[00:00:03] Welcome to the Business Chop Podcast, where our guests speak on meeting the challenges of entrepreneurship, as well as offer tips and advice on business, marketing, technology, and more. Whether you are a newbie or seasoned professional, this episode is for you. I am your host, Audrey Wiggins.

[00:00:24] Let's chop it up.

[00:00:28] Hello, Chop Squad. It's great to be with you again. And I'm excited about our guest today. His name is Alex Thoric and he is the founder of a marketing agency and co-founder of Building Income On Demand. He helps people get more leads and clients and create profitable businesses.

[00:00:48] Now, Alex is a digital marketer that had a great experience working with various industries such as spas, gyms, coaches, consultants, real estate, and restaurants. I know some of you out there have those types of businesses. So we're going to hear more and learn more about Alex on the other side of this message.

[00:01:08] Hello, fellow entrepreneurs. It's the Tech Diva. If you're like me, it's been a long year. Are you ready to elevate your business and see real success?

[00:01:16] Meet me and my colleagues for a power pack three days at Elevating the You and Entrepreneur Virtual Business Summit. Jumpstart Your Success 2025, January 23rd through January 25th. Sponsorships available. Get details at bit.ly slash jumpstartyoursuccess2025. Bit.ly slash jumpstartyoursuccess2025. And let's win together.

[00:01:40] We're back with Alex. Alex, welcome to The Business Shop.

[00:01:44] Yeah, thanks a lot for having me, Audrey.

[00:01:45] And before we get into our questions, there's a couple of fun facts that Alex shared with us. And he's actually a big sports fan and he's the holder of a second degree black belt in taekwondo, practicing it for over 15 years. And you even had your own school, Alex?

[00:02:03] Yeah, yeah. Prior to COVID, we ran it for two years. It was part of a university. Yeah.

[00:02:08] Oh, that's awesome. All right. Well, welcome again. And I'm excited to get into some of your other expertise here as a digital marketer.

[00:02:17] Yeah, let's do it.

[00:02:18] All right. Okay. So right off the riff, share your journey leading up to starting your business.

[00:02:25] I started going to college and it was my third semester. I was also part of this network marketing company.

[00:02:31] And I'm sure you know how network marketing companies work. You could either sell the product or the service and also you can build your team.

[00:02:38] And that's what I was trying to do. I wanted to build my own team.

[00:02:43] Got into a couple of people in my team, but then I was kind of tired of running after people.

[00:02:48] Wanted to find a way and how I could bring people to me to see the business opportunity with the company.

[00:02:55] So I started digging online and I found out about these funnels.

[00:02:58] So I was like, what's a funnel?

[00:03:00] So I started, I kind of went into this rabbit hole in a way, because after the fall within the funnel, there's the content side, there's email marketing.

[00:03:12] And there are lots of different things.

[00:03:14] So I started buying courses on different subjects from people that run either run a full on company or people that pretty much teach that and use that in their business.

[00:03:27] And at the same time, when I was going to college, it was our third semester.

[00:03:31] We had marketing 101.

[00:03:32] So I've learned all this things about digital marketing.

[00:03:36] And we had a case study where we were supposed to promote a company to millennials.

[00:03:43] And then I was thinking, sweet.

[00:03:45] So I took all the knowledge that I got from the online courses.

[00:03:49] And when I say online courses, those were the people like Bill Jean, Ryan Dice from Digital Marketers.

[00:03:55] So people that are really well-known in the industry.

[00:03:59] So it wasn't like someone from YouTube.

[00:04:03] Yeah.

[00:04:03] So those were like, yeah, well-known names.

[00:04:05] Legit.

[00:04:06] Yeah.

[00:04:06] Yeah.

[00:04:07] Yeah.

[00:04:07] And I just started like a put together a plan based on what I've learned.

[00:04:12] Because I knew back then, because the company that I worked with, we were selling telecommunication services, which was home phone, internet, cell phone, TV, like all those things.

[00:04:23] And I knew that the competition, let's say, for example, we'll take Verizon or AT&T.

[00:04:31] They would easily pay $10,000 a month for a billboard on the street.

[00:04:36] And in my head back then, I was thinking, if you can put $10,000 into Facebook ads, you're going to blow up your business.

