May 2, 2025 • 36 mins
Episode 89 Frederick Dudek (Freddy D) Copyright 2025 Prosperous Ventures, LLC
Unlocking AI & Consumer Behavior: Insights with Shahar Boyayan
Shahar Boyayan joins us to discuss the crucial role of follow-up in building customer loyalty and thriving in today's business landscape. With over two decades of experience helping businesses innovate and adapt, Shahar emphasizes that it’s not just about making a sale; it’s about making customers feel valued and connected. We dive deep into how her platform, Prop Talkie, harnesses the power of automation and AI to personalize customer interactions, ensuring that businesses don’t just communicate, but resonate. Our chat covers everything from the significance of personalized touches, like sending birthday cards, to the importance of understanding consumer behavior in the age of AI. Tune in as we explore practical strategies that can transform your business into a community where customers become true superfans.
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Diving into the core of our discussion, Shahar outlines how she and her daughter developed prop talkie out of necessity, initially as a tool to manage follow-ups with potential buyers and investors in their land investment business. This evolved into a robust platform that offers customized solutions for various industries, showcasing how adaptability and innovation can drive success. We also examine the significance of hyper-personalization in customer interactions, where Shahar argues that businesses must go beyond generic newsletters and engage customers in meaningful ways.
She shares compelling insights on consumer trends, drawn from her research and experience, revealing how businesses can leverage AI to create a more engaging customer experience that fosters brand loyalty. The conversation underscores the need for businesses to embrace technology while maintaining a human touch, ultimately leading to the creation of 'super fans' who advocate for their brand.
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Takeaways:
- In this episode, Shahar Boyayan shares valuable insights on how small businesses can leverage automation and AI to enhance customer follow-up strategies, emphasizing the critical need for hyper-personalization in today's market.
- Shahar discusses the importance of maintaining consistent communication with customers, as missing follow-ups can result in lost opportunities and money left on the table for businesses.
- The conversation highlights how businesses that utilize both traditional marketing methods, like direct mail, alongside modern digital strategies, can create a unique competitive advantage in customer engagement.
- Shahar explains how understanding customer emotions and preferences can drastically improve their loyalty, reinforcing that businesses need to focus on building relationships rather than just making sales.
- The episode underscores the necessity for businesses to recognize and address points of frustration in their customer journey, advocating for the implementation of AI-driven solutions to streamline these processes effectively.
- Shahar also touches on the transformative power of recognizing employees and creating a positive workplace atmosphere, which directly correlates with customer satisfaction and loyalty.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(01:54):
In this episode 89 of theBusiness Superfans podcast, we're
joined by Shahar Boyan, aBrazilian immigrant who spent the
last two decades in the UShelping businesses from solopreneurs
to mid sized companiesnavigate and innovate. A true adventurer
at heart, Shahar is aboutwildlife photography, especially
bears, and loves the thrill ofgeocaching. Professionally, she's
(02:17):
a powerhouse at theintersection of consumer behavior
and artificial intelligence.She co founded an online art course
platform and prop talkie withher daughter Nashla, blending automation
and AI to support smallbusinesses. She also is a seasoned
real estate investor and theauthor of AI Driven Consumer Trends
(02:40):
and Business Applications, awidely respected guide for businesses
ready to embrace the future ofcommerce. Zahara's insight are as
practical as they are forwardthinking and we're excited to dive
in. Welcome, Shahar, fromproptalki.com to the business Superfans
podcast.
Glad to be here. Thank you.
(03:01):
So tell us a little bit aboutthe backstory of how you came up
with the platform.
My daughter and I worktogether on several fronts and one
of them is investing in land.We buy land from auctions and sell
them. As you know. You were insales, so you know how important
customer, right? Mm. Therewere no tools that would help us
(03:22):
follow up with possibleinvestors or buyers in a way that
sense for the business. So westarted developing a platform for
ourselves. We use high level,but she customized for different
parts of the negotiation withbuyers and investors. And after we
used that for a while, we saw,okay, this has so many possibilities,
(03:42):
let's implement that for ourother businesses. One of them, for
example, is a productioncompany where we do art courses.
We've been doing that forabout 10 years. So we customize to
that until prop talking isreally a tool that serves a lot of
industries today. And then AIis making it even better. Right.
(04:04):
So we have several agentsthere that can help the businesses
have more profit.
How important is follow up inyour business or in general, I should
say.
You know, Frederic, I thinkfor the small business owner, they
have the concept that theyneed to do follow up with their customers.
Right. We understand thatbecause it costs a lot less to keep
(04:25):
a customer buying from us thanto keep acquiring new customers all
the time. But at the sametime, the small business owner is
usually working on whatevercraft they do. Right? So if they
have a restaurant, a dentistpractice, whatever it is, and it
falls through the cracks,sometimes they have an autoresponder
or a newsletter, but it stopsright there. We need something in
(04:48):
depth because the consumertoday is Expecting hyper personalization
on everything. They want tofeel they matter. And it's not with
the newsletter every 10 daysthat you're going to do that. We
need to keep thatcommunication going in different
formats in a way that theywill really engage with us. They
will become fans of what wedo. So it's not business, you know,
(05:12):
say, hey, we are here and weare awesome. But a lot more than
that. That's why we createdthis and that's why I think if you
don't do the proper follow up,you are always leaving money on the
table.
Oh, absolutely correct,Shahar. I have a philosophy. Being
in sales for 40 years, I was atech guy for five. One of the things
that drilled into my head wasfollow up and follow up. In today's
(05:35):
world, if somebody sends aninquiry for your product or service,
you have a 15 minute window torespond. If you don't resp. Respond
within 15 minutes, they'reprobably looking someplace else.
And the advantage ofresponding very quickly is one, it
shows you're interested, showsrespect, and more importantly, if
(05:56):
they are looking at somebodyelse. Right. You can set the bar
quite high for yourcompetitors because you're the first
one to be there. Yeah, right.
Today, the average responsetime has been 72 hours. The lead
is dead by now. Yeah, butpeople get busy and they don't do.
(06:17):
And also, I think, Frederic,we need to think about where do I
cause frustration with mycustomers? A simple example that
happened to me several times.I go to a hairdresser in Utah that
I like. She's cutting my hair.I'm always like, I need to be in
and I need to be out. Then thephone rings. She answers frustration
(06:37):
here because she stops whatshe's doing and go answer the phone.
She's frustrated because she'strying to multitask. Right. It goes
well. The other customer willbe rushed because whatever they want
to ask, she needs to get ridof the phone call very fast. So you
have three people frustratedin less than five minutes. We need
to understand that thishappens in our businesses. So we
(07:00):
need to pinpoint what arethese frustration points and how
can I solve this. For example,with voice AI, the voice AI could
be carrying that conversationon the phone. She wouldn't interrupt
my experience, and everythingwould be perfect. If she has the
proper systems in place, thefollow up will be done with whoever
called and with me as well. Icut my hair every three weeks. Have
(07:24):
I ever received a call, text,email saying, hey, Shahar, I know
you like to cut your hairevery three weeks. It's time for
you to book an appointment.Simple reminder that would say, wow,
they notice that I cut everythree weeks. Not every four, not
every five. So all this, youkeep thinking, okay, we create that
loyalty. But their loyalty ison a very stretchy line that can
(07:48):
be broken at any point becausethere is not the thing of I matter
to them.
