Lori Highby with Keystone Click

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.

Stone Payton: [00:00:15] Welcome to the High Velocity Radio show, where we celebrate top performers producing better results in less time. Stone Payton here with you this afternoon. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast podcast Host, speaker, educator and founder of Keystone Click,Laurie Highby. How are you?

Lori Highby: [00:00:37] I am great. How are.

Stone Payton: [00:00:39] You? I am doing well. Really been looking forward to this conversation. Got a ton of questions. I know we won’t get to them all, but I think a good place to start would be if you could share with me and our listeners mission purpose. What are you and your team really out there trying to do for folks?

Lori Highby: [00:00:58] Well, to keep it short and simple, what we like to do is help businesses really maximize and leverage the power of Internet to market their business. Digital marketing is so powerful and so many businesses seem to be lost and confused and how to really use it.

Stone Payton: [00:01:17] And you’re right about that, including yours truly here I resemble that remark. But. But why, from your perspective, why is building a marketing strategy so important?

Lori Highby: [00:01:30] It is so important because there’s first off, a lot of business owners attend a conference, hear one speaker and go, Oh, we got to do that. Or they read an article and a headline that this new platform is the way to go. And and at the end of the day, there’s a lot of tactics that can go out there. But if if you’re not saying the right message to the right audience at the right time, which is all about being strategic, you’re going to miss a lot of opportunity. Yeah, that new tactic might work for a short period of time, but you want to look at the long game. I mean, you can create content that has a very long shelf life and will serve you very well for your business for a long time. But you have to do the research and be strategic about what is that right type of content to be publishing and where are you going to publish it.

Stone Payton: [00:02:17] So you mentioned very early on in our conversation, you mentioned the word digital. And so I’m kind of making the jump in my mind to to social media, those platforms. Is there is is there one channel better than another, or is it kind of idiosyncratic? And it just depends on your business and who you’re trying to serve?

Lori Highby: [00:02:37] Yeah, my my answer to that question is it depends. I mean, it’s really understanding that ideal customer that you want to get in front of what is the pain that they have, that you’re the solution for, that you can be creating amazing content in the channel that they’re engaging in most. So just because an article says every business should be on TikTok doesn’t mean that your business should be on TikTok because maybe your ideal customer isn’t. Spending time on TikTok.

Stone Payton: [00:03:07] Makes all the sense in the world to me. Okay, I got to know I want to hear a little bit about the back story. How in the world did you find yourself in in this line of work? What was the path?

Lori Highby: [00:03:18] When I started going to school for commercial art, which is referred to as more like graphic design nowadays? And then I actually switched my major to marketing after I took a sociology class, and I was fascinated how messaging and images can and culture can influence people’s buying decisions. And that’s where I really led into marketing. So I worked at a traditional agency for a little while and spent a lot of time fascinated with the Internet and have done a ton of research over my 20 plus years in the space. And I absolutely love digital marketing and 22,008 I started my own firm and here we are almost, almost 15 years rocking it.

Stone Payton: [00:04:09] So what was that transition like? Was it a little bit scary going out on your own?

Lori Highby: [00:04:15] Oh, hell yeah. Yeah. I’m going to leave a full time paying job with great benefits to have no money coming in and just totally winging it. I mean, I’m definitely a risk taker and willing to step outside my comfort zone. I got to say, if I were to go back and do it all over again, I’d still jump in the deep end. But I would find mentors and people that have done it to kind of really make sure that I’m not making all the mistakes by myself. And I learned a lot of lessons over the years. But one of the biggest things I’d say is having a strong community around you is so important to I don’t have to do it alone, you know?

Stone Payton: [00:05:04] So I realize that you help other organizations, other practitioners with their sales and marketing. How about your sales and marketing? How are you getting the new clients?

Lori Highby: [00:05:16] Well, our space, we target B to B, and one of the best moves right now from a B to B initiative is thought leadership. So a lot of what we do is simply educate our audience on how best to leverage digital, digital and what those best practices are for their website, for social media, for paid advertising, for media production and us putting that information out there, showing our expertise is organically drawing in that ideal customer that we want to be doing work with.

