Mastering Community Marketing for Brokers: The "Local Hero" Strategy

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Hi and welcome to Broker Tools, where we unpack the tools, systems, and strategies that help brokers optimize
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the way they work. I'm Katey, your host, and today we are going to discuss how to master community marketing. Joining me
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for this conversation is Steve from Learn Awesome. He has spent years perfecting the art of social marketing,
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not to be confused with social media marketing, but leveraging the local events via speaking, sponsoring, or just
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being a local hero. Deep has helped businesses transform what they know into content nuggets that inspire action.
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From taking live events, recordings, and converting that into online education or having fully built online learning
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experiences. If sharing your awesomeness is important to you, then this episode is for you. Steve, welcome back.
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Dang, what a what an in what an intro, huh? And fun fact, like we tried this we tried this already, but it's got we got
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[ __ ] slapped by uh by the internet and I was like, you know what? I I'm I'm a big universe girl and I actually think
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it's what we needed because as much as we had a good lineup of conversation, one of the things that you mentioned to
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me in our pre discussions was becoming a local hero and I think I've spoken a lot
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about lead generation but you know that's a lot of online stuff and now in the world of AI being with people making
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sure people in your local community just is I guess nourished by your humanness I
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think is probably going to be key as we go forward. Yeah. Yeah. And I think my mood my mood today is reflective of the fact that a
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lot of people don't want to be human anymore. And it's one of the it's one of the things that AI is robbing us of is
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the thing that allows AI not to replace us. We're refusing to do it out of laziness and just maybe fear of what
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people will think if we keep being human. And a lot of people then say the
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same thing like I am having trouble generating leads online. Get offline, go
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outside, go to your local cafe and I will guarantee you that if you had the right system, so you had the right tech
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that helped you capture leads, I could get you 20 leads from your local cafe in
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an hour of conversing with humans in the real world. Like, wake up. It's time.
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Like it's so it's it's scary. The apocalypse is coming. Woohoo.
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Well, at least we don't have to batten down our hatches and hope that it's not like a zombie, you know, like the dead
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beat people walking kind of apocalypse. Yeah. Cuz that's not what we want. But I guess
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this is fundamental because at the end of the day, AI can't pay us like humans
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do. And the more you automate, as great as automation is, and obviously I live
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for it and I live in it, it doesn't pay your way and it doesn't close sales, it doesn't do things. And so conversations,
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community, I think that's the I think that's the challenge, right? Is that you can't exist in 2025 and beyond without
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automation, without AI. So your humanness is going to be augmented by AI
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or tech in some way, shape or form for you to be able to do what you do at
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scale. So in order there'll come a point where you can't just do human [ __ ] You have to bring tech in to be able to
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support you. And the expectation of the world is that the efficiency and the speed that you're able to respond to
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people, you can't do that as a human. You need to be the the tech to support that. But but but but but yeah, the
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other part is to be you you need to do the stuff the robots can't do and people buy from people. And so if everyone if
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everyone's using chat GPT to write their stuff or if everyone's using an automation to book calls into their
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calendar, why would I choose broker A over broker B? It's a human it's a human thing. I either trust someone, I
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resonate with their personality, or I like them as a human being. I had a chat with a financial a financial tech
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startup. They're doing they're going to change the world of financial planning and funds management. Watch that space.
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That's going to that's going to be awesome when that happens. But I made a joke because I did a contract years back
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with JBir and this is like the most elite brand in Australian wealth management. It's almost 200 years old.
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And that's all they do is they rely on that brand. And the advisers who give financial advice and who look after the
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the their clients coins, they are boring as batshit. Like and they know this. And
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if any of you JB advisers are watching, hey, nice to see you. But I told you this face to face anyway. So they're not
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surprised to hear it. But for me, I always joked with him and said, "If I ever had enough money to be a client of
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JB Weir, I would want to talk to the adviser who goes surfing on the weekend, not the one who goes to art galleries
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and drinks fine red wine. I want to know who shredded some green room action down
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the coast on the weekend." And it's that personal connection that would make me choose broker A over broker B. And so
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yeah, the human part is the thing that's going to make you competitive in the future because everyone's going to have
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access to the same tools. So how you make people feel is the is the superpower now.
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Yes. And I couldn't agree more when you were talking about I was thinking my early days of whatever I was doing. So I
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started in social media marketing before most people even knew what a tweet was. I'm I'm so ancient. But my best leads
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came from when I did what they call Wags out here in Brisbane. There's an area called Manley.
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Mhm. And it's a yaching club. Um and every Wednesday you could just board any boat that you wanted. Um and just race it.
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Um I got so many leads just from doing that. And I wasn't even trying. Do you know what I mean? I wasn't selling a
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thing, but because we were just out there having fun racing boats and having random conversations, they brought me
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all and then I think I made a network of like three people who just became my referral partners. Yeah. Amazing.
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And I think this is where doing local things, being part of your community, that's what you're really saying.
