Marketing With Lesser Known Media With Adam Hommey

Andy Splichal 0:02

Welcome to the Make Each Click Count Podcast. This is your host, Andy Splichal. We are happy to welcome this week's guest to kick off season three of the Make Each Click Count Podcast and to discuss today's topic, which is

Marketing With Lesser Known Media . This week's guest is a speaker, author, consultant and business trainer. He is the founder and executive director at REACH SYSTEM, the executive director at In Demand Expert, and the host of the business creators radio show. A big welcome to Adam Hommey. Hi, Adam.

Adam Hommey 1:24

Andy, it is so much of a pleasure to be here today. And I look forward to being of service to your community market and audience. So let's rock.

Andy Splichal 1:33

Great. Well, we're happy you could join us. Now before we dive into today's topic, which is marketing with lesser known media, Let's first hear a little of your backstory and what led you totally doing what you're doing now.

Adam Hommey 1:46

Okay, I could go back to when I was 10 years old, and I started a grass cutting business. But I know for the sake of time and conciseness here, what we really want to focus on is how I got to be where I am right now. I've been an entrepreneur full time for 16 years, I made the jump in 2005 After getting my MBA in human resource management, and having a side hustle for a while that was actually in a training and development industry. So I went through a process where first I owned a web development firm that I shut that down. Then I went specifically into website conversion consulting during that period, right after 2011 when it became a separate discipline. After that I focused on product launches for a few years, which was fun, I guess. And then I went through this period that it lasted about three years, right didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up, I had a business, it had clients who was making money, and I hated it. I love the clients. The work was okay. But I didn't really feel like this was my life's purpose or my life's work. So I went three years exploring this having the luxury of knowing at least I had an income at least the lights were still on. What I also had was a podcast in 2013. I've launched what's called the Business Creators Radio Show, which is currently one of the longest continuously running weekly entrepreneurial podcasts on the air today. So for three years, the only marketing I did the only networking I did the only outreach I did was hosting this podcast on a weekly basis. So 52 episodes a year every Tuesday, 52 conversations, it gave me the opportunity to continue to attract clients when I saw fun projects and fun opportunities and explore different markets, different industries, different things I could be doing without having to formally launch it or declare it so that was a godsend to me. In 2019 it occurred to me that podcasting was really my love. And I went all into it. I started an agency called In Demand Expert which currently offers support services to both hosts and guests. And in the year 2020, I compiled all of my work in working with my clients to launch and host their podcasts and all of the correlations I made between podcasting and online marketing, email marketing, social marketing, etc. and developed what is now known as the podcast REACH System, which is a stepwise process for working with entrepreneurs to enable them to quickly and efficiently launch their business building podcasts is their primary networking client attraction and celebrity expert branding tool. I could develop that further but I know there's some other things you want to speak with me about and those things will come out over the course of what I share in the next few minutes.

Andy Splichal 4:38

All right, yeah, that sounds great. And I definitely want to get into to your podcast but I wanted to start with on your website I saw that one of your core concepts believe in is it achieving maximum results through minimal minimalism. Let's let's start there. What do you mean by that?

Adam Hommey 4:54

If you ever heard about the story of the man who wondered why his wife cut the ends off Half the roast?

Andy Splichal 5:01

I have, but I don't know if the listeners have so so please give us give us that story.

Adam Hommey 5:06

A man noticed that his wife would cut the ends off the roast before she put it in the pan to put it in the oven. And he wanted to know why she cut off the ends of the roast. And he told her well, my and she told him rather well my mother always cut the ends off the roast. And that makes the roast juicy or more flavorful. And it just overall is better. Well, a couple of weeks later, he saw his mother in law. And he asked the mother in law, my mother in law said well, my mother used to cut the ends off the roast. And she told me that it made added more flavor, it made a juice here. And it was just so much better when she cut off the ends of the roast because the way it helped the juices permeate. And it helped the heat go through so that it cooked it better. Well, son of a gun, his grandmother law's still spitting them in big vinegar and 98 years old. Sorry, Thanksgiving! So he pulled aside the grandmother in law and asked her why she cut off the ends of the roast. And she said, Well, back during the great depression, we were so poor, we couldn't afford a pot big enough. So it's the only way we can get the roast in there. So I told my kids, and there were nine of these starving kids that I cut the ends off the roast to make it taste better, because I didn't want him to know we were poor. The point being is that many things that we do, whether it's our policies, our procedures, the things that we believe that we need to do on a daily basis, came into being as permanent overreactions to temporary blips on the radar, we do things we often don't know the reasons why. So I encourage everybody who's listening, regardless of what industry you're in, regardless of what you do in your business, or for a living, to look at what you're doing throughout the day, both business and personal. And ask yourself, what would happen, if I didn't do this at all? What would happen if we didn't do this at all, and you'll discover two things. The first is, there are a lot of things you still need to do, nothing will happen if you just don't do them. So stop it. And then you're also going to notice that other things have impacts that you didn't even think about opportunities that they lead you to that you haven't even been maximizing, because you didn't take the time to think about it. Those are the things you do more of, and then you work things in to support that. So that goes to the core of both essentialism and minimalism. So about minimalism, and businesses achieve maximum results we're optimizing.