[00:04:42] So that was my idea.

[00:04:43] I started putting it all together, created the case study.

[00:04:47] I got 60% or 65%.

[00:04:49] I was like, what's wrong with my plan?

[00:04:50] So I passed, but it was kind of barely passed.

[00:04:53] I came up to the teacher and asked her, what's wrong with it?

[00:04:57] She said, well, you didn't really mention anything about traditional media, meaning TV ads, billboards, newspapers, radio ads.

[00:05:06] Yeah.

[00:05:06] Yeah.

[00:05:06] And I was like, yeah, but everyone is on.

[00:05:09] Because even when I would go to college, I would take Subway.

[00:05:11] And even though there are ads all over the place, people are still on their phones.

[00:05:16] And that was seven years ago.

[00:05:19] And yeah, so we had a quick chat.

[00:05:22] At that time, I decided to basically stop.

[00:05:25] So I quit college.

[00:05:27] And a friend of mine and I, we decided to start an agency.

[00:05:32] Because I've implemented all those things.

[00:05:34] I started getting people raising their hands.

[00:05:37] They would come up, come into the funnel for the network marketing company.

[00:05:43] And I saw that it's working.

[00:05:45] And we realized that local businesses also need help with online marketing because it's a lot of things.

[00:05:52] And yeah, that's kind of where it started.

[00:05:56] Okay.

[00:05:57] So what was the biggest obstacle you faced when you did start out?

[00:06:00] And how did you overcome it?

[00:06:02] The biggest obstacle was, I would say, sales and knowing who we want to work with, too.

[00:06:09] Because you know how it is.

[00:06:11] If you talk to everyone, you talk to no one.

[00:06:13] Yeah.

[00:06:14] I've been there for a lot of years.

[00:06:16] Yeah.

[00:06:17] I think we all have.

[00:06:20] Yeah.

[00:06:21] So knowing who we really want to work with, what type of services.

[00:06:24] Because we've tried everything.

[00:06:26] We were doing websites.

[00:06:27] We were doing social media content creation, social media management.

[00:06:31] Then we went into building funnels and ads.

[00:06:35] So that's what we kind of started to like more.

[00:06:38] So the client acquisition part is lead generation and converting people into becoming clients.

[00:06:43] That's the part that we like the most.

[00:06:45] And that's why my business partner and I decided to start a marketing consultancy, where now we take business owners by the hand.

[00:06:52] And we take all the systems that we've built for our clients in the past.

[00:06:56] And we help them implement all of those.

[00:06:58] We teach them how they can run them so they can do it on their own.

[00:07:02] I'm going to be selfish for a moment here.

[00:07:04] When you guys made that decision to stop doing the web design and different things, what was that pivot?

[00:07:13] How did you actually do that?

[00:07:15] What did that feel like?

[00:07:18] Leaving that behind, so to speak.

[00:07:21] Yeah.

[00:07:21] That was a bit of a...

[00:07:22] I would say the biggest...

[00:07:25] The hardest part was to focus on the new business.

[00:07:29] Because we do have the...

[00:07:31] We still have a couple of clients that we've worked with.

[00:07:34] I have a client that I worked with for four years.

[00:07:36] So I wouldn't necessarily say, well, okay, we don't work with you anymore.

[00:07:41] But let's say all the new ones, even though they knew that we were providing marketing services, and let's say now we do the consultancy, they want us to do marketing for them.

[00:07:51] But that's not our goal.

[00:07:53] And that's not something that we want to do.

[00:07:55] But in the beginning, we would still say, okay, fine.

[00:07:57] We can help you.

[00:07:59] Yes.

[00:07:59] Yes.

[00:07:59] So I would say it's making the commitment to focus on this one specific thing.

[00:08:04] Because I'm sure you know from the saying from Tony Robbins, where focus goes, the energy flows.

[00:08:11] And in my case, I even created this wallpaper for my phone.

[00:08:17] So my background says, every single time when I unlock it, it says focus.

[00:08:21] So it's kind of a reminder.

[00:08:23] Yeah, it's just black and white.

[00:08:24] Yeah.

[00:08:25] So it's not.

[00:08:26] Yeah.

