LinkedIn Mastery: Raise Your Prices and Get B2B Consulting & B2B Service Deals Coming to You with Business Consultant, Founder, & B2B Growth Team CEO Mark Firth on Episode #0327

Mark Firth [00:00:00]:

Hello. This is Mark Firth of markfirthonline.com, and you’re listening to Mario Fachini with EA interviews.

Mario Fachini [00:00:07]:

EA interviews, episode

Mark Firth [00:00:09]:

327.

Mario Fachini [00:00:10]:

Inspiration transformation success stories and the imperfect action round 7 days a week. Join Mario Fuchini for today’s expert authority Effect interview.

Mario Fachini [00:00:20]:

Influence, persuasion, leads, profit, all of these fun things in business how do you generate them? Should you do a? Should you do b? Should you do the shiny object of the week? How about the messaging? How about the video? There’s all these different tactics and strategies and all of these things, but one of them stands out to me and I’m excited to have Mark Firth on today’s episode to talk about LinkedIn leads. Everyone knows what LinkedIn is. Everyone I would say wants more leads, but are you getting them? We’re gonna get all the answers from Mark right after I thank the sponsor.

Sponsor – EAPublishingMethodBook.com [00:00:58]

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Mario Fachini

Here he is, ladies and gentlemen, Mark Firth. Mark, how are you feeling today?

Mark Firth [00:01:25]:

Really good. Thank you, Mario. It is fantastic to be here and thank you for the kind invitation. I am looking forward to that, and I love that studio. Absolutely, dear. We’ve just been having tech speak before we jumped on.

Mario Fachini [00:01:38]:

Well, I appreciate that. Yeah. It means a lot. I put a lot into the show to bring the best expert authority world, and that includes you having the best guest to deliver the most value and I have no doubt you’re a wealth of it for LinkedIn leads. So I wanna start off with drumroll. Why is LinkedIn important for your business?

Mark Firth [00:01:58]:

LinkedIn is important for my business because it is quite simply the number one place to get leads. And I believe it to be true for any coach, consultant, small business. If they do not have a presence on LinkedIn, then they are really making things difficult for their business. Let me let let me explain that allergy. You can either swim with the current or you can go against the current. And I know which struggles are easier for me. A lot of people say, no. I want this one platform strategy. No. I wanna concentrate here. But the reality is growing a business online is not about platforms. It’s about growing growing your clients with a profit and getting them impact. So why wouldn’t you go where your clients are? It’s not much not much extra work at all.

Mario Fachini [00:02:36]:

I love that analogy because I love the water. I love swimming. Everything related to it. And swimming with the current definitely is easier. So knowing this and, you know, LinkedIn’s not one of the new forms that shiny and shimmery, and I think it’s great. It’s fantastic, and I do leverage it. But why do you think some people do overlook it to go to the other ones.

Mark Firth [00:03:00]:

I think they do it for exactly the reason you said there. You’ve said the new and shimmery. And just as the I just wanna talk for a little concept on that because this is where people get pulled in the wrong direction. When it comes to building an online business, In my opinion, what I’ve seen to be true with hundreds of clients since 2017, a lot of people are looking for that tactic. They’re looking to get ahead with something their competition quote unquote is not doing, whatever the flavor of the week is. But the reality is when they get attracted to this and go into programs or coaches or online courses, whatever, whether teaching tactics. They often do not find success because they find, really, they’re not new and lots of people are doing them. They do better if they go to a program, which is teaching so so tactics are Right? They can go a step up, and they can really go into programs which you’re talking about, strategy, and and that’s the what and may maybe when you would do it. And that, they’re gonna get a lot more success. And that moves them away from the shimmering, new shiny object, and they’re starting to conceptually understand how they need to do, what they need to do. Because The cold harsh reality is, like, no one’s going to hold your hand every single second, every single day when you’re building your business. So if you just got a tactic, and you don’t don’t understand the why and the when. It’s difficult. But the 3rd level and this is where LinkedIn gets really easy is understanding LinkedIn isn’t at actually that different to any social media platform? Or or dare I say any way of getting clients? Because we’re all in the business of working with humans, and humans all adhere or follow what I call principles. That’s the principles of human behavior reciprocity. authority. We respond to social proof. If you see someone tall, we automatically would believe they’re authority. These are not like the laws of physics. They’re not like gravity. You drop an apple. They’re not true all of the time. but they are true most of the time for most of the people. So once we start learning and actioning at that level, it doesn’t matter what platform we go to. We can make it work, be it LinkedIn, be it Facebook, be it Instagram, be it meeting someone in person. Because last time I checked, I’m not selling to aliens, I’m selling to human beings. So that’s my view on shiny objects and actually learning the things that are going to work and allow you to, like, go, oh, this is happening. maybe I should do this instead of what this, you know, tactic is. Does does that make sense?

Mario Fachini [00:05:12]:

It does. And a lot of what I’m hearing is reminding me of one of my favorite books by Dale Carnegie, how to win friends and influence people. It’s not so much about the platform. It’s building the relationship with them.

Mark Firth [00:05:23]:

Exactly. Exactly. I have read that book, but not for a long time. You’d be testing me to to recall it.