Andy Splichal 7:35

Yeah, yeah, you know, it also goes to the 80-20 rule a bit. So that, you know, 20% of your activities are account for 80% of your production. So that's yeah, no great story. And then like that, like the phrase now about marketing, what what are the ways that you're currently marketing your business? And where have you found the most success?

Adam Hommey 7:56

I'm only really doing two, one of which is hosting podcasts. We've already spoken to the Business Creators Radio Show. And recently, I watched the second podcast, which is called The Brilliance Plus Passion Project, you in fact, were one of our first guests on that news, one of our really fun episodes, I've had been having a lot of fun sharing that with my audience, that project came into being based on the other piece of the marketing I'm doing, which is nurturing and growing a Facebook group called Everything Podcasts. I have over 300 members in there, if people are listening to this a year from now, hopefully it's 3000. At any rate, I made the decision fairly early on, that I wanted to have a personal conversation with every single member of that group. I could have done the free strategy session model, but that would have cut me off statistically, from 70% of my members, I could have done the thing where I connect with them on social media. And then I immediately bombard them with DMS that they could then screenshot and post in other groups and make fun of me while they leave me red checked. So I decided to test some things. And just at random, I picked 10 members of the group and said, Hey, I'm starting a new podcast want to be on it? That was the entire message. They said, Yeah. Okay, so I set up a quick scheduler using my one tub, and I booked him for interviews on this thing I was calling The Brilliance Plus Passion podcast, then I hired somebody to systematically do this. We've been going through the tire group, we've conducted almost 100 of these episodes in the past 90 days, there are a number of them, they're still in the can, as of our conversation today, it will probably be different. If somebody's listening to this a few steps down the road. We have 70 episodes on the website, we actually launched with 70 episodes, of which one of them was yours. My point in bringing this up is those are my two modalities, hosting podcasts, and nurturing discussion groups. And we put those two things together. It's all about creating opening conversations that lead to close deals and expanded relationships.

Andy Splichal 9:55

Now let's let's talk about podcasting because that might be a bit of of a newer angle. Most of my listeners are ecommerce. Either they own businesses or marketing professionals in the ecommerce Industry,

Sure.

that might not be you know, might not be quite as common as a podcasting expert. What are some advantages or benefits that you could see for an Ecommerce business to engage in in podcast type marketing?

Okay, I can give you one example. His name is Ethan Beute, B e u t e, and he has a company called BombBomb. Bombomb is one of those services that enables you to send video emails on a one to one basis. Now one of his Strategies for Growing BombBomb is to regularly guest on podcasts. In fact, that's how I connected with him. He is one of our guests on the Business Creators Radio Show was a really good one, I ended up buying his book. It's a really great book about interpersonal connection. And there's also some stuff about social media marketing and other types of marketing modalities within it. But he shared with me that one of his many strategies, he also does online advertising, I believe, and of course, he has a website he does demos with both individuals and corporate types. But a piece of his strategy is regularly guesting on podcasts so that he can reach their audiences with the message of BomBom and also so that he can speak with individual entrepreneurs who host podcasts. And that for him, as he told me is a good source of getting new clients for his service. The interview itself serves as sort of the know like and trust thing that leads to raising the interest in investing in the service. And I've seen other people do the same thing. He's just the one immediately comes to mind.

Yeah, you know, that's a great point. Another thing that I could think of to do might be a great way to help get brands is at least an introduction to get your foot in the door to talk to different brands if you offer to be a guest on a podcast. Now, if somebody is thinking of launching a podcast, what would be some advice you would you would give them?

