Episode 035 – Darcy Sullivan

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Richard Matthews  

Hello, welcome back to the HERO Show. My name is Richard Matthews. 

 

And I am here on the line with Darcy Sullivan. 

 

Darcy, are you there? 

 

Darcy Sullivan  

Yes, I’m here. 

 

Richard Matthews  

Awesome. So glad to have you here. Darcy. Let me do

 

A quick introduction for people so they know who you are. 

 

You’re the founder of Propel Marketing & Design, 

 

Which is a full service marketing agency located in South of Florida, 

 

Where all the nice weather is. You work with all sizes of companies. 

 

And you said, before we got on the thing, that you focus 

 

A lot on social media, I’m sorry not social media 

 

Search engine optimization and getting people found online. 

 

So let’s talk a little bit about what it is you’re known for now, 

 

Why do people hire you hire Propel marketing? 

 

What is it that people know you for? What are you known for today?

 

Darcy Sullivan  

So I think one of the biggest things is empowering our clients 

 

To handle their own marketing, because as you know, 

 

Entrepreneurs are wearing so many different hats these days. 

 

And so I come across lots of new small businesses and entrepreneurs 

 

That are putting on the role of handling their own SEO, 

 

Search Engine Optimization and marketing. 

 

And they need a little direction, because the truth is

 

They know their business, they know their customers

 

Better than any marketer, or anybody out there. 

 

They just need to know how to put the pieces together 

 

To get the message out there the right way.

 

Richard Matthews  

It seems like most of the things that people need to be doing, 

 

They’re very complex, right? There’s lots of stuff going on. 

 

And I call it cloak and dagger marketing, right? 

 

Because it’s like, unless you know what’s going on. 

 

You don’t always know all the little facets and 

 

What you need to put together. So you have to come along 

 

And help them see behind the cloak.

 

Darcy Sullivan  

Yeah, a little bit of that. And then once they see it or hear it,

 

They’re like, “Oh, yeah, why didn’t I think of that?”

 

Richard Matthews  

So once you know, it’s not that complicated. 

 

But before you know that, it can be very, very difficult. 

 

So I assume you have a lot of customers that are very happy 

 

That you’ve helped them get that going. So what I want to talk about 

 

Though, is I want to talk about your origin story.

 

Which is, I say every hero has an origin story. It’s where you started 

 

To realize that you were different. Maybe you had superpowers, 

 

Maybe you can use them to help other people. So where did you start 

 

To develop or discover the value you bring to this world? 

 

Like your entrepreneurial journey? How did how did it start for you?

 

Darcy Sullivan  

Well, for me, it started in corporate America, as I think a lot of people 

 

Who are entrepreneurs, their journey starts. 

 

And I started to realize that I felt like I could have more of an impact 

 

If I went on my own. And I was able to help more people. 

 

And really, like I said earlier, help them, empower them to hone in 

 

On their own abilities for marketing, because again, 

 

They know their products and services better than anybody else.

 

Richard Matthews  

How long were you in corporate America for?

 

Darcy Sullivan  

A little over a decade.

 

Richard Matthews  

And was there like some sort of like, kickstart for you that you were like,

 

You know what, I think I’m done, and you want to make the transition?

 

Darcy Sullivan  

You know, I ended up in one of those situations, I had left one job 

 

For another job that was supposed to be better, and I got there, 

 

And it just wasn’t the right fit. So I’m like, it’s now or never. 

 

I’ve been in corporate America for a year, I’ve learned so much. 

 

And I was so grateful for that experience. But I just felt and 

 

Just knew that it was time. And it was funny. It was the word that 

 

Just kept coming to me was propel, which is the name of the company. 

 

And it was just the vision that I had to help other companies propel themselves.

 

Richard Matthews  

A lot of sense. So do you have any advice for anyone who is in 

 

That space where they’re working in corporate America, and they 

 

Want to be an entrepreneur, they want to go out on their own. 

 

You’ve successfully made that transition yourself. 

 

You have any advice for someone who’s thinking about that, 

 

Or maybe wants to make that move?

 

Darcy Sullivan  

Yes, I say relationships are key, right? So I ended up –

 

You know, people that I knew back then still come to me, 

 

Because I was nice to them, we had a good working relationship,

 

They knew that I was a qualified individual. 

 

So you know, there’s nothing more important than 

 

Relationship building, making sure that you leave on good terms, 

 

When you feel like it is time for you to make that exit and 

 

Plan in advance. Because, it’s a very different life as an entrepreneur.

 

Richard Matthews  

Absolutely, I know when I started as an entrepreneur, 

 

And then went into corporate america and left again, 

 

As an entrepreneur. And making sure that the relationship was good. 

 

When I left the company, I actually ended up 

 

Being a contractor for them later. And they paid me 

 

For a number of years working with them. So keeping your relationships 

 

Good was an important part of that transition. 

 

So what I’m talking about is, and actually before I get to that,

 

And another question, how big is your team for Propel Marketing now? 

 

Is it just you? Or do you have like a –

 

Darcy Sullivan  

I gotta a team of five. I’m the only full time salary employee, 

 

But the others help out as needed. And for contract or bigger plans, or, 

 

Bigger projects, we bring people in specifically. So I think that really is 

 

One of the ways to scale and work your magic is 

 

To just take on the team members that you need when you need them, 

 

And be able to also have those other great relationships 

 

With people that are adjacent to you, and what they all are, 

 

So that when you need to pair up and team up for projects, you can.

