- [Announcer] How do you grow your business
beyond referrals and word of mouth?
Wes Moss, chief investment strategist
at Capital Investment Advisors,
a company with more than two billion dollars
in client assets under management
joins us today.
He'll show you the number one strategy
for becoming the kingpin in your industry
and how to accumulate social capital.
(gentle techno music)
- So basically social media took me from
a successful entrepreneur to a global brand.
That's a very, very different thing.
Right? - It is.
The scale, everything that we do,
and that's why I'm sure a big proponent
and advocate of social media,
that people say, "Well, I don't like Facebook",
I hear this one, "I don't like--",
you don't need to like Facebook.
- (laughs) Right.
- You don't need to like--
- It's like saying, "I don't like the fax machine"
- Yeah, like... - Back in 1980.
"I don't like the fax machine".
- Or, "I don't like my cell phone"
- [Wes Moss] "I don't like--" - You don't need to like
your cell phone to use your cell phone.
- I think it's a good way to look at that,
because I think a lot of entrepreneurs,
they get frustrated with the roadblocks they hit
in these different mediums.
Facebook will change their algorithm,
now all of a sudden you can't reach their people,
but I think it's a really good way to look at that,
where it's like saying I don't like my phone.
It's not your phone's fault.
It's just that these mediums change.
- And I think a lot of people, they say,
"Oh, my kids use this Instagram".
- Yeah. - Or they post,
they go to Facebook,
"I see what my kids are doing,
"what my friends are doing."
They are using social media for pleasure,
versus I use social media for profit.
- For profit.
- It's a very different thing.
Because, you look at most peoples' profile,
you look at their social media profile,
that is not designed to attract business.
In some cases, it's embarrassing.
- Yeah it's (laughs). - Because you look at
their social media profile,
and it's like a sales prevention department.
- Sales prevention department.
- (laughs) Right?
And look, I think even now, people don't talk about it.
Like, let's say someone applying for a job, right?
You're not supposed to do it,
but everybody checks out your social media.
- They do.
- They check out your Facebook,
they check out Instagram, what kind of people are you?
What kind of person you are, right?
They wanna check-- I see a lot of party,
drinking on there, I don't know if that's
the employee I want, right?
They don't talk about it, it's not politically correct,
but people do check you. - Of course they check.
- So, as a business owner, not more than--
- The minute I hear about somebody,
"Oh, I'm going on a new date,"
well, let's look at Facebook. - Let's check it out.
- Immediately, of course. - Yeah, of course.
Even in dating, oh let's see who am I dating, right?
It's the same thing, so that's where the attention is.
Back then, the attention was on TV,
but now attention, it's on the phone,
it's on social media.
I think what has shifted is, consumers,
now they want to consume content where they want it,
when they want it, how they want it
on the exact device that they want it.
So, now consumers have very much more power,
who they wanna listen to.
If they don't want to listen to your message,
it's not like, they are not even paying attention.
You cannot even get to them.
- Well, I think that it's even harder today that the--
I think it's even harder today because there's
no barriers to entry, so there's cellphones.
We can all have a video crew, but it doesn't mean
anybody can just put out good content.
So, in a world of 500,000 or 700,000 podcasts
and a million YouTube channels,
tell us about the core business,
because again you're not using the internet,
you're using the internet to further
your entrepreneurial ventures. - 100% yeah.
- Whereas I think a lot of times we hear
influencers are just using the internet itself
to make money, but you're-- tell us about
your core businesses.
- Yes, because I say that fame without fortune
is frustration. - Yeah it is.
- Cause you could be famous,
"Oh, I have a lot of followers,"
and as you know Wes, you cannot go to the bank and say,
"Hey, I don't have no check but I've got
"a lot of followers on Instagram, can I deposit that?"
Right, you cannot do that, so that's not the point.
It is getting the attention, getting the right
attention from the right people,
and then by educating them, adding value in advance.
Whatever product, give me an example,
give me something that people sell.
- Let's talk about a riding lawnmower.
- [Dan Lok] Okay, a riding lawnmower, right?
- [Wes Moss] It's a relatively high-ticket item.
- [Dan Lok] Yes. - [Wes Moss] Right?
Could be eight grand.
- Okay, let's say eight grand, right?
Lawnmower, instead of like yelling,
screaming on-- and just like, "Hey I've got a lawnmower,
"buy my lawnmower, come to buy my lawnmower," right?
That used to work before, now it doesn't work
because there are so many choices,
and consumers have got so much power,
they check out your price, they check out
your features, they'll do a lot--
- They check out if they like, in general.
- If they like it, all that, before they even, like,
whatever you say, they're like, they don't believe it.
People are skeptical.
Instead of doing that, why don't we flip it around,
add value, meaning, let's say, creating content in advance.
People who would buy this kind of lawnmower,
what kind of problems and frustrations would they have?
Let's give them some content that will help them
to have a more beautiful lawn, right?
To help them take care of the flowers, or whatever it is.
When you do that, they're like, "Okay, this is interesting.
"You're adding value to what I did before you asked
any money," now they're more inclined,
"You have my attention."
It's almost like you need to get their attention first,
then you get their permission to sell,
to make an offer.
- Attention, brand, trust in the brand.
- I called it brand equity, right?
- Brand equity, and then you sell.
- So, instead of me yelling and screaming
and saying, "Oh, I have this program, I have this product,"
and all that, no, I just have so much content out there,
when people consume the content, if--
see Wes, if people are not even consuming your content,
chances are they're not gonna do business with you, right?
- If they're not interested enough to watch.
- And just like exactly what you said, like,
before we met, it's like, you know,
"Dan, I don't feel like a stranger at all,
"I feel like I know you," now how is that possible?
Because you've watched my content,
you've listened to my content, yeah,
so you know my story ahead of time.
So, then when we get together, the bond is immediate.
- Well, I think it's a very different--
and I think that I, this is my version
of how social media's working, radio is part of this.
- Yes. - It's an older medium,
but it still is a way to get familiar with people,
and now it's easier to consume because
most radio shows, like Money Matters,
it is a podcast, and then if you can't listen live,
you listen to it on demand,
and we know that a lot of our listenership comes now,
five years ago it might've been one percent
from podcasts, today it's almost 50% that's listening
and saying, "Oh I used to listen all the time on Sunday,
"but now I listen Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday because I'm
"I'm stuck in traffic." - Or when I'm driving, yeah.
- Yeah, I'm stuck in traffic, so why wouldn't I listen?
So, I think that what I've noticed
as I've gotten further into my career,
now 20-something years, that the conversations
by the time I'm meeting with somebody,
it's very different because they do know so much more.
They've watched, you know, I have 400 videos on YouTube,
they've watched 20 of them. - Yes.
- I have 800 podcasts, they've listened to,
you know, 20, 50 of them, I don't know.
So there's a lot that, to your point,
we're in a world where selling from the ground up
on day one, I don't know.
I'm sure there's some industries left
where that happens but that's just not,
that is an old, old, old way
to do business. - Old, old model.
A very old way of doing business,
and it's not scalable.
- It isn't, yeah. - Right?
It's like--
- It's one to one to one to one.
- One to one, and when I sit down with an entrepreneur,
I say, "Okay, so what's your marketing strategy?"
The minute they say, "Oh it's like word of mouth, referral,"
and I always say, "You mean hope?" (laughs)
And I say, "Hope is not a strategy," right?
Like, it's not predictable,
versus with the social media, I can put my message,
my content in front of the people that I know
that are receptive, that are most likely to
do business with me, like, and do it in a mass scale.
That's how you grow a company very quickly, right?