How Influencers Can Help You Grow Your Business

Hey, it's Mark Podolski, the Land Geek with your favorite niche real estate website, www.thelandgeek.com. and I'm really pumped to learn more about all the marketing goodness from today's guest. A lot more than marketing though. But before we talk to our guests, I would be remiss. I didn't properly introduce my co host. You know him, you love him. Six Sigma Scott Todd. That from Scott Todd.net I'm already screwing up the intro. Scott Landmoto.com and most importantly, you know it. You're not automating your Craigslist and your Facebook postings. Posting domination.com the Land Geeks Scott Todd. How are you, Mark?

I'm great.

How are you? I'm great. I'm great. Today's podcast is sponsored by GeekPay IO, the only automated financial CRM in the marketplace Set it and forget it system. Everyone loves it. How do you like that, Scott?

Everyone loves it. It's a lot, that tagline is a lot better than when I, I remember back I was posting the ads on Sunday, man, the audience just engagement just went up.

It goes up way high. But you know what that the audience is going to love Cloris Kiely. You know why they'll love Cloris Kiely?

Well, because she's going to teach us something that's pretty cool about like influencers, right?

Yeah, but she's. If you don't know Clarice Kylie, she is a marketing MBA and she helps you build authority and attract the right clients online and offline. She shows you how to leverage connections with influencers and leaders of marketing platforms so that you can grow a magnificent business that produces positive impact and growing revenue. She is a sought after speaker, trainer and author. Cloris has been featured on network television and on top ranked podcasts and YouTube shows, including the number one podcast for entrepreneurs which I have still yet to be on. Entrepreneur on Fire. Cloris articles have been published on websites with millions of followers such as Tiny Buddha, Mind, bodygreen and Addicted to Success. Cloris. Kylie, how are you?

I'm doing great, Mark. Very happy to be here on the show. And you have to be on Eofire. You definitely. That's your next thing to do for sure.

I've been trying, you know, he's been on our podcast but he's a, he's a, it's tough to get on that show. I have to tell you. He's booked out like a year in advance.

It's true. It's not easy, you know, but it's Possible. Everything is possible.

So, yeah, I mean, I'm just going to email him. Like, I just talked to Cloris and she said, book me, John J L.

D. Yeah, that'll do it.

That'll do it. Exactly. So, Cloris, Kylie, what's the big deal about influencers? What's, what do you like about them?

Well, you know, I was just telling you that, you know, my connections with influencers and leaders of marketing platforms. And when I say that, I mean people who might not be, you know, John Lee Dumas, somebody has like, you know, millions of listeners or followers, but even people who have a dedicated audience, an engaged audience that might be actually very small, but that is your ideal audience. It's a perfect way when you connect with those people, when they support you. It's a perfect way for you to grow your business without spending a fortune on advertising, without being chained to the computer for hours, cranking your own blog post and doing your own podcast. When you combine that strategy by having somebody else really not necessarily promote you, but introduce you to their audience, that's when things changed. And that's what actually changed the game for me and my business. Because I would be one of those who would spend the whole day just writing all these posts, posting on my site pretty much every day. I would create videos and nothing was happening. And it was really frustrating and I was getting burned out, so burned out that I really thought about quitting my business. And it was only when I started to connect with people that had an already existing platform and they introduced me to that platform that I instantly built authority. And I started to grow my list. I started to get clients, and that kind of got me over the hump. So I got that momentum. I needed to then grow my business with my own content posted on my own site and so forth.

I like it. I like it. From a land investing standpoint, Scott Todd, we could really leverage this in a way that a lot of people don't do it. I mean, we could go on podcasts about alternative investing, silver gold, real estate investing, and talk about our land investing strategy and our assets and all that. Do you like that strategy, Scott Todd?

Yeah, I've actually executed on that. I've actually been on a podcast that was for survivors, survivalists, not survivors, but survivalist preppers, preppers, outdoorsmen, that kind of a thing. And really cool experience talking about land. And I mean, you know, you do get a noticeable bump in your email list. Your website hits. It's a great little spike there. And it kind of does help you to launch into another. You know, it's like a. It's like a booster rocket on a rocket, right? Like, it helps move you up even faster and higher.

