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Your content isn’t failing–your platform strategy is. Discover why posting more is the worst advice and how to finally get traction.
In this episode, Sharran unpacks a marketing challenge most creators and entrepreneurs face: the “Marketing Wasteland.” If you’ve ever felt like you’re creating content that gets no traction, this is your wake-up call. Sharran introduces the PARA Platform Filter, a practical framework to help you focus your efforts, find your ideal audience, and create consistent, resonant content without burning out.
He shares personal stories, including how he built a $1B brand by focusing on just three platforms and why going deep, not wide, is the most profitable strategy. From content misfires to scalable systems, Sharran breaks down exactly how to stop shouting into the void and start building real leverage online.
If you’re tired of posting everywhere with little to show for it, this episode will help you simplify your strategy, amplify your message, and connect where it counts.
“You don’t need a megaphone to reach the world. You just need to be in the right room having the right conversations.”
– Sharran Srivatsaa
Timestamps:
01:58 – The “Marketing Wasteland” explained
03:22 – The PARA Platform Filter: Present, Audience, Resource, Architecture
07:03 – Sharran’s YouTube experiment: 10 videos in 10 days
08:25 – Long-form vs. short-form: pick your trust and distribution platforms
09:32 – Cautionary tale: Startup fails trying to be everywhere
11:37 – Case study: Health coach builds six-figure business with two platforms
14:11 – Why you need a funnel, not a flat content plate
16:01 – How to find your audience and use AI to analyze their behavior
18:20 – Building connections in one anchor platform
21:25 – Going deep vs. going wide: the real path to profitability
21:59 – Sharran’s content strategy breakdown
26:02 – Visibility vs. leverage: where real influence comes from
26:51 – Final challenge: simplify your marketing and connect with purpose
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Transcript:
[00:00:00] Hey, this is Sharran Srivatsaa. Welcome back to the Business School Podcast. And in this episode I’m talking to you about the marketing wasteland. How many times have you spent time creating content and working really hard and, and writing posts and making videos, and it feels like. It’s not getting anywhere. It’s not connecting with people like what feels like you’re in the marketing wasteland.
[00:00:16] And by the way, it happened to me too, and I found a way out of it. It got easier for me. It reached more people. I made more money and built a billion dollar business based on all of this. So in this episode, I wanna break down for you the idea of the marketing wasteland. I break it down step by step on how you can get out of it all starting right now.
[00:00:35] One thing is for certain. Just because it’s tried and true doesn’t mean it’s working right now. So the big question is this, where can you learn what is working right now? The strategies, the tactics, the psychology, and the exact how to, how to grow your business, how to blow up your personal brand and supercharge your personal growth.
[00:00:57] That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answer. My name is Sharran Srivatsaa and Welcome to Business School. So I’ve been thinking a lot about this one thing, which is how we spend our energy, and especially when it comes to putting out messages into the world, it can feel like you’re doing all the things, crafting the perfect posts or hitting record on, on those videos where you have some random people say things like, you’re only as good as your last video, or carefully writing those emails or LinkedIn.
[00:01:23] But sometimes maybe just sometimes just for me too, it feels like you’re talking to an empty room. Honestly, I have been there. We’ve all been there, right? The, the feeling of pouring your heart and soul into something and just caring. Nothing, crickets. So today I wanna kind of dive deep into this idea and something I’m like, I’m wanting to call the marketing wasteland.
[00:01:47] It’s not a fun place to be, but trust me, understanding that it’s the first step to say finding where your voice truly, truly resonates and connects is what is important. So I. So let’s jam right into it. What exactly is this marketing wasteland? So, in, in simple terms, I think about it as any platform where your ideal listeners are.
[00:02:05] The people you’re, that you’re trying to connect with are, they’re actively there paying attention. Think about it. You could have the most brilliant idea, the most helpful advice, and the most entertaining story, but if it lands in a place where your people aren’t just hanging out, it’s like shouting into the wind, right?
[00:02:21] What’s that phrase, which is like, you know, if a tree falls in the forest, does it really make a sound? And that’s true actually, rings true to this, right? If you go and do this thing and no one hears it, what the heck is the point? But here’s the thing. I really remember early on in my kind of own journey when I started all of this, I was so focused on what felt trendy, like what is happening in the world right now.
