In a recent episode of Stimulus Tech Talk, hosted by Nathan Whittacre, CEO of Stimulus Technologies, and featuring Darrell Evans, CEO of Yokel Local Internet Marketing, the discussion delved deep into the ever-evolving world of digital marketing. As businesses strive to make their mark in the digital realm, the emphasis on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) emerged as a crucial factor in navigating the competitive landscape. The best SEO puts what you have to offer in front of the person who is looking for it. It’s more than just selling, it’s connecting.
Stimulus Tech Talk – Unveiling the Power of Authenticity in Tech-Driven Marketing with Special Guest Darrell Evans CEO of Yokel Local Marketing
Evolution of Video Marketing: Authenticity Over Perfection
Video marketing has changed dramatically over the years. Evans and Whittacre shared insights into the challenges posed by overproduced content and highlighted a paradigm shift in the industry. Evans emphasized that, in the current digital age, authenticity and human connection trump the need for polished productions. The key takeaway is that businesses need to resonate with their audience on a personal level to establish a genuine connection.
B2B Marketing: From Categories to Human Connection
When it comes to B2B marketing, the need for personalized and emotionally connected strategies is essential. Regardless of the B2B or B2C categorization, businesses ultimately engage with humans. Here, SEO becomes a pivotal factor in ensuring that businesses effectively connect with their target audience. By aligning content with audience inquiries, brands can enhance their visibility and create a lasting impact.
AI Revolutionizing Content Creation: A SEO Game-Changer
The podcast took an innovative turn as Evans introduced the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in content creation. Extracting audio and video clips from customer interviews, the agency leverages AI to streamline the content creation process. This approach not only expedites production but also aligns with Google’s criteria for expertise, experience, authority, and trust (E-A-T). By incorporating AI, businesses can optimize their content for SEO efficiently.
Standing Out in a Crowded Digital Space: The Power of Face-to-Camera
As the episode concluded, Evans and Whittacre both emphasized the enduring impact of face-to-camera interactions. In a saturated digital landscape, individual voices, cadences, and rhythms cut through the noise, fostering a deeper connection with the audience. In essence, the conversation highlighted the symbiotic relationship between authentic storytelling, SEO, and successful digital marketing.
Mastering the SEO-Digital Marketing Symphony
In conclusion, the episode showcased the intricate dance between authentic storytelling, SEO, and successful digital marketing. By embracing authenticity, leveraging AI for streamlined content creation, and prioritizing human connection, businesses can navigate the digital landscape, optimize their online presence, and thrive in the competitive world of digital marketing. It’s a symphony where each note plays a crucial role in orchestrating success in the evolving realm of SEO-driven digital marketing.
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Stimulus Tech Talk – Unveiling the Power of Authenticity in Tech-Driven Marketing with Special Guest Darrell Evans CEO of Yokel Local Marketing transcript
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
ai, marketing, podcast, customer, journey, started, videos, content, b2b, business, darrell, ceo, brand, today, google, helped, channel, nathan, connect, yokel
SPEAKERS
Darrell Evans, Nathan Whittacre
Darrell Evans 00:00
You’re listening to Stimulus Tech Talk, a conversation based podcast created by Stimulus Technologies that covers a range of topics related to business and technology.
Nathan Whittacre 00:14
Well, welcome to Stimulus Tech Talk. I’m Nathan Whitaker, CEO of Stimulus Technologies. And I’m joined today by Darrell Evans, CEO of Yokel Local Internet Marketing. Welcome, Darrell.
Darrell Evans 00:26
Nathan, what’s going on? I’m excited to be here with you.
Nathan Whittacre 00:28
Yeah, I’m excited to be here, too. We’ve known each other for 15 years or more and excited to have Darrell join us today. And Darrell, is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and CEO, Co Founder of Yokel Local Internet Marketing and host of his own podcast, the Mind Shift Podcast. And as a marketing and sales expert, he and his team have helped hundreds of companies streamline customer acquisition online, and in social media over the past 12 years. So I’m excited to talk a little bit about Digital Marketing and Entrepreneurship and company growth and lots of different things today. So again, welcome, Darrell. So tell us a little bit more about your background and how you got started in marketing.
