Earning Buyer Trust | Marcus Sheridan of IMPACT

Marcus Sheridan built a thriving swimming pool company in the middle of the Great Recession by understanding buyer’s questions and using his marketing to address them with complete transparency. That strategy became the foundation of They Ask, You Answer, a framework now used by leading businesses around the world. In this episode, Sheridan shares how teaching homeowners builds credibility. He reveals why most marketing fails to earn trust and what companies can do to enhance their messaging. He also breaks down how to improve your website content and stay ahead on SEO in the new era of AI-dominated page views.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• The four pillars of a known and trusted brand
• What the “pride cycle” is and how it affects business decisions
• The ways AI effect SEO and how to stay ahead
• What trust signals are and where to use them
• How to use video to strengthen your brand
• Which tools can measure the authenticity of your marketing message

Learn more about Marcus Sheridan here.

Own a construction company and want to share your story? Apply to be on an upcoming episode of Builder Stories at https://www.builderstories.com

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
What's going on, everybody? I am soexcited. Today is the 100th episode of
Builder Stories, and I have an extremelyimpressive guest to share with you. This
guest is someone who has transformed theway businesses think about marketing,
sales, and trust. Marcus Sheridan is theauthor of the game-changing book, They

(00:21):
Ask, You Answer, which he recentlypublished a revised edition called Endless
Customers. Marcus, who was once known asthe pool guy who got it right when he
turned his struggling pool company intoone of the most visited websites in the
industry through radical transparency andcontent marketing.
Marcus now helps companies all over theworld do the same. He's a highly sought

(00:43):
after industry speaker, consultant, andleading voice on how businesses can earn
trust and drive growth simply by answeringtheir customers' questions. So without
further ado, I'd like to welcome you totoday's episode. Welcome to the podcast
where we take a deep dive into the storiesbehind construction business leaders. We
will share how they got started, how theyfound success, and the lessons learned

(01:07):
along the way. I'm your host, ErikFortenberry.
Welcome to Builder Stories.
Welcome back, everybody. I am reallyexcited today. Uh, this, this truly is
like a dream come true. I have a veryspecial guest. We have Marcus Sheridan. He
is an author, a coach, a speaker. I mean,involved in, uh, you know, River Pools. I

(01:31):
mean, I think you've done a lot ofeverything, Marcus. You're just, uh, all
over the place. You know, you, you've beena huge inspiration to me, and have helped
me tremendously as I've built outJobTred, and I'm just so excited to have
-you. Welcome to Builder Stories.-Man. So it's all about the stories, right?
And I'm here to tell 'em, and, you know,there's a lot happening in the world,

(01:51):
Erik. So I think it's a great time to havea conversation because, you know, the
rate of change. I've, I've had my, well,my pool company since 2001, and I've never
seen change like we're seeing today.Certainly at the rate that we're seeing
today, there's nothing like it. So it's agreat time to have a conversation.
Yeah, absolutely. And you know, I, uh, Iremember when I, when I very first... I, I

(02:13):
think when I first heard you speak, itwas, I don't know, three or four years
ago. It was at a, a, a Mile High ProfitSummit, Tom Reber's event, and, uh, I, I
remember just listening to you tell thestory about River Pools and how, you know,
you wrote the, you know, a couple ofthose blog posts that ended up generating,
you know, hundreds of thousands ofdollars, or, or whatever it was. And, and,
and you just talked about how like youliterally just opened up and, and, and,

(02:36):
and published everything. You know, youpublished, "Hey, if you're looking for a
pool builder in this area, like here's allof my competitors." And like I was just
so blown away that somebody would actuallydo that. I was like, man, you know, my
first thought is, "This guy's crazy." Butthen like you went into it and you pulled
up your Google Analytics account andyou're showing, you're like, "Look, look
at all the people." Like, we got so muchtraffic and they're on our website, you

(02:57):
know, reading about, you know, not onlyus, but everyone in the area. And they're
like, "It's building trust," and like thatjust really resonated with me, Marcus. I,
you know, I ended up buying your book.Think I read it in like, like couple days
and I was like, all right man, I likebought like 20 more copies and gave it to
the, the whole marketing team and, andsales team at that point. And I mean, we
were, uh, I think pretty small, so itwasn't, wasn't too many of us, but

(03:18):
you know, the, the, the, I guess it wascalled They Ask, You Answer.
-Yeah.-Uh, you, you've since put out an updated
version called Endless Customers, whichagain, devoured like, you know, over the
course of a couple days. Awesome, awesomeupdate. Really love it. But, you know, why
don't you kinda just share a little bitmore about like how did you, you know,
come up with this, this concept to writeThey Ask, You Answer, and how did that
sort of transpire into Endless Customers?

(03:41):
Yeah, man. I appreciate you asking. Youknow, it's,
I, I, I
started a swimming pool company in 2001.Things were going fine, Erik, up, up until
the crash of 2008, 2009. And folks thathad a business during that time, they
remember what that was like. That was avery difficult time period. And it was
terrible for pool companies. They weregoing out of business left and right

(04:02):
around the country. And what was greatabout this though is whenever you have
pain and suffering in business,
you have a chance to do things that you'venever done before,
because you're being pushed to the edge.And you're like, "Okay. I got nothing to
lose." And this is why whenever theeconomy takes a dip, or at least the, the

(04:22):
industries that have a dip,
you see the most innovation during thedips.
And so right now within home improvement,you're seeing a lot of folks that are
innovating when it comes to their salesand marketing. Why? 'Cause they're hungry.
See, during COVID, they weren't hungry,man. During COVID, everybody was like fat
happy. Everything's good. Nobody wasinnovating from a marketing perspective.

(04:44):
What they were... The only thing they wereinnovating was maybe logistics, maybe,
"How can we do, you know, h- how can we domore work? You know, because we've got
the demand for it." But now they've gottawork for it, okay? And so it was during
this time, 2008, 2009,
I started to read about the changingbuyer.
And the more I read and the more I sawphrases like inbound or content marketing,

(05:06):
the more I thought, "You know what,Marcus, if you just obsess over your
customer, your buyer, and you're willingto give them what they want, to address
their questions, worries, fears, issues,concerns, and you're willing to do that
online, you could save your business." Andso with nothing to lose, 'cause I thought
it was gonna... I thought I was gonnalose my home, my two business partners

(05:26):
were gonna lose their homes, thought wewere gonna have to lay, lay off our 16
employees,
started this journey of They Ask, YouAnswer. And I brainstormed all the
questions I'd ever received
being a pool guy, and I had hundreds ofquestions that I wrote down, and I said,
"Okay, here we go. I'm gonna address everysingle one." And along with the help of
my business partner, uh, Jason, and at thetime, Jim as well,

