Maker Manager Money - Entrepreneur & Business Owner Inspiration
Hello there. Welcome to the Maker Manager Money podcast with Kyle Ariel Knowles. This podcast is about entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, founders, business owners, and business partnerships, from startups to stayups, to inspire entrepreneurs to keep going and future entrepreneurs to just start.
Maker Manager Money - Entrepreneur & Business Owner Inspiration
The Four C's of Effective Marketing with Amber Gaige Author of The Far Beyond Marketing Guidebook
Welcome to the Maker Manager Money podcast! In this inspiring episode, host Kyle Ariel Knowles sits down with Amber Gaige, a third-generation entrepreneur and founder of Far Beyond Marketing. Amber shares her unique journey from earning a vocal performance degree at Baylor University and singing Opera professionally to becoming a successful marketing expert and international best-selling author.
- The Power of Clear Copy: Amber emphasizes that effective marketing starts with clear and compelling copy. Communicating what your business does and how it solves your customers' problems is crucial. She says, "Most people come off a website in four seconds or less." Your messaging needs to grab attention quickly and focus on the customer, not just the business. Remember, the story's hero is always the customer, and your role is to guide them.
- Consistent Branding Matters: Amber highlighted the importance of consistent branding across all platforms in our discussion. Your visuals should align with your messaging to create a cohesive experience for your audience. Whether you're a fun and flirty brand or a serious corporate entity, how you present yourself can significantly impact customer perception. As Amber wisely noted, "How do you feel? What kind of person do you want to do business with?" This self-awareness can help attract the right customers who resonate with your brand.
- Understanding Your Customer Demographics: Amber's insight into customer demographics was one of the most eye-opening moments from our chat. Many businesses assume they know their customers, but they are often surprised to find out who is buying from them. It's not just about basic demographics; understanding the psychographics—why customers choose your product or service—is essential. This knowledge allows you to tailor your marketing strategies effectively and engage your audience more deeply.
Discover Amber's four Cs of effective marketing: clear copy, consistent branding, customer demographics, and channel management. Learn how these crucial elements can help you effectively reach your customers and achieve sustainable growth in your entrepreneurial journey.
Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur or a seasoned business owner, this episode is packed with practical advice and inspiration to help you thrive.
Key Highlights:
- Amber's background in music and how it shaped her entrepreneurial journey
- The significance of the four Cs of marketing
- Insights on the role of AI in modern marketing
- Tips for understanding your customer demographics
- The importance of consistent branding and storytelling
Links:
- Far Beyond Marketing Marketing Agency Website
- Follow Amber Gaige on LinkedIn
- The Far Beyond Marketing Guidebook: Stop Being Duped by Ineffective Marketing by Amber Gaige
- Building a StoryBrand 2.0: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen by Donald Miller
- Marketing Warfare by Al Ries, Jack Trout
- The 1-Page Marketing Plan: Get New Customers, Make More Money, And Stand out From The Crowd by Allan Dib
- Follow Kyle Ariel Knowles on LinkedIn
If you enjoyed this episode, please like, subscribe, and share it with fellow entrepreneurs!
Kyle Ariel Knowles: Hello there, welcome to the Maker-Manager Money podcast, which inspires entrepreneurs to keep going and entrepreneurs to just start. My name is Kyle Knowles and today's guest is Amber Gaige. Amber is a second generation entrepreneur and the founder of Far Beyond Marketing. Amber earned a bachelor's degree in vocal performance from Baylor University. And drawing on her extensive experience in growing, selling, and scaling businesses, Amber offers practical marketing insights for entrepreneurs. She is a certified story brand guide and the international best-selling author of the Far Beyond Marketing Guidebook. Amber's approach revolves around her four Cs of marketing, clear copy, consistent branding, customer demographics, and channel management. Get ready to learn how to implement these crucial elements to effectively reach your customers and achieve sustainable growth in your maker, manager, and money-making journey. Welcome to the show, Amber.
Amber Gaige: Thank you so much for having me. It's a blessing to be here today. How are you, Kyle?
Kyle Ariel Knowles: I'm doing really well. Where are you dialing in from today?
Amber Gaige: I'm dialing in from North Dallas in a suburb called McKinney.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: Well, great. I wanted to start off, Amber, because I just love when I talk to entrepreneurs, everyone's background is so different, but the idea that you were part of Baylor Chamber Singers and opera theater while earning your vocal performance degree at Baylor, do you still sing?
