Russ Johns 0:01
Welcome to the #piratebroadcast, where we interview #interestingpeople doing #interestingthings where you can expand your connections, your community. #Kindnessiscool and #smilesarefree. Let's get this party started.

Welcome to the #piratebroadcast. Thank you so much for being here everyone. I love that you're here and all the gratitude in the world for stopping by catching a few #nuggetsofknowledge and learning something new today. We were talking before the show Andrew and I and we wanted to share a couple of things that are very strategic, for your business partner. However, he also pointed out the fact that it was one of these. You have a hospital band and you also have a fall risk here. I have a fall wristband and everything else, but the one that I wanted to show you is this One from Shelley decided to becoming so.

The reason why I want to bring this up is because we're all going through different things at different times in our lives. When you decide to be kind, and you know how I promote kindness in the #piratebroadcast in #thepiratecommunity, it's one of the things that you can never have enough of, and sharing it out. Andrew is going to be here today sharing a little bit of kindness and generosity and sharing some of the strategic thought processes that he goes through when consulting with businesses and making sure that people can use their resources wisely. Andrew, thank you so much for being here. I thank you for taking the time and sharing this information with us today.

Andrew Deutsch 1:49
Thanks for having me. That's all that matters.

Russ Johns 1:53
Well, Andrew, we've been going back and forth on LinkedIn for a while now and you are in the state With a virtual Marketing Management space, where a lot of business owners may need some sort of support and some assistance. They don't know how much they don't know how deep it goes. They don't really know what to do next. That's one of the voids that you fill for those individuals tell us a little bit how you got there. What's your journey up to this point? how did you arrive at doing this work?

Andrew Deutsch 2:28
There's not enough time on this particular podcast to go through the whole history. But my career began in international trade, I spent probably the first half of my adult work life overseas, with over 100 countries building marketing strategies and helping companies find four markets for their for their products, and through the diversity and all the different countries, all the different cultures. really started to understand that all of the technical tools that are out there are useless if there's no real course. strategy as to where a company wants to be, what they want to do, and more importantly, who their customer is, what their customer pains are, and how they can solve those problems with a strategic plan, then apply the proper tools to get there.

Russ Johns 3:15
It's like having a toolbox and a bunch of tools and not knowing what you're going to build.

Andrew Deutsch 3:19
Yeah, and we find lots of people. When I lived in Brazil, we used to joke that you could become a mechanic with a screwdriver or a hammer and a chisel because they're so industrious, they could fix anything. The reality is there are a lot of guys out there that have a shop full of incredible tools for woodworking, but they don't have any plans or anything that they want to build. Or they start building something without a plan and they end up with a table with the legs on top of it. It really matters. That you know where you want to be how you want to get there. Before you start picking your tools and starting to work on it.

Russ Johns 3:57
I love the idea of strategy, and there's So many variables now with social media. I'm a huge fan of video. I hope you're okay with video because you're on video now.

Andrew Deutsch 4:13
Yeah, absolutely. It's

Russ Johns 4:15
Go ahead.

Andrew Deutsch 4:16
That video is an incredible tool where it's useful. Then many, many marketing strategies today call for that tool. But to say, I'm going to grow my business, because I'm just going to do a bunch of videos, I need to just create content and then people will do business with me isn't a strategy. It's the use of a tool and sample. You show up first day on the job for a company and you say, what's the strategy that's been here before? my arrival is the new marketing guy there, but we have a great strategy. We're going to do three trade shows. This year, we're going to build a new website. We're going to create a social media campaign and we're gonna make some brochures. And you say, okay, those are great. Tactical ideas, but at the core, what do you want all of those things to do?

Are you going to do a trade show? Because you want your competitors to know what you make? So you go to a trade show in your industry? Or do you want to do a trade show to maybe break into a specific market? So say you make a product that's appropriate for the chemical industry? Do you go to a chemical show? Or do you go to a show where your chemicals are used? If you're there, are you looking for new business? Are you looking for distributors, all of the understanding of where you want to go with your business? What is your what customers? Are you looking for?

What the accessibility to those customers? What are the pains that you can resolve for them. And once you get a clear understanding of that you can build that strategic go to market plan, at which point you say, well, to do that we need to do this trade show we need to make videos so that we can prove that we're the thought leaders that can help people resolve issues that we've verified exist in the market, and then video becomes incredible, but to just make a bunch of videos. Usually is more about Look at me, I want to wax my ego than it is about what?

