IAM2767 – Digital Marketer Brings a Unique Approach to SEM

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Transcription:

Ryan Baker 00:00
probably the best advice is focus on people, understand people, what they want, how they communicate, how they express their needs, fears, dreams, how they think. Understanding people and the relationship between people is really going to help you more than anything else. I mean, in the business world, it's all, I mean, there's no difference between the business world and the quote unquote real world. You're always dealing with people. You're always dealing with relationships of some sort. If you understand how people and relationships work, you understand how things work in the business world and how things work outside of the business world. And it just makes everything so much better.

Gresham Harkless 01:08
Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I Am CEO Podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Ryan Baker of Kingly Consulting. Ryan, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Ryan Baker 01:16
It's great to be here, Gresh. Appreciate your time.

Gresham Harkless 01:18
No problem. Appreciate you. And what I want to do is just read a little bit more about Ryan so we can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. And Ryan Baker is the CEO of Kingly Consulting and the founder. And Kingly Consulting was founded to help SEO-focused digital marketing agencies improve their PPC services. He's had the privilege of working with a lot of agencies and he loves the energy and the people in the world. As a certified customer experience professional, he brings a unique approach to the SEM side of digital marketing. He loves helping to shift the focus of agencies and their clients from the short-term numbers game to the long-term human-centric approach. He enjoys longstanding relationships with his clients and thrives on underpromising and overdelivering. Outside of work, he has a beautiful wife and two adorable daughters. He enjoys spending time with their, their family at church, traveling and exploring, drinking coffee, playing music, and of course board games. Brian, are you ready to speak to the I Am CEO community?

Ryan Baker 02:06
I am ready.

Gresham Harkless 02:07
Awesome. Let's do it. So to kick everything off, I wanted to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story. What led you to get started with the business?

Ryan Baker 02:13
Yeah. So man, for the better part of the last decade, I just had this dream of freedom. I was working your standard, you know, relatively young person jobs and just kind of not really moving anywhere. I didn't have a goal or a vision, but I heard about people starting online businesses. So I started kind of studying that idea, you know, the strategy, the marketing, the culture, anything I could get my hands on, and just trying to pursue this dream of, you know, freedom, whatever that looks like for me. And in those different jobs that I was working as I was studying all of that, I, I really gained a lot of experience in leadership and marketing and all the things I was studying, kind of getting some hands-on, real-world experience with it. And it kind of led me toward the digital marketing agency environment. So my last job I worked at was at a digital marketing agency, phenomenal agency, one of the top agencies in the world, great, great people.. And I managed to gain some consulting experience there. Just one of the owners was supposed to consult with somebody and couldn't make it in and asked me to jump in instead. And of course I was honored, but jumped in and just fell in love with it. Really felt fulfilled to be able to share my knowledge and experience that I had learned over the years with this team of people. And so I'm, you know, went on and I ended up leaving that job, but jumped immediately into consulting. 2 weeks later, started working with a local digital marketing agency and just never looked back.

Gresham Harkless 03:54
Nice. Well, I definitely appreciate that. It sounds like you've had kind of had that opportunity to be that, I guess, the entrepreneur by, you know, having that work with the agency and then being able to kind of, I guess, your feet wet and then start to plant the seeds for your business. Oh yeah, definitely.

Ryan Baker 04:08
Nice.

Gresham Harkless 04:08
So I know I touched on it a little bit, but I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper here, a little bit more about how you're serving the clients and what you're doing to support them. Yeah.

Ryan Baker 04:16
So providing growth strategy consulting really to digital marketing agencies. Generally, the agencies I work with, they have a really strong SEO service. Their, their SEM or PPC is pretty weak. A lot of times they'll reach out to me if they're starting to lose their SEO clients because they're PPC, you know, whether it be like Google Ads or Facebook Ads or something like that, it's just not up to spec. It's not delivering the results that they expect. And so what a lot of people do here is, is just kind of focus on improving the performance of the campaigns. And that's generally what you need to do to start. So I'll usually perform an audit of their PPC, you know, like an account that's not doing well. But generally after that, I go in and focus on a much more comprehensive solution. So, you know, look at the people involved, look at the processes that they're following, if there are any, a lot of times there aren't, and just really address super important things like communication with the client and inter-agency communication and just kind of fine-tune or even create sometimes new ways that they can approach this service that delivers more value to the client. More efficiently for the agency.

Gresham Harkless 05:35
Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And I think a lot of times, you know, it sounds like some of it might be those kind of soft skills, I guess you can say, where, you know, you're trying to figure out how best to communicate and you're also bringing on a new, or maybe not even bringing on a new, I guess you, from what it sounds like, you're actually perfecting it or making it better, um, that offering that they're providing so that they can continue to provide value on the SEO side, but also have another kind of stream of revenue or service offering.

