Ep4 Why Being a Ghost Online Could Be Killing Your Business

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Joe Blackburn
Have a great reputation locally and do what you can to give yourself cover online. And your odds go dramatically up of successfully bringing in more business and and doing better financially.

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Jason Croft
Welcome to Sales Assassins, the podcast that unveils the lost art of word of mouth marketing for professionals just like you. We cover everything from building relationships and nurturing connections to overcoming the challenges of modern marketing. You'll learn how to stand out in a crowded market, charge confidently for your services, and create an army of people recommending you without hesitation.

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Jason Croft
Now let's dive in and make you deadly effective at sales.

00;00;45;19 - 00;00;49;21
Jason Croft
Welcome back to Sales Assassins, everybody. Episode four here, Joe. How's it going?

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Joe Blackburn
You going? Great, man. Great to see you again.

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Jason Croft
Absolutely. Having a blast here. Creating this show and having these these combos and all on air. Off air. Everything is you make it easy. So much fun.

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Joe Blackburn
So, yeah.

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Jason Croft
I want to dig in today to this idea. This this popped up. I think it just in a previous episode maybe touched on it a little bit. But the way I approach media content, all of that, how I help my clients. Right. You know, create shows, create video content, all of that fun stuff. I do that in a way that goes hand in hand with what you teach folks on this, on the pillar system, on the word of mouth, and really building that first aid in that instead of kind of a traditional approach to even podcast.

00;01;40;26 - 00;02;21;02
Jason Croft
Let's say I teach my clients, especially coaches consultant, these individuals have these conversations like you teach folks to have in real life, build those relationships, do that on a show, bring them on a show. You know, all these things to facilitate that, just to do everything we can to build that relationship and that that's the approach I lead with, but also what I wanted to dig into today was this idea of, okay, everything that they're learning from you on building these relationships and going and meeting people when we're in 2024.

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Jason Croft
Right. What's the first thing people do if they are have the little, tiniest bit of interest in you? We're going to look you up.

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Joe Blackburn
They're going to go, you're going to doodle. Yeah.

00;02;31;04 - 00;02;52;03
Jason Croft
And so so what's there? And that's another area that you can get purposeful with content. Again reputation like we talked about in the last episode. You know, what's showing up there. Are you teaching that? Are you learning that? Are you embracing that? Yeah. Right now in a different way.

00;02;52;05 - 00;03;10;04
Joe Blackburn
Yes. Yes and yes. And so I'll polarize it. So you know, I, obviously I talk a lot about word of mouth to the fact, you know, I'm building up to you, right? In companies. I mean, word of mouth is the most powerful form of marketing there is because it doesn't have cost of acquisition. It spreads on its own.

00;03;10;05 - 00;03;30;14
Joe Blackburn
I mean, there's so many benefits to it. Everyone aspires to it. Every brand wants it. It's where you want a common name. I want word of mouth. However, there are different things that do work and I've done them all. By the way of door Knocked a rain seminar we did. I think it's good girl marketing or whatever back in the day where we sent 5000 invitations out and in seminars every month.

00;03;30;14 - 00;03;52;24
Joe Blackburn
And I mean, I've done everything and, you know, you've heard me say, I'll say it many times because I've seen it. Everything works and nothing works. If you do something consistently will work. If you do nothing, it won't work. That's law of the jungle. So what? That being said, there is more of a need today for presence in a digital world and even in pillars like the connection silo.

00;03;53;00 - 00;04;11;04
Joe Blackburn
So if you look at your pillars, your prospects, your connections, that's anyone I think I know that could be people you're connected to. I mean, I've got 9000 people on LinkedIn that I'm best friends with, probably know ten of them. But, you know, I mean, I've got LinkedIn and Facebook and all all those things. And there's an economy called the creator economy.

00;04;11;04 - 00;04;30;21
Joe Blackburn
And most people in our program are not agencies or creators or whatever. So there's people that are trying to become famous. And so you have this huge landscape of the digital world and when you're in what I consider a professional and you know, that has to make sales and marketing part of their business. So I have a professional skill that I, you know, it's my hygiene, it's what I'm good at.

00;04;30;27 - 00;04;58;12
Joe Blackburn
And I have to do sales and marketing. There is a role for it and there is a necessity for it and it and I've, you know, evolved my thinking around it in the last 12 months. I mean, yeah. What in it's in it came from experience when I was building, the inner circle, all that was word of mouth there was meaning I would get introduced to someone via a client or an influencer, what I teach, and most likely we'd see if there's a fit and that person would pay us 50 to $100,000.

