Digital Threads: The Entrepreneur Playbook for Digital-First Marketing with Neal Schaffer

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire. Brought to you by the HubSpot. podcast network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like Latinx in Power. Today, we'll be breaking down Digital Threads, the entrepreneur's playbook for digital-first marketing. To drop these value bonds, I brought Neil Schaefer into EO Fire Studios. Neil is an innovative fractional CMO and digital marketing pioneer. He just published his fifth book, Digital Threads, the definitive digital-first marketing playbook for entrepreneurs and small businesses.

0:32In today's foundation, we'll talk about how entrepreneurs can simplify their life while still covering their digital assets. We'll talk about how you approach digital marketing, having a library of content, authentic content, and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Neil and our sponsors. The Next Wave, your chief AI officer, hosted by Matt Wolf and Nathan Lanz, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Matt and Nathan are leading AI creators in your guiding light in the AI and technology frontier.

1:03AI technology is transforming the way we do business and the media landscape is fragmented. The Next Wave strives to be the leading podcast on AI technology and how you can apply it to growing your business. Listen to The Next Wave wherever you get your podcasts. Neil, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. The grind is something that we need to talk about because there's times to grind and there's times to chill. We need work-life balance. So we need to have that balance of grinding, but also being able to take a step back.

1:41And I think when you take a step back, JLD, without grinding 24-7, you begin to get a lot of clarity into what you're doing and what you need to do. So I don't think it's about the grind, like a lot of other people that preach this to a lot of entrepreneurs. I do think that we need more of a balance. And I think with the balance, you're actually more effective as an entrepreneur. And Fire Nation, how we spend our days is how we spend our lives. And we don't want to look back over our one life and say, I just grinded my face off every single day. You want to have that balance. Yes, there's days to get up and flipping grind.

2:15And that's for me today. I'm doing seven interviews today for EO Fire, Fire Nation. That's me grinding and I'm happy to do it because the other days this week, I'm taking a step back and I'm relaxing and I'm enjoying life and I'm doing other things that aren't grinding. So where's that balance? Where can we simplify? And that's something that we're focusing on today, which is Digital Threads, the entrepreneur playbook for digital first marketing. And Neil, there are so many options in digital marketing. I mean, it's so overwhelming. So how can we simplify our lives, but still cover our digital bases that we really need to be covering?

2:52Yeah, I think it can be really overwhelming, but I like to say simple is best. So in my book, Digital Threads, and what I've been teaching, I like to really simplify this because I think everything within digital marketing can come into one of three things. I call it the SES framework, search, email, social. Now, when I talk about search, I'm talking about discoverability, right? So we know that search engines like Google are big for that. But guess what? So is YouTube, so are podcasts, so is TikTok to a new generation. But you need to be discovered. And the thing about the search side, any of this type of content I just talked about is evergreen.

3:28I'm sure some of you are still listening to the backlog of Entrepreneurs on Fire podcasts from years ago, as I do. So that content lives on forever. You're not on the hamster wheel of content. You're creating it once and it's evergreen. The social is also important because that's where people spend their time. And we'll talk a little bit more about that, JLD, because I think that's a place where a lot of people maybe are not as focused on doing the right things as they should be. And then email. Man, you can't be successful as an entrepreneur without an email list. The algorithms, when we saw Google make huge changes recently, social media is always changing.

4:01You don't own any of that. The only thing you own are the assets that you have. And maybe the biggest asset is that email list. So I think if we focus on those three channels and understand how we use each one of them, I think that's going to be a way to simplify and actually be more effective in what we do. Well, I love that you brought up, for instance, the back catalog of Entrepreneurs on Fire. because Fire Nation, we do have 4 ,386 past episodes for you to peruse through. Hey, look at the titles, look at the episode titles. Maybe some will make sense more than others and just dive into those you can cherry pick.

4:36But that's a great example of, I created that content 12 years ago, 14 months ago, six years ago. Like fill in the blank, it's all over the map when I created that content that you might be listening to today, but a lot of it's still relevant and a lot of it is still meaningful. And that's how you can approach what you're doing in your world. Because, Neil, you actually believe that the order in which we approach digital marketing is crucial to our success. So tell us more about that. Yeah, I'll give you a great example. So the last time I published a book, it was called The Age of Influence. It was about influencer marketing.

