RPF0237-Anthony_Tran_Interview
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00:00:31.000 | Today on Radical Personal Finance,
00:00:32.000 | I bring you a marketing mini class
00:00:35.000 | with an expert marketer named Anthony Tran.
00:00:38.000 | He's the president and founder of Marketing Access Pass,
00:00:41.000 | which is an all-in-one online marketing training
00:00:43.000 | and services website.
00:00:45.000 | Very knowledgeable in the online marketing space.
00:00:47.000 | And today, you get to hear me pick his brain.
00:00:51.000 | Kind of selfish.
00:00:52.000 | I kind of did it for me.
00:00:53.000 | But, eh, why not let you listen in?
00:00:56.000 | [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:00:59.000 | Welcome to the Radical Personal Finance Podcast.
00:01:13.000 | My name is Joshua Sheets, and I'm your host.
00:01:15.000 | Thank you so much for being with me today.
00:01:17.000 | This is the show where each and every day I work
00:01:19.000 | to try to bring you some useful nuggets of content
00:01:22.000 | that will help you achieve your own financial independence.
00:01:26.000 | And that covers multiple sides.
00:01:28.000 | That covers technical financial planning,
00:01:29.000 | but it also covers some technical business skills.
00:01:32.000 | Because in the world of the future,
00:01:34.000 | we're all going to be self-employed.
00:01:36.000 | And today, I'm going to give you some insight
00:01:38.000 | into how you can become an expert in online marketing.
00:01:41.000 | [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:01:44.000 | One of the opportunities that I have as a podcaster
00:01:47.000 | is I get to scratch my own itches.
00:01:49.000 | And that's basically what I do with this show.
00:01:51.000 | My entire design of how and why I do this show
00:01:54.000 | is I try to think to myself, what is the kind of show
00:01:56.000 | that I would like to listen to?
00:01:58.000 | And so the kind of show that I would like to listen to
00:02:00.000 | is a combination of many things.
00:02:04.000 | It's a combination of a little bit of, I guess,
00:02:07.000 | inspirational content.
00:02:08.000 | But I like that inspirational content to be very practical.
00:02:11.000 | I'm not much of a rah-rah guy, because I've been, I guess,
00:02:15.000 | rah-rahed up, motivated up.
00:02:16.000 | And then all of a sudden, if I don't have something practical,
00:02:19.000 | a framework onto which I can hang that feeling of motivation,
00:02:22.000 | then it kind of fritters away.
00:02:25.000 | It just disappears.
00:02:26.000 | So I enjoy a good talk.
00:02:28.000 | I enjoy a good motivational speech.
00:02:29.000 | But I want a really solid, actionable framework behind that.
00:02:33.000 | I need some really practical financial content
00:02:36.000 | and financial knowledge.
00:02:37.000 | I need to know, how do I invest my 401(k)?
00:02:39.000 | What group benefit options do I sign up for?
00:02:42.000 | How do I interact with my financial advisor?
00:02:44.000 | So I need a little bit of that information.
00:02:46.000 | But I also need some bigger picture information,
00:02:49.000 | because one of the things that I am very sure of
00:02:52.000 | is that financial planning as a science
00:02:55.000 | is way too limited to be of much practical value for most of us,
00:02:59.000 | meaning it has its place, but it's not so much
00:03:02.000 | what's the asset allocation on my IRA
00:03:05.000 | that's going to make the difference in my lifestyle.
00:03:07.000 | Rather, it's the bigger picture.
00:03:09.000 | And we all need some skills.
00:03:11.000 | And one of the things that I am convinced of
00:03:12.000 | is that the world is changing quickly.
00:03:14.000 | How's that for an obvious statement?
00:03:16.000 | And as part of that, there is a whole new world of skills
00:03:20.000 | that we need and can use.
00:03:22.000 | The cool thing is that the opportunities have never been greater
00:03:26.000 | for all of us to build the lives and the lifestyles
00:03:30.000 | that our grandparents' generations could only have dreamed of.
00:03:33.000 | But we can't do that with the skills of the past.
00:03:37.000 | We can't do that with the mindset of the past.
00:03:39.000 | Rather, we have to intentionally focus on building out a skill set
00:03:43.000 | that will allow us to accomplish the things that we wish to accomplish.
00:03:49.000 | Now, one aspect, obviously, we constantly talk on
00:03:52.000 | Radical Personal Finance about increasing income
00:03:54.000 | because having a financially valuable skill set
00:03:56.000 | is key to raising your income.
00:03:59.000 | And income is key to every other aspect of your financial plan.
00:04:03.000 | And so today I've invited Anthony Tran on the show
00:04:06.000 | to talk about marketing.
00:04:08.000 | I was, prior to going to Podcast Movement in Fort Worth, Texas,
00:04:12.000 | back--what was it? August, I guess.
00:04:15.000 | Yeah, August.
00:04:16.000 | I went through and I looked at the speakers
00:04:18.000 | and I looked at as many of the attendees' information as I could find.
00:04:21.000 | And I carefully thought through, "Which of these speakers do I think
00:04:23.000 | are going to be able to bring value to my audience
00:04:25.000 | on a diverse array of topics?"
00:04:27.000 | And Anthony was definitely one that when I identified him
00:04:30.000 | and looked through, I said, "This is a guy who's going to bring some value."
00:04:33.000 | So he's got a really cool story, which you'll hear in the interview today.
00:04:37.000 | And I want you to take some notes and think about how you can apply
00:04:40.000 | some of these ideas and concepts surrounding marketing to your business.
00:04:44.000 | Now, I will admit, when I was talking with him,
00:04:46.000 | I was just scratching my own itches,
00:04:48.000 | basically trying to get a so-called free consulting session.
00:04:51.000 | I didn't pay him any money, but he gets some exposure.
00:04:55.000 | So hopefully some of you can go over there and patronize his work and his services.
00:04:59.000 | So it works out quite well.