00;04;58;12 - 00;05;20;20
Joe Blackburn
Me in the inner circle or in immersion. And that's great. And there was no cost acquisition there and super profitable and making a ton of money. Great. However, like my last two that have come in and they were word of mouth, it's something and team there's a guy out in Utah that he he said, well I watched your podcast, but where are the other ones?

00;05;20;23 - 00;05;38;28
Joe Blackburn
That's like, what? What do you mean? Like I ran $120 million business. I've got four businesses. I can make a million to transplanting anywhere. I'll make a million bucks like this. Like what? Why do I even podcast? By the way? We're on a podcast. Yeah, but. So. But I it kind of like I'm like. And I told Warren I'm like it isn't an email mindset.

00;05;38;28 - 00;06;00;02
Joe Blackburn
Same same. Just doesn't like just an ask me more about our podcast on the website. I'm like, what the fuck, excuse my language. But I was like, kind of like that moment of like, well, wait a minute. Not only do I have the credentials, the experience, and the word of mouth, but now people and it's normal. People are starting to see like, what else is it that's proving that you're doing what you're doing?

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Joe Blackburn
So that happened. And then we recently we just onboarded someone and he, in a positive way, says, I've watched it all year because I've done a handful since then, by the way, because I took action.

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Jason Croft
And you're talking about being a guest on other podcasts.

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Joe Blackburn
Now this because but this is going to be ten next slide. So let's not worry about it. But he's like oh I watch everything I love it. You know like he's he he was telling me he was giving that feedback I love your podcast. That helped that helped me. So he got introduced to me. He's become a client.

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Joe Blackburn
But in that interim, that little time period, he went out, consumed everything we have. So it became glaring to me that and these these gentlemen are a little younger than me. And I just know that people are more conditioned now to check you socially versus your past or your track record. Now, I think they're both very important.

00;06;48;25 - 00;07;11;11
Joe Blackburn
So it's not like if you don't have it, nothing's going to work for you. And if you're a younger in the game or whatever it is, however, I'm always talking about odds. Put the odds in your favor. Dress well like there's one. Like people judge you on how you look. Control the controllables. Well, if I'm introduced to you or I've heard about you, my inclination is the first thing I'm going to do is Google you.

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Joe Blackburn
Like when we talk about building out an intelligent system around our pillars, like knowing our clients and prospects, we call it dolphin, Google, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook. Like just Google someone and then go through that hierarchy. It'll tell you almost everything you need to know, except what's really wrong with them, because they're not going to put that out there.

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Joe Blackburn
Now Google, if they got arrested or something, I might tell you. But in LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, it's going to be kind of a highlight reel show that they're a person. But what it's doing to your it, you know, the person being introduced to you is it's authenticating that you're somewhat that you actually exist. You're not an aberration any longer.

00;07;44;13 - 00;07;51;00
Joe Blackburn
And I think that's kind of strange to say that, like, my online presence qualifies my existence.

00;07;51;02 - 00;08;19;01
Jason Croft
Think about what I'm saying. So a couple aspects of this. One is it's not just that they need to see those in the and they better see this, this or this, or they're going to say no to you. It's part of it's checking it. You know. Are they haven't been around. Yeah. Verification it. But then also like those the those two people you just talked about they just want more.

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Jason Croft
And so put yourself in the shoes of these folks in anyone you've just learned about been introduced to get it. You want to consume as much as you can like we get in this phase. And so when you can give them the book, the podcast of this, you know, and just depending on how they want to consume things, oh, that's just great because they and that's just they want to binge.

00;08;44;29 - 00;09;07;02
Jason Croft
We are in that part like they'll binge and then they may be gone. And you know for two years, but then it's then it's back. But when you can give them that stuff to binge, you own a piece of their brain. Now you're in there, you've got some real estate. And then secondly. You can control. So, you know, yes, there's the content creators out there.

00;09;07;02 - 00;09;38;11
Jason Croft
There's you know, there's if you look at like just getting attention in general, this is why this is the distinction. That's that's a different approach. Yes. There's all the competition in the world for attention. But what you can do is be intentional with, oh, hey, you met this person. Hey. Yeah. Go check out my podcast. Go check out, you know, a landing page that I've got that's got the shows I've done this, the content, the whatever that is.

