LISTEN to the Mindwhirl Marketing Podcast Ep 35 -The Hidden Secrets of Content Marketing
WATCH The Mindwhirl Marketing Podcast Ep 35 – The Hidden Secrets of Content Marketing
Podcast Transcript
Shelly Miller 00:09
Welcome to the Mindwhirl marketing podcast, your source for B2B business building information, where we talk sales and marketing and give managed service providers and IT services companies, insider secrets you need to know to grow your business. We want to help you attract leads and sales and show you how to align sales and marketing. So you get more sales faster with less cost. I’m Shelly and he’s Mike. Let’s get this party started. Yeah, what are we talking about today, Mike? Well, we’re
Mike Miller 00:35
talking about like, the secrets the secret knowledge to content marketing.
Shelly Miller 00:41
Whoo, his secret knowledge. Yes, exactly.
Mike Miller 00:43
We’re gonna uncover the secrets like Indiana Jones.
Shelly Miller 00:46
Oh, Indiana Jones today.
Mike Miller 00:48
That’s an adventure. Yeah, exactly. Like you won’t have to run from huge boulders. Well,
Shelly Miller 00:53
you could be the huge boulder and so you run from yourself there you get well, we’re gonna tell you how not to do that. Exactly.
Mike Miller 00:59
That’s D don’t get in your own way. That’s deep. Exactly. Well, so here’s the secrets to things be authentic. And good is good enough. Yes. Now, a lot of people they think that they have to be a perfectionist, right, that they have to do everything perfectly. So that they look good, like on camera. Or, you know, the set is good. Yeah,
Shelly Miller 01:26
they they’re speaking Well, they
Mike Miller 01:29
wrote a great script. Like they they just overthink every single piece. Exactly. And so they want to be authentic. But in a but not authentic because they want to be perfectionists. Yes. And that is the death knell. Is that correct? It’s the thing that kills your success.
Shelly Miller 01:54
and your joy and happiness. Really? Yeah. Really? Your forward, your forward motion?
Mike Miller 02:01
If you overthink everything, then you’ll never you’ll never get content out and you’ll never do it consistently. Right. And so that’s why good is good enough. It is. You know, it reminds me of a story.
Shelly Miller 02:16
Ohh.
Mike Miller 02:16
Let’s hear going way back in the day. Okay, so when, when Shelly and I graduated from high school, we were high school sweethearts. Oh, yeah. We started a garage door business with my stepfather. And he was the installer. Shelly was the operations. And I was the salesperson. And so we were in Ormond Beach, Florida, which is just north of Daytona Beach. And just north of that is Flagler beach. And there is a very, or was at the time a very rich community called What was it? Pelican Bay. plantation Bay plantation Bay. Yeah, that’s it. And it was a golf course community just gorgeous. Right. And, and everyone was driving around in their golf carts. They had, yeah, it’s just it was it was great. So there was this guy that we met, and he called us. Now the thing is, is that in, in Pelican Bay, they had installed wood garage doors in Florida, where there’s a lot of moisture. So what happens with wood garage doors in Florida, is they swell, and they rot on the bottom. Yep,
Shelly Miller 03:34
sure do.
Mike Miller 03:34
So this guy called me out there. His name was Richard Devine. So I get there. And I get out of the car, and he pulls up his tan guy, you know, he’s like, it’s like, 70. At the time. I’m just, I’m like 19. And he’s like, he’s got a gold watch on like a Rolex. He’s got a gold chain, his shirts wide open, you know, he looks like, like a player. Like, he’s got a lot of money. He’s just a great guy. And I go, Mr. Devine, and he goes call me Dick. Dick Devine. And I was like, Dick Devine. And it goes, absolutely. And he goes all my life. I was Richard is like, this is a new phase of my life. I’m owning it. I’m Dick, Dick Devine.
