Weekend Favs June 29

Weekend Favs June 29 written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

I don’t go into depth about the finds, but I encourage you to check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from an online source or one I took on the road.

• Referral AI– a platform that leverages relationship intelligence to help B2B sales and marketing teams map their network connections, generate leads, and optimize their outreach by identifying and utilizing the strongest relationships within their ecosystem
• Katteb–  an AI writing tool that generates fact-checked content, supporting over 110 languages. It offers in-text citations, advanced proofreading, plagiarism detection, and text-to-image conversion to enhance content accuracy and engagement.
• NeuronWriter– an advanced content optimization tool that uses semantic SEO and NLP to help create high-ranking content. It offers features like content planning, competitor analysis, AI writing, and content scoring to improve SEO performance and streamline content creation.

These are my weekend favs; I would love to hear about some of yours – Connect with me on Linkedin!

If you want to check out more Weekend Favs you can find them here.

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Raise Profits with People Magic: Transform Your Business with Engaging Communities

Raise Profits with People Magic: Transform Your Business with Engaging Communities written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast with John Jantsch

 

In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interviewed Gina Bianchini, the CEO and founder of Mighty Networks, a community platform that leverages advanced technology and AI to connect people within community courses, events, and paid memberships. She shares her insights on how businesses can transform their approach by fostering engaging online communities, ultimately raising profits and enhancing member experiences.

Key Takeaways

According to Gina Bianchini, it all begins with “people magic” and how leveraging advanced software and AI can revolutionize online communities. She explains that the key to a thriving community is not the size but the quality of member connections. By focusing on building relationships between members, marketing agencies can create a self-sustaining network that becomes more valuable with each new member.

She also emphasizes that an online community should help members achieve progress and build meaningful relationships. She shares that the most successful communities are those that address transitions in members’ lives, such as starting a new job or moving to a new city, and provide support during these pivotal moments. This approach not only enhances member engagement but also boosts retention and revenue.

In this episode, Gina Bianchini shares an enlightening case study for creating and maintaining vibrant online communities that drive growth and profitability. She also mentions the importance of having a clear purpose and using AI to facilitate introductions and interactions among members. This episode offers a unique solutions for businesses looking to harness the power of online communities to elevate their brand and achieve sustainable growth.

 

Questions I ask Gina Bianchini:

[02:25] Would you say Ning was ahead of its time?

[03:50] Would you say a platform like Facebook then was another advancement of Ning or completely derivative?

[07:53] How would you define community?

[14:03] How important is having a clear and compelling purpose in designing your community?

[17:13] How do you manage having so many feature requests?

[21:18] Do you have an interesting case study of how someone achieved great financial success starting with a community?

[24:44] Is there someplace you want to invite people to learn more about Mighty and connect with you?

 

 

 

More About Gina Bianchini:

• Connect with Gina Bianchini on LinkedIn
• Visit her Website 

 

Like this show? Click on over and give us a review on iTunes, please!

Connect with John Jantsch on LinkedIn

 

This episode of The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by ActiveCampaign

Try ActiveCampaign free for 14 days with our special offer. Exclusive to new customers—upgrade and grow your business with ActiveCampaign today!

 

 

Duct Tape Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00): I was like, I found it. I found it. This is what I've been looking for. I can honestly say it has genuinely changed the way I run my business. It's changed the results that I'm seeing. It's changed my engagement with clients. It's changed my engagement with the team. I couldn't be happier. Honestly. It's the best investment I ever made. What

John Jantsch (00:17): You just heard was a testimonial from a recent graduate of the Duct Tape Marketing certification intensive program for fractional CMOs marketing agencies and consultants just like them. You could choose our system to move from vendor to trusted advisor, attract only ideal clients, and confidently present your strategies to build monthly recurring revenue. Visit DTM world slash scale to book your free advisory call and learn more. It's time to transform your approach. Book your call today, DTM World slash scale.

(01:03): Hello and welcome to another episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. This is John Jantsch. My guest today is Gina Bianchini. She's the CEO and founder of Mighty Networks, a community platform that powers people magic. I want to hear about people magic. It's an advanced technology and AI that connects the most relevant and interesting people to each other in the context of community courses, events and paid membership. She's also the author of the Wall Street Journal, bestseller, purpose, design a Community and Change Your Life, A Step-by-Step Guide to Finding Your Purpose and Making It Matter. So Gina, welcome to the show.

Gina Bianchini (01:40): Thank you for having me.

John Jantsch (01:42): So I read in your bio, I didn't read it on air here, but in doing a little research that you grew up in Cupertino, I didn't know anybody actually grew up in Cupertino.

Gina Bianchini (01:51): They have many people have grown up in Cupertino, California, which now is very actually starting in the early eighties. It was really well known for Apple.

John Jantsch (02:03): Well, that's what I mean. That's what I was going to say. That's what I thought it was. I thought it was Apple.

Gina Bianchini (02:06): Yeah. No, my grandparents moved there in the fifties. Oh,

John Jantsch (02:10): Wow. I have to tell you, I had a, again, I didn't put in your bio. I had a Ning community in about 2006.

Gina Bianchini (02:18): Oh, thank you for that

John Jantsch (02:19): Seven. And at that time it was probably the coolest thing ever. Right. What happened to Ning? Were you sort of ahead of its time?

Gina Bianchini (02:29): I think it was a little bit ahead of its time for sure. The other thing is we just didn't know what the right business model was, so we thought it was an advertising based business. And what's interesting is if as any entrepreneur want to do, when you look back with sort of the 2020 hindsight, it was the same point in time where Shopify and other platforms that were SaaS-based coming up and we were a SaaS company and we just didn't know it.

John Jantsch (02:59): Yeah, yeah. I think there were a lot of people that saw it as really, it's kind of the same thing, didn't really know what to do with it to get the most out of it. And I don't think actually online community was quite a thing yet. People were still,

Gina Bianchini (03:15): Oh, I don't know about that. When you think about forums as really sort of the 1.0 equivalent, what Ning was really the Web 2.0 equivalent of that same desire and that same behavior, and I would say my career has just been what is 3, 4, 5 in the future of that same fundamental goal of how do we use the internet? How do we use connected technologies to bring people together around the things that are most important to 'em?

John Jantsch (03:50): Would you say a platform like Facebook then was another advancement of that or really completely derivative?

Gina Bianchini (03:57): Well, so here's the thing. I think what Facebook started as and what Facebook is today are two very different things. I would say Facebook groups were really built for college students who already knew each other and remain something that is really designed for people who already know each other. Otherwise, there would be more and more investment in Facebook groups and specifically how do you create value for people who are just meeting for the first time. And that is not something that Facebook has prioritized. A lot of great stuff happening at Meta overall, that's just not an area that is important to them.

