is to finally allow you to first be better than your competition and then second do better marketing than your competent. And this allows you to separate your business from your competition and become the obvious choice for your prospects to do business with. So consider this. There are actually two sides to your business, and this is one of the reasons. Once again, this is one of the reasons why that you're doing what your competition is doing, and it's one of the reasons why everything you've ever learned about business is wrong. There are two sides to your business. First, there's what I

19:34 call the inside reality, and second what I call the outside perception. The inside reality encompasses everything you do and everything that makes your business great. It's all your skills, the people who work for you, your expertise, the way you service your customers before, during, after the sale. It's your systems, your operational procedures, yourmmitment to excellence, that's your passion, and the way you conduct your business on a daily basis. Add these all together and they equal your value to the marketplace. That's what I call the inside reality. However, your outside perception has to do with how customers and prospects perceive your company. The outside perception is developed through the interactions that your prospects and customers have with your business.

20:29 But here's the problem. If you provide unmatched and unequal customer service and your customers absolutely love you, none of that matters to your prospects. If number one, they don't even know you exist as an option, or number two, they see your marketing and advertising, and because of your inability to market your business correctly, their perception is that you're no different or no better or no worse than your competitors. I would estimate that well over ninety five five percent of all businesses are completely and nept when it comes to marketing, and the end result is that your inside reality and your outside perception are perceived to be different. And guess what, When you look like everyone else, there's only one way to differentiate you from the rest, and that's price. That's why your marketing must do the heavy lifting for you and let your marketing deliver eager, qualified prospects to your sales process. Everyone looks at the Internet as the end all be all to all their marketing problems, but the reality is is that the Internet is a magnificent tool that will amplify your mediocrity and mess up your marketing on a broader scale with planned messages that do nothing to facilitate the decision I'm making process of your prospects. Yes, the Internet is an important tool, absolutely, but you need to have a great website, and that

22:01 means you better fix your strategic messaging or you're going to fail. Now, I told you at the beginning that this presentation is everything you've ever know about generating leads and growing your businesses wrong. So let me clarify what that statement means on what we've discussed so far, and it's a little history lesson so that you have a good understanding. For decades, we've been conditioned to do marketing the wrong way. In the very early days of advertising, I'm talking the eighteen hundreds and early nineteen hundreds. Much of the advertising that existed back then was comparative in nature.

22:43 Ads wouldn't just say, hey, we're better. They'd say we're better, and here's exactly why, based on this and that, and on average they did a pretty good job of building their case and helping prospective buyers understand the important issues in regards to their particular product or service. The result was though, that their outside perception was generally generally a good reflection of the company's inside reality. And then The most significant event in the history of marketing and advertising occurred in nineteen forty five, and that was television. Television was commercially introduced for the first time, and up until then, total national distribution of an advertising message was extremely limited to radio, print and advertising in newspapers or a few magazines or catalogs. But with the introduction of TV, large advertisers would buy TV commercials and reach just about every living person in the country for four thousand dollars a minute, usually sold in one or two minute blocks, by the way, which it gave them more time. That was a bargain even in the nineteen fifties money, but back then there were only three channels, so demand quickly outstripped the supply of commercials and prices shot through the roof, and in response to the rising costs, the length of commercials shrank from two minutes to thirty seconds. This meant that advertisers had less time to educate us on the important and relevant issues and build a case as to why they

24:15 were different, unique, or better. So instead of attempting to use shorter ads that highlighted their comparative benefits, advertisers changed tactics and started using slogans. That change made it harder and harder for the company's outside perception to accurately reflect the inside reality. But remember that marketing's first job is simply to get the prospects attention, and when running thirty second ads, getting attention was still not a problem for these advertisers. But then what that's right, After you grabbed the prospects attention, you must then facilitate their decision making process.

