CEO Lounge

Stop Talking About Yourself & Fix Your Marketing Messaging | CEO Lounge EP 11

• Derrick Thompson & Joselyn Flores • Season 1 • Episode 11

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0:00 | 36:02

If your marketing looks good but still isn’t generating sales, your messaging may be the real problem.

In this episode of The CEO Lounge, Derrick Thompson and Joselyn Flores break down why so many businesses struggle to convert followers into paying customers — even after investing in ads, content, branding, and social media marketing.

You’ll learn:
• Why customers stop paying attention to your marketing
• The biggest messaging mistakes small businesses make
• How to simplify your brand message
• Why talking too much about your company hurts conversions
• How to identify your ideal client’s real pain points
• How to create marketing that actually gets customers to buy

Whether you’re a startup founder, entrepreneur, content creator, agency owner, or small business trying to grow, this episode will help you create clearer messaging, stronger branding, and marketing that converts.

The CEO Lounge is hosted by entrepreneur Derrick Thompson and co-host Joselyn Flores, bringing real conversations and practical business advice for startups, entrepreneurs, and growing businesses.

#MarketingStrategy #BrandMessaging #SmallBusinessMarketing #Entrepreneurship #StartupBusiness #DigitalMarketing #BusinessGrowth

Chapter Markers:
0:00 Intro + Why Your Messaging Isn’t Converting
1:03 Who This Episode Is For
3:28 The Biggest Messaging Mistake Businesses Make
9:45 How To Simplify Your Messaging So Customers Understand It
13:15 How To Make Customers Feel Seen + Understood
24:28 How To Discover Your Customer’s Pain Points
27:17 What Happens If You Don’t Fix Your Messaging
33:52 The 3-Step Formula To Messaging That Converts:

Listen To Customers First

SPEAKER_00

Your marketing can almost write itself if you learn how to listen to your customers.

SPEAKER_02

Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. That's where you have to get to know your ideal client, because if not, you're just gonna be talking about yourself.

SPEAKER_02

You don't stop talking about your freaking sickness. You don't make it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

You know, you don't make it. You have to start laying people off. Listen to their questions and listen to their compliments. The way you build trust is by building up a client portfolio of people that you've done a good job for and let them tell your story.

Why Clear Messaging Drives Sales

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to the CEO Lounge. This show is founded by Derek Thompson, a 30-year entrepreneur who has founded and built up multiple ventures from the ground up. And I'm Jocelyn Flores, five years into my own entrepreneurial journey. And today I am here asking Derek how to fix your messaging. Because that may be the reason why nobody's buying from you. So today we're gonna explore this topic on how to get your messaging right. So we're talking a little bit about branding today, but specifically on how to simplify that message. Because let's be honest, some people have great services, great ideas, even a decent following. There's people who have a pretty good amount of followers, but that doesn't mean that they're making any money. Or they've spent a lot of money on marketing, on ads, on content. Nothing is converting. So the question is is it a visibility problem or is it a messaging problem? So today we're gonna talk about technically four things who this is for, the mistake that you're making, how you can fix this mistake, and what will happen if you don't fix this mistake. Yes. So who this is for, this episode is for the person who has followers but no revenue, has a business but no traction, has invested in marketing but sees no return. You feel like you're doing everything, but nothing's working. If you don't know, uh Derek's company, TNT Creative Group, it's a digital marketing company.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, the best.

SPEAKER_00

And so the best.

SPEAKER_02

Amen.

SPEAKER_00

And so, and we both work in marketing. That's right. Uh so I'm sure you've seen people spend money not just within the company, but just in the world and the atmosphere in which you work in. Right. That people spend a lot of money on ads or on content or on video, images, photography, whatever it may be. Right. Have you ever worked directly with somebody or seen somebody around you spent or at least they've been very ready to spend a lot of money in marketing, and you've either had to stop them or correct them or give advice because you've noticed you're about to put a lot of money down, but like I don't your messaging isn't very clear.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. So many times the messaging is not clear. Um, it's just wrong, it has the wrong focus. I've seen that so many times. So won't won't call anybody out today. Not not today, may, maybe next episode. But uh, I can actually use ourselves at as an example. So we were actually in a meeting yesterday, just yesterday. We were working on our next video to promote ourselves.

