SPEAKER_00 0:00

If you're brand new, time is your friend, right? Because you usually don't have clients, you're not building the business enough. That's when you focus on building your brand and building your online presence because you have time to do it.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

All right, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Connections That Matter. We have awesome conversations with Northern Colorado's best networkers and find out all about the connections that they have that have made them successful. So today I have a super special guest, Matthew from Prospect Future. Matthew, welcome to the show. Glad to be here. Awesome. Well, uh, hopefully they've met you. You came, you did one of our business labs recently. You've been a cornerstone of our community for a while. But if they haven't met you yet, share a little bit more about what you do.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Yeah. So uh I founded Prospect Future about six years ago. Uh we focus on digital marketing and just strategic growth for pretty much any business across the United States, but we specialize in home services and e-commerce companies.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Very cool. Located in Fort Collins?

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Located in Fort Collins. We have an office in Fort Collins. Um we try to stay connected to the local community, but yeah, being like US-based, it kind of spreads out quite a bit too.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

Sure. Yeah. And then, you know, I I love that because you can work with people anywhere and help people all over the place. But um, is it any different than jumping on a Zoom call than jumping in-person or bringing somebody into the office?

SPEAKER_00 1:25

I love in-person just because body language is substantially different. And I think when you're in the comfort of your home or your office, you can get distracted. You have your multiple screens on Zoom calls and all of that. So in-person is always preferred, but Zoom is obviously efficient from a time perspective.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Well, and I think especially with I mean, I know the Northern Colorado stuff, but uh most business owners I talk to, they get hit up multiple times a day, even of like, hey, I I would love to look at this or do this, but there's no relationship there. Right. There's just it's really more what can I do for you? Here's my pitch, or uh please answer my email. Um but with the local people, um you know, how how do you foster relationships? How do you build those those um stuff with your clients?

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Honestly, I think for me it's just proactive communications, number one. Um if people have to go out of their way to reach out to you, especially if you're providing a service to them, you're not really doing your job. You should be getting in front of any issues that come up. You should be reaching out to them. And if you don't have time, tell them. You know, I think a lot of people are really bashful when it comes to, hey, my inbox is too full or my calendar is too full. I just am gonna ignore this person until it's not. Well, you know, change your process a little bit so you can be like, hey, I'm busy, but I'll get back to you in a couple weeks, couple, even if it's a couple months, it's totally okay, you know?

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Mm-hmm. That's good. Um, your office is cool. I've been there, you hosted a like a like a business talk there. Um, you got a podcast studio in in the office too. But um tell us a little bit about the office and how you get the work done, how you've created it as a as a space to grow your business.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Yeah, so I've had the office about two years. The biggest reason is uh I was working from home nonstop. I technically started before COVID happened. So I was working alone from home for like three or four years, and truthfully got lonely. So creating an office allowed me to bring in employees into the office, build a collaborative team environment, and then also with potential local clients, local partners, workshops, whatever, I could bring those people in too and have something that's more personal and human. And again, like I love technology, I have a ton of SaaS subscriptions, but the personal human, I think, is what actually drives business growth. And it allows you to like connect with people in a way that makes you want what's, you know, to do what's best for them too.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

Right on. But let's also talk about the the other people and and you're building relationships and keeping them if the client lives on the East Coast or West Coast. Um, what's your approach that might be different than uh the other marketing companies that are trying to get into everybody's inbox?

SPEAKER_00 4:04

I think oftentimes it's just figure out what communication works best for them. Um I'm a big Zoom guy, you know, but some clients I've never seen on a Zoom call and I've been working with them for five years, you know. Yeah. Some clients they'll only respond to text messages, they'll never reply back to a single email I send. So I think it's meet them where they are, but also you have to understand that anyone you're working with, anyone you want to partner with or connect with, they're also busy, especially if they're running a business. So you can't take anything personally, especially if they're paying you to, right? If they're paying you and a client ignores me for weeks, I'm not gonna get mad. That's that's their prerogative. They're allowed, they're allowed to do that.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

And ideally, the what you do is you try and communicate with them in ways that makes it that eases the burden on them in terms of response, right? Bullet points, text messages, whatever makes the most sense.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

For sure. Um in the age of AI, I mean, uh a lot of business owners make a website. Sometimes they just hire AI to make a website. Um, some people made their website nine years ago and haven't updated it. Um a scale of like most business owners that you see your work with, uh how optimized does like the generic business owner have with their website?

