RTR EP11 - Still Running Funnels Like It’s 2014? Here's What It's Costing You

Most B2B teams aren’t doing marketing wrong, they’re just doing it like it’s 2014.

You’ve got the blog posts, the newsletters, the case studies, the MQL funnel. But if your campaigns feel busy and your pipeline feels quiet, this episode is your wake-up call.

In this solo episode, I talk about the quiet cost of staying stuck in outdated strategies - and what happens when we finally shift from content that promotes to content that connects.

Because buyers don’t want to be impressed by your marketing. They want to feel seen by your message.

✅ Why the “Old Funnel” is Quietly Costing You Deals

• Your content might be polished - but if it doesn’t resonate emotionally, it’s forgettable.
• Case studies and features used to win attention. Today? They sound like everyone else.
• If your buyers don’t feel something, they won’t remember you.

✅ The Shift from Promotion to Connection

• Content that works today is about the leader, not just the logo.
• What you’ve lived, learned, and are still living through - that’s what builds trust.
• Your experience is your unique fire. Don’t hide it behind over-edited messaging.

✅ Emotional Resonance: The New Differentiator

• Logic makes people think. Emotion makes them act - and remember.
• Human content connects. Over-polished content gets scrolled past.
• Ask yourself: Would someone say, “I feel like I know you” after reading this?

✅ Buyers Are Self-Educated - But They Still Need to Trust You

• Today’s buyers are non-linear, digital-first, and saturated with outreach.
• They're not just looking for what you do - they're assessing how it feels to work with you.
• And yes, they’re lurking. Most won’t like or comment - but they’re watching.

✅ Lurkers Convert When the Content is Right

• Your best leads may never engage publicly - but your content is still shaping their impression of you.
• When your content reflects your real voice, they feel it. And when the time is right, they show up.
• “I feel like I already know you” is the new warm lead.

✅ Three Moves You Can Make Today

1. Do a Voice Inventory Ask: Is your content just more noise? Or does it show how you think, work, and lead?
2. Record Real Reflections, Not Talking Points Start capturing thoughts about what you’re living and learning, even if you never post them.
3. Visibility Without Vanity Don’t chase views. Chase resonance. Consistency builds trust, even with quiet followers.

“We’ve built so much content to look professional, we forgot how to sound human.”

This episode is a direct message to CEOs, founders, and sales leaders who feel like they’re doing everything right but still not seeing results. It’s not about effort. It’s about alignment. And that alignment starts when you stop promoting - and start connecting.

You're not in a marketing crisis. You're in a resonance reset.

The Revenue Through Reputation Show
Hosted by Brandon Lee
New episodes every Tuesday at 11 AM ET | LinkedIn & YouTube
Empowering CEOs, founders, and sales leaders to build high-impact digital reputations that drive business growth.

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro: Content Isn’t Broken, It’s Frozen
• 3:43 Why “Polished” Content Fails Modern Buyers
• 8:43 The Networking Event Analogy: You’re Skipping Stage One
• 13:43 What Actually Stops the Scroll in 2025
• 17:43 The Power of Lurkers: Why They Matter More Than Likes
• 23:43 Humanity Content vs. Brochure Content
• 28:43 Prom King at a Reunion: A Content Memory Moment
• 33:43 Shifting From Vanity Metrics to Intimate Community
• 36:43 How to Start Resonance-First Content
• 42:43 Brandon’s 3 Tactical Shifts for B2B Teams
• 47:43 CTA: Build Connection Before Promotion

Transcript

Brandon: Hey, good morning everybody. Welcome to Revenue. Revenue through Reputation, and that's, that's what we're calling it. Uh, thank you for joining me this morning. It is, uh, Tuesday. It is what, June 10th. It's 11:00 AM Eastern and I am, I'm really excited about today. So let, let me start it off. Let me start off this way and see if this.

Brandon: Resonates how I, I was hesitant to use that word. 'cause everything I'm gonna talk about is resonance today. So, um, you know, I was on a, I on call the other day. Uh, with a founder and a sales leader of a company, and they were saying, Hey, you know, we're doing everything right. We've, we've, we've got content.

Brandon: We're, we're pushing some things to LinkedIn. We've got blog articles. We have newsletters going out. Like, you know, we're checking [00:01:00] all the boxes, but we're just not seeing it do its work. Like we're not getting leads out of it. We're not getting replies to the emails. We're not getting conversations, we're not getting the results and the frustration.

Brandon: Is that they're following the playbooks, right? That so many people have been talking about for a long period of time now, well over a decade. And you know, I, I had to, you know, they, they said, it's like we're doing all this work with no, no results, no fruit. And I said, well, does it make you feel like you're invisible?

Brandon: And they said, yeah. And I said, well, you know what? There's a lot of people right now, it's, it's not that you're not doing enough. It's not pedal fast or do more. It's slow down and let's do the right kind of content. So if you're, if you're feeling this as well, if you're like most people that are most B2B companies, like you're checking all the boxes, but the content isn't really connecting.

Brandon: You [00:02:00] get some engagement, but you're not getting enough, you're not getting, you know, people intrigued with it, engaging with it. Um, you know, you're, you, you may wanna pay attention to this because we're gonna talk today about not creating content that promotes or informs, but how we create content to resonate, right?

Brandon: Content that promotes and informs is surface level. It's safe, it's sanitized, and think about you and, and the content that you pay attention to. Um. Do you pay attention to that type of content? I would venture to say, if you're really take a look at it, that, that you probably don't. And so, um, let's, let me, let me, let me throw this.