Mario Fachini [00:05:30]:

Well, it sounds like you’re living it out. So why don’t you walk us through your process of, you know okay. So, obviously, I’m just gonna assume we need a LinkedIn account and for anyone who doesn’t have one, I’m sure you know, getting started there is a good point. But what do you do once you have that LinkedIn account? What’s the best way to reach out to people so you don’t seem spammy to them? you can actually start building that relationship.

Mark Firth [00:05:53]:

So I’ll try and keep this up to 2 minutes, interrupt me if if you need to marry. You got my permission. Right? But there’s a number of phases when it comes to LinkedIn. The first phase you want to do is take advantage of something that LinkedIn has that no other platform to my knowledge has. Right? And if you you can do within one of their premium sales navigator, you can do a search If you went to college, you can look at people that went to the same college as you, and you can cross reference that search. So you are cross referencing with people who went to your college, and or an ideal client because college is a formative year. We we automatically have a bond with people we who’ve studied at the same place. We’re part of the same group. Maybe it could be an old workplace. Maybe it could be an old geographic location. That’s an order of priority, by the way. The geographic location still holds fast, and it it does improve prospects. But a college or workplace, and then get in contact with them that way. you know, in fact sorry. I missed out the obvious one. Pull across your network from other platforms because the long and short of it is when we boil down the art of starting conversation, going back to the principles, there needs to be a reason for the conversation. Every conversation has to have context. Otherwise, they like who who is this talking to me? And you can create like, if we think about someone we know very well, there’s lots of context. We saw them last Saturday at the party. We play soccer with them in the week or We went to this as those are contexts. It’s easy. Once we get moving down to continuum to cold leads, there’s no context. But we start in the middle with people that went to college, people that you know, lots of commonality. Once you’ve done that, that’s when you’re gonna move on to Colden, and a lot of people get this wrong. LinkedIn is not an outreach any platform anymore. It used to be, and we took advantage of that, but that horse has bolted. That trainer’s left the station linked in that has a lot of restrictions on it. Thanks to the marketers with their tactics, shall we say. It’s now an attraction platform, so you need to get people coming to you, be top of mind, And the the one strategy we use, and we gotta be careful, tactics strategy is 2 minute videos. A 2 minute video where you actually help people. Because if you want to show people, you can help them. the most powerful way to help them is by to show that, to prove that, is by actually helping them. Like, don’t hold anything back. Do a 2 minute video. Are you so and so? Target market with this problem. This 2 minute video will show you how to deal with it. They can go on Instagram. They can go on LinkedIn. They can go on Facebook. You can repurpose. That’s all my clients do. And that just kind of, like, puts leverage on the outreach process, and people know who you are, your top of mind. It’s let’s not make it complicated. The thing that makes the difference as with everything online is the level of mastery. And mastery, by the way, is the ability to execute to a very high level, world class level without the use of conscious resources. Once you get to that point on LinkedIn and with all of it, that’s when you pull ahead of your competition. There. Done. Did did I get over 2 minutes?

Mario Fachini [00:08:38]:

You know what? I I was making a joke by looking at my watch here early on, but I kind of didn’t wanna I didn’t care. I wanted I just wanted to let you roll and be bringing the truth because I really appreciate it, and I know expert authority world does too. I’m always trying to bring the best value to them and by and by interviewing you and I love what you’re saying. I I’ve let’s say I was taking mental notes because — Yep.

Mark Firth [00:09:06]:

—

Mario Fachini [00:09:06]:

it’s very visual. But Tell me about the outreach. When did LinkedIn change?

Mark Firth [00:09:12]:

It’s in the process of changing. So I went on LinkedIn 2009, didn’t use it actively for a few years. Back in 2016, I went on there, and what you were able to do was was use automation software. And and that basically that’s sounds complicated, but all it is is you send a sequence of messages to a group of people who you’ve targeted. So you send a message. They don’t reply. You send the next one. They don’t reply. You send the next one. They’re they’re all the same. And because LinkedIn was kinda new and the shiny object, people were like, wow. I’ve got a message. I’m gonna reply to this. I might even jump on a call and buy something. And then, of course, the party got crashed by the marketers, and they started pushing it to streams. Right? You used to be able to get away with, like, you know, 200 a day. Then it got taken down to 100. And as we speak today, Tuesday 25th May 2021. They’re actually restricting a lot of accounts, and we do believe this to be being rolled out across the platform. to 100 connects a week? And why would they not? Because if we look at the objective of any social media platform, it is that you users have an enjoyable experience because they have an enjoyable experience. They spend more time on the platform. If their stick rate, which is spending more time on the platform is greater, the social media platform can make more money off advertising or subscriptions like sales navigator. That’s the Facebook model. Facebook is paid ads. LinkedIn is trying to get into ads and also has a subscription model. But if people conversely are not enjoying it, it’s, you know, it’s good goodbye. It’s not great for them. So, yeah, of course, they’re going to restrict spamming and and all that sort of stuff. So, yeah, that’s why the platform is shifting. And it’s just a general truth. Like, a principle, don’t go against the wishes of a a social media platform because you’re gonna have to spend every day you know, trying to get around the rules. You get thrown off. Like, what you can do is you get thrown off LinkedIn, write them a strongly worded letter and sign it. Good luck with that. Dear Mark Zuckerberg, I’m really upset that I’m off the ads platform. Please would you put me back? No. It’s same with LinkedIn. Do you know what I mean? it’s it’s not gonna happen. So they are in the process of changing. And we’ve all we’ve been out of the gate

Mario Fachini [00:11:12]:

for a

Mark Firth [00:11:12]:

long time. —

Mario Fachini [00:11:12]:

great. Yeah. Yeah. We we’ve — But you’re right. I mean, what say do you what say you do you have in the whole thing? They don’t care. And it’s I I’m I remember when people were doing that. So you’re saying it’s around a 100 a week now?

