Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
When it comes to
small business marketing is one
of the most challenging piecesthere is.
Today, I'm coming out with youa special guest video.
I interviewed my good friend,Ross Hiroshin, who is the
founder of Tricycle Creative.
He helps small business ownersget clarity when it comes to
their marketing, and I was ableto squeeze out a lot of really
(00:20):
valuable information out of him.
In this video, he walks usthrough three problems that
every business owner seems toface, and not only that he also
tells us how to fix them.
So this is one you're going towant to stop what you're doing.
Stick around, because this isgoing to be the most value
packed half hour you've everspent.
My name is Craig and I'm theowner of Dacey Financial
Coaching.
(00:40):
Our team is on a mission tomake your therapy practice
permanently profitable.
If you own a solo or grouppractice, we're here to help you
build a business that createsmore time, makes more money and
serves more people.
This is the therapy businesspodcast.
What's up everybody?
(01:02):
Thanks for being here.
Ross, I have Ross here.
He is here.
I am One of a kind you know,Ross.
Why don't you tell us what doyou do?
Who are you?
Why are you even on my YouTubechannel?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Why have I taken over
your YouTube channel?
So I am a marketing coach.
We're two fellow coaches here.
I help small business owners,solopreneurs and what I kind of
call the small business marketerwho are struggling with their
digital marketing navigatethrough what I call the
(01:35):
marketing fog.
Small business marketer peoplefind themselves kind of at this
marketing analysis paralysis.
I don't know what to do, Idon't know where to go.
There's so many options.
I'm really overwhelmed.
I don't have the time, I don'tknow what to do, I don't have
(01:56):
the money.
I hope to clear all that up,yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Yeah, I don't know
what to do is.
I can feel that.
I kind of imagine you hear thisa lot too in what you do
working with people on finances,always, always, yeah, it's.
It's not only not knowing whatto do, but where to invest our
time, where to invest our money.
(02:23):
Um, and then just that idea offor me, especially before we
started talking, was theoverwhelm of everything's new
and always changing and I don'tknow what to do.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Like you said, yeah,
and when you're a solopreneur or
a small business owner, you'realso juggling your, which also,
hopefully, you're passionateabout.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
So just a means to an
end.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
I think it's
important when, when you work
with, particularly, a marketingcoach or a financial coach, that
they understand that Iappreciate that you know people.
They're only 24 hours in theday.
There's only so much time thatyou can dedicate to marketing,
to sales, to there's a finiteamount of time.
(03:14):
So I think a big part of it isabout creating strategies and
plans that are both efficientand effective, and I and I I
know that's true with what youdo on the financial side too
100%.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
And even I mean,
you're talking about
solopreneurs and when you talkabout money and and that's,
there's two commodities that wehave it's time and money and
solopreneurs don't necessarilyhave the funds to go out and
hire people to do these things,and so just utilizing that
resource of time and having todig into it.
But then how can we maximizethat?
Necessarily have the funds togo out and hire people to do
these things and so justutilizing that resource of time
and having to dig into it, butthen how can we maximize that
and make it simpler?
(03:50):
Is that?
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Yeah, and I think
that's also why I called my
company Tricycle Creative.
So for me it was very importantthat I can come in and act as
the training wheels for thesepeople, for these small business
, because they couldn't affordto hire that medium, even like
(04:16):
to hire an agency.
Because what you need first isa plan and understanding, and
that's what I provide.
And then, as my clients getsmarter, get better, we can take
(04:38):
training wheels off in someways.
You know it's like maybe you'renow you get SEO, we can take
those training wheels off.
You know it's like maybe you'renow you get SEO, we can take
those training wheels off.
You can ride yourself and wecan work on something else.
Or you can take that knowledgeand hire a agency.
Right, that's not a loss for me, that's a win when a client
(04:58):
grows so much that they get todo that.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Absolutely.
I think that's great, and evenjust in the work that you and I
have done together, for fulldisclosure to everyone, I've
hired Ross because he's amazing.