Brandon: Here's the shift that's happening and we have to remember this logic makes us all think, [00:03:00] but emotion makes people act. So logic makes us think and emotion makes us act. So take a look at your content and ask yourself, where's the emotion I. Right. Where is, where is that resonance being created? So content that works today isn't the same as 2014 because in 2014 it was all about promote.

Brandon: It was the, Hey, we do this for these type of companies to get these types of results. Even when you share case studies. 2014, awesome. 2025, no one cares. Because all, all it is is us putting our best foot forward, telling everybody, look at how awesome we are. Let us share with you the case studies. They could go to their network on LinkedIn or other platforms, or go to different sites and do reviews and get honest opinions instead of the ones that you want to promote.

Brandon: That [00:04:00] we want to promote. So content that works today is more about who you are. What you've lived, what you've learned, it's what people wanna know is how you think. What do you really like as the leader? What do you really like as the person in that role? You know, I've said before like, people wanna know who you really, really, really are.

Brandon: And they're like, well, I don't, I don't bring all of that to work. No, it's not about your personal life, although that is part of it. They wanna know how you think. They wanna know what you've been through. They wanna know how you can help them, like who you are, not just what your company does. So if. If this is intriguing to you, if you've been doing content and not feeling like you're getting the results, you want this conversation's for you.

Brandon: I mean, we, this is episode 11 and it's kind of a long intro there, but it's episode 11, um, of revenue [00:05:00] through reputation. Excuse me. Uh, if you're still running funnels like 2014. This is probably why it's not working and that's what we're gonna talk about today. So before I keep going, um, thank you everybody.

Brandon: Um, excuse me. I see Anthony and sad. Thank you for the comments. I. I appreciate you guys. So if you're on the live, if you're on LinkedIn or I don't where else we, we've gotta go into Instagram and Facebook and YouTube. Um, if you're on the live or, and you wanna comment, um, I may, I should see it if we're live.

Brandon: And, um, I'll have you join the conversation, ask your questions, tell me I'm crazy, put 'em in there. And, um, I'll be glad, I'll be glad to have those conversations with you. If you're on the podcast and you're listening to this, thank you so much for joining. Uh, if you like it. I'd appreciate a review. Maybe if you really like it, you think it's valuable for someone else, you know, take a screen capture or hit their three dots and share it with people.[00:06:00] 

Brandon: Um, but definitely I would love any, any feedback that you have for me, whether you're on the podcast or on a video live or not live, uh, that would be great. I'd appreciate it. I'm here. I want to take my, hmm. Almost 30 years experience creating content, using content for leaders to grow their reputation.

Brandon: Started doing this in 1998 and you know, like I said, I go back to 2014, I had a, I. I had a rough kind of relationship with a lot of the content style that was being developed 2012 through 2018. I kind of, I sat quiet 'cause I felt like, well, well maybe the world's changed. And I think for a little bit it did change a bit and promotional content had value with funnels and lead capture forms and landing pages and all that.

Brandon: But I believe as we're five years outside of COVID and. AI and buyers have shifted the way that they do their [00:07:00] work. More people are working from home, which means they have more time to do research. And these bad boys, um, everybody's got everything they need right at the palm of their hand. And so buyers don't want to talk to sellers ever, ever unless they want to.

Brandon: So the big question with content is how do we use our content? To get buyers to want to speak with us, and that's why I say we have to create content for connection instead of content for promotion. So here's what we're gonna talk about today. We are going to talk about why the traditional funnel is failing with modern buyers.

Brandon: We're gonna talk about the emotional blind spots. That take place with that type of content creation. Um, we're gonna talk about what modern people are paying attention to and you, you know, what do you pay attention to, what captures your attention in content? And then we're gonna talk a bit about how we [00:08:00] build resonance and building that content engine.

Brandon: And then I'm gonna go, I'm gonna give you three moves at the end. I want three moves that you can make right now to make a shift. Uh, in your content that'll make a big difference. Dave Lurk. Hi buddy. Uh, appreciate you coming and, uh, joining me today. I, I actually had you on my mind yesterday on my walk and I almost called you, but I know we usually do our Friday morning calls to catch up, so be expecting to hear from me.

Brandon: Um, so, alright, let's jump into this. So, I was talking about, again, why, why the, my funnel is failing modern buyers. You know, the key thing here is, and think about yourself, the, the buyer journey has changed. Now, first of all, for a lot of people that I work with, you know, we never, we didn't use buyer journey.

Brandon: We didn't use a lot of these terms before, [00:09:00] uh, to add context, but we always knew how our buyers behaved. And prior to internet era and social media. Buyers kind of, you know, they got their information from somebody that cold called them cold, knocked on them, sent 'em a direct mail piece, or somebody that they met or were introduced to at a conference or trade show or some sort of networking event.

Brandon: That's generally it. I get, yeah, there's others, but that was generally it. So when we had first conversations with buyers, it was more about what we did. Initially, but it quickly shifted to getting to know each other. I. So think about being at a networking event and you see somebody, you look at their badge, they got, you know, their name, their title, their company, and you're like, oh my gosh, this is somebody I want, this is, this is a hot prospect for me.

Brandon: And you get all excited and [00:10:00] you go walk over there, you got your brochure and you stick it in their hand and you go, Hey, I'm Brandon and I work at, and I do a, B, C for 1, 2, 3 types of people in order to accomplish. Yeah, we, we don't do that in, in live events, right? If, if we did, we generally get a response of people going like, what are you doing?

