How to build Credibility that will Launch, Grow, and Sustain your Business

Hey, good morning, everybody. How are you? Chad Thibodeau, here it is time for another edition of the Monday morning Mentor. I'm so glad that you are here. Hey, I think today, fingers crossed, is going to be my last Monday morning mentor that I do in my home. And, and from now on, I'll be broadcasting it from my brand new studio, which is about a mile and a half down the street. I'm so excited. We've been building it like crazy and you guys got to get to Phoenix because I want you to come check it out. We're putting in a state of the art podcasting center, which means it's going to have four microphones. We're using really high end mics. We're not going to use any of the inexpensive, they're expensive, high end microphones. It's going to have. You can broadcast live, you can record. It's going to be in state of the art podcasting center. We're also going to have a state of the art video setup where you can do online teachings, you can do webinars, you can do little videos, anything that you want, vignettes that you want. We have six different shooting places inside the studio. So we have the podcasting setup so you can have the microphone. We have the living room set up where you can film it in the living room, which is super exciting. We're going to have solid backgrounds. We have a gray, a blue, an orange and a green background that you can film in front of. You can sit down in a desk and do it. You can stand in the middle of the room and blow out the background so it's all blurred for a cinematic effect. It's going to be so exciting. So we've been in there like crazy building it and just two weeks ago, this was a dump. I leased two rooms and they're very basically 19 by 17 rooms. And we tore the wall out in the middle. Come to find out, the wall was a load bearing wall. So we had to do all this work with beams and everything to get it done. And then the people that were going to put the tile in, they were terrible. So we fired them and brought in some really nice high end commercial carpet to make the room dead. We hung some acoustic treatment, some carpet, literally hung carpet on the wall yesterday, which was a ton of fun. All of our brand new furniture is coming in. All of our podcast stuff should be in this week, a couple weeks, we'll have all the video stuff in. It's just coming along. I'm super excited to do that and I'm super excited to actually drive to an office every single day. Now don't get me wrong, I love working from home, but I love being in an office. So if you're in the Phoenix area, we want you to come by. If not, if you want to do some work with us, like if you want to film your online course, you want to film a webinar series or whatever, whatever you want to do, I want you to get to Phoenix. We'll be more than happy to give you the hookup on that. Well, guys, today for this Monday morning mentor, I am super excited to finish up what we started last week. Last week we talked about how to build authority online. So remember we said the very foundation of our business is authority and credibility, okay? We said you have to have authority and credibility if you're going to launch any type of online business. You. Because people need to take you seriously. And if they don't take you seriously, then you're not going to be in business very long. So last week we came up with 10 things to build authority. We said that it all starts with your mindset. You have to have a winning mindset. You have to believe that you are an authority and an expert in your industry. Because if you don't believe that, nobody else will. We did a whole teaching on mindset last week. Then we said you have to give without even the, the hint of taking. So you have to be generous. Generosity always helps you build authority. We said you have to be the conversion version. So in other words, if you're trying to sell some type of product that gets a result for people, if you have had that similar result, you're going to have authority.

Okay?

We said you got to be great, you have to be timely, you have to be unexpected all of the time. Number five, you have to court awareness to your brand, okay? And to you. We said you have to charge a premium if you're going to have be an authority. Number seven, you have to have case studies and you need to tout them. Number eight, you have some kind of scarcity where people just have a small window of time to get your, to get your stuff. Number nine, we said you have to create your own reputation. Don't let others create it for you. And then number 10, we said that you have to be omnipresent. You need to be visible everywhere, all the time. That was authority. That's the first part of it. Now today, what we're going to do is we're going to take that authority and we're Going to build on it, and we're going to marry it with credibility, because you have to have credibility. I want you to tune into this teaching today because some of you guys are really struggling getting your product launched or getting your business to take off, or you're really struggling trying to charge premium prices. Perhaps you're charging a premium price, but yet nobody's buying. And one of the reasons could be credibility. Now, let me tell you what happened with me as I began to establish my credibility in this particular space. When I first started building funnels, I was building them for about anywhere between $300 and $500. And I finally got to the point where I was building them for $1,000, and now I build them for $12,000.

Okay?