Followers Without Revenue Warning Signs

SPEAKER_02

And it was more of a collaborate effort. I was getting feedback from some other members on of the team. And we started, you know, throwing ideas of what we can do and whatnot. And we started actually going down that wrong path that is so natural to do when you want to get the word out about your company and what you do. And you know, one of the biggest mistakes that a lot of us make is we focus too much on ourselves. You know, we we are telling people things that we think they want to know because we think we're building credibility, and you want to hear all of this stuff about us, but you want to hear some of that. Yeah. But it can't be all that. And yeah, so I see a lot of people make a lot of mistakes.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. So what are people getting wrong in their messaging? What do you think?

SPEAKER_02

So what what they're doing is again focusing on themselves, where like the example we were doing is we were looking at our video, some of the first uh set of ideas that came out was hey, we've we've been to so many different places because we're we're proud. Uh-huh. You know, we've been to so many different places. We filmed in so many areas, we filmed actually on the runway, you know, at a major airport where you have to have certain clearance. And, you know, we've been on top of buildings and all these types of things. So we have all these amazing stories that we can tell as far as where we've been and where we filmed.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, that's great, but that's more exciting to us. That's something great for an internal video, something that we would love. The client really isn't into that, is into that as much. You know, you want to focus on what is gonna help them with their business. How can you help them with the problems that they have? Yes, those are the things you want to focus on.

SPEAKER_00

So, why do you think brands so often make this mistake of like making themselves the focus of their marketing?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. You do it because because it feels good. You know, it feels good. You wanna you wanna see yourself, you wanna some of it, some of it's conscious, some of it's subconscious. You know, we all you know want to see ourselves in lights and whatnot. And and you know, you I know one time when um I was shown a video as a concept, and you can see the CEO, and he, you know, walks in the dark room and he sits in the chair and he like lifts his head up, and you know, he's just talking about the business and whatnot. And I was like, man, okay, that looks really cool. Yeah, it's directed phenomenally, yeah, but is that what the customer ultimately wants to see? No, not not as much as you you think. So a lot of it is because of that, and it's it's just natural. It's natural to try to, you know, talk about yourself and and you you know build that credibility by showing that you've been in all these different situations when it's really not about that. So it's it's it's a natural.

SPEAKER_00

So it would it be fair to say maybe it's even like a harsh reality or harsh truth to a business owner or to a company like people don't care about your story that much. Yes, they care about their story and the role that you will play in their story, exactly, but they need to be able to envision themselves like what you're gonna do for them.

SPEAKER_02

Exactly. They they care more about making money, they care more about you fixing the problem that they have, you know, the crisis there. That's what they care about. So therefore, those are the things that you want to talk about. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

We we've discussed this in previous episodes too, where it's we're talking about like the quality of your marketing,

Stop Making Your Company The Hero

SPEAKER_00

or even when we were talking about branding and creating the logo and all the stuff, like what was more important, the way that the aesthetics or or the value behind it. Right. Aesthetics are important. People should go on your website or on your pages and see clear images of you, clear images of your team, clear what you've done. Right. But they need to be able to see themselves. They need to be able to see that you're gonna fix a problem for them.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, yes. If if they have an issue with, you know, um a drainage issue or, you know, whatever, whatever the issue is, if they have an issue with delivery time, yeah, if it's something that they need in three days, you know, then that's what they're searching for. They're searching for somebody that can do that project within that period of time. Um, whatever issue they they have had, that's what they're looking for. And oftentimes we don't address that. So like as a result of looking at it through that lens, we learned we were able to reminisce on so many things that we had actually forgotten by looking at it that way. So, yeah, it was very, very interesting.

