539: Becoming Neighborhood Famous with Fernando Vargas
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Are you truly making the most of your local presence? In this episode, Fernando Vargas, owner of Florida Digital Center, shares how small businesses can achieve “neighborhood fame” by focusing on community engagement and strategic marketing. We explore the importance of optimizing your customer journey, setting up a Google Business Listing, and building strong local partnerships. Fernando emphasizes that branding and advertising require different approaches but work best together to create lasting impact. If you want to grow your local reputation and connect more effectively with your community, this episode is packed with practical tips.
Main topics:
Local Business Marketing Strategies
Importance of Community Engagement
Customer Journey Optimization
Branding vs. Advertising Marketing
Google Business Listing Setup
Main takeaway: When you’re around good people, good people will help promote you.
About our guest:
Fernando Vargas, 39, is a self-made entrepreneur and the proud owner of Florida Digital Center, established in 2020 at the height of the pandemic. His career journey is marked by a dynamic blend of travel, marketing, and event management. Fernando's previous roles include Regional Marketing Manager for a construction company, Global Event Manager for a gaming company, and a nationwide role promoting major sporting events for a telecom company. This diverse experience has been instrumental in shaping his entrepreneurial vision.
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
local business, marketing strategies, customer journey, social media, Google Business Listing, community engagement, branding marketing, advertising marketing, customer service, local events, digital audit, business growth, customer retention, neighborhood famous, business reputation
SPEAKERS
Fernando V., Collin
Collin 00:00
Music. Welcome to pet sitter confessional, an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter today, we're brought to you by time to pet and the National Association of Professional pet sitters. Understanding how to market our business in a local context is one of the most frustrating and black boxes that we have to dive into as a business, because there's a lot of unknowns that we have to deal with. And so how do we take our business and apply it to our local community and learn to get connected with our clients that we need to be and want to be connected with. To cover this topic, I'm really excited to have Fernando Vargas, owner of Florida digital center, on the show, to talk about what it means to be a local small business and how to get connected with those clients. Fernando, I'm super excited to have you on the show. Had the pleasure of getting to meet you at the Florida Pet Services Summit. So for those who didn't get to meet you at the at the summit, or haven't gotten connected with you already, can you please tell us a little bit more about about who you are and kind of what you do.
Fernando V. 00:59
Good afternoon. Thanks for having me here. It was great to to go to that summit in the neighborhoods area. I got to meet a lot of new people, especially yourself and your presentation really had me at the edge of my seat. I took a lot of pens. I didn't have too much expectation. I came in empty, but you explained a lot of stuff. Allowed me to be open and ask a lot more questions which I talked about marketing is which I love to talk about marketing. So my name is Fernando Vargas. My corporate career started many years ago and ended like a lot of people during COVID. And then from there, I took all my corporate knowledge and wanted to support local community, because it's when I found out during COVID, a lot of these local businesses are run, are ran by local people, but they employ our neighbors and our relatives. And unfortunately, if your local business is not locally funded and community ran, a lot of benefits can go out throughout the door. So I want to take my corporate knowledge and just flourish and help a lot of these local businesses around. And again, my new friend Novartis, owner of Florida digital center. You can find us at 954-605-6338, com. That is correct. I turn my phone number into my URL because Florida digital center can be very difficult to pronounce, write, spell or type in. And what do I want? I want phone calls. So remember my number and just put.com if you want more information, and
Collin 02:21
again, that's one way of getting going. How do I stay more memorable? And it's easy to get connected with that way. You're not having to, you know, target clients, not having to remember two or three pieces of information. There's just one, and they can use that in multiple different ways. So I absolutely love that. That's that's really I'm already taking notes here for my business. Thanks for now, you mentioned a couple things about local businesses and small businesses. From your perspective, what is the difference, or is there a difference between between those two things?
Fernando V. 02:53
So I would say, from a financial point of view, for lenders, if you're not making high 100,000 close to a million, you are in a micro asset. You know, banks, lenders won't see you as a small business. Small business are annual incomes of the high 100 1000s, closer to a million dollars. So that's, that's, that's makes it easier, right? Different by tenant stand. So if you in this field, you start walking your neighbors, your relatives, and then you're being referred out, and you have this hobby that pays you something all of a sudden, that someone wants to get an invoice. So you turn your hobby and you just elevate yourself to the next step. And now you have a small business because you want to pat yourself on the back and like, I'm a small business owner, but small business owners do carry bad habits, because you're still using your cell phone, using your personal email, you don't have anything associated with a real business. You're not even associated with your state. So you go from a hobby, small business, and then you could go to an actual company. When you have a company, that's when you're going through the tax, the laws, W twos, contractors, insurance, working stop. So if you're not there as a company standpoint, there's nothing wrong having a lifestyle and just having a hobby business, small businesses earning any income that you want to go for. But just don't mistake yourself as a real business when you don't have the benefits or the willpower to make it a real business.
Collin 04:16
Well, and that that is true, because many of us, we do. We get started in this, and then we kind of look up what five years later, and go, Is this a thing? Am I? Am I running? I guess I'm doing this. I guess I'm a business owner and and it's right, we, I love how you mentioned, like, we carry a lot of those bad habits in we carry we because what those habits are is, it's lack of boundaries in our business. It's lack of having things written down, having policies, having an ability to present oneself as a true professional.
Fernando V. 04:49
It's very difficult, because you know, one of the first things that I tell my clients who are so I take back so you have owner operator is very known and used in. The trucking business. You're the owner operator of your truck. I like to take a terminology and say you're employee number one, and you're the owner your customer service and everything. So you're the owner operator of your dog walking business or pet sitting service, you know. So you pick up the phone calls and also picking up who you know. So you're the owner operator. So what that being means is that you're so custom of you, they forget to see you as a owner, because they make you through a friend, so you're just Dan or Michelle or Rebecca. They don't see you as Rebecca's dog walks, you know. So a lot of people see you as they first saw you. So once you get to that level where you get in some phone calls, getting some emails, you always want to do is rebrand your physical personality, your persona, and do a grand opening. Like, Hey guys, my name is Fernando. I open my dog walking business. You can find me at it may be the same, same same number, but overall you're you're reintroducing yourself as a business owner. I myself have been in business for multiple years, four years open, close, different businesses, and just this year after the summit, I officially changed my profile and my banner with my business, because I I didn't really see myself at that yet in my community level, because I didn't want to be there. But now officially, I've have we branded myself four years later. And it's interesting, as a business owner, you forget because you catch fire, but you forget certain steps along the
Collin 06:19
way. We, we do forget a lot of things. We usually we're very busy running around, putting out lots of fires. You're right, but, but also, it's important that we start with ourselves first. Of identifying ourselves as as the business owner of that, that's where that starts, because we can sometimes wonder, why aren't people treating me with this respect, or why aren't people doing this or that for me? Well, do you treat yourself like that? Do you see yourself in that position and then that's where all of this kind of flows downhill from, from from ourselves.
