October 28, 2025 • 40 mins
JIMI GIBSON is the Vice President of Brand Communication at Thrive Agency, an 18-year-old digital marketing firm that has earned a spot on the Inc. 5000 list for seven consecutive years. With over 200 dedicated professionals, Thrive is known for its results-driven approach to digital marketing.
Thrive agency focuses on growing businesses rather than just making sales and always recommends solutions based on what’s genuinely best for the client—not what’s most expensive. Jimi is an experienced digital marketer, author, and TEDx speaker who believes a company’s website should be a constantly evolving, client-growing machine that requires ongoing attention and optimization. Before implementing any tactics, Thrive analyzes each client across 215 unique data points to assess their digital health, ensuring strategies are tailored and effective. Jimi is a member of the Forbes Agency Council and regularly contributes articles and content for expert panel discussions.
Contact Details:
Email: jimi@Thriveagency.com
Business: Thrive Internet Marketing Agency
Website: https://thriveagency.com/
Social Media:
LinkedIN - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimi-gibson/
Facebook - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimi-gibson/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thriveagency/
Remember to SUBSCRIBE so you don't miss "Information That You Can Use." Share Just Minding My Business with your family, friends, and colleagues. Engage with us by leaving a review or comment on my Google Business Page. https://g.page/r/CVKSq-IsFaY9EBM/review Your support keeps this podcast going and growing.
Visit Just Minding My Business Media™ LLC at https://jmmbmediallc.com/ to learn how we can help you get more visibility on your products and services.
Thrive agency focuses on growing businesses rather than just making sales and always recommends solutions based on what’s genuinely best for the client—not what’s most expensive. Jimi is an experienced digital marketer, author, and TEDx speaker who believes a company’s website should be a constantly evolving, client-growing machine that requires ongoing attention and optimization. Before implementing any tactics, Thrive analyzes each client across 215 unique data points to assess their digital health, ensuring strategies are tailored and effective. Jimi is a member of the Forbes Agency Council and regularly contributes articles and content for expert panel discussions.
Contact Details:
Email: jimi@Thriveagency.com
Business: Thrive Internet Marketing Agency
Website: https://thriveagency.com/
Social Media:
LinkedIN - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimi-gibson/
Facebook - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimi-gibson/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thriveagency/
Remember to SUBSCRIBE so you don't miss "Information That You Can Use." Share Just Minding My Business with your family, friends, and colleagues. Engage with us by leaving a review or comment on my Google Business Page. https://g.page/r/CVKSq-IsFaY9EBM/review Your support keeps this podcast going and growing.
Visit Just Minding My Business Media™ LLC at https://jmmbmediallc.com/ to learn how we can help you get more visibility on your products and services.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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Speaker 2 (02:13):
Welcome to Just Minding My Business Media. I am so
happy that you stopped by and I am excited to
bring to you today Jimmy Gibson, who is the vice
president of Brand Communication and Thrive Agency, an eighteen year
old digital marketing firm that has earned a spot when
(02:34):
the eight five thousand lists for seven consecond years. With
over two hundred dedicated professionals, Thrive is known for its
result driven approach to digital marketing. The agency focuses on
growing businesses rather than just making sales, and always recommends
solutions based on which genuinely bests with a client, not
(03:00):
Worth's most expensive. Wow. Welcome Jimmy. I'm so happy to
have you here today.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
I'm anxious to get into a engaging conversation with you. Ada.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Thank you for having me absolutely. Well, the first the
last thing we said was about the result driven approach
to your agency. So can you kind of share with
us the philosophy and what your day to day strategies
look like.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
Sure, great question. So we'd like to use this metaphor
of driving down a road and there's a ditch on
either side, right, and one ditch is relationships and the
other ditch is results. And if you start to veer
over to that relationship side and fall in that ditch,
it can be pretty fun and everybody's having a good time,
(03:53):
but that's only going to last for a certain amount
of time until that business owner says, hey, wait a minute,
this is all fun, but I'm not growing my business.
I'm spending a bunch of money. And if we get
back on that road and then we veer off into
the results side, that's a great place to be because
getting results. But if you're not liking the people you're
(04:15):
working with, it can sort of be a pain. And
so you're never really dead even on that road. You're
always veering off one side or another, and so you
have to make sure you keep track of that, you know. Unfortunately,
we get a lot of conversations in the early stages
about people who have not gotten results and have not
(04:35):
liked the people they work with, and so we sort
of want to show them there's a better way. And
we like to be very transparent. We like to talk
about realistic business goals, what can happen and what might
take a little more time. So yeah, I would say
that's our philosophy that we've lived by and it seems
to help us very well.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Yes, yes, because I mean, as we well know, so,
you know, digital marketing is definitely something you just can't
do one and done. It's a water testing type thing.
You know, you try something and you see how people
react to it, because at the end of the day,
(05:20):
the people are going to tell you whether they like
it or not.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
That's right. Yeah. I think we have this term we
call the Hippo factor, which is the highest paid person's opinion,
and we often run into that where somebody within an
organization believes something is going to happen this way or
that way, and we go, oh, totally respect that. Let's
let the numbers tell us. Just like you said, the people,
(05:46):
the audience is going to let us know, and sometimes
oftentimes we get surprised. I mean, we have a lot
of data. We work with about a thousand active clients.
We've been at this, as you mentioned, for eighteen years.
I think I may have sent you a little older bio.
But we're actually celebrating our twentieth anniversary this year, which
(06:07):
is sort of a unicorn in the digital marketing space.
So we have a pretty good idea on which direction
we need to head. But you know, each business, in
each customer base is different. And guess what you throw
in all of this AI craziness that's been going on
the last few months, and you have to what's the
(06:27):
old say and measure twice, cut once. So those are
the things that we're dealing with right now.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Yes, yes, because it's definitely not an easy you know,
digital marketing is very very difficult for if you try
to do it yourself, and most more times than that,
as a business owner, you just don't have the time.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
Yeah, things move very quickly, and we like to be
that partner and let them do what they do best. Right,
if you spread yourself too thin, that's a difficult place
to be. And yeah, we don't really want to be
considered a vendor. We want to be considered a partner
and be thinking as if it were our own business
and be able to advise in the right places. You're
(07:16):
absolutely right, Yes.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Indeed, so let's talk a little bit about websites, sure,
and how your company. What's the philosophy on a company's website.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Yeah, So it's interesting when we talk about all these platforms.
Meta YouTube, TikTok is very popular. Those are great places
to get visibility. Often it's if it's organic. It may
look free, but it does take a lot of time
and energy to trip that algorithm in your favor. If
(07:53):
it's a paid engagement, then obviously you're paying for that traffic.
But the website ends up being the hub of all
activities related to people learning about your brand, understanding more
about you. It's more of a controlled conversation, and it
is the one thing that you own besides your email list, right,
(08:16):
Because things can change. We remember a few months ago,
TikTok got shut down for a while, maybe twenty four
to forty eight hours. People were frantically figuring out what
am I going to do when these things change. You
don't want to be abandoned or be on an island
(08:38):
without a property like your website. And so when we
get into a website. A lot of times people think,
all right, I've just launched a new website. It's over. No,
it's actually just begun, right, And so you have to
take care of that money maker. And we like to
call it a money making machine, because if if you're
(09:00):
driving people to that website to find out how to
make an appointment buy your product, if you're an e
commerce business, it's a valuable resource and an asset in
your organization. One thing that we're seeing and you probably
heard the term zero click world that we live in
now when somebody searches, I think that is a factor.