Amber Gaige: On occasion, you know, I try and my eight year old says, mommy, don't sing. And I'm a little offended. Like, you know, I used to get paid to do this kid, but whatever.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: And do you have a go-to karaoke song?
Amber Gaige: Oh, absolutely not. No, no, no, no. I think it's a little scary to try and do karaoke after you've had an opera degree. I mean, the closest would probably be like, you know, Whitney Houston or Celine Dion, but that just dates me. So I'll just sit back and drink and cheer everybody else on.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: Okay, but is there a song that you love? What's the song you love to sing the most?
Amber Gaige: Oh my gosh, the song, like a classical song?
Kyle Ariel Knowles: Yeah.
Amber Gaige: Probably Rusalka's Song to the Moon in Russian. That's probably one of my favorites.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: Oh, wow. I'm going to have to look it up. I'm sorry. I don't know. I don't, I'm not familiar with it, but that's, that's really cool. But, and do you think that this getting a vocal performance degree has helped you as an entrepreneur? I mean, obviously as a, as a keynote speaker, but as an entrepreneur, what, what kinds of things did you learn from vocal performance and that kind of training that helps you as an entrepreneur?
Amber Gaige: Yeah. I mean, I think listen, to be a soprano in a classical music world, you are just a dime a dozen. So you have to have a thick skin. You have to be able to take it on a chin. You need to be able to handle rejection well and pick yourself up and get back up again. Isn't that just the daily life of an entrepreneur who's daily battling, you know, our, you know, not that entrepreneurs isn't great. It's a blessing, but sometimes it can feel like a daily battle. And so, you know, tenacity, I think is a key component of entrepreneurship that you learn when you're in the performing world.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: For sure. I love that answer. So let's talk about being a second generation entrepreneur. Talk about the first generation entrepreneur, I guess, your parents or your father as a, as a owning a plumbing business. And how did you get involved with that? And what things did you learn from your, that business, the plumbing business?
Amber Gaige: You know, oddly enough, I'm actually a third generation entrepreneur.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: Okay. Third generation.
Amber Gaige: Yeah. So my grandparents on both sides of the family were very entrepreneurial. On my mother's side of the family, her father was a television repairman. He had a clacker factory. He did not go to university. My mother was the first in her family to go to university. And so he was always providing for his family through entrepreneurship. On my father's side of the family, he was a very hardworking, industrious man who would fix cars and flip real estate. And then for my parents, I grew up in a home services business. And so my parents ran plumbing, HVAC, electrical, roofing, pest control, all kinds of home services businesses. And then I was privileged to be homeschooled during those times. And so I actually finished high school at 16. And half of my day in part of my education was working in family businesses and the other half was getting schoolwork done. So it was absolutely trial by fire. It was a daily part of our lives for many years in the eighties and nineties. Our businesses were in our home. in a spare bedroom. And so, I mean, entrepreneurship was just who we were. It was our identity as a family. And then after graduating from Baylor and traveling the world and singing classically, and you realize that you really don't make much money in the arts. It's not really a thing. You do it because you love it. You don't do it because you're going to get rich. I decided that I wanted to be a mom. And the best way to control my life and my money and my freedom and my time was to start my own business. So I got to do that and sold my first business within five years. I sold it to private equity, then got to scale in private equity and play on a national level. And now I'm back and just loving supporting other entrepreneurs to help them achieve their goals.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: That's really awesome. So let's talk about the business that you started then. What was that business and how did you grow it and how did you eventually sell it?
Amber Gaige: So that business was a lead generating company on behalf of home services all across the United States of America. It was based on direct mail. It was a licensing agreement. And we had over 2.5 million guidebooks across the United States. And we were paid for lead generation. And so we started with no clients, no customers, no employees. Like I said, skilled it in five years. And then flipped it. And it was a very, it still is in existence today. It's a great profitable business model so that home service providers can get leads from highly vetted home owners. And that was a great foray into starting a business from scratch, growing it and flipping it. It can be a bug. It can absolutely be addicting if you wanted it to be.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: It's awesome. And I'm sure that you learned so many valuable lessons when you were working for your parents' business because you get those opportunities. I mean, you have immediate feedback. Like when you're working in the corporate world, you don't get that immediate feedback or kind of the full circle of how to, you know, generate a lead or have a customer come in, retain that customer. What were some of the things you learned working for the family business? And then what were some of the things you learned when you started your own business that were different?
