Content Mastery: 4 Pillars Of Building Trust With A Prospect Before You Walk In The Door

So people coming in and I am going to share my screen and we are going to go into presentation mode. All right, so what are we talking about today? Today we are talking about content mastery, the four pillars of building trust with your prospect before you ever walk in the door. This is something, guys, that is more doable today than it's ever been before. It is more achievable. We have clients doing this every single week, going into meetings with prospects where they already have trust and credibility. And their content is a big piece of it. Their content is what helps them build this awareness and build this trust. And we've been doing it for a few years here at Complete Game Consulting. We're blessed to say that most of our business today comes from inbound meets and it's mostly from our content. So I'm going to teach you today the four pillars of building trust with a prospect before you ever meet them. Using content. That is the secret. So here's what you're going to learn. Number one, you will learn why most content does not work. Today we're going to have a big conversation about that. Number two, you are going to learn the four pillars we use to create content that turns our prospects into connections into inbound leads. And number three, what did I just do here?

Somehow I went back out of share mode. There we go, technical error. And three, you're going to learn how to build report and credibility with your target prospects before they ever meet you. And I am just gotta let people in, guys, as they come in. So I apologize. I don't know what happened here. It's not allowing me to let people in. There we go. Let me go back into presentation mode. All right, so why are you here? Well, number one, maybe you're here because you think content is pointless and you want to prove me wrong because you guys hear me talk about this all the time. You may not be booking enough appointments and are looking for more at bats or you're opening doors with prospects right now, but they're not going anywhere. And when I talk with insurance professionals today, those are the two most common question or conversations we have. I'm either not getting enough at BATS or I am opening doors, but man, they're just not going anywhere. What can I do?

Well, here are the challenges we are all facing right now. The insurance markets are tightening up, making it harder to win business. I don't care if you sell commercial insurance. You're really experiencing it if you're selling commercial insurance. Carriers are dropping out of certain markets. Big increases, no leverage Same is true for the health insurance side. I mean, carriers are given big increases. They're not willing to budge. They're not willing to negotiate as much anymore. It's a tighter market. You could argue it's harder to win business today. It's harder to sell insurance. Number two. Now, you couple that with the fact there's more brokers in our industry than ever before, and the traditional methods of prospecting don't work like they used to. And this is just a fact, guys. If you've been on my past workshops, you have heard me talk about this. The simple act of something like a cold call today is harder than it used to be because it takes more phone calls to get somebody to actually jump on the phone. In fact, it takes 18 phone calls today to get a prospect on the phone. We're calling more cell phones today than we ever have or trying to call offices. No one reports to. And if you're calling a prospect's cell phone, if they don't recognize your number, I can promise you they're not picking up. And worse yet, these little buggers here now say potential spam. So it's just harder to make calls today, guys. Let's just admit that. So you've got to have something else.

And so for most advisors today, they're working harder than they ever had, but they ever have, but they feel like they have nothing to show for. I talked to so many advisors today who are frustrated because they feel like they're working more hours, but they feel like they're falling farther behind every single week. Number two, they're consistently coming in second place, and it sucks. You know, second place is the first loser. We all hate it.

And you feel stuck because the sales tricks you were taught in the past don't work. So what do I do in a lot of people? It's interesting. A lot of people look at our company, Complete Game Consulting, and they have this natural tendency to think that we just work with, like, younger, newer producers. But I can tell you the majority of the calls we feel today are from veterans anywhere from 40 to 60 years old who've been doing this a long time. They're still trying to grow their business. And they're like, huh? Yeah, it's not as easy as it used to be. I need something else. And so that's what we're going to talk about today, because this is what most of you look like right now.

You're busting your butt and you don't have an answer, and you're just not getting a hold of prospects like you used to. So you have to have a different strategy now. Here's where we're going to start, guys. This was an absolute unlock for me. I saw this illustration here displayed to me by somebody I follow today by the name of Alex Hormozi. I don't know if any of you know who Alex Hormozi is. He became well known for his company gym launch, sold it for many, many millions. And he now teaches other entrepreneurs how to grow their business. But his, he, he talked about this strategy right here. These are the four ways you can reach out to a prospect. You can do cold one to one, which is how we were all taught. Cold, cold emails, cold calls. You can do warm one to one, which would be a referral, a warm email, maybe some networking. A lot of people in our industry have leverage what is referred to as cold one to many through the art of paid advertising, right? Billboards, sponsoring the golf hole at the local outing, whatever it is, or an ad in the local telephone book like we used to. But what most people do not leverage today is Warm one to many. What are you doing to get a lot of people to see you quickly? What are you doing to put one message in front of a lot of people at one time? All of Those techniques under Warm 1 to many are strategies you could be using today to create a lot of awareness and turn that awareness into credibility. So when I talk about content today, I'm not just talking about social media. It could be webinar content, it could be podcast content, it could be your public speaking content. Content is what you're going to use to grab attention, to turn that attention into credibility. So when you look at this right here, you have to start asking yourself, how are you going to leverage that box in the lower left hand corner more effectively today than you ever have without that box in the lower left corner, it is hard to win business.

