A BROADcast for Manufacturers Collab Call!!!!

Curt Anderson 00:00

Kris, hey, Happy Friday, everybody. We’re going, like, three or four hours, right? Is that what we’re doing? Kris, like, yes, okay, happy Friday, my goodness, gracious man, this is such a thrill, such an honor. Welcome to stop being the best kept secret. My partner in crime is, is on a wonderful vacation with his wonderful, favorite, lovely wife. And so that was a joke. His favorite wife, I, I didn’t say that I’m live, did I? So, alright, when they love you out there, they’re having a great vacation. His internet was a little shaky, so you guys are stuck with me. So let’s go around the horn. I man, I’m like Erin. I let me get my heart pills. Where are they I gotta Alright, we’ve got Kris Harrington, the co founder, CEO of GenAlpha Technologies, Kris, you’re a repeat offender. Thank you for being here today. Appreciate you. Lots of love. We were just on stage together. We were

Kristina Harrington 00:54
it was amazing, actually. Thank you for having us here. Because, you know, this is a special moment for all of us. We’ve been here. We’ve been on your show. We think that this is going to be exciting for all the people who tune in every week to learn from you and Damon. And we’re going to miss Damon while he’s here, but it’s an absolute pleasure to be here with you and my co host at a BROADcast for Manufacturers. So thanks. Thanks for inviting us to your show.

Curt Anderson 01:24
Oh my goodness and grace. Are you kidding me? This is such a privilege. Now, Kris, I do have to say it is much better being on stage with you in person, but this is next best thing. Man, did we? Did? We did I, you know, I know you’re a woman of humility. We did crush it, didn’t we crush it on stage. We had a good time. Alright, so hey, then I got my dear friend, Lori Highby. Lori, repeat offender, you’ve been on multiple times. Keystone Click, COVID, not co founder and extraordinary CEO founded, and I have nothing prepared. 2008 I remember that right and just right, click. And then, hey, how about this wonderful human being raped below me. Look at her. She just blows. She’s also repeat a banger. We got Erin Courtnay in the house. Odd nerd. Erin, love it. How are you so,

Erin Courtenay 02:14
so happy to be here? Curt, so happy to be here. And you know what’s kind of funny, uh, when we planned this. Kris is like, it’s, it’s hard for him to, you know, he’s such a good host, but I want to know about him. He’s so gracious. He always like, you know, ask the great questions, and so just be prepared. You’re in the hot seat, not always a comfortable place to be. But we’re going to take care of you. We’re going to go real gentle on you Sure?

Curt Anderson 02:53
Okay? Because I know Lori too well, you know? So couple comments here, and then I’m going to turn we’ve got the the wonderful women of Wisconsin who have the broadcast for manufacturers. Amazing, incredible podcast. These guys are just fierce advocates for manufacturing. I’m going to grab a couple comments then Chris, I’m turning the show over to you. My friend Harry’s in the house today. Happy Friday. This episode today might be better than Sunday. Season ending a white lotus.

Erin Courtenay 03:22
Wow. No kidding. Oh my God, who died? A spoiler? I don’t I don’t want to know. All

Curt Anderson 03:28
right, no. Spoiler alert. Hey, we got Diane Byer, my dear friend. She’s been under the weather. So okay, guys, we’re flipping the script. Kris Harrington, my dear friend, take it away. What do

Kristina Harrington 03:39
we have? Oh, well, we have you. And what more better way to start talking about you than to read your bio? Because, you know, not many of your listeners probably have heard your bio, because you’re always, you know, talking about everybody else. So I’m going to start right there. Curt Anderson is the founder of B2Btail, dedicated to helping manufacturers stop being the best kept secret in their industry through profitable digital sales growth strategies. With over nine years at B2Btail, Curt provides valuable e commerce strategies that help manufacturing companies achieve their goals and reach success. He creates free resources, free so many free resources, right? I’m

Curt Anderson 04:34
trying to retire.

Kristina Harrington 04:37
He creates free resources to guide manufacturers on their e commerce journey, including checklists, keyword strategies and website optimization techniques. Curt mission is to ethically drive the highest profits possible for manufacturers and entrepreneurs through effective digital marketing. He is a girl dad. He is a friend to this show. Oh, and we love him dearly, and we’re just so pleased to be here and for this crossover event. Thank you. Curt, my

Curt Anderson 05:07
Oh, my goodness, where my Kleenex? At? Hang on, I need to bring Kleenex. So thank you, Kris, that meant a lot. I appreciate

Kristina Harrington 05:16
it absolutely. Well, we want to start with a lightning round. So this is intended to be fast and furious, and whatever comes top to mind, yes, watch that heart. We know you’re a young guy. You’re a young man. You know you can’t lose any hair with these questions.

Curt Anderson 05:34
Not going to happen, right? Lose my eyebrows.

