The relevance of Corporate Branding & Personal Branding with Ramon Ray – E50

Episode released on: 29. November 2021

The CX Goalkeeper had a smart discussion with Ramon Ray

Ramon Ray is an in-demand expert on small business success. He’s a global keynote speaker, event host and emcee, entrepreneur, and best-selling author.

Ramon inspires and educates thousands of business owners a year and
works with leading brands to help them reach small businesses.

He’s the founder of SmartHustle.com and Entrepreneur in Residence at
Oracle NetSuite

Ramon’s started four companies and sold two of them, his fourth book,
“Celebrity CEO”, is about building a community and personal brand.

Ramon has been invited to testify at the United States Congress and
speak at the White House and has shared the stage with celebrity
business thought leaders such as Seth Godin, Simon Sinek, Gary
Vaynerchuk, and others. He’s interviewed all five Shark Tank Sharks,
including Daymond John, Barbara Corcoran, Lori Greiner, Mark Cuban,
and Robert Herjavec.

Ramon has also interviewed President Obama and joined Ivanka Trump at
the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in India.

Fun facts? – Graduate of the FBI Citizens Academy, plays piano and
enjoys burnt pancakes with lots of syrup

In this episode you will learn:

Where to start in business: Focus on: “What problem I am solving?”, “whom am I solving for?”
Why personal branding is an asset
some suggestions from Ramon how to be better in business
Why being “on time” is too late!

… and much more

His book suggestion:

The Like Switch; J. Schafer and Marvin Karlins

Ramon’s Golden Nugget:

Ask for a smile before you ask for a sale – @ramonray on the CX Goalkeeper Podcast
Tweet

Before you make money, make the relationship @ramonray on the CX Goalkeeper Podcast
Tweet

How to contact Ramon:

DM to Ramon “BEST BOOKS” to get the link to the top books for small business owners
DM to Ramon “Celebrity CEO” to get some insights on his book “Celebrity CEO”

Thank you, Ramon!

Book mentioned in this episode:

They Ask, You Answer: A Revolutionary Approach to Inbound Sales, Content Marketing, and Today’s Digital Consumer, Marcus Sheridan
This Is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn to See, Seth Godin
Duct Tape Marketing Revised and Updated: The World’s Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide, John Jantsch

People mentioned in this episode:
Shep Hyken

#customerexperience #leadership #cxgoalkeeper #podcast #businessgrowth #smarthustle #smallbusiness

Transcription:

Gregorio Uglioni 0:01
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the CX goalkeeper podcast. Your host, Gregorio Uglioni will have smart discussion with experts thought leaders, and friends on customer experience, transformation, innovation and leadership. I hope you will enjoy the next episode.

Ladies and gentlemen, today’s really a big, big pleasure. I’m super thrilled I am Ramon Ray, the real and the only Ramon Ray you with me! Thank you very much Raman for being here. How are you.

Ramon Ray 0:36
I feel great. It’s good to talk to you good to talk about CX hello to the global audience of Gregorio. So I’m excited. And I think it’s always important to serve. It’s such an important topic “experience”. So thank you for having me.

Gregorio Uglioni 0:48
Thank you, Raman, it’s really a great pleasure. You are really very well known in us. You wrote several books you created for companies, you already sold two of them. And now you’re working on a lot of different topics stuff. You have a great podcast, you have a newsletter, but the best way I think to do to introduce you is could you please introduce yourself?

Ramon Ray 1:11
Sure, it’d be very short introduction. But indeed, as you said, I’m an entrepreneur, and a indemand. expert on On Success for Small Businesses. Over the last few years, I started four companies a technology company, a blog and event business and now smart hustle and sold two of them. And really my passion and excitement Grigory was really educating and inspiring small business owners to grow. I work with very large brands to help them connect better to small businesses. And a few fun facts. If I may, I played piano, graduated the FBI Citizens Academy, I’ve interviewed a President and other things like that. So I’m happy to be here and serve your audience. So thank you so much.

Gregorio Uglioni 1:53
Thank you very much. Ramon. And also for the audience that you are aware of Rahman wrote several books. The last one is the Celebrity CEO, written in April 2019. Our enterpreneur can drive by building community and a strong personal brand. And you have an outstanding newsletter. I think you’re publishing it on a weekly basis on Thursday at 2pm ET, is to inspire and grow your business. I have it, I am reading it, I really like that. And I think the best way is that you share the name of your website, because how we were speaking and saying that, I love it.

