Podcast guest booking tactics and podcast host soliciting. Reposting a past episode.
A blog and Podcast with Brand Communications and Optics Strategist Loren Weisman
Podcast guest booking tactics
These concepts go back and forth between the podcaster and the guest or representative trying to be on a podcast or get their client on a podcast.
According to podcast statistics compiled from PodcastHosting.Org that was derived from My Podcast reviews, Chartable, Nielsen, Edison Research, Midroll, Statista and Ipsos, there are over one million podcasts out there with over 29 million episodes to date as of September 2020.
In turn, you have a lot of podcasters that are chasing guests and a lot of guests that are chasing podcasters. One of the key problems that plagues both sides is that both forget that this is such a large market.
And in those solicitations, they often sound very template like and very impersonal. Add in the issues of ego and arrogance as both guests and hosts will present less than accurate information about their shows or their authority and you run into more issues.
Podcast host soliciting
This is a topic that could be a series, but the main points covered include bringing authenticity to your ask, taking away the impersonal and creating a greater sense of authenticity and coming right to the point and asking what are you doing with your show?
Also exploring the ideas around…
Is your show for authenticity and authority or is it purely for popularity and money? And are you pitching your podcast to guests with authenticity and authority?
You do not need to be on every show and why saying yes to every show might be bad for your messaging and your authority.
Should you pay to be on a show? Should you really even charge?
And the objective truth about your show and your authority over the subjective hype that some create while trying to build their authority and popularity.
“The foundation of your messaging is framed by your words, your story and your actions. Consider making them strong, true, authentic and yours.”
Closing Thoughts
In the end, are you being true to yourself, the show you are trying to get on and the topics that are being discussed?
Or are you only trying to get on another show to self-promote and market yourself?
With so much of that happening so often, hosts are beginning to wise up to the false hype.
Yes, there is great reach in podcasts but it can also do damage as well. Whether as a host or a guest, bring the authenticity of you to the table and table the crazy overly hype, impersonal and spammy approaches that way to many others use.
Brand Messaging Podcast Music Credits 1:
Opening Theme Song
“Fully Licensed Wait What Really Ok Theme Song” by RKVC.
Copyright 2016 eMbloh Music (ASCAP)/ Cienzo Music (BMI).
Administered by Ass Backwards Music (ASCAP)/Bass Ackwards Music (BMI)
RKVC Website
*******
Brand Messaging Podcast Music Credits 2:
Closing Theme Song
“News and Information Podcast Percussion Outro” by Doug Hinrichs.
Copyright 2016 Dig And Be Dug Music (BMI).
Administered by Bass Ackwards Music (BMI).
Doug Hinrichs Website
Messaging Before Marketing Transcription for the Messaging before marketing to create a sound foundation Podcast from Wait What Really OK.
Messaging before marketing transcription
Release date – September 10, 2020 (United States)
🎙️ Tune In:
Listen to this Wait What Really Ok Podcast Episode
Messaging before marketing to create a sound foundation
on
SpotifyApple PodcastsPandoraAmazon MusicYoutube
and other platforms.
Song: Wait What Really Really Ok with your host, Loren Weisman. This is a fully licensed theme song for the show about stuff that makes you say Wait What Really Really Ok.
Loren: Hi, this is Loren Weisman. This is the Wait What Really Really Ok. Podcast, a brand messaging podcast. And today I’m talking about the concept of messaging before marketing.
Messaging before marketing, to create a sound foundation before you go to advertising, before you go to PR and before you go to marketing. I’m going to identify, and it’s not every single marketing agency, but I’m going to identify a very common, very high percentage of marketers that showcase a problem that end up hurting and harming many businesses, entrepreneurs, products, startups and even establishing establish businesses.
And then I’m going to go into a concept and an idea to consider when it comes to your messaging, that it might even be time right now, if you can, to put the brakes on a marketing campaign, to put the brakes on marketing as a whole and make sure that your messaging and the messaging palette for your business, your brand, your product, your service is there, it’s sound, it’s laid out and then the restart, the reset, re-ignition of marketing to work with maybe who you were working with already or finding the people that can market and stay on point, resonating, stay with the foundation of what you’ve created.
So in breaking this down in a couple parts, the first part is the problem. I’m going to run through some things that you might be experiencing or maybe you’ve even been questioning. There are a lot of businesses that find themselves deep into a marketing deal, deep in with a pr, a publicist, an advertising plan, and it just doesn’t feel right to them. And then they continue to move on with it because they get a lot of hearsay and they get a lot of information about, oh, we just need to do this. Oh, it takes time.
Yes, marketing does take time, but is it taking too much time? And is this marketing company person, whoever, making it almost like it’s going to take that much longer, that it’s going to be that much more challenging or at the same time harming your brand, your messaging or what you’ve created in the first place?
Messaging Before Marketing Transcription Continued:
Then I’m going to go into a couple different ideas to keep in mind to put in check, to say, do I have these things in place? And maybe they might be there on the tip of your tongue. Maybe it’s not an entire, you know, revamp.
In some cases it can be, but maybe it’s not an entire revamp. And some of the things that are just so obvious to you, adding that to your messaging, getting away from the assumptions, getting away from the issues of what you think you’re supposed to be doing, according to a lot of these hype, popular professionals that don’t necessarily know what they’re talking about has pushed your authenticity and your authority to the side.
I believe, I hope that in some of these words that they reignite words in your mind that maybe you just put to the side saying, well, I don’t need this. Maybe you do and maybe it’s right there. And then lastly, the sort of checklist, if you will, of some things to hit before you go to marketing.
And then when you go to marketing or you go to a marketing person, whether it’s online, whether it’s physical, a mix of both a publicist that you are in tune and resonating with them and understand what they’re doing with you, not necessarily what they’re doing for you. Because sometimes when you’re unaware, your reputation online can be harmed by the static template, overly hyped, spamming marketers that are doing you more harm than good. So first, let’s identify.
I call them the four A’s.
I’m not big into the whole acronyms and this and that, but here are the four A’s. Are you marketing or is somebody marketing you in authenticity and authority? Or are they marketing in the other two A’s? Assumptions and arrogance.
And many companies, many brands, they’re pushing through to marketing companies in assumptions and in arrogance. And sometimes the intention isn’t even there. The individual is saying, well, this is what we have. This is the best thing in the world. Would you want to hear somebody else say that? Could you say this is the best in front of 10 high level, relatable, comparative, competitive businesses?
It’s not losing your confidence, but it’s removing the arrogance and being as inviting and engaging to those that may be competing with you. Because there’s plenty of room in all these markets as those that you’re trying to capture. It’s hard to make mention of that right now when you’ve got so much negativity around different political campaigns where it’s, I don’t want you to vote for this person because they did this, or, you know, they’re naming out things and sometimes they’re legitimate.
Messaging Before Marketing Transcription Continued:
But it goes so incredibly negative. And even if you’re in politics, maybe it’s time to go more toward that authenticity and not come off with that arrogance still here. When you have the messaging and maybe even differentiating some marketing People say, oh, we do the messaging. What are they doing in the research of the messaging?
That’s where the number one problem I find lays. They want to look for a bio, they want to look for a poster, they want to look for a template. They want to fit you into a box so they can get to the part where they’re pushing you out via online ads, via content, via areas where, in the end, for many of these people, this is where they’re making the bulk of their money.
This creative standpoint for marketing agencies, it costs them too much. They don’t want to spend a lot of time there because they’re not making the revenues that they want. They can make a lot more money in automating a marketing campaign. And again, this is not everyone.
There are some legitimate, authentic, you know, they have integrity, they have morals, but they’re also limited and they’re a rare find. You find a lot of people, you find a lot of organizations. They just want to push and they want to get to that point. So the messaging isn’t that important.
And because it’s not that important, here’s the new tagline. What if that Tagline belongs to 20 other people? Here’s the new pitch that we’re going to do. Oh, we all loved it in this room. Okay. Everybody in the room love to pitch. How about, is that pitch similar to something else? Does it have negative connotations? Does it compare?
