Why Marketing Takes Time

Most people think marketing is a switch you flip and revenue magically appears. We’ve seen the opposite: marketing works when you respect the delay, track the right numbers, and stop treating ads like a lottery ticket. George and Robby get blunt about what they see at almost every event: nearly everyone is running paid ads, yet most can’t explain what’s happening on their website, what changed this month, or why their “SEO isn’t working” after only a few weeks.

We unpack what actually makes marketing feel safe: education and attribution. That means understanding the metrics that show progress before the sales roll in, using proper tracking, and setting expectations that match reality in construction marketing and other service businesses. We also dig into how to choose a marketing agency in a world with a near-zero barrier to entry, why $500-a-month offers often fall apart, and how to compare scope so you’re not buying a cheap version of something you don’t understand.

Then we zoom out to branding and content marketing. Social media is work, and the algorithm is changing fast, but attention follows platforms and consistency beats perfection. We connect that to sales: speed to lead, call handling, and why “bad leads” are sometimes a sales problem hiding behind ad spend. If you want more qualified inquiries, higher converting websites, and a brand that opens doors years later, this is the mindset and the system.

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Transcript

Why Everyone Runs Paid Ads

George 0:00

Do you know what surprises it doesn't actually surprise me? Do you know what I see time in, time out, day in, day out, at every single event, and it's it's almost as certain as death and taxes. Do you know what it is? When you ask people, put your hand up in the room if you are running paid ads right now. And every single time, it's 95% of the room, hands down. And even the five that put them their hands up, it's like I I boost my post. I put$30 and boost my post, and that's marketing.

Robby 0:38

Boosting's great. Um, you know, just do that and do not employ a marketer. I um humans are slow to adapt.

George 0:48

Like we are. This is nothing new. What the marketing running marketing campaigns.

Robby 0:54

I think most people who have big businesses market.

George 0:57

Yeah, but small businesses should not.

Robby 1:00

No, they just uh they're not aware of it. It's new information to them, and we're slow to adapt. Speaking of adapting, I um recently went to buy a Mac Mini.

George 1:10

Yes, yeah.

Humans Adapt Slower Than You Think

Robby 1:11

So this whole thing around the AI thing and plugging it into Mac Mini, blah blah blah. And I went to buy one and I couldn't find one. Australia-wide. Dude, I could not find one. Yeah, I went to JB, went to Apple, went everywhere. And I was under the impression that I'd missed the boat. I was like, oh my god, like this has taken off and I've missed the boat. I can't believe it. But then I remembered people take long to adapt, they're not fast to make change. Yeah, uh, and it turns out that Apple had reduced the stock because they're upgrading it or something and a couple of it sold, but then Officeworks had one, so I was able to get on. Um, humans don't take action immediately. They don't, they are super, super, super slow, dude. I had a conversation with someone um I've had this conversation many times where people will sign up to a marketing service and then within like a short span, like they'll be like, hey, um my SEO hasn't worked. And I'll be like, well, what do you mean? You'll be like, yeah, like it hasn't worked. I'm like, dude, you've been doing it for four weeks. Oh, you've been doing it for four months. No one ever said you're just gonna work within four months. But I think people don't understand what to look for. They don't understand the parameters that they need to measure to say, okay, cool, like the the I haven't got the sale yet, but I can see things climbing or things tracking. Yeah, you know what I mean? It's like imagine if you had to train at the gym for six months before you actually lost weight. How many people train? Not many. And I I think that's the it's the delayed effect.

George 2:54

Yeah, and that's the biggest thing with marketing. What I find is it's the disconnect from the money they invest to the unknown. They they it's like I'm gonna put$10,000 in and they don't know if it's gonna work. They don't put they don't give you$10K and then get something back straight away. It's not like here's your money, there's the jobs. Thanks. It's a delayed effect. It's the yeah, it's they have to it will delayed gratification, I guess. They don't get that back initially, and it's kind of a leap of faith, which I've also found from because now I'm doing the coaching and mentoring.

Robby 3:26

It's not it's not a leap of faith, it's a leap of faith from if you don't understand it. Correct. You're like, okay, I have to go and put my money into this thing, and I'm definitely not gonna make a back straight away, like that's guaranteed, and I don't know what's happening. And it's like, well, of course, like that's like saying I'm gonna go, I'm gonna drive, and I'm gonna blindfold myself, and I don't know how to use a car, and yeah, this is a leap of faith. Imagine every time you jumped in a car was a leap of faith. Or you could jump in, learn what you're doing, and then jump in and you're like, of course, I know what's going on. Yeah, yeah, I know, I understand everything. I understand all these numbers on my in front of me. I understand how much fuel I've got left, I understand how much I've driven, when it's due for a service, because you understand, you get taught that. Yeah, you you weren't born knowing that. Oh, that's a fuel gauge, yeah. No, I knew that when I was three months. Sorry, yeah. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like you gotta learn what those metrics are, and it's like the lack of education around the thing, and then the lack of uh attribution, which is like tracking, yeah. Like most people don't know what's happening on their website, most people don't know and I hands up, I never knew. And even right now, like dude, there's points in where you you have to learn it. Yeah, you get to a point where you're like, okay, cool. Like now I can start to see my website traffic is increasing. Okay, this is headed in the right direction.

George 4:48

Yeah, I reckon 99% of people wouldn't even know what their traffic is doing on their website. Yeah, no idea. Yeah, no idea. And or would they know how to see it or find it or anything like that? Yeah. And admittedly, when I started my business, I don't fucking know. But everyone Google sends me a report every month and says, Oh, you got 20% more people ask for directions to your shop. I'm like, where the fuck are they? I haven't seen them walking through the door, you know. So that's the only metrics I would ever see for the longest time until I gave everything to yourself. And now you send me monthly reports that I also don't read. So I just dude. But but I pay the way I see it, like I'm paying, I trust you wholeheartedly to do it for me. So I pay you to do it.

Robby 5:26

You should still understand.

George 5:27

Of course, of course. And I do you can I say I don't when I say I don't read it, I skim through it and I'll ask a question if I have a question. I'll just send it to Just what's that mean? What's this mean? And he's like, Yeah, this. I'm like, all right, cool. Um but what makes a good marketing company or a good marketer and what makes a bad one? Because before yourself, I'd tried other marketing companies and they didn't really deliver. You know, what's what is it? What's the determining factor? Because it's uh you're talking about that trust in this person, and it's like every business owner says that I tried them and they didn't work, or marketing doesn't work, I tried it once. And they're trying to market or bring, you know, build, get a project, let's just use construction, for example, trying to win a project with a$500 ad spend for six months or a hundred bucks a month or$500 a month. Well, there's just a really small amount, is what I'm getting at. So, what makes a good marketing company and what makes a bad one? What would you like? Okay, I'm George. I've never marketed before, but I know I need to do it. Robbie, what uh what should I be looking for in a marketing company?

Why SEO Feels Like It Fails

Robby 6:31

You know, I think um I reckon most of the business we win, we win because people say, like, I don't promise. Like, I don't sit there, like I think most people in this space, especially, there's no barrier to entry. A kid can run an ad. Yeah, he just needs a debit card. Maybe not in Australia. Maybe he's gotta be over 16 in Australia. But um a kid can run an ad. It doesn't, you don't have to show age verification, you don't have to show that you're over 18, you don't have to show that you're an adult, you don't have to nothing. You don't even have to verify the banking card you put on. Most of the time, clients give us the card and we add it to their account.

SPEAKER_04 7:07

Yeah, right.

Robby 7:08

Like you don't have to do any of that. All you need to do is be able to log onto a computer and have access to a card and you can run ads. So the barrier to entry is super, super, super low. Right? Like super low. There's almost nothing stopping you. Yep. And I think when you have a workspace like that, and people can enter here, and most people on the other side, so that there's the suppliers and the consumers, right? If the suppliers don't have to have great knowledge, they can enter. They don't have to be qualified, they don't have to have done anything, and the consumers tend to have no idea. They go with the cheapest person, they end up getting burnt, right? Because the person says, I'll do your SEO for$300 a month. Yeah. And it's like, okay, what are they doing for$300 a month?

George 7:54

Yeah, and I'd probably get 400 emails like that everywhere, every day.

Robby 7:57

Yeah, but like, what are they doing? Like, this is where, but this is where I think business owners should take responsibility.

George 8:02

Yeah.