 

Richard Matthews  

That’s absolutely the way I run my business, as well. 

 

I think we’re at four people right now, one full time, 

 

Two part time and myself. And, it’s cool place to be and I’ve got

 

Several relationships with other entrepreneurs that 

 

When something comes up, you have someone, like you said, 

 

Pair off with or recommend to someone else for 

 

For things that are outside your wheelhouse, or 

 

But still need to get done for the client. And I noticed, 

 

I’m curious, what are your thoughts on this. How important

 

Being a connector is for your clients? To connect them to the right things.

 

Darcy Sullivan  

Well, to connect them to the right plan in the right process, absolutely. 

 

It’s key. But you know, I think, before we mentioned, you talked, 

 

You asked briefly, like what is so important when

 

You are starting off on your own. And it does go to 

 

If you can partner with people that are adjacent to what you offer,

 

All the sudden, you can radically bring on clients rather quickly, 

 

Because you’ve got their name associated with yours.

 

Richard Matthews  

I call that a transfer of power. When you can have good relationships

 

To the people who have have good relationships with your clients, 

 

They can they can use that transfer of power to bring you up 

 

And bring you into a game. And I’ve noticed like that the best clients 

 

I have come from relationships like that where either an existing client

 

Referral or another, service provider, like, 

 

“Hey, this guy knows his stuff in this area, if you want to do hire him.”

 

And then those are like the easiest sales to close too

 

Darcy Sullivan  

They’re the easiest sales, they don’t question anything. They trust you. 

 

And they’re a lot less expensive than going out there 

 

And advertising and you know, that they’ve already been weeded out 

 

Because whoever’s directing them to your direction 

 

Isn’t gonna send you somebody that they despise working with. 

 

So yeah, usually some of the very best people to work with. Absolutely.

 

Richard Matthews  

Absolutely. That’s a super tip for anyone who’s listening. 

 

So I want to talk about is your superpowers, right? 

 

It’s what do you do or build or offer this world and help 

 

Solve problems for people? The thing that you use to sort of slay 

 

This world’s villain and you can nail down like 

 

What is Darcy Solomon’s superpower, either in helping your clients 

 

Or in running your business? What do you say that is?

 

Darcy Sullivan  

I would really say it’s, again, just empowering them to know, 

 

Okay, here are the build it like, they’ve already got the building blocks, 

 

They just need to put the pieces together. So it’s, they already know their, 

 

Who their target audience is, they just need a more clearly defined 

 

And they already know keywords that people are searching for. 

 

But sometimes they miss step by let’s just say the chiropractor, 

 

And they are only focusing on Dr. S words, and they’re missing the whole, 

 

Like, back pain and like the problem and the solution. 

 

So just putting everything together and being like, 

 

Here’s the guidance, you can do it. Because let’s face it, 

 

Technology has evolved so much that it doesn’t take a genius 

 

These days to build a website because you’re not coding from scratch. 

 

It doesn’t take a genius to set up a Facebook page. 

 

It doesn’t take a genius to do a lot of these things. 

 

You just need a little bit of direction.

 

Richard Matthews  

So the picture that popped into my head as you were talking about 

 

That I have a bunch of young children. So this will hopefully- 

 

It relates well, is the Legos, you have all the pieces to build a thing. 

 

And my son has this drawer full of Legos and you come along 

 

With a little book that’s like, here’s how to build the ship or whatever. 

 

That’s your empowerment your power is you can say 

 

You’ve got all the pieces let’s show you how to turn it into something cool.

 

Darcy Sullivan  

Or do you remember the Megatron? 

 

Richard Matthews  

Yeah.

 

Darcy Sullivan  

Okay, so when it comes to content building,

 

In which content marketing is huge. I always end up like directing 

 

And telling clients, “Okay, we want to build a Megatron.”

 

We want to take like this good stuff and this good stuff and this good stuff 

 

And just mush it all together and just build it and supercharge it.

 

Richard Matthews  

So Megatron is the is the big character for Power Rangers right

 

Darcy Sullivan  

This wasn’t Power Rangers. What was the ones where 

 

Richard Matthews  

Transformers. I don’t know. I can’t remember.

 

Darcy Sullivan  

I think I keep talking about it. I think it’s the Transformers. 

 

You’re going to get somebody commenting and

 

Richard Matthews  

Someone’s gonna comment let us know which one’s the Megatron from? 

 

Let us know in the comments on the video. 

 

Either Power Rangers or Transformers?

 

Darcy Sullivan  

We’re probably both wrong, that’s going to be probably both wrong.

 

Richard Matthews  

It’s like the – What is it? The cartoon with the the cats that have superpowers. 

 

I remember what that one is. But anyways. 

 

So superpower is empowering people to really understand what to do 

 

With all their pieces, so that they can have a really good solid plan 

 

For their business, which is it’s a really powerful thing. 

 

I actually one of the things I tell my clients all the time is the the three E’s. 

 

You have to be really good at the three E’s if you want to get new clients, 

 

And that’s empower, educate and entertain. 

 

If you can learn how to do those three things, you’ll never hurt for clients. 

 

And I always tell them that of the three. 

 

The most important one is empowerment. 

 

Because if you can help someone accomplish their goals and their dreams, 

 

Or whatever they’re looking to do to solve their problems, 

 

Then you’ll never know ever hurt for clients. So it’s a cool superpower. 

 

The other side of superpower, though, is your fatal flaw.