SPEAKER_00

One call that we had a couple um like weeks ago, and I I remember we were kind of talking about examples of this, even like for something so simple as let's say a web developing company, where it's like instead of going like we develop websites, right? Do you say we do this and like I don't know, we take away the hassle from you trying to like one thing that even in social media management, instead of going like I manage your social media, it's like one of a line that I love to use is like you signed up to be a business owner, not a content creator.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, that's a great thing.

SPEAKER_00

And I love using that line because it's like I'm not just telling you you I'm a social media manager, I'm telling you I can take this burden away from you because you didn't sign up to be a content creator, you signed up to be a business owner.

SPEAKER_02

And you're you're giving them more time back in their day. Yes. You're giving them more time to do the other things that they need.

SPEAKER_00

Show them that.

SPEAKER_02

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00

Instead of talking about yourself. Exactly. And I see too many people talk about themselves.

SPEAKER_02

And that moves the needle. It's like, okay, yeah, I need more time in my day. Okay, how are you gonna do that? You know, showing those things versus, okay, everybody, you know, has been in business for a certain amount of time. Everyone hopefully is an expert. You know, another, another, I won't say pet peeve, but another mistake that a lot of people make is focusing on things that are obvious that you should be doing already. What's a great example of that? That's the whole customer service. Oh, our customer service is second to none. It's great. That's important. Yes. And customer service is lacking in today's day and age, yes. But that cannot be your calling card. That can't be the main thing that you do because okay, what service, you know, how what else are you bringing to the table other than customer service? So it kind of falls in that as well.

SPEAKER_00

So the mistake that you may be making, right, it's number one is that you may be focusing too much on yourself. You are making the company the hero, but the customer should be the hero. Right. So you're making either your business name the hero, or you as the owner the hero, or even you're hyping up your service, but you're only describing what the service is, you're not describing what it does.

SPEAKER_01

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00

And you need to make them the hero. They need to feel like they are talking directly to me. I see myself. So why do businesses struggle to communicate clearly?

Simplify Your Offer To One Focus

SPEAKER_00

Because I think that there is a problem, and you're people are making mistakes with talking too much about themselves, but also they're overcomplicating their messaging. Yeah. And they're not making it easy to just understand for somebody to make a decision.

SPEAKER_02

That's just as critical. And so it has to be crystal clear. One of the reasons why it's not crystal clear is because you're trying to jam too much into the message. You're trying to say that you deliver eight things when you really need to focus on one. That's the that's really the what it comes down to. Because you can't articulate eight amazing services that you offer. So there's a lot of uh examples that I that I can um give you with that. But one in particular is think of search engine optimization with your home page of your website. That's probably the best example. Even though as a company, you may offer five different services, you can only rank high for there's every page focuses on one particular phrase.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And so I I would always get when we used to do search engine search engine optimization, yeah, I would always get a piece of paper from the client. They'd say, okay, these are all the phrases and all the words that we want to be on the first page of Google for for our homepage. And I'm like, okay, we'll pass it back. We'll go ahead and pick one. Yeah. Yes, yes, that that's what all the other pages of your website are for. Yep. Are are for you to then rank for all those these different words. So okay, if you want to rank rank for that phrase, we'll build a page for that, we'll build a page for the other one. Yeah. But each page has to have a focus on its own. So similar to a campaign, right? Yeah, okay. If you have three or four services that you really want to get out there, then you need to have different campaigns or different pieces of collateral of messaging for those to really be impactful. Yes. But you need a specific focus in order for people to get it. Otherwise, if you try to tell them four things, they're gonna come away with nothing. Just like when my wife tells my son, you know, when when she gives him the rapid fire, five instructions, five things to do when he goes upstairs. And by the time he gets up there, he'd not remember any of them. Because it was it was it was too much.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, yeah. Because so even if you offer like three, four services, pick like the main one. And this is, unless if you're gonna do one campaign, if you're gonna do multiple, of course. But like let's say, like if you're struggling with your messaging, you need to really, really simplify it, maybe pick one, the one that you really, really want to like, I don't know, advertise or the one that you really and and get to know that service so well, so well, that you don't only know how to describe it to people, but you know how to tell them what it's gonna do for them. Because I think I see that so much where it's like, oh well, this is the this service is da da da da. And what we do is that, I don't know, I know nothing about plumbing, but I'm gonna use it as an example. Right? Like, but I can just imagine where some if if a plumber is explaining to me, like, well, first we're gonna, we're gonna put the drain, we're gonna pour this in the drain, and then we're gonna take this out, and then we're gonna take apart your like I as somebody who knows nothing about plumbing, I'm like, I don't care about any of that.

