Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Email | RSS
In Episode 19 of the “Law & Business” podcast, I am joined by Angel Quintana.
Angel is a business advisor who helps business owners be tastemakers, rebels, or visionarys, which might not be the get-rich-quick guide that all those other marketing experts are using to promote their businesses, but it produces everlasting results, dissipates the boredom and lack of creativity that many seasoned business owners are feeling today, and it removes all the competition.
We talked about how businesses should market themselves, the importance of e-mail marketing, and the legal issues involved.
Here is a lightly-edited transcript of the episode:
Anthony Verna:
Welcome to the Law and Business podcast. I am here with Angel Quintana. Angel, how you doing?
Angel Quintana:
I’m fabulous. Thanks for having me.
Anthony Verna:
No problem. Thank you for calling in and hope you like our fancy setup where you get to call in. So, Angel, I know that you are a business advisor but, I’m never really very good, so why don’t you describe your business to everybody who’s listening.
Angel Quintana:
Okay, great. So, I have a business that’s called holistic fashion needs and it was actually born from the lengthy time that I’ve been a business mentor for the past, I don’t know, 10 years or so. I started holistic fashion needs said to basically support my clients, give them exposure online, let them write bomb magazine, to do their advertising campaigns. We promote them in a podcast, or our HF TV shows that we do on online. So, there’s just lots of different ways where we’d just basically promote people that we think are amazing. I normally just work with holistic leaders, people that really want to help people get to the root of their problems, not just a quick fix or a bandaid solution but really dig in, ask those hard questions and get people really to a place of transformation. So, I’m really kind of grandiose in my endeavors here that I want to change the world. I want to help other people change the world. We all live in this, you know, energetic field together. And if we can make it better than what it is today, you know, I’ve done my job.
Anthony Verna:
And the fashionista part comes in. You dress really well.
Angel Quintana:
Oh, thanks. Well, I was a clothing designer before I started basically a little coaching and consulting other entrepreneurs. So, there’s always just a huge place in my heart for looking amazing and feeling amazing. I think they kind of walk hand in hand.
Anthony Verna:
Yeah, you need to help us schlubby guys. You know, my wife loves it when I put on a suit, but, other than that I kind of find it hard to…
Angel Quintana:
I got it easy though. I mean girls have so many options and it gets a little overwhelming. You know, guys who just have a great pair of jeans and a collared shirt and some cute, little tennis shoes and they’re still like looking sharp, you know.
Anthony Verna:
I know what you’re saying, but you know, we still need to be careful too because even when I’m just wearing a polo shirt, I will say that when I buy like a nice Polo Ralph Lauren shirt versus a cheaper one, the, the difference shows very well. So, even us guys need to be a little careful when we’re on the casual side of life. So, let’s move onto to our businesses. And a lot of the listeners out there are entrepreneurs, are solopreneurs. And recently we’ve been talking about why small and medium businesses fail here on the podcast with other guests. And I would say what tips do you have for the small business, the medium size business to help market those businesses? And, and of course I’ll be jumping in and talking about some of the legal ramifications of the marketing.
Angel Quintana:
Well, I actually have had a failed business, so I definitely can relate to this topic. And one of the biggest things that is the biggest lesson that I learned is you’ve got to be good at sales and marketing. Even if you’ve got a great product, you’re creative, you’ve got an awesome website, if you don’t have the sales and marketing down, it’s not going anywhere. And I think a lot of people get uncomfortable with the idea of selling. They think that marketing is just throwing some stuff up on social media. It’s so much bigger than that. So, I think that really nailing down your sales funnels, and really having a marketing plan that takes people on a voyage to not only get on your list, but to buy products from you that solve problems. And, you know, this old age saying goes, you know, you don’t have to be the best at something to have a profitable business. You just have to know how to market yourself, market your products in a way that is attractive to the client that you’re actually going after. So that would be another task, is to actually know who your market is.
