How can you double your revenue with the Rule of 26? with Michael (Buzz) Buzinksi

Episode Notes

Transcript

[00:00:00] 

[00:00:26] Michael: Hi, I’m Michael Brzezinski. I’m the president CMO of buzz-worthy integrated marketing. I’m a lifelong entrepreneur, digital marketing thought leader and a best-selling author. I’ve been dubbed a visionary marketer by the American marketing association. And my sole mission is to help entrepreneurs avoid the time drain and frustration of managing profitable digital marketing campaigns.

[00:00:46] Most people call me buzz and I have simplified the digital marketing success with the rule of 26. And I’m on a mission to double the website, revenue of service centric businesses across the. 

[00:00:58] Karin: Well, thank you so much for being here. [00:01:00] This is going to be a great conversation. We had, uh, some really good things to talk about as we were kind of getting prepared for this.

[00:01:06] So, um, I’m going to DIT just jump right in with our, the big question that is on everyone’s mind. And, uh, the big question for this episode is how do you double your website revenue with the rule of 26? So, first of all, Let’s talk about what is this mysterious rule of 26? 

[00:01:28] Michael: So the rule of 26 is a way to simplify the marketing strategy for garnering profitable revenue from a service centric business.

[00:01:41] Karin: What is, what, what is, what is that garnering the revenue profitable revenue. Okay. So basically like let’s, let’s make more. 

[00:01:50] Michael: Let’s make more money at predictably printed. So what happens is that service businesses always rely on, or I, I, every time I asked, where [00:02:00] is the, where you get the most business and I hear over and over again, um, word of mouth are word of mouth.

[00:02:07] It’s just amazing. And making referrals like every day, which are both lies. Right? And so what happens is that when we, when we are relying on word of mouth, we and referrals. We’re kind of being, we’re putting this pop, this position that people are thinking about us all the time, and they’re worried about building our businesses.

[00:02:29] Karin: Exactly. You are my neighbor. And also my business development coach. Like I am counting on you to feed me leads. 

[00:02:38] Michael: Right. And then, and I learned it early on in my, you know, my company started as a production house. And so we weren’t NEC necessarily in marketing, we served marketing needs and production, but we weren’t marketers.

[00:02:51] Right. And so I’m learning how to market my own business. And I would hear these, these, uh, conversations with friends of like, oh yeah, so-and-so got a [00:03:00] website built by blah, blah, blah. Well, why didn’t you talk to me? Oh, I didn’t think about it. Like you get, you get your feelings hurt. I’m like, I’m mean I’m that pump his, but right there, like, why aren’t you listening?

[00:03:13] They’re like, every time I tell you, this is what I do is how I feed myself. 

[00:03:16] Karin: Right, right. So, okay. So what’s the, what’s the alternative. 

[00:03:21] Michael: So the alternatives is to create a system that drives traffic to a website that then drives people to you. Okay. Every there’s a system out there that says 68% of all people, consumers looking for a service will visit the service providers website before calling or contacting that company.

[00:03:43] Yeah. Yeah. Two-thirds of all consumers. We’re going to go to your website. So if your website’s not performing as it should, because a website technically is your sales person. It’s. 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 [00:04:00] days a year. It takes no sick days, no vacation days, no holidays never complains and never asked for a 

[00:04:06] Karin: race.

[00:04:06] My website complaints. Sometimes you should care. I’m just kidding. 

[00:04:12] Michael: No, I get it. I get it. Uh, everybody complains about their website, but I have not seen him complain at me yet 

[00:04:19] Karin: yells at me if I haven’t done like certain updates and stuff, it’s just like kind of a little rude and moody. Sometimes 

[00:04:27] Michael: I got it.

[00:04:28] I got ya. I’ll pick it up. So what I did was I created a, uh, this rule of 26, basically it’s simplifies the strategy process in which we can approach garnering profitable. Revenue from our website and make it predictable. So now if I want to grow my firm, I can do it predictably once I’ve applied the rule of 26.

