Follow The Brand Podcast with Host Grant McGaugh

The Reputation Kings: How Two Utah Entrepreneurs Are Saving Small Businesses From Digital Destruction

• Grant McGaugh CEO 5 STAR BDM • Season 2 • Episode 37

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The battle for your brand's credibility is fought in the digital realm, where reputation can make or break your business overnight. Scott Bradley and DJ Sprague, the self-proclaimed "Reputation Kings" from Utah, dive deep into the often misunderstood world of online reviews, ratings, and reputation management that impacts every business with an internet presence.

These seasoned experts reveal the critical difference between open review platforms (where anyone can post) versus verified platforms that only allow genuine customers to share feedback. This distinction becomes increasingly vital as AI technology advances, potentially flooding the internet with convincingly fake reviews. Their solution? A strategic approach that distributes authentic customer feedback across multiple platforms, creating a consistent positive presence throughout the web.

The conversation takes a surprising turn when they explain how negative reviews, when handled properly, can become your most valuable asset. Scott shares that he personally responds to every one or two-star review as CEO—a practice that signals to potential customers that your business genuinely cares about the customer experience. "One review that you've replied to that's one star with empathy is worth 100 five-star reviews all day long," Scott explains, challenging conventional wisdom about online feedback.

For small businesses without the instant recognition of major brands, reputation management isn't just important—it's everything. Without decades of built brand equity, your online reputation effectively serves as your social proof, the digital equivalent of word-of-mouth recommendations. The Reputation Kings provide a roadmap for businesses of any size to take control of their digital narrative through intentional, systematic processes that reflect their true customer satisfaction.

Ready to transform how customers perceive your brand online? Visit reputationking.com for a free digital and audio copy of their book, and discover how to become the undisputed reputation king in your space.

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Follow The Brand! We hope you enjoyed learning about the latest marketing trends and strategies in Personal Branding, Business and Career Development, Financial Empowerment, Technology Innovation, and Executive Presence. To keep up with the latest insights and updates from us, be sure to follow us at 5starbdm.com. See you next time on Follow The Brand!

Speaker 1:

I want to welcome everybody to the Follow Brand Podcast. This is your host, grant McGaugh. We're going to take it out west a little bit. These guys come from Utah. I'm told they come from Utah. They haven't told me they're from Utah, but I found out doing my own research and looking around. Like these guys are a couple guys from Utah. I love that fact. Now I am in Omaha, nebraska right now. I've been in Miami, florida for a long period of time then in the islands, in St Croix, virgin Islands, but I came back to my hometown in Omaha, nebraska, and I think I'm attracting people from Utah. I think that must be what's what's going on. Utah has a great reputation for having reputation kings, for having reputation kings, I am told. Now I can't verify that fact, so we're going to have Scott and DJ kind of give us a little bit of an overview of themselves and bring some light. Are there reputation kings in Utah? I don't know.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so are there reputation kings? Any brand that owns their online reputation in organic and paid search becomes a reputation king. So if you do a search for ABCcom, for example or is ABCcom legit, or is ABCcom worth it, et cetera which are very common search terms you can look at your own Google Analytics and see just how many people look for those kinds of search terms. Why? Because people want to make sure they're doing business with a reputable brand, and so they're going to look is this company legit, are they worth it? And again, your Google Search Console will tell you how many people are looking for that search term every month. So the way you want to become a reputation king is to own the organic and paid search results for your brand.

Speaker 1:

I like that. Now Scott, does that hold water? Is DJ speaking a truth that you, you adhere to?

Speaker 3:

yeah for sure. Um, that's why we wrote the book reputation king. Um, I don't know if you can see that, but we we've been in the well. Me personally, I've been in the reputation space for 15 years and dj joined about five years ago, but before. The reason why we work together is because when we met, dj had actually started writing a book about online reputation and we just happened to meet together for a lunch meeting and we're like this is crazy. We're like probably two of the only people in the world that are this excited about online reputation and ratings and reviews and we're like we have to work together. There's too much in common here for us to not be able to put our superpowers together and help businesses to really take advantage of their reputation online.

Speaker 1:

This is so important your online reputation. Today I've told my audience over and over again search and social are king.

