Jeremy Weisz 11:08
Really? Oh, nice.
Damon Burton 11:09
Yeah, yeah. So we use ClickUp and we put everything in ClickUp. So not only does it house our SOPs, but it’s our project management system. And so the way that we built it is if you’re familiar with ClickUp —
Jeremy Weisz 11:23
Yeah, we use ClickUp also actually. So yeah.
Damon Burton 11:26
Yeah. So like for listeners, you know, ClickUp basically has folders and tasks. And so the way that we built it is we templatized our tasks into basically dummy folders. And so now every time, like instead of having an account and then having to go refer to the documentation, we duplicate the documentation and then assign it as a client. And so now every client gets their entire documented list. So now you have a, you know, we got 200 or 300 audit checkpoints for every client we launch. And so now you can launch a project with perfect quality control every time with a click of a button. And so it holds our documentation. But then as they read the documentation they also complete the task.
Now one thing that’s interesting that we changed this year is, you know, we’ve had pretty in-depth SOPs and it’s been our superpower for a good ten years plus. But what was interesting is we ran into a problem earlier this year that I’d never experienced in running an agency. And so last year we grew a lot. And so I gave the team autonomy to hire and pass the torch and things like that. And I always thought, you know, our SOPs are so dialed in that we can’t screw it up. So, sure, hire people, do whatever you want, and then all of a sudden I started to notice little things like little gaps in fulfillment that we would never miss.
And so what had happened was your team will be as good or as bad as the documentation you provide, which I knew that. What I didn’t realize was they are also like water and will follow the path of least resistance. And so the missing component was including the why in the documentation. So they had the how. But what was happening was like the metaphor of the path of least resistance is they would do the thing because it said to do the thing, but they didn’t understand why they were doing the thing.
And so every once in a while, there’s these little tiny nuances where there’s judgment calls that if you understand the why, you can do that very clearly. But without that, that’s where we started to have these gaps. And so I had the team go back and add the why. So now all of our documentation is the same. But now instead of the first paragraph being tactical, the first paragraph is here’s why you’re doing the tactical.
Jeremy Weisz 13:44
Love it. Yeah, we use ClickUp. Love ClickUp for project management. And we will, in each task, link the SweetProcess SOP in that task. And I like how you said you use templates and kind of have checklists and things. So people do, you know, do both. So I love that.
What are some of the other tech and tools you use? ClickUp, what else as a company is important for you?
Damon Burton 14:08
Software. I have a love-hate for software lately because I just recently looked at our PNL and I was like, Holy crap, we spent like $7,000 a month on software. Are you kidding me?
Jeremy Weisz 14:22
I feel like we just did this analyzation too. And I feel like we realized the sweet spot must be if they charge less than $5,000 a year, it goes under the radar. I’m like, why are all these softwares $5,000 a year? So I get you.
Damon Burton 14:37
Yeah. Well, it’s like, sure, we’ll use Google Business apps. It’s only like $10 a user. And also you got 50 users and now you’re paying like, you know.
Jeremy Weisz 14:46
It’s $6,000 right there. Yeah.
Damon Burton 14:48
So we got, I mean we’re using Google Business apps. And so that started originally obviously for just email. But then we used to have Dropbox. And so I’m like, well why don’t we just get rid of Dropbox and then use the existing Gmail as also Google storage.
So we use Google Business apps for email and storage communication. We use Slack for communication. We use Figma for design, we use Zoom. We use Acuity for our calendars and appointment bookings. What else do we got?
We use another tool called Filestage which helps you, which helps streamline the process of clients approving mockups and things like that. So instead of emailing mockups back and forth, you’re like, go check it out here and you can mark it up and add comments. Yeah, there’s probably 20, 20, 20 little.
Jeremy Weisz 15:49
Do you have a from like an email inbox? Do you have a centralized email inbox like from a customer support or how do you handle customer support stuff?