The advice I would give them is to think about how to use it, as I said before, a modality for networking, climate traction, and celebrity expert branding in our reach VIP program, which is a very selective program within our offerings. We work with entrepreneurs who are using their podcasts as their way of spearheading into a market where up until now they have not really played. What's beautiful about this is it enables them to connect with people who we would call influencers by interviewing them, and also gives them an engine that is fun to market. They could best with Facebook ads or Instagram ads or LinkedIn ads. And I know people who are very successful, but I believe that's a good piece of what you do, as well. And I think that's great. For those who choose to do it. There are others who may not want to play in that space. So this is another way of achieving a version of those same results. What's beautiful about podcasting is when you create a great experience for your guests, they will be eager and excited to share that episode with their tribe. In doing so they're actually credentialing themselves by saying, hey, look, I was on. I was on the Make Each Click Count podcast, check out my episode. And then they ended up celebrating Andy to a degree as well. And now even if you have a little podcast, they're still going to celebrate it, because it's another example of people listening to them as the expert in that field.

Now, you had mentioned your REACH program, what what are the different services that you're currently offering?

Okay, we have, as I mentioned, the VIP program is very high level, it's actually a 12 month experience because it goes beyond the podcasting. And it can also get into branding, curriculum development, business optimization, and more. It's, I wouldn't want to say it's a blank check. But the point of it is you lead with the podcasts, the podcast launches the platform from which everything else rises. We also have what's known as The REACH Program, which I like to call the mid range program. And that's for somebody who is highly motivated to get their podcasts up and running in a way where they control the media. They control the message, they control the space, and they can use it as their engine to open many conversations at a rate and pace of their choosing. There's also the option to acquire our video course where we walk people through the root system in some detail. It also comes with a guide book and step by step things like that. So we have different ways of serving the community based on where they are at the moment.

Okay, yeah, it seems like you got I have an array of products that really covers different needs based on where you are in the podcast launching process. What? What are some of the things that you struggle with with your own podcasts, frankly, with your own marketing?

Well, see the thing is, is we're at a point right now where there's really nothing new under the sun. If you attempt to launch something that nobody else is doing, that can possibly be interpreted as a reason not to do it, because if nobody else is doing it, does that mean that nobody else has figured it out, yet? Does that mean it's still too new to the market for the market to truly understand it? Or is it something that nobody's really interested in therefore won't invest in others have tried, failed and won't even talk about it now. However, if you want to enter a market, that's high, chances are you're going to have competition when I got into the launch your podcast market, I was surprised to find out how many people I knew and how many people I spoke with on a regular basis. It included helping entrepreneurs watching their podcasts, among their own range of services. Also, I was blown away by how many others jumped into the market right around the same time. See, I've had a few naysayers come to me, just trying to nitpick me. And they say, Do you know, do you follow your competition? And then they'll start listing names and my competitors. And in many cases, I'll say, Yeah, I know them, they were on my show. Funny thing that is a recurring thing. Like, I know that I know that personally on my show. So I look at competition only in the sense that I want to see what it is that they can't or aren't doing, that the market is asking for. Because that shows the gaps that I can fill, which is smart advice for any entrepreneur, in any line of business in any niche that is listening to this right now. Beyond that, I don't really believe there is such a thing as competition, per se, I believe that we serve our markets in different ways that in many cases, the results, ultimately the people we're looking for are very similar, like you and I do different things. And when you look at it, ultimately, our customers are looking for similar things. They want to attract more prospects, convert them into buyers, clients and customers, and they want to be seen as a leader in their marketplace. You and I both serve that through different modalities. And it's possible for somebody to invest in both of us.

Exactly, exactly. You know, I see you're a fellow author as well. Um, tell us about your books, what are the titles, what are they on? When did you write them, etc.

All right, I'm going to focus largely on my first book, that was my very own Groundhog Day Is an Event, Not a Business Strategy.

Like the title of the title.

Thank you very much. Basically, that's a compendium of some of my stories and case studies and experiences being an entrepreneur. I created that near the tail end of my, what do I want to be when I grow up phase, I started posting to my social media, my LinkedIn and my Facebook, something every day, whether it was a rant, whether it was a celebration, whether it was an inspiration, whether it was a funny story, and I noticed I was starting to attract a little bit of a following for that. One day, one of my Facebook friends said, I always stopped by your profile every day, because I want to see I want to read the Daily Adam. All right, so that gave me an idea. I looked up daily, Adam and I, there's there's already daily Adams out there. So when I tried the Morning Adam, well, there was a Morning Adam, but he had given up on it. So I decided I was going to be the Morning Adam. So I put up a blog by that name. All I did for 90 days was whatever I posted on social media, I cross posted that post there to that blog every day or I posted the blog and across social media, I set up its own community with its own followers. At the end of 90 days, I walked back into my wordpress admin, I assigned the posts to categories. And I made the translation from category to chapter, not only did I use as the foundation for my book, it also became the foundation for the spring formula, which is the framework for Groundhog Day Is an Event, Not a Business Strategy. So real quick, funny story.

