Interview with Kassy Braganza: Advertising for your Business

KASSY (01:01):
Hey, everyone! Cassie here. Welcome to another episode of “Ambitious Drive” today. It’s going to be a little different than usual because I have a good friend here who I also met in a coaching circle. And it’s really, really amazing because I have been scratching my head with this ads thing, you know. Even if I kind of thought that I understood how things are that the dashboard is just, ugh, it’s just crazy. Anyway. So I have been looking for someone to help me with my ads throughout my campaigns, the past X number of months, I can’t even remember. So this person really definitely helped me simplify and understand how ads really work. And since he’s an expert, of course, well, something that you need to listen to, and I shit you not, he’s my greatest secret.

KASSY (02:01):
So I would like to introduce you guys to Voltaire Pabustan. He is a global business consultant and owner of a full-service digital marketing agency, catering to seven and eight-figure brands—that’s dollars, honey—in the e-commerce and info products space. All right. So he shared also that his mission is to help business owners increase their bottom line revenues through automation, scaling and turning advertising into profit. Don’t we just want that? Well, he also says he’s a Sandor-certified consultant, a business consulting technique created and used by Frank Kern. If you guys don’t know him, go ahead and Google him. He’s Voltaire’s direct mentor, and one of the most in-demand, direct response marketers in the world. Voltaire also has the skills needed to increase revenue through leveraging existing assets in a company, as well as expanding profitability by increasing the performance of a business sales process. This is so true. So he introduced me to his agency where he helps the entire business cycle from lead generation to lead conversation. All right, you guys, here’s one more thing when I learned that and I also met Voltaire, I didn’t know he’s Filipino. How awesome is that? He is based right now in Los Angeles. So let’s dive in and let’s get to know Voltaire. All right! Hey, Volt, how are you?

VOLTAIRE (03:44):
Doin’ all right, doin’ all right. How could you not know I’m Filipino? You saw the last name.

KASSY (03:45)
So what I, what I really loved about, you know, when we met, it was because of the coach’s secret and I was part of this cohort and, um, you have been very, very helpful to the community. And I figured, you know, what is the best way to also pay it forward, but also to let other people know who, what there is and what is this Kaizen agency that you have, and maybe tell me more about, you know, the case studies that you have worked around with and why did you even start this Facebook ads agency? Dude’s it’s excruciating.

VOLTAIRE (04:22):
Yes. I love to stress myself out on a daily basis. So that’s exactly why I got into Facebook ads and putting up an advertising agency. It was just, it’s never been one of those things where, you know, you grow up and say, I want to be a marketer when I grow up. I kind of fell into it. So, you know, it was just one of those things that kind of naturally happened while I was going to school and just kind of had a knack for, I guess, advertising parties and social gatherings. So it kind of blossomed into this thing of like, well, you know, I kind of know how to do ads, so let’s see what happens if I put some advertising dollars behind this social function, and lo and behold it works. So there you go. And now we’re here, but yeah, we’ve kind of transitioned a lot into the coaching info product space.

VOLTAIRE (05:10):
So think of your e-commerce brands and things like that. As well as a few startups here and there, we’re working with a tech startup right now, based out of the Bay area, of course, and we’re helping them with their advertising and marketing efforts. They’re doing really, really well, actually. They saw 130% growth ever since they started working with us last year. But they do heavy, heavy advertising, which I am a huge, huge fan of and advocate for obviously. So, you know, that’s kind of, those are one of the few case studies, but we also work with a lot of local brick and mortars as well. Ever since the pandemic hit, a lot of the local businesses in our area really felt the squeeze of not being on digital and not having some sort of digital presence. And we’ve kind of held their hand throughout this whole pandemic, whatever you want to call it, and transitioned them essentially from going from physical storefront only to having an e-commerce platform, having a Facebook page, having an Instagram, and building up a following. So, you know, we kind of run the gamut when it comes to services and trying to help out our community.