One to one. Combat through cold calls and cold emails is going to take you a heck of a lot of time to win business these days. And it's going to be a lot of frustration.

So let's start with why your content isn't working today. So if you're already down this path of creating content, but you're like, andy, I'm giving it a shot, I don't think it works. Let's talk about that. Why might it not be working? Well, number one, it's very possible your content is, to me, centered. This is the number one challenge the insurance industry has today. When I look at the marketing that comes out of the typical agency. All they ever talk about is themselves.

Nobody cares how great you are. Nobody cares how long you've been around. Nobody cares about all of these amazing preferred partnerships you have. You're talking about the wrong person. That's mistake number one. Your job is to talk about about your prospects, not about yourself. Now, I'm going to share a strategy with content that gives you the permission to talk about yourself a little bit. But you can't make your entire strategy all about you because all your prospect cares about is what is in it for me. And if you're not answering that question, what is in it for me? They're not going to engage with you. Number two, it's very possible you're talking to the wrong people. When I look at 90% of the LinkedIn content that comes from the insurance industry today, it's talking to the wrong person. You've got a bunch of advisors who are trying to become popular with their friends instead of talking to their prospects. If you want to use content to grow your business, you have one job. Talk to your prospect. Your job is not to become an influencer in the insurance industry or become popular with your friends. Your job is to just talk and teach your prospects. That's it. And number three, and this is the biggest one, you're not consistent. I will watch advisors show up for a couple of weeks, post, be consistent. And then I'm like, where'd they go? Oh, you know, I got busy, things got in the way. Life happens. And you wonder why your content's not working. It's because you show up for two weeks and then you disappear for a month, and then you show up for two weeks and then you disappear for a month. You have to stay consistent. And when I go through our four pillars today, my goal is I hope you have clarity on what this could look like for you. Because clarity leads to confidence. Confidence leads to the consistency you need.

Because here is where most advisors sit today when it comes to content, mainly social media. In this case, they're only connecting with their peers. They are not engaging with their prospects. You're not building any credibility with your prospects whatsoever. And now you think content's a waste of time and you find yourself right back in frustration. Bill, Andy, this stuff sucks. It doesn't work. Now, I'm going to say something before I go into the pillars that I think is very important when it comes to content, and in this case, it's mainly LinkedIn content.

Content alone is not going to create the results you Want, I want you to remember the purpose of content is to create awareness. If you want to have success on a platform like LinkedIn, you have to still put the work in to connect with people, send them messages, interact with them. The war of winning business on LinkedIn is done in the messaging. It is not the content. Once in a great while, you might hit somebody on the right day with content and they reach out. But you need to remember LinkedIn is an awareness platform. It's not a sales platform. Content is not going to sell you anything. You have to still put the work in connecting and sending messages. I want everybody to know it's a very, very important thing. So let me tell you my story, guys. This was my epiphany. I was that guy I just described. I started creating content in 2014 because at that time, almost nobody in our industry was doing it. And I got frustrated pretty quickly. I started by writing articles on LinkedIn. I was sending some emails out to my prospects, but it really wasn't going anywhere. And I realized the reason it wasn't is because I was spending too much time talking about myself. I was spending too much time trying to impress my peers.

And I realized I hit a point about 12 to 18 months into creating content that I'm like, I don't know why people think this is, like an effective strategy. I think it stinks. And then something happened. 2017, Amy, my personal Amy, not my employee Amy, decided we were going to attend a Tony Robbins event in Denver. So we go down to this event in Denver. Tony Robbins is speaking. But before he speaks, if you've ever been to a Tony Robbins, eventually there's about five or six speakers that go ahead of him. And one of them was Gary Vaynerchuk. And at that time, I had no clue who this guy was. So this guy pops up on stage cursing left and right. I'm like, who is this guy? But what he was saying about content made sense. So I started following him on YouTube every morning. I would watch videos from him because he was pumping out ridiculous amounts of content. And I would just study him, study what he's saying, study what he's telling me to do. And after about what? After about two months of watching his content, I said, I'm going to go all in on this strategy.

