Building an Online Presence People Trust | RR385

Hello, hello, and welcome to this week's episode

of Relationships Rule. Today, I am having a conversation with

Don Wexler, a digital marketing and video strategist from Living

Now in Lafayette, California. First of all, welcome to the

show, Don.

Well, thank you for having me, Janice.

My pleasure. Don has spent decades helping

businesses build trust before a conversation ever begins. He

started in real estate, and today he runs a video studio

that turns real client reviews into video testimonials. I

recently saw his work up close, and by the way, I know that's

only part of what he does, but it's the part I just had an

experience with. I recently saw his work close up when he

created an AI spokesperson for me. She shares a real client's

words, and it got me thinking about where technology ends and

real relationships begin. John and I are going to talk about

how relationships lead to business and how video and AI

can help us show up with more confidence and heart, so that's

where I'm coming from, and it's so fun to have that experience

with what you're doing currently right now. Because I know that's

pretty exciting work. So wrap up

with it.

Yeah. So first of all, Don, I know you've worn a

lot of hats over the years, and when someone asks you now, what

do you do? How do you answer? And it's a clean show, just for

the record.

Oh, I'm glad you clarified. Thank you. What do I

do now? We help businesses get more business online and on

mobile devices. Is really the overarching theme.

Okay, and looking across everything that you've

built, what's the common thread that ties it all together?

Understanding your target audience, understanding

what the business actually offers. Meaning, most businesses

don't really understand what they're offering from a

marketing perspective. They don't know how to really boil it

down to the core problem that they're solving,

right? And okay, I'll come back to that. Yep.

Okay, and and then crafting the collateral and the

messaging that supports leading the prospect through baby steps,

typically towards an offline experience, because most of our

we don't do a lot in the e-commerce world.

Okay,

so most of our clients really face-to-face

business. Ultimately, it's a person doing business with a

person,

right? Okay,

that starts when we get them offline. So the irony

is, we're online marketers, but our goal is to get people

offline.

Okay, so now I forgot what I was going to say.

Okay, so you said something about most people don't know how

to describe what their business actually is. That's not going to

edit.

Understand. So here's here's even more core

than that. My one of my other companies is we teach business

owners how to think about marketing.

Okay.

No surprise that they aren't marketers. Oh,

right,

right. They do really well. Just like I'm not

gonna, you know, frame a house particularly.

Right. Well,

framer doesn't do marketing. So yeah.

And so does that. Would you say this is similar?

Because I just had a conversation with somebody that

I don't. I had met him on a networking group or something,

and he said, and we were talking about what he does, and he said

something about I have to get more clear on on what on what I

do, and I said, if I may, be careful that you make sure that

you're more clear on what problem you solve.

Bingo,

right? So

here's here's the parable or the metaphor that I

typically use when teaching people about nobody want. I

didn't make this up. I'm just quoting from somebody else. That

was nobody wants a quarter inch drill bit.

Right.

What they want is a quarter inch hole,

right, right.

But businesses typically talk about the drill

bits because that's what they're familiar with. That's what they

work with every day.

Yeah,

they don't really understand that the drill bit a

means to an end,

right?

Not the end in and of itself,

right? And I had to learn that too because I,

when I went into business for myself, I had knew nothing about

business, and so you learn as you're going, and you learn from

other people and from reading and experiences and stuff. But

that's a major, basic thing that people get wrong. Yeah, and

foundation for everything. Frankly,

pardon me.

It's the foundation for everything. Yes.

Yeah. So many business owners have wonderful

reviews that sit quietly on their LinkedIn profile for one,

and on their websites for another. Why do you think those

words go unused, and what change? And what changes when a

client's story becomes a video?

Well, if you just look at it pragmatically, so. So

both reviews you'll find are on Google Business Profile, Yelp,

Trustpilot, or one of these platforms, right? And you may

pull them from those platforms, and you know there's ways to

have them automatically populate your website. But the reality

is, people have to go find the reviews. The reviews don't find

them, if you will, and add on top of that that most people

really, you know, reading is becoming an extinct practice.

Sad, really,

and particularly as we get more and more on these

kinds of devices,

yeah,

they're not really friendly to text. I mean, you

know, copious amounts of text are just not-they're

off-putting.

Yes,

whereas video is particularly enticing, you know,

the MTV started all that. For those who are old enough to

remember MTV, yes.