SPEAKER_00 5:22

Generic? Yeah. I would say negative 40%. Right. Uh it's it's either like they built it themselves on GoDaddy or Wix, and those sites just aren't really meant to grow you. They're meant to just get a base level foundation, but they don't evolve your business, they don't grow with your business. And the other ones that got professional sites, oftentimes you find they haven't updated in 10, 15 years. And the thing is it's almost 2026, right? So you need to be paying attention to what's happening and getting things updated more frequently. But also, kind of to your point with AI, it is really easy to say, hey, AI, generate this site for me. I think AI is an amazing tool. Sure. But usually when you take a shortcut, there's a ramification. In any area of life, if you're taking a shortcut, there's a ramification. So as long as you understand the pros and the cons of that sort of decision, that's fine. But if you want to have control, build momentum, and kind of do what's best for your business long term, you got to understand that sometimes shake taking shortcuts isn't gonna be that right course of action. Totally.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

You know, for me as a networker, um when you're making a recommendation or talking about somebody, there there needs to be an alignment that happens. Because if I'm talking about this plumber that I know and why he's blank blank blank, and then people like, cool, let me the first thing they do is they Google them or they go to their website. And if their website presence or their social media presence doesn't match the words that came out of my mouth, either I look inauthentic or they look inauthentic. And so in networking and referrals, if I'm saying somebody and then they can find that's backed up with what they find online, all of a sudden then the referrals start to flow from that. Um give give some advice to the entrepreneur if they haven't updated their website or maybe they're like, oh my gosh, this really isn't an accurate representation of my business. What are some things that they could do today or to look at that might give them some more results?

SPEAKER_00 7:27

Yeah. If you're brand new, time is your friend, right? Because you usually don't have clients, you're not building the business enough. That's when you focus on building your brand and building your online presence because you have time to do it. Once you really get into the the weeds and start working with clients and like you have a full book, you're usually not going to have as much time to devote to these things. And so they kind of go in the back burner. So if you're new early on, get it done as as much as you can and just hash it out. Okay. Uh the second part is you also want to make sure that you know you're planning for it long term and you understand how valuable it could be for your business. Your website is your online salesperson, right? It does work when you're asleep. So if you if it's not working for you and it's not representing you the way it should for your brand, then all of the work you're doing networking, all the work you're doing talking to potential clients, building, you know, your reputation online, that can be somewhat wasted because you're not putting your best foot forward, kind of like you're saying.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

Should they, you know, ranking on Google or SEO, or is it making it with the right message?

SPEAKER_00 8:37

Uh I think uh people and marketers tend to overcomplicate things. We're all human. Right. If you show up and look at your website, can you navigate it easily? Do you understand what it's saying? And do you understand what the business is trying to get you to do? And if you could answer those three questions, your website can be amazing. But oftentimes people are like, Oh, I need to worry about all this SEO, I need to worry about this framework, or they try to make it so cool that it actually hinders the ability for customers to contact them.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

You know, make it easy and make it straightforward. Uh, that's honestly the hack. It's just be a human talking to humans, even if you're using all these other business tools.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

Sure. Anyone you want to shout out? Somebody that you maybe got a West Bite transformation or people that you watch or follow that their website does a really good job.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