Damon Burton 16:00
So this is, you’ll like this. And this is actually really fascinating because we are so good at our SOPs, you know, part of going a level deeper on SOPs is a lot of people don’t realize SOPs can go beyond the tactical. SOPs can be touchpoints, communications and customer service. And so we are so good and proactive at setting expectations that I have no project manager. I have no CEO. We have no account reps, but yet we manage like 80 accounts and billion dollar companies.
And it’s because what happens is we send, you know, we onboard the account. Well actually it starts before the onboarding. It starts in the negotiations. And so it’s like look here’s the rules of engagement. You talk about all the fun stuff, but then you also talk about the boundaries.
And so it’s like you don’t get my cell phone number. We’re not available after hours. We don’t check emails on weekends. And then when you engage we send that in the proposal. There’s a full page in our documentation that says reasons not to hire us.
And it’s all the things that not only that we want to protect for our own sanity, but also protect to maintain a positive engagement of productivity. Because if you get a client that’s calling you every day, you’re going to not like them real quick. And if you don’t like them, then you’re not going to deliver for them as well. And so we set all these rules of engagement. But then we also set expectations.
And so then it’s like cool. When we start your first email is going to be from my CEO and it’s going to say this. It’s going to set expectations after that. Then you’re going to get an intro from my content manager, and she’s going to say this and here’s the time frames that go with that. The first week we’re going to do onboarding. Second week we’re going to do research.
So if your documentation also includes communication touchpoints and those communication touchpoints set expectations you almost everything is proactive. And now there is no need to be reactive.
Jeremy Weisz 17:55
Talk about the phases for a second. You said onboarding research. What are the different phases?
Damon Burton 18:01
So an average account yeah like an average launch is like week one’s onboarding. And then we say look now we’re digging in data. So it’s going to be quiet for a little bit as we pull data. So then it’s like 2 to 3 weeks. We’re breaking down their market.
We’re looking at the competition. We’re looking at who their demographics are, their buying avatar, who their ideal consumer is. And then we come back and we go, look, we did all the heavy lifting. Here’s where we think the money is. And do you agree?
So then we get on the same page. And then after that it’s like, okay, now we need to find, we need to build out a content strategy. And this is really important for marketers to understand, and especially CEOs or brand and content campaigns is too many people nowadays, especially with AI, like they just write for the sake of writing and you should write intentionally. And what your goal should be is your customers have a problem or a pain point. Your product or service solves it. Your content should bridge the gap in between, right?
And so we go through and we map out what are people already asking search engines? And not only what are they already asking, but which of those queries implies buyer intent. Because if we’re writing, let’s attract people that we can help. Let’s not just write to try and game the system.
So you’re like 4 to 6 weeks in for us just to map out the strategy. And what’s also happening in that time is then my developers and my tech team go through and do all the nerdy stuff. They make the page load quicker, they make them mobile friendly. They touch all the things they need to touch.
So generally speaking, we’re like six weeks in just to lay the foundation. And then after that it’s a giant reoccurring content credibility machine.
Jeremy Weisz 19:37
Talk about reasons not to hire you. What are a few examples? I mean, you mentioned, you know, if you want to call us but what are some others?
Damon Burton 19:47
Yeah. So that’s an evolving page in our agreement. And what’s interesting is—
Jeremy Weisz 19:53
Every time someone does something, you keep adding to it.
Damon Burton 19:56
Yeah yeah yeah. So while I’m talking, I’ll try and bring it up. And you know, I know most of them off the top of my head. But what’s interesting is I get more compliments than complaints about that from the clients. I get more compliments because what happens is when you set these boundaries, you know, these newer entrepreneurs are scared, right? And so everybody wants to take every sale that they can get and they’re afraid to offend the customer.
But when you lead and go, this is how to maximize the relationship, then they trust you more as an authority. And when you set boundaries, they respect you more. And so this has probably helped close more deals. I know for certainty it’s helped close more deals than repelled. And the one out of 20 repels. That’s what it’s there for right.
So here’s my list. Right. So one is you’re hiring an agency, not an employee. And so in that one it says don’t tell us what to do.