Speaker 1:

If you cannot be found by someone doing a Google search and getting a good narrative about who you are and what you do. You have a problem. Now you solve even another problem. You might be able to get to, let's say, this five-star BDM or it's the Follow the Brand podcast and it comes up, but then you start seeing all these negative, negative reviews. That's something you guys are experts at. But I'm going to start with this question because I love things around the personal brand, and that starts with leadership, meaning you both have influenced the buying decisions of millions of people. I want to know what did you have to unlearn to lead effectively at that level of scale?

Speaker 1:

Scott you want to start with that one.

Speaker 3:

But I have to unlearn. I had to make a lot of mistakes. I've built over 40 different software products in my career and I guess I had to take out my personal pride to some degree Sometimes. Sometimes you're when you build something as a business owner, you want to and you start to, you know, put your time and resources into it. You, even when warning signs are going off that it's a bad idea, you're still like I'm all in, I'm just going to keep digging this hole until I can't get out of it. So I think I've had to. There's been several times in my career where I've had to eat humble pie, take a loss and just dig myself back out of that hole because the idea just didn't. It wasn't a winner, right. So I don't know if it's unlearning, but it's having the humility and and the the foresight to know when it when an idea isn't worth pursuing. I guess that would be something I've learned.

Speaker 1:

No, no, no, that's something you know. These are important leadership, I would say leadership experiences that we have to have Because, again, you are influencing a lot of buying decisions and on the backside, people want to know why you do what you do. I want to have now DJ give his two cents on that. What do you got to say about that?

Speaker 2:

It's a really provocative question for one Grant, but starting out in my very early days of entrepreneurialism, I was 20 years old, in college broke but I wanted to start a limousine business and I started that business on a handshake and a $20 loan, believe it or not and I learned that price is not the driving factor. I was in a luxury limousine business service and I first thought the learned would be the lowest price. What I had to unlearn is that price doesn't matter. Service matters and what people want is the experience. And if you can deliver a superior service and experience that's memorable, that is going to be spread through word of mouth, then you can charge more, make more, have a lower customer acquisition and a higher customer retention or lifetime value. So I charged more, but I provided a superior service that costs almost nothing. The service quality costs almost nothing, but the experience that the people remembered and talked about was superior and that's what grew my business.

Speaker 1:

I like that. I like exactly what you said there. I mean, you know, we were talking about bringing both on and into the Follow the Brand podcast and you wanted me to take a look at your book and you said you would send it to me. I said, all right, great, send me the book. And it came in this beautiful packaging. I had no idea it was a book actually, and I opened it up and a million-dollar bill jumped out of it. It was golden, it was just beautiful. I was like, oh my God, I'm looking at the book, right, and the book is very, very nice.

Speaker 1:

But this shows me that you are at a premium brand and you've done this before. You know how to get that wow factor in order for somebody that doesn't know you very well when it comes to your credibility or your reputation. Now, we both know that you've built software to scale and in order to do that, you have to have trust. But reputation starts at a human level. I want to ask you this what are the unseen habits that protect your personal credibility, even when no one else is watching? I wasn't watching you guys put this package together and send it to me, but what is, what, would you say your unseen habits are in building your own reputation.

Speaker 2:

Thinking about what other people want empathy, sympathy, putting yourself in their shoes, seeing the world through their lens, through their own life and delivering something that would provide a wow factor. So Scott and I sat down and started to really blueprint this book. It was always well, what if we did this? What if we did that? What if we added this? What if we did this? So, at every step, from the binding, to the paper quality, to the embossing, to the full color images, to the packaging, to the free little things you'd never expect in a book, like a gold million dollar bill and a pair of embossed socks, etc. It was always what can we do to add the extra wow factor? Because that is what gets remembered. As you said, from the beginning you didn't expect anything like this. You knew you were getting a book, but it was a wow experience, correct?

Speaker 1:

Absolutely 100%. Brought it up when we first got to talking backstage and that I was truly appreciative. This was a differentiator, without question, scott, what do you think about that?

Speaker 3:

So, along with what DJ said, I think the more value you can add to a transaction, the better. And one thing that DJ didn't say about his limousine business the way that he added value and he said it didn't cost anything. Well, what he did was he dressed like the old-fashioned limousine drivers, where they wore the full suit with the vest underneath and he had the limousine drivers where they wore the full suit with the vest underneath and he had the limousine cap. He had a red carpet that he would roll out when they got out of the limousine and as soon as they left, he would go and he would freshen everything up. He had crystal glasses and champagne to the nines.

