Full Written Transcript of The Episode

The Best Marketing Can Still Fail

Matt: It’s time to close down the Success Prevention Department at your business. All the best marketing in the world cannot help you if you aren’t doing this.

We’re going to talk about what that is next. Hello and welcome back to Midwest Mindset, the podcast that makes marketing easy to understand and simple to do. I’m your host, Matt Tompkins of Two Brothers Creative, and today on the show, we have not one, two, three, four dudes. We have four dudes and a woman who is none other than Tracy Winkler of Elevate to grow the number two, by the way. Yeah, she’s cool like that.

Speaker2: By the time we get some representation on the show.

Speaker1: It is. It’s been a little unbalanced. That’s right, a little bit unbalanced. And that’s on us.

Speaker3: Need a good woman on us?

Speaker1: We own that. Tracy Winkler is. She’s a coach, business advisor. She’s done marketing. She’s done. She’s done a whole. I mean, I don’t even know.

You’re, like, doing a whole new coaching. Every time I see her, she’s doing a whole new coaching platform, but they all kick ass. She’s helped tons of business owners, including us here at Two Brothers Creative.

Tracy also looks like the kind of woman who has to Google on a regular basis what a GIF is and still isn’t sure if it’s a compliment or an insult.

Speaker2: So that’s a good one.

Speaker3: That’s the truth.

Speaker2: It actually.

Speaker1: Happened. It happened. She was on this podcast and somebody on YouTube. Like there were a couple people were like, look at that gif. And she’s like, what’s that mean?

I told her what it means. That’s so old school. I don’t know, it’s like, yes, it’s like you’re saying that I’m hot, but you’re also calling me old grandma. Like what?

Speaker3: I don’t am a grandma. I am a grandma. Let’s. Let’s be real.

Speaker2: It’s a compliment.

Speaker1: Grandmas. They’re young grandmas. I’ll take it as that. All right, let’s meet the rest of the crew here today. Behind the scenes, running the switcher, the control room.

There is a guy who he. He likes to pee in the shower, but only after he’s done showering. Ladies and gentlemen, Myron and McHugh. Myron, the guy he looks like.

Speaker2: Find out something new about you every day. Yes.

Speaker1: Austin Anderson is here with us again. Austin. He looks like the kind of guy who makes his own deodorant and thinks that it works.

Speaker2: It does. And I’ve been sitting next to you for a while.

Speaker4: I got to stop. You know, I got to take out garlic. Yeah, I think that ingredient is good for the skin.

Speaker2: Good for the skin, bad for the odor.

Speaker1: Add some deodorant to it. That’s. I think what you’re missing is the deodorant. So. And then I think you’ll have a home run, you know. And last but certainly not least, we have Ben, who looks like the kind of guy who brings up 911 a lot.

Speaker2: I just want people to be informed. I don’t want we. There’s an important day in our history.

Speaker1: It was. You’re right. Yes. Never forget.

Speaker4: But the kind of guy that might be writing a manifesto in his shed. In the backyard?

Speaker1: Yes, I can see that.

Speaker2: I like to journal. Austin.

Speaker4: It’s reflective journaling, a manifesto. Ben.

Speaker1: He looks like the kind of guy who likes to remove peas from the pod before he eats his green beans. I find.

Speaker2: It tastes.

Speaker1: Better. Yes. So therapeutic is.

Speaker2: What? Yeah, that’s.

Speaker4: What I was thinking. Those aren’t.

Speaker2: Insults today. This is real.

Speaker1: Today we’re talking about closing down that success prevention department. What does that mean? Well, you have to ask an honest question.

When you were running your business. That is, do you really need marketing or do you need operations? Do you have a plan? Do you have any way to actually capitalize or take advantage of this?

Marketing doesn’t matter how great the marketing is, it could be the best marketing in the universe. But if you’re not ready to close the deal, if you don’t have sales in place, you’re not really ready to onboard people or you provide a lackluster experience for your customers, it’s not going to matter.

In fact, it’s going to have the opposite effect. And since Tracy is like she’s Ms. operations, like, you know, they had the movie Miss Congeniality.

Speaker3: Oh.

Speaker1: Really? Yes. Okay. I’m not comparing you to her. I’m just saying that they made a movie called Miss Congeniality for you. I might they would make it.

Speaker3: Could be compared to.

Speaker1: Her, miss. Really? For you? They would make miss operations.

