Okay, well, I should give you just a little background. I am a graphic designer and copywriter by trade. That's how I started my career, because I have a fine arts degree and no one knows what they're going to do actually for a career with a fine arts degree. There really aren't clear career paths. And so I just sort of backed my way into marketing over many years and for a certain period of time worked for startup companies. One of the goals when I started my business was to bring that kind of strategic thinking to small businesses. But I also am sort of a techie person and I, as a graphic designer, went from working on a board to working on a computer. I color separated the first job that went directly to film in Peoria and I like that stuff. So, you know, I build websites and I do marketing automation and I know a lot about marketing. So I try to bring that to everything I do. And so my speaking here is based on is I go out there and I see a lot of thought that, you know, you just build a website and people will come. I've actually had clients tell me that. They're real disappointed. We built the website and we just thought that was it. You know, people are automatically going to come. And that was kind of where we started with websites, I think. And then when we realized people needed help finding them, we added SEO and paper click and we did email newsletters and, you know, we had a Google place and all those are necessary. I'm not saying those aren't necessary. Then when different things started happening on the web, then it became clear that, well, there's social media. We can't just have a website. We need to do social media, too, because there's a lot of eyeballs there. Videos, you know, the second largest search engine. Blogging, podcasting. But in many cases, people do those, but they're all still kind of islands. And sure, there's some effort of connecting them. But that's really that old traditional model of using a website like a brochure. The come and find us kind of sales. Or, and ignores a basic relationship building. And I like to think of it as where a lot of times in marketing we're asking somebody in Marys on the first date. You know, I just met you, but here's what I have to sell to you now. You know, why aren't you buying from me?  That's part of their due diligence and figuring out if they want to do business. Another part of our problem is we inundate people. The everything you want to know about us newsletter. You know, with the five topics that honestly no one has time to go through five topics. You know, and if you want the one that's number four, I mean, how long does it take you to scan down there and what's the likelihood you're going to read that? And the other thing we tend to do is we treat everybody the same. You know, we don't really differentiate if you bought from us. If you haven't bought, we don't know which product you're interested just here. This is what we have to sell.  And so we're always closing because we don't have a process that allows us to segment who we're talking to. And so why doesn't that work? And why do we need to do something different? Well, most people start looking long before they're ready to buy. And then when they want to buy, they want to buy now. And I was talking to my friend Stephanie and we were talking about actually one of my nurturing sequences where it's provided by the marketing and automation company. So I just kind of branded it and I was using it and she goes, yeah, you really shouldn't be using that. It's a downloads. And I was kind of thinking about it. Yeah, honestly, I download things all the time and I never go back to them. And I think that's what a lot of people do because like we only have now. We used to have yesterday and tomorrow, but now we're at the point we have so much packed into now that we only have now. And so anything you do as a business owner to get people interested, you have to do it so they can do it in there now and there now might be right now or there now might be tonight at 10 o'clock or there now might be Saturday morning at 3 a.m. because they need pricing because they've decided to buy, but that's their only time that they have to do that. And if you don't have it out there, how are they going to buy? So thinking about people, how they work, how overwhelmed they are and making sure the things that we offer to them related to our website are going to capture them at the point in time when they're interested. A lot of times that those people, somebody said this earlier, they come to your website once and that's it. So having some way to capture them at that one moment when they find your website is a really critical point. And the other thing is because if they aren't going to come back and it takes seven to 14 interactions with you for them to really feel comfortable enough to buy from you, how are you going to facilitate that? So it's time, and you try to do it manually, it's a little overwhelming.  Other reasons why it doesn't work. People only really want to hear, you only have time to hear about what interests you. And so you don't want to sort through the email newsletter with the five items. You want the one that you're interested to just be right there. So not just the one thing you're interested in, not everything. Why it doesn't work. If you don't nurture your prospects, you are always starting at the beginning. So everybody's a new prospect, so you have to do a lot more. And if they're not ready to buy, then you have to do a lot more lead development. And otherwise, you only have so much energy. So some of the things you could do in your business that weren't involved with lead development, like celebrating people after they sell and cementing that relationship you're not getting to because you're busy with lead development. So why did this happen? Well, this happened, part of what makes us all have to have changed as consumers is because of the digital world we live in. So what we see and why a standalone website doesn't work anymore, we see Google and Facebook and Amazon and they're all using the power of now. And they're giving us what we want when we need it because they have databases that track us and they've got us in there and they know what we're interested in. And so they're using predictive technologies to know if you're interested in this, you might be interested in these things.  And here's some other good sales shoes. And so they can deliver what interests us just when we are interested. And the thing that happens when we're in this world where the things we're getting are personalized and we're getting advertising based on our location or our searches or activities and how much we spend we're dealing with companies that are integrating their marketing across these huge companies integrating marketing across all the channels. And so what I get in my email it relates to what I shop for a browse for and everything connects is that it makes us start expecting that not just from big companies but we expect that from small companies too. And we lose our patience for stum. You know, there's been a lot of dumb advertising in the past and it was John Wanamaker who said, I know 50% of my advertising works. I just don't know which 50%, you know, and it's the same. I mean, that there's a lot of dumb things, but people just did a lot of them and counted that part of them were going to work. But now we've more or less lost our patience with that. And so how do you as a business adjust to a new consumer group that no longer wants to be the motivator for themselves to buy? They want you to do it. They want you to tell them what you have that they're interested in. How do you do that? So what can a small business do to compete in a digital world? And there are successful businesses using these ideas and creating a web of stickiness. So multiple touches, extending their brand across all their channels that they're in, using interactive content that people can respond to, not just something static but something interesting. Magnet offers, you know, the by best things you need to know about this product I'm selling you are that the two things that people don't realize when they're buying HVAC or, you know, it can be used for any product. And I think while business owners often have trouble creating content, all the time when they sell to people, they're delivering content. They just don't understand it. They don't get that what they do every day all day is really deliver content. So somebody earlier said, how do you get people to be willing to do content? Well, no, maybe you videotape them and then you transcribe that because honestly, all business owners do this all day. They just don't understand what they're doing is delivering content.  And they're using the power of information and they're letting, they're automating things. They're letting automation do the heavy lifting. When I first found out about marketing and automation, it was the big answer to me for something I'd heard from businesses all my career, which is, yeah, I tried that, but it just doesn't work. And I tried radio advertising, it just doesn't work. Or, you know, I did social media, it just doesn't work. Well, and a lot of the times the reason it doesn't work is you don't have a plan. You don't have anything to take people from this place to this place to a sale. And that's how small businesses can really compete with the large ones is to have a strategy to understand how people buy. So what is marketing automation? Marketing automation is a combination of a customer relationship, management database for the most part, and marketing activity automation. So you've got a database with your prospects and customers in it and you can trigger a series of actions. And it enables you to do some things, integrate your marketing channels. And link in to your other other softwares your company might be using. And you can do lead scoring and personalization and you can automate marketing responses and you can integrate everything that's connected in your business usually given, you know, there's some of course outliers that you might have a workaround but mostly everything and allows you to be smarter. And I have to say if you can build WordPress websites, you can do marketing automation and you're going to like it because it's fun and techy and if you like flow charts at all and get flow charts and understand them that's really just a core design of most marketing automations.  