So I know you and I are, but you know, some people watching this

may be like MTV. Yeah. Anyway, go look it up.

Yeah.

Anyway, so by converting them into a video

format, you can now, of course, put them on your website, but

you can also syndicate them across social media. And so now

videos can find them versus them having to find it.

Now, would you say there's there's a sweet spot

to how long these videos should be? Because we're all short

attention. Yeah, 50

seconds. You know, okay, 30 seconds, 50 seconds. In

fact, 50 seconds is kind of pushing the outer limits.

Okay,

got to get as close to 30 to 40 seconds as you can

get.

Okay, okay,

got it to the point. You know, no one's got no one's

nobody wants to watch a documentary on your business.

No, exactly. Can you think of a time when a video

testimonial has changed how a client responded to a business.

Oh yeah, well sure. Because so let's okay. I'm going

to get into a little marketing geekdom here for a moment. Okay.

So bear with me. There's a thing called in marketing. There's a

concept called a marketing funnel.

Yes.

And there's top of funnel, middle of funnel, and

bottom of funnel. So for those who uninitiated, top of funnel

essentially is just awareness. In other words, getting the

somebody to know you exist, right? So that's just and and

video, of course, operates very well on top of funnel because

people will actually look at

it, right?

Whereas they may skim quickly over some text.

Middle of funnel is education typically, so this is where you

educate the client or the prospect, excuse me, the

prospect about what you do and you know how you do it, and

perhaps even why they should be why they should care. Now the

assumption is that they have an interest in what you do,

right?

If they have no interest, they're going to just

bounce anyway. But if they have an interest and they want some

more information, it's part of their due diligence process, and

then the bottom of funnel is conversion. So this is where you

actually convert prospects that they're now aware of who you

are. They kind of understand what you do and how you do it.

Now they need what some commonly called social proof, which we

call reviews. The layperson calls reviews to substantiate

the fact that they're not going to be the only idiot who's used

you and had it, you know, right? They're not going to take. It

reduces their risk, right? They like, okay, other people had a

good experience with these people, so perhaps I'll have a

good experience with this person, right? That kind of a

thing, and so it operates in those three parts of the funnel

quite effectively. Not much marketing operates in all three

parts of the funnel, whereas video is particularly suited to

that. Add on top of that that when you some tangential

benefits of video is that if you put it on your website, which I

highly recommend by the way, everybody should have video on

their homepage at a minimum, and each of their anchor pages. And

anchor pages are what the industry calls subject pages,

like you know, water heater, fence, you know, things that

you're depending on your business, you know, accounting,

the the core kind of things that you offer that describe that,

but more. The reason why that's beneficial is that there's this

company called Google. You may have heard of. Have you heard of

Google? Yeah. Okay. All right. So the search engines rate.

Okay, let me back. We'll step back. There's a common misnomer,

which is that you want to get your website ranked higher on

the search engines. You don't rank your website on search

engines. You rank web pages. That's why the homepage is

rarely the page that ranks, because usually it's a topic

related to your subject matter, which is rarely the homepage.

Right. So if you're

going to go deep on a topic, that's the page that

ranks, not the homepage itself. All right. So we'll just take

water heaters since I started with that one already. So if you

are a HVAC, right, and you're putting in water heaters for a

plumber, right? Then, if you have a video on your page that

talks about that particular plumbing problem, then people

are going to be there longer as you're watching a video. Well,

that signals to Google there must be something pretty good on

that page about. This topic, because they're actually

spending a lengthy amount of time. Now, when I say lengthy,

30 seconds is like dog ears times 20.

Yeah,

right. Because you know the average page dwell time

is two to three seconds. So somebody's on a page for 30

seconds. That definitely hurts up Google's ears, or and the

other search engines. I'm just using Google because they're the

the gorilla. But you know they go. Oh, there must be something

really good about that topic because look how long they were

on that page, and that starts moving up the rankings for that

page.

So that brings me to another question because

that's all changing. So I listened to somebody the other

day who was talking about the importance, and I don't know how

true it is and what kind of an expert she is, but I

may or may not be able to tell you. Go ahead.