John Jantsch (04:37): And I see a lot of hunger for people wanting to create the kind of groups that you can create, say, with Mighty Network that are moving, actually jumping off of

Gina Bianchini (04:47): Facebook. Funny enough, I see it too. I see it. I see

John Jantsch (04:50): It too. Maybe you saw it a few years ago, actually. I'm thinking maybe. So where are we then? Is there a new state of community today? I mean, obviously technology has advanced it, but it's also human behavior, right?

Gina Bianchini (05:02): Yeah. So it absolutely, I look at this moment as the beginning days of a community renaissance, and specifically when you think about what is the fullest expression of communities online and ultimately in the real world, because we flipped in many cases how people actually meet new people. They meet them online first and then in real life. And that's something that we've really paid attention to at Mighty Networks. But fundamentally, the things that we can now do to have software play the role of amazing hosts are incredible. I'm having more fun with what I do and what we do at Mighty than I have at any point in time working in this very specific lane of, and it's not really, I don't think about it as online communities, it's really community. It's how do you help brands and creators and entrepreneurs create their own network effects?

(06:08): Something that gets more valuable with every member who joins. And so specifically what we're seeing, and this is really what we talk about and think about it mighty as People Magic is how do we use advanced software? And yes, AI to introduce the most relevant people to each other to break the ice, to encourage people to come back or work on things together or really think about it as take quests and go on quests together. And the things that we can now do with software just simply have not been done before. And so when you start to think about the fact that probably when you think of community platforms or online course platforms or digital product platforms, they were all built for an era of people who already knew each other and they have been essentially jerry rigged on some level for communities where the value is in people getting to know each other. That's really where we start at Mighty, our whole thing is how do we help people who should know each other, meet, build relationships, find value, find comfort, find insights, find joyful experiences with other members, and use the very best of technology to make those things a reality. So that's what we do in creating people magic. Again, we're just at a point in time where we are now working on things that haven't been done before, and that's really exciting.

John Jantsch (07:53): How do you define community? Is there a specific element, symptom, whatever we want to call it, that actually says this is a community as opposed to a bunch of fans?

Gina Bianchini (08:10): So look, a bunch of fans can be a community. They could also not be a community. And so here is the definition that I use an audience is I talk out at you, you might talk back at me, but no one's actually talking to each other. No one is meeting or building relationships with each other in the comment section of an Instagram Live. Maybe there's something in a group dm, but probably not. It is not a platform that is designed for people to build relationships with each other or find value from each other. Community in my definition is a more valuable asset, which is, and I would say more valuable for the members who join the community as well as for the people who host that community. And that is a way for me to bring people together for them to meet and build relationships with each other.

(09:09): So a very sort of simple question you can ask yourself is, am I meeting people here or is it all about one person? And if it's all about one person, that's an audience. And what we know to be true is that audiences by definition are less valuable than creating a community where people are actually building relationships with each other. And I'll share something that was a total shocker to me. I'd kind of known it, but we'd never really had the data before to prove it out. And then we got the data, which is my data science team at Mighty can predict now with 93% accuracy, whether a community and the way I sort of think that is a community. And then there are ways to monetize that community, paid memberships, online courses, challenges, events. So I'll just use community as that catchall whether that community will succeed or fail, meaning will it survive for long periods of time or will it sort of die on the vine?

(10:15): And it has absolutely nothing to do with who started it. It has absolutely nothing to do with the number of members who are in it. It has absolutely nothing to do with the volume of content or the rate of members joining. It has everything to do with the number of member connections being made, member connections being defined as threaded comments, so people responding to each other, dms. So direct messages, group messages. So what motivated us to really dive into and spend all of our time, all of our resources, all of our expertise around getting even smarter about people. Magic was that insight of your members need to actually build relationships with each other for you to create something that is recurring revenue, that is compounding growth. Because it turns out if you get extraordinary engagement, which is really what is the result or consequence of people actually building relationships with each other, then you're going to get people coming back.

(11:28): So you have built-in retention, but even better is when they keep coming back, they're going to get better results. They're going to build different practices, they're going to develop different habits. They're going to have different insights that are going to allow them, for example, in a professional community to go negotiate a raise or find a new job that is a better fit for them, or take on new and become a manager or decide that they don't want to be a manager and negotiate a phenomenal role for them as an individual contributor. So you look at that well, that then gets people extraordinary results. It gets them things that are nearly impossible to get on our own, certainly a lot harder. And what do people do when they get extraordinary results? They talk about it. They talk about it to people that don't know about that community and how valuable that community is. And so they bring new people in so you get longer engagement, which equals retention. You get people actually also if they're sticking around longer, want to go to that next program, want to buy that next thing. And ultimately are your sales force for bringing new people in without you having to do a lot of work.

John Jantsch (12:45): It's my pleasure to welcome a new sponsor to the podcast. Our friends at ActiveCampaign. ActiveCampaign helps small teams power big businesses with the must have platform for intelligent marketing automation. We've been using ActiveCampaign for years here at Duct Tape Marketing to power our subscription forms, email newsletters and sales funnel drip campaigns. ActiveCampaign is that rare platform that's affordable, easy to use, and capable of handling even the most complex marketing automation needs. And they make it easy to switch. They provide every new customer with one-on-one personal training and free migrations from your current marketing automation or email marketing provider. You can try ActiveCampaign for free for 14 days and there's no credit card required. Just visit activecampaign.com/duct tape. That's right. Duct Tape Marketing podcast listeners who sign up via that link. We'll also receive 15% off an annual plan. That's active campaign.com/duct tape. Now, this offer is limited to new active campaign customers only. So what are you waiting for? Fuel your growth, boost revenue and save precious time by upgrading to active campaign today. How important do you think it is in designing, I have a hint that I know the answer this, but how important do you think it is in designing your community from the start that there just be a very clear and compelling purpose of the community?

Gina Bianchini (14:11): So that is the 20% that delivers 80% of the value. So I have what I like to call people magic profit because here's the thing that we've actually, the thing that really took me by surprise was that creating those relationships between members generates millions of dollars in profit, not just revenue but profit. And what I've been able to do just because I'm not that interesting, outside of being completely focused on how communities become extremely valuable to their and their hosts. And it turns out that there are really only nine things you need to create a very profitable membership course challenge or event that essentially runs itself. So you can make a lot of money and it runs itself because it turns out if something's running itself, you can make a lot of money because valuable. And if it's valuable, it's likely to run itself. It's totally the opposite of what we know about content and how do you build a huge audience, and this is the difference between an audience and a community.

(15:25): And so it turns out that the impact of the smallest number of things that you can do and need to do to get this right, it's really in some decisions that you make around who do you serve? And there's a total cheat code to it, which I'll share in a moment. But who you serve or your ideal member and how do you get them progress? And certainly the promise of progress because people pay for progress. And that is what I like to just call their best year ever. So if you take an ideal member, which is all an ideal member, is this is the cheat code, a human being in a transition, people are the most motivated when they are in a transition. They just moved to a new city.

