“SaaS companies do not know how to market themselves at all. Most software-based companies cannot market. How come?”
Rob Cairns asked me that during a recent episode of The SDM Show.
Now, if you’ve never listened to an episode of The SDM Show (SDM stands for Stunning Digital Marketing), then maybe you don’t know we’re not scripted – at all. So, generally Rob sends me a message on WhatsApp or calls and says, I need a topic for this month. I give it to him and we just talk.
For this episode, Rob wanted to record a special episode now that I’ve recently eliminated my own big distraction: my 30 hr/wk retail job.
So all I knew about this episode is that Rob was going to ask some big question. I didn’t think he’d make my argument for me. But then again, we are usually aligned.
So, why are SaaS founders so poor at marketing? I gave him an answer, and, of course, expanded on it, and then gave some more arguments. Because apparently I needed 50 minutes to realize they were all the same answer.
SaaS founders are very good at building things. That’s their strength. But it can also become their biggest distraction. That leads me to the axiom, “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”
Watch the Video
“In this episode of The SDM Show, Rob Cairns sits down with marketing strategist and monthly co-host Bridget Willard to dissect the unique blind spots SaaS companies face when marketing their products. Bridget shares why she recently eliminated outside distractions to double down on SaaS, the critical importance of understanding your true billable worth, and why founders must stop treating marketing like an afterthought.”
Being Able to Do Something Isn’t the Same as Being Good at It
One of the widest myths – and for the love of God and all that is holy, please do not tell people this in your company – in tech is that “everyone does marketing.” No. They absolutely do not.
You can open a Twitter/X account. You can build a website. Maybe you can write a blog post or have Claude make you a graphic. You can ask Claude to write some code.
That doesn’t mean you know how to market.
I can buy a hammer. I actually know a fair amount about construction. I know studs are typically 16 inches on center. I know walls need to be plumb and square. I know what headers and braces are. Please do not hire me to frame your house. Knowing how to use the tool isn’t the same as knowing the discipline.
Marketing is a skill. It’s technical. It’s analytical. It’s strategic. And most importantly, it’s human-centered.
The tech infrastructure (apps, AI, websites) is just the infrastructure.
What Does Your Time Cost?
Besides the argument that SaaS Founders are not necessarily marketers, there comes to the point where I ask: how much does your time cost?
I keep watching founders spend hours vibe coding replacements for software that costs $20 or $30 a month. Why? Now you have to build it, maintain it, troubleshoot it, and support it all while models are changing faster than Taylor Swift changes outfits at a concert.
All to avoid paying someone else $30 a month? This makes no sense.
I learned job costing when I worked in construction. At one company, the owner literally cost the corporation about $125 an hour. He would sometimes spend working hours doing bookkeeping for his dad that could have been handed to someone making $15 an hour.
I kept telling him that he was a very expensive bookkeeper. Hire the bookkeeper. Your time isn’t free just because nobody sends you an invoice for it.
Every hour you spend doing a $15 task is an hour you’re not spending doing the $125 work only you can do. You know, the work that brings in customers. Or in the case of SaaS founders, the work that brings in demo calls, podcast appearances, and new users.
If You Vibe Code a SaaS…
One of my favorite children’s books when I was learning to become a teacher was If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. It’s basically a lesson in natural consequences. “If you give the mouse a cookie, he’s going to want a glass of milk.” Then he’ll need a napkin. One thing leads to the next.
SaaS founders need this book.
“If you vibe-code a SaaS, you’re going to need users.” If you have users, they’re going to have support tickets. You’re going to need documentation. Billing. Marketing. Customer communication. Retention. Infrastructure.
You can’t stop your thinking at, “I can build this.” Think through what happens three to five moves next. Then decide if it’s worth your time.
“We made a point of turning any first-time answer to a problem into a knowledgebase article immediately. Over time, this allowed us to have repeat questions answered automatically with high-quality, step-by-step solutions.” Arvid Kahl
Nobody Knows to Search for Something They Don’t Know Exists
This is another place where the builder mindset gets SaaS companies into marketing trouble.
You create something new. Maybe you’ve created an entirely new category. And then you start doing keyword research. Seriously? Keyword research? For a brand new category? Imagine how SEOs would have attacked the air fryer? “Let’s do keyword research on convection ovens.”
If you created a new program/product (SaaS), no one knows you exist. What are they going to search for?
And even if they see it, consumers may not realize your product is a choice.
People can’t search for something they don’t know to search for. This is why I talk so much about visibility, especially on Twitter/X. Before someone can search for your product by name, they have to encounter it. Before they can trust it, they have to recognize it. Before they can choose it, they have to know it’s one of the choices.
Recognition → Trust → Sales.
SEO has a place but it is much later in the game. You just can’t optimize your way around being unknown.
Other Founders Are Not Your Customers
Another misstep I see with SaaS founders, especially on Twitter/X, is that they really like following their peers. I blame the Build-In-Public community for this.
The Build in Public movement started as a useful marketing tactic and one I recommend in my book, “How To Market Your Plugin.” Tell people what you’re working on. Prime the pump. Create interest before the launch.
But somewhere along the way, founders started watching other founders and copying their visible playbooks. That’s dangerous.
- You don’t know if their strategy is working.
- You don’t know if they’re trying to get users or become a Creator.
- You don’t know what they’re spending.
- You don’t know if they’re profitable.
- You don’t know if they’re living with their parents and have almost no overhead while you have employees, healthcare, rent, and a mortgage.
And most importantly: You don’t know if their customers are your customers.
The reason you built your product matters. The problem it solves matters. Your customers’ language matters. Your support tickets matter. That’s where the best marketing comes from. Not from copying whatever another founder posted on Twitter/X this morning.
Stop Building Things Nobody Asked For
This next marketing issue SaaS founders has falls into the distractions category. Now let me say that I both love and respect builders. I love the engineering brain that looks at something and thinks, “I could make that.” That’s how we get new products. It’s also how founders get distracted.
Please don’t build something simply because you can. Listen to your customers. Watch what they’re asking for. Read the support tickets. Pay attention to what they’re complaining about publicly. Notice the workarounds they’ve invented because your product doesn’t quite solve the problem yet. Those are signals. “Ooh, I could build this” is not a signal.
During the podcast, I actually gave an example of something I want: Give me a tool where I can enter four YouTube URLs and get a highlight reel. Build that. I’ll pay you money for that. That’s a customer telling you what she wants. This is very different from a founder sitting alone thinking, “Wouldn’t it be cool if…?”
Your Business Needs You to Stay Focused
Focus is really what all of this comes down to. Distraction is expensive. Doing your own bookkeeping is a distraction. Rebuilding inexpensive software is a distraction. Managing your own marketing is a distraction. Building another feature is a distraction. Watching your competitors is a distraction.
Even learning a new skill can become a distraction when you’re learning it to avoid paying someone who already knows how to do it.
You have finite time. So does your company. So does your product. You don’t need to prove that you’re capable of doing everything yourself. You need to know which work is yours.
Near the end of our conversation, Rob and I finally distilled almost an hour of talking into one question.
You can. But should you?
Almost always?
No.