Jeremy Weisz 20:52
I think by the way, just David, I want to say these could all be t-shirts. You know, like individual t-shirts.
Damon Burton 20:58
Yeah.
Jeremy Weisz 20:59
So anyways, keep going.
Damon Burton 21:00
Yeah. Or little bumper stickers. Yeah.
Jeremy Weisz 21:01
Yeah, exactly.
Damon Burton 21:04
So, so the first one is like, look, you know, we’re experienced experts and that’s why you’re coming to us. So let us do that. The next one is you’re paying for implementation not training. Because a lot of times clients will go, well can I watch? Well, no, because now you’re two x delaying how long this takes and you’re not compensating me for that delay.
The third one is SEO is not a quick fix. I consistently reiterate why SEO takes time. Now, the important word I said there is why? Because a lot of people will be like SEO takes time. It’s 12 months to sign my agreement, but they don’t explain the why.
They don’t explain, and this is really important if you’re shopping SEO or if you’re an SEO agency, how you can help with client retention is it does take time, but if you don’t explain why, then people are left hanging because they’re paying you lots of money per month. And they’re tangibly not seeing anything. And so the way you explain it is progress versus monetization.
And what this means is you see progress relatively quickly. You can see progress maybe in a month or two. But progress translates to being on page 12 of Google wow to page nine. But there’s no monetization because all the traffic is on page one. That’s why SEO takes time.
It’s not to move the needle, but to move it far enough that you can make money. So we explained that a couple of last quick ones are that we don’t do excessive meetings. So it says we don’t do meetings about meetings. I’m going to send you everything you need. I don’t need to waste your time. You don’t need to waste my time. If you really have an actual question, here’s the calendar. Otherwise, we’re not scheduling reoccurring meetings.
We avoid shiny objects. Read all you want about SEO. Don’t tell me about it.
Jeremy Weisz 22:47
I got you. So avoid shiny objects like I’ve heard this thing, if we put it into ChatGPT and do this, that will help us rank that kind of thing.
Damon Burton 22:56
Yeah, yeah, yeah. What’s the latest corner cutting thing? Yeah. And then the last one is what I call new sheriff syndrome. So this is when, like, look, your team might change. That’s fine. When a contact might change, that’s fine. But two things. One is that it doesn’t mean we change direction, and two it’s not our responsibility to bring them up to speed. We didn’t hire them. You did.
Jeremy Weisz 23:19
Thanks for sharing that, I love that. One thing that sticks out, I mentioned at the very beginning of this interview is one of my favorite stories is how you got your first client, and it relates to a no brainer offer, right? This is kind of how you got on SEO, I believe. But talk about what you did. And I think it’s really instructive just just in general.
Damon Burton 23:44
Yeah. And don’t let me forget to tell you I did my first live event two weeks ago. And people are doing this and I’ll tell you the results from it. So my first client was my background was originally in web design. And so I had a client that says, what do you know about Google.
And so what I told them is I said, look, I think I know enough, I can help you, but I don’t know enough that I’m confident I can deliver a return. And so morally, I don’t feel comfortable charging you. But I also don’t want to work for free. So how about we do this? Let me see how far I can get you.
If we hit this mutually agreed upon goal, then A: you pay me retroactively for that time. And B: now we start moving forward. And so you talk about the reason why it’s a no brainer is because now they have nothing to lose. Either they pay nothing or it works and they make money. Now I’m also incentivized to make it work.
And so now we both win and we generally both have nothing to lose. And so, you know, I hit those goals. They signed up as a client. Like I said, they’re still a client to this day 17 years later. And then what I was able to do is go to client number two, who was a design client.
The client number one had referred, and I was able to go, hey, number two, remember number one, here’s what we just did with them. Do you want to do the same thing? And of course they’re like, well why not. And so we did the same thing with them and hit results from there too. So that’s how I got the first client.
Now I just did this two day training a couple weeks ago. and I talked about this because there were a couple people in the room that do some sort of online services, but not particularly SEO, but they’ve dabbled in it and they find it interesting and they want to do more. And that was their question is how do I get my first client?