Fernando V. 06:49
For sure, for sure, it's the introduction to first impression. So I always guarantee, if you listen to this, and if you're watching this, the first thing to do is just take your phone, create your business as a contact, as anyone who is looking for a service, don't reference your name, share them your contact on your phone. So I have a contact, I give my wife out, and then when she has her friend I want my services, she just shows a contact of Florida digital center, not Fernando Vargas. So there's a big difference on remembering what your name is, what your goals are, what your missions are, and not just be a regular person who happens to walking neighbors dog well,
Collin 07:23
and part of this is getting our name out there. That's where we kind of make that transition of, I start kind of doing this a little bit with just friends and family, and then I suddenly want to grow and do this thing. So from, from your perspective, and what you work on, what's, what are some challenges facing a local business, with having, with being online as well?
Fernando V. 07:43
That's a loaded question, I would say, in its and I'm sweating answering this question, because it's, it's, it's a lot, it's a lot to unpack with the onion. So unfortunately, local business does not equal online. Online is too global, even though you may have a a local online presence, but I almost guarantee that your online community is nowhere near your your your geographic area that you can service. So unfortunately, all those online supporters are not purchasers. All those likes and supporters and DMS are not purchases at all. So I always stick with the Facebook. Facebook. I see Facebook as a cola sack. Facebook is your HOA. They've been with you for many years, being before you start your business. And chances are, they're very local to you, you know. So local business, you have to be local. We have to also be socially local as well, too,
Collin 08:39
for the you mentioned about the you know, for your contact on your phone. I just did just I had to grab my phone because I was thinking about this going, okay, so I made a contact for my phone. What's your opinion on having a dedicated Facebook page for your business versus using your own personal business page? Sorry, your own personal Facebook page to promote your business and services,
Fernando V. 09:03
I would say for when, when you're first starting off, your lowest hanging fruit is your your inner circle is your team, is your rah, rah, rah, and they can see it from there. But eventually, people who don't know you, don't know your humor, don't know your political views, don't know your relationship, don't know your religion, and you don't want to cross paths, and you don't want to introduce people to what people already know. Your thick skin, you know. So if someone's looking and they have your personal page and you threw a mean out there, a mean, and it's and it's plain and simple, what it really means, but that new person may not get your joke, and it's tough. So I it's very important to dress how you want to be addressed,
Collin 09:43
and it leaves space too down the line. When your business does get busier, then you can kind of reclaim, oh, I have a personal life. I need my my personal Facebook so I can follow my friends, my family. I can follow. I can post pictures of my kids, you know, or of my own pets without having clients piling on. On there and doing this other stuff. It is, it is kind of a nice barrier to have between kind of you and the outside world, just to keep a little bit of your your own self private. Because we do need that moment that time, as well as a business owner, to go. I don't want to be a bit I am a business owner 100% of the time, but I want to have to act like a business owner 100% of time, or I don't want to feel like I'm on the spotlight 100% of the time, so you kind of carve out that little area for you as well, and then tell your friends, tell your small circle, we'll go like my business page. Go help go help me. Then that way. But I'm going to keep this over here to myself,
Fernando V. 10:32
for sure. I really think that once you're having a game plan on what you want to do, you do want to start off with the lowest hanging fruit, with your relatives and family and friends who you've have walked in the past. You support in the past, you volunteered, you did something for free. Give them the excitement that they going to cheer you want to be part of that support. But ultimately, when people are going on your page, Rebecca's dog walks, they want to see Rebecca dog walking. They don't want to say Rebecca is bacon and Bay a cake or anything not associated with that. You know, you're trying to be an industry leader. You're trying to copy cat, and you're trying to be something completely who's not you. Yes, you want to invite these new people and prospects and old friends coming on your page to get to know you, but allow them to get to know you as a business owner, not as a person, yet eventually they'll learn you as a business but get to reintroduce yourself as a business owner, draw that line in the sand or in the snow or wherever you're from, and to say, Listen, I'm a business owner. This is where we offer. This, what we do, and this we specialize in. And if you come onto this page, you didn't get educated, you to be a smarter when you left. You have any questions, please reach out
Collin 11:43
again, going, What is this for? What's the purpose of this? And having that clearly defined in our own minds, so that we can clearly communicate that to other people, so that there's no really muddying the waters there, because it is difficult to get your name out there and get people connected with what you're actually doing. I know when, when Megan and I are working on our social media and on our website and stuff, it can be pretty disheartening to see the number of other businesses out there, especially large multinational, you know, large, you know, huge conglomerates, who are also posting on the same things or popping Up in the same feeds for a local business. Is there anything we can do to compete against that? Or is competition not even the thing we need to be involved in? Kind of, what's your perspective, your perspective and take on that?
Fernando V. 12:33
I would say, just going back to the Facebook page, if you know you're starting off with, with, with your lowest hanging fruit, which are the referrals and, oh yeah, just, just go message Rebecca. You know, that already drops the leverage down. That really drops the expectation that you're a business, you know. So I really want to make sure when they go on your page thinking they've been messaged you, they can say, Oh, wow, this profession. I'll just email them. I'll call them. I'll follow the steps. You have to train your prospects. You have to train your potential clients, that if you want to reach out to me, you will want me to take your this seriously, then you have to reach out in these terms that I have right here. So when you try to go with local, stay local as much as possible, visit your dog walks, visit the community that's around you, who the relationship that you're going to build around you. Because every relationship gets to a new opportunity. Not every prospect is a a sellable item, but the next prospect may introduce is something that you may not have that circle for. So it's always important to be local as much as possible. Go to the event, see what's going on, go go out with your city hall meetings. Be as local as much as possible. Internet is fine and great. You know, you can have a great online community, but local, real people hire you and not online.
Collin 13:43
Yeah, because that's really is our power there our superpower there is we can go knock on doors, and we can go introduce ourselves to to other people and get out of the online world. Because I think about this a lot. I don't have the ad budget that Coca Cola does, or anybody else you know, being multinational companies, I don't have the ad budget. I can't I can't outspend them on Google clicks. There's just no way, way. So why? Why? Why? Why go that route? What I need to find other strengths and other things that we can do in our business that will help facilitate and help people understand who we are and what we do.