Shelly Miller 04:30
And he said it every time I reached over the three or four year relationship that we knew him he loved reminding you to please call him Dick
Mike Miller 04:41
Exactly, please call me Dick, Dick Devine. which is which is great because see his whole life. He was trying to be a perfectionist and trying to do the right thing and was trying to
Shelly Miller 04:57
not be well, right. He wasn’t courageous. Not to do that he?
Mike Miller 05:02
Yes, yes, you know, yes to play a role. And when he retired, he just was like, he left all that behind. He was gonna, he was gonna be the pimp of the retirement community. I mean, I don’t know how to say it
Shelly Miller 05:17
was he was great. Everybody loved him to around a way to do it. And it was there was an awesome balance. He didn’t come across as a pimp or right. He had an ordinary smile. And he had a nice, nice smile. And, and he would wink at you.
Mike Miller 05:32
And he would do anything for you. Yes, he did all kinds of things. For us. That was just unbelievable. Yeah. And see. So the thing was, I told him, and this is a good sales lesson, I think.
Shelly Miller 05:43
I think so too.
Mike Miller 05:45
I told him, Dick, you don’t need a whole new door. Right? He’s like, I’ve had three other people come out here. And they quoted me from 1500 to $2,000 for a brand new door. And this is this is 87.
Shelly Miller 06:00
Yeah, right, the solid wood craziness. SoI think it was actually even more than that. I think it was like 3500.
Mike Miller 06:06
It was that, you know, upscale community says a builder wanting to put awesome doors in there. But he can’t do wood. But anyway, right, exactly. So I told him, I said, You know what, this, the doors fine. Everything about your door is fine. But the bottom section is rotten. We could just replace the bottom section. And it would cost you about $300. And he said, let’s do it. So the next thing I know is I start getting calls from Pelican Bay, like left and right. Like his neighbor, the guy across the street, the lady down the street, the street over the next day. Like in the next year, we did 40 bottom sections,
Shelly Miller 06:46
he was conducting his own meetings in the community center building, hey, you want to improve your house, I’m going to tell you how to do it. Come on down. So then he could call us and go, I got 10 people waiting for you guys. Yeah,
Mike Miller 06:57
I put together a sales letter, and then delivered a door to door to the whole community that talked about the flaws of the garage doors that they put in.
Shelly Miller 07:08
And then even told two communities over
Mike Miller 07:11
Yes, exactly. It was amazing. It was so the thing is, is that he just decided that he was going to do everything different. Because he was obviously like a left brain. He was a left brain lawyer. But he was when he retired, he just blossomed.
Shelly Miller 07:34
Yeah, he decided I’m ready to be all of me. Right. And if I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna do it. Now. I’m 70 exactly what it seemed like to me, so he decided to be himself and be anything he wanted to be.
Mike Miller 07:47
And that, believe it or not, is the secret to great content.
Shelly Miller 07:52
It is and great marketing. It truly is. So don’t wait. So so here’s another compelling reason to be authentic and create that kind of content. By being authentic, you don’t have to wait to your 70 start now start now. And it’ll help you with your business and grow and sales and get more people interested in you. Because you have been you makes you genuine and makes your content compelling. Because it doesn’t sound like everybody else’s. It’s coming from you the authentic you.
Mike Miller 08:24
Exactly. And isn’t the old saying, talk good about me or talk bad about me. Just please talk about me.
Shelly Miller 08:31
Right? It’s the truth. But for some reason, you know, that was scary for me for a very long time. But you have to get over it. You have to get over it. Yeah, you do. You have
Mike Miller 08:39
to put yourself out there you do. And you know, it’s scary sometimes, but it’s not really. And people will laugh at you. But so what?
Shelly Miller 08:49
Yeah, they’re talking about you. They’re laughing at you. Yeah, they’re laughing with you. It’s usually actually,
Mike Miller 08:54
exactly. And that’s the thing is that I visited Australia when I was between 10th and 11th grade. And the commercials there are really different nudity is allowed as a matter of fact, in a commercial in a commercials selling milk.
Shelly Miller 09:15
I think that’s all you need to say. Picture now.