Speaker 3:

Those things didn't cost very much, but the experience blew everyone away and people can do that in their businesses. They just have to think outside the box a little bit. That the extra, the little bit extra that you can, that you add, when you add something of value, costs very little but it has a huge impact and people really miss that. When it comes to e-commerce, there's a lot of things you can do. One of the things that we do in Shopper Approved, which we run a rating and review company, so you know, adding star ratings next to your products is one way that you can really add value and trust. But I the other thing I would say is integrity really matters because if you, you, you have to be the same person outside of your business as you are in your business. You have to make your customers have to know that they can trust your word, and that goes a huge way with building relationships A hundred percent.

Speaker 1:

You guys both nailed that. Now I want to. You know, you talk about the reputation. King man, I want to get a limo ride, you know, from Deezer Sure.

Speaker 2:

So, coincidentally, my limousine company was called Five Star Limousine, of course, and that was way back in 1981, way before I was in the review business. But I knew Five Star meant something and I wanted the brand to live up to that name, that brand. So the brand represented the service. The name represented exactly what they were going to get, represented the service. The name represented exactly what they were going to get.

Speaker 2:

And I always thought constantly what can I do to make sure I deliver a five-star experience every single time? And one other thing I did was I took a Polaroid picture of the clients on the red carpet in front of the limousine and I give that to them at the end of the night. And that was just the extra little thing. And then they would share that with their friends, right? So the end of the night, and that was just the extra little thing, and then they would share that with their friends, right. So again, word of mouth I never had to advertise because I got enough business through referral and word of mouth and it was a great business model.

Speaker 1:

No question, and you lived up to it. How many times have we bought something or got a service and you were underwhelmed? You were just underwhelmed. I'm going to pick on the food industry just a little bit, because I sit there and I watch this commercial on this perfectly made hamburger. It's just perfect, it's just mouth-watering. And then I go to the restaurant and I order the same bad hamburger and I look at it like no, this is not what I was looking for. This looks very plain thrown together just did not have a five-star appeal at all. But I digress. I want to know this because many leaders they talk about reviews, they talk about stars to DJ's point, but you guys, you talk about influence. What's the deeper story behind Reputation Kings Meaning? How did the brand itself earn its lofty crown?

Speaker 3:

Nice. So one thing is you know, I said integrity right You've got to live what you preach. Well, a few years ago, we realized that we didn't have like internally, we did amazing things for our customers, but externally we didn't have the ratings and reviews online that reflected that experience that customers would have. And so we actually started to go and have our customers leave reviews on multiple different review platforms and over time, we became the number one most trusted, highest rated review platform in the world, and it's just a matter of paying attention right, paying attention to what you're doing online, because there are a lot of review platforms there that anyone can go leave a review on, and a lot of times we call these open review platforms, and a lot of times what will happen is when review platforms, and a lot of times what will happen is when somebody is upset, they'll go and leave a review almost like a complaint really on these different open review platforms because they want to get their frustrations out against the company.

Speaker 3:

Well, the problem is, companies have no control over this, and so, over time, these bad reviews start adding up on these third-party sites and and it looked like you're a bad company when in reality, you're a really good company, but you have a few clients that might have had a bad experience, that are complaining, and so and those complaints look really loud. Because when you're upset, what do you do? You go and complain. When you're happy, you don't. You don't do anything. So it's this weird thing that happens online. So you have to overcome that by actively promoting your reputation, getting your customers out there. So all we did was just direct our happy customers like hey, why don't you go leave a review over here? We didn't incentivize them or anything, but what happened is, over time, our reputation normalized at what our true reputation was, and that's how we became the number one, most trusted and highest rated review platform.

Speaker 1:

And I tell you and I read the first couple of chapters in your book and you brought that out and I understood exactly what you're saying about open reviews and then there's verified reviews. But you have a technique and a tactic, and that here's the thing that caught my attention. You have these companies you can't control it or people that are just, you know, putting out negative reviews, but they're incented to collect these reviews, right, and then have them like rank up on google because they say, hey, these guys are, were terrible. But then you're a company, you gotta go like, hey, I gotta get these things off here, so then. So then you contact them and say, well, yeah, we could take them up for a fee. So their incentive to get these negative reviews, how do you pay for them to take them off? You go like, hey, we have a different system that's going to help you. So, dj, am I right in what I'm referring to?

