Gold Nuggets
- Shaun attended an entrepreneurial conference in grade 9.
- Shaun didn’t see a blue cow that inspired the name of his company.
- If you have a business, you have some understanding of what marketing is.
“Digital marketing is just using a different means to do that type of marketing.”
“Instead of running newspaper ads or radio ads, you’re running Facebook ads.”
- “Find people that can help you do what you need to do in those little steps along the way – don’t try to learn it all yourself.”
- “If you’re found online, whether you have a Google listing or you have your website, you are, in one way or another, doing digital marketing.”
- “As much as understanding who your client is, you also have to have an understanding of who your client is not.”
- Businesses should think about starting or joining Facebook groups.
- “When you create a video for your business, you’re not going in to try and sell your service. You’re going to provide information and value.”
- “There is a skill and knowledge that you have that other people are looking to have answers to.”
- “Podcasting has gained a lot of headway in the marketplace in the last several years.”
“Where I see a podcast really beneficial for a business is not as a means to advertise but as a means to share your area of expertise and your knowledge.”
- “The digital landscape is always going to be changing. What we set out to do today, in 2 months, 3 months, or 6 months is most likely going to change.”
- “Be okay with the fact that you might start something that is not going to work.”
- Juliet spoke more than she was planning to speak.
- “Clients don’t care about the labour pains. They just want to see the baby.” – Tim Williams
Meet Shaun Whynacht
Our guest is Shaun Whynacht, Founder and CEO of Blue Cow Marketing.
Shaun has over 20 years of experience in digital marketing across both the US and Canada, helping clients develop the tools for marketing and promoting their businesses. A self-professed learning addict, Shaun spends his “downtime” keeping up with the latest trends in technology, marketing and design so that he can put them to work for his clients.
Shaun is also a licensed display fireworks and pyrotechnician.
He holds a Diploma in Technical Television Productions from the Nova Scotia Community College.
Smart Man, Smarter Woman References
We talk about a lot in each episode; however, we don’t want you to miss a thing! Here are some key items were mentioned if you want to take a closer look.
Website Recommendations:
www.bluecowmarketing.ca/
Book Recommendation:
Brandscaping by Andrew Davis
Who not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy
Stay Connected:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/bluecowcreative and https://twitter.com/shaunwhynacht
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bluecowmarketing/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/bluecowmarketing
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bluecowmarketing
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaunwhynacht/
Learn more about our Cloud Accounting Services here
Transcript
Steve Loates (00:00):
Welcome, everyone, to today’s podcast, Smart Man, Smarter Woman, a podcast for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs. Thank you very much for giving us a listen today. I am Steve Loates.
Juliet Aurora (00:14):
And I am Juliet Aurora.
Steve Loates (00:16):
And we are your co-hosts. Before I introduce today’s guest, I think my dear partner in crime may have a few words today. How was the smarter woman herself? How are you doing, Juliet?
Juliet Aurora (00:31):
I am excellent. That’s a really tough title to live up to on a daily basis. There are days where I’m not the smarter woman. I don’t know, we got to play it by year sometimes whether I get that title. But no, I’m excellent. It certainly feels like winter today. But it is winter, I’m in Canada, I shouldn’t really be too surprised. I’m not sure how much of today’s conversation I’m actually going to participate in, because it’s a marketing conversation, which isn’t necessarily my forte, but I think the audience today will get a lot of use, because marketing is usually one of the biggest challenges for most businesses.
Juliet Aurora (01:12):
I think it’s going to be a great episode. I’ll hand it back to you, Steve.
Steve Loates (01:17):
I really appreciate that. A couple of things there, Juliet, I really have never known you not have something to say. So, I’m pretty sure that you will be participating in this conversation. As for being the smarter woman, you have to remember what you’re being compared to, right? It’s smart man, smarter woman. Even on a bad day, you’re always smarter than me, so you don’t have to really worry about living… The bar’s not that high.
Juliet Aurora (01:46):
Come on, you’re selling yourself short.
Steve Loates (01:49):
I know you’ll do just a spectacular job as you always do. Anyway, the audience doesn’t want to listen to you, and I just ramble on here. Let’s bring in our guest. All the way from, certainly one of the most beautiful places in Canada, if not the entire world. We were there a couple of years ago on a quick drive thru, and I’m sure we didn’t do it justice, but we really loved it, and that is the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia, in Canada, like I said.
Steve Loates (02:26):
Our special guest, Mr. Shaun Whynacht, who I love his tagline. He’s a digital marketing specialist, but I prefer what I think he has in his email signature, which is the doer of cool marketing stuff. That is a great tag. Without further ado, Sean, welcome to the show.