Uh locally or anyone.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

Yeah, well, anyone, but locally would be good.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Uh I have a a close friend and colleague, Derek Brenner. He's with craftdigital uh.ai. And he has a really cool way of going about his website where it's pulling dynamic custom fields and referencing multiple data points and integrating with this whole tech stack. So he's on like the cutting edge of technology where he can do an AI prompt. It could create a whole blog, an article that is helpful for customers. And I think that's really cool. But then I also like, I still do really like like the one-pager websites where it's like, we're simple. This is what we offer you, and here's who we are. And level up concrete repair, that's uh a client that I work with in Colorado Springs. Um, they do a very simple job of of that kind of presentation.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

Cool. So level up concrete. Uh let me dive into them real quick. So they come to you, or they what's like the pain points? They're like, oh, my website sucks, or hey, I don't like it, or hey, it's maybe I'm not getting the results I want. And then what's your intake process with a new client?

SPEAKER_00 10:35

For them, they were a brand new business. Okay. So they needed a logo, they needed a website, they needed a marketing strategy, and we were able to fulfill on all of those different things. With most customers, it's hey, we're just not an expert and we don't know what to do. And frankly, I feel like that's my superpower is just asking questions because oftentimes people know what direction they need to go, but it's subconsciously, right? Everyone's smart enough to understand kind of how the internet works at this point. You know, it's been around 30, 30 years, you know? Yeah. Um, so just asking people questions about their business and about what they're trying to achieve, that kind of in and of itself creates the strategy and game plan that we need to follow through with. And then you just take it and you plug it into the right systems, which is Google Ads, Meta Ads, and then like a brand and website development.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

Really cool. Really cool. And I think that's having somebody that can ask the right questions, that can bring that out is a key part of your business growth. And um a lot of people, I talk to entrepreneurs, they have big dreams, they have big vision, um, but there's some different things that hold in the back. Um, without having somebody that they trust that maybe they've met, maybe they've built a relationship with, then most people just, you know, it's they just keep going with what they currently have. They don't actually make make something big. So uh when's the right time to hire somebody to maybe look at your website? You said at the beginning you might have a lot of time, maybe you could dig into it. Um, but like level of concrete, they just knew that they needed to get it right from the beginning, so they hired you. Um if if somebody is like debating, maybe should I reach out for for some professional help? Um what is kind of that break point?

SPEAKER_00 12:16

I think it depends on what type of business you are and how you want your business to be. And I know that's kind of vague, but here's the thing if if you expect this to be your full-time job and you're a legitimate business, you need a legitimate business website and you need to do a day one, frankly. So if you're starting a business, you should be planning for those costs involved. And websites, not just through me, can be anywhere from $1,000 to $25,000. It depends on who you're working with, right? So find someone that you can trust and build that into your expense mapping when you're starting out. But realistically, you should try and get something that puts your best foot forward as early on as possible. Again, it depends on the type of business you are. If you're building a personal brand, like insurance brokers or real estate agents, you can usually get a website through your brokerage, right? Uh, but if you're trying to build a giant home service brand like your HVAC technician or a plumber, you need a legitimate website that converts your customers, but also tracks all of your marketing data so that you can improve on it and compound on that performance. Very cool. Did that answer that?

SPEAKER_01 13:26

Yeah, yeah, right on. Uh, how can a network, how can a uh website help you network? Um, how can it really, you know, you meet somebody, uh, get a business card, they got their phone number, their website. Generally, I go to the website before I call them just to make sure that I'm like, this is somebody I should schedule one-to-one. But would there be any optimization for those people that are networking that uh maybe they should have on their website?

