Read The Transcript

Russ Johns 0:00
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.

It's a beautiful day for the #piratebroadcast and I'm here to let you know that life is a journey.

Raj Goodman Anand 0:25
I can't hear you, Russ, I apologize.

Russ Johns 0:28
You can't hear me? Did you lose your sound? Raj?

Raj Goodman Anand 0:35
It must be from mine. Let me just check.

Russ Johns 0:37
I can hear you just fine. So this is the #piratebroadcast as we generate all kinds of circumstances every single day.

Raj Goodman Anand 0:50
I can't hear you. Sorry.

Russ Johns 0:52
You can't hear me. All right. Let's see what's going on.

Raj Goodman Anand 0:57
I can hear you now.

Russ Johns 0:58
Can you hear me now?

Raj Goodman Anand 0:59
Yes, I can. Yes, I can. Sorry about that. I'm getting my headphones off.

Russ Johns 1:04
Oh, no worries, no worries. So, welcome to the #piratebroadcast. It's a perfect day for an opportunity to have some fun, make a smile. This is a real reflection of how life is like. You come across the little challenge, little bump in the road, and you just have to go through it. You just have to go through it and understand. okay, let's make some adjustments. So, Raj, how are you doing today?

Raj Goodman Anand 1:35
I'm doing great. I was just telling you earlier that there was some sunshine today in London, which is very rare for us, actually. But that just made my day, just a great start ,some sunshine, some caffeine is mixed for a perfect partnership to have a brilliant day.

Russ Johns 1:51
A brilliant conversation as well today. I know that you're doing a lot of things, you're helping a lot of people, you got some nonprofit work that you're doing. I wanted to talk about, and we were talking about before the show a little backstory on the story, the actual source of your name in the Goodman lantern and I thought it was fascinating. It really resonates with me during this time and what we're going through as a humanity. I think it's really important for us to know kind of the backstory, so we can kind of find a piece of a slice of hope in that. So tell us the backstory of Goodman Lantern, and how that story evolved?

Raj Goodman Anand 2:42
Absolutely. So I think giving is an important part. You know, karma is a big part of what I do in business, or in person. Especially now with the pandemic and everything else we need to be giving people the chance for them to survive in these times, which are hard for people's survival, the family stuff going on, their health, income potentially, Goodman Lantern was a company I sort of found six years back. The name comes from a gentleman called Goodman, who was blind and had a lantern in his hand, in the forest of the UK, not for himself, but for others who were lost in the forest. So they can show them guiding light to their path success. For me, this is my third business. It's not only about myself, it's about the community I belong to and I really want to focus on the greater good. I like the people for the content marketing strategy, so Goodman Lantern for me is very relevant.

Russ Johns 3:56
Absolutely, absolutely. I love that. What resonates in my head right now is all that wander are not lost. Holding the light out for others and allowing others to see where they can go is a theme in content marketing, it's in our communities, it's in social media. It's a thread that carries across lots of different areas of our life. Helping others is really a tremendous theme to follow as well. That's the whole premise of the #piratebroadcast and being able to shine the light on someone like yourself and say, tell us your story. Because your story can inspire others to create their story and I think that that's an important piece of life that we we minimize a lot of times in media. How are you incorporating that idea, that Guiding Light principle in your business and tell us a little bit about how that's changed and evolved in last year.

Raj Goodman Anand 5:08
Of course. As I mentioned, Russ, this is my third business. I sold in business in the past, it was an events company, before that started a social media platform or white labeling platform, different businesses, but technology marketing has been my sort of forte and this time around, my focus was to build a business which is profit, but has a strong social element in it. And so, what what we did is Goodwill Lantern is a company which provides native English content writing services to our customers, mainly in the US market and the UK market. We hire predominantly women and the reasoning for that is simply is that in the technology, industry, marketing space, there are a lot of men, which is okay, no problem at all. But it is a bit of an unbalanced opinion across the the whole sector and having women has neutralized the way we think, the way we react, the way we kind of portray things. For instance, for example, just to give you some context, which is politics, if you look at the response to coronavirus or covid 19, countries with women leaders outperform their male counterparts every time. Right? Very powerful, leadership can can do extremely well, when they're given opportunity to do so. So in our company, in leadership, apart from me and my my gentlemen, all the other leaders are women, it helps to neutralize the the whole market of digital marketing, as well as technology as well. It's my way to give back. Because we hire people in in communities where they have to go outside their homes to find jobs. For instance, in South Africa, where it's not very safe for women to travel in buses, or the transport, we allow them to work from the comfort of their home, brilliant people, they work extremely well, work extremely hard, they'll be given the opportunity from the UK, they can work from the comfort of their home and outperform our competitors every time.

