[00:00:00] Are you struggling to stand out in your niche? Do you feel like there's already a thousand other yous in the industry, all with louder and more interesting things to say?
[00:00:08] You probably think: "what more could I add to the conversation?"
[00:00:11] Well, it's probably because you haven't heard of the remarkability formula.
[00:00:15] Rich Brooks: If we can figure out what does make us remarkable that's where we stand out. And that's when we start attracting those ideal customers.
[00:00:22] That's rich Brooks,
[00:00:23] president of flight, new media and founder of agents of change, digital marketing conference. I sat down with rich to walk us through the remarkability formula that takes us from unknown to well-known in our industry.
[00:00:35] My name's Dave Polykoff and for the last 12 years I've been building in streamlining content strategy for solopreneurs, up to fortune 500 companies.
[00:00:43] My mission is simple to make your content strategy easy as f--ck. So you can focus more on working on your business than working in your business.
[00:00:52] Which is why I started the brand science podcast to provide you actionable guidance from the world's best branding and content strategy experts to help you [00:01:00] easily launch, grow, and monetize your personal brand.
[00:01:03] And today's episode is no exception. By the end of this episode, you'll have the framework to stand out in your niche, avoid competition, and attract qualified leads that align with your brand's values.
[00:01:14] So let's learn all about how to be remarkable on this episode, of Brand Science.
[00:01:19]
[00:01:19] Dave Polykoff (2): Welcome back to another episode of brand science. I'm very excited today because this is a topic that I really love to talk about being that we are all about personal branding. And one of the biggest things with personal branding is how do you stand out online, offline, um, you know, where, where's your niche and how are you, uh, separating yourself from the competition?
[00:01:42] Dave Polykoff (2): And so that's why we have on today. Rich Brooks of, uh, Flight New Media, who's going to be walking us through his Remarkability Formula to do exactly that. So Rich, thank you for being on the show today, man.
[00:01:54] Rich Brooks: Dave, I appreciate it. Thank you so much.
[00:01:56] Dave Polykoff (2): Of course. So I want to get into the [00:02:00] Remarkability Formula because that in itself is going to be some really good stuff there. But before we do that, what I love to do, since this is a podcast about personal branding, is really get to know your story about how you got into digital marketing. How you grew this Remarkability formula and what was kind of like your hero's journey to get you from starting to, to where you are today.
[00:02:23] Rich Brooks: Sure. Uh, well, just starting with my company. So I run a, an agency called flight new media. We've been in business now for over 27 years, uh, which is really weird now. Cause I have employees who are not born when I started this company kind of freaks me out. Uh, just today I was joking around because somebody sent in for some gym reimbursement and they.
[00:02:44] Rich Brooks: Included the card. It said like under 35 and I'm like, are you just bragging at me? Like I know, but, um, yeah, I mean, I always was fascinated by technology, fascinated by computers and really how technology impacts people and changes us, and then [00:03:00] we go ahead and we create new technology based on where we are.
[00:03:03] Rich Brooks: And just that back and forth has always been really interesting to me. I actually went to college thinking I was going to become a psychologist. Turns out I didn't have the grades or maybe the aptitude and years later found myself Getting involved with marketing which turned out to be pretty much the business application of marketing if you will And I just started building websites I figured maybe I had a couple years Before the programmers learned how to design and the designers learned how to program and I'd have to go find a real job But, uh, I had never taken any business courses, so I didn't know you could just hire people who were better than you at all these tasks and then you could go out and run the company.
[00:03:40] Rich Brooks: So that's how I find myself 27 years later, not really doing much. Uh, I mean, I'm busy every day, but having people who are doing the design and the branding and the website development and the SEO and the paid search and everything we do, I love learning about it, but I'm rarely hands on these days and I've really evolved into more of [00:04:00] how do I help my team reach their potential, which ultimately does good by the business and does good by our clients.
[00:04:06] Rich Brooks: So, you know, that's the very abbreviated version of it, starting with just simple web design and then continuing to add SEO and social media and blogging and everything else along the way. And, you know, as far as, you know, my hero, well, I guess that is my hero journey. And then The Remarkability Formula was something that came out kind of during COVID.
[00:04:27] Rich Brooks: It had always been in the back of my mind that I realized that a lot of times when businesses came to us for websites or for marketing that they really didn't have a good sense of why anybody should be doing business with them. And they didn't really have a good sense of who should hire them to do that work either.
[00:04:46] Rich Brooks: And so very often I found myself more as like a business consultant than a website developer and talking to them about like, well, let's, let's kind of work backwards and let's figure out like, what do you exactly do offer? Who do you serve? And why should people [00:05:00] choose you? And A lot of people had never gone through that process.
[00:05:04] Rich Brooks: I work with a lot of small to medium sized businesses. They just got into business. They never thought about it. They're doing okay. So they never questioned where they are. And I kind of started to look around and look for examples that I could show people like, well, look at how these people are doing it and look at how they're approaching it and what their messaging is and how they start to attract those ideal clients.
[00:05:25] Rich Brooks: And as I did that, I was also working with a group called Heroic Public Speaking, uh, Amy and Michael Port, and they do a great job in helping people put on better presentations. Part of the process was developing out a new topic or idea. It had been bubbling around in my mind for years and just kind of needed some focus and a title.
[00:05:45] Rich Brooks: And so as I started going through their process and collecting all the stories that I wanted to share with people, I started to categorize what made these companies stand out, what differentiated them. And I found that there were really four themes that [00:06:00] I could identify. And we can talk about those themes in detail, but they were find, focus, forge, and frame.
[00:06:06] Rich Brooks: And these were like four ways of looking at your own company or your own brand to really help you hone in on what makes you different. Cause that's always been, you know, it's, it's nothing brand new. I mean, there's been, you know, books on blue ocean strategy and there's been the purple cow and all these different, you know, approaches that talk about how important it is to be different.
[00:06:27] Rich Brooks: But I didn't really see that there was something that took you step by step on how to differentiate yourself and how to communicate that to your ideal customer. And so that's what I set out to do is to make it really approachable for anybody who wanted to go through that process.
[00:06:42] Dave Polykoff (2): Sure. Oh, a couple of things here. One is you mentioned you went to school with the ambition of being in psychology. Um, and then for whatever the reasons were pivoted into marketing, but I, I, I had kind of a similar journey, but what I say is. You know, I think you [00:07:00] mentioned marketing really is like the psychology of sales essentially.
[00:07:04] Dave Polykoff (2): Right. It's like, there's a lot of psychology that's worked into marketing. So it's a, it's funny that a lot of people I think that do have interest in psychology do end up being in marketing. And that's why I named the podcast brand science, because I love the psychology angle of branding. Um, but the other thing too, is, and I think this is really important because I want to get into the actual framework of marketing.
[00:07:25] Dave Polykoff (2): Um, the Remarkability Formula, but what I love that you were talking about here is the idea that you, it's kind of a, uh, ironic in a way where what I say is to stand out, to have that kind of unique method that you can then share to the world. And now people are associating you with that unique method.
