Welcome to the #piratebroadcast™: 

Read The Transcript

Audio digitally transcribed by Otter.ai

Introduction 0:03
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.

Russ Johns 0:22
And it's a great day for a #PirateBroadcast™. And today we have a brand new pirate in the room, Arvell. Good morning, how are you, my friend?

Arvell Craig 0:30
Oh, I'm doing wonderful. How are you Russ?

Russ Johns 0:32
Excellent, excellent, better than average, you know, it's like, I didn't get out of bed to be average. So I figured I better crush the day today. Mash that white button or whatever you call it, you know, do some social media stuff. So we've known each other for a little bit. And I know that you have been in tech like myself, you know, you've been in tech for a while. And we were talking before the show, we're rambling on about this, like, okay, we better start the show and share some of these things. But give us a background and somebody that doesn't know you kind of a framework to kind of get to know you a little better in the pirate community and what you're up to today.

Arvell Craig 1:12
Gotcha. Thank you. Um, so. So the frame what I do today, right, the end of 2020. I mean, my business, I've got two kind of personas or brands on line, one is chatbot funnels, where for the past four years, I've been playing around with chatbots, also known as conversational marketing, also known as messenger marketing. You can even say live chat. So it's this new way people communicate or automate, one on one conversations. And so I've been doing that for the past, say, four years, helping businesses who ever sign up with a tool, find it easy to use, but it's like, but to actually get results can be a little more complicated, or just like, they don't want to spend time with it. So I'm doing that. But in general, for past 19 years I've been on, I've been doing stuff online, so I do consulting and coaching. For a lot of other companies that just need a strategy, they need a funnel, they need some basics they need, how to do some basic email marketing, marketing automation, you know, how do I, how do I get customers? How do I get leads how do I get customers, and might come in, depending on what they need to come up with a plan and the strategy and put that together?

Russ Johns 2:30
That's fantastic. You know, I, you touched on a really interesting point, because all the technology in the world, a lot of business owners don't necessarily care how it's done. They just want to meet more people for their business, they want the results. I don't really care how the sausage is made. Just bring me the sausage, and deliver it here on my plate. So I can offer my services to the sausage. And it's really that element that brings people up and you know, that's, you know, like libraries, like we were talking about live streaming, podcasting, messaging, bots, automation, websites, all of these things lead to one result, and that's being, you know, finding authority in the market, increasing your visibility, and making sure that your message is out there very clearly and concisely. So when people find you, they actually, you know, do a Google search or something like that you show up in a way that represents your business and what you're, what you're providing the community is really pretty simple. I mean, so, you know, be seen, be heard be talked about, or build your authority visibility. So what are some things that we can do as business owners, helping other business owners along that journey? In your 19 years, what are some things that you have discovered that helps business owners get out of their own way? Or support themselves?

Arvell Craig 4:27
Hmm, yeah, good question. Um, I mean, some of the things that I think about is I mean, there's, it's kind of a, you know, like most things, there's always a this or that it's like an either or it's like a, you can either go down the trail of trying to learn and be an expert. And they were saying earlier, sometimes we don't want to hire out we don't want a big machine. We want to do it all ourselves. And so there's that and with internet now, with the broadcast like this, you can learn anything. Right, you can theoretically go to college and schools and certifications, or you can YouTube and learn anything. And so there's that role that some businesses that are small and they're scrappy, and they know how to do it. But there's comes a point where they don't need to learn everything, that the learning, they've been getting too technical to try to be too perfect. They're not being they have to trust people, you know, so there's there was one angle, but the other angle is, you know, how do I find somebody I trust, companies get burnt by hiring freelancers, fibers, up workers, cousins, Craiglisters and leaders, and they're trying to go down this angle as well hiring. So there's a balance in that, I think it's important to realize that there's a balance, I would say, learn enough to be dangerous, I say it in a negative way, say learn enough to be dangerous, and then learn enough to be delegating. You know, so you know, and if you can keep that perspective, if you're not trying to be perfect. Realize that the world is so big, like some people are afraid they're afraid to get on camera. They're afraid to livestream they're afraid to speak. They don't think they type Well, they're not writers, there's an answer for every obstacle. And they have this thought and perspective, that slows them down. But one of the big things I've been saying to clients lately is that the road is big, meaning no matter how bad you are, 99.99% of anybody who made by has no idea. So that's why you have to keep going, you have to keep showing up, practice, whatever, there's a lot of things that I find that helps businesses make progress. Because if you don't have some of these key thinking perspectives, you'll get stuck. And you'll stay at the same place. And you'll get frustrated. And it's, you know, those are some things that come to mind.

