Zack Viscomi from The Celebrity Branding® Agency, a multi-media, Marketing, PR, and Branding Agency that is dedicated to Celebrity Branding® entrepreneurs and professionals as experts in their fields of business marketing, joins Jim Klauck on this episode of Bring On Success.
In this episode you will learn how positioning yourself as an expert in your field sets you apart from your competitors. In today's world, your prospects and customers have many choices of providers. They are also educating themselves more and more online by listening to podcasts and watching videos.
To learn more about how to be an expert in your space contact Zack!
You can email him- zack@celebritybrandingagency.com
or to learn more about how Zack can help you become an expert - https://celebritybrandingagency.com
Enjoy the program!
Jim Klauck's Contact: jim@theradiopitchman.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Bring on Success Radio program.
today we're going talk about celebrity branding and how you as a business owner can be a celebrity branding expert.
So it's not just the big names out there,
like the Tom Bradys and the Kardashians and some other big ones.
(00:24):
They are big celebrity branding people.
But we're gonna talk about how you in your business can portray yourself as a celebrity branding expert.
I've asked my good friend Zach Viscomi to join me here on the program.
Hey,
Zach,
how are you?
I'm doing well,
Jim,
thanks so much for having me on today.
Yeah,
it's great to have you here.
(00:46):
I love the subject matter today.
Of course,
this is what you do on a regular basis.
Why don't you tell everyone quickly here about what you do at the agency and a little bit about your background?
Yeah,
absolutely.
So I am the director of brand development with celebrity branding agency.
So,
um you know,
my job is to help people grow their brands,
(01:06):
grow our brands um and really focus on uh on getting the word out there and helping people understand the importance of a brand.
So,
uh,
so that's really where my focus is.
Um And what that looks like and,
um I've been in just about everywhere and everything.
Um So,
uh I was in the military for a while.
I did,
uh the Marine Corps Reserve and,
(01:27):
you know,
went to seminary.
I got my,
um,
you know,
just trying to,
you know,
all these different things and piece them together and,
and really what I found at the end of the day is that I really just love helping people.
Um and I found that I really enjoy helping entrepreneurs uh specifically and,
and helping them to grow their businesses and grow their businesses faster,
which has led me to where we are today.
(01:47):
Yeah.
And I love what you do because you help people present themselves in a way that they wouldn't have necessarily thought they could do themselves.
Um So I have a background where um I've hired some celebrities to endorse my company and help build my brand.
Dave Ramsey did that for some time.
(02:08):
And that's a,
that's a great way to hire uh either a national or local celebrity to build a brand,
but that's not really what we're talking about today.
We're talking about you,
the business owner being that celebrity brand expert,
explain how that works.
Yeah.
(02:28):
So,
uh it's really interesting when we talk about these words because they come with so many different connotations,
celebrity expert,
you know,
all these things put together.
Um And so,
you know,
celebrity endorsements are great.
And if I were to summarize what's happening in those moments,
just like you talked about with Dave Ramsey and others that you've worked with,
it's a transfer of trust.
So,
(02:49):
you know,
people have a certain level of trust put into celebrities.
Surprisingly.
Um,
actually there was a study done by Readers Digest.
I,
I forget what year it was,
but it was over a decade ago,
I think.
Um,
but they had asked about 1000 people,
they said,
who are the most trusted people in America,
like who's the most trusted person in America?
(03:10):
And so 1000 people wrote down their answer,
they put it all together and they came up with a list from 1 to 100 um,
of all these different people that would fit that,
that profile.
Um,
I'll,
I'll let you guess.
Who do you think was the number one most trusted person?
Let's say it was like 2013 or something like that.
Well,
(03:30):
if it was before that,
for sure,
be Oprah Winfrey.
Yeah,
that's a good guess.
Um,
so number one was Tom Hanks.
Ok.
Number two was Sandra Bullock and number three was Denzel Washington.
Sure.
Um,
and,
and so all,
you know,
great people,
I mean,
they have great movies.
I,
I love just about everything that all three of them have been in.
(03:52):
Um,
but what I found so interesting and,
and what I've realized after even looking at that and talking about it for so long is I imagine that not a single person who was asked that question actually knew Tom Hanks or knew Sandra Bullock or knew Denzel Washington,
right?
But yet they felt like they could be trusted.
(04:12):
Well,
why is that?
Um And so that that switch,
that relationship type of building thing is really what we help business owners do for themselves in their marketplace is to build their own level of trust,
uh,
in,
in such a way that people who don't even know him,
feel like they do and want to work with him.
(04:33):
You know,
it's very interesting.
A lot of us don't realize how we can appear to be important.
Right.
So,
you know,
Tom Hanks,
Tom Hanks knows he's important to people because he has done many movies.
He's a celebrity.
He's had the feedback.
(04:54):
But if someone doesn't know who you are,
but then you begin to tell them who you are and what you can do to help them and how long you've been in that business,
you're becoming that celebrity expert.
And I'll tell everyone this,
think about this,
everybody,
you're home on your couch and you're watching TV,
and you're watching the evening news and once again,
you see that electrician plumber accountant,
(05:16):
the attorney come up in that 32nd ad and you see them over and over and over again.
You've never met them,
but you now believe that they are the resource to help you when you need that service.
They're just like you and I,
they just put a little bit of time and effort and some money into getting themselves out there.
(05:37):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that's,
you just hit the nail on the head with,
uh,
what happens in those situations.
There's actually a study,
uh,
it's called Dunbar's Law.
Um,
and that's been,
it's been debated back and forth about,
you know,
uh,
basically what he says is,
um,
you can only have so many number of relationships within your head.
(05:57):
Um,
you know,
you can only,
you only have capacity for so many.
What's been argued is what that number is.
What hasn't been argued is the fact that that's true.
So we only have capacity for a certain number of relationships.
And,
uh,
like you talked about with this electrician who continually shows up in front of the right audience.
Um,
there's a relationship that's being formed,
(06:18):
right?
And so if you wake up every morning and you watch the same shows,
if you,
you know,
watch Oprah Winfrey,
as you mentioned earlier,
uh,
you start to feel like you get to know that person.
It's what we call a one to many relationship that feels like 1 to 1.
Um And,
and you think about at the extremes,
it's like when,
you know,
teenage girls run out to the,
to the boy band,
(06:38):
it's like they feel like they know everything about them,
they probably know just about everything about these guys.
Um,
but the,
the guys have no idea who they are.
Right.
And so,
um,
and so the same thing's true as a business is,
you know,
your audience needs to know who you are.
The converse side of this is,
you know,
being a celebrity is someone who's being known for being known,
right?
(06:58):
Their personality is what makes them known,
not the fact that they're an expert,
although they might be an expert in entertainment.
Right.
On the other side of that,
you can have an expert who nobody knows about.
Uh and,
and let's say it's somebody who's studying the genome now uh in the basement of a university somewhere,
an expert by all rights and what they do and probably doing some amazing work.
(07:20):
Yet nobody has any idea who they are outside of their cohort,
right?
Um And so you can't run a business like that.
You really can't run a business on viral posts either and,
and hoping to have that same type of celebrity response.
And so when you combine together a celebrity expert,
it's somebody who is known for being good at what they do.
(07:42):
Um That's what a celebrity expert is.
And that's why when you run a business,
um you know,
you can be that expert in your field that go to authority and then let people know that that's the case and when the time comes for them to make that decision of hiring somebody.
You are gonna be that top of mind because you've built that relationship before they,
even before you've even talked to them,
(08:04):
they see you as that person they need to go to.
Yeah.
Um,
you know,
a quick story here back before I got into doing a lot of online stuff and I was just doing radio,
had a local radio show in Houston,
Texas Home Improvement show.
I'm not the home improvement guy,
but I brought experts in.
But I was the host of the show to actually still do the program.
(08:25):
And when I go to a home and garden show,
people would come up to me and they would say Joe,
that's what I call myself on the air.
Check a Pro Joe,
hey,
check a pro Joe.
It's great to see you.
I love you.
I listen to you every Saturday and Sunday and it was a little awkward.
I had to get used to being that local celebrity.
And I actually was one of people say you're a celebrity.
(08:45):
I'm like,
no,
I'm not.
But then again I thought,
well,
I,
yes,
I am.
But it's really strange because,
you know,
it's that,
uh,
what do you call it one to many relationship?
And,
and it was,
it was really strange and people,
you know,
couldn't wait to talk to me and they were like smiling and bobbing up and down and I'm like,
this is interesting.
This is what it must like to be Justin Bieber.
