Sponsor Message From Zoho

Tom DuFore 0:00

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Welcome And What You Will Learn

Tom DuFore 1:14

Welcome to the Multiply Your Success podcast, where each week we help growth-minded entrepreneurs and franchise leaders take the next step in their expansion journey. I'm your host, Tom Dufour, CEO of Big Sky Franchise Team. And as we open today, I'm wondering, do you find yourself trying to keep up with the social media content and all the posting and the craze that comes along with that? Or maybe you're just wondering where to start. Well, our guest today is Doug Crow, whom I've known for many years and followed him and his content. So I'm grateful to have him on the show. And he shares with us why you should stop fighting for attention online and start giving it. Now, Doug is a former ABC radio host. He's a TEDx speaker and best-selling author. His company, Author Your Brand, is known for distributing a client's book before it's written. You're gonna love this interview, so let's go ahead and jump right into it.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

My name is Doug Crow. I am the founder of Author Your Brand, and we're one of the few ghostwriting publishing firms that pre-distributes a book for somebody up to 10,000 or so units before it's even written. That is amazing.

Tom DuFore 2:26

That is amazing. Well, I'd love to certainly be talking about that.

The Math Behind The Attention Trap

Tom DuFore 2:31

And pre-show, we started talking about this idea about the attention economy and the mathematical failure of trying to play in the attention economy. That was thought-provoking. So I just want to jump in here because I want to dig into it. So what do you mean by that?

SPEAKER_00 2:49

You used to say content is king, and then everybody's instant podcast hero, right? Like you. Then we uh went into, you know, oh, you know, social media, but all these different things have disintermediated media, right? Used to have website, used to be great. Now who do you have website? And with the new thing, which is now we're in the attention economy. You know, you got to do something crazy to get attention, but there's a mathematical error, nobody's talking about that I'm aware of. And it goes something like this in 2017, I believe, there were 336,000 podcasts. Now there's over 4 million, it's growing. 500 million pieces of content published every hour on social. And last time I checked, I still have only eight hours a day, or 12 since I'm an entrepreneur. So 12 hours a day fixed, and more and more and more and more. And may AI is making it a hundred times worse. So, mathematically speaking, everybody's getting less attention. It's just you can't tell me otherwise. We're not going to get more attention when there's more and more content out there. It doesn't work, it doesn't add up. So that's the attention economy is kind of a um a goofy thing, and I've got a uh a unique way to flip it on its head for people.

Tom DuFore 4:04

I find that interesting. And even hearing you describe that, that's absolutely right. We launched our podcast right in the thick of COVID, along with probably thousands of others. I'm curious about this failure of trying to play in this attention economy.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

So, what do you do? It's

Flip The Script By Giving Attention

SPEAKER_00 4:22

elegantly simple. You caught it earlier when we were speaking, but instead of trying to get attention, because it's very competitive and it gets harder and harder, we'll just play into that by giving attention. So if you take a look at my LinkedIn, I don't post a whole lot, if anything, and very, very light on publishing because we all know the algorithm, how it works, more or less. And you know, maybe five people see it, maybe 50 people see it out of my 24,000. So what's the who's really being you know showcased here, right? It's it's vanity metrics. Oh, somebody liked my post. Oh, somebody commented or shared it. That's makes us feel good. You know, when was the last time I ever got a client from a Facebook post, right? Never. So by instead of wanting to get attention, say, look at me, look at me, look at me, I just think we call it the reverse spotlight method, where we actually look at our ideal client or more importantly, our ideal client community. So, an example would be if I wanted to be a speaker or consultant in the veteran space, I'll use one of my clients as an example. She does financial advisory for veterans who are transitioning from military to civilian life. And she's physically, you know, going one-offs. Here's a here's a veteran, here's one, here's one. Based on what we do, we got her connected with the a large association in this space. And she got a free booth and as a keynote speaker. And we did it in 45 days, not in two years, which normally takes somebody time to build their authority and their credibility with their book and their speaking, all that stuff to say, hey, listen, I'm I'm worthy enough for a national association to look at me or an or Fortune 1000 company. And we've got a reverse spotlight method that pulls it off in about 45 days.