[00:07:46] Dave Polykoff (2): And what you've done here is you've created a unique method almost for finding that unique method, if you will. You know what I mean? So, um, you know, what I always say for, for this podcast is I love having people on who can speak to something, a [00:08:00] unique method, a unique story. And that helps not just my audience, but like for them, that's part of their personal brand.
[00:08:06] Dave Polykoff (2): Like now people know you and the Remarkability formula. And every time that they're thinking about it, every time they're sharing it, they're also associating it with you. So. I just love this idea that you were able to kind of package an idea that now is kind of, uh, synonymous with your name, that now is kind of your way of, you know, being talked about in, in, in rooms, uh, outside of, you know, these podcasts that we have together.
[00:08:31] Dave Polykoff (2): So you, this was something that I guess you just inspired and felt this needed to be packaged together because you found a gap in the industry.
[00:08:41] Rich Brooks: Uh, I think that was part of it. You know, as, as a marketer, I recognize the value of having something that's sort of branded or like you said, can be associated with it. And I think that when you, even if you're just reinventing something, and I'm not saying, you know, that I invented something new and I'm not saying I just recycled something, but when you, [00:09:00] especially as a brand, are creating something and you give it a name, that name has a lot of power.
[00:09:06] Rich Brooks: And like you said, it can quickly become associated with you and people start referring to it in that methodology. And that can certainly help as well. And that kind of makes you the go to person for that particular, uh, area of expertise. And I find also, That when you package something up in a formula or a framework or whatever language you want to use, it's a lot easier to hand that off to somebody so that they can take it on as well.
[00:09:31] Rich Brooks: And so I think that's an important thing too. So it's like, if I just talked about like standing out online, which a lot of people do, um, and just kind of like a, Hey, here's some things you can do. It wouldn't be a sticky and it wouldn't be as actionable. And I know for me, at least like when somebody gives me a framework, Even though I'm probably going to end up painting outside the lines, at least it gives me a starting point for how I can accomplish whatever that goal is.
[00:09:55] Rich Brooks: Anything from marketing to gardening, to woodworking, to accounting, like those are [00:10:00] those steps that really help define it and make it something that almost feels physical that you can hand off. And so that was a big part of it as well.
[00:10:08] Dave Polykoff (2): Yeah. Yeah. I think that's important for, for our listeners is like, there's a lot of Knowledge that you already have that again, doesn't need to be necessarily like groundbreaking or, you know, something that no one's ever spoke about, but packaging it in such a way that you can deliver it, whether it be a guest on someone's podcast or through an ebook or something, um, is really what's going to help Branding side of things and you be associated with that in your industry. And so with that said, let's jump into the remarkability formula. Um, you had mentioned of four F's, which again, we talk about packaging, you know, being able to keep it simple with the four walk us through what these four F's are.
[00:10:50] Rich Brooks: Yeah, so again, they were find, focus, forge, and frame. And so just the way that I approach it is, when I'm talking to somebody, find is there's already something [00:11:00] remarkable about your business. You just have to identify what that is and give it a name. For focus, it's all about the idea of niching down, where you can kind of shed the competition.
[00:11:11] Rich Brooks: If you continue to hone in on just one specific thing that you can deliver better to your ideal customer than anybody else can. And then Forge, this one's a little bit tricky and I'll have examples if you want for all of these, but Forge is about creating something outside of your traditional offering, but that's still in alignment.
[00:11:33] Rich Brooks: With your mission and values, and that can be a great way of connecting with with potential customers as well. And the last one is frame, and that's about how you can position what you're already offering in a new way or a powerful way that really shows the value again to your ideal customer. And then the other piece of this whole puzzle is it's not just enough to do one of these things.
[00:11:55] Rich Brooks: What you really want to do is go through the exercise of looking at your business or your brand. [00:12:00] Through all four lenses and really starting to layer those things on top of each other so that you can truly be unique. And it's not easy and it's not perfect and it can get messy. But if you go through this process, I think that you're going to be able to identify really what is remarkable about you or your business.
[00:12:19] Rich Brooks: And you know, we didn't really talk in too much depth about it, but you know, the idea of being remarkable or novel or whatever the word is that you want to use. We are hardwired all the way back to our caveman ancestors that what stands out gets the very limited resource of our attention. Like you had to back in those days, you know, you had to be paying attention to the wrestling in the bushes or the strange lights in the sky or whatever it is so that you could stay alive.
[00:12:46] Rich Brooks: And that is still in us. So when we're doing something, that's just like everybody else, no one's going to pay attention. No one's going to care. But if we can figure out what does make us remarkable and almost every [00:13:00] business can find that remarkability or create it. That's where we stand out. And that's when we start attracting those ideal customers.
[00:13:07] Rich Brooks: And hopefully if we do our job, right. Pushing away the wrong type of customers. And I'm sure everybody who's been in business for more than five minutes knows that you've probably taken on some of your wrong type of customers as well.
[00:13:19] Dave Polykoff (2): Sure. Yeah, we've all been there. I mean, when money's tight, you'll, you'll take on anything. Um,
[00:13:25] Rich Brooks: it's hard to say no when you've got bills to pay.
[00:13:27] Dave Polykoff (2): Right. Yeah. The lights need to be on. Um, so yeah, let's, let's start at fine because I think in premise it's simple. And the idea is just pinpoint something that is unique about you and run with that. But I think in practice.
[00:13:43] Dave Polykoff (2): That can be very difficult because as we like to say, it's very easy to find the things about ourselves that we don't like, you know, things we try to hide or mask, but to pinpoint things that we go, Oh, this makes us unique, special. This is our superpower. I feel can be very [00:14:00] difficult to do just as like an internal practice is, do you have any tips on how, how can we find what makes us unique?
[00:14:07] Rich Brooks: Yeah. And I think that sometimes we don't recognize You know, if we, if we have an offering, it may not be the main point that we thought was valuable. It's what our clients think are valuable. So just like beauty, our value or our remarkability is truly in the eye of our customers and not of ourselves. So just as an example, when I bought my first house, uh, way back in like, uh, I think it was 2020 or 2000, rather, um, We moved in and it was in dire need of a paint job.
[00:14:36] Rich Brooks: And so I had never really been involved with this process. So we start calling up some local painters and it's going to be like, Oh, we'll be there for a full week and all this. And I'd heard horror stories from friends who had gone through this and like, Oh, your entire yard feels like a construction zone.
[00:14:49] Rich Brooks: And it feels like they're there all week. And we talked to one guy and he said, I can be in and out in two days. And I was like, all right, fantastic. Let's just go with him. You know, prices were comparable, [00:15:00] whatever. And so he came in and when he arrived, he arrived with about 20 painters and they came in five white vans, they spill out of the vans, they throw up ladders, they're painting, you know, top to bottom over the course of the day.
[00:15:12] Rich Brooks: I think they were singing sea shanties at the same time, but you know, maybe I'm just, I'm just misremembering that detail. Uh, yeah. They, and they, you know, at the end of the day, pack up all their stuff. They're gone. And like a day or two later, they come back and they do the second coat of paint. And it's all set.