Kristina Harrington 05:37
So what was your first car? What was

Curt Anderson 05:41
my first car? Oh, my goodness, I had a, what? I had a Dodge 19. What year was it? I had a Dodge Charger. Oh, yeah, but it wasn’t a cool one. It was, like the dorky one. It’s like a four cylinder, you know, like, you know, I was not a cool guy, but it was a Dodge Charger kitten for life. Me, I can’t remember the year right now. What color was it? Dear, 84 you know what it looked like? Adele. I was not a Dell Cowboy fan whatsoever, but when I drove down the street, I had like the Dallas Cowboy blue gray going out.

Erin Courtenay 06:16
Oh, okay, yeah. Awesome. All right. Next up, controversial topic, so everybody just take a deep breath. Pineapple on pizza. Yay or Nay.

Curt Anderson 06:31
Okay? Is everybody I you know what? I don’t want to lose any friends out there. I don’t want to lose

Speaker 1 06:37
any answer. Oh, well, then,

Lori Highby 06:45
alright, okay, um, what was your most unusual job before marketing? My

Curt Anderson 06:52
most unusual job before marketing, you know, so I That’s a great question. So in college, I’ll go to college. I was, I was a bus boy. If anybody’s from Ohio, if any, I went to school in Ohio, in the state of Ohio, and there’s a max and Irma’s chain. It’s like, kind of a mini Fridays thing. And I was a busboy. I think I made it for like, three months, and I was not fired. How about that? I was not fired, but I was a buck boy, and just worked my my, you know, Judge worked my way through college, I recommend working a restaurant for any young person. Yes, it’s a great way to get into

Erin Courtenay 07:26
and being a busser. You’re like, the low you’re like, ah, yeah. You’re like, all of us are here, yeah.

Curt Anderson 07:37
Good question, yeah. All right.

Kristina Harrington 07:38
Next question, if you could master any non business skill, mm, what would it be? Instantly master.

Curt Anderson 07:47
Instantly master any, you know what? If I could master good business or not business, right? You said, not business, business, non business, just, you know what? That’s a great question. I’m going to go to I’m married. I’m married 27 years, next month, I could be a little if I could be a better husband, how about that? So if I could be a better husband,

Erin Courtenay 08:10
How much more could we love you?

Kristina Harrington 08:13
She should be listening.

Curt Anderson 08:18
I’m working. I’m a working she says, I’m a work in progress. So we’re trying to figure it out, you know? So we all work

Speaker 2 08:23
in progress. Nobody’s perfect. That’s right, that’s right. Wow. So Curt, yes. Erin a little bit of business here. What’s your go to productivity hack, either for business, pleasure, whatever, what gets things done for you? What

Curt Anderson 08:40
gets, you know, what? I’m a music guy. So that’s a great question. I either I’m either yelling at Alexa to play something, or I got a little little YouTube going on, you know? So I’m a music guy. How’s that?

Erin Courtenay 08:50
Do you have a, do you have, like, a walk on song that’s just like a walk?

Curt Anderson 08:54
That’s a great question. You know, usually I say baby sharp. That’s usually my

Erin Courtenay 08:58
answer. Oh, my God, that’ll never get out of my head. Thank you.

Curt Anderson 09:04
Yeah, you’re very welcome, just for you Little Baby shark,

Kristina Harrington 09:09
alright, well, I have to ask the question that you know you ask all your guests, and you don’t have to ask this one so fast because I our answer this one so fast because I want to really hear the answer to this, but who was your hero when you were growing up? Mr. Curt Anderson,

Curt Anderson 09:28
Hey, where’d that question come from? So great question. So I, you know what? I as Damon. And I started, you know Damon, I started almost five years ago, and Chris, we were hanging out with our dear friend Jeff Long Jeff was our first guest, and somewhere along line, we came up this question, and I just, I love this question. I love the answers. I feel it sets the tone for our conversation. So thank you for asking. I’ll go. I’ll go here. So you know, I was a sports junkie, so I’m way too I’m much older than anybody here, so there. Was a guy named Larry zonka who was a running back for the Miami Dolphins in the 70s. I had everything Larry zonka And pretty much anybody on the New York Yankees from the 1977 1978 World Series teams. Those are my heroes, but my true hero was Dad. You know, my father worshiped the ground he walked on. He my debt. So I’m so if you guys haven’t met me in person, Kris has met me. I’m six, you know what? I’m six one with hair, Kris, I’m like, six. I’m like, Just borderline six foot right now. So I’m six foot. My dad is six, five, full head of hair. He’s, like, the year round 10, you know, like, real the mustache. He’s, you know, good looking dude. But, man, when I was a kid, I worshiped the ground he walked on, and when he would work all day, and when he would come home at night, man, I’d be just sitting there waiting for him to play catch. We’d be in a side yard, and I would just be throwing as hard as I could. You know, nine years old, you know, you realize you think you’re throwing hard, right? Yeah, every time you’d be like, Man, I gotta get a new glove. I gotta put a sponge in my glove. Man, you’re so hard. Like he made me feel like I’m literally throwing 90 mile an hour fastball. So then when it came game time, I’m just like, hit dad’s glove, hit dad’s glove, hit dad’s glove. And I just, I really appreciate the confidence that he gave, you know, and I was probably throwing like, 20 miles an hour, but, man, he made me feel like I was throwing 90. So I’ll go to dear old dad. How’s that? That’s wonderful.

