Tired of Analysing Data? Check This 1 Number Daily To Grow Revenue | The UnNoticed Entrepreneur

Well, if you have lots of data coming into your system and you don't know what decisions you should take because of that data, for example, your new G4, the new Google Analytics, for example, data coming from your social media feeds. Actually, we all have a lot of data, but it's really, really hard to capture it, analyze it, and make decisions. Well, today I've got a guest who's joining us from Reno, Nevada, who actually takes this problem away from entrepreneurs. He's going to share with us how we can use data and what he and his company do to help. And he's also going to then share how he's rebranded his company recently and talk to us about the challenges and the opportunities of rebranding. And then we're also going to talk about how he's using YouTube to drive sales. We're joined by JJ Reynolds, who's the founder and CEO of a company called Now Vision Labs. JJ, welcome to the show.

Hey, thanks so much for having me. Excited to be here. It's going to be a blast.

It's going to be great. Now, you know, I know I said Now Vision Labs, but actually the company is called Vision Labs, but it wasn't called that until just recently. Just tell us about the company name that you had before briefly and the new company name and why you've changed it. And then we'll talk about about data?

Yeah, so I had, uh, originally the company's name was Media Authentic, and that name was created in like 2014, I think, um, on just a whim out of nowhere. Um, back then I was like a solo person, like a contractor, and would shoot videos for wineries actually. And so I was— I had this genius idea to call it Media and Authentic and have it share one A. So the name was Media Authentic, like there's only one A in the middle. And that was the great pun. And then it just kept rolling in as I developed the business further and further and niched it down and became more and more team-centric and figured we need to shed that history and start a new fresh start.

Yeah, Media Authentic. Actually, it's a great name, but as you say, possibly hard to type in, especially if people are trying to find something about data. And Vision Labs now talks much more to what you do, which is really to help people to understand their customer journey using data. JJ, what would you say are some of the mistakes, some of the problems that entrepreneurs have with their data, and how do you help to solve them?

It's the biggest thing is overwhelm. Like everybody, there's, it's so easy nowadays to get tons of data. Everyone throws it at you. Every platform's like, "We have this dashboard," or "We have this like two thousand data points," or whatever. And it's great, like cool. But then knowing the strategy of how to delineate that down into something that is much more actionable is a strategy in and of itself. So like what I always tell people is that we're like sixty percent strategy and forty percent tactical because we can we know how to do all these really complicated things that people look at like, "How do you do that?" But then sixty percent of the time we're just strategizing with our clients. of like, what are you trying to do? And then how do we surface the most impactful numbers in the most useful way for you to make a decision and then keep moving forward?

If there's a sort of a commonality, JJ, with the most useful data for entrepreneurs, what is that data and what's the source? Because you say there's an overwhelm. Every platform sends us data. We have the issue of integrating it, consolidating it. But what about just the one that we should focus on? Is there one source of data that really we should prioritize?

Yeah, I would say if you're like, if you're selling something that is less than $1,000, right? This is to say it's less than $1,000 what you're selling. I would say the most impactful thing is looking at your web analytics. So Google Analytics 4, Google Analytics would be like the main one probably out there. There's a lot of others on the market, but like, That's probably the most impactful and brand notable Google Analytics. Because think about like this is that you have at most 3% conversion rate on your site. At most 3% of people on your site will buy. That means 97% did not. Okay. And you have to look at and say, what's the differentiator between the people who did and did not? And how is that trend and pattern going to persist over time? And so if you're not hitting that number that you're consistently hitting, you know, there's a problem somewhere along the line. And so I'd say that for the average person, the most impactful thing is really knowing your web analytics and how you're getting people and where you're getting people into your system, whether that's lead magnets or upsells or initial offers, any of those types of things. That's where people can find the most, the most juice out of the, out of the squeeze.

Well, okay, that's, but it's not a lot of juice, is it? If you think about how how many, if you like, pieces of fruit people are buying and squeezing. If they're only getting 3%, we're getting drips and not cuploads. JJ, why is it that people are getting so little in terms of conversion rates?

Well, I'd say that it's not a little, it's pretty consistent. Like we've worked with across the board, it's 1 to 3%. Like that has hold true the test of time is that you convert people to dollars at 1 to 3%. From that, you have to say, A, am I converting people correctly? And B, where am I trying— what am I trying to do on my website? And that's where people don't have a really good plan is what am I trying to do on my website? And if you go to our site like visionlabs.com, that's the one thing that people really do share with us is that, oh wow, it's really— I really know where I should go and you're really good at getting me to give you my email address. And so that is one thing that I would really implore you is that you say, what is the purpose of every page of your site? And if that page has a purpose, how do you know if it's been achieved or not? And the only way to know that is from your web analytics.

