0:00

Hey, everybody, my name is Robert. And

0:02

in this video, I will teach you

0:04

how to go from an unknown employee

0:07

to, let's say, a top celebrity that

0:09

will make your brand skyrocket. There

0:36

is a moment when you are investing a

0:38

lot of money, let's say, in paid advertising.

0:40

And we can see that the cost per

0:42

click is getting higher and higher. And the

0:45

press release, you won't get any clicks on

0:47

that. And maybe people are not reading press

0:49

releases lately. So what if you

0:51

will invest in your in-house creators,

0:53

in your employee, and they can

0:55

be maybe your talent magnet and

0:57

getting new people to your team.

1:00

Maybe they can spread the message

1:02

of your company. And even they

1:04

can just, let's say, build up

1:06

your brand and also creating an

1:08

audience and creating a loyal community

1:10

directly to your brand. So here's

1:12

a guy. I was working with

1:14

it. He's a consultant. And he's

1:16

also a sales consultant. And after

1:18

a free post on LinkedIn, he

1:20

gets three leads and

1:22

one big contract that is now

1:25

working for the entire year on

1:27

that big contract. And that was

1:29

very interesting because the guy

1:31

who connected with him, he said that

1:33

I wanted to connect it

1:35

with you because I liked your mindset

1:38

and what you wrote on that LinkedIn

1:40

post. In this video, I will cover

1:42

three ideas, the problem that is around

1:44

us, that paid marketing is getting higher

1:47

and higher, that AI is floating every

1:49

paid marketing channel, and people

1:51

are not trusting anymore in brands. The

1:54

effect that we can see is that

1:56

brands are getting a bigger struggle on

1:58

growing their brand pages and

2:01

they are creating content and they

2:03

are fighting with them in this

2:05

noise. And the solution is investing

2:08

in your in-house creators that can

2:10

be your employees. It's owning your

2:12

audience and building up your media

2:14

company. I have 17 years

2:17

in marketing and now

2:19

I think that I can call myself

2:21

a creator. I'm also the founder of

2:23

B2B Creator, the newsletter and also the

2:26

company. I can

2:28

say that I teach brands how to

2:30

build in-house creator programs. And

2:33

I can say that I'm somehow

2:35

the proof behind of my advice

2:37

because what I will teach you right now

2:40

is what I lived and what I observe

2:42

and what I see around me that it's

2:44

happening. So what's very interesting

2:46

is that these days, like

2:49

every brand is producing content. And

2:51

we all know these funnels about

2:53

the awareness and about the consideration.

2:56

And people are just like how

2:58

brands are seeing right now. And

3:00

that's the consumer's journey that marketers

3:02

believe that people are consuming the

3:05

content. But in the same time,

3:07

if you are going a little

3:09

bit downside, consumers are not just

3:12

like in a funnel. They are

3:14

everywhere. And if you

3:16

are just producing content on one

3:19

platform, it's not like you're putting

3:21

those consumers in a funnel because

3:23

those consumers are, let's say, opening

3:26

maybe in five minutes all their

3:28

social media platforms, reading one newsletter

3:31

or an email or listening for

3:33

a podcast. So that's somehow the

3:35

yesterday mindset. And

3:38

what I want to talk with you

3:40

is that there's one truth that we

3:43

need somehow to be aware of that,

3:45

is that consumers are aware that they

3:47

are marketed. And these days, I'm

3:50

talking to, let's say, marketers, entrepreneurs,

3:52

creatives, designers that want to show

3:54

their work. And they think that

3:57

if they are putting themselves or

3:59

publishing... their work, people will

4:01

come to them. But the consumers

4:03

are somehow aware that brands are

4:06

marketing their products to them

4:08

with their content. And that's

4:10

one truth. The second truth

4:13

is that people trust people. And

4:15

from my perspective, people trust more

4:17

people than they trust brands. And

4:20

here's this guy, Nick Huber, who

4:22

wrote a tweet a

4:24

few years, I believe last year

4:27

when he said that all his

4:29

accounts, all his companies that are

4:31

having their Twitter profile, he changed

4:33

his brand name with their CEO

4:36

names. And now he can

4:38

see a boosting in their sales, in

4:40

their engagement, and even in their followers,

4:42

because people don't want just to

4:45

connect with brands on social media,

4:47

people want to connect with people

4:49

on social media. And that's very

4:51

interesting when we are looking around

4:53

how people are consuming the content

4:56

that people are publishing, and also

4:58

the brands are publishing. And

5:00

the third true is that people follow

5:02

more people on social media than they

5:05

follow brands. So here's somehow this balance

5:07

that brands they want to be in

5:09

front of people, but people don't want

5:12

to consume their content. If it's

5:14

not, let's say, a more likable

5:16

content, or more engaging content, or

5:19

we all know that inspiration or

5:21

entertaining or even educational. So

5:24

here's a challenge for you. And I

5:26

somehow want to challenge you right now.

5:28

Because if you take your phone, and

5:31

you are looking, let's say, take

5:33

Instagram, or take TikTok, or take LinkedIn,

5:35

whatever, it doesn't matter. Just

5:37

look at how many brands do you

5:39

follow right now on social media? Just

5:41

look at your following how many brands

5:44

do you follow on social media? And

5:46

this doesn't matter like your company that

5:48

you're working there, or maybe the ones

5:50

that you are consuming every day, the

5:52

brands that you like the type of

5:55

content they are consuming versus how many

5:57

people do you follow on social

6:00

media. And that's very interesting because

6:02

we can say that social media

6:04

is getting more and more social.

