Shedding the Bitch Radio welcomes Jessica Potts, Creating Buzz!

Hello and welcome to Shedding the Bitch Radio, where you can discuss, debate, and get advice on how to discover and shed the bitches of fear, insecurity, self-doubt, and negative mindsets so you can realize your dreams and life purpose and create and accelerate the riches you want in life. Join us here live every Tuesday at noon Eastern and dialogue with us at 818-572-2910. You can also chat with us at blogtalkradio.com/sheddingthebitch or share your stories on our website at sheddingthebitch.com. Whatever the bitch is that's holding you back from living your life to the fullest, it's not worth giving up the riches in life that you deserve. So call in now and let Bernadette Boas know what's holding you back.

818-572-2910.

Good day, good day, good day everyone. Welcome to Shitting the Bitch Radio and we are going Facebook Live. So if you— hi. So if you're on Facebook and you go to Brand X Consults, is the fan page, that's Jessica Potts, you can put that in as well. We are actually also doubling up and I'm in a studio here in Atlanta with Jessica Potts and we are broadcasting both video and audio. So if you happen to be watching us on Facebook as the intro was coming through, and we looked like idiots with no noise on Facebook Live, you now know why. But anyway, what?

It's normal for us.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is. But I'm gonna give you an intro to Jessica in a minute. In the meantime, thank you everybody, welcome to the program. This is our Tuesday Shade and the Bitch episode. We're gonna be talking about creating buzz with your brand and how you can generate it and how you can go viral and all that kind of good stuff. But before we get into all that, because I'll have your rich question and your Rich Tag to be using for today's program. Just a couple tidbits of information. Next week is Ask Bernadette, so it is our monthly show where the first Tuesday— where, you know, I switched it around on you, I make sure you're paying attention. But anyway, so our first Tuesday of the month, we are taking your questions, stories, and challenges. So you can put them out on Facebook, put them out on Twitter under Shedding the Bitch, You can email them directly to me at BernadetteBoas@sheddingthebitch.com. Even go to our Facebook— oh, I'm sorry, even go to our website, sheddingthebitch.com. Let me know what career, business, or life issue, challenge, or story question you have in order for you to move yourself forward. Maybe you're stuck, or maybe you're frustrated, or maybe you're not sure how to handle a situation. I do it for a living. People pay me for that type of advice, and here I give you the opportunity to get all those things addressed online all throughout the month on Shedding the Bitch on Facebook and Twitter. But I do then take your questions right here on our first Tuesday of the month episode, and you can even call in and have a conversation with me, and I can dig in as deep as you'd like me to.

All right?

So that'll be next week. And then the following week, we have a return guest. We've loved her in the past. Her shows are the most popular shows we have. It's Lynn Curry, and we're going to be talking about overcoming bullying. And again, with the school year just starting with your kids, with us getting back to normal workload after the Labor Day holiday, we have to be able to address how to handle conflict in the workplace. So you're going to want to stay tuned for that. That'll be the week after next with Lynn Curry. And then of course, I take any suggestions on guests or topics. So make sure you send them in to us. Deborah Parker, Deborah's out there. Hi Deborah, you might not be able to respond, but Deborah Parker of Parker House Virtual Services, you know, even reach out to her for any suggestions, any ideas if you need support within your own business regarding social media or other virtual services that she could provide. Be sure to go to Deborah Parker Virtual Services and on her, I'm sorry, LinkedIn page, Deborah Parker, and/or just go out to Shedding the Bitch and say, hey Deborah, Thanks for supporting our community, and I could use your help. All right, so be sure to do that. All right, so today's conversation, everybody, is around generating a buzz around your brand. Now, why is this important? Well, we all work really, really hard to get our business out there, to get ourselves out there, to generate stickiness, as I'll call it, and also to bring business. I mean, that's the objective of why we're in business, right? So what we want to talk about is you need to be having a brand that people are talking about, and yet you might be struggling in that arena. So our guest, who I'll introduce in a minute, is going to have you really consider what is buzz, what is truly buzz, because there's a lot of crap out there, there's a lot of noise out there, there's not necessarily a lot of productive buzz. So what is it and why is it important? How to create that buzz. So you think you're creating it, maybe you're not, and therefore how to create that buzz, how to make your existing brand exciting. And you know, you know how hard I work at this on a regular basis, and yet at the same time, I'm not sure if I'm leveraging all the tools that are out there and all the things that I could be taking advantage of. And then we're gonna have you thinking about reevaluating your brand. Is it bringing the value to you that you're looking for. So your rich question I want you thinking about as I introduce Jessica and we get into this conversation, I want you to be thinking about, is my brand— this is you talking to yourself— is my brand trendy and therefore creating buzz and people talking? Hashtags, or what are these called, these things? I can't remember.

Quotes.

Air quotes. Air quotes. Buzz and people talking. Or is it lackluster and you're not getting the stickiness or the attraction toward your brand? And how do you know? How do you find out whether or not you're lackluster or you're trendy and people are talking? Alright, that's your Rich question. I want you to be thinking about that and answer for yourself. Trendy? Lackluster? Do I know what I'm doing? Do I not? And then our guest is going to help you with that. The Rich Tag. Please go to Facebook and Twitter. Let us know your thoughts, comments. You can retweet whatever it is that we're, you know, talking about. Deborah's certainly out there, and you can retweet her stuff. Use the hashtags, two of them. There's always #ShedTheBitch as a hashtag, and then today's hashtag specifically is #Branding. All right, #Branding and #ShedTheBitch. All right, let's dive into this. And again, if you're listening and any chance you're listening live, go to the fan page on Facebook, Brand X Consults. You could also look up Jessica Potts, but Brand X Consults, because we are coming to you live, right? Right, it is exciting. I'm very excited. And, uh, so you can check in on Facebook Live and check us out there. Okay, let me introduce you to this lovely lady that some of you can see and others are just going to hear. But Jessica Potts worked in corporate America with several top Fortune 100 companies such as Fandango, Papa John's, Disney, and Apple in growing their market share with launching products as well as working within their brand models. After years of working long hours and growing companies' bottom line, she decided to start her own firm in late 2015 to work with small to mid-sized clients on their branding and marketing strategy. Jessica has been quoted as saying, what sets me apart from other firms specializing in marketing and branding in is that I have worked with some of the largest brands in the world. I've had several wins, but also a lot of failures as well. You learn from what works and doesn't, and I am able to pass that knowledge down to smaller companies. And we talk a lot, Jessica, here about how to actually fail fast because they're the best lessons and the best success stories.

