The Traffic Hackers

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Summary:
In this episode, Sam Anderson discusses the missed opportunity of in-person speaking gigs as lead generation. He emphasizes the value of connecting with a large audience and the potential for new business. Sam also highlights the importance of charging for speaking engagements to increase perceived value and attract higher-quality clients. He then delves into the topic of personal branding versus business branding and the different types of content that can create lead flow. Sam advises tailoring content for different social media platforms based on the target audience. He encourages individuals to choose the right medium for content creation based on their strengths. Sam shares his own journey of overcoming the fear of speaking and making content, emphasizing the importance of progression. He concludes by emphasizing the power of sharing your story and building a following.



Chapters:
00:00 The Missed Opportunity of In-Person Speaking Gigs as Lead Generation
03:21 Charging for Speaking Engagements Increases Value and Attracts Higher-Quality Clients
04:20 Utilizing Social Media Platforms for Personal and Business Branding
06:18 Creating Content for Personal Branding vs Business Branding
08:00 Tailoring Content for Different Social Media Platforms
09:26 Choosing the Right Medium for Content Creation
10:28 Overcoming the Fear of Speaking and Making Content
11:23 The Value of Progression and Documenting Your Journey
13:23 The Power of Sharing Your Story and Building a Following
14:28 Closing Remarks and Invitation to Connect with Sam Anderson

Introduction:
Welcome back to Episode 13 of "The Traffic Hackers," where we delve into the world of marketing and innovation with leading experts in the field. In this episode, we're thrilled to have Samuel Anderson, also known as Mr. Preneur, return to our show. Sam is not just a renowned entrepreneur and digital marketing strategist; he's also a master storyteller with a keen understanding of the digital landscape. Today, he discusses the underutilized potential of in-person speaking gigs for lead generation, the strategic approach to personal and business branding, and the art of content creation across various media platforms.
Sam's insights are designed to empower entrepreneurs and content creators to harness the full potential of their public engagements and digital presence. By sharing his journey and practical tips, Sam aims to inspire listeners to elevate their approach to marketing and personal branding, making this episode a treasure trove of actionable advice.
Importance of In-Person Speaking Gigs:
Samuel Anderson starts by revisiting the concept of in-person speaking engagements, a topic he passionately advocates as a gold mine for lead generation. According to Sam, the power of face-to-face interaction cannot be overstated in an era where digital connections often dominate our interactions. He explains how personal presence at events significantly boosts credibility and enables direct connection with a large audience, opening doors to potential new business opportunities.
Engagement and Connection: Sam emphasizes that in-person events create a unique environment for spontaneous interactions and discussions that are not possible through other forms of communication. These interactions often lead to immediate business opportunities and long-term connections, as the audience gets to experience the speaker's charisma and expertise firsthand.
Case Studies and Examples: Throughout his discussion, Sam shares multiple examples where speakers have leveraged their appearances not only to captivate the audience but also to directly boost their business's bottom line. He highlights cases where businesses have seen a noticeable increase in quality leads and client engagement post-events, attributing this to the direct and personal nature of in-person speaking.
Valuing Your Expertise:
Transitioning from the benefits of speaking gigs, Sam discusses the importance of charging for these engagements. He argues that pricing your speaking services appropriately plays a crucial role in how potential clients perceive your value. "When you charge for your speaking slots, it sets a baseline for your expertise and your brand’s worth," Sam notes, encouraging speakers to view their engagements as both a service and a value proposition.
Psychological Impact of Pricing: Charging for engagements can significantly affect the perceived value of your advice and services. Sam explains how free engagements can often lead to undervaluation of your expertise, whereas a priced ticket implies quality and exclusivity, attracting more serious and high-quality clients.
Setting the Right Price: Sam provides practical tips on how to determine the right pricing for various types of speaking engagements. He stresses the importance of considering factors such as the audience size, the exclusivity of the event, and your own experience and reputation in the industry.
Content Tailoring for Social Media:
In the digital realm, Sam highlights the critical nature of tailoring content for different social media platforms. He underscores that each platform has its unique set of norms, audience expectations, and content consumption patterns, which require a bespoke approach to content creation.