No, but she was saying that it's really

important for small business owners now who are you know

actively using AI and actively using LinkedIn and and their

Websites flourishing, whatever, to create a page on their

website based on backlinks and based on information that will

then be picked up by AI. So she was saying that you should go to

AI in an incognito window, so and close all your AI stuff, and

then ask that LLM, whichever one you choose. I've done this

before, but not this. What they know about you, okay? Yeah,

yeah. And then also, so you take that information, put it on a on

a sheet, and then maybe even ask it, as I've done this before

too. Who are the top 10 LinkedIn trainers in Canada? Let's say,

and if I didn't show up on there, then I go back and I say,

I thought Janice Porter would be on there, and then oh, you're

right, she should be because she's her focus is blah blah

blah, and so now you're awakening the the the AI. But

then all of this should be put on a maybe a not a hidden page,

but it's not on the tabs on the top of your website, but it's a

page on your website with all that information, which will

help when somebody asks the question to their AI: Who's a

good LinkedIn trainer that focuses on relationships or

something? Right.

All right. So.

So, what do you think about all that?

Okay. So we're getting a little off topic, but

I can speak to. I know,

but I, I that because you said Google, Google,

Google. I think it's changing.

I'm not disagreeing.

Okay. Okay. Good. Yeah.

But before I get off the video thing in its entirety

for the moment, I'll come

back to it. I promise.

Okay. I was going to say one. I'm not. I'm not saying

it for that reason. No.

No. No. I understand. But I just thought

this was fascinating, and you would have a take on

it. Why it's all related.

Yeah. Okay.

So the AI engines, right? It's now they're it's

being called AEO. Yeah, talk to it's AIO, AEO, GEO,

they're all

right. All kind of in the same pool, and so is SEO.

It's all part of the same pool. But you still need a strong SEO

foundation for the AEO, GEO, whatever you want to call it, to

also be effective. Okay. Now we have another product, which I

don't even I don't even know if I've told you about this.

Maybe not.

It's another. We actually have a product called

Tofu Bofu. Have I

talked to you?

No.

Top of funnel, bottom of funnel.

Oh, okay. And

it's a it's a it's a company. We're rolling it out,

and it analyzes your presence across the internet.

See, I led into that for you.

That's what I'm saying. It was like a perfect. I

knew you didn't even know this. I was like, "All right, well,

this is kind of for

you,

right? Yeah, you know, we do a lot of things. I

mean, video is just a very small portion of what we do, and this

report will actually tell you how you rank across 25 queries

related to your industry and/or product,

okay,

and then where you rank against the top six

competitors, and it has a part of the report is a grid that for

each of the queries tells you where you stack up in the top

six AI platforms, which is you know Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini,

Copilot, Perplexity, one other one, and you know X's and pluses

depending on whether you whether you're in the hunt and where you

are relative to the other ones.

Interesting,

which is interesting,

yeah,

not entirely useful, which is why I mean, just the

knowledge is helpful, but it doesn't really help you, right?

Okay, I'm screwed. Now I know it. Thanks. Yeah,

yeah,

yeah. Awesome. So now we take it to the next

level, which is here's the changes you need to make to your

website, so it communicates more effectively to the AI bots as.

Well, it's called the LLMs. The LLMs, yeah, large language

learning models, right? And and then we also make suggestions

content-wise, and then we also provide the content. So we do

like 25 blog posts a month, 10 video scripts, and four

newsletters. So for one a week.

Okay.

So everything is geared towards ranking your site

higher

basis.

Interesting

more to get to get into the suggestions because

Google and the other search platforms,

as

we know it, are going away. It's changing

dramatically because no one's no one's doing short form searches

anymore. It's not like Mexican restaurant near me. No, who's

not? Yeah, who's got the best burrito in X Y Z City? You know,

interesting. Yeah.

So it's long form. These are all queries, and then

they dig down deeper. Okay, is that a wet burrito or a dry

burrito? You know, it's kind of like, you know, that's how

people are doing it, right? I'm really looking for this. So it's

that's how the searches are trending nowadays. It's not like

not like you know you know discount shoes is no longer the

search. That's how it used to be. Now it's getting into you

know I want this particular brand of yeah very

specific right yeah exactly I went on Siri the

other day on my phone to ask her something, and she said, "Would

you like me to check with Chat GPT on that?

Correct.

Can't you do it on your own anymore? You know.

By

the way, you know how we have like page one, page

two, page three of the results, search results.

Yes. Yes.

No more. It's going away. In fact, there's because

there's an old joke, which is, "Where's the best place to hide

a dead body? Page two of Google search, but no one goes there.