So what before you get into the funny story? What is the subject of the book, who would read it?

It's for any entrepreneur who feels that they are doing all kinds of different things. They're innovating. They're even achieving success. But at the end of the cycle, it seems like they're right back where they started, or they're having the same conversation about the same problem. And it's been going on for five years now. And they just want to get out of the loop. In fact, the title comes from me making an observation one day to my business coach, where I said, you know, this book that I'm thinking about, it's really for that entrepreneur, who feels like that their experience as a business owner is like that movie Groundhog Day on perpetual loop and that the title was born.

And where's the best as Amazon? Where's the best place to get that book?

www.thegroundhogbook.com

Okay, great.

Yep. So So here's the quick story if you'll if you'll allow me, I started that project in the summer of 2017, got the outline done, made the basic manuscript for I copy pasted all my content into a master document, then life got in the way. Next thing you know, it's like January 8 2018. And I'm thinking, okay, one of two things is going to happen. I'm either going to have to wait till 2019. Because what day of the year do you launch a book with a title Groundhog Day, and it's February 2, there's no other logical way to do it. So I'm either gonna have to wait a year for this in order to get the book properly done. Or I'm gonna have to change the title to something that might be less exciting and less of the story. Instead, I chose option three, I looked to Sir Richard Branson, and I heard his word, I heard his words, screw it, let's do it. I went and hid for five days, finished the book and managed to get it published on Amazon in the late evening of February 1. And we had our best seller badge the very next day back during the days when you could rank and take it. So the point thing is, and that's another reason I want to bring this up very quickly is I didn't have an enormous audience for that message, I had about 150 people in the community that I created. And then as I went through that five day process of banging out the book, I started sharing the social media regularly my progress on it. And also, if I needed to write some extra content to fill in some gaps, I just did more posts. I looked at everybody who was following liking, tagging, commenting, and I invited them to a group and I organized them all to go on February 2 and buy the Kindle for 99 cents. I'm just being candid. That's how it works.

Now, how can a listener learn more about you, your services if they're interested in whether it's your book or or launching a podcast? Where where would they go?

Okay, so to discover more of the launch your podcast stuff, I encourage you go to www.podcastreachedsystem.com. That's www.podcastreachedsystem.com. And there you're going to find information explains the podcast read system in detail. If you want, again, if you want to buy the groundhog book, that's www.thegroundhogbook.com. Those are really the two best places that I would encourage people to go also in terms of connecting with me. I don't know how many social media profiles I have. But the only two that I'm actually involved in are LinkedIn and Facebook. If you're a friend of, if you're a friend of Andy, you're a friend of mine. Come on over. Let's open to conversation.

All right, great. Before we go, Is there anything I missed? I forget anything that you'd like to add?

Well, the one thing I just really want to emphasize about the whole thing about podcasting, let's go to one of the concerns people have about watching a podcast is, well, that's going to be a lot of work. And it's going to take a lot of time. The Podcast R.E.A.C.H. System actually works with you to design your show flow, your messaging, your branding, and your process through what we call the pre editing system. The idea being is if you're spending more than five minutes on post production of an episode, then we haven't optimized enough we got to work on that some more. When I launched The Brilliance Plus Passion Podcast a few weeks ago, we did post production on 70, that seven zero episodes, including yours Andy in one day. So that's because we used our own system, we ate our own cat food, so to speak, to create the ability to launch that. So first of all, it's not hard, it's not difficult, if you don't want it to be if you want to focus on optimization. The other piece I hear is, what about listeners? And what about downloads? I know we're very short on time here. And I know we have to wrap up. So let me just say this, and this is this could be a starting point for conversations they might want to reach once a reach out to me. When you view getting listeners and downloads as a result of your efforts. Rather than as a goal of your efforts, you will achieve that faster and then in a more sustainable way. Because you'll be creating and optimizing the things that get you the listeners and downloads rather than chasing the rank and tank model. So you focus on using it to open conversations that close deals and expand relationships. And you create interesting content that celebrates your guests and makes them eager and excited to credential eyes themselves by celebrating the fact that they're on your show, and you will expand your reach.

That's great. That's a great final shot. Thank you, Adam. Well, that is it today. Remember if you liked this episode, please go to Apple podcasts and leave an honest review. And if you're looking for more information regarding Adam or his book or the Business Creators Radio Show I will add the links into the show notes below. In addition, if you're looking for more information on growing your business using Google paid ads request to join the Make Each Click Count Facebook group, I've been releasing some all new free live trainings and more will be happening soon. In the meantime, remember to stay safe keep healthy and happy marketing and I will talk to you in the next episode.