I mean if you like techy things you will like marketing automation. And so to developers I say this is something else you can sell. Why build a website when you can like create a whole success network for your clients? And then to business owners who might be here I say just don't count on your standalone website to be the be-all and end-all for your business because it just can't. You need a sticky network with interesting things that's dynamic and that draws people in and lets you grab a hold of their information and continue to reach out to them in different ways. And so how is this different from a Facebook pixel? One thing is you don't own the information with Facebook pixel but you would with marketing automation. So there's a lot of email systems so constant contact, MailChimp, MI, etc. They are a form of automation as you can do autoresponders and now many of them have added limited amounts of automation. I've done some of that with MailChimp. I now charge more from MailChimp than I do from Fusionsoft because you know just kill me right now if I have to go and figure that out because there are things that look like they should be working but they weren't working and it was frustrating. It wasn't very clear. Marketing automation is just a lot more than those and there's of course a lot of funnel softwares but marketing automation is more than a web page with a lot of hard sell on it. It's really a way to connect a lot of different places that you already are on the web and reach across those channels and make sense of everything and entice people to come depending on where they are in their sales process. So how to integrate? And I think a really critical part of marketing automation is strategy. You've got to start with strategy. You have to understand people's businesses and you have to map out your business processes and your communication flows and that's how I always start. We do an in-depth strategy session.  That's how you know you're doing good strategy is that you're thinking really hard about things. You have to look at all the different softwares and what needs to be integrated with what and what's the best marketing automation platform that's able to do that. And then does the software they're using have an API? Is there something else they maybe should switch to that's going to integrate? Because the API allows different databases to talk to each other and it makes it a lot easier to pass information between them. So there are lots of different marketing automation softwares. They all probably have a slightly different focus. They have different capabilities. Some are more complex. Some are more expensive. Some are less complex and less expensive. And so if you've never done any kind of strategic thinking or processes here's just some questions that you should ask yourself. If you're the business, ask your business if you're a supplier. So who are your ideal customers? Who do you really want to sell to? It's not just everybody. Who do you make money from? Where should some analysis? Who's your most profitable customers? How do we find more of those? Where are those? Why do they buy from you? Different products that might be different answers. Different services. What motivates them? Where are they on the web? Where do you find those people? And what's the sales process? This is a long sales process. Do they come to you and they buy once in their lifetime? Do they come to you and they buy once every month? Can this is something that you can send them something? The minute they run out of it, bam, they have another one. Is this can be sold on a subscription basis? Is it something where it's a progression? They're going to buy this, but then they're going to buy this. And then they're going to buy this really big thing, which may be like a consulting product. And then what kind of information education visualizations? What do you need? How are you going to push that sales long? What kinds of things make a difference to these clients? What's going to make them want to buy more? How do you move them along? What information makes a difference in that sale? And then maybe you need to qualify that. My friend Stephanie is a consultant. She's very highly concerned. I heard ideal customer is not me because I take a while to make decisions. They make really fast decisions and they do a whole lot of work. And when she says, I think you should do this. By God, they're already starting to do that before they're off the call.  So that's all done through marketing automation. And the minute they fill that out, bam, they get an email. Even when they click on, I want to work with you. They immediately say, oh, I'm so happy you want to work with me. Here's my intake form, bam. They go to that and she can tell where they are. If they don't fill it out, she can send them a reminder. If they finish it out, she sends them another link to schedule a time with her to talk about it. And then she has a long consultive call. Think one to two hours, maybe more with them where they have discoveries during that call. And she has a plan. She has a sales process. I wish I was half the sales person she was. She's working through their main reasons they might not want to buy and by the end of that call, she's got them signed up. So it's all driven by marketing automation and she does it brilliantly. So it should fit the business. That process isn't right for somebody who's selling greeting cards. That's something people buy on certain periods during birthdays. But everybody has their own little schedule that could be discovered. More strategic mapping questions. What's your customer life cycle? And how do you know where a customer is in the life cycle? We have a dual customer and we're working on a marketing automation and one of the things she wanted to do is be able to send an email to that pregnant woman that relates to the month that she's in relative to when she's due. So is it first month or third month? Different things happening. She wants to be able to say to them. She wants to get their due date and then the math works back and then the emails say, oh, you must be in your first month. Or you're, oh, your fifth month. Oh, you're feeling like this now. So she's really giving them information they want to have. Here's my tips because doulas know a whole lot about being pregnant and they know a lot about after you had the baby. She comes in into sleep coaching. So if she gets that due date, she's gotten every piece of what she needs to know to talk to that person with just what they're interested in at that moment. So where is your customer in their customer life cycle? And is there a natural progression to your sales? So what's your best call to action? And this is what I love to do with customers. What's your lifetime? What's the lifetime value of a customer for you? How much do you spend on getting a new customer? And there's all kinds of calculations. You can Google it.  And so that's their lifetime value. You only want to spend, you know, probably a couple years.  So you want to, that's a really powerful number to know about your customers and it helps you make marketing decisions. And it can vary. And you can have different customer segments. You're going to spend more on some and less on others. More, so what kinds of information is irresistible to your customers? You know, and you can brainstorm this. So maybe you've never even done that, but that's something if you know your, and usually business owners know their customers. So what makes them share contact information? And you know, go read some National Enquirer headlines or something like that if you have any questions, you know, and what kinds of things make you pick things up and look at them. You can add that kind of spin to your magnets. What promotions will excite them? There's always coupons. There's always discounts. And what kinds of content have you already created that you can, you know, reuse, repurpose, revise? And great, I believe great marketing automation happens when the powerful strategies that come out of sessions like this and the deep understanding that business owners have of their buyers comes together with really dynamic creativity, you know, over-the-top creativity. You know, very, you know, a voice that fits what your customers, what will appeal to them. So this is, you probably won't be able to see much, but this is something I did for a client is for an Acne, someone who's interested in Acne treatments.  