How to Build a Brand in Turbulent Times

So Deb, I'm so excited to have you Welcome to the show. Well, I'm really pleased to be here. And I love the story of how this all came about. And I especially loved that Amanda said that I I had my shit together and I knew what I was talking about. So that's a good thing. I'm glad that that that is the impression that she got of me from my presentation a couple of months ago. It was it was absolutely amazing. And so before we dive in and tell all of our listeners that are listening or watching about what we're going to talk about today, and y'all like, you're so fun, like your brand, and everything is just so fun. Like I can't wait for everyone to hear just your perspective on things. But before we jump in and talk about it, can you give us the fast track version? I just want everybody to know, like what your entrepreneurial journey has been like, how have you gotten to where you are today? Yeah. People ask me this question all the time. And this is probably very common for a lot of entrepreneurs. But I started out working in industry, you know, having jobs, I actually started out my career, this is kind of fun. I started out my career, I worked in radio, at the nation's first commercial alternative radio station in Oxford, Ohio. And then I worked as a journalist for a very short period of time, and found out that I couldn't make any money. So that's kind of the first hint towards entrepreneurship, took a corporate job worked corporate jobs, I'm a marketer. So obviously, I had to do my time inside of agencies. And then no traditional job could contain me, like many other entrepreneurs, I have problems with authority, unless, of course, it's me. And it was manifest destiny, I had to start my own thing. So the very last thing that happened to me as a corporate entity, which I had reached the pinnacle of, of whatever I was going to reach in my career without being a CEO by being like a senior vice president reporting directly to the CEO of this organization, who was, by the way, an incredible mentor to me as an entrepreneur. And I saw what she was doing, and I wanted to do that. But the very last thing that I did, as a corporate person was I laid off 72 people in one day, right after. So 911 happened. And then January came, and this organization that I was working for, you know, an agency where we had clients in the tech industry who are hiring a sight unseen for $100,000 $200,000 a month, we went to like almost zero clients. And I got promoted to SVP and had to layoff 72 people in the in the Austin office all on the same day. I walked out the door that afternoon thinking I never want to be in a position where I have to do that, again. It was one of the most horrible sort of gut wrenching experiences of my life and probably my lowest point professionally. And then it was from that point forward. I was like, What is my path to entrepreneurship? So I,
I stole a couple clients. I mean, I didn't really steal, they've gone down to nothing. And it's hard to enforce a non compete in the state of Texas and I went and I stood up my own thing. And I originally started out I wanted to just be an independent consultant. I was going to build by the hour, I was building a lot by the hour. But there there started to be this incredible demand for what I did in the way that I was doing it and sort of this unique spin that I was putting on something that was like maybe an old topic and then I found myself very quickly needing to hire
helpers. This is everybody's entrepreneurial journey Unless, of course, they have a really cool product or something. But if you have a services organization starts right now, hire helpers. And then you know, and then I had to get office space. And then I had phones and all that kind of stuff. And then the rest is, as they say, history. And then I would fast forward to, I would fast forward to like the last five years where my career has taken almost a different trajectory, I still have my I still have my brand strategy and marketing firm, which I love. And it's great. And it's this incredible playground and laboratory for the kind of work that I do. But I wrote a couple of best selling business books, the first one came out in 2016. And somehow I managed to get myself into a lot of important media conversations. And I became the world's resident authority on botched corporate apologies and brand disasters. And then that spurred off my second book and and this incredible career of just being sort of my own brand out there espousing the idea and methodology and philosophy of irrational loyalty. So it's been really fun. And I am not stopping now. I love it. Absolutely love it. And I would love to know and y'all will link your your both your books, but I would love to know, how did you come up with the topic? because y'all, so Deb did this video because she's speaking at this conference that I'm helping with. And it's like brand, Enos, sex and irrational loyalty. And I was like, ooh, I love this. Like, tell me more. So with that, yeah. So So actually, branding is sex is what started the whole thing. So so the first book is called branding a sex, get your customer laid, and sell the hell out of anything. And yeah, I'm the person who put the word sex and laid in the title of a book, my parents are proud as you can imagine. But that actually like where that originated was, it's an actual something that happened in my work. So, so deep, deep down, the best brands in the world are the ones that have the power to get their buyer laid. So you know, if you imagine branding is about helping people elevate up Maslow's hierarchy of needs, until they get to this place of like, ultimate self actualization. When do you feel fully self actualized you feel fully self actualized, when you are performing at your highest potential, when you're performing at your highest potential, you want to take a role in the Hey, right. And it's a great story where this title branding