The Hidden Cost of Building a Business on Weak Foundations Episode #74

Samuel: Hey world, welcome back to another awesome episode of Be Inspired Podcast where we're inspiring you to live the abundant life you deserve. So I have another phenomenal guest on the line. However, before we get into it, what if your website is telling your customers something about you that you never intended to say? What if your brand looks professional but nobody remembers it? What if people are searching for your business but AI is recommending your comp competitor? The digital world is changing faster than most business can keep up with. Websites are changing, search is changing, AI is changing, and the way customer decides who they trust is changing with it. So here's a question. Are you building a business for the world that exists today or the world that's coming next? Today we're gonna go behind the scenes and talk about branding, technology, AI, entrepreneurship, and what it really takes to transform business in a digital world. So Let's get into it. I got Elias Curtis here. He's the founder and CEO, CEO of Transform Designing, where he helps business grow through AI search optimization, website automated automation, and lead generation. He has over 17 years of experience and he's worked with a lot of startups. So get ready. He's got all the gems for us so we can scale and grow our websites. All right. So welcome to the podcast, Elias.

Elias Curtis: Yeah, thank you, Samuel. I appreciate it for having us on and yeah, it's it's a joy to be here. Thank you.

Samuel: Awesome. So let's start before transform design. What were you doing before you realized I can actually build business around creative creativity and technology?

Elias Curtis: Sure, so before transform design. so originally from New London, Connecticut, right? So growing up in a small rural town and and then ended up going to college and you know, graphic design has been one of those things where I enjoy doing even after the fact that I was drawing and on computers and so forth. So I was like, well, might as well just blend the two together and and go ahead and make it a a career. And so I graduated college and then I worked in corporate America for for some years and then I just realized you know, there's so much more to this than just design. And so I ended up, you know, going to business with my wife. So my wife and I started the company in 2009 where we started off as a as a design agency, mainly focusing on brand and print, logo designs, anything that's material based, as far as like business cards, brochures, a lot of stationary work. And then we end up doing web design and getting into that and then expanding our services over time, right? Getting into like social media and SEO and marketing and just a lot of the different parts to to this. but yeah, it's been good ever since.

Samuel: So you build a business with you and your wife together. How did that kinda transpire? You was already doing graphic design. How did it well, let's build a business. How did that happen?

Elias Curtis: Well, planning, preparation, prayer, right. And so just being able to like just put on paper, work through it, because we, you know, we have desires to want to start our own business and then and then we just took that leap of faith and just went ahead and and did it after my last job that I had. And yeah, I mean we didn't look back since we've done it. but working together with my wife, it's it's been good. You know, it's ups and downs of course, but you know, it gives us the flexibility and opportunity to spend time together. and and also, you know, share in and working together as well as far as, you know, having similar goals and values and just you know, it's just doing it together, enjoying that that time. So yeah, it's been good.

Samuel: So you've been doing this for a while, more than about fifteen years. So what has changed more dramatically the technology or the way business owners think about technology? What have you seen?

Elias Curtis: Yeah, I'd say it's mixed, right? And so you have you know, I mean, yeah, being in business for seventeen years you can see a lot, right? And so A lot of things that we did in the past was very manual, right? From drawing to to coming up with invoices through Microsoft Word, being able to just that face-to-face interaction is very important, right? Where you just meet people, you know, at like a a coffee shop or something. and then, you know, over time we started to, you know, get more engaged with social media and then that started to chan change the landscape of of engagement and c you know, customer relations and how we interact with one another. Then also too, you know, just with the whole thing with AI integration. So now that changed a lot of things as well over this past past year. But yeah, I mean as I go through the years, I'm like, yeah, I can see, you know, all the different things that we've gone through, especially with it with the pandemic and market stuff going on and ups and downs with businesses. But at the end of the day, you know, the the goal has always been same. Having a strong brand. being able to have visibility that people know you exist and do good work for them and then build up and scale your business over time. And so that's always been the same. Yeah, it never changed.

Samuel: Okay. Yeah. So the what would you say is a strong brand and how can someone like new that's trying to focus on building their brand, what would you say

Elias Curtis: Right.

Samuel: contributes to a strong brand?