[00:08:26] So it's more of a reminder for me to stay the course.

[00:08:29] Yeah.

[00:08:30] Because there's a lot of distractions out there.

[00:08:32] Oh, yeah.

[00:08:32] Even if they're our own.

[00:08:34] You're right.

[00:08:35] Yeah.

[00:08:36] But making that decision to do a little pivot out of offering certain types of services and just to focus on those ones you want to do.

[00:08:44] That's a challenge.

[00:08:45] And that was good.

[00:08:46] So I was excited to share that.

[00:08:48] So what are some of the current trends then in the industry that excite you the most and how are you adapting to them?

[00:08:54] Well, the biggest one is AI.

[00:08:56] Everyone is talking about it.

[00:08:58] And it's well, there are so many different apps that are coming out every single day.

[00:09:02] It feels like I don't know if you've if you experienced or if you were part of the crypto boom back in 2021, 2020 ish.

[00:09:11] When remember about have you heard of NFTs?

[00:09:14] I'm sure you have.

[00:09:15] Yeah, I didn't get involved, but definitely.

[00:09:16] Okay.

[00:09:17] You know, right here.

[00:09:18] Okay.

[00:09:18] Yeah.

[00:09:19] So like in case with NFTs, like 99% of those projects or maybe even like 99.9%, they're gone.

[00:09:25] They're not.

[00:09:26] They don't exist or you can't necessarily do anything.

[00:09:29] Like I have a couple of different tokens.

[00:09:30] You can't do anything with that.

[00:09:31] So that's what it feels like with AI these days.

[00:09:33] Or it's more like when people started online businesses or the dotcom bubble.

[00:09:38] Yeah.

[00:09:38] That's what it feels like these days.

[00:09:40] Yeah.

[00:09:40] So it's only I guess we're going to have only a couple of apps that will survive because each and every company, they all try to add an additional AI element to it.

[00:09:50] Yes.

[00:09:50] Which is based on OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT.

[00:09:56] So there are lots of different apps.

[00:09:59] Like in our case, we use AI.

[00:10:00] We use a couple of them.

[00:10:02] So like the main one would be ChatGPT.

[00:10:04] Definitely.

[00:10:05] Opus.pro.

[00:10:07] So that's for video editing to create short clips.

[00:10:09] That's something that we use.

[00:10:11] Another one would be Cloud.

[00:10:12] I like to use it for marketing purposes.

[00:10:16] Like people like to, I notice that like marketers like to say, well, not necessarily say bad things about ChatGPT, that it's not as customized for the marketing purposes.

[00:10:26] Let's say to write a copy for ads or emails.

[00:10:30] Honestly, I'm using it all day, every day.

[00:10:33] It's just the way I see it is it depends how you train it.

[00:10:36] Yes.

[00:10:37] If you train properly and you explain who you are, what you want, and maybe you have different also examples of people that you like their style.

[00:10:45] Like I'll give you an example.

[00:10:46] Have you heard of Frank Hearn?

[00:10:47] Hearn?

[00:10:48] Yes.

[00:10:48] Yeah.

[00:10:49] Yeah.

[00:10:49] Okay.

[00:10:49] So I believe he's one of the best marketers out there.

[00:10:54] And I love his style.

[00:10:56] And his style comes from Dan Kennedy.

[00:10:58] And then, of course, we have David Ogilvie, the OG of Derek Response Marketing.

[00:11:04] So I like their styles.

[00:11:05] What I did in the beginning is I would change ChatGPT on their content and I would also add my own.

[00:11:11] And now it knows.

[00:11:13] So I have different chats with it.

[00:11:15] So let's say I have a separate chat for email marketing.

[00:11:17] I have a separate chat for campaigns.

[00:11:19] I have a separate chat for content for social media.

[00:11:21] So let's say whether it's LinkedIn creating written content for LinkedIn or writing a short script for a reel.

[00:11:29] And by doing that, ChatGPT pretty much knows my style and knows their style.

[00:11:35] And then I would take that and say whatever it gives me.

[00:11:38] I would change certain things, of course.

[00:11:41] And then you pretty much make it your own.

[00:11:45] Another thing that you could do in terms of the content, because, again, content is everything these days.