Speaker4: That’s a cool.

Speaker2: Nickname to.

Speaker1: Miss operations. Miss operations?

Speaker2: Are you like.

Speaker3: That? Yeah.

Speaker2: Okay, miss.

Speaker3: Oh, okay. Okay.

Speaker1: Don’t you think, like.

Speaker4: We all need more than one name? You know, like we’d be like, miss, this is Miss Congeniality. So this is multiple names. Yeah. The ultimate coach of America. Mcgill. Yeah. Skills of.

Speaker1: Lauryn Hill. You know, I think is in there. So yeah, it’s a compliment. So miss operations here. So I thought this would be a great topic to talk about with you. But I wanted to start off, I wrote a little poem.

Speaker2: It’s always writing poems for the guests. He never writes a poem for us. But as soon as you come on, as soon as Miss Operations comes on the show.

Speaker1: Well, it’s Miss Operations, all right. Humpty Dumpty had a brother named Paul.

Paul’s new business had a great fall. Paul spent lots of money on marketing and ads. But just like his Beanie Baby collection, they were worthless and sad.

Speaker2: Ben, why are you looking at me when he says you have.

Speaker1: A massive Beanie Baby collection?

Speaker3: Beanie babies at home?

Speaker1: He still buys them today even though he knows.

Speaker4: Did you keep the collection?

Speaker2: I know you have Princess Diana. There’s a Beanie Baby. Princess Diana?

Speaker4: Yeah.

Speaker1: Princess Dean, is that the same?

Speaker4: I don’t know.

Speaker3: I have no idea. I did all the best marketing.

Speaker1: In all of the world couldn’t save Humpty. Brother Humpty Dumpty’s brother Paul’s business at all. That was not a very good poem. It’s terrible.

You get it? I loved it. It’s Humpty Dumpty’s brother, Paul, so it’s not going to be like the original. He’s the black sheep of Dumpty Humpty’s.

So this happens, I think, more times than we think. So first let’s establish first thing we need to understand what is marketing. What’s the goal of marketing? What are we trying to accomplish?

Speaker4: We got to let. Tracy. Tracy.

Speaker3: Yeah, okay.

Speaker1: Difference between marketing and operations here. What is marketing?

Speaker3: It’s actually to just get eyes on your business and it’s just to bring get awareness to the business. Yeah. A few of the things get discovered.

Speaker1: Yep. You’re going to remind people that you exist, which sounds really weird. But when they’re bombarded by thousands of ads every day and content every day, you need to be there in that.

Speaker3: Need to be relevant.

Speaker1: You need to be relevant. You need to build relationship, right?

Speaker3: Yes. That’s a key. Absolutely.

Speaker1: Trust is the foundation for anything and everything we do in life. And I will tell you firsthand, and, Tracy, you probably speak to this like if you if you establish trust, they will fill in the blanks.

Speaker3: Right? Absolutely. You’ve got to know, like and trust before people try buy and refer.

Speaker1: Oh I heard the know like and trust but try buy and refer try buy refer.

Speaker3: So you’ve got to build that first.

Speaker1: This is why we call you miss operations.

Speaker2: Like earning the name.

Speaker3: I’m earning my name.

Speaker2: Your titles are proven.

Speaker1: Yeah. I think you could be the next Sandra Bullock.

Speaker4: Then will you give us a quick, just brief overview of your career, like how you became the Miss Congeniality of operations? Miss operations.

Speaker3: Oh my goodness. Well, where.

Speaker1: Did it all start?

Speaker3: That was just a couple of years ago. Started. Let’s just say I was 27. Yep. 27. No. Started. I worked for my family business for almost 20 years and they have truck stops, convenience stores. There’s eight different divisions.

Speaker1: She’s a muscleman. She’s a boss man, big family out in Grand Island. So I was third generation.

Speaker3: So slave labor in the early years didn’t matter, right? So started working there after college and spent 20 years there and worked through all different divisions, making it more efficient.

So and I was in the ops side, everything ops project management. After I left there, there was a forced buyout. There was kind of some crazy stuff that happened with family business.

So I left have co owned six total businesses owned and co owned and so I’m addicted. Kind of that serial entrepreneur that gets loves business talks business misses operations. Did I say misses or was I miss miss miss.