Mike Miller 09:17
Now you Yes, you understand. But there was this lady and she was rude and offensive. She was like a short woman and she screamed at you. You know, you better get yourself down here and buy one of my frigerators
Shelly Miller 09:33
Yeah,
Mike Miller 09:34
I see she but the thing was, is that she sold more appliances than anyone else in Australia. Like she had a $200 million a year business just selling refrigerators and and washing machines, you know, appliance store, right? So I realized at that time that you know, if you’re brash and offensive, people can not like you but the price is so good. Heard, you know, and I know who she is, and she’s got a decent guarantee. So I’m gonna get my refrigerator there. Yes. Right. But even though
Shelly Miller 10:10
her personality seemed like it wouldn’t be conducive to new sales, or people wanting to buy from her, right, she was always there. And there’s still a large number of people that they resonate with it or think it’s funny or just just got to just felt like she was sharing a part of herself and they liked it exactly.
Mike Miller 10:29
Well, a because, you know, you can have the best product or service in the world. But if no one knows about you, you’re broke. Yep. You know, you’re going out of
Shelly Miller 10:38
products and
Mike Miller 10:40
nobody to buy him. Exactly, exactly. So Didn’t you have a story that you wanted to add here about? authenticity?
Shelly Miller 10:49
Yeah, well, it’s the same. It’s the same kind of thing about, you know, putting yourself out there or making sure that you, you know, are genuine. And also not to overthink it when you also go through those thoughts in your mind. Like, I want to be out there. I want to I want to put my true self down, but it’s a little scary.
Mike Miller 11:13
Yeah. So
Shelly Miller 11:14
Last week, I had two of my writing mentors, Lauretta Hannon and Martin Messier. Yeah. Same Day, send me a note that they that they just love my article.
Mike Miller 11:23
Yes.
Shelly Miller 11:24
And wow, I was I was just on cloud nine. I mean, it was just a highlight of my month. I mean, you know, your writing mentor says, Hey, you, that article you wrote was phenomenal. And both of them to, you know, set it on the same day. So I am, I was, again, you know, just excited. Well known on cloud nine. Yes. I mean, I was just flying high. And I was time to write my next article. I, we both write a lot or every week, but this one was for myself, and another client and myself and Mindwhirl. And I guess in the back of my mind, I was sitting there going, Oh, they my my writing mentors complimented me. This one has to be perfect. You know, so I was going from, you know, the article that took me an hour tops to write that they complimented me on I’m sitting here three hours later, still going, I don’t know how to get this to come around, you know, and I’ve been writing for years. And I thought it was it was funny, you know, I just I still didn’t get it at first too. I’m glad that we talked about it. Because it was like, I’m not sure why this is so hard. But you know, it was back there. Because you’re trying to impress you’re worried about every word is it going to be perfect. And so I have to wax poetically. Yes. Or there’s they’re not going to like what I have to say anymore. And you know, it’s not going to be good enough. So and you know, the hour long process, two tops of writing this type of Article every week was now of it almost eight. Yeah. And, and so it’s just a perfect example of I was trying to make it perfect isn’t perfect, you know, and that can take you forever. And then yeah, you don’t ever get done with it, or you stop, you think I won’t get it perfect. So I’m just gonna stop. Or
Mike Miller 13:10
now you think there’s things about yourself, you know, well, this means
Shelly Miller 13:13
yes,
Mike Miller 13:14
I suck.
Shelly Miller 13:15
Yes, exactly. It
Mike Miller 13:16
means that I’m no good. And I’ve lost it. Yes. You know,
Shelly Miller 13:20
it does. Yes. And it’s frustrating. And so then you have all of the marketing or all you know, all of your job that you are supposed to do during that additional six and a half hours that you spent now writing this article that should have only taken you an hour and you and you’re behind and you’re not posting. Yeah, and you’re not. And you are, you know, you’re just, you just can’t get over is I hope this is good enough. And that stops me and so many business owners, you know, you can’t let that you cannot let that stop you from doing what you need to do from promoting your items from from reading it, you know, creating it, taking a look at it, having somebody else look at it and getting it out there. The more you sit there and keep thinking about it and worrying about it. It’s it’s causes problems in your business. With consistency with with your confidence, you just need to get your content out there good is good enough.
