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Social Media Marketing Podcast
Productizing Your Services for Highly Profitable Leads and Sales
00:45:27
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- [00:00]
Michael Stelzner
After 13 years, we are making a bold move. We've been hosting thousands of marketers in San Diego, California since 2013 for social media Marketing World, and it has been epic. Here's the news. We're making a bold move to anaheim, California in 2026. The decision came down to three very compelling factors. First of all, the location advantages are incredible. Orange County's central location means easier access for our growing international audience. There are five different airports that service the area, including the Los Angeles airport, which means it's a lot more economical for you to get here. Second, the weather. April in Anaheim is absolutely perfect. 75 degrees, sunny skies, less chance of the random rainstorms that sometimes surprise us in San Diego. And third, this is really the big one. And Disneyland, it's only a 20 minute walk away from our venue. Imagine being able to experience Disneyland with your new friends that you make at the conference, literally after the event. I did this with one of my brand new employees. It was an incredible experience. Talk about developing lifelong relationships. This is the way to do it. This is the year to finally come and experience the magic that is Social Media Marketing World. Grab your tickets right now because we have a really big sale going on. Visit social media marketingworld.info I can't wait to see you there.
- [01:32]
Michael Bazinski
Welcome to the Social Media Marketing Podcast, helping you navigate the social media jungle. And now, here is your host, Michael Stelzner.
- [01:42]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Hello.
- [01:43]
Michael Stelzner
Hello, Hello. Thank you so much for joining me for the Social Media Marketing podcast brought to you by Social Media Examiner. I'm your host, Michael Stelzner, and this is the podcast for marketers and business owners who want more exposure, more leads and more sales. Today, I'm going to be joined by a gentleman who is an expert in helping position products and services. If you feel like you are in a marketplace where, for whatever reason, you're struggling to break through to that ideal prospect or that ideal customer, you have an opportunity to really productize your products and services in unique way. And in today's interview, Michael and I are going to unravel how to go about doing this with a very systematic process that he has developed. And my guest name is Michael Bazinski. By the way, if you're new to the show, be sure to follow this podcast so you don't miss any of our future content. Let's now transition over to this week's interview with Michael Bazinski, helping you to.
- [02:39]
Michael Bazinski
Simplify your social safari. Here is this week's expert guide.
- [02:47]
Michael Stelzner
Today, I'm very excited to be joined by Michael Bazinski. If you don't know who Michael is, he's a marketing strategist and a host of the Buzz Worthy marketing podcast. His company is called Buzzworthy Strategies and it helps small to mid sized businesses fix random acts of marketing. Michael, welcome to the show. How you doing today?
- [03:04]
Michael Bazinski
I'm doing well. How are you? Michael. Michael, Michael, Michael, Michael.
- [03:07]
Michael Stelzner
I am doing amazing. And today the Michaels are going to explore how to productize your services for more profitable leads and sales. Now before we go there, I'd love to hear a little bit of your story. How did you get into marketing?
- [03:20]
Michael Bazinski
Are we going to do a whole episode on that? Because I have a very long organization.
- [03:26]
Michael Stelzner
We're going to spend like five minutes on it.
- [03:28]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Yeah, right.
- [03:28]
Michael Bazinski
No, I'm going to give you the short story is that I got into marketing back actually when I was a teenager when I realized that the food industry was not my future. So when this farm kid moved to the city at age of 13 and got a job, like as soon as I could possibly get a job and making money, I found that out. And so over the years and through 10 years of being in the Air Force and doing marketing part time, being a working musician part time musician for 15 years, I started out as a jazz trombonist, age of 13 has had multitude of bands, punk and grunge before grunge was a thing and the whole nine yards and 2005 when I got out, I was unhirable because I had failed to get a college degree while I was in the service. Out of the 10 years that I spent to do that and why they did in the service was not transferable to the civilian marketplace. And so I look back at what I could do. So I started out in actually recording studio and found quickly that surviving off of starving musicians is a horrible business plan. So I pivoted to media production because I had a background in that and my prowess for marketing just kept seeping into these conversations and eventually that Media Productions, the little core recording studio in 1200 square foot space, turned into a 13,000 square foot multimillion dollar creative agency in Anchorage, Alaska of all places, where I spent 17 years. And I burned myself out building that over a 13 year span. And in 2018 I just decided I have to do something different. And so I just said, everybody, you still have a job, you just can't do it in this building. And now most everybody was a millennial at the time. This is like seven years ago in their 20s and they didn't understand what remote Working was actually, it wasn't that pop until just about a year, two years after we went remote.
- [05:24]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right?
- [05:25]
Michael Bazinski
And so for the last seven years we've been building this 100% remote strategy firm that focuses on the needs of B2B service based businesses. And I chose that because B2B marketing is boring. Like if you look around it's like they're all stuffy and I'm like, why can't we be fun? Like why can't market be like, just cause you're serving other businesses doesn't mean you have to be like. I'm like. And I had run up a couple of corporate ladders before the service and I was like, I don't want to be in boardrooms. I want to deal with owners and people who are putting, you know, food on their employees plates and putting their kids through college and buying the boat that they always wanted. And that's why they got into business and had the entrepreneurial freedom. And it's the same thing I'm going for. So we have this shared kinship. When I work with other firms and everybody that works with us, one of our core values is intrapreneurship. So everybody works like they own the place. And so it just creates this great vibe that we have the same culture as our clients do. And that's something we're going to get into today.