Right.

So thank you.

Thank you. Absolutely. I'm excited to be here.

Yeah, and I was so excited to have Alana guest because we've had people from Australia and London on the program, and so we're in locally and decided to go live. I'm questioning it because I get to see like the wrinkles and the bags, and I totally understand why people go running out for Botox when it comes to all these selfies and videos.

But anyway, I did, I did a facelift yesterday.

Yeah, she's also about 15 years younger than I am, maybe even 20.

No, that's not true.

But anyway, we're gonna get into this conversation. Unity here, welcome back everybody. We're talking about community, we're talking about, you know what, when I left corporate, I gave up the polish, I gave up the just having to be perfect and having to be so rigid, and you know, I don't care. I'm here for you, so we want to make it, we want to make it productive. All right, we're going to dive into this conversation regarding branding because, as you know, if, if you run a business or work within a business, if you are the marketing branding person or you're in sales or maybe you're in part of the HR hiring, your brand is absolutely critical to whether you can attract employees, attract clients, build equity in the business, so forth and so on, right?

Absolutely. Your brand is how others perceive your company. So we always want to make sure that the perception is what you actually want to put out there and not what is created over the years. Or, you know, maybe even your brand hasn't been specifically showcasing your best, what your niche is in that particular industry.

Okay, so the first thing I'm going to ask because it comes up to me a lot is what are people confused mostly about when it comes to branding versus marketing versus your logo versus graphics? What do they need to be focused on when it comes to branding?

So when I first meet with clients, that is definitely a question because I think that a lot of people really just think that it's stationery and their logo, you know? And they're like, it's a sign on the front door. I'm like, no, no. So like, you know, it does involve colors and things of that nature. But whenever I meet with a new client, I always say to them, you know, name 5 words that describe your brand and how you want others to perceive you. And everything comes from that. So like, you know, if your 5 words, you know, is like loyal, you know, honest, great customer service, the best products and technology, then those 5 words should really be portrayed in everything. All of your content that leaves on social media, all of your emails, um, anything, um, if you have a store, any of your customer service really should be wrapped around that, that those 5 core words. And that's really what I tell people. So, you know, marketing and everything does have to focus on those 5 words and should contain that feeling from those. But brand, the brand is how you want others to perceive your company.

Okay, so I was even working with a client recently, even— what's today, Tuesday? So Thursday. And they were so focused on whether or not they can get the URL. Like, that was their idea of branding is I'll brand my— in, you know, my portal in this case, and I'm gonna brand it around whether or not I can get that URL. What's, what's that about?

Well, I, well, I mean, I think that that is a big, you know, thing in our, in our industry is making sure your website and everything like that, especially when you go to social media, all have the same exact name. Um, like mine are all Brand X Consults on my Twitter, on my Pinterest, on my Facebook, on my Instagram, so that it keeps it consistent. But you do want to make sure, but it should, your brand should still be from what that passion was that made you go and create this company, because most of my clients have left corporate America and they're passionate about what they do, and that passion needs to shine through on your brand.

Right. So in this case, he had a very specific idea of what he wanted his brand to be and what he wanted it to mean to the industry.

Right.

And unfortunately, the URL was gone.

Okay.

And I said, well, you're gonna throw away your whole brand and your whole meaning, right, because of the URL?

Yeah, well, sometimes you could shorten the brand name because essentially if you have a shorter website name, URL name, it's going to be more effective in the long run. I mean, you know, if people have these long massive names, you're not going to remember that. You know, you have 2 seconds, 3 seconds to really engage someone, and so maybe even shortening that name and then even shortening your names on your social media would be helpful as well.

Sweet. All right, so that first tip for you is 5 words, 5 words that are meaningful to what it is that you are doing and offering to the, to the world, right?

And I just want to also talk just a little bit about creating your brand. You can make up names, you know, like Google was made up, Google, Adidas, uh, Nikon. All of these names are made up, but they generated buzz around those names to make them names that we all recognize today.

Right, absolutely. Yes, don't go to the dictionary necessarily or the thesaurus. You can actually put letters together and create your own word.

Exactly, exactly.

That's cool. Okay, we got a little bit technical first, but that's okay. We'll come back to the kind of a broader subject. So this whole conversation is around generating buzz, and I think a lot of people have some confusion as well as to what's good buzz, what's bad buzz, or really what is buzz?

So when I reference like generating buzz, what I'm really discussing is the chatter that people are talking about your— around your brand. And, you know, we want it to be good chatter and not bad chatter.

Yeah.

So, you know, when I talk about generating buzz, we talk everything about like creating programs that really show, show your program. Like I always say, there's loyalty programs and then there's elite programs for your best customers. You know, going for low-hanging fruit on the tree is another thing that I say when talking about generating buzz, and that is going towards your competitors who have customers that are disgruntled. Because when they are, you know, when they start to get like a good experience, they're the first to talk about your business and your company and create that chatter and that good buzz. So, you know, creating different marketing scams marketing schemes—

should've known that—

I know, around, you know, what's going on in your business is detrimental to be able to generate buys.