(09:23):
But I still think at this point there's a comfort
level in knowing that a business has a website. You
get to learn more about them, and we can talk
about some pitfalls that folks get into how to make
sure your website is optimized effectively. But yeah, I would
say philosophically, we believe it's the place you need to
(09:43):
spend a considerable amount of time. And if your website
is more than two to three years old before it's
had a major update or a refresh, it's probably time
to look at it because things get staled pretty quickly
with the new developments.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Absolutely, because I'm going I look at my web web
site January is look at everything. Yep, that's like my
you know, let me see what do I need to
update something? It's something getting stale and you know, things
like that. And because I have do media, you know,
(10:17):
I have tools where everything that I do automatically goes
to the website. All the interviews, sure, once they published,
they automatically go there. So it's constantly changing in that aspect.
So I agree with you. You know, when all fails,
(10:38):
you got your website and you got your mailing list.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
That's right, that's right. Then I'm sorry, go right.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Ahead, and so tell me a little bit of things
in terms of strategies to keep your you know, optimize
your website, because I think that's a real challenge for
many business owns.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
Sure. Yeah, and I'm actually going to use a media term.
I know that you're heavily involved in that area. And
if we look back to the days of a newspaper
and maybe some of the listeners got a newspaper once
a day or twice a day, right, other people may
be going, what is a newspaper? I read an online paper.
But there's a term called above the fold, which when
(11:23):
newspapers were put in a box on the street, the
paper was folded in half, and then the newspaper showed
through a glass window, and that's where all the top
stories were, right, And that was really the enticement to
get somebody to purchase that newspaper. And so that was
really your lead generator or your excitement. And then when
(11:45):
you put your quarter in that little slot at the top,
that was the call to action to pay for the newspaper.
And so a lot of these terms have transferred over
and just sort of stuck. And so when you think
about above the fold, that's the visible area of the
website that shows up, whether it be on mobile, whether
it be on some type of tablet or a desktop screen.
(12:08):
That's your most important real estate. And so really what
we see now when folks come to us for starting
a new company or refreshing or in growth mode is
a lot of the information above that fold is either
confusing or focused on the business itself. Really, it should
(12:31):
be focused on your ideal customer. What is their pain point?
How quickly can you get that message across so that
when they land there, they go, oh my gosh, these
are the people for me, they get me, they understand me,
and it should be crystal clear as to what that is.
We also see a lot of what we call CTAs
(12:54):
or calls to action that are conflicting. So there might
be a button that says call to sketch a one appointment.
There might be a button that says click here for
more info. There may be a form that you fill out,
and that can be confusing if you give people too
many choices. And so I would say, figure out what
it is you want them to do one thing, and
(13:17):
ask them to do that one thing. And so I
would say, the other thing that you want to do
is you want to have some sort of social proof
or credibility above the fold. So if you're in an
industry that requires credentialing or awards, or maybe there's a
client testimonial that's very short that somebody could see. So
(13:41):
if you just imagine that little rectangle and all of
that information is in that one spot, if I didn't
look at the rest of your website, I would have
a pretty good idea if I believed you could do
what you're telling me you could do right, and then
don't worry about the rest of the site until you
get that and it takes it's painful. You have to
(14:03):
cut and cut and cut and make sure you've really
got that clear. So I would say from a content
and a messaging standpoint, that's what I would say. The
other thing that happens a lot now is there's more
searches being done on a mobile device than on a desktop.
That happened a few years ago, and much of the
software is able to translate the website into a mobile experience.
(14:30):
But sometimes it doesn't look pretty. It might look too small,
the buttons might be too small for somebody to touch.
So make sure you're looking at your website on a
variety of devices. So those are some just quick tips,
and you know, there are some technical things that you
need to be aware of, and I'm happy to dive
into that if you think it might be helpful.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Absolutely, because that's your hut, that's your storefront, that is
your storefront.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
Got to you got to take care of it, and
you hopefully want line of people waiting to buy from you.
The other thing that's happening now is you know, I'm
guilty of this myself. You put something in the microwave
and you don't wait for the counter to reach zero, right,
you got to get that stuff out of the microwave. Well,
(15:18):
that's sort of the same mentality with folks on a website.
If it takes too long to load, they're going to
be impatient, they're going to move on. And so there's
something called page load speed, which if you just put
that in Google, there's actually a free tool by Google
that they will rank your website for how fast it loads.
A lot of the things that we see that cause
(15:39):
a website not to load quickly. Our images are too big,
or they're just have more resolution than they need to have.
And so number one, your website needs to be mobile friendly.
Number two it needs to load quickly, and people ignore that,
they don't really consider that. So I would say, if
you have somebody that you work with, get them to
test your pageload speed. The other thing that we're seeing now,
(16:05):
and this is especially this is actually an opportunity for
folks when you're creating the content for the website. Don't
just go to chat GPT and say I'm a plumber
or I'm an accountant or i have a coffee shop
and take the first thing that comes out of chat
(16:26):
GPT and put that on your website, right, because what's
going to happen. It's going to be very generic, it's
going to be very friendly, it's going to not say
a whole lot about your personal story. And so Google
and these large language models that are now ranking sites
in a much different way are looking for experience, expertise,
(16:50):
your authority on that subject, your trustworthiness. So we've already
talked about customer review use how many do you have?
Do you have Google reviews? Is your website better for
Yelp reviews? So you want to look at all that,
but then you also want to be able to tell
(17:11):
your story why you're passionate about that business. And when
you do that and everybody else is just taking the
first thing that comes out of chat GPT, you are
going to be head and shoulders above everybody else and
it's actually going to give you a competitive advantage. So yeah,
I would say those are some things that we're talking
about every day with clients and prospects.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Yes, and I think a lot of people like you
just said, because now you can build a whole website
with GPT, but you have to inject you, oh yeah,
and your personality into your website because what happens, I
believe is when you talk to people how you your
(17:53):
personality has to match what's on your website.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
It does. And I've got a trick to help the
listeners if you'd like to hear it. Yes, I was Okay,
I'm going to sit up in my chair and those
watching on video, I'm going to hold up my hand
and for those that are listening, I'm going to talk
you through it. So I've basically got my left hand
in the air and I've got all my fingers wide
and spread open, and we're going to start with the pinky.
So if you're trying to figure out what do I
(18:18):
need to say about my company, that is going to
be the real deal, authentic talk about all the scars
and bruises, have some emotion to it that's going to
separate you from the pack. I'm going to give you
five fingers. And there's probably twenty things that you could
do on your website or your blog or on your
social media that are going to set you apart. And
(18:40):
so if we start with the pinky, we probably all
remember that pinky promise when we had when we were
kids on the playground and you latched pinkies together and
you said, I pinky promise too. Well, you didn't break
that promise or your name would not be pretty on
the playground. So what promise? Yep, go ahead?
Speaker 2 (18:56):
I yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
So what promise are you making to your customers? If
you are a service provider, what promise are you making
at the level of service that you're going to provide?
If you make a product, what about the things that
you use as raw materials? What about your customer service?