Yeah, exactly. And that survivalist audience, actually, I was just thinking it's a really passionate audience. And I realized that when I wrote this blog post, and it's actually one of the ways I connected with an influencer. This man had been hosting a TV show on the Weather Channel, and it was called Fat guys in the Woods. So if you are into survival stuff and you, you know, you probably know this show. His name is Craig Stewart, and he's a survival expert. So I would watch the show, and I loved it, but it was just. It was beyond survival skills. It was about basically, you know, getting skills out there in the woods that will help you become a better person. And one day I said, well, these are exactly the same skills you need to grow a business. So I was inspired. I wrote this long blog article about it and the similarities between the two. And all I did was tweet creek. And I said, hey, you know, I wrote this article, just one link. I thought nothing would come out of it. All of a sudden, I see all these people coming to my site, and, you know, it was a creek. He retweeted my article. He posted it on Facebook. And since then, I have this audience of survivalists. But it just shows you how when you really acknowledge somebody's work and you can really show with passion that you believe in their work, then they'll share your message with their audience. And it was incredible. That's just one small story. Yeah.

So your podcast. Magnificent time for entrepreneurs. What is the focus of that podcast?

Well, the focus is to inspire entrepreneurs to get over that fear, to reveal their magnificence. That's my motto. Reveal your magnificence. Because I think a lot of people are kind of held back by their belief of what they can do, what they can accomplish, and they don't take action. So I empower people to take action, and then I show them how. How they can attract those right clients. Because sometimes, yes, you might attract some people, but they're not the people you want to work with. And you want to work with people who, first of all, appreciate your message and your value. They are able to afford your services and your products, because, you know, if they can, then what's the point, right? You gotta have a business that is sustainable in the long term. And the last thing is that they really implement what you teach, because it's just somebody who, when to say, yes, I'll do it, and they never do it. And that's not an ideal client. So it's got to be all those three things together. And then I show them what it takes through stories, through interviews, and then, you know, specific tactics then to help people do just that.

Yeah, I mean, I'm just looking at your site right now, and one of my favorite marketing tactics is owning that word. Right. And you've actually got a. You actually recommend a book about it by Evan Carmichael. And into the. You know, Scott and I talk about one of our favorite Books is the 22 immutable laws of Marketing. And they talk about a lot about having that word owning that category. Right. So, Cloris, what is your word?

My word is magnificent. And that's why, because I want entrepreneurs to reveal their magnificence. And actually, I didn't think about that one word until I connected with Evan, which is actually another interesting story, because I was on Phoebe Chonchua's podcast, and Phoebe specializes in brand storytelling, which I think is also essential for, you know, to stand out and grow your business. And then at the end, Phoebe said, well, you know, I think it should be on Evan Carmichael show. Do you know about him? And I. At the time, I didn't know. I said, no, I haven't heard about him. She said, why? He has almost a million subscribers on YouTube. You should check them out. So I did. And then I mentioned Phoebe when I pitched my ideas, and Evan liked it, and I was on his show, so that's how I connected with him again. It helped my business, and I learned about the whole thing about the one word. So now I use this book. I give it to my clients as a welcome gift. So, you know, one thing leads to the next, and you never know the next person you meet, how that's going to change your life, how it's going to change your business and your future. Really?

Yeah, Scott, I mean, it's so true. It's. You know, it goes back to that old adage, it's not what you know, it's who you know. Right. And I think a lot of people, it's hard to get out of that comfort zone, to get out there, put yourself out there and start networking with people that, you know, in and of itself, like, you know, you might be intimidated. Somebody's got a million YouTube followers and you've got 50. Right. Or whatever. I mean, I don't know how many you have, of course, but, like, you know, you don't have that many compared to that person, and yet you're still going to go out and reach out and try to add value to that audience. Scott, Todd, what are your thoughts?

