Hey there listeners! What’s up and welcome back to Traffic Jam. This is show #75 of the podcast show that teaches you on how to get more traffic to your website, and build and engaged and profitable audience online.

On today’s show we will be discussing not just about how to get traffic but how to build a following that’s highly engaged and resonates with your authentic brand.

My guest today, Ryan Lee calls this trust-building traffic. But before we get to Ryan’s trust traffic building strategies, I wanted to tell you about a blog post that we published this week called “How To Get Traffic”.

So Traffic Jam listeners, I think you might be interested in this one, especially because it features 30 of the very best Traffic Jam guests to date, who have come together to share their #1 traffic-getting secret. It’s over 5000-words long and it’s been a huge labor of love this past month, and I’m sure that you’re going to want to check it out, if you do, head on over to www.trafficjamcast.com/75 which is the show notes page for this episode. You’ll see all of the links mentioned in today’s show coming up, plus a link on that blog post as well. I’d love for you to check that out. If you like what you read, I would love to hear your comments in the section below.

So let me give an introduction to today’s guest. His name is Ryan Lee. He’s a former fitness professional who’s done a lot in fitness entrepreneurial and marketing space. He’s an all-around personality and you’ll find that out in today’s show. That’s actually where we are going to be spending our time today talking about how to build an authentic-real and true personal brand that resonates with your audience and stands you out online.

While we all know that there’s a huge amount of content that exists on the internet. How do you appear different? How do you stand out as your true authentic self? That’s going to be the discussion on today’s episode. Without further ado, let’s introduce today’s guest, Ryan Lee from Freedym.com, (F-R-E-E-D-Y-M)

James: Welcome back listeners! You’re tuned in to episode 75 of Traffic Jam. Today you’re joined by Ryan Lee. Ryan how are you doing?

Ryan: I am doing great!  I’m excited to be on here because I like your podcast. I’m a fan of the show. To be on here, it’ll be nice if it it’ll be a special episode like 100, but it’s 75.

James: 75, that’s three quarters of the way. I’m sure there’s a celebration around 75. It’s not around jubilee, it’s the one after that. Anyways, we’ll make something up. We’ll make you feel special.

Let’s talk about your newest project to begin with the Freedym Podcast to bring listeners up to speed, a daily podcast show – its ten minutes in length and you interview experts. With more than one kind of established daily entrepreneurial podcast out there. Why a podcast and why now?

Ryan: That’s a great question. A podcast, I look at it, we were talking a little bit before the start of the recording. I look at it as another channel. I think people make a mistake of looking at one thing and say, this is the only thing I’m going to do, and this is the only way I can get traffic.

For me, I think it’s about finding your strength. For all the clients, for everyone listening to this, you’ve got to know what your strength is. My strength, I feel is just me communicating, speaking and I do a lot of writing and a lot of emails,  but I don’t think people are really able to hear my voice. It (podcast) was a way for people to hear my voice, to get third party traffic.

You know, if you get a decent listing in iTunes, you’re going to get some of that traffic that naturally happens, like someone’s surfing around iTunes and they just find you. I’m a realist, so I don’t think I’m just going to sit back, get in iTunes, get a new and note-worthy, and Oh my god, now I have a new multi-million dollar business. Some people think like that, but it’s not reality. 

I look at it as anything that I can get extra is just freebie. I think them hearing me, being prolific , being in their head all the time and a really really big thing is being able to connect and reconnect with a lot of other great entrepreneurs, people that I admire, people that are my clients, people that I worked with in the past and it gives me a reason to reach out to them. 

You said you just listened to the interview I did with Seth Godin, we’ve communicated in the past. Sometimes, there’s no really reason for me to reach out to them, but hey Seth, we got this top podcast, I would like to get on with you for ten minutes. There’s a lot of advantages on a traffic perspective, because I know this is the Traffic Jam. 

When you promote, when you have people in the show, a percentage of them will then promote it to their network. Not everyone, you’re not going to get 100%, but some will. If people look at my site, they can see a specific page at freedym.com/show and they’ll see all of the time and money and resource I put into creating really nice graphics.