Brandon: Get away from me. That's annoying. Why? And this is really important. Why is that so important? Well, because. That first stage is usually where we're getting to know each other. We are trying to assess, is this somebody that I feel like I could trust? Is this somebody I would want to keep a conversation going with?

Brandon: Right? That first stage of meeting somebody is extremely important. Because we're evaluating how we feel about the other person to make a decision of, do we want to go further [00:11:00] in conversations with them? Because remember, people make decisions from emotion. So when we, let's get back into the 2014 content where everything was about product and service and who we are in our case studies, we skipped that whole stage of getting to know them.

Brandon: Or letting them getting to know us and we go straight to product service. And now from a competitive standpoint, we are just like all of our competitors, there's no differentiator, there's no unique fire because you, the people are the biggest, unique fire that a, that a company can have when it, when they go to market.

Brandon: And we've ignored that. We've led with brand, we led with product, we led with PR content, we led with value proposition. We've led with everything logical, and as we said, logic makes people think, but emotion makes people [00:12:00] act. And here's the other piece with that emotion helps people remember. Logic helps people forget because you just sound like everybody else.

Brandon: And so it's easy, easy in, easy out. That's what Logic does. So the, the, the, the funnel in that sense and the type of content from the funnel is failing modern buyers because, because we have access. Because buyers have access to content anytime they want. They're not looking for the content of, of what you do and how you're serviced.

Brandon: They're looking what captures human attention and, and do this exercise. Go into LinkedIn, go into any, any social channel for that matter, and just go through a newsfeed and. Pay attention to what captures your attention. [00:13:00] Pay attention to what gets you to stop scrolling and go, oh, that's interesting, right?

Brandon: What you'll most likely find, and I've got one caveat, but you're most likely find. Is the more human content, that emotional content that people sharing, a real story that they've been through. Not a customer story, although that's, that's good, but a real story of this is something that I went through.

Brandon: This is what I was facing, this is how I felt, and this is what happened. That type of content captures our emotion, captures the human heart, pauses us. We pay more attention to it, and we're much more likely to engage with it because our human can engage with human content. And we don't sit around and go, what do I say?

Brandon: I don't know how to engage our human, our heart is naturally gonna want to engage with that content anyway because. It's emotional content. It's not just logical [00:14:00] content with logical content. We feel like, oh, what if I say it wrong with emotional content sharing experiences, what they've been through. We all have experiences.

Brandon: We can share our own experiences or we can thank people 'cause um, oh my gosh, and thank, thank you for sharing that. It makes me feel more normal, that type of content. But what does that do? It builds a connection. And then if you were to look and go, wow, that person liked my content, and you see that they're a prospective client, or maybe they're a good referral for clients, you message 'em quickly and go, Hey, thanks so much for commenting that, really appreciate it.

Brandon: You wanna get on a call, let's get to know each other or however you want to follow up. So I've got a couple con comments over here I want to see real quick. Uh. Lincoln accent. I don't, uh, non-linear, digital first self-educated. That's what we're finding is B2B partner channel advisors in EMEA when it comes to 21st century.

Brandon: A typical buyer persona in the SaaS space. Brandon? Yeah. That [00:15:00] non-linear, digital first self-educated. That, that's perfect. Yes. Non-linear, that's for sure. Um, you know, one of the things in this, y funnels aren't, one of the big things I wrote here is the buyer journey is not linear. And that's what you're saying.

Brandon: It's non-linear digital first, because that's where they get the easiest access to everything. And yes, self-educated, but I'm gonna push it a little bit further. It's not just educating on the logic. It's helping them with that emotional connection to the people. Because again, it comes down to, and I know this is hard, like, I mean, I've shared my story before.

Brandon: I blogged for the first time in 2012 and got feedback that wasn't good and I didn't blog again until almost 2018 and, you know, started my first show and shut it down because nobody was paying attention. Like I, I don't wanna just. I just don't wanna brush over like, Hey, just create this content and share your stories and put yourself [00:16:00] out there.

Brandon: Um, I get it. It's hard. It's like we're putting our, our, if we're creating emotional content, we're, we're exposing our emotions to be hurt, to be rejected, to feel that imposter syndrome kick in, but. Because buyers don't go through a linear process. They don't go step by step from awareness to decision and every step down the road, they don't follow that linear path that we as sellers wish they would.

Brandon: Um, and they're smarter, they're faster. They have access to more content. They have way more people knocking on their doors. You know, so to speak. Making calls, sending emails, sending LinkedIn messages, texting them, automated calls, AI calls. They're getting so bombarded that they're just tapping out.

Brandon: They're like, I'm not going to, but again, go to your own. Scrolling down to newsfeed. And pay attention to the [00:17:00] style of content that captures your attention. It's more of the human journey. It's more of the human experience, what you've gone through, how it made you feel, the challenge you overcame, all of that type of stuff.

Brandon: That's what's capturing attention in the newsfeed and it's getting higher engagement and it's getting you remembered so that if they're not in the market today. But they like that type of content. They're gonna keep engaging with you. The algorithm's gonna keep you in their newsfeed. They're going to remember you because that emotional content hits the heart.

Brandon: That hits the memory that hits the brain, and they remember you. So I'll give the story. Um, I, several of 'em, I like to give other people stories, but, um, you know, Chris, Chris Dunn's, one of our clients, and I, I love sharing this story. I probably should. I not shared all the time anymore. Move on to a few others.

