How to Navigate Marketing Pitfalls with Brady Dahmer

We are live with Brady Dahmer. No relationship to Jeffrey. Okay, so listen everyone, Brady's obviously brave. Brady, brave. So he's brave. He has no clue what he's got himself into. He's so cute. He's like, how long? Questions? Oh, Brady, well, I am excited to talk to you. So welcome everyone to No Prep Needed, which, Brady, I do zero prep, like literally no prep at all. Didn't even— I think you had a Gmail. I didn't Google you or anything like that. Normally afterwards, I'm going down the rabbit hole into the Brady Dahmer, what's your life about. So you have to introduce yourself. So who is Brady?

Good afternoon, guys. Adrian, thanks so much for being here. I'm excited. And honestly, your energy is very contagious here. So loving it so far. This is awesome. My name is Brady Dahmer. I've actually been in marketing and branding and communications for the last 30+ years. I've also been like an entrepreneur in many, many things. But the latest kind of venture I've gotten myself into is I've written a book called Blind Spots, and it came out of the sort of like I had a bunch of friends ask me a bunch of marketing questions and problems that they were in. And I just realized, like in answering them, I just realized there's a big information gap between theoretical and practical stuff in our industry. And as I looked around, there was, there was kind of no, um, no other books like this out there. It was kind of, um, like the, uh, the, the gap that you kind of learn in, in school versus doing. And I was like, wow, I'm going to start down this road. And, um, this is where I'm at 4 years later. It was, you know, the entrepreneurial path is that of a very kind of, you know, all the different roads you go down. And, you know, when you think you're going to do something very quickly and all of a sudden you look back and it's 4 years in the making. It's done. So yes, I've written this book for any kind of small business entrepreneurs that are doing marketing, that need to brand or market their book, and how I can help them and how I can give them insight on how to do that in the most effective and efficient way.

I love that. Okay, so that's really important. Okay, everyone got that? You got that? You wrote it down, everyone? All right. Sell the book called Blind Spots. I think it's one word.

Yeah, it's all one word. Yep.

Okay, beautiful.

That's handbook. Um, it's up on Amazon as well, so that's the easiest way. And just to let everybody know, the COVID looks like some guy falling over the, uh, the eye in blind spot. So, um, just like in real life when we don't see them, yeah, all those poles, all those little rocks, all those cracks on the pavement that we don't see or pay attention to, you know. Um, so that's, that's where the inspiration for that came from.

I love that. So you could, you could bring a horse to water, you could bring people to your book, but you can't make them read it. And, but that is what— so if I said to you, oh, I'm not going to read your book, I maybe I'll buy it, but it'll just sit on my shelf. But what can you teach me? What can I learn? What are the, like, the 5 things that you could teach me right now about blind spots?

Great, great question. Actually, one of the— I got inspired because I just— to even answer, like, why should I read it? Um, one of, um, I went to, uh, actually a professional editor. And I gotta say, anybody who's thinking about writing a book, when you're near done, go to an editor because they have such great insight. And this editor gave me, again, one of the key— he unlocked something that I didn't come up with myself, and that is each one of these tools and tips that I— each one of the, you know, things that I talk about in the book has a consequence to it. He was mostly a fiction sort of editor in that, but he was like, hey, there's, there's all these really great insights, but there's no consequences. Again, with fiction, that's where the intrigue and everything else comes from. So each one of the, um, each one of the insights I give also has if you don't do it. So in that, that creates a sense of drama and all that. So as much as they are, um, like, it's, it's laid out in a step-by-step framework of, you know, how you should approach your marketing project, everything from what you need to do, what you should gather, what insights you know, you should, um, you should learn, what research should you do, right through to like hiring a team and how the process works, um, right to the end. But as I give each one of these kind of like insights and tips, each one has a consequence of like, if you don't do it, this was what, what the implications might be. Some, some aren't as big as others, but it's kind of like, if you don't take the time to do this, just FYI, here's what might happen, you know. So that's kind of, that's, that's one of the biggest things. But One of the things that's in that why you should read it, it's really about, it's like an insurance policy for your investment when it comes to marketing project. And that's kind of like why, you know, it's, that's kind of what it's really about is showing you where and what can happen, you know, in any kind of situation with anybody in teams and anybody doing marketing or branding. So what are some of the top things? So you asked me for 5. 5 things that, you know, why you should read it. One of the big things is assumptions, you know, can kill a project and can kill relationships that you've, you know, you have with your supplier, with your contractors. That's one of the big things. It also comes from a Steven Seagal movie. There's a great quote in the book, you know, assumption is the mother of all, you know, fuck-ups, where if we assume you know, uh, something one way or another, then that's— then we're putting the onus not only on, you know, ourselves to, you know, to hopefully hope it works out, but also, um, that, you know, the other party as well is very, you know, knows what they're doing as well. Um, I've— I got asked like, what is a blind spot? And maybe I'll, you know, in that, it is a blind spot isn't what you don't know, it's what everybody else thinks you know, right? So when you're talking to somebody, that's one of those—

can we let that breathe for a minute?

Yeah.

Okay. Say it one more time.

