December 10, 2025 • 48 mins
Tired of chasing the wrong leads and wondering why your shiny site doesn’t ring the phone? We sat down with Australian marketer Wes Towers of Uplift 360 to unpack a simpler path: build a clear, fast website that reflects your crew, publish real job stories tied to your service areas, and push that signal across every channel customers actually use—Google, YouTube, TikTok, and even AI tools like ChatGPT.
We start by fixing the foundation. Your website should read like a straight answer on a job site: who you help, what you do, where you work, why you’re different, and how to book you. Service pages beat slideshows, and trust markers—reviews, photos, case studies—do the heavy lifting. From there, we swap “search engine optimization” for “search everywhere optimization,” because customers don’t just Google; they watch, scroll, and ask AI. The win comes from consistent, specific updates: short blogs and case studies that name the suburb, the problem, the fix, and the result.
If writing scares you, talk instead. Wes shares a dead-simple AI workflow: have ChatGPT interview you after a job, answer by voice during your drive, and hand a ready-to-polish draft to your marketer. Repurpose that into Google Business updates, social captions, and short videos. No gloss required—authentic clips from the truck often outperform studio productions, as long as they’re clear and helpful. We also dive into brand basics: a tight logo, colors, and voice applied everywhere, so people recognize you on the road and online.
Expect practical takeaways you can use this week: pick your core services and areas, tighten your site copy, post a case study, and syndicate it with a scheduler that hits Google too. Real beats perfect, and momentum compounds when your message matches the team who shows up on site. Enjoy the conversation, then put it to work—subscribe, share with a fellow contractor, and leave a review telling us which channel you’ll start with first.
Click the link above for a free marketing audit with insights to boost your blue collar business!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:09):
Hey guys, welcome to the Blue Collar Business Podcast
where we discuss the realest,rawest, most relevant stories
and strategies behind buildingevery corner of a blue-collar
business.
I'm your host, Cy Kirby, and Iwant to help you with what it
took me, trial and error, and awhole lot of money to learn.
The information that no one inthis industry is willing to
share.
Whether you're under that shadetree or have your hard hat on,
(00:30):
let's expand your toolbox.
Welcome back, guys, to anotherepisode of the Blue Collar
Business Podcast, brought to youand sponsored by our wonderful
friends over at Thumbtack.
If you've owned your craft andyou care about results and
you're spending too much timechasing leads that just don't
fit, you need a solution thatconnects you with customers who
appreciate your skills and jobsthat fit your team schedule and
(00:53):
area.
Thumbtack delivers just thatwithout subscription fees or
pricing surprises.
As your business grows,Thumbtack's tools, automation,
keep things running supersmooth, ready to grow, visit
thumbtack.com slash pro.
Book your session with them.
Let them know that I sent youfrom the Blue Collar Business
Podcast, wherever you're joiningus from today.
(01:14):
Thank you guys so much fortuning in for another weekly
episode.
Today we are going to be headingoff down in the marketing lane,
guys.
So any of you guys that arelistening to the show and you're
like, man, I don't know how inthe world this guy started
podcasting.
He ain't very good at it, but Ilisten anyways because he gives
me good information.
(01:35):
How did this guy start thisYouTube channel?
How did this guy I am nobodydifferent than you guys?
I am flat out telling you, Ijust started one day, and it's
because of people like my guestthat have led me along the way
and guided me from a perspectiveof, hey, I don't know what I'm
doing here.
This is super foreign to me.
(01:55):
Help me out.
And this gentleman is all theway across uh we well, I guess
we say it across the pond, butit's a different pond.
It's a much longer pond fromAustralia.
And this gentleman has beenworking with us as us as
blue-collar businesses, uh,trades, skilled trades, or
tradees um uh over in Australia.
(02:17):
He's built a company with ano-nonsense approach, giving you
results and looking andanalyzing them with you.
Oh, he is the founder of Uplift360, and they specialize in
websites and just specialize inSEO built upon those websites.
We're gonna get off into thenitty-gritties of that, and
(02:38):
hopefully some of the thingsthat I struggle with, and and uh
nobody else better to join ustoday than um Mr.
West Towers.
Thank you so much for joining ussuper early tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01 (02:49):
Yeah, coming coming at you from the future here in
Australia.
So uh that's fantastic toconnect with you.
So I've listened to a few ofyour episodes already, and uh it
feels and just to pick up yourheart on on, and it feels like
we're really aligned in a wholelot of ways, obviously in the in
the people that we speak to, butobviously um you pick up when
you listen to your heart and uhfor the authenticity.
(03:11):
So uh that's what I I really amexcited about this podcast and
and um speaking through someideas that I might have.
SPEAKER_00 (03:19):
I'm really excited to have you.
Um, you know, there's such astigma in the trades with
marketing in general.
Um, I think it comes from aplace 100% I'll speak on my
place, not for anybody sittinglistening today, but it comes
from a place of ignorance andmaybe a little bit of fear at
(03:39):
the same time.
And when you mix those two,you're never gonna really per uh
walk into any type of limelightin that regard because of the
fear.
Um, but the marketingperspective, I would love for
you to kind of tell us uh alittle bit of the background and
where you came from, why youstarted working with us
(04:02):
blue-collar guys to begin with,or tradies over there.
I I love that term, as you guyswill hear me say multiple times
today.
But um talk about a little bitof the background from why you
you jumped, you know, and wantedto start working with us.
Uh, and number two, theimportance uh coming from that
background of some things you'velearned along the way to get to
(04:24):
the where you're at now.
SPEAKER_01 (04:26):
Yeah, so a lot of people make the assumption that
I started in some as a trading,but I I did it.
Uh it was just that I started myuh digital agency after working
in marketing uh for other otherpeople and and my uh winning
clients, and I did anything andeverything for everybody
initially just because you knowyou kind of have to.
And I was totally naive tobusiness and uh, you know,
(04:49):
client, you know, clientmeetings and talking to people
and uh doing proposals and youknow, quotes and bookkeeping and
all this kind of stuff I didn'treally understand.
So I came in really naive, but Ihad a skill set to build
websites and to optimize them.
But I soon realized that thepeople I connected best with
were tradies, and I think it wasbecause they're really
(05:10):
practical, pragmatic, hands,hands-on uh people.
Um, they say what they mean,they mean what they say, and I
I'm sort of that same way.
I don't like to use jargon toomuch, and I just like to keep it
down to worth and practical.
And so that's why I kind ofnaturally connected with these
types of people.
And so uh that's where I tookthe business.
(05:30):
And it's it's been an excitingride, a roller coaster ride in
some ways, and things arecertainly changing fast with AI
and and what we're doing onlinethese days.
So I've always said it feelslike an industry that changes so
fast, and if I stopped for onemoment to pick it up again, it
would be difficult.
But man, the last few years beencrazy exciting.
SPEAKER_00 (05:50):
So the when did you so you worked for a couple
other, I'm assuming, were theyblue-collar-based businesses in
the marketing perspective backthen, or were they just kind of
different industries altogether?
SPEAKER_01 (06:05):
Just a hybrid of of uh businesses.
My first um employment in in themarketing space, they uh I was a
fresh new employee and theynever designed a website.
So they had one computerconnected to a dial up modem,
and they uh they won a projectto design a website and said
they said, You're right, you'rethe young guy, you better figure
(06:26):
out how to build this site.
So I found it was the perfectblend of the creative and the
technical, and and it workedreally well for me.
So from there I became their webguy and and eventually started
my own business um doing what wedo.
SPEAKER_00 (06:40):
So websites are the number one point for you guys to
start with.
Um, you want to know how thesemedia campaigns take off, you
want to know how this marketingperspective, it's all great when
you have you're buildingawareness around something.
And um, as you guys know, in acouple of previous episodes, I
(07:02):
talk about this marketing coneor this lead cone that is
basically this giant top bracketof awareness that travels down
to consideration into leads intoconversions.
But I noticed so many peoplewant to start a campaign, and I
was guilty of this.
You know, I had zero strategywhen I started this.
(07:22):
I can admit that.
I have not a freaking clue.
I'm a dad gum blue-collar pipeguy.
Why am I on YouTube?
Why am I messing around withthis?
And I was confused with theresults because I didn't even
know where to start.
I had zero strategy, but I juststarted doing content.
And as you know, Wes, a lot ofpeople, um, that's completely
(07:43):
backwards from actually the wayto do it.
You have a marketing strategy,you go grab content for that
marketing strategy and you buildupon it.
So I entered the game a littlebackwards.
Um, didn't think that my websitetruly, when I started YouTube or
any any of this media sector,uh, I didn't have the
recognizable thought that, oh, Ineed to have somewhere to send
(08:07):
these people.
I need to be able to tell themwho I am, I need to be able to
show them what I can do from thebusiness perspective, right?
And so when I started thiscontent, I I figured out about
four or five minutes in, I'mlike, I need to send these guys
somewhere.
So we had a very basic, basicbutter, three-page contact us
(08:31):
here.
We've got a website, and we cansay we've got a website.
But was it doing any type ofgood?
Was there was no SEO, there wasno word plug, there was no none
of that.
I had no clue.
But talk about the importance ofa call to action website and
what are these guys, you know,everybody's trying to sell them
(08:52):
a website right now.
Everybody is, because you know,AI halfway builds them for you.
But maybe talk about theimportance of a website and what
makes a good website for ablue-collar business that you've
seen success with.
SPEAKER_01 (09:05):
Yeah, well, if you can be really it's not as uh
confusing as it as sometimespeople like me might make it
sound.
It's uh you've got to be reallyclear and concise and compelling
with your messaging.
So because no one's readingevery word on your website, so
they're just picking up a senseof what you do.
So I I think it all starts witha vision.
(09:25):
So you've got to write thevision down, otherwise, how are
you going to forward projectinto what you want to be?
So get getting really clear withum who you are and what uh
differentiates you as a businessas opposed to the other people
within your uh location.
Um, those key points ofdifference are really what you
need to make highlighted in yourwebsite.
(09:48):
So it's all about the messageand sharing a message in a
clear, concise, compelling way.
So people can take action.
They can go, right, this is theperfect fit for me, or it's not.
There's no there's no problemswith people deciding once
they've read your materialonline that that you're not a
good fit.
That's that's great.
They've self-selected.
But those that are drawn to youare going to be ideal uh for
(10:10):
your target market.
So it's not really all thatcomplicated.
It starts with writing downexactly who you want to be, who
you are now as a businessleader, because your business is
a reflection of who you are,your personal values, your
convictions, what matters toyou.
It might be quite different toyour competitors.
