Getting Buyers: How To Build An Audience That Wants Your Stuff #FreedomFastLane

Build a business, invest the profits.

I'm Ryan Daniel Moran and this is Freedom Fastlane. Hey, Fastlaners.

Ryan here.

What's going on?

Hey.

I really enjoyed this process that I've been doing lately on the show where I just call you randomly. I was doing it with kind of a formal process of you submit it and then we go through it and vet it. Lately I've just been calling people when I want to call people, and I've been doing it on Instagram. So specifically, sometimes when my kids go to sleep, I'll just put posts on Instagram that's like, hey, I'm free for the next hour. Put your challenge in the comments and I'll call you and chat with you about it. And that I am having a blast with that. So if you like this kind of format that we've done on the show lately, make sure you're following me on Instagram because I've been calling people that follow me there. And today we had three recent calls that were around similar topics that I've summarized and taken some clips from and shared in today's episode. And they were all around that topic of getting buyers. And sometimes we call that audience building. But what you really want when you build an audience is you want people.

Who are gonna pull out their wallets and buy your stuff.

It's about having that pool of people.

That group of people that earnestly want.

Your stuff and buy your stuff so that you have the confidence to go launch products. That's what the name of the game is here. It's about you having the confidence that something is going to sell. And when you've got a list of excited people who want your stuff, selling stuff is really easy.

And so we're going to come at it from that frame.

If you can keep this fun, if you can keep this light, if you can keep this exciting, building an audience and having a really profitable business doesn't have to be this like earth shattering, life sucking, soul draining.

I think I got my adjectives wrong there.

Anyway, it doesn't have to be a laborious, hard process. This can be really fun. So it's, it's tempting for us to shore up our weaknesses, which is why I think a lot of times we talk about this idea of audience building because people tend to be weak at it. But it doesn't need to be like that. And I think that today's clips are going to help you with that. So after this episode, you're gonna have more freedom and permission around the idea of getting buyers, putting them into one place and having an audience that really wants your stuff. So this first clip that you're gonna hear is a call that I did with Dan from a brand called the Modern Cowboy. And he's doing a lot of different stuff, and I helped him simplify this behind one singular message that reaches his ideal crowd so he can get more of them that want to buy.

Great.

So you're taking them on your own website right now, and you're doing some trade shows in order to get the word out, and you're looking at how you can turn this more into a business with some predictability rather than a little hodgepodge.

Base of products that isn't taking off like you want. Is that right?

Exactly.

Okay, great. So tell me a little bit about how you're getting people to the website right now.

The only things that I'm doing really is, you know, the podcast, and I, you know, run a sponsor spot on that. And then, you know, I'm not really sure.

We haven't done emails yet. So it's basically through my podcast and then through social media, you know, Instagram and Facebook.

And what product is doing the most sales right now?

The whey protein.

Okay. And is it like 50% of your sales or more like 80% of your sales?

Yeah, between. Between 60 and 80% of the sales.

Okay, that's good.

Yeah. That was the first product we brought on the stamp et, the, you know, the testosterone booster and the CBD we brought on later. So, you know, but they're starting. The CBD is really starting to kind of pick up.

Okay. So I'm just going on a hunch right now how much of your time and energy goes to the CBD and.

To the testosterone right now.

You know.

In terms of what. In terms of, like, marketing it.

Your focus?

Yeah, I'd say that my focus is not real. I'm not really laser focused on it, I guess, with, you know, some of the other things that. That I've been doing with this other project I've got going. But.

You know, I think I kind of just came to, like, a little bit of a standstill, you know, just because sales were slower. And I was just trying to figure out what I was doing wrong.

I take a little bit of a different approach, Dan. I look at. I'm trying to find what you're doing. Right. And then we optimize from there. And let me call out a couple things. You have a great brand name for Cowboys Way. That's a really great name. That's driving more than 50% of your sales. You're building an audience on your podcast, which I kind of get the vibe.

That you really enjoy doing.

You are trying to force yourself to diversify your product line and learn things like email marketing and social media, and it's not going very well because you're forcing it. That's what I'm sensing. And so where most of my recommendation is gonna go is how do we optimize the product that's doing really well, and how do we get you spending more time on the things that you're really good at and are naturally motivating? Because that's gonna give you the highest upside. So is the protein powder doing at least 25 sales a day right now?