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Yeah. 100%. 100%. And referral referral marketing is like it stood the test of
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time, right? It's it stood the test of time for a reason because if you do a good job and people like you, they're
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going to tell people about you. And that's where all the marketing agencies [ __ ] the [ __ ] the bed a little bit and
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go, "Huh, we'd be out of a job if everyone just got good at having conversations with people in their local
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area, but for some reason we don't." And that's the that's the bit that's really concerning is that you you don't have
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permission from me at least anyway. like I'll shut it down real quick when I speak to people to say I want leads but
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I'm not prepared to talk to humans to do it. See you. Good luck. Like enjoy extinction because yeah, you're not
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going to be one of those people that obviously care about your clients enough to, you know, have a chat to them before
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they become your client. Like that's the that's the that's the whole essence of relationship marketing, relationship in
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general is yeah, you've got to you've got to connect with people. If you don't want to connect with people, just sit
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back and watch as your world evaporates and the robots will take over because
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yeah, it's even it's even cool to see like some of our customer service clients that train customer service,
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they're saying that AI has more empathy than humans. We can't even be we can't even succeed at our own thing anymore.
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Robots have learned how to do that. Game over. What would you say are some of the biggest hurdles to getting out into the
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community that would be? And then how should someone so on? because I guess I obviously and you know I'm actually
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highly introverted but um I can have conversations when I feel comfortable and safe to do so and so I think there's
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a lot of probably people who are similar to me who struggle with the first initial step over to get into the
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community 100%. I mean I I get told all the time oh it's so easy for you Steve you've got the gift of the gap. Yeah but that I
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manufactured that years ago like I had I never I I wasn't born with these skills. I just force myself to, you know,
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evolve. And that's by putting yourself in situations. But I think I think the biggest the biggest thing that people have got is they're just fe it's just
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fear of judgment, right? Is that, oh, if I put myself out there, people won't like me. Correct. People don't like me.
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And I love that. I mean, Katey, we've gone through parts where we haven't liked each other at all.
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And then we're back into we're back into the hangout stage, which is cool. That's the beauty of relationships is that not everyone is going to be your customer.
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And if you think in that sort of fearful mindset of going, "Oh, if if I have a
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conversation with someone, they have to become my customer or it's pointless." You're going to miss out on a lot of things and you're not going to connect
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at the level that you need to to build the trust to then have them become your customer. So, I guess that fear of
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judgment is is probably the biggest thing. And the cure for that is just to go out there and start conversing with
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people. Coffee shops are the perfect place for that. Yeah, I would have to completely agree with that. And I think
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I'm just thinking back to my early days of networking. My uncle was who who
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forced me out like he said you have to do this because it's the only way your business is going to go. And so I
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attended one thing and I just decided that if I just make one contact that's
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my win and I can exit. I'm like but having a conversation with someone.
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So, I think my easy win was shouting the person beside me a drink so I could have a conversation, which is really, really
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hard cuz I guess if you're shy or something like that, just starting that
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initial step can be the thing that million million million trillion% but the frame that you come at it from is it
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can't be that you're trying to close deals with these people. You've got to you've got to genuinely make it about the person that you're going to have a
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conversation with. And that then takes that derisks a whole heap of stuff, right? It's like, you know, I was at the
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c I was at my local cafe on the weekend and one of the baristas was wearing a
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velvet t-shirt. That's just that's just asking for me to converse with you. You know, it reminds me of George Castanza
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in Seinfeld where it was the um the Kashmir the Kashmir sweater and the red dot episode. If you can't remember that,
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go and watch it. Binge watch Seinfeld. That'll teach you how to have just random conversations with people in the
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in the street. But yeah, you just look for an opportunity to open to to open the door. And it's like it could be what
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someone's what someone's wearing, what someone's doing, what they're like someone had a ordered like a strawberry
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matcha coffee. What that's not that's not that defies the laws of liquid, right? But I'm curious. So I just go,
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"Hey, sorry to interrupt you. What on earth is that? Should I try that?" And they're like, "No, you like you you if
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you like coffee, try this." And then off you go. Five minutes later, it's like, "Oh, what do you what do you do with yourself?" I do this, I do that.
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And then if you're a broker, after that, you could then ask them a question about something relevant to whether or not
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they would be suitable to be one of your customers, which would be what's your uh
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you know, I I do I do lending or I help people insert problem that you solve.