Tom DuFore 6:10

Wow, that's very, very interesting. So, Doug, a lot of folks that will tune in here, they're in the franchise space, they're in the franchise community. And so they're looking for maybe recruiting franchisees to join their network. Yes. And so what you're describing sounds like pretty innovative, pretty unique and interesting. So, how might something like that apply to a franchise?

Using It For Franchise Growth

SPEAKER_00 6:32

I will talk about it from the franchise or perspective. So you're a company, you want to franchise your business, and you've got competition. You've got established franchises that have higher tickets, but more legacy to them. And you think of a new franchisee thinking, well, I could go with this established one or go with this new guy because it's a little bit less expensive. There's a risk-reward thing here when you're looking at franchise opportunities. So, our methodology of reversing the spotlight would be something along the lines of I want to recruit a hundred new franchisees or my company. I know there's competition and they look at other things, but the question I would ask that franchise or is where is your ideal client hanging out? Where are they right now? And you know, don't say the word LinkedIn. I'm looking for a specific demographic, a narrow avatar. And we'll just make one up, Tom, for example. Let's say we're um doing something. Give me, give me uh a franchise or uh category. Let's just say home services or fit. Home services. Actually, we know it, we know a big one there. Let's say it's home service, let's say it's plumbing. Let's just go right down to the narrow, narrow even to uh the actual industry. So, what I would do is I would probably look at where, you know, a lot this is a little bit a little bit tricky, but a lot of guys in the home of services who are retiring can't sell their business. And maybe they're too young to retire, they just want to do something else. Hey, listen, if I could just plug into this existing franchise, I could keep going and then easily more easily sell it. As opposed to selling Bob's plumbing, I could sell ABC franchise plumbing. It's much easier to sell it when it's a bigger thing. Does that be accurate? Absolutely. Where do those guys hang out? Well, they have associations already, they have unions, they have places where they're already going and hanging out. If that was a demographic, if that's the avatar as an existing one. If it's a new person, then obviously you've been to trade shows and stuff for those franchise opportunities there, but they have databases, lists. So the reverse spotlight method is oriented towards where your ideal client is hanging out, both tactically in terms of where the actual one person is going to be seen or or is uh looking at things. And then the larger opportunity is the association network, of which we have a database of 66,000 associations in our network. So what we do is say, listen, this association is ideal for you. You've got a couple of big companies, maybe some other influencers, people writing writing about it. We'll take all those entities or groups and we'll find a trending topic that is very, very important to them.

Building Authority With A White Paper

SPEAKER_00 9:08

And we take a look at some of the key people who actually are already writing about it. Like I'll use my have to go off topic here, but I did a a TEDx talk called the um power of humanity in the shadow of AI. Right? It's a topic about you know AI and us. But when I drafted this white paper, I didn't just make stuff up. I got graphics and charts and data from three key entities that are already reporting about it, but my curation of the topic makes it a new topic for them. So they're featured in my white paper. But I I draft it in such a way as like, hey, this is all about me, but I'm also learning something. So it's uh it takes some thought to process this, but we craft a white paper from that. We convert the white paper into a narrative, Kindle, Amazon short read. We'll convert it into an audible book, we'll build a database of over 100 stakeholders. These could be board members of the association, this can be suppliers, vendors, competitors, even. But we build this complete ecosystem around this topic in this industry, and then we publish the white paper. We have some mechanisms to get it on the CEO's desk with a hundred percent open rate. So they are they can't ignore you because it's about their favorite topic. It's all about them. We put the spotlight off of how smart you are and put it on your ideal customer profile, whether it's an individual or a community. And there's a bunch of other stuff that goes with it, but the end result is instead of waiting a year to write a book and and get on stages, we basically short circuit with a real authority piece that gets distributed, syndicated, and you become an actual, I hate this term, but thought leader in a specific demographic because you're not talking about yourself, which is like, hey, I'm smart. It's other people you're focusing on, and then they say you are a thought leader because you're cited in journals. Now, the white paper is used for other journalists and reporters and people talking about this topic, they're going to resource you and your brilliance.