Russ Johns 7:39
That's, that's amazing. How long have you been doing this version of your business now? Six years?

Raj Goodman Anand 7:49
Six years focused on content marketing. appointment, writing started about two years back. From the very beginning, I've been hiring women in our companies.

Russ Johns 8:00
Well, I love your model. I know that as we expand in content marketing, there's more and more pressure to to really get focused on some of the subjects and get a little more knowledge and in depth understanding of the different subjects. Like last week, I was working with companies on oil and gas and on physical security. I work on technology, and all of these different subjects have their own voice, their own message. So having somebody that you can assign a task to and say, here write about these articles. I would imagine that overall, they're either writing articles or descriptions or some some form of consistent work that they can understand and appreciate and dive in and really kind of get to know, is that fairly accurate? I mean, tell us how that works, Raj.

Raj Goodman Anand 8:57
Sure. Our approach to working with customers is that we have a long term view on partnerships with our clients. So we don't just do off one post in social media, or like ebook writing, for instance, we spend a lot of time on our dime, to understand customers. Once we do that, we then work for them on a month to month, sort of an annual, three months, six months, six years basis. So we understand the company's core voice, values, mission, vision, so that they can really perform and write in their words, without that it's a bit artificial, a bit superficial, the whole approach, but that's not us. We have a long term partnership with the customers and we deliver work to them on a monthly basis as part their own team, effectively, and an hour later English content writers then actually write it for them, and it's usually much more effective because the clients can then focus on the core business, while we take care of their content writing across the different parts of the business.

Russ Johns 10:11
That's awesome. I know that for a lot of businesses, that's a struggle, you know, creating content is a struggle. Firstly, I like video. I used to write a blog post anywhere from 1000 to 2000 words a week. I did that for, I don't know, two years, and I have a lot of content out there that's probably invisible to most people. It's unfortunate; however, it's a needed and necessary part of content marketing and a lot of people underestimate the value over time. I think that it's really important for people to understand that if you create constantly, and you create consistently, it doesn't have to be a novel. It doesn't have to be a published, amazing ebook every week. It just has to be something that is useful and valuable to go to the market that resonates with your audience and finding that combination takes a little time, it takes a little bit of adjustment. I know that I've seen some of your work, and you were on a couple of other podcasts that I watched with...I think it was the marketing picnic, or was it with...

Raj Goodman Anand 11:38
Yes. Staffo.

Russ Johns 11:40
Oh, yes, yeah, Staffo. Yeah, we have a mutual friend, Staffo and I was thinking about that. I was thinking, yeah, that's so true. I would love, and I'll talk to you after we have a chance to get off and do this, I just think it's so important for not only content to be created, but the people you're hiring to create content. It's a huge opportunity, and it opens a door and changes lives. So hats off to you, Raj for that. It's just really important for us to think about how we can do that at scale, over and over in business. Because it's a global economy right now. We don't have to worry about who's next door, who's showing up at the office? I think we've proven that in the last year. That's been a gift for a lot of people. So what do you see evolving and content creation? What are some key points that are really kind of coming to the surface for content creation and marketing in general? What do you see going on right now?

Raj Goodman Anand 12:49
Yeah, first of all, thank you for the kind words, Russ, I really appreciate it. I think when it comes to copywriting, content writing, they are primarily key bits of focus when it comes to this, which is content writing, copywriting, helps with brand building and helps to sell quicker and faster. And when I say faster, it's because it allows people to understand your story, understand your vision, your core values, which helps people resonate with your thoughts and your processes. That's super important. That's the main value of content, in our opinion. But a lot of times, we talk to customers, primarily our business is in b2b business to business, but we also do a lot of b2c as well, for large luxury companies in travel, and in retail. But our focus is technology based companies, companies in medicine, for instance. Often I have calls with CEOs and I was in a call actually, just before this, with a very large technology company based in Europe. They were keen for copywriting and content and they're like, yeah, it's what we wanted, but we're not really sure what to do with it. They were like, we own copywriting, but now we don't know what to do with this. What I've done is, via a simple framework to tell our clients, what should they be doing at this point in their business. So what we do is typically we draw a funnel, which is obviously big on top and small at the bottom, and we do the three parts. So we have the top, middle and bottom: TOFU, top of the funnel, middle of funnel is MOFU and the bottom of funnel is BOFU. So on the top If you put all the customers all the audience, and you teach them about your industry as a whole services in the industry, for example, this is for people who don't have a lot, currently the herd or traffic, for example, live in their website, or don't have enough people coming to the site. For them, that strategy works really well, but if they really only have traffic, then it's time to go to the MOFU, which is the middle of the funnel, where we educate people about their business, their products, their services. So then the content changes from generic general to in the service in the whole industry, to specifically their industry, their service their product. And if that has already been done, as well, then comes BOFU, which is about your landing pages, is about emails, it's about conversion. So it's about people are not educated already about your offering and now they want to buy from you in the right content, which is around that conversion part. So every company fallen in this this sort of paradigm of a funnel, and based on where they are currently within business, we can advise them to kind of look at that thought, specifically in their business.