- [06:26]
Michael Stelzner
Love it, love the story. Okay, so for those that are listening, what we're talking about today is not just relevant for service based companies. Whatever you sell, you could benefit from what we're going to be talking about today. Now let's start with product market fit and why this is so important for small businesses. Because really what we're going to get into is how to productize whatever it is you have to sell. But talk to me a little bit about like why this is so important because maybe marketers aren't focusing on this like they should.
- [06:55]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right.
- [06:55]
Michael Bazinski
Well, so product market fit is something that we are not taught in like marketing a 101 in college. I don't even remember it being a class you could take as a marketing major.
- [07:07]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right.
- [07:07]
Michael Bazinski
Product market fit, so if you don't know what that means is basically figuring out if you have enough demand for what you have to offer to scale so you could decide that you're, you know, a lot of people say the niches are in the reaches and niches are in the riches, however you want to say it. And be a company. That is what we would call a lifestyle company.
- [07:27]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right.
- [07:27]
Michael Bazinski
And with that you don't need a lot of sales. But if you're looking to go beyond this, the single seven figures, maybe even at the eight figures, you have to find out whether or not there is a fit for your offering that is expandable and profitable. Because if there's not enough demand, it's not scalable. If it's not scalable, it's not profitable. If it's not profitable, you need to find another avenue, right? And so a lot of people will start their business and not even try to look at that. They'll just say, I'm just gonna grab all the business I can. And through brute force, they get into about a million dollars in revenue. And then everything changes because there's only so far and so hard one person can push. And if you put a bunch of people behind you pushing as well, you are now getting this diminishing returns of effort because at some point you have to start leveraging. And that's where that offer market or product market fit comes in. And say, how can we position ourselves that people get it so easily that the demand actually, you actually generate the demand where sometimes you might not have enough that's so blatantly right in front of you.
- [08:34]
Michael Stelzner
I love this. I relate to this a lot because we are about to launch a brand new software product and some of our audience may have already heard about it by the time this comes out. And one of the challenges that I've dealt with is how do I position this product differently than other options that are in the industry? How do I do this in such a way that it becomes a no brainer decision? Right? And that's the kind of stuff we're really talking about, talking about today. If you can position the service, the software, the product in such a way that it instantly relates to your core audience that you're trying to reach. What happens when that happens, Michael, you.
- [09:15]
Michael Bazinski
Get exponential returns is what we call scalability. So instead of pushing, we start pulling. Not pulling away, but pulling levers that produce more output than our energy putting in. And that right there, ladies and gentlemen, is where your profitability, exponential profitability. Let me, let me tell you, I pushed up a Hill for 13 years in my own business. It wasn't until I finally found the levers that I became seven times more profitable. I bring home now. I keep money right now, when I had a creative agency, I invested money, right? But I started a business back in 2005 when your vanity metrics were gross revenue. How big was your office and how many employees you have? Nobody talked about Profitability, Right? And so you ended up with a bunch of Xers like me who were completely burnt out. And now you have a new generation going. Why are you guys working so hard? Like, do we have to work that hard to own our own business?
- [10:18]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right?
- [10:19]
Michael Bazinski
And you're like, no, we don't really. I promise you, you don't. But the crazy thing is this, is that we do have younger generations that are going about it the same way we and getting the same results going. Well, wait a second, I came in and I'm looking at profits, but they don't understand the difference between growing a company and scaling a company.
- [10:37]
Michael Stelzner
Okay, so we're going to get into this in more detail, but I would love to talk about some of the foundational stuff that we need to be considering. And let's start with some of the mindset shifts that you feel like are important for people to process a little bit here.
- [10:51]
Michael Bazinski
So there's the. I've done marketing for over 1200 companies in the last 20 years, okay? So please listen to me when I say when you look to focus in on niche down, however you want to say it, you are not restricting your business. This is a mindset that all of us have. And it doesn't matter how old you are, how long you've been in business, it is innate. Little Amdula Amlongata. However you say that in the back of your head, your little alligator brain that says, oh, if I say no, I'm losing out. Because how did we start our business? By saying yes.
- [11:29]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right?
- [11:29]
Michael Bazinski
And we need to get into the mindset of saying no. And we're going to talk about this in a little bit about why no means more profit. But for now, that mindset of selling all the things to all the people has to be flushed out of the gray matter between our ears.
- [11:47]
Michael Stelzner
So what do we replace that with?
- [11:48]
Michael Bazinski
We replace it with focus. And when I say focus, it is a acronym that stands for fix or one clearly urgent struggle. Now, Michael, you said something very interesting and definitely on the point after we talked about product market fit, which was positioning, okay? Now a lot of people said, well, how am I going to position myself against people? How am I going to compete with all of these people that are already in there, right? And I think of like liquid death, which is canned water, right? And like they didn't compete against anybody. What they did was they created a category of one selling exactly what thousands of other brands do. But they made it so unique that they couldn't be compared to anyone else. Even though the three molecules in there, two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen, were exactly the same thing as the bottles right next to them on the shelf.
- [12:46]
Michael Stelzner
Yeah. And the thing that they were fixing was the desire for someone to go to a party and not drink alcohol and they could have a can of liquid death in their hands that looks like it's a drink, but it's just water. Right.
- [13:00]
Michael Bazinski
I love it. I do it at networking. I'll have a seltzer and lime in a tumbler.