of sex comes from. And that is, I worked with a now very, very famous tech CEO, which I can't mention his name, but I sat in front of him. In a meeting when I was working at this last agency that I worked for, when we were working on the launch of a very unsexy product that he was really, really struggling with. And he was very much like in this world of speeds and feeds in bits and bytes, and how many top how many hops to a tier one network and, and, and, and very, very binary, functional, non emotional benefits. And I was frustrated, he was frustrated. And he was sitting in one of those rolling chairs, like one of those rolling Herman Miller chairs, which probably a lot of people are sitting in right now. And just in a fit of frustration, I looked at him and I got right down real close to him. And I made eye contact with him. And I was like, okay, at the end of the day, how does this server operating system, get that IT guy laid? And he rolled back in the chair, and he was like, Oh, I totally get it. And then he told me this incredible story about how, you know, this product was going to provide an emotional and self expressive benefit above and beyond anything functional that the company could offer, because that's not differentiated. The only true differentiation is uniqueness. Fast forward to I'm writing a book, I'm working with my publisher, we're trying to come up with titles. Like I had a cutesy little title, I was like, oh, brand new world, you know, like Brave New World. And they were like that. And then I told I told my editor, and the publisher, this story that I just told you, and they were like, so what does that actually mean? I said that the best brands in the world get people laid, and they were like, you should call this book branding a sex. And like, Okay, so that's where it came from. And then I am a branding person. So I'm like, I should be, I should eat my own dog food, right? And then irrational loyalty. irrational loyalty is the result of great branding and irrational loyalty is this connection that people have, that it's indelible where something is so indispensable to them that it becomes part of them that that when they think about using an alternative, they feel like they're cheating on it. That is irrational loyalty, and I had an experience with that this weekend. So
I'm at my home in Utah. My favorite place to ski is this place called Alta, which is like literally right up the street for me, I could ski there every day for the rest of my life. This past weekend, I drove up to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. And when I was skiing there, I felt like I was cheating on alpha. But I love altia. And Allah loves me back so much that like, no matter how many times I cheat on her, she always welcomes me back. And so I'm gonna go up there this afternoon, but irrational loyalty is how you feel about your iPhone. Are you an iPhone person? Of course. Yeah. I'm so irrationally loyal to the iPhone that you know, I'm also a I'm also a dating human, a, you know, a middle aged single woman. And so like, sometimes new people text me and if they have green text bubbles, I immediately judge them. And I'm like, my kind of person. Right? Me too. Okay, so that's irrational loyalty. So I've been I've been fortunate to have the universe bestow on me some ingenuity, creativity, and some magic with words. I totally get it now. I completely get it. Because in the event world when I was traveling so much to like, all these different brands, and we worked a lot with the rosewood brand, and it was definitely it. And it's so is one of my favorite brands. When I travel, I like to go state or rosewood. But sometimes we get clients who want to go to a Hilton property or a Marriott property. And that's totally fine. Or Ritz Carlton, which is Marriott property, which is totally fine. But I'm like, but there's there's rosewood too. Yeah, I totally get it now. And it's, it's a level of, for me personally, it's like a level of customer service, and the customer service. But if the client wants something different, I have to go with what the client wants. And but oh my gosh, talking about the whole iPhone droid thing. So I posted a tech talk a few weeks ago, something about like an iPhone and a droid. And people went crazy in my comments, like at each other. Yeah, not really at me. But I'm just like, Oh my gosh, and there's all kinds of funny tic tocs. And also reels on Instagram about people like making fun of like the blue and the green text boxes. But it does create a communication barrier, especially when I'm traveling out of the country. And you can't communicate with the people who have joys unless they're on WhatsApp, you know, which then you have to have a third party app. But it comes, I totally get it now. Like oh my god, and those are you know, and that's a functional, that's a functional limitation of the droid platform. What I'm talking about in the irrational part of this is the fact that I immediately judge another person over the fact that they have green text bubbles, I judge them, either they're, they're a nerd, or they, they're probably not going to be a good fit with me because they don't have, they don't, they don't have the same kind of device that I have people want to be part of a group right, like people naturally
