How You Can Revolutionize Your Marketing Strategy w/ Marlon Marescia

0:00Welcome to the Big Success Podcast. Cutting-edge conversations on business and personal success, as well as how to level up. Here's your host, number one business coach in the world, Brad Shoghers. Facebook marketing, why it beats LinkedIn. Video marketing, success is different to Marlon. It was from the construction industry and the family business. And even though super successful, quit and started again in the IT business. Started again, built himself up. started again, built his own business. Now he runs an AI platform, does Facebook marketing for so many people all around the world. Video content stuff that he does is phenomenal.

0:43I think you're going to learn a whole bunch. Today's marketing is so different to yesterday's marketing and Marlon has his finger on the pulse. Let's get some success for you. So Marlon, let me ask you, what is your definition of the word success? uh yeah that's a great question brad i uh i think success for me is having the freedom to do the things that i want to do now i have spent uh the first part of my career i was working in the family business and uh although i thrived at it i did well i actually wasn't happy and uh it took me a long time to make a decision to actually leave so i actually have a defining line in my life where i went from being unhappy and kind of successful to being really happy and not as successful at the beginning.

1:31And, you know, for me, the success was doing something I absolutely loved. And when I did that, I started to thrive in every area of my life. And so for me, you know, I think simple definition is the ability or the freedom to do what you love to do every single day, instead of being trapped and doing things that you're forced to do. You know, there's that old saying of if you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life. And I disagree because I think once you start doing what you love, you work a lot harder. Have you found that since you moved across to the IT side of it from construction?

2:06Yeah, I have definitely worked harder, but I've loved every minute of it because it's a passion now. And for me, it's not hard. You do work hard, but it's a labor of love. It's something that I actually love doing. And the amazing thing for me that I get to do is because I had that defining moment you know every day when I I'm working in my businesses and I find things tough I always get to look back and say but at least I'm not in construction it's a good day because at least I love what I do and and so for me I think that yeah I've worked hard you know when I left the construction industry I had to start at the bottom of the IT industry it was actually quite humiliating but I did it with a smile on my face.

2:52I worked harder than anyone in that company. I worked longer hours. I did more study because I wasn't qualified to do it. And they just gave me a chance. And so those were the days I look back on and I love those days. And I think that that really defined who I became. Now, so, but even though construction wasn't your first choice, you still were very successful at it. where do you think you chose success in your life? Was it as a young boy? Was it something your parents always taught you? Where did you choose success? Yeah, I think it was around 14 years old, 15. I actually went to a camp where I was exposed to kids from all over the state.

3:39And I was at kind of the top of my school. I had achieved everything I kind of could achieve. And then I saw these other kids and I thought, wow, these guys are on a whole nother level and I decided at that point that I wanted to attend a boarding school to take me to another level in my life and I'm just 14 years old 15 years old and I went back home and I said to my mum and dad I said I want to go to boarding school now who do you know Brad that says they want to go to boarding school they get sent to boarding school because they're naughty but I chose to go and that was a real defining moment because it was tough like I thought it would be all rosy.

4:15But when I got into that boarding school, I went from the top again to the bottom. I was not respected at that school. I was from the Western suburbs. I spoke differently to these kids. I didn't have all the opportunities I had. And they kind of looked down on me. And I remember the first week I rang my mom and she's a South African, you know, mom and she's ethnic. And she didn't want me to go. And I said, mom, I want to come home. Like, it's really tough. And she said, come, come, I'll come and get you now. And I said, you know what? I'll just wait till the end of the week. And in that week, that's when I decided, I said, I will not let this break me.

4:46I will work my way to the top. And two years later, I was at the top. I was a leader in the school. I had made a massive impact in my boarding house. And I went from zero to hero. But that defined me and taught me at a very young age that I can push through adversity, I can achieve my goals, and I can be as successful as I want to be in circumstances where I'm not respected. and I think that was the template and I've seen recurring in my life even when I changed careers it was the same thing I saw a vision for my life I went from the top to the bottom very quickly I was running that company I was the lowest paid person in that company and within a year I was running the company and I learned that at 14 I learned that at 15 years old.