SPEAKER_00 13:52

So this is a bit of a tricky question. Again, I think it depends on personal brand versus B2B versus B2C type of companies. Um, I'm very much like a performance-based marketer, so I think your social media should live at the bottom of the website because the the goal of the website is to get people to contact you, right? But you can feature a social feed on there and you can put your social links on there, and that facilitates better networking, right? If people can follow what you're doing locally or what you're doing online consistently, that can help facilitate relationships. The second part is if you have all of your marketing tracking set up early on, then you can do what's called retargeting. So say you visit my website and I'm like, you fit into my standard client profile that I'm trying to get in front of. Well, I can send targeted ads to you on Facebook, Instagram, Google, YouTube that's like, hey, Andrew, you checked out my site. Here's some things to get you get you, you know, over the fence uh that you know gets rid of any questions you have and makes you actually want to talk to me.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

Yeah. Well, I'm thinking about like the about us page. You know, if if I'm Googling a business, I'm like, for me, and I'm a networker, so I'm probably maybe not the average client who's going onto somebody's website to buy something, but um you know, some people, I I couldn't tell that you're the owner of the business if I go to their website. There's nothing personal of you. It's just like HVAC company in Loveland or whatever. It's like you know, all optimized for SEO. And others that have a really robust about us, and it's like my background, my values, my um, here's a picture of me with my dog. I don't know if you recommend that kind of stuff or or not. Um as far as like building a relationship from what people can check out on your about us page.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

I think your about us page is perfect for that type of content.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:39

I don't think your homepage is because your homepage isn't about you, it's about your client, right? But your about us page, if someone is curious and wants to go there, 100%, it should be authentic. And you do find a lot of days, a lot of times these days, that most companies, I would say over 80%, don't have good about us content. It's very generic, it's very like uh politically correct, and they're like, they don't want to show any names or faces on there. And I think that actually, unless they're a Fortune 500 company, that hampers their success potential. So having information about you, your background, why you got started, and your core values, I think, is absolutely necessary. Sure. Right. If your core values are friends, family, kids, then you should be talking about that on your website because people want to work with people like them. Yeah. And the more that they can relate to who you are as an individual, the more likely they're gonna want to talk to you.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

Yeah. Uh when you're working with business owners, you're like, I would assume give me content, photos, like uh you know, like you can only do so much with what you're given, right? But how do you how do you extract great content so that you can showcase it on a website, social media, et cetera?

SPEAKER_00 16:50

So here's the trick is you don't make it a a chore. You don't make it a task. Okay, I like that.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:56

I send out a questionnaire to clients, but it's like five questions and they can fill it out in less than five minutes. Where you should be getting all of your content from is in-person interaction or phone calls. And you should be taking notes. That's that's what I do. Because that's when people are their most authentic self. That's when they say things that you never would have thought to ask about in the first place. And so if you take good notes and then you just compile those notes, then you can follow up with pointed questions later, or you can ask AI, or you could do research and just extrapolate off of that information. But if you send someone a 20 question questionnaire, they're not gonna fill it out. No one no one has time for that sort of thing. Sure. You know, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

Very cool. What what kind of content or images are working in 2025, 2026?

SPEAKER_00 17:43

Truthfully, it's all video.

SPEAKER_01 17:45

Video, okay.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

Video video is king. Um some static imagery still works really well. Any type of business could benefit from any type of professional video or photography.

SPEAKER_01 17:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:58

And it's really hard because it's like, hey, I'm a I'm a landscaper, I'm good at landscaping. Like, I don't want to focus on getting photos or drone footage or you know, videos done, but that's what people are looking for, and that's what people engage with. When TikTok came out, what, like five, six years ago, it just changed the game completely. I don't know if anyone remembers, but like it used to just be the horizontal or the square format. And then once it turned into, hey, this is iCandy that I just scroll nonstop on, that's how people interact and engage with brands and other people. And so if you don't have content that fits that format, then you're missing out on talking to people when your competitors might be doing those sorts of things.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

And do you help them get the content or do you work with videographers, photographers, or somebody on their social media team to give it to you? Like how do you collaborate to extract the content?