Amber Gaige: Sure. Well, working for the family business, you also have to have a very thick skin. When you work with older brothers, cousins, uncles, aunts, and parents, there is no one sugarcoating your failures. So let's just be honest about that. So family business is hard for anyone listening. Buck up Chuck, but it prepares you for life in the corporate world. My father used to say, if you can work for me, you can work for anyone. And that's true. It makes you tough. So I think learning the foundations of business. One of the benefits of working in a family business is you are exposed to every area of the business. You have to work with accounting. You work in customer service. You work in operations. You work the phone system. You work in marketing. So it was a very holistic hands-on, almost internship type of 24-7 education. I think when you transition to the corporate world, you're expected to specialize. And the breadth and knowledge that you bring from your experience certainly shapes how successful you can be as a specialist. But the invaluable opportunity to understand a business from soup to nuts, if you will, is, I think, one of the greatest gifts that we can give ourselves as entrepreneurs.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: Okay. And so after you graduated and you, you know, you, you were singing professionally, it sounds like, and you were traveling, what was the aha moment where you were like, no, I'm going to start my own business.
Amber Gaige: It really wasn't. It was an aha moment where my mother called me and said, Hey, our call center manager just quit. And you're the only one that's tough enough and has the experience to come do the job, get your ass up here. And it was like, okay. At the time I was engaged to be married and I needed stable income. And I remember my mother saying, guess what? I'm literally throwing you to the wolves. This is the worst job in the entire company. Have fun. And so when you're young and you're hungry and you're desperate, you go back and you just make it work because you have the energy and the drive to do it. And that it was probably about eight years from being back in the family business. When my father called me into his office and said, we're going to start a marketing company. You're going to run it. Have fun with that. And so that was really what became my entrepreneurial journey of the company that I ultimately owned, built and sold was school of hard knocks was just kind of forced upon you. And it worked out great worked out for the best.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: And then once you sold the business, did you have to stay on for a little while to kind of help them transition? And then why did you decide to start another marketing business?
Amber Gaige: I love marketing. Marketing is the greatest blend of analytics and creativity. It is always changing. It has a profound impact on the operational goals of the business. It marries well with operations. And with the advancement of AI and with the collaboration that it offers vendor partners and team members, I just can't imagine any other part of business that I love more than marketing. So yeah, that's why I decided to do it again was, and also as a third generation entrepreneur, I wanted to help my people. I wanted to go back and support other entrepreneurs with their goals. And marketing is a fuel in the engine that helps people get the revenue they need to meet their goals.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: All right. I love that answer. So as far as marketing goes, I know a lot of people are confused between marketing and sales. How do you put a line in the sand between those two, I guess, functions, marketing and sales?
Amber Gaige: Yeah, well, sales closes the deal. Marketing hands them the leads. So that's how I like to see it. Marketing is the sales funnel that happens behind the scenes. It's the components that bring in the opportunities. Sales is the tip of the spear.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: I like that analogy. What are some of the AI workflows and tools that you've adopted and use day to day?
Amber Gaige: Well, we're actually partnering with an R&D company to create our own AI-based project manager who can handle up to a million clients, if you can believe it. With the incredibly challenging nature of people needing answers now, It is also one of the hardest things to do to recruit high-quality people to serve your clients. And so we are creating an AI persona. I think we named her Sparky. I don't even know if we've settled on her name yet. But she is going to take our inbound information, parlay it into our project management platform, parlay that into emails and tasks and deployments, and then actually direct our fulfillment staff to serve our customers more efficiently. So we're really excited about that.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: That's awesome. And then then far beyond marketing, how did you come up with the name far beyond marketing?