(09:06):
Right.
So,
and,
and so that's what we're talking about here,
right?
Yeah.
Yeah,
that's exactly what we're talking about and,
and,
um,
you know,
one of the things that we talk about and,
and how we do this is helping you to grow your business faster,
right?
By,
by having that brand.
And people wonder,
like,
well,
why,
and one of the biggest reasons why is because you really don't have to change a whole lot more than what you're already doing.
(09:31):
Um If you're not getting in front of people,
then obviously you've got to change that.
But as you position yourself as that go to authority in your field,
that celebrity expert,
um you don't change very much in your marketing or advertising.
You don't have to increase spending because what happens is,
is you the level of trust that you build with people at the top of your funnel has a huge impact on that early on conversion rate,
(09:54):
that first impression,
right?
You only get one chance at a first impression.
And so if you make a really good first impression,
you know,
uh you can have a huge impact on your bottom line.
Um And,
and that's,
you know what we've seen.
Um and you know,
without getting into all the numbers and statistics of it,
it's like,
you know,
AAA 3 to 5% increase in conversion at the top of your funnel could almost double your business on the other end.
(10:20):
I totally agree with that.
Great numbers.
Something I know that you believe in and I do as well and a lot of people will probably start connecting dots here if you really want to do it.
Right.
I tell people don't just do videos,
don't just do podcasts.
That's great.
Get that book down on paper.
(10:42):
Get,
get it out of your head.
Now,
I've written books some longer than others.
Understand everybody.
It doesn't necessarily have to be a 500 page book.
This isn't a novel,
this is not fiction.
This is about how you can help people.
So,
in the book,
you don't talk about how great you are,
that'll come out.
(11:03):
But you tell them how you can help solve their problem with all your experience.
Once you have that book,
then you start doing the other things more because you can use the book as the foundation.
Mhm.
Yeah.
It's a,
it's a great,
it's a great tool.
Um,
and the reality is,
is,
you know,
you go to a school anywhere.
Uh,
they're still learning from books.
(11:24):
You know,
there's the,
the,
the computers and all these things are supplemental to the foundational principle that we still use textbooks.
So,
like we're being conditioned to learn from books.
That's what we,
we really go,
whether it's an audible book or otherwise.
And so when you hand somebody a book,
even if you're the contributor in a book and didn't write the whole thing.
(11:45):
Um,
if you've written the whole thing,
whatever it is when you have a book and can hand that to somebody,
uh,
it's,
it's physical evidence of,
of your knowledge and your willingness to put it out there in a way that positions you as an authority.
Um,
I was actually,
uh doing a,
uh,
an interview with Brian Tracy and I asked him a similar question about,
you know,
he's done 90 something books now.
(12:07):
Um And you know,
it's,
it's just insane.
Um And uh and so in talking with him about the power of a book and the celebrity brand and all that kind of stuff that he's been able to build for himself over the years.
He,
he was quoting somebody else and,
and I didn't know who it was,
but he was like,
look at,
look at the word authority,
like the 1st 60% 75% of that word is author,
(12:28):
like it's still the case.
Um And so,
you know,
there's,
you can be the author of all different types of content,
but a book is still one of the very powerful ones.
And I know you help people with that and of course,
filming things.
It's funny how we call it filming because we don't use film anymore.
We're not even using video so much anymore.
It's funny they'll say go to film or,
(12:50):
or you know,
the video and it's really like.
No,
we're just actually recording now on digital,
uh,
for the most part,
but it's so important to establish the authority.
So let's get back to the whole,
how can,
um,
an attorney,
um,
how can a plumber,
um,
you know,
how can anyone who is either self-employed or a small business owner become that authoritative expert in their field?
(13:17):
Because honestly,
whether it's the accountant or the plumber,
there's a lot of people who can probably do it better.
There's always someone better,
there's always someone taller,
better looking has more hair,
has more experience.
That's beside the point.
The point is,
is you need to fair and honestly put together your resume and then tell people with through story uh through examples of how you've helped other people,
(13:45):
how you can help them.
So it's not about you.
The most important person in the room is your audience.
Uh Everyone's got an ego and I know Zach,
you talk about it a lot using story to frame things.
Just people learn well by story,
don't they?
Yeah,
absolutely.
Um You know,
(14:05):
I'm in the the process of as we all are probably in,
in writing a book.
Um And uh and in my research of what I was working on,
um and talking about the story Mindset,
um which is the working title for it right now um is,
is really that story is foundational to who we are as people.
Um I had the opportunity to talk with like a renowned scholar um you know,
(14:28):
in anthropology and,
and archaeology and different things.
Uh Brian Fagan,
and uh he was talking about the importance of story going all the way back to the early cro magnon age.
Um And so to save us on all of that,
um If you look at history through and through all of history,
story and storytelling,
whether it was cave art or drawings or linguistic um had were fundamental to not only the survival of our species,
(14:57):
but the in advance,
but the advancement of it as well.
Um And so whether,
whether it was because of story that we survived or our brains have always been wired for story.
It's actually scientifically proven that stories uh help us remember better.
Uh They connect us um our,
our brain waves,
uh There's uh hormones and,
(15:19):
and uh neuropeptide and things that are released in our brain that connect us with each other,
literally like Oxytocin um which has often been called the love hormone.
So when we tell stories,
stories of our clients,
the stories uh of our successes,
the stories of where we came from and where we're going and how we want to help people,
all of those stories combined,
(15:40):
help other people to connect with you.
And that leads us really to the most foundational principle of all of this,
which I know we've talked about before and you've talked about before.
And that is people by people.
Yes.
Right.
And that's really what it's all about.
It doesn't matter what type of industry you're in,
people buy people and they buy from people that they know like and trust.
(16:03):
So,
how do you accomplish that as a business owner?
How do you do it in such a way that,
um,
builds trust and makes a great first impression with your audience as soon as possible.
Um,
and Zach,
it's,
you know,
so simple if,
if we can just remember a few core principles,
if,
(16:23):
if and I'll tell you something,
if,
if I could go back to college today,
um I would take some psychology courses.
I majored in marketing with a minor in communication.
It's perfect for what I do today,
but I really wish I had majored in this.
So if we understand people,
(16:44):
it's,
it's really simple.
People want to hear their name by the way,
spelled and pronounced properly,
please.
Because if you don't,
then you've really,
really,
you're at a big disadvantage.
They wanna be welcomed,
they want it to be their idea.
(17:06):
So when we're pitching,
some people wanna sell,
I'm gonna sell Mrs Smith today.
Ok.
Wouldn't it be better to educate her?
And it might take a little more time and tell her a story,
get her to respond to that and connect with it and then have her make the decision to buy.
(17:26):
And so when we really step back and think about how we market and sell.
I believe.
The best thing to do is show them,
you're the expert,
educate them,
make them feel good.
So,
if you've been in business for 30 years and you have brand new trucks,
let's say you're a service company,
brand new trucks business for 30 years.
(17:48):
You won the B B B pinnacle award 10 years straight.
And that's all you're boasting about the homeowner.
Don't care.
They're like,
how can you fix my plumbing problem?
So instead you might say we've been servicing the area for 30 years and we love our customers and this is how we help you.
Makes a big difference.
(18:09):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that comes,
that comes back to understanding the fundamentals of,
of story too,
right?
And understanding where,
where in the story your prospect is.
Um And for all of us,
no matter what industry you're in,
uh they're living in the tension they're living in that,
that part of the story where they don't have a resolution,
(18:30):
they don't know where the end is gonna be.
They're trying to figure it out and Donald Miller talks about this all the time that,
you know,
everybody wants to be the hero of their own story.
They don't need a hero.
Um But we all need guides.
We all need somebody who's going to show us that there is hope on the other end of whatever tension we're living in.
(18:50):
Um And it might be a plumbing issue.
It,
it might be that,
you know,
my house doesn't look great and I want better garage doors like,
um,
whatever industry you're in,
there's a,
there's a way to find that,
that tension that they're living in and then telling the story of,
of understanding that showing them,
you understand the tension that they're living in and that there's a result on the other side of that and you're the bridge,
(19:15):
the guide the ability for them to be able to get to that hopeful place.
Sure.
And Zach,
you don't even need to tell them you're the bridge.
They're pretty smart.
They make the connection,
right?
And,
and,
and so you're providing them all the information and they start nodding their head.
They're like,
yeah,
I've got that problem.
Yeah.
(19:35):
Ok.
Now I know what it costs and you know,
I understand that.
Ok.
And then,
ok,
it's gonna take how long it's gonna take a day and a half to install.