Russ Johns 6:57
Yeah, I really, you know, resonates with me, because I'm at a point right now where I want to document and delegate. If there's a process or a way of doing something, and I can document it and hand it off to someone that can do it more effectively than I can, or my time is better used in another way. That's the decision I make, because a lot of business owners like you said, you outlined it, and you nailed it, is that they learn enough to be dangerous. And then once they understand that, this is something they do not enjoy, or they can delegate it, then that's the decision when you have to hand things off and make sure that other people have an opportunity to do it for them, or on their behalf. And there's so many resources out there. And I think 2020 has really taught us a lesson about there's a lot of people that are incredibly talented in the world, that are willing and able to help carry these challenges forward. And make sure that we're continuing to do business where we're doing it in another way. You know, you've been a speaker for years. Speaking environment has changed, do networking, I saw Karen, here and Joseph is here. Good morning, Karen, how are you, love you. And she's a networker, you know, her groups and everything have probably gone digital. And they're on zoom sessions now versus in person, just because of the circumstances. And that's how business owners need to think is, how do I maneuver through this challenging time? Or how do I get from point A to point B, or point z, and make sure that I have an opportunity to make a difference. And that's what they do is they have to, okay, understand what the options are, find a solution and make and find the opportunities in those solutions. So it's really important for people to understand that you do have options because like you said, I mean, fire up a YouTube video, do a few searches. And you got some things out there.

Arvell Craig 9:18
Yeah, no, there's tons of stuff out there. I know one of the things I've been sharing with clients, I want them to think I've got a new process of kind of how they want to grow and reach people. And one of the things I've struggled with for years is having a niche. When business owners say I can help anybody. You know, I can and they want to get clients and everybody and don't that's like that's probably one of the most limiting. There's to give something back to my...understand the world is big and what that means in that context of a niche is that if you publicly and specifically say I help these kind of people with these kind of problems, the thought is that there's not enough of them, that if I just focus on these certain people, that all the other humans are not going to give me money, which I'm used to getting money from almost anybody that gave me a book, I give everybody my business card I network, I try to, but that the main thing is like I'm trying to, even myself for the first time picking a niche, just chunky people they get more narrow, right, get more narrow, prove your offer go one on one with people first. And with the internet now and with social media don't spam and, and just for just about there. But there's a way to get to have those one on one conversations with those specific people. Because that's what social media does, it helps you to find out helps you be social, you can find out the specific type of people that you want to meet the specific groups, the specific net can go into having one on one conversations at once you get it, you got to get thing going, or one out of every 10 people one out of every eight people says okay, I want to try you out. Then you go for automation, you know, automate some of their process once you know your automation, man. And then from automation, then I say then you go and publicly do your broadcasts and YouTube and ads. Because your ads are going to bring them into your automation funnel. My automation funnel brings them to that one on one conversations already proven, but you got to start at the bottom first, prove it at the bottom, prove it through your hustle, built on automation, and then bid on ads. But that's my little process that I've been trying to share people because it makes it more predictable. I say don't start talking to millions of people. We haven't yet doubted your messaging, we haven't, you don't know how to speak to that certain person to start from the bottom and work your way up. But that's kind of one of my little processes that I've been refining and working on some visuals to lead people who are didn't have you know, had a job, now they're consulting now they're coaching, now they're trying to, you know, pimp the internet as best it can be, but try to have them, you know, give them a real streamline process to kind of take it from this level to that level. But

Russ Johns 12:17
So build the foundation and work from there.

Arvell Craig 12:21
Yep, yep. bottom up. Bottom first and then go up. Yeah.

Russ Johns 12:25
I want to say hi to a few pirates in the community. Angie, good morning. As always, thank you so much for being here. In from YouTube. Darlene is Darlene is gonna join us. She's gonna be here on the #PirateBroadcast™. Good morning. We already said hello to Karen. Karen's awesome. She's here in Phoenix. And Darlene says hope everyone had a great holiday week. Happy Monday. Fantastic. Jenny, Jenny gold is here. And yeah, Happy Monday is right. Hiett from Houston says good last Monday of the year, y'all. And then Russ Hedge in from Oregon says Good morning. Great stuff. Thank you so much, Russ. Sheri Lally, and how to effectively vet those you consult as you grow. Talking about how we actually, you know, filter out the people that aren't necessarily our best target market, and how we can actually make sure that we understand what they need, and what people need and that we're having these conversations with, because we can burn so much time arval, with people that are just curious. And I'm not saying it's a bad thing, it's good practice. But if you're talking to too many people that are just curious, your message isn't clear enough. So if you get to the point where your automation is bringing people that aren't buying, then something's broken. Would you agree with that?

