Across the past week and a half I was fortunate to have the opportunity to present webinars to two very different audiences.
My first presentation was to a mastermind group of MSP (Managed Service Provider) business owners and the discussion revolved around the 5 biggest marketing mistakes I have seen small business owners make. The second webinar was with Leader’s Weekly, a weekly webinar series hosted by renowned real estate coaches,
Chris Leader
and
Chris Mygatt
of Leader’s Edge Coaching. This webinar was attended by over 500 real estate professionals and my conversation centralized around the best marketing tips and tricks for agents to set themselves apart from their competition.
I was very pleased with how both sessions went, but what really stuck with me about the experience was the Q&A sessions that occurred in the second half of both discussions. The 3 Key POWER Plays that I want to focus on for this week derive from the takeaways I had from those interactions:
There’s a Common Misconception About Budgets in Marketing?
- In both presentations, I had a slide in my deck that focused on how marketing today is not just about what size budget you are bringing to the table. This was the slide that garnered by far the strongest audience reaction. The follow up questions and comments I received were devoted to how these MSP’s and Real Estate Professionals are constantly approached by Agencies with pitches for thousands of dollars and large contract commitments, just to get off the ground. Now I will transparently tell you that we do things differently at POWER. We work on monthly retainers and all of our contracts focus on 30-day outs. We designed it this way so that our clients never have to feel locked in anything long-term and always have flexibility to ramp up or dial back spending based on how their actual business revenue is ebbing and flowing. By the consistent conversations I have been having with these business owners, it seems like the average agency is pitching annual agreements and stating that thousands of dollars needs to be spent in order to garner legitimate traction. We have seen and proven how powerful these digital platforms are today, and how cost-efficient they can be. The key social and search networks that every business should have a present on today are CHEAP to use. You don’t have to break the bank to achieve a positive ROI. It’s so easy to garner data and test the waters thanks to these robust platforms, why would you not start smaller and find what works for that particular business and then amplify it with more spend. At POWER, we call it working backwards, and during the webinars this concept seemed to really resonate. My mantra is - Test, test, test… then attack.
Everyone and Their Mother Wants to Know About AI
- It’s no secret that the vast majority of business owners are actively trying to figure out how they can integrate artificial intelligence throughout their company. Specifically, when talking with the real estate professionals on Leader’s Weekly, I was pleasantly surprised at how many have tried to take their own stab at utilizing tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude. However, they also conveyed a great deal of frustration and confusion regarding how AI wasn’t working as well as it’s been sold to them. Learning how to effectively prompt and decipher what you ask these AI agents has become a legitimate skill within itself. The first recommendation I made to this group of frustrated agents was to get hands on with ChatGPT versus Gemini versus Claude and see which platform you prefer.Find the most comfortable option for you and get some experience to gain confidence in one too to start. At that point, I relayed to them that the name of the game was providing as much data and business information as they could so that the agents could continue to grow stronger and stronger. Ultimately leading to their now personalized agent providing higher quality responses no matter the question or situation posed. For professionals like me that are using AI each and every day, this probably sounds extremely rudimentary. After hearing the direct questions and frustrations these webinar attendees posed, there seems to still be a gaping need for education just to get started utilizing AI.
Battling and Beating Nervousness When Public Speaking
- Finally the biggest take away I had from this experience was mitigating my own nervousness through preparation. I actually really enjoy public speaking. With how social I have to be interacting with clients every day, talking and answering questions on the fly has become my livelihood. But even with that said, I still get amped up and nervous ahead of presenting. Throughout the years, I’ve tested a bunch of different ways to calm myself down, like working on other things to preoccupy my mind, trying to tell myself it will all be good and there’s no need to worry, but it never truly went away. At the end of the day, the best I ever feel is when I have confidence that I know the presentation / subject matter like the back of my hand. The more I run through everything, the more confident I become, and then it all feels natural. I’m a big believer that nervousness is good. It shows that you care and that you are passionate towards wanting to do a good job. However, the last thing you want is a shaky voice when you’re speaking in front of hundreds and hundreds of people, and that’s the switch that can only be flipped ahead of time. Turning that passion and eagerness to perform well into confidence can really only come from proper preparation.
Thank you for taking a moment to read this week’s newsletter! Make sure you subscribe as I will be back next week with a special edition that focuses on my company, POWER Marketing Company officially hitting 100 clients and how we have been able to accomplish this feat! See you then.?