Ramon Ray 2:34
Sure, thank you smart hustle dot com. Smart, like brains, smart hustle dot com. And as you said, people can definitely go there and check out the information. And check out the newsletter and going back to the book, celebrity CEO, if anybody wants to just direct message me on Instagram, for free, I have a lot of insights about celebrity CEO no cost, so they can just direct message me on Instagram, the word “celebrity CEO”, and my Instagram was Ramon Ray, smart hustle.

Gregorio Uglioni 3:03
Thank you very much Ramon. And it’s really great to have you here. Let’s start kicking off your discussion. I follow you since several years, the the common denominator that we have is Shep Hyken. You did big presentation with him. I think it was something like four hours presentation. And it was really an outstanding presentation. And therefore I started following you. Why is personal branding starting from small businesses important?

Ramon Ray 3:34
Yeah, I think it’s important for a few reasons. And, and let’s, let’s unpack what it’s not. But feel free to correct me or give me your input. But we know pretty much the large corporate brands, of course, people say branding is how you make people feel how you how people associate with you. That’s true Mercedes Benz, luxury or, or Honda economy cars, whatever, Starbucks, whatever you want to say. And those are brands, big corporate brands that we all know I’m sure in Switzerland and Italy in the US all over. For me personal branding. It’s not just for small businesses. It’s not just but it’s an asset. I think it had damage to the small business. Because for most of us, we me and Gregorio as it were, we are our biggest asset. And people see my face hearing my voice hearing you seeing your face hearing your voice. They closely identify that to our brand unlike Elon Musk, there’s Tesla. But you know, but he’s Tesla is much bigger than Elon to a degree. So my point is personal branding is important because the human face the human voice, our personalities. That’s what people buy very few times. Gregorio, have I’ve seen a business card, do business with another business card. Never have I seen a LinkedIn profile, do business with another LinkedIn profile. I don’t think it’s ever happened. It’s the humans behind that, of course, that make that connection. So that’s why personally rebranding is really important.

Gregorio Uglioni 5:02
And that to elaborate on what you’re saying, and I fully agree with what you’re saying, at the end, what I am always saying, I married my wife, and not my employer, and therefore the employer can change the wife not. And that’s right there. And therefore, I think it’s important that people are known as human beings. I’m always saying, saying, Yes, we are speaking about b2b or b2c. But at the end, we are in a human to human environment, I have the big chance to speak with you this evening for me, even for the afternoon. And this is what creates a relationship. And perhaps in five years, 10 years, we have, again, a connection we discuss and I say, you were on my podcast, and we are creating this. And what I really love of this discussion is we are sharing some insights. And these are Greg’s insights and Ramon insights, and not specific to Tesla, IKEA, and, and Apple. These are great examples. But before we create companies speak like them, it will take quite a lot, quite a lot of time. I don’t know if you are willing to share with your personal story, because now you’re professional speakers, you have your own companies, your interest entrepreneur, but it was not always like that. And therefore to kick off the discussion, I don’t want to be unpolite. But I phrased the question is, what are your feelings for DHL?

Ramon Ray 6:25
Sure, sure. My feeling for DHL as as far as what clarify that part of it?

Gregorio Uglioni 6:31
And I think they deliver to you a letter? Yes, it’s changed your life! And do you like DHL, or you don’t like DHL?

That’s an interesting question. Um, for me, and I’m not sure if it’s a trick question. So we’ll see where this goes. But I like DHL. I mean, I, from my years of experience working at the United Nations, they were known as always, if you needed something from Tokyo, or Germany or in China, or wherever in the world. DHL was it? So I liked them.

But there was one specific thing that you received one letter that you didn’t like.

oh, that letter Yes.

And perhaps I really asked openly, do you want to share your story? Because I think it’s it’s really a great story to say it’s don’t finish at some it doesn’t finish at some point. But it starts in something bigger, and everything can change. But you need the right mindset.

Ramon Ray 7:28
Now, I understand you’re referring to the United Nations story? Yes?

Gregorio Uglioni 7:31
yes.

