1520 – How we Represent Ourselves with Ugly Mug Marketing’s Wayne Mullins

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0:58with us right now it's wayne mullins wayne you are the founder of ugly mug marketing you're found on the web at ugly mug marketing.com wayne thank you so much for joining us thank you josh and thanks for the intro absolutely why ugly mug despite popular belief it is not named after me It's actually named from this quote of this gentleman of the name David Ogilvie. David Ogilvie was the co-founder of Ogilvie & Mather, one of the largest ad agencies in the world. And David had a quote that was, I would rather an ad that's ugly and effective over one that's beautiful but isn't. And so it's really just a play off of that quote reminding us to stay focused on what matters most, and that is the results for our clients.

1:46Yeah, so how do we, are there any kind of, I don't know, just on that issue alone, because, you know, this gets into the, you know, being externally focused or truly advocating for clients or audiences or, you know, gas audience, as opposed to our own biases about how we want to represent ourselves. Like, can you give us like a little two minute TED talk on that topic? Absolutely. Which I suspect you could do. I'm so passionate about that because, you know, I believe Josh, at the end of the day, that every single business that exists, it exists to solve problems for other people. And when we get in trouble as business owners and entrepreneurs, it's when we lose focus of that true calling.

2:33In other words, when we start worrying about how I'm going to sell the next thing or how I'm going to redo my website or how I'm going to impress X, Y, or Z, right? That's where we get into trouble. When we lose sight of, our sole purpose is to solve problems for other people, to help them either get where they're trying to get to or help them remove obstacles or burdens from their lives. And so I think all of us need something in our businesses and really in our lives to help us stay centered on those things that matter most. Because look, at the end of the day, we're all human. There's a million things vying for and calling for our attention.

3:10And so we have to have a constant reminder that says, look, this is what we stand for. This is who I am. This is what I believe. And this is how I'm going to operate. Yeah. Wayne, how do we stand out in such a noisy world? And I think it was, I don't know exactly what the numbers are. I know it's thousands of brand messages or ad messages or logos. And so like, we're constantly bombarded with just noise all day long. It seldom ends and unless we're very proactive to just unplug, but, you know, you know, someone that just really wants to connect with, you know, potential clients or they want to grow their business.

3:52Like, what would you recommend to do? Like, what does that look like to stand out and to truly be focused on, you know, that, you know, the person we want to serve? Sure. Again, I would start with, it's got to be a clear understanding of who it is we're trying to start. What is that problem that we're trying to address? And then from there, what is it that makes us unique? What is it that makes us different? How can we serve in a way that is different from everyone else? And you're right. We live in a crowded marketplace. It doesn't matter what industry or what niche someone is in. It is crowded.

4:27One of the things that we love to recommend to people is look around at what all your competitors are doing. So if they're all jumping on Instagram, don't go to Instagram. It's already crowded. Look for the places that they are not showing up. So one thing right now, I'll give you an example. Everyone is flocking to the latest and greatest social media platforms. You know, and there's a new one every other month, it seems like, that everyone flocks to. One of the things that's so fascinating is right now we are getting phenomenal results with this old form of media called direct mail, right? So back in the day, direct mail was a place that was crowded.

5:01Everyone was doing direct mail. Everyone left direct mail to go to all the social platforms, everything on the web. And now there's this void. There's this gap in the marketplace where if you're doing direct mail, you're one of the very few pieces that actually stand out, that arrive in someone's mailbox. So you can stand out by doing the things that no one else is doing. Wayne, one thing I want to talk about, because I know that you have a heart for this, is working with freelancers. because obviously you had your own journey to build the agency that you have. And again, your agency is doing quite well.

5:35But you've done some work. You have something called Freelance Accelerator. But I think a lot of folks that have been freelancers for any length of time know full well what the lifestyle is like or what it's likely like, right? Where there's a lot of you got good months and then you got not so good months. And then you got those not so good months where you're like really stressing to find where are my next clients going to come from. So you're just like feeling like you can't ever leave social media. You're just constantly hanging out, hanging out on Clubhouse, hanging out here. Low key selling to your friends on Facebook.