All right, so they have the 5 words, they create kind of their brand around those 5 words, they represent that through anywhere from loyalty programs to elite programs to low-hanging strategies. Now I get a lot of people that will tell me, and, and quite honestly, I'm victim of it myself, where they're not seeing all this— what you're calling, you know, people talking. So they're not seeing people engaging. They're not seeing— they're seeing views, they might even be seeing likes, but they're not getting people to actually type on their computer, right, or on their phone. And is that something to be bothersome, or is that just the way it's going?

Um, you know, I always say— I'm assuming you're referencing like social media. Social media, when you're referencing that, or are you referencing—

Well, even on your website, you know, when you have products and they, you know, ask for reviews or they have blog posts asking for comments, or, you know, because that's the only place that they're really going to be tangibly able to see the buzz they're creating is through those networks, right?

Well, in essence, that's on a virtual sense, and in that sense, you kind of have to incentivize people to to leave feedback, you know. If it's products and things of that nature, maybe say, you know, offer 10% off their next order if they leave a review, you know. Because a lot of times we see a lot of reviews and they may be negative. Those are the people that are most prone to doing that. So, you know, incentivize people and give them a reason of why to review your products, you know. Reaching out to them after they purchase a product on your website or your blog or whatever and Just, you know, actually pose those questions and ask, you know, what was something great we did? Hey, what was something that we were maybe lacking in that we could improve on?

Right.

Because any of that is generating buzz and talking, you know, and then generating buzz, like, you know, if you own a store, or I always like to use restaurants as a great example because restaurants are guaranteed to have new clientele when they first open because everybody wants to try it out. It's the new, you know, the new hot happening thing on the block.

Right.

However, they tend to really, if they're not hitting the particular crowd's needs and desires, their customers, they need to figure out what that is. You know, not all restaurants are made to have the best pizza in the world. You may be near a college campus and closing at 10 PM and that's a fail, right? So you start generating buzz within saying, we're going to be, the pizza is going to be ready to go right when you get here and it's going to be open until 2 AM. I mean, right?

So you make a value statement. Almost like a promise. As a speaker, I'm always told, you know, you need to make the promise of what it is that your audience members are going to walk away with. So it's almost like make the promise. Maybe you are that, that college pizza shop that's going to close early or close late or have cheap pizza versus high-end pizza, right? And then follow through in delivering on that promise, and that's what you want to generate the buzz from.

Yeah, absolutely. And then, you know, you get them in by saying like, hey, you don't even have to wait for your pizza. It's, you know, fresh and ready to go when you walk in. And that way people, you know, that is hitting what your customers need. I think the biggest, biggest problem with generating buzz is that brands do not know their customer demographics and their customer base. And that is the biggest, biggest problem. Now startups have like a little less of that, you know, tendency. Since they tend to have a little bit new, but like keeping your brand trendy and knowing what your customers are buying and doing is a prime example of creating buzz.

Okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna back you up a little bit though because that is critical. All right, so the challenges that you see, and we'll take one at a time, so the challenges you see when you first go and work with someone, or maybe you've worked with them for a long time and like you said not only startups but established companies, is the fact that they don't know their audience. They don't know who their customer is. Is that what you're saying?

They don't even— most companies I meet with do not even know the first 5, going even back 5 words that they use to describe their business. So they've been doing business this year and just, you know, like going at it, going at it. And it's— they may have been successful at that point, but then they try— they tend to see that their company is lackluster and it's not producing and they're not getting a lot of referrals, which comes from buzz. So that is—

Okay, so if they don't know their demographic, if they don't know their audience, how do they go about understanding their audience?

Well, for me, like, I go in and I start doing market research, you know, like, you know, your company's been around 20 years, are you now— well, you market differently for each generation. So you need to look and reassess, like, you know, who's buying our products? Have we asked our our customers what their needs and desires are. You know, are we moving our marketing towards the future? You know, are we still marketing, doing the same marketing we did in 1985? And that actually just happened recently with one of my clients. They weren't even on social media. So, you know, I mean, you have to keep up with the market trends.

Right. Well, I think it's interesting because one, if you look at the gamut of the type of businesses out there, you have the startups who think they can sell everybody and anybody. So you go to these networking events, it's like, okay, so who's your target market? Oh, well, anybody wants this can of soda, right? Well, no, they don't. Yes, you know. Yeah, so that's one thing, right?

Yeah.

Okay, then you have maybe the kind of the 3 to 5 year person who now they're kind of evolving and they now are getting a better idea, and yet they have to revisit what they're doing.

Absolutely, because a 3 to 5 period is still— the market is about evolving, you know. I mean You have to, you know, if you're still selling Walkmans, you know, and you haven't evolved over the years, your product is outdated. So, you know, right.

Well, I found it very interesting is, um, I came across a publicist, uh, uh, book publisher, publicist, publicist, publicist, and this was like 5 years ago when I was about to publish my book, and they weren't doing social media. As a part of their marketing publicity. And I thought, how can you not be doing social media? It was just kind of on the, on the cusp, you know, it's just starting really creating a lot of, a lot of activity. I'm like, how is it you're not there yet? And they're like, well, we're not, we're kind of, we do traditional. I went, well then come back to me when you do, right? Because that's the issue, right, is if they're not keeping up with where the market's going, they're going to be left behind.

Correct. And you know, like, you have to also know, like, that still goes back to your customer demographics. I mean, if you're talking about millennials, they're on their phone constantly. And if you're not hitting them through the social media networks, then you're missing out on a very— you're missing out on your entire customer base.