Darrell Evans 01:10
Yeah, thank you for that. The story is quite long, but I’ll keep it as short as possible. You know, I first started my first business when I was in college, kind of more of a side hustle, not a full functioning business. But my taste for entrepreneurship started in my teens, and then I decided to do something while I was in college. Fast forward to marketing, though, I got into the real estate industry, as well, when I was in college in the mid 90s. And was very fortunate to get around some very high level producers in that industry. And I noticed they were doing some things differently. They were doing things that were not exactly the run of the mill teaching of real estate acquisition and customer acquisition back then. And so that terminology in the in the marketing space is known as direct response marketing. And I found it very intriguing. I found it very fascinating, I found it a little bit more permission based and not interruptive as cold calling and door knocking and some of those things were fast forward into the My transition into the mortgage industry in 2000. Along comes the internet and the introduction of an email marketing system came into place. And so I jumped onto that bandwagon in 2003, when I realized, you know, I could talk from one to many with the push of a button. And I, behind the scenes, I kind of consider myself a lazy entrepreneur, but I like leverage. So that was great. Mid 2000s, we started a marketing or internet marketing division in our mortgage company at the time, and jumped on social media 2006, seven and eight we did LinkedIn 2006 2007 was really the breakthrough when we started a YouTube channel to answer frequently asked questions of our of our you know, at that time, 35 to 50 mortgage clients a month and just found out the leveraging power of the distribution that YouTube offered at that time. Even in the early days, there wasn’t a quote unquote, YouTube or category category back then. And I noticed people were finding us more and more online more and more on the internet. And I realized that at that time, consumer behavior was probably changing for forever. And that businesses needed to adapt this. And so I met my co founder back in 2008 2009. And we spun off our agency in 2011, which is Yokel Local Internet Marketing, as you mentioned. And as you said, for the last 12 or 13 years or so we’ve been focused on helping companies grow online.
Nathan Whittacre 03:43
So I’m going to take a little aside here because I remember something specifically when we first met that kind of drew us together a little bit you were engaged with Beachbody, if I remember right, and you you had a video series, there’s some things that you did on the on the internet that really drove that little side hustle or side business for you quite a bit if I remember right, so
Darrell Evans 04:12
I’m surprised you remember that? Yeah.
Nathan Whittacre 04:15
But I remember you saying that, that that was what kind of triggered the idea of Yokel Local is, you know, this idea of engaging with customers through kind of realistic videos, you know, some things that you know, intrigued you and treat them and it wasn’t like, you know, this, this whole like studio experience it was in your home working out and that’s what drew the customers in.
Darrell Evans 04:41
Wow Nathan, I can’t believe you remember that. But wow, you’re so right. I almost forget about those days. But yeah, I was doing the program Insanity from Shaun T through Beachbody. Yeah. And I decided to record my journey through the program. And at that time, I’m about 215 pounds and I wanted to lose some weight. Actually, I’ll apologize. I was about 215 when I started my journey, by the time I got to Insanity, I think it was about 195. And I had a goal weight to get back down to about 170 -175. Anyway, I started putting up some very raw ready videos based on every FIT test. So every 30 days, we would take a FIT test. And you’re right, I just put those videos up just to show sort of a behind the scenes and little did I know that channel, that YouTube channel separate from the mortgage channel, that YouTube channel got to about 850,000 subscribers in I don’t know, a year or so. And I wasn’t trying. They think that was they it was before you know it, I was making some money from YouTube. And I didn’t understand, you know, I didn’t get it. I was I didn’t do it to make the money on YouTube ads. But it was a very interesting distinction, that what we did in the YouTube in the YouTube channel with the mortgage company, was we just recorded face to camera regular answers to questions that our customers had no fancy editing back then, of course, we used to have to use firewire to get the video off of a camcorder onto a computer. I mean, for those those not aware of that you never want to go back to those days. Trust me.
Nathan Whittacre 06:15
This is so much simpler, right?
Darrell Evans 06:16
Oh, my I mean, yeah, today, I still think about the challenge of doing video. The days back then were so hard. I don’t want to be the guy jumping back a decade and a half. But yeah, you’re right, Nathan, that was a very interesting point. That was the realization for me, that overproduced video was not necessary that people wanted to connect with people. People wanted to connect with people. And that shows up now in almost every aspect of personal branding today, you know, we see it today in the in what’s called a content creator slash influencer space. But we are really big on helping our our CEOs, founders, whoever the stakeholders are of the organizations bring their face out a little bit more into the front of their marketing.