Anthony Verna:
If I can stop you for a second. What reminds me, what you said popped in my head. I had a conversation recently with a few other business owners and we spoke about the key of always be marketing. And it was funny because then, of course, we started joking around about Glengarry Glen Ross, the play and, and the movie where, in the movie, Alec Baldwin’s character comes in, basically says ABC – always be closing, which certainly was a mindset, but in today’s world it’s not really about closing because the way that you can close and get those clients and get those customers is that you always need to remember that you’re always marketing regardless of who you’re speaking to.
Angel Quintana:
I mean, close, it just feels very impersonal, which is why I don’t really like it. I don’t like to call things like, Oh, who’s your target market? It just seems very cold. It’s like, who is going to buy my stuff? Like I am much more keen on the idea of building relationships with people, you know, getting to know them, finding out their needs, checking in with them. My whole philosophy is about selling high end products. I think that, you know, when you sell things of quality and give personalized attention, that’s where a real transformation can happen versus just purchasing an info product or you know, a dress that you’ll wear once. It’s something that’s really going to have a lasting impression on how you live your life. And, so there’s just a different way of thinking about who’s going to buy my product.
And I like to refer to this type of person not as a target market but as a kismet client. You know, really, who is that person that vibrates on the same level as you, or someone that’s just like you, but maybe just like you three years ago when you used to have that problem. So, there’s just a lot of just connection to your market that is someone that’s very similar to yourself. I’m gonna just give this anecdote with you, Anthony, because I don’t know that you actually know this story, but when I was looking for an intellectual property lawyer, I had interviewed three different people. The first person, you know, spoke to me in a way that I was actually left in tears. Like I was like, oh my gosh, there’s no way I’m ever going to win this case.
Like I was just totally beat down. I felt like the victim. The second person that I talked to was just like, you know, I was actually going to hire him. He had a good, upbeat case that he wanted to approach in my case at and I felt very comfortable. It felt very natural to him. But then right after I hung up the phone with him, you called me and you vibrate on my level. Like very serious, like there’s no bs, , I’m going to give you the facts. I’ve already reviewed your case. It was like there was, “no, we’re not going to joke. We’re not going to be like, you know, chummy because this is a serious matter.” And I really, really resonated with how serious you took my case without even me hiring. Yet, you had already done the investigation. You’ve already gotten to know, you know, a little bit about what it is that I do, what, you know, the importance of that trademark. So that was like, this is the guy I’m going with. I felt, I said feeling like a victim. I felt back in control. I felt like, wow, like I don’t have to, you know, cry about this. No problem anymore.
Anthony Verna:
Well, thank you. Thank you. I mean obviously I’m not going to into any details, you know, with your stuff specifically, but thank you so much for saying that, but, but I think that’s important for a lot of the small businesses out there that they understand that it is what you say, it is how you say it. And this is true, regardless of what the arena is. Part of, of my particular practice, and certainly, Angel, this is an area you’ve never trod into. But, part of my practice is reviewing marketing materials because there are limitations as to what states put on businesses and even the federal government. There are limitations on what businesses are allowed to say and how they’re allowed to say it. And, and you know what arenas, you know, not just professional services but all kinds of businesses.
You can’t promise what your product can’t deliver. For example,, and you might laugh at this, but years ago I met someone who had a product that said, the product was great as great for skin. You know, rub it in your hands. It will make your skin grand. It’s great for a sanitizer. I mean it was like, wait a minute, wait, wait, wait, wait. The same product is going to clean my room and make my skin softer. And then she even goes, oh, it’s great for like Fibromyalgia too. I was like, wait, no, no, hold on.
Where’s your, where’s your scientific proof of what your great, great hand sanitizer, Fibromyalgia curing product. So, we need to understand how we say things in our marketing and its tone because we’re going to have our consumers out there and Angel, you’re on both sides of that equation. And I’m on both sides of that equation. We need to know who our consumers are, but as business owners, we need to also understand where our legal limits are and what we’re allowed to say. We kind of have to, to make this balancing act. How’s that sound in terms of how we do, do all of that? So, what are some of the things that you have done that you can give to business owners as good tips?