Now I want everybody to know Jessica can be very, very, what would you call it, provocative in her responses. So this is like being tame. Basically what she's telling you, and I'll do it for her, is you need to know who the hell your customer is in order for you to like really— if you want attraction, if you actually want to convert your spend into some profit and income, you, you need to get this kind of nailed down. So, right, 5 words to describe your business will help you then get to your demographic. What is the other, um, what's another challenge that you run into when you start working with a customer, or even when you've been working with them and maybe they're just not getting over something.

I think that, you know, when I go in to meet with clients, I think their biggest problem is, is that they're too close to their brand to be able to, to really reevaluate. Because you should be reevaluating, like, when you get your sales numbers for the quarters and be like, okay, well, this is, you know, this is a constant progress, you know. And what may have worked 20 years ago isn't necessarily going to work now. So I think that that is my number one goal. My number one, what I see as a number one problem is really just being too close. And you know, a lot of these companies are their babies.

Yes.

And they don't want to change the baby because they say the baby's been making, you know, been making money all this time. But in all honesty, that's probably— and they're not even able to like fully evaluate and be able to do that. And sometimes having someone that's outside who I'm going to come in, I'm going to be objective, objective, but I'm also going to be very, very open and honest with them and say, hey, you know, like, you, I don't, you maybe try thinking about it this way, right?

Right. No, and you know, well, I'm a consultant too, but not in the marketing space. So yes, having that third-party person asking you questions, getting you kind of uncomfortable, because one thing we need to learn as business owners and even professionals as a whole is Being uncomfortable being uncomfortable, right? And having people like you challenge us to make sure that we're thinking outside the box and we're not getting kind of pigeonholed.

Exactly. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, because I have to admit, and I'll use myself, and we're not even going to take breaks this hour because we are going live today. This is the first time we're going live on Facebook, and normally this broadcasts through BlogTalkRadio, and which it is doing that too, where I would take breaks. But since we're going live broadcast and we don't want to sit here not making any noise for you. We're just going to keep talking. Um, but I had that whole situation with myself, uh, with shedding the bitch, is because when I left corporate and I was putting my book out there and I was putting my business out there, I did not want to go back to corporate in any way, shape, or form. You know, even though my book was Shedding the Corporate Bitch, that wasn't the market I was going after because I just didn't want— personally, I just did not want to engage with that market, right? Well, 3 years in, and my, my coaches and my advisors— until I got one that was just like slapping me over the head saying, Bernadette, your book, your brand, your screenplay, your radio, it's all about shedding the corporate bitch. Yes, it's, it's about all business career issues, but corporate is a critical customer base for you. You have to start going into corporate. And it took me, I would say, 4 years in before I decided that, okay, yes, I have something to, you know, to provide and share with them that they could leverage to improve their own, you know, businesses. So therefore I will.

Right.

But you're saying that, you know, one, and I do want to remind everyone because I haven't just yet, so hold on a minute. I want to remind everyone, you need to leverage people and experts like Jessica because of that third-party objective, unbiased, and they're, they're going to provide you that sounding board that you need in order to kind of figure all of this out. So Jessica Potts, BrandXConsultants.com. I want you to be sure to go and check her out and check out the services she provides and all that kind of good stuff. And like she said at the top of the hour, she makes it really easy, which I love my guests to make it easy on my, on my community. She makes it easy to connect, connect with her. So Brand X Consults is going to be where you can find her on Facebook, on Twitter, even her Instagram. And, and she just— can I say who you just started to kind of do these short videos as well, um, providing you tips and experts and all that kind of good stuff. So be sure to, um, before we run out of battery. Be sure to go to her Facebook page. Do you want to plug it in?

No, it's fine, it's fine.

Um, so be sure to connect with her, and should you have some branding and, you know, any type of challenges, um, in regards to what we're talking about today, then be sure to reach out to her as I try to get something out of my eye. Um, and then, um, wait, there was one more thing I wanted. Oh, your email, Jessica @brandxconsultants.com. Okay, you have no reason not to like hook into this girl, and she is an expert, and she is going to give it to you, um, in the way that you need it. But in order for you to move forward, that's her goal, is to get your brands buzzworthy and people talking. Okay, so we have problems— have been, um, demographics. They don't know I'm being too close to the situation. Is there anything else before we move on that we want to kind of make sure they're aware of how they're getting in their own way with their branding?

Well, and you know, also when you talk about like social media, I always tell people, I say, you know, if you're a finance person, like, you know, Instagram and Facebook may not be your go-to, but LinkedIn would be great. So there is something for everybody out there, but you have to really choose. And I always say too, like when you're really looking at, you know, branding yourself and and being out on social media, pick one platform. If you don't have a social media person that's doing it, it's easier to do one really, really well than three that are just half-assed. I was gonna say that, but she told me to watch my language today.

But it's my program, so I can use what, you can use whatever language. I just told you not to use the F-bomb.

Yes.

Which is a, you know.

Well, we know each other on a social.

On a social basis.

On a social level.

Aren't you guys just loving this?

I know.

Okay, so half-assed if you're doing too many.

Yeah.

So it's almost like go narrow and deep versus wide and shallow.

Yes.

Narrow and deep, pick one, do it well, and then add a second, or then add a third.

Absolutely, because like, you know, a lot, every, a lot, it's always almost shocking to me when people don't have someone that's dedicated for social media, especially when their company is larger. I mean, smaller, I get it. I get it.

I was gonna say, please.