(16:17): They just have their first child. They just start as a engineering manager for the first time. They are a first time CEO. They are doing anything that represents transition. That is when they are most motivated to join something new, meet new people who are on the same path, contribute really valuable experiences, stories, insights, show up at things. This kind of goes on. And so then they're also the most willing to pay. And I started think about it as there's bonus points for pain. So if that transition is painful, people have a lot more desire and motivation to get out of pain. So you get those things right. And then there's just three things you set up and you will literally watch a community run itself

John Jantsch (17:13): Going to switch to the technical side of a SaaS business. In your particular case, you probably get feature requests every single day, multiple times. How do you, I mean, it's really easy to take a tool, which frankly is pretty complex from the start that you're doing and really make it way more complex because everybody wants more engagement or they want more of this, or they've seen this platform added this and now I want to, how do you control that?

Gina Bianchini (17:41): Well, so I think it's super important to have a North Star. So why are we here? What are we doing? Because you can't do everything. And by the way, nor do you want to, unless you're interested in basically building a product that ultimately becomes Microsoft Word. And so the way that we approach it at Mighty is first and foremost, we are constantly observing and listening. We want to know what all the asks are, and then we start to look at, okay, what is going to be the most important and the most valuable to the most number of people? So what is going to be the thing that will have the biggest impact to the most people? And those are the things that just get real obvious. And then you just kind of move down the list from there. And look, it's an art and a science, but at the end of the day, for us, everything runs through the filter of does this create people magic?

(18:48): Will this be able to allow a host of a mighty network to invite in 10 people and to have those 10 people be able to build great relationships that are extremely valuable, encourage each member to share stories and experiences and ideas that ultimately move the entire community forward and then bring in the next 10 people and then the next 10 people and the next hundred people and the next thousand people so that it becomes a self-organizing network that gets more valuable to every member with each new person who joins. And then the host of that network, which host can be a creator, it can be an entrepreneur, it can be a brand. It's somebody who basically has that ability to bring those first 10 people in the value and more and more value accrues to them. And because everything that I'm sharing, it has that goal of self organizing, which is easier now with the breakthroughs of the last year and a half around AI than ever before.

(20:05): Turns out that you can create incredibly valuable assets that generate 99% profit margins and people are happy to pay for it because they're paying for progress, they're paying for relationships, they're also, excuse me, they're also paying attention to what they pay for. So that's really, again, our North star. And we want to live in a world where everybody is a member of three to five extraordinarily valuable communities that would be for their professional life and their personal and spiritual practices and travel and adventure and all of the above and everything that we're doing in terms of making this just undeniably valuable to the people who are creating those mighty networks. Why are we doing that? Because we want more people to create and more people to join and more people who join then turn around and create. And everything that we are doing has got to be fed through that filter. And it's,

John Jantsch (21:19): Do you have kind of a quick case study that you like to kill? And I mean Tony Robinson is awesome, but something a little quirky or niche?

Gina Bianchini (21:29): Sure. One of my favorite examples is Martinez Evans and what he has built with the slow AF run club. He is now a bestselling author. He is someone who started off kind of listening to all the gurus, well before he met me or met Mighty and did all the things he was supposed to do. He was supposed to build an email list. He built an email list. He was supposed to launch an online course and use Kajabi or Teachable. He did that and he got exactly two people to sign up, and then one of them wanted their money back. And so he realized that path just wasn't the right path for him. He failed at it. And about six months later, he and I met at the gym. He was working at the gym I worked out at, and we started talking about his vision for Slow AF a community focused on the back of the Pack runners.

(22:28): And his Instagram handle is 300 pounds and running, and he's amazing. And I said to him, between sets, I was like, this is going to be an incredible opportunity and you should start it as a community and then build your courses, build your programs on top of it. And that's exactly what he did. He created virtual races during Covid. He has developed training programs that are designed for not just back of the pack runners who are starting off, but then also those that are increasingly taking on bigger and bigger challenges. He wrote an incredible book. He's been on a year long book tour visiting, running clubs all over the country and setting up an incredible merch business. And the reality is if he would have followed, well, he did. He followed what everybody else was doing and didn't stand out. And if anything could have just quit at that point and said, well, I guess there aren't any back of the pack runners. And instead actually the zagged when everybody else was zigging. And by the way, everybody continues to zig, whether it's like, it's my content, it's about me. And what Martinez really figured out was it wasn't about him, it was about how does he connect slow runners all over the country to know that they are part of a inclusive, supportive, and very focused, not small, but focused community of fellow runners that don't look like they're straight out of central casting.

John Jantsch (24:16): Yeah, that's funny. I have a friend that started years ago, a 0.1 K race. Basically, he owns a bar and it basically goes from one side of the parking lot to the other, and he raises a couple hundred thousand dollars every year for nonprofits. That's

Gina Bianchini (24:31): Awesome.

John Jantsch (24:31): I've been telling him for years he needs to franchise that and get it every city. That is a

Gina Bianchini (24:36): Great idea. That is a fantastic

John Jantsch (24:39): Idea. It's very funny. Well, Gina, I appreciate you taking a few moments to come and share with the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. And is there someplace you might invite people to connect with you or find out more about Mighty?

Gina Bianchini (24:49): Sure. I probably spend the most time in our mighty community. And short of that, I'm also on LinkedIn and Instagram and X, formerly known as Twitter. So that's certainly a place to find me

John Jantsch (25:06): And it's mighty pretty easy to find. Mighty networks.com.

Gina Bianchini (25:09): Mighty networks.com.

John Jantsch (25:11): Yep. Awesome. Well again, appreciate you stopping by and hopefully we'll run into you one of these days out there on the road.

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Weekend Favs June 22

Weekend Favs June 22 written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

I don’t go into depth about the finds, but I encourage you to check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from an online source or one I took on the road.

• Meiro-Unlock your brand’s potential with AI-powered quizzes and tests – generate leads, captivate your audience, and elevate your brand recognition.
• Sharefable- Boost your conversion rates by allowing your buyers to experience the magic of your product through personalized demos.
• Sprinklr- Streamline your front-office teams, tools, and touchpoints with Sprinklr’s AI-powered customer experience management platform. Say goodbye to the chaos of juggling multiple CX tools.

These are my weekend favs; I would love to hear about some of yours – Connect with me on Linkedin!

If you want to check out more Weekend Favs you can find them here.

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How to Transform Client Acquisition with Creative Gifting Strategies

How to Transform Client Acquisition with Creative Gifting Strategies written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast with John Jantsch

 

In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interviewed Steve Gumm, a marketing consultant and the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at Gilded Box, a luxury corporate gifting company. He has extensive experience in helping companies break open doors and build lasting relationships through personalized and thoughtful gifting strategies.

Through his experience, he reveals the transformative potential of creative gifting in client acquisition, showcasing how agencies can stand out in a crowded market and foster strong, meaningful connections with their clients.