So a blind spot isn't whatever— what you don't know. It's what everybody thinks that you know. So when you're having a conversation with somebody and there's, again, that sort of that gray area, when people assume that you know something, that you have something taken care of, all of those sorts of things, that's really where those blind spots come up. And it's kind of like a contract. If it's not in writing, it doesn't exist kind of thing. And that's really one of the things that we talk about. So an assumption, it's like if you don't know, it doesn't really, you know, it's not understood. And that's a key thing. And that's sort of making sure that everything's spelled out, everything is, you know, talked through. And, you know, even to use one of the most, you know, used things is like there's nothing like a, there's no dumb answer. You know, there's nothing like a, sorry, there's not a dumb answer. There's always a dumb answer, but there's never a dumb question. Is what I meant to say.

Yes, there is. Yes, there is. Oh, we're going to talk about that.

But, you know, just if you don't know, ask. You know, don't be afraid to ask. And that's where, you know, one of the key things is like assumptions are, you know, when you don't know and they expect you to know, that's kind of where, you know, one of the big, you know, kind of key takes away. And this book will also give you, or the insights will also give you the list of questions to ask, you know. So it's not like you need to know them, but it's, it's, it's good that you're going to ask those questions that you understood, and also the implications if you don't ask those questions, right? So, you know, that's, that's one, uh, that's one of the key things. Um, also, great marketing kind of starts before you have the conversation with, with your, with your contractor, you know. Understand, you know, it's so many times people come to us and say, hey, we needed a logo, we need, we need a new website. We need any kind of, you know, XXX marketing materials. And you're like, great, where is your, where's your research? Where's, um, you know, how, what is your market like? What is, who are your clients? Um, all of that market research, um, probably should be done before. So anything that, you know, should be done, um, you need to do that research before you have those conversations with, you know, with a, with, you know, said contractor to do your website and things like that. And honestly, if they don't ask then you know it's not gonna be used. They're just there to kind of do something nice for you, but not something that's gonna perform or do what you want it to do. 'Cause ultimately marketing really is an investment. It's not just about making pretty logos or beautiful website. It has to really, has to perform in a way for your business that you want it to. Drive sales, drive communications, all those things. And also to kind of like tag on the end of it, it also, you should figure out how it can be measured. You know, and that's kind of like, if you don't put in the mechanics to measure the success of something, you know, you don't really know what it does. You know, that's why sports have, you know, that's why they measure all the analytics of every player. And that's why we keep score on things. And that's really, you know, if you're not doing that, then, It is kind of, yeah, it's a little bit of a waste of money because it's there, but it's not really doing anything, right? So, and then one of the things maybe to tag on to that too is number 3 on that is play the long game. Just because, and when I say long game, I mean just don't spend all your money at once and be strategic about what that long-term plan looks like because You know, everybody, I'm sure everybody you talk to about business, it's like, it's a marathon, not a sprint, you know? And if you go at it like a sprint, you're gonna be burnt out. Not only, you know, from an energy standpoint or revenue standpoint, it's just gonna be exhausting. Whereas you see those businesses that play the long game and it's about just taking those little steps. And, you know, to go back to the last answer is like, the more little steps that you do, the more you can kind of understand because the more research that you're doing out there, you know, if you just, do it all at once, you're— there's no opportunity for you to get any kind of any little bit any feedback. You can't do those little tweaks. You can't kind of, um, there's nothing to kind of adjust. You're just doing it all at once. But if you, if you play the long game and you kind of take those little steps and you know how to adjust it, that way your clientele and what you're offering and your messaging, you can then become a lot more focused on it. Um, and then, uh, Another key thing that we really kind of talk about is again, kind of like playing the long game, strategy versus tactics. And we, you know, a lot of clients want to do very tactical things. And what I mean by tactical is those short, those little, like those things that kind of make you feel good because you do them like a post on LinkedIn or anywhere on social or you do a website or a blog post or all those little things that, you know, make you feel good, but understanding that That's just not, that's a small piece in a larger puzzle of what to do. So whereas strategy, understand how they all connect. It's really nice doing and blasting out all these pieces on social or messaging all around. But if you don't kind of figure out how they all connect so that you're building the brand and building that communication and building a community, then you're just putting stuff out there. You're throwing lures into a pond that doesn't have fish. Kind of thing. And then the last thing, and probably the most kind of boring thing in all of this, is make sure you have a contract. Make sure you've got some, you know, you know, you know all about what's going to happen. There's a plan that's laid out. It's all in writing. Everything's kind of contractually kind of locked in so that you're protected as well as the other sort of parties that are involved as well. So the least creative, the least fun of all of it, but it's also offering the most kind of protection and understanding. And there's also that baseline of who's going to do what when. And it just feels— it's a little bit of insurance. It just feels— the whole project feels a little bit more secure. So that's kind of maybe the top kind of key things for entrepreneurs to kind of know and understand.

All right, let's get down to business now. Let's get down to business. Okay, so here's the thing.

Yep.