Speaker1: Yeah. Don’t tell your husband but we’re giving you a little. Okay. I’m Miss Freedom a little. You know, the leash isn’t quite so tight on this program. You know, it’s like. Wait, that sounded really weird. That’s not what I meant by that. But. Yeah, and you’ve been a CMO, a chief marketing officer.

Speaker3: So it’s been. I am so multi-passionate that I love all things to help businesses. So by doing that, I’ve have enough certifications to probably like paper that wall over there, you know.

So yeah, it went on, I was in medical weight loss and I owned a couple weight loss clinics, and I was a regional rep and a national trainer for coaches. So I traveled all over.

And so like I said, the coaching, there’s the coaching aspect. I always needed to market and help them market. So that’s that’s just like the ten cent tour of what I. What miss? Oh, not Miss Congeniality. What miss operations.

Speaker1: Operations. What would you say is like how common is this scenario where they have marketing? It kind of I feel like there’s almost two outcomes.

Typically it’s either operations is working but the marketing falls flat. Yes, they need to pivot because that’s just how marketing works. It’s a B testing. Yes. And they don’t.

They blame marketing. And so then they give up on marketing. And then that kills can kill your business or marketing maybe works and maybe it works really well, but the operations aren’t in place to handle it. You know, if you don’t like when I say my operations, like, do you have a sales team so that when you have been discovered, you grab people’s attention, you have made them aware you are having those daily constant impressions.

They know, like and trust you. And they say, you know what? Now it’s top of mind when I’m going to buy this pair of homemade shoes that Ben has sewn together the homemade shoe.

Speaker2: High quality, high quality. And they’re made with care. They love and care too.

Speaker1: Yeah. Their hair shoes.

Speaker3: Okay. Yeah.

Speaker1: Cat hair.

Speaker2: Well, it’s a it’s a.

Speaker1: Trade secrets secret.

Speaker2: Can’t tell you. Can’t tell you.

Speaker1: Yeah. It’s like the it’s like the secret sauce at McDonald’s. You know what.

Speaker2: Kind of.

Speaker4: His wife’s hair keeps getting shorter.

Speaker5: Oh, okay. Makes sense.

Speaker1: Actually. Okay, so so so.

Speaker3: Watch my hair.

Speaker1: If Ben though, if he has his marketing is going gangbusters. Everybody is interested. And then he’s not making the ask or putting out the. They don’t know that he’s even selling a product. They just they’re familiar with him. They know like and trust him, you know. Worry. Worst case yet they walk into his store, physically walk in and they don’t have customer service. They don’t have a sales team.

There isn’t anybody with any sort of training or experience who can take this person, who is more than interested, to buy those crazy pair of hair shoes. But since Ben has not invested any time into building the operations of his business, he can’t capitalize on marketing, no matter how good it may be performing.

Speaker3: That happens more than not, and most people, they think of marketing as tactical or doing one thing, and that’s going to lead them there. We’re going to do a social media post and they’re going to come right to us, but they’ve never given a real call to action. They don’t have a strategy around it or the inside part. We can lead them to water, let’s say, with the marketing. But how do you get them to drink? So you’ve got to give them the actions so they know and they need simple actions.

Speaker1: That’s it.

Speaker4: It’s oh, sorry. Oh I was just going to say what do you think the in your experience over all these years is the best call to action, you know, is it I mean does it is it different for each scenario or.

Speaker3: Absolutely different for each scenario. So and it’s really what you want them to do. We have to tell them what we want them to do. It could be multiple things. So you know basically if you want them to sign up for an email list, if you want to have them buy, if they’re, you know, it really depends.

Speaker1: I think the best way to make a call to action is to call them to action for their benefit. So think like Star Wars, right? Perfect example here.

Obi-wan Kenobi. He is the guide. He is your business, right? Luke Skywalker he is the hero of this story. Luke Skywalker is your customer. Businesses. We make the mistake of assuming we’re the hero of the story when we’re not. We’re the guide. We are Obi-Wan Kenobi here to call Luke to action. So we give him a plan.

We call him to action. Use the force is literally the call to action. You know, you have to give up the at the end of the movie. I mean, he’s got the thing he’s like, pushes it away and he’s like, no, man, I’m just going to use the force, which is how he says it. If I remember, man, no man.

Speaker2: No man, use the force.

Speaker3: Yeah, I don’t remember that. But, you know.