glom together and I talked about Maslow's hierarchy of needs, right? Like we all have belongingness needs and this, this also is something that is is part of branding that, you know, but I also think this is kind of funny, I drive a Subaru out here, I have a Subaru in my garage and and whenever I show up someplace in Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Colorado, whatever, in my Subaru, like, I feel like I'm, I feel like I'm a local, right, like, I'm great. I'm part of the group. And, and I belong here, when I see people driving Mazda's up into the canyons to go skiing. And I'm like, Theresa, you know what I mean? And, and there's, there's absolutely nothing rational rational about that. And my whole stick is that the best brands in the world are the ones that become part of the user that you know something about them. And more importantly, they know something about themselves through the use of whatever brand that is, and that applies, whether it's a consumer brand, like we've been talking about, or even b2b brands, I, I guess that in your event planning business that the conferences and organizers that you work with time and time again, it says something about them that they hire you just in the same way that if you bring an event to a rosewood hotel that says something about the event to the events, attendees and things like that, so so that's the essence of what I do kind of cracked the nut on that I focus pretty firmly on b2b technology brands in our business practice, or brands with a technology enabled value proposition, which is a place where there's not a lot of sex. I think there's drugs and rock and roll but there's not a lot of sex there. And that's brought me a lot of success in my career, and so I can't not do it. It's literally a compulsion for me. I love it. So everyone that is listening or watching right now
They are all a brand. They're they own a business there that even if you don't own a business, you still have a personal brand. And so for everyone that's listening and watching, what would you tell them? Like how do the biggest brands in the world create that irrational loyalty? Like what are some things that people can do so that people want to be part of that group or that community. I love that you said that everybody is a brand or has a brand. So you are a brand, whether you like it or not your company, you as an individual, if you're an individual contributor, you're a creator, you're an employee looking for a new job, you own a company, you're a solopreneur, or you work for one of the biggest companies in the world, you are a brand, whether you like it or not, and you need to take control of it and manage it, and not leave the narrative up to the rest of the world to take care of it for you. It's like, you know, amen. Sister I'd like that is, that is the most important thing. So start thinking of yourself as a brand, whether you like it or not. The best brands in the world, they do four things, they do these four things. The first thing is they aim their brand at a singular ideal archetype of customer, and I'm talking one person, they create an archetype of the person who is perfect for this brand. This podcast probably has an archetypal ideal customer, who you are aiming this at the best brands in the world, aim their brand, and a singular Northstar customer doesn't mean that segment marketing is dead, it doesn't mean that there's no such thing as personas. But the best brands in the world think about Nike, for instance, the Nike brand is the Nike brand is the Nike brand is the Nike brand, whether it's the NFL, it's a high school athletic director, it's an individual recreational athlete, you know, who's 52 years old, from Austin, Texas, it's a pro golfer, it's a recreational golfer, it's the high school gymnastics coach, no matter who they are selling to the Nike brand is always tapping in to the inner elite athlete inside of all of us who happens to be like a 19 year old man, right? That's who they're aiming the brand at that clarity, that focus that likeness of that person, when and when I work with clients, I actually make them draw this, I say, Get out a big piece of paper, when when we were doing things in person, we would use those big sheets of butcher paper and we'd lay one out on the floor and we traced somebody's body, and then we would draw them. And so if they were a good listener, they had big ears, if they had a lot of money under their control, they're standing on a giant pile of money. My ideal customer for our company is actually based on it's based on a real person who has worked with us at four different organizations as she has grown in her career from like director of marketing to Chief Marketing Officer of one of the biggest software companies in the world, she's taken us with her she's irrationally loyal to us to the point that when she negotiates her employment contract, she negotiates into her deal that she can bring us in as our agency, there's nothing, there's nothing less rational than putting your entire professional reputation on the line, right. And she has something called a golden shovel. And her golden shovel is the thing that if she doesn't have budget immediately under her control, she can go and dig for it. So they they ate these best brands in the world, aim their brand at a singular ideal archetypal customer. And then they answer these three questions. If you do nothing else in branding, just do these four things. Question number one, what does it say about that person that they use this brand, what it says about her and her name is Lindsay, it says that she doesn't have any time to waste. She's not screwing around, she has a lot at stake to get it right. She needs an innovative partner who's going to push her and and ensure that not just meeting her goals, but exceeding her goals. And she looks like a superstar. She's an award winner. Like she's one of these people who wins marketing awards in industry recognized as a thought leader, she's done that largely in part because of our support. So the first question is, what is it say about that person? Second question, hardest question to answer. What's the one thing that you get from us that you can't get from anyone else? What's the one thing that your ideal customer gets from your brand they can't get from anyone else. Here's a hint. It's never a feature. It's never an option. It usually is an essence. But more importantly, it's a superpower. And it's an ability. So what's the one thing that you get from us that Lindsay gets from us that she can't get from anyone else? She gets a kick in the ass. Most marketing agencies.