00:05:01.000 | But I really enjoyed talking with him and learning about this.
00:05:05.000 | We have an opportunity in 2015 here.
00:05:09.000 | If you can develop some powerful marketing skills,
00:05:12.000 | you will always be in demand.
00:05:14.000 | I prefer at this moment--I always prefer to be on the sales
00:05:17.000 | and marketing side of any business because I can directly prove my worth.
00:05:21.000 | And that really makes me feel good.
00:05:24.000 | And as we go into a changing economic future,
00:05:27.000 | I think over the coming years we'll be back in recession,
00:05:30.000 | and that will be a challenge because many people will be losing their jobs.
00:05:34.000 | But those people who can point to their direct impact
00:05:37.000 | on the gross revenue of the company, i.e. sales and marketing,
00:05:41.000 | if you can point to that directly, you'll have a much better chance of keeping a job.
00:05:45.000 | So sit back, relax, grab a notebook or however you take notes,
00:05:48.000 | and I hope that you gain a lot from this interview.
00:05:51.000 | Anthony, welcome to Radical Personal Finance.
00:05:54.000 | Hey, thanks for having me, Justin. How are you doing?
00:05:56.000 | So I brought you on as a marketing expert,
00:05:59.000 | and what I'd like to do today is have a conversation
00:06:01.000 | that's going to be basically a mini class on marketing.
00:06:04.000 | And the reason that I want to bring this content about Radical Personal Finance
00:06:08.000 | is because it skews directly toward the practice of developing a financially valuable skill.
00:06:13.000 | Financially owning and possessing and practicing a financially valued skill
00:06:18.000 | will make a massive difference over time in our incomes,
00:06:22.000 | whether we're as entrepreneurs or whether as employees.
00:06:25.000 | And there are only five financially valuable skills,
00:06:27.000 | which are value creation, marketing, sales, value delivery, and finance.
00:06:31.000 | And so this fits perfectly into marketing.
00:06:33.000 | I'd like you to start with just sharing your background in marketing
00:06:36.000 | and how you came to be known as really a world-class expert.
00:06:39.000 | Oh, thank you. Well, you know, first off,
00:06:43.000 | let me just kind of share a little of my background because it's kind of diverse.
00:06:47.000 | I was actually in the military. I was in the Air Force.
00:06:50.000 | Did logistics for a little while.
00:06:52.000 | And when I got out, I was actually an operations manager for an automotive company.
00:06:58.000 | While I was there, I also got my MBA and my master's in management leadership.
00:07:04.000 | So it gave me a lot of good foundation in the education side of business and marketing.
00:07:09.000 | But truly where my marketing comes about is actually just learning from a lot of entrepreneurs
00:07:18.000 | that have already done it and then tested it and applied it to my own business
00:07:22.000 | and have validated which ones that worked really well
00:07:24.000 | and then which ones that maybe didn't work well for my business or for my clients.
00:07:29.000 | How do you think about marketing? Do you think about it in a silo perspective of,
00:07:33.000 | "Oh, I'm an online marketing expert." Do you think about it in an inclusive nature?
00:07:37.000 | How do you think about the subject?
00:07:39.000 | You know, it's kind of interesting because to me, I feel like
00:07:42.000 | marketing people sometimes think of it as an outbound way to promote their stuff.
00:07:50.000 | And that is part of it.
00:07:51.000 | Outbound marketing is very what people traditionally think of like television,
00:07:55.000 | ads on magazines, billboards, that kind of stuff.
00:07:59.000 | But in today's world with the way the internet is going,
00:08:03.000 | inbound marketing has become more popular because of how powerful and impactful
00:08:10.000 | that it can be for not only consumers but also the person that is marketing.
00:08:15.000 | Because now you can give the ability to give a lot of value,
00:08:18.000 | teach a lot of people and educate them.
00:08:21.000 | And that truly is the power of marketing where the people now know, like, and trust you.
00:08:27.000 | They become fans of your work and then now they were ready to purchase
00:08:30.000 | versus that interruption marketing that we're so used to back in the days.
00:08:35.000 | Are big companies making this transition or is it only small internet businesses?
00:08:40.000 | Well, some companies are definitely learning more and more every day.
00:08:45.000 | I mean, there's definitely some that are very good at it while others maybe
00:08:49.000 | a little bit behind the power curve.
00:08:51.000 | Social media marketing is very huge and a lot of companies are starting to see that.
00:08:55.000 | Obviously, they are doing a lot of Twitter, Facebook.
00:08:58.000 | Even now Periscope is a new hot social media platform where people can do
00:09:03.000 | live broadcasting and people can watch and interact with the audience.
00:09:08.000 | I've seen news broadcast stations that are starting to do Periscoping
00:09:16.000 | because they see the value in allowing the audience and members to come into their world
00:09:22.000 | and kind of see the behind the scenes and really get to know people on a personal level.
00:09:26.000 | And, yeah, so you're going to see more and more of that going forward.
00:09:30.000 | And even, let's say, podcasting, right?
00:09:32.000 | So before it was kind of like a lot of the individual solopreneurs
00:09:37.000 | but now you're starting to see more mainstream people like Shaquille O'Neal, a celebrity.
00:09:41.000 | Steve Austin, the wrestler.
00:09:43.000 | So more and more celebrities are starting to do podcasting.
00:09:47.000 | And so it definitely is catching up.
00:09:49.000 | I think about it just simply as destruction of the gate between individuals.
00:09:56.000 | In the old days, if I had a message I wanted to get out,
00:09:58.000 | whether I'm Coca-Cola or whether I'm Joshua Sheets,
00:10:00.000 | I need to pass that message through somebody.
00:10:04.000 | And so I might be buying advertising, but I need to pass it through somebody to reach the general public.
00:10:09.000 | So the person who was able to control the message effectively was the person who had the platform,
00:10:14.000 | a large media company of some kind.
00:10:16.000 | Today, there's no person who controls the platform.