Angel Quintana:
Well, this idea of creating a sales funnel. So, all my clients, I helped them build their business online. That’s the area of expertise and we do it a using luxury branding and really a high-quality over quantity, good customer service, all those things. And so, basically creating a sales funnel, to find out not only who is the buyer, but who is your ideal customer, testing the market, those kinds of things. And I think people get a little confused about, you know, what exactly is a sales funnel? How can they implement one into their business model? We have several sales funnels. I usually, when I work with my clients one-on-one, we, we actually create three sales funnels. And what that really means is we’re going to take people on that adventure. We’re going to basically try to speed up the process of turning them not only into a prospect but into a hot or a warm lead.
Angel Quintana:
And we do that by creating pipeline products. So, pipeline products are basically understanding your market’s needs. What is the urgent problem that keeps them up at night and what kinds of little dabble products can you offer? So, upsells, down-sells, bumps, impulse buys, things like that. You know, you think about going grocery shopping and then you’re at the checkout sign and you know, there’s gum and candy bars and you know, floss and everything. So, what we want to do is take that philosophy and transform that and create a sales funnel online doing the same exact thing. So, they go into the market for one thing, maybe you’ve done an ad and you’re inviting them to come and download an ebook or a paperback book or whatever. It ends up being something free that you can give them to get them started.
And then the very next step is to basically offer them an impulse buy, something that they can throw in their cart and be like, you know what, this is something that is useful to me. I can get started today, but it’s not going to break the bank. And then from there, we take them to an upsale, a bigger product where they can actually start working on their problem, that urgent problem that they have right away. So that’s the whole thing. And I think a lot of people are marketing to people that have problems, but the people that will walk to the kitchen, go to their purse or wallet, grab their credit card, walk back to the computer, enter in the information. It’s someone that’s like, wow, like I want to get this problem solved like right now and for 200 bucks I can do that. Perfect. So, it’s also about understanding the language that we’re using. So you need to speak their language and that’s where sales copy comes in. And I think that also overwhelms people. I’m not a copywriter. How do I write good copy? And the metaphor that I use is that sales copy is like tea time. You know, it’s like I can basically just naturally speak like how I would, if I invited somebody to tea and I’m just going to put it on my sales page and I’m going to have a little chat with them. And if they speak the language that I’m speaking or if I’m intentionally speaking the language that would resonate with them, then that’s going to get them to the next stage. Now that’s like one funnel. We would do that over and over until we actually got to the high-end product, which could be anywhere up to like 25, $50,000.
But usually a high end product is anywhere from $5,000 to $50,000. And you know, the way that you sell that is by taking them through multiple sales funnels to warm them up, get them to know, like, and trust you and then then you’ve got them. Now you’ve actually built a relationship and your business is basically automated at this point, which is kind of the beauty. I mean, I know a lot of internet marketers are, you know, really exploiting, you know, make money while you sleep. But if you’ve got some good sales funnels, it’s going to do a lot of the marketing for you. The only thing you’re going to be responsible at that point is to be testing and doing advertising.
Anthony Verna:
How does advice go over when you tell a business owner, “Hey look, it’s okay. You don’t need to be the copywriter. You don’t need to be the one that’s implementing this.. That’s what we’re here for.”? Because a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of small businesses aren’t really itching to spend money in today’s environment. Would you agree on that?
Angel Quintana:
Yeah, I think there’s a lot of free things out there and everybody’s trying to piece it together themselves. You know, trying to save a buck. But that’s the wrong way.
Anthony Verna:
The Internet economy of free.
Angel Quintana:
Yeah. But the thing is piecing those puzzle pieces together can still take a lot of money and it takes a lot of time. So that’s why again, they go back to, is the problem urgent? Do you want to just keep piecing it together yourself? Because that’s not an urgent problem. Someone who’s like, no, I want to get my business going now. I’m sick. I don’t want to piece it together into March. I want you to tell me how I should do this. I don’t wanna make it work. I don’t want to guess. I don’t want to read a million books anymore. I don’t want to download any more free reports, just help me. And that’s the type of client or customer that we should be going after regardless of what we sell.