Tom DuFore 11:15

I think that's interesting about taking this reverse spotlight idea that you've been talking about. It's really interesting. As you're talking, I'm thinking of you walking the client through that process. And I still can see, even going through it, that you might even get pushback from the client to say, wait a minute, but it's not about me. At some point in the process where you have to kind of re-you know, direct that spotlight.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

Yes and no. I don't, I mean, think about this. If you go to a party and you say, Hey, you want to buy a franchise? Like, go away. You're you're weird. That's what people are doing online every single day, posting about how great they are, what they're doing. Like, I don't care about you, I care about me. So don't look at it as marketing, look at it as a door opener.

Getting On The CEO’s Desk

SPEAKER_00 12:03

And the best way to open a door is to have someone else open it for you. So the example I give you is like this white paper gets sent out, and there's a bunch of things go around. There's a lot more to it than just the white paper, it's just the cornerstone. But when that lands on a CEO desk and they have a hundred percent open rate with it, there's no cover letter. There is a gift card with the Amazon short read book, Audible book, and the white paper. They look at it, there's a sticky note that says, I thought you'd like this, Doug Crow with my phone number. That's it. Now, think about this. If you're a CEO of a large association or company, somebody drafts a very comprehensive, interesting white paper that features you, but also gives you more ideas and intelligence, and you got a sticky note on that with a guy's name and number, what are you gonna do? You're gonna call him or her. And this is the biggest mistake some people have made. It's in our our our SOPs for people's not to do this. So when that phone rings, 90% of the time that they call you, which is what you want. You don't want to be bugging them. It's a whole RFP buy, buy, buy stuff versus hey, I'm a peer. You have a question? So they call this hey, thank you for that white paper. It's really interesting in the gift card. How does that work? Oh, just go to Amazon, there's a book about you and all that. That's great. What do you do? The whole process is designed for that one question. Well, thank you so much, but what do you do again? And the biggest mistake people make is they then they vomit. They go, Well, I do blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, oh God, this is a sales guy now. I thought he was just actually an industry analyst sending me a white paper. So if you do this on your own or if you work with us, make sure you abide by this strict rule. This is a door opener into very big doors. Doesn't mean you walk through quickly, you walk through slowly. They're opening it, you crack it open with your content. They open up and say, Hey, how are you? Thank you so much. What do you do? It's a one-liner. Well, I set up franchises for companies for individuals looking to, you know, you know, secure their income. By the way, on that white paper, I did quote this one thing. Was that okay? See how I didn't pause? I said what I did, and then right back to them, keep that spotlight on them. And in half the time, they don't they don't hear what you said, but they feel it because you they you answered them, but it's right back on them. Now, which topic is more interesting to you, Tom? Talking about yourself or somebody else? Oh, for sure. Talking about myself, ourselves.

Tom DuFore 14:27

If I'm on the other end of the line and you say, Well, I do this, but I was thinking about your whatever, you know, you call it back and say, Oh, that's an interesting thought.

SPEAKER_00 14:35

Okay, now we're we're having a conversation. So the sales conversation comes later. We don't even have it in the beginning. You shouldn't do it the beginning. If they ask a second time, you can say, Yeah, we do this. What are you doing now on this issue in your in your LD department? Right? I would definitely go back to a quote, don't don't sell. It's like door opening, it's a relationship-based program to help a person establish a relationship with a large association, big company. So that takes affinity first because no one's gonna work with you, they don't trust you. And it's hard to trust somebody who's just pitching. So you want to talk about them, talk about what they're working on, and and say, hey, that sounds interesting. And um, I give referrals, as you know, to plenty of people that I don't get anything in return for it, not not tangibly, but there's other currencies out there than just money.