00:10:19.000 | Shaquille O'Neal can speak directly to me through his podcast,
00:10:23.000 | and Coca-Cola can speak directly to me through Twitter.
00:10:27.000 | And that's a complete upheaval of the world, especially as applied to marketing.
00:10:33.000 | Yeah, especially now for small business owners, we have so much ability.
00:10:36.000 | We can literally create our own TV channel via YouTube.
00:10:40.000 | We can create our own live broadcast, as I mentioned, via Periscope.
00:10:44.000 | We can essentially build our own platform in podcasting.
00:10:49.000 | We now have our own ability to create our own radio networks.
00:10:52.000 | So like you said, now we don't have to go through a middle person in order to reach an audience.
00:10:58.000 | You--I've heard when I was doing my due diligence on you,
00:11:03.000 | I've heard that you have a reputation for having built an incredible impact in a relatively short period of time.
00:11:12.000 | How did you market yourself to be known as the thought leader?
00:11:18.000 | Well, it's all about just providing value and sharing your knowledge.
00:11:21.000 | You know, a lot of people feel that if they give away their best information or their knowledge,
00:11:27.000 | that they feel that they're going to be hurting themselves in some way where like,
00:11:31.000 | "Oh, if I share my best tips and strategies about, let's say for me, marketing,
00:11:35.000 | then I'm not going to be able to sell that product or create that service where people will want to pay for it."
00:11:42.000 | It actually worked opposite for me.
00:11:44.000 | So, for example, like I started doing search engine optimization webinars.
00:11:48.000 | Consultants or SEO consultants and experts would normally charge thousands of dollars for this type of information.
00:11:56.000 | Where I was openly giving it away for free.
00:11:59.000 | I was going on webinars, doing presentations, sharing it on blogs and YouTube videos.
00:12:05.000 | I was just sharing away as much value as I could and really being transparent about it.
00:12:10.000 | As a result of that, people have, you know, built a level of trust with me like,
00:12:17.000 | "Wow, here's a guy who's giving it away and he's not necessarily charging for it."
00:12:22.000 | But that actually built more credibility for myself.
00:12:25.000 | It helped me build relationships with other people in the industry.
00:12:29.000 | And that didn't impact my business.
00:12:32.000 | It actually boosted my business because now they go, "If he's already telling you this much for free,
00:12:38.000 | what else could he share with me if I had hired him as a coach or consultant?"
00:12:44.000 | And of course, yeah, there's a lot of things that I can share that I can't provide in a one-hour webinar.
00:12:50.000 | There's a whole lot more stuff.
00:12:51.000 | So that's why I say, don't be shy and give your best stuff.
00:12:56.000 | And that's how you really leverage the power of inbound marketing and attracting people to you.
00:13:01.000 | Are you concerned about a race to the bottom in the sense that if you're giving away all the information
00:13:05.000 | that another SEO consultant was charging for, are you destroying the business for both of you?
00:13:12.000 | No, not at all.
00:13:13.000 | Because, you know, at the end of the day, people like to work with people.
00:13:17.000 | And they're going to connect with people, or they're going to connect with you on a personal level.
00:13:21.000 | They're going to want to do business with people they like and connect with on a personal level.
00:13:25.000 | That other company, that other business, that other entrepreneur may have a certain different way of expressing themselves
00:13:30.000 | or training and teaching style.
00:13:32.000 | And that may work really well for somebody else.
00:13:34.000 | And they may go, "Hey, I want to really work with this person."
00:13:36.000 | On the vice versa side, they may go, "Hey, Anthony, I really like the way you teach.
00:13:40.000 | I really like the way your style, I like the way, you know, I say I connect with you on a personal level."
00:13:45.000 | Or they may say they were prior military and say, "Hey, I'm prior military.
00:13:48.000 | I want to be able to support a fellow veteran.
00:13:50.000 | You know, let me help you and let's do business together."
00:13:53.000 | So, yeah, no, there's plenty of people in the world, plenty of business to spread around.
00:13:58.000 | So I definitely don't feel that way at all.
00:14:00.000 | I'd like to paint a scenario for you and ask you to give what you would do in this situation.
00:14:05.000 | So I'm a listener of Radical Personal Finance, and I work in a small or medium-sized company, 20, 30 people.
00:14:12.000 | The industry is not relevant.
00:14:14.000 | But I recognize that Josh was telling me every single day I need to be able to increase my income,
00:14:20.000 | and I need to do that by adding value to my employer and to my boss.
00:14:23.000 | And I've decided, you know what, maybe I could help my business grow and help with their marketing.
00:14:29.000 | And for the sake of this, we're a traditional brick-and-mortar business of some kind.
00:14:33.000 | And so I've decided, well, I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to work my 40 hours,
00:14:37.000 | but I'm going to go ahead and take 10 hours a week and start to see what I can do to market the services of my company more effectively.
00:14:43.000 | And I've got to take my boss a plan for how I'm going to integrate the new forms of media for my company.
00:14:51.000 | Where would you--what kind of framework would you provide for somebody in that situation to guide them?
00:14:57.000 | Well, definitely, you know, depending on your industry, you're going to have to determine who your audience is
00:15:04.000 | and where do they best hang out or spend time.
00:15:08.000 | If your audience are a type of visual learners that like to watch, let's say, videos,
00:15:14.000 | then YouTube is obviously a great platform.
00:15:17.000 | If they are more audio learners or like to, let's say, listen to podcasts,
00:15:22.000 | then you can provide information and value to them via a podcast.
00:15:26.000 | So the marketing is just the avenue of communication.
00:15:32.000 | You have to determine what type of communication does your audience like to receive.
00:15:37.000 | So that's kind of like the main principle of what you need to do to figure out what's the best medium to start with.
00:15:45.000 | But don't--do you--do you see that as the--so let me give you an industry.
00:15:53.000 | And a friend of mine owns a tile business.
00:15:55.000 | This is an established tile business, and he has his sons engaged in the tile business.