I have a saying in my book,Creating Business Super Fans, that
people will crawl throughbroken glass for appreciation and
recognition.
Exactly. And you know what'shappening? There was a Harvard study
showing that one in every fiveAmericans feel extremely lonely,
(08:12):
and one in every threeAmericans think they have a good
friend. Since COVID we havebeen isolating ourselves at home,
then work from home thing, andnow AI that we are catering our houses
to exactly what we want. Butwe are feeling lonely of social interactions
and the business that say,hey, I know what you like to eat
(08:32):
when you come to myrestaurant. I know how you like things
done. I know the experienceyou expect. Well, they're doing well,
right?
Absolutely.
They're just crossing theirarms and thinking, wait to see how
this goes. They are going tobe left behind.
Absolutely correct. And yousaid an important thing here that
I want to emphasize, Shahar,is that people are working. Some
(08:54):
people are still working fromhome. Businesses are trying to get
people back into the office,but nevertheless, there are people
that have their own businessesand they work at home by themselves.
And like you said, they're alittle bit lonely. And one of the
things I shared in my book wassending a birthday card through the
mail. Old school, you know?And you might be the only person
(09:15):
that sent them a physicalbirthday card, which takes you minutes
to do, but that impact on thatperson is profound, especially if
it's the only card they got.They're going to become a super fan
of whoever the sender is, andthey're going to tell their huge
(09:35):
circle of friends, my dentistsent me a birthday card. Can you
believe that? Nobody else did,but my dentist did.
Exactly. It might be the onlycar they get on that date. And today
you don't even need to do thedesigning or anything, because you
have AI to design and to shipthat without you touching your hands
(09:58):
in anything. But, you know,what's the barrier here? To convince
the business owner that thistype of marketing works really well.
They will think that whateverthey do on social media will work
today because what everybodyelse is doing. But you have to understand
that when I get a card in themail, I will give undivided attention
to that card. Right. What'sbehind that Somebody remember this,
(10:22):
I am not invisible. They knowI exist. They know I spend my money
with them. The bond youcreate, you do not create by posting
videos. I'm not saying it'snot good to do social media. We all
do it. But I have tounderstand that when I have a chance
to get undivided attention, Ishould go to that.
Well, I have another saying.The little things are really the
(10:44):
big things. The little thingsusually have the biggest impact.
Saying thank you is a littlething, but the impact it has is tremendous.
Saying I appreciate you forthe extra effort you put in is a
little thing, but the impactis profound. I'm grateful for you
being a customer. Yes, that'sa little thing, but the impact is
(11:07):
huge.
Because as consumers today, weactually have tons of options to
spend our money. We don't haveto go back to the restaurant, we
don't have to go back to thehairdresser. We have many options.
We could create the fun oftrying something new every single
time. But for the businessowner, that's not what you want.
You want that repeat customer.So if you don't go the extra mile,
(11:30):
you're not going to get that.Unfortunately, during COVID we had
to adapt things to survive asbusinesses. We thought that after
that was over, it was okay.Right? From QR codes and not having
paper menus anymore to allkinds of other bad habits. And we
didn't go back to the goodhabits. Right. And that impacts because
(11:52):
anything that makes me work toget the service is not going my way
if I have to. And simplethings you might take. No, but everybody
uses QR codes. Yes, they do.Very useful. I have to get my glasses
from my purse. I have to putglasses and then I have to scroll.
It needs to adapt to my screenon my device. So I thinking all the
(12:15):
time, obstacle, obstacle,obstacle, obstacle. Then I have the
dinner, my dear, wonderfuldinner. Nobody's going to ask for
my name, my email, my address,my birthday date, not so spend sometimes
a couple hundred dollars on anice dinner, but the business owner
has no way to bring you back.
Correct? Yeah. So let's gomore into prop talkie and talk about
(12:41):
some of the automations inthere. We talked a little bit about
the hair salon with the phoneautomation. I'd like you to share
a little bit more because I'mfamiliar with the platform, but I'd
like you to share a little bitmore of how really this is such a
game changer for businessesimplementing something like prop
talkie into their business.
(13:01):
So if we analyze a businessWhatever business it is, we can create
a workflow that is how youwork inside, high level, Right. I
can create a workflow cater toexactly what you need as a business.
It's not a cookie cutter. Weare going to adapt that. When it
comes to the AI agents, orlike we like to call them, the AI
(13:22):
employees, same thing is done.It is tested for your business specifically.
We do tests every single day.For example, we were testing because
AI is good, but it can bebetter. And it depends on the AI
learning from you every singletime. Right. That's how they get
better. So we did a test for afuneral home, a fictitious one, to
(13:42):
see how, in a very sensitivesubject, how the AI would behave.
Because you programmed just upto a point. And it was impressive,
Frederic. It showed someempathy, made suggestions that were
exactly according to what theperson was talking about and budget
and things like that. If wetested that six months ago, it would
(14:05):
be a totally different ballgame. So it evolves. And the more
you keep feeding that AI, thebetter it gets. You mentioned cards.
We just did with a client ofours. I have several restaurants
as clients. And it took us awhile to convince that for Valentine's
Day we should send a card inthe mail with a promotion. The resistance
is always because it's notonline. Right? But we did. We sent
(14:27):
it. He has two units. Bothunits broke a record in attendance
not only on Valentine's Day,but also on Saturday with cards.
Simple thing, right? It was acard with Valentine's stuff and a
coupon as an offer. That wasit. But all of that was done automatically.
He didn't have to go to thepost office, I didn't have to go
(14:47):
to the post office. Nothinglike that. You have to think, okay,
let's talk to this business,see what are the friction points.
Where are the points wherethey are failing? Either because
they don't have time, or theythink it's too expensive, or it could
be better. Create a solutionto keep the customers that you have
first and then go after newones, because that sustains the business.
(15:09):
Sometimes we have crisis.Covid was a big one. The businesses
that survived were businessesthat could communicate with their
customers during that time inan effective way. Right?
Yeah, it involves everybody.Because if you've got employees,
you got to take care of them.The employees are really the front
(15:30):
line to prospective andexisting customers. So if you don't
take time to first recognizeyour team and empower them to make
decisions, they're empoweredto create a great customer experience.
Prospective customer cominginto a restaurant for the first time,
you want that to be a greatexperience, not only in the food,
(15:53):
but the whole aspect of it andthen transforming into a customer
and just like you said,maintaining that relationship with
that customer. Because it'svery expensive to re onboard customers,
it's very expensive to reonboard employees as well.
Exactly.
And here's the thing that youhighlighted and I want to really
emphasize that is you blendedold school method, which is postal
(16:19):
and new school technology. Andthat gives you the competitive advantage
that most people don'trealize. Because an email may not
get viewed, you're not goingto recognize who it is. The subject
line doesn't catch yourattention. A piece of mail coming
in, you have at least a chanceto take a peek at it before you throw
(16:40):
it away. It gives you 15seconds to hmm, I'm look at this
a little further. As you'regoing through your mail, you have
an actual physical chance,especially if you use a postcard
as a marketing method tointroduce yourself to a marketplace.
