Positioning Your Expertise To Drive Revenue Growth
Are you a coach, consultant, professional service provider or anyone else that needs to position your expertise so you can drive revenue growth? If so, you don’t want to miss this conversation. Our special guest Michael DeLon with Paperback Expert will dig into the tools, tactics, and tips to help you market your expertise and build credibility in your space.
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Positioning Your Expertise To Drive Revenue Growth
Tim Fitzpatrick: Are you a coach, consultant, professional service provider, or anyone else that needs to position your expertise so you can drive revenue growth? If so, you don't want to miss this conversation. Our special guest today is going to dig into the tools, tactics, and tips to help you market your expertise and build credibility in your space. Hi, I am Tim Fitzpatrick with Rialto Marketing, where we believe marketing shouldn't be difficult. All you need is the right plan. I am super excited to have with me, Michael DeLon from Paperback Expert. Michael, welcome, and thanks for taking the time today.
Michael DeLon: Tim . Thanks for having me on here, man. This is going to be a great conversation.
Tim Fitzpatrick: Yes, I am looking forward to it. It's always nice to switch sides to the mic. You were gracious enough to have me on your podcast a few weeks ago.
Michael DeLon: Yeah.
Tim Fitzpatrick: So thanks for jumping on.
Michael DeLon: You're welcome.
Tim Fitzpatrick: Before we start talking about marketing our expertise, building credibility, all that good stuff, I want to just ask you some rapid fire questions to help us get to know you a little bit. Are you ready to rock and roll?
Michael DeLon: I'm ready. Let's go.
Tim Fitzpatrick: Okay. When you're not working, how do you like to spend your time?
Michael DeLon: Yeah, when I'm not working, I'm going to be with my family, hanging around. A lot of times, reading a book of some nature. I really like to get lost in book. And recently it's been in teenage fiction books that my girls are reading. I've got a 13 year old and eleven year old. They're reading fiction books. So I thought, you know what, what better way to connect with them? So I'm reading these fiction books for teenagers right now. Really pretty cool. Gives me an opportunity just to build relationships with my daughters.
Tim Fitzpatrick: I'm assuming are you picking up on some of their lingo as well?
Michael DeLon: A little bit. I have to ask them sometimes because it is written a little bit differently than what I'm used to. Yes, but it's fun. Yeah.
Tim Fitzpatrick: So I have a ten and a twelve year old girl and sometimes they say stuff and I'm like, what is that?
Michael DeLon: Yes, it's funny. They've used some of the same phrases that I use, but they mean different things to them and they're like, that's not what that means. I'm like.
Tim Fitzpatrick: Michael, you're totally using that out of context.
Michael DeLon: Okay.
Tim Fitzpatrick: What's your hidden talent?
Michael DeLon: You know, my hidden talent. Well, that's a great question. I really think, as I've learned over the last few years, is to it's almost an X ray vision, honestly, into other people's business, I can see into your business, Tim and into my clients business and really quickly discern the point of differentiation between you and somebody else because of your story. And I hate saying it this way. I don't say this to impress you, but to impress upon you. It comes so naturally to me. I wonder why everybody can't do it but it's one of those things that people go, How'd you do that? I'm like, I don't know. I just did. It's just one of those gifts that God's given me to be able to hear a story or something. Goo, that's it right there. It's got to be my hidden talent. And because I don't work to make it happen, it just happens.
Tim Fitzpatrick: What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given?
Michael DeLon: Well, there are a lot of them in business. It was never write a book. We'll talk about that. In marriage, this is the counsel I give to people. My marriage counseling is four words, Tim. I do. Yes, dear.
Tim Fitzpatrick: Yes.
Michael DeLon: It's to serve my wife and unload the burdens that she carries to say, I'm here to serve you. How do I do that? I say that tongue in cheek of, yes, dear. But I really am there to serve her because I've been married since 1990 and I expect to be married for another 30 years. So that's probably one of the best pieces of advice somebody told me is just really serve my wife and love her well.
Tim Fitzpatrick: Okay, I'm going to go down a small rabbit hole here. My wife and I, when we went on our honeymoon, we went on a cruise, and they had this honeymooners meeting on the cruise, and there were some older couples that they invited there, and you had me laughing because there was a couple that had been there. They had been married for over 50 years. And they asked the husband, what's been your secret? And he said, yes, dear. I think you're on to something. So what's the one thing about you that surprises people?