They sit back there waiting to catch the assignments. Yeah, they're like working a plan, which she wants to she wants to be pushed and propelled and pushed harder and faster, because she's working for a billion dollar company. Right? And in order for them to create change, they need someone to push them outside their comfort zone so they get the kick in the ass from us. Third question, this is the sex question. Sort of like you know, how do you get the customer lead the third point
Question is, how does your brand make your customer a hero in his or her own story, how we make them a hero is like we knock the goals out of the park, we don't get compensated based on effort, we are focused squarely on results. And that is your result. And what they get from us is the ability to create that condition of irrational loyalty. We so much want to transform the love hate relationship that people have with their agencies into a love love relationship, that we want our clients to be so irrationally loyal to us that we won't just do the best that we can. But we'll do whatever it takes, even in some cases, if it means that we have to hire someone else to do it. So the best brands in the world, they just do those four things. ideal customer, what does it say about a person? What's the one thing you get from us? And how do you make your customer the hero in his or her own story? If you do nothing else in branding, you've got it. I love it. So I love that you say this, because it makes me feel like the last time we launched one of our online courses like we're doing the right thing. So we went through the whole psychographics of what does this one person believe so yours is Lindsay r says Carol, Carol is in our mid 30s Carol's married she has two kids, she's had a business for five years, and she knows that something needs to change from a productivity standpoint. So what is that and Carol wants her business to succeed? So you're sitting here talking about Lindsey, I'm like yes, Carol would, you know face on like, okay, we're doing something right for this new online course. So in and it has made such a difference in the way that people respond like even to the copy and the way that we have branded this whole program. And so really taking into account and talking to that one person it whatever you put out there in the world, the universe brings you back those those the right people, is it. Wow, this shit works. Yeah. So you know, the interesting thing is like I've sat in front of many organizations are like, Oh, yeah, our ideal customer is a working busy mom. All right, that's not enough. Like I could I speak at a lot of conferences, like I'll be in a room with, like, 1000 people. And I'll say, raise your hand if you're a busy working mom. And and I don't know, out of 1000 people I might get 400, hands raised. And then I'm like, how old are your kids? Do you work outside the home? Do you own a company? What position? Are you in? Are you married? Where did you grow up? What are your hopes, fears, dreams, desires, what makes you sit bolt upright in bed at night, what makes you feel sexy, what makes you feel whole, all of those things, the psychographics attitudes behaviors are way more important. Because if you just generalize your offering to we are for busy working moms, you haven't done enough and most of the business strategy and planning methodologies don't go far enough. That's why lots of scaling up coaches are using my ideal customer archetype methodology. That's why I have lots of coaches and consultants who are like, learning that methodology so that they can bring it to their their clients so that they can help those clients achieve their business goals faster and with more focus. I love it. Absolutely. I love all of that. And it's like we didn't like draw the person out of on the ground. But we definitely went through of like five pages of like just whiteboard, the big post it notes of like, this is what they believe that all the way down to shopping. What do they drive? What do they drive? What do they look like? are they wearing pants? are they wearing Converse? are they wearing work boots? Like, you know, what brand of makeup? is she wearing? What you know, what kind of car does she drive to she shop at Whole Foods or at Safeway. These are you know what's in her shopping basket understanding these different things. And I'll challenge you Angela is if if you take that create a drawing of that create a likeness of it and bring it to your meetings. There. There's something the reason that I make clients draw it. And usually like if I'm working with clients, we'll be working with like a huge group of people like the whole leadership team and marketers and whatever and we'll divide them up and they'll each draw their own and then they have to create their own amalgamated view. The idea is to take that and socialize it through the entire business. Whenever we do business strategy planning for my company we bring our picture of Lindsay out which you know, I'm I'm fortunate to have talented graphic designers who work with us who turned Lindsay into like an infographic but give her a seat at the table and it's really important to give your ideal customer a seat at the table. That is okay y'all listen Say it again. Say it again because this is your ideal customer a seat at the table. Bring your ideal customer bring your ideal customer to your store.