But it's the same work. It's the same talent. It's the same Chad behind the scenes doing the work. Why is it that I went from 500 to 12,000? Well, it's. One word is credibility. Once I establish myself as an authority in the space, in other words, Russell Brunson said I'm as a top 30 designer, then eventually a top 10 designer. Once I established myself as an authority in the space, then I could consistently do the work. And now I have credibility. And because I have credibility, people know they're going to get a great funnel. It's going to convert well, it's going to look beautiful, and it's going to set them apart. Now I have credibility. Credibility married with authority. Authority means I can charge more of a premium price. So many of you guys are wanting to do that in your business, but you have to have credibility. So here's 10 ways to build credibility for yourself, for your brand, for your business. Ten ways. Number one, once again, you have to have the authority piece down. So if you haven't seen that teaching, go back to last week and watch the teaching on authority. But here is the teaching on credibility. Number one, you have to have an online presence. Okay? You have to have an online presence. The way people are going to find you is they're going to Google you. They're going to go to some Facebook group, and they've got to be able to find you.

Okay? Okay.

They have to know that you are real. Now, there's a lot of scam artists out there. There's a lot of people who say one thing and deliver another. And so they want to know that you are the real deal and that you've also helped people. And so you have to have an online presence. Now, I do an entire training on this Particular thing where we talk about. You have to have a homepage. And on that homepage you need to have a value proposition. I am, I help, do or understand so that those are the four components of a value proposition. People need to be able to read your value proposition online. Then you can condense that down to a brand slogan, like a tagline.

Okay?

Then you need to talk about your products and services, put any social proof on there and have a call to action. Your homepage, you need to have a homepage where people can find you. You have to have an online presence. Now, we'll talk about other things that can be on there as well a little bit later, but you at least have to have a homepage. Number two, it's the three A's. The three A's. You have to be authoritative, approachable and authentic.

Okay?

If you're going to build credibility online, you have to be authoritative. So in other words, you've got to step into that authority role that we talked about last week. But you also have to be approachable. See, if you're just authoritative, then you're a jerk. And nobody wants to do business with a jerk, okay? But they want somebody with the know how of a jerk.

Okay?

But they don't want. But they want somebody with the approachability of a nice guy. So when you can marry the approachability and the authority, you can marry those two things. That's awesome. So the three A's are be authoritative, be approachable, and. And be authentic. Those three things will elevate your credibility in the online space. I try to be all three of those. Now let's talk. I'm going to break them down a little bit, okay? Authoritative. You may notice, when I come online and I begin teaching, I don't ever make suggestions. I give instruction. And the difference between making a suggestion and giving an instruction is the difference between an amateur and a pro. It's the difference between someone who wants to be an expert and someone who is an expert. An expert can say with confidence, this is what you should do. And if you do it, you will get a result. We go on there and we say, do this, do that. We give instruction, we don't make suggestions. That's how you set up your authority. Today I'm giving you 10 steps to build your credibility online. And I'm not saying, hey, these are 10 simple things that you could do. And if you do these things, perhaps you may get some credibility online. No, I'm not doing that. Why? Because that's what amateurs do. Pros, I'M coming on because I've done these things. I've worked with dozens of people who've done these things. I've studied, I've learned, I've researched. I'm an expert in this particular field. So I can come on here with 100% certainty and authority and say, you need to do this. Here are 10 things you must do in order to build credibility. And when I say that I'm speaking from a position of authority, which then will elevate my credibility. But if I did it and I was just a total jerk about it, okay, then you're not going to like me. And people listen to who they like. Okay? Remember that? People listen to who they like. And what I found is what's rewarded is repeated. And when people are listening to somebody that they like, they get some kind of reward, internal reward for listening to those people. And when they get that reward, they repeat what you do. So you have to be authoritative, but you also have to be likable. And you become likable by becoming approachable. Okay, so now let's talk about how to be approachable. One thing is that I try to do with being approachable is I try to be online often. I try to interact with my students and interact with my clients. Okay, Typically, if you want my phone number, I give you my phone number. I typically will do a phone call with you or a Skype call or a zoom call or something. I really try to be approachable. Okay, I really do. But I'm also approachable because I smile.

Okay?