Does it compete with another one? Is the timing of that pitch really. Is the wording in that going to resonate? Or is it hitting with something you really don’t want to touch on?
These are some of the psychological, the strategic, and the fundamental foundational aspects that are oftentimes skipped in those marketers that claim, oh, we’ll knock out the bio. And yes, that bio can look good and it can be great and it can be in English and it might have better grammar than I write.
Still, in writing that and keeping in this closed door of marketing, the intention that you have and then aligning the intentions with a marketing agency without looking at the perceptions and all the other elements inside of an audience that’s receiving spam and advertising and marketing every day on everything, without those considerations, in some ways, you’re flying a little blind. Now, here’s some elements, and jot these down.
If, if it’s of any help. Are you identifying, auditing, and reviewing these three sections, these core discovery elements of your brand? And sometimes it may be time to get somebody else to look at. Maybe you’re too close, but you’re identifying the pros, the cons. Are you identifying the aspects and understanding the actions that have been taken to date and the mistakes that you’re not trying to shove under the rug, but recognize and see? What are we doing with these? How are we handling these?
As challenging as it can be from businesses to relationships to anything else, if we ground ourselves in the respect…
All of that comes in a great level of humility that gives information that can help, that can create the right message, that can create the right brand. And it’s not just reviewing for right now, next week, next month, it’s looking across and the next three, the core timeframes. Are you looking where you are in the present? Call it the utopian, the past, the traditional and the plan for the future. The existential.
Is your messaging in what you’re putting out, the shockwave you send out in the moment. Is that being looked at from where you came from and where things are going next? When you’re looking at the trifecta of a timeline, that consideration can be so incredibly helpful to the uniformity of your messaging.
And your messaging will change, it will shift, it will alter, things will move. But when the root and the foundation of the brand and the brand messaging and the core foundation is locked in place, then you move, you switch, you swivel, you change.
Maybe the blueprints are slightly altered for this floor, but your foundation was laid with the consideration that things would change. So it doesn’t send the entire building crumbling down. Now, the operational touch points of your messaging and even this messaging. Remember, messaging is not just the words. It’s not the bio, it’s not the cell.
It’s the messaging inside of the operational aspects of what you have, the protective, the secure aspects, the compliant aspects. Let’s look into the world of cbd. Look into the world of cannabis, thc.
Messaging Before Marketing Transcription Continued:
Look into the world right now of vaccines, different health things, how you can make claims, how things can be mistaken, misunderstood and they can come back to visit you later to create more problems.
One of the roots of foundational messaging in the compliance and the protection and the security is that element of the messaging. From the look to the feel to not only the words that are going out to the public, but the documentation from the non disclosure agreements, the confidentiality agreements.
Your messaging is bigger than marketing and knowing how you’re protected in that protection too, in how you’re protected, it can allow an investor, a sponsor, a partner to feel that much more safe to get involved with you or to gift you something or donate or invest.
That’s the messaging. That’s where it goes in to the security, it goes into the Compliance, it’s not just what you’re putting out there to the world, it’s what you have going on behind closed doors. Is your brand, your brand messaging.
The messaging that you’re putting out, the messaging internally in the company, the, the privacy, the security, the compliance, is that all set in a solid foundation that can be trusted? If it’s not, it’s going to make it, it’s going to make problems for the, the marketing, messaging and everything else that you put out.
People look, look at it from a campaign standpoint, come a circle back around to politics. How much is cleaned up in your foundation and what is prepared for if somebody is going to come at you. And there are many people that are specifically doing that. They’re attacking companies, they’re attacking products, they’re attacking brands.
People say, I don’t need these documents. We’ll deal with that later. Different companies that are sending things themselves that don’t necessarily have the liability and the delivery and return coverage of Amazon, those are spotlighted by people. They want to get a bad package, they want to insert something into it, they want to set up for a lawsuit.
You have people out there that are looking to destroy you. It’s not being overly negative, it’s not a conspiracy theory. There are specifically people out there that are thinking the best way to make money for them is to attack somebody else that can showcase a weakness. And when they identify that weakness, they’re coming after you.
And it’s not saying that you have to be perfectly strong and your foundation has to be completely done. But having that blueprint, that messaging in place before you go to marketing can set you up to be that much more secure, that much more sound and that much more strong.
Messaging Before Marketing Transcription Continued:
Looking over the methodology, the morals, and not just here are our core values. I don’t care. And many people don’t care about your core values. And this is the difference between words and messaging. Is your messaging standing in authenticity, in integrity, in intelligence?
And is that integrity, intelligence, performing across all your internal documents, your external documents, your marketing, your messaging, your advertising, your branding, when it is now you’re harmonizing in a way that’s going to be a lot more challenging to attack and at the same time, in a way that can build trust so much more organically and authentically than going to some spam campaign.
Let’s say, well, we’re going to try this and then we’re going to do this massive ad campaign, we’re just going to push here. And then, well, nothing came from it. We’ll try this differently, I like to see. And this is a very specific example, but it’s amazing to me where people will push a massive online ad and they push it everywhere. They don’t test individual markets.
Why not take that time to say, hey, I’m going to push something out in the Southwest, maybe San Diego, I’m going to do it for a week and then I’m going to try some other campaign and then I’ll do something up in Boston, the Northeast, maybe I’ll do something down in Orlando and then go up to Seattle. These small little tests. And this is a different element that comes with the metrics.
And understand also, though, let’s hit with the metrics right now. Somebody explaining when it’s time to post. Wrong answer. So, yeah, when is the best time to post? There is no best time to post. There is no best ad. Yes, certain things begin to see conversion and results. But then there’s a series of metrics that may not relate to you whatsoever.
For example, if you were to go to a local radio station, a small market, and they sit there and then their references say, well, Kia advertises with us, okay? And let’s say you’re, I don’t know, you make business cards locally. So you’re doing business cards and printing.
And here’s Kia, you have a small mom and pop shop. They are an international brand. You have a very limited amount of marketing money to spend. They’re spending on local radio, national radio, satellite, they’re spending on tv, they’re spending on print. So when they come back and say, oh, they’re great, and we really love our, our engagement with this particular radio station, are you really getting the metrics to make the best decisions for yourself?
And yes, there’ll be people that come back and state, oh, it’s amazing. And these people heard me on the radio. I would rather smaller businesses look to their comparative and their competitives and seeing where that marketing worked and where that messaging worked.
Because oftentimes it’s a lot more about the authenticity and the authority over just slamming and spamming people. This again is why the messaging is so crucial and why inside of marketing campaigns that continue to fail and that continue to cost more, it’s because the messaging was not secure enough to begin to spend and it’s going to take time and it’s going to cost.
Marketing ends up costing. But inside of planning that messaging and having that blueprint, it will cost less. It will take less. It’s still a long game. It’s not a race.
Everyone says you know, it’s a marathon. But getting away from, I call them the myths of opportunity. People see this myth of I’m just going to advertise here, or this person’s going to say this or this one thing, or I’m just going to put all my eggs in one basket.
Messaging Before Marketing Transcription Continued:
That idea. But setting up that foundation basket of your messaging, figuring out from and circling back around the morals, not just the values that you have or stating the values that you have, but getting content out that supports it.
So I don’t, like I said before, I don’t care about your core values. Tell me one of the reasons why you started this business, why you do what you do. And it shouldn’t be that it’s going to take me to get to a website and it’s going to take all this time to find that out or to actually sit down with you.
What if it came to a point where I could find a video and it talks a little and it’s on YouTube and it’s been shared through social media?
Maybe it doesn’t have all the views in the world, but the people that are getting to it and seeing it really get a sense of what your values are, what your morals are, what your approach is, what your methodology is.
Many times in marketing, and it’s interesting to me and it’s, it’s scary at the same time, so many of these certified life coach programs, certified business expert programs, they’re spending 5% of their time on templates that they want you to learn.
And they spend up to Some up to 95% of the time explaining how to market. And in that marketing, they’re sharing fear tactics, spam tactics, ways to dig in, psychological approaches.