Because what he was saying started resonating with me. He's like, if you want to grab attention, number one, you got to give before you ask. Quit just asking people for business. And he said, number two, if you give enough.

You will literally guilt people into doing business with you. I'm like, wouldn't that be nice? So I did it. I went all in, started creating content, and little by little started working. And over time, I started tweaking, adding things, doing other things, spreading where I was putting it, creating more content. And all of a sudden I realized five, six years later, I'm like, wait a second. This thing could turn into an inbound machine if I turn it up enough. And I can tell you today, guys, this is seven years later, 2024.

If it weren't for content, complete game consulting wouldn't exist. There's no way I'd have been able to build this company without content. Content, to me, is now our most important prospecting strategy, and that's my goal today, is to convince more of you that content has to be a major player in your marketing strategy. One of the reasons we don't do enough content in this industry is because we just don't give it enough credit. We do not put creating content on the same level of prospecting as we do a cold call. What I am here to tell you, it is equally important today because awareness matters. The market is noisier than it's ever been, and you have to stand out. Now, here's a couple facts I want you guys to recognize before we dive into the pillars. Write this down or take a picture of the slide. We trust people we see.

We trust people we know, and we trust people we learn from.

We trust people we see, we trust people we know, and we trust people we learn from. What does that mean? I want you guys to think about somebody you follow on social media.

Gary Vee's somebody I follow on social media. Now, here's the truth. Have I ever met Gary Vee? No. But do I trust? Does the guy have enough credibility with me? And do I trust him enough that if he came on camera and said, this phone is the greatest phone I have ever used, it is the best bang for the buck? You need to go check this out today. Might that convince me to actually go check this phone out? Probably.

But how is it possible that that guy could have that much influence on me and I've never met him? I don't see him on a daily basis because I see him all the time. I feel like I know him and I learn from him every single day? Anybody can make that kind of connection with their prospects. Every one of you can have that same influence over all of your prospects if you're willing to put the time into it. This is how you turn connections on LinkedIn into credibility through content. Now, here's another formula I want you to remember. Value times volume equals credibility velocity. What does that mean? When it comes to content, the more value you bring, the more often you deliver it, the faster you are going to build credibility.

The more value you bring, the more often you do it, the faster you're going to build credibility. So when you create content, you have to make a decision.

Am I going to lean into value? Am I going to lean into volume, or am I going to lean into both? If you just want to post create content every once in a while, it better be extremely valuable every single time if you're going to commit to daily content creation. Not everything has to be a home run because you're delivering volume. Some of my content, guys, some of our videos we put out doesn't get a whole lot of engagement, but we're still throwing it out there for the awareness. But I am going to tell you, the more you do both of these, value and volume, you're going to build more credibility with people before you ever meet them.

Now, here's what good content requires, guys. Effort.

Skill and attitude. You want to have success with this, you have to put work into it. Now, all of you have the skill. You wouldn't be in the industry or still in the industry if you didn't know what you were doing. You all have skills. You are all good educators and teachers. You know more about what you sell than your prospects do.

And it's your attitude. Your attitude is the biggest indicator of your success. If you're going to create content with the attitude of, I don't think this stuff works, I think it's stupid. Yeah, you're never going to win. But if you truly believe content could help turn a suspect into a prospect, into a conversation, you'll win because you'll put better energy and more effort into it. So let's dive into the four pillars. These are the four pillars we use here to build trust with our prospects before we ever walk in the door. One of the greatest feelings is when I get on a phone with a prospective advisor or agency and they say, man, I feel like I know you already because when I hear that, it tells me our content is doing its job. So I'm going to walk you through the four pillars we use when we create our content. Pillar number one, what's your brand? When you're going to create content, you have to understand what your brand is. Now, that brand could be yours individually.

Or it could be your agency, your company's Brand. But how do you want your brand represented?

And a very important, very important.

Piece of advice when it comes to your brand is make sure you're consistent. If you're going to create content through email or social media or webinars or speaking or podcasting any of those channels, if I'm seeing a different version of you all the time, there's inconsistency. And that inconsistency creates a disconnect. For me.

It'S just like content. If I see a certain version of you in content and then I actually meet you in person and it's two different personalities, you lost credibility. With me, there's disconnect. That's why when I teach our LinkedIn course and I talk about your profile.

