The Jody Maberry Show

One thing I have run into, mostly working with personal brands, people like myself whos business is built around the person running the business, is the reluctance to offer content for free. Some people are worried about giving away too much. The thought there is that you might be giving away something you could have charged money for. The other concern is the work it takes to create content, and just give it away is wasted time. It is time you could have used to create something that would bring income. Both of those ideas are wrong. At least in my experience they are wrong. Not giving content away for free will likely have the exact opposite impact you expect it would if you are holding back so you can get paid for your work. Here are five reasons you should give away content for free; You have to give a lot of value before you ask someone to spend money with you. People can sample you before they buy you. You are playing the long game. As Ray said, over time people come to know, like, and trust you. You will have a bigger reach. If your reach were only people who bought from you, you would not be getting your message out to many people. Offering content for free allows you to discover what connects with people and why. All of five of those reasons funnel into something Ray Edwards told us, Serve First, Profit Later. Let me tell you one example I have seen of this in action. Sure, you may know some of the names Ray mentioned like Dan Miller, Michael Hyatt, or Jeff Goins. Maybe you don't know them, but in internet entrepreneurial world, they are well known. But this idea works with the little guys too. Take Todd Smith. I host the Agents in Action podcast with Todd Smith. Todd put out high-quality actionable content twice a month on the Agents in Action for many months before he ever asked the listeners to purchase anything from him. Finally, he put together some live workshops for Realtors in the Dallas area where he is from. Like most of us, Todd had a bit of fear his workshops would be a flop. But as entrepreneurs must do, Todd moved forward anyway. And what happened? His workshops sold out. Why did they sell out? Is it because Todd is a nice guy. No. Todd is a nice guy, but people didn't show up to give him a hug. Did his workshops sell out because he has 25 years experience as a high performing Realtor? No. That helped, but it is not why people paid money to attend his workshop. The workshops sold out because Todd had been giving away bonafide content on every episode of his podcast. People who listened to the podcast knew how good he was. They had a free sample and knew what he offered was worth paying for. The concept of giving stuff away for free does not just apply to Ray Edwards. It applies to you. And it applies to Todd Smith. And it applies to me, which is one of the reasons I do this show. So maybe the secret is out. I do this show so I can serve you. So you will know me and like me. And perhaps someday, you may want to learn more from me in a manner that goes beyond listen to me talk on a podcast. But if you don't, if you just enjoy hearing me talk, that is fine too. If you find value in this podcast, but never pay me a dollar for anything, that will still make me happy. That is how this works. You have to decide to give no matter what you get back. And how does this work for you if you are not a personal brand or a business driven by a personality? What if you are a physical store? The principle is the same. Find some extra way to give and serve. If you are a chiropractor, offer education in a newsletter, podcast, or a blog. A local example for me comes from one of the hardware stores; they put on classes teaching kids how to build stuff. The class and the materials didn't cost anything for the kids. And of course a parent came along with the kid, and when the time comes, it is the parent who is going to decide to shop at the hardware store and spend money because their kid learned to build a birdhouse there. My last word on this, if people find value in your free stuff, what impression will that leave for your paid content?