It’s a daily show. You are one of our first guess, James. You could see the graphics, and the time and the money we put into it. There’s a good chance that you’ll share it to your audience. It’s funny as I see many people doing this wrong.

I got an email about three weeks ago. A guy with a podcast said, “Ryan, I like your stuff, I’d love to interview you in my podcast. However, for me to interview, you must agree to the following. You must one dedicated to your list about the podcast, you must have 2-3 social media updates about it.” and I said, I was flattered, but hell no, you can’t force me. If I like the show and it’s great and I think it goes well, and I want to promote it, I will mention it, but if not then I won’t. That’s the wrong way to look at it. It’s not just a great way to build relationships. It’s got to be giving and connecting. That was a very very long answer.

James: Let’s dig in to some of that stuff. Because there’s some interesting lessons in there. I guess, the first follow up question I’ve got is how conscious a decision was the format of a show that you chose. I mean there are two people together, casual conversation. There is the interview next, the star show, that both you and I adapt. Was it a conscious decision for you, at the back of your mind, thinking that if I get other experts on the show, there’s another opportunity to have it promoted in another channels that I could not easily access without these people coming on board.

Ryan: It was definitely a factor, but it wasn’t “the factor”. I sat down. The reality is that I’ve been thinking of doing the podcast two years ago. I’ve even announced it and start recording. I recorded 10 episodes. I just didn’t love the way it came out. It didn’t feel right. I sat and I said, if I’m going to do it, what are the real reasons, what are the real benefits, what about the style.

Everything in marketing and your business, there is no one size fits all. You have to look within yourself and be totally honest. Say, these are my skills, these are my strengths, and this is what I’m going to do, this is what I’m good at.

I know, attention wise, I can’t stand listening to one-hour podcast. I just don’t have the attention and especially when the first 20 minutes and it’s the same story. Everyone’s telling their stories, I get it. Look, I love stories. Sometimes, just get me to the “meat”. I didn’t have the attention to sit and say “Hey, how’d you get started”. Nothing’s wrong with that.

I just didn’t want to do that. I couldn’t see myself doing that in the long run. 10 minutes – piece of cake. I love it, I get in, we cut to the core, I don’t let them dance around, I ask the hard questions. We just go. In terms of interviewing people, yes, that was definitely one of the top factors. To me, it’s about getting connecting and relationships, and getting another opportunity to get to talk people to get them on the phone. It’s just because the connections are so strong. That to me, is really everything.

I figured that all of the extra traffic I will generate by interviewing them and them posting it in their networks would be an estimate of 20%. I didn’t think 100%. Some people, that’s another mistake James, Okay I’m going to do these webinars, and I’ll interview someone and they’re all going to promote it to their entire network. That’s BS!

I recently got a call with the guy who’s doing something similar. He’s doing a book, and he’s been saying, “I’m having 15 experts all contribute to chapter, and they’re all going to promote it.” He’s listing some of these names and I said, “What’s in it for them?” he said, “Well, they going to promote it to their list” . I’m like “No, they’re not! I knew four of those guys” there’s no way they’re sending all the people to a list to get them to the free opt in, to give you 3000 of their most active customers for nothing. They’re just not doing it. You’ve got to be realistic. If you look at this as a slight bump or like a 10-20% of your traffic coming from it, then that’s great but you you’ve got to be able to make it work.

On the other end, I also knew that if I do this short shows, I could still intersperse solo shows with me as well, as long as it still in that consistent 10-minute format. I’ve only done one, but I’m going to be doing more. Maybe once every two weeks. There’s just going to be me coming on, doing my little 10-minute rants. I love doing that. I don’t like the pressure of if it’s just me every week, I knew I wouldn’t do it daily myself. Just me even every week, how am I going to feel about this a year or two years down the road? I just don’t want to pressure me.

If you’re to do a traffic podcast James, all of that SEO and weekly and it’s just you, by year two, “let’s talk about Alta Vista, let’s talk about hot pot.”