 

Superman has his kryptonite, Batman is not actually a superhero.

 

He just tries really hard and has lots of money. What would you say

 

Your fatal flaw, something that has held your business back 

 

Or that has kept you from really getting where you want to go. 

 

And more important than what it is 

 

Is what have you done to sort of mitigate it or solve it? 

 

So other people who might have the same kind of flaw 

 

In their business can learn from you.

 

Darcy Sullivan  

So I think one of the struggles when it comes to growth 

 

Is having people help you. So building out the team, 

 

Finding the right assets that are needed, but on top of that, 

 

It’s letting them do it. And I’m not not that I think I’m a micromanager. 

 

But it’s just the letting go of – at that growth stage where 

 

You’re so used to doing everything on your own. 

 

You know you need help handing it off, and like knowing that 

 

Somebody isn’t going to do something the exact way 

 

That you’re going to do it and say, “It’s okay.” 

 

Giving that space like it’s okay. The first time somebody interacts

 

With your clients, on your behalf. And it isn’t you, it’s okay. 

 

There’s just – That to me, I still struggle with it a little bit. 

 

And I’m sure – Can you relate to that? Did you go through that as well?

 

Richard Matthews  

Absolutely. So I actually, I just started hiring my team in December

 

Of last year. So it was just me for nine years. And the biggest thing 

 

That held me back from hiring people was I –

 

I’m very good at what I do. And I’m very quick at it. 

 

And I was always asking myself that question of, should I hire this out? 

 

Or should I do it myself? And I always come down to doing it myself.  

 

Because I can do it better, cheaper, faster, myself. 

 

And then, when I realized that was my biggest bottleneck, 

 

I guess that I was holding myself back because I was holding myself 

 

To a high standard. And I realized that I if I was going to ever grow, 

 

I needed to bring other people in. And the hardest this thing was like, 

 

Okay, I bring someone in and let them do something and then 

 

No, it’s not going to be the same way I would do it 

 

Or in the same timeframe that I would do it. 

 

It’s probably going to take them longer because they don’t have 

 

As much experience as I do. And you let something go. 

 

And I remember the first time. And it was actually for this podcast, 

 

I had my my VA reaching out people and getting people on the podcast, 

 

And I was doing that myself before. And I get a message back

 

From someone who comes out on a guest on the show that 

 

“Hey, you’re your assistant is fantastic.” It was really a pleasure 

 

Working with them, and getting on the show and whatnot. 

 

And I was like, I was like all this time, I’ve been doing it myself 

 

Because I thought someone else would ruin it. And you realize that 

 

Not only do they do a great job, they do probably a better job than I would do. 

 

And I’m seeing that time and time again. Not that I am not good 

 

At what I do is just realizing that the way that I do, 

 

It’s not the only way to do it. And it’s not necessarily 

 

The best way to do it. And as a CEO, when you make 

 

That transition from solopreneur to CEO, you start to realize that 

 

To your point on empowerment, if you can empower your staff 

 

Who do a great job and to make good decisions and to learn 

 

And to become better themselves, then it starts to –

 

Your business really starts to grow. And like since I started doing it 

 

With my team, I think I have three x my business this year.

 

Darcy Sullivan  

That’s amazing.

 

Richard Matthews  

So, exactly the same struggle. totally relate? 

 

So do you have any tips on that specifically 

 

For how to loosen the grips, … a little bit.

 

Darcy Sullivan  

I think there’s kind of a couple different ones;

 

One, if you can find somebody to do the stuff that you’re not good at great, 

 

Let them do that. Two, If you can, like if you can go ahead. 

 

And if you’re going to have somebody do something that you feel 

 

No one can do it the way you can do it, have like a standard operating

 

Procedure in place. So we’re checklist like have everything kind of good to go. 

 

Or give them, work them up to taking over stuff. Don’t just like dive in 

 

And don’t go the cheapest route. And I think sometimes 

 

That can be difficult because people usually want to get paid hourly. 

 

And then you sit there and you’re like, 

 

“Oh, well, but it took you X amount of hours. And you didn’t exactly 

 

Do things right when you’re getting started. 

 

So, decide if it really if it’s better by project or what works best for you.

 

Richard Matthews  

Yeah, so I know one of the things that I did in that arena, 

 

You mentioned the standard operating procedures as I started building, 

 

As a piece for everything, and I actually have my staff building my SOP, 

 

So I’ll record them. And then they’ll translate and put them 

 

Into documents for me, but I do them specifically in a certain way 

 

That I think really helps. So if I have a task that needs to get done,

 

I’ll record an overview video and be like, Hey, this is what we’re doing. 

 

And this is why we’re doing it. And this is the value it brings to the customer. 

 

And this is why it’s important that we do in a certain way.

 

Why we follow this procedure, right? 

 

So they have my thinking on what’s going on. 

 

And then the each step of the process, “Okay, here’s step one, 

 

Here’s what the step is, here’s why this step is important. 

 

Here’s how you do it, 1-2-3-4. Right, and here’s what you should do next.

 

So they have the whole process. And it’s actually instead of 

 

Just giving them the steps of how to do a thing, 

 

Your actually giving them the thinking that surrounds the steps. 

 

And what I’ve noticed when I build my SOPs that way is my- 

 

The people that I work with, start to understand the way 

 

That I think about them. And then they start asking smarter questions 

 

And doing better, better work. And then they get to the point where

 

I don’t even need to manage it anymore. 

 

Because they think about it the way that I do.