Arvell Craig 14:12
Yeah, yeah. But to me, it's still good to, you know, he had that problem. That's a good problem. Have you got so many people coming? You're doing something right, you know. So I know a lot of people that, you know, yes, you get your calendlys and your schedule onces and your acuities, and all these things that can book your meetings, and you know, maybe you add more, like I met with someone a few weeks ago, and a few people recently, they have this long drawn out form, where you have to answer all these personal questions, but it was their filter, right for them. They filter people on the form because the average person is not going to fill out all that stuff. And they had one guy even after I filled out the form, their assistant, I think wrote me back. And she said, Hey, we just want to make sure that you got X amount of dollars. This is before the first call. But it wasn't done. It wasn't done in an untraceable way. Either way. He was saying, Hey, we just want to make sure that we're both on the same page, you are here to invest a minimum of this in order to book this call. Because if you're not, it was a way. those are two different ways. I've seen recently that companies are filtering, there's three ways. One way is on the form, lot of details. Number two is actually fill out the form a small replying to them back to you, you can text or email back, say, hey, let's just make sure that you've got the minimum requirement. If not, here's a good resource. Here's a good free resource to go check out. Here's a course, do you want to check out first, and I liked it. But the third thing was I've seen people just, yeah, they just they just, they just don't take calls. They say, hey, let's get on the call. I agree. Let me just, you know, asking those qualifying questions, I got this form where I do say, how do you distinguish a good lead from a bad lead? This is in my in my model, offer audit system. This is your niche or problem that you solve? Who do you solve? How do you distinguish a good lead from a bad lead? All these things are preparation that you need to have, before you start to create content and lead magnets that are scheduled, it just helps. So but again, you know, so that it does make the helpful if you, you know, get into a situation where you're talking to unqualified people.

Russ Johns 16:32
And I love that process, you know. And it's funny, because once you notice some of the automation techniques and some of the processes that people build out in their funnels, you can see exactly what's taking place. And it's like, Okay, I got all these pieces in place, I've got a listing, all these things work in the email automation, the capture pages, all of this stuff is. And what it does is it really gives you a lot of good information back. When you take the time to investigate further, like, okay, where are people falling off? Where am I not making these connections, and I've always been really fortunate, lucky, blessed, whatever word you want to use, that I've always had pretty good luck. having conversations, you know, it's like the #PirateBroadcast™ that I broadcast five days a week. And I'm booked a month out typically in these conversations. So it's, however, I'm not selling anyone, anything at this point in time. However, when I have a conversation with someone like yourself, and there's something that we could do to work together on a project or help somebody else or, you know, do something amazing together, I know who to go to, when I need something, or I know who to refer to when somebody needs their help. So it's a great tool for me to be the to be a resource for other people. And then that way, it always seems to come back. You know, it's like somebody says, Hey, Russ, I need your help with x y&z Can you do that? Maybe I'll say no, I, I'm not the best person for that, maybe Arvell needs to help you, let me introduce you, I'll do an email, or I'll do a Dubb video and do an introduction. And it really, it's proved, you know, very successful for my process, just the way I work. And I still love email automation. I have done email in the past, and, you know, landing pages and sales funnels and all of those things. And it's just to me, it's like, I'm a nerd. It's like, I just like to test it out, and create and figure it out. So just like yourself, you know, you've been doing this for a while. So it's really, it's really fun to watch it grow and evolve. And so 2020 shifting gears, what are you grateful for, Arvell? What's the best thing that came out in 2020 for you?

Arvell Craig 19:08
Good question. I guess people talk about slowing down. And I hadn't yet to really realize that maybe I did do that. You know, I mean, it's definitely good with my wife and daughter been home since March. Very different. I'm only the work from home or from a co working office. And so I know there's no chances of our relationship that are different and I've grown. So that's definitely one thing I'm very grateful for. I've got a lot of always had good friends and relationships that we stay in touch throughout the years or there's masterminds and I think I've got a lot of relationships that have been strengthened, friends from college, other entrepreneurs that we just have always stayed in touch, but this year has made it more, I don't know, probably a little more sweet. ISo I've got this international mastermind group that a friend of mine connected me with maybe a year and a half ago, we were all just landed on an eight week program, I'm only one from the US, it was Macedonia, Germany, Turkey, Slovenia, and about six other countries. And so we were just doing this process of personal growth and development. And it was just getting interesting when COVID hits. Um, we still be meeting at least six of us been meeting for the past year. So just seeing how different countries were you couldn't go outside unless you walk your dog twice a day. So it's just even that you know, some ways I'm grateful for just you know, it has been a crazy year with elections in the country, you just need not there's so many things to be grateful for. I'm just grateful for relationships, probably the biggest thing, relationships have been strengthened. This year, I'd probably say.