00;09;38;18 - 00;09;45;10
Jason Croft
Like you, that's where all of this is not necessarily to go and create content and hope that you beat Red bull.

00;09;45;16 - 00;10;08;03
Joe Blackburn
It's not about because it's not the case likes, but YouTube. But it's a I think I look at it this way and again we're we're doing a we're on a podcast, we're doing ads, we're doing all the amplifiers, as I call them, for assassins. However, we first built a foundation like You Can Take It All where I'm we're brand on Facebook right now for band.

00;10;08;06 - 00;10;29;24
Joe Blackburn
We can't run ads. Warren is literally as we speak like we're being I've had a problem on LinkedIn where they took everything. So like, yeah, those. But I would frame it this way and it kind of comes from my background. 100 years ago when I was at Jones, we used to have a picture of Ted Jones, the son of the founder of the kind of springboard of the company.

00;10;29;27 - 00;10;51;06
Joe Blackburn
He had boxing gloves on, and he had door knocks and phone calls. So, you know, he was he was saying, knock on the door, follow up with phone call. And I think now it's do the pillars and have the overarching presence. And you don't have to be a video creator or it's just show your lives in that spectrum.

00;10;51;09 - 00;11;07;08
Joe Blackburn
Yeah. Is it going to is it going to be something that like if you don't have it, it doesn't work or if you do have it, it doesn't. No. I'm talking about odds of success. And both have the one two punch. You know, if we boxed and all I can do is jab, I'm in trouble because I'm not going to win unless I can outrun you.

00;11;07;10 - 00;11;30;15
Joe Blackburn
Like I've got an album this. So it's like, think of it that way. And of course as you it's an interesting phenomenon. And I see it even in our offerings. Like we have a $10,000 offering, even $120,000 offering. Well, the person who says yes to the $10,000 offerings, real concern about podcast, the person that is going to drop 120 has never even heard of a podcast.

00;11;30;18 - 00;11;31;12
Jason Croft
Yeah.

00;11;31;15 - 00;11;59;08
Joe Blackburn
So like somewhere in the middle there, it's like what? What do they expect and what do they see? And that's probably tied to agent income a little bit more. But I'm telling you, even, you know, like if you look at Meta or Facebook's demographics, it's kind of the boomer platform so to speak. Yeah. Versus Insta. And although so I, I would recommend and what I talked and we talked about this the other day oh is like have a presence.

00;11;59;11 - 00;12;17;02
Joe Blackburn
You know a lot of your companies will give you something. And you're thinking now this is generic or whatever, but it's like if I went to look, you're there if I, you know, put yourself on the on the other side of that spectrum or if I'm in or let's say I get introduced to you and you, I do a texture show because I love that like a text introduction from the book.

00;12;17;02 - 00;12;32;16
Joe Blackburn
Like I'll tell people text rows and I'll take it from there. You don't have to do anything. Just make the text row. Well, if I do that and then you Google, you know, Joe Blackburn and you see, oh, this dude's got this. Like you said, you got videos on there. So but even if I see he's on Facebook, he's on LinkedIn.

00;12;32;22 - 00;12;50;26
Joe Blackburn
He I mean, he's alive. He's he's not an apparition at this point. Odds do what they go up now unless you're a jackass on social media and I that I can go down. So, you know, the great Ted Jones would say, don't say or do anything that you don't want on the front page of the Wall Street Journal.

00;12;50;28 - 00;13;14;15
Joe Blackburn
And the same rules apply. Don't put something out online that you wouldn't want everybody to see. So, like, especially as you're growing in business, that stuff doesn't go away. But I think there's more value to that than I even gave credence to, of just having a presence and some connections. And you don't have to like every time your kid does a, you know, a somersault, throw it on Facebook.

00;13;14;17 - 00;13;33;16
Joe Blackburn
But if you want to share some things that you know are pertinent or an update and, and we have a process, especially if you're just getting started in pillars, we call it a capping where I'm grabbing some attention. You know, even for me, when I left, Merrill, I would I didn't have Facebook because we couldn't do anything on it.

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Joe Blackburn
We were so restricted. But I opened a Facebook page and I had LinkedIn and people I couldn't text. I direct message through that, and I let them know what I was doing. So on a cap is I make an announcement, I start a conversation, and I'm getting your attention, and then I want to pivot if it's necessary to business, if it presents itself, you can use social media to leverage that as well.