[00:04:53] Okay. So the rule, so you want me to tell you the 

[00:04:56] Karin: next question? Why was. You [00:05:00] should have a crystal ball, you should, and it should kind of have this like sort of cloudy purple sparkly stuff inside. That’s what I’m picturing right now. We are looking in to the crystal ball. 

[00:05:14] Michael: So the 26 states that if you increase your websites, unique visitor traffic by 2016.

[00:05:23] Your conversion rate by 26% and the average value per client by 26%, you have a compounded effect of 100% more revenue from your website. Okay. 

[00:05:37] Karin: So let’s say that again. Website traffic by 26, what was the other two 

[00:05:43] Michael: conversion rate? So conversion rate means that the percentage of people who come to your website versus who contact you become.

[00:05:51] Qualified prospect. Okay. Okay. And then your average value per client. So your average value per client can come from many different [00:06:00] ways. A lot of times when we look at well in the, in the legal realm, um, we find that, you know, you’re probably charging as much as you possibly can because we’re trained to do that as legal for writers.

[00:06:12] Right. But, but are we attracting the most profit. Prospects. Yes. So I can give you a hundred, uh, tire kickers who are not going to, or who might spend a little bit of money on the consulting, but never actually get into your full programs or take you on as legal counsel. Right. Or I can get your website to attract the right type of client for your practice.

[00:06:41] Right. Th there’s a lot of those tricks in the rule of 26 that allows us to do one of the other, another way that we talk about in the book is to diversify how, uh, and productize some of our services. Yes. Right. So I’m working with a [00:07:00] trust lawyer, uh, right now with me and my wife. Right. They productized the process of getting a trust.

[00:07:08] That has created a system that reduces the cost of doing business to a point where it doesn’t matter how much money I have or how many assets I have. They already know what kind of work they’re going to have to do. Yeah. 

[00:07:21] Karin: And it also increases their efficiency and effectiveness. So it’s probably more.

[00:07:27] Correct when they have these checklists and they have a system in place. And so not only are they making more money, but it’s, it’s a better product and the better result for their client as well. Um, okay. So we increase the website, traffic by 26% and increase the conversion rate. So all of that traffic that’s coming in, they need to convert at a higher rate as well.

[00:07:52] And then we also. Get a higher rate of return on each one of those. So, so that sounds nice. Those are all nice numbers, [00:08:00] but how do you do that? 

[00:08:01] Michael: So that’s what the book. Okay. 

[00:08:04] Karin: Okay. You buy the book, that’s the answer, 

[00:08:07] Michael: right? It’s uh, no really. It’s about, I like to reverse engineer. So, um, even though I wrote the book in that.

[00:08:16] Really restart. When I work with clients, I start at the end and say, okay, what’s the value of client? Uh, the value of clients that you’re getting and what type of, uh, revenue are you getting from your best clients, right. Identify that. And, or we leave leaving. Uh, money on the table with clients who are currently serving because that’s an immediate increase in revenue.

[00:08:41] Yeah, 

[00:08:42] Karin: exactly. And those are clients who have already demonstrated that they see your value. They’ve hired you, they see themselves as a client. And so in a lot of cases, they are expecting you to provide those ideas and paths forward and protect them against whatever those things might [00:09:00] be. And so you are absolutely leaving money on the table.

[00:09:04] Michael: Right. So if I can, if we can do that, well, we were immediately increasing revenue from that. Right, right. But that also tells us the story that we need to be telling on the website. So we can talk to our perfect client. It’s okay. Not to convert a hundred percent of your visitors because a hundred percent of your visitors contacting you will bankrupt your business.

[00:09:25] Right. Period. Yeah. You want the 5% who needs your services specifically? The ones that you have systemized productized and are the most efficient with, right? So those are the most profitable services that you can provide. We want to talk to those pain points and those types of people coming in, they resonate with that.

[00:09:46] They see how you could provide that solution. So therefore, they’re going to call you and hire you versus ask a bunch of questions that have, are not relevant to anything 

[00:09:55] Karin: that you offer and then go hire somebody else at a cheaper 

[00:09:58] Michael: rate, and they’re gonna go hire somebody else anyway. [00:10:00] Right. Then once we’ve done that and that’ll increase your conversion rate.

