0:00Hi, and welcome to Broker Tools, where we unpack the tools, systems, and strategies that help brokers optimize the way they work. I'm Katie, your host,
0:088 secondsand today we are talking about how to build a valuable online asset. We all know how hard it is to scale a broker business through loan products alone.
0:1717 secondsSo, if you are looking to optimize your website and scale it into a digital asset of its own, then this conversation
0:2323 secondsis for you. I am joined by Matt Rod from the Ebusiness Institute. um the place
0:3030 secondsyou go to learn all about all things digital investments. Similar to how people buy property from long-term for long-term growth, you can do the same
0:3838 secondswith websites. If you've ever wondered how to turn your online presence into a standalone asset and not just a website
0:4646 secondsto maintain, then I'm sure you will enjoy this conversation. Matt, welcome to the pod.
0:5353 secondsThank you so much for that awesome intro, Katie. Absolutely love it. It is definitely a pleasure to be here and to be hanging out and what are we going to get to geek out today on all things
1:021 minute, 2 secondsonline and driving traffic for your for your clients as always. Um because you and I have like a huge history at this.
1:111 minute, 11 secondsI mean I think I met you at Yarrow's birthday party. It wasn't even a business function. No. No. That was that's correct.
1:191 minute, 19 secondsYou have photos to prove it. Katie, you and Liz, um, your beautiful wife,
1:251 minute, 25 secondswere dressed up as Mario and Luigi. If I actually had that memory pop up the other day. It was hilarious to me.
1:341 minute, 34 secondsBut we did all geek out and talk. Even back then, we were talking about traffic and online marketing. And that's what we're here to help your listeners with
1:411 minute, 41 secondstoday as well. So, we we've done the whole journey. We and and I guess even as I do a little bit of reflection of
1:491 minute, 49 secondswhere we were because I think that kind of crowd that was hanging out that day,
1:541 minute, 54 secondswe all came from little pockets of different online marketing worlds. Yep.
2:002 minutesI focused on um social media marketing because nobody else knew it back then before I went into virtual assistants.
2:072 minutes, 7 secondsAnd you guys just merged, was it from um mergers and acquisition like real world businesses?
2:132 minutes, 13 secondsYep. to buying and selling online businesses. And I guess that's why like for your listeners, not only am I an
2:222 minutes, 22 secondsex-broker um or a broker, a lot of my personal friends and business associates are all brokers. So, uh, particularly in
2:302 minutes, 30 secondsbuying and selling businesses and particularly in online businesses, but also Katie, really interestingly, we have a lot of clients now who are either
2:402 minutes, 40 secondsworking with finance brokers or real estate brokers or are finance brokers themselves. So, needless to say, I I
2:472 minutes, 47 secondskind of know a fair bit about SEOing or driving traffic to broker websites, and I'm guessing that's where most of your listeners are. You know, that's their background.
2:542 minutes, 54 secondsYes. Um, I guess we kind of focus on mortgage asset and commercial brokers, but let's be honest.
3:023 minutes, 2 secondsYep.
3:033 minutes, 3 secondsI will expand because that's how I'm operate. Yep. That's right. You broker. Well,
3:103 minutes, 10 secondsit's a really it's a fantastic niche because I I know how much leads are worth in the finance niche and commercial finance space for brokers.
3:173 minutes, 17 secondsThey're worth a lot and there's the ongoing trail. So it is really worthwhile your listeners or I mean for anyone but particularly for brokers to
3:253 minutes, 25 secondsget their online strategy right and of course in this day and age the really exciting stuff that we can do now is
3:313 minutes, 31 secondsbring in AI automations. OMG. Um, that is a gamecher for all of us. Katie,
3:373 minutes, 37 secondstalking about our history, when you think about it, remember what we're all doing back then, fast forward to today,
3:433 minutes, 43 secondswhat we can now do with AI automations and what we can do for our clients. It is just mind-blowing. Absolutely mind-blowing.
3:493 minutes, 49 secondsYes. Like actually, do you want to go through some of the things that you are noticing in the game? Because I will go
3:563 minutes, 56 secondsdown rabbit holes, but I think if you want to touch on a few things, um, that would be great. Well, well,
4:034 minutes, 3 secondslike I said for for for your listeners,
4:064 minutes, 6 secondsmy background is as from buying and selling businesses also in M&A and and being a broker. And then fast forward through to today as you heard where, you
4:154 minutes, 15 secondsknow, we transitioned to buying selling online businesses and we teach people how to set up like Katie said in the intro,
4:234 minutes, 23 secondsvery very valuable online real estate.
4:264 minutes, 26 secondsAnd it can in fact come from typically it can come from your own business online um asset. So like the you know
4:344 minutes, 34 secondsthe the website that you may be using to generate leads for your brokerage firm.
4:394 minutes, 39 secondsUm believe it or not that can be a hugely valuable asset not just in terms of the cash flow that it can generate for you or the leads or the traffic but to a potential acquirer down the track.
4:484 minutes, 48 secondsRemembering that is my specialty. That's my passion in life and helping people do big seven figure exits and stuff and eight figure exits. And it all starts
4:564 minutes, 56 secondswith having a really good online presence. But also these days I think there's a big opportunity now to really
5:055 minutes, 5 secondsamplify everything we do with AI automations. It is a gamecher and it means and I'm thinking like in the
5:125 minutes, 12 secondsfinance niche if you if your clients are looking to drive leads and grow their business I'm pres I'm hoping they are all of the above. They should also be
5:205 minutes, 20 secondsthinking Katie about building an online asset and having those AI automations in place. I'll share some stories in a minute. Really cool. If you can get AI
5:285 minutes, 28 secondsautomations into your business or any business for that matter, you are suddenly sitting on a way more valuable asset. So, we're seeing businesses like
5:385 minutes, 38 secondswe we teach people how to set up digital agencies and stuff, right? Or advisory companies. And in a way, that's kind of like a broker that we're all just
5:455 minutes, 45 secondsadvisers helping people. And because they're getting them automated with generating like so many automations
5:545 minutes, 54 secondsthroughout their business, not only are they streamlining the staff, what we teach people, as you know, is to one day do an exit and hopefully it's going to
6:026 minutes, 2 secondsbe seven or eight figures, so in the millions. And what we're seeing is the businesses that are well automated and obviously the less staff, the higher the
6:116 minutes, 11 secondsmultiple is for when they come to sell it. So it does I find a lot of business owners and maybe you know if you're listening to this you're guilty of this.