 

Darcy Sullivan  

Absolutely. I love that.

 

Richard Matthews  

So super cool. I love, love, love the idea of having really good SOPs 

 

In place for combating and letting go of things. 

 

Also want to talk about next is your common enemy. 

 

And this is about your clients. So when you bring a client in, if you could

 

Wave your magic wand and remove one thing from their mindset 

 

Or from their thinking or for something they’re doing 

 

That you know is holding them back. 

 

And that you constantly have to battle with, 

 

If you could just get rid of it so that 

 

You could get them results faster. What would that thing be?

 

Darcy Sullivan  

So I think that, when you think of marketing, and you think of SEO, 

 

I think people sometimes have the problem of 

 

They tried to get things done cheap before. 

 

And sometimes that can put them on the bad list with Google or 

 

That can really like take them from a starting level appears 

 

All the way back here because we have to go in and fix things that 

 

Maybe they decided, “Hey, I’m going to go the cheap route 

 

To get a website built.” And so the foundation has just cracks in it. 

 

So I say that, that’s kind of the biggest issue is if they aren’t set on 

 

Good foundation, because they’ve either gone the wrong route before, 

 

Or they have just too many voices coming at them. 

 

They’re taking in too much information. It’s an information overload. 

 

And they’re like, but someone says to do this, and I heard this, 

 

And I heard that and we should do this. 

 

And we should do that and just ‘shiny object syndrome.’

 

Richard Matthews  

So it’s the the foundation is an important one. 

 

And then the other thing is just not having focus 

 

On the things that are actually important.

 

Darcy Sullivan  

Yes, absolutely.

 

Richard Matthews  

Yeah, so I know the foundation one is hard. And I’ve tried 

 

To figure out how you can help people with that. 

 

But you realize, when you get to a certain point in business, 

 

You’re not like, it’s hard to work with people who are beginners. 

 

Because, that’s when you would want to get them 

 

To get a really good foundation setup. But at the same time, 

 

In order to do really good work for someone, 

 

Generally, you need someone who’s past the beginning,

 

Who’s actually got, we’ve got some momentum, 

 

So you help move the ship. And but you know, 

 

The ship has some cracks in the in the boards, 

 

It’s taken on water, you have to fix things before you can go forward.

 

Darcy Sullivan  

Absolutely. And I did think of just one more, 

 

One of one of the critical errors that I see are issues that 

 

That I always have to work with, is competition. 

 

So people are always staring at their competition, 

 

They’re looking at what their competition is doing online, 

 

On social media, on their websites. And I can’t tell you 

 

How many people come in. And they’re like, “Our competition doing this,

 

We want to do this.” And I always say this, 

 

“I’ve never seen somebody be the best in their industry 

 

By copying what their competition is doing.”

 

Because what happens is, is they they don’t see 

 

Those like foundational elements, they’ll be like, we want our website 

 

Just like this, you can’t talk us out of it. 

 

This is what our competition is doing. 

 

They get their website set up that way. 

 

And their competition already knows that 

 

Siloed the site wasn’t even working for them. 

 

So they’re already on to like revisions to a new one,

 

Or they see that their competition post something on social media 

 

Or runs a particular ad and it it works for their competition’s audience 

 

But not for their audience. So it’s really hard because 

 

We all look at our competition. So helping people get over that 

 

And realize there’s more to it than what keeps the eye is a challenge.

 

Richard Matthews  

I’ve I don’t know how relevant this is. But I know one of the things 

 

We work with these clients who have physical products that 

 

They sell on like Amazon and other stores likeJanaf, Walmart, whatnot. 

 

And when they’re going to release new products. 

 

It’s typical to go and check out competition. What competition is doing. 

 

And there’s nothing wrong with understanding what 

 

The competition is doing. But to your point, knowing what 

 

The competition is doing is not what makes you a great company.

 

Being able to do and copying your competition doesn’t make you 

 

A great company. So one of the things that we’ll do 

 

When doing product research is we’ll look at 

 

Another company’s products and go through and 

 

Filter all the reviews to the negative, one star reviews and be like, 

 

“Where is the competition failing?”

 

Because that’s an opportunity for us to come in and 

 

Provide a unique solution, 

 

Because the good companies are made – a unique solution.

 

Darcy Sullivan  

Absolutely.

 

Richard Matthews  

How can you not copy what your competition is doing? 

 

But find out places where the competition is? 

 

Darcy Sullivan  

Where the holes are 

 

Richard Matthews  

Where the holes are? And how can you fill those in the marketplace? 

 

So let’s talk about the other side of that, which is your driving force. 

 

So just like Spider Man figths to save New York or

 

Batman fights to save Gotham or Google fights to categorize 

 

All the world’s information for us. You guys probably have a mission, 

 

A driving force, what is it? What is it that you guys fight for?

 

Darcy Sullivan  

I mean, there’s nothing better than when you get that email or 

 

That phone call from a client that says, “Thank you, my business 

 

Would not be thriving today, if I had not listened to you.” 

 

I mean, I’m sure you hear that all the time, as well. 

 

“Oh, we’re getting X number of clients in the door right now. 

 

But like when I get those messages of, 

 

And it’s all because you helped us with the strategy 

 

Of getting found online.” You just, you help somebody 

 

Bring their own dreams to life. It’s finished, I love it.

 

Richard Matthews  

That is one of my favorite things. And you get a phone call. 