6:07

So what does this mean right now

6:09

is that there is a big problem.

6:12

The problem is that building brand

6:14

pages on social media and

6:17

organic is very, very hard

6:19

because the platforms, they find

6:21

out that, OK, these

6:23

brands, they want to grow their businesses.

6:25

So these brands, they are having money

6:27

to invest in these platforms. So

6:31

we will, let's say, scale down

6:33

their reach, their engagement. So if

6:35

they want to grow, they need

6:37

to invest money. So the organic

6:39

growth on social media is getting

6:41

harder and harder and harder. If

6:43

you are a brand and you

6:45

want to grow your page, let's

6:47

say on LinkedIn or even if

6:49

you want to grow your page,

6:51

let's say on on Instagram or

6:53

on Facebook. And

6:56

the second one is that influencers,

6:58

they are working with more

7:00

and more brands. And lately, the

7:03

influencers are asking more money

7:05

and somehow they don't build,

7:07

let's say, a loyal trust

7:10

audience because today maybe

7:12

they are working with brand X, but

7:14

tomorrow they will work with brand, I

7:16

don't know, B or C or D

7:19

or A. So what does

7:21

this mean? Is that their audience, they

7:23

don't trust anymore because it's very, let's

7:26

say it's a problem for them

7:28

as influencers and content creators because

7:30

they are changing their brand. And

7:33

I heard this talk about these

7:35

influencers. They are somehow the walking

7:38

billboards of digital media

7:40

these days. So that's

7:43

the second problem is the context.

7:45

And the third problem is that

7:47

Patrick Campbell, he wrote on a

7:49

tweet, a tweet thread last year.

7:51

And he found out that the

7:53

customer acquisition cost increased by 108.9

7:55

percent. That

7:58

means that you really. need to invest

8:01

money. So now we are having

8:03

these effects and there are a

8:05

few effects that we can say

8:07

we are seeing around us. So

8:09

money will dictate the competition in

8:11

paid marketing and everything around marketing.

8:14

How much money you will invest in

8:16

your platforms, that's how much money you

8:18

will get from the platform. So it

8:21

will be let's say the big brands

8:23

can win in that but the small

8:25

brands need to be creative and there

8:27

will be a solution where I will

8:29

talk with you about it. So

8:31

the second effect is that AI

8:33

will flood every marketing channel and

8:35

yeah we can already see these

8:37

let's say AI generated content and

8:39

I'm not saying that's a problem,

8:41

I'm just saying that the AI will

8:44

flood more and more content. So

8:46

if you will see the content

8:48

that is published by your brand

8:50

page, you don't know if that will

8:52

be like a human created content or

8:54

it will be like a brand like

8:56

an AI created content. So

8:58

and the third one is that

9:01

business will fade because they will

9:03

avoid the conversation from human to

9:05

human and that's really a big

9:07

problem these days. So that's also

9:09

an effect but there's a

9:11

solution. So now that I

9:13

presented you the problem, the context that we

9:16

are living, there's a simple solution and here's

9:18

what I'm recommending right now is that we

9:20

don't need to create more content,

9:23

we need to cultivate in-house creators.

9:26

So let me give you an example. Your

9:28

company can publish one type of

9:31

content on let's say a multiple

9:33

channel but you can have like

9:35

a company like a brand

9:37

and you can have like I

9:39

don't know five different LinkedIn pages

9:41

or 10 different Instagram

9:43

profiles. You only can have like

9:46

one Instagram profile or one let's

9:48

say LinkedIn page if you are

9:50

let's say a small medium company.

9:52

So if you are changing the

9:54

game, you can just like hey

9:56

what if we are cultivating these

9:58

in-house creators and every of

10:00

one of these in-house creators,

10:02

they are having multiple pages.

10:04

Like you are working with

10:06

free creators and you're having your

10:09

in-house free creators. So now

10:11

you are having free type of

10:13

creators that are publishing on free

10:16

LinkedIn pages with the different audiences.

10:18

And now you're multiplying your audiences.

10:21

And let's give you an example.

10:23

There is Apollo I.O. So Apollo

10:25

I.O. right now in the Software

10:27

as a Service, let's say industry,

10:29

they are having the most engagement

10:32

on LinkedIn. And why is that?

10:34

Because they are employees, they are

10:36

creating content day by day by day. And

10:39

they are not just like, hey,

10:41

you should buy from Apollo, you

10:43

should buy our software. They are

10:45

building up their own audiences. And

10:47

whenever Apollo is launching a new

10:49

service or a new feature, or

10:52

they want to announce something and

10:54

these people really love, they are

10:56

enjoying working there, they will

10:58

get this idea, they will get this

11:00

topic and they will spread it because

11:02

they believe in this company. So that's

11:05

one benefit of having in-house creators

11:07

or spreading the message from

11:09

in-house from your company around

11:11

the multiple audiences. So

11:14

here's one benefit, the content

11:16

talent. And we all know

11:18

Amanda, Amanda Natividad. So I

11:20

didn't know who was Amanda

11:22

before she joined Spark Toro.