Key Takeaways

Steve Gumm, CMO of Gilded Box, emphasizes the power of personalized gifting in marketing, demonstrating how businesses can effectively attract and retain clients through thoughtful and unique gift campaigns. The process involves understanding the client’s needs and preferences, designing customized gifts that resonate on a personal level, and leveraging these gifts to build trust and open new opportunities.

He explains that successful gifting campaigns are not about the monetary value of the gifts but the thought and personalization behind them. This approach creates memorable experiences that leave a lasting impact on clients, making them more likely to engage and maintain a long-term relationship with you: the business. This episode offers age-old wisdom for businesses looking to enhance their client acquisition efforts through the classic personalized gifting technique.

 

Questions I ask Steve Gumm:

[01:54] How did you go from being a Marketing Consultant to being a Gifting guru?

[04:18] Is the unavoidable gift strategy a retention tactic or lead generation approach?

[08:31] How do you narrow down your target audience successfully?

[10:59] How do you begin a Gifting Campaign?

[14:45] Do you have some examples where you really surprised a client with a Gift?

[15:47] How has technology improved the effectiveness of Gifting Campaigns?

[18:15] Are there instances where the benefits of a campaign with a particular client immediately but have always remained top of mind?

[19:44] Is there someplace you want to invite people to check out what you’re doing and connect with you?

 

More About Steve Gumm:

• Connect with Steve Gumm on LinkedIn
• Visit his Website 

 

Like this show? Click on over and give us a review on iTunes, please!

Connect with John Jantsch on LinkedIn

 

This episode of The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by ActiveCampaign

Try ActiveCampaign free for 14 days with our special offer. Exclusive to new customers—upgrade and grow your business with ActiveCampaign today!

 

 

Duct Tape Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00): Duct Tape Marketing really helped me to shave at least six to eight months off of work that I was dreading after leaving the corporate world. Even before I participated in the agency intensive training, I had already landed in my first customer. This, in essence, more than paid for my investment in Duct Tape Marketing.

John Jantsch (00:18): What you just heard was a testimonial from a recent graduate of the Duct Tape Marketing certification intensive program for fractional CMOs marketing agencies and consultants just like them. You could choose our system to move from vendor to trusted advisor, attract only ideal clients, and confidently present your strategies to build monthly recurring revenue. Visit DTM world slash scale to book your free advisory call and learn more. It's time to transform your approach. Book your call today, DTM World slash scale.

(01:03): Hello and welcome to another episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. This is John Jantsch. My guest today is Steve Gumm. He is a marketing consultant who started his career running an agency that worked with some of the most recognizable brands, including celebrities and professional athletes using creative outreach to break open doors. After a successful E, he's taken on the role of A CMO at Gilded Box, a luxury corporate gifting company. The designs builds and delivers extraordinary gifts to help companies open doors, close new deals, motivate employees, and build blasting relationships. So Steve, welcome to the show.

Steve Gumm (01:40): Thanks for having me. It's more than an honor, John. More than an

John Jantsch (01:43): Honor. Well, so talk a little bit about your marketing journey. I mean, I gave a very brief sketch of it there, but I know in the past we had talked, I think maybe a few years back were just, you were a marketing consultant, had a marketing consulting firm. What's changed for you maybe in terms of your objectives as well as how those are coming out?

Steve Gumm (02:06): Yeah, like most journeys, I had my own agency and then I went into consulting, and it's one of those deals. I think even as a consultant, I've always gravitated towards some businesses you want to help, but some you want to help. Of course all of them, but some you're more thrilled about. And so I went through and was basically helping sales and marketing teams doing the whole fractional CMO type of thing. And when Gilded Box came around, it's just something that I fell in love with. And I think for everybody, you try to find that thing where it's like, okay, there's something here that just feels right. And I was just very fortunate. It wasn't by design, but everything just came together for me. And so why I still do have other clients. They go the boxes at least 80% of my time now, and it is been fun.

(02:48): It's interesting too, just Russell, the CEO here, we talk about it all the time, how things kind of come full circle because the type of stuff that we do here as a business is very similar to the stuff I was kind of doing on my own for years to try and crack open accounts and get attention and deliver some level of, I used to call it unavoidable, my team, I would say, okay, let's send 'em something unavoidable. If we really want to work with them and we really know we can help and it would be a good fit, let's send 'em something that they cannot avoid. And back in the day, we got crazy going after some celebrities and sports teams, et cetera. We went way over the top with some of that stuff. But it works. It takes time, effort, energy. I think it's more fun, but it definitely works.

John Jantsch (03:36): Yeah, I wrote out about it actually in the first edition of Duct Tape Marketing in 2007, something I called Lumpy Mail. And it was the same idea. I would send things like box that would have a whole bunch of old keys in it or something that's new. It's like, what? And then you tie it to the message, and we had one client that was trying to promote their total solution for something. And so we mimicked the total cereal box. I don't think we asked post, but we did it anyway and we sent it with a gallon of milk, which made it really, like you said, people are like, what in the world is this? It really does open doors. But I can also hear people saying, well, that might've cost 40 or 50 bucks a whack. Is that something you can do as a retention thing or do you feel like that's an approach you can do? Lead generation

Steve Gumm (04:26): Mean both. So for me, the way I look at it is, and part of what we do here at Gilded Boxes is make things scalable. So around budget. Now gifting is different than swag by you really can't compare the two, and there's a place for each. I'm cool with both, but I think every business is a little different. I've always been in the B2B world, so I've been fortunate in that typically lifetime value of a customer. Even the short term value. When you actually talk to a team, and this used to happen to me when I was doing consulting all the time, I'd be like, what is the average client worth? And usually it was a sizable number depending on, I was working a lot of manufacturing, so some of 'em got huge, but then you sit back and you're, okay, well, what are we doing here? Let's get a list of the hundred. That would be amazing, and just try to get 20. What if that's all we did?

(05:13): And it succeeded. And then everyone's, when you take a step back and really evaluate what you're trying to accomplish, it just makes those type of decisions a lot easier. If we spend, it doesn't matter the X dollar amount, you quickly realize that, well man, we could spend all this. If we get one, it's worth it. So when you break down the math, usually, especially on the acquisition side of things, it works. And once you have a client, that retention side of it, it is all based on value and scenarios, but I don't think you have to be expensive at all. I mean, what we do here obviously is gifting from design packaging and all that, but I'm also a huge fan of just handwritten letters and anything that shows me that, wait a second, this person actually took the time to think about me, and they're reaching out. However you do that, it's just so powerful in a day where with AI and automation, it's easier to go, okay, 50,000 people click and it sends out. It just seems like that would be, oh, that's wise. But when you take a step back, it can be very effective in a day where not too many people are doing that type of outreach. It's just crazy effective.