Elias Curtis: So when it comes to strong brand, you gotta think about the messaging. Okay, you gotta think about how does your brand come across to the audience or to your target market or d demographics. All right, because a lot of times we get stuck in our own bubble in a sense where we focus on what we like and what we enjoy, which we get limited to what we're able to do, right? So nothing necessarily wrong with that in and of itself, but when you're focused just on that, you miss opportunities to really serve and help, you know, your potential client or customer because you're not meeting what they perhaps need, right? And so is is building that brand message that speaks to the audience, that engages them, to show them something that you have to offer that would help them in their day-to-day life, perhaps, if it's a product or a service that they can use as part of the business workflow, solve problems, and also be efficient with whatever else you got going on to be able to help them succeed, which is greater than just focusing on yourself.

Samuel: Okay. So you mentioned audience and making sure that your brand reflects what your audience want. So what are some questions that someone should ask themselves while building this strong brand that you talked about?

Elias Curtis: Well, that's it. Questions. Why am I doing this? Who am I doing this for? What am I doing? Right? And the why. Like it's it's just being able to sort of put it on paper and just look at, okay, this is how we're gonna start, but what is the goal? What's this look like in five years, ten years, twenty years from now? You know, as you're building out this business or this specific brand. You know, and so yeah, the colors matter, the fonts matter, the overall style matters, right? It's what you're what you're conveying to people to appeal to their emotions perhaps or even, you know, something that they actually need, which is very, very important. So once you're able to solve a problem and meet a need, then you're you're a lot closer to working with that person than you think.

Samuel: Okay. I like that. You know, just asking those questions to make sure you connect with your audience. I think that's very important because sometimes we get caught up in the this is what I want my brand to look like, but not really thinking about what is it gonna do when people other people see it. Are they gonna understand it? Are they gonna relate to it, you know? So I think that's important.

Elias Curtis: Backwards. Yeah.

Samuel: So when you look at a struggling business today, what's one of the first things you notice the owner usually doesn't?

Elias Curtis: Yeah, well there's a lot of things that you can pick up when you do an audit. And so that's usually what I'll end up doing is I'll look at their website, their current positioning, where they at right now, how visible they are. Like if I were to look at online listings and look at social media, look at their SEO and GEO in their current position, then I can tell right away where they're at. as far as their the current status, as far as their business visibility, and even how well they're doing too. And so whether I'm dealing with a startup or a business that's already established, my approach is different for both. Okay, so with a startup, I mean we're literally starting from scratch. Okay, so so what's important when dealing with startups is you gotta make sure you do everything right in the beginning. Because you wanna build on a strong foundation and infrastructure. So when you're building upon you know, a system or or creating a system that works. You know, we're talking lead generation, we're getting lead generation and and programmatic SEO, it's like you want to make sure that everything is solid before you start building because if you build on something that's not that strong, ten years from now you're probably gonna end up having to do do a whole entire rebrand or a whole restruction of your entire system. Right? And can cost a lot of money and time, right? Which we don't really, you know, a lot of us don't really have that. And so So that's what I that's the approach I would take with a startup. It's making sure that everything is tight, strong in the beginning, and build on that which is strong. Now, with a business that's already established, been around for maybe 10 to 20, 15, 20 years, right? I mean, they what's hard about them, right, is because they've had the same brand for so many years. So

Samuel: Yeah.

Elias Curtis: it's not easy to just part with that. Right? And so you have to try to explain things in a way that makes sense, but also appear to the bigger, more important matters. And that that's if you're in business, of course you're in business to help others, but also to to profit. So revenue becomes a conversation. It's like, okay, well, you haven't, especially as we get into lead generation, and I'll give you a quick example. You know, you have construction businesses out there that will spend tons and tons of money on on leads, but they're not converting, right? So that could be a waste of money and it could be a very big expense. So we go in there

Samuel: Yeah.

Elias Curtis: and say, okay, let's build this in a way where we can get qualified leads, right? We we target the specific demographic that when they get a lead, they're like, yeah, that's an ideal customer, right? Now that makes sense because now you're paying for leads that actually, you know, is is worth the value of of the lead. And so we go in there, we help them with the entire system, we build that out for them, and then we've monitored from three to six months, and then we store we show proof, right? We start to show data and and how it works. And when they start to see that, then they invest more into that because it works. Okay, that's that's how they're able to build and scale from there. Yep.

Samuel: Okay. So you mentioned having like a strong foundation and building that strong foundation. As a

Elias Curtis: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Samuel: new person, the brand is important, but what is what are some key things that starts with that foundation?