Fernando V. 14:21
So I've been in business since 2020, and I've only done one Google Ad job, and that's it. They had the budget. It was a law firm out of North Carolina. It was referred to me, and I took over their Googles, and it went pretty well. You know, they had the deep pockets to compete, but in the local space, when you're doing it by yourself. You start up as a part timer because you have a full time job, and then all of a sudden you can take this part time into a full time thing. And you know nothing about it. But do you know what bits? Do you know what beats the ad budget is seeing your neighbors walk your neighbor's dog? That beats any Google Click you can't. Buy that we live in a community of 10 buildings here in Wayne beach, and we have walked a dog in every single building. That's that's marketing right there, and then we're just walking. And then when another when, whenever one of our one of our dogs that we see us with another dog and they get excited, or they get jealous, and owner sees how happy they are to see us. You can't you can't buy that. There's no ad spent on that, you know. And unfortunately, these small businesses put so much money thinking, I'm going to get some sexy content. I'm going to boost myself. But guess what? You don't know your customer journey, your Instagram messages are not set up. Your Facebook messages are not set up. Your website messages are not set up. You're part not on Google. So you spend all this money and they're going to go and click and try to find you. You have inaccurate information, your your your name is too long. You have dead links. You're just mismatched because you got super busy. You know, you went from like starting off to you just are doing pretty well, but you forgot steps along the way. So don't spend money on possibilities. Spend money on the infrastructure. That's the
Collin 16:09
most important thing to do, man, because we often, we as small business owners, we often also get shiny object syndrome, where it's, oh, let me try this, and oh, I'm going to try this. And I saw this thing, and I heard about this thing, so I'm gonna go do this, and we end up with, like, no cohesion or connection between what we do. There's no consistency across that. And you said that phrase customer journey. I did want you to talk about that a little bit, because kind of what we're approaching here is this interface as a business between the the online world and the real world and, and you just talked about how usually our online customer journey is a is a big mess. Uh, it didn't. It's usually not, not well thought out. What is it? What does it mean to have a good customer journey for people interacting with us?
Fernando V. 16:56
Okay, great. So, um, I would say, if someone goes on my Instagram page, I know there's the Q and A, I know what questions. I know what's pin I know my customers. And then on Facebook, I know that. So whatever platform you're on, do you know how you're going to be searched on that platform? Do you know if those messages are set up? Do you know your customer journey? So if, if a neighbor asked, Hey, I'm looking for a dog walker, that customer journey is they need something. They ask for help. They go on Facebook. I need a dog walker. You're going to get tagged, you're going to get your message, and they're going to go out to But guess what? You're probably using your, your your your personal phone, and we get an unknown number texting you or calling you, you're not going to pick up. But if you had a business phone number, Google offers free Google line. So when that person text or calls that Google line, you automatically know that is a business transaction ready to happen. I'm going to stop everything to take that call, because if an unknown number calls and you have scam, likely, guess what, you lost potential clients. So it's not about being everywhere, it's just understanding the possibility where you're going to be found. And what's that customer journey look like, and ultimately, what does the return look like after the job is finished? Are they getting a text message with a review? Are they getting email with the review? Are they getting a survey? Are they saying, if you know any people who has dogs or will like something, here's our refer services. So it's not so much. Let's just have a one night stand. Have one thing. This turns to multiple walks. Let's turn to multiple things, because a lot of customer journeys is just be great, awesome. Everybody's on Instagram. I'm going to work these hashtags. I'm going to do this, but unfortunately, you're not going to show up. You're going to be a blimp on someone's radar. Unfortunately, you know what are you doing? Enough that's going to stop someone's scrolling. And unfortunately, you can't predict that. But and if you do get past that, make sure that your Google page is set up, your Facebook page, your website, any platforms ready that you're on, make sure that it's ready to go and work for you. Now, with this day and age, you just turn in AI on and it will just automate the service for you. So there's a lot of services and tips and tricks that you can take full advantage at a low to cheap cost. Now, have
Collin 19:18
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19:23
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Collin 19:48
looking for new pet sitting software, give time to pet a try. Listeners of our show will save 50% off your first three months by visiting time to pet.com/confessional And I'm so glad you mentioned the the phone number thing, because it happens where, when you see your business line ring, you put your business hat on immediately, right? It you your attitude changes. I'm thinking through, okay, what am I gonna do? Changes? Yeah, it's kind of kind of feel like you can't be like Superman rushing out of the, you know, with, you know, ripping the shirt off, being like, I'm a business owner now I'm answering my business phone, and you kind of get ready for it, and you're in the mindset of answering those questions, and you're in the mindset of, how do I talk to this person, versus just the random messages that pop up on social media to your personal page or your personal phone that you kind of get, like you said busy or scrolled away in it's not a good experience for that person who's reaching out. They may have a genuine question, and if you haven't thought through, how do I want to be contacted so that I can be consistent and I can be kind to this person, but also so they can get their answers, answer their questions, answered in an appropriate and straightforward manner. That sets up that relationship. From moment zero, they're reaching out to you. What do you want them to experience? Sure, for sure, for sure. Yeah, yeah. And so
Fernando V. 21:09
as you were talking, an idea, a example, came to my head. So if we all can age ourself, so let's take ourselves back in elementary school, middle school, maybe high school, and we're looking at the TV Guide, and I go, I want to watch that. You click on it and what happens a commercial. But the TV Guide doesn't tell you that this show is on or not on. You just, you just scrolling through, like Instagram, you see something, and you click on it. When you go, there, are you impressed or not impressed? Do as much as you can, to continue impressing someone every time they click, to go further and further and further, and hopefully it become a return customer,
Collin 21:47
and then have that back end care as well, so that you continue to stay in touch with them, so that it isn't just a one time thing, and they forget about you stay back in contact with them. And you know whether that is reaching out through a survey, and as a business owner, that's where the scariest things that I have to do is send out a request for them to review us, because I could get my feelings hurt really easily, because I think we did a good job, right? But it's so important to get that feedback. And it's not just feedback for you, but it's another point of contact that you have with that person, that client, and it shows them that you really care about how you did. You're invested in this, and you want to make sure you're doing a good job.
Fernando V. 22:28
Oh, for sure, for sure, you know. So my wife and I, we have a dog walking business. It was called popping away, Premier Dog services here in in South Florida. But we're our main focus is Boynton Beach. The air that we live in, we've our longest drive is like 1015, minutes. So I've heard at the summer that some people are driving a lot further than what the job is for. They're driving 40 minutes, 30 minutes for a 15 minute, 1010, minute check in, you know, so we're going in over we're about to hit a we're about to end the year, like a year in like six months, and we still have no website. We just have a link tree linked. I know that someone is interested. They want to get to know us, and they want to set an appointment. And those are the three steps that we offer, and that's that we do. And every day we get a Google call because we set up our business the local way, because all our reviews come within our 10 mile radius to us. Because if, if you get an order view traction in your town, and when someone in your town look for something Google in a search engine, like, hey, there's a lot of gossip about popping away, let's bring them up into the communication, because everybody happens to say the exact same thing. So if you're getting all these likes and comments, unfortunately that does not get seen, because people are going to search you and they're going to look for your credit. Do you have any street cred? Is your business neighborhood famous? And unfortunately, a lot of the online clicks and follows are not going to turn into customers.