Michael DeLon: Yeah, the most thing that surprises people about me is I'm an introvert. I've taken all the tests. I always lay in the introvert thing. And basically what that means is that when I get exhausted and worn out, what do I do? Do I go be with more people or do I become a recluse with my book? I'm a recluse with my book. That's where I get energy because I'm on like this all day long. But if you're around me, you're going to say that dude is an extrovert extraordinaire. I just wanted to play the game well. It wears me out. At the end of the day, I'm going to be exhausted. That's the thing that surprises people. They all go, no way, Delon. I'm like, yes, it really is.
Tim Fitzpatrick: Yeah. It's so funny how many people have actually said that they are introverts when I ask this question, because most people would think, oh, my gosh, those people are totally extroverts. It doesn't work that way. That is really interesting. What does success mean to you?
Michael DeLon: Success means to me is making an impact and contributing to the lives of others in a way that God's uniquely designed you to do. Okay, so my mission statement came to me years ago, Tim. My mission statement is to facilitate growth in organizations and individuals. When I do that, I'm successful has nothing to do with money. I love generating money and helping business owners. But I can be meeting with a man around the Bible, talking to somebody about their marriage, or playing with my kids. If I'm facilitating growth in their life, I'm successful.
Tim Fitzpatrick: I love it. Where's your happy place?
Michael DeLon: My happy place. Besides my office, it's probably, honestly, on the back deck of my house, sitting there with a book in hand and probably a Yuengling black and Tan, one of my favorite beer, and just sitting there and enjoying a beautiful, sunny day.
Tim Fitzpatrick: Yuengling.
Michael DeLon: Black and Tan. Black and Tan.
Tim Fitzpatrick: Okay, Yuengling. I've never heard of that.
Michael DeLon: Oh, really? They're like America's oldest brewery. They're not everywhere yet. Out where you are, there's all kinds of beers, but yeah, Yingling. Y-U-E-N-G-L-I-N-G. I'll have to bring you on. Just a good, deep, robust flavor. Not bitter. It's just.
Tim Fitzpatrick: Yeah. Okay, yingman. All right. What qualities do you value in the people you spend time with? Wow.
Michael DeLon: Integrity, fun, genuineness. I was on a call yesterday, and the guy was just genuine. And I'm like, you know what? I just want to hang out with you. Too many times, we're just posers right. Whether you go to Church or hang out wherever you go, how things are going, everything is just fine. We put on the I'm good hat. I'm good. Everything's good. Give me a break. Let's just be genuine with one another and just realize that we're all broken and we all got stuff. That's okay. I love you anyway. So I think really genuineness of just authenticity. This is who I am. Take me or leave me. There you go. That puts us all at ease.
Tim Fitzpatrick: So let's dig into what you're doing with Paperback Expert.
Michael DeLon; Yes.
Tim Fitzpatrick: How are you helping people? Who are you helping? What does that look like?
Michael DeLon: Yeah. So Paperback Expert started years ago. Let me tell you the quick story. Then we'll get into that is when I escaped prison, and it wasn't a literal prison. It was an emotional prison because I was in a job that I hated, and for two years I was there. My background is in marketing. I was in Ministry building, marriages and families. And it just got to the place where I needed out. So I stepped out, started my own company, went to help business owners grow their business. I'd meet with you, Tim, and I said, hey, I can help you grow your business. We have a great meeting. You'd say, Michael, what have you done for the last few years? I said, I've helped build marriages and families. And you said, Michael, that's a great way to go. Look at the time. I've got another meeting and you dashed me out the door, and I wasn't getting clients. And I said, Man, I got to fix this. So I went to my Church, prayed. I said, how do I help Tim, Lord? How do I help him? And God said, why don't take all your marketing ideas and strategies and put them in a book? And so I did. So I published my first book in 2013. Then I would call you and say, Tim, I think I can help you with your marketing. You'd set an appointment. I mail a copy of my book to you. I'd walk in a week later to our meeting. There it was. My book was on your desk, Dogger highlighted underline. You read my book. And in that meeting, Tim, you'd say, now, Michael, in your book, you said, how do you help me do that? And you'd hire me. Now, Tim, what changed in those two meetings? The only thing that changed my understanding of marketing didn't change. My Ministry background didn't change. What changed is how you thought of me. When you got a copy of my book, you instantly saw me as an expert in your mind. And you said, this is somebody I can trust. And he's got a solution to my problems. That changed everything in my life and