What are you promising you're going to deliver? What are
you promising to your team? What are you promising to
(19:21):
your vendors? So that's a great place to start, and
there should be a lot of emotion around what you're
promising and how you want to live up to the
expectations of what you're putting out there. The next one
is the ring finger, and you might think that's a promise,
but it's actually about the passion that you bring to
your business. And then really thinking about it as that courtship.
(19:41):
If you are married, you didn't ask that person to
marry you on the first date, right, so what are
you doing to respect that courtship? And then how long
are you in this relationship for what in your mind,
is a good relationship with a client. We talk about
total customer value. My wife and I just celebrated twenty
years of marriage, and I think about out the relationship
in a different way. When I think about it, I'm
(20:03):
in it for the long haul, right, So think about
that not only with your customers, but with your teams
that you lead. The next one is the middle finger
ITEA and don't get scared, I'm going to leave all
my fingers up. A lot of people think that's a
vulgar expression. It's actually an expression of defiance. And so
(20:24):
when you think about that middle finger in defiance, that's
really your enemy. And so what is the enemy of
your brand? What is the enemy that you need to
protect your customer from? And if you truly believe your
product or service is the best choice for them, then
you need to warn them and protect them from that
(20:44):
enemy or villain. And that's not something you can put
in a prompt to Chat GPT right now. That might
be a person, it might be a company, it might
be an ideology. And again you don't have to name
the person. But if people are shopping around, they'll probably
be aware of some alternative things that they can do.
Instead of working with your business, and so it's up
(21:07):
to you and your responsibility to name that. The next
one is the pointy finger. And I say pointy finger
because in the US we're probably familiar with those posters
of Uncle Sam, we want you, right, and so you
have to know exactly who you're talking to, who is
your ideal customer. You should be able to point them
(21:27):
out in a crowd, and then once you point them
out in the crowd, you should be able to beckon
them in and say, come see what we have to offer. Right.
It's also the symbol for number one, and so every
piece of content you put out there should be directed
at one person, solving one problem and presenting one offer.
Otherwise you're going to confuse the people that you want
(21:50):
to be your customer. The next one is the thumb.
The thumb is the universal symbol for hey, things are
going well, thumb's up or thumbs down things aren't going
so well. And so we've probably all seen these memes
of do this, don't do that. You can do the
same thing with your business. Right. So again I mentioned
if you have a coffee shop, why is your coffee better?
(22:12):
Why is your blend or the way you grind or
the way you source your beans from. Better drink good coffee,
don't drink bad coffee, right, And then the other part
of that is the thumb print. What thumb print are
you leaving on the world because you're involved in this
business in this city with these people. What thumb print
are you leaving on the team that you work with
(22:34):
every day? How is it improving their lives? And then
what thumb print are you leaving as a legacy on
your customers. It's interesting. I have three sets of twins
as nieces and nephews, and they can open each other's
phone with their face ID, but they can't open it
with their thumb. It's unique to you. And so what
(22:56):
are you doing to talk about your unique personality of yourself,
how your business was created, and the team that you
have that is bringing products and services. And so I
just named off probably twenty twenty five things just using
my hand. It's something you carry around with you when
you're stuck to think about how you're going to revise
(23:16):
your website. There you go, you got five pages on
your website. If you're worried about social media, pick a finger. Uh,
there's probably five or ten things you can say about
each finger. So yeah, I mean that's a pretty easy takeaway,
and it's filled with passion and personality and a point
of view that you can't get from AI.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Wow, and I love that. I love that. Thank you, Jim.
That was a really really good analogy. Yeah, very simple,
straight to the point. Yeah, understandable for most people. Wow.
So if people want to work with your Thrive Agency,
how do they do so?
Speaker 4 (23:56):
Yeah, So Thriveagency dot com it's a pretty big website.
We've got a lot of resources on there. I write
a blog every month and then it's followed up by
about a twenty minute video. But yeah, there's plenty of
ways to get in touch with whether a service you
might need help with, And if folks are sort of
apprehensive or they want to ask me a few questions.
(24:17):
I'm on LinkedIn every day doing some sort of post
or educational or motivational something. So hit me up in
the DMS, let me know that you heard me on
this wonderful podcast, and happy to schedule a little chat.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Yes, yes, indeed, Wow, because you definitely dropped some gins
that people need to know about you for real, because
your website, that's your.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
Store it is and we've been built for twenty years. Yes,
and I'm.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Really you know, I've picked up some definitely some tips
I'm going to use from you in this conversation. But
I'm really always looking at my website site not just
for functionality, but also to make sure is having that
third eye, you know, like I'm a customer.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
Sure, yeah, you have to sit in your customers seat. Absolutely, Yes, indeed.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Wow, So let's talk about how you work with how
you analyze your clients unique data points. Let's talk a
little bit about that.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
Yeah, I think every business is different and you have
to respect where folks are and so we spend a
lot of time creating a well, we're pulling data from
the twenty years of working with a variety of clients
in a variety of industries. There's some tools that many
of the folks out there may be familiar with, and
(25:51):
we actually pulled together twenty five data points where we
analyze businesses on how well they're doing related to visibility
and versions, and then we added an extra little layer
in there depending on the life cycle of the business,
whether they're a startup and this is their first website,
or whether they're in high growth mode or whether they're
(26:11):
in a mature state. And then we talk about the
business like, Okay, you're here, now where do you want
to go? How quickly do you want to go there?
What budget do you have to get there? And then
it becomes a business conversation and then we call it
the Thrive score, and then that score follows you along
(26:32):
through your relationship, so everybody knows here are the priorities.
There's no confusion, there's no mismatch and expectations. And then
we get excited when a client moves that number towards
their goal in a significant way. And the other part
that's exciting is they know why because they were involved
(26:53):
in the decision making and they understand how we came
about this plan. And yeah, it's just a wonderful thing
that helping people sort of navigate this world of the
internet that can be pretty confusing and intimidating.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Yes, indeed, wow for sure, because I mean you need
help with that, especially if you don't understand.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
Oh yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Most folks they know their business like the back of
their hand, but when it comes to you know, marketing
and Internet and all that kind of stuff is like,
oh my god, this is way too much.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
For me, and you shouldn't feel bad about not knowing.
It's not your responsibility.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Yeah, I agree, you know, give it to sound, give
it to the expert, so that way you'll be successful.
Instead you're trying to do.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
It and hold them accountable because you're investing your money
and you want to return on that. So don't just
hand them a lot of cash and then say it's
taken care of. You got to participate and you've got
to be part of the process and be engaged because,
like you just said, nobody knows your business except you, right,
(28:08):
And so that's the part that's sort of the collaborative
approach that we love.
Speaker 5 (28:14):
Yes, and earlier we talked about nurturing the relationships and
delivering results, and we all know that can be easier
said than done for real, because so how.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Do you balance that?
Speaker 4 (28:31):
Yeah? So I think first of all, we got to
know what we're going after, right, and that's involved in
the plan. I came to Thrive to expand their strategy department.
I believe if you don't have a good plan or
a good strategy, you're going to end up somewhere you
don't want to be, and it's probably going to cost
you way more than you wanted to, right, And so
(28:54):
we love to start with that plan, and then that
plan has to be matched to whatever it is that
the owner wants or the team that the owner has delegated,
and the budget associated with that, and then we have
to respect that relationship, steward that money well, and meet
(29:17):
with a client on a regular basis and ask questions
and deliver good news and talk about the tough news
and not be afraid to admit when we're wrong or
work through a situation that needs to be worked through.