Stone Payton: [00:05:52] All right. So you’ve been doing this a minute now, as the kids say. While. I mean, I can tell you love the work. It’s, you know, it just comes across over the airwaves. But what are you enjoying the most? What’s the most fun for you now at this point in your practice?

Lori Highby: [00:06:08] Actually, I love the sales side of it. I love meeting new people and going through the discovery process, learning about their business, learning about their pains and educating them on why things aren’t working for them or what the options are to put in front of them to help them achieve their big picture business goals. I love that.

Stone Payton: [00:06:33] So since you do have that experience base under your belt, I wonder, do you find that there are some patterns? Like do you see some of the same? I don’t know if mistakes is the right word or not, but some of the same pathology, some of the same things that, you know, you meet a new client, you have a bit of a conversation with them, and maybe you don’t say it out loud, but you think to yourself, Yep, I’ve seen this one before. Are there some common mistakes in this in this arena?

Lori Highby: [00:07:00] Oh, absolutely. You know, I appreciate that there’s a lot of DIY tools out there. Like a lot of companies can build their own website or write their own social media. But the biggest one of the biggest mistakes I see people is not being strategic about it. Just because you can build your own website doesn’t mean you’re actually producing the content on that site that is going to be of interest to that ideal customer that you’re trying to do business with. And a lot of times everyone focuses on the features and what the core deliverable is without really getting to the root of the challenge that that customer is facing. If you think about your own Google search practices, you type in the pain that you have before you know what the solution is. Once you’ve learned what the solution is, then you start Googling some variants of the solution. But you have to start at that root challenge that people have that’s going to help position you as the expert by helping them understand what that pain is that they have.

Stone Payton: [00:08:07] And what you’re saying makes all the sense in the world. And yet I suspect that some out there would be like me and and at least initially want to kind of lean into all the cool stuff about the solution, right?

Lori Highby: [00:08:20] Yep. Oh, yeah. But you can’t you can’t go right to selling the car without talking about what type of car is important to them. And is it a family vehicle, Is it a race car, the sports car? You know what? What is it that they’re looking for? So you have to start at the root cause and then work your way up. And that’s all about showing that expertise that you have. The other thing I see a lot of businesses making this mistake and this one is very common. They start on a social platform or they start a newsletter or they start blogging and then they stop. Now, the issue with that is if you’re starting something and you’ve got some momentum happening, you’re building a following. That’s amazing. And it’s going to take time for that following to continue to grow. But as soon as you stop, you’ve lost all of that following. And if you want to start up again, you’re basically starting up from scratch and it’s going to be harder to win over those people that already gave you their trust as opposed to reengaging them right away. So you want to keep that momentum of creating content going and a consistent, consistent format overall.

Stone Payton: [00:09:30] So you mentioned a moment ago, you talked about website and gearing a website to to be SEO friendly to me makes a lot of sense. Not that I would have the first clue about how to do that, but maybe I’m beginning to learn. But what are some best practices, particularly if you’re building a new I say building if you’re if you’re engaging someone maybe to help you build. What are some best practices when it comes to building a new website?

Lori Highby: [00:09:55] Sure. So obviously we want to look at your structure and everything, but you want to think about the user experience. And I call this the billboard test. Basically, whenever I’m having that initial discussion with anyone specifically around their website, there’s three questions that I ask. And if none of the questions or even one of the questions is an answer that tells me there’s some major issues with their site. First and foremost, is it clear and obvious what it is that you do and who you do it for? If your website on any page does not answer that, what do you think that person is going to do when they land on their site? They’re going to hit the back button and they’re going to look for the next site that tells them this is exactly what I do and who I do it for. The next thing is you have to have some sort of trust or credibility. You said that you can do this. How do I know that you can actually do that? That’s where testimonials, if you’ve won awards, if you’ve got media exposure, any sort of credibility that says, yes, I can do this is going to help establish trust a lot faster. And the third thing is, once those other two boxes are checked, okay, yes, you can do what I’m looking for you to do, and I trust that you can do it. How do I engage you to actually do this? A lot of websites are missing that. Very simple yet very important call to action. And that needs to be on every single page of a site.