Messaging Before Marketing Transcription Continued:
It’s a common place. It’s 5% authority, 95% going after popularity. So in your authority, inside of your authenticity, bring in the messaging and the support systems and the arms and the branches of that messaging that will be so clear for everyone else. It’s not setting up the Facebook page or the Twitter page and say, come like me here.
It’s inside of messaging. After you have the fundamentals, after you’ve covered and you’ve reviewed these elements, you’re looking at the past, the present, the future. You’re looking at the methodology, the morals, the materials, the metrics, what you’re doing, that there’s content to be found. Once someone sees an ad, the biggest execution problem that I see inside of marketing is that it is a singular linear. I’m going to have you see this ad, hear this ad See this image, see whatever, find this search and then it just leads them right to the cell.
It disrespects the audience, it disrespects the engagement inside of your core messaging. And for even his established business to circle back around. Do you have some videos talking about your methodology, about your morals, about why you started this business?
Oh, you know what? Oh, I hate when, and I get this a lot, I hate when people assume this about me or I assume this about my product. Completely understand that where online do you have anything that addresses those perceptions?
Well, I don’t.
I mean when I sit down or I talk to someone, YouTube is free. You see certain things come in, you understand, you address the perceptions. That’s positive, humble messaging that can go to the marketing so that when somebody, when you’re at that time and it’s an ad and it’s testing around with phrases and it’s moving things through different channels, that it’s not just leading someone right back to the cell, but it lets them make some choices.
It’s not well produced videos, it’s not extended podcasts, it’s not long blogs, but beginning to set the foundational blueprint.
Messaging Before Marketing Transcription Continued:
The footprint of your messaging online can then supplement the marketing that comes. So that if someone’s coming through, maybe they’re not ready to buy, maybe they don’t know yet, maybe you still sound like somebody else. But inside of the root of your messaging and the content that you distributed, they have an opportunity to find this out for themselves and find out you are different, you are what you say you are.
And the best part of it inside of messaging, that the perceptions that they begin to have are matching the intentions that you want to put out. For you to go from just your core intention and not consider the perceptions, not consider the over saturation, not consider all of those other aspects and elements that are oftentimes skipped in those marketing stages.
When you respect that audience, that audience will respect, engage and convert with you. And it’s not even necessarily trying to treat an audience inside of your messaging as come buy from me, come hire from me, come do this. But more so to engage in a time when everyone’s selling, to sit back, step back and give them reasons to engage, to learn about you not.
And in the core of the messaging, not that overly dominant, like me, follow me, find me, you know, convert here, leave a review, push, push, push. But shifting the tone to here’s a video on why I started my business.
Here’s something that I do, here’s something that I don’t do one thing I would love to see for more businesses. Here are the type of people I like to work with and here are the type of people I just wouldn’t fit well with. Instead of trying to come off like these, Sir Spamalot, grab everybody 10x your way to the top. Set your standards.
You say you have the morals. Showcase them. You say you have the authenticity. Explain it. You say, oh, once you understand this, I just, I need you to understand me. Teach them, invite them, teach them, engage them authentically.
Move them to be able to make a choice for themselves. If they want to move that much more toward you or learn more, then we go to marketing with that messaging in place. From the taglines to the bios to the understanding of the internal, the external, what you’ll do, what you won’t do. Seeing where some of these phrases have show competition, show too closely compared to something else are oversaturated.
Messaging Before Marketing Transcription Continued:
When you look at the temperature and the tone, the timing of a message, and yes, that part does shift at times. Then you create this palette of sorts. It becomes your messaging palette. It’s this personalized integrity intelligence performance guide. I’m going to say that one more time. A personalized integrity intelligence performance guide.
From discovering the elements of your messaging, of your brand, of looking a little bit deeper than just your intention of looking across a series of different discovery elements, timeframes, operational touch points, how you’re leading with your message, where you might need to shift, where you might need to protect a little more, where you might not want to go, where you might want to go.
Then in connecting with a marketing agency, you’re giving them fuel, a great amount of fuel. This means they can also go to the areas where they want to be the most, but they’ll have the best fuel, they’ll have the best ammunition.
They’ll have the best firepower to move forward and not just throw things at a wall. And again, it’s not every marketing agency that’s doing it, but I stand firm in saying it’s the majority because marketing, to a certain extent, from my experiences, is one of the biggest scams out there as a whole. It’s people that specifically don’t necessarily need to say, okay, well, you’re messaging. We’ll just keep doing this.
Oh, we’ll just keep. We have to keep switching this up. Oh, let’s try this, let’s try that, let’s try that. You’re still going to have to test, you’re still going to have to play. You’re still certain things are going to work great. Other things aren’t.
But with that foundation, that palette, and that initial guide, so that all the changes, all the shifts, all the alterations, all the adjustments still stand on the foundation that is you, your brand, and your messaging, that will allow for marketing and the execution of marketing to work that much better for you. And that’s why I believe messaging comes before marketing.
That’s why, through the Fish Stewarding Group, FSG Messaging and Optics, we believe messaging comes before marketing, because when the messaging is sound, then the marketing can resonate that much farther, that much further, and that much more effectively for you. Wait, What? Really? Okay.
Reviewing authentically Transcription from the Reviewing Authentically over demanding them for popularity
Reviewing Authentically Transcription
Release date – September 6, 2020
🎙️ Tune In:
Listen to this Wait What Really Ok Podcast Episode
Reviewing Authentically over demanding them for popularity
on
SpotifyApple PodcastsPandoraAmazon MusicYoutube
and other platforms.
Reviewing authentically Transcription Chapters
Reviewing authentically Transcription
00:00 – Introduction to Authentic Reviewing
01:15 – Why Authenticity Matters in Reviews
02:06 – Problems with Popularity-Driven Reviews
03:30 – Impact of Fake Reviews on Trust
04:16 – Building Trust with Honest Feedback
05:45 – Avoiding Bias in Review Practices
06:30 – Indirect Messaging via Authentic Reviews
08:40 – Enhancing Reviews with Personal Stories
10:52 – Staying Subjective in Review Content
12:10 – Balancing Criticism and Positivity
13:19 – Creating Engaging Review Narratives
14:50 – Tips for Credible Review Delivery
15:35 – Authenticity Over False Positivity
16:45 – Ethical Standards in Reviewing
17:55 – Long-Term Benefits of Trustworthy Reviews
19:20 – Reviews as a Tool for Connection
20:15 – Strategic Reviewing for Brand Authority
22:40 – Connecting Through Authentic Engagement
24:35 – Closing Thoughts on Review Integrity
Reviewing authentically Transcription Text
Reviewing authentically Transcription
Song: Wait What Really OK with your host, Loren Weisman. This is a fully licensed theme song for the show about stuff that makes you say, Wait What Really OK.
Loren: This is Loren Weisman. This is the brand messaging podcast. Wait, What? Really? Okay. And how many times have you experienced just that obnoxious push? Don’t forget to review. Please review. Some people are asking people to come in and leave reviews before they even ask them to experience their business, their product, their, their show, their coffee, their restaurant, their hotel or whatever else.
It’s overwhelming, it’s inundating. And at the same time, there are many of us, we find ourselves at that fault. We are in that place. We are asking. It’s this. Please review. Please review. There’s a false sense of authenticity in attacking people to try to get popularity from others. It’s also really. It can be perceived, not conceived. It can be perceived as disrespectful as someone is getting a chance to connect with you.
Reviewing authentically Transcription Continued:
If the first thing they’re being told to do is, is to review you. That really doesn’t honor that they just came through that they might want to experience, that they might want to learn. I don’t like it when I see people that are immediately say, okay, I just did this, now review me. If it’s a certain product, I want to use that product for a while. If it’s a certain business, I want to, I want to experience it. I mean, there are certain, there are certain elements when it comes to restaurants, hotels, other sort of right off the bat things, that’s one thing.