Robby 8:02

Oh, you know, I fired they fucked me. It's like, no, no, you gave your money to someone who was not qualified to do it. And it's like, take some responsibility. And yes, can you be fucked by an agency? Yes, yes, you can. 100%. You can be fucked by your florist.

George 8:17

Like anyone can can take advantage of you. If florists take advantage of you. If I'm lucky.

Robby 8:24

Yeah, but I think like you you gotta look at it from both sides, right? And then people come in and they don't do the they don't they don't understand business, dude. Or they're like people who might have some level of understanding of business think that the social platform has a like it's oh you you know the buttons to press. It's like it's not a fucking button, dude. Like there's no, you know what I mean? You want to learn how to use the interface, watch a YouTube video.

George 8:48

Yeah, it'll be there.

Robby 8:49

Yeah, it'll be there. Like there is no silver bullet, there's no secret. Um, and I think people are always looking for that, you know, and they come to you and they expect you to work something out for their business that they haven't even worked out, and they're like, Oh yeah, can you come and um you know, oh yeah, yeah, you can get us leads, get us leads. And I I I never guarantee leads. Had did at one point, and then you just realize that you get the wrong kind of individual, you know, and you and as a as an agency owner, you want to work with people who are invested in their own business, dude. Not someone who's come into I've had this conversation where I've had to say, hey, like I'm on your team. Yeah, I'm not like it's not me versus you, dude. It's me and you versus the world. Yep.

George 9:31

And that was my biggest uh beef with some previous marketing companies. They used to come to me and say, We here's our ad strategy for you. Okay, and they're like, do this, you we'll we'll manage your ads for this much. Um, this is your ad spend, this is this, this is that, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, okay, cool. Not once have I ever seen any of their ads. Like, are you running ads now? Oh, no, not at the moment. What? Like, you're not practicing what you preach. I had so many companies that were running, that were marketing companies that I dealt with not running their own ads. And I'm like, man, how could you be telling me to run my ads and you don't run ads? You believe in it so wholeheartedly, and you believe you can get me the results and get more business for me when you can't do it for yourself or not doing it for yourself. So that was a barrier for myself when I was looking at a um to engage a marketing company. Yeah, I I think um there's there's And I'm sure they don't have to market 24-7.

Metrics That Prove Progress Early

Robby 10:24

Yeah, but there's a couple of different things you can look at there as well. It's like, what's the business model? Are you B2C? Are they B2B? Blah, blah, blah. It's like saying to me, Oh, you can't run TikTok ads because you're not running TikTok ads right now. And it's like, well, TikTok ads might not work for me, they might work for you. Yes, yes. But the the individual has to be well informed on both sides, like the the agency side and uh the person who's engaging the agency.

George 10:47

Yeah, so why do you think there's some companies out there that could charge$10,000 a month to run someone's ad, and then there's a person out there that will do it for$500? So, where if you're saying there's no barrier to entry, if I is it possible for me to find a gun that's gonna run my ads for$500 a month comparatively to someone that's gonna run it for$10,000? Like, is there a difference between the two?

Robby 11:08

So can I give you a different example? We we built websites. Our starting price for websites, eight thousand dollars. That's the uh the starting price.

SPEAKER_04 11:22

Yeah, okay.

Robby 11:22

So anything we do is eight thousand dollars plus. I had a conversation yesterday with a builder building for 25 years, and he asked the same question. He said, All right, he's like, listen, he goes, everything you're saying makes sense. He goes, I completely understand. I agree, he goes, everything you said logically, I agree with there's nothing I disagree with. He goes, But can I ask you a question? I said, sure. He goes, that's your price. He goes, and that's your price, and that's fair. He goes, but can you tell me what's the difference between you and I've spoken to someone else and they can build a website for 1500?

George 11:57

Yep.

Robby 11:58

Uh and such a good question. Yeah. And I was like, of course. And I love to I think one thing I've done really well, and tell me if I'm wrong, but I I think I can speak to people in their language.

George 12:12

Yeah, I agree.

Robby 12:13

Like I don't talk, I don't talk marketing jargon.

George 12:15

No, I don't get it. But it's not just you're not when I feel that when we when you have a conversation with someone, you're not you don't pitch the sale, you tell it as it is. You're still selling, but you're saying it, you're doing it in a way that's hey, as you said, I'm on your team. This is what I do. You like it or you don't.

Choosing A Marketer You Can Trust

Robby 12:32

So um I I I'm a big fan of Alex Moisi and all his work. I think the most valuable thing I've ever gotten from him is his sales handbook. Okay. And I think this is in his sales handbook, and he talks about how the job of the sale is actually not your job of the sale is to help them make a decision. And sometimes that decision is not to buy your product. And that's okay. Like you've done your job as a salesperson. If you go in and you're like, I need to close this, I need to close this, I need it's like then you start like you need something else. I'm like, nah, George, get the website, get the website, George. And it's like, no, no, that's not you, that's a bad salesperson. Do you know what I mean? Selling ice to an Eskimo, you're not a good fucking human. A good salesperson helps the person make the decision and they provide enough information, which is what most people need to make a decision. You provide enough information and then they decide whether it's right for them or not. And you help them make the decision. Cool.

George 13:30

So back to that question uh 1500 versus eight eight thousand. Why am I not speaking to um Hajib from Bangladesh for 1500 bucks? Hajib, it's good look. 1500 bucks, mate. Why am I paying you 8k? Yeah, of course. Is that because petrol's expensive in Victoria? So I'll tell you what I said to him.

Robby 13:51

Yes, it is. Yeah, it's all fuel related. I'll tell you everything is fuel related. I'll tell you what I said to him exactly. And I said, Um, are you always the cheapest builder? I said, Can I ask you a question? He goes, Yeah. I said, Are you always the cheapest builder when you put in for a tender? And he goes, No. And I said, Okay. I said, um, so the difference between you and the cheapest builder, how does that person make the price cheaper? And he goes, Oh, he's not doing the same thing I'm doing. I said, Yeah. I said, but from the outside, if I look at the building, yeah, I'm got two prices.

George 14:20

I want to, these are the plans, build it for me.

Robby 14:22

Yeah, and I said, but from the outside, I'm probably not gonna notice the things that he cut out. Like he might have done something outside of compliance or used a shit of cut in timber or a shitter steel, whatever it is. Like, I'm not a builder. You know how to cut corners, not you, yeah. I was talking to him, you know how to cut corners in that space. I was like, and people do. I said, This is the exact same thing, man. I said, but here's the thing: I use houses, so I know buildings better than you know websites, and I'm telling you that they would be able to hide shit from me. So how much shit are these people gonna hide from you? I said, I've done an itemized, we've got an itemized breakdown of what we include. Here's everything. Ask them if they're doing everything included in here.

George 15:03

Yeah.

Robby 15:03

Like, and are you actually comparing apples with apples?

George 15:06

And it's just education, though. It is, it's education, people don't know. And until you sit down and educate them, like that's part of your, as you said, it's part of your sales responsibility when you're selling to someone is to give them the information. You can't make the decision decision for them, but you have to give them the information so they can make an informed decision.

SPEAKER_04 15:22

Yeah.

George 15:23

And I th and that's why I always encourage when I'm putting an offer for it to someone, say, yeah, compare my price to someone else. Like, here's all my inclusions. I promise you, they haven't allowed for all this stuff. I know they haven't. I can tell with their pricing. So yeah, that that's exactly um, I think that's where you have to educate the person on going because if you just said uh websites are eight grand, like you'd you'd lose more than you win. Of course. You haven't you haven't built up the value. That's right. You haven't shown them the value in exactly what you're doing. Yeah, what's what's different?

Robby 15:53

I'm comparing if I'm comparing apples with apples here. This is eight grand, this is two grand, how do I get value as a consumer? I'm gonna go with the cheaper person.

George 16:00

Yeah, exactly.

Robby 16:00

It's the same thing.

George 16:01

And that could be and don't get me wrong, my very first website I built myself on Squarespace, and it looked good. Like it visually, it was a good looking website. It had its tabs, it had the pages, it had called out, like, you know, get in touch with us, all that sort of shit. But was it a high-converting website? No, it was a it was a billboard in the desert, it wasn't encouraging traffic, it didn't have a whole range of things, pixels in it and shit like that, which I didn't even like. I was learning as I was going. And I didn't understand what they were and how they worked, and you have to link it to Facebook and Instagram and Google and all this sort of shit. And as a result, someone searched Melbourne Home Builder or Luxury Home or Architectural Home Builder Melbourne. I was on the 483rd page.