my business. So I started getting clients. I said, man, why do business owners do this? Well, I don't know if you've written a book, but it's hard to write a book. There's a lot to it. So we created a process where now we help business owners, coaches, authors, whomever to create their book without writing a word. And we do that to establish credibility in the mind of their audience. And then we teach them marketing systems to market that credibility in a variety of ways so they'll gain clients, get referrals, and grow their revenue long term. So that's the nut. That's the Genesis of how I got here and what I do, because I'm convinced Mim that every business owner is an expert at what they do. They all struggle with marketing, and most of them aren't telling their story. And so that's where we always start is getting that story of what really does set Rialto marketing apart. Right. You and your dad, you've got a great background story that needs to be told that resonates with your ideal prospect. And that starts building credibility and trust and bonding at a heart level to where I'm like I really like these guys. I resonate with what they say and who they are. And I think that's the biggest thing is it's not just what you say, it's who you are, because I'm going to buy you and your services more because of who you are than what you do. So that's what we really help business owners do is understand that unique story, that signature message of theirs, and then create their book and then launch them out down the pathway of what we call credibility marketing.
Tim Fitzpatrick: One of the things you said, I think, is easy to miss. You wrote your book. Once you wrote your book, after you started meeting with potential clients, after the first meeting, you would send them a copy of the book.
Michael DeLon: I would send them a copy of the book as soon as you set the meeting with me.
Tim Fitzpatrick: Got it.
Michael DeLon: Okay. Our meeting was like, next Thursday, right? I'd mail you a copy of my book to precondition you really.
Tim Fitzpatrick: Got it.
Michael DeLon: When I walked in, you'd already hired me. Really? We were just trying to say, is this a good fit or not?
Tim Fitzpatrick: So before you even met with them, they got a copy of your book, which alone I already know that that separated you from, dare I say, 100%. But it like very most people.
Michael DeLon: Back then this was 2013. I was the only guy in town with the book. I was competing against all the ad agencies and all the media reps that were knocking on your door. Right?
Tim Fitzpatrick: Yeah.
Michael DeLon: You got my book, and I was in a category of one.
Tim Fitzpatrick: Yeah. I love it. That's awesome. So once you became an author, assuming you realized and this is why we're going to talk about this, something about just having being an author wasn't enough. Why?
Michael DeLon: Yeah, it's not. And I'm so glad you asked this question because I'm really convinced Tim. I'm getting ready to go on my soapbox here. This is like the biggest lie being propagated through the Internet right now. Publish a book and the floodgates will open. My to your door. It's like, no, they won't. Yes. Being an author is phenomenal. It does change how people see you. But I talk with business owners every week who have a book. They don't know what to do to monetize. If you think you're going to get rich selling your book on Amazon, think again. It's not this. It's how do you use your book to attract the ideal prospects to convert them, to get them to read it, to understand your message so that when you meet with them, your book is dogeared highlighted underlined sticky noted, and they're coming in to talk to me. Tim, in your book, on page 32, you said this. I don't understand that. How does that apply? They're already sold on you, right. How do you use your book to get referrals? Everybody wants referrals. Nobody knows how to do it. We give our clients scripts and here, Tim, would you do me a favor? Would you take three or four copies of my book? And when you're talking with your friends at the club or at Church, would you just say, hey, here's the guy that helped me with my financial plan. We really love him. You should just read his book. Would you do that for me? What a great way to get referrals out. A client called me yesterday. He's a financial advisor. He just gained a new client, and he said, Guess how it happened? I was like, podcast. He's like, no. One of my clients gave this couple a copy of my book, and they read it and they called me and said, we think we need to meet with you. That's how it works, right. So having a book is great, but it is not enough. You need to have marketing systems and strategies of how are you going to use your book to gain clients and stimulate referrals from your best clients. There are systems that we give that other people have can use, because having a book, again, is great. But if you don't know what to do with it, it's just a doorstep.
Tim Fitzpatrick: Yeah. This is not Field of Dreams, where if you build it they will come .
Michael DeLon: At all.
