How Do You Make Bold Content That Stands Out in Your Industry? [Endless Customers Podcast Ep. 150]

This transcript has been generated by AI and not checked for accuracy. 

00:00:00:03 - 00:00:22:15

Bob Ruffolo

All right. So, Alex Jordan, welcome to the show, guys. I've been really looking forward to this episode. We're going to go into a lot of different things before we go into a certain video that I want to play today for the audience, which is just blow me away. I've shown many, many audiences at this point. Now, and everyone's had the same reaction I've had after watching it was it was just a phenomenally well done video.

00:00:22:16 - 00:00:45:18

Bob Ruffolo

But let's just really high level, you guys are willing to talk about things in your content that most businesses are not willing to talk about. You're willing to go places no one else is willing to go. And that's not comfortable for most businesses. They would rather avoid talking about these topics, especially when it comes to like competitors.

00:00:45:19 - 00:01:04:08

Bob Ruffolo

So before we even go into this video and Jordan, maybe I'll start here with you. Tell me about the culture that you guys have at CSI. You're all in an endless customers. You have been for a long time. You're one of the best examples of the endless customer strategy. And it starts with the culture and your perspectives over there.

00:01:04:08 - 00:01:07:03

Bob Ruffolo

So talk about talk about that a little bit.

00:01:07:05 - 00:01:27:21

Jordan Sanders

Yeah, sure. So our culture here at CSI is well it's great. Our leadership, especially Brian Paulson, the owner, who you guys have featured on this podcast as a guest as well. Well, Brian, he is he's really forward thinking and he's very confident in his team. So he spends a lot of effort making sure that he has the right people.

00:01:27:21 - 00:01:46:13

Jordan Sanders

And then after that he lets you do your thing. He's he's really trusting of his team, and he just knows that as long as he has the right people and the right role, that that he can be really hands off. And so that actually plays a big part into my role because, you know, being a videographer at an accounting firm, it used to be more unique than it is now.

00:01:46:13 - 00:02:04:06

Jordan Sanders

Now we're seeing some other firms doing the thing too, which is really cool, but it makes me feel like I'm on an island a little bit, right? I'm not an accountant. I don't have any expertise in this kind of stuff, and nobody else here at the firm has any expertise in what I do, so sometimes it can feel like there's just a disconnect naturally there.

00:02:04:06 - 00:02:16:14

Jordan Sanders

But. But the culture is what ties it together to make it so that I feel confident in asking our team for for these powerful topics that, you know, that we can derive directly from experience they have with with clients and prospects.

00:02:16:14 - 00:02:35:12

Bob Ruffolo

Yeah, yeah. You know, and just speaking of that, had many conversations with Brian and he's echoed that too. He goes, you one of the most important things for him is to hire the right people, get the right people and the right seats, and then just get out of the way. And he raves about that. And I think he says his superpower is bringing the right people onto the team.

00:02:35:14 - 00:03:02:20

Bob Ruffolo

And clearly what his strategy is doing is working. And, you know, I think that's a testament to for any business owner that's watching this right now, how important is if you had the team in place that that's driving this for you? Great. If you don't, you got to get the right team in place because it shouldn't be that hard when you have it should be harder on this position to figure out where are we going to be doing and how we create great creative and and when the market and the win the trust, we got to get the right people in those positions to do that.

00:03:02:20 - 00:03:19:00

Bob Ruffolo

And here's an example of a company doing amazing work because they had the right people. Now, Jordan, who came up with this topic because you mentioned you're getting the topics from the staff and the team at CSI, who was Alex's topic?

00:03:19:01 - 00:03:38:15

Jordan Sanders

Well, honestly, you might be you might be pleased to hear I think this topic, if I'm not mistaken, was a direct result of the endless customers industry disrupting custom ChatGPT custom GPT you guys unveiled at one of the conferences a little while back. And I took that thing and I ran with it. I really I really liked it.

00:03:38:17 - 00:04:02:21

Jordan Sanders

I thought, it is, you know, I still use it quite a bit. And I think what I, what I like about it is that I can feed it ideas that I already have, and I feel like it elevates them to the next level, and it gives them a little bit of edge to make it something that stands out and it feels worth filming over the other, you know, 100 video ideas I have in my backlog at any given time so that that is the the direct or that's, you know, that's that's where it came from specifically.

00:04:02:21 - 00:04:24:09

Jordan Sanders

But more broadly, you know, we like to create content around real buyer concerns, of course. Right. So something like payroll to in this with this video in particular, it's universal. Any video or any business with a single employee, right, is going to be running payroll one way or the other. And some of these large providers like ADP or Paychex are, you know, a couple of the ones mentioned in the video.

00:04:24:11 - 00:04:41:14

Jordan Sanders

They're they're everywhere. And, you know, a lot of business owners, I think, just kind of default to them automatically because of that name recognition. And there's some trust built in with the name recognition too. But but, you know, the thing is, is that there's a trade off for that level of convenience. And it doesn't just have to be in the payroll industry or accounting industry.

00:04:41:14 - 00:05:05:23

Jordan Sanders

I think there's there's there's lots of versions of what we're talking about here where it's like large company versus small company. And I think that content is something that works for us. Well. And that's there's just a built in, you know, reliability factor, I think, or built in, built in common interests, you know, with any audience when you're talking about large versus small business.