And then if they click yes, they go to download it, she pops up with a three video, a three video series that she is a very prolific person with Stefan and so she's got Acne treatment one, Acne treatment two, Acne treatment three that she's already got, and then a free consultation. And that's just an idea of, you know, how she's drawing that person in and getting them more involved with her. She's also at the bottom, you know, another thing marketing automation gets, lets you do is let people opt in for as much information as they want and opt out if you're giving them too much. So you can, you can design an opt in, you know, an opt out sequence so if they want to opt out you can ask them, well, am I just sending you too much? You know, would you want to hear from me if, you know, we're going to miss hearing from you so how often and let you, let them choose, you know, maybe they hate emails but maybe they're really interested in you and they would want to hear once a month. Well, that's better than not at all. So you can also design things like that that help people choose how often to engage. The guy before me, I'm sorry, don't know his name, the Google Analytics, when you look at your Google Analytics and you ask yourself who are all those people and why didn't they buy from me? You know, marketing automation allows you to capture leads that would have been missed and then do more nurturing than is manually possible but if you're missing leads, that person was interested in you for some point in time right then and you are letting them go by not capturing them. So, and the statistics say 50 to 80% of those people would have bought from you had there been some nurturing sequence available to them and, of course, more leads equals more money so that's why it should matter to all of us. And here's just an example of a website that we're just starting. We've been in the proposal process and she's finally said let's go ahead with it and we're meeting on Tuesday. So it's the Sagar Lounge in Texas and they're going to have a storefront and they're going to have a point of sale system they want to have a membership level and you're going to get different offers depending on what level member and it's going to be based on how much you spend what membership level you qualify for or say they want to have a website and they want e-commerce well it's still, we think we want e-commerce on that and they're going to have events in there at their location and so they've chosen Infusionsoft because they're marketing automation because it gives them the ability to take the information from the point of sale to be able to discern from that where people are from membership but Infusionsoft will take that and allow it to be shown on the website so when I log into the membership section on the website the offers I'm going to get because of my membership level are going to be different the offers that other people are going to get and the reason for that is all going to be driven by the point of sale their cash register that is going to all that information is going to be available to the website and served up to the website so the right offers can be on the website and then that is going to impact what events you get invited to and so you're going to have that exchange of information between the bricks and mortar store and Infusionsoft the point of sale information is going to go into your marketing automation the member information also and then that will all get driven to the website and determine which events you get invited to and it also then we could incorporate that into social media so you could also then take that same list of members and show different ads to different member levels you could send all kinds of reminders to events and manage your events through the marketing automation all of that and there's different plugins that would go into marketing automation we'll probably use Membarium for the membership we use Spotify for the point of sale and that all works together to take information and allow you to be a smart marketer and to make sure the same experience people have in store is the one they have online and it gives you more branding continuity across all your channels when you're able to do that and so therefore your presence is much stronger so some other benefits marketing automation is you can segment your lips you can just figure out what people are interested in and we're going to talk about how to do that on your WordPress site so you can stop treating everybody the same and once you figure out what people are interested in you don't have to send them information on everything you can just send them information on what they're interested in which makes it more likely to read it which makes it more likely to get a response for you you can identify, track and engage customers online you can integrate with your social media you can just show ads to people who visit a page or do an action and I know you can do that with a Facebook pixel but I can put a Facebook pixel on my marketing automation landing page and then I can also then trigger other activities you know when people land there besides an ad so I can send them an email and an ad that's giving you kind of multiple things I could send them a text I could send them a send out card just a huge amount of integrations with marketing and automation and you can sell anytime, day or night and you can respond anytime, day or night so more benefits you can track your customers across the web and the IP sensing code I put on the website can tell you people you don't know who are there so later on when they sign up for something you can look back at their activities and see what they were they were coming to visit you in the past and what they were doing and then that gives you more information on what prospects do where they like to go you can automate multiple things email, direct mail, text Facebook ads, phone call reminders you can do internal organization so if A, B, and C need to happen internally or you have three people they need to do different things you can automate emails so when something happens you don't have to remember to do it it just happens for you you can get statistics from your customers that can drive follow up and you can measure the ROI of your campaigns back to half of your advertising you can send people to different places and you can see which of those external awareness channels which are delivering the most awareness so I have to caution that the marketing is so organic and it is the accumulation of all touches that drives the responses usually not one-to-one and you can compare this group of actions to this group of actions but unlike sales that is very one-to-one marketing is organic and it is the multiplying effect of seeing your information about your business in different ways that helps people act so I have some strong opinions on what is the best way to design WordPress sites to make them work because I think marketing and automation works best with a WordPress site that is designed to take advantage of its power and I want to say every product or service needs its own big page with a preponderance of copy and you might want to have different landing pages of the same product for different segments because you may want to talk to people differently depending on if they are a teenager or if they are not anymore they may be buying for different reasons so why have just one page and the thing with Google search the way I understand it I am not an SEO expert but when people search for all your services so what does Google do with a page with all your services that is not a good landing page for anything it is all your services nobody says all the services they want to know about this service or that service so when you design your website many I still see many websites maybe you have a need for all your services maybe you are going to be on the phone with your client you are going to go through all those and ask them but when people search that is probably not what they are doing so you still need one full page for every different product or service with enough copy on it and I want to say 300 minimum 1000 when you start to look at the statistics of what Google is likely to serve up as the best option for this search 1500 when you start trying to search for 1500 so the more you know the more you know I have business owners people don't like to read I don't want to have any words they like to read and they are like blind unless you put words with your photos they don't see those photos they only see the words and they want to know you are an expert so you have a lot of words so they are in headlines and sub-heads and bullet copy I know my own patience for reading long paragraphs stops in the middle of the second sentence so I used to like to read I am not sure what happened to that but anyway not scammy not like the web copy I was supposed to where they wanted to puree a law firm in there it's awkward you cannot put that in there 12 times it just doesn't sound right so lots of sub-heads ask for the sale always ask for the sale big big flaw of all marketing copy as people want to tell you about it but they don't say this is how to buy every page needs to ask for the sale every page needs a response mechanism I am on that page I want to buy how do I do it not just so what I want to see on on every page is and I want to say the ideal google landing page is probably also the ideal prospect landing page I want to see something to download I want to see something to sign up for on that page grab that person while they are interested they are spending a long time if you are seeing certain customers they are spending a long time on those pages there should be some way to grab them on that page don't make them look for you be there right there when they are likely to buy be there and grab their information the visitors time on the page so you can have different offers depending on how long people spend on the page which page that's telling you what they are interested in and you need something on that page of great value to capture their contact information give away some of what you do just give it away free that's the first thing that I do and I'm going to give it to you now free it needs to be enticing it needs to be interesting it needs to grab that client it can be fun it could be something funny people like things funny lord knows we need more fun things in our lives life has not been as much fun in the last couple of years and I think people appreciate fun a lot more because of that so not just one contact form you do need that you need a contact page people need to be able to click and find out where you are who you are how to get a hold of you but that's not the person who's like I really wonder how that works I wonder if I have this question that's on the page with your information they need a way to reach out to you and so that more focused way on the pertinent download or on the pertinent page and that's going to help you segment your customers as to their interest and now you can nurture them with focus now you're not just sending an email newsletter and it's all pre-built so it's like you have to stop and do it it's all pre-built so bam when they fill that