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_00

But if he's like, in 10 minutes I can get your ring out of there because you lost your ring in the sink, I'm like, beautiful, that's all I care about. I don't need you to explain to me. You you care about that, right? But like as the consumer, I just want to know you can fix my problem. I don't even I don't care to know how you're gonna do it sometimes, just that you can prove to me that you're gonna do it. Right, yeah. So like just simplify that messaging.

SPEAKER_02

That's it.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, so the mistake you are either comp overcomplicating your message or you're making it way too much about the company or the service itself.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Or you're doing both.

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_00

So then here's how to fix it, how to fix this. So what changes when you stop making yourself the focus of the brand?

SPEAKER_02

Man, it it's like a whole new world opens up. When when you start focusing on the customer and why they hire you in the first place, when you start focusing on the things that they say to you that they like about doing business with you, a whole new world opens up. It's similar to a closet. You know, you think you have a lot of clothes because you go from what I hear what you tell me, shop, shop a lot.

SPEAKER_00

I do.

SPEAKER_02

Um so call me out. That's right. But my point, my point with that is, you know, so if if you were to throw some things away, right? Yeah, you might discover some things that you didn't even realize that they were there. I've even did that, done that before. Like I've I've gone to the side, I was like, man, I really need a red, you know, button-up, you know, a burgundy button-up shirt that goes with this jacket or whatever. And I get home and I see that I already have something very similar to that that I could have avoided. You know, and so because it was just too much, I wasn't looking in the right places, it was just too cluttered and whatnot. And so it just brings clarity. Just like when we were brainstorming the other day about our video and what we were gonna do. Yeah, once we looked at it from a different lens and we started started looking at it from why clients work with us and some of the problems that we've solved before, yeah, then we started remembering projects that we had forgotten. Yeah. Because we were looking at it that way. Like we have a client that called us, you know, and needed something in less than a week, needed this elaborate video, needed to come by our office, needed to film. We had all these different fees that we had to connect to. Like it was it was impossible. And he said to me verbatim when he called, like, this is a job for TNT, because TNT creative group is our company. Yeah. It's like this is a job for TNT. I'd forgotten about that project until we started to think about it through that lens. Yes. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So what should businesses

Stand Out With A Specific Promise

SPEAKER_00

talk about instead? I guess we've already kind of mentioned it, but if we could like, yeah, I don't know, maybe just simplify it for the viewer.

SPEAKER_02

Just give you some examples. So just look at different industries. So um, like one, the uh a client that I use to order all my business cards is a client that delivers them literally in 24 hours. Like, if you order before a certain time, the shipment will be out the very next day. Yes. That's that's their calling card. That's what they promote. That's that that's how I found them because I was in a pinch where I needed cards right away. Yes. That's how I found them. That was it. That's an example. Um, for us, you know, with TNT, something that we get told all the time is man, you know what? I can throw you an idea that I don't even, it's like half baked. I don't even fully have it together. And you somehow are able to compute it and like give me exactly what I want.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02

Um, that those are the types of things that come out with that. So Harold, the gentleman that that edits these videos, shout out to you, Harold. Um, he we we call him Harold GPT.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

We call him that. And that that that's his nickname with the client. Okay. You know, because they're like, oh man, you know, we just know he's somehow gonna give us what we want and we don't even know what we want.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

That's a skill, that's why, that's why clients keep coming back to me.