Ryan Baker 05:57
Nailed it.

Gresham Harkless 05:58
Yep. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, I definitely appreciate that because I think in this day and age, it seems like from a digital marketing perspective, nothing is kind of really siloed. It's all kind of integrated. So to be able to provide both sides of the coin, I guess you could say, then that definitely provides value, of course, to the overall target client, which they're trying to help improve.

Ryan Baker 06:16
Oh yeah. Yeah. It's all related. And if one part of it is suffering, it's just like, you know, whittling the legs of a table down, you know, you got to have them all the same length, got to have them all the same strength.

Gresham Harkless 06:28
Exactly. So that you make sure the table doesn't fall over, which we, nobody ever wants. So, um, you might've already touched on this, but I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce and it could be for you or your organization, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

Ryan Baker 06:41
Oh yeah. Well, it's, it's a little cliché. Um, but, uh, but a big part of what sets me apart is, is me. Um, I don't want that to sound arrogant or anything. It's just that with, with any business, um, especially consulting, you really, you can't replicate who a person is, their experience, their personality, their approach. You can replicate a lot of things, but a person and everything, all of the intricacies and nuances that make that person who they are, you just, you can't copy that. And as a consultant, really, that's part of what makes me unique. I'm also a certified customer experience professional. I was one of the first 1,000 in the world that is a certification put out by the, the Customer Experience Professionals Association. And it's kind of one of those things that's relatively new, but focuses a lot on standardizing the approach of improving and optimizing the experience a customer has when interacting with a business. And a lot of digital marketers tend to become CCXPs, as they're called, but not a lot of CCXPs go back into marketing. And so I have a very good friend that wrote the book on how to pass the exam, and he had me kind of beta testing his exam simulator actually. And I just kind of realized like, oh man, this resonates really strongly with me and my approach and who I am. So I just went ahead and got the certification. He was providing me with the tools to to study and pass, and it really meshes well with my overall message and philosophy.

Gresham Harkless 08:25
Yeah, that makes so much sense. And I definitely, you know, appreciate you sharing that. And I was going to, you know, wonder and ask you that if, you know, largely because especially with consulting businesses, a lot of it is just tapping into the expertise of the person and all the experiences that they have. So that definitely, you know, makes perfect sense as far as your secret sauce. And I like too that you, you know, you talked about the CCXP, but also that, you know, I think a lot of times when we look at businesses and we look at organizations, we kind of forget that human-centric approach. Approach, um, that I kind of touched on when I was reading your bio, but that a lot of times we forget the customer, we forget, you know, the, the human aspect of it. And we get so caught up sometimes in algorithms and all those things that we forget the human aspect.

Ryan Baker 09:02
Yeah, it's the foundation of everything, man.

Gresham Harkless 09:04
Absolutely. Absolutely. So I wanted to, uh, switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Ryan Baker 09:13
Yeah, well, man, um, so I know that this has probably been used over and over and over again, but But Audible is just so great. I have consumed a ridiculous amount of volume in audiobook. I love listening in the car, you know, when I'm driving and otherwise would just be, you know, angry at other drivers not using the turn signals or whatever, you know, walks, flights, just whenever I have time. A lot of times I'll listen to, you know, all of these nonfiction books that are just dumping all this great information into my head, but I like to mix it up and toss in like a fiction book every now and then. Like a fantasy novel read by Michael Kramer or something. Just really helps to let your mind turn off and then let your subconscious start to work through all of the information you've been processing. And it makes it a lot more useful when you go to tackle new problems.

Gresham Harkless 10:07
Absolutely. Absolutely. So now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. So this is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice, or if you could hop into a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Ryan Baker 10:17
Oh man, way too much to fit in this episode. I think probably the best advice is focus on people, understand people, what they want, how they communicate, how they express their needs, fears, dreams, how they think. Understanding people and the relationship between people is really going to help you more than anything else. I mean, it's in the business world. It's all, I mean, there's no difference between the business world and the quote unquote real world. You're always dealing with people. You're always dealing with relationships of some sort. If you understand how people and relationships work, you understand how things work in the business world and how things work outside of the business world. And it just makes everything so much better.

Gresham Harkless 11:06
Absolutely.

Ryan Baker 11:06
Yeah.