I, first of all, I love, I don't know what number it is. I love the one regarding asking the right questions because, and you guys, I am talking about you out there and maybe you too, when it comes to social media, not you, not you, Brady, but like my 5 followers that here's the thing. If you don't understand the industry, then someone's coming to you and saying, I have a tire company and I want to do marketing. And you don't know what a tire is. You never really used one before. You don't have, you never bought a a tire before, don't think to yourself, oh, I could just go to ChatGPT and it will help me, and I will then just follow ChatGPT, because it really doesn't work, right? You really want someone— in my mind, you want someone that has an understanding, an understanding of like what that tire business needs. So you want the background of business, but you also want to understand who are they going to reach out to, who's their target market going to be, do they sell to other— are they a wholesaler, Are they, are they a distributor? Like, what does that look like? So I love that you have a bunch of questions because I, so I grew up in the promotional products industry. So the XYZ that you were talking about of all the different marketing, but what I've noticed is when I jumped into the marketing of like LinkedIn, so I don't, I'm not an expert anything. I am, I've used LinkedIn for a long time. I understand it. Score Mentor for 8 years. So I understand business too. I've mentored so many. Variety of business. So I could say, right, but you know what, I don't— I'm not great with financials. So like if you were a financial wealth advisor, said, can you do the marketing for me and I'll pay you like X amount of money, I would love it, but I would recommend Seth Green. Like I would absolutely not want to do it myself because I don't understand that industry. And I think that if you are a marketing person, you got to look in the mirror and say, if I don't really understand something, I probably should recommend someone else. And that's where, like, collaboration, right? And like having partnerships. So I want to hear your answer to this. Am I right? Am I wrong?

No, you're 100% right. And that's kind of, you know, it's— and this is almost to where, as— let me maybe even take a step back. And even if you're going to hire a marketing team and this is where asking them how would they approach the project and feel good about them understanding how to approach the project so they know what questions to ask as well. And so that's kind of key is don't rush just to kind of hire a team, but find the right one that fits with you and that's gonna give you those goals because they're also, as you hire that right team, they're going to know what specific questions to ask. And that's really maybe even to circle that back around because it's not even asking, going out to the internet and asking, and this is kind of where It is your team versus like when you're in a small business or, you know, entrepreneurs a little tough because you're maybe a team of one, but, you know, interview and talk to the rest of your team to gather some of those answers or questions that they have. For small businesses, like bring your sales team in, bring your quality control people in, bring your— if there's a help desk, all of those things in because they'll help you give those insights that you wouldn't be able to ascertain on yourself by just asking, you know, the internet or chat. So we were, one of the stories is that we were in a, we did this beautiful brochure for a client and we were brought in to show the rest of the team and the sales. So I can see it so vividly, you know, to this day as I was showing everybody this new brochure, the sales guy at the back of the room is like, hey, you know, we don't send out brochures anymore, right? Or, you know, that's, you know, we haven't sent one out in years. It's great, but you know, who are we sending it to? Because we don't really use it. And you know, but just asking that sales team, okay, how are you communicating with your clients? Or what's the best way? How can we help you communicate better? That opens up the entire world of like understanding how they work, how they like communicating. Because again, it's that marketing so that, you know, the marketing will bring in the client to the sales team or whoever's doing, who's ever doing the sales. but then the sales team is then also too needs a whole maybe kind of different type of tools to kind of close those deals and everything else. But if you're just focused on that high level, you know, how to bring them into sales, you might be missing that, you know, one of the most important sort of steps of like, how are the salespeople closing it? Is there any, are there any marketing things that you could do or promotional things in that window to help them become more productive at their job and be more successful at their job? So So long, long, long, short story very long is that talk to your entire team. So ask them a bunch of questions, you know, do some deep diving on that, get them some research there. But that way you're gonna, you know, you're gonna be so much more insightful. And then what even comes out of that is that you can now start making some more, you can start making some more bolder decisions on how to connect and you can stand out a little bit more. If you worked in promotional products, I'm sure the most used colors are gray, blue, and black. Maybe red, you know, every now and again. But some of the, you know, some of the most interesting things and interesting, you know, promotional products you have probably sat on the shelves because no one was kind of bold enough to kind of go out there and use 'em. Meanwhile, those are the ones that everybody keeps 'cause they're the most interesting ones out there. Not those regular black pens everybody gets with the logo on it, but the more interesting ones. So the more insight that you have, the more research, and, you know, the more people you talk to about, you know, who the end client is, who the competition is, the more bold choices you can make to stand out in that market. Because as we both know, as everybody knows, it's just getting noisier and noisier, just the amount of content and stuff that's out there. So, you know, just know who your market is so that you can directly kind of, you know, get them excited about your product or service.

I love it. My dad used to say, he taught me this, he taught me a lot of things, but one of the things he said is, Adrian, if you're going to get your roof fixed, know enough about how to fix a roof so that you can look at it. You can say it looks good. Don't be like, it looks great, it looks great. Like, make sure you understand. If you're going to buy tires, know enough so that someone's A, is not going to take advantage of you. Once they know, I don't know anything about tires, so whatever you want to sell to me. Oh, $1,000 a tire? Okay. Like, so I, and I love my dad's advice because that makes so much sense. That you have to do some research before you go hire someone. And that would include— so, so this is so cool because I am 62, even though I know my energy matches like a 35-year-old. But here's the thing, is that you are— you've created a book, The Blind Spot, so that you don't make the same mistake as other people do when they're hiring someone into— like, they're hiring someone to help. Holy hell, that is really Fanta— I've never ever heard of this before, but yet it makes so much sense. I love that.