6:196 minutes, 19 secondsYou're just focused on the grind and getting the cash flow and getting sales and all you're not really thinking about the asset value that you're building up.
6:266 minutes, 26 secondsWhat I'd encourage you to do is get automations in there. Reduce your staffing. I know it sounds bad but this is a private podcast but seriously from
6:346 minutes, 34 secondsmy end this is what buy modern buyers are looking for. streamlined businesses, lighter staffing, and more automated.
6:436 minutes, 43 secondsAnd that then pumps up the value of your business. By the way, you're going to build a heap better business, too,
6:476 minutes, 47 secondsthat's easier for you to run. And that's the way we're all moving. It is it's a sad reality for some people, but not for the business owners if you get this right.
6:566 minutes, 56 secondsYeah. And and let's be fair, humans do only buy from humans who are educating
7:037 minutes, 3 seconds100% well. And if you have an inefficient team and you happen to replace your inefficient like we're all
7:117 minutes, 11 secondshere for efficiency. And so um it's not that we're removing humans throughout the whole process. We're just building
7:197 minutes, 19 secondswhat do humans need to actually really focus their time on.
7:237 minutes, 23 secondsYep. Very very much so. And and I guess the other thing that I could mention, I mean, there's a lot of different ways we could go here. And I'm just thinking of,
7:327 minutes, 32 secondsyou know, who's listening to your podcast here. What do they want most practical help with? I did want to leave
7:397 minutes, 39 secondswith that idea first and foremost because it's our background is your website is an actual asset particularly
7:477 minutes, 47 secondswhen you come to exit down the track as well. So don't just always treat it as a lead gen device or a or a lead capture
7:547 minutes, 54 secondsdevice or it it it it's a holistic thing. The well I I actually just wrote a lesson on it today for our immediate
8:028 minutes, 2 secondsmembers. I'm calling it like it is not just virtual real estate. It's like commercial real estate for your business. And it's really important to
8:108 minutes, 10 secondsfoster that and build that online. And that's what we're passionate about teaching people business owners at least understand. There's a lot of different
8:188 minutes, 18 secondsthings that you can do to a website to add value to it. As you know, Katie, you you've done our course and you've you've you know, you've been around us for a
8:268 minutes, 26 secondslong time. And I think that's relevant to your to your listeners as well. Even if you're buying a website, you know, to make money out of it as an asset. And as
8:348 minutes, 34 secondsyou know, you know, we can renovate websites very easily. When you're the a business owner owning that website, it is super important to use those same
8:438 minutes, 43 secondsthose same concepts as well. And of course, AI helps us just accelerate everything now. I think it makes it a lot easier than what it did even a year ago. It's changed. Changed.
8:528 minutes, 52 secondsYeah. Well, even late last week, it's changed. Yeah.
8:578 minutes, 57 secondsSeriously, what we're what we're doing now. And and when you think for any listeners to this podcast, I just give a real simple example of one of the things
9:069 minutes, 6 secondsyou can do that adds massive value to your business. If you're a broker, would I be right in saying, Katie, for your
9:129 minutes, 12 secondsbroker clients, they need a positioning online? Is that right? Or do they need their voices heard at all or anything
9:209 minutes, 20 secondslike that? How how do your like someone listening this podcast, how do they what's the best way for them to turn up online? I guess I'm throwing the
9:289 minutes, 28 secondsquestion back to you just so I can think it through and help help them out.
9:319 minutes, 31 secondsWell, I guess this is the thing. This is the stories we're we're we're trying to tell between us. So often, and you'll hear it throughout all of our podcasts
9:409 minutes, 40 secondsthat are marketing focused, finding your niche is mo the most important part. Yep.
9:459 minutes, 45 secondsDo you know what I mean? And and I guess if you wanted to go down how to find a niche, um because sometimes people go,
9:529 minutes, 52 seconds"What is a niche?" Um okay.
9:559 minutes, 55 secondsUm to be honest, like most of the people I typically work with have an audience. they already have um things in place,
10:0410 minutes, 4 secondsbut I am also working alongside people who are brand new to brokering um in the couple of weeks and so they have no concept either.
10:1210 minutes, 12 secondsOkay, so really important for both parties what if you fit into what Katie just said, which you're going to either
10:2010 minutes, 20 secondsyou've got no following at all online yet because you're new to brokering or you already have an audience. You need
10:2810 minutes, 28 secondsto that's what you've got to foster online in this day and age. The game is and we teach this here is you need that
10:3610 minutes, 36 secondsonline SEO footprint which is search engine optimization. That's what used to be called in the old days, search engine optimization. So it meant when someone
10:4410 minutes, 44 secondsGoogles you or your key service, your website turns up in in the search engines. So that's kind of 101 stuff
10:5110 minutes, 51 secondsfrom like 10 years ago when we first met Katie. But now it's all about as you've probably heard AI with AI now it's about
10:5910 minutes, 59 secondssearch everywhere optimization and what the good news about at first to a business owner I think you know it can
11:0711 minutes, 7 secondslook overwhelming for both those kind of avatars that you just described then for listener avatars for this podcast when you're starting out and even if you've
11:1611 minutes, 16 secondsgot an existing audience you might be thinking oh this is there's just so much to do but here's the thing you've got to otherwise you are going to become invisible in this next five years, in
11:2411 minutes, 24 secondsthis next three years even, and as Katie said, even last month, you know, like seriously, within the next 12 months,
11:2911 minutes, 29 secondsyou're going to have challenges on your hand if you're not out there being proactive online because it feeds the AI bots and we want to get served up in the
11:3911 minutes, 39 secondsAI search as well. And all the while remembering what my concept is, you're building your business. And believe it or not, the biggest driver these days,
11:4811 minutes, 48 secondsKatie, that we're encouraging people to do is still networking. good oldfashioned talking to humans, having conversations, but then we amplify that
11:5611 minutes, 56 secondsonline. And I think brokers could do that really well if they know what they're doing. And yeah, it takes a little bit more effort. But really, um,
12:0412 minutes, 4 secondsthat is still something super important in this day and age because people want realness. We've just got to find a way to bridge the two online. And I I think
12:1312 minutes, 13 secondsthat that can work. And the easiest way to give a great example for all your listeners in my opinion um is LinkedIn.