00:05:06:01 - 00:05:19:15

Bob Ruffolo

All right. So now let's switch to Alex really quick. So we're going to play the video here in just a minute. But Alex so so you're obviously the star of this video. What was your role in it coming together. And how did you feel putting a video like this out.

00:05:19:17 - 00:05:45:06

Alex Wanless

Yeah it's you know it's kind of scary only because you're talking about the, the competitors and the firms that people usually come to us from. Yeah. Or like Jordan said, the the names are so recognizable that you don't want to, you know, smash them. Yeah. Thing, you know, put anything out there that's going to make it us seem that we're bashing people or whatever.

00:05:45:06 - 00:05:59:07

Alex Wanless

But no, it's it was fun to do, you know, Jordan's kind of the creative behind it, but it was, you know, it's fun to gain that knowledge myself as well when we're going through it.

00:05:59:07 - 00:08:35:12

Bob Ruffolo

Excellent. Well, you know, we teased this video enough. So I think it's time that we play at least the first half of it. It's on YouTube. People can watch it from there. But let's go ahead and roll the footage.

00:08:35:14 - 00:08:54:03

Bob Ruffolo

So so I think I was telling you before this, I've shown this video now to many audiences. I probably showed it to over a thousand people in the audience. And every time we get to that point where we're talking about where third party data goes, the jaws just drop. I could see on their faces. So this specific idea.

00:08:54:04 - 00:08:58:12

Bob Ruffolo

Do you know, do you remember exactly where this idea came from?

00:08:58:14 - 00:09:07:22

Jordan Sanders

Well, you know, I think we like to target competition in our content, right? We like to do comparison videos. We like to do best of videos.

00:09:07:23 - 00:09:10:19

Bob Ruffolo

It's one of the big five. We've got to do it right.

00:09:10:21 - 00:09:42:19

Jordan Sanders

Exactly, exactly. But, you know, it's, there's a there's a kind of a a trend, or rather we trend. Well, I think on our videos that, that talk about companies with name recognition. So we're kind of riding on the backs of that a little bit, I think for some of that content. But, you know, the thing about talking about these larger companies is that, well, let me back up a second when talking about something like ADP or Paychex, you know, payroll data is incredibly sensitive.

00:09:42:19 - 00:10:00:15

Jordan Sanders

And a lot of business owners just like, don't really think about it. I think, again, going back to that convenience factor with some of these large companies, it's it's just they they just want it done. Payroll is just something you know, it's not glamorous. It's not sexy. It's just like it's just something you got to do. And and and there's not a lot of, there's not a lot not a lot more to it.

00:10:00:15 - 00:10:19:11

Jordan Sanders

But you know, again, that convenience often comes with like these hidden trade offs. Right. And that's that's what we wanted to highlight in this video. We wanted to show people like that. There are other options. You know, I think a lot of people just aren't aware that you can get your payroll done at like a smaller company and like why you would do that.

00:10:19:12 - 00:10:40:02

Jordan Sanders

So I think highlighting some of those specific examples of like horror stories, when, you know, when hundreds of thousands of employees at some company or something, you know, there's a data breach and they're, you know, their data is exposed or they're not able to get paid for a period of time. I mean, that's just like, that's not really something that happens at like smaller firms, like like a CSI or something.

00:10:40:03 - 00:11:04:16

Jordan Sanders

Right. And so it's not that we're immune to any of this stuff. Like nobody is immune to data breaches or things like that. It's just more so a matter of like just knowing, just being aware and, you know, all these third parties that are like touching your data and stuff. I, I think that's just kind of a, you know, again, like, no matter what industry, you're and I think any data sensitivity is something that's, that's going to be interesting to anybody.

00:11:04:17 - 00:11:20:18

Jordan Sanders

Right. Because everybody has their data out there in some way or another. And so I think it's just anytime you can kind of pull back the curtain a little bit and make people a little bit more aware of that, that's, that's, you know, kind of a public service announcement in my opinion. And I guess that's what we're trying to do with this, you know.

00:11:20:19 - 00:11:31:16

Jordan Sanders

And then, of course, we relate it back to what we do in the, in the sense that, you know, we're, we're, we're a different option for people who, who maybe now a little bit more aware of this and are concerned.

00:11:31:17 - 00:11:48:23

Bob Ruffolo

Yeah, yeah. Awesome. Now, Alex, I'll go to you. Obviously you were in this video how as a payroll specialist at CSI, are you using this video at any point when you're working with prospects or clients?

00:11:49:01 - 00:12:05:23

Alex Wanless

Yeah, I mean, I to be honest, I haven't showed it to any of my clients necessarily, but it's definitely out there. I know people are watching our videos. Yeah. But I think just the knowledge behind it, it's helpful. You know, if a client says there, oh, they're going to transition out to ATP or something.

00:12:05:23 - 00:12:06:19

Bob Ruffolo

Like so.

00:12:06:20 - 00:12:14:21

Alex Wanless

You know, then I yeah, yeah, you can use that and just say, you know, it might look like the grass is greener, but it's probably not.

00:12:14:22 - 00:12:35:01

Bob Ruffolo

Yeah. Just understand what you're about to get into. Right. It's like listen, you got to make the decision that's right for your business. And if cost is the most important thing to you. And I could be wrong in this, I, I've been, I think, assuming that these large box retailers, a payroll companies are probably a little less expensive than maybe a boutique firm might be.

00:12:35:02 - 00:12:38:15

Bob Ruffolo

It might correct in saying that or am I wrong in saying that.