Shaun Whynacht (02:48):
Thank you for having me. I’m really excited to be here.
Steve Loates (02:51):
Our pleasure. Now, before we start getting into some of this marketing stuff, and how we can help our audience, maybe you could start us off by sharing a little bit about your own entrepreneurial journey. A little bit about who you are, what you do, and maybe who you help, and let’s go from there.
Shaun Whynacht (03:10):
Absolutely. My entrepreneurial journey started a long time ago, much earlier than I was actually aware of. I remember being a little boy, and my grandfather had a TV repair business in our house, and I lived with my grandparents and my mom. I remember going out to his workshop and sitting on the bench while he fixed TVs and going out with him to deliver these TVs back. This is before TVs were disposable, people actually fixed them. I saw that relationship he’d have with clients, going in, knowing them, meeting them and everything.
Shaun Whynacht (03:42):
Then it wasn’t until grade nine in high school, I saw this poster in school that said, Entrepreneurial Conference. I went to the guidance counselor, I’m like, “What does that word mean?” She said, “It’s somebody that runs their own business.” Immediately, I was familiar with that. I grew up with that. I went to that. In grade 10, I started my first business, it was a DJ company, and I DJ-ed some high school dances and then it expanded into community dances, weddings. I got my professional training in video production and started into marketing videos.
Shaun Whynacht (04:14):
Then from there, I went west, learned web design, bringing me right back to the east coast 10 years ago, specializing in digital marketing, all the points in between. That’s really the summary of my entrepreneurial journey. Along the way, I’ve helped other family businesses operate and succeed and started some other little side ventures along the way too, but my heart is truly in marketing.
Steve Loates (04:40):
Okay.
Juliet Aurora (04:41):
I love that in grade nine, you attended an entrepreneurial conference. I have never seen any high school advertise any such thing for high schools students. I think it’s a fabulous idea because there aren’t enough schools talking about owning your own business, and being a business owner, they’re all talking about preparing you to work for somebody else. I love that you actually attended one and that they were advertising it in your school. That’s great.
Shaun Whynacht (05:10):
It was a great event. You’re amidst other people who were just like you and they were at different stages. Some of them had a business, some of them were thinking of starting it, and some of them had no idea what they wanted to do with their life, but they still attended. I think that’s where the heart of entrepreneurship is, is it’s all about opportunities, and really just finding where you fit.
Steve Loates (05:31):
Yeah, absolutely. I have to agree as well, that it’s not talked about enough in school. I think, high school, and maybe even sooner, is where it should be talked about. There are lots of kids who have no interest in going to university, the thought of maybe they just feel that they’re not going to qualify to get into university, or it doesn’t appeal to them at all, and that they’re always wondering, okay, well, if I don’t do that, what am I going to do? What are the options?
Steve Loates (06:09):
If I did want to start my own business, how do I start my own business? What are the steps? I’ve always thought that, that should be something, whether it’s an entrepreneurial actual class, or it’s part of another course. But I think it should certainly be something that’s talked about. I would be remiss if I did not ask how you came about the name of your business, Blue Cow Marketing?
Shaun Whynacht (06:41):
This story comes up a lot, everybody asked me that, and I really wish that I had this very in depth story to tell about it. But the reality came about that, when I wanted to start my business, in the marketing side, I knew I wanted something that had a fun character. For me, I don’t know why, I always thought cows were just… There was more going on there. When you saw a cow in a pasture, you’re like, that cow is probably a genius, but people just discredit them. They’re always fun and that kind of thing.
Shaun Whynacht (07:13):
When it came down to it, it was like, okay, let’s pick a color, blue is my favorite color, and then it used to Blue Cow Creative, and the name has changed to Blue Cow Marketing in the last nine years. That’s really what it was. There’s no big philosophy about seeing a Blue Cow when I was young and aspiring to have something unique, right? It’s not like Seth Godin’s Purple Cow or anything like that.
Steve Loates (07:34):
Right. I wasn’t sure if there was any connection there to the Purple Cow, because I thought it’s a great name.
Shaun Whynacht (07:42):
Over the years, everybody says, it’s memorable, I always remember it.
Steve Loates (07:45):
Yeah. For sure.
Juliet Aurora (07:47):
I love… Our audience, obviously, this is a podcast, you can’t see Shaun, but behind Sean on the wall is a picture of six cows. Five of them are black, one of them is blue, and then it says underneath it in blue writing, why fit in when you were born to stand out? Which I guess is a Dr. Seuss saying.