Anthony Verna:
And one thing that I’ve noticed is that a lot of small business owners, once you set up that sales funnel, part of that is writing newsletters. And I think a lot of people are, I would say, afraid of things like canned spam, which is a federal act. And I’ll talk about that once you’re done. And really the idea that there are that there’s too much email and that their email newsletters are going to get lost in the clutter. How do you get somebody over that fear?
Angel Quintana:
Well, we, wow, okay. This is something I learned. Earlier this year, we used to use a different email content management system and our open rate was like so low. And I’m like, oh my god, how can it be this low? And so, I get a little Weezer and I found out that email content management systems get rated. So, if they have a low rating, that means that your emails are probably going to spam. Because of the actual email content management system, they’re rating how many people push spam from people that use that management system. So, we ended up switching to a different email management system and now our open rates are much higher. So, the first thing I would recommend is make sure that the email content management system you’re using has a high rating. And so that would be, I mean, I’ve done my research. Ontraport is great. They have a high, high rating. Constant Contact has a high rating and MailChimp. Infusionsoft is like a science to me. It’s just way too complicated. But I think a lot of people have had success with them as well.
Anthony Verna:
I think that’s fantastic advice. I think that’s advice that a lot of people probably wouldn’t hear because where you send your email from isn’t necessarily something that a lot of advisors give out. As for the fear that I deal with sometimes, and I talked to a lot of people about the can spam act and the can spam act requires a few things: One, some kind of permission or really if somebody gives you their email address on a form, obviously that’s permission. So, it requires that kind of permission. It requires that there is a way to opt out and just about every email marketing system that I’ve seen has an unsubscribe button, has a spam button, you know, so they are compliant with the US’s CANSPAM requirements and you don’t need to be all that fearful.
My own opinion is that if somebody is going to click the spam button or click the unsubscribe button, as long as the system handles it properly, and look with every email that gets sent out there, there might be one or two unsubscribes. There might be one or two spam clicks. As long as there aren’t a lot of spam clicks, your email company’s going to just kind of say, look, it’s one or two, it’s not a big deal. But if you get a lot, you have to sit down and work with your email marketing company. How are you gathering these email addresses? And again, if you’re doing it all by opt-in, if you’re doing it all by, some other kind of permission because you meet people out networking, never, ever when you’re out networking, just collect a whole bunch of business cards and put them on your list. That’s going to be considered spam. But when there’s engagement there, you know, engagement further than that, make sure you get that permission to put them on your list. And you’ll be okay there. But to me, you can’t be afraid of putting out that newsletter, putting out that newsletter weekly and making sure that there’s always content to, to make sure that you’re in the eyes of customers, potential customers, and potential clients because it takes several times before you’re going to make a sale with most people.
Angel Quintana:
Exactly. And they can, if they don’t open it, they see your name in the inbox. So, there’s a reminder subconsciously. Right. So, I think just being in their peripheral until you’re in their face, it’s fine. You know, you’re getting to know them, you know, you’re building the relationship. And I think being in touch with them and having strong subject titles and having good content that’s not always selling them something on every single newsletter, I think is also important. Just checking in, asking feedback and, we, a lot of times at the end of our newsletter will be like, hit the reply button and let us know what you thought about that article, just for engagement purposes.
Anthony Verna:
No, I hear you. I understand. I understand completely. Angel, we’re really at about the end of time for the Law and Business podcast. So, thank you so much for coming. Again, tell everybody how they can find you.
Angel Quintana:
You can visit holisticfashionista.com. If you want to learn more about working with me, you can go to angelquintana.com.
Anthony Verna:
Wonderful. And if you’re listening on iTunes, don’t forget to leave a review of this podcast and we’ll see you next time. Angel, I hope you’ll come back.
Angel Quintana:
Oh, absolutely. Thanks for having me, Anthony.
Anthony Verna:
You’re welcome. Thank you for coming.
Angel Quintana:
Alrighty, ciao!
Recent Comments