(29:37):
And I think that's any part of any healthy relationship, right.
I just talked about being married for twenty years. It
hasn't been you know, lollypops and rainbows for twenty years.
But I'm still here and you know, she kissed me
on her way out the door a minute ago, and
we're all good. But it does take work on both parts.
And so we love working with people who can hell
(30:00):
it like it is and give us the you know,
give us what they want to give us, but also
respect our team and we're going to respect their team.
And yeah, it's a mutual relationship. And when that doesn't work,
then it's Okay for us to go our separate ways
because maybe we're not the perfect match for that particular client.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Yes, and that's how it has to be. You know,
one of the build something you got to work together.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
I don't know what of these.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
It's that's never going to change with all the changes
in the world. That you must participate in your growth. Yes,
absolutely sure, Okay professional magician.
Speaker 4 (30:48):
Oh we're getting to that. All right, let's.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Talk about how you use that to incorporate in what
you did.
Speaker 4 (30:59):
Yeah. So I've been interested in magic. I got a
magic kit when I was six, and in high school
I met a gentleman who worked at an ad agency
and he was wanting to know if I was interested
in working with a global brand doing some promotional shows.
I said, oh, yes, I don't have to work retail
or cut the grass. Absolutely, So I started doing those shows.
(31:24):
That relationship lasted another sixteen years, and as I got
to hang out at the ad agency, I thought, Wow,
this is a pretty cool, you know, industry, and you know,
it's kind of actually like a magic trick because you
have to capture attention, you have to keep them engaged.
Then you have to pull off the magic at the
(31:45):
end right, and I started thinking about it. I went, Yeah,
if I had to pick a profession, that probably would
be it. And so I had. There was a point
where I was a professional magician, where my income relied
on that, and then I became very interested in marketing,
went to school for marketing, started working at ad agencies,
which is what they were called back then, and they
(32:07):
seem to inform each other. And so when I think
about a marketing campaign or connecting with an audience, I'm
thinking about the three stages of connection, curiosity, and conversion.
And it's amazing. There's brain chemistry ida that actually follows
the path of a magic trick, and that same brain
(32:29):
chemistry follows the path of a marketing message. And I
think if we skip any of those steps. We talked
about LinkedIn earlier, it's interesting. On LinkedIn it's called a
connection request. But what happens Usually after you accept somebody's
connection request, they immediately send you a sales pitch, right,
(32:51):
And so you kind of go ooh, that feels weird
because we've skipped the point of actually establishing that relationship.
We talked about the ring finger and respecting the courtship
of that relationship and so when when we're in a
conversation with somebody, whether it be over a marketing piece
(33:12):
or across a zoom conversation or in person, that first
point is a connection point, and that actually releases oxytocin
in the brain, and that floods your body with this
feeling of like, oh, this is kind of cool, I'm
interested and this is going pretty well. Yeah, I feel comfortable. Right.
(33:32):
And so when a magician walks out on stage, that's
what they're trying to do, right. They greet the audience.
They might point to somebody in the front row, and
the audience is like, oh, well, this is going to
be kind of fun, same kind of thing, right, and
now we've opened the door to move to the next stage,
which is curiosity. And so the magician might say, Ida,
that's a very nice sweater you have on. Do you
(33:54):
have a deck of cards at home. I'm not asking
you to go home and get them, but I have
one right here. Do you know the cards? And you
would say of course, And then I would say, I
just want you to think about one of those cards.
You know, it could be the club's heart, spades, diamonds,
you know, whatever the case may be. And then Ace
low King hide, you know, and we start to talk
about this card, this deck of cards, and so what
(34:16):
happens The audience goes, Wow, this is interesting. I wonder
what's going to happen, right, same thing happens in a
marketing conversation. You get to the point where you go,
you know, what is your business challenged?
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Da?
Speaker 4 (34:28):
Da da da da. And then you might say, and
this is one of the most powerful phrases, is what
if what if I could present a solution to you
that would change all of that in an instant And
what does your brain do? It goes, well, I don't
think that's possible. I've been trying to solve this for
a long time, right, And so that curiosity is activated,
which is actually dopamine. And you know, we've heard about
(34:51):
dopamine addiction with social media, but it's actually the expectation
of a reward, because when you post on social media,
you want somebody to li it or share it or
comment on it. Right, And so the same thing. If
we start talking about the cards, then pretty soon the
audience is going to go Okay, I think the magician
(35:11):
might be trying to figure out or is going to
reveal what that card is. Now, if we stretch that
out too long, the audience is going to get bored.
So you have to know your room. Right in a conversation,
in a sales conversation or a marketing conversation, you kind
of have to know how long do we keep this
curiosity up before we meet go to the conclusion, which
(35:33):
can be the climax of the trick, or it can
be the conversion, which is actually a release of serotonin,
which is that chemistry in your brain that's like, oh okay,
it all makes sense now, oh wow, everything is right
with the world, and it's just this great feeling right.
And so that's what's missing from that LinkedIn engagement because
(35:54):
they haven't respected the connection, they haven't peaked your curiosity,
and they've gone straight for the clothes. And I think
if we remember that, and I mean this could literally
be in an email, it could be in a blog post,
it could be in a personal sales conversation, it could
be in a marketing email. You've got to follow that
(36:17):
sequence so that not only you're playing into the brain chemistry,
but you're respecting the stages that somebody has to go
through for everything to you establish that authority, gain that trust,
have them feel comfortable. And so that was pretty or
probably a way longer answer than you were expecting for this.
(36:39):
But I think there's a lot of parallels between the
world of magic and the world of marketing, and I
would say the one thing that I believe is missing
today is that activating of curiosity. I think we try
to skip over that too many times, and that can
really engage somebody at a heightened level and really connect
them to your brand.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Jim, you have been I'm just thinking about everything that
we're talking about, and you know, you're so right. I mean,
I love LinkedIn, but a sinner, You're right. As soon
as I accept somebody's invitation, immediately I get something to
(37:23):
buy and in that moment, I'm like, why they're trying
to send me something they don't even know me.
Speaker 4 (37:33):
And then I predisposes you to be on your guard
the next time you get a connection request.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
Yes, and it happens all the time. It happens all
the time. So audience, if you don't take nothing else.
Speaker 4 (37:46):
Don't do that, please please.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Well, Jim, so again, how do people connect with thrive?
Speaker 4 (37:58):
Yep? So thrive Agente dot com just like it sounds.
And then I'm on LinkedIn and my name is spelled
a little bit different. It's actually j I M I Gibson,
so like Jimmy Hendrix and then Gibson the refrigerator or
the guitar. Probably the guitar sounds cooler than a refrigerator
(38:19):
unless you're hungry. But yeah, be happy to set up
a chat with anybody or We've got plenty of ways
for folks to connect and learn more about Thrive and
if they're struggling with anything related to digital marketing. We
don't do a hard sell. We just chat with you
about where you are and where you want to be
and if we can help you, great, If not, maybe
(38:41):
we could point you in a direction that would be
beneficial for you until you're ready to come back.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
I got homework to do tonight.
Speaker 4 (38:51):
Good homework, though, fun homework.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Good homework, Yes, indeed, So this has been a pleasure, Jimmy.