[00:15:26] Rich Brooks: And as you can imagine, my neighbors took notice, you know, seeing this like NASCAR, like a pit crew approach to painting my house with all those people. And I live in Maine, like the time to have painting done is a very short window. So the idea that you could have 20 people on your team, ready to go, that's very hard to compete with.
[00:15:49] Rich Brooks: So that's another aspect that people should keep in mind as they're searching for their own remarkability. The higher the barrier. That you can create the lower the competition. So anybody can have [00:16:00] lower costs. Anybody can use high quality paint or whatever the case may be. But to bring in 20 guys and keep them on payroll, that's really challenging.
[00:16:09] Rich Brooks: That's not something that people that every business can go head to head with you on. So that was a very remarkable aspect of their business. He may not have even realized what he had there. And so my point is like, I would have led with that. Like if I was his marketing guy at the time, I would have led with the fact that, you know, it's like the quickest turnaround in the business.
[00:16:27] Rich Brooks: You know, two days will be in and out. 20 guys is going to be fantastic for you. Um, that's a, that's an aspect of the way that he delivered the solution. Was really remarkable. And there's a lot of different things within your own business that you might find remarkable. And so, you know, one thing is pricing.
[00:16:44] Rich Brooks: And when I say pricing, I don't just mean like have the lowest pricing because that is not remarkable. In fact, that's a great way to run yourself out of business. What I mean about remarkable when it comes to pricing is go to the edges. So, for example, um, I [00:17:00] don't know if you're, uh, old enough, Dave, to remember the Columbia Record House Club, where you would get, you know, 11 records for a penny or something like that.
[00:17:07] Rich Brooks: But that was like a big thing when I was growing up. Like, you know, so before the age of the internet, you would get these mailings in the mail and you would basically say, yes, I'll do this. And you would get 11 LPs or tapes, and I swear to God, or eight track tapes for a penny. And that was remarkable.
[00:17:23] Rich Brooks: Like no one else was going to sell you 11 records for a penny. And of course they tried to upsell you after that, but that was truly remarkable or gray goose vodka, which when it came into the market in 95, uh, it was, it was always going to be an expensive vodka. I don't know how much you know about gray goose, but it's made with like this, the soft winter wheat from a singular area of France.
[00:17:43] Rich Brooks: So, you know, all these things, it was going to be expensive and it could have competed with the premium brands at the time, which were all about 17 or 18 a bottle, but instead they just come out and say, we're a super premium brand and bottled it at 35 or sold it at 35 a bottle. They [00:18:00] have no competition at this point.
[00:18:01] Rich Brooks: They're the most expensive. And so people flocked to them because if you had gray goose in your liquor cabinet, it showed that you've made it. So I think it's really about going to the extremes in a situation like that, but whether it's your price or your products or your delivery or your location, there's something that's already part of your business that probably is remarkable and you just need to identify it.
[00:18:23] Rich Brooks: And like I said, Give it a name.
[00:18:25] Dave Polykoff (2): Yeah. And, and so a lot of our listeners are also personal brands. So these are people that they are the business. And so kind of what is remarkable about individually, them is kind of also part of what I think they need to make sure that they're promoting, especially through their content that they put out there.
[00:18:44] Dave Polykoff (2): Um, and that's, what's so important here too, is because a lot of times people think that. I'm just another business coach, another consultant within a sea of other business coaches and [00:19:00] consultants. But the reason that someone might use you is needs to be very specific. And since it is the personal of personal branding, there is something about uniquely about how you approach it.
[00:19:12] Dave Polykoff (2): Maybe your methodology, maybe the way that you just are able to communicate with certain people. Maybe it's your beliefs. These are all things that like. What you might be associate with like a business in terms of like, you know, their core values or, you know, their, the way they do business or whatever.
[00:19:27] Dave Polykoff (2): But as an individual. If you're going to be spending time with that person, there's something unique about you that's going to make you stand out from, you know, the, the sea of other consultants out there. So I think yet it's probably best is what you're saying is like, I go to some of your current clients.
[00:19:43] Dave Polykoff (2): Maybe there's some reviews that they've given or something and see, like, is there a through line between like why they love using you over the consultant next door, um, and I guess kind of circle those, those keywords and that's, that's the, the magic superpower there to lean on.
[00:19:57] Rich Brooks: That's exactly right. Like that is the research [00:20:00] that if you're already in business, if you've got an established client base that you turn to them and you interview them and you ask them the same questions and try and get at what they were going through when they first hired you, what their pain points were, what they were hoping for an outcome, why they chose you over somebody else.
[00:20:17] Rich Brooks: And just like you said, circle them or throw all those transcripts into chat GPT and ask it for the answers. But the bottom line is, There is something that those people found in you that was really, and talk to your favorite clients, ones that you really like working with, because you, what resonated with them is likely to resonate with other people that you would like to work with as well.
[00:20:38] Rich Brooks: And we didn't talk about it, but, but your people, um, Is something that is already something that would fall under find. And even if you're just an individual, what I often will work with people on is developing out that personal brand, but also that thought leadership and, you know, publishing, whether it's written or audio or video, you know, and creating that.
[00:20:59] Rich Brooks: [00:21:00] version of yourself that is out there and attractive to the right type of clientele that you're going after. And that's a big part of it is just continually putting yourself out there and becoming more visible and increasing the visibility, whether it's on search or social or both so that people can find you and engage you for business.
[00:21:19] Dave Polykoff (2): Yeah, I think a key note here and I want to jump into the focus is the idea a through line throughout all of this podcast has been authenticity and sometimes it's tough and you feel a bit scared to be fully authentic for many reasons. But as you're saying, like you want to be able to attract. Your most ideal client or your favorite current client, you want to replicate that and you have to figure, okay, how am I with that client?
[00:21:47] Dave Polykoff (2): What did they like about me? And make sure you're, you're presenting that in all of your content and your public persona to attract more of those, those types of clients and, and, and repel those that don't vibe with, with who you [00:22:00] are authentically, cause then it's a lot of headaches and, uh, you know, Uh, horror stories, but let's jump into the end.
[00:22:06] Dave Polykoff (2): All right. So we've found kind of our superpower, what we want to emphasize in order to attract our ideal client. Now, next step here is to focus what what's involved with focusing.
[00:22:21] Rich Brooks: Yeah, and focusing is all about niching down. So if we're using the idea of somebody who may be a coach or have a personal brand out there, you know, the idea that you can serve anybody is definitely misleading and just going to get you into trouble. I'm sure you must have covered that in previous sessions.
[00:22:35] Rich Brooks: Previous episodes. The whole idea here is you really want to focus on how you can basically narrow down what you offer, which when you're getting started, I understand is probably one of those painful things ever because you just want to say yes to everything, but that's the absolute wrong thing. And I understand at the very beginning you do have to say yes to things that may not be in your sweet spot, but the idea is just niching down and that can mean a couple of different things.
[00:22:58] Rich Brooks: So it could be niching down in [00:23:00] terms of what your offerings are, but it also could be niching down in terms of who you serve. So, uh, one of my favorite examples is this is actually a friend of mine who basically, uh, revitalized, uh, podcasting John Lee Dumas. And I met John on a, uh, New York city rooftop bar at a blog world back, you know, in the early two thousands.
