Podcasts about authenticweb

What does it take to succeed in business, especially in the agency world? How do you surround yourself with the right people who can support you, challenge you, and help you grow? How do you overcome the obstacles and fears that may hold you back from achieving your goals? Today's guest is an agency owner who shares his personal experiences of being in both conducive and detrimental social circles and highlights how the latter can negatively impact one's mindset and success. His philosophy underscores the importance of having a balanced perspective by interacting with people at different levels – those who are less experienced, peers, and more successful individuals. Tune in to learn about how surrounding yourself with the wrong people can leave feeling stuck and miserable, the fallacy of comparing yourself to others, and the importance of finding a community that will help you reach new heights and keep you accountable to your goals. Ian Garlic is a marketing expert specializing in video marketing and storytelling. He is the founder of video marketing agency authenticWEB and is the mind behind Storycrews. He also hosts The Garlic Marketing Show, is part of the team at Video Case Story, and consults on video shoots. Ian known for his profound insights and innovative approaches in the digital marketing landscape. His journey in the industry is marked by a deep understanding of the intricacies of business growth, particularly in the agency sector, and a passion for helping businesses harness the power of effective storytelling in their marketing strategies. In this episode, we'll discuss: Curating your support system. Overcoming the barrier of overthinking and self-doubt. Choosing the right group for you. Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources E2M Solutions: Today's episode of the Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by E2M Solutions, a web design, and development agency that has provided white-label services for the past 10 years to agencies all over the world. Check out e2msolutions.com/smartagency and get 10% off for the first three months of service. Who's In Your Corner? Curating Your Support System Agency owners everywhere find themselves chasing the wrong yardstick, pushing relentlessly toward finish lines not their own. Gripped by others' narrow definitions of success, they wake one morning in quiet panic. The team too often hears from agency heads who built ventures according to the “right” metrics. Yet after reaching a certain level of success they find themselves stressed out and disillusionment sets in. Soon enough, they start thinking about selling because of how unhappy they are. Ian knows that pain firsthand. Surrounded by big league players, he pushed his agency to serve ever-larger corporations. But in that quest for status, the work lost meaning. At a point, he felt far removed from the local businesses he set out to empower. It was time for a change. He needed his own definitions, his own scorecard - rooted in his values rather than others' demands. If you find yourself chasing ideas of success that don't fit with your values, look around and evaluate if you're surrounding yourself with the right people. For Ian, being in the wrong group, even if technically you're surrounded by very successful people, can have a negative effect on one's confidence, motivation, and performance. By contrast, the right people will offer support and help you find the right answers. In this sense, Ian speaks about the importance of being with people who are at different levels of success - below, at the same level, and above you - to ensure a balanced perspective and growth. Peers at all stages can become guides or critics. Just take stock of those given VIP access to your mind. Do they fill your cup or drain it? Nourish dreams or deflate them? With perspective, those draining more than giving face demotion. Shortcutting Analysis Paralysis Through Shared Perspectives As agency scale specialist, Darby speaks with many agency owners every week to help them come up with growth strategies and keep track of their goals. In this role, he has found that overthinking is a common barrier for agency owners that can lead to analysis paralysis, where one gets stuck in indecision and inaction. Making decisions is tough, and agency owners can fall in the trap of seeing all the angles and choices, which leads to worrying they're making the wrong move. He recommends seeking a supportive environment, such as a mastermind or a support group, where they can get feedback, advice, and accountability to help them make decisions and move forward. On your own, you may get too deep into what you're trying to do and give up before giving yourself enough time to find the right way. Having the right people to support you can help you transform not only your business but also your mindset. You'll learn to receive feedback, which can be hard but is very important to get out of your own head and see things from a different perspective. Like most things, it takes practice, and being in an environment where you frequently get feedback will help you build that muscle. Maybe you feel it's not something you need right now but it will surely become important at some point in your growth. Anyone that says they succeeded completely on their own is either lying or in denial. After all, some of the most successful people out there couldn't have made it without the right support system. How Do You Know if a Group is Right for You? You may find it takes a few tries to find the right community or group for you. It's not just about getting to share your struggles, you also need to feel challenged. If you're the smartest person in the room and everyone there thinks everything you're doing is great, you're probably in the wrong group. Do you feel good about what they're doing and how they go about things? Do you like being around them? Are they going in the same direction you want to go? Furthermore, look for a group with people who've already faced the challenges you're currently facing. If you're working on scaling your agency past eight figures and are currently in a group where no one has done that then can they really help you get there? It all goes back to what you want to do and who you are. If you're trying to build an agency, then you shouldn't be in a general marketing group. In his case, Ian prefers groups that are not just money motivated but also think of the bigger picture. It'll take work to find your “pack” and you may even find that it changes over time as you evolve and go through stages. Maybe you'll hit a stage where you want a lifestyle business and seek out people with the same goals. The important thing is that you understand what you want and what you're going after at the moment. Think of a Mastermind as an Investment in Your Growth Focusing on relationships that better you as an agency owner and a person will be a huge step in your growth journey. Join a mastermind, start a mastermind, and figure out the groups you want to be in. You won't necessarily get it right the first time, but it's an important investment in the future of your business. Start by getting clear on what you want and why you want it and, define what success looks like to you. Then push yourself to look for a community that will help guide you in the steps you need to get to that success. Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset? Looking to dig deeper into your agency's potential? Check out our Agency Blueprint. Designed for agency owners like you, our Agency Blueprint helps you uncover growth opportunities, tackle obstacles, and craft a customized blueprint for your agency's success.

