Turn Questions into Clients: The Simple Strategy Every Solopreneur Needs

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It’s not often that you get to meet somebody you’ve looked up to for the majority of your career, but that’s exactly what happened when we had Marcus Sheridan on the show.

There's a reason we follow his work and that’s because he has totally transformed the way we market and sell, with authenticity at its core.

Marcus basically invented the phrase "They Ask, You Answer." (No big deal, right?) and in this episode he shares his secrets on how YOU can take your solo business to the next level just by answering questions. 

In this episode, we dive into how Marcus' brilliant approach can help you build trust with your customers, stop sounding salesy (who likes that, anyway?), and use transparency to attract the right clients. 

This interview is packed with practical tips, real-life examples, and plenty of “aha!” moments that’ll make you wonder how you ever survived without this wisdom. 

So grab your notebook—or, let's be honest, your phone—and get ready to revolutionize your marketing, one question at a time!

We discuss all of this plus so much more, so be sure to tune in!

Like the show? We'd love it if you'd leave a 5-star review!

Connect with Marcus Sheridan

• Connect with Marcus Sheridan on LinkedIn
• Visit priceguide.ai
• Email Marcus at marcus@marcussheridan.com

Favorite Quote About Success:

"You have to work harder on yourself than you do on your job." - Jim Rohn

Being a solopreneur is awesome but it’s not easy. It's hard to get noticed. Most business advice is for bigger companies, and you're all alone...until now. LifeStarr's SoloSuite Intro gives you free education, community, and tools to build a thriving one-person business. 

So, if you are lacking direction, having a hard time generating leads, or are having trouble keeping up with everything you have to do, or even just lonely running a company of one, click here to check out SoloSuite Intro!

About Marcus Sheridan

Like this show? Click on over and give us a review on Apple Podcasts Thanks!

Transcript

Carly Ries: 00:00

Okay, you guys. It's not often that you get to meet somebody you've looked up to for the majority of your career, but that's exactly what happened to me today when we had Marcus Sheridan on. And let's just say I was anything but cool and totally fangirled, but I'm okay with that because there's a reason I follow his work. And that's because he's totally transformed the way I market and sell, and it has authenticity at its core. Marcus basically invented the phrase that they ask, you answer.

Carly Ries: 00:25

I mean, no big deal. Right? And in this episode, he shares his secrets on how you can take your solo business to the next level just by answering questions. We'll dive into how Marcus's brilliant approach can help you build trust with your customers, stop sounding all sales y because who likes that anyway, and use transparency to attract the right clients. This interview is packed with practical tips, real life examples, and plenty of moments that'll make you wonder how you ever survived without his wisdom.

Carly Ries: 00:53

So grab your notebook or, I mean, if you're in modern day, your phone or your computer, and get ready to revolutionize your marketing one question at a time. This episode is amazing. Stay tuned. You're listening to the aspiring solopreneur, the podcast for those just taking the bold step or even just thinking about taking that step into the world of solo entrepreneurship. My name is Carly Ries, and my co host Joe Rando and I are your guides to navigating this crazy but awesome journey as a company of 1.

Carly Ries: 01:25

We take pride in being part of LifeStarr, a digital hub dedicated to all aspects of solopreneurship that has empowered and educated countless solopreneurs looking to build a business that resonates with their life's ambitions. We help people work to live, not live to work. And if you're looking for a get rich quick scheme, this is not the show for you. So if you're eager to gain valuable insights from industry experts on running a business the right way the first time around or want to learn from the missteps of solopreneurs who've paved the way before you, then stick around. We've got your back because flying solo in business doesn't mean you're alone.

Carly Ries: 02:02

Okay, you guys. So you know how people tell you to play it cool around people that you look up to and really admire? I have no cool right now. Marcus, this is my redemption interview, and let me tell you why. I was in an elevator with you at social media marketing world back in 2013, 2014. 2014 probably. like, a 1000000 years ago, and you would've thought George Clooney was in the elevator with me. I think you were the keynote that year. You were one of the big presenters, and I was such a fan of yours already. This is almost a decade ago, and I froze. I was like, dude, you're in the elevator with Marcus Sheridan.

Carly Ries: 02:43

Say something cool. Say something, like, oh, huge fan. And I was just silent and frozen and got off the elevator and texted my now husband, and I was like, oh my gosh. I'm so excited. So I know this is a story that none of our listeners care about, but I just have to let you know I have been a huge fan for a very long time, and we are so happy to have you on the show.

Marcus Sheridan: 03:06

Well, thank you. That's, funny. I mean, it's like, My kids would be laughing at you right now, Carly. trust me.

Marcus Sheridan: 03:14

My dad's a dork. So yeah. You missed the opportunity to talk to a dork that day in the elevator. I appreciate that though.

Carly Ries: 03:23

My kid would be like, that was no chill, mom. Like, it's so awkward to how we kicked off the interview. So we will both have conversations with our kids after this. But let's get to what we really want to talk about today and what our listeners want to hear. So, Joe, I know you have you wanted to kick things off, so go for it.

Joe Rando: 03:39

Yeah. Well, I just I've seen you speak at Inbound, I think, every year since, I think 2015. I'm not a 100% sure about whether you've been there every year, but I have and I've always been blown away. So I'm gonna be the question asker today because, I've just got lots of them. So the first one is if you had to pick one word to describe the secret to business success for anyone, particularly solopreneurs because that's what our audience is, what would that one word be?