12:2012 minutes, 20 secondsIt's probably one of the best networking tools we have out there. It, as luck would have it, it is an absolutely brilliant tool for AI SEO as well,
12:2812 minutes, 28 secondssearch engine optimization because so for your brokers, practical thing, you could just be producing little thought pieces on LinkedIn that could also go on
12:3612 minutes, 36 secondsyour blog just in like little lessons that you learn through working through your clients that maybe your clients
12:4312 minutes, 43 secondshadn't thought of. and I would just record them and put it into AI and get it to turn it into content. It's probably the easiest
12:5012 minutes, 50 secondsprocess ever. It's way easier than what it was even six months ago once you just know the foundations of it. And so Katie, think for your clients how much specialized knowledge they would have.
13:0013 minutesIt would be absolutely You mentioned you've got, you know, brokers that are commercial finance brokers far out. Like that's highly specialized stuff, right?
13:1013 minutes, 10 secondsAnd we've got clients that are do specialized residential finance brokering. Yeah.
13:1513 minutes, 15 secondsWhen I get talking to them, the stuff they know about these unique residential loans and stuff, it is mind-blowing. I'm
13:2213 minutes, 22 secondssaying far out anyone. Okay. You're going to have a very narrow niche of people that you talk to. But I tell you what, if you want to get conversions up,
13:3013 minutes, 30 secondsyou want to teach them that stuff. If they know that you're good at that, I'm coming to you as my broker. And maybe that's what your listeners start
13:3813 minutes, 38 secondsthinking about is identifying what unique knowledge or they have or just even industry experience that people outside the industry have no idea of. But probably if you're a listener here,
13:4613 minutes, 46 secondsyou take it for granted. Why don't you just start capturing that conversations with your clients? Just record them.
13:5113 minutes, 51 secondsTell them you tell them. Just say it'll all be anonymized or you don't have to tell them in this day and age. Everything's recorded by Zoom anyway.
13:5713 minutes, 57 secondsTranscribe it. Just take the AI transcription, literally throw it in a claude, turn it into something useful for a LinkedIn post for my target
14:0514 minutes, 5 secondsaudience, and there you go. Massive value for your very niche client base,
14:1214 minutes, 12 secondsand it just helps you with your conversions. That's what we're doing here at Ebus. It's what all our clients are doing. It works really well.
14:1814 minutes, 18 secondsYeah. And I think let's take it a little step back and just think about it from a website perspective because okay
14:2614 minutes, 26 secondswe you know for anybody who is listening to this this is what Matt and I do when we see a website. We will assess it to
14:3314 minutes, 33 secondslook at it. Um and we'll look at where certain buttons are, where titles are,
14:3814 minutes, 38 secondswhere pictures are because those types of things matter because they grab our attention first. If you just say in here, I'm a home broke home loan broker,
14:5014 minutes, 50 secondsit's too broad. But then if you say, I'm a first home buyer specialist, that is
14:5714 minutes, 57 secondspretty good. But you can even be more specialized. Matt and I were even just talking about this earlier. One of the people I work with does engineering.
15:0615 minutes, 6 secondsAnother person I was talking to the other day does nursing. Um, so if you could even narrow like your title down,
15:1515 minutes, 15 secondsI'm a specialist for nurse and first home buyers. Just in your title alone,
15:2115 minutes, 21 secondsthat kind of grabs the identity matrix in that person who's looking at you in the head. It kind of goes, I identify as this person. I will stay or I will exit.
15:3215 minutes, 32 secondsAnd that that is brilliant, Katie.
15:3415 minutes, 34 secondsThat's exactly what we you swear you've done our courses at e business. That's exactly what we Let's be fair. I I I did it a bit before
15:4215 minutes, 42 secondsyou, but then you just kind of gave me a framework. That's why I loved it because you do M&A as a and the whole mergers and
15:4915 minutes, 49 secondsacquisitions is how does how would somebody else come and buy your thing? Yeah.
15:5415 minutes, 54 secondsYou know what I mean? And so if you're not even thinking about the future of a buyer, like if I was too generic, if my websites weren't framed in a way that I
16:0316 minutes, 3 secondscould resell this as an asset to somebody else. Again, we're talking in three layers here.
16:1016 minutes, 10 secondsWe are. Well, that just gave me another really important. You've just made me realize as well, and we we teach this
16:1616 minutes, 16 secondsnow following on like we're I'm talking behind the scenes amusingly for your listeners with brokers, right? like the
16:2416 minutes, 24 secondsworld's best brokers for selling online businesses. And I've actually recorded some podcast interviews with them as well. But we talk behind the scenes
16:3216 minutes, 32 secondsabout because this AI SEO thing is so important now. I'm saying to them,
16:3916 minutes, 39 secondswhat's the go online that you're seeing with the big buyers when they're buying say digital agencies or brokerage
16:4616 minutes, 46 secondscompanies? Exactly what you said. And and it's exactly what you said. If they've got a tight niche, they're really attractive. And like what I said,
16:5416 minutes, 54 secondsif they're AI automated, but coming back to this tight niche idea, what's really interesting is what's really attractive is the branding. Because typically, if you've if say you do those, you know,
17:0517 minutes, 5 secondsfor nurses, your brokerage in that nursing space. I love it. Really something really tight niche. It's very unique. What you want to do if you're
17:1317 minutes, 13 secondsthat broker is amplify that message and it's about authority building or brand building online. Once you dial that in,
17:2017 minutes, 20 secondsyou own that space and it's really easy for a potential acquirer to look at you go, "Oh yeah, I want that database."
17:2517 minutes, 25 secondsBecause it's so obvious what it is. It's got recurring revenues and all you do what I was talking about when you're when you're doing these thought pieces
17:3417 minutes, 34 secondslike on LinkedIn, it's really easy to just talk about that very specific niche. You become the leader in it. Ideally,
17:4117 minutes, 41 secondsyou're a go-getter and you're starting out from scratch. I'd be thinking like what Katie says, what's what niche do you want to go into? or if you're
17:4817 minutes, 48 secondsalready in well established in the brokerage field, really dial in like D like Katie said your actual niche and
17:5517 minutes, 55 secondsthen really your job is or your team's job or whoever does the marketing for you is just to amplify that online and that feeds the AI search engine
18:0418 minutes, 4 secondsoptimization, but more importantly coming all back to my expertise is it makes it an easier sale down the track
18:1118 minutes, 11 secondswhen you go to sell it because it's not generic anymore. It's not just spread out everywhere. And let's face it,
18:1718 minutes, 17 secondsKatie, I know the brokerage market online, it is competitive. And the best way to compete is to be the opposite of
18:2518 minutes, 25 secondsgeneric is go really niche. And then it's it's relatively easy to build that positioning online. If you can go niche,
18:3218 minutes, 32 secondsI love that idea. Yes, I should have mentioned that at the beginning, but you did it for me. You listen.