[00:23:21] Rich Brooks: And I asked him at the time, I'm like, Hey, we were introduced because we both lived in Portland, Maine at the time. And I said, Oh, so, um, what do you do? And he's like, Oh, I just got out of selling commercial real estate to become a professional podcaster. And this was back in like 2012. I didn't even know there was a professional league at this time.
[00:23:40] Rich Brooks: I wished him the best, but in the back of my mind, I was sure he was going to end up living in his mom's garage. Um, so obviously, you know, if you know, John Lee Dumas and the entrepreneur on fire, uh, entrepreneurs on fire podcast, you know, that he lives in this, you know, million dollar, uh, house off on the coast of Puerto Rico.
[00:23:56] Rich Brooks: And obviously I have no idea who's going to be successful or not. But [00:24:00] one of the reasons, and John talks about this in his book too. One of the reasons why he was so successful is that he niched down. And the way that he did it is back in the day, every podcast dropped no more than weekly. And he decided he was going to be the first business podcast that came out every single day, you know, at a specific time and all of the people in his consulting group were like, that's a terrible idea.
[00:24:23] Rich Brooks: Nobody wants that much content. It'll never work. You'll scare people away. They won't want to listen. And he was. Sure, that there was some merit to this, but he felt that there was a core audience of listeners who needed that daily inspiration that he could deliver through this interview style podcast.
[00:24:40] Rich Brooks: And that's what he did. And the rest is history in part because he got so much better at podcasting so much quicker than the rest of us because he was doing it seven days a week or the equivalent of seven days a week that he was just at a seven X of everybody else was starting around the same time.
[00:24:56] Rich Brooks: And as he did it every day. As people were [00:25:00] looking for, as the journalists were looking for who should we interview about podcasting, this new medium, they started finding John more and more often talking about raising your brand and your profile. So it's a strange example because in some ways he actually did more, but in doing more, he actually was going after a smaller, more niche audience within the podcast listeners.
[00:25:19] Rich Brooks: And that's what I think we need to do. So if, If you're looking at from an audience standpoint, it might be that you only target women or you only target people of color or you only Trump, uh, go after Trump fanatics, whatever it is, whatever resonates with you. And I'm not here to judge. I think that's the point is just like, how can you narrow that down to server smaller and smaller audience?
[00:25:41] Rich Brooks: Because it is much easier to fill a test tube than it is a bathtub. And then once you fill that niche, then you can start adding more and more to it as time goes on. And I've seen this with some of my friends who became like social media gurus is they started just like as the LinkedIn guy or the Facebook woman or whatever the case may be.[00:26:00]
[00:26:00] Rich Brooks: But when they reached a certain point of awareness in the general population or in terms of their audience, then they started expanding it to other areas. But it's starting off and really narrowing your niche. And I get that it's challenging. Uh, we've gone through my own agency. We went through this 2020.
[00:26:16] Rich Brooks: We sat down and we're like, we are going to really, we've always been journalists. We are going to find. We're going to choose one audience and go for it. And that's right around the time COVID hit. And I knew that other agencies who like, I had a friend who ran an agency that focused almost primarily on hospitality and sports teams and his business got hammered because he had chosen that niche and world changing events that was troublesome.
[00:26:40] Rich Brooks: He had to pivot so on and so forth. And that, so from that lesson learned, we actually decided that we wouldn't really. Limit the types of companies that we would work with. But what we were going to do is focus on our core competencies. So that's the other way of looking at it. It's like, okay, so we're going to do the design of branding, SEO and digital [00:27:00] ads.
[00:27:00] Rich Brooks: And that's where we're going to put all of our emphasis. Anything else we used to do video PR that will leave to somebody else. We'll find partners, but we're going to get really good at this. And the nice thing about niching down is that people are willing to pay more For specialists than they are for generalists.
[00:27:16] Rich Brooks: And when I started doing research into all of this, one of the most amazing stats I found was that it was back in 2017, the average, um, primary care physician in the United States was making a very healthy $249,000 a year, but the average specialist in the same year made $399,000 almost $150,000 more for arguably Knowing less and being able to help fewer people.
[00:27:45] Rich Brooks: But when it comes to something that's important to you, whether it's heart disease or an ACL replacement, you want the best, you want the specialist. And the, the belief is that if all you're doing is this one thing. That you must have been really, really [00:28:00] good at. And that's the power of niching down.
[00:28:03] Rich Brooks: Because if you can be offering the best of your particular service to your ideal customer and no one else doesn't mean you won't get other business, but focusing on that, you're going to shed your competition and it won't be a price war after that because people will choose you. Because they know that when it comes to coaching for doctors who practice a certain type of medicine, that you're the go to person.
[00:28:28] Dave Polykoff (2): Right. I think this topic could be its own podcast episode in itself because it's so important and it's so difficult for many of us, either as personal brands or running a business to find what that niche is, you know, especially because with personal brands, because we are so multi passionate that how can we possibly just choose one lane, but this is. Like one of the most important aspects, I would say of, of business, of your personal branding, because of everything you just mentioned in [00:29:00] terms of like scalability to provide your service and to market your service. So, you know, we say that in terms of, you know, providing your service, you'll be stretched thin if you service a real estate agent on one hand, and then, you know, a business consultant on another hand, and then a doctor on another hand, each one of those.
[00:29:20] Dave Polykoff (2): Presumably, depending on what you do is going to need its own different unique strategy or attention in a different way. But if you solely focus on Realtors, for example, it becomes a little bit more rinse and repeat over time, right? You've run into the same problems over and over again. So you know how to tackle the same problems.
[00:29:37] Dave Polykoff (2): You have the same templates and the same strategies. You can, you can, um, continue to apply. And as you're saying, like, if you sell. To one real estate agent and you see success there or see success with two or three real estate agents. You now have two or three real estate agent case studies to go sell to the next real estate agent, [00:30:00] right?
[00:30:00] Dave Polykoff (2): Versus if a doctor comes in and they go, Oh, well, you see success here with your real estate agents, but you know, have you ever done a doctor before? And so now you have to convince the doctor. And, um, so yeah, just like selling becomes easier. And marketing as well. I mean, we talked about this, um, with our, you know, with content strategy is stay hyper focused on single forms of, of content types and, and, and channels of where you want to publish your content.
[00:30:26] Dave Polykoff (2): Don't stretch yourself thin trying to be on Facebook and LinkedIn and Tik TOK. There's a time and place for that. Once you have like the resources in place to help you with that. If it's just you and you have a finite amount of time in your day. Solely focus on where your audience is to that one audience.
[00:30:42] Dave Polykoff (2): And then really like lean into just one type of content because content creation is time consuming. And if you're trying to stretch yourself, then doing reels and carousels and, you know, All these other different types of content, then now you're again, stretched thin and, and you [00:31:00] know, you're not, uh, you're not, it's not scalable at the end of the day.
[00:31:02] Dave Polykoff (2): So you're not reaching your audience in general. So yeah, I think the focus element to it is like one audience, one offer, one marketing strategy, and then just scale that up. Is that, have you seen that for your marketing agency? And when you guys were finding your, your niches that been
[00:31:18] Rich Brooks: So for us, and I'm the worst example of this, like I said, we decided to not go down. I mean, we know who our ideal buyer persona is, and it more has to do with the size of the company and whether there's a director of marketing and the revenue stuff like, so that's how we're niching down, but it's harder to describe.