Marcus Sheridan: 04:10

I think today, it's disruption. I find myself thinking about it a lot more, Joe, than ever before because it's getting harder to get found and to get noticed and to be heard above the noise. And so, I am now finding that what I'm using most to help companies really do pretty extraordinary things within their space and to become incredibly known, and to build more trust is to disrupt their market. And there are very specific ways they can do that, of course, and we can talk about that. But, inherently, most people don't want to disrupt.

Marcus Sheridan: 04:52

They just want to follow the rules they've always been given within a space, which I think is really sad and not very exciting. Right? But if you're willing to do things differently, oh my goodness. Like, world, get out of your way because then you can do things that people write about in history books. I'm serious about that.

Marcus Sheridan: 05:11

And you know, a lot of the things I did with my swimming pool company back in the day, I didn't really know they were incredibly disruptive. I mean, I knew that I was getting some complaints and people were saying things, competitors and whatnot. But in hindsight, I'm like, woah. That was really, really disruptive.

Joe Rando: 05:31

So when we say disruptive in the context of, say, solopreneurs, 1 person businesses. That could just be changing a business model around or speaking to something differently or I mean, what kinds of things might they think of in the context of something?

Marcus Sheridan: 05:46

Let me give you some prompts. And anybody can follow this, and you can use this to really again, to me, it comes back to getting known and becoming more trusted. So there's really 4 I like to say there's 4 pillars today of becoming that most known and trusted voice. Number 1, you gotta be willing to talk about what others in your space aren't willing to talk about. There's a lot of things. That hasn't really changed in many ways for over 10 years that I've been talking about it.

Marcus Sheridan: 06:14

We see, the big five and we can dive into the big five later, but you know, those 5 subjects that buyers wanna know that buyers research, that businesses tend to not talk about. So you can talk a lot about that. So you gotta be willing to talk about what others in your space are not willing to talk about. When I say others, I'm talking about the majority. Number 2, you gotta be willing to show what others in your space are not willing to show specifically through video.

Marcus Sheridan: 06:36

And I still don't think anybody, I shouldn't say anybody. Most companies are not coming close to tapping into that. And number 3, you've gotta be willing to sell in a way that others in your space aren't willing to sell. Number 4, you gotta be more human than everyone in your space is willing to be. Okay.

Marcus Sheridan: 06:57

So you got what are you willing to talk about that others aren't willing to talk about? What are you willing to show that others aren't willing to show? How are you willing to sell in a way that others aren't willing to sell? And can you be more human than everyone else in a time when technology is really taking over? so there's a lot of different examples of that.

Marcus Sheridan: 07:16

But I think one of the easiest that you've heard me harping on because I know if you're listening to this right now in the audience, you're like, okay. I just want an example. Let me give you one of sell, show, and tell. I'll just combine all 3 of them, and that's self-service tools. I think self-service tools on your website are just, they're gonna be taking over, across the board in the coming years.

Marcus Sheridan: 07:38

Self-service derives from this reality that, they've done some studies. Gartner did one that says 75% of all buyers say they would prefer to have a seller free sales experience. And so what that means is we don't hate salespeople. We just don't wanna really talk to them until we feel good and ready. And so if you're listening to this right now, your potential customers generally don't wanna talk to you until they feel like, okay.

Marcus Sheridan: 08:00

I'm not gonna make a mistake. I'm informed and, I can do this. And so how do you do that? Or how do you help them get to that point? Self-service.

Marcus Sheridan: 08:08

So self-service manifest in different ways on your website. But one could be a self pricing tool where you give them the ability to get a general price range or an estimate for that particular service or product that you offer. That's one major one. Almost nobody's doing that in your space. So an example of talking about showing and selling, that really changes the sales dynamic because people come to you and they say, hey.

Marcus Sheridan: 08:34

I did that tool on your website, and I already have a pretty decent sense as to what I'm gonna spend. So dramatically more qualified. And for a lot of people, they don't reach out to a company not because they're not interested. It's because they're too embarrassed to ask roughly how much is this gonna cost me? And so they don't even know if they're in the game.

Marcus Sheridan: 08:51

But once they know they're in the game, it's pretty incredible. So we can talk a lot about that. I've developed a tool for, pricing estimators. Let me give you another one. Another one would be a self assessment.

Marcus Sheridan: 09:03

A self assessment is a tool that gives somebody essentially a score or a grade that says where they are in the process. Right? So an example would be, let's say, that you're, you know, you're thinking about working with a business coach. You're like, should I work with a business coach or not? Well, you could set up a really cool, experience on your website where somebody would come in.

Marcus Sheridan: 09:26

They would see that that clear question. Do I really or should I really be working with a business coach, let's say? And then they can through a series an interactive series of questions, they will give their answers and then there's some type of output, which is the score. Best tool I've seen for that is called ScoreApp,

Joe Rando: 09:46

Yes.

Marcus Sheridan: 09:47

Yeah. I mean, it's like Daniel Priestley developed that tool. It's just great tool. Great for solopreneurs.

Marcus Sheridan: 09:52

It's very inexpensive. So between that score app and price guide, which is my tool that that gives the price estimations, that's 22 great examples talking about showing selling what others in your space aren't willing to do. And the the neat thing about that is the more interactive or the more engagement they have with your business, the more the sunk costs increase. And as the sunk costs increase, they actually wanna work with you more. And so it's quite fascinating. It's just beautiful how it works. And so if they do a tool like that on your website, they feel like they were part of the design. They were part of the decision. You didn't tell them, you didn't force them.