Robby 16:44

Yeah, that's where that's where websites got to die. That's it, and that's where I was. Yeah, but it's it's like there's two sides to it, dude. Yes, okay, there's people who make all these promises, but I think there's people who make promises in every industry. Do you know what I mean? And I'm not I'm not defending these people who make all these promises, but the other side is like, how do you, as a as a business owner, how do you take responsibility for it? Do you know what I mean? How do you I I almost never, almost never speak to someone who hasn't been burnt. I buy a marketing company. Yeah, yeah, then no, as in by a marketing company. Yeah, they're like, yeah, well, nah, we've worked with so and so, they fucked us.

George 17:23

Well, I wouldn't say I've been burnt, I just would say I haven't had the result, the desired result.

Robby 17:28

When I say burnt, people are like, they'd spent money, haven't gotten what they wanted. Yeah, that's a burn.

George 17:33

Yeah, yeah, okay. Then that's happened to me then.

Robby 17:35

If that's your definition of I think, well, it's kind of you're probably so far away from it now because it's been so long. Yeah, but I think at the time you would have been fucking shitty.

George 17:44

Yeah, probably.

Robby 17:45

Yeah, you'd have been like, fuck these guys, man. What the hell? Like, what have what have I paid for here?

George 17:49

Oh, actually, no, I know a company. And so do you.

Robby 17:53

There you go.

George 17:54

Yeah.

Robby 17:54

Um, right. And you'd be like, what the fuck have I paid for here? Like I've just spent$10,000,$15,000,$20,000.

George 18:00

I remember I spent$20K with this.

Robby 18:01

Yeah, and you're like, what is happening?

Why Cheap Services Cut Corners

George 18:03

Plus ad spend. So it's$20K plus ad spend. So I was paying them$5k a month, their best package they had, plus ad spend. And they were getting me like architectural home builder, luxury homes. That's my niche. And I was getting people from the outer suburbs of Melbourne calling me up saying, Oh, can you build a you know a$300,000 home for me? And I was getting like I was getting like like 50 inquiries a day. And I'm I call them up. I say, oi, like I'm sick of calling all these because I've called everyone too. Like, I don't care what their name was, what area that I've called them. Hey, what are you just following up on your ad? You've inquired. Half the people were like, Oh, I didn't inquire. I'm like, okay, your your your name, email, and mobile number magically appeared on my fucking contact list. That's a very common um thing though. Yeah, or maybe someone their friend did it, or maybe the marketing agency did it just to show they're getting inquiries. No, no. But I called them up and I said, Hey, like, what the fuck are you doing? I go, these inquiries are not what I want. This isn't what I'm paying you for. And I'm like, this is what I build. Like, you know what I want and where my website is and and what the types of homes we do and all that sort of stuff. And like, oh yeah, but well, well, that's gonna get you less inquiries.

SPEAKER_02 19:13

And I'm like, fucking obviously, like hopefully, yeah. I'd rather have 10 inquiries that are quality than literally the 150 you've gotten me this week that I wouldn't wipe my ass with. Yeah, it's like you're wasting my time then. Exactly.

Robby 19:28

They're wasting my time in the moment.

George 19:29

That's exactly what it was, you know. And I committed to them for the time, and yeah, it was obviously it was just shit.

Robby 19:36

So you had an experience prior to that that's obviously made you believe in the appropriate marketing. Oh, yeah. Well, no, not that serious that person, I'm saying like marketing in general. Like you you need to be sold on. I had this conversation with a client the other day, and I said, Hey man, one of two things is gonna he he was getting impatient with results. Yeah, on like uh it's it's one of those things where you want to laugh at it, but you're like also like I understand your frustration, but also like you're not being realistic here with the with the outcome. And he's like four months in SEO getting super impatient, and I said, Listen, man, and he's uh he's like Robbie, I I believe like I believe you are the person for this. Like, I don't believe it's someone else, I believe you guys, you professional, everything to date has been amazing, blah blah blah. But and I said, listen, one of two things happens here, man. You either lose faith in the service, so you start to think, okay, this cannot work for me, or you lose faith in the person and you start to think you're not the person that can do it for me. Right? You were obviously at that point already sold on the idea of marketing. Do you know what it was that because I I think most people are not sold on the idea, oh nah, marketing, nah nah, yeah. Fucking nah, why would we do that? Which is great because like such opportunity.

George 20:54

Yeah, huge. And this is where it's so powerful when like you're presenting on stage and showing people the opportunity and educating them because and I say that when I'm on stage. I say Robbie does something different that most marketers don't do. He educates, he actually shows you how it works and why it works and the way you should go about doing things.

Robby 21:11

It's not just like the stuff I share is like so surface level, high level, yeah. Do you know what I mean? It's like so like I'm gonna show you the basics here, and you see everyone and they're like, Oh wow, yeah, and it's like, dude, the first time we did the event, I went too deep and yeah, lost everyone. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

George 21:31

I remember.

Robby 21:31

Yeah, I was trying to explain. I was I my thing was like, I want you guys to win. I was like, I'm gonna give you the real good stuff. And I spoke to them to something that could go in action straight away, and I think it just went yeah straight over everyone's head because I was like selling them on level three of this thing, and they don't even know if they want level one yet. Yeah. So what's the do you know? Was there a definitive moment? You know, what was it that made you think, you know what, like I do need to market?

George 21:57

Well, I was actually at a two or three day event on Marketing as well. So I suppose there was already that pain point for me to get to that room. Yeah. That's right. Oh, look, I always knew it would work. I just needed to find the right person to make it work. I think that's what it was for me. I just wasn't confident in the and perhaps it was the people that I was using before that not getting me the results. And then you see other companies like bigger organizations doing it and getting it and getting results. And you see the testimonials and the people that are killing it and crushing it. I'm like, well, why can't I do that? I have a very good product, I have a very good, very good service. That should be me. And it was just a matter of going, well, I've got to keep it a go. I just realized it was a business thing I had to do. I don't see it like it's not necessarily an expense. Well, it's an investment because you should get an ROI. It's an yeah, 100%. Yeah, like you're putting money in to make more money. It's not I'm putting money in because I don't, I'm just gonna sit here and I'm wanna, I've got to spend money on this business thing. It's not that at all. It's an investment.

Robby 22:58

The cost of marketing and sales is the cost you pay to acquire clients.

When Leads Waste Your Time

George 23:03

And and here's the thing: sometimes it's also very indirect too. As in, you might do and branding ties into marketing as well. I kind of see they're definitely related, all right, brother and sister. It's I recently made a connection with some people who had been following my journey, who'd been see, who'd seen ads, like they'd seen me. They either seen me on ads, they've seen me on um social platforms, they've seen the brand of the construction company, and as a result of that, connected with me and said, Hey, or sorry, there was a person who spoke to a developer, right? He was a supplier. He said, Hey, go check out this builder. I've I know their details. Here's their number, give them a call, set up a meeting. And they came here to our office. We sat had a meeting, they invited me interstate, showed me their work, showed me their offices, showed me their projects. And as a result of that, I'm now looking at building projects for them in interstate. Now, had I not invested in branding and in marketing, I guarantee that opportunity wouldn't have come. But I can't now turn around and say, because I spent$20,000 on SEO, I've now got that there. I now got that inquiry. It does sometimes it's indirect as a result of the stuff that you're doing. It's not always, here's 20k, Robbie, get me 15 projects.

Robby 24:27

Yeah, that's that is what we call. So there's there's two sides to that. Yes, you're 100% right in saying that. Like there are elements that you can't directly attribute.

George 24:38

But it should be, but it definitely influences and could be the main reason you're you're getting it.

Robby 24:43

100%. I you know, um I feel like everyone wants the silver bullet.

George 24:48

Yeah, but there's with everything, man. Think of fucking Ozempic.

Robby 24:52

Yeah.