Amber Gaige: I was sitting in church one day and I was praying about what this business needs to be and what my legacy needed to be. And my life verse is Ephesians 3, 20 and 21. And it's that God can do exceedingly abundantly beyond what we could hope, ask or imagine. And I like to talk a lot and I can, I can hope for a lot and I can ask for a lot. So that felt like a really big promise. And when I was sitting there, I just thought, you know what, if we can go far and above and beyond, what people's expectation is for a marketing agency and we can help them win, then that ultimately embodies our goal of being servant leaders in entrepreneurship and in business. And it just stuck. It just felt right.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: That's awesome. And when you started, was it just you initially that started the company? And then, and were you just offering consulting services for marketing for, for different companies? Is that the initial? So you were a solo prettier first, and as more and more clients and leads came on, you had to hire people to kind of help, uh, manage the day to day and, uh, you know, servicing, uh, clients. And when did you decide to write a book?
Amber Gaige: That was about two years ago. It was a 12 month labor of love and hate. And I really wanted to consolidate and inform our clients. about the process that we had found to be working over the last 20 years of marketing experience, which is the four C's of effective marketing. And I also thought that if I could empower entrepreneurs with a book that was really easy to read, really easy to follow, that they would feel more educated and empowered when they were entering into some of these high stakes conversations. So that was the reason behind writing the international bestselling book, the far beyond marketing guidebook, how to stop being duped by bad marketing.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: Awesome. I love the subtitle. Here's the book here. But I love how practical the book is. And it does show Basically, a lot of the things you've learned are maybe everything. I don't know if the whole kitchen sinks in here or not, but there's so many things that you've learned over the years, everything from SEO to what, you know, I love all the sections on what not to do and what to do. But I wanted to ask you specifically about the four C's of effective marketing. The first C is copy, otherwise known as how to talk about your company. Can you explain that concept a little bit?
Amber Gaige: Sure. I think that it is very common for business owners to assume that other people understand what we do. I think it's also very common for us to assume that people care about what we do. And the bottom line is most people don't. Most people come off of a website in four seconds or less. So the idea of copy, and this is where StoryBrain comes in because I am a certified StoryBrain coach, is that you need to be able to tell a story about your business in such a way that you're compelling others to pay attention. And really the primary story that you tell. is what kind of problem do you solve for your clients through your business? We stopped talking about our clients problems. They stopped paying attention. So it's never about us. It's about what they get from doing business with us. And so that is the premise for clear copy.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: Yeah, I love it too. I've, you know, I've worked in marketing for years and years and I would always tell my teams, it's not about us, it's about them. And the whole Donald Miller's book, Building a Story Brand, I had another guest on the podcast named Sarah Noel Block. She runs Tiny Marketing. She's a big proponent of the book too. And you went and got certified as a coach or a guide. And what's interesting about building a story brand is that the hero of the story is the customer. always. And the company is the guide. So, so I love the idea. It's not about us. It's about them. And so with the storytelling and copy, just making sure that the customer is always front and center as that. And you're just them achieve their goals. Anything else you want to talk about on on the first C copy?
Amber Gaige: You know, I just think it's very tempting for us to talk about ourselves, even at a cocktail party. But really, everyone wears an invisible sign that says, make me feel special. So if we understand that our brains are wired to do two things, survive and thrive, then the more we lean into how we help other people succeed, the more interesting we become to them and indispensable.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: When I think about so many brands that get this wrong, and a lot of small to medium businesses especially, but I've even seen billion dollar brands where they're posting things on their profile that are about themselves. They're at a conference, they're here or there, but it has nothing to do with the customer. I love this approach and that you're StoryBrand certified. What is the process, I guess, to become a certified coach? What does that StoryBrand certification look like and how does someone get that?
Amber Gaige: Well, you know, I did it five years ago. So I'm sure things have changed since then. But at the time, it was absolutely an intensive few days of training there at the headquarters at Goose Hill. And you are trained with the staff. You will have to understand and be able to produce the methodology and train others in it as well. The program has certainly evolved over the last five years to now encompass other certifications as well. But yeah, it was we had to understand how to create a wireframe. We had to understand how to tell a story. We had to break down the components of the seven-part framework. We had to learn from the best. We had to critique each other. It was a wonderful collaborative community of very talented entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, marketers, advisors, and I've never regretted the investment.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: That's really cool. And my understanding is there are only about 500 in the United States.
Amber Gaige: There's only 500 of us about globally.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: Yeah. Well, that's really cool. So let's talk about the second C of your four C's of effective marketing, consistent branding, otherwise known as why your visuals matter.