It's.
I have this toolkit and of juststuff, I more clarity on what
I'm doing.
You get you, help eliminatethat fog, and now I have this
toolkit and it's you and I havethe conversation of what's next,
(05:22):
what do I want to take this andimplement it?
Do I want to take it to someoneto help or take it over?
But the choice is mine and theclarity is there.
That was a barrier for me forso many years before finally
somebody a coach walked methrough, believe it or not, as a
coach.
I think having a coach is justlike, so essential to.
It saves you so much time andmoney, and that's what you did
(05:45):
with me.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, I this idea
where, if you're a coach, that
you don't feel like you need acoach, part of me feels like I
don't know, like you're shootingyourself in the foot If you
don't believe in, in kind of theI'll say industry if you will,
(06:09):
or whatever that you're doing.
Um, I mean, you've got to findthe right one, and if you are a
coach I hope you've, and this ispart of even my clarity
coaching program you know whoyour people are.
Um, and I think, conversely,when you're a coach, finding the
right coach for the right needis really important, Kind of as
(06:30):
a tangent, because we'rerecording this in March, march
Madness, I'm a huge basketballfan.
Okay, I love basketball.
I go out, I shoot hoops acouple of times a week.
Still, I still got it.
In case you're wondering, I'm aballer.
I'm sure you're curious, butI'm a Duke Blue Devils fan.
(06:50):
People may now leave yourchannel.
Sorry about or unsubscribe.
Sorry about that, but I'm ahuge fan of Coach K.
He's retiring this year.
He's a legendary coach.
I don't care if you like Dukeor not, he's a legendary coach
and I was listening to him onthe Charles Barkley in the steam
room podcast and he was talkingabout when he went to work kind
(07:11):
of for the first time on thedream team, then I mean we're
talking nineties dream team,like the dream team that put USA
basketball on the map.
He was an assistant coach.
He's a legendary coach.
He was an assistant coach toChuck Daly, who is also, in his
own right, a legendary coach,and he learned so much from him.
(07:35):
So I think, no matter where youfeel like you are in your
coaching business, I'm a hugebeliever you can always learn
from other coaches 100%.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
I agree.
There's that analogy that adoctor needs a doctor and if a
doctor is thinking I don't needto go to the doctor because I am
a doctor, there's a severeproblem there.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
That's right.
I'm not going to waste my moneyon a doctor?
Speaker 1 (07:59):
How are you speaking
out to other people that what I
do is valuable?
How am I asking people toinvest in what I do if I'm not
willing to make that investmentthe same?
It's almost hypocritical to anextent.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
But yeah, with all
that said so, you help
solopreneurs, small businessowners, really find that clarity
in marketing.
What does that look like?
How do you do that?
Give me some clarity, man, sure.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
So my program it's
called the Marketing Clarity
Program.
It's a nine-week program andpeople can learn more about it.
If they want to go right downhere to getmarketingclaritycom
learn more about it.
If they want to go right downhere to getmarketingclaritycom,
I have all the details there.
But what I do is I help againthis solopreneur, small business
(08:53):
marketer you may even be asmall business owner who is
hired like a junior marketer.
I work with a ton of peoplejust like that, where I work
with their junior marketer,because junior marketer
typically needs a skill upgradeand need some help.
So what I do is I helpessentially to give these people
(09:14):
a actionable, customizablemarketing and content plan, and
that's because I'm yet to meet aprospect that has one.
I've been doing this for fouryears.
I've talked to a lot of peopleand every time I ask about can
(09:39):
you send me your marketing plan,Crickets?
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Crickets, except for
me.
Man, when you talk to me you'relike oh, this guy's got it all.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
This is going to be a
hard sell because he's on it.
You now I actually will say,craig, you had more than the
average client that I sign on,but interestingly enough, you
were very similar to a lot of myclients in that you had it in
pieces.