Marcus Sheridan: 10:37

You didn't convince them. They did it on their own. And so, therefore, now they're reaching out, but they're much more prepared.

Joe Rando: 10:43

Yeah. It makes so much sense. I'm glad you mentioned Score App because I've looked at all of them, and that is definitely the best tool for producing, goods you know, you can produce a nice experience at getting the questions answered, but also, just a great product at the end, you know, a report. Instead of just like something on a screen, you can email them a PDF.

Joe Rando: 11:04

Gorgeous PDF.

Marcus Sheridan: 11:05

It explains the why.

Marcus Sheridan: 11:07

When you do these things, you have to be willing to show both sides of the coin. I call it the law of the coin, which is whenever you're trying to help someone make a decision, you have to show both sides of the coin even if one of the sides of the coin works against you and against you making the sale.

Marcus Sheridan: 11:27

Because in the process of being willing to show both sides of the coin, you actually significantly elevate your trust, which is a really big part of this. Right? So it's like, if you've got this, interactive quiz that is you know, should I be working with a business coach? Well, if a good portion of the results don't equate to the person being told, hey. Based on what you've just put in, this is not the best time for you to work with a business coach.

Marcus Sheridan: 11:54

Well, you're not doing it right. So different than if you go to my swimming pool website, river pools and spas.com, I've got a tool that helps you figure out, should I go with a concrete pool, a vinyl liner pool, or a fiberglass pool? And we literally, every single day, we recommend to many, many people from that tool, don't buy fiberglass, which is crazy because that's all we sell Is fiberglass. Right?

Marcus Sheridan: 12:19

But that's the way that you have to think if you wanna become a disruptor, if you wanna do what others aren't doing. And that's how we have become such a known and trusted brand.

Joe Rando: 12:30

Question for you. Just because it's a real battle with a lot of solopreneurs, This concept of putting your pricing on a pricing estimate or your pricing on the site, and there's so many people that say, no. No. No. I need to talk to them first or they'll be scared away by the price.

Joe Rando: 12:45

And then you said something, which I think is so true. I'm not gonna reach out because I don't wanna be that guy that goes into the restaurant, sits down at the table, looks at the menu, and has to leave. You know? You just feel really dumb, and I just can't not convince some people that this is a good idea.

Marcus Sheridan: 13:00

Well, that's because people aren't always self aware. If you look at the way you behave today, the way you shop, the way you buy, it gets pretty easy to say, jeez. I should probably treat my customers that way. It's the golden rule. Right?

Marcus Sheridan: 13:17

And so if you believe in the golden rule, and if you say, I really do wanna treat my customers as I would wanna be treated in the sales process, or I wanna give to them what I would want to see when I'm on a website, Well, then all of a sudden, it gets a lot easier. And the other component to the let's just say the pricing, thing. What scares us away from from a price isn't the price. What scares us away foremost is when we can't find pricing. So ignorance online is the ultimate showstopper.

Marcus Sheridan: 13:53

Talk about one thing that will prevent you from reaching out to a company, one thing that will prevent you from moving forward is ignorance, not knowing the answer you're looking for. That stops you. Boom. But there's a lot of other reasons. There's a lot of other justifications to this.

Marcus Sheridan: 14:07

People forget when it comes to pricing, what's key is that you explain value. What does value look like? Why are some companies expensive? Why are some companies cheap? Every single person that's listening to this should have some type of pricing page on their site that explains what drives cost up in their industry, what drives cost down, why some consultants or advisors or businesses or whomever it is are expensive, why some are so cheap.

Marcus Sheridan: 14:33

That sets the stage for value. And then you can come in and say and here's where I fall as a business. Here's roughly where most of my customers are. And you don't have to you know, I'm not saying give an hourly rate. For the love of all that's pure and holy, don't give an hourly rate.

Marcus Sheridan: 14:50

What I'm saying is, unless you give them a sense for what to expect, most are going to be put off, and they're not gonna reach out. Or you can start to use really small smart tools like price guide and score app and get way more leads. And if you get more leads, that means you have a better database. If you have a better database, you can remarket. If you can remarket, you can nurture.

Marcus Sheridan: 15:12

If you can nurture, you can build enough relationships to start having a lot more conversations. And anybody that's listening to this, I guarantee it, 99.9%, they would say, you know, if I can just get in front of the customer, I'm really good then, and I will usually win the business. So the problem is always marketing and the brand, of course. Right? Branding and marketing, that masks so many problems.

Marcus Sheridan: 15:37

But you see folks all the time saying, you know, I don't get it. I just talk to them, and I can win the business, but yet they're going out of business. Why? Because they're not doing this. And they can't figure out, how do I stand out?

Marcus Sheridan: 15:52

Well, you gotta disrupt. You gotta do things differently. And so I'm trying to help companies do things differently by giving buyers exactly what they want.

Joe Rando: 16:02

Excellent. So we've kind of alluded to it, but, a lot of solopreneurs may be hearing about your book and your idea, your concept, your, they ask, you answer. Right? So that is something that you've been talking about since, I don't know exactly, but for many years now. can you just give me the elevator pitch for that? How would we lay that out for solopreneurs in a you know, 30 second elevator ride, to use they ask you answer? I think you've started, and explained it already, but if you could just kind of encapsulate it one more time just to make sure we get this across to them.