Mike Miller 14:13
Right. Exactly. And we’re gonna continue to discuss this after the break.
Mike Miller 14:19
Hey, it’s Mike. I wanted to take a minute to let you know that mind world is a sales and marketing company built for IT services companies to help them install a marketing system into the front end of their business that gets sales and marketing working together to achieve exponential growth. We implement a proven lead generation system for you that we’ve developed and refined down to a science to attract more leads and sales and grow your business. By getting sales and marketing working together. moving in the same direction. You can take your business to the next level and beyond. So Call today to schedule a strategy session where we’ll show you what the most successful managed service providers are doing now to grow by 10, 20, 30%. And more, month after month, year after year, call us at 770-295-8660. Or go to mindwhirl.com to schedule your free strategy session. Now.
Mike Miller 15:17
All right, welcome back. That was a for us, that was just like five seconds. So basically, you know, what Shelly was talking about is true for every aspect of your business, but especially with marketing, because when you’re marketing, you have to make sure that you get it out there, right, you don’t have time to perfect it. Or, or ensure that it’s gonna, that it’s that everything is dialed in before you before you do it,
Shelly Miller 15:51
you have a level you do your best.
Mike Miller 15:54
And then you get it out there. Right, exactly. But, but when you think about it, marketing, you know, you have to start somewhere, right. And so the first thing you want to do is ensure that you have the complete buyers journey covered for your, your client or your lead. So as they move through the funnel, or the along the buyers journey, they encounter different content at each stage, and and you have a path to purchase. Well, if you are going to perfect that path to purchase, it could take you several months, when you really only need like two weeks to get it all together and get it out there. Because, you know, what is marketing? Really? Sure it’s, you know, you think it’s creative ideas. You know, like, whatever Coca Cola is doing, but it’s it’s not necessarily creative ideas. It’s more about testing, you know, getting messages together, then putting the messages out there, testing the response, refining it, optimizing it, putting it out there again, right, seeing what the responses, and then just it’s an iterative cycle. It’s a it’s a loop. Yes, you just continue over and over again. And if you don’t, if you don’t do it that way, if you if you get stymied by perfectionism, then it leads you to think many things about yourself. It does, you know, because you’re like, well, I just can’t seem to get it done. Well, that’s not the truth. You The problem is that You’re overthinking it, and you’re being too perfect with it. Right, I agree. Well, that is it. And so for instance, we just played an ad on the on the break, that we haven’t even shot yet. Like, actually, we haven’t even written it yet. We are assuming that we’re going to have some music behind it. And I was gonna write that music. But here’s the deal. It all has to happen today. Right? We have to shoot this podcast, we got to edit it, we’ve got to write a commercial, we’ve got to shoot it and edit it and then maybe put music behind it.
Shelly Miller 18:19
Right. And we have a new outro to record.
Mike Miller 18:21
Yes, exactly. So all these things have to happen today. We don’t have time to make sure it’s the best it could possibly be. We just need to get it out there. Yes. So that’s what we’re gonna do. So you tell us if it was good enough.
Shelly Miller 18:37
Right? And you know, like, are the outro we’ve wanted to change for weeks. Yes. And we just didn’t, it wasn’t in our we didn’t have time for in our process of recording. So it’s…
Mike Miller 18:50
just cause I’m sorry, because I wrote, wherever podcasts are sold, and they’re not sold anywhere, I thought it would be funny. And we used it 30 something times. Right. We did time to change it.