Platform-Specific Strategies: For instance, Instagram favors visually appealing content and stories, whereas LinkedIn is more conducive to longer-form, professional articles and posts. Sam shares strategies for maximizing engagement on each platform by aligning content with these preferences.
Real-Life Examples: To illustrate his points, Sam recounts successful campaigns and content strategies that have effectively engaged different audiences across various platforms. He offers insights into how these strategies were developed and the impact they had on lead generation and brand building.

About Samuel Anderson:
Originally from Lynchburg, Va, he set out on a different path. While studying Business at Longwood University, he decided it was best to withdraw and embark on a new journey.  Entrepreneurship!

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-anderson-39863153/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/samuel.anderson.547

Creators & Guests

Producer
Brent Stone
Overcoming early turmoil, I've transformed challenges into resilience and success. My journey includes: Escaping legal trouble in my teens. Achieving national recognition in network marketing at 19. Transitioning from managing a multi-million-dollar dental facility to co-owning a Dental Service Organization in my early 20s. Launching a lead generation firm/software development company and starting the “Traffic Hackers” podcast. Undergoing a spiritual journey and creating the “Changed Podcast” with my wife. Today, I'm an entrepreneur, owner, connector, and author, inspired by my encounters with Jesus. I founded Funnel Force and developed leadtether, an innovative lead generation software. I focus on helping professionals streamline their business processes. Expertise: Advertising/Marketing Strategy, Scaling Systems, Dental Industry, Software Development, Podcast Hosting, Strategic Business Consulting. Looking for: Collaborations, partnerships, opportunities to expand my podcasts, and speaking engagements. Join me for a transformative journey in entrepreneurship. Let’s make an impact together.
Guest
Sam Anderson
Sam Anderson from Lynchburg, VA, left Longwood University to pursue entrepreneurship. He initially worked in mental health, climbing the ranks for a decade. After facing job cuts, he launched Richmond Bubble Soccer and Cycle Laundry Services while managing a full-time job. Despite nearly facing eviction, Sam established Enso Media Firm to provide cost-effective marketing for startups. He also created Mr Preneur for entrepreneurial coaching and co-founded Legacy Vending, which donates part of its revenue to non-profits. Sam later started Warren Investment in real estate, honoring his father and contributing to social impact through his ventures.

What is The Traffic Hackers?

Welcome to "The Traffic Hackers" podcast, your go-to resource for mastering the art of lead generation and demand generation. Each episode is packed with insights and strategies to help companies and entrepreneurs skyrocket their business growth. We delve deep into the secrets of increasing sales and revenue, transforming the way you attract and nurture leads.

Join us as we explore innovative methods to increase lead sources and reveal the tools and tactics for automating your lead generation process. Whether you're a seasoned business owner or just starting out, "The Traffic Hackers" is your guide to putting revenue growth on autopilot. Tune in to unlock the potential of hot leads and learn how to turn clicks into customers, driving your business forward in today's competitive market.

Subscribe now and embark on a journey to elevate your business with "The Traffic Hackers" – where every listener gets equipped to conquer the digital landscape and achieve sustainable growth.

#LeadGeneration #DemandGeneration #BusinessGrowth #IncreaseSales #IncreaseRevenue

Brent Stone (00:00.401)
And welcome back. We are here on the Traffic Hackers. I've got the Sam Anderson with me. We are going to be going back and forth on some more lead gen tactics today. Sam, thanks for being on with us again, man. It's exciting. We have a lot of fun things that we talked about last episode. This episode, though, we're going to get into some things that I think that a lot of people discount. And here's what I mean. A lot of people don't look at.

Sam Anderson (00:13.652)
Absolutely.

Brent Stone (00:27.661)
in-person speaking gigs as lead generation, they look at it as either revenue, like, hey, I'm getting a check to come and speak. Sometimes they look at it as giving back, like, hey, I'm actually sharing my IP because, you know, I'm this guru and I want to be able to do this to help the next generation or whatever. But we were just talking and you were saying, hey, Brent, there's a lot of missed opportunity for just lead generation in general. Like, can you go into that? Because I'd love to hear your take on that.