Speaker 2:

You're correct, grant. Yes, so these open review platforms will literally create a business profile for your company, even if you didn't ask for it for the sole purpose of collecting reviews on your brand. And they know statistically that it's going to be the upset customers that do that in droves, unless the happy customers are invited and it's easy to leave a positive review. But because they're not invited, because it's this overview platform, it's not inviting anybody, it's just people that are upset, looking for a place to be heard, they leave a review and then, of course, the brand, like you said, will contact that company and say hey, what can I do here? Well, for thousands of dollars or hundreds of dollars a month, we can help you. It's mafia tactics, right? Your building won't burn down if you buy fire insurance.

Speaker 1:

Exactly.

Speaker 2:

Right. So you know, it's the oldest trick in the book. What we do is we collect reviews from every single customer do is we collect reviews from every single customer. So, upon checkout, they're asked to leave a review for the brand or the store what we call store ratings and then, once they receive the product, they're asked to leave a product review and a video review. Their video reviews go to YouTube, product reviews go to Google, bing, et cetera sort of the seller or store ratings and those are search optimized to show up in your organic and paid search results. They show up in your Google Shopping, your paid ads, your organic search results, et cetera. And what we also do, grant, is we will send a percentage of those reviews to other review platforms like Trustpilot, sitejabber, reseller Ratings, etc. So that, as Scott said, it equalizes your reviews across the web.

Speaker 2:

So now you're going to get reviews on all of the open review platforms and shopper approved and they're going to be mostly positive reviews. Why? Because most people are happy. If they weren't, you wouldn't be in business. You wouldn't exist if most people were not happy. But because most people are happy and you make it easy to leave a review, they will leave a positive review. Why? Because they had a good experience by and large, right. So now you're going to go from a 1.2 to a 4.6, 4.7, etc. But not just on one platform, across multiple platforms. And that's the essence of becoming a reputation king, because we call it the trifecta.

Speaker 2:

When people do a search for isabccom legit, they're going to look at multiple review platforms, not just one.

Speaker 2:

They'll look at two, three, four, because they want to make sure that you're not gaming the system. They want to make sure that you're not gaming the system. They want to make sure that it's across multiple review sites, not just one, because people are inherently what Skeptical, inherently think somehow you're gaming this thing, somehow you're paying somebody to do something, bury negative reviews or boost up the positive reviews. So when they see a 4.3, 4.5, say, for example, average review across multiple platforms, they can say, oh, this is a legitimate company. But if they see a 4.9 on one and a 2.1 on another, what are they going to think? Yeah, something's wrong, right? So the idea is to make sure that you're sending reviews across multiple platforms. Now again, they're not being paid, they're not being manipulated, nothing's being buried, nothing's being artificially enhanced, it's just the natural algorithm of sending positive reviews across the Web and nothing is manipulated, nothing's paid for, nothing's gained, and that is reputation management. That is the essence of becoming a reputation king.

Speaker 1:

Without question. I love that, and I do that toward the end of most of my podcast interviews because in the moment, once you've had the experience, you've had the service, you should be able to give a very realistic review of what you just went through right, and no time like the present because then no other experiences have not gotten in the way. So it becomes very factual, and I love the intentionality of it all. I don't think that's what happens, because if you're intentional about then giving a review, you look back, you see what you've done, you are confident about what you've delivered as a service, so you know it's going to be a five-star review, most likely because you've delivered as a service. So you know it's going to be a five-star review, most likely because you've done the good work right, and if you did drop the ball, they could tell you that right then and there you can correct it. So that's a great tactic. I love the process and the framework that you come together.

Speaker 1:

Now here's the question. I'm sure the audience out there are going to want to know the answer to this. When you think back to, like a client crisis meaning the moment where the brand's reputation was on the brink they're getting all these negative reviews, they're not sure what to do. I want to understand what is your team's first move. And then, what did that teach you about brand resilience over time? We're going to take that over to Scott.

Speaker 3:

Say that one more time.

Speaker 1:

So what I want to understand is like, you've got a client. Currently they come to you, they're in crisis, their reputation's in shambles, right. What is the first thing that you're going to do? And then, what did that teach your team about resilience? Because I'm sure it wasn't overnight that you saw their problem.

Speaker 3:

Right. So usually, when a company comes to us and they they have a reputation problem, it's usually because they're not actively asking the clients for reviews, and that's, I would say, nine out of 10 times. That's the first problem that we have to solve is just ask. We have to make sure that we ask every single one of their customers to leave a review, and if we do that, then what? Like what DJ was saying, most customers are going to be happy and so they're naturally going to leave a positive view. So that's going to solve the problem their reputation problem guaranteed over time, right Once you start actively asking them.