SPEAKER_00

I love that because I think a question that I've been see hearing a lot lately in just like almost any field, but it's like, how do I stand out in an oversaturated field? How do I stand out in an oversaturated field? Okay, there's there is so many currently, uh, so many web developers, so many uh video uh marketing agencies, there's so many. I mean, we don't even have to just talk about marketing, right? Like hair salons, restaurants, all this stuff. Yes. What separates you? It's one, that thing that you do for them. So it's like what whatever industry you may be in, whether even if it's a hair salon, it's not just, oh, we do hair. Everybody knows that. And that's just you talking about the business. Exactly. That's just you talking about what hairstylists do. It's they do hair. Exactly. But whatever your tagline may be that makes the customer feel like, oh, they're gonna do this for me, right? Like, whether it be something like that, like something very quick. Yes. Uh like uh, you know, not even we make you feel pretty, because like, oh, thank you. Something like we'll get you in and out in 30, 40 minutes.

SPEAKER_02

Which is that's very important because how long are you stuck sometimes at the hair salon and you gotta get the work.

SPEAKER_00

That would immediately grab my attention. But what happens, and we've talked about this in previous episodes too. When you know your ideal client, you know how to reach out to them. Exactly. So, and then you and you know exactly who you want as your client, you know exactly like what they want, exactly, what they need, the words that you can use that they're like, oh, that's for me. Exactly. But that's where you have to get to know your ideal client because if not, you're just gonna be talking about yourself. And people are like, thanks.

SPEAKER_02

We had a we're based out of Raleigh, North Carolina, and we had a client fly us to Montreal, Canada to film a series of interviews. Now, they could have found somebody that was there.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Right. But we were interviewing, you know, very, you know, doctors that had very little time, yes, that were at a big conference. Yes. They could not be there. All we had to do, we needed to put the mic on them, do maybe one sound check, and we need to be out of there. Yes. And we got there like, you know, a day early just to set all this up to make sure we had no issues. Yes. Uh, and they were willing to pay to make sure that. So they went with us because they knew us, they knew we could do it, and they were not willing to risk, you know, working with somebody else that would not have those doctors in and out of there.

SPEAKER_00

So yes, I love that. And and again, that problem solving because that's what people want. They want somebody to come in and solve their problems. So, what is the role of a business in the customer's journey?

Your Role In Their Journey

SPEAKER_02

So it's to, so it depends like if it's B2C or B2B, business to business or business to consumer. So if it's business to consumer, if it's for an individual, enhancing a quality of life. Yes. So I'm at the hairstyline, get me, get, get me in and out so I can get back to other things that I need to do. Yeah. Um, you know, if you're doing something with my home or whatnot, you know, or whatever. Usually B2C services or products are geared towards making your quality of life better. Um, if it's business to business, it's about show me the money, you know. Um help me make more money, give me more time so I can make more money, but you better be impacting my bank account. Yes. Or else you have an expiration date.

SPEAKER_00

Yep. I love that because when also when you understand your place in their life, when you understand, like, so for instance, if it was uh B2C, right, like enhancing this quality of life, when you understand that's your place in their life, it's not so much that it's like they are the customers here to help you make money internally. Yes, that's a whole different conversation. But when you understand you're you're you can only make money if you are understanding your role in their life and you are providing something that is going to enhance their quality of life in whatever area it may be. It is in whatever area it may be, whether, yeah, it's a service or just giving somebody back their time or you know, all that stuff. But when you understand that, you want you can clear up your messaging. But what I'm hearing over and over again is also this like you can you can only clear up your messaging by truly knowing who your ideal client is. Like you absolutely you will not be able to make it as clear as possible if you haven't done that homework first. That's right. So that's um I love to hear that.