Elias Curtis: The name. You have to have a good name. I mean the name it's it's subjective, right? So I mean there's names out there, as you know, in the business world, that we're like, we don't even know necessarily what it means, right? So we don't do research and dig up on that and find out, okay, this is why they came up with the name and it'll make sense, right? okay, I get it now. but it really is what you offer. Because what you offer, right, can make up for the name, right? And so if you're building on a name that works especially for search, you know, there's a lot of search terms that that people use within their domain name, which is which is a smart move if you're doing perhaps outreach or marketing. You know, because I mean people search certain key keywords and so if they're searching for those keywords, then of course, you know, your visibility, your presence online will show up. And that's always the goal is to be able to show up in front of the potential customer.

Samuel: Yeah.

Elias Curtis: Yeah, so

Samuel: Okay. So first it's just the name and then just being clear on your message. Awesome. Okay.

Elias Curtis: Yeah, yeah. That's a good start, yes.

Samuel: All right. So you work with branding websites and digital strategy. Why do you think business spends so much time trying to explain what they do instead of making people feel something?

Elias Curtis: Well we just get caught up in the the weeds of it, right? I mean, it's I work with all kinds of people, right? I have clients and partners that I work with. Everyone's different, different personality, different interests, different preferences, right? I know guys who You know, they're into you know doing construction perhaps or or plumbing or something, but whatever reason they want to get into the SEO stuff. You know what I'm saying? Right? They're they're they're back there and they're messing around and they don't have a clue what they're actually doing, but they're back there. And so I have to go in there and say, okay, I I know you're excited about this, but you're really good at plumbing. So, you know, let's let's go ahead and help come alongside you so we can manage the SEO so you can actually get real results. Okay? So that they can focus on what they do best and that's plumbing, right? So that's one example.

Samuel: Yeah.

Elias Curtis: Okay? so it's really taking the load off of our customers and clients of something that will hold them back from succeeding. Right, because if they're focused on other things that they're not necessarily good at, right, and I don't say that, you know, to just offend anyone, I'd say that in honesty. If they're not good at something, they they should not do that and do something else that they're actually better at. Okay.

Samuel: Yeah.

Elias Curtis: And the f and the reason why I say that is because they can get more results focusing on what they're good at and then hire someone else that can do what they're not necessarily good at and then it'll work out across the board because you want the whole thing working at the same time.

Samuel: Yeah.

Elias Curtis: Right. If you just work in one piece of the system and you neglect other parts, then you're you're not gonna you're gonna miss out on opportunities and not get the results that you're actually looking for in the long in the in the long run.

Samuel: So if you if we remove like logos and colors and websites and business names, what would still make a great company recognizable?

Elias Curtis: If you remove all of that,

Samuel: Yeah.

Elias Curtis: you pretty much don't have a presence, man. Right? Because I mean if you're just going out there and you're just offering a a service or product, then it's like the first question they're gonna ask is who's this person?

Samuel: Yeah.

Elias Curtis: So so the trust, and that's another part important point about branding is trust. Because if they recognize a certain brand and they trust that brand, then they're most likely going to do business with that brand. Okay, so if you're like coming out of nowhere and saying, come work with me, where's the credibility? I'm looking at the reputation, where are your reviews? Like like how do I know that you'll do a good job for me? Right? And whatever it is, if you're selling me a product, Or you or you're selling me a specific service, why should I work with you? Right? How why or why should I allow you to help me in in whatever problem that I have? Okay? And so yeah, I mean it's a really important distinction to make, especially when you're working with customers and clients, to to be able to prove that you can help them.

Samuel: How important is you mentioned reviews and why should someone work with you in the online space? How important are those reviews that you talked about?

Elias Curtis: they're strong. Especially in a time I mean it very important is what I mean by that. It it's a strong thing. especially time right now with AI. Because AI has taken over a lot of things and and I mean unf unfortunately there's individuals who are using AI for completely everything for them. Okay. AI is a tool and it's something that's to be used for everyday task and efficiency to get things done and and you know help streamline processes. But that human touch, that one-on-one relationship, that the thing that we even have going on right now is we're communicating. That's what's important. They want to know, are you a real person? Are you somebody

Samuel: Yeah.

Elias Curtis: that I can call and have a conversation? And I'm and and and so so building up that trust and having reviews and having reputation, it's important in business. And so and so yeah, I wouldn't neglect either one. I wouldn't neglect the opportunities to use AI as a tool to to you know make things a lot easier in the process. But I also wouldn't neglect the opportunities to meet people face to face when you can have a good conversation about something that's beneficial and valuable for for both parties.