[00:02:42] Everyone was talking about this one platform, and I was like, okay, that’s where I need to be. Then I spent hours learning the ins and outs of creating content and I thought I would fit there and I would say nothing and. It was really disheartening to, honestly, to say the least. It wasn’t that my message was bad, it just wasn’t reaching the right people, the right ears, if you will.
[00:02:59] It felt like, it felt like I was consistently working hard and putting out content and burning like a lot of hours. I know how hard this is, and then seeing absolutely no results, no return, and I felt like I was chasing this shiny object instead of what could actually connect with people. Right. I don’t know if this sounds familiar.
[00:03:15] I, I hope it does, and this is the wasteland. So let’s kind of frame this entire idea. So how do we escape this desert of this digital silence? So I, of course, as you, if you know me, I kind of came up with a framework to beat this marketing wasteland. I call it the para platform filter. It’s just like I just gave myself a way to think about it, because sometimes if you ask me, Hey Sean, how do you do this?
[00:03:37] I have a way to think about it. Think of it as some kinda like compass, because there’s no perfect answer of finding the platforms where. Your ideal audience is not just present, but actually is listening, actually is thinking, actually is engaging, actually is the default place where your ideal avatar goes.
[00:03:52] So if your ideal avatar goes in breaks, when they wanna look at something, where do they go? It’s our job to be there, not where you think it’s cool, not where you think your peers think it’s cool, not where you think it’s cool to be on. Where does your ideal avatar sit? So that’s what I want to kind of break down.
[00:04:07] So let’s break down this para method, right? First p. For, I wrote on present and active. Are your people actually using this platform on a regular basis? Right? It sounds obvious, but it’s easy to get caught up in the hype. For example, if you’re trying to reach busy CEOs, are they really scrolling through TikTok at 10 in the morning?
[00:04:25] Probably not. They’re more likely in their inboxes. Or perhaps maybe thinking about e being on LinkedIn during their professional hours. Because I, I, if, if somebody walked by your cubicle and they saw you on LinkedIn, that would be okay. But if someone walked by your cubicle, they saw you on TikTok, that may be weird.
[00:04:41] Which is, which is also the way you need to think about this. It’s about understanding that person’s daily habits, where is it socially acceptable and optically acceptable for them to be there? That’s where they’re going to be so. Next on this para method. So we’ve got this P for present and active. The second is a for kind of audience alignment, if you will.
[00:05:01] And by the way, I’m still working through this thinking, so I, I’m not trying to come up with like random words. A, for kind of where the audience is now. This goes beyond where they are and looks like how they like to consume information. Like how does the audience like to actually put this information into their, into their systems?
[00:05:16] You might, you might be on a platform where your ideal listener exists, but are you showing up in a way that resonates with them? Do they prefer short and punchy updates or did they, do they like, you know, deeper, more in depth discussions? Think about the format that naturally fits the platform and the audience preferences.
[00:05:33] So that’s the A, right? The, the third is the r, and I think about this as a resource match. So this is a big one for actually avoiding burnout for you. Can you realistically create native content for this platform consistently? So, for example, don’t tell yourself that you’re gonna be posting a high production video every week.
[00:05:53] If you’re currently recording on your phone in a noisy room, like you can’t do that. Be honest about your time and, and maybe your skills and [00:06:00] your, the tools and the resources that you have available. And I. I’ve done this before where I realized that I am not the kind of person that is gonna sit in a fancy studio and record a on, on a fancy mic and record this podcast episode.
[00:06:14] Like I, I, I don’t know if you know this, but I bought a. $50, $48 mic, which is what I’m recording this on right now, and I’m in my car because I realize that the best ideas for me come when I have my notes and my thinking in my car and I’m not sitting and reading a script or, or, or like have some visuals or someone queing me or this is not re-edited or there’s no ahs and ums removed from many of these episodes.
