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The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are
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solely those of the hosts and their guests and not
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those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
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make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
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or products mentioned on air or on our web. No
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liability explicitor implied shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio
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or it's employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should
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be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing
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W FOURCY Radio.
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Welcome to Powerful Business Strategies, where you will find out
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that everything you have ever learned about growing your business
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is wrong. Finally, a show where you'll learn the right
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way to grow your business by learning business and financial
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strategies that your competition isn't doing and now here is
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your host. President of Next Step CFO Michael Barbarita and
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joining Michael for today's show as an executive moderator is
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chooky obio.
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Yes, this is chookey, and I believe that gratitude is
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undefeated and growth is about the next step. It is
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an honor for me to moderate today's discussion with my
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good friend Michael.
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Michael how are you?
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How are you doing? Jokey? You know? I? Yes? How? Thanks?
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Got Do you have a good weekend? I did?
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Yeah, it was a brilliant weekend.
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I'm hoping, by the way, Michael, I could bring some
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of that brilliance from the weekend to the show today.
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I'm sure you yeah.
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So Look a quick disclaimer, folks, Michael and I are
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both affiliated with a number of different organizations, and I
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currently serve as the managing director of Business Development for
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Vetter Price. This is a global business focused law firm.
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But look, in addition to that, I collaborate with Michael
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to moderate business roundtables and document the insights from those roundtables.
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In fact, we've actually pulled together a number of those
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insights as part of a book called Powerful Business Strategies.
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But please note that the views expressed on this show
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are based on our personal views from our personal success experiences. Now,
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my mission is the fearless moderator for today's to ask
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the right questions to get to actionable solutions that you
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can implement as part of your business growth, and solutions
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and strategies that the competition is not doing. So from
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that perspective, let me toss it over to Michael.
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Thank you, Jicky.
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Well, my name is Michael baberta president of Next Step
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CFO and at next Step CFO, where a fractional CFO
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and strategic implementation firm, and our vision is to ensure
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overwhelmed business owners achieve the time, freedom and consistent profits
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to build a legacy and live the life they desire.
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Our mission is dedicated to guiding small business owners to
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leveraging their time, exploding their profit and build a meaningful legacy.
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This show, Powerful Business Strategies and our book of the
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same name, is a step toward accomplishing that vision and mission.
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And so with that, I'd like to hand it back
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to our to my co author and moderator for this show,
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Choky Obio.
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Michael, look, I'm really energized for today's episode. We got
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some great feedback from our last two episodes, and folks, look,
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if you've not checked that out, we've got quite a
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few business owners really from across the country that are
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tuned in today. If you've not checked out the last
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two episodes, feel free to invest the time to do that.
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But in the last episode, it was quite remarkable. Michael
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talked through a number of stories and strategies specific to
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the conversion formula. And then as part of that conversion formula,
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we talked about the compelling offer, which is the last
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component of that conversion formula. And look very excited by
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the way, Michael, when I went back and I reviewed
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my notes, there's some really good nuggets from that. I mean,
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what were some of your takeaways from the last episode.
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Yeah, it's great.
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I'm going to review that again today, but I do
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want to talk about the buyer's journey and through and
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through business owners that we interviewed. We found that a
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lot of them knew about this journey that the buyers
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go through on their way to a purchase, but they
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never really understood how.
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To strategically utilize it.
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You see, you see, Chicky, the buyer travels through a
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predictable internal and informational gathering stage on their way to
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a purchase.
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And we're going to discuss that today. Uh. But but
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it also.
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Requires us to review the conversion formula, which which which
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I do later on. But I'd like to talk about
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some of my experience. Uh, if that's okay now with
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the buyer's journey, is all right?
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Okay?
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For sure? For sure?
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And Michael, keep in mind too that a lot of
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folks are gonna have questions on is this something that
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my competition is doing or my competition isn't doing, And
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I imagine we'll explore some of that as well.
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Correct, Absolutely good, good point.
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So in nineteen ninety three, after I sold the ski business,
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I was in the frozen cookie dough business. We manufactured
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and distributed ten flavors of frozen cookie dough in both
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a scoop and bake packaging and a portion controlled dough
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drop as it was called, where the customer could just
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put the the portion control drop into the pan and
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then into the oven to bake it. And one of
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the customers I solicited fairly early on was QVC, and
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I thought it would be a great product for television
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because it was visual and and we could easily demonstrate
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how to use it.
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Yeah. Yeah, So I finally got to the right buyer.
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That took some time, but they kept saying no, They
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kept telling me to call back in six months. That's right, typical, right, yeah.
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But every time I would call back or get back
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to them, I tried to do something different. For example,
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there were several times that I would send a FedEx
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package sat day, same day with fresh baked cookies to
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the buyer. And I'd even sent fresh bake cookies same
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day FedEx. Quite expensive, by the way. Other food buyers
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as well, even though they were out of focused food buyers.
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You know, they might have bought squash while I was
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selling cookies.