00;13;52;07 - 00;14;15;06
Joe Blackburn
So there's a lot of usage to it that's not, you know, not trying to be Joe Rogan, although we are trying to beat Joe Rogan on this podcast. So let's keep this baby moving. But you know what I'm saying? Like you, you want to exist there more than in the beginning, more than anything, you know? And we got, some people in our inner circle that have done some really impressive things with social media.

00;14;15;06 - 00;14;47;06
Joe Blackburn
They harnessed it. And so you can see it evolve. But if you're thinking about this like, hey, I'm if I'm an assassin, I just want to be in existence there because it ups my odds, it increases my odds, and it's a new way to connect. It's a new paradigm. I mean, you know, as much as people want to, like, take a break from their phone and detox their dopamine and have their kids not watch social media, I am I have bad news to the XR log now saying, okay, everybody, you're saying odds are low.

00;14;47;12 - 00;14;53;15
Joe Blackburn
I mean, I don't know what the latest statistics are, but people are charging their phones like, you know, hundreds of times a day or whatever it is.

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Jason Croft
So yeah.

00;14;55;03 - 00;15;17;09
Joe Blackburn
I, I just but but what we're in and I'm working on a podcast and ads and a YouTube channel and all these things and you know, it's a it's a long game there. And if you're going to try to put your value on likes or clicks or one of those things is gonna be a long, it is gonna be a long, you got to build it like what you say each self.

00;15;17;11 - 00;15;39;27
Jason Croft
Yeah. And that's the piece. That's the differentiator too is is your mindset in the approach. It's not listening to everyone or just like, you know, you gotta have a YouTube channel that's going to solve all your problems. No. Like everything you do is to nurture and build back right back to the beginning, to build that word of mouth, build your reputation, build that connection with another human being.

00;15;39;29 - 00;16;03;16
Jason Croft
You can have automated processes in all of this, in service of getting in front of that person and having that conversation and having that connection. And, and I think that's that's a different way to think about it. And it's also it's just that's the beautiful thing about technology, social and all that to me because it just helps facilitate more connections.

00;16;03;18 - 00;16;20;11
Joe Blackburn
I think it's great air cover. I mean, you know, if you're if you're in a tactical situation, you would want air cover, right? So why not have it like that's one of those. So it's not going to be the thing. But it is a one of the things. So in combination I think it's really smart. And of course I've got a handful of regrets.

00;16;20;11 - 00;16;42;27
Joe Blackburn
I wish we would have done a little sooner. Warren, you know, God bless you when you see, this was on me a year ago to do more. And I meant it, because I'm brilliant. And, you know, I just like, hindsight's 2025. But in all reality, we should. We should have gotten more active earlier. You know, it's sometimes it's not the best.

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Joe Blackburn
It's first. And it's not always the best. It's best known. So I think that there for a second. But some, some people that are just first some somebody and. Yeah. But you know, my product may not be the best, but if I'm the best known and that goes for word of mouth and you know digital like that's a two, you know, so be best.

00;17;00;12 - 00;17;14;13
Joe Blackburn
And both have a great reputation locally and do what you can to give yourself cover online. And your odds go dramatically up of successfully bringing in more business and and doing better financially.

00;17;14;15 - 00;17;25;16
Jason Croft
Absolutely. I think it's a good place to wrap. I think we we've we've hammered at home this hopefully the we've we've, converted some folks who maybe were on the fence and, okay. Help.

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Joe Blackburn
You know, I guess.

00;17;26;07 - 00;17;28;06
Jason Croft
I should be doing this.

00;17;28;09 - 00;17;29;18
Joe Blackburn
Post once a week.

00;17;29;20 - 00;17;56;26
Jason Croft
Okay, I see it. Good to see you. We'll see you all next time. In a sea of endless digital noise, your ability to connect and generate authentic word of mouth is your deadliest weapon. Whether you're just starting out or you're looking to break through to the next level. The principles we discuss here are your blueprint for success. It's all about being the most trusted and valued in your network to maximize what you've learned today.

00;17;56;27 - 00;18;32;07
Jason Croft
Visit Join Sales assassins.com to see how you can become a true sales assassin in your industry. Until next time, keep sharpening your skills, expanding your network. And remember, in the world of sales, the true assassins strike silently but effectively by doing what nobody sees coming, building genuine connections and powerful relationships. Stay deadly. Stay authentic. We'll see you on the next episode of Sales Assassins.

00;18;32;09 - 00;18;39;29
Joe Blackburn
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