5:33So what is then your formula for success? Like how do you see success happening in day to day? Is there a way? Is there a process? What's your formula? Yeah, it's a great question because I think for me and also for my wife, we're very intentional with what we do. And in some people that let life just do what life wants to do to them and they just accept it. And I remember a few years back, about 10 years ago, we had a son that was really struggling socially in school and we had a lot of challenges. And we sat down and said, where do we want to be in 10 years with our personal life? Like this is not going down the path.

6:20There was a lot of stress in the family. He was not doing well. And we intentionally made a decision. We said, we want our life to look like this in 10 years' time. And we had to make some massive changes. We left our state, left our family, whom we love. We don't have issues with our family. We love them, but we left them and we started a new life. And it's amazing to see how that's paid off, Brad. You know, it's been 10 years. So that 10-year vision we had, we've just come up to that 10-year period. And when I look back at what we wanted for him and for our family, we've achieved all of it. But we had to take risk and we had to do things that many people wouldn't do in life.

7:00and I think for us that's how I define success you know the ability to get there it's by being very intentional with um with your actions and your decisions and your goals got it so if if you were to look at then the relationship between failure and success how do you see that working I mean can does failure teach success where's your theory on failure and success coming together there? Yeah, I think failure is an important component of success. Now, not all people have to fail a lot in life to be successful. I know that. But I liken it to this. I run a lot of Facebook ads. And Facebook ads is a microcosm of real life.

7:44Because if you put a Facebook ad up, half the time it will be successful and the other half it will fail. Now, what do you do at that point where it fails? When I first started, I used to get depressed and down and this isn't working But now with a lot of experience, I know that within three or four days, I can have that campaign running. And I go through a process. I learn from the failure. I have a look and see, look at the data. I make a change and I run it again. And then I make another change and I run it again. And I learn from the past failure for that campaign. And then I get the campaign working.

8:16Now, a lot of people who run Facebook ads just give up. They're like, this isn't going to work. And they say Facebook doesn't work. But I know I've seen it happen over and over again where I've taken a failure and made it a success. And I think I'm really blessed because some people in life, when they fail, it takes them three months, three years to get back to see success. But on a weekly basis, I'm seeing failure turn to success with Facebook ads. And when you see that, Brad, over and over again, when you see something that doesn't work become flourishing, you start to realize that, yeah, failure isn't a bad thing.

8:50Failure is something that you use to find success. And I think I'm really blessed to be in that environment on almost a daily basis. And I just wish that a lot of people could understand that, that failure and success are intricately linked. And whenever there's a failure, you can always bring a success out. Do you think that that takes a certain mindset to do that? Or is that something that's just natural to you? Or do people have to learn that mindset? I think you need to learn it. I think I had to learn because I remember when I first started running ads, I was very negative. I was always down.

9:25My emotions were up and down. It was a very tough business to be in. And now I'm even keel. I have, you know, Brad, I do workshops with business owners and they're live. Like they're on. I was on one this morning and they're all there. And I teach them to run ads and half of those ads aren't going to work. And I'm in a public forum where I've told them what to do and the ads fail. and they come to me and they're a little upset. They're like, no, it's not working. Like we've been all this time and it's not working. And at that point in front of an audience, I can crumble or I can say, that's okay.

9:58Let's just make a change. And I've learned over time in that forum to not start sweating and get upset. I just know it's a matter of time. If I make this change, I get that result. If I make this change, and it's amazing how those calls used to stress me out and now there's zero stress. I've learned how to embrace failure and to use it and to know how to deal with it to lead to success. You're on the Big Success Podcast. I'm Brad Sugars. We're going to be back and Marlon is going to take us through video marketing, Facebook advertising. We're going to get into some of the deep dive secrets. In instant repeat business, Brad Sugars shows you how to cultivate a big base of loyal customers who buy, buy and buy again.