00:16:00.000 | And I would encourage his sons to say, "Take over. The owner is older.
00:16:05.000 | He's not connected to the more modern marketing practices."
00:16:08.000 | And I would say, "Here are some things that you can do to--here are some marketing ideas that you can do to increase the business."
00:16:15.000 | Would the approach be, "We're going to take pictures of all of our beautiful tile and marble jobs
00:16:19.000 | and plaster them all over Facebook because that's where we're connected,"
00:16:22.000 | or would the approach be to start a YouTube channel and train people how to do tile installation?
00:16:27.000 | Like, how would you figure that out?
00:16:30.000 | >> I mean, I think for something like that, what works well for someone like that is demonstration.
00:16:35.000 | Think of it like Home Depot, right?
00:16:37.000 | They sell supplies for people to renovate their homes.
00:16:41.000 | One of their great business marketing strategies is they provide free workshops for any customers to come in on the weekends,
00:16:49.000 | and they teach them how to, let's say, I don't know, build a deck.
00:16:53.000 | >> Right.
00:16:54.000 | >> And so they're demonstrating what tools you need, what resources, how to do it.
00:17:00.000 | But, I don't know if you ever realized this, but they also say, "If you want a done-for-you service,
00:17:06.000 | we have that available for this price, and you can contact us and reach us."
00:17:11.000 | I would be very curious to talk to the Home Depot managers and say, "How many of those people that are in the workshops end up hiring you guys?"
00:17:20.000 | >> I'm pretty sure it's quite a bit, because once people start to realize maybe how difficult some of these renovation projects are,
00:17:31.000 | they may start to go, "Hmm, maybe I need to leave it to the experts."
00:17:34.000 | And so for a tile person or business, that's what I would recommend.
00:17:38.000 | Create some style of a workshop, some way you can train people and educate them.
00:17:43.000 | And then you'd be surprised at how much people will reach out once they, like I said, they try it themselves,
00:17:49.000 | and they go, "Oh man, this is no joke. I've got to be on my knees to put this in."
00:17:55.000 | I'm not a tile guy, so I don't know the tool of things, but that's just what I'm saying.
00:17:59.000 | >> It's tough work. Been there, done that. It's tough work.
00:18:01.000 | Next scenario. I am a mid-level employee, and I'm looking to enhance my career.
00:18:07.000 | And I've decided to switch from the industry that I'm in to my dream industry, my dream job.
00:18:12.000 | And so I need to create a marketing plan to get myself noticed in this dream job.
00:18:18.000 | What types of tools and techniques and tactics would you recommend to someone in that scenario
00:18:23.000 | to begin to make a transition from the industry they're in to their dream industry
00:18:26.000 | to establish a personal brand as an expert in that field?
00:18:30.000 | >> So, yeah, definitely when you're talking about personal branding and becoming the expert,
00:18:36.000 | you have to really present yourself in the best light possible.
00:18:40.000 | So, you know, LinkedIn is obviously a profile that a lot of companies, they do research on.
00:18:46.000 | So make sure you have a legitimate-looking profile, LinkedIn profile, that showcases you,
00:18:53.000 | your resume, your experience, your background.
00:18:55.000 | That's essentially the modern-day resume.
00:18:58.000 | >> Right.
00:18:59.000 | >> And having a professional photo, I think, you know, is kind of like--hopefully that's a standard, right?
00:19:06.000 | But the other thing that you can do is also create a personal branding website.
00:19:11.000 | Now, with a personal branding website, that's also another avenue for people to get to know who you are,
00:19:17.000 | and you're able to essentially control what image or persona you want to portray to yourself, you know, to everyone else.
00:19:27.000 | And people do that by, you know, taking professional photos of themselves, giving a quick bio about themselves,
00:19:34.000 | talking about even a personal level, this is about me, this is where my background--
00:19:38.000 | these are pictures even with my family, here's some hobbies I like to do,
00:19:41.000 | because that's still that human connection that we talk about.
00:19:44.000 | People relate to you on a personal level, and you're able to add some visual elements, right?
00:19:51.000 | So we talk about, you know, let's say you're a real expert at website design.
00:19:56.000 | Now you can actually show them proof and create video tutorials on WordPress,
00:20:01.000 | maybe like publish it on YouTube and post it on your personal brand website.
00:20:05.000 | So now when someone's researching you, it's not like you're telling them that you're an expert,
00:20:10.000 | but you're actually demonstrating to them that you do know your stuff.
00:20:13.000 | So all of those things can definitely be worked together, and you can use so many different platforms.
00:20:17.000 | You can have a podcast, you can have YouTube videos, you can have a blog.
00:20:21.000 | Any way that you can demonstrate your knowledge and expertise is only going to help you further.
00:20:26.000 | In my mind, this is mandatory for, frankly, all of us.
00:20:31.000 | The days of trying to demonstrate your expertise on a resume, maybe one page, maybe two if you pushed it,
00:20:38.000 | you might still need one, but realistically, that's a really bad resume.
00:20:43.000 | Far better for you to create the resume in a comprehensive format.
00:20:48.000 | So one of the concerns that I have is people pursue things.
00:20:51.000 | They pursue their YouTube channels, they pursue their podcasts, and they're only chasing the big numbers.
00:20:55.000 | Well, that's great if you can get the big numbers and if that's part of your strategy,
00:21:01.000 | but it's still important and it's still worthwhile, even if you're not a top 10 podcast,
00:21:07.000 | even if you don't have a YouTube channel with 10,000 subscribers.
00:21:10.000 | The right number, the right person is all you need.
00:21:13.000 | And realistically, creating content, which is what I perceive to be your primary,
00:21:19.000 | at least the message you just shared regarding marketing, creating value, teaching,
00:21:24.000 | contributing, that's the basis for companies, but it's also the basis for people.
00:21:29.000 | So if you take the step of saying, "I'm going to podcast my way into a new industry,"
00:21:33.000 | it's a win-win-win across the board scenario.