Nathan Whittacre 06:59
Because I think that’s I mean, we think about it on the business to consumer side, right, you know, that’s that you were connecting to other consumers with your journey. How do you help businesses on the b2b sells connect with their their consumers? I mean, in the end, people buy products. I mean, you know, businesses don’t buy the products, it’s the people inside the businesses that make the buying decision. So how do you and this is completely a, we’re going in a different direction than I thought we would. But it’s a good question. Like how do you how do you take in and position a business that they’re connecting with other people to buy their business products? Like []?
Darrell Evans 07:37
Yeah. Yeah, b2b in you know, it’s interesting. We get these categorizations, b2b, b2c at the end of the day, it’s, it’s betta h, right? It’s business to a human, it’s human to human at the end of the day. So the question in b2b is, and the distinction or the paradigm shift, I think in b2b is recognizing what you just said. And that is, our marketing has to become a bit more personalized, and it has to become a bit more connected to the emotions and the behavior of the buyer, meaning can we empathize with the actual purchaser, and in b2b it we tend to find the decision maker. Now not as emotional about, you know, some of the b2c products where we buy on emotion and reason with logic, because usually a b2b buyer is a little bit more pragmatic, a little bit more logical about what they need. But at the end of the day, they’re looking for I what I call the signal that governs almost every big ticket b2b purchase. And that is trust in the providers ability to deliver the product or service and two, confidence, they’re looking for that provider to convey a level of confidence that moves that purchaser into trust. So in digital, what we try to spend time on, is helping the marketing, move the buyer into a place of interest, empathy, where it shows that the brand is empathetic to their need empathetic to their past journey that led them to a current problem and try to transition the sales conversation, whatever that could be, if it’s an RFQ, or RFP, or if it’s a sales consultation, which typically in b2b, it is, what we’re trying to invite them into a dialogue that says we understand we understand them. It’s easier said than done, and each industry has its own nuances about how the psychology of the buyer works. But we spend a lot of time trying to understand the buyers journey of that ideal customer for the business and there may be different buyers. But we tried to connect the the level of their thinking to the the outcome, as we say stakeholders have different reasons for saying yes, the CFO has maybe a different reason for saying yes then the CEO, the CEO may have a different reason from saying yes, then the CMO. And if we’re dealing with a company that has multiple decision makers on a big ticket purchase, we’ve got to really understand how each of them see that, that journey.
Nathan Whittacre 10:13
So, you know, kind of taking it back to technology here. You know, we’re on a podcast right now I, you know, Stimulus has our own podcast, you have your own podcast, you know, that’s a that’s a technology to reach potential buyers, but also, you know, build, hopefully some trust and authority. You know, how do you you know, if somebody is wanting to do a podcast and say, you know, a CPA firm or a law firm, or, you know, one of these professional services organizations wants to use technology better, whether it’s podcasts, or YouTube channels, or whatever it may be to connect to their audience. How did you get started with that? That’s might seem overwhelming.
Darrell Evans 10:50
Yeah, I think there’s two paths of travel. And actually, I think there’s two paths that should be considered number one, when we see a lot of brands wanting to podcast or do YouTube channels or blog, for that matter, or even in just their email communication? There’s two paths of travel. Number one is can you create content that aligns with the inquiry that your prospective customer could be having, thinking from a Google standpoint? So it’s prudent to think I should be creating content for my podcast and my YouTube channel or my blog that’s related to the questions or information that my prospective customer could be searching for already, through a channel like Google? On the flip side, I think to your point of building trust and authority, I think it’s really important that the brand establish a set of a content rhythm that elevates themselves in the marketplace. What do we mean by that? It could be talking about industry trends, things to avoid mistakes, that you should not be making in whatever it is that you do in your field. So I think there’s two parts. The what I see Nathan, however, sometimes is I find brands getting too in the weeds of their expertise, where it disconnects with their buyers journey or disconnects with the sort of the pain points that their customers could be having. I grew up in the direct response world, as I’ve mentioned, in multiple industries, and it applies across multiple. And there’s a concept in copywriting that we call, pas PAS. Problem. Agitate. Solve. And what we try to do is think about, are we able to present a problem that our ideal customer or prospect is thinking about in our content creation, whatever modality we’re doing it in? Are we able to agitate that a little bit, I’d like to say that we also want to empathize or excite them to the fact that there is a solution. So I feel like sometimes brands, obviously they’re not copywriters, necessarily. But that is the missing component. In content creation, it’s all about what they want to say to the world, but it’s not meeting necessarily their customer where they are. Gotcha.
