Welcome back to the Follow-Up Media podcast. I'm going to say this upfront, okay? Every business right now should be acting like a media company, whether they like it or not. All right, here's the truth. Most businesses are still trying to avoid. You're not just in your industry anymore. You are in the media

business. And whether you like it or not, your competitors are starting to figure that out. This is the follow-up media podcast. This is episode seven of uncomfortable truths about modern marketing. The series we are dismantling outdated thinking one sacred cow at a time.

A sacred cow. Everyone's got one. Maybe it's a Highland cow. Maybe it's just one used for great state. My name is Christian Lee and joining me as always, Whitaker Fairmouth.

>> Wow. Thank you. >> Thank you, Whitaker. Thanks for joining us today. >> Big whit. >> Yeah, big wit.

Here's the denial phase. Okay. Most business owners hear the phrase media company and they push back. We're not a media company. We're a law firm. We're a real estate office. We're a construction company. We're a financial firm. And that belief is exactly why they're struggling to grow. Because the market

doesn't care what you call yourself. What does it care about, Riley? Cares about what you produce. >> Yes, that is true. It cares about what you produce. That's it. Right. What a media company actually is and isn't. Let me clear something up here. Being a media company does not mean you want to

be an influencer. actually to the contrary doesn't mean you want to be famous and it doesn't mean you want to dance on Tik Tok, right? Or pop your booty on Tik Tok, whichever algorithm you might be finding yourself in. It doesn't mean you want to chase trends and it doesn't mean you want to post

nonsense. Now, it's not media. Okay, media is communication at scale. And that is something really important for you to think about. What is media? >> Communication at scale.

>> Thank you, Whitaker. I appreciate that. >> Yep. He's always dropping truth bombs here. >> No. Yeah. Get wise to Whitaker. >> And this is the most important thing.

Communication at scale means you have the ability to explain, educate, demonstrate, repeat, and distribute your expertise consistently. >> Consistently.

>> Yes. And if you're in business, you already need that, right? And this is why media replace marketing. Traditional marketing used to work because attention was scarce. Now attention is unlimited and trust is scarce. Ads don't build trust anymore.

Logos don't build trust. Taglines don't build trust. Content happens to build trust. And media is how content compounds. The companies winning right now, they don't advertise better. They just simply communicate better. That is what I'm saying. Companies don't advertise better. They communicate

better and they're doing it consistently and that's why they're winning and you're losing. And I'm not saying you're completely losing across the board. You might be thinking to yourself, you don't know me.

>> Yeah, >> you don't know me. Well, I would love to see your marketing strategy. I mean, I don't trust a billboard. I mean, because I think it's honestly at this point it's kind of cheesy, if you will. I mean, if unless you have some crazy gorilla marketing ideas, but nowadays people

don't have that because you willing to get in trouble or you're bound to get in trouble doing those kind of like crazy catch the eye kind of thing. Billboards have their place. I mean, it's it's a way to reinforce your brand and remind people you still exist, but it does nothing to build trust. that does

nothing to tell people why they should use you or establish any form of expertise other than you're in a suit, you're on a billboard, and you're paying for it.

>> And I feel like it helps out maybe locally, but content is globally. >> Oh my gosh. Yeah. >> Yeah. 1,000%. >> See, your customers expect media even if they don't say it. And here's what customers expect before they buy now.

>> They want to hear you speak. They want to see how you think. They want to understand your point of view and they want proof of competence. They want to feel familiarity before contact ever happens. And that happens through media.

Podcast, videos, clips, articles, search results, AI summaries. And if none of that exists, guess what they're doing? >> They're moving on. >> Moving on. Packing their bags, getting their >> Yep.

>> Taking off. >> Yep. Going to grandma's house. maybe to grandma's house and uh maybe to your competitor. Say, right? And the real competition here isn't invisibility. Most companies think they're competing on price, service, or quality. Let me tell you this, they're

not. They're competing against silence. Okay? They're competing against silence. All right? The brand that explains the most is going to win. The brand that shows up the most wins. Whitaker, the brand that educates consistently wins.

>> Again, tell me Whitaker. What else? Even if they're not the best, media creates perceived leadership. Oo, that is strong. Whitaker getting wise with Whitaker.

>> That's right. And this is why we don't have time for content is a losing argument. Actually, it's funny when clients say to us, "Hey, we just don't have time for content." What do I think that is? I think that's a losing argument. You know, this is the excuse we hear most. We're too busy running the

business. And I get it. But here's the uncomfortable truth. If you don't make time for media, you'll spend time chasing leads. Which one do you want to do? Do you want to create content that could work for you when you're sleeping year after year that continues to work?

or would you rather pound the phones and chase leads all day long? That's a real question. Which one would you rather do? I mean, it needs to be a combination of both. I'm not saying don't chase leads, but what I'm saying is create a funnel that works for you. A funnel that answers questions that you probably in

your industry or in your business get asked a thousand times a day. questions that you probably can predict about what's going to come out of somebody's mouth before they even say it. Those are the exact type of answers, perception and advice, insight that you need to channel through your media andor

content. See, media is how you stop explaining yourself over and over, >> right? Yeah. I'm not saying just because you answer these certain questions through your content, no one's ever going to ask them. But you'll be surprised how good that content can work for you. And sometimes you can drive

people directly to it for certain answers, right? So you want to stop explaining yourself over and over, create content, right? Media is how you pre-sell. Media is how people trust you before you ever even speak to them.