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And c but Chu Bees eventually down the road, you know,
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so I thought this is over a period of a
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few years, Okay, they finally had a campaign that they
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called twenty in fifty and what they what they did
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is they would go to each of the fifty states, okay,
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and select the top twenty products in each state and
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put those twenty best products on the air. And as
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you can, yeah, that's what they did. I don't know
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if they still do it now, but that's what they
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did then. And as you could imagine, the audition room
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in Massachusetts was enormous and it was packed, so you
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had to bring your wares to this huge, humongous warehouse.
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Okay.
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Uh.
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And then there were even local TV and sports celebrities
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there that happened to have products, and you know, they
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could they could articulate much better than I could, and
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they were well known so it was really really intimidating,
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and a couple of the buyers that I sent cookies
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to happened to come to my booth and then tried
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the product that I just just baked because I used
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to bake cookies right at the booth. And so, a
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long story short, I was selected and I got to
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I got to air the product on QBC. Now there's
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much more to this episode. If we have time at
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the end, I'll tell you a little bit more because
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there's a punchline at the end. But as I think
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about it, during my sending those cookies and doing all
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types of different things to get the buyer's attention, they
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were on the buyer's journey.
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And it took years. So what I'd like to do
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first is explain.
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The conversion formula again, because the conversion formula plays.
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A really important role in the buyer's journey. Yeah.
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Yeah, So, as we've been saying in the last couple
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of shows, the key to successful marketing is that you've
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got to get into the head of the prospect. You're
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going to get into the conversation that's taking place in
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their mind.
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But how do we do that?
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Yes, and so Chookey you and I have observed through
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through through interviewing many many business owners and customers, that
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you enter the conversation taking place in the buyer's mind
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when you center it around two things. Number one, the
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problem that the prospect has and doesn't want, and to
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the solution that they're looking for that they can't find.
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And we simply enter the conversation in the buyer's mind
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strategically using what we call the conversion formula. And now
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here's the thing about the conversion formula.
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It's a four part formula. Okay.
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It allows you to address the processed problem and solution
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and to do so at just the right time, like
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if you were in the prospect's mind. And it's got
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to be followed like any other formula, where the four
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parts have to be in the right order, otherwise it
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doesn't work exactly. So the conversion formula is as follows,
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and like I said, it's got to be done in
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this order. And the first step, the first part of
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the conversion formula is called captivate. That's the headline that
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happens to be the problem that the customer has and
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doesn't want, and it's designed to stop the prospect in
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their tracks to rupt them, if you will. So this
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headline or problem is the first thing you say out
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of your mouth or that a person sees or hears
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from you or your business, and it's going to really
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identify the problem. You know, a lot of people have
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another name for it. During our interviewing process. People are
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called it the hook. And you know, it's okay to
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call it a hook, but I can. But when when
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business owners are thinking about a hook, they're not really
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focusing on the problem, and that's why their hook fails. Interesting, yeah,
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and I've noticed that in a number of situations when
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you know, they said, well, well, isn't it just a hook. No,
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it's actually the problem and you've got to dig deep
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into that problem. The second step of the conversion formula
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is called fascinate. And now that we've interrupted the prospect
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with the problem, we have to keep their attention and
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we have to actually engage them with a sub headline
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or the second thing they see which happens to be
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the solution to that problem that they can't find.
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And in our view.
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And we've seen this tested successfully many times, this is
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how you enter the conversation the prospects are having in
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their minds, so to captivate and fascinate.
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Great.
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So, Michael, I mean we're getting a nice stream of
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questions here, so let's just maybe do two quick questions
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from the stream. So one question is on the captivating
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the fascinate. This point about how you've got to make
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sure you're solving the right problem.
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How do you find that right problem?
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Okay, that's an excellent question. It starts.
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I can give you the starting point, okay, because we
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actually we actually go through a anywhere from a thirteen
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to fifteen week process in identifying it. But I can
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tell you what the key element is. It's it's called
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a customer avatar. And I have seen several customer avatars
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that aren't.
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Hitting the mark.
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And they're not hitting the mark because they're not focusing
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on the emotional component of their of the customer number
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one and number two. They're not talking to one person.
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Interesting that that right there, that not talking to one
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person is the critical component in preparing an avatar. You
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need to talk to one person. Many business owners talk
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to a demographic. You need to talk to one person.
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You need to feel what that person is feeling. You
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need to figure out and describe how that person views
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your industry, and then how that person describes and views
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your particular product.
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Yeah. I would imagine that kind of a process really
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brings the problem to life, really brings the challenge to life. Yeah,
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very interesting, Michael. The last kind of really quick question
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just on this stream. So it's interesting, right.
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I mean.
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A lot of business owners they hear what you're saying
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and they think of the ways that they describe their
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competitive advantage. So that was kind of the phrase that
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they use here. So how would you with a captivate
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or fascinate describe your competitive advantage you know, your lower
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prices or the fact that you have really quick delivery time.
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Okay, excellent, excellent question.
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So there's this concept that we have put together in
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our book, uhhould be called I hope so marketing. Hmmm,
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where where the customer on most of the marketing that's
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out there today, the one the marketing that your competitors