11:24

And when Rand Fishkin

11:26

talked about her on Twitter and

11:29

he welcomed her to the Spark Toro

11:31

team, I was like, okay, let's follow

11:33

Amanda and see what is she doing,

11:36

how is she creating content? And then

11:38

Amanda started like creating consistent content on

11:40

her Twitter and on her LinkedIn. Even

11:42

before that, she already started like

11:44

creating the content. But after she

11:46

was like hired at Spark Toro,

11:49

she took the Spark Toro blog

11:51

and she took the Spark Toro

11:53

newsletter and she took the Spark

11:55

Toro social media account and she

11:57

started making very conversational content. And

11:59

now, Rand, even

12:01

if Rand is a talent

12:03

on creating the content, now

12:05

he multiplied the SparkToro audience

12:07

by bringing Amanda in the

12:09

team. And now Amanda is

12:11

having this creator DNA in

12:13

herself and it's publishing the

12:15

content. And she published

12:17

the zero-click content and everybody in

12:20

the marketing industry is talking about

12:22

the zero-click content. And now Amanda,

12:24

she's let's say the face of

12:27

SparkToro. And this

12:29

is the one benefit when you

12:31

have like an in-house creator, you

12:33

have the content talent that is

12:35

understanding the platform, that is understanding

12:37

the audience, that is understanding the

12:39

struggle. Let's say the ICP, the

12:41

ideal client profile and that creator

12:44

knows how to create the kind

12:46

of content that is building a

12:48

bridge between the brand and the

12:50

audience. And the second benefit, it's

12:53

a distribution channel. So look at

12:55

when Amanda started like publishing the

12:57

zero-click content. And these are some

12:59

data from Beth Sumo that when

13:01

she started like writing the content

13:03

and after she published the SparkToro

13:06

zero-click content, they

13:08

started getting more and more backlinks.

13:10

And because it was, let's say

13:13

a very interesting topic, she started

13:15

getting more traction and maven.com invited

13:17

her, okay, you can do like

13:20

a cohort about content marketing. And

13:22

then other companies invited her in

13:24

their podcasts, in their webinars, even

13:27

at their conferences. And guess what

13:29

was her topic of presentation? It

13:31

was zero-click content. And

13:33

in her presentation, what was very

13:36

interesting is that every time she

13:38

discussed about the audience research,

13:40

the importance of understanding your

13:42

audience. And whenever she gets

13:44

to that topic, she went

13:46

directly to SparkToro. And now

13:48

we have this, let's say

13:50

the content flywheel where you

13:52

have this in-house creator and

13:54

it's changing the game. She's

13:57

not like doing the press releases.

14:00

just like, hey, okay, let's write a

14:02

copy and everybody will read it because

14:04

we are publishing it and we are

14:06

boosting with advertising. It's more humanly. So

14:09

that's the second benefit. The third

14:11

benefit of having an in-house creator,

14:13

it's an audience builder. Now,

14:15

if you look up SparkToro Twitter

14:18

profile, they are having like 21,000

14:20

followers and only three following. But

14:22

the way they are creating the

14:24

type of content is more directed

14:26

to their audience. And their

14:29

email newsletter is getting like

14:31

60,000 plus emails people

14:33

subscribe. And now let's

14:36

understand the SparkToro company. Behind

14:38

the SparkToro company, there are only three

14:40

people. There is Ren Siskin, who is

14:42

the CEO. There is Amanda, who is

14:44

the VP of marketing. And there is

14:46

Casey, who is the CTO. And yeah,

14:48

they are working with different consultants, but

14:51

there are only three people behind this

14:53

amazing product and amazing, let's

14:55

say, content that they are

14:57

publishing. And Ren and

15:00

Amanda, they are the in-house creators that

15:02

are creating the type of content and

15:04

they are putting their name there. So

15:07

whenever I will get like an

15:09

email from SparkToro, I know that

15:11

it's from Amanda or I know

15:13

that it's from Ren because they

15:15

are the one behind that are

15:17

creating and publishing the content. And

15:20

they are bringing new talent. Like let's

15:22

say whenever they are inviting for an

15:24

office hour or for a webinar, there

15:26

is Amanda that is connecting with their

15:29

guests. And now I'm having this familiar

15:31

face that I trust. And because I

15:33

am following, I will watch this webinar

15:36

because Amanda is now friends with

15:38

Brittany and okay, Brittany will say,

15:41

she will present her idea to

15:43

the SparkToro audience. So that's the

15:45

fourth benefit of having this in-house

15:47

creator. So there's

15:49

a solution of the second one.