It's going to get seen becausethere's nothing open. It's visual.
(17:04):
And the probability ofsuccess, just like you described
with the Valentine's Day, ismuch higher with direct mail. That's
why it still exists. And it'sa very, very powerful tool that unfortunately
is overlooked today because asyou said, and I'm going to emphasize
it again, people, it's alldigital and we forgot about all the
(17:25):
old things that used to workand still do.
Yeah. And even when youcompare the price, you keep thinking,
well, I don't know how much isthe stamp, but let's say it's a dollar.
How much are you paying perclick when you're doing the ads online,
sometimes not to get qualifiedleads. I'm spending a dollar to talk
to somebody that already knowsmy business and already knows me,
(17:45):
more likely to do businesswith me. And you mentioned the employees
and you're totally right.There are three things that are very
important. One, they need tofeel they belong. Second, they need
to feel they matter to you.Absolutely. Dealing with business
owners all the time, you seethat you have all types of personalities
out there. And in someenvironments the employee thinks
(18:07):
that they just don't matter,so they don't care. And the third
one have a system fortraining. This for the small business
owner, like the dentist, therestaurant, the massage therapist,
it's hard because every timethey onboard somebody, it's not nightmare
for them because they're goingto spend time doing the same type
of training until they areready. Many times they are ready
(18:27):
and then they go. Our systemcan also host all those trainings.
So you onboard the employeethrough prop talking, and it will
do the whole training. As longas you do the videos or audio or
whatever you want to do as atraining, it becomes not only consistent,
also systematizing yourtraining methodology.
(18:48):
Right.
For small businesses is alwaysa struggle. They should, as soon
as possible, create materialwith the training that they do. Can
be as simple as recording withthe cell phone and then having a
platform to deliver that tothe employees.
Oh, absolutely correct. If youlook at the cost associated with
onboarding a new employee, andthen more importantly, someone's
(19:10):
got to train that newemployee. Productivity goes away,
just like you're mentioning isthe new person on board. Susie's
the one that's going to betraining him. Well, Susie's busy
training him. She's not doingwhat she needs to be done. So she's
falling behind in herproductivity. She starts getting
frustrated. And then you havea person that's not the world's greatest
(19:30):
business manager who startscomplaining, how come you're letting
things slip? And it's like,well, wait a minute, I'm training
Mike. It's a mess.
Everybody gets frustrated.
Everybody gets frustrated. Andthen more. I've seen it happen where
poor management skillschastise both of them publicly instead
(19:51):
of privately. And so now thatpollutes the rest of the company's
environment. Because noweverybody goes, oh, my gosh, I don't
want to be what happened toMike and Susie. And it's a train
wreck.
Yeah. Because one person thatis dissatisfied will, you know, wherever
(20:12):
focus goes, energy flows. Soeverybody starts getting with the
same sentiment. And at theend, you have a.
Terrible working day orworking environment, and now nobody
even wants to go to work. Sothe productivity goes down the drain.
What you're doing is a greatidea, leveraging the technology to
onboard new people. Then youcan still have Susie check in on
(20:37):
Mike, but now she's able to dowhat she needs to do. And Mike can
go through the program andthen you can have the testing in
there to make sure they'vepassed the training. And that's rewarding
for Mike as well. Because ofhow you described leveraging the
technology. You've transformedit into a very positive environment.
(20:57):
Yeah. And when he's in touchwith client, he is prepared for that.
So you avoid all those things.They're ready to take care of that
customer the way you want.Because consistency is the key to
success. So if I go to a placeand I have a nice experience next
Time I want the sameexperience and the other time I want
the same experience. If thatvaries a lot, it will create micro
(21:19):
frustration as well. So thatadds up over time. Can I systematize?
You've gone to a restaurantand it's a great experience because
the server was excellent. Thenext time you go back, it's a horrible
experience because the serverwas not a good server. And all of
a sudden your perception ofthat place changes because you just
(21:40):
remember the last experience.It's like watching a movie. You don't
remember the middle of themovie. You remember the beginning
and the end, everything in themiddle. I can't remember what happened.
It's the same thing inbusiness, really. The sale isn't
the sale. Most people thinkthe sale is the signing of the paperwork
(22:00):
or the transaction being done.It's not. It's the whole onboarding
process.
That's the sale because itsets. And the experience that they
are going to have.
Yeah. And if you create a goodexperience, that's how you transform
customers into superfans. Wetalked about good experience for
(22:20):
the employee. That's how youtransform them into superfans. That
energy transcends. You'vetalked to people on the phone and
you've noticed someone's kindof flat and mechanical and you get
a weird feeling. You go, yeah,I'm not sure about this place. And
then someone else answers andsays, hey, sure, great calling us.
You know, we're super blah,blah, blah, and that energy. And
(22:42):
you go, man, this is a coolplace. I'm interested.
Yep. And let's talk aboutsales, because I know you love that
very much and I love sales aswell. We need not only as a business
owner, but everybody thatworks with us to understand how we
are reaching our customers orprospects on an emotional level.
Everybody needs to understandwhat we are really selling and how
(23:05):
we are going to translatethat. So they have a perception of
value of whatever you'reoffering in a different way. McDonald's
Coffee, $1. Starbucks, $6. Whypeople put lines on Starbucks for
that $6. They created aconnection on how people felt when
they went to the stores, howcool they were and they could work
(23:27):
from there and things likethat. That type of connection, we
need to be creating andunderstanding how it works every
single time. We are never justselling something.
Right. And it transcendsbeyond just customers. What about
suppliers? You're a restaurantgetting supplies on your food. You're
a service business gettingsupplies and products. You've got
(23:48):
distributors. If you'remarketing through a distribution
channel, You've gotcontractors that come into play.
Think of the home improvementindustry, flooring, painting, plumbing,
electrical. And you haveancillary businesses. Your lawyer,
your accountant. It's not partof your company, but you need that.
All those relationships arereally important in that conversation
because they all affect you.
(24:11):
They're not only part of yourteam. We all have to have the same
goal. We need that bond fromthe customers, from the suppliers,
other people that we buyservices from all the time. That's
how you create a super forcefor your business. We are all on
the same page, going the sameway. You need to translate that.
And many times, Frederik, Ineed that ongoing communication with
(24:34):
groups like suppliers. Itdepends on the structure of every
business. But thatcommunication cannot lag, especially
in today's world, because weall have so many options all the
time, and we are overloadedwith information. How can you be
top of mind not only for yourcustomers, but also from everybody
else that works with you?
(24:54):
And that's where your platformcomes in. Because you can set up
some of the automation tocreate the communications, you know,
because out of sight, out ofmind is one thing. The other thing
is, unfortunately, the humanbrain always goes negative. First
you don't hear from somebody.I use it in the dating world, okay?