out then this happens and then it can send you notices it's some kinds of businesses and it's somebody you know seeing that they downloaded something it can set it up to it can send you a task reminder to call that person or you can have a follow-up email hey I thought I saw you downloaded it how did you like that tell me what you think I'd like to hear from you so you know or you know let's have coffee you know and talk more about that you can reach into that if you need face to face and everything should drive to face to face the way you sell everything should drive to that so more best practices to you want to capture people's interest so you can nurture you can trigger that nurturing campaign you want to link to your social media and you can show you can take those lists and upload ads just for those people you can have it so that if they do one thing boom they're going to see an ad now they won't going to maybe know that they're the only person seeing that ad right now for all they know everybody's seen that ad because Facebook doesn't say who's seen this ad oh it's just you I mean they just show the ads so for all they know they just run their website now they're seeing you every place because consistent look and feel I mean this is really the branding part of me says this is really important you know make sure that everything you do looks and sounds like you that just helps it be more you like you wouldn't do that personally and your brand is your business person it's who you are as a business and it has to have a consistent look and feel and the sound across all channels always you know provide an opportunity to buy so when people are ready you're ready to and I think the numbers tell it and these are some statistics I just googled you know 75% of companies that use marketing and automation see a return on investment in 12 months and then sending out relevant emails through marketing drives 18 times more revenue than email blast just to everybody send people just what they want and companies that excel at lead nurturing they generate 50% more sales ready leads at less cost so it's sufficient too so I just want to say you can create a website or you can automate business and a lot of times if you're creating the website you're in the position to do this or if you say I want to do that pull in somebody else to do it if it's really clear to you this would benefit my client don't be scared to pitch them on that this is what you ought to do you're the expert they're going to listen to you my god they don't know how to build a website so if you're building their website they think that you are the by god god of tech wonder I mean they're amazed that you can do this so um anyway so and I I have this link here um it's just a it's just a nurturing sequence that lets you see like um it doesn't sell you anything and it's it's not an affiliate link um it's something infusion soft gives me because I'm a certified partner it it lets you see pictures screenshots of where you are and then you get to the next email it says oh here you are and this is what you clicked on and this is what it looks like and I think it's fascinating and it gives you a little glimpse behind the scenes of what marketing automation software looks like and of course like if you're ever really interested like I'm glad to show you or we could do a zoom or you know we can you know get together and have coffee or anything that's safe to ask me questions or or talk to me about that so anyway so questions I have a sort of question but there was a part in there just wanted to emphasize on that when your email is copying everything it says to entice and or basically entertain you and uh anything those are very basic foundations Google tells you from their guidelines so basic so basically she's telling you this Google's telling you this if you're not doing it please do it start doing it today yeah don't hesitate to have a little attitude differentiate yourself it's really been true always in advertising and I've seen this in companies and some companies get very conservative and they just want to do what the other companies are doing and all comes across like you know it's like it all sounds the same and unless you say something different no one hears you it isn't even they don't hear words I mean so much marketing is overblown that if you just want to use those overblown words and not say something unique people discount marketing because they figure you're lying to them to start with so they're going to say oh yeah you're great right everybody's great everybody has excellent customer service right that's what we all experience in every business isn't it excellent customer service right and so no one believes that so try to take your strengths and say them in a unique way I even say to clients if you have a big place where you don't measure up then find some way to deal with that and say it okay we're not so good at that but yep we're really still really good at this don't come to us for this though because we don't do that because people you're going to be more genuine you're going to be more authentic people are going to believe you for the good things better if you're honest about the less than good things and if you only say good things but they're only kind of like 70% true most of the time and I'll try to find some other way to differentiate yourself because they're strong enough in those so say what you are 100% try to make that your strength and then let the people because that's important to you know be the ones who choose you so yes they shut down and they just don't think they need automation at all is there like a good starting kind of software that you would suggest to kind of like to start out with I know that it's just like softwares they hear LFO and they're like well that's what we need you know it's often called confusion soft you know I am a certified partner you know the little ones are not like the big ones so they aren't really enough like them that you could say oh this is a stepping stone experience that I'll do MailChimp and then I'll know how to do Infusionsoft but MailChimp automation was very different then it's very different than Infusionsoft and so I would say um no you know no I thought of having a class before I mean just like a big but I haven't decided to do that but I've thought about you know with that help people who wanted to take that you know the other thing is suck it up and hire someone to do it and then let them build it for you and then just you can learn enough to update it and do small changes in things along the road but I mean I I think some of them are a little simpler I'm trying to think I have a friend and I've decided Jen who does Infusionsoft but she also does one of the other ones and she thought it was a little simpler um I don't find it's not hard I think yeah I think maybe it might be easier I would say you know maybe figure out what there's what what the real fear point is and maybe it's the strategy because I think that marketing automation once like what I do is come in with the strategy sessions I you know the big post-it notes and we map you know it's pretty messy I have markers and then I go back and go and creates flow charts online so that they've got a whole set of flow charts of what's going to be built in in the marketing automation that I use which is Infusionsoft but you know this is what we're going to build so it could be that if they just had a blueprint then it becomes more you know just building it and it wouldn't they don't have to think about when I first wrote copy and okay I'm an art major so I had to write a couple papers but we're not talking a lot of writing and I had to come up with my three steps for writing copy because at that time you know I you know I had a typewriter okay and and so it's not a fast we're talking a long time ago we want to talk about how long Mark and I could share notes and yeah so you know that first I had to think about what I wanted to say and then I had to write it down in any old way shape or form without worrying about the words and third I had to come back and and make the words and so I think with marketing automation there's more there's a strategy you know then what's you know here's here's all the things you need to do for this product and then we're going to do this and then we're going to do this and then we're going to do this and this service and then we're going to do this and then we're going to do this and then we're going to do this and then if I if I think about that separately if I'm trying to build it and think about that at the same time I think that would be a problem so I think if you can separate it into this is what we want to accomplish The other thing I say is start with the low hanging fruit first and just do the big things and then do the rest of your things later. So do the really important parts that are, it's your main product and you do the nurturing sequence for them because that's the one you make all the money from. And then come back later and add to it. I mean that would be another way to do it and just parse it out in steps. I mean I can build in a sandbox in a way that is a big, because people buy marketing automation software and then they get in the weeds deeply and they don't get something accomplished. So I can build it in my sandbox and when they buy it, boom, I can install it and then it's up and running. And there's some big efficiencies in building it before you install it. So anyway, anybody else questions? Yes? So you're asked so that you can deliver solutions for your clients or did you need to do that to be able to learn how to use it or is it? I, a little of both, it's very in-depth so you learn a lot. I mean there's a lot to know. So I have other people I work with, my web developer does this too and so I have several, my friend Stephanie has done some very sophisticated things and I got interested because Stephanie was sick and she wanted somebody to help her with her infusion software. So I said, well, she said, well, you know, you learn