Dziedzic planning sessions make sure that everybody is worshipping at the foot of the ideal customer, make sure that every single person in the company all the way down to the person who answers the phones, or empties the wastebasket, all the way through the CEO because the CEO owns branding, the CEO is in charge of branding. Everyone else are stewards of it, but the CEO ultimately owns it. And if you don't believe me, then you can read all of these stories about how CEOs have tanked their own company's own behavior and their words and their actions out there in the marketplace. Because how you show up as a brand is more important than what you say, and the CEO owns that. Make sure that that everyone in the company is completely I hate this word indoctrinated, but I don't know another word for it. But everybody is indoctrinated to who that who that ideal customer is they know the answers to those questions. They ultimately know how your brand gets your ideal customer laid, and everyone in the organization is on board and aligned with that. Because branding, like business strategy is like probably 99% alignment and 1% ideation and inspiration. It's so it's just it's so important. Like we had a client once that I'm like, this is what the data says, This is who your target audiences and he's like, but I want to do this. And I'm like, but that's not who your ideal target market is. And yeah, that you're going to get, you're not going to be happy, you're like the results. And so if you're, if your avatar or your client avatar doesn't have a seat at the table, then it's not going to convert, and what we're doing is not going to work. So I guess we're not gonna be able to work together, because I'm not going to waste our time. And I don't want you to waste your money if you want to do what you want to do. But that's not who your target market is. And that's and that and that, yeah, and that client that you're talking about is probably not your ideal customer either. Because the ideal customer is somebody who is going to collaborate with you and think strategically and be focused and be oriented towards doing what's right by their customer, their end customer and not, you know, be driven by their own men. So one of the last thing about the ideal customer, because I can't say enough about this, the last thing about the ideal customer, it gives you the opportunity to say yes to more things, but more importantly, to say no to the things that are not a good fit. And saying no is probably more important than saying yes. And it keeps you from doing things that maybe don't work. And when you when you look at the things that have happened over the past year with the pandemic, and resurgence of the social justice movement. Now with Asian hate and whatever, we have a lot of brands that are coming to the table trying to take part in a conversation. And they're doing it in a really, really inauthentic way. The reason why it's coming off as inauthentic is because they've probably lost focus on who their ideal customer is, and how they can be indispensable to that customer in that moment. And the ideal customer, like that archetype really should be the North Star that guides everything. I don't know who said it. I wish I could claim this quote as mine. And when I find out who said it, I need to go meet them. But when you aim at nothing, you hit it with accuracy 100% of the time, just knowing who you're going for, and who you are built for. Answer so many questions and everything else kind of emanates from that. I love that. I love that quote. I'll have to like go search it. So we just use it in the show notes. But that is it's so important. And and you're 100% correct. It's like I had to sit overnight and really think, okay, if we let this client go, who was a large client for us at the time, that's going to be X amount of dollars of revenue, but it's the right thing to do. And also it was pulling my team in directions that is not on course, and it's not our process. And you're right, like we strive to make sure that we are working with the right people because the results are going to be different if we're not. And so after letting that person go the following week, all these people started coming out of the woodwork asking for like, Did everybody roll?
Interesting. Yeah. Isn't it interesting how that happens. We had a we had a similar thing. Like I fired a client I fired like probably, you know, at the time, who was our biggest client, this just happened two months ago. And also this particular client
was contesting the work that we did for them and it and the whole thing ended up in me like writing a settlement check. I mean, everything about this felt horrible to me, because I was like I can't believe firing a client. I'm going to lose that revenue and I'm going to give her 12,000
dollars. But then at the end of the day, I was like, it's just money, I'll make more exactly what that did was like it, it opened up more psychic space and more physical space to take on clients who were a better fit, immediately replaced the revenue immediately made back like the settlement arrangement. I mean, this was, this was such an issue, I'll tell you, like the client, just was not a good fit for our business was not was not kind to my team members, you know, showed up in a way that made people lose hair and like rock back and forth, you know, in their seats and things like that. And the more work you do for your ideal clients, the more elevated your team gets, the better you are that like what you put into the world you attract. So 100% I wish that out for the dating world that I'm working right. Me too, girl.