Collin 24:01
Is your business neighborhood famous? I am that needs to be on a t shirt. If that's not already,
Fernando V. 24:10
it's really true because, like, Is your business neighborhood fitness? And it the only way to prove neighborhood famous is the referral. How close is everybody around you from your your your business address, you know. So if you know, if you're operating out of your house, Google has opportunity where you can hide and you're just a service based business, you know. So there's a lot of things you can do to hide your address. Still have a legit business, because you're gonna lot of these dogs are $1,000 or more, you know, so if you're going to watch and take care of a $5,000 dog, you better meet their criteria, not just a couple likes on Instagram. You know, you have to meet these checkpoints because, you know, it's difficult. Is very easy just to walk and pick up. But unfortunately, there's allergies or sickness, there's. Medicines, there's tantrums, there's behaviors, there's cross breeds between this breed and that breed. You have to be educated. You had to go to the summits. You got to have these continued educations. You had to get certified. You know, it's there's a lot that goes in in your business. And one of the things that I that we offer and our consulting services, is two things. One, continuous education, which is also known as like your value proposition. What is your value proposition? What are you offering that makes you different from others? So what we offer locally is that we're on demand, local, family owned. Those are our three things, and we stick to those three things. We're not to do anything extra. We're just local, on demand and family y'all,
Collin 25:40
you mentioned a couple things up to now of talking about, you know, being found locally, and how the comments and the likes on social media, they don't really surface you. So to talk to us about that, that local SEO, and how we can make sure that our business is being found.
Fernando V. 26:02
Yeah, I'm not saying don't do anything on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter or text. Do as much as you want, because when searching
26:12
your different pages will Whoa.
Fernando V. 26:16
So if someone's searching for the way they can see Facebook, Instagram, all the platforms that we're on, but we want to make sure that all of our platforms are relevant. So when, when I deal with my clients who has a product based business, it's great to dominate your area and tag your location, tag your city. But another free thing that you can do on Instagram and Facebook and Twitter and others conversation, you can add a different city. So when people are searching of different cities and the the time your story or your post will come up, which is free, you have to pay that on Google to show up in those areas. So there's a lot of free tricks that you can do to promote your business. So if you're going to post, tag your surrounding cities that you want to populate and tag around in cities you want to ever send. And that's a free thing that you can do. Just takes one click at a time
Collin 27:09
well, and so, you know that's that's social media, and making sure that we are are optimizing that by by tagging those cities and by using those keywords, so that, because people do search on social media for things, and that still boggles my mind, and that's hard, because that's not how I use social media, right? I'm I'm not using social media to search for servicers or things like that, but I as a business owner, have to remember that people do use it like that, and so it's not, it might not be my first reaction, but I do need to be ready and to be found in ways that other people locally are going to be using it.
Fernando V. 27:41
So the two parts and local is, how locally social is your business? Are you liking? Are you commenting? Are you supporting other local businesses in your air that may or may need your services or your resources? That's one online what we do, and we're always liking, supporting, commenting, we're referring people out there's enough money out there to spread it out. There's no need to be selfish, no need to throw any any other businesses in the same industry. Not everybody walks the same dog and everybody works the same area or the same hours. There's 24 hours as a lot of neighbors and a lot of animals out there to watch, you know, so do what you can to locally, support someone online, and also show up to your neighbors events. Show up to those events out there, locally, pass out the business cards. Support, volunteer. Do what you can locally, because eventually your face will be remembered when someone needs you in time of need.
Collin 28:39
You touched on topic there about the liking locally and socially. What's your opinion on I see these a lot on Facebook pages, like, like, like, for likes and follow for follow within other dog walkers from around the area. Do those impact how we are surfaced locally, or, you know? Or how does that impact how we're seen?
Fernando V. 29:00
Well, I would say, if you're starting a business, there is a fast track to to get customers, you know, and unfortunately, if your business is online, if your business meets the online community means you have a X amount follow account, you have X amount likes, and you have good enough content, then socially, they're human behaviors. They want to do business with you, because you've been you've been vetted through the online channels. So that's one part. So you do want to do the follow for follow, like, for likes, all that type of stuff, but remember who follows you and likes you. You're showing up on their timeline. So if your likes and follows are on your people in the same industries, then no potential customers are going to find you, because no one is a potential customer, because everybody is a colleague of yours. You know. You gotta be very careful who are these falls and likes come from? Because, you know, it's just, you remember, anybody with the algorithms coming out on the internet, you everything has to be nice and easy and comfortable. So if Collin is always finding something on horror movies, they're gonna give him what he likes what he wants, they're not going to show me anything different. So if you're commenting like it on exact same thing, and you're just on the couch or in a bed and you're just liking all these random life hacks, well, that's all they're going to show you. And the people are finding that that's all they're going to show you, but your random life hacks should be how to be a how to be don't hire me because I'm the best dog walker. Let me teach you how to be the best pet parent you can be, you know. So that's what they see. That's who they search in. And those are life hacks that you should be promoting on it. But the like, like, for Like and Follow, follow, it is great, but it can come into Muddy Waters.
Collin 30:52
Well, especially when we can get disappointed when we go, man, I've got 1000 followers, but I don't have 1000 clients, or I've got all these people who are liking my stuff, right? So I think it's just setting those expectations appropriately too. Oh,
Fernando V. 31:09
definitely, you definitely want to manage, like, facing, as much as possible. We were on a way driving from west east coast of Florida, West Coast and Naples. We're like, I think we might hit 1000 followers at the summit. You know, there's about 30 people there, where we were 30 shy to be honest. You know, we're gonna hit 1000 here. And we realized that we didn't hit the 30 people at the summit did not all follow us, you know. So we're not everybody's cup of tea, you know. So a lot of people may not see you as something they want to follow in like and it's and it's perfectly fine, because they're not our clients, you know. So you have to make sure who your clients are, where your clients are, and attack them and attract them in that way.
Collin 31:56
Now we're talking about social media. We've you've mentioned Google a couple times. I did want you to dive into the Google Business Listing and the role that that plays for a local business.
Fernando V. 32:10
Oh, for sure. So Collin, we're going to pick on Collin all throughout the staff. Yes, Colin has a bakery, right? So what town Do you live in?
Collin 32:20
Collin, Springfield, Springfield. Okay, great.