Speaker 3:

Now there is another aspect of reputation online and that is behavioral design, right, psychology the way that people perceive your brand based on how you look, and that often comes down to their website, and there's things that they can change on their website to make it more trustworthy, more credible and ultimately increase sales, right? So a lot of times, we'll notice some of the things that they're doing wrong and we'll give them suggestions on how they can improve those things, and a lot of times, that helps to increase their trust in their overall sales as well.

Speaker 1:

That's interesting, Jeff DJ, you want to jump in on that?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I was going to say that there's other things you can do as well, and one is to respond to those negative reviews, and a lot of times people want to run and hide and pretend they don't exist. But the reality is most people look at negative reviews why. They want to see how bad is bad. Was the product completely just a joke, or did it arrive two days late? Or was the outside packaging damaged but the inside packaging was fine. A lot of times people will leave a terrible review because the product was supposed to arrive on Thursday and it came Friday. That's completely out of the brand's control, but they leave a terrible review. So if you respond to that review and say, well, gee, we're sorry it arrived a day late, but here's 10% off coupon on your next purchase, or what have you, people will see that A the brand is listening, because what they don't want is a brand that is deaf, they're not listening to the consumer. If they're listening, they're responding and they're dealing with that customer complaint, then customers are really confident in that brand. If they ignore those negative reviews, then they lose confidence.

Speaker 2:

Number two is make sure that you're getting reviews on multiple platforms, not just one, as we talked about before. We have a mechanism that allows you to distribute reviews across the web, not just on one platform, because sometimes people have a favorite. They'll go to, let's say, yelp for restaurants, they'll go to Dealer Raider for car dealerships, etc. There's specialty platforms or they just, for whatever reason, like a particular review platform. Make sure you're getting reviews across the web, make sure you're responding to those reviews, positive and negative. And if it's a negative review little inside trick don't mention the product name or the brand name. If it's a positive review, mention the product and the brand name. Little SEO trick, right, but those are nuances that we talked about in the book.

Speaker 2:

There's a lot of nuances to on the book. There's a lot of nuances. But just think about how is the consumer perceiving me online? Am I not listening? Am I listening? Am I responsive? Am I empathetic? We have seen people respond to reviews calling out their customer. You, lane idiot. What are you thinking? I mean, honestly, we've seen these review responses and the brand is calling out the customer. Now who wants to deal with a company that does that to their customers? Because they're upset? You have to have empathy.

Speaker 3:

My favorite one that we ever saw one of the companies replied to their customer. He said Carl, you ignorant tool. That's how the review starts.

Speaker 1:

That's not going to get it done.

Speaker 3:

You know, I mean maybe it does get it done.

Speaker 1:

You don't want them to buy from you again. That's one way of doing it right. But then you said, are the people going to see that? And people are like, ah, you know, obviously this is not somebody, maybe a company I want to do business with, because they think this is the way to respond. Got to be careful about how you the perception is reality. We learned that in sales, one-on-one perception is the reality and you have to manage that perception of who you are and what you do. Now we've got another big elephant in the room. Now you guys are big into e-commerce, the digital reality world. They're big into e-commerce, the digital reality world, and we've seen a lot of shift in shopping, right from physical shopping to digital shopping. Everybody, you know, because it's easier. It's the ease of use, you know, and people like that type of automation that's taking place. Now, with that word automation, how do you balance automation with authenticity now in the world of AI, fake reviews and digital noise?

Speaker 3:

What do you think about that? Yeah, so, like you, like we kind of mentioned earlier, there's two different types of review platforms. There's open review platforms, where anyone can leave a review. There's open review platforms where anyone can leave a review, and then there's verified review platforms, where only actual buyers of a product have the ability to leave a review.

Speaker 3:

I think that open review platforms are going to have a big problem coming up with AI, because AI can sound just like a real person.

Speaker 3:

So the only way you're going to be able to know that a review is real is if somebody actually goes through and makes an actual purchase and then leaves a review afterwards, because you'll know that that's a real person that made that and especially like we have technology so that we know the order number, we know the date it was purchased, what they bought, so we can authenticate that that's a real person that made that purchase.