Mark Firth [00:11:30]:

for a lot of accounts. That doesn’t seem to any pattern who they’re giving.

Mario Fachini [00:11:33]:

I mean, we we didn’t

Mark Firth [00:11:34]:

we never needed that much anyway. I mean, to me, you put — I

Mario Fachini [00:11:36]:

mean, that’s still four hundred people a month, and I remember when I started with networking events in real life. The most I went to was about 19 6 weeks, and I’m very good at what I do. Yep. I’d be hard pressed to say I met four hundred people that month, though.

Mark Firth [00:11:55]:

I I mean, if you can’t convert 5 clients that, like, let’s save you a coach, a consultant of $5000 from 400 connects, then I’m gonna say this with love, tough love. You are doing something wrong and you need to improve it. It’s it’s really a simple

Mario Fachini [00:12:11]:

But maybe the secrets with the extra 100 or the extra 1000 that you’re spamming. Yeah.

Mark Firth [00:12:17]:

Will you will you these people have hopefully got a big network. They can they can kind of go back and say, I’m sorry for the spamming. Would you like to talk now? I’ve had a put a look for your profile. I see you spent speak French and studied art at some artist’s college, what whatever. You know? But, yeah, there’s plenty of opportunity there.

Mario Fachini [00:12:32]:

And I’m in I you’re being very generous because I thought you were gonna say 5 out of 100 is only 5%. You’re talking

Mark Firth [00:12:39]:

1.25%. How many in the heck?

Mario Fachini [00:12:42]:

I mean, you could do a direct mail to ten thousand people and only get a hundred people

Mark Firth [00:12:46]:

— Yeah. —

Mario Fachini [00:12:47]:

respond back and still have about the same numbers.

Mark Firth [00:12:50]:

Yeah. Exactly. There’s a lot of opportunity there.

Mario Fachini [00:12:53]:

So what do you do once you connect with them? Do you have any certain I love the word script, but I don’t want it to be taken out of context. Do you have there’s gotta be a format or a system to reach out. I mean, what do you say when you reach out to connect to them, or do you let them reach out to you?

Mark Firth [00:13:10]:

we we’ve got to be speaking from the same dictionary, and I just wanna check my definition of of script and framework is the same. I believe that a script is I I equate with being a template, i. e. word for word you’ve cut and paste cut and paste marketing. I don’t personally believe in that I believe in a framework. that touches on the the fundamentals of psychology, and you adapt to you and who you are because I’m from the United Kingdom. I’m going to speak very differently and have a very different energy to say, I don’t know, an investment banker from war Street or, you know, a a California starter. You you you do you. They do them, and and let everyone else be who they want to be. But the important thing is it’s got to be your own language. It’s got to be skill. It’s gotta feel like it’s you. Not like, hey there. Are you having a good day? The the long and short of it I go with is is I I let people come to us. I connect with them. And I we’re doing these continuous 2 minute videos with with the captions across. That’s worked exceptionally well on LinkedIn. Just a quick piece of advice. Just a quick analogy. just a quick reframe. Just just building up that trust because, you know, there are various touch points, but we can reach out. If we want to reach out I won’t tell you word for work because I would be doing your missed service because the way I say it works for me, it’s not gonna work for you and your business and and your funnel. But Here’s the principles. You wanna reach out in a very none needy way and set the frame. The frame is the focus, the way someone perceives the conversation. You don’t wanna be like, hey. How’s your day going? Ten questions. You just wanna be unneeding. Hey, name. Great to be connected. Loved your post on insert specific thing. Looking forward to seeing more. there. You’ve set the frame of being non needy. You’ve set the frame of not selling. You’ve set the frame of I’ve respected your time because, you know, in life, we get you don’t get what we we want, we get who we are, we attract like. And if if not respecting someone’s time and checking them out just like I checked out everything before this and we had a conversation about respect, Like, what are you gonna attract in life? Then you wanna give it a few days, and maybe you would reach out and and and move the conversation onto something else. That is entirely subjective. It depends on your niche. It depends on what your service is. If it’s a service that requires what’s the best way to put it. There’s so many ways you could go with this. But let’s take a coach or consultant. You might wanna just make another comment about their content and ask them a genuine intelligent intentional question about it. Don’t make it up. Only do it if you’re interested, and there you’ve got a conversation. You’ve got a conversation. You’re one step towards a call. Get the conversation first, get the rapport first. Now I know there’s a lot of myths going around that says, oh, busy people don’t want small talk. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We’ve not found that to be true. We found the opposite to be true, and I think that comes down to what the majority are doing. Because if you’re doing the same as everyone else, you’re not gonna stand out from the You know what I mean? So that would be my best advice there and just continue having here here it is in a nutshell because I appreciate this is a long answer because it’s such a complex subject. If you have the intention of not trying to get a call, if you have the intention of not trying to sell somebody, then you’re going to get the call, and you’re probably going to end up selling them. Go with intention. care, cure a city concern, take that frame, get the conversation, transition it to a conversation about business, simple as that.