And so I told him this. I said, go approach businesses and tell them, look, I’m looking to get into this. Here’s my background, and I’ll do it under those circumstances. And one other thing I’ll add is I’ve been mentoring my wife’s nephew for two years now, and he did this. I’ll add one other strategy that new entrepreneurs can do is, you know, you can’t optimize a website until you understand how websites are built. So I told him to start by learning design. And we can take the same concept that we talked about getting your first SEO client and apply it with a small tweak to getting your first design clients.
So what I told him is, I said, jump on LinkedIn, jump on wherever and message small businesses and go, look, I’m a new entrepreneur. I want to do, I do these $500 websites, but I’m going to do it for free. So their alarms are going to go off and go, what’s the catch? Why free? But then when you just say, I’m new, I want to build out a portfolio. I want the experience.
Then their guard comes down and they probably want to help you because entrepreneurs want other entrepreneurs to win. So you do that long enough that you start to feel comfortable with design. Then you then you go, okay, now I do $1,500 websites for $500. Now you can start to understand the value exchange of money, but then you still have room for error because you explain your learning and you give them a discount.
So you do that and then you can start to convert to the SEO proposition if you want to do SEO. So I explained this at this event, and not even a week later somebody in the group posts and went, I got my first $7,500 client. That same guy three days later goes, I got my second $7,500 client. Right? And to your point, it’s a no brainer.
Jeremy Weisz 27:12
I have interviewed a lot of direct response, I geek out on SOPs. The other thing is direct response marketing, copywriting, and the best copywriters have a risk reversal, like an offer that has a risk reversal that takes the risk off the client. That’s exactly what you did. Then you went to the second one and just said, hey, look at the social proof I have. You know, I can help you. It just seems like a no brainer path. And it’s also a gift. Right. So like you’re both aligned in the outcome there.
So yes I love that story. Thanks for sharing. You have a lot of cool stories. We won’t get into all of them. But there’s a cool one that involves an apron. I think we won’t get into that one. They could listen, someone could listen to that one some other time, but it was really just offering your help because you couldn’t find an item that was at a kiosk and you couldn’t find it online. So like if you sniff out, you sniffed out a problem that you saw and you just offered to help. And so I love that the person didn’t even know, like they were losing the revenue.
But go ahead, what were you gonna say
Damon Burton 28:20
Yeah, I won’t unpack that whole thing, but I’ll add one thing. One small comment on that story is because I made the effort to help that person, they became a client, and when they became a client, they became an advocate. And that was in the infancy of my agency. And that one person for probably the next four years sent 25% of all my business.
Jeremy Weisz 28:41
It’s amazing. And let’s talk about mentors for a second. There’s I mean, it’s interesting you attended a Clickfunnels or Funnel Hacking Live, and you went in to get just an upgrade to your seating. And then tell people what happened there. And I think I want to have you talk about the reason right. And why you were doing that. Because I think that’s really instructive. But talk about that story where you went to do that.
Damon Burton 29:23
So I went to Funnel Hacking Live, which is an event that Russell Brunson that runs Clickfunnels puts on. It’s a massive event. It’s like 5,000 people. And I went with a friend of mine who was well known in the community. And, you know, the Clickfunnels world is largely paid traffic and I’m not paid traffic.
So I went just to go, you know, like we talked about my website. Right. We’re starting to look into growing in other ways other than just referrals. And so I just went to fill it out, and I knew it was like a cool event. And as far as vibe and things like that.
And my friend had early access, and early access just lets you go through this like stash and get a seat like five minutes earlier than everybody else. So I was following my friend around everywhere, and I couldn’t go past this invisible stash, and it pissed me off so much. Not because I cared for the seats or, you know, the snacks that were behind it. I just wanted to hang out with my friends because it was him, and there were other friends back there. And so I went and asked the customer service person and I said, look, I don’t expect anything for free. Can I pay for this early access? And all it was was like a red wristband versus a blue wristband. And in my mind I’m like, okay —
Jeremy Weisz 30:38
It’s like The Matrix. You chose the blue one.