I smile when you see pictures of me online. You're not going to see me frowning or you're not going to see me real businesslike. I'm going to smile. I'm going to be me. I'm going to be authentic. And that helps my approachability. I also put pictures of my family. I interact with my family when I'm building my studio. I show you pictures of studio. I show you behind the scenes a little bit. You know, I talk about me, the person, not about me, the authority. And when you talk about you, the person, it makes you approachable. But I don't oftentimes ridicule myself. I used to do that all the time because I thought it was funny. And if I'm trying to get a laugh, I'll pick on myself. So I love to pick on my fading hairline, or I love to pick on the gray in my beard, or I love to pick on my dad bot. Okay, I love to do that, but very seldom, actually never do I ever pick on things that I have authority in. So I never talk about being a bad coach. I never talk about being a terrible designer, even, even if I was joking. I don't do that because that undermines what I'm trying to build credibility in. Okay? So you can be approachable, but you don't have to be self denigrating. And I really recommend that you don't. Some of you guys, I listen to your Facebook lives and you go on a Facebook Live and the first thing you do is you start apologizing. You apologizing about your look, you apologize about your camera, you apologize about the way you personally look, you apologize. Stop apologizing. You don't need to apologize. You are you. But you do need to be approachable and you do need to be authentic, but you need to find approachability and authenticity and something else than an apology. You don't have to apologize. So you have to be authoritative, Stand on your ground. This is what you know, this is what you teach. Be authoritative, but be approachable. Let people in behind the scenes, Let them see the personality of you so they can feel like they can engage with you, okay? And then be authentic, okay? Be authentic in everything that you do. And if you're not an expert in something, don't pretend to be one. Okay? Number three, you need to produce consistent content. Produce consistent content, okay? So if you're going to build credibility in the online space, you have to always be producing consistent content. I always will be on here every Monday morning producing the Monday morning mentor. And it's hard. Do you know how difficult it is to come up with 52 coaching sessions every single year? Because I don't want to just come on and give you fluff. I want to give you something that can freaking rock your world and change your life. And so I work my you know what off to, to make sure when I come here on Monday that I've got something that I can teach you that's going to be helpful, that's going to be valuable, that's going to want to encourage you to tune in every single Monday that you can use and apply to your business, that's going to grow your business and change your business and change your life. I don't give you fluff. I don't come on here for eight minutes and just talk a little bit and get off. I come on here and I teach for a fricking hour every single Monday. And I do that consistently.

Okay?

When my podcast, which is getting ready to take off here this week, when it launches. I'm on every Thursday with an expert. Every Thursday, every Monday, every Thursday, every Monday, every Thursday in my design academy. Every Tuesday I'm on with A training. Every Thursday I'm on with Q and A. I try to be incredibly consistent. And consistency, as we'll talk about later on, that consistent content will grow your credibility. You're already an authority in the space, but you got to get credibility. And consistent content says that you're not a fly by night. You're not a one and done. You're not a one hit wonder. You got the goods time and time and time again. So let me recap. I did an entire training on this. But if you want to know how to produce consistent content and have a lot of, a lot of it available online in the next seven days, here's what you do. I always teach that you start with a 2500 word article on whatever your process is, okay? So if you're doing Facebook ads and you're an expert in it, write out your system on how you do it. Write in a 2500 word article, make that thing delineated. Second thing that you do is you take the outline of that 2500 word article and you put it in a checklist and you give that thing away. Then you take that 2500 word article, once you have it written and you submit it to Thrive magazine, you submit it to Funnel magazine and you get yourself published. So now you're a published author. It's easy. They'll take anybody as long as it's good. If it sucks, they're not going to take you. But if it's good, it's consistent, it has to do with what they want to talk about and it follows a delineated system, they will do it. So you can take that on. Then you go on Facebook Live and you teach that 2500 word article in its entirety. You ignore your audience and you teach it. When you're done teaching it, then you can engage with your audience. You download that bad boy, chop the ends off, and now you have something that you can give away as an asset.

Okay?

Then every day after that you go back on Facebook Live. Let's say you have five points for every day. For five days you're going to go online and day one, you're going to teach point one and you're going to teach it thoroughly, like way longer than you taught it on the main Facebook Live. And then day two, you're going to teach point two. And then day three, you're going to teach point three. You're going to do that every single day. And when you're done with it, you've got now a four or five part video series that you can A, give away, B, you can sell as a tripwire, or three, you can sell as a full blown online course. You have now an asset and that asset will help you build credibility. Then we tell you to get on podcasts. Invite yourself to be on three or four or five podcasts. This morning I was super excited. I've had two people reach out to me today saying, hey, I want to be on your podcast. And I was like, yeah, finally people are getting the nerve to step up and invite themselves on podcasts. Why? Because I know that that's what it takes to get out there. I had someone reach out to me this morning and asked me to be on their podcast, which I was super excited about. I was super excited about. And so get on podcasts. Why? What does that do? It helps you get credibility. So you need. So that's how you can get credible in the next seven days. You can do all of that in the next seven days. Now ongoing. You need to have a vlog.

Okay.