Fernando V. 32:23
So if he has a bakery right in Springfield, people are going to search bakery near me. Is he showing up there? Then they're going to search for bakery in Springfield. Is he going to show up there? They're going to search search bakery. Is he going to show up there? So the three different searches that hopefully he shows up one of the three so and if the last one is pastries near me, is he adding pastries on his on his Google profile? So it's always great to figure out. Are gonna be locally searched? Are you gonna be item search or gonna be organically searched? You know? So the near me is very powerful. The the category is very powerful. And also the biggest one, the city is very powerful. So if you're not neighborhood famous, you're not going to show when someone shows searches up bakery in Springfield, because no one local is talking about you. They're not buying from you, they're not liking you. There's no gossip about you. So locally in Springfield, he's not going to show up. But for bakers, he's going to show up because he did a great ACO to attach bakers, bakers, bakers, you know. So ultimately, you want your Google listing, your ways, your Apple Maps, because there's iPhone users out there, and it's very it's easy and it's free to claim all of these platforms, very easy. So floor, digital sensor, we have a platform that we can sync your business up to 50 different search engines, because you never know where it's going to find you. You go to Alexa, you can go to Siri, you go to Apple, maps, ways, all different platforms, someone's going to search so you have to be found. The biggest one, it is Google. But not everybody uses Google right away. On certain phones. Bing is out there. If you have a Chrome book, Chrome is going to show what, which is what we know, which is Google as well, too. So you got to make sure that you're listing not just Google is filled out accurate information, up to date information. And here's the keyword, up to date regularly. Because if you're not regularly updating information, these platforms are going to say this business is not in business, and we're going to just drop them and make them from other business or being searched. And
Collin 34:28
that's, again, that's a task that we've put on our list of okay, I uploaded a bunch of photos, really good photos, last year, right? I'm good to go, No, right? It's a good reminder for NATO that we have to continually add feed that just a little bit each, you know, is, is there a recommended, you know, posting schedule to that, or is it just going in, you know, once a quarter? Is that enough to, you know, just that we don't get overwhelmed with what's necessary for this,
Fernando V. 34:56
I would say you would need to treat your business like a. Child. How often are you feeding your child? And what are you feeding your this child to this new business? What nutrients are you giving? What is the triangle food looks like? So that triangle can be a mix of local posts, which is like Google, Yahoo, Yelp being those are local posting because eventually they like the cutest that they saw on Instagram, but they want to go to your website, you know. So the you have social media is one which is the bottom, then you have the other two. Top of the pyramid will be website and your your search engine. Those are the three things where you should be posting and it should be got seven days, 24 hours. I on a aggressive level, every three days, posting something on one of those three channels which make different platforms, and knowing what
Collin 35:47
we're posting for, I think that's important, because you listed three things there, locally, item or organically. And I know we've looked at stats for our own business and been kind of frustrated, of like, why are we showing up for that? But we showing up for this other thing, right? And it's, it can be maddening to then try and dig deep, but then go, sometimes it's easy as going, Oh, wow, we posted one time about this one thing, and that's what the algorithm latched on to, because that's what people were searching and we kept it kind of gained momentum with that. Now, how do we re steer redirect that with other posts or with other things on our website as well.
Fernando V. 36:23
I would say the quickest thing to figure out what to post is that once you get a phone call from a prospect, thanks for Collin, how did you find us? What were you searching when you found us? And then from there, you figure out what to post. So we got a call from someone over the weekend from Google. They just typed in, I think it was Janelle was on a phone call, and I'm like, in the background, ask us how they found us, you know. And she's give me the finger, you know. And I'm like, ask us, ask us, asking how cute it is, what age it is. I was like, forget the dog. Ask us how they found us. You know, like my marketing is like, just jumping out and she just cares about belly rubs and everything. You know, the cuteness is going to happen. You get paid the best you can. Get paid to do the belly rub eventually find out how they found you. You know, you just never know how your how your business cookie crumble is going to fall into theirs. So it's very important to ask these questions, to know what to do. I live and breathe by numbers. So if all my numbers are of all my interactions on these platforms are done on this platform. So I know that all my attention needs to go on this platform. And there's a trend? Yes, get an Excel sheet, get a Microsoft dog, get whatever you can and follow the trend. We're getting a lot of calls at this time. We're getting a lot of calls from single parents or young professionals or elders or seniors. We're getting a lot of, you know, multi family, you know, follow the trend, see what's out there and just promote yourself in that way, because numbers don't lie, and numbers helps you go to the bank and deposit
Collin 38:06
money. Our friends at the National Association of Professional pet sitters or naps want you to know that you're invited to the 2025 conference. It's going to take place February 28 through March 2 of 2025 in Tempe, Arizona. The conference theme this year is enrich and elevate. Their goal is to bring together industry leaders with session topics that are idea focused and on a wide range of subjects to foster both learning and inspiration for your mind, body and business. Register today at pet sitters.org and we do have to give that time, though, I assume, like this isn't just an overnight thing. No,
Fernando V. 38:48
it is. If you could go back and remember you're at the lake or at a pond or somewhere you trying to skip a rock. How many, how many skips you've done in your, in your, your biggest heave, Collin, you just check the rocks. Really, putting me on the spot here,
Collin 39:08
I think it's probably only three or four. That maybe three, I'm gonna say three has been the max.
Fernando V. 39:15
Well, unfortunately, that's the same thing as businesses. They have an Instagram, they have a Facebook, and sometimes they may have a website. Well, the same company owns two of those, so that company crashes. Then you only on, you're only on, on on your website. But if you're on Google and on Alexa and on the other maps, your opportunity of communication, chances, your digital footprint increases. And then you start going and going and going, you have to give your business. It's like going to a singles night thinking that someone wants to dance with you. No, you are your business. Best dance partner. You know the grooves, you know the dips, you know the songs. You know everything. Go out there and give your business the best fighting to. Chance by feeding your business what it really needs, and it's attention. Don't think people know me. I've done enough. I'm there. I'm here. No, your great post is going to get unheard but everybody is going to go back and they're going to search something. If you they can't find you, they're not going to call you.
Collin 40:19
The thinking of it is as a accumulation, as a cumulative approach, because that I, you know, you said that great post. You might not get any likes on it, but are you building for right now? Are you building for six months from now, that's going to be surfaced in some way? Did you make that blog post that nobody read but you are trying to get into again, finding that more local mindset about what's going on. It's kind of that long term approach too.