KASSY (06:23):
Okay. So, Volt, let me just like, you know, zone back into the simplification that you practice of course. And what I love about you is that of course you will walk your talk and you really dive in towards strategies and having to replicate one strategy after another to your clients and not really throwing spaghetti at a wall, trying to figure out, oh, this one is here and there. And I love you for that really, I love you for that hat’s off. Right? So let me back into this. Right? Cause a lot of people are diving into, of course we all know like the digital space, there are numerous Facebook ads managers out there as well, popping up like mushrooms. And it’s just really, really sad having to know that there are people who’re like, okay, stress out about it because they love Facebook ads, but their clientele doesn’t understand what it is. So it creates chaos and so on and so forth. Okay. Maybe what I’m trying to ask you here will be two things. Number one, what would be, I mean, how would you describe Facebook ads and why should people go for Facebook ads as maybe as a client or as a business owner? What do Facebook ads do? And then another one is as a Facebook ads manager, what are really the expectations and how do you actually get to have a good flipping with your clients?

VOLTAIRE (07:49):
Great questions. Okay. So I’ll address the first one, which is basically Facebook ads or any advertising platform for that matter, Google, Facebook, Bing, whatever platform, all advertising is, is just an accelerant. That pretty much goes for any platform. It doesn’t matter. And the key to understanding that is in the fact that you need to have a solid foundation first. And when, I mean solid foundation, I mean you have to have a good working offer. So we need to make sure that your website is able to handle conversions and is actually funneling people correctly. So when they land on your website, they know exactly what to do. I mean, the thing about Facebook advertising and everything is, is it’s—and a lot of people fall prey to it, and a lot of, well, I guess other agencies, quote unquote, I won’t name them—prey on that whole like, oh, let’s do advertising.

VOLTAIRE (08:47):
It’s a sexy thing to do, especially when you’re starting up or when you have a new offer that hasn’t been tested and that’s kind of what differentiates us as an agency as well. We’ll take a look at everything that you’ve got going on. If you don’t have an offer that’s converting already, we wouldn’t tell you to run ads actually. We’ll tell you to do other stuff. We’ll tell you to get your offer right first, test it even, organically, which means it’s that it’s basically free. Just see if people will actually buy the thing that you want to sell, because if you don’t have that down, if you don’t have that offer down, then running ads is just going to be a black hole for you. Because all, like I said, all it does is just accelerate results and accelerate data. It’s not to say that running ads is, you know, it will never work, essentially if you approach it with a mindset of, okay, I am going to pay Facebook or I’m going to pay Google whatever amount so that they can show me who my target audience is, what message resonates with that target audience, what offer will resonate with that audience?

VOLTAIRE (09:54):
And I’m paying essentially for data, not expecting any kind of return or a sale then. Yeah, I would say Facebook will be okay, but a lot of business owners really don’t, or they’re not in that mindset. They just want to run an ad, get sales the same day. So it’s that mindset of, I put a dollar in, I better get a dollar at least back the same day. And it just does not work that way. You have to play the long game when it comes to advertising. So whether it’s building out your brand, whether it is getting the word out that your company or service even exists and puts you on the radar, those are long-term plays. So don’t expect, you know, we’ll just automatically flip a switch, and then all of a sudden you’re like a millionaire overnight, just very, very rarely happens.

VOLTAIRE (10:40):
And if it does, I would be more than happy to be a part of it because, so that’s the first thing I would say. That’s the first part of the whole advertising game is just getting in the right mindset. You’re either paying for data or you’re in it for the long haul and yeah, it can be, it can definitely be a little, I don’t even know what the word is. Not exciting, but a little bit nerve-wracking to see like, holy shit I spent $500 already and there’s nothing coming back. But at the same time, most people don’t buy the exact same day. So you’ve gotten emails, you’ve gotten, hopefully, you’ve gotten emails, you’ve got some data back. So that $500 since it’s just a complete waste it’s there are things that we do with that, strategically with your money. We’re not just blowing and seeing if it works or whatever. So that’s the, that’s the first part of the question.

KASSY (11:40):
So we tackled the clientele. Now, these are the ads managers or so how do they get to communicate how to run their ads on the right footing? Yeah.

VOLTAIRE (11:56):
Yeah. I think that, so talking specifically to people that manage Facebook ads, I think the biggest mistake that I see with a lot of ads managers is they tend to over-complicate things and really make things complex for their clients. And that’s where they lose them. As much as clients would like to know how the advertising platform works. And some clients don’t even care. They’re like, I don’t want to know how it works. I don’t need to learn, just do it for me and tell me what the results are at the end of the month. So, you know, I think that, with a lot of ads managers, they do tend to over-explain stuff and I am guilty of it myself. It started talking about different strategies and what we’re going to do, and it’s just not like that anymore.

