Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Paul Watson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Paul, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

Serving as a volunteer Brand Messaging Consultant for Zach’s Toy Chest, a nonprofit that collects and donates toys to children who have cancer.

When I first met Holly Schwab, the founder of this organization, I immediately wanted to help. As a father, late-stage cancer survivor, and LEGO aficionado, I loved what she was doing.

I told her I wanted to get involved.

She said, “I can’t pay you.”

I said, “I don’t care. I have room for a pro-bono client. Let’s do this.”

Holly kept receiving toy donations that were used. Since hospitals only accept new toys, any used toys she received had to be discarded. This presented a significant drain on her time and energy, especially since she is the one who runs Zach’s Toy Chest.

We discovered that the website may be a major reason why she kept getting used toys, since it was not clear on the kinds of toys that Zach’s Toy Chest accepted. After meeting with me, I suggested that Holly reword Zach’s Toy Chest’s homepage, so people now see the word “new” before “toy.” This made it clear that only new toys would be accepted as donations.

As a result, Zach’s Toy Chest now receives approximately 80% less used toys than they had prior to meeting with me.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a StoryBrand-Certified Guide who provides brand messaging consulting, creation, and implementation. That’s a fancy way of saying I prioritize people’s marketing content for them, so they don’t have to.

Whether you’re a for-profit business selling products or services or a nonprofit trying to raise donations, so much of the process of selling/receiving donations happens online. I help organizations, like Zach’s Toy Chest, show up as their authentic, memorable selves by working with them to clearly convey what they do and what makes them unique.

For a lot of people, they’re missing out on sales/donations because their website is confusing. I help fix that. I did that for Zach’s Toy Chest, so people immediately know what they do when visiting their website.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Show up consistently.

Seek to add value to your prospects and customers by sharing insights from your industry.

Shoot for writing quality posts, but don’t worry about perfection.

Make sure you have calls to action (CTAs) in your posts that lead to landing pages or some other place where people can do business with you. They aren’t necessary to include in every post, but they are helpful to have.

Use AI as a tool when writing posts, but not as a replacement of you–you want to show up as your authentic self, not as an android.

And be intentional about your posts. If you outsource all your writing to AI, you’ll just add to the marketing noise, and you’ll train people to tune you out.

Finally, pick one social platform and stick with it for at least six months. It takes time to grow your social media network.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Sales happens in the context of relationships. So, pay your social dues and let relationships take time to develop. I used to think that when I met with a prospect, I needed to jump right into my pitch. Now, when I network with others, I try to ask questions and listen before I ever talk about myself or my business. I also view people as potential friends before seeing them as potential clients. This allows any sales conversation to occur naturally, if it happens at all.

People do business with others they know, like, and trust. When I started focusing on cultivating relationships more than making a sales pitch or trying to turn someone into a referral partner, things started going much better for me. And if a conversation didn’t lead to a referral or sale, that was fine, too. I still got to know someone else and learn something new.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.1015comms.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pauljwatson/

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