Marcus Sheridan: 16:41

Yeah. Buyers are more informed than they've ever been. They're vetting you at an unbelievable level. We know that the typical buyer is 80% through that journey before they reach out to a company. They wanna be fed.

Marcus Sheridan: 16:53

They wanna be satiated. They wanna find someone they trust before they reach out. So in order to satiate them, you've gotta be willing to address all their questions, worries, fears, issues, concerns. And if you do that and they feel like I've learned everything from you, you become that known and trusted brand. That's what you're trying to do.

Marcus Sheridan: 17:12

And the process of doing that is they ask you answer. Now the one thing, the caveat to that, Joe, and it's just people have to understand this. Sometimes they hear the title and they're like, well, I can't answer every question. Well, that may be true, but you can address every question. Perfect title really for the strategy is they ask you address it as well as you possibly can, but that's not a good title for a book.

Marcus Sheridan: 17:34

And so it's they ask you answer.

Marcus Sheridan: 17:36

Right? Yeah. But it's really the mindset needs to be they ask you as you address it as well as you possibly can. So let's say somebody came to me that was a financial adviser. Financial adviser says, you know, I've got all these compliance issues, Marcus.

Marcus Sheridan: 17:50

I can't really talk about that. Sure. You can. You just can't give an exact answer, but you can address the question, the fear, the worry, the concern. And the other thing about it is you can't just address the ones that you wanna talk about.

Marcus Sheridan: 18:02

You gotta address the ones that they wanna know. That's it's they ask. Now it's not just what they're asking though. It's what they're searching. It's what they're feeling.

Marcus Sheridan: 18:11

It's what they're wanting. So they're asking for some type of price range. We'll give it to them with a dang tool. They're asking to figure out , am I right for this? We'll give it to them with a tool like ScoreAp.

Marcus Sheridan: 18:23

So you see what I'm saying? It's like, that's what it is. It's like really being so obsessed with the way they think that you're willing to meet them where they are, not force some square peg into a round hole.

Carly Ries: 18:34

And, Marcus, this is so refreshing because I think so many solopreneurs focus on the tactics and the technology and everything. And they ask you to answer, this will this can work no matter what AI comes up, no matter what changes happen in the marketing world. Like, I feel like, a person I used to work with, John Jans, who I think you know as well, he always had the strategy first approach. And I think this is just so relevant for people that they ask you answer approach. This will stand the test of time. be transparent, and the tactics can follow based if they keep this in their mind. Would you agree with that?

Marcus Sheridan: 19:10

Yeah. So, like, what stands the test of time? Well, if I went to anybody and I said, is trust gonna be fundamental to your business in 20 years? What would you say?

Marcus Sheridan: 19:19

100% are gonna say, yes. Absolutely. No question. If I said, is Google gonna be fundamental to your business in 20 years? The correct answer is, I have no idea.

Marcus Sheridan: 19:28

Because none of us know, and there's a very decent chance that it won't really be around in 20 years, or it's gonna look so dramatically different. Right? And that's because platforms come and go, but what doesn't is principles. Every single business, regardless of how unique you think you are, is it a battle for trust every single day? So if you can become that most trusted voice, you're built to last.

Marcus Sheridan: 19:52

Well, one of the things that we know is gonna be true is that forever people are gonna have questions, worries, issues, concerns. So they're gonna go somewhere where someone is willing to address those things. Now somebody might say, Well, what happens though if AI is the one that they're getting all the answers from? Well, here's what you're gonna find. That AI is just one means whereby people are gonna get their answers, their recommendations.

Marcus Sheridan: 20:25

There's gonna be a certain percentage that are gonna use traditional search engines, but that's gonna be less and less over time. There's gonna be a lot of people that are gonna be using YouTube in the coming years. A lot of people that are gonna be using social media in the coming years. Every single piece of content you put out to the world is like a signal, and the battle we're in today in conjunction with trust is a battle of signals. And so there's 2 major parties that are waiting on your signals.

Marcus Sheridan: 20:52

1st party, of course, is the potential customer. And so you need to have all these signals out there that says to that person, that individual, that entity, hey, this is someone I wanna work with. But you're also sending out signals to AI. So every piece of content you produce, your AI looks at that. And literally they're saying, okay.

Marcus Sheridan: 21:13

When I'm giving recommendations, this is a company that I wanna recommend. And so it's like the companies that have been doing the ask you answer, they're doing much better in terms of being recommended by AI than the companies that have not. I mean, we've tested this, and it's because of these signals that are so strong coming from the companies that said, hey. We're gonna be the best teachers in the world. We're not gonna ignore these questions.

Marcus Sheridan: 21:38

We're gonna address it really prolifically through text and video on our website, online, on social, etcetera. And so that's why it's so built to last, Carly, because it comes back to that fundamental, foundational building block, which is trust. Very cool.

Joe Rando: 21:52

Yeah. I mean, you know, it makes so much sense that, AI is all about answering questions. So if you're answering questions and teaching AI to answer those questions, you're probably gonna wind up in a better position with AI.

Marcus Sheridan: 22:03

There is oh, it's true. I mean, we've seen the data now. I mean, it's absolutely true, and, you know, it's interesting too because, you know, AI sources stuff, and it's certain platforms show those sources, and you wanna be the one that is being sourced. And so there's all these reasons for it. Sometimes people say, well, I'm not gonna produce the content because I'm not gonna get found on Google because AI is changing all of that.