24:58 So companies and their ad age. So he's found that this was a lot harder to do in thirty seconds, But they also found out that they didn't really need to do it because the number of real competitors, that is, the number of competitors that could actually afford to advertise on TV and run ads against their ads was wonderfully few. They could spend a ton of money running thirty second ads and win by default. Now, if there happened to be two or three major competitors jocking for the same prospects like Pepsi and coke, that was fine, because there was plenty of business to divide two or three ways. The bottom line is that a company's inside reality outside perception didn't really have to match up the lack of substantial number of choices eliminated this necessity, so the focus for all marketing and advertising shifted to simply getting the prospects attention. That's what advertising lost its focus on selling and shift did its focus to creativity. The idea now was to get into customer's brain with something creative that would stimulate them and cause them to recall the product later on when they needed it. And that's when slogans became the de facto marketing standard that's still in use today, like the Real Thing or the Breakfast of Champions a Home of the Whappa, just as a few examples. This new creative approach took over advertising as we know it and soon began to filter into all other advertising media,

26:32 including radio, newspaper magazine, Billboard's Yellow Pages, websites, Google AdWords, you name it. Once this new creative message was in place, the big companies opened up their checkbooks and spent lots of money and basically gave people no other option but to remember their message. After hearing things go better with coke the eight hundred and fifty third time, you're going to remember it, whether you want to or not. And we called this CNR advertising see for creativity and R for repetition. Create an ad that's unusual, weird, shocking, funny, emotional, and so on. Spend a billion dollars running that ad about a million times, and then haul your bag of cash down of the bank. We call this the era of the brand builders, and in the fifties, sixties, and even seventies, it was a no brainer formula for market dominance for the companies with the financial capacity to pull this off. And that's when it happened. Ad agencies started running this formula for all of their other clients, even the ones that were smaller and didn't have deep pockets.

27:44 Business schools started teaching marketing and advertising based on these these methods that were being successfully implemented by the largest companies in the world and churned out graduates only knew one way to do marketing, brand build Their marketing and advertising became the facto standard for how you do it, and after a few years, no one even questioned the formula, which brings us to the crux of the problem. All of us alive today, with no exception, grew up in an era where almost all the advertising you've ever seen or heard is a product of the era of the brand builders. Over time, we've all become conditioned as to what constitutes a good advertisement. We learned the fundamental patent for what to put into a commercial. We learned about the slogans and the jingles and being funny. We learned that in marketing and advertising, outside perception no longer has to reflect the inside reality. Let me repeat what I said at the very beginning. Everything you've ever learned about generating leads and growing your businesses wrong and now you know why. And as a result of this new breed of advertising jargon, jargon has now started to dominate all marketing and advertising. Think of jargon as words or phrases that are drearily commonplace and predictable, that lack power to

29:17 evoke interest through over use so repetition, and that are nevertheless, if they were original, are significant. You see in advertising, you see and here jargon all the time. Since business owners only have thirty seconds to try to convey what makes them special, they lump everything into jargon as the largest selection, most professional, lowest prices, highest quality, best service, most convenient, largest in the state, more honest, we're the experts. We specialize, works harder, gets the job done right the first time and been in business for four thousand years.

29:58 We call this I hope so marketing because this is what everybody's doing, and the customer is saying, I hope so. I hope you have the longest selection. I hope you're most professional. I hope you have the lowest prices. I hope you have the highest quality. Why would I do business with someone who doesn't have the highest quality. Now, look, I'm not saying that you shouldn't be those kinds of things. Those actually make up the foundation that you want to use to build your inside reality. But consider this. If my marketing says that I offer high quality and great service, isn't that drearily commonplace and predictable. Doesn't it lack power to evoke interest through overuse or repetition? Don't businesses stated as though it were original and significant? Does my inside reality what really makes me good at what I do?

30:55 Does that really shine through? Can you tell specific what what makes me valuable to the marketplace when I say highest quality or best service? See, you simply can't describe, demonstrate, exhibit, reveal, or display your inside reality using jargon. It's impossible and Unfortunately, the end result is an outside perception that you're no different than anyone else. There's absolutely no distinction, no separation, no differentiation none. You just flat out can't make your inside reality outside perception match up when you use jargon like this. In fact, let me give you a way you can easily and quickly evaluate your own marketing to see if you're getting caught up in the jargon trap.