George 24:53

Do you know what I mean? Everyone, it's like, oh, everyone's not body, what's it called? Uh um when you're proud of your your skin, the body shame, body proud, but body proud. I don't know. I don't know. Whatever it is. It's something where there's a body positivity, or I don't know, body positivity. Where they're like, oh, you know, no, I'm I love my curves. Like, hang on, but just give me a zempic because I want to lose those curves and be a skinny bitch. Like, and it's like everyone wants the fucking shortcut, everyone wants get rich quick. They're not willing to do the fucking push-ups ever. And, you know, I reckon you've got to almost squash that idea out of their head as well. Like when we when I do events, I'm like, I make a click, guys. So like this isn't, you're coming to this builder summit. I'm gonna teach you how to scale your business, I'm gonna teach you the things that I've done. But don't think you spending six hours with us, eight hours with us, you're gonna walk out of here and just become a multi-fucking millionaire. Could it happen? Yeah, absolutely. I'm sure there could be a person that turns around, implements the stuff, and wins 15 jobs.

Robby 25:57

Yeah, and probably has so that the difference with that person is they would have 14 other factors that have fallen their way. Yeah. Oh, they've already been in business for 20 years, they had the right potential for relationships, they just weren't leveraging them. They had uh they had the ability to launch ads straight away. They already had an established brand. They had, you know what I mean?

George 26:17

Yep, yeah, exactly. They were contributing factors.

Robby 26:20

So and so down the road who doesn't even have a website, sole trader, you know what I mean, still paying tax freeze ABN, yeah, single, and um expects the same result. Yeah. And it's like, no, no, there's other factors here.

George 26:36

Right, and and that's and that's exactly right. I think you've got to get the expectation versus reality conversation out of the way really quickly.

Robby 26:44

Yeah, and then I I feel like most people are not sold on the idea of marketing. I feel like, especially in the construction space, yeah, especially people who are doing who are doing less.

Branding Creates Indirect ROI

George 26:56

Yeah, I agree, I agree. And I'm so massive on that aspect of it. Like I want to invest a lot of time and and money into it because I it's returned every single time. Every single time. I've just went up today. This morning, I'm I met um one of the guys on site and we put up some massive signs on one of our projects. Within the hour, we got text messages from people just ran hey, see this site, like see this, what a great site, blah, blah, blah. Within the hour, it's on a main road, everyone's gonna see it. Yeah, it's like, yeah, no-brainer. And it's like the money that are spent, it's irrelevant. Like, I spent a couple grand on these signs, and people are like, Oh, fuck a couple grand. Are you serious? Site. How many people are gonna see that? Yeah, and that's one thing. Funny enough, when I went to Adelaide, I drove past a lot of construction sites, like none of them did it. There was just chain mesh fence and a little fucking core flu sign at the front. That's it. Telling you the HNS managers, yeah, exactly. And I'm like, dude, you go there, like, and this is what I'm saying. Like, I'll go there as a brand that I've established, go to the Adelaide space, for example, and just blow them away with things like, wow, a hoarding? What's that? Why do you why are you building a timber hoarding? Like, shouldn't you just use chain mesh fence? Yeah, of course. Amateurs can use that. Yeah, and you you elevate yourself, and as a result of that, you end up demanding a better quality client. You end up making more money, you're perceived as this um this luxury product to a degree, or the desired product, let's say. And all you have to do is look at so many brands. Look at the the high-end brands like Ferrari, go to Gucci, or anything that demands a higher price than the value of the product. You know what I mean? Why people paying$5,000 for a band? A band, a bag from Gucci when you can go get the same one from Kmart. Association? It's association. It's how that makes them feel, it's how they present themselves. I'm sure there's marketing aspects to that too. There are so many reasons why you should be investing in marketing and branding, yet people don't do it. And I find that the pe the companies that do, the companies that really go, fuck it, we're gonna go all out on this. I I've seen it so many times where they just explode. Yeah, dude. They explode. It's not just, it's not just oh, you know, you win a couple of projects, it's everyone fucking knows who you are.

Robby 29:17

Yeah, and it all starts to have an on-flow effect. It's like all of a sudden, it's like there's a tipping point.

George 29:24

Yes.

Robby 29:24

And then you're like, I had this dude. I I've had so many of these conversations with people, right? I think half of it's psychological because half the time people do it, get and I think this is the worst one where they get results and then they're like stop. And you're like, dude, like you're stopping the thing that oh, but we're busy. Yeah, cool. Tell them you start the job in six months. Like you you most of the time you don't even close them now, yeah. But they're so focused on reducing expenses, they're like, no, no, no, no, no. And it's like that's mistake number one. The other one is I was having a conversation with someone who was doing uh SEO, still doing SEO, and they were at the six month mark. And six months is very early in a new SEO journey. And he's like, Oh, you know, we haven't really had anything come through. And I said, Yeah, like we one I haven't promised you anything, we've talked you through the process, blah, blah, blah. And then he's like, Yeah, but like, so then you know, if I got to get to uh month number 10, that means I've spent, you know,$35,000,$40,000 for one lead. And he's like, Well, I do have to pay$35,000 every time you get a lead. I said, No, no, it's taking you$35,000 to get to the point where you get one lead a month. I said, Well, you don't understand it's month 11, you'll get a lead. And month 12, you're gonna get a lead. And all of a sudden now that initial uh first step you took built onto something that's now feeding the machine. You know what I mean? But people don't it's it's always looked at as as an expense.

George 30:59

Yes, that's right.

Robby 31:00

Every single time. Yeah, so what would you say?

George 31:04

What do you say to you guys who aren't or you know, kind of haven't, they're not sold on it. Well, I I've actually got a training coming up on this as well on branding and marketing. But going back to the story that I my trip to Adelaide, as you said, it gets to a tipping point. I I from what I've can see externally, I think I'm quite well known in the industry. Oh, agree. Yeah, I I think most people know if you're in construction, most people know who I am or of me. They've either seen my face on ads, they see what we do with the the construction company. When I went to Adelaide, I went and saw this gentleman whom I've never met before in my life. He's probably worth a you know 10 figures. Eight. What's eight? Nine figures. Okay. Yeah, so not ten. 100 mil plus. Yeah. He's in the 100 mil plus barrier. I walk in there, and the first thing he said, he goes, Whoa, wow. He goes, Can I get your signature? Movie star. I didn't know we had a movie star coming in today. And I start laughing. So obviously, just based off the brand and the marketing that we'd done, he felt like he knew me, what we were about, everything we were doing. And he's like, I really want to get in with you. You know, we see the projects you're doing, we'd love that sort of stuff. We'd love to, we'd love the opportunity to quote some of your work, all that sort of stuff. And I said, look, we might be coming down to Adelaide. He goes, Oh, great, we'll support you in any way we can, all these sorts of things. Now, that didn't take me three weeks to build. As in my brand, my perception, my the marketing. That's that's taken years. And I think people want the short-term win immediately and don't understand that it is a long-term game.

Content Is Work But Works

Robby 32:49

You know what, as well? Like you are obviously so sold on the whole aspect of it. Yeah, like you even and I think people do this as well. They'll get amped up, yeah, go try, fail, and then say, nah, it doesn't work for us. I think that happens a lot.

George 33:04

Absolutely. It's man, you it's like doing 10 push-ups and going, oh, this is fuck, this weight loss, this building muscle doesn't work. Yeah, it's that's what you just did. When you say building brand doesn't work, you just fucking failed because you posted, even if you post a hundred photos, yeah.

Robby 33:17

Commit back, commit, yeah, do five time. When especially with content like that, because content's slow. Yeah, like it's organic. Yeah, it's organic, absolutely. Uh, I tell people all the time, like, hey man, like you want to do content, you can do it. But I said, but you need to commit. No, you don't have to commit to us, but you need to commit here. You know, you got to say, like, hey, I'm gonna do this for a year, two years. You know, maybe I will not use Robbie, maybe I'll use Ruby for three months and I won't like his services. That never happens. Maybe I'll use Robbie for three months and I don't like his services and I'll go somewhere else. But you need to commit to it mentally.

George 33:48

Yeah, that's and that's where people fail. I remember I had I did a builder summit a few years ago, and I remember a specific gentleman, I can't remember his name, but I remember what he looks like. He was so amped up after we did our brand and marketing presentation. You did your marketing, I did my brand stuff, and then he immediately went out that next day and did his first ever video. Harry. It yeah, I think it was him.

SPEAKER_02 34:12

How funny the older fella.

George 34:13

Yeah, yeah, that's right. And then he created another video, and then he he kept making videos. Now, after a little while, I stopped seeing his videos, so he's either stopped or I just don't see it in my threads anymore. But I don't actually think he is he's continued. My point with that was he did it for a little bit, maybe got a bit of results, and maybe was pumped up because of the event and everything that we were doing, and then he stopped. And I haven't seen him since. So he's definitely stopped because I would see it.