So you need to draw upon thoseideas and the vision and get
(10:31):
really specific in your contentso people can make a decision
when they come across it.
SPEAKER_00 (10:36):
No, I think that's that's a fantastic point.
And when you've got to tell whoyou are, storytelling is
everything.
That's every that's literallythe key to content creation is
telling your story.
But you know, telling your storyon a website nowadays, nobody's
hardly reading anything.
It's all about videos.
(10:57):
You have to have a little bit ofvideo integration because that's
how people consume content,whether that's uh about us
video, what whatever it may be.
But with these websites, I haveon my early years, you know,
during that time, four or fivemonths into this marketing
campaign.
I'm like, man, I've reallygotta, I've really gotta up my
(11:20):
website game.
And so I went to, you know, agentleman like yourself, Wes.
I've been through threemarketing guys to to land where
I'm at right now.
And I went to the first guy, andI'm like, hey man, I've really
got to do something.
I know you do websites, make mea nicer website.
I need it flashy, I need it, Ineed all the things, you know.
(11:42):
I need, I need to be catchingevery eye.
And what I didn't understand,Wes, and I hope you can talk a
little bit more on, is that Iknow this by experience that
there's two types of marketing.
There is the results-driven guy,the analytics guy, the guy that
cares about what's the messageactually doing.
(12:02):
And then there's the creativetype that can build these flashy
websites, maybe the best-lookingthing once you find it, but you
you may be a fisherman droppinga line straight down in a bucket
of ocean and have the prettiestlure, but you no fish are around
to see the lure.
You got to put your boat on somefish.
(12:23):
And so um that's where that youknow creative mindset to the
results-driven mindset is.
Talk a little bit about thedifference of maybe working with
Uplift 360 about theresults-driven mindset compared
to that just flashy creative.
Need a little bit of that, butit's not the full concentration.
SPEAKER_01 (12:42):
Yeah, so oftentimes less is more, really, with the
creative.
So the message is what needs tosing and needs to be presented
in a professional manner, soit's easy to consume on multiple
devices.
Obviously, everyone on theirmobile or their cell phone and
uh and PCs as well, andeverywhere in between.
Um, so the the design should bethere to support the message,
(13:06):
but getting found is the keything.
So you've got to get foundfirstly, so that you've got
eyeballs on the website.
So uh you've got to lure them inin all different ways.
So we call it search everywhereoptimization, not search engine
optimization.
It's not just Google anymore.
People are researching withtheir preferred large language
models, so their AI, I useChatGPT to do a whole bunch of
(13:27):
research for a whole bunch ofthings.
I mean, it's like my personalpsychologist, some of the time.
It's uh I run everything throughit and conversations through it.
So that's what people are doing,and they're searching for whole
context, you know, sentences.
So it's a language, it's alanguage-based model, so it
understands the nuance of whatyou're saying.
Back in the day, we used tooptimize for say plumber
(13:49):
Melbourne or HVAC Melbourne orelectrician, um, wherever you
are, New York.
And uh, so the it should it'sfar more sophisticated than
that.
All the tools are trying to dothe same thing, and this is a
key um thing to understand.
They're all trying to surfacethe very best and type a
specific message for whensomeone's looking for a bit um
(14:12):
particular need.
Um, so you've got to publishthat information in a way that
all the platforms understand itand can surface it at when the
time's right.
And they're getting more andmore sophisticated with that.
So, whilst I said the websiteshould be clear, concise,
compelling, that's your mainsales pages, if you like, your
main core service pages.
But then behind the scenes, youwould have somewhere where you
(14:34):
can publish frequently and moresubstantial content.
And typically it might be blogor news or case studies where
you can really flesh outdetailed specifics of what you
do.
For example, I mean, there was afew weeks ago I had a leaking
toilet.
It was a real drama, as as thesethings can be when they're
emergency.
So I just jumped on chat GPT, Iwas having a discussion, how do
(14:54):
I fix this thing myself?
And a few different um solutionscame up, and I looked at them, I
couldn't figure it out.
I ended up um hiring the personwho gave the attempted solutions
uh who was local to me.
So that's how it is.
So people still need theservice, they might research it
uh before making a buyingdecision, but you need to be the
(15:16):
one where your brand shows upfor the at the right um at the
right time.
And for uh tradies, usuallythey're geographically bound,
they can only service thelocation that that they they're
in.
So that's good because it meansyou're not competing against the
whole world, you're justcompeting against those that are
in your in your town or yourcity.
SPEAKER_00 (15:36):
It's crazy to think about it regionally just like
that.
But I just got to give a shoutout to our boys over at
Thumbtack.
You could, I don't know for afact if Thumbtack's in
Australia, but if you're here inthe United States or Canada and
you've got a leaky toilet, youcan always reach out to
ThumbTaq, and there's a localpro willing to give you a shoot
(15:57):
you a price.
Four or five pros are going togive you a price real quick and
run out there and get your leakytoilet fixed.
But no, you're exactly right.
And you're talking about, youknow, things that most of the
audience doesn't evenunderstand, like the blog posts.
Uh, I had no idea.
I thought a blogger was somebodythat wrote about food.
(16:19):
Like I didn't have a clue whatthis meant until I have been
almost three years into this,learning by experience, and we
screwed up.
And you and and and I wanna Iwant to shed some light on this
because through our own websitecampaign, we do these blogs that
update the information for thebots to go find.
(16:40):
And at the same time, we onceyou it can be completely
relatable content, but ifthere's a term that um uh how do
I do this without losing youguys?
But if there's a term withinthat blog that the bots go and
find and really want, they canhone in on that and take your
website a different directionthat you don't even know is
(17:03):
happening in real time.
And but that blog and alwaysupdating real-time information.
What are you doing?
What happened in these threemonths?
It's so important to not justnumber one, have an effective
website that's clean to consumeto your eyeball on mobile, PC,
wherever it may be.
But at the same time, now thatwe've got you know that clean
(17:26):
and consumed information, we atthe same time want to be
effective with that informationback out into the marketplace,
or nobody's gonna find you.
You got to put that boat on somefish.
And so talk a little bit aboutyou know the blog process.
What are these guys sittingthere if they were to sign up
(17:48):
with some marketing company andthey got um their website
through, but now they're askedthey're being asked for
information about what happenedin the workplace this month.
And and you guys that aresitting in the blue-collar space
in the trade space, it's not,well, I fixed the Nudgum water
heater or I went over.
(18:08):
No, I worked on this projectthat actually has great public
ties that also works for theblog that is also getting posted
about.
You worked on that projectthat's so talked about in public
right now.
That's great for your website.
It's things like that.
But talk about a little bit ofthe mistakes that you see in
trying to get content out ofguys.
SPEAKER_01 (18:29):
Yeah, so that can be really challenging because a lot
of our clients they're they'restill on the tools.
Some of the the slightly biggerones will will be less on the
tools and have more availabilityto help us with some of the
ideas for the content.
But it's um, as you say,sometimes blog can be scary and
overwhelming, and what do wepublish and and all that kind of
stuff?
(18:50):
It's about setting up a a littlesequence of events that is
simple for you.
So we've got clients who wouldjust send their job sheets in,
they'll just say photograph, youknow, they've crudely written
notes of projects they'reworking on.
And from that, it's enoughinformation for us to understand
what it was, the location, whichis great to talk about the
location because it's good toshow up in Google and and the
(19:12):
like.
Um, but we can take that andmake a case study or a story or
example out of it.
So it all of a sudden we'reunderstanding exactly what they
do from a day-to-day basis.
Now, some people might saythat's pretty boring
information.
Well, it might be for mostpeople, but it's not if you have
a specific need.
And the tools, Google willsurface the very um precise and
(19:36):
best information to the rightpeople at the right time.
They're only reading theinformation that's relevant to
them.
So Google and the other toolslove fresh, unique content added
regularly to your websitebecause it's just a signal to
them to suggest you're still inbusiness, you're still trading,
you're still relevant.
So it's a clue to them thatyou're you're uh vibrant and
happening business.
(19:57):
So that's how yeah, that's oneof the ways we do it.
Some Another client he videosprojects as he's working on
them.
So he'll in his truck, heshouldn't probably be doing
this.
I don't know, I won't say who itis, but he'll be videoing what
he's doing and explaining whyhe's doing it and the benefits
and what the client's trying toachieve and the location he's
he's serving and all that kindof stuff.
(20:18):
He's a pretty rough and uhrugged kind of individual.
He's he's got swearing and allsorts in these videos.
He publishes them on YouTube.
It's fine for his target marketuh for what he does.
But um, from those, thetranscripts, we can rework them
using AI, of course, to writethem into um blog posts and
content for his website.
(20:39):
And he's doing phenomenally welljust by slightly adjusting his
processes and and capturing someof that stuff so we can make the
most of the opportunities.
SPEAKER_00 (20:49):
We need more people like him and like myself that
are willing to stick a cameraout there on our job sites.
Um, and the benefits he'sprobably seeing from that is the
same benefits that I walkedinto.
Um, that I was like, man, thisis nuts.
Why why isn't everybody doingthis?
And it's it's probably funny foryou, Wes.
You you literally hand them thekey, 95% of the key.
(21:14):
All they have to do is stick itin the lock and do some work,
and they'd have a full-blownmarketing program.
But a lot of them, it's thatfear that I was talking about.
But you hit on something um thatI want to bring up, and I think
it was search everywhereoptimization or everyone?
SPEAKER_01 (21:32):
Everywhere, yeah.
Scary, isn't it?
Everywhere is a lot, a lot ofplaces.
SPEAKER_00 (21:37):
Well, you're you're right, it is.
But what a lot of our audience,my audience sitting out here
right now, is probably thinking,well, you know, I use Google, I
use Chat GPT, but you guys thatare sitting there listening, how
often do you go to YouTube?
How often do you go to TikTokand go, how to, I'm telling you,
I do it all the time.
(21:58):
How to do this, how to do that.
I'm going to YouTube before I'mgoing to Google, although uh,
you know, YouTube boasts backinto Google, but there's other
places that we're we're nowdeveloping um past Google, and
Google was our one-stop shop.
But you're right, we've got allthese AI resources.
But before we get into the AIconversation, speaking about
(22:22):
search everywhere optimization,because what I need to explain
to you guys from our terms isthat we've got a website.
Well, that's cool, but we needto spider web it.
It's a huge web for you to linkup on Google.
And correct me if I'm wronghere, Wes, but essentially
(22:42):
Google and everything andeverywhere will go through and
crawl your website, or they'llgo crawl your TikTok, and
they'll see a little bit overhere on LinkedIn.
And then, oh, here's a Facebookand Instagram meta post.