Tim Fitzpatrick: This is fascinating. So a couple of things I want to pull out of this. One, and I'm assuming these costs are going up right now, like most things. But how much does a copy of your book cost you? Do you know?
Michael DeLon: You mean for me to buy this thing?
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Tim Fitzpatrick: I don't want to know how much it costs me if I go buy it.
Michael DeLon: Right.
Tim Fitzpatrick: When you print those up, how much do you pay for those?
Michael DeLon: Yeah, these for me are about 375 plus shipping.
Tim Fitzpatrick: 375 plus shipping. So you have to start tracking this. Right. Like, how many books do I have to hand out to get leads.
Michael DeLon: Totally.
Tim Fitzpatrick: But my guess is the cost per lead is pretty economical.
Michael DeLon: Oh, it's totally economical because here's a system we teach our clients. Right. Have your book on your website, you generate leads, driving people to the website. Hey, get a free copy of my book. Right. They opt into your list, which is your number one asset in business, is your list. Now they're on your list. You deliver the ebook to them, and then right there you say, hey, Tim, thanks for downloading my ebook. Let me mail you a free copy of my book. Just tell me where to mail it. It'll be there in a couple of days. Now I'm capturing all of your contact information, right? About 40% is what we have found. About 40% of people will opt in for the physical book. Dude. Now I've got some good stuff, because now I can market to you in a variety of ways, online and offline.
Tim Fitzpatrick: Offline.
Michael DeLon: And we can talk about some other strategies, offline strategies that are very unique to us to help build credibility. But it is that cost per lead starts going down because I've got them in my list, and you and I both know not everybody's ready to buy today. Yes, I need to stay in touch with them long term. That's why I want all of your contact information, not just to mail my book to you, but to mail my print newsletter to you and to mail gifts to you and to mail postcards to you and to market to you online, because nobody markets that way, Tim. You know this as well as I do but when we deliver our systems to them, the systems do all the work for you. And you can actually market in a very holistic way to say, yeah, it's great to be an author to get people to you, but you need so much more going for you and working with you. I know you're a big proponent of having a plan and 90 day focus on all that, which I totally am all about. You got to have systems running all this thing. So I probably went down the driver's path there.
Tim Fitzpatrick: No, I love this. The other thing I want to pull out here, too, is if you write a book from the perspective of I'm not just writing this to write it. I'm writing it so that I can use it as a marketing tool.
Michael DeLon: Yeah.
Tim Fitzpatrick: Some of the best books I've seen from a marketing perspective, you read one of your daughter's fiction books, you just read it and that's it. But people that write business books that want to generate leads from them, I noticed a few things, and I'm sure you probably have some other things. So I'm curious to see what you say about this. But they have resources where, hey, here's a free resource to help you with the info in this chapter. Go here. They're very subtle calls to action, but they are meant to get people out of the book online to gather additional information. And that's when it really starts to become this tool that generates a lot of interest. What are your thoughts there?
Michael DeLon: Love it. I love it because that's interactive. Right. We re book one on one. And when you stop and we're doing this for a couple of our clients right now, is in the middle of a chapter or sometimes at the end of the chapter, they have like some tips, some highlights. And I said, great, here's what let's do. Let's put a QR code right there. It goes to a video of you explaining the concept that you just talked about in your book. And let's do that throughout the book. So now they're engaging with the author. And of course, on that landing page, there should be an offer to go, hey, if you have questions, click here or here's another resource or download this. But it's a way to really bring the book alive. Yes, totally doable with QR codes. And we're starting to use them more and more because what we're after is that bond that connectedness between the reader and the author. And QR codes are something what you're talking about is they're super helpful because you really want to equip your reader with great resources and become, okay, here we go. The one they think about first and feel the best about when they are ready to make a decision.
Tim Fitzpatrick: Yeah.
Michael DeLon: You can position yourself there. You now have credibility in their eyes. And it's not a sales call anymore. It's conversation. It's a good fit conversation. .
Tim Fitzpatrick: That is such a cool idea. Driving to video. When you're driving to URLs, you can also start to track that. So now you start to see Gosh, how much traffic is the book driving to these other assets?Additional calls to action.
Michael DeLon: Retargeting ads on those specific pages.
Tim Fitzpatrick: Yes.