15:51

The second solution is the founder

15:54

creator. Like what you're doing

15:56

right now, Chris, with the future, you

15:58

are the creator and you are are

16:00

the founder of the future and you

16:02

are presenting whatever you are doing at

16:04

the future and you're, let's say, like

16:06

a funnel, bringing the new lead. And

16:09

take for example, there are a lot

16:11

of examples from ConvertKit. We can see

16:14

that Nathan Berry, whenever he's talking about

16:16

ConvertKit, whenever he is talking about the

16:18

new features, he's just putting up

16:20

the content and building up audiences

16:23

and creating bridges between his audience

16:25

and ConvertKit. And there is Noah

16:28

Kagan. What's very interesting, every

16:31

time when Noah went to a podcast

16:34

interview discussing about the million

16:36

dollar week book, every

16:39

time he had like an Absuma

16:41

t-shirt or an Absuma hat,

16:43

and that brings a lot of

16:45

brand awareness for his company. And

16:48

then we have a support shepherd

16:50

where is Newcuber and Sean Furry,

16:52

whenever they are creating content and

16:54

maybe let's say whenever Sean is

16:56

publishing for My First Million, there

16:58

in the description, there is a link

17:01

between the My First Million audience

17:03

and the support shepherd. And just

17:05

like you, you are the type

17:07

of the founder that is having

17:09

the creator DNA. Whenever you are

17:11

going to a workshops or whenever

17:13

you are going to a presentation

17:15

and even these kinds of discussion,

17:17

you are taking these snippets and

17:19

you are creating the type of

17:21

flywheel content that is bringing you

17:23

new followers, building up the audiences

17:25

that next will be, let's say,

17:28

the user and the consumer of

17:30

your content. So let's

17:32

take Peter Caputa, who's the CEO of

17:34

Data Box. So Peter, he wrote a

17:36

very interesting LinkedIn post and he said

17:39

that he's posting on LinkedIn daily. And

17:41

what's the reason why is he posting

17:43

daily on LinkedIn? Because the Data Box

17:45

is like a big company right now.

17:48

So, and he doesn't like, Hey,

17:50

I don't have time to post on the social

17:52

media because I need to manage my team. So

17:54

these are the reasons that I took from this

17:56

idea because he wants to share his vision because

17:58

he wants to collect. He wants to learn

18:01

from others. He wants to connect

18:03

with his consumers, evangelize the product, validate the

18:05

ideas. So

18:07

these are the kind of, let's say, the

18:09

reasons why a CEO for this kind of

18:11

company is publishing daily. And

18:14

I believe that today he wrote a post

18:17

that he started publishing twice on LinkedIn. He's

18:20

doubled down on his content, just

18:22

building up his audience and doing

18:24

all this stuff that he wanted

18:26

to do with Databox by distributing

18:28

content on LinkedIn. So

18:31

that's why I really believe that

18:33

the in-house creators right now are

18:35

getting more and more traction, more

18:37

and more credibility than the

18:40

outside influencers. And

18:42

my third solution for our

18:44

earlier mentioned problem is that

18:47

you as a company and you as a

18:49

brand, you need to build your own media

18:51

platform. And that's very interesting

18:53

because I'm looking around

18:56

myself and I see these smart

18:58

creators and these smart founders that

19:00

understand that I'm a media company

19:02

right now. Publishing the content

19:04

is not just a way of doing

19:07

stuff because everybody is doing it. Because

19:09

I'm now creating the type of

19:12

content that is connecting me with

19:14

my prospects. And I'm going back

19:16

to Rensi Shkin. He started like

19:19

creating these five-minute whiteboards. And

19:21

he started educating his audience

19:24

around their audience and

19:26

around their user, let's say,

19:28

problems. And it's a five-minute

19:30

episodic content. And every week

19:33

he started publishing. And

19:35

you go on their website, you can watch

19:37

this video, you can read the transcript, and

19:40

just like triple down on the

19:42

content creation because Sparktoro is not

19:44

investing money in paid advertising. I

19:46

believe that Sparktoro right now, everything

19:48

they are doing, it's organic content

19:50

because they are having these faces,

19:52

the founder's face and also the

19:54

talent faces as Amanda is right

19:57

now. And then we have the

19:59

other side. have a hockey stack.

20:01

So here's hockey stack and what

20:04

hockey stack has done, they created

20:06

their own platform where you can

20:08

go and it's like let's say

20:11

like Netflix for B2B marketers, B2B

20:13

salesperson, and you can go right

20:15

there and watch all these shows

20:18

that are let's say directly

20:20

for the marketers problem directly

20:22

for the marketers need, because

20:24

I want to learn in

20:26

a different way. And they

20:28

are let's say tackling the idea

20:31

of okay, we can be funny,

20:33

we can be entertaining, but in

20:35

the same time, we can just

20:37

like point out different perspectives about

20:39

marketing different perspectives about sales. And

20:41

these are the ideas and these

20:43

are the topics their audiences are

20:45

struggling day by day. And that's

20:47

how they are building up their

20:49

brand. That's how they are building

20:51

up their audience and their community.

20:53

And episodic content is not

20:55

something that you're putting it's, it's

20:57

creating this element of anticipation

20:59

of content consumption. That's why

21:02

when I'm subscribing to a

21:04

YouTube channel, I have

21:06

this perspective of I want to

21:08

see next week another video and

21:11

I want to see maybe after

21:13

two weeks another video, and I

21:15

need this anticipation of content consumption

21:17

as a consumer, but also

21:20

from the other part as a content

21:22

creator, if you're just publishing content without

21:24

that kind of strategy that Joe Pulitzer

21:26

and Robert Rose are discussing in this

21:28

all the marketing, that's not

21:31

content strategy. That's just like pouring

21:33

out content without having a purpose.

21:35

So here's my advice on build your

21:37

own audience and how can you build

21:39

your own audience by creating

21:42

this attention flywheel and I divided

21:44

them in three simple parts. So

21:46

you're using social media to attract

21:48

the audience and now we let's

21:50

say with the short videos and

21:52

let's say with the short content,

21:54

you are attracting the audience on

21:57

your own profile on your own

21:59

let's say post and you're

22:01

engaging with them. And then you

22:03

are maintaining with the newsletter, with

22:05

the podcast, with the episodic content.