this and then you can, and we trade services a lot and I'm like, okay, but I don't think I really ever, I did learn it but I don't think I really ever delivered the help she needed because then I get busy on client work and I wasn't helping her because the client work, I get real money and we're just trading out. But then I took a three-day class on how to build campaigns, an online class, and so I felt like I had some foundation there but then I started to, and I did sell it some before then and then I thought, I think I want to sell, I want to add this. It seems to me like the whole and most people's marketing plan, they have their marketing plan but they're missing this big hole where all these leads are falling through and this lack of efficiency because they aren't capturing people, they aren't nurturing people. So I really believe in this and there's not as many people selling it so that's good for me, it differentiates me so that's when I decided, no, I'm just going to do this, I'm going to go for the certification which was a month long and you have to pay for it too so you pay and then you work real hard for a month and then if they pass you, you get the certification but then the thing I realized afterwards and this was also a driver is that you get this, you can package things and resell them. So say, and my doula client, we haven't ever finished that project but that was our goal is we're going to package this series of nurturing sequences for all her different products and sell them to other doulas and so you're in a business say you think, I pretty much understand what I'm doing, maybe more than the typical company, that can be something that people can actually create a product to sell to their peer companies across the US so you could, and InfusionSauce has an internal marketplace that's available to all their certified partners so that you, but you could just also sell it through a certified partner like me so you could sell it, you have webinars, you could sell it to other people in your business so anything you can create is pretty cool, like you could take your business and what you know about it and make a product of, you know, best practices, automation to sell to other people and to me that was the cool tipping point thing with me being the part that I could facilitate that for my customers and, you know, it's a cool thing to talk about, it's a neat thing to do and I bet there's more people who could do it than they've ever actually thought about doing it. Interesting thing I found because I didn't use certification, I worked into it and like, okay, let's try this. So the client actually, while learning this, I'm actually on the phone with somebody at InfusionSauce using the client's account. Right, yeah. So they actually went through the whole flow chart process of setting up the whole opt-in process, what we need. So he says, what do you want, what do you want it to do, what was the end result do you want to do, what's all the steps you want to do. And so you can do this and this is the step process. And I was like, so, yeah, it's a beast, it really is. It's a beast, it can almost do anything you can imagine, except there's a few outliers, you know, they have a Facebook group, it's everybody going, you know, WTF, why want to do this, you know, like, I needed to do this, I needed to do this now, why aren't they doing this, why aren't they new doing this in the new version, of course, like any kind of software, there's a huge, like, they're in the process of building a new version and all the, you know, things you have in the old version are going to be in the new version, of course, that doesn't happen instantaneously. Yeah. You can only use it in Firefox. Oh, wow. Oh. You can use the flow chart version if they use the visual part of the flow chart. Yes, yes.  That's weird, but yeah, yeah, that's, yeah, but it's cool.  Okay, any more questions? How many people here are developers like? Cool. Cool. And how many people are like business owners that are interested in, like, or individuals? Okay. Okay. Well, definitely developers, you know, you would like this. It's fun. It's, and you can do, like, so many cool things with it and integrate it in so many different ways. It really could expand your business. And I can get you distance. So, don't go with that online pricing until you call me. Depending on how hungry they are, the pricing changes through the month. So, if you were to decide that, you know, we could find a time in the months where the discounts are getting better because any marketing questions? General marketing? Yes. I don't see any reason why not to do that. It does make your contact form a little more complex, but, and I would make it required because if someone just wants to contact you and that's sort of pain and butt to do, then they don't want to do that. But sure, why not? Why not let people choose that versus? And it somewhat maybe depends on the kind of business.   You can, but I would recommend like if you want to do stuff like that, hook it to OptinMonster. Okay. OptinMonster will make that a little more powerful. Good idea. And if you're willing more out of that, then invest in the actual product. Yeah. They get into it. Yeah. Or whether it's an admonie or contact or whatever it is. Like, the more that you want out of it, you're going to have to hook it up with a little something that you can do. Like, you know, the AB testing and everything, the OptinMonster is really powerful. Okay. I mean, you can do that in Infusionsoft, of course. You can. Yes. But if you can't afford those trades, OptinMonster would be a sweet spot. And Infusionsoft has come down in price and, you know, and now it starts with like a $99 month for like 500 contacts in one seat. So, you know, and there might be, they vary all the time as to whether you have to pay anything up front. They do a kickstart and they did used to make you pay like $2,000 for the kickstart and that's come down. I've seen the kickstart done well. I've seen the kickstart done crazy poorly. I've seen things done in the kickstart that then triggered when they shouldn't have because somebody just, you know, put all the contacts in that and they weren't supposed to be in there, but never took them out and they were moving really fast. And I don't think anybody realized. So I've sat through a number of different clients kickstarts before I was a certified partner. So because that's what you had to do to get started. Sometimes you come out with something valuable. Sometimes not so much. They're supposed to build one, have, build one together and have you build one. And that's to get you busy, you know, in hands on. And some, you know, I would do that same thing with someone but I also would just build it myself if someone went, you know, no, I don't do that. No, I can't do that. That's too techy. So if you want to talk about, if you want more resources on, like, for example, not being an automation people or especially whether it's in social media, vlogging, marketing, WordPress. People that you want to follow specifically. Chris Lemma. There's a lot of talks on automation and actually marketing. Chris Brogan as well. And if, other ones I like is FlixBrout, Kiss Not Tricks. Those are also really great resources. So you want to learn everything that she's talked about in the end tomorrow. Those are the people that you probably want to look into more. You'll learn a heck of a lot of things. There's a lot to learn but, you know, it's, yeah, I think watching videos and listening to things is a great, a great idea. Yeah, there's a return on it. A lot of things we do in marketing, you know, that helps you understand some of the other things you do in marketing, you know. I mean, billboards are interesting. I had a client I was quoting billboards for and they can do really interesting things. And I think if you tied billboards to marketing automation, so this is a carpenter. He has kind of a, a, a board that kind of stretches people and it relieves pressure on people's backs. So his target client are people in pain. So, and it's much less expensive than back surgery. So his client is maybe somebody who's been told they need back surgery or somebody's in a pain clinic. So I talked to the billboard company and I wanted to buy billboards outside like, you know, bone surgeon, back surgeons and pain clinics. And we got prices on that, but they said to us that, oh, but I can come and I can Jill, Jill fence that billboard and everybody that drives by and then it will be able to show them an ad. Plus, we can Jill fence the pain clinic. We can Jill fence the orthopedic surgeon. And we can Jill fence his business and we can tell everybody who saw that ad and anybody who walks in this business. And you know, how powerful is that?


There are many curious things found throughout recent years found within images taken by Google Earth, with some being particularly peculiar. One such find being that of a seemingly frozen ship measured at 400 feet long, it is as if it were picked up and planted upon this enormous block of frozen ice within Antarctica, dismissed by some as simply being that of a naturally formed block of ice, yet the resemblance to a cruise liner is unquestionably uncanny. If indeed a ship like the one we have covered previously, an old lifeboat found in the 70s within an inescapable lagoon within the interior of Buvi Island, one of the most inhospitable and remote places on Earth, ravaged almost yearly by storms, with no explanation as to how it arrived there. This ship would undoubtedly raise similar questions, some conspiracy theorists even putting forward the posit that it is possibly the remnants of a Nazi vehicle, a theory linked to a base long claimed to have been created down here during the Second World War. Whatever the answer, questions regarding this curious find remain. Could this really be a ship literally frozen solid in an almost impossible location? Even if so, where did it come from and how did it get to where it rests now? We find this discovery highly compelling.