Uh-huh.
Ok.
And you've been doing it for a long time and you've got some testimonials that you've talked about.
Like,
we've helped Mrs Smith and Mr Jones.
Ok.
Good,
good,
good.
Who else are they gonna hire?
(19:56):
They're gonna hire them.
Um,
a friend of mine,
I'm gonna,
I'm gonna talk about a book here quickly.
Tom Decker,
a good friend of mine and client,
um,
wrote a book.
When can you do it?
And it's all about having all of the answers or all the questions answered.
(20:17):
Before that home service provider goes to the sales call.
So think about this,
wouldn't it be nice if,
if you've answered all these questions?
Ok.
What it costs,
how long it takes to do and all the credibility stuff.
So when they book an appointment and you go out there to make the pitch,
the pitch has already been done,
they're ready to buy.
It's like an infomercial when you,
(20:39):
you look at that infomercial about that New Great Blender and you've been watching it for 30 minutes or 90 minutes,
whatever it's been.
When you call,
you're not asking questions other than,
do you take Visa and Mastercard?
That's all all you're asking because you've already been sold.
Yeah.
Yeah,
I would say probably more so and,
and increasingly so it was,
uh,
than ever before,
(21:01):
uh,
is in this age of information,
uh,
you know,
myself as a consumer,
I don't ever show up to a sales call to,
you know,
anything without having more information than,
you know,
than I did before.
So I've looked at reviews,
I've,
I've,
you know,
looked up the company and I've,
you know,
checked out their website.
(21:21):
I've gone through the material and like,
there's a number of different things that I'm looking for in that process and part of it is that they know what they're talking about.
But the reality is,
is that the reason why I'm talking to this expert is because I don't know enough to do it myself.
So I'm not really gonna know the difference between one expert and another expert and what he says and what she says,
(21:41):
really,
what I'm looking for is one,
do they look like they know what they're talking about?
And it is aligning with the other things that I think I'm seeing,
um,
really foundation.
What I'm looking for is do their values align with mine.
Uh,
does,
does what they're saying align with what I'm doing?
Does it look like they serve their customers?
Have other people been happy?
(22:02):
I'm looking for a reason to trust.
Um,
and so,
uh,
whether that's the building of a celebrity brand and then having the content and then all these different things that along my information gathering gathering phase,
I'm able to build more and more of a trusted connection with this company and this person.
(22:24):
Well,
now when I get on the phone,
it's not so much like,
uh,
ok,
hit me with your pitch.
It's all right.
Look,
I've got all this information already.
Really just what I want to know is,
can I work with you?
And what is it gonna cost me?
Yep.
And that's in,
that's a very,
that's a much easier,
close and a much easier conversation in most cases.
When can you do it right.
(22:45):
It's exactly like you were saying,
Marcus Sheridan,
they ask you answer.
Um,
he would give his prospects homework and then before he would go out on the sales call,
he would ask them,
did you review what I sent over?
And if they didn't often he wouldn't go,
he's not gonna drive the 45 minutes because he wants to make sure.
(23:09):
Right.
That when he was selling pools that the homeowner knew all the particulars,
or at least most of them because when you show up and the homeowner says,
how much is it gonna cost,
isn't working out?
Right.
So,
and that's what so many of us do.
If you ask the average,
(23:29):
we'll call him sales person,
right?
When they go out on a sales call and they have a lead.
It could be as simple as someone filling out a form the day ahead of time saying yes,
you can come to my home to talk to me about this and that's all they know.
They know the person's name and address.
They don't know anything.
Now,
they might be able to tell by the neighborhood if they fit into the demographic and so forth,
(23:50):
but they don't know anything.
Oh,
my gosh.
If I'm that person,
sales person,
I'm gonna educate them as much as I can because chances are the competitors aren't.
And I'm gonna have possibly the book.
If it's not a book,
it's,
it's like a newsletter.
It's a pamphlet.
It's something,
it could be six pages long and there's,
and the video and,
(24:11):
you know,
get yourself on someone else's podcast and have a third party endorse you.
Yeah.
Yeah,
absolutely.
Um,
and I think,
you know,
by and large as we're,
as we're trying to fight for the attention of our prospects,
um,
along with everybody else who's also fighting for their attention.
Um,
it's the little things that help you stand out that make the biggest impact.
(24:35):
Um,
and,
and so it's like,
if,
if,
if you do mailers great,
like what are you doing?
That's gonna build that first level of trust.
Um,
you know,
in a mail in a flyer that you sent out in a,
in a Facebook ad in a,
you know,
a paper click Google ad,
like,
where are they going to and,
and where are they seeing these levels um,
of engagement along the way?
(24:57):
I always relate it to.
Um,
you know,
every business is,
is in the business of building and maintaining relationships.
That's what we do.
And when we think about it from a business perspective,
it's like,
ok,
well,
that's marketing,
that's drip campaigns,
that's sales funnels.
It's all these,
you know,
analytical processes that go into place which are needed.
(25:18):
Um But if you look at it from a romantic perspective,
um if I'm sitting at a bar,
you know,
and I,
and I wanna go talk to this person who's sitting at the bar,
I'm not gonna walk up and then just say,
hey,
I'm Zach,
will you marry me?
And it's a lot of what we're doing in our marketing,
right?
It's like,
it's like,
hey,
I'm,
hey,
I'm that plumber.
(25:38):
Will you hire me?
You know,
it's,
it's the same sort of commitment that we're asking from somebody without building the level of trust.
But when we think about trust too,
a lot of times what I hear people say and the people that we're working with is like,
well,
yeah,
if they just went through my website,
if they just clicked on that article or that blog that I wrote a few years ago,
if they just took the time to read through this,
(25:59):
um,
it's,
it's asking for again,
another level of commitment before you've done any of the work.
And so,
well,
what do we do?
Let's what do we do in this romantic situation?
Getting back to that example.
Well,
I'm gonna walk up,
I'm gonna quickly introduce myself and then I'm gonna start asking them questions to get to know them,
right?
Um That initial handshake,
(26:20):
that initial introduction is really one of the most important ones,
right?
Um And so how do you do that as a business?
Well,
that's where that celebrity brand,
that credibility comes into play where you can say you're a best selling author or even an author where you can say that you've been on TV,
or you have your own show or your own podcast or all those different things play into showing somebody that it's gonna be worth their time to invest a little bit further into researching to finding out more.
(26:50):
Um,
and then you get them with the other content and the other information and then they get interested in wanting to work with you and then they're gonna talk to you.
So it's just a process of building trust and you gotta start shallow.
Um,
but you,
you walk them through the,
the pool um to the deeper end.
Yeah,
if you want to ultimately get married and what we're talking about here and what Zach is talking about is,
(27:14):
is getting a new customer.
So that's,
that's getting married.
Closing the deal,
which I guess when you get married and closing the deal too,
right?
So closing the deal.
But,
you know,
back in the day and we don't use this term so much.
But,
but,
you know,
a few generations ago they call it courting and you would court someone and generally the male would take the lead because that was proper at the time.
(27:36):
And he would ask the young lady,
would you like to go to the barn dance on Friday?
And she might say yes.
But then he would say,
hey,
in two weeks,
there's going to be,
um,
a church picnic.
Would you like to go?
Yes.
And then over time and this is like a trickle campaign,
right?
You're trickling,
right?
She,
she's gaining trust because you're really the salesman,
(27:58):
right?
The guy trying to get married because you like,
are infatuated with this girl.
And over time she begins to know like and trust you.
And ultimately,
when you get down on one knee and pull the box out with the ring,
she says,
absolutely,
I'm ready to buy,
I mean,
(28:19):
get married,
right.
That's what happened.
And the decision is probably made much longer before then,
the same thing in the sales process,
right?
The decision to buy is always made before we ask for the clothes.
I think Zig Zigler talks about that all the time.
Um And so,
you know,
so that's the process of us in,
in business is how do we have that conversation with somebody?
(28:40):
Um What makes it weird is that we don't get a lot of feedback,
you know,
like if somebody is researching us and going through our content,
we're not getting live feedback from them as far as whether or not they like it,
if they're,
you know,
whatever the situation is until they raise their hands.
So uh it makes it a little bit more difficult in understanding that process,
but the process is still the same.
(29:02):
Yeah,
we could talk about this forever.
I'm looking at the clock and I'm like,
this is great,
Zach,
this is great.
So,
um before we conclude,
I will say in the description of this podcast is everything that you need to know to get a hold of Zach,
to learn more about what he does,
how he and his agency can help you.