22:08

And after that, you're moving to where

22:11

you are converting these audiences by giving

22:13

them the product and the service. And

22:16

yes, you can attract attention with

22:18

social media. So I

22:20

have my friend Joseph Hill and

22:23

he created like a slide deck

22:25

where he gather all the ultimate,

22:27

let's say LinkedIn ad library. And

22:30

he created like a Google slide where

22:32

you didn't have to download the e-book.

22:34

You just had to ask him, hey,

22:36

give me this Google slide. And he

22:39

just send it over. And

22:41

I found out that he

22:43

started, let's say like a

22:45

template in how he's creating

22:47

this type of content and

22:50

attracting his audience's attention. And

22:52

you can see that he's having this

22:55

introduction where he's saying that, hey, I

22:57

spent like 100 hours on screenshotting the

22:59

best B2B ads on Google or maybe

23:01

on LinkedIn. And then he's

23:03

showing you like, what can you get in

23:06

this slide? And after that, he's moving to how

23:08

can you get it, the conclusion and the visuals.

23:11

And I'm moving back because now I can

23:13

see that he's having like 3.5K comments in

23:15

one post

23:18

on LinkedIn. And that brings him

23:20

the kind of attention he needed

23:23

to now launch his own B2B

23:25

ad company. It's time for a

23:27

quick break, but we'll be right back. Okay,

23:31

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a future.com/pro some are more

25:00

and join us in size

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as a conversation. And.

25:08

We're back to come back to our conversation.

25:12

The. Second example it's a team

25:14

Davidson and team Davidson He's using

25:17

the short videos publishing all link

25:19

dean and creating let's say of

25:21

movement around talking about be to

25:24

be problems Be to be marketing

25:26

idea be to be marketing is

25:28

to struggles by cutting fruits and

25:31

just like making it a little

25:33

bit funny but also interesting and

25:35

engaging enough for see him and

25:38

his audience out that's on the

25:40

other example that way to can

25:42

get. Like a boring. Seem. To

25:44

see and a lot of people are saying

25:47

that be to be it's boring and he

25:49

said like okay let's make boring funny. how

25:52

can you maintain attention with the newsletter

25:54

and that's how you maintain attention these

25:56

days and i told you about spark

25:58

thorough and i'm getting better to

26:00

Spartoro because even I

26:02

don't want to be at the mercy

26:04

of the social media algorithms. I want

26:07

to control the type of content that

26:09

I want to consume. So I'm subscribing

26:11

to these emails. And that's

26:14

how a creator is maintaining the attention,

26:16

not just only publishing on social media

26:18

and playing the algorithm game. They are

26:21

creating a connection in the email where

26:23

they own their audience. And that's how

26:25

Spartoro is doing right now with their

26:28

email. So you won't see here like,

26:30

hey, you should buy from us right now.

26:32

It's not something like whenever they are launching

26:34

a new feature, here is our new feature

26:37

by it, we are giving you discounts. And

26:39

that's how they are also maintaining attention with

26:42

their webinars, with their office hours. And

26:44

like I told you with the whiteboard

26:46

and even with the Spark

26:49

together event. And that was very

26:51

interesting with this Spark together because

26:53

their value proposition was you can

26:55

come, you can watch the event,

26:57

but we won't record it and

26:59

we won't send the record. So

27:01

it will be a one time

27:03

event, the presentation that these speakers

27:05

will share here. They won't share

27:07

it anymore on any stages. So

27:10

it was very unique perspective from

27:12

the type of company that Spartoro

27:14

is building up right now in

27:16

their industry. And how can

27:18

you convert the attention you are

27:20

giving them the product and the

27:22

services and okay, now I love

27:24

a Spark Toro and now that

27:26

I'm following the rent and I'm

27:29

also following Amanda and I'm subscribing

27:31

to their newsletter. I now want

27:33

to try this product. And

27:35

there is a CPA, a call

27:37

to action that I love from a creator

27:39

is called Justin Welsh. And he had, I

27:41

don't know if he's having any right now,

27:44

but he had this great CPA where he

27:46

said that whenever you are ready,

27:48

you can buy from me. And

27:50

the idea on whenever you are ready,

27:53

that's because he's building up his

27:55

audience and he lets the audience

27:57

and he led the clients to

27:59

decide whenever now I'm ready. Now I want

28:01

to buy from you because you gave me so

28:03

much value. I want to give you back and

28:05

I want to buy from you. So

28:08

these are my conclusions right now. And

28:10

the first one is, I believe that right

28:12

now, life is too short to work for

28:14

a company that doesn't value employee personal brand.

28:17

And if a company doesn't

28:19

understand that when an employee and

28:22

it's building up their personal brand, they

28:24

are somehow, let's say, afraid that, hey,

28:27

maybe this employee will go away, or

28:29

maybe this employee, they are not, let's

28:31

say, grateful for working for us. But

28:34

there is an opportunity on letting

28:36

these employees build up their personal

28:38

brand. And now they can be

28:40

the voice of their company. My

28:43

second conclusion is that a powerful

28:45

vision encourage a culture of in-house

28:47

creator. And whenever I

28:49

can watch around me and I

28:52

can watch the companies like Leventher,

28:54

AI, or the ClickUp companies, they

28:56

are encouraging people to create content

28:59

and just like building up their

29:01

personal band and being the in-house

29:04

creator. And here's an example,

29:06

like, I really love how

29:08

Dave Garrett, he built up his

29:10

personal brand by creating, let's say,

29:13

this type of content with David

29:15

Kansall, who's the CEO of Drift.