Sam Anderson (00:54.174)
Yeah, definitely. So I know I'm not ignorant to the fact that for majority of people, their number one fear is public speaking. I get that. It still blows my mind that is a bigger fear than drowning. Most people would rather drown to death than to be on stage speaking in front of a crowd. Me personally, I can't get enough of it. If that's all I did for eight hours a day, every day of the week, I would be an extremely happy man. But it's a couple things

the value add and how you can connect with a bunch of people all at one time. It's similar to social media where I can put out one post and it's ultimately gonna reach thousands of people at once. Same thing with public speaking. Give me a room full of 200 people. I wouldn't have the time to speak with each one of them individually, but if you give me 30 minutes to an hour to do some training and add some value to them, I'm very likely to walk out of that room with some new business. Plus, I never do a public speaking event where we're not filming it.

So I always have extra content to build a post from that. But I can honestly say, in my 10 years of being an entrepreneur, I've never once done a talk, like in a public forum, and not walked away with new business. It's never happened. Every single time I've been on stage, I've walked away with some business. So people getting past that fear, but then also looking at things like, you know, workshops and trainings, where yes, these are things that you can get paid for to come in.

But majority of time, even when you teach someone, you can give someone so much value. But even after you teach them, they're still probably gonna be too lazy to do it on their own. Like, you could show me how to change the oil on my car. Not gonna do it, because I'm not interested in sitting in my garage for two hours on a Saturday changing the oil when I can take it to my guy who can do it in 10 minutes for 50 bucks. I would much rather pay somebody to do that than do it myself. But there is that component with the bankroll. I will say this.

A year ago, I decided, because I would do a lot of free talks because I always got business from it. A year ago, I made the decision not doing any more free talks anymore. I got too much knowledge and expertise in my field now. It ain't for free anymore. Now, I'll get a lot of nonprofits or something that's going to pull at my heartstrings, like saying, we've really got this group. They're going to get a ton of value from, can you just spare some time? And I've also found that when I charge people for something, no matter the amount, they're going to value it much more.

Sam Anderson (03:21.59)
bare minimum, let's say I did want to donate to a nonprofit and come to a talk, bare minimum I'm charged at least 50 bucks, which is basically me giving it to them, but I need them to have some skin in the game. But that has allowed me into different spaces where now once people start paying you for that content and coming on stage and training, you're now on a different echelon of people that are in the crowd. This organization is willing to pay me to be there and give this information. The people in that room are probably more

caliber of what I'm looking for in a potential client than anything else. And this doesn't extend to getting on a physical stage. Again, we all have the capabilities of getting on stage at any period of time in our life. It's called live. You're on Instagram live, you're going on Facebook live, you're going on LinkedIn live, you're going on YouTube live, you just go live. Twitch, go live. You have a ready-made audience there for you. And I coached a lot of clients and got them used to being on camera. Then it was like Snapchat was like the newest thing.

But I'll tell them, get on Snapchat every day and start making videos. You will start to get so used to creating content that when me and my team come around with big old cameras, you're not gonna be as nervous because you've been doing this for a while now.

Brent Stone (04:33.418)
It's awesome, it's awesome. So when you're talking about having people to just get on Twitch or Snapchat or something like that, are you telling them to basically just start like a personal account and just start recording stuff? Or do they have like a business page? Or does that even matter? Like, I mean, what's your take on that?

Sam Anderson (04:53.022)
It depends on your brand. So for me, from the start, I've spent a lot of time building my personal brand. Because in my mind, I knew I would never just be doing one thing. I'm a serial entrepreneur. I'm going to have my hands in a bunch of stuff. I need people to know Sam Anderson first before they know Enzo Media Firm or Legacy Vending or Warren Investment or any of these other businesses I'm involved in. Because then, no matter which way I pivot, whether I drop a new book or start a new business,

or become co-chair of this organization, whatever it is, people are like, oh, that's Sam, Mr. Prenuer, he's attached to that, I wanna learn more information about that. So it depends on what you're doing. If you're a solo Prenuer and you found your niche and you found your business, this all you wanna do for the rest of your life, then I would go all in on the business brand. But if you're someone like me who has several different interests, because I get business off of, you guys can see in the back here, I got my golf clubs. I get business just to posting content on golf clubs.