Get SaaS Marketing That Works
If you’ve built a good SaaS product and you’re sitting there thinking, “Why doesn’t anybody know about us?”—that’s probably when you should call me. Especially if you know you should be participating on X and creating content, but you’re busy building the company and you don’t want to become a full-time marketer.
Book a quick sales call or a strategy session today!
Full Transcript
Announcer (00:00):
From the center of the universe, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, this is The SDM Show with your host, Rob Cairns. The SDM Show focuses on business, life, productivity, digital marketing, WordPress, and more. Sit back, relax, grab your favorite drink, and enjoy the show. Here is Rob.
Rob Cairns (00:20):
Hey, everybody. I’m Rob Cairns. I’m the founder, CEO, and chief technologist at Stunning Digital Marketing. Today, I have my good friend, Ms. Bridget Willard with me, and Bridget’s gonna share her passion on why she likes working with SaaS companies. And frankly, you need to work with her. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.
Rob Cairns (00:46):
This episode is brought to you by All In One WP Migration, the most trusted WordPress migration plugin with over 60 million sites served. Whether you are switching hosts, changing domains, or moving to a new server, all in one WP Migration makes it one click. Buy it for free at wordpress.org or visit ServeMask.com for Pro features. Hey, everybody. Rob Cairns here, and today I have my good friend, a monthly co-host, an all around great business person, Bridget Willard, Hey, Bridge. How are you?
Bridget Willard (01:26):
Hi, everybody.
Rob Cairns (01:27):
Hey. So, I though we’d do something a little different today. Um, you’re shifting gears. We know that. I’ve known you for a long time.
Bridget Willard (01:37):
I wouldn’t call it shifting gears.
Rob Cairns (01:39):
I would say focusing your direction on where it should be. How so? I,
Bridget Willard (01:45):
I wouldn’t say that either.
Rob Cairns (01:47):
Okay, so what do you wanna say? What do you wanna call It?
Bridget Willard (01:50):
I quit my part-time job that was a distraction.
Rob Cairns (01:54):
Okay.
Bridget Willard (01:55):
‘Cause I, because otherwise it sounds like I haven’t been focused on my business.
Rob Cairns (02:00):
No.
Bridget Willard (02:00):
When in truth, when, in fact, I’ve had two jobs for three and a half years, and that’s two jobs too many.
Rob Cairns (02:08):
Yep.
Bridget Willard (02:08):
And I’ve fi- finally had to decide one of these little boyfriends has to go. Bye-bye. <laugh>.
Rob Cairns (02:15):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (02:15):
Like, you ca – you, you can only do so much work, you know? I have a person I outsource to as well, but we, we can only do so much work. And it just, it just was such a distraction. I learned a lot from it. All of my UX stuff that I rant about, everything that, you know, like topics we’ve had on this show, the QR code example.
Bridget Willard (02:39):
Like people don’t ha – know how to use QR codes. Just stop.
Rob Cairns (02:43):
Show them.
Bridget Willard (02:43):
Okay?
Rob Cairns (02:44):
Show them.
Bridget Willard (02:44):
You got old ladies tr – taking pictures of QR codes. They try to get a hold of their credit card account. Okay, just stop. It, it’s not working. Nobody’s thinking about the user. That’s like, I feel like I should have been a UX person in another life.
Rob Cairns (03:02):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (03:03):
Anyway. Maybe even this one.
Rob Cairns (03:05):
I, I agree with you. Uh, and I agree it’s a distraction. And you’ve done that.
Bridget Willard (03:09):
‘Cause my business is about to be 10 years old, uh, next year. It’s nine years old this year. So it’s not like I’ve been r – you know, I’ve like a store manager or something and I quit my business and I’m starting over. The business has been continuously running for the PR people or the naysayers or the gossipy chismosos. Like the business has been running –
Rob Cairns (03:38):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (03:38):
Since October 17th, 2017.
Rob Cairns (03:41):
So one of the things you do is you work with SaaS companies.
Bridget Willard (03:47):
That’s what I do.
Rob Cairns (03:48):
And I’m gonna be –
Bridget Willard (03:49):
Not one of. Yes, that’s like the bread and butter.
Rob Cairns (03:54):
And I’m gonna be very frank, SaaS companies do not know how to market themselves at all. Most software based companies cannot market. How come?
Bridget Willard (04:12):
You know, that’s a good question. I think they have trust issues, number one. Mm-hmm. Uh, number two, they have this belief that because they can open an account on social media, because they can build or have Claude build themselves a website, that that means they can market. Marketing is a skill, a scientific skill, a soft skill, a human-centered skill that is on top of the technical infrastructure that you build upon it. So, um, I think one of the worst sayings and myths that has plagued SaaS and tech companies in general is this phrase, “Everyone does marketing.”
Rob Cairns (05:08):
Not true.
Bridget Willard (05:11):
They absolutely do not.
Rob Cairns (05:13):
Mm-hmm.
Bridget Willard (05:14):
I have. My work has been revolutionary for my clients. Even the ones that stopped using me still send me referrals. I’ve had clients get acquired, their products get acquired, they’ve been sold. Like, I’m. If I were. I just tweeted like, “If my name was Brandon, I would have so many people knocking down on my door I’d have to hire.” But, but then again, it’s 2026 for, so for sure sexism doesn’t happen, right? Uh – <laugh>
Rob Cairns (05:55):
What, what planet are we on today?
Bridget Willard (05:58):
Oh my God. Like, I keep seeing. Uh, so I was like on a whole rant today, and I’ll just say, I was like, “I don’t understand why you guys don’t understand this.” Tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet. Like why. You saw one of them. Like why do you not have a link in your footer for your Twitter account?
Rob Cairns (06:21):
Yeah. Yeah.
Bridget Willard (06:23):
Are you, are you kidding me right now? ‘Cause Twitter is where everybody’s going, “What are we using instead of Salesforce?” “What are we using instead of Printable?” “What are we using instead of Dropbox?” What are we using instead of…” I mean, I’m watching people spend way too much time, way too much of their billable time even, vibe-coding a replacement for 20 or $30 a month.
Rob Cairns (06:53):
Yeah. It’s not worth the time.
Bridget Willard (06:55):
Use of SaaS. What are you doing? You wanna do your own support now?
Rob Cairns (06:59):
It’s not worth the time.
Bridget Willard (07:00):
Look, it’s just an accounting program. Why are you wasting your time on this? Go get clients.
Rob Cairns (07:06):
It’s not worth it.
Bridget Willard (07:07):
Let somebody else do the marketing. Like, you know, I just, I don’t. To me, this stuff is so obvious.
Rob Cairns (07:14):
It is.
Bridget Willard (07:14):
But I am, but I am a unique, uniquely skilled individual. I see things from all –
Rob Cairns (07:25):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (07:26):
Ways. I, uh, when I was a teach. When I was learning to be a teacher, we took a multiple subjects personality [multiple intelligences] test. Mm-hmm. And I got even throughout all eight of those, um, skills. I also just took the Gre – uh, Gregor Jeffries modes test. I’m both cognitive and analytical, but there’s two more. I am all four of the modes. Like, uh, my mind is just always questioning and thinking and strategizing and systematizing these things. And that’s why I, I’ve had a hard time really explaining what I do.