And oh man, they're all talkingabout pipeline.
Okay, this might be a pipelineguy.
(23:03):
And we've got to get past thosebots in order to even get
ourselves in front of a naturalnaked human eye to be able to
consume our information.
And you have to consistently,consistently post, but not just
on your website.
While you're gathering thatinformation for your website,
guys, post it other places,revitalize that content.
(23:27):
Because literally, as Wes wouldprobably agree here, getting
guys like myself to provideconsistent, measurable content
is probably one of the biggeststruggles you have as a
marketing guy because we don'twe think we don't have time to
be doing that.
Well, I've got this, I've gotthat, I've got this.
(23:48):
And I know you've probablybroken some molds, but now you
get, you know, that guy thatcomes in and we're working on
the website.
How do you start explaining pastwhat I just did in a very brief
uh Neanderthal way of searcheverywhere optimization?
How do they start?
(24:08):
You know, if they wanted tostart posting on TikTok or
YouTube, how are they beingeffective with their website as
well?
SPEAKER_01 (24:15):
Yeah, absolutely.
So everywhere, as I said, it's alot of places and that and
that's the perfect, the ideal.
But sometimes done is betterthan perfect.
So it's a matter of choosingsome action steps that you can
actually apply and you've gotthe time to do.
The video piece is oftendifficult just because people
are reluctant to be behindcameras and and so on and and
(24:36):
that kind of stuff.
As I said before, that guy whoswears through his videos,
they're they're rough videos,they don't have to be as
polished as what some peoplemight think they need to be.
They just need to showauthentically what what you do
and what you're about.
And it's that so you startpeople can start to understand
who you are.
And um, some people might likeyou, some people might not, and
(24:57):
that's perfectly fine.
That's just the nature ofthings.
But those that are brave enoughto really take that step to take
video, that's awesome.
If you're not, what we're oftendoing is we'll write for the
blog based on some form ofinformation, job sheets,
whatever it is that theyprovide, write some content, and
then what can happen is that caneasily be repurposed and
syndicated through social media.
(25:18):
There's tools that will allowyou to do the one, you know,
post it once, but it'll uh go toall your platforms.
So um Publer is the one we oftenuse, uh, which is really great.
And the reason we like Publar isbecause it will publish to your
Google profile as well.
A lot of these tools that uhsyndicate out the social media,
(25:38):
they don't often use they theydon't often integrate with
Google, or at least to myknowledge, they don't.
They didn't when we we made theselection.
So um it's really great.
Google Love anything that'sGoogle, and still Google is the
biggest um source of traffic towebsites typically.
So publishing on Google's ownplatform is really helpful.
(25:59):
And and because you set all youraccounts up in that one place,
you just set it up, you justpublish it once and it goes
everywhere.
It's super simple.
Um, it is time.
Some of our clients have like amarketing manager and or uh at
least someone looking afterthat, so they can take care of
that themselves.
Others might rely upon us.
It's a matter of us fitting inwith how they work and what
(26:22):
capabilities they have in-house.
I think as founder-ledbusinesses, the the thing is to
remember you don't need to doeverything yourself.
You can rely on experts, but youdo need to have a basic
understanding so you can selectthe appropriate people for the
appropriate tasks.
Otherwise, you might be led downthe garden path.
Unfortunately, every industryhas some rogues, and marketing
(26:44):
is certainly one of thoseindustries where there's rogues
and you could be um spending awhole lot of money for little
results.
So uh just get an understandingof the basics so you can make a
good selection.
SPEAKER_00 (26:54):
I think that's that's such a good piece of
advice.
Yeah, educate yourself.
Um, don't wait, would be thebiggest thing for me.
Um, I waited too long, and youguys are probably sitting there
going, like, what do you mean,Cy?
You're you're kind of ahead ofthe curve.
You got this podcast, you gotthe YouTube channel for the
(27:15):
construction.
You you you're you're all over.
No, I'm telling you, if I knewwhat I knew now, three years
into this, I would have startedyear two.
I would have probably startedsix months into this.
I just had a guy um shout out toCole Morse.
He was on here three weeks ago,and he started a YouTube channel
(27:35):
up.
He was his daddy owns a HVACcompany, has for 25 years, was
destined to take it over, was amaster HVAC tech, and he
decided, no, I'm done with this.
I'm just gonna go buy someequipment and start up an
excavation company.
And he documented every processand step along the way and was
very transparent.
(27:55):
But there's not everybody outthere in the world as open and
transparent as, say, Cole is,but telling your story is such a
huge piece, is where I'm goingwith this, guys, is that it's
really not that hard in the raw,organic, authentic, non-produced
content.
We're all for in the last 10years, it's just so crazy.
(28:19):
And you, Wes, you can probablymention on this more than I can,
but the transition of whatconsuming of the content has
been, we all wanted thisproduced content.
We wanted to see this flashy.
And and don't get me wrong, westill have our channels that we
we like that overproduce contentwith, but it's very particular.
(28:40):
Now, you'll probably not evennotice.
But if you were to pull up yoursocial media right now, three
out of the five or ten peoplethat you follow are raw and
organic people that are justtelling their story through
life.
Do the same.
You and and and yes, there needsto be some type of
(29:01):
professionalism to it if you'regonna put your company a part of
it.
But you get if it's yourcompany, you get to have that
measurable line of where youcan't cross over and where you
can.
But number one thing is justfreaking start telling your
story and find somebody like Wesor Ike or anybody that has been
(29:24):
on the show here that can helpyou navigate through this
process because you needstrategy, you need a plan.
And before you can get to theresults of SEO and all the
things that we're talking about,but there is tools, there is
tools out there like ChatGPT,like Grok, that can literally
go, you can type in there, guys.
(29:45):
I'm telling you, you can do itright now as you're listening to
me.
Give me a crash course 101 onmarketing and website building
and read that information.
Then go to Google, then go toYouTube, then go just educate
yourself.
Now I get it.
All of that information isn'tjust 100% verified information,
but you can at least start towalk yourself through a
(30:08):
navigable path that you can havean educated discussion with Wes
about the plan and strategy ofyour content moving forward.
But number one spot is thatwebsite.
And circling back to that, Wes,is that AI, man, I I want I want
to hear your opinion.
You've been in this 20 years,you've been in it since a
(30:30):
dial-up connection.
And there's some some of uh theaudience members that don't even
know what that is.
I'll never forget that tone therest of my life.
But there's a lot of people thatdon't understand how quickly
this is all changing.
It's and and just in the lasttwo decades up to this point.
But now with AI, the things thatyou can do, you know, Publer, I
(30:53):
think you mentioned, you know,that's there's all forms of it.
Post one place, go to eightplaces, whatever it may be.
But talk a little bit about theAI and optimizing in the
processes that you're doing forthese guys in the tradies and
the skilled trade space.
SPEAKER_01 (31:09):
Yeah, well, it with any new tech, it can feel a
little bit overwhelming, andthat's for everybody.
And so um, what I would say ifyou know what if people haven't
started at all in AI, I wouldsay just get ChatGPT, pay the$20
or whatever it is uh to get thebetter version and just start
using it, and you'll soonrealize what the potential
(31:30):
capabilities are for yourbusiness.
I mean, I've got clients whohave helped um use Chat GPT
whilst they're between jobs, sothey'll be in a car driving to
the next job.
We just help them with some uhdiscussion points that they can
have with ChatGPT to write ablog post.
So we'll we'll say we'll givethem some guidance and so what
(31:50):
all you do, and it's supersimple, say because you can s
you can talk to ChatGPT, the thevoice one, and you say, Hey, hey
Chat GPT, help me write a blogpost about the project I've just
done.
Ask me question by question uhso you've got enough to write a
great blog post.
And and it'll say, Yeah, it'llsay something like, Okay, tell
me about the project, and you'llsay, I was just on this uh
(32:12):
plumbing project, and I weneeded to find the the cracked
pipe and blah blah blah.
And it was in uh Belmont Geelongand blah blah blah.
And it'll ask, AN, okay, andwhat was the outcome and what
caused the problem?
And it'll ask a few questions toflesh out a fully fledged blog
post.
So by the time you get towherever you're going, there's a
fully written blog post.
(32:33):
And the beauty of that is it'sall your information.
So some people do it the otherway around.
They'll just go to a tool likeChatGebray and say, hey, write
me an article because I needcontent, write me an article
about plumbing.
And it's generic and bland, andit's not anything new because
all it's doing is pulling ininformation from everywhere and
collating it in it into aperceived new piece, but it's
(32:54):
not really new, it's just acollation of other people's
ideas.
But if you go the opposite wayand you're feeding it the ideas
about the project you've justdone, you'll have a blog post
written before you get to evenyour next job site.
And you can just flick that toyour marketer to get it
published into your website.
From that, it can be repurposedinto uh social media posts and
(33:15):
it can be syndicated out.
It's not as difficult as whatpeople might think.
Once you start to use some ofthese AI tools, it's pretty
exciting.
And as you touched on before,real beat's perfect.
So just get the stuff producedand happening.
You want the your message to bean exact match of who your team
are when they show up.
If it's super polished and youknow, professional and clean and
(33:37):
elegant and all that kind ofstuff and uses big words, and
then your guys show up on siteto do the project, there's a
mismatch, or you know, they'regonna think something's not
quite right with this fit.
It's not genuine, it's notauthentic, it's not real, it's
not raw like these guys are.
We we trust the guys that haveshown up on site, but it doesn't
feel like who we were intendingon hiring.
(33:58):
So getting past all those fearsof not being as polished as we
need to be, you've got to breakbreak those um mindsets and and
move forward and and use AI inthe most simple way, just like I
described.
It's super simple.
SPEAKER_00 (34:11):
No, I um I can't tell you how many times I've
preached it to my team thisyear, um, especially my
marketing, my marketing contentcreator guy.
ChatGPT every single day makessome type of prompt in ChatGPT.
I don't care what it is, ask ita question, tell me some
(34:31):
information.
And here's a here's another wayto use ChatGPT.
Just before I do these podcasts,I want a background.
And if I literally, I'll do itfor you guys that are watching
right now.
I've got it pulled up and Iasked, hey, Chat GPT, verify the
information about Mr.
West Towers across the world andmake sure I under have a good
(34:52):
understanding of Uplift 360.
And it gave me every bulletpoint, everything he's been
focused on in the last 20 years,and gave me a description.
So if you're going into ameeting, okay, I know we're
getting a little off here ofmarketing, but if you're going
up to a meeting and you knowthis gentleman or uh this lady
happens to be somebody big inthe marketplace, has a lot of
(35:15):
money, whatever the case may be,and you're a little bit nervous
about interacting with them, askChat GPT about them.