(05:49):
we addressed these questions, I did,almost every single night for the next
couple of years. And we became the mosttrafficked swimming pool website in the
world. And we just totally took off and wegrew...... like fire, and then we became
a manufacturer of fiberglass, uh, pools.And then we became the first franchise of
fiberglass pools. And throughout thiswhole journey, Eric, I, I, I started to

(06:10):
get requests, 'cause I was writing aboutwhat I was doing on the side, and people
were like, "Man, huh, I'd love to do thatwith my company. Can you, can you teach
about that at my event?" And so, I wouldend up becoming a full-time speaker. I
speak today all over the world. Uh, stillhave the pool company, at least River
Pools of Virginia. Sold the manufacturingside of it.
And it's been an absolutely wild journey.I've started a bunch, a bunch of other

(06:32):
companies. But the, the, the fundamentalsdon't change, which is
buyers every single day are growing moreand more impatient.
We also have a massive trust deficit inthe world today. We don't know who to
trust.
We don't know what brands to trust, whatpeople to trust, what friends to trust,
what leaders to trust, what politicians totrust. I mean, it's, it's almost,

(06:53):
no one knows who to trust. And so if you,as a business, as a brand, can create
trust signals that say, "Hey,
we're not like everybody else," you willget attention. And it's easy to do. You
just gotta be willing to do four things.And I actually talk about this in the
updated version of The Ask Your Answer,which is called, to your point, Endless
Customers. You gotta be willing to do fourthings. And we did these four things

(07:16):
before, but I continue, I've frameworkedthem now in such a way that if you're
listening to this right now,
you should be able to listen to this andsay, "Okay, yep, we're not doing that, but
we could." So here are the four things,four pillars of a known and trusted brand.
It's what we call 'em. Number one, yougotta be willing to say online what others
in your space aren't willing to say. Soif you're listening to this right now, I

(07:37):
would ask you, what are you saying onlinethat your competitors aren't willing to
talk about? That's number one. Number two,
you gotta be willing to show with videowhat others in your space aren't willing
to show. So I'd ask you,
what are you showing with video onlineright now that no one else is showing?

(07:58):
Number three, you gotta be willing to sellin a way that no one else is selling. How
are you selling differently? And thenfinally, number four,
as all this AI, which is good, increasesin technology, advances, you gotta be more
human than others are willing to be. So,you gotta say what others aren't willing
to say, show what they're not willing toshow, sell in a way that they're not

(08:19):
willing to sell, and be more human thanothers are willing to be. And if you do
that, you're gonna become a known andtrusted brand the most in your market.
That's my promise to you. That is thesystem. The thing is, Eric, most companies
won't do it. [laughs]
Yeah.
No, you know, I, the first thing thatcomes to mind is pricing.
So many people- [laughs] ... pe- peoplearen't willing to publish their price, or

(08:41):
share how they came up with their price,or what is, you know, like it's just this,
this void that- It's this massive mysterywhich pisses- Yeah ... people off. Do you
know what's really interesting, Eric?
The moment someone enters the buyer'sjourney, which essentially when they say,
"Oop, I have a problem. Oop, I have aneed," right? "Oop, I need a new pool.
Oop, I need to, uh, put a roof on myhouse," whatever it is.

(09:05):
In that moment, the first question thatcomes out of everyone's mouth is the exact
same question. Doesn't matter culture,doesn't matter class. The first question
is,
roughly, "How- How much? "... much is thisgonna cost?" [laughs] That's the gateway
of the buyer's journey. Many people, ifthey can't open that gate, they won't go

(09:26):
through the gate, and they won't continuethe journey. Think about that.
But if someone is willing to open the gatefor them,
that's where they'll take their journey.
And now, then they'll research companies,then they'll reach out to companies, then
they'll talk to said companies, thenthey'll talk to salespeople. And the final
question they have on the buyer's journeyis the same as the first question, with

(09:51):
one variation. Now, the question, insteadof roughly, "What's it gonna cost?" Now
it's exactly, "What's this gonna cost?"
That's the buyer's journey. And we knowfor a fact that when companies are willing
to teach what drives cost up and down,what defines value, know, not give your
exact prices per se, 'cause I know a lotof you builders out there are like, "I

(10:13):
can't do that as a contract. Every job isa customized solution, Marcus." I know.
Trust me. I have been in this world. I'vegot more data
about transparency, discussingtransparency and discussing pricing online
than literally anybody in the world. I'vetalked about this subject more than
anyone in the entire world. I've taughtmore companies how to do this, and I've

(10:34):
seen the leads that comes from it, whichis extraordinary. It's so extraordinary, I
created a, a, a piece of software lastyear, you, you can appreciate this as a
SaaS guy, called Price Guy. And all thisdoes, it allows builders to quickly and
easily create a pricing estimator thatthey can put on their site and address the
question, roughly, "How much is it gonnacost?" Now, here's the key. It's an

(10:55):
estimate. It's not even a quote. It's notan exact price. It's an estimate. When you
give people that, now you stand out,because you're in the 5% of your industry
that's willing to do it. You get thetrust, and they say, "Finally, somebody's
willing to give me what I want." And thenthere's a very good chance, because you
got the trust, you're gonna get the lead.And if you get the lead, many of you tell

(11:18):
me all the time, "If I can just get infront of the customer..." I know, because
you're good, you're good when you get infront of the customer. But you've got to
do what it takes to earn that before then.So that's why, you know, I mean, pricing
estimators, they're gonna be table stakesfor contractors, home improvement
companies, et cetera, within the next fiveyears, Eric. I mean, table stakes. This

(11:39):
is where all this is going. Can you sh-can I show you another quick example, or
tell you another quick example? Yeah.
I was with a,
this, uh, big, you know, realty group theother day.
And I said, "The second pillars show whatothers aren't willing to show." And they
were like, "Well, what's an example ofthat in real estate?" I said, "Okay, just
think about how many times you've shown ahome in real estate, right?" "Oh, we've

(12:00):
shown lots of homes." "How many times haveyou created videos showing a home?" "Oh,
I've done tons of those. Lots. Hundreds.Sometimes thousands, depending on the
firm." All right. Now-... everybody givesthem the same way. These, creates these
videos the same way. What do they do? Theyshow you the house and what makes the
house awesome. Do you know what's awesome?
What would happen if you started the videoand you said, "Now before I show you this

(12:21):
house, and I love this house, but let'sbe honest, no house is perfect. Every
house has potential flaws. Let's startwith the flaws of the house before we show
you what we love."
Now, how many agents do you think haveever done that, Eric?
-None.-None, dude. And that's the most obvious
way to win trust within seconds. You wannato talk about a trust signal? Oh my

(12:42):
goodness, dude. I mean, this is animmediate signal that makes a person drop
their guard and lean in. Recently, Ibought a, a, a, a passenger van, a
12-seater.
And I bought... I live in Virginia. Ibought it in Wisconsin. And the reason why
is it's just a, it was a used, you know,vehicle dealership in Wisconsin. But what
did the guy do?
I li- [laughs] I lie not.