Reciprocity And The Referral Flywheel

SPEAKER_00 15:27

I got a call from a gal Olympic coach, and it was about three or four years ago, and we're talking about what I do, right? I'm I'm a ghostwriter and publisher. After about 15 minutes, she's telling me, well, she's already doing these compilation books. You put like 20 people in a book, they each got a chapter. And I said, Man, that that sounds really interesting. I don't do those. We do solo books, but what's your output on that? Well, I got a consulting contract with McDonald's, and da-da-da. I'm like, that seems to be working pretty well for you. Why are you looking at doing your solo book? Well, you know, I didn't have a real clear answer. And this is my business, right? I said, Well, I don't think you should do one. I think you should double down on what's working for you and do another one of those books, which you've done successfully three or four times. I'll do another one of those. By the way, here's a PDF might help you with formatting or something. I had to send her some gift. Two years later, hey Doug, uh Sherry said I should hire you to write my book, you know, five-figure contract. A year later from that, I got a guy who calls me up. He's got 18 billion under management, big financial services firm. Yeah, Sherry said I should talk to you about doing the book. Okay, here you go. So this reverse spotlight is not just for a direct introduction for a direct relationship. Sometimes it spins off. Maybe your white people didn't even land properly with who you sent it to. And if they're a gentleman or a professional lady, they're gonna call you up and say, Thank you for that. Blah, blah, blah. What do you do? And okay, well, we don't have a need for that. Okay, fine. But what are they gonna feel? They're gonna feel that law of reciprocity. Well, how can I serve you? Well, I'm looking for clients in this space over here. Oh, I uh my friend Jim is in that. Let me hook you up. Because they feel like they want to give back. So it's it's it's something that we're all taught, you know, seven habits of highly effective people. Dale Carnegie talks about it, but I don't see it as often as I used to. So it stands out because what we do with a with a complete ecosystem. It's the white paper, book, audible, all the syndication. It goes so well. You know, people are getting into rooms they wouldn't otherwise get into, basically.

Tom DuFore 17:30

For

How To Reach Doug Crow

Tom DuFore 17:31

someone that tunes in and says, Well, this is interesting. I'd love to learn a little bit more, get in touch with you about that. How can they do that?

SPEAKER_00 17:37

Well, a couple ways. I'm very accessible. You can go to me on LinkedIn, find me on LinkedIn at LinkedIn.com forward slash in forward slash the Doug Crow. But speaking of referrals, I'll just offer this to your audience, but they can go to um connect.dougcrow with an e.com. Connect.dougcrow.com and the software that I built goes into my own LinkedIn profile. And based on what you put in there, I'll find you a couple of referrals. No charge. Just it'll just go in there. And the software is pretty good. If you get hung up or something, just message me and I'll be happy to do it manually. But it's a nice way to um, you know, give first without expecting anything in return.

A Brutal Miss And The Lesson

Tom DuFore 18:16

Well, Doug, this is a great time in the show. We make a little transition. We like to ask every guest the same four questions before they go. And the first question we ask is Have you had a miss or two on your journey and something you learned from it?

SPEAKER_00 18:28

A miss? I had an explosion. I had a, you know, during 2008, I used to be in real estate. People have like a foreclosure or two, oh boo-hoo. And I was a real estate trainer. I had a radio show on real estate. I was like, you know, the big guy in Chicago. I had 19 foreclosures and a bankruptcy, divorce, clinical depression. It was a really, really bad time. And you know, I had read all these same books, right? From Zig Ziggler and Hopkins. Yeah, most millionaires have been broke 2.2 times in your life. You know, go ahead and get back on that horse. It didn't happen right away, man. It takes, it took me a couple of years to get over that. The biggest learning thing about that was failure like success is temporary. And, you know, we talk about those enjoy the journey, all that stuff. Yeah, I understand that. But when things are good, make hay while the sun is shining. When things are bad, eh, the sun will come out tomorrow. I'm not gonna sing that one, but you understand what I'm saying, right? Good times and bad times are always gonna happen, and it's how you deal with it that really matters. So I had a huge dip and it didn't, I didn't recover quickly. But if it happens again, I'm better prepared now than I was back in 2008.