Samuel: So we got through the logo, we got through branding. What is one of the biggest mistakes you see with people when they're building their first website?

Elias Curtis: Well, I mean, we live in a time of website builders and AI and so almost I wanna say everyone, you know, I don't wanna be extreme. I would say most people, for whatever reason, they think they could just go on and build themselves a website.

Samuel: Okay.

Elias Curtis: Right? And so they'll go on there and they'll go on Squarespace, they'll put it up and it's like, okay, it's cool. It it's not bad either. Like it it they used they have templates, right? So you can you can put up any site online and And that's cool, I mean, it's you know, it makes sense for what what the budget is and you know, they have the monthly plans, thirty, forty bucks a month to use a their platform, right? And so I'm not knocking it. If somebody if they can only afford that and that and they gotta get out there and have a presence, all by means, all go for it, right? But if they wanna do something serious and they wanna get like real results and they wanna build something that that is solid for years to come Then that's gonna take a little bit more of an investment, right? And so

Samuel: Yeah.

Elias Curtis: that's where we come in, right? We're not the cheapest in the market, but we're also not the most expensive. But every business, from what we what we believe, is that they should have an entire system working for them and automated. And we can get into that conversation here in a second. because that's pretty exciting when you start to talk, when I start talking about it, because I'm like, man, this is the future, right? so So yeah, I mean as far as the website, there's so much involved with the website that a lot of people don't know. Like there's design,

Samuel: Yeah.

Elias Curtis: there's coding, then it has to work well on all the mobile devices, right? Your phone, your iPad, your computer. And then you get into like the maintenance part of it. So so let's say you put up a nice site and you're like, this is good. And then like six months later, you realize you gotta put a booking calendar in there. Right? you want to start collecting payment now. Right? It starts so it starts to get a little bit more complex with the functionality. And now they're

Samuel: Yeah.

Elias Curtis: like, I'm stuck. So what do I do? I gotta go look for a d a web developer, right? So they go chasing them, right, trying to trying to get them to help them to whatever problem they have at that point. But even then there's still more, right? So we're talking selling products online if it's an e-commerce website. Then also lead generation is when you're building a system or CRM, which stands for customer relations management, where you're actually having the website engage with your customers. perhaps through AI chat or forms or you know doing an automated phone system, right? And so yeah, it it gets real cool, man. And and so yeah, there's so much more to it. And then we haven't discussed SEO, GEO, AEO, programmatic

Samuel: Yeah.

Elias Curtis: SEO, all the A all the SEOs, right? So there's a lot.

Samuel: So what are some of those things?

Elias Curtis: Yeah, all right, for so for the listeners that don't know, SEO stands for search engine optimization, right? That's when your site is built. And depending on how you build the site, you could use AI or you could use a content management system, which is like a WordPress or or Shopify or or you can go in the back end and make updates yourself. Or website build it like Squarespace, Weaverly Wix and all that. And then you have to do SEO, which you crawl the site and have it submitted to Yahoo, Google, and Bing, right, so that the site can be listed on the search engine. So that's that's traditional SEO. Okay, so if you go on Google, type in a service or a business name, it pops up boom, right on top of the list. Then there's GEO, okay, generative engine optimization. Now that works a little bit differently because now you're feeding AI models information about your product and services and business. And to build it to make those strong is that you have to have what's called citations. So you want to have like online listings, like a Yelp, Yellow pages or next door, something, something that makes sense for your business. And then you build reputations on those platforms. And then what ends up happening is you build trustworthiness. They have this acronym called EAT. I don't know if you're familiar with it. It's E E A T. Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. So when a business has all four of those things, then that's where the citations are being pulled from that. and fed into the AI models. So now your your business, product, and service is now being featured in those AI models. So when they're searching in Chat GBT, Perplexity, Gemini, that's when it'll show. Okay? So that's GEO. And AEO is is more of it's more questions than answers. So if you're like on a Reddit or have questions then you you start to feed that into the the the system as well because you because at the end of the day you want to be like the expert in your field you want to have the voice that speaks to what you're good at. And

Samuel: Yeah.

Elias Curtis: so you're the one answering questions and by answering questions that builds your authority online for people to want to come and come and see you more.

Samuel: So

Elias Curtis: Yeah.

