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[00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:06.240] Look, adulting can be a challenge, but there is an easy button for at least one item on your to-do list.
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[00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:02.240] And now, onto the show.
[00:01:02.880 --> 00:01:08.800] All right, I've got a relatively simple recurring revenue side hustle you could start today, even.
[00:01:08.800 --> 00:01:13.600] The idea is to help local businesses gain more visibility in Google so they can make more money.
[00:01:13.600 --> 00:01:15.520] And the market is huge.
[00:01:15.520 --> 00:01:18.800] Think millions of potential small business customers here.
[00:01:18.800 --> 00:01:30.000] Today's guest runs a six-figure digital agency while traveling the world with his family and says if he was starting over, he'd focus on selling a simple local SEO service.
[00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:32.880] This might be the last bastion of SEO, local SEO.
[00:01:32.880 --> 00:01:37.600] From ericdingler.com, Eric Dingler, welcome to the Side Hustle Show.
[00:01:37.600 --> 00:01:38.480] Thanks for having me.
[00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:41.680] I'm excited to unpack this with you for your audience.
[00:01:41.680 --> 00:01:42.320] You bet.
[00:01:42.320 --> 00:01:43.360] Stick around in this one.
[00:01:43.360 --> 00:01:44.240] I'm excited as well.
[00:01:44.240 --> 00:01:46.560] We're going to figure out: well, how do we find customers?
[00:01:46.560 --> 00:01:49.120] How are we going to deliver this service quickly and effectively?
[00:01:49.120 --> 00:01:54.800] And maybe how to remove yourself from being the hands-on technician in the business.
[00:01:54.800 --> 00:01:59.280] But kick us off with what do you see as the opportunity here in local SEO?
[00:01:59.280 --> 00:02:10.200] Well, for me, and especially as somebody that every three weeks to three months, I'm moving into a completely new city with my wife and our four teens.
[00:02:10.200 --> 00:02:20.360] We're constantly going to Google Maps or Apple Maps, looking for restaurant, barber, you know, grocery store, dentist, whatever it is we need.
[00:02:20.680 --> 00:02:24.200] And I don't see people stopping that.
[00:02:24.200 --> 00:02:27.000] People are still looking for that local service.
[00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:28.520] I don't see it going away.
[00:02:28.520 --> 00:02:35.000] And everybody in the entire world uses Google Maps, Google My Business, and Apple Maps.
[00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:44.120] Yeah, where regular SEO, article SEO, website SEO, is being eroded away by AI and maybe Reddit in the search results.
[00:02:44.120 --> 00:02:49.080] Local SEO is maybe a less competitive game, and it still works by the old rules, more or less.
[00:02:49.080 --> 00:02:53.400] Where it's like, if I want a restaurant near me, it's not being eaten by AI just yet.
[00:02:53.400 --> 00:03:16.600] Yeah, the thing about Google, they have invested millions and millions upon millions of dollars mapping every city, every country, every road in the world, adding all of the businesses that they can find to it, working to ensure that we have access to a business's hours, contact information, all these things.
[00:03:17.080 --> 00:03:18.440] And they don't charge for this.
[00:03:18.440 --> 00:03:22.200] They don't charge you and me as the end user trying to find a place.
[00:03:22.200 --> 00:03:26.200] And they don't charge the businesses to be on it.
[00:03:26.200 --> 00:03:39.800] But even with that, only about, according to Google's most recent numbers in the USA, only about 20, 25% of businesses have claimed their Google Business profile and have optimized it.
[00:03:39.800 --> 00:03:45.680] So 75% of the local businesses around you haven't done this yet.
[00:03:45.680 --> 00:03:48.160] And they all already know about Google.
[00:03:44.760 --> 00:03:49.920] They already know about SEO.
[00:03:50.480 --> 00:03:59.440] And if you can learn a few key phrases and use those when you're talking to businesses, it's a very easy service to sell.
[00:03:59.440 --> 00:04:03.280] In fact, Nick, today is our oldest son's 18th birthday.
[00:04:03.280 --> 00:04:03.920] Oh, okay.
[00:04:03.920 --> 00:04:06.480] And he is an outdoor kid through and through.
[00:04:06.480 --> 00:04:08.000] Computer's not his thing.
[00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:10.400] You know, he wants to be outside all the time.
[00:04:10.400 --> 00:04:11.920] He wants to play in soccer and stuff like that.
[00:04:11.920 --> 00:04:17.280] But if he was to come to me today and say, okay, dad, I want to start my own thing.
[00:04:17.280 --> 00:04:19.040] You know, what should I do?
[00:04:19.040 --> 00:04:23.360] And my agency, we do web design development, app work.
[00:04:23.360 --> 00:04:27.360] We focus a lot on helping businesses meet accessibility standards.
[00:04:27.680 --> 00:04:31.360] We do paid ads, social media, like we do all those things.
[00:04:31.360 --> 00:04:31.680] Yes.
[00:04:31.680 --> 00:04:33.520] And this is Intransit Studios.
[00:04:33.520 --> 00:04:34.800] If anybody wants to go check that out.
[00:04:34.960 --> 00:04:35.760] Sorry, go ahead.
[00:04:35.760 --> 00:04:36.160] Thanks.
[00:04:36.160 --> 00:04:36.400] Yeah.
[00:04:36.400 --> 00:04:44.240] But if my 18-year-old came to me today and said, I want to start my own thing, I would give him a checklist to start a local SEO business.
[00:04:44.240 --> 00:04:46.240] And I would say, this is what you need to go do.
[00:04:46.240 --> 00:04:46.480] All right.
[00:04:46.480 --> 00:04:47.120] Coach me through this.
[00:04:47.120 --> 00:04:48.560] We'll worry about like the technical skills.
[00:04:49.280 --> 00:04:50.320] I don't know the first thing about local.
[00:04:50.560 --> 00:04:51.520] We'll worry about that in a second.
[00:04:51.520 --> 00:04:54.560] But like, okay, let's say I'm your son.
[00:04:54.560 --> 00:04:55.520] Like, you talk me through this.
[00:04:55.520 --> 00:04:56.400] What do I do first?
[00:04:56.400 --> 00:04:56.720] Great.
[00:04:56.720 --> 00:04:59.040] The first thing you're going to do is you're going to go sell it.
[00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:00.960] I do this a lot.
[00:05:00.960 --> 00:05:06.640] I often sell services that I don't know how I'm going to deliver it.
[00:05:06.640 --> 00:05:12.560] In fact, my very first local SEO client, I sold them local SEO.
[00:05:12.880 --> 00:05:15.440] I collected the money.
[00:05:15.440 --> 00:05:20.960] And then I use that money to go pay for somebody to teach me how to do what I need to do.
[00:05:21.440 --> 00:05:29.120] Because you can tell your customer, this is going to take me four weeks, six weeks, eight weeks.
[00:05:29.120 --> 00:05:29.760] They don't know.
[00:05:29.960 --> 00:05:31.800] Yeah, yeah, you set up expectations.
[00:05:31.800 --> 00:05:32.440] Sure.
[00:05:32.440 --> 00:05:33.000] Exactly.
[00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:34.920] So you set those expectations.
[00:05:34.920 --> 00:05:41.240] So, what I like to do in this case, and this is kind of going step by step, really breaking this down nuance.
[00:05:41.240 --> 00:05:47.240] The first thing I would do is I would write a what we call beta test social media post.
[00:05:47.240 --> 00:05:56.920] And later at the end of the episode, Nick, we can give people a link to, I have this written out in an actual checklist with links and everything that people can follow.
[00:05:56.920 --> 00:05:57.480] Perfect.
[00:05:57.480 --> 00:06:03.320] But for the conversation, the thing I like to do is I like to create a beta social media post.
[00:06:03.320 --> 00:06:11.240] People that are listening, they probably have friends that are business owners or they use local businesses.
[00:06:11.240 --> 00:06:12.840] They have a dentist.
[00:06:12.840 --> 00:06:16.440] They probably have a barber or hair salon.
[00:06:16.440 --> 00:06:20.040] They have a favorite restaurant that's not a chain.
[00:06:20.040 --> 00:06:24.840] You have your local mom and pop favorite places, landscaper, whatever it might be.
[00:06:24.840 --> 00:06:26.920] You have friends that have these businesses.
[00:06:26.920 --> 00:06:35.560] So what I like to do is create a social media post that says, hey, fellow business owners or hey, business owners who are friends.
[00:06:35.560 --> 00:06:52.200] I'm testing a new piece of software or I'm testing a new system that lets me help local businesses be found more often when somebody searches for them.
[00:06:52.200 --> 00:07:01.640] I'm looking for three businesses that I can use that would be willing to let me use their business as an experiment.
[00:07:01.640 --> 00:07:10.840] You'll get an increased visibility on Google, and I'll share all the results with you in exchange for helping me out.
[00:07:10.840 --> 00:07:12.280] If you're interested, let me know.
[00:07:12.280 --> 00:07:14.760] So that's kind of the gist, something like that.
[00:07:15.200 --> 00:07:21.600] You put that out there, and then you tell every business owner the next time you talk to them.
[00:07:21.600 --> 00:07:26.960] You know, if you've got a neighbor that has a local business, you go knock on the door and you're going to tell them you're going to do this.
[00:07:26.960 --> 00:07:33.760] And then you can say, when they respond to the Facebook ad or when you go talk to them, you say, it's $500.
[00:07:33.760 --> 00:07:39.840] You know, the first time I did it, I sold it for $1,300, had never sold it before, sold it for $1,300.
[00:07:39.840 --> 00:07:40.240] Okay.
[00:07:40.240 --> 00:07:43.280] If you're as arrogant as I am, you can do that.
[00:07:43.280 --> 00:07:46.640] But if you're a little more like, I don't know, that makes me nervous.
[00:07:46.800 --> 00:07:47.440] Start lower.
[00:07:47.440 --> 00:07:48.000] That's okay.
[00:07:48.640 --> 00:07:55.520] But there is a guy, Sam Sarsten, and he has a coaching program.
[00:07:55.520 --> 00:08:03.280] It's $49 without the community aspect, $99 if you want into the community.
[00:08:03.440 --> 00:08:04.640] That's monthly.
[00:08:04.640 --> 00:08:07.840] And he teaches exactly how to do all this.
[00:08:07.840 --> 00:08:10.000] I don't have a course, but I know Sam.
[00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:11.440] Sam's course is great.
[00:08:11.920 --> 00:08:18.960] You can go sell this and then go sign up for Sam's course and he'll show you exactly how to do this.
[00:08:18.960 --> 00:08:24.480] And what you're selling specifically is a one-time SEO boost.
[00:08:24.800 --> 00:08:25.920] So that's what you're going to sell.
[00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:27.520] It's your foot-in-the-door offer.
[00:08:27.520 --> 00:08:29.280] That's why I'd sell it for $500.
[00:08:29.280 --> 00:08:30.640] One-time SEO boost.
[00:08:30.640 --> 00:08:36.000] And you tell them, I'm going to improve your position in Google Maps and Apple Maps within three months.
[00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:36.400] Okay.
[00:08:36.400 --> 00:08:43.360] Within three months, you're going to be ranking higher, which means, and here's one of those key phrases, Nick, I was telling you, I like to use.
[00:08:43.840 --> 00:08:47.920] We're going to increase your customer activity.
[00:08:47.920 --> 00:08:53.200] I'm not promising more leads because I can't deliver on that.
[00:08:53.200 --> 00:08:56.720] I'm not promising specifically more website visitors or more phone calls.
[00:08:57.120 --> 00:08:59.720] I'm just promising more customer activity.
[00:08:59.280 --> 00:09:02.200] And every local business owner understands that.
[00:08:59.600 --> 00:09:06.680] And a restaurant is never going to use the term leads.
[00:09:06.680 --> 00:09:08.600] Restaurants aren't looking for leads.
[00:09:08.600 --> 00:09:10.200] A barbershop's not looking for leads.
[00:09:10.200 --> 00:09:12.200] They're looking for appointments or walk-ins.
[00:09:12.200 --> 00:09:15.160] A roofer is looking for leads.
[00:09:15.160 --> 00:09:20.360] And so to me, the most universal phrase that I have found is customer activity.
[00:09:20.360 --> 00:09:21.000] Okay.
[00:09:21.000 --> 00:09:27.800] And this allows you to not worry, because that was kind of the next thing I was going to ask: about do you worry about niche select?
[00:09:27.800 --> 00:09:36.200] Well, I'm only going to target roofers, but then it becomes maybe a potential conflict of interest if I sign up five roofers in the same town and now I'm like competing.
[00:09:36.360 --> 00:09:37.880] Well, who do I, who's my favorite?
[00:09:37.880 --> 00:09:40.520] Like, how do I figure out who I want to rank the highest?
[00:09:40.520 --> 00:09:40.840] Yeah.
[00:09:40.840 --> 00:09:49.240] So you're going to go, you go, you're going kind of broad, it sounds like, because the same skill set or the same toolbox can apply across any number of different businesses.
[00:09:49.240 --> 00:09:50.360] Yeah, absolutely.
[00:09:50.360 --> 00:09:53.960] And the fastest way to a sale is the face-to-face conversation.
[00:09:53.960 --> 00:10:06.600] For a side hustle, especially to just get started, you're just talking about finding three or four local businesses that are going to do this SEO boost, $500, because here's what happens.
[00:10:06.600 --> 00:10:11.480] You're going to do the local SEO boost, and then within that three months, you're going to get results.
[00:10:11.480 --> 00:10:12.840] And here's what you're going to do.
[00:10:13.480 --> 00:10:16.200] When they say, yeah, I'll do this, this sounds great.
[00:10:16.200 --> 00:10:16.920] I'd love to do it.
[00:10:16.920 --> 00:10:18.840] Okay, it's $500.
[00:10:18.840 --> 00:10:23.160] So, you know, here's, you know, set up a Stripe account, take PayPal, take check.
[00:10:23.160 --> 00:10:24.760] You're starting out as a side hustle.
[00:10:24.760 --> 00:10:25.960] Like, cash is fine.
[00:10:25.960 --> 00:10:27.480] Like, however, you can get them to pay you.
[00:10:27.480 --> 00:10:27.720] Yeah, yeah.
[00:10:27.800 --> 00:10:28.760] Somebody can Venmo you.
[00:10:28.760 --> 00:10:29.000] Sure.
[00:10:29.480 --> 00:10:31.000] Don't let that beat the bottleneck.
[00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:31.880] Exactly, exactly.
[00:10:31.880 --> 00:10:35.080] Like, there's lots of ways to get people's money from them.
[00:10:35.080 --> 00:10:40.680] So receive the money and then say, Hey, listen, I need 24 pictures of your business.
[00:10:40.680 --> 00:10:44.120] People in your business, behind the scenes, the front of the place.
[00:10:44.280 --> 00:10:49.520] I need 24 pictures, and that's what you need to send to me.
[00:10:44.840 --> 00:10:51.680] And if they're like, oh, I don't have them.
[00:10:51.840 --> 00:10:56.400] Do you have a 17-year-old, an 18-year-old, a 25-year-old on your team?
[00:10:56.400 --> 00:10:58.880] Like everybody on your team's got an iPhone.
[00:10:58.880 --> 00:10:59.680] That's all I need.
[00:10:59.680 --> 00:11:03.120] I need somebody to take out their phone and get 24 pictures.
[00:11:03.120 --> 00:11:06.240] Then they're going to send you those pictures.
[00:11:06.240 --> 00:11:07.840] You're going to take those pictures.
[00:11:07.840 --> 00:11:13.680] You're going to create 12 posts with those pictures about their business.
[00:11:13.840 --> 00:11:16.080] This is a great place to leverage AI.
[00:11:16.080 --> 00:11:19.680] AI is really fast, fantastic at this.
[00:11:19.680 --> 00:11:25.360] And then every week, you're going to go in and you're just going to post to their Google Business Profile this.
[00:11:25.360 --> 00:11:27.280] So they're going to give you access.
[00:11:27.520 --> 00:11:30.560] It's super easy to get access to their Google Business Profile.
[00:11:30.560 --> 00:11:32.560] You're going to get access to their Google Business Profile.
[00:11:32.560 --> 00:11:33.760] You're going to go in once a week.
[00:11:33.760 --> 00:11:36.400] You're going to post a picture for 12 weeks.
[00:11:36.400 --> 00:11:40.160] Yeah, maybe this is for these 75% of businesses that haven't even claimed theirs.
[00:11:40.160 --> 00:11:41.040] Maybe that's step one.
[00:11:41.040 --> 00:11:43.680] Like, hey, here's an easy, quick win for you, Mr.
[00:11:43.680 --> 00:11:44.000] and Mrs.
[00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:44.640] Business Owner.
[00:11:44.880 --> 00:11:48.160] Let's do that first and then we'll go do this one-time boost.
[00:11:48.160 --> 00:11:48.480] Right.
[00:11:48.480 --> 00:11:50.000] Well, this is part of the one-time boost.
[00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:50.880] Yeah, this is, this is it.
[00:11:50.880 --> 00:11:52.400] This is part of the one-time boost.
[00:11:52.400 --> 00:11:56.960] So for the one-time boost, you're going to use AI to rewrite their description.
[00:11:56.960 --> 00:12:00.480] You're going to use AI to help you create those 12 posts.
[00:12:00.480 --> 00:12:02.400] And then you're going to go in and you're going to schedule those.
[00:12:02.400 --> 00:12:07.040] Now, down the road, there are tools you can get to automate this.
[00:12:07.040 --> 00:12:10.960] We now, when we do an SEO boost, we create all the content.
[00:12:11.040 --> 00:12:12.880] It takes us about two hours.
[00:12:12.880 --> 00:12:15.600] We pre-schedule it for three months and we're done.
[00:12:15.600 --> 00:12:16.960] We move on to the next one.
[00:12:17.280 --> 00:12:20.080] But you're going to grow into this as a side hustle.
[00:12:20.400 --> 00:12:21.440] I didn't start there.
[00:12:21.440 --> 00:12:25.120] And so to keep it simple, you don't need a fancy automation tool.
[00:12:25.120 --> 00:12:27.680] Why does the description need to be rewritten?
[00:12:27.680 --> 00:12:32.040] Or what are some of the checkboxes you want to see in that rewritten description?
[00:12:32.040 --> 00:12:37.720] Yeah, well, they probably haven't done it, especially if they've never claimed their Google Business profile.
[00:12:37.720 --> 00:12:49.720] Or if the business owner wrote it, the business owner talks about how they've been in business since 1985, and grandpa gave it to dad, and dad gave it to me.
[00:12:49.720 --> 00:12:55.480] And we've got six employees, and we're so proud of our community, and we love serving, da-da-da.
[00:12:55.480 --> 00:12:57.480] And nobody cares.
[00:12:57.800 --> 00:13:01.560] They want to know: are you the place for them?
[00:13:01.560 --> 00:13:06.520] You know, if you're a barbershop, you want to answer what we call their pre-qualifying questions.
[00:13:06.520 --> 00:13:12.360] You can walk in, you can pay with cash, credit card, you can book an appointment.
[00:13:12.360 --> 00:13:16.840] We do kids, we do fade-ins, we do beards.
[00:13:16.840 --> 00:13:21.800] Like, what are the common questions people ask you about your business?
[00:13:21.800 --> 00:13:24.040] And that's what has to go in the description.
[00:13:24.040 --> 00:13:28.520] And so, most business owners talk about themselves and not their customer and their customers' needs.
[00:13:28.520 --> 00:13:30.280] So, real easy fix.
[00:13:30.280 --> 00:13:39.720] Plus, you want to make sure that you mention, you know, the business type you are, you know, AJ's barber, proudly serving Columbus, Ohio.
[00:13:39.720 --> 00:13:47.160] Men, kids, short hair, you know, then you then you list the things, walk-ins, welcome, all that kind of stuff.
[00:13:47.160 --> 00:13:48.440] So, that's in the description.
[00:13:48.440 --> 00:13:49.240] I got it, got it.
[00:13:49.240 --> 00:13:49.800] Okay.
[00:13:49.800 --> 00:13:52.440] Then, and this is in that, the checklist I have.
[00:13:52.440 --> 00:13:59.640] A lot of businesses, local businesses, they go to set up their Google business profile, Nick, and they're like, I want to serve everybody.
[00:13:59.640 --> 00:14:03.400] So, they put their service areas the United States of America.
[00:14:03.720 --> 00:14:04.360] Okay.
[00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:07.560] Huge mistake, huge mistake.
[00:14:07.560 --> 00:14:19.520] Because when Google decides who to show to somebody in Google Maps, and when Apple decides in Apple Maps, the first thing they look at is the geographic location of that phone.
[00:14:14.680 --> 00:14:22.800] So I'm in Budapest, Hungary right now.
[00:14:22.800 --> 00:14:32.320] If I get my phone and I search barber near me, it's going to show me a couple of the closest barbers right here to me in Budapest.
[00:14:32.640 --> 00:14:43.360] But if I turn my VPN on and I say I'm in Miami, and then I open Google Maps and I ask for a barber, it's going to start showing me barbers in Miami.
[00:14:43.920 --> 00:14:54.560] If you say you're in the United States, that puts your business geographic location out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean because it goes clear up past Alaska, down around Hawaii.
[00:14:54.560 --> 00:15:03.120] And the only people that's going to see your pizza shop barbershop mechanic is somebody trolling for fish out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
[00:15:03.120 --> 00:15:04.480] Not what you're going for.
[00:15:04.480 --> 00:15:16.880] More with Eric in just a moment, including the exact type of posts you should be creating for local businesses, plus how to scale this thing into a six-figure recurring revenue business with a remote team right after this.
[00:15:17.200 --> 00:15:19.920] I'm excited to partner with OpenPhone for this episode.
[00:15:19.920 --> 00:15:29.360] OpenPhone is the number one business phone system that streamlines and scales your customer communication for both calls and texts, all in one easy-to-use centralized hub.
[00:15:29.360 --> 00:15:34.240] But before OpenPhone was sponsoring podcasts, they took a more guerrilla marketing approach.
[00:15:34.400 --> 00:15:35.840] You probably don't remember this.
[00:15:35.840 --> 00:15:43.040] This is a while back, but when we just started OpenPhone, one of the ways that we got our first customers is through Facebook groups.
[00:15:43.040 --> 00:15:46.080] And I joined a bunch of Facebook groups, including yours.
[00:15:46.240 --> 00:16:01.000] Thank you for not kicking me out, but I posted a couple of times and I actually remember seeing there were some of your listeners and folks in your community interested in solving the problem we solve, which is not using your personal phone number for work.
[00:16:01.000 --> 00:16:04.760] And those posts got us some of our first customers.
[00:16:04.760 --> 00:16:05.560] So thank you.
[00:15:59.840 --> 00:16:06.920] It's a full circle moment.
[00:16:07.240 --> 00:16:08.280] Oh, that's super fun.
[00:16:08.280 --> 00:16:09.000] Very cool.
[00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:11.160] That's Doreena, the co-founder of OpenPhone.
[00:16:11.160 --> 00:16:13.400] And sure enough, her posts are still there.
[00:16:13.400 --> 00:16:19.640] OpenPhone is offering Side Hustle Show listeners 20% off your first six months at openphone.com/slash sidehustle.
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[00:17:31.560 --> 00:17:32.120] All right.
[00:17:32.120 --> 00:17:33.400] So, another quick win.
[00:17:33.400 --> 00:17:36.680] Sounds like, okay, narrow down that service area location.
[00:17:36.680 --> 00:17:38.760] And you kind of draw a perimeter and okay.
[00:17:38.760 --> 00:17:40.280] The service area.
[00:17:40.280 --> 00:17:40.600] Yeah.
[00:17:40.600 --> 00:17:41.960] All kinds of ways to do that.
[00:17:42.200 --> 00:17:48.560] You know, just the city or a couple towns, but I just start with that one central space.
[00:17:48.560 --> 00:17:49.920] And so you do that.
[00:17:44.840 --> 00:17:50.960] That's optimizing.
[00:17:51.120 --> 00:17:57.120] Optimizing the description, optimizing the service location.
[00:17:57.120 --> 00:17:58.800] You get those things optimized.
[00:17:58.800 --> 00:18:07.520] And a lot of people, they haven't, business owners, they haven't bothered filling in all the little boxes about parking, accessibility.