18:3818 minutes, 38 secondsAnd I guess this is why we have this conversation because there are moments like we each do different parts of the process. Um, and we think of it at
18:4718 minutes, 47 secondsdifferent layers. And if you are very new to looking at making your website a
18:5318 minutes, 53 secondsstandalone asset, then you've never even, you know, encountered it as anything else other than like a landing
19:0119 minutes, 1 secondpage where people just book appointments with you. There are just some key foundational concepts that you need to probably understand about making this
19:0919 minutes, 9 secondsmore of an asset rather than just a way to capture leads.
19:1519 minutes, 15 secondsAnd I would be and my key bit I do want to reiterate that now allows me to bring together because it you know I was just
19:2219 minutes, 22 secondstrying to picture who listening to this podcast. What you're saying Katie is spot on. If if you are just viewing your website as like a landing page to
19:3019 minutes, 30 secondscapture things, what I want to add in there is like Katie saying, what are the elements that you that you build up? I'd recommend you focus in this day and age
19:3919 minutes, 39 secondson becoming an authority or a voice of some kind in the niche. And I know that's, you know, maybe embarrassing if
19:4719 minutes, 47 secondsyou've never been public or anything like that, but let's face it, you're a broker. You're talking to people hopefully. So you should be amplifying
19:5519 minutes, 55 secondsyour voice online and the the beautiful thing is these days your team can do that for you with AI very easily way easier than what I could have six months
20:0420 minutes, 4 secondsago even and like I said I would just simply be capturing what's your specialty knowledge just capturing that
20:1220 minutes, 12 secondsin AI and turning into articles posting it out there getting a voice out there online and then that in turn leads to the conversations happening people see
20:2020 minutes, 20 secondsit they get networking presumably your networking if um you know already but like Katie says don't just view that
20:2820 minutes, 28 secondswebsite as a simple landing page for goodness sake be building it out and think about building out your branding
20:3420 minutes, 34 secondsand have a Katie I I'll I'll share something here too everyone wants to get rich quick right but these days we're
20:4120 minutes, 41 secondsjust telling people have a fiveyear plan for all this sort of stuff even though the online space is moving quickly just have a fiveyear vision I'm just picturing one of your you know like a
20:5020 minutes, 50 secondsnew young guy broker working in the nursing space or full-on engineering or something like that, I'd be sitting there thinking, "All right,
20:5720 minutes, 57 secondshow can I just dominate this? Be the go-to person in the next 5 years. Not in the next month, not in the next 12 months, just in the next five years.
21:0521 minutes, 5 secondsWhat can I because that builds a really really valuable asset in my opinion."
21:1121 minutes, 11 secondsYes. And this is where um I'm going to switch because often we talk about articles and we talk about it as content
21:2021 minutes, 20 secondsand most people in this particular site I think think of it as a um a lead generation marketing form. But with the
21:2821 minutes, 28 secondsworld of AI, which you and I are both noticing so much now, Matt, is that what you're actually generating is your own knowledge base and your own data center.
21:3921 minutes, 39 secondsAnd the difference between having a website that is maintained versus an an asset is that to think about the content
21:4721 minutes, 47 secondswithin it as not just lead generation but a possibility to lead into maybe a course y
21:5421 minutes, 54 secondsthat someone pays for or a paid newsletter so that they get secret news. Absolutely.
21:5921 minutes, 59 secondsUm and or a knowledge base so people who want specialist knowledge can get your own AI bot.
22:0922 minutes, 9 secondsand talk to your AIU.
22:1222 minutes, 12 secondsY and this is this is what we're talking about when we're saying, you know,
22:1622 minutes, 16 secondsassets because these are assets, not just content, not just marketing, not just landing pages.
22:2322 minutes, 23 secondsAnd it's building that intangible asset,
22:2622 minutes, 26 secondsI guess you call, which is the branding and the authority. Because there's as Katie as you know and I know this is a little bit more advanced for your
22:3322 minutes, 33 secondslisteners but with the way the the Google say search engine works and AI search engine works exactly the same is
22:4022 minutes, 40 secondsit is looking at your where you appear online and it's trying to judge are you an expert in something do you have
22:4822 minutes, 48 secondsexperience in something you have authoritiveness and trustworthiness and that's a acronym a Google acronym called eat which you know a lot of us SEO live
22:5822 minutes, 58 secondsand breathe Yeah,
22:5922 minutes, 59 secondsbut needless to say, like what Katie is saying, if you do all these things, it just naturally builds that. So, I love it because you're kind of killing two
23:0623 minutes, 6 secondsbirds with one stone. Everything you do is all integrated and and it's it what's most important is that you're not a a
23:1423 minutes, 14 secondswet blanket anymore and you just have a simple static website. That's not going to cut it for you in this day. Sorry to scare you, but seriously, it's not going to cut it if you're a go-getter and you
23:2223 minutes, 22 secondswant to really build something and have that fiveyear vision. That's what I think you need to be more proactive now.