Speaker1: Use the force. And so then he used it. He shoots those two laser things in a very sexualized scene in the movie. I feel like that’s never talked about. I mean, it’s like, uh, like very kind of.

Speaker4: Yeah, yeah, I always thought that was Ghostbusters and those weird things that they hold by their crotch.

Speaker1: Yes. That’s true. You call them to action. You make the ask by not saying buy from me. Now give me your money. I mean, you want to say that, but, like, you’re not that direct or that cold. It’s. This is what’s at stake, right? If you don’t use the force, Luke, then it’s going to be the annihilation of your home planet of Alderaan or whatever.

Speaker2: The Tatooine.

Speaker1: Tatooine, you know.

Speaker3: And they’re going to go to another planet.

Speaker4: It’s like the kind of guy that knows everything about Star Wars.

Speaker1: If you do use the force, then we destroy the Death Star and the whole galaxy is saved, right? So painting those stakes, and I think the operations side of it, though, is one I think. Would you agree? Like business owners, we don’t want to admit when maybe we don’t have a ship that’s run as tight as as we think, like we business owners are. We talked about this. There’s like constructive delusion.

Like you have to have like positive delusion to even be an entrepreneur. But I think sometimes we’re delusional in the sense that it’s unhealthy where we think, oh, well, I’ll just do marketing and it’ll bring people in, and I don’t need a sales person, and I don’t need to train people and what’s lead generation and follow what’s a nurture sales campaign.

And like I have to have a database. Why would I need a database to follow up with customers?

Like, what do you mean? It’s like five times less expensive to get a person who’s already shopped here to come back here and shop again than getting a new customer. And there are these those are just operational things.

I mean, there’s obvious stuff like, you have to keep the lights on, you have to keep enough of your product or service in stock to where you can provide meet the demand. But not having a sales, not having a way to capitalize on your marketing is a I think it’s a kind of a hidden Grand Canyon of just like this mistake that I think is made more common than we realize.

Speaker3: Oh, 100%, because you obviously have like all, all the people that are like, there’s just so much to it.

There’s a lot of steps. So people get overwhelmed. They’re like, they just let’s do the tactical and it’s just quick and easy and they’re just going to come and like you said, they’re just got blinders on and they’re in overwhelm. A lot of entrepreneurs and founders are just trying to keep the lights on, trying to do everything to, you know, having the galaxy blow up or I’m not a I’m not a Star Wars. No, I’m not, I’m not I’m killing this one.

Speaker4: No, that was perfect. I understood it because I’ve I’m not either a Star Wars. You’re not.

Speaker3: Okay.

Speaker2: I’ve, I’ve got everybody covered here. Yeah. Because I got.

Speaker1: The Star Trek covered on that side. So we’re really.

Speaker4: You guys were brothers growing up in a household. One’s a trekky. One’s a yeah, yeah.

Speaker1: Well, I enjoy stars.

Speaker4: Get along well.

Speaker1: Okay. I enjoy Star Wars as well. But it was the the sophistication of TNG. Star Trek The Next Generation is just, you know, it’s kind of like, how do I say this?

Speaker4: It’s for the more intelligent.

Speaker1: Yes. I mean, it’s like, yes. Am I wearing a pair of whitey tighties? Yes. Obviously not the coolest look, but they’re fresh, they’re soft, they’re Calvin Klein’s versus these ratty old. I don’t know what this is dad’s been wearing for 30 years. The original series, you know. So I don’t think there’s really a comparison between the two personally. Now, Star Wars and Star Trek, we’re not going to get into that because that’s going to get heated.

Speaker2: And get ugly.

Speaker1: Yeah.

Speaker3: I mean, I am going to say I do like Star Wars better than Star Trek.

Speaker2: I’m sorry. That’s the correct answer.

Speaker1: Well, Star Wars, it’s more adventurous. They have more stuff going on. But Star Trek is more, you know, it’s more more attractive. And Star Wars, there’s no jar Jar Binks in Star. Star Trek, all right. I mean, you have reasonable thought and rational debates.

Speaker4: And weird airs and.

Speaker1: Yeah, and weird ears and. Yeah. So let’s talk about how to close down this success prevention department. So you mentioned how it’s like complicated. It gets overwhelming.

So give Ben some simple tips here on how to like what if we’re if we’re looking to put something in place for a marketing strategy for a business before we even hit the ground?