[00:10:03] Okay. So once we’ve done that, so we’ve distilled what we need to say, how. Line it out, Tori, we’re getting good conversions from the traffic you’re already getting. And then we distill the traffic to make sure it’s good traffic. Yeah. Right. A thousand visitors that have no intention of buying your services are worth 

[00:10:23] Karin: zero to you.

[00:10:24] Right. It’s probably the negative. Yeah. And a thousand visitors you’ve paid money and put effort in to get those a thousand. So it’s probably a negative at that point where if you spend all this money. Yeah, exactly. And then they aren’t converting. You’re, you know, you you’re just lighting money on fire.

[00:10:44] Um, okay. So, so you, you increase the traffic, you get those people and you’ve got, you’re telling their story. And then you also find a way of increasing the overall profitability of each of those clients. So does [00:11:00] that just mean raising your rates or just making sure that those clients are overall the more ideal client then those kind of low level tire kickers?

[00:11:09] Michael: There’s three ways to increase the value of a client. One is to raise your prices. So in a lot of industries, service providers are not charging what they’re worth and what they’re doing. There is not allowing, not charging what you’re worth, puts you in a bad position as a service provider, because you are, if you’re not charging what you’re worth, you’re not providing what you, the best you can.

[00:11:37] And if you are, you’re losing money and basically growing yourself broke. I know cause I did it. I did it for 15 years. I grew myself into a multi-center multi seven figure business and I was for all intents purposes of broke company. I own a new job called CEO. I hated it. [00:12:00] That’s why I don’t even go by CEO anymore.

[00:12:01] I’m a president of a company. I never want to be a CEO ever again. You couldn’t pay me enough to put that on my business card anymore. 

[00:12:09] Karin: Right. So growing yourself, that’s an interesting way of, of like, just really nailing this visual of, um, this kind of imagine. Uh, persons standing on this, what looks like a giant mountain, but it’s really just like a trash heap.

[00:12:25] And so how, first of all, tell me that story. Like, how did you get to that point? And then, and then what happened? 

[00:12:34] Michael: I grew for growth sake. Yeah. Um, we, I mean, when we F uh, the long story I’ll make the long story short, I started out as a recording studio back in 2005, after getting out of the air force, uh, serving in the air force for 10 years, I had been a working musician from the age of 13 to 28.

[00:12:54] Oh, I am not tall enough nor dark enough. Good looking up or talent enough to be a [00:13:00] rockstar that makes any money. So I decided I will record other musicians and help them in their dream. And that’s how I started. Busby’s studios. But then about a year into that, I realized that, uh, surviving off the starving musicians was a bad business plan.

[00:13:16] And so I expanded that into the other starving folks out there, small business owners, and I started doing production for small business owners. And the SMB market is, is very fascinating to me. I feel that small business is the backbone of our economy. It’s where 99% of all new jobs come from. And if we can build better entrepreneurs that are not.

[00:13:41] Then we can build back our, uh, disappearing middle-class. And so that became my, my mission is to help SMBs market themselves better because if you can mark yourself well, and you can sell that product, you’re going to be able to grow to somewhere where you are going to be comfortable, and you’re going to fit into that mold of middle-class upper middle-class [00:14:00] even maybe pass that class, right?

[00:14:02] Yeah. That’s great. Right. But then, then I found out that just being a production studio is not enough. I’ve got to show people, teach people or, and sometimes even do it for them because they don’t have an understanding to it, or they don’t have a passion for it. And if you don’t have those two things in your marketing, it’s always going to fall a little short.

[00:14:20] So over the years we did that. So once I got that down, We started going gangbusters. And I just started growing for growth’s sake instead of building out my infrastructure. So I built all the culture and all of the fun, fruit, fruit stuff that they tell you, you need to build, but I didn’t pay attention to how much I was charging.

[00:14:38] So it was creating a bigger infrastructure, not charging any more and getting more elaborate and more product ties services over time that became top heavy. Right. And so if we missed out on a good point, The whole thing. It just is hard. Oh my gosh. And so I was in Italy a few years ago, shooting a [00:15:00] feature-length documentary for a client.