Bridget Willard (08:09):
And, you know, it was on me. Like, “Oh, yeah, I do Twitter.” But “doing Twitter,” uh, for one person is not the same as what I do, right? So that’s why I’ve worked on the copy and the positioning on my website. I ditched my whiskey glass logo. I’m like, I’m going all in on what I do-do. I just saw somebody who ghost writes tweets for executives. It’s like 20 or 30 posts a month, and he’s charging $2,900. And I’m like, “Oh my gosh, I am severely undercharging.” Because I’m, I’m like. Well, I’ll let you answer that question, ask me other questions. But like, I am realizing that I have been underselling myself for a long, long time.
Rob Cairns (09:03):
I agree. I agree.
Bridget Willard (09:04):
And that, that is what’s ending. I am no longer underselling myself. I am no longer minimizing what I do so that other people’s egos feel good or whatever. I’m not apologizing for who I am. I’m not wearing makeup today. I’m not gonna waste an hour putting makeup on to be on the show today. Like, I’m tired of, like, having to try to be somebody else –
Rob Cairns (09:33):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (09:34):
In order to be respected and trusted and everything. I know what my clients get from me.
Rob Cairns (09:41):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (09:41):
They know what they get from me. They appreciate what I do for them. I appreciate them. We have great relationships. Like, I am very happy with what I’m doing, and I’m just not gonna try to play that game anymore. And I’m not gonna undersell what I’m doing to make somebody else feel better. Like, I’m not lowering myself so that oth – some other person’s ego is better.
Rob Cairns (10:10):
No, I, I agree. So
Bridget Willard (10:11):
If that. If you’re already offended listening to this thus far, then I’m sorry, but there’s other people you can work with because I don’t have time to do everybody anyway, so.
Rob Cairns (10:22):
But I agree with you. I think one of the problems, and I’ve said this time and time again, is people coming out of the WordPress space, and let’s be fair, that’s where you come out of. Um, a lot of them like to undersell themselves because they’re all afraid of the, “If I don’t drop my money.” Well, guess what? There’s a. The race to the bottom is a shithole disaster. And I’m gonna say it. I don’t care. It’s my show. And it’s a shithold disaster. That is a sure way to go out of business unless you’re a dollar store or a five and dime or something like that person. The second thing is, and you make a really good point about stuff and about how companies should think about what they’re doing.
Rob Cairns (11:12):
We both know Paul Tobey and I have the utmost respect for Paul, and he knows that. So one of the things Paul used to teach in his courses is if you don’t have time to do it, outsource it, get somebody to do it for you. If you don’t like doing it, outsource, get somebody to do it for you. If you’re not good at doing it, outsource it and get somebody to do it for you. And concentrate on your core business and what makes you money. And most people can’t grasp that simple concept that wasting all this time vibe-coding and then having to support it, and then having to do it all, is actually costing them often hundreds of dollars for an hour because they’re stupid and money foolish. End of story.
Bridget Willard (12:06):
Well, I, I would go back a little further than that – Yeah. To diagnose it. I would say you’re not self-aware.
Rob Cairns (12:15):
That’s correct.
Bridget Willard (12:16):
So it’s really. It’s not. I think that people really think there is an honor in building it all yourself, right? I, I’m, I’m gonna. So I’m gonna err on the side of they really believe they’re doing the right thing. They’re gonna go ahead, they’re gonna grow all of their own food. They’re gonna grow their own pigs. They’re gonna slaughter them. They’re gonna process them themselves. They’re gonna cure the meat themselves. They’re gonna cook it themselves, and they feel better that they are one person or one unit ecosystem. I really believe that there are people who believe that.
Rob Cairns (12:54):
Can I Stop you there for a sec?
Bridget Willard (12:55):
Because otherwise, it doesn’t make any sense. Yep.
Rob Cairns (12:59):
Can I stop you for a second? So
Bridget Willard (13:01):
It has to be that.
Rob Cairns (13:02):
For a sec. And that’s why those SaaS businesses do not scale, because if you’re one person and you don’t have the business sense to go hire somebody like yourself to help them, and you’re trying to do it all, guess what, folks? You only have so much pay hours. And how many times have I heard a founder and business forget work, has relationship problems. Let’s go there. He comes home, “Hi, honey. How are you today? Tired. I want something to eat. I’m going to bed. I gotta be at work at 9:00 at 8:00 tomorrow.” And this goes on and goes on and goes on. How many times have I heard that? Or he doesn’t know who his kids are, his family is, and all he does is work. Guess what, folks? That’s not good for you either. So what you need to do is take what Bridget is saying to heart and get that through your thick head.
Bridget Willard (14:10):
I mean, uh, in construction, we were a lot better at job costing than I think – Yeah. Uh, the companies I know and work with are. Um, maybe, maybe they do, maybe they don’t, but. I was, I was the one who did it. So I was. I know, I knew those numbers. And I’ve said it before on your show. I had a guy, the owner of the company, who costs the company literally $125 an hour.
Rob Cairns (14:39):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (14:39):
That’s not what you charge. That’s, that’s what you cost –
Rob Cairns (14:43):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (14:44):
The corporation. And you’re doing $15 an hour bookkeeping for your dad during working hours?
Rob Cairns (14:52):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (14:52):
Hire a bookkeeper, okay? Yeah. This is a distraction. This is a waste of time. And distractions. I’m, I’m finding this more and more the older I get. I am 53. I have got 20, 17 years left in me of, of a career, right? Mm-hmm. There. I don’t have time for distractions.
Rob Cairns (15:16):
Me neither.
Bridget Willard (15:17):
Um, in, in the life cycle of a product, you don’t have time for distractions. You need to stay focused on what you’re doing, and that’s why you hire people and bring them along to do these other pieces.
Rob Cairns (15:34):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (15:34):
Now, so I, I am doing that marketing for SaaS companies, okay? But I’m also h- have opened up my calendar for marketing consults or strategy sessions. Of course, it’s paid. The price is going up in October. If you’ve seen this in October, it’s $175 an hour.
Bridget Willard (15:55):
I’m, I – You are. Yeah, uh, yeah, of course. That’s a lot more Canadian, for sure. Um, I will not charge you a tariff. You will just pay what it is.
Rob Cairns (16:05):
Yeah. Yeah.
Bridget Willard (16:06):
Um, but the thing is that, that every person I’ve ever talked to is knows that they’ve unblocked themselves because I will get at them until they answer the real question.
Rob Cairns (16:21):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (16:21):
And most of the time, it doesn’t matter if it’s a SaaS founder or a guy starting a construction company, a s – a business owner is almost always in their own way. And this is why you go to therapy.
Bridget Willard (16:38):
You go to therapy, you have to have somebody to talk to. You have a mentor. You have to have somebody to talk to you.
Rob Cairns (16:47):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (16:47):
You have a group of peers. You have an accountability buddy. You. Maybe it is your spouse, wife, partner, life partner. Maybe it’s that. Maybe that’s the person, but maybe you need another peer to talk to that’s going through the same things that can help you walk through those things. If not, you talk to somebody who has no interest. That’s a counselor, a business coach, somebody like me. That’s who you talk to. You have to. And then when they give you assignments, do them, you know? You, you can’t expect a personal trainer to help you lose weight if you’re not willing to show up at the gym.