5:11This is just during COVID in 2020. Had a lot of entrepreneurs, startups reach out to me. Neil, we want to do influencer marketing. But when I looked at their social media profiles, they had like 100 followers. They hadn't posted in three months. So imagine you work with influencers in a given network. They're tagging you, sending people to your profiles. They look at you and there's no social proof. There's no credibility. In fact, it may even work against you. And that's why, as an example, you really don't want to engage with influencers until you yourself have some social proof, have some credibility.

5:39That's just one example. Another one would be, you know, let's hire an SEO consultant, but you don't have any content. All you have is a homepage. Well, you sort of need content for SEO to work, right? So I realized as I was writing the book, and this is based on my fractional CMO consulting experience over the last few years, that you need to do things in a certain order for it to be most effective. It's sort of common sense, but you'd be surprised as to how many entrepreneurs are just misled or just don't know. And they do things in the wrong order, and it just ends up wasting a lot of money, basically.

6:11I really love how you're talking about this approach in Fire Nation. Hope you're thinking about this as well, because listen, we're talking about simplifying. And when you simplify, that's because you actually have a plan. And a plan means an order of operations. That means actually step-by-step process that you can say, hey, this is what I'm doing today. This is what I'm going to execute. I'm not going to get distracted by the bright, shiny object syndrome. I'm just going to focus, follow one course on this. I'm going to follow this order and I'm going to make it happen. And it's going to be crucial to my success.

6:42And one of those things that is crucial is a library of content. And a quick, for example, it's July right now, as Neil and I are talking, I'm actually going on a two and a half month vacation. I'm going to Maine for a month and a half, then I'm going to San Diego for a month. And you know, listen, I'll be working during those times. Like I'll be checking email, doing social media, other things. But I have created a complete creation of a library of content where I have over two and a half months. I'm actually closer to three months of interviews I've done for Entrepreneurs on Fire ahead of the game.

7:17So as of right now, I have interviews that are already scheduled to be published in October into late October so that I can go for two and a half months like I'm going. And again, I'm going to be keeping the business running while I'm on this quote unquote vacation visiting Maine and San Diego. But I'm not doing any interviews for Entrepreneurs on Fire, which is the bread and butter of my business. but I've already busted my butt and grinded up into this trip starting, creating what is now over a hundred episodes that are now just going to be scheduled and going live automatically published on that scheduled format.

7:55And that's an opportunity you can do when you think ahead of the ball game and know what's important for your business. So what exactly in your opinion, in your definition, Neil, is a library of content and why is it crucial for success today? I mean, JLD, that was just a great example that you gave. But content is the currency of digital media, right? Whatever we do in digital marketing, we need to have content. So I like to look at a library of content beginning with search engines. So we need to let search engines know that we're an expert at what we do. And the only way to do it is to prove it through content.

8:31So I begin talking about a library of content as, hey, hey, do some keyword research. Think about the different things that your customers ask you, what you're an expert in. And over the course of a year, put together 52 different blog posts. Blog once a week over the course of a year to let the search engines know that you're an authority on something. But it's not just about that, as you can imagine, John Lee. It's about now having this content that you can use for your social media. I have clients that take their library content and repurpose it into reels, for instance, on Instagram or TikTok.

9:02You can also repurpose that into emails. In fact, JLD, I've heard of some really smart people who repurposed their library content into books like yourself, right? Yeah. It can be YouTube videos. It could be blog posts. It could be whatever it is. But you're showcasing your authority. You're getting the word out. But now you have a pool of content to work with to repurpose so that whenever you need any content for anything, you already have that database. Fire Nation, I hope you're getting fired up with this content because this is about simplifying your life. making the content you're producing have a purpose specifically in your plan of action.

9:38And we have so much more to talk about around this topic when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Being a small business owner comes with a lot of challenges, especially now. It seems like everyone is working with smaller budgets, shorter timelines, and sky-high expectations, and that can make growing a business feel pretty painful. Thankfully, HubSpot can help. HubSpot just announced dozens of major product updates that'll make impossible growth feel impossibly easy, like Breeze, a suite of new AI-powered tools that deliver personalized insights to level up your work, plus AI agents designed to automate your work for you.