Kristina Harrington 11:22
What is your dad’s name? Curt Dwayne. Dwayne.

Curt Anderson 11:25
Well, I’m Curtis. I’m Curtis. Dwayne Anderson, how’s that?

Lori Highby 11:28
No, something I want to share, just based on that story, is that you emulate your dad in the like building the confidence every time I’ve had a conversation with you. You do a good job of reinforcing the good that that I’m doing, and I know you’ve done that for Kris and Erin and everyone else you’ve talked to. So I love that story you shared with your dad, because I can see you, your dad in you based on what you shared.

Curt Anderson 11:56
Well, thank you, Lori, I appreciate that. Hey, let’s grab a couple of comments right here we got your friend Diane. She says, Oh my goodness. Love how you ladies are flipping so much fun. Admirer here today. He says, I’m we’re going to be in a better father. Hey, right there with you, brother. Appreciate that. So guys again, thank you for joining us. Drop us notes. Any questions, any comments in the chat. I encourage you. I invite you. Welcome you. Connect with my dear friend Lori. Connect with Kris Harrington, connect with Erin on LinkedIn, and you’ll thank me later. These guys are just amazing, wonderful human beings. So Alright, where are we at? On questions? Who’s

Lori Highby 12:28
next? Oh, you know what? We’re going to move to some really fun, deeper questions, as much as we’d love to do these, like really fun, crazy lightning run questions. We’re going to we’re going to talk business here. Now let’s do it. You know, I love you. Say this all the time, and it’s so true, and I believe it 100% and many, many, many manufacturers struggle with being the best kept secret in their industry. And I know you’ve, you’ve talked to so many of them, and you’ve, you’ve been in the industry and sharing and educating on so many different levels. What’s the one simple digital strategy that you’ve seen that’s really created that major breakthrough or mega results for clients who’ve previously been basically non existent online, yeah,

Curt Anderson 13:10
you know. So Lori, as you asked that question, my first word is consistency, you know, so I don’t, I don’t, I wouldn’t say it’s like, you know, at LinkedIn, you know, like, hey, this LinkedIn work for this person, but maybe YouTube videos work for this person. Or, you know, you know, SEO worked over here, e commerce over here. I think it come in. And maybe I’m being a little bit broad, but I think, hey, broad, you see what I did there, Chris, see what I did. Okay, so it’s really, I think, consistency, you know, and, and I’ll say, the second thing is, I encourage folks, you feel compelled to do all the things, I even feel compelled to do all the things, man, try to do like, one or two things exceptionally, and then build and grow from there. So I think consistency and like, find your find your jam, you know, find like, I think was it Seth Godin says, like, I’m only doing my blog, and no reason I don’t do anything social, because then that would distract my blog. And so I think those are the two things narrow and,

14:09
yeah, the consistency.

Lori Highby 14:10
I love using the analogy of going to the gym. You know, you can’t sit there and do 100 sit ups in one day and expect to have rock solid abs for a whole year, you have to be consistently working on your health and going to the gym to have that physique that you’re going for. And it’s the same thing when it comes to marketing your business and getting your messaging out there. So perfect answer. Curt,

Kristina Harrington 14:34
thank you. Yeah, appreciate Yeah. And I would build on that too, because one of the things I think, in the beginning, and you know, the we were at Gen alpha, a best kept secret, we didn’t know how to, early on, attract new customers, right? So we had to do something different. And one of the things that we knew we had to do was bring. Open some of our own barriers, right? Yeah, we had to get out there. Do podcasts, have webinars, have conversations, educate, reach our audience, hear from our audience, and and then we had to consistently define goals and then consistently execute on those goals. So it is through the consistent execution and measuring what you’re doing over time. I’m going to do this many posts, we’re going to do this blog, we’re going to have this many podcasts or webinars we want to be a part of. And when you just keep doing it, that’s when you start to build, you know, the momentum and the base and everything else. And I Curt, I know that you have done that with the show, with Damon, and you, you know, with the best kept secret, you just kept inching in different areas, but kept the message the same, and you tried different things. Would within the what you’ve tried, where would you say you’ve had the most success? Because, you know, you’ve been show up in several different places. I’m curious, where you’ve had the most success.

Curt Anderson 16:14
I’d say, I I just, I love this, what we’re doing right here. I just, anybody you know, and it’s not for everybody, right? Like, you gotta be, like, little, you know, like, for you guys doing a broadcast, you know, like, we, you know, Erin, we gotta be a little goofy, little crazy, put ourselves out there a little bit, be a little normal, especially on a live show, because, like, there’s no editing here, right? Like, oops. Like, we can’t I just, I’m, I’m so bullish on what we’re doing right here, what you guys are doing with your podcast, because, like, Damon and I never want to be the smart guys in the room with and it’s really not challenging for us to accomplish that, right? So we just love bringing on smart folks like you and like, how can you know we feel a little bit better smarter? I’ll tell you one thing. Like, it’s almost like, I almost feel guilty when we do this live show we get off and I’m like, that was like a free counseling session. That was like a free consulting session that was like, like, if you guys saw the notes that I take when we’re interviewing people, and they’re like, Oh, this is awesome. Thank you for I’m like, No. Thank you for, like, teaching us. So I think this platform right here, live streaming, podcasting, we’ve bringing on clients, bringing on referral partners, just learning this is a gift. And I it’s, it’s, it’s like an embarrassment amount of riches by doing this. Yeah, when I say riches of just like the reward, not necessarily financially, but the reward of doing this is priceless.