[00:06:37] I know what I can record natively. I know what is best for my delivery mechanism. And hopefully that resonates with you. It’s better to do one platform really well. Then spread yourself thin across so many because. People are like, I just wanna be a, I wanna be everywhere. Well, if you’re everywhere, each platform has its own culture.
[00:06:54] Each platform has its own, like the resources that are needed to produce for that platform, which is why it’s really, really hard for, I’ll give you a really important example. I am right now, for the first kind of six months of this year, I made a commitment to trying to be on YouTube. Honestly, it has been super hard.
[00:07:09] I think our team has produced like eight videos so far now. It’s been interesting ’cause I’ve gotten like zero to like 10,000 kind of subscribers in six months producing eight videos. That’s fine. But they. A few weeks ago, I got so frustrated with the team that I decided to produce 10 videos in 10 days.
[00:07:24] The team was like, Sean, you’re not gonna be able to do this. And I was like, I’m committed to producing 10 videos in 10 days, and I will find the topics, I will script them, I will, you know, record them all myself, and I need the team to just package them and post them. Now, we produced 10 videos in 10 days, but I will tell you it’s not about producing the 10 videos in 10 days.
[00:07:38] I wanted to see how hard it was from a resource perspective to see what I liked, what I didn’t like, what I could do, what I could not do. I didn’t do it. To produce 10 videos in 10 days. I pro I did it to figure out. What it was like to produce content at scale for that platform. And I know now I know I cannot do that.
[00:07:55] I know what I can do. I know how hard it is. I know the nuances are hard. I know what performed, what didn’t perform. I know. And I just like accelerate. Instead of doing one video a week for 10 weeks, I did 10 videos in 10 days. What I did in 10 days, I learned what, you know, what I would’ve learned in 10 weeks.
[00:08:08] I learned in 10 days. And so I did that, not because I’m crazy, I did that because I had no learning around the platform at all, and that’s how I learned around this. So the resource match is really important. I, I’m trying to tell you this because I learned the hard way. And the last one, the last a, is for architecture, and I didn’t have a better word for this, the architecture fit.
[00:08:25] Does your content, like the format, naturally align and fit with the platform’s language and style? So are you a long form strategic discussions kind of person? Does that feel right at home or on a podcast or a blog? Or is it a quick visual inspiration on Instagram? Is it a step-by-step case study that you prefer on an email newsletter or is it, do you file a different, do you, do you kind of like, like a different way?
[00:08:46] Is it a sign that if you are not sure of like what you like to do and what platform it’s on, then you’re probably in the waistline. Even if one of these elements of this pair framework feels off, you might find yourself in that random wasteland echo chamber, if you will. You’re like, man, it’s not working, it’s not sinking, it’s not like happening, and that’s the problem.
[00:09:05] So. You may be like, Aron theory is all great, but let’s gimme the real stuff. So let me be real with you. Right. I wanted to kind of share with you. A couple of quick stories that bring this para filter to life because sometimes just seeing how it breaks, seeing the pitfalls and the successes of others can be kind of eye-opening, can give you insights because we look and we get clues from what other people have done so that we’re like, ah, I hit this place.
[00:09:29] It’s similar to that person. I won’t do that again. So for example, I’ll give you one example. I was working with a really pretty enthusiastic startup and they were determined to make a splash. They were like, Hey, you know, media is the way to go. And they decided that the best way to do. That was to be everywhere, you know?
[00:09:44] And they were like, Hey, they found this Gary V Be Everywhere strategy, and they invested in a significant chunk of their early budget. You know, they’d only raised like $500,000 and they’d invested $50,000 to LA to launch all of the simultaneously 10% of their budget, by the way, with the money that they raised on TikTok and Instagram and LinkedIn and YouTube shorts.
[00:10:01] So they then hired freelancers to batch create content because everyone was like, Hey, yeah, do the video and like chop it all up. Right? I bet you’ve heard of this. They bought all the fancy lighting, the whole nine yards, and the problem was their ideal. Customer was a busy kind of business to business office decision maker in the finance industry.
[00:10:19] So think about where that person spends their time online. Online. It’s probably in their inbox because that’s where their corporate finance person is. And maybe catching up on industry news on LinkedIn, like that’s probably where they are. And guess what kind of return this startup saw on their massive content Push.