(13:04):
He has a video about this passenger van,
and as soon as he starts the video, hesays, "Okay, folks. I'm going to show you,
uh,
this passenger van today. Before we lookat everything you can do and what I love
about it, let me show you any of thedings, doinks, and scratches that you
might want to see."
-That's where he started.-Nice.
You think I bought that van? You betterbelieve I bought that van. Did I test

(13:27):
drive that van? No. Did I see it inperson? No. Did I spend a bunch of money?
Yes. And why? Because
he made me drop my guard. He was willingto show me what other used car dealerships
-aren't willing to show.-Hmm.
That's applicable to everybody who'slistening to this, Eric. Despite the fact
that's so sad, it's very human, peoplelistening to this, already a certain

(13:49):
percentage have said, "Yeah, but thatdoesn't apply to me. That doesn't apply to
my business. That doesn't apply to myindustry." And I can guarantee you,
you,
you are not outside
this thing
called trust and human psychology. Itabsolutely applies to every single company
-that's listening to this.-So,

(14:09):
how do you...
How do you combat that, that, that beliefthat they have? You know, if, if,
if they just think that everything thatyou're saying is so, you know, outrageous
and it doesn't apply to them, like, wh-what's your approach to helping them
actually understand that
it does apply to them and they need tomake changes?
Yeah.

(14:29):
Well, you've heard of the golden rule,right, Eric?
Do unto others as you would have them dounto you? One of the things I ask people
all the time,
I don't know, I, I say, "You know, whetheryou're Christian or not, do you believe
in the golden rule?"
Most people say, "Yeah, I believe in thegolden rule." "All right. Well, then,
let's look at your marketing.
Would you appreciate it

(14:50):
if a contractor
had an estimator
on their homepage that gave you a roughsense as to what they, or what you, might
spend?" "Well, yes, I would appreciatethat." "Okay. Then why don't you do it?"
-Well--[laughs]
... you either believe in the golden rule
or you don't.
You see, why would it induce trust for youif you were on the receiving end, but you

(15:11):
as a business, you can't do it? And theproblem is we get caught up in certain
things. We'll say things like, "Um, well,if they find out we're more expensive,
we're gonna scare them away."
No, that's actually not true. What scarespeople away, Eric, we've, we've done the
studies on this, is when they can't findany information. [laughs] That's way more
scary. Ignorance is not bliss online. So,you gotta be very, very rooted. If you're

(15:33):
gonna be an extraordinary marketer, leadgenerator, brand builder for your
organization, you gotta be incrediblyrooted in self-awareness. You gotta be
able to look in the mirror and say, "Howam I evolving? How am I buying? What do I
like? What do I appreciate? What, whatmeans a lot to me in this moment?" Right?
And if you're willing to do that... Youknow, it's, it's no different than... You

(15:54):
know, I'll, I'll have folks
say, "You know, I'm just not very good oncamera." "Okay.
So, are you good with people?" "Well,yeah, I'm good with people. I'm just not
good on camera." You're lying.
Because guess what? All the camera does orall it really is, it's representing a
person on the other side. You cannot tellme you're good with people and not good on
camera. You just haven't developed theskill, and the reason why you haven't

(16:16):
developed the s- the skill is 'cause youhaven't committed to developing the skill.
The reason why you haven't committed todeveloping the skill usually is 'cause you
don't have enough pain. But if you haveenough pain, suddenly you get really good
on camera, just like I got really goodwith becoming a writer and then really
good at video and really good at a lot ofthings I sucked at previously
as a contractor because I had pain, Eric.And the great companies don't have to be

(16:40):
motivated by pain.
You see, there's this thing called thepride cycle. It's like a circle. At the
top of the circle, there's prosperity. Atthe bottom, there's pain.
And a lotta companies when they're at thebottom of the circle, they're in pain.
They're like, "Man, I gotta get out ofthis pain," so they start doing the little
things. And this is the left side of thecircle on the, on the upswing. And because
they start doing the little things, theextra marketing, the extra call, the extra

(17:00):
video, the extra email, you know, the,you know, the extra follow-up, whatever it
is, they start to get success, they getmomentum, and then they finally get to the
top of the circle, which is prosperity.But because they reach prosperity,
suddenly they're like, "Ah, maybe I cantake my foot off the gas." It's very
human. "Maybe I won't send that extraemail. Maybe I won't do that training with
my team this week. Maybe we won't producethat video," whatever that thing is. And

(17:22):
because of that, suddenly they stop doingtheir little things, they start coming
down the circle, and next thing you know,where are they at? Where they started,
which is pain. And that's the pride cycle.And you see companies... And this is the
history of the world. Companies,countries, cultures, they go through this
cycle over and over again. The great onesstay in the place of

(17:42):
do the little things over and over,despite your prosperity.
-That's the great ones.-Yep. Can't, can't take your eye off the
ball.
Yeah. L- look, look at JobTread. JobTreadcrushing it. You got the law of momentum
on your side. Everybody wants a piece ofJobTread right now. Everybody realizes,
like, that's the future, all right? I'mseeing it. Everybody's seeing it. And so,

(18:06):
the, the, the, t- like, for you as the CEOof the company, and this is me just
expressing my personal opinion, the mostimportant thing that you can do right now
as a CEO is to not allow the pride cycleto seep in and to sh-... continue with
that incredible hunger
and that innovation that got JobTreadexactly where it is today. That you never

(18:30):
leave that startup
phase, if you will, because otherwise, youget fat, you get happy, you become
enterprise-based only because you gotbought out by private equity. And then
sure, maybe you're incredibly wealthy, but
the brand dies. And I see it over and overagain.
That's, uh, that's, that's why I refuseto... I, I won't even talk to private

(18:52):
equity people. I mean, we, you know... Iget so many, so many emails and phone
-calls, and I'm just like--I can't even-
-Won't even do it.-How many do you get? Honestly, how many
companies reach out to you a week saying,"We're interested in JobTread. We're
interested in investing, in privateequity," whatever it is.
-I get--Go on.
-I get--How many is it?
-I get three to four per day.-Y- yeah. I guarantee you. It's s- so...