[00:15:02] And, um, I was gone for 11 days when I came back. There’s a little cue to Todd that hit my culture. That was pristine. Like. Uh, we were in Alaska at the time, and I would have folks who had moved from the lower 48. So the contiguous 48 up to Alaska to, to work at a college usually is this entry-level right.

[00:15:21] And to build them up, all that good stuff. And they’re like, I hate Alaska. The only reason I’m here is because of this job, because this company, because of the culture. So I was feeling good, like double figure seven. I was living. $3 million range in revenue and bubbling. I was like, oh yeah, this is awesome.

[00:15:36] I’m doing great. Go to Italy. I’m like doing on location and the VAT, a kid I’m like, I’m kicking butt taking names. Yeah. I’ve made it right. Get back. And it’s just a nightmare. And I just looked at it. I lost about a third of my crew because of that crew to TA. And I was like, do I build this back? And I just looked down and go, I’m spending another five, 10 years building.

[00:15:59] [00:16:00] Rebuilding it. And I just like, no, no, I don’t want to do that anymore. I was miserable. I didn’t own a company. I owned a job. And so 2019, I launched buzzworthy integrated marketing and I splinted off the production into another company, um, that runs on its own. And I just focused on the digital marketing for service-based businesses.

[00:16:20] Because this, what I was best at is what I was most passionate about. And it’s the one that changes the most. And I love innovation. 

[00:16:26] Karin: So really started. Right. As you were going through that Kuda Coutant, where did that all fall apart? It sounds like you had this great culture. You had people that were there wanting to be there just for the company, but then somehow there was some like left turn where it just fell apart.

[00:16:44] And was that what. Indicative of the finances and how things weren’t, or that was a totally separate, 

[00:16:51] Michael: it was, it had to do with the, the age of my crew. So I had, so the, the, the demographic of my [00:17:00] crew was younger. Right. Because we weren’t charging enough. I couldn’t afford to get seasoned marketers. I was the stepping stone for a lot of the other firms in the region.

[00:17:11] Right. And so with that, you get some kids and I say kids now, uh, right out of college and they’re in mid twenties, right? I’m in my mid to late thirties or no, I’m in my forties by this time. And. And I’m looking at these kids and they’re thinking, well, the college told me I should be making six figures within myself.

[00:17:29] Second work. I’m like, no, if you want six figures, you’ve got to go sell stuff. It’s like, well, what can I do that? I say, sure, I’ll train you how to sell. And then they would, and then they go out and they get a bunch of no’s. They’re like, well, that’s hard. Yeah. Well, this is your fault. It’s your fault. It’s hard.

[00:17:45] Karin: Yeah. Okay. So it was, it was sort of a maturity level kind of issue. 

[00:17:51] Michael: Unfortunately lot, some of that had to do it. I had some mismanagement steps. I had my number to lose a quarter million dollar client on, instead [00:18:00] of firing him immediately, I kept them on for the rest of the pay period as a favor to him because he had a brand new kid, he was married and all this other stuff.

[00:18:08] And I was just, you know, I, he was on the bad guy. He just wasn’t a good fit for the position. And. I, you know, it was like, well, you know, it’s only three more days in that I don’t want to cut off, you know, his income like that since. So I let him to the end of the week. So people thought I laid him off instead of fired him and he was beloved.

[00:18:27] So I had that going on and then I had some embezzlement going on on the other side. So I hope all is so, like I said, it was a house of cards because it grew so fascinating. I didn’t do a lot of the fundamental infrastructure. And then I, and then I promoted people who aren’t ready to be promoted into positions that required more experience.

[00:18:48] Karin: So how does that now play out with where your, you know, the work you’re doing now? And then I feel like. There is a translation into this idea [00:19:00] of, um, overall strategy and like placing those plans and spending the time and the upfront effort and thought and time to put those plans in place to avoid these kinds of just kind of, uh, organizational nightmares.

[00:19:16] So how does that all play out? 

[00:19:19] Michael: Well now, um, three years later, I, um, am more seven times more profitable than I ever was before 

[00:19:29] Karin: you have, 

[00:19:32] Michael: when I rebuilt it, I said, I have to do it different because you try to do the same thing over and over again, expecting different results is insanity. Right. So I’m like, okay, so how do I start?