Mario Fachini [00:16:15]:

Wow. I love that answer because it builds on the relationship side, which I’m all about. And sometimes I’ve gotten angry with myself because I really care about people. I love people. I’m always looking for ways to help them. But sometimes, it’s like, it just has felt like other people were growing faster And, you know, well, what’s your secret? And they’re not necessarily spamming? I wouldn’t say they’re spamming people, but they might send a 100 message that are more direct like, are you looking for a guest interviewer to publish a book or marketing helper? They’re just being they’ve taken the direct approach with it. And I mean, that’s just strictly at numbers if you’re closing

Mark Firth [00:16:55]:

5

Mario Fachini [00:16:56]:

or 10%, you know? Yeah. But I I never could pull myself to just do it long enough to get any traction. It just it didn’t resonate with me. It still doesn’t.

Mark Firth [00:17:08]:

Yeah. I mean, the the long and short of it is nice to be true across hundreds of clients is people will not consistently act in a way that isn’t consistent with their beliefs. That is to that is to say if that’s not the way you want to do things, it’s very hard to do that. You’re going we’re going back to the analogy of swimming against the current, all the hormones, and those those sorts of things.

Mario Fachini [00:17:29]:

It’s — It’s a great expert authority insight, and I appreciate you for sharing that because, I mean, it explains it. I I’ll flat say it’s been over 10 years I’ve, at times, tried, like, you know, see the people who are succeeding faster, whatever that even means. And it it’s, like, maybe 2, 3 weeks, and then it’s like, this isn’t working for me.

Mark Firth [00:17:48]:

Look. Do do I push him to be direct with your audience at the moment?

Mario Fachini [00:17:51]:

Say whatever you want.

Mark Firth [00:17:52]:

I’ve been in sales since 2003. I started IBM. I worked at Siemens. I worked at startups. I’ve run my own business. We’ve done nearly 1,500,000 in in in cash collected in a very short time. And don’t always believe the numbers and the appointments and the leads you see out there. You need to get you need to get clear in your head what works for you because there’s a lot the on the way the online world is is evolving at the moment. This comes from Eugene and Sports Breakthrough advertising. You’ve got out promise your market. You’ve gotta make a bigger promise. I saw 500 to 1000 leads a month at $3 this morning. Right? I’m here to tell you that is unrealistic for a lot of market. It may be the case for a certain market. You need to know your niche and what works for you because there’s no wrong or right. In fact, there is a right, but the right answer is the one that works. So if something hasn’t worked for you, you need to move on to something else. And we’ve just seen our clients get the best success from this more targeted approach. and they’re selling premium services. So, again, if you’re selling a if you’re if you’re selling a sun bed session for, like, fifty bucks. No. This isn’t for you. If you’ve got something more substantial, a premium offer, this will work for you because Immediately, when you’re reaching out and chasing, you’re immediately in the beta role when and that’s not really ideal for cultivating the frame and and and the rest of the conversation. Am I making sense?

Mario Fachini [00:19:04]:

Absolutely. And I love how much psychology you’re putting in there with the frame and the beta. And — Yeah. Tell us more about that. How much of a role does the psychology and the mindset play? when you are reaching out and why you wanna be dealing from a position of power.

Mark Firth [00:19:18]:

Oh, it it it’s everything. And and and the classic example is here is is Apple. Right? Apple Computers, Apple phones, whatever. They are the masters of it. If they’re 2,000,000,000,000 market capitalization. They they reached. I haven’t checked it recently, but If we think about them, they are masters of preframing because they will have people lining around the block and taking pride in it in the cold weather to get the latest thing. They will have people taking pride in paying a premium. You don’t go in our and go, no. Can I can I stretch that payment out, like, $2 50 a a week over over 3 years? It just doesn’t happen. People take pride They’re on social media. And they also know exactly what they’re going to buy before they go there. So for me, Outreach done well. outreach done as an art can work, and it will work, and and and it’s an art and a science. And that needs to be done, just what I alluded to a few minutes ago. You can’t go in there asking questions and following the scales script and telling them you can get results, it has to be done in a very subtle way with the right intention. That’s okay. Also, having people coming to us, because there’s only a certain amount of people that are are are problem aware or solution aware on LinkedIn or any platform at any given time, and that relies on the right message at the right time and the right person. I don’t like those odds. I like people coming to me too. So it’s important that we’re projecting ourselves authority. We’re giving the advice what I said. You know, if you wanna prove you can help someone then actually help them. The analogy I use here, there’s 3 types of book readers. Some of them buy the book. They don’t read it. Right? We’ve all been in programs with with those people. Some people buy the book. They implement themselves. They’re a level consciousness, level of awareness when they can do that. Some people buy the book, read a bit, and hide the author. That’s what we want because that’s an educated client. That’s a client that’s bought into what we do. They know what we do, and they see value in it. That is the objective of social media, not just spamming people every day. Every tactic has its day. I’m not saying you shouldn’t jump on if it works again. If something’s working for you, do not listen to me and stop it. You got something that’s working, double down on it until it doesn’t. then you need to be able to shift, and that comes to the the principles. We’ve shifted constantly on LinkedIn, and we will continue shifting. And I love that because as Every time LinkedIn makes a change, lots of people go, oh, what do I do? I’m like, what a great opportunity. We’re just gonna get ahead again, and we’ll get ahead. And there’s always a way to get ahead. You know? Yeah.