00:12:38:17 - 00:12:56:18

Alex Wanless

You know, yes and no. Sometimes they they offer what I've heard at least, is they offer really good specials, right, to get you in the door, but then their customer service is just horrible. Yeah. So you're maybe paying a little bit less, but you're not getting the service that you would with a small firm like CSI.

00:12:56:19 - 00:13:07:10

Bob Ruffolo

I think Jordan just has another topic for a video. If you haven't created that already, it's going to reviews and finding people complaining, hey, they got me in the door. The special my price went up and is showing that, okay.

00:13:07:12 - 00:13:26:08

Jordan Sanders

We're headed. We got we got some videos like that already. And you know the thing I'll say on that. So you're talking about cost right now. So we we have two sides of the business if you want to put it that way. You know there's accounting and payroll right. And there's differences between those things. What we do, we talk about more on the accounting or bookkeeping side is like one 800 accountant okay.

00:13:26:09 - 00:13:48:22

Jordan Sanders

And that's like very synonymous. That's like very similar to like an ATP or Paychex. Just again, on the accounting or bookkeeping side. Now when you talk about cost, the cost difference for something like one 800 accountant versus a monthly accounting firm like CSI, they are cheaper. The large national providers are going to be much cheaper, and they're going to have really slick sales teams who are going to, like Alex mentioned, you know, have these specials get you in the door.

00:13:49:04 - 00:14:13:11

Jordan Sanders

But the thing about payroll, actually, that's interesting is these large national providers, they're really not that much cheaper like or if at all, than a firm like Arts. And that's another thing that like people just aren't really aware of. So so I think that's important. And the other thing I'll say to just a little bit more on like why we talk about these topics and these firms, we get a lot, a lot, a lot of clients who come to us after working with with guys like these, whether it's whether it's on the payroll or the accounting side.

00:14:13:12 - 00:14:37:00

Jordan Sanders

Right. And so they're there claims what they tell us. What they say to our sales team is like in our in our service team is, you know, they are saying the exact same things that you can go look on any like if you go look on Yelp, if you go look on Trustpilot, any review site, you know, whatever it is, it takes only 30s to see that these a lot of these big companies have really, really poor reputations.

00:14:37:00 - 00:14:55:10

Jordan Sanders

And so, you know, it's not that we're trying to bash them either. Of course we want to be unbiased. It's just it's almost as if we'd have to go out of our way to like, not talk about their poor reputation in that sense. So and I feel like it's fair game. And as long as it's not like directly, you know, bashing somebody.

00:14:55:11 - 00:15:02:00

Jordan Sanders

Right, which we're not doing, it's just it's just making very publicly available information that much more public.

00:15:02:01 - 00:15:23:09

Bob Ruffolo

And you're curating this information. It is out there. And your job as I mean, I think that's the way CSI views yourself first as an educator to the market, that we have to help buyers make smart and good decisions for them, even if it means not choosing us. We have to make sure that we're being honest, we're being transparent.

00:15:23:10 - 00:16:04:22

Bob Ruffolo

And that's I think how CSI views yourself is that you're you're putting out honest and transparent information that educates the buyer. And the interesting part is that you guys are curating this information. You're getting the data. You have data from people switching from these companies over to you, and you can use that. This reminds me of Steve over at Yale Appliance, and I think this is probably most relevant example to what you guys are doing in the philosophies that you have is the old Yale appliance story, where, you know, he sells appliances and he also services appliances, so he knows which appliances are the most serviced and the ones that are least serviced.

00:16:05:01 - 00:16:24:06

Bob Ruffolo

Because he's in thousands of homes a year, he has all the data, and he was willing to publish that, even though his vendors didn't like that. But he didn't care because all he cared about was, what does my buyer care about the most? They don't want to make a mistake. They don't want to buy an appliance or a brand that's going to break down or have to be serviced over and over and over again.

00:16:24:06 - 00:16:43:16

Bob Ruffolo

It's one of the most popular questions he got, so he was willing to lean in and just answer the question buyers cared about the most. And because he was willing to do that, they loved him. They trusted him. And his business has grown five X since he started embracing that. They ask, you answered philosophy. So I think you guys are really right on the same track there.

00:16:43:18 - 00:17:04:05

Bob Ruffolo

Now, Jordan, you said you had other pieces of content you've been working on. That's along the same lines. What other videos or pieces of content have you guys put out that you felt was very disruptive or bold, or things that the audience can learn from, like we should really be doing content like CSI is doing that's that's really bold and disruptive.

00:17:04:06 - 00:17:06:06

Bob Ruffolo

What else have you guys been working on?

00:17:06:08 - 00:17:23:02

Jordan Sanders

Yeah, sure. So, you know, I mentioned videos on one end and accountant. That's a big one that drives a lot of website traffic for us. You know, what we find is that oftentimes a lot of the people who visit our site after viewing a video like that are a little bit too small to work with us, and that's okay.

00:17:23:04 - 00:17:44:15

Jordan Sanders

They, you know, they have that kind of a different business model to in a sense. So that's kind of who they attract. But we think it's worthwhile to still talk about that because we kind of view videos like this as like seed planting. Right. These are, these are these are good starting points for for new business owners, new entrepreneurs who know that they need some kind of accounting or bookkeeping or payroll system in place, but they just really don't know where to start.