It'll be a lot easier to sell sell in person or on the phone if they've already if you already built that trust. You don't have to build I mean obviously build rapports beginning of the Zoom caller or when you're trying to get their business, but I mean they already you already have 50% of the work done

just from them seeing you and how you act on camera or what your services are. >> Absolutely. And if we want to go back actually our my art director, our art director Whitaker, John, you know, when I was coming up with the script and and kind of workshopping the ideas that I wanted to talk about in episode seven of

the uncomfortable truths of modern marketing, he even said to me, uh, he put in the email, he said, "Hey, you might want to hammer down on this point. This is why radio was so successful for so long is that you had a personality that was giving you information about things you were interested in whether

it's events or music or whatever or relaying contest information but the emotional connection you felt because you got to hear them. You got to hear a real person, >> right? and and being able to see somebody and watch them, they can tell if you know they'll get, you know, some

people might still think, Whitaker, you're full of even if you're being sincere, but okay. But your message will come through way better than a brochure or just a name on a building, you know, like um tenant list or whatever it is. Mhm.

>> So content, use your voice, use the power of video to relay your message and that builds a super amount of trust, right? Like if you look at Whitaker right now, look at that face.

Trustworthy as they come. >> Okay? So media is how people trust you before you ever speak to them. And that's not extra work. That's leverage. That helps you convert more deals. It helps you convert. If they were ever on the fence before, they're probably not on the fence now.

And you'll start to see your conversion rates will start going up >> up up and away. Whitaker. >> And here I'm going to give you a little insight about what modern media companies do differently. They don't post randomly. They don't rely on ads alone. And they don't treat content as

an afterthought. They're going to build systems. And here's what they all have in common. They have a long form anger, a podcast or a show. Their short form distribution, clear messaging, okay, and repetition without boredom. All right.

SEO and youtubing, indexing, um, a home base, which is your website, a weekly cadence. This isn't optional anymore. What is it, Whitaker? >> This is infrastructure.

>> Thank you. Yeah, Whitaker. >> This man is beautiful, Mr. Fairmount. >> Mr. Fairmount. Okay. Yeah. Mr. Fairmont always coming with the home runs. Looking at the modern-day business, media should be your new sales team. And the mindset shift that most companies haven't made yet. Your content works

harder than your sales team ever could. It works 247. It never gets tired and it never forgets the pitch. It never misses a follow-up. And every video is a sales rep, right? Every podcast is a meeting.

Every clip is an introduction. And if you're not building media, you're understaffed. >> Well, that's a good one. Yeah. >> I mean, >> Mr. Fairmount, >> does it get much more accurate than that?

>> No, it really doesn't. >> No, >> that is an uncomfortable truth in modern marketing. And then you've got the big scary AI factor.

All right. AI has changed the rules and I think it's probably embossed. It's permanent. Okay. AI doesn't browse, it summarizes. Okay. AI doesn't guess, it patterns. And what patterns does it rely on? Content volume, >> consistency, >> topic depth,

>> authority signals, >> crossplatform repetition. That is it. If you don't have media, AI doesn't know who the you are. Okay? You don't exist in the next generation of search.

And why wouldn't you want to be in the next generation of search? Unless you're going out of business. True. >> Mhm. And what happens when you refuse to become a media company? This is a question I have pondered for many a night, Mr. Fair.

>> Yep. When you're letting the dogs out, watching them go to the bathroom on the back porch, it's it comes up. Yeah. >> On the way to school, picking up the kids, how was your day? Break the thing.

>> Right. You become dependent. That's what happens when you refuse to become a media company. You're dependent on your ads. You're dependent on referrals. You're dependent on platforms. And guess what? You're dependent on luck. And dependency freaking expensive. Media creates

independence. And see, at Follow-up Media, we don't do content. We build media companies inside existing businesses. We give brands a voice, a cadence, a narrative, a system, and a flywheel. All right? You stop chasing attention and start attracting it. It's the law of attraction. You want your

attention to be attracted to you, right? And you want your business to be attracted to you. You want new business to be attracted to you. Stop chasing attention and start attracting it. This isn't about trends. At the end of the day, it's going to be about survival.

So, here it is again. The uncomfortable truth in marketing, modern marketing, is every business should be a media company. And the only question is whether you're intentional about it or letting everyone else control the conversation. Make sure you are one of those brands that accept this reality

early, right? and win quietly for years. People will wonder how it happened. Your competitors will be sitting there wondering how the hell, you know, you just came out of nowhere and just took overnight.

>> Yeah, exactly. Quiet winning. >> What happens is you hear a new artist break out onto the scene and you're like, where the hell did they come from? Right.

>> Mhm. just because they had never caught your attention, but they've been grinding it for years. They've been creating content for years. They didn't just start last night with some single that they made in their parents' basement. No, >> that's not how it worked. They've been

grinding club to club, show to show, >> putting out shitty work until they put out something that everybody loved. Do >> you think was made just in one night? No.

Yeah. No. Yeah. I don't think Cardi B and Nicki Minaj came up with that in one night. That was probably years and years of crafting >> those those lyrics. Something to be celebrated.

>> So, check us out for more on uncomfortable truths and other information about marketing. You can check out the follow-up media podcast which is available on all podcasting platforms. We are available on YouTube.

Hit subscribe. If you think somebody needs to hear one of these messages, please share it, comment. We would love to engage with you. Check us out followupmedia.com.

Whitaker Fairmont. >> Thanks for having me. >> Once again, thanks for blessing us with your awkward presence.