Thank you so much for sharing that. And I say these things, because I think sometimes people that are listening or watching they think, Oh, these business woman or everything is perfect, and everything is so smooth. And it's like, No, I've been in business almost 20 years, and shit ain't perfect, and it's never perfect. But what it has taught me over so many years is like it's given it like I'm sure you to like the confidence of saying this is not going to work. And this is not going to be good. And it's okay to say I'm not for everybody. This is not a good fit. Go find someone who can run in side by side with you and what you believe in what you want, because I can't do that. And so it's almost like, like you said, showing up being inauthentic. Because if I don't believe what that person believes, and I know better I know the data doesn't lie. So why would I allow that. So it's, it's just getting rid of that toxicity is such a healthy thing to do.
So, I do a customer archetype is the thing that like helps you understand, like, what is toxic? What isn't toxic? I mean, if it smells like fish, it probably is fish. And I'll tell you this, like very authentically, like I've been running this company for 18 years, right? I still wake up every single day thinking how am I going to eff this up today? Right? Hmm, every single day, it never goes away. Life is real A f still even I mean, I feel like I'm at the top of my game. I've been doing this for a really, really long time. I you know, I'm recognized as a person who's an expert in my field, it is death defying entrepreneurship, business leadership, B, being an executive being an employee today, I think is death defying, like, there there are so many twists and turns and and whatever. Believe me, I am not resting on my laurels. Like I, you know, I, I second guess lots of decisions. I think about things that I said and things that I did. And I'm curious about whether or not I actually made the right decision. I'm, I'm a I'm a decider, I'm a person of action. And and I charge into things sometimes like headlong without, without really thinking about those things. But every single day, I am questioning it. So it is not easy out there people it is it is not. And I think it gets easier. But it's still as hard today as it was on October 7 2003. or whenever it was that I started this company. I still have I have doubts. They're just bigger and higher stakes now. Yeah. And and it that's entrepreneurship period. Like it's a journey. It's never perfect. And if it were easy, everybody would do it. I don't know who said that. But it's like I say that all the time. It's like everybody would do it. If this were easy. Nothing's easy. It's not for everybody. And that's okay. So for as we wrap up, is there one thing that anybody listening or watching? Is there something is there? One key thing that people can focus on? If they want to scale and grow their organization? Like is there one thing they can do? If you only do one thing, I'm gonna go back to this ideal customer archetype. It truly is the thing. So like I said, I've been doing this for a really, really long time. Before I started doing it. In my own company. I was doing it for other people's companies, when I have seen organizations scale rapidly, with focus by making the right choices by developing the right products and services and taking them to market in a way that bonds with people deeply emotionally creating that irrational loyalty. It's because they have made the very hard choice of figuring out who their ideal customer is. That it is. It is the one thing that has been completely transformative to
The businesses that I have worked with, and also businesses that I've been watching over the course of my career. So, you know, that is the common thread that the organization knows who their ideal customer is that they double down on that, to the exclusion of everything else, they put a velvet rope around what they do. And they scale with, with
fierce focus. Like they're relentless about it, which it sounds like that's what you're doing. That's definitely what I'm trying to do. That's what all my clients are doing. Otherwise, they're not my clients. But that I mean, that is the one thing if you do only one thing, it really is that. That's awesome. And so you have a download for our audience. So we'll put that in the show notes. But if anybody wants to reach out to you and your company and connect with you, what's your favorite platform? Or what's the best way for people to get in touch with you?
Let's see. Well, these days, like he right up a chairlift with me.
I love it. Yeah, no. Well, I mean, it's funny because we were talking before this started that I met some people in common with you just last week doing exactly that. That's my favorite platform. Not everybody, not everybody has access to that and the ski season is about to end. So like, come to Utah, like ride the chairlift with me. And
the best way to get in touch with me if you want to get in touch with me. You're interested in irrational loyalty or branding or sex or you're interested in videos, free digital downloads, downloads, a book chapters, all that kind of stuff. You can go to Deb Gabor, calm, easy as that. If you want to reach the company, the company is called soul marketing s o L. I am not the person who named my company shit out of luck. By the way, that's a really good story for another day. Oh, looks for shit out of luck. I didn't know it does not stand for six out of luck, but it stands for it soul is a word in Spanish, which means son. And so yeah, I you know, I took something from my from my central Texas, my central Texas roots for the company. It's the sun. Like in Spanish, we illuminate things we shine lights on things, but there's a really good story for you and me over drinks, perhaps your nerve. And I'll tell you the origin story of that. So anyway, so marketing is the company. Deb Gabor is my site. I'm all over the social medias except for like, I'm not on tik tok, like, my 52 year old woman.
