Ep. 209 INTERVIEW – Curt Mercadante

Discover how  to develop a captivating, effective, and authentic brand that grabs your target market and will grow with your business.
Voice over:

Get ready for an unfair advantage over your competition. This is The Sales Edge podcast. Where globally recognized sales expert and trainer Joe Pici helps you sharpen your skills for booking more appointments and closing more deals. And now here’s your host Joe Pici.

Joe Pici (JP):

Hey, welcome to podcast number 209. Today, we have a special feature. One of our sponsors is sell more virtually.com. That is a live training coaching web based format. I’m logged on every Thursday night. Also e-courses tremendous amount of information. Today We’ve chosen a special clip. Not normally offered in our podcast, but we made just special this is about branding and marketing, Curt Mercadante. So we’re going to give you a small taste of what sell more virtually.com has to offer. We are back with Curt Mercadante these super successful brand expert, helping you bring your message to Market, helping you attract and retain high-quality, High Revenue producing clients. You know, we promised you the best of the best. We promised that we would bring you experts in their field and we have one. Let me just tell you about Curt. Curt Mercadante is a branding expert speaker and business strategist who helps businesses, increased Authority brand exposure to the right clients so they can make more money. For more than 23 years He has counseled small business entrepreneurs, as well as some of the largest corporations and associations in the country. He’s built three profitable businesses, including a seven-figure public relations and advertising agency. Host of the authority brand podcast, the freedom mindset Radio podcast, the author of the best-selling book, five pillars of the freedom lifestyle. So help me, welcome Curt and it’s so great to have you.

Curt Mercadante (CM):

Thanks so much, Joe and pleasure to be here.

(JP):

I have followed Curt since the day I met him. In fact, I was on his podcast and I became a fan. I became somebody that follows him and there’s one word that continually comes out of his mouth is on all of his information. He absolutely hits the tip of the iceberg and that’s the word authority. And so I want him to speak into that. I would like you to speak into the whole context of authority and what it means to you.

(CM):

Yeah. Thanks Joe. I, you know, every business. So any business owner here, that’s listening, any entrepreneur, anyone who works for a business, you have to realize that, that business everything, look around your office, your desk, your pain, your stapler, your glass, your notebook. All of that started out as a thought, Those thoughts turned into ideas and those ideas turned into actions which you got you the results. So your business, my phone, my pen is actually the manifestation of those ideas. Now, as I said in an earlier segment, your business is in the business of improving someone else’s life. I don’t care what it is. That it improves our life in Some way. Within those ideas for your business, are your ideas for improving your life and I don’t care if you have nine, competitors. If So golf balls and you’re going up against nine competitors, who sell golf balls, your ideas are yours alone. And So within those ideas lies, your Authority, your Authority is about how you uniquely improve the life of someone else. And so, people have to realize that I don’t care who you are, whether you want to believe it or not, you are an authority, because no one in your life has had the experiences that you’ve had the specific education, the specific knowledge, the passion, your strengths, Etc. And so So, when you go into, Whether it’s a job interview. And by the way, job, interviews, branding and sales, right? You’re trying to move up the corporate ladder when you sit across the desk from someone and it’s an employer. Gone are the days of relying on Oh, well, you know, at the bottom of the resume, I went to this great School. Because you’re nine competitors, may have gone to the same school. So what’s going to be the X Factor? It’s you. It’s the impact you provide and in the end it’s how you’re going to make the life easier of the person sitting on the other side of that desk. So every single person is an authority. If I have nine branding competitors right. I have the confidence that I’m more of an authority in what I specifically do because we all have niches, you know, I know I know folks who I’m friends with and I don’t necessarily consider them competitors.

Because even if they’re in The Branding space, they do something a little different. You’re the same way in the sales space. I mean, you’re very tactical people picking up the phone. Some people are more mindset and they’re great at what they do. It’s just different. And So within that Authority, people even like Financial Services reps where I work with a lot. If you have 10 of them, I go on their LinkedIn profile and also it’s the same exact thing. You know, communicate specifically, how you You make their life better and why you are uniquely suited to do that. Therein lies your Authority.

(JP):

And so what I believe you’re saying, putting words in your mouth, that you have a complete methodology for helping people get to that Authority.

(CM):

Yes, I call it the Youthority branding system. And it’s built on the four pillars of building an authority brand. The first pillar is attention.