[00:18:07.520 --> 00:18:10.320] Is it veteran-owned, woman-owned?
[00:18:11.280 --> 00:18:12.640] There's all these things.
[00:18:12.960 --> 00:18:18.400] And it's because Google keeps adding these questions and information every few months.
[00:18:18.400 --> 00:18:19.600] They add a new one.
[00:18:19.600 --> 00:18:22.160] And most businesses aren't updating that.
[00:18:22.400 --> 00:18:24.960] So you're just going to go through the Google Business Profile.
[00:18:24.960 --> 00:18:34.640] And here's the thing: if you're like, oh, I don't know the answer, make a list and send an email to the say, hey, just wanted to follow up with a couple more questions.
[00:18:34.640 --> 00:18:37.040] Do you do this, this, and this, and this?
[00:18:37.040 --> 00:18:38.400] They're going to answer it.
[00:18:38.400 --> 00:18:40.400] You're going to put it on their Google Business Profile.
[00:18:40.400 --> 00:18:41.200] Super simple.
[00:18:41.200 --> 00:18:41.680] Yeah.
[00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:42.720] So that's optimizing.
[00:18:42.720 --> 00:18:44.160] You're just going to do it one time.
[00:18:44.160 --> 00:18:49.600] Then you're going to create the 12 pieces of content and you're going to go in once a week and add those.
[00:18:49.600 --> 00:18:52.560] So one day added on Monday, one day added on Tuesday.
[00:18:52.560 --> 00:18:54.720] You want it to seem kind of natural.
[00:18:54.720 --> 00:18:57.520] And then once a week, you're going to add a picture.
[00:18:57.520 --> 00:19:02.080] Those things right there, you're going to start to see their rankings improve.
[00:19:02.080 --> 00:19:04.080] You're going to see increased customer activity.
[00:19:04.080 --> 00:19:08.160] We like to use a tool called Local Falcon.
[00:19:08.480 --> 00:19:12.720] I think I pay around $29 a month for Local Falcon.
[00:19:12.720 --> 00:19:15.040] It's a super inexpensive tool.
[00:19:15.040 --> 00:19:20.640] You go into Local Falcon, you go to reports, and you find the business.
[00:19:20.640 --> 00:19:24.880] If they've got a Google Business Profile, Local Falcon is going to find it.
[00:19:25.200 --> 00:19:27.680] And then you set a geographic region.
[00:19:27.680 --> 00:19:40.040] We normally start with like two miles, and then you put in a search term or a couple search terms: barber, men's haircut, pizza, pizza delivery, pizza pickup, depending on the business.
[00:19:40.040 --> 00:19:40.680] Okay.
[00:19:40.680 --> 00:19:55.880] And what Local Falcon does is it goes and it scans the entire area because I can be a quarter mile to the east of a business and it's in 20th place on Google.
[00:19:55.880 --> 00:20:02.600] I can go a quarter mile to the right or to the west and it's going to be in first place.
[00:20:02.600 --> 00:20:06.120] Your position on Google changes street by street.
[00:20:06.120 --> 00:20:06.520] Yeah.
[00:20:06.520 --> 00:20:13.880] What this does is it creates a heat map and it shows you all of these dots and it puts the right position of where you are.
[00:20:13.880 --> 00:20:20.120] So you're going to have some areas that are green, some areas that are red, some that are in between in the yellow and orange.
[00:20:20.440 --> 00:20:22.920] Now, some businesses may be all green.
[00:20:22.920 --> 00:20:24.760] This whole list expand out.
[00:20:24.760 --> 00:20:26.040] Look for a different search term.
[00:20:26.040 --> 00:20:27.240] Expand the radius.
[00:20:27.240 --> 00:20:27.720] Okay.
[00:20:27.720 --> 00:20:32.520] Some businesses, it's all red, except for right where their business is.
[00:20:32.520 --> 00:20:33.160] It's green.
[00:20:33.160 --> 00:20:37.880] And those are the business owners that go, well, we thought we were in first place on Google.
[00:20:37.880 --> 00:20:39.720] Yeah, you are if you're searching from your front door.
[00:20:39.720 --> 00:20:40.200] Yeah.
[00:20:40.200 --> 00:20:40.520] Yeah.
[00:20:40.520 --> 00:20:42.200] Indoor business.
[00:20:42.200 --> 00:20:51.320] But you can either get in a car and drive around town and refresh your search every street, or we just create this geo grid for you.
[00:20:51.320 --> 00:20:57.960] Now, down the road, you can offer this geo grid as a freebie.
[00:20:57.960 --> 00:21:04.360] This is a good way once you start getting some clients, as you're getting established, and you start to promote some things.
[00:21:04.360 --> 00:21:10.840] This is a great lead magnet because a lot of business owners see this map and they're like, oh, I want, I want to see that for my business.
[00:21:10.840 --> 00:21:12.200] You don't need to do that starting out.
[00:21:12.200 --> 00:21:15.040] That's kind of a 2.0 kind of strategy.
[00:21:15.040 --> 00:21:15.680] Okay.
[00:21:15.680 --> 00:21:20.160] Right now, you're going to just talk to a couple businesses, get a couple people to hire you.
[00:21:14.680 --> 00:21:21.280] You're going to go in and do these things.
[00:21:21.360 --> 00:21:23.280] You're going to create one of those maps.
[00:21:23.280 --> 00:21:25.840] Every month, you're going to run the scan again.
[00:21:25.840 --> 00:21:36.160] A local Falcon has this whole list of suggestions after it runs the report, AI-generated suggestions, that'll tell you a wealth of information of things to do to improve your ranking.
[00:21:36.160 --> 00:21:44.160] Do you have an example or two of the type of post that you're posting on behalf of these different businesses to their Google profile?
[00:21:44.160 --> 00:21:44.400] Sure.
[00:21:44.400 --> 00:21:46.560] Give me an industry, just any industry you want.
[00:21:46.640 --> 00:21:49.280] We can go with the barbershop example again.
[00:21:49.280 --> 00:21:50.400] Barbershop, great.
[00:21:50.400 --> 00:21:53.760] So they give you a picture of a kid getting a haircut.
[00:21:53.760 --> 00:22:11.520] You're just going to, you know, take that and you're going to say, depending on the type of year, maybe it's another one of our customers in getting ready for the summer, getting a haircut before vacation, back to school seasons coming up, getting ready to head back to school here in Pittsburgh.
[00:22:11.520 --> 00:22:13.440] Talk about vacation coming up.
[00:22:13.440 --> 00:22:14.720] Just whatever you can.
[00:22:14.720 --> 00:22:18.000] Or maybe it's the barber that's cutting their hair.
[00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:19.200] Maybe they've been there five years.
[00:22:19.200 --> 00:22:27.600] You know, hey, here's Tony, been with us for five years, cutting one of our favorite little customers' hair again, helping them get ready for vacation.
[00:22:27.600 --> 00:22:28.000] Okay.
[00:22:28.000 --> 00:22:29.680] But you don't always have that insight.
[00:22:29.680 --> 00:22:33.760] So you got to kind of probe the business owner for what's the occasion.
[00:22:33.920 --> 00:22:35.040] You don't want to just make stuff up.
[00:22:35.040 --> 00:22:37.600] Oh, Tony's, Tony's, Tony really just started last month.
[00:22:37.760 --> 00:22:39.120] So it'd be a little weird.
[00:22:39.440 --> 00:22:41.520] I wouldn't make up anything like that.
[00:22:41.520 --> 00:22:42.800] I wouldn't make anything like that.
[00:22:43.120 --> 00:22:46.000] But here's the thing that can be a little annoying with this.
[00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:48.240] Very few people read these.
[00:22:48.240 --> 00:22:49.440] That's what's annoying.
[00:22:49.440 --> 00:22:50.000] Sure.
[00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:50.560] No, I get it.
[00:22:50.560 --> 00:22:54.880] It's like you need to feed the machine, even though nobody's realistically reading it.
[00:22:54.960 --> 00:22:56.560] It's like, but you got to give it some data.
[00:22:56.560 --> 00:22:58.240] You got to give it some stuff to chew on.
[00:22:58.240 --> 00:22:58.880] Yes.
[00:22:58.880 --> 00:23:03.320] People read reviews and people look at the pictures.
[00:22:59.840 --> 00:23:06.760] But very few people read the post, but Google does.
[00:23:07.640 --> 00:23:15.480] And Google wants to make sure that if it's going to recommend you, somebody's there turning the lights on.
[00:23:15.480 --> 00:23:16.040] Yeah.
[00:23:16.040 --> 00:23:23.480] Because if Google sends somebody to a closed business, they're going to lose their trust in Google.
[00:23:23.480 --> 00:23:26.040] They may start, they may switch to another tool.
[00:23:26.040 --> 00:23:31.320] If Google starts losing eyeballs, Google starts losing advertising.
[00:23:31.320 --> 00:23:34.920] Google will not lose advertising.
[00:23:34.920 --> 00:23:37.880] I mean, that's how they make their money is advertising.
[00:23:38.200 --> 00:23:40.040] So they want to keep the eyeballs.
[00:23:40.040 --> 00:23:53.880] They want to make sure that they're giving you and me when we look for a business, a business that's open, a business that other people use, a business that keeps their hours up to date.
[00:23:53.880 --> 00:23:58.760] Google will reward you by what these are called signals.
[00:23:58.760 --> 00:24:00.520] Yeah, yeah, giving positive signals.
[00:24:00.600 --> 00:24:01.640] Make it look active, right?
[00:24:01.640 --> 00:24:02.760] It's active and engaged.
[00:24:03.080 --> 00:24:06.280] They're using our tools and helping people in that way.
[00:24:06.280 --> 00:24:06.840] Yes.
[00:24:06.840 --> 00:24:10.440] And right now, again, for those that are listening, they're just trying to get started.
[00:24:10.440 --> 00:24:13.720] You're just doing a one-time local SEO boost.
[00:24:14.040 --> 00:24:19.800] So you're doing a minimal viable product here to get results.
[00:24:20.040 --> 00:24:23.320] When you run that first local Falcon scan, you're going to take a screenshot.
[00:24:23.320 --> 00:24:25.640] Each time you run it, you're going to take another screenshot.
[00:24:25.640 --> 00:24:28.040] And suddenly, you're going to get before and afters.
[00:24:28.040 --> 00:24:32.120] You know, had very little green, two months later, all of this green.
[00:24:32.120 --> 00:24:34.920] They're showing up all over the top of Google.
[00:24:34.920 --> 00:24:35.560] Okay.
[00:24:35.880 --> 00:24:41.000] Because then what you can do, you've got these first few seed clients.
[00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:48.880] They've given you the money that's given you the money to invest and hire, you know, into a training, into getting some tools.
[00:24:49.200 --> 00:24:52.960] But now you can go back to them and say, here's the results we got.
[00:24:52.960 --> 00:24:54.240] This is great.
[00:24:54.240 --> 00:24:57.920] Here's what it's going to take to keep you at the top of this.
[00:24:57.920 --> 00:25:01.920] You're going to need to keep posting once a week and you can do this.
[00:25:01.920 --> 00:25:06.960] And we got to get into eventually what there's these things called directories.
[00:25:06.960 --> 00:25:08.960] There's some great tools that help with this.
[00:25:08.960 --> 00:25:10.880] Moz local is one.
[00:25:10.880 --> 00:25:12.320] Yext is another.
[00:25:12.320 --> 00:25:13.200] These are tools.
[00:25:13.200 --> 00:25:17.440] A business owner can go and pay for themselves to do it.
[00:25:17.440 --> 00:25:21.040] And the business starts getting added to directories.
[00:25:21.040 --> 00:25:26.960] Directories are websites that link to businesses.
[00:25:26.960 --> 00:25:28.960] So this is how you get those backlinks.
[00:25:28.960 --> 00:25:31.760] They're still gold, even in local SEO.
[00:25:31.760 --> 00:25:32.880] This is still a big thing.
[00:25:32.880 --> 00:25:39.840] This was NAP listing, name, address, phone number listings, like all across the internet, all pointing back to your home base, your website.
[00:25:39.840 --> 00:25:40.480] Exactly.
[00:25:40.480 --> 00:25:44.480] And some of these directories now power voice search.
[00:25:44.480 --> 00:25:54.240] So it's important to have these directories up to date because Google looks for consistency of NAP: name, address, phone number.
[00:25:54.240 --> 00:26:01.840] If you're listed on 20 websites, but sometimes the name is spelled out one thing, sometimes it's this, sometimes that.
[00:26:01.840 --> 00:26:06.480] The address is a little bit, sometimes the phone number is different because you got a new phone number, something like that.
[00:26:06.480 --> 00:26:09.760] That's a signal to Google, like, did they have their act together?
[00:26:09.760 --> 00:26:11.680] Can they really be trusted?
[00:26:11.680 --> 00:26:13.040] But this isn't advanced.
[00:26:13.040 --> 00:26:17.280] And this is, we don't, we don't touch directories for a local SEO boost.
[00:26:17.280 --> 00:26:18.160] I don't have to.
[00:26:18.160 --> 00:26:18.640] Okay.
[00:26:18.640 --> 00:26:27.120] But for our monthly recurring, where we go and we say, hey, listen, we can manage this for you and we can write content.
[00:26:27.120 --> 00:26:34.440] We need to have a strategy session once a quarter where I come in and I interview you about your bar.
[00:26:34.680 --> 00:26:35.560] How long have they been here?
[00:26:35.560 --> 00:26:36.440] How long have they been?
[00:26:36.440 --> 00:26:38.680] Like, this is where you get into the nitty-gritty.
[00:26:38.680 --> 00:26:40.760] And we do a quarterly strategy session.
[00:26:40.760 --> 00:26:43.320] And we have, you got any specials coming up the next three months?
[00:26:43.320 --> 00:26:44.440] Anything you want to put?
[00:26:44.440 --> 00:26:48.280] Like, do you have a seasonality to your business in the next three months?
[00:26:48.280 --> 00:26:50.760] Is it where somebody's like, oh, back to school is big for us?
[00:26:50.760 --> 00:26:52.200] Valentine's Day is big for us.
[00:26:52.280 --> 00:26:53.000] Okay, great.
[00:26:53.000 --> 00:26:55.720] So then you create that content calendar.
[00:26:55.720 --> 00:27:03.480] And at this point, you'll get a tool where like, now you're going to create the content and post it so it's automated and done for three months and things like that.
[00:27:03.480 --> 00:27:09.160] Or better yet, how I do it is I now have a team that does this.
[00:27:09.160 --> 00:27:13.320] I've got an amazing person on my team from El Salvador.
[00:27:13.320 --> 00:27:15.240] She's a rock star.
[00:27:15.240 --> 00:27:17.320] And this is all she does for us.
[00:27:17.320 --> 00:27:20.120] She only does local SEO content.
[00:27:20.120 --> 00:27:27.240] She creates it for, she meets with the clients once a quarter, does a strategy session, maps out their content.
[00:27:27.240 --> 00:27:30.200] She can do two of these a day.
[00:27:30.200 --> 00:27:37.000] And we typically charge around $750 a month for the ongoing monthly recurring revenue.
[00:27:37.000 --> 00:27:37.400] Wow.
[00:27:37.400 --> 00:27:40.040] But again, I grew into that.
[00:27:40.680 --> 00:27:42.360] So this is local SEO.
[00:27:42.360 --> 00:27:43.320] It's not going away.
[00:27:43.320 --> 00:27:57.560] But that's, no, that's like really, really cool to see what is potentially possible down the road with a trained-up team member who is taking half a day to service this customer that you're charging $750 a month for.
[00:27:57.640 --> 00:28:00.600] You imagine the margins on that are quite healthy.
[00:28:00.600 --> 00:28:01.080] Yes.
[00:28:01.080 --> 00:28:07.240] Even if you hired somebody in the States, I have one person on my team in the States, but the rest of my team are remote.
[00:28:07.240 --> 00:28:08.280] We're an entire remote.
[00:28:08.440 --> 00:28:08.920] I'm remote.
[00:28:08.920 --> 00:28:09.400] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:28:10.200 --> 00:28:11.640] So my team is remote.
[00:28:11.640 --> 00:28:11.960] Yeah.
[00:28:11.960 --> 00:28:16.560] And we just, that's how we operate because we are able to keep in very high margins.
[00:28:14.680 --> 00:28:19.040] We're able to keep our costs very competitive that way.
[00:28:19.360 --> 00:28:22.960] And it's fun to be able to travel around the world and meet your staff.
[00:28:22.960 --> 00:28:28.880] Do you worry, you know, this is the Bezos line of, you know, your margin is my opportunity.
[00:28:28.880 --> 00:28:33.920] Do you see clients getting poached from under you, from other competing services?
[00:28:33.920 --> 00:28:40.480] Or is it just like the number of small businesses is so vast, so massive that it's like, well, even if we lose a client, it's fine.
[00:28:40.480 --> 00:28:41.440] We'll go find somebody else.
[00:28:41.600 --> 00:28:49.040] Like, it's, you try to play this game of churn versus retention and margins versus like, well, wait a minute.
[00:28:49.040 --> 00:28:51.120] How much does this really cost them to fulfill?
[00:28:51.120 --> 00:28:51.760] Yeah.
[00:28:51.760 --> 00:28:58.800] If you show up every month with a report that's showing results, hey, we got you these results.
[00:28:58.800 --> 00:28:59.520] That's you.
[00:28:59.520 --> 00:29:04.560] Most business owners, that's the number one complaint I get when we get a new customer.
[00:29:04.560 --> 00:29:05.760] We were spending all this money.
[00:29:05.760 --> 00:29:07.920] I never knew if it was working.
[00:29:07.920 --> 00:29:08.400] Got it.
[00:29:08.400 --> 00:29:10.400] You know, I didn't know where the results were.
[00:29:10.400 --> 00:29:17.760] Because in the agency world, we're known for just sending a report, expecting our clients to read it.
[00:29:17.760 --> 00:29:19.680] They don't have time for that.
[00:29:19.680 --> 00:29:21.200] We show up proactively.
[00:29:21.200 --> 00:29:22.640] Hey, we just looked, you're at this.
[00:29:22.640 --> 00:29:27.200] And we just tell people, we might call a client and say, hey, we just ran your report.
[00:29:27.200 --> 00:29:30.480] And, you know, on average, we've dropped three positions.
[00:29:30.480 --> 00:29:31.360] And we use that.
[00:29:31.360 --> 00:29:36.320] We use we, not you, not, you know, it's, it's, we're in this together.
[00:29:36.320 --> 00:29:37.680] Hey, we dropped three points.
[00:29:37.680 --> 00:29:40.480] And so we looked, and here's what we'd like to do.
[00:29:40.480 --> 00:29:43.920] We'd like to do this and this and this over the next six weeks.
[00:29:43.920 --> 00:29:46.640] And they're just like, hey, man, you've got our back.
[00:29:46.640 --> 00:29:50.320] Whatever you need to do, like, because it just, you build trust.
[00:29:50.320 --> 00:29:51.520] You build trust.
[00:29:51.520 --> 00:29:57.280] And for us, then, how this led to then the, I had no intentions to own an agency.
[00:29:57.280 --> 00:30:03.720] I was pastoring a church, and my wife and I decided to adopt a sibling group from Bulgaria.
[00:30:04.040 --> 00:30:09.080] We had two biological children, and we just felt like the next thing we were being called to do was adopt.
[00:30:09.080 --> 00:30:14.120] And I had to come up with an extra $50,000 because we wanted to adopt debt-free.
[00:30:14.120 --> 00:30:14.520] Okay.
[00:30:14.840 --> 00:30:18.280] I didn't know how I was going to come up with $50,000.
[00:30:18.280 --> 00:30:21.000] So I had to come up with a side hustle.
[00:30:21.000 --> 00:30:23.240] And I knew how to build websites.
[00:30:23.240 --> 00:30:25.160] And so I started building websites.
[00:30:25.160 --> 00:30:28.200] And that kind of got a little bit of traction.
[00:30:28.200 --> 00:30:30.680] And I got a couple dozen clients.
[00:30:30.680 --> 00:30:34.920] And then I learned about this local SEO.
[00:30:34.920 --> 00:30:39.240] And I just went back and I upsold my very first client to do it.
[00:30:39.240 --> 00:30:43.080] I was like, hey, I'm testing this thing and, you know, da-da-da.
[00:30:43.080 --> 00:30:44.600] And they're like, yeah, okay, sure.
[00:30:44.600 --> 00:30:45.800] And I was like, it's $1,300.
[00:30:45.800 --> 00:30:47.080] And they're like, yeah, sure, let's do it.
[00:30:47.160 --> 00:30:47.640] I'm like, great.
[00:30:47.880 --> 00:30:49.720] And then I went to some businesses I didn't even know.
[00:30:49.720 --> 00:30:51.400] I did the same thing.
[00:30:51.400 --> 00:30:53.320] And I did that.
[00:30:53.320 --> 00:31:00.200] And then I started, then I worked through my network, my local business network, onboarded all the low-hanging fruit.
[00:31:00.200 --> 00:31:03.160] And then we started to learn how to do another service.
[00:31:03.160 --> 00:31:07.480] And so I just went back through and I said, hey, we're now doing reviews as a service.
[00:31:07.560 --> 00:31:10.920] We can help you get more five-star reviews from your satisfied customers.
[00:31:10.920 --> 00:31:12.360] Oh, yeah, Eric, let's do that.
[00:31:12.360 --> 00:31:20.600] Yeah, I was going to ask if the reviews were part of this ongoing monthly package, review reputation management, collecting reviews.
[00:31:20.600 --> 00:31:21.640] Reputation management.
[00:31:21.640 --> 00:31:22.600] Yes, it is now.
[00:31:22.600 --> 00:31:23.240] It is now.
[00:31:23.240 --> 00:31:24.040] Absolutely.
[00:31:24.040 --> 00:31:29.240] But it is really its own separate kind of monster, if you will, and that's okay.
[00:31:29.240 --> 00:31:32.040] So we packages it as a separate service.
[00:31:32.040 --> 00:31:32.520] Yeah.
[00:31:32.520 --> 00:31:37.960] Because I can either sell somebody reputation management or I can sell them a local SEO boost.
[00:31:37.960 --> 00:31:39.320] We always start with the boost.
[00:31:39.320 --> 00:31:41.960] And then I can come back and say, hey, we can add this.
[00:31:41.960 --> 00:31:45.600] We're constantly trying to figure out how can we increase Wallet share?
[00:31:45.600 --> 00:31:50.960] You know, how do I increase that monthly recurring revenue per customer?
[00:31:50.960 --> 00:31:56.960] When I first started out, my average monthly recurring revenue per customer was $49 a month.
[00:31:56.960 --> 00:31:58.320] Okay, yeah, you come a long ways.
[00:31:58.320 --> 00:31:58.720] Yes.
[00:31:58.720 --> 00:32:05.520] We're now more like $490 average per customer per month with a whole lot more customers.
[00:32:05.520 --> 00:32:09.360] Now, some of our customers are $2,000 a month.
[00:32:09.360 --> 00:32:12.640] Some of our customers are still $99 a month.
[00:32:12.640 --> 00:32:16.400] But, you know, it averages out across the board about $495 a month.
[00:32:16.400 --> 00:32:29.840] More with Eric in just a moment, including why accessibility compliance could be the next big service opportunity, plus his fastest path to $25,000 a month in recurring revenue coming up right after this.
[00:32:30.160 --> 00:32:41.760] Years ago, this is probably 2009, I'm sitting in this conference in Santa Barbara, and the presenter asks this question: Are you working on your business or are you working in your business?
[00:32:41.760 --> 00:32:49.600] I saw myself as this full-time entrepreneur, but it was this moment of clarity that, no, I was still very much working in the business day to day.
[00:32:49.600 --> 00:32:52.880] So when I got back home, that's when I made my first full-time hire.
[00:32:52.880 --> 00:33:02.960] It was the first in a long series and an ongoing series of steps in trying to take control by being okay of letting go of certain tasks.
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[00:33:45.960 --> 00:33:57.160] You know, when you're shopping online and you see that little purple shop pay button at checkout, that's a sign that the store you're on is one of the millions of businesses powered by our partner, Shopify.
[00:33:57.160 --> 00:34:00.680] Shopify makes it incredibly easy to start and run your business.
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[00:34:19.480 --> 00:34:27.000] Plus, Shopify helps you make sales with built-in marketing and email tools to go out and find new customers and keep the ones you've got.
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[00:34:46.840 --> 00:34:47.960] What's your take on this?
[00:34:47.960 --> 00:34:52.920] Because I've seen some people advocating this as a potential foot-in-the-door strategy.
[00:34:52.920 --> 00:35:03.400] And it's to say, thanks to these AI website building tools, you know, type in a quick little prompt, you know, spins up this really nice looking website for local business XYZ.
[00:35:03.640 --> 00:35:08.680] You could send that straight to the, hey, look, I noticed your website was maybe looking a little dusty, a little outdated.