(29:25):
Um And I know that he'll just help you.
So if you contact him,
um,
you know,
he'll reach out back to you and,
and just help you offline if you want.
And,
you know,
the most important thing is that we,
we help each other with what we can.
What I really like about you,
Zach is,
is,
is that you,
um,
(29:45):
you really care about what you do and you're motivated about what you do and you and I both see things that most people don't.
And hopefully today we've enlightened them to understand that they can be a celebrity expert themselves.
They should to stand apart and they shouldn't feel that they're not deserving of it.
(30:07):
You are deserving of it.
If you do have something to offer,
that's legitimate,
especially if you've been in the industry and have had some success stories over the years or decades.
Now,
a lot of us are apprehensive about shooting video or coming on a podcast,
but that all can be overcome and should be.
(30:32):
And I will tell you this today and I'm not trying to scare anybody.
Things are changing and have been changing for some time.
Now,
if you don't do it,
your competition is going to be doing it.
And if you get out in front because most people aren't doing this,
if you get out in front,
then you have a head start.
Yeah.
Yeah,
absolutely.
Um,
(30:52):
you reminded me a quick story of my,
my grandfather always used to tell me and he passed away when I was young.
But um I remember you'd always say,
you know,
you,
you dress for the part that you want,
not the part that you're in.
Um And uh and,
and celebrity branding is,
is a great example of that.
Um Because uh I'll use this as an example.
(31:13):
So the CEO and founder of our company,
Nick Nat,
and he's a 22 23 time Emmy award winning director and producer.
Um We did Chris Voss story,
we've done Dick Vitale story,
which is now on ESPN.
Um And,
and he started this agency because um you know,
he was in the entertainment industry um has three gold records,
(31:35):
has done all that kind of stuff,
but realized that wasn't happening for business owners and with the Emmys in particular and being a director and producer.
And the reason why I'm saying this story is because he literally googled,
how do you win an Emmy?
And then went and figured out how to win an Emmy and then won an Emmy um a regional Emmy and all this other kind of stuff and then won a whole bunch.
(31:57):
Now,
the reason why this is so impactful is because uh three years ago now,
uh he approached ESPN with the idea and the pitch to do a story on Dick Vitale.
Uh you know,
the,
the NBA coach NBA player announcer,
you know,
long time.
Every most people know who he is anyway,
(32:18):
ESPN was like,
no,
not interested.
Nick did the film anyway through some help of clients and some different things,
you know,
funded,
it got it done two years.
Um It was in the making part way through that or nearing the end of it.
Uh Dick's agent was like,
you know,
we need to show S P N this thing.
This is,
this is like they need to pay,
(32:39):
paying attention.
So ESPN started to pay attention.
Now,
ESPN ended up purchasing the film uh for around a million dollars,
went from not wanting it to now having to buy it.
Um Now the process of them buying it was what was most interesting.
They didn't take a minute to look at other other stuff.
(33:03):
They,
they did some research on Nick.
Um We found about this later.
All they did was just Google Nick's name and saw that he had 22 Emmys saw that they had done his other documentaries,
saw that he had done all these other things and they were like,
oh yeah,
we need this.
Just give us a number like,
and it was literally that because he had already looked apart.
Now,
if he didn't have those things,
(33:24):
if he didn't build out his brand,
if he didn't take the time to do all that stuff,
that first impression wouldn't have been made and it probably would have been a whole lot harder to have such a sweet deal.
Right.
And So that's on a different scale.
But this happens over and over and over again for ourselves and for our clients and uh for your clients and the people listening today too.
It really does work.
(33:44):
Zach is funny because it sounds like you're talking about what I tell my prospects and clients,
which are home service professionals is what happens when someone types you or your company's name into Google.
What do they see?
Maybe,
you know,
maybe they'll see something about your company,
(34:05):
maybe something about you personally.
And I say,
wouldn't it be nice if,
when they type in your company name,
a bunch of things came up?
So like in my business here,
I'll,
I'll,
I'll do this uh for the purposes of,
of giving a demonstration.
So I have uh an H VAC client,
air conditioning client and if you type in their company name,
(34:26):
Acme air conditioning,
you're gonna see their website,
you're gonna see,
you know,
some things like maybe A B B B,
maybe an Angie's List or um uh you know,
one of those other typical large um referral sources.
OK.
(34:47):
Which everyone kind of has and yeah,
there's a B B B listing and so forth.
But wouldn't it be cool if,
when they typed it in things like audible and Spotify and iheart Radio showed up and videos of you on youtube on the first page instead of all this other stuff because you can force all that up with those types of things because Audible and Spotify and youtube are big players and if you're on there with your name,
(35:17):
Google says,
well,
it's relevant.
Let's put it at the top and boom instead of all this other junk and now when they look at it,
they're like my gosh,
these guys are everywhere.
That's what you're talking about.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
I mean,
at the end of the day,
whether we like to admit it or not,
uh perception is reality.
Um And so you could be the best person in your field absolutely astronomically without a shadow of a doubt.
(35:43):
But if somebody comes to your website and it looks like it was built in the early two thousands,
like they're gonna think you're in witsec or that you're not in business anymore,
right?
And so perception really is the reality and that you don't get another chance at that first impression.
And what do all of us do when we're looking for a solution to our problem,
we're gonna Google it.
(36:03):
Even if we hear about somebody,
we're gonna Google them,
we're gonna look them up and we're gonna get that information because it's right there on our,
in our hands on our phones.
Um It's almost instantaneous.
So,
yeah,
you gotta show up and you gotta show up in a powerful way.
Yeah,
Grant Cardone talks about you and your company being obscure obscurity.
I actually quoted Grant in my book and it's true.
(36:28):
That's the biggest problem many companies have and you need to kind of step out and you should have already been doing this.
I mean,
we're,
this isn't like a,
I where a lot's coming.
This is like it's been here but it's not too late to still get out,
especially some industries.
So I talk about home service a lot because that's where I spend most of my time and home service isn't on cutting edge of technology.
(36:54):
They're just not,
we're talking plumbers,
H VAC Roofers and they've always adopted a little bit later than some other industries.
And so my point is it's the good news for the plumbers and the air conditioning companies out there and the garage door companies,
your competition is not doing it.
So,
get out there in front.
Yeah.
Yeah,
absolutely.
It's,
it's a,
(37:14):
it's a win-win conversation,
um,
that you just need to do it because if your competition is doing it,
you're behind.
So now you just got to catch up.
Um,
and if they're not doing it now,
you're ahead,
but either way you need to be doing it.
That's the point here.
Um And you really should be,
um,
you know,
content is king.
Uh It always has been.
Um,
and it's how people like Grant Cardone and Gary V and,
(37:36):
you know,
all these other people have gotten Marcus,
um,
uh Sheridan,
it's how they got to where they were by putting out good,
consistent content and consistent is key as well.
Yeah.
And I'll tell you what's important,
it's consistent,
not necessarily great or excellent because you said good.
It just has to be good.
You,
so we've heard the expression showing up is 90%.
(37:58):
So for instance,
let's say that you wanted a job.
Ok?
And,
and five people were supposed to show up for the job,
but you were the only one you might get the job because you showed up.
So if you don't show up,
you could be the best.
You're not gonna get the job.
So my point is,
is just put out good and if you could put out great and excellent content,
(38:20):
so be it.
But all you need is your iphone.
OK?
Any camera will do its best to do it on,
you know,
on your mobile device because it's all integrated and just start talking about things.
It could be in the office,
it could be on the job site.
It could be while you're driving,
be careful.
A lot of people do it when they drive and I'm just whatever,
(38:40):
ok?
But,
and,
and then you'll get pretty good at it and you'll feel confident but people will see this stuff and you will become more relevant to them and you will become um closer to them.
They will be comfortable with you and people buy from people they know like and trust.
But if they don't know you,
(39:02):
they can't like and trust you.
So true.
So true.
Hey,
Zach,
this has been great,
my friend.
I really appreciate it.
Yeah,
thank you,
Jim.
I,
I had a great time talking about this and uh you know,
hopefully it's been helpful for your audience.
Uh and they've,
they've pulled away some,
some tidbits of information.
Um and like all these things and I say all the time,
(39:22):
uh just grab one thing,
right?
You can always come back to it,
but just grab one thing and think,
OK,
I'm gonna take that step.
I'm gonna take a step in that direction uh because you know,
listening to it and then doing nothing isn't gonna help either.
But uh uh we all do that.