Mario Fachini [00:21:38]:

And I’ve noticed over the years when they change stuff, it’s — Yeah.

Mark Firth [00:21:41]:

—

Mario Fachini [00:21:41]:

it might be inconvenient. I think it’s more because people get upset just because of the change. Not that it’s gonna be worse. It’s that you have to retool and everything. But in the case of Facebook, LinkedIn, all of them, there was a point where, hey. I could mess you could message me, and then — Yeah.

Mark Firth [00:21:58]:

—

Mario Fachini [00:21:58]:

they started getting traction. And then they on at some point, they all unveiled the ads platform, which is a huge value add if that’s something you wanna do. Because like you said, they’re trying to stay same thing with Google. People have the argument Google is trying to screw them over. No. They’re not. They’re trying to make it When they rolled out the instant answers where you don’t even need to finish typing the sentence anymore, there was another game changer to go, we want we wanna be, like, predictive what you’re thinking of. And — Yeah.

Mark Firth [00:22:25]:

—

Mario Fachini [00:22:26]:

they’re in the business of making us happy and staying on the platform more. So in the in the process of LinkedIn, how do you feel about LinkedIn groups? Do you think you should when you’re connecting these people, should you feed them to a LinkedIn group, or are you saying to get them on a call?

Mark Firth [00:22:41]:

Do you know what? LinkedIn sometimes makes me want to throw my computer out the window. And it’s a 27 inch mark. It’s attached to my camera, and I’m on the 11th floor. I wish LinkedIn would do groups because it’s about community. I like push people from LinkedIn to Facebook groups, and I get my clients to push people from LinkedIn to Facebook groups. I push people from Facebook ads to LinkedIn. because they’ve not got the groups done. They’ve created this creator mode, which gives you a tiny short video in your profile image. It’s like Like, do do you know what I mean? Just focus on the fundamentals because they are losing people to Facebook all the time because there’s no decent group setup. There’s no notifications. There’s spammy. You go in it, and you forget about it until the next life. Groups Again, I I’ve not found a way to do use them on LinkedIn. As soon as they make them good, I will be on that in a New York minute. That’s the thing I’m waiting for. because it’s just such a great feature to have. As it stands, I’ve got a Facebook group. As it stands, I teach my clients to build Facebook groups and push people across some LinkedIn. It works really well. because people —

Mario Fachini [00:23:46]:

They get note you’re saying because of the notifications, if you comment on my post right now, it’s gonna pop up.

Mark Firth [00:23:51]:

LinkedIn, they want people in the feed at the moment. They’ve added stories. They’ve tried to move it from con from Messenger to content, but they’ve not done it with groups yet. I don’t know if it’s on the road map, but they seem to just change, like, trivial stuff. And, look, I’ve gratitude, but it it it it is frustrating sometimes when they like, add pointless stuff when the the thing they’re losing their users to is is is a group and a community. Do you know what I mean?

Mario Fachini [00:24:14]:

Yeah. And that’s the most basic thing that I mean, Facebook’s had them for what seems like at least a decade.

Mark Firth [00:24:19]:

Yeah. And they’re great at them. And and you you hear them on common clubhouse boasting about this brand new 6 second I don’t know what seconds is video in the profile image. I mean, come on. It’s not it’s not shifting things enough.

Mario Fachini [00:24:31]:

So it’s interesting you you bring up clubhouse. So would you say you should be taking people from LinkedIn to Facebook groups or linked in the clubhouse.

Mark Firth [00:24:38]:

Oh, we’re using clubhouse too. We’ve had a great dream with that, but I have a kid, a family, a life, so I can’t spend all day on stage. So what we do is by the way, if you don’t know what clubhouse is, don’t worry. I’ll just explain. Is it okay? Just explain it very briefly.

Mario Fachini [00:24:50]:

Go for it.

Mark Firth [00:24:51]:

And this this might this might not this this video might not age like a vintage wine. So just skip on if it if it’s here or not. We don’t know where it’s gonna go. But it’s speaking app. So you have a stage. Only the people on stage could be heard and control who comes on stage to speak. And and the great thing about clubhouse is that you have names of room, like one room might be personal branding on LinkedIn. 1 might be personal relationship issues. 1 might be paid advertising tips and trips working in 2021. What that means is that the person in that room in the audience listening to that title They’re not going to go to the LinkedIn Personal branding if they wanna learn how to cook make cookies. Do you know what I mean? They said they’re problem aware, they’re solution aware. They’re looking for So what we need to do is go in there. Listen to asking the who’s ask asking the question and connect with them on LinkedIn or Facebook, whoever they are because they’re searchable and start a conversation. We’ve got a prospect who’s actively looking to solve a problem we solve. That’s how we’ve done clubhouse. I haven’t had times going to stage. I do go on stage sometimes, and I was on there this morning, but it’s a great resource to find people and build the relationships. And as I said earlier in this conversation, every conversation requires context. There’s your context ready made out in the box. Absolutely.