10:13Sounds pretty great, right? And Breeze Intelligence, which gives you the richest, most comprehensive picture of your prospects and customers, allowing you to serve them at a whole new level. Add to all this, re-imagined marketing and content hubs with new ways to create breakthrough content, updated features to generate better leads, and support to help up-level your marketing and revenue forecast. And you've got HubSpot's all-on-one customer platform. Get ready for growth without the growing pains. Visit hubspot.com slash spotlight to see all the updates. Neil, we're back, and I want to talk now about platform authentic content.

10:50What is platform authentic content, and why does it matter when it comes to social media? All right. So this is really great to juxtapose this with what we just talked about, about the library of content, right? Because I think, once again, the order of things, and I would put the library of content before platform authentic content, because a lot of entrepreneurs engage in social, yet they haven't built that library of content, right? And with social media, we know it is a hamster wheel of content. You know, the lifespan of content does not live that long. And on top of that, JLD, since COVID, short form video has become the most popular type of content if we want to get visibility.

11:25Links or trying to lead people off social media to our website just don't work anymore. In fact, in my book, I give my own stat of how every year after year, the percentage of traffic to my website from social media drops year in, year out, despite the fact I have a few hundred thousand followers and I post really, really frequently. So platform authentic content is really giving the social media platforms what they want. They don't want you to drop links. They want you to engage your audience. They want you to basically use photos and videos, right? These are the most engaging types of things or just content without a link.

11:56And what you really need to be successful here because you're competing with influencers and content creators. If you are a content creator, awesome. You're going to do well. But if you're not, it is really, really hard to make traction here. You need to have a link in bio approach. In other words, whatever you talk about in those photos, videos, you can't drop a link, especially on a network like Instagram is a link in bio approach is whatever you do. You want to make it so engaging that people will want to naturally click on that link in bio and go to you. So actually, JLD, in my book, talking about the order of things, I follow up this chapter because I know it's really, really hard for entrepreneurs to all of a sudden become like content creators for short form video.

12:34I tap into user generated content because I think that is the solution of getting people to talk about your products, your services, you and leveraging that content instead of you always having to be on the hamster wheel. And Fire Nation, this is why you listen to episodes like this, because if you're going to spend your time, which is a very valuable time, because at the end of the day, that's all you have is time. You need to spend it on the right things that are actually moving the needle, that are actually positives in your business. Nothing neutral, nothing negative. Let's focus on the positives.

13:07In this platform, authentic content, this is the key stuff you need to be focused on for those reasons. Now, you have a whole dedicated chapter in your book on outsourcing, which I found interesting because this is a book about digital marketing. So why would you include a chapter like that in a book focused on digital marketing? JLD, I'll put it simple. You can't do it all. On the other hand, there is a network of professionals that have been helping other entrepreneurs that have been doing everything from editing short form videos to helping edit blog posts to, you know, creating your Shopify website, whatever it is, we have over a decade of experience of people around the world that can do it for you 24 seven.

13:50So as an entrepreneur, your time is so valuable. Now, I am, I guess you could call it digital marketing entrepreneur because I'm a digital marketing consultant, right? So I can dab in this because it's part of my business. But if that is not your business, you need to really be focusing on your core expertise, your core, you know, unique selling proposition, whatever it is that you do. But there is a world of people that can help you. And you really need, in order to be successful today, I believe, if you have someone on your staff that can do it all awesome, but I'll tell you, I can't even do it all.

14:18I don't edit my own podcasts. I don't edit my own short form videos, right? I don't create my own images. I'll be honest with you. I don't want to spend three hours a day in Canva because that's not where my time is best spent. So tap into people that will love to help you. And depending on where you live around the world, it could be done extremely cost effectively once you find the right people. And I felt that is a core scope for an entrepreneur today to be successful in business, to be able to outstress not just digital marketing, but across so many parts of your business. Okay, let's talk about the elephants in the room.