Oh yes, okay. Very simple.

Page one. So Google and the other search

engines-they're aware of this. They're not fools, so I get it.

They can see the traffic patterns. So there's just going

to be one page now, and if you don't if you don't get into the

AI results,

yes,

there's no page two, page three, nothing like.

Is that stressful for a lot of people?

Well, no, probably because most people don't know

it. Well, but then

okay, so when there's only one page, is it

still regional?

Do I tell you? ask the query.

Oh, okay, okay, right? Yeah, of course. Okay.

Yeah, it's

been all fashioned based on the query.

Okay. So

anyway, so the point is, it's everything's changing,

and it's like, but it's like a gold rush right now. Meaning, in

the early days of SEO, you could make changes and get your sites

ranked quickly, because nobody was knew what the hell they were

doing. Same thing now. You can get your site. You know, whereas

SEO may take six, 912, months to see real movement in SEO. You

know, if we move up the chain, get it done in days and weeks

now with AI and AI search because there's nobody. There's

so few people who are playing in that pool right now. Yeah.

Now is a great time to create that moat around your business.

Oh, that's

good. Like that.

You're welcome.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So to

protect, to get it's like the way I fashion it is.

Remember the game King of the Hill when you were kids.

Remember eventually the Indian game. Anyway.

Yeah. We're

just the top of the dirt mound, and you're throwing

somebody else. Everybody wants to throw you off the top of the

dirt. Yeah, I'm the king of the

hill. Yeah, yeah,

king of hill. So that's kind of what it is. It

was

sexist back then, even.

Thank God, the old days, right? You're welcome.

Yeah.

So yeah. Anyway, the point is, oh God, you're talking

to a long-haired liberal. Don't get me started. You can't see

the long hair, but it's. I

know, I know. Anyway,

I know. So the point is, it's it's a similar game,

right? What SEO is that game? You know, you want to get to the

top of the hill, which is the top of the rankings, and you

want to keep everybody else from supplanting you. So it's it's

what it

is. Okay, so let me shift that a little bit in

talking about being the top of the rankings and this kind of

thing.

Yeah,

I believe, and I could be totally off base, but I

believe that the people who worry about those things are

more transactional and they care more about you know numbers than

people. Now I could be totally wrong, and there are companies

where numbers always count. I know that. I know that numbers

always count. Yeah,

yeah. I don't. I hear my own. I'd say. I don't

know if there's a correlation between those two.

Okay, so different subject matter. I

think you can care about people, and still want to

make a lot of money.

That's true. Yeah. Okay. Right. Yeah. I don't

think they're. I don't think they're distinct.

Unfortunately, many times they're distinct, but they don't

have to be distinct.

Okay. Fair enough. All right. So it's just

your methods of however you.

Good example. When I was a young man, and I'm no

longer a young man, but when I was a young man, I've always

been able to sell. It's just a skill I had. Just

the gab, my dear. Yeah.

At least.

Yes.

And and for many years, I thought it was a curse

because I always I equated selling with manipulation,

really?

Oh yeah,

interesting. Yeah, I can see that though.

Yeah,

and so I just was like, I can't believe I got this

skill that I can't. This is like cursed. Like I said, I was a

long-haired liberal, a lot of self-guilt. Yes, I

got it. Yeah, a lot of guilt. Berkeley, right?

Exactly right. Yeah, Berkeley. So, but then I got

into college. Actually, the first time I experienced the

benefit-we'll get forget it. I know too much detail, but the

bottom line is, my first company when I was 22 years old was

Natural Foods Distribution. I realized I could be using this

power for good. I put a super-I got a super costume thing, I

know. Yeah, I'm kidding, but but point is, no, I realize it's

contextual. It's how you use it. Okay,

okay. So, I I think I know that you had a

mastermind with peer groups. Is that right? Is this a long time

ago?

No, I currently it's one of my companies.

Oh, okay. So it's a mastermind with peer groups of

only three or four people.

No, I don't know what that refers to. Actually,

oh,

our company-it's different. It's called the

Business Acceleration Group.

Back to the drawing board. Okay, forget that

question. Bag

to the drawing board because the and the acronym is

bag, the business acceleration group, and our slogan is when it

comes to rapid business growth, it's in the bag.

Love it. So is that? I think a

marketer came up with that or something, wouldn't

you think? A marketer might have come up with that. Who knows?

Yeah.