31:53 This is the valuation that I spoke about earlier. It's called I hope. So when you make a don't think about it in terms of the words coming out of your mouth. Think about it in terms of the words entering your prospect's ear This will enable you to realize just how absurd most jargon sounds. Look at the messaging in your marketing, and then ask yourself if the prospect's immediate response might be well, I would hope. So. Let me give you an example. I recently saw a TV ad for a home remodeling company, and throughout the ad, they continuously emphasized the fact that they work, their work was of the highest quality, it was fairly priced, and they guaranteed one hundred percent satisfaction. Well, I would hope, so would any would would you hire any remodeler who didn't provide all those as a standard part of their service?

32:47 H of course not. This is all jargon, drearily commonplace, lacks power to evoke interest to overuse, so repetition. How about this one from a consulting company. Our training leads to change. We increase the productivity, performance and profit of your company. God, I hope so does anyone hire a consultant for any other reason than to do those things? See? Most ads today are nothing more than a jargon fest. Does this jargon tell you anything about this company's inside reality? What else would you expect them to say? Like everyone's always gonna say wonderful things about their company if they can get away with it. The problem is that if your company has an exceptional inside reality and you're using the same jargon as everyone else, then the outside perception is that you're all the same, and that's when the prospects to fall to the company's offering the lowest price.

33:51 Price now becomes the only determining factor. Use this simple evaluation. Just ask yourself, openly and honestly, why would anyone choose you over the competition, And then evaluate your answer against the well, I hope, so evaluation, and finally, check out all your advertising and marketing materials, including your website. Do they pass the well? I would hope, so test are you or are they all just chock full of that jargon? If they're chock full of jargon, then you need to make changes. Stop thinking in terms of who else can do what you do. Instead think in terms of who else can say what you say, because the answer, unfortunately is usually anybody and everybody can say what you say.

34:46 And that's a problem. You know, I knew in my distant past of a remodeler that ran by far the most impressive remodeling company in his community. Every member of his crew had at least fifteen years of remodeling experience. They were all certified subcontractors that he used. They had won multiple industry awards. Only they were the only remodeling company that provided not only full satisfaction guarantee, but also a ten year material and labor warranty on everything they did. They left the job site every night cleaner than when they first arrived. They also guaranteed they could remodel any room in no more than five days. That's half the time of their competitors. This of course, met far less disruption and inconvenience to the homeowner. In short, their inside reality was literally second to none by far, but they had a huge marketing problem. Their marketing looked virtually identical to all of their far less worthy competitors. Their marketing said things like certified subcontractors, guaranteed satisfaction, and then a long laundry list of work they performed, such his new cabinets installed, complete remodeling and so on. Oh, and get this, they also accept visa and master coon. Well, see, I hope so, But then ask this question, who else can say that? When the owner of the remodeling company was asked that very question, he got very defensive. He said,

36:18 there's no other remodeler that can begin to match the work that we do. Our subcontract is a far and away the best. There's no one, and I mean no one can say what we say. Understandably, the contractor was extremely passionate, protective when it came to the superior work that he did, and he worked long and hard to develop that over the years. So finally, to try to get the point across to him, he was asked to pull up the websites of his five biggest competitors and see what all of them were saying on their homepage. Let's just say that his jaw hung open for about two minutes straight before he find pointed out. He said, oh my gosh, look at this other company's website. I know this guy. He's terrible, but his site says the exact same thing as mine. In fact, I think he copied my site word for word. He then looked at other remodelers and saw that all their websites were virtually identical to his. So remember, it's not what you it's not who can do what you do, it's who can say what you say. And if your marketing is full of jargon, then, sadly that answer is that all of your competitors can say what you say. So it's evident that this might be the problem for you now and a tremendous competitive advantage if you could figure out how to fix this for your own business. So let me show you how to fix this. Let me explain how

37:52 you can follow a very simple process we call the conversion formula, and we talked about this in a in previous shows. And when you use the conversion formula, you will eliminate jargon forever. I'm going to show you how to become a marketing powerhouse, make your outside perception become an excellent reflection of your inside reality, and finally begin to get the results from your marketing that you should be getting. The conversion formula has four main components. Let me start with a brief introduction, and then i'll go into more detail. The first component of the conversion equation of sorry, the conversion formula is called captivate. This is simply the process of interrupting the customer and getting qualified prospects to pay attention to your marketing. This is often accomplished by affecting the prospect emotionally. It's the problem that the customer has and doesn't want. Sounds simple enough, doesn't it, But unfortunately it's a lot more difficult to pull this off in real life unless you understand what you're about to learn during the course of our radio shows. So the second component is called fascinate. Once the prospect that interrupted through the captivate, it's critical to give them the promise that information is forthcoming that will help them make the best decision possible, or in other words, facilitate the decision making process. This is also best accomplished on an