Shaun Whynacht (08:08):
That is correct. Yep.
Juliet Aurora (08:09):
But I think that just ties in perfectly with your entire marketing name and your firm name.
Steve Loates (08:15):
Yeah. No, that’s great. I love that.
Juliet Aurora (08:17):
It makes it memorable.
Steve Loates (08:18):
Yeah, for sure. Okay. Digital marketing, for most small business owners, it’s a scary phrase.
Juliet Aurora (08:28):
It’s an expensive phrase for a lot of-
Steve Loates (08:30):
Can be, it can be a frustrating place. For the small business owner who, maybe they’re on a limited budget, they don’t have the money to do everything they should be doing online, where would you advise them to start so they can start growing their business so that maybe as they grow, they can start to incorporate some of these other parts of the digital marketing world?
Juliet Aurora (09:03):
Before you answer that, can I take it back a step, because you, Steve, are a marketer, Shaun, you are a marketer. Our audience may not all understand what the difference is between digital marketing and marketing. Maybe if you could start with that, and tell us what does digital marketing mean?
Shaun Whynacht (09:25):
Absolutely. This question, I hear this a lot, and a lot of times, new businesses or people that are just getting started with digital marketing, look at it as it’s something completely new that they’re unfamiliar with. But the reality is, marketing, if they have a business, they understand some level of what marketing is. Digital marketing is just using a different means to do that type of marketing. It’s using technology. Instead of running newspaper ads, or radio ads, you’re running Facebook ads or Google ads. Instead of having a storefront only, you now have a website where people can find you.
Shaun Whynacht (10:06):
The idea is, you still want to be able to make yourself accessible, make it easier for people to communicate with you, and don’t overcomplicate it. Steve, when you’re saying about, somebody doesn’t have the budget, or the wherewithal yet to take it all on, you should absolutely never try to take it all on because you’re going to overwhelm yourself. Another reason, you don’t have all the time to learn it all.
Shaun Whynacht (10:32):
There’s a great book out there called How Not Why, which is the… Not How Not Why, I can’t remember the name of the book, Who Not How, that’s what it was, Who Not How. The idea is, find people that can help you do what you need to do in those little steps along the way. Don’t try to learn it all yourself, because you’re going to… That’s not your area of expertise.
Shaun Whynacht (10:55):
The reality is, if you have a website, or you don’t have a website, you don’t really need to spend a lot of money on it, unless you’re trying to make it an eCommerce site and sell products. When you come down to it and think of people are going to start to go to Google, and they’re going to type in a search. If they know about your business, or they hear about it, they’re going to search for the name. Really, what do they want to know? They want to know, when are you open, how do I contact you? Who are you?
Shaun Whynacht (11:21):
Really those three things in the very basic level. Then maybe they’re on Facebook, so you should be there. If you’re a professional out there doing professional service to other businesses, you should be on LinkedIn. There’s just certain places that are standard, that we tell people that they should be out there. Don’t get worried right yet about should I be doing X amount of posts per week, just make sure that you’re able to be found online.
Shaun Whynacht (11:47):
The next step from that is then looking at, okay, how can I start to get in front of more people? Because those people that are trying to find you, by either getting a referral, or they’re doing a Google search, their intent is higher than somebody who doesn’t know about you, or doesn’t know of the service or product that you have, or the problem that you solve.
Shaun Whynacht (12:10):
That’s what I really like to get people to think about is, if you’re found online, whether you have a Google listing, or you have your website, you are, in one way or another, doing digital marketing.
Steve Loates (12:22):
Okay-
Juliet Aurora (12:23):
That should make everybody feel better, because most people nowadays have a website, they have a Google business listing. At least now you can feel like you’ve got your toes in the water already. Now, we’re going to get you to maybe put your foot in and go a little bit further.
Shaun Whynacht (12:41):
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Juliet Aurora (12:42):
I love the phrase, who not how. One thing I like to focus on that you touched on, was if you are business to business, that you should be on LinkedIn, versus being on Facebook, or if your customers are on Facebook. How much do you emphasize, before someone is to venture into digital marketing or expand their digital marketing presence, understanding who their ideal client is, or who their client base is, and where they are?
Shaun Whynacht (13:15):
It’s extremely important. As much as understanding who your client is, you also have to have a strong understanding of who your client is not. A lot of times people will look at it as, I could service anyone. They cast this huge, broad net, and they’re really ending up being nobody to no one. By narrowing it down, saying, I service entrepreneurs who are between 35 and 50, primarily women, that is narrowing it down. I would know that that is my audience.