00:21:36.000 | It's a win for you because you're going to learn.
00:21:38.000 | It's a win for the company because you're going to be an expert.
00:21:41.000 | And it's a win for every person you bring on your show.
00:21:43.000 | It can't lose.
00:21:44.000 | Yeah, no, absolutely.
00:21:45.000 | And one thing I forgot to mention was the power of testimonials and referrals.
00:21:51.000 | You can be an expert and you can tell people you're an expert.
00:21:54.000 | You can showcase you're an expert, but when someone that you know that has influence in the industry
00:22:01.000 | can vouch for you and refer you and provide you a testimonial,
00:22:05.000 | let's say even a written testimonial on your website or a video testimonial,
00:22:11.000 | that speaks volumes because they say, "Not only is Josh, I can tell, a great guy,
00:22:16.000 | but this A-lister, this influencer is also saying Josh was a great guy.
00:22:22.000 | Well, I trust this person's judgment.
00:22:24.000 | Of course I'm going to listen to him.
00:22:26.000 | And now I know Josh.
00:22:28.000 | Josh was a good guy."
00:22:30.000 | It's just like in anything, like in business, right?
00:22:32.000 | They say sometimes the only way to get into a company that's really hard is to get referred in.
00:22:37.000 | It's the same way in entrepreneurship.
00:22:40.000 | What's your business like?
00:22:42.000 | It's great, man.
00:22:43.000 | I mean, I work from home.
00:22:45.000 | My wife works with me, and we're living our dream.
00:22:49.000 | That's what our goal was when we started the business,
00:22:51.000 | was to be able to both quit our full-time jobs and work from home
00:22:56.000 | and have that flexibility to kind of do what we love.
00:23:00.000 | And, yeah, I'm just blessed to be able to do it and just share it with other people and help them do the same.
00:23:05.000 | Where did the inspiration come from?
00:23:08.000 | Well, you know, the actual story comes back from when I had visited my uncle,
00:23:15.000 | who was from out of town, and we had dinner.
00:23:20.000 | And he had shared with us that he had created an e-commerce website,
00:23:24.000 | and he just quit his job from IBM as an electrical engineer.
00:23:28.000 | And I remember thinking to myself, "What kind of a job or what kind of a business did you just create
00:23:33.000 | where you could be able to just walk away from an engineering job?"
00:23:37.000 | And I was like, "That's pretty good."
00:23:39.000 | And he said that he created the e-commerce business, and now he's able to travel,
00:23:44.000 | and he makes money even while he's sleeping and when he's on vacation.
00:23:47.000 | And that just opened me to a whole new world, and that was truly an inspiration.
00:23:50.000 | How old were you at the time?
00:23:52.000 | I think I was 26, 27, something like that.
00:23:58.000 | So you were inspired, and then what?
00:24:02.000 | And then I started doing research.
00:24:04.000 | I was like, "Well, I want to do something like that."
00:24:06.000 | And I started researching, "How does an online business work?
00:24:10.000 | How do people even build websites?
00:24:13.000 | How does social media work?"
00:24:16.000 | Believe it or not, I had knew nothing about this stuff before.
00:24:19.000 | I didn't even have a Facebook account until maybe a couple years ago
00:24:22.000 | because I was kind of anti-online, social media, all that stuff,
00:24:29.000 | and it's kind of ironic how things have turned around.
00:24:33.000 | You were working a full-time job at the time?
00:24:35.000 | Yes, I was. I was working for a corporate company,
00:24:38.000 | doing it, being an operations manager,
00:24:41.000 | and I just realized that having a team of 30 people working for me
00:24:46.000 | and working 60 hours a week, nights, weekends, and holidays,
00:24:53.000 | that was tough.
00:24:55.000 | That was hard to--I mean, it was a great company to work for.
00:24:59.000 | The career was great, but I just felt like I was not living to my full potential
00:25:07.000 | of what I want to do in life.
00:25:10.000 | And it was tough to be able to have someone tell you
00:25:13.000 | when you had to come in all the time.
00:25:15.000 | So I just said, "You know what? I don't think I can do this for 30 years.
00:25:17.000 | I want to be able to create something where I have a little more flexibility."
00:25:20.000 | How did you decide on the niche of marketing?
00:25:24.000 | Well, the funny thing was I didn't know that marketing was going to be my niche.
00:25:28.000 | It was just the fact that I was so curious about how online marketing worked,
00:25:33.000 | and I got really fascinated by it.
00:25:35.000 | I started teaching myself and learning everything I can.
00:25:38.000 | And I always thought that I was going to be creating some kind of a niche
00:25:42.000 | that would apply marketing, but I found that my niche was marketing,
00:25:48.000 | that I had such a passion for it.
00:25:50.000 | And people--I forgot who mentioned this to me, but he was super valuable to us.
00:25:53.000 | He said, "Whatever you go to a party and somebody asks you,
00:25:59.000 | 'What do you like to do on your free time?'
00:26:01.000 | And if you start jabbering about one particular topic really passionately
00:26:06.000 | and just keep talking about it and get really excited about it,
00:26:09.000 | that's that one thing you need to be doing for the rest of your life."
00:26:12.000 | And I remember I was kind of like an introvert at parties,
00:26:16.000 | but then if someone kind of asked me about internet marketing or online business,
00:26:20.000 | oh man, I just started opening up and my eyes light up
00:26:25.000 | and I just get really excited about it.
00:26:27.000 | And then that "aha" moment went off and I said, "This is what I need to be doing."
00:26:32.000 | So your marketing platform, this was your first online business?
00:26:39.000 | Well, no, I had created like 20 different websites on the side
00:26:45.000 | while I was working my full-time job,
00:26:47.000 | trying to experiment, trying to find my niche.
00:26:52.000 | And I had created a fitness website, I had created a network marketing website,
00:26:57.000 | I even created an e-reader website.