Rob Cairns (17:33):
I agree. 100%.
Bridget Willard (17:34):
And none of this is free, by the way. And this is, this is part of the problem with that certain ecosystem. I just saw a notice on Reddit, like, maybe three hours ago, uh, “who’s building websites paying zero dollars to any plugins?” Like, this is the wrong question to ask.
Rob Cairns (17:56):
Yep.
Bridget Willard (17:56):
If this is a business asset, this website –
Rob Cairns (17:59):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (18:00):
We’re talking about business assets. We’re talking about building infrastructure so that you can make money, okay? $30 a month on hosting should be the lowest amount you ever pay, not a high amount.
Rob Cairns (18:17):
It’s true.
Bridget Willard (18:17):
This is your business. It’s $30. You spend more on that, uh, you know, going to the movies, just –
Rob Cairns (18:26):
That’s right.
Bridget Willard (18:27):
Basically by yourself. What do you –
Rob Cairns (18:29):
But here, but
Rob Cairns (18:29):
Here’s the problem with
Bridget Willard (18:30):
It. What are you talking about?
Rob Cairns (18:32):
The people who spend the 30, that wanna spend the five and the $10 also wanna make the million dollars.
Bridget Willard (18:39):
It doesn’t work like that.
Rob Cairns (18:41):
Work like that.
Bridget Willard (18:41):
Way. You and I both know – I mean, it takes money to make money. Make money. It’s there for. Yes. I mean, that, that’s the thing. Most, and most of the time, people are in their own way. Or especially with the tools I use to get insights and biz dev and all that, they have a preconceived notion about a certain marketing platform.
Rob Cairns (19:04):
Yep.
Bridget Willard (19:05):
And they devalue it and, uh, or they said, “I tried Twitter. It doesn’t work.” Right. So a con – a person who frames houses can use a hammer properly and build a house.
Rob Cairns (19:21):
Yep.
Bridget Willard (19:21):
Bridget Willard has a hammer. I could buy the same hammer. We could go to Home Depot and buy the same hammer.
Rob Cairns (19:27):
But you don’t know how to build that and frame houses.
Bridget Willard (19:29):
I don’t know how to frame out houses. I know it’s 16 on 16 center. You know, I know you need two by fours. I know you need. I know, know head knowledge. I know you need a top. I know you need braces. I know it needs to be plumb. Yeah. I know it needs to be square. That’s not enough.
Rob Cairns (19:45):
Well, let me, let me ask you –
Bridget Willard (19:46):
That’s not enough.
Rob Cairns (19:47):
Let me ask – Let me ask you.
Rob Cairns (19:48):
Surface
Bridget Willard (19:48):
Level knowledge. That’s surface.
Rob Cairns (19:50):
Let me ask you a question. Let me ask you a question. So you’re gonna go hammer that house, and I can buy the expert over in the corner and pay him to do it, or I can get you to do it, or I can get me to do it. Good luck. I always joke that I can’t paint even with a brush and a roller. Um, and how long is it gonna take? Even if you could do it, it’s gonna take you, the unexperienced person, hours to do it, which is costing you money from doing other stuff versus paying stuff.
Bridget Willard (20:25):
Even if you were, even if you were experienced, you have to look at how much you cost yourself.
Rob Cairns (20:34):
Yes.
Bridget Willard (20:35):
Okay? Number one, that’s the first meter that’s running. How much do you cost yourself working for 6 to 8 hours a day? Number two, how much is that billable?
Rob Cairns (20:45):
I wanna stop you on number one. And I do that all the time. So I get jokes in my family. How come I order on Walmart+ and Amazon all the time? And I’m gonna tell you why I do. And the worst joke was the other day, a couple weeks ago, everybody was home, and I decided I wanted Dr. Pepper. Diet Dr. Pepper, because I’m a diabetic. And I was scrolling Amazon and I had some other stuff, too. And what did I add to my cart? Two cases of Diet Dr. Pepper. They weren’t. It wasn’t on sale at the grocery store. That would’ve changed. They walked in the door and people looked at me and said, “Did you just do what I think you did?” I said, “Yeah.” And they looked at me and said, “Why?”
Bridget Willard (21:35):
And I said, “Because, first of all, because I have Prime, I don’t pay for delivery. Second of all, if I have to go out and do it, that’s an hour and 20 minutes in the pot at $150 an hour, even if it cost me $5 more, do the math.” And that’s the point.
Bridget Willard (21:54):
Yes. Even when I was at TJ Maxx and we’d run out of bags or tissue paper or whatever, I would say, “Well, I’ll just order it from Sam’s. I’ll just order it from Walmart.” They go, “Why don’t you just drive over there?” And I go, “You’re gonna pay me $17 an hour to drive to Walmart?”
Rob Cairns (22:10):
Yep. Yep.
Bridget Willard (22:12):
“It’s cheaper to have it delivered. Are you kidding me right now?”
Rob Cairns (22:16):
And by the way –
Bridget Willard (22:16):
This is a. And then on top of that, you would have no – I. You’re missing me in the building doing my actual job. And, and,
Rob Cairns (22:23):
And you haven’t told them you’re gonna expense your gas back to them too, because you’re not paying for their crack.
Bridget Willard (22:30):
I mean, like, this is not real li- like, people. This is when I. I think if there was any real thematic thing in my life –
Rob Cairns (22:39):
Yep.
Bridget Willard (22:39):
It’s: think.
Rob Cairns (22:41):
Yep.
Bridget Willard (22:42):
Use the brain that God gave you –
Rob Cairns (22:44):
Yep.
Bridget Willard (22:45):
To think this through. And I. When I was, uh, learning to be a teacher, uh, so this is 1997, 1998, 1999 era, the book that was really famous for little kids was “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.”
Bridget Willard (22:59):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (23:00):
And I thought that was the best. And I still think it is the best book for teaching natural consequences and learning that if you give a mouse a cookie, he’s gonna want what? A glass of milk.
Rob Cairns (23:16):
Yep. Yep.
Bridget Willard (23:16):
It teaches you to think things through. Yeah. What is gonna happen? And then when he has milk, he’s gonna have a milk mustache. So he’s gonna need what? He’s gonna need a napkin, right? Yep. So if you vibe code. I should write this book. If you vibecode your SaaS, you’re going to need users.
Rob Cairns (23:39):
And, and by the way – In order to get.
Bridget Willard (23:40):
If you have users, they’re gonna have support tickets.
Rob Cairns (23:44):
Good luck.
Bridget Willard (23:45):
I mean, you know what I mean? You have to think this through. And so that’s. I’m always talking about visibility because everybody else is talking about keywords. I feel like somebody in WordPress or somebody in tech or somebody in the SaaS word, world told people about SEO, and I’m like, “You just created something that never existed before.”
Rob Cairns (24:08):
Yep.
Bridget Willard (24:09):
“You just created a category.”
Rob Cairns (24:11):
Yep.
Bridget Willard (24:11):
And you’re doing SEO keyword research. Nobody knows to look for you. They don’t know you exist. They don’t know your product is a choice.
