"Immediate ROI" and scaling with James (Copy)

Look, I'm here with James and we're going to be having a chat around your business, what you do, who you work with and the before and after partnering with Vero.

Thank you very much for joining me today James.

Pleasure man, thanks for having us.

Good to see you.

Likewise.

No problem.

Well look, could you please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about Content Smash.

So yeah, my name is James Bennett, I am one of two co founders at a company called Content Smash.

We have our done for you Content personal brand growth agency and we also have our community which is essentially a do it yourself program and communities for people to come in and learn what it is that we do to essentially grow their B2B company, scale their personal brand and essentially build an entire system around that, to help them to generate as much leads as possible.

We've been running for about four and a half years or so and mainly working with primarily B2B companies, a bit in the tech space, mainly in the agency space as well, expanding a little bit further since then.

So yeah, glad to be here.

Amazing.

Cool, thanks.

And look, before working with Vero, how are things going and what were you looking to do?

So things in the business were definitely going, going well.

I'm not going to pretend things weren't going kind of well.

We had built up a really cool lead generation system in house.

That's what we do and that's our expertise.

So we already had a fairly solid outbound system in place to some extent.

But the issues for us basically came up when we were trying to scale that system.

So we're currently running about 250, 300 or so domains and we've only just recently scaled up to that with your guys assistance.

And it wasn't until we realized that the sheer volume of what we were managing and how messy and disorganizing it was getting, that we really benefited from you guys a lot in terms of helping us to systematize what it is that we were actually doing, what we were building out.

and in addition to that obviously just getting things in order and making it seamless at scale.

For most farmers, they know when you scale it just gets very, very chaotic very, very quickly and out of hand.

You guys basically help us to box that in and not only that, you guys helped us to essentially revamp our scripts, come up with new ideas, new fresh ideas.

It was already working well but what we were really looking for was a fresh set of eyes to come in, give us new ideas, new inspiration, both from the scripts and writing perspective and also thinking about, based on what you know about our company, the results that we get, potential new opportunities, new audiences that we go ahead and target.

So yeah, it's, it's been absolutely seamless so far, guys.

Amazing.

Good to hear.

And just on that, what was the kind of setup and the onboarding process like?

You know, completely from your perspective?

Yeah, honestly I've worked with a lot of different agencies and providers and freelancers and I found that a lot of people tend to just over complicate everything and it leaves you feeling quite lost on what it is, who's doing what and what's going on with you guys.

It was the opposite.

It was super simple, super chill, but also very, very thorough in understanding exactly what I need to do step by step.

There were very few, if any questions left.

Outstanding.

And you guys have panned through the whole thing.

So I have absolutely no issues and full recommendation around the onboarding process.

And we actually pinched a few guys, a few things from you guys as well.

So thanks for that.

No problem.

No, perfect.

Good to hear.

And look, in terms of having the outbound kind of systemized and running on autopilot kind of in the background, what's that meant for your business from a time and effort saving perspective?

Yeah, well we, we've always said that outbound is just one part of an entire system.

So when we have these other, these other tools happening, we have our personal brand, we have, you know, content, we have other means of getting in touch with people happening, it's all good.

But when we have the, the outbound in for us, that's really like the fuel to the fire that makes things happen.

So the more we can scale that, the more visibility we get on our brand.

So as a whole, by just increasing and systematizing outbound, that's had a huge effect on all other areas of the business because more people end up seeing the personal brand, more people are likely to come and check out the content, join up to the newsletter, maybe they'll like see a DM that we send and then be kind of match the two together because we're sending out such volume.

So yeah, it's been, it's been absolutely killer and really essentially raised the minimum bar of the marketing and sales activity that's happening within the company.

Amazing.

And look, now that everything's humming, how are you finding the kind of communication, the project management and just like the overall experience working with us, you know, messaging us on Slack and just like general communication, that type of thing?

Yeah, super chill.

You guys are super friendly, super personal.

I feel like a bit of a really solid relationship that I really believe will continue even after you guys are done with the initial setup because I know it's like just a set project kind of thing.

So I hope you guys can figure out some sort of way to help us on an ongoing basis.

Would be very, very helpful as well.

But yeah, the relationship is solid.

You guys are awesome at communication.

Epic.

Love working with you guys.

Perfect.

Thanks so much.

And look, did anything kind of surprise you in a good way about how we operated?

compared to the others that you've worked with in the past?

Yeah, it's two things.

It's quicker than I thought it was going to be and the results were better than I thought they were going to be.

So in terms of speed to getting it done was immediate.

Like you guys don't play around.

We got on, got on board this back channel and it just happened straight away for us.

So you know, that was immediate.

And in terms of the results, obviously with cold email, without bound, there can always be a little bit of time where it takes a little bit kind of ramp up, which is like to be expected.