That is a really, really good insight that people don't know what they're doing there, including me, probably making a brochure, right? And not making a content funnel. If there's one thing that you do on your website, JJ, that generates inquiries and leads, what would that be? And for people that want to go to the YouTube channel, to mine, the Unnoticed YouTube channel, you will be able to see the Vision Labs website. But for those of us listening, JJ, explain what is it that you're doing on your website that makes it so impactful?

Yeah, I think the main thing is having useful resources. So if you go on our sites to the navigation and then you click on the resources button. We've got a lot of useful utilities there that people can download. Some are free, some are downloadable, some you have to give your email for, and you can take those and you can run with them immediately. And so our marketing strategy, our marketing plan across the board is usually get people into our CRM. And put them on either a newsletter like that we have that's kind of evergreen, or get them onto a sales call if they're— if they meet our qualifications for a qualified lead, which is usually having at least 6 employees is kind of what we put at. So a lot of our forms, even if you're downloading like a simple PDF or a simple thing, it's like how many employees? do you have? It's like just me, 2 to 3, 4 to 5, 6 to 10, 11 plus.

That's really, really interesting. Yeah, yeah, that's really interesting. So a couple of takeaways there. One is that you're useful first rather than promotional.

Exactly.

Would be a key takeaway there. And also that you're profiling your customers. at this early stage so you're not wasting your time on those people that have— you're not going to match, you know, may not be, uh, big enough or the right profile for you. That's really, really good insights, JJ. Um, so when you're doing the marketing yourself for Vision Labs, when you change the name, I just want to ask you, what have you had to do to, if you like, explain, communicate about the new name? Because there's a whole challenge, especially as you had Media Authentic for a number of years, didn't you? Over a decade. So what did you have to do?

It actually was a lot easier than you thought because it's easy to remember the name, whereas the previous name, no one ever remembered. Like people that we've worked with for a long time, like clients that we've worked with for years, we're like, what's the name of the company? And they'd be like, I don't Like media something. And like, that would be the response. So like, it was really, we were starting from ground zero. We had no actual brand remembrance. And so shifting to this, honestly, we could have just done it and not told anybody and it would have been like completely fine. Like it's, it, I don't, I don't think that if you, if you're going to rebrand, go to something that makes sense. And it just, that solves a lot of the communication that you'd have to do. Because I think everyone saw it in LinkedIn or newsletters or emails and were like, meh, makes sense. Like that was the response. Like it wasn't, it wasn't like a big thing of like, this is why we did this thing and here's the new logo and why the semblance of this thing means the centric of data and marketing. It was just like, oh, hey, we have a new name, new logo. Here we go.

That's cool. I had to, the old one, I thought that maybe you're in media monitoring and analysis of you know, um, yeah, authentic content in the media. So, uh, even for me, um, it made a lot of sense when he came to Vision Labs. Okay, JJ, so if you change the name to a better one, everyone just forgets the old one very, very quickly. JJ, building your own brand and the reputation— you've talked about what you're doing on the website in terms of making it informative and useful and giving people something to download. rather than kind of hooking them with a funnel that's kind of getting a bit tired, I think, these days anyway. What have you been doing to build your own brand for you as an entrepreneur, but also for the company? You know, now you've got the name change.

Yeah, I think for me personally, it's kind of 2 things that I've done, which again, not saying this is a recommendation, this is just what has been done. As I post on LinkedIn, almost every day. I did 180 days straight just to see what happened. And then also I have a weekly newsletter that has been sent out for a long time. And so those 2 things, I think, contribute to brand recognition of me as a person because I write both of them. The problem is, is that I don't think that we've really attributed anything inside of the kind of LinkedIn space to sales. Like, I don't think I've really— it's kind of an echo chamber of yes people, other people that are also doing the same thing that will engage with you there. We've found more success kind of on YouTube as a kind of platform where you make a video, you show someone what's possible, or you show them what to do. And from that point, they become a lead or become a a sales call or become something else.

That's very interesting. That— 2 points. One is that LinkedIn has become an echo chamber. I think more and more you find— one finds that you're posting things and the same people are posting similar things, and it's sort of going to the same, same club really, uh, of people kind of selling to each other. Um, but also with YouTube that you've been using that, but again with the same philosophy of education. JJ, where does that come from? Why, why have you settled on education versus promotion as your strategy, both on your website, your newsletter, I'm assuming is also giving how-tos, but also your YouTube? Where does that come from?