00:27:01.000 | And it was so funny because I was doing Google keyword research and I'm like,
00:27:05.000 | "Ooh, there's like 2 million searches a month about the Kindle e-reader.
00:27:09.000 | I should write a blog about that."
00:27:11.000 | I knew nothing about the Kindle. I didn't even own one.
00:27:15.000 | But I was just thinking because of the traffic potential.
00:27:19.000 | But surely enough, that blog failed because I had learned through my personal experience
00:27:23.000 | that you can't write a blog about a topic that you're not passionate about.
00:27:27.000 | I didn't know anything about e-readers.
00:27:29.000 | So yeah, it was an experiment. I had definitely tried out for different things,
00:27:32.000 | but I finally found something that I could really stick with.
00:27:35.000 | Is the blogging to riches model broken?
00:27:38.000 | I don't think so, not at all.
00:27:40.000 | Google is still the most powerful search engine out there as far as free organic traffic.
00:27:45.000 | I had created a blog, for example, a fitness blog where I was just talking about my journey
00:27:51.000 | of using the Focus T25 workout.
00:27:54.000 | And I got 2,000 visitors a day easily from Google because of the search engine capability.
00:28:05.000 | And that's still such a powerful way to build traffic.
00:28:10.000 | Now, podcasting, I must say, is also a huge medium.
00:28:14.000 | But in any platform that you do, whether it's YouTube, podcasting, blogging,
00:28:20.000 | if you really understand how to provide the content in a way that people are looking for,
00:28:26.000 | and you also can add a little SEO, search engine optimization to it,
00:28:31.000 | it's a powerful combination.
00:28:34.000 | How do I decide--one of the challenges that I face with radical personal finance--
00:28:38.000 | we've achieved a really wonderful and flattering level of success over the first year,
00:28:46.000 | over the last year has been the Focus.
00:28:49.000 | And so what I decided when I set out to create radical personal finance was to focus on what I could do,
00:28:55.000 | what I felt better than anybody else could do.
00:28:57.000 | And due to my background, I have more depth and more breadth in the field of financial planning
00:29:04.000 | as applied to personal finances than almost anybody that I know.
00:29:10.000 | I have--if you add in--there are other people who have more depth.
00:29:13.000 | I don't know anyone that has the combination of depth and breadth that I personally have.
00:29:17.000 | So the thing that many people struggle with with businesses is creating content.
00:29:23.000 | I don't have any trouble creating content.
00:29:25.000 | I do this show about three to five days a week, and shows are an hour, hour and a half long,
00:29:31.000 | and I've got hundreds and hundreds of show ideas and things like that written down.
00:29:35.000 | What I struggle with is promotion, and I don't know whether or not I should focus on creating more or promoting more.
00:29:44.000 | And creating takes time.
00:29:46.000 | It takes a massive amount of time, and so usually what I do is I create,
00:29:51.000 | and then I'm so tired when it comes to promoting that I don't really promote.
00:29:54.000 | My theory was if I can create the best content in the world, then my listeners will promote it for me,
00:30:01.000 | and that was the form of leverage that I chose to pursue, and it's worked so far.
00:30:05.000 | But I don't know if that's the right move.
00:30:07.000 | How do I figure out the balance between creation versus promotion?
00:30:15.000 | I like to say that creating the content is only one piece of the puzzle.
00:30:21.000 | The second half that you mentioned was promotion and marketing.
00:30:24.000 | You have to be able to share your content out there and get the word out there,
00:30:29.000 | because some people will not naturally find it organically.
00:30:32.000 | You have to almost let them know that you are there.
00:30:36.000 | And so what I would suggest is to, because you already have so much great content,
00:30:42.000 | is maybe to scale back maybe one or even two episodes a week,
00:30:46.000 | so that way you can focus on and have the energy to promote your podcast.
00:30:51.000 | Let's say, for example, I have a one-day-a-week show.
00:30:57.000 | I do spend three to four days of that week sharing it on Twitter, sharing it on Facebook,
00:31:05.000 | sharing it on Google+, sharing it on YouTube, repurposing it and putting it as a blog,
00:31:11.000 | also being interviewed on other podcasts.
00:31:13.000 | These are all different ways that I've spread the message and shared my brand
00:31:18.000 | about what my business has to offer.
00:31:21.000 | So that's what I would encourage you to do, is to maybe scale back on some of the content creation
00:31:27.000 | and then use some of that time and energy and resources
00:31:30.000 | to be able to help spread the word about what you do.
00:31:33.000 | My fear, that's the direction that I've decided I probably need to go, but here's my fear.
00:31:38.000 | My fear is that what I've done is what has brought listeners in.
00:31:43.000 | And what I believe makes my show different, one of the things that makes my show different,
00:31:48.000 | is the depth and the quantity of the content.
00:31:52.000 | And so my fear is if I pull back from my unique selling proposition
00:31:56.000 | and then I focus on just promoting my stuff more, that I'm going to suffer ill results from it.
00:32:05.000 | So my suggestion in that case is then you're going to have to leverage
00:32:10.000 | and get outsourced those other things that you just don't have the bandwidth to be able to handle.
00:32:18.000 | You're only one person, you have only 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
00:32:22.000 | So if you're already doing a lot of podcasting throughout the week,
00:32:27.000 | you might need to hire a service or even a virtual assistant
00:32:32.000 | that can help you with some of those marketing promotions strategies that you need help with.
00:32:36.000 | Not because you can't do it, but because you could be leveraging your time more effectively
00:32:41.000 | by doing what you do well, which is speaking behind the mic and sharing your knowledge.
00:32:46.000 | The other question, and I'm being very selfish here and answering all of my questions.
00:32:51.000 | When thinking about the different media that are suitable for a content creator,
00:32:58.000 | and specifically for Radical Personal Finance, when I sat down and surveyed the marketplace,
00:33:01.000 | I saw an abundance of well-written, well-crafted financial blogs and written financial content.
00:33:09.000 | There is plenty of great content in that space.