John Jantsch (06:26): And I think you hit the nail on the head. I mean, I work with a lot of consultants that sell high ticket, high trust is very, very important part of the equation. And when they stop and think about their goals, sometimes onboarding three new clients would actually be hard in a month, but we're trying to market to 20,000 people. It's like maybe 10 good ones, 10 good appointments. What would it take to get that? And I think when people start looking at it that way, they probably should start saying, yeah, I guess I better not automate my outreach on LinkedIn.

Steve Gumm (07:01): Right, right, right. Yeah, it's just too tempting for marketers and salespeople. It's so tempting just to go for the big numbers because I don't care, even if it is outreach on LinkedIn to do something legitimately authentic and personal, it takes not a lot of time, but it's not as easy as just a name and enter. You've got to put some effort into it.

John Jantsch (07:22): But I think it really, I, and I know you agree with this, it's the whole premise here, but I mean, it's so easy to stand out now doing it because people realize you didn't automate that. They realize you actually took some time, or heaven forbid, I get these outreach on LinkedIn and people will ask me, somebody literally today asked me, do you still have your agency? I was like, that's your opener. It's like, if you don't know what I had for lunch today, you're not paying attention. It's crazy.

Steve Gumm (07:54): Well, you probably get more of 'em than I do, but I get a lot. And so I can only imagine how many you get where they're just so off base. It's clearly, I'm just on a database and I'm not a picky either. When I see that stuff, I see people post online all the time and they bash it. I mean, I get it. People are trying to make a living. They think it's the right solution. I'm not mad at it, but it doesn't work.

John Jantsch (08:16): Yeah. Well, I tell you, let's flip it around too, because for that person, and I know you believe in the whole, I want to work with people that we share some beliefs and purpose casting that net to thousands, how are you going to get the client you want to work with, right? I mean, I think that's as big a part of this as if I take the time to research and look at what they're doing and look at how we could connect and build trust together, I'm probably going to get the right client. I,

Steve Gumm (08:45): Yeah, and you're a big phony with a whole book on it about referrals. I think people don't oftentimes pay attention to the snowball effect of getting the right people initially. If you know that these people are a, you can help 'em. You have a solution that works for what they're trying to accomplish, their goals, but it's the perfect where you're like, man, if we could just work with this person for whatever reason, if you do a good job there, chances are they know people who are aligned a little bit, at least with what they do. And so the referrals not only are, they probably come in more often, but they're way better.

John Jantsch (09:18): Yeah. Yeah.

Steve Gumm (09:19): Awesome.

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(10:27): So what are you waiting for? Fuel your growth, boost revenue and save precious time by upgrading to Active campaign today. Talk a little bit about, and we can get into the mechanics of how you do it at Gilded Box, but talk a little bit about the concept. Not a matter of sending somebody something really expensive. They're like, wow, they sent me something really expensive. There's more to the entire campaign approach to it. Talk about maybe if somebody were thinking about this idea of, okay, I'm going to come up with a Dream 100. What would a campaign that involved gifting look like?

Steve Gumm (11:03): So you could definitely do it in multiple steps, but I think to take a step back for a second, you touched on it has to be something elaborate. Yeah, we do some super high end gifting, but it doesn't have to be at all. We even say internally, if we do our job, what's in the box of what you would consider the actual product actually should be an afterthought. The experience that we have done here, and it's funny, as we were building this, it really was looking at what I had done in the past, what Gil Box was doing currently, and just removing friction. So for example, we handle all of the design because we think that's critical to the personalization, the entire experience. And we know that is oftentimes a tough spot for a lot of businesses. They don't have designers, they don't whatever. So we take that because we want that box.

(11:55): The way we engineer the boxes from the way the products sit inside, it's all, we have packaging engineers here. That's what they do. And for us, it's all about that experience so that when you are doing a gifting campaign, for example, you're going after your top 100, obviously there's methods to that. For us, the gifting usually is not out cold. We always recommend build some rapport, share some knowledge, engage on social, give some awareness, and then when you really want to step it up, you can go into a gifting program that obviously once you get a client, then the retention part of that type of effort goes into it. But everything that you would want to do to really wow somebody, we just wanted to make it as easy as possible.

John Jantsch (12:41): So the gift is one component of it. I've experienced kind of your process, and one of the things I thought was a brilliant piece, and this is carrying the personalization a step further, is that the box itself had to be completely personal because nobody else, it wouldn't have made sense to anybody else what you did. But then the note that then had just a QR code that went to a then also personalized video. And I think to me that was a step that took it even farther than just like, oh, wow, I got this nice thing. Now you actually, what was in the box you actually nailed? That's the brand that I have their grinder and I have their kettle. And so you said you didn't know that part, or at least I hope you didn't know that part. That was getting a little too close, but you knew I liked coffee, but that again, I was getting at their components to the whole thing. It's not just like, oh, send a bunch of boxes out.

Steve Gumm (13:38): Yeah, a hundred percent. I mean, the whole process is really who you're trying to, what message you're trying to display. So in that instance, in every instance really, it's about letting people know that they're being recognized. Now, when you're doing this at an enterprise level, of course you're probably going to minimize some of that. A lot of the packaging and what's inside is very similar, but we personalize them in a way where there's still that wow factor in that, oh, they were thinking about me as opposed to something that you're just giving out. And that really is, there's a method to the madness, and it all starts with design, which requires a little bit of research and homework on our team's end to actually nail that. Because when you receive it, even before you open it, we want you to be blown away. Our objective, and we believe this to be true based on feedback that we get, is the packaging itself. That box itself is something people keep just like a gift. And that's when we know we've done our job and is fun. It is the most fun business I've ever been a part of by a long shot.

John Jantsch (14:42): Do you have any examples, and maybe you're not at liberty to share 'em, but do you have any examples of some kind of crazy things? And again, I don't know if you ever see this, the success end of it, if the client comes back to you and says, that was amazing, let's do it again. Maybe that's an indicator, but do you have any kind of case study of somebody doing something pretty cool?

Steve Gumm (15:02): Yeah, and to piggyback on that, we get emails all the time, which is the best where our customers telling us, or even forwarding emails from their customers, like, wow, this is great. We've done some pretty crazy stuff. We had a company that was agency working with Chanel, and they were doing a groundbreaking, and we actually did a shovel called the Chave, same branding and same everything, and put it in a pretty big box for them and delivering, of course, it was a huge hit. We were joking even this morning, I was talking to Russell, our CEO over here, how we've been doing this for so long. Some of the stuff we're not blown away with anymore. We're so used to it. But when you get the responses like, man, that really is pretty cool.

John Jantsch (15:45): And the personalization aspect, certainly technology has helped that come along, but you think about the companies that buy a thousand coffee mugs and they give 'em out to clients coffee mug with their logo on it. Sure. I guess I need a coffee mug. I'll send it over here. But the technology is such that I can have a thousand clients and send a coffee mug with their logo on it, which to me might be a lot cooler to get.