But this, this push to just review. And then at the same time, it’s.They’re, they’re the false reviewers. The people that just go out and they five star everything, the greatest, the best ever. Oh, this is just wonderful. And they’re going for this false, almost immoral popularity. What I’m talking about in this episode is reviewing authentically over demanding for popularity in looking at adding to your messaging. And it even ties to your marketing sites like TripAdvisor, Yelp, the Google business sites. And this is reviewing not to market, not to try to steal the. Steal the thunder or redirect someone, but to use the. Use one or all of these sites or other sites to showcase who you are.
What I mean by that is this is indirect messaging to build up your authenticity and your authority in a way that may not even tie to your service or your product, your business, but it’s worth gold in allowing someone to connect with you, even Indirectly, whether they’re going to need you down the line or not. Maybe they follow your restaurant reviews and after a couple restaurants where they feel in line, they dig in a little bit more. They want to learn more about you. Of course, in TripAdvisor, Yelp, Google Business, you make sure that you clearly have your information listed. So it is a soft motion into what you do and not that you’re out there reviewing to try to grab new customers.
Think about reviewing from an authentic standpoint, from an engagement standpoint. And a lot of real estate agents especially you could be doing so much better as opposed to the blast of I am your trusted agent. I know this area better than anyone else. Prove it. Here’s a way where you can prove it. A real estate agent in my neighborhood, I live in an area called Windermere, Florida. I haven’t really experienced, I’ve experienced the real estate agents that are in this area that they’ll go into a place, they’ll add a billion hashtags.
They say it’s the greatest thing in the entire world. And you know, they pop that out once a month. But then going down, I don’t know anything else. Especially inside of real estate and positional, locational, regional people review that restaurant review that park review that service in real estate review the contractors, the independent contractors, the people that fix things, allow for people as they’re learning you not expecting them to trust you, but more so you building trust with them because there’s an ongoing compounding piece of you that shares information about others around you.
Think about it as a different way to engage. It’s indirect engagement and okay, well I just want to lead people to my website. Why not get a whole bunch of people that could be seeing you on sites like TripAdvisor, which is just shy of the top couple hundred or it’s in the top couple hundred of the most visited sites in the entire country. It’s in the top 500 of the world. So the chances of a lot of different people coming across your reviews there’s are a lot more likely than them accidentally stumbling upon your website. The same thing goes with Google. Google’s right up there in the top 10 on both international and national.
Reviewing authentically Transcription Continued:
So reviews that you take ways that you extend and expand yourself, it opens up indirect, vicarious at sometimes and engaging ways for people to learn about you. This allows you to help some of these business. Let’s say you go to a pastry shop or you know, a cafe. I went to a Cafe in Greenville, S.C. Le petit croissant I saw these beautiful croissants. They tasted wonderful. I took a really cool picture. I have one of the iPhones, so I did the little F1. I don’t know what I’m doing. I took a nice shot. And it wasn’t just the I’m going to post this on my page. I’m going to post this on my Instagram. I posted it on Google Business, the Google.
Through the Google Business Reviews. Google Reviews. And I also did it on TripAdvisor on Google reviews. That picture of the couple croissants has been seen I think the better part of 4,000 times. Later that week we went to a barbecue place. We were still in Greenville. There’s one particular picture there and they didn’t really have an outside picture. So I’m thinking, how do I help them and how do I bring at the same time a more authentic, authentic and authoritative awareness? I took a shot out front inside of that, that’s 400,000 views. It’s not the numbers in the count or anything like that. And it’s not even necessarily okay, you popped up a review and now you’re expecting someone to see that review and come to you as a client.
This is a long term play, a long term compound and a long term build of authenticity, of trust and authority. When you begin to get out there and say, even if it’s once a day, once every other day, if that’s all you can do or that’s all you want to do, but get out there and review, take the pictures that aren’t up on these pages, showcase that. Because if people are looking for that, they want to look for the experience and as they begin to see people and like I said before, not those people that just do five star and say everything is the greatest thing in the world, it’s the best thing ever till the next thing that they review is the greatest thing in the world. And the next thing, best thing ever until the next thing comes along and this then comes to the actual review. This is when it dials back to your messaging.
Your messaging for who you are, your product, your business, your service, what you’re providing. If you take this and shortcut this and just begin to say, I love this, I love this, I love this, is the best, is the best, is the best. You’re in one way, boring in another way, it can be immoral. And even if it is the greatest thing you’ve ever had, stay subjective, share that it comes from a subjective place because that’s a place that we need to be in our messaging and in our communication. And if we’re not that in our posting, from being penalized online to aspects of compliance, to aspects of reputation, it ends up being dangerous. So not just this is the best sandwich ever.
What was so great about it? Say it in a way that differentiates you and brings up your offense, your authenticity, your message and your authority. And in the same way that you do those reviews, maybe that can become a voice in how you want to share about what you do in business. So as opposed to the greatest sandwich in the world. I love that the bread was warm. It felt like it just came out of the oven, like it was baked right there. I’m not sure if it was this really. It was the right amount of this. It wasn’t too peppery. It wasn’t that. Give. Give a little bit of eff. It’s not clicking down in five star. Five star or going to these podcasts. I got some guy and he spoke, he’s some podcast guru, I guess, and he emailed me and said, I just gave you a five star review and a great rating on your podcast. I don’t think the guy ever listened to it. And then the close of his email, of course.
So, you know, I’d love it if you’d review mine. How about if you love it if I listen to it? You want to talk about authenticity? Be authentic. You want to review to build your authenticity and your authority. Be authentic. And you can be authentic by being true to what’s going on. Not just everybody said in the hotel it was a great night’s sleep. Was it a quiet room? Was there something about the bed, the bathroom, the lobby, the service, the layout? Something that people may not have heard before.
There’s a… It was a doubletree. I think it’s switched brands. I think it’s still under the Hilton in St. Louis. And it’s this really cool hotel that was the old train station. And everybody talks about. They do this. This light show and this visual show on the ceiling in this. In this bar area. It’s really cool. And inside of seeing that review, many of the reviews, they talked about that, but a lot of people didn’t talk about at the time, you could go down the stairs out the back and there was an area where you could feed these koi fish. And then it was walking distance to a new Hard Rock Cafe. And that was what my review was about. It was looking at a couple of the top reviews and saying, what can I bring that adds something that supplements.
I’m not trying to take it over. I’m not trying to be better than anybody else, but I’m trying to add to something. The show on the ceiling was amazing. I took, yeah, I took pictures of it and that I shared on my personal page for those that might not have been there, but on the TripAdvisor page, on the Google page, on the pictures that were coming up there, many people had already taken pictures of it. So why do I need to add to that? How can I embellish? How can I supplement? How can I compliment with compliments? How can I create content that would engage someone?
Reviewing authentically Transcription Continued:
And that’s not just what we create for our business, but it’s also what we can create for other people. And when people get that sense, when they feel like they’re getting something different as opposed to being saying, I’m completely different, then they look into you from when you say, oh, just, it’s a great cup of coffee. Is there somewhere you can compare it to? Is there somewhere, you know, I mean, I love this coffee in this city and it really reminds me of this. Or I put it on the same level as this, or this is really familiar to here.
Again, strategically taking five minutes out of your day to look at how you can indirectly engage and potentially not just off of one post or two, but time and time and time again, you can build up a beginning level, psychologically of trust of someone authentically beginning to say, hey, I like his or her reviews. I’ve gone to some of the places, I’ve tried some of the products. Maybe you went to Amazon, maybe you listened to a podcast. And in that podcast review, it came off like something where you could tell somebody listen to it. Not this cat that just, wow, he’s really great. He pretty much took the second and third sentence of my bio for the podcast, flipped it around, pop five stars on it, and then signed it with his name and his podcast.
Okay, that’s one way to market. But it’s not authentic. And right now, and it’s, it’s Sunday the 6th of September, I think it’s both ironic and really cool that yesterday in the Kentucky Derby, the horse that won was authentic. And it, it beat out the expected, was something like by the law or, you know, law abiding or something like that. The new law, to me, and maybe this is an overshoot, the new law is authenticity. And not just the word and not just pretending to appear to be, but being authentic to build authority. And sometimes in building authority, it’s not all sales and marketing. It’s not all motivational quotes. Somebody else wrote, maybe it’s what you thought of a croissant or a sandwich or a hotel or a podcast or a new television show. And inside that the next step.