6:10I see that a lot. Help us out, Wayne. What's a freelancer to do today? Yeah, first of all, I completely agree. You know, so freelancers often end up in what I call the freelance trap. And you're right, Josh, my journey, I began as a freelance marketing consultant. And I spent several years by myself attempting to grow that. And it was years of struggle. It wasn't like I magically came into this and everything all of a sudden overnight was, you know, success. And what I discovered is this thing called the freelancer trap. And here's what it looks like. So we have this gift that we do. So for me, it's marketing.

6:45And so what I do is I'd go out and realize, okay, look, I've got to sell. I've got to go out and find people who need marketing help. And so I would go out and sell and focus all my time and attention on selling, finding those people who have a problem that I can solve. And then because of my charm, because of my wit, because of my ability, whatever it is, we sell someone our services. So then we get to do the thing that we love to do. So we forget about the importance of selling. We forget about the importance of making connections with people who have that problem. And so we devote all our time and attention on doing the thing that we love to do.

7:18And we finish the project and we look up and we realize, oh no, I have no more revenue coming in. I better get back out there and sell. And so we go through these cycles over and over again where we're outselling and then we get busy fulfilling so we forget about selling and then we repeat history over and over again. So we have to learn as freelancers, as entrepreneurs to answer these two questions every single day. Question number one, what have I done to attract a new customer or a new client today? Question number one. So question number two, what have I done today to keep a customer? And when I say keep a customer, what I mean is not just do the thing that we've, you know, they've contracted us or hired us to do, but keep them, meaning what have I done to position myself and my skills and ability in such a way that they want to work with me again, that I can identify other problems that I can help solve.

8:12So it's about positioning ourselves to keep that customer in the long run. Yeah. Yeah. And talk about, Wayne, who you work with today with, again, to our friend that's listening, you go to ugly mug marketing.com. Who do you get to serve today? Sure. So there's two different sides to that on the ugly mug marketing agency side, we work with growth minded entrepreneurs, doesn't matter the industry, as long as you are entrepreneurial in your mindset. In other words, you like thinking outside the box, you like challenging the status quo. And you're interested in growth, you're trying to grow the thing that you do, whether it's for profit, or not for profit.

8:52And then the flip side on the freelance accelerator side, I work with freelancers who are attempting to either earn what they deserve, or convert what they do into more of an agency model. Yeah, and and so the services, you know, so obviously, like if you're an agency as well, agencies are a really busy place. So what have you learned for ugly mug marketing that you've needed to do to stand out in an otherwise busy world? Because again, it offers SEO services, website design, social media, and there are a lot of agencies like what do you what do you do to capture your own client's attention? Absolutely.

9:38So I mean, number one, it's about standing out with your positioning and your branding. So our name is very counterintuitive in the space that we're in, right? Because no one wants to think that their marketing is ugly. The other things that I would say - It does, it does kind of catch you like, whoa, whoa, what, wait a minute, what? Yeah, it's to, the other part is to stand for something that matters to them. So we solve problems in the same way that other agencies solve problems. But the difference is we put our reputation and our name behind this one word is called results. So what we tell people is give us two months, we don't need a year, we don't need six months, we don't need 24 months, give us two months within two months, if you do not feel confident and comfortable that we are on the right path.

10:23And when I say on the right path, it means a little bit different for different organizations. But on the right path for most means, are you seeing a positive ROI off of what you're spending with us. Because if you're not seeing that, then chances are, if we're not heading in that direction, and you're not feeling good about that, we're never going to get there. And unfortunately, in the world that I live in day in and day out, there's a lot of big promises, a lot of bold promises, and a lot of hype and fluff, and what I would call vanity metrics. So we stand out by just saying, look, two months, it's all we ask for.