00:17:44:15 - 00:18:04:20

Jordan Sanders

And these, these options like these, you know, ADP or one 800 accountant or whatever it might be, they're going to be the first thing that they see, right? If you go online and you start looking for services like that's what's going to pop up first. And so I think for somebody to be able to, you know, see a little bit more of a critical eye on, on on that at the, at the front end.

00:18:04:20 - 00:18:19:22

Jordan Sanders

And then also give them, you know, all their options available to them, even if it's not right for the stage of their at now. Again, it's just it kind of plants the seat in their mind that there's there's more out there than just like the Walmart version of it right. Of whatever whatever it is you're looking for.

00:18:20:00 - 00:18:46:06

Bob Ruffolo

Yeah. You know, I think as a viewer watching this episode right now, there's probably a very common question that people are asking. It's like, is this okay to call out your competitors? How do we do this safely? How do we protect the company? Are we doing anything at risk? What's the general philosophy at CSI when it comes to calling out one 800 accountants or calling out Paychex or ADP because you're doing it?

00:18:46:08 - 00:18:51:23

Bob Ruffolo

Has anyone from those companies reached out to you? You worry about a cease and desist or anything like that?

00:18:52:01 - 00:19:13:16

Jordan Sanders

Well, now that you put it in my head, maybe a little bit more than I was before, but no, you know, I don't I don't think there's anything there to, to be, you know, that I would take back anything there that I wouldn't say, like. Yeah. To their face, you know what I mean? And it's not, it's not like us being again, bashing them or even having a rude tone or anything like that.

00:19:13:17 - 00:19:27:17

Jordan Sanders

I mean, we even say in these videos who oftentimes like who they are a good fit for, because if you are one of these, you know, if you're just a startup and you're just like, really small and you just don't have the need for like a robust monthly accounting service, well, one 800 account might might be exactly what you need.

00:19:27:18 - 00:19:42:05

Jordan Sanders

It's just here's the deal. Don't expect great customer service. Don't expect a long time, you know, rep who stays with you and like, understands your business. And sometimes people will get lucky and get that too. You know, there are good people working at these companies and that's and that's great.

00:19:42:05 - 00:19:45:10

Bob Ruffolo

So yeah, I mean the John philosophy. Oh I'm sorry. Go ahead. Alex.

00:19:45:15 - 00:20:00:18

Alex Wanless

No, I was just going to say, I think putting this information out there is really helpful to our clients as well, even if, even if they don't choose us in the end, you know, they might keep us in mind because we give them other options. We say, hey, if we're not a good fit for you, this is what I would recommend.

00:20:00:18 - 00:20:19:12

Alex Wanless

Or like Durden said, if you want to do A11 800 counts, go ahead. And if you know you end up growing and you you fit more into our business model, then come back to us. And we don't have a problem saying that to people. And I think that helps us gain trust and, you know, the business eventually.

00:20:19:12 - 00:20:35:22

Bob Ruffolo

Yeah, it's having that mindset. I think this is a really good mindset for anybody from a marketing mindset. It's going to help the tone of your content. The style of content is going to help your sales process. If you feel like you're not coming from a place of scarcity where like, oh my God, we have to win every deal.

00:20:36:02 - 00:20:54:18

Bob Ruffolo

We have to win every lead off our website. But we come from a mindset of abundance that, you know we're good. If we're not the right fit for you, that's not a problem. There's so many other other companies that you can choose from. Its most important that you choose the company. It's right for you when you just have that mindset as a company and you bring that tone to your marketing, things change.

00:20:54:19 - 00:21:16:15

Bob Ruffolo

And Marcus has been saying that for years. Things just change when you do that. So, all right, so you're creating bold content. And I think we've heard a few stories. Is there one story that stands out from either one of you guys of like, we did some content that was a little bit uncomfortable, but we had a couple of big wins from it that comes to mind.

00:21:16:17 - 00:21:34:22

Jordan Sanders

Yeah. You know, there's another video I'd like to touch on that's kind of in the same vein, and I think it's the most interesting of the bunch, which is a video where we actually called five different accounting firms, ranging from one 800 accountant all the way down to like a local CPA, you know, probably with like just a couple employees or something.

00:21:34:23 - 00:21:58:09

Jordan Sanders

And, and we literally called them we did use some voice changing technology. We really went back and forth on like, you know, how how much we wanted to actually put their own words out there. You know, we thought about like, well, should we just use subtitles? Should we? You know, we had all these ideas, right? But we landed on just actually altering their voice using, using some AI audio technology.

00:21:58:09 - 00:22:17:19

Jordan Sanders

But but it's literally their own words, you know, like we literally called these people up and just ask them, hey, how much do you guys cost? And so we we had five very different answers, you know, ranging from, like I said, all the way to these big national companies, right down to local CPAs right around the corner. And we didn't have any opinion on it, really.

00:22:17:20 - 00:22:31:05

Jordan Sanders

I mean, at the end of the video, there's kind of a recap, you know, but it's it's we let them put it in their own words, you know, and, and the experience that we did have for anybody curious. Right. I would urge you to watch the video I guess, but. Well, you know, we.

00:22:31:05 - 00:22:34:05

Bob Ruffolo

Play we'll play it in this episode. Yeah. Go ahead. Oh, sure. Okay.

00:22:34:06 - 00:22:50:20

Jordan Sanders

Well, yeah. You know, it was just it's interesting too, because we were talking about how a lot of these large companies have these really good sales teams. Right. And that's what you'll see too, even if you just read online comments like, oh man, their sales team was great. They got me hillclimb and sinker. But like now they're now they ghosted me, you know.