Brandon: But, um, you know, changed his [00:18:00] changes, his content changes, commenting habits, was looking at LinkedIn more like a networking event and just being around, being in lots of places, sharing more of this type of content. And he has several of these stories, but, you know, cold, cold email goes out and a person responds, Hey, yeah, Chris, let's schedule time to talk.

Brandon: I feel like I already know you from LinkedIn. So a couple things here. Got a yes off a cold email. Let's talk because I feel like I already know you. What's really important about that is look at your own content and the style of it. Will somebody say that to you? I feel like I already know you. Based on the type of content that you and your company are creating.

Brandon: If, if not, we're missing a huge opportunity to stand out, [00:19:00] to be different and to be remembered because emotional content, right? I feel like I already know you. That's emotional content. That's what gets remembered. All right. Point two of the day, the emotional blind spots for B2B. Um, you know,

Brandon: in the early aughts into the teens, the big push with the funnel was as much traffic to the top of funnel as we can. And I think it's still. In some way that the, the thinking is still there, but it became, it was all about us. It was me, me, me, us, us, us. We, we, we, it was a lot of content that was promoting and not connecting.[00:20:00] 

Brandon: And even then there was a lot, I mean, yes, there were people talking about like, you have to create content from the buyer perspective, but even then it was still about the company, the product, the service. Uh, what I'm saying is we gotta go to a different level, man. We gotta, we gotta downshift and go deeper.

Brandon: It's got to be about the leader journey. Now, it doesn't mean CEO. Only leaders in the company. Share your journey. Share what you've been through, what you've learned, how it made you feel, what the process was like. Here's an example. Tell a story of, we had a client that came to us with this challenge and this is the what we did.

Brandon: This is how the journey went. This is how we thought about it. This is how we made decisions. This is what they gave us as feedback from our, like, that type of journey is different than just saying, here's what we do for companies. You're, [00:21:00] you're inviting them into doing the research they really wanna do.

Brandon: What they really want to know is what's it like working with you? What's it like working with your company? What's my experience gonna be if I sign a contract or decide to work with you? And I think that's what Lincoln, your non-linear, digital, first, self-educated. I just wanna take that. I think the way I'm reading it, I want to take that a little bit further because it's not just the self-educated.

Brandon: But it's the self making that stage one emotional decision of, do I resonate with these folks? Do, do I feel like they're the ones that are gonna help me best. Let's see, what'd you say? Marketplace. This AI plus cloud seems to be the typical Gen Z virus journey we're seeing over here. And they love hearing from leaders.

Brandon: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Lincoln, thank you for that. Sorry. Um, no, I should asked you to put that on there. Yeah. [00:22:00] Yeah. I think especially then when we get in and we start talking about the different generations, I believe it more, more the Gen Z to the, to the millennials are going to be attracted to this type of content because you know, they've had these longer in our hands, but we are seeing that shift already too with even the Gen X to baby boomers again.

Brandon: If you're at all skeptical about this, um, go to a newsfeed. Choose, go to LinkedIn, choose a newsfeed, and then try not to buy. Be biased or ask other people to do it. Scroll down the newsfeed and see what captures your attention. See what makes you stop, right? I guarantee what it's, it's not gonna be the one caveat, it's not gonna be brochure content.

Brandon: It is not, unless you are have a hot need today, right now, and you're looking, that'll capture your subconscious attention and you'll pay attention to it because it's a current need. But if it's not a current need, which is generally gonna be about 98 to 99% of your [00:23:00] entire, uh, total addressable market, they're just not in market.

Brandon: They're not in in buying mode right now. It's just not gonna capture their attention. But when you share a story, you share experience, you share things I like to say, what are you feeling? What are you observing? And what are you thinking? Like, Hey, based, based on my 25 years in the industry, this is what I'm watching happen.

Brandon: It reminds me back when the shift from this to this happened, that type of content. You are sharing your story, you're sharing your journey, you're sharing your experience, you're sharing the rollercoaster of up and down. Right? I mean, some of, some of the content for me that gets the most engagement is when I talk about going through the recession and.

Brandon: Oh 8 0 9, and going from printed content to digital content. I mean, these were big scary shifts for me where I thought, oh man, I got this thing down. I'd had a couple companies I've sold. I knew direct mail, direct mail's gonna be here [00:24:00] forever, right? Nope. The recession hits everybody's hurting on cap, on capital, and then there's this new thing called email marketing, and there's these things called landing pages and blogs and content.

Brandon: And all of a sudden my entire world was shifted upside down everything that I had been doing for the last 10 years around direct mail. The buyers weren't buying it. It was too expensive. 'cause this new thing called email was a lot cheaper. When I share, when I share those stories and what I went through and how we navigated things or the decisions we made, good ones, bad ones.

Brandon: That's the type of content that gets the most engagement, but it's also coming from the people that are. I, I don't wanna say ICPI really, I struggle with that term at times. That's a whole nother conversation, but it's coming from people that are potential or prospects from my [00:25:00] company, people that could use our services.

Brandon: So when I engage with them on that type of content, I'm earning the right to have a conversation with them because my content. Is helping them feel like they know me. And so if I reach out to them, they're like, yeah, I feel like I know you from LinkedIn, like Chris Dunn's content, uh, Chris Dunn's story I was sharing.

Brandon: Okay, so let's, let's shift a bit. I, I kind of put two and three in there. Um, you know, what are the blind spots and what buyers are actually paying attention to? Uh, the last piece of that on what buyers are, are really paying attention to. They want real stories. I hate the word authentic because it's got so many meanings now, but they want real stories.