Brand is everything. Consist brand consistency is everything. Your profile picture, for example, that better be an accurate depiction of who you are right now. Because if it's not and I see that profile picture and then I meet you in person and I see two different people, disconnect, loss of credibility. Consistency with brand is everything, guys. Now, when it comes to content, there's two questions I want you to think about. Number one, what makes you unique? So whether it's you or your company, what makes you unique?

What's gonna make you look different when you post content compared to others in the industry? Now, my advice is what makes you unique is your story. Whether that's you personally or your company, it's your story that's unique. Now, what I am going to tell you is not unique about you, is that you're a trusted advisor, that you have integrity, your customer service. Guys, that all may be true. But the problem is everybody is saying.

What truly makes you unique. When I answered this question years ago for me, I said, I'm a former pro baseball player turned health insurance advisors. There's not a lot of those. I'll go with that. You have to figure out what's going to make you or your company unique. That's how you tell your story. That's how you look different. So that's question number one when it comes to establishing what your brand's going to be through content. The second question is, what problem do you solve better than anybody else in your market?

Now, this is more of a belief, it's not a fact. I'm not asking for a fact, I'm asking for a belief. What do you truly believe? What problem do you truly believe you solve better than anyone in your market?

You'll see why this is important here in a few minutes.

So the two most Important questions to building a consistent brand is what makes you unique and what problem do you solve better than anyone in the market? It could be a product. Maybe you sell captive better than anybody else. Maybe you serve a certain industry better than anybody else. Maybe you attack insurance costs or coverage gaps better than anybody else. What is that one thing you do better than anybody else? That when doing it, you are in your zone of genius.

Now, pillar two.

Who are you talking to?

So pillar one is, who are you? What's your brand? Are you going to make sure that brand shows up consistently.

And looks different? But two, let's talk about who you're talking to.

Have you taken time to identify the person that you're trying to speak to with your content? This is where you got to be very careful. This is very, very true. When it comes to social media content, don't get sucked up in chasing likes and comments. Don't get sucked up and trying to create a bunch of engagement with your peers, because that does you no good when it comes to building business. Who are you actually trying to talk to? So, questions I want you to think about. Number one, who's your ideal client? Give this some thought right now. Who is your favorite client today? I want you to think about that. Who is your favorite client today? I want you to come up with the name of the company and the name of the person you work with most closely. Who is the one client you wish you could replicate?

Now, with that name in mind, I want you to think about these two things right here.

What do they look like demographically? What industry are they in? How big are they? Where are they located? What job title does this person have? You may want to try, you may be trying to speak with a certain to a certain job title.

More importantly, though, who are they up here between the ears, that's called psychographics. If you've been on our calls or worked with us directly, you know, we focus on psychographics. Who is this person up here? What do they believe? What do they stand for? How do they make decisions? How do they treat you? What do they think about what you sell? You see, the reason your favorite client is your favorite client actually has nothing to do with demographics. It has everything to do with psychographics. Because if you wrote down all of the things you love about them and you compare that to yourself, you two are very psychographically aligned. That's why they're your favorite. So when it comes to who you're talking to in content, you have to use psychographics as often as you can.

Now, how does this pertain to content?

If you're going to create a piece of content, especially educational content, which we'll talk about, you only have one filter from which to judge this piece of content.

Will that name on your piece of paper find that content valuable?

So if it's Jim Smith from ABC Construction, when you want to create a piece of content that's going to teach your prospects, just ask yourself, if I post this, will Jim find this valuable? The answer is yes, you post it.

Why is it important? Well, Jim's your favorite client. So if your favorite client loves this, guess what? Anybody else out there kind of like Jim probably gonna like it too. And isn't your goal to go attract more gyms?

That's why psychographics is important. Gang. Talk about who the right type of buyer is up here. I just did this exercise with a client this morning. Her ideal buyer is somebody in the executive suite who is no nonsense, doesn't like to waste their time, makes quick decisions and sticks with them. Wants things done right the first time. I mean, those are psychographics.

And I said when you create content, you need to be talking about that kind of stuff because that's going to attract those kind of people. That's why you have to be very clear who you are talking about. Most advisors today do not know who they're trying to talk to. Therefore they deploy what I call this spray and pray approach. I'm gonna throw a bunch of stuff out there in content and I hope it sticks. No, get laser clear on who you're talking to and stay in that lane.

Pillar three.

What is your message? So now we have what's your brand?

Who are you talking to? So how are you going to show up? Who are you talking to?

What are you going to say to them?

Your job in content folks is to be a good storyteller.

What you're looking at here is the seven part story framework that comes directly from the book. Building a story brand.