Kristina Harrington 17:38
Yeah, and you’ve brought in, like, different MEPs, you’ve brought in authors, you’ve brought in, tell us about some of the different people that you’ve brought in, and where, where can people go if they want to go see some of the past episodes? Yeah, if

Curt Anderson 17:54
you go. So right on our website, B2B, tell I have every single episode on our YouTube channel. We have every single episode, Kris, like, you’re all over the place on there. So on our YouTube, we pull YouTube shorts, and that’s the other thing. Is, like, when you do a platform like this, you know? So now we’re on video, we get short clips, we take the long form, we put it on our website. We take the transcription, we put it on our website. We just did this. We had, like, we took a bunch of topics around website design for manufacturers, right? Or, like, SEO for manufacturers. We had tons of episodes. We took a lot of those transcriptions, and now, like, we’ve created guides based on like those platforms. So like, yeah, repurposing the heck out of this. Like you do something once, and you just so back to, you know what? Probably we interviewed the Carrie Smith, the founder of big ass fans. That was a thrill. Oh yeah. He sold his company, you know, like, took over a bankrupt business, and he tells a story. He walked into the company, it was like in a garage, and he built it into a half a billion dollar company. Wow, brilliant advice. You know, from from that guy, we had the privilege of interviewing the founder of Reebok, and he was 80. He’s at the time, he was 85 years old, and like, just, what a thrill it was interview. So just, you know, all the way to our clients, like you said, Kris, me piece, everybody, it’s just been it, just, I could go on and on, as you can

Kristina Harrington 19:18
tell. All right, so both you and Damon talk a lot about out teaching the competition. So you know, rather than relying on traditional advertising, you want to out teach the competition. So can you share an example of how this approach has helped one of your manufacturing clients establish themselves as the go to expert. Yeah,

Curt Anderson 19:45
that’s a great question. Yeah, we shamelessly use that line anybody that will listen, right? How do you I’ll teach a competition. So, alright, so I have a client. I have a client that does like these little goofy ground straps, okay, little ground straps, and it’s like. Every, every electrical product on the planet, every device that we’re looking at, has to be grounded, otherwise, you know, we’re going to get electrocuted, right? And they, and when they started their journey, it was just like, out, teach, out, teach, blog posts after blog posts after blog posts also like they’re coming up on first page rankings, you know, over Amazon, over McMaster, car, over Granger. And so they were just reluctancy going over over that. And then Kris they, they came up with a configurator. And so that was a total game changer. And just all their information, all their social, everything went towards that, that out teach the competition mindset, and just, you know, they’ve done a phenomenal job. So that would be, that would be one of one example I would give. Yeah,

Erin Courtenay 20:41
that’s that’s a great example. And I think out teaching the competition is also a very generous thing to do. You know, you’re really giving people what they need to know in order to make good decisions, which is very different than a more traditional like selling or marketing approach. This is why we’re the best, you know. So I think that is and it just, it fits your brand. You know, out teaching the competition is just, it’s so Curt. You’re always teaching us things. Yes, you’re all teaching us. We’re are we your competition? I don’t know. I don’t think we’re right. We’re not. We’re not okay.

Curt Anderson 21:22
I do have to flip a script. I do have to flip the script back on you guys real quick. So if you get allow me for a minute. So like Lori, if you guys go to Keystone, click, she does a phenomenal job of guides, resources, helping dedicated helping manufacturers. Lori, every time I’m you and I are on stage together, whether it’s Purdue or university or whatever you’re here. I just really admire, you know, how your team is just so dedicated to educating. You teach at local universities, all, you know, all the things Kris, same thing you go to general, you know. And I’ve, I’ve had the privilege of Kris, kind of watching you guys elevate and grow your out, teach the competition strategy, you know, you and Kevin, just, you know, webinars, podcasting, guides, your I’m on your email, you know, all the things. Lori, I’m on your email. So, hey, how about Ron Plaza, everybody throughout teaching everybody.

Erin Courtenay 22:14
And, you know, the thing that popped into my head when you guys were talking about consistency is, I, I can’t think the three of you are so consistent, like, really, it’s, like, it’s great to have to be you have to be honest, yeah? But not everybody is. In the end, the other problem can be getting redundant, and y’all are not redundant. Like, you have a message, yeah? But it’s, it doesn’t get stale, because you, you know, you take the time with it. And again, it goes back to that exercising analogy. If you just do the same thing over and over, you start to lose momentum. So you also have to kind of, you know, keep it fresh.