 

I remember just a couple of years now, years ago now 

 

One of my clients, they sent me a picture of one of the checks 

 

They got for a high ticket offer that we just started running to. 

 

And I remember I was like that the check all by itself 

 

Is above the poverty line in the US. And like when you get 

 

One of your clients be like, “Hey, look at this, I just did this, 

 

Because everything we’ve been doing together, it’s the best. 

 

And then they went on that year, and they did $786,000 in revenue. 

 

From what we were doing, which is insane. 

 

And you love seeing success stories like that. And it’s it’s crazy. Cool. 

 

I love, love that feeling. I have another question that’s related, though, 

 

I have also had the experience. And I’m curious 

 

If you’ve ever run into this, where you help someone drive a lot of revenue, 

 

Or drive a lot of business into their shop. And they turn around 

 

And they’re like, “I don’t like it. It’s not the right kind of revenue,”

 

Or it’s not what I want. I remember I had a client we ran some ads for. 

 

And I think it was we spent like 24, $500 in ads. 

 

And then they brought in like 100 new patients, 

 

And something like 9,000% return on investment for it. 

 

But they were like, “We don’t like the offer. We don’t like it.” 

 

“We’re not going to continue.” And I was like, I don’t understand. 

 

They were like, well, the ROI was good. But it was, 

 

I don’t remember exactly what was going on. 

 

But it was like they didn’t, 

 

They didn’t like that there was work involved in running.

 

Darcy Sullivan  

You’re never going to please everybody. I mean, you just, you never will. 

 

And I think that I haven’t had that experience. 

 

I’ve had experiences where you’re like, how can somebody like, 

 

I remember the first time I got like a bad review. And I’m like, 

 

“Wait, I didn’t do business with this person. 

 

And they’re only giving me a bad review. Because they didn’t –

 

They weren’t happy that I wasn’t as cheap as somebody else 

 

That they used before. So, you do have those instances. 

 

Now, when it comes to something like what you’re talking about 

 

When it’s the ad, then you can go in and reevaluate and say 

 

Okay, is there some reason? Are we missing the target demographic? 

 

Do we need to switch an image? Is it just because it’s on the client side? 

 

Is this just not the right client for us? Which happens, right? 

 

Like, we’ve all (overlapping voices) And that’s one problem when 

 

You are just getting started is it’s hard to say no. 

 

You’re like, Oh, well, there’s money coming in. But then, once you realize 

 

It’s just not a good fit. You gotta cut those cords.

 

Richard Matthews  

So they were it was it was a company that was used to referral business. 

 

Referral business is very easy to close. And when we start running ads 

 

To cold traffic, they had a lot of people through the door, 

 

But then they realized that you actually have to close business 

 

When it comes in cold. And they were able to close it. 

 

But it’s more effort to close someone when they’re cold. 

 

And they were like, “We don’t care that it was a 9,000% ROI. 

 

It was just hard. And we didn’t like it.” And I was like, but that’s how business works. 

 

Anyway, I’ve had both ends of that spectrum, where you do 

 

A really good job for someone and they love it, you do a really good job 

 

For someone and they’re, “We don’t like it.”

 

And I’m like, I don’t, I don’t understand.

 

Darcy Sullivan  

And I think as an entrepreneur, especially when you’re first start –

 

First starting out like you take it so personally. 

 

And you just simply, can not take it personally.

 

Richard Matthews  

And especially when you’re starting out too. If you’re like, luckily for me, 

 

I was at the point where it didn’t matter to me if 

 

I didn’t want to continue. I had a book of business at that point. 

 

But if it was like my first client, and you really delivered well for them, 

 

And then they just didn’t like it. I could see how that’d be devastating. 

 

You’d be like, I don’t know what to do from here. 

 

You knocked it out of the park and they’re not they’re not interested.

 

Darcy Sullivan  

And when we go and we bring on new retainer clients, 

 

We make sure, it’s like the first month or two is just the testing period 

 

To make sure that both parties, I think that it’s the right fit, 

 

Because there’s nothing worse than getting stuck in a contract 

 

And being, I can’t handle this client, 

 

They are not what I thought they were going to be.

 

Richard Matthews  

That’s one of the reasons why actually why I do all of my contracts 

 

Are month-to-month. We might do a ramp up period. 

 

But we’ll do month-to-month after ramp up period. 

 

And I always tell my clients that I was like, 

 

Because there’s a chance to – you wake up one day and decide 

 

That you just can’t stand the color of my eyes. 

 

And, I don’t want you to feel like you’re locked 

 

Into this contract with me either. It’s a win-win for us both all the time, 

 

Or it’s not something we want to continue. But like that’s a, 

 

It’s a difficult place to start in. You have to have like your revenue solid 

 

So you can actually deliver and not worry about 

 

How you’re feeding your kids this month. 

 

So anyways, let’s move on and talk a little bit about your heroes tool belt. 

 

So maybe you have a big magical hammer like Thor or bulletproof vest 

 

Like your neighborhood police officer. Or maybe just really 

 

Love the way Evernote helps you organize your thoughts or 

 

How you build killer slides on Keynote. Do you have any particular tools 

 

You guys use on a regular basis that really, really 

 

Help you do what you do? Whether that’s a stuff 

 

To work with your clients to deliver for your clients or stuff

 

To bring clients in the door? What are some of your favorite tools?

 

Darcy Sullivan  

Well, I’ve got couple I’m going to throw out there. 

 

So number one, I would say, we realized that- 

 

I realized time and time again, the process was the same, 

 

The process that gets results is the same. 