SPEAKER_02

What okay, how do you build trust with with a a client or yeah, so to twofold to this, um, you build trust by following through and following up. Okay. So following through meaning you have to come through, you have to deliver whatever it is you're supposed to deliver for them, you have to deliver it. And then make sure you follow up with them. If you do that, then you have an advocate, and that's how you build trust because now you have customers that can tell your story. Yes. And like with our video, we ultimately decided, hey, we're gonna have our customers tell the story of TNT. I hope you don't hear a word from me in that video. I want it to fully be narrated by all the interviews that we're gonna do with our customers. How much more powerful is that if all the voices that you hear are from our customers? Yes. I can sit here and tell you it's great all day long, I'm biased, I have a vested interest. But if somebody else is saying it, It carries way more weight. Yes. So the way you build trust is by building up a client portfolio of people that you've done a good job for and let them tell your story.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. I love that so much because it I mean, it's just it can't get more clear, right? Because even if you're the one sitting there talking about TNT and you're like, we are this, we are that, we are this, all this stuff. People are like, oh my gosh, like cool things. This is your company. Of course, you're gonna say all of these things. But when you see a different customer, you see yourself in those people. Like, what's the first thing you do when you are looking up someplace to go eat or someplace to go shop or a hairdresser or anything like that? You're looking up the reviews because you want to see what other people are saying because you are in their place. You want to see what it could potentially do for you, not so much what the owner has to say about the business. And I just like I see this happen way too much where I feel like we're just we're talking too much about our business and about our service. And it's like people don't care that much. Instead of like, we do this, we offer that. Yeah, you should say, like, here's your problem. I see you, I understand it, and this is what I can do to help you fix that.

SPEAKER_02

That's the whole line out the door. That's why Apple and you know, people have a new release, and you'd have the line all the way out the door, or you see a restaurant and you see a big old line around the corner, you're like, What what what's the first thing you think of when you see a big old line?

SPEAKER_00

Oh, that I mean that it's amazing. The product's gotta be great. I gotta go. Exactly. What's the hype about? Oh, let me like because also human curiosity when you see like a lot of people going towards one thing, you're like, what's in there? What's happening in there? Exactly.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00

Love it, love it, love it. Okay, because at the end of the day, you like the business owner, you're the owner and you're the expert. Yeah, but you gotta show them you you have a plan for them. Yeah, not just I'm the owner and I and I know this, but I have a plan. I can help you get that thing that you're looking for. Yes. So whether it's B2B where it's make more money or B2C where it's like I want my the quality of my life enhanced in this area, they want to see that you can do that for them.

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, so then really quick, we're still on the how to fix it, but we're gonna go a little bit more uh detailed in it. So if we're talking about, okay, defining the problem. Um, so how can somebody really, and I mean, we kind of discussed this in previous episodes, but if you're s sitting here and maybe this is your first one, how can somebody really figure out what it is that their ideal client is struggling with?

Find Pain Points From Real Questions

SPEAKER_02

Look at the questions that they that they ask you. I would say listen to their questions and listen to their compliments.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

And that that will tell you.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

So create a the best thing you can do is create a frequently asked questions list. You can, you know, publish it, but certainly for yourself, that'll give you a lot of answers there. So start start with that for sure. I love it. And then listen to the compliments that that they give you. Yes. And that'll tell you, that that'll tell you as well what you are helping, helping them with.

SPEAKER_00

And then after defining what their struggle is, how can somebody go, okay, now how can I present it to them? And they, I got you.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. Then then you just take that and then you you message it. So for example, the um the outdoor renovation company that I've I've referenced a few times on the show, you know, they I I asked them that very question because I'm like, okay, a lot of people build retaining walls, patios, you know, all these different things. Um, you know, sunrooms and whatnot. You have a lot of competition, especially right now. So I was like, what's some of the main problems that you deal with? What is when you when you arrive, he said, Oh man, well, some of the things are they have a sloped backyard. It's like there's certain challenges that come with that. Yeah. And we help people better than most with that. Uh so I said, okay, let's actually run a campaign, focus on that. Yes. And we had a whole campaign based off of that. And so if if you have that issue and you come across that campaign, you go, oh my gosh, yeah, this is exactly who I need to deal with. You know, if you have an erosion issue or whatever it is. So yeah, just build build a campaign messaging around that problem that you help people solve. And yeah, there's a lot of people that won't have that problem, but you will grow by narrowing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So your marketing can almost write itself if you learn how to listen to your customers.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, yes. Absolutely. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, it can't get more simple than that.

SPEAKER_02

No, no, it can't.

SPEAKER_00

I love that.