Russ Johns 21:05
Well, I'm glad that we got to connect before the end of the year, then. I appreciate you. And everyone if you don't know Arvell, he's a very talented, incredibly gifted person that has a lot of knowledge and information along. So if you connect with him on LinkedIn, let him know you're a pirate and you want to connect so he can help you along your journey. The other thing that I think about is and you mentioned it is slowing down. And a lot of us get in this rush in this pace of just, it's just a frenzy. It's a noisy world. And sometimes we just had to slow down long enough to think about what is it that we're doing? And why are we doing it? What is it that we're really working toward completing, you know, what, what's our goal? What's our legacy that we're gonna leave? Yeah, I'm kind of curious. How do you think about that? How do you position that in your life? Your thought process and where you do something next?

Arvell Craig 22:18
No, it's a good question. Because it is a key driver. I'm always thinking about purpose. I'm always thinking about it's like, I take care of my family, make some money. But right after is like, what kind of impact do I want to make? How do I help people because my own story of 20 years ago, when I got into college, read my first self help book, read my first you know, spiritual book, I began to realize that I could be more than I had been, I had never even thought about life was just life, and you just live in, but in I was 18 1920. And they wait a minute. You can, your brain can grow your capacity, your potential is not, you know, I miss my years of being a famous basketball player I was playing and all the things that I didn't do up to when I got to college, just like, I learned that you can be more. And so for the past 20 years, I've been constantly working on how can I be more? And how can I have others be more whatever that you know, success and fulfillment, external, internal, intrinsic, you know, whatever it is, I'm always juggling those two things. It's my DNA. And so, in one sense, I'm always doing it. I've had an idea for an accountability for years, like how do I help people grow? I mentioned relationships are key for me, and I can help people. So I've been just, I mean, I'm an idea person. I've got almost too many ideas. And so yeah, so that's, I mean, so to answer the question, I mean, I don't know. It's just about like, I've got a morning routine, I wake up, I remember, I remind myself what's important. I've got certain practices that keep those there. My relationships remind me what's important. And so again, my goal, one of the biggest things that for this year is like I do think a lot of us think in a linear way. If I do this first, and then that second and this third of this fourth, I've always appreciated kind of crisis. Because COVID this year has been kind of a crisis for many people. And so I own the domain dying empty. I've had it for years. I don't use it right now. It was my blog years ago, but the main thing is that life, we can't predict the future. So to me, in one sense, we do what we have to do in our linear, organized systematic way where we do step one and then step two, and instead three step two, For about a year like this can sometimes shake you up and say that we might not get to step two, we might not get to step three. So how do we make sure that the things that are most important, where we're where we're touching on those, and so to me, that's just, those are some things that I think about. And I think that it's important that us to realize that the future isn't always guaranteed. You can be grateful in spite of whatever. And so how do we constantly not just do things in order but constantly? I don't know, take it, take a bite out of out of that future dream? How do we bring it into our reality. So that's the one thing of my business, I am in the process of transitioning all that I'm doing. Like, I've got a bunch of courses, I've got marketing courses, I'm bringing them all into a platform, where I can say, hey, if you want to grow personally grow with your mind grow with your beliefs grow, which kind of thing I'm building this platform, or yeah, I can teach you marketing all day long. But I'm also going to support you, if you've got, you know, if you need some coaching, you need some accountability. So that's kind of one thing that I'm working on for next year's like, all the marketing is cool. So I'm just bringing together because the future isn't guaranteed. And so I want to encourage people to tap into not just success, but that which brings more meaning and fulfillment.

Russ Johns 26:30
I love that idea. And I love the idea that sometimes the biggest challenge with your marketing is you. It's your limiting belief that's holding the messaging back, you know, I struggle with that all the time. And, you know, complete transparency. I was telling somebody the other day is like, you know, it's like, providing my own value. You know, because I've been doing this so long that it feels fairly easy to do a lot of things, you know, it's like, A, B and C and it just, it doesn't, doesn't take me any effort, you know, and it just, it just feels like everybody should know this. And it's, like you said, it's a big world. And a lot of people no understanding whatsoever that this and it's like a craftsman or a craftsperson or an artisan. You know, it's like you didn't pay me for the hour that I it took to fix something you took me for the 20 years to be able to know what to fix.