 

So we put together a new program called, Ready Set Rank

 

That helps clients that maybe can’t afford for us to do it for them, 

 

For them to follow the correct steps. 

 

So I would say that definitely one of the tools. 

 

I would say another tool that we use for bringing on clients, 

 

And you already kind of mentioned this is education. 

 

There’s nothing better than for us at least then putting together webinars 

 

Or having an additional lead magnet on a killer blog post, 

 

To get people through the doors and to change them 

 

From that cold traffic to the warm and kind of start to nurture them in. 

 

When it comes to tools we use every day. 

 

I don’t know if this has been mentioned on there before but 

 

Or on your show before or if you use it. Do you use Grammarly?

 

Richard Matthews  

I don’t, but I’ve heard of it.

 

Darcy Sullivan  

It is the best tool if I were going to recommend like one tool 

 

To somebody that’s going to make them look all of a sudden, 

 

This much more educated. It is fantastic. So it’s above and beyond

 

The spell check. It helps you with your grammar. 

 

But it also overlays, so you can use it on your emails, 

 

You can use it on anything you’re writing. So, those are kind of 

 

Three very different tools, right? It’s the tool that we give our clients. 

 

It’s that tool that brings us clients in and then just the number one tool 

 

Like, if I were going to say this you need, it’s that one.

 

Richard Matthews  

Grammarly?

 

Darcy Sullivan  

Yes, you gotta try it out 

 

Richard Matthews  

It’s cool. I’ve seen Grammarly. I use it for a little while. 

 

But I tend to disagree with a lot of the suggestions it makes. 

 

But I’m a high level writer myself. So but I could see 

 

Using that for for people. And it makes it makes suggestions 

 

Where I’m like a complex sentence structure or whatever. 

 

And I’m like, “Nope, I like it, leave it alone.”

 

Darcy Sullivan  

There are times when I don’t always agree with it. 

 

But I find, if you’re writing blog content, and if you have like … version, 

 

Then it’ll say like how much, because I feel like a lot of people, 

 

A lot of clients when they’re just starting to blog, 

 

They look to other people and maybe overtake some of their information. 

 

So it’ll tell you how much looks like it’s already out there online. 

 

Richard Matthews  

Give you a copy score.

 

Darcy Sullivan  

We don’t want to say anybody’s plagiarizing. But it helps –

 

It does something very similar to that. And it helps people that 

 

As they’re just getting started to be like, “Oh, whoops,” 

 

Or people that just don’t feel like they’re a strong a writer. 

 

It really helps them in this very content heavy world.

 

Richard Matthews  

I like it, I should probably use it more. I’ve seen it, I’ve got it installed. 

 

But I’ve just I ignore it. So I should probably use it more than more than I do. 

 

The one I wanted to point out, though, that I think is really, really cool. 

 

I don’t think a lot of people use this is having a tool for your clients 

 

Who aren’t ready for your services yet.

 

You mentioned having the educational piece. And just thinking about 

 

The context for that is you have someone who’s, I’m really interested 

 

In working with you. And we’re using it, 

 

“You’re actually not quite ready to work with us yet. 

 

But here’s, a set of information that you can take and go.”

 

Like rooming a client, right to be a good client.

 

“Here’s the stuff, if you do all these things, and you’ll be in a place 

 

Where it’ll be a really great client for us. And that’s a great way 

 

To have hustling your business for that.

 

Darcy Sullivan  

And I totally agree. I see people come in after they’ve been 

 

On our email list, or they’ve attended a couple webinars and they’re like, 

 

“Darcy, okay, I implemented this strategy and this strategy 

 

And these things that you’re telling me. And now I’m ready, 

 

Now I need you to help me get it to the next level.”

 

So again, we’re not like working with that cracked foundation. 

 

We’re working at like a place where they already know, 

 

And trust me, and they’ve already been doing some of the work. 

 

So I don’t have to educate them, I can just go in and say, 

 

“Okay, you’ve already got this level of education. 

 

Now, I’m just going to help you get it to the next, next level. 

 

Richard Matthews  

So you’re actually, you’re getting them to the place 

 

Where you need them to be, right? So that’s that magic wand.

 

You created it to help remove some of those problems, initially. 

 

It’s a really good idea. And I think more people should

 

Do things like that. But it also under – It takes understanding your business

 

Well enough to know where the ideal client is, and then what it would 

 

Take to get someone to that spot. So you can be like, 

 

“Okay, here’s where you’d be ideal for us. You’re not there yet.”

 

And here’s what you can do to get there. If you really want 

 

To work with us, which is kind of exclusive. And –

 

Darcy Sullivan  

It does. Now I do have to say that, we, I’m sure you guys do 

 

And other people do we have different segments. 

 

Like, we have the people that are like, 

 

“We need help. We need guidance.” And then we have the other group, 

 

That’s just like, “Just do it for us.” So, it does help specifically 

 

With one group you find with the other group, 

 

It helps but in a way you wouldn’t think it does. 

 

So it helps from the fact that like I’ve had, I’ll do a webinar, 

 

And there will be somebody that just wants to hire you to do it. 

 

They don’t want to be trained on how to do it. 

 

But they’re going to look at what you’re teaching other people 

 

And go, “That person knows their stuff.” And they just trust you more.

 

Richard Matthews  

You’ve proven that you can help them. By showing them that it’s actually –

 

My people ask me all the time what my my sales strategy is. 