Lori Highby 22:50
So I’ve got a couple of comments on that. The consistency part, I’ve actually been called out if I didn’t drop an episode on time or like, because people start to know that this is always happening and they have a set expectation. Yeah? So if you lose them once, it’s extremely difficult to write your trust again. Yeah? Consistency, Uber, Uber, Uber important. And honestly, I’m not opposed to redundancy. You know, in learning, we need to hear we have to have repetition. If you don’t want to hear the same thing day after day after day, right? There’s nothing wrong with repeating the same message, like leveraging social media only, like five to 10% of your audience is going to see that one post, right? The next time you post the same thing, it could be a completely different 10% of your audience that’s going to

Erin Courtenay 23:39
see that. That’s fair. That’s fair, yeah, somehow you managed to make it fresh every time you know, you get like, I think, yeah, it’s a fine line to walk, right? I mean, that’s one of the greater challenges, like keeping it interesting for you to produce that content. Sure get being consistent, you know.

Lori Highby 24:00
So what Curt was talking to about repurposing things, though? Yeah, same thing. We use it right, in 20 different ways, right, right? I always like to use the analogy, and I think I use it on the show. Last time I was on Curt, with regards to education, I’m a big fan of cooking and cooking shows, and like, if I watched, you know, Gordon Ramsay make a steak, and he gives me the step by step instructions on how to do it, because he is the expert at it. I am still, I have gone to his restaurant and have paid for the steak, right? So at the end of the day, I’m still the expert in what I’m doing. You’re the expert in what you’re doing. There’s nothing wrong with sharing the recipe on how to do the thing. What you’re doing is you’re proving your expertise that you know how to do it, and creating that level of trust so that that person, that company, that organization, knows and confidently knows that you’re going to help them solve whatever problem that.

Curt Anderson 24:59
Is Lori, if I owed you $1 for every time that I reference you and I use that, I just used that last week, I probably owe you several $100 my friend Lori hybe says I could watch a cookie channel all day if it wasn’t last week, it was probably this week. I use that reference all the time. I love that reference

Erin Courtenay 25:20
really. Yeah, that’s a good one, except for that, it makes you hungry, yeah,

Curt Anderson 25:24
and it is lunchtime. It is lunch right now. We should have brought lunch together.

25:32
I’m gonna go get an update.

Erin Courtenay 25:37
Curt, even in this day and age, all of us are not surprised by this fact, but it happens there are still some manufacturers are just beginning this journey. They’re just beginning to think about their digital presence. What’s the first step you recommend they take that can make the biggest difference in their visibility and lead generation? First step,

Curt Anderson 26:00
k y s, k y, s, any ideas, any guesses? It’s So Aaron, I know, I know you’re, you’re thinking kiss, right? K y, s, it’s, I was thinking

Erin Courtenay 26:09
of different k y, but Okay,

Curt Anderson 26:18
so there,

Kristina Harrington 26:20
grab the hard pills. Curt,

Curt Anderson 26:22
yeah, I’ll be right back. I got it.

26:25
Alright. I don’t know what’s so funny. K, y,

Curt Anderson 26:27
s, I know your soul mate. Know your soul mate, know your buyer. Oh, I love it, yeah. And the reason being is, is our manufacturers are the best, right? We all agree on that, and so that they like, they know how to make their like, this thing, their widget, like nobody else, right? The challenge is, especially for our contract customer. Manufacturers are like, well, we could see and see for anybody, or we could make circuit boards for, you know, but then when you talk to them, within like, five minutes, they’re like, Oh, well, we’re really snug in aerospace, or we’re in DOD, you know, like, whatever space they’re in. And I think, like, they get little bit spread out, and it just, it dilutes your advantages. Focus on your core strengths and opportunity. I’m, I bet 80% of my first meetings start there, where they’re very, very broad. Hey, I did it again. Erin, I couldn’t help.

Speaker 1 27:17
Yes, I love it. Every time you do it, times you get a prize, they were,

Curt Anderson 27:23
they’re very broad task for manufacturers, but they narrow your focus. Know your that, you know, I know, kind of like, you know, it’s marketing. Speak Like, hey, you need to the ideal buyer persona, man. I’m telling you, I think it’s critical knowing that buyer. You know your soulmate inside and out. That’s the That’s the ticket. Yeah,

Erin Courtenay 27:43
excellent, excellent advice. What kind of

Kristina Harrington 27:46
exercise? Because I think this is a really good one, and I’m sure Curt and Lori between the two of you, if you what exercises do you take people through to get them to know your soulmate? Like, what? What What can somebody do right now to to get because I love Kys, I just it’s a very different way than saying ideal customer profile that speak, you know, we all kind of hear it and we ignore it or whatever. But when you say, know your soul mate, that’s that’s a very specific, targeted approach. And I know a lot of people, because they do think broadly about a lot of things, they miss this mark. So talk about some strategies for that. I think