Thank you so much. And to go back to your— then just so that as big as the book is, it almost comes back to what your dad said as well. It's like what I'm trying to do is give them enough information so that they can— like, honestly, my grandparents, my parents were exactly the same. Like, just learn because it doesn't take much to understand how roofing works or what you should know or the materials that are there, all those, you know, all those things that, you know, you can kind of, you know enough about to ask the right questions. And that's kind of what is the premise of the book because also too, as I've been in the entrepreneurial world, it's like we all wear so many hats. It's easy.

Oopsie. Brady will be right back.

I guess part of it is like, just teach me like the roofing example. It's like, just teach me enough so I can know how to make the right decision. And, you know, it comes down to that. So this book is really gives you, it doesn't go that deep, but again, it shows you and walks you through the process to help you make those better decisions. And again, the blind spots to say, if you don't, just like getting absolutely, you know, washed over by the guy that's, or, you know, oversold by the guy selling you the $1,000 tires, you know, or the wrong tires or the wrong seasons or everything else. And that sort of, so that's really key. And that's, I saw my friends who in this world just get kind of been in really bad situations when it comes to, you know, the wrong teams that they hired. And all of a sudden now they put a lot of money into marketing, you know, into the investment of marketing and branding and all that stuff. And they really didn't have a lot to show up for at the end short of an emptier bank account. And now they've got, you know, and now they've gotta, you know, now they have to kind of do the same with less. You know, there's so many, I get a call, you know, at least once or twice a month being like, hey, by the way, can you help us? Because, you know, we thought we are, we don't have a budget anymore because it got spent because of a, you know, a bad, you know, just basically a bad marketing or a bad contractor kind of didn't do what they were supposed to do and they walked away, you know, with money and now we don't have anything. Can you help us? You know? And that's not the situation. I'm trying to alleviate that situation for the small businesses and entrepreneurs so that, you know, they know enough to understand and again, ask the right questions, you know? And then if you're not, here's the big thing, if you're not comfortable with the answers, keep on asking, but also to pay attention to sometimes that, you know, the gut as well. If it doesn't feel right, if they don't feel like they're a good fit, you know, there's so many people, there's so many other roofers and contractors and marketers out there, just, you know, ask your friends who they would use or who they've used in the past. And that's kind of— that's key. So that's what I was aiming for.

So, Brady, there couldn't be a better time because I will tell you, I have heard more on the news of people that, like, for instance, a woman in our community, an accountant, she had all great reviews. She was named 2022, 2023, 2024 best of.

Yeah.

And then all of a sudden she's not filing people's taxes. All the things— people are coming out of the woodwork, a lot of them saying, oh my God, she's a scammer, she didn't do this, she didn't do that. And no, but I'm hearing more and more of this. People, you know, as, as the economy— where, you know, we don't talk politics, but what's happening in the economy is making people nervous. And a lot of people are trying to take advantage. One of the easiest places is in social media, where I could say, oh, I could do all of this for you because Because in my mind, I could watch a YouTube video. Now I have access to chat. I can get AI, and then I'm just following it. Isn't it like that? But like, no, it's not. A, B, yeah, if you would like to waste your money, I'd be happy to send you my bank account. You could— not only money though, it's not only the hard money, it's also time. Like you, so, so you said, well, I don't have that much time. I've got to hire someone. You want to do it that quickly, and then you're going to have to onboard someone else. And a lot of times if you do have the right social media person, what you want to do is make sure that you're training them correctly too, right? So that you're getting everything. So with someone who does it, I could tell right away. I literally could tell right away, especially when I do workshops on LinkedIn. And then if I'm like sitting down and having meetings with someone and they'll be like, oh yeah, I hired someone and here's what they're doing. And I'm like, uh, wait a second. Like, No, this is not going as you like. Where's your call to action? Where's a bunch of different things? So I think that we all, we all need to hear this. I think this is really important, and I see it in the promo business too, by the way. Someone calls up and says, I'm having a trade show and I want to buy mugs. And the person who answers says, oh, I could sell you mugs, that'd be great. How many months do you want? I want, I want, right? And now they got— mugs are the shitty— no, Oops, sorry. The worst things to order— they're poop— to order for a trade show. Nobody wants to carry around your 12-ounce mug banging in your bag and hits a table, breaks, and you got a mess. So do not do mugs, okay?