Gresham Harkless 11:06
And just as we kind of touched on earlier, you know, you're, we're in the relationship business, no matter what business you're in, whether you're doing construction business or you're an agency or, you know, you're an accountant, whatever, those are, you know, you, you have to kind of, you, you should always strive, I should say, towards mastering the people, towards understanding, you know, what makes people tick, their motivations, uh, their fears, things like that. It will only help you kind of in the long run, 'cause we're always gonna be around people. Oh yeah. And, um, now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote unquote CEOs on this show. So Ryan, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Ryan Baker 11:39
Yeah. Well, man, um, so common misconception is that, you know, every business owner is the CEO. And while I get that idea, generally a CEO is going to be someone that has employees, usually multiple levels of employees. So you've got, you know, upper management, middle management, you know, and entry-level employees. So generally a CEO is someone that is like the parent of a family. Responsible for the lives and the well-being of this group, you know, and in business, you're not necessarily responsible for their lives and whether they, you know, are eating or not. But, but, you know, everybody has their own goals and dreams in the organization. And your responsibility is to make sure that everyone is aligned on the same focus, the same goals and dreams, and that everyone has everything they need, that they're well taken care of, that they're all getting belong, that they feel safe, you're empowering them, encouraging them, and ultimately just directing them toward the vision that, that you cast as the, as the leader of the company. So, really for me, it's, it's very similar to being a father. Nice.

Gresham Harkless 12:53
That makes perfect sense. And I appreciate that metaphor just because I think a lot of times, you know, you forget those aspects. And again, going back to what we talked about a couple of times, you know, that people-centric aspect of understanding that each person that's on the ship or on the team, you know, has their different goals and aspirations and kind of being able to kind of tap into that and understand that on an even deeper level, you know, it allows you to be able to, to make sure you're charting the course towards exactly where everybody wants to be and you are all on the same page, as you said.

Ryan Baker 13:19
Yeah.

Gresham Harkless 13:20
Yeah. Well put.

Ryan Baker 13:21
Nice.

Gresham Harkless 13:21
Well, I, I definitely appreciate you, Ryan. I appreciate all the awesome things you're doing. What I wanted to do was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you, you can let our readers and listeners know. And then of course, how best people can get ahold of you and find out about all the awesome things you're working on.

Ryan Baker 13:34
Yeah. Well, I would just, uh, encourage all of the, uh, the entrepreneurs out there, um, Man, it's a dream I had for the longest time to be self-employed. And I actually tried several years ago to start a video production company. It was a passion of mine and I just bombed completely. No, I'd just been married. My wife quit her job a few months in and I was like, I'm going to be self-employed. And I just, I had no focus on anything that would produce short-term results. I was doing a great long game, building some great relationships, but I had no self-worth, no concept of self-worth, no confidence in myself. And so I would just encourage all of the entrepreneurs out there, confidence, self-respect, self-worth is just one of the biggest parts of being able to succeed in starting your own business, in being a leader even. You know, if you're not confident in who you are, you don't respect who you are, you don't have any any concept of self-worth, you're really going to struggle to lead other people and help foster that in them. You're going to struggle to sell anything, as I discovered in that first attempt. And it really, really is essential that you focus on introspectively taking inventory of your life and your emotions and your opinion of yourself and make sure that you really Um, really take care of yourself and, um, really understand your worth and your value as a human.

Gresham Harkless 15:08
Yeah, that's absolutely huge just because I think it's, uh, a lot of times, you know, we're so externally focused on different things that we kind of forget to do that inner work. And that inner work is, first of all, you know, having that self-awareness and understanding who you are. But definitely, you know, as you said as well too, is just understanding and having that value in yourself. Because I think sometimes, you know, especially when you're starting a business, we can suffer from, you know, imposter syndrome and we think that we aren't of value or we don't know how to do enough. But a lot of times, We are of more value than we, we sometimes give us, give ourselves credit for. And we need to make sure that we communicate that when we're asking for, you know, a certain price, whatever services we're providing and, and even presenting ourselves on, on an even deeper level. So I, I think when we make sure that we have done that work and we are aware of that, um, then I think that that can help increase the likelihood of us being successful.

Ryan Baker 15:52
Yep, definitely.

Gresham Harkless 15:54
Nice. Well, that's awesome. Awesome. Um, kind of closing, closing, um, argument, so to speak. And, uh, people that want to reach out to you, find out about all the awesome things you're doing, what's the best way for them to do that?

Ryan Baker 16:04
Oh man. Well, find me on my site, kinglyconsulting.com, K-I-N-G-L-Y. You can put an E in there, it'll forward. But yeah, you can reach out, ryan@kinglyconsulting.com, shoot me an email. Love to chat with anybody. I like to just encourage young entrepreneurs and help them achieve their dreams as well. But yeah, anybody that wants to chat, hit me up there on LinkedIn.

Gresham Harkless 16:30
Awesome. Awesome.

Ryan Baker 16:30
Awesome.

Gresham Harkless 16:31
Well, we'll make sure to have that information and, and, and links in the show notes as well too, so that everybody can follow up with you. Uh, but I appreciate your time. Appreciate all the encouragement, you know, that you provided to us today as well too. And, um, I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.