[00:11:50] That's what brings you attention.

[00:11:51] And attention is the new currency.

[00:11:54] You can go to YouTube.

[00:11:55] Take, let's say, the biggest creators in your space or the space that you want.

[00:11:59] You can go to their videos.

[00:12:01] Click right under the video there.

[00:12:02] There's an option to click on script.

[00:12:04] And then on the right-hand side in the desktop version, YouTube is going to give you the entire script of the video.

[00:12:09] You can copy that script.

[00:12:11] Put it into ChatGPT.

[00:12:12] And tell it to write, to prepare a video script or an article.

[00:12:18] So whatever you want it to create for you based on the content that you share with ChatGPT.

[00:12:24] But you should also mention to maybe change certain things, basically to model it.

[00:12:32] Because you don't necessarily want to copy it word by word.

[00:12:35] No plagiarism people.

[00:12:37] Yeah, exactly.

[00:12:39] But that way, so you can ask it to model that, add certain things, and maybe even add your own story that's related to the topic.

[00:12:48] Because now it becomes your own piece of content because you have your own story within it.

[00:12:53] You have your own perspective.

[00:12:54] But maybe you just like a certain point that the person covered.

[00:12:57] So now you have your own piece of content that you can create and publish.

[00:13:01] So in today's digital age, what role has social media played in your marketing strategies?

[00:13:08] It's everything, honestly.

[00:13:10] It's pretty much it.

[00:13:13] Open the door, open the refrigerator, whatever.

[00:13:15] Social media.

[00:13:17] Yeah.

[00:13:18] Yeah, because it's, again, people, they spend their time on social media.

[00:13:23] It depends which platform, of course.

[00:13:24] It depends on where your audience is.

[00:13:27] And that's the platform that you would use.

[00:13:29] But even with, like this, earlier this year, we decided to start hosting networking events.

[00:13:34] And we said we're going to host a networking event.

[00:13:36] So it's going to be one event per quarter.

[00:13:38] So four events in a year.

[00:13:40] We'll start with that.

[00:13:41] We were able to achieve that.

[00:13:42] So we're super happy.

[00:13:43] But even with that, I mean, we use social media in order to promote that.

[00:13:47] So we would have...

[00:13:48] Are these events in person, Alex?

[00:13:50] Yeah, in person.

[00:13:50] Yeah.

[00:13:51] Yeah.

[00:13:51] In person events.

[00:13:52] Yeah.

[00:13:52] We just finished our last one two weeks ago.

[00:13:56] Okay.

[00:13:57] Yeah.

[00:13:57] Yeah.

[00:13:57] That's awesome.

[00:13:59] So what mindset shifts have you experienced as you've grown in your business?

[00:14:05] A lot.

[00:14:06] A lot of limiting beliefs, too.

[00:14:09] That's usually what's holding people back.

[00:14:11] And I'm still working on those.

[00:14:12] That's like, I think it's a never-ending game.

[00:14:15] Mm-hmm.

[00:14:16] You always work on yourself.

[00:14:18] Absolutely.

[00:14:19] And like being a lifelong learner as well.

[00:14:22] So yeah.

[00:14:23] I like that.

[00:14:23] Oh, yeah.

[00:14:24] Yes.

[00:14:25] Yep.

[00:14:25] Absolutely.

[00:14:26] Mm-hmm.

[00:14:27] So what did...

[00:14:28] Oh, go ahead.

[00:14:28] I'm sorry.

[00:14:28] I finished that.

[00:14:29] Yeah.

[00:14:29] I just wanted to mention, like, I'm going currently through a coaching program myself

[00:14:33] because I know that there's always that next level.

[00:14:38] And I can read all those books.

[00:14:39] Yes.

[00:14:39] I can listen to podcasts, which is amazing.

[00:14:41] I always do.

[00:14:42] Like, I go for a walk with a dog or I'm doing some chores.

[00:14:45] I put on my headphones and I just listen.

[00:14:48] Because all that information will be in your subconscious at least.

[00:14:53] Of course, you're not going to remember everything, but it will be in there.

[00:14:55] Yeah.

[00:14:56] And at some point, let's say you're doing something else and then it clicks because you already

[00:15:00] have that information in your head.