[00:10:33] Zilch. Zero. Nothing. Nada. Not one single qualified lead. They completely skipped this, what I call this para test, chasing, I don’t know what you call the allure of trending platforms without, you know, kind of thinking about, hey, where their actual audience was. So there is a big lesson here, and that is just because a platform is popular doesn’t mean a automatically mean that it’s a strategic fit for you.
[00:10:57] Just because like I will tell you. I try to be on TikTok. I am not good on TikTok because in, you gotta like be entertaining or cute or funny or talented to be on TikTok, generally speaking. Right? And I’m none, none of those things. So unless I come up with a new way of thinking about what I do on TikTok, I, I, I, I don’t have a new mechanism, so I don’t spend a lot of time there.
[00:11:18] And also, yeah, I have some of my like core audience there, but I just don’t, I haven’t figured it out. And so I don’t have the resource match for that platform yet. And. My point is just because you’re on something doesn’t mean you’re gonna profit from something like, you know, presence doesn’t always equal profit.
[00:11:32] Right. So let’s, tell me about the flip side. So here’s the flip side, and I want to give you this idea. Overall, I know a super cool health coach. I. She’s built a, you know, a thriving six-figure business on her own, and her marketing strategy is ultra simple, super simple. She doesn’t have any viral tiktoks, or she doesn’t have any elaborate YouTube videos, or she doesn’t have any flashy Instagram reels.
[00:11:54] Her entire strategy has only two key things. She has a weekly email to her list and a private Facebook group for her clients and our prospects. That’s it. And her main idea here is that she. Invites everybody to join her Facebook group. Then they get on our list and she emails them and she. Puts value in the group.
[00:12:13] That is her entire funnel. That’s all she does. And in just one year, she quadrupled her business. Now you may ask why, because her target audience is so niche. It’s women in their forties seeking kind of this hormone balance stuff. And they were actively engaged in the Facebook community and they wanted her email for the trusted information.
[00:12:29] And her story really kind of connects and illustrates and shares. That going deep on the right platform, even if it seems boring, will always, always, always outperform. Being the mediocre on five sexy ones. You can do some fancy things and have cool videos and jump out of an airplane and have and what you know and be in a Lambo and all of that.
[00:12:48] That only makes it’s flashy, it like it. You get a couple of shares and they’re like, Hey, good job, bro. But they all know that’s not true. They all know that’s not interesting. They all know that’s not valuable. They all know that’s flash. They all know you’re just trying to get attention. They know that.
[00:13:01] Instead, what can you do at scale? What can you do consistently? What can you do? Like me with a $49 headset that built one of a top 25 iTunes podcast? Wow. I’m literally sitting here right now with a, with a $4 adapter connected to my iPhone with a $49 Sana Hauser headset. That’s. I’ve been using this for every single episode that I’ve done.
[00:13:21] It sounds pretty clear because it’s wired, right? And so I’m not sitting with a in front of a sure mic in front of a camera, and people are like, well, Sean, you’re actually doing this podcasting, and we might as well get the video out of it. You know how many coaches told me that, oh, I feel bad because you’re, you’re not, you know, you’re not reutilizing your podcast.
[00:13:36] You should kind of get a video component of it. I don’t care because it doesn’t match what I do. And I don’t care what any of them say because none of them have what I have. Like I have a top 25 podcast, zero people have that. And it’s, it’s built. You know why? Because I am able to show up every single week for you sitting in this car in a parking lot with my pages of notes that I’m thinking through and, and, and sharing with you with a headset for $49 that I bought four years ago.
[00:14:03] And that’s what the crazy part is on all of this. Now, I wanna bring you to like a, it’s a visual that I keep thinking about in my mind. And even though we’re in kind of audio land here, imagine you are trying to catch water, right? Most people approach their content like they have a flat plate. That’s the problem.
[00:14:19] They splash their efforts everywhere and hoping that something sticks, but much of it just kind of runs, rolls off the edges, and they wonder why they’re not seeing any of these final results. They wonder why, if you, if you just had a funnel, instead, a funnel is designed to catch, to guide, to build momentum.