We are definitely going to have to have you back
because I like the way you explain things, the analogies
you use. Of course, some of the stuff is old
school and I definitely late, yes, yes, especially the newspaper.
(39:14):
I'm thinking of myself because I used to do transcription.
Speaker 4 (39:18):
For reporters, oh my, for.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
The Baltimore Sun Wow for many years, and it was
such an amazing situation. How I got them, I really
don't remember, but I do remember I never met any
of them.
Speaker 4 (39:34):
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
They would just leave there their tapes at the front desk.
Speaker 4 (39:39):
I would go, probably the little micro cassette tape.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
Yeah, then I would finish up the transcription, bring everything
big and drop it old. That's how we rolled.
Speaker 4 (39:50):
M that's a hard thing. Never seen them, that's wild.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
That was trusting.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
You know.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
Somebody heard me, you know, and they was like, you're hired.
Speaker 4 (40:05):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
Yes, so let's do this again because this was definitely
amazing and I will definitely connect with you on LinkedIn
and audience. Thank you. I know you guys got a
bunch of good stuff today.
Speaker 4 (40:20):
Well that was fun, hada. Thank you for having me,
and I'm happy to come back anytime.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
Thank you to our guests and you our value audience.
Let's stop you by. We truly appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
Many blessings to you and yours
Welcome to Just Minded My Business Media LLC, where you
get information that you can use. I'm your host, Ida Crawford.
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Speaker 2 (02:13):
Welcome to Just Minding My Business Media. I am so
happy that you stopped by and I am excited to
bring to you today Jimmy Gibson, who is the vice
president of Brand Communication and Thrive Agency, an eighteen year
old digital marketing firm that has earned a spot when
(02:34):
the eight five thousand lists for seven consecond years. With
over two hundred dedicated professionals, Thrive is known for its
result driven approach to digital marketing. The agency focuses on
growing businesses rather than just making sales, and always recommends
solutions based on which genuinely bests with a client, not
(03:00):
Worth's most expensive. Wow. Welcome Jimmy. I'm so happy to
have you here today.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
I'm anxious to get into a engaging conversation with you. Ada.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Thank you for having me absolutely. Well, the first the
last thing we said was about the result driven approach
to your agency. So can you kind of share with
us the philosophy and what your day to day strategies
look like.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
Sure, great question. So we'd like to use this metaphor
of driving down a road and there's a ditch on
either side, right, and one ditch is relationships and the
other ditch is results. And if you start to veer
over to that relationship side and fall in that ditch,
it can be pretty fun and everybody's having a good time,
(03:53):
but that's only going to last for a certain amount
of time until that business owner says, hey, wait a minute,
this is all fun, but I'm not growing my business.
I'm spending a bunch of money. And if we get
back on that road and then we veer off into
the results side, that's a great place to be because
getting results. But if you're not liking the people you're
(04:15):
working with, it can sort of be a pain. And
so you're never really dead even on that road. You're
always veering off one side or another, and so you
have to make sure you keep track of that, you know. Unfortunately,
we get a lot of conversations in the early stages
about people who have not gotten results and have not
(04:35):
liked the people they work with, and so we sort
of want to show them there's a better way. And
we like to be very transparent. We like to talk
about realistic business goals, what can happen and what might
take a little more time. So yeah, I would say
that's our philosophy that we've lived by and it seems
to help us very well.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Yes, yes, because I mean, as we well know, so,
you know, digital marketing is definitely something you just can't
do one and done. It's a water testing type thing.
You know, you try something and you see how people
react to it, because at the end of the day,
(05:20):
the people are going to tell you whether they like
it or not.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
That's right. Yeah. I think we have this term we
call the Hippo factor, which is the highest paid person's opinion,
and we often run into that where somebody within an
organization believes something is going to happen this way or
that way, and we go, oh, totally respect that. Let's
let the numbers tell us. Just like you said, the people,
(05:46):
the audience is going to let us know, and sometimes
oftentimes we get surprised. I mean, we have a lot
of data. We work with about a thousand active clients.
We've been at this, as you mentioned, for eighteen years.
I think I may have sent you a little older bio.
But we're actually celebrating our twentieth anniversary this year, which
(06:07):
is sort of a unicorn in the digital marketing space.
So we have a pretty good idea on which direction
we need to head. But you know, each business, in
each customer base is different. And guess what you throw
in all of this AI craziness that's been going on
the last few months, and you have to what's the
(06:27):
old say and measure twice, cut once. So those are
the things that we're dealing with right now.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Yes, yes, because it's definitely not an easy you know,
digital marketing is very very difficult for if you try
to do it yourself, and most more times than that,
as a business owner, you just don't have the time.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
Yeah, things move very quickly, and we like to be
that partner and let them do what they do best. Right,
if you spread yourself too thin, that's a difficult place
to be. And yeah, we don't really want to be
considered a vendor. We want to be considered a partner
and be thinking as if it were our own business
and be able to advise in the right places. You're
(07:16):
absolutely right, Yes.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Indeed, so let's talk a little bit about websites, sure,
and how your company. What's the philosophy on a company's website.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Yeah, So it's interesting when we talk about all these platforms.
Meta YouTube, TikTok is very popular. Those are great places
to get visibility. Often it's if it's organic. It may
look free, but it does take a lot of time
and energy to trip that algorithm in your favor. If
(07:53):
it's a paid engagement, then obviously you're paying for that traffic.
But the website ends up being the hub of all
activities related to people learning about your brand, understanding more
about you. It's more of a controlled conversation, and it
is the one thing that you own besides your email list, right,
(08:16):
Because things can change. We remember a few months ago,
TikTok got shut down for a while, maybe twenty four
to forty eight hours. People were frantically figuring out what
am I going to do when these things change. You
don't want to be abandoned or be on an island
(08:38):
without a property like your website. And so when we
get into a website. A lot of times people think,
all right, I've just launched a new website. It's over. No,
it's actually just begun, right, And so you have to
take care of that money maker. And we like to
call it a money making machine, because if if you're
(09:00):
driving people to that website to find out how to
make an appointment buy your product, if you're an e
commerce business, it's a valuable resource and an asset in
your organization. One thing that we're seeing and you probably
heard the term zero click world that we live in
now when somebody searches, I think that is a factor.
(09:23):
But I still think at this point there's a comfort
level in knowing that a business has a website. You
get to learn more about them, and we can talk
about some pitfalls that folks get into how to make
sure your website is optimized effectively. But yeah, I would
say philosophically, we believe it's the place you need to
(09:43):
spend a considerable amount of time. And if your website
is more than two to three years old before it's
had a major update or a refresh, it's probably time
to look at it because things get staled pretty quickly
with the new developments.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Absolutely, because I'm going I look at my web web
site January is look at everything. Yep, that's like my
you know, let me see what do I need to
update something? It's something getting stale and you know, things
like that. And because I have do media, you know,
(10:17):
I have tools where everything that I do automatically goes
to the website. All the interviews, sure, once they published,
they automatically go there. So it's constantly changing in that aspect.
So I agree with you. You know, when all fails,
(10:38):
you got your website and you got your mailing list.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
That's right, that's right. Then I'm sorry, go right.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Ahead, and so tell me a little bit of things
in terms of strategies to keep your you know, optimize
your website, because I think that's a real challenge for
many business owns.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
Sure. Yeah, and I'm actually going to use a media term.