Nathan Whittacre 13:12
So, you know, again, having you on this podcast, you know, we’re talking about marketing and digital marketing and, and how to connect with clients. And, you know, my company, we sell it services, we don’t sell marketing services. So, and I know your podcast is kind of similar, you have a bunch of podcasts, and you’re talking about entrepreneurship. And it’s not necessarily you know, all about internet marketing, or digital or just, you know, that’s all you talk about, I’m sure my customers are tired of me talking about cybersecurity, and how to protect their businesses. So, you know, having this type of podcast and we’re having a discussion kind of a little bit, you know, kind of alive a little bit outside of the usual discussion, how does that help a brand, you know, like stimulus or like, you know, Yokel Local, you know, elevate themselves, even in their own domain?
Darrell Evans 14:05
I think it’s a great question. And I think it’s, it aligns because as humans, we’re interested in multiple things. And you never know what, what doorway or what path will lead you to a solution and idea, a connection. You know, in my podcast, it’s called the MindShift podcast. And it doesn’t even on the surface, indicate that it has anything to do with entrepreneurship, or business or growth or marketing. It is a storytelling podcast in a way where we identify, we talk about the journey from inspiration to realization and when life knocks us down from break down to break through, well, that’s a life journey. And if you’re an entrepreneur, there’s going to be a journey that you have there. If you’re in marketing, there’s a journey. So I think, how can you use a more general topical podcast and then bring in varieties of guests? I think it helps to a be well rounded in your marketing communication be I help, I think it helps connect with multiple types of audiences, because I think you and I and Nathan are old enough to remember the days before the internet. And even though you started quite earlier than I did, but we always believe in business, at least the adage that many people believe is that people buy from who they know, like and trust. And interest. The interesting thing about that statement is, here’s a real example, we helped a company recently with a bit of a digital transformation of their brand. And do you know, he sent me a text message a couple of weeks ago, asking me if I had a contact for business cards, letterhead, and business promotional materials. Now, I don’t have that in my business, there was nothing even discussed. But he trusted me in a way to say, well, I don’t know where I should go. But I enjoyed what I did with him, maybe he could save me some time and give me a resource. And so when I think about the podcast, I’ve gotten more connections, more cross channel relationships, that whether I need them or sell them or not, I’ve got such a big pool now of context. And I think the audience can come to appreciate that authenticity, through the dialogue.
Nathan Whittacre 16:12
It’s, you know, I think that’s I agree with 100% on that, because, you know, it’s one of the kinds of directions I took my book. I mean, some of my favorite business books aren’t just about the business topic, but they’re incorporating things in real life I, and I kind of triggered me a book that I read a while ago. And I think both you and I were introduced to it through our CEO peer group, High Altitude Leadership. And you know, this, it was a mountain climber that’s relating his experiences climbing Everest, and K2, and all these things and relating it to business and like, they seem so disconnected. But I liked that because it was, you know, real world experiences were brought into, you know, his business side of it. So it’s, it’s interesting, you know, it’s, again, it’s humans connecting with each other, that makes a big difference. So, so somebody wants to get started with podcasting? How do how do you or with any of this technology? How do you get started with it?