No, I think that just getting outside your comfort zone and just knowing that, you know, just knowing the fact that you know that it's okay if you get no, it's okay if you get told no, it's okay to get outside the comfort zone because that's how you're going to grow. And then, you know, don't let other people's network or size or, you know, abilities intimidate you, because as long as you can add value to the conversation, I think that you'll be in a much better spot.

Yeah.

Yeah. So, Cloris, if you're going to give advice right now to somebody that's, you know, starting up their. Their business, what's the first thing you would have them do?

Well, the first thing I love what Scott said about, you know, getting over that fear and getting out of your comfort zone. And it starts by acknowledging your own values. So what I would do is just really write down a list with all the things you have to offer, not only to influencers, but to your clients. You know, it starts with your knowledge, your expertise, your skills, your ideas. I mean, think about it. When you contribute your ideas to somebody, they really appreciate it. And think about somebody like James Altucher, right? He. He's like the idea master. He says he's an idea machine. So he went ahead and he wrote a series of ideas for Amazon. And you wouldn't think Amazon would even pay attention if they get a letter. These are some ideas, but they did. So they had him over at the Amazon headquarters just to thank him for his ideas, to learn more about them. And that's just a small example of what can happen when you really believe in yourself. But you have to believe in yourself by seeing it somewhere, seeing a tangible example that, yes, this is the value you have to offer. So be kind of like creating a value proposition that is really detailed. So when you're out there talking to a potential client, to a potential connection, an influencer, then you know what the value is that you bring. And I would say also just knowing your passion or your interest and really focusing on that and acknowledging people who have achieved grander things in that field that you love will take you places. So, for example, if you have read a book and that book has really made a mark in you, and that's really help you shape who you are, why not write a letter to the author and say thank you for that? Putting a review on Amazon. If you really feel inspired, why not create a video of you talking about the book posted on Amazon and then that author will immediately appreciate you and potentially become one of those people who helps you grow your business. So I would say start by listing everything you have to offer, and then once you feel that confidence, then go out there and start reaching out, start creating those relationships. And what Scott said is true. You gotta go into it with the mindset that you want to deliver value. So this is the value I have to offer. I'm going to reach out to these people. It's going to work. If I get rejected, I move on to the next person and the right person will connect with me.

Clarice, what would you say is some of the bigger startup mistakes you see people going through out of the gate?

I would say the biggest mistake is to just want to go to the kind of like the fancy stuff right off the bat. I get a lot of people coming to me and saying, cloris, you know, I just need help with these Facebook ads or, you know, help me grow my Facebook followers or make my website more appealing. And yes, that's nice. It's kind of fun to, you know, grow your following and, you know, get the likes on social media and so forth. But really the core of your business has to be your number one priority. So a lot of these people are not even sure of who they serve, and even the language on their site and on their Facebook posts or their ads do not reflect the needs of their ideal client. So if that's happening, no matter how pretty your website looks and no matter how many followers you have on Facebook, then you will not grow your business because you haven't built that foundation. So I would say building that strong foundation has to be your number one thing, your number one priority when you start a business.

You know, Mark, I just read a. I just read a. I was reading a book and it basically, one of the quotes was from Mark Zuckerberg and he was basically saying, like, you know, it's not, when you're starting out, it's not like everything that you have, it's everything that you don't have. You know, and then, then you take that back to, you know, the quote that says, you know, if your first launch is not embarrassing, then it's too late. Right? So, you know, I see that same problem with anybody that's investing in land as they try to pre up these offers and they try to make the, you know, they try to make their website look beautiful and they Try to make all this stuff, get it all perfected before they do anything. And in fact, you know, at some point it's just like, hey, this might be the ugliest side I've ever seen. But you know what? I'm going to go with it. I'm going to roll. I'm going to get better as time goes on. Because those people that are trying to make their business perfect from the get go, they'll never do anything.

Yeah, I remember having a conversation with someone at boot camp and they said, hey, I don't want to send out offers until I have a website. And I said, why? So I, you know, when they go to my website, I want to look professional. I'm like, you're not professional until you get a sale. You're not professional. Get your sale first, then you have a website.