I know that you're heavily involved in that area. And
if we look back to the days of a newspaper
and maybe some of the listeners got a newspaper once
a day or twice a day, right, other people may
be going, what is a newspaper? I read an online paper.
But there's a term called above the fold, which when
(11:23):
newspapers were put in a box on the street, the
paper was folded in half, and then the newspaper showed
through a glass window, and that's where all the top
stories were, right, And that was really the enticement to
get somebody to purchase that newspaper. And so that was
really your lead generator or your excitement. And then when
(11:45):
you put your quarter in that little slot at the top,
that was the call to action to pay for the newspaper.
And so a lot of these terms have transferred over
and just sort of stuck. And so when you think
about above the fold, that's the visible area of the
website that shows up, whether it be on mobile, whether
it be on some type of tablet or a desktop screen.
(12:08):
That's your most important real estate. And so really what
we see now when folks come to us for starting
a new company or refreshing or in growth mode is
a lot of the information above that fold is either
confusing or focused on the business itself. Really, it should
(12:31):
be focused on your ideal customer. What is their pain point?
How quickly can you get that message across so that
when they land there, they go, oh my gosh, these
are the people for me, they get me, they understand me,
and it should be crystal clear as to what that is.
We also see a lot of what we call CTAs
(12:54):
or calls to action that are conflicting. So there might
be a button that says call to sketch a one appointment.
There might be a button that says click here for
more info. There may be a form that you fill out,
and that can be confusing if you give people too
many choices. And so I would say, figure out what
it is you want them to do one thing, and
(13:17):
ask them to do that one thing. And so I
would say, the other thing that you want to do
is you want to have some sort of social proof
or credibility above the fold. So if you're in an
industry that requires credentialing or awards, or maybe there's a
client testimonial that's very short that somebody could see. So
(13:41):
if you just imagine that little rectangle and all of
that information is in that one spot, if I didn't
look at the rest of your website, I would have
a pretty good idea if I believed you could do
what you're telling me you could do right, and then
don't worry about the rest of the site until you
get that and it takes it's painful. You have to
(14:03):
cut and cut and cut and make sure you've really
got that clear. So I would say from a content
and a messaging standpoint, that's what I would say. The
other thing that happens a lot now is there's more
searches being done on a mobile device than on a desktop.
That happened a few years ago, and much of the
software is able to translate the website into a mobile experience.
(14:30):
But sometimes it doesn't look pretty. It might look too small,
the buttons might be too small for somebody to touch.
So make sure you're looking at your website on a
variety of devices. So those are some just quick tips,
and you know, there are some technical things that you
need to be aware of, and I'm happy to dive
into that if you think it might be helpful.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Absolutely, because that's your hut, that's your storefront, that is
your storefront.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
Got to you got to take care of it, and
you hopefully want line of people waiting to buy from you.
The other thing that's happening now is you know, I'm
guilty of this myself. You put something in the microwave
and you don't wait for the counter to reach zero, right,
you got to get that stuff out of the microwave. Well,
(15:18):
that's sort of the same mentality with folks on a website.
If it takes too long to load, they're going to
be impatient, they're going to move on. And so there's
something called page load speed, which if you just put
that in Google, there's actually a free tool by Google
that they will rank your website for how fast it loads.
A lot of the things that we see that cause
(15:39):
a website not to load quickly. Our images are too big,
or they're just have more resolution than they need to have.
And so number one, your website needs to be mobile friendly.
Number two it needs to load quickly, and people ignore that,
they don't really consider that. So I would say, if
you have somebody that you work with, get them to
test your pageload speed. The other thing that we're seeing now,
(16:05):
and this is especially this is actually an opportunity for
folks when you're creating the content for the website. Don't
just go to chat GPT and say I'm a plumber
or I'm an accountant or i have a coffee shop
and take the first thing that comes out of chat
(16:26):
GPT and put that on your website, right, because what's
going to happen. It's going to be very generic, it's
going to be very friendly, it's going to not say
a whole lot about your personal story. And so Google
and these large language models that are now ranking sites
in a much different way are looking for experience, expertise,
(16:50):
your authority on that subject, your trustworthiness. So we've already
talked about customer review use how many do you have?
Do you have Google reviews? Is your website better for
Yelp reviews? So you want to look at all that,
but then you also want to be able to tell
(17:11):
your story why you're passionate about that business. And when
you do that and everybody else is just taking the
first thing that comes out of chat GPT, you are
going to be head and shoulders above everybody else and
it's actually going to give you a competitive advantage. So yeah,
I would say those are some things that we're talking
about every day with clients and prospects.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Yes, and I think a lot of people like you
just said, because now you can build a whole website
with GPT, but you have to inject you, oh yeah,
and your personality into your website because what happens, I
believe is when you talk to people how you your
(17:53):
personality has to match what's on your website.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
It does. And I've got a trick to help the
listeners if you'd like to hear it. Yes, I was Okay,
I'm going to sit up in my chair and those
watching on video, I'm going to hold up my hand
and for those that are listening, I'm going to talk
you through it. So I've basically got my left hand
in the air and I've got all my fingers wide
and spread open, and we're going to start with the pinky.
So if you're trying to figure out what do I
(18:18):
need to say about my company, that is going to
be the real deal, authentic talk about all the scars
and bruises, have some emotion to it that's going to
separate you from the pack. I'm going to give you
five fingers. And there's probably twenty things that you could
do on your website or your blog or on your
social media that are going to set you apart. And
(18:40):
so if we start with the pinky, we probably all
remember that pinky promise when we had when we were
kids on the playground and you latched pinkies together and
you said, I pinky promise too. Well, you didn't break
that promise or your name would not be pretty on
the playground. So what promise? Yep, go ahead?
Speaker 2 (18:56):
I yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
So what promise are you making to your customers? If
you are a service provider, what promise are you making
at the level of service that you're going to provide?
If you make a product, what about the things that
you use as raw materials? What about your customer service?
What are you promising you're going to deliver? What are
you promising to your team? What are you promising to
(19:21):
your vendors? So that's a great place to start, and
there should be a lot of emotion around what you're
promising and how you want to live up to the
expectations of what you're putting out there. The next one
is the ring finger, and you might think that's a promise,
but it's actually about the passion that you bring to
your business. And then really thinking about it as that courtship.
(19:41):
If you are married, you didn't ask that person to
marry you on the first date, right, so what are
you doing to respect that courtship? And then how long
are you in this relationship for what in your mind,
is a good relationship with a client. We talk about
total customer value. My wife and I just celebrated twenty
years of marriage, and I think about out the relationship
in a different way. When I think about it, I'm
(20:03):
in it for the long haul, right, So think about
that not only with your customers, but with your teams
that you lead. The next one is the middle finger
ITEA and don't get scared, I'm going to leave all
my fingers up. A lot of people think that's a
vulgar expression. It's actually an expression of defiance. And so
(20:24):
when you think about that middle finger in defiance, that's
really your enemy. And so what is the enemy of
your brand? What is the enemy that you need to
protect your customer from? And if you truly believe your
product or service is the best choice for them, then
you need to warn them and protect them from that
(20:44):
enemy or villain. And that's not something you can put
in a prompt to Chat GPT right now. That might
be a person, it might be a company, it might
be an ideology. And again you don't have to name
the person. But if people are shopping around, they'll probably
be aware of some alternative things that they can do.
