The Side-Hustle Dad

Ep16
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Marketing Mindset Reset
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Bryan Steele: Hey, welcome back. So glad to have you here with me today. I promised you this episode and the one next week are going to be very powerful as far as thinking about marketing and sales. And I know what your feeling is about marketing and sales because it's probably the same one I had, which is, "I don't wanna do it.

It feels icky, it feels slimy, it feels like I'm just trying to get money out of people." And it's really just the wrong perspective to take towards getting new customers. So today, we're specifically gonna focus on marketing. Next week, we'll talk about sales and your sales process.

Marketing vs Sales Basics
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Bryan Steele: But today, I wanna talk about what marketing [00:01:00] really is, because you have two types of communications that you're gonna have.

You're gonna have the information or the communication you put out to attract people to yourself about, you know, what you do, how you do it, who you serve, yada, yada, yada. That is marketing. Any time you are doing that, any time you are communicating what it is you do, your product, your service, that is marketing.

Telling them the benefit of it, that is marketing. On the flip side, there is your sales communication, which is when you've got a specific person that you're reaching out to. So sales is one-to-one or one to a few. Maybe there's a couple people you're talking to at a time when you're doing a sales conversation.

But marketing can go to anybody. Now, it might be social media. It might be you doing some public speaking. It might be advertising that you do on meta ads, Google ads. It might be a LinkedIn post. All [00:02:00] of those places are potential marketing avenues.

No Budget Needed
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Bryan Steele: And you might say, "I don't have marketing budget. I don't have this or that or the other."

That's okay. When you're starting out, marketing is about getting practice at communicating who it is you are and how you help. And you might feel a little bit like this is something slimy, icky, "I'm just, you know, all I'm doing this for is a buck." And I would say that's incorrect, and that's the wrong perspective to have, because what you know and the skill that you have attained is valuable to somebody else.

It helps them get where they want to go. So if you fail to communicate what it is you can do that benefits somebody else, you're failing your marketing. You're failing them. It's actually a benefit that they know who you are and how you can help them achieve their goals.

Right Person Message Time
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Bryan Steele: And what marketing essentially boils down to is refining [00:03:00] this three-step process, and we're gonna talk about it.

We're gonna break it down. It is the right person getting the right message at the right time. And so if you think about marketing in that way, and every message you send out going through that lens, you're always going to be able to improve it. Now, maybe you get one of these steps wrong. Maybe your message doesn't resonate.

I've been there where I put out a social media post, say something, and it's just crickets. There is no response, there is no feedback, and you think, "Oh, this just didn't work." And you have to remember, it could be any of those three things. You might be talking to the wrong person, you might be using the wrong message, or you just didn't post at the right time, you didn't share at the right time, or you're not reaching that person at the right time.

So those are the frameworks that we want to think through today to just simplify [00:04:00] our message so that we're communicating in the right way. And then from there, we can continue to improve. And then if it's, if you know you're reaching the right person, but maybe your message isn't landing, you change up your message a little bit.

If, you know, those two things are good, you know the right person, you know that you've got a good message and you're good at communicating that, maybe you're just, your timing's off. Maybe you need to experiment around the timing. So let's talk about that.

Step One Right Person
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Bryan Steele: So the first piece, the right person. Initially, you may not know this, but we talked on previous episodes about your ideal client, really defining who they are and what problems they have.

And this is the root of all marketing, is understanding somebody's desired end state. What is that end state they are wanting to reach? Is it a transformed body? Is it a transformed home? What is it they are wanting to experience that [00:05:00] is different than what their current state is? And so what we talked about is really getting into why it is they're looking for that help.

And you can see this, like if you use this lens on every commercial you look at, it communicates these things. It communicates this why to the exact person. If you look at a Nike ad and you see all these people exercising, putting the sweat in, you know, to grow their skills at a sport, right? You've got these professional athletes and they're, chugging Gatorade and, and it's got the colored sweat.

It's communicating something. Gatorade is for people who work hard. Gatorade is for people who are Putting in the time to develop a skill to be the best, right? That's what Gatorade communicates, and so it identifies its ideal client just in that, in the way that it shares that in a way that resonates. So what you have to understand first is what motivates somebody.

What motivates that right person to [00:06:00] reach out to you to purchase your product? You might even need to ask a few people. Like, look at your existing customers, look at people who have purchased from you. What are common threads you notice? Are they in a certain neighborhood, part of town? Do they have a certain life experience that is specific?

Are they all wanting to achieve the same end goal? Maybe they're wanting to eat healthier. Maybe they gotta get their cholesterol lower and you're gonna help them with a diet plan, right? All of those things are possibilities. So that's w- the lens that you need to look through things at, is to understand who it is you're trying to speak to and what is that friction that they're coming up against.

What is that, what is that thing they're willing to pay somebody to solve right now that they can't solve themselves? And that's why it's powerful. That's why you're not, you know, just salesy and greasy and just taking something from them. You've got a transformation to offer them.

Step Two Right Message
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Bryan Steele: And so that takes us to step number two, the [00:07:00] right message.