Speaker 3 (12:41):
Really. The client just wants to know very high-level step-by-step overview stuff and that’s it. And then anything that’s getting into the more strategic, like deep-level advanced techniques, they don’t care, unless, I mean, unless they’re going to become an ad manager themselves, they’re like, don’t, this is totally over my head. Just tell me if it’s working or not. So, yeah. So I would say with the ads managers to simplify it, you know, you have to remember that the people that you’re talking to this is like their third or fourth language, where, where you’ve been doing this, and for however long you’ve been doing it. It’s your first language. So using these abbreviations, uh, campaign budget optimization, CBO, cloning, all of these things, it’s like the average client will not understand that and you’ll lose them. So, you know, it’ll make it sound like you’re doing a lot of cool stuff, but it really just comes off with like, I have no clue what you’re talking about, dude.

KASSY (13:38):
No, but that is absolutely true. And I resonate with you when you said about, you know, that again, number one, Facebook ads and accelerant, number two to simplify things. And most importantly, I want to go back to what you said about, you know, having to, again, simplify your ads, but you need to have certain objectives on why you are running ads, right. People. And I think I’ve been seeing it all over the place, even in our group, right? Like people are diving into ads thinking that it’s a magic pill. And then if it doesn’t work, they’re all going to cry. And they’re all they say. I spent $6,000 on my ads and nothing worked. But here’s, if you think it’s a chicken and egg thing too, that is also our responsibility as an ads manager on having that integrity part that I’m not just taking in your money.

KASSY(14:30):
I think that is something that this is lacking, I guess, in the business that ads managers are taking in all the money thinking, like okay, it’s easy money now that I run ads. Okay. Did it work? I’m sorry, client. That’s just how it is. But what I loved about you was your more of like, okay, can we, can they take a look at it first. Right. How many offers have you sold? Is it really working and stuff like that? Okay. This is what we’re going to fix. Now tell me more about our system and like your system, your processing, your structure. How do you onboard your clients? What is your criteria as well on accepting clients? Or are you also the type wherein, okay. You have money. Let’s see what happens.

VOLTAIRE (15:21):
I mean, I would feel bad about it if they’re just like that, but I’ll try to make it work as best as I can. But does it go back to the original question? Yeah. So the criteria that usually we have for the people that want to work with us is that they at least have some sort of offer in place. If not, we’ll take it two steps back and try to craft their offer with them. A majority of the people that approach our agency and myself want to do ads right away and they don’t even have an offer yet, or they want to test an offer. And it’s one of the things that I’m like I’m a little hesitant to do, just because it hasn’t been tested. There’s no validation. And in the end, everyone just starts yelling at me because you know, everything is always the marketer’s fault.

VOLTAIRE (16:07):
So when it comes to our process and our onboarding process, we usually will take clients that are between like 500,000 to up to 20 million per year in annual revenue. So essentially it boils down to they have a business that’s working. They just want to either sell more stuff or find ways to automate things and simplify things so that they can kind of take themselves out of the business. Our ideal clients that have come to us are those that are within that revenue range. However, they’re working so much harder than when they had started. So, you know, it was a sense of, yes, they’re seeing more revenue come in, but at the same time, they’re not seeing their families anymore. They’re not going out on the weekends, they’re constantly on a computer. So we try to drill down what things can be automated, what things can be simplified or where can you delegate.

VOLTAIRE (17:05):
So it’s a, it’s a very, very intensive process of trying to figure out, okay, let’s break down your entire business. Why are you doing so much, quote, unquote, busy work? And where can we optimize things and automate things so that you can essentially take yourself out of the business, get you more free time, which is what we all want in the end, right? It’s just, that’s the reason why we became entrepreneurs so we don’t have to answer to a boss or a, and have to work on weekends and do our own schedule. But in that whole journey, we found that a lot of our clients in, in, in, in trying to achieve that target revenue goal, whatever it is, the higher that revenue goal is the more they tend to work themselves. And they’re working 16 hour days now. It’s like, I got so many things to do.