[00:14:34] And I say a funnel, I just mean you’ve thought through the linear version of this process. And that’s what happens when your, when your platform and your message are perfectly aligned. It just. It just has a linear process. So you know, if one thing happens in one place, it goes naturally to the next place.
[00:14:50] And there was a great quote that I read. It said, stop planting seeds in concrete. Like, I mean, I, I don’t know what other thing that makes me [00:15:00] feel. I. Alive. When I hear it’s like stop planting seeds in concrete, right? So the question right now is how do you actually find kind of this home platform? How do you actually find the one that will act like your linear process, your funnel if you will?
[00:15:12] Because when I say funnel, people are like, oh, I need to go get a ClickFunnels webpage, and you don’t have to do any of that. A funnel essentially means, Hey, this happens and this happens and this happens and this happens. That’s all this is. It’s just a linear process. So you know how you can adjust and calibrate each piece of that process.
[00:15:27] That’s all a funnel is. So when. Don’t let the trigger of the word funnel freak you out. Anytime I am in an audience, in a room and I say, you need to build this funnel, literally half the eyes just roll because they think they have to build some kind of technology around you. You don’t. The funnel is just a linear thinking process where they say, Hey, I’m gonna go here, I’m gonna do this thing.
[00:15:45] And then people consume that thing. They do this thing, and they do that thing. They probably buy from me. That’s what you want. And the more you know those four steps of the process, you can optimize each of the steps of the process. Otherwise, you’re literally. Just trying to catch water on a flat plate, that’s the problem.
[00:15:59] Right? So let me give you like a few steps. Step one, you gotta audit or think about your audience’s behavior just a little bit. Uh uh, do a little digging, like Google things like, Hey, social media demographics 2025. Or something like that to get a broad kind of thinking overview of where your people are.
[00:16:18] And more importantly, it’s cool to like talk to your best clients. Hey, ask them directly, Hey, where do you get your information online? Or Where did you find that? Or when you want something, where do you search? And don’t. And you can also just look at your own analytics if you have Google Analytics or whatever, like where your current.
[00:16:31] Referral sources coming from. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have this data. Like I, I talked to a real estate agent recently and I was like, Hey, where are your clients coming from? Just look at your last 30 clients. ’cause 30 for me is a, you know, significant sample. And just in a column, just write down where all those people came from.
[00:16:46] Uh, the suggestion that I have is make a set of categories first, right? And that way you can just map the categories and you know where your current clients are coming from, or if you actually have an email list or what have you. Like, you ask where your clients are coming from. So what I would do is either do a.
[00:16:58] You know, UTM parameter or put different forms on different pages so you know by tags where the client’s coming from. If you don’t know where they’re coming from, you don’t know where to put the effort around it. So number one. Kind of audit your audience’s behavior. I will tell you an easier way to do this in today’s world is to just use ai.
[00:17:12] Literally, you can say, Hey, my avatar is a 30 to 50-year-old. By the way, I’m totally making this up, so I just go with the idea. Hey, you can say My audience avatar is a 30 to 50-year-old, you know, business owner that live that is interested in financial freedom, that wants to replace the nine to five with actually kind of saving money for retirement.
[00:17:29] Our company gives them financial advice to. Put the right cashflow system in place to get the right results. I want to figure out, you know, where these people live online. Create me a prompt that designs this avatar first and then the, the AI will design the avatar. Then you can take that avatar and basically say, great.
[00:17:46] But I. You know, you can do a little Gemini deep research or chat GPT Deep research and say, Hey, here’s my avatar. Can you tell me the places where this type of people, you know, spend time online and give me ways in which, you know, the marketing strategy specifically and tactically on how to reach them and write me an executive summary marketing report for me to do that.
[00:18:06] If you just did that, it would just answer this question. You don’t even have to talk to anybody. Right. So what I did was I designed the avatar, then I asked the avatar asked AI to go do the deep research because AI knows where all these people are hanging out, which is really good for you. So that’s step number one.