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How do like what's where are you at with that? And then you're off to the races, right? But you can't just open the batting with, hey, you should be my
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client. Here's my contact info. book a discovery call, you'll get crickets that way. But yeah, if you're curious, you
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you you'll you'll absolutely get a lot more out of it. And I think that is the key thing is curiosity because stepping into any
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opportunity, even if you're a shy person, is just starting with curiosity
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to learn more about the other person, not necessarily what you have to offer. And even if part of this process is
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about lead generation for you, I think brand awareness is part of that whole being part of the community. And
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sometimes you you can do more and get better results from indirect marketing than actual going straight up for lead
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generation, which I think is probably the best next part because this is what you do super well, which is public
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speaking, finding events to do that. And you don't only just do that in live events in local community, you also do
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it in online. Yeah. Yeah. And I think I mean you can do the one to like the onetoone is is is
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really important. So having, you know, a 100 conversations is a hundred chunks of your time to be able to do that versus
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can you get on a stage somewhere? Can you get into an event and captivate a room full of people? Could you go to a
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company? Right? So you just got to you've got to think you got to completely think outside the box is where where are the people that I need
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to talk to? Right? So real pro tip and this comes from this comes from Aussie Home Loans, right? Love them, love them,
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hate them. I I am a massive fan of the way that um the Adam King, the King,
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what a cool name. The way that he operates, the way that he operates marketing at Aussie in the in this in the Victorian state is
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unbelievable. I would love to be an Aussie franchise in the Victorian state because what Adam does really well is he
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looks at where is everyone not going competitively but where is everyone
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indirectly that would eventually need a mortgage from someone at Aussie right and so without giving away any of his
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tricks of the trade but again none of this is none of this is proprietary it's just clever right but I would look at it
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and say hey if you're getting married if you're if you would want to have a great great wedding, right? That that's the
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that's the dream of people. I spoke to someone, they're spending 130 grand on their wedding. Holy hang grenades, Batman.
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That's uh that's that's out of control. So, where do they go? They go to a wedding expo. Wedding exposs
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for wedding planners, florists, events, all of this sort of stuff. I guarantee
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you there is not a mortgage broker in that room offering to help them
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refinance their home to extract some equity to pay for the greatest wedding of all time. if you're there, tada.
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Like, you're welcome. But very rarely are people thinking in that way because
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you're more likely to say, "Oh, I need to go to the home show. I need to go to all of the things where everyone else
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is." And that's why marketing gets so expensive or advertising gets so expensive because, yeah, everyone's
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trying to compete for the same group of people, but the same people that are at the home show are also getting married.
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So, it's just finding other other places to do that. And I know we talked about public speaking, but it sort of shifts
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into going where the masses of your audience are and being able to go one to many instead of just onetoone. Do both,
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but think outside the box as to where you could go to to get eyeballs or get attention or start conversations or get
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people to express their interest in what you do. Yeah. I sure I mentioned public speaking, but the way I look at public
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speaking is those events. Whether you're actually on stage or in a store, you're having to talk to bunches of humans who
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are walking past you and having you're striking up a conversation and you're
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making sure that people know or get to learn something that you can offer 100%. But then the tech comes in at
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those at those group places, right? So you've got something to capture their information, but you've got to give to
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you've got to give to offer, right? So you've got to give something in return for them giving you very precious
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information like their contact information. People don't just give that anymore. So you think you could do something like give something away
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that's completely irrelevant to what you do. Or you could look at ways to how can I give something of value in the form of
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say education in the form of say information or in the form of like a
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comparison where people are able to see holy [ __ ] I didn't know dot dot dot. And
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so if you're the person that gives that bridge or provides that knowledge, then you gain trust, you gain knowledge and
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you gain likability. And then as a result, you get permission to proceed to the next stage of the relationship,
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which five stages later, they may become they may become a customer or a client
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of yours. But it is a it is a slow burn process which is why you have to have
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lots of different fires or coals in the oven to be able to you know keep the plate spinning and not rely on just one
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thing. Yeah. I mean if you're a broker you understand diversification. Um and the
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element of this is what we call social diversification I guess because again the the people who come
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back to you are the people who actually like you. And if they feel like they're part of your community, that changes
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everything. And if you've built this way of relating to people, whether you go to these local
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events and you again, you were giving that wedding planner um story. I want to
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interject that I was a wedding planner at one stage of my life. That was actually my very first entrepreneurial journey. Um, but and so I get that whole
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landscape of what you're actually talking about. And having multiple people advertising in the same
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landscape, that's not really going to help you or serve you. But if you go, say, like you said, a wedding planning
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event and you're helping a niche path that just transforms the way you work.
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And then over the time, because you've gathered their email, you can nurture them through email, then you can send
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them through these other channels like YouTube videos or other educational contents because you've gone through and
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built in this whole community way of relating. Totally nice. If we were to go through this
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whole journey and arc of how to become the local hero of your community, what would you think it would be like if you
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were where to start, where to go next? Well, I know the answer because we build
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local hero hero campaigns for brokers, right? So, so we done the we've done the
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analysis and we've we've understood what it takes, right? And like like any
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superhero, right? So just think about any comic book or superhero, right? That's one of my key uh interview
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questions when I hire when I hire people inside of Learn Awesome is what's your favorite superhero? If you can't answer it, um yeah, you're unlikely to unlikely
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to proceed to the next round of of of hiring. But if you think about if you think about the hero arc of a comic book
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or a superhero, if you think about Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, whoever, insert your favorite superhero here.
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What is it about them that has made them a hero? And it's usually their origin
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story, right? So story and marketing is is weaponizable and like pouring a good
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story and a good story arc is like the petrol that you pour on the flame to get
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a raging fire of um of attention. But yeah, what is I guess the question that
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you have to ask yourself is what is your origin story that got you to becoming a
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broker? Now, fun fact, if you lead with, "I don't give a [ __ ] about my clients.