Meet IAN GARLIC Ian has over 15 years of experience in Video Marketing. He uses cutting-edge online video marketing to help businesses collect and craft their stories. A Milwaukee native, Ian grew up in Orlando before venturing to the Big Apple where he worked as an agent for a top commercial real estate firm, became an experienced trader for a hedge fund, and mastered marketing consulting for a Fortune 100 Company. His experience in NYC led him to the creation of authenticWEB. Ian co-founded authenticWEB with his wife, Jessica Curry (now Garlic), who worked for Nickelodeon, Disney and Miramax. Ian is known as the go-to video marketing and storytelling expert by businesses and marketers around the world. This is why the Video Case Story brand was born, to focus in video production of customer's testimonials.   For 15 years, he has helped service-based businesses (from lawyers to SaaS companies to highly complex industries) find their most powerful client stories, capture them on video, and deliver them at the perfect time to guarantee MORE leads, BETTER clients, and MORE sales. I know creating online videos that guarantee results is far from easy. He had his own share of failures. From them, he's worked to perfect the formula, capturing stories and using them to build 7 to 8 figure businesses. For him, there is nothing more satisfying than to help a business grow & see the joy it brings to our clients. With his proven system we can make you the authority, without taking up a ton of time and without spending $100,000 on a one-time tv commercial.   Virginia and Ian Talk About How Ian got started in Video & Marketing What lights Ian up about marketing Why people avoid video and what to do about it Elements of a great customer story Strategy for using video Referral maximizer strategy The case study flywheel   Takeaways for this episode Every business changes someone's life You are selling you… get yourself out there! Create your own Oprah effect Someone is searching for you.. Can they find you? Grow into your success Great customer stones open doors Contact Ian Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IanJGarlic LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iangarlic/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJkIpTyKfMO2-85kue0zeoA Website: https://www.videocasestory.com/ Email: ian.garlic@videocasestory.com

With Ian Garlic, the CEO of authenticWEB, a top-ranked SEO company, who is an expert in internet marketing. With a vast experience of working with some of the world's largest organizations, Ian has become a renowned consultant and marketer in the industry. He has spoken on internet marketing at several prestigious associations such as the Manhattan Association of Realtor, New York State Trial Lawyers Association, Nassau County Bar Association, and Hispanic Bar Association of Central Florida. Before he delved into internet marketing, Ian had diverse work experiences in the restaurant industry, sales, trading, and commercial real estate in New York City, which he believes gave him a business background and an edge in his career. Ian's passion for business, film, and the web has led him to use video production as a means to tell the stories of great businesses. His knowledge of SEO, social media, and website design has enabled him to better understand the channels for telling compelling stories in various ways. Ian is a Rollins College graduate and has learned a lot from reading, doing, making mistakes, and correcting them. He believes that internet marketing is a field where constant learning and improvement are key to success. He loves to educate people through and about the mediums of film, the web, and business. In Ian's view, stories rule our entire lives: how we listen to them, how we tell them, and the stories we tell ourselves. In this podcast, Ian shares his insights on how to effectively connect with your audience and build a meaningful relationship through the use of client stories. Ian challenges the common practice of using testimonials and highlights the power of storytelling in capturing your audience's attention. Ian also dives into the pitfalls of adopting an advertising mentality and why it's crucial to steer clear from it. Plus, you won't want to miss the two important keys Ian shares for creating a compelling story arc in your videos. So, grab a cup of coffee and tune in to this episode for some valuable takeaways on the art of storytelling in marketing. To listen to our podcast and access the show notes, visit us at legalwebsitewarrior.com/podcast

Asking for testimonials can be ... cringy. But it doesn't have to be that way. We were looking for better ways to ask for testimonials so we've asked the pro to join us on the show to share his best tips! Ian Garlic is a video storytelling pro. He's the founder of The Garlic Marketing Show, currently CEO of authenticWEB, and has worked as an internet marketing consultant to some of the largest organizations in the world. In this episode, you'll learn the tools he uses for his clients when capturing authentic testimonials and case studies using video. Learn more about Ian here: https://iangarlic.com/ [HELPFUL LINKS] Onboarding Checklist: Grab our onboarding checklist here. [ABOUT THIS PODCAST] Welcome to the Happy Clients Podcast, brought to you by DOT and Company-- the world's best and only team of client account managers for digital marketing agencies. Whether you're a virtual assistant, an agency owner, or a client-facing account manager, we all deal with clients. Lucky for you. client management is what we do best. On the happy client's podcast, we won't shy away from the ups and downs of managing clients in the agency world, but we'll be right there alongside you to learn together and share the real juicy stuff we'll undoubtedly face when it comes to client management. Now, let's dig in, chat CAM life and have some fun along the way. Cheers, to happy clients!

Ian Garlic is the Founder of STORYCREWS.COM, the ultimate resource for video storytelling. Ian has built a career in multiple forms of media, including his online video marketing consultancy. He has worked with service-based clients, from lawyers to SaaS companies, to blend SEO with storytelling and engage new customers.  He is also the CEO of authenticWEB, which works specifically with smaller businesses. He hosts The Garlic Marketing Show podcast, runs a blog, and speaks at events to help businesses gain more leads, better clients, and higher sales. In this episode… For digital marketing, it's important to stay up-to-date with current trends and technology. While you don't have to be the most innovative business, the expectations for online companies are quickly changing. Customers want to learn about your brand in the easiest, most direct format possible. And few formats are better for this than video. Ian Garlic has built his career around using video to help businesses reach new audiences. It's not only a marketing tool, but a way to tell your brand's story and succinctly communicate what makes you different. Ian has honed this approach and has seen it work well for his clients. He brings SEO know-how, marketing expertise, and years of video production to the table. So how can he help you? In this episode of the Pitcher This! Podcast, Darren Fox has a conversation with Ian Garlic, the Founder of STORYCREWS.COM and CEO of authenticWEB, to discuss video and how it can be used to tell your company's story. They go through the potential video has to boost your business, how to use it well, and the logistics behind your video's successful execution. They also talk about retargeting your audience and getting traction through consistency. Stay tuned to hear all of this and much more!