Robby 34:38

Yeah, I would say if he's creating enough content, I would see it.

George 34:41

Yeah, that's right. I guarantee you stop because if you were creating enough content at scale, it would come up on my feed because I'm a follower of yours. I would I'm I'm always on the platform, so I would see it. And that's where people make the mistake. They start for a little bit, they give it a crack. Uh, I only got four likes this week. Obviously, this internet thing doesn't, this social media thing doesn't work.

Robby 35:02

Yeah, and it's it's too too often, or they they they let a bad experience burn them twice.

George 35:08

Yep. Yeah, this look, there's it can be some negativity around it as well. Uh when you start to create brands. So you're just gonna be aware of what you're doing and what you're about. You're gonna people, you're gonna get people that don't like your opinions, that don't like what you are about. I've had people like that. I've blocked people because they'll come on and say stuff and go, you know, whatever. Uh not because I care so much, it's more so so I'm not spending ad money reaching those people. But you get people that are are not gonna like your message, then you're gonna get the opposite. You're gonna get people that love your message and love everything you're about. Um, but I I ultimately, you know, I don't love social media. And I I've I've said that quite a few times, but I I really don't. You know, now I I now that I've been doing it for quite some time, and I don't think I was ever like that even in the early days before social media was a massive thing. I've never really loved it. And I think even more so now, it it is a bit of a task and a bit of a job to do content and to film and effort and sit there and post and captions and hashtags and all that sort of shit. But I love it, what it I love what it does for my businesses. I love the reach that I could get by creating content. So the actual thing itself, it's like, okay, do you love running marathons? Do you love work, like lifting heavy weights? Like it's hard, but that's the cost for you to get the result. If you want to have a six pack, you've got to do the push-ups. So I see social media as the tool. Yes, I may not like it, but that's the tool I have to use. That's where eyeballs are, that's where people's attention is, and that's where you have to be. Like, no one advertises in the yellow pages. No one. And if you are, stop. Is it still around? I don't even know. Maybe online with it. Maybe it maybe it's an online thing, but not a physical book. No, uh that's a thing, right? Like you've got to follow consumer attention. That's all it is. And one day, it might not be Instagram, it might not be Facebook, it could be something else.

Robby 37:04

That will happen.

George 37:06

Exactly. Like it'll be something else where everyone is getting their information from. It might be a fucking computer chip in their wrist or in their brain, wherever it is, you get it inserted at birth. And that could be where you then need to be with all of your branding, with all of your marketing. That's where it has to be. Who knows? But for the time being, the social media platform is where it needs to be, and that's where you need to be if you're serious about being successful in any business whatsoever.

Robby 37:34

That's a very um interesting concept, you know, because if you think about the way we've consumed content, like we went from newspapers, media, like just media and dental. That's what it was. Like you wanted to control you wanted to control the masses, the masses, you controlled the media, and that's gonna change.

SPEAKER_02 37:57

Yeah, because well it it has already.

From Social Media To Interest Media

Robby 37:59

Think about initially you controlled your tribe because they didn't have ways of communicating with other tribes, yeah. Like you controlled your tribe, you know what I mean? It was kind of like the person who was like a political leader or like a hierarchical, like top of the hierarchy. Um, that person had the most influence in their group of you know, 60 people or whatever it was. That you know what I mean, like the the the tribe leader, and then it got bigger and bigger to the point where you couldn't reach all the people, so you started controlling the media, what's being printed, da-da-da, what's being announced, what's been going up on community boards, and then it went from that to like TV, internet, social media, and now AI.

George 38:45

Yeah, yeah, that's gonna be soon. I think it'll get to the point of not knowing what to believe with AI. Yeah, like you see things come up and you're like, hang on, is that real? Like you almost have to ask yourself the question.

Robby 38:57

The exact same story from two different sides of like, say, uh American news. Like you can go some, some I think I don't know which one's which maybe like CNN is like very left or whatever, yeah. And then you can go to whatever the fuck's very right, whatever Fox, maybe, or maybe they're the same side, I'm not sure. Whatever. But you can open up the same story on both of them, and they can both they both tell you the same story, and one will make it look like a bad thing, and one will make it look like a good thing. And you just sit there and you think, You guys are telling the story story.

George 39:28

Yeah, you could look at the war. Yeah, this one people, some people might say this is the greatest thing America's ever done, going there looking out for humanity, making sure Iran doesn't have nuclear um nuclear bombs, and then you get the other side going, they're killing innocent people, we're horrible, we're they're this, they're that, they're tyrants, they're the real enemy. Both of both of them will tell a story.

Robby 39:49

Yeah, I think it's um it's wild.

George 39:54

What I and this could be very much the algorithm and and what I see, but it's like everyone's an expert now as well. Everyone, but and that was never the case back in the day. The person that you used to follow were your leaders, your politicians, religious leaders, um someone of importance, royalty, or um experts like like um, you know, like an Einstein, someone like that. Like you would go to those types of people to get your leadership or your inspiration, or if they told you something that was true. Now, Jenny running the cafe, telling you how she took her business from four million to five million is an expert in construct in running a business, is telling you this, like in any field, really. They could just love coffee and be telling be an expert in coffee and just tell you all the different types of beans. So I'm finding now that that's what social media has really opened up. Anyone can be a leader, anyone can be a thought leader, anyone can tell their story and sell a product and build a business and create success for themselves.

Robby 40:57

Um, but social media's changed too.

George 40:59

Yeah, I think it evolves almost yearly.

Robby 41:02

Like, I think almost every year there's a you don't see posts from the people you follow anymore. Yeah, that's right. You see posts from what you watch. Darren so you go and you watch, you can follow, like just to give the most simplest example, you can follow a bunch of white men, and if you only watch black women, you will not see any posts from white men, you'll only see posts of black women. Like that's just the way the algorithm works. It's not interested in showing you who you're following anymore, it's interesting in showing you what you watch.

SPEAKER_04 41:29

Yeah.

Robby 41:30

You know, I mean, I saw someone, might have been Gary V in Mendy's whole video about how we've gone from social media to interest media. Yeah, and it's got nothing to do with what's in the city. That makes so true. That makes so much sense now. Now you say it. Interest media, it's so true. Yeah, it's like it's got nothing to do with who you know anymore. Yeah, and it's purely based on what you like to watch. And no matter what you watch, you will see more of it.

George 41:50

Yeah.

Robby 41:50

And it's it's there's an element of that that's dangerous too.

George 41:53

Yeah, I agree. I agree. And and that's what's made me question a lot of my views and beliefs these days, especially when it comes to the social media stuff. Just to have be open-minded about the other side of things too. Now, I think you even brought it up to me. Because as I said, I'm seeing a lot of right-winged political videos on my feed, and that's like that's what I'm I'm watching it though. I'm like, yeah, that fucking makes sense. It's true, that's right. You can't be a baby panda. Like you've, you know, I'll see whatever it is. Maybe the first thing came to my mind. So someone wants to identify.

Robby 42:26

Um, on that, on that, just a very quick side note. Have you seen the White House's TikTok channel?

George 42:35

I I think I have, yeah.

Robby 42:36

Do you have TikTok on your phone?

George 42:37

Yes.

Robby 42:37

Bring it up. I think you're gonna freak. If you haven't actually gone and viewed the videos, and for those of you listening to this, the I'm talking about I'm talking about the White House channel.

George 42:48

Mario Movie Ad. Nah, but what's it called? White House?

Robby 42:53

Yeah, the the White House. The big White House that Donald Trump.

George 42:59

Yeah, my algorithm's gonna be all fucked up.

Robby 43:02

It is It's wild that this is run by a government organization.

George 43:07

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 43:12

It's just gonna be all Trump positive stuff. American Eagles flying and just Trump. Go again. Again.

Robby 43:40

There's been a lot of launches. Again. How what date is it?

SPEAKER_00 43:46

Hang on. Forty four days ago.

Robby 43:49

Here we go. Here you go. This is such a there's a particular post I'm looking for. One of your legacy items has been freeing hostages.

SPEAKER_00 44:14

So now it's got movie skits. This is on the White House, the most powerful fucking. This is what dude I still don't know what the point of this video is.

Robby 44:33

But there's ones where they're like dude, they're showing like bombing Iran and it's got like it's fully memed. Like it is it is wild. Wild that it's run by friends. That so that just then says the White House.