VOLTAIRE (17:50):
It’s like, I don’t know what to do anymore. So that’s, you know, that’s like one of the main criteria. And then the other part of that is we want to know what specific objective is because usually we’re not the type of agency that will, you know, sign people on for one year contracts, although it does happen, but we try to establish a target objective, a very specific target objective. I made 250,000 last year. I want to make 500,000 this year. Great. What amount of time are we going to do that in 90 days? Okay. Maybe not, but let’s, can we try for six months maybe. So at least there’s some sort of specific timeline that we need to shoot for and we have a deadline to meet, or at least it’ll tell us where we’re going in the right direction. So having that specific objective, having an offer, and then also being at the revenue where you know that you will lose money at first, because we’re going to be testing.

VOLTAIRE (18:48):
It’s just a part of the business and you’re going to be okay with that. I mean, we have worked with several startups and other people that probably were not our ideal clients and it just never worked because they were tight with their revenues and their income because, it’s all they had and we didn’t want to do that. We didn’t want to be the person that was like, all right, let’s, we’re going to make or break you. So if this doesn’t work, we’re all screwed here. So it’s a lot of pressure that we don’t need. So we would rather work with people that are in a comfortable spot of like, all right, I understand that yes, marketing and advertising, it is an investment. It is not an expense. It is a long term play. So, you know, those types of things. So that’s kind of our ideal process.

KASSY (19:38):
Yeah. I loved it. Also, when you said about entrepreneurship, right. You have to be prepared as well to use, but also have to have a plan right. On the law. I mean, for the long haul to win. And I think this is also one of those mistakes of entrepreneurs. Right. And I’m guilty though, I mean, even if I’ve been studying ads every time that I go log in the dashboard is just really, what did the, why did thy always change it? I saw it.

VOLTAIRE (20:08):
They want to keep you on your toes. They don’t want you to be comfortable. Facebook never wants you to be comfortable at any point in time.

KASSY (20:16):
So it was like, okay, even if I understand how things are, maybe I don’t anymore. So I’m just going to ask Voltaire. Okay. So my question here now is, okay, so we’ve tackled the mindset and also setting up the objectives and stuff. Right. So let’s dive into helping also entrepreneurs choose who is the right ad manager for them, or when is the perfect time for them to delegate it. So maybe my, I mean, just to simplify the question, number one, what are the right questions that entrepreneurs should ask when they are onboarding or shopping for an ad manager?

VOLTAIRE (20:57):
Yeah. That’s great. Great question. So I would ask them about case studies that they have, you know, the sad thing about today’s market is that there is so much noise out there and, and Photoshop has gotten really good. Like people can Photoshop anything nowadays, which is, which is great on one hand on the creative aspect, but it’s totally sad on another because you do have people that are pretty much dishonest about what they’ve done, what they’ve accomplished and, and the actual revenues they’ve, you know, there’s a bunch of people coming to mind, but I’m not gonna say anything, but, uh, we’ll talk about it afterwards, but yeah, I mean, I would ask them, you know, what their process is, if they have something that’s somewhat systemized so that it is something that’s repeatable, um, in a sense that you know, that they’ve done this before, or you can at least tell that they, you know, they didn’t just take a course on YouTube and all of a sudden, the next day they got an agency.

VOLTAIRE (21:59):
So those will be one of the things and really just kind of do your due diligence, like with anything else, Google them. Google is your friend. So just type in their name, see what comes up type in their name and the word scam or review and see what comes up. You’ll be surprised at some of the more famous quote unquote influencers, or they got some stuff behind their name. And then just ask, ask their friends to, or ask other people that are in the similar circles. Like if they’ve ever heard of them, if they’ve ever worked with anyone like that. So, you know, I, I would hate to tell people to go ask for references cause it’s the same, um, you know, when people ask me for references, I’m like, yeah, I’m, it’s not like I’m going to give you a bad reference.

VOLTAIRE (22:45):
I’m not going to put that pressure on my client to essentially sell me to them. So, you know, I’m a little, I’m 50/50 on the reference thing. But if they’ve been in this space long enough, look for them. They’ve been on podcasts, they’ve been featured on, on magazines, not necessarily magazines, but at least written something, you know, they might have written a blog or an article about techniques that they’ve used or even talked about it in videos. If they can describe their process to you in a simple, yet understandable way, chances are, they know what they’re doing. Those are some of the things that I would just kind of look for in an ads manager or an ads buyer or media buyer or whatever you want to call us. But you know, just basic research if you go to their website and it says that it’s a 404, there’s an error or the website hasn’t been updated since 1990. Well, that’s kind of a red flag. So I would, I would investigate that more if you’re telling me you’re an internet marketer, but your website looks like it’s from 1990 when AOL was still around, we’ve got some questions.