[00:15:01] But then something happens and you kind of start connecting different dots.

[00:15:05] Personal development is the huge mind shift, I would say.

[00:15:10] Yeah.

[00:15:10] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:15:11] Because I know I did the same thing this year.

[00:15:13] We've gotten to a couple of coaching programs and I'm currently in one as well.

[00:15:17] And, you know, you do.

[00:15:18] You learn a lot.

[00:15:19] You relearn things that you, you know, that you learned, you know, years ago.

[00:15:23] And then you have that community and accountability.

[00:15:26] I think it's important.

[00:15:28] I think that's one of the most important things because the information today is abundant.

[00:15:34] You can literally go to YouTube.

[00:15:35] You can watch any video you want to on any topic.

[00:15:39] But there is too much information and sometimes in your head, you're thinking, well, at least

[00:15:42] that's for me.

[00:15:44] What should I implement?

[00:15:45] Who should I listen to specifically?

[00:15:47] Because one person says that this strategy works.

[00:15:49] The other person says this strategy works because it worked for them.

[00:15:53] But would it work for me?

[00:15:54] So now how do I know?

[00:15:56] And that's where mentorship or coaching comes in with the person that kind of been there,

[00:16:02] done that and can take you by the hand and show you each and every step because

[00:16:06] you're going to have a lot of questions.

[00:16:08] Yes, yes, yes, yes.

[00:16:09] So as we come near to the end, what advice would you give to someone just starting out

[00:16:15] on their own entrepreneurial journey?

[00:16:17] I would say, first of all, know what type of a service or product that you want to sell

[00:16:21] and figure out your audience.

[00:16:23] And in the beginning, niche down.

[00:16:25] Some people say don't niche down.

[00:16:27] Some people say niche down.

[00:16:28] I believe in niching down because there is a saying for a reason, the riches are in the niches.

[00:16:34] Yes.

[00:16:35] And which makes sense because, again, like as we mentioned in the beginning, if you talk

[00:16:40] to everyone, you talk to no one.

[00:16:41] And that's real 100%.

[00:16:43] And I'll tell you, like I can give you an example why.

[00:16:47] So like when we started our marketing consultancy, we could literally, so the different industries

[00:16:52] that you mentioned in the beginning when you were doing the introduction, we could literally

[00:16:55] help any service-based business.

[00:16:58] We grow their lists, get those leads and convert them into clients.

[00:17:03] So that's what we started doing.

[00:17:05] So we would call out in our ads, in our messaging, in our marketing, it would be, say, local business

[00:17:11] owners, local service business owners.

[00:17:13] So that way we would kind of niche it down into being local.

[00:17:17] But still, at the same time, there are thousands, hundreds of thousands and millions, actually,

[00:17:21] of local service businesses.

[00:17:24] And then we decided to specifically focus on agents in the insurance and real estate space.

[00:17:30] Because within both industries, again, there are millions of people.

[00:17:34] Mm-hmm.

[00:17:35] If we take both industries at the same time.

[00:17:37] But we know that they have hard times.

[00:17:40] They don't necessarily have systems in their place and in their business.

[00:17:43] And some of those people, they either, they're just starting out, as you mentioned.

[00:17:49] And there are so many different things that they need to know.

[00:17:51] And a lot of times they don't even, when they go through the course to get a license,

[00:17:56] they are being taught about, of course, the industry, what they need to know about it.

[00:18:00] But they don't necessarily, nobody really teaches them about marketing.

[00:18:03] And that's where we come in, in our case.

[00:18:06] So we decided to focus on that industry.

[00:18:07] And it doesn't mean that, let's say, if somebody else from another industry would come in and

[00:18:12] they run, they have a service business, we can also help them.

[00:18:15] We're not going to say necessarily no to them.

[00:18:17] But when we're doing our marketing, when you're either doing the outreach, let's say,

[00:18:22] on LinkedIn, on social media, by emails, cold emails, or you're running ads, you create

[00:18:26] content.

[00:18:27] In that case, it's mostly agents.

[00:18:30] That's our main focus.

[00:18:31] Yeah.

[00:18:31] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:18:32] So I would say, yeah, focus on, figure out who is your ideal audience, the ICB.