Instead of working with your business, and so it's up
(21:07):
to you and your responsibility to name that. The next
one is the pointy finger. And I say pointy finger
because in the US we're probably familiar with those posters
of Uncle Sam, we want you, right, and so you
have to know exactly who you're talking to, who is
your ideal customer. You should be able to point them
(21:27):
out in a crowd, and then once you point them
out in the crowd, you should be able to beckon
them in and say, come see what we have to offer. Right.
It's also the symbol for number one, and so every
piece of content you put out there should be directed
at one person, solving one problem and presenting one offer.
Otherwise you're going to confuse the people that you want
(21:50):
to be your customer. The next one is the thumb.
The thumb is the universal symbol for hey, things are
going well, thumb's up or thumbs down things aren't going
so well. And so we've probably all seen these memes
of do this, don't do that. You can do the
same thing with your business. Right. So again I mentioned
if you have a coffee shop, why is your coffee better?
(22:12):
Why is your blend or the way you grind or
the way you source your beans from. Better drink good coffee,
don't drink bad coffee, right, And then the other part
of that is the thumb print. What thumb print are
you leaving on the world because you're involved in this
business in this city with these people. What thumb print
are you leaving on the team that you work with
(22:34):
every day? How is it improving their lives? And then
what thumb print are you leaving as a legacy on
your customers. It's interesting. I have three sets of twins
as nieces and nephews, and they can open each other's
phone with their face ID, but they can't open it
with their thumb. It's unique to you. And so what
(22:56):
are you doing to talk about your unique personality of yourself,
how your business was created, and the team that you
have that is bringing products and services. And so I
just named off probably twenty twenty five things just using
my hand. It's something you carry around with you when
you're stuck to think about how you're going to revise
(23:16):
your website. There you go, you got five pages on
your website. If you're worried about social media, pick a finger. Uh,
there's probably five or ten things you can say about
each finger. So yeah, I mean that's a pretty easy takeaway,
and it's filled with passion and personality and a point
of view that you can't get from AI.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Wow, and I love that. I love that. Thank you, Jim.
That was a really really good analogy. Yeah, very simple,
straight to the point. Yeah, understandable for most people. Wow.
So if people want to work with your Thrive Agency,
how do they do so?
Speaker 4 (23:56):
Yeah, So Thriveagency dot com it's a pretty big website.
We've got a lot of resources on there. I write
a blog every month and then it's followed up by
about a twenty minute video. But yeah, there's plenty of
ways to get in touch with whether a service you
might need help with, And if folks are sort of
apprehensive or they want to ask me a few questions.
(24:17):
I'm on LinkedIn every day doing some sort of post
or educational or motivational something. So hit me up in
the DMS, let me know that you heard me on
this wonderful podcast, and happy to schedule a little chat.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Yes, yes, indeed, Wow, because you definitely dropped some gins
that people need to know about you for real, because
your website, that's your.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
Store it is and we've been built for twenty years. Yes,
and I'm.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Really you know, I've picked up some definitely some tips
I'm going to use from you in this conversation. But
I'm really always looking at my website site not just
for functionality, but also to make sure is having that
third eye, you know, like I'm a customer.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
Sure, yeah, you have to sit in your customers seat. Absolutely, Yes, indeed.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Wow, So let's talk about how you work with how
you analyze your clients unique data points. Let's talk a
little bit about that.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
Yeah, I think every business is different and you have
to respect where folks are and so we spend a
lot of time creating a well, we're pulling data from
the twenty years of working with a variety of clients
in a variety of industries. There's some tools that many
of the folks out there may be familiar with, and
(25:51):
we actually pulled together twenty five data points where we
analyze businesses on how well they're doing related to visibility
and versions, and then we added an extra little layer
in there depending on the life cycle of the business,
whether they're a startup and this is their first website,
or whether they're in high growth mode or whether they're
(26:11):
in a mature state. And then we talk about the
business like, Okay, you're here, now where do you want
to go? How quickly do you want to go there?
What budget do you have to get there? And then
it becomes a business conversation and then we call it
the Thrive score, and then that score follows you along
(26:32):
through your relationship, so everybody knows here are the priorities.
There's no confusion, there's no mismatch and expectations. And then
we get excited when a client moves that number towards
their goal in a significant way. And the other part
that's exciting is they know why because they were involved
(26:53):
in the decision making and they understand how we came
about this plan. And yeah, it's just a wonderful thing
that helping people sort of navigate this world of the
internet that can be pretty confusing and intimidating.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Yes, indeed, wow for sure, because I mean you need
help with that, especially if you don't understand.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
Oh yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Most folks they know their business like the back of
their hand, but when it comes to you know, marketing
and Internet and all that kind of stuff is like,
oh my god, this is way too much.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
For me, and you shouldn't feel bad about not knowing.
It's not your responsibility.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Yeah, I agree, you know, give it to sound, give
it to the expert, so that way you'll be successful.
Instead you're trying to do.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
It and hold them accountable because you're investing your money
and you want to return on that. So don't just
hand them a lot of cash and then say it's
taken care of. You got to participate and you've got
to be part of the process and be engaged because,
like you just said, nobody knows your business except you, right,
(28:08):
And so that's the part that's sort of the collaborative
approach that we love.
Speaker 5 (28:14):
Yes, and earlier we talked about nurturing the relationships and
delivering results, and we all know that can be easier
said than done for real, because so how.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Do you balance that?
Speaker 4 (28:31):
Yeah? So I think first of all, we got to
know what we're going after, right, and that's involved in
the plan. I came to Thrive to expand their strategy department.
I believe if you don't have a good plan or
a good strategy, you're going to end up somewhere you
don't want to be, and it's probably going to cost
you way more than you wanted to, right, And so
(28:54):
we love to start with that plan, and then that
plan has to be matched to whatever it is that
the owner wants or the team that the owner has delegated,
and the budget associated with that, and then we have
to respect that relationship, steward that money well, and meet
(29:17):
with a client on a regular basis and ask questions
and deliver good news and talk about the tough news
and not be afraid to admit when we're wrong or
work through a situation that needs to be worked through.
(29:37):
And I think that's any part of any healthy relationship, right.
I just talked about being married for twenty years. It
hasn't been you know, lollypops and rainbows for twenty years.
But I'm still here and you know, she kissed me
on her way out the door a minute ago, and
we're all good. But it does take work on both parts.
And so we love working with people who can hell
(30:00):
it like it is and give us the you know,
give us what they want to give us, but also
respect our team and we're going to respect their team.
And yeah, it's a mutual relationship. And when that doesn't work,
then it's Okay for us to go our separate ways
because maybe we're not the perfect match for that particular client.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Yes, and that's how it has to be. You know,
one of the build something you got to work together.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
I don't know what of these.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
It's that's never going to change with all the changes
in the world. That you must participate in your growth. Yes,
absolutely sure, Okay professional magician.
Speaker 4 (30:48):
Oh we're getting to that. All right, let's.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Talk about how you use that to incorporate in what
you did.
Speaker 4 (30:59):
Yeah. So I've been interested in magic. I got a
magic kit when I was six, and in high school
I met a gentleman who worked at an ad agency
and he was wanting to know if I was interested
in working with a global brand doing some promotional shows.