KASSY (24:05):
All right. So we’ve tackled that. Now. The other question would be okay. So for, for our clients to ask, um, okay, that’s being diligent now, maybe the next question here is that for a client, right. For our entrepreneur, before they dive into having their ads set up, right. What are the assets that an ad manager or a media buyer would need so that you guys are going to work well together?

VOLTAIRE (24:33):
Great question. I think the number one asset for the client themselves is to be open and coachable. That I think is, is above all that top holds everything because one of the things that we’re going to do as marketers, and one of the things that we’re going to do is it’s, I don’t want to say experts. We’re not, but at least we have some experience in our field that we’re going to tell you to do some things that you may not totally be comfortable with. We’re not going to ask you to do anything crazy. Just like, hey, can you film a video or something like that, but nothing out of this world. And there are people that are like, Nope, I don’t want to do that. Or, you know, nope. I saw that it was done by this person and it didn’t work. So I don’t want to do that either.

VOLTAIRE (25:20):
It’s very, very difficult to, and part of that is on us too as well, or on me as well, when I’m trying to do a discovery call or an onboard process to see if that client would be coachable, and ask that, specifically. I think that being open and being coachable, you know, you did approach someone else like a marketer and wanted their expertise. So take their advice. That’s one of the, like, I would say assets that we need, other than that, um, add something to sell because we’ve had people that have approached us and are like, yeah, I want to, I want to advertise. And I want to build up my brand and I want to do all of these things. Okay, great. So what’s the product? I don’t have one yet, but I’m going to, I was hoping you guys could help me.

KASSY (26:18):
That’s not how it works.

VOLTAIRE (26:22):
You got to have some of this, like you don’t have anything that you can offer or any kind of a solution?

VOLTAIRE (26:33):
Yeah. I mean, especially nowadays you don’t need a professional photo, you don’t even need professional lighting or videos or anything like that. As far as assets are concerned, like, that’s the huge hangup. If you have a cell phone that can take video, we’re already halfway there, you know, or photos, we’re, we’re more than halfway there and be comfortable taking pictures of yourself or talking, or just being okay, putting yourself out there. So, and sometimes you don’t even have to do that. We’ve had clients that we’ve built up their brands through using slides and they would just do a voiceover. So it really kind of depends it’s a client-to-client basis, but yeah, I would say the number one thing is just be open and be coachable.

KASSY (27:20):
All right. So let’s briefly set ads aside. 2020 was pretty hard for everybody, right? Can you walk us through your own experiences and what have been the greatest lessons that you had in 2020 that you’re bringing with you this 2021 and what are you going to let go of?

VOLTAIRE (27:43):
Yeah. That’s, that’s a really good question, actually. A lot of the successes that we saw with our clients. So as I think every agency experienced, a lot of our clients ended up pausing their ads or, you know, canceling contracts altogether. We did lose a significant majority of our clientele when the pandemic was first starting and then when it really was at its peak. And I don’t blame them. I understand we’re not, we’re not the cheapest agency in the world, but we’re not the most expensive, but I get it. So that’s totally understandable. However, the businesses that we saw grow and are actually now seeing explosive growth are the ones that were in that, here we go again and it’s like their last straw thing, which we don’t really recommend, but they were like, all right, you guys told me that I need to lean into advertising. I need to lean into branding and really just take it as it is. It’s, you know, I’m not looking at it as an expense, but I, here we go.

VOLTAIRE (28:40):
So the people or the businesses that really leaned into ads and really worked like, uh, took advantage of how cheap advertising was back then—because everyone pulled out, everyone stopped their ads. I mean, we saw some of the lowest ad costs we’ve seen since like 2008 when the other recession happened. But of course, everyone was scared. Everyone was like, no, just pause everything, don’t do anything. But now we told our companies and our clients and even ourselves, like, it’s all right, because it’s going to suck, but trust me on this, you’ll reap the benefits soon enough. And yeah, so they really, they dumped a bunch of their money into advertising.