I mentioned it before, stay subjective.
Art, hotels, food. These are subjective things. I have friends that love certain hotels with where they’re laid out and it doesn’t bother them at all with the noise. To me, noise is a factor. When I’m in a room, I want it to be quiet. I don’t like some of those bigger hotels, the, the Hyatt Grand Cypress in, in Orlando. Again, beautiful hotel, beautiful grounds. They got some kind of parrot or bird that they bring out in the lobby or at least they did when I was there three or four years ago and some kids loved it. For me, I found it obnoxious. It’s not, it doesn’t make it a bad hotel. It doesn’t take away from those other things. But for me it’s just, it doesn’t work.
Reviewing authentically Transcription Continued:
So as I posted about the hotel, when I reviewed that hotel, I said, you know, this was a top notch experience from the staff, from the food, from getting around to the conference center to parking to everything else. I’m not a fan of this. I didn’t like the fact that they had a bird in there and I remember laughing at the bar with a couple other people saying, let’s go kill the bird. I know that’s awful to say, but we weren’t going to. But that, that again, it’s not stating this is this. Some people love Dunkin Donuts coffee. Why do you want to offend them? Some people love Starbucks. Why do you want to offend? We’ve come into a place where we’ve shifted the subjective to the objective. We’ve turned it into a fact and that turns people off in our own messaging for our businesses, as it does in review.
Look at the, look at many of these reviews where and I mean it was a South Park (You’re Not Yelping) episode a few years back. They were worried about the I’m a yelper, I’m going to give you a bad review. And they had some kind of power and then, you know, places were shut down. It’s kind of pathetic. You as a reviewer with authenticity, staying subjective, staying true to your voice, what you like, what you don’t like and then state it, my wife doesn’t eat sushi. She’s not going to be a fan of a sushi restaurant. But at the same time she can still respect it and say, hey, if you like this I’ve heard this, or my friends say this or my husband has said that about it. That’s still subjective, that’s still authentic, that’s still engaging. And in that, it becomes an indirect way to compound a lot of reviews to potentially connect you and to bring more awareness to you.
My TripAdvisor account in 2014, I used that and the Google business reviews and Yelp I reviewed while I was on a book tour. And you can even track through. You went to all these different places. It wasn’t, oh, hey man, we’re pulling into Cincinnati tonight, look at us. It was more of a, this is the hotel I experienced. This is what I experienced here in Cincinnati. This was the coffee the next morning. This was the venue. If it was a more known venue. Elements like that, they bring together a story and it’s a story that people can relate to over the stories where all we’re doing is just trying to sell, sell, sell. So really consider building a book, if you will, a story through these other places, both by picture and by review and inside of both of them.
Allow them to be authentic and maybe scroll down a couple reviews and see what other people are saying and where you can add to the conversation and you can bring a new melody and not just be in harmony. Now, last part. It’s not so nice to be too nice. Brought that up before with the real estate agents and the people that are just out there and the podcast guy, you can still stay subjective. You can still stay humble and moral and honorable and authentic. When you share something that you don’t like, don’t give everything five stars or if something was just that bad and you’re not prepared for that to be out there, or you’re not prepared to, you know, get countered on that. Don’t put it up on the other side of it. If you have a bad experience, maybe, and this different from this episode, but maybe instead of going online to bash the people, you go to corporate or you go back to that place or you go to that individual and try to resolve it first.
It’s kind of getting off track into a different subject. But again, you don’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to be five stars across the board. People are going to read into that. They’re going to know it’s not true and it’s not going to help with your authenticity. It’s not going to help with your authority. So, you know, to, to not be Mary Poppins everywhere and, you know, adding in some thoughts, adding in when it wasn’t the greatest. That can be good. The other thing too is as you build this up, you think, oh, wow, I’ve been all these places back review doesn’t have to be from here forward.
Reviewing authentically Transcription Continued:
If there’s certain places that you remember, if there are pictures you took of food that maybe you put on Instagram and it only got, you know, your, your 50 or 60 or 100 likes and it didn’t really go anywhere, maybe using that photo on the Google reviews or on the TripAdvisor reviews, maybe that becomes 50 or 60,000. Maybe that becomes a photo that they move up and it showcases for them. And then at the same time, your name’s in there, your brand’s in there. And as people scroll down and see that from the pictures you take to what you share, to how you share it, then they want to learn more about you.
Yes, it’s not the Tony Robbins, Gary Vee, you know, super aggressive forward in the moment right now, but it’s a beautiful, true, moral and authentic way to bring an indirect audience to become aware of you that invites them to crossover to find out where the rest of or the bulk of people out there are just screaming to be, you know, come to me, come to me, come to me, Review me, review me, review me. And when people see from that other end that you’re reviewing others, that’s inviting, that’s different. And now you’re, now you’re at a point where it’s as opposed to being the person, oh, I, you know, don’t forget to review me. Add a review here. Add a, like, add this maybe in the middle of your marketing on your business pages, you’re stating this week is a review of this, and not just my review, but if you’re in this area and looking for something like this, here’s the review I did link it there or add it in Facebook or, you know, put a link to, to TripAdvisor inside of your Twitter.
Take this authentic journey when it comes to reviews. You’ll build something. You’ll build something that has an element of authenticity, that can build an element of trust with some to stay engaged with you. And maybe some of these people, even if they don’t need you, your product, your business or your service, when they look through and find out what you are. And then somebody, they come, they come across, you become a true referral because these people are connected and engaged with what you review, with what you like, with what you don’t like.
Reviewing authentically Transcription Continued:
And then they hear somebody stating something that resonates with one of Those reviews, they’re going to think of you, they’re not going to think of you as a whole if all they know is that person completely marketing them all the time that has something they don’t, you know, they don’t need. Think about this as organic. I’m going to say the word again. Authentic. It’s a trust and it’s a translation. It can be a psychological translation from what you see and how you see things to how this may operate inside of your business, inside of your product, inside of your services. And for those regional people, those real estate agents, this is, this is an area to put some focus into. Because as opposed to just telling people you know an area, show what you know about it, as opposed to telling people, I’ve got information on all this stuff and you just go here and I’ll send you this pack and I’ll send you that.
Allow them to see your footprint, your digital footprint, your reviewed footprint of the authentic words and the messaging in you showing up in all these places. So, yes, this isn’t immediate, front side aggressive or assertive marketing, but add this as an embellishment because it can get a great deal of eyes on you, on your words, on the pictures that you post, on the sense of your authenticity. And from there it may just capture a whole bunch of people that come to you and come through these reviews to what you do, what you sell, what you’re about, how you serve in a way that you would have never had in any other marketing campaign.
Yes, it’s not the sexiest approach or the most high profile approach, or the most amazing, immediate approach, but this sets a soil and plants, a whole bunch of seeds that can grow and flourish and thrive for you for a long time to come. And inside of all that cacophony of reviews and all that harmony of people saying the exact same things, putting up the same stars, just jumping out there, you may be able to in this, build a melody of authority, to allow a series of different people you never would have reached otherwise, to have a look, to have a listen, to have a read, and then potentially have a conversion or emotion towards you, what you do and how you do it.
I’ll close with this.
Many people are finding that they’re connecting to stories, they’re connecting to experiences, they’re connecting to content that whether they’ve been a fan of yours or used your business for years or they just met you, or they’re hearing about you in passing, that they feel a greater connection from gaining something and in that gaining where it doesn’t feel like whenever they connect, it’s only a sell, it’s only an ask, it’s only a demand. It puts their walls down. It makes them feel more comfortable in listening and open to hearing more.