Yep. No, no, but, but you, you really, you can't hit the nail more on the head there. Um, time is not refundable, so as much as you put into a project, you can never get your time back, you know. And that is, you know, it's not just your time, but also when you are as an entrepreneur, start a business, like you've got all of these, what goes against you in all of this is that, you know, what's key for making that right decision is kind of, you know, the more time you in protection of yourself and all your assets and all your money. Because think about if you're going down a road and you're building something, let's just say you've got a store, for instance, a storefront and you're selling cupcakes. Well, if branding, you're, you're now paying rent, you possibly could be paying for, you know, leases on all your equipment. Like, so there's a lot of expenses that are sitting there waiting for your business to grow. So the longer you take in, you know, something doesn't work out, if you don't hire the right team to market yourself, to brand yourself, to get the signage up right, all those sorts of things, that just keeps on setting your timelines back from when you can sort of really start making the business grow or do whatever else. So not only, you know, if you're waiting for a sign to go up and the guys, you know, you hired the wrong guy and said, oh, sorry, you know, 2 weeks in he's like, sorry, I can't do it. Now you got to find a new guy. And now he says, well, I'm really busy for the next week. And now you're, you know, you're well into a month from when your sign should have been up on the front of the building. And now, you know, you're still paying lease, you're still paying all the other payments for that business. So it's hard costs that you have to pay anyways, but you don't see any growth in the business, you know, because your sign's up. It's a weird analogy, but think about how you're paying for things. Um, when something doesn't go right, you're still paying for all those hard costs, you know, inside your business. So what, you know, spend a little bit of time asking those right questions so that you can, you know, you— and also build that team around you and, um, the good team around you. Spend that time doing the research, doing the interviews. Like, call them up, ask for referrals. You know, one of the biggest things, like, um, you know, with social and everything else is like One of the key things in the book is ask them for a referral from a past client, you know? And it's kind of, that's one of the key things that they could talk your ear off, show you the most amazing things, but honestly, if they don't like giving referrals, huge red flag, you know? It just shows like they probably don't have a good relationship with any of their past clients anyways. And never like, everybody knows what that means. It's kind of, you know, it just, you know, I'm more than happy to give you, you know, 5, 10, 50 referrals of projects and clients that I've worked with because they, you know, that they're, you know, So that's, that's one of the key things. And probably most like, if you're hiring somebody, one of the most important things is like, especially in this day and age where everything's— everybody could just create so many beautiful images on social or do that stuff, um, just online. It's, it's a facade, you know. And until you actually talk to another human about experience that they've had with somebody else, it's still just, um, just a digital facade that, that's out there. So call them, talk to them, because maybe, you know, this woman is getting more and more, like, again, the accountant that was there, you know, if you maybe just talk to, you know, one of the past employees or one of the past people that she hired, you might get that insight immediately and not, you know, as many awards that she's won, which are kind of sometimes very easy to acquire. You know, it just, yeah, just be very— I don't want this book to sound down and, you know, overprotective, but it's sort of, it is there to kind of be that insurance policy and and for you to, you know, get ahead of the game, you know, just be ahead of, of whatever kind of blind spots or whatever issues you might have down the road. And that's kind of, you know, one of that, your SWAT.

So Brady, here's one for you though. Here's one that a lot of people don't think of, but I'm hiring the guy, the sign guy, and he's like 2 weeks, 3 weeks. You know what first goes into my mind? Maybe he owes the sign company. Maybe he doesn't have money. Maybe he's unable to pay. So I think a lot of times referrals, well, Yeah, I would, I would want to see documented referrals, but even then, take them with a grain of salt. It could be mama and grandmama and brother and sister and aunt and uncle giving the referrals, right? Like, you don't know. But I will tell you, if I was working with someone, I was laying out a lot of money, and I was— they, they needed to buy merchandise that I'm going to work with them and they're going to order something for me, I would absolutely be doing a credit check on them.

Yep.

They could do a credit check on me. I want to make sure, because I have seen that way too often where your vendor is not paying their bills, and so you're not going to get any service, and they're going to try to delay until someone else pays them. And that is the worst. So the first thing— and as a matter of fact, when I used to work in the family business, people said, what sets you apart from other promotional products companies? I would say our accounting department. And they would say, what do you mean your accounting department? I thought you'd say customer service, you answer the phone. No, we pay our bills first. Yeah, that's the most important thing. You don't have to worry. But everyone listen to that one too, because that is very good advice. Give me what you have.

Yes, 100%. And that's kind of— I couldn't agree with that more, is that just getting— talking to the right people, get the right referrals. Even the last few jobs of seeing like, hey, show— and that's key because there's a lot of— there's so many people doing great stuff out there. But for every 10 people doing or even 100 people doing great work and who are honest about their work, there's always that one person out there, you know, trying to figure out how to kind of scam the industry in one way or another. And it's disappointing, but you know, there's just those people out there. So just protect yourself against them. And again, just, yeah, it's nothing's worse, or I guess nothing's easier to find a scammer when, you know, the more questions you ask and the deeper you go, because you know, if they can't answer some of those questions, honestly or deeply, then you know it's just, you know, they're just— it's, it's just a big facade and they're just there to kind of take your money and, um, you know, do the least amount that they can and just kind of keep you on the end of that rope or into that line for as long as they can, um, until you give up and say, this is enough, I got to move somewhere else. But then even to get your money out of that, good luck, it's never, never going to happen. But hey, there's just thinking about the amount of time and effort and also too emotional energy that you've spent trying to follow up with these people, trying to get it done. You know, just get your money back or get the project done. So in that, you know, just, yeah, to spend the time, spend the time, interview people, you know, and just, you don't, again, it's that long game. Don't put, don't feel the need to rush through it, you know, and just take your time to do those, do the big things right, you know, and sort of put those pieces in place because you really want to hire somebody especially in marketing and branding and things like that, because it's such a long-term thing and you're going to be doing so many things for the next 3, 6, 9, 12 months, is that it's almost like you're going to be in a relationship with them and you want to make sure you're in the relationship with the right people.