Russ Johns 6:08
It's interesting that you should say that because there's so many people that are working to try to figure out what they need to do next.

Andrew Deutsch 6:19
Mm hmm.

Russ Johns 6:21
How do business owners develop a strategic plan? What's what walk us through some of the steps that we need to consider as individuals and business owners that that are more strategic than tactical? Yeah, I could have a landing page. I could have an email there. I could have videos I could have captured page whatever it happens to be.

Andrew Deutsch 6:41
Mm hmm.

Russ Johns 6:41
Realistically, though, there has to be some sort of a process that we can go through as business owners to think strategically about how that is also we need to start thinking about considering

Andrew Deutsch 7:00
The most important thing is to go back to the core of who is my customer? What differentiates my products from the competitors and of those differentiators? What matters to the customer. Many companies will realize when they do that analysis, and they'll go back and look, they'll realize that the very things that they're bragging about are like table stakes in poker, you have to do that to be in the business. like nobody went to market and marketed you have to buy my cars, because we make them out of steel. They come with tires and a steering wheel and the windows rolling. And we do that.

That's not it. Well, what is it about that car that get someone excited and would want them to buy yours over another car, maybe maybe the market is telling you when you get that voice of consumer, I'm really looking for the safest car in the world. If I get an accident I want to survive. Or when I drive down the street, I want to turn heads or I want to be able to haul a certain.

All of these things are pains and issues that customers have that then you design your products and your marketing campaign around. Our car has more storage capacity than the other car in the world will appeal to a specific consumer group. As opposed to, we make mufflers that will rattle the windows in the neighborhood because my ego thinks that when I make noise, people think I'm cool.

Russ Johns 8:24
Yeah

Andrew Deutsch 8:25
As you really dig in my consumer, what are the pains? What are they trying to accomplish with what they would buy? How you deal with that? Then you have to carefully go through and say, well, who do I want to be? Even if I know there's a huge market out there for people who want noisy cars? Do I want to be the noisy car guy?

Russ Johns 8:42
Yeah,

Andrew Deutsch 8:43
Really evaluate who you are at the core of your business and where you want to go. It's all very abstract to the spirits. But when you dig into a specific project, typically you find I'll give you an example there was a company that we worked with. They were in the industrial packaging world for rigid containers. for transporting hazardous goods, they were going to market with we meet NC standards, we have ISO, we we do internal testing, all of this stuff that every company has to do to just be in that industry.

That's how they went to market. It didn't make any sense. So we went to the prop 10 customers that had been with him for 20 years without any lapse in service. We also talked to customer that disappeared. We asked why do you do business with these guys? In a very, very structured interview process? Number one reason number one, they answer the phone

Number two read that people do business with them. When we screw up or we have a big run on materials. We need that we need the right away. They're the only company that can fill an order in less than a week they can move their schedule for their best customers, they care about us.

Number three, when they goof and companies goof they fix it they take responsibility they fix it right away, I don't have to wait a month for someone to come back to me and go Okay, well, I guess we have to do something. It was a complete service story as to why people love them. When they started to leverage that as their business, business grew because they were recognizing that buyers really cared about a company that had the flexibility to truly service their need not just supply the product.

Russ Johns 10:24
It's a huge difference. It's a huge difference. I think customer service right now everybody with the Amazon and the immediacy of delivery just in time and convenience of getting it delivered everything else I think a lot of people miss the courtesy and the common sense that goes along with having a little bit of, just sharing that information with people answering the phone in having some support in place, if people have problems, and it makes a huge difference in so many businesses

Andrew Deutsch 11:07
Yeah, in each market segment, and each within those that companies have personas and personalities that that you really need to dig into, because you will have customers, they love you because they never have to hear from you. They know that if they put a purchase order through, it's coming, it's going to be right. That you've made the buyers life easy. There's others that maybe you're integrating with their system, you keep track of their production, and you provide products as they're being produced, so that they don't even have to have a person on staff.