James: I think that’s getting the balance right. I think from what I can tell of your show so far, you’ve been able to inject your own personality in the podcast and make it about you, was putting a spotlight on your guest. Sometimes, there’s a tendency if you’re not careful, with interview star show for it to be all about the guest. That’s great content but let’s face it, most of us our doing this to build authority, to position ourselves with expertise. If you’re not careful you can actually take all of that away from yourself. Do you think that’s the case?

Ryan:  I agree 100%. Then you’ll become like Larry King. He would just sit there and interview people, or Charlie Rose. It’s great. Everyone knows who Larry King and Charlie Rose is but you’re not buying Larry King’s success program. I mean there will be some people who will. I think you get the point.

This is the greatest thing and there’s no personality and you just ask some more questions and you sit back, and you don’t have your branding through it, you’re right, in a way do the opposite. Specially, if all you’re doing is just showcasing your competitors and saying how amazing they are.

It’s funny because we’re kind of coming back to the question you asked me before, why I chose this format. If you look at me and my business and the branding that I’ve built over the years, and the consistency, people will think of me, I’m hoping that they think that Ryan is the no BS, cut right to the chase, no hype, no crap, none of this garbage in the typical internet marketing, so this 10-minute fluff-free format is just the extension of the brand. It fits.

If it’s a one hour sit down where it’s this serious “Tell me about this. Tell me about your mother” it would just not fit me and my brand. Everyone who’s listening to this, what is it, what’s your superpower, what’s your brand, what’s your image, what do you want people to feel about you when they hear your name. That’s real important.

James: I think we should loop back to personality in a moment and sort of talk about how you’ve injected some of your style into the show. I guess I saw it on your marketing I wanted to ask you a little bit about guest selection.

You’re probably at 30 episodes or so at the time of this recording. You’ve had heavy hits and names. We mentioned Seth Godin earlier, he’s probably one of the famous names in marketing that you could have in your show, and you’ve had some lesser known guys. I found in this show that actually getting the balance right is really important because, one, it brings context and adds variety to the show. Also your big hits will often be the ones with the biggest downloads. Often the lesser-known guests are the ones that are actually going to help you build your show the most, because they are the ones that are most readily going to talk about the episode and help promote it to your audience. What experience have you got so far?

Ryan: Absolutely!  I’m really trying to find that balance between the bigger names and some people who are just in the trenches and unknown, like someone like Christian Moneta, who’s a triathlon coach from Australia that a lot of people might not know.

That one and Seth Godin is the next. Like for example, I’ve had someone today, Mary Agnes Antonopoulos, is an incredible social media expert but not really well-known. She has not publish books but she does social media like Jack Kent, JJ Virgin, and she’s promoted my podcast at least five or six times. Even today she just did another big post saying “Go check out the show and if you like it, comment, and share it, then I’ll give you a prize” Seth didn’t do that nor do I expect him to.

I like to find the balance between the two. It’s very similar to when I’ve done online summit and when I’ve coached people to do online summits. You want to get some of the big names but don’t expect them to do the marketing for you. The one who’s going to do the marketing are the lesser known names with the blog and the list of 30,000 people.  If you only get the big names, then you’re not going to get that traffic either.

Again, going with my brand, and we’ll talk about that soon I guess, with me it is about a lot of finding those people. The real lifestyle business that people in the trenches, making money doing things that are really cool and different and unique.

When you think of someone like Seth Godin, you don’t really think of a lifestyle entrepreneur.   You think of someone with big business consulting type.

James:  Let’s talk a little bit about the artwork. We touched on it very briefly earlier with the artwork. That is one stand out feature of your show. These beautiful artworks in sort of pieces you produced. I guess as best as we can in words since we are in a podcast. I just want to describe what does it looks like. Perhaps we’ll talk little bit about why have you chosen this style, and also how you use it to promote the show as well.

Ryan:  I really wanted to have the visual presentation of a glossy magazine. With my graphic designer, when we came over the first concept, I said “I want each cover to look like it will go on a magazine rack.” That was the thing. It’s got to look like… You can walk by like. What’s the popular bookstore in the UK?