(19:15):
Like,
no surprise. And this is what makes youspecial. This is why the first time I met
you, your energy really resonated with mebecause I could tell, like, this is a
different type of company. This is whyRiver Pools converted,
everybody converted, like, within theRiver Pools ecosystem-
-Yep-... to JobTread. Because, because really,
ultimately, it's really because of you.And, and that mindset that you have has

(19:39):
permeated certainly to the tool, to theteam, to the culture of the organization.
That's why I wanted to come speak atConnect, you know, just because I'm so...
I love working with you and I love whatyou're building. I think it's really,
-really special.-No, I, I appreciate that. And, you know,
again, I, I think that it... I've learneda lot of this just by studying, you know,
how you've been able to build the brandand how you've been able to leverage, you

(20:01):
know, marketing as such a strength andsuch a tool. Like, I meet so many
contractors who I feel like they, theyreally... They don't understand, you know,
the, the value of marketing or, or eventhe difference between sales and
marketing. You know, they, they think it'sall one and the same, and, and then...
And, and they get out there and they get adeal, and then they just, they quit
focusing on all of it, and they just gofocus on that deal. It's like, "Man, like,

(20:22):
you gotta set the engine up and you gottaturn it on and you gotta get it running."
But, like, they don't, they don'tunderstand that it's, it's the long play.
-You know, it's, it's, it's creating--It, the law of the harvest is what it is,
-Eric.-Yeah.
And there's a reason why a lot of peoplecan never be a farmer.
Uh, because they don't understand how theseasons work and how in every season, you

(20:44):
need to be planting a new
field of seeds, and then you've gotta w-water the crop, and you've gotta nourish
the crop. And then eventually, you do allthe things right, and now finally, you
have a harvest. But of course, as thatfield is growing, you've got another field
that you're changing over constantly.You're building, you're building. That's
Marketing 101. That's putting grain in thestorehouse. That's what you've gotta do

(21:08):
as a company. And, you know, greatmarketing really masks a lot of mistakes
because the number one key
to a successful business is leads. It'sleads, man. It's
leads. You can have a crap sales team,

(21:28):
but if you get enough leads, suddenly youthink your sales team's good,
right? You can have a world-class salesteam, but if you have no leads, your sales
team looks terrible. Do you see thedifference? Right? It's not sales.
All roads lead back to your ability togenerate leads. Now, the, the issue though
is it's getting harder to generate leads.

(21:49):
And one of the reasons, of course,
is because AI is just swallowing up somuch of what we've done for the last 20
years.
You realize right now, Eric, over 60% ofall searches on Google end in no click at
all. They don't click anything. Why?Because they got an answer already. They
read the summary, the Google summary, theAI summary, or, you know, they caught

(22:11):
their answer somewhere else. This is, thisis what's happening right now, which
means you're seeing a lot of companies getless and less traffic from traditional
Google.
And, you know, what's interesting is for,for 20 years, builders have had to do two
things. They had to make the homeownerhappy, the customer, and they had to make
Google happy. And the way they made Googlehappy was producing content for SEO or

(22:33):
producing content... Excuse me, or doing,uh, paid ads.
Now, what happens when suddenly everyonestops using Google and starts using just
AI?
Uh-oh, we have a problem.
And this is where we're heading.
We're having a catastrophe in five yearswhen a lot of these builders who only know

(22:54):
Google Ads
and only know maybe what their SEO companyis telling them,
they are gonna be saying, "What the heckhappened to all my traffic and all my
leads and all my sales?"
You see, today, you've got to win AI.
And what's going to, you know... Just likeGoogle drove you the last 15, 20 years,

(23:15):
so much of your business, now, AIrecommendations is gonna be key for you.
Does AI recommend me, my company, mybrand? When they search for me, does it
recommend me? And how do you get AI torecommend you? You have to produce what we
call trust signals. I'm gonna talk a lotabout this at Connect, but, you know,
trust signals, there's, there's a coupledifferent types of trust signals. There's

(23:35):
human trust signals, things that...Signals that we put out to the world that
makes a human say, "I wanna work withthem." And then signals that we put out
online that makes AI say, "I wannarecommend them."
And you've gotta dominate the signals. Andthe key to that is you gotta be talking
about what others aren't willing to talkabout. Showing what others aren't willing
to show, selling in a way others aren'twilling to sell. Stuff that we've talked

(23:58):
about so far. A pricing estimator is amajor trust signal. Discussing pri- having
a pricing page on your website, majortrust signal. Talking about the
competition, not in a negative way, butopenly, it's a major trust signal.
Producing videos and putting them acrossall the social media platforms, major
trust signal. Answering every review youget online, major trust signal. Every
review produced about you, major trustsignal. See, all of these are trust

(24:19):
signals. And, uh, you know, uh, if youdon't dominate these trust signals, you're
gonna slowly but surely... You're gonnalose all the momentum with your brand, and
you're gonna be left saying, "How didthis happen?" And so you really gotta be
focused on creating those trust signalsgoing forward.
Yeah. It's, it's been really interestingstarting to see the number of leads that

(24:39):
-we're getting from ChatGPT.-That's right.
You know, we, we, we, we started trackingit now as a special category just because
we got so many and we're like, "Where arethey coming from? How..." Like, how... It
was just, like, one day, boom, we startgetting all these people coming to us, you
know, and, and again, I, I think it'sbecause of the Google reviews. I think
it's 'cause all the YouTube videos we'reputting out. It's the-
-Right-... content that we keep creating, but

(25:00):
like, man, like, it feels so great toevery ChatGPT customer that signs up
versus, you know, having to pay, you know,whatever it is, you know, for Google Ad
clicks. I mean, man, it's, that's, that isthe way.
That's planting the field and that'sreaping the harvest right there. That's
exactly what it is. And, you know, you'vebeen Hungry Hungry Hippo with your content
over these last few years,
whereas your competitors, the titans inthe space, they're fat and happy. They're

(25:23):
-not doing the same thing.-Oh, yeah.
So they're living off of the past and thesignals that were
of the past versus
what is today and what is recent. Andthat's why, you know, i- this is h- how
the digital Davids always slay Goliath,because you can
make your own rules. You don't have toplay by the rules that you've been given.

(25:45):
You know, you got into this space, Eric,and you coulda just done what everybody
else had done. Y ou're like, "Nope, nope,not gonna do that. No, sir." Right? In
this case, a lot of it was, you know, theask, you answer, amongst many other things
that you did that was extraordinary,
and that's why, you know, that's why youguys are winning. But, you know, this is
the essence of where we've... This iswhere we've gotta go, and the fact that

(26:06):
you're winning now, it's gonna be reallydifficult for those other companies to
capture the hill once you've captured it.And that's what makes, you know, that's
-what makes momentum.-Yeah, absolutely. Where, where do you...
Like, you know, when, when... Again, whenyou meet a new builder, let's say someone
who's just very early on knowing, like,they don't even have a website.
-Mm-hmm.-Like, they don't... It's, it's just them,

(26:27):
right? Like, they're a solo owneroperator. They're, they're struggling to
prioritize what to focus on. Like, whatwould you say to that builder about, you
know,
he- you know, h- h- h- how much effortshould they be putting into their
marketing and into, you know, creatingthese trust signals and trying to drive
the top of the funnel, versus, you know,closing down what they've got and, you