Give me a quick intro aboutthese people and how they relate
to my business.
And you mentioned earlier, Iknow this is going a little off
here in the weeds, guys, but ifyou do pay that$20 or whatever
it is, uh subscription fee, it'sa language learning model.
(35:39):
So it's always learning.
As you're using this tool, it'slearning.
So that next blog post that youanswered all the questions,
there may be one step that itmay use your business name.
And you're like, well, how's italready know my business name?
Well, you put it in there thelast time.
And and it'll start picking upon generalities and averages and
(35:59):
start asking you differentquestions because it's already
learned that knowledge andalready has that knowledge.
So you're always um, I wouldsuggest if you're going to start
using some type of AI, build anaccount and it will start
learning.
I can't tell you how many timesthat I've gone up to a meeting,
use Chat GPT.
Hey, give me a brief descriptionof who they are, their
(36:22):
background, and it will sitthere and spit out without me
asking how SciCon could bebeneficial with this partner or
client or customer or whateverit may be, how this may be
beneficial, or it may becompletely opposite ends of the
spectrum.
But ChatGPT from the marketingstandpoint, oh my gosh, the
(36:43):
amount of things that it can beused for.
From, you know, a lot of thismarketing journalism thing,
pardon me, was research.
And you've got to go find all ofthis information.
Now I can literally ask it intomy phone, it's gonna bring me 10
times that information, 100times that information within
seconds back to my phone that Ican turn around, reuse,
(37:08):
repurpose, or align with what Iwas going to say and make myself
sound completely different orprofessional.
And that's the other thing withChatGPT.
You can literally tell it theemotions you want it to have.
Hey, I want to respond to I'vetyped emails, copy and pasted
emails.
I want to respond to this inmore of a passive-aggressive
(37:30):
tone.
I want to be more aggressive, Iwant to say this kindly.
How do I backhandedly say this?
Hey, you should have done thisand this wouldn't have happened.
And it will professionallywrite, like if you struggle
writing emails, it will respondto every damn email for you
guys.
Like the administrationpotential that Chat GPT and all
(37:50):
these AIs have excels.
You guys, if you're like me, whocan't put an Excel spreadsheet
together to save your life, youcan put the information and data
and say, hey, put this in anExcel spreadsheet that I can
share with my team with theseformulas.
It will do it all.
But from the marketingperspective, gathering
information, gathering the blogpost, gathering, you're you're
(38:12):
exactly right, Wes.
You can sit there and go, hey,question for question.
And I and I love that that yousaid that because a lot of these
guys are just completelyintimidated by, oh, I don't even
know where to start.
But literally ask me questionfor question.
And if you can answer yourquestion, you can write a blog
post.
SPEAKER_01 (38:29):
Yeah.
And you touch on somethingreally interesting too.
There's there's nowhere to hideanymore.
So you've really got to lookafter your brand and your your
reputation.
So just like you did for me.
I mean, if I had a criminalrecord or did something dodgy in
my past, it'd probably show up,wouldn't it?
So you've got to really lookafter the clients you're serving
because these days, and sothat's great.
(38:50):
I mean, people listening topodcasts like this, they're
gonna be quality people becausethey're always looking to
improve and enhance what they'redoing.
But every industry has rogues,we we know that.
So they're doing dodgy things.
The good news is they're goingto be discovered, they're gonna
be exposed by AI um these days.
So making sure you deliver aquality outcome and and uh and
(39:13):
uh making sure your brand is inin solid uh uh uh position all
the time, it'll it'll uh serveyou really well.
SPEAKER_00 (39:20):
I think you also touched on something in the
marketing space that a lot ofpeople skip over is the brand
itself.
Like, is it presentable?
Does it have purpose?
What is the meaning?
What is the color palette?
Does it match your t-shirts?
Does it match your trucks?
Is it a different color?
Like all of those things, whenyou're trying to bring awareness
(39:41):
to a brand, it has to be thesame on every touch point that
they see, whether it be a socialmedia post, whether it be your
website, whether it be your guyis standing in line at the gas
station, or it be one of yourpickups or machines or whatever
it may be running down the road,it all has to.
Be connotative to the eye to beable to consume and go, Oh, I
(40:04):
know those pipe guys or dirtguys.
There was this one company I'veseen a couple of times.
Yeah, let's call them.
And that's what happens.
But like my marketing techniquebrings me this brand guide.
And I'm like, what in the hellis that?
And he's like, Listen, if you'regonna post anything, this is the
(40:24):
specific two or three logos thatyou're gonna use.
And here's the files and here'swhy.
And he laid it out in a brandguide.
And I am literally gonna gothrough a rant rebranding.
We're in our 10th year ofbusiness.
We started in 2016.
August of 26 will be our full 10years of business, long,
(40:45):
grueling mistakes filled andsuccess filled at the same
point.
But we're gonna go through alittle bit of rebranding.
And I just want you guys to knowback to a testament, and I hope
you can touch on this too, Wes,is that when you get started,
yes, it is important.
The brand is huge, but my brandat SciCon has three iterations
(41:06):
around the original brand.
It can be worked, it can beshaved, it can be reworked, it
can be rebranded, it can be sodon't get caught up.
In my opinion, Wes, you may becompletely different.
But for me, guys, the brand fromthe get-go doesn't have to be
this crazy redone thing.
Reach out.
I mean, ChatGPT can almost buildyou a logo nowadays.
(41:29):
I'm not gonna go there.
I know that's probably blasphemyto you, Wes, but at the same
time, um use it as a resource.
Don't get so caught up that it'sgotta be super perfect.
You gotta actually start runningsome revenue, that brand
awareness as you start on thismarketing campaign.
Get with somebody like Wes thathas the experience and go, hey
(41:51):
man, you've got a really goodstart.
Let me start shaving and honingand actually really channeling
this in and let an expert do itrather than you, so you can go
out there and lay that pipe, runthat wire, run that concrete,
whatever it may be, and make anextra dollar while somebody else
is actually putting their brainpower to it.
SPEAKER_01 (42:11):
Yeah, that's it.
And so something like a visualbrand, so that your logo is one
of the key pillars for that.
You really do want to get thatright because it's ex it can be
expensive to change it in thefuture because you know, if
you're printing it on youruniforms and your vehicles and
your signs and uh everywhereelse that you put it, you know,
(42:31):
it also takes time to change iton all your social media and and
everything.
So it's it's ideal not to cheapout on that.
The the good thing with AI forso branding is the visual
aspect, but also the way inwhich it communicates.
And so over the years, thebigger brands would have like a
style guide for their writing,so everything's precisely
written in a certain style allthe time.
(42:54):
Copywriters really had achallenge with that.
Some of these documents werequite lengthy, so they would
read it, understand it, and itwas so detailed that they would
start writing and soon forgetwhat the style guide said.
But with Chat GPT and other uhtools, you can just use the
style guide as a prompt to say,hey, tidy this up to make sure
(43:14):
it's on the style guide and onbrand.
So getting those foundations inplace that you can just reuse um
with AI, it's it's it's magicthese days.
SPEAKER_00 (43:24):
It really is, man.
It's uh it's incredible thecompounding measures that AI has
just eliminated touch points tofrom you know a customer like
myself to you using somebodylike this.
And there's such a stigma aroundmarketing that we've got to
(43:45):
break because sales is reallyeasy when you market.
And most of these guys that cometo you, uh, timing is probably
one of the largest pieces of thepuzzle for you.
Because yeah, you're right, itcould be re-expensive if you do
go with a cheaper logo and thenyou've got to rebrand.
(44:05):
And yeah, no, absolutely there'scost to that.
I ask everybody on the show, Mr.
West, um, number one, where canwe go and find you?
SPEAKER_01 (44:14):
Uh Uplift360.com, I would assume.com.au being an
Aussie website,uplift360.com.au.
And from there, all the socialmedia you'll find on the on the
website.
And even if people are curious,they can book a book a meeting
with me, a strategy call.
So happy, happy to chat withanyone.
Being a digital online business,I can uh serve anyone around the
(44:35):
globe.
SPEAKER_00 (44:36):
Blue collar performance marketing's passion
is to bring attention to thehonest work done in blue-collar
industries through effectiveresults-driven marketing
tactics.
They specialize in comprehensivedigital marketing services from
paid advertising on Google andFacebook to website development
and content strategy.
I started working with Ike andthe team earlier this year, and
they've had a huge impact on ourspecific marketing campaign and
(44:59):
trajectory of our overallcompany.
Their expertise in digital admanagement, website development,
social media, and overallmarketing strategy has been an
absolute game changer for oursales and marketing at SciCon.
If you're looking to work with amarketing team who does what
they say, does it well, and isalways looking for ways to help
your company grow, book adiscovery call with Ike by going
(45:21):
to bcperformance marketing.combackslash BCB podcast, or click
the link in the show notes slashdescription below.
Thanks, guys.
Sitting here in Arkansas,speaking a day behind where they
are in Australia.
It's just crazy.
Um, but I do ask one lastquestion here, no matter what
part of the uh world of theindustry that you are in, but
(45:45):
what's the key takeaway forthese guys?
The blue-collar worker, thattrade, that skilled trades guy
who's just sick and tired ofbeing stuck in the mud mentally,
physically, emotionally, readyto find the next step.
SPEAKER_01 (45:59):
Yeah, so I would say just take some time to reflect
on the vision of your businessand to write write that vision
down so you can run with it intothe new year and have team
members support you in that.
Because once things are clearer,marketing becomes easy, your
message becomes easier.
And to remember that real beatsperfect, just to get your
(46:22):
message out there.
No one needs a super polishedversion of you, they just need
you the authentic you and toknow that you're gonna deliver
on what they need.
So it's as simple as that,really.
SPEAKER_00 (46:32):
No, that's perfectly said, man.
It's absolutely perfectly said.
Well, I really appreciate youjoining us today for a different
type of marketing conversation,a challenging one at that.
And to give these guys arealistic lens as to what they
may be facing, you're right.
It isn't as complicated as it'smade to be.
(46:54):
And uh with experience as as youhave, um it can be shown through
very easily and get this processdone.
Now, there is some work that yougot to do, just like in anything
else, guys.
So don't think you can justmagically spruce it up.
There's questions, there's timespent to get this up and
running.
But once you get it up andrunning, it gets a lot easier.
(47:15):
I will tell you that.
Get it started, get itimplemented, and then from
there, things can uh the blogpost, don't let any of that
scare you.
That's a little on down thetracks, but it's all coming down
the pipe for you guys.