[00:18:37] Ideal Client Profile.

[00:18:39] And then go from there.

[00:18:41] Well, thanks for that.

[00:18:41] And I wanted to also give you an opportunity to share about your own podcast.

[00:18:46] You want to tell us your name of your podcast and how we can get to that?

[00:18:49] I'm excited.

[00:18:50] Sure.

[00:18:50] Yeah.

[00:18:50] Thank you.

[00:18:51] The name of our podcast is the BID Academy Podcast.

[00:18:55] BID stands for Building Income On Demand.

[00:18:57] And that's where we interview people in different areas of business.

[00:19:02] Because what we believe in is we want to educate people on different aspects of business, whether

[00:19:08] it's marketing, sales, branding, finance, accounting.

[00:19:12] Because again, when you start a business, especially when you're on your own, you pretty

[00:19:17] much need to juggle.

[00:19:18] You need to wear different hats.

[00:19:20] That's where we were in the beginning.

[00:19:22] And we kind of want to build this community where people can come in and get information

[00:19:28] for each and every part of their business so they know what they need to do next.

[00:19:31] Thank you.

[00:19:32] So, Chop Squad, make sure you plug in to the BID Academy Podcast so you can learn more

[00:19:38] and get a little closer to what Alex is doing and his team.

[00:19:41] And as we close out, Alex, I know you have a website you want to send us to so we can

[00:19:48] get more information about what you're doing and how we can plug in.

[00:19:52] Yeah.

[00:19:52] You want to share that?

[00:19:52] Absolutely.

[00:19:53] Yeah, of course.

[00:19:54] So, well, the name of the website is pretty much the same as the company.

[00:19:58] It's buildingincomeondemand.com.

[00:19:59] You can go there.

[00:20:00] We have a lot of free resources.

[00:20:03] One of the main ones would be the nine-step system that our clients go through when they

[00:20:07] start working with us.

[00:20:08] So, you can download it for yourself.

[00:20:09] We have an entire video explaining how to use it.

[00:20:12] And you can start implementing it.

[00:20:14] And the idea is that you do it one step at a time.

[00:20:18] And then at the end, by step nine, you pretty much have an entire system that will help you

[00:20:23] bring in those leads and grow the business.

[00:20:26] Awesome.

[00:20:27] Thank you.

[00:20:27] Well, really appreciate it, Chop Squad.

[00:20:29] Again, that website buildingincomeondemand.com.

[00:20:33] And get on your journey.

[00:20:35] The year is about to end.

[00:20:37] Another one is beginning.

[00:20:38] So, we're excited about that and to see where we go from there.

[00:20:42] So, thanks again, Alex.

[00:20:43] And if there's no more, we're going to say goodbye for now, but not for long.

[00:20:48] One point that I would like to make, because you just mentioned that the year is almost

[00:20:52] at the end of the year.

[00:20:55] I would say, make sure that you start planning for the new year right now.

[00:21:00] Because when the year comes, you want to make sure that you start putting in the work based

[00:21:05] on your goals, based on the numbers.

[00:21:07] And the way we like to do it is we break down the year usually into quarterly, monthly, weekly,

[00:21:12] as well as daily goals and daily tasks.

[00:21:15] And that way you'll know that you'll achieve your end year goal.

[00:21:18] Because based on the data, and you can look it up, I was surprised when I saw this, that about 80,

[00:21:25] I believe it's 80 or 83% of people, they give up on their goals by February 1st.

[00:21:29] But you're right.

[00:21:30] When you're breaking it all the way down to those bite-sized chunks, then we can, that's how we eat it.

[00:21:35] You're saying about eating an elephant, how do you eat it?

[00:21:38] Exactly.

[00:21:39] Just make it doable for yourself.

[00:21:42] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:21:43] Yeah.

[00:21:44] Thanks for getting that in there.

[00:21:45] And definitely want to remember that for sure.

[00:21:48] Thanks, Alex, for that extra advice there.

[00:21:50] Of course.

[00:21:50] Happy to help.

[00:21:51] Thank you for listening to The Business Doc.

[00:21:54] We hope that you were able to learn valuable information from our guests and that you will

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[00:22:03] To go deeper with our guests, please visit their website and social channels.

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