[00:35:08.680 --> 00:35:09.960] I made you this new one.
[00:35:09.960 --> 00:35:11.400] You could have it for 200 bucks.
[00:35:11.400 --> 00:35:14.520] And it took you all of three minutes to create with AI.
[00:35:15.040 --> 00:35:24.240] And people using that as a potential foot-in-the-door one for, okay, I could sell that website as a quick little revenue hit, but maybe this guy clearly knows what he's doing on the tech side.
[00:35:24.240 --> 00:35:29.840] Maybe I could hire him for this local SEO and potentially this recurring revenue holy grail down the road.
[00:35:29.840 --> 00:35:32.000] I think that's totally doable.
[00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:33.200] You can do that first.
[00:35:33.200 --> 00:35:35.440] There's a whole lot more people doing that.
[00:35:35.440 --> 00:35:40.560] And you're running up against ads for Wix and Squarespace that run during the Super Bowl.
[00:35:40.560 --> 00:35:42.400] That's what you're competing against.
[00:35:42.400 --> 00:35:52.720] And so I have found it's become a little bit harder to sell websites because there's a lot more, well, I think I can just do this tomorrow.
[00:35:53.040 --> 00:35:56.400] You know, business owners move towards the squeaky wheel.
[00:35:56.720 --> 00:35:59.440] They're always going to want more customers.
[00:35:59.440 --> 00:36:02.000] And they all use Google.
[00:36:02.000 --> 00:36:09.680] A lot of times, I've even had some clients start to tell me, like, I can't, Eric, I can't remember the last time I looked at a website if I'm not doing research.
[00:36:09.680 --> 00:36:17.440] And so I'm not saying websites aren't going to always be important, but for a local business, like, when's the last time you went and looked at the barbershop?
[00:36:17.440 --> 00:36:18.240] I'm kind of bald.
[00:36:18.240 --> 00:36:20.240] I don't look at a lot of barbershop.
[00:36:20.560 --> 00:36:23.120] That's a funny example for two bald guys to be using here.
[00:36:23.120 --> 00:36:25.120] Maybe barber workshop's not the right one.
[00:36:25.120 --> 00:36:31.280] But, you know, for a barbershop, even a landscape or something like that, like, I'm not going to go look.
[00:36:31.280 --> 00:36:36.560] I might go look at a dentist website, but I don't know.
[00:36:36.560 --> 00:36:38.160] Sure, absolutely.
[00:36:38.400 --> 00:36:46.000] I would rather help somebody because it's hard to qualify the win of a website.
[00:36:46.000 --> 00:36:47.520] Like, hey, I got your new website up.
[00:36:47.840 --> 00:36:49.760] Now, if they're vain, they're going to go, oh, look at me.
[00:36:49.760 --> 00:36:50.720] I got my nice new website.
[00:36:50.720 --> 00:36:51.920] They're going to like that.
[00:36:51.920 --> 00:37:04.760] But if you can show up and say, this is why I like reputation management, is actually another foot-in-the-door offer, because I can show up four weeks after we launch and I can read you three five-star reviews.
[00:37:04.920 --> 00:37:08.040] Hey, Nick, let me show you what this customer said about you.
[00:37:08.040 --> 00:37:11.000] They said you're the best and you're great, you know.
[00:37:11.000 --> 00:37:15.800] And then this customer said this and this, and you're able to give them that feedback.
[00:37:15.800 --> 00:37:19.000] Then you can say, Now, I was looking at your website.
[00:37:19.000 --> 00:37:23.000] Now that we're getting more reviews, your website needs a little bit of work.
[00:37:23.000 --> 00:37:27.080] They're going to trust you and say, Oh, yeah, let's redo it.
[00:37:27.400 --> 00:37:32.280] It's easier, in my opinion, to go that way than to start with the website.
[00:37:32.360 --> 00:37:33.480] That's been my experience.
[00:37:33.480 --> 00:37:34.120] All right, that's fair.
[00:37:34.120 --> 00:37:38.120] No, I was just curious to see, to get your take on that as somebody who's in the space.
[00:37:38.120 --> 00:37:39.400] All right, what else do we need to know?
[00:37:39.400 --> 00:37:42.680] So, we've kind of covered, we're going to start with this local SEO boost.
[00:37:42.680 --> 00:37:46.760] We can hopefully transition into an ongoing monthly maintenance package.
[00:37:46.760 --> 00:37:57.800] We could layer on reputation management, collecting reviews, and there's software tools to help you do really all of this stuff and hopefully make it a little more automated and potentially sell websites down the road.
[00:37:57.800 --> 00:38:02.680] Like, you know, getting your foot in the door and hopefully, you know, business owners know other business owners, right?
[00:38:02.680 --> 00:38:04.360] So, the word of mouth starts to spread.
[00:38:04.360 --> 00:38:09.720] Do you want anything else proactive on the marketing side to try and build up that client base?
[00:38:09.720 --> 00:38:11.400] Yes, accessibility.
[00:38:11.400 --> 00:38:18.920] Accessibility is both a social justice issue as well as a good for business.
[00:38:18.920 --> 00:38:33.720] And every business, unless it is a religious organization or a private club, every business has to legally meet the standards and requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
[00:38:33.720 --> 00:38:41.160] And just this last week, the European Union's new accessibility laws rolled out.
[00:38:41.160 --> 00:38:43.720] So, this is becoming very, very universal.
[00:38:43.720 --> 00:38:48.960] 20 to 25% of people that use the internet have some type of barrier.
[00:38:44.920 --> 00:38:51.680] Could be a disability, could be slow internet.
[00:38:51.920 --> 00:38:59.040] It could be they use a SIM card with limited data, so they have images turned off.
[00:38:59.040 --> 00:39:14.320] If you can design a website or social media content that is super easy to read, or you make sure you use what's called the alt text, you're opening up a business to about 20 to 25% more customers.
[00:39:14.320 --> 00:39:17.680] So accessibility is huge.
[00:39:17.680 --> 00:39:19.280] It's never going to go away.
[00:39:19.280 --> 00:39:26.560] And that's the other problem with all these places that are spinning off webs, none of them yet are spinning up websites that meet accessibility.
[00:39:26.560 --> 00:39:32.560] So you can spin up a website for a foot-in-the-door offer, but you've just put a legal target on them.
[00:39:32.560 --> 00:39:36.960] And not only that, you're not being a good neighbor to people with disabilities.
[00:39:36.960 --> 00:39:39.360] So that's how we talk about it with our agency.
[00:39:39.360 --> 00:39:41.520] Like, we want to help you be a good neighbor.
[00:39:41.520 --> 00:39:47.440] Accessibility is a whole nother new, fascinating world, but I don't think I would try to get into it as a side hustle.
[00:39:47.440 --> 00:39:47.840] Okay.
[00:39:47.840 --> 00:39:50.560] So this is another add-on service.
[00:39:50.720 --> 00:39:56.640] Like, hey, by the way, did you know all websites, you know, I think it's all businesses over a certain size, something like that.
[00:39:56.640 --> 00:40:03.600] Like their website has to be ADA compliant according to the like yours is not, but we can help get it there.
[00:40:03.600 --> 00:40:05.920] And here's what it's going to take.
[00:40:05.920 --> 00:40:06.400] Yeah.
[00:40:06.400 --> 00:40:16.800] So the confusion that comes in on the size of business is there are a couple different articles of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
[00:40:16.800 --> 00:40:29.600] The part of the article that deals with the physical and employment accessibility, making accommodations for that, but specifically to the physical property depends upon the size of your business.
[00:40:29.800 --> 00:40:34.200] There are zero exceptions for your web content.
[00:40:34.760 --> 00:40:38.840] It does not matter how many employees, it doesn't matter your revenue.
[00:40:38.840 --> 00:40:46.360] If you're selling $3,000 a month and you're a business, your web content technically has to be accessible.
[00:40:46.360 --> 00:40:51.960] Now, there's no enforcement unless somebody chooses to bring a lawsuit.
[00:40:51.960 --> 00:40:53.880] But last year, this changed.
[00:40:53.880 --> 00:41:08.440] The Department of Justice came out with some new regulations last April that said if you receive any money from the government through a grant, maybe you're a doctor's office and you accept Medicaid or Medicare.
[00:41:08.440 --> 00:41:21.240] Maybe you're the local garbage company and you have a contract with the state to, or I'm sorry, the city to provide garbage pickup within the city.
[00:41:21.240 --> 00:41:35.640] If you get any federal or state money or local money, and in exchange, you're providing a service to continue to be eligible after April next year, you must have your website compliant.
[00:41:35.640 --> 00:41:45.960] And we're starting to get clients that are coming to us saying, Eric, we're filling out our application for our state funding for next year, and they're asking for a website compliance certificate.
[00:41:46.200 --> 00:41:49.960] So that is happening in a very specific industry.
[00:41:50.040 --> 00:41:51.320] So that's all the difference.
[00:41:51.320 --> 00:41:53.000] But here's the beautiful thing about it.
[00:41:53.000 --> 00:41:54.120] I tell people this all the time.
[00:41:54.280 --> 00:41:56.680] Real estate agents don't build the houses they sell.
[00:41:56.680 --> 00:42:02.920] Nick, I have no clue how to go in and set up what's called ARIA tags on a website.
[00:42:03.160 --> 00:42:04.040] I don't know how to do it.
[00:42:04.040 --> 00:42:05.000] I don't even know what that is.
[00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:05.640] Yeah.
[00:42:05.640 --> 00:42:09.240] But my developers do, and they do it every day, you know.
[00:42:09.240 --> 00:42:12.760] And so I've never ran a Google ad.
[00:42:13.080 --> 00:42:17.520] I've never logged into the Google business platform area.
[00:42:17.760 --> 00:42:18.320] I forget him.
[00:42:14.120 --> 00:42:21.840] I'm even struggling, but I can't think of what it's called right now, but the Google Ads platform.
[00:42:22.560 --> 00:42:23.280] I've never done it.
[00:42:23.280 --> 00:42:24.320] I don't have no idea.
[00:42:24.320 --> 00:42:28.880] But we run Google Ads every day for customers.
[00:42:28.880 --> 00:42:34.480] Eventually, from a side hustle, team building becomes key to it.
[00:42:34.480 --> 00:42:48.560] And again, if my son was wanting to start a business, this would be something I would try to get him to do from the very beginning: to find somebody that can do fulfillment and then go out and sell it and then pay that person to do the fulfillment.
[00:42:48.560 --> 00:42:49.120] Got it.
[00:42:49.120 --> 00:42:56.320] Is there a sweet spot in terms of metro area size, or is there markets that are just like, this is too competitive?
[00:42:56.320 --> 00:43:00.240] I wouldn't trust myself to sell a one-time SEO boost because I don't think we can move the needle here.
[00:43:00.240 --> 00:43:09.120] No, because even in a very competitive market, there are plenty of businesses that those other brands are not even going to give the time of day to.
[00:43:09.120 --> 00:43:14.560] They're going to judge them based upon their location or the condition of the business or something like that.
[00:43:14.560 --> 00:43:16.400] And they're looking for mass.
[00:43:16.400 --> 00:43:24.160] They're marketing broad strokes, running ads, you know, cold calling, cold, I can't stand cold calling, cold emailing.
[00:43:24.160 --> 00:43:27.440] So they're getting bombarded with cold emails, cold calls.
[00:43:27.440 --> 00:43:32.640] In my experience, Nick, and I don't know what your thoughts are on this or what you've seen.
[00:43:32.640 --> 00:43:42.240] In my experience, the fastest way to $25,000 a month in recurring revenue is local networking.
[00:43:42.240 --> 00:43:46.000] And sometimes we go into new markets and by geographic markets.
[00:43:46.000 --> 00:43:51.680] I just recently hired somebody in Kent, Ohio, and we're following our process in Kent.
[00:43:51.720 --> 00:43:53.440] It's our, it's a U.S.-based employee.
[00:43:53.440 --> 00:43:55.040] We needed a new person.
[00:43:55.040 --> 00:43:56.400] The last person was leaving.
[00:43:56.400 --> 00:43:57.520] I found somebody in Kent.
[00:43:57.520 --> 00:43:59.720] It's always good for me to have somebody in the U.S.
[00:44:00.040 --> 00:44:01.800] And we just started the same thing.
[00:44:01.800 --> 00:44:02.520] Signed up.
[00:43:59.360 --> 00:44:04.920] This person started going to all the local networking events.
[00:44:05.240 --> 00:44:12.440] We found a local business association and went to them and said, Hey, we'd like to host a podcast for you.
[00:44:12.440 --> 00:44:13.800] You're the producer of it.
[00:44:13.800 --> 00:44:15.720] It's under your branding.
[00:44:15.720 --> 00:44:23.640] We'll interview your members and it becomes a member benefit for you to give to your members for free and help you recruit more members.
[00:44:23.640 --> 00:44:27.160] This is the fourth or fifth local area business podcast we've done.
[00:44:27.160 --> 00:44:28.840] And they're like, they love it.
[00:44:28.840 --> 00:44:35.080] And so we just, Katie started going around and interviewing all of Main Street Kent.
[00:44:35.080 --> 00:44:35.720] That's the business.
[00:44:35.720 --> 00:44:37.240] That's the business association.
[00:44:37.240 --> 00:44:39.880] She just started interviewing all of their businesses.
[00:44:39.880 --> 00:44:44.680] And at the end of it, she's just like, she's built a relationship and she says, hey, can I add you?
[00:44:44.680 --> 00:44:46.680] I actually am with In Transit Studios.
[00:44:46.680 --> 00:44:49.320] Can I add you to our weekly email newsletter?
[00:44:49.320 --> 00:44:51.000] And they're always like, oh, yeah, that would be great.
[00:44:51.000 --> 00:44:52.120] We'd love to get that.
[00:44:52.120 --> 00:44:54.840] And we've signed on all kinds of clients that way.
[00:44:54.840 --> 00:45:01.400] So over and over and over again, it's hard to be, I'm not saying the Chamber of Commerce or BNI.
[00:45:01.400 --> 00:45:03.000] Those are great and they have their places.
[00:45:03.320 --> 00:45:11.560] But I'm talking about going to the local community business association and getting in there and then finding some of those strategic partnerships.
[00:45:11.560 --> 00:45:25.320] When I was in Ocean View, Virginia, one of my best strategic partnerships was a commercial real estate agent because Duncan knew every single time a new business was coming into town.
[00:45:25.320 --> 00:45:30.120] And he was able to make referrals for me over and over and over again.
[00:45:30.120 --> 00:45:33.000] First, you know, hey, so-and-so's starting this business.
[00:45:33.000 --> 00:45:36.200] Hey, did you hear so-and-so is going to try to open up an ice cream shop?
[00:45:36.200 --> 00:45:37.880] Oh, no, I hadn't heard that.
[00:45:37.880 --> 00:45:41.720] You know, I'd reach out and build, hey, I heard you're going to start an ice cream shop.
[00:45:41.720 --> 00:45:42.920] You know, how can I help?
[00:45:42.920 --> 00:45:44.360] And stuff like that.
[00:45:44.360 --> 00:45:53.200] So it's hard to beat that there's no money hiding behind your computer, especially starting out in the side hustle with a local business.
[00:45:53.520 --> 00:46:02.320] It's just hard to beat getting out there, hitting the pavement, and meeting people, having a face-to-face conversation, and getting those first few clients in.
[00:46:02.640 --> 00:46:04.560] Like you said, they start talking to others.
[00:46:04.560 --> 00:46:06.480] You get a couple case studies.
[00:46:06.480 --> 00:46:07.840] Now you can start to branch out.
[00:46:07.840 --> 00:46:09.440] Now you can start to grow.
[00:46:09.440 --> 00:46:17.120] And it's just, to me, the fastest way to $25,000 a month in recurring revenue is local networking.
[00:46:17.120 --> 00:46:17.440] All right.
[00:46:17.440 --> 00:46:18.320] That's fantastic.
[00:46:18.320 --> 00:46:19.200] You heard it here first.
[00:46:19.200 --> 00:46:21.920] The digital nomad life comes second.
[00:46:21.920 --> 00:46:23.040] What comes first is this?
[00:46:23.040 --> 00:46:24.640] Boots on the ground, local effort.
[00:46:24.640 --> 00:46:26.480] There's no money hiding behind your computer.
[00:46:26.480 --> 00:46:27.600] I love that line.
[00:46:27.760 --> 00:46:29.360] Eric, you got the agency.
[00:46:29.360 --> 00:46:30.640] What's next for you?
[00:46:30.640 --> 00:46:32.560] You got the family, you got the travels.
[00:46:32.880 --> 00:46:34.400] What's got you excited these days?
[00:46:34.400 --> 00:46:36.960] We are trying to figure out where in the world we're going to live.
[00:46:36.960 --> 00:46:40.080] We need to settle down as our children are turning 18.
[00:46:40.320 --> 00:46:42.720] We have another one that will be 18 next year.
[00:46:42.720 --> 00:46:46.720] It's time for them to start transitioning to young adult life.
[00:46:46.720 --> 00:46:49.840] And literally the world is open.
[00:46:49.840 --> 00:46:58.320] Like in three and a half years, we've lived in over 20 countries and we've just learned that we love all the places.
[00:46:58.320 --> 00:47:00.640] And so what's exciting for us is trying to figure out that.
[00:47:00.640 --> 00:47:01.840] Give me like your top three.
[00:47:01.840 --> 00:47:03.360] Like where are your favorite spots?
[00:47:03.360 --> 00:47:05.440] Oh my goodness, our favorite spot.
[00:47:05.440 --> 00:47:08.320] So London would be a great to live in.
[00:47:08.320 --> 00:47:11.360] We really love Buenos Aires, Argentina.
[00:47:11.360 --> 00:47:13.920] Argentina's fantastic.
[00:47:13.920 --> 00:47:15.120] We really like that.
[00:47:15.120 --> 00:47:18.560] And let's see a third one, Istanbul, Turkey.
[00:47:18.560 --> 00:47:23.840] We wouldn't settle there, but if you're looking for some place to visit, check out Istanbul, Turkey.
[00:47:23.840 --> 00:47:24.960] It's a great city.
[00:47:25.120 --> 00:47:25.600] Very good.
[00:47:25.600 --> 00:47:28.080] I've been fortunate enough to have visited all three of those.
[00:47:28.080 --> 00:47:29.200] So I'll vouch for those.
[00:47:29.200 --> 00:47:30.520] All a very cool places.
[00:47:30.520 --> 00:47:31.880] So, okay, there you go.
[00:47:31.880 --> 00:47:32.600] This has been awesome.
[00:47:29.920 --> 00:47:33.560] I've got a ton of notes.
[00:47:33.640 --> 00:47:39.880] I know people will hopefully take a lot of action based on this episode and go sell some of this service on their own.
[00:47:39.880 --> 00:47:45.480] If you would like to grab Eric's local SEO side hustle checklist, I would encourage you to do that.
[00:47:45.480 --> 00:47:52.040] It's at ericdingler.com/slash side hustle with all the details that we talked about in this episode.
[00:47:52.040 --> 00:47:58.600] That's Eric with the C, Eric Dingler.com/slash side hustle for that local SEO side hustle checklist.
[00:47:58.600 --> 00:48:02.680] Let's wrap this up with your number one tip for Side Hustle Nation.
[00:48:02.680 --> 00:48:06.440] Real estate agents don't build the houses they sell.
[00:48:06.440 --> 00:48:10.200] So don't fall into the trap that you have to be the one doing it.
[00:48:10.200 --> 00:48:13.240] There are some side hustles where it makes sense and things like that.
[00:48:13.240 --> 00:48:23.160] But if your long-term kind of desire is to start a side hustle to escape the nine to five with it, then figure out how to be a leader.
[00:48:23.160 --> 00:48:28.920] If I was starting over, the two things I would study starting over, and I'm talking like I'm 50.
[00:48:28.920 --> 00:48:35.400] If I was going back to my 20s, the two things I would study to start over is leadership and list building.
[00:48:35.400 --> 00:48:35.960] Okay.
[00:48:35.960 --> 00:48:37.240] Well, you heard it here first.
[00:48:37.240 --> 00:48:39.080] Leadership and list building.
[00:48:39.080 --> 00:48:41.160] Real estate agents don't build the houses they sell.
[00:48:41.160 --> 00:48:45.400] This is my interpretation: don't find yourself getting stuck in fulfillment, right?
[00:48:45.400 --> 00:48:48.440] You don't want to be the technician doing the work all day, every day.
[00:48:48.440 --> 00:48:50.200] You want to be building client relationships.
[00:48:50.200 --> 00:48:56.040] You want to be leading the team rather than kind of getting stuck in the freelancer's trap of selling your skills, right?
[00:48:56.040 --> 00:48:58.600] You don't, you don't even need to know necessarily how to do this.
[00:48:58.600 --> 00:49:03.240] You just need to be able to play matchmaker with the people who need the service and the people who know how to get it done.
[00:49:03.240 --> 00:49:04.760] That's absolutely right.
[00:49:04.760 --> 00:49:15.360] And I do, I have a 90-day accelerator I do every quarter where I take a group of people through the process of gearing up to hire on board and lead a remote team.
[00:49:15.360 --> 00:49:20.560] And so if that's something somebody would be interested in, you know, go to ericdingler.com forward slash side hustle.
[00:49:14.840 --> 00:49:21.440] They'll download that.
[00:49:21.680 --> 00:49:29.040] They'll be able to reach me from there and be more than happy to help somebody navigate hiring a remote team.
[00:49:29.040 --> 00:49:29.600] Very cool.
[00:49:29.760 --> 00:49:32.960] Go check it out, ericdingler.com slash side hustle.
[00:49:32.960 --> 00:49:38.480] My other note that I have here is, you know, you want recurring revenue, you got to solve a recurring problem.
[00:49:38.480 --> 00:49:43.680] Businesses needing to increase their customer activity, like Eric said, hey, that's a recurring problem.
[00:49:43.680 --> 00:49:45.040] It's never going to go away, right?
[00:49:45.040 --> 00:49:46.080] So sell that result.
[00:49:46.080 --> 00:49:48.160] And if you want recurring revenue, you got to keep selling it.
[00:49:48.160 --> 00:49:49.440] Give those follow-up reports.
[00:49:49.440 --> 00:49:51.040] Hey, before and after, here's what we did.
[00:49:51.040 --> 00:49:52.000] Here's what we're able to get done.
[00:49:52.000 --> 00:49:53.280] Here's where we want to go next.
[00:49:53.280 --> 00:49:54.640] So really cool stuff.
[00:49:54.640 --> 00:49:56.640] Again, EricDingler.com.
[00:49:56.640 --> 00:50:00.640] The Side Hustle Show, as you may or may not know, just had its 12th birthday.
[00:50:00.640 --> 00:50:07.440] And whether it's your first time listening or you've been here since the beginning, I appreciate you spending some time with us in your earbuds today.
[00:50:07.440 --> 00:50:11.200] If you're newer to the show and want to go a little bit deeper, hey, what else you got here?
[00:50:11.200 --> 00:50:12.640] It's been around for this long.
[00:50:12.640 --> 00:50:16.240] You can actually get a personalized playlist at hustle.show.
[00:50:16.240 --> 00:50:19.200] All you have to do is answer a few short multiple choice questions.
[00:50:19.200 --> 00:50:24.080] And it's going to recommend eight to 10 of our greatest hits to start with based on your answers.
[00:50:24.080 --> 00:50:24.960] Totally free.
[00:50:24.960 --> 00:50:27.760] Hustle.show for that personalized playlist.
[00:50:27.760 --> 00:50:29.520] Big thanks to Eric for sharing his insight.
[00:50:29.520 --> 00:50:32.480] And can I shout out our sponsors for helping make this content free for everyone?
[00:50:32.480 --> 00:50:38.000] Sidehustlenation.com slash deals is where to go for all the latest offers from our sponsors in one place.
[00:50:38.000 --> 00:50:41.120] Thank you for supporting the advertisers that support the show.
[00:50:41.120 --> 00:50:42.080] That's it for me.
[00:50:42.080 --> 00:50:43.520] Thank you so much for tuning in.
[00:50:43.520 --> 00:50:47.280] If you're finding value in the show, the greatest compliment is to share it with a friend.
[00:50:47.280 --> 00:50:48.640] Fire off that text message.
[00:50:48.640 --> 00:50:52.240] I know you got at least one friend who can take Eric's model and run with it.
[00:50:52.240 --> 00:50:54.640] Until next time, let's go out there and make something happen.
[00:50:54.640 --> 00:50:57.840] And I'll catch you in the next edition of The Side Hustle Show.
[00:50:57.840 --> 00:50:58.560] Hustle on.