George 44:50

Yeah, but that's very comical and American-esque. But you know, that's what people want to see too. They want to be entertained. It's not just about sharing information.

Calculated Risk And Budget Reality

Robby 45:19

Maybe one after that. We're going to all sell it. I don't know. I can't find it. But uh someone sent it to me. And um it's like imagine a meme you would have your social media manager create, and you'd be like, Yeah, is this gonna hurt our company if we vote so? But they they're just like a hammer in it, dude. Um it's great. It's it's it's very questionable. Yeah, it really is. Um but yeah. That's uh that's the power of marketing, I guess. You're controlling the narrative, you're controlling the message. So uh in saying that, George, you know, there'd be a bunch of people listening to this saying Yeah, keep doing it.

George 46:04

Yeah, keep doing that.

Robby 46:05

But like what would you say to someone? Like, well why should they why should they do something about it?

George 46:10

No, don't don't I'm serious. Don't do marketing. You should definitely if you're listening to this and you're thinking about doing marketing, especially if you're a builder, don't do it. Because I will do it and I will get all of your business and I will build everything into the state, whilst you're wondering, whilst you're waiting for a referral from that architect or that person or that friend or whatever it might be, I'm gonna actively go out and strategically target the ideal client and make the most amount of money, and then you can have all the scraps. So don't do it. Um, but for those of you that are want to do it, you've got to find I look, I think you've just got to reach out to the right agency. It's like with anything.

Robby 46:54

And you've got to be good at searching the agency. Are they good?

George 46:58

If you are in construction, like you're not just gonna go with the first plumber that comes through the door.

SPEAKER_02 47:02

You're gonna vet that's very much gonna go, hey, are you a good plumber? Supplier, dude.

George 47:07

Show me some of your work that you've done. Who have you worked for? What results have you got? What's your team look like? You know, ask some basic business fucking questions. Be curious about what they do. Get them to show you and prove to you that they are the best marketing agency for your style of business. All right. Now, Robbie might not be the best marketing company for a florist. A florist, even though he'd fucking crush it for us. They would sell so many flowers. Every day would be fucking Valentine's Day, every day. Right? He would be so good at it, he'll make a new day for selling flowers. Crush Valentine's Day.

Robby 47:47

Yeah, new day would absolutely destroy it. Exactly, exactly. Yeah, it'll be Robert. Valentine's Day would be the day you don't buy flowers. So um, no, but like you know what I mean. Like, what's what's gonna be the convincing thing that's gonna allow them to you know? It's like, how do they get over the fear? Because I I would say when you see it work, once you see it work, you will not stop.

George 48:11

Yeah, but you have to see it work. Yes, here's the thing with business everything is a risk, okay? It is an investment, all investments are risky, yeah? There is an element of risk. You're giving over money, you don't know what the end result's gonna be. Yeah, you're there's a delayed that's it. There is a delay there, and you don't know if it's gonna be worth it. Maybe you only get a 4% return, maybe you get a 400% return. Who knows? You don't know those things. You've got to take the leap of faith, you've got to take the risk or the calculated risk, because as I said, you're gonna do your due diligence and see if this person is the right person for you. And look at your budget. How much can you afford to spend? How much can you afford? And go, if you speak to them, say, listen, I've got 20K. I've got 20 grand, what can that do for me? And you might turn around and say, Hey, I can do a really strong three-month campaign for you for that for that much money. Or if you want to take it might be a bit longer, might do this, might do that, might whatever it might be. Or you could say, listen, find me 40k and we'll do an one of the, we'll do it for five months, but it's gonna be great. Whatever. Yeah. Figure out how much you need before you go in and invest, as you would with any investment. Find the right people to work with, as you would with anything you're gonna do in business. And if you don't like taking the risk, if you don't want to take that risk and be brave and do all of those things that you need to be doing, then go and work for someone.

SPEAKER_02 49:34

Don't be in business. That's what business is all about. It's about taking risks, it's about doing things that no one else is doing.

Sales Skills Make Marketing Profitable

George 49:42

You've already taken that first leap, being getting into business in the first place, right? Because you could have very easily gone and got a job somewhere. Most business owners tend to be good at what they do. So that's why they start a business thinking I'm gonna go out there and crush it. So you've already taken a risk. Now it's just every single day thereafter is about taking calculated risks to grow your business.

Robby 50:01

Yeah, and I think um working out, like get educated, like understand what it is you're buying into. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Because like most of the time you just gotta break the belief. Oh, this doesn't work for me. It's like, well, is there another builder, carpenter, plumber that's doing that thing?

SPEAKER_04 50:18

Yeah.

Robby 50:18

Oh, yeah, there is. Okay, so it works. Why doesn't it work for you? Do you know what I mean? Like if they can do it, why can't you do it? Do you know what I mean? Breaking that that mental barrier. Um, and then it's about, you know, another big part of it as well is the way the person handles the interaction. Like, get get educated the sales.

George 50:40

Yes. Oh, big oh that well that yeah, I'm so glad you said that because you can get the inquiries to come in. Yeah, yeah. Like, but they've got to be able to sell, they've got to be able to close the the the inquiry coming through the door because you've had that in the past too, where they're like, Oh, I got this person come in. It's like, okay, when did you call them? I called them, I'll call them next week. That's all right, I don't want to bother them now. It's you know, 3 30 on a Thursday.

SPEAKER_02 51:01

They're going by that point. I've already sold, like George has already called them four times and sends them emails, and they're part of the CRM, and he's already he's already met their dog. Like his dog, like everything's there, like fuck, you've lost the job now.

Robby 51:13

I've been drilling that so hard. Yeah, I think people are coming to me now and being like, hey, I I now call people quicker because of you. Yeah. Best you know what? Marketing's great, marketing and business advice. Yeah, you know what I mean? That's great. Um, another thing, dude, speed to lead's one thing, but like how you handle the call, and I'll I'll share a real life example that I I we set up phone tracking with our clients, etc. So uh, and if the client opts in, we can record the calls, and I highly recommend it because then we can coach them. If something's going wrong, we can coach them. Hey, the leads are shit. Okay, can we listen to the calls? Let's hear how they're going, blah, blah, blah. Uh, work out, you know, are they shit leads? If they are, we'll make some adjustments. And I had a client, lovely guy, yeah, really nice guy. Um, but you could tell he was at a stage in his business where he was just going through it like he was not in a it was just a a slog. And you get to call and hello. Uh hey mate, I want to inquire about and they're running Google ads, so they're paying for these leads, like they're paying for these calls to come through. Hey mate, I just want to inquire about uh a bathroom renovation. How much does a bathroom renovation cost? Bathroom, you're looking at anywhere from 50k plus. How are these other guys doing it for 30k? Oh, I don't know, mate. They're probably cutting corners and not giving you insurance. Really? Yeah, it's gotta be. All right, no worries. Thanks, mate. Uh bye. Hangs up. And I'm like, dude, didn't you want bathroom miners? And he goes, Yeah, but he doesn't have the budget. I was like, how do you know? Like, like the way you handle what if he's in the right area? Yeah, what if his bathroom is so tiny that you oh, I can actually make this work for 30k. Yeah, or what if he's got like 10 bathrooms lined up? Or like you you did not, you had you weren't even willing to engage in a conversation.

George 53:06

Yeah, that's it. It was he was an inconvenience. Instantly disqualified this person.

Robby 53:10

I said, dude, pull some money out of your wallet now and just set the thing on fire because that's what you're doing. Do you know what I mean? Like, that's the wrong way to and then he pulled it acting, like, you're right, thank you for loading me up, blah blah blah. And that's the advantage of having someone on your side that can record the calls, set up tracking, blah blah blah. Um, but yeah, man, it was like completely that person could have been ready to go, just needed to be coerced into paying a little bit more, or educated, but had no idea.

George 53:38

Educated, that's all it was. Because he he sounded like he had no idea. It's like, I've got a bathroom, I want to fix it, but how much is it gonna cost? Yeah, like the conversation should have gone. Well, there's a lot of factors that can determine the price of your bathroom.

Robby 53:49

Hold on, did you expect him to know? Yeah, you so you're disappointed you don't know the prices. I'm not working with you.

George 53:54

Yeah, you're an idiot. Why would I work with you?

Robby 53:56

Like, look how long it's taken you to know the prices.

George 53:58

And you still get it wrong, yeah. The clients never I don't ever expect my clients to know what we do, right? Even though most of them try and like you know, they've watched the block or fucking chat GPS. The blocks are very realistic. The block is my source of inspiration and go-to for any sort of information I don't know how you learned to become a villa. That's I they signed me off to get my license. The guy from the um Patrick Dempsey.