Arvell Craig 27:33
Right.

Russ Johns 27:35
So mindset in marketing and mindset and business and everything else is like, it's almost as if you have to decide what is it that I no longer want to do. Remove the things that are no longer the best use of your time, in order to grow. And letting go is sometimes the biggest challenge we have. It's it's one of those things that you say, Hey, I really need to let go of these things. Because it's limiting my belief, it's limiting my ability to achieve results in another area. So learning to say no, more often than saying yes, is is key to a lot of success in your life. Mm hmm. And because it's so noisy, and you know, we can do a lot of things, we can build courses, we can, you know, learn another skill, we can do something else, always there's always something else, a distraction. And so we have to decide what is really important in our lives, and how can we actually leverage that value to help more people. And when you look at it from that perspective, like you're doing, I applaud you and, you know, I've always looked at you as being a real valuable resource in your skill and your talent and your ability. So I'm glad that you're a pirate now and you're in the community. So 2021 What's the roadmap for Arvell coming up? You're going to build a platform and kind of fabricate this amazing legacy in your future.

Arvell Craig 29:22
Yeah, that's the biggest thing that I'm excited about. The big thing is not waiting until things are perfect. You know, the big thing for me is just to commit to...I'm gonna take all my, I've got chatbot course about email marketing course. And now that's talking early, how do you audit your offer? So the things and the coaching thing I'm working on now with this, the one on one conversations to automation, which is our funnel like the basic one on ones the funnel is the ads is creating this framework for people, primarily coaches, consultants, people to do one on one High Value work, how they can leverage their time better. But I'm putting all into one place. So say, Hey, I will give you all access to everything. For not much, but if but I also I also create these habits, these because the cool thing about the platform is that it's not just a course platform with videos and links and words, and also has a habit tracker, and a task list system. So it keeps it's got some built in habits and accountability, I think again, so you can learn anything online. Well, how do you stay focused? And how do you not get distracted? And one thing with the big world one thing, I don't know, one thing that I think that it's also important to understand is that, I guess, I guess, because people understand, I remember 2010, when I first hired out my first, my first stop doing stuff, I hired a WordPress developer who was in India, and we work together for 10 years now. And so just realize that you don't have to know everything. Not only can you learn anything, but you can find people to, you know, you could find people to do stuff. And so, but you can't delegate your unique value, your unique genius. And like he said, you're figuring out what that is. But I just I just came to mind. But that's, that's no, I'm working on this one platform. I'm wanting to strengthen my ability to coach one on one, I'm not trying to do groups. That's not my preference. I want to help people one on one, and whatever that looks like, and just see them see them, you know, people grow in that sense.

Russ Johns 31:34
So yeah, that's fantastic. Well, Arvell, It's been a pleasure. And I know that 2021 is going to land and continue to be in our life. And, you know, tomorrow is not guaranteed However, if we work today like we're living forever and then appreciate every single day we'll be okay, so definitely, thank you so much for being here and thank you for being a pirate and how do you like to have people reach out to you and connect with you?

Arvell Craig 32:05
Yeah, um, I'd say ArvellCraig.com. It's my site or you know, Facebook, LinkedIn, media sites, Facebook, LinkedIn, you can find me ArvellCraig.com. The chat bot funnels, that's funnels.chat, that domains, those are four different ways people can connect with me.

Russ Johns 32:27
Fantastic. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for being here and I know that we'll be connecting, you know, in the future and we'll have conversations about these platforms, because it's something near and dear to my heart. And I I enjoy helping people as much as anyone. And so let's stay connected. Let's continue this conversation and help more people out in 2021.

Arvell Craig 32:52
Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Great to hear.

Russ Johns 32:56
Yeah, the pirate community has been very productive and amazing individuals here that are willing and able to help and it's just, I'm just always amazed that you know, how important it is in my life and how beneficial it's been for the past year, and it's just amazing to connect with so many talented people. So thank you so much for being here. And as always, everyone, you know, I'm building out and improving and increasing the YouTube channel and the podcast. So I love if you would go over there and Subscribe, share this, share this information, share the pirate community, share the podcast and the broadcast and the YouTube channel out. And also, make sure that you're making connections online and making sure that you're reaching out to people in the community, start a conversation, have a conversation, make a difference, #makeitmatter, because #kindnessiscool and #smilesarefree and you #enjoytheday. Take care, buddy.

Arvell Craig 34:10
Take care.

Exit 34:12
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.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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