Steve Gumm (16:11): Yeah, I mean, from a gifting standpoint, it's one of the things that we're working hard on the marketing side is communicating the difference between swag and gifting. It is totally different. When you think of swag, it's more of an advertisement for you for promoting your business, and there's a place for that. We're fans of that as well. But when it comes to gifting, you really want to make it about them. So if it's something, if you know something about their family or their hobbies or something where you can make it truly unique to them, that's a gift. And we always tell our clients, if you're going to do some promotion or branding of any kind, leverage the packaging. We do an amazing job at that. But what goes inside, it should be very clear that it's been thoughtful and you put some care into what you're delivering because it just makes a huge impact.

(17:00): How often do you get something like that? It's very rare. To your point earlier, a lot of that old school stuff is very effective right now, but because everyone's been trained on automation technology, it takes a little bit of effort, and I guess you could call it riskier. I mean, it's more effective, but it takes much more to even send a piece of mail, whatever it is, you got to put the time into it. You got to print, you got to. So I think people just default that we'll just send these emails, but boy is there an opportunity in creating experiences.

John Jantsch (17:34): Yeah, and I think the unfortunate thing, or at least the leap that a lot of people make, because there isn't any risk in sending emails. I mean, if the message bombs, if nobody responds, it's like nobody's hurt. Whereas I remember the days of you'd spend $10,000 on a direct mail piece or commit to a year long, $3,000 a month yellow page ad, no idea if any of it was ever going to work. You were stuck with it till next year. So I mean, I do see that people kind have that fear of like, oh, I'm going to out. I'm lay out five, 10 grand. What if it doesn't work? But I do think that, I'm guessing you probably have anecdotal information on this, the impact may not be filled immediately. Do you find that sometimes the shelf life, so to speak, of the gift or of the idea or the promotion might be for months that somebody's like, I'm not ready right now, but that's who I'm calling?

Steve Gumm (18:30): Yeah, for sure. I mean, a hundred percent. It just changes the dynamic of the relationship. And so I think an easy way to think about that is when you've put that much time and effort and personalization into something, there's just some reciprocation there on. If you send me something like that, and let's say I'm even the wrong target, which we wouldn't recommend, but even so, I'm going to be much more inclined to at least give you feedback and share where we're at and what opportunities may or may not be here as opposed to responding to one of the 10,000 emails I get any given week. So the longevity and the opportunities and the doors that it opens can't be understated. I mean, I know I'm in the business, so it's like, oh, this guy's what he does for a living. But we see it time and time again, and we eat our own dog food as well, and it works. We're creating a couple of fun series coming up of content where we're going to start to share some of this. Nice. Just because it is very effective, and I think anybody that tries it, whatever you're doing, if you get more personal and outside of the tech world where it's more human to human, I can't express the impact that you can have. It really is amazing.

John Jantsch (19:39): Awesome. Well, Steve, I appreciate you taking a few moments to stop by the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. Is there anywhere you would invite people to connect with you and find out more about your work?

Steve Gumm (19:48): You can find me on LinkedIn. I'm just LinkedIn, wherever Those are Steve Gumm. I've got a very uncommon last name, so it's not hard to find me and then gildedbox.com, so G-I-L-D-E-D-B-O-X.com. We have plenty of resources there. If want to reach out to anybody and you're looking for stuff, we'd be more than happy to help you create some amazing experiences.

John Jantsch (20:08): Awesome. Well, again, appreciate you taking a moment, and hopefully we'll run into you one of these days soon out there on the road.

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How to Maximize Your Video Content: Content Splintering and Intelligent Repurposing

How to Maximize Your Video Content: Content Splintering and Intelligent Repurposing written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast with John Jantsch

In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interviewed Atiba de Souza, a celebrated marketer known for his expertise in video content and human connections. As the head of a video marketing agency for Doctors, Atiba de Souza combines his deep understanding of human relationships with cutting-edge marketing strategies. His entrepreneurial journey, which includes managing gyms, a bakery, and food service companies, provides him with a unique perspective on business and marketing.

During our insightful conversation, we discussed the emerging concept of ‘intelligent content splintering’ and explored how repurposing video content can maximize your marketing efforts. Atiba de Souza shared his systematic approach to breaking down long-form videos into engaging short-form content that resonates with different audience segments. We also discussed the role of AI in enhancing the efficiency of content creation and repurposing, as well as the importance of authenticity in video marketing.

Key Takeaways

‘Splintering’ is the new ‘Repurposing’.

Atiba de Souza emphasizes the transformative power of intelligent content splintering. He explains that understanding your audience’s needs and preferences is crucial in identifying which parts of a long-form video will resonate with them. By focusing on these key segments, agencies can create impactful short-form content that drives engagement and builds trust.

He also highlights the role of AI tools in streamlining the content repurposing process. These tools can assist in formatting and structuring content for various platforms, ensuring that the repurposed content maintains its relevance and appeal across different channels. However, he stresses that a deep understanding of content theory and strategy is essential for effectively utilizing AI.

‘Authenticity’ as he calls it. An overused but essential concept, is a central theme in his approach to video marketing. He believes that being genuine and relatable on camera is more important than striving for perfection. This authenticity helps build a strong connection with the audience, fostering trust and credibility.

Finally, he underscores the importance of having a structured editorial calendar for content creation. By planning and batching video production, marketers can ensure a consistent flow of high-quality content that aligns with their overall marketing strategy. This approach not only simplifies the content creation process but also enhances its effectiveness in reaching and engaging the target audience.

 

Questions I ask Atiba de Souza:

[02:04] Would you agree that video is the perfect medium for repurposing?

[03:14] Exactly how does ‘Splintering’ work?

[04:45] How do you begin with intentional scripting?

[06:27] What are some current trends we need to be aware of?

[08:08] Is it possible to overproduce a video?

[10:00] What is an editorial calendar?

[13:24] What is AI’s role in content, and what role do you believe will be left for humans to play?

[15:52] What role does that play in repurposing?

[18:31] Is there someplace you’d like people to connect with you find out more about your work?

 

 

More About Atiba de Souza:

• • Connect with Atiba de Souza on LinkedIn
  • Visit his Website
  • Check out his Youtube

 

Like this show? Click on over and give us a review on iTunes, please!

Connect with John Jantsch on LinkedIn

 

Duct Tape Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00): Duct Tape Marketing really helped me to shave at least six to eight months off of work that I was dreading after leaving the corporate world. Even before I participated in the agency intensive training, I had already landed in my first customer. This, in essence, more than paid for my investment in Duct Tape Marketing.

John Jantsch (00:18): What you just heard was a testimonial from a recent graduate of the Duct Tape Marketing certification intensive program for fractional CMOs marketing agencies and consultants just like them. You could choose our system to move from vendor to trusted advisor, attract only ideal clients, and confidently present your strategies to build monthly recurring revenue. Visit DTM world slash scale to book your free advisory call and learn more. It's time to transform your approach. Book your call today, DTM World slash scale.