Um, I think it comes from our industry. Okay, so think about it like this, is that we don't promise We're gonna make you more money or you'll be like, make your first 7-figure launch next month, right? We don't promise this goal of aspiration that everybody kind of dreams of when you're at zero, right? What we promise is that you'll have visibility, predictability, and be able to weather pretty much any storm because you'll see it coming. Okay. Which is very unsexy. It is the most unsexy thing. I get it. It is the least, like, it is so hard to sell that to someone who does not want it. It is nearly impossible. But when someone knows that they're in a spot where they don't know what's happening, they don't know what's like what they're doing, or they have a team that they're not sure of how sales are even coming in, right? Then they book a call with us and it is an immediate sale. Like they have a problem that we can solve and that our entire company is geared to solve for. And so the only way that that works, in my opinion, is that you have to educate people on like what is actually happening out there in the world and how it's possible so that then they know, they come in knowing what the end is in mind. And that I think is the overall marketing strategy that we're going for.

Very, very interesting that A, you're in an unsexy part of the business and there are a number of people that are saying, I'll help you get this many leads, I do this for you. Uh, and it's, it's kind of the big carrot at the end of a stick, isn't it? Uh, whereas, as you say, you're probably just holding the stick, aren't you? Um, which is essential but less, less glamorous. Um, in terms of visualizing what's possible, how, how are you deciding on what kind of content and what kind of themes to run, JJ? Because It's a big industry data. And how are you deciding what content? And are you writing that kind of day to day or are you planning that a long time in advance?

Yeah, we have like between 12 and 20 clients at any given time, like sometimes more, sometimes less, but usually it's in that kind of range there. And so we've got a really good insight into what people are asking. from a business perspective, what technologies are being utilized from a business perspective, and what the next thing that people are looking at is. And so with those in mind, usually it's like on a week-to-week basis. Like I've always tried to like put things scheduled out in the future, but it never really works from the written content perspective. It's always worked better from like video. Just for me personally, I don't know. I usually wake up every day and kind of write something and post it on like LinkedIn. Probably not the best situation from an operations standpoint, but that's in general how it works.

Yeah, it's interesting because I interviewed a guest the other day and she has her social media posted a year in advance, Susanna Cole, and she's in property. And I marveled at the organization, but also one of the challenges seems to be that a lot of content needs to be topical. You know, people are looking for what's happening now, and things are moving along so quickly, aren't they? Especially in data. Can you tell us about how we can use AI, or maybe how you're using AI? Because this is creating— Another, is it a distraction? Because there are more and more tools promising to offer visualization and management. Is that the holy grail for us next, JJ, as entrepreneurs to use AI to manage this data and this visualization of the kind that you do at Vision Labs?

I think so eventually. Like, I don't think we're very close. And everyone says that like with tongue in cheek of like, oh, we're not very close. And everyone said that a year ago and here we are. But the problem that we often find is that people don't know the strategy of the right questions to ask. And so then they are basically asking questions that don't make any sense. And the AI, even if you give it data, is gonna give you an answer. And so if you say like, for example, how many sales did I have yesterday? And you ask AI like, and it gives you the answer to that. And it's like, cool. Okay, well, how many, what was my average order value of my sales yesterday? And what was this thing? So then you end up with these like kind of threaded question, which is what AI is kind of known for. But the second that you want to extrapolate that to the last year, it now becomes a bigger problem. And so currently, as of right now, I think that is the big problem within the data space is that you are only as good as the questions that you ask. But if you don't understand the underlying data, you don't even know what questions you could ask. And that has been the big problem, I think, in this space.

JJ, that's an extremely insightful answer. And I guess as with your data analytics background, it makes a lot of sense just how analytical you are in answering that. JJ, as an entrepreneur yourself, I have to ask if there's a learning or a mistake that you've made in getting noticed that you'd share so that I could maybe not make the same one myself?