10:40It's packed with methodologies and strategies that will help any business owner attract and keep loyal customers. Pick up your copy of Instant Repeat Business today. And we're back. Big success. So, Marlon, let's start with video marketing because content marketing, it's all the rage. What are some of the secrets to doing great video marketing? yeah i think one of the secrets that i found and about everything i i teach and i do i always do myself and i consistently do and what i found with me is one of the secrets with video um is to be consistent you know and to just do it i think so many people you know i think i'm just guessing but maybe the top one percent or five percent of businesses actually use video so if you just do it you're already ahead uh but one of the one of the secrets that i found with video content is that if you teach and you educate your audience, then people will find that content.

11:40If you answer questions that they're looking for on Google or on YouTube, then they find it and they start to binge watch your content if you niche down. So if you create a whole bunch of videos on one topic that a small group of people really find important or answers their problems, they will find those videos. And when they watch the first, the second, the fourth, the 10th video, because people are trained to binge watch now through Netflix, they actually see you as an authority. And it's amazing how small businesses, see, we always liken ourselves to Mr. Beast, you know, the biggest YouTuber in the world.

12:17Can I achieve that? You know, it's a dude perfect. You know, all these big, Gary V, you know, we say, could I be as good as them? You don't have to be to be successful in video. what you have to do is say who is my target audience who is the person that could be a client make videos just for them and don't go for views and subscribers go for a small group of people who could be clients that could pay you thousands of dollars now one of the one of the things that I love telling this story because I um have four boys and uh I've let them start YouTube channels We restrict them with social media for various reasons.

12:57But they have YouTube channels. And one of them has more subscribers than me because he does Fortnite games, right? And so they were making fun of me one day at dinner. They're saying, Dad, you've been doing this for years. And look, he has more subscribers than you. And I got a little offended. I'm like, wait a minute. This isn't right. They shouldn't be doing that to me. And then I thought to myself, they're having a lot of fun making fun of me. And then I, you know, there's a great movie called Ferris Bueller's Day Off, I think. And they say in there, the line is, don't get mad, get even. So I said to them, okay, boys, you might have more subscribers, but how much money have you made from your channel?

13:33And they're like, well, none, Dad, because I have to get 4 ,000 views or subscribers and all these numbers. And I'm like, do you know how much I've made? They're like, well, how much? I said, the food you're eating has come from the videos of my YouTube channel. I said I've made hundreds of thousands of dollars because I don't care about subscribers because my watchers, the people who watch, actually pay me money, boys. And I felt really powerful at that point, Brad. I felt like I destroyed the boys and they didn't have a comeback. And, yeah, yeah. You know, it's vanity metrics. Vanity metrics amounts.

14:09I'm not saying that you shouldn't achieve want more. I'm just saying you don't have to. If you do it right, you don't have to. And many small business owners, Brad, don't have the capacity to grow a massive YouTube channel, but they do have the capacity to grow a powerful YouTube channel for their business. And that's what I'm all about. Let's talk about the actual videos. What are some of the things that we need to make sure we're doing for our videos to be getting the views and then bringing us the customers too? it yeah i think the the most important thing that i found with my videos when i started being successful is i will always talk to the problems that my prospects have and show them how to solve those problems now there's a great quote by a psychologist called white woodsman and it says if you can articulate someone's problem better than they can they'll automatically and unconsciously credit you with having the solution and i heard that quote about 10 years ago and i've actually design my whole business and marketing around that quote.

15:14So every video I create, every Facebook ad I create, every marketing material I create, I always say, what is the problem that my client has? And then I go and try and describe it so well that they say to themselves, he must have the solution. It's like a doctor, right? You go to a doctor and they say, does it hurt when I touch here? Does it hurt when you lift your arm? Does it hurt? And they describe the pain so well, you think, well, this guy must have the answer. And then they give you this medication that'll probably kill you in 10 years and you take it anyway. And so doctors have authority because doctors ask good questions and doctors speak to pain.