00:22:50:22 - 00:23:05:10

Jordan Sanders

So that and the sales guy one 800 counting like he was really good. He knew his stuff. He answered everything very directly. And we were very proud of him, actually, because of how transparent he was on price. You know, he talked about it right away. He wasn't hesitant about it. Whereas some of these smaller firms were a little bit more guarded.

00:23:05:12 - 00:23:20:19

Jordan Sanders

You know, about that or maybe not even necessarily guarded, but they just needed much more information. They were much more thorough. And we appreciated that, that approach to but none of it really fit right into the bucket of like, the endless customers philosophy. We felt.

00:23:20:19 - 00:25:34:07

Bob Ruffolo

So that's great. Well, why don't we take a second? Let's watch that video now.

00:25:34:09 - 00:25:37:01

Bob Ruffolo

I think you guys made that for your award as well, right?

00:25:37:02 - 00:25:38:02

Jordan Sanders

I think so, yeah.

00:25:38:03 - 00:25:43:19

Bob Ruffolo

Yeah, I think you just made both of these, and I think I just fell in love with the first one. When I first saw, I was like, oh my gosh, everybody that one.

00:25:43:19 - 00:25:45:23

Jordan Sanders

So yeah yeah yeah for sure.

00:25:46:00 - 00:25:46:07

Bob Ruffolo

All right.

00:25:46:08 - 00:26:01:08

Jordan Sanders

So I guess we did. Oh I'm sorry. I was just going to say I guess I didn't really talk about wins necessarily from these, but you know, you know, I guess one thing I'll say just on the video about the payroll data, it doesn't have a lot of views on YouTube. You know, it's not been like a huge needle mover for us by any means.

00:26:01:08 - 00:26:23:18

Jordan Sanders

But it's part of this broader strategy that we have about talking about competition and and calling out people by name. Two and I don't even want to say calling out. It's kind of harsh language, maybe, but but, you know, just mentioning them by name and just being honest about their reputations. And, you know, one thing about the video where we called around to accounting firms that video has, does, does get more traction for us.

00:26:23:18 - 00:26:45:13

Jordan Sanders

And we do hear from people who call in talking about it. And we've even had like other accountants like reach out just to say like, wow, this video was like really incredible. I think that happened like twice actually, which was which was interesting. They just like literally contacted us to say like, wow, we really appreciated like how how thorough and transparent or like how just how honest it was or whatever.

00:26:45:15 - 00:26:46:21

Jordan Sanders

Yeah. And yeah.

00:26:46:22 - 00:27:19:19

Bob Ruffolo

And you know, in this age where, you know, we're moving from SEO to or Geo, wherever you want to call it, and more people are doing more. They're buying research in AI. And AI consumes data differently than, than search engines do. Your brand matters so much. And when you're putting content out there like this and people are starting to talk about you and there's there's a buzz around your company, and there might be LinkedIn posts or social media posts or mentions and articles or links to this content.

00:27:19:20 - 00:27:47:10

Bob Ruffolo

All this stuff is giving you brand authority in a lot of ways. It becomes trust signals. And these trust signals are what's going to build a be the foundation. It's building you guys up. So you will be the most known and recommended company when people are looking for exactly what you guys do, payroll and accounting, probably in your local market, you're probably all, I'm sure you guys already are the most reputable brand in your local market, but you guys can also serve beyond your local market as well.

00:27:47:11 - 00:28:12:16

Bob Ruffolo

So this is also going to help expand that reach, which is great because your brand matters so much today. And that's outstanding. So Jordan, one of the things that was really impressive with that video was that you didn't just say that they did these things. There was a certain way that you created the video. You edited the video, you produced it in a way that made it seem so credible, so believable, without a shadow of doubt that this is this is the way they operate in.

00:28:12:18 - 00:28:22:22

Bob Ruffolo

You're you're doing it. So talk to me about your mindset as you're producing a video like this and your general mindset to producing any videos that are going to be bold and disruptive.

00:28:23:00 - 00:28:43:20

Jordan Sanders

Yeah. So, you know, the thing about accounting and payroll is that they're really difficult, like visual topics, right? It's hard to to like literally show accounting or payroll on camera. So we constantly try to make these abstract topics emotionally engaging. And a big part of how we do that visually is like in this instance is by showing proof, right.

00:28:43:21 - 00:29:12:17

Jordan Sanders

So we show we show like screenshots, right, of reviews. We show like Google Snippets. We show, you know, real, real stories, real people's words. We put it, let people put it in their own words and just kind of let it sit. Right. And I think that's more powerful oftentimes than, than using your own opinion because we're just we're just kind of like displaying public consensus on on something versus being like, you know, really bias or something.

00:29:12:18 - 00:29:13:02

Jordan Sanders

Right?

00:29:13:03 - 00:29:31:12

Bob Ruffolo

Well, there's there's facts or data. There's proof they they can't deny it. It's right there. All you're doing is surfacing it and saying, hey, if you're going to going to go with a company like this, just be prepared for this. That's all you're saying. Which is they can't deny it. What are they going to say? You're you're showing what's in our policies that we show everyone else.

00:29:31:13 - 00:29:33:21

Bob Ruffolo

Right. They can't complain about that, right?