Well, it's 4 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, and that means it's time for working together. I'm your host, Cheryl Kerzer-Garcia, and on this show we talk about the changing face of business and work in Hawaii. And we welcome you to call in and join us with your questions or comments. You can telephone at area code<PHONE_NUMBER>, or you can tweet us at thinktechhi. Today we are so, so fortunate to have a special guest who means a great deal to me personally because he was my first boss. So joining us today from production Hawaii is its president, Mike Roussel. Hi Mike. I can't believe how long it was ago that I was your boss. It was 34 years. Amazing. That's true, but you're still 15 years older than I am. And that will stay that way. Yeah, it will. Now, Mike, you actually saw your first business success or your first entrepreneurial success as a producer of trade shows and other special events. Can you tell us a little bit about the shows that you were responsible for bringing to life? Well, first let me back up and say that my first dipping of my toe into the entrepreneurial pool was before that when I started a company called Honolulu Emergency Labor Pool, H-E-L-P. Health Incorporated is what it became known as, and it was an industrial temporary help company. Wow. But I operated for eight years before discovering that I would much rather be in the trade show slash exhibition show business after having done an industrial trade show in 1977 and discovered how much fun it was, how gratifying it was to be the producer of an event that all kinds of top level executives were praising and thanking me for. And I got hooked. And the industrial show went on for five or six years after that. Shows have a tendency to sort of wane after a while. They can anyway. So I decided that it was a good idea to create other types of expos. The one that exists to today was created shortly after the industrial show timeframe and it's known as the Hawaii Seniors Fair, which has had a very long, no pun intended, life expectancy, which I'm happy about. It goes on as we speak. It's a full house show every September at Blaisdell Center. And I'm in my glory when I'm there. That's nice. And you continue to fill the show with exhibitors and present new and different products for your market? Well, if you don't, you're not doing your job very well. The thing that keeps the show successful is keeping up with the times, adapting to various changes that the market tells you are important and advisable, and listening to your clientele, your exhibitors, say, Mike, why don't you try this? Or why don't we do this? Or isn't it time that we, you know, so on and so forth? And if you pay attention to those hints and shouts and murmurs along the way, the show stays vibrant. And I'm happy to say the Seniors Fair has accomplished that. That's good. What sorts of clues do you look for that a particular project is either losing relevancy or gaining relevancy within the market? Well, clues. The best source of clues for me for what I do and what I try to continue to improve upon would be in the form of feedback from our exhibitor clientele, who, given the type of show that we're doing, have an insight into their Kuliana, their field, if you will. In the Seniors Fair, there are seven or eight different major subfields that address the different needs of Seniors. And, for instance, one really strong one is Travel on Leisure, because that's what Seniors do a lot of anymore. So the Travel on Leisure exhibitors in the show are constantly telling me what's going on in their realm and what I should be, you know, focusing on to make sure that it is well publicized and attended. That's good. Now you're also the president of Production Hawaii. Tell us about that organization. Well, Production Hawaii is essentially in the rental business and the business of producing events for other people that would just as soon not learn how to do it. A good example of that is Sunset on the Beach. We've been the producer of Sunset on the Beach since day one. And Sunset on the Beach is owned, essentially, to use the term loosely by the Waikiki Improvement Association. And Rick Eggins, God bless him, has much better things to do than walk around on the sand down at Queens Beach producing a very lively, enjoyable entertainment event. He does have some very capable help in a young lady by the name of Janet Maduli, who has very deep resources in entertainment and she's no stranger to a live audience and a stage presence and whatnot. But my company comes in and physically makes that event happen for the benefit of the owners. Wow. I didn't know you did that. And I have to thank you because I have spent many, many evenings at Sunset on the Beach. Thank you. We're happy to hear that. It's a wonderful way to spend an evening. Well, it is. There's only one downfall from that. I enjoy a martini at the evening and you can't do that at the beach. Talk to me during the break. You're going to tell me how to do that? Uh-huh. Okay. Now, every business has challenges. What are some of the challenges that you've experienced? And how do you overcome them? Well, a business that must have employees to function inherits challenges just, you know, no way around it. I've been very fortunate to be able to attract and retain people that don't really provide that many challenges, although there are some. But I realize that when those challenges are brought forward and find themselves squarely in front of me, I need to know how to respond to them so that the people that are helping me be successful are successful as well. And are, if you will, motivated to continue doing the right things. And so that's my best answer to what you said. Okay. Say a little bit more about, it sounds as though you don't have very much turnover. Do you? Very little, unfortunately. The kind of turnover that I have is when an employee reaches a level of competence, expertise, knowledge ability and whatnot that he or she has offered other opportunities at compensation levels beyond what I can offer. I can offer in my business. So the folks that leave us usually are going on to something better, which I think is a great kind of turnover. I love to see that happen. It's very, very rare far and few between that a turnover happens for disciplinary purposes because the crew that I have is very self-disciplined. They take care of themselves. They take care of each other. They try not to bring, you know, Manini problems to me. They realize that that's not my job. Right. And I would imagine too that there's a need, they would need to develop a tight core relationship amongst each other because of the nature of the work.  Well, we don't have that many regulations. We have to be safe. I mean, that's for sure. And we would want that in any case. But there is obviously in Hawaii a very strong emphasis on safety in the workplace. And there is a lot of, shall we say, policing that goes on in that regard. I'm very happy to say we have never been, quote, busted for not being safe. We have always told the mark and had, I could count the lost time accidents over how many 30-some years on one hand. Wow. One hand. That's great. Yeah. I, in some of my previous corporate HR work, I've handled safety. And that's a record that we should figure out how other companies can replicate it. Right. I wish I could tell you there was a magic formula. I think it just takes a concerted effort among a group of people that will want to be safe and have some insight into how to achieve that. And if they don't understand a safety issue and they either get corrected by a supervisory person or they discover something's not working because I bang my finger and it doesn't feel good, they can fix that because they're not dumb. No, no. But you also have a safety factor for the customers that come to see your shows, the folks at Sunset on the Beach.  Well, at the seniors fair, we have a unique challenge in that regard because our audience is elderly people. A lot of elderly people. I've been there, I know. You know. And in order to have the show look right and feel right, we carpet all of the aisles. And unless you're constantly after that carpet to make sure that it's smooth and not crumpling up and creating trip hazards, you're taking care of your audience pretty well. There's nothing really much else to be concerned about because people don't move that fast. They aren't trying to win a road race. They're trying to see the show at their own pace. And for the most part, our seniors at the seniors fair audience level have a fairly slow pace, which is okay with me because they don't get hurt. Yeah, that's true.  Why that as opposed to... You're a very talented man. You could turn your hand to anything and be successful. So why entrepreneurship? Well, that harkens back to age 12, if I may. When I first discovered that a paper route was a good thing for a 12-year-old guy that liked to have a little money in his pocket. So I took on a paper route and had a pretty easy time of it. So my mentor from the newspaper came to me and said, how would you like to have two paper routes? Instead of one, he said, I think you can run two of them and make more money and earn more of these premiums that we offer for enlarging the size of the event. So there's where the entrepreneurship comes in. So taking a paper route with 50 customers and turning it into a paper route with 70 customers takes some... Skill. Yeah, well, it takes perseverance and it takes a certain salesmanship kind of element of your personality that I think I was born with. I'm not going to take credit for creating that. I think it just comes with who you are and what your mommy and daddy were able to pass along to you in those categories. But that's when it started and it just kind of got more and more intense for me as we went along. And after my obligatory time doing other things, like school, like military service and whatnot, I went right back into, where do I get a business license here? I need to open my doors for creating entrepreneurial opportunity. That's neat. So are you seeing the traits that you have that made you successful? Are you seeing that in the younger generation today? Boy, that's a tough question because I don't spend a whole lot of time with the younger generation today. They are not especially attuned to the kind of work that