hosted by: AskPat 420 Episode Transcript
Pat Flynn: Hey, what's up everybody? Pat Flynn here, and welcome to Episode 420 of AskPat. Thank you for joining me today. As always, I'm here to help you by answering your online business questions, five days a week. We have a great question today from Ann. But before we get to that, I do want to thank today's sponsor. First up, we have Braintree.
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Ann: Hi Pat, This is Ann. I have question regarding Periscope. What do you think about it and what it's potential regarding online marketing business? Thank you.
Pat Flynn: Hey, Ann. Thank you so much for the question today. This is very appropriate actually because Periscope is growing massively right now. And just so you know Ann, I'm actually recording this live on Periscope right now. We have 150 people in the room who are listening to me answer this question for you, who are giving inspiration for the answers that I'm about to give. Because I've been working on Periscope for a while and exploring it. And actually I want to give a shout out to Chris Ducker over at DuckerScope or ChrisDucker.com and Youpreneur coming out very soon. You got to check that out as well.
But he was the one who got me into it. I pay attention to what Chris does because Chris and I are best friends. He really pays attention to where he spends his time. To see him put a lot of time and effort into Periscope. I was very curious about it, because I know he just doesn't go to the next bright light. He actually explores and figures out where his time is best spent. And so, he was using it a lot and I decided to check it out and I asked him. “Well, why are you using it?” And he was like, “Dude, this thing is off the hook! The engagement.” And I was like, “Is it getting any results for you?” And he was like, “Yes.” And I was like, “Oh, okay. Well, when you think of social media for example, it's like, how do you know if you're getting ROI, how do you know if it's working out for you?” He told me that it is bringing in new business for him. It's making him money. I know a lot of Periscopers who are doing the same thing.
So, if done correctly, and I'll highly recommend everybody follow Chris Ducker on Periscope cause he's doing it in a great way. I've gotten a lot of inspiration from him on how to conduct Periscope. It's kind of like a little live webinar and so if you were to compare live webinars with Periscope, there's a lot of differences. A lot of differences, but a lot of things are the same. That live aspect, and there's something about that live aspect and the fact that you're building a relationship, people can hear your voice, you're interacting and actually it's a little bit better than interactions on webinars. You're able to harness that power for your business and for online marketing.
So, Ann, yes. Absolutely use Periscope for your online marketing, if—and this is the big if—if you have time and it is going to make sense for you. Because a lot of people are finding the power of Periscope but they are either not using it properly or they're not putting their all into it and they're kind of just trying it a couple times and not getting much out of it. Chris has gone full into it and so have I in a consistent way. You've got to be consistent with it in order for it to work because what it is, it’s a way for you to build a relationship with people. You don't build a relationship with people by saying, “Hey guys, I'll meet you at this place at this time,” and then you do that a couple times and then you never show up anymore. That's not how you build a friendship. And of course, trust with your audience is the most important thing.
Now, speaking of trust, and I'm looking at my audience right now, there's 133 people now, few people have left, a lot of people come in new and that's the cool thing! You got to be able find people who have never discovered you before through the algorithms, through people finding your location and finding your Periscopes through the world map and people sharing it with other people as well. It's just an amazing way to find new people.
And if I were to ask my audience now, if anybody in this room whose watching on Periscope, is new, this is the first time you're watching me on Periscope, say “New.” Type in “New,” and again this is part of the interaction thing. This is really cool. You can get people to interact with you and when you can get people to interact with you in a little bit way. So we got some new people here: Robert Macy, Barbara Genten. . . sorry, mispronounced that. . . and a few other people too. Wow, actually ten or fifteen people who are seeing me for the very first time, who are hearing me for the very first time. Now imagine that verses someone coming across your article. An article is very one dimensional in terms of what it can do to show your personality. It's possible but it’s difficult to show intonation. It cannot really do that, to show emotion. It's a lot harder to do that via text but when you're on video and you're real, and that's the most important thing about building business online. You got to be real.
Because when people's initial reaction to anything online is to kind of doubt what it is that they're seeing. Especially if it's something great and if you're selling anything people's first reaction is to doubt it and I respect that. You want to be safe. It's sort of the online nature way of kind of just protecting yourself. That built in fear that we have, which is smart but also you have to get over that and the way for people to get over that is to have them trust you, to have them see that you are an actual human being. So there's certain types of Periscopes that work really well for your online business.
Let's go to the first one that might not seem like it matters but it totally does and it's just a behind the scenes of whatever it is that you're doing. Showing your face but not always you can show your surroundings as well, it just shows that you are a real person, in a real place that is actually behind this business that you have because there are so many other businesses out there fighting for your target audience's attention. This is one of the great ways to stand out. To show your face, to interact, and call people's names and ask questions and have people participate. And when they participate they get involved and they get inspired and they also feel like they are a part of your brand as well.