[00:19:42] Well, I, first of all, I had a 13,000 square foot facility. I got rid of it. Yeah. To get rid of it. I had, I had, uh, uh, declared bankruptcy to get out of my, my personal guarantees to get out of it. Right. Sure. I’m like, okay, that’s, that’s the sacrifice I’m going to make to be, make [00:20:00] this work. Right. I needed to a company that worked for me, right.

[00:20:04] That produced a service that worked for my clients because it was always the thing with. And it is. And to this day, it is, let’s say we take care of the client, the client, the business will take care of itself, right. Profits will be there for when you make other people money. And I tell that to people all the time.

[00:20:21] So you want to make them a hundred thousand dollars your first couple of years at a company make that company money. Yeah. They will pay you every dime you want just make them enough money. Right. And that’s what I do. That’s our job as marketers is to make our clients money. Right. And so I looked at it and I started looking at my.

[00:20:39] And a lot of my book is based on the fundamental, uh, shortcomings of how we provided the classic ad agency services. Out there. Right. And I thought because small businesses are small than their budgets were small. And didn’t realize that that the serious people who are serious [00:21:00] about growing their company are ready to invest seriously.

[00:21:04] Right. And so if I have sir a serious services with serious investment, I will address. Serious entrepreneurs. And those are the people like to work with. And those are the only people I work with now. Yeah. Yeah. If they, if, if I have somebody who’s not, it doesn’t quite qualify for my done for you, sir. I have now service a software as a service platforms that allow them to do it themselves.

[00:21:27] Yeah. And if they want coaching, we have coaching programs that, that we work back and forth. But my white glove is for the folks who don’t have have more time than money. Right. And they’re ready to leverage that money so that they can make their business 

[00:21:42] Karin: even stronger. Right. More time than money is an important point because those other folks that have.

[00:21:49] Uh, no, the other way around, they have more money than time. The other folks that have more time than money are the ones that will spend that time, nitpicking and [00:22:00] micromanaging. And we both know what happens with that. It destroys the value of that project, so where it was great and perfect was way before they ever got in and tried to dismantle it.

[00:22:12] And so spending more time on a project is never. Give those people, the result that they think it is, where, um, the people who spend less time and trust and value the work are going to end up with a better result. And I say this all the time. So, yeah, that’s, that is so true. I have found that myself in my million years of experience as well.

[00:22:35] Um, okay. So going on to the book recommendation, as you know, our audience is full of tireless lawyers who don’t have time to read books that aren’t worth it. So what’s a book that you’ve read that is worth it. 

[00:22:48] Michael: So when I re launched my. I realized I needed to learn more about money.[00:23:00] 

[00:23:00] Karin: We laugh, but it’s like, you know, this is not something that is taught in law school. And I went through an MBA before. And so I tell lawyers all the time. This is, you know, I don’t know if, if I get sued or if I have a legal issue, I’m not going to try to do it myself. I’m going to hire somebody that knows what’s going on.

[00:23:18] So you shouldn’t just because you’re a smart lawyer doesn’t mean that you took a course in finance and you understand how all these things work. So. Tell me more about, 

[00:23:28] Michael: so I lucked out right as I was starting, I got introduced to a gentleman by the name of Michael , who wrote a book called profit first.

[00:23:38] Yeah. And it teaches people how to, that shows people, entrepreneurs, how the. Accounting, which is general accepted accounting practices where the, uh, is wrong and that the income minus expenses equals profit creates poverty amongst our entrepreneurs [00:24:00] in the United States. And so the profit first says profit minus X, uh, profit minus I’m sorry, income minus profit equals your expense account 

[00:24:12] Karin: kind of leads with.

[00:24:14] Michael: It starts with profit. So even, and so it, and he has a couple of different scenarios when you’re first starting out, you don’t always be able to take the whole profit that you want. Right. And so sometimes you start with 1%, but when you pay yourself out that half of 1% every quarter, you now get that value that you put into your company.