No.

Okay. So that's all we're gonna think about.

Okay.

We're not gonna worry about the CBD cream. We're not gonna worry about the testosterone tea. And granted, I really like the idea of a testosterone tea too. So I just want to acknowledge you. I really like the product line and the. And like the. The focus and the branding that you're bringing to it.

Tell me a little bit about the podcast and how you grew it and what the content matter is.

Okay, so the podcast, it's just called Modern Cowboy, and it's.

What I. What I say, like, in the intro of the podcast. It's, you know, cowboy lifestyles in businesses, you know, entertainment education, you know, motivation. You know, an inspiration from cowboy lifestyles and businesses around the world. So I basically have interviewed, like, I'm just getting ready to publish my 94th episode. And I had Jason Smith on, who played in the NFL for five years, but he also owns a big branch in Texas and raises horses. And so I've interviewed everybody from guys like him to, you know, top rodeo people, to. To actors, to country music people, to people that started other little businesses. I just had a gal on that. They've got a really cool brand called Kimes Ranch Jeans. They've made, you know, a real big name for themselves. So it's. It's just everything that's based around, you know, cowboy lifestyle and culture, but it's integrated with.

You know, modern day. You know, like right now I'm talking with Kimbal Musk, trying to get him on the podcast here shortly. So it's. It's. It's. It's niche, but then it's, you know, kind of goes outside of it a little bit.

Yeah, it sounds really fun, man. Sounds really fun.

Yeah.

And. And how is the audience responding?

Good. You know, I mean, average in since we started, we've been averaging about.

About 3,500 downloads a month. And you know, so, I mean, we get messages all the time. As a matter of fact, something interesting. I was listening to one of your podcasts here just a while back and you talked about, you know, just reaching out to your audience. So I create a little thing, said, hey, you know, and I, you know, use their name. And I said just I wanted to reach out to you and thank you for following, you know, Modern Cowboy. We're really excited about this journey and we're, you know, happy that you're, you know, you're coming along with this. And that's been huge doing that. I was just, I set a thing to do like 50 of those a day and, and it's just amazing how many people, you know, get back to you and so how many people, you know, support it and, and you know, just appreciate that because, you know, because I sincerely appreciate them, you know, falling us and listening to us, you know.

Yeah. And who is the, who's the average person who listens to the show?

Gosh, you know, it's, it's, it's really diverse. But looking at, you know, like some of the analytics that, that I see on, I think for Instagram and stuff that we've looked at, it looks like it's between 18 to 35 year old males is primarily who it is. But there's still modern cowboys. Yeah. Yes.

And are you a modern cowboy, Dan?

Absolutely.

Great. Then this is going to be easy. So I would argue you actually don't know your audience well enough. So I, and whenever somebody starts with an age demographic, I know that that person doesn't really know what their customer wants. So if you keep that open loop with your listeners to ask them why they listen and where they're trying to go in life, you'll get a much better sense of how you can communicate with them, of what types of guests would blow them away, what type of content would really make them excited. And I also think that it will help you narrow in on who to target with your advertising and with your product line. Because right now it feels a little bit like you are just trying to build an audience and monetize the audience like you're, it's almost like opportunity seeking in a way. But the reason why the.

Protein is pulling for more than 50% of your sales is because you've got a brand name that speaks directly to that audience. And if you want run on that, if you lean on that, I think you'll do just fine. Is there a reason why you're not on Amazon right now, Dan?

You know what? It's funny. That's another question I had for you too.

I got an Amazon account, got it going and at least I thought I had it going. It was like $39 a month. And.

I don't know what happened. It was kind of like I thought, well, maybe I'm not ready to be on Amazon yet. And so that's what I wanted to ask you about. Do you think that's somewhere that I should be at this point already?

Do you want to make sales?

Yeah.

Then you should be on Amazon.

Okay. All right.

So I want you to test putting just the whey protein on Amazon fba.

And for you to in your ads.

Only talk about the cowboy whey.

Okay.

And I want you to say that it's available at your website or on Amazon.com.

Okay?