Speaker 3:

That makes the reviews authentic. So I think that's one way. Another thing that will help consumers as far as AI goes is AI can go through a large number of reviews or content very quickly and it can create sentiment, and you've kind of seen this on Amazon. They're doing it, where if you look at a product and they'll give you like a paragraph kind of highlighting the pros and cons and what customers are saying in general about that thing. I think AI can help make decision making faster and easier and taking social proof and condensing it even more so we can make easier and faster decisions. So I think that's a positive side. But the negative is definitely the risks on the open review platforms for AI to come in and create fake reviews.

Speaker 1:

Damage it. I mean, maybe that damages that whole open review process. I don't know. What do you think, dj? Yeah.

Speaker 2:

I agree with Scott. The other thing you have to be aware of is that there's a lot of review platforms that allow you to automate a response to the review. Well, that's the opposite of authentic and transparent. It runs the risk of sounding very mechanical and, in fact, if you look at these responses, you'll see a pattern. They will rotate about 10 different automated responses and you can see the patterns. Oh, there's that one. Oh, there's that one, there's that one. It's not authentic, it's not humanized and the consumer can see that. It sounds very mechanical.

Speaker 2:

And if you really want to create an impact and you really want to be a reputation leader in your space, write the review response, personalize it. Hey Grant, thank you very much for leaving your 4.2 star review for ABC product. We're glad that you like this attribute of the product and we look forward to doing business with you again. Right, so now that sounds like you know me, you know what I bought, you know my star rating, you're calling me out by name and it sounds authentic and genuine and that's what people want. People want the human connection. You talked about the fact that more and more people are buying online. That's true, but what people miss in the retail environment is the personal connection.

Speaker 2:

So, if you can combine that personal connection with the online experience, then you've got a win-win.

Speaker 3:

And I would even add to that I personally reply to every one or two-star review that we ever get two-star review that we ever get. As the CEO, I go in and I make time to go and reply to that person, make sure that their concern is addressed, because if you take the time, here's the other thing, grant, one-star reviews are actually your most powerful asset that you can have as a business because you can turn them into what we call a net positive and it's all about that empathy and it's about how you reply to that review. But I'm telling you, one review that you've replied to that's one star, is empathy is worth 100 five-star reviews all day long, and businesses don't. They just don't get that. So your one stars are huge opportunities to grow your business and get more sales.

Speaker 1:

That's man. That's a mindset shift, understanding what it is. First of all, looking at your reviews, number one I don't think people do reputation management. They don't. You could put some of these things even just into chat GPT and say, hey, you know, act like a reputation management tool and tell me about what you're seeing out there and give me some real honest feedback. There's no one else looking but you and chat, Right, so you're looking at that Now. You both you support billion dollar brands. We're talking Toyota, the NBA. I want to know, like from that lens and then looking at a lot of my clients, or what we call small brands, is there a principle that you've taken from the big leagues? I think you alluded to some of those things that you can then bring to small brands that are often overlooked but desperately needed.

Speaker 2:

Well, that's for clarity, grant. I did consulting for Toyota and I worked for the NBA. Those are not current clients of Shopper Approved. But yes, we do work for very big name brand household brands in just about every industry you can think of. But for the smaller brand let's bring that home Reputation is even more important than the big brands. Okay, for Toyota, for example, everybody knows Toyota Reliable, great company, good cars, great value. I don't have to do reviews necessarily about Toyota as a brand. I might want to look at the Corolla versus the, you know, se versus XL, right, but I don't have to worry about Toyota as a brand.

Speaker 2:

However, for a small company, your reputation is everything. Why You're not a household name. There's a ton of social proof behind a big household name. There's no social proof behind a small brand. Your social proof is your online reputation. Your social proof is how you show up in organic search results. Your social proof is the number of reviews you have and the average star rating and what people are actually saying about you. So if you don't get that right, you don't have a reputation because you're not a household brand. 're not coca-cola, you're not the nba, you're not toyota, you're not nissan. You are, you know, mom and pop store and your reputation and reviews are everything. Does that ring true?

Speaker 1:

oh, I, uh, it can make or break you if you're not managing it and you don't have the foundation and you're not being intentional. One thing I love about your brand, remember, and I want my honors to really understand this I met dj and scott through a, a mutual uh service. They said, hey, grant, take a look at these two guys, they're doing something very, very special in the world of reputation branding. And they felt that coming out to the show, the final brand, would be a mutual benefit for both of you. I mean, I don't know them that well, I'll take a look. And from that point on, they started to build their credibility with me. They began to then show me exactly what they're doing.