[00:31:34] Rich Brooks: So that's. You know, you're not going to check every box off when it comes to remark ability. So for us, we just kind of started to hone down what we wanted to offer and really focus on lead generation for the, within those offerings. But to your point about like creating content, the other thing is like, if you are using the real estate, Uh, example, like if you decide that you're all in on real estate, like you said, creating, first of all, your blog or your website is going to be focused on marketing.
[00:31:59] Rich Brooks: If [00:32:00] you're doing marketing, marketing for real estate agents, well, Google is going to start to see you as one of the go to things. So your search visibility and search rankings should improve all the other things being equal. But also getting in front of people and doing presentations, you know, you do a presentation for one group of local realtors, and then you can take that same content and do it for a different group, take it on the national stage.
[00:32:21] Rich Brooks: And you start to get known. Cause I, I happen to know that there's probably about 50 national organizations dedicated to realtors all with their own annual conference. You can really start to get. Uh, known on the circuit and be doing the same presentation over and over again, which is going to lead to a lot of business and not spending all your time, just reinventing the wheel where you take your real estate content and you redo it for the doctor or the physician content.
[00:32:46] Rich Brooks: And then, you know, that's just a lot more work. I'm not saying it's impossible, but you can become the master of your domain by really Shrinking your domain and focusing on that audience, who will then, as I mentioned before, be willing to [00:33:00] pay extra for your services, which then gives you more free time to get even better at your job.
[00:33:05] Dave Polykoff (2): right. Right. And then the scale can come in over time.
[00:33:08] Hey, Dave here... obviously, but I want to just pause this episode real quick and say, thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of Brand Science. I hope that you're getting as much value as a viewer or listener as I've gotten as a host.
[00:33:22] And if you are getting value from this episode, It must mean that you enjoy nerding out on all things personal branding, content creation, and strategy, which means you're my type of person. So I want to connect. Once you're done this episode, go down to the show notes where you'll find my LinkedIn profile. Click on that link, head over to my profile and send me a request. When you send the request, there'll be that little pop-up that comes up, that you can add a note in the request.
[00:33:50] Just tell me that you found me from a brand science episode so I know that you are one of those loyal, awesome listeners of mine. And let's connect and learn [00:34:00] together. Anyway, just want to say, love you. Thanks for listening. Let's connect on LinkedIn and a yeah. Back to the episode.
[00:34:06] Dave Polykoff (2): what we offer and why it's special and who we're trying to market it to. Next up we have Frain. Can you walk us through that?
[00:34:14] Rich Brooks: Forge actually. So I usually go next and Forge is, this is one that's a little bit challenging. The idea here is that you're going to create something outside of your key offering, but it's still in alignment with your mission and vision. And so a lot of people will choose to go to Lowe's over Home Depot or Home Depot over Lowe's, or they'll pay more for locally sourced lettuce than they would from cheap lettuce from overseas.
[00:34:42] Rich Brooks: And it's because those things speak to who we wish to be. And so making those kind of connections can be very powerful. So if we create something that is outside of our offering, we can often signal to somebody else who we are. And this also helps attract more of our ideal customers and push away people who might [00:35:00] not be a good fit.
[00:35:00] Rich Brooks: And so one example of this is actually, My like, so I have flight new media. That's our digital agency. This is where we help people by doing all their marketing for them. But I also have this other brand called the agents of change. And this is a weekly podcast. It's also an annual conference that we put on here in Portland, Maine.
[00:35:18] Rich Brooks: And just this year, we started a, an annual virtual summit as well. It's all about helping people become. The best digital marketer they can be. And so I put on this conference and it's not a moneymaker. Most years it's basically break even if we're lucky. Uh, but I bring in speakers from all over the country and we get, uh, almost four to 500 people in the room at once, which for Maine, which only has one area code is a pretty astounding feat.
[00:35:42] Rich Brooks: So we get all these people in there and we put on this event and. I'm the emcee and I'm also president of flight and the branding is like, uh, agents of change powered by flight. New media. Now, you do not need to be a customer paying customer flight new media to attend the conference and nor do you need to, uh, attend the [00:36:00] conference to become a member or to be a customer of flight.
[00:36:03] Rich Brooks: Those are. There's an overlap of Venn diagram here because they're both about digital marketing and growing your business, but one doesn't require the other. So we started this event and partially just because I wanted to bring an event like this to Maine. But over the years, one of the things that we discovered is like when people come to me and they say, Hey, we want to work together.
[00:36:22] Rich Brooks: And I say, Hey, great. How did you hear of us? Very often the answer is, Oh, I've been going to the agents of change conference for years. And I'm finally ready for a website or SEO or social media. And what we discovered, even though this was not the original intent of the event, was that doing the agents of change helped us get into conference rooms, both here in Maine, but also across the country that we never would have gotten access to otherwise.
[00:36:46] Rich Brooks: And so it's this creation of something outside of our business that has helped us. And it doesn't necessarily need to be an event. I mean, so another thing that I've seen people do very successfully is. Create a scholarship that's in alignment with your mission and values [00:37:00] too. And then you can talk about that.
[00:37:01] Rich Brooks: And obviously, hopefully you're doing these things for the right reason and not just to stand out from the crowd. But this is a fringe benefit of it that you can talk about. These things are important to us, and this is why we're investing in this community or whatever the case may be.
[00:37:14] Dave Polykoff (2): you then? Outside of your service, like what, especially for people who are listening or typically like personal brand, people who are trying to start their personal brand launcher and grow monetize their personal brand, what's maybe, I know, like starting a charity or starting a conference seems a little bit, uh, out of reach right now for them.
[00:37:33] Dave Polykoff (2): Is there kind of a more micro version of starting something outside of your main service that can be in association with it?
[00:37:41] Rich Brooks: that is a great question and I wasn't prepared for that. But if I can just kind of brainstorm here for a second,
[00:37:47] Dave Polykoff (2): Well, one thing, I, when you mentioned that you have this conference, that's kind of like powered by your agency, All right. So. We know what's special about us and we know why people want to use us [00:38:00] specifically, and now we have chosen to focus in on, cause you know, many people potentially use our service and want our service because of how special it is. But we don't want to just market to the masses or bring on everyone as a client.
[00:38:13] Dave Polykoff (2): So we hyper focus on one demographic, one avatar. Um, and so we now know
[00:38:20] Dave Polykoff (2): that's the approach I'm taking with this podcast is, um, I have an agency Zen post. We help people with their personal brands and to draw association and eyeballs to that, you know, I'm practicing what I preach and I have my own personal brand and part of that is.
[00:38:37] Dave Polykoff (2): This podcast brand science, but I power it by Zen posts. So, you know, I know a lot of people start podcasts kind of for that reason as a way to create content, attract, you know, um, uh, names like yourself to be in association with the host and such would podcasts be a great example of that.