Marcus Sheridan: 22:31

I'm like, that is so nearsighted. I mean, really? That's the only reason why you're producing content before? Come on now. Get your head out of the sand.

Marcus Sheridan: 22:38

There's 100 other reasons to be doing this. And besides, it's just really, really healthy. like, you guys know that I post on LinkedIn 4, 5 days a week. I put my best stuff there, my thoughts there. I do it for a few different reasons, but the biggest reason is it forces me to take what's in my head.

Marcus Sheridan: 23:01

I just gotta find it and articulate it in a way that really makes sense to the rest of the world. And by using that as a testing ground, I'm able to say, okay. This content resonates. This doesn't resonate. This works.

Marcus Sheridan: 23:14

You know, there's a path here. There's something here. I got something. And then I could take it to the stage, and then I could teach it to companies, and vice versa. This is how it works. And there's so much value in content in the process of producing and writing the gospel according to you. Like, what is your gospel? What is your doctrine? Very, very powerful when you do that, and it only continues to benefit me every single day.

Joe Rando: 23:39

Awesome. Yeah. That makes so much sense. You know, you start on the the video on social media and then refine it into your speeches and yeah. I love it.

Joe Rando: 23:50

So we're talking here effectively about transparency. I mean, a lot of this is really transparency. Is that fair?

Marcus Sheridan: 23:56

It's very fair. And by the way, most companies say they're transparent and they're not, Joe. It's a totally overused word, misunderstood.

Joe Rando: 24:06

And that's what my question is. So what are the misconceptions about transparency versus what it really is?

Marcus Sheridan: 24:10

Let me give you an example. Yesterday, I was speaking to a $1,000,000,000 company. I mean, this is a very large organization, business units all over the world, and they brought their leadership team in, and I was speaking with them. And I taught them about self assessment tools, and not just self assessment tools, but it was self-service tools in general. And after I was done with self-service as a topic, I looked at one of the core business leaders, who leads one of their companies, because they have a bunch of companies in their umbrella.

Marcus Sheridan: 24:46

And I said, on a scale of 1 to 10, how well are you doing self-service on your company website right now? He said, we're a 5. I said, okay. Good. I said, how many of those self-service tools that I just showed to all of you, how many of those do you have on your website right now?

Marcus Sheridan: 25:11

He said, well, actually, we don't have any of those tools, but we do talk about some of that stuff. I said, woah. You, sir, are not a 5. You're a 0. You don't get it.

Marcus Sheridan: 25:29

And you're not being honest with yourself right now. And by the way, that is how I talk to people because that's what they pay me to do. Alright? Be honest with them. And so he said, yes.

Marcus Sheridan: 25:40

Yeah. I'm I'm I guess we're not doing that at all. Just because you're talking about some things on a website doesn't mean that you're creating an interactive experience where this person develops a relationship with the buyer's journey and with you because they're more involved with it. Right? It's like their it's their creation.

Marcus Sheridan: 26:02

It's a totally different game. And so I see this all the time with companies. I'll say, are you doing that? They'll say, yeah. We're doing that pretty well.

Marcus Sheridan: 26:08

And then I'll ask 1 or 2 follow-up questions, and they always end up saying, yeah. I guess we're not doing that at all. And so this is what I mean by transparency. Someone says, I'm transparent. Really?

Marcus Sheridan: 26:18

So how much do you really explain cost and price of your product and service on your website? We don't do that. Do you have a pricing estimator on your website? No. Okay.

Marcus Sheridan: 26:29

You're not transparent. Don't lie to yourself. How much, do you talk about who your product or service is for and who it's not a good fit for? Are you explicitly stating who your product or service is not a good fit for on your website? We only say who it's for.

Marcus Sheridan: 26:47

Not transparent. Sorry. Right? So it just goes on and on. I could just go I could literally spend an hour giving you example after example after example of how companies say they're transparent, but when push comes to shove, they're not.

Marcus Sheridan: 27:00

And why? Because they're still living in 1995, which is right at the end of the non Internet era and, by the way, the year I graduated high school. Excellent year, ladies and gentlemen.

Joe Rando: 27:15

Let's see here. Okay. You produce a lot of content. I see your posts every day. a lot of them are video.

Joe Rando: 27:26

You put some time into it. And you're busy. You're all over the place speaking. Most of the solopreneurs we work with are very busy. You know, you're doing a lot of things yourself.

Joe Rando: 27:36

How do you prioritize your content creation and make sure that you're putting time into it and still keep doing what you have to do to run the business?

Marcus Sheridan: 27:46

Yeah. I don't think I have this mastered very well, but I do take it very seriously. I'm pretty religious about it, because I know that it's very, very easy to fall into this trap of,

Marcus Sheridan: 28:01

just don't really have anything to say today, so I'm not gonna post. That basically means I'm too lazy to think today and to grow. And I fall into that trap. I'm gonna be honest, but I need to work out what's in my head and it's like, how did I become a full time speaker now for, I don't know, 13 years roughly, I've been speaking full time. Most speakers don't make it past 5 or 6 years, and they're just flaming out because the thing that they were talking about has just, like, passed them by.

Marcus Sheridan: 28:37

So I'm 13 years in. I got another, like, 30 left. I'm sure. I mean, I'm gonna be doing this for 30 more years. So why is that?