Lori Highby 28:35
Go ahead. I mean that we do this for all of our clients. I’m happy to answer this and Curt. You can elaborate in any way you want it. I to the point of being broad, you know, you said, like, oh, we service aerospace. Well, that that in itself, is still broad. When we’re talking about, who is that ideal customer, I actually we ask our clients, who is your first, your favorite client and your most profitable client? Like, I think those are two, you know, you you enjoy working with them, that’s important, but you’re excited to be working with them, and it’s a profitable venture for you. But I we have them pick the actual name. Like, what is the name? We’ll just say the name, Jeff, right now, right for the example here. Okay, what is Jeff’s title? What is his pain? Why did he come to you where, what is Who is he trying to please? Like, is it his boss? Is his peers? Is it a co workers? Is it his family? You know, what is his long term goals? What is it that if something could change magically in the in your industry, that would make Jeff’s life so much easier? What is that? So it’s really getting into the root in, inside the head of one person that is that ideal per that ideal customer, as opposed to, you know, the masses of the industry, and even to the extent of, you know, where did they get their information from, what podcasts they listen to, what social media channels they hang on? What newsletters are they subscribed to? What print publications do they get? I mean, it’s, it’s wide and deep, but about one, one core individual and their role, basically, yeah,

Curt Anderson 30:11
man, drop the mic. Laurie hybie, that was awesome. So, you know, and here’s a man I, you know what? Lori, I just had a total flashback. So I think was 2220 22 which I COVID. I was like 20 years ago, right? I had the privilege we did a cohort together. Do you remember that with and so I had a front row seat of watching Lori in action. I’m telling you, everybody out there, please connect with all three. Lori, you do a phenomenal job. And Damon, I still talk about like

30:38
your little hub and spoke, this is

Curt Anderson 30:41
what a little tool that we came so we have, like, a proprietary, we call it the digital game plan that we do with all of our clients. And so the nice thing is, what we do, so, Aaron, you’re talking about like competitors, like Lori is like the retainer, like she’s going to do all the things, like she’ll be your your marketing. Cmo, what we do is, like, we’re more like we want to do training. We’re trying to, like, We’re great on like, the first 90 days, and then we like to hand off people to like, Lori. We’re like, they she could take them to the next level. So we focus on training. We came up with this really cool exercise. And I, actually, I came up with this when I was in my 20s, back in the 90s, and I call it rounding the basis. And we do it with every single one of our clients. And man, I whether they have a good time or not? I’m not sure, but I haven’t watched. We caught rounding the bases. And what we do is, it’s a spreadsheet, and what we do is we have the singles, doubles, triples, home runs. And so I’m like, Alright, who are your singles? And they’re like, What? Like, what’s, what do you talk I’m like, Well, you know, like the customer that buys, like, once a year, once a quarter, you know, like, maybe have 50 singles if they go away, not devastating. They come and go. But, man, we love our singles, right? Then the doubles, well, they buy twice as much of the singles, but, boy, those doubles are great. We, you know, we spend more time with them. The triple, you know, like, man, you’re rounding your head first, and that they’re like, We love our triples. And then who’s the home run? Who’s like, the game changing client that you know, it’s going to change the trajectory of the business, right? We do this exercise, and I even have, like, non like, I’ll be like, Hey you guys, baseball fan. I hate baseball. Next thing I know, like, they’re totally geeking out, like, well, this client is our triple. Well, that’s totally a double. I’ll get text messages. Hey, Curt, a double just reached out to me. Hey, I just closed a triple. So, like,

Kristina Harrington 32:19
I love that, yeah, it’s a simplistic

Curt Anderson 32:21
language. So now they’re fired up, but they can understand, like, bucketing their clients on a very simple baseball. Being a baseball junkie, I gotta do that, you know. So anyway, so Chris, that’s my that’s my answer. So I love how Lori’s saying, like, understand that one buyer. But I even suggest, like, Bucha, you know, put them in buckets, you know. And who are we? Who are we going after? So then when we create those buyer personas, here’s here’s a single, this is what the single looks like. This is where they work. This is what they listen to. Here’s the double, here’s a triple, here’s the home run. I love

Kristina Harrington 32:51
that. Yeah. And then what you you build goals around the different ones. Do you market to the I would imagine you’re marketing to the triples differently than your marketing to the singles, and you’re and you have the specific goals around how much resource time you’re putting towards those certain ones, and do you categorize them in your CRM system? I imagine you take it, you know, you’re building out from there, right? It explodes from there. So

Curt Anderson 33:20
a lot, you know, again, like, we work with clients, like you said, like that raw manufacturer, so we work with they’re pretty raw. And I say the the pond that we swim in, probably a majority of them don’t have a CRM. So this is almost like, you know, again, it’s a little spreadsheet, but like, this is almost like a baby step for them to, like, start thinking about the CRF. So if they’re selling direct to consumer, like the singles and doubles are going to be like, uh, direct to consumer. The triples and and home runs are like the B2B space, you know, like, you know, major retailers, major, you know, a boutique, or this, that type of thing, right? So in the direct to consumer space, that’s what that’s going to look like in the B to B space. It seems like, you know, the person needs a little bit, but then, like, Boeing or Lockheed Martin, like the big, you know, big folks, those are going to be the home runs, right? Yeah. Oh,

