Live Marketing Meetup April 12, 2024

Okay, so one of the.

One of the things.

Can we really start asking? Yes.

Yeah.

Okay. We feel like in our business that things are going pretty much as well as we could expect, but we. We're hopeful for some more feedback in general from our clients and our clients. So since we're in a marketing position, we've never done this before, so we're looking for advice on how to get testimonials or. Or some kind of reviews. We don't really know how to do that on Facebook or Yelp or. And we don't really know what is the best thing for us.

Any.

Any suggestions we will take and run with.

Okay. You know what I'm talking about, though. Yeah, I do. Yeah. Are you looking for reviews for the publication itself and. Or reviews from the people who paid to advertise in the publication?

My biggest question, is it working? That's what I want to find out because I want to start selling for 25, but I don't have any clear answers of. Are veterans picking up the book? Are they going into specific places because they're picking up the book, and are they taking advantage of the. The discounts?

Yeah.

So I guess from the actual general public would be a great place for us to start. Yes.

Okay. The question. Is it working? Per Jeff. So working. You have distribution centers and you have clients who paid to be in the book that have offers, and then you want to know if people are actually claiming those offers. Right. And the book came out. What was the date that it was released?

February 20th or something.

Okay, so. So the book was released on February 20. So here's the thing about that. Your book having been released on February 20, I think, think if you reached out right now to the people who are advertising with you, you would probably hear that it hasn't worked yet. Only because it's just the beginning of April. It really hasn't been on the shelf that long. Let me just pause really quick. Welcome, Becky. So just really quick, I'll update with a format. This is just a live Q and A. And so we're talking to Katie Carr and Jeff Carr right now on their veterans discount Guide and their question. Hey, Robert.

Hi.

I'm glad you showed up now, too, because I was just welcoming Becky. Right now we're talking to Jeff and Katie, who were on at 12, and they had a question. And this is a live Q and A, so there's nothing prepared or presented. I just take the questions and we'll rotate around. And so everybody benefits from the answers to someone's question. Jeff and Katie Carr, they're. They just started a new business called Veterans Discount Guide, and it is a publication that they sell advertising to. That's amazing. Would you mind writing a Surrey view? On the flip side, for people who have kicked up the book, you could do an outreach on social media. You could do an ongoing campaign maybe, and it wouldn't cost you very much. Like Facebook and Instagram. Say, hey, have you gotten your copy of Veterans Discount Guide? If you haven't, you can go to these distribution locations and pick it up. We'd love to know what you think. Leave us a review. So leave a review on Facebook or Instagram. Um, so you want those because you want the word to get out about the book and then with your advertisers, because a lot of your advertisers I know are also personal connections. It would not be unusual or unwelcome for you to reach out to them and just say, hey, if you guys checked in with me because we're an advertiser in the book and have I had anybody contact me as a result of the book yet? No, but I wouldn't necessarily expect that either. For me, it's more about visibility. But you'll get feedback from your advertisers at that point, and then you'll also have a vibe for when to start asking for those reviews. I understand wanting to get them really fast, but you want to give it time to establish, you know, itself in the marketplace. A little bit on the flip side, and I'm just throwing some ideas out for you, the people that you have right now who are advertising in the book are mostly personal contacts we have would probably just go write you a darn good review. So. But is the. You just have to ask the question differently rather than is it working? Because right now the answer would probably be tepid. Just. Yeah, we don't know. Just saying, hey, just wanted to check in. We're just looking for friends and advertisers to should go ahead and write reviews to help us grow. I would absolutely go write you a review. You see what I'm saying? And you wouldn't necessarily have that from cold outreach. As you grow and you start getting more advertisers in the book that maybe you don't know, or you personally and you break into new markets, you could take advantage of it right now. You know what I'm saying? So your friends would write your review and there's nothing wrong.

What should we think about keeping everything focused to one avenue or across the board? Yelp, Google, Facebook, all of them. Do we want to dilute? Do we want to concentrate review? I don't. We don't know.

The more reviews and especially the more positive reviews, the better. I wouldn't focus. I. You want them in multiple places. Now you are going to be hard pressed to get people to go write reviews in multiple places. That said, and this is not a sales call, so I don't want to pitch it like that at all. We actually do have a product called. It's called Blue Jay Reviews that we make available to clients that you can send them. You can organize a campaign from Blue J reviews. You import all of your clients and then you can do outreach to them. You, it creates a link where they can go write a review and then Blue Jay actually sends it to all of the platforms that you want reviews on. So that's an easy way to get a single review on multiple platforms because it automates that process. When you go reach out to. If you're going to do it manually, which in your case right now I'd probably recommend number one because it's brand new. Number two, your clients and friends would love to hear from you. I would send them to different platforms right now and whatever platform they're most comfortable with. So maybe give them a link, say, hey, get on the phone with them or send them an email, but then follow up with an email that has the links to where they would write a review on the platforms that you're looking at. So it makes it super easy. So when you're trying to get reviews, taking friction out of it for the person that you're asking makes it so much more likely that they will actually click through and go write the review for you. Okay. Does that make sense?

Yes.

Thank you.

Okay. You're welcome. You're welcome. Becky, you're up. I am just observing and just getting an idea. I love gathering ideas. So I'm just going to observe today. Thank you. Wonderful, wonderful. And you're doing a great job on our website, by the way. Thank you so much. Thanks. I really appreciate that. I really appreciate that. So I've had about like 10 people register for this Q and A. And I was telling Jeff and Katie, it just, it's people register and then who shows up? You never know. So I'm glad you guys are here.