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I'm just here for the trail, bro." Local area marketing is not for you. Go
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back to go back to digital and pay 500 bucks for a qualified lead and hope that
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you retain them. But yeah, it's not a place for you if you're just if you just got into this to make a truckload of
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money. Uh it's not a it's not a judgment on your reason. It's just this isn't suitable for you because you'd never be
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able to authentically pull it off. You might be able to [ __ ] people for a while, but it's just the wrong reason to
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go into a story arc like this. But if you have a if you and I think it's like I look at it maybe another way to look
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at it is your altruistic reason to be a capitalist, right? So I think altruistic
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uh altruistic capitalism is the beautiful balance, right? is you you need to have a reason for doing what you
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do as well as making money because the more money that you make the more impact that you can create altruistically and
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altruism is basically just like you know your reason for existing and giving back and supporting people helping and all
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that sort of stuff. So yeah, I think there needs to be that balance, right? Is it's okay to make money because the
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more that you make, the more impact that you can have, but you need to have a reason for existing. And that's your origin story. And if you can capture
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that using a tool like Riverside 14-day free trial, # you know, affiliate link
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in the comments of this of the show notes from Katey over here. But you could use something like this. And what
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you what you find here is that the answers hide in plain sight. Podcasts are so successful. recordings and videos
20:19
of podcast interviews are so successful is because I'm not speaking directly at the camera trying to sell you something.
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Instead, I've been asked a question and I've been given time to sort of share it in my own words. Now, if you if and
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Katey spoken to Victor previously to this, Katey spoken to a heap of other people. They would answer the same
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question differently. And the difference or the delta between the way that I answer something and the way that
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someone else answers something is the opportunity for people who resonate with me to like me and people who resonate
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with someone else to like someone else. And if we're all the same, then why don't we just sit back and let AI take
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over? Like that's the that's the bit. So these vehicles are hidden in plain
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sight, right? This is a vehicle that you can use, but why you do what you do is the thing that separates you. And that's
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why out of all the 22,000 brokers in this country, everyone is going to have a slightly different origin story. And
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that origin story is going to be the thing that helps you connect with people that become your customers eventually,
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as well as disqualify people who are not going to resonate with you at all, which will save you a lot of time and effort.
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That's a that's a wiser Steve pro tip. Yes. And I guess this is the thing
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because obviously over the last episodes all the conversations have been a version of lead generation or marketing
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of sorts, but they there's just so many ways you can do this. And how do you take that
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ecosystem and make it work best for you? um is one of those things and where
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being I guess this local hero means that I I actually wrote this down somewhere as as in you're actually utilising your
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community like as in the people maybe in your area to do your brand marketing for you because they're like oh I saw this
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dude at this event I think you should talk to him I have no idea about it but because it was such a random event one
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it's memorable it's stuck in your mind that that person exists then in the rolodex of conversations because you're
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like a human Google. Yep. It's come out. And I guess that's the
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whole purpose of being in graded. Um but like as in being part of your community
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in a deep way, that can make all the difference. 100%. Yeah. 100%. And it's a case of if
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you just focus on having the conversations and you either have the tech to support it or you have an agency
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that specialises in local area activations and campaigns, then that's
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your justification to just focus on the conversations, right? But if you want to try and do it all, then there's just
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some, you know, some paths that you have to trend. You have to experiment a bit. But the beauty of it is is that
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conversations don't attract the currency that you guys care the most about, which is money. So, a lot of brokers that we
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talk about when it comes to like launching a local area campaign is they're like, "Oh, you know, it's expensive." Or it's like, "Oh, you got
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to spend $2,000 a month on Facebook ads. Oh, it's too expensive." Cool. The cafe down the road that you get your coffee
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at every day. You could spend 30 minutes of your time. So, trade a different asset instead of cash. trade time and
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see how many people you can connect with. If you really want to like earn the right to have a conversation, buy me
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a coffee and I'll give you 30 seconds to talk to me about what you do. So, there's there's so many arguments for
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why brokers who are like, I need more clients, but it's just it it baffles me sometimes that the clients are hiding in plain
23:45
sight. They're sitting at they're sitting in line with you at the local fish and chip shop on a Friday night waiting for their dim sims and potato
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cakes, right? they're waiting for their soy oxygen free latte at the cafe on a
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Saturday or they're at the footy ground watching their kids do oskick or uh play cricket or anything like that. So all of
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this stuff is there, but it it's it still interests me as a, you know, as I
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guess like in in the world of human behavior as to why if it's there, why don't people do it? And it's it's that
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combination of not knowing and and maybe a bit of fear of fear of judgment and
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losing that touch with with society a little bit or humanity maybe. And I think that I guess at the
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end of the day, this would be good for people to tell us. Why do you think if you're not out in your community doing
24:32
it, why? Because I guess what you're ultimately saying is one, you do need to have a why because you're not going to
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be consistent if you don't even have a why because that helps you overcome so many other hurdles. But again coming
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back to your cafe I remember somebody I know who who was a financial planner but
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I mean obviously the industries cross over but they made us more like
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assessment offers and they would sit in their cafe and do those assessments. So if you even partner with the cafe and
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say hey every Friday I'm happy to offer anybody you can still be part of a
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community in that way as well. Absolutely. Yep. And the way that you do that is super important because you need
25:14
the cafe owner. So I've done the research. So again, because we do these as a as a service, I've gone and spoken
25:20
to all of the different places that you could potentially activate. Now, it's all well and good that you think you
25:26
deserve the right to have conversations with people in someone else's business, but you are in someone else's house. So,
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I would encourage you to very, very quickly, if you're thinking about doing something like this, go and have a chat
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to the owner of the place that you want to plant yourself and start having conversations and at least let them know
25:45
what you're doing, but also look at ways to make them want you to be there. For
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example, if I gave you $1,000, how many cups could you put my face on?