Michael DeLon: There are all kinds of things you can do. Yes, absolutely. Inviting you to a short micro training on that topic. Right. If they're on that page, they have interest. Let's go. Hey, after you watch this, I've got a short 15 minutes presentation that goes more in depth right here. Just sign up and go there. Now I'm taking because if they buy your book on Amazon, Yippee, Skippy. You get $3 or $5. I want to engage them. Qr codes resources is a great way to engage them and make sure you're capturing their information, adding them to your list so you can market to them long term. Yeah, you're right on track, man.
Tim Fitzpatrick: So what are some ways someone can establish and market their credibility, whether they have a book or not? Some of us are going to be like, oh, my God, no, I'm not writing a book.
Michael DeLon: Shame on you. Yeah.
Tim Fitzpatrick: I love what we're talking about here, Michael, but no, I'm not going to write a book.
Michael DeLon: Yeah. And that's really cool. And that's one reason we started our coaching programs is because I was talking with a lot of business owners who either A, had a book and didn't know what to do with it or B, were not ready to do a book, but they still needed the credibility. And so what we do is we help them, we take them through a process. So some of the things you can do is, number one, tell your story. Right. Too many times we don't tell our story of how did we get to where we are? Because unfortunately, most of us do something that can easily become commoditized. We got 1000 different competitors out there. What's going to set you apart? What is that message? I've got an attorney down in Florida. He's in a market that's really competitive. I mean, his competitors are spending like a million dollars a month on marketing. I mean, it's crazy. This guy doesn't have that money. He was a baseball player. He went to College, threw his arm out, became a personal injury attorney. And now he helps people who are in accidents and thanks to no fault of their own. And I said, William, have you ever told that story to anybody? He's like, no, I said, we're going to. So we created his book all around that story. And he's a personal injury attorney. Right. And so the theme of his book is Now When Life Throws You a Curveball, baseball player turned attorney helps people who are hurt. And it's a compelling story because it's his story. He's gone through what he helps people go through positions him totally different against the big dogs and allows him to go on TV or on website or whatever, telling that story, which bonds people to him. It's a credible story. It's a real life story. So he does it on TV, he does it on his website. He does it through his book. He does it on his blogs, he does it on his everywhere he goes. That's the story. Because I know you just got hit by a big 18 wheel truck. Life just threw you a curveball. I'm going to be here to help you out. Dude. That's a whole lot more compelling then we just want $18 million in the last case. Who cares?
Tim Fitzpatrick: Yeah.
Michael DeLon: Not to like you and bond with you. So tell your story. And we've got a whole process that we walk people through eight questions. But if you don't go through our process, take a friend out to coffee and sit down and say, all right, Tim, here are some questions. Ask me about my life and record it all. And have your friend just kind of dive in deep and say, well, How'd you get here, Tim? Why'd you do that? Why did you leave that job? What's going on there? What are your passions? Just have them ask your questions and you're going to find that there's a theme that comes out that says, wow, I never realized that baseball ties into being a personal injury attorney or Kayaking ties into being a financial advisor. Well, it does. It really does. And that's what sets you apart. That's how you start building credibility and then be consistent with it. And going back to one of my answers earlier, be genuine. Be yourself. I've been doing this about ten years. The first five or six years, Tim, I was trying to be somebody that I thought you wanted me to be. I was very stiff. I was very professional. I finally just threw the coat and everything, said, Dude, this is me. You're either going to like me or you're not. And that's okay and everything, Tim, so be yourself. But tell your story. Everybody has a story to tell. Just tell your story.
Tim Fitzpatrick: I love that. I had somebody on the podcast a month or so ago, and when I asked her how she became successful, she was like, I only became successful when I started being myself. I was trying to be somebody else. I wasn't being myself. In the minute I did, things changed for me. So you're now the second person that is saying that, which I really love. The other thing that I'm hearing you say is one, look, our individual stories are our story. We should not be changing that. It is what it is, and we shouldn't discount it. We need to just tell that story and find a way to tell that story and tie it in. There are always ways that we can tie things together, right?
Michael DeLon: Absolutely. You tell in a thousand different ways. Yeah, absolutely.
Tim Fitzpatrick: It sounds like you really help people first tell their story, but then understand how they can use the story to help them with what they're currently doing.