But number one, get started.
Reach out to somebody.
If not, reach over to Wes atUplift360.com.au and get you a
(47:37):
free strategy session call, getyou at least talking with Mr.
Wes and maybe pointing you inthe right direction.
Um, Mr.
Wes, thank you so much for yourtime today.
I really appreciate you comingon and joining uh the audience
and and and sharing yourpersonal insights and and your
professional background to getwhere you're at, because it's
super important that these guysunderstand that there's people
(47:59):
out there willing to sit there,ready to take their questions
and their answers, and umappreciate everything you do.
SPEAKER_01 (48:06):
Thanks, uh, it's been a real pleasure being on
the show and looking forward tostaying connected on the
socials.
SPEAKER_00 (48:11):
For sure, my guy.
Until next time, guys, you besafe out there.
If you've enjoyed this episode,be sure to give it a like, share
it with the fellas, check outour website to send us any
questions and comments aboutyour experience in the blue
collar business.
Who do you want to hear from?
Send them our way, and we'll doour best to answer any questions
you may have.
(48:32):
Till next time, guys.
Hey guys, welcome to the Blue Collar Business Podcast
where we discuss the realest,rawest, most relevant stories
and strategies behind buildingevery corner of a blue-collar
business.
I'm your host, Cy Kirby, and Iwant to help you with what it
took me, trial and error, and awhole lot of money to learn.
The information that no one inthis industry is willing to
share.
Whether you're under that shadetree or have your hard hat on,
(00:30):
let's expand your toolbox.
Welcome back, guys, to anotherepisode of the Blue Collar
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If you've owned your craft andyou care about results and
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(00:53):
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Let them know that I sent youfrom the Blue Collar Business
Podcast, wherever you're joiningus from today.
(01:14):
Thank you guys so much fortuning in for another weekly
episode.
Today we are going to be headingoff down in the marketing lane,
guys.
So any of you guys that arelistening to the show and you're
like, man, I don't know how inthe world this guy started
podcasting.
He ain't very good at it, but Ilisten anyways because he gives
me good information.
(01:35):
How did this guy start thisYouTube channel?
How did this guy I am nobodydifferent than you guys?
I am flat out telling you, Ijust started one day, and it's
because of people like my guestthat have led me along the way
and guided me from a perspectiveof, hey, I don't know what I'm
doing here.
This is super foreign to me.
(01:55):
Help me out.
And this gentleman is all theway across uh we well, I guess
we say it across the pond, butit's a different pond.
It's a much longer pond fromAustralia.
And this gentleman has beenworking with us as us as
blue-collar businesses, uh,trades, skilled trades, or
tradees um uh over in Australia.
(02:17):
He's built a company with ano-nonsense approach, giving you
results and looking andanalyzing them with you.
Oh, he is the founder of Uplift360, and they specialize in
websites and just specialize inSEO built upon those websites.
We're gonna get off into thenitty-gritties of that, and
(02:38):
hopefully some of the thingsthat I struggle with, and and uh
nobody else better to join ustoday than um Mr.
West Towers.
Thank you so much for joining ussuper early tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01 (02:49):
Yeah, coming coming at you from the future here in
Australia.
So uh that's fantastic toconnect with you.
So I've listened to a few ofyour episodes already, and uh it
feels and just to pick up yourheart on on, and it feels like
we're really aligned in a wholelot of ways, obviously in the in
the people that we speak to, butobviously um you pick up when
you listen to your heart and uhfor the authenticity.
(03:11):
So uh that's what I I really amexcited about this podcast and
and um speaking through someideas that I might have.
SPEAKER_00 (03:19):
I'm really excited to have you.
Um, you know, there's such astigma in the trades with
marketing in general.
Um, I think it comes from aplace 100% I'll speak on my
place, not for anybody sittinglistening today, but it comes
from a place of ignorance andmaybe a little bit of fear at
(03:39):
the same time.
And when you mix those two,you're never gonna really per uh
walk into any type of limelightin that regard because of the
fear.
Um, but the marketingperspective, I would love for
you to kind of tell us uh alittle bit of the background and
where you came from, why youstarted working with us
(04:02):
blue-collar guys to begin with,or tradies over there.
I I love that term, as you guyswill hear me say multiple times
today.
But um talk about a little bitof the background from why you
you jumped, you know, and wantedto start working with us.
Uh, and number two, theimportance uh coming from that
background of some things you'velearned along the way to get to
(04:24):
the where you're at now.
SPEAKER_01 (04:26):
Yeah, so a lot of people make the assumption that
I started in some as a trading,but I I did it.
Uh it was just that I started myuh digital agency after working
in marketing uh for other otherpeople and and my uh winning
clients, and I did anything andeverything for everybody
initially just because you knowyou kind of have to.
And I was totally naive tobusiness and uh, you know,
(04:49):
client, you know, clientmeetings and talking to people
and uh doing proposals and youknow, quotes and bookkeeping and
all this kind of stuff I didn'treally understand.
So I came in really naive, but Ihad a skill set to build
websites and to optimize them.
But I soon realized that thepeople I connected best with
were tradies, and I think it wasbecause they're really
(05:10):
practical, pragmatic, hands,hands-on uh people.
Um, they say what they mean,they mean what they say, and I
I'm sort of that same way.
I don't like to use jargon toomuch, and I just like to keep it
down to worth and practical.
And so that's why I kind ofnaturally connected with these
types of people.
And so uh that's where I tookthe business.
(05:30):
And it's it's been an excitingride, a roller coaster ride in
some ways, and things arecertainly changing fast with AI
and and what we're doing onlinethese days.
So I've always said it feelslike an industry that changes so
fast, and if I stopped for onemoment to pick it up again, it
would be difficult.
But man, the last few years beencrazy exciting.
SPEAKER_00 (05:50):
So the when did you so you worked for a couple
other, I'm assuming, were theyblue-collar-based businesses in
the marketing perspective backthen, or were they just kind of
different industries altogether?
SPEAKER_01 (06:05):
Just a hybrid of of uh businesses.
My first um employment in in themarketing space, they uh I was a
fresh new employee and theynever designed a website.
So they had one computerconnected to a dial up modem,
and they uh they won a projectto design a website and said
they said, You're right, you'rethe young guy, you better figure
(06:26):
out how to build this site.
So I found it was the perfectblend of the creative and the
technical, and and it workedreally well for me.
So from there I became their webguy and and eventually started
my own business um doing what wedo.
SPEAKER_00 (06:40):
So websites are the number one point for you guys to
start with.
Um, you want to know how thesemedia campaigns take off, you
want to know how this marketingperspective, it's all great when
you have you're buildingawareness around something.
And um, as you guys know, in acouple of previous episodes, I
(07:02):
talk about this marketing coneor this lead cone that is
basically this giant top bracketof awareness that travels down
to consideration into leads intoconversions.
But I noticed so many peoplewant to start a campaign, and I
was guilty of this.
You know, I had zero strategywhen I started this.
(07:22):
I can admit that.
I have not a freaking clue.
I'm a dad gum blue-collar pipeguy.
Why am I on YouTube?
Why am I messing around withthis?
And I was confused with theresults because I didn't even
know where to start.
I had zero strategy, but I juststarted doing content.
And as you know, Wes, a lot ofpeople, um, that's completely
(07:43):
backwards from actually the wayto do it.
You have a marketing strategy,you go grab content for that
marketing strategy and you buildupon it.
So I entered the game a littlebackwards.
Um, didn't think that my websitetruly, when I started YouTube or
any any of this media sector,uh, I didn't have the
recognizable thought that, oh, Ineed to have somewhere to send
(08:07):
these people.
I need to be able to tell themwho I am, I need to be able to
show them what I can do from thebusiness perspective, right?
And so when I started thiscontent, I I figured out about
four or five minutes in, I'mlike, I need to send these guys
somewhere.
So we had a very basic, basicbutter, three-page contact us
(08:31):
here.
We've got a website, and we cansay we've got a website.
But was it doing any type ofgood?
Was there was no SEO, there wasno word plug, there was no none
of that.
I had no clue.
But talk about the importance ofa call to action website and
what are these guys, you know,everybody's trying to sell them
(08:52):
a website right now.
Everybody is, because you know,AI halfway builds them for you.
But maybe talk about theimportance of a website and what
makes a good website for ablue-collar business that you've
seen success with.
SPEAKER_01 (09:05):
Yeah, well, if you can be really it's not as uh
confusing as it as sometimespeople like me might make it
sound.
It's uh you've got to be reallyclear and concise and compelling
with your messaging.
So because no one's readingevery word on your website, so
they're just picking up a senseof what you do.
So I I think it all starts witha vision.
(09:25):
So you've got to write thevision down, otherwise, how are
you going to forward projectinto what you want to be?
So get getting really clear withum who you are and what uh
differentiates you as a businessas opposed to the other people
within your uh location.
Um, those key points ofdifference are really what you
need to make highlighted in yourwebsite.
(09:48):
So it's all about the messageand sharing a message in a
clear, concise, compelling way.
So people can take action.
They can go, right, this is theperfect fit for me, or it's not.
There's no there's no problemswith people deciding once
they've read your materialonline that that you're not a
good fit.
That's that's great.
They've self-selected.
But those that are drawn to youare going to be ideal uh for
(10:10):
your target market.
So it's not really all thatcomplicated.
It starts with writing downexactly who you want to be, who
you are now as a businessleader, because your business is
a reflection of who you are,your personal values, your
convictions, what matters toyou.
It might be quite different toyour competitors.
So you need to draw upon thoseideas and the vision and get
(10:31):
really specific in your contentso people can make a decision
when they come across it.
SPEAKER_00 (10:36):
No, I think that's that's a fantastic point.
And when you've got to tell whoyou are, storytelling is
everything.
That's every that's literallythe key to content creation is
telling your story.
But you know, telling your storyon a website nowadays, nobody's
hardly reading anything.
It's all about videos.
(10:57):
You have to have a little bit ofvideo integration because that's
how people consume content,whether that's uh about us
video, what whatever it may be.
But with these websites, I haveon my early years, you know,
during that time, four or fivemonths into this marketing
campaign.
I'm like, man, I've reallygotta, I've really gotta up my
(11:20):
website game.
And so I went to, you know, agentleman like yourself, Wes.
I've been through threemarketing guys to to land where
I'm at right now.
And I went to the first guy, andI'm like, hey man, I've really
got to do something.
I know you do websites, make mea nicer website.
I need it flashy, I need it, Ineed all the things, you know.
(11:42):
I need, I need to be catchingevery eye.