Exactly. So Yvonne, who I love, who's on ChatterSocial. If you don't know ChatterSocial, Brady, we got to get you on ChatterSocial because you got a lot to offer. No, people love you. It's a social audio video. It's an amazing— it's a, it's an experience where you are literally on your phone. And if you ever heard of Clubhouse, it's, it's like far advanced because you have video aspects. But Yvonne always says how you do one thing is how you do everything. And that makes me realize that it's not only so true, but like in the promotional products industry, you're talking about, I'm a brand expert, I'm a marketing expert. And then what I see is people's LinkedIn shows the opposite. Now I understand the cobbler's daughter has no shoes. I get that because he's so busy with everyone else. But we haven't heard the word copier in so long. That's a long time ago. You know, one thing you get the references, but why don't you look at what the person is actually putting out? What is that content looking like? Because if they're saying to you, well, I'm just so busy, I don't handle myself, then that's a problem too. So I often— and these days with LinkedIn, right, everyone, we're all getting those messages. So I do lead generation. I'm darn good at it because I understand strategy and I understand business. And I'll get— I've had a lot of people, their machine is like not working correctly and it's sending me and I'll get, "Adrian, why aren't you answering me?" And I'm like, "This is the 10th message." But first of all, why am I— like, we still have to go back to the like, trust. What is the whole— I can't think of it. But it's the people you like and trust and that you know. That really makes a difference. You really wanna be careful just reaching out. So I don't really understand, even though I do the lead generation, I'm always doing it in a way where people, I only work with people that actually have industry experience. If you said to me, "Adrian, I just started with promotional products and I've been there for 3 months and I wanna reach out," I'd be like, you need to like go door to door and sell pizza magnets. You need to sell magnets to pizza restaurants for like 6 months to learn the industry. Like, you cannot go out there and be like, I have a Cricut in my garage, and so I want to do work for you. That is like absolutely unfair. And I also believe in unreasonable hospitality. And so I will tell you some of my secrets is—

I, I love that term, by the way. That sounds— yeah, reasonable hospitality. It absolutely— like I, yeah, I don't know where it's going, but I just, I just, the sound of that, yeah, buy the book.

The book is amazing, and it's about anticipating what someone needs, like what your customer needs. I, my phone number, 386-631-4577. Call me. Like, I have no problem giving my cell phone number out. I say to my clients, I, by the way, I'm available all day. If you need me, reach me. If I'm up, I will answer. If not, I will answer right away the next day. But what I don't do Brady, is I, I don't say, oh, I only check my emails between 2 and 4 and 5 and 6. Like, because to me, if I want business and for me to be, it's going to be clients first, right? Like I have to consider them and really anticipate. So I think you're giving that groundwork, which I absolutely love. I do hope you come on Chatter Social, ChatterSocial.io, little bubbles as a logo. I am the co-host of True Crime. So which is really fun. We have a live audience and then it turns into a podcast. So really, really fun. But anyways, it's not about me. It's about you. I love your book. I love that people can get it. Is it available everywhere?

It is available on Amazon right now. But let me back up to that. Let me just answer the unreasonable hospitality of being a client. And I think to be the— not the opposite of that, but just maybe another way to look at it for my clients is that also understand what industry that you're in. And for yourself, being that salesperson, like, it is, um, I know for some entrepreneurs, you, you also need that window for you to do work. Um, so hence that, you know, um, maybe there's, there's really good ways or better ways to, um, augment when you're going to be online or off or things like that. But also be, be respectful of those. Um, if you're constantly like answering phones or things like that, or emails, it's also very distracting. So also be conscious of, you know, what, what will suit your clients best. And sort of if they, you know, for, for you that's in a, in a heavily sales, like, hey, and also promotional products, um, how many times, you know, are you getting I need this by tomorrow kind of calls? And that, that's that industry that's a very, you know, they're, they're not calling you 3 or 4 months out, or sorry, The good ones, the great ones, the amazing clients are calling you 3, 4 months out. But for the most part, you're probably getting a lot of like very short-term calls in that too, because they know those, they know the minimum windows up to order pens or the mugs that you speak of, like what they're shipping out. But usually they're kind of calling you on the edge of when it can be done. So it's rush. And hence, here's another thing with blind spots as well is like the strategic planning of like how long is it going to take so everybody can kind of do the project at their most optimal state. You know, so that, you know, we had a, we had a thing in the agency. It's like there's never enough time to do it. There's always enough time to do it again. Sorry, there's never enough time to do it right. There's always enough time to do it again.