Mario Fachini [00:26:02]:

You’re a lot like me because I haven’t, you know, put 18 hours a day on the stage and everything, but I’ve gone in there seen who’s speaking pop in and out. Yeah. But it reminds me a lot of when Facebook started doing Facebook live, And because I was doing videos before that in between that and the Facebook lives and all the stuff, now I’ve done over 4000 of these short videos of, hey. Here’s some inspiration. Here’s the answer to a thing. In clubhouse, to me, feels like the audio version of what all of this was 5, 6 years ago. It’s — Yeah. You know, it’s new and hot and all of that. But at the end of the day, it’s people going to the groups like you’re saying. to find the answers to their problems. Truth be told I was in there with a friend of mine. I saw she popped up, and I was like, oh, check it out. And they’re talking about it’s like 5, 6 other well known marketers, and they’re like, okay, so the clubhouse update just got released and it was they were talking about the clubhouse groups you were now able to create because the week before it didn’t exist. And they were all trying to figure out how to even pull do it do it, and no one had the answer because that was so new. Why does it just ask

Mark Firth [00:27:12]:

yeah. It’s it’s they should just ask I didn’t mean to interrupt. Sorry. Go for it. I think we had some delay feedback. Sorry, Marie.

Mario Fachini [00:27:19]:

No. I was just saying that it was so interesting because the people that we’re in there. It’s like the both of us. We’re no slouches with business and marketing and all this stuff, but and we’re like, okay. So do we hit this button? No. I think you do that. Well, it depends on what phone. I mean, the conversation was literally like, how do you use an iPhone for the first time? But it was great because by the end of it, I was able to create expert authority world on clubhouse. Nice. And I was like, oh, this is awesome. The trick was you had to update to the newest version first and then do something else, and then you had the feature was able to pop up. But I was like, that it was extremely valuable for me to listen for whatever it was, 10, 12 minutes.

Mark Firth [00:27:59]:

Nice. Yeah. No. I I wish they’d monetize it in a way that that made more sense because they were giving tips like, $5, $1, and, like, no disrespect to money. It isn’t all about money. But if you’re going after that, you’re probably in the wrong game and the wrong stage of business. You

Mario Fachini [00:28:14]:

know? Yeah. There’s a there’s a lot of a lot of people jumping on it, and I think it’s great what you’re saying. It doesn’t matter on the plat form, just be adding value and being of service to people.

Mark Firth [00:28:27]:

All you’re doing is adding value, helping people out, and creating context for a conversation because as Zen, it’s no longer a cold conversation. It’s really that simple.

Mario Fachini [00:28:36]:

And do we have to sit — — on LinkedIn Live?

Mark Firth [00:28:39]:

LinkedIn live, I’ve got it. It took me 89 attempts to get it. And when I got it, I was a bit underwhelmed. The reach hasn’t been as good as as my 2 minute videos. It’s been nowhere near as good. I was streaming at one at one point, I was streaming from Re stream onto Facebook and LinkedIn at the same time, and and Yeah. It wasn’t worth it. It is useful if you want to do a longer format interview because the native upload on LinkedIn for a video length is 10 minutes. Mhmm. But if you’re doing a long interview like this, then good. But for for short sharp content, it’s not really any good in my mind.

Mario Fachini [00:29:10]:

Were you being sarcastic, or did you really try 89 times?

Mark Firth [00:29:13]:

Yeah. I did. I got my assistant to apply every week. And the only time that I got it was when I moved my location to Columbia before because we’re in we’re in Columbia right now. We’re process moving to States. When I moved it to Columbia, they some some reason gave it me. I don’t know why. But there we go.

Mario Fachini [00:29:28]:

Maybe that’s the secret. I I’ve done it Probably

Mark Firth [00:29:32]:

5, 6, 8,

Mario Fachini [00:29:33]:

maybe a dozen.

Mark Firth [00:29:34]:

Maybe they just got sick of me because my assistant was literally every day. linking them to a new video. I’m just saying, like, why have we got it? They probably just like, I feel sorry for this guy. I’m just gonna give it him.

Mario Fachini [00:29:45]:

Who cares. You got it. I I would love nothing more than anyway. It’s on the list, and I do I do a fair amount interviews, and I know LinkedIn is a hot target market, and it would make it so much easier.

Mark Firth [00:29:58]:

Here’s the trick if you haven’t done this in anyone listening. Go and look at LinkedIn’s mission statement because that’s how every employee in any business is is that’s how they set the vision. That’s how They manage behavior. This is how we’ve got ad accounts back on Facebook and position what you’re doing to be in alignment with the vision of LinkedIn. then they should give you that’s another thing I did towards the end that I think moved the needle. Because if you think about your average person in in the business getting tons of them and having to approve them, I would imagine it’s something to do with the vision and on being in the interest of LinkedIn that they made the decision. So try that.

Mario Fachini [00:30:32]:

Interesting. Thank you for that. because I know that I’m not the only one who’s been I’ll do a whole episode about that. Like, go check on LinkedIn. It’s been a minute. It usually doesn’t take this long for things. But I wanna ask you about who would you say is your biggest success story?