And what I didn't understand,Wes, and I hope you can talk a
little bit more on, is that Iknow this by experience that
there's two types of marketing.
There is the results-driven guy,the analytics guy, the guy that
cares about what's the messageactually doing.
(12:02):
And then there's the creativetype that can build these flashy
websites, maybe the best-lookingthing once you find it, but you
you may be a fisherman droppinga line straight down in a bucket
of ocean and have the prettiestlure, but you no fish are around
to see the lure.
You got to put your boat on somefish.
(12:23):
And so um that's where that youknow creative mindset to the
results-driven mindset is.
Talk a little bit about thedifference of maybe working with
Uplift 360 about theresults-driven mindset compared
to that just flashy creative.
Need a little bit of that, butit's not the full concentration.
SPEAKER_01 (12:42):
Yeah, so oftentimes less is more, really, with the
creative.
So the message is what needs tosing and needs to be presented
in a professional manner, soit's easy to consume on multiple
devices.
Obviously, everyone on theirmobile or their cell phone and
uh and PCs as well, andeverywhere in between.
Um, so the the design should bethere to support the message,
(13:06):
but getting found is the keything.
So you've got to get foundfirstly, so that you've got
eyeballs on the website.
So uh you've got to lure them inin all different ways.
So we call it search everywhereoptimization, not search engine
optimization.
It's not just Google anymore.
People are researching withtheir preferred large language
models, so their AI, I useChatGPT to do a whole bunch of
(13:27):
research for a whole bunch ofthings.
I mean, it's like my personalpsychologist, some of the time.
It's uh I run everything throughit and conversations through it.
So that's what people are doing,and they're searching for whole
context, you know, sentences.
So it's a language, it's alanguage-based model, so it
understands the nuance of whatyou're saying.
Back in the day, we used tooptimize for say plumber
(13:49):
Melbourne or HVAC Melbourne orelectrician, um, wherever you
are, New York.
And uh, so the it should it'sfar more sophisticated than
that.
All the tools are trying to dothe same thing, and this is a
key um thing to understand.
They're all trying to surfacethe very best and type a
specific message for whensomeone's looking for a bit um
(14:12):
particular need.
Um, so you've got to publishthat information in a way that
all the platforms understand itand can surface it at when the
time's right.
And they're getting more andmore sophisticated with that.
So, whilst I said the websiteshould be clear, concise,
compelling, that's your mainsales pages, if you like, your
main core service pages.
But then behind the scenes, youwould have somewhere where you
(14:34):
can publish frequently and moresubstantial content.
And typically it might be blogor news or case studies where
you can really flesh outdetailed specifics of what you
do.
For example, I mean, there was afew weeks ago I had a leaking
toilet.
It was a real drama, as as thesethings can be when they're
emergency.
So I just jumped on chat GPT, Iwas having a discussion, how do
(14:54):
I fix this thing myself?
And a few different um solutionscame up, and I looked at them, I
couldn't figure it out.
I ended up um hiring the personwho gave the attempted solutions
uh who was local to me.
So that's how it is.
So people still need theservice, they might research it
uh before making a buyingdecision, but you need to be the
(15:16):
one where your brand shows upfor the at the right um at the
right time.
And for uh tradies, usuallythey're geographically bound,
they can only service thelocation that that they they're
in.
So that's good because it meansyou're not competing against the
whole world, you're justcompeting against those that are
in your in your town or yourcity.
SPEAKER_00 (15:36):
It's crazy to think about it regionally just like
that.
But I just got to give a shoutout to our boys over at
Thumbtack.
You could, I don't know for afact if Thumbtack's in
Australia, but if you're here inthe United States or Canada and
you've got a leaky toilet, youcan always reach out to
ThumbTaq, and there's a localpro willing to give you a shoot
(15:57):
you a price.
Four or five pros are going togive you a price real quick and
run out there and get your leakytoilet fixed.
But no, you're exactly right.
And you're talking about, youknow, things that most of the
audience doesn't evenunderstand, like the blog posts.
Uh, I had no idea.
I thought a blogger was somebodythat wrote about food.
(16:19):
Like I didn't have a clue whatthis meant until I have been
almost three years into this,learning by experience, and we
screwed up.
And you and and and I wanna Iwant to shed some light on this
because through our own websitecampaign, we do these blogs that
update the information for thebots to go find.
(16:40):
And at the same time, we onceyou it can be completely
relatable content, but ifthere's a term that um uh how do
I do this without losing youguys?
But if there's a term withinthat blog that the bots go and
find and really want, they canhone in on that and take your
website a different directionthat you don't even know is
(17:03):
happening in real time.
And but that blog and alwaysupdating real-time information.
What are you doing?
What happened in these threemonths?
It's so important to not justnumber one, have an effective
website that's clean to consumeto your eyeball on mobile, PC,
wherever it may be.
But at the same time, now thatwe've got you know that clean
(17:26):
and consumed information, we atthe same time want to be
effective with that informationback out into the marketplace,
or nobody's gonna find you.
You got to put that boat on somefish.
And so talk a little bit aboutyou know the blog process.
What are these guys sittingthere if they were to sign up
(17:48):
with some marketing company andthey got um their website
through, but now they're askedthey're being asked for
information about what happenedin the workplace this month.
And and you guys that aresitting in the blue-collar space
in the trade space, it's not,well, I fixed the Nudgum water
heater or I went over.
(18:08):
No, I worked on this projectthat actually has great public
ties that also works for theblog that is also getting posted
about.
You worked on that projectthat's so talked about in public
right now.
That's great for your website.
It's things like that.
But talk about a little bit ofthe mistakes that you see in
trying to get content out ofguys.
SPEAKER_01 (18:29):
Yeah, so that can be really challenging because a lot
of our clients they're they'restill on the tools.
Some of the the slightly biggerones will will be less on the
tools and have more availabilityto help us with some of the
ideas for the content.
But it's um, as you say,sometimes blog can be scary and
overwhelming, and what do wepublish and and all that kind of
stuff?
(18:50):
It's about setting up a a littlesequence of events that is
simple for you.
So we've got clients who wouldjust send their job sheets in,
they'll just say photograph, youknow, they've crudely written
notes of projects they'reworking on.
And from that, it's enoughinformation for us to understand
what it was, the location, whichis great to talk about the
location because it's good toshow up in Google and and the
(19:12):
like.
Um, but we can take that andmake a case study or a story or
example out of it.
So it all of a sudden we'reunderstanding exactly what they
do from a day-to-day basis.
Now, some people might saythat's pretty boring
information.
Well, it might be for mostpeople, but it's not if you have
a specific need.
And the tools, Google willsurface the very um precise and
(19:36):
best information to the rightpeople at the right time.
They're only reading theinformation that's relevant to
them.
So Google and the other toolslove fresh, unique content added
regularly to your websitebecause it's just a signal to
them to suggest you're still inbusiness, you're still trading,
you're still relevant.
So it's a clue to them thatyou're you're uh vibrant and
happening business.
(19:57):
So that's how yeah, that's oneof the ways we do it.
Some Another client he videosprojects as he's working on
them.
So he'll in his truck, heshouldn't probably be doing
this.
I don't know, I won't say who itis, but he'll be videoing what
he's doing and explaining whyhe's doing it and the benefits
and what the client's trying toachieve and the location he's
he's serving and all that kindof stuff.
(20:18):
He's a pretty rough and uhrugged kind of individual.
He's he's got swearing and allsorts in these videos.
He publishes them on YouTube.
It's fine for his target marketuh for what he does.
But um, from those, thetranscripts, we can rework them
using AI, of course, to writethem into um blog posts and
content for his website.
(20:39):
And he's doing phenomenally welljust by slightly adjusting his
processes and and capturing someof that stuff so we can make the
most of the opportunities.
SPEAKER_00 (20:49):
We need more people like him and like myself that
are willing to stick a cameraout there on our job sites.
Um, and the benefits he'sprobably seeing from that is the
same benefits that I walkedinto.
Um, that I was like, man, thisis nuts.
Why why isn't everybody doingthis?
And it's it's probably funny foryou, Wes.
You you literally hand them thekey, 95% of the key.
(21:14):
All they have to do is stick itin the lock and do some work,
and they'd have a full-blownmarketing program.
But a lot of them, it's thatfear that I was talking about.
But you hit on something um thatI want to bring up, and I think
it was search everywhereoptimization or everyone?
SPEAKER_01 (21:32):
Everywhere, yeah.
Scary, isn't it?
Everywhere is a lot, a lot ofplaces.
SPEAKER_00 (21:37):
Well, you're you're right, it is.
But what a lot of our audience,my audience sitting out here
right now, is probably thinking,well, you know, I use Google, I
use Chat GPT, but you guys thatare sitting there listening, how
often do you go to YouTube?
How often do you go to TikTokand go, how to, I'm telling you,
I do it all the time.
(21:58):
How to do this, how to do that.
I'm going to YouTube before I'mgoing to Google, although uh,
you know, YouTube boasts backinto Google, but there's other
places that we're we're nowdeveloping um past Google, and
Google was our one-stop shop.
But you're right, we've got allthese AI resources.
But before we get into the AIconversation, speaking about
(22:22):
search everywhere optimization,because what I need to explain
to you guys from our terms isthat we've got a website.
Well, that's cool, but we needto spider web it.
It's a huge web for you to linkup on Google.
And correct me if I'm wronghere, Wes, but essentially
(22:42):
Google and everything andeverywhere will go through and
crawl your website, or they'llgo crawl your TikTok, and
they'll see a little bit overhere on LinkedIn.
And then, oh, here's a Facebookand Instagram meta post.
And oh man, they're all talkingabout pipeline.
Okay, this might be a pipelineguy.
(23:03):
And we've got to get past thosebots in order to even get
ourselves in front of a naturalnaked human eye to be able to
consume our information.
And you have to consistently,consistently post, but not just
on your website.
While you're gathering thatinformation for your website,
guys, post it other places,revitalize that content.
(23:27):
Because literally, as Wes wouldprobably agree here, getting
guys like myself to provideconsistent, measurable content
is probably one of the biggeststruggles you have as a
marketing guy because we don'twe think we don't have time to
be doing that.
Well, I've got this, I've gotthat, I've got this.
(23:48):
And I know you've probablybroken some molds, but now you
get, you know, that guy thatcomes in and we're working on
the website.
How do you start explaining pastwhat I just did in a very brief
uh Neanderthal way of searcheverywhere optimization?
How do they start?
(24:08):
You know, if they wanted tostart posting on TikTok or
YouTube, how are they beingeffective with their website as
well?
SPEAKER_01 (24:15):
Yeah, absolutely.