(01:03): Hello and welcome to another episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. This is John Jantsch. My guest today is Atiba De Souza, known as a super connector and video content. Superman, you can see is wearing the gear celebrated marketer who champions the power of genuine relationships as the head of a video marketing agency for doctors, Atiba combines marketing expertise with a deep understanding of human connections. His entrepreneurial journey includes managing gyms, a bakery and food service companies, giving him a unique business perspective. So Tibo, welcome to the show.

Atiba De Souza (01:40): Thanks, John, for having me. And first, it's a pleasure, man. I've been a huge fan of yours for a really long time.

John Jantsch (01:48): I appreciate that. I'm glad there's a couple of you still left out there. So we, I think, connected over most recently anyway, over just kind of this idea of repurposing content. And it's funny, I know your primary medium is video, is that right?

Atiba De Souza (02:03): Yes, correct.

John Jantsch (02:04): Yeah. I think video just happens to be the perfect medium for repurposing, isn't it? Yeah, I mean, especially with some of the new tools, right? AI and stuff. Yeah. I mean, video captures voice and tone and point of view and expertise that can then be repurposed. So maybe talk a little bit about, because you've developed a pretty systematic approach to doing that, so maybe let's start breaking down the elements of that.

Atiba De Souza (02:29): Yeah, absolutely. And it's interesting, John, because I had a good friend of mine call yesterday and we were chatting and near the end of our conversation, I have one more question for you. He said, I've been posting videos on YouTube and I've noticed that I've taken those videos and I'll turn 'em into a short and I'll post a short, and every time I do, I get a subscriber or two off of that short. So should I create more shorts? What should I do? I mean, how this work? So everyone knows the word repurposing. I call it a four letter word only because it's been bastardized. It just means, hey, take a piece of content, cut it up, and stick it back out there. And what I explained to my friend yesterday is it's not just about repurposing, it's about splintering. It's about understanding the audience and are there other pieces of content in your long form that you created that will resonate with your audience that they will want to watch? If so, cut those, add those as well. And so that's really where it starts. Go ahead. Go ahead. It starts with understanding what your audience needs and wants.

John Jantsch (03:42): Okay, I can imagine somebody saying, yeah, I get that, but how do I do that?

Atiba De Souza (03:46): And so we call it intelligent splintering. And what we mean by that is if you create a video, John 10 minutes, you talk for 10 minutes on a topic, everything that you said in that video was an answer to a question that someone could have asked. And so the question is figuring out which questions did I answer, and if I can figure out the questions I answered are those actual questions my audience is asking that they care about if they are. And so you're getting congruence there. Then those are splinters that we make, cuts, shorts, whatever you want to call 'em of the video. That's how you start to understand this is what the audience wants and this is how I pull it out of my video.

John Jantsch (04:36): So in some ways, I'm sure some people just do it instinctively, almost, or because they've been doing it long enough that they're not even sure they're doing it, but they're answering those questions. But for somebody who maybe hasn't done a lot of that, I mean, is that sort of intentional script writing is to actually, what are those questions? How do we work those in?

Atiba De Souza (04:55): Yes. And so when we teach people how to create videos, it is very intentional script writing. It is very intentional of, okay, what is the major question that you're answering with this video? And what are the sub-questions you're answering with this video? So when it's time to splinter it, we already have the answer. And so then a lot of people, John, and I'm sure you're going to ask me this, will say, well, what if I already created a video and I don't know? Well, here's what you do. It's actually really simple, the topic that you covered in the video, go to Google and put that topic in the search. Hit enter, scroll about a third way down the page a little bit more now with the generative AI at the top. And you'll get to a place called people also asked. And those are real questions that real people ask. And Google's going to give you a list of questions about this topic that people are asking. And then you ask yourself, did I answer any of those questions in this video? There's your answer. Yeah.

John Jantsch (05:56): Yeah. You can almost make an entire script up from some of those videos if people are asking it. I mean, if it registers high enough on that, enough people have asked that, then you should be answering that question, right? Yes.

Atiba De Souza (06:10): Yeah. Yes, and yes.

John Jantsch (06:12): Yeah. So talk a little bit about video in general. Are there some trends today? Are there some styles today? It seems like, I mean, video's been around, well, it's been around forever, but it's been in the hands of people like you and me for 20 years now. Are there some current things that we need to be aware of, like length and lighting and subtitles and all the kinds of things that we need to do if we're going to produce a video that's going to be effective?

Atiba De Souza (06:39): The number one thing, and this is the one that no one is going to want to hear me say authenticity. Okay? And here's what I mean by that. What I mean by that is no one's looking for you to be perfect. No one's looking for this to be a newscast on the six o'clock evening news. You're not Dan Rather, okay? That's not what they're looking for. They're looking to connect with you, and so they want you to be you. Yes. If you stutter, stutter, be you on camera, stop trying to be someone else. Stop going on social media and seeing all of these people that you think are polished and trying to be like them. That's not what you should do at all. You can do all the other stuff, and we can talk about the other stuff, John, but if you miss on this one, it's going to fail because here's why video is so powerful. And John, you kind of said it a little bit earlier, but here's why video is so powerful, because there's this no and trust continuum that people need to be on in order to do business with you and business, sorry, video builds that know, like, and trust automatically. However, when they pick up the phone or they get on Zoom and they then meet the real you, if the real you doesn't line up with who they saw on video, now you've broken trust.

John Jantsch (08:08): So there's actually an element to where you can overproduce a video. If somebody just feels like it's, Hey, I'm coming to you today because I have this idea, and I'm just wondering if other people have, I mean, that's almost sometimes if that's truly who you are, that's more effective maybe than that thing that had a full three camera shoot, right?

Atiba De Souza (08:27): Yes, absolutely. Now, at the same time, when I say authentic to who you are, if you are that person who you're hair is never out of place, if you're always in the best outfits, and I mean if you're always dressed an eyes, and you've got to be that on camera too.

John Jantsch (08:44): Yeah. I mean, that's obvious. That's the answer, be you. Let me tell you, and hopefully you don't do these all the time or I'm going to get myself in trouble, but the video that drives me crazy is when the person's in their car and they check out their phone and they start talking, and so many people do that. Is that an effective tool or is it just like, oh, I'm going to be like, I saw them doing it. To me, it's sort of off-putting.

Atiba De Souza (09:08): Yeah, so there's a ton of copycat, right? Always there is a ton of copycat. To answer your question, I think I've probably done in the car video maybe three times in my life. Honestly, it doesn't resonate with my audience. However, my wife, on the other hand, when she was talking to a few years ago, she had a product and she was talking to busy moms who were always on the go,

John Jantsch (09:33): Always in the car, in the car.