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There's a question for you. Because all of a sudden then there's something in it for the cafe, right? And as if as if in
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2025 a cafe where everything's competitive, cost of goods is through the roof, it is unbelievably difficult
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to run a profitable cafe. Would a cafe owner say, "No, I do not want $1,000."
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So, so again, you can pay to play to speed up the process. Or you can go a
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little bit slower, but you might have to just be mindful of being told to leave a facility if you are being a bit of a
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menace having conversations with too many people. A conversation, a conversation [ __ ] if you will.
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Balance. Everything is balanced. Balance, right? Or you can speedrun the whole you can speedrun the whole thing
26:41
by paying someone to do it with you, right? That's that and I think that's that's the time scale, right? is that
26:47
you can DIY and you just need the knowledge and the path and off you go. Cool. You can get it done with you. So,
26:56
you can have someone sit with you and support you through this or you can just get it done for you and all you have to do is just show up. Like there's there's
27:02
so many ways, but the currencies that you trade are ranging from time to money
27:08
or both. And I guess at the end of the day, if you're going to spend your time in your own mental head thinking about
27:14
lead generation, you may as well instead of being thinking, actually be active in your community and finding the places
27:20
and people who actually want to hear what you have to say, even if it's indirectly or through association. It's
27:26
really one knowing how first to get out into your community, but then like what
27:32
you had mentioned earlier around tech stacks is having that whole tech stack to support the next part. So this is
27:39
your marketing funnels where after you've done the online conversation, where do they go next?
27:44
Yeah. Yeah. And that has to align and just be a couple couple of things have
27:49
come to mind there. It has to align with the problem that you solve for the
27:54
community, right? So, the community doesn't give a [ __ ] that you're a mortgage broker. I'm so sorry to burst
28:01
if that bursts your bubble. If that if if you have a visceral reaction to that, good. Like, that's that's good. You're
28:06
you're still alive. Fantastic. But I've hit a nerve for some people because they don't give a [ __ ] that you're a broker, right? And I I've spoken to a lot of
28:13
brokers who say, "We want to be the trusted adviser at all stages of our clients wealth journey. You do not have
28:19
permission to be anywhere near my wealth if you just have a conversation with me off the bat at a cafe, right? You have
28:25
to earn that right. And the first way that you earn that right is you give me something. You've got to give me something to prove to me that you know
28:31
what you're doing. Then maybe you have to do something else. Maybe you have to save me some money. Maybe you have to,
28:37
you know, look after me. Don't send me a freaking Christmas card and say that you've supported me when you've not even
28:42
spoken to me for the whole year. you're welcome for the trail, but for me as a customer, I need to know and trust that
28:50
you are the person for me because if not, I'll go to the person who invests the time and the effort to make sure
28:57
that they actually value me as a me as a client, me as a customer. And that's where as you get bigger, it's harder to
29:04
do that on a personal level. So that's where you need tech to do a lot of the heavy lifting, a lot of the manual, you
29:09
know, the mundane tasks to allow you to be more human. So, I think that's really
29:14
important. And then using your time wisely, be very aware of the networking
29:19
groups out there, right? Because that is just a glorified circle jerk where everyone tries to sell to each other.
29:24
So, you'd be having a 20-minute conversation with Barry the builder, but Barry's trying to also simultaneously
29:30
size you up to sell you a new extension on the back of your property. So, just be careful there of that. There is there
29:37
are good networking groups out there, but just be mindful of like the intentions of other people being there
29:43
are the same for you, which is I want to grow my business. So, that can really waste a lot of a lot of your time if um
29:50
if you're thinking that they're really interested in you when in actual fact they're just trying to wait for you to
29:55
stop talking so that they can sell you their [ __ ] Yeah. And I guess and I think most times people have had these conversations
30:02
through I guess the marketing world, but if you've never entered the marketing world, they liken it to dating. Do you
30:07
know what I mean? Like you can't pitch your whole suite of offering to a person
30:13
right at the get-go. They need to warm up to get to know and like you over time. And if you think of
30:20
it as a whole concierge process of c uh I said concage but you know like that
30:27
old school dating system courting that's the word I was looking for you know it is time and touch points
30:36
and Victor and I was just saying this on the other one I think it's he said he he caught it like the 7-Eleven um but it's
30:43
like you need at least seven to 13 touch points I understand now before people
30:49
can know, like, and trust you and move through that. Yep. And in real life can speedrun that.