Yeah, I think there's 2 things. The first is not— I'll start with a broad one, right? I'll start with a broad one and a specific one. I think broadly speaking, the biggest mistake is not doing anything. I see it all the time with like some of our clients or some of our— we do like education as well. We teach people how to do this stuff. And they just kind of wallow in the fact that they don't like either have a pipeline or they don't have any sales coming in or I don't have leads. But I'm like, what do you like? How would someone even become a lead? Like there's not even a lead. Like there's no way to become a lead. So how would that even happen? And so not doing something I think is the biggest mistake I've done in the past of like just having a website, having zero resources, having zero ways to like It's just basically book a call or die. Like there's, that's the, those are the 2 options you've got on most people's websites. So that's kind of mistake number one. Mistake number 2 is more specific. And I'd say that's around us doing promotions. So we've built things in the past and I'll give you a very specific example is that we built for Google Analytics, Google Analytics Unwrapped. So if you're not familiar, Spotify does an Unwrapped where they basically, they run through your whole year of your top played songs, your top things. And we did the same thing for Google Analytics where you plug in your Google Analytics property And you hit go and it generates this PDF of like, hey, here was your top pages, your top traffic sources, your biggest day, your smallest day. And it absolutely flopped. We probably spent like 40 to 80 hours on that and maybe got 40 to 80 leads and none of them turned into dollars. It was mostly people just like poking the thing. So that was a specific flop. And I think the general like mistake is to not be doing something.

I love that. And even if you're not sure exactly what you're doing, doing something. But I think you did also mention, I think for you it was actually just a bit of a slip away line, which is it's either a, you know, call me or die website issue. And I think, and I feel a bit embarrassed because my website, I think, is much too much like, here's who I am, call me. And I don't have nearly enough resources. So thank you, JJ, for calling that out. I was blushing a little bit there because I'm definitely guilty of that. JJ Reynolds, if there's one tip that you'd give, one thing that you'd recommend to the entrepreneur that's unnoticed from your experience now of running Vision Labs and other training businesses as well, what would it be?

I would say write down your plan with huge specificity. And I'm talking like, we're gonna do this to get traffic. We're gonna send them to this page. They're gonna do this thing. Okay, so as specific as you possibly can be, and then try and map to where you're going to get that number from. So like, are you going to get that number from Google Analytics? Are you going to get that from your sales, your CRM, your Stripe? Where does that number come from? And then start at very high levels and then get more complex over time, as opposed to looking at a tool and having it tell you what it thinks you should do. Write it down on a piece of paper so you have no, there's no possibility of being influenced by some technology. And then find those numbers and know exactly what you're going to do if those numbers are not what you expect them to be. If you don't have a plan, there's no purpose in even tracking the number.

Yeah, JJ, that's wonderful. And in light of what you're saying, the conversions of 3%, presumably on that plan, you need to have sort of a ratio of 100 people come to your website to 3 becoming customers. So we really need to have some ambition for that plan, don't we? Those numbers can't just be the numbers we're planning on selling. They need to be that magnified by at least 100 times in order to get a realistic amount of traffic to our websites. Um, JJ, you're a thinking man. I'm going to ask you for a book or podcast that you would share, uh, that you've enjoyed Yeah, I've really enjoyed Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey.

It's an amazing book overall, a life book, and I would highly implore you to get the audiobook because he's an actor, obviously, that everyone kind of knows, and he does the reading of it. So it has more depth in the audio version than any other audiobook I've ever listened to because he speeds up, he slows down, has a lot of tonation, and it is just a great listen.

J.J. Reynolds, thank you for that. That's a— that's out of left field, that one. Um, and he's been, you know, obviously a famous actor, but doing more and more as well in sort of the, uh, the self-help and analysis and, and life story, um, areas as well, hasn't he? So, J.J., what about people if they want to get in touch with you and listen to your story? How can they do that?

Yeah, if you're interested, visionlabs.com, everything is there. Uh, contact, feel free to book a call if you're like, hey, I need help with this. We also have a training program there that you can find. It's called like the Lab where you can learn everything that we're talking about and also get help from our team along the way. So visionlabs.com.

That is so easy to remember now, JJ.

Well done.

Thank you for joining me on the Unnoticed Entrepreneur Show. Fascinating to dive into data. It's such a new area for me. And you've taken such a wonderful approach through leading with education. That is fantastic, a real education for me as well today. So thank you for joining me and sharing that.

Yeah, thank you so much for having me. It's been a pleasure.

It has been a pleasure, hasn't it, listening to JJ? And for a man who is from the data side, what we've really met in JJ is someone who's so articulate and passionate and creative really about how he's building his business. And this idea of being an educator first and then bringing people to you and sharing that by the time actually they come to talk to you about the work they need doing, they're really already a customer, right? And that has got to be the best funnel of all— sharing first. So thank you for listening to me, Jim James, your host on the Unnoticed Entrepreneur Show today. If you've enjoyed it, do please share it with a fellow unnoticed entrepreneur and review it on your player. And until we meet again, I just encourage you to keep on communicating. I