Prompt 2: Key Takeaways

Now please extract the key takeaways from the transcript content I provided.

Extract the most important key takeaways from this part of the conversation. Use a single sentence statement (the key takeaway) rather than milquetoast descriptions like "the hosts discuss...". 

Limit the key takeaways to a maximum of 3. The key takeaways should be insightful and knowledge-additive. 

IMPORTANT: Return ONLY valid JSON, no explanations or markdown. Ensure:
- All strings are properly quoted and escaped
- No trailing commas
- All braces and brackets are balanced
Format: {"key_takeaways": ["takeaway 1", "takeaway 2"]}

Prompt 3: Segments

Now identify 2-4 distinct topical segments from this part of the conversation.

For each segment, identify:
- Descriptive title (3-6 words)  
- START timestamp when this topic begins (HH:MM:SS format)
- Double check that the timestamp is accurate - a timestamp will NEVER be greater than the total length of the audio
- Most important Key takeaway from that segment. Key takeaway must be specific and knowledge-additive.
- Brief summary of the discussion

IMPORTANT: The timestamp should mark when the topic/segment STARTS, not a range. Look for topic transitions and conversation shifts.

Return ONLY valid JSON. Ensure all strings are properly quoted, no trailing commas:
{
  "segments": [
    {
      "segment_title": "Topic Discussion", 
      "timestamp": "01:15:30",
      "key_takeaway": "main point from this segment",
      "segment_summary": "brief description of what was discussed"
    }
  ]
}

Timestamp format: HH:MM:SS (e.g., 00:05:30, 01:22:45) marking the START of each segment.

Prompt 4: Media Mentions

Now scan the transcript content I provided for ACTUAL mentions of specific media titles:

Find explicit mentions of:
- Books (with specific titles)
- Movies (with specific titles)  
- TV Shows (with specific titles)
- Music/Songs (with specific titles)

DO NOT include:
- Websites, URLs, or web services
- Other podcasts or podcast names

IMPORTANT: 
- Only include items explicitly mentioned by name. Do not invent titles.
- Valid categories are: "Book", "Movie", "TV Show", "Music"
- Include the exact phrase where each item was mentioned
- Find the nearest proximate timestamp where it appears in the conversation
- THE TIMESTAMP OF THE MEDIA MENTION IS IMPORTANT - DO NOT INVENT TIMESTAMPS AND DO NOT MISATTRIBUTE TIMESTAMPS
- Double check that the timestamp is accurate - a timestamp will NEVER be greater than the total length of the audio
- Timestamps are given as ranges, e.g. 01:13:42.520 --> 01:13:46.720. Use the EARLIER of the 2 timestamps in the range.