You had a piece here, you had athing here, you had ideas here,
(10:15):
you had this over here.
But the problem with that isthat it's not in one central
place where all the componentsare connected.
So one of the many things we doinside of my clarity program is
something I call flats andfixes, so I thought I could
actually share that with you andwith your audience today in
(10:36):
this video.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Please, please, show
us what flats and fixes.
First of all, teach us about it.
Where does that name come from?
Speaker 2 (10:45):
So, flats and Fixes,
it's just a playoff.
Sometimes I'm a little too onthe nose, even branding wise.
But tricycle creative, you canget a flat tire and that messes
you up, slows you down,completely, stalls you, takes
you out of the game.
So, really, this is aboutidentifying, when you're a small
(11:08):
business marketer, what theflats that your customers have
and what your fixes are for them, because this is very important
in your messaging and in thecontent you create.
It really weaves intoeverything that you do.
So, uh, do you want, do youwant, me to show you mine?
(11:32):
Please show me.
You showed me yours, so I guessI'll show you mine, all right.
So Best segue ever Not picturedhere, all right, so here's what
we're going to do.
This is literally pulledstraight out from my coaching
(11:55):
program.
It's one of the many, many,many exercises we do over the
course of the nine weeks.
And again, if you want to learnmore, you can head on over to
getmarketingclaritycom.
Book your 15-minute call withme.
It's all.
It takes 15 minutes.
See if we're a good fit.
I'm not going to twist your arm.
I don't do good arm twisting,all right, so we're going to
(12:16):
break this.
I love threes.
Threes, just historically, area really consumable number.
Also, it plays really nicelyinto tricycle, so just worked
out that way.
So when we're doing this, westart with the three flats, okay
.
And again, the flats are thechallenges, the issues that your
(12:39):
customers have.
So then, conversely, we want tolook at the fixes.
So if they're having thisproblem, what's your solution to
that problem?
Okay, so let's start here.
These are the three most commonthings in the years that I've
(13:01):
been working with small businessmarketers and solopreneurs that
as longer I did it, I just kepthearing the same answers or
variations of the same threeanswers.
The first one that they'remarketing to everyone or no one.
Those are the same problem.
If you're marketing to everyone, it doesn't matter.
(13:26):
If you're marketing to no one,it doesn't matter.
Right?
And Craig, if you want to chimein here, I'd be curious if any
of these really hit, hit youhard when we get through the
three flats.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
I'm laughing over
here, because marketing to
everyone is exactly what I triedto do when I first started.
If somebody asked me like hey,you're a finance coach?
who do you work with or what doyou do?
I was like anybody Anyone withmoney or without money.
If you're a five-year-old whojust made his first dollar
selling lemonade, come on over,I'll help you.
Not particularly, buttruthfully, I didn't know, um,
(14:05):
and I had this fear and maybe Idon't know if this is normal or
what you see but this fear thatI was going to exclude.
If I excluded people, I wasn'tgoing to make any money.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
I wasn't going to
make enough money.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
I was like nope, I
only work with 20 year olds who
have mohawks, uh, or whateverthat would have been me.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
We would have worked
together.
When I was 20, I had that wouldhave been me.
We would have worked together.
When I was 20, I had a mohawk,so we could have worked together
, see we were it was meant to beit was this coaching
relationship was meant to be.
But yeah well, you know there'sa saying there's riches in the
niches, right, and you know, Ithink when you first get started
(14:42):
, it is very scary.
I don't want to say no toanyone, but I can tell you what
happens, and I think this isvery true.
Also, probably in aspects ofbeing a financial coach, is
there's some things you do thatyou do out of fear, and then
what it does is it fostersresentment.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
And when I started, I
was doing the same thing, greg,
like I was offering three timesas many services as I offer
today.
I offer marketing, coaching andSEO.
That's what I do today.
That's it, and candidly, oh.
Why Ross?
Because those are the things Ilove doing and those are the
things I'm best at 100%.