Darrell Evans 17:07
I just had this conversation just not long ago, Week, a week or so ago. Most people wouldn’t know this from my podcast now sitting at 260 or so episodes. But my very first three episodes were recorded from my smart, my smartphone sitting in my closet. So I like to say that, aside from all the technology you could do, at the end of the day, you’ve just got to decide is it a going to be you on a solo show, where you’re teaching, educating, inspiring, sharing your knowledge, sharing your expertise, sharing your wisdom, that’s kind of a solo show, V are you going to do an interview show, and an interview show is the easiest type of show to start, because there are far more people than you could imagine who want to tell their story. And they will want to tell it to a brand new show, as well as they’ll want to tell it to a popular show. So an interview show is an easy way to get started. I think having a hybrid show is best. Because what I found when I first started my interview show was people said, Hey, where’s your voice in the show? We’re hearing it from all these guests. But where’s your voice? But I think Nathan, the platform that we’re on, every there, there are multiple platforms that are web based, whether it’s Zoom platform, the platform that we’re on with your podcast, the platform that I use, they’re all very, very simple. And today, especially post pandemic, we’re all used to connecting virtually, you can start there, you can start, again, if you want to do a solo show, there are simple audio apps, you can download for free on your phone, just to have good audio. And of course, now we’re in the world of AI. So producing a show is more inexpensive, and efficient, as it ever has been. I mean 2023 Now with AI, you get some pretty amazing things to get a show out today.
Nathan Whittacre 18:57
Glad you brought up AI, those are actually going to be one of my questions is I know that, you know, from a content standpoint, our discussion and the words we’re saying are really important to generate it. So how were you using as a digital marketer AI to take these videos, take the podcast, take all this content and make it so that it’s driving customers to people’s websites and hopefully in the end, you know, a purchase for the customer. So what how are you incorporating that into your, into your business?
Darrell Evans 19:29
Yeah, great. So at the agency, one of the first things we started doing when AI came out was we will one of the things we do every month is we interview our our customer meaning if we’re working with a lawyer, we interview our lawyer client, if we’re interviewing a doctor, or chiropractor or an accountant or someone like that, if they’re in an industry where a traditional SEO or copywriter or creative writer is not going to have that specific company’s level of expertise. We interview the the customer every month. We asked them six to eight questions relative to what we would be writing about on their blog for search engine traffic. What we now do that we did manually with video editors, what we now use AI for is we’re able to extract the audio and the video from those conversations, we’re able to use AI to cut up each of those clips. With AI, we used to have to send that to a video editor and, and timestamp every clip. Now AI is getting really good at understanding where those break points were in the discussion, and then it captions the video it puts the captions on, which are great for social media. When it comes to the audio track, then we also can reverse engineer the transcript into social media, captions, email newsletters based on each clip, or based on the entire episode. So when it comes to marketing, and trying to be everywhere, which can be exhausting and daunting trying to be on every social media platform and all of that. But today, it’s it’s easier than ever, not to say you have to. But we’re using AI to leverage that at breakneck speed, it’s actually been very incredible to think of where we started with AI in January of 2023. And where we are right now at the time recording November 2023, it has completely changed our whole workflow in a good way. Now, you can’t just throw that stuff in AI and get 100% perfect out of it, it still takes a human on the back end, to edit, to optimize to put the to put the particulars in, that are necessary for either good content, good social, good headlines, etc. But it is speeding up the pace. But that’s kind of how we’re using all audio video today. In fact, we prefer not to write first ever again, if we don’t have to, let me tell you what we’re not doing for all the listening audience, what we’re not doing is going to AI and asking AI to create the content on the front end. So we’re not doing that we’re reverse engineering it from the expertise of the brand. And this matters in a real way, if you’re interested in getting traffic from Google from an SEO perspective, or a search engine optimization perspective, because Google has a very specific quality rating that they look at, and it’s an acronym called E E. A T. First, E stands for expertise. Second, E stands for experience, the A stands for authority, the T stands for trust, that’s what they’re looking for in the content. So where you go to a when you go to AI, you can get the expertise 70 80%, because of all the large language modeling, it’s able to get the facts of the topic. But what it can’t do is add the other E A T to the end. And that’s where a human inside of the company or you know, a marketer who’s on your team, internal or external, they have to add those extra components, because otherwise the content will just look like every generic bland content across the internet. And the internet doesn’t need any more of that. So, but I hope that helps.
Nathan Whittacre 22:55
Yeah, so is that how I mean? You mentioned like, there’s tons of content, and I’m sure AI is just like, financially, helping companies generate even more and more content. So how do you stand out, you know, as a company against all this content, you know, now it’s, you know, when you started doing videos on YouTube, there was probably only maybe a couple of thousand channels. Now there’s, you know, 1000s of millions of channels, you know, out there to, you know, look from. So how do you how do you distinguish yourself, amongst all the other content that’s being generated?