Ramon Ray 7:32
Yes, of course, I’m willing to talk about anything, no problem. But yeah, so I was, of course, a young boy, like all of us who are in doing whatever young boys do, and grew up in a nice family. But one of my first jobs indeed, Greg was working at the United Nations. And that was, I wouldn’t say random. There was some prayer involved in my father. But I work there one of my first jobs I worked at a grocery store before that. And I was there for many, many years learning the art of being in a professional environment. It was office desk and computers. This is right, when Netscape, the Mosaic browser, Alta Vista was taking shape. That’s my work. That’s the generation I started with. And I was there for a number of years. They while there I had the the bug bit me to be in business, for some reason I just liked, I think, part of entrepreneurship is you have to like risk. You have to love change, and you have to like be willing to explore. So I think those things together, launched my curiosity for business. And so I started the first business in two business, the point being at the UN, there’s pretty strict rules against having your own business. I had permission Gregory I had permission to do it. But then the permission was taken away, because somebody in my EU office got very jealous of me. And that led into a whole series of things. Eventually, the permission was taken away. I kept doing the business. And I was fired. I got a letter, as he noted from Tokyo, Japan, by DHL, saying, hey, Ramon, you’re terminated. And that was the but that was the end of one era. But the beginning of me being who I am today is one who’s a speaker, you know, author, running a marketing agency, and very blessed at how things have turned out and getting to talk to you today.

Gregorio Uglioni 9:16
Thank you very much. And of course, and basically thank you for sharing your story because I am quite sure it’s not so easy to explain that and all the audience already noticed that you are speaking your your specific way of speaking you’re a professional, a professional speakers, you often speak quite quick, but you make some poses that are really excellent, always at the right place. And I think it takes also training and it developed you into this into into this set that that you that you have now, for me, the big question that I have was going through these changes, and you spoke about creativity about being let’s say, be an Alpha Underdog trying to create your business, which are the values that drives you in life?

Unknown Speaker 10:05
Yeah, I think I know the core values of our company, which is not the same thing you asked me, but is to have fun and do the right thing. So when I think about life values, it’s hard for me to say that, but I think that as one who has deep faith in God, I think that my life values are Am I Am I being honest? I think that’s important. You know, my, I never want to cut corners. If I owe somebody if I owed Gregorio, you know, some money, and let’s say, I’m not sure was it $1 or dollar 10, I will send you $1.15. That’s just, you know, that’s, that’s my such one. And I do like to have fun that that’s a really important part of what I do. I like to laugh have a good time. And the third thing, I think, is that while I do take my work very seriously, we do excellent work. I don’t take myself too seriously. You know, there’s a stain on my shirt. Well, I changed my shirt a bit right to be a little more presentable for your audience. But meaning, if things don’t go well, things aren’t perfect. You stumble and fall, it’s okay, laugh and keep moving. Some people are different, they may want to be a bit more polished and perfect. And that’s okay. But you asked Ramon, my point of view? Let’s take it easy. Let’s be chill. In Spanish. It’s what Guidad? I’m not sure what it is in Italy, but something maybe a similar word, which means chill. What’s what’s the word?

Gregorio Uglioni 11:27
To be calm? “tranquillo”?

Unknown Speaker 11:30
Quite “tranquillo”. Yes. tranquillo. That’s the word I think Guidad is slow. I think a little different word? I think. So. Yes. Is that helpful? Does that make sense?

Gregorio Uglioni 11:38
Yes, it totally makes sense. And in your Speeches, speeches and videos, and I know you cannot know all of them, because you are everywhere. And you’re doing a lot of work. But I tried to help you to remember what I would like to point out. One thing that I really liked this, you were presenting in front of students. And then you mentioned something that, for me, it’s it’s really key. And as me also to change my mind about several things. And this is about being on time. And I really like that, I hope that you remember what I am I do? Could you please share that with your words, because it’s really mind blowing for me.