Rob Cairns (24:24):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (24:24):
They don’t know it’s a choice. If you don’t know that you can use AI to create a thumbnail, uh, on thumbnailgenerator or thumbnailcreator.com, for example, you’re not gonna search for AI thumbnail gener – you know, uh, AI YouTube thumbnail –
Rob Cairns (24:44):
Yeah, you have to, you have to use common words.
Bridget Willard (24:46):
Okay. So, like, this is not. Nobody is looking for this. And this is the problem with being early to a market or late to a market.
Rob Cairns (24:56):
Yep.
Bridget Willard (24:56):
But either way, I mean, that’s a totally different –
Rob Cairns (24:59):
And the other problem is, in marketing, and I’m sure. I know you don’t do this, is everybody’s. We all talk about knowing what your competitors do. And I have an email account, Dirty Secret, that I sign up to a lot of stuff that certain clients use and they go there. And they don’t go to my domain account on purpose, because I like to know what competitors are doing.
Rob Cairns (25:24):
But, but, but don’t copy your competitors because one of the things you have to do to stand out is be different. And if you don’t believe me, and I’ve touted this book on this show a million times, I should be getting royalties. Go read. And especially if you wanna work with Bridget, go read “The Inside Advantage” by Robert Bloom, and then you’ll understand exactly where Bridget’s coming from.
Bridget Willard (26:01):
Yeah, and I didn’t even read that book. So –
Rob Cairns (26:03):
But you understand the concept, but –
Bridget Willard (26:05):
Yes, and because- because this is the other thing that nobody thinks about. You don’t even know. And this is, this is the problem with the build-in-public community. It started as, “Hey, this is what I’m doing.” The right kind of marketing, telling people that you’re building something, priming the pump, you know, telling them that the Rolling Stones are coming to town. They’re coming. First, they’re coming to America. Mm-hmm. And now they’re coming to this state. Now they’re coming. And you’re releasing these concert dates. You’re priming the pump, right?
Rob Cairns (26:34):
Yeah. Yep.
Bridget Willard (26:35):
But the problem is that the founders are all having a love fis – fest with other founders. And I’m really sorry if you’re being offended right now, but I want you to listen to me because I’m saying this out of love. The build-in com- community, build-in-public community has made it seem like we need to copy this certain playbook, when in fact, we do not know, A, if it’s working.
Bridget Willard (27:04):
That’s the first thing. B, if you truly are a competitor. C, if that person just mortgaged their house for the second time to pay for that.
Rob Cairns (27:14):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (27:15):
D, if they’re a 25-year-old living in their mom’s basement and they don’t pay rent, healthcare, cell phone, electricity, their food, their clothes. I mean, you, you can’t. Even if you are similar –
Rob Cairns (27:33):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (27:33):
The reason why you built what you built and the problem it solves is your competitive advantage if you can communicate that in a way that regular people, your users, your customers will understand.
Rob Cairns (27:53):
Well –
Bridget Willard (27:53):
And this is why I keep calling myself a translator, because I am able to talk to the devs and then go, “This is what it does. This is why you want it to do that.”
Rob Cairns (28:07):
Yeah. Yeah. And this is why if you’re looking for marketing help and you’re in a SaaS business, you need to talk to Bridget because she understands what you need. And most companies don’t even understand how the market. I mean, I always tell the story, and I, I don’t deal with SaaS companies, but I deal with a lot of retail companies. Um, I have one client, and Bridget knows this, is a jewelry store, and I’m there frequently. They’re also good friends, disclaimer, but still. I can walk in their store. I know what their numbers are. I know what their web numbers are. I know what’s, what’s getting hits. And I walk in their store. I know their business so intimately, I can tell you what the profit margin within a couple of percentage points is on anything. Most SaaS com — and they know their numbers beyond the profit margins because I share them with them.
Rob Cairns (29:07):
The point I’m making is most SaaS companies, if you say to them, “Oh, what’s your website numbers?” “I don’t know. “”How many signups do you have?” “Oh, I got 10 this week. “Where did they come from? I don’t know. They came. They
Rob Cairns (29:21):
Filled out –
Bridget Willard (29:21):
“The internet.”
Rob Cairns (29:23):
Yeah. Okay. So they came from the internet. Did they come from Facebook? Did they come from Twitter?
Bridget Willard (29:31):
And even more, that’s even worse because attribution is a big, giant lie. Attribution is a big giant lie because if you do, if you deploy your marketing channels correctly, you will have direct traffic. For example, and my, my body of work as Bridget Willard, BridgetMWillard on Twitter, um, and at my website. My whole body of work is the living, organic case study for everything that I’m saying. There are chil – there are no children in this cobbler’s house who do not have shoes. I do what I preach. And let me tell you this, let me tell you. Half, half of my traffic is direct. Why? Because they know my name is BridgetWillard.com. They know my URL is BridgetWillard.com. They know how to spell “Bridget,” which is really an amazing feat in, in and of itself because there are so many ways to spell Bridget.
Bridget Willard (30:34):
And they know how to spell Willard, which is kind of amazing too. But the fact that people know BridgetWillard.com, they’re going straight to it means they’ve seen a tweet, they’ve seen my bio, they’ve seen my Instagram, they’ve seen a video. That is the, and that is why I d – I tell my clients, you will get a 10% lift quarter over quarter in all traffic.
Rob Cairns (31:01):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (31:02):
Not, I’m never gonna be tied to an attribution channel.
Rob Cairns (31:05):
The problem with that –
Bridget Willard (31:05):
Because that attribution channel is a lie.
Rob Cairns (31:09):
I’ll give you an example of it being a lie. So I was reading a security link today and I think I picked the link off at Twitter. So the attribution in it was equals Twitter. What did I do? I reposted it on LinkedIn. And I didn’t repost the actual link. I, I reposted the link from attribution. So right away, all that traffic on LinkedIn where people click on is gonna get attributed back to Twitter.
Bridget Willard (31:44):
Oh, I’m the worst. I delete UGM codes.
Rob Cairns (31:48):
Yeah. So-
Bridget Willard (31:49):
Sometimes I’ll put them in, I’ll go, “Source: Twitter, Bridget Willard.”
Rob Cairns (31:53):
Yeah, I’ve done that before. Yeah.
Bridget Willard (31:56):
<laugh> So
Rob Cairns (31:56):
That, that’s –
Bridget Willard (31:57):
But that’s what I’m saying. You have to think through the whole. It –
Rob Cairns (32:00):
Process.
Bridget Willard (32:01):
Marketing is war. Read Art of War. Read “Art of War.” Marketing is war.
Rob Cairns (32:09):
I agree.
Bridget Willard (32:09):
That’s why I love football. Football’s NFL. Uh, football’s back. Every play is a chance to gain territory. This is what we’re doing in marketing. We’re trying to get users. We’re trying to keep users. We don’t want churn. You don’t wanna go backwards. Like, why are you running backwards, quarterback?
Bridget Willard (32:28):
And you, and you are far –
Bridget Willard (32:29):
Keep going forward.