I said, oh, yes, I don't have to work retail
or cut the grass. Absolutely, So I started doing those shows.
(31:24):
That relationship lasted another sixteen years, and as I got
to hang out at the ad agency, I thought, Wow,
this is a pretty cool, you know, industry, and you know,
it's kind of actually like a magic trick because you
have to capture attention, you have to keep them engaged.
Then you have to pull off the magic at the
(31:45):
end right, and I started thinking about it. I went, Yeah,
if I had to pick a profession, that probably would
be it. And so I had. There was a point
where I was a professional magician, where my income relied
on that, and then I became very interested in marketing,
went to school for marketing, started working at ad agencies,
which is what they were called back then, and they
(32:07):
seem to inform each other. And so when I think
about a marketing campaign or connecting with an audience, I'm
thinking about the three stages of connection, curiosity, and conversion.
And it's amazing. There's brain chemistry ida that actually follows
the path of a magic trick, and that same brain
(32:29):
chemistry follows the path of a marketing message. And I
think if we skip any of those steps. We talked
about LinkedIn earlier, it's interesting. On LinkedIn it's called a
connection request. But what happens Usually after you accept somebody's
connection request, they immediately send you a sales pitch, right,
(32:51):
And so you kind of go ooh, that feels weird
because we've skipped the point of actually establishing that relationship.
We talked about the ring finger and respecting the courtship
of that relationship and so when when we're in a
conversation with somebody, whether it be over a marketing piece
(33:12):
or across a zoom conversation or in person, that first
point is a connection point, and that actually releases oxytocin
in the brain, and that floods your body with this
feeling of like, oh, this is kind of cool, I'm
interested and this is going pretty well. Yeah, I feel comfortable. Right.
(33:32):
And so when a magician walks out on stage, that's
what they're trying to do, right. They greet the audience.
They might point to somebody in the front row, and
the audience is like, oh, well, this is going to
be kind of fun, same kind of thing, right, and
now we've opened the door to move to the next stage,
which is curiosity. And so the magician might say, Ida,
that's a very nice sweater you have on. Do you
(33:54):
have a deck of cards at home. I'm not asking
you to go home and get them, but I have
one right here. Do you know the cards? And you
would say of course, And then I would say, I
just want you to think about one of those cards.
You know, it could be the club's heart, spades, diamonds,
you know, whatever the case may be. And then Ace
low King hide, you know, and we start to talk
about this card, this deck of cards, and so what
(34:16):
happens The audience goes, Wow, this is interesting. I wonder
what's going to happen, right, same thing happens in a
marketing conversation. You get to the point where you go,
you know, what is your business challenged?
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Da?
Speaker 4 (34:28):
Da da da da. And then you might say, and
this is one of the most powerful phrases, is what
if what if I could present a solution to you
that would change all of that in an instant And
what does your brain do? It goes, well, I don't
think that's possible. I've been trying to solve this for
a long time, right, And so that curiosity is activated,
which is actually dopamine. And you know, we've heard about
(34:51):
dopamine addiction with social media, but it's actually the expectation
of a reward, because when you post on social media,
you want somebody to li it or share it or
comment on it. Right, And so the same thing. If
we start talking about the cards, then pretty soon the
audience is going to go Okay, I think the magician
(35:11):
might be trying to figure out or is going to
reveal what that card is. Now, if we stretch that
out too long, the audience is going to get bored.
So you have to know your room. Right in a conversation,
in a sales conversation or a marketing conversation, you kind
of have to know how long do we keep this
curiosity up before we meet go to the conclusion, which
(35:33):
can be the climax of the trick, or it can
be the conversion, which is actually a release of serotonin,
which is that chemistry in your brain that's like, oh okay,
it all makes sense now, oh wow, everything is right
with the world, and it's just this great feeling right.
And so that's what's missing from that LinkedIn engagement because
(35:54):
they haven't respected the connection, they haven't peaked your curiosity,
and they've gone straight for the clothes. And I think
if we remember that, and I mean this could literally
be in an email, it could be in a blog post,
it could be in a personal sales conversation, it could
be in a marketing email. You've got to follow that
(36:17):
sequence so that not only you're playing into the brain chemistry,
but you're respecting the stages that somebody has to go
through for everything to you establish that authority, gain that trust,
have them feel comfortable. And so that was pretty or
probably a way longer answer than you were expecting for this.
(36:39):
But I think there's a lot of parallels between the
world of magic and the world of marketing, and I
would say the one thing that I believe is missing
today is that activating of curiosity. I think we try
to skip over that too many times, and that can
really engage somebody at a heightened level and really connect
them to your brand.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Jim, you have been I'm just thinking about everything that
we're talking about, and you know, you're so right. I mean,
I love LinkedIn, but a sinner, You're right. As soon
as I accept somebody's invitation, immediately I get something to
(37:23):
buy and in that moment, I'm like, why they're trying
to send me something they don't even know me.
Speaker 4 (37:33):
And then I predisposes you to be on your guard
the next time you get a connection request.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
Yes, and it happens all the time. It happens all
the time. So audience, if you don't take nothing else.
Speaker 4 (37:46):
Don't do that, please please.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Well, Jim, so again, how do people connect with thrive?
Speaker 4 (37:58):
Yep? So thrive Agente dot com just like it sounds.
And then I'm on LinkedIn and my name is spelled
a little bit different. It's actually j I M I Gibson,
so like Jimmy Hendrix and then Gibson the refrigerator or
the guitar. Probably the guitar sounds cooler than a refrigerator
(38:19):
unless you're hungry. But yeah, be happy to set up
a chat with anybody or We've got plenty of ways
for folks to connect and learn more about Thrive and
if they're struggling with anything related to digital marketing. We
don't do a hard sell. We just chat with you
about where you are and where you want to be
and if we can help you, great, If not, maybe
(38:41):
we could point you in a direction that would be
beneficial for you until you're ready to come back.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
I got homework to do tonight.
Speaker 4 (38:51):
Good homework, though, fun homework.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Good homework, Yes, indeed, So this has been a pleasure, Jimmy.
We are definitely going to have to have you back
because I like the way you explain things, the analogies
you use. Of course, some of the stuff is old
school and I definitely late, yes, yes, especially the newspaper.
(39:14):
I'm thinking of myself because I used to do transcription.
Speaker 4 (39:18):
For reporters, oh my, for.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
The Baltimore Sun Wow for many years, and it was
such an amazing situation. How I got them, I really
don't remember, but I do remember I never met any
of them.
Speaker 4 (39:34):
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
They would just leave there their tapes at the front desk.
Speaker 4 (39:39):
I would go, probably the little micro cassette tape.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
Yeah, then I would finish up the transcription, bring everything
big and drop it old. That's how we rolled.
Speaker 4 (39:50):
M that's a hard thing. Never seen them, that's wild.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
That was trusting.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
You know.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
Somebody heard me, you know, and they was like, you're hired.
Speaker 4 (40:05):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
Yes, so let's do this again because this was definitely
amazing and I will definitely connect with you on LinkedIn
and audience. Thank you. I know you guys got a
bunch of good stuff today.
Speaker 4 (40:20):
Well that was fun, hada. Thank you for having me,
and I'm happy to come back anytime.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
Thank you to our guests and you our value audience.
Let's stop you by. We truly appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
Many blessings to you and yours
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