Because you’re right, they make the mistake of going for the tactics. Let’s put together a strategy that includes how are you actually going to benefit from this marketing? So let’s say we’ll take Ben’s. You want to use your cat human cat tree restore.

Speaker2: A human cat tree where you and the cat are in a tree together.

Speaker1: Like those carpeted trees, you.

Speaker3: See.

Speaker2: Okay, okay.

Speaker3: So this is what you’re selling now.

Speaker2: You can snuggle up with the cat in the cat tree. So it’s a human cat tree.

Speaker3: So? So it’s big enough for you to snuggle? Yes.

Speaker1: Okay, okay. There’s a perch.

Speaker2: There’s a perch. There’s a little compartment. Does it take.

Speaker3: Like a up a room?

Speaker2: Yeah, it’s pretty much a bedroom.

Speaker3: So it’s the bedroom. It’s a cat. But the human can be with.

Speaker1: Like binge is carpeted his bedroom.

Speaker2: I pretty much did wall to wall. Yeah.

Speaker1: So let’s say different levels. What’s your what’s your goal with these human cat trees? I want to go for your business.

Speaker2: I want to bring happiness to cat owners, and I want to build a stronger connection between the cat and the owner.

Speaker1: And how do you do that?

Speaker2: I want to support equality.

Speaker1: Okay. And how are you going to do that in a tangible, measurable way? Like what’s the metric we’re going to?

Speaker2: Well, I feel like the more I sell these cat trees, that that cat tree is going to be the tool that does it.

Speaker1: So selling cat.

Speaker2: Selling my human cat trees.

Speaker4: And he’s thinking ahead because he’s looking at, you know, the trend forecast about how more children are becoming cats. Yes.

Speaker2: So I identify.

Speaker3: I identify as a.

Speaker2: Cat.

Speaker4: He’s going to jump on the market.

Speaker1: Yes. Okay. So selling cat trees human cat trees, just pure sales numbers here. Right. So you just list it out and you could put this in more simplified terms for yourself at some point. But you, you laid out your, your mission statement and your vision statement. Your vision is you want to make human beings and cats equals who love and respect each other. Your mission statement can be more specific. So beautiful. In the next three years you could say, you know by the year 2028 or 2020. By the year 2028, we will have sold 2000 human cat trees because we believe that humans and cats are equals.

Speaker4: All right. It’s.

Speaker1: And now your mission statement is as simple as that. It’s just that here’s a here’s a tangible goal, a metric. And then here’s why we’re doing it.

Speaker3: It’s kind of your loneliness statement as well. Kind of what makes you so different. And this is very different.

Speaker5: Yes. Yeah.

Speaker2: Well you be our operations. Yeah.

Speaker1: So I.

Speaker2: Don’t know Cat.

Speaker3: I have to learn a little more. I’m a dog girl. Okay.

Speaker1: Dog trees. Now let’s say you, you want to put together your marketing strategy. Your end goal is here to sell those.

Those, you know, 2000 human cat trees. You’ve got three years. So we’re going to backtrack it a little bit. So maybe we’re selling like, you know, 750 of these human cat trees per year over average. So then we’re going to backtrack that even more. How many do we need to sell each quarter? Austin. Oh geez.

Speaker2: What’s the math on that. Yeah.

Speaker4: I mean, I’m just I’m just going to rough it around, you know, say a couple.

Speaker1: Hundred.

Speaker4: 200. Yeah, I was going to say 200 to 50.

Speaker1: So then to 200 and then now you can break that down into the months of the quarter. Ben, you remember how months work in the quarter, right.

Speaker2: There’s 12 of.

Speaker1: Them in a quarter. That’s right. And then so so then we’re going to.

Speaker3: Break that down, then.

Speaker1: Say 7580. Whatever your numbers are you can break it down that simple. So this month we need 80 human cat trees sold. So that means each week of that month we need 20 human cat trees, which means we need to get I need to.

Speaker2: Get off this podcast and go start selling some human cat trees is what this is sounding like.

Speaker1: So now now you have your metrics. So you know, okay, every week we need to sell, you know, ten human cat trees or whatever your number is. Are they.

Speaker3: Made?

Speaker2: No. Yeah.

Speaker3: So productions a whole nother to produce.

Speaker1: So we haven’t produced them yet. Okay.

Speaker2: Wasn’t prepared for this. Well, we’re.