And that’s where communication and messaging is going right now, to make people, and not even make, but ask people to take a chance to be a little bit more comfortable, to take down the wall, to not feel attacked, to not feel told, to not feel demanded. And in that place they get to choose and they get to feel the sense of wanting to engage that much more. And the more you put out, the more they feel safer about that. Allow people to feel safe, not attacked. Allow people to feel a sense of love and not fear and not pressure and not hate and not force.
Allow people to have their own opinions. And what a great place inside of reviews to be able to state something authentically, humbly, in your opinion, but open to hearing others in a time when a lot of people are not able to hear other opinions. And in that culmination and that compounding of that, it may build that trust so that they want your opinion or they want your product or they want your service because of it.
This is Loren Weisman. This was. Wait, what? Really? Okay, stay authentic, my friends. Wait, What Really? Ok.
Reviewing authentically Transcription
Headshot of Brand Communications and Optics Strategist Loren Weisman.
First Discovery Steps Podcast Transcription Chapters
First Discovery Steps Podcast Transcription Chapters:
0:00 Introduction to Client Onboarding Discovery
0:35 Working with Loren Weisman: Process Overview
1:46 Authenticity in Client Relationships
3:05 Avoiding “Boxed In” Client Approaches
3:50 Honesty and Integrity in Messaging
5:15 Why You Shouldn’t Chase Trends
6:50 Setting Boundaries in Client Onboarding
8:31 Final Thoughts and Key Takeaways
Song: Wait What Really Ok, Ok. With your host, Loren Weisman. This is a fully licensed theme song for the show about stuff that makes you say, Wait What Really Ok, Ok.
Loren:This is a mix of a podcast as well as an overview of how I do initial onboarding or starting of a discovery when it comes to working with me. And at the same time, if you’re not working with me or you’re working with someone that does messaging and optics or strategy or even for that matter, marketing, some of the things that I do, you may want to look to ask those people that you’re working with to do as well.
All too often, those that are looking to rebuild their messaging set, their branding, they’re oftentimes setting you into a template. It’s something that pre exists. It’s something to really just take, you know, as they claim, we think, out of the box, except they’re using all the same inbox terms. Something that’s very important in the initial onboarding time with me is to learn a little bit more so that the words really can reflect the individual. I feel we’ve come to a time where, and I’m sure you’ve seen the emails, it’s appear as an expert, appear as an expert, be seen as an expert.
But here’s the problem. Morally, ethically, faithfully, what if you aren’t an expert? What if they aren’t an expert? Many of these people are setting up words, framing phrases and optics to appear as something that they’re not. So if you truly have that expertise, if you genuinely have that authority, if you have real experience, to work your messaging, to work your brand foundation, to work the foundation of everything you’ll do from any kind of content to social, to press releases, to what you put on the web, to take that time to ensure it has your voice and not a voice is key.
A lot of people choose to jump away from their voice because they might not have enough to be a voice yet. So they use a lot of these tactics. I ran across someone a couple days ago. This guy had great authority, great knowledge, great background, excellent. And yet everything that he was putting out on social stuff, on his call to actions, on his, you know, the masterclass, I kind of disagreed with that thing. Masterclass thing.
He was using hype and messaging tactics of someone that had no authority. And in turn, it took down his true authority. He used hype, he used processing, he used this, you know, false involvement. And in that. And inside of those words, it took away from him.
First Discovery Steps Transcription Continued:
He didn’t need to do that. Whoever he was working with that put him into a box and took out all the elements that made him special. And in turn, he just sounded like someone else. And he sounded like someone that, for that matter, was kind of lying.
In that same case, many of these marketers are stating, this is what you say, this is how you say it. You need to do this, you need to do that. You’ve got to do this to be seen. And in many cases, when some of these tactics that they’re using are for people that don’t have the ability, the authority, or the expertise. So if you are true to heart in your word, if you are true to heart in your honor, in your morals, then it’s crucial to find your voice.
Not the voice, not a voice, but your voice, and work through the tactics and the honesty and honor and even humility. You can show off and highlight your authority without an arrogance, without making false claims, without making claims that are going to shut you down and push you out.
Think along the lines of where you come from, where you are going, what you’ve done in the past, not even necessarily trying to hide things that may be different from the given career that you’re in, because some of your expertise could have evolved, evolved from another area of expertise and that combination and that truth and that for someone to be able to vet you, would you be open inside of your messaging, inside of what you’re putting out there for your biggest hero, to see it, for the person that’s looking up to you, to see it, for a son or a daughter or a family member, or do you have certain stuff and do you find yourself switching?
First Discovery Steps Transcription Continued
But you know, depending on the audience, if you have the authority, there is a stability, and there can be that stability that can make a greater foundation for your voice for what you share. Don’t jump on the latest trending thing. I have a friend that’s a chiropractor I work with. One of the things I’ve had him stay away from is the fart joke.
I mean, it’s a fart joke. It started going a couple months ago, and it was somebody that was bending somebody and they’re. Do you hear the crack? And then all of a sudden you hear fart. And the chiropractor says, oh, that’s natural. Don’t worry about it. And then the person on the table being cracked is not embarrassed because they say, well, that was you. So that was funny the first thousand times when all of these chiropractors jumped on it. This trending copycat vibe doesn’t Bring any kind of authenticity. Okay, great. There’s a funny joke.
Okay, well, maybe my audience hasn’t seen that. Well, maybe it might honor you a little bit more to share the root content, but at the same time coming back to you to find the content that is about you, to find the message of how you deliver, that’s about you to find the right people to work with you.
Stop thinking along the lines of you need to cast the net to get absolutely everybody, because that isn’t necessarily true if you are casting the net to decide the people that you most want to work with, that you most want to sell to, and even talking about the people that, hey, you know what? This product isn’t for you. I’m not for many people.
If you don’t have that authority, if you don’t have that honor, if you aren’t prepared to be completely transparent, I’m not judging you, but I won’t work with you. I have my boundaries. And inside of setting your boundaries inside, in this initial onboarding, of knowing what you will do, what you won’t do, who you work with, who you won’t work with, what’s been done before, looking at the subjective to the objective, looking at the compliance, looking at what you’re allowed to do in a given field, especially if you fall into medical or law or other areas, to look at the complacency in a given field, to look at the competition, not to copy it, not to one up, it’s not to hype it, but to find your voice.
First Discovery Steps Transcription Continued
The cornerstone, the core cornerstone or the cornerstone of what I look for inside of onboarding is a discovery to learn an array of the individual, what they’ve learned, how they execute, how they work, all these elements that I’m talking about.
And then inside of that, building a genuine, authenticity, individualized message and messaging packet that then can be used for content, can be used for web, it can be used for bio branding, the outline of a book, setting up plans, if there’s going to be a podcast, if there isn’t, and making sure that it’s an individual journey and an individual map forward, it can align and have similarities to other things. But if you’re out there not being true to you and having to lie, deceive, copy, cheat and steal, and if that works for you, I mean, by all means do your thing.
But I know that there are a lot of people out there that genuinely want to create, connect, sell and do business from the heart and from a solid foundation. And if you do, then make it, you make it true, make it transparent and don’t buy into so much of the hype of so many people not telling the full story or claiming they have all the secrets or all the answers or exactly what you need to do to appear as something you’re not or on that same token to to hear use this to appear as an expert when you already are an expert and as opposed to using that you can build a foundation to showcase, amplify and illuminate the expert you have.
Be true to you, be true to your experience what you do, how you’ve done it, what you want to do and you may just connect then with a greater more sound individualized message that will reach the type of people you want to work with and impact them in a way where they may hear just their their ears opening a little bit more their eyes opening a little bit more to see the difference that the truth makes over the constant fails that hype marketing basically lies about.
Chapters:
00:00 – Coaching Industry Overview
01:41 – Challenges in Coaching Practices
03:15 – Coaching Accountability & Ethics
04:48 – Red Flags in Coaching Services
06:01 – Marketing vs Authentic Coaching
07:35 – Importance of Coach Credentials
09:54 – How to Choose the Right Coach
11:22 – Questions to Ask Potential Coaches
13:05 – Understanding Coaching Costs
14:19 – Agreements & NDAs in Coaching
16:30 – Building Trust with Your Coach
18:02 – Final Thoughts on Coaching With Accountability
19:10 – Resources for Finding Honorable Coaches
20:15 – Closing Remarks & Call to Action
Song: Wait What Really Really OK with your host Loren Weisman. This is a fully licensed theme song for the show about stuff that makes you say Wait What Really Really OK.