Return ONLY valid JSON. Ensure all strings are properly quoted and escaped, no trailing commas:
{
  "media_mentions": [
    {
      "title": "Exact Title as Mentioned",
      "category": "Book",
      "author_artist": "N/A",
      "context": "Brief context of why it was mentioned",
      "context_phrase": "The exact sentence or phrase where it was mentioned",
      "timestamp": "estimated time like 01:15:30"
    }
  ]
}

If no media is mentioned, return: {"media_mentions": []}

Full Transcript

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[00:00:57.440 --> 00:01:00.000] That's policygenius.com.
[00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:02.240] And now, onto the show.
[00:01:02.880 --> 00:01:08.800] All right, I've got a relatively simple recurring revenue side hustle you could start today, even.
[00:01:08.800 --> 00:01:13.600] The idea is to help local businesses gain more visibility in Google so they can make more money.
[00:01:13.600 --> 00:01:15.520] And the market is huge.
[00:01:15.520 --> 00:01:18.800] Think millions of potential small business customers here.
[00:01:18.800 --> 00:01:30.000] Today's guest runs a six-figure digital agency while traveling the world with his family and says if he was starting over, he'd focus on selling a simple local SEO service.
[00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:32.880] This might be the last bastion of SEO, local SEO.
[00:01:32.880 --> 00:01:37.600] From ericdingler.com, Eric Dingler, welcome to the Side Hustle Show.
[00:01:37.600 --> 00:01:38.480] Thanks for having me.
[00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:41.680] I'm excited to unpack this with you for your audience.
[00:01:41.680 --> 00:01:42.320] You bet.
[00:01:42.320 --> 00:01:43.360] Stick around in this one.
[00:01:43.360 --> 00:01:44.240] I'm excited as well.
[00:01:44.240 --> 00:01:46.560] We're going to figure out: well, how do we find customers?
[00:01:46.560 --> 00:01:49.120] How are we going to deliver this service quickly and effectively?
[00:01:49.120 --> 00:01:54.800] And maybe how to remove yourself from being the hands-on technician in the business.
[00:01:54.800 --> 00:01:59.280] But kick us off with what do you see as the opportunity here in local SEO?
[00:01:59.280 --> 00:02:10.200] Well, for me, and especially as somebody that every three weeks to three months, I'm moving into a completely new city with my wife and our four teens.
[00:02:10.200 --> 00:02:20.360] We're constantly going to Google Maps or Apple Maps, looking for restaurant, barber, you know, grocery store, dentist, whatever it is we need.
[00:02:20.680 --> 00:02:24.200] And I don't see people stopping that.
[00:02:24.200 --> 00:02:27.000] People are still looking for that local service.
[00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:28.520] I don't see it going away.
[00:02:28.520 --> 00:02:35.000] And everybody in the entire world uses Google Maps, Google My Business, and Apple Maps.
[00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:44.120] Yeah, where regular SEO, article SEO, website SEO, is being eroded away by AI and maybe Reddit in the search results.
[00:02:44.120 --> 00:02:49.080] Local SEO is maybe a less competitive game, and it still works by the old rules, more or less.
[00:02:49.080 --> 00:02:53.400] Where it's like, if I want a restaurant near me, it's not being eaten by AI just yet.
[00:02:53.400 --> 00:03:16.600] Yeah, the thing about Google, they have invested millions and millions upon millions of dollars mapping every city, every country, every road in the world, adding all of the businesses that they can find to it, working to ensure that we have access to a business's hours, contact information, all these things.
[00:03:17.080 --> 00:03:18.440] And they don't charge for this.
[00:03:18.440 --> 00:03:22.200] They don't charge you and me as the end user trying to find a place.
[00:03:22.200 --> 00:03:26.200] And they don't charge the businesses to be on it.
[00:03:26.200 --> 00:03:39.800] But even with that, only about, according to Google's most recent numbers in the USA, only about 20, 25% of businesses have claimed their Google Business profile and have optimized it.
[00:03:39.800 --> 00:03:45.680] So 75% of the local businesses around you haven't done this yet.
[00:03:45.680 --> 00:03:48.160] And they all already know about Google.
[00:03:44.760 --> 00:03:49.920] They already know about SEO.
[00:03:50.480 --> 00:03:59.440] And if you can learn a few key phrases and use those when you're talking to businesses, it's a very easy service to sell.
[00:03:59.440 --> 00:04:03.280] In fact, Nick, today is our oldest son's 18th birthday.
[00:04:03.280 --> 00:04:03.920] Oh, okay.
[00:04:03.920 --> 00:04:06.480] And he is an outdoor kid through and through.
[00:04:06.480 --> 00:04:08.000] Computer's not his thing.
[00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:10.400] You know, he wants to be outside all the time.
[00:04:10.400 --> 00:04:11.920] He wants to play in soccer and stuff like that.
[00:04:11.920 --> 00:04:17.280] But if he was to come to me today and say, okay, dad, I want to start my own thing.
[00:04:17.280 --> 00:04:19.040] You know, what should I do?
[00:04:19.040 --> 00:04:23.360] And my agency, we do web design development, app work.
[00:04:23.360 --> 00:04:27.360] We focus a lot on helping businesses meet accessibility standards.
[00:04:27.680 --> 00:04:31.360] We do paid ads, social media, like we do all those things.
[00:04:31.360 --> 00:04:31.680] Yes.
[00:04:31.680 --> 00:04:33.520] And this is Intransit Studios.
[00:04:33.520 --> 00:04:34.800] If anybody wants to go check that out.
[00:04:34.960 --> 00:04:35.760] Sorry, go ahead.
[00:04:35.760 --> 00:04:36.160] Thanks.
[00:04:36.160 --> 00:04:36.400] Yeah.
[00:04:36.400 --> 00:04:44.240] But if my 18-year-old came to me today and said, I want to start my own thing, I would give him a checklist to start a local SEO business.
[00:04:44.240 --> 00:04:46.240] And I would say, this is what you need to go do.
[00:04:46.240 --> 00:04:46.480] All right.
[00:04:46.480 --> 00:04:47.120] Coach me through this.
[00:04:47.120 --> 00:04:48.560] We'll worry about like the technical skills.
[00:04:49.280 --> 00:04:50.320] I don't know the first thing about local.
[00:04:50.560 --> 00:04:51.520] We'll worry about that in a second.
[00:04:51.520 --> 00:04:54.560] But like, okay, let's say I'm your son.
[00:04:54.560 --> 00:04:55.520] Like, you talk me through this.
[00:04:55.520 --> 00:04:56.400] What do I do first?
[00:04:56.400 --> 00:04:56.720] Great.
[00:04:56.720 --> 00:04:59.040] The first thing you're going to do is you're going to go sell it.
[00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:00.960] I do this a lot.
[00:05:00.960 --> 00:05:06.640] I often sell services that I don't know how I'm going to deliver it.
[00:05:06.640 --> 00:05:12.560] In fact, my very first local SEO client, I sold them local SEO.
[00:05:12.880 --> 00:05:15.440] I collected the money.
[00:05:15.440 --> 00:05:20.960] And then I use that money to go pay for somebody to teach me how to do what I need to do.
[00:05:21.440 --> 00:05:29.120] Because you can tell your customer, this is going to take me four weeks, six weeks, eight weeks.
[00:05:29.120 --> 00:05:29.760] They don't know.
[00:05:29.960 --> 00:05:31.800] Yeah, yeah, you set up expectations.
[00:05:31.800 --> 00:05:32.440] Sure.
[00:05:32.440 --> 00:05:33.000] Exactly.
[00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:34.920] So you set those expectations.
[00:05:34.920 --> 00:05:41.240] So, what I like to do in this case, and this is kind of going step by step, really breaking this down nuance.
[00:05:41.240 --> 00:05:47.240] The first thing I would do is I would write a what we call beta test social media post.
[00:05:47.240 --> 00:05:56.920] And later at the end of the episode, Nick, we can give people a link to, I have this written out in an actual checklist with links and everything that people can follow.
[00:05:56.920 --> 00:05:57.480] Perfect.
[00:05:57.480 --> 00:06:03.320] But for the conversation, the thing I like to do is I like to create a beta social media post.
[00:06:03.320 --> 00:06:11.240] People that are listening, they probably have friends that are business owners or they use local businesses.
[00:06:11.240 --> 00:06:12.840] They have a dentist.
[00:06:12.840 --> 00:06:16.440] They probably have a barber or hair salon.
[00:06:16.440 --> 00:06:20.040] They have a favorite restaurant that's not a chain.
[00:06:20.040 --> 00:06:24.840] You have your local mom and pop favorite places, landscaper, whatever it might be.
[00:06:24.840 --> 00:06:26.920] You have friends that have these businesses.
[00:06:26.920 --> 00:06:35.560] So what I like to do is create a social media post that says, hey, fellow business owners or hey, business owners who are friends.
[00:06:35.560 --> 00:06:52.200] I'm testing a new piece of software or I'm testing a new system that lets me help local businesses be found more often when somebody searches for them.
[00:06:52.200 --> 00:07:01.640] I'm looking for three businesses that I can use that would be willing to let me use their business as an experiment.
[00:07:01.640 --> 00:07:10.840] You'll get an increased visibility on Google, and I'll share all the results with you in exchange for helping me out.
[00:07:10.840 --> 00:07:12.280] If you're interested, let me know.
[00:07:12.280 --> 00:07:14.760] So that's kind of the gist, something like that.
[00:07:15.200 --> 00:07:21.600] You put that out there, and then you tell every business owner the next time you talk to them.
[00:07:21.600 --> 00:07:26.960] You know, if you've got a neighbor that has a local business, you go knock on the door and you're going to tell them you're going to do this.
[00:07:26.960 --> 00:07:33.760] And then you can say, when they respond to the Facebook ad or when you go talk to them, you say, it's $500.
[00:07:33.760 --> 00:07:39.840] You know, the first time I did it, I sold it for $1,300, had never sold it before, sold it for $1,300.
[00:07:39.840 --> 00:07:40.240] Okay.
[00:07:40.240 --> 00:07:43.280] If you're as arrogant as I am, you can do that.
[00:07:43.280 --> 00:07:46.640] But if you're a little more like, I don't know, that makes me nervous.
[00:07:46.800 --> 00:07:47.440] Start lower.
[00:07:47.440 --> 00:07:48.000] That's okay.
[00:07:48.640 --> 00:07:55.520] But there is a guy, Sam Sarsten, and he has a coaching program.
[00:07:55.520 --> 00:08:03.280] It's $49 without the community aspect, $99 if you want into the community.
[00:08:03.440 --> 00:08:04.640] That's monthly.
[00:08:04.640 --> 00:08:07.840] And he teaches exactly how to do all this.
[00:08:07.840 --> 00:08:10.000] I don't have a course, but I know Sam.
[00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:11.440] Sam's course is great.
[00:08:11.920 --> 00:08:18.960] You can go sell this and then go sign up for Sam's course and he'll show you exactly how to do this.
[00:08:18.960 --> 00:08:24.480] And what you're selling specifically is a one-time SEO boost.
[00:08:24.800 --> 00:08:25.920] So that's what you're going to sell.
[00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:27.520] It's your foot-in-the-door offer.
[00:08:27.520 --> 00:08:29.280] That's why I'd sell it for $500.
[00:08:29.280 --> 00:08:30.640] One-time SEO boost.
[00:08:30.640 --> 00:08:36.000] And you tell them, I'm going to improve your position in Google Maps and Apple Maps within three months.
[00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:36.400] Okay.
[00:08:36.400 --> 00:08:43.360] Within three months, you're going to be ranking higher, which means, and here's one of those key phrases, Nick, I was telling you, I like to use.
[00:08:43.840 --> 00:08:47.920] We're going to increase your customer activity.
[00:08:47.920 --> 00:08:53.200] I'm not promising more leads because I can't deliver on that.
[00:08:53.200 --> 00:08:56.720] I'm not promising specifically more website visitors or more phone calls.
[00:08:57.120 --> 00:08:59.720] I'm just promising more customer activity.
[00:08:59.280 --> 00:09:02.200] And every local business owner understands that.
[00:08:59.600 --> 00:09:06.680] And a restaurant is never going to use the term leads.
[00:09:06.680 --> 00:09:08.600] Restaurants aren't looking for leads.
[00:09:08.600 --> 00:09:10.200] A barbershop's not looking for leads.
[00:09:10.200 --> 00:09:12.200] They're looking for appointments or walk-ins.
[00:09:12.200 --> 00:09:15.160] A roofer is looking for leads.
[00:09:15.160 --> 00:09:20.360] And so to me, the most universal phrase that I have found is customer activity.
[00:09:20.360 --> 00:09:21.000] Okay.
[00:09:21.000 --> 00:09:27.800] And this allows you to not worry, because that was kind of the next thing I was going to ask: about do you worry about niche select?
[00:09:27.800 --> 00:09:36.200] Well, I'm only going to target roofers, but then it becomes maybe a potential conflict of interest if I sign up five roofers in the same town and now I'm like competing.
[00:09:36.360 --> 00:09:37.880] Well, who do I, who's my favorite?
[00:09:37.880 --> 00:09:40.520] Like, how do I figure out who I want to rank the highest?
[00:09:40.520 --> 00:09:40.840] Yeah.
[00:09:40.840 --> 00:09:49.240] So you're going to go, you go, you're going kind of broad, it sounds like, because the same skill set or the same toolbox can apply across any number of different businesses.
[00:09:49.240 --> 00:09:50.360] Yeah, absolutely.
[00:09:50.360 --> 00:09:53.960] And the fastest way to a sale is the face-to-face conversation.
[00:09:53.960 --> 00:10:06.600] For a side hustle, especially to just get started, you're just talking about finding three or four local businesses that are going to do this SEO boost, $500, because here's what happens.
[00:10:06.600 --> 00:10:11.480] You're going to do the local SEO boost, and then within that three months, you're going to get results.
[00:10:11.480 --> 00:10:12.840] And here's what you're going to do.
[00:10:13.480 --> 00:10:16.200] When they say, yeah, I'll do this, this sounds great.
[00:10:16.200 --> 00:10:16.920] I'd love to do it.
[00:10:16.920 --> 00:10:18.840] Okay, it's $500.
[00:10:18.840 --> 00:10:23.160] So, you know, here's, you know, set up a Stripe account, take PayPal, take check.
[00:10:23.160 --> 00:10:24.760] You're starting out as a side hustle.
[00:10:24.760 --> 00:10:25.960] Like, cash is fine.
[00:10:25.960 --> 00:10:27.480] Like, however, you can get them to pay you.
[00:10:27.480 --> 00:10:27.720] Yeah, yeah.
[00:10:27.800 --> 00:10:28.760] Somebody can Venmo you.
[00:10:28.760 --> 00:10:29.000] Sure.
[00:10:29.480 --> 00:10:31.000] Don't let that beat the bottleneck.
[00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:31.880] Exactly, exactly.
[00:10:31.880 --> 00:10:35.080] Like, there's lots of ways to get people's money from them.
[00:10:35.080 --> 00:10:40.680] So receive the money and then say, Hey, listen, I need 24 pictures of your business.
[00:10:40.680 --> 00:10:44.120] People in your business, behind the scenes, the front of the place.
[00:10:44.280 --> 00:10:49.520] I need 24 pictures, and that's what you need to send to me.
[00:10:44.840 --> 00:10:51.680] And if they're like, oh, I don't have them.
[00:10:51.840 --> 00:10:56.400] Do you have a 17-year-old, an 18-year-old, a 25-year-old on your team?
[00:10:56.400 --> 00:10:58.880] Like everybody on your team's got an iPhone.
[00:10:58.880 --> 00:10:59.680] That's all I need.
[00:10:59.680 --> 00:11:03.120] I need somebody to take out their phone and get 24 pictures.
[00:11:03.120 --> 00:11:06.240] Then they're going to send you those pictures.
[00:11:06.240 --> 00:11:07.840] You're going to take those pictures.
[00:11:07.840 --> 00:11:13.680] You're going to create 12 posts with those pictures about their business.
[00:11:13.840 --> 00:11:16.080] This is a great place to leverage AI.
[00:11:16.080 --> 00:11:19.680] AI is really fast, fantastic at this.
[00:11:19.680 --> 00:11:25.360] And then every week, you're going to go in and you're just going to post to their Google Business Profile this.
[00:11:25.360 --> 00:11:27.280] So they're going to give you access.
[00:11:27.520 --> 00:11:30.560] It's super easy to get access to their Google Business Profile.
[00:11:30.560 --> 00:11:32.560] You're going to get access to their Google Business Profile.
[00:11:32.560 --> 00:11:33.760] You're going to go in once a week.
[00:11:33.760 --> 00:11:36.400] You're going to post a picture for 12 weeks.
[00:11:36.400 --> 00:11:40.160] Yeah, maybe this is for these 75% of businesses that haven't even claimed theirs.
[00:11:40.160 --> 00:11:41.040] Maybe that's step one.
[00:11:41.040 --> 00:11:43.680] Like, hey, here's an easy, quick win for you, Mr.
[00:11:43.680 --> 00:11:44.000] and Mrs.
[00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:44.640] Business Owner.
[00:11:44.880 --> 00:11:48.160] Let's do that first and then we'll go do this one-time boost.
[00:11:48.160 --> 00:11:48.480] Right.
[00:11:48.480 --> 00:11:50.000] Well, this is part of the one-time boost.
[00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:50.880] Yeah, this is, this is it.
[00:11:50.880 --> 00:11:52.400] This is part of the one-time boost.
[00:11:52.400 --> 00:11:56.960] So for the one-time boost, you're going to use AI to rewrite their description.
[00:11:56.960 --> 00:12:00.480] You're going to use AI to help you create those 12 posts.
[00:12:00.480 --> 00:12:02.400] And then you're going to go in and you're going to schedule those.
[00:12:02.400 --> 00:12:07.040] Now, down the road, there are tools you can get to automate this.
[00:12:07.040 --> 00:12:10.960] We now, when we do an SEO boost, we create all the content.
[00:12:11.040 --> 00:12:12.880] It takes us about two hours.
[00:12:12.880 --> 00:12:15.600] We pre-schedule it for three months and we're done.
[00:12:15.600 --> 00:12:16.960] We move on to the next one.
[00:12:17.280 --> 00:12:20.080] But you're going to grow into this as a side hustle.
[00:12:20.400 --> 00:12:21.440] I didn't start there.
[00:12:21.440 --> 00:12:25.120] And so to keep it simple, you don't need a fancy automation tool.
[00:12:25.120 --> 00:12:27.680] Why does the description need to be rewritten?
[00:12:27.680 --> 00:12:32.040] Or what are some of the checkboxes you want to see in that rewritten description?
[00:12:32.040 --> 00:12:37.720] Yeah, well, they probably haven't done it, especially if they've never claimed their Google Business profile.