Shaun Whynacht (13:50):
I only know that myself, because when I look back at clients that I’ve worked with, that has been the demographic that has worked really well with me. The other side too, is, ask them. If you’ve worked with somebody say, “Where do you find out information online? Where do you personally go?” If they say, “Well, I’m on Facebook.” Facebook’s the biggest network that’s out there, because whether they’re there for business, they’re probably also there for their personal life as well.
Shaun Whynacht (14:19):
But I look at LinkedIn as that’s where you know of the people, right? Very little Do you see brands advertising on LinkedIn, you’re seeing posts when you’re going there from people, the people behind the business, and that’s where those personal, one to one business to business connections are made. In my opinion, that’s been the experience that I’ve had in working not only with myself, but with certain clients that I have that are in that space.
Steve Loates (14:45):
Right. Great. What would you say, in your experience of dealing with different entrepreneurs, different businesses, is there a common mistake you see them doing when they’re first starting out in the world of digital marketing, that is something they really should try to avoid?
Shaun Whynacht (15:08):
Yeah, they’re trying to take on too much. They’re creating their Facebook business page, they’ve got an Instagram account, they’re hopping on Twitter, they’re doing YouTube… Well, they’re trying to do it, but really, it’s spreading themselves too thin. They’re not really understanding how to do one of them really well, and then take those learnings from that and apply it to the next one. The idea is, where can you really give the best effort?
Shaun Whynacht (15:38):
Somebody that’s on Twitter is a unique skill set and understanding that somebody is on Facebook. Twitter is all about the now, the moment. If you’re always glued to your phone, and you want to be connected, that’s a great platform to be on. But if you don’t want to, and you want to have something with a longer shelf life, then Facebook’s a really good platform that’s there. The biggest thing I tell people is, go on… If you’ve never been there before, from a business standpoint, go on and start to look up some businesses that you personally shop at and see what are they doing?
Shaun Whynacht (16:09):
It’s the same thing as if you went to a host party, and there was like 100 people that you’ve never met before, you’re not going to walk through the door and start talking out loud and trying to bring all the attention to yourself. No, you’re going to go through and you’re going to start to mingle, you’re going to listen, and you’re going to see what conversations are happening and see where you fit in. Over time, you’ll start to feel more comfortable with the people that are there, and you’ll start to make connections. The same thing is true when you’re on social media, it’s just a different medium, there’s still a network of individuals feeding into it, you need to go on, you start to observe and start to listen and see what other people are doing.
Juliet Aurora (16:44):
I love the analogy of the house party and going in, and you wouldn’t just start talking to everybody, you would listen first. But I love that analogy. Just a dive a little bit into Facebook, in our industry, in the accounting space, Facebook groups have become a huge thing. Again, in our industry, where there’s a lot of sharing of knowledge, there’s a lot of discussion. I know, and have met people on Facebook groups, that I then will meet in person six months later, a year later at a conference, and I feel like I already know them, and I’m surprised that it’s the first time I’ve ever met them.
Juliet Aurora (17:28):
Is that… I’m relating it from my industry, but is that common among… Are Facebook groups popular across the board? Should businesses be thinking about joining or starting Facebook groups?
Shaun Whynacht (17:42):
Absolutely. It’s funny how, when Facebook first came out, groups were really the only way that a business could make an online entity, and then they shifted over, they created pages. So, people have pulled away from it. Now, groups are just making this comeback. It’s very valuable, because if you take the approach of using social media to genuinely want to help people and knowledge share, then you’re doing it right, you’re not going on social media just to try to keep selling. Social media is just a place to gain interest, get people to know who you are, and they will, out of curiosity, start to engage in conversation and check out who you are.
Shaun Whynacht (18:23):
When you find a group, and I suggest that you strongly go join a group versus starting one when you’re first getting going, because it’s hard to get the momentum in a group, but go in there and just start to again, same thing, look at what the amount of discussions that are happening. People create a post, and then there’s discussions on that thread that’s on there. See if you can add some value to that, and then suddenly, over time, what you’ll do is you’ll start to then either, post some content, or post a question, and then you’re leading a discussion.
Shaun Whynacht (18:56):
What will happen is somebody will click on your name, and they’ll look at your personal profile. As much as people are like, I want to keep the personal and the professional separate, you can’t do that as much with groups because you are personally connected to it. Making sure that your personal profile does mention something about your business, and maybe has a link to your website on it somewhere because people will click on it to check out who you are.