Kristina Harrington 34:05
I think this is a huge takeaway for people the bases, and everybody’s going to have a new language to talk about. And since it’s baseball season,

34:14
perfect timing,

Curt Anderson 34:17
right? Everybody, brewers, fan on stage here,

34:21
yep. Yeah, yeah, awesome. Hey. We

Curt Anderson 34:23
got two comments. Hey, Harry, thank you. I like to say Curt, your sole responsibility is your sole responsibility. Great comment. We got Jackie here from Ireland. Jackie, happy Friday, man, she’s at what like she’s dinner time. So we’re at lunchtime. She’s at dinner time. Jackie, thank you for joining us again. I’ve got Erin Courtnay here I’ve got Kris Harrington, Lori Highby Damon is away, so Alright, what’s what’s next? This is and we

Kristina Harrington 34:46
for, for our listeners who are going to be hearing this, we’ve got Curt Anderson, alright, so I think this is where we move into our next part of our podcast, which is. We all complete the sentence. I just learned that. So Lori,

Lori Highby 35:04
Ooh, okay, what you just learned? Yeah, this is a fun one. I just learned it yesterday. And AI related, which I know you all know I geek out on, so I use AI quite a bit to like, I’ll upload a CSV file to have it analyze some data. And it wasn’t reading the file well, but it responded saying, If you upload a screenshot, I can still analyze the data. And I was like, What? No way. So I took a screenshot and I uploaded that. There’s a term for that. I just learned it too, and I it’s, it’s escaping me at the moment.

Speaker 3 35:45
Computer Vision, oh, yeah, computer vision, computer vision, that’s great. Yeah,

Kristina Harrington 35:51
took a screenshot, you popped it in and it

Erin Courtenay 35:55
analyzed the

Lori Highby 35:57
data from the screenshot, which just blew my mind. I love it. Oh, that. That was chatgpt. Um, Erin what did you just learn? Um,

Erin Courtenay 36:07
Is my mic on? Yeah, um, I’ve been reading. I’ve read now I’m on, like, the third book, um, Oliver Sacks. Are you familiar with him? He is the he’s a neurologist, and he is the one that was behind, you know, the movie awakening, where the patients would like catch the ball. I think Robert De Niro was in it, and Robin Williams an old film, dating myself, but it’s a true story, and he’s just an amazing human. And and one of the things that he has discovered, and you may have heard this somewhere else, but was that no matter how much cognitive deterioration a person might have, whether it’s from old age or, you know, brain damage, what have you, music will still permeate into their their ability to comprehend So music is is just, it’s a it’s a lifetime ability to appreciate and find pleasure in music. I thought that was really

37:17
cool. It’s cool.

37:18
Yeah, Chris,

Kristina Harrington 37:22
I just learned there are going to be 44 WNBA games this year, this year up to 40, and they just keep growing, because women’s basketball is taking off, and I’m getting pretty excited because the WNBA season is about to start. You know, we’re finishing up the college and you know all of those games now and then it will start to convert, and we’ll get ready. So I’m very happy to see now, what we don’t know is if compensation is growing for these athletes in the same way that the number of games, we know that they’re reviewing it, that there’s a lot of there’s a lot more money coming into women’s basketball and women’s sports in general, yeah, but the proof will be when it gets to the athletes and those of us that are entertaining us in the sport so, and I think this is really critical, right? Because what happens in that world starts to carry over into other aspects. Yeah, of the worlds that we carry about in industry and in business and all the other fun places where we know there’s that gap and we need to close it. So women’s sports is having that moment. And I just love that. So thought I would share that. Love, that, awesome,

Erin Courtenay 38:41
awesome. We’re seeing a big increase in like, semi pro here in Madison. I don’t know if you guys are having that in Milwaukee as well, but we now have semi pro softball. We have a volleyball team coming online. I think there’s one more, yeah, and is generating a lot of interest from the community, so

Kristina Harrington 39:05
we should catch a game together. That would be a bliss, yes, yeah, the semi pro, let’s do it.

Curt Anderson 39:14
I think we need women’s hockey. We need pro women’s hockey, don’t we? Well,

Lori Highby 39:18
there’s a National Women’s Hockey League now. Yeah, I want to see a game that is on my bucket

Erin Courtenay 39:24
list. The women Badgers are number one. Yeah. Are they number one? Mm, hmm. In hockey.

Curt Anderson 39:30
In hockey, yep. So alright, Kris, Who you rooting for in the in Who you rooting for in the women’s Final Four?

Kristina Harrington 39:38
I’m going for you. Can? I know they’ve won in many times, but I do like page backers, and I want her to see be really successful. She came back from injury, and, you know, that’s a difficult career when you’re that young. I think the maturity that you know some of these athletes demonstrate, and she’s just one of them that I’ve I’ve clung to. And, you know, usually. I will pick an underdog. I don’t think UConn is an underdog, but I just really want her to have her title before she moves on, so that that’s who I’m rooting for. Yeah,

Curt Anderson 40:10
that’s very well said. We so we were just at UConn on Sunday, and what, what a magical place that is. So, you know, they’re they clay. They’re the basketball capital of the world, and all the championships with the guys and the women. So, yeah, I agree with you, rooting for, rooting for page and the whole, the whole team, lot of excitement there.