Amber Gaige: Yeah. I mean, your visuals matter because it's how they make people feel when they're ready to do business with you. So your visual should always match your words. If you're talking about a dog, don't put a picture of a cat. Talking about a horse, don't put a picture of a pig. The framing of the emotions, the tone, the brand archetype, if you will, to use an industry term, it's all hugely important when it comes to consistently branding. your company's message and how you do what you do. I support several different home service providers. There are some plumbers that take a patriotic theme. There are some plumbers whose logo is a Jeep and they have ducks on the dashboard. Same service, very different vibe. So consistent branding is how you're representing yourself to the public. It's where you're representing yourself. It's how you want people to perceive your brand and your services. Are you fun and flirty? Are you serious and corporate? Are you mysterious? Are you Are you the hero? What does that look like? And I think this is something that gets lost a lot of the time when we're in the panic mode of trying to start our own brand. We don't think about who we are as a company. We just think about how to get clients and what we're going to do and how desperate we are to make money. But really the more you identify, the more you develop your own persona as a business, the more you will clearly attract people who appreciate the methodology that you take in your services. Birds of a feather flock together.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: And so talking about a client or say a home service company that uses, you know, America or the American flag as a theme compared to someone that uses a Jeep with ducks on it. Like, are they attracting different types of customers?
Amber Gaige: Yeah, I think so. I think so. There's enough room for all of us in the marketplace. I think that people do business with people that they know, like and trust. And I think your brand is, again, how you make people feel. So how do you feel? What kind of person do you want to do business with? And I think when we're online and we're searching or we're, I mean, I'm going to date myself here. We used to look in the phone book, God forbid that doesn't exist anymore. But yeah, I think when you're looking for a brand to do business with, you want to, you want to see yourself and identify with that brand for sure.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: Awesome. So will you describe Far Beyond Marketing's brand?
Amber Gaige: Sure. So Far Beyond Marketing is servant leadership. Our logo, our standalone mark is a compass. We want to go above and beyond what people expect. We want to be the guide. We do not want to be the hero. And the reason that we chose the compass and the colors of blue and gold is because we want to offer high quality direction and guidance for our customers to win.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: And you described it in less than 30 seconds, too.
Amber Gaige: And there you go.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: That's what you need, right? Awesome. So the third C in the four C's of effective marketing is customer demographics, otherwise known as who's your customer. Do you want to talk about that a little bit?
Amber Gaige: Who's your customer? Who's paying you? Who's paying your bills? What are they buying from you? Why are they buying from you? This is a big part of making sure that your brand is in front of the right audience. We do customer demographic reverse events all the time for our clients. And they are shocked that the people that they think are their customers are not actually who's buying from them. So it's important to not only really understand what you're selling, but who is buying it and why they're buying from you. So it goes far beyond male, female, zip code, household income, value of home. It's a psychographic. It's why it's what we talked about a second ago too, right? It's why they're buying from you, what your most popular skews are and how do you talk to them in such a way that entices them? And then how do you customize your calls to action so that it's most appealing to them?
Kyle Ariel Knowles: Yeah. And that makes a lot of sense. And I have a question I want to ask you right now, but I'm going to wait until we talk about the fourth C and then I will ask. You don't skip ahead if I ask the question and I'm wrong. So the fourth C channel management, otherwise known as how and where to sell your services.
Amber Gaige: If you have a turn-em-and-burn-em approach, you won't stay in business very long. So how and where to sell is again, positioning yourself in front of the right customer. It's knowing what upselling opportunities exist. And it's knowing what processes and procedures you need to have in place operationally, and even in your marketing sales funnels, so that you are constantly staying in front of your customers, so that you're constantly offering them something of value so that you're keeping that tenacious relationship in place rather than having to go out and get a new customer. We both know as marketers, it's a lot more expensive to go mine for a new customer than just upsell a current customer.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: Right. Right, I agree. So now the question I wanted to ask, because I have an idea of what my answer would be, but I want to ask you, so out of these four C's of effective marketing, you know, copy, consistent branding, customer demographics, and channel management, What do your clients have the hardest time doing or what's the hardest thing for someone to do or the most shocking, you know, when you start working with them and workshopping with them, what's something, you know, what's the one of these four that stands out the most as like an aha moment for them going, Oh my gosh, we've been doing it wrong.