And I want you to do that listing to the best of your ability. Add pictures of you holding it at the ranch. If you have any lifestyle pictures of people drinking a protein shake while they're out in the ranch, add those to the listing and make it, don't try to Amazon it, make it for the customer. The customer who is the modern cowboy. Big mistake that a lot of Amazon sellers make is they try to sell the product rather than speak to the person. Gotcha. So you go all in on your person, man, and you know your person like you know who you want to target.

It's you, it's Dan. Right where you will get lost.

How old are you, Dan?

61.

All right. So there's a reason why you're gonna get stuck if you think Your audience is 18 to 35 year olds, when.

In reality what Dan really wants to.

Be doing is talking about his lifestyle and his passions and his hobbies and then see who shows up. Am I right?

Right.

Okay. So if you try to force the message to an 18 to 35 year old crowd and if you try to force different products into the marketplace that may or may not be a fit for what you're trying to do, you're not going to have fun with this. And it's going to make it harder for you to bring momentum into this. So if, if I was a betting man, I would suggest that you put your best selling product where it's easy for your customer to order, which is Amazon, for you to talk to the, the people you want to talk with and you hang with the people you want to hang with and serve the customer that you want to Serve and send them over to wherever they feel comfortable giving you their credit card. You with me so far?

Gotcha.

How does all that feel right now?

Well, I think you hit it on the head when you said that I really don't know.

Who my ideal customer is.

And I think that's one of the things I was struggling with. And plus the Amazon thing, I was thinking like, well, I'm not ready to be on Amazon yet. You know, I don't have. I don't have enough sales or enough, you know, momentum yet to be on there.

But hearing you say that, that. That kind of makes me feel good because, you know, inside I was kind of feeling like, man, Amazon. I mean, when I. Whenever I want something, I go to Amazon. You know what I mean?

Yeah. It's like I don't have enough sales to make a sales page. Well, you need the sales page in order to make the sales.

That makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?

Yeah, it does. It does. So overall, it strikes me as you really started this business as a passion project.

Absolutely.

And you would really love for your passion project to out earn all of your other projects, because this is really fun for you. Am I right?

Absolutely.

And where you're getting hung up is in all the areas where it's not fun.

Gotcha.

You can tell me if I'm wrong.

No, you're not wrong. You know, you're not wrong at all. And I've heard you talk about this before because, you know, I've listened to your show for a long time and.

I've heard you talk about this, and it's. The things that aren't fun to do is what can hold you back. And it's.

You need to get somebody else to do the things that aren't.

Fun, or you just need to not do them.

There you go.

Okay, here's the thing. Like, you're. You're giving a lot of mental focus to things that you don't want to do. Right. But if we look at the global landscape, the things that are working are the things you like.

So rather than try and fix the things that aren't working, we just have to focus on the things that are working. And right now, what's working is you love doing your podcast, you love interacting with your audience, you love one or two products in the line, and you love the way that they're branded. It just feels like you.

Right.

It's really easy for you to be you and talk to people who are like you and focus on products that you like and Your downfall is gonna be if you take your attention away from that and you believe the lie that you need to do something that's hard in order to fix something.

Gotcha.

What you might have noticed in that clip is that Dan really wants to be the guy in front of his audience. He wants to be that content creator because he is the target customer. He is that modern cowboy. So he needs to do the work of staying in that zone of creation. And if he does that, then he'll do great. He'll have no problem building a rabid audience that loves him because it is him, and then will buy his products. If he keeps it easy, then the profits will come easy. If he makes it hard, that business is going to be a grind. This next clip is all the way from Scotland, where.

A man named Donald Trump built the most beautiful, the greatest golf course you've ever seen. Folks, believe me, that wasn't half bad. That was actually not bad. My Trump is getting better in time. It's not as good as my Bernie, but my Trump impression is getting better. Anyway, Cheryl lives in Scotland, and she's in the very early stages of building a brand that talks about mental health. And I've spoken with Cheryl a couple times because she's one of the really active people on my Instagram. And so I've called her a couple times and we've had a conversation about her story, how she can bring her story into her brand if she wants to and have this business that she's really excited about. But she has been. She's been feeling stuck because she's got this big vision around her business, and she wants to affect so many people, and so she has this tenseness around it. How do you build an audience when you're starting with one and you want it to be something big? Well, that's what we go through in this conversation with Cheryl.