This is how you tell stories. There's a hero who has a goal.

But they've got a problem that's keeping them from the goal. Therefore, they need a guide who's got a plan that's going to help them avoid failure and have successful.

Now the key components in storytelling is understand who is what.

When I ask the question to the teams we work with and I say, so who is the hero of the story? You'd be surprised how often they go, isn't it us? No.

Your prospect's the hero. They're the person you're trying to speak to. You're just the guide. You're the person who's got the plan that's going to help them avoid failure and have success. However, when you create content, use the story framework to create your content, whether it's recording a video, a webinar, a podcast. Guys, this workshop I'm doing for you right now, if you followed how I walked you through, is literally going through the framework. I started the workshop by saying, why are you here? I'm describing the hero. Talked about what you're trying to achieve right now. We talked about what's keeping you from achieving it with content. Now I'm in the plan status. I'm giving you what to do. This is the plan.

Everything you do with content is one big story frame.

Even with when content is something like case studies, you got to use the story framework. You can't just focus on the plan and the solution. You got to go through the whole story arc. So when you create content, you need to make sure your job is to tell stories. We like to say, quit selling pitches, start selling stories.

Because the magic in storytelling is done through personal stories and education. If you want to create content that's effective.

You want to create content that turns connections into conversations on LinkedIn, focus on these two things right here.

If we go back to pillar number one, which is what is your brand? Who are you? Right? I asked you unique. And what do you. What problem do you solve better than anybody else?

The what makes you unique is your story. This is where I'm giving you permission to talk about yourself a little bit. Whether that's you, your company, what's your story. Why is that important? Well, it's important because.

If we build relationships virtually today, which is how most relationships start, especially when done through content.

I need you to get to know me a little bit. Because if I let you get to know me a little bit, two things happen based on who I am and what I believe and the things I'm into. If you're a prospect of mine and you're into those same things or you have similar beliefs, guess what? You and I are going to start liking each other. We're going to start aligning. You're going to start resonating with me, and I'm going to resonate with you. And over time, if you see that consistently enough, you're going to start liking me. We've never met yet.

Now the educational content is where you're going to spend the majority of your time. Why is that important? Because you got to teach your prospects. Remember, we trust people we see, we trust people we know, and we trust people we learn from. Trusting people you learn from is a big component. So my challenge to you is how much are you willing to share through content? Whether that's social media, email, podcast, webinars, public speaking, I don't care how much are you willing to share. The more you share, the better this gets. The days of I'm not going to share anything with you until I get the agent of record are over. You can't do that. No one's going to hire you that way. They want value, and this is your way to deliver before asking for anything.

So if you stay in these two lanes right here, you're going to have a lot of success. And the educational content should just be focused on what problem you solve better than anybody else in your market. That's why it's important to answer that question. Stay in your lane. Don't spray and pray. Focus on what you do best. If somebody ever says to you all your content talks about the same stuff, say good. That's the point.

This is something I heard Gary Vee say back in 2017. Gary said he gets blamed all the time for talking about the same stuff over and over and over again because that's. Because I think they're important.

Stay focused. Stay into what you do best. Now let's talk about personal stories a little bit. Question I get asked a lot, personal stories is how should I post those? Because those make people nervous. Right? When I challenge you to start sharing some personal stuff, right. Probably feel yourself getting a little. Has a little feeling a little weird inside because it's, it's uncomfortable.

And this is part of personal stories, guys. It's really important. Go back to the formula I shared with you at the start of the. Of this section of Pillars. We trust people we see, we trust people we know, and we trust people we learn from. One of the best ways for people to get to know you is to see you. So one way to do that is through video, right? If you create and record videos, that's easy. I see seeing you is a big, big piece of that. But another side of that coin is what if you're going to post a picture on a platform like LinkedIn or Facebook, or even in an email and you're going to include a picture with it? What should the picture be? Well, the answer is the picture should be you. You should be sharing pictures of yourself. And it's so uncomfortable because the humble side of you says Andy I don't know if I want to do that. That seems pretty egotistical. It has nothing to do with ego, guys. We trust people we see.

It's hands down a fact when it comes to content. Let me give you an example. Damon Rogers, one of my favorite guys. He's been through our academy. He's an advisor down in Texas. This is how Damon used to post on the left side. He's a great storyteller, but he would put these stories behind stock photos. Look at the engagement under that stock photo. 4 likes. 1 comment. I said, damon, you are such a good storyteller, but please start showing photos of you. This was his next post.