Darrell Evans 23:27
I think it’s a great question. And I think there’s one way that will always be the distinguishing factor, and that is your face to camera. Even if you’re speaking about the same topic, there’s a certain set of people, there’s a certain audience who’s only going to resonate with your voice, only going to resonate with your cadence only going to resonate with your rhythm, only going to resonate with your stories and your analogies in your experience. And I think that is the only way to completely cut through the noise of topics that are already been they’ve already been produced en mass. Here’s an example. We have a estate planning and probate law firm client. And I started her on this process in June of this year, just a few months ago. And she was a little bit resistant. Although she had been creating content on her own. She just didn’t know some of the nuances that we added to the equation. When we put up organic videos, we are seeing some videos go 1500 views some videos go 200 views, some videos go 60 views, we had one go 12,000 views. When we add advertising to the mix, which means we take those same videos and now we intentionally go put those out. One of the her recent customers came in and said she the person became a customer and said, I watched all your videos on your channel. She said to me, I’ve never had an easier sale in my life, because the person was already on their own journey. To try to get an answer to a question they had in their mind, but weren’t quite ready to go book a meeting with an attorney found her channel through one of our videos that one of her videos that we helped her create, then found the rest of the videos that seem to build the trust and authority. She said, Darrell, I, I didn’t have to do my typical spiel. That’s what I found out about in 2007. So we’re still trying to beat on this idea that your voice, your experience, your journey is going to connect, even if the topic is the same topic of many, many, many of your competitors, because you have a way to tell it, they can tell it. And that customers coming in pre sold. I mean, they’ve they’ve watched the videos, it’s all done the work and they’re ready to to buy it. They’re ready to make they’ve already made the decision. Yeah, by the time they get to that meeting, it’s just like, it’s a done deal. And to me, that’s the easiest way to grow a business today. It doesn’t mean we don’t do outreach. It doesn’t mean we don’t do outbound sales calls. That’s not what I’m saying. But where we talk about that question of how do we cut through all the content noise in the competitors, it is developing a commitment to your authentic voice being out front in the marketing. And if you look at even big companies look at Richard Branson from Virgin, there was a season when he was always out front, using his voice. If you look at some of the big names like Kevin O’Leary, and Shark Tank, and Daymond, John and a whole bunch of others, Mark Cuban, they’re all lending their voice to the marketing, not because the person who calls thinks they’re actually going to talk to the celebrity, but it’s a different enemy. It’s a different angle than just putting a celebrity endorser on a commercial. It’s a different feel. And that’s what I think is the opportunity. And every brand can do it now at no cost. Because the channels are free. The technology, we already carry it in our phone. Yeah, the path of least resistance is gone. It’s just there’s nothing there in the middle. It’s just a decision to have a strategy and execute it and produce it.
Nathan Whittacre 27:08
So the shark’s, I’m a part of this technology group that’s in my industry, or this group that’s in my industry, and several of the sharks have come in. And Robert Herjavec actually owns a cybersecurity company. And one of the things he said to us, though, is that him being on Shark Tank and having that, you know, he’s not any better than any other security expert out there. But having that celebrity has made the biggest difference to his company, you know, is it’s a huge difference. Huge difference.
Darrell Evans 27:40
It’s interesting, the Nathan, the thing that I’ve learned over the last 12-15 years, and I talk a lot about this, and that is the distinction that our consumer doesn’t need us until they’ve decided where if we jumped 15 to 20 years ago, they had to come to us to get the information. I don’t want to date this. But back when I first started in real estate, the multiple listing service that came out every month that showed you what houses were on the market, what houses were in escrow what houses were sold, it was it looked like a phonebook. Today, we all know that that’s available on realtor.com zillow.com. And you don’t need an agent. Until and in our businesses, many cases, we still resist the idea that because the customer has access to all the information they need and more to develop their opinion. The problem is if they don’t find your information, they’re going to go they’re going to go with someone else. If they go on their journey at 11 o’clock at night, because something about your solution is bothering them. And they go to Google, will they find you? Or will they find your competitor. And I promise you, if they find your competitor first and get caught up in the web of their content, you’re never going to hear from them. And that’s a big statement. But it’s a big truth. And that’s why we advocate video because you don’t need to have 1000 videos, by the way. You don’t need to have 1000 videos, I think we’ve gotten we’ve produced 18 videos for this attorney that I just mentioned. And we spent $400 in ads to amplify those videos. And she got her first customer who said I watched all your videos and signed up easier than any customer. She’s had 18 years. So she’s little she’s excited now about the process. She’s excited
Nathan Whittacre 29:37
to go from 18 to 180 here pretty quick and what you’re saying?