Ian Garlic is an online video storytelling expert and the Founder of StoryCrews, a company that helps businesses find the best videographers, video editors, and video strategists to tell their stories. For more than 10 years, Ian has helped service-based businesses generate more leads, achieve better clients, and boost sales using videos. He is also the CEO of authenticWEB, a marketing and coaching company, and the Host of the Garlic Marketing Show. In this episode… What is your digital marketing strategy for 2022? Are you focusing on Facebook, Google Ads, or Instagram? If you really want to take your business to the next level, Ian Garlic says that there's one platform that rises above the rest: YouTube. While creating successful YouTube videos may seem like a major undertaking, Ian explains that it's much simpler than you think. First: don't focus on buying the most expensive equipment or generating millions of subscribers. Instead, create the content your target audience is searching for, and post it consistently. You may not go viral, but your business will reap the benefits.  Ian Garlic, renowned online video storytelling expert and Founder of StoryCrews, joins Dan Kuschell in this episode of Growth to Freedom to share his top YouTube hacks. Ian explains why YouTube is the most powerful platform for businesses right now, how to create videos that your ideal clients will love, and the importance of focusing on content over subscribers. Stay tuned to discover how you can achieve exponential success using video today!

How to Create High-Converting Ecommerce Videos For Different Channels There are many ways to engage your audience and build enthusiasm for your brand, but nothing comes close to videos! It doesn't matter the audience, channel, or product, our next guest on The Ecom Show, Ian Garlic, can figure out a way to make a high-converting marketing video for anything!This video guru from Florida has launched several websites (like AuthenticWEB.media and Storycrews.com), and worked with some of the biggest names in marketing, with no sign of slowing down! Take a seat and listen in with Budai Media founder, Daniel, and master “storyteller” Ian to learn about: ✔️ Why videos are the most engaging form of marketing ✔️ Hiring and working with video creators. ✔️ The formula for great video ads ✔️ Knowing the different video ad channels ✔️ Q4 advice, tips for beginners, and inspiration A Picture Tells a Thousand Words… Even a short video contains hundreds of captured images, and some even say that one minute of video is as good as well over a million words. While great copywriting or audio can do the trick, video is still the king (until we have 3D hologram marketing, that is!). According to Ian, color, sounds, movement, and voices all trigger a different part of our brains, and that's why video remains the most efficient way to tell a story. Video Creators vs. Videographers Ian is quick to distinguish between the two terms, noting that videographers can only do their job if they are handed a script, storyboard, and a whole bunch of information. If you are looking to take your agency to the next level, you need a videographer with a marketing background. Ian has seen some of the most captivating and visually pleasing videos from others, but if it doesn't call you to do something or buy something, it isn't doing its job! The world's best novelist might struggle to write excellent sales copy for the same reason, so no matter who you hire or work with, it's crucial to get someone with a knack for marketing. Creating the Perfect Video Ad Despite what we've heard, the script is not the most essential part of a video. Ian claims plenty of effective ads don't have a script, like “man on the street” interview videos or Apple's famous iPod and iPhone commercials that have no dialogue in them at all.Instead, the format and the storyboard are critical elements of a great ad. Still, the ability to tell a story is the single most crucial part of making a high-converting video. They are the most engaging way to work the algorithms on Facebook or Instagram, and they are much better at keeping attention than any other form of advertising! Intention vs. Attention Not all video channels are the same, according to Ian. For instance, Facebook and Instagram are attention-based, designed to capture your attention while doing other things, and reel you in to begin your customer journey. Linkedin or Youtube is more intention-based for people aware of their problem and actively searching for a way to remedy their situation. Knowing who you are talking to and making videos for them will help you choose the right video length, marketing channel, and format for maxim success! Tricks of the Trade and More Ian wants to remind people interested in learning the trade not to stress buying the best camera on the market. Learn proper lighting, sound, and basics before you get that new camera. It also pays to study marketing, read books, and think like a marketer. For example, in this Q4, people feel isolated more than ever, and he recommends creating hyper-personalized videos for certain buyers or customers to help them feel connected. It will cheer people up and increase conversions! Follow Daniel Budai:Daniel's LinkedInDaniel's Facebook Follow Ian:Ian's YouTube channel Ian's LinkedInAuthenticweb.marketing Storycrews.com

Ian Garlic is CEO at authenticWEB. He started his career in marketing about 15 years ago as a consultant for one of the world's largest information companies – back when good video production required hiring high-end, expensive, technically-savvy videographers. When Google purchased its video competitor, YouTube ten years ago, Ian saw opportunity, left the information company, and started authenticWEB. As a video marketing agency, authenticWEB crafts journey-stage-specific, people-story videos designed to reach “the right customers at the right time.” The goal: to engage potential customers with emotionally riveting content to “earn their love.” For each client, the agency develops 10 to 100 video packages from micro content to 15- to 20- minute mini-documentaries. The different types of videos they produce include:  the overview video (most people's commercials),  service commercials (covering the different services provided),  how-to videos,  process videos (explaining complex processes so people understand what happens at different times),  topical video blog posts (including social),  videos covering frequently asked questions,  About Us videos (Ian notes that “About Us” is the second most useful page on a website, an important page for conversion, and that people usually go from the “About Us” to making contact with a company), and video case stories. The most effective video case stories involve interviewing a client's customers and searching for that gem of a story that will evoke a positive response in viewers. Ian says there is no way of telling who will give a good interview and who won't. From raw footage, authenticWEB parses different edits and formats for different clients at different stages of the customer journey. Ian develops videos content to help customers identify a client's business as an “authority” and “a new best friend.” The agency's clients include attorneys, doctors, dentists, and other agencies (because agencies often have a hard time marketing themselves).  YouTube: The Next TV In this interview, Ian elaborates on the increasing importance of YouTube in marketing outreach – he likens it to “the next TV.” YouTube videos need a “to be on point, perfectly messaged, and . . . delivered at the right time.” A website only gives you a piece of the interaction data. YouTube gets all the interaction data: including total and percent view time. That kind of feedback facilitates cross-platform video and content improvement. Online video production does not require the same high-end equipment used in the past. Ian notes that today he does his own videography and that he travels “light.” The production process is simpler, so that the focus stays on story and editing the story for the audience. Ian recommends reusing content. He explains, if you drive traffic to your YouTube videos, YouTube will increase your rankings. YouTube's search engine is second only to Google. A Google search will start a well-indexed video at the exact moment in the recording where the answer to the searcher's question is provided.  