Rob Cairns (32:31):
And you are far better off keeping an existing user happy than going after new clients because the cost of acquisition, uh, the CPA or the cost per acquisition is way more, as you and I both know, having done this a long time, is way more when you go after a new client than on an existing client. You would even be better off sometimes offering that existing client a deal or a financial incentive. So one of the things I always do, and I’ll share this, but, you know, you can market the way you like, is if I offer a deal out there, and I do accordingly, and the secret is I have one coming out for the end of the week to celebrate my birthday month. So I usually do it before my birthday, but well, life gets in the way. I don’t, you know, whatever.
Rob Cairns (33:24):
And I can guarantee you, I’m gonna offer that same deal to my existing clients. And people always say, “You’re a fool to do that.” I said, “Why?” I want existing clients that have been with me 10 years happier than the new client walking in the door. That’s the, because we already have that relationship. Yeah. It’s one of the biggest quorums in the telecom industry when they market. Oh, we’ll give you a deal if you’re a new client, but an existing client, they screw you over 10 ways to Sunday. And it’s like, why? Yes. And I think this is why you need to get on the phone to Bridget now if you’re SaaS company, because she can help you realize that.
Bridget Willard (34:07):
And that, I mean, thank you for the, all the plugs and everything, but like, let, let’s talk about Black Friday Cyber Monday right now.
Rob Cairns (34:13):
Oh, go ahead.
Bridget Willard (34:14):
If you have an annual plan, please, in the name of God and all that is holy, please, if you have an annual plan –
Rob Cairns (34:24):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (34:25):
Do not run a Black Friday sale.
Rob Cairns (34:28):
Yep. Yep.
Bridget Willard (34:30):
You want people to subs – to renew at the same rate.
Rob Cairns (34:36):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (34:37):
Because that’s how you predict your income. Now, if it’s monthly, like a lot of times, if it’s monthly, they’ll pay more than annual. I’ve, I always choose monthly. I want my nut to be the same every month. I want that predictable –
Rob Cairns (34:51):
Yeah, me too.
Bridget Willard (34:52):
Like a, that construction company I knew is we had to have $35,000 every month just to stay alive. I was intimate with those details, right? And so, uh, you know, that was a shot in time. I don’t mind talking about that. You know, it, you have to have. And I knew how much money was in the bank, too. I knew how many months were in the bank. They call that “runway.” I didn’t know what it was called. I just knew how many months were in the bank and I’m the one doing the accounting and the job costing and I know what’s happening.
Bridget Willard (35:24):
That’s why I started doing all the marketing that I started doing. I just happened to be really good at it because I’m thinking through these things.
Rob Cairns (35:32):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (35:33):
So you’re getting, you’re not just getting that, you’re getting the experience, okay? And that’s the thing is like we can learn from other industries. I was talking to a podcast host, I think last year, who wanted to start charging sponsorships. And I, he goes, “Well, how do I do the pricing?” I’m like, “Just copy what Chamber of Commerces do.” Because I’m thinking about joining my chamber of commerce. It’s $300 to be a member, but at that level, you can’t join a committee. Now for me, I would want to join the committee because I would want peers as friends and maybe a chance to speak, right? So at, if I want to join a committee, I gotta pay 500.
Rob Cairns (36:15):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (36:15):
Now, if you want this, you gotta pay this much. And if you want that, you. And people, and it’s easy that they, that model works, right?
Rob Cairns (36:24):
That Model is the Same.
Bridget Willard (36:25):
So you can learn for, uh, from other industries is what I’m saying. You can learn from other industries.
Rob Cairns (36:30):
It’s the same mo – it’s the same model as going to a car dealership and buying a car and adding five options. Or I like to use the analogy of going to a restaurant and ordering off a menu.
Bridget Willard (36:42):
Yeah.
Rob Cairns (36:43):
And you choose A, B, C, A is 50 bucks, B is 20 bucks. C, the bottle of wine that just was $100. There’s your total. How come? Because you chose A, B, C. Very simple.
Bridget Willard (36:55):
Right.
Rob Cairns (36:55):
There’s no, there’s no rocket science to that model. It is what It is.
Bridget Willard (36:59):
No, but I think sometimes that tech companies think that they are special somehow or different.
Rob Cairns (37:06):
They’re not. Are not.
Bridget Willard (37:07):
Um, I, I, I really do honor the engineering side, the drive to build. My impetus would be, please don’t build anything customers haven’t asked for.
Rob Cairns (37:27):
Yep.
Bridget Willard (37:27):
You’re not Steve Jobs.
Rob Cairns (37:29):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (37:30):
I mean, that’s a rare person.
Rob Cairns (37:32):
I’m gonna give you one more. So let me go back to our friend, Mr. Paul Tobey, because you and I know Paul one. And you know what Paul used to say? You’ll love this. And, and Paul, I’m not quoting you exactly, but it’s a concept I care of. He would say, “If you’re gonna sell something like a course or a product or something, don’t start building it until you have the sales and then build it step by step.” The point he was making is don’t go all in on something that you do not know if you have a market for or not.
Bridget Willard (38:13):
Yes, that’s why housing companies, uh, build model homes.
Rob Cairns (38:19):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (38:19):
You gonna build these three model homes, you’re gonna tour it, you’re gonna buy the land, and you’re gonna pick the one you want. And then all your upgrades.
Rob Cairns (38:27):
Mm-hmm.
Bridget Willard (38:27):
But you’re gonna go look at it and then you’re gonna buy it. We’re not gonna just buy it. We’re not gonna just build all these and then hope somebody buys it. That’s your MVP.
Rob Cairns (38:36):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (38:36):
So that’s why, like, I don’t understand why SaaS companies don’t have branded Twitter accounts.
Rob Cairns (38:43):
Because they –
Bridget Willard (38:44):
I will say this until the day I die, this is a business asset that you sell when you sell your SaaS product. If you think you’re never gonna sell your SaaS product, you’re really not thinking that it’s gonna be successful. You will be selling it. If you, like, get any kind of angel, private equity, Y combinator, sweet, sweet cash, whoever that is is gonna want their return on investment.
Bridget Willard (39:09):
You have to stay focused. You can ac – you can a – you get the data from your customers in support tickets on Twitter. Um, like me, I really wish there was a tool that could give it four URLs from YouTube and you make me a highlight reel. Build that. Build that. I’ll pay you money for that.
Rob Cairns (39:30):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (39:31):
That’s what I need. Yeah. Don’t just build some random thing because you’re like, “Ooh, we could do this.” But who wants it?
Rob Cairns (39:39):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (39:39):
What? That’s the biggest dis – that’s the other big discra – distraction that SaaS companies have. They’re building or founders, one man shop, one person shop. They’re building stuff because they can, not because anybody asked for it. It s – it seems so obvious when I say it out loud, but that’s not what’s happening.
Rob Cairns (40:03):
By the way, if you’re a founder and you wanna learn how founders work, do me a favor. There’s two ways. There’s a book and there’s a Netflix series. Do you know where I’m going? And, and go –
Bridget Willard (40:18):
Let’s see what you’re gonna say.
Rob Cairns (40:19):
And go and get, watch “The Founder,” the Ray Kroc story.
Bridget Willard (40:24):
Oh, yeah, that is so good.