I mean, I even see, you know, like I see in flight school. I see people, you know, they go on, they're like, hey, what, what should my company name be? Is it Land this or Land that or Land whatever? And it's like, look, forget it. Forget land, whatever, okay? Like just, just mail your offers and buy a piece of property first and then figure out land or whatever you want it to be later on. But that stuff will not make you any money. In fact, the people that you're buying land from, they could care less if your name was Fred Flintstone. They wouldn't care.

Yeah, as long as you're delivering what they want, as soon as you're meeting their needs. That's all I care about, really. Doesn't matter how good it looks or the name of it. It's a matter of knowing what your ideal audience wants and then giving them that. That's all it is.

So, Cloris, how do you actually. Let's, you know, let's just get to a micro level. How do you know what your ideal customer actually wants?

Well, you really have to go and ask. That's one thing is funny that I made that mistake. I just assume, oh, this is what people want. And I, I actually went in a little cave for a few months and I developed this online course. And you know, I really put all my heart into it. I worked long hours, I had it all ready. I actually created a whole launch process with the three videos and a webinar. And it was a lot of work. And when the day to launch the product came, I was excited. I was like, oh, how many people are going to sign up? And guess what? Only two people signed up. So I basically wasted six months of my time creating something that nobody wanted. Right. So why? Because I didn't take a step back and asked, what is it that you want? So when I say ask, you can ask in different ways. You can just get on the phone with people who have either work with you or who would be ideal clients, and then ask, you know, what is the number one challenge you have with respect to this specific thing that I do? So it's not about what is your number one challenge. Blank about something really specific. And notice what they mention, notice what they say. Write down the words they use and use those words in your marketing. It could be something like you out to a forum or Facebook group. And again, you ask the same questions. You create relationships with people who are your ideal clients. Do the same thing, get into a chat with them, write down what they say, do a survey. If you have a list, same story. What is your number one challenge when it comes to doing this and that? And then you will have a series of answers. Of course, it has to be a significant number that you see patterns. And especially those people who really tell you a long story, who are really passionate about it, and they write long paragraphs via email or chat, or when they talk to you, they really talk forever. Those are the people who will buy from you if you provide an answer. So those are the comments you have to really analyze and ask yourself, how can I meet this need? What can I do to solve their problem?

Yeah, a great book on this that I read is Ryan Levesque, ask. And, you know, he has a whole book on this whole strategy. Scott, have you read that book?

I have, yeah.

What'd you think?

I thought it was a good book. Just continuing to ask and have a methodology for how you would go through that process. You know, I think, I think like anything, you have to have a way of capturing the data and actually using it, because otherwise, like, anything will become too overwhelming. But just ask.

Yeah, and I think the inverse to that is actually your haters can give you a lot of valuable feedback. And I think, you know, once you get over the sting of someone, you know, giving you that hate and getting stopped outside of like, oh, my gosh, this person actually took the time to give me this, you know, this feedback and not take it personally. It's really super valuable. Especially when you. When you go back to them and you thank them for it, right? Like, whoa, they actually care what I. What I had to say. Clores, have you experienced that?

Yes, I actually, you know what I do when people go through a specific campaign and for some reason they don't buy my products. Then at the end I send them an email and say, I'd like to know what you didn't like about this, like why, why you didn't buy it. And yes, I get some feedback that is not that nice to hear things like, no, this didn't meet my needs at all or was too broad. I didn't really get what you were selling. You know, feedback like that helps me become more clear in the future. But I actually take the, I guess get to take the risk and just ask why they didn't like it. Because it's easy to, you know, we all want to please people. We all want to get, you know, a gold, a gold star. But, but it's only by accepting that, yes, we're not meeting everybody's needs and we can get better that, that things, you know, that you make progress and things happen.

Yeah, absolutely. I remember when I first, you know, started, I would ignore the haters.

Right.

And I think that's a big mistake. I think you've got to actually, especially when it's a publicator, like go on and respond and thank them for that feedback and then use it as a marketing tool to kind of turn it around as well. Great book by Jay Baer. Hug your haters. I'm getting tons of book recommendations as podcasts, which leads me to the next segment which is tip of the week website, a resource, a book, something actionable where the art of passive income listeners can go right now, improve their businesses, improve their lives. Clores, Kylie, what do you got?