Darrell Evans 29:40
I think so I think so. So, but it’s it’s it’s a distinction that the customer has at their fingertips. The device that is the device of all devices of our technology. And now we add ChatGBT to it which Nathan if you want to get into that conversation I I wonder where Google fits into this as time goes on, because ChatGPT can do some of the things that we used to go to Google for, in terms of answering questions. But that’s a whole nother topic. And that’s still on the horizon. But the customer is in control of the journey. And we have to get ourselves into the journey as they see it. And that could be on social could be on YouTube could be on a blog on on Google, but it is a little bit more dynamic and diverse today.
Nathan Whittacre 30:28
Yeah, it’s, you know, the search engines are, you know, obviously starting to incorporate AI into into their systems, I, you know, Microsoft, obviously, is partnered with ChatGPT. And, you know, there’s a Bing search that incorporates, you know, a lot of AI, Google’s doing the same thing. It’ll be interesting to see where these, you know, where, and how that changes your marketing industry over the next couple of years, because I think it’s going to be dramatically different.
Darrell Evans 30:58
And I don’t disagree.
Nathan Whittacre 31:01
Yeah, and you have to have that content there to really be the ones that are going to be the authority. And it’s, you know, one of the reasons I wrote my book too, is, you know, it’s just setting setting yourself up as an authority connecting with customers, through stories and different ways that only I can. Because it’s, you know, my experiences are very different. And it’s my company is different than, you know, than any other IT company, but from the face of it going to stimulu tech.com go into my website, it’s hard to see that, you know, without without all that background information,
Darrell Evans 31:37
and I want to take a second and shout out the journey that you did to write the book, because you just nailed the point. On the surface, most of our brands, it looks the same on the outside. And so you’ve got 25 going on 30 years of experience. I mean, it’s, it’s, you can only tell that story your way. And so I applaud you for getting the book out. You inspired me, of course, I’ve started a book project. And you were you were sort of the last tipping point, I took your advice. Last time we met at mastermind, and I finished the book that you recommended, and it helped. So I just wanted to shout you out for your accomplishment and all the success to your book. And I’m looking forward to help and support that cause too.
Nathan Whittacre 32:19
Yeah. Thanks, Darrell. And so what is your writing a book? what’s your what’s your topic? Or were you on that journey?
Darrell Evans 32:26
Yeah, very beginning stage, I hired a coach couple weeks ago, we’re at the early stage. But we don’t have a title yet, which is good for me. But I’ve always approached marketing, from a Pareto Principle standpoint. And for those that are familiar, it’s basically the 80/20 principle, which indicates that 80% of the results come from 20% of your effort. The there’s been several other books that have kind of skin skimmed around the topic, but it is the core of my philosophy, my marketing philosophy, and that is you don’t have to do everything, you have to do the right thing. And at the beginning of any journey with a customer of mine, whether it’s a consulting customer or an agency customer, we’re trying to figure out how to laser focus in on one problem to solve for one buyer, find them in one place online, speak to them in one way, and move that person through to the finish line. And then we begin to expand. So it’s a it’s very much a minimum viable marketing process that I’ve developed over the last, I really developed it 23 years ago. And then I didn’t realize that I kept repeating it kind of in a subconscious way. And that’s what we’re gonna be telling the story on. And it’s really a book about removing complexity from both marketing strategy and tactic.
Nathan Whittacre 33:45
I’m excited to read it and I’m sure it’ll be a fun journey. You know, it’s interesting, writing whatever content, whether it’s short form, like a blog, video, or things like, like this, this podcast, or the long form of a book, it really narrows down your ideas. And that was one of the things that was great for me is researching and narrowing down. But these concepts really helped solidify my ideas, too. It’s, it’s so I’m excited for you to go through that journey.
Darrell Evans 34:15
Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I’m learning a lot. And definitely, it’s a different form of communication f or me. I’ve been speaking these concepts for probably 15 years. But to put them in book in the book channel format appropriately is the the learning for me right now. I’m getting coached and it’s kind of feeling like I’m a third grader. So I’m humbled by the experience to really refine my craft in that area. So I’m excited.