James:   I guess WH Smith. I don’t know if there’s any left anymore. Barnes and Noble will be one I guess. 

Ryan:  So you walked into the WH Smith, in this cover looks like it can go on a magazine rack, that’s the image I want – very glossy, high resolution photos. I want each cover to look a little bit different. I don’t want it all to look like all exactly the same. I didn’t want it to look like an Ebook cover. I purposely said that it can’t look like Ebook cover. It can’t look like there’s an ongoing series and everything blends together because I have this idea that it should look like a portfolio of a high-end glossy magazine. The reason is because I know that I don’t care how well known you are if you’re on something, if there’s a cover image of you and it looks like a magazine cover, there’s a much greater chance that you’re going to share it. A much greater chance but it doesn’t mean 100% but much greater. 

So we did the cover for you and funny, you are actually on my list, I was going to email you to say it went live, but I think you went live on a weekend. So I didn’t have the chance. But you saw that it looks like a magazine cover. Will you share it or will you not? 

James: Well I guess the answer is there for you. 

Ryan: The answer is “Yes” right?  I don’t know. In my experience, 80% of people share the images, because they look so good. It does cost me a lot of money to create but I’m okay with re-investing back.  I would much rather re-invest back in my business than on a sports car so I can take pictures of and go “Dude look at my car” I could care less about that. 

James: Yeah we all like them. That’s the perks. This is exactly why we produce these caricatures for the Traffic Jam shows. It’s something that’s a little bit different and it’s certainly does make our guests more likely to share the content. It’s something different to what is produce for other shows. We do talk nicely of them. I can see exactly why they would work for you, I mean the magazine covers. 

Ryan: It is about being different standing out.  In business you always have to look at what’s the differentiator? What am I going to do that my competitors won’t? 

I know most of my competitors are never going to do this because it’s too much work, it’s too much money, it’s too much time, and most people are just looking for shortcuts. They are looking to do as little as possible and then not willing to put in the time, money and resource but I am. That’s why I talk a lot about it. If you’re serious about their business, then be freaking serious about your business. Do everything you can do we make a goal of it.

For me that was always a big part of it. I’m a very visual guy, and that imagery is really something I know that is going to stand out just like yours with the cartoons.

James:  Something that seems pretty true for you, is the whole concept of ensuring that personality is your brand. You do infuse that. Your whole intros in your podcasts are all wacky. I don’t think I can pull that off, but you pulled it off so well.

What else are you doing in your marketing to bring that personality to the full? Because we all know now that there is so much content out there, if we’re not doing stuff differently, we’re never going to get seen or heard. What are the tips or advice could you offer to get our listeners think about how they might be different?

Ryan:  Just to talk with you with what you’re mentioning, the intro sets the tone for the show. You really have to think hard about your introduction. You are talking specifically about the podcast right?

James:  In this case we’re talking about a podcast, but in terms of standing out how else can we do it?  It is a broad question, but I do hope that you are game in answering it. 

Ryan:  I was game for it, but I don’t know if I can give you a good answer. It really is a question of doing some soul searching. Soul searching, sitting down and thinking about all the wins you’ve had not just in business but in life. Look back at your history, look at every success, every when, what are the common factors, what was it that made you success in this area. Is it your humor? Is it your brain?  Is it your straightforwardness? Is it the goofiness?

Everyone has a personality. Mine tends to be high energy, and I just love to make funny jokes. That’s me. You said you would have trouble doing that kind of introduction, because that’s just not you. That’s fine. People get into trouble James, when you’re trying to be someone you’re not.

It just doesn’t sound real. It’s about getting real. The other thing you can do is ask.  There was a book that talked about going to your 5-10 closest friends and asking them, what is that about me that you like? What’s my superpower? The first one will say you are nice, you’re sweet, you’re caring, but as you talk deeper, it’s going to be uncovered. I’ve had people go through this exercise and say “I found out what my superpower is”. 