Kristina Harrington 40:30
So, yeah, alright, Curt, what did you just learn? We’re, Oh, what

Curt Anderson 40:34
did I just learn? I just, you know, I learned, you know, I didn’t think it was possible. I learned how more amazing the three of you prior to the show going live, but you know, hey, Harry’s gotta, let’s grab a comment from Harry when you’re in a sales slump, but for a base hit and double small count to get your momentum back, follow Harry, man. This guy, best, best lines, absolute love. Let’s see what we got here. Greetings from Ethiopia. So hey, tamaro, welcome. Drop a note. Let us know you’re out there. I just read a book, unreasonable hospitality. Has anybody read that book? Unreasonable hospitality? No, I strongly encourage you guys to consider it. It was a New York Times bestseller. Gentleman that founded it. He He worked for it was a restaurant in Manhattan, and it was a three star, and he took it to be the number one restaurant in the world. And it’s just a fascinating story. It’s a great read. Kris, as a matter of fact, when we were together in Austin, somebody on Joe’s team, Sultana, she recommended it to me, and I read it. And it was just a captivating just the sheer relentless, unapolog unapologetic drive to elevate this company of just unreasonable hospitality. And it wasn’t just about the food, it was about the the experience, the experience that they wanted to give their their customers. And it was just really inspiring. It was a great

Erin Courtenay 41:56
Laurie that sounds like a book for you. Yeah,

41:58
I just put it down.

Kristina Harrington 42:02
I put it on my list too. Yeah, you know when we were at the show together, Greg Michio, who’s a friend of all of ours too, another Wisconsin gentleman that we all know, he recommended to me neuro selling. And I finished the book, and it’s excellent.

42:19
Excellent. List is way too long right now,

Kristina Harrington 42:24
yeah, but the ones that come from close friends, you

Erin Courtenay 42:26
know, yeah, yeah, vetted, yeah. Well,

Kristina Harrington 42:31
Curt, you’re just amazing. It’s always special to be in your presence, you know, I wish we had the hugs in person like we had when we were at IMS a month ago. But this has been great having you on our show and us taking over your show. So for for our listeners who maybe don’t know all that’s Curt yet, tell them about all the places where they can connect with you, and not just you. You and Damon, if there’s anything specific you want to share with our audience on how they can connect,

Curt Anderson 43:08
yeah, awesome. So Damon pistilka is our co host for the most and so he is everywhere on LinkedIn. He’s almost impossible not to find. And so connect with Damon. Connect. I love be honored to connect with anybody and everybody out there on LinkedIn. You can go to B, to B, tell.com and those, and we’re all over YouTube, and I don’t know some other social media platforms, but mainly LinkedIn, and mainly just go to our website. We’ll connect with you there anyway. So And how about you know what? And since you’re on our show, Aaron, best place to find you, LinkedIn.

Kristina Harrington 43:45
Yes, LinkedIn and Gen alpha, com, please reach out Lori,

Lori Highby 43:51
Keystone click. Where would we find Yeah, LinkedIn is I post daily on LinkedIn and Keystone click. Com, awesome, awesome.

Curt Anderson 43:59
So hey, and let’s see, Harry’s got one more comment here before we close out. There are some people who threw their energy under the inspiration. You can immediately tell our good humans, mentors and love serving others. Curt, hey, geez, Harry. Curt, all that and more. Thank you for great alright. Thank you Harry. Thank you for everybody. Thank you for tamaro and Diane and Jackie. I want to thank all the comments Adam are thank you guys for stopping by today. Thanks for everybody that didn’t drop a comment. But hey, you know, how about we get a big round of applause for our three wonderful, amazing, beautiful, lovely hosts here. So thank you. Lori, Thank you, Chris, thank you, Erin. Let’s see if we can do it. Erin good. So alright, I just, I would, we’ll close out with this. So hey, somebody says, that’s great. Diane says, Thank you all. You made me smile and laugh. Diane, thank you. Hope you’re feeling better. I know she was down a little bit. Have a great weekend. And so let’s close out with this. So I. I always love. First off, thank you all dearly. I can’t express how much each of you it’s it’s amazing, like the friendships that came out of COVID, right? Yes, so, Aaron, you’re just amazing. Lori, we’ve done all sorts of things together. Kris, we’ve been together in person multiple times now, just, you know, hugging each other, just just being on stage together, just absolutely awesome, and I just tell you what an inspiration you guys are to me and I thank you. Appreciate you from the bottom of my heart. And what I want to do as we close out, just go out and be someone’s inspiration, just like these three wonderful ladies and you too will make the world a better place. So thank you guys. Hang out with me for one second. We’ll see you guys next week. Bye, bye.