(25:17):
You're going out on a coupledates and all of a sudden you get
ghosted. So now your mind goescompletely negative and you're starting
to create all kinds of crazystories. Well, guess what? It happens
in business as well. I usethat as an example because everybody
can get it. But the realityis, in business, you're trying to
sell somebody and all of asudden they disappear. You don't
(25:39):
hear from them anymore. Andthe reality is you have to be disciplined
enough to realize that youdon't know what's going on in their
world. And you sometimes needto give it some space. And then sometimes
you need to just reach out alittle bit later and just say, hey,
I haven't heard. I just wantto make sure everything is okay.
And sometimes they'll comeback and say, you know, completely
(26:01):
my bad. I got caught up inthis or whatever. And yeah, by the
way, you know what? We owe youa phone call. Let's get this thing
wrapped up and the sale'sdone. But you gave it some room.
You weren't like, okay, I justcalled them. How come they haven't
called me back? Or I sent anemail. How come they haven't opened
it yet and replied back? Soleveraging some of the technology,
(26:22):
you take some of the Emotionout of it. Yeah. With the workflows
as you talk.
Best thing that technology cando for you is give you control over
your business in every aspectthat matters. Because what I see
that today. Let'ssolopreneurs, for example, the very
small businesses. I went to ayarn store. Simple thing. I love
crafts. I took a course there.Nobody ever asked who I was, my email,
(26:47):
nothing. Then I asked theowner of the store, how do I get
to know about other courses?And then she said, I post on Instagram
and I went once a month. Andshe said yes. And I left. And I thought,
okay, now I need the algorithmto show me her thing all the time
or I need to remember the nameof her store a month from now. And
(27:10):
then I need to go through allthe posts to see if I find the one
about courses. Why can't I getan email with the next courses? And
then if you argue about that,they will say, nobody reads email,
but you're not your customer.So if you read emails or only read
once a month, that's you.Doesn't mean all your customers are
(27:31):
that we are always inbusiness. Working with percentages.
Right. Making me work to knowabout the courses that you have sounds
cool to you because you're ona platform, but it doesn't sound
cool to me because I getbombarded with information every
single day. I'll be happy toremember the name of your store next
month. I probably won't. Andyou know, not bad fate. It's just
(27:54):
that how it goes.
It's sadly the same thing witheven the home improvement industry.
I'm going to pick on them.We've all had work done on our house.
You're happy with the work andthen they disappear.
Yep.
They don't come back and say,shahar, it's been three months. Just
want to make sure everythingis still good. Geez, six months have
(28:16):
gone by or it's a yearanniversary since we were there.
Just want to reach out and sayhi, if you ever need us, we're still
here. We appreciate you.Simple doesn't have to be a book,
just can be a couple little sentences.
And your customers can be yoursales force. Why not train them to
be your sales force? Forexample, tiles and reforms around
(28:37):
the house because they'rehigher ticket items. People think,
no, they bought this, they'renever going to buy this again. And
they forget the network theyhave. If they go to church and have
a lot of people if they liketo change other rooms in the house,
they assume, no, they only doBusiness with us every so many years.
Like cars, for example. That'snot true. And you're forgetting that
(28:58):
the network each person has,you just don't know how big it is.
This job, that was fine. Andthen we complain, oh, the market
is not doing as I wanted. Yes,because not bringing new people.
What about all the others thatyou did business with that could
be promoting you? So manysimple things that can be done. You
clean carpets, right? There'snothing exciting about that. We all
(29:21):
like clean carpets, but reallynothing exciting. I hire the company.
What if the moment I answeredthe door, the guy gives me a bouquet
of flowers that cost him maybe$5, $10? When the carpet is clean,
am I going to tell my friendsmy carpets are clean, or am I going
to tell my friends I hiredthis guy to clean my carpets? And
(29:42):
guess what? I got thesehydrangeas. They're awesome.
It's the little things thatare the big things. Which is why
I created this businessSuperfans podcast show a book, and
I'm actually starting to workon another book because exactly what
you just said.
People don't understand thatnobody cares about who you are. They
(30:05):
care about themselves. Youeither learn how to talk to the consumer,
talking about them, what theywill become by working with you.
And it doesn't matter if youclean carpenters or you are a consultant.
Who will they become byworking with you? If you don't have
that answer, you should sitdown and think about it. Because
in whatever we do in life, weneed to impact and transform. If
(30:28):
we're not doing that, we arejust selling stuff. And stuff has
no value. No, it has noemotional value. So let's start by
thinking who they become byworking with me. And when I have
a conversation, am I talkingabout what I do? How good it is?
If you ever been to anetworking meeting, you know how
it is, right? Every has 30seconds. They spend those 30 seconds
(30:50):
talking about how great theyare and you sleep in the middle of
the table because nobodycares. We need to understand that.
Absolutely correct. When I wasselling software in the engineering
and manufacturing space, Ididn't get into conversations about
what the software could orcouldn't do. Because other products
do similar stuff. It gets thejob done. I focused on where the
(31:13):
business owner wanted to taketheir business. What was their growth
strategy? What was their plan?What were their biggest pain issues.
We looked at how to addressthose. Then we talked about how my
technology could help achievethat. So I was in a completely different
conversation and space than mycompetitors. They were all Talking
(31:35):
about how wonderful they are.And that's what you reminded me.
I didn't talk about howwonderful we are. I talked about
how I can help you get towhere you want to go. And this is
just a tool that will help youget to that goal.
Exactly. And that's at theend. Exactly what we all do. We sell
tools. Right. Our services.The thing is, it's a much more effective
(31:56):
way of saying, I can do thisand I can do that. And there's AI
and there's automation.Beautiful. But, Frederick, you and
I are in a call right now,right? We are recording a podcast.
Maybe your phone is ringingand you're not answering that. Maybe
every sale is a thousanddollars. If you lose one phone call
a day, how much less are yougoing to make in a year?
(32:19):
Yeah. A lot.
Okay, Right. So you're talkingabout you. If you were missing a
holiday and it's this much,how much so. So we can approach in
different ways, but at the endof the day, it's always about you,
not about me or what I do.
Correct, Correct. Well, as wecome towards the end here, Shahar,
great conversation. We couldprobably talk about this for hours.
(32:42):
You're very easy to talk with.Thank you for sharing all the great
nuggets because we coveredsome of the technologies and how
to leverage them to helpbusinesses achieve their goals. How
can our listeners connect with you?
Prop Talkie is the best placebecause if they scroll down to the
bottom, they will see somefree reports. I have the AI driven
(33:03):
consumer trends, which isimportant for all of us to be aware
because we are changing ashuman beings. It is the biggest change
we have seen in many years.Five generations are alive at the
same time going through thischange. So we need to be aware of
that. And the five laws ofbecoming irresistible to a market.
If they call the number there,they will talk to an AI agent, but
(33:25):
then very easy to get in touch.
Well, I was talking tosomebody last year about AI, and
he said they were conversingwith somebody on a website for almost
10 minutes before realizing itwas an AI. They actually thought
it was an actual individual.You can set up the technology to
(33:46):
be pretty much a replica ofyourself, which is one of the things
you talked about on your site.They're, in a sense, talking to you
in an automated fashion. Andthen when they need to talk to you,
it switches you over andyou're not live.