SPEAKER_00 18:51

We don't do content creation. We'll do like ad creation and ad copy and that sort of thing. But the hard part is we're across the country. Yeah so I don't have a network for every little city that we're working with clients in. If it's local, then we'll refer people out to people that we know. Um, if it's national, then usually what I'll tell them is hey, either find a pro, you know, videography company in your area or find your niece or nephew that lives and breathes on social media as a starting point, right? Because they're already on social. And I'm not gonna lie, these kids these days are insane at video editing. Like they that's what that's their life. So if you can get your niece or nephew who doesn't have a job yet and has some free time to help you out on the side and do some content for you, that's a good starting point. Obviously, if you have the budget, go with the professional company. But that's that's my recommendation.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

Well, I I you're you're speaking because I um my daughter is 14. We just got her a cell phone like not that long ago, right? And uh we went to Ireland, and the best photos on the whole trip was the ones my daughter took because she's going in. I didn't even know like iPhones could edit like this, and she's going in, and everything looked almost like professional. I'm like, man, you only had a phone for just a year. That's good. Like most people actually have advisors. Um, you get your niece or nephew, get your get somebody who's the best social media or camera person you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:18

Um it's really you also gotta think about who your future clients are, right? Depending on what industry you're in, a lot of your clients might be like retiring out of that industry. Yeah. So if you're if your next future clients are Gen Z or whoever, that's that's where they are. Yeah. And that's good. Mostly Gen Z knows how to speak to Gen Z. I mean, I'm a millennial and like I struggle with it, right? So like you gotta understand how to speak to your target demographic.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

Sure. Well, and Matthew, so uh you got a great website, you got a great uh voice in the community about marketing, but you also come and network. Uh so I've seen you at the events, uh, that you've been a part of our community. How has networking helped your business as a marketer?

SPEAKER_00 21:02

One, I I think it's kind of given me a new uh breath of life, you know. Um I have a team, but it's not a huge team, and I and I've worked with large organizations in the past. And that collaboration and that that social environment was really helpful for me. And so going to the networking events, one, we get to talk about how our businesses are doing. So I'm I'm talking with peers and understanding like what challenges and struggles they're facing, but also I'm getting that element of professional social interaction, which I think is huge. Um, on top of that, I have signed a couple clients from the networking events, and those clients have referred other clients to me in their categories, and that's really nice, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

Well, then they get some envy, right? Like, I want my website to look like that. Like, who you got? Like, I uh I just met uh Justin Lindquist the other day, which I he's he's been talking about how much he loves working with you, and um, he's got some really fun things to showcase with his outdoor. Lighting and stuff, but it's been cool to see um when I talk with Justin like his talent and then he had great content, but the when you got a hold of it, it's like another level now. So um really cool to see people in the community come together and helping grow their business and all that stuff. So Matt, who uh who are you looking to connect with? Who are uh uh is there any any Northern Colorado professionals that you'd love to do a one-to-one with, or if they're watching this show, could reach out to you?

SPEAKER_00 22:28

I love working with home service businesses the most, probably, just because oftentimes like the technical digital side of their business, they're not paying as much attention to. They're focusing on boots on the ground, coordinating their efforts with homeowners and and whoever. And that's the type of business that I can feel like I have the most impact on, right? I can help them set up their digital um brand and then generate business for them as well. And again, it's like I meet clients where they are.

SPEAKER_01 22:57

So well, if they want to come meet you or or um maybe like uh say, hey, can you just look at my website? What would be some recommendations? What's the easiest way for people to get a hold of you or to get into contact with you?

SPEAKER_00 23:11

Uh my website, prospectfuture.com, definitely the easiest. We're also in Fort Collins and have a brick and mortar. So if you want to come in, we've got an awesome conference room. We can do some screen shares and kind of walk through whatever whatever you people need.

SPEAKER_01 23:24

All right on. Well, Matthew, thanks for coming on the show. Really appreciate it. We'll see you around Northern Colorado. Andrew, I appreciate it. Thank you. Hey all, thanks for watching. I love networking and building relationships with other Northern Colorado business leaders. So if you want to come meet some of these podcast guests, meet me, or meet some other amazing entrepreneurs in Northern Colorado, I would love to have you attend one of our next events. Uh, go in the podcast description. There's a way so that you can see our upcoming schedule. And maybe you could be a future podcast guest as well. Thanks.