But yeah,
take that first step of whatever direction it is to,
to help you getting yourself out there and letting people know you exist in a,
(39:42):
in a powerful way.
Yeah.
Thanks again.
All the resources that Zach and I talked about are going to be listed in the description of this podcast,
including how to get a hold of Zach directly.
Thank you so much,
my friend.
I appreciate it.
But yeah,
thanks Jim.
Thanks for having me.
I appreciate you.
Welcome to the Bring on Success Radio program.
today we're going talk about celebrity branding and how you as a business owner can be a celebrity branding expert.
So it's not just the big names out there,
like the Tom Bradys and the Kardashians and some other big ones.
(00:24):
They are big celebrity branding people.
But we're gonna talk about how you in your business can portray yourself as a celebrity branding expert.
I've asked my good friend Zach Viscomi to join me here on the program.
Hey,
Zach,
how are you?
I'm doing well,
Jim,
thanks so much for having me on today.
Yeah,
it's great to have you here.
(00:46):
I love the subject matter today.
Of course,
this is what you do on a regular basis.
Why don't you tell everyone quickly here about what you do at the agency and a little bit about your background?
Yeah,
absolutely.
So I am the director of brand development with celebrity branding agency.
So,
um you know,
my job is to help people grow their brands,
(01:06):
grow our brands um and really focus on uh on getting the word out there and helping people understand the importance of a brand.
So,
uh,
so that's really where my focus is.
Um And what that looks like and,
um I've been in just about everywhere and everything.
Um So,
uh I was in the military for a while.
I did,
uh the Marine Corps Reserve and,
(01:27):
you know,
went to seminary.
I got my,
um,
you know,
just trying to,
you know,
all these different things and piece them together and,
and really what I found at the end of the day is that I really just love helping people.
Um and I found that I really enjoy helping entrepreneurs uh specifically and,
and helping them to grow their businesses and grow their businesses faster,
which has led me to where we are today.
(01:47):
Yeah.
And I love what you do because you help people present themselves in a way that they wouldn't have necessarily thought they could do themselves.
Um So I have a background where um I've hired some celebrities to endorse my company and help build my brand.
Dave Ramsey did that for some time.
(02:08):
And that's a,
that's a great way to hire uh either a national or local celebrity to build a brand,
but that's not really what we're talking about today.
We're talking about you,
the business owner being that celebrity brand expert,
explain how that works.
Yeah.
(02:28):
So,
uh it's really interesting when we talk about these words because they come with so many different connotations,
celebrity expert,
you know,
all these things put together.
Um And so,
you know,
celebrity endorsements are great.
And if I were to summarize what's happening in those moments,
just like you talked about with Dave Ramsey and others that you've worked with,
it's a transfer of trust.
So,
(02:49):
you know,
people have a certain level of trust put into celebrities.
Surprisingly.
Um,
actually there was a study done by Readers Digest.
I,
I forget what year it was,
but it was over a decade ago,
I think.
Um,
but they had asked about 1000 people,
they said,
who are the most trusted people in America,
like who's the most trusted person in America?
(03:10):
And so 1000 people wrote down their answer,
they put it all together and they came up with a list from 1 to 100 um,
of all these different people that would fit that,
that profile.
Um,
I'll,
I'll let you guess.
Who do you think was the number one most trusted person?
Let's say it was like 2013 or something like that.
Well,
(03:30):
if it was before that,
for sure,
be Oprah Winfrey.
Yeah,
that's a good guess.
Um,
so number one was Tom Hanks.
Ok.
Number two was Sandra Bullock and number three was Denzel Washington.
Sure.
Um,
and,
and so all,
you know,
great people,
I mean,
they have great movies.
I,
I love just about everything that all three of them have been in.
(03:52):
Um,
but what I found so interesting and,
and what I've realized after even looking at that and talking about it for so long is I imagine that not a single person who was asked that question actually knew Tom Hanks or knew Sandra Bullock or knew Denzel Washington,
right?
But yet they felt like they could be trusted.
(04:12):
Well,
why is that?
Um And so that that switch,
that relationship type of building thing is really what we help business owners do for themselves in their marketplace is to build their own level of trust,
uh,
in,
in such a way that people who don't even know him,
feel like they do and want to work with him.
(04:33):
You know,
it's very interesting.
A lot of us don't realize how we can appear to be important.
Right.
So,
you know,
Tom Hanks,
Tom Hanks knows he's important to people because he has done many movies.
He's a celebrity.
He's had the feedback.
(04:54):
But if someone doesn't know who you are,
but then you begin to tell them who you are and what you can do to help them and how long you've been in that business,
you're becoming that celebrity expert.
And I'll tell everyone this,
think about this,
everybody,
you're home on your couch and you're watching TV,
and you're watching the evening news and once again,
you see that electrician plumber accountant,
(05:16):
the attorney come up in that 32nd ad and you see them over and over and over again.
You've never met them,
but you now believe that they are the resource to help you when you need that service.
They're just like you and I,
they just put a little bit of time and effort and some money into getting themselves out there.
(05:37):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that's,
you just hit the nail on the head with,
uh,
what happens in those situations.
There's actually a study,
uh,
it's called Dunbar's Law.
Um,
and that's been,
it's been debated back and forth about,
you know,
uh,
basically what he says is,
um,
you can only have so many number of relationships within your head.
(05:57):
Um,
you know,
you can only,
you only have capacity for so many.
What's been argued is what that number is.
What hasn't been argued is the fact that that's true.
So we only have capacity for a certain number of relationships.
And,
uh,
like you talked about with this electrician who continually shows up in front of the right audience.
Um,
there's a relationship that's being formed,
(06:18):
right?
And so if you wake up every morning and you watch the same shows,
if you,
you know,
watch Oprah Winfrey,
as you mentioned earlier,
uh,
you start to feel like you get to know that person.
It's what we call a one to many relationship that feels like 1 to 1.
Um And,
and you think about at the extremes,
it's like when,
you know,
teenage girls run out to the,
to the boy band,
(06:38):
it's like they feel like they know everything about them,
they probably know just about everything about these guys.
Um,
but the,
the guys have no idea who they are.
Right.
And so,
um,
and so the same thing's true as a business is,
you know,
your audience needs to know who you are.
The converse side of this is,
you know,
being a celebrity is someone who's being known for being known,
right?
(06:58):
Their personality is what makes them known,
not the fact that they're an expert,
although they might be an expert in entertainment.
Right.
On the other side of that,
you can have an expert who nobody knows about.
Uh and,
and let's say it's somebody who's studying the genome now uh in the basement of a university somewhere,
an expert by all rights and what they do and probably doing some amazing work.
(07:20):
Yet nobody has any idea who they are outside of their cohort,
right?
Um And so you can't run a business like that.
You really can't run a business on viral posts either and,
and hoping to have that same type of celebrity response.
And so when you combine together a celebrity expert,
it's somebody who is known for being good at what they do.
(07:42):
Um That's what a celebrity expert is.
And that's why when you run a business,
um you know,
you can be that expert in your field that go to authority and then let people know that that's the case and when the time comes for them to make that decision of hiring somebody.
You are gonna be that top of mind because you've built that relationship before they,
even before you've even talked to them,
(08:04):
they see you as that person they need to go to.
Yeah.
Um,
you know,
a quick story here back before I got into doing a lot of online stuff and I was just doing radio,
had a local radio show in Houston,
Texas Home Improvement show.
I'm not the home improvement guy,
but I brought experts in.
But I was the host of the show to actually still do the program.
(08:25):
And when I go to a home and garden show,
people would come up to me and they would say Joe,
that's what I call myself on the air.
Check a Pro Joe,
hey,
check a pro Joe.
It's great to see you.
I love you.
I listen to you every Saturday and Sunday and it was a little awkward.
I had to get used to being that local celebrity.
And I actually was one of people say you're a celebrity.
(08:45):
I'm like,
no,
I'm not.
But then again I thought,
well,
I,
yes,
I am.
But it's really strange because,
you know,
it's that,
uh,
what do you call it one to many relationship?
And,
and it was,
it was really strange and people,
you know,
couldn't wait to talk to me and they were like smiling and bobbing up and down and I'm like,
this is interesting.
This is what it must like to be Justin Bieber.
(09:06):
Right.
So,
and,
and so that's what we're talking about here,
right?
Yeah.
Yeah,
that's exactly what we're talking about and,
and,
um,
you know,
one of the things that we talk about and,
and how we do this is helping you to grow your business faster,
right?
By,
by having that brand.
And people wonder,
like,
well,
why,
and one of the biggest reasons why is because you really don't have to change a whole lot more than what you're already doing.