00:29:33:21 - 00:29:56:05

Jordan Sanders

Yeah, yeah. And you know, one thing I do like about this video, after watching it back recently, was at the end, it has five questions. I think it's five questions that you that you should ask your payroll provider before you sign up with them. And I love how Alex and the video goes. And yes, actually ask these out loud when you're hiring them, because if they don't have a good answer for them or they're really guarded or cagey about it, that's a red flag, you know?

00:29:56:11 - 00:30:15:03

Jordan Sanders

So in the answer can be it doesn't have to be a perfect answer. It doesn't have to be. There is no risk. Right. That's actually probably a red flag in and of itself. Like anybody who's honest should tell you the real risks involved. But if they if they don't want to tell you anything, then yeah, it's not probably good news.

00:30:15:05 - 00:30:46:04

Bob Ruffolo

Going back, maybe we'll put this in. We're talking before about protecting the company. And one of the things that we've learned, especially as we're working with clients and talking about, you know, when we're talking about competitors, what should we avoid and where are we safe? And generally, as long as whatever you're doing is factual and backed with data and you can't deny it's public information, you're just presenting information and you're just you're not slandering the company.

00:30:46:04 - 00:31:05:00

Bob Ruffolo

You're not bashing them. You're just being honest with the audience. Like before you make a decision, know these things. And I think, Alex, when you when you did your video, you said, here are the things you should be asking. That was really, really well done. You might want to avoid for the audience. You might want to avoid using any of their IP.

00:31:05:01 - 00:31:22:17

Bob Ruffolo

We've learned that like don't use their logos or anything like that. That might be a spot to stay away from, but outside of that, you're pretty much safe as long as everything is fact based and they can't deny it. So, hey, one other question I wanted to ask you guys too is obviously you've been working with us for years.

00:31:22:19 - 00:31:39:21

Bob Ruffolo

Talk to us about when you're when you're first getting your content strategy together. What were some of the moments where you're like, all right, I think we should do this, but then your push to do something differently. And how did the coaching here at impact help change your mindset and change your strategy?

00:31:39:23 - 00:31:49:09

Jordan Sanders

Yeah, I still hear Lindsay's voice in my ear sometimes when I'm making a video, and I think back on what she would tell me to do differently. So, you know, Lindsay was my impact coach, and.

00:31:49:13 - 00:31:51:13

Bob Ruffolo

I love Lindsay. She's outstanding.

00:31:51:15 - 00:32:17:17

Jordan Sanders

Yep, yep. And so, you know, it did it did have a large part in how I view our content obviously. I mean that's the whole reason that that I'm here is because Brian wanted to embrace the you know, they ask you answering endless customers philosophy. So I think we've gone down many different avenues in terms of our, our content, you know, and it's an ever changing, always experimental kind of thing.

00:32:17:17 - 00:32:38:23

Jordan Sanders

I think, too, but when we find something that sticks, we go hard on it. And a good example of that is like industry specific content. So we trained really well with auto repair shops. We our company actually used to way back in the day exclusively serve auto repair shops. And, and we still trend with them really well. So we make a lot of accounting content.

00:32:39:00 - 00:32:52:09

Jordan Sanders

You know, that is oftentimes pretty general and like related to it almost any small business, but just has a account or an auto repair kind of flavor to it if you will. Right. Or and there are.

00:32:52:10 - 00:32:56:20

Bob Ruffolo

Some dialect in there that they would that resonates with them. Yeah, exactly.

00:32:56:20 - 00:33:13:20

Jordan Sanders

And that's not to say that it's like just generic content that's just like made to seem like it's relevant. I mean, there are like very specific things to the auto repair industry that we help with that. Like we're good for that. We talk about a lot. But I think the point is just that sometimes you have to find your, your, your niche to, to be able to get this stuff out there.

00:33:13:20 - 00:33:32:00

Jordan Sanders

Because if we make a video that is about, you know, some type of, I mean, just an example, you know, you can make a video on like cash versus a cruel what's the difference? Right? But now if you take that same video and you say cash versus accrual, which, which, which one is right for your auto repair shop or something.

00:33:32:01 - 00:33:54:11

Jordan Sanders

Right? I mean, it's just it's the it's really not that much different than any other business per se. It's just that it's it's going to it's going to hit your audience much faster. So so that's one strategy that we found to work. And then another one. Yeah, it's it's a lot of the name recognition stuff. Right. So if we're talking about large national providers, sometimes we talk about just even the large regional competitors.

00:33:54:11 - 00:34:11:16

Jordan Sanders

And we will we'll review them, we'll compare them. So that's just all kind of been born out of like many different iterations of trying to talk about different accounting topics and, and whittling it down, right. To like be be specific to our audience as possible.

00:34:11:18 - 00:34:32:14

Bob Ruffolo

ADP versus paychecks versus other options, what's right for you. Right. And gives you the ability to control the conversation. Insert even just companies like yourself into that conversation. Somebody might not even realize. They might think there's only 3 or 4 options. It's paycheck, it's ADP, it's QuickBooks. That's all. It's out there, right? How do you actually insert yourself into the conversation as well?

00:34:32:19 - 00:34:33:19

Jordan Sanders

Exactly. Yeah.

00:34:33:20 - 00:34:35:01

Bob Ruffolo

Precisely what.

00:34:35:03 - 00:34:53:15

Alex Wanless

I was just going to say one thing to about, if I could working with working with you guys impact. So I remember a few years back when Brian brought to our attention that we were going to be working with a company, you know, called impact, and we were going to start doing all these videos and we're going to hire a videographer.