Speaker 1:

Invite me to read it for myself. To your point, don't just take it for face value. Do your research. Here's what I'm talking about. What do you think here? And I tell you, it wasn't just the, the book itself, was the book just beautiful? I have a nice raised lettering. I like that, right, I love the colors, because I told him I'm a pittsburgh steven fan and they got the colors right and um, so you know, I opened it up and I started reading it and it got my attention.

Speaker 1:

It got my attention because this is important, because your reputation could be easily either destroyed, distracted, misaligned, misrepresented by others that do not have your best interest at heart. We just talked about certain companies. They want to hold your reputation, so to speak, for ransom right and they want you for protected, and that works well. For bigger companies. That can kind of like name recognition. Everybody knows what that logo means. But a smaller brand, that could be the end of it. But a smaller brand, that could be the end of it. So if you don't engage persons like DJ Sprague, scott Bradley, especially as you begin to scale, you begin to look okay, we're starting to get known, and then you start to get into a wider audience that really doesn't know you that well. You can manage your reputation by utilizing your services.

Speaker 1:

I think that is a win on so many different levels for small businesses. I want to ask you this let's say one of my small business owners are out there. Like you know what, I hear a grant saying I'm going to go ahead and buy this book or I'm going to go ahead and get this book right. If they read through this, what do you think? And get this book right If they read through this. What do you think and I'm going to ask both of you what do you think? Is that one insight from the book that people just won't see coming? That's just staring them in the face.

Speaker 2:

Well, I'll start with that one. Your reputation happens throughout the buyer journey and if you don't have a good reputation from search to checkout, then you're going to lose sales. And we talked about this before. People start out with organic search results and, sprinkled in there, you're going to have some paid search results as well if you're doing Google Ads et cetera. But if you don't win that, you're not going to get the click to the site. And then, once they go to your homepage, your landing page, and they don't see positive reviews and a positive reputation and all of those things that lead up to trust and credibility, they're not going to go to the category page If they don't see trust and credibility and reviews there. They're not going to go to the product page If they don't see trust and credibility there. Then I could go to the checkout page. So you really have to think about every step in the buyer journey. If you miss one of those steps, you lose people, because they have to see that throughout every touchpoint.

Speaker 2:

It's an integrated strategy. It can't just be in one place, and this is a big mistake most brands make. They have reviews on the product page and nowhere else. They don't work with a Google review partner so that Google's search results don't show reviews. They don't show reviews on their homepage, they don't show reviews on their category pages, they only show them on their product page. But guess what? Oftentimes it's the last page they get to, so most people never get there. You lost them in the journey.

Speaker 2:

So you have to think about every single touch point. You need social proof reviews, ratings in your emails, in your collateral, in your ads, in your display, everywhere you're touching customers. Because that trust and credibility and that social proof that comes from reviews has to shine forth. People have to see it. They have to trust your brand, especially. Again back to your point grant smaller companies, because the smaller companies have to prove themselves. Toyota, nike they don't have to prove themselves. They've already done it through decades of delivering the best products at the best value, of delivering the best products at the best value, but a smaller brand that's all they have.

Speaker 1:

That's hey. I love your answer, spot on. I want to ask Scott this question because it's so important for my audience to truly understand. If they say yep, I heard what he said about Reputation King. I want to understand the business that Scott and DJ run, and how can it help me? If I'm the business and I'm asking you this, what would you say to me, scott?

Speaker 3:

answered that pretty good but honestly, like most, most businesses just miss the idea that of how important their reputation is. I I don't know how else to say it. They not only do they miss it, but they they don't realize how many places they can leverage it there. We've spent 15 years creating partnerships with Google, bing, facebook X, youtube right Like we've tried strategically. We're like how do we get how to collect reviews for clients and get them in as many strategic locations as possible online so that everywhere a customer goes they can see how good their reputation is? I think people really miss that. They don't even think about it because it's just something that doesn't cross their minds. But we've thought about it and that's something that they can leverage right out of the gate to really maximize their brand and their visibility and their reputation online.

Speaker 1:

I think you answered my question. You're going to get them out there. You're going to correct whatever negative reputation is out there. Information is out there. Show them how to get positive reviews. You take them through that whole framework and that process. Yeah, that is wonderful.