Shaun Whynacht (19:22):
Obviously, keep your security level if you don’t want your personal photos showing up, make them only for friends. But the idea is somebody is going to go check out who you are there. Then you’re going to want to start in some discussions back and forth. You will start to generate leads there. A lot of times, for example, if I’m in a business group, I will see people asking questions like, “Hey, I need to do a new logo or I need to do a new website. Do you know anyone?” People will start to comment on there. If I suggest myself, I can message the person and engage in that conversation. But if I went in there and started posting every day, “Hey, come to me for web design, come to me for marketing.” For one, you’re going to get banned from the group, because most cases is against the policy, and two, you’re going to be that annoying person who… We all know those people that you can hear them in any room you go in, whether there’s 100 people or 1000 people, you know that person is at that party, because you can hear them shouting over everyone. You don’t want to be that person.
Steve Loates (20:20):
Yeah, that’s very true. Very true.
Juliet Aurora (20:26):
For business owners that have a group or have started a group already, and they have a business page, where do you recommend that they’re sharing their content? Are they further ahead to share it on the page, or they further had to share in the group, or is there different type of content that they would share on one versus the other?
Shaun Whynacht (20:49):
That is a great question, and I love that question because it’s all about becoming valuable to the audience. Whether they’re a paying client yet or not, if somebody is going to come to your page and like your page, you’re going to have some kind of content coming out to them. A little later on, we’ll probably talk about more of the advertising side. But the idea is, you’re just giving them a little bit of value there. The idea of the group, in my opinion, is this is that VIP level, it’s another level of commitment, that somebody’s like, I’m going to join that group.
Shaun Whynacht (21:26):
There’s a different level between liking and joining, and when you join, you’re expecting a different experience. You’ve got content that you might put out there, post, and it doesn’t always have to be your own stuff. The idea is, your purpose is to be always on the outlook for what would be valuable to this audience? If you see somebody else had created a YouTube video, and you’re like, this is great content, share it to that group, give some preamble in the post saying, here’s what I love about this video, check it out. But the other side is, you want to have access to the people that are in there, and they want to have some kind of access to you.
Shaun Whynacht (22:08):
What works really well in a business side is, say, I’ve got this group, we’re going to post content on X, Y, and Z. But once a month, we’re going to do a Facebook Live Q&A on whatever industry you’re in. Throughout the time, you can promote it, and people can post questions, and you can go and do live videos in there. It becomes a different value set for those people that are joining it. What you’ll also notice over time, is once you get to this certain level of users that are in there that are liking it, it’ll take on its own life, where somebody will post a question, and before you even get to answering it, another user has given their feedback on it, and it really starts to have its own ecosystem.
Juliet Aurora (22:54):
[inaudible 00:22:54] Thank you.Steve Loates (22:55):
That’s great explanation of groups and how to use them. You also mentioned YouTube, and that’s another scary place for a lot of people. Those that, certainly don’t want to be on video, let’s say, but how do you feel about YouTube as a viable marketing option for small businesses? It’s been around a while now, there’s tons and tons of videos, very easy for your stuff to get lost on YouTube. Talk to us a little bit about how your experience and your feelings about where YouTube might or might not fit in for a small business?
Shaun Whynacht (23:38):
Absolutely. YouTube is ultimately a search engine owned by Google, and people go to YouTube to find videos that will help them do something. For me, a lot of times, if I’m buying a piece of technology, I’ll go to YouTube and look for a review on that, and I’ll believe the Joe Schmo down the road, who has a very on polished video who’s telling me what his experience of this product is, over the brands one that’s there. A lot of times, when you create a video for your business, you’re not going in there to try to sell your service, you’re going to provide information about you.
Shaun Whynacht (24:20):
We have a client who for five years, she has done a video every week on a different home kitchen product or bath product, she has a home decor store. Never once in the five years has there ever been a video that says this is the price, this is on sale, come in and get it now. It was like hey, here’s this product, this is what we love about it, and this is what our clients like about it as well. It has worked really well for her. So much so, that she skipped a week one time and people were angry that there wasn’t a video coming out. But what you’ll notice with YouTube is you don’t have to have a large studio to create content.
Shaun Whynacht (25:02):
Most people are carrying around enough they need to create a YouTube video in their pocket 24 hours a day, right? Probably not when they sleep, but it’s beside the bed. But the idea is, you have a ton of knowledge. Whether you’re an accountant, or you’re a cake decorator or whatever, there is a skill, a knowledge that you have, that other people are looking to have answers to. You can put on a 30 second video, a three minute video, it doesn’t matter, but the idea is you need to be doing it consistently. You’re not going to put three videos up and suddenly your business is going to grow.