Rob Cairns (40:26):
And Ray Kroc was the man who revolutionized McDonald’s and bought the concept from the McDonald’s brothers. The McDonald’s brothers did not know how to build a company. Ray knew how to. And by the way, it’s worth mentioning on this podcast, McDonald’s is not a hamburger company. They’re a real estate company, folks. And if you don’t believe me, but if you wanna watch the mini series, go watch it. It’s worth it. If you wanna wa – read the book, it’s called –
Bridget Willard (40:59):
Especially the processes. Yeah. Especially the user experience of his employees.
Rob Cairns (41:05):
Yes.
Bridget Willard (41:05):
That scene in the basketball courts is life.
Rob Cairns (41:09):
Is life. And what I’ll tell you is, I’ve read the book. I own the book, not just a digital copy. I’ve watched the miniseries. It’s still worth re-watching. So go through –
Bridget Willard (41:24):
Yeah, I probably should re-watch it too. But it’s like, but all of the SaaS companies did this. Blackberry did that. Yeah. I mean, SaaS, whatever, tech. Apple, that happened, too.
Rob Cairns (41:35):
Bridget, Bridget, I have to, I have to ask you a question just for fun.
Bridget Willard (41:38):
And I’ve been watching this YouTube channel called Tech District.
Rob Cairns (41:42):
Where was where, where was Blackberry founded? Do you know?
Bridget Willard (41:46):
Canada.
Rob Cairns (41:46):
Do you know where?
Bridget Willard (41:48):
I saw the movie. I just can’t remember.
Rob Cairns (41:50):
Okay. It was founded in Waterloo, Ontario, which is, Waterloo is one of the biggest techs, University of Waterloo biggest tech universities in the country. I just thought I’d throw that out there just because Blackberry –
Bridget Willard (42:04):
Canada: 1 United States: 0 <laugh>
Rob Cairns (42:06):
No, just that Blackberry is very well needed. And believe it or not, they’re still in business because they own, not so much as a smartphone, but it’s the security side of the phone.
Bridget Willard (42:21):
Right.
Rob Cairns (42:21):
They get loyal.
Bridget Willard (42:23):
Right. And it, it’s worth it to watch that documentary, uh, movie doc – like, biopic, right? Because the guy created a f – okay. He created a category, okay? Yes, he did. And then he’s, he’s, he’s like, “I have this meeting with AT&T. What is going on?” Because the, AT&T realized they’re only 60 minutes and an hour, but I can sell unlimited data. Yeah. So it wasn’t just Steve Jobs, uh, getting rid of the key, clickety-clackety keyboard. It was Steve Jobs and the phone company and their infrastructure happening –
Rob Cairns (43:03):
Yes.
Bridget Willard (43:03):
At the same time.
Rob Cairns (43:04):
Same time.
Bridget Willard (43:04):
I think tech bros would call that synergy, but we don’t use that word anymore. But that’s how innovation works. They were both ready for each other. They, they saw an opportunity, AT&T, to sell more, to get more money from something that’s scarce. Minutes are scarce. Data is not scarce.
Rob Cairns (43:22):
True.
Bridget Willard (43:23):
And iPhone figured out a way to get people to spend a ridiculous mon – amount of money on a phone, and now we’re going backwards with an iPad that folds, and you’re paying $2,000 for this.
Rob Cairns (43:34):
Because w – because what-
Rob Cairns (43:36):
What?
Bridget Willard (43:37):
Ap – because what Apple did in their marketing, and there should be a lesson to every SaaS company out there, is they created Superfans. So every time –
Bridget Willard (43:49):
Yes!
Rob Cairns (43:51):
Every time there’s an iPhone release date, it hasn’t happened yet because they’re not on sale at the time this record for a couple weeks. There will be a lineup of every Apple store in the greater Toronto area. I guarantee it. And we’ve got one, two, three, four, five, six of them within an hour and 20 minutes. So –
Bridget Willard (44:14):
Yet another reason why you need a branded X account, because I don’t know who the founder is or I don’t know who the new Tim Cook is right now. I know I’ve seen his name because I have people in my feed talking about it.
Rob Cairns (44:28):
Yep.
Bridget Willard (44:28):
It took me forever to remember Tim Cook, okay? I’m not gonna tweet at Tim Cook or whatever about my Apple, okay? I’m gonna tweet Apple. And this is the problem. The problem is the asset is the brand. The brand. And you have these superfans, they wanna talk to you, they wanna talk about you, and most of the time, SaaS products have affiliate programs. Yes. How are your affiliates going to tweet about you if you don’t have a branded Twitter account?
Rob Cairns (45:02):
Agreed.
Bridget Willard (45:02):
If you give a mouse a cookie, I swear, um, me and ChatGPT are gonna explore writing that book. But I’m, I’m just saying, like, <laugh> I don’t know, it might be copyright issues or something, but-
Rob Cairns (45:13):
But what I’ll, what I’ll tell you is, going back to what I keep saying, and I know Bridget’s gonna shake her head at me in a minute, but this is why you need to talk to Bridget if your SaaS company, because the average SaaS company doesn’t get this. The average person doesn’t get this let on the average SaaS company.
Bridget Willard (45:31):
They don’t, and it’s sad. And I, I love them so much. I love them so much. I wanna help them. I know I can help them. Sometimes I’m like, “Just give me your Twitter account for 30 days. Just get, just take the 2FA off so I can do what I…” I was actually tweeting the other day, <laugh> “How about here’s my package. You gonna put me on retainer for $2,500 a month.”
Rob Cairns (45:56):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (45:57):
“Give me the keys to your Twitter account. I’m not gonna tell you what I’m doing and I’m not gonna ask your permission. And also, give me access to your website and you’re welcome. I’m gonna just come up with my own editorial calendar and roll with it.”
Bridget Willard (46:10):
I agree.
Bridget Willard (46:11):
Because where am I getting the ideas from, Rob, to post articles?
Rob Cairns (46:16):
I know. I Know.
Bridget Willard (46:17):
No, for the audience. Where am I getting these ideas? I know you know where I’m getting them.
Rob Cairns (46:25):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (46:26):
I’m getting them from Twitter.
Rob Cairns (46:27):
Twitter. I know.
Bridget Willard (46:28):
From your customers who are talking about – How many times? How many times,
Rob Cairns (46:33):
How many times have I written an article based on Twitter? How many times have I read a news article based on Twitter? And what I would argue is, and I know, I was having this discussion, they said, “Oh, Twitter’s yesterday’s news.” I said, “That’s because you’re following the wrong people.” I, I do not. I, I get ideas all the time, so I agree. So –
Bridget Willard (46:57):
And that’s the, that’s what’s important about being, um, multidisciplinary.
Rob Cairns (47:02):
Yep.
Bridget Willard (47:03):
You know, and paying attention to all that, but it’s like, I, for me, for one of my clients, um. Who sent me? Was it you, Rob? Somebody sent me. It was either you or TLDR newsletter. I got the AI civilizations, um, article from Darkwa – Dar- Dar- Darkwesh Patel. I did.
Rob Cairns (47:27):
But it was on the TLDR newsletter. I read it.