Damon Burton 30:40
Yeah. And I’m like in my mind, I’m like, what’s how far am I willing to take this? I’m like, okay, I pay $1,000 for this wristband. And so there they go. I don’t know, I’ll go talk to the people over there. And so I go talk to people over there.
And they said, no, that’s just for people that have won awards or in our coaching programs. And I said, okay, and what’s the coaching programs? And they said, well, let me, let me call this one guy over. And so their sales guy comes over and he’s like, what’s going on? And I said, well, my friend’s over there.
And he goes, yeah, you’re not going over there unless you’re, you know, same thing. Coaching program or award winner. He goes, are you interested in coaching? And I said, honestly, no. And he says, well, what about a mastermind? And I said, maybe. And he goes, all right, it’s this and this and this, and it’s 50 grand. So in my mind, I’m like, Holy crap, how did I just go from $1,000 to 50 grand? And the decision was surprisingly short. It was like a 22nd dialogue in my head where it was like, this is why I’m here, is to compress time.
And so this seems like an opportunity. And so I gave him the $5,000 deposit or whatever it is, made a $50,000 purchase out of nowhere, got a hoodie, went back to the hotel room, and I said, babe, guess you better wear that hoodie all the time now.
Damon Burton 31:54
I do. I still, I do still wear it. And so I ended up joining Russell Brunson’s inner circle. And you know what’s come from that? I even remember that night at the hotel, my friend who I went with, his name is Josh Forti. Him and I are still good friends and I remember going to the hotel that night and I ordered, there’s this client of ours that mails cookies, and I ordered these cookies and sent them to Josh.
And I said, hey, I don’t know what’s to come of this, but I think this is probably going to, you know, you letting me tag along with you, I think is going to lead to something that changes my trajectory. Now fast forward a couple of years, Russell Brunson like I said, I’m at Clickfunnels right now. Russell Brunson is still in his mastermind, but now he’s also a client. The credibility and the networking that’s come from that has allowed me to pick up other great clients like Tony Robbins. And people come to me instead of me having to go to other people now.
And some of the, you know, seeing just some of the things, you know, I’m really proud of what I’ve accomplished. But when you are around these other people, there’s more than once where I’m like, oh, that’s cool that I did that in a year. And they’re like, oh yeah, you know, you could do that like in a day, right? Like what? So that’s the $50,000 bracelet story.
It actually inspired a book too. There’s a book called Inside the Inner Circle. That was birthed from that story, where other people in the group talked about how they got into it, you know, their trajectories in life and things like that. So, yeah.
Jeremy Weisz 33:32
What I love about that, Damon, is when you talk about you were there to compress time, you know, and speed, right. What are some of the things you learned from Russell being in the group, and then maybe some other people that you’ve connected with in that, in that circle?
Damon Burton 33:52
The biggest thing that I’ve learned because I’ve been really slow to implement a lot of the tactical things, because there’s lots of amazing tactical things. But one thing that’s largely different for me than others in the group is that I already have a successful agency. And so I have like a company company, and a lot of other people in the group have really great promotional products. And so they’re often repackaging them. And so I was really hesitant to, like, I didn’t want to fix what wasn’t broken and get distracted by leaving my attention on the agency.
And the first year I was in the group, that was really hard because I’d see these people do like these million dollar days, and it’s because they do these promotional things and like, that’s cool, that’s exciting. But if I do that, I’m going to take away my attention here. And so I just kind of went with my gut and didn’t, didn’t jump out of the plane. And I’m glad because then like a year or two later, then other people would be like, you made the right decision, you know? Yeah, I had $1 million day, but I almost lost everything doing it.
And so the tactical stuff I’m only now starting to implement because now I have a COO. Now the agency is in good hands. Now I can start launching these other things. Now I can go more into this world. So I feel like I’m just at the tip of the iceberg.