It's a story, but a picture of Damon. Look at the difference in engagement.

We trust people we see.

So when it comes to personal stories, guys, you have to show pictures of you. Just like we used to. Go get those headshots done at Target. Every year I want you to go get somebody to get some shots of you that you can put in content. Have your wife have your husband take photos of you. It's an important part of strategy today's guys, whether you want to believe it or not, it is. I don't like it, but it's how we get people to trust us.

Now, pillar number four. I talked about it earlier. You have one job. Talk to your prospects.

I know that sounds very simple, but it's a lot easier said than done. Why?

Because when you go on a platform like LinkedIn, you're going to get FOMO.

You're going to want to create a post that all your peers like.

But that doesn't help you grow your business.

The problem people have with good content that speaks directly to their prospects comes with less likes and it comes with less comments.

But it works. So the biggest pillar you have to make sure you follow when it comes to your content is once you know who you're speaking to, put the blinders on and just speak to them. I'm going to give you a little inside baseball of how we look at this strategy when it comes to our content.

I talk to you. If somebody commute their self, please, they got a lot of background interference. Somebody's in a public setting. Please mute yourself.

When we create our content for social media and for our YouTube channel, we have one buyer in mind. I'm trying to speak to that advisor who has been in the industry probably a few years. Books, not all that big yet. Still fired up about what they do. But they know they're not getting much help. They need a little Boost a little strategy, a little clarity to help get their career going.

That doesn't prevent us to with work to work with anybody else. But that's our person in mind when we create our content. It's that driven, disciplined advisor who's frustrated because they know their current results aren't matching their abilities. They know they're not reaching their full potential and they're frustrated by and they want, they need help, they need clarity, they need something. When we create our content, that's who we speak to. So when you think about who you're targeting.

Take the time and sit down and go who are we trying to speak to?

Who is this person up here?

And then your only job is to stay focused, put the blinders on and just speak to that person. That's why I had you write the name of your favorite client down, because that's the person you're trying to speak to. You're trying to go find more people like them.

Now this is also going to make you remember this most important tip with content. It's about performance over popularity.

When you're going to use content to grow your business, to turn connections on a platform like LinkedIn into conversations, into clients, into you have one job, guys just perform. It is about performance. There, there is no such thing as a celebrity in our industry. You just want to make more money, you want to get more clients, you want to grow your book and you want to grow your book with great clients because it makes your job easier. This is why so much marketing content in this industry doesn't work. Because you're trying to speak to everybody, nobody's listening and you often attract the wrong people. If you get laser clear on who you're actually trying to attract and create the content that serves them, you're going to attract the right people.

It's going to lead to quicker wins, better clients and a lot more career satisfaction. Trust me, it is a lot more fun to work with a book of clients than who let you do your best work, than having a book filled with people that frustrate the heck out of you.

But when I go back to that four.

Pillar grid of how you can reach out to prospects, I can guarantee every one of you is still picking up the phone. You're still sending out cold emails to prospects because you're probably buying lists, you're doing some networking, you're trying to ask for referrals, you may be even paying for advertising to try to get some attention.

What are you doing to leverage the one to many? What are you doing on social media? What are you doing with workshops and webinars? What are you doing with speaking engagements and events? What are you doing with a podcast? What are you doing right now to build this credibility, this trust and awareness? What I just taught you today through these four pillars is what you need to consider when you're creating content, whether that be social media, a webinar, a podcast, or even standing on stage in front of your audience. Follow these four pillars. What's your brand?

Who are you targeting?

What are you saying to them?

And then just remember to focus on that. Nothing else matters.

Now let's talk about where. Now you have all this in mind, okay, you've got clarity on your brand, your prospect, your message, you're focused on them. Let's quickly talk about where could you put all of this stuff? So when I think about the where, whether it is a podcast, a webinar, a video, a speaking engagement, I don't care if I'm in the business to business space. You need to be focusing on these three things right here. LinkedIn.

Your website. That's what that image in the middle is for. Your website and YouTube.

Why is that important? Well, when people meet you today.

They are most likely going to look you up and they are most likely going to look you up through Google. We all Google people. Most of you have probably Googled yourself at one point. Well, when you Google people or you Google a company, these three things are what are, what often show up first, somebody's LinkedIn profile, somebody's website or YouTube content.

So if you're going to create content you want to be, you want to make sure you are actively showing up in all three of these places so that when people look you up, all of this stuff pops up.

When people look you up and they see all this content.

You check the box. Credibility.