Tom DuFore 19:35

Oh, wow. Thanks for sharing. Well, let's talk about a make, a highlight or two.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

Oh my

A Win That Paid Before Launch

SPEAKER_00 19:41

gosh, there have been a lot of those. I mean, most recently, we did a book for a gal who's following our reverse spotlight method, and she's profiling some of her clients and some big whale clients in her book, in her manuscript. And as we're doing the interviews with her to get her connected with these people, she picked up two keynotes and an executive coaching contract for like 18 grand before her book is even done. Right. So I'm like, oh, that's that's pretty good. That's good testimony. She said, Oh, yeah, it gets better. The week it comes out, she gets a call from one of the big whale prospects and says, Hey, we'd like to hire you.

unknown 20:15

Right?

SPEAKER_00 20:16

Before the book came out for a week. They say, Yeah, we were so impressed by you, we want to hire you um full time. She's like, full time? I'm a consultant, I don't want a job. Well, it'd be just a contract with us only. And uh, what did you make last year? She tells him, We'll match it. So she could match all her work for all her clients with one client, the whole thing. She says, No, thank you. They come back a week later, we'll give you 150% of what you made last year if you work with us. No, thank you. They call a third time. Her husband says, Take the meeting, please. We want to find out about this. Benefits, retirement, and 200% of what she made last year in a contract with this company. And she can still speak about this topic that she, you know, she's a sales resiliency, as long as she doesn't work for a competition. I'm like, 200% of what I made last year with benefits, and she's, you know, up their retirement age anyway. I'm like, that's fine, I'll do this for a while. So she doubled her income with one client. Book was pretty much self-funded from her keynotes by just interviewing the right people. And did she sell a lot of books? Don't know. I don't think she will. I don't think it matters because she, you know, made a big payday with one. Well, four technically, but the first three is 18 grand was nothing small, but it wasn't like retire on. This big contract is retirement level stuff.

Tom DuFore 21:34

Wow, that's amazing. What a great story. Let's talk about a multiplier, Doug. Have

The Multiplier That Forced Hiring

Tom DuFore 21:39

you used a multiplier to grow yourself personally, professionally, or organizations you've run?

SPEAKER_00 21:44

I had this business coach. It was a funny thing. I was on LinkedIn and we're chit chatting, and I'm promoting him. Like, hey, I want to, you know, talk to you about publishing a book. Within five minutes, phone call, he's selling me, and I'm I'm like, this is amazing. I love what you're doing. I I'm in. You know, his he was a he was a Strange coach, though. Most coaches, like they're gonna just guide you and stuff. He's I'll guarantee you, whatever goal you set, you'll hit it. What do you mean guarantee? Yeah, if you don't do it, I'll give you money back. You put that in writing? He goes, Yeah. He goes, as a business person, how do you how do you do that? Because people, most people don't do anything. He goes, Well, they do with me. I'm like, sign me up. Here's some money. Let's go. Business doubled in 45 days with this guy. And the biggest thing I learned, and we all know this stuff, but it's it's different when you're paying for it and you got some structure to back it up, which was the entrepreneur's dilemma of, you know, I'm chief cook and bottle washer with a small team. So I had to grow my team uncomfortably because I had to put out salary money before I had the money. But as soon as I hit that tipping point, it was a big multiplier. Like we like 7x the year prior. I didn't just double my business. We had like six and a half, call it, from the previous year. So the biggest multiplier was having somebody telling me to go ahead and hire and then gave me the courage to hire right and to get myself out of the way.

Tom DuFore 23:04

Wow. Fantastic.