Shaun Whynacht (25:40):
I’ve had my YouTube channel, I’ve got probably about 710 subscribers right now to it. But that has started to exponentially grow, the more videos I put on there. I’m in marketing, and the top performing video was me talking about a new audio board that I bought for doing podcasts, and I just said, “This is what I loved about it.” There’s like thousands of views, and every week there’s questions, people are commenting, saying, “Can you help me… I can’t get this to work, or that to work.” I’m replying back to them, because I want to become a value point for people to like that channel.
Shaun Whynacht (26:18):
If somebody is going to buy that, they may have a business, they may look at the other videos, I don’t know. But the idea is I want to help people and put it out there. It doesn’t always have to be around what your industry is.
Shaun Whynacht (26:29):
Now, there are people who will create a YouTube channel on a specific topic, and that’s what they want to do, and that’s great too, but from a general business, the idea is really just how can you provide value to your audience?
Juliet Aurora (26:42):
I have a funny story to add to that, about the content doesn’t need to revolve all around your business. We have a group for our industry, and I would do Facebook Lives, or we would do YouTube videos. Again, I was of the belief that okay, well, what am I going to say that’s of value to the people? That someone’s going to watch me they need to learn something, they need to have something of value. Then there was one day where I received a box of swag from someone.
Juliet Aurora (27:14):
I thought, okay, what the heck, I’m going to videotape and do a Facebook Live of me opening this box. It is by far the video that has had the most views, and all I’m doing is opening the box and taking out the things in the box and showing people the swag that I received, and it is one of the highest rated videos that we have. It absolutely does not have to always revolve around your content. That surprised me to no end.
Steve Loates (27:44):
Yeah.
Shaun Whynacht (27:45):
One of the top types of videos that you’ll see out there in YouTube are what are called unboxing videos. People want to… I don’t know if it’s the attraction to wanting to experience what it’s like to open up something new. We’ve all bought technology, we had to peel that plastic coating off and that feeling of gratitude you get when you do that. The same thing when you open a box of something. It’s like a present. That idea is taking people behind the scenes of your business so they can experience what you experience.
Juliet Aurora (28:17):
Yeah.
Steve Loates (28:17):
Yeah. Does that video have more views than mine, Juliet? I just thought our number one video was still the one where our team got to throw a cream pie in my face in the middle of winter.
Juliet Aurora (28:32):
Yeah, it might be second. I’ve got a lot of views as well.
Steve Loates (28:39):
Yeah. People love to see me get the cream pie in my face, I know. Podcasting, we’ve touched on that a little, and obviously, that’s what we’re doing right here. You have a podcast as well. Where do you see podcasting fitting in to a marketing program for a business?
Shaun Whynacht (29:04):
Podcasting has gained a lot of headway in the marketplace in the last several years. You’ve got more and more directories and places to consume podcasts. It’s now on Spotify, and you’ve got those smart devices and people are listening to audio in their car a lot more. Where I see a podcast really beneficial for a business is not as a means to advertise, but as a means to share your area of expertise and your knowledge.
Shaun Whynacht (29:37):
There’s different types of podcasts. There could be a solo podcast where you’re just going on the microphone and you’re talking on a single topic. I say single topic because people don’t really want to sit down and listen to an hour long podcast, because they don’t normally have that much time. When you look up a podcast you’re looking through the names of the episodes and usually they’re like, how to overcome this, or the three things you should do before this, those type of things.
Shaun Whynacht (30:05):
You’re like, well, that’s what I want to know, I’m going to listen to it. You’d be surprised how many people judge whether they’re going to listen to it by the length of that episode. In that 30 to 45 minutes is a good range for a podcast, if there’s a lot of information that’s in it. But I’ve seen some whether five minute episodes. But the idea is to get knowledge out there.
Shaun Whynacht (30:28):
In my podcast that I created, it was called The Content Amplification Podcast, because I created this program of coaching clients to understand that you don’t need to be shooting a video and then writing a blog and then doing a podcast. You can have one of those that you really want to do well, and we can split that out and amplify it by taking the audio from the video, turning it into a podcast, transcribing it, having 90% of that blog post be from that text, pulling out snippets for social media. You really have one level input with multiple streams of output in it.