Brandon: They want real journey. Again, go to your newsfeed and see what gets your attention. That's the type of content that is resonating with people. I don't even wanna call it with buyers. It's just resonating with people, and your buyers happen to be people, so they're, they're part [00:26:00] of it. So, um, the, the best performing content.

Brandon: It isn't always the most professional either. In fact, it's generally the more natural, the more conversational, the more real, if you will. It's, um, it's the most personal because that's what people can connect with the best. Look, I don't know about you guys, but when I read something that's very professional and very logical, I also start to be like, Ooh, I don't, unless I'm thousand percent confident.

Brandon: That my opinion or what I'm gonna say, or my point of view, I, and I really want us really strong in my belief and support it, I'm probably not gonna engage with it because what if I'm wrong? Or what if they think I'm wrong? And then publicly people are seeing that somebody said this and I said that, and people think I'm wrong.

Brandon: It's scary. I mean, it's, it's really scary. But when we share our journey, when we share the [00:27:00] highs and lows and more people engage with it. Value number one, more people engage with it because it's safer to engage with. It's about the human experience and all of us that are humans. Sorry, I'm not talking to the AI bots out there, but all of us that are humans have, we can resonate with that and, and they will.

Brandon: They'll resonate with that human experience. And then as those comments are taking place, or even if they're lurkers and they're not commenting, they're not liking, but they're reading your content and then they see you at an event or you pick up the phone and call 'em and they go, oh gosh. I, I feel like I already know you, Greg.

Brandon: I want to get to your, your comment in a second. Let me tell one more story, um, of a client experience. You know, was somebody who started a show and they're, you know, doing a show about four or five months into doing a show and having their episodes every week. I'm just like, man, I don't know. Are people really seeing this?

Brandon: Is it really working? And, and this isn't, there's not a direct ROI on this one, [00:28:00] but I think it, it makes a really good point around the lurkers. James Gilman friend of mine, uh, he went to his high school reunion and the next morning he texted me and he said like, dude, I get it now. And I'm like, okay, it's a Sunday morning.

Brandon: What do you get? And he said, I went to my high school reunion last night and he said, I, throughout it, people were going, Hey man, I love your, I love your show. I love seeing your content. Keep it up. He was doing a show, he was creating lots of content. Um, he, he, um, showed up. In LinkedIn, like a human, like a leader, the leader that he is.

Brandon: He didn't hide behind content all about his company. He was sharing his experience and sharing his journey and he said, man, I felt like the prom kings, like everybody comment and people came up to me and talked about my show and my content, but here's, here's the kicker. He said, I don't recall any of them ever commenting or even liking any [00:29:00] of my posts and that.

Brandon: Is something we have to remember. We absolutely have to remember. The vast majority of people are lurkers. They're watching, they're listening. They're paying attention, but they may not be the one to make the first step. But when your outreach is going out, when you have a message, when you ask 'em for a call, when you see them at an event, that's when all that takes place and there's an immediate more connection and a deeper conversation because the content you've been creating.

Brandon: The consistency of showing up has laid that stage one foundation for us. Remember, don't forget, we were talking about stage one and networking. That first stage is about, do I like this person? Do I want to keep talking to them? Is this somebody I would wanna do business with? Are they a complete jerk? Do I not like them?

Brandon: I don't vibe with them, I don't wanna talk to them. All that stage one, we do it through content, and when we have that first face-to-face, [00:30:00] it accelerates. That's the real advantage. So Greg, let me take a look at this. Nor can you put that up there. Thank you. Shifting from push to pull Attract, which has been an empty mantra for decades, trusted Advisor was a technique, a role.

Brandon: Yeah, absolutely. Greg, you're spot on. I think, you know, I'd like to say if, if we want to be seen as a trusted advisor, then you have to give trusted advice. And what does that mean? It means sharing your journey. The advice that you have from it, not talking about your products, not talking about your services.

Brandon: Advice comes from personal journey, personal experience, sharing the emotional, the highs, the lows. That's the type of content that people will resonate with, and they will give you, you will earn. The trusted advisor status without trying to be like, I'm a trusted advisor. You're just, you're earning it by, [00:31:00] by what you share.

Brandon: You're earning it because you're, you're demonstrating, Hey, I've gone through this. This is what I felt. This is what I did. This is what scared me. This is how we accomplished it. This is where we failed, right? This is where we failed, but this is how we recovered. That type of content is where we earn trusted advisor status.

Brandon: So Mr. Lurk, my friend, let me see your comment. Nora, could you put that up there where I could actually read everybody? If, if I wanna read it over here on the side, I'm gonna have to throw these on. But, uh, love that sometimes the company data room and post, uh, is important as the likes and comments. Yeah, absolutely.

Brandon: Absolutely. The likes, the likes and comments. Um, they're good. They're great. I don't, I don't, I don't dislike 'em, but they're not, they're not everything. In fact, some of the best conversations I've had with people started because they sent me a [00:32:00] direct message that said, Hey, I, I've been watching your show.

Brandon: I've been paying attention to your comment. I think you might be able to help us here. That's great inbound, but it works outbound as well. When you send the message out. And you, you know, present a value proposition or ask 'em, Hey, you know, would you be open? And they go, oh yeah, you know what? I see your content all the time.

Brandon: Um, let's schedule time. That's, that's all we're doing. I mean, this isn't rocket science. It's just we have to shift, we have to put on a new lens about content. And honestly, we have to have some courage. We have to have a little bit of courage. But Nora, can you put Greg's, it looks like a question, and you may have already talked about this.