Ramon Ray 12:17
I think there’s three kinds of people in the world. Some people are notoriously late, whether it’s church work, for whatever reason, they’re just late. And that’s a whole nother issue. Most people, Gregorio, they do try to be on time, Gregory’s party starts at eight, let’s be there at eight, let’s do everything we can to be there at eight. And the reason why most people fail, and they end up late is because it’s impossible to be on time. So my philosophy for myself, especially when I’m by myself, absolutely, always early, I cannot stand being late, I cannot stand being on time, I always want to be early. And a side benefit of that. So many times we’re going to good things have happened to me by being early. Not everybody wants to sit in front of a studio, sit in front of an office, sit in front of a Broadway show, sit in front of a lunch, dinner, whatever it may be half an hour, early hour early, it’s kind of a pain. But I must say, especially as you may have experience for big events, you’re there half an hour early, you’re there an hour early, okay, who’s that person going in the side door, who’s that person on stage, you never know what happens. So it doesn’t happen all the time. But a you don’t have to rush. But to you never know what happens by being early, not late. So on so on time is late. That’s my philosophy on time is late.

Gregorio Uglioni 13:44
I love it. I really love it. It’s really, these are really great insights that everybody should and can work with. Understand that that’s nowadays, it’s really, I’m working in a corporate and all the meeting starts, let’s say 10 o’clock. And people are rushing in this digital meetings at one plus 10 to plus 10 and 3%. And then you may go to the older people waiting, and that’s not possible. That’s not polite. And that’s not the right way to start to start the meetings. And therefore it totally makes sense. And I think behind what you’re saying. It’s also the strategic mindset. And speaking about strategy, you are a social media guru, and therefore you need to ask the question, what’s your relationship with social media?

Ramon Ray 14:30
Yeah, well, I like social media, I must say, you know, if I think about fax machines, radio ads, newspaper ads, social media has helped me to be where I am today. Now. I started as I said, before, all these platforms around I was AOL. CompuServe was probably the biggest platform but it wasn’t that popular. Usually it was a world wide web. We were all figuring that out. Back then. And an FTP some people may know FTP and blogging was popular. But I must say what the actual advent of social media, I think it’s built for that person who can a share great content to the right audience. And with the power of video, man, it’s just I think it’s, we all have a skill set, God gives us all an asset, as it were. And I think for me being able to, you know, with eyes, or big, expressive, or, Hey, this video is engaging. So I think that for me, it’s helped even in this pandemic, many of the large brands, they’re not doing in person events, still, but they still need to be engaging, they still need to, you know, so somehow to get attention, so I think that yeah, I like it. And a tip for those, you know, we may have some bigger brands who already know this, but frequency, relevancy, engagement, analytics, I think things like that really go far and helping you use social media. And don’t be afraid of it just launching. And but key is speak to that audience that that’s one thing and be engaging, which will help you use it, but I love it. I think social media was made for me.

Gregorio Uglioni 16:05
That’s, it’s very nice. One question and the bell that you use now. It’s your battery’s coming now or?

Unknown Speaker 16:12
No, not yet. I told him to take the day off. I was at a startup event, and somebody gave me a bike belt. And I thought, I don’t know Gregorio. Have you used any of the fancy tools? It’s called a I’m not real cool. But I forgot the name. It’s like a little device, you can hit the button sound comes up. It integrates with podcast. Music. Do you use any tools like that?

Gregorio Uglioni 16:32
Not really. But this one.

Unknown Speaker 16:36
I like it. So the same way. I don’t think I’m going to buy one even though I want to like if I wanted to, oh, there we go. Those are the tools you use. But I thought to myself, You know what? It like if I wanted to add clapping and applause right now, I could add a little button. But it’s a bit too much for me, at least for me. But with my bell, it’s manual to little bell, I can at least do that.

Gregorio Uglioni 17:01
And it’s also funny. And we were speaking about social media, we spoke about your social media and also for small business. Enterprises. Social media is also an important communication tool. What’s your view all should SME Start working with social media and engaging with customer on social media?