The stuff that I have implemented is largely get out of your own way. And what I see a lot, and the way that Russell says it is leave a man behind. And so what he means by that is perfect something. Then pass the baton to somebody else and let it become their baby. And so that’s one thing I’ve tried to do.
And the other thing I’ve tried to do is get better at implementation. I’m a thinker and not to the point of analysis paralysis, but I like to analyze all the paths and options and pros and cons And it delays me implementing things sometimes. And so I’ve been a lot better about deciding what the direction is and then letting somebody else figure out how to get there, instead of me having to figure out how to get there. So probably those things, right. Get out of your own way and to your other point about what I’ve learned from other people, what’s been fascinating is seeing how other people make money.
Like, there’s some really interesting businesses out there that A: I wouldn’t have even known really existed to begin with, but B: at the scale in which they exist.
Jeremy Weisz 36:21
I can relate to what you were saying, Damon, because I think when I took the Kolbe score, I don’t know if you’re familiar with that. I’m a very high fact finder, so I definitely like dig in. So I’ve tried to accelerate my fact finding, you know, as opposed to, you know, because I could probably draw it out forever, but so I can relate to that for sure. I like to have all the stuff when I’m making a decision.
Talk about the COO for a second and the onboarding, because it’s a big decision to bring in a COO that, you know, that obviously frees your time. It helps with the team. What was the onboarding like to get them up to speed, to do what you wanted them to do and what they felt they can help propel the company to do?
Damon Burton 37:05
So I was slow to hire a COO because I knew it was such an important role that it would probably be. It’d probably be more painful to hire wrong than to just suffer for a while. So I kind of just suffered and juggled more than I should have. But I think it was the right call because I was able to find a good person on the first hire.
And so this person came into my world. They were actually the gatekeeper to a client. And so they were a contractor for a client. And when him and I engaged, we could quickly see each other’s morals and, you know, passion for not only what we did, but integrity and how we did it. And this client ended up, unfortunately, kind of screwing both of us. And him. And I had kind of stayed in touch. And he’s in San Diego and I go to San Diego a lot just to just to get out.
And so one time I met up for coffee and just kind of stayed in touch. And then I asked if he wanted to, because he was an independent contractor, like he didn’t have a day job, he just worked for miscellaneous companies. And so I asked if he wanted to pick up some of our overflow. And so he did some of our overflow. And then he did really good at that.
And so then I said, do you want to kind of do some project management and get good at that? And I remember I was sitting in my front yard just kind of pacing the sidewalk doing whatever, and I was thinking about all the gaps I’m trying to fill, like, what are the specific problems I’m trying to solve with this role? And then at the same time, I see his name is Vlad. At the same time, I was thinking, what are all the problems that Vlad is trying to solve? And Vlad was trying to solve consistency and clients.
He also had a pain point where, you know, some would pay and some wouldn’t. And I’m like, well, wait a second. He said, you know, he likes our consistency. He never has any problems with pay from us. He fills the hole, the gaps that I have. Like, why don’t I ask Vlad?
Jeremy Weisz 39:02
One of those head-slap moments.
Damon Burton 39:04
Yeah. So we did a trial kind of in the role. And then, you know, I’ll tell you what’s most interesting about hiring a COO or for me was even though I was really confident in this person, I also knew there would be a detrimental mistake at some point. And it just had to happen, right? It’s like comes with the territory.
And I can’t remember if it was like IBM or whatever, but there’s like the story about the guy where his lead or CEO or whatever makes like $1 million mistake. And like, this is a true story. I just always forget who it is. And then the reporter after this mistake happens, asked the owner and he goes, well, when are you going to fire so and so? He’s like, never.
He just earned a $1 million lesson. And so it’s like, I kind of feel like that where I just knew one day this would happen. And so part of it was what I talked about earlier, the mistake with the team not understanding the why. And there was more. There’s a perfect storm of things that happened kind of under his direction. And now that we’re past that, it’s kind of like, okay, that rite of passage now happened. Like, now we’re good.