Some people think they can buy YouTube followers . . . enough to get their own URL. Ian reminds us, “You can't buy love.” Purchased followers won't necessarily view your content, so view time is sacrificed. Ian also discusses some of the advantages and disadvantages of some of the online production tools. He can be reached on Linked in or on his agency's website at: https://authenticweb.marketing/. Transcript Follows: ROB: Welcome to the Marketing Agency Leadership Podcast. I'm your host, Rob Kischuk, and I'm joined today by Ian Garlic, CEO at authenticWEB based in Orlando, Florida. Welcome to the podcast, Ian. IAN: Rob, it's great to be here. Thank you for having me. ROB: It's excellent to have you here. I think you've got a very distinct perspective that our audience will enjoy. Why don't you start off by telling us about authenticWEB and what your superpowers are? IAN: We've been around for a little over 10 years. We are a video marketing agency. We do some other stuff too, but it's all around delivering people-story video. We're really good at finding that story, understanding how these videos have to be crafted depending on where they are in the customer journey, and then crafting them to deliver and get a response. We create anywhere from 10 to 100 video packages for clients, and then ongoing we create video, do video SEO. Really, what we do is, like really good marketers, we help connect the client's story to their prospect's story and make them the authority. When someone walks through the door, they feel like already they're their best friend and the authority, and that's what the video does for our clients. So that's what we've been doing for about 10 years. We've worked with all sorts of professionals. We work with attorneys, doctors, dentists, and we're working with actually a lot of other agencies now. We have a lot of other agencies, which is fun, because the agencies have such a tough time marketing themselves. I have that problem. It's nice for us to help other agencies market themselves. ROB: Fascinating. I think I heard you say 50 to 100 video packages. That sounds like a lot. Is that different formats for different platforms, different edits? Or is that just that much content? How do you put that together? IAN: It's a little bit of all of it. It's different edits, different formats. You've got to consider where they are in the customer journey. One of the things we're known for is our video case stories. People fly me around to interview their clients to get that story out. I don't try to make people cry, but I kind of do. When you can ask the question the right way, you get that emotional response from your customers, and you have this powerful tool. We get these 30-minute interviews with their customers, and parts of that story need to be used in different ways, in different parts of the journey, from early on, just to get attention and awareness, to longer form customer stories. We're doing some 15-20 minute ones, like mini-documentaries. And then pulling micro content, little clips out of there. Plus, we make essentially 9 to 10 different types of videos. We make your overview video, which is most people's commercials. We make this thing called a service commercial – because most of us have different services, and we want to have a little commercial for each service. How-to videos, which are important, especially on YouTube. Video blog posts, where someone's discussing a specific topic. Under that video blog post, I consider a lot of social posts. We just call it video blog posts. Frequently Asked Questions are a big one. The core videos that we make besides those are micro content, but besides that, we're really known for video case stories and About Us videos. That's the second most useful page on a website. Most people throw up either a bio or some funny video, but really it's a converting page. If you look at your analytics, it's not only going to be in your top three or four pages – it can be out of there depending on what you're doing, but it's top three or four pages. But where people usually go after that is some sort of contact. So really having a converting video on there. And then process videos. We make a lot of process videos because people don't know what happens at different points. The more complex it is, the more people need to understand what's going to happen next and how this is going to look. When you add it all up and you do all the different points and all the different variations, it really quickly adds up to a ton of content along the customer journey. ROB: I've talked to people where they feel like they're intimidated to ask their customer to be on this sort of video. What have you found in terms of overcoming that fear? Is it ever really well-founded, or would people be surprised that more of their customers are willing to get on camera than they might ever expect? IAN: They'd be surprised. There's people you'd think would be great on camera that aren't. It's a numbers game. There's people you'd think would be poor, but have these amazing stories. One of the other things we do is audio interviews like this and then make them into videos with pictures, so it makes it a little easier. But it's the timing of asking, it's how you're asking. One of the things I always tell people is never ask for a testimonial. I don't even like using the word “testimonial” because that's when people really freeze up. If you've done an amazing job for someone and they're really, really happy and you ask them for a testimonial, it's like, “Oh my God, these people did such a good job for me. I'm really nervous about screwing this up for them.” They get nervous. So, I always tell people to ask someone for their story. Talk about something specific that you know is important. That will help. But this is the number one piece of advice I can give for anyone's marketing: install asking for those stories into your process at different points. People want to know what the onboarding is like. What is it like right after the sales process? What's it like if you have a strategy? What's it like a year after you're done with your project? Ask along the way. And you can ask the same people multiple times. You've got to dig for those, though. You've got to make it a habit. ROB: You mentioned you have been at this for a little bit. I think you said around 10 years. Talk about the difference in – I think there used to be a perception of video as being expensive, and it's probably still more costly than some methods of marketing. You mentioned I think a little hack in there of being able to take audio and turn it into a video. But how has your production process changed with the advance of different production equipment and tools over your time running the business? IAN: When I started 14-15 years ago now in marketing, I was in New York, and I would hire high-end videographers. I saw that, especially when we came online, we didn't need that high-end production. Now, I think production value is very important, but I see it inflate a lot because people are like, “I need this gear and this gear and this gear.” I've definitely trimmed down our production gear. Especially since I travel, I like it light. [laughs] I would say that's the number one thing. It's gotten lighter and easier to set up. There's a lot of cool things you can do now, especially with B roll, to make it interesting. So, it's easier now to – everyone can have a gimbal, everyone can have a slider. There's a few of these other things – you can get a nice 4K camera inexpensively. So we're doing a lot of that stuff still, but as far as the production process, we tweak it, but for the most part we've just been improving how we get the story, how we edit the story, what parts need it. I would say the biggest evolution – I started really in video around when YouTube was purchased by Google. That's when I was like, “Hey, this is going to be a big thing. This is going