Unknown Speaker 17:25
Yeah, I think it’s thankfully, social media is a very mature platform. So it’s not new, and many people are on it. But I think one way to do that, and I get that from my friend, Marcus Sheridan, he has a book called they ask you answer. And I think that’s one of the best guides. It’s not about social media, but just answer the problems that your customers have. My wife has a real business, you know, real business where, you know, you’re hanging on the wall made of like, Christmas ornaments, you know, very glittery and things. What’s the problem of her customers, they don’t want boring walls, they want their home to look good. They want their friends to go, Ooh, that’s nice. That’s their problem. They don’t really want to reef. They want the benefits the reef provides. So sometimes a small businesses, we think I have a tangerine in front of me. I don’t want the tangerine. No, I want the taste that it provides, or I want to quench my hunger. So if that’s helpful, that’s kind of my guidance for small businesses SMEs, always think, what problem and I am I solving? And who am I solving it for another one of my mentors is where Seth Godin his book, this is marketing, right? Talks about that as well. I have so many books I can pull out so all these things are answering the question answering the problems that people have.

Gregorio Uglioni 18:49
Thank you. Thank you, Raman, it totally makes sense at the end. It’s really about what customer needs and what our customer expectation. And you are you have also one important talking that you are often doing, it’s sorry, why do we need to marry our customers? Yes,

Ramon Ray 19:08
they your leads, marry your customers. So here’s the thing. Sometimes we try to get the sale. Gregorio, can you buy the orange, can you buy the orange or the tangerine Can you buy please buy it, give me your money, give me your money. Really? Let me first assuming Gregorio likes tangerines. Let’s assume that and the silly example, then a Gregorio three ways to pick the right tangerine. Would you like it? Say yes. Would you like it? Yes. No money yet. Just three ways to pick the right tangerine then maybe. Hey, Gregorio. I know you love tangerines. Would you like to know how to appeal the tangerine with your teeth? What are you going to say? Yes, absolutely. And you get my point. I’m gonna go on. Now. He likes me. He knows me. He trusts me. I’m a bit annoying, but he still likes me. And I can then say, by the way, I haven’t heard injury, it’s 55 US dollars. Gregorio will say, Yes, I’ll buy it. silly example, of course, but that’s the date your leads, marry your customers. It’s about nurturing the relationship with your customer first drawing them into you another friend of mine, John Janse, his book duct tape marketing, right? It talks about things like that then, after they know, like and trust you, now you can ask them to marry you, as it were, and build on that relationship.

Gregorio Uglioni 20:32
And elaborating also on your example, it’s not only dating and marry, but afterwards, the first 90 days, at least, what I am reading about is the only mode. And yes, is the time that you really need to invest. And to activate your customer, your statistics, there are studies that are saying, if during the first 90 days, the customer is buying your products are coming back to you, then the probability that they will come back again, it’s higher than if they don’t want anything, and therefore not only dating, bearing but also the animal, because then you can start activating them the way

Ramon Ray 21:14
And if we want to extend it further, keep the honeymoon going. I’ve been married for 27 years, I could do much better as a husband. But you have to keep the relationship hot, keep it active, keep the intimacy, keep the romance, keep the conversation. So you in the silly example, blending. So they come again and again and again.

Gregorio Uglioni 21:31
And if you don’t know them buy flowers, it’s always worth. Absolutely. And perhaps the last question that I have on authors, it’s also real for small businesses. What I’m seeing and feeling in Enugu is often that also small businesses are doing really special offers for new customers to attract new customer, I give you 10%, I give you 15%. Or if you buy the 24 months, start stuff, then you pay only for 12 months or something like that. But afterwards, there is nothing you need to pay in full. What’s your view on that? And perhaps it’s similar also to us?

Ramon Ray 22:20
Yeah, there we actually were a coupon, discount driven country. Listen, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with discounts and deals, airlines do it cruise ships, do it, hotels do it food doesn’t, you know, keep 20% off your chicken. It works. Sure. But I think it works best for the big billion dollar companies that can afford to play that game. When you’re small, and you have limited resources, I’d rather charge a little bit of people a premium and serve a high value. Because if I’m selling cheap chicken, I can’t give you a white tablecloth and silverware and in a glass cup. Cheap chicken, I can only give you a plastic fork. But if I want to give you high service and a fat profit and high revenue, then I can charge a higher price. So I have nothing wrong with discounting as a principle. But I think for small business in the US do we want to compete with the Walmart’s good company, by the way, big company if you’re listening to it, but Walmart’s are big, big companies in the world. It’s hard, right? So. So I think it’s nothing wrong with it. But I’d be careful, especially for the smaller company, sell on value, we do the best work, we do quality work, if you want quality work, you should invest in yourself and get the quality work. That’s what I would say.