Jeremy Weisz 40:10
You know, I’d love to talk about the importance of a personal brand. You know, we were talking about your website and then I was asking, hey, let’s pull up the DamonBurton.com only because you got a cool beard logo on there. But talk about the importance of a personal brand. As you do that, I’m going to pull up DamonBurton.com here.
Damon Burton 40:35
Yeah. So for us, doing a few million a year, we don’t have any lead gen, any direct outbound lead gen. And so all of our sales come from only two places. One is referrals from the performance of existing clients and then two is personal brand. Right? So I show up consistently on social media, and I largely only talk about three things.
One is obviously SEO, two is business and entrepreneurship in general, and then three is family. Like I like talking about my wife. I like talking about my kids. And what happens is people will begin to follow you for your area of expertise, but they will convert when they relate to you as a human. And so it becomes it.
It was personally rewarding for me, almost therapeutic to just share. Like, look, there’s the SweetProcess logo right there.
Jeremy Weisz 41:32
We got it. Boom. Right there.
Damon Burton 41:34
So for me it was like I like talking about these things. So I just started talking about these things. I actually go a step back. This process is relatively new. It’s about three years old because before I used to be really private on social media.
I was only on Facebook. And those of you that have been on LinkedIn long enough, you know that it used to just be a resume site. And so before it became like a social media site, I was only on Facebook. And then like if a lead — like if somebody would ask me an SEO question, I would kind of ignore them. Or if somebody would reach out for business, like I wouldn’t accept them.
And I just kept it as my private space for friends and family. And what happened was I was good at filtering my content wall. And so it wasn’t like anything dramatic. I just realized it was unproductive. And so I actually turned it off.
And when you delete Facebook, it doesn’t really go away. Like you can just turn it back on the next day. So I was like, no, I’m, I’m going to get you Zuckerberg. And so I deleted everything. I didn’t just turn it off. I started deleting every post I’d ever made. And then I realized how long this was going to take. So I asked my wife if she would help.
And so for three weeks, she deleted every post I’d ever made, every comment I had made on somebody else’s wall, deleted all my private messages, and then unfriended everybody, wiped it out. Then I turned it off.
And so what happened after that was a couple weeks went by and I had a client like I had somebody that was a friend first and then became a client, and now I couldn’t talk to them because we would we had gone through, they’d gone through that filter and we had chatted through Facebook and I’m like, there’s no way I’m turning this whole thing back on just for one person. So let’s pick an intention.
And so then I went through this internal struggle of like, okay, well, I like talking about, you know, my wife and kids, but how does that attract a business audience? And if I talk about business, that’s going to bore my friends and family. And eventually I was like, but those are me. Those are the things I like. So whatever, I’m just going to do it.
And so I went through this process where for me it was about three months of going, what is my voice? What do I talk about? What do I feel comfortable with? And an example of what I feel comfortable with is like, I like talking about my wife and kids, but I never disclose my kids names. I never show identifiable pictures of them. But unless you listen to this interview, I talk so intimately about them that you would never notice that. And so from that started to become private.
Jeremy Weisz 44:02
You’re maintaining a certain privacy even though you’re sharing.
Damon Burton 44:06
Yeah. And so that invites people into your world. People start messaging. And I started getting lots of like, hey, I appreciate how you lead as a father or as a family man. But then that started to, like I said, when people start to relate to you as a human, that’s when they convert on business. Then that’s when I started to get the messages going.
That was really cool what you said about your wife. Here’s my website. Can you check it out? And so coming full circle, the personal brand question is personal branding is probably at least matched if not outpaced our referrals.
Jeremy Weisz 44:40
I love it. Well, Damien, I want to be the first one to thank you. I know you have to get to a speaker who, you know, started or sold $100 million company. So a mystery speaker since you’re at the Clickfunnels headquarters. But I really appreciate you showing up today and sharing your lessons. I want to encourage people to check out SEONational.com. You can also check out DamonBurton.com and more episodes of the podcast. And Damon, thanks so much. Appreciate you.
Damon Burton 45:08
My pleasure. Thanks, Jeremy.