Please. I'm over here in the morning, he's like, oh no, I'm running out of time. Okay. So anyway, I, but that's really, really big. And then also, I don't think that people really think outside the box anymore. And I don't think that they're really creating out like marketing to really hit their, to their, to hit their customer base.

Traditional marketing, you mean? They're relying too much on the 140 characters and they're not like really doing other things.

Yeah, you know, like creating, like I'll use the restaurants again, like as an example.

Sure, sure.

But I worked with a restaurant recently and they do a phenomenal wine list. So I was like, okay, well you have a loyalty program, which is great, but why aren't you making a program for like your elite customers, right, that are, that are doing like, and have them come for an underground wine tasting, right? So they come in, you have all these wines out, you may have just changed your menu so you can do some small pairings like tapas style of your food. And then, you know, I partnered up with a Wine Street down, a wine store down the street and they got 20% off of those wines. So this is really a win-win for everyone. You know, they got to show off their wine, they got this wine store down the street, was able to sell some wine at 20% off. And these people are talking about that because they were invited to this underground wine tasting. This is—

they love that.

They love it because it's prestigious. It's black card. It's, you know, special, special. And millennials love that type of treatment. And so, you know, that is what is the buzz that I talk about when I work with people is to generate is this is something completely different than what anyone else is doing.

And you could do that online and offline. And I do know, and I do know that, you know, a lot of startups, they rely on the social media online because most of it is free unless you're gonna start paying for Facebook ads and whatnot. But at the same time, it is low cost to entry, right? But at the same time, I think you're absolutely right. You know, it's almost like why I started doing my bitch parties and started doing things that were out in the community, not only just local but nationally, because you do want to kind of blend the thing, or, you know, blend strategies, blend initiatives, blend programs, because you don't want to just rely on one. You want to get creative and out of the box and be different if you want to create buzz.

Absolutely. And when I say, like, I'm working with a company right now, it's a complete and utter startup, and we're like, we need to sell X amount of subscriptions. And I'm like, so we have to, um, Oh, you can't see my face on the radio show, but that was a holy hell, what did I get myself into face. So, you know, when I said talk to startups about generating buzz, it should be about 2 to 3 months before you launch your product. You need to create a fan base and following. And how you do that is you, you essentially use social media, you get out there and start talking and become a, what I like to reference as an industry leader. You start giving them information. You start, you know, kind of hyping that product up or, you know, your blog or whatever it may be. I work with some self-bloggers too on getting them, you know, getting their brand—

Visibility.

Right, visibility. So you really start to penetrate the market 2 to 3 months earlier. So when you have that fan base and you, you know, like with— we'll use Bernadette— when she releases her next book, she has an incredible fan base that she has, you know, created crew through the years, so she already has a market to sell her book in. Right.

I didn't even have to pay her for that, but thank you for the plug. Well, and I think it goes a long way because for right now, for instance, there's this gentleman that I actually am going to introduce you to, and he doesn't necessarily want to talk about his particular launch, but what he's going to do instead is he's going to start engaging with kind of his client base and sharing their business information and their promotions and their blogs and their content as a way to promote them and give them, you know, a bigger audience than what they have currently. And in that way, they're going to build their own base to when they're ready to launch in 6 to 9 months, then they've already gotten not only their customers who are very— which are going to be B2B, So their customers are going to be very attached because, wow, this company helps promote me and I didn't pay them or ask them for that. But at the same time, the end customer is also going to be kind of pulled in as a result.

Absolutely.

Is that a good idea?

Absolutely.

Because I'm not the marketing guru, she is. But when he told me that, I thought, okay, Jessica will probably, you know, probably not approve but advocate that.

Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of different ways in going about that.

So, um, okay, so if I wanted to— and I'm sure everyone listening, uh, and we've got quite a bit of people online, uh, both, uh, video and on the radio show— if I wanted to put kind of like the first 3 things I should be doing, like the— what are the first 3 steps beyond what we've talked about already? What could we— what would— could we be— what could someone out there be doing?

To generate buzz, to generate buzz. So, you know, making sure that your, your brand is keeping up with the market trends, making sure your products are there. So, you know, I think we may have actually already talked about this. Sorry. So, but I think that that's the thing, you know, I always talk about brands like American Express and Coca-Cola, Johnson Johnson. I mean, they started 100 years ago, but they keep their marketing and they keep their product lines trendy. And they know that there's different marketing for different generations. And that's probably a big thing as well, is making sure that you are doing generational marketing. You know, Brand Xers are a little different to market to. They tend to like labels, prestige, things that they like, experiences. So those are, that's, you know, things that you want to, you know, go to in marketing. Baby Boomers are more about You know, I always think of the Uncle Sam sign when he's like pointing at you and he's like, we want you. And that's how they actually view marketing as well, is they want to be direct, direct, and they need to know that their money is needed and that their money is making a difference to whatever it may be. And then, you know, millennials are very different where they're not really into brands and labels like Gen X. You know, they are more— they are definitely more into social and experiences and, you know, I guess also photographing all of that while they're doing it. So, you know, you have to make sure that your marketing is on point, and what I'm saying is following those trends in marketplace.

And again, if you need help, because we don't do these things alone, whether you work on your own or for a company, we don't do them alone. And having someone like a Jessica to kind of have that sounding board and to get that type of advice and help lay out the plan and to even then help execute it for you. So go to BrandXConsultants.com and just check her out overall. You can even look for her on LinkedIn, you won't miss her, Jessica Potts, Brand X Consults. And of course that is her Facebook and Twitter handle, she makes it really easy for you, Brand X Consults. And she does these Facebook Live events and her Instagram is Brand X Consults as well. Where she gives you little tidbits of interviews with people around branding and marketing, and you can just learn tons from her. Anyway, um, all right, we're gonna keep going. Usually I get a break to, you know, to at least breathe, but we're live on Facebook.