So true. Well, let me just say this. I think that if you want to have those hours, but why tell me? Why tell me as your client? Why do I need to know that you're only answering emails from 2 to 4, right? Like, I don't need to know that. I'm going to send you an email and I'm assuming that when you open it, you're going to read it and you're going to send it back to me. I don't need an email telling me that you only open emails between 2 and 4. I find it weird. I just find it weird because I don't need to know that. I think that you'll end up making your own— like my clients know I respond pretty quickly. They know that if they don't hear from me that they could send me a reminder because that would be odd behavior. I'd rather have them think that's odd. Adrian didn't— I wouldn't want them to say, oh, typical Adrian, not responding again. You know, when you work with Adrian, by the way, Julie, you got to make sure that you send her messages twice. You will build that reputation. That's the reputation you want. You want You want the 2 to 4? Like, I just think sometimes people are— and what I'm hearing a lot, Brady, is this too. I, I don't need— I'm so busy. I'm like, God, I have more clients. I have clients going. I have clients that will take me through 2030. Like, why are you even saying that?

Why?

Like, I don't even think a real entrepreneur would actually say that, because then just close your doors. You've got enough business. You don't even need to— like, like, don't pay for your office anymore. I just— so, but I— and all that to say I absolutely love the fact that you have a book to help people because I will tell you one thing. If you said to me, Adrian, can you do SEO? I could do two things. I could say, oh yeah, I could do SEO. I have no clue, but all I have to do is ask ChatGPT, give me SEO words, or I will put you to favor who knows SEO. He knows Pinterest. So I think that if you are in, so if you're a social media or whatever business you're in, understand what you don't know. I don't edit. I don't, you know, do videos. I like— I do— I don't edit this, by the way. There's no like intro or outro. It's just me saying hello and me saying goodbye. It is what it is. I let people know. But the thing what I'm trying to say is that, is that work on collaboration and creating the partnerships that you need so that if you said to me, Adrienne, I need SEO, I know that person that I know, like, and trust, and that's someone that I'm finding on LinkedIn. And sorry for all of you, I know it's nice to send those messages out, but my God, you're wasting so much time. You can niche it down to people. I'm like, why are you asking me, a person that does LinkedIn? It's very clear if I want to work with you that you do LinkedIn, because I'm going to do LinkedIn better than you anyways. So I'm kind of confused with that. So I think people need to get your— you need to get the handbook. They need to buckle down. But I do have a question for you. So what is the workshop or podcast? What does that mean?

Oh, um, the— so I'm also building out some workshops as well. So part of it is— and also too, with, um, my— the, the books just got released as of January, so I'm on, you know, I'm, I'm in that and talking to people like yourself. And but also my goal is to start doing workshops for solopreneurs and entrepreneurs, is to build out an entire, um, like I'll come in and do, um— I'm doing one next week for, um, for like a real estate group. So for instance, for, for, uh, for RE/MAX, I'm doing a, um, like a 1-hour lunch and learn workshop for all of their, for all their realtors. And I'm going to walk them through the book. So I'm going to be doing lunch and learns and, and people like that for specific industries. So, so if anybody out there has, um, they want me to come in and run a workshop with their company, or if they're part of an organization, um, that could, you know, use this value, that's, again, I, I love teaching. I love sharing this. I think there's just such a huge gap. You know, there's nothing like this out there and it's such a, yeah, it's such a needed thing that there's, so that's, so when I say workshops or anything else or even conferences coming up on stage and like talking and teaching on how to, you know, just, you know, having people learn what it is. And so I can really, I can niche it down to a specific industry. I've worked with all of them through my agency. And so, you know, but just getting this information out there to help kind of give people insight and protect their business and protect their budget and also their, you know, their, their money and their time and everything else. But just inspiring with the right questions to ask and things like that.

So I love that. I was doing workshops on LinkedIn and I, I feel like I've done enough of them now. I'm going to the, like, regional associations in the industry and then having them invite me so that I'm going into their audience. And that is great. So I think that's perfect. I have a little comment in there to come into ChatterSocial with a link. Come in, you will love it. I think that I have not met anyone like you that is offering what you're doing. I think people absolutely need it. I love it. And what I could do too is when I am like, you know, like kind of like saying, hey, look at me, I teach LinkedIn, and then they like it and I've been getting great feedback. I could say, well, here's someone else that would actually be great because in the promotional products industry, there's not a lot of people that are doing social media correctly. Like, you know, they're like, oh, I do social media, but you're not even in the industry. You don't really understand it. And I could tell that you understand it, but if you could teach them what to look for so they're not wasting their time and their money and their energy, I think that having a handbook, and it sounds like almost like an onboarding handbook. So even when you hire someone, you know, what are the steps, the things to ask so that you are again, so because as, As a client, as a business owner, I onboard my clients, but a client should really be onboarding their supplier.