[00:38:57] Rich Brooks: Yeah, exactly. So that's something that's not super [00:39:00] expensive to get started with. And that is that any individual solopreneur, um, can get started with. So, and again, it's, you can sponsor it yourself, you know, brought to you, powered by whatever. And so you get that brand recognition and hopefully you, I mean, on some level, this is, about lead generation, right?
[00:39:18] Rich Brooks: You're trying to attract the right type of person to yourself, which is not necessarily against what we're talking about at all, but that's another benefit of this as well. Um, you also might look at, you know, if, if, um, DEI, uh, you know, a diversity equity inclusion is very important to you. You may say that we're taking on interns every summer specifically from the DEI, from an underserved community, because this is very important to me, very powerful for me.
[00:39:42] Rich Brooks: Um, those kinds of things can really help attract The right type of people as well. So I think it's about finding those things that don't really, they don't have to cost you anything. I mean, the agents of change is a big production for our company. It's one of the biggest things we do all year, but it doesn't have to be that big.
[00:39:57] Rich Brooks: It could be a podcast. I think [00:40:00] the more you can separate it from your business. In terms of the deliverables, I think that's great. I mean, you're, it's, I don't know if you're selling podcasting services per se, but the fact that there's this podcast and you're providing free services and helping people define their brand, whether or not they ever hire you, I think it can be a good example as well of this.
[00:40:19] Rich Brooks: Um, and sometimes it's just about how you name something. So one interesting example is Ben and Jerry's. And a few years ago, they came out with a product called pecan resist, which was a pecan, uh, centric ice cream, but they called it pecan resist because they took the first 100, 000 of profit and put it towards for progressive agencies.
[00:40:41] Rich Brooks: Ben and Jerry's from Vermont, very liberal. company and they wanted to help these companies out. And if you look at the amount of response they got on social media, when they released this flavor versus any other flavor that they've ever released, including things like a cherry Garcia, which is very well known or fish food, this [00:41:00] got.
[00:41:00] Rich Brooks: I think a hundred times the interaction engagement of anything else. Now, not all of that was positive, right? There were a lot of people who were very much against what they were saying and they were like, I'll have nothing to do with your ice cream. But the bottom line is it got a lot more visibility and a lot more press coverage than they ever would have gotten if they had just called it pecan ice cream or something like that.
[00:41:20] Rich Brooks: And if you lean in the other direction and you want an example, I would bring up my pillow. You know, that brand, my pillow, nobody's buying my pillow because they want a good night's sleep. They're buying it because they're either in alignment with that brand or they're not in alignment with that brand.
[00:41:34] Rich Brooks: So I think that. When you put even just naming your product or service something that will attract similar minded people or your ideal customer, that can also be a very interesting approach to forging your own remarkability.
[00:41:49] Dave Polykoff (2): So it sounds like this separate entity, the separate campaign or, you know, initiative should, would you [00:42:00] say should be very kind of. Like, uh, not morally driven, but like belief driven, you know, people who share beliefs are, are kind of coming together as a community, if you will.
[00:42:13] Rich Brooks: I definitely think so. I definitely think it could be. I don't want to say that it should be political or whatever the case may be. We're already too political in this country, but um, that is a great way of attracting and detracting the right type of people, like attracting the right people to you and holding off the people that really, you're just not in alignment with.
[00:42:33] Rich Brooks: So that But that may not work for every brand. I mean, some brands like Coca Cola probably want to stay away from, from much controversy because they want to be the brand for everybody, right? Where other brands like Nike famously had that ad campaign with Colin Kaepernick, and that was specifically to be divisive, but they knew that for their core audience NBA fans, even though he's in the NFL, That that was going to be a very powerful marketing [00:43:00] campaign and really kind of say, here's who we are and this is what we believe in.
[00:43:03] Rich Brooks: And that would attract even more people to their products for it, for their ideal type of customer. So you can go a mission and value belief. But for me, when we talk about flight and the agents of change, we're really taught, I mean, those don't even have the same name similar to, to your podcast and agency, but they're both in alignment because I believe That small to medium sized businesses can win if they use digital marketing the right way and whether flight does it for you, whether we inspire you to be the best digital marketer you can be, it's all good.
[00:43:35] Rich Brooks: But those two things overlap. And obviously there's some synergy that happens.
[00:43:39] Dave Polykoff (2): Yeah. Yeah. And I think, uh, as a note for the audience, like there are, you know, uh, rich, rich mentioned, there are ways to do this, whether it's a. You know, a large community or event, but there are kind of subsets to that, where you can create online community that maybe you [00:44:00] don't necessarily need a physical space for.
[00:44:01] Dave Polykoff (2): So as we're mentioning, like podcasting, or there are ways to create communities online around like newsletters or. like Facebook groups or a tool called like school dot com. So there's kind of a digital versions of those communities that you can create that, um, know, still can accomplish. I think what, what Rich is saying here, but maybe aren't going to necessarily require, um, you know, a physical space or a money investment, too much of a money investment to be able to accomplish that.
[00:44:30] Dave Polykoff (2): So I love that. Um, great. So we have the idea of. What makes us special? We have who we want to speak to. And we've created this kind of movement outside of our main offer that's associated with that. What's, uh, what's this last one then for frame?
[00:44:47] Rich Brooks: So frame is All about how do you position what you're already doing in a new way to either attract a new audience or really to show the value that you're delivering. And so a couple of quick examples, [00:45:00] one is a brand we're all familiar with, which is Red Bull. And when Red Bull first came to market, they could have, I mean, it had been this, This caffeinated drink that cab drinkers in India used to drink a lot of.
[00:45:12] Rich Brooks: And then somebody bought the brand and said, I'm going to take it global. And if they had gone head to head with Coke and Pepsi, we never would have ever heard the brand, but instead what they did is they focused on, um, uh, one of the ingredients that was already in their touring. They also shrank the can and they charged twice as much as a regular can of Coke or Pepsi, and they basically positioned it in this new emerging trend called energy drinks, which now of course we're very familiar with, but at the time that wasn't really a thing.
[00:45:42] Rich Brooks: And fast forward to today and It's like a 6 billion market. And they own the majority of that market in energy, even though there's monster and these other drinks that have since been released by the bigger brands, Red Bull continues to have this stranglehold on the industry. And it was really because they decided we're going [00:46:00] to position this for a new audience of people who really want to like, kind of like take with, you know, Grow wings and, and, and be energetic and live life to its fullest.
[00:46:09] Rich Brooks: And this is how we're going to position it for this audience with this quasi secret ingredient called Tory, right? But you don't have to be a global company to make this work for you. And I was reading a book called the introverts edge by, um, Matthew Stoddard, I believe. And he was among other things, he was a business coach and he used to consult with people on their businesses.
[00:46:30] Rich Brooks: And one of the woman he talks about in the book was a woman, I believe her name was Wendy Wang, and she was teaching Mandarin out in California and business was great. You know, she would just be teaching people how to speak English. Mandarin. Um, and then all of a sudden there was just a lot more competition in the marketplace.
[00:46:46] Rich Brooks: A lot of people were just getting into this. We're charging significantly less than she was doing. Also, there were people now from China who were basically offering these services due to the internet for like, she just couldn't even compete. And she was seeing her profits and her margins Transcribed by https: otter.