Bridget Willard (47:30):
Yes. Okay. I sent it to my client who is a financial compliance expert.
Rob Cairns (47:37):
Yep.
Bridget Willard (47:38):
And I said, for. After I read it, I said, “Oh my God, Dr. Shawn Bostic has to write a piece on this.” And I, and I wrote her, “I’m not getting paid to write articles for her. I’m only doing her LinkedIn and Twitter.”
Rob Cairns (47:51):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (47:51):
But this is what I do. This is just a small –
Rob Cairns (47:54):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (47:54):
Like, window into how I work.
Rob Cairns (47:57):
I, so – I.
Bridget Willard (47:58):
No. So listen, let me tell you. So I texted her. I said, “Shawn, please read this. I need you to write an article. Here’s your take on it.” And in two days, I had a kick-ass article that’s, like, out of this world crazy about the ethics and compliance. Like, if AI ca- can’t, like, do the, do the thing because the demand and the pressure –
Rob Cairns (48:26):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (48:27):
Of, the demand and the pressure of doing this one task at all costs causes them to reverse hack and make a message board out of something that was never intended to make a message board and then sacrifice themselves for the good of the community, which is finding this code, then why would you think that humans in a stock brokerage.
Bridget Willard (48:52):
You know, they totally explains why 2008 market crash happened.
Rob Cairns (48:56):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (48:57):
So that’s what I do is I go, “People are talking about this. Please write about Tailwind. Tailwind is so awesome. I’ve been talking about Tailwind for years, and then today I’m like, Oh, they’re with Shopify. Good job, WooCommerce. You can’t even do one thing right. Now, now Shopify has Tailwind. Those sites are gonna look badass. Good job.
Rob Cairns (49:16):
But, but it’s like, it’s like everything else though. That’s why you hire an expert like you, or to be fair, one like me is the value add. So one of the things I do, and you know this, every week, usually on the weekend, I write a substack called “From the Chief Technologist’s Desk,” and, and guaranteed what goes in there is what’s on my brain that week. And lately, for me, that’s a lot of security stuff, because I hate to tell you, uh, Microsoft plugged 996, uh, security holes on Tuesday this week. So
Rob Cairns (49:57):
There’s –
Bridget Willard (49:57):
A thousand, a thousand security holes –
Rob Cairns (50:01):
That’s right.
Bridget Willard (50:01):
On a Tuesday?
Bridget Willard (50:02):
Now, remember, Steve Jobs called the iPod a thousand songs in your pocket. Yep,
Rob Cairns (50:07):
Yep, yep. That’s correct. But the point is the average person –
Bridget Willard (50:10):
A thousand bugs in one 24-hour period?
Bridget Willard (50:14):
Yeah,
Rob Cairns (50:14):
The point I’m making –
Bridget Willard (50:15):
Thanks, AI.
Rob Cairns (50:16):
Yeah. The average person doesn’t know what’s going on out there. It comes back to what you and I were talking about, because they’re concentrating on their core business where people like you and I are running around looking at all this other stuff, and we curate news differently. And I will. I’ll throw one little tip out there, and I’m not gonna give them all away, but the first place you should go to read news is use Google Newsreader. And the reason you need to is the way Google Newsreader works and before somebody says it’s available on an iOS device, yes, it is, it curates articles based on what you’re reading and your interest levels are.
Bridget Willard (51:02):
Hmm.
Rob Cairns (51:04):
So that –
Bridget Willard (51:04):
I honestly didn’t know it existed.
Rob Cairns (51:06):
That’s why –
Bridget Willard (51:06):
Again, I didn’t know it existed. Hello. <laugh>
Rob Cairns (51:11):
I know. But the
Bridget Willard (51:12):
Point I’m – I read “Think With Google,” but I had no idea this existed. I’m not even lying.
Rob Cairns (51:17):
I believe you. But the point I’m making is there’s a tip. But the- the thing is, like –
Bridget Willard (51:24):
That’s why I have to have a pen. <laugh>
Rob Cairns (51:26):
Yeah. Whether it’s you with SaaS companies or stuff I do, the average person is stuck trying to run their business and keep it afloat. They do not have time to do it.
Bridget Willard (51:40):
No. And even if they did have the time, A, it would be too expensive, and B, it’s a distraction.
Rob Cairns (51:47):
That’s correct.
Bridget Willard (51:48):
It’s a distraction from your business. It’s a distraction from your personal life. It’s a distraction from your customers. It’s a distraction. And that is the pro – that is another problem that SaaS founders have, is they’re easily distracted by, “Ooh, I can build this.”
Rob Cairns (52:03):
Yep.
Bridget Willard (52:03):
You can, but should you?
Rob Cairns (52:06):
That’s the key. And the answer to that is very simple –
Bridget Willard (52:10):
Almost always no.
Rob Cairns (52:12):
No. The answer to that is, pick up your email, go to Bridget’s website, SaaS companies, fill out the form, get in touch, and just do it now. And that’s –
Bridget Willard (52:28):
Yeah, because I don’t have that much t. I don’t have that many spots to. I’m – Yeah. I’m kinda all in with my clients. I don’t take competitors either.
Bridget Willard (52:36):
Yeah.
Bridget Willard (52:37):
So I already work with Rocket.net, so sorry, Jason Cohen, I can’t help you at WP Engine.
Rob Cairns (52:44):
So there you go, Bridget.
Bridget Willard (52:45):
<laugh>
Rob Cairns (52:47):
You know, I think, I think we’ve kind of got the message across today. If somebody wants to contact you, website again, what’s the best way?
Bridget Willard (52:55):
BridgetWillard.com.
Rob Cairns (52:57):
And where are you on Twitter?
Bridget Willard (52:59):
BridgetMWillard.
Rob Cairns (53:01):
Yeah. And, and if you don’t believe Bridget has a really good Twitter feed, go look at it because I’ll tell you it’s one of the better ones out there. And if you don’t believe that, go find our friend Warren Laine-Naida, and he’ll tell you how Bridget helped his feed. So Bridget, thanks so much. Hope it goes well.
Bridget Willard (53:19):
Hey, thanks for having me. Um, just happy to help. I mean, I’m even thinking about giving away some pro bono, um, marketing consultations. I really do enjoy helping people. Yeah. And I think that’s important. So pay attention to my Twitter and I’ll let you know. Well, I’ll probably post it on LinkedIn, too, because that’s where you should be for B2B anyway.
Rob Cairns (53:42):
Bridget, have a wonderful day as always. Thank you.
Bridget Willard (53:45):
Bye.
Rob Cairns (53:49):
Thanks again to our sponsor, All-in-One WP Migration by ServMask. Export your entire WordPress site in one click, import it anywhere. No server access needed. No command line. Works with every hosting provider. Free on WordPress.org or extension at servemask.com. Very special thank you to Bridget Williard for joining me on this edition of The SDM Show. The SDM Show is dedicated to my late father, Bruce Cairns. Dad, I miss you very much every day. My mother Ann Cairns, who’s, um, still doing really well and, uh, is an inspiration. And of course, Tiz Marrone. And Tiz, I know I’ve said it, but thank you so much for all the inspiration you give me every day.
