BRX Stories – Social Mayor Stone
Stone Payton: And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, talk about the phenomenon, I guess is the best word for it, of Business RadioX Studio partners essentially becoming the social mayor of their community.
Lee Kantor: Yeah. I mean, I know we use the word social mayor a lot in our kind of language and what we describe one of the benefits of being affiliated with us are. But for people who don’t understand, to me, the social mayor is that person who knows everybody. They’re kind of that mega connector. They have a wide network that touches a lot of different industries. They’re the ones you call. It’s like, “Oh, do you know a lawyer?” or, “Hey, do you know somebody that fixes cars?” Like, that person knows everybody in town. They know the good ones from the bad ones. And they’re the person that people go to when they are looking for a resource.
Lee Kantor: And one of the benefits of being affiliated with Business RadioX and being a studio operator in a local market, because all you’re doing every day is interviewing business owners, you quickly build a network of just a wide variety of business owners in your community, so you can tell that person knows what they’re talking about, that person maybe not so much, this person is great at what they do. So, you become that mega connector pretty quickly.
Lee Kantor: And, Stone, I think that you probably illustrate this better than anybody, at least lately, because you moved to Woodstock recently. You didn’t have a lot of contacts there, not that I know of. But in a short period of time, didn’t you become kind of the social mayor there?
Stone Payton: Absolutely. And I had been relating this benefit to people for years. You know, we’ve been at this a while, I think we’re getting close to 20 years. But I had seen this happen for John Ray in North Fulton, for Mike Sammond in Gwinnett, for Karen Nowicki out in Phoenix. So, I felt very comfortable relating this type of experience and that we had seen this happen.
Stone Payton: But then, Holly and I downsized after our youngest moved to Chattanooga, and we bought a little house right on the edge of downtown Woodstock. And when I got here and started kind of learning the landscape, I told Holly, I’m going to keep going down to the headquarters studio down in Sandy Springs and keep doing the Business RadioX corporate work as best I can, but I’m going to put a studio here in Woodstock.
Stone Payton: So, I put one in a co-working space a mile down the road from my home, and I tried to follow to the letter everything we’ve been teaching people to do. I reached out. I cast a wide net. I started inviting business people, large and small. Yes, I would invite professional service providers because I know that that fits my prospective client profile. But I invited the florist and the mayor- mayor, and the fire chief, and just people. And that was maybe almost three years ago.
Stone Payton: And I got to tell you, man, it does not take very long to get pretty well-known as the person and the entity, the company, the brand that is genuinely invested in supporting and celebrating the good work that people are doing in this community. And it extends to, I mean, all the nonprofits in town, there are so many ways to help them, and I know them all.
Stone Payton: Now, look, I also know every bartender in town. I started a community partner program that was super easy to get off the ground. Here in this community, you can ride a golf cart around, and I slapped a Business RadioX logo on it, of course. And, man, when I hop in that Business RadioX golf cart, everybody knows that golf cart. But if I walked downtown or go in a buggy, it doesn’t matter. I mean, I’ll have 15, 20 people stop me at any given time. I’ve got people that will text me almost daily, you know, asking if I know somebody.
Stone Payton: I really do know everyone in town. Everyone knows me. And I have the the reputation of being a good guy that can help you get connected and help you solve whatever your problem is, whether it’s directly what I provide or not. It is a marvelous experience. And I guess to some degree, it’s emotional compensation, but it also hits the bottom line. When you have that kind of influence and impact and authority and credibility in a community, that translates to the bottom line as well. It is the ultimate expression of helping people and making money.
Lee Kantor: And I think the takeaway is the speed in which it occurs. When you opened your studio, can you talk about the speed in which this occurred? Because, I mean, a lot of folks aspire to have that type of influence in their community, but it’s difficult to do it, you know, as a volunteer somewhere or the traditional ways that people try to do this. But using the Business RadioX platform, the speed in which you attained that level of authority and influence was pretty remarkable.
Stone Payton: Well, I think so. Speed to revenue was lightning quick because I started doing some virtual interviews even before we moved into this home once I knew I was going to do this. So, I went ahead and got some traction by reaching out to some people and doing some virtual interviews. So, by the time I hit town with a physical studio, I must have had two dozen interviews, people were referring other people, asking questions could they get on the show, that kind of thing. But then, that kind of social mayor title, if you will, I mean, it was well within the year. And I want to say in six months time, I was pretty well-known around here.