Speaker3: We’re mapping it out. Don’t worry.

Speaker1: We’re mapping it out. It’s a mind map here.

Speaker4: You don’t second guess yourself.

Speaker1: So you you have your goals. So then now we kind of have a we have a plan of like how can we measure success. So before here’s the mistake I think that’s made is we just jump into it and we just start calling up our friend and saying, hey, you want a cat tree? Hey, you want a cat tree? Hey, you want a human cat tree? And I’m like, Ben, stop calling me. I don’t have a cat. You’re going to lose friends.

Speaker3: I’m sorry.

Speaker1: Yeah. So putting together the strategy.

Speaker2: I think I’m going to lose a lot in.

Speaker1: This includes how you’re going to produce all these human cat trees. Where are you going to store these human cat trees? Are you going to be the only person selling these human cat trees? Are you the only person building them who’s going to be overseeing production and quality check and just all these different variables. Do you have any of that together, Ben?

Speaker2: Well, that’s why I’m working here at this company. I was hoping you could help with this.

Speaker1: Little panic in your voice. It’s okay. Ben, we’re here for you.

Speaker2: I want to sell the company.

Speaker3: Sell it before you’ve made anything. That’s awesome.

Speaker1: So, Tracy, walk us through the operation side, sell it to.

Speaker4: The Tiger King.

Speaker1: We have these big goals. We have metrics we can start tracking. Maybe we even have some ideas for marketing. But before we get to that, it’s the operational side of of it.

So miss operational operations. So what would you do? What would you put together. Do you need to what accountability. Chart roles, responsibilities, workflows? Where would you begin if we’re simplifying this for not just Ben, but any human tree kind.

Speaker3: Of a startup basically, yeah. The way we’re going about this, because this is just a dream in your head. Have you even build a prototype?

Speaker2: No, I built one out of cardboard, so and it didn’t work.

Speaker3: Okay.

Speaker2: But the idea in my head looks amazing.

Speaker3: That’s awesome. Okay, so. So first we need a prototype.

Speaker5: Yes.

Speaker1: Well, Ben has taken out a sizable loan from the bank, though, so I will give you a credit for that, I think. What, half $1 million, right. If. How much is left?

Speaker2: Well, I’m not really sure.

Speaker1: But, you know.

Speaker2: You know, I I’ve, I’ve got to treat myself.

Speaker5: So. Okay.

Speaker3: We got.

Speaker4: Caviar.

Speaker1: He really needs this to work because.

Speaker2: I feel like I need to be in a strong mental state in order to build the first. Okay. And being in a strong mental state means I need to go on a number of vacations.

Speaker1: Forehand massages. I get it.

Speaker3: Okay, this is not a good start. I’m sorry to say we’re not planning very well. So yes, you need a prototype. You need to actually have know the numbers of what’s going to what it takes to produce them, how long it takes to produce them. As Matt had said, where are you going to store these? How many?

What’s what’s the overhead? What’s the cost involved? Then you have to include how are you going to get it out to the world? Who’s going to handle that?

Who’s going to handle selling it? Who’s going to handle the internal part to get it shipped, or do you build it when you get there? All the just a few little things, right. Because you have to measure things you have to track.

Speaker2: I’ll just send I’ll just have a pro like the prototype, the blueprint. I’ll just send that to the people with the material they’re building. They go out and get the materials. Oh.

Speaker1: So. And then. Yeah, well, that mitigates even.

Speaker3: A lot easier.

Speaker2: Yeah. So I’ll just give them a list. Here’s all what you need to buy.

Speaker1: So you’re selling them a drawing of a cat human cat tree at this point okay.

Speaker3: So just.

Speaker2: Thought of this.

Speaker3: Okay. So now we got.

Speaker4: To I can see Matt is losing faith in you with the size. All right.

Speaker1: Big, big selling point here for two brothers created by the way. You know.

Speaker3: So you’re selling weight in three years. How many units? 2000.

Speaker1: I think it was the random number. We.

Speaker3: So we’re not going to be making a lot because this is just a blueprint, right? Yes. So this is just a side hustle.

Speaker1: So here’s what I would say is go back to baby steps. All right. So back.

Speaker5: To basics.

Speaker1: How quickly this all kind of spiraled out of control. And you Ben he’s sitting here. You look overwhelmed. And you look a little I’m scared. Yes you’re shaking right I’m scared shaking. And, you know, like a leaf.