[00:46:59] Rich Brooks: ai [00:47:00] A road and she started to worry that she was going to lose her business. She hires Matthew. They sit down together and he goes through all of our clients and he realizes that she's got a couple of, uh, business people who had been recently transferred to China and he asking her about that. And it turns out that not only had she been teaching them Mandarin, but.
[00:47:18] Rich Brooks: With no extra charge. She was also teaching them about business, uh, etiquette when they move to China, like how they should behave, what they should expect, what not to do all this sort of stuff. And she was also working with her spouse and children to acclimate them to their new lives in China. It's very expensive.
[00:47:36] Rich Brooks: As you can imagine for a company to move an employee over to China, that's a huge investment. So to have it not work out is, is very difficult. So he says, well, it sounds like. It's not so much that you're teaching them Chinese as much as you are teaching them how to succeed in China. And from that moment on, he rebranded her as the China success coach.
[00:47:57] Rich Brooks: She stops, you know, taking on regular [00:48:00] clients. And they focused all of our attention on attracting business people who are moving to China. And they actually ended up focusing on the HR people who are handling all these things. So they get a lot more referrals all at once. So, She, she was using frame.
[00:48:15] Rich Brooks: They were reframing repositioning what she was doing. She didn't change anything, but they also worked in the idea of, uh, focus because suddenly they changed from working with everybody to just working with business people who are moving to China. And that changed her business. No longer is she competing on price because she's the woman who's really going to help you or your employees.
[00:48:36] Rich Brooks: Succeed in China. And from then her, her business got right back on track and really exploded. So I think that's an important thing for two reasons. One is you can see that like, she didn't have to do anything new. It was just about repositioning what she was offering. But the other piece is Leveraging more than just one of these lenses and pulling multiple levers to really become that truly remarkable offer that [00:49:00] her ideal customer is willing to pay a premium for because they want all those extra benefits that only she could.
[00:49:06] Dave Polykoff (2): Yeah. And I, what's interesting here too, is I think around the frame concept, it sounds like this is more so messaging in a way too. Cause it's not anything new she's doing as it's again, focus who she's, who, who are her niche is and what she's providing, but then also like how she's Explaining the value of what she does to those people.
[00:49:29] Dave Polykoff (2): It sounds like is kind of part of that because it's like, no, it's not just that I'm going to help you get set up, but no, I'm helping you save money. Because if you don't, if someone that you're sending over to China, it doesn't work out because they're not prepared for it. That's costing you money. So like, it's, there's almost kind of this messaging side of it, I assume as well, to help frame your, your niches and ideal clients mindset towards the actual value you're providing.
[00:49:55] Dave Polykoff (2): Is that how you see it?
[00:49:56] Rich Brooks: Absolutely. Because, you know, thinking about your listeners and the people that you [00:50:00] help with your agency, you know, they could say that, you know, I help real estates make more money. Real estate agents make more money, but if they then reposition this in such a way that it really hits at the pain points, whatever they're offering to talk about how we help them get more, it's something specific, something tangible that maybe they hadn't thought about.
[00:50:19] Rich Brooks: Um, that's where it can really start to take off. So if, if they've helped enough of real estate agents actually start their own agency, start their real estate group, that then could be something that. We've always done it, but now we're talking about how you can scale up or whatever you want to do. So I think you're right.
[00:50:36] Rich Brooks: It is a lot about messaging. It's about understanding. Sometimes it's about changing the way that you do it to attract a different audience. And sometimes it's just about like, I don't think I've really explained to the audience why there's so much value in what we're doing. I was only talking about how I helped you learn a new language, but now I'm talking about how you are going to succeed in China and really grow your career or your business.
[00:50:59] Dave Polykoff (2): [00:51:00] Right. Yeah. And I mean, I would assume that's the difference between maybe a thousand dollar sale and a 10, 000 sale is if you can frame it in a different, in a more, again, going down to like focus and specific in terms of a niche, if you know that niche inside and out, then you know what those. Messaging is typically to them where they're going to pay 10, 000 versus a thousand because you know, okay, this is going to cost you 30, 000.
[00:51:26] Dave Polykoff (2): If you don't, you know, use this service.
[00:51:29] Rich Brooks: And Dave, I would just say like, one of the things that I just don't want people to get too hung up on is if they come up with something that is, they feel is remarkable, like, is it fine? Does it focus? Is it forged? Like it really doesn't matter. Right? Because at the end of the day, these things don't matter.
[00:51:42] Rich Brooks: The most important thing is just use these tools to uncover what's going to help you stand out and become remarkable. At the end of the day, those labels are only important to help you get there. Not important in the end result. So once you've gone through this process, you're going to really start to hone in on what your value [00:52:00] is.
[00:52:00] Rich Brooks: Who you serve, how to best position it. And you're going to be in a much better position than you were before you started this. And what I found is once you have this, it's much easier to market your business, right? Because all of a sudden, you know, like. You know, a little bit more about the customer, you know, a little bit more about the customer journey to your point.
[00:52:16] Rich Brooks: Like, should I be doing real? Should I be doing this? Should I be on this platform? Those things start to fall into place more easily because you know, these are the people I'm trying to reach. These are their pain points. This is what they're looking for. And I'm in a perfect position to serve them. So I'm going to be on LinkedIn and I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that.
[00:52:33] Rich Brooks: And that's how I'm going to succeed
[00:52:35] Dave Polykoff (2): love it. Um, so I want to kind of wrap up with a few, maybe lightning round questions, if you will, um, before we sign off here, um, mainly largely because, you know, you've been in the digital marketing space for, you said, over 27 years Thank you Forever. Um, and, and so you've seen everything from SEO to social media marketing.
[00:52:57] Dave Polykoff (2): Um, you know, now kind of the surgeons of, of [00:53:00] like personal branding and such, and you've really invested, it looks like into your personal brand as well. You're obviously doing podcast interviews. I saw you do some public speaking. Um, and for our audience who is, who are looking to invest their time into Areas of personal branding that they believe are going to be the most fruitful for them.
[00:53:19] Dave Polykoff (2): Um, I'm sure we'd all love to hear kind of what are some of the areas for you personally, not just flight, but like for you personally, where you've invested your time into brand awareness, personal brand awareness, where you felt that there was like the most impact, the highest ROI for your efforts. Yeah,
[00:53:39] Rich Brooks: If I had to choose just one, it would probably be public speaking, which is I know maybe ironic for somebody who's into digital marketing, but the bottom line is like digital marketing these days is so competitive. And I'm not saying you shouldn't do it because obviously we'd be out of business if people stop doing it.
[00:53:54] Rich Brooks: But, um, but when I get up on stage, first of all, it's just my favorite way to share [00:54:00] information because I can see the audience. I can gauge their reactions. I know if I'm talking a little bit above them or a little bit below them, it can be interacting with questions and answers. But for me, it's the most fun, the most rewarding.