How how often do they meet?

Monthly.

And do you run the mastermind?

I'm one of. I've got two partners in that one, and

I'm one of the partners. I'm one of the facilitators. Yeah.

Okay. And do you pick topic each month?

Oh yeah, we have a very specific training. So it's

not a networking group.

No, it's a mastermind group.

Correct. There's networking that happens

naturally, right? Sure. Yeah. That's not the end. I mean, so

who's in it?

Who, who, what kind of people are in these

groups?

Business owners.

Okay, people who

want to scale. The basically the idea is, how do

you scale from six figures to seven figures?

Okay,

what gets you to six figures is very different. Yeah,

takes you from six to seven figures.

Yeah, so I understand.

Different process.

Okay,

so I mean, in the beginning, you can kind of just

muscle up.

Yeah,

just sheer force of will, you know. Yeah.

Eventually, you run out of you.

Yeah, exactly. Right.

It's kind of how it is. Usually, the founder is like

working their butt off.

Yeah.

But eventually, it's like I got no more time. I'm

already maxed out. No

trust gets to be. You have to trust people.

Well, yeah. You better. I mean, you're gonna

need to bring people on because you can't do it yourself. It's

got to be

exactly.

And ideally, you don't want it to be you because,

a, if it's you, then that means there's no vacations.

Yeah.

If you get sick, you're not getting paid. And

even the bigger point, when it comes time to sell the business,

if it's you,

yeah, there's nothing

to buy.

Right.

Because you were the business. Once you go away, so

goes the business. So ideally, you have it. You know, you want

to have it operating like a regular corporation,

essentially, or that nobody care. I mean, yeah, it matters

who the CEO is, but if the CEO leaves or gets hit by a bus, the

the business doesn't fold. It life goes on. You have to get a

new CEO potentially right, but but it's still yeah it's still

it's an operating business it's a systems and process business

not a personality based business

right right made me think of something so being

having your fingers in so many pies like you've got several

businesses going what's your focus what's your focus?

I don't have a focus. Well, I think you,

I think you change it. Is what I think, and

because right now you've been focused on talking to people

about the videos, but a month from now it might be something

else. So you

cycle through them. It's you know, what's my focus?

My focus is to make a lot of money so I can help a lot of

people. I'm one of these people that could live in a

refrigerator box under the freeway. I mean, I'm really I

could care less. I mean,

okay,

material things mean very little to me. It's it's a

transient high. You know, you get a shot of dopamine when you

buy the new thing, and then a week or two later, it's it's a

thing.

Yeah. Okay. So

that's why people have to constantly buy new stuff

to get the dopamine hit. But my dopamine hit is different,

right? I I don't really think I'm that important, so it gives

me advantage not having to curry to myself. So I I get my

happiness by improving the lives of the people around me. Because

I think ultimately, I think what the really really wealthy people

fail to realize, and that may not even be true for them, but I

think it's true, and that is happiness primarily is derived

not so much from the stuff you have around you as the happiness

of the people you have around you. If the people around you

are happy, that creates a very happy environment. People around

you are miserable. I don't care what you've got; it's not a fun

place to be hanging out.

Right. That's so true. It's so true. I

mean, I don't know. I think it's true, but I could

be. You know, I'm open being proven wrong.

No, I think it's right, but it also makes me

think of the question that I've been, I've heard a lot in the

last six months or so, and that's about with all the

technology pluses and and things that are expanding with

technology so fast. It seems to me that now is that most

important time to to stop, you know, stop the madness and pick

up the phone again, or or you know, go for coffee with

somebody again, or do something in person with people because we

need that, and we're not we don't get it as much anymore.

Yeah, I don't think it's an AI driven thing. I think

it's. I'll tell you when I first noticed it, which is well, I

didn't

say it was AI driven. It's just all

technology, period. But that's part of it, obviously.

I don't disagree

with you at all. In fact, I'll tell you what the

irony is. So remember the Walkman?

Yeah.

Remember when those kids? Those are

the

80s.

Yeah, I think

so. I remember being on Bart. This was the Bay Area

Rapids. Yeah, I know

that is. I've been there. Yeah.

In the Bay Area, San Francisco Bay Area, which is

where I am, and I remember being on Bart and watching having

several people on the train with the ear, no earphones, right?