Russ Johns 16:20
Yeah, the way I look at it in segmentation is that there are people that have no awareness of you, there are people that will never use your business and then there are people that will become favorite fans if you can kind of understand and articulate content to those individuals. So, if people are never going to be interested in your service, because of the nature of your business, it's good to educate them immediately that this is not for you, so you don't have to waste anybody's time. Then if they're unaware, or they're not really understanding if they need you or want to work with you or not, that's the middle of the funnel that you're working on. It's kind of like that educational process. Then the favorite fans are the ones that you just have to offer things that are really important to them now, today, that might make a difference in their world. So I love that. I love that story analogy. What's an ideal situation? Is it a client that works with you for six months over time and then you adjust this messaging, you get everything working, and the framework is in place. It's kind of like everything's working on a...it's the same thing as a broadcast. After I get our branding in place, the systems are in place, the automation, the notifications, all of this, and it works like a machine. It's pretty amazing. And I like building them, so it's amazing. That's all I can say, is that is amazing. Is that the case in content writing? Is that you're experience in content writing, as well?

Raj Goodman Anand 18:12
I would say so, yes. Our ambition for our clients is to automate this process for them, that they will have to vary, but the content writing part of it, we do that for them. Always. And that's the power of using a third party company is that we bring in the experts, the writers, the editors, the specialists, in digital marketing, in the project managers, and we take care for them every time that they can be hands off and say, you know what? We've got Goodman Lantern. They take care of this for us. Month on month, we deliver stuff for them.

Russ Johns 18:52
I love that. I love that. Hey, I want to say hi to a couple of people in the room. We got a couple of guests here today. Slaptagz, Sheri Lally says, good morning pirates. I can hear you both. Tapas says, hello. How are you, Tapas? How are you doing? Mark says, all good now. Thank you so much for being here. Thomas says, welcome to the world of the 11 Espadas saga...want to know more close up? I'm not sure what that actually means. Good morning, Tapas. Wendy's here in the room. Good morning, Pirates! Ahoy! And she says, from all female pirates. You're on fire. You're on fire. Hiett says, good morning pirates from Houston. Gabriel says, good morning fellow pirates. Hiett says, have to leave early. Okay, I will see you next time. Hiett says, Weekly THAT AIN'T NOT RIGHT - 4 years and almost 200 additions. Heitt's a blogger, he's an author, he's been writing books and things like that. That's fantastic. Gabriel says, Tapas, good morning, sir. Then Wendy says the beauty of the concept, Raj is presenting is that the tech world needs people who can explain their work effectively and the writers can learn to bring their skills into the tech world, which is populated by people who make buying decisions based on how something performs. That's a good point. Let's expand on Wendy's point. So what you're doing, you're at the intersection of tech people that can't explain their wow and their whiz bang stuff. Then you have people that can explain really well, and they just need to understand what it is and what it does and how it helps, right?

Raj Goodman Anand 20:58
Absolutely, I mean, we only buy stuff which we understand. I'm not going to go and buy myself a new computer if I don't understand how to make it work, for example. So in life, we need someone to explain and educate us on the benefits. That's the important part, not the features of the the laptop, for example, the computer is the benefit for me in the consumer. That's the bit, which I love, actually, because many times when we speak to customers, they're like, you know what, we are a tech company. We sell to technologists, who are innovators and pioneers, but we often tell them, listen, you're right, you're absolutely right. But many times, the buying decision is like the CFOs CEOs who are not technologists. Yeah, anyone who has signed the contract for you to explain stuff in simple words, they will buy better and more from you than your competitors.

Russ Johns 22:00
Well, one thing about a lot of the creators of systems or technology, they're so involved in the technology, and they're too close to it to really understand how other people perceive it. And so it's like, I don't know how to explain it. It takes that extra effort. It takes that understanding and awareness and kind of some research to pull it apart and find out what really needs to be said to make it understood in the market too. So Russ Hedge says, good morning, Russ. Hiett Ives says, good morning. Gabriel says, good morning. You, sir. Let's touch base this afternoon. This is the #piratecommunity. Everybody's involved. Hey, hey, hey, it's #piratebroadcast from Kenyatta Turner. Thank you so much. Russ Hedge says, great information, as always. Thank you so much, Russ. Appreciate you. Kenyatta says, Raj Goodman Anand, I think I have the same glass that you're drinking out of. Cool, man!