Shelly Miller 19:06
Yes. It’s time to change it. And we have time now. So that’s what we did. You know, we decided we scheduled it for today to do that. Yep. I just want to go back to the iterative process of marketing, because to bring home the point that since you are already going back to your marketing, you’re all you’re you’re refining it always. Yep. By looking at the data. So you’re, you know, in marketing, you’re supposed to be looking at the results of a campaign or a promotion that you did and refining it to make it better. Well, while you’re doing that, you know, if you didn’t have as much time as you wanted, or you thought about something else you wanted to say in the video, let’s say or an email, you want to change it up. That’s the perfect time to do it. So instead of getting down on yourself that Oh, I didn’t make it perfect the first time and I got it out there. Take that as the opportunity in your process of going back through and refining your promotions. And your marketing materials to not only change the wording or the videos, but also, you know, make it make anything better in it they you know, if there was something that you didn’t like, revisit it like we did the outro.
Mike Miller 20:12
Right. So,
Shelly Miller 20:15
it I think people are just getting way too hard on themselves and they need to just go, No, it’s just part of the process. Right? So it written in the process, it should say, and that we know, one bullet is not only how did it do, how did it perform? How many people did it send to the data? But also another bullet that should say, Do we still like everything about the video? Right? But did was the sound good? Do we want to add music? Do should we put a commercial? etc?
Mike Miller 20:44
Yes, exactly. And, you know, that brings up many thoughts in my head, like, first off, you have the resource library. So this becomes a part of your resource library. And that that copy? And you can you utilize it and reuse it in many different areas of your marketing. So like, it could be in an email, and a video sales letter. And, you know, right, you’d be repurposed, like, like repurpose
Shelly Miller 21:16
the Dick Devine story that goes with advocacy? We have, we’re using it for advocacy, customer advocacy. Yeah. And how he, you know, what he did for our company for years.
Mike Miller 21:29
As part of this, we did right by him.
Shelly Miller 21:31
Right, right. And that’s how we’ve, you know, that’s how Mindwhirl works. I’m sure that’s how your businesses worked. Yeah, if you’re getting a lot of referrals, you’ll know why it’s because you’re serving them at a level that
Mike Miller 21:44
is exceptional.
Shelly Miller 21:45
Exactly. Exactly.
Mike Miller 21:47
Yeah. So the other thing that it makes me think is that so it’s important for you to be able to create content yourself.
Shelly Miller 22:01
It is, it’s,
Mike Miller 22:02
it’s really nice to have a company like us to help you with your content. But let’s say that you paid a videographer to come in and do six videos for you. Right? And there’s something about one or two of those that you’re just not 100% on and you don’t like, should you pay the videographer to, to do all these videos, so that you’ll have them? Even though they’re expensive, because you’ve paid a videographer, the answer’s yes. You know, just like get it out there. If you have to call them back in and a month to rework something. Do it? That’s my advice.
Shelly Miller 22:47
I think it’s great advice, you know, look at it, you know, think about your personality. So let’s say you’re building a house, it’s your house, you’re building it, don’t you want the best materials in it? Well, this video is, you know, you want the best video for your customers to see, right. So if you don’t have a studio, like Mike said, you know, you need to get a videographer. Or you have a videographer and a studio, but you want your the script to be refined, you know, have your marketer have we do it for our clients, read over it, see if it if it, they believe that it resonates, it’s all worth it, because of that content can be used over and over and over again. And especially if you’re you know, being authentic, and you’re, you know, it also helps you be more authentic. So the more you do those things where you’re trying to not only refine your message, refine your messages, but you’re also trying to refine yourself and get better at what you do. And, and speaking to your client, right, it makes everything work better together. And you can repurpose that material over and over and over again. It’s well worth the money spent on production
Mike Miller 23:57
or script writing. It is it is yeah. And not only that, not only are you building a huge library of messages, but Okay, this sounds like a tangent, but, but basically think about it this way. If you let perfectionism stop you and you don’t go with good is good enough, then your mind will play tricks on you. And then you’ll have to do you know, you’ll have to have the highest quality sound, you’ll have to have to have the highest quality quality video, you’ll have to take, like me, I’m like, I can’t say strategy session to save my life, you know, strategy session. So, you know, do I need, you know, dialect coaches? You know, because of my speech impediment. Do I need to lose weight? Do I have to have a haircut? You know, I’m getting old Should I dye it? You know what I mean? Like it’s,
Shelly Miller 24:57
it’s so you get what you’re saying? Is you You can put so many things in your way that it’ll be 3, 4, 5, 10 years later andyou still haven’t done it. Exactly. Youknow, it’s just like I don’t I, when we just heard been in business for, you know, over 10 years, great, how many how many people you have on your email list? 20?