Right.
So I think that's reallyimportant that I resented the
(15:30):
clients kind of secretly when Itook them on doing things I
didn't love doing.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
That's what's that,
hey I hope they're tuning in
right now because ross resentsyou hey you, I hated doing your
facebook ads.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Sorry, that's okay, I
didn't guys.
Hey, if you're out therewatching this, I didn't.
I love them.
I've been very blessed.
I've only had one issue withone client over four years.
What?
Speaker 1 (16:04):
was their name.
So if you could, yeah, let'scall them out right now.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Yeah, no it already
almost went to litigation and,
by the way, I won anyways.
Okay, let's talk about thesecond, the second flat brand
blind spot.
So what's that?
That talks about how people arenot clear on their own brand.
When I say brand, I don't meanlogo.
(16:28):
Logo is a part of brand.
People think if they have alogo, I have a brand.
No, brand is much more thanthat.
Right Is that?
They're not clear on who theyare.
So if you're not clear on whoyou are, you're going to have a
problem convincing or bringingpeople over to you.
(16:50):
And the third one was and I knowthis was a big one.
Again I'll say this craig,coming in, you were a little
above average.
Okay, you had a youtube channel, you had blog posts.
You you're you're kind of likeme.
You lean into content creation.
Not everyone is like that, andthat's okay.
(17:11):
But a big problem, whether youare a creator or not, is you
don't even know what to create,right?
Yeah, you get overwhelmed and,once again, too many options or
too few options and there's nopurpose behind it.
I know that was my problem, too, was I.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
If you were to ask me
why did I start doing youtube,
it would be like I was postingvideos on facebook and thought
why not post them to youtube?
Uh, and that's literally why Istarted doing it.
Why was I blogging?
I don't know, because I thoughtthat's what you're supposed to
do, sure.
So there's knowing what tocreate or why.
There's just nothing, nopurpose behind, and it probably
(17:52):
ties into that knowing who I'mmarketing to as well.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
But anyway, yes, 100%
, and it does get into that.
And it gets back into thefinite amount of time.
Let's say you only have so manyhours a week realistically to
dedicate to marketing.
If you're creating content,that's not strategically moving
the needle for you.
I don't want to say it's awaste of time, but it's not
(18:20):
optimized and I think that'swhat's really important here.
So these were the three biggestissues.
So my fixes here.
Issues.
So my fixes here.
The first one when you'retalking about marketing to
everyone or no one, the solutionthere is customer clarity, and
(18:42):
we're going to talk about thesejust in some quick detail here
in a sec.
But this is about understandingwho your customers are, who
your customers are.
Then, with your brand hopefullynot bland bland brand, brand,
(19:10):
blind spot, company clarity thisspeaks to actually
understanding who you are as abusiness, what you stand for,
and a lot of people maybe saythat's not as important, but it
again weaves itself into yourmarketing.
It may be subtle, maybe not sosubtle if you're a solopreneur.
Oftentimes it is not so subtle.
I am very clear about things,whether my podcasts or in this
(19:36):
video.
I don't like facebook, which isweird for a digital marketer,
but again another day.
And lastly, content clarity,company clarity, uh, knowing
you're.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
It's from.
What I discovered in workingtogether was my customer and
company clarity were sohand-in-hand that once I figured
out who my customer was, it wasrealizing my own brand wasn't
aligned with that targetcustomer.
Yeah, and naturally, who I am.
The reason I identified thiscustomer was because of my
(20:12):
personality, who I like workingwith, who I connect with most,
and so it almost gave me theability to then explore well,
how do I bring who I am into mycompany, into my brand?
And so it was a relief, aweight off my shoulders, to let
some of those non-fits go, gethoned in and then be able to say
(20:32):
those people are going to lovemy personality and who I am,
because why wouldn't they?
And I can now project that out.
I don't have to come across assome financial guru.