29:17

And they created like podcasts, different

29:19

events, writing up. He even wrote

29:21

his book, Dave Garrett, and now

29:24

he's building his B2B marketing community.

29:26

But that was very interesting because

29:28

David saw in Dave Garrett, this,

29:30

let's say, the kind of person

29:32

that can share whatever the company

29:35

is doing and share the

29:37

company's, let's say, perspective

29:39

and vision with his audience. And

29:42

if we go back years later,

29:44

we can see that

29:46

Dave started like talking about

29:48

what Drift is doing. And

29:51

he was just like not presenting the

29:53

press releases and just like sharing the

29:55

blog posts. He had his own opinion

29:57

about the market. And that's... how

30:00

Dave started building up his personal

30:02

brand and now he's building his

30:04

B2B media company. And

30:07

the third conclusion is just like

30:09

you don't just create content and

30:11

publish there, you are cultivating in-house

30:13

creators. And that's the idea that

30:16

even Jay Akunzo discussed with his

30:18

community and lately I saw the

30:20

guys from the marketing against the

30:22

grain where they say that paid

30:25

advertising or asking more and more

30:27

money and the influencer you don't

30:29

trust anymore in them. So why

30:31

not cultivate these in-house creators in

30:33

your company like building up these

30:35

programs. So your employees that understand

30:37

the industry that understand the product

30:40

or the service can easily create

30:42

content. We only need some education,

30:44

some training and just some direction.

30:47

But I believe that when you

30:50

are investing in your own employees

30:52

and they will talk about the

30:54

company product or the company service

30:56

or the industry struggle, they can

30:58

share let's say a more trustworthy

31:00

and the bigger authority between the

31:03

company and the audience. And

31:05

your employee they are the brand MVP.

31:07

So stick to that, take care of

31:10

them and make sure that they are

31:12

happy. And when your employees are happy,

31:14

your company will get even more and

31:16

more traction because your employee will talk

31:19

about your brand and whatever your brand

31:21

is, whatever your company is doing. And

31:23

also build up your personal brand is

31:26

the byproduct of helping other

31:29

people. That's I really believe that

31:31

whenever I hear that, hey, I'm

31:33

building up my personal brand and

31:35

I'm just going on these person

31:37

profiles and I can't see

31:39

any comments on their profile. They

31:42

are not engaging in comments. They are

31:44

not going and helping people. They are

31:46

just like bragging up, but they are

31:48

saying that they are building up their

31:50

personal brand. That's not building up your

31:52

personal brand. That's it's just like feeding

31:54

your ego. What I really believe it's

31:56

building up your personal brand. It's the

31:58

byproduct of helping other people. helping others.

32:00

Like whenever you are going in comments

32:02

and helping people or going in DM

32:05

and whenever they are asking you for

32:07

something just like directly maybe and connecting

32:09

with someone or connecting with your content

32:11

that maybe for you it's something like

32:13

usual but for them it can be

32:15

like a solution for their problem. How

32:18

is what you're talking about with in-house

32:20

creators different than say the traditional brand

32:23

evangelists who are content creators who are hired

32:25

in-house who talk about certain things how do

32:27

you see the difference between those two things?

32:30

The in-house creators that's very interesting and

32:32

I'm thinking a lot about this stuff

32:34

because there are the brand

32:36

evangelists there are the in-house creators and

32:38

there's the third one there are the

32:40

brand ambassadors. So these

32:42

are let's say very different because

32:44

with the brand evangelists and the

32:46

brand ambassadors they are investing money

32:48

and they are having these kind

32:50

of schedules and they are very

32:53

intangible like you can't touch these

32:55

brand evangelists because they are having

32:57

one purpose to promote the brand

32:59

to promote the company but the

33:01

in-house creators they are having in

33:03

their DNA to create content around

33:05

the problem to create the content

33:07

around let's say the brand around

33:10

the industry and they understand the

33:12

industry better than these brand evangelists

33:15

because these in-house creators are

33:17

more directly to the audience they

33:19

are more connecting directly to their

33:21

audience. Most interesting is that you

33:23

don't need to have like hundreds of

33:25

thousands of followers on LinkedIn or maybe

33:27

on Twitter to be an in-house creator

33:29

you can start with your 200 people

33:32

that are following you

33:34

around on LinkedIn and just discuss

33:36

about how your company is helping

33:38

maybe a client or how your

33:40

company can solve a big problem

33:42

or an industrial problem

33:44

but the brand evangelists they are

33:46

going on the stage they are

33:48

writing the books it's more like

33:50

a more like a press related

33:53

strategy and what's interesting is

33:55

that I saw lately that consumers are

33:57

more and more aware that these kinds

33:59

of those people, they

34:01

have one purpose, to market them. But

34:04

the in-house creators are having another purpose to

34:06

help. And there's a big difference for me.

