During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer speaks with Trevor Mauch, the CEO of Carrot. You may recognize Trevor as the guy from a few episodes back who talked about how to establish a business versus a job. Well, he’s back to talk about SEO and how marketing affects the lifestyle that you have outside of your business! Episode Highlights:  There is a direct relationship between your marketing techniques and your lifestyle outside of the business. Trevor didn’t see branding as an important tool in his previous companies, most of the time naming the company after the service that it provided. In his previous companies, Trevor had to hustle every month and it led him to feel burnt out and empty. Every agent needs to establish their 5 non-negotiables when building the foundation of their business. People usually think of the deeper meaning behind products when they see others using them. How serious are you about making your company a brand? A brand means nothing without being attached to certain values that consumers can identify with. There are a plethora of reasons that entrepreneurs choose their brand name and marketing techniques. Give stuff to your prospects that their children or pets or loved ones, in general, will use. Entrepreneurs must find ways to connect their brand with a feeling in order to connect with their prospects. The biggest mistake that entrepreneurs make is having conflicting values at home versus at work. Strategies will act as a vehicle to get your values to the people that you want to do business with. Entrepreneurs can differentiate themselves by making their prospects think about them even when they are not there. Evergreen branding will change the mindsets of entrepreneurs and agents to long-term. Trevor saw how inefficiently he was using his time, so he decided to use hamster-wheel marketing to amplify his business, not build the foundation. Broker-Provided Sites are incredibly simple and just include basic information as an entry to your business, but you don’t own the presence. Most custom websites don’t allow the owner to build authority through content creation. An Authority Hub shows a series of content that builds a relationship of trust with the prospect before ever meeting. Take the content that you have that answers common objections by prospects and post it on your website. Carter Steph can teach you how to get extra revenue by increasing the quality of your leads. Create your core-conversion pages once and modify them as you need to (FAQ, Buy a House, Learn About Us, etc.). When you ask someone for a testimonial they go into a different and unauthentic state of mind. Trevor knows the best way to ask for testimonials is by allowing your customers to rehearse their answers before you ask directly. Niche or location pages (800-1000 words) need to be updated quarterly in order to compete with Zillow’s automated system. Authority content involves creating content (articles, videos) that are unique to your area on a weekly basis. See what Google suggests when it comes time to create any content in your niches. Quality is much more valuable than quantity when it comes to leads. 3 Key Points: Branding is more than marketing a product; it’s the process of attaching your name or product or service with certain values in the eyes of your audience. Authority Hubs allow entrepreneurs and agents to build a website with content that establishes trust with their prospects before connecting. Stop asking for testimonials. Shape your questions specifically around their experience or you risk them going into testimonial mode. Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents (website), (Facebook), (Facebook Group), (Twitter), (Instagram) Trevor Mauch (website), (Instagram) Carrot (website) CarrotCast (podcast) LCA Episode 81 with Trevor Mauch Rev.com (transcription website) Carter Steph LinkedIn North Umpqua River Homes for Sale (website) Chime (sponsor) Follow Up Boss (sponsor)