I wanted to say something.

Yeah, go ahead.

Contacted you guys a while back about updating our website from just show and tell to actual sales. And I, I got a phone call back from your person.

I'm sorry, I have the name in.

Front of me, but it was very encouraging and I'm just. I want to move forward, but I'm waiting for my son and daughter in law who are now partners in our business to make up their mind. We're. I'm ready.

Okay, wonderful. Yeah, I'll share. Cheryl's actually on the call right now. Uh, you can't see her, but her picture's down there, so. Sure, I'll have you. Can you connect? I'm not sure if they talked to Mark or to you, but maybe just send an email to reinvigorate that copy Mark in and then when you guys are ready, you can let us know and then we can. Well, thank you. Thank you. Okay. All right. Awesome. Robert, do you have a question?

No. Oh, there's. Oh, there's two Roberts.

Okay. Yeah, there's two. Robert, good to see you.

If I'm the Robert. Yeah, I do.

Looking at.

This is a dream stage point of. Of a business. The concept is to help my friend who is a spinal cord injured vet. And I want to use his being a vet, but I gotta be real careful because his benefits are contingent on is not making money. So I can't screw that up. So I can use him as a subject matter expert. I can. He's fine, whatever. He just doesn't want to screw up his ven. Benefits. And then his wisdom. Also in the Navy he was a master electrician and a master plumber. So when he got out, he went to do irrigation. Right. So you've got this electrically driven pumps, they're just turning sand into vineyards in Washington state. He's from Washington, so he was doing that and. And then he got injured there. Not in service, but his. Our idea is to. Because on the side he had a lawn and landscaping business, is to try to incorporate AI as a way to get people to sign up for services. Because nobody wants to do their lawn kind of thing. But it has to get done. But wouldn't it be so cool if you had this little Jeff or somebody on there doing the. Hey, let me walk you through what you need. This is all a cart. You get this or that, whatever you want and we'll make sure it's done. How do you launch something like that? I am really thinking that I said that I know more than I do to him because I don't know anything.

Let me, let me just reiterate what I heard and I just want to make sure I understand the business idea. So you want to use AI to engage with people and so start a conversation to deduce what they want and then you guys would provide some kind of a quote and then come do the work for that. Is that the.

I want to reduce the friction of getting the lawn done. You can go on your phone, you can order it and it's done and we take it from there. Just tell us what you want.

Okay, so it's done. Meaning they tell you and then you guys show up and you do it.

Yes.

Okay.

And now he's not going to do it. Spinal cord injured. I'm not going to do it. I'm too busy. We're going to have somebody else, but it's going to get done. We'll make sure of it.

But a lot of meaning they tell you and then you guys show up and you do it.

Yes.

Okay.

Now he's not going to do it. Spinal cord injured. I'm not going to do it. I'm too busy. We're going to have somebody else, but it's going to get done. We'll make sure of it. But a lot of the things you've shared on the AI side of things make me think that this can run and create a client database and connect so that I am somebody. Doesn't have to always be quoted in the office.

Yes, yes, that's true. So you would definitely need probably a small website, couple pages, two, three pages, number one. Because it has to be able to be found. Just a landing page is great because that would drive the system behind what you're describing. But you need a few more pages to get any kind of recognition from search engines. I'd say maybe a three page website and that would give you an opportunity to also share kind of his story and the military side of it, which is a draw.

Yeah.

And then on the landing page you could integrate just a simple. You want to make it simple for people. It sounds like, because I, I finally, I. Let's just say I found out I've got family coming down in two days. I don't have time to get my lawn mowed and get the mulch out. So I would go to your service and I'd be like, I need my lawn mold and new mulch in my beds tomorrow.

Exactly.

Can you make that happen? So you just would need something as simple as form. So great sales copy at the top. Your yard work done now. When you need. You don't have to subscribe. It's your yard work done now. Super simple. It's very clear what you do. And then you just say, tell us what you need. We show up the Work's done. There you go.

Yeah.

And then it's just a simple form where they fill it out. I don't even know, honestly, that you need an AI integration. You could. But I think the AI integration itself even adds a little friction because then there's a lot of work because then they have to talk and type and.

Oh, that's a good point. That's. That's really complicating the simple, which I'm good at.

Yeah, that, that what you're trying to sell. It's just simple. It's your yard work done now. In fact, we could even go look online and let me just look really quick for you. I'm gonna just, I'm gonna share my screen so you guys can see how this works. So I'm just gonna go really quick to GoDaddy. Cheapest domains on the planet and I'm gonna yard work done now dot com. It's available for one penny. There you go.

Wow.

You can go secure that. I could secure it for you right now. Whatever you want. And I'm going to tie your yardwork done now dot com. It's available for one penny. There you go.

Wow.

And that's your domain and that's what you. You take that, you put it on a billboard in your service area. That's all you need, a simple form. They fill it out. You get the form delivered to you by email and text so you don't have to be sitting in front of your computer and just. You can go secure that. I could secure it for you right now. Whatever you want. And that's your domain. And that's what you, you take that, you put it on a billboard in your. Sir. Watch them roll in.

Yeah, okay. That's pretty cool.