39:26 emotional level. More simply put, the fascinate engages the prospect because it is the solution to the problem that the customer can't find. So it's problem solution. And many times the problem can't be something basic, like, for example, if you're a painter, I've had a lot of painters tell me that the problem the customer has they can't select the right paint. Well, every paint that can select the right paint, but there are issues that customers have, whether it's with your industry or whether it's with the trade in general, there's a problem that they have, and it's your job to find it. And by the way, the conversion formula works like any other formula and has to be executed in the right order, otherwise it doesn't work. Now, Chucky and I believe that these first two components are so important that we have a name for them. We call the captivate and fascinate. The first two components of the conversion formula the position of market dominance. Now, the third component is what we call the educate. Once you captivate and fascinated, the prospect you have their attention and you have the time to give them information that allows them to logically understand how and why you solve that emotional problem. This is accomplished by giving detail, quantifiable, specific,

41:01 inside reality revealing information. The educate turns the corner from an emotional cell. Remember you captivated and fascinated them based on emotional hot buttons, to a logical cell. This is easy to do if you follow this formula. And the fourth and final component of the conversion formula is to close. Now that the prospect has been captivated based on problems that are important to them emotionally fascinated by the promise of a solution to that emotional problem, and they've examined the educational information that makes your solution to that emotional problem real and believable, the last step is for you to give that prospect a low or better yet no risk way for them to take the next step in the sales process. And this can be accomplished by offering a free marketing asset such as a report, a brochure, or seminar, audio video or something similar that educates them even more so, the prospect feels incomplete control of the decision making process. This conversion formula follows the if you If you follow this formula for what marketing is supposed to do in the first place, then you will in fact have your out inside reality finally match your outside perception and once again captivate, fascinate, educate, and close. And

42:36 you know, creativity and advertising has the number one job, which is to dream up something so weird, so strange, so shocking, so unusual, so tension getting that it will snap someone out of their state of autopilot. This is the first element that captivate. But here's the key, Here's what no one else seems to understand and what just may be the most important thing you'll learn today. Once the brain is activated, it wants to be fascinated and engaged, so it immediately and subconsciously searches for additional clarifying information. The brain wants to know, Hey, what's this all about?

43:20 How does this affect me? Do I need to do anything about this? Literally, on a subconscious, subconscious level, the brain goes into a fact finding mission. Bottom line is, the brain wants to know, how is this important and relevant to me? Should I allocate any subconscious or conscious bandwidth to this? So it searches for additional facts, and if it finds them, it will become fascinated. If not, it will quickly revert back into autopilot. We call these relevant issues hot buttons. So what typically happens is your brain determines that, well, let me, let me, let me.

44:03 Let me say this. If you're a golf fan and you detect that Tiger Woods is on the television, and it notices that on a conscious level because Tiger Woods. You know, you notice Tiger Woods because he's familiar and his presence can captivate you. Then your brain immediately asked, Hey, what's Tiger Woods doing driving a buer? Is there anything here that's relevant or important to me? Or, in other words, is this a hot button issue for me at this point in my life? And what typically happens is your brain determines that a buick is not important or relevant at this time, and it doesn't do anything to solve any of your problems, and therefore it's not a hot button, and so your brain immediately reverts back into autopilot. And Tricky, I have run out of time. Unfortunately today, I'm gonna have to pick this up on the next show because I want I want you to do the compliments.

45:00 Absolutely so, Michael, I mean riveting stuff. As you probably got the sense. I've been taking some notes here, both mental and physical notes. In addition to that, it's just nice to see some of the commentary back and forth. Folks are really soaking this in. Michael. Do you want to just maybe put a cap on the key points that you covered today? What's maybe a one line or two line? Yeah, I think. I think primarily is I'm just it's so critical to understand that second point that we made about your outside perception and your inside reality. You have to make the match. Yeah, if you don't. If you don't make the match, then you're gonna look like everybody else.