(09:31):
Um If you're not getting in front of people,
then obviously you've got to change that.
But as you position yourself as that go to authority in your field,
that celebrity expert,
um you don't change very much in your marketing or advertising.
You don't have to increase spending because what happens is,
is you the level of trust that you build with people at the top of your funnel has a huge impact on that early on conversion rate,
(09:54):
that first impression,
right?
You only get one chance at a first impression.
And so if you make a really good first impression,
you know,
uh you can have a huge impact on your bottom line.
Um And,
and that's,
you know what we've seen.
Um and you know,
without getting into all the numbers and statistics of it,
it's like,
you know,
AAA 3 to 5% increase in conversion at the top of your funnel could almost double your business on the other end.
(10:20):
I totally agree with that.
Great numbers.
Something I know that you believe in and I do as well and a lot of people will probably start connecting dots here if you really want to do it.
Right.
I tell people don't just do videos,
don't just do podcasts.
That's great.
Get that book down on paper.
(10:42):
Get,
get it out of your head.
Now,
I've written books some longer than others.
Understand everybody.
It doesn't necessarily have to be a 500 page book.
This isn't a novel,
this is not fiction.
This is about how you can help people.
So,
in the book,
you don't talk about how great you are,
that'll come out.
(11:03):
But you tell them how you can help solve their problem with all your experience.
Once you have that book,
then you start doing the other things more because you can use the book as the foundation.
Mhm.
Yeah.
It's a,
it's a great,
it's a great tool.
Um,
and the reality is,
is,
you know,
you go to a school anywhere.
Uh,
they're still learning from books.
(11:24):
You know,
there's the,
the,
the computers and all these things are supplemental to the foundational principle that we still use textbooks.
So,
like we're being conditioned to learn from books.
That's what we,
we really go,
whether it's an audible book or otherwise.
And so when you hand somebody a book,
even if you're the contributor in a book and didn't write the whole thing.
(11:45):
Um,
if you've written the whole thing,
whatever it is when you have a book and can hand that to somebody,
uh,
it's,
it's physical evidence of,
of your knowledge and your willingness to put it out there in a way that positions you as an authority.
Um,
I was actually,
uh doing a,
uh,
an interview with Brian Tracy and I asked him a similar question about,
you know,
he's done 90 something books now.
(12:07):
Um And you know,
it's,
it's just insane.
Um And uh and so in talking with him about the power of a book and the celebrity brand and all that kind of stuff that he's been able to build for himself over the years.
He,
he was quoting somebody else and,
and I didn't know who it was,
but he was like,
look at,
look at the word authority,
like the 1st 60% 75% of that word is author,
(12:28):
like it's still the case.
Um And so,
you know,
there's,
you can be the author of all different types of content,
but a book is still one of the very powerful ones.
And I know you help people with that and of course,
filming things.
It's funny how we call it filming because we don't use film anymore.
We're not even using video so much anymore.
It's funny they'll say go to film or,
(12:50):
or you know,
the video and it's really like.
No,
we're just actually recording now on digital,
uh,
for the most part,
but it's so important to establish the authority.
So let's get back to the whole,
how can,
um,
an attorney,
um,
how can a plumber,
um,
you know,
how can anyone who is either self-employed or a small business owner become that authoritative expert in their field?
(13:17):
Because honestly,
whether it's the accountant or the plumber,
there's a lot of people who can probably do it better.
There's always someone better,
there's always someone taller,
better looking has more hair,
has more experience.
That's beside the point.
The point is,
is you need to fair and honestly put together your resume and then tell people with through story uh through examples of how you've helped other people,
(13:45):
how you can help them.
So it's not about you.
The most important person in the room is your audience.
Uh Everyone's got an ego and I know Zach,
you talk about it a lot using story to frame things.
Just people learn well by story,
don't they?
Yeah,
absolutely.
Um You know,
(14:05):
I'm in the the process of as we all are probably in,
in writing a book.
Um And uh and in my research of what I was working on,
um and talking about the story Mindset,
um which is the working title for it right now um is,
is really that story is foundational to who we are as people.
Um I had the opportunity to talk with like a renowned scholar um you know,
(14:28):
in anthropology and,
and archaeology and different things.
Uh Brian Fagan,
and uh he was talking about the importance of story going all the way back to the early cro magnon age.
Um And so to save us on all of that,
um If you look at history through and through all of history,
story and storytelling,
whether it was cave art or drawings or linguistic um had were fundamental to not only the survival of our species,
(14:57):
but the in advance,
but the advancement of it as well.
Um And so whether,
whether it was because of story that we survived or our brains have always been wired for story.
It's actually scientifically proven that stories uh help us remember better.
Uh They connect us um our,
our brain waves,
uh There's uh hormones and,
(15:19):
and uh neuropeptide and things that are released in our brain that connect us with each other,
literally like Oxytocin um which has often been called the love hormone.
So when we tell stories,
stories of our clients,
the stories uh of our successes,
the stories of where we came from and where we're going and how we want to help people,
all of those stories combined,
(15:40):
help other people to connect with you.
And that leads us really to the most foundational principle of all of this,
which I know we've talked about before and you've talked about before.
And that is people by people.
Yes.
Right.
And that's really what it's all about.
It doesn't matter what type of industry you're in,
people buy people and they buy from people that they know like and trust.
(16:03):
So,
how do you accomplish that as a business owner?
How do you do it in such a way that,
um,
builds trust and makes a great first impression with your audience as soon as possible.
Um,
and Zach,
it's,
you know,
so simple if,
if we can just remember a few core principles,
if,
(16:23):
if and I'll tell you something,
if,
if I could go back to college today,
um I would take some psychology courses.
I majored in marketing with a minor in communication.
It's perfect for what I do today,
but I really wish I had majored in this.
So if we understand people,
(16:44):
it's,
it's really simple.
People want to hear their name by the way,
spelled and pronounced properly,
please.
Because if you don't,
then you've really,
really,
you're at a big disadvantage.
They wanna be welcomed,
they want it to be their idea.
(17:06):
So when we're pitching,
some people wanna sell,
I'm gonna sell Mrs Smith today.
Ok.
Wouldn't it be better to educate her?
And it might take a little more time and tell her a story,
get her to respond to that and connect with it and then have her make the decision to buy.
(17:26):
And so when we really step back and think about how we market and sell.
I believe.
The best thing to do is show them,
you're the expert,
educate them,
make them feel good.
So,
if you've been in business for 30 years and you have brand new trucks,
let's say you're a service company,
brand new trucks business for 30 years.
(17:48):
You won the B B B pinnacle award 10 years straight.
And that's all you're boasting about the homeowner.
Don't care.
They're like,
how can you fix my plumbing problem?
So instead you might say we've been servicing the area for 30 years and we love our customers and this is how we help you.
Makes a big difference.
(18:09):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that comes,
that comes back to understanding the fundamentals of,
of story too,
right?
And understanding where,
where in the story your prospect is.
Um And for all of us,
no matter what industry you're in,
uh they're living in the tension they're living in that,
that part of the story where they don't have a resolution,
(18:30):
they don't know where the end is gonna be.
They're trying to figure it out and Donald Miller talks about this all the time that,
you know,
everybody wants to be the hero of their own story.
They don't need a hero.
Um But we all need guides.
We all need somebody who's going to show us that there is hope on the other end of whatever tension we're living in.
(18:50):
Um And it might be a plumbing issue.
It,
it might be that,
you know,
my house doesn't look great and I want better garage doors like,
um,
whatever industry you're in,
there's a,
there's a way to find that,
that tension that they're living in and then telling the story of,
of understanding that showing them,
you understand the tension that they're living in and that there's a result on the other side of that and you're the bridge,
(19:15):
the guide the ability for them to be able to get to that hopeful place.
Sure.
And Zach,
you don't even need to tell them you're the bridge.
They're pretty smart.
They make the connection,
right?
And,
and,
and so you're providing them all the information and they start nodding their head.
They're like,
yeah,
I've got that problem.
Yeah.
(19:35):
Ok.
Now I know what it costs and you know,
I understand that.
Ok.
And then,
ok,
it's gonna take how long it's gonna take a day and a half to install.
Uh-huh.
Ok.
And you've been doing it for a long time and you've got some testimonials that you've talked about.
Like,
we've helped Mrs Smith and Mr Jones.
Ok.
Good,
good,
good.
Who else are they gonna hire?
(19:56):
They're gonna hire them.
Um,
a friend of mine,
I'm gonna,
I'm gonna talk about a book here quickly.