There's a million different scenarios. The problem is you jump to the tool, and you don't look at what the customer actually wants and structure your business around that. You miss out on opportunities and you'll talk to people the way our business has been growing for years and years without any of this strategic stuff. We have cell sheets and we have all of it The question is, how much more would you have grown? If you actually were listening to understand your customers?

Russ Johns 12:07
Let's go a different direction. Andrew, let's talk about the individual company that. I got a good idea. I started it up. A few people said they want it. Strategically, I'm not really sure what to do next. How would you approach that process? Because you don't have the customer service in place in the history of the company? Sure have the purchases, you don't have a lot of history. If you look at it from the opposite direction, what would it be that you would consider approaching with strategy at that point in time?

Andrew Deutsch 12:46
Yeah what you're really leaning towards? And that question is more of what business development as a function of marketing really is. So the number one question that you asked day one, in that scenario, is you've been successful selling this product into this market space, who else is in that market space? In other words, and there was one recently I do quite a bit of what they call what I call private equity investigative work. When a private equity group is looking to buy a company, we can aim without getting the employees aware that their company could possibly be sold to grow and be part of another company. We do this work.

We talked to a company that had a specific product they were selling to Coca Cola, and it was 80% of their business. And it was huge. And we asked the question, well, do you have some sort of an exclusive deal that you're not selling to Pepsi, and you're not selling to Dr. Pepper Snapple and other companies? And the answer was no. We said, Well, why aren't you selling? And the response was, well, they haven't reached out to us, which of course, is a huge red flag and a positive for the PE group because obviously they don't have salespeople they have ordered. So it was a green light to the private equity group that was looking to buy them because hey, there's great opportunity.

Asking him that question Who else within that market space would be interested in your product and build a generate a list of what I call real leads, and then qualify them nurture those leads and be able to grow into those spaces? And then what other market spaces out there that you're not currently selling to, could have benefit from this? And then we research, as I call them, the individual market silos. If you're selling this product for transport of this chemical that Coca Cola is using, what other chemicals could be transported and similar tech? Or can you do it with the existing tracker?

You need to make slight alterations? And if so, where else can you go with that? So it's, again, almost every project, you have to take a step back and widen your blinders so that you can see other opportunities. And usually by getting someone from the outside to do that is more powerful the doing it internally because you kind of as you say, you sit in the same stink all the time. You don't recognize the smell anymore.

Russ Johns 15:01
Well, and that is so true you get blind by being inside. You can't read the pickle jar when you're inside the jar. Right?

Andrew Deutsch 15:09
It's a little tricky.

Russ Johns 15:11
It's really interesting because, I mean, I've had this experience so many times then it's just like, I know this, I, you know, I do it for other people, why can't I do it for myself? You get so close to it that you can't see the perspective from another another angle, it's like, I gotta get outside the box. I gotta get outside. Does this really work?

Andrew Deutsch 15:36
Yeah.

Russ Johns 15:38
I think spot on, anytime you have a question, or a blank spot in your thought process, you need to start asking people about it and what they think.

Andrew Deutsch 15:48
Yeah

Russ Johns 15:49
Not getting too far off the beaten path because, you know, that could actually turn into its own box of worms to

Andrew Deutsch 15:56
You know, most companies, the CFO of the club they'll recognize it but so many other people through, you know, the the marketing dollars are dollars that could be spent somewhere else that they're being effectively used. It could be the bonuses for the employees, it could be a lot of things. So if people are, I use the analogy all the time out trying to kill mosquitoes with shotguns, rather than being mosquitoes with what kills mosquitoes. Income equals effort.

Recently, someone was looking looking to get on my team. I asked him Well, tell me about your strategic marketing skills. He said, I can get 30,000 connections to your LinkedIn in a week. I can drive 100,000 people to your website. I said, why would I want to do that? What's the strategy? Do I want to spend my day going through 30,000 connections to see if there's somebody there I might be able to benefit from or be able to provide value to or do I want to connect with people that I know that up front because if I spend my days trying to figure out through my 30,000 who I shouldn't be doing business with them. I'm not producing anything.

Russ Johns 17:03
Who do I want to have a conversation with

Andrew Deutsch 17:05
Yeah, in driving 100,000 people to my website just so I can brag that I've got the busiest website in America doesn't mean that any of those people may might actually benefit from what we do or put dollars in my pocket or people who I work with. So it really boils down to you got to know what you want to do before you do it.