That's all you need, a simple form. They fill it out. You get the form delivered to you by email and text so you don't have to be sitting in front of your computer.

And just so now that we've gone this far, I'm actually going to go get that for a penny and. And then I'm going to talk to him because it's like the other Robert said, Roberts have to get permissions because they, they had consequences not getting them right, Robert. And so you get the permission, you get your team on board and even.

Though watch him roll in.

Yeah, okay, that's pretty cool. Um, so now that we've gone this far, I'm actually going to go get that for a penny and. And then I'm going to talk to him because it's like the other Roberts said, Roberts have to get permissions because they. They had consequences not getting them. Our other Roberts on board, his partners have to be in same with this guy. But having that domain will just. He'll get stoked and he. Yeah, so that's a good start.

I mean it's awesome that the domain's available. Seriously, that's a great domain. Let's check one more. Cause you might want to get this one too. Hold on, I'm going to another penny.

Right Robert? And so you get the permission, you get your team on board. And even though our other Robert's on board, his partners have to be in same with this guy. But having that domain will just. He'll get stoked. So that's a good start.

I mean it's awesome that the domain's available. Seriously, that's a great domain.

That'll be my two.

Let me, let me just share my screen here. So your yard work done. Now let's try your lawn done. Now. Let's see. Hold on. I'll go daddy. Domain link free privacy. No, I don't want. I'm not trying to buy it, people. I just want to know if it's available. Okay, let's. Let's try that again.

Yeah, that's what it is. I see how they moved ahead.

I know. Let's check one more because you might want to get this one too. Hold on, I'm gonna.

Another penny. That would be my 2.

Let me just share my screen here. So your yard work done. Now let's try your lawn done now.

Like wait.

Your lawndanow.com.

Yeah. Two cents. Thank you for that.

That's good.

I'll get them both.

Let me caution you, the one thing that I do not like about GoDaddy and we do use GoDaddy to purchase domains for people for clients. So nothing against GoDaddy, but I do want to warn you, they're going to try to sell you everything. When you check out. Yeah, you do not need domain privacy. You do not need. Let's see. Hold on. Oh, godaddy Domain linkly free privacy. No, I don't want. I'm not trying to buy it, people. I just want to know if it's available. Okay, let's try that again. Yeah, any of the staff they're trying to sell you just go for the domain and that gives you all the flexibility in the world going forward.

I'm glad you told me because I would have got hung up there.

Yeah, yeah, just say no. Just hold onto the domain. You Own it and then you've got all the flexibility. You want to do whatever you want with it going forward.

Cool, thanks. That's excellent. Thank you.

Yeah, you're welcome, Sandy.

Just from our own point of view, that's how our business started. Three years.

Yeah, that's what it is. I see how they moved ahead.

I know.

Years ago, just start going to veterandiscountguide.com veteran had an S here and Kate got all of them. One to find out if anybody else was doing it. The other one was to make sure that we had choices of what the name of the business was going to be like.

Wait.

Your lawndan now dot com.

Yeah. Two cents. Thank you for that.

That's good.

Yeah.

And then somebody typed in a misspelling. It could route back to us.

Yeah, we could have bought them.

All of them.

Yes. And they're very cheap. And it also protects your brand. So one question that I get a lot is, should I buy the dot? The dot, biz, the dot, all the different dots. It depends. But generally speaking, if you are going to own your lawn. Done. Now, let me caution you, the one thing that I do not like about GoDaddy and we do use GoDaddy to purchase domains for people, for clients. So nothing against GoDaddy, but I do want to warn you, they're going to try to sell you everything or your yard work done. Now, you do want to lock out other people when you check out. You do not need domain privacy. You do not need from hijacking your brand with another version of the domain. You work to build that. And it's a great domain, it's a great business name. So it's probably worth buying the other versions of the domain like the biz. Now, there's so many end, you know, domains out there, but biz would be one that I would for sure get, maybe even.org just because it's been around so long just to own it and lock people out from using it. But for sure, biz, when you buy the.com, buy the biz, the biz is going to be any of the stuff they're trying to sell. You just go for the domain and that gives you all the flexibility in the world going forward.

I'm glad you told me because I would have got hung up there.

Yeah, yeah, just say no. Just hold onto the domain, you own it and then you've got all the flexibility. You want to do whatever you want with it going forward.

Thanks, that's excellent. Thank you.

Yeah. Slightly more expensive, but it's still going to be cheap and it's worth protecting someone from hijacking it because once that business goes big you don't want someone out there saying hey go to your lawndoneow biz and we've got you taken care of.

So each one of these you buy for this ridiculously low price is there annual fees you have to pay to to maintain them?

Yes. So we buy these domains and this is one of the reasons that I actually really like GoDaddy because. You're welcome Sandy.

Just from our own point of view that's how Our business started 3 years.

GoDaddy number one, the domains are cheap and then secondly you can years ago.

Just start going toVeteran discount guide.com, veteran had an S here and Kate got all of them. One to find out if anybody else.

Was doing it forward those secondary domains over to your primary domain.

The other one was to make sure that we had choices of what the name of the business was going to be for free.

So other domain registrars charge you for their forwarding service like Network Solutions charges. I don't know I'm going to make it up but let's say 25 bucks a year but GoDaddy you can do it for free but you do have to renew those domains every year there is that cost associating.