(26:49):
know, executing on the jobs that they'vegot? Like, how do you... How do you help
somebody brand new to the space thinkabout how to allocate their time and
resources?
You know what's interesting is, that's achallenge for companies, uh, with billions
of dollars in revenue. And it's also achallenge for companies with $10,000 in
revenue. Somebody comes to me and says,"Gee, I'm just a, a one-person gang, and,

(27:11):
and, you know, this is..." I don't know."I just don't know how I'd find the time,
you know?" Uh, I'm like, "Man,
oh, it's so great
being a one-man or a one-woman gang,because nobody's gonna tell you no."
You are the digital David in that moment.You can do whatever the heck you want to
do. You ain't got no board to approve yourdecisions, right? You got n- not a bunch

(27:34):
of people telling you no.
You can, at any moment, pull out yourphone and start recording yourself on the
job site. You can upload it to Facebook,which is a free website, essentially, and
you can start generating momentum andtraction for your brand and putting trust
signals out to the world. You can takethat same video and upload it to YouTube.
You can take that same video and upload itto TikTok. You can take that same video

(27:55):
and upload it on Instagram. You know, andif you just say, "I'm gonna produce one
video every single day for the rest of mylife until I have this business, period,
full stop, end of discussion. This is me,this is oxygen, this is religion, this is
how I'm gonna roll,"
you're gonna do it. And really, for mostbuilders, I say that's where you start.
You start with a video. You start withputting that video on social.

(28:16):
You know, you could build something reallybig without even a website at first,
which... By the way, as a side note, yourYouTube page is gonna be much more
important than your website in five yearsanyway.
-Hmm.-So,
-just do that.-Yeah.
That phone you've got in your pocket isbetter than any camera Hollywood had 25
years ago.
It's extraordinary. What a wonderful timeto be alive. Isn't it great to be a

(28:39):
solopreneur?
Because you get a chance to exercise 100%creativity whenever you want.
It's... [laughs] That is such greatadvice. You can literally capture, create
the content, and immediately publish andupload every single day without needing
anybody else's help. Like, you just gottapull out your phone. It's crazy how many
people are so scared, though, to clickrecord of themselves. They're just,

(29:03):
-they're just--You know what's interesting? We say...
Well, the reason why I'm scared is becauseI don't want somebody to judge me.
Here's what's wild, Eric.
They judge you anyway.
-Mm-hmm.-Let me give you an example.
Some people say, "I don't want to dovideo,
so I'm not going to do video," and theycome to your website, and the prospect,
uh, the viewer, is like, "Man, I reallywish I could watch a video on this,

(29:27):
but there's no video here." Now, do youthink when that person can't find that
video on your website, they say, "Oh, man,that's okay they're not... They don't
have this video. I'm sure they're justreally nervous on camera"?
You see, they don't say that. What theysay is, "Really wish I could watch a
fricking video. Let me go somewhere whereI can get it."
-Yeah.-See, that's how it works. That's how it
works.
So, you know, we just got... I mean,there's so much to that, that we've just

(29:50):
gotta get past.
When you sign up to be an entrepreneur,
you're saying, "I'm gonna ask people moneyin exchange for a good or a service."
That's what you're gonna... That's whatyou're saying. "I'm going to ask people
for their money
in exchange
for a good or a service."
If you're gonna do that, you've now lostthe right to not give them every reason to

(30:13):
trust you,
-period, full stop.-Yep.
And remember, they're gonna judge youanyway. By the way, as we've been doing
this podcast,
people have been listening, they've beenjudging me. Some like me, some don't like
me. Some like you as the host, Eric, somedon't.
That is reality every time I get in frontof an audience.... everyone in the room is

(30:38):
judging me. Doesn't mean it's unrighteousjudgment, it's just judgment. This is
what we do as human beings. It's embeddedin our DNA. It's okay. So, once you
accept, "Huh, no matter what I'm gonna getjudged." Yep, that's correct. We also
tend to overvalue how much people thinkabout us.
Like, they're not s- like, th- their,

(30:58):
their world
i- is- is, like, we're just, like, thislittle speck.
And so, s- just, like, stop overinflating
just how big of a deal you have in theworld.
-Mm-hmm.-Things come and they go. You have a bad
video, no one really cares. Yeah, yousucked today, you're good tomorrow, you're
great the next day. That's how it works.Go back and watch some of my original OG

(31:22):
videos. You're gonna be like, "Dude, youlooked kinda bad." Like, I know. Look at
that. And now I'm not.
Now, people watch me like, "Oh, you'resuch a natural. Oh, you're, you're a
natural writer. You're a natural on video.You're so good on these things." Like,
you think I was like that always? No. Iput in the reps, I put in the work. It's
no different than the first time you wenton a sales appointment in somebody's home.
You probably kinda stunk, right? Firsthouse you built, you probably, pooh, ooh,

(31:46):
got a lotta mistakes there. Kindaembarrassed about that. Hope they don't
know. Like, don't ever tear off thesiding, I don't want them to see. It's
-like, this is stuff, this is the stuff--Yeah
... that we, we say and we do. You know,the first pools that we did, terrible,
train wreck, awful. But, you know, that'sjust, that's life. That's business. You're
gonna get judged,
so they might as well judge you in apositive way.

(32:07):
Yeah, makes total sense. So, what about tothe person who's like, "I just, I don't
know what type of content to create. I, Idon't come up with these ideas. I'm not a,
I'm not a creative like some of theseother people." Like, how do you help them
-get off the block?-Yeah. Once again, all those statements
people say all the time, and they're lyingto themselves. That's not healthy. Um,
you need to, again, be honest withyourself. To say, "I'm not creative,"

(32:31):
that's grossly just not accurate.
One of the easiest things you can do,
open your dang ears
and listen to the questions that you getasked every single day
by potential customers and existingcustomers. Just listen to them.

(32:52):
I remember, Eric, when I started the askme answer, I did my brainstorm,
and I wrote down all those questions thatjust, you know, I've been hearing for
years in the home when I was sellingpools.
But then I would go on sales appointments,
and I'd get asked the question, and Iwould always think, "Why are they asking
me this? Have I not answered this questionalready? If so,

(33:12):
why did they not find it? How did I letthem not know this?" Like, this is the
conversation I would have with my own headbefore I even answered the question.
Like, all happening, because that's theobsession. That's the obsession that I
have, right? And so, you're getting askedthese questions all the time. Now, one of
the easiest ways that you can do this,though, I mean, I'll just, like, give you
the simple hack, is you go to ChatGPT, andyou just, you just say to Chat, "Hey,

(33:38):
you're an expert in Marcus Sheridan's TheyAsk You Answer/Endless Customers system.
Following his principles of the big five,which are cost, problems, comparisons,
reviews, and best, I want you tobrainstorm
50
titles for potential videos or articles
that have a strong hook,