Speaker5: Like a leaf.

Speaker2: Could use a cat tree to sit in.

Speaker1: So instead of letting yourself get to this state, because this is usually usually where most business owners find them at some point early on, the first, you know, 1 to 3 years is in this anxiety ridden state of just pure panic. And they’re just trying to tread water, trying not to drown.

Basically, they don’t know what they’re doing. They’re grasping for straws. They’re listening to people like us telling them, oh, you need to do this, this and this. Just focus on the simple things, the little things, and take it step by step.

So, you know, she mentioned tracking time. So just keep track of how long does it take you to make one cat tree. Does it make one human cat tree. Let’s give it to Nana and let Nana. That’s it. One of his cats. Try this human cat tree and beta test it.

So let’s see if this even works. Is there any interest then? Okay, there’s some interest. She likes it. You made some notes. You applied that to your next your next version or model of this human cat tree.

Then you go on social media and you just do a post, hey, here’s this incredible human cat tree. Would anybody be interested in buying taking pre-orders now? And you can set up a simple click funnel or an email system through your website or just, you know, you could a lot of easy ways you can do that. Message me. Slide into my DMs as they say. I think that’s what that’s about, right?

And then you find out and you can gauge is their interest. You know, if it’s like, wow, I got 400 requests for this thing and I just did one post. Or it could be I got zero requests for this. People told me to stop posting about my human cat trees.

Speaker3: And what if they don’t want to build it themselves?

Speaker5: And if they don’t want.

Speaker1: To build it themselves? Yeah, so so but then you have a gauge because then you can do things like, okay, we’re going to take pre-orders where you pay half down to help us kind of finance building out these human cat trees. And you start to build that out and you just keep track of everything.

But that’s how you want to work is it’s it’s kind of slow and methodical, which is I think it makes it unsexy. But that is how you establish an operational structure to your business. The secret about operations is that you are never done, never, never done. You’re always working to improve it, to fine tune it. It’s never done to where you can just set it and forget it. And I think that’s been one of the biggest mistakes, is we think, oh, I can just set it and forget it. I’m going to.

Speaker5: Do some marketing Kodak moment.

Speaker1: I’m going to buy some Facebook ads. This thing’s going to take off. And I just sit back and cash the checks.

Speaker4: So it’s operations the same as putting systems into place basically.

Speaker5: Processes.

Speaker4: Processes. And then the systems always evolve over time. You’re always tweaking. And like you said, refining.

Speaker1: Create a system. That’s the easiest way to describe it.

Speaker3: Just like when you’re onboarding a client. What’s your onboarding process? When you’re any type of sales, any type of accounts payable, everything has should have a process to make it simplified so that you can it can be scalable and repeatable as well, even because Matt might or Ben might have like cats that he brings along.

So it’s something that a cat can do maybe. Right. Okay, I think so. You know.

Speaker1: I mean, even sales like people just assume, well, just go out and get some sales. But there’s a there is a method to the madness. So cold calling is still the number one way to by the way, to get new new prospects and land new business. People hate doing it because we hate being rejected and Austin’s been in LA. It’s worse than being an actor auditioning for shows.

Speaker4: Oh yeah, because I’ve done cold calling. Oh yeah, and I’ve been rejected on a mass scale. It takes, I think, that.

Speaker3: Going for the. No.

Speaker4: I think that the cold calling is it’s tough. I don’t know why, you know, because as a performer and I’ve done stand up for so long, I was like when I got offered, hey, do these cold calls? It paid really well. I’m like, that would be easy. And then I can get up in front of 2000 people. But calling one person on the phone and I’m like.

Speaker6: That is.

Speaker1: Rejection. Like, like stuttering. But it works. It works. It’s still top dog, you know? I mean, even if you could get through, leave a voicemail. That’s fantastic too. It works far more effectively than email, than, you know, messaging. And so but have you.

Speaker4: Done a lot of cold calling and.

Speaker1: Calculate how many cold calls you need to make to close a sale, though? 100 cold calls, I get one new closed sale. So that means if I want to have 2000 cat trees, well, I just got to take 2000 times 100 spread that over over three years break it down into your days. Now, I know if I make, you know, 100 cold calls per day, by the year 2028, I will have sold 2000 human trees.

Speaker4: Is that is that pretty much ironclad? 100 calls, one sale for people that I’ve never tried it before.