So let me. Let me ask you. I want to take a bit of a. Of a different angle on this than I normally would. Cheryl, I'm really hot on this idea right now that if. If something. If you're fighting something, like, if you're fighting resistance to doing something, then you don't really want that thing.

Thing.

So I want to just play with you for a second. Let's say that you found out that you had a rich relative who died and they willed you $100 million. You spent the first year on a yacht, hanging out, traveling the world, doing whatever the hell you want to do. You've got. You've got nine, $99 million left. What do you do with your time?

I would personally spend it connecting with other people and building brands with other people who can do the stuff. I have the vision, I know what I want to create, but it's actually doing the day to day stuff and the details really that I find challenging. It's not my strength to do that. So I would build a network of people who could do this stuff. And I've thought about how to do that, but I just don't know. I don't know.

I'm a lot like you, Cheryl, so I'm the same. I'm a vision person who doesn't like the details. So if you would build a community and build a brand with this community, where would that community, how would it communicate with people?

What do you mean?

So if you were sharing your message about mental health or cycling or wherever you decide to take this, this message, how would you communicate that with the world?

You mean on a platform or.

Yeah.

I think definitely Instagram is our platform. I know we spoke last time and you know, we were talking about podcasts. That's something that we've not. Well, we've posted one episode on our podcast. Can't say exactly. Took off. So.

One of my challenges as well is communicating effectively. So.

I think that's kind of holding me back because I can't communicate effectively to the audience, maybe.

So here's just what I'm observing in this conversation. You know, we spoke maybe six months ago when you reached out on Facebook and the. It was a similar kind of challenge where you were, you were, you were, you felt like you weren't getting any momentum and, and that's what you're reflecting again. Like you kind of know what you want to do, but you don't have the momentum to be able to get excited about diving into the details. So there's a bit of a, of a chicken egg issue here that I'm hearing of. There's not enough momentum for you to really get excited about it, but you're also not excited about it. So you're not putting in the work that you know it would require. So I would rather just not try and fight that battle where my guess is if you're like most entrepreneurs, you probably spend a decent amount of energy beating yourself up about not getting the momentum or not having the energy that you want to build this thing.

Yes.

If that's true, then I want to give you permission to not do anything for a while because the, the real magic happens when you feel excited to do something and so it doesn't matter what the result is. You're just going to do it anyway, and then results start showing up. And that's why I asked you, how would you normally. How would you naturally communicate with. With your crowd? How would. How would you approach this if you had $100 million? And if it is. I would. I would go find the right person. Then your action now should be waiting until you find the right partner. Or if it's. I would communicate on Instagram, then you should freely communicate on Instagram without any need for there to be a product right now. But right now, I know that you're stuck in kind of like trying to figure it out mode, rather than doing what feels good and feeling what's easy. Does that resonate how I'm communicating that?

Yeah, I think it resonates, definitely.

I get excited about what I want to do, but it's. And I think our brand can certainly stand out in this space that we run.

Because we know our person, we know what they want, and we know what they need. And if we're going into the cycling sphere, then there's brands out there who don't resonate with me or.

Our person, and I know that there's a need for it.

So I don't know if I can wait. And I think that's probably the hard part, because I feel like if I'm waiting, then I'm just wasting my time as well.

Okay, so you don't feel like you can wait to do what?

To put our brand out there, I think. I think. Yeah, I guess to.

So. So I'm saying this with love. There. There is no brand right now.

Yeah.

So there's no product, and there's not a lot of content. There's no. There's. There's not an audience. You're starting from scratch.

Mm.

So if we reframe this as put your brand out there. If you're focused on put the brand out there, the brand doesn't yet have an identity. It doesn't yet have a clear person. It doesn't even have a product yet. It's an idea. So the clincher here is what is the message that you want to get out there? And that's what needs to get out there. That's what's sitting inside you that needs to get out. That's the thing that's kicking around in your body and your brain going, I have to get out, or I haven't lived a fulfilled life.

Yeah.

It's not about the product. It's not about the Platform. It's not about anything. Except what is the message that Cheryl believes that she has to bring to the world through the lens of cycling, and that's what's got to get out. Like, that's why you said, I don't think I can wait. Because people need this and they need to hear this. Am I right?

Yeah, definitely.