23:2823 minutes, 28 secondsAnd the more you talk that I'm just going like flashback into the different parts of your courses in my head
23:3823 minutes, 38 secondsyou know like as well so we're not going to go deep diving into all areas of it but you know these are things so assets
23:4523 minutes, 45 secondscan be even putting like Google ads inside and because you get impressions and you get paid for the Google
23:5223 minutes, 52 secondsimpressions and ultimately your loan book can only get you so far leads leads to settlement cuz our particular
24:0124 minutes, 1 secondaudience is obviously mortgage brokers assets. So, you know, you're trying to settle loans and that that that's great,
24:0924 minutes, 9 secondsbut if you want to, you know, amplify your cash flow in other areas, it's, you know, having like referral links and other things in there
24:1724 minutes, 17 secondsbig time. Yeah, that's that's huge. And and that's why you've got to amplify amplify your voice or your brand out there on online these days. And the good
24:2624 minutes, 26 secondsnews is if you niche down, like you said, it is a hell of a lot easier. It is really cool. You can beat the big guys. We have clients that we have some
24:3424 minutes, 34 secondsvery successful um they're very private stories actually. I just need to be careful because of confidentiality, but
24:4024 minutes, 40 secondswe've got some of our clients that build significant lead genen websites for
24:4724 minutes, 47 secondsbrokers and um and have done really well for them. individual brokers and stuff and yeah,
24:5524 minutes, 55 secondsthey they've niched into some very specific mortgage broking areas like in the commercial space and stuff like that,
25:0425 minutes, 4 secondsbut they're they're they've built full brands for them over the time. Like they've literally helped these people go from zero to,
25:1125 minutes, 11 secondsyou know, hero. But but it's been a fiveyear journey,
25:1525 minutes, 15 secondsI'd say, most of them that I'm thinking of because it is competitive um in that space. So,
25:2025 minutes, 20 secondsyeah. And I guess with AI it's becoming not that it's can't be like as let's not
25:2725 minutes, 27 secondsignore competition but this is where you know what we always say is um the riches are in the niches.
25:3425 minutes, 34 secondsYep. You can and I even think you know there is tiny niches that do so well. For example
25:4225 minutes, 42 secondsagriculture is a there's silos within it just for like corn. You know what I mean? Absolutely. Yeah, that's really cool.
25:5125 minutes, 51 secondsWell, what what I would do no matter what business you're in even well I was going to say even for the people that you're working with but to stick to your
25:5925 minutes, 59 secondsown business for people listening is seriously just throw it into any AI platform that you like using how can I
26:0626 minutes, 6 secondsfind my specialty or my unique selling we call it in marketing term USP unique selling proposition Gemini or Claude or
26:1426 minutes, 14 secondsJBT will be amazingly helpful for you at this type in your own current website
26:2126 minutes, 21 secondsand say, "Please analyze this. Tell me how can I find the unique angle that's going to make me stand out in my
26:2826 minutes, 28 secondsmarketplace." Just words to that effect as if you're having a conversation with it and just see what it throws up and then hand it to your digital marketing team and say, "All right, I want you to
26:3726 minutes, 37 secondsimplement that. That's that's the angle we're going to go for." And you can go even more down the rabbit hole, Katie.
26:4226 minutes, 42 secondsObviously, it's very simple. Now, you don't have to be a full-on prompt engineer anymore to get amazing insights. You know what I'm doing? And
26:4926 minutes, 49 secondsfor your listeners, I I think this is really good news. I'm actually going even more broad and simple on my prompts that are all my requests to AI. It's
26:5726 minutes, 57 secondsjust becoming literally a conversation like that. And yeah,
27:0027 minutesI can do it on any business and literally within minutes have full-on research on any business and
27:0827 minutes, 8 secondshave the unique angle dialed in, plus all the selling phrases that I literally just copy and paste onto the website within minutes where it used to take me
27:1527 minutes, 15 secondslike a whole weekend to figure that sort of stuff out. It is a great sounding board for sure.
27:2027 minutes, 20 secondsIt's awesome. It is mindblowing. You know, I don't want to I don't want to do any you any digital agencies out of a job there that the front end bit, but
27:2927 minutes, 29 secondsyou still need a digital agency or people to implement this stuff, but you can brainstorm with your with your favorite AI the stuff that Katie and I are talking about.
27:3927 minutes, 39 secondsYeah. And I guess if we're coming back to I guess the main core topic here is how to you know turn your website into a digital asset.
27:4927 minutes, 49 secondsYep.
27:4927 minutes, 49 secondsUm what you and I often talk about is your website is your front door. It's your office. It's the you know the old
27:5827 minutes, 58 secondsschool place you know where you used to go shopping. If people don't like your storefront they're never going to come
28:0528 minutes, 5 secondsin. Um, and so first you need to make your storefront look a certain way, feel a certain way, have some sort of appeal,
28:1428 minutes, 14 secondsbut then be enough of an education system. Yes. Important.
28:1928 minutes, 19 secondsThat begins their choose their own adventure.
28:2328 minutes, 23 secondsYeah. And that leads to by educating your clients that leads to conversions.
28:2828 minutes, 28 secondsWe found that in every single online business we've ever owned or any service business that we're representing online with a website is spot on. It's got to
28:3628 minutes, 36 secondshave like like Katie's saying, I really love that idea. Think of your website as your new Katie, we've got a new term that we it's Liz came up with the idea.
28:4428 minutes, 44 secondsIt's a new digital main street. Like it it it's the digital business main like in the old days on the main street. Not
28:5228 minutes, 52 secondsonly do like you said, you want to turn up, you got to have a look and a feel,
28:5628 minutes, 56 secondsbut it it's also it is really really handy these days to be educating people because that kills two birds with one stone. The AI sees that as well. puts
29:0529 minutes, 5 secondsyou up as a bit of a thought leader. You can either personally brand it or brand it to your business name and that captures people and that's building your asset long term though.
29:1529 minutes, 15 secondsCompletely and and to continuate continue continuation. I'm inventing I know what you mean by that. Don't
29:2229 minutes, 22 secondsworry and know what you mean by that. We all know what you mean. Yeah.
29:2629 minutes, 26 secondsBut you know because I we all love a good choose your own adventure but everybody who comes to your website they're on like different pathways. So
29:3429 minutes, 34 secondsif you're not having like messaging at the So sure I might be a nurse but I might be a brand new nurse versus a
29:4129 minutes, 41 secondsmiddle-aged nurse versus an age old nurse. And so my particular experience is I might not be ready for you yet but I might be ready for you in the future.
29:5029 minutes, 50 secondsIf I haven't even caught if you haven't like gathered my email for example. Yeah.
29:5629 minutes, 56 secondsAnd begun that process to warm me up to know like and trust you. It's going to be hard to do what we call ongoing
30:0330 minutes, 3 secondssales, ongoing revenue. And when you think about digital assets, that is what we're trying to do here. Make it more
30:1130 minutes, 11 secondsthan just a loan book, but a whole asset in itself.
30:1530 minutes, 15 secondsYes, we want to capture we really important. So, one of the key things, as you know, Katie, and I'll share this
30:2230 minutes, 22 secondswith your listeners, especially in this day and age now, is having a following of some kind. So ideally an email list
30:2930 minutes, 29 secondsis adds massive value to any online business. Doesn't matter who you are. So the reasons that Katie just said is it's not just from my point of view.