to be huge. You're going to have this search intense, and people are going to be able to find things on Google and find your video right at that perfect moment.” At that point, we still edited really well. We had a process for editing, but our editing process has evolved and evolved and evolved because now there's so much content out there. Your video needs to be on point, perfectly messaged, and needs to be delivered at the right time. Those are the things that we constantly improved, adding more copywriting principles into our video process and that type of thing. Those are the big ones, and then post-production has definitely evolved. We've evolved the post-production side and we're constantly talking about that. What can we do to make this look different, be exciting, be entertaining on the post-production side? ROB: There's a lot of acquisitions that show up as sort of interesting. What do you think it was about Google acquiring YouTube that really made you sit up and pay attention? IAN: (A) It was Google, and (B) video was just happening. There was this idea that you can get your face and your voice in front of someone using video. We can do that, but now Google was not going to let YouTube – that was doing okay at the time; it was having these moments – it wasn't going to let it go away. Then when they started blending the YouTube videos into the Google search results, that's when I was like, this is going to be a game-changer. If you get a video thumbnail into the Google search results, you can be anywhere on that page and people are going to click on it. They're going to recognize your face. They're going to recognize your voice more often. I knew that was going to be the game-changer. Google wasn't going to let that not happen. ROB: In hindsight, the acquisition price was significant. I think it was around $1.5 billion or so. What I think is interesting there is there's actually a cohort between them, Twitch, and Instagram. All of them, I think, were around $1+ billion in acquisition and all of them are probably right in the middle of what you do every day now. IAN: Yeah, for sure. Look at the YouTube acquisition; at $1.5 billion. Of all the acquisitions, that was a steal. It's the second most used search engine. We're putting all of our time and effort into YouTube because it's going to be the next TV. It already is. My son watches it. He's 6 years old. He knows exactly how to navigate it. My niece wants to be a YouTube star. She asked me all about the stats, and she's 10 years old. “What's the view time? How many subscribers does that person have?” At 10 years old. Other stuff will come and go; YouTube is not going away, and if anything it's an essential part of our life. ROB: Just got to keep her away from the comments a little bit – but we probably all should stay away from the comments. IAN: [laughs] For sure, for sure. ROB: Ian, what led you down this path to start authenticWEB in the first place? What were you doing before, and what made you head in this direction, which can be a little bit intimidating at times for some people? IAN: When I first moved to New York, I was still getting back into working in a hedge fund. Worked for one for a little bit, didn't like that. I worked simultaneously in commercial real estate. I was trying to decide – and I worked at one of the top restaurants in the world, actually, as a bartender. Just like, “Okay, what do I want to do when I grow up?” type thing. I was looking at the theme, and the theme was always marketing. I loved marketing, and I always loved digital. I've been on a computer since I was like 6 years old, which is a big deal because I'm not a millennial. [laughs] It all made sense. So, I went to work for one of the largest information companies as a marketing consultant. Loved it, but the advent of Google and YouTube I knew was going to be a huge thing, and also, I saw them not spending time getting to know the client story and really making good marketing. Everything looked and felt the same. It really did an injustice to especially the smaller people with the smaller budgets, because at that point it was who threw the most money at that search channel or whatever. Now, we separate it out and go, “I can serve and connect people with their perfect clients, and when they do that, they're going to love their business so much more. When people walk through the door and they know them already, they're going to love their business.” That's really cool when I get that phone call. It's like, “Man, you're right. People feel like they know me when they walk through the door, and it changes how we run our business,” which I always love. I knew we could do it better, so I started the agency, and yeah, it was easy since then. No, I'm just kidding. [laughs] Not easy. It's always this endless cycle of – you get the improvement, everything's awesome. It's a rollercoaster. We improve with systems and stuff over the years. Spent a lot of money on consultants, spent a lot of money on a lot of information, and it really improved and created all of our systems. That's helped a lot, but there's always things that are going to come up. But I always know, too, all I have to do is go look at LinkedIn one time and look at jobs and I'm like, “I cannot imagine having to go to a job.” I mean, I guess a lot of people aren't going to a job now, but I cannot imagine someone telling me what to do. [laughs] ROB: [laughs] A couple of looks at a job posting and maybe whatever some people have to wear to their office when they go to offices and that's enough? IAN: Yeah. I just look at LinkedIn for a few minutes and I'm like, “Oh no, I could never do this.” I could never go for another job interview. I'm officially unemployable. ROB: I think I heard you speak a little bit about discoverability within YouTube and video. You could sort of call it SEO, with YouTube, as you mentioned, being the second largest search engine. We've talked a good bit about the evolution of SEO for web on this podcast; we haven't really talked a lot about the evolution of search on video. Is search on video still fairly understandable? Are there hacks that people used to use that are busted and gone and bad tactics to listen to if you hear them? IAN: Yeah. There's hacks, but unlike a website – a website you kind of get some interaction data. YouTube gets all the interaction data. Yes, keywords are still important – matching up the keywords, understanding the keywords, going for the longtail – but getting that view time – that's why I talk about getting that reaction, getting them to take action. Total view time and percent view time are huge, huge things. So really understanding those “content hacks” of getting the view time is super important. Those are the big ones. I actually had someone the other day like, “I think I'm going to buy followers so I can get my own” – because when you get to I think 1,000, you get your own URL. I'm like, “But if you go and buy followers, on a percentage basis you lose that view time because they're not going to watch your videos. You're going to have these followers that aren't watching your videos and aren't interacting and you're going to lose that visibility.” Those are some big ones.  