Wasn't but headsets on with the with their Walkman,

yeah,

watching how there was no eye contact, there was no

interaction. I remember in the eighth thinking, this is going

to lead in a bad direction. I remember that in the 80s, and

this is just a natural extension of that, right? This is as the

kids are more into their phones. I mean, look at people walking

across the street, looking down without even looking. I know.

I just stand there and wait them to bump into

me.

Crazy.

Yeah.

But that's you know. And so here's what I've told my.

I've raised a lot of kids. I think we've talked about this,

but what I've always told my kids is there's two skills that

if you possess them, there'll always be a place for you no

matter what happens, and that's the ability to communicate your

ideas in writing and your ability to communicate your

ideas to a group

because it's

still people at least before at least during my

lifetime. You know, after I'm gone, maybe in 100 years it'll

be robots talking to robots or something. I don't know, but as

far as I know, it's still business deals are still made

one person to one person at some point, and you've got to be able

to communicate and cogent, well thought through thoughts, and

it's starting to wane. I mean, the kids are having harder

times. I've noticed communicating with each other

because they practice. It's just it's a practice. It's a muscle.

Certain

generations, you know, don't

exercise the muscle. I mean,

I see it between my two daughters' generations.

They're in one's a Gen Xer and one's a millennial, and it's

like very different, very different, and it's it just

seems to be getting. Oh well, you look at my granddaughter;

like she wants to be on the any kind of screen anytime soon. You

know, all the world,

right? That's the world she's put up in. So now I

don't want to get into parenting advice because not why we're

here. But I would say you guys suck. No, I turned cable

television off in the early

'90s

because I and I told my kids no video games. They

could play them at their friends' houses. That's fine,

but in our house, none of that. We had we would watch DVD. You

know, oh no, excuse me, VHS tapes. Yes, yes, right back in

the day of VHS, right? And beta, beta. Anyway. Yeah. And but I

told you, you know, I wanted them active. You know, nobody's

sitting on the couch is the point.

Yeah.

Your friend's house, and they do. That's fine. That's

their business. That's not. I'm not going to try to go crazy

about it. But we were involved in sports, and you know, hiking,

whatever it might have been, just outside doing stuff, and

unfortunately, a lot of times these you know nowadays they're

just and I get it. I mean, I sit in front of a computer a lot.

Me too.

There's a new world than from when I was you know.

Oh,

totally. Yeah.

Yeah. So it's all about

balance with anybody. It's really all about

balance.

Well, see, that's the thing. I don't think there's

such a thing. I've thought about this. I think there's, I think

there's extremes one way or the other at different times. At

least for me, well, no,

I agree with you. Like I don't think there's life

work balance. I don't believe in that. Right. No, but there is

balance for what's for you. Is all. Oh, I see. Like for whoever

that person is. Yeah, that's

fair.

I totally agree with you that way. Okay, let's

get back on track a little bit because I want to know with all

this with all this technology and all of these automate you

know these things that we can automate. Is there one thing

that you think a business owner should never automate?

Well, back to those two points: the ability to

communicate their ideas and write in, be able to communicate

their ideas to a group and and to you know another person.

Yeah, I think to me that's critical because people like to

be you have to be able to trust who you're doing business with.

You do.

You have

to get along. You could have a completely aligned

in. Well, you know there are countries who don't get along

who still manage to figure how to work together, right? So, so

like you don't have to like the other person, but I think it's

important that you understand their motivation and determine

whether or not their motivation and how they think is a match

for what you want in your life and your business. Because, you

know, we've all had clients who are nightmare clients, you know,

and who needs a bunch of those? So if you're if you don't have

the ability to recognize who's in your tribe, so to speak,

philosophically, and who's not, then again, there's there's few

things worse than having a lot of clients who are unhappy or

who clash with the way you operate.

Yeah, it doesn't work. Doesn't work. Perfect.

I've been there. I've done it to myself, and you

know it was tough.

So I'm I'm actually curious to know, you

know, people form an opinion of us online before they even say

hi to us ever, right? They go and check us out online, and I

keep wondering because I haven't put it up yet because it's not

quite finished. But when I put that video up, it's not me. It's

an AI spokesperson who, by the way, says so right away, and I

love that.

Right, it's not claiming to be you. No point.

No, exactly. And I'm wondering whether it will

seem novel to people, whether it will seem weird, you know. So

I'm like, I just, I'm anxious to see what.

I'm going to say yes and yes and yes and yes. Okay,

okay.