15:50And that's what we need to do in our videos. We need to say, what's the problem? And then we help them solve the problem in the video. And there's a script you can use for that. It's very easy. Once you have a script, it's a formula. And then at the end of every video, Brad, I always ask people, if you need help with that book a strategy call with me and then we'll go through these things I turn it from a sales meeting into a workshop and you know I've had so many people who book appointments in my calendar Brad and they say to me I say why did you book the call they say Marlon every video you create you say book an appointment and so I booked an appointment and I always laugh because I think, well, you know, I thought they would have booked the bond because they saw value.

16:35But it actually makes a difference to people. They remember you saying it if they watch the video all the way through. Yeah, yeah, I got to love that. All right, so let's talk about then advertising. You spend a ton of money of your own, but also other people's money. You invest on their behalf in Facebook advertising. What is it that you love about Facebook from an advertising perspective? Yeah, Facebook is so powerful. It's probably the number one platform on the planet that's affordable for small business and business owners to use, but super powerful because it has almost 3 billion people on it.

17:09I think the reason I love it so much is because if you know how to use it and you know about what I talked about before, describing people's pain point, showing them a solution on Facebook, you have access to almost everybody. And a lot of people say to me, Marlon, but I'm in B2B and I deal with CEOs. They're not on Facebook. I should use LinkedIn. And I say, well, LinkedIn doesn't work with ads. Not now it doesn't. Do you know why? And I say, why? And I say, because the average person spends 40 minutes to an hour a day on Facebook. And the average person spends about half an hour a month on LinkedIn.

17:44So although LinkedIn is perfect for B2B, it's got all your prospects on there, but they're just not visiting it. So when you show ads, it's very expensive and you get very low throughput. But Facebook, that CEO, is he not a father? Is he not a husband? You know, is he not a human being? And a lot of them are on Facebook because their families are on Facebook. And also, although they don't do business on Facebook, they do life on Facebook. And so when you put an ad that speaks to his problem that he's having in his business right now, he thinks you have the solution. You'll click the ad and you'll follow through.

18:19And that's why I think Facebook is so powerful. For my business, personally, I've grown my business. You know, Brad, I am an Australian and 80 % of my client base is in America. And I've actually never stepped foot in America. And the reason is because they've all come through Facebook ads. They've all come through Facebook ads. All my clients were, and now I get referrals, but I've grown that myself using the strategies I teach and I couldn't have done it without Facebook. Yeah. So let's take a look at the ads themselves. defining the key thing is a major part of it. What else makes the ads work?

18:59I think your attitude is a big thing. There's a couple of things, but there are different types of ads. If you look at online marketing, it's important to understand the journey people have to go through. What I use Facebook for is to build a database of people who could be prospects. The first step in online marketing is actually, how do you build a database of people who could be clients. And that database could be a Facebook retargeting audience. It could be an email list. It could be a Facebook group, right? But you've got a group of people. Then the key is to say, how do I get that person who's a prospect, could be a client, to actually book an appointment?

19:36And that's where you make your money, Brad. If you can figure out how to get someone from a lead to an appointment, you'll make millions of dollars. And that's where most people fall over. You know, it's easy to generate leads on Facebook. I can put up an ad tomorrow and I can generate lots of leads. But can I get that lead to book an appointment? And that's the key with Facebook. And there's many things you have to do with that. So typically on Facebook, I will offer something for free. That's an easy opt-in, but I always get the phone number. And why do I get the phone number? Because I want to call them.

20:13You know, I think it's a vanity metric when you say, I have a thousand people in my database. and you can email them for the next 10 years and none of them become clients. But if you have 100 people in your database and you have the phone number and you call each person, you'll probably make three sales instantly. And so the key is to combine online marketing with old school sales and marketing. And that's why I've been successful. I've had the ability, because I used to be a sales and marketing manager. When I left the construction industry, I became the sales and marketing manager of a software development company.

20:45and I was measured not on marketing, Brad. I was measured on sales, even though I was the marketing manager. My CEO didn't care about marketing. We used to sell deals that were half a million to million-dollar software deals, and he never said to me once, Marlon, how's the marketing going? He always said, Marlon, how many sales have you made? So I learned very quickly that marketing is there to generate leads and sales is there to close those leads, to convert those leads into sales, and I know that even if you are not great at marketing but you can cold call, you can actually make sales. Marketing isn't, it's not as important as sales, even though I'm a marketer.