Michael DeLon: Oh, yeah, absolutely. Because once we get that what I call that signature message. Right. Once we get that, when life throws you a curveball, signature message. That's him. Great. All right, William, how are you going to tell that when you're on TV being interviewed for three minutes, when you're doing webinars, when you're speaking at the colleges, when you're writing emails on your blog post, how do you weave that same story in? And do you have a standard video at your website that tells that story? Even if it's just like this, it doesn't have to be professionally produced. It's just me telling my story and saying, here's who I am and if I can help you, I would love to serve you because life threw me a curveball. And when life throws you a curveball, I want to be there to catch you. That's all it takes. But yeah, we help our clients understand a plan. We call it a credibility game plan. And it comprises your market, your signature message and systems. But you've got to think rightly about marketing and about how does your audience think of you. Remember how my life changed when my book got in their hands and they thought of me differently? You have to understand how people think and how do you influence how they think by the message you put forward. And that message should be tied to your unique story, your brand message.
Tim Fitzpatrick: Yeah, I love that. So I'm pulling out. We got to know our story and how we're going to tell it, because that is one of the main things that is in the beginning is going to help us start to establish credibility.
Michael DeLon: Yes, absolutely.
Tim Fitzpatrick: From there, you've got three primary credibility marketing platforms you like to talk about. Let's dig into those.
Michael DeLon: Sure. Well, obviously, my first one is your book. Right. I really think most people need to be an author. We've created a very simple way. It's a speak to write process. But whether you use us or somebody else or you do it yourself, I really think that in our culture, experts have books, okay. They really do that. What happens in the mind is like, wow, you're an author, you wrote a book on. Yeah. Number one. That's number one. Number two is podcasting. Just like this. Podcasts are great. I spent nine and a half years in Christian radio. Right. I love radio. Radio is a great media for building credibility. The downside is it tends to be pretty expensive. And your radio show, if you're doing a radio show, is on one time a week. And if I miss Saturday at 02:00, I'm out. Podcasting a whole different animal, right. I can carry you with me on my phone. I can listen to you when I'm interested in. And it lets me build a relationship. So book would be one podcasting is the other one, and the one that I really love besides those two is email. Okay. I'm a big fan of daily emails. Now. Most people give me push back and say, well, nobody writes it going in spam. Actually, it doesn't. When you do it properly and you write good emails and we teach our clients how to do it. Most emails I get to them are pathetic. But when you do it right, okay, people engage because we teach them how to tell a little story about just something's going on. Like, my car is an ice cube in front of my driveway. I'm in Little Rock, Arkansas. It's been snowy, icy for three days. My car has ice all over it. So I took a picture of it. I'll probably use it in an upcoming email about the ice Cube or in my driveway. And then I'm going to turn that to a marketing tip. Say, are your prospects cold? How are you doing to warm up your prospects and melt the ice so that they'll engage with you? Do you see how dude, that's an email. I show up in your inbox every single day. I have top of mind awareness. You might not read all of my emails, but you know what? You see my name every day. I want to be the first one you think of and the one you feel the best about when you're ready to take that next step. Okay, so a book, a podcast, an email. Those would be three primary ones. And of course, we do micro trainings. We're big. Everybody does webinars, which are like 90 minutes or 60 minutes. I do micro trainings, which are like twelve minutes because people can carve out twelve minutes, 95% content. Call to action at the end of the day is really, hey, if I can help you out, Tim, schedule an appointment. Let's talk and let's see if it's right for you. These little micro trainings, I do them on a ton of different topics. A lot of teaching people love these. I record them, I put them on a landing page and go back. These are just systems that we've put in place that we give to people. But I went back earlier and said, your list is your number one asset. I'm all about building my email list because I want to build a relationship with you. Tim, you got a great relationship with your wife. I bet you spend time with her, like, every day, right? That's email. I'm building a relationship through email. Of ten emails that I send, seven to eight of them are straight content. One or two of them might be selling into a coaching program or a book or something like that. But by and large, it's building in giving away the farm. Always there's a call to action. Hey, schedule call if you want to, but that's usually in the PS. I want to build content. I want people to look at me as a source of valuable information, as somebody they can trust and not as somebody who's trying to get in their pocketbook all the time. That's not what it's about.
Tim Fitzpatrick: How often are you doing micro trainings?