30:55
So that's that's very digitally orientated with people needing to see
31:00
content. See, and that that also then opens Pandora's box of you have to then post organically. These marketing peeps
31:06
that are like you have to post three times a day on all channels. like they can get stuffed because if you do the
31:12
story arc right and you nail your reason for existing and that resonates with your audience, you'll speedrun that a
31:17
heap quicker, right? And if you can then tie that into the problem that you solve for your ideal customer and then stitch
31:25
that into a compelling 30 second statement, you win. Like you'll you'll
31:31
you'll absolutely destroy anyone who's still trying to figure out that stuff. If you can articulate your reason for
31:37
existing the problem that you solve how you and your mechanism for solving it you win. Yeah. Actually the more you say that and
31:44
in you know condensing time. I used to do PR for a guy who um ran a pickup
31:51
group. Um he was a magician. So this was another business. I ran his magician
31:56
side. So, just for context awareness, but he said you could take a person on a
32:03
date seven times or take them to seven different locations within a day and and that would make them feel like they had
32:09
gotten to know you over time. Obviously, in a business sense, you don't want to necessarily do that type of arc and
32:15
and things like that. But it is those types of touch points where you know, you could have a conversation again at
32:22
coffee, but then you connect back at midday saying, "Hey, it was great to have a conversation." That's your second touch point. Um if you need and then you
32:30
know later down the week, oh I saw I found this video and I thought this was relevant to you and then it's just
32:37
feeding in within a week you would have had those seven touch points. Spot on. Yep.
32:43
Congruency is super important. Right. So so so the underpin there is that your
32:48
intentions cannot shift. And if you've if you've presented a version A of
32:54
yourself in real life and then version B appears or I go to your website and I
32:59
hit a 404 error and the page doesn't exist or your your what you've told me doesn't connect online then that
33:06
inongruency is actually going to work against you and that's actually going to in enhance distrust. So this is the
33:14
augmented by tech, right? Is you need to have your house in order before you start rolling this out because
33:21
people will be looking for you to not be who you say you are and they'll find
33:26
anything that they can that that that they can hold over you. So be aware of that is that if your reason for existing
33:32
is to genuinely like because maybe you were maybe you were used and abused by a bank and as a result of that you didn't
33:39
want the rest of your life or anyone else to suffer the same way that you suffered. The last day before settlement
33:44
the bank changed their rules on you. You got shafted, lost heaps of money. You you want to avoid that for everyone.
33:50
Now, if that's your Robin Hood sort of hero arc story that you're doing and then you go onto your website and you're
33:56
a raging capitalist showing off your Rolex and your boats and all this other stuff, thanking your customers with a
34:01
Christmas card that's like, "Thanks for your trail. See you later." You you're going to struggle to have that trust. But if the digital side of
34:08
you is aligned with the real side of you, off to the races, right? Yeah. And I guess from a time
34:14
consumption point of view, a lot of people think going out in public is time. So, how would you suggest to make
34:20
it effortless? How would how would you make going out in public effortless? Well, I guess because a lot of from I
34:28
guess the experience I've had and from other people in this situation, it's
34:33
I've got to go now do this and then it's another thing on the do to-do list and all of those things. I'm sure that
34:39
there's a way to not overwhelm yourself. Sure. Maybe go and just go and work at
34:45
your local cafe for a couple hours on a Friday or a Tuesday or a Wednesday and do that every week and then set a goal
34:52
to have a chat with three people that walk in the cafe. That's it. Right? You've got to recognise that this is a
34:59
very lucrative exercise when done well. And so if you care if you care about
35:04
growing your business, if you care about scaling it, then it just becomes a part of the tax of doing business. And you
35:11
can't you can't you can speedrun a lot of it. You can't speedrun the actual conversation piece. You have to have
35:18
those unless you don't want to be the face of your business. But that would be a silly thing to do. Like that's where
35:24
you and your story versus you and your brand story. No one gives a [ __ ] about
35:30
um Magical Mike's brokerage and that brand story. They care about Magical
35:36
Mike. What made Magical Mike build that business? That's the story that they care about. And that personal
35:42
relationship is the thing that's going to move the needle. Not at Mike's magical, whimsical mortgage broking
35:48
firm, we're committed to blah blah blah. Here's our mission and vision statement. Whoopde-doo.
35:53
It's I'm going straight to the about page and I want to see a video that tells me about why Mike, Magic Mike, got
36:01
into the mortgage industry, and I want to meet I want to meet all the stuff that's interesting to you, right?
36:07
Because maybe I'm a maybe I'm a pet lover, right? And so I love when people
36:12
and some so so some people have overused this, but if I had a dog, my dog would
36:17
be on the learn awesome website as the chief cute officer or some like some random funny [ __ ] like that. But I'd go
36:23
one step further and I'd actually make like a AI augmented video of my dog talking as a key player in my community.