00:33:12.000 | I had looked and looked and looked for great audio content, and I couldn't find it.
00:33:17.000 | So I started Radical Personal Finance to scratch my own itch of creating audio content,
00:33:22.000 | and that's been effective, and I'm going to continue to do that.
00:33:25.000 | I'm at a stage now, though, where I feel like in addition to the audio content,
00:33:30.000 | I'm ready to branch out a little bit.
00:33:32.000 | So I struggle with, okay, should I put the focus on written content,
00:33:37.000 | which I struggle to do well and to do quickly, or should I add in a focus on video content?
00:33:44.000 | Written content has the benefit of better search engine tracking,
00:33:49.000 | but the other white space that I see is nobody's effectively doing what I'd like to see done in the video space.
00:33:58.000 | And so I struggle with how to figure out the mix of what to offer.
00:34:03.000 | I struggle with should I spend more time creating audio content,
00:34:06.000 | should I pull back on the audio content and create more YouTube content,
00:34:10.000 | should I do written, you know, I struggle with that.
00:34:14.000 | How would you approach that problem?
00:34:17.000 | I have a solution for you.
00:34:19.000 | You'll be able to get all three done.
00:34:22.000 | So what you do is you type up your content, your blog, about what you want to share,
00:34:28.000 | and you're essentially writing the script for your podcast show.
00:34:33.000 | Now you're able to--now you have a blog, you're able to have notes to read for your podcast,
00:34:41.000 | so you can record your audio podcast.
00:34:43.000 | And now you also have a script that you can read, maybe you create a teleprompter of some sort,
00:34:49.000 | and now you can record videos with the same content, but it's using a different mode of media.
00:34:55.000 | And then here's the other powerful thing.
00:34:58.000 | YouTube and Google are the number one and two search engines.
00:35:02.000 | So now you have that content in Google indexed on your blog, so you're getting search engine traffic that way.
00:35:08.000 | You have your YouTube video, which can be found right there,
00:35:11.000 | but then what makes YouTube traffic even more powerful is you download that transcript into that video,
00:35:17.000 | and now you're getting ranked on YouTube as a search engine.
00:35:21.000 | And then another way is that YouTube video can also be ranked as a Google search result as well.
00:35:28.000 | So you really have four ways to get traffic off of one piece of content.
00:35:37.000 | I feel like that's cheating.
00:35:39.000 | Why? Why is that cheating?
00:35:41.000 | I have this--I hate to repurpose--it's probably my--I'm going to have to get over it,
00:35:46.000 | but I hate to repurpose content.
00:35:48.000 | I feel like--but these ideas are perfect for the audio, and I don't want to--
00:35:53.000 | Here's the thing. It's not cheating, because think about it.
00:35:55.000 | Your audience--there may be people that love to listen to podcasts
00:35:59.000 | because maybe they're driving, they like the ability to be mobile,
00:36:02.000 | and there's other people that say, "You know, I don't have time to listen to podcasts.
00:36:05.000 | I would just rather skim a blog post and just kind of get the bullet points and kind of like the quick--
00:36:10.000 | give me the quick and dirty. Tell me what I need to know. Boom, boom, boom, I'm out."
00:36:13.000 | The other people are like they need more of that visual learning aspect.
00:36:16.000 | They may go, "You know, I want to be able to like conceive visually.
00:36:20.000 | Maybe Joshua can give me a demonstration, or maybe he can show me clips on a video or graphics
00:36:26.000 | or something that's more visually engaging that I can kind of understand what he's talking about."
00:36:32.000 | So you're not--it's not cheating.
00:36:34.000 | You have to--you do have to get over that.
00:36:36.000 | You know what I mean?
00:36:37.000 | It's something that you're doing your audience a disservice by not putting it out there
00:36:42.000 | and giving them those different barriers so they can consume it in different ways.
00:36:45.000 | Do you have any--do you have a systematic framework for how you approach your day,
00:36:53.000 | how you approach your life?
00:36:54.000 | Are you kind of a disciplined, outline kind of guy, or you--how do you approach your day in life?
00:37:00.000 | So I do. I have--I essentially set goals for myself short-term and long-term.
00:37:04.000 | So I might have a short-term goal of maybe about three months,
00:37:07.000 | and maybe I have a big project that's maybe six months to a year out,
00:37:10.000 | but nothing no more than a year out because so much can change in a year,
00:37:13.000 | especially in this industry.
00:37:15.000 | And I only give myself those maybe two to three goals to focus on.
00:37:19.000 | What I do is I take those goals and I break it down into smaller incremental tasks, I guess, so to speak.
00:37:27.000 | And I determine which ones that I need to do because of a content creator,
00:37:31.000 | and then I figure out which ones that I need to outsource or give it to somebody else to handle
00:37:36.000 | that maybe has a better expertise on it,
00:37:38.000 | that can do it better than me and leverage my time better.
00:37:42.000 | And then I break those down into weekly goals,
00:37:44.000 | and then I put all my really hard mental creative stuff in the beginning of the week, like Monday, Tuesday,
00:37:50.000 | because I know by Friday my brain is already kind of like tired and I'm just burned out.
00:37:55.000 | So that's how I am able to accomplish certain goals,
00:37:59.000 | by being able to figure out what I need to do from a short-term, long-term perspective,
00:38:03.000 | break it down into smaller chunks, and even break it down to a per day perspective.
00:38:08.000 | Do you use any specific system, writing things in a notebook, having a special app that you prefer?
00:38:14.000 | I do, and it's funny because my wife makes fun of me.
00:38:17.000 | I have just a normal calendar that I write down, and she's like, "That's so archaic.
00:38:21.000 | What are you still -- you can use a Google calendar or something."
00:38:25.000 | But I'm just kind of a traditional guy in that sense where I like to write things down and then cross it off.
00:38:29.000 | Right. Oh, it's powerful. It's exciting to cross things off.
00:38:32.000 | You don't get that check in the box on the phone.