[00:12:37.720 --> 00:12:49.720] Or if the business owner wrote it, the business owner talks about how they've been in business since 1985, and grandpa gave it to dad, and dad gave it to me.
[00:12:49.720 --> 00:12:55.480] And we've got six employees, and we're so proud of our community, and we love serving, da-da-da.
[00:12:55.480 --> 00:12:57.480] And nobody cares.
[00:12:57.800 --> 00:13:01.560] They want to know: are you the place for them?
[00:13:01.560 --> 00:13:06.520] You know, if you're a barbershop, you want to answer what we call their pre-qualifying questions.
[00:13:06.520 --> 00:13:12.360] You can walk in, you can pay with cash, credit card, you can book an appointment.
[00:13:12.360 --> 00:13:16.840] We do kids, we do fade-ins, we do beards.
[00:13:16.840 --> 00:13:21.800] Like, what are the common questions people ask you about your business?
[00:13:21.800 --> 00:13:24.040] And that's what has to go in the description.
[00:13:24.040 --> 00:13:28.520] And so, most business owners talk about themselves and not their customer and their customers' needs.
[00:13:28.520 --> 00:13:30.280] So, real easy fix.
[00:13:30.280 --> 00:13:39.720] Plus, you want to make sure that you mention, you know, the business type you are, you know, AJ's barber, proudly serving Columbus, Ohio.
[00:13:39.720 --> 00:13:47.160] Men, kids, short hair, you know, then you then you list the things, walk-ins, welcome, all that kind of stuff.
[00:13:47.160 --> 00:13:48.440] So, that's in the description.
[00:13:48.440 --> 00:13:49.240] I got it, got it.
[00:13:49.240 --> 00:13:49.800] Okay.
[00:13:49.800 --> 00:13:52.440] Then, and this is in that, the checklist I have.
[00:13:52.440 --> 00:13:59.640] A lot of businesses, local businesses, they go to set up their Google business profile, Nick, and they're like, I want to serve everybody.
[00:13:59.640 --> 00:14:03.400] So, they put their service areas the United States of America.
[00:14:03.720 --> 00:14:04.360] Okay.
[00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:07.560] Huge mistake, huge mistake.
[00:14:07.560 --> 00:14:19.520] Because when Google decides who to show to somebody in Google Maps, and when Apple decides in Apple Maps, the first thing they look at is the geographic location of that phone.
[00:14:14.680 --> 00:14:22.800] So I'm in Budapest, Hungary right now.
[00:14:22.800 --> 00:14:32.320] If I get my phone and I search barber near me, it's going to show me a couple of the closest barbers right here to me in Budapest.
[00:14:32.640 --> 00:14:43.360] But if I turn my VPN on and I say I'm in Miami, and then I open Google Maps and I ask for a barber, it's going to start showing me barbers in Miami.
[00:14:43.920 --> 00:14:54.560] If you say you're in the United States, that puts your business geographic location out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean because it goes clear up past Alaska, down around Hawaii.
[00:14:54.560 --> 00:15:03.120] And the only people that's going to see your pizza shop barbershop mechanic is somebody trolling for fish out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
[00:15:03.120 --> 00:15:04.480] Not what you're going for.
[00:15:04.480 --> 00:15:16.880] More with Eric in just a moment, including the exact type of posts you should be creating for local businesses, plus how to scale this thing into a six-figure recurring revenue business with a remote team right after this.
[00:15:17.200 --> 00:15:19.920] I'm excited to partner with OpenPhone for this episode.
[00:15:19.920 --> 00:15:29.360] OpenPhone is the number one business phone system that streamlines and scales your customer communication for both calls and texts, all in one easy-to-use centralized hub.
[00:15:29.360 --> 00:15:34.240] But before OpenPhone was sponsoring podcasts, they took a more guerrilla marketing approach.
[00:15:34.400 --> 00:15:35.840] You probably don't remember this.
[00:15:35.840 --> 00:15:43.040] This is a while back, but when we just started OpenPhone, one of the ways that we got our first customers is through Facebook groups.
[00:15:43.040 --> 00:15:46.080] And I joined a bunch of Facebook groups, including yours.
[00:15:46.240 --> 00:16:01.000] Thank you for not kicking me out, but I posted a couple of times and I actually remember seeing there were some of your listeners and folks in your community interested in solving the problem we solve, which is not using your personal phone number for work.
[00:16:01.000 --> 00:16:04.760] And those posts got us some of our first customers.
[00:16:04.760 --> 00:16:05.560] So thank you.
[00:15:59.840 --> 00:16:06.920] It's a full circle moment.
[00:16:07.240 --> 00:16:08.280] Oh, that's super fun.
[00:16:08.280 --> 00:16:09.000] Very cool.
[00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:11.160] That's Doreena, the co-founder of OpenPhone.
[00:16:11.160 --> 00:16:13.400] And sure enough, her posts are still there.
[00:16:13.400 --> 00:16:19.640] OpenPhone is offering Side Hustle Show listeners 20% off your first six months at openphone.com/slash sidehustle.
[00:16:19.640 --> 00:16:24.920] That's O-P-E-N-P-H-O-N-E openphone.com slash sidehustle.
[00:16:24.920 --> 00:16:30.120] And if you have existing numbers with another service, OpenPhone will port them over at no extra charge.
[00:16:30.120 --> 00:16:36.280] With our partner, Mint Mobile, you can get the wireless coverage and speed you're used to, but for way less money.
[00:16:36.280 --> 00:16:38.600] I think that's a win we could all use right about now.
[00:16:38.600 --> 00:16:40.200] And you can keep your same phone number.
[00:16:40.200 --> 00:16:49.000] Plus, for a limited time, Mint Mobile is offering Side Hustle Show listeners three months of unlimited premium wireless service for just $15 a month.
[00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:56.120] All Mint plans come with high-speed data and unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's largest 5G network.
[00:16:56.120 --> 00:16:59.320] I've been a customer since 2019 and haven't looked back.
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[00:17:11.560 --> 00:17:15.240] That's mintmobile.com/slash sidehustle.
[00:17:15.240 --> 00:17:19.240] Upfront payment of $45 required, equivalent to $15 per month.
[00:17:19.240 --> 00:17:22.680] Limited time, new customer offer for first three months only.
[00:17:22.680 --> 00:17:26.440] Speeds may slow above 35 gigabytes on unlimited plan.
[00:17:26.440 --> 00:17:28.040] Taxes and fees extra.
[00:17:28.040 --> 00:17:30.920] See Mint Mobile for details.
[00:17:31.560 --> 00:17:32.120] All right.
[00:17:32.120 --> 00:17:33.400] So, another quick win.
[00:17:33.400 --> 00:17:36.680] Sounds like, okay, narrow down that service area location.
[00:17:36.680 --> 00:17:38.760] And you kind of draw a perimeter and okay.
[00:17:38.760 --> 00:17:40.280] The service area.
[00:17:40.280 --> 00:17:40.600] Yeah.
[00:17:40.600 --> 00:17:41.960] All kinds of ways to do that.
[00:17:42.200 --> 00:17:48.560] You know, just the city or a couple towns, but I just start with that one central space.
[00:17:48.560 --> 00:17:49.920] And so you do that.
[00:17:44.840 --> 00:17:50.960] That's optimizing.
[00:17:51.120 --> 00:17:57.120] Optimizing the description, optimizing the service location.
[00:17:57.120 --> 00:17:58.800] You get those things optimized.
[00:17:58.800 --> 00:18:07.520] And a lot of people, they haven't, business owners, they haven't bothered filling in all the little boxes about parking, accessibility.
[00:18:07.520 --> 00:18:10.320] Is it veteran-owned, woman-owned?
[00:18:11.280 --> 00:18:12.640] There's all these things.
[00:18:12.960 --> 00:18:18.400] And it's because Google keeps adding these questions and information every few months.
[00:18:18.400 --> 00:18:19.600] They add a new one.
[00:18:19.600 --> 00:18:22.160] And most businesses aren't updating that.
[00:18:22.400 --> 00:18:24.960] So you're just going to go through the Google Business Profile.
[00:18:24.960 --> 00:18:34.640] And here's the thing: if you're like, oh, I don't know the answer, make a list and send an email to the say, hey, just wanted to follow up with a couple more questions.
[00:18:34.640 --> 00:18:37.040] Do you do this, this, and this, and this?
[00:18:37.040 --> 00:18:38.400] They're going to answer it.
[00:18:38.400 --> 00:18:40.400] You're going to put it on their Google Business Profile.
[00:18:40.400 --> 00:18:41.200] Super simple.
[00:18:41.200 --> 00:18:41.680] Yeah.
[00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:42.720] So that's optimizing.
[00:18:42.720 --> 00:18:44.160] You're just going to do it one time.
[00:18:44.160 --> 00:18:49.600] Then you're going to create the 12 pieces of content and you're going to go in once a week and add those.
[00:18:49.600 --> 00:18:52.560] So one day added on Monday, one day added on Tuesday.
[00:18:52.560 --> 00:18:54.720] You want it to seem kind of natural.
[00:18:54.720 --> 00:18:57.520] And then once a week, you're going to add a picture.
[00:18:57.520 --> 00:19:02.080] Those things right there, you're going to start to see their rankings improve.
[00:19:02.080 --> 00:19:04.080] You're going to see increased customer activity.
[00:19:04.080 --> 00:19:08.160] We like to use a tool called Local Falcon.
[00:19:08.480 --> 00:19:12.720] I think I pay around $29 a month for Local Falcon.
[00:19:12.720 --> 00:19:15.040] It's a super inexpensive tool.
[00:19:15.040 --> 00:19:20.640] You go into Local Falcon, you go to reports, and you find the business.
[00:19:20.640 --> 00:19:24.880] If they've got a Google Business Profile, Local Falcon is going to find it.
[00:19:25.200 --> 00:19:27.680] And then you set a geographic region.
[00:19:27.680 --> 00:19:40.040] We normally start with like two miles, and then you put in a search term or a couple search terms: barber, men's haircut, pizza, pizza delivery, pizza pickup, depending on the business.
[00:19:40.040 --> 00:19:40.680] Okay.
[00:19:40.680 --> 00:19:55.880] And what Local Falcon does is it goes and it scans the entire area because I can be a quarter mile to the east of a business and it's in 20th place on Google.
[00:19:55.880 --> 00:20:02.600] I can go a quarter mile to the right or to the west and it's going to be in first place.
[00:20:02.600 --> 00:20:06.120] Your position on Google changes street by street.
[00:20:06.120 --> 00:20:06.520] Yeah.
[00:20:06.520 --> 00:20:13.880] What this does is it creates a heat map and it shows you all of these dots and it puts the right position of where you are.
[00:20:13.880 --> 00:20:20.120] So you're going to have some areas that are green, some areas that are red, some that are in between in the yellow and orange.
[00:20:20.440 --> 00:20:22.920] Now, some businesses may be all green.
[00:20:22.920 --> 00:20:24.760] This whole list expand out.
[00:20:24.760 --> 00:20:26.040] Look for a different search term.
[00:20:26.040 --> 00:20:27.240] Expand the radius.
[00:20:27.240 --> 00:20:27.720] Okay.
[00:20:27.720 --> 00:20:32.520] Some businesses, it's all red, except for right where their business is.
[00:20:32.520 --> 00:20:33.160] It's green.
[00:20:33.160 --> 00:20:37.880] And those are the business owners that go, well, we thought we were in first place on Google.
[00:20:37.880 --> 00:20:39.720] Yeah, you are if you're searching from your front door.
[00:20:39.720 --> 00:20:40.200] Yeah.
[00:20:40.200 --> 00:20:40.520] Yeah.
[00:20:40.520 --> 00:20:42.200] Indoor business.
[00:20:42.200 --> 00:20:51.320] But you can either get in a car and drive around town and refresh your search every street, or we just create this geo grid for you.
[00:20:51.320 --> 00:20:57.960] Now, down the road, you can offer this geo grid as a freebie.
[00:20:57.960 --> 00:21:04.360] This is a good way once you start getting some clients, as you're getting established, and you start to promote some things.
[00:21:04.360 --> 00:21:10.840] This is a great lead magnet because a lot of business owners see this map and they're like, oh, I want, I want to see that for my business.
[00:21:10.840 --> 00:21:12.200] You don't need to do that starting out.
[00:21:12.200 --> 00:21:15.040] That's kind of a 2.0 kind of strategy.
[00:21:15.040 --> 00:21:15.680] Okay.
[00:21:15.680 --> 00:21:20.160] Right now, you're going to just talk to a couple businesses, get a couple people to hire you.
[00:21:14.680 --> 00:21:21.280] You're going to go in and do these things.
[00:21:21.360 --> 00:21:23.280] You're going to create one of those maps.
[00:21:23.280 --> 00:21:25.840] Every month, you're going to run the scan again.
[00:21:25.840 --> 00:21:36.160] A local Falcon has this whole list of suggestions after it runs the report, AI-generated suggestions, that'll tell you a wealth of information of things to do to improve your ranking.
[00:21:36.160 --> 00:21:44.160] Do you have an example or two of the type of post that you're posting on behalf of these different businesses to their Google profile?
[00:21:44.160 --> 00:21:44.400] Sure.
[00:21:44.400 --> 00:21:46.560] Give me an industry, just any industry you want.
[00:21:46.640 --> 00:21:49.280] We can go with the barbershop example again.
[00:21:49.280 --> 00:21:50.400] Barbershop, great.
[00:21:50.400 --> 00:21:53.760] So they give you a picture of a kid getting a haircut.
[00:21:53.760 --> 00:22:11.520] You're just going to, you know, take that and you're going to say, depending on the type of year, maybe it's another one of our customers in getting ready for the summer, getting a haircut before vacation, back to school seasons coming up, getting ready to head back to school here in Pittsburgh.
[00:22:11.520 --> 00:22:13.440] Talk about vacation coming up.
[00:22:13.440 --> 00:22:14.720] Just whatever you can.
[00:22:14.720 --> 00:22:18.000] Or maybe it's the barber that's cutting their hair.
[00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:19.200] Maybe they've been there five years.
[00:22:19.200 --> 00:22:27.600] You know, hey, here's Tony, been with us for five years, cutting one of our favorite little customers' hair again, helping them get ready for vacation.
[00:22:27.600 --> 00:22:28.000] Okay.
[00:22:28.000 --> 00:22:29.680] But you don't always have that insight.
[00:22:29.680 --> 00:22:33.760] So you got to kind of probe the business owner for what's the occasion.
[00:22:33.920 --> 00:22:35.040] You don't want to just make stuff up.
[00:22:35.040 --> 00:22:37.600] Oh, Tony's, Tony's, Tony really just started last month.
[00:22:37.760 --> 00:22:39.120] So it'd be a little weird.
[00:22:39.440 --> 00:22:41.520] I wouldn't make up anything like that.
[00:22:41.520 --> 00:22:42.800] I wouldn't make anything like that.
[00:22:43.120 --> 00:22:46.000] But here's the thing that can be a little annoying with this.
[00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:48.240] Very few people read these.
[00:22:48.240 --> 00:22:49.440] That's what's annoying.
[00:22:49.440 --> 00:22:50.000] Sure.
[00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:50.560] No, I get it.
[00:22:50.560 --> 00:22:54.880] It's like you need to feed the machine, even though nobody's realistically reading it.
[00:22:54.960 --> 00:22:56.560] It's like, but you got to give it some data.
[00:22:56.560 --> 00:22:58.240] You got to give it some stuff to chew on.
[00:22:58.240 --> 00:22:58.880] Yes.
[00:22:58.880 --> 00:23:03.320] People read reviews and people look at the pictures.
[00:22:59.840 --> 00:23:06.760] But very few people read the post, but Google does.
[00:23:07.640 --> 00:23:15.480] And Google wants to make sure that if it's going to recommend you, somebody's there turning the lights on.
[00:23:15.480 --> 00:23:16.040] Yeah.
[00:23:16.040 --> 00:23:23.480] Because if Google sends somebody to a closed business, they're going to lose their trust in Google.
[00:23:23.480 --> 00:23:26.040] They may start, they may switch to another tool.
[00:23:26.040 --> 00:23:31.320] If Google starts losing eyeballs, Google starts losing advertising.
[00:23:31.320 --> 00:23:34.920] Google will not lose advertising.
[00:23:34.920 --> 00:23:37.880] I mean, that's how they make their money is advertising.
[00:23:38.200 --> 00:23:40.040] So they want to keep the eyeballs.
[00:23:40.040 --> 00:23:53.880] They want to make sure that they're giving you and me when we look for a business, a business that's open, a business that other people use, a business that keeps their hours up to date.
[00:23:53.880 --> 00:23:58.760] Google will reward you by what these are called signals.
[00:23:58.760 --> 00:24:00.520] Yeah, yeah, giving positive signals.
[00:24:00.600 --> 00:24:01.640] Make it look active, right?
[00:24:01.640 --> 00:24:02.760] It's active and engaged.
[00:24:03.080 --> 00:24:06.280] They're using our tools and helping people in that way.
[00:24:06.280 --> 00:24:06.840] Yes.
[00:24:06.840 --> 00:24:10.440] And right now, again, for those that are listening, they're just trying to get started.
[00:24:10.440 --> 00:24:13.720] You're just doing a one-time local SEO boost.
[00:24:14.040 --> 00:24:19.800] So you're doing a minimal viable product here to get results.
[00:24:20.040 --> 00:24:23.320] When you run that first local Falcon scan, you're going to take a screenshot.
[00:24:23.320 --> 00:24:25.640] Each time you run it, you're going to take another screenshot.
[00:24:25.640 --> 00:24:28.040] And suddenly, you're going to get before and afters.
[00:24:28.040 --> 00:24:32.120] You know, had very little green, two months later, all of this green.
[00:24:32.120 --> 00:24:34.920] They're showing up all over the top of Google.
[00:24:34.920 --> 00:24:35.560] Okay.
[00:24:35.880 --> 00:24:41.000] Because then what you can do, you've got these first few seed clients.
[00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:48.880] They've given you the money that's given you the money to invest and hire, you know, into a training, into getting some tools.
[00:24:49.200 --> 00:24:52.960] But now you can go back to them and say, here's the results we got.
[00:24:52.960 --> 00:24:54.240] This is great.
[00:24:54.240 --> 00:24:57.920] Here's what it's going to take to keep you at the top of this.
[00:24:57.920 --> 00:25:01.920] You're going to need to keep posting once a week and you can do this.
[00:25:01.920 --> 00:25:06.960] And we got to get into eventually what there's these things called directories.
[00:25:06.960 --> 00:25:08.960] There's some great tools that help with this.
[00:25:08.960 --> 00:25:10.880] Moz local is one.
[00:25:10.880 --> 00:25:12.320] Yext is another.
[00:25:12.320 --> 00:25:13.200] These are tools.
[00:25:13.200 --> 00:25:17.440] A business owner can go and pay for themselves to do it.