Raj Goodman Anand 23:19
There we go. (raises glass)

Russ Johns 23:23
The nexus of understanding is a great place to call HOME, from Wendy. That is a great place. So how do we how do we get engaged with you? How do we bring our ideas? How do they formulate? Walk us through the process, Raj because I think it's fascinating. I think I want to share that with our audience and make sure that people have an understanding of what you're doing, and how they can be engaged in it.

Raj Goodman Anand 23:53
Oh, sure. Well, if we made our process hard or tricky to do, then I think we missed our ambition in life. Luckily, for the person, it's very, very simple. All you have to do is visit our website, GoodmanLantern.com, and and fill in a form. It's literally three boxes to fill in. And two of them are like name and email address. So one is literally telling us what you do. how you go about your business, for example, what is that your customers? What do you do? Simple, as you also have a free trial. So all our customers get a free trial. For example, for two hours, or put two bits of content for them to see how it performs or what we can do for them. You don't have to sign up if you do a free trial with us. You still can do the free trial and never, never talk to us again. That's absolutely fine because it's also about giving as well, isn't it? It shouldn't be always about what can I get from them, it's about spreading the good and spreading some love as well. So we do a free trial for all our customers. Again, at the website, GoodmanLantern.com, free trials right on top, the top bar. To get in touch with us, just click on Contact, and drop us an email there. Also, I'm on LinkedIn as well. So if you ever want to have a chat with me, go to LinkedIn, look for me, Raj Goodman Anand and add me and drop me a message, I'd love to hear from people.

Russ Johns 25:36
I love that. If you're not connected to Raj, connect with him, the company and what he's doing is amazing. I love the mission, I love the intent and empowering women and helping others around the world that are working hard to make sure that their families, their lives, and their futures are better than when they got there is important business. I applaud you for that, Raj. So thank you so much for being here. I just really feel that this piece of the puzzle has been too complicated for too long, and you've kind of broken it down into a simple step, a simple process. Also, the benefit has been that you're helping other people do great work in giving them opportunities to expand and practice their craft and their gifts that they brought to the world. That's what it's all about is how can I just have an opportunity to do something I love to do? There's so many writers out there that don't have an opportunity to write that could be involved in your community. As you grow, they could grow. So have you had any stories that you can share about some experiences that have changed people's lives in your community of writers?

Raj Goodman Anand 27:14
Sure, quite a few actually. I think, Russ, we are really lucky to be where we are in the US, the UK, we have a great system to take care of us. Unfortunately, in some developing countries, they don't have that system, they don't have the comfort, which we do. We hire the very best quantum devices, all of whom are native English quantum writers. Most of our team members are in South Africa, but we also people in the US and UK as well. For example, some of our head of departments, I believe make a big impact on their life, because you helped to run the kitchen, but also what they do, they love it, they love to write content, they are the experts, they spent all their life to be the best content writer. The other thing was strategist in industry marketing, that's what they love, they think about it, they sleep it, they eat it, they drink it, this is their passion to do stuff. It's just I didn't have the opportunity in the home country. Our mission is to help them achieve that. So most of our people we find our through references. So if you bring in a content writer, they refer their friends or family to this thing, and then we do as thorough testing, unfortunately, we can't hire everybody, you only hire 3% of the top 3% of the people we actually interview. I know that's not awesome for everybody. But, you also have a big commitment to our customers as well. So we have to kind of keep a good balance there. We donate a lot of money, for example, for the cause we are passionate about, the pandemic, for example, we've done a lot of donations all across Africa and India as well. I think it's great when you have a social mission with the company because that driver is much stronger than making money for any person. So I encourage people to think about the social mission in the company and let that be the the driving force in the company.

Russ Johns 29:39
So you don't carry the lantern for yourself, you carry it for others so they can be found, right?

Raj Goodman Anand 29:44
Absolutely. Absolutely.

Russ Johns 29:47
Raj, this has been a pleasure. I'm glad that we had an opportunity to get to know each other a little better and understand what Goodman Lantern is all about, the mission and the purpose and the goals and I really really encourage you if you need or are even considering content creation, go to GoodmanLantern.com and offer some opportunities for individuals that are out there doing some good work and helping others along the way. So Raj, I really appreciate you. I appreciate what you're doing. Thank you so much for being here today. I look forward to future conversations as well.

Raj Goodman Anand 30:32
Absolutely, Russ, thank you for the opportunity. You're doing great job here with with the #piratebroadcast, but also in general, thank you very much for for giving me the platform, and I look forward to keeping in touch with you.

Russ Johns 30:44
As always, #kindnessiscool, #smilesarefree and you #enjoytheday. Take care.

Exit 30:55
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. The #PirateSyndicate 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 the #PirateSyndicate today.

Join the next #PirateBroadcast on your favorite social media channel.