That's why this is important today, guys. It's called being searchable. With your content, you want to be searchable. When people look you up, when they look your company up, you want to be everywhere. Because if you're everywhere, you've got credibility with them. If they look you up and they can't find anything, lost credibility.

Now here's a strange thing that happens when you start becoming searchable. We see it happening with our clients all the time and it's just a funny, funny behavior. People start inherently believing you're kicking butt because now you're everywhere. We have clients that will say, you know, Andy, it's really funny. I've had like friends and peers reach out going, hey, Matt, you must be doing really well. I'm seeing your content. Keep it up. Why are they doing that? Well, whether it's true or not, the assumption that you're kicking butt because you're everywhere creates credibility.

This is why this stuff matters today, guys. This is the stuff between the lines that helps you win business that you usually can't tie directly to. But it's all of this stuff you're doing with content that's building the credibility and giving your prospect the trust to say yes to you. Here's some examples, guys. I'm going to give you some personal examples. Steve Gerlock on the left. I was in the Omaha Airport 2018. I was still selling insurance. I was standing in line for my Southwest flight, and Steve walks up to me. I didn't know who the guy was, and he shoves his phone in my face. He says, is this you? And it was my LinkedIn profile. I said, yeah. He said, steve Gerlock, great to meet you, man. I've been following you. I love your stuff.

So he got in line, and I did what every one of you would have done. Went on LinkedIn and looked him up. He's the HR director of a 5000 Life Group.

Do you think it made it easy to reach out to him after that?

Nancy Grasso, VP at OneDigital, I spoke there this last summer, and she literally said, as I about to. I was about to kick off a workshop on stage. She said, and, guys, I want you to know the only reason this guy is on stage right now is because of his content.

And then Donna, who's one of our favorite clients right now, we. We started working with her team in our first workshop, said, guys, Andy sold me that he was the right fit for us because of the content he's putting out. Guys, I don't share this to brag. I'm sharing to show you what's possible. Now, let me flip it. You all know this guy. Most of you know who the heck this guy is. This guy is winning more business off of his content than anybody I know in the industry right now. Why? He knows who he's talking to. He puts his blinders on, and he's consistent as heck. This guy shows up every single day. On the commercial side, Madison Baker is another one. She's a young producer. Guys. Her biggest. Her biggest fear was imposter syndrome. What? I get these appointments, but then I don't feel like I belong. I don't feel like I have credibility because of my age. She has started to pump out content. Not only is she winning business now, she works for Marsh McLennan. Marsh has her speaking to other people around the country on her team on how to do this stuff. And then you all know this guy. If you're on the health insurance side, this is what you need to do. If you want to grow your business, guys, you have to go all in on the volume like these three have. No, you don't. But I am here to tell you this is how content turns your brand, your awareness into more business than you know what to do with. We've been fortunate to work with all three of these people.

But it's the content that creates the credibility they need to win the business they want. I don't mean to beat a dead horse. I'm going to share this story one more time. Chris won an RFP last year, beating out seven other brokers for a massive organization. And when he won that piece of business, it was a career changing win. When he won that piece of business, they said, we saw your content on LinkedIn. It matched everything you said in the finalist presentations. Therefore you had the most credibility.

My question for you is, are you willing to put in the effort.

And are you willing to have the attitude it takes to do this right? This can be done whether you work at Marsh McLennan, the largest firm in the country, or you're a one man show right now. Content is how you build credibility no matter how big or small you are.

Now, I'm going to share something, guys, and I'm going to Q A. I just want to let you guys know.

I wanted to talk about this because this dovetails right off of what we just talked about today. Some of you may know we now run a social media sales academy.

You should think about joining this now that you've attended the workshop. If I've convinced you that content is important but you don't know where to start, I would seriously give this consideration.

Because what you're going to learn in the academy is how to identify your personal brand, how to identify your ideal prospect, how to prospect on LinkedIn, how to create engaging content, how to create a lot of it, and then how to build a weekly plan you can run every single week. Content is no longer a monthly plan, guys. You have to be doing this every single week. Plus, you're going to get a copy of our LinkedIn playbook. This thing is worth the investment alone. It is a step by step tutorial with coaching videos. Here's what you're going to get, guys. If this is something you want to learn more about, you're going to get six hours of live coaching every day, month, or six hours of live coaching. Six weeks. You will get a copy of the playbook and you're going to get free access to a month of all of our coaching calls on the Complete Game University membership site. This is 12 hours of coaching, which by the way, would normally be $7,000 if I provided 6 hours of 12 hours of coaching with the Playbook. But if you guys join our next academy, which is starting April 24.