00:38:34.000 | No, the check in the box doesn't have the same impact. It doesn't.
00:38:37.000 | It doesn't. I sometimes will have the list on -- digital list and then write them all down on a thing,
00:38:42.000 | so I get to do both and still get to cross it off.
00:38:46.000 | Final question. Here's my final question.
00:38:53.000 | What's it like working with your wife in a business, working together?
00:38:57.000 | Working with my wife has always been a dream. We've always wanted to work together because we --
00:39:03.000 | when we were working corporate, there was a point in time where we were both only could see each other maybe 10 to 15 minutes a day.
00:39:09.000 | Wow.
00:39:10.000 | Because we were working opposite shifts. I was working a night shift. She was working a day shift.
00:39:14.000 | So I could only squeeze in like 15 minutes during a lunch break for her dinner, and that was tough.
00:39:20.000 | That was a very tough time because we didn't get into a relationship to only see each other 15 minutes a day.
00:39:28.000 | But now we're able to spend so much quality time together, it's a blessing.
00:39:33.000 | The only challenge is that I will say is sometimes being able to draw the line between when to turn off work.
00:39:40.000 | Because we're both working in the same business, helping each other.
00:39:46.000 | It's easy to constantly always talk about work.
00:39:49.000 | So we had to kind of like give ourselves guidelines and say, "Okay, at let's say 7 o'clock, no more talking about work, no more working.
00:39:57.000 | It's just quality time, family time, and to enjoy each other's company."
00:40:02.000 | So you have to kind of give each other boundaries.
00:40:04.000 | Have you developed any rituals or practices to make that switch and make it obvious that we're switching from work to play?
00:40:11.000 | Yeah. Something as simple as we used to have our offices downstairs.
00:40:16.000 | It was kind of like in the living room in the middle of the house.
00:40:19.000 | But what we found was it was hard to kind of turn off that switch because even when we're in the kitchen, we're in the living room watching TV,
00:40:27.000 | our computers and our desks were always there.
00:40:30.000 | And they were always there, and so they're always in our mind.
00:40:34.000 | But when we move the upstairs into a separate room, we can now close the door and have it as a separate piece of our life.
00:40:44.000 | And so now when we actually get off of work, we close the door, we have a sign, we turn the close sign, we walk downstairs, now we're in a new environment.
00:40:51.000 | We're not in the work environment. We don't think about it.
00:40:54.000 | So yeah, that was something that has really helped us kind of get that mental hurdle out.
00:40:59.000 | Anthony, I appreciate you coming on. Take a couple minutes, share with the listeners about your website, your resources, your courses, everything that you'd like them to be aware of.
00:41:07.000 | And don't be modest.
00:41:08.000 | Okay, thanks.
00:41:09.000 | Well, you know, everybody can find me at marketingaccesspass.com.
00:41:14.000 | I have my email contact there. They can reach out to me, all my social medias.
00:41:18.000 | But if anybody needs help with website design services, we offer a done-for-you custom design websites.
00:41:25.000 | And it's really there to just help people get results without having to worry about all the technical details of building a website on your own.
00:41:34.000 | Thanks for coming on, man.
00:41:35.000 | Absolutely. Thanks. Pleasure.
00:41:38.000 | As you can hear from Anthony's story, things take time to develop.
00:41:43.000 | And it starts with having a goal and having an idea.
00:41:47.000 | But even then, you may not exactly know what the area of expertise is that you're going to move into.
00:41:52.000 | I know I, like Anthony, have had many things that I wanted to do, many things that I tried in the online space before I was finally able to capitalize on this, which is working well.
00:42:01.000 | And who knows what the future holds. I don't know what I'll be doing 10 years from now.
00:42:04.000 | But don't be scared to start.
00:42:06.000 | Don't be scared to get out there and try.
00:42:08.000 | Look through some of Anthony's materials. Look for some of the information and just get started.
00:42:13.000 | Because life is about doing. It's not about sitting back and learning.
00:42:17.000 | We've been – many of us – destroyed by the concept of school, which is a very passive activity.
00:42:23.000 | Learning – we have the idea in the way that we've been schooled that learning is something we do to prepare us for the future.
00:42:30.000 | But the reality is learning is only something that you – education is something that only you can do.
00:42:34.000 | Someone else can teach, but only you can truly go out and acquire the information of education.
00:42:38.000 | And sitting back and just passively studying is the slowest way to learn in many ways.
00:42:43.000 | Rather, it's the application that makes the difference.
00:42:47.000 | So get your own little project, whatever it is, whether it's just working on the company that you're working for or your own little side business or your own little photography site or whatever your little deal is.
00:42:56.000 | Or big deal. I'm not trying to be insulting.
00:42:58.000 | And start to practice and just see what kind of difference you can make on your project.
00:43:04.000 | And then that gives you a reason for taking information. It gives you a place to actually put that information and a difference that you can make.
00:43:12.000 | So I hope this information has been useful for you.
00:43:14.000 | Thank you all so much for listening to Radical Personal Finance.
00:43:16.000 | This week it's all interviews all week as I am up in North Carolina.
00:43:20.000 | These shows are pre-recorded and pre-scheduled as I'm up in North Carolina for the XYPN conference and the FinCon conference.
00:43:28.000 | If you're anywhere near Charlotte, North Carolina, reach out to me on Twitter @JoshuaSheets or on Facebook @JoshuaSheets.
00:43:34.000 | And I'll be at various places, various times. I'd love to meet any listeners of the show, whether it's come out and meet me in the hotel.
00:43:40.000 | Just reach out to me on Twitter is probably the best thing and we'll coordinate details.
00:43:44.000 | Or feel free to send me an email, joshuaradicalpersonalfinance.com.
00:43:47.000 | If you've gained benefit and value from the content of Radical Personal Finance, please consider supporting the show as a patron.
00:43:52.000 | That's how I pay the bills. That's what gives me the opportunity to go to places like podcast movement, record interviews like this.
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