14:49We're talking AI, we're talking artificial intelligence because listen, Fire Nation, let's be honest, we're all using it on varying degrees and varying levels, but we're all using it. So what is your top advice on how entrepreneurs can best use it, Neil? I'm glad that we're all using it because we all should be using it. It absolutely is a godsend for the smallest of companies. I think it can have the biggest impact. But I also think you need to use it very carefully. I think it really begins, and I have this dedicated chapter in Digital Threads, of really painting a picture as to when you create content, because when we talk about generative AI, it's about content creation, what is your current process?

15:26Take AI out of the picture, right? Because I think a lot of entrepreneurs get lost like, oh, I can just immediately generate blog posts and this and that without realizing that, number one, they may get penalized by Google. And number two, it just may not sound right. It may not sound human enough. It may not sound emotional enough. It may not bring out the best of who you are and what you do. So I think it's really, from my perspective, leveraging AI is about those non-critical pieces, like the ad copy, the short form content. When When you get into that long form content, I think you really need to be careful.

15:58But I will say, JLD, because I've even gone forward on my own thoughts after writing the book, is that I used to use a lot of these different AI tools, right? Thought they were really cool. And there's some great ones out there. But I come back to a chat GPT or a CLAW because I realize the value in these tools is feeding it with your information, feeding what we call the large language model with our content. Now, you want to have a paid subscription for this, obviously. But once you do and you'll be able to create your own memory within a chat GPT or cloud around your content. And if you've built the library of content, you have a ton of content to work with.

16:32The results that you're going to get are going to be better and better and better. And JLD, I realized a few months ago with AI, right, if you're still wasting time on it, you don't know what you're doing. If you're not saving money or doing something faster, you're doing it wrong. That was the promise of AI. So I challenge you, right, if you're not saving money. So for instance, I used to, for every single blog post, I used to have someone create an SEO brief for me. Well, guess what? I can do it in chat GPT. I realized how to do it. In fact, I saw a webinar of an AI tool company that showed how the prompt that they use to do it internally.

17:04And now that has inspired me to do it my own way. So I've found areas where I can already use AI, get the same result and save money and then doing it faster. There's loads of examples of this. But once again, it has to save you money, do it faster or it's not working and you really to need to rethink your process. Neil, we've talked a lot today about Digital Threads, which is the entrepreneur playbook for digital first marketing. Give us the one single key takeaway that you want to make sure our listeners get from our conversation today. Man, there's so much to cover, but I think it's really simplifying it and making sure that everything you do in digital marketing, you're not wondering why you're doing it.

17:42You're not doing it because someone said that you should do it, that you understand and everything you do, you do with intent and with impact. Fire Nation, intent, impact, power. Neil, where can Fire Nation go to find out more about you? Give us a call to action for what you have going on today. It's all about digital threads, this new book. I'm following your footsteps, my friend. I don't think I'm going to be able to generate the money you did, but I am launching this first on Kickstarter. So if you are able to hear this in time, that's where you're going to get the best deals, the best bundles, you can go to neilschafer.com slash Kickstarter.

18:18And even after the Kickstarter ends, that's going to forward you to wherever the book is being sold, or if I have any freebies going on for it. Fire Nation, you are the average. Of the five people you spend the most time with, you've been hanging out with NS and JLD today, so keep up that heat. And for links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com, type Neil in the search bar, and the show notes page will pop right up. And Neil, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation. For that, we salute you and we will catch you on the flip side. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Neil for sponsoring today's episode and Fire Nation's successful entrepreneurs accomplish big goals, huge goals.

18:55That is why I created the Freedom Journal to guide you in accomplishing your number one goal in 100 days. And we're talking step by step. So visit thefreedomjournal.com. I will catch you there or on the flippity flip side. The Next Wave, your chief AI officer, hosted by Matt Wolf and Nathan Lands, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Matt and Nathan are leading AI creators in your guiding light in the AI and technology frontier. AI technology is transforming the way we do business and the media landscape is fragmented. The Next Wave strives to be the leading podcast on AI technology and how you can apply it to growing your business.

19:33Listen to The Next Wave wherever you get your podcasts.