The first pillar because it’s the most obvious and it’s where people think of when they think of branding, eyeballs, right? But we get hit with four to ten thousand I believe. According to emarketer ad Impressions a day, people are competing for attention. So a lot of people stop and start their likes views logos and I want to get attention, right? But attention actually, when I work with my clients even though it’s the first pillar, it’s what we work on last. I didn’t know if the end and so the other pillars are Accuracy, which is finding the right clients, who you, we talked about that, finding the ideal client, your ideal customer Persona. Then it’s alignment. So aligning what you do. But it’s not all about what you do. With the impact they get putting together. That one sentence impact Story. The fourth pillar is authenticity and you build that authenticity by showing up, communicating that message To the right clients on a consistent basis. Factually truthfully pairing in third-party credibility.

Only then, do you focus on the attention part, because maybe LinkedIn is right for you. Maybe it’s not. Maybe I know people who said, you got to have a Facebook group. Well, I’ve had three clients over the last year. Who come to me Who were told you got to do a Facebook group. And they did that and they wasted so much time because they were told you got to do this because people I call them, I call them personal branding vendors. Who will tell you You’ve got to do this, I have an email scraping system. I got a logo system. I’m going to get you likes and Views and there’s a couple people on LinkedIn. They’re gurus on getting, they call themselves, personal branding strategies. All they do is get you likes and Views. Now, they’re very good at doing that, but I know people who started off on LinkedIn video and oh, my gosh, you’re doing it. We’re getting likes and Views and they’re gone Now. Because they started with the attention, I stopped with the attention.

(JP):

Wow. I can think of so many people, I need to send your way because you just verbally helped me Understand that they look at branding upside down. That’s why I call you a holistic doctor you know, because you tend to drill down and get to the core. So you’re sitting across the table, and there’s an entrepreneur getting Ready to move forward. They’re just I mean the paint’s not even dry, but they stay sat with you before they’ve thrown money at Facebook ads and this and that and you actually got to them early enough. What would you advise them to do right now?

(CM):

Yeah, well I would advise them to hop in my boot camp. Work with me. But first, you know, and one thing I learned from you is when I do the calls, you know, if I do a 20-minute call, 15 minutes is of them speaking. So I will know their specific outcomes. And usually it is, I don’t have the right message. Sometimes they don’t realize that and I don’t have the ideal clients. So let’s really focus on that. On dealing with those challenges because you’re dealing with some of the pillars right there. I always get people even if, even if they’re folks that I’ve gotten to before the other gurus. They always want to know. Well, should I be on Facebook? Should I do this? I had someone in my ear telling me. It’s like, when I was in politics, I always had candidates. They had everyone in their ear and right now, no matter who you are, you’re starting a business or an entrepreneur, whatever it is, people in your ear.

And I remember all the candidates, well So and so says, I got to have Billboards, I got to have Billboards. And I’m just very calmly lead them through. Well, that Billboards on I-55, you’re running for a judge in Will County how what percentage of people on I-55 are driving through from st. Louis on their way to Wisconsin? And you’re paying $10,000 and you, you know, and once you roll it back and they, oh yeah, you know, and they realized that and I said, listen, we’re going to get to that. We’re going to get to the tools and the shiny objects, I promise you were going to get there. But instead of throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks wouldn’t you rather have a strong Foundation?

Building a brand is like building a house. And a lot of people want to do the fun stuff, they want to pick out the drapes and the paint colors. Yeah. But if you do that, what’s going to the house is going to fall down and then what happens is they come to me and say I tried all that stuff and I got the likes and the views and I did all this and the house fell down. Okay. Well let’s start building that Foundation.

(JP):

Okay, so now in building that foundation, you said it on the first show but I’d like you to reiterate. Somebody is considering they’ve seen one of your videos. They decided I need to work with this guy. If you could share with our audience different ways that you work with your clients.

(CM):

Yeah, absolutely. We do The virtual branding boot camp. It was going to be a two-day in person. It’s a six-week virtual boot camp. We’re going to do these regularly throughout the year because the response has been so great. If you want more information 843-300-5075. Some people don’t like boot camps and group type things. And so, we also do one-on-one and one-on-one Consulting where we lead you, through the four pillars. So at the end, you have that road map. You can take with you. And I told someone yesterday, if you decide, you’re Going to stop selling Insurance next year and you’re going to sell tires. You can use the same darn thing because it’s principles because you get this, I’m sure a lot. Well, have you ever worked specifically with these types of widget makers? And I said, well, I’ve worked with businesses in the bid unless you know, business principles are business principles. Oh okay. You know, they get that. I also will do intensives and those types of things, you know. I do a lot of Keynotes, I’m working with a number of organizations Now to do virtual. In Fact, one of them’s, in the Cayman Islands and my goodness. I wish that was in person. Yeah, but it’s virtual and I’m hoping they want to invite me back when we can travel. And so I would say, best bang for your buck is the virtual boot camp but a lot of people go from that into one on one as well.

(JP):

Exactly. Personal question about your personal business. Where are you taking your business? Where do you see your business going in five?