Tom Decker,
a good friend of mine and client,
um,
wrote a book.
When can you do it?
And it's all about having all of the answers or all the questions answered.
(20:17):
Before that home service provider goes to the sales call.
So think about this,
wouldn't it be nice if,
if you've answered all these questions?
Ok.
What it costs,
how long it takes to do and all the credibility stuff.
So when they book an appointment and you go out there to make the pitch,
the pitch has already been done,
they're ready to buy.
It's like an infomercial when you,
(20:39):
you look at that infomercial about that New Great Blender and you've been watching it for 30 minutes or 90 minutes,
whatever it's been.
When you call,
you're not asking questions other than,
do you take Visa and Mastercard?
That's all all you're asking because you've already been sold.
Yeah.
Yeah,
I would say probably more so and,
and increasingly so it was,
uh,
than ever before,
(21:01):
uh,
is in this age of information,
uh,
you know,
myself as a consumer,
I don't ever show up to a sales call to,
you know,
anything without having more information than,
you know,
than I did before.
So I've looked at reviews,
I've,
I've,
you know,
looked up the company and I've,
you know,
checked out their website.
(21:21):
I've gone through the material and like,
there's a number of different things that I'm looking for in that process and part of it is that they know what they're talking about.
But the reality is,
is that the reason why I'm talking to this expert is because I don't know enough to do it myself.
So I'm not really gonna know the difference between one expert and another expert and what he says and what she says,
(21:41):
really,
what I'm looking for is one,
do they look like they know what they're talking about?
And it is aligning with the other things that I think I'm seeing,
um,
really foundation.
What I'm looking for is do their values align with mine.
Uh,
does,
does what they're saying align with what I'm doing?
Does it look like they serve their customers?
Have other people been happy?
(22:02):
I'm looking for a reason to trust.
Um,
and so,
uh,
whether that's the building of a celebrity brand and then having the content and then all these different things that along my information gathering gathering phase,
I'm able to build more and more of a trusted connection with this company and this person.
(22:24):
Well,
now when I get on the phone,
it's not so much like,
uh,
ok,
hit me with your pitch.
It's all right.
Look,
I've got all this information already.
Really just what I want to know is,
can I work with you?
And what is it gonna cost me?
Yep.
And that's in,
that's a very,
that's a much easier,
close and a much easier conversation in most cases.
When can you do it right.
(22:45):
It's exactly like you were saying,
Marcus Sheridan,
they ask you answer.
Um,
he would give his prospects homework and then before he would go out on the sales call,
he would ask them,
did you review what I sent over?
And if they didn't often he wouldn't go,
he's not gonna drive the 45 minutes because he wants to make sure.
(23:09):
Right.
That when he was selling pools that the homeowner knew all the particulars,
or at least most of them because when you show up and the homeowner says,
how much is it gonna cost,
isn't working out?
Right.
So,
and that's what so many of us do.
If you ask the average,
(23:29):
we'll call him sales person,
right?
When they go out on a sales call and they have a lead.
It could be as simple as someone filling out a form the day ahead of time saying yes,
you can come to my home to talk to me about this and that's all they know.
They know the person's name and address.
They don't know anything.
Now,
they might be able to tell by the neighborhood if they fit into the demographic and so forth,
(23:50):
but they don't know anything.
Oh,
my gosh.
If I'm that person,
sales person,
I'm gonna educate them as much as I can because chances are the competitors aren't.
And I'm gonna have possibly the book.
If it's not a book,
it's,
it's like a newsletter.
It's a pamphlet.
It's something,
it could be six pages long and there's,
and the video and,
(24:11):
you know,
get yourself on someone else's podcast and have a third party endorse you.
Yeah.
Yeah,
absolutely.
Um,
and I think,
you know,
by and large as we're,
as we're trying to fight for the attention of our prospects,
um,
along with everybody else who's also fighting for their attention.
Um,
it's the little things that help you stand out that make the biggest impact.
(24:35):
Um,
and,
and so it's like,
if,
if,
if you do mailers great,
like what are you doing?
That's gonna build that first level of trust.
Um,
you know,
in a mail in a flyer that you sent out in a,
in a Facebook ad in a,
you know,
a paper click Google ad,
like,
where are they going to and,
and where are they seeing these levels um,
of engagement along the way?
(24:57):
I always relate it to.
Um,
you know,
every business is,
is in the business of building and maintaining relationships.
That's what we do.
And when we think about it from a business perspective,
it's like,
ok,
well,
that's marketing,
that's drip campaigns,
that's sales funnels.
It's all these,
you know,
analytical processes that go into place which are needed.
(25:18):
Um But if you look at it from a romantic perspective,
um if I'm sitting at a bar,
you know,
and I,
and I wanna go talk to this person who's sitting at the bar,
I'm not gonna walk up and then just say,
hey,
I'm Zach,
will you marry me?
And it's a lot of what we're doing in our marketing,
right?
It's like,
it's like,
hey,
I'm,
hey,
I'm that plumber.
(25:38):
Will you hire me?
You know,
it's,
it's the same sort of commitment that we're asking from somebody without building the level of trust.
But when we think about trust too,
a lot of times what I hear people say and the people that we're working with is like,
well,
yeah,
if they just went through my website,
if they just clicked on that article or that blog that I wrote a few years ago,
if they just took the time to read through this,
(25:59):
um,
it's,
it's asking for again,
another level of commitment before you've done any of the work.
And so,
well,
what do we do?
Let's what do we do in this romantic situation?
Getting back to that example.
Well,
I'm gonna walk up,
I'm gonna quickly introduce myself and then I'm gonna start asking them questions to get to know them,
right?
Um That initial handshake,
(26:20):
that initial introduction is really one of the most important ones,
right?
Um And so how do you do that as a business?
Well,
that's where that celebrity brand,
that credibility comes into play where you can say you're a best selling author or even an author where you can say that you've been on TV,
or you have your own show or your own podcast or all those different things play into showing somebody that it's gonna be worth their time to invest a little bit further into researching to finding out more.
(26:50):
Um,
and then you get them with the other content and the other information and then they get interested in wanting to work with you and then they're gonna talk to you.
So it's just a process of building trust and you gotta start shallow.
Um,
but you,
you walk them through the,
the pool um to the deeper end.
Yeah,
if you want to ultimately get married and what we're talking about here and what Zach is talking about is,
(27:14):
is getting a new customer.
So that's,
that's getting married.
Closing the deal,
which I guess when you get married and closing the deal too,
right?
So closing the deal.
But,
you know,
back in the day and we don't use this term so much.
But,
but,
you know,
a few generations ago they call it courting and you would court someone and generally the male would take the lead because that was proper at the time.
(27:36):
And he would ask the young lady,
would you like to go to the barn dance on Friday?
And she might say yes.
But then he would say,
hey,
in two weeks,
there's going to be,
um,
a church picnic.
Would you like to go?
Yes.
And then over time and this is like a trickle campaign,
right?
You're trickling,
right?
She,
she's gaining trust because you're really the salesman,
(27:58):
right?
The guy trying to get married because you like,
are infatuated with this girl.
And over time she begins to know like and trust you.
And ultimately,
when you get down on one knee and pull the box out with the ring,
she says,
absolutely,
I'm ready to buy,
I mean,
(28:19):
get married,
right.
That's what happened.
And the decision is probably made much longer before then,
the same thing in the sales process,
right?
The decision to buy is always made before we ask for the clothes.
I think Zig Zigler talks about that all the time.
Um And so,
you know,
so that's the process of us in,
in business is how do we have that conversation with somebody?
(28:40):
Um What makes it weird is that we don't get a lot of feedback,
you know,
like if somebody is researching us and going through our content,
we're not getting live feedback from them as far as whether or not they like it,
if they're,
you know,
whatever the situation is until they raise their hands.
So uh it makes it a little bit more difficult in understanding that process,
but the process is still the same.
(29:02):
Yeah,
we could talk about this forever.
I'm looking at the clock and I'm like,
this is great,
Zach,
this is great.
So,
um before we conclude,
I will say in the description of this podcast is everything that you need to know to get a hold of Zach,
to learn more about what he does,
how he and his agency can help you.
(29:25):
Um And I know that he'll just help you.
So if you contact him,
um,
you know,
he'll reach out back to you and,
and just help you offline if you want.
And,
you know,
the most important thing is that we,
we help each other with what we can.
What I really like about you,
Zach is,
is,
is that you,
um,
(29:45):
you really care about what you do and you're motivated about what you do and you and I both see things that most people don't.