Success As Relationship Currency

Tom DuFore 23:06

Well, the final question we ask every guest is what does success mean to you?

SPEAKER_00 23:11

Um, you know, we talk briefly about the different currencies. Obviously, the currency of uh, you know, U.S. currency, the currency of relationships is probably more important to me than that. At a certain point in life, yeah, I gotta have money to keep the lights on. No, no, nothing wrong with making a lot of money and and focusing on that. But if you focus only on that, you'll be a lonely rich guy, right? So I believe that in my world, the relationships that I've created are they're more valuable than anything else. So success to me is um twofold. On one hand, it's being able to pick up the phone and talk to some millionaire or billionaire asking for advice without having to pay for it, because I can. Um, I've got a couple guys in the you know, 11, what the 10 figure, 26, 10, two billionaires, friends, and a bunch of guys in eight, nine-figure world. I can call them up anytime I want, ask them advice questions because I've built relationships with them. On the other side, I love it when people ask me for advice. And, you know, I'm no billionaire, but I've had plenty of success in multiple industries and know a lot of people. So that being asked and asking for wisdom is how I would define success.

Final Push To Stop Posting

Tom DuFore 24:20

And Doug, as we bring this to a close, is there anything you were hoping to share or get across that you haven't had a chance to yet?

SPEAKER_00 24:25

No, just the biggest, the biggest thing I'm, you know, I'm really championing this concept of this attention economy and posting, posting, posting, and pushing yourself out there. Just stop it. Put the spotlight on others strategically. Don't just do it for anybody. Do it for people you really enjoy or want to get to know better. And don't expect anything in return. The minute you do that, it turns into a transaction. It smells, it feels bad. But if you really don't care and just put it out there, great things come to you. I'm happy to talk to anybody about their business in the franchise space. Of course, I know that space a little bit well. I did look at a couple of myself as we spoke about. We decided not to go down that road presently, but I know enough to be dangerous. But I'm also well-rounded in other areas of business and marketing to give people some direction or ideas, or if they should do a book for that, which is probably a good idea for most franchise ours to have a an anchor statement, whether it's a white paper or a full size book, doesn't really matter. They should have some statement that gives them a value proposition that's unique in a very competitive environment. So I would say that's important.

Three Takeaways And The Win Win

Tom DuFore 25:33

Doug, thank you so much for a fantastic interview. And let's go ahead and jump into today's three key takeaways. So, takeaway number one is when Doug talked about the attention economy, the attention economy, and how people used to say content is king and described it really as a mathematical error today, that it's just impossible to capture people's attention. It's so hard with the volume of content that's getting created and how AI is just amplifying that. Takeaway number two is when he talked about his reverse spotlight method. And he talked about how you want to find out where your ideal client is hanging out and find out what they're reading or interested in. And he gave a whole framework to follow on that. I thought that was very, very interesting how he shared it. Takeaway number three is what he said this failure like success is temporary. He said, failure like success is temporary. Thought that was a great takeaway, a great reminder for us to think about. And now it's time for today's win-win. So today's win-win is when Doug said there are other currencies other than money. There are other currencies other than money. And this really is what helped create his reverse spotlight method. And he said, this idea of putting the spotlight on others. And what's important is you don't expect anything back in return. Put the spotlight on them with no expectation of getting anything back because, like he said, that becomes a transaction. I love that idea. There are other currencies other than money. And what does that mean to you? How does that impact your business? What could you do to drive other types of currency other than just money? Not saying money's bad. That's not what I'm saying at all. Chances are, if you have a successful business and you're making money, chances are that there are other currencies flowing through your business other than just money. And so that's the episode today, folks. Please

Subscribe Review And Franchise CTA

Tom DuFore 27:44

make sure you subscribe to the podcast and give us a review. And remember, if you or anyone you know is ready to take their franchise company to the next level or franchise their business, please connect with us at BigSkyFranchise Team.com where you can schedule your free, no obligation consultation. Thanks for tuning in, and we look forward to having you back next week.