Gregorio Uglioni 23:44
And this is also the best customer experience speech that you can do. Because you cannot compete on products, you cannot compete on price because you know where the price will go. And therefore the need to compete on experiences, and differentiate yourself from your competitors. Ramon, thank you very much. It was an outstanding discussion. We are going to the last piece the last two three questions that I have for you. The first one is, is there a book that you said this is a book that I really like I really enjoyed and add me throughout my career?

Ramon Ray 24:20
Sure, there’s been a few books that I’ve really liked. I think one I’ll call out is if it’s not a market, you know, it is kind of a marketing book I’ll refer to one year I have. It’s called “the like switch”. And this is by Jack Schafer, a former FBI agent us, you know, Federal Bureau of Investigation and the likes, which talks about how to build relationships with people. And what he talks about is the following. The more time you spend with someone, the more intense the time is, and the more frequent it is, the more that relationship will be. So that’s the principle he talks about in that book, I think it’s a good book. And I have a few more books like that that I recommend I gave earlier I gave my Instagram to DM me direct message celebrity CEO. If people Direct Message me “best books” on Instagram, I’ll send them a whole list of my recommendations if they direct message me on Instagram, “best books”,

Gregorio Uglioni 25:19
Thank you, Ramon. And I would say now please, to the audience, play a stop this, listening to this podcast, go to romon’s Instagram, and send him place these two messages, “celebrity CEO” and “best books”, and you will get a ton of insights. And this is also one question. You already mentioned your Instagram, what’s the best way to contact you if somebody would have a question?

Sure. Those who want to have me and Gregorio on your stage, it got to be a two for one, two for one deal, you can definitely check out ramon ray dot com That’s kind of my speaking profile page. But definitely smart hustle dot com. Gregorio probably the best place a lot of insight on small business growth. And I’d love to have your insight on there too, at some point, but smart hustle dot com or ramon ray dot com.

Our common friends would say “I’LL BE BACK”. Yes. And, and the really the last question. And thank you very much for having this funny discussion. It’s Ramon’s golden nugget. It’s something that we discussed or something new that you would like to leave to the audience.

Ramon Ray 26:27
Sure. Ask for a smile. Be before you ask for a sale. That’s the it’s a riff off of the other advice I’ve given. But I think it’s so important. Sometimes we push push, push, push, push to buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, calm down, slow down. Let’s see this. Just be nice, be human. And then follow up for the sale. We all want to make money. But before you make money, make a relationship.

Gregorio Uglioni 26:56
Thank you very much. As usual, I am not commenting the Golden Nugget because this was Ramon’s golden nuggets. The only thing that I can say is thank you very much for participating to my podcast. The CX goalkeeper is really extremely happy, and we go sleeping with a smile. And because I had a great discussion with you.

Ramon Ray 27:15
Thank you so much for being here. I didn’t get into yellow flags or whatever the bad flags are. So I’m happy it was good so far.

Gregorio Uglioni 27:21
Thank you very much. And in this case, with a different closing: I will quote again, Ramon is something that he said or he was it was on his slides. I don’t know if it was stated the first time from him. But I find out through you and your slides. Failure is part of life get used to it. And I conclude and I say I hope that the audience enjoyed the discussion as much as I did. It was an outstanding discussion. Thank you very much, Ramon. Bye bye, Grazie Mille, arrivederci.

If you enjoyed this episode, please share the word of mouth. Subscribe it, share it until the next episode. Please don’t forget, we are not in a b2b or b2c business. We are in a human to human environment. Thank you

⚽️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The CX Goalkeeper Podcast ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⚽️

Did you like it? Please tell to 2 friends, colleagues or family members about the CX Goalkeeper Podcast.

Only with your support I can continue share amazing discussions!

🎙you can find it on your preferred podcasting platform:

www.cxgoalkeeper.com/podcast

PLEASE 🙏 don’t forget to ✅ subscribe it

Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/3qYr4nh

… if you are an Apple User please rate it & review it!

Google Podcast: https://bit.ly/3rxRm0aCXGK

Spotify: https://bit.ly/3GhCGXeCXGK

Amazon Podcast: https://bit.ly/3xYYDaECXGK

Stitcher: https://bit.ly/3pws7ISCXGK