[00:25:17.440 --> 00:25:21.040] And the business starts getting added to directories.
[00:25:21.040 --> 00:25:26.960] Directories are websites that link to businesses.
[00:25:26.960 --> 00:25:28.960] So this is how you get those backlinks.
[00:25:28.960 --> 00:25:31.760] They're still gold, even in local SEO.
[00:25:31.760 --> 00:25:32.880] This is still a big thing.
[00:25:32.880 --> 00:25:39.840] This was NAP listing, name, address, phone number listings, like all across the internet, all pointing back to your home base, your website.
[00:25:39.840 --> 00:25:40.480] Exactly.
[00:25:40.480 --> 00:25:44.480] And some of these directories now power voice search.
[00:25:44.480 --> 00:25:54.240] So it's important to have these directories up to date because Google looks for consistency of NAP: name, address, phone number.
[00:25:54.240 --> 00:26:01.840] If you're listed on 20 websites, but sometimes the name is spelled out one thing, sometimes it's this, sometimes that.
[00:26:01.840 --> 00:26:06.480] The address is a little bit, sometimes the phone number is different because you got a new phone number, something like that.
[00:26:06.480 --> 00:26:09.760] That's a signal to Google, like, did they have their act together?
[00:26:09.760 --> 00:26:11.680] Can they really be trusted?
[00:26:11.680 --> 00:26:13.040] But this isn't advanced.
[00:26:13.040 --> 00:26:17.280] And this is, we don't, we don't touch directories for a local SEO boost.
[00:26:17.280 --> 00:26:18.160] I don't have to.
[00:26:18.160 --> 00:26:18.640] Okay.
[00:26:18.640 --> 00:26:27.120] But for our monthly recurring, where we go and we say, hey, listen, we can manage this for you and we can write content.
[00:26:27.120 --> 00:26:34.440] We need to have a strategy session once a quarter where I come in and I interview you about your bar.
[00:26:34.680 --> 00:26:35.560] How long have they been here?
[00:26:35.560 --> 00:26:36.440] How long have they been?
[00:26:36.440 --> 00:26:38.680] Like, this is where you get into the nitty-gritty.
[00:26:38.680 --> 00:26:40.760] And we do a quarterly strategy session.
[00:26:40.760 --> 00:26:43.320] And we have, you got any specials coming up the next three months?
[00:26:43.320 --> 00:26:44.440] Anything you want to put?
[00:26:44.440 --> 00:26:48.280] Like, do you have a seasonality to your business in the next three months?
[00:26:48.280 --> 00:26:50.760] Is it where somebody's like, oh, back to school is big for us?
[00:26:50.760 --> 00:26:52.200] Valentine's Day is big for us.
[00:26:52.280 --> 00:26:53.000] Okay, great.
[00:26:53.000 --> 00:26:55.720] So then you create that content calendar.
[00:26:55.720 --> 00:27:03.480] And at this point, you'll get a tool where like, now you're going to create the content and post it so it's automated and done for three months and things like that.
[00:27:03.480 --> 00:27:09.160] Or better yet, how I do it is I now have a team that does this.
[00:27:09.160 --> 00:27:13.320] I've got an amazing person on my team from El Salvador.
[00:27:13.320 --> 00:27:15.240] She's a rock star.
[00:27:15.240 --> 00:27:17.320] And this is all she does for us.
[00:27:17.320 --> 00:27:20.120] She only does local SEO content.
[00:27:20.120 --> 00:27:27.240] She creates it for, she meets with the clients once a quarter, does a strategy session, maps out their content.
[00:27:27.240 --> 00:27:30.200] She can do two of these a day.
[00:27:30.200 --> 00:27:37.000] And we typically charge around $750 a month for the ongoing monthly recurring revenue.
[00:27:37.000 --> 00:27:37.400] Wow.
[00:27:37.400 --> 00:27:40.040] But again, I grew into that.
[00:27:40.680 --> 00:27:42.360] So this is local SEO.
[00:27:42.360 --> 00:27:43.320] It's not going away.
[00:27:43.320 --> 00:27:57.560] But that's, no, that's like really, really cool to see what is potentially possible down the road with a trained-up team member who is taking half a day to service this customer that you're charging $750 a month for.
[00:27:57.640 --> 00:28:00.600] You imagine the margins on that are quite healthy.
[00:28:00.600 --> 00:28:01.080] Yes.
[00:28:01.080 --> 00:28:07.240] Even if you hired somebody in the States, I have one person on my team in the States, but the rest of my team are remote.
[00:28:07.240 --> 00:28:08.280] We're an entire remote.
[00:28:08.440 --> 00:28:08.920] I'm remote.
[00:28:08.920 --> 00:28:09.400] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:28:10.200 --> 00:28:11.640] So my team is remote.
[00:28:11.640 --> 00:28:11.960] Yeah.
[00:28:11.960 --> 00:28:16.560] And we just, that's how we operate because we are able to keep in very high margins.
[00:28:14.680 --> 00:28:19.040] We're able to keep our costs very competitive that way.
[00:28:19.360 --> 00:28:22.960] And it's fun to be able to travel around the world and meet your staff.
[00:28:22.960 --> 00:28:28.880] Do you worry, you know, this is the Bezos line of, you know, your margin is my opportunity.
[00:28:28.880 --> 00:28:33.920] Do you see clients getting poached from under you, from other competing services?
[00:28:33.920 --> 00:28:40.480] Or is it just like the number of small businesses is so vast, so massive that it's like, well, even if we lose a client, it's fine.
[00:28:40.480 --> 00:28:41.440] We'll go find somebody else.
[00:28:41.600 --> 00:28:49.040] Like, it's, you try to play this game of churn versus retention and margins versus like, well, wait a minute.
[00:28:49.040 --> 00:28:51.120] How much does this really cost them to fulfill?
[00:28:51.120 --> 00:28:51.760] Yeah.
[00:28:51.760 --> 00:28:58.800] If you show up every month with a report that's showing results, hey, we got you these results.
[00:28:58.800 --> 00:28:59.520] That's you.
[00:28:59.520 --> 00:29:04.560] Most business owners, that's the number one complaint I get when we get a new customer.
[00:29:04.560 --> 00:29:05.760] We were spending all this money.
[00:29:05.760 --> 00:29:07.920] I never knew if it was working.
[00:29:07.920 --> 00:29:08.400] Got it.
[00:29:08.400 --> 00:29:10.400] You know, I didn't know where the results were.
[00:29:10.400 --> 00:29:17.760] Because in the agency world, we're known for just sending a report, expecting our clients to read it.
[00:29:17.760 --> 00:29:19.680] They don't have time for that.
[00:29:19.680 --> 00:29:21.200] We show up proactively.
[00:29:21.200 --> 00:29:22.640] Hey, we just looked, you're at this.
[00:29:22.640 --> 00:29:27.200] And we just tell people, we might call a client and say, hey, we just ran your report.
[00:29:27.200 --> 00:29:30.480] And, you know, on average, we've dropped three positions.
[00:29:30.480 --> 00:29:31.360] And we use that.
[00:29:31.360 --> 00:29:36.320] We use we, not you, not, you know, it's, it's, we're in this together.
[00:29:36.320 --> 00:29:37.680] Hey, we dropped three points.
[00:29:37.680 --> 00:29:40.480] And so we looked, and here's what we'd like to do.
[00:29:40.480 --> 00:29:43.920] We'd like to do this and this and this over the next six weeks.
[00:29:43.920 --> 00:29:46.640] And they're just like, hey, man, you've got our back.
[00:29:46.640 --> 00:29:50.320] Whatever you need to do, like, because it just, you build trust.
[00:29:50.320 --> 00:29:51.520] You build trust.
[00:29:51.520 --> 00:29:57.280] And for us, then, how this led to then the, I had no intentions to own an agency.
[00:29:57.280 --> 00:30:03.720] I was pastoring a church, and my wife and I decided to adopt a sibling group from Bulgaria.
[00:30:04.040 --> 00:30:09.080] We had two biological children, and we just felt like the next thing we were being called to do was adopt.
[00:30:09.080 --> 00:30:14.120] And I had to come up with an extra $50,000 because we wanted to adopt debt-free.
[00:30:14.120 --> 00:30:14.520] Okay.
[00:30:14.840 --> 00:30:18.280] I didn't know how I was going to come up with $50,000.
[00:30:18.280 --> 00:30:21.000] So I had to come up with a side hustle.
[00:30:21.000 --> 00:30:23.240] And I knew how to build websites.
[00:30:23.240 --> 00:30:25.160] And so I started building websites.
[00:30:25.160 --> 00:30:28.200] And that kind of got a little bit of traction.
[00:30:28.200 --> 00:30:30.680] And I got a couple dozen clients.
[00:30:30.680 --> 00:30:34.920] And then I learned about this local SEO.
[00:30:34.920 --> 00:30:39.240] And I just went back and I upsold my very first client to do it.
[00:30:39.240 --> 00:30:43.080] I was like, hey, I'm testing this thing and, you know, da-da-da.
[00:30:43.080 --> 00:30:44.600] And they're like, yeah, okay, sure.
[00:30:44.600 --> 00:30:45.800] And I was like, it's $1,300.
[00:30:45.800 --> 00:30:47.080] And they're like, yeah, sure, let's do it.
[00:30:47.160 --> 00:30:47.640] I'm like, great.
[00:30:47.880 --> 00:30:49.720] And then I went to some businesses I didn't even know.
[00:30:49.720 --> 00:30:51.400] I did the same thing.
[00:30:51.400 --> 00:30:53.320] And I did that.
[00:30:53.320 --> 00:31:00.200] And then I started, then I worked through my network, my local business network, onboarded all the low-hanging fruit.
[00:31:00.200 --> 00:31:03.160] And then we started to learn how to do another service.
[00:31:03.160 --> 00:31:07.480] And so I just went back through and I said, hey, we're now doing reviews as a service.
[00:31:07.560 --> 00:31:10.920] We can help you get more five-star reviews from your satisfied customers.
[00:31:10.920 --> 00:31:12.360] Oh, yeah, Eric, let's do that.
[00:31:12.360 --> 00:31:20.600] Yeah, I was going to ask if the reviews were part of this ongoing monthly package, review reputation management, collecting reviews.
[00:31:20.600 --> 00:31:21.640] Reputation management.
[00:31:21.640 --> 00:31:22.600] Yes, it is now.
[00:31:22.600 --> 00:31:23.240] It is now.
[00:31:23.240 --> 00:31:24.040] Absolutely.
[00:31:24.040 --> 00:31:29.240] But it is really its own separate kind of monster, if you will, and that's okay.
[00:31:29.240 --> 00:31:32.040] So we packages it as a separate service.
[00:31:32.040 --> 00:31:32.520] Yeah.
[00:31:32.520 --> 00:31:37.960] Because I can either sell somebody reputation management or I can sell them a local SEO boost.
[00:31:37.960 --> 00:31:39.320] We always start with the boost.
[00:31:39.320 --> 00:31:41.960] And then I can come back and say, hey, we can add this.
[00:31:41.960 --> 00:31:45.600] We're constantly trying to figure out how can we increase Wallet share?
[00:31:45.600 --> 00:31:50.960] You know, how do I increase that monthly recurring revenue per customer?
[00:31:50.960 --> 00:31:56.960] When I first started out, my average monthly recurring revenue per customer was $49 a month.
[00:31:56.960 --> 00:31:58.320] Okay, yeah, you come a long ways.
[00:31:58.320 --> 00:31:58.720] Yes.
[00:31:58.720 --> 00:32:05.520] We're now more like $490 average per customer per month with a whole lot more customers.
[00:32:05.520 --> 00:32:09.360] Now, some of our customers are $2,000 a month.
[00:32:09.360 --> 00:32:12.640] Some of our customers are still $99 a month.
[00:32:12.640 --> 00:32:16.400] But, you know, it averages out across the board about $495 a month.
[00:32:16.400 --> 00:32:29.840] More with Eric in just a moment, including why accessibility compliance could be the next big service opportunity, plus his fastest path to $25,000 a month in recurring revenue coming up right after this.
[00:32:30.160 --> 00:32:41.760] Years ago, this is probably 2009, I'm sitting in this conference in Santa Barbara, and the presenter asks this question: Are you working on your business or are you working in your business?
[00:32:41.760 --> 00:32:49.600] I saw myself as this full-time entrepreneur, but it was this moment of clarity that, no, I was still very much working in the business day to day.
[00:32:49.600 --> 00:32:52.880] So when I got back home, that's when I made my first full-time hire.
[00:32:52.880 --> 00:33:02.960] It was the first in a long series and an ongoing series of steps in trying to take control by being okay of letting go of certain tasks.
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[00:33:45.960 --> 00:33:57.160] You know, when you're shopping online and you see that little purple shop pay button at checkout, that's a sign that the store you're on is one of the millions of businesses powered by our partner, Shopify.
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[00:34:46.840 --> 00:34:47.960] What's your take on this?
[00:34:47.960 --> 00:34:52.920] Because I've seen some people advocating this as a potential foot-in-the-door strategy.
[00:34:52.920 --> 00:35:03.400] And it's to say, thanks to these AI website building tools, you know, type in a quick little prompt, you know, spins up this really nice looking website for local business XYZ.
[00:35:03.640 --> 00:35:08.680] You could send that straight to the, hey, look, I noticed your website was maybe looking a little dusty, a little outdated.
[00:35:08.680 --> 00:35:09.960] I made you this new one.
[00:35:09.960 --> 00:35:11.400] You could have it for 200 bucks.
[00:35:11.400 --> 00:35:14.520] And it took you all of three minutes to create with AI.
[00:35:15.040 --> 00:35:24.240] And people using that as a potential foot-in-the-door one for, okay, I could sell that website as a quick little revenue hit, but maybe this guy clearly knows what he's doing on the tech side.
[00:35:24.240 --> 00:35:29.840] Maybe I could hire him for this local SEO and potentially this recurring revenue holy grail down the road.
[00:35:29.840 --> 00:35:32.000] I think that's totally doable.
[00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:33.200] You can do that first.
[00:35:33.200 --> 00:35:35.440] There's a whole lot more people doing that.
[00:35:35.440 --> 00:35:40.560] And you're running up against ads for Wix and Squarespace that run during the Super Bowl.
[00:35:40.560 --> 00:35:42.400] That's what you're competing against.
[00:35:42.400 --> 00:35:52.720] And so I have found it's become a little bit harder to sell websites because there's a lot more, well, I think I can just do this tomorrow.
[00:35:53.040 --> 00:35:56.400] You know, business owners move towards the squeaky wheel.
[00:35:56.720 --> 00:35:59.440] They're always going to want more customers.
[00:35:59.440 --> 00:36:02.000] And they all use Google.
[00:36:02.000 --> 00:36:09.680] A lot of times, I've even had some clients start to tell me, like, I can't, Eric, I can't remember the last time I looked at a website if I'm not doing research.
[00:36:09.680 --> 00:36:17.440] And so I'm not saying websites aren't going to always be important, but for a local business, like, when's the last time you went and looked at the barbershop?
[00:36:17.440 --> 00:36:18.240] I'm kind of bald.
[00:36:18.240 --> 00:36:20.240] I don't look at a lot of barbershop.
[00:36:20.560 --> 00:36:23.120] That's a funny example for two bald guys to be using here.
[00:36:23.120 --> 00:36:25.120] Maybe barber workshop's not the right one.
[00:36:25.120 --> 00:36:31.280] But, you know, for a barbershop, even a landscape or something like that, like, I'm not going to go look.
[00:36:31.280 --> 00:36:36.560] I might go look at a dentist website, but I don't know.
[00:36:36.560 --> 00:36:38.160] Sure, absolutely.
[00:36:38.400 --> 00:36:46.000] I would rather help somebody because it's hard to qualify the win of a website.
[00:36:46.000 --> 00:36:47.520] Like, hey, I got your new website up.
[00:36:47.840 --> 00:36:49.760] Now, if they're vain, they're going to go, oh, look at me.
[00:36:49.760 --> 00:36:50.720] I got my nice new website.
[00:36:50.720 --> 00:36:51.920] They're going to like that.
[00:36:51.920 --> 00:37:04.760] But if you can show up and say, this is why I like reputation management, is actually another foot-in-the-door offer, because I can show up four weeks after we launch and I can read you three five-star reviews.
[00:37:04.920 --> 00:37:08.040] Hey, Nick, let me show you what this customer said about you.
[00:37:08.040 --> 00:37:11.000] They said you're the best and you're great, you know.
[00:37:11.000 --> 00:37:15.800] And then this customer said this and this, and you're able to give them that feedback.
[00:37:15.800 --> 00:37:19.000] Then you can say, Now, I was looking at your website.
[00:37:19.000 --> 00:37:23.000] Now that we're getting more reviews, your website needs a little bit of work.
[00:37:23.000 --> 00:37:27.080] They're going to trust you and say, Oh, yeah, let's redo it.
[00:37:27.400 --> 00:37:32.280] It's easier, in my opinion, to go that way than to start with the website.
[00:37:32.360 --> 00:37:33.480] That's been my experience.
[00:37:33.480 --> 00:37:34.120] All right, that's fair.
[00:37:34.120 --> 00:37:38.120] No, I was just curious to see, to get your take on that as somebody who's in the space.
[00:37:38.120 --> 00:37:39.400] All right, what else do we need to know?
[00:37:39.400 --> 00:37:42.680] So, we've kind of covered, we're going to start with this local SEO boost.
[00:37:42.680 --> 00:37:46.760] We can hopefully transition into an ongoing monthly maintenance package.
[00:37:46.760 --> 00:37:57.800] We could layer on reputation management, collecting reviews, and there's software tools to help you do really all of this stuff and hopefully make it a little more automated and potentially sell websites down the road.
[00:37:57.800 --> 00:38:02.680] Like, you know, getting your foot in the door and hopefully, you know, business owners know other business owners, right?
[00:38:02.680 --> 00:38:04.360] So, the word of mouth starts to spread.
[00:38:04.360 --> 00:38:09.720] Do you want anything else proactive on the marketing side to try and build up that client base?
[00:38:09.720 --> 00:38:11.400] Yes, accessibility.
[00:38:11.400 --> 00:38:18.920] Accessibility is both a social justice issue as well as a good for business.
[00:38:18.920 --> 00:38:33.720] And every business, unless it is a religious organization or a private club, every business has to legally meet the standards and requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
[00:38:33.720 --> 00:38:41.160] And just this last week, the European Union's new accessibility laws rolled out.
[00:38:41.160 --> 00:38:43.720] So, this is becoming very, very universal.
[00:38:43.720 --> 00:38:48.960] 20 to 25% of people that use the internet have some type of barrier.
[00:38:44.920 --> 00:38:51.680] Could be a disability, could be slow internet.
[00:38:51.920 --> 00:38:59.040] It could be they use a SIM card with limited data, so they have images turned off.