Yeah, I should have kept myglasses on for that I'll say
this too, which okay?
you gotta do it both smarter.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
I like to point out
these are only blue light
glasses that I have good eyesstill, even though I'm about to
turn 40.
I can still see.
I'm wearing contacts and sothese are just blue light
glasses you look smarter withthem.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
That's why I wear
them.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Okay, I want to just
talk real quick about.
You talked about having thatbreakthrough.
I do feel like throughout thisnine week I'm I come into these
very Socratic Um, I love doingthis coaching because I end up
learning a lot about thebusiness and I think the person
(21:26):
who's in with me also ends upseeing everything a little bit
differently they get.
I'll challenge you on somethings.
I'll ask these questions andthese are questions that a lot
of times you never slow down andask yourself and I'm sure,
again, you have these on thefinancial side.
When you do financial causeit's like, oh my God, the
breakthrough.
I'm a profit first guy, so Iknow.
(21:48):
But like oh my God, like the,the whoa, the epiphany that
comes, or when you start to seelike oh again in your case, is
probably a financial fog.
In my case it's a marketing fogwhere some of that starts to
like go away and you're like, oh, this starts to make sense.
So now I just want to gothrough real quick each category
(22:10):
how you get, how I get you tothe fixes.
So with the customer clarity,we get to know your customers.
We do customer avatar stuff.
I know a lot of the worksheetsare out there and things like
that.
I'm not going to say mine's themost breakthrough, but when you
partner it with conversationand questions, yeah, I think
(22:31):
it's more impactful.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
When I told you I've
done that before too.
Um, I've done my customeravatar a handful of times, heard
podcasts on it, um, but neverguided.
And there was a lot more.
It was just, it was a lot morepinpointed, um, and I I can't
even put the words to describewhy it was different, but it was
different.
And I can't even put the wordsto describe why it was different
, but it was different.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Cool, I like to hear
that.
Thank you Also, knowing yourvalue right.
Like, what value do you presentto your customer?
This is something you hearthroughout this program, and
it's like why should they careIf you can't make someone care
about what you do?
They're not going to give youmoney, like you got to make them
care.
And I think tied to that is alsomastering your messaging.
(23:16):
And so this is if youunderstand your customers, you
can create more effectivestrategic messaging.
And when I say messaging, thatalso gets into the content piece
right, whether you're writing ablog, whether you're recording
a video, whether you're doing apodcast, whether you're on
(23:39):
TikTok, whatever it is, you'remastering your message and it's
going into the people's ears ina really impactful way.
And so that's also these things, as you learned, craig, going
through this program I like tostack things, so the learnings
(23:59):
I'm not going to say trickledown, because I'm not a big
believer in trickle down, I'm abigger believer in compounding
interest that if you do the,when we do one exercise, it
informs the next, and then thelearning from those two informs
the next.
Now, having gone through it,did you find that to be true?
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Yeah, very much.
So I was constantly referringback to exercises we did to
reinforce what the next exercisewas, or yeah, looking back to
some of these clarifying thingsor knowing my customer made it
easier for me to say here's,here's what I believe in, um, as
a company, because, again, alot of them go hand in hand.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Yeah, so we get into
core values.
We talk about againunderstanding who your business
or what your business is allabout.
If you're, again, you're asolopreneur, a lot of times
that's very close to who you are.
It doesn't necessarily have tobe, but oftentimes it is.
We also do your voice and yourlook.
I know this was something thatwas really helpful for you, and
(25:00):
by voice I don't mean youractual voice, because I have a
weird high-pitched voice thatpeople have likened to Charlie
Day from it's Always Sunny inPhiladelphia.
I don't concern myself so muchwith that, and nor should you.
This is more about kind of yourpersona, your own business
persona, right.
(25:21):
How are you sounding andputting yourself out there when
it comes to your content?
Right, very important.
And then we spend a little timeon competition and industry.
I'm going to tell you right nowI don't spend a lot of time
here because I believe if youget comfortable and know who you
(25:41):
are, your competition becomes alittle bit less of an issue.