So you're not trying to say you're everything. Like, if they talk to you, their life is a thousand times better. But what you can communicate is the transformation you bring, or that your service brings, or that your product brings. You're not some ultimate unreachable guru This is not going to be like winning the lottery, and we don't want to advertise something insane.

But a transformation does happen. If you do some home renovation and somebody's kitchen is transformed, there's a before and an after transformation in that process. There is something different that happens in that process that is desirable. So you can figure out what is that friction, what is that pain, and then you can look at the transformation which you bring and how do you connect those two things.

That is the crux of your message. You just need to give them a little bit further of a step so that they're moving the next little bit forward, [00:08:00] growing, improving, and that you can help get them there. Again, this goes back to when I was doing music, a lot of music projects. I didn't say I was gonna help them win a Grammy, but I did say, "I know I can get your music to be the quality that you're gonna be proud of to be on Spotify, and it's gonna be available for everyone to hear, and it's gonna move you further forward in your music career.

It's gonna give you something you're proud of, and it's gonna give you something you're excited to send to potential venues, so you can get booked on more gigs." That's a transformation. That's something they did not have before that you can bring, and then they hear their song coming to life. It touches them emotionally in a way they didn't experience before.

So I think that's really important in the message, is communicating the transformation, how you get them from A to B. What does that look like? What is that before state and end state? What is that friction you're overcoming that you talked about early on? Because you [00:09:00] know who you're serving, you know how you're helping them.

So that really ties together those first two pieces. Who you're reaching, that friction they're experiencing, what you're communicating to them in that, and then how you can help transform that friction into something new that they desire.

Okay? That is a big piece.

Step Three Right Time
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Bryan Steele: Now, the final piece of this is the right time. And this might look very different, but there's numbers that like at any given moment, only a small percentage of people are ready f- to buy from you right now. They might be your ideal client.

You might be able to tell them the right things, but unless you give them the message at the right moment when they are ready to buy You're not necessarily going to land those opportunities. Now, it's always a small percentage. There's a larger percentage that could buy from you at some [00:10:00] point. So we have to think through, okay, what are those things, what are those common things that happen or are happening in somebody's life that lets me know I'm reaching them at the right time?

So music world, 'cause that's what I know. If I'm trying to communicate with somebody when they're releasing a new song or after they've just released a new song, I've missed the mark. They just released a new song. They were just in a recording studio. They've already done it. It's too late. Even if they are the exact right person for me to work with, and even if I can communicate the right message to them, it's not now.

It's not the right moment. The moment I want to catch them is when they're writing songs, when they're starting to put something new together. Because as soon as that's finished, then they're gonna be ready to go in the studio, then they're gonna wanna record it. And that's true for [00:11:00] any service or product.

There's a timing to this. So you might think about if, you do home renovations, when somebody just builds a new house, it's not the right time to do a renovation. But if you're a landscaper and somebody just builds a brand new house, well, it's bare ground, they might need help, right? How do you get into the place at the right time with something somebody needs?

Well, they've built a new home and they're moving into it and everything is, you know, from scratch. Like they're building it up from scratch. Well, that might be a good opportunity for somebody who does landscape design. Get somebody who is building a new home. On the flip side, if you know a home is a certain age, then you might go, "Okay, well, most people renovate their kitchens after about 15 years."

Just throw out a number. I don't actually know. Let's say you do that. Well, it might be [00:12:00] worth figuring out when homes are built. Go, "Okay, well, this home was built 12 years ago." They might be getting close to thinking about, "Hmm, I wanna renovate my kitchen. I wanna update it. I want new countertops or cabinets."

Those are things that could indicate, okay, that's the person I want to reach. I need to reach that person because they are in that right time moment. So start to think through what it-- that is for you. What is that right time for you? Maybe they're working with some other tangential service. Maybe they're working with a photographer and you're a wedding planner.

Or maybe you're a photographer. When does somebody need wedding photography? After they start talking to wedding planners. Okay. Well, maybe you need to make some networking connections with wedding planners. Those are the types of things you can think through as far as when the timing is gonna be right for different clients or potential clients to be thinking about you.

Because then when you've got the right client with the right [00:13:00] message at the right time, they're gonna respond positively. Now, maybe they don't sign up with you. We've talked about conversion rates and things like that, but they're gonna be much more interested. They're gonna be more actively involved in the process and seriously consider what it is you can bring to the table.

Putting It All Together
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Bryan Steele: So think about that process when you're creating a post on social media, when you are recording a little video to advertise your services, when you create an ad for Facebook Meta, you know, and you're gonna put it out there. Who is it you're trying to reach as specifically as possible that is the right person?

What is that right message of transformation for that person? And what is the right time for them to see that message? You answer those three questions, and you're well on your way to having an effective marketing plan.

Wrap Up Next Episode
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Bryan Steele: Thanks so much for joining me. Next time, we're gonna talk about the sales process and the four things you need to know to find out if somebody [00:14:00] really is the right person and you should even be able to sell your services to them.

I'll see you then.

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