Fernando V. 40:45
No, for sure. So like if I was Collin Social Media Manager for his bakery business, bakery business in Springfield, this is what I'm going to do. Okay, great. We have five employees. It's a husband, wife team, and they have a dog as their mascot. That's my system. That's why I know I'm deep back. Okay, great. So we got five employees. Let's get each employee to pick, you know, their favorite dessert. So that's five employees, which means five different pools of possible resources that could tap in, you know. So now we have seven people posting seven different pool of people, you know. So if Collin has 1000 friends on Instagram, his wife has 2000 new employee has 500 all of a sudden, seven different people are posting from your account. You're about 10,000 different ecosystem to go for. Don't just post on one and let it just go there. Invite people, tag people, at people you it's an engagement. It's a communication. It's real life. Hi, I'm here. You know, we have baker's dozen for $6 come check us out. Rebecca, who is awesome. She started here. She goes to local college of here, because Rebecca is going to feel happy. She's gonna feel awesome. You know, you have a sandwich name after the lady who comes in and does this? Invite people, make it regular, make it personable. That's what you do. And
Collin 42:10
that keeps it fresh as well. Because you mentioned like you do have to post these things all the time, because just, just because I see this a lot, and I get this tendency too, this is, this is, this is the me thing. Fernando, I'll post one thing and I'll go, Well, I posted about that. What's next? Instead of going,
Fernando V. 42:28
No, no, no, no, no, no, not at all. Make, make, make the post on it. Comment someone you know you're going to do you only want if you want some interactions with and on your personal page. Say, hey guys. You know, I just made a great post about the storm teasing coming up. Make sure you check it out. If you don't know, check it out. Here's some other things we've done. So now it's on your business page. People follow that's going to see that. Then guess what? Collin just liked something, because Facebook tells you what you just liked and what you just changed, good to go, awesome. And then guess what? His wife made something. So now her wife's friends, his wife's friends are seeing it. His other five employees are seeing it. And now suddenly you're gonna guess what, tag your clients and guess what? Here's a great photo of us. He had a rash, or she had, you know, the wrong collar on. We educated the pet parent. Tagged the Hey parent, can we feature you? And they post during the problems. All of a sudden, in one post, has a city tag. It has four people attached to it has a real life testimony out there, and it has a dog photo with his belly up, who's not going to like that and want to see and read more about that, you know? So in one post, you just engage in different ecosystems, yeah,
Collin 43:35
and really doing that, cross ecosystem, cross person connections, that's really going to help drive that and what, that's what all this is about. You know, putting all the pieces to kind of, some of the pieces together here for now, are going right. I'm I'm digging into my local network, for my local community, for my my local business, and seeing where I can get eyes and ears and and buzz about what I'm doing and and I think that also helps put it into context, too, because many times it can be overwhelming to know what I'm supposed to be posting. And you mentioned this right at the top of the show. Of saying, you know, it's online, is too global, right? It's, it's too much. If you just view it as that, like, that's it. That's too big of a bucket. I can't do that, but if I go, I'm just it's a smaller area. I can get I can get more connections. I can tag more things locally. It helps it be workable for us, too.
Fernando V. 44:24
So the I heard this one time in my corporate career, you can be a big fish in a small pond, or you can be a small fish in a big pool, you know, or small fish in big pond. Which one do you want to be? And a lot of people don't want to be a big fish in a small pond. They want to be with the big boys. Unfortunately, there's a lot of sharks out there, and those sharks have ad budgets. They got marketing departments. They have an HR department. You're just you your wife, or you by yourself. And that's saying, Oh, guess what? You probably go to college. You know, this is part time. This is not a full time thing for you. You have kids. Kids, you're in retirement, out of retirement, you know, it's the economy. Who knows what's going on. You know, unfortunately, you can't compete with a well funded business that's a brick and mortar, but you, as yourself, be the big fish in your community, because everybody's gonna know Deborah. Everybody's gonna know Linda. And guess what everybody eats at Collins bakery. And guess what's at Collins bakery, local dog walker is posting in his local community section, Pan ever Brett, does it start? But does it go back on the corner, way to the bathroom? Pin your business card up there. Go to your pet stores. Pin, pin, pin, pin. Be Local. Humble yourself, shake hands and do gorilla marketing. You can do the local approach online, but just don't think that there are millions of people. If I just get 1% out of Springfield, oh, my goodness, I'm going to be ready. But are you really ready to take that approach? What if you what if your marketing does take off? Do you have a customer service number? Do you have a return response? Do you have, do you have anything set up? Probably do not. So you want to manage your expectations. You want to manage your chaos. You want to control your your growth, because if you do it too much, then is your business ready to take on 10 new clients when you've just been doing three
Collin 46:18
well? And I get we think about that a lot of it's very appeasing, though, it's very attractive as a business owner, to to look at marketing options and to look at ways of getting out there. And you may get contacted by a radio announcer or a DJ or, you know, do flyers and like, oh, we 300,000 people listen to this or see this, and it's like, it was like, you're saying, Great, if 1% of those people reach out to me, I'm swamped. I don't have the staff to take care of that. I don't have a system or a journey to take them on. I need to grow little by little so I can be kind of putting out those fires and learning along the way, so that I can grow with the size of my company, as opposed to just jumping right in there and then collapsing under the weight of success, ultimately.
Fernando V. 47:04
So before coming on to this plan meeting, I went to my GoDaddy. I make sure that all my domains are active, because after this phone call, I have no idea what, what's going to happen after this, after this interview, but I am prepared that my domains are paid off. My things are up to date, because, you know, your platform is well respected. And if you bring someone on and they don't look like what they offer, then guess what? You just wasted somebody. And then I inadvertently lost confidence in your listeners. Because who is this ad guy, this marketing guy, and his website's 404, error. Can't link, can't click, can't do nothing all of a sudden. So before coming here, I prepared my business. My post is legit within the last 72 hours, just because you want to check me out, I'm there. I'm ready to go because, you know, you got to treat your business as serious as possible. You can't just roll out of bed and just do this and do one click. It's easy. Oh, I'll do an X amount post in the bathroom or I'm at the traffic. I can do this. We all know our tendencies. We all know our human behaviors. We all know that we're captain or or miss, procrastinate, know your crutches, know what you're bad about, and do what you can to make sure you don't fall behind with your own personal thing. Your business is not really you, because your business, you know, if people knew how you run your business, they probably won't hire you because you're in your boxer shorts, or you're in your your your pajamas, scrolling through tagging, doing this, doing that. You don't have a uniform on the couch. You're as come the West comfort company with some cereal, watching some shows on and that's pretty much it. But on the business, you look good, you look clean, you look professional, and you look revenue that I want to call and hire you.
Collin 48:52
You've mentioned a couple times about local communities getting involved in like events and stuff you've kind of alluded to this. How do we take advantage of those in the most way possible for our business? Do we, you know? Because I know, when I talk to people about this, they kind of eyes bug out, thinking that like, Oh, you mean, I've got to host an event, or I've got to put together this thing or this big deal. So how can I as a small local business take advantage or leverage those local events, my local communities for my
49:22
business. So
Fernando V. 49:24
I'm pretty sure in Springfield there are local pet stores, yes, and that local pet stores is probably doing a great job, but can use a partner. Things that, hey, listen, I'm Collin and we have a dog walking services. I'm sorry. I'm Collin and we have a dog photography business. There are 12 annual possible holiday photo shoots throughout the year. Do you have an in house dog photographer? Find a need and fill in and allow yourself to be to fill that need for that local business. Do different partnerships. Yes, you know. So we have a great partnership with a local market here called 518, marketplace here in lantana, which is 10 minutes away driving. And for the last three months, we've been doing 10 dog events a month with them, either we're co hosting, we're in a background, we're promoting for them. We're doing partnerships, we're doing giveaway, we're somehow, someway, doing something. And our engagement spiked, you know, because we're doing the contributions, we're doing the sponsorships, we're doing as much as we can to know that, you know what let's call Janelle And Fernando from popping away. They're great partners. They're great team members. Not about i But when you're around good people, good people will promote you,
Collin 50:37
right? And that we get so that gets lost in so much of what we do, because it is an isolated business. We don't really interact with anybody. We think it's just me, myself and I against the world. And we may not feel like talking to people, or feel like, you know, reaching out for help. We not feel like we need it at that time, but having a good group of people around you can only benefit you and help you as you work on your business, because they're going to know people, or it may just be fun, and you may find something that you genuinely enjoy to do as a way to give back and help other people.