And then somebody typed in a misspelling it could route.

Back to yeah, we just bought them all. Yes and they're very cheap and it also protects your brand. So one question that I get a lot is should I buy the dot the dot biz the dot, all the different dots. It depends but is a typical college.

Do you expect them to go up.

Now that you sure, yeah, everything goes up but your.com domains are going to be the cheapest so they lure you in with the penny and then next year it'll probably be 14.95 which I think is the going rate right now. But that's annually it's pennies and and then the dot biz domains I think are 20 something annually. So to just block out your competition from hijacking your brand it's worth.

Is.

And then you also are established and have something to pay for that width anyway.

Yes but GoDaddy allows that forwarding for free. So by using GoDaddy for your domain, generally speaking if you are going to own your lawn done now or your yard work done now, you do want to lock out other people from hijacking your brand with another version of the domain. You work to build that and it's a great domain. It's a great business name. So registration, you can bypass that additional cost.

That's great. Yeah. And then you can get em all connected.

That's super.

Yeah, super. So yeah, Jeff and Katie, you have other questions. We got an hour.

One of the things that I wanted to talk about is we're talking about expansion now that we've got this established at the Lake of the Ozarks and we're really hoping that veterandiscountguide.com doubles in size for 25 and we're going to start selling it this summer. The big question that Kate and I have over drinks in the evening is what's next? What's the expansion? How.

Oh, it's probably worth buying the other versions of the domain.

How do we go to, how do we make this bigger without working too hard?

Like the, the dot biz now there's so many end, you know, domains out there, but dot biz would be one that I would for sure get maybe even.org just because it's been around so long just to own it and lock people out for music.

Because we're both, both at that age where we're just, we think this idea is really going to take off but we don't want to move to another locality and start that up. So our big question is everybody says Branson is the way to go, which is a possibility. I was thinking the other day that maybe we take the 60 plus clients that we have now and see if we can start come up with maybe a marketing company for those clients or for an additional clients that sort of focuses on the veteran aspect still.

But for sure, biz, when you buy the.com, buy the biz, the dot biz is going to be slightly more expensive, but it's still going to be cheap and it's worth protecting someone from hijacking it because once that business goes big, you don't want someone out there saying hey, go to your lawndoneow biz and we've got you taken care of and.

Maybe charge at an upcharge to do the Facebook post like I'm doing now. Because it's a startup business, you want to do everything you can to give people roi. Is that the term? Did I use that right? So the question is, what's next? Can we charge an extra couple hundred dollars to do their Facebook post to get them involved with other veteran charities? Where do we're looking for? Where do we go from here?

Okay, so you are asking the right person about this.

Yeah, I know so.

So each one of these you buy for this ridiculously low price is there annual fees you have to pay to to maintain them?

Yes. So we buy these domain and this is one of the reasons that I actually really like GoDaddy because GoDaddy number one the domains are cheap and then secondly you can masters for this.

You better be good.

Here's the thing and I am just going to be brutally honest with you okay. To expand your business I wouldn't do that. I would go to an next I'd get an build. Yeah because everybody's working on their phones right. And so you get more reach, you can grow faster. You get a veterans discount guide app and now you can target veterans and veteran businesses all over the country. And the reason I say don't do $200 and do their social media posts because I'm going to tell you what you said you didn't want to work harder. This is what my company does and it is a. I love what we do. Someone caught me on it but it was a pain in the ass. I'm just going to tell you right now. You will when you do that you're going to need. You're going to start to need employees. Employees make mistakes. Yeah it just. It's a whole nother thing. If you guys are trying to be forward those secondary domains over to your primary domain for free. So other domain registrars charge you for their forwarding service like Network Solutions charges. I don't know I'm going to make it up but let's say 25 bucks a year but GoDaddy you can do it for free but you do have to renew those domains every year. Passive owners but aggressive owners to grow. I would not go that direction. I like just. And if you do I'll support it but then when you come back to me in two years and say oh my God, I wish we wouldn't have done that there is that cost associating I'm going to say yeah I told.

You we have no ideas that are set in stone. We're just looking for what is a typical call.

Do you expect them to go up now that you sure.

Yeah everything goes up but your.com domains are going to be the cheapest so.

They next and that was the game to me.

Yeah I think I would say stay in your lane, stay in your brand and go with an that is the next logical step in my brain because all. All you're really trying to do and you provide enough value for the they lure you in with the Penny and then next year it'll probably be 14.95 which I think is the going the price of what you're doing that there's no question that it's worth it because if there's an annual distribution of these magazines and even if you published every six months instead of annually this the value as a customer of yours would still be there and there would be even more value if you had an app and I knew it would rate right now but that's annually it's pennies and and then the dot biz domains I is being promoted on military bases because military bases and the family think are 20 something annually. So to just block out your competition from hijacking your brand it's worth.

Is.

And then you all organizations would really support it if it had a lot of value for them. Um and then you get wide distribution on the Let me pause for just a second. There's someone in the waiting room called Presenter so I'm a little scared. I don't know who it is but I'm going to let them in just.

Briefly so are established and have something to pay for that with anyway and.

Then I might have to kick them out. Let's just see. I'm curious. Yes. But GoDaddy allows that forwarding for free. So by using GoDaddy for your domain. Oh hello. I know you we are registration you can bypass that additional cost.

That's great. Yeah. And then you can get them all connected.