It'S 1997.

So here's what I want you guys to do. If this is something you're interested in, I just want you to get on the wait list. We have a wait list we are building. All you got to do is take a picture of that QR code, snap it, you'll see where you put your information in, and that will get you on our waitlist. That wait list is growing fast. You're going to get the first shot to sign up for this again. It starts April 24, so we're a few weeks off, but we will be engaging you via email the wait list to tell you when you can start enrolling. We'll give you inside information to get you prepped for it. So if I've convinced you today that content needs to be a part of your game, I want you to go and get on the waitlist because spots will fill quickly. Chris, our new director of marketing is probably going to reach out to you as well. But I wanted to make you aware of this. Guys, this. We just ran our first one. We're at the last week of the first one and it's been a home run. So if you want to make content a part of your game plan, guys, this is what you want to be a part of. Trust me. Now let me go into the chat box. Do we have any questions?

Kevin, are you leveraging AI tools to help you craft your message to your audience? Kevin yes, we are leveraging AI tools all the time. A couple AI tools we use. Number one, we use a platform called Video AI to help us cut up our videos.

I love using it because it gives you 75 minutes of uploaded videos for free every month and it cuts it up, creates captions. So if you are somebody who's going to create video for content, I highly recommend a platform like Video AI that is V I D Y O dot AI Opus is another one that does the same thing.

Chat GPT. We do a lot of content with Chat GPT. What I love about Using our videos for chat GPT content is one of the biggest risks with chat GPT is copyright infringement. Because remember, if you're speaking to chat, chat's going online and pulling off a bunch of information. So if you just copy paste, there's that risk of copyright infringement. But if you're creating videos and then using your video content to let chat write things you can't copyright, it's your video, it's your voice. So yes, we are using chat video to create a lot of content in a short amount of time. How often for LinkedIn news newsletters, Brian? Yes, it is limited to one per week. I think you can do more.

I will tell you guys, if I'm going to do newsletters on LinkedIn, one of the reasons I love newsletters is because you can build a subscriber list which is a list of leads. I'm going to do this. Somebody asked, put the QR code back up, guys. Take a picture again. If you want to get on the waitlist. Put that, put that back up. I will open up the chat box this way. Newsletters, Brian? Yes, I would be using newsletters once a week if I could and I would be using chat GPT to write them.

I would work with chat GPT to pick topics that is relevant. Remember to the problem. You saw better than anybody else. And I would write newsletter articles on LinkedIn every single week. And as you write them, you're building a list of subscribers. As you build a list of subscribers, that is a lead list. These are people voluntarily wanting to get your newsletter. Good question. Somebody asked me or I get this question all the time too, folks. How much is too much? When do I become annoying with content? Well, if your goal is to deliver value, you can never post enough. If your goal is to pitch people, you will become annoying. Give more than you ask. If you ask too much in your content, you will become an asshole. Don't become an asshole. Give as much as you can with giving, you can't post enough.

Any other questions? Anybody want to unmute themselves and ask before I let you guys roll?

Andy. Brian.

Yes, sir.

So how do you differentiate between your post and your newsletters? They're a good way of is like the shorter content on the, on the LinkedIn post versus newsletter a little bit longer.

Yeah, I mean newsletter is just going to be a longer format, right? It's going to be a little longer than normal. Okay. But yeah, don't overthink it. If, if you write an article, a newsletter on a specific topic in a given week and then you make every single post the rest of that week around that same topic. Who cares?

We do that all the time. We'll write a newsletter article, okay? And then we'll pull info like a quote out of it. So maybe something I wrote or a quote. We might post a picture with it. Whatever it is, don't overthink it, guys. Remember, stay focused on what you talk about.

So, like, the post might be reinforcing what you say in the newsletter 100.

Yep. And while you post it, redirect people back to a newsletter.

Don't overthink this, guys. You don't need to come up with a new topic every single time. You can repurpose things. You can pull a topic you used three weeks ago and repurpose it. Just create awareness, guys. I. We post content multiple times a day. Today. These days, not everything's a home run. I don't intend it to be. We're just trying to create awareness. Value times volume equals credibility. Velocity. Deliver a ton of value. Continue to do it often, and you guys will build fast credibility, their prospects.

All right, guys, I'm gonna let you roll. Hit me up with questions. Hit Chris up with any questions. If you attended today, you are getting the replay. You are getting the recording. So we are rewarding you with the recording for showing up. Other than that, have a beautiful afternoon and start creating content.