VOLTAIRE (29:35):
They dumped a bunch of money into social media, marketing, email marketing, anything to get their brand out there. And now we’re really starting to see like, all of those customers that either opted in or engaged with the brand during that downtime—when they were advertising, when they were sending out emails—now they’re reaching out to them like, okay, you know, I’m ready to spend, so what have we got? So that was one of the key things that we saw in 2020 as far as even our own company was like, yeah, it’s hard to see it on paper and be like, well, shoot, this is going to be expensive and this kind of sucks. But at the same time, it’s like, we got so much of our name out there for ridiculously cheap costs. And that’s something that we’re going to take into 2021 and beyond. When times are rough or when times are hard, lean into it and, and embrace it and then we’ll figure it out together.

VOLTAIRE (30:39):
You know, if it’s something where it’s like, I just really can’t do anything, then we’ve got other tactics that don’t involve paid ads, email marketing is one of them. Social media is another. Social media is simply going live and telling your audience that, hey, I’m still here. We still exist. We’re good. If you want to support, please support, et cetera, et cetera. We tell a lot of clients or a lot of customers turning to support small businesses, which is what a lot of our clients do. So that’s one of the things. And so I would say like when times are tough and when things are like, do the exact opposite of what you think is logical, because it’s like, you want me to do what now? We’re kind of in a downturn. I know, just trust me on this.

The other thing that I would let go of for myself, especially going into this year is just—I still do this, too—is letting go and delegating. Trusting your team, trusting your advisors.

VOLTAIRE (31:40):
It’s kind of weird that I would tell my clients, hey, just trust us. And then I would turn around and do it myself without trusting my own team. Be like, no, no, no, these are VIP clients. We’ve got to make this work. Just let me do it. But yeah, delegation is a huge thing. And, just going back to that same client, that’s the reason why we resonate so well with them is because I was that client. And I was that same person that like, I’m doing a million different things. I could probably delegate a lot of this stuff out, but I have a hard time letting go. Yeah. Yeah. And I’m still constantly learning myself. I’m just like, no, I can do it. It’s cool. I got it. They’re just like, dude, go home.

KASSY (32:49):
I think it’s really pivotal to that. Even if you are an agency owner or an entrepreneur, right. One of the key factors. Well, I, myself, right. And one of the key factors for me is what are the interests that you still have? Or are you still consistently learning? It’s because if I work with someone who is basically stuck and so yeah, so stuck with, you know, with what were the practices yesterday. And it’s like an ego thing maybe, but for me, right. I mean, I would always ask, like, are you still consistently like improving yourself on other things? What are you looking into? How do you handle failure? Sometimes I would ask my, you know, before I onboard my old team, I would always ask, how did you handle failure? What does failure mean for you? Or they were like, you’re so weird. Why are you asking me this question?

KASSY (33:37):It’s so, so pivotal that you’ve made a mistake and because that mistake will definitely help you skyrocket your business. Right. I’m not saying it has to be always expensive, but it’s still okay. So how did you know that learning one question before we wrap up in a bit, right? One of the greatest questions that I have been seeing and I also experienced with myself is that Facebook is now integrating with a lot of platforms. We have WhatsApp. I don’t know if TikTok is going to come in or Slack also, and so forth, bad managers, business managers are—I mean the platform, not the person—but the platform, people. So on and so forth. So what do you think are the precautions that you should look into or why? I mean, how do you actually not get into that shithole? Sorry for the term, you guys, those who are listening.

VOLTAIRE (34:38):
I mean, are you talking like that shithole that is becoming the monopoly of Facebook?

KASSY (34:46):
Well, that’s one, another one is data privacy concerns. Another one is getting your ads, this able, I mean, people are scared. Right? I heard they’re in Europe. They have stopped actually going for ads on Facebook and some big companies in the U.S. also stopped advertising on Facebook.

VOLTAIRE (35:05):
So that’s a great point and yeah, there are numerous privacy concerns. There’s a new one that’s coming out between Apple and Facebook. Here’s the thing, not a lot of people know, but Facebook and Apple have been fighting since 2010 probably, but they have been butting heads ever since. And every single time, there’s always that big, like, alright, we’re gonna stop. We’re gonna stop Facebook from becoming an app on our iPhones, or Facebook will say, well, we’re not gonna do anything with Apple anymore. And it’s, it’s always this back and forth thing. And it always happens and, and marketers, good ones are able to kind of adapt and kind of navigate through that whole mess between the, the two big conglomerates, but, and that’s their own thing. So, you know, the good marketers and agencies, I would say are the ones that reassure their clients, that everything’s going to be fine.