Marcus Sheridan: 28:45

Because I am incredibly intentional about looking around me for content opportunities. I see content opportunities and everything, And I think part of it is because I am a storyteller. I understand the power of storytelling. I'm very good in advance with how to tell story. I'm just looking for it.

Marcus Sheridan: 29:06

And I'll have things happen to me, Joe, that, like, anybody else would go through and they wouldn't even think about it. Whereas I have the event happen to me, and I'm like, oh, that could be a great story. I'm gonna talk about that. Wanna integrate that into, you know, into something. Because if I can take that and show it to the world, it'll stick.

Marcus Sheridan: 29:28

It'll land. And so it's crazy the difference. You take a platform like LinkedIn of sharing a story versus just sharing let's say, a principle, a teaching. Night and day. The stories crush it every time.

Carly Ries: 29:44

On the storytelling front, so you are an innate storyteller, or did you become one because of how crazy your success story was. I mean, your pool company's story is so well known throughout the marketing world and beyond, and it was a huge success story. Did your storytelling come storytelling come from that, and did you have to work at it, or are you just a naturally born storyteller? And what advice do you have for people that struggle with that aspect?

Marcus Sheridan: 30:13

Well, the easier answer would be to say, yeah. I've really worked on it. That might be slightly true. That I mean, it is true in that I've obsessed about communication for a long time. But when I was a kid, I remember I was one time I think I was in 5th grade, and, this kid next to me in class was named Mac.

Marcus Sheridan: 30:44

And Mac was struggling with a math problem. Teacher was explaining to him how to solve it. And I remember looking at Mac, and I was looking at the teacher. And I could see Mac's face, and Mac clearly wasn't understanding the thing. It just wasn't registering.

Marcus Sheridan: 31:02

Teacher just went on and on. Finally, the teacher says, she's you know, do you got it, Mac? And Mac's like, yeah. I think so. And I'm thinking to myself, I'm just sitting there like, anybody else watching this?

Marcus Sheridan: 31:12

Mac doesn't get it. He doesn't understand. Hello, teacher. Hello. He doesn't get it.

Marcus Sheridan: 31:21

And from an early age, I seem to understand there was a very big difference between clean, effective communication and communication that was not, communication that was not clearly understood. And so part of that was that early on, I noticed I could tell stories better than other people. In fact, I mean, I can tell usually, I can tell people's stories better than they can tell them their themselves. Right? But it there's a just there's there is there nuance to it?

Marcus Sheridan: 31:57

Yes. But, the thing that I oftentimes will tell people because occasionally, I'll work with someone and mentor someone, especially if they're if they're trying to become a better speaker or better, you know, presenter, whether it's a leader, speaker, whatever. Well, I say, I can't see what you're saying right now. And if I can't see what you're saying, then it doesn't have legs. It just doesn't work.

Marcus Sheridan: 32:23

It doesn't resonate. And so that's the mistake that a lot of people make. They naturally assume that you can see what they can see. But, you know, even when I just told you that story about Mac, you could see me sitting there. You could see Mac a little bit.

Marcus Sheridan: 32:37

You could see the confusion on his face. You could see the teacher was wasn't getting it. It's a really quick story. like, I see the world in the form of a story, which is why, you take a good interview, Every single question you ask, if I'm good at my job, I have a story for it. It's a question like, how many of these stories do I wanna tell? Because they each take a little bit of time. But, literally, every single question you ask me today, I've got at least 3 to probably 7 stories that are just ready to roll at any point in time. So I'm gonna communicate in stories.

Marcus Sheridan: 33:13

If I communicate in stories, a lot of this is really gonna land. It's gonna resonate with the audience. By speaking of platitudes, theories, whatnot, it's just not gonna work as well. There's a lot of things though that we can do on that, Carly, but I just think it's gotta be, we've just gotta become more obsessive when we tell stories about could the person truly see this like I see it right now.

Joe Rando: 33:37

So, Marcus, we have a lot of people that listen to this podcast don't sell a physical product. They have some kind of intellectual property or innate ability. They're coaches. They might be consultants. And much like you with your speaking.

Joe Rando: 33:55

Right? I mean, you're not really giving people anything other than your knowledge and insights. And as you put out content and answer questions, how do you thread the needle between, doing enough to to build trust and be helpful and not giving away the farm so you don't have anything left to sell?

Marcus Sheridan: 34:14

I actually don't believe you can ever give away too much of the farm. I just haven't found that to be the case. You know, I just love the story of, the Geek Squad. I don't know if you've heard the Geek Squad, but, you know, they fix computers, and they're a big company, around the US, UK. And, they actually do a great job creating content that teaches people how to fix their computer problems.

Marcus Sheridan: 34:39

And one time, somebody went to the CEO and said, you know, you're producing all this content. Doesn't that somewhat, cut your nose despite your face situation here? And he said, don't you realize the number one person, my number one customer, is the person that tries to do it themself? And this is how it works in every single industry. A lot of it comes down to the difference between a scarcity mindset and an abundance mentality.

Marcus Sheridan: 35:08

Right? So I remember I started, creating, all different types of videos for pools that nobody had ever created, disrupting the industry. One of them was service videos. So we created a bunch of videos on how to winterize your pool. And I had people saying to me, yeah, but if you show them how to winterize your pool, well, then they're not gonna

Marcus Sheridan: 35:29

they're need you because they're gonna do it themselves.