So everywhere, as I said, it's alot of places and that and
that's the perfect, the ideal.
But sometimes done is betterthan perfect.
So it's a matter of choosingsome action steps that you can
actually apply and you've gotthe time to do.
The video piece is oftendifficult just because people
are reluctant to be behindcameras and and so on and and
(24:36):
that kind of stuff.
As I said before, that guy whoswears through his videos,
they're they're rough videos,they don't have to be as
polished as what some peoplemight think they need to be.
They just need to showauthentically what what you do
and what you're about.
And it's that so you startpeople can start to understand
who you are.
And um, some people might likeyou, some people might not, and
(24:57):
that's perfectly fine.
That's just the nature ofthings.
But those that are brave enoughto really take that step to take
video, that's awesome.
If you're not, what we're oftendoing is we'll write for the
blog based on some form ofinformation, job sheets,
whatever it is that theyprovide, write some content, and
then what can happen is that caneasily be repurposed and
syndicated through social media.
(25:18):
There's tools that will allowyou to do the one, you know,
post it once, but it'll uh go toall your platforms.
So um Publer is the one we oftenuse, uh, which is really great.
And the reason we like Publar isbecause it will publish to your
Google profile as well.
A lot of these tools that uhsyndicate out the social media,
(25:38):
they don't often use they theydon't often integrate with
Google, or at least to myknowledge, they don't.
They didn't when we we made theselection.
So um it's really great.
Google Love anything that'sGoogle, and still Google is the
biggest um source of traffic towebsites typically.
So publishing on Google's ownplatform is really helpful.
(25:59):
And and because you set all youraccounts up in that one place,
you just set it up, you justpublish it once and it goes
everywhere.
It's super simple.
Um, it is time.
Some of our clients have like amarketing manager and or uh at
least someone looking afterthat, so they can take care of
that themselves.
Others might rely upon us.
It's a matter of us fitting inwith how they work and what
(26:22):
capabilities they have in-house.
I think as founder-ledbusinesses, the the thing is to
remember you don't need to doeverything yourself.
You can rely on experts, but youdo need to have a basic
understanding so you can selectthe appropriate people for the
appropriate tasks.
Otherwise, you might be led downthe garden path.
Unfortunately, every industryhas some rogues, and marketing
(26:44):
is certainly one of thoseindustries where there's rogues
and you could be um spending awhole lot of money for little
results.
So uh just get an understandingof the basics so you can make a
good selection.
SPEAKER_00 (26:54):
I think that's that's such a good piece of
advice.
Yeah, educate yourself.
Um, don't wait, would be thebiggest thing for me.
Um, I waited too long, and youguys are probably sitting there
going, like, what do you mean,Cy?
You're you're kind of ahead ofthe curve.
You got this podcast, you gotthe YouTube channel for the
(27:15):
construction.
You you you're you're all over.
No, I'm telling you, if I knewwhat I knew now, three years
into this, I would have startedyear two.
I would have probably startedsix months into this.
I just had a guy um shout out toCole Morse.
He was on here three weeks ago,and he started a YouTube channel
(27:35):
up.
He was his daddy owns a HVACcompany, has for 25 years, was
destined to take it over, was amaster HVAC tech, and he
decided, no, I'm done with this.
I'm just gonna go buy someequipment and start up an
excavation company.
And he documented every processand step along the way and was
very transparent.
(27:55):
But there's not everybody outthere in the world as open and
transparent as, say, Cole is,but telling your story is such a
huge piece, is where I'm goingwith this, guys, is that it's
really not that hard in the raw,organic, authentic, non-produced
content.
We're all for in the last 10years, it's just so crazy.
(28:19):
And you, Wes, you can probablymention on this more than I can,
but the transition of whatconsuming of the content has
been, we all wanted thisproduced content.
We wanted to see this flashy.
And and don't get me wrong, westill have our channels that we
we like that overproduce contentwith, but it's very particular.
(28:40):
Now, you'll probably not evennotice.
But if you were to pull up yoursocial media right now, three
out of the five or ten peoplethat you follow are raw and
organic people that are justtelling their story through
life.
Do the same.
You and and and yes, there needsto be some type of
(29:01):
professionalism to it if you'regonna put your company a part of
it.
But you get if it's yourcompany, you get to have that
measurable line of where youcan't cross over and where you
can.
But number one thing is justfreaking start telling your
story and find somebody like Wesor Ike or anybody that has been
(29:24):
on the show here that can helpyou navigate through this
process because you needstrategy, you need a plan.
And before you can get to theresults of SEO and all the
things that we're talking about,but there is tools, there is
tools out there like ChatGPT,like Grok, that can literally
go, you can type in there, guys.
(29:45):
I'm telling you, you can do itright now as you're listening to
me.
Give me a crash course 101 onmarketing and website building
and read that information.
Then go to Google, then go toYouTube, then go just educate
yourself.
Now I get it.
All of that information isn'tjust 100% verified information,
but you can at least start towalk yourself through a
(30:08):
navigable path that you can havean educated discussion with Wes
about the plan and strategy ofyour content moving forward.
But number one spot is thatwebsite.
And circling back to that, Wes,is that AI, man, I I want I want
to hear your opinion.
You've been in this 20 years,you've been in it since a
(30:30):
dial-up connection.
And there's some some of uh theaudience members that don't even
know what that is.
I'll never forget that tone therest of my life.
But there's a lot of people thatdon't understand how quickly
this is all changing.
It's and and just in the lasttwo decades up to this point.
But now with AI, the things thatyou can do, you know, Publer, I
(30:53):
think you mentioned, you know,that's there's all forms of it.
Post one place, go to eightplaces, whatever it may be.
But talk a little bit about theAI and optimizing in the
processes that you're doing forthese guys in the tradies and
the skilled trade space.
SPEAKER_01 (31:09):
Yeah, well, it with any new tech, it can feel a
little bit overwhelming, andthat's for everybody.
And so um, what I would say ifyou know what if people haven't
started at all in AI, I wouldsay just get ChatGPT, pay the$20
or whatever it is uh to get thebetter version and just start
using it, and you'll soonrealize what the potential
(31:30):
capabilities are for yourbusiness.
I mean, I've got clients whohave helped um use Chat GPT
whilst they're between jobs, sothey'll be in a car driving to
the next job.
We just help them with some uhdiscussion points that they can
have with ChatGPT to write ablog post.
So we'll we'll say we'll givethem some guidance and so what
(31:50):
all you do, and it's supersimple, say because you can s
you can talk to ChatGPT, the thevoice one, and you say, Hey, hey
Chat GPT, help me write a blogpost about the project I've just
done.
Ask me question by question uhso you've got enough to write a
great blog post.
And and it'll say, Yeah, it'llsay something like, Okay, tell
me about the project, and you'llsay, I was just on this uh
(32:12):
plumbing project, and I weneeded to find the the cracked
pipe and blah blah blah.
And it was in uh Belmont Geelongand blah blah blah.
And it'll ask, AN, okay, andwhat was the outcome and what
caused the problem?
And it'll ask a few questions toflesh out a fully fledged blog
post.
So by the time you get towherever you're going, there's a
fully written blog post.
(32:33):
And the beauty of that is it'sall your information.
So some people do it the otherway around.
They'll just go to a tool likeChatGebray and say, hey, write
me an article because I needcontent, write me an article
about plumbing.
And it's generic and bland, andit's not anything new because
all it's doing is pulling ininformation from everywhere and
collating it in it into aperceived new piece, but it's
(32:54):
not really new, it's just acollation of other people's
ideas.
But if you go the opposite wayand you're feeding it the ideas
about the project you've justdone, you'll have a blog post
written before you get to evenyour next job site.
And you can just flick that toyour marketer to get it
published into your website.
From that, it can be repurposedinto uh social media posts and
(33:15):
it can be syndicated out.
It's not as difficult as whatpeople might think.
Once you start to use some ofthese AI tools, it's pretty
exciting.
And as you touched on before,real beat's perfect.
So just get the stuff producedand happening.
You want the your message to bean exact match of who your team
are when they show up.
If it's super polished and youknow, professional and clean and
(33:37):
elegant and all that kind ofstuff and uses big words, and
then your guys show up on siteto do the project, there's a
mismatch, or you know, they'regonna think something's not
quite right with this fit.
It's not genuine, it's notauthentic, it's not real, it's
not raw like these guys are.
We we trust the guys that haveshown up on site, but it doesn't
feel like who we were intendingon hiring.
(33:58):
So getting past all those fearsof not being as polished as we
need to be, you've got to breakbreak those um mindsets and and
move forward and and use AI inthe most simple way, just like I
described.
It's super simple.
SPEAKER_00 (34:11):
No, I um I can't tell you how many times I've
preached it to my team thisyear, um, especially my
marketing, my marketing contentcreator guy.
ChatGPT every single day makessome type of prompt in ChatGPT.
I don't care what it is, ask ita question, tell me some
(34:31):
information.
And here's a here's another wayto use ChatGPT.
Just before I do these podcasts,I want a background.
And if I literally, I'll do itfor you guys that are watching
right now.
I've got it pulled up and Iasked, hey, Chat GPT, verify the
information about Mr.
West Towers across the world andmake sure I under have a good
(34:52):
understanding of Uplift 360.
And it gave me every bulletpoint, everything he's been
focused on in the last 20 years,and gave me a description.
So if you're going into ameeting, okay, I know we're
getting a little off here ofmarketing, but if you're going
up to a meeting and you knowthis gentleman or uh this lady
happens to be somebody big inthe marketplace, has a lot of
(35:15):
money, whatever the case may be,and you're a little bit nervous
about interacting with them, askChat GPT about them.
Give me a quick intro aboutthese people and how they relate
to my business.
And you mentioned earlier, Iknow this is going a little off
here in the weeds, guys, but ifyou do pay that$20 or whatever
it is, uh subscription fee, it'sa language learning model.
(35:39):
So it's always learning.
As you're using this tool, it'slearning.
So that next blog post that youanswered all the questions,
there may be one step that itmay use your business name.
And you're like, well, how's italready know my business name?
Well, you put it in there thelast time.
And and it'll start picking upon generalities and averages and
(35:59):
start asking you differentquestions because it's already
learned that knowledge andalready has that knowledge.
So you're always um, I wouldsuggest if you're going to start
using some type of AI, build anaccount and it will start
learning.
I can't tell you how many timesthat I've gone up to a meeting,
use Chat GPT.
Hey, give me a brief descriptionof who they are, their
(36:22):
background, and it will sitthere and spit out without me
asking how SciCon could bebeneficial with this partner or
client or customer or whateverit may be, how this may be
beneficial, or it may becompletely opposite ends of the
spectrum.