Yeah. It is really impressivethe way it is today. If they are
used to going to a website andjust having a bot with those five
(34:06):
questions they can answer.It's not what is out there today.
I can train my AI to reallytalk like I do.
Yep.
Right.
Yeah. Well, I wanted to bringthat up because that's the game changer
right there.
It is.
Thank you so much for yourtime today of being a guest on a
business superfan podcastshow, and we look forward to continuing
(34:27):
the conversation another dayand having you a guest again.
Thank you.
All right, Shahar, thank you.Hey, superfan superstar Freddie D.
Here. Before we wrap, here'syour three A Playbook Attract, Advocate
and Accelerate youe BusinessPower move for today. Here's this
episode's top insight. Youdon't win loyalty by being loud.
(34:47):
You win by showing customersthat they matter more than a sale.
So here's your business growthaction step. Implement one automated
personalized touchpoint thisweek, like a custom voicemail or
an AI written birthday cardproves to your customers you're paying
attention when others aren't.If today's conversation sparked an
(35:09):
idea for you, share with afellow business leader who would
benefit and grab the fullbreakdown in the show notes. Let's
accelerate together and startcreating business super fans who
not only champion your brand,but accelerate your growth.
In this episode 89 of theBusiness Superfans podcast, we're
joined by Shahar Boyan, aBrazilian immigrant who spent the
last two decades in the UShelping businesses from solopreneurs
to mid sized companiesnavigate and innovate. A true adventurer
at heart, Shahar is aboutwildlife photography, especially
bears, and loves the thrill ofgeocaching. Professionally, she's
(02:17):
a powerhouse at theintersection of consumer behavior
and artificial intelligence.She co founded an online art course
platform and prop talkie withher daughter Nashla, blending automation
and AI to support smallbusinesses. She also is a seasoned
real estate investor and theauthor of AI Driven Consumer Trends
(02:40):
and Business Applications, awidely respected guide for businesses
ready to embrace the future ofcommerce. Zahara's insight are as
practical as they are forwardthinking and we're excited to dive
in. Welcome, Shahar, fromproptalki.com to the business Superfans
podcast.
Glad to be here. Thank you.
(03:01):
So tell us a little bit aboutthe backstory of how you came up
with the platform.
My daughter and I worktogether on several fronts and one
of them is investing in land.We buy land from auctions and sell
them. As you know. You were insales, so you know how important
customer, right? Mm. Therewere no tools that would help us
(03:22):
follow up with possibleinvestors or buyers in a way that
sense for the business. So westarted developing a platform for
ourselves. We use high level,but she customized for different
parts of the negotiation withbuyers and investors. And after we
used that for a while, we saw,okay, this has so many possibilities,
(03:42):
let's implement that for ourother businesses. One of them, for
example, is a productioncompany where we do art courses.
We've been doing that forabout 10 years. So we customize to
that until prop talking isreally a tool that serves a lot of
industries today. And then AIis making it even better. Right.
(04:04):
So we have several agentsthere that can help the businesses
have more profit.
How important is follow up inyour business or in general, I should
say.
You know, Frederic, I thinkfor the small business owner, they
have the concept that theyneed to do follow up with their customers.
Right. We understand thatbecause it costs a lot less to keep
(04:25):
a customer buying from us thanto keep acquiring new customers all
the time. But at the sametime, the small business owner is
usually working on whatevercraft they do. Right? So if they
have a restaurant, a dentistpractice, whatever it is, and it
falls through the cracks,sometimes they have an autoresponder
or a newsletter, but it stopsright there. We need something in
(04:48):
depth because the consumertoday is Expecting hyper personalization
on everything. They want tofeel they matter. And it's not with
the newsletter every 10 daysthat you're going to do that. We
need to keep thatcommunication going in different
formats in a way that theywill really engage with us. They
will become fans of what wedo. So it's not business, you know,
(05:12):
say, hey, we are here and weare awesome. But a lot more than
that. That's why we createdthis and that's why I think if you
don't do the proper follow up,you are always leaving money on the
table.
Oh, absolutely correct,Shahar. I have a philosophy. Being
in sales for 40 years, I was atech guy for five. One of the things
that drilled into my head wasfollow up and follow up. In today's
(05:35):
world, if somebody sends aninquiry for your product or service,
you have a 15 minute window torespond. If you don't resp. Respond
within 15 minutes, they'reprobably looking someplace else.
And the advantage ofresponding very quickly is one, it
shows you're interested, showsrespect, and more importantly, if
(05:56):
they are looking at somebodyelse. Right. You can set the bar
quite high for yourcompetitors because you're the first
one to be there. Yeah, right.
Today, the average responsetime has been 72 hours. The lead
is dead by now. Yeah, butpeople get busy and they don't do.
(06:17):
And also, I think, Frederic,we need to think about where do I
cause frustration with mycustomers? A simple example that
happened to me several times.I go to a hairdresser in Utah that
I like. She's cutting my hair.I'm always like, I need to be in
and I need to be out. Then thephone rings. She answers frustration
(06:37):
here because she stops whatshe's doing and go answer the phone.
She's frustrated because she'strying to multitask. Right. It goes
well. The other customer willbe rushed because whatever they want
to ask, she needs to get ridof the phone call very fast. So you
have three people frustratedin less than five minutes. We need
to understand that thishappens in our businesses. So we
(07:00):
need to pinpoint what arethese frustration points and how
can I solve this. For example,with voice AI, the voice AI could
be carrying that conversationon the phone. She wouldn't interrupt
my experience, and everythingwould be perfect. If she has the
proper systems in place, thefollow up will be done with whoever
called and with me as well. Icut my hair every three weeks. Have
(07:24):
I ever received a call, text,email saying, hey, Shahar, I know
you like to cut your hairevery three weeks. It's time for
you to book an appointment.Simple reminder that would say, wow,
they notice that I cut everythree weeks. Not every four, not
every five. So all this, youkeep thinking, okay, we create that
loyalty. But their loyalty ison a very stretchy line that can
(07:48):
be broken at any point becausethere is not the thing of I matter
to them.
I have a saying in my book,Creating Business Super Fans, that
people will crawl throughbroken glass for appreciation and
recognition.
Exactly. And you know what'shappening? There was a Harvard study
showing that one in every fiveAmericans feel extremely lonely,
(08:12):
and one in every threeAmericans think they have a good
friend. Since COVID we havebeen isolating ourselves at home,
then work from home thing, andnow AI that we are catering our houses
to exactly what we want. Butwe are feeling lonely of social interactions
and the business that say,hey, I know what you like to eat
(08:32):
when you come to myrestaurant. I know how you like things
done. I know the experienceyou expect. Well, they're doing well,
right?
Absolutely.
They're just crossing theirarms and thinking, wait to see how
this goes. They are going tobe left behind.
Absolutely correct. And yousaid an important thing here that
I want to emphasize, Shahar,is that people are working. Some
(08:54):
people are still working fromhome. Businesses are trying to get
people back into the office,but nevertheless, there are people
that have their own businessesand they work at home by themselves.