Michael DeLon: On a standard basis, we do one full webinar a month and two weeks later we do one micro training. So I do a micro training every month. And then when I'm launching something. So for instance, I'm launching a coaching program in about six weeks. On some weeks now we'll do two micro trainings. One of those is specifically geared toward the coaching program. And on those I would tell you upfront, I was like, Tim, thanks for being here. I want to tell you I do have an offer at the end of this training. I'm just letting you know it's going to be for the coaching program. But in the next twelve minutes I want to talk with you about boom. And then when I get to the call, but I tell you up front, if I've got an offer at the end, because I just really want to be upfront with people and I'm not here to bait and switch, but we typically do one a month, one micro training and one long form webinar that really explains our entire credibility upgrade program.
Tim Fitzpatrick: Got it.
Michael DeLon: And those, by the way, are systems that we run.
Tim Fitzpatrick: I love the idea of a micro training. It's a really interesting idea. A couple of things I want to highlight here and what you said because people may have missed this, you dropped a ton of value right there. So three credibility building platforms, book, podcasting, email. One thing you touch on you've touched on multiple times here is building your email list. The way it was described to me and the way it's always just resonated with me is your email, your website. These are assets that you own. A lot of other marketing channels are channels you rent, social media, paid ads you have no control over there those not to say that you shouldn't use them, you just have to know that you're renting them and that spigot could turn off tomorrow.
Michael DeLon: Absolutely.
Tim Fitzpatrick: Your email list, that is not going to happen. Same thing with your website. We need to be if we're using rented channels, we want to drive people to the channels that we own. So I love that email list. So you talked about daily email. I am on a few email lists, primarily from copywriters that send daily. That is their business. They sell stuff to their email list. That is it. And they do exactly what you talked about. My car looks like an Ice Cube. I'm taking a picture of it. They start every email with a story, some type of rant, and then they tie it back in to what they're selling or the message that they want to communicate, and that's what they do every single day. The other thing I want to touch on is podcasting, because a lot of people, you and I both know this having a podcast, it's a lot of work. So I'm not going to sugarcoat that. There's no way around it. It takes some work. But the other thing that a lot of people overlook, too, is I would tell somebody was like, Whoa, no, I don't know, then be a guest. Being a guest is far easier than most people think. There are a lot of tools out there now that make it much easier to connect with hosts. So get out there, figure out what you're going to talk about. If you can add value to somebody's audience and you're going to promote the spot, you will get booked if you do it consistently. As long as you have a system which you've talked about multiple times.
Michael DeLon: That's right. Yeah. Being a guest on podcast is great because you have something to share. Right. And as long as you're articulate and you can bring value to that person's audience, you're not there to promote you right, Tim, thank you for having me here. I'm here to build value for you and your audience. And if something I've shared today has helped great, I've facilitated growth in an organization and individuals. Right? So I'm successful. And if somebody down the road says, hey, I really like that guy, and they checked me out and they use one of my services. Awesome. But it's about building that relationship and helping you understand microtrains. Well, Tim, we need to talk about microtrains because I've got a whole template and system of how to do them. Right. That's what we're about. And as a guest, you're right. Podcasting is challenging. There's a lot to it. One of the hardest things is content. Where am I going to find content? Well, you're smart because you have guests on. It makes your content creation a lot easier. As a guest, you're helping that podcast host fill in content and build value into their audience. If you have that mindset going into it, you're going to get a lot of podcast bookings. And guess what? When somebody brings you on their podcast, guess who the expert is? You.
Tim Fitzpatrick: Yes.
Michael DeLon: That's what you want, right?
Tim Fitzpatrick: Yes.
Michael DeLon: You'll notice we've been on this thing for, I don't know, 15 20 minutes. We said, like, my company's name once, maybe. I don't care. Because it's not about that. It's about the connectedness. There are lots of companies out there. PodMatch is one of them that we use that say, hey, how do I connect with podcasters? They're out there, but it's a strategy that you have to have a plan. I know you're big on plans, and so am I. Don't just go out and say I want start a podcast. That's a tactic. It's part of your overarching strategy to proclaim your message and to share with other audiences. Absolutely.
Tim Fitzpatrick: Yeah, I love that. For people to check out the show notes, I'll put a link to PodMatch in there because PodMatch is a phenomenal resource for podcast hosts and for guests. So I want to continue down this path. We've been talking about ways to build credibility and expertise. If I have been spending time building doing things that are supposed to help me build credibility and expertise, is there a way for me to determine how much credibility I have in the eyes of my audience?