She had no idea what she was getting into.

Yeah, yeah, I thought it was a great idea because I do videotape the shows, um, periodically when I have someone in the studio. Um, but I haven't had anyone in the studio recently, so this is fun. Uh, okay, so let's keep chatting. And don't forget, you can go to Facebook or Twitter, um, on our Shitting the Bitch handle and one, like us and follow us. But at the same time, Deborah's out there and she is, um, not only tweeting and posting, but she is also looking for your questions, stories, or challenges as it pertains to our conversations today, and then she can shout out loudly— Deborah, shout out to us if anything does come through. But at the same time, keep in mind too, should you be listening to this or you won't be watching this— does this stay up?

Yeah, it will stay up.

Okay. All right, so if you're doing this post-live broadcast on the radio or Facebook Live, you can always reach back to either of us through Shedding the Bitch or through Brand X Consults, and you can go directly to Jessica or myself. And also, like our radio show. We do this every Tuesday at noon Eastern time. For those of you on Facebook Live that may not have been familiar with our program, every Tuesday at noon Eastern, Shedding the Bits Radio broadcast through BlogTalkRadio. You can go right there, follow the program. You'll get updates on our guests and on our topics that we have coming up. Next week, for those of you who are just joining us, next Tuesday at noon Eastern, once a month, the first Tuesday of the month, we have a session totally devoted to your questions, stories, and challenges. So you could be posting all month long. Of course, I'm going to respond to them as soon as I see them. And you might be, you know, having a challenge with your career or maybe with your marketing, and maybe you're having challenge with, you know, some, some relationship in your life. I have a large network of experts like Jessica, so if I don't, you know, can't answer the questions or I don't want to because it's not my area of expertise, then I make sure you're hooked into whoever it is that can give you that support. But what we do once a month on Shedding the Bitch Radio is we bring all those questions and we address them. You can even join in on the conversation, call in 1-818-572-2910.

10.

You can even do that right now if you want. Um, and, uh, I can even dig deep, deeper than 140 characters on Twitter or on Facebook and get really any type of advice that you might need. And I've been known to reach out to my, to my friends and, and experts right there on the program if I knew what the question is beforehand. So anyway, we make it really easy for you to get the support that you need in order to help you, kind of discover, confront, and shed the bitches that are getting in your way. Maybe it's fear, maybe it's being blocked, maybe it's doubt, maybe it's just not knowing what to do. And we help you create the riches in life. So it's all about shifting from bitch to rich. All right, we're gonna keep going. Um, all right, now is there any particular tips— we talked about this, I know, already— but is there any particular Oh yeah, let's make sure we're plugged in so we don't lose you. Is there any particular tips that you would provide around creating buzz? But so, for instance, people think that generating a YouTube video, that all of a sudden they're gonna go viral, or, or the fact that they, when they put their website online, it's all of a sudden going to be out there in the universe and and they don't realize how difficult it is for someone's brand, in this case, to kind of get through all that noise. They just don't know, they just think that, "Oh, I'm just gonna become viral because I'm out there." What do you tell people, whether they're new startups or they've been around for a while?

Well, a couple of things on that point. I think that we really can't predict what's gonna go viral and what's not. I mean, I've done all this research and I say, you know, 63 characters are some of the most viral posts out there. That's the average. 63? 63 characters is what average is.

I'm too chatty.

I know, me too. Me too, I'm like using R-A-R-E as a capital R, you know. But you know, you really can't predict that and you know, if you are a local business, I would always suggest saturating the market that you're in then moving outwards. Great point, you know, because I think that, you know, once you get, you know, I— and not only that, but you really need organic sales from people that really genuinely like your product and people to start chattering about it for you really to expand. Um, you know, I— you can— I, uh, if someone asked me to take their video viral or their company viral, I would not be able to accept that job because that's not something that I could do. I mean, you know, you have a lot of— there is a lot also backend on, um, social media that you can do to create and build base really quickly, followers. But you want to make sure that those followers are organic, because if, if they're just— if you're paying for followers and things of that nature, those people, it's fruitless. Because when, when you launch something, they're not, they're not in any way or shape going to buy it. So You know, um, so those are just some tips.

Um, and I wanna, I wanna comment on that because, um, even, I mean, uh, call Jessica too, but, um, you know, mining. Deborah, actually, Parker House Virtual Services, she kind of clued me in on what mining meant on Twitter. Um, I mean, I, I exhausted myself for the first, I don't know, 4 or 5 years trying to do it myself, but then she was like, you know, you have tons of followers, but they're all crap.

Yeah.

And I'm like, what? What? But I like my numbers, you know. Everybody's so worried about the numbers.

Yes.

And she's like, yeah, but you're not getting anything as a result of, you know, those, those numbers. So she started— what she told me, informed me— was mining, which meant, you know, get rid of those that have no, no connection, correct, into what it is that I, you know, that I'm doing and I'm talking about and I'm sharing, right? And, and attached to those that do and the change, the shift has been dramatic.

Absolutely. And you know, when you're talking about content, you want to make sure that it's brand-specific when you put it up and, you know, using relevant hashtags in doing so. But you also want to put out content and like, now for me, Instagram is my strongest social media outlet. I like it the most. I'm able to add you know, content on there a couple of times a day.

For your brand.

For my brand.

For your brand.

It works.

Yes. Yes.

So, you know, that's the one I focus on. And, you know, I put out really great content that's free and, you know, marketing tips and branding tips and, you know, things of that nature. So I give a lot of free advice. So I want to make it valuable to my customer base. My fans and followers, and that's really what you're looking for.