But ChatGPT from the marketingstandpoint, oh my gosh, the
(36:43):
amount of things that it can beused for.
From, you know, a lot of thismarketing journalism thing,
pardon me, was research.
And you've got to go find all ofthis information.
Now I can literally ask it intomy phone, it's gonna bring me 10
times that information, 100times that information within
seconds back to my phone that Ican turn around, reuse,
(37:08):
repurpose, or align with what Iwas going to say and make myself
sound completely different orprofessional.
And that's the other thing withChatGPT.
You can literally tell it theemotions you want it to have.
Hey, I want to respond to I'vetyped emails, copy and pasted
emails.
I want to respond to this inmore of a passive-aggressive
(37:30):
tone.
I want to be more aggressive, Iwant to say this kindly.
How do I backhandedly say this?
Hey, you should have done thisand this wouldn't have happened.
And it will professionallywrite, like if you struggle
writing emails, it will respondto every damn email for you
guys.
Like the administrationpotential that Chat GPT and all
(37:50):
these AIs have excels.
You guys, if you're like me, whocan't put an Excel spreadsheet
together to save your life, youcan put the information and data
and say, hey, put this in anExcel spreadsheet that I can
share with my team with theseformulas.
It will do it all.
But from the marketingperspective, gathering
information, gathering the blogpost, gathering, you're you're
(38:12):
exactly right, Wes.
You can sit there and go, hey,question for question.
And I and I love that that yousaid that because a lot of these
guys are just completelyintimidated by, oh, I don't even
know where to start.
But literally ask me questionfor question.
And if you can answer yourquestion, you can write a blog
post.
SPEAKER_01 (38:29):
Yeah.
And you touch on somethingreally interesting too.
There's there's nowhere to hideanymore.
So you've really got to lookafter your brand and your your
reputation.
So just like you did for me.
I mean, if I had a criminalrecord or did something dodgy in
my past, it'd probably show up,wouldn't it?
So you've got to really lookafter the clients you're serving
because these days, and sothat's great.
(38:50):
I mean, people listening topodcasts like this, they're
gonna be quality people becausethey're always looking to
improve and enhance what they'redoing.
But every industry has rogues,we we know that.
So they're doing dodgy things.
The good news is they're goingto be discovered, they're gonna
be exposed by AI um these days.
So making sure you deliver aquality outcome and and uh and
(39:13):
uh making sure your brand is inin solid uh uh uh position all
the time, it'll it'll uh serveyou really well.
SPEAKER_00 (39:20):
I think you also touched on something in the
marketing space that a lot ofpeople skip over is the brand
itself.
Like, is it presentable?
Does it have purpose?
What is the meaning?
What is the color palette?
Does it match your t-shirts?
Does it match your trucks?
Is it a different color?
Like all of those things, whenyou're trying to bring awareness
(39:41):
to a brand, it has to be thesame on every touch point that
they see, whether it be a socialmedia post, whether it be your
website, whether it be your guyis standing in line at the gas
station, or it be one of yourpickups or machines or whatever
it may be running down the road,it all has to.
Be connotative to the eye to beable to consume and go, Oh, I
(40:04):
know those pipe guys or dirtguys.
There was this one company I'veseen a couple of times.
Yeah, let's call them.
And that's what happens.
But like my marketing techniquebrings me this brand guide.
And I'm like, what in the hellis that?
And he's like, Listen, if you'regonna post anything, this is the
(40:24):
specific two or three logos thatyou're gonna use.
And here's the files and here'swhy.
And he laid it out in a brandguide.
And I am literally gonna gothrough a rant rebranding.
We're in our 10th year ofbusiness.
We started in 2016.
August of 26 will be our full 10years of business, long,
(40:45):
grueling mistakes filled andsuccess filled at the same
point.
But we're gonna go through alittle bit of rebranding.
And I just want you guys to knowback to a testament, and I hope
you can touch on this too, Wes,is that when you get started,
yes, it is important.
The brand is huge, but my brandat SciCon has three iterations
(41:06):
around the original brand.
It can be worked, it can beshaved, it can be reworked, it
can be rebranded, it can be sodon't get caught up.
In my opinion, Wes, you may becompletely different.
But for me, guys, the brand fromthe get-go doesn't have to be
this crazy redone thing.
Reach out.
I mean, ChatGPT can almost buildyou a logo nowadays.
(41:29):
I'm not gonna go there.
I know that's probably blasphemyto you, Wes, but at the same
time, um use it as a resource.
Don't get so caught up that it'sgotta be super perfect.
You gotta actually start runningsome revenue, that brand
awareness as you start on thismarketing campaign.
Get with somebody like Wes thathas the experience and go, hey
(41:51):
man, you've got a really goodstart.
Let me start shaving and honingand actually really channeling
this in and let an expert do itrather than you, so you can go
out there and lay that pipe, runthat wire, run that concrete,
whatever it may be, and make anextra dollar while somebody else
is actually putting their brainpower to it.
SPEAKER_01 (42:11):
Yeah, that's it.
And so something like a visualbrand, so that your logo is one
of the key pillars for that.
You really do want to get thatright because it's ex it can be
expensive to change it in thefuture because you know, if
you're printing it on youruniforms and your vehicles and
your signs and uh everywhereelse that you put it, you know,
(42:31):
it also takes time to change iton all your social media and and
everything.
So it's it's ideal not to cheapout on that.
The the good thing with AI forso branding is the visual
aspect, but also the way inwhich it communicates.
And so over the years, thebigger brands would have like a
style guide for their writing,so everything's precisely
written in a certain style allthe time.
(42:54):
Copywriters really had achallenge with that.
Some of these documents werequite lengthy, so they would
read it, understand it, and itwas so detailed that they would
start writing and soon forgetwhat the style guide said.
But with Chat GPT and other uhtools, you can just use the
style guide as a prompt to say,hey, tidy this up to make sure
(43:14):
it's on the style guide and onbrand.
So getting those foundations inplace that you can just reuse um
with AI, it's it's it's magicthese days.
SPEAKER_00 (43:24):
It really is, man.
It's uh it's incredible thecompounding measures that AI has
just eliminated touch points tofrom you know a customer like
myself to you using somebodylike this.
And there's such a stigma aroundmarketing that we've got to
(43:45):
break because sales is reallyeasy when you market.
And most of these guys that cometo you, uh, timing is probably
one of the largest pieces of thepuzzle for you.
Because yeah, you're right, itcould be re-expensive if you do
go with a cheaper logo and thenyou've got to rebrand.
(44:05):
And yeah, no, absolutely there'scost to that.
I ask everybody on the show, Mr.
West, um, number one, where canwe go and find you?
SPEAKER_01 (44:14):
Uh Uplift360.com, I would assume.com.au being an
Aussie website,uplift360.com.au.
And from there, all the socialmedia you'll find on the on the
website.
And even if people are curious,they can book a book a meeting
with me, a strategy call.
So happy, happy to chat withanyone.
Being a digital online business,I can uh serve anyone around the
(44:35):
globe.
SPEAKER_00 (44:36):
Blue collar performance marketing's passion
is to bring attention to thehonest work done in blue-collar
industries through effectiveresults-driven marketing
tactics.
They specialize in comprehensivedigital marketing services from
paid advertising on Google andFacebook to website development
and content strategy.
I started working with Ike andthe team earlier this year, and
they've had a huge impact on ourspecific marketing campaign and
(44:59):
trajectory of our overallcompany.
Their expertise in digital admanagement, website development,
social media, and overallmarketing strategy has been an
absolute game changer for oursales and marketing at SciCon.
If you're looking to work with amarketing team who does what
they say, does it well, and isalways looking for ways to help
your company grow, book adiscovery call with Ike by going
(45:21):
to bcperformance marketing.combackslash BCB podcast, or click
the link in the show notes slashdescription below.
Thanks, guys.
Sitting here in Arkansas,speaking a day behind where they
are in Australia.
It's just crazy.
Um, but I do ask one lastquestion here, no matter what
part of the uh world of theindustry that you are in, but
(45:45):
what's the key takeaway forthese guys?
The blue-collar worker, thattrade, that skilled trades guy
who's just sick and tired ofbeing stuck in the mud mentally,
physically, emotionally, readyto find the next step.
SPEAKER_01 (45:59):
Yeah, so I would say just take some time to reflect
on the vision of your businessand to write write that vision
down so you can run with it intothe new year and have team
members support you in that.
Because once things are clearer,marketing becomes easy, your
message becomes easier.
And to remember that real beatsperfect, just to get your
(46:22):
message out there.
No one needs a super polishedversion of you, they just need
you the authentic you and toknow that you're gonna deliver
on what they need.
So it's as simple as that,really.
SPEAKER_00 (46:32):
No, that's perfectly said, man.
It's absolutely perfectly said.
Well, I really appreciate youjoining us today for a different
type of marketing conversation,a challenging one at that.
And to give these guys arealistic lens as to what they
may be facing, you're right.
It isn't as complicated as it'smade to be.
(46:54):
And uh with experience as as youhave, um it can be shown through
very easily and get this processdone.
Now, there is some work that yougot to do, just like in anything
else, guys.
So don't think you can justmagically spruce it up.
There's questions, there's timespent to get this up and
running.
But once you get it up andrunning, it gets a lot easier.
(47:15):
I will tell you that.
Get it started, get itimplemented, and then from
there, things can uh the blogpost, don't let any of that
scare you.
That's a little on down thetracks, but it's all coming down
the pipe for you guys.
But number one, get started.
Reach out to somebody.
If not, reach over to Wes atUplift360.com.au and get you a
(47:37):
free strategy session call, getyou at least talking with Mr.
Wes and maybe pointing you inthe right direction.
Um, Mr.
Wes, thank you so much for yourtime today.
I really appreciate you comingon and joining uh the audience
and and and sharing yourpersonal insights and and your
professional background to getwhere you're at, because it's
super important that these guysunderstand that there's people
(47:59):
out there willing to sit there,ready to take their questions
and their answers, and umappreciate everything you do.
SPEAKER_01 (48:06):
Thanks, uh, it's been a real pleasure being on
the show and looking forward tostaying connected on the
socials.
SPEAKER_00 (48:11):
For sure, my guy.
Until next time, guys, you besafe out there.
If you've enjoyed this episode,be sure to give it a like, share
it with the fellas, check outour website to send us any
questions and comments aboutyour experience in the blue
collar business.
Who do you want to hear from?
Send them our way, and we'll doour best to answer any questions
you may have.
(48:32):
Till next time, guys.
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