00:34:53:15 - 00:35:19:00

Alex Wanless

And my first thought, honestly, was a videographer for an accounting and payroll for I'm that kind of seems silly, like, well, what are we going to be doing videos on, you know, like data entry of payroll or and it was kind of scary because I think, you know, maybe more so speaking for myself, but working as a payroll specialist or an accountant, I feel like you're more of a.

00:35:19:01 - 00:35:44:03

Alex Wanless

Not necessarily closed off, but like for myself, I'm like, I don't want to be put out there in videos. I'm not comfortable with it. And Jordan makes it super comfortable to be able to do these videos and bring these topics and examples to him and say, hey, we just had a client bring this up. I think this would be a really good article to write or a video to do and get that information out there, because, you know, if one person has a question on it, chances are a lot of people do.

00:35:44:03 - 00:35:54:23

Alex Wanless

They're just not asking those questions. Yeah. But yeah, I think, you know, since we started working with you guys, it's crazy, the world that it's opened. And I think we've just been able to really grow from that.

00:35:55:00 - 00:36:03:02

Bob Ruffolo

And Alex, you were great in the video to with a little spoiler. It's not right. It's just that, yeah, having that little personality is so good. Yeah.

00:36:03:04 - 00:36:18:02

Alex Wanless

Yeah yeah. Like I said Jordan makes it easy. He throws a couple things in there. He'll give some ideas and we, you know, put our own spin on it too. But yeah it's become it's become pretty fun. Like I said, I was very nervous about the idea at first I was like, oh, I don't know if I ever want to be in a video.

00:36:18:02 - 00:36:25:15

Alex Wanless

I don't really want to see myself or hear myself talk on it. But he yeah, he makes it great and they always turn out really well.

00:36:25:16 - 00:36:42:01

Jordan Sanders

Yeah. Well, Alex should give herself more credit too, because, you know, she's one of our best stars here at CSI. And a couple of her videos are by far the most viewed on her channel. And I think I think it's a mix of her having really good input into the topics, but also she does a really good job at like showing that personality.

00:36:42:01 - 00:36:44:05

Jordan Sanders

And she makes it easy on my end too.

00:36:44:06 - 00:36:49:00

Bob Ruffolo

So I was like, I want to change my comp plan for like pay per view.

00:36:49:02 - 00:36:51:05

Alex Wanless

Yeah, right. That sounds great.

00:36:51:07 - 00:37:10:16

Bob Ruffolo

No. Awesome. And Alex, that was a really good point to that. You know, it's like what we hear this question all the time, especially when we're trying to get companies on the endless customers journey. And they're like, why do we need a full time videographer. Is there really that much work? So like you guys probably have, I mean, Jordan, do you have you have a backlog of videos you're still trying to get to?

00:37:10:16 - 00:37:15:03

Bob Ruffolo

I have to imagine. Or have you created every video you possibly could create already?

00:37:15:05 - 00:37:32:18

Jordan Sanders

Yeah. No, no, no, I you know, I'll tell you what exactly what I do. You know, I have a content calendar and I separate it by a quarter, you know, yearly quarters and and every, every quarter I have all my content listed. And then for, like, what I'd like to do. And it's really an order of, like, things I definitely know I'm going to do.

00:37:32:18 - 00:37:52:21

Jordan Sanders

And then I have it kind of in buckets for like, here's accounting topics, here's payroll topics, here's tax topics, here's news topics, here's competition topic. You know what I mean? I try to organize organize it as best as possible. But then every quarter I bring over, you know, my my my videos I haven't done yet into the in the next, into the next content calendar.

00:37:52:21 - 00:38:07:19

Jordan Sanders

And I and I delete stuff, I just get rid of stuff, you know what I mean? And so it's like I constantly have probably 50 to 100 ideas written down, but but there's always like 1 or 2 that are like really burning in my mind that I, that I want to do. Right.

00:38:07:20 - 00:38:15:21

Bob Ruffolo

So what are the 1 or 2 that I want to get to this question? So you just set me up beautifully. What are the 1 or 2 right now that you're burning to do?

00:38:15:23 - 00:38:21:20

Jordan Sanders

Well, you're gonna have to just check out our YouTube channel and Eyes glued because they're going to be uploaded.

00:38:21:21 - 00:38:23:23

Bob Ruffolo

Hit that bell. Subscribe.

00:38:24:01 - 00:38:43:12

Jordan Sanders

Yeah, but no, I mean, I you know, one thing is a big thing that I'm trying to get going here is to is to do a lot more client testimonial videos. We've done several in the in the past, but a lot of them are like years old at this point. And I just I just did one recently. It's not published yet, but it will be really soon.

00:38:43:12 - 00:39:04:12

Jordan Sanders

It's at an auto repair shop, which we're really excited about because we, you know, again, trend really well in that industry. And, and I think it turned out really well if I, if I do say so myself. And I'm excited to get a lot of these testimonials going because I think that that's something that almost similar to like the Google reviews, you know, are, you know, Brian, he incentivizes us to ask for Google reviews.

00:39:04:12 - 00:39:21:07

Jordan Sanders

And that's what spawned this idea of like, hey, maybe we should try to start incentivizing people in some way or another to like, start asking for client testimonials. It's it's the natural conclusion, right? If somebody is willing to write a Google review, there's no reason that you can't also ask for like a client testimonial video. And I just think those are gold.

00:39:21:07 - 00:39:28:03

Jordan Sanders

If you can get a if you can get a good one. And we have I don't know, Alex, how many clients, 150 clients or something like that a lot right.