- [13:06]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right.
- [13:09]
Michael Bazinski
They should can that for me.
- [13:10]
Michael Stelzner
So the mindset you said is to fix one clearly urgent struggle. So rather than say to ourselves, I need to accept every business opportunity that comes my way, it sounds like we need to replace that with not every business opportunity that comes my way is a fit for me. And when you, when you reframe it that way, what you're doing is you are making room for the better customer to come along. Right. Do you want to talk about that a little bit?
- [13:38]
Michael Bazinski
A hundred percent. So we'll get into like the, the ICP versus P3P which is the who's of. But not all business is good business. And what you're alluding to is the fact that when bring in business or you sell, let's take a hammer. You sell a hammer to somebody who needs a screwdriver, that hammer is coming back. It's coming back.
- [13:57]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right.
- [13:58]
Michael Bazinski
And if you sell a service that's that you sell your service that solves things that are related but not directly at the problem they actually have, you're doing yourself a disservice because now you put yourself in the learning position while getting paid to be an expert position.
- [14:16]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right.
- [14:17]
Michael Bazinski
And when we do that, we ruin ourselves for three things. One, our reputation. Two are retention of the clients we do have. Three are profitability, all of which damage your brand. And so when you do that, and I did it for 13 years, we added so many services, we had our own print shop. Okay. You know me, creative agencies have their own print shop. Zero in the United States. I looked really hard. I'm like, who else does this? So I could learn from somebody else, like how to make this more profitable. Because I was learning, right. But because I couldn't say no, I had these weights in me. And so that left me focusing on things that I was struggling with versus taking that bandwidth. If I just said no, we're going to give this to the printer down the shop and we're okay with that. So we can focus on our high paying clients and seeing how we can better serve them. In the things we're already geniuses with.
- [15:09]
Michael Stelzner
Love it. Okay, so let's start with your process, because what we're going to do by the time we're done with this conversation is allow everyone who's listening to have real clarity and how they can come up with a better product market, fit, and ultimately productize whatever it is that they have to sell. So where do we begin?
- [15:26]
Michael Bazinski
We start literally with the acronym how, what, what problem that is clearly urgent that you can solve for the marketplace that you do better than anyone else.
- [15:39]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right.
- [15:40]
Michael Bazinski
There's a book out there. I can't remember what it's called, so forgive me, but it says it's not good enough to be good, you need to be the best. If you're a service provider, you need to be the best. And that might. Best might be only 1% off. So whatever that 1% is that you have, right? And if you have a product, it needs to be 1% better than the competition in something that it does.
- [16:00]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right.
- [16:00]
Michael Bazinski
Not all hammers are made equally. So figure out what, what your hammer does really, really well. Now you have to now apply that solution to the biggest problem that you can find. You gotta find the biggest nail, because the bigger the nail, the more you can charge for the hammer. Does that make sense?
- [16:20]
Michael Stelzner
Yes.
- [16:20]
Michael Bazinski
Okay, so now in service space, what you were usually finding are, we have people who are experts at something, they've gone to school and they become it. We'll just call it a CPA or something like that.
- [16:31]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right?
- [16:32]
Michael Bazinski
And in that firm that they worked with and they worked up the ranks and all this other stuff, they got really good at helping construction companies figure out their books, make them profitable and understand their whip and all these other things that those people do. And then when they got done that business, exited, and they're like, wow, this is awesome. And they did it again for another company. So now they're a fractional CFO for construction companies.
- [16:55]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right?
- [16:56]
Michael Bazinski
Now they've got to figure out, okay, what's the biggest problem construction companies the size I used to work for have. And when do I, in their business lifestyle, want to be put into that company's lifespan? Because sometimes we're going after companies that are too early for us, or sometimes they're past where we can help them. And so we need to identify the pain points that they have right now that fit both your expertise and their needs. Once you've done that, you have your focus. And once you focus that, you can then look at that. And what we do is we create milestones of solving for that problem.
- [17:37]
Michael Stelzner
So wait, before we get to the milestones, let's come back to this focus concept. Right? So give me an example of a focus statement is what I think when we were prepping for this, like I just want to drill down on that focus statement, right? Define it a little bit more for me and maybe give me an example. You've been talking about accountant. I know you've got other examples with software companies as well, but let's just dial that in so people can understand what that might look like. That focus statement.
- [18:02]
Michael Bazinski
Perfect. Okay. So the SaaS company that you were talking about, so I work with a investment relations firm. Okay. And if you don't know what that is, it's just publicly traded companies have to do disclaimers and they have, they basically release these press releases anytime something happens to the asset or the company that changes the risk that investors have as shareholders. Okay. And so it's very technical.
- [18:25]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right.
- [18:25]
Michael Bazinski
And so the company was trying to be both a vendor based and a user based solution at the same time. What we found is that they actually had the same problem. So instead of trying to talk to two different groups, we focused the problem because it's the same problem. Technology meets the IT team meets lags in deliverability and control. And we have two different websites. Okay. So that's the big problem. It's just like simplifying this bowl of spaghetti, if you will. Okay. And so we were like, okay, if we focus on the problem itself, we now have a one touch solution to our IR needs. Okay. Instead of being a list of features that we're trying to sell. Another example would be another SaaS company that we worked with. They were actually a software with the service, meaning that they worked with companies to get their credit rating for the company so that they can get credit from the company versus a personal guarantee of the owner. Okay. So they have a software that's run by AI and all this other stuff. And when a, when we first worked with them, they had all these features that you need, all these tools to get the credit. But what really the biggest pain point was that there is establishment of credit and there's this number that you had to get. And I was like, everybody knows what a credit score is. So we focus down into that credit score. And we said their focus statement is, is your 720 keeping your business from seeing the success it deserves.