Another thing to do is get your audience involved in terms of what it is you're going to do. This is a great strategy no matter what platform you're using, but Periscope is probably one of the most powerful in terms of if you're going to maybe design an ebook for example, and you need some opinions on a different cover or you need an opinion on a new headliner and you're working thorough your email copy. Which is what we did last week. I’ve gotten so much great advice from people in terms of, “should I use this one or should I use this one?” This works really well on Facebook of course because you can show an A to B comparison and people can just type in A or B. But that's only sort of level one in terms of the interaction. But on Periscope people will tell you what they really feel about what it is that you are showing them.
So if you show them something and you want their opinion and you give them permission to give it to you, you're going to get some amazing golden advice that's going to take your business to the next level.
In these two examples, you're not even really selling anything but you are getting people to participate you're getting people in your brand, you're getting people to know you. And when you get people to know you, they're going to want to be interested in what you have going on.
Now here's the great thing. I love this quote from James Schramko from SuperFastBusiness, and it says, “We all have to stop trying to be so interesting and start getting interested.” Stop trying to be so interesting and start getting interested. And when you are talking with people live on Periscope, it is very easy for you to get interested and show people that you are interested in them and in what they're doing and what's going on.
So everyone on Periscope right now, how are you feeling? Are you interested in what's going on? On a scale from one to ten, how do you feel right now about the answer that I'm giving Ann? One being, “this is terrible, I should totally start over,” or ten, “this is great.” I got some tens, tens, eight. Thank you for your honesty, Bryan. Ten from Jason. What's up Jason? Good to see you! Tens, lot of tens. Ten, ten, ten, nine, ten, so bright, awesome. So bright. I don't know if you're talking about that light back there, but if you are, I apologize.
Ann, as you can see, I'm getting people involved. They're interested cause I'm interested in them. When you can interact and show that you're actually someone on the other end who cares, your business is going to do great. Now, this begs the question. Is it worth selling something on a Periscope? And this is something you might consider on social media, or any other place that is other than your website. Is it okay? Is it okay to sell something? And I think its okay. It's okay if the expectation is there and if you're always being honest and authentic. There is a right way to sell stuff obviously, and there is a sleazy, not so right way to sell stuff. For me, it's hard to say how to do it because every business is different, every audience is different, every target customer is different but the one thing that holds true across all businesses is that if you are honest and authentic and you always put your audience first, you're going to win. You can put your audience first by selling stuff.
Have your earnings be a byproduct of how well you serve your audience and Periscope is a great way to serve your audience and if you have a product that can serve them, maybe you show what this product looks like. You go behind the scenes. If it's an online membership site for example, or a ebook. You show them the bits and pieces of it. You read passages of it and share it with your audience. If it's a physical product, show them what it looks like and how it works and if you do that, you won't even have to sell and pitch because it will, well hopefully, if it's good enough, it will sell itself. Honest and authentic, always put your audience first. So awesome, thanks guys.
Everybody in the room is confirming all of this and so this gives me confidence that I was able to serve you today and I hope you come back with some results and share kind of how your Periscope was. For everybody out there listening, if you want to follow me on Periscope, you can follow me @Patflynn. Ann, thank you for you question today.
We're going to send you an AskPat t-shirt for having your question featured here on the show. No matter where in the world you at, that's what we do for everybody whose question is featured. Unless you're from one of the four countries that Printfection doesn't ship to. We'll definitely give that to you free of charge because the show wouldn't exist without you, Ann, and everybody else's question. Thank you so much. We’re going to send it to you. You'll hear from my assistant Jessica in the next couple of weeks so we can collect your information for that.
For those of you listening and those of you watching, if you have a question you'd like potentially featured here on the show, just head on over to AskPat.com. You can ask from right there on that page. Just click the record button right there. You can use any mic that you have. Doesn't matter what your sound quality is like as long as we can hear you. It's my job to sound good, it's your job to ask great questions, which you have been and you might get featured on the show and get an AskPat t-shirt too. Thank you again.
Thank you again, Anne. Thank you for those of you listening today. Hope you have a great week, today and or great week this week, but hope you're starting it off well today. And everybody watching live on Periscope, thank you so much for your support. And as always, I like to end with a quote, and this quote is from Catherine Cook, from MyYearbook. She said, “If you're not making mistakes then you're not making decisions.” So go ahead and make some decisions, go make some mistakes, because that's how you move forward.
Cheers, take care ,and I'll see you in the next episode of AskPat. Thanks.