Nathan Whittacre 34:39
So kind of bringing it back around to the my first question. So I was doing P90x which I don’t do anymore. You were doing Insanity. Are you still doing Insanity? Are you on a different physical journey than you than you started out with?
Darrell Evans 34:53
No, actually, but you know, shout out to Beachbody. They were the journey I spent. I still have a membership to Bodi which They’re on demand. Basically, it’s Netflix now for fitness. So shout out to body, they just have been a staple for me, I just did one of their running programs the other day. But this year 2023, I’m extremely excited to say I’ve convinced my brother who has been 20 plus years, training athletes, all sorts of lacrosse, football, baseball, softball, volleyball, men and women Pro and high school, I convinced him to teach us ordinary folks how to how to better our bodies. And so I’ve been training on his beta program all year, which has been a very fun experience. He’s out of the Denver area he grew, he grew up here in Vegas with me, but so I’ve been on his program all year. And it’s been a mix of strength training, cardio, resistance, endurance, and he’s customized my program for the ebbs and flows of of my, my lifestyle and my business demands. So it’s been a really fun journey this year with him.
Nathan Whittacre 36:01
That’s excellent. It’s nice to have somebody help you along that journey. I, I, you know, I can’t say it enough. I probably never said it on this podcast. But you know, as entrepreneurs, we have so many stressors in our lives, you know, having that, that release, through exercise, through endurance, sports, whatever it may be, is so important to stay, you know, fit. And both mentally and physically. It’s just, it’s essential. So
Darrell Evans 36:29
I couldn’t agree more. Yeah,
Nathan Whittacre 36:31
it’s just, you know, we have so many demands on us, but we have to take time as entrepreneurs for ourselves. So that we’re here for much longer than, than we might ought to be not the if we don’t take care of ourselves. Well.
Darrell Evans 36:45
Yeah, I think of it two ways. And by the way, another shout out to you, because you’re such a inspiration in terms of the the, the challenges that you put yourself through i, we certainly put ourselves through a lot of physical challenges, but you certainly go after it, I gotta tell you, I think for me, the one thing that I’d add to that is we have to make a lot of decisions. As entrepreneurs, we have to make a lot of decisions as CEOs, business owners, there’s a lot of things that happen day to day, that has nothing to do with growing a family taking care of life outside of business. And I’ve learned that anywhere in my life, I don’t have to think about the decision, I tried to remove the decision. Part of that is that fitness, I go to the gym, I don’t want to think about what I have to do. So I worked out with Beachbody for so many years, they tell me what to do. I pick up I push play. And now today, I push play on my brother’s app. And it tells me what to do. And so I love that part of it as well. So I can stay fresh for all the decisions I have to make. But I agree with you, we only get one body to live in. And stress in entrepreneurship is real, it comes out of nowhere. And if you’re not prepared for it, it can really do damage to the body. No question. So
Nathan Whittacre 38:01
certainly can certainly can Well, I’ve enjoyed you know, our journey together and different, you know, slightly different but parallel, parallel lives in, in our businesses. And, you know, it’s great, great talking to you. And I know we’re doing your podcast here in a little bit too. And wait, but about my my journey there. So Right. But yeah, thank you, Darrell for sharing your insights about marketing, digital marketing, podcasting to our group. So really appreciate you being on.
Darrell Evans 38:32
Thanks, Nathan, I always appreciate you hosting platform and allow me to share my story. So it’s been a pleasure being your friend and colleague over the last 15 years and to many more years to come.
Nathan Whittacre 38:43
And just real quick, how do they you know, if anybody’s interested in what you do, how do they find you?
Darrell Evans 38:49
Probably the best way is to excuse me to go over to darrellevans.net da r r e l l. Evans e va n s.net. That’s sort of the central central hub of all things, Darrell, and yeah, feel free to reach out and connect. I’m on social media everywhere. Excellent.
Nathan Whittacre 39:05
And we’ll put some links to that down below. We use AI to transcribe our podcasts. So it’s definitely you know, we’ll make sure we get that link in there again, Errol, thank you very much and have a good rest of your day. And thanks, everybody for joining us today on signals tech talk.