[00:18:18] Here’s step number two is you gotta pick one long form trust builder one, right? So this is kind of like your anchor platform. This is the place where you can really deep dive and build strong connections kind of over time. Think like a YouTube for in depth or like a podcast like this for audio conversations.
[00:18:33] You, you’ve been with me for more than you know, call it like 16 minutes now, and I, I just have a few more minutes, but you’ve been. The average person online watches a video for like four seconds. Why do you say, they say the hook is three seconds long? Why do they say the hook is three seconds long?
[00:18:46] Because you’re swiping the video in under three seconds. You’ve been with me 16 to 18 minutes, right? That’s the long form we get to talk. We get to kind of be in connection or a blog for like a detailed article and what people are doing with blogs these days that they’re just seeing the article to be detailed.
[00:18:58] They skim their resources, they copy the entire blog, they past it in ai, and that’s the answer to them. Newsletters are good. If you’re not on my email lists, just go to sharran.com/vip. You can get on my emails. I write a CEO playbook every single weekend. Where I break down a big idea, I take a big idea, I break it down.
[00:19:11] I do like top 10 format. So I take a big idea, I give, I do a top 10 format on the 10 big I things in that format, and, and I share it. And so that way people are like, oh, cool. They get, it’s more than just a, you know, a quick hit, but they get enough ideas around it. And so that’s what’s super helpful, right?
[00:19:26] So you get these valuable insights kind of delivered directly to you. So that’s number step two, which is you gotta pick some kind of longer form. I will tell you a lot of people have, and I’ll tell you why, a lot of people I know have gotten like TikTok famous. And I told them, but the problem is, it, it’s gonna die because your TikTok Famousness does not translate in anything because people are like, oh, that person’s cool, and they have no depth with you.
[00:19:47] The reason why Mr. Beast is, is, is famous, is because he has the, the most famous YouTube channel with the largest number of subscribers that watch him for hours upon hours. But the folks that just dance on TikTok, you don’t know a Charlie Delio. She’s a dancer on TikTok, but that’s all she is. She doesn’t have anything from a depth perspective.
[00:20:03] Yes, she may get a brand deal and she may get some views, but she’s, she can never build a brand. She can never do other things, and that’s not good or bad. I’ve known a lot of people that have gotten TikTok famous or social media famous, or they can, they have a meme account, but they can’t really influence anybody to something much deeper.
[00:20:17] So you need something long form trust builder. Here’s you, it’s step three, but you also need some kind of short form distributor. This is where you can share shorter, quicker updates, snippets of your long form content, and you gotta engage in like a little bit more conversation. You use this for testing, like, this is, think like Instagram for like maybe visual stuff or LinkedIn for like quick professional updates or, uh, Twitter or, I dunno if you’re into X for, you know, short.
[00:20:38] Quick thoughts and links and you can actually test your ideas. You know, my friend Alex Ramzi does a really good job with this, all his content creation, and he talks about, this is generated on X and Twitter. He puts out all his ideas and whichever gets the most traction, he takes those and he makes them Instagram shorts.
[00:20:51] If they’ll get good traction, he takes those and he makes them YouTube videos. So essentially, as long as he’s constantly making these ex posts or these Twitter posts, he, his content engine gets funneled because he gets the best ideas and they’re always proven. So he’s not making and guessing and making a random YouTube video.
[00:21:05] He’s taking the best idea from a, from. Twitter, then he is making a Shortform video about, about this, if that does well, he takes all the Shortform videos and he makes a longer form video about it. And that’s, that’s how you build content. And based on all of those, you writes a book or whatever, whatever else.
[00:21:17] So everything is proven along the way. And his job every morning is just to create more Twitter content. Is really, really powerful. Right? Here’s step number four. You gotta go deep, not wide, because that’s where depth, that’s where profit, that’s where connection, that’s where impact is. I, I would offer to you, you gotta resist the urge to be everywhere.
[00:21:34] I, I would not blindly repurpose content across all platforms. Don’t like chop it up and put it everywhere. That is not necessary. And you’re only like. It. It costs more effort for no result. Like you gotta focus on creating content that feels native to your chosen platform and somehow tailor some message, some will customize that message to that specific audience.