34:08

From a practical point of view, say, for

34:10

example, like right now, I run a company,

34:12

I have a decent sized social media following.

34:14

And say one day I wake up and

34:16

I say, ah, I don't want to run

34:18

a company more. I want to become

34:20

an in-house creator for one of these brands. Do

34:23

I then start a new profile or do

34:25

I use my existing profiles and

34:28

become an in-house creator? Because

34:30

does the content I made before make sense now

34:33

in my new role as, say,

34:35

as a creator for Spark Toro? You

34:37

can be like very transparent and I'm, let's

34:40

say, a more transparent person. And I

34:42

really believe in, hey, I'm starting this

34:44

new role. I really believe in this

34:47

new company. So from now on, I

34:49

will start discussing about these topics. So

34:51

if I can help you, just let

34:53

me know. And I saw

34:56

these days, I believe one creator and

34:58

I'm, it's just like in top of

35:00

my mind that he said

35:02

that, hey, I'm starting a new role.

35:04

It's a new company. I

35:06

know that before you knew me about that,

35:08

I was the marketing manager for this company.

35:11

But now that after a lot of this

35:13

conversation with these managers and the founder and

35:15

the CEO, I somehow believe

35:18

in their vision. So from now

35:20

on, I will start discussing about

35:22

this topic. And it's not

35:24

like a very, let's say, complicated idea. You

35:26

just start like, just like starting

35:29

like a new strategy,

35:31

like a new behavior. So if

35:33

I want to go on a diet, I will talk

35:36

with my friends. I will say like, hey, from now

35:38

on, whenever you will see me with a donut, just

35:40

tell me that stop with that donut. Because

35:42

I want to be a new person. And

35:45

it doesn't mean like before I ate those

35:47

donuts. Now I, let's say, want

35:49

to start a new life. So that's, that's how

35:51

I see it right now. I

35:53

understand. So I've been working on

35:55

content, teaching people how to run their creative

35:58

business. And if I go. of the SparkToro,

36:00

I'm gonna be talking about something very different.

36:03

But as you and I know, not all jobs

36:05

last forever. So in two years'

36:07

time after I start, they have changes in direction

36:09

or I don't want to work there anymore. What

36:12

I'm going to do with this period of like

36:14

talking about SparkToro related problems,

36:16

building community around it, helping people solve

36:18

problems, do I then go back and

36:21

delete all that content? Because

36:23

it's going to seem really strange. No,

36:25

no way. Don't delete those content because

36:28

those content are your thoughts. So

36:31

you're not just talking about the

36:33

product. You're not just talking about,

36:35

let's say, the service. You're also

36:37

talking about yourself because

36:39

that's also another benefit of having

36:41

these in-house creators because they are

36:44

more like human, let's say, related

36:46

content than having these brand ambassadors

36:48

that they need to share the

36:50

content or they need to, let's

36:53

say, write something about the product.

36:56

And whenever you are writing these

36:58

content about the product, about your

37:00

life, about your struggle, about the

37:02

industry, you're building up, let's say,

37:04

this authority and people are starting

37:06

following you. You're a great

37:08

example. And a few

37:10

years ago, you wrote a lot about, let's

37:12

say, what you've done with blind, but

37:15

then you changed it on the future.

37:17

You didn't delete your post about blind

37:19

because if you go back, you also

37:22

have the blind company, right? And

37:25

that's interesting because you just

37:27

changed it and you didn't like, Hey, I don't

37:29

feel it. I will change it. I

37:31

will delete it. You don't change the direction. And

37:34

that's the part of who you are. And people,

37:37

they want to see transparency. And

37:40

if you are, let's say, changing the

37:42

company, that's great. There

37:44

is a risk and I understand companies maybe

37:46

will say like, Hey man, there's a risk

37:48

to invest in these people that maybe they

37:51

will go and maybe they want to change

37:53

the company and maybe they will go to

37:55

another company. That's great because

37:57

now you can say like, okay, I invested

37:59

in. these companies and whenever that in-house creator

38:01

will say like, hey man, I will go

38:04

to another company. Okay,

38:06

is there any chance you can do a

38:08

shout out to our company like, hey, I

38:10

will leave this role. Here's an open space.

38:12

Whenever if you feel like, let me know.

38:15

Now, it's more likely to build up

38:17

and find the new talent around

38:20

your old, let's say, in-house

38:22

creator. Well, so here's the thing

38:24

though. As a thought

38:26

leader, as a content creator, I

38:29

often actually go in and prune content I

38:31

don't think is the right vibe or I've

38:34

grown and I don't want to talk about that anymore.

38:36

So I'd literally go back and I delete stuff all

38:38

the time. So you'd have to go

38:40

pretty far back and I'm not sure there's anything left where

38:42

I'm talking about blind. So I've

38:45

gone through because here's my thought process. If

38:47

somebody is interested in following me on social, they're going to

38:49

look at a few things and if it feels like it's

38:52

all over the place, they're not going to

38:54

follow you. This is the advice that you want to

38:56

give people. Like you can't be all over the place

38:58

because to know is like, are you a food guy?

39:00

Are you a tech person? Are you a business person?