Okay, so they need to be looking at quality content that provides value, and that could be, you know, things that they can take away and apply in their business, apply in their life, you know, pass on to other friends and family members.

Correct.

And at the same time, so it's not— it's definitely not quantity is what I'm hearing.

I mean, you know, if you're trying to build from the beginning, from the beginning, like 2 to 3 posts a day is sufficient, you know.

And, and now when you say post, because that makes me start sweating, but when you say post, is that like 3 140-character things on Twitter or 3 little things on Instagram, or is that like blog posts, like I have to write 250 words of something?

Oh God, no. I mean, who has time?

Let's just be clear here. Let's just be clear.

Yeah, yeah. I do my blog once a week personally, um, and, but my, but that's Talk about social media, like content. Like, I'm really looking at Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn— LinkedIn, that may be a little too much, but— or Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or Instagram, right?

Well, and quite honestly, for my base, LinkedIn is the best because my base is first corporate, right? So I do have to worry about like status updates there, engaging with other people there, the groups that are out on LinkedIn. LinkedIn, the blog posts that you now can post out on there. Unfortunately, I'm not as consistent as I should be, and Deborah would like to smack me a couple times, even with Twitter. But so that brings me to the next point. How much time do you think your customers— or do you consult your customers and advise them to kind of devote to their marketing, branding, social media? Media a week?

Um, well, marketing, I mean, we don't do that by the week. We, when I look at marketing, I do a year-round plan, um, because we need to— that could be a whole nother show about having consistent sales year-round and making sure, because you've got to like make sure you're, you're putting ideas in your customers' heads of when and where you want them to purchase products. So that, um, I do in a year advance because we can't just start marketing for fall items in fall, you know, be like, holy crap, today we're gonna talk about what's on sale. That doesn't work. So you wanna see consistent sales year-round by doing a year-round marketing calendar. But so like we, like when we come in, we do your year-round marketing. So you guys, you don't have to worry about, but I always say like sit down on Sunday night or what, pick a night and do kind of your content for the week because like I personally like have agendas for the week, right? So, you know, it may be like we're talking about creating buzz this week, or next week we may be talking about marketing strategy for, you know, year-round marketing, or, you know, so that way it's, you have stuff and you have it for the week. And I use a program that shoots it out in the mornings and afternoons and stuff like that. And that is Hootsuite.

Okay, so Hootsuite is one of those pre-aggregators posting that you can scheduler.

Correct. And it works with Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. So for me, I can— I'm able to easily push all that content out, and then it goes out for the week, and then I'm not stressed out, right? Like Tuesday morning, I'm not like, okay, what's— what am I gonna post today? What's good? Because I think it makes it really difficult, right? Like, you on social media, you always have to be like a comedian. You have to be adding value. It has to be brands for setback. I mean, it's like, oh my god, what am I gonna do? To do today. So I think like kind of thinking that out and just taking maybe a couple, an hour or so on Sunday evening to do it makes your life so much easier.

Yeah. So like for instance, I guess what you're saying too, whether it's a restaurant, a dentist office, a, uh, life coach, a— I'm trying to think— personal trainer, personal trainer— on Sundays you could be sitting there saying, you know what, this week's going to be about lasagnas or Italian food food, right? Or maybe it's about dentures for the dentist, or maybe it's about, you know, ab work for a, um, for a personal trainer. And then you can pre-, you know, kind of pre-write or pre-aggregate images and quotes and stories and tweets, correct, and jokes in that subject matter, get them all posted, correct? Only because this is what I've been doing lately. And then during the day, should you have something more personal, then you can just post whenever you want.

Yes, one quick thing I always say though, make sure that your personal page is different than your company's page. Yes, when you talk about social media, keep them separate. Now, your personal friends probably don't want to hear about, you know, your Roden Fields constantly.

What, my—

constantly, you know, or Tupperware parties that you're having. Nobody, no one cares about that.

So yes, yeah, I will post my radio show on my personal page.

I did.

Sometimes there is subject matters that, you know, anybody and everybody wants to participate in, right?

Absolutely.

So, um, okay, um, I have a bunch more questions and we definitely have some more time. So I got these 5 words and that's stuck to me from the very beginning of our conversation. So if you're just joining us and you didn't hear, um, one of Jessica's top tips at the top of the hour is that really to define your brand, just identify the 5 words that describe your business. And so I've been playing that out of my head for myself, but that also could be— you had mentioned that those 5 words then should be peppered throughout your marketing, throughout your content, throughout your, you know, social media, right?

Customer service.

Customer service.

Everything.

How you do everything.

Yes, like that's when your customer, be it a web or in-store or wherever it may be, should have that feeling when they walk out the door, right?

Because if they don't, it could be very damaging, right?

Absolutely, absolutely. You may be known for something you don't want to be known for.

No, it's true. Well, it's true because, for instance, like, I think of QT and I think of reliability, cleanliness, um, the hello at the door every time I walk in, that they're, they're never ever, ever out of anything, blah blah blah blah blah.

Absolutely.

But then there's other brands, and I'll leave one you know, where I can rely on their bathrooms always being dirty.

Absolutely.

And their stock always being out. You know, it's almost like people compare Target to Walmart as far as feel.

Oh, that's a phenomenal, phenomenal— I personally wouldn't have said that, but that is a great example.

I can, I can. Yes, yes, yeah. Well, because someone— I was sitting in line at Walmart the other day and I was buying printer ink because it's the cheapest in town. And this— we waited, like, I was in the speed line and I was only third back and I probably waited 15 minutes. And the woman behind me said, do you believe, like, you can go into Target and if they had that, this many people in line, they would pull other service people too? And I said, it all comes down to what's important to Walmart, and obviously customer service is not important. I mean, but that's what it comes down to. And Guess what? That's buzz, isn't it? Absolutely. My comments and her comments were buzz, just not the kind of buzz you want.