So, so what have what have people said to you

once they've done these things and put them out?

They said, if I ever see you darken my door again,

shouldn't have asked that loaded question. Got

it. That's right. Yeah. Okay.

You get the whole you get the whole swath, right?

Okay. But

most the reality is the reason why we disclose it

because we don't want people focusing on the. We're not

trying to trick anybody. No, I

know. I know.

That's where the trust is broken. That's the

whole point. We're trying to we're trying to build right by

having getting reviews out into the world about these party

endorsements, which is effectively what reviews are.

Yeah.

Right. So the person saying you're awesome. Well,

that's a very valuable thing. So you don't want to degrade that

by trying to have by somebody perceiving that that you're

trying to fool them.

Right. Of course. We want

people focusing on the message, not the messenger.

Yeah.

You still need to get the message out there, and

your time is valuable. So you don't have a lot of time to go.

And plus, you saying, "Hey, Sally thought I'm freaking

the bum, comes

across very different than you know not you

saying that.

Yes, exactly. So

that third party endorsement, and of course,

Sally. Good luck getting Sally on the camera.

Yeah, I

mean, Sally, she, you know, I'm

happy to write a

review for you, but screw the camera. No way, I'm

not going on. So, what are your options, right? Your stuff with

text, which does it's marginally it's effective, better than

nothing.

Yeah, but it's not

nearly as effective or or ability to be transmitted

as a video can be. So we're we're straddling that line,

right?

Yes. Yeah. So do you think it's effect? It would

be effective to post it as a post first.

I don't think there's a first, second, or

third. I think that's you just be a buckshot.

Okay,

take a buckshot. It. There's no because not everybody

hangs out everywhere.

That's right. That's right. I don't know. I'm

just

see different people are going to see it in different

places.

Yeah. Okay. That's cool. Yeah. So, where

where did you come? Like, did you have people or somebody in

particular in your life a relationship that changed the

course of your trajectory? And if so, what did you do to

nurture that away from the porn? Now, and we're not talking about

the porn.

Oh, okay. That pretty much ends the

conversation, doesn't it? I mean, well, we're getting there.

So yeah, I would say this. I would say just exactly contrary

to what you're saying.

Okay.

People have tried to change my trajectory my whole

life.

Okay.

And I've just been incorrigible.

Got it. You were that kid that wasn't labeled

back in school. That now everybody's labeling. You know,

with every. Oh

no, I was labeled in school. Oh, you were. Oh yeah.

Oh yeah. I think back

then they didn't know what to do with

people. Oh no, I think the teachers drew straws

as. Next year, I'm pretty sure that was the label I had. He

got it.

So yeah, no, I was not. People were not enthused to

have me in their class. Disruptive? Would you

say disruptive? I'd say

that's a very kind description.

Okay. Yeah. All right. Well.

So, but I would say that the event that changed the

course of my direction was moving from New Jersey to

California

to go to school.

Well, my my dad got transferred. This was in seventh

grade, so between my seventh grade and my seventh grade.

Okay, you moved to

okay. Oh, but I'm

I'm an East Coast kid. I mean, I was brought up.

I'm a I'm a New Jersey kid.

Okay,

and not necessarily the positive aspects of that.

Okay,

but by coming to California, I mean that was a

pretty I was it was pretty repressive when in the 60s when

I was you know growing up.

Okay,

and I'm an old fart. So, but when we came to

California, I felt like oh my god,

different right.

It's like this is great. This is

everything. I was hope. I mean, this is what life should be

like, right? You know. So yeah. I mean, I really blossomed. I'd

say that was the a major. I had a lot of epiphanies when I was

in the East Coast, but no solutions. Like California was

the solution for me.

Really, well, was it the what was it? Was it the

the ocean and the sunshine? No, no,

no. It was well, it was simple stuff. I'll give you

a classic example. So, East Coast, you know, has weather.

They have things called snow.

Yeah,

California, we don't have these things in the in the

Bay Mountains, sure.

Yeah,

but in the East Coast, because of the weather,

you were in brick buildings, like apartment buildings.

Everything was indoors.

Yeah,

this was not me.

Got it.