Speaker 1:

Those skills, bianca, pr won't do that for you. Just putting out your own content all the time is not won't do that for you. It's probably not your own content all the time. It's not going to do that for you. You've got to have that third party view where you get that credibility and factual reviews that are coming forth from actual clients. I think authenticity sells today because there's so many ways you can manipulate certain things that aren't all today, because there's so many ways you can manipulate certain things and there aren't all that. I think it's important. I want to ask you both we're getting to the end of this podcast and for your review of five-star media, the follow brand podcast. I'm putting my reputation out there on the line. I mean you guys again, you did not know me. You found my information through a third party. Now you've gone through a little bit of the experience of the podcast and what I deliver as value. I'm going to start with DJ. What's your opinion of the Five Star BDM brand?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I love it. I listened to several of your shows in advance. I wanted to understand your format, your audience, your guests. You deliver a lot of value from a broad spectrum of experts and that's really nice to get that insight from so many different walks of life, so many different experiences and types of businesses, from solopreneurs to CEOs of large brands. It's a great listen. It's a great way to get those unscripted, authentic insights into what built their brand, what their leadership style and philosophy is all about, and I'm going to give it five stars, grant.

Speaker 1:

I'll take those five stars. Five star I'll get a limousine ride out of that one. That sounds good. Scott, what are you thinking?

Speaker 3:

So I've got your Facebook profile and you have an about us section on about me section on there and the thing that really stood out to me is you've worked with a lot of really good brands and entrepreneurs and their companies and you said the most important thing that they can do is positioning their, how they position their brand online, and I agree with you 100 percent. Like you said, perception is reality. That's one of my favorite quotes of all time, because what people see is what they believe right and so it's. It's all about positioning. It's all about how you display your brand online and, honestly, grant, we are kindred spirits from two. We're looking at it from two different angles.

Speaker 3:

Maybe right, because the reputation space and you're in that that personal branding and coaching space, but really they combine to make a brand much better. So I applaud you for what you're doing on that side and, honestly, like I can tell just from the questions you ask, the thoughtfulness behind them, the way you think is special. It's unique and I would give you five stars for the way that you think and the questions you ask. They're very thought-provoking. We've been on a lot of podcasts and your questions have been some of the best that we've had.

Speaker 1:

I love it, I love it, I love it. I couldn't ask for a better positive reputation building statement from the reputation Kings out there in Utah. And before I let you guys go, you got to tell them how to get a hold of you and I think you might have a special gift just for my listeners.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. To get our free book, audio and digital version, you can go to reputationkingcom and you can get an immediate download of the digital and audio version that Scott recorded and I must say it sounds really good. You have Grant for $19.95 on the website To learn more about building your own reputation and becoming a reputation king in your space, go to shopperapprovedcom and you can see all the services that we provide to build an authentic, transparent, genuine online reputation.

Speaker 1:

I love it. Scott, you want to end up? Bring us home online reputation.

Speaker 3:

I love it. Scott, you want to end up? Bring us on. Oh wow, DJ is just so good. Every time he talks I'm like, okay, that's. I don't know if I could say it any better than that, but no, it's been an amazing ride, Like for a company to be still growing and thriving after 15 years of business. I mean, I think that's a testament to what we do and to the brand that we've built. We are the real deal. I mean, we've made the Inc 500 several times and you know, and that's all because of hard work and integrity and thinking outside the box, which is something we do really well. We do transform online brands. That's what we do for a living and we're really good at it, and we'd love to talk to you if you have a minute, so reach out.

Speaker 1:

No, I love that. I love that, and there's so many people that truly understand the digital space. Now, if you're not online doing business, you are missing out. I want to tell everybody go look at the NASDAQ, go look at the Dow, go look at what they call the Magnificent Seven. These are digital companies, these are digital storefronts, these are marketplaces that are out there. And then the enablement tools that allow them to work.

Speaker 1:

And if you don't know how to talk to the machine. You must understand this language. I know that Scott does. I know DJ does. This is great. I encourage their audience and well as everyone out there, to continue to follow the brand at 5 Star BDM. That is the number five, that is Star S-T-A-R, that's B for brand, d for development and for masterscom.

Speaker 3:

This has been wonderful, gentlemen, thank you so much for being on the show. You bet Been a pleasure, Grant. Thanks, Grant.

Speaker 1:

You're welcome.