 

And I tell my sales tactic is to tell my people who are interested

 

In working with me everything they want to know, I’d like literally 

 

I’ll give you my templates, I’ll tell you my process from beginning to end, 

 

I’ll show you my entire process documents, into like, 

 

If you want my process documents to do all of this. 

 

You can just have them, right, and you can go and go forth 

 

And implement all of them. But after you spend 20 minutes 

 

Going through all the things that they should do and the processes 

 

And everything that’s going on, their mind explodes and they’re like, 

 

There’s no way I’m doing that. Like obviously, you spent years and years 

 

And years perfecting all of this and even if you gave me all of your 

 

Process document I’d still be lost. I call up my sales tactic is 

 

Information overwhelm. Here you go. Here’s all the things 

 

You need to know. And then they’re like, “I don’t want to do that.” 

 

You obviously know that I want to do what I do. 

 

And you can do what you do and and they hire me. 

 

Same kind of thing. Use information and education 

 

To help someone want to come, get over that hump of buying.

 

Speaker  

The HERO Show will be right back

 

Music by purpleplanet.com. 

 

Richard Matthews  

Tell me a little bit about your own personal heroes. 

 

Alright, so Frodo had Gandalf. Luke had Obi Wan, 

 

Robert Kiyosaki had his Rich Dad, who were some of your heroes. 

 

Were they real life mentors? Were they speakers or authors? 

 

Peers who were just few years ahead of you, 

 

And how important were they to what you’ve accomplished so far?

 

Darcy Sullivan  

You know, I … talked about turning points and how I got where I was,

 

But I have to tell the story about college. 

 

So I went to college at Purdue University, Boiler Up! 

 

And they did the most, what I thought was the most fantastic thing

 

And our program, your freshman year, you had this teacher, 

 

And he was like, as tough as nails teacher. And we didn’t even have

 

A book for the class, we had to write our own book at the time, 

 

Like that was how you passed the class. And then at the senior level, 

 

You had him again, but it was like almost like he was looking like,

 

Eye-to-eye to you after you did your senior project 

 

And like to shake your hand and look at you like an equal, 

 

That it just kind of it was the most interesting thing 

 

Like it just between that and the way that they taught us.

 

It was to teach ourselves. And I think that’s what kind of put me 

 

On that educational teaching journey through entrepreneurship 

 

Was just the fact that, when you have somebody like that at the beginning, 

 

Who’s like, kind of stern and then you realize that 

 

You’ve made it to that level, you’re looking at them eye-to-eye.

 

That’s it. I know, that’s a little different. But –

 

Richard Matthews  

It’s an interesting take. And one of the things that I really started 

 

To understand after doing a lot of these interviews with entrepreneurs 

 

Is how important the skill of learning, how to learn is 

 

and how common it is in entrepreneurs. 

 

Entrepreneurs have someone somewhere that taught them 

 

The skill of learning how to learn, which is not something 

 

That’s typically taught in schools. You’re taught information.

 

You’re taught specific things, but you’re not taught the skill of learning 

 

At a meta level, and it sounds like that’s one of the things that you were taught.

 

Darcy Sullivan  

Not only that, but not to put a plug in for Purdue, 

 

But they also taught us. They also made sure that we knew 

 

That once we did, whatever we did learn and that 

 

Whatever we were passing on that we should use it for the good. 

 

They were like if you’re going to be a graphic designer, 

 

And designed to cure cancer, do whatever it is – 

 

Take your knowledge that you gained and make sure that 

 

When you go out into the world that you’re using it for good sources.

 

Richard Matthews  

I like it. I have I have more respect for Purdue now.

 

Even though I didn’t have much of an opinion on that 

 

Darcy Sullivan  

All right. That’s good. 

 

Richard Matthews  

One way or the other beforehand. 

 

So that’s really cool. I love that. So last thing we do on the show, 

 

Is I talked about your guiding principles. And it’s basically the sort of 

 

Top one or two things, principles or actions that you use regularly, 

 

Like on a daily basis that you think contribute to your success 

 

And your influence. Ones that maybe you wish you had, 

 

Habits you wish you had when you started out on your hero’s journey.

 

Darcy Sullivan  

So, I mean, I think it’s to educate and empower. 

 

Because when I first started the company, sometimes it was easier 

 

Just to do like, if a client said, “Hey, can you make this small change,”

 

Versus being going back to them and being like, 

 

“Hey, I can do that. You can do it too.” It’s become one of those things 

 

Where I think you just realized that it’s not always about doing 

 

It’s about, again, going back to the empowering and 

 

pushing somebody in the right direction.

 

Richard Matthews  

One of the other things that, like I do all the time, 

 

Is when client asks me to do something. A lot of times 

 

I will ask them, if they, will open a discussion on it. 

 

“Okay, but why is it that you want to get get this done? 

 

And what do you think it’s going to do? Here’s my experience. 

 

And actually educate them a little bit on maybe 

 

It’s logo colors replacement, or why we have 

 

Copywriting done a certain way. And I think it it creates 

 

A lot of trust with your clients, when you don’t always

 

Jjust do the stuff, you actually talk about it and educate them.

 

Darcy Sullivan  

I agree. And I think the same comes when it comes to scope of work.

 

I’ve noticed, some people will come and they’ll say, 

 

“I just want an estimate on on on this,” and you’re like, 

 

“Well, I can give you an estimate just on this, 

 

But this over here is really what’s holding you back,”

 

Just walking them through and explaining and educating them on, 

 

Being open to provide them the best options available to them, 

 

For them to get the maximum results.