Loren: This is Loren Weisman. This is the Wait What Really Really OK Brand messaging podcast. And today I’m diving into the idea of coaching with accountability and finding honorable coaches in the world of coaching.
It continues to increase and since we’ve gone through this whole Covid thing, people that said, well, I don’t have a job, I can sign up and go through a certification course and now I’m a coach.
Now there are some great coaches out there. There are people with the authenticity, the validity, the ability to help you. But this field has become over saturated with people that don’t know what they’re doing. They figured out a way to promote themselves as a coach.
They know how to use all the right quotes, they know how to use all the right words, they know how to use all the right guarantees and promises. And this has come from some other coaches that have looked to low hanging fruit individuals of stating, okay, all you need to do is market this way. Buy my product and you’ll immediately become a coach.
Do you think from a transparency standpoint you would feel really good about hiring a coach to help you with your dream, your vision or your business if you knew that they went through a 30 day or a 40 hour course and were handed a series of templates and explained.
This is how you talk to someone inside of some of these subscription download. You buy these courses, they even explain how you can blame your client for what they didn’t do to clear you of liability.
That to me is unethical. Unethical, it’s immoral and it’s just off. But it also brings up the problem. Each of us out there looking for help from strategists, consultants, coaches, whoever, it is our responsibility to do the due diligence, to do the double checking, to look a little bit deeper than the hype and the promotion that’s out there.
And don’t get me wrong, some of these authentic, authoritative coaches, they do do that hype. But oftentimes and most times they have the validity, the authority and the authenticity to back it up. So I’m going to hit on the idea of the problem with coaches.
I’m going to hit on from the idea of the problem from a client standpoint and kind of mix this together because this is as much for the valid, authentic, authoritative coaches as it is for those that are searching for them. This isn’t an entire bashing of coaches.
There are some good coaches out there. However, the biggest problem I have, and diving right in, the biggest problem I have is, and even for the ones that have been successful, they claim a level of success and then they have immediately transferred that success into them knowing how to coach.
I know many people that don’t know how to teach, that don’t know how to coach, that are incredible experts and authorities in their field. But that transition, to be able to share, to be able to teach, to be able to steward, it isn’t there. That’s not a bad thing.
But you’ll see with some of these coaches, there’s this thing of, okay, money has gone shy because of Corona, because of whatever else. And so now I’m going to coach and now I’m going to sit here and explain, look, I did this, I made this, I created this, and I can now help you do it too, which oftentimes just is not true, it’s not a fact. And it can put you into a problem situation where, yes, this person was successful and yes, what they did worked for them, but it might not necessarily work for you.
I tie it back and I circle it back around to the music industry. There’s certain individuals inside of the music industry that I would just rather see them state, this was my experience, this is what happened and this is how it happened. Or at least even from a more humble standpoint, this is what I saw going on around me and this is what I understood was happening.
Coaching with accountability transcription Continued:
Because a lot of times these people, I don’t know yet, you have these people that were in bands, you have these people stating, okay, this is how you do it. And they didn’t even know the money that was behind them. The other aspects of marketing, the music business plan, what the label was doing again, and not trying to knock Dave Grohl, I think the guy’s amazing. I think he’s an incredible talent. I think he’s an amazing musician, songwriter, drummer, and just an all around cool dude at the same time.
I’d love it if he would stop explaining how the music business works, maybe currently how it works and how it works for someone that was not completely fully in on what brought his first band to the success that it reached. One view standpoint of what we were doing this, and then we did this and this happened. There was a lot of strategy, there was a lot of money behind it. It’s the same thing with David Byrne from Talking Heads when he goes out and explains, this is how you do Twitter.
I’m sorry, David. Before Twitter was even alive. You were a celebrity, you were a musician, you were able to pop on and automatically makes certain things happen. So in your experiences, that’s great that it’s worked that well for you. But for the person that hasn’t been around music that long, that hasn’t had that range of success, that popularity, that celebrity, it’s a different path.
And that brings it back to coaching. Looking into the coaching and looking for these core points, are you getting a quarter truth, half truth or expired truths? Are they putting out things where their entire coaching platform is showcasing the authority and authenticity of other people, but not them?
There are certain coaching platforms where they explain, put up a picture of yourself, make sure you have money, stand in front of a nice car, even if it’s not yours. Then in between those, put up the Zig Ziglar quote, put up the Tony Robbins quote, put up the Gary Vee quote, mix these together.
They’re playing to a certain extent, certain mind games to play off the authority of other people and then take it to you. That’s dangerous and it works. A lot of people benefit from it, but it can be a harmful thing.
It can be just. I really would love to see more people go the moral route to take responsibility for whatever business that they’re growing to steward the wealth. You want money coming in, that’s great. And you want to get a whole bunch of clients, that’s great. But are you serving those clients or are you just cherry picking out there and trying to get the next doll and hustle, as they say?
I really, I can’t stand that term. You gotta hustle more. And that’s where it comes to the blaming the next part. You didn’t hustle hard enough. You. Well, this didn’t work. I tried this. Well, you didn’t do it right. Well, I did it exactly the way that you told me to, but it didn’t work. Well, you didn’t want it hard enough or you didn’t try hard enough, or look at all these other people that did this or I did this.
Here comes in the accountability to ask a coach to clearly define the parameters of what they’re going to do. It’s not saying that a coach has to write down, you know, you will be successful if you do that. And when they put that kind of thing out there, that’s a very dangerous claim to make.
I wish on the standpoint of coaches, consultants and strategists that they were held as accountable as doctors. And wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing? Because a Lot of them would have to shut their mouths really quickly or change the tone, the messaging and the text of what they’re sharing. Now in that is a coach that you’re getting involved with.
Have they offered you a non disclosure agreement or have they asked if you want one? Do you have something that’s proprietary? Because if you’re talking to a business coach or a success coach and they get wind of all that you’re about, what is stopping them legally from taking that anywhere else? Now, an NDA is, it’s a step. It’s not complete security, but at least it’s a step. And on that same level, what are you going through? Is there an out clause?
Do you have a consulting services agreement or a strategic services agreement with any kind of consultant that you work with? That’s why I really like and what I do with people is I usually say, let’s do one, two, maybe three sessions. These are what the sessions cost. You’ll get a sense of me and you’ll get a sense of FSG. And from there you can make a decision and from there we can create an agreement, a statement of work, a sense of how I work, a sense of what I expect from you.
There is the ability that, yes, of course, the person that’s being coached, they might not do it, they might not get it done, they might not follow through, they might not complete the work that they should be completing.
But at least if you have it on paper and you showcase what the expectations are, what the responsibilities are from both sides, you’re coming into a better relationship, you’re coming into a better agreement, you’re coming into a better understanding that in turn can create better results. It’s looking into that and asking, okay,
What happens if this thing’s really going downhill?Where is the commitment?Where can this contract be broken?If X number of payments are required, where does it stop?Where are the refund policies?Where are the, okay, this didn’t work out or a certain invoice was there?If it’s a no refund policy, is there something there where you get a certain amount of credit?What rights does everybody have and why isn’t that written out with most coaches?
Coaching with accountability can create a shared responsibility for your progress between you and those you coach.
There’s a magazine out there, six figure coach, and to me it’s a little bit dangerous. It’s coaches going in there and they’re reading off of the Gary Vee’s and they’re reading off of these big coaches and here’s this and here’s how to present and boom, boom, boom. A lot of it in the few that I’ve scrolled through, it’s so much about marketing and to me a negative approach of almost psychological operations to continue to draw more people to you.
These ideas of no, this is what you want to tweet today and this is what you want to market and this is how you want to interact with this. And here’s how you stay hot on the topics that are trending. What if what you know inside of your authority and your authenticity has nothing to do with what’s trending right now?