Speaker1: Hypothetical example.

Speaker4: But or it.

Speaker3: Varies. But it is. The more calls you make, the more you’re going to close, right? I mean, it’s just numbers, you know, so you have to be scientific with it. And the more you call and yes, I have done it. And when I slack off, I don’t get as many prospects in as many deals.

And it’s just keeping the relationship and the follow through. So that’s the same thing with systems. If people don’t have the follow through or for marketing sake, we bring in the leads. Let’s say we’re helping bring in the leads, but it’s their job. We lead them.

You lead them to water. But how do we make them drink? That’s on the company, right? Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah. So if Ben gets all these leads and he’s not like, calling, well, his buddies are kind of saying no, but now he’s got to start calling people he doesn’t know and just. And yes, there are a lot of them are probably going to say no. Yeah. Because he’s got to get those right.

Speaker2: Cat lovers don’t have any faith in this project. You need to.

Speaker1: Find your niche.

Speaker3: Oh, there might be there might be cat lovers like you out there. I’m just, you know.

Speaker4: There are so many weird people out there like Hope.

Speaker1: I like to use this as the the analogy I like to use to close out this episode. Your marketing, it’s like, imagine that your your business is a bathtub.

Speaker2: Okay. The bath bathtub analogy.

Speaker1: Yes. Your bathtub. All right. So you are all the way down in the bottom of this bathtub, right? And you imagine you’re a tiny little like one inch person. And then there’s all these customers up at the top on the ledge up there, and they’re all hanging out, and they’re waving their money and they’re like, hey, we want to we want to give you money for your product, but you got to figure out a way to get up there.

So now to do it without marketing is to oh, you got to figure out you got to you got to be able to climb a scale, a mountain. And those bathtubs are tough because it’s slick. It’s porcelain. And it’s really hard to get to stop. You are exerting a lot of effort and energy and resources to make one sale.

Marketing is like you start to let this bathtub slowly fill up with water, and you just sit in your boat and you just let the water slowly rise you to the top, to where you are now at eye level. And then people can just hand you your money. You can hand them your goods or services. It’s much easier, but you still need a boat.

You know you can’t be selling stuff if you’re swimming in the bathtub. You need a boat for your business to be in. You need a place. You need the tools. You need the the strategy, all of these things. You need the people, the strategy, execution and the cash critical for your success. So and it’s similar to like Ben when you take baths. So I thought you’d like that one.

Speaker2: Stop telling people I take baths.

Speaker1: Twice.

Speaker5: A day. Do you have a.

Speaker3: Boat in your bathtub?

Speaker2: No, not a full size one. Okay.

Speaker1: Sometimes I pretend my bathtub is a boat, though. We want to help you make your marketing easy right now. In the show notes, click on the link.

You can get started for free. You give us 30 minutes. We give you 30 days of content.

All you got to do is book that free strategy call. We’ll talk about this and more. We’ll dial in on your business, see what your pain points, your needs, your challenges, opportunities and the threats, the strengths, the weaknesses, everything and Swot analysis. I’m really getting into this. I think I probably could have closed it a lot earlier, but I just kept going. That’s okay. And now I feel like I can’t really regain. It’s like when you’ve left a voicemail that’s gone on too long and you know it.

Speaker4: Oh, dude. And then you and then you want to start over. Yeah, I want.

Speaker1: To start over.

Speaker4: I hate when you do the record and send a message and it automatically sends and you want to redo it. Have you ever done that. And then I’ll say this message is terrible. I’m sending you another one okay.

Speaker1: Yeah.

Speaker4: Just be honest. Throw that out.

Speaker1: All right. So Beep.

Thank you so much to Tracy Winkler for joining us here today on the podcast. Of course in the show notes you can click on the link and get your marketing started. Easy easy peasy easy breezy beautiful CoverGirl. Yes, the link is in the show notes to get started for free with a free strategy call you give us 30 minutes. We give you 30 days of content.

Let us help you take the marketing off of your plate. We’ll work with you to develop a strategy for your business, whether it’s a human cat tree or not. And I believe that that idea is now open. If anybody wants to buy the web domain human categoryqom from me, I think Ben is throwing in the towel on this. I’m done.

Speaker4: Yeah, it’s only half a mil.

Speaker5: Yes, yes.

Speaker1: Half $1 million.

Human cat tree.com.