That's super.

Yeah. So yeah. Jeff and Katie all waiting with bated breath because I we were sharing ideas and your name on your zoom says presenter and so you have other questions. We got an hour. Yeah. One of the things I told everybody I'm like you guys hold on, I'm gonna pause. There's somebody called presenter and I'm a little scared to let them in you guys. Steve Denny.

I don't know why they came in that way.

He was a good friend of mine and a client and welcome Steve. One of the most amazing financial brains and business brains you'll ever I wanted.

To talk about is we're talking about expansion now that we've got this established at the lake of the Ozarks and we're really hoping that veteran discount guide.com doubles in size for 25 and we're going to start selling it this summer.

The beat in your life. So glad I let you in, Steve.

Well, thanks.

I apologize for my tardiness. I had I thought I put this on my calendar and I was late getting back to My office and I was looking back for it and then it just occurred to me that I haven't hit the subscribe button yet.

But big question that Kate and I have over drinks in the evening is what's next? What's the expansion? How to do that.

But thanks. Thanks for letting me in.

Yeah, yeah. And definitely change your name so people know and they'll let you in the Zoom Room.

I'm glad you're doing this.

Oh, good, good. Thank you. So we were just going around and answering questions.

How do we go to how do we make this bigger without working too hard? Because we're both at that age where we're just. We think this idea is really going to take off but we don't want to move to another locality and start that up.

So our business and so Jeff and Katie Carr, we were talking about their business right now and they have what Jeff and Katie, tell Steve what your business is and then reiterate your question and I'll share with him. And I'm actually curious if he agrees with me or not. So when I say brilliant business mind, he has one. Joe came up with the idea.

Big question is everybody says Branson is the way to go, which is a possibility. I was yeah.

A few years ago. Why isn't there something local? Two communities that showcases veteran owned businesses and local businesses that support veterans with discounts, services, promotions and events. We couldn't find anything. We saw this gap in the market so we created the magazine. We did all of this in about.

Two and a half hours thinking the other day that maybe we take the 60 plus clients that we have now and see if we can start come up with maybe a marketing company for those clients or for.

With no experience as a publisher. But we had fantastic mentors and additional.

Clients that sort of focuses on the veteran aspect still.

And we just put in a lot of hard work on it and it's out now in the community. We're planning to. We want to grow the company. We truly believe in the idea and we've gotten feedback that it resonates with.

A lot of people in and maybe charge at an upcharge to do the Facebook post like I'm doing now.

The community our. The support's been amazing and so we want to see this grow. We're trying to figure out the best way to grow this if we want to grow it because what's unique about our business is that it's to the community. Anybody can Google online what is a.

Discount because it's a startup business. You Want to do everything you can to. To give people ROI for veterans.

And they'll see Adidas.com or Home Depot and those are all national.

Hey, is that the term? Did I use that right? So the question is what's next? Can we charge an extra couple hundred dollars to do their Facebook post to. To get them involved?

That's amazing. But nobody would have known that my local dentist gives a discount to veterans or the bakery down the street does or that all these places down here are owned by veterans. And the fact that Jeff's a veteran and that this has got a very.

High with other veteran charities. Where do we're looking for? Where do we go here from here?

Percentage of veterans here in this market area compared to the rest of the state and that Jeff's really well known in the community. We just thought this was the perfect place to start and launch this. And we're already thinking about what is next.

Okay. So you are asking the right person about this.

Yeah, I know.

Next. And do we. Our plan is to grow this book here at the lake for next year.

This is a master's for this. You better be good.

Here's the thing. Next year.

But then after that in 2026 do we go with the digital only player or do we move into another market?

And I am just going to be brutally honest with you. Okay.

To expand your business and concentrate on building one there like in Springfield or Branson.

I wouldn't do that. I would go to an next. I'd get an built or Columbia and.

Then grow it nationally from there. Or do we just do a digital play and do it per market still? Do we do an app? Do we just need the website? Because they're. I don't know. I don't really know how much.

Yeah. Because everybody's working on their phones. Right. And so you get more prints.

It is between an app and a website. Personally, I don't. I know an app is cool, but.

For reach you can grow faster. You get a veterans discount guide app and now you can target. Yeah. I don't know.

You don't have to advertise it the same way. So we don't.

We're trying to figure veterans and veteran businesses all over the country and the reason I say don't do $200 and do their social media posts because I'm going to tell you what you said you don't.

How much to spend on marketing dollars. I'm getting feel for what other businesses spend on marketing their own business. And who are we're having Lots of conversations about who our. Who our client is. Our client. Our, our number one client is our businesses that advertise with us. But to get them the roi, we have to, as marketing agents, want to work harder.

This is what my company does and is a. I love what we do.

See, we've got to think about how best to promote them to the public. So it's multifaceted and we're new and we're loving it. It's fun.