But even from the first batch of emails that we were sending out, I could see straight away that the impact of the different scripts and it was quite exciting when we were targeting new audiences that we hadn't targeted before, seeing those responses come in from audiences we hadn't even thought to tap into.

From your own experiences and being able to tap into new places and new space we hadn't considered was epic.

Perfect.

And look, just in terms of results, you mentioned in the testimonial that the system delivered immediate roi.

Could you just expand on that a little for us please?

Yeah, of course.

So I mean for most B2B businesses, people are charging anywhere between 1, 2K on maybe on the low end and 10, 20K on the, maybe more on the top end depending on your business.

So for a one time setup and then to have leads coming into the pipeline and taking meetings and having the opportunity to close those meetings at 2, 3, 4, 5, 10k in some cases, to have those people coming in is like immediate roi.

Of course.

Cool, cool.

And in terms of results beyond the initial setup, like how consistent has that been?

Are you seeing like a steady flow of new leads and new meetings and new business coming in every day?

Every day.

it comes into what we already had built before, of course.

And what you guys have added on to improve the systemization of it, which at scale we wouldn't have been able to manage that at the capacity we were managing it.

And then it all feeds into all the other channels that we're marketing through as well.

So it's a, it's.

It essentially just like I say, adds fuel to the fire on this holistic approach that we've built.

So, yeah, if anyone's doing any kind of just single channel, just call the email.

It's going to take you from 0 to 100 very, very quickly.

And if you've already got other activities going on and happening, it's going to raise the minimum bar for all of them, which is epic.

Amazing.

Look, thanks so much for that.

And so look, if people want to get in touch with you, where can they find you?

Yeah, no worries.

So you can just email me personally if anyone needs to have a chat, about you guys or whatever we're doing at jamesontent Smash IO.

I'm free to drop the link somewhere.

I mean, feel free to reach out anytime.

No issues.

Perfect.

And look, just a bit of a personal question for you.

Like, you guys have, well, yourself, you've clearly built few very successful businesses.

Now, do you have any advice to people either thinking about starting their own business or founders who are just starting out and that type of thing?

Yeah, I remember when I was first starting out and I didn't have a clue what to do because there's so much information out there, there's so much noise and ideas out there that it becomes almost impossible knowing which way to turn because everybody's got this new idea of the shiny object that's going to essentially distract you.

So, looking back, I was fortunate enough to have mentors that could kind of point me in the right direction to kind of allow me to do that.

And second of all, not having any breaks on your own kind of mentality, what I mean by breaks isn't like, not like rest, the opposite of like not having the brakes on.

Like going full steam ahead and just like making it happen.

Just taking action relentlessly in a certain direction that you've been advised on and just getting after it is the best way to do it because there's so many distractions.

Everybody's got fear, everybody's got their own mindset limiting beliefs of whatever it is that's going to hold them back.

And nine times out of ten is it just not true in the slicest, you just need to get out your own way, take action, listen to the people who have already done it and get involved.

Okay.

Amazing.

Yeah.

you've definitely helped us identify, like, distractions and limiting beliefs as well.

From, like, working with you in this partnership.

How do you go about identifying what might be a distraction and what might be a limiting belief as opposed to something that should propel you forward and something you should actually take action on?

Yeah.

So something that we do is.

Is both in a business in a personal sense.

It's called the, theory of constraints.

So we'll essentially identify as a business what it is that is the problem right now.

The number one problem.

There can't be multiple problems.

There's only ever one biggest problem at any one time.

So whether that might be sales, it might be delivery, clients churning, whatever that is.

Let's take an instance where it sales.

Is it that we're not like.

Then you dial down on it.

So it's sales.

Okay.

We're not getting enough revenue in the door.

Why?

Okay, Is it that we're not getting enough leads in.

Is it that we're not closing enough leads?

Other leads, not very good quality.

Like, are they onboarding and then, like, not enjoying the process?

Are we, like, sold them the wrong thing?

Is the positioning, like, not right and then dialing into what it is that's causing that exact issue and resolving that problem straight away.

So that's how you essentially go from big problem, don't know what to do, to dialing it in.

And then we just attack relentlessly that one problem until it's solved and locks, and then cause another problem somewhere else, and then you just go to the next.

That makes sense.

That's really good advice.

Thank you.

And final question for me is, what would you say is the number one lesson that you've learned since starting a business?

Good question.

Number one lesson.

Oh, that's actually a very good question.

Thank you.

Start off wanting to make money because you want the freedom.

And then you get the freedom, which we're fortunate enough to have, and build a lifestyle around it.

And then you want to build something bigger than yourself, which is cool.

That's when it gets fun.

But the freedom is the first part.

Getting the cash in the bank is one.

And then you want to build something that's, like, bigger than yourself because those needs have essentially been satisfied to some extent.

So that's cool.

Nice.

Very solid.

Well, look, thank you so much for joining me today, James.

Really appreciate your time.

Pleasure, man.

Thanks for having us.

Good to see you again.