[00:21:52] You gotta get ultra, ultra, ultra specific because as the saying goes, don’t build six shallow wells. Dig one really deep, right. Alright. Now to make this even more tangible, I wanna share a, a very quick glimpse of how I personally approach this. I think you’ll really appreciate it over the last many years.
[00:22:07] You know, we built a billion dollar business in, in fact, we built real a billion dollar business in two and a half years. When I, I started, we have roughly a $200 million valuation today we have a 2.5, you know, $1.5 billion valuation roughly in the billion dollar range. And all of this came in the last two and a half years because I put the company, I put the company on my back with its social media, with my brand.
[00:22:25] I personally approached this when I was building the brand in the Cissy space, and it can be tempting to think about that. You need to be on every platform to reach everyone, but I, I made a very conscious choice because I had very few resources and time and so let me kind of break this down for you. If you’ve seen any of my stuff over the last two and a half years.
[00:22:42] You. This will explain exactly how and why. So this is the cheat code right now. All right, so first I spend time on Instagram, which means specifically to talk to real estate agents. Real estate agents are constantly on the go. If you don’t know, they’re juggling appointments and dealing with texts, and attending inspections and sitting through meetings, and when do they actually have time to consume content?
[00:23:00] Often, but if it’s in those in-between moments, waiting at an open house or sitting through a slower inspection or doing a really a lull day at the brokerage, or really bad brokerage meeting, Instagram is visual. It’s easily, easily digestible, you know, uh, they can watch it on mute if you’d like. It’s the go-to app for quick taking breaks.
[00:23:17] So I focused on creating like native. Story base, tactical how to Instagram content showed up right in their feed offering a ton of value, which is why outside of Ryan Sahan, I have the biggest brand in real estate right now. Not because I said it, because a consulting firm showed me the report. For a person that does not sell real estate, I have the single biggest brand in the, in the real estate business.
[00:23:34] I have nothing to sell. And the, the key part there is I did not have any idea just, and I’ll, I’ll say this to you, I’ve not shared this publicly before. I got a $26 million offer from a private equity firm to sell them my brand in the real estate business. And it was, that’s just, that’s crazy if you think about it.
[00:23:48] Right? And, but it’s completely underpaying me because we helped build a billion-dollar business in two and a half years. So I’m definitely, I have no interest in doing, in selling my personal brand to them. But that shows you how valuable that is. So that’s why I picked Instagram. Here’s a second. I picked this podcast.
[00:24:04] You’re listening to me right now. Real estate unions spend a huge amount of time in their cars, uh, driving between showings, exploring neighborhoods, and even getting their steps in at the gym between appointments. Audio is perfect, you know, like a companion, a friend for those moments. It’s passive. It allows ’em to go deeper for connection.
[00:24:19] It builds trust over time. They listen to your voice, your thoughts, your insight, and a lot of it’s. Instead of making it ultra tactical, I do it exactly like this where I chunk up one level and I teach the business of the business, not, not the business of real estate. Right? So now I get a chance to connect at a much deeper level because I’m showing up full of value and no asks, I have not sold anything in the last, I don’t know how long.
[00:24:38] And that’s at least in the last two and a half, three years I’ve had, I’ve sold nothing. Right? And so that way it also reduces the friction of, oh my gosh, like, Sean’s gonna gimme all of this, and what is he gonna ask of me? Nothing. And that allows you to spill, you know, find, you know. To operationalize generosity, right?
[00:24:53] And the third is email. If you’re not on my email community, just go to sharran.com/vip. You can be an email community. This was a no-brainer. Like I’ll tell you why. Real estate, the real estate business is built on trust. And like serious communication agents aren’t sending like DocuSign contracts via direct messages.
[00:25:09] They’re not negotiating in common sections of TikTok or closing deals on like on LinkedIn. Email is where real professional conversations happens. Deals and client communication and transaction processes, important disclosures, DocuSign and signatures. I lean heavily into email to teach and to connect and to share valuable insights in this environment.
[00:25:26] Now, I want you to realize this. I, I did only those three things. I only did Instagram. I only did a podcast. I only did, I didn’t do anything else. And, and that’s why this is the year I’m starting on YouTube. I did nothing else. And here’s what I did not do. I didn’t try to conquer YouTube. I didn’t chase the fleeting trends on TikTok.