I would say those are the big things. And then always be reusing your YouTube content. One of the things I see so much that people don't do is they don't use their YouTube content in other places. You can email it out on a regular basis. If someone has seen it before, they can see it again, as long as it's not just a straight-up ad, if it's informational. Send that content back out. Those are the big ones because if you're driving traffic to your YouTube videos, YouTube is going to reward you with higher rankings. ROB: Got it. In some ways, Google may have seen this on YouTube first, because now in search they'll look at where you land; if that site is running Google Analytics and you stay there longer, they'll consider that as a search ranking factor. But it may have almost been inspired from the video realm. IAN: Yeah, the scroll and everything. It's a lot of the same stuff, I'm sure of it. They can't actually tell what you read, but they can tell what you scroll through. Also, now with YouTube, they're now indexing inside of the videos, and if you add the different parts of your video into your description with links to it, you can actually get indexed for that exact moment inside of Google, which is pretty cool. So if you answer one question in there, Google could pop it up and show – I'm sure we've all seen this now – where it starts the video at 3 minutes in because you answered this one question I just googled. That's another little bit of a hack I think everyone needs to be doing. ROB: That seems true certainly across really almost anywhere Google is doing structured meta data. They don't collect that data for nothing, and if you see them start to add that sort of meta data – they do this for recipes, for song lyrics, for your sitemap – they're going to use it at some point if you give it to them, it seems like. It's great that that makes sense on video as well. Ian, you've been doing authenticWEB for a little while now. If you were starting over today, what are some things you've learned along the journey that you might do differently if you were starting fresh right now? IAN: I would've niched down faster and harder. People fight the niching down, and I think it's more important than ever. I would've gone into paid ads for us faster, I would've been emailing my list more, and I would've spent more time on my sales through onboarding systems. We did a lot on our backend systems. I was always big into that. Within a couple years, we had it down to almost an assembly line. Obviously, there's art inside of there, but it allows us to fix things when they go wrong. But I didn't spend enough time on my sales and onboarding systems, and I've really nailed that down and it makes such a difference. ROB: What made you realize that you needed to focus? Was it outside feedback? Was it one day where you realized for the bajillionth time you didn't have quite what you needed? How did you come through on that? IAN: All of the above. I'm constantly looking at the business as a whole. Yes, I'm the technician and I like to know a lot about marketing. I love it. I have a podcast, the Garlic Marketing Show, and I'm always learning stuff. We just did the Giants a video learning from 40 experts' techniques. But really working on the business as a whole is a constant, constant struggle. Not a struggle, but it's exciting. It's like, “Hey, what can I tweak here? Where did this go wrong and how can in fix this?” That's a big, big thing. I've been in masterminds. We've had consultants. I'm still in a lot of groups. I talk to other agency owners all the time. And that's another mistake I made, too: thinking early on that I needed to do this all on my own and that everyone was my competition. Now I don't even view people inside that do the exact same thing as my competition. It's the same thing I told my clients Day 1, and I didn't listen to myself. We all want to work with someone slightly different, and if you market yourself right, you're going to get that person. The more of a community you can develop around yourself, the better you're going to be. ROB: That part definitely makes a bunch of sense. Ian, you've been in this for a while; there's always talk about new platforms, new exciting things. What is coming up for authenticWEB or maybe video marketing in general that you're genuinely excited for and think is worth paying more than a little bit of attention to? IAN: I still think it's YouTube. Honestly, I think using YouTube – here's another shift that we did. Once again, it wasn't in production, but it was a distribution shift. I'm always looking at how we're distributing the videos. YouTube used to be the platform that we'd put on the website and people would watch the video there. Now we're really trying to drive people onto YouTube as a whole because we want to get them into those suggested videos. We want them to watch more of our content. They want to watch video content. And when you're a professional, if you're an agency owner, if you're any type of service business, and you get people to see your face and hear your voice on a constant basis, that is the best marketing out there because you get that mere exposure effect. They will trust you more and more. YouTube is going to keep evolving it. They're getting better and better and better. They're changing around the algorithms, and it's hooking people more and more and more. I think TikTok is evolving, and if they don't completely screw with it with the government, I think it's got some legs now. But as far as really marketing a business and becoming an authority, I think it's all-in on YouTube. The other part is it's really hard to get spammed on YouTube because there's no messenger or anything. LinkedIn feels like it's gotten almost too spammed. I think people are going to have a tough time killing YouTube. ROB: Sure. It's certainly 5 to 10 requests a day that are straight-up pitches for business, at least, in my experience. IAN: Yeah. ROB: Are there any platforms – you mentioned TikTok; TikTok seems promising but early for both paid and organic. YouTube is pretty mature for both. Are there any platforms that are maybe not primary for organic content that you still see as being pretty effective for paid, even if that gets into ad insertions in other digital formats? How are you thinking about that? IAN: I honestly think TikTok for B2C, almost everyone needs to be there. If you think that moms and dads are not there, they are. They're watching their kids and then they're getting hooked. I think organic-wise – they have this crazy algorithm, too, that's so good at suggesting stuff for you. I think it's a great place also to test. But as far as other platforms go, then moving back to webinars, I think webinars are coming back. Using Zoom in a different way, using more of this course work, and we're going to figure out new ways to have groups on and have smaller groups. I think webinars are making a resurgence because so many people are now used to being on Zoom for a little while, where they weren't before and they couldn't really pay attention. Now they're used to it and you can really control the messaging there. ROB: Got it. I heard you mention Zoom, and I was wondering – is Zoom especially good at the webinar thing, or is it simply that the average person's familiarity with Zoom at this point is so common that it's not even worth trying to force them to learn something else? IAN: I think it's the latter. Everyone's on Zoom all the time. I remember with GoToWebinar, you have to download software and whatever, and some of these other webinar platforms are really glitchy. Zoom, yes, it had a shutdown recently, but for the most part it's pretty smooth. I think other things will evolve out of there and we'll get used to them, but Zoom works well for livestreaming. I personally use Ecamm, which I love, but Zoom is easy for people to use. I think that's the big thing. ROB: I'm not as familiar with Ecamm. For those who aren't, what does Ecamm bring to the table that's worth paying attention to? IAN: I've been doing a lot more livestreaming. The algorithms are really paying attention to the livestreaming. Plus, if you do it right, Ecamm allows really high quality, almost like a TV show, to your livestream. You can add text overlays really easily. You can do different scenes, you can do an intro. You can essentially be your own TV show manager with Ecamm. I loved it. It does really, really cool stuff and makes your livestreams that much more interesting. You can pull people in, pull people out. The other day I was on a livestream with Gino Wickman from EOS and people were making comments, asking questions. You can instantly pull their questions up from the comments onto the screen, which is really nice interaction. I do love things like Zoom and livestream because of that. We're seeing this hyper-personalization. And that leads into the other one, stuff like Bonjoro that make it really easy to hyper-personalize videos for clients and send them to them right away. That's where I'm seeing things going, this interaction – because you get that feedback and then you get improve