SPEAKER_02

We we we complicate it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, we call it. I'm like, we complicate it so much because again, people they don't we especially like a customer, they don't want another like influencer, another celebrity. They want help.

SPEAKER_02

No, exactly.

SPEAKER_00

They want somebody who can help them fix their issue.

SPEAKER_02

Listen.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Beautiful. So now, what is gonna happen if you do not fix this way of marketing?

The Cost Of Unclear Messaging

SPEAKER_00

Okay, so we've identified in the beginning, right, that okay, maybe you're you've spent a lot of money on your marketing, maybe you've spent a lot of money on ads or content, or you've really, I don't know, you've spent a lot of money on on on all of this, and it's uh very like aesthetically pleasing. You've got a lot of followers, whatever your journey may be, you've put a lot of work in. We're not saying that it's like you've sat there and you haven't done anything, you're doing it. You're doing it, but you're very frustrated because you're not seeing any results, right? We're we're we can't like identify every problem with your marketing unless we were to actually sit with the person. But we can say we can probably guess that it's one of the two or both, which is you're not your message is not clear enough, it's not easy to understand, you're overcomplicating it, and you're talking too much about yourself and not enough about them, what their problem is. Right. So what happens if somebody keeps marketing this way?

SPEAKER_02

If you keep marketing this way, then you're gonna continue to spin your wheels, you're gonna continue to spend money, you're gonna uh to waste money, yeah. You're gonna hire more consultants, yeah. You know, um, you're gonna you're gonna buy more books, try to figure out what am I doing, how can I get out of this rut? You know, I'm not seeing the results that I want. But it's very similar to, I'll say, like a golf swing. Um if you aren't set up correctly, right? If you don't have the ball in the right position or you know, your your grip isn't right, if you don't have that, you may think you can go and fix all these other things with your swing. Yeah. And it's not gonna matter. You can fix your back swing, you can fix the down swing, but if you're not set up correctly, it doesn't matter what else you fix, you're still not gonna hit the ball properly. So it's very similar to this. So, you know, if you don't have your messaging correctly, if you don't stop talking about your freaking self, you know, you know, and if you and if you don't and if you don't niche down, yeah, then you're gonna think that it's something else. Yeah, right, and you're gonna put money on all these other issues and try to then fix those, but you haven't fixed the route. So that's what's the was what's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And I'm glad you said if you don't stop talking about your yourself, because even in fields where like you would think their job, like even if you look at influencers, where you would think their job is to just talk about themselves, the reality is that they've gotten this way because they've been able to to create a messaging that makes you feel like you can obtain that. Or you at least like, especially like in the inf in the field of like women influencers, right? A lot of times it's be uh you follow these people because you know that they're gonna show you new trends, uh new clothing items. Like they're still giving something that I know I want to this person. And even though you would think that their job is just to talk about themselves, it's not. If they sat in that camera and just talked about themselves, they would have no followers. What they are doing is that they are also making you feel like one, you have a lot of things that I want, or like two, like somebody who likes to shop a lot. I'm like, oh, save, save, save, shop, shop, shop. But like you're talking to me, you're showing me, like, oh, you know, you're you're not just being so self-focused. You gotta that messaging is so important. What's the long-term cost, do you think? Like, because like, I mean, there are two things could happen. You either just started and you spent a lot of money on marketing, and you're like, I'm getting really frustrated, um, or you've been doing this for a while and you're you keep going on this cycle. Yeah, but we're hoping that this episode helps you. But like to both, what what could really at best?

SPEAKER_02

The long-term cost is more money and more time.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

At best. At best, yeah. And you kind of continue to be in this run, you continue to get by, continue to pay your staff, continue to get by, but you're not progressing at best. At worst, you don't make it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

You know, you don't make it. You have to start laying people off because you're burning all this money into campaigns that's not working, you have to shut down, you know, start something else.

SPEAKER_00

Yep.