36:31
But if I'm a dog lover and I've got a mortgage, guess who I'm going to give my
36:36
guess who I'm going to give my refi to? I'm going to give it to Magic Mike and Buster the Golden Retriever because I
36:43
saw him on your website and then I saw Buster and Mike at the cafe because you bring the dog to have coffee with. And
36:49
then you put a little QR code around the dog's collar. Scan here to get a better deal. Boom. You're off to the races,
36:54
right? That is that's worth a million dollars right there. 100%. I could sell that QR codes on
37:01
dogs. Actually, there is a dog tag that does have it, but it's more for their medical information than it is for businesses.
37:07
Yeah. Yeah. That's that's that that's that balance between between that between that and
37:12
tech. But but yeah, that that would be the fastest way that you could just inject that into your life. If you're
37:17
going out and getting a takeaway coffee, switch it for a dine in and spend two
37:22
hours just doing some of your admin that you have to do anyway at the cafe. And if anyone interesting walks past, just
37:29
be like, "Hey, how you doing? What's happening?" People got to wait for coffee, right? People got to wait for their takeaways. What are they going to
37:34
do? Scroll on Instagram or have a chat with you? And you can probably put like you can see how people are. So it's not like
37:41
you're interrupting someone's day because if they obviously are not interested in a conversation, don't engage. That's not the best person to
37:47
talk to. Yeah, absolutely. But you need something to have a go at. So it's like, are they wearing something cool? Do they have
37:54
like, "Oh, I haven't seen an Android phone since 2002. How's that go? How's
37:59
that work for you?" Boom. Like, you've just you've just got to find something to start the conversation. And once the
38:05
conversation starts, you'll know whether or not they want to keep going. But there's no harm in having a crack at
38:11
engaging, right? Worst thing. Yeah. They're like, "Fuck off." Okay. and you just put your head back down and you
38:16
start slaying the keys on your keyboard doing admin, which is what you're I guess ultimately
38:21
hopefully there to do anyway. Correct. So you either way you win. It's just a a way to give like your computer
38:27
can be your little safety blanket till you're ready to leave it at home and just walk the streets and stop people and and and talk to them.
38:33
Completely. And I guess the way I see what you have spoken about and I guess this hopefully is a helpful thing for
38:40
anybody who is looking to become the local hero of their community is that if we think about it as a whole process
38:46
from start to finish. Sure, you're going out and having a coffee with the person. You might have struck up a conversation,
38:52
but then hopefully you're logging some key pieces of information that you know about them if you've hopefully got their
38:58
either LinkedIn or other contacts. So obviously consent matters to be in
39:04
further conversation with them, but then it start with curiosity, but it actually is about fl following through in care
39:11
because if you don't care about the person and you're really just there for the lead, it's not really going to translate over time. They're just going
39:17
to notice and feel like that they're being used for an opportunity rather than being engaged in an opportunity.
39:24
I'll give you an example. I'll give you an example. Right? So you could you could be like, "Oh, hey, how's the weather today?" Great. Oh, hey. Have you
39:30
got a home loan? Yeah. Okay. Gotta go see you. Bye. Like use like useless conversation. Yeah. Whereas it's like,
39:36
oh, hey, really love really love your velvet t-shirt. That's really cool. You're a big deal. Oh, thanks so much.
39:42
Um, what are you what are you doing here? I do this. And then when you get the opportunity to explain what you do,
39:48
instead of saying I'm a mortgage broker, let's use the financial planner because I've got a good example for that, which is an example of how we do it. is I'm I
39:56
work in finance and I'm committed to saving this community this much money by
40:01
overpaying on insuranceances. Do you have life insurance or do you have those insuranceances floating around? No. Oh,
40:08
okay. Well, cool. Or if yes, well, I'd love to like here here's my little thing that you can fill out that has I can
40:15
tell you whether or not you're overpaying. That's my commitment to that's my commitment to everyone this week is I'm just making sure that you're
40:21
not overpaying. The end. Nice. The end. the simple optin to having I
40:27
guess that free assessment. Yeah, free assessment is great, but it's got to be tied to something, right? Just just just pumping pumping free
40:33
assessments in people's face, not going to work. But if you weaponize it with a
40:39
story and address their problem or their pain, then that's where it becomes
40:46
really really powerful. And that's yeah that's the that's the real that's where the real gains are won in the in the
40:52
community is being able to do that. Yes. And as you were saying that it made me realise that the gift of being in a
40:59
community is that there are a lot of other business leaders in the community. So if you've already won a person who
41:05
happens to be a business leader in their community then they're going to invite you to their their network which is that
41:11
expansion of local hero or heroin. M yeah and it's worthwhile it's worthwhile
41:16
right because if you think about the barbecue the Friday night barbecue the mom's group that's have catching up for for brunch on a on a Friday morning like
41:24
are you are you the person that gets referred to when people say hey does
41:30
anyone know a dot dot dot insert your profession here if you're not that person in your community you're not
41:37
doing a good enough job and there's no amount of Facebook ads that could get get you that position what gets you that
41:44
position is the way that you treat the people who are currently in your world
41:49
or the people that come into your world because if I have a good experience with you, I am very likely to tell my friends
41:55
and family about the experience. The example would be and in the mortgage world, right, I think annual reviews are