- [20:01]
Michael Stelzner
And that's that 720 score on the FICO or whatever the heck it is.
- [20:05]
Michael Bazinski
Yes. Because if you're in the need For a higher score, you already know 720 because you've already heard, hey, if you don't have a 740, you can't get it right. So you, you're now talking to the people with the problem. Give you one more that I just did today. For another marketer, they do SEO and ppc. So Google Ads and meta ads and stuff like that, right? And they're really good at unlocking locked accounts that like Google, I guess, has locked up 39 million accounts over the last year.
- [20:36]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right?
- [20:37]
Michael Bazinski
And he asked, he's like, how do we market that? Because they have all these services. I says, if you have 39 million companies out there with that problem and you got 1/10 of 1% of that, would that make you busier than you could ever possibly imagine? He says, 100. I says, so why don't we just focus on the fact that you are the digital campaign triage center, you are the er, for people's digital marketing. And so they're working on their saying, we just did it today. But that's their focus now. They don't sell, they don't market anything else. Even though they have all the services out there. They just sell triage. And in that triage they give them an audit on the back end to show them how they can continue to help them make more money with that unlocked account.
- [21:20]
Michael Stelzner
Just to clarify this, so I think what I'm hearing you say is you've got these three examples. One, touch solutions for your investor relations needs is your 720 score, keeping your business from where it needs to be and the digital campaign triage center or digital er for getting locked in Google or Facebook jail, something along those lines. The idea here is it's a simple statement, a sentence that zooms in on a problem like investor relations challenges FICO score, stopping you from getting loans and getting stuck in, in Google jail. You know, something along those lines, right? And everything circles around that even though.
- [22:00]
Michael Bazinski
They have all the other services behind them.
- [22:02]
Michael Stelzner
Right?
- [22:03]
Michael Bazinski
And so the easiest way to explain this is you remember those shoebox cameras? So shoeboxing, you can actually make a camera out of a shoebox. Okay? You just put a pinhole in one end and inside you put a photosensitive piece of paper on the back end, cover it all up and then you take it outside and you point it at whatever you want to take a picture at at. And then you bring it back in and you open it back up and you develop the piece of paper and voila. Everything in that scene that it was pointed at is on this piece of paper that came. All that light came through one pinhole. Okay? So the digital marketing firm, what they did is they said their pinhole was triage. Because there's 39 million companies out there that are in triage, right. Are in emergency state right now that need triage. Once they get through and into the box, the entire picture can then be revealed. Do you know how easy it is to sell one thing versus 10 things or all the things to all the people?
- [22:56]
Michael Stelzner
I like this. So really the take home message here is, hey, focus on the one problem that you best solve that you're the best in the world at, or like 1% better than everyone else at, and then attract that audience to you through this focus statement so that you can eventually sell them all the other suites of services and products that you have behind the scenes. Right? So that's the importance of starting with this focus statement first. Keep going. What comes next?
- [23:23]
Michael Bazinski
Well, this is the thing. When you solve somebody's problem, what did you just do? You created the next problem. And in business, our problems just get bigger the more profitable and the bigger we get.
- [23:35]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right?
- [23:35]
Michael Bazinski
Billion dollar companies don't sit around and going, wow, we're a unicorn and now we have no problems. No, they have billion dollar problems now.
- [23:43]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right?
- [23:44]
Michael Bazinski
And so you are automatically speeding up the process. And so there's this concept called the bow tie funnel. Okay? And if you think of a sales funnel, it's usually looks like a regular funnel up on top, but if you do a bowtie funnel, you take that sales funnel, you put it on its side so you got the attract, the engage convert and then it's over.
- [24:03]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right?
- [24:03]
Michael Bazinski
Your sales and marketing are like, yeah, we're done. But that's not the end of the story.
- [24:07]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right?
- [24:08]
Michael Bazinski
You have a client value journey that goes along with that. And so in the middle there, the little bun of your bow tie is onboarding. Onboarding is that one single entry point, right? It's a nice tight knot where they all come through. And that is onboarding. For service based businesses. You're onboarding. Your first 30 days with the client are the most important. Those 30 days decide for you whether or not they're going to be a long term client or somebody talking bad about you, period. End story. Okay? So if we can create a quick win, say with a triage, wow, these guys, I've been working with five different agencies for five months and these guys just came in here and fixed it in 24 hours. Holy cow. What else can you do? Well, they already Showed them what else they can do with the little piece at the end which was added value of this is the other things are wrong with your campaign. Right now you have got the retention which is now going on the other side of the bowtie funnel which expands. So our sales funnel constricts it a bunch of prospects down to one sale, right? Or a few sales. Now we want to take those few sales and expand our value with that. And so the next piece is retention. And then from retention, you continue to create these quick wins by just solving the next big problem. And because you are so good at what you do, you understand every next step problem they're going to have. So you just continue to your marketing, your sales, continue to position yourself as the solution for the next problem, right? And that's what we call expansion. And those that are in your expansion phase are the ones that are continuing to get wins. And the more you win, the more of an advocate they become. And then now they start giving you the reviews, they give you the referrals, they are willing to pay your rates and never complain. And now you create this closed loop because they're referring people that are like them because we hang out with people like ourselves. And so now we have this great client who's referring us to other great clients. Now it's self perpetuating. Now you have a revenue engine.