Well, if you feel that connecting with influencers is a way for you to grow your business, and I would say for most entrepreneurs it is, then you love then the guide that I have is a PDF guide called 15 Ways to Get noticed by influencers to grow your business. And it's basically really actionable because it just gives you an idea on how to get started. If you're not sure, okay, how to start connecting with these people, then I give you a bunch of ideas. You can use one of those, become inspired. Maybe you get an aha moment to start those connections and just to get you going, once you get that first step, you know how it is. Once you take this first step, then it becomes a lot easier to take the next and to really make things happen. So.

Alright, great, great. Click the image below to download your influencer guide. I'm on it. You like click funnels? I had a hard time with click funnels.

It took me two weeks to learn it was pretty frustrating. At some point, I posted a little thing on Facebook. Can somebody help me do this? Then when I spoke with the people, I realized that only I could get things done the way I envision them. So I said, I'm just gonna learn this thing. And I took the time to do it, and I'm pretty happy with it. So I think everything takes that learning curve to kind of understand that it has to happen. You know, you have to have a little bit of a rough time with it and then. And then you get better.

Yeah. Yeah. All right, great. Scott. Todd, what's your tip of the week?

Mark, check this out. It's actually two websites I'm gonna send you. One is my.mynode.com.

Okay, I saw this. It's great.

And then it's learn. Is it learn anything?

Learn.

Yeah, yeah, it's the same thing.

Learn any, learn hyphen anything.xyz. okay. So basically it's taking mind maps that people are creating under certain groups. So, like, and it's building in content of more mind maps. So if you go to learn hyphen anything.com or learn hyphen anything.xyz, man, that's hard to say. Then essentially what you're going to get is you're going to get. You're going to get basically the search in search browser that says, what do you want to learn? So you can say, hey, I want to learn, like investing.

Okay.

So then you can type in investing and a mind map will come up of investing, and then you can keep digging into it. And then this thing is going to grow as more and more people create more and more mind maps.

Yeah, it's the Wikipedia of mind maps. Yeah, it's cool, isn't it? It's really cool. Yeah. I saw it the other day. I'm like, oh, that's awesome. That's gonna be a great tip of the week for the roundtable podcast. And of course, Yuri took it.

Took it.

Gone. That's how you roll, Scott. Todd, I don't waste time, you know. You know what? You don't. Which is great. Which is great. Cloriskilly. Are we good?

We're good. You know, I've been learning a lot. I have to take note of those sites that Scott suggested because I had never seen them. So I'm learning here, too. Thank you, Mark. And thank you, Scott.

Yeah, that's great. That's great, Scott. Are we good?

We're good, Mark.

All right, well, I want to thank all the listeners. And look, the only way. The only way we're going to get the quality of guests like a Cloriskilly to come on this podcast is if you do us three tiny little favors. You got to subscribe, you got a rate, and you got to review the podcast. Send us a screenshot of your review. To support thelandgeek.com we're gonna send you for free the $97 passive income launch kit. Again, I do want to remind everybody, today's podcast is sponsored by Geek Pay IO, the only automated financial CRM in the country. It's awesome. Save time, save money. I love it. Again, check out cloriskilly@myplatform.info I have the link to it. How to be noticed by influencers. Because my. My tip of the week is. Learn more about Cloriskilly. Cloriskilly.com is that the best site?

That's the best site, yeah. You'll see everything you need. All the resources are there. Thank you.

Yeah, it's great. It's great. So, cloriskilly.com Scott, are we gonna do this?

Let's do it, Mark.

Ready? One, one, two, three. Let freedom ring. Clorence is like, oh, my gosh. John Lee Dumas doesn't do this stuff.

Well, this is pure. Pure power. Pure energy, though. I love it.

All right, well, great. I want to thank you again for coming to the podcast. I want to thank all the listeners, and we'll see everybody next time.