Russ Johns 17:27
What I want to do right now is recognize a few of the people that are in the room right now. Sure, Jay Dini, he's over there in Houston I believe. I pirates. Simon Good morning. Russ and Andrew, thank you so much for being here. Wendy. She's always wonderful. Hello, pirates. Good morning. Good morning. I bet this is Laurie Knutson. Probably So, Howard, Top of the morning. Hopefully you're doing better Russ. I am. Thank you for mentioning that. Howard. I really Appreciate it. I love that.

Hello from Atlanta, Georgia. Awesome. Thank you so much. Team live fantastic. Hey Russ. And then you got the noisy car guy, Andrew. You must know each other. I can't read the comments on YouTube but mine Why is that? Uh You can read other comments in the comments on YouTube. But if you go to Facebook, you can read the comments. Also. Gabriel Good morning fellow pirates. Fantastic you're here

Welcome to the pirates in just stepped into the best posse on LinkedIn. Good morning everyone. Quality over numbers every time So I love that. Glen Partridge, Arizona. Fantastic. Yes, you are correct. Right. Your name is still not displaying. It's Laurie. I know, I know who you are. Somebody else sees you. Glen Parker says, he sees you. So and Wendy, we know you're are fantastic.

Andrew, we're here today. You're an international speaker, your international I mean, a lot of trade shows are not getting the traffic and the access and activity that they're normally getting at this time of year because pandemic circumstances and everything else that's going along with that. What are some other strategies that business owners can use to connect besides Video and doing shows like this. I mean, I think for me, this is a great activity. It feeds what I'm doing over at #thepiratesyndicate. #Thepiratesyndicate is essentially the show that allows me to help other businesses share their message. And that message has to be strategic for their business.

Andrew Deutsch 20:22
Absolutely

Russ Johns 20:22
When it kind of goes along the same lines, it's like, okay, just because I have a tool doesn't mean I know how to operate it. When I know how to operate it, it doesn't necessarily mean it's strategically in place to meet my criteria, like goals for my business. We have to build that thread through all all layers.

Andrew Deutsch 20:43
Yeah, again, you mentioned the trade show not happening, which is a tool to trade show. And it's a great example to sort of answer the question that you did. There was a time pre internet pre fax machine, where a trade show was the place usually Once a year within an industry that you could launch a new product, and all businesses spent their entire year getting ready for that trade show to do the big launch, if they didn't have other types of advertising, it was a big part of it. Over the years, it's it's transformed into regional shows different things with far less impact depending on your industry every year.

I remember when I was selling equipment into the into the newspaper industry was the entire building in Chicago. Now the newspaper industry trade show, if it still exists, the last time I saw it was in a conference room at a hotel. The tools change all the time in terms of the strategy. During Covid they are starting to recognize is if they were still stuck in tradeshow mode for all of their years in business. There's other ways to launch you can create virtual events that that allow people to participate and see your lunches through video through website through YouTube through other other areas in today's world, getting getting experts in the field to share their knowledge and educate and bring people up to the level of what you're producing. making

For example, if you have a special technology that your company makes so that you can preserve food longer without using chemicals, you can become a leader in that industry. Utilize that to gain a following of people who then become voracious advocates for your brand. Because you're the leader, you're the thought person, why would I go to anyone else when this character is the guy who knows. At the core of fameology, which is my consulting business, there isn't the only thing that's common in every marketing project that we do.

Every project we do for any company, is we go beyond the sale and we try to create a program so that every person your brand touches becomes a voracious advocate for your brand. And that's the strategy of the quarter of Everything we do, because voracious advocates for your brand. That's why people line up outside the Apple Store not even knowing if the product works. Because they're Say something nasty about your favorite pop star who has, or your least favorite pop star who has a strong brand and see how their advocates take care of them for them. In this world, it's about how do you promote your brand in a way that really creates advocacy? What are the tools that you're going to use to make that happen? Through that brand, advocacy, how are you surfacing? Making people's lives better with your product?

Russ Johns 23:41
I love that and I think I think sometimes maybe you've seen this as well is that some businesses want to make it too complicated.

Andrew Deutsch 23:50
Mm hmm.