And hopefully today we've enlightened them to understand that they can be a celebrity expert themselves.
They should to stand apart and they shouldn't feel that they're not deserving of it.
(30:07):
You are deserving of it.
If you do have something to offer,
that's legitimate,
especially if you've been in the industry and have had some success stories over the years or decades.
Now,
a lot of us are apprehensive about shooting video or coming on a podcast,
but that all can be overcome and should be.
(30:32):
And I will tell you this today and I'm not trying to scare anybody.
Things are changing and have been changing for some time.
Now,
if you don't do it,
your competition is going to be doing it.
And if you get out in front because most people aren't doing this,
if you get out in front,
then you have a head start.
Yeah.
Yeah,
absolutely.
Um,
(30:52):
you reminded me a quick story of my,
my grandfather always used to tell me and he passed away when I was young.
But um I remember you'd always say,
you know,
you,
you dress for the part that you want,
not the part that you're in.
Um And uh and,
and celebrity branding is,
is a great example of that.
Um Because uh I'll use this as an example.
(31:13):
So the CEO and founder of our company,
Nick Nat,
and he's a 22 23 time Emmy award winning director and producer.
Um We did Chris Voss story,
we've done Dick Vitale story,
which is now on ESPN.
Um And,
and he started this agency because um you know,
he was in the entertainment industry um has three gold records,
(31:35):
has done all that kind of stuff,
but realized that wasn't happening for business owners and with the Emmys in particular and being a director and producer.
And the reason why I'm saying this story is because he literally googled,
how do you win an Emmy?
And then went and figured out how to win an Emmy and then won an Emmy um a regional Emmy and all this other kind of stuff and then won a whole bunch.
(31:57):
Now,
the reason why this is so impactful is because uh three years ago now,
uh he approached ESPN with the idea and the pitch to do a story on Dick Vitale.
Uh you know,
the,
the NBA coach NBA player announcer,
you know,
long time.
Every most people know who he is anyway,
(32:18):
ESPN was like,
no,
not interested.
Nick did the film anyway through some help of clients and some different things,
you know,
funded,
it got it done two years.
Um It was in the making part way through that or nearing the end of it.
Uh Dick's agent was like,
you know,
we need to show S P N this thing.
This is,
this is like they need to pay,
(32:39):
paying attention.
So ESPN started to pay attention.
Now,
ESPN ended up purchasing the film uh for around a million dollars,
went from not wanting it to now having to buy it.
Um Now the process of them buying it was what was most interesting.
They didn't take a minute to look at other other stuff.
(33:03):
They,
they did some research on Nick.
Um We found about this later.
All they did was just Google Nick's name and saw that he had 22 Emmys saw that they had done his other documentaries,
saw that he had done all these other things and they were like,
oh yeah,
we need this.
Just give us a number like,
and it was literally that because he had already looked apart.
Now,
if he didn't have those things,
(33:24):
if he didn't build out his brand,
if he didn't take the time to do all that stuff,
that first impression wouldn't have been made and it probably would have been a whole lot harder to have such a sweet deal.
Right.
And So that's on a different scale.
But this happens over and over and over again for ourselves and for our clients and uh for your clients and the people listening today too.
It really does work.
(33:44):
Zach is funny because it sounds like you're talking about what I tell my prospects and clients,
which are home service professionals is what happens when someone types you or your company's name into Google.
What do they see?
Maybe,
you know,
maybe they'll see something about your company,
(34:05):
maybe something about you personally.
And I say,
wouldn't it be nice if,
when they type in your company name,
a bunch of things came up?
So like in my business here,
I'll,
I'll,
I'll do this uh for the purposes of,
of giving a demonstration.
So I have uh an H VAC client,
air conditioning client and if you type in their company name,
(34:26):
Acme air conditioning,
you're gonna see their website,
you're gonna see,
you know,
some things like maybe A B B B,
maybe an Angie's List or um uh you know,
one of those other typical large um referral sources.
OK.
(34:47):
Which everyone kind of has and yeah,
there's a B B B listing and so forth.
But wouldn't it be cool if,
when they typed it in things like audible and Spotify and iheart Radio showed up and videos of you on youtube on the first page instead of all this other stuff because you can force all that up with those types of things because Audible and Spotify and youtube are big players and if you're on there with your name,
(35:17):
Google says,
well,
it's relevant.
Let's put it at the top and boom instead of all this other junk and now when they look at it,
they're like my gosh,
these guys are everywhere.
That's what you're talking about.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
I mean,
at the end of the day,
whether we like to admit it or not,
uh perception is reality.
Um And so you could be the best person in your field absolutely astronomically without a shadow of a doubt.
(35:43):
But if somebody comes to your website and it looks like it was built in the early two thousands,
like they're gonna think you're in witsec or that you're not in business anymore,
right?
And so perception really is the reality and that you don't get another chance at that first impression.
And what do all of us do when we're looking for a solution to our problem,
we're gonna Google it.
(36:03):
Even if we hear about somebody,
we're gonna Google them,
we're gonna look them up and we're gonna get that information because it's right there on our,
in our hands on our phones.
Um It's almost instantaneous.
So,
yeah,
you gotta show up and you gotta show up in a powerful way.
Yeah,
Grant Cardone talks about you and your company being obscure obscurity.
I actually quoted Grant in my book and it's true.
(36:28):
That's the biggest problem many companies have and you need to kind of step out and you should have already been doing this.
I mean,
we're,
this isn't like a,
I where a lot's coming.
This is like it's been here but it's not too late to still get out,
especially some industries.
So I talk about home service a lot because that's where I spend most of my time and home service isn't on cutting edge of technology.
(36:54):
They're just not,
we're talking plumbers,
H VAC Roofers and they've always adopted a little bit later than some other industries.
And so my point is it's the good news for the plumbers and the air conditioning companies out there and the garage door companies,
your competition is not doing it.
So,
get out there in front.
Yeah.
Yeah,
absolutely.
It's,
it's a,
(37:14):
it's a win-win conversation,
um,
that you just need to do it because if your competition is doing it,
you're behind.
So now you just got to catch up.
Um,
and if they're not doing it now,
you're ahead,
but either way you need to be doing it.
That's the point here.
Um And you really should be,
um,
you know,
content is king.
Uh It always has been.
Um,
and it's how people like Grant Cardone and Gary V and,
(37:36):
you know,
all these other people have gotten Marcus,
um,
uh Sheridan,
it's how they got to where they were by putting out good,
consistent content and consistent is key as well.
Yeah.
And I'll tell you what's important,
it's consistent,
not necessarily great or excellent because you said good.
It just has to be good.
You,
so we've heard the expression showing up is 90%.
(37:58):
So for instance,
let's say that you wanted a job.
Ok?
And,
and five people were supposed to show up for the job,
but you were the only one you might get the job because you showed up.
So if you don't show up,
you could be the best.
You're not gonna get the job.
So my point is,
is just put out good and if you could put out great and excellent content,
(38:20):
so be it.
But all you need is your iphone.
OK?
Any camera will do its best to do it on,
you know,
on your mobile device because it's all integrated and just start talking about things.
It could be in the office,
it could be on the job site.
It could be while you're driving,
be careful.
A lot of people do it when they drive and I'm just whatever,
(38:40):
ok?
But,
and,
and then you'll get pretty good at it and you'll feel confident but people will see this stuff and you will become more relevant to them and you will become um closer to them.
They will be comfortable with you and people buy from people they know like and trust.
But if they don't know you,
(39:02):
they can't like and trust you.
So true.
So true.
Hey,
Zach,
this has been great,
my friend.
I really appreciate it.
Yeah,
thank you,
Jim.
I,
I had a great time talking about this and uh you know,
hopefully it's been helpful for your audience.
Uh and they've,
they've pulled away some,
some tidbits of information.
Um and like all these things and I say all the time,
(39:22):
uh just grab one thing,
right?
You can always come back to it,
but just grab one thing and think,
OK,
I'm gonna take that step.
I'm gonna take a step in that direction uh because you know,
listening to it and then doing nothing isn't gonna help either.
But uh uh we all do that.
But yeah,
take that first step of whatever direction it is to,
to help you getting yourself out there and letting people know you exist in a,
(39:42):
in a powerful way.
Yeah.
Thanks again.
All the resources that Zach and I talked about are going to be listed in the description of this podcast,
including how to get a hold of Zach directly.
Thank you so much,
my friend.
I appreciate it.
But yeah,
thanks Jim.
Thanks for having me.
I appreciate you.
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