SPEAKER_02

You know, that that's the the worst case.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And I'm sorry to say it, but I feel like it's also now like that it's because you probably also did into your homework. And like, because ev over and over again, what I kept hearing is just like, you know, if you really knew your client, if you really knew them, then I'm not saying that you would immediately know the messaging, but like that's just the foundation of it. But if you just came into this, uh, you know, and that's why it's so important if you haven't seen uh the first second night the first 90 days of business, sorry, or the second 90 days of business, we talk about all that homework that really, really needs to be done. And then and that might not alone give you the best messaging because there's so much more added on to that. But without that foundation, oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

You're you're it it's all about need and knowing your client. Like I've we have one example. We have a client. We um there was one that we dealt with in the medical industry, I'll say. And there's a lot going on in the medical industry right now as far as ADA compliance with their websites and whatnot, it just got extended to next year, but there's a lot of mandates to where their sites have to be compliant. And so I know that we were trying to push all these other, you know, services while back of um uh, you know, you know, revamp, redesign, you know, all these other things. And I'm like, oh yeah, you know, time is not right, time is not right. As soon as that compliance stuff came up, it was like, uh, yep, we need you. What does it cost? Okay, fine, no problem. And the numbers were like quadruple of what we were talking about with the other stuff.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

But they didn't even blink at doing this. Why? Because it was a pain point. Yes, it was a need, it was all the audits were coming up. Yes, it was totally different.

SPEAKER_00

And that was the key, it was the pain point, the pain point. So, you know, I mean, we maybe we'll like uh in the editing, we'll replay that little part 10 times where you go, if you don't stop talking about yourself, if you don't stop talking about yourself, just like over and over and over again. Because that's the thing where it's like stop going. We offer this, yeah, uh, we sell this, we do this, everybody does. Everybody does that. You gotta go, hey, you, you have this problem. I know exactly what it is, and this is how I can fix it. But you can only do that if you know your your customer, if you know your ideal client. Like, of course, you should know your business. We would hope that you know your business and you know what you offer and you know what how the service works.

SPEAKER_01

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00

But what they want to know is, do you know me? Can you help me fix this?

SPEAKER_01

Yep.

SPEAKER_00

So if you're because if your message is clear, people will listen. And if people listen, they're gonna understand. And if they understand, they're gonna make a decision, they'll they'll act, they'll buy, or they'll they'll book, whatever it may be. What would you tell somebody who feels like their business is just not working

The Three Step Messaging Reset

SPEAKER_00

right now? Like they're they're everything that I said, if this is for you, they identify, they said, Yep, that's me, that's me, that's me.

SPEAKER_02

Number one, identify your ideal client, understand what their needs truly are.

SPEAKER_01

Yep.

SPEAKER_02

Okay. Um, from there, understand why they do business with you. And then number three is let them tell your story.

SPEAKER_00

One, two, three, I love that. And um, because even when you said the frequently asked questions, and you said and listened to their compliments. Yes. Said, oh, that is so good. Because even from their compliments, you can see what matters to them. Right. What the compliment is what mattered to them.

SPEAKER_02

They're gonna take the time to compliment. And also listen to what they complain about, hopefully not so much about you, but just in general. And then if you are coming on board or you're even um if you're bidding for a project, then you definitely wanna understand what are they paying, what are their pain points. Yes, what are they complaining about? Yep. So if you're in the bidding process, if you're trying to get a project, focus on focus on the pain points so you can make sure that you knock that off.

SPEAKER_00

If you're listening to what they're complaining about, you're identifying their pain points. So if you're gonna know their parent their pain points, you know how to target it or like what to say, hey. And if you're listening to their compliments, yeah, then you know how to describe your service in a way that is gonna relate, not just if it related to them, it could relate to other to other clients as well. I absolutely love that. So like just basically make it simple, make it clear, make it about them, don't make it about you. That's right. Yeah, awesome. This is great. I mean, I feel like I got a lot of this. Yes. So I hope everybody else did too. So this is um how to fix your messaging.

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

This is probably why people are not buying from you. I would suggest you also watch um the first 90 days of business and the second 90 days of business to go along with this one. I think like that trifecta would be would be phenomenal.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I think that would be awesome.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02

All right, we'll see you next time. Thank you very much, CEO Lounge. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you.