Talk, I'm not the ideal customer for Tiktok. It's crazy, because when I see these years of things, so it's like when Facebook first came out, it started for college. My brother's like you're not in college anymore. You can't have a Facebook page. And now it's like as new things evolve, then it's like the average person on Facebook. I think it's 55 or so. 65. Okay, no, I don't think it's 65. But yeah, but the average age is going up. And this, you know what that is the, that's the technology adoption cycle. And there are many, many people who would have written about that, I think Geoffrey Moore and Crossing the Chasm was the first place that we actually saw that where we, you know, you have early adopters and then, you know, you kind of go into the chasm and then you had like, sort of rampant scaled adoption, where where things become, you know, where they become everyday use and then they go almost into like extinction and obsolescence and it is an interesting thing, and it's something that that I have to deal with. I like I'm late to the platform, honestly, like I'm too freakin busy. It's kind of like clubhouse. clubhouse is another place where I've spoken a couple of times on clubhouse. clubhouse is full of early adopters. And everybody's like, yeah, you need to be there. The problem with clubhouse right now it's a vast wasteland where, where the people who are influencers on clubhouse are not vetted. There are a lot of fake people out there. Yep. Amen. And there are a lot of people out there who are posing as something that they absolutely are not including an ex boyfriend of mine and it makes me angry every time I see him posing as something that he's not.
And you know, so some of these things have to be vetted and proven out and, and things like that. I mean, and then we have technology platforms, like remember vine, remember periscope? I mean, a lot of these things like you know, we'll we'll see. You know, tick tock is a platform that originally started for people to share dance moves. Yeah, right. You know, and here we are like people are talking about branding on Tick Tock now, if your ideal customer
is using Tick Tock and tick tock is part of who they are and part of their identity, then you have to be on Tick tock, I don't think I have to be on Tick Tock.
So that's what I'm going to say about that.
When you're hanging out
on LinkedIn right now, but yeah, I mean, if at some point my my ideal customer is a tick tock user, or whatever the next flash in the pan, you know, platform, there is that a sharing are
private data with parties in China, then I'll be on that platform. You know what I mean? Yeah.
I was just talking about this, though with a guy yesterday that we're working on a course for him. And he's like, I got asked to be on this thing called club house. Are you on that? And I'm like, Well, I got it. And like you, I mean, I've gone to em been invited to speak on a few rooms, but I had to turn the notifications off, it's extremely
just annoying, like to get all these notifications. And then if I pop in a few rooms, and then listen to some people who say they're experts, and I'm like, they don't know what the hell they're talking about. And I just leave the room. And then it's just a turn off of wanting to be on there. And but it gave him a business idea when he got into a room and he's listening to all these people talking about what he does. And he really is an expert at that. And he's like, I've got to create something, because he's like, I'm almost 60 years old. And these kids don't know what the hell they're talking about. And they really don't, though, and it's like, oh, you want to be a million dollar coach? How many million dollars have you made yourself before you start talking about how you're gonna help somebody else make a million dollars. And we looked up a few people and I'm like, but you know what, you're always 10 steps ahead of them anyway. So but it gave him like a whole business idea. So it's, it's all interesting, but this was so much fun. everybody listening, thank you so much. We'll put all the show notes. So if you're driving or running or walking, because I know you guys multitask, because Carol multitask.
We know that because people tell us because they need help with productivity. That's why they're listening. So this was so helpful. We'll put everything in the show notes. And everybody Hey, if you want to know more about how to really hone in on your client avatar, and to invite your person to have a seat at the table. Reach out to Deb and we'll put all of our information there. Dude, thanks so much for being on the show today. Thank you. This was fun. Awesome. Be sure to tune in next week for another episode of business unveiled by y'all. That's it for this week's episode of business unveiled. Now that you have all the tools that you need to conquer the world and GSD get shit done. Would you share this with your friends and fellow business leaders? One thing that would really help us and help new listeners is for you to rate the show. And leave a comment and Apple podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you tune in and listen to business unveiled. You can check out the show notes at Angela proffitt.com slash podcast and link up with us on social media so you can share your biggest insights. And I want to know your aha moments. Until next week, remember, the profitable shifts and structures you're creating in your business, help you be more present in your life. So get out there and GSD