And like you said, they're alittle bit lonely. And one of the
things I shared in my book wassending a birthday card through the
mail. Old school, you know?And you might be the only person
(09:15):
that sent them a physicalbirthday card, which takes you minutes
to do, but that impact on thatperson is profound, especially if
it's the only card they got.They're going to become a super fan
of whoever the sender is, andthey're going to tell their huge
(09:35):
circle of friends, my dentistsent me a birthday card. Can you
believe that? Nobody else did,but my dentist did.
Exactly. It might be the onlycar they get on that date. And today
you don't even need to do thedesigning or anything, because you
have AI to design and to shipthat without you touching your hands
(09:58):
in anything. But, you know,what's the barrier here? To convince
the business owner that thistype of marketing works really well.
They will think that whateverthey do on social media will work
today because what everybodyelse is doing. But you have to understand
that when I get a card in themail, I will give undivided attention
to that card. Right. What'sbehind that Somebody remember this,
(10:22):
I am not invisible. They knowI exist. They know I spend my money
with them. The bond youcreate, you do not create by posting
videos. I'm not saying it'snot good to do social media. We all
do it. But I have tounderstand that when I have a chance
to get undivided attention, Ishould go to that.
Well, I have another saying.The little things are really the
(10:44):
big things. The little thingsusually have the biggest impact.
Saying thank you is a littlething, but the impact it has is tremendous.
Saying I appreciate you forthe extra effort you put in is a
little thing, but the impactis profound. I'm grateful for you
being a customer. Yes, that'sa little thing, but the impact is
(11:07):
huge.
Because as consumers today, weactually have tons of options to
spend our money. We don't haveto go back to the restaurant, we
don't have to go back to thehairdresser. We have many options.
We could create the fun oftrying something new every single
time. But for the businessowner, that's not what you want.
You want that repeat customer.So if you don't go the extra mile,
(11:30):
you're not going to get that.Unfortunately, during COVID we had
to adapt things to survive asbusinesses. We thought that after
that was over, it was okay.Right? From QR codes and not having
paper menus anymore to allkinds of other bad habits. And we
didn't go back to the goodhabits. Right. And that impacts because
(11:52):
anything that makes me work toget the service is not going my way
if I have to. And simplethings you might take. No, but everybody
uses QR codes. Yes, they do.Very useful. I have to get my glasses
from my purse. I have to putglasses and then I have to scroll.
It needs to adapt to my screenon my device. So I thinking all the
(12:15):
time, obstacle, obstacle,obstacle, obstacle. Then I have the
dinner, my dear, wonderfuldinner. Nobody's going to ask for
my name, my email, my address,my birthday date, not so spend sometimes
a couple hundred dollars on anice dinner, but the business owner
has no way to bring you back.
Correct? Yeah. So let's gomore into prop talkie and talk about
(12:41):
some of the automations inthere. We talked a little bit about
the hair salon with the phoneautomation. I'd like you to share
a little bit more because I'mfamiliar with the platform, but I'd
like you to share a little bitmore of how really this is such a
game changer for businessesimplementing something like prop
talkie into their business.
(13:01):
So if we analyze a businessWhatever business it is, we can create
a workflow that is how youwork inside, high level, Right. I
can create a workflow cater toexactly what you need as a business.
It's not a cookie cutter. Weare going to adapt that. When it
comes to the AI agents, orlike we like to call them, the AI
(13:22):
employees, same thing is done.It is tested for your business specifically.
We do tests every single day.For example, we were testing because
AI is good, but it can bebetter. And it depends on the AI
learning from you every singletime. Right. That's how they get
better. So we did a test for afuneral home, a fictitious one, to
(13:42):
see how, in a very sensitivesubject, how the AI would behave.
Because you programmed just upto a point. And it was impressive,
Frederic. It showed someempathy, made suggestions that were
exactly according to what theperson was talking about and budget
and things like that. If wetested that six months ago, it would
(14:05):
be a totally different ballgame. So it evolves. And the more
you keep feeding that AI, thebetter it gets. You mentioned cards.
We just did with a client ofours. I have several restaurants
as clients. And it took us awhile to convince that for Valentine's
Day we should send a card inthe mail with a promotion. The resistance
is always because it's notonline. Right? But we did. We sent
(14:27):
it. He has two units. Bothunits broke a record in attendance
not only on Valentine's Day,but also on Saturday with cards.
Simple thing, right? It was acard with Valentine's stuff and a
coupon as an offer. That wasit. But all of that was done automatically.
He didn't have to go to thepost office, I didn't have to go
(14:47):
to the post office. Nothinglike that. You have to think, okay,
let's talk to this business,see what are the friction points.
Where are the points wherethey are failing? Either because
they don't have time, or theythink it's too expensive, or it could
be better. Create a solutionto keep the customers that you have
first and then go after newones, because that sustains the business.
(15:09):
Sometimes we have crisis.Covid was a big one. The businesses
that survived were businessesthat could communicate with their
customers during that time inan effective way. Right?
Yeah, it involves everybody.Because if you've got employees,
you got to take care of them.The employees are really the front
(15:30):
line to prospective andexisting customers. So if you don't
take time to first recognizeyour team and empower them to make
decisions, they're empoweredto create a great customer experience.
Prospective customer cominginto a restaurant for the first time,
you want that to be a greatexperience, not only in the food,
(15:53):
but the whole aspect of it andthen transforming into a customer
and just like you said,maintaining that relationship with
that customer. Because it'svery expensive to re onboard customers,
it's very expensive to reonboard employees as well.
Exactly.
And here's the thing that youhighlighted and I want to really
emphasize that is you blendedold school method, which is postal
(16:19):
and new school technology. Andthat gives you the competitive advantage
that most people don'trealize. Because an email may not
get viewed, you're not goingto recognize who it is. The subject
line doesn't catch yourattention. A piece of mail coming
in, you have at least a chanceto take a peek at it before you throw
(16:40):
it away. It gives you 15seconds to hmm, I'm look at this
a little further. As you'regoing through your mail, you have
an actual physical chance,especially if you use a postcard
as a marketing method tointroduce yourself to a marketplace.
It's going to get seen becausethere's nothing open. It's visual.
(17:04):
And the probability ofsuccess, just like you described
with the Valentine's Day, ismuch higher with direct mail. That's
why it still exists. And it'sa very, very powerful tool that unfortunately
is overlooked today because asyou said, and I'm going to emphasize
it again, people, it's alldigital and we forgot about all the
(17:25):
old things that used to workand still do.
Yeah. And even when youcompare the price, you keep thinking,
well, I don't know how much isthe stamp, but let's say it's a dollar.
How much are you paying perclick when you're doing the ads online,
sometimes not to get qualifiedleads. I'm spending a dollar to talk
to somebody that already knowsmy business and already knows me,
(17:45):
more likely to do businesswith me. And you mentioned the employees
and you're totally right.There are three things that are very
important. One, they need tofeel they belong. Second, they need
to feel they matter to you.Absolutely. Dealing with business
owners all the time, you seethat you have all types of personalities
out there. And in someenvironments the employee thinks
(18:07):
that they just don't matter,so they don't care. And the third
one have a system fortraining. This for the small business
owner, like the dentist, therestaurant, the massage therapist,
it's hard because every timethey onboard somebody, it's not nightmare
for them because they're goingto spend time doing the same type
of training until they areready. Many times they are ready
(18:27):
and then they go. Our systemcan also host all those trainings.