30:3830 minutes, 38 secondsIt's not just about having that email list so we can sell to them later on or whatever. It's a sign of a healthy business, but it's a it's a required
30:4630 minutes, 46 secondsit's almost a required asset these days in in a bigger asset sale like an online business. But also that following could be like a social media following as well
30:5430 minutes, 54 secondslike a LinkedIn following or a YouTube following or a Insta following. Not that I don't think brokers I don't know I don't I don't really touch the Insta
31:0231 minutes, 2 secondsthing as much. Um but any social media following is the next best thing to an email list as well. And you know what an
31:1131 minutes, 11 secondsemail list allows you to do it. It you and I take this for granted but maybe listeners don't. The email list in this day and age allows us to automate everything particularly for brokers. Um,
31:2231 minutes, 22 secondsyou think about it, if you've capturly what Katie said, someone that's kind of interested in your services, but maybe
31:3031 minutes, 30 secondsin six months time, that's now all automated so easily. Like it is just you that should be captured. That person
31:3831 minutes, 38 secondsshould be nurtured over the next 6 months, which can all be automated with a email sequence or through even just directing them to your LinkedIn post when you post it or something like that.
31:4831 minutes, 48 secondsHowever you decide what your main strategy is and those people can be nurtured and that's what buyers are
31:5631 minutes, 56 secondslooking for as well. What are those open rates on the email list? How good is that? Is it a commercial email list? And that we have found can add massive value
32:0532 minutes, 5 secondsto any online business. And so for finance brokers where your businesses could potentially be worth a lot of money just because of the leads alone,
32:1332 minutes, 13 secondshaving a regular recurring, you know, engaged audience. Yeah. Prove to a potential buyer, it's like,
32:2132 minutes, 21 secondsoh, that could add extra a lot of extra value to the sale down the track or to the And maybe it's through offering education like you said as well. I never
32:2932 minutes, 29 secondsthought of that. You're right. in these very niche brokerage firms, you could be offering some really interesting um education stuff for your for your engaged audience.
32:3932 minutes, 39 secondsYes. I was going to ask, are you happy to break down what are assets in the buy and you know mergers and acquisition,
32:4632 minutes, 46 secondsbuy and sell industry because we're talking about things but most people think about those particular things as marketing. They don't actually see them as assets.
32:5532 minutes, 55 secondsOh wow. Okay. I see them as assets.
32:5932 minutes, 59 secondsI think it would be great to define like as in if someone was to go through a sale, there are key things that you are looking out for um that qualify as a
33:0833 minutes, 8 secondsgreat asset. Are you happy to go through a couple?
33:1133 minutes, 11 secondsYeah. Well, I got some exciting ones for your broker listeners far out. You guys are laughing. The number one thing that
33:1733 minutes, 17 secondsthat uh we So top line is sales and traffic. So if we talk let's talk online businesses slash combined with a
33:2633 minutes, 26 secondsbusiness like a brokerage right? So sales and profit at the end of the day and traffic. So most businesses as
33:3333 minutes, 33 secondsbrokers should probably know or maybe not if you're a finance broker sell on a multiplier of the profit. So bottom line we need to see a profit and it's just
33:4033 minutes, 40 secondssold on a multiplier of that. That's easy. That's 101 stuff. But what you're asking Katie too I think should be exciting for your listeners because let's look at some of the assets or in
33:4933 minutes, 49 secondsinverted commas virtual assets that most business owners don't think about that I that I just take for granted.
33:5633 minutes, 56 secondsBut we've already touched on the big one automation in a business if if it if the business is automated and there's especially if there's you know in this
34:0534 minutes, 5 secondsday and age less staff and things and it's really easy to run that is that could bump up your multiplier dramatically. But the big one, the
34:1334 minutes, 13 secondsbiggest one that I see that we encourage all our audience to build into any
34:2034 minutes, 20 secondsonline business and brokers, you broker listening to this naturally have this is recurring revenues. Oh my god, that is
34:2934 minutes, 29 secondsjust so attractive to big buyers. Any any business on the planet with recurring revenues, all of a sudden
34:3634 minutes, 36 secondspeople are interested in them. And brokers obviously have that. I think for brokers, you guys call it the ongoing trail or whatever. I just call it recurring revenue. So the ongoing trail,
34:4534 minutes, 45 secondsas probably a lot of you brokers realize, you would have heard through the through the grape vine of other brokers selling, it's normally um
34:5334 minutes, 53 secondsapplied on that recurring trail. So I just what my point there is, I know it's stating the bleeding obvious possibly,
35:0035 minutesbut I want to point out from my end in mer acquisitions, that's literally what big private equity firms and venture capitalists and high net worth are looking for when they're acquiring
35:0835 minutes, 8 secondsbusinesses. anything with recurring revenue. So, you naturally ahead of the game right there if you can do that. But there is some other very powerful online
35:1735 minutes, 17 secondsassets that people don't think of. And one of them, interestingly enough, is the age of the website. So, the longer it's been around, it tends to be more trusted and more worth worth something.
35:2735 minutes, 27 secondsAnd that's the case for any business.
35:2935 minutes, 29 secondsSo, don't worry. You can make seven figures in 12 months, 18 months if you know what you're doing. Like, especially as a broker, if you really go for the growth, you can do things quickly. But I'm just saying all things being equal,
35:3835 minutes, 38 secondsI guess a virtual asset would be the age of the business and then also the name of the website or the business name. So if it's Bob's brokering kind of okay,
35:5035 minutes, 50 secondsbut it's based around Bob. So if you want to exit down the track, ideally,
35:5535 minutes, 55 secondsand we we have a lot of these discussions with clients, it would want to be some pretty cool branding name and the so closely aligned to the age of the
36:0336 minutes, 3 secondsbusiness online. We're looking at what's the domain name and what's the value there? Like is there traffic coming to it? What other assets are sitting in that domain name? So is it the traffic?
36:1636 minutes, 16 secondsIs it the list? Is it the age? Is it the domain name? What else do I look at? Is yeah the list that's got which we've
36:2436 minutes, 24 secondsalready talked about the automations and the actual content that sits on the website has a value as long as it's driving traffic. So, there's a lot of
36:3336 minutes, 33 secondsvalue in that. And the way the website's set up, if it's got something unique or it's got a unique positioning online and or how it captures the visitors or the
36:4336 minutes, 43 secondstraffic, if it if it converts really well, then that could be a highly valuable website as well. It all kind of comes together. So, that 1 plus one probably equals five or six in the sale.