VOLTAIRE (36:02):
You know, it’s not a bunch of like the typical fear-mongering of like, Oh God, everything is going to be horrible once this new privacy thing, or once this new app or whatever it is, there’s always something new. We’ll still be able to adapt. So that’s the first thing. The other thing too, is what I tell all my clients. Yeah, Facebook is one platform of many. So one of the things that I always try to get my clients to do is diversify as much as possible. I mean, you diversify your stock investments, so why not diversify your advertising efforts or whatever platform you’re on. So don’t just, you know, if Facebook were to shut down everything tomorrow or Facebook were to ban your account tomorrow, most, if not all of my clients would be okay because we’ve diversified, we put them on YouTube, we put them on Google. We put them on Snapchat and TikTok.

VOLTAIRE (36:56):
And not just in a sense of paid ads, we’ve established their branding there. So they will always have an audience somewhere. And I always tell every single one of my clients that it is always best to own your audience. And that sounds horrible, but in a sense of getting them off of these social media platforms, putting them on an email list, everyone always it’s so cliche to say that the money is in the list, but it really is. I’ll also take it a step further that the money is in the relationship you have with your list. That is something that you have paid Facebook or Google or whoever for, to, to advertise to that person. And that person in exchange gave you their contact information. So now that’s yours that that is yours to do with what you will, so you can email them.

VOLTAIRE (37:51):
You can message them. If you’ve got their phone numbers, you can call them anything that you want. So that’s the type of list that I say when you need to own your list and you need to own your target audience. So that when these big privacy things happen or when Facebook, you know, merges with every single major platform out there and then has a big monopoly on everything, you’ve still got your target list, and that is yours for life. So even if Facebook was like, I don’t even like you Voltaire, let’s just shut down your account and all of your ads are gone forever. That’s fine. We’ve got a whole list of clients that we can email and pick up business from there. So diversify, diversify.

KASSY (38:40):
Absolutely. Okay. So Voltaire, let me ask you this question, this is really important. Why are you doing this and what is your ambition?

VOLTAIRE (38:48):
I really want to help the small business owner, not necessarily the big corporations, although we ran campaigns for them, and they’re great, but at the same time, they’re still a corporation. So they’ll be fine without us. I think that I fell into this because I saw my parents who were small business owners. They struggled, um, when they were doing their business and they would work constantly. And they are some of the hardest workers that I’ve ever seen. And it’s not to say that it wasn’t for it for nothing, but it was very difficult to kind of see what that hard work turned into because essentially it was like one paycheck in paycheck and money out. That’s all it was. And it was just a constant cycle. So if I can help the next small business owner kind of break that cycle of that living paycheck to paycheck, and then just kind of establishing that freedom that we all want to attain. Then I feel like I’ve done my job. If I can have some sort of impact on as many people as possible, uh, whether it is a mindset thing, whether it is advertising, whatever the case is, just giving them that sense of security, giving them that sense of freedom, knowing that I’ve done my best to try to have that impact on them. That’s kind of, my mission is to help them as much as I can.

KASSY (40:21):
Right. So, and, and there’s so many people who need help, so don’t limit yourself to this one. Okay. So any last words for our listeners, Volts?

VOLTAIRE (40:32):
Yeah. Call me and pay me a bunch of money so I can help you. No, I’m kidding. Keep it simple. This business, everything in business is just, it’s not as complex as a lot of people make it seem. Um, it’s really something as simple as we, and we’ve kind of broken it down like get a lead and sell them something. That’s pretty much what it boils down to is get a prospect and sell them something. That’s all, it is now all of the steps in between that’s where the nuances come in, but in the end, it just boils down to that and you’ll be alright. So, I would say simplify everything as much as possible. And remember to take care of yourself, take care of your mindsets, take care of your mental game because yeah, this is a taxing game that we decided to play here.

KASSY (41:35):
All right. Thank you so much. You all for gracing us and for being here you have been so much help, you know, and I hope that those who will listen today right on, or listen to this episode. I hope Volt was able to help you as well on how to decipher, and how to do your Facebook ads. What are the right questions, or what are the questions that you would need to ask so that you’ll be able to work alongside someone who also understands you. And of course, what are the things or assets that you need in order for your business to also work and have that accelerant. All right. So thank you again, Volt, and I’ll see you soon.

VOLTAIRE (42:00)
Thank you so much. It’s been a pleasure.