So you onboard the employeethrough prop talking, and it will
do the whole training. As longas you do the videos or audio or
whatever you want to do as atraining, it becomes not only consistent,
also systematizing yourtraining methodology.
(18:48):
Right.
For small businesses is alwaysa struggle. They should, as soon
as possible, create materialwith the training that they do. Can
be as simple as recording withthe cell phone and then having a
platform to deliver that tothe employees.
Oh, absolutely correct. If youlook at the cost associated with
onboarding a new employee, andthen more importantly, someone's
(19:10):
got to train that newemployee. Productivity goes away,
just like you're mentioning isthe new person on board. Susie's
the one that's going to betraining him. Well, Susie's busy
training him. She's not doingwhat she needs to be done. So she's
falling behind in herproductivity. She starts getting
frustrated. And then you havea person that's not the world's greatest
(19:30):
business manager who startscomplaining, how come you're letting
things slip? And it's like,well, wait a minute, I'm training
Mike. It's a mess.
Everybody gets frustrated.
Everybody gets frustrated. Andthen more. I've seen it happen where
poor management skillschastise both of them publicly instead
(19:51):
of privately. And so now thatpollutes the rest of the company's
environment. Because noweverybody goes, oh, my gosh, I don't
want to be what happened toMike and Susie. And it's a train
wreck.
Yeah. Because one person thatis dissatisfied will, you know, wherever
(20:12):
focus goes, energy flows. Soeverybody starts getting with the
same sentiment. And at theend, you have a.
Terrible working day orworking environment, and now nobody
even wants to go to work. Sothe productivity goes down the drain.
What you're doing is a greatidea, leveraging the technology to
onboard new people. Then youcan still have Susie check in on
(20:37):
Mike, but now she's able to dowhat she needs to do. And Mike can
go through the program andthen you can have the testing in
there to make sure they'vepassed the training. And that's rewarding
for Mike as well. Because ofhow you described leveraging the
technology. You've transformedit into a very positive environment.
(20:57):
Yeah. And when he's in touchwith client, he is prepared for that.
So you avoid all those things.They're ready to take care of that
customer the way you want.Because consistency is the key to
success. So if I go to a placeand I have a nice experience next
Time I want the sameexperience and the other time I want
the same experience. If thatvaries a lot, it will create micro
(21:19):
frustration as well. So thatadds up over time. Can I systematize?
You've gone to a restaurantand it's a great experience because
the server was excellent. Thenext time you go back, it's a horrible
experience because the serverwas not a good server. And all of
a sudden your perception ofthat place changes because you just
(21:40):
remember the last experience.It's like watching a movie. You don't
remember the middle of themovie. You remember the beginning
and the end, everything in themiddle. I can't remember what happened.
It's the same thing inbusiness, really. The sale isn't
the sale. Most people thinkthe sale is the signing of the paperwork
(22:00):
or the transaction being done.It's not. It's the whole onboarding
process.
That's the sale because itsets. And the experience that they
are going to have.
Yeah. And if you create a goodexperience, that's how you transform
customers into superfans. Wetalked about good experience for
(22:20):
the employee. That's how youtransform them into superfans. That
energy transcends. You'vetalked to people on the phone and
you've noticed someone's kindof flat and mechanical and you get
a weird feeling. You go, yeah,I'm not sure about this place. And
then someone else answers andsays, hey, sure, great calling us.
You know, we're super blah,blah, blah, and that energy. And
(22:42):
you go, man, this is a coolplace. I'm interested.
Yep. And let's talk aboutsales, because I know you love that
very much and I love sales aswell. We need not only as a business
owner, but everybody thatworks with us to understand how we
are reaching our customers orprospects on an emotional level.
Everybody needs to understandwhat we are really selling and how
(23:05):
we are going to translatethat. So they have a perception of
value of whatever you'reoffering in a different way. McDonald's
Coffee, $1. Starbucks, $6. Whypeople put lines on Starbucks for
that $6. They created aconnection on how people felt when
they went to the stores, howcool they were and they could work
(23:27):
from there and things likethat. That type of connection, we
need to be creating andunderstanding how it works every
single time. We are never justselling something.
Right. And it transcendsbeyond just customers. What about
suppliers? You're a restaurantgetting supplies on your food. You're
a service business gettingsupplies and products. You've got
(23:48):
distributors. If you'remarketing through a distribution
channel, You've gotcontractors that come into play.
Think of the home improvementindustry, flooring, painting, plumbing,
electrical. And you haveancillary businesses. Your lawyer,
your accountant. It's not partof your company, but you need that.
All those relationships arereally important in that conversation
because they all affect you.
(24:11):
They're not only part of yourteam. We all have to have the same
goal. We need that bond fromthe customers, from the suppliers,
other people that we buyservices from all the time. That's
how you create a super forcefor your business. We are all on
the same page, going the sameway. You need to translate that.
And many times, Frederik, Ineed that ongoing communication with
(24:34):
groups like suppliers. Itdepends on the structure of every
business. But thatcommunication cannot lag, especially
in today's world, because weall have so many options all the
time, and we are overloadedwith information. How can you be
top of mind not only for yourcustomers, but also from everybody
else that works with you?
(24:54):
And that's where your platformcomes in. Because you can set up
some of the automation tocreate the communications, you know,
because out of sight, out ofmind is one thing. The other thing
is, unfortunately, the humanbrain always goes negative. First
you don't hear from somebody.I use it in the dating world, okay?
(25:17):
You're going out on a coupledates and all of a sudden you get
ghosted. So now your mind goescompletely negative and you're starting
to create all kinds of crazystories. Well, guess what? It happens
in business as well. I usethat as an example because everybody
can get it. But the realityis, in business, you're trying to
sell somebody and all of asudden they disappear. You don't
(25:39):
hear from them anymore. Andthe reality is you have to be disciplined
enough to realize that youdon't know what's going on in their
world. And you sometimes needto give it some space. And then sometimes
you need to just reach out alittle bit later and just say, hey,
I haven't heard. I just wantto make sure everything is okay.
And sometimes they'll comeback and say, you know, completely
(26:01):
my bad. I got caught up inthis or whatever. And yeah, by the
way, you know what? We owe youa phone call. Let's get this thing
wrapped up and the sale'sdone. But you gave it some room.
You weren't like, okay, I justcalled them. How come they haven't
called me back? Or I sent anemail. How come they haven't opened
it yet and replied back? Soleveraging some of the technology,
(26:22):
you take some of the Emotionout of it. Yeah. With the workflows
as you talk.