45:43 So it's outside perception versus inside reality. And it's remarkable to one of the words characterizations, so to speak, that folks are using to describe this dynamic is alignments, So aligning the outside perception with the inside reality. Right, because usually they're totally mismatched. And that's the issue. That's the issue. They're mismatched. The outside reality does not equal the inside perception, which is great. That great inside perception that most of these companies have is squandered with jargon.

46:23 Yeah, really remarkable. This segues again, this is just a very thought provoking episode, Michael, and thank you for the insights. Segues very nicely into our business complements segments of the show, and there are five notable business owners that we want to sincerely compliment. So first I wanted to start with. John Biebele. And by the way, these business owners are really located coast to coast, right, So John Bieble is out in the East Coast and he is with Ridley Cove Financial Advisors. Now, John is both a lawyer and a certified financial planner.

47:06 Which is again a great combination for problem solving. One of the things that we wanted to highlight about John is that he does really go the extra mile to serve as a trusted advisor to his clients by really understanding their number one personal goal and then using that to build the foundation of applying for wealth management or financial advice. So just really remarkable the work that John puts forward for clients. In fact, one example of that work is a system that he calls the retirement equalization process. Michael, how about that, right, our ephirement equalization process. So it's a proprietary process that John has developed. So kudos to John.

47:51 The second business owner that we want to highlight is Alex Licchinski. And what's particularly notable about Alex is that he runs a business call called Velvet, and they have just an inspiring mission statement, right, And part of what they do is they drive a safe and equitable Internet experience for everyone. Right. A big part of this is based on some of the work that they do with copyright content, but just really remarkable. In fact, they've set up a system where they, in an automated way, they protect your copyright content across different digital platforms. So again hats off to Alex and team.

48:41 Alex is on the South coast, right, so we've got John on the east coast. Alex is on the south coast in Florida. The other business owner in addition to both John and Alex that I wanted to highlight here and on behalf of the work that Michael and I do is Hyacinth Tucker. With the laundry basket. And Michael, you might sort of chuckle at this, so heins and team they've figured out something really interesting. This is a big headache for a lot of homeowners. A big headache for in fact, just a lot of people where doing household chores, for example, doing the household chore that we all love, which is doing your laundry. Right, They've got a way where they have a laundry subscription service and they're located in the DMV area, so they're out east. But what's particularly remarkable about the service that they provide is just it's this on demand subscription service to get your laundry done and dusted, right, Michael.

49:38 That's right there, you go, I need that I which was around here. Yeah, Now, just a great leg up for very busy parents as you might imagine, right, particularly with back to school season coming up, a couple more folks that just are really worthy of a couple of spotlights. So Russell Bates is out in the Midwest runs a business, this team, next Gen Clean Energy. Really what they do is they educate and develop clean energy projects for both homeowners and business owners. And part of the work is really to help save and in some cases candidly help these homeowners and business owners generate money as part of a commitment to a cleaner environment. And then, last but not least certainly out in the Midwest, as well, Duson Simmic with two it's just a really interesting business name, too Immersive for you, which has set up this system where they reimagine how to create animated and digital video products. In fact, they embed AI with some of those products as well artificial intelligence and they could generate some of these video products in a matter of hours, not.

50:52 Days and weeks or months. And also a shout out to Deshaun and team there were recently Emmy nominated as well. So Michael, all in all, like with all five. Of these business owners, part of what we are just enthralled to share is that these are folks that are committed to in some ways. Michael really driving a little bit better of a story around how they serve clients and customers. So I'll toss it back over to you. Excellent. Thank you, Chicky. So to get a copy of the book Powerful Business Strategy, simply go to our website www dot NEXTSTEPCFO dot net. It's totally complementary and until next Monday at noon Eastern time for Chucky Obio. My name is Michael Barberrita. And remember, don't keep doing what your competition is doing.

51:38 You have been listening to Powerful business strategies finding out that everything you ever learned about growing your business is wrong. Tune in next week and every week at noon Eastern time on w four CY Radio with your host Michael Barbarita of Next Step CFO and moderator chugy Obio And