Michael DeLon: Yeah, great question. And for the longest time, Tim, the answer was no. And I talked to a lot of people and it's like, well, what is this credibility thing? Because it's one of those words we use. We kind of know what it means, but how do you define it? And so I finally figured out I said, I'm going to solve that equation. So what we did is we created what we call the Credibility Calculator. And it's at our website. And in less than five minutes, by filling out 20 questions or I'm going to ask you 20 questions, kind of yes, no, fill in like you're going to get delivered to you a number, zero to 100. And what we've done is we've looked at how does the public how does your audience think about credibility? What are they looking for? Those are the 20 questions. You answer them, we'll give you your answer. And then from there you go into a five video series that we've created that teaches you how to increase your credibility by going through our credibility game plan, the online version of it. And that's all free. It's a paperbackexpert.com. Look for the link that says Credibility Calculator. And it's going to reveal to you how your audience thinks about credibility, because too many times we're doing what we think is credible, but it's not. So, for instance, I work with a lot of financial advisors, and I had one come to me the other day. He's like, Man, I graduated from this University and I have all of these designations. Look at all of my designations. Nobody else has all these designations. So? They don't mean anything to me because I don't know what that designation means. I know the big ones, but I mean, six of his designations meant nothing to me. There's no credibility in that at all.
Tim Fitzpatrick: Yeah. It looks like they put their name up and then it looks like Alphabet soup after it.
Michael DeLon: Yeah, it really does. In his mind, he had credibility. In the mind of his audience, he's confusing them.
Tim Fitzpatrick: Right.
Michael DeLon: So, yeah, Credibility Calculator, we figured it out and it's really cool to go in there and get your number. And then we didn't leave it at that. We want to train you. So we've got five videos that follow that and some downloads. In fact, I talked earlier about the eight questions we asked to discover your own story. That's part of that five video series because that's part of helping you create a credibility game plan. How do you elicit your story? You'll get a free download to answer those same eight questions we use with our clients. You can answer them or you can have your friend and take them out to get some coffee and have them ask them to you. And through that process is going to help you discover your signature message.
Tim Fitzpatrick: Michael, you've dropped some serious value in this conversation, so I certainly appreciate it. I know people that are watching and listening will as well. Any last minute thoughts you want to leave us with today?
Michael DeLon: Yes, a couple of one. Be yourself. We've talked about that over and over again. Be yourself. It's okay. In marketing, you want to attract people who like you and repel people who don't. Just be yourself and find discover the hidden story that's within you and tell that. That story is going to bond people to you and it's going to help you connect and be genuine and authentic in all of your interactions. So be yourself, tell your story and do what you love to do.
Tim Fitzpatrick: I love it. And you already touched on this. People can find you at paperbackexpert.com. That's paperbackexpert.com. Michael talked about the credibility calculator. Take advantage of that. If you don't believe Michael knows what the hell he's talking about after this conversation, I'm not sure you ever will. So if you've even thought about writing a book, hop on over there. I know Michael can help you out and he can help you out without you having to write a single word.
Michael DeLon: That's right. Never write a book. Always speak to write your book. It's so much faster, so much better. It brings you to the table. And so people are like you're a book publisher. You don't want to write a book. That's right. I want you to speak and I want you to come out so, so much fun. Tim, thank you for having me, man.
Tim Fitzpatrick: Yes, and thank you for being here. Michael. I really do appreciate it. For those of you that are watching, listening. Thank you for doing so again. I am Tim Fitzpatrick. If you are struggling with your marketing, you're not quite sure what that next right step should be. For you to get where you want to go, hop on over to our website. Rialtomarketing.com. It's R-I-A-L-T-O Marketing.com. Click on the get a free consultation button I will be happy to chat with you and give you some clarity on what those next steps should be. Till next time. Take care.
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About the Host?Tim Fitzpatrick
Tim Fitzpatrick is the President of Rialto Marketing. At Rialto Marketing, we see many businesses battling information overload with marketing. As a result, they aren't sure what their next marketing steps should be to get where they want to go. We help B2B service-based businesses create, implement, and manage a marketing plan to communicate the right message to the right people so they build results that last. Marketing shouldn't be difficult. All you need is the RIGHT plan.