Russ Johns 23:50
They overcomplicate the process, and they missed the point of having just a good solid conversation with somebody that knows a little bit more than what they're thinking See outside the box around the corner?

Andrew Deutsch 24:04
Absolutely.

Russ Johns 24:06
I think it's really important for maybe see a new perspective, a new perspective, understand what else is out there that could be competitive or collaborative industry.

Andrew Deutsch 24:18
One of the things we look at Russ very clearly when we're doing this market analysis in terms of the voice of the customer, how does it feel to do business with this with this company?

Russ Johns 24:29
Yeah.

Andrew Deutsch 24:30
They make it easy. They make it difficult. That example that I used, they grew their business because they were the easiest to work with. In an industry where many people thought their product was a commodity. It's not a commodity, if you provide value.

Russ Johns 24:43
Yeah. That's the difference.

Andrew Deutsch 24:45
Absolutely

Russ Johns 24:48
So where do people find you and where can people transfer down to get more information about your business and your for your assistance in marketing?

Andrew Deutsch 24:59
Sure. I'm on LinkedIn open to connect with folks not selling bitcoins and multi level marketing scams. You can also find me at at fangled tech comm FA n g o e d t ch comm and

Russ Johns 25:17
Fantasic

Andrew Deutsch 25:18
Yeah, we do one of the things you know, in terms of giving back, I block out a certain amount of time every week for what I call pick my brain sessions. So young entrepreneurs can book a half an hour of my time to flesh out an idea or bounce bounce an idea off or get some health career advice otherwise, and through the website, you can contact me and set that up. Also, I'm always happy to help and give back for all the great mentors I've heard over the years.

Russ Johns 25:47
That is that is fantastic. I really hope people take advantage of the years of knowledge and experience being a global having experience globally Just a different perspective. I just had it here locally, I think it's important to understand is it's not always the case you have this kind of experience at your fingertips. So I really appreciate you being here. Andrew, thanks so much for sharing.

Just want to go back to the to the Gabriel. The sunshine is integral. How are you doing my friend? Angie, good morning finally a headache. But other than that, I'm doing fantastic. Hope you're doing well. These are people in there. I truly believe that when you learn this group of people. It makes people lives better and it's your product. I love that. Thank you Kenyatta.

How does it feel to do business with this company? I see irrelevant when it feels right to work. And they can share that. Love that Andrew is back at us. Cool. So reach out to Andrew. Get on with him books of mine, a special friend, Angie, my brain that way I think what a great way to give back hearing. I'm hearing trippy feedback. I think it's my mic what it is. Let me see if I can fix that sound better? Let me know that.

Andrew Deutsch 27:39
I think it is.

Russ Johns 27:41
Well now that we've wrapped up the show and technical issues right now and I'm a little broken Kenyatta. I'm happy to be here. I love the fact that you can have this conversation with Andrew me Get it, getting your feedback and we'll work through it. So if you had to leave one Golden Nugget with us today, whether it be in business life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, what #nuggetofknowledge Would you like to leave with #thepiratecommunity today?

Andrew Deutsch 28:21
The key to success is tenacity and curiosity.

Russ Johns 28:27
Tenacity and curiosity.

Andrew Deutsch 28:29
Yeah,

Russ Johns 28:29
I love it. I love it. Well, Andrew, thank you so much for being here today. I appreciate you. I appreciate all the pirate community reaching out to Andrew, neck with him. Don't promote any Bitcoin or multi level marketing stuff. He's reversing that. So he fair warning. And then also just make sure that you're understanding what it is that you're looking for in your strategy in your business. What topics Do you Want the messaging to send people to what call to action? And what result are you're looking to accomplish with individuals, customer service care, the ability to operate and continue to provide quality service, whatever it is pick that, go with it, build your messaging around it, and build your strategy around it, as well as great information. Andrew, thank you so much.

Andrew Deutsch 29:26
Thank you.

Russ Johns 29:28
And I look forward to being here again, and sharing more information as we go through the day. So don't go away. Stick round, and I'll be right back.

Thank you for joining the #piratebroadcast. If you found this content valuable. Please like, comment and share it across your social media channels. I would love the opportunity to help others grow in their business. #Thepiratesyndicate is a platform where you show up we produce the show. It's that easy. If you want to be seen be heard and be talked about. Join #thepiratesyndicate today.


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