Absolutely. Or I can use a really great example I think that we could all like know is Comcast here in America. They have, they had the worst, I mean the absolute worst customer service. I remember like wanting to cut my wrists, you know, like every time I would have to deal with customer service with Comcast, but they have made an effort. Like, all their commercials, and they are like, we were there right when you scheduled us, you know, like, we'll call you back on the appropriate time that you need for us to talk to you. So they've really made— they heard that buzz and it was negative, and they have really gone overboard to make their customer service better than what it was. Right.

Now, but I have— I'm glad you brought them up and not I, but I'm going to add to it I never worked with them and put product in their stores. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. But I'm going to add to it because I think it's important from an understanding kind of brand impact, right? So yes, they've done all these things and yes, it's very impressive that they have all this 2-hour window where you don't pay and blah, blah, blah. At the same time though, you know, and then they have all these Xfinity services, blah, blah, blah. But it also gets me thinking that they're layering all of this nicety on to justify the outrageous price that they charge. And that leaves me with a negative because I'll do— I would do anything to get rid of my Comcast bill.

Right. Well, I mean, and there is Hulu and Netflix and things along those nature that, you know, there are other options out there. But I really think that, in my personal opinion, that Comcast does need to look at, you know, what's gonna— what are we gonna be doing in the future? Because like I mean, spending $150 on Wi-Fi and $176 a month on cable bill is really outrageous. And that's like with no HBO. And, you know, HBO to go has their own package now. You can subscribe outside.

So they need to be looking in the future.

They need to be looking in the future and saying— and they have like, you know, you can like get Comcast and watch all their shows on, on, on while you're traveling on your laptop or whatnot. But I mean, even laptops, I mean, how long are those going to be around for? So, you know, I agree with you. I think that they need to reevaluate and look, what's the 5-year plan?

Well, and that's where I was getting to when you mentioned that plan. It made me think of when you mentioned that year-long marketing plan. What I wanted to raise up too is to see your opinion on the fact that any one of us, we might not be a Comcast, we might be a solopreneur sitting in our you know, in our home office, we need to be looking and making sure that we're staying ahead of, or at least being knowledgeable about, what's coming down the road that could impact all the costs and the time and the effort that we're putting in today. Is that right?

Absolutely. And, you know, I think that even like with social media, we'll just kind of hit on that real quickly because I'm not on Snapchat, but my 15-year-old nieces on Snapchat. So I'm like, well, you know, she's, she's just, you know, so young, but that's the next generation of buyers. And so studying them and seeing what makes them purchase, purchase products, you know, is huge. I mean, you know, I think that always evaluating— I don't think that I could honestly say where we're going to be in 5 years. I mean, I honestly thought that the Michael J. Fox movie, that I would be like scooting around, on hoverboards right now and I'm not. So, you know, but honestly, like keeping up and like, that's why you should be marketing a year in advance, right?

Not marketing a year in advance, but have a plan for marketing a year in advance, right? All right, so we have a couple more minutes. Jessica Potts of BrandXConsultants.com, please go and check her out. Also, if those of you on Facebook Live, you're already attached, but if you have not liked or followed or tweeted or whatever the case might be with Jessica, be sure, just go to Brand X Consults and you'll find her everywhere. You can always just Google Jessica Potts as well, but her business is brandxconsultants.com and you can check her out and her services and her client base. And then Brand X Consults, you can Facebook her, tweet her, Instagram with her, and then LinkedIn, you can also find her there. All right, we have about 30 seconds for one last big tip and then we'll also talk about next week.

Oh my gosh, I sound so—

I, you know, I think it's radio, you need to be able to do something.

Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, 30 seconds. I would say, you know, like with brand and creating, just the 5 words would be your biggest bet, you know, because I don't think that most people even realize and know that. So knowing those 5 words about your brand is able then to create buzz and think outside the box and do something is really cool that really shows customer appreciation. Sweet!

Bernadette Boas with Shedding the Bitch Radio, Jessica Potts with Brand X Consultants. This has been fun, our first Facebook Live program. I've enjoyed this. And we're going to have to try to figure out how to do this going forward. Next week is Ask Bernadette on Shedding the Bitch Radio, which means you can go to Facebook or Twitter on our Shedding the Bitch pages, you can post your question, story, or challenge that you're having in your business, or life, and I will answer them right away as I see them. And Deborah Parker of Parker House Service— Parker House Virtual Services— she's our social media guru, and she'll make sure that I get any kind of conversation that's going on when I'm not even on. But I'm on a lot. And then what we do the first Tuesday of every month right here on Shedding the Bitch Radio is we bring those questions stories and challenges here so we can dig even deeper into them. You can even call in during the program to kind of get even firsthand conversation and dialogue around that story, question, or challenge that you're having. All right, the week after that, one of our kind of most popular guests, Lynn Curry, is going to be back to talk about overcoming bullying. Now that's in the workplace, that could be at home, that could be in this in the schoolyard with all the kids going back to school. It's one of our most popular subjects because it deals with conflict, let alone just bullying. So be sure to tune in for that. But other than that, I am thrilled that we were able to have Jessica with us today, thrilled you joined us online and on the radio program, and I'll look forward to hearing and maybe seeing you right here on Shedding the Bitch Radio next week at noon Eastern time. Talk to you soon, everybody.

Bye!

Thank you for listening to Shedding the Bitch Radio with Bernadette Boas. Join Bernadette every Tuesday at noon Eastern as she helps you shift your bitches to riches. And the dialogue is always going on at sheddingthebitch.com. See you next week.