Mike Miller 25:16
How do you have 20? People? Yeah, well, I
Shelly Miller 25:18
was I was, I wanted to do the marketing automation myself, and, and then I started writing, but I didn’t think the emails were good enough. And so then I just started selling and then I got referrals. And then I forgot all about it. Right. And now you’re here 10 years later, with 20 email addresses, right?
Mike Miller 25:34
And your business still isn’t where you want it to be.
Shelly Miller 25:38
Right? So it causes problems if you are too much of a perfectionist, and you because your brain will allow you to put stuff in your way to make you believe that Oh, well. There’s a good reason why I haven’t started yet. Well, it’s all bullshit. Just forget about that and do it.
Mike Miller 25:52
Yeah, just just get it done. Because like, if you look at our videos, where we started, and to where we are now. So we’ve done 30, something 36 podcasts and 29 vlogs. We have 70 videos, basically on YouTube. Now, when you look at the first one, it’s like, Wow, you’ve come a long way. And the reason why is because we just kept improving a little bit here and there.
Shelly Miller 26:22
Right. And and we were consistent. We kept doing it too. Yes, that’s, that’s the second really important key you have to if you you know, you get really good, and you do it, and then you don’t do it again. It’s like you’re just starting over every time.
Mike Miller 26:35
Yes. So
Shelly Miller 26:36
you got to be consistent. So that it you just keep building yourself as you get better and better and better and better. And really, then you start enjoying all of the activities.
Mike Miller 26:46
Yeah. So
Shelly Miller 26:48
marketing and sales, you enjoy them because you are relentless about consistency on them. Right.
Mike Miller 26:56
And anything that you’re consistently doing, you can remember how to do it.
Shelly Miller 27:01
Yes. Yes.
Mike Miller 27:03
I mean, that’s why you have that’s why you know, your business should choose a niche and work with a specific industry of business. You know, you can have multiple if you want, but but with each one of them, you need to look like the expert. So you have one niche, and you have processes that help that niche, do the thing. Yes, right. Yes. That you know, you sell. So you’re not going to, like, grow by leaps and bounds by stopping and starting and being a perfectionist and, and doing all of these mental crazy things. I had another word but I’m not gonna say, um, you know, you just need to realize that you need to be authentic, put yourself out there, just be you. Right, and good is good enough and good is good enough. And that’s, that’s the secrets, it is to massive success and content marketing. You know, that’s that’s how you get good at content marketing.
Shelly Miller 28:11
It’s really as we’ve seen it over and over again, not only in ourselves, but our clients and it’s, it’s a
Mike Miller 28:18
it’s a delight to see it is. What’s fun is watching people go You know what, screw it. I’m not gonna be a perfectionist. I’m gonna go out there fat. Yeah, you know what I mean? I’m gonna go out there and slurring every other word and hope and
Shelly Miller 28:32
hope I get better. I’m going to try to get better
Mike Miller 28:34
each time. Exactly. And people will love it. love you for it. That’s just how it works.
Shelly Miller 28:41
That’s how it works.
Mike Miller 28:42
So I guess with that,
Shelly Miller 28:45
We’ll see you next Thursday. Thanks again, for listening to the mind real Marketing Podcast. Make sure to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Google podcast, Stitcher, Deezer or Spotify. Plus, check out my work on YouTube and subscribe. You’ll find a lot more marketing tips, insights and resources that will help you get your sales and marketing working together and moving in the same direction.