Best thing that technology cando for you is give you control over
your business in every aspectthat matters. Because what I see
that today. Let'ssolopreneurs, for example, the very
small businesses. I went to ayarn store. Simple thing. I love
crafts. I took a course there.Nobody ever asked who I was, my email,
(26:47):
nothing. Then I asked theowner of the store, how do I get
to know about other courses?And then she said, I post on Instagram
and I went once a month. Andshe said yes. And I left. And I thought,
okay, now I need the algorithmto show me her thing all the time
or I need to remember the nameof her store a month from now. And
(27:10):
then I need to go through allthe posts to see if I find the one
about courses. Why can't I getan email with the next courses? And
then if you argue about that,they will say, nobody reads email,
but you're not your customer.So if you read emails or only read
once a month, that's you.Doesn't mean all your customers are
(27:31):
that we are always inbusiness. Working with percentages.
Right. Making me work to knowabout the courses that you have sounds
cool to you because you're ona platform, but it doesn't sound
cool to me because I getbombarded with information every
single day. I'll be happy toremember the name of your store next
month. I probably won't. Andyou know, not bad fate. It's just
(27:54):
that how it goes.
It's sadly the same thing witheven the home improvement industry.
I'm going to pick on them.We've all had work done on our house.
You're happy with the work andthen they disappear.
Yep.
They don't come back and say,shahar, it's been three months. Just
want to make sure everythingis still good. Geez, six months have
(28:16):
gone by or it's a yearanniversary since we were there.
Just want to reach out and sayhi, if you ever need us, we're still
here. We appreciate you.Simple doesn't have to be a book,
just can be a couple little sentences.
And your customers can be yoursales force. Why not train them to
be your sales force? Forexample, tiles and reforms around
(28:37):
the house because they'rehigher ticket items. People think,
no, they bought this, they'renever going to buy this again. And
they forget the network theyhave. If they go to church and have
a lot of people if they liketo change other rooms in the house,
they assume, no, they only doBusiness with us every so many years.
Like cars, for example. That'snot true. And you're forgetting that
(28:58):
the network each person has,you just don't know how big it is.
This job, that was fine. Andthen we complain, oh, the market
is not doing as I wanted. Yes,because not bringing new people.
What about all the others thatyou did business with that could
be promoting you? So manysimple things that can be done. You
clean carpets, right? There'snothing exciting about that. We all
(29:21):
like clean carpets, but reallynothing exciting. I hire the company.
What if the moment I answeredthe door, the guy gives me a bouquet
of flowers that cost him maybe$5, $10? When the carpet is clean,
am I going to tell my friendsmy carpets are clean, or am I going
to tell my friends I hiredthis guy to clean my carpets? And
(29:42):
guess what? I got thesehydrangeas. They're awesome.
It's the little things thatare the big things. Which is why
I created this businessSuperfans podcast show a book, and
I'm actually starting to workon another book because exactly what
you just said.
People don't understand thatnobody cares about who you are. They
(30:05):
care about themselves. Youeither learn how to talk to the consumer,
talking about them, what theywill become by working with you.
And it doesn't matter if youclean carpenters or you are a consultant.
Who will they become byworking with you? If you don't have
that answer, you should sitdown and think about it. Because
in whatever we do in life, weneed to impact and transform. If
(30:28):
we're not doing that, we arejust selling stuff. And stuff has
no value. No, it has noemotional value. So let's start by
thinking who they become byworking with me. And when I have
a conversation, am I talkingabout what I do? How good it is?
If you ever been to anetworking meeting, you know how
it is, right? Every has 30seconds. They spend those 30 seconds
(30:50):
talking about how great theyare and you sleep in the middle of
the table because nobodycares. We need to understand that.
Absolutely correct. When I wasselling software in the engineering
and manufacturing space, Ididn't get into conversations about
what the software could orcouldn't do. Because other products
do similar stuff. It gets thejob done. I focused on where the
(31:13):
business owner wanted to taketheir business. What was their growth
strategy? What was their plan?What were their biggest pain issues.
We looked at how to addressthose. Then we talked about how my
technology could help achievethat. So I was in a completely different
conversation and space than mycompetitors. They were all Talking
(31:35):
about how wonderful they are.And that's what you reminded me.
I didn't talk about howwonderful we are. I talked about
how I can help you get towhere you want to go. And this is
just a tool that will help youget to that goal.
Exactly. And that's at theend. Exactly what we all do. We sell
tools. Right. Our services.The thing is, it's a much more effective
(31:56):
way of saying, I can do thisand I can do that. And there's AI
and there's automation.Beautiful. But, Frederick, you and
I are in a call right now,right? We are recording a podcast.
Maybe your phone is ringingand you're not answering that. Maybe
every sale is a thousanddollars. If you lose one phone call
a day, how much less are yougoing to make in a year?
(32:19):
Yeah. A lot.
Okay, Right. So you're talkingabout you. If you were missing a
holiday and it's this much,how much so. So we can approach in
different ways, but at the endof the day, it's always about you,
not about me or what I do.
Correct, Correct. Well, as wecome towards the end here, Shahar,
great conversation. We couldprobably talk about this for hours.
(32:42):
You're very easy to talk with.Thank you for sharing all the great
nuggets because we coveredsome of the technologies and how
to leverage them to helpbusinesses achieve their goals. How
can our listeners connect with you?
Prop Talkie is the best placebecause if they scroll down to the
bottom, they will see somefree reports. I have the AI driven
(33:03):
consumer trends, which isimportant for all of us to be aware
because we are changing ashuman beings. It is the biggest change
we have seen in many years.Five generations are alive at the
same time going through thischange. So we need to be aware of
that. And the five laws ofbecoming irresistible to a market.
If they call the number there,they will talk to an AI agent, but
(33:25):
then very easy to get in touch.
Well, I was talking tosomebody last year about AI, and
he said they were conversingwith somebody on a website for almost
10 minutes before realizing itwas an AI. They actually thought
it was an actual individual.You can set up the technology to
(33:46):
be pretty much a replica ofyourself, which is one of the things
you talked about on your site.They're, in a sense, talking to you
in an automated fashion. Andthen when they need to talk to you,
it switches you over andyou're not live.
Yeah. It is really impressivethe way it is today. If they are
used to going to a website andjust having a bot with those five
(34:06):
questions they can answer.It's not what is out there today.
I can train my AI to reallytalk like I do.
Yep.
Right.
Yeah. Well, I wanted to bringthat up because that's the game changer
right there.
It is.
Thank you so much for yourtime today of being a guest on a
business superfan podcastshow, and we look forward to continuing
(34:27):
the conversation another dayand having you a guest again.
Thank you.
All right, Shahar, thank you.Hey, superfan superstar Freddie D.
Here. Before we wrap, here'syour three A Playbook Attract, Advocate
and Accelerate youe BusinessPower move for today. Here's this
episode's top insight. Youdon't win loyalty by being loud.
(34:47):
You win by showing customersthat they matter more than a sale.
So here's your business growthaction step. Implement one automated
personalized touchpoint thisweek, like a custom voicemail or
an AI written birthday cardproves to your customers you're paying
attention when others aren't.If today's conversation sparked an
(35:09):
idea for you, share with afellow business leader who would
benefit and grab the fullbreakdown in the show notes. Let's
accelerate together and startcreating business super fans who
not only champion your brand,but accelerate your growth.
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