It is possible to get too comfortable in business. I was reminded of that on a recent shopping trip. It is the season to shop, and I recently visited three stores that left an impression on me. 'First, was the Disney Store. Have you ever been to a Disney store? It is everything you would expect. It is a magical place. Of course, what they sell is outstanding, but it is bigger than that. The displays, the cast members, the layout of the store are all wonderful. Every detail of a Disney store leads to you having a great experience, and hopefully spending money while you are there. You may not be able to have products that are as magical of what is on the shelf at a Disney store, but you can pay attention to everything else they do. Find the Disney store closest to you and spend some time there. Don't go there to buy anything, just watch. Watch how people flow through the store. Watch how customers interact with displays, products, and cast members. You can learn a lot spending an hour in a Disney store. Next stop was the Lego store. This was an impressive experience too. Just like walking into a Disney store, you feel like you walking into a special place. They are doing a lot of things right in the Lego Store, too. You can always find an employee. There are more working than you would expect in a store that size, and they are easily identifiable in their bright yellow aprons. There are built Lego sets to look at, there are loose legos to touch, there are some lego sets exclusive to Lego stores. Plus, there is even an interactive display where you hold a Lego box up towards a screen, and right in front of you, the Lego box is instantly built on the screen. There is one thing that really impressed me at the Lego store, though. That was the shelves. They were never empty. If a customer took a box off the shelf to purchase, an employee immediately went into the back, grabbed a new box of the Lego set and put it on the shelf. I don't know they reason behind this, but it gave the impression that they had everything you wanted. I ever saw when one Lego set sold out; they did not leave the space empty. An employee immediately rearranged the displays on the shelf, so the spot that was empty a moment ago was now full of lego boxes. Within a couple of minutes, there was no trace of the lego set that sold out. Everything they did in that store gave the sense of an abundance of Legos. My third experience was even more memorable, not because of the store, which was nice, but because of something an employee said to me. The third stop was Sierra Trading Post. At Sierra, I tried on a pair of dress boots. Once the boot was tied, I stood up and was immediately poked on the heel by something. I took the boot off and, I know this was not my best idea of the day, I stuck my thumb in the boot to see what poked me. Well, it was a nail sticking up from the sole of the boot, and now not only did I have a puncture in my foot, but I also had one in my thumb as well. Not wanting this to happen to someone else to that pretty size 11 boot, I told one of the workers. I showed him the boot and then he went on to open every box of those boots and check every single boot to make sure no other pairs had that problem. While he did that, I was still browsing shoes, and we talked for a bit. He told me he had a nail come up through his boot once and poke him in the foot. The difference between his story and mine is he is a Marine. He was on one of those long marches Marines do. In the middle of the march, the nail came up from the sole of his boot to poke his foot. I asked him what he did about it. He said nothing. I am a Marine. Pain is just weakness leaving your body. I lost a lot of weakness that day. How incredible is that? I am a park ranger, but I would have sat down and tried to fix my boot. But this Marine kept on marching. I thought about the marine the whole way home. Especially what he said about pain is weakness leaving your body. I had never thought of it this way. But I can also apply it to business. The pain you feel in business is helping you get rid of weakness. The pain can come from stretching beyond what you are comfortable with. Pain can be doing something you have never done before. Pain can be rejecting "we have always done it that way." Pain is making mistakes. Pain was apologizing to a customer when you didn't perform the way you should have. All of this pain is weakness leaving your business. If you are not experiencing the pain and instead focusing on your comfort, you are being left behind. If you are comfortable, you are being left behind. Think of the Marine who I talked to at Sierra Trading Post, when the nail from his boot was poking his foot he felt pain. He could have stopped to fix his boot and felt comfort, but all of the other Marines would have left him behind. So think about the pain you feel in your business. Is it a sign of growth? Is it an indicator you need to do something different? You should worry if you aren't feeling pain because you are being left behind.

You can look great on camera every time. Not long ago, I did not know this. I thought you stood in front of the camera and hoped the photos turned out in the end. Early in the year, I had a photo shoot. It didn't turn out real well. I wasn't comfortable using any of the photos on my website. Yet, I still needed photos, so I scheduled another photo shoot. Luckily, between the first and second shoot I met Val Brown. Val Brown is an Emmy award winning producer. She has been preparing people to appear on television for more than 30 years. I was fortunate to work with Val before my second photo shoot because she set me up to improve on the first photo shoot, the one where I did not do so good. Now, we are both fortunate to have the opportunity to sit down today with Val Brown. I want to walk through the process Val and I went through to prepare me for the photo shoot. I know you are going to learn plenty from Val, so let's get to work. In this episode, Val Brown will walk you through the process we went through to prepare me for a photo shoot. After listening, you will realize you can look great on camera every time. If you want to learn more, don't miss out on more tips from Val. To get Val's guide, How to Prepare for Your Next Photo Shoot, just click HERE.