(33:59):
a strong SEO element, and follow that TheyAsk You Answer methodology."
And you're gonna be blown away with theresults that you get. ChatGPT's very
trained on everything that I've done, youknow, and so you could have my brain
working for you at your office, just likeanybody's brain. My brain's not special,
right? I just wrote a book, right, aboutanswering questions and endless customers

(34:21):
crushes, and you'll enjoy that when youread it. But
do that. Do that. That's it. That's allyou gotta do. You know, I've got some...
If you're using ChatGPT and you don't knowhow to produce a pricing page, just go,
uh, to Chat and go to Custom GPTs, andtype in Marcus Sheridan. I've built a
bunch for you, guys. So, one is called thePerfect Pricing Page. You wanna create

(34:43):
the perfect pricing page for your website?
Use my custom GPT. It's bad to the bone.If you've already produced a pricing page
for your website, right, put the URL in mycustom GPT, and you're gonna be like,
"Oh, dang. I guess we have a fewimprovements to make." But either way,
it's awesome. You're really, really gonnalike it. I've also got a GPT that tests
how authentic your content feels, allright? So, you can put a URL in there,

(35:06):
and, of any article you write, and it'llt- show you how authentic your content
feels for that particular page, right? So,these, you know, these things I've
created for you for free because I loveyou and I want you to win, I want you to
-crush.-That's awesome. I love that. I, uh,
didn't, didn't know about the, uh, the,the GPTs. There, I'll, I'll have to go,
uh, go test that out. That sounds great. Imean, I, you know, I think in general

(35:28):
though, like, what I, what I've reallytaken away too is, like, just it's about
creating valuable content. It's about,like, educating your buyer, educating your
prospects, your customers. And, like, youknow, I, I, I think too, like, just a
general philosophy of mine is, like, justtry to help others. The more helpful
content, the more you can educate peopleon what it's like to, to go through a

(35:50):
build, what it's like to work with yourcompany-
-Yeah-... you know, what are all the things that
are gonna come up that they should, youknow, that, that they may be surprised
about, but if you can help set theexpectation now, is gonna make it a
smoother process. Like, you should haveendless ideas of-
-Please-... content that you can create. And it's
the people who are just giving thatcontent, giving that away for free on
their website, like, you're warming upyour prospects. It's such a better

(36:13):
conversation, that first call, when theyalready have an idea what the price range
is gonna be. Like, you're not having togive them that, like, you know,
over-the-phone, ballpark quote, and thenthey're just, like, shocked.
-Yeah.-Like, they've already gotten past that.
That's why it's like music to your earswhen somebody, you know, reaches out to
one of your salespeople and says, "I feellike everything I know about builder

(36:34):
software, I learned from JobTread." Like,that's the pinnacle
of satisfaction.... like, as a marketer,because it means
he dominated the discussion early on whenI was learning about Inbound. Everything I
learned about Inbound, I learned fromHubSpot, right? And this is, like, this is
what's possible for anybody that'slistening to this. Now, you know, I

(36:54):
mentioned the big five a minute ago, butthe big five are the five subjects that
drive
the majority of all research. Certainly
anything to do with home improvement, homeservices, et cetera, et cetera, et
cetera,
which are cost-based questions. There's aton of those.
Comparison-based questions. People love tocompare things online, this versus that,
okay? Problems or fears-based questions,like, "What could go wrong? How could this

(37:19):
blow up in my face? What are the problemswith a fiberglass pool? Do fiberglass
pools pop out of the ground? Arefiberglass pools ugly?" You know, "Are
fiberglass pools cheap?" These are all,like, n- fear-based questions. "Is it true
that" questions, okay? So we just call itproblems.
Um, reviews. People love reviews. Thething about reviews, they wanna know the
good, the bad, and the ugly. So not justthe positive, but the negative, and

(37:39):
finally, best. Best, most, top. Thinkabout how many times you've gone online
and searched best such and such, right?So, you know, cost, problems, comparisons,
reviews, best. That's the big five.That's where you start your brainstorming,
right there. That's the prompt that youwanna put in that I gave a bit ago. That's
what moves the needle the most. That'swhat your most active, like, sh-
researchers and buyers are trying to know,

(38:00):
and that's an evergreen. Um, you know, Ifeel pretty f- proud of the fact that I
was talking about the big five beforeGoogle was talking about it, before Amazon
was talking about it. I was talking aboutit way before everybody 'cause I saw the
pattern. And so I started teachingeverybody these, basically these five
subjects that move the net- needle forshoppers in every industry, B2B and B2C.
And they continue to hold as true today asthey did 15 years ago when I, when I

(38:24):
started discussing them openly. Andthey're gonna be as relevant in 50 years
as they are today, 'cause people arealways gonna research those fundamental
-things that they wanna know.-Yeah.
So, you know, a lot of times, you know,people when, when I, when I talk about...
And, you know, I'm, I'm usually sharing,you know, what I've learned from, from
your books here. They're like, "Well,Eric, I mean, you, you've got a huge
marketing team. I don't have a hugemarketing team. I can't afford even one

(38:47):
full-time marketer, or, or, you know, acouple of people." Like, uh, you know, at
what point... I mean, my, my advice isalways, like, look, early on, like, you
need to find a marketing agency, amarketing partner, somebody who can help
you get everything going. But, like, atwhat point do you, do you see people kind
of sort of take over and bring thatmarketing in-house versus continuing to
-use some of th--It's a really good point. Yeah. I mean, at

(39:09):
first you gotta get leads, right? So youmight be hiring an agency to do some paid
ads for you just to, you know, to, to, tobuild the momentum because the field
hasn't had the, had the full time to growand,
and to allow you to reap the harvest. Butthat's gonna happen. And if you're... and
if you're going to reach your potential,if you're gonna do something extraordinary

(39:30):
online, if you're gonna become the mostknown and trusted brand,
you've gotta be a creator,
not outsource your content. You're justnot gonna do it.
-No.-And so that's why you personally, as the
owner, you... It starts with you. And itstarts with you creating early on,
committing I'm gonna do one video a day.It's gonna be, you know, uncut. It's just

(39:51):
gonna be,
you know, straight upload, one take. Like,that stuff is magic, man. And then you
realize what is possible. But eventually,yeah, the goal is that we all become,
like, our own media company. If you wannahave a multimillion-dollar and then a
billion-dollar brand, you have to startthinking like a media company thinks,
which means every single job is apotential story or m- or a multiplicity of

(40:14):
stories that you could show and tell. Andare you treating it that way? Or are you
just taking it for granted because you'reused to seeing the things that you see
every day, and you're not showing it tothe world? You see, that's the difference
between the great ones and the ones thatare just spinning their wheels.
Yep.
No. Makes, makes a lot of sense. So, youknow, look, we're, we're gonna have the
pleasure of having you at JobTreadConnect. Uh, that's-

(40:36):
That's straight. And it's gonna bebanging.
Oh, yeah. Hey, y- y- you guaranteed meit'd be the best keynote we've ever had,
-so--It will be.
I'm g- I'm gonna hold you to it, but Imean,
Can we throw some fire? We're gonna throwfire on the stage. It's gonna be a great
time. These are my people. I mean, theseare my people. And so when I say it's
gonna be an extraordinary keynote andyou're gonna leave ready to run through

(40:57):
walls and build the most extraordinarybrand in your space, I mean it. That's
exactly what you're go- And the good thingis is I'm gonna give you a system to do
it. I'm not just gonna theoretically, youknow, give you a bunch of fluff. That's
not how I roll at all. I want you to havetakeaways that you're ready to do in the
hotel room, like, the minute you get back.You know what I mean? Like, that's what I
want for you.