00:39:28:05 - 00:39:29:17

Bob Ruffolo

To make backlog of videos.

00:39:29:18 - 00:39:43:08

Jordan Sanders

There's a large pool of people to ask, you know, for this kind of stuff. So that's one thing that we want to try and and do more that'll be coming in the future. But you know also some some stuff expanding outside of our office. Right. So we want to go somewhere. We want to talk to other people and other industries.

00:39:43:08 - 00:39:58:05

Jordan Sanders

We want to maybe talk to some, you know, people who are directly related to like accounting and what we do. So I won't give too much away there. But, getting out in the real world and talking to other people who are outside of our staff is one thing that we want to focus on in the future, too.

00:39:58:05 - 00:40:17:16

Bob Ruffolo

And you just think about the benefits of the company when I mean, it sounds so obvious, but it's it's worth saying, you know, how much time in the sales process could be spent of like, hey, do you have any references you could send me to? And then you're bothering your clients for reference checks, and, you know, sales team constantly will go back to the same people.

00:40:17:16 - 00:40:39:23

Bob Ruffolo

It's like, no, why don't we just have the videos and we can just send those and we could even proactively send those and say something in the sales process. Like typically at this point, people ask us for references and to save everyone a bunch of time. We have these ten testimonials is you can watch that should give you everything you need in a reference check and just save everybody a ton of time.

00:40:40:00 - 00:40:58:06

Bob Ruffolo

And on top of that, you talked about Google reviews. It's the written word versus video and video, just so much more real because anybody can go and leave a Google review. And yeah, you can have great clients and do that and people pick up these are great that they have all these reviews and they're important and they're ranking factors and all that stuff.

00:40:58:12 - 00:41:18:14

Bob Ruffolo

But when you actually get to see the types of companies that you work with, see the types of companies and you see their faces and you see their reactions, you get to see the facility in the background and you're watching the video and it's like, yeah, this looks just like my business. And then you start having this more human, human connection with the customer, like, oh, I relate to this person.

00:41:18:14 - 00:41:25:13

Bob Ruffolo

I could see myself working with them because I'm just like their other customers. And that's just something that the written word just can't do.

00:41:25:15 - 00:41:42:09

Jordan Sanders

Yeah, absolutely. You know, there's a really big appetite for more of these client testimonial videos from our sales team. They use those heavily for assignment selling, I think probably more than anything else, especially once they get somebody who is maybe like right up to that last, you know, deciding, like on the fence whether they're going to go or not.

00:41:42:10 - 00:41:59:07

Jordan Sanders

You know, there's a certain point where they just need that extra push. And the client testimonial videos are like work like a charm oftentimes for that. So yeah, there the there's like I said, a big appetite for them from our sales team. And that makes me excited because when when somebody comes to me with something that they need.

00:41:59:08 - 00:42:17:10

Jordan Sanders

Right. Even though like Alex said, when I started working here, it's like a videographer and accounting firm, like, what are we even going to be making videos about now where it's at the point where it's like, hey, I need something from you. Like, you're an important part of this company, right? I mean, that's that's a that's a big I guess.

00:42:17:11 - 00:42:20:16

Jordan Sanders

I don't know what I'd call it. It's just a, it's a big it feels like a big deal.

00:42:20:18 - 00:42:21:04

Bob Ruffolo

Yeah.

00:42:21:06 - 00:42:22:09

Alex Wanless

You are a big deal.

00:42:22:12 - 00:42:23:11

Bob Ruffolo

Oh.

00:42:23:13 - 00:42:26:02

Jordan Sanders

Well, it sounds like I'm fishing for compliment.

00:42:26:04 - 00:42:29:05

Speaker 4

Stop stop, stop.

00:42:29:06 - 00:42:52:11

Bob Ruffolo

Well, we are incredibly, incredibly proud of you guys. And honestly, anybody in the endless customers community that's watching this right now, if you want to see a company that's doing it ten out of ten firing at all areas and you want to get inspired, I highly, highly recommend that you follow CSI accounting. And by the way, if you need an accounting or payroll company, also a great option as well as you can see from from the work that they do.

00:42:52:11 - 00:43:09:11

Bob Ruffolo

And really it's just a top notch run organization. I think the world of Brian, I think the world of your entire team, we're so honored that we get to be in this community together with you. You're doing amazing work, and I'm really excited for the next year for you because you guys have the right mindset. You have the right people, the right philosophies.

00:43:09:12 - 00:43:25:22

Bob Ruffolo

Just push the boundaries even further and really just disrupt the entire industry because you're talking about things no one else is talking about, and it needs to be talked about. You're doing it. All right. So thank you guys for joining us today. And we'll see you guys in Hartford in a few months.

00:43:26:00 - 00:43:28:16

Jordan Sanders

You'll see me there. I don't know if Alex will make it, but.

00:43:28:17 - 00:43:37:10

Bob Ruffolo

Come on Alex Hartford. It's a great city but we'll have a great time. Awesome guys. And thank you so much for being on.

00:43:37:12 - 00:43:37:22

Jordan Sanders

Thanks a lot.

00:43:38:03 - 00:43:38:13

Alex Wanless

Having us.

00:43:38:14 - 00:43:47:09

Bob Ruffolo

All right, guys, take care. All right. And let's customers community. That's another episode of the Endless Customers podcast. I'm your host Bob Ruffolo. Until next time. We'll see you soon.