[00:24:34] Yeah. And for a long time, too many years, I didn’t do that. I reinvested. Over and over. And I just doubled up and doubled up and doubled up saying in the end, 

[00:24:47] Karin: it’ll pay off. And this is so common and I think his book, um, first of all, I want to compliment you on being able to pronounce his last name. Uh, I I’ve talked to enough people about this, that they always call it.

[00:24:59] First by [00:25:00] Michael, something, something with it. So

[00:25:05] it’s like too close, like Michael Mike Calloway. It’s it’s, it’s just, it’s like a tongue twister. That’s perfect. But you said it first. So, but if I had to say it myself, I would have stumbled. Um, but I enough people. It’s such a simple concept and it has totally transformed for me. It’s a visibility thing. I can glance at my account and know exactly what’s happening.

[00:25:31] And so, um, to jump in just for a second, the way he kind of describes it is, uh, his mother used to take her to. And put it in all these different envelopes. And so she would separate it out physically and, and literally into these are, this is my money for my bills. This is my money for that X, Y here’s my groceries, whatever.

[00:25:53] And this is a similar concept. You’re separating out your taxes, you’re separating out your operating [00:26:00] expenses, but you’re also separating out your profit so that nothing touches it. It’s in a literal separate bank account and I’ve been using it myself for, I want to say two, maybe this is the third year going into third year and I absolutely love it.

[00:26:16] Like, it’s just. You go in twice a month and you allocate your income into new, just like throw it into all these little buckets. And it’s like, oh, this is amazing. It’s, you know, I don’t just look at this big one account and think, well, some of that goes somewhere and some of this goes into another place, but, um, for a long time, exactly.

[00:26:34] Like, but that’s a nice big number. So I’m going to assume I’ve got a whole bunch of money and it’s like, you don’t want to make any assumptions when it comes to your, your money and your numbers 

[00:26:42] Michael: and the thing. This is funny. My, my, uh, my executive. Does all those transports for me twice a month. I don’t even look at it.

[00:26:49] I don’t even touch it anymore. So systemizable, it’s there. And all I do is look at my QuickBooks and I’d take a look at the accounts across now. And I can tell you exactly where I’m ahead and where I’m behind. [00:27:00] Exactly. And it allows for service-based businesses can go cyclical. Right? You can have those hot seasons and not so hot seasons.

[00:27:07] For reserves to automatically build up when you’re having really good quarters. Yep. So that when you have bad quarters, you don’t have to start laying people off or give yourself less salary. Yeah. And so you kind of build in this whole concept of being your own bank. And the great thing is like taxes.

[00:27:24] Holy cow. I just found out. My, my account told me last year. Yeah. You’re not gonna be paying taxes for next couple of years next couple of years, because of some of the things that I did in my restructuring, um, allowing me some credits. And so he’s like, yeah, you’re not going to pay those. And I’ve been putting away the 15% tax all year.

[00:27:41] Like this is a big chunk of money. Now, this money, I was not expecting any it’s it’s separate from my, my profit. That was really good. I should take this and reinvest in my, I have this free money to invest in my company. Right. And it won’t hurt anything else because everything else is already paid [00:28:00] for it.

[00:28:00] Right. And that freedom is immeasurable, 

[00:28:04] Karin: immeasurable the freedom and, and just the sense of calm and the kind of peace of mind just glancing at it and knowing, um, okay. Period. Like, I’m not guessing. I’m not thinking, oh, I’m probably going to have this. And it’s that’s that? I’ve got this set aside. It’s just, it’s just, you know, nice and easy.

[00:28:25] And you get 

[00:28:25] Michael: skinny when, on with cash, guess what she did. You go back to your expense account. You never look at your profit. Yeah. So you make your, you make yourself think you’re poor, but by just looking at that one percentage you give for expenses and you go, well, I don’t have any more money to do anything.

[00:28:44] Fancy. How do we do it without being fancy? And so it makes you frugal and the places that you really need to be frugal. And then when you’re like, well, I want better. Well then all you do is grow your sales because when you grow your sales, you get more percentage in there. Yeah. And so it really helps build that up and it really makes you [00:29:00] look at what you’re spending money on.