we do. A typical college kid doesn't have a lot of interest in swinging a sledgehammer. That's true. We're going to do a little bit of housekeeping here. Tell everybody about the great programming we've got on Think Tech Hawaii, and so we will be right back in two minutes. Don't go away. Here on Think Tech Hawaii, where we co-host Hibachi Talk, where we talk about technology and all kinds of cool guests. Also, my co-host with me today is... Andrew, the security guy. Thanks for watching. Thanks for watching Think Tech Hawaii, and thanks for watching Hibachi Talk. We also have Angus. Angus, I bring you all kinds of weird things. Oh, look, you can see my lips move. Hi, Aloha. My name is Chris Letham, and I host a show called The Economy and You. The show plays every Wednesday at noon. And on my show, I bring on guests who are interested or are working in the technology space. And so I'd like you to come and watch the show and learn with me about all the sort of exciting things that we're doing in Hawaii to build and grow our economy ecosystem. So I'd like to say Aloha, and I look forward to seeing you on the show. Thank you. Hi. Welcome back to Working Together. I'm Cheryl Crozier-Garcia, your host. And we are having a great conversation with Mike Rossell, the President of Production, Hawaii Incorporated. And he was just telling us about the skills that he is noticing with our upcoming generation of workers. And you mentioned that a lot of people are not interested in swinging a sledgehammer. And I want to talk about that a little bit more because there's always going to be a need for somebody to swing a sledgehammer. And other manual output. That's true. The trick would be to show an entry-level person of the millennial persuasion that swinging a sledgehammer or sweeping a floor or what have you leads somewhere. They would probably find it impossible to believe that this is something they're going to want to do for very long. And it would clear that if you do it well and you do it with a certain sincerity and personal commitment to the quality of the work, you're going to go up the scale. You're not going to stay down there where you don't want to be. You're going to go like this. And that's, I think, the key to bringing out the best in entry-level folks. I remember getting my first job. It wasn't quite as bad as swinging a sledgehammer, and my grandfather told me that I should be looking for things to do. Tasks that needed doing and I should do them without being told. And if I did that, all would be well. I'd be successful. The boss would like me. It would be good. And that was probably the best advice someone could give me. But I don't see that same kind of willingness to go oven beyond the call in our young generation. Have you found ways to, apart from telling them that if you do a good job at this, you'll be able to do a good job at something else. Have you been able to motivate your crews to see what needs doing without being told and getting that handled? Well, I'm blessed in that regard. I have a crew that's very tight-knit and they look at each other as brothers. And they kind of take the onus to break in, if you will, a new person to understand that, hey, we all take care of each other. We are going to be safe together. We're going to be successful together. We're going to make money together. Mike's going to treat us well as a group and as individuals. So be part of that. And so I don't really have to do much to inform relatively new people of those opportunities. Their co-workers really do it for me. The long-term result is those people that take that seriously and do see an opportunity stay and they go upward. That's good. That is I don't even know what to say, Mike. It's what you should be shooting for. Let's put it that way. Yeah, I agree with you. And I'd like to figure out a way to bottle it, whatever it is. And then you and I could go into business together. Be entrepreneurial together. I don't mind. Okay. What advice do you have for young entrepreneurs? Let's say I'll give you an example. The last show I did, we had two young folks on and they were starting businesses of their own. One of them was an eco-tourist kind of thing where they take tours, teach people how to paddle board and things like that. The other was a young man who is interested in starting an organic B farm for the purposes of producing organic honey.  Tell me what to do. Well, my first question would be how much money do you have? It's always an issue. You mean undercapitalization? Most entrepreneurs sell themselves short with that particular, you know, challenge in mind. They say, oh, well, you know, I'm good at what I do, so the money will be, you know, automatic. It's just going to happen. Well, it's not that way. You have to plan to have enough money to meet obligations as they come due. And most entrepreneurs that I am acquainted with, including yours truly, have learned that the hard way by not having enough money to make do with oncoming surprises. Unfortunately, those experiences are a long time behind me, but I did learn on a steep curve what it was all about to not be ready for financial demands that you didn't have the pocket to deal with.  Because without it, you're going to be treading water big time. Okay. What else would you recommend? What else? Well, I believe in long work days, long work weeks, sure, there's got to be some time for some recreation and some, you know, keeping your physical body going the right direction and enjoying some of the finer things that you're working supposedly to be able to possess. Those considerations are kind of individual in nature. Some people are better than others at staying physically fit. Some people are better than others at putting in long hours. But I would encourage any budding entrepreneur to try to work an 80 hour week and see how that feels. Make sure you have enough work to do so you don't get bored but put in 80 hours see if you can do it. If you can do it, you're loaded for bear. With adequate capitalization. With adequate money, yes. What about the gig economy? You know, where people are constructing livelihoods from numbers of part-time jobs or numbers of little ventures. So you might have someone who drives for Uber when they're not at work. They rent out their spare bedroom as an Airbnb. They get involved in various kinds of small business, multi-level type operations. How would you advise somebody in that type of situation to maybe look for something where they're working for someone else for a while or would you encourage them to continue to hustle? Well, the activities that you just described are peculiar for the most part to individuals who are not in business quote unquote. They're manipulating their personal fortunes like the Uber driver and the B&B option and whatnot. They're not really in business as such. They're dabbling in making money under their own auspices and steam and not actually sort of hanging out their shingle and saying I'm a business. That's a major step and it's not a bad idea to dabble as an individual experimenting with entrepreneurship before you go into it full blast and with both fists swinging and ready to take on the world. That comes at a certain point but I'm saying be ready for it. So your suggestion that those activities are valid and helpful is correct. If you had your whole life to do over again, would you do anything differently? You mean I don't? Well, for purposes of discussion. Well, I might have finished college. I never did that. Dr. Crozier finished college about six times didn't you? Well, yeah, but who's counting? Well, yes. I stopped counting at 25% of college. I was too interested in going out into the big bad world and exercising my entrepreneurial muscles rather than sitting in a classroom which I think would have been a good idea to try to do that. That's one change. As far as my selections and opportunities and activities I didn't exactly take it as it came. I invented some of it and accepted some that was suggested to me by others. I've looked at successful people that do things in a similar way to I would do them and try to emulate. So those are things that if I'm flashing back on years of walking the earth, those are the things I might change. Well, that's great. You know, it's not too late to go back to school. And so in the last 60 seconds that we have before we have to go away, I would encourage you to think about going back to school. Now you can study something you love just because you love it and there's lots of money available for scholarships. Well, I'm very happy to hear you say this. I do have the time on my hands because I have such energetic people working at my business that I could basically walk out and stay away for a while, maybe weeks or months. I've done so recently in the last couple of years. And I'm going to have to chew on what you suggested because it is interesting. You'd be welcome in my class anytime. Well, okay. I'm going to use a hint that it goes in the right direction. You'd have to earn your A, though. Well, I would certainly do my best. Yeah, I bet. Well, Mike, thank you so much for joining us. It's been a great half-hour. And we need to do this more frequently than once every 34 years. Oh, I agree. So thank you again for joining us. And thank you all in the audience. I'm Cheryl Crozier-Garcia, working together, and we will see you in two weeks. Merry Christmas.


Former president of Lucia Gombasangio has urged the owner of IFAE, Obadi Ayugusi, the second to play a fatherly role to all politicians without being partisan. Chief Obasangio was speaking in IFAE during the installation of the Director General of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, IITA in Bado. Dr. Teraiya Sanginga as the Afrubi Ola of IFAE, meaning the lead sewer of wealth and prosperity of IFAE land. The former president, who warned against endorsing politicians, noted that traditional rulers in Yoruba land should not declare public support for any politician seeking a decision into any office or Baogusi who prayed fervently for Sanginga and his wife before the conferment of the traditional title on him, noted that all Africans must be bonded and work for unity. In attendance at the event where the representative of the president of the Republic of Congo, former governor of Yoruba State Rashid Laduja and host of other dignitaries.