Okay, so where you are over complicating it is you're thinking, okay, I have this message that I want to bring to the world, but what's the right platform? What's the right product? How do I position this? You're over strategizing the thing that wants to come out of you, and that's going to kick around in your brain and drive you crazy.

Mm.

Yeah, I think that's spot on.

Okay, so if you were able to tell me the message that is bouncing around in your brain, that has to come out, what is that?

So I need freedom, happiness and purpose. And the brand that we. The brand identity that we would hold is that the brand is the explorer, so the person that we are.

Hold on, hold on, hold on. You went right into logical, overthinking about it mode. So the message that's kicking around and eating you up because it's not out in the world, what is that?

The need for freedom, happiness and purpose.

Okay, good. That's much, much clearer. Where's the mental health piece come in?

The mental health piece comes in because.

Mental health is affected by the lack of freedom, happiness, and purpose.

Okay. And would you say the opposite is true too? That freedom is affected by your mental health?

Okay. That doesn't feel true to you. That's fine. So the thing that feels like it's in you is that freedom, purpose, and happiness is what we all crave. And it's also the solution to mental health challenges.

Not. Not for everyone, but for. For. For me and for the. The people that we.

Yeah, I know.

There's an act. There's. There's people. There's a community of people who are challenged by that and are mentally affected by that, for sure.

Got it. Loud and clear. Okay. How do you want to communicate that message to the world?

What feels good?

Well, I think it's definitely doing something that you love every day. It's being true to yourself and not conforming to society, not conforming to what people think you should do with your life and who you should be, but really taking the. The step to go internally and discover who you actually are and what your purpose is.

Despite what anyone else says.

Got it. So would it Be fair to say that Cheryl, throughout her life, has had to go on a journey of figuring out who she was, regardless of what other people said or thought that she should be. And. And she found certain routes to find that and practice that.

Yep. Yep, Absolutely.

That's what you should be talking about. That's what you should be sharing, or that's who you should be talking to. Cheryl from 10 years ago. And that, at this point, is what you're documenting. Whether you're cycling or you're building a business, you're really documenting the journey of finding yourself and finding purpose, spite of everyone else telling you what you should or should not do. Everyone can relate to that. So as you're documenting that, whether it's through yourself or through other people or through a sport, that is the singular message that resonates. Your challenge, is that you've been trying to make it about the cycling, and it's not about the cycling. Cycling is a route for this much deeper message that resonates much more universally.

You hear. Hear what I'm saying?

Yeah. Okay.

So once again, the theme here, Cheryl, is her target market. She is her own avatar. But a lot of people don't really understand who they're trying to sell to. I see this happen a lot, especially in the. In the Amazon space.

I see a lot of people who.

Are trying to figure out who their person is, and they're making it a really heady experience because they see a hot market. They sell to that hot market because that's where the money is, and they never really dial into the who behind that. And a lot of times, it's not as hard as you're making it. And a lot of times it's people like you, and that's why you were drawn to that market in the first place. All right, this last clip is a conversation I had with a young man named Wes, who had just started a maternity brand that sums up this theme really well. You'll enjoy this one.

Since I'm selling to active pregnant women, you know, 25 to 35 kind of thing, how do you go around building an audience when these people are in a relative, temporary position in their life? For example.

If I had somebody building an Instagram audience with influencers and pages and whatever, in nine months, that influencer is no longer going to be pregnant and on to the next step. And same with the people that I have. You have, say, 500 pregnant women that are following you. In a couple months, your content is kind of going to be irrelevant unless you continue that product. Line. And then that gets into.

You know, adding more things to a list kind of thing. So how do you build an audience of people who are in a temporary place in their life as opposed to, you know, selling to people who like to travel?

So a fun story for you since you mentioned travel as kind of the opposite.

There's a lot of travel and like. Like lifestyle magazines that they've run customer data surveys on. And there was a yacht magazine, I don't remember which one. There's a yacht magazine where they did a survey and found that more than 75% of the readers of the yacht magazine do not own yachts. And the majority of people who. Who read, like, muscle car magazines don't own muscle cars. And the people who read travel magazines don't travel. It's an aspirational thing. So the reason I tell you that is because.