Shaun Whynacht (31:05):
When I started that podcast, it was all about just getting people under that mindset of thinking about it. How do you come up with topics was an episode. How do you do Facebook Live? Or what is the basic understanding of Facebook ads? All the different elements that I could teach people to understand how to do those things? It was until this second season where I started to now reach out to different entrepreneurs, industry professionals across the world and say, “Hey, I’d like to have you as a guest, because I want to hear how you’re doing your content, because I want to share that with the audience.” I transitioned it in the second season from solo show to an interview based show.
Juliet Aurora (31:43):
Excellent. Can you just repeat the name of your podcast so that our audience has it as well?
Shaun Whynacht (31:49):
Yeah, it’s The Content Amplification Podcast, and if you Google it, it will come up.
Juliet Aurora (31:53):
Perfect.
Steve Loates (31:53):
Awesome. Well, man, the time Is Flying by here. One thing I did want to touch on, I noticed in your bio, and you haven’t mentioned this once while we were talking, but that you are a pyro technician.
Shaun Whynacht (32:09):
That’s right.
Steve Loates (32:10):
Please tell us a little more about that. How did that come to be?
Shaun Whynacht (32:15):
Well, since I was a kid, I was always fascinated with fireworks. Once I turned 19, I wanted to become certified to be able to be licensed to shoot them off. The government was putting on the program every year, and in our area, there was never 10 people to do it, so they’d always cancel it. It wasn’t until about seven years ago, where I finally got to go to the course and took it and became a display fireworks technician. Going out and doing New Year’s, Canada Day, all those shows, and then became a supervisor level. Then I went in took my pyrotechnic certification, so I could do theater for concerts, I did professional bull riding with pyro and everything like that.
Shaun Whynacht (32:59):
It’s just a labor of love and a passion for me. It’s a good escape from it. There’s a level of creativity and art where, you are in control of somebody’s enjoyment of the show. There’s nothing better than finishing a 12, 15 minute New Year’s Eve show, and the last shell goes off and you hear horns and clapping and everything, and people are hooting and hollering. That is a huge level of gratification. Even though it took you seven hours in the freezing cold to set up that show, it was all worth it.
Juliet Aurora (33:32):
Love that.
Steve Loates (33:32):
Lovely. I’ve met lots and lots of people in my life who love fireworks, will drive anywhere for a firework show. But you’re the first person… Yes, Juliet, but you’re the first person I’ve met who was so enthralled with fireworks, you actually learned how to be the person who sets up the firework show. I think that’s awesome.
Shaun Whynacht (33:58):
Yeah. One thing to that, too, was the company that hires us, because we’ve become certified, and then we get hired by the company, actually has then used my services for marketing. So, it came two fold and worked out really well that way.
Steve Loates (34:11):
Absolutely. That’s a true spirit of an entrepreneur, right?
Shaun Whynacht (34:15):
Yeah.
Steve Loates (34:15):
You followed your passion and made a job out of it, so to speak.
Shaun Whynacht (34:20):
Yeah. One topic before we… I know we’re getting short on time that I think is very valuable to talk about briefly, is the idea of paid digital advertising. I hear that a lot where people are like, “Well, isn’t Facebook free?” In reality, it is free as a user, but they’re pulling back the reins on what you get from what we call organic posts. If you post you’re going to notice not as many people are seeing it, they want you to pay to advertise, and that’s okay. It is probably the better form of advertising than what I would consider traditional, like running a half page newspaper ad, where if the phone doesn’t start to ring after that ad’s printed, you can’t do anything about it. But if you’re running a Facebook ad for, let’s say, $100 for seven days, and something’s not resonating, you can turn it off, upload another image and try that. So, you’re in complete control of it.
Shaun Whynacht (35:13):
The biggest question I want to get out to your audience or the answer to the question is, where should I start? The first thing somebody should get set up is what we call a retargeting ad. That means if somebody has come to your website, and they leave it, and then they go on Facebook, there should be posts from your content from your showing up. We do that through retargeting.
Shaun Whynacht (35:35):
It could be, just a video maybe of you talking about something and then a button to message you. Very basic, but the idea is make that connection.
Steve Loates (35:43):
That’s great, great advice. I know Juliet is stopped constantly by retargeting ads, remember?
Juliet Aurora (35:52):
I actually find them challenging, especially around birthday times, because I’ll be shopping online, and then all of my devices get stopped by these. So no one in my family can even look at any of my devices, because they’ll know what I’ve been looking at. But they are very effective.
Shaun Whynacht (36:10):
There’s a lot of discussion out there about people thinking your phones are listening, and retargeting, and I’m here to tell you, that is absolutely true. If you do start to talk about a product around a smart device, you will start to see ads for it. I saw something really funny the other day and said, if you really want something from your spouse for your birthday, start talking about the product around their phones, because then they’re going to start to see ads about it.