Amber Gaige: Yeah. Okay. I'm actually going to give you two because it depends on the size of the customer or the size of the company. Larger companies are sometimes shocked when we start working on their sales funnels and they find that there are holes in their channel management. They've done all the things they've done the Google ads. They've done the Google business profile. They've, they've done the ads in the magazine, but they don't understand the synergistic relationship between all the marketing tactics that need to be connected underneath the strategy so that we can avoid people falling out of the sales funnel. So it's important to tie your tactics together underneath the strategy. So I would say that's one of the most surprising aspects for a larger company is when they go, why is my marketing not working anymore? Well, it's because there's holes in the process.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: Does that mean they're maybe trying to sell in the wrong channels?
Amber Gaige: Yeah, maybe they're selling in the wrong channels, or maybe there's just gaps in their channels as it is. So maybe they've got a great landing page, but they don't have a lead magnet. Or maybe they have a lead magnet, but they don't have a follow up process. Right? So your marketing has to be tied together so that it is flowing consistently and working for you behind the scenes while you sleep.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: Okay. That makes sense. And then you have for smaller customers, is it different?
Amber Gaige: For smaller customers? It is. Yes. I think one of the things we talked about earlier, Kyle, is that they don't take the time to think about their story. They just want to get out there and sell. But really your story matters and taking an hour and a half to develop that framework of who you are, why you're in business, how you help people and the process of how people buy from you clearly laid out pays itself back in dividends.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: And that hour and a half is the service that you offer.
Amber Gaige: It is, yeah. It's that story brand service where we sit down with you and we map out what that story looks like. You get your seven-part framework, you get your call to action, you get a wireframe of what your website should look like psychologically so that people are most likely to buy from you, and you get that downloadable lead magnet.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: That's awesome. And what are some of the other services that you provide then for your Far Beyond Marketing company?
Amber Gaige: So we have a course to empower people to put the practices in place from the book, because we find that a lot of people want to do it themselves, or they have a marketing team that just needs training. So that's fantastic. We're a full service digital marketing agency. So whether they need branding, online ads, we partner with a brilliant data scientist out of Sacramento, California. So we can actually offer three TV and highly targeted digital ads. And then we also do consulting. And we do monthly retainers, SEO, SEM, we're full service.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: And do you specialize in certain industries or do you have clients from all kinds of industries?
Amber Gaige: We do, we're very blessed to have clients from all kinds of different industries. However, I guess the moniker of being the plumber's daughter has stuck with me for life because I do work with a lot of the home service providers. Recently, we started working with investment bankers, doctors, lawyers, and medical providers, because they find that they need to be very nuanced and very specific. The strangest category that we've ever worked with was a corset designer. They were selling corsets to people and they needed help with their sales funnel. So we helped them design a website to sell corsets.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: And then, you know, I just, I love all these different sections in your book. I recommend it for all the listeners out there, far beyond marketing guidebooks, stop being duped by ineffective marketing. I love that subtitle, like I said earlier, but I wanted to ask you about SEO. There's a section here on SEO, and I wanted to ask you, how do you see search engine optimization or SEO change with the rise of AI? and language modules. I mean, right now I use perplexity for search. I mean, that's when I'm using perplexity. I search, I start there. Rarely do I go to Google now. What are you seeing and what are you doing about the rise of AI and SEO?
Amber Gaige: I think SEO is going to continue to have a metamorphosis, don't you? I mean, it's going to just change and it's changing daily. I see a lot more focus being put on the mobile optimization and the local SEO for the clients that we service. There's a huge amount of focus being put on content creation for Google business profiles, a lot less focus being put on some of the more traditional methods of SEO, like H1, H2. Yes, it's important, but Google came out with their study last year with the 33 most important SEO factors and site speed and some of the other technical SEO things. They're just not ranked as highly by the algorithms anymore.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: Wow, that'd be cool. I'd like to find that reference and I'll add that to our show notes as well so people can check that out. And of course we'll have links to your book and your company and everything in here. Last question about the book. Now, I know there's a lot of different motivations or maybe not motivations to write a book like this. But I guess the question is, for some, it's a business card, right? Writing a book is, you know, you become an authority overnight just by producing a book. You're seen as an expert. And sometimes it's a business card. Sometimes it's a lead magnet, lead generator. How have you found that publishing a book has helped you and your business?