This week I was given a surprise reminder of someone from my past I am thankful for. Mrs. Warren, Jill Warren, was my high school accounting teaching. She had such a tremendous impact on me. Before I took one of her accounting classes in high school, I had no idea what to do. And I was a bad student. I didn't even try. But Jill Warren changed all of that. After taking the first accounting class with her, I took every class I could that she taught. All business related. A few years ago one of Jill Warren's daughters contacted me. A milestone birthday was approaching for her mother and the daughters had a wonderful surprise planned. They reached out to former students of Mrs. Warren and asked them to write a letter about her. I begin to write a letter, but sadly, I never sent it. Sorry Mrs. Warren. But this week I found everything I had written to Mrs. Warren in a notebook in my desk drawer. So now is the time to thank Mrs. Warren and share this with you. I call it Everything I need to know I learned in high school accounting. These are the 9 biggest lessons I learned from Jill Warren. There is a reason to celebrate everyone. A smile and a handshake can build trust and mutual respect. It is tough to be grumpy when someone looks you in the eye, smiles, and shakes your hand. Respect can level the playing field. You can not always trust a smiling face and a generous handshake. Timing is precious. Appearance and perception matters Patience. You can have a big impact by impacting one person. So it may be true that everything I needed to know I learned in high school accounting. Thank you, Jill Warren. I am positive I would not be who I am today without you.

Rachel Ries write songs. She sings songs. And she sells songs. Does Rachel create art or content? Rachel joins me on the Jody Maberry Show to discuss that and more. We also talked about writer's block and connecting with your audience. Rachel will help you consider a different approach to how you write and the content you create. Find more of Rachel at RachelRies.com.

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People buy truth. That is what Monaica Ledell says. What does she mean? People are attracted to the real you. Authenticity attracts. When you build you brand around the real you, people will feel it. How can you build a brand around authenticity? Is is possible to implement what you learn from other people and still be authentic?

A couple of years ago, I had the delight of being included in Jeff Goins book, The Art of Work. When Jeff Goins writes about you, people notice. Being in Jeff's book gave me 15 minutes of fame. This is exactly the type of break we are all looking for right? For someone like Jeff Goins to notice us, right? It could change everything. All we need is a big name to share our blog post, or to be a guest on a popular podcast, or to have Jeff Goins write about us, and then we can get the success we deserve. That is how it works, right? No. Fifteen minutes of fame is fun. But it changes nothing. You still have to do the work. Here is how you handle your 15 minutes in the spotlight; Enjoy it. Then get back to work. Success is found by showing up every day and doing the work. Every day. Check out Jeff Goins' book, The Art of Work. Jeff also has a new eBook out about getting started writing called It's Not Too Late. You can get your copy here.

Ray Edwards has had a tremendous impact on my business. He taught me how to write copy and has given advice and counsel that has drastically changed my business. Ray joins the Jody Maberry Show to discuss six ways you can change your business. For this interview, we pull the content from the second episode of The Jody Maberry Show and Ray walks through it, point by point, to discuss the six ways you can change your business. Don't miss Ray's Copywriting Summitt. You can sign up here. Ray's Website - rayedwards.com Ray on Twitter- @RayEdwards Ray on Facebook - Ray Edwards FB Page

Mike Kim is a sought-after copywriter, speaker, and marketing consultant. But if he has his way, when you hear the word Pivot you will think of him? Why does Mike position his branding around the word Pivot when he is known for copywriting? In this episode of The Jody Maberry Show, Mike Kim explains why we have to narrow down and be known for one thing. When people think of you, one word, one sentence, or one phrase should come to mind. Mike explains the common mistakes people make when trying to market and brand themselves. Check out Mike's Brand You Podcast.