Marcus Sheridan: 35:32

I'm like, first of all, people aren't dumb. The Internet eliminated that. I mean, they're gonna become informed if they wanna become informed, then they're gonna get the answer from somebody. And so I wanna make sure they get it from me. 2nd of all, let's say they went to, you know, 7 websites, and they know they want one of these companies to service or winterize their in ground swimming pool.

Marcus Sheridan: 35:52

Which one are they gonna use? The 6th that don't show them how or the 7th that actually does show them how? They're gonna use the one that showed them how. Right? There's a reason why some of the most successful chefs in the world all have cookbooks, recipes.

Marcus Sheridan: 36:08

They put it out there. I mean, they just put it out. They said they make a lot of money, and they're not worried. Oh, gee. You're not gonna see this recipe.

Marcus Sheridan: 36:17

And you know, so often we think we have this, like, secret sauce when in reality, it's only 1,000 island dressing, and everybody knows it. It's just that you have to understand that, okay, they're gonna get the information. So they might as well, again, they might as well get it from you. And that's the mindset, that's the mindset that I have, and it's done me really, really well. And it is all the companies you know, I've got this, I've got the ask you answer.

Marcus Sheridan: 36:45

I've got an entire coaching company that does 1,000,000 of dollars in revenue a year, and all it does, it teaches companies how to apply they ask you answer. But guess what? Everything that I'm gonna show them is already in the book. So it's no secret sauce. I tell customers sometimes, I'm literally going to do for you that which you already know you should be doing.

Marcus Sheridan: 37:11

You're just not doing it, And I'm gonna be your accountability partner now. So this is what coaches. This is what advisors do. Right? This is what solopreneurs do.

Marcus Sheridan: 37:21

So I think if you own that, it becomes a different game. And also when you really put it out there, then you can monetize your intellectual property in diverse ways and really start to build multiple revenue streams. And to me, that's a lot of fun. I mean, I really enjoy that.

Joe Rando: 37:37

I love it. That was such a great answer. That's one that I think a lot of people need to hear. So thank you. So competitors.

Joe Rando: 37:47

You talk about competitors in your pool company, and you've said that they've sometimes been upset about it. So what is the strategy for talking about competitors without, I don't know how to say it exactly, but without being the bad guy?

Marcus Sheridan: 38:03

Yeah. Without pooh poohing your competitors. I mean, the thing about this is if you go back to they ask you answer, are you being asked about your competitors? Is your sales team or you being asked, you know, if you're with me, is there anybody else you might choose? The answer is, probably so.

Marcus Sheridan: 38:29

Probably yes almost every time. And so if that's the case, what this means is we don't ignore it. We address it, and we address it head on. And so there's many different ways that you can do this. But one thing I don't suggest you do is you shouldn't talk negative about your competitors.

Marcus Sheridan: 38:48

There's no reason to do that, and this is gonna invite negative energy. But you can factually state the differences. And, you know, we've done this. I remember one time, this was back when I was still a pool guy right at the end. I mean, this is probably 14 years ago or something.

Marcus Sheridan: 39:05

Sitting in Richmond, Virginia with this couple for like 2 hours, and I gave him a quote for a pool. And at the end of this, giving them a quote, they looked at me and they said, Marcus, we like you. We think we wanna do business with you. But if we don't do business with you, is there anybody else in the area you might recommend? And I thought, oh, jeez.

Marcus Sheridan: 39:23

I hate this question, Joe. Because it meant they weren't gonna buy, and they didn't buy that night. But I had a long drive home and I thought, well, they asked the question, which means I need to answer it. So I went home that night and I wrote an article and published it on our website. And the title was who are the best pool builders in Richmond, Virginia review slash ratings.

Marcus Sheridan: 39:43

And I came up with a list of 5 of the best pool builders in Richmond, Virginia. What's crazy is I didn't even put myself in the list of 5 because I didn't want it to sound self serving. And what was the result of that? Well, because we can track the revenue that we've made from different pages of the website. That article over the next year made us a quarter of a $1,000,000 in sales.

Marcus Sheridan: 40:02

And some people say, yeah, but aren't you afraid you've now introduced them to the competition? Once again, I just don't think buyers are stupid. I think they got this thing called the Internet. They're gonna get the answer. And so there's really no secrets out there, so I might as well just give it to them because they're gonna get it anyway.

Marcus Sheridan: 40:16

And now, though, because of that article and so many others like like it and videos like it, you know, we rank for a ton of our competitors' keyword phrases, you know, reviews, such and such company, Richmond, Virginia. I mean, we just slay like that because that's disruption 101, Joe. That's what it's all about.

Joe Rando: 40:34

And you look so confident and trustworthy by doing that. Right? I mean, they look and go, well, obviously, they're not afraid to mention the competition. They must be good. You know, they wouldn't be here.

Marcus Sheridan: 40:43

That's exactly right. That's the thing. And they're like, if this dude has the audacity to talk about this, they've gotta have something special about them. And I mean, I've just done so many things like this. I mean, I could literally go on and on.

Marcus Sheridan: 41:01

You know, if you're listening to this right now, it's like, have you really done anything truly different that you're known for in your space? Let me give you another, example. And this might not directly apply to a solopreneur, but it's still I think it's a great example because it just happened to me yesterday. So yesterday, I'm speaking to this company that makes labels, and they do it all over the world. And I asked them.