39:02

If you're food tech and business, it's very

39:05

confusing for the audience because the

39:07

person who tunes in for the food stuff gets turned off

39:09

by the tech stuff and vice

39:11

versa. So I think there's

39:13

a natural pruning of stuff. So you're just saying you

39:16

don't have to change anything about you. Whatever

39:18

you do consistently before you become an in-house

39:20

creator, you can continue doing after. Is that

39:22

about right? Yeah. Okay. So

39:24

if you never edit and you're always transparent, don't

39:26

edit and always be transparent. If

39:28

you're more curatorial, then you can continue to be that way.

39:31

And that's not going to be a problem. Yeah,

39:33

I don't see it like A or B. It

39:35

can be also A or it can be also

39:37

B. But in the, that

39:40

may be how is more comfortable for the

39:42

creator. And if for the

39:44

creator, that's comfortable to delete these, let's

39:46

say the old content, that's fine. If

39:49

people will ask you like, hey, why did

39:51

you delete these old, let's say, posts? Because

39:53

now I want to change my life and

39:55

that's okay. But if you

39:57

want to let them right there. For

40:00

example, I was let's say

40:02

a content marketing manager for a

40:04

SaaS company, Creatopy, former Banner Snack.

40:06

So I created a lot of

40:09

content around that. I created guest

40:11

posts, I spoke at conferences. So

40:13

now I need to go back and just

40:15

like delete them. For now it's like, okay,

40:18

it's there. So if I said something that

40:20

maybe it wasn't right there or maybe it's

40:22

different mindset from what was a few years

40:24

ago, that's okay. If not,

40:27

then I won't delete it.

40:29

Okay, I'm excited. I'm a content creator and

40:31

I want to be placed inside of a

40:33

company because this sounds great. Sounds like a

40:35

dream job. How much

40:37

money can I make doing this? Like what is the salary

40:39

for someone to do this as an in-house creator? That's

40:42

really depending on how can you let's say

40:44

talk with your manager and how

40:46

much money and how much results can you bring

40:48

on the table? So I believe

40:50

that you can maybe get maybe 25, 35,

40:52

even 50% on your salary right now with

40:57

this strategy. Because if you are showing

40:59

the marketing perspective, the business perspective and

41:01

also maybe you can just like let's

41:04

say track the measurement of them. This

41:06

even can help them. Let's say save

41:08

money on hey, don't

41:10

invest in that press release. Invest

41:12

those money in my content. Let's see how

41:15

it will go. You're seeing 23% increase on

41:17

the amount of money you're making, right? Increase,

41:19

increase. Yeah, so ballpark figure though, what kind

41:21

of numbers are you hearing between this number

41:23

and that number in US currency? What are

41:25

you thinking? Let's say 3000, 4000 per month.

41:30

But that's only by just doing your

41:32

job and in between you can create

41:34

content and connect with your audience. So

41:36

it's just like having a hobby on

41:38

creating these type of content on your own

41:41

platform. And you can make your manager happy.

41:43

So now let's say that I'm a brand

41:45

and I'm watching this video. I'm

41:48

very excited. I'm like, oh my gosh, what Robert's saying

41:50

is making total sense to me. I

41:52

need to bring somebody in. What do

41:54

I need to be prepared to find the right

41:56

person? Like who, what are the top

41:58

three traits you look for in? considering

42:00

someone to be an in-house creator for your

42:02

brand? So first of all, they

42:04

need to be passionate about the product, the

42:07

brand, the service. The

42:09

second of all, you need to go

42:11

out on their social media, let's say,

42:13

and if they are starting, let's say,

42:15

creating the type of content and maybe

42:17

sharing your company's ideas, you can go

42:19

from there. And the third one, you

42:21

can go and talk, discuss with them,

42:23

hey, you have a voice, you

42:25

have an idea, you know the industry. What if

42:28

we are training you to create the type

42:30

of content that will help you engage with

42:32

a bigger audience, and maybe we can just

42:34

do like a webinar with you because you

42:37

understand the industry. You don't need

42:39

to be a marketer, you don't need to be a social

42:41

media manager, you can be or a customer. You

42:43

can be, let's say, a software engineer.

42:45

You can be, let's say, a designer

42:48

and just discuss about the UI and

42:50

the UI behind your stats and do

42:52

a webinar. So if

42:54

you can bring like 100 designers on

42:56

that webinar, there's maybe your

42:58

next hire, or

43:01

maybe your next colleagues that want to work with

43:03

you. Okay. So

43:06

underneath that is they probably have

43:08

to be somewhat sociable, at

43:10

least on social media. They have

43:12

to be a good communicator and they

43:15

probably have to like talking to people

43:17

and they love the idea of writing and creating

43:19

content. Is that about right? Yeah. Well,

43:22

this is a real interesting take

43:24

on this idea of personal branding

43:26

mixed with corporate branding and a

43:28

novel solution and something I had

43:30

not heard before. Hey

43:32

Robert, if people are interested in

43:34

building in-house creator programs, how

43:37

do they get in touch with you?

43:39

They can follow me on LinkedIn and

43:41

they can write Matt Robert at robertkatai.com

43:43

or they can go on my newsletter

43:45

and subscribe to my newsletter, theb2bcreator.com. Thanks

43:48

very much for sharing that with me,

43:50

Robert. Thank you very much for inviting

43:52

me. for

44:00

joining us. If you haven't

44:02

already, subscribe to our show on your

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Future Podcast is hosted by Chris Do and

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44:14

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44:18

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44:41

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