Amber Gaige: I believe it's all the above. Yes, it is absolutely an opportunity to get in front of keynote speaking opportunities. If you want to speak, you better have a book. If you don't have a book, no one's going to hire you to speak. I also believe it is a differentiator to helping you set yourself apart from other competitors. I can hand a book to someone and say, listen, whether you work with me or not, I want you to win. Here's my book. Read it. Do what's best for you. And I also believe it's an opportunity to give back to people as well, to say, Hey, listen, I've been where you are. I understand how scary that it can be. Let me help you to get where you want to go. And yes, of course it's a business card. Yes, of course. It's a lead magnet. It's, it's always a benefit of being able to have the authority of having a book and you know, who doesn't want to see their book on Amazon? Come on. It's a little bit fun.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: That's awesome. Well, congratulations on the success with the book. I have a few personal questions for you before we wrap up. I guess my first question for you is what TV, movie, book, or opera character do you most relate to?
Amber Gaige: Oh my gosh. Oh goodness. TV character or movie. Let's see. I'm probably more like Lady Mary from Downtown Abbey. Tough as nails, all about business, but fiercely loyal to her family. So I like Lady Mary Crawley a lot.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: That's awesome. I love the answer. So what's one thing you would like to change about yourself?
Amber Gaige: Just one? I mean, goodness, there's so many things. I mean, I'm five foot tall. Could I have been five foot 10? That would have been really nice. Thanks, mom.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: If your life was a movie and you were the main star, what would the audience be yelling at you to do?
Amber Gaige: probably get out of my own way or shut up because I talk so much.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: And I know, I ask all guests, you know, what, what's the one book they recommend the most to people? I know, I'm sure you would say far beyond marketing and you would say building a story brand. Are there any other, is there another book that you recommend the most to people?
Amber Gaige: Oh, absolutely. So two that come to mind are Marketing is War by Reese and Trout. It is fantastic at helping people to understand the life cycle of marketing based upon the life cycle of a business. Hugely valuable. When I was in private equity, I made my entire team read it. Marketing is War by Reese and Trout. And then I love the one minute, the one page marketing plan. I think it's fantastic by Alan Dibb. And there's so many things that you can put into place for that. And it solves a lot of problems. I'm a fanatic when it comes to audiobooks. I've always got an earbud in and I'm always listening to some kind of book.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: That's awesome. What are you listening to now?
Amber Gaige: I just finished The Let Them Theory by Mel Robinson. Wow. Life changing.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: All right. Now I have a lightning round of questions for you. Your favorite candy bar?
Amber Gaige: Oh, I don't eat sugar.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: Favorite music artist?
Amber Gaige: Oh, gosh, that's a toss up. Trisha Yearwood, Garth Brooks, Carrie Underwood, Louis Armstrong. And then of course, Pavarotti.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: I mean, come on. Very eclectic. Favorite cereal?
Amber Gaige: Donnie Carves. My son likes Frosted Flakes, so we'll go with that.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: Okay. Mac or PC?
Amber Gaige: Oh, PC all the way. Never used a Mac.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: Google or Microsoft?
Amber Gaige: Google.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: Dogs or cats?
Amber Gaige: Dogs. I have a 115-pound rottweiler that's my lap baby. Nice.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: Phantom or Les Mis?
Amber Gaige: Ooh. Both, but I fell in love with Phantom at a very early age and sang a lot of Christine's, so I'm going Phantom.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: Right. And last question for you, Amber, what's the worst thing about being an entrepreneur and what's the best thing about being an entrepreneur?
Amber Gaige: The worst thing about being an entrepreneur is The risk, you better be willing to take a risk and you better be willing to step up and take accountability for yourself and your team and get paid last, because you are gonna have to bear all the risk and all the burden of being an entrepreneur. The best thing about being an entrepreneur is freedom. You look at yourself in the mirror every day and you go, it's on me, let's go, let's make this happen. And no one gets to take that away from you. Being a diehard Texan, my family's been in Texas since before the Alamo, for me, freedom is the most important thing.
Kyle Ariel Knowles: Thank you. Thank you for those answers. And thank you for being so generous with your time today, Amber. Congratulations on the success of your book and your business. And I wish you much success in the future. Thank you so much.
Amber Gaige: It's such a pleasure being on your show, Kyle. Thanks for having me.