So do you go to that false place to then begin to try to be cool and be out there? Or is it a shift to share something about your view? What you have so many of these life coaches, the bulk of their content is all based in solely marketing. I will do, I can get you. Don’t you wish you were making this amount? And then what’s worse, these are the ones I find the most immoral personally.
The direct sales, the MLM coaches, the ones that say, first off you’re going to pay me, then you’re going to get under my funnel. Now you’re not trying hard enough. Now you’ve got to do this, now you’ve got to prove yourself to me. Why do you need to prove yourself to any coach?
It’s about proving yourself to you and then understanding maybe a particular person that they’re not the best person to work with. So then inside of a statement of work, inside of a release from a situation, can you get out or are you locked in?
I’ve had people send me coaching contracts and oftentimes the agreement it really is solely in the favor of the coach and not really respecting the individual. And because they signed it, there’s not much that they can do about it. There was one particular person they sent me, it was a three page consulting agreement. I said, you know, I think this looks good. I look, I’m looking forward to reading it.
The entire consulting agreement only protected, it wasn’t really an agreement, it was a statement that kept the coach out of any kind of liability, out of any kind of responsibility for following through. And this particular coach, all they did was say, go back and read this. You want to know about this? Go back and read this. I mean the hourly rate was through the roof.
And then you have these coaches going, you’re not, if you’re not being paid this or you’re not asking for this much, you’re not showing your worth. What if you’re not worth that amount? What if it’s time to humbly Prove your worth by giving, by reducing.
Let’s get out of the arrogance, let’s get out of this warrior belligerence level. Let’s go to a level of humility where you can help and where you can stand out in this field. And at the same time, for the individuals looking for the coach, look for a consulting agreement that protects you. What happens if you need a break? What happens if money is tight?
As you engage in coaching with accountability, you may begin to be able to better clarify your goals for yourself and your clients
Is there something where it’s okay, there’s a window for this time to be taken off, or if you state that you’re not able to make a payment at this point for this long, that you’re still in the clear. An agreement is a two way situation and it should protect both sides.
So I, for me personally, and I really advise with coaches and I advise for people looking for coaches. Get that invoice, have that clearly stated out. Make sure you get a receipt, not just the transaction, get that services agreement or consult, you know, consulting or strategic, whatever you want to call it.
It lays down everything of all the expectations of how we work, of where we work, of what is done and what we’re about. Then the statement of work. Now statements of work, they can be a little bit broad. And some people, I’ve had certain people ask me while I was talking to this coach and they said they couldn’t give me a statement of work because all of it’s conceptual, that’s fine.
And a lot of consultants, there are elements that are conceptual, they are strategic. It’s more time than it is necessarily the statement of work you get from a home builder, but it can be listed out the topics that they’re going to hit.
It doesn’t mean that they have to make sure that you are a master in any of these topics. And no one’s a master anymore. That’s another conversation and another podcast for another day. But that these things were gone over. These were the elements that we hit.
We went across these things, we discussed these things and it’s following up that in this session this was discussed or this documentation to allow you to do this or this video or this audio.
When that’s brought forth, you as the coach have served your client and as the client you have received service from your coach. And that’s fair and that’s moral. The last parts come down to. So I said before, we said invoice, we said the non disclosure agreements, so things kept private. We said the services agreement and the statement of work of what’s going on in there. And in that documentation, there is clarity, there is authority.
The experiences gained through coaching with accountability can become invaluable for the personal and professional development of your clients .
Also asking, doing in the last part here, doing the due diligence, who has this person coached? Or even if it’s not necessarily who they’ve coached, because maybe they’ll come out in full honor and say, I haven’t coached anybody like you. So you can go call this guy that spent 10 times the amount and be thrilled with his response, or you can look through the items and the pieces and the content, which I believe more coaches should have up than just marketing about what they’re about.
It comes back to that element of getting someone to understand what path you would take. Someone on. FSG has a particular client, they said, who you know, who else have you worked with like us? And who can we look at?
Well, no one for this particular client, never done anything in this area. But under the overarching themes, the umbrella of what’s happening inside a business, this is the approach we take. This is why we take it.
This is what we’ve seen in competitive, in comparative, in the contrasting, and this is why we do that. But had we sent them to someone and said, go talk to so and so, they love us, that ends up being a selfish testimony because this individual did something that costs so much more and it really didn’t relate. Ultimately, the relationship built through coaching with accountability may foster that much more growth and trust.
So asking your coaches, I don’t want your best testimonies. I want to understand your authority. I want to understand your authenticity. Let them share through podcasts, through videos, through blogs, what they’re about, what their take on things are.
And does that resonate with you? Because anybody can sit there and put out and state, hey, this is great, this is great, this is great. But is that a situation that can resonate or relate to you financially, theoretically, from a methodology standpoint? Try engaging by coaching with accountability to access the resources you need for authentic and transparent success.
Because if it isn’t, now you’ve dialed into a coach that is bragging about things that have nothing with no similarity to what you’re doing, and it’s probably going to set you up for failure. So in the end here, the accountability, it’s not going to happen.
We can’t make coaches accountable like we do doctors or like we do lawyers. That’s unfortunate. Let’s be realistic. But we can seek out that accountability and look for that authority and that experience beyond their marketing, beyond their hype, beyond their promises. Implementing coaching with accountability may yield that many more long lasting changes in your business.
And by committing to coaching with accountability, you are making a commitment to yourself and your future clients.
And we can put up the red flags too.
When it seems too good to be true, because it usually is. When it seems like it’s all hype and no substance, then maybe they’ll end up coaching you with all hype and no substance. Is there a foundation of liability, of shared understanding, of responsibility? Are they putting a consulting services agreement in front of you?
The journey of self-discovery through coaching with accountability is both rewarding and empowering.
Are they putting an NDA to protect you? Are they explaining ways that if this doesn’t work, this is how it ends, or if it does work, this is how it can continue? Are the expectations and responsibilities there for all sides? Because then you have a good working relationship, it’s moral, it’s authentic, and it allows you to grow. If it’s not there, be careful. Watch for those that support and showcase themselves as coaches that coach coaching with accountability.
If someone feels really good and it’s not there, maybe do one session, two sessions, three sessions. If that’s. If it’s really feeling strong to you, and if they won’t allow for that or they’ll only do a package, watch out. To those looking for coaches, honor yourself, your dream, your business, your vision that you want to grow and protect it. As you bring someone in to help you, are you protecting that business? Are you protecting your finances? Consider exploring new possibilities through the lens of coaching with accountability.
Are you protecting your time? Treat it like that and vet that person or that individual or that company. Vet them. Look across their content. Look across what they say, how they say it. Look across their marketing. Is it all regurgitated from somebody else’s authority or is it them and inside of it? Does it make sense to you? Are those foundational documents in place to protect all parties? Is there a way out? Is all of those things? With coaching with accountability, you may be able to align your actions with your aspirations and be that much more effective for another.
Have a look before you look to sign, or you look to subscribe to those methods, or you look to buy in, get away from the popularity and seek out the authority in it, because that authority will help your business and to the coaches. Lastly, the authentic ones, the authoritative ones, stand out by stepping up and setting up your authenticity, your experience and your validity to shine.
In the end, the journey of coaching with accountability can lead to a greater connection to and for clients.
Showcase through videos, audios, blogs. Don’t make it all about marketing. Show that you care and you have the experience and the authority to help. Not just hype. Because in the end, when we, as those that want to be coached or we that are coaching others, hold ourselves and the other party accountable, we can account for a lot more progress and process than just falling into the template hype that so many are practicing and so many are harming others with today. Wait What Really Ok.
Coaching with accountability transcription
Choose to invest in yourself through coaching with accountability today.
Podcast guest soliciting and podcast host booking tactics. S7.E9.#122
This episode is available here on Amazon Music and at any of the links below.
Reviewing authentically Transcription Continued:
Reviewing authentically Transcription Continued:
First Discovery Steps Transcription