Juliet Aurora (36:34):
That’s true, that actually that does happen?
Shaun Whynacht (36:37):
Yeah. The latest update on iPhone has a little color on the top corner, where it’s like a red or a green dot. Green, meaning the camera’s being activated, and red dot is the actual microphone. If you are talking, it’s always listening, especially if you’ve got your Siri or your Google turned on to be listening for you, it always has to be listening. They’re actually indexing the stuff that you’re saying.
Steve Loates (36:57):
Ah, yes, the world of digital marketing.
Shaun Whynacht (37:03):
Myself, from a personal user standpoint, not the marketing side, I don’t mind it, because it’s actually helpful when I see content that’s related to something that I’ve been discussing. Other people that don’t have that feeling, I find it’s very helpful that it’s out there. From a marketing standpoint, I think it’s awesome.
Steve Loates (37:23):
Yeah, that’s great. Well, that brings us to the part of the show that we call the Smart Man, Smarter Woman version of James Lipton’s actor studio, where we have six questions that we ask every guest, same questions, and always get some interesting answers.
Shaun Whynacht (37:45):
I can’t wait.
Steve Loates (37:46):
If you are ready, Shaun-
Shaun Whynacht (37:48):
I’m ready.
Steve Loates (37:48):
… put you on the hot seat for a couple of minutes and we will go through our questions.
Shaun Whynacht (37:52):
All right, let’s do it.
Steve Loates (37:53):
Question number one. What one word best defines an entrepreneur?
Shaun Whynacht (38:00):
Resilient.
Steve Loates (38:01):
What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
Shaun Whynacht (38:07):
An electrician.
Steve Loates (38:09):
What profession would you like never to attempt?
Shaun Whynacht (38:15):
Plumber.
Steve Loates (38:17):
What sound or noise do you love?
Shaun Whynacht (38:22):
Silence.
Steve Loates (38:23):
Okay. What book would you recommend every entrepreneur should read?
Shaun Whynacht (38:33):
Probably the most recent one that I would recommend, looking over my bookshelf is one called Brand Scape.
Steve Loates (38:41):
Brand scape?
Shaun Whynacht (38:42):
Yep.
Steve Loates (38:42):
Okay, perfect. When your own entrepreneurial journey is completed, what do you hope your legacy is?
Shaun Whynacht (38:53):
That I was always somebody that people could rely on.
Steve Loates (38:58):
Perfect. For those in our audience who would like to reach out and connect with you, Shaun, what is the best way for them to do that?
Shaun Whynacht (39:07):
They can just do a Google search for Blue Cow Marketing. They can choose if they want to do Facebook, YouTube, my website, it’s all there.
Steve Loates (39:17):
Okay. Perfect. Do you have any final thoughts you would like to share with our audience before we close the episode?
Shaun Whynacht (39:27):
Just basically, that the digital landscape is always going to be changing. What we set out to do today, two months, three months, six months, is most likely going to change. If you’re open to those type of changes, you will do well in what you’re doing. Just be okay with the fact that you might try something that is not going to work. But you just don’t do that again and try something else.
Steve Loates (39:57):
Okay, excellent. Juliet, do you have any final words for our audience?
Juliet Aurora (40:04):
I don’t know, I spoke a lot more than I was planning to. I should probably just end off there rather than continuing on. So, I’ll just turn it back to you, Steve.
Steve Loates (40:14):
Okay. Thank you, Juliet. That brings us to this episode’s Words of Wisdom. I came across this quote, and it really made me think about websites and marketing, and how so many websites out there make the cardinal sin of making the website all about them, as opposed to how they solve problems for their audience. I came across this quote, and I thought, it fits just so perfectly with that. The quote is from someone by the name of Tim Williams, and it goes like this, “Clients don’t care about the labor pains. They just want to see the baby.”
Steve Loates (41:07):
I thought, yeah, that fits. Anyway, thank you for a great episode. Thank you very much, Shaun. Lots of great, great, helpful information there for our audience. Thank you again to my co-host. But most importantly, thank you to you, our audience for tuning in and giving us a listen. We sincerely hope you found some value here today. If you did, please subscribe, you can find us in all the regular places; iTunes, Spotify, or the website smartmansmarterwoman.com.
Steve Loates (41:43):
Thank you. Until next time, take good care of yourself and those that you love. Bye for now.
Song by Adam Vitovsky / CC BY 3.0