Brandon: I'm beginning to think, feel, see that the higher audience numbers, views, et cetera, is taking on less value. Yeah. Greg, that I think that's a great observation. Um, like, you know, there's, there's comfort. And having large numbers right makes us feel good. But if [00:33:00] those large numbers are not converting into the conversations you want and the revenue that you want, then it's just getting in the way.

Brandon: Um, I think there's a logic to the more people I have engaging with my content, the more likely somebody is going to wanna buy. There's some logic in it, but I find that, and, and I think this is an episode that we need to do. There's, there's a movement back to community, and I know people have been doing community a long time, uh, but I think there's a, there's a movement back at desire to smaller community.

Brandon: Uh, I'd love to hear what you guys think. I mean, I'm reading things about people are getting sick of smartphones. They're getting, they're getting tired of constantly being available. They're getting tired of, Hey, I haven't picked up my phone for 20, 30 minutes. And now I look at all these notifications that I have on there.

Brandon: I even saw some old [00:34:00] school flip phones. I mean, the, the desire is, can I have a phone that just like calls and texts? And doesn't give me beeps every 10 seconds with some other alert. Now, I, I know we can turn off our alerts, but if we have apps on our phone, the temptation is, Hey, we're standing at the coffee shop and instead of waiting and looking around and smelling the coffee, and you know, people watching, we go straight to our phone, we put our head down and we go into our apps.

Brandon: If you don't have apps on your phone, you, you gotta engage in the real world. And, and I believe there is a, there is a move back to that smaller quainter community, Greg, with better high quality conversations instead of, the goal was mass numbers meant everything better. I think the numbers like that don't relate to intimacy.

Brandon: Now look, I don't consider myself this some sort of influencer and I'm sure they have a better, a different perspective. Um, about it and [00:35:00] about the numbers, uh, leading to their goals. But that's my personality, my desire. That's, that's what I would, um, that's what I would lean, lean towards. So, Lincoln, uh, Nora, can you put that one up to a hundred percent?

Brandon: Greg? We're all guilty of chasing vanity metrics because it's nice to be liked, but it's not outcome based. KPI. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for that. And I, I agree with both of you on, so, um. Let's go. I want to go into the resonance first content engine now, um, as we start to wrap up, uh, what does it mean? So first of all, I'm gonna repeat logic content makes us think emotion makes us act.

Brandon: So the goal is how do we get people to act? How do we capture their attention? How do we get them to, to resonate with what we're saying and have them feel like we get them [00:36:00] right? That's, that's the goal. And so I'm gonna give you, um, I got three points here, and then I'm gonna give you three moves that you can make.

Brandon: Um, I've said this throughout, but start with. What have you lived? What have you learned, but also what are you living and what are you learning? Right? For me, I dunno about you guys. How do you, how do you define authentic content? Such a big, big word now with so many different meanings. But for me, authentic is that what have you lived, what have you learned?

Brandon: What are you living, what are you learning? And if you can share that. And I'll acknowledge again, it's hard. I get it. This is a, this is a new fricking muscle that none of us want to work out. But if we're looking at the amount of time and money and effort we're spending on content or even outbound and making calls and sending out emails, and it's not getting us the fruit that we want and we gotta [00:37:00] change, well, this, this is a muscle.

Brandon: That we need to work on. You know, I, I just turned 55. I hate lifting weights. I love to run and walk. I did a 10 miler on sat, uh, Sunday. Um, I did a five miler this morning, but I know as I'm getting old, I gotta lift weights. I, I've gotta go work those, those muscles. As I get older, I, I'll pay, you know, it'll be i'll, I'll, I'll experience the benefits of it, but I hate it.

Brandon: But it's a new muscle that I know I have to work. And so I joined a gym, but this is a new muscle, creating content from this style. I get it, it's a new muscle. But sharing, I wanna go back to what Greg said and or Lincoln, I can't remember, but that, um, you wanna be seen as a trusted advisor. You have to share trusted advice.

Brandon: And when you share, what have you lived and what have you learned, or what are you living and what are you learning? Oh. That's trusted advice that's coming from [00:38:00] experience. That's, that's getting into the mud. And again, the, the, the driver of this is emotion makes people act. Logic makes people think. We want 'em to act right?

Brandon: We want them to connect with us. We want, and not just a LinkedIn connection. We want them to feel a connection. We want them to reach out. We want them to say yes. When we reach out to them, we want them to walk into our booth at a show and walk in and go, man, I feel like I know you. Right. I, I was, I was at a small networking event here in Atlanta.

Brandon: I don't know, it was a little bit ago and there was like six or seven of us and there was gonna be maybe 15 total people. But we're there, you know, like six, seven of us are there. It's early. It's just started and the guy walks in and he kind of looks around the room. He looks at me and he goes, LinkedIn guy.

Brandon: Yeah, I don't, I don't think I'm a LinkedIn guy. I think I'm a content guy, but that was a way he knew me because he saw me so much on LinkedIn and he goes, when I'm ready, I'm calling this [00:39:00] guy. I mean, you should watch some of this stuff. His content is great, and he kind of tells it, not kind of, he tells it to the whole room, what happened?

Brandon: My content emotionally resonated with him to a point that, number one, he remembered me. Number two, he felt like he knew me enough that in a room full of strangers, he calls me out, remembered me, and then told everyone in the room, Hey, if you, if you need to work on content, go check this guy's content out.