Motherhood, family pregnancy could be seen as a lifestyle. It could be as an aspirin, seen as an aspiration, just as much as it is seen as a temporary life situation. Now, you and I are both dudes, so we're like, what, nine months? You're done. No big deal. I was done nine months ago. It took me four minutes. Why'd it take you nine months?

We can't understand that. But the person you're targeting, that's their life. It's their lifestyle. So that's point number one. So it might be a much longer customer journey than you think. The second is, instead of thinking that your market is pregnant moms, why don't you just make it moms? And you're showing the entire customer, you're showing the entire trajectory. Pre baby, during pregnancy, post baby. And that makes your customer life cycle much longer and opens up the ways that you can serve them as well.

Okay. Okay. So that's different?

Different products? Well, no, I guess two of my three products are, you know, still relevant after. After they give birth. So that works.

And think about this. If you were to. If you were to answer the question, who the hero is in your customer's journey? Is it moms or is it moms while they're pregnant?

While pregnant, definitely.

Okay, so a mom stops being a hero when she's not pregnant anymore?

Well, no. Okay. No.

So that's what I'm getting at. That's what I'm getting at. It's your job to be the mentor in the journey, not the hero in the journey. And the.

Thing that you are kind of vacillating between is, does the journey end when they're no longer Pregnant. And some of us would say that's when it just begins.

It may be worth asking your customers how they view this, because I think it's a lot longer of a lifespan than you think.

Right. Okay.

Do you have kids, Wes?

I do not.

Okay, you should probably do some market research on that one then. You're operating on some assumptions.

Right.

In this case, Wes didn't see that his customer life cycle can be much longer than what he realized. And he was falling into that trap of not understanding his customer. He was just selling stuff he was not selling to people. And that's the danger here. When you're just selling stuff, you end up selling short life cycles. But it can be much longer than that if you are serving someone along their journey. So I wish Wes well. But what I've seen, when you do this the easy way, the fun way, and you build a brand.

The audience that rallies around you stays with you for so long. And the more you understand them, the more they stay with you, the more that they bring people with you. And this grows and this compounds year after year, and it can actually get better and easier and more fun year after year after year. That's when what's inside of you comes out to the world. A lot of you are treating this like the business, as the thing that is going to pull the money into your pocket. But if you view this as you bringing something to the world, then the money flows toward you in droves.

If I could get you to get.

One thing, that idea is what will make you rich. If you do this in a way that feels natural, easy, and fun and allows you to serve your audience and create cool things within a business that you own. Man, does this get good fast. If you like this format, make sure you're following me on Instagram. I'm ryandaniel Moran, and if you'd like to work with me closer, we have some really fun options coming up in 2020 to work with my team and myself. If you've already crossed seven figures, then I'm working with entrepreneurs on being able to grow again. Because a lot of times when you hit seven figures, you get into defense mode. You feel overworked, you're having trouble building a team. You are already working way too much. How can you stay up to date.

With what is working?

And we have to address those things and go under the hood in order to free you up to have the business and the life that you want. And I'm doing that and bringing in some. Some of my own resources and relationships to make that happen. So if you've crossed seven figures and you want help growing from there, you can find out how to work with me. Over at capitalism.combackroom, i've put together some details on what we're doing this next year. If you're not quite at that level, we have a getting started package which is a 21 day challenge. And if you do the 21 day challenge, it's free. And that's over@capitalism.com brands.

This will help you decide which products.

To sell, get to market quickly, and have absolute clarity on how you're going to build your million dollar brands. As always, it means the world to me that you listen to my thoughts about life and business on the Internet. Shoot me a message on Instagram, let me know what you thought, and as always, thanks for listening and I'll see you on the next episode.

Guys, girls, if I've ever done anything that was meaningful for you or your life or your business, I'm asking you to go over to Amazon.com, search my name and place a pre order for my first book, 12 months to 1 million. It's due out May 5th. And it's the thing that I'm most proud of that I have ever put together. Half because the content's amazing. It's going to help you create a business that has a shot at hitting seven figures in your first year, maybe sooner and second, because people like you are in it. Podcast listeners, our students, our community members, guys and girls we met at our events are in the book as case studies, teaching stuff that they've learned along the way. So this is written by myself, but it's really written by the community. So it would mean the world if you went over to Amazon, search for my name and place a preorder for 12 months to 1 million. I'm so proud of it and I can't wait to bring it to you.