Fernando V. 51:14
No, for sure, I think once you open your business, this is an opportunity to change who you were in elementary school, middle school, high school, college or no college, this opportunity to start brand new, this opportunity to be a new version of yourself. Collin, 2.0 Collin, in high school is probably a quiet person home, didn't have much friends, didn't do much this and that, but him as a business owner. He's walking, he's engaging. He's talking out there. Oh, my God, that's the guy you know. Your business owner. Can be your alter ego. Can be your superpower. Do as much as you can to be that new version of you. And don't tap don't tap in. Oh, I'm an introvert. I don't know this. I can't do that. Well, guess what? You're not in business to be you. You're in a business to help people. And guess what, when they're trying to plan a vacation, plan a funeral, plan a surgery, plan something they need someone to watch. They won't go to a surgery unless they have a dog walker. They won't go to a wedding unless they have a dog walker. You are an important part to their vacation, to their reunion, to their date, you know, so be what you can leading up to their notes. Say, oh no, I don't do phone calls. I'm only online. Unfortunately, 1015, years ago, that have been worked out pretty well, but now in this internet stage, you have to act fast, or you'll be left behind.
Collin 52:38
And that's that's hard, because we go, Yeah, I hear that a lot too going, I don't want to take phone calls, but we need to find ways to make sure that we are available to people right when they have that question. And it can be frustrating. As a business owner, somebody's going to call you and what are they going to ask? A lot of times they're going to say, what do you charge? And you're going to go, Ah, it's on the website, or it's I did the post, or I did the thing. Why are you calling me? No, is this an educational opportunity for you to make a relation, start building that relationship with that person, and when we can start viewing it like that, as opposed to an inconvenience? Because guess what? They're calling you to in hopes that they will give you money. So if nothing else, from a business perspective, answer the question,
Fernando V. 53:20
no, for sure, for sure, for a lot of these businesses, dog walker in Springfield is probably like, $20 you know, a click. So if you're paying for ads and in your keyword is dog walker in Springfield, someone's going to click on that you just got charged 20 bucks, $20 but if someone calls you for free and say, Hey, how much you charging? Hey, how you doing? I'm Collin from Collins dog walks. How'd you find us? Oh, I found her at Google. Okay, Google, okay. Where were you searching? Dog walker in Springfield. Okay, good to go. Okay, yeah. How can we help you? Okay, yeah, yeah. Answer the question to the question that you want to be asked. Yes. They're asking how much it costs, but control the situation, control the movement, control the conversation, and find a way to get there. Because you don't want to say, Oh, we charge this whenever that look you can here's a chance to upsell them. There's a chance to add more to the service. You know, what do you need to walk for? Oh, we're planning for this isn't okay? Great. Well, let me introduce to our walk package. You can buy 10 at a time and then use this as it go. And when you buy 10 at a time, that gives you opportunity to cancel within 24 hours. But if you buy one at a time, guess what? We need one week advance, you know? So there's a bunch of opportunities because they called you. You did the marketing, you did the posting this, and you're going to complain that they called you and and and then they didn't know what you offer. Who cares? They called you. Guess what you want? You want your phone to ring now. Here is your 10 seconds to keep them on the line, and if you came to the 30, there's a few labs in there. It's about customer service. Allow the person who's calling you to be a customer, and allow yourself to be a representative of your business. Don't have an attitude. Because they're they're not educated. Guess what? They don't know who you are. You're a new business. You know? It's like, you know, you go to Starbucks, you know the system, yeah, you know how to order because Starbucks taught you how to order. Talk Starbucks, I taught you what to do. Starbucks gave you their language. But if you're a new business, unfortunately, they don't know who you are until year five. If that,
Collin 55:30
yeah, and again, they just because a lot of people have never used a quote, unquote professional service or dog walker. A lot of people have, don't know what to expect, or haven't had to do this before, because they've used friends, families, neighbors and acquaintances, right? They don't have to go through a formal process. And so it's beholden on us to say, hey, you know, right? So glad you're talking with me. Here's what my process is. Can I learn more? How I can help you? Whatever way, like just it's a it's an educational opportunity, and I have found that taking that time, being kind to that person, right, first and foremost, answering their question, it really goes a long way to helping build that trust, right from the get go.
Fernando V. 56:12
So you asked in the beginning, you know, what's the customer journey? The customer journey is in 123455, steps. I'm looking at my notes over here. So the awareness, where did they feel that they there? Are aware. Like, Oh, wow. I have a date coming up. I need to go and look for a dog walk. Okay, that's awareness. Now the next step is, are you? Can they find you, and once they find you, are you? What's your reputation? Do you have reviews? Do you have clicks? Do you have follows? Do you have engaged you have engaging engagements. You know when you're posting, are you posting? Are you posting 90% sales, hire me and 10% education, or you want a 5050, so you pick their winners. Was peaked. They trying to find you. Are they reading good things about you? And what's that conversion like? Do you have a conversion? Do you have a Google Form? Do you have a link? Do you have an estimate? Do you have a an accounting platform that says invoices? Can they pay on invoice? Are you accepting Venmo Cash App? You know anything, so you got to make sure that in the five steps of being awareness, finding, reputation, conversion and at the last part, advocacy, you know, can they come back? So it's always important to be the customer. Always important to understand the customer's point of view. Because if you try to be from a business point of view, you're gonna you're gonna forget about the customer engagement. And guess what? Customers pay our bills.
Collin 57:39
They do, and we often forget that, and sometimes it's no if they weren't on there. We've talked a little bit about online presence people finding us, a little bit about being in the community, taking advantage of that, and then kind of right here on the back end, taking those phone calls. I would like for you to maybe just put that, try and put that all together for us. Of what you know, this, this traditional marketing versus digital marketing, kind of what those would look like, moving together and kind of a holistic approach that we can use.