Vice versa. And when you know the capabilities, understand who they are and everything else, yeah, there's— you just put a lot— if you don't ask questions, you're just putting a lot of trust into the universe that this person's going to be the right fit without really kind of understanding. It's kind of like one of those, one of those, I really hope that they're going to work. Work without, you know, it's when onboarding, you know, onboarding a client or sort of like not onboarding, but sort of like when you hire anybody contractually, it should be as much of an interview process as if you were to hire them as an employee because essentially it's exactly the same. And that's kind of, it's, I couldn't, you know, for that specifically, I couldn't say that, you know, with more emphasis or more weight because they— you're, you're probably paying them more than— as I think about it too, you're probably paying them more to do projects that you would an employee, you know, underneath you at any given time. So I would even put more effort, more work into, you know, really, uh, interviewing them and understanding them. Because, you know, if you're a small business, you're probably hiring, you know, someone at, you know, a minimum wage or above to do stuff. But a lot of, you know, contractors are contracting at, you know, even if you hire an employee at $25 an hour, most contractors will start at probably anywhere from up here, $75 to $150 an hour. So, you know, right there, just be conscious. I've never put those numbers together, but that's kind of like putting that weight of just understanding when you're hiring that contractor, making sure that they're the right one. Because, you know, if you're a couple months into this contract and all of a sudden, you know, you're $3,000, $4,000, $5,000 down with nothing to show for it, you know, that's—

now you're gonna have to— I hear that all the time though, Brady. I hear that all the time. I hired this person. So that makes me really, really sad for people. So Absolutely. And what makes sense, right? If I came to you and I said, Brady, I'm a business coach, I'm 22 years old, I'd be like, okay, you may have graduated school, but you're— no, you're— no, but you may be an Instagram expert. I could see that. Or TikTok. Like, that could be your thing. That's your groove. So use the right wording too when you go to promote yourself. Right. Right. All right. So, Brady, we got the book, we got the information. This will be turned into a podcast. Is there anything else that you want to share that I didn't ask you?

No, honestly, I've got so much. One of the things I will share is that anybody can find me on LinkedIn, Brady Dahmer. It's B-R-A-D-Y. Actually, an easier way to remember it is Brady like Tom and Dahmer like Jeffrey, unfortunately. So that's for all your crime, you know. So that you can find me on LinkedIn. But why I suggest that is that if anybody has any potential contractual or sort of a contract I'm sorry, not contractual issues, but any contractor issues or any questions, reach me on LinkedIn. I will— I'm more than happy to kind of mentor anybody and everybody for how to get through these processes. So hit me on LinkedIn, just give me a note being like, hey, here's the situation I'm in, um, how would you help, what would you do? And again, that's something, you know, uh, I want to be a benefit to our industry and everything else. So they can reach me there, follow me there. I'm always dropping little, little notes and, um, new things I've got another version of the book coming out to help for people to work with other people in the creative industry, like working with writers or photographers or videographers. So I've got more editions of this book coming out with more content. So I'm always posting that on LinkedIn. So that's kind of—

Where are you located, Brady?

What's that? Where am I located? I'm in sunny Vancouver, BC right now.

So you are in Vancouver. I was going to say, okay, in the United States we have SCORE, which is, which is a, like a mentoring program, but they, they have workshops, uh, where they have small business, uh, people come into workshops. But I forgot that you are in Canada.

But, but honestly, we'll talk about all this offline because I think there's— I, I want to hear about Chatter and this other things. And I, I, I, you know, I, I'm matching the energy because I just love teaching this. I also really want to give that insight. And I was very fortunate very early on that I've had some really great mentors who just kind of like, you know, just gave everything. Like, you know, it's— it's nothing— nothing in life is better than a really great mentor or people that sort of pay it forward and give you all that. And I think I've just been very fortunate that, you know, just they, they paved the way for me to kind of do the exact opposite for, you know, small business entrepreneurs and people who, who need this insight to, to, to get that. And it's funny because someone was— someone just sort of said this, you know, they, they read the book and they're like, hey, it's kind of like having like a mentor in your pocket where A mentor is those people who show you which shortcuts you can take and which shortcuts you shouldn't take in your business. You know, those things that, um, you know, you can, yeah, that you can do better, faster, but there's some that you really shouldn't take. And, you know, having the mentors will be like, you know, timeout, stop, let's, let's learn what we need to do and then go to that next step. And that's kind of, you know, um, you know, where to spend your time and energy that's going to be the most useful for you and, you know, grow your business the best possible way.

I love it.

Yep.

So I also put in the chat, um, uh, look at CreativeCon and, uh, Julie and Dominic. It's amazing, amazing program. I think you would be fantastic there, uh, with your book and also the fact that what you're offering is pretty amazing. I love it. So, all right, I'll let you go. We're talking longer than I thought, so I apologize. But Brady, you're awesome. Thank you so much for your time. Oh, you're 3 hours behind, right?

Yeah, I know, it's, it's about, uh, 10 to 2 here right now, so—

Oh, I love it. Okay, good. All right, have a great rest of the day. If— oh, and we'll be, we'll be talking, and I love it. Thank you so much for your time. You're fantastic. Bye everyone. Thank you.

Thanks guys.

See you next time. Yeah, be good everyone. Be, be good people. Don't kill anyone. Be kind. All right.