And Steve there, but it is a pain in the ass. Their initial question was they were thinking about offering value ad services to their advertisers and like charging an extra couple hundred dollars a month. And I'm just going to tell you right now, you will. When you do that, you're going to be doing their social media posts. And I said, you don't want to do that. Make an app. You're going to need, you're going to start to need employees. Employees make mistakes. Yeah. Because that's. It's labor intensive. But the caveat was they didn't want to work harder. But they will work a lot harder when they start doing that. If you think about it, you've got 40 advertisers and let's say 50% of them took you up on the social media Post. The $200 a month sounds amazing. I'm going to tell you right now, having that number of people that you're responsible for doing their social media stakes, it just, it's a whole nother thing. If you guys are trying to be passive owners but aggressive owners to grow, I would go for is a lot more work than you think. And Cheryl, you can pipe in if you want. I love doing that, but it really is, it is time consuming and you have to be completely meticulous in your words, your graphics and not go that direction. I like just. And if you do, I'll support it. But then when you come back to me in two years and say, oh my God, I wish we wouldn't have done that. Your message. Yeah, although. And I do love doing it because it's fun and creative, but it is, it's a lot of work. It will take your focus off. In my opinion, it will take your focus off of what you're really trying to do because now you're servicing a whole nother side of someone's business instead of, we're trying to get the word out about these businesses. And I didn't want to say, yeah.

I told you, we have no ideas that are set in stone. We're Just looking for what digital form.

We've got the. We've got the print, we've got the website and we have the next.

And that was.

Yeah, I think I would say stay in your lane. Stay in your br. It's the. That will really promoting that at a national level and even an international level with the military I think has the chance to explode. There's no competition in the market. So Steve, curious what your thoughts are on that. So that was the advice I gave and. And go with an. That is the next logical step in my brain because all. All you're really trying to do and you provide enough value for the.

Yeah, I a hundred percent agree with you.

It's.

I love the business idea and it is a big hole in the marketplace. There are a lot of people that.

Are circling around the price of what you're doing that there's no question that it's worth it because it's a bet side.

And it's funny I was thinking there's a sign that just got posted on the corner by our office here that I've been driving by for the last.

Couple of days because there's an annual distribution of these magazines and even if you publish every six months.

We had a hailstorm blow through here last week. There's a roofer sign which Roofer signs have popped up everywhere on. On every corner. But this one has. On the top right corner it has a big.

Instead of annually this. The value as a customer of yours would still be there and there would be even more value if you had an app.

And I knew it would Veteran owned logo on it. Right. And I was the thought I had the other day as I was driving by when I saw it for the first time. I thought wow, it's so amazing. When I grew up in the 60s, that was not a badge of honor, but today it's a real badge of honor. And I think you're. I think you're dead on. There's. There's a. The Kauffman Fund in the.

It's being promoted on military bases because military bases and the family organizations would really support it if it had a lot of value for them.

St. Louis group in the St. Louis area which is very active in Veterans affairs. And then there's a gentleman by the name of Mike LeBlanc in our local community out here in St. Charles county who is also very active in Veterans Affairs. So I, I think you could reach out to some of these Veterans affairs folks out here and get blown up.

And then you get wide Distribution on the. Let me pause for just a second. There's someone in the waiting room called Presenter. So I'm a little scared. I don't know who it is, but I'm going to let them in just.

Briefly, pretty quickly in terms of veteran owned businesses. Yes.

Okay.

We met them.

Yeah.

The mayor of St. Charles. I did John Carney show a couple of months ago and the mayor was on there with me and he was incredibly supportive and we had a great conversation about it. We think that there's opportunities in a lot of markets. St. Charles, of course.

And then I might have to kick them out. Let's just see. I'm curious.

This is one of them. Branson, all these other ones. But this distribution of these books is a major undertaking and we're starting to realize it now. I'm basically going to all 60 plus of our clients and making sure that the magazines are there.

Oh, hello.

And we have distribution and stuff like that. And of course if we did that in another market three hours away or whatever, that would just add to the logistical nightmare of it. So a digital play of it, the app somehow some way expand the website. That's what we're looking for. What's next?

Yeah. And I can connect to you on the app. I know you. We were all waiting with bated breath because I. We were sharing ideas. Side. Thanks for those.

Thanks.

Yeah. I would also invite you. So there's a couple groups where you can get to know people in that market that Steve's talking about. So we've got the. The map and your name on your zoom says presenter. And so Impact Network Mastermind that I do every month on the second Wednesday of the month. So I told everybody, I'm like, you guys, hold on, I'm going to pause. There's somebody called Present in Chesterfield. It doesn't take that long to get down there. And the people you'll meet in that group are very widely connected and could help. And then Steve has a group that meets the third Wednesday of every month called Experts for Entrepreneurs that also meets in Chesterfield in the same location. And I'm a little scared to let them in. You guys. Steve Denny, I don't know why they came in. He was a good friend of mine and a client and.

Welcome, Steve.

And that group is a whole nother separate group from the one that I've got running and could connect you as well. And Robert Cushing is involved too. Yeah.

All right.

There's a. There's another guy that, that I'm involved.

One of the most Amazing financial brains and business brains you'll ever meet in your life. So glad I let you in, Steve.

Thanks.

I published by the name of Dick Mueller, who's got a business called Transelect. He's done a huge amount of work with veterans organizations. And one of the things that the military does is when someone is getting ready to exit the military, they do classes on a regularly occurring monthly basis for folks that are either looking for a job or looking to buy a business. Apologize for my turning this. I had. I thought I put this on my calendar and I was late getting back to my office and start a business. And Dick has done a lot of. A lot of presentations within that list and I was looking back for it and then it just occurred to me that I haven't hit the subscribe button yet, but I as well. So that's a whole other infrastructure that, that he's connected with. But I think. I think the veteran play is. Is definitely rife. I'm with Sandy 100%. I think you guys got a tiger.