Robby 54:24

Um you're talking to the wrong guy. No, could be, couldn't be.

George 54:27

I got no idea.

SPEAKER_00 54:28

Um he's an actor, it's not him.

George 54:30

Anyway, what we're saying. Oh, yeah, like the they haven't gone through and and discussed the options. Like you could have tiles that are 30 bucks a meter, you could have tiles that are$400 a meter. So this is all gonna determine what your budget's gonna be. But he didn't have a time today. That's right. That was very dismissive.

Robby 54:50

And that was not that was not exaggerated. Yeah, I just showed you it happened. I've got the record, like it was so fast, man. Um, but yeah, so if that's uh if that's the position in you're in and you you need more work, I think you need to spend a little bit of time, yeah, get educated, understand you know, how we generate leads online. I do a whole bunch of YouTube videos about this, 10-minute clips, just educating, sharing the stuff that we're doing.

George 55:20

Yeah. Um there, people, you should definitely check out Robbie's YouTube channel. There's a lot of a lot of marketing uh educational content on there.

Robby 55:30

Yeah, I'm doing marketing, marketing systems, AI, sales. Branding? Like I think that falls under marketing. I think your marketing is equate to marketing. I agree. Yeah, it's just an element. It's not advertising, it's like advertising. Yeah, it's the same thing. It kind of falls under the that's my interpretation. Uh well, I like the way it does it.

George 55:52

Yeah, I think so too. I think so too. I think marketing and branding, I reckon, yeah, mark branding falls under the marketing umbrella.

Robby 55:58

Yeah, for sure.

George 55:59

It's like for sure. Because you can use your brand to market.

Robby 56:03

Yeah, you can use your brand to market. You your brand grows from the advertising. Yeah, you do. I mean your brand grows from PRF. That's a great site too. You know what I mean? Like this.

George 56:12

Not every ad, not every ad you run necessarily has to be about getting a direct response. Direct response. Yeah, you can do brand building advertising.

Robby 56:19

Yeah, you're just creating awareness. I just want people to see us and know who we are.

George 56:22

My my builder elite page is a lot of it's organic, but there's also a fair component of that that people follow us because of an ad that they've seen.

Robby 56:31

Yeah, well, you would spend significant dollars on without a doubt.

George 56:36

Yeah, without a doubt. There's been hundreds. Man, you sent me an email a while ago. Was it the first hundred K? I think you did. It was a few, it was like last year at the year before. Was it a while ago? Could have been. Or a text message. It was a long time ago, and you said, I'd be curious to see how many dollars we've spent on ads for builder. That'd be really interesting.

Robby 56:57

I'll uh I'll give you the figure after that's cool.

George 56:59

Yeah, that's cool. I'm actually gonna, I might even bring that up at the next event. Yeah, it could be an interesting thing, like it might just be an eye-opener for people and just go, I just want to be really honest with you guys about ads and how it works. And I go, if I add up how much money we spent, and this is I'll say this is the ad spend, this is the revenue generated from that ad spend. And then I go let you guys has that got a fixed line, a fixed figure.

Robby 57:27

You gotta zoom in and put the brightness up. You are blind. I don't know. Oh, well blind, no, no, no. Just FYI. I can do that. No, no, but like, yeah. I can see that, relax.

George 57:37

But you're blind. But can I zoom? Can I can I pinch it? Or we have to screenshot screenshot it and zoom in. Yeah, okay. So just shy of$300,000. Yeah. That was spent on ads.

SPEAKER_02 57:46

So that's almost uh yeah, that's two and a half years. How many years is that now? That's just on uh events, yeah.

George 57:53

And that's just ad spend. That doesn't include what I pay yourself, doesn't include all the other things that come with it, venue hires and all that sort of shit, too. But that's business expenses anyway. But um, yeah, there you go. Yeah, and that's just on events. And and if I I haven't calculated, but if I calculated the ROI on that, it's but that's because you're tracking everything. Yeah, that's right. It it's so much more than that.

Robby 58:20

Yeah.

George 58:21

Fucking hope so. I'd hope so. Fuck, cry myself asleep if you're gonna be able to do that.

Robby 58:25

You wouldn't have uh wouldn't have gone this far.

Start Ugly And Get Reps

George 58:27

Yeah, uh and and hey, like even what we're doing now, building doing the podcast, that's an element of branding, it's an element of marketing. We've recorded ads before this podcast went out. Well, we can even use snippets from it to use that in branding and use that in ads. It's a powerful thing. And if you're not doing it, you really got to and you're in business, you really need to um start investing in it.

Robby 58:51

Yeah, and if you're on the fence, I think you just gotta start. Yeah, like you're never gonna feel 100% comfortable with it. Yeah, and look, a lot of people. So go go and suck.

SPEAKER_02 58:57

Go and suck it. Just you're you're okay. It's okay. No, you're you are always your harshest critic. Go and look at the case. That's what I find. Yeah, go to it.

George 59:04

I've never looked at some video and go, fuck, that guy's bad on camera. Like in the sense of day.

Robby 59:08

But you're you're just you're a very judgmental person. Every day I look for the bad people. Yeah, if you're about to record your first video, I will be watching.

SPEAKER_00 59:15

He's gonna and laughing.

George 59:18

Um laughing, might even post it, reshare it, and go check out this joker.

Robby 59:22

Dude, okay. A good example of this, right? And we'll wrap up on this, is I've recently started MME training. Yes, and I am bad at don't come fight me at this point. But not yet, you know what I mean? Give it a couple of weeks. Like you just you go and you see like a kid who's been training for three years, yeah, and he's like 17. And he'll fuck you up. It will fuck you up, dude.

George 59:43

Yeah, yeah. 17, some 17-year-olds are quite like when you hit that 15-year-old mark, you've got a bit of strength behind you.

Robby 59:50

It will fuck you up in a whole spot. Like the the way they know how to technique and throw, and you're like, okay, like this is the this is the period where I have to suck for a bit.

George 59:58

Yeah, exactly. Did you go there and go, Oh no, I can't do this anymore.

Robby 1:00:01

Yeah, I could have said, nah, no, no, no, no, no, check it. It was like, no, no, it's right. I'm gonna suck for a bit. I'm gonna bash him. Yeah.

George 1:00:08

You heard it.

Robby 1:00:08

So let him know, yeah. Yeah, 17-year-old. Yeah, good. From the side, so he doesn't see me coming.

George 1:00:14

Uh you got a low centre of gravity, you'll just I'm sure you'll fuck him up. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Robby 1:00:18

I'll just I've just got to put him in his place and let him know until I get better. You can't do that with content, but you can start. You know what I mean? Um, that was obviously a joke, but like, yeah, just just go, man. Like, just give it a crack, and you're like, you're only gonna get better. I heard uh who was it? Someone, someone say something about AI, and they're like, this is the worst it's gonna be. Like it only gets better from here. Like, think about that. Like it only, there is literally, it's the same thing with content, dude. You're not gonna get worse at making content. You're only gonna get better. I'm not gonna get worse at MMA. Imagine I do. I'm only gonna get better. So I think just if you're on the fence, get educated and and just give it a crack. And the easiest way you can give it a crack is by starting just to make your own content.

George 1:01:03

Yeah, and what if everything works out? What if you land that amazing job?

Robby 1:01:08

What if you do start? Yeah, what if you do start generating leads?

George 1:01:11

Yeah, generating leads and predictably say if I spend this much money, I'm gonna get this much ROI.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:18

Yeah, and then it's just a tap. Then you just go, all right, well, let's turn the tap up, put more money in and get more money, more money out. How good is that? It's maths, it's fucking one plus one equals two. Seven.

George 1:01:31

And and that's why now with a lot of the ads that we're running, is we've we've almost it's a science. You can say, hey, George, spend this much money, we'll get this many people in the room. We know those numbers. We know them, and it's and it's not like it's oh, I hope. Now it's like, all right, we know we've seen it, it's consistently been the case, been single every time. Every single time, and it's like every time we we tweak, like, okay, let's try this one now. Let's try this now. Yesterday you came in and you're like, hey, can I I'm gonna change your landing page? And I'm like, good. He's gonna sick, it's sick. And even Josh told me, he goes, he says, How many builders do you reckon you've you've helped over the years? And I'm like, Oh, whatever it was. I think a thousand.