Fernando V. 58:08
So I would say, you know, everything I'm saying here, please do your own research. You know, everything that I promote to my client is based off my experience here in Florida, Florida digital center. I've taken clients outside of states. I've taken clients outside the country, but before I take on that client, I'm doing my local research. What's being sold there? How's that being sold in that community? What's that language? What's the what's what's the the temperature in that area? So when a business in Florida reaches out to me to help them. I, as a born Floridian, knows what's going on in Florida. I know the snowbirds. I know hurricane season. I know what's going on. So if you're trying to do something during hurricane season, we're probably not. I'm going to tell you, don't have events, don't have parties. You're going to have parties. Have indoor party, you know. So when you're trying to do XYZ, make sure you're prepping and planning on, you know, watch the weather, watch this. Watch that. Do you have posting coming up? You know, are you selling tickets? So it's all about understanding the community. Understanding, is there a parking allowed it? You know, is there instruction? Is there's a map? Do what you can, because everything's a character. When I say a character, everything falls in point and play in your big movie. So if, if the movie is Collins bakery, and I have a character of the customer, how's that character gets introduced to my to my bakery? Did a drive up? Am I in a subway? So going back to your question is, if you don't have a budget, then there's two formula marketing, there's a branding marketing and there's an advertising marketing. Branding marketing is where you're just doing everything you can locally and for free, just to brand your business as much as possible. If you're doing it in donations, you're doing it in raffles, you're doing it in sponsorships, you're doing it volunteering. That's branding marketing right there. But if you want to tiptoe and start. Paying for something where you go and doing some cross promotion with with influencers. You're paying for door hangers. You're paying for Google ads or Google Spaces. You're paying for postcards. Those are advertising, but you have to know that you allowed it X amount of dollars for advertising. And sometimes advertising is just advertising. It may not come into a return of a cell, but you're just put $500 away, and it's $500 I'm going to pay and for printing calls, I'm going to give away 100 business cards, you know? So you're doing two steps. You're doing local business branding, or local business marketing, to the advertising, where you're actually paying for that, for that, that those eyeballs,
Collin 1:00:46
and knowing that they all have different timelines to pay off, but they're both important to do to some extent, obviously, and a lot of times we, especially in our businesses, where we don't need, like we talked about earlier, 1000 new people, we need just a Few that sometimes the branding is enough to get those people in the door, but there is those times where we need to kind of kick that up every now and then, to start paying for things, to get people to start calling us, which is what we want.
Fernando V. 1:01:12
No, for sure. For sure, I think the most important thing is that when you're starting a business, you're not a CEO, you're not a CFO, you're not HR, you're not nothing. Charge what's very comparable to your lifestyle. If you're a humble person, you own your home or your rent, or where the case is, charge what you need. If you're charging for extra income, then guess what? You have six dogs a month. You made an extra 700 to $1,000 and that's great. Who does one extra $1,000 but if you're trying to turn this into really into something, then you got to put everything in play to go from 1000 to $10,000 but that big gap is a lot of elbow grease to put it in there to make a big difference, to go from that very first follower to that 5k follower, from your fifth client to 10 new clients, it's a lot of hustle. There's a lot of attention needed to this business. The business is a baby. Are you feeding your baby? Are you getting this business the attention? Are you holding his hand, or are you allowing this business to drown by itself? Now, and a lot of times, these local business owners meet certain milestones of success, and they forget that their business can't defend by itself because their business is very brand new, and don't understand how to defend by itself.
Collin 1:02:29
I really appreciate that Fernando, and I really appreciate you coming on the show today and sharing how we can become neighborhood famous in the ways that we can brand ourselves and get connected with those clients and answer those phone calls. I know there's a lot more here, and so for people who want to reach out, get connected with you. Follow along. How best can they do that? Awesome. So Florida
Fernando V. 1:02:52
digital center again, 954-605-6338, is my number. 954605633, eight.com. Is the website we specialize in three things, brand, voice, online, reputation and business management. Those are the three things we offer. And if you are unaware of what your business is doing for your clients, your followers, your listener, we can give a 50% off or $50 only. We just give you a digital audit, and with that digital audit, it'll give you a seven page report on what your business is doing compared to others, and they give you a great roadmap. Normally, that's $100 but for your listeners, we'll drop down to 58 bucks. But you always put follows at Florida digital center on all platforms. One more thing, if you're if you're under two years, you still can change your business name if you're under one year, you still could change if you don't get stuck on the same name, if it's not turning out all these underscores and these numbers and it's this is that your business name, this might be your mission statement or might just be your slogan, but it doesn't hurt to change it under two years. If you're into the third year, it's too locally known. But if you're still under two years with no traction, it's okay to start clean, because the first two years you weren't really putting a month too much into it. So it's okay getting a whole new name or some form of abbreviation.
Collin 1:04:12
Sorry, no, no. And I'm glad you said that, because sometimes we can become so attached, like emotionally, to the things that we did that it can be hard to break free and make those tough decisions. So So knowing, hey, you got a little bit of time here, it's not too late. Go ahead and make that big change if you're needing to that kind of helps us breathe a little bit easier as well, so we can kind of go, I'm free to make that decision and take the advice that I get so that I can get to where I need to go.
Fernando V. 1:04:37
This has been an awesome experience. You know, talking to you there at the pet summit and over email, just confirming, you know what to say and how to say, because I wasn't too sure, you know, you know, because I've done, I've done a few different interviews, and it's very, you know, business like, but this, this, this platform that you're offering. It is, it is it's it is a safe place. Because, you know, we. Come on here and hear other stories. You know, is very relatable. And the episodes that I've heard in the past, I've gone to June, I was like, Hey, listen, we gotta add some new things here. Some things are happening on the pet community side, and we gotta make some changes here. And I've learned that from listening to your previous guests
Collin 1:05:17
on Well, Bernado, I really appreciate you coming on the show, and I appreciate those kind words. That does mean a lot, and I'm glad it's been helpful to you, and I appreciate your time today. I know you've got a lot going on, so thank you again for coming on and sharing today. I'll make sure those links are in the show notes so people can click to those and reach out about that discounted digital audit and start getting on the right path today. Fernando, again, this was a real pleasure, and I'm so thankful to have you on and having gotten to meet you. So thank you.
Fernando V. 1:05:48
Thanks so much. Have a good time. Enjoy
Collin 1:05:50
it. Appreciate you so much. How do you become neighborhood famous? By being a good neighbor. Invest in people. Take the time to build relationships. Some of them will never be clients, and that's okay. One of our circles of influence are people in our community that root and cheer for us and want to see us succeed just because we're a local community business. Those are so powerful ambassadors to you. They are out in the community talking about you, building your business up, just because they want to see you. Do amazing things, be a good neighbor, invest in people and take care of your community, all the while building a business and serving people with excellence. We want to thank today's sponsors tied to pet and the National Association of Professional pet sitters for making today's show possible, and we really want to thank you for listening. We hope you have a wonderful rest of your week, and we'll be back again soon. You