We'll do that.

But thanks. Thanks for letting me in.

Yeah. Yeah. And definitely.

We were certainly blown away by the response that we got at the Lake of the Ozark.

Change your name so people know and they'll let you in the zoom rooms. Yeah.

I'm glad you're doing.

We're just trying to figure out if it's because everybody loves Kate and seen Kate and knows Kate and.

Yeah, there's probably one element to that. Yeah.

Or if they want to support veterans.

And plus Kate's supporting the right cause, so there's no reason to say no to Kate.

She married a Navy guy and that was her first mistake.

Let's get to this.

Oh, good, good. Thank you. So we were just going around and answering questions.

Nobody's going to hold that against her.

And so Jeff and Katie Carr, we were talking about their business right now and they have. Thank you for your input, Steve. So, Steve, I'll go to you. Did you come with a question?

No, I came out of curiosity more than anything else. But I did send you a note.

What Jeff and Katie, tell Steve what your business is and then reiterate your question and I'll share with him. And I'm actually curious if he agrees with me or not. So when I.

Earlier today, I've got. I need to get connected with your graphic artist. I got a couple of things to get done in that regard. Yeah.

Okay, great, great. Yeah, I'll follow up with you afterwards. Yeah. So, Steve, that I would explain to Everybody else. This is the the second one that we've done. These will be recurring live Q&As. So the first Wednesday of every month I say brilliant business mind. He has one. Hmm. Joe came up with the idea on the second Friday of every month and it just register cuz that's how you'll get the link. So just register on our website and just show up and right now a.

Few years ago why isn't there something local to communities that show up and.

This could change in the future if you guys want it but right now I don't prepare anything.

It's just okay says veteran owned businesses and local businesses that support veterans to Q and A.

You come with whatever questions you have.

I record it friends with discounts, services, promotions and events. We couldn't find anything.

Robert, go buy those domains because what I do intend to do ultimately and this will happen won't happen today, it'll happen sometime next week. I will take chunks of these Q and A's and then I'm going to use them in marketing. So I don't want to share those domains that we picked out for you before you actually go secure them because they're.

We saw this gap in the market so we created the magazine. We did all of this and about.

Two really good ones go by them.

Sandy, do you mind? I do have a bit of advice for Robert. Robert too.

With no experience as a publisher but we had fantastic mentors.

The your friend who is disabled. He has and we just put in.

A lot of hard work on it and it's out now in the community. We're planning to. We want to grow the company.

We truly believe in money coming from the military. He has a pension coming or some kind of disability. Yeah okay. VSO is who you need to talk to. A veteran service officer about getting more or making sure he knows the numbers of how much he can make and all that kind of stuff. So there, there's help out there as far as that goes the idea and.

We'Ve gotten feedback that it resonates with a lot of people in when it.

Comes to disability and money that you get and how much you can get how much you can make the community.

Our the support's been amazing and so we want to see this growing.

You know if you can make money and that kind of stuff. So there, there's people to talk to about.

We're trying to figure out the best way to grow this if we want to grow it.

Got that kind of stuff that he's.

Talked to him he's talked to him and he's been disappointed because he's a go getter. He's always doing a project and he can ambulate.

What's unique about our business is that it's to the community. Anybody can google online what is just.

Some if we go fishing I need to be very helpful to do that and such. But he's scared of making a mistake.

And losing what for veterans and they'll see Adidas.com or Home Depot and those.

Are all national supports him his wife and so that's he's done the talking and he's just said I can't do it. No. Can't take a chance. And so then that's amazing.

But nobody would have known that my local dentist gives a discount and maybe.

If I'm using him as my poster boy that doesn't violate it. But he can't be quote compensated. But I said I might end up.

To veterans or the bakery down the street does or that all these places down here are owned by veterans and the fact that Jeff's a veteran and that this is got a very high like feeling.

You've been so helpful to me and I care about you since we were in junior high basketball. I just want to buy you a.

Book.

Stuff like that.

There you go. There you go. Awesome. So yeah we've got 10 more minutes so I'm happy to field anything else.

Or percentage of veterans here in this market area compared to the rest.

I'm happy to let y' all go. So you just tell me what you want or what what you need. This is Becky back at Katie and I'm sorry the name Jeff. Hi. I'm a veteran as well to the.

State and that Jeff's really well known in the community. We just thought this was the perfect place.

Well and we opened we started our business and I'd be interested in looking up your website. So it what is that website used.

To start and launch this and we're already thinking about what is next and do we our plan is to grow this book here at the lake for next year. It is veteran discount guide dot com.

All right. Thank you. We might want to you can find.

Do a rectory of local businesses that is sorted by category and there's also a digital copy of the flipbook of the actual magazine available on that website.

Cool.

We may want to average year but then after that in 2026 do we go with the digital only play or do we move into another market ties.

In it as well. So what is your business Back farm factory interiors.

Okay.

Their stuff is beautiful.

And concentrate on building one there like in Springfield or Branson.

You guys have been into the barn, right?

Where barbecue. Oh absolutely. Yeah. Billy's a client for sure.

Yeah.

Or Colombia and then grow it nationally from there.

They did a lot of the work in there.

We did all the lighting.

Yeah.

All the lighting.

Yeah. Their works. It's amazing stuff.