I do this every once in a while. Okay. The person that I really like who does this a lot is Akbar. She. Akbar does a vlog every day. At least he tries to. Now, sometimes vlogs are good, sometimes they're not good, sometimes they have value, sometimes they don't have value. That's why I don't do a vlog every day. A vlog is simply a video log. It's where you take your cell phone, you're walking around, you're doing something. I try to do one or two of those per week where I'm on there with my phone. And you can always tell when I'm doing a vlog as opposed to coaching. When I'm doing a vlog, I'm going to be in my car, I'm going to be taking a walk, I'm going to change the scenery so people know that things are different. A vlog is something very relaxing. It helps you fulfill one of those three A's we talked about earlier, where this helps you fulfill the approachable. Where you're going to go in there, you're going to talk about something that can help people. You should do that pretty regularly. Two, you need a blog, some kind of blog where you can write consistently. Now people say, chad, I'm not much of a writer. Great. You don't have to be. Okay, what you want to do. Jeff Walker, I think, is the king of this. Jeff Walker does not have a consistent blog that he writes on every day. What he's done, he's taken five to 10 articles or posts and he's only written five or 10 and he puts them on there. And when you go to his blog, you can read the same 5 to 10 posts forever. So if you're not a consistent blogger, at least have 5 to 10 blogs on there that people can read so they can get inside your brain, so they can see that you're a credible authority, then you need to have some kind of podcast. I recommend a weekly podcast where you're on there, you're teaching, you're training, or you're interviewing somebody on your particular topic. Remember, you're trying to build credibility. What separates the men from the boys is people have blogs, they have vlogs, and they have podcasts that are consistently producing material on a regular basis. So you can see that if you have your 2,500 word article, you've got a giveaway. You have a four or five part online course. Now you're teaching like a webinar, like in your full blown Facebook Live. You're on three to five podcasts, you have a vlog, a blog, and then your own podcast. You can see that that's going to produce you a lot of credibility. And the more credible you are, the more you can charge for your services. So you need to make this a priority. So let's recap. Number one, you have to have something look at the place. And as I was giving a little tour of the studio, I kept using the word we. Well, you know, we're going to have a podcast center here. Our video center is going to be here. And she stops, she goes, who's we? And it just hit me. It just hit me. I've conditioned myself to say we many times when it's only me. We gives you credibility. Now, there is a lot of we, okay? And this is why I actually say we. It's not really just me, okay? But let me tell you how to get a we when you don't have a we, okay? You need to be outsourcing things, okay? So if you outsource your funnel design, then you have a we. If you outsource your graphic design, then you have a we. If you're outsourcing your content creation, then you have a we. If you have a va, then you have a we. If there's somebody, if there's more than one person that helps you with your particular business, you have A we. Now, why is that important? Because people like to buy from a we, not a me.

Okay?

Does that make sense? They will ultimately do business because of you, but they like to know that there's more than just one of you they like to buy. You need to have some kind of premium content. You need something on there that people can buy. Amateurs have 100% of the things free. Professionals have something on there that people can buy. So you have to produce some kind of premium content. In our previous strategy, with the, with the content strategy that I just gave you, you can sell your 4 to 5 part Facebook Live teachings. If they are done really well, that can be premium content. But you have to have something people can buy. If you have something people can buy, it grows your credibility. Number five. This is a big one. This is also a little bit controversial, okay? You need to have a team. You need to have a team. People with credibility have teams. Now, let me tell you what I mean by this, okay? Yesterday, my kid's mom, it was Mother's Day, and I took her and the kids out to dinner to celebrate. Just an incredible lady, an incredible mom. And the kids were so excited about all these changes happening in my new studio. In fact, my kids love my studio. They don't ever want to be home anymore. They love my studio. So they were talking about, mom, you got to come see daddy's new studio. Actually, they don't say daddy, they say ours. You got to come see our new studio. You'll love it. You'll love it. So there's a restaurant just below. There's an Italian restaurant just below my studio. And it's crazy, you know how difficult it's going to be trying to get work done when you smell pizza and breadsticks all day, that's going to be pretty hard to smell. So she agreed to come have dinner at this restaurant and come up and look at from a we, not a me.

Okay?

So I use the word we all the time. I'll use the phraseology my team and I, okay? So when I said proposals, I'll do my team and I will do this or my team and I will do that.

Okay?

They like to know that there's a we. There's something subconsciously that makes us feel a little bit more comfortable when there's a we as opposed to just a me. So credible, have a team, outsource things, have a va, have a graphic designer, have a funnel builder, have a whatever. And if you have people who help you on your business, you have a team. And that helps build your credibility online. Okay. You know what it's like, guys, to go work with somebody and you feel like you're dealing with just a small mom and pop shop without any team or anything like that. You feel like there's some built in accountability when they have a week. Okay, so make sure that you have a Wii. Put it in there, build it. Just go hire a va. And then you have a. You have a Wii. Okay, outsource your funnel design. You have a we. Outsource your graphic design. You have a we outsource things and now you have a we. People want to buy from people who have a Wii. Have a team.