(CM):

Yeah, that’s a great question. I, you know, I mentioned that an earlier segment that I do things and then I go down a path and I know I shouldn’t go down the path and I got to slap my head. So I really want to go down the route of really building a network of people. Not only to help them brand. But to me, the reason branding is so important is that as I mention its thoughts ideas actions results. And your brand, Is the manifestation of what you really want to do with your life and it and what you know I can tell like you and Dawn and The Bootcamp you’re just passionate and you love what you do. I love what I do because there are so many people who, you know, for a year and a half, I did I call it like freedom and fulfillment coaching. Right and it’s getting people to break free. They’re 45 and they’re like, listen. I’ve been living a life for 25 years that my dad laid out for me. I do Don’t like what I’m doing. So, I want to do this. What I realized was, okay, we’re going to break free and at the end, they’d say, okay, I’m ready to break free. How the heck, do I build my business? Like, how I got to Brand myself? And so what I realized was it was almost like saying, all right, you’re free from the zoo, good luck in New York City. Yeah, you know, and so I said, listen, I have I have things out there. Everyone can get my book and figure out how to break free, but once you break free, and once you want to build that business and be an entrepreneur come to me and we’re going to help you Figure out how to communicate those ideas. Because, you know, the tree falls in the woods and no one’s there to hear. You can have the best idea in the world, but if you’re not communicating it to the right client. And so to me, branding really goes deeper into who you are in the ideas you have, and how you want to make a difference in the world. Which is why I’m so passionate about it. So growing it out. Not just from one on one but really building a community of people. Not just clients but communities of people in that holistic view, you do sales, I do branding people do mindset and really build that out. So from a holistic point of view, people can like to say you’re building a suit of armor around your mind ready to everything out. It’s like, listen, these are my outcomes and come hell or high water. You can put the Chinese Army in front of me, but I got these outcomes to do first. So I’m going to say, hey wait, I got to get this out come down, I’ll fight you in a second and you focus on those outcomes.

(JP):

And that’s Phenomenal. It let me say one more thing about your boot camp. Let me tell you a byproduct of a boot camp beside that tremendous train. You’re going to do in coaching and I think you experienced this. In a boot camp environment, the participants become a group. We don’t And I know you’re not positioning that way, but I happen to know some people from the boot camp. You can to are going to hire you, because you get deeper understanding of the value of each other. And so if I can recommend anyone to if you’re considering and you’re on the fence, should read just register for his boot camp, you’re going to get more than you pay for.

That’s just The nature of Curt and what he delivers. This has been great Curt, we’re definitely going to have you on more down the road and you are a holistic branding expert. And thank you for being on the sell more virtually.com website. Now to reach me, you can 407 947 2590 You know, Curt, give them one more shout out about how to get to you.

(CM):

Text me at 843 300 5075. That comes to me, it’s not automated. It’s just like Joe and you know, Joe will Joe will say he doesn’t have a brand and he doesn’t have talent and Charisma and he’s full of it. Because his brand is about being direct and it’s about doing what he says he’s going to do. Last year I was listening to his podcast. I texted I was driving Way to vacation and within five minutes, he called me. Now, Yes, that’s sales. But doing what you say you’re going to do, is part of your brand. And so, Joe kudos to you and everything you do.

(JP):

But this has been the sales edge podcast. Thank you so much. Now Curt I need you to please tell our audience, how they find you, how they get to you how they can hire you.

(CM):

Yeah so the easiest way text me, I learned this from you. Right text me let’s have A conversation 843, 300 5075 or you can get some free goodies. I got two free webinars. One is the four pillars of the authority brand. If you text to the number 55678, text Youthority. Text that you have some free goodies there and I will get in touch with you if you do that as well.

(JP):

So if you like this type of information, the sell more virtually.com membership platform, every Thursday night, I’m out there live doing a coaching and training, Mega trainings Mega coaching downloads e-courses. Unbelievable amount of quality information, we’d like to be part of that team. The way you can do that is take out your cell phone text, the word sales edged, to five five, six, seven, eight, I will take you to a Pici and Pici, linked to a splash page. Scroll down go to the sell more virtually.com website and that’s going to allow you to register and become part of this ongoing information. Once again, I’m live on Thursday nights as well as tremendous amount of information. We look forward to being part of sell more virtually.com.

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Thanks for listening. New episodes will air each Tuesday and Thursday. So make sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and give us a five star review. The Sales Edge is sponsored by Pici and Pici Incorporated. A firm which provides training, consulting, and keynote presentations. Empowering corporations and individuals to attract and retain quality clients, for higher revenues and growth. Make more money in sales, speak with Joe in person by calling 407 947 2590 or visit www.piciandpici.com