Marcus Sheridan: 41:33

I said, is there a different stickiness level of labels? Like, are some more sticky than others? They said, well, yes as a matter of fact. I said, is there a standard of stickiness for labels that the world follows?

Marcus Sheridan: 41:54

They said, there's no standard. I said, could you come up with the standard? They said, yes. We could. And I said, and if you come up with the standard for stickiness, which that standard then gets used to help people understand what type of label should be used on what type of product.

Marcus Sheridan: 42:13

If you do that and you start using this often, now all of a sudden, all the people that are buying from you or that could buy from you start to look for the standard when they're making choices with their products to put labels on them. And as they do that, now they're asking their vendor, their supplier, hey. What's the rating for this for the stickiness level of this label? And suddenly, you've now become the known entity that did that thing. And this was just a simple example.

Marcus Sheridan: 42:48

This is a huge company. They've never thought of this. If they do this, it's gonna drive a massive stake in the ground. That's how you create IP. And so if you're listening to this right now, there's probably all types of ways that you could drive your stake in the ground and say, you know, here's how the industry should be.

Marcus Sheridan: 43:07

Here's what's wrong with the industry. Here's something that's outdated with the industry. You gotta be willing, though, to speak up on these things. That's how you get people's attention, man. And then suddenly, they're like, oh, man.

Marcus Sheridan: 43:18

Finally, somebody's willing to talk about this. I've been thinking this for a while, and now they reach out to you. And, again, I know I've been redundant, but you've become that known and trusted brand.

Joe Rando: 43:29

No. Absolutely true. And, you know, honestly, you're making me think a little bit about what we're doing here because we are definitely in disagreement with a lot of the industry that's out helping solopreneurs because it's you know, to us, why would you be a solopreneur and give up the most powerful scaling tool available, which is employees, to to scale? It's crazy. Right?

Joe Rando: 43:53

So people are doing it to live life on their own terms, and yet there are a lot of people out there talking about how to scale and get to 7 figures as a solo entrepreneur. Sure. It can be done, but it's not really what people are about. So, yeah, thank you. I'm gonna be harping on that a lot more now.

Marcus Sheridan: 44:08

Yeah. it's like I just continue to ask people, brands, what are you known for? And I think this is gonna become more and more relevant, Joe. I mean, it's always relevant, but it's gonna become really relevant because of AI. This idea of having a known brand, we just can't even fathom how important that's gonna be in the coming years when the whole world is different in terms of the way people shop and buy.

Joe Rando: 44:34

Yeah. I mean, when you and I have chatted about this online, nobody knows what's happening. Nobody knows where it's going exactly. But one thing is for sure is it's going someplace different than where we are now. So, you know, I don't want to keep going keep you going too long here.

Joe Rando: 44:51

I know we have time constraints. So let me ask you just a couple more questions. One is, customer testimonials, social proof, case studies, those kinds of things. Do you have any particular, recommendations or advice for how to use those to build credibility and trust?

Marcus Sheridan: 45:10

Well, I still think they're a really big deal. Google My Business is a very, very big deal for, geocentric, companies. You know? And I would just say this.

Marcus Sheridan: 45:20

Having been in a lot of industries this year and and a lot of businesses that were location based, I will say this. The ones that do the best when it comes to social proof reviews, etcetera, have an intentional program whereby they gather these reviews. They gather the testimonials. They don't do it by chance and happenstance. It is part of their entire, let's call it, customer journey.

Marcus Sheridan: 45:50

And so if you're listening to this and it's not integrated into your entire sales process and customer journey, it needs to be because it's that important. And, again, every single review, every testimonial, every star, that's a signal that's sending to the world and to AI, hey. They need to pay attention to you.

Joe Rando: 46:11

Very good. And we ask this of every guest on this on this podcast. What is your favorite quote about success?

Marcus Sheridan: 46:22

It would be from Jim Rohn, who's one of my greatest mentors by far. I could give 27 of his quotes right out the gate. But the one that he's maybe most famous for and I believe most is you have to learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job. And once you learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job, really extraordinary things happen.

Joe Rando: 46:50

Awesome. And lastly, if people wanna learn more about you, your business, and what you do, where can they find you?

Marcus Sheridan: 46:58

Well, make sure you connect with me on LinkedIn to say, yeah. Hey. You know, I heard you're on the One Person podcast and, enjoyed whatever or hated it, Marcus. Either way, connect with me there on LinkedIn. You can also find my tool price guide at priceguide.ai

Marcus Sheridan: 47:16

Consider using that if you wanna, generate a lot more leads. Definitely works. And, you can email me if you want. An easy email is marcus@marcuscheridan.com.

Joe Rando: 47:28

It's pretty easy. Well, Marcus, thank you so much. This was just totally awesome, and we are so excited to have had you on the podcast. And, I will continue to follow you on LinkedIn, I check out your posts every day. They're always inspiring.

Joe Rando: 47:47

So appreciate it very much. And listeners, don't forget to subscribe. Give us that nice 5 star review. Check us out on YouTube if you wanna see Marcus' animated persona, in video, we'll see you next week on, The Aspiring Solopreneur. Thanks a lot.

Carly Ries: 48:11

You may be going solo in business, but that doesn't mean you're alone. In fact, millions of people are in your shoes, running a one person business and figuring it out as they go. So why not connect with them and learn from each other's successes and failures? At Lifestarr, we're creating a one person business community where you can go to meet and get advice from other solopreneurs. Be sure to join in on the conversations at community.lifestarr.com.