Brandon: Go see what his, his approach is to content. Like that's a big win, right? And it happened because the style of the content, not just the amount of content. So we gotta start with that. Um, here's a big question. When you have content and like, it's not a hundred percent of the time, but does, does your content reveal you?

Brandon: Does it reveal about you or does it try to sell you and sell your company? Just take a [00:40:00] look at your content and, and look and see, is, is somebody gonna receive this as me sharing my journey myself, my human, or is it gonna share? Is it gonna come off as buy my stuff? Okay. Um, create content that mirrors real life moments, that that's how we emotionally resonate with people.

Brandon: Frustration, breakthrough, a learning doubt, growth, anger, fear, like all the things we don't wanna talk about. It's scary to talk about that stuff. But this is that new muscle. You know, I, and it, and it don't, you don't have to go full open commode. You don't have to go share everything. You don't have to go to the depths of everything, be like, oh my God.

Brandon: You don't have to go there. But if you're like, Hey, when, I mean for me, when, when everything I built in the first [00:41:00] decade of my career. Was a publishing company and a printing company and direct mail and the amount of checks that we wrote, credit card we sent to the US Postal Service. And then in 20 10, 20 11, I'm getting, you know, seeing more about email and marketing automation and HubSpot and what they're doing in blogs and how it's so much cheaper than direct mail and it scared the hell outta me.

Brandon: Because I, I thought I was good at what I did. I got the, like, for the next 30 years I can do this, right? I can cruise control and do well and make money and provide for my family. And no, I hit a fricking wall and then I had to go figure out this HubSpot thing. I had to go figure out digital marketing and then look, you know, looked at it from my, my background and go, wait, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do this a little different.

Brandon: When, when we shared those types of stories, that's when people go, man. I've been there. I've done that. Alright, three moves that, [00:42:00] that you can make right now and we're gonna wrap up. Um, one is a voice inventory. Um, you know, this might, you may wanna call it a personal brand. I don't, I hate that term. I think so many of us, it's just like, uh, so overplayed, but.

Brandon: When you take a look at your content, you go look at your industry. Are you, are you saying the same thing as everyone else? Do you have a uniqueness to your voice, to the content that you share? And if not, that's where you gotta get into the hard work and go, what? What is my differentiator? What is my unique fire?

Brandon: Love that term. Your experience, your journey, where you've worked. Where you got fired from, where you got laid off, where you grew, where you exited, where you went to school, why you chose it, what happened there, those, that's your unique fire. And when you share that, those types of stories from a [00:43:00] place of, Hey, I'm gonna share this to help other people learn.

Brandon: I'm gonna share this to invite you into my, my conversation and be a part of my community. 'cause I want to be a part of your community. That's how we lead and we get remembered. So do the voice inventory, take a look at your content, take a look at other people's content in your industry and say, do. Do I stand out?

Brandon: Do I, do I say anything that creates emotion? And do I say anything in there that makes me unique or different? And unfortunately for most of us, we, we just don't, we we don't. Or if we do a little bit, we don't have the emotion behind it. 'cause we're still in content for promotion and not content for connection.

Brandon: Um, start recording. This is, this is the way you start. And don't give yourself pressure. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna post this. I'm not gonna post it. Just take that pressure. I tell yourself I'm not gonna post. This is one of the best ways to create really good content. Turn on your camera [00:44:00] and start recording real emotional reflections from different seasons of your life.

Brandon: Not just talking points, right? Most of the time we go, oh, I'm gonna create a video if, if you get there, I'm gonna create a video. I'm gonna write a blog, I'm gonna do an article. We go do an agenda, and we figure out what our talking points are gonna be, and we'll go through, you know, big statements, supporting facts, transition statement, remember thesis and things like that.

Brandon: We write in college and all that. That's the way we do it, and it's very logical. I want you to start working on telling. Telling these emotional reflections. Think about something you went through and then start talking about how did you feel? Like, what caught you off guard? What surprised you? What? What did you do well?

Brandon: What did you not do well? What happened from that decision? Like what have you, what have you feel? What do you feel or felt? What do you observed [00:45:00] or observed? And what were you thinking or what are you thinking now? Those are real simple ways to get into that emotional. Um, and then the last thing would be, uh, visibility without vanity.

Brandon: Um, don't, here's a move you can make. Don't worry about the vanity metrics. Don't worry for a little bit if this, if this resonates with you, if this topic, if this concept of emotional resonant content resonates with you, but mbu, um, try this. Give yourself, give yourself a, a two, three month period and test it and see, but don't worry about.

Brandon: The numbers. I'll give you this. This is episode 11 of Revenue Through Reputation, and we're on like almost episode one 50 of my other show, mastery Modern Selling. I think the first seven, eight episodes I had, man, I had no con [00:46:00] comments, like people weren't showing up. I was like, if I went to the Vanity metrics, I would've stopped.

Brandon: I'd been like, all right, this isn't working. Nobody cares. I'm saying the wrong stuff, but I, I knew if we just keep going. Keep going, keep sharing this type of content that people will start to engage. They'll start to find value in it. They'll tell other people about it. So, Greg, let me see, Nora, Greg's got another one.

Brandon: A technical question. Does ending on a CTA tarnish good emotional content? Greg, that is a great question. Um, maybe How's that for an answer? Sorry. Maybe. Uh, it depends on the CTAI think if there is, and we'll, we, my, I think last episode, and I'll talk about this again. We talked about our four steps. Here's a bonus.