Mark Firth [00:30:52]:

I’ve got a lot of success stories.

Mario Fachini [00:30:54]:

I I’ve seen them.

Mark Firth [00:30:56]:

I I would say that we this depends on the definition of success because success is not just about money. Money is important, and I want to make money. I want to create into generation wealth. I want my kids to go to the right school. I wanna have the freedom to talk to people when I want if I want and, you know, when, you know, freedom. Right? And and this all immediately bring to mind. We’re now in 2021 back in March just after the whole, you know, v word thing kicked off. I won’t get us thrown off any other platform. We had a lady come come on who had the you know what at the time. She was a cancer survivor, and she she had pneumonia, and she was on the call with me. And she was like, I I I wanna get this business going. To be honest, I was in two minds about whether it was a good fit, but she was but she was just so motivated. She’s she see my stuff, and she’s just like, this just feels right. Let’s do it. She went on to, you know, be a complete success for it. She’s at 20 grand, 30 grand, moved apartments. She now has thousands of followers on LinkedIn. She’s a LinkedIn top voice in her field, and that, for me, is the best success story. And there’s another reason for it because She didn’t come in wanting the tactics. She came in. All she needed was a little bit of a push, a little bit of belief, and she was herself. That’s sometimes all you need if you’re listening to this. Sometimes working with someone is not just a transference of tactics. It’s actually much more important to the transference of belief than someone believing in you. And there’s a lot of programs out there that are copies of copies of copies, and that’s why they struggle. They don’t create an environment that that creates the change. We create an environment creates the change because information itself is not the transformation. And that’s probably the one I’m proudest of because yeah. It’s just so amazing to see people when their lives change. And that’s happened many times. For me, my success is how many times people say their life has changed. We’re not about LinkedIn. LinkedIn is our medium to change lives. simple as that.

Mario Fachini [00:32:53]:

Wow. That’s powerful. And congratulations. That I’ve gone through that personally and professionally and both

Mark Firth [00:33:02]:

—

Mario Fachini [00:33:02]:

Mhmm.

Mark Firth [00:33:02]:

—

Mario Fachini [00:33:02]:

as I’ve hired people, and they’ve done it for me. And I’ve had the pleasure of doing it for my author clients. And — Yeah.

Mark Firth [00:33:09]:

—

Mario Fachini [00:33:10]:

many instances, and it really is rewarding. Yeah. They’re profiting, and it’s it’s all well and good. But when they’re like

Mark Firth [00:33:15]:

— Yeah.

Mario Fachini [00:33:16]:

You know, one one of mine, unfortunately, before she passed away. It was one of the last things she did, and I I’ll never forget. She goes, I finally have my own book. I’ve always been part of someone else’s. And you know what I mean? It’s like you’re in this, you’re in this, you’re in all these different group things. But she goes, I feel like a real author, and I have a real business now.

Mark Firth [00:33:36]:

That’s so awesome.

Mario Fachini [00:33:37]:

And it it’s reminding me of what you’re saying. I mean, this lady’s obviously in the not the best shape at the time, and I’m glad she’s doing well now and everything. But It’s like that’s when you really start thinking, is this something I want to go through with or not? And if if you’re in that position and you’re going, I’m ready for it, you’re absolutely the right person.

Mark Firth [00:33:55]:

Yeah. Here’s here’s my opinion on that because that’s another topic because a lot of people say people shouldn’t go into that. You shouldn’t put not push people. You shouldn’t do this. You shouldn’t do that. There’s only one person that has the ability to make those decisions for other people, and that is whoever you have faith in. I am not here to impose upon anyone’s free will. I am not here to tell people what they should and shouldn’t do, I’m here to give them the information to allow them to make the decision. That’s why we did it, and and that’s why I did it because it’s easy to get back into all these things you see online line. Someone shouldn’t go in debt, someone shouldn’t do this. No. It’s up to this individual. They are free thinking individual. There’s no reason you should impose your values against someone else. Give them the information as long as it’s accurate and not a lie. That’s when it gets into an issue, then they can make their decisions. You know? And that’s that’s my belief on it. Really?

Mario Fachini [00:34:41]:

Yeah. I I I’m in full agreement on that. You know? Wow. We we could go we go all day on that on that alone, and I I love what you’re sharing here. I got one one more question here for you. It’s the wheel of whatever. Yellow or black?

Mark Firth [00:34:59]:

Love it. Yellow.

Mario Fachini [00:35:03]:

Oh, you broke the mold today. Yellow. Okay. My question for you is do you think LinkedIn is still gonna be just as powerful 5, 10 years from now? or more powerful.

Mark Firth [00:35:20]:

Impossible to say. I have no idea what I what I can say, and I tell me if this is sneaky at the question, is I really don’t care because every single day, I further my study of human psychology, the principles of why we do what we do. why we respond in certain ways to stimuli, why we do, you know, everything about that. So I really don’t care where it is because I know for sure in 10, 15 years, I’ll be dealing with human beings, unless Elon Musk has his way. And then again, we don’t even know. So yeah. I mean, will it Now I’ll answer the question properly. I think it’ll still be around, but I think there’s gonna be a lot of things that change between now and then. If we look at the last 10, 15 years, Wow. It’s it’s so hard to know that it really is. I I don’t know. It’s the honest truth.