(41:18):
I mean, I, I... That's literally whathappened after I heard you speak the first
time. I was, I was. I was ready to runthrough a wall. We, we now have almost 600
videos on our YouTube. We got, you know,hundreds of reviews. I mean, like, it, it
was definitely a very moving, you know,thing. It was just very eye-opening, I
would say, you know. Like, so many people,I think, don't, don't take the time to
step back and look at their ownperformance. I mean, and, and, and one of

(41:40):
the things in the book, you said, "Look,go read your homepage and count the number
of times, you know, you said, you know,'I' or 'we.'" You talked about yourself,
you know. And it- and it's... The prospectdoesn't care about you. It's what can you
do for them, you know. And I think beingable to go through those exercises and,
and, and actually having those tangibletakeaways, I mean, it, it can really

(42:00):
change the trajectory of, of anyone'sbusiness.
That's exactly right. And it's... Youknow, they... There's this wonderful
phrase that say, uh, says, "We often
overestimate what we can do in a year andunderestimate what we can do in 10."
And, you know, if you are just willing tolook at building a brand from a long-term
perspective,

(42:20):
an- and you say, "You know what? No matterwhat, I'm just gonna do this thing. I'm
never gonna stop,"
you are gonna blow by 99%. And thensuddenly you're gonna have 600 videos,
an incredible library. And you're gonnahave this massive following. And you're
gonna have, you know, uh, 30 privateequity companies reaching out to you a
week saying, "Hey, y- you know, you know,we'd love to invest in you." That's

(42:44):
leverage. That's the law of momentum onyour side. And I think it's available for
anyone. There's never been a better timeto be in the trades and in building.
Because as AI starts to, you know, reallyhave an effect on white-collar-... Blue
collar is gonna experience an incrediblerenaissance. Very exciting. You're gonna
have more people to hire than you've everhad, which by the way, everything we've

(43:06):
talked about is gonna help you withhiring. Everything we've talked about.
Which is gonna be one of the keys for youin the future as
you are gonna have more people in yourhiring pool because more folks are gonna
say, "You know what? I'm not gonna do itwhat was the traditional way pre-AI. I'm
gonna do it
the, the new way. I'm gonna take controlof my future

(43:27):
and I'm gonna choose a field in the tradesthat allows me to have so much more
security." So, I- I am so excited for whatthese, you know, next couple of decades
-are gonna bring us.-It's gonna be awesome. Now, I do wanna ask
you one other thing. You know, y- youopened up, and I think it was like maybe
the fourth thing, like, you know, be morehuman. So it's like we're talking about AI

(43:47):
and using AI and how it's changingeverything, but at the same time you're
-saying be more human.-Yeah.
How, how do we... How do we find thatbalance?
They can coexist so well.
Just what we're doing right now humanizesyou as the CEO of your company. How many
CEOs
of really large SaaS companies
are doing a podcast that's video rightnow?

(44:11):
-Not--Probably not many
... a large percentage.
-Yeah.-Not a large percentage. Sure, there's
some, but there's not a massivepercentage. So Eric is an outlier. He's
humanizing the brand, the person behindthe brand. We buy from those we know, like
and trust. And I would ask you, when yousend out an email,
if you're listening to this, do you sendthat email text-based or do you send it as

(44:32):
a video?
Uh, like you should be sending outvideo-based email all the time. If you're
not, why? I mean, we've been sendingtext-based email for 30 freaking years. I
mean, come on, we can advance that alittle bit. So that's a way that you can
humanize your business and brand. Howoften are you showing behind the scenes?
How often are you showing your peopleother than just like a staff photo? Like

(44:53):
give me a break. I really wanna see yourpeople and learn the stories behind them,
right? So these are all things that we cando, and there's a lot more we can do to
humanize, but in a time when technologyincreases and the AI is doing that, you
can humanize your brand even further, um,and they can coexist perfectly in the same
-room.-How do... How do you go about kind of

(45:16):
figuring out the, the mixture of like, youknow, there's, there's, there's the
person, so there, you know, here's...There's my personal brand, there's
JobTread as the company. You know, I sortof see, I, you know, I am JobTread, you
know, like how do you sort of find the,the, the balance between that? Because,
uh, you know, I see a lot of businessowners that they post a lot on their, on
their company's page, but like, it seemslike, you know, Facebook and, and, and,

(45:37):
and the, you know, the social networkprioritizes that. You post on your
personal though and you're getting so muchmore traction and engagement.
Yeah. We, uh, just don't really like tofollow brands online. We don't interact
with them very much, uh, because justthere feels like there's a barrier.
Whereas suddenly, you know, the personcomes out and it's like whoa. You know,

(45:58):
it's interesting. It's like,
um, if, if I,
you know, if I show someone,
uh, you know, if I say, "Do you know whoKylie Jenner is?" Everybody's like, "Yes."
If I say, "Do you know her makeup line?"A huge portion of people say, "I've got no
idea her makeup line," right? And youcould do that same example just on down
the list. And so if I'm, if I'm juststarting a company, if I'm just... It's

(46:21):
like it's all about building the personalbrand because the personal brand you can
take with you after the company's builtanyway. And it's which gonna be important.
So like if you're, you know, this isn'tEric's last four, right? Like he, he ain't
gonna have JobTread until he's 95. Eric'sgot like a runway. You know, even if he
does, you're gonna have other things thatyou do because that's how your mind
thinks. Your mind is like

(46:41):
it's got a vision for what's possible,right? And so you might have, you know,
five different types of JobTreads in thefuture of, of different industries and
different things going on. You know, andso the personal brand matters a lot 'cause
it's the, it's, you know, that you willtake with you to the next thing. And I
don't think no matter what happens, Idon't think people at scale are really

(47:01):
ever gonna, um, just,
you know, spend a lot of time interactingwith brands online. They're gonna always
prefer the human behind the brand. This iswhy you now have to get from behind the
desk to in front of the desk, in front ofthe camera and put yourself out there and
humanize the brand as much as possible.Starts with you as the CEO, and oh, by the
way, if you do that, your, your team ismuch more likely to do it as well. I mean,

(47:25):
Eric eats his own dog food. This is why,you know, anything you are asking your
team to do from a marketing perspective, Imean, you are living it and breathing it
-yourself.-Absolutely. So would you encourage all
those who, you know, think that, you know,they, they missed the, the social media,
the, the social networking, you know,bandwagon? Do they need to go and create,
or reactivate those, those Facebook,LinkedIn, you know, Instagram accounts?