You’ve got to know what your superpower is and be that. You have no idea how nice it is when you can just cut the BS and just be yourself. Just be you. I remember years ago, Frank Kern, I’ve known for a decade, went through like a surfer-dude face and all of a sudden, everyone’s marketing like trying to be a surfer. It feels like, it’s not you. You live in New York City, you’re not a surfer.

The other guy is trying to imitate him.  Stop trying to be like other people. Find your strength.  Find your superpower.  Ask your friends what your superpower is.  Be that and let that resonate through, what it has to do, is it has to flow through all of your marketing channels. Whether its email marketing, or your podcast, any ads you’re doing, or your Facebook updates, or your Twitter updates, or your Pinterest updates, your Periscope updates – that feel and that personality have to be consistent throughout.

You can’t talk about integrity and honesty and then do this fake countdown clocks. There’s disconnect. One of the first things I do with my clients is sit down and find out what’s their unique ability. What makes them different, it drives me crazy. 

You see something those saying that they said they are, they are psychologists, the baby boomers, then they have such a great offline business then they go online. They read a couple of sales copy products and their copies are like “Who else wants to do 500 pull-ups and raise your kids…” It’s not even you, stop that.

James: I think something that you’ve done well and we can use as takeaways, you’ve kind of pull this audio queue in that is almost an audio branding that you’ve inserted into your podcast and neatly identifiable as you. In other spaces where people have done that visually, like Frank Kern many years ago with the whole surfer thing, Joe Pulizzi with his orange suit or Richard Branson with his big golden locks is immediately identifiable as them but it also ties in to their personality and what they stand in for. It’s all infused together which makes it work so well.

Ryan:  Yeah. Exactly. Like me, I talk a lot about lifestyle business; it doesn’t make sense to have a picture of me and my headshot wearing a suit.

James: Yeah. You can’t be a serious guy right?

Ryan:  No. No. But if you are the serious guy, and you have the MBA from Harvard, and that’s your thing. It’s all about serious math and stats and split tests then put the suit on. You find it, and you let that kind come through out.

In terms of the podcast though, I immediately start with that kind of intro. That’s another thing. Everyone using podcast as an example once again, everyone will go to Fiverr and everyone’s going to get the same intro that sounds the same but there’s no differentiation between that and every other person. It sounds like a radio show, but where are you?  Because I think the old way of marketing is dying.

The people who do lifestyle business, the one are who’s succeeding, is all about personality and connections and being you.

James: Let’s touch a couple of topics before we finish out. This is more a 10-minute show.

Ryan:  I’m here. I got the day scheduled for you James.

James: Trust building traffic was one thing that you mentioned to me in our pre-chat. What do you mean about that? How we might go about building more trust in our traffic?

Ryan:  How can I describe it? It’s really kind of about using the same theme, using that personality. Trust. How do you describe trust? It’s really just being authentic. It’s cutting through the crap. For example, if you’re doing a Facebook video ad, one guy just post this in our Facebook group and he said looked at his video and I just did. He did it on Fiverr. It was just flashy words. “If you want to lose weight.. “ It’s the same kind of no substance, no meat, there’s no connection. It’s getting rid of all that crap, all the glitz.

If you look at what’s really working, people don’t want that stuff.  They want a reality. Stop doing that. Get an iPhone or any little camera. I do that now. I go outside and I film a one or two minute video clips – just me, raw, uncensored, doing my teaching and strategy.

Whatever market you are, if its fitness, get your phone, go outside, and say hey “I’m Simon, I want to show you two really cool ways of push up variations today, here’s one… here’s another one. ”

One of my clients, Elliot Hulses built this huge business with 600,000 followers. He’s doing a tour now in Europe just by doing that, he has shared videos, he’s kind of showing his face, that’s him. That is real authentic marketing. That’s just what you have to do.

I know there are big businesses still that rely on ads. You’ve had a lot of guys on the show that talked a lot about this stuff. You know these ads like “3 Foods To Never Eat” and this kind of stuff. Yeah, it’s going to get some attention, but it’s a very very tough game to play.