Atiba De Souza (09:36): And so it really depends on your audience. If you are talking to executives who are sitting in boardrooms and you're in your car, not where they are. And so it really, again, that gets all the way back to knowing your audience. And I say it all the time, you got to be obsessed with your audience. And John, I'm preaching to the choir with you on that.

John Jantsch (10:01): So talk a little bit about editorial calendar. A lot of times what I think overwhelms people is they know they should be doing this. They wake up on Monday and go, what should I do? And it feels really hard. Then how do you employ an editorial approach to your content creation?

Atiba De Souza (10:16): Yeah, it's a great question. It's a really great question. And so in order to understand that, and there are a lot of people who've talked about that in terms of content strategy, but there's also something that's missing in there, which is content theory that has to go together. So let's start with the content theory. Content theory is going to talk about the fact that there is a journey that your ideal customer needs to take with you through your content. So it's understanding the customer and then understanding the journey and how you fit there. That's the theory. We break that down into what we call why, how, and what content. So there's three big buckets. The why super philosophical, why is this important? Why should you care? Why do I care? Why does it matter to your world? So something as simple as the debate between red or white sauce for spaghetti.

(11:17): Why is it important? Well, I only eat white sauce because I'm sick and tired of getting red sauce on my white shirts. So that's your why content that connects you to people. Then how content says, how do we do something? So it's showing them a small piece of what you do and how you do it. Building credibility, building credibility, small piece of what you do, and then what content. This is the challenge, the what? Content is what most of us want to create. It's that post that gets people to click and buy or click and sign up, and we want to create all of our posts that way, and we shouldn't. Okay? And so only 15% of your posts should be there, and that is, and how we teach it is, would you like my help with that? Yeah.

(12:07): Right? So that's the theory. The theory is we're moving them through. We align philosophically, I show you I can do what I say I can do. Would you like my help with it? That's the theory. Okay. Now, let's marry that with strategy. And so what we teach there is number one, everything should start because we are video first. Everything starts with your long form video. Your long form video is on a particular topic, answering a particular question that someone in your audience has. You answer that once you've created that long form video, now you can now take and create short form. That is why, how, and what type content based on that long form. And so it all fits together. It all fits together. You're looking at one video a week, so four videos a month for some people, and for most people, we suggest that you batch it, take one day a month that you're going to record all four videos. That creates the ease of creating your calendar. Now, it just all kind of grows and flows out of there very nicely and very simply.

John Jantsch (13:16): So we're 17 minutes in the show, and I haven't asked you about ai. What role do you see? I like to ask this two ways now. What role do you see AI playing in content, and then what role do you believe will be left for humans to play in content?

Atiba De Souza (13:30): Oh, there's massive role for humans to play in content. Okay. Number one, if we have to understand what it is we are creating, and that gets back into the theory, we have to understand the journey. We have to understand why all of that works. AI can help us ideate through how to do the thing, but if we don't actually understand the process, we're just throwing stuff against the wall. So I am a hundred percent for ai. Matter of fact, we use a ton of ai. We've been using AI tools since 2015. So we're not new to AI tools. We love them, but you cannot use them unless you understand the theory of what we're doing and why it works, and that's where the human has to stay.

John Jantsch (14:24): Yeah, I've long said that. I don't think AI will ever get to the point where it can understand that kind of context. And that really actually makes strategic thinking, makes theory as you're talking about probably more important than ever because so many people are just going to crank out the robot stuff.

Atiba De Souza (14:43): And I also believe we are in the age of AI right now. And so right now, over the next couple of years, next two years or so, there's going to be a boom of people creating content and it's going to go wild. And all of a sudden, people who were awful at creating content are going to become great at creating content until it all peters out and it is going to peter out. And when it peters out, the people who are going to win are the people who actually understand what the heck we're doing.

John Jantsch (15:16): Yeah, I hear people talking about ai. It's some magic fairy dust or plumbing is how I really refer to it. I mean, I think it's really just going to be baked into everything and people stop paying attention to what it even is because it's just going to become a feature of pretty much every aspect of business and probably of life in general. And I agree with you. I think it's still in the sort of hype bubble. You've been around long enough. Remember when social media was in that same hype bubble and everybody was like, everything's changed. So it's like, well, nothing's really changed. So speaking of social media, what role does that play in repurposing today?

Atiba De Souza (15:56): A massive role because now you have the ability that as we start to repurpose splinter intelligently splinter content, we've got multiple places that we can put it. This is also where AI helps and those types of tools, because now once you have the theory, and this is the cut that I'm going to make, well, this will work better this way on Instagram versus it will work differently on LinkedIn, and the AI tools can actually help you format and structure those faster than we ever could before. Social media is huge because it's where people go to consume little bits, and those little bits start to add up. And I read it recently that people need to have touchpoint of now something like 140 times before they purchase. Remember what it used to be, Stephan?

John Jantsch (16:48): Yes. Yes.

Atiba De Souza (16:49): Right. And so how do you get to 140?

John Jantsch (16:52): Yeah. Do you still see it as what people refer to as top of funnel? I mean, or is it a mechanism that you believe can actually be part of conversion?

Atiba De Souza (17:04): So it depends on your business and it depends on how things are set up. So for example, we have clients who they are very big into running Google ads and they run Google ads to webinars. Great, wonderful. You run your Google Asset webinars, that's your top of funnel coming in, and then we retarget and send 'em to the socials. And so now social is playing more middle funnel for you, and so that's them. Whereas we have other clients in the cosmetic industry, it's all top of funnel.

(17:41): And then we have other clients who use it throughout the entire thing. So it really depends on the strategy of what it is that you're building and where it fits. And that's the key. Where does it fit for your audience? Where does your audience want it? I was having that conversation with my wife the other day. It was like, she's like, well, I'm going to be selling this thing. And I mean, it doesn't matter what social platform. Yes, it does. Because the fact of the matter is you've never bought anything off of Facebook marketplace, but you bought things off of TikTok marketplace. Why? Because you see TikTok as a place to buy this type of stuff, but you've never bought anything like this from Facebook in your head. You don't equate Facebook with this purchase, right? So it can't be bottom of funnel for you.

John Jantsch (18:26): Yeah, yeah, yeah. Motiva, I appreciate you stopping by the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. Is there someplace you might want to invite people to connect with you and find out a little more about your work?

Atiba De Souza (18:37): Absolutely. So John, again, thank you, and we probably open more questions today for you. If you're listening to us, then we actually answer, and I would love the opportunity to continue the conversation and continue answering your questions. So do me a favor, go to meetatiba.com. That's Meet A T I B as in boy A .com. That's going to take you directly to my LinkedIn. When you get to my LinkedIn, don't hit the follow button, hit the connect button or the more hit the connect button and that will let you send me a message, tell me you saw me here on the Duct Tape Marketing Show with John. Let's connect human to human and let's have a conversation.

John Jantsch (19:15): Awesome. Well, appreciate it again, you spending a few moments with us, and hopefully we'll run into you one of these days soon out there on the road.

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