- [26:08]
Michael Stelzner
Is your marketing falling behind? In my 15 plus years of tracking marketing trends, I've learned to spot the signals early. And right now, the pace of change in marketing is rapidly accelerating. What used to take years is now happening in months. AI capabilities that seemed impossible last year are already outdated. And I'm concerned that marketers who aren't prepared for what's coming next are going to be in a bit of a bind. The tactics that you're using today, the strategies that you spent years mastering, even the way you think about your audience, it's all evolving a lot faster than everyone realizes. This is exactly why social media marketing world exists. When you attend our 2026 event, you'll be positioned to lead AI strategy conversations in your company and for your clients. You'll be able to master tools and tactics before they become mainstream. And you'll also build authentic connections with future ready marketers that will have a big downstream impact on your business. Don't wait until everyone else figures this out.
- [27:11]
Michael Bazinski
Out.
- [27:11]
Michael Stelzner
Join the marketers who want to get ahead and stay ahead. We have a really big sale going on right now. Visit social mediamarketingworld.info and grab your tickets Today, let's navigate this change together. Okay. So we were about to get into milestones before we went down this little diversion, so.
- [27:31]
Michael Bazinski
Well, actually, I probably set us up for that right there. So what I, what I lost in that, in the milestones is that, remember when I said you get the, that first win with the products I service?
- [27:38]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right?
- [27:39]
Michael Bazinski
And so in that you have milestones of, like the three to five steps it takes to get through that first big problem.
- [27:46]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right?
- [27:46]
Michael Bazinski
And so what we call is milestones. Each one of those milestones is a win. Even though you might not have solved the big problem yet, you get a little bit of success. A little bit of success. A little bit of success. And so if you can give them quick wins, say one week, two weeks in.
- [28:03]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right.
- [28:03]
Michael Bazinski
It could be something as, hey, I've worked with five companies like you and never in the first week did I get X. That could be the win. Because you have a better onboarding process than everybody else. Okay, Whatever that is, you have that. And so then when you do those milestones and you have those, that sequential, and you keep your promise on every one of those milestones that you described in your sales process.
- [28:27]
Michael Stelzner
Well, wait, hold on. What are those milestones? Because I feel like we might have skipped over those.
- [28:31]
Michael Bazinski
Okay, so your milestones are the steps it takes to get to the solution.
- [28:35]
Michael Stelzner
Okay.
- [28:36]
Michael Bazinski
Right. So we're just thinking like Stephen Covey is, start with the end in mind, which is the big problem. First things first, and then we're just going through the progression of every time I deal with. So say we'll work with the, the triage folks. Actually. Yeah, we'll do it. To triage folks, first thing they got to do is find out why.
- [28:53]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right.
- [28:54]
Michael Bazinski
And they don't know why. And so if you can sit there and go, your first milestone is figuring out why. Because once we know why, we know what.
- [29:00]
Michael Stelzner
Why they were blocked. Why the clients were blocked. Blocked.
- [29:02]
Michael Bazinski
Okay, Right. It could be a first win for them. We just found out in 24 hours. Which you couldn't figure out in the last three months. That's a. Well, at least I know now, because not knowing sucks.
- [29:14]
Michael Stelzner
Right?
- [29:14]
Michael Bazinski
Right now I've got to win. Now the next thing is, can we get a response from Google? Because I've asked Google five million times. Well, we happen to be a preferred partner, so we're going to do that for you. You got a word from them, next win, and it's the next step, because now Google can say, this is what we have to get done. And then they get that done for them is the next step to getting on there. And they do it, and they do it proactively, and they do it quickly. The next win. And then all of a sudden, boom, their campaign is back in their hands. And they had four wins for one big problem.
- [29:48]
Michael Stelzner
Okay, so for everyone listening, then they have to reverse engineer. What are those logical milestones that a customer would go through when they're onboarded? This matters for software. This matters for services. How would this apply, for example, to software? Just so people can wrap their brains around this.
- [30:08]
Michael Bazinski
So for my. My technology company, they have a lot of communication that has to happen, right? Because what they're doing is they're decoupling a very complex communication process that normally they have to go through. And so their first win is simplifying that whole process of getting the access to everything, right? And so they're like, okay, now you only have to have access to one thing. Oh. Because it's on your website. So all you have to do is be able to open up your website. First win, second win. Hey, I don't know how to code. I don't know how to do all this stuff. That's okay. As long as you can click on an attachment, you can do this process. Second win, Ease of use, number three, time saved for them. Their third one is launch within. And I want to say it's like three weeks. It's in, it's done. Where they normally would have to wait anywhere between two to four months for compliance and all the other things that go with it. It, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They're up and running in like two or three weeks. Third win. I'd say I just saved time, energy, and money. And now all of a sudden, their biggest problem solved because now they can get the information out faster than they ever could without any of the time, energy, and money wasted normally on the old way of doing things.
- [31:20]
Michael Stelzner
Okay, so, so these milestones, how do they work into our messaging and all that fun stuff so people can like. Like, there's. There's gotta be some sort of back connection here to ultimately talk to me a little bit about this?