36:5436 minutes, 54 secondsYou need kind of all those elements together.
36:5736 minutes, 57 secondsYeah. And I guess what the key part is overall is engagement of you know your list.
37:0337 minutes, 3 secondsSo when you say obviously reoccurring revenue is obviously a massive asset huge. Yep.
37:0937 minutes, 9 secondsIt just means that you can ongo like transfer that ongoing reoccurring present. Yep.
37:1637 minutes, 16 secondsNext buyer. But the second part is and I guess this is where we were talking for brokers is your your loan book can only
37:2537 minutes, 25 secondstravel you so far. But if you turn your website into a digital asset that also has educational courses, that's a different kind of reoccurring asset. Um,
37:3437 minutes, 34 secondsif it's a paid newsletter, cuz depending on how well you do that, you can also do that.
37:3937 minutes, 39 secondsThey can be huge these days. Newsletters can be massive. Uh, particularly in certain niches. So, if it's niched within the the finance brokerage space
37:4737 minutes, 47 secondsand and it and you are the go-to source for that knowledge, which and you can write newsletters completely with AI.
37:5437 minutes, 54 secondsUm, I would base it on human experience though, like it's got to be useful,
37:5837 minutes, 58 secondswhich presumably you have. If you're a broker, you've probably got some really good insights. That's what I was saying earlier in the piece. Try and capture your conversations with clients because
38:0738 minutes, 7 secondsespecially if you've got FAQ type stuff that you're dealing like frequently asked question type stuff that you're dealing with a lot of people, that can
38:1538 minutes, 15 secondstypically turn into really good newsletter material. But you're right.
38:1838 minutes, 18 secondsYeah, if you can find your loan books one thing to make money and it's beautiful because it's recurring revenue. But I want to encourage your
38:2638 minutes, 26 secondslisteners to think about in this day and age because it is easier to amplify your voice is what you've touched on is
38:3338 minutes, 33 secondsproviding educational useful content on your website so you become a bit of a thought leader. It's not just about giving selling courses and things.
38:4238 minutes, 42 secondsThat's also part of becoming a thought leader and I don't think people realize just how much that can be worth in this day and age. Is that that is it do we
38:5038 minutes, 50 secondscall it personal branding K it's not strictly personal branding it's sort of like you said it's providing knowledge that really helps the visitors to the
38:5838 minutes, 58 secondswebsite look I think you and I lived in this side of the marketing world way too much and there's like three um yes
39:0739 minutes, 7 secondskind of thoughts you're either building a personal brand but if we're trying to make it a long-term asset that you can sell there's only so much attachment of
39:1539 minutes, 15 secondsyour personal brand you should have to That's right.
39:1839 minutes, 18 secondsUm there's the second part which is um what they call being a key person of influence.
39:2639 minutes, 26 secondsYep. Yeah.
39:2839 minutes, 28 secondsAnd then there's the thought leadership pathway.
39:3039 minutes, 30 secondsThought leadership. Yeah. Well, I kind of roll all three of those actually. I like into one. And what I say to people is that's why there's value in the
39:3839 minutes, 38 secondsdomain name and the actual branding of the business. And so you think of like there's um there's well-known say
39:4739 minutes, 47 secondsaccountants and so they've got their accountancy name but they become thought leaders or key people of influence online in very narrow niches and they
39:5539 minutes, 55 secondsjust get really well known so they just dominate. Now that's an asset even though it's built the the thought leader bits built around their personal name.
40:0240 minutes, 2 secondsThey're representing their accountancy firm.
40:0540 minutes, 5 secondsI've seen done really well in in white collar spaces. Certain lawyers have done exactly the same online as well. Our clients have helped them do that sort of
40:1340 minutes, 13 secondsa thing. That in and of itself is a hugely valuable asset right there. And it kind of combining this idea of your
40:2040 minutes, 20 secondskey person of influence or thought leadership, but you're actually driving your your your bricks and mortar business or your or your or your loan
40:2940 minutes, 29 secondsbook or your brokerage or your accountancy firm or whatever. But it's by you putting in the effort and amplifying your voice and just find that
40:3740 minutes, 37 secondsuseful knowledge that you can help someone with you. You I guarantee if you're a specialist broker, you'll have stuff that you talk to with your
40:4640 minutes, 46 secondsclients. You're probably educating them every single day. You think it's sales,
40:4940 minutes, 49 secondsright? Selling them a loan book, but that's stuff that you where you're actually kind of giving them a helping hand about how to decide which loan to
40:5640 minutes, 56 secondsgo for or whatever. That's gold to your people that don't know what you know. they that's the thought leader bit.
41:0341 minutes, 3 secondsCapture that with AI, turn it into useful content, and you're going to build up a massive following over time.
41:0941 minutes, 9 secondsYeah. And I guess this is the thing you're saying like the most foundational piece is your content and really amplifying that, but the gift of being a
41:1841 minutes, 18 secondsthought leader and the gift of amplifying your content is that you attract a certain audience and that audience is the part that engages with you. And if you are a solo broker,
41:3141 minutes, 31 secondsyou're really you're starting out almost like what we call freelancers back in the day. You're kind of bringing y
41:3941 minutes, 39 secondsum you know an individual thoughtship making sure that your whole business is not necessarily your personal brand but a brand that you can
41:4741 minutes, 47 secondsamplify. But then the next level is for you to build an agency. Um, obviously you you have a broker agency or a broker
41:5641 minutes, 56 secondsridge is what we would probably call it rather than a broker agency, but that's where it goes from you to having three or four people and maybe some credit stuff as well.
42:0642 minutes, 6 secondsYeah.
42:0642 minutes, 6 secondsAnd then from that you might even build out maybe a digital product that can ongo out that. And if you're ninja, which we
42:1642 minutes, 16 secondsalways love is maybe building out software. Yeah.
42:2242 minutes, 22 secondsBut you'll find opportunities in the market or you will invest in other people's businesses. And this is why because once you get to different
42:3042 minutes, 30 secondslevels, this this particular website becomes one of your massive assets that can help you go into other assets too.