[00:38:59.040 --> 00:39:14.320] If you can design a website or social media content that is super easy to read, or you make sure you use what's called the alt text, you're opening up a business to about 20 to 25% more customers.
[00:39:14.320 --> 00:39:17.680] So accessibility is huge.
[00:39:17.680 --> 00:39:19.280] It's never going to go away.
[00:39:19.280 --> 00:39:26.560] And that's the other problem with all these places that are spinning off webs, none of them yet are spinning up websites that meet accessibility.
[00:39:26.560 --> 00:39:32.560] So you can spin up a website for a foot-in-the-door offer, but you've just put a legal target on them.
[00:39:32.560 --> 00:39:36.960] And not only that, you're not being a good neighbor to people with disabilities.
[00:39:36.960 --> 00:39:39.360] So that's how we talk about it with our agency.
[00:39:39.360 --> 00:39:41.520] Like, we want to help you be a good neighbor.
[00:39:41.520 --> 00:39:47.440] Accessibility is a whole nother new, fascinating world, but I don't think I would try to get into it as a side hustle.
[00:39:47.440 --> 00:39:47.840] Okay.
[00:39:47.840 --> 00:39:50.560] So this is another add-on service.
[00:39:50.720 --> 00:39:56.640] Like, hey, by the way, did you know all websites, you know, I think it's all businesses over a certain size, something like that.
[00:39:56.640 --> 00:40:03.600] Like their website has to be ADA compliant according to the like yours is not, but we can help get it there.
[00:40:03.600 --> 00:40:05.920] And here's what it's going to take.
[00:40:05.920 --> 00:40:06.400] Yeah.
[00:40:06.400 --> 00:40:16.800] So the confusion that comes in on the size of business is there are a couple different articles of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
[00:40:16.800 --> 00:40:29.600] The part of the article that deals with the physical and employment accessibility, making accommodations for that, but specifically to the physical property depends upon the size of your business.
[00:40:29.800 --> 00:40:34.200] There are zero exceptions for your web content.
[00:40:34.760 --> 00:40:38.840] It does not matter how many employees, it doesn't matter your revenue.
[00:40:38.840 --> 00:40:46.360] If you're selling $3,000 a month and you're a business, your web content technically has to be accessible.
[00:40:46.360 --> 00:40:51.960] Now, there's no enforcement unless somebody chooses to bring a lawsuit.
[00:40:51.960 --> 00:40:53.880] But last year, this changed.
[00:40:53.880 --> 00:41:08.440] The Department of Justice came out with some new regulations last April that said if you receive any money from the government through a grant, maybe you're a doctor's office and you accept Medicaid or Medicare.
[00:41:08.440 --> 00:41:21.240] Maybe you're the local garbage company and you have a contract with the state to, or I'm sorry, the city to provide garbage pickup within the city.
[00:41:21.240 --> 00:41:35.640] If you get any federal or state money or local money, and in exchange, you're providing a service to continue to be eligible after April next year, you must have your website compliant.
[00:41:35.640 --> 00:41:45.960] And we're starting to get clients that are coming to us saying, Eric, we're filling out our application for our state funding for next year, and they're asking for a website compliance certificate.
[00:41:46.200 --> 00:41:49.960] So that is happening in a very specific industry.
[00:41:50.040 --> 00:41:51.320] So that's all the difference.
[00:41:51.320 --> 00:41:53.000] But here's the beautiful thing about it.
[00:41:53.000 --> 00:41:54.120] I tell people this all the time.
[00:41:54.280 --> 00:41:56.680] Real estate agents don't build the houses they sell.
[00:41:56.680 --> 00:42:02.920] Nick, I have no clue how to go in and set up what's called ARIA tags on a website.
[00:42:03.160 --> 00:42:04.040] I don't know how to do it.
[00:42:04.040 --> 00:42:05.000] I don't even know what that is.
[00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:05.640] Yeah.
[00:42:05.640 --> 00:42:09.240] But my developers do, and they do it every day, you know.
[00:42:09.240 --> 00:42:12.760] And so I've never ran a Google ad.
[00:42:13.080 --> 00:42:17.520] I've never logged into the Google business platform area.
[00:42:17.760 --> 00:42:18.320] I forget him.
[00:42:14.120 --> 00:42:21.840] I'm even struggling, but I can't think of what it's called right now, but the Google Ads platform.
[00:42:22.560 --> 00:42:23.280] I've never done it.
[00:42:23.280 --> 00:42:24.320] I don't have no idea.
[00:42:24.320 --> 00:42:28.880] But we run Google Ads every day for customers.
[00:42:28.880 --> 00:42:34.480] Eventually, from a side hustle, team building becomes key to it.
[00:42:34.480 --> 00:42:48.560] And again, if my son was wanting to start a business, this would be something I would try to get him to do from the very beginning: to find somebody that can do fulfillment and then go out and sell it and then pay that person to do the fulfillment.
[00:42:48.560 --> 00:42:49.120] Got it.
[00:42:49.120 --> 00:42:56.320] Is there a sweet spot in terms of metro area size, or is there markets that are just like, this is too competitive?
[00:42:56.320 --> 00:43:00.240] I wouldn't trust myself to sell a one-time SEO boost because I don't think we can move the needle here.
[00:43:00.240 --> 00:43:09.120] No, because even in a very competitive market, there are plenty of businesses that those other brands are not even going to give the time of day to.
[00:43:09.120 --> 00:43:14.560] They're going to judge them based upon their location or the condition of the business or something like that.
[00:43:14.560 --> 00:43:16.400] And they're looking for mass.
[00:43:16.400 --> 00:43:24.160] They're marketing broad strokes, running ads, you know, cold calling, cold, I can't stand cold calling, cold emailing.
[00:43:24.160 --> 00:43:27.440] So they're getting bombarded with cold emails, cold calls.
[00:43:27.440 --> 00:43:32.640] In my experience, Nick, and I don't know what your thoughts are on this or what you've seen.
[00:43:32.640 --> 00:43:42.240] In my experience, the fastest way to $25,000 a month in recurring revenue is local networking.
[00:43:42.240 --> 00:43:46.000] And sometimes we go into new markets and by geographic markets.
[00:43:46.000 --> 00:43:51.680] I just recently hired somebody in Kent, Ohio, and we're following our process in Kent.
[00:43:51.720 --> 00:43:53.440] It's our, it's a U.S.-based employee.
[00:43:53.440 --> 00:43:55.040] We needed a new person.
[00:43:55.040 --> 00:43:56.400] The last person was leaving.
[00:43:56.400 --> 00:43:57.520] I found somebody in Kent.
[00:43:57.520 --> 00:43:59.720] It's always good for me to have somebody in the U.S.
[00:44:00.040 --> 00:44:01.800] And we just started the same thing.
[00:44:01.800 --> 00:44:02.520] Signed up.
[00:43:59.360 --> 00:44:04.920] This person started going to all the local networking events.
[00:44:05.240 --> 00:44:12.440] We found a local business association and went to them and said, Hey, we'd like to host a podcast for you.
[00:44:12.440 --> 00:44:13.800] You're the producer of it.
[00:44:13.800 --> 00:44:15.720] It's under your branding.
[00:44:15.720 --> 00:44:23.640] We'll interview your members and it becomes a member benefit for you to give to your members for free and help you recruit more members.
[00:44:23.640 --> 00:44:27.160] This is the fourth or fifth local area business podcast we've done.
[00:44:27.160 --> 00:44:28.840] And they're like, they love it.
[00:44:28.840 --> 00:44:35.080] And so we just, Katie started going around and interviewing all of Main Street Kent.
[00:44:35.080 --> 00:44:35.720] That's the business.
[00:44:35.720 --> 00:44:37.240] That's the business association.
[00:44:37.240 --> 00:44:39.880] She just started interviewing all of their businesses.
[00:44:39.880 --> 00:44:44.680] And at the end of it, she's just like, she's built a relationship and she says, hey, can I add you?
[00:44:44.680 --> 00:44:46.680] I actually am with In Transit Studios.
[00:44:46.680 --> 00:44:49.320] Can I add you to our weekly email newsletter?
[00:44:49.320 --> 00:44:51.000] And they're always like, oh, yeah, that would be great.
[00:44:51.000 --> 00:44:52.120] We'd love to get that.
[00:44:52.120 --> 00:44:54.840] And we've signed on all kinds of clients that way.
[00:44:54.840 --> 00:45:01.400] So over and over and over again, it's hard to be, I'm not saying the Chamber of Commerce or BNI.
[00:45:01.400 --> 00:45:03.000] Those are great and they have their places.
[00:45:03.320 --> 00:45:11.560] But I'm talking about going to the local community business association and getting in there and then finding some of those strategic partnerships.
[00:45:11.560 --> 00:45:25.320] When I was in Ocean View, Virginia, one of my best strategic partnerships was a commercial real estate agent because Duncan knew every single time a new business was coming into town.
[00:45:25.320 --> 00:45:30.120] And he was able to make referrals for me over and over and over again.
[00:45:30.120 --> 00:45:33.000] First, you know, hey, so-and-so's starting this business.
[00:45:33.000 --> 00:45:36.200] Hey, did you hear so-and-so is going to try to open up an ice cream shop?
[00:45:36.200 --> 00:45:37.880] Oh, no, I hadn't heard that.
[00:45:37.880 --> 00:45:41.720] You know, I'd reach out and build, hey, I heard you're going to start an ice cream shop.
[00:45:41.720 --> 00:45:42.920] You know, how can I help?
[00:45:42.920 --> 00:45:44.360] And stuff like that.
[00:45:44.360 --> 00:45:53.200] So it's hard to beat that there's no money hiding behind your computer, especially starting out in the side hustle with a local business.
[00:45:53.520 --> 00:46:02.320] It's just hard to beat getting out there, hitting the pavement, and meeting people, having a face-to-face conversation, and getting those first few clients in.
[00:46:02.640 --> 00:46:04.560] Like you said, they start talking to others.
[00:46:04.560 --> 00:46:06.480] You get a couple case studies.
[00:46:06.480 --> 00:46:07.840] Now you can start to branch out.
[00:46:07.840 --> 00:46:09.440] Now you can start to grow.
[00:46:09.440 --> 00:46:17.120] And it's just, to me, the fastest way to $25,000 a month in recurring revenue is local networking.
[00:46:17.120 --> 00:46:17.440] All right.
[00:46:17.440 --> 00:46:18.320] That's fantastic.
[00:46:18.320 --> 00:46:19.200] You heard it here first.
[00:46:19.200 --> 00:46:21.920] The digital nomad life comes second.
[00:46:21.920 --> 00:46:23.040] What comes first is this?
[00:46:23.040 --> 00:46:24.640] Boots on the ground, local effort.
[00:46:24.640 --> 00:46:26.480] There's no money hiding behind your computer.
[00:46:26.480 --> 00:46:27.600] I love that line.
[00:46:27.760 --> 00:46:29.360] Eric, you got the agency.
[00:46:29.360 --> 00:46:30.640] What's next for you?
[00:46:30.640 --> 00:46:32.560] You got the family, you got the travels.
[00:46:32.880 --> 00:46:34.400] What's got you excited these days?
[00:46:34.400 --> 00:46:36.960] We are trying to figure out where in the world we're going to live.
[00:46:36.960 --> 00:46:40.080] We need to settle down as our children are turning 18.
[00:46:40.320 --> 00:46:42.720] We have another one that will be 18 next year.
[00:46:42.720 --> 00:46:46.720] It's time for them to start transitioning to young adult life.
[00:46:46.720 --> 00:46:49.840] And literally the world is open.
[00:46:49.840 --> 00:46:58.320] Like in three and a half years, we've lived in over 20 countries and we've just learned that we love all the places.
[00:46:58.320 --> 00:47:00.640] And so what's exciting for us is trying to figure out that.
[00:47:00.640 --> 00:47:01.840] Give me like your top three.
[00:47:01.840 --> 00:47:03.360] Like where are your favorite spots?
[00:47:03.360 --> 00:47:05.440] Oh my goodness, our favorite spot.
[00:47:05.440 --> 00:47:08.320] So London would be a great to live in.
[00:47:08.320 --> 00:47:11.360] We really love Buenos Aires, Argentina.
[00:47:11.360 --> 00:47:13.920] Argentina's fantastic.
[00:47:13.920 --> 00:47:15.120] We really like that.
[00:47:15.120 --> 00:47:18.560] And let's see a third one, Istanbul, Turkey.
[00:47:18.560 --> 00:47:23.840] We wouldn't settle there, but if you're looking for some place to visit, check out Istanbul, Turkey.
[00:47:23.840 --> 00:47:24.960] It's a great city.
[00:47:25.120 --> 00:47:25.600] Very good.
[00:47:25.600 --> 00:47:28.080] I've been fortunate enough to have visited all three of those.
[00:47:28.080 --> 00:47:29.200] So I'll vouch for those.
[00:47:29.200 --> 00:47:30.520] All a very cool places.
[00:47:30.520 --> 00:47:31.880] So, okay, there you go.
[00:47:31.880 --> 00:47:32.600] This has been awesome.
[00:47:29.920 --> 00:47:33.560] I've got a ton of notes.
[00:47:33.640 --> 00:47:39.880] I know people will hopefully take a lot of action based on this episode and go sell some of this service on their own.
[00:47:39.880 --> 00:47:45.480] If you would like to grab Eric's local SEO side hustle checklist, I would encourage you to do that.
[00:47:45.480 --> 00:47:52.040] It's at ericdingler.com/slash side hustle with all the details that we talked about in this episode.
[00:47:52.040 --> 00:47:58.600] That's Eric with the C, Eric Dingler.com/slash side hustle for that local SEO side hustle checklist.
[00:47:58.600 --> 00:48:02.680] Let's wrap this up with your number one tip for Side Hustle Nation.
[00:48:02.680 --> 00:48:06.440] Real estate agents don't build the houses they sell.
[00:48:06.440 --> 00:48:10.200] So don't fall into the trap that you have to be the one doing it.
[00:48:10.200 --> 00:48:13.240] There are some side hustles where it makes sense and things like that.
[00:48:13.240 --> 00:48:23.160] But if your long-term kind of desire is to start a side hustle to escape the nine to five with it, then figure out how to be a leader.
[00:48:23.160 --> 00:48:28.920] If I was starting over, the two things I would study starting over, and I'm talking like I'm 50.
[00:48:28.920 --> 00:48:35.400] If I was going back to my 20s, the two things I would study to start over is leadership and list building.
[00:48:35.400 --> 00:48:35.960] Okay.
[00:48:35.960 --> 00:48:37.240] Well, you heard it here first.
[00:48:37.240 --> 00:48:39.080] Leadership and list building.
[00:48:39.080 --> 00:48:41.160] Real estate agents don't build the houses they sell.
[00:48:41.160 --> 00:48:45.400] This is my interpretation: don't find yourself getting stuck in fulfillment, right?
[00:48:45.400 --> 00:48:48.440] You don't want to be the technician doing the work all day, every day.
[00:48:48.440 --> 00:48:50.200] You want to be building client relationships.
[00:48:50.200 --> 00:48:56.040] You want to be leading the team rather than kind of getting stuck in the freelancer's trap of selling your skills, right?
[00:48:56.040 --> 00:48:58.600] You don't, you don't even need to know necessarily how to do this.
[00:48:58.600 --> 00:49:03.240] You just need to be able to play matchmaker with the people who need the service and the people who know how to get it done.
[00:49:03.240 --> 00:49:04.760] That's absolutely right.
[00:49:04.760 --> 00:49:15.360] And I do, I have a 90-day accelerator I do every quarter where I take a group of people through the process of gearing up to hire on board and lead a remote team.
[00:49:15.360 --> 00:49:20.560] And so if that's something somebody would be interested in, you know, go to ericdingler.com forward slash side hustle.
[00:49:14.840 --> 00:49:21.440] They'll download that.
[00:49:21.680 --> 00:49:29.040] They'll be able to reach me from there and be more than happy to help somebody navigate hiring a remote team.
[00:49:29.040 --> 00:49:29.600] Very cool.
[00:49:29.760 --> 00:49:32.960] Go check it out, ericdingler.com slash side hustle.
[00:49:32.960 --> 00:49:38.480] My other note that I have here is, you know, you want recurring revenue, you got to solve a recurring problem.
[00:49:38.480 --> 00:49:43.680] Businesses needing to increase their customer activity, like Eric said, hey, that's a recurring problem.
[00:49:43.680 --> 00:49:45.040] It's never going to go away, right?
[00:49:45.040 --> 00:49:46.080] So sell that result.
[00:49:46.080 --> 00:49:48.160] And if you want recurring revenue, you got to keep selling it.
[00:49:48.160 --> 00:49:49.440] Give those follow-up reports.
[00:49:49.440 --> 00:49:51.040] Hey, before and after, here's what we did.
[00:49:51.040 --> 00:49:52.000] Here's what we're able to get done.
[00:49:52.000 --> 00:49:53.280] Here's where we want to go next.
[00:49:53.280 --> 00:49:54.640] So really cool stuff.
[00:49:54.640 --> 00:49:56.640] Again, EricDingler.com.
[00:49:56.640 --> 00:50:00.640] The Side Hustle Show, as you may or may not know, just had its 12th birthday.
[00:50:00.640 --> 00:50:07.440] And whether it's your first time listening or you've been here since the beginning, I appreciate you spending some time with us in your earbuds today.
[00:50:07.440 --> 00:50:11.200] If you're newer to the show and want to go a little bit deeper, hey, what else you got here?
[00:50:11.200 --> 00:50:12.640] It's been around for this long.
[00:50:12.640 --> 00:50:16.240] You can actually get a personalized playlist at hustle.show.
[00:50:16.240 --> 00:50:19.200] All you have to do is answer a few short multiple choice questions.
[00:50:19.200 --> 00:50:24.080] And it's going to recommend eight to 10 of our greatest hits to start with based on your answers.
[00:50:24.080 --> 00:50:24.960] Totally free.
[00:50:24.960 --> 00:50:27.760] Hustle.show for that personalized playlist.
[00:50:27.760 --> 00:50:29.520] Big thanks to Eric for sharing his insight.
[00:50:29.520 --> 00:50:32.480] And can I shout out our sponsors for helping make this content free for everyone?
[00:50:32.480 --> 00:50:38.000] Sidehustlenation.com slash deals is where to go for all the latest offers from our sponsors in one place.
[00:50:38.000 --> 00:50:41.120] Thank you for supporting the advertisers that support the show.
[00:50:41.120 --> 00:50:42.080] That's it for me.
[00:50:42.080 --> 00:50:43.520] Thank you so much for tuning in.
[00:50:43.520 --> 00:50:47.280] If you're finding value in the show, the greatest compliment is to share it with a friend.
[00:50:47.280 --> 00:50:48.640] Fire off that text message.
[00:50:48.640 --> 00:50:52.240] I know you got at least one friend who can take Eric's model and run with it.
[00:50:52.240 --> 00:50:54.640] Until next time, let's go out there and make something happen.
[00:50:54.640 --> 00:50:57.840] And I'll catch you in the next edition of The Side Hustle Show.
[00:50:57.840 --> 00:50:58.560] Hustle on.