Earlier this year it was reported that Liam Payne sold his mansion in Calabasas, California for 10.2 million dollars to another famous singer. Do you guys know who? The former One Direction member purchased the 4.75-acre compound in 2015 for 10 million dollars and it featured waterfalls, koi ponds, enchanted gardens and much more. Considering Liam Hills from the UK he also maintains a multi-million dollar country estate near the town of Woking and Surrey which he renovated back in 2018 adding a two-story extension and goodies like an indoor pool and in this video we'll check out his amazing mansions. In these videos we don't reveal any addresses and even though I've done a house tour of my own place please do not show up at any private residences because it's not safe for anyone. Liam Payne is an English singer and songwriter who rose to fame being a member of the boy band One Direction. He made his debut as a singer in 2008 auditioning for the X Factor and after being eliminated auditioned again in 2010 when he was chosen to be in One Direction which of course went on to become one of the best-selling boy bands of all time. Liam's debut album as a solo artist came out at the end of 2019 and went on to sell over 18 million singles in just two years since One Direction. At the time of this recording Liam is estimated to have a net worth of 70 million dollars and amount he's continued to rack up after the boy band days through modeling deals and his solo career. With that he's been able to live in gorgeous mansions in both Los Angeles and across the pond in his home of the UK. He transformed his longtime mansion in Surrey about 35 miles from central London into a lad pad after his last breakup adding on luxury features like a basement level gym and games room. Not to mention his former villa in Calabasas was said to be haunted but we'll get into that soon.  If you haven't already be sure to subscribe and ring that bell for notifications because we post brand new videos daily. As always you can follow me on Instagram to chat and now let's get into this video. Back in 2019 it was reported that Liam had chopped the asking price of his Calabasas compound to 12.9 million dollars and also listed it as a luxury rental at 40k per month. He purchased the sprawling property back in 2015 for 10 million dollars and it was located in the rugged Santa Monica Mountains more specifically between the exclusive neighborhoods of Calabasas and Malibu California. Earlier this year though it was revealed that Liam found a buyer for the mega mansion and it was none other than famous singer Halsey who snagged the pad for almost 10.2 million dollars. And Halsey who has a song called Ghost may be back in touch with the spirit world after moving in considering Liam once claimed this villa was haunted by a previous owner but more on that in a moment. Liam's former Calabasas compound spanned 4.75 acres of land and was situated at the end of a tree covered private lane while the driveway led over a stone and wooden bridge up to the front of the Spanish style main mansion which spanned 9,659 square feet. Inside there were five bedrooms and eight bathrooms in total and out buildings like a guard house, two guest houses, a fitness pavilion and a recording studio. Another beautiful bonus was the Japanese inspired tea house and meditation space that sat on a hill beside a koi pond. Liam's former grounds also had waterfalls, picturesque gardens and plenty of rolling lawns. The mansion was built back in 1991 and listing photos show stunning archways and Spanish tiling on the house. The grand interiors boasted walnut flooring, soaring beam ceilings and a full audio system throughout the mansion. Liam once created guests in this barrow vaulted entryway that was flanked with columns leading into the great room. This may just be my favorite spot in the mansion as the room had a double height wood ceiling, an arched window flooding the space with light and a limestone fireplace. We can also see the wooden staircase leading to the upper level of the residence and a pair of doors to the patio. While I love the great room it's hard to compete with the amazing library Liam had here. The double height library featured ornate details and looked like something straight out of Hogwarts. It was decked out in wood with a second floor gallery, fireplace and a sitting area. The kitchen was big enough to host an entire boy band and then some with double sized island and bar style seating. Aside from the high-end appliances there was also a unique aquarium built into the custom cabinets here. Other main floor spaces included a formal dining room with fireplace, a breakfast nook and elsewhere, a state-of-the-art home theater with widescreen projector. Liam had quite the master suite upstairs featuring more wood beam ceilings, a sitting area, walkout balcony and epic ensuite bath. With double vanities, a soaking tub and separate toweled shower, bathroom had an impressive design as well. A basement level in his former mansion was a perfect space to kick back with family and friends and had a large games room with billiards table, arcade games and more. While nearby there was a wine cellar. As I mentioned, Liam's home gym was located in its own outbuilding so you would imagine it was fully stocked. Aside from this there were the two guest houses on the property along with ample outdoor space, a fire pit with plush seating and an outdoor kitchen. The extensively landscaped grounds had a rock lined creek, waterfalls and mature trees as well as a private corner with a hammock to take in the surroundings. Of course, the terraced area also had a mosaic towel swimming pool and spa which was pretty resort-like. Aside from that pool, I also loved the meditation building. It was so zen and looked like a perfect spot to do some yoga too. While Liam's mansion was gorgeous, he once claimed it was haunted by Alan Perwin, the late aerial film operator who actually built the property. The singer once shared he had seen lights going on and off in the middle of the night and a few other creepy things like taps turning on and off. The haunted rumors started after Liam and his ex-girlfriend Cheryl Cole bought the house and neighbor brought it up saying, you've got a ghost in your house. He's called Alan. I guess we'll have to see if Halsey has any spooky experiences at the property. Of course, Liam also owns a longtime property in his homeland of England which he bought in 2015. The approximately $7 million country estate is located near the small town of Woking in Surrey which is about 35 miles from central London. While we don't have many interior photos to go by, we do know that Liam carried out a major overhaul of the property back in 2018. The three-story mansion was transformed into the ultimate bachelor pad after Liam's split with his baby mama Cheryl. They were together, they asked for approval on a number of renovations, but those plans dramatically changed when he became single. The new plans which were revealed in 2018 and have since been carried out included a two-story extension on the side of the mansion. On the ground floor of Liam's residence, he added a lavish indoor pool and sauna while in the basement, there's a fitness suite and games room. Since 2017, he also had approved plans to convert one garage space into a massive billiards room. Talk about mancafe. Another garage was converted so that it had an ensuite bedroom on the first floor perfect for friends or family staying over. To complete his dream home, he turned the tennis courts into a football pitch and placed an astronaut on the driveway to greet the guests. Either way, from what we can see, Liam's main mansion in Surrey is decidedly luxe and has all the amenities you could want. Not to mention, he purchased another stunning residence for his dad, mom and older sisters Nicola and Ruth by his childhood home. At the end of 2020, it was also reported that Liam and his fiance Maya Henry were renting out a mansion in Buckinghamshire. He decided to stay closer to where his three-year-old son Bear lives with his mom, Liam's ex Cheryl. Liam and Maya were resided in a rented $17 million mansion with seven bedrooms that looked more like a grand hotel from the curved staircase and towering hallways. Other features in the home included a billiards room, swimming pool and home theater. The couple shared a number of photos from Christmas time at the Buckinghamshire mansion where they spent evenings in together and with friends.  There was also a massive Christmas tree set up in the hall and the walls were lined with gold-framed photos. Alright, so I think I'll wrap up our Liam Payne house tour here. After checking out his former Calabasas mansion that was said to be haunted and his mansion back home in the UK, could you pick a favorite? I would definitely have to see more of the UK mansion for it to be a fair choice, but they both looked beautiful. However, for now, I'm going to pick the haunted one in Calabasas because not only does it come with a ghost, there's beautiful grounds and super cool features like a meditation building and a separate gym. I love it. Be sure to let me know your thoughts on Liam's homes in the comments below. Thanks for watching. Don't forget to follow me on Instagram and I will see you all next time. Bye.