[00:54:12] Rich Brooks: But the other thing is generally on stage, you are literally a little bit higher up than the rest of the audience. And outside of maybe being on a multi track, uh, event, everybody in the room is pretty much committed to you at that point. And yes, I've had people stand up and walk out and I just assume it's because it's not the right fit for them and that's totally fine too.
[00:54:32] Rich Brooks: But generally I've got that. Captured audience. And I, when I go out and try and get speaking gigs, I try and go to industry specific ones because usually I'm one of just a few, if not the only digital marketer there. And all of a sudden I become the authority and I can present in such a way. One of my superpowers is basically being able to break down complex digital marketing ideas into concepts, ideas and metaphors that people can understand.
[00:54:57] Rich Brooks: So Cool. I love being on stage [00:55:00] and I've seen the impact it has for my business, uh, in terms of the leads that we generate. And very often, some of our biggest clients that we've ever had have come from public speaking events that I've been part of. And now I'm trying to get more of my team. I've got one guy on my team who was also going out there speaking.
[00:55:16] Rich Brooks: He's doing a great job, but these younger people, and I said, like, A lot of my joy these days comes from really raising up my team, like seeing these young people kind of gain confidence and gain confidence. So I'm trying to work with them to develop their own content so they can go out and present and speak in front of the audience.
[00:55:33] Rich Brooks: It's great because. You can't really understand something until you have to teach it to somebody else. Like everything that was in your mind and muddy suddenly becomes very clear when you have to explain it to somebody else and make a slide deck around it. Um, but again, like I said, no competition, at least when you're on stage, uh, you are a little bit higher up, you become the instant authority in your topic.
[00:55:54] Rich Brooks: And if you have a good hook at the end of your presentation on how they can get in touch with you or follow ups, and we can talk about that [00:56:00] if you like, that to me has been the number one mover of business for, for flight over these years.
[00:56:05] Dave Polykoff (2): I think it's an important note that a lot of like, there's a, there's a quote out there, I forget who says it, but, um, something to the effect of most, most people would rather be, uh, would rather die than give a public speech. So it means that at a funeral, they'd rather be in the casket than the one giving the eulogy.
[00:56:24] Dave Polykoff (2): Um, so for those who are maybe fearful of public speaking, um, I do agree that it sounds like this is. A prime opportunity where you have captured your audience right in front of you. You can't, they can get up and walk out if they want, but you know, on social media, there's pros and cons in the sense of reach is obviously exponential, but you're just one swipe away from losing that person's attention, public speaking, like you have them for that 30, 60 minutes, whatever it is.
[00:56:51] Dave Polykoff (2): And, you know, you get to activate like all the senses at once, right? That you're in, you're in, you're there with them in person. And they [00:57:00] can. There's no editing that can happen to a video or whatever. So the trust is higher. So yeah, I can definitely see that. Um,
[00:57:07] Rich Brooks: just having a hook so they get in touch with you afterwards. You know, that's the other thing. It's just finding some way, whether it's a download slides. I'm giving out free 15 minute consults during the conference. Come find me, whatever it may be, but that's also where I've kind of seen a huge uptick for people who are like, Oh, that was interesting to people who are like, Oh, I want to hire you.
[00:57:25] Rich Brooks: And that's something that all of your listeners can put into action.
[00:57:29] Dave Polykoff (2): for sure. And, and that's why I think it also goes hand in hand with what you're saying in terms of focus and niche and, and knowing what you're specifically good at and then translating that into, you know, a lead magnet as you're, as you, I think you're kind of alluding to is like, okay, I am the. I'm synonymous with X now create a free lead magnet that supports X.
[00:57:52] Dave Polykoff (2): And then that's your main call to action at the end of it. So whether it's me, a book of time with me or download this, this paper, if you're bought in, if I, [00:58:00] if I was able to convince you over that 30 to 60 minutes. Speech that you can trust me when it comes to this concept. Well, then this free lead magnet is, you know, as a no brainer for you to go, to go download.
[00:58:12] Dave Polykoff (2): So,
[00:58:13] Rich Brooks: 1st of many yeses down the road.
[00:58:16] Dave Polykoff (2): yeah, yeah. Fingers crossed. Um, what's marketing strategy or no, oh yeah. What, uh, so besides. Maybe leads to your business. Um, you know, bottom line revenue through your efforts with podcasting and public speaking and everything. What additional benefits have you seen from investing into your personal brand?
[00:58:40] Rich Brooks: Uh, that's a great question. I think also it could be, you could argue that it's help with recruitment for flight. I mean, it's, uh, there have been times that it's been easy to find employees. There have been times when it's been challenging to find employees, but having somebody who's in the head of the business who is That's On TV on our local stations once a month, talking about technology, who [00:59:00] is seen around town doing presentations.
[00:59:02] Rich Brooks: I used to put on tweet ups when those were a thing, you know, so I was the center of that community as well. I think all those things also help make flight a more attractive place to work in as well. So that recruitment, I mean, I know if you're a solopreneur, maybe that's not the first thing on your mind, but if things go well, at some point, you're going to hire somebody.
[00:59:19] Rich Brooks: So that can be another good thing as well. But also it might, even if it's not about attracting employees, it could be attracting partners. And one of the things that really can help you grow your business is finding those right partners either because they're doing something that you really don't want to do, uh, but you share, you know, similar audiences.
[00:59:36] Rich Brooks: So there's a lot of synergy there. You can work together on projects to be able to offer more than you do. That's another big benefit of having a strong personal brand. I
[00:59:45] Dave Polykoff (2): right, rich. This has been incredible. Today, just to kind of recap it all, we learned the Remarkability Formula, which was find, focus, forge, frame, basically find what's special about you, why people want to use specifically your service, [01:00:00] and then niche that down into an audience that is ideal for you, uh, who is your favorite type of client and just pretty much go after that one and then, uh, create this kind of third party.
[01:00:12] Dave Polykoff (2): Um, you know, value, uh, that's separate from your business, but I guess encapsulates your vision, your beliefs that also attracts other people's with that same vision and belief. And then, um, make sure that you are framing your service, uh, and your value in such a way that is. The most valuable to that niche, but also the messaging that you use really hits home and resonates with them.
[01:00:37] Dave Polykoff (2): So you get the most, um, you're able to kind of, uh, charge them the most, uh, because it really does resonate with them in terms of, you know, what was the value they're going to get? Did I miss anything on that?
[01:00:49] Rich Brooks: think you did a great job of recapping it. Thank you,
[01:00:51] Dave Polykoff (2): Right. Yeah, that was, that was chat GPT. My brain just kind of summarizing podcast for us. Um, but great. So I guess last thing though, is if people did want to learn more [01:01:00] about you and flight, new media, where can they go?
[01:01:04] Rich Brooks: well, I'm guessing they like podcasts if they're listening in, so I would recommend check out my podcast. If you like digital marketing, call the agents of change on your favorite podcasting platform. And if you want to connect with me, cause you have any questions about anything we talked about today or digital marketing, I am the rich Brooks on every platform, but I'm especially attentive on LinkedIn and I love connecting with people there.
[01:01:24] Dave Polykoff (2): Awesome. Rich, thanks so much for being on the show today, man.
[01:01:27] Rich Brooks: Absolute pleasure, Dave. Thank you.