- [31:35]
Michael Bazinski
Yes, Michael, that was an awesome question. So if you ever gone to a good website, you will see them paint the picture of the big problem. And if it's your problem, it will resonate. Like, how did they know that I had that problem? I thought it was the only one. And you're like, oh, my gosh, this is awesome. Somebody gets me, right, Right? What's the next thing they need to say we have the solution, but I got to understand what that solution means. So these milestones immediately go right onto your homepage. Showing you, hey, working with us is easy as one, two, three, maybe five steps. And if it's more than five steps, guess what, you've made the problem too complex. You probably have another problem inside the problem you're solving. And so you just need to go back to the drawing board and figure out what is the problem with inside the problem and sell that first problem that will then create the next problem. Okay, so you want two to three steps that you can immediately show on your landing pages, your ads holding yours. What if I told you there was three steps for eternal life?
- [32:37]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right?
- [32:37]
Michael Bazinski
I can use it in my campaigns, I can use in my emails. All you're doing is showing them what, what do you do? Not how, what. Okay, we do it with a implant center, right? They, they can do implants in one day, one visit. So we talk about the one visit. But does that mean they only talk to them once? No, there's three steps. There's a diagnosis, there's the, the actual implant and then the follow up to make sure everything is good. And that's their process.
- [33:04]
Michael Stelzner
So are they collecting testimonials at each of these stages to kind of help reinforce the messaging?
- [33:09]
Michael Bazinski
They can, nine times out of 10, what happens is that because you're doing quick wins to the big piece, I usually like to see the first problem within the first nine, 30 to max, 90 days.
- [33:20]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right.
- [33:21]
Michael Bazinski
So if you're asking for, if you have a four step process, say and that takes you four weeks, asking for a testimonial in the middle of the, of the first problem is probably not the best use of your time because you could be using that just to get things going and they're, they're still going. You haven't solved the problem yet. But guess what? When you do solve the big problem, they're going to talk about how easy it was and the minimal steps that you put them through through to get to that big problem solved.
- [33:44]
Michael Stelzner
Well, and there's a side of me that wonders real quick whether or not if you give them a chance to comment after each of these wins or you start getting comments from people like, oh my gosh, I've never had something like that happen in a week. Boom. You put that aside and you put that in your messaging. Because that way people have social proof that this is actually not just a promise that's hollow, but it's something that they deliver on, right?
- [34:08]
Michael Bazinski
Yes. What we do usually is. And when you have people in meetings, right? And I say if you're in the consulting space or a services space and you're doing anything virtual, always you have the transcripts going because then you always have proof that it was said for one. So you can quote them, right. But you put it in your case studies so you don't have to always sit there, go, hey, will you get on a video and. And say that? Because you're going to say that for the big win. Because the big win is the biggest thing to the people who are coming in the door that, hey, they said that they can get this done in two weeks. Is that true? They don't care about the steps yet. They care about the outcome.
- [34:41]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right.
- [34:42]
Michael Bazinski
You're always selling the outcome when you're doing that. So remember we said problem at the big top. Make sure that you're talking to their problem that's burning a hole in their head. The next thing is the solution, then the next thing is the process. And then in your social proof, if you're showing the nuances of those things through the case studies or your use cases or anything like that, a lot of times they'll reiterate it in their video testimonials.
- [35:08]
Michael Stelzner
Love it. Okay, so we've talked about the, at a high level focus statement and we talked about these milestones which are really important to kind of figure out how do we actually productize now? What do we do with all this stuff? Because that's something that I think I'd love to talk about. Because this could result in some sort of a renaming of your service or your product. Right?
- [35:28]
Michael Bazinski
A hundred percent. You ever buy Ikea or furniture when you're younger?
- [35:32]
Michael Stelzner
I hate going in their stores though, Right.
- [35:36]
Michael Bazinski
So you buy a dresser, Right. You didn't buy the process of the dresser though, Right?
- [35:43]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right.
- [35:44]
Michael Bazinski
So you get the box at home and then now there's a process of putting it together. And so in that is the instructions for it, right. So if you think of your service as a. All the pieces of what you do in a box with a set of instructions, which is just basically steps you're going to go through for your milestones.
- [36:01]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right.
- [36:02]
Michael Bazinski
You can now put a name to that dresser. This is the art deco dresser, the mint green art deco dresser.
- [36:10]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right.
- [36:11]
Michael Bazinski
It's a dresser, but you put a fancy name on, not a fan. I say fanciful because it needs to be unique.
- [36:16]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right.
- [36:17]
Michael Bazinski
And it need. But it needs to talk about the fact that it is a particular type of dresser.
- [36:22]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right.
- [36:22]
Michael Bazinski
So you have a software. What kind of software is it? Okay, the software is this. Then name it, whatever it is, right. So many people try to get fancy with their names. And I, and I've sold software, I built softwares and sold them. Did an SEO one called Dizio, thinking I was being cool because everybody had a cool name and nobody knew what Disio was until I told them what it was, right. And then they said, oh, DIY SEO, no thank you. And so I wasted my time.
- [36:45]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right.
- [36:45]
Michael Bazinski
It should have just been called the DIY SEO program. Right. Be blatant with your packaging, but all you're really doing is putting a wrapper on the things you're already doing and your packaging your milestones into a menu of services because they're microservices that solve the big problem.
- [37:07]
Michael Stelzner
So you have this thing called Focus to Fit Intensive that we were going to share. Tell us a little bit about what went underneath that.