[00:25:40] I, I, I didn’t waste time on LinkedIn or Pinterest, or even though I knew those platforms worked, for some reason, they simply weren’t the right rooms for me, for my audience and my com community and for the resources that I had. The key takeaway I really want you to notice is that focus trump’s volume focus trump’s, uh, the precision will always beat.
[00:25:58] The popularity focus is more important than intelligence all day long. So let me reframe for you. How you think about choosing a platform, it is not about visibility. It is about leverage. It’s not about being seen by everyone. It’s only about being found by the right people, the the ones who are actually going to connect with your message and take action.
[00:26:16] Please, please, please don’t tweak your content like a popularity contest. Nobody cares how many likes or shares you got. Nobody cares because no one’s like, oh my gosh. Hey, Jenny. Uh, you got, you know, 4,000 posts. Oh my gosh. I don’t care how Jenny got 4,000 posts. They don’t even know about the, they only care about themselves.
[00:26:30] Do not treat your content like a popularity contest. Treat it like positioning. You want to be able to build and leverage at scale, and that you want it to be a funnel so that you’re talking to the right people in, in the right need of audience. With the right, with the right resource match, right? You don’t need a megaphone to reach the world.
[00:26:46] You just need to be in the right room having the right conversations. That’s all you need, so. Here’s the challenge for this week, I want you to really think about your current marketing efforts. I will tell you most of it, you can actually cut. Where do you feel like you’re shouting into the void? You can cut those.
[00:27:00] That’s, that’s your marketing wasteland, and then you just choose the one thing that’s working, the one home platform, the one that’s working. Then you have, essentially, you need two things, right? You need a long form trust builder, and then you need a short form distribution. If you just did that for 90 days, it’ll, your life will be easier.
[00:27:14] You’ll have better content. People will love you more, and it will make your life easier, better, and freer overall. Think about that. Health Coach one Facebook group, one email list. That’s all she had. I really gotta tell you this. I. Your voice isn’t too quiet. You’ve just, I really think most people, maybe you too, just like me, have been shouting in the wrong direction.
[00:27:36] You don’t need to be everywhere and someone tells chop it up and put it everywhere. You don’t need to do that. You need to stop broadcasting and just literally start connecting with the people who truly are meant to hear you. That’s it. So I hope that was helpful. Thank you for thinking about this. If this kind of resonated with you, what I would really appreciate is, I don’t know, disconnected with you, so can you please take a screenshot of this episode, post it and tag me.
[00:27:58] That way I know disconnected and I can make more like this for you again, if this resonated. Please take a screenshot and tag me and I can make more like this for you. Please don’t not be in the marketing wasteland. Make it easier on yourself. Pick the only two or three platforms you need to be on. Don’t worry about how many likes or shares you’re getting.
[00:28:13] We just need to make sure your funnel’s working. The funnel is just a linear process. We want to be able to tweak each of those components to get you the best results. Stop shouting in rooms that no one’s listening to. You get to smaller niche or markets where you can make way more money and have way more joy and make it easier on yourself because.
[00:28:28] That is the marketing baseline. Remember, however you slice a grievance is a choice. If you like this, please take a screenshot and tag me and post it on social and I can make more like this for you. Have a good one. I’ll catch you on the next one.
[00:28:47] Hey, it’s Sharran, I have a cool gift for you. Since you like this podcast, I actually have an ultra super secret private podcast that I make just for my partner companies and the CEOs and influencers that I advise. It’s called 10 K wisdom because I try to wrap 10, 000 worth of value in every single episode in just under 10 minutes.
[00:29:11] That’s why it’s called 10 K wisdom. It’s raw. It’s real. It’s got no intro or outro or anything like that. It’s just straight to the point and to the insights. Since you like this podcast, I think you will like that. So for the first time, I’m making it available to you. Just go to 10Kwisdom.com the number 10K wisdom.com and my team will activate it for you as my gift. Go to 10Kwisdom.com. I’ll see you there.