Samuel: building a website isn't just let me just go get the the the square space and the the thing. You need actual GEO, SEO, all those things to get you on the front page so you can have the visibility to get those clients.

Elias Curtis: Yeah, we haven't even talked about programmatic SEO. That's

Samuel: Yeah.

Elias Curtis: building that's building out thousands of pages on your website across the web. It's combination pages. So if you're like a service-based company, it works very well if you work remote nationally or even globally. Because you can build out combination pages like you have different services and then you can use those services in different locations. And then you can build thousands of pages using those combinations, but making sure that the pages are unique and relevant. content.

Samuel: Yeah.

Elias Curtis: It it also increases your visibility and exposure across the web. Yeah, we've done that with

Samuel: And to

Elias Curtis: websites. Yeah.

Samuel: wow. And to think you started all this with just graphic design and now is expanded to this where

Elias Curtis: Yeah.

Samuel: you're able to explain and the importance

Elias Curtis: Yeah.

Samuel: of branding and a website and the back end features that nobody thinks about when building a new business.

Elias Curtis: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, I mean I get it. I've been there, you know, first ten years. I'm

Samuel: Yeah.

Elias Curtis: like running a business but there's so much more to it. Yeah. And so but once you build that system and have it automated, it's working for you in the background.

Samuel: I know you said we'll get to it, but talk to me about the the system that you talk about. What does it all entail? Like you said leads, but what else is involved in that whole system?

Elias Curtis: Okay, so basically it works as a loop. Okay, so it's a closed system that we build and it it goes in a loop format. And so it'll go from brand, right? Logo, presence, visibility, you know, just just the appearance of what your business looks like. And then it gets into the messaging part of what your offer is and what you're all about. Then it moves into online. Okay, so now you have web, the website, which you're building, like it's like your primary hub, and you're building a mode around it. So you're building like strong digital real estate and and expanding out, you know, and this is where backlinks come in and all this, because you know, there's other sites that talk about you, they're pointing them back to your site. Okay, that's how that helps with authority ranking as well. Now, as you build your website, now you're building out your social media channels, okay, you're building out your online listings. So you're literally becoming like you know, you're you're building this authority online that is solidifying who you are as a brand across the web. Okay? And over time you scale and you continue to grow and build upon that. All right, it's not like you just stop. And now if you stop. You know, it's gonna be very difficult to to build up the reputation with reviews, let people know that you're active, that you're engaged, and so forth. so you have to keep that going. And that's where the automation comes in. And so the automation, the way the automation works, especially with AI, is like, so you can build a site using AI. You can also build out a lead system, right? That's part of a CRM. And there's a bunch of them out there. You know, for us we use Go High Level. You know, that we partner with them to do a lot of our CRM and and lead generation system just because it's automation is really, really good, especially with AI. And so I'll pay basically create a site and I'll connect all the pieces to it. Like I'll connect social media to the site through the system, online listings. And so the way it works with AI is AI is like is an assistant, kind of like an employee

Samuel: Yeah.

Elias Curtis: in a sense, you know, it's it's like working for you. So you program AI to know your business well. you give it a knowledge base. And as you give it a knowledge base, then it's being it's able to speak on your behalf. Now, the way that I has I have it set up on our company right now is I have WhatsApp, I have all the social media channels, I have online listings. So anybody that goes through those channels, AI is talking to them. Okay, they're talking to them through my text messaging, through Instagram, through the website, through Meta, all over the place. And so a lot of that is building up what we call lead nurturing. Okay, lead nurturing is when a lot of people contact us through those channels and they're all being collected in the CRM. Okay, so I can go back throughout the day and I can see, you know, who's contacted us based on all the things we got going on online. Okay, and then we can automate the follow-up system as well. You can automate like emails. Emails can be sent to them right after, hey, you know, book book a count calendar appointment, you know, give me a call or or leave me a review or whatever you want. Download download a book, a course and a PDF file or whatever, right? And so all of this happening automatically, okay, because it's been programmed and built that way. And the goal is retention, right? So once we build out the system, right, I'll go through all the lead generation, you're building out, you're building your reputation, you're getting reviews across the web, then it's retention. What I mean by that is now you have loyal customers and clients that they're gonna work with you for a long time because you've done something for them nobody else has ever done. getting results. They're getting they're getting more clients that they've ever had now than before working with us. You see that? So it goes back to proof. It goes back to do we care about them? Do we want to see them succeed? Is there a problem that they have that we can actually fix? And if we can do all of those things, then that builds trust and it builds a strong business relationship. Okay, and then you just repeat that cycle over and over again again with every business. And that's how you grow and scale, man.

