When Marketing Gets Loud How Do You Break Through

We share quick updates on how we’re growing a B2B barter community through local media, networking, and The Trading Post Podcast instead of leaning on SEO. Then we get honest about outbound lead gen, why Apollo.io isn’t fitting our small business targets, and why we may need to go back to door knocking and phone calls across a huge Metro Detroit territory.

• Upcoming appearance on Fireside Chat TV and where to watch
• How a networking group connection turns into a live interview
• Plans to repurpose the TV recording as a Barter Thursday chat
• Michigan Renaissance Festival sponsorship and ticket giveaways
• Why email outreach feels ignored and overcrowded now
• Apollo.io limitations for small business B2B prospecting
• The reality of selling barter across a wide region without local reps
  
  

If you want Michigan Renaissance Festival tickets, just get a hold of me—message, email, whatever’s easiest—and ask for some tickets and we’ll go from there. As a thank you, a few dollars a month in support is really appreciated through the “Support the Show” link.

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Transcript

Welcome And What We Cover

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hello and welcome to the Trading Post Podcast, where we unlock the secrets of business-to-business trade, dive into powerful networking strategies, and share my exciting journey of using a podcast to market my business instead of relying on SEO. I'm your host, Trader Stew. Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Trading Post. I am your host, of course, Trader

Fireside Chat TV Appearance Plans

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Stew. And I want to make it a quick one this week because I think what I might be doing is just uploading an episode. I've been asked to be on Fireside Chat TV the tomorrow night, actually, just six o'clock. And I think they do a live recording of it too. But check that out. It's firesidechhatv.com. Or I'm just going on here, cmntv.org is the station. So it's TV18 here in Metro Detroit. It's out of Troy, Michigan. And looks like they're like a public act. There's a public access, is what it is, TV. And I was asked at a what do you call it? A networking group to I met the producer of the show or the host. And so yeah, we're going to talk for about an hour, I guess, on trade and and the video game I'm in, get prepped, and uh, of course, the trading post and how I'm using it to educate folks about barter, business, business barter, and go from there and see what happens. I think it'll be a good time. Um, also gonna be on We Love Detroit. Um the owner and I are on that. That uh airs, I think, this

Renaissance Festival Tickets And Networking

SPEAKER_00 1:45

fall. So at any rate, so anyway, I want to again thanks for the Michigan Renaissance Festival. I do have those tickets for sponsoring the show. They gave me a stack there I can give away. Please get a hold of me. You can message me or you know, however you want to get a hold of me, email doesn't matter, and ask for some tickets and uh we'll go from there. And then I'll try and give away some tickets as well on the CMN TV thing, the fireside chat. I'll mention as well for Runch Michigan Renaissance Festival for being so kind as to mention or to uh have me, you know, sponsor the show. And I can't wait to go to their media night where that was fun last year. It was so hot though. I hope it's not as hot this year for media night. It was blazing hot. And I had my at the time Lincoln was only two, so we didn't stay long because the two-year-old, you know, playground, he was on it, but it's hot. And but they had good food. I did not partake in any of the adult beverages, but they did have that for us as well. And hopefully I can do some more networking this year and talk to other folks who are in the media line that uh are also sponsored by the Michigan Renaissance Festival. I've been there pretty much every year, I think, for the last five or six years. It's fun. If you haven't been, go do that. If you haven't been to a Renaissance festival at all, and you're not anywhere near me and uh Holly, Michigan, find one near you. They're kind of popping up everywhere. Even small towns are doing Renaissance festivals. That's a great way to pay for a turkey leg and a beer and and watch a show at the same time. So, all right, what else can we talk about? I think that's it. I want to leave some time. I just want to give you a heads up about fireside chat TV. I'll be on that. It airs, like I said, live tomorrow night, channel 18. And then I'll be recording given to me next week. And then I want to leave enough air credits for the podcast to go ahead and submit that and make that just Barter Thursday chat and see

Turning A TV Chat Into Podcast

SPEAKER_00 3:48

what it sounds like. I did that once before, worked out pretty well. People seem to have liked it, but not fireside chat, but where I just uploaded something I was asked to be on and went from there. But that's it. Let's see what else. I think that's it for barter and trade news. Not much happening. I did, oh, you know what? You know

Apollo.io Reality Check For Small Business

SPEAKER_00 4:05

what? Let's give you an update. Apollo. I'm using that, Apollo.io. Talked to the developer of our trade site that we use, and basically we were just talking about you know limitations of Apollo. I didn't know this when I bought it, but it's more for big corporations to find big corporations, right? Big B2B, not small businesses. So I'm trying to use it in a way to where it'll find businesses that are you know searching for business or placing ads, but it's not, it's just not, it's very deflating, it's not working the way I thought it was gonna work. I thought I would at least get some phone calls, some visits, some emails. I'm not even getting a whole lot of like unsubscribes, to be honest with you. People are just kind of, I think people just ignore emails these days, unfortunately. And because emailing has become so I hate to say mainstream, but more available to small businesses and at a cost-effective price point for their marketing campaigns, everyone's doing it, and now you're just an allowed bar. Like you're you're trying you're trying to get someone's attention to explain something. And a loud nightclub with the music blaring and the lights flashing, and you know, folks running by bumping you with drinks and all kinds of distractions. It's kind of what it feels like to me. You're just a blip in a radar, and it's really hard to get someone's attention. And I just don't, I unfortunately with this business, I there's it's you you you can't hire or you can't not everyone's a member, right? Not everyone's a member, you can't send out thousands of emails a week because there's only gonna be maybe a couple thousand businesses or even players that could do something like trade, right? So you're trying to find a needle in a haystack with a canon, and it's just I don't know, I think I'm gonna be the last month I'm gonna do it, and just go back to the old school ways of door knocking, phone calls, and you know, networking groups again, which is fine. I

Territory Limits And Going Old School

SPEAKER_00 6:10

don't I like doing networking groups, but it's just my territory is so big. I have to go in Flint, it'd be west side, you know, east side, South Detroit, which is downriver, Toledo. It's just a lot of running around, and it's just not gonna get done because I to go from like you know, I live in central, like northern Detroit, to go up to Flint and then the next day go to Toledo, the next day go over to Brighton, the next day go over to the thumb and on the water to St. Clair Shores. It's just there's just there's just no way. That's so much driving and wear and tear, and yeah, it's just not gonna happen. So I was trying to, like I said, divide myself into seven different reps, and unfortunately, it's just not working out the way I imagined it it would. I'm sure there's something out there for me. I will keep digging, but I'd like to be able to not make folks, you know, in the northern tier jealous that I'm bringing on these people in the Metro Detroit area because I mean I see all the business cards, I do all the networking, and I'm in in the area. So you really gotta have reps where you live to sell where they live, you know. That's just the that's just the nature of the beast. And maybe I'll move up there one day to Flint and be able to head up that territory again. But time will

Quick Wrap Up And Sign Off

SPEAKER_00 7:30

tell. So, anyway, that's long enough. I'll talk to you all again real soon. Be good or be good at it.