[00:29:02] On all aspects, salary, all those things. And so it’s a really good book. I did it an ebook and then I had a hard copy. 

[00:29:09] Karin: The hard copy is nice. I do a lot of eBooks myself, but the hard copy is nice because there are worksheets and things that you want to print out and actually like write out the numbers and kind of figure that stuff out.

[00:29:21] And, um, it’s, it’s really, you don’t have to have an accounting degree or a finance or an MBA. It’s very, very simple. Um, and once you kind of glance through it and spend a couple hours. I haven’t changed anything in a couple of years. It’s amazing. So, yeah, I thought that’s a great book, such a good recommendation.

[00:29:41] I highly recommend it. We’re also going to link to your book, the rule of 26. So we’ve got all those details in there. Um, yeah, we’re showing it on if you’re watching it on YouTube, you’ll see it on, on YouTube also. But if you’re just listening, we’ll link to it on the, in the show notes. Um, so [00:30:00] what’s one big takeaway.

[00:30:01] You want a kind of listeners to get from this.

[00:30:06] Michael: When it comes to your website, it is something that will give equally or be leveraged equally to what you put into it. So many times I work with people who say, okay, w I built a website now? And they immediately want to get analytics and say, okay, where’s the money coming from? And they forget that a website is purely or just the same as a brick and mortar in the physical world, except in a much bigger city with billions of other brick and mortar sitting out.

[00:30:43] And when it comes to our personal industries, thousands of brick and mortars right next to each other when we search. Right. Yeah. And only the top 10 visible. Brick and mortars on the search engine are the ones that get the business. [00:31:00] So if you’re not working on the visibility of your website, you were leaving money for your competitors to take.

[00:31:08] Karin: Yeah, that’s, that’s it, that’s what it comes down to. And I hear a lot of people saying, ah, I don’t really even know if I need a website. I’ve had websites and they don’t do much. And so my response is always, well, then it’s broken and there’s something that needs to be fixed as a law firm. I get that a lot of lawyers and law firms don’t consider themselves in terms in business terms, but.

[00:31:31] You’re not a nonprofit. You are a law firm, it is a business. And so you need to reconsider that, just that whole mindset, that it needs to be a business. It needs to be profitable in terms of how you’re going to even reach your clients and, and accomplish your goals. But, and also part a huge part of that is that your website needs to be.

[00:31:53] And pulling in those leads and the business and all of that. And so it’s not just, you know, what you hear all the time. It’s [00:32:00] just a business card online. No, it 

[00:32:02] Michael: shouldn’t not anymore. Used to be like when I started building websites back in 1999, it was an online brochure because the internet couldn’t do a lot of things, but now the internet can do a lot of things.

[00:32:13] Your website. Qualify people. Yes. To a point where only the people within your business who were qualified to talk to that prospect will get that message. Instead of everything coming into one little bottleneck and then getting dispersed. There’s so many other ways, the call that you don’t get can be proud of.

[00:32:33] People don’t realize what it means to qualify through their website and disqualify people that are going to just waste your time and 

[00:32:42] Karin: resources. The call that you don’t get can be profitable like that is, that will blow some people’s minds. I think, you know, the, the idea of not wasting your time with, uh, you know, those non-ideal clients is saving you money.[00:33:00] 

[00:33:00] Or maybe even making you money cause it’s making the space for the right ones. Right? 

[00:33:04] Michael: I tell people all the time, have a list of colleagues who do exactly what you do, but are not direct competitors because they have a different part of the industry is their niche so that you can refer those people quickly.

[00:33:18] Yeah, boom. And, and the more you do that for them, the more they’ll do it for you. Okay. And that, that givers gain mentality will man. It’s so rich. It is. 

[00:33:30] Karin: It really is. I believe in that so much. Uh, okay. So Michael Brzezinski is the president and COO of buzzworthy, uh, marketing. And thank you so much for your time and we will link all of your resources and your book and everything in the show notes.

[00:33:44] But thanks again for being here. 

[00:33:45] Michael: Thank you so much for having me.

[00:33:47] [00:34:00]