Okay?

Does that make sense? Have a team. Number six, remember, if you're just tuning in, we're talking about 10 things that helps you build credibility online. Last week we talked about how to build authority. You need to go back and watch that. That was a pretty good teaching. Today we're talking about how to marry that authority with credibility. Okay, number six, you need to point out your expertise.

Okay?

Point out your expertise. People don't always find your expertise in what you do, so you need to consistently be pointing it out. So, for instance, my strength is coaching, teaching, funnel design and business launch. Okay, so I consistently pointing those things out.

Okay.

Why do I consistently point them out? Because I don't want to rely on somebody to try to point them out on their own. I want to consistently point them out to people. Why? Because it, like a funnel gets people laser focused on what I do. Now what am I not good at? I'm not good at Facebook ads. So because I'm not good at Facebook ads, I don't pretend to be good at Facebook ads, so I outsource that. I have a we. So I give almost all my Facebook ads to Nicholas Kirchner. Okay, so I. So I have a we with Nicholas. Okay, so I can say that we do Facebook ads, but I don't do Facebook ads. But because I have a we, we can do that. So I point out my Here. So here's what I say. So, you know, if you were to come on and get launch fuel to create your business for you. So I'm going to. I'm a top 30 funnel designer, so I'm always pointing that out. Okay, I'll point out that, you know, I have built three funnels that have now gotten the 2 comma club. So I'll point that out. Okay, I'll point out that I built over 650 funnels on click funnels. I'll point that out. I'll point out that I've been with clickfunnels since they were four days old. You know, I'll point that out. Why those are credit. And we'll talk about credibility marketers here. That's next. But I always point out my expertise. The reason why I point out my expertise is I want people to know that I'm an expert in these particular things. So when they're trying to find my credibility, they can find my credibility in those particular things and they don't see that I'm not good at something else and just all of a sudden diminish everything. Okay, so I point out my expertise. So if you are a great copywriter, you need to point out your expertise. You're a copywriter extraordinaire. Okay, whatever your expertise is, consistently be pointing that out often. Okay, I'm a funnel designer. I'm a business coach. I'm a launch strategist. That's what I do. That's what I'm great at. And I believe I'm an authority in those fields. So therefore, I need to point those out so I can assist myself in getting credibility. Number seven, speaking of credibility, you need to have credibility markers. Number seven is credibility markers. Now, what are credibility markers? Credibility markers are any type of certifications, badges, awards, recognitions that you've got around the items that you are an expertise in. Okay, so for instance, I am a clickfunnels top 30 designer, and I have a little badge given to me from the design a thon that shows I'm a top 30 designer. I was just selected from. From thousands of people to be a top 10 designer. Doing some work with Russell Brunson. And when we're done with his projects, he will give me a little badge that I can use as an endorsement of himself on all of my stuff. That's a credibility badge. It's a credibility marker. Okay. That I'm going to put on there. I've also been certified.

Okay.

So I've done some NLP training. So I've got a badge that talks about my NLP training. Okay, I can use that. I have. What other things have I done? Oh, I've done some certifications through digital marketing, Digital marketer with Ryan Dice. Okay. So I've done two of his certifications. So I have two of his certification badges that I can use. Those credibility markers add credibility to what you were doing. So here's what I would tell you. If you don't have any credibility markers, you need to go get some. The easiest way to get a credibility marker is to do one of two things. One, I highly recommend Digital Marketer.

Okay?

And if you go there, you can actually, I think it's a thousand bucks. You can sign up and you can go through. I think they got 15 of these courses that you can take, okay? They're each $1,000, but when you first sign up with them, they give you an opportunity to buy all 15 for a thousand bucks.

Okay?

You can sign up for those. You can take a course. Let's say you want to take course in copywriting. Want to learn how to be better at copywriting. You can take a full blown course and their stuff is genius. You need a full blown course in copywriting and at the end of it, they will give you a credibility marker saying you are certified copywriter through dm.

Okay?

Or whatever you want to do. They got the 15 or 18 different types of things. I really recommend you getting some credibility markers. I love Digital Marketer, okay? I even have an affiliate link I'm not going to give you because I don't want you to feel like I'm coercing you to do something. Want you to go on to DM and just get it, okay? If you need a credibility marker, do that. Another way to do it is to go to udemy, U D E M Y. Okay? Or udemy or however you say it. Go there and you can take online courses for fractions of the money. This is where I took. I did my full NLP training for $35.

Okay?

Full NLP training and certified for $35. So I paid 35 bucks for the entire course and training and then I paid 50 bucks to get the little certification when I was done. So everything, all in all, I was $85.