- [37:13]
Michael Bazinski
So the Focus to Fit Intensive, we walk people through like really like understanding the psychology around the big problem. Because understanding that there is a problem and understanding why the problem is clearly urgent to them is the key to unlocking that focus state. And then we help them identify their perfectly profitable prospects for that solution. Because remember we said not all business is good business. And so a lot of people have what is called the icp, your ideal client profile. Most people have done Personas and all that other stuff. All great things. When you're starting out, you got to find out who you like to do business with. So done. Okay, now we can start filtering that down into the perfectly profitable prospects. These are people who for service based business specifically align with four things real.
- [38:02]
Michael Stelzner
Quick before you get into that. So just so we're clear, so everybody understands, because you might be a little bit confused. Focus to Fit Intensive is Michael's actual productized service. You didn't specify that, so you called it that because. Just explain that part just so people can understand that before we, before we get into. Yeah.
- [38:22]
Michael Bazinski
Focus to Fit is a play on words to the product market fit or an offer market fit. So we're focusing to fit right now. If people don't know what a or a product market Fit Intensive is. So I can be fanciful with the Focus to Fit because now I bring intrigue to the focus. Now my tagline, right, is we don't technically have a tagline for it, but if I gave one, it would be something like find the one thing that will sell over and over without effort.
- [38:51]
Michael Stelzner
Got it? Okay. So that's important. So, so Ideally, you call it something that is descriptive is what I'm hearing you say. Right. You don't make up like a crazy word like Qualcomm, you know what I mean? Which is now everybody knows what Qualcomm does.
- [39:05]
Michael Bazinski
At least calm is in there.
- [39:07]
Michael Stelzner
Exactly. Or Nvidia. You know what I mean?
- [39:11]
Michael Bazinski
I had a client that named their company Truval. Okay, great. Guys, what does Truval do?
- [39:16]
Michael Stelzner
No idea.
- [39:18]
Michael Bazinski
Same thing that Miro does. What does Miro do? If you've never used either of those, you don't know. Don't do that to your poor clients. So.
- [39:26]
Michael Stelzner
So if you have a service, it's better to give it a name. Instead of saying, we do this service, you give it a name like Focus to fit. And then now let's get into this P3P concept that you were about to get into. You called it perfectly profitable prospect profile, which is a tongue twister. But let's, let's unravel that a little bit. Bit.
- [39:47]
Michael Bazinski
So, yes, and that's why we call it the P3P. But I do love my alliteration. So, you know, I apologize. In our productized service is that we're going, the steps are finding that focus, the focus statement, and then making sure that, that we're messaging everything that we're creating in that intensive is engineered towards the most profitable opportunities you can sell it to. And so that's where that P3P comes in there. And so we help the participants identify how they can get their messaging to align with their core values. Because if you have, if you share core values with your clients, trust becomes much higher. That means that when you say, hey, you need this, they're not going to push back as much, Right? Because you genuinely have the same core values.
- [40:31]
Michael Stelzner
Right.
- [40:32]
Michael Bazinski
Or at least similar core values. Then there's culture. The way that you do business in your company is, might not be the same as mine. And if they clash, you're creating friction. Friction costs you time, energy, money. It also costs you satisfaction, Right? And so not all you've ever heard the PETA clients, right, the ones that just seem to complain all the time, it's because you're out of alignment, right? Because they might be an agile company that wants to move a mile a minute and you're very structured, like, no, we got to do this, then we got to do this, do this, right? Like, there's a lot of entrepreneurs that hate their CPAs because it's like, can we just get it done? They're like, well, we have to check all the boxes.
- [41:08]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right.
- [41:08]
Michael Bazinski
And so if you found a CPA that says, I can check boxes faster than any other CPA in the world, you'd be like, please, please, can I have you as my cpa?
- [41:15]
Michael Stelzner
Right, yeah.
- [41:16]
Michael Bazinski
Right, Right. Okay. So then you have delivery fit. Okay. This is. Can you produce the outcomes for that company? Because remember, sometimes the companies we come in contact with are not ready for us or they might have already passed where we can help them. Okay. So we want to make sure that delivery is there. The last is profitability. Can we deliver within our margins without scope creep, without any other added values? It's going to cost us money in the end.
- [41:42]
Michael Stelzner
Okay. So this is really awesome. I want to kind of unravel this a little bit. So the four things I heard you say is, number one, when we're identifying this perfect profitable profile, prospect profile called the P3P.
- [41:53]
Michael Bazinski
Yep, yep.
- [41:54]
Michael Stelzner
We first want to make sure that we understand what our values are and that. That they resonate with those values. How do we even know whether they'll resonate with those values? Is that partly because we're communicating those values to prospects before they become customers? Talk a little bit about that.
- [42:11]
Michael Bazinski
So we're talking about that tech company with the IR press releases, right? One of their core values is transparency. When they say transparency, if you don't value transparency, you're not going to resonate with it. And you then looking at two different companies, that one says, we're fast versus we're transparent. And your core value, one of your core values is expediency. You're going to go towards that company.
- [42:37]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right.
- [42:38]
Michael Bazinski
There's these small nuances of your core values that can be worked in without going like, hey, we only work with people who are transparent and honest. You're never going to say that.