Or do we just do a digital play and do it per market still do we do an app isn't a.

Sales call but we would love to have you be our first client that signed up for 2025.

There you go. We'll look into it. Veterans supporting veterans.

Do we just need the website because they're. I don't know. I don't really know how much difference it is between an app and a website. Personally I don't. I know that an app is cool.

That's right.

Beautiful. Yeah.

You know with my theme and using or supporting Jeff and making that if you guys were able to be on an app or a website kind of thing, of course we would want to cooperate with that. I think it adds some oomph to both sides.

Yeah. I don't know.

You don't have to advertise it the same way.

So we.

We're trying to figure out how much to spend on marketing dollars and get a feel for what other businesses spend on marketing.

Okay.

Yeah.

Sandy, get. Get ready for the app conversation next time we talk.

Okay. All right. All right. Nice meeting you all. It's a pleasure. Yeah, thanks for joining in. Hopefully to see you on the next one. Oh and I do want to give a plug for the AI webinar that I teach. So. So that is the marketing their own.

Business and who are. We're having lots of conversations about who our. Who our client is. Our client. Our. Our number one client is our business.

Is that second Thursday of every month. So we just did it yesterday. If you guys are interested I will be happy to send you the recording from yesterday's. It was. It was. I'm not bragging but it was freaking good.

I really. Oh yeah. It you guys. It's really invaluable information. What's happening is we're moving into a.

Hyper advertise with us but to get them the ROI we have to as marketing agency we've got to think about how best to promote them to the public.

So it's multi change mode and we need to know what AI has to offer because it's going to be involved. We're going to have to Be involved.

Yeah.

And Sandy brings it out in a way that we can understand.

We built a custom GP faceted, and.

We'Re new and we're loving it. It's fun.

And Steve, their. Their initial question was they were thinking about offering value tea for a simple process in our company. And it's just mind blowing how it came out. And it took 10 minutes. Wow, that's amazing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll send you guys the link.

Awesome. Thank you.

That's great.

Thanks, Andy, for all you're doing.

Awesome. All right, you guys have a good weekend and see you soon.

All right.

Add services to their advertisers and like charging an extra couple hundred dollars a month and doing their social media posts. And I said, you don't want to do that. Make an app. Thank you. Okay. All right.

Yeah.

Because that's. It's labor intensive. But the caveat was they didn't want to work harder, but they will work a lot harder when they start doing that. If you think about it, you've got 40 advertisers and let's say 50% of them took you up on the social media posts. The $200 a month sounds amazing. I'm going to tell you right now, having that number of people that you're responsible for doing their social media posts for is a lot more work than you think. And Cheryl, you can pipe in that you. I love doing that, but it really is. It is time consuming and you have to be completely meticulous in your words, your graphics and your message. Yeah. Although. And I do love doing it because it's fun and creative, but it is. It's a lot of work. It will take your focus off. In my opinion, it will take your focus off of what you're really trying to do. Because now you're servicing a whole nother side of someone's business instead of. We're trying to get the word out about these businesses in a digital form. We've got the. We've got the print, we've got the website and we have the app. And it's the app that will really promoting that at a national level and even an international level with the military, I think has the chance to explode. There's no competition in the market. So, Steve, curious what your thoughts are on that. So that was the advice I gave.

Yeah, I 100% agree with you.

It's.

I love the business idea and it is a big hole in the marketplace. There are a lot of people that are circling around the vet side. And it's funny. I was thinking there's a sign that just got posted on the corner by our office here that I've been driving by for the last couple of days because we had a hailstorm blow through here last week. There's a roofer sign which Roofer signs have popped up everywhere on, on every corner. But this one has, on the top right corner, it has a big veteran owned logo on it. Right. And I was. The thought I had the other day as I was driving by it, when I saw it for the first time, I thought, wow, it's so amazing. When I grew up in the 60s, that was not a badge of honor, but today it's a real badge of honor. And I think you're, I think you're dead on. There's, there's a. The Kaufman fund in the St. Louis group in the St. Louis area which is very active in Veterans affairs. And then there's a gentleman by the name of Mike LeBlanc in our local community out here in St. Charles county who is also very active in Veterans affairs. So I, I think you could reach out to some of these Veterans affairs folks out here and get blown up pretty quickly in terms of veteran owned businesses. Yes.

Okay.

We met them.

Yeah. Mayor St. Charles. I did John Carney show a couple of months ago and the mayor was on there with me and he was incredibly supportive and we had a great conversation about it. We think that there's opportunities in a lot of markets. St. Charles, of course, is one of them. Branson, all these other ones. But this distribution of these books is a major undertaking and we're starting to realize it now. I'm basically going to all 60 plus of our clients and making sure that the magazines are there and we have distribution and stuff like that. And of course, if we did that in another market three hours away or whatever, that would just add to the logistical nightmare of it. So a digital play of it, the app, somehow some way expand the website. That's what we're looking for.

What's next?

Yeah. And I can connect to you on the app side if things go the way. Thanks. Yeah. I would also invite you. So there's a couple groups where you could get to know people in that market that Steve's talking about. So we've got the, the map, the Impact network mastermind that I do every month on the second Wednesday of the month in Chesterfield. It doesn't take that long to get down there and the people you'll meet in that group are very widely connected and could help. And then Steve has a group that meets the third Wednesday of every month called Experts Front.