Samuel: Well, so it's a whole a whole circle. Starting with just the logo and building it all the way to just lead generation and consistency, including AI in there. So

Elias Curtis: Exactly.

Samuel: that's really interesting because you talked a little bit about like using AI as as a tool as well. So what's something that entrepreneurs doing with AR AI right now that actually looks innovative? But it's actually a waste of time.

Elias Curtis: No, that's a hard one. Right. So I give other talks too about this. And it's like, you do have to learn. There is a learning curve, right? You have to go up. So the question is, is how long are you going to be in that learning curve? Right? Because some people can be in there very short time. They're going to be in there in a very long time. For me, personally, it took me about three to six months to work through flush through tools, AI tools. Because some were really good and there are others that were really bad. Now I'm not gonna name drop any of the bad tools, but but at the day, there's tools that are just really, really good. Like I I use ChatGBT, I use Cloud, right? I use as part of my system, my my stack, they would call it, as part of my everyday workflow and task management. And it's done very well for me. Now, that could be different for someone else. Someone else could be saying, perplexity is my my go-to, or Gemini is is is what I use for this, that, and the third, and that's okay. Right? So it's not about, you know, what tool is better than the other two, as much as how do we work with these tools in order to get to a a result that we're looking for. Because if I'm getting what I need by using AI technology to achieve that, then then that works. Okay? but yeah, I mean if you're using tools that don't work and you're just constantly doing that, then yeah, I mean, it's w it could be a waste of time. But I was looking at an opportunity to learn. People are just learning. And and and when once they learn, then they can use that. to do something, all kinds of things. And there's so many opportunities in business to do something.

Samuel: Yeah. I think in business we're just always learning and growing, you know, getting to the next level, you it's gonna take some kind of growth.

Elias Curtis: Yeah.

Samuel: so just being able to like grow and learn from your failures and mistakes, because failure isn't really failure, you just gotta learn from your mistakes. So have you ever had to tell a client something they didn't want to hear because it was what their business needed to hear?

Elias Curtis: Every day, man. Every day. Every day. what

Samuel: How did that conversation go for you?

Elias Curtis: some of them go good, some of them don't. Right? I mean there's times where clients will move on from the the business relationship that we've had for you know some years because of the the changes that we're making, especially with AI migration and and technology. because maybe they don't just don't understand it. Or they're scared of it. Or they're just used to what they're doing and they don't want to change. And so for for some I'm just patient with them. For others, they see it and they're like, Okay, what do I need to do to change, get all this stuff taken care of? And I'm like, All right, well we ha first we have to come up with a plan, right? 'Cause we can't just jump in and just change everything overnight. Like even though we're using AI, you know, on average we can change entire systems for businesses for like, you know, about a week and t or week to two weeks, which is still a good turnaround. Right. It beats, you know, two to three months of them doing it. Because that's usually how it would take if they did it manually. So time is a big deal. but yeah, it's it's it's unfortunate that you know you have to have those conversations, right? Especially if they're on a website that they should probably change their platform for what they want to get, right? Because I mean if you're complaining about not getting leads, but yet you're on a website builder that's not performing the way that it should. then you're either gonna have to build out a system on that platform or change the platform into something that that's better and that works more efficiently for you. And so, you know, it's it's a lot of times it's got to put it in writing for them, let them mole over it, digest it, you know, pray about it, whatever they do in order to make a good decision. Yeah.

Samuel: So talk to me about a business owner that is going through that identity crisis you talked about a little bit earlier. He has the business, he's unsure of like what the brand is actually supposed to mean, but he knows he wants to build a business. tell me a little bit about the identity that he has to create online when it comes to personal versus business. That makes sense.

Elias Curtis: Well yeah, I I mean yeah, it makes sense. I mean when it comes to business, I mean, sometimes we just gotta put our feelings aside, right? We have to look at it logically, we've gotta look at it objectively, like we have to see it for what it is. so a lot of times I appeal to the pain points. I see a problem, they expressed it a lot of times. whatever it is. My my brand isn't doesn't look good or my website isn't working or my leads are not qualified or I'm not getting enough traffic or nobody knows that I exist. How do I get my my business name out there? So those are all issues and problems that we deal with every day with businesses. And so we can solve those problems. But there is a process in order to do it. Right? In order so so it takes patience, it takes it takes time, it takes an investment. And if they're willing to to do that, then they would see results within two to three months. And there's things that we can guarantee. Right? We

Samuel: Yeah.