(47:48):
-Eh,-No.
You didn't miss out on nothing, man. Youdidn't... It's... He did not miss
anything. It's early, guys. [laughs] Likeseriously, it's way, way early and things
are always changing, they're alwaysevolving. And the way social media works
today is not so much based on subscribers,it's just based on how relevant is the
content to the interest of that person.It's really interest media much more so
-than social media at this point.-Yeah.

(48:10):
So just give them what they want, whatthey're interested in, and you're gonna
see that you're gonna get an audience.
Yeah, couldn't, couldn't agree more. Youknow, and again, I, I, I, I can't
recommend enough everybody if you have notread, you know, either one of these,
these books, you know, I, I'd, I'drecommend go with a, uh, Endless Customers
at this point. You know, I mean, it wasvery similar, a lot of similar content,

(48:31):
but like you really did a great job Ithink updating it-
-Thank you-... you know, with kind of the latest and
greatest and how AI comes into play. LikeI, I think this is absolutely hands down
the, the best, you know, 20 bucks orwhatever it cost you to buy that, that
book on Amazon or, or wherever you getyour books. Like, you know, and if anyone
out there if you, if you, if you think youcan't afford 20 bucks or you think this
book isn't being a great, be a great read,like you reach out to me, I'll buy it for

(48:53):
you and you'll tell me later it was thebest book you've ever read. I mean, it, it
was such a, you know, just it, it reallyit changed the trajectory of our business,
Marcus. Like from the very beginning andthen going through it again was such a
great refresher. You know, but I thinkbeyond just like reading the content and
learning the things, like the other thingyou did a great job of is encouraging us
as a team to take the time to meettogether. You know, marketing doesn't

(49:18):
happen in a silo. You know, you, you haveto get everybody around the table and
everyone needs to commit to being part ofthis. Everyone can create content.
Everyone can create and come up with ideasand brainstorm. And when you truly get
your team involved, it creates thatalignment, you know? And, and, and, you
know, again, put all the, the actualmarketing, the strategy, the content

(49:39):
aside, like getting your team aligned andworking together, that's invaluable.But
this just gives you that thing t- t- to,you know, r-
unite around and- and- and get the troopsand rally them up and get everybody
excited again about what your business isdoing. And, you know, again, y- you could
be coming up with your mission, yourvision, your core values. Like, how are we

(49:59):
gonna build a great company, a greatculture? Like, there's so much that you
need to do as a business to create a greatcompany, and why not create content
around that? Why not put that on yourwebsite, put that out on social media?
Like, it creates so much awareness toattract not only customers but employees,
like you talked about. Like, to build agreat team, you gotta create, you know,

(50:19):
that content that attracts them, thathelps them find you. So, you know, again,
I- I highly encourage everybody to takethe time to read this book, Endless
Customers. It's phenomenal. But, I mean,Marcus, y- you've got tons of other
resources and content out there. Like,where would you recommend people also go
to learn more about, you know, what youcan do and how you could help them?
Well, a good place to start is byfollowing me on LinkedIn 'cause I put some

(50:43):
really good content out there. That'susually, like, the first place I put it
out there.
And, uh, if you go toEndlessCustomers.com, you can learn about
the book. We've got a free course forfolks as well that you can launch. We've
got a lot of free tools that come with it.Make sure you get PriceGuide.ai. I'm
telling you, you will three to five X yourleads the moment you put it up on your

(51:06):
homepage. I'm- I'm not, I'm not joking.You're gonna three to five X. If you're
getting five leads a week, you're gonnaget 15 a week once you add Price Guide to
your website.
And, uh, you can email me directly,[e-mail]. That's the
email. [e-mail]. Look atthat. Just gave you that. So I'm here for
it. I'm here to answer your questions.Can't wait to see everybody at Connect.
We're gonna have a great time. And, um,you're creating a movement. I'm happy to

(51:30):
be a part of the movement, man. I lovestuff like that. I love energy, and the
energy's gonna be
-at Connect.-Awesome. Well, look, I- I really
appreciate you coming on, sharing all ofthese, you know, tactical, you know,
strategies, tips, tricks, everything thatyou've done here today. You know, can't
wait to see you at Job Trade Connect. Iknow you'll bring the fire. I have no
doubt. You know, it's- it's- it's- it'sreally awesome, though, to- to see you

(51:52):
spending so much of your time giving backand sharing and creating all this content.
Like, I mean, again, i- i- it's- it's-it's exactly what this industry needs.
It's how, you know, a rising tide liftsall boats, is that we have to take the
time to, you know, learn and keepdeveloping our own skills, whatever they
may be, wherever you need to grow andimprove. You know, take your blinders off,

(52:14):
get real, and- and commit to growingyourself as a leader, commit to growing
your team, to coaching them, trainingthem, getting them, you know, performing
at the level that you expect. And it'sgonna create a huge impact on your
business, and, you know, y- you're just-you're leading by example, Marcus. I
really appreciate it. I appreciate[laughs] all the- the time that you put
into- to creating all of this and tosharing this with the world. Like, I- I

(52:37):
just, you know, again, I- I can't believethat you actually have just published it
all and given it all away to everyone. I'msure all your competitors love, uh, you
know, g- consuming everything that you'redoing, and you love watching them just go
and do it all right there. But, you know,it- it's making a huge impact, and, you
know, I- I'm just one of, you know,thousands and thousands of people that
you've impacted. So I just- I wanna saythank you. It's an honor to have you on

(52:57):
this show. It's an honor to have you comein to Job Tread Connect, to getting
involved with our community. You know,those are the people I... You know, I
truly care very deeply about theirsuccess, and I can't wait, you know, for
your tools and- and everything that youcan bring to the table to help them keep
growing and scaling their business, 'causethat's what it's all about here, man. We
all can win together as one largecommunity, and I'm excited to have you

(53:19):
-part of it.-Yeah. A hundred percent. Love that a- that
abundance mindset that you have, my man.So can't wait. I will see everybody then.
Thank you, again, Eric, for this platformand for your community. It's a special
-group.-Absolutely. Appreciate it. We'll see you
in January.
Thanks for joining us for this episode ofBuilder Stories. We hope you enjoyed the

(53:40):
conversation and gained valuable insightsthat can help you in your journey along
the way.
Don't forget to subscribe to the show andleave us a review. And as always, if you
or someone you know has a story to share,please contact us at BuildersStories.com.
We'd love to hear from you.
I'm Eric Fortenberry, and remember, everybuilder has a unique story. Keep building

(54:02):
yours.