Brent Stone (05:27.713)
Yeah.

Sam Anderson (05:49.49)
Not sure if you guys can see in the video, but you can see part of my sneaker collection here. I get people coming here all the time that don't know a thing about sneakers, but they end up doing business with me because we'll sit here for 10 minutes and they're just enamored by my collection. Next thing you know, the rapport has been built and we're sitting at the table signing the contract. So yeah, it's really, there are a couple different ways you can do it, but I would say if you're on the traditional route, just focus on that brand and start getting that content out.

Brent Stone (06:18.397)
So that kind of brings up another vein of this conversation that I think is very important, content. So like if we're talking about personal branding versus business branding, do you have some words of wisdom when it comes to like type of content that's gonna create the lead flow for people? Because you creating content for a personal brand could be like getting people emotionally engaged with you, liking you, so whatever you end up putting your hands to, they also have an interest in, which,

Or you could be promoting something personally, that's one of your businesses, and it might not be touchy-feely, cool, you've got $10,000 pair of sneakers that you guys are bonding over. You know what I mean? It could be something else that is more business-related, right? I mean, am I wrong in thinking that way, or is that something that we can go deeper on?

Sam Anderson (07:08.278)
No, and I look at your contents based on the platform as well. So you're heavy in the LinkedIn space. The stuff I can put on Instagram, I cannot get away with putting on LinkedIn. Like, they're gonna kick me out the club if I do that. So it's understanding the target audience and demographic that you're dealing with. So I'll take, we'll take my Enzo brand and look at three major platforms. So first is Instagram.

Brent Stone (07:12.468)
Okay.

Sam Anderson (07:35.046)
Our Instagram, like that video I told you about on our last episode, um, about black history month, that video is for Instagram and tick-tock. It's not going to do as well on other platforms. Um, Facebook, we keep the brand a little bit more buttoned up. So it's a lot more professional stuff, clients, spotlights, things like that. Um, then LinkedIn, I kind of do a mixture between the two for a business page on LinkedIn. I'll keep it pretty buttoned up.

updates like if we signed a major client or something like that just to keep people in the loop of what we have going on. But understanding that you have a different target audience for each platform is going to help you determine what type of content you need to be making. Because I can do just like memes and stuff a lot of time on my Facebook page, my personal Facebook page, that leads to serious engagement so that when I post something about my business, that organic reach is still there. Instagram, we typically go ham like

And I'm doing Instagram stories all day long. I typically don't do Facebook stories as much, but Instagram stories, people can follow me throughout my days, whether I'm at lunch or I'm in a meeting or I'm working on something, they can just get a sense of like, Hey, what's going in each day. So yeah, it really depends on, on the platforms and, um, how you come up with that content. I don't want people to only focus on like video content to me. That's going to be your number one most powerful medium for marketing. But if that's not your strength,

Don't force yourself in that space because I'm a much better speaker than I'm a writer. But if I was a better writer, man, I'd be blowing up on medium.com, on Reddit, like all these different things. Like these other forms of medium aren't dead. You have to figure out where your skill sets lie and apply it to your brand. And a lot of times you could write an article or a blog post on LinkedIn. You could take a section of that. And if you don't wanna be on camera,

you've basically written out a script for a video. You can take that content, have somebody on your team film it, and now you have a visual version of that blog that you wrote. So there are a ton of different ways that you can go at it. Podcasting, somebody's afraid to get on camera. Like your podcast doesn't have to be filmed. You're doing it here because we both know that video is gonna play a lot better than just the audio. And a lot of times for podcasts, a video is what's gonna lead somebody to listen to the entire episode. But if you're-

Brent Stone (09:47.713)
Thank you.

Brent Stone (09:55.858)
Yeah.

Sam Anderson (09:56.406)
person, you can get on the mic with the blank screen and just say what's on your mind.