Brandon: We talked about our four steps of creating emotionally resonant content. And if you wanted to more go look at, uh, episode 10, uh, [00:47:00] which is where I really deep dove on that, but I mean, gosh, I'll probably do it again by 12 or 13. This stuff is so important right now. Um. The, the four steps is, step one is aligned.

Brandon: Make sure you start with content or a story that aligns you with them. If you remember at the beginning of this, if you watched it from the beginning, uh, I talked about creating content, spending a lot of money, spending a lot of time having high hopes and not getting the fruit you want. That's an example of a line.

Brandon: Okay? And then we agitate. That you, we talk about what, what's, what happens from that? What's the pain that comes with that? You're spending all this money, you're spending all this time, you're working your butt off to create content, or you're paying somebody. I talked to some leaders the other day and they're like, yeah, we've got, we, we pay.

Brandon: I mean, it's not much, it's like two grand a month, but the, all the content that, that she's creating for us is just, it's just, we're just posting it. Nobody cares. Nobody's paying [00:48:00] attention to it. But we always look at it, we're trying to review it, we keep posting it. We're spending two grand a month and nothing's happening.

Brandon: You know, and that one, it's like, my first question was, well, don't, don't give it to the intern unless they've been trained to create proper content, not just brochure style content. But that's another story. So we, we align, we agitate, we assert, Hey, here's, here's, here's what you do differently. Right for, for my assert was, you know, just think about this.

Brandon: Logic makes us think and emotion makes us act. And we want our content to inspire people to act. We wanna inspire them to join our community or to follow us or join the conversation. Or maybe it is to download something. And so the last piece of that is, uh, you got the three A's, and then you got the I, which is invite.

Brandon: And that's some sort of a CTA Greg, but the CTA could [00:49:00] be share your experiences. Share your opinion. Hey, have you been through this? I'd like to hear more and compare notes like CTA is about inviting them to be more engaging with you. It doesn't necessarily mean you have to say, book a demo or download my ebook.

Brandon: Right? That I still think because. We don't, you know, buyers and think they don't want to talk with people unless they want to. Let's make sure that our CTAs are well earned. Make sure that we're not asking for people to do things that they're not ready because they're gonna ignore it. But they'll also remember, like, oh, all they're doing is they're looking for demos.

Brandon: All they're doing is like we, if we wanna be seen as trusted advisors. We have to give trusted advice that comes by sharing our journey and our stories and our emotion and, and all that. But it also means we have to be careful that we don't smell like commission breath, that we're not focused on the demos, because I mean, [00:50:00] we're all sensitive, right?

Brandon: We're all sensitive to this. Uh, most of us don't answer phone, num phone calls from an unknown number because we don't wanna be pitched, we don't wanna be sold. And so we have to be careful with those CTAs. But Greg, thank you for that Great question. And uh, hey, I'm gonna wrap up. This was episode 11. It's revenue through Reputation.

Brandon: Well, I thank everybody. Uh. That's, if you're listening to the podcast, if you're watching the replay, I especially wanna thank today, uh, Greg and Lincoln and, uh, no, and Dave, uh, Anthony Carlson and others. I think maybe I missed a few people, but, um, thank you so much for joining in the comments. And look what I would love to, I would appreciate, I've been told don't use the word love.

Brandon: Nobody cares what I love. I get that. I would appreciate if you have topics. You have, um, questions like, shoot 'em to me, find me on LinkedIn. It's, uh, you know, Brandon Lee, uh, LinkedIn Digital, the company's [00:51:00] fist bump if you need it to find me. Um, but yeah, send me your questions. Send me your, uh, your, you know, any, any other people you think I should have as guests on the show.

Brandon: Look, I wanna make this show for you. I think we're in this pivotal time, uh, Francis, thank you for that. I appreciate that. Uh, thank you, Greg. We're at a pivotal time. I'm gonna, I'm gonna end at this. We're at a very pivotal time, in my opinion, or I'm gonna say it stronger. I believe from my experience, we're at a pivotal time as we we're in a pivotal time in that oh eight through 20 10, 20 11, and the shift of content going from more printed to electronic to digital, I think we're in the shift now that we've kind of worn out over the last.

Brandon: 10 to 15 years that we used promotional logical content that was working because, because it was new, it was a new medium. Like, oh, I could go to a landing page and download this PDF. That's [00:52:00] really cool. But then we blew it because then we, we've got marketing automation and calls and we're bugging people, and now people don't need to go download anything.

Brandon: They'll go get it for free somewhere on their, on their computer or on their phone. And so we're moving that, this is the big thing I want to, we're we're shifting the way that we engage. Content is shifting very rapidly, and if we haven't adjusted our style of our content, then we're gonna be left in quiet rooms.

Brandon: We're gonna be left frustrated that all the time and effort and money we're spending on our content is not creating the conversations that we need and want. To grow. So thank you everybody. Happy Tuesday. I hope you have a great day. I'll see you next week, same time, same place. And hey, if you haven't already, uh, also, um, subscribe my Revenue through Reputation LinkedIn page or share it.

Brandon: Um, I, we haven't been pushing it a whole lot, which is our mistake, [00:53:00] but, um, I wanna, I wanna start moving the, the restream to that page as well. I think we need, I don't know, like 10 more followers or something to get there. But anyway. That's it. Thank you so much everybody. I hope you have a great day, and if I can do anything for you, you have any questions, you wanna have any conversations, I'm happy to do that.

Brandon: Just reach out and let me know. Goodbye everybody.