your videos and improve your content and get across a few different platforms, getting that feedback and improving your content constantly. ROB: You're talking about that live TV show. One thing I just started playing around with a little bit, and I wonder if you've seen this and how it compares – have you seen this package called Mmhmm? It's very hard to pronounce. IAN: Yes, I have seen it. I haven't used it yet. I have seen it. It's similar to what Ecamm does. I think it has a few different features. But yeah, that's the kind of thing I think we're going to see more and more of, because you've got to keep them engaged. Those tools allow you to add that to your livestream videos. It's not just the livestream; you can keep them engaged and do a lot of those cool things. ROB: Right. The tools just keep on getting more impressive. Certainly, at the beginning of this pandemic, some good news was it was filmed from a home, but it was filmed with a real production team behind it. But the tools keep on getting pushed down and simpler, and you start to be able to imagine producing this Daily Show-looking production just with you and a pretty simple piece of software. It's shifting. It's remarkable. IAN: It is. That's where we have to get better at the content, which is great for everyone. It has to be more about the content, understanding who you're talking to, getting niched down and super specific about who you're talking to. It's not just about having video. ROB: That's true with search, that's true with video, and it's true with the production quality of the video. Everything seems to keep coming back to content and all the little tricks. You can play a trick on TikTok and get somebody to loop your video one more time than you thought by lying to them, but it's all going to catch you in the long run unless you make good content. It sounds like that's what you all at authenticWEB are focused on doing. IAN: Yeah, always making it better and better, figuring out better ways to get it, better ways to deliver it. That's what we do. ROB: Brilliant. Ian, when people want to find you and authenticWEB, where should they go look for you, other than sending a spammy LinkedIn request? IAN: You can send me a LinkedIn request. Just don't make it spammy. Tell me who you are. Tell me you heard me here when I was talking to Rob. That's a great way. Or you can go to authenticweb.marketing, check out our website, and hit me through the form there. Seriously, if you want to open up a conversation and text me on LinkedIn, go ahead and do it. Now, I do get a lot of LinkedIn messages every day that are 90% spam, so if I don't respond to you for some reason, I apologize. Feel free to follow up and say, “Hey, I just wanted to make sure you saw this.” ROB: Fantastic. Ian, thank you for joining us on the podcast. Thank you for sharing that journey and so much excellent knowledge, especially thinking about how to go deeper on YouTube and realizing that that ship has not sailed, that game is not over, and good content can still win there. IAN: Yes. It was great. Thanks for having me on, Rob. I appreciate it. ROB: It's a pleasure. Be well. Thank you for listening. The Marketing Agency Leadership Podcast is presented by Converge. Converge helps digital marketing agencies and brands automate their reporting so they can be more profitable, accurate, and responsive. To learn more about how Converge can automate your marketing reporting, email info@convergehq.com, or visit us on the web at convergehq.com.

Ian Garlic is the CEO of authenticWEB, a company that specializes in telling the unique stories of small businesses in order to help them evolve and grow online. Ian is an award-winning expert in both video production and SEO, a published author in marketing strategy, and a featured speaker for organizations such as the New York State Trial Lawyers Association. He also hosts The Garlic Marketing Show podcast and teaches video marketing masterclasses on GiantsofVideo.com. In this episode… For personal injury law firms, video marketing is a massive opportunity just waiting to be unlocked. With the use of YouTube, video ads, and video retargeting campaigns, these firms can effectively get higher quality clients through their doors. But what kind of videos should you be creating?According to Ian Garlic of authenticWEB, lawyers should create videos for each stage of the sales funnel. That's because different types of video can be used to boost awareness, increase engagement, and delight current customers. As Ian says, it's all about the right story at the right time. In this episode of The Rankings Podcast, Chris Dreyer interviews Ian Garlic, CEO of authenticWEB, about the incredible benefits of video marketing for personal injury attorneys. Tune in as Ian talks about which customer pain points your videos should address, how to optimize your YouTube videos, and why TikTok isn't just for kids. 

Ian Garlic is a top video marketing and content expert. He is the founder of StoryCrews, a company that helps businesses connect with top-rated videographers to help businesses market and expand their brand through powerful stories captured on video. He is also the CEO of authenticWEB, a top-rated SEO company that helps businesses grow by sharing authentic stories online through a combination of videos, animations, websites, and SEO. Ian also runs and hosts his own podcast, the Garlic Marketing Show podcast, where he has featured some amazing guests such as Gary Vaynerchuk, Neil Patel, Ryan Deiss, and many more. In this episode… Did you know that testimonials are actually hurting your business? Customer testimonials provide a huge ego boost in business but it doesn’t really leave much of an impact to future potential customers. So how can you share client feedback in a way that not only catches people’s eyes but sticks? You create case stories.  But not everyone knows how to tell a story and not a lot of people know how to make a story viral. You need to be able to convey the right emotions into your story’s messaging to make an impact because a good story is one that converts the audience into clients. And this is what Ian Garlic does. Over the last ten years, Ian has been helping service-based businesses find their most powerful client stories, capture them on video, and deliver them at the perfect time to attract and convert their ideal clients.  In this episode of INspired INsider, Jeremy Weisz interviews Ian Garlic of StoryCrews about the power of a great client story and how it can convert the audience into future clients. Listen in as Ian gives tips on how to tell a great story, how to leverage Youtube to grow and expand your business, and why you should consider hiring a video marketer over a videographer. Stay tuned.

Ian Garlic shares the tools his company uses to keep the team focused on their key projects, the “S” word that frequently sabotages the growth freelancers are seeking, and his approach to getting out of a business slump quickly. For show notes, transcripts, and more, go to Leadpages.com/podcast.    Ian is the founder of authenticWEB, a digital marketing agency specializing in video and SEO. Ian also hosts the Garlic Marketing Show and is building a directory of video professionals at StoryCrews.com.   Top Takeaways Get hyper-focused on one thing. Make sure obviously it has value to people and just worry about delivering that value as much as possible at first to as many people as possible and know that it's going to be hard.  Passion will trump the best sales techniques all day. People want authentic excitement coming from the people they buy from. When you're feeling bad about your business, reach out and help someone else. Genuinely help someone else without any intention of trying to get something out of it. Scaling isn't for everybody. Just because you want to have a big business doesn't mean that you should just go out and try and get a big business. Figure out what you really want and how you're going to make it happen. What is the real purpose of creating this business? You have to work hard. The bigger the possible success, the more unknowns and roadblocks you're likely to run into.  