42:3842 minutes, 38 secondsI I think K I want to point out because hopefully at that point it's got a following and you can take that following wherever you go
42:4542 minutes, 45 secondsand so can a potential acquirer and that's value. So I was just thinking when you're talking about the certain real estate like young guys who's
42:5342 minutes, 53 secondsstarting out by themselves and we tell them why wouldn't you build up a profile for yourself so if you change who you work for as a real estate agent you can
43:0143 minutes, 1 secondtake your audience with you and that's worth money and brokers can do exactly the same thing as well and that's hopefully that's a great way for you as
43:0843 minutes, 8 secondsa listener to realize oh yeah wow Matt and Katie are right there's a huge value in the following that I might get whether it's through the email list or
43:1643 minutes, 16 secondssocial media following That's worth money to you down the track. And it's worth money in a big sale as well.
43:2243 minutes, 22 secondsYeah. And and the more you do it, which is where we're going with AI,
43:2743 minutes, 27 secondsit's that you're building out your thought leadership, you become the you become the go-to.
43:3243 minutes, 32 secondsYeah. That's right. It's exactly what you do. So there you go. There's your strategy in a nutshell. It's so easy,
43:3843 minutes, 38 secondsKatie, for your listeners to to implement this. It's easy. But talk to Katie about it because you help your guys with AI automations as well, don't
43:4643 minutes, 46 secondsyou? So you can help them with all sorts of exciting things in this day and age.
43:5143 minutes, 51 secondsYeah. I don't necessarily focus on the website stuff anymore. If they want to do and understand how to really build it out as an asset, they should go to you.
43:5943 minutes, 59 secondsUm okay.
44:0144 minutes, 1 secondUm or any of the other people who are in the directory. Um we have them all under marketing. So anybody who does digital
44:0844 minutes, 8 secondsmarketing, social media, go check them out. Um, Matt obviously is a e a mergers and acquisition specialist and digital
44:1644 minutes, 16 secondsasset educator educator. I teach people. So I so for your listeners I don't implement the stuff these days. I teach I empower
44:2444 minutes, 24 secondspeople to do it themselves. So if you're interested in learning how to do this sort of stuff yourself like just the basics of like building a good website or whatever and capturing those people
44:3344 minutes, 33 secondsthat's what we teach which is much better. But if you're looking for optimization from CRM onwards, so once they've hit your Larry page,
44:4144 minutes, 41 secondsYep. Go to Katie.
44:4244 minutes, 42 secondsI'm your girl cuz I will get them through your calendar. I will get them into your CRM. I will get them to your document collection back finds. I will automate all that.
44:5344 minutes, 53 secondsI'll add in a little AI chatbot. Katie,
44:5844 minutes, 58 secondsfor your listeners, I'll personally vouch for Katie's abilities there. We,
45:0245 minutes, 2 secondsas you heard at the beginning of this of this interview, I've personally and my wife Liz and I have personally known Katie and she lives in exactly the same
45:1145 minutes, 11 secondscircles as us for what, more than a decade now, 15 years. I feel old.
45:1545 minutes, 15 secondsFar out. You have some spiritual experience. And in all seriousness,
45:1945 minutes, 19 secondsKatie, I think your listeners do need someone like you to implement this AI stuff. It is um it's incredibly exciting to people like myself and you, but we're
45:2745 minutes, 27 secondsgeeks on this. We know how to do it. You know, you and I know there's a little there's a few tricks to actually implementing it, but the topline strategy your listeners should
45:3645 minutes, 36 secondsunderstand hopefully now after listening to me and you for the last hour on this should know what you want achieve, but I think you need someone like Katie to help you implement it on that on that
45:4445 minutes, 44 secondsautomations bit. So, make sure you go and have a chat to Katie about it. Oh, thank you. I appreciate that, Matt.
45:5045 minutes, 50 secondsUm, again, if you've ever wanted to learn how to master your own website building and or looking at building other skills in having digital assets,
45:5945 minutes, 59 secondsthen of course go to Matt at the EB business studio. Oh, no. Institute, not studio. Institute. Yep. Just Google.
46:0846 minutes, 8 secondsAnd I mean, it's you and I talking now,
46:1046 minutes, 10 secondsbut one of the things I love about what you do is you really educate how couples do things together. Um Liz, your
46:1746 minutes, 17 secondsbeautiful wife have buil built a lot of things together and you've got a lot of people who do couple things together within that. We do.
46:2546 minutes, 25 secondsYeah. It's grown up a huge community of de people that are transitioning out of corporate, you know, or the I call it
46:3346 minutes, 33 secondsthe golden handcuffs, you know, they're burnt out since co. It's just mind-blowing how many people are burnt out. And yet a lot of a lot of them do it as couples. It works really well
46:4146 minutes, 41 secondsbecause Liz and I have been in business together. We're not only life partners,
46:4546 minutes, 45 secondswe are business partners for the last 30 years now. So, we've been buying and selling businesses together for over 30 years. So, um we tend to naturally
46:5246 minutes, 52 secondsattract other couples. We're all inclusive,
46:5746 minutes, 57 secondsbut yeah, we we attract a lot of different c couples like to see um how can they create that for themselves
47:0447 minutes, 4 secondsbecause I believe any business is a must in this day and age. It's a huge thing. I don't care whether it's small, big,
47:1247 minutes, 12 secondsside hustle, brokerage, you know, being a plumber, whatever. I think it's one of the smartest things you can do is have a business of some kind. Do it with a partner. Perfect.
47:2147 minutes, 21 secondsAnd if you can live together, work together.
47:2447 minutes, 24 secondsOh, it's awesome. Live a dream, Katie. I really I do acknowledge not everyone can do it, but we seem to have a lot of success in our community. It's really
47:3347 minutes, 33 secondscool. People realize, oh, I can actually be in business with my partner here. And um so I think that's pretty cool, too.
47:4047 minutes, 40 secondsSo maybe people can check out our some of our success stories. I'll see what I mean.
47:4447 minutes, 44 secondsPerfect. Um if you guys have any other questions for Matt or myself, feel free to put them in the comments below. Do all the good things and like, comment,
47:5347 minutes, 53 secondsand share. Um and we will come back to you with any answers that you need. Um again, thank you so much for joining me
48:0048 minuteson this podcast. It's so good to catch up with you. My pleasure, Katie. Loved being here. That was awesome. Thank you. Bye.