10:57And in two months, if we can't get results. We don't want you to stay with us. Yeah. And I noticed that, you know, the types of companies you're working with might not be super flashy B2C companies. And boy, I mean, I'll just put this out there, freelancers, agencies, there is so much opportunity, if you'll try to identify underserved companies who badly need you. And it looks like, I don't want to, you know, again, I'm just kind of reading the tea leaves here, but it looks like you get to work with companies that maybe they're not getting their door beat down by other marketing professionals.

11:37Just my guess. Yeah, you're spot on with that, Josh. That is absolutely correct. And so, you know, to, you know, I wanted to ask you a couple things, because obviously, you get to observe a lot of things in marketing. And, you know, here we are, it's 2020-23. What things are you excited about when it comes to marketing today? Yeah, I think that I'm most excited about right now is that even in the midst of all the proliferation of new people showing up on social media, new ideas, new platforms that exist. What's so beautiful to me and for our clients is this, is that when you hone in on who you serve, and the problems you solve, it is easier today to stand out than ever before.

12:23It is easier to make those real connections because we live in a world where so many people, Josh, they assume they're doing social media, but in reality, they're doing what we would call digital media. In other words, they show up on social media, on these platforms, they show up and throw up. They just broadcast their message out there. And it's like a megaphone. They stand there and they scream out and then they complain that they're not getting results. Social media means social. It means dialogue. It means interaction. So you've got to start treating your quote unquote social media as a dialogue, as a telephone, as a multi-level of communication, not just a one-way communication.

13:02And you can, it doesn't matter what industry, what niche you're in. If you begin treating people as humans, having dialogue, having conversations, you will stand out. It doesn't matter the industry. You know, you're absolutely right. I think about, you know, some of the most successful folks on social, even, you know, YouTube and other platforms too. It's like when you treat YouTube like a place to just upload your videos, you know, no guarantees there. I don't know. I haven't, that's, it seems to be that if you treat YouTube like a true social media platform and you're really engaging and you're encouraging interaction and you're there and you're there in the comments, YouTube seems to like that.

13:41And audiences seem to like that. And the same thing as TikTok and everything else. It's like, don't just watch this. Let's engage. And what a great lesson that is. At the end of the day, any social media marketing platform, again, is about making connections, right? We don't just do those things to say that we do those things. And often I see so many times entrepreneurs get frustrated because they say, you know, I'm doing all the things I'm making the post, I'm uploading the videos, I'm doing all the things and nothing's happening. Doing the things are just the means to the end that we're after, right?

14:19The end that we're after is the dialogue. It's the connection. We want the relationship because when we have the relationship, we can then truly understand what are the problems? What are the problems that you are facing? And how how can my products, can my services possibly help you with those problems? And if they can't, who do I know who maybe could solve those problems for you? Yeah. Wayne, someone's been listening to us and they're like, I like this guy. I want more. Do you have resources? Do you have something that you would recommend someone if they want to kind of learn more about your area, you know, the areas that you can help them?

15:00Yeah, I mean, our website's the simplest place just to get an overview of what we do. You know, in terms of case studies, things like that, they're all there on the website, we post quite a bit on social media, which again, is all linked on our website, we post lots of really useful information, tactics, we were sharing very openly, what we're trying, what's working, what's not working. So often on our social media channels, you'll actually see real results from what worked, but also what didn't work. What did we try and it didn't work so that other people can hopefully learn from not just our successes, but from the failures as well.

15:37Yeah. All right. Wayne Mullins, founder of Ugly Mug Marketing, your website, uglymugmarketing.com. When somebody goes there, what should they click on? What do they do? Yep. If you want to learn more about us and what we do, you go to services and look there at all the various services. If you want to connect, just go to contact us and we will be glad to connect and continue a conversation with you. All right. Wayne Mullins, again, founder of Ugly Mug Marketing. Wayne, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much, Josh.

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