Mario Fachini [00:36:02]:

No. I actually I actually prefer your answer be per further honesty because when you said now I’m gonna answer it properly, you answered it properly because so many people, you know, They invested 10 years ago. I’ve had people even say, I’m not doing a website. Websites are outdated. They invested everything in a platform And now that platform is going absolutely crazy, and they’re knocking people off of it all the time And I’m just thinking, the website’s the one place online you actually own. Why wouldn’t you take the time to build that up? You know what I mean? Maybe it’s not the core strategy. But to when you’re saying I don’t care, I very much feel the same way. It doesn’t those are plat forms are just a means to an end to reach the people. The people I met in 08 in 2005 and 1998 and beyond in

Mark Firth [00:36:52]:

2015,

Mario Fachini [00:36:56]:

I’m not like, oh, we’re on this platform. Now I got their cell numbers and we’re friends.

Mark Firth [00:37:02]:

Yeah. Exactly. I mean, email and podcast arguably earn your audience, but then again, you don’t. Do you, really? If you boil it straight down, and we’ve all seen apps and websites getting tangled. All you need to do is have the skill and faith and belief that you can build it up if you need to. It’s and then you you’re not you’re not worrying. You know?

Mario Fachini [00:37:19]:

I I I could add a caveat and say, why platform is gonna knock all existing ones out.

Mark Firth [00:37:26]:

I’m sure there will be one. Who knows?

Mario Fachini [00:37:29]:

That’ll be

Mark Firth [00:37:29]:

interesting. — invited Chuck knows. Doesn’t he either look He’s always at their first with the predictions.

Mario Fachini [00:37:34]:

Yeah. Gary, v, and Elon, they’ll make their own or something. Watch. We look back in 10 years that actually happened. That’s kinda crazy. Okay. I love what you’re saying. Keep it focused on the people, we’re going to thank our sponsor and come back for the imperfect action round.

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Mario Fachini [00:39:25]:

And we are back with the imperfect action round Mark, are you ready to take a perfect action?

Mark Firth [00:39:32]:

Yep.

Mario Fachini [00:39:33]:

I got three questions for you. 62nd or less answers. The first one is, what is the fastest path to the cash?

Mark Firth [00:39:41]:

The fastest path to the cash, is stop getting ready to get ready. People think they have to know something before they can do something, but, really, they have to do something before they can know know something. And the analogy here is if you wanna drive from Tampa California. If you you you decide you’re not gonna start the journey until you can see the state lines, I can tell you. I’m no expert in physics, but you are not gonna get there. what you do to do is you need to start the journey before you have the end and understand that you only get to know something by actually doing something and not the other way around.

Mario Fachini [00:40:11]:

Love it. Number 2, what is the biggest problem you see your prospects making in the fastest way for them to fix it?

Mark Firth [00:40:19]:

Oh, this is this is the biggest thing I see. It’s it’s it’s it’s look. Look. Look. All these online courses and programs, they have endless spreadsheets for the ideal clav client avatar. Right? And it gets people into procrastination. It gets people thinking too much. Like, positioning your offer is not an academic offer, academic exercise. because if you’re doing in the spreadsheet, you’re going from you to the market. What you actually need to do is do it from the market to you. It’s not difficult. You need, like, a couple of lines, and you’re good to go. And it just holds people back for so long. People need to make these courses and programs simple. Over complicating shows a lack of understanding. Go to the market with an offer that gets them somewhere they wanna be. without doing something they wanna do, and that’s a good enough start.

Mario Fachini [00:40:59]:

Excellent. Number 3, what is the best way to maximize customer lifetime value?

Mark Firth [00:41:07]:

Actually help people and get them results done. That’s it.

Mario Fachini [00:41:13]:

Love it. Love it. Love it.

Mark Firth [00:41:14]:

It’s not rocket science.

Mario Fachini [00:41:16]:

No. It’s not. Where would you like people to learn more about you?

Mark Firth [00:41:21]:

Alright. So I got I got told that on the podcast, I need to phonetically easy website. So we got get marxhelp.com. And on there, we will have LinkedIn profile or training. We’ll give you everything you need to get moving and get the platform and get leads and get clients and understand the relationship approach. at www.getmarxhelp.com. It’s about to go live.

Mario Fachini [00:41:41]:

Excellent. And what books would you recommend expert Authority World?

Mark Firth [00:41:46]:

Oh, don’t get me started on that. I read and I study all the time. I actually study books. But what’s the best oh, I’m absolutely loving. Let’s just go what I’m loving at the moment. John De Martini, the values factor. It is fantastic. It’s a fantastic book to understand human behavior. That’s been amazing. I’m a big fan of Joe Dispenser breaking habit of being yourself and any biography. Little blacks to actually pants was probably the best biography I read by founder of Lily Lemon. Those 3 are

Mario Fachini [00:42:13]:

Excellent. Thank you for those. Alright, Mark. It’s been a pleasure. Love everything you shared. Thank you very much.

Mark Firth [00:42:21]:

Thank you. Have enjoyed it. Take care.

Mario Fachini [00:42:24]:

Alright. Expert Authority World. We have another great episode here today. I’ll see you tomorrow. Have a great day. and God bless.
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