Looking for a way to add tons of value and increase services to your agency clients? Have you considered adding video as a service but not sure where to begin? Adding video can seem overwhelming but it doesn't have to be. With the right processes and systems, you can dive headfirst into offering video services to your clients with minimal investment. Learn how to seamlessly transition to a video offering so you can help your clients share their case stories. When they sell more and you sell more - it's a win-win. In this episode, we'll cover: How to build better relationships. Video marketing doesn't require a huge upfront investment. 3 video marketing strategy tips. #1 way to convince clients to buy your videos.   Today, I talked with my good friend Ian Garlic. Ian runs a successful video marketing agency, authenticWEB, hosts his podcast, The Garlic Marketing Show, and consults on video shoots — now there's a trifecta! :) Ian has worked with big names, big businesses, and traveled internationally on shoots. Ian is on the show to tell us how existing marketing agencies can easily offer video marketing as a service. He's sharing the ins and outs, as well as tips and strategies to make sure you're successful right out of the gate. Video Can Help Build Better Relationships We ALL want better client relationships. When you welcome an awesome new you create a killer campaign, and then... what? They walk out the door and never come back. Or they move onto another agency that can do more of what they need. Offering a complementary service, like video, is a way to keep those clients around longer. Here's the great thing about video content. It's permanent. Facebook strategies shift, Google's algorithm changes, and those CRO strategies go out-the-door when the next big buzzword hits the scene. But, all videos — they aren't going anywhere. You can shove that video content into any other strategy, and it's universally understood. Clients love video content because it's evergreen. When you start pitching video content, you really have to understand your clients. What's their story? Why are they here? Once you sit down with them for a strategy session and really get to know them, they're going to stick around because you get them. They won't run off to the next agency that shoves a cooler, better strategy in their face because video is video. Why Video Service Doesn't Require Huge Upfront Investment I know what you're thinking. You don't have the time, resources, or people to start offering video. You're wrong. It's a lot easier than you think! Ian says you really only need one videographer and a solid strategy. The rest of the stuff - copywriting, editing, etc. - you can outsource. When Ian started, he didn't hire a team for video production; he hired a videographer and outsourced the rest. How did he do it? He had a process! You have to have a system in place that tells people what they need to get done. Without a system or even the right checklists, you'll likely be scrambling to get everything done, and you'll unknowingly let things slip through the cracks. 3 Video Marketing Strategy Tips Determine your low-hanging fruit. Make a list of which of your current or past clients could work well with video. Don't think you have to go out and capture new leads to sell your video service. You don't. Think about who, among your existing network, could benefit from video and pitch them a strategy utilizing your video service. Nail the strategy session. Strategy sessions are a great way to get to know your clients. But, they're also an excellent way to build your process. During the sessions, you'll figure out what the client needs, which is going to tell you what you need to do, step-by-step. Map it out to a successful end result. Now that you know what the client wants, start figuring out how you're going to do it. Get the sale first! Then, come up with a plan of how to execute the strategy you just made with your client. Don't worry about building a team. Just make sure you give the client a clear understanding of the plan and regularly communicate the goals. How to Sell Video to Your Existing Clients How do you actually get those clients to pull-the-trigger on your new video service? Put everything in perspective. Ask them this: "How much is one lead worth to you?" Flip their mindset from looking at video as a cost to looking at it as an investment. If they're a service-based business, one lead may be worth a thousand dollars... up to ten thousand. Once they think about the ROI for a second, they're going want 20 videos. If those videos only score them a few leads, they're still going to come out on top. The same thing works for non-service clients too. Have them think about the entire process in terms of ROI. They're going to see video as an expense. However, you need to sell it is as an investment by pointing out the benefits of this evergreen, multi-use content. Cashflow or Bookkeeping Issues? FreshBooks is the solution with their ridiculously easy­-to-­use cloud accounting software for agencies. Freshbooks helps you work smarter and become more organized. Most importantly, it gets you paid quicker. Check out FreshBooks.com/SmartAgency and enter SMARTAGENCY in the “How Did You Hear About Us?” section for a FREE 30-day, unrestricted trial.

People want to be entertained, so why not captivate them with a story? Ian Garlic, CEO of authenticWEB and Host of The Garlic Marketing Show, tells Tom that and...

VIDEO. VIDEO. And MORE VIDEO. We love all our guests who appear on the Garlic Marketing Show, but this week’s guest Thomas Duran holds a special place in authenticWEB’s video heart. Thomas Duran is a director, videographer, producer, cinematographer, AND storyteller. He shares the same love for story through video as we do. Hit play for this week’s episode of the Garlic Marketing Show because you won’t want to miss all the b-roll video hacks we’re giving out! Did we say video? What You’ll Learn The Biggest Mistakes with VideoThe difference between technical and marketing videos The importance of great questions Why everyone needs to know B-roll and how to shoot it The minimum number of videos you should be uploading Documenting vs. storytelling Why video lasts longer than PPC and FB ads See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ian Garlic brings over 15 years of inbound marketing experience, deep knowledge of commerce and understanding of current market trends. With the ability to capitalize all of your current assets and come up with countless quality ideas for your online marketing, Ian is a prime mentor for upcoming marketing gurus. Currently, Ian is the CEO of authenticWEB, a multi-talented online agency based Orlando, FL. His team works daily on exquisite website designs, innovative marketing strategies, outstanding video production and top rated search engine optimization. “If people only marketed with their customers’ stories, they would have brilliant businesses that no one could take away.” – Ian Garlic What you’ll learn about in this episode: Identifying your ideal customer Key performance indicators: how to use KPI to keep yourself on track What good SEO looks like How to use limited resources to their full potential Why you need to be ready to pivot Ian’s must read books for business and marketing Why you need to start collecting your customers’ stories Ways to contact Ian: Website: iangarlic.com Must read books: iangarlic.com/influential-books Free Customers Stories Download: iangarlic.com/forte