Let’s say you do come up with a really creative ad, what happens? Everyone, all the really smart guys, they subscribe to all these services, they know what exactly what ad are you doing. Where are you running it, how much are you spending and then they rip it off. Now, all of a sudden, your clicks go up, the cost per click goes up, conversions go down, and then you’re going to start screwing at the back end. That’s a replay game. That’s a tough tough game to play.  People try to play it and they go in not really knowing how hard it is. You can make millions of dollars, but the people who lose money are much greater compared to the people who makes money playing that.

Because you need to have some guts, and you need to have a lot of money to spend on traffic, on ads, on split tests. 99% of my audiences are never going to play that game. So I stop trying to cater to them, I’m going for the people who are heart-centered. That’s a tough game. Then what happens is people try to play the game a little bit, then they do another ad “3 Foods To Never Eat” then they to another page that doesn’t really connect with the ad. Then they’ll be like “What about more funnels?”

Just cut it out. Be you. Communicate and be authentic. If you look at Gary Vaynerchuk , he just now put videos and even with wine library. All he did is sit there, took a video and talk about wine. That’s how he started the business. That’s how he becomes well-known. It was just short little videos, but Gary was using his personality. He’s still being Gary. He didn’t have to say “7 Ways to Find the Best Wine”. He didn’t do any of that.

James: Let’s send this interview with one kind of wrap up piece of advice because you’ve been online for many years now, you have coached a bunch of people in this so called internet space.  What piece of advice has you found repeating yourself with most? What’s the one thing that you’ve been telling people over and over again that you recommend in the businesses to implement?

Ryan:  Be you. Be real. Be authentic. Build Trust. That’s it. It’s going to take the pressure off. Stop trying to be someone you’re not. Be authentic. The people, who like you, will resonate with you and are going to like you. The people who don’t, that’s fine. You’ll repel that.

Focus on those who are really helping. Marketing is going to be so much easier. Conversions are going to be easier. Sales, running and managing your business, you’ll have less refunds.

One thing you can have to touch on is that when you market like this, you get so many more referrals, like your business just changes.

That’s my parting advice. Don’t get stressed out; don’t get overwhelmed of all the techniques, of all the social media things happening. Pick one or two traffic things you’re good at, whether its podcasting, whether it’s Facebook, whether it’s Facebook video ads, whether it’s Twitter ads, YouTube ads, Periscope, whatever those one or two things are, just be really good at it. Be authentic and just dive in deeper. Don’t stop and just stay focus.  

James: Here you go we have the tweetable for the episode.  Be you. Be real. Be authentic. Build Trust. For you the listener, you’ll probably find that on the episode page of Traffic 75 which you get to at www.trafficjamcast.com/75 . As a passing piece of instruction for our listeners, where should they go to find out more?

Ryan: You can go to the new site www.freedym.com or I’ve done a really cool thing to my 15 years of my best business-building strategies, I condensed them to just 3 pages, if you want that, you can text FREEDYM and send it to 33444. I’ve made it easy for you.

James: Absolutely, that’s awesome. Thank you Ryan, it’s been an absolute blast having you on the show. I’m sure we’ll get another opportunity to have you again soon.

That was Ryan Lee from Freedym.com. Thank you for listening to the episode 75 of Traffic Jam podcast. Remember that you can subscribe to Traffic Jam by going to www.trafficjamcast.com/itunes or www.trafficjamcast.com/stitcher

For links to all the resources mentioned in today’s show, head on over to www.trafficjamcast.com/75 where you can get an mp3 version of the show, full transcript of today’s interview plus a link to the round up post that I mentioned right on the top of the show, with 30 of the very best Traffic Jam guests to date who shared their #1 traffic-getting secret.  As I’ve said to get your hands on that and other bonuses of the show, head on to www.trafficjamcast.com/75.

Now we end this week of Traffic Jam by featuring a traffic jam by our guest Ryan Lee. His chosen ACDC’s Thundestruck, enjoy the track and I’ll be back with another episode very very soon.