- [42:48]
Michael Stelzner
I like that. And, you know, recently I just hired a new attorney and part of the onboarding process when I was, you know, basically trying to, like, discern whether they'd be a good client was I shared what our core values are and I shared what our cultural expectations are for acceptable behaviors inside the business. And when I talked to the owner of the agency, the law firm, she said, almost out of the bat, I love the fact that you shared your core values. They're in alignment with my core values. All of a sudden, that's a good signal to both parties that we're a match. Right. And a lot of times that signal is completely missing. And 100. And that's like, perhaps part of the reason why we have that friction. You were talking about earlier is because we're not communicating this. Is that correct?
- [43:31]
Michael Bazinski
A hundred percent. And it feeds right into. So if you build the trust with core values.
- [43:36]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right.
- [43:37]
Michael Bazinski
Because do you want to work with somebody who I always tell people, like, you've heard the know, like trust paradigm.
- [43:44]
Michael Stelzner
Yeah, yeah.
- [43:45]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right.
- [43:45]
Michael Bazinski
You do business with people you know, like and trust. I say, nah, I do business with people I know trust. And maybe like, I don't have to like my lawyer. I don't have to have them over for dinner. I don't have to, you know, send Christmas cards. I don't need to like them, but I definitely need to trust them.
- [44:03]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right.
- [44:04]
Michael Bazinski
So if we can get into our messaging things that will create our trust because we trust for different reasons and companies trust differently as a whole, as in individuals.
- [44:14]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right.
- [44:15]
Michael Bazinski
So a lot of times we hear like, well, the owner believes in blah, blah, blah. Yes. But as a group, what do you believe in?
- [44:22]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right.
- [44:22]
Michael Bazinski
So our core values. I'll tell you our core values. We are fiduciary marketers, meaning that we always work in the best interest of our clients because marketing is an investment. And when you invest, you should have somebody looking after your best interests. Our second is intra entrepreneurism. Okay. Be an intrapreneur. That means that you work like you own the place. You don't have to take the risk, but work like you own the place. Take pride in ownership.
- [44:47]
Michael Stelzner
Most prospects are going to love that because they know they're not going to be dealing with the slacker when they go get someone working with them.
- [44:52]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right? Right.
- [44:53]
Michael Bazinski
So when we're bringing on people. Yeah. And we can totally go down that lane some other day. So then the last one is be constructively dissatisfied, no matter how big the win. How could we do it 1% better? And if I put that on my website and you read that against every other marketer you've ever talked to, what does that say about us compared to anybody else?
- [45:14]
Michael Stelzner
It says a lot, obviously, because you know you're going to be continuously seeking improvement, which I think is awesome.
- [45:20]
Michael Bazinski
Do it as a fiduciary for you.
- [45:21]
Michael Stelzner
I love it. Delivery fit. Talk about that a little bit, because I just want to make sure everybody understands what that really means.
- [45:27]
Michael Bazinski
So everybody solve a different problem.
- [45:29]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right.
- [45:30]
Michael Bazinski
I'll use us as an example. Sometimes people aren't ready to get focused.
- [45:36]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right.
- [45:36]
Michael Bazinski
They're not ready to find that one thing they can sell over and over without the hassle of selling all the things to all the people.
- [45:44]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Right.
- [45:44]
Michael Bazinski
They just love to bleed money. It's just it's in there and they have to have that mindset. So if they don't have the mindset to change their mind of what, what and how they're marketing their services, then I can't deliver my product because they have to change their mindset for me to do that. So do they have the mindset to accept the outcome you're going to deliver? Do they have the resources to take advantage of the outcomes you're going to deliver? Do they want to make the change? That's a different set of mindset. Okay, mindset is why you don't want it yet, but then you need to want it bad enough to actually do it. Will they execute on what you say needs to happen? Because if they don't, even if at the right mindset, but they won't do the reps, you're out of luck.
- [46:36]
Michael Stelzner
Michael, we have just tapped that brain of yours. If people want to learn more about you and the services that you offer, where do you want to send them and if they want to connect with you on the socials, do you have a preferred platform?
- [46:49]
Michael Bazinski
I'll give you three. How's that for socials? LinkedIn is the best you can find me at Michael Bazinski. It's phonetically spelled Buzen and Ski the buzzworthy biz and I have a special gift if you do buzzworthy biz SME. And if you want, I do have a book on website marketing and how you can simplify that@ruleof26.com cool.
- [47:14]
Michael Stelzner
So if they go to say what that website is again SME. And what will they find there?
- [47:19]
Michael Bazinski
Buzzworthy biz SME. There is a special offer for the focus to fit intensive with a special added value bonus for your listeners only.
- [47:31]
Michael Stelzner
Awesome. Thank you Michael so much for coming on today's show.
- [47:34]
Michael Bazinski
Cheers. Thank you so much for having me.
- [47:37]
Michael Stelzner
Hey, if you missed anything, we took all the notes for you over@socialmediaexaminer.com 684. If you're new to the show, follow us. If you've been a listener, would love a review, share with your friends, tag me on the socials and do check out our other shows. The AI Explored Podcast and the Social Media Marketing Talk Show. This brings us to the end of the Social Media Marketing Podcast. I'm your host. Michael Stelzner will be back with you next week. I hope you make the past out of your day and may your marketing keep evolving.
- [48:05]
Michael Bazinski
The Social Media Marketing Podcast is a.
- [48:08]
Michael Stelzner
Production of Social Media Examiner. This is the year to finally come to Social Media Marketing World 2026. Grab your tickets right now by visiting Social Media Marketing World Dot Info.