When we came to California with the first day of

school, you had to go outside between classes. I couldn't

believe it. I actually got in trouble for not for hiding

outside in the East Coast, in between, like for lunch, they

had to go in the cafeteria to eat, and I would hide behind a

big rock and eat lunch. That wouldn't be outside, and they I

get busted for it because I know it's against the rules or

whatever. Came out here, like wait a minute. Now also in the

East Coast, there was a dress code, slacks, button down shirt,

no tennis shoes, no white socks. Unlike Greece would have you

believe, no white socks.

Yeah,

you were. Yeah, it was it was like quasi private

school, kind of like you know, kind of a not uniform, uniform,

but you know, you had came out here. Everybody's in t-shirts

and jeans and and tennis shoes or sneakers, as we called them

East Coast.

Yeah,

I had to. It took me three days to convince my

parents that I wasn't lying.

Yeah, you know that's big culture shock for

sure. Yeah, it wasn't a

shock for me. It wasn't shock. It was fantastic.

It was like this was like any far the farthest thing from

shock you could have. It was like, yeah, baby. I felt more

like you. Yeah, that's interesting.

Totally. Yeah, that's so

fun. Well, I had culture shock when I was nine.

We came from England to to Vancouver, and my sister was

six, and we came in the summer. And then that September we went

to start school, and brought our report cards and whatever. And I

was 10 that September, like I just turned 10, and they put me

into sixth grade, and yeah, exactly. And my sister was just

turned seven in September, and they put her in third grade.

Why was that?

Because we went to school when we were four and

a half in England, and we had brilliant report cards, so they

thought we were super smart. But being that much younger was a

bit of a culture shock, for sure. Anyway, that's my brother.

My brother was a very bright guy. He's a

mechanical engineering professor, actually, and one of

the foremost authorities in the world, I must say, with regards

to air particle pollution.

Oh, cool!

He gets flown all over the world to analyze air. I

mean, it's interesting.

Yeah,

but he was a December baby, and my parents

put him in early, so he was always one of the smallest kids

in his class.

Yeah, so

he was never encouraged to be physical.

Oh, right.

So he never got into sports and stuff. Yeah,

because he was the baby. Yeah,

right. He was a little guy, and then he

developed to the rest of them. Yeah,

correct. Whereas I was always like the biggest kid

or second biggest kid in my class, I'm an April baby, but I

just grew up fast. But I stopped early. You know, not like I was

big at the time, but I stopped like in ninth grade. Yeah, and

so I was always very physical, and and you know, and that led

to again. This is in New Jersey, so it led to a lot of fighting.

I'll just say it was it was it was an interesting way to

express things.

We all have our own stories, correct?

But when we came to California, my uncle did say he

was a when I was my mid 20s. He said he how surprised he was

that I was doing as well as I was because the whole family

thought I was going to go. Jail, so

well. So

I've asked some of my cousins,

yeah, and they

were like, "Oh yeah, yeah, we thought you was gonna

go to jail. This is which is a badge of to me, it's a badge of

honor, but it cracks me up.

My God

tells you how the difference was from the East

Coast one. Yeah, that's amazing.

Like a flip switch or a switch flipped or yeah, yeah. It was

just incredible. It was the shift was dramatic.

That's very yeah. Well, that's an interesting

story. Thank you for sharing that. Thank you for being here.

Thanks for sharing. Thanks for sharing your story and your and

your insights today. Because you you know you're a marketer, true

and true. There's no, there's no question there, and I'd love to

spend some more time talking marketing because that's how I

learn. Well, let's do

that. Yeah, I'm sorry if I went down these. No,

that's okay.

Partly that was my fault. No, no, it's all good.

If so, to my audience, if if any of this conversation sparked an

idea for you, reach out to Don through the links in the show

notes, which will be whichever websites you want me to put on

there, or where you want me to send them, and you can tell me

right now what you're thinking if you want. Like, do you want

them to go to the video one, or do you want? Oh

goodness! Okay, think about

it after then. That's okay. Yeah, I've got

I've got an idea mulling around. They also the

parent company.

Yes. So Don has many irons in the fire, and

you'll. It's a. I do encourage you to and to take a look at

what he's up to because you never know there might be

something that will help you along the way, and I want you to

also take one small step this week to show a client or a

colleague how much you appreciate them because that's

what those videos are about too-is showing appreciation. And

remember to stay connected and be remembered. Thank you for

being here.

And would everybody just take a look at that

beautiful face?

Oh,

would everyone just look at that face? Look at that

smile.

Thank you, Don.

You're welcome.

Bye for now.

Bye bye.