Robby 1:02:13

He's like, he asked me, he's like, Oh, what's the what's the dollar figure? Yeah, but then one billion cash.

George 1:02:20

Okay, but then it made me think. And I said, Okay, if I've had say 50 people come through my mentoring program, let's just say I've had that many. I can't remember, I don't know the exact amount, but say that. Each of them have they added at least two million in revenue, at least two million in revenue since being with me. All right, and I would say yes, okay, that's over a hundred million dollars then in revenue that I've contributed to all these people. And I'm like, that's fucking sick.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:48

And also, that's so sick, I reckon it would be more than that because there's some guys, I got one client from Build Relays building a hundred and ten million dollar apartment. All right, and it's like fuck, like that's some sick shit.

Robby 1:03:00

I'm trying to find you this landing page so you can live launched. Uh, I've just got to review it and we're ready to launch. So it'll be live within a very short period, but I can't find it on my phone, unfortunately.

George 1:03:13

Show me next week. Show me next week where we can um do the live reaction and get pumped. But yeah, do push-ups.

Robby 1:03:21

Long story short, it's a large amount of money that's been spent to make those things happen. And if you're on the edge, you don't have to start there. You can start at whatever you you can make work, and just start to understand it. You know what I mean? Just look at it as a cost of learning when you first start. You're like, all right, I'm starting to understand these platforms, this industry, human behavior, you know, really big part. No one fucking thinks about uh influence, sales, branding, yeah, social media, you know, it's like video production, content, yeah, talking, how to talk on camera. But yeah, fuck.

George 1:03:57

There's so much we should we should do an episode on that. What just how like yeah, but just how to present and how to talk, how to communicate.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:04

Like, there's so many elements. You it's not just one thing. As you said, it's not a silver bullet. It's not I'm just gonna give Robbie money and then it's gonna make me so much more.

Robby 1:04:11

I the amount of people that think it's that. Yeah, okay. So if I come to you, you're just gonna make me more.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:15

It's like, no, no, like get you got to we're gonna work alongside you.

Robby 1:04:19

Yeah, there's a million other things. You have you have an involvement here.

George 1:04:21

Yeah, there is so much more. Like, if we've shown you the things that we from the very first time we ran an ad for, say, Builder Elite to now what we're doing, it's fucking huge.

Robby 1:04:30

Like, we're just go back to episode one. Go back to episode one of this podcast. Oh man, there you go. Just go back to the start, you'll see it all.

George 1:04:36

Yeah, you'll literally hear it. Yeah, exactly right. How we spoke, how we how we interacted with each other. Now it's it's seamless, it flows, everything works well. But what I was getting at the other day, I had a videographer at one of my events, and he go, I said to him, I say, Listen, I'm gonna run an ad. I go, just record it and give it to Robbie, he'll know what to do. You don't need to do anything, just give him the raw footage. And he's like, Yeah, sweet. So I did it. I came up, I go, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he goes, Oh, is that it? I said, Yeah. Oh, fuck. He goes, You just that was that was just one take.

Robby 1:05:08

Yeah, like that's this is one take in front of you. Yeah, this is take 1000. Thank you.

George 1:05:13

And then I go back and I go, cool, I'm gonna do another iteration, except I'm gonna do it this way. And he's like, Yeah, sweet. And I see you go, okay. Bump blah blah blah blah blah blah blah bum. Get here, click the link below, let's fucking go.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:23

And he's like, Oh, he goes, Man, I'm I'm used to people like umming and ring and you know, doing this and taking 43 shoots and all this shit.

Perfection Loses To Volume

George 1:05:30

I said, No, I go, it was that, it definitely was that once upon a time, where I didn't know what to do and then didn't know how to say what to say and and how to go about things, but I got better. I trained, I actually went out and paid someone to teach me how to do these things. So it wasn't just a matter of me going getting better over time by myself. I invested more money in my own personal development to then get better to be able to speak on stage in front of camera on a fucking podcast. I think the reps, though, as well. It's huge. It's huge. There's no compression algorithm for experience.

Robby 1:06:04

Have you heard the pottery the pottery story?

George 1:06:08

I think I may have, but let's close with it.

Robby 1:06:11

I'm going to fuck it up, but I'll try. Sorry. Paraphrase. So there's two groups. Okay? Two groups, two. Two pottery classes. I know exactly what you're going to say.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:19

Yeah.

Robby 1:06:20

And one pottery like class A is told that you have seven days and you need to make the best possible vase you can. Group B is told you have seven days and you need to make as many vases as you can. So group B was told to do volume, group A was told to do quality. Quality versus quantity. Guess who ended up with a better vase? Group B. Yeah. Why? Because they just did it more and they got better at it. Yeah. Whereas group A was sitting there trying to perfect the thing and we go, you know, we ran out of time. We only got four days left. And you know what I mean? It was just sheer volume.

George 1:06:56

Yeah.

Robby 1:06:57

Volume, volume, volume. Just doing the reps, doing the reps, doing the reps.

George 1:07:00

Simple fucking vase just made it amazing.

Robby 1:07:02

Yeah, they just made it faster and faster and faster. And then because they did it more and more and more and more, all of a sudden, the basics they were so good at without even realizing it became uh they became unconsciously competent. You know what I mean?

George 1:07:14

Yeah, such a good story. And I uh mate, I should probably I should probably use that at a at our next event because uh so many people fret over perfection. Oh no, no, let's do it again because you know the light was shining on my face and I've got a bit of a bump here. I'm like, dude, shut the fuck up.

Robby 1:07:30

The odds of a video making you or breaking you, like a single thing, are so small, so minute. Like you'd have to do it would have to luck would have to fall your way ridiculously for virality. And then the other concept is like you'd have to do something so bad, like you'd have to like something so bad it's unspeakable for the video to destroy your whole web. Like a single video. You'd have to you'd have to talk about something that is very, you know, against humanity. Yeah, exactly. You know, like you'd have to be really detrimental, really, really horrible. Yeah, no, and it you could you could make a really bad video, like poor quality, blah blah blah, spoke shitly, started, fell over halfway through the video. Robbie would laugh. I would laugh. Um and that wouldn't destroy you. People would forget about that. People forget. But you gotta start.

George 1:08:21

Yeah.

Robby 1:08:23

You gotta start. So do the volume, do the reps, episode 129, 130, something like that. In the bank. Uh you want to talk about reps. That's a there's some reps right there. Damn straight. I think it's 130. Maybe it's 120. Every single week. Every single week. Not one missed. We're gonna crack three years without missing a uh week. It's been three years. It's gonna it's coming up.

George 1:08:46

I'm gonna throw up.

Robby 1:08:46

It's 20 weeks away.

George 1:08:48

So we'll hit it this year.

Robby 1:08:50

Yeah.

George 1:08:51

That's sick.

Robby 1:08:52

We'll enter year four of the podcast this year. That's sick. And then after that, it'll be we'll crack half a decade. Think about that. Anyway, on that note, go post something, tag George, tag me, tag the podcast, uh, start your marketing journey because uh it's you're the only one who could start it. You know what I mean? It's not something I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that I've got a silver bullet and come and buy my shit.

George 1:09:15

Oh, well, I was just about to say if you've managed to stick around till this part, Robbie actually does have a silver bullet. So make sure you come in. Magic, give him a call. It's cheap. Send him lots of money. I guarantee everything. Yeah, send him lots of money. He has the silver bullet. I've been using it the whole time. You've got to come in with with cash. Yeah, it has to be cash.

Robby 1:09:34

Cash only.

George 1:09:34

Cash only. Um, we don't want to give any more money to the ATO than we have to. Yeah, it's gotta be USD.

Robby 1:09:39

Yeah, um, that's it. I've got nothing else to say. Awesome. Post some content.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:45

Thanks a lot, guys. Appreciate it. As always, subscribe to the podcast because we'd love to see you here every single week.

George 1:09:51

We'd love to just be serenading your eardrums and just that what you're doing, serenading people's eardrums.

Robby 1:09:59

Yeah, that's it. The amount of people I've had come in here and listen to their voices flip out. Yeah, and they're like, Whoa, is this how it is? Now I can't I can't have a normal conversation without these on. I feel upset. Yeah, I'm gonna wear them for the rest of the day and to dinner. Boom.

George 1:10:15

Thanks a lot, guys.

Robby 1:10:16

Thanks, everyone.