That means it's not important,it's just less important.
I have a client.
She used the phrase step intoyour power.
I really like that.
If you can step into your ownpower and know who you are,
(26:03):
competition will kind of takecare of itself, particularly
when you're first gettingstarted.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Yeah, your methods
are a little unconventional in
that you had me send out a lotof glitter bombs to my
competitors.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
Yes, yes, I find that
they, yeah that if it doesn't
blind them, that it will reallyinfuriate them, which is really
the best way to go with thecompetition, which now makes me
a little bit suspect of anypackages that maybe you will
(26:34):
send me, now that you.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
I probably shouldn't
say the word bomb and mail,
though so glitter surprise.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Well, this video is
going to get flagged YouTube.
We're good, it's playful.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
How does that work,
ross Marketing?
No, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
I'm not not gonna get
into the, the youtube algorithm
.
That's again subject for adifferent video.
All right, and now let's talkabout the content clarity.
How do we accomplish that?
Create your core content.
Core content is content aboutyour actual services.
I work with mostly serviceproviders, but I certainly have
clients who sell tangible goodstoo, but I think majority,
(27:17):
probably 90% of my clients areservice-based businesses.
So just how you present andshare and create content around
what, again, I call your corecontent, which is your services,
it's what you do Generating newcontent.
So we do a ton of work aroundgetting you just tons of new
(27:43):
content, ideas that arestrategic that's important,
right, that are strategic.
And then, finally, a contentplan.
I'm excited to tell you thatthis content plan, out of all
these pieces, has really evolveda lot in the last couple months
recording this.
I've come up with a way thatthis can all be digitized, um,
(28:05):
the way that it can be reallyclear.
If that's not your jam, I liketo have flexibility.
You can print out worksheets,too and use them on a monthly
basis.
I like to give people options,but this is really just a
monthly content plan.
Here's what.
Here are the things.
Check these boxes go throughthis and a lot of this can be
(28:29):
right-sized for the business,right?
This is not a one size alwaysfits all, or that setting proper
expectations.
Listen, here are all the thingsyou can do, but let's figure
out, like, given your time,given your abilities, that kind
(28:49):
of thing here's, let's at leastput a plan in place that you can
execute.
That's really important.
So this is again my flats andfixes.
This is how I present and talkabout my marketing clarity
coaching program.
Um, and this has been somethinghonestly, has gone through,
(29:14):
this is, I think, the sixth kindof like update, and what I mean
by that is like I'm a constantimprover, right, like if there's
something in this that doesn'twork or can be improved, I'm
always updating it Right.
So will this look a littledifferent?
Maybe a year from now?
Maybe, but the flats, thosehaven't changed in the years
(29:41):
I've been doing this.
I keep hearing the sameproblems.
Keep hearing the same problems.
So, craig, is there anything?
Speaker 1 (29:50):
I'll say, no matter
what the program looks like in
general and even just anybodywho's watching this and who's
just learning in here, it'struthfully, it's the flats are
going to be there, the fixes aregoing to be there.
How to find customer clarity weneed to know who our customers
are.
We need to be able to masterhow to speak to them, how to
find company clarity.
We got to master all thesepieces.
(30:11):
So, no matter what program youhave, how it evolves, these
things are, for the most part,going to stand true, if I'm
understanding that right.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Yeah, absolutely the
um.
How right.
Which are these bottom three,this bottom part, the how we get
there?
Because digital marketing isalways changing.
Okay, some of these things maygo through some changes, but, at
the end of the day, the whatwe're trying to accomplish.
(30:41):
Like I said, that stayed thesame for years.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Thanks for joining us
on the Therapy Business Podcast
.
Be sure to subscribe, leave areview and share it with a
practice owner that you may know.
If your practice needs helpgetting organized with its
finances or just growing yourpractice, head to
therapybusinesspodcom to learnhow we can help.