Stone Payton: [00:11:23] I am so glad that I asked, because while I asked it in the frame of building a new website, I think this is a good conversation to take back to the team and look at the existing website. Do we pass the Lorri test? Well.

Lori Highby: [00:11:39] Honestly, most don’t. It’s exciting when someone does and I applaud them, but most are not right now.

Stone Payton: [00:11:45] So for those of you out there listening, if you’d like to get some some free advice, some from some really smart people, get you a radio show. It’s a marvelous way to learn a ton. Speaking of which, you have your own podcast. Talk about that a little bit and maybe, I don’t know, maybe some of what you’ve learned or observed in the process of interviewing. I mean, you’ve interviewed hundreds of professionals all over the planet, haven’t you?

Lori Highby: [00:12:12] I sure have. Yep. I actually have two shows now, but I’ll focus on the one social capital where I’ve interviewed. I think I’m at about 380 ish right now, professionals globally on the topic of networking. And I would say there’s there’s three things that I’ve learned that are a common thread and so important and I kind of call them my three golden rules of networking. First and foremost, be authentic because people can smell fake. I mean, there’s no doubt about that. Just be genuine and be real. Two is to give first. So don’t ask for something, but give first. If you if you connect with someone and you know what something they like in their personal world or if they have a need that you can fill in their professional world, give, give it away first. And third is follow through. If you tell someone that you meet that you’re going to do something, and this is the first part of that relationship and you don’t follow through on what it is you said you’re going to do, You basically put a negative vibe on that relationship going forward. So super simple. Be real. Give first and follow through. Yeah, you’re going to have great relationships going forward.

Stone Payton: [00:13:32] So in just a moment before we wrap, I’m going to make sure that our listeners have contact information so that they can have a conversation with you to begin to tap into your work. But before we do that, I’d love to leave them with a couple of actionable pro tips. I mean, number one Pro Tip gang is reach out and have a conversation with Lori or somebody on our team. But maybe even before that step, maybe there’s something that we can be thinking about reading, doing, not doing. Let’s leave them with a couple of tips if we could.

Lori Highby: [00:14:06] Oh, man, I don’t know if I was ready for that one, but I’ll wing it. You know, I mentioned that it’s always extremely important to have a good tribe around you. So when I first started my business, I had this It’s lonely at the top kind of mentality. But now I’m surrounded myself with others that are in similar lines of business and in similar roles. And that has been a huge game changer for my business. The other thing, regardless if it’s your marketing or anything related to business, it’s extremely important to be strategic. You don’t want to be throwing darts in the dark and hoping and praying you hit the bull’s eye. You want to be confident in whatever plan is that you’re you’re pushing forward.

Stone Payton: [00:14:50] Well, I’m glad I asked, and I think you were more than ready to field that question. No, you clearly have a great deal of depth and substance and and obviously, relationships are important to to not only you, but all the people you’re trying to serve. And you clearly are helping them cultivate those relationships and strengthen them. What what a that must be incredibly rewarding work.

Lori Highby: [00:15:19] No, I enjoy what I do. I love meeting new people and I like connecting others as well. It’s fun to see relationships grow.

Stone Payton: [00:15:28] Okay, let’s do make sure that our listeners can connect with you, Tap into your work, whatever you feel like is appropriate. Website, LinkedIn, Email. I just want to make sure that they can they can connect with you.

Lori Highby: [00:15:40] Yeah, I’m pretty active on LinkedIn. Just search for Lori Hobby and you can hit the follow button or connect. If you connect, you know, make sure you mention mention this show in this episode. Otherwise Keystone clicked. Com. You can take a look at some of the work that we do there. We have a ton of educational content, blogs, webinars, videos. As I mentioned, it’s all about teaching and educating our audience. So reach out if you have any questions.

Stone Payton: [00:16:06] Well, Lori, it has been an absolute delight having you on the program this afternoon. Thank you for investing the time and energy to visit with us and share your insight and perspective. Your you’re doing important work and we we sure appreciate you.

Lori Highby: [00:16:23] All right, thanks. This is great.

Stone Payton: [00:16:25] My pleasure. All right. Until next time, this is Stone Payton for our guest today, Laurie Habib and everyone here at the business Radio X family saying we’ll see you in the fast lane.