21:25Like my whole business is marketing, but I think I do well, Brad, because I understand that marketing is not the most important thing. Sales is the most important thing and because I understand that, everything I do in lead generation on marketing, I follow up with the sales process to convert them. Love it. So let's just throw a little bit on AI in here. You know, you have some amazing AI tools in your agency in Voyager where people can create video that you then the AI splits it up and does all that stuff. I just want to do a little bit of, before we get into using AI, mentality towards AI. I think a lot of people are scared of it or not sure of it at this stage.

22:07What are your thoughts on what it's going to do and where it's going to go? Yeah. Yeah, look, I think it's like most things in life. When it's new, people are scared. And then when they get to use it, they realize it's not as bad as what they thought it was. And so with AI, I'm actually very excited about it. My industry, marketing, is the industry that will potentially be decimated by AI. AI is perfect for marketing. It writes Facebook ads now better than most people can write them. It does video, it creates videos, it does everything. Am I scared? Not in the least. Because I see my job now is to use AI to take my intellectual property and to go faster, do a better quality job and scale to more clients.

22:53And as a business owner, you shouldn't be scared of AI. You should be answering those questions. How can I use AI to do my job faster, to have a better quality product or service and to reach more people? And if you have that mentality, you can see how AI can actually make you more money. But if you have the alternate attitude where you're like, well, what if my job, I lose my job, I lose the industry? I can't think like that, Brad. You know, it's coming. And what I've done is I've taken my intellectual property that I've used and I've converted into an AI app. And we literally do that. We literally have a better quality service.

23:36we do it in a fraction of the time and we can now reach more people and that is much more lucrative than doing it without ai but that's the mentality business owners have to have they have to think of it of how can i use it to make my business better and more effective you're on the big success podcast i'm brad sugars we're going to be back marlon's going to talk to us about scaling your marketing when we get back going from good to great Marlon Mauricio started his career by leading his family's construction business until he decided to drastically change industries and move into IT. Today, Marlon is an expert in online lead generation and video marketing.

24:17To learn more about Marlon Mauricio, please visit Marlon Mauricio dot com. And we're back. Marlon, I want to talk about scale on marketing because a lot of people will get a Facebook ad doing something and then they just can't scale it. what's the difference between marketing that is okay and marketing that really scales

24:41yeah i think you need to have a very clear objective of what you're trying to accomplish it's amazing about how many people i speak to and i say um they're doing some sort of marketing and i say well what's the outcome what do you want from that and they're like i don't know like i'm running the ad and people are coming to the website i'm like so so what are they going to do when they get there? And they're like, I'm not sure. Are they going to sign up? They're like, I guess they'll buy. Well, they're not going to buy. Just sending people to the website isn't going to buy. And when you're running an ad where there is no clear path a client has to take to make a sale, then what you'll do is spend money and eventually just stop spending money because it doesn't work.

25:21And so the key to scaling and really making this thing work is to say, what is the clear path that someone has to go through to actually see an ad and become a client? And so a good example is this. I always start, I love Stephen Covey, so start with the end in mind. So with an ad, I start with the end in mind. I say, what do I actually want from this ad? And we say, well, we want a sale. Well, what's the step before that? The step before that is a sales meeting where we give the proposal. Well, what's the step before that? It's an initial meeting. What's the step before that? It's a phone call.

25:54Well, what's the step before that? It's a lead with a phone number. And what's the step before that? It's a Facebook ad. So the Facebook ad needs to give me the ability to get a phone number so I can call the person, so I can book them into the first call, so I can book them into a proposal call, so I can close them into a client. And when you build that path out and your ad isn't working and you're not getting even a phone number, you change the ad. Then when you get the ad working and you're getting phone numbers, but the quality of the lead, they're not the right people, you change the ad. So it is the right people.