Elias Curtis: can't guarantee that they're gonna, you know, double their revenue, but we can't guarantee that we can get them in front of a lot of people within the target market. Yeah.

Samuel: So if technology keeps ch changing every year, what part of an entrepreneur can never be come outdated?

Elias Curtis: Well, character. I mean, it's the what you stand for, right? Integrity, discipline, you know, caring for businesses, you know, just serving, you know, whatever values you have that that that never changes and that works. Trust, right? That's a big one. And so those things are very, very important, especially if you're building a strong business and brand. how about the kind of clients how about the kind the kind of clients that we perhaps would work with right

Samuel: Yeah.

Elias Curtis: Okay. So yeah, I mean, so the clients, I mean, there's different kinds, right? So there's there's service-based businesses, which we call them S and Bs. It's basically small to mid-sized businesses. So that's pretty much our our space. Because what we do is lead generation and a lot of those businesses need exactly what we do. and then you know you have content creators and influencers on social media, right? We'd work with them too, but it's they're not necessarily looking for leads as much as they're looking for more brand awareness.

Samuel: Yeah.

Elias Curtis: And then they get into more merch, which is sales and products. And so if anything, they would probably move into that direction as far as brand awareness and sales with with product product conversions. So So yeah, I mean it just depends. So what I do is when I do audit or or get to know someone that's in the space. And when I say space, I'm talking about just online in general. My question is is what are they doing? Why are they doing what they're doing to get to the heart of their business and who they are. And to see if there's even a good fit or alignment that if we can even work together, because a lot of times I go there, I go into relationship with the mentality that, hey, we're gonna work together for a very long time. So if they don't want to work with me more than one week, I'm like, yeah, we're not a good fit. Because we're talking years here. Okay?

Samuel: Yeah.

Elias Curtis: Because I know the nature of GEO, SEO, and programmatic SEO. It takes, it takes four to six months to build out a strong SEO expansion. So so if they're having problems within the first week, even the first month, we're not gonna get anywhere. Nope.

Samuel: They're not. Okay.

Elias Curtis: And so it's important to know that.

Samuel: So last question before we get off, what should entrepreneurs be developing into in themselves that no algorithm can replace?

Elias Curtis: Commitment. They gotta be ready to make the commitment. Whatever it is that they're building, it has to be a commitment. Because if you just start things and stop things and start things and stop things and you're all over the place. I mean you you may, you know, you heard the expression, you know, jack of all trades, master of none, right? It's it's a it's a real saying. Right? So if you're doing a lot of different things, then you're you're not building something that is strong, that lasts for a long period of time. And so I mean in the beginning you may have to go through that just to find out what you're looking to do or find out what you what what works, but eventually you have to land we have to land somewhere to run with it, yeah, eventually.

Samuel: So what would you tell the entrepreneur that's just starting, just trying to figure it out? What's one piece of advice you would give that person that seems lost or trying to figure it all out all together?

Elias Curtis: They have to find out what they're good at. What they're good at, what they enjoy, what they love, what they're passionate about, what they can see themselves doing for like, you know, 10, 20 years, and what can make an impact in the world. Right? And so that's important to flesh out those questions and and answer them honestly.

Samuel: Elias, thank you for coming on the podcast and sharing your knowledge. I appreciate you. how can people connect with you?

Elias Curtis: Sure. so my company site is transformdesign.com. I have my personal brand site is aliascurtis.com and then I have a SaaS site that I built that's called businesslaunchos.com. They can check out all those sites and get more information about me and my business. I'm also on Substack as well, so I do some writing there and talk about business and faith and family and all those kinds of things. So it's a little bit of a different topic, but if anybody's interested, they can always check that out. And I'm all across the web on social media outlets, LinkedIn, Alignable and other places. So yeah, feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

Samuel: Lisa, I want to thank you for coming on Be Inspired Podcast, where we're inspiring people to live the abundant life you des they deserve. So if you, anybody that listen and they feel something resonated with them, anything that Ly said, go ahead and comment. Let's have a conversation in the comment boxes. All right. And we'll see you on the next episode of Be Inspired Podcast, where we're inspiring you to live the abundant life you deserve. Have a great week.