Brent Stone (10:01.565)
Yeah, that's really good. I think one of the biggest struggles that I had initially when we were kind of getting up and off the ground and in this space even, even though I came from a background of advertising and marketing and other things, I didn't want to talk into a microphone. I didn't want to talk in front of a camera. And you're right. I mean, one of the biggest things was just me trying to convince myself that it's gonna stink, I'm not gonna be good. And we just got to start. And my business partner was...

more up for it than I was. And it's not like I hadn't spoken and done stuff in front of other people. I have a background, you know, we talked about, I have a background, you know, speaking on stages in front of a lot of people, but it still wasn't exactly what I wanted to do. So I think a lot of professionals find themselves in that space. Once people get over that hump, it's really just going and making it happen and then making a habit out of it. Right.

Sam Anderson (10:54.182)
It's so fun looking back years from now and seeing the progress. I equated to say you start your fitness journey off and you're 300 pounds. And then two years from now, you're at 180. The progression of those pictures is crazy to go back and see yourself and be like, holy crap, I've come a long way. It's the same thing with video marketing and these sorts of things. Every now and then, I'll scroll all the way to the bottom of my YouTube page and look at some of the first videos I did. And I'm like, man, I suck.

But because of that, now I can look at the content that we put out today and realize how far I really have come and how much time I've put into developing this skill set. And that gives you more of an appreciation for what it is and how much you've put into this and realizing, hey, I have made some serious progressions in this space.

Brent Stone (11:41.225)
Man, yeah, that's so awesome. And think of like, if there was one thing that I, here's what I'm gonna leave people with and I'll let you leave our listeners with another thing. When you have that progression and it's basically laid out, you've got video proof of how bad you were to how good you now are, you can now have this incredible montage of just your story. And then that is a whole new piece of content right there if you have someone edit all that stuff together.

and just display your journey. And then it also is a touchy-feely thing because you can explain to people, hey, look, I'm right there with you, look. And then they can follow your life cycle of where you are now versus where you came from. And it just makes so much of a difference.

Sam Anderson (12:13.76)
Apple.

Sam Anderson (12:28.246)
Yeah, and you're more you're more relatable when people can see that. You know, we all want the polished brand or around the expensive suit and the lights just right. And it's like you look like you're on the cover of a magazine. Most people can't relate to that on a day that they're looking at your content. They're like, man, that guy's big time. Like, I'd love to work with them, but I don't think I can afford them. You may be very affordable, but they're looking at your brand thinking that you're out of their they're out of their stratosphere.

But when they can go through and see the journey, we've closed so much business with people just saying to me, you know what, Sam, I've just followed your story for so long. I just want to support what you're doing. So I'm going to park my business here with you. A lot of people you're going to find along the way that just are fans of your story, and they want to support you. So just by sharing these tidbits, by opening the world up to what's going on in your world, you're adding a lot more value than you realize. There's a reason why.

more people are gonna view your story on Instagram than are gonna like your post. Because in life, most people are just watching you. They're not gonna engage, they're just watching you. And you never know who that person is. I always tell people, you could be one post away from your life completely changing. And it's happened in several facets of my life where number one, I met my wife on Facebook. That's how strong my social media game is. I bagged my wife on Facebook. But...

It was from that one message that I sent to her, but there have been clients that we pulled in where I remember when I first got started, like if somebody paid me 300 bucks, I was over the moon. Now, you know, those prices have gone up and we're signing clients for three, 10, $20,000. And a lot of that progression has come from that one post that I put out, that this one person just happened to see that ended up making that one phone call that signed that one contract.

that change the scope of my business for the next few years. So you're only one away from whatever it is that you want.

Brent Stone (14:28.178)
Yeah, that's so good. That's so awesome. Hey, if you want more from Sam Anderson and Enzo Media Group, just check the show description. We're going to have links down there that you can reach out to him. You can find his business.

and I would encourage you to do so. He is not only a serial entrepreneur with a lot of different hands and a lot of different cookie jars, he has tremendous experience in this space and he can advise, he's awesome. So Sam, thank you so much for being with us today. We are so grateful to you and I can't wait until we get to have another conversation for sure. Hey, take care man.

Sam Anderson (14:58.659)
Absolutely bud, appreciate it.