 

Richard Matthews  

And just like really educating them or I can do that for you.

 

But I don’t think that’ll work or in my experience, it’s not relevant.

 

Here are some of the things that are relevant, and maybe 

 

We would like to start over here, and I can really educate 

 

Someone through with the things that are important for them. 

 

It helps that helps a lot. So education, empowerment.

 

Totally cool. So with that, I want to do one last thing, 

 

Which is the Heroes challenge. Heroes challenge we do on every show. 

 

It’s very simple. And it’s just this do you have someone that 

 

You have in your life in your network that you can introduce to the show 

 

That you think has a cool entrepreneurial story? 

 

Who are they? First names are fine, we can contact 

 

Connect for details later, and why do you think 

 

They should come on and share their story?

 

Darcy Sullivan  

Oh, man, I’ve got like a number of people 

 

Running through my head right now. I’m gonna have to just one.

 

Oh, to narrow it down. To tell you now? Can I just email you? 

 

Richard Matthews  

Just a name and why do you think they should come on the show.

 

Why you think their story is cool? Because we actually make

 

A little video form and send it over?

 

Darcy Sullivan  

Oh, you do? That is awesome. My head’s running wild now.

 

I have a very cool client, who her name is Lynn,

 

And she has a company that makes popcorn. 

 

She has made a company out of popcorn that is just phenomenal. 

 

Richard Matthews  

That’s interesting. 

 

Darcy Sullivan  

And I’ll get you her details later. But I heard her story’s interesting. 

 

She’s just interesting. She’s a new client that I’ve taken on. 

 

But the fact that she’s grown so much by simple popcorn, 

 

You’d like her story. You’d like to hear from her.

 

Richard Matthews  

That’s really awesome. I always love entrepreneurs like that, 

 

Like the ones that are, you do this thing that you wouldn’t believe. 

 

I remember meeting someone who’s like they do the underwater tile 

 

And fountains. And like all the hotels around the country hire them, 

 

Because they’re the people, the thing. Someone out there 

 

Is doing underwater tiles. Anyways, there’s always 

 

Someone doing cool stuff. So we’ll reach out later and get connected 

 

For details on that .We’ll invite her onto the show. For you, 

 

Thank you so much for coming on the show. 

 

It’s been a pleasure speaking with you today. 

 

Where can people find you? 

 

If they are interested in getting SEO work done or 

 

Getting help with their marketing? Where can they reach out and 

 

Then more importantly, who were the ideal clients 

 

To reach out if they’re looking to get help?

 

Darcy Sullivan  

So you can reach out you can find us at https://propelyourcompany.com/

 

And there’s tons of resources on there from blog post, 

 

We’re constantly doing trainings. And we do have our program 

 

That’s open a couple times a year called Ready Set rank, 

 

Which walks people through how to run their own online presence. 

 

So you can check out any of those and I hope to connect with you all soon.

 

Richard Matthews  

So who are the ideal kind of clients to reach out?

 

Is it like local service businesses, or online e commerce businesses 

 

What are the kind of people that you work with most often.

 

Darcy Sullivan  

So most often, we work, we don’t necessarily work locally, 

 

Because our reach has been – has really grown. 

 

It’s either if you’re just getting started, or 

 

You need a fresh look on how to improve your 

 

Online marketing reach through search engine optimization, 

 

Which is your organic ranking on Google and 

 

Those other search engines. But the size of the company, 

 

We deal with very small to very big.

 

So there isn’t anything very specific when it comes to that.

 

Richard Matthews  

So when you say you don’t you don’t work local.

 

Do you mean you don’t work with clients who serve a local base or 

 

You don’t particularly work just locally yourself? 

 

Darcy Sullivan  

We particularly work just local we have clients

 

 Throughout the US and a couple overseas. But we do have 

 

A number of clients in South Florida, 

 

But we deal with a lot lot of clients throughout the US.

 

Richard Matthews  

So I was just thinking that clients who serve a local business themselves 

 

ight still want to reach out because you can help them

 

Rank and step up if their market is just local.

 

Darcy Sullivan  

Absolutely. We work with a lot of clients on local SEO 

 

Which is them focusing on ranking online for their city…

 

Absolutely. 

 

Richard Matthews  

And so just to recap, itshttps://propelyourcompany.com/

 

Is where they can reach out. And you have a year program 

 

That comes out a couple times a year Ready Set Rank, 

 

Which they can check out there. 

 

And you guys said you do regular webinars, 

 

I can check out on your website

 

If they’re interested in learning some of these tactics from you?

 

Darcy Sullivan  

Absolutely. And there’s tons of blog posts

 

And other content on there as well.

 

Richard Matthews  

Awesome. So if you’re looking to get good ranking, definitely check out

 

Darcy and https://propelyourcompany.com/

 

It’s been really cool having you on the show. 

 

Do you have any final thoughts or words of wisdom 

 

For our audience before we hop off?

 

Darcy Sullivan  

Just go forth and be awesome. 

 

If you’re thinking of leaving corporate America plan ahead. 

 

And for those that are already out there being entrepreneurs 

 

Just keep on turning to the best advice that you can find 

 

And taking small steps. 

 

Eventually small steps lead to really big things.

 

Richard Matthews  

Awesome. Thank you so much for coming on the show Darcy. 

 

Really appreciate it.

 

Darcy Sullivan  

Thank you.