42:01
the biggest like joke that you could do to a customer and the most reactive thing that you could do as as part of
42:08
your retention strategy. The reason I say that is because what you're doing is you're basically saying, "I've done four
42:14
fifths of nothing." See, I've paired back my uh my cursing because, you know,
42:19
I get I get swary when I get when I get passionate about stuff. But I've Hey,
42:24
I've done four fifths of nothing about you this whole year, but I feel obligated to just show some value to
42:30
you. So, hey, I'm going to book you in for an annual review. Um, by the way, here's an attached form. Can you fill
42:35
out if anything's changed in your history, please? and I'll see you there cuz I'm really busy. What a what a what
42:41
a terrible experience. Versus you could be proactive and you could actually call
42:46
them and just say, "Hey, I've been monitoring your loan all year and what I've noticed today is that you're
42:54
actually overpaying by three grand a year. I don't need you to come in, but I
42:59
just want you to know that I'm looking out for you. If you want to do something about this, I just need you to give me
43:05
approval and I'll go and get that done for you." So the difference being is that second option I would go and tell
43:10
every like I'd be I'd be sitting around and be like what happened this week? Oh my god you'll never believe this. My broker called me and like stopped me
43:18
from overpaying by three grand. It was incredible. I wasn't even expecting the call out of nowhere just like hey I've
43:24
got your back like this is what's happening. And so there's two ways that you can do that. You can do that
43:30
manually. So you could you could be monitoring your loans all day every day and like have admin do it or pay someone
43:37
offshore or onshore to do it for you. That's silly. Like you don't need that because there's tech like Stride that
43:44
does say, you know, monitoring loan books and making sure that your the
43:49
customer's loans are still competitive, right? So that's where you would just be like, "Oh, hey, I I've been looking
43:55
after you." Boom. There's the demonstration, right? And that's a loyalty creation moment that then gives you the the spotlight at the
44:03
conversation table around the barbecue. And what's that what that's worth to you is I did some numbers. Like I crunched
44:08
some crunch some numbers, but there's so much variability in the home loan or mortgage space that it's like anyone
44:14
that picks a number gets crucified. So bring your pitchforks. I don't care. But effectively the value of someone over 10
44:21
years like a customer, one customer that you've got is worth about 50 grand because the combination of trail that
44:27
you get on their loan by just retaining them in general. Cool. But the refinance cycle over 10 years is is approximately
44:35
like three times there'll be a refinance during that 10-year period, which is backed on sort of like data and stuff
44:40
from the the MFAA and the FBA and a couple of other research papers that came out. So that's cool. And Katey's
44:46
nodding her head. is more equipped with this knowledge than I am. So, I'm on the right track. But then, not only that is
44:51
that if you do a good job with people over that 10-year period, you might acquire one referral a year. And that's
44:57
being really generous, right? Like that's that's being really conservative. You might get more, but of that, that's
45:02
then worth one customer retained is like 50 grand worth of worth of income over a 10-year period. Now, that's really
45:09
important because the cost to acquire new customers versus retain existing ones is staggeringly more and it keeps
45:18
getting more and more expensive because the cost of attention is getting more and more expensive. So, you it's so easy
45:24
to just do the right thing by your existing peeps, retain them, and then get the benefit of being the star of the
45:29
show at the parties and at the barbecues and at the uh at the the mom's group brunches, right?
45:35
Yeah. But it's all local. It all starts, it all starts and finishes locally. So, so
45:40
I think the moral of the story is like you need to start focusing if your intention is to grow your business and
45:46
have more conversations and get more leads without having to be at the mercy of the marketing agencies that say just
45:54
three more months and you know the algorithm or Andromeda's like change this and that's why we're not getting you results. Maybe it's just because
46:00
you're like urinating in a pool of like the same people trying to do the same
46:06
thing in your particular category. And so yeah, walk outside, touch grass, get
46:11
a coffee, and have conversations, you win. Yeah. And that's the humanity like as in
46:17
this is where humans get to be humans because humans sell to humans, AI don't. If people wanted to continue to have the
46:23
conversation with you, Steve, where should they go? Yeah, there's a baby version of me on LinkedIn. So you could go find me on
46:29
LinkedIn. You could go to learn awesome website. You can book some time there. There's some cool little digital experiences that float around on the
46:35
learn awesome website. We've got a choose your own adventure video. There'll be some other ways that you can have a chat with me. But yeah, we we we
46:41
love this stuff because at the end of the day, the the only reason that I've had any level of success in my career is
46:46
from the relationships and the um and the conversations that I've had with people. It was not natural for me, but
46:52
it's become something that has become a superpower. And it become a superpower for you. You've just got to put in the
46:58
reps and do the practice. So yeah, I welcome anyone to reach out, have a chat if this resonated with you and yeah,
47:04
look forward to creating some more local area heroes. Nice. Again, thank you for joining us on
47:10
the pod. If you do have questions, feel free to reach out. If you want us to have another conversation on any other
47:15
parts of the conversation that we already had, let us know and we are probably more than happy to do that.
47:21
Again, thank you, Steve, for joining me on this conversation about how to become a local hero. And we will catch up with
47:27
you soon. Cool.