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📍EEA: Attract The Right Prospects With Tommi Murshed-Parish

Ever since it became possible for us to communicate through video, we started using it for everything: calls, promotion, marketing… If done well, it makes us trust the person speaking to us. We can all tell the difference between fake testimonials of too-excited customers and honest, genuine reviews, but even when the customers are really happy with our service, it’s not always easy to make them relax in front of the camera and say how we made their lives better.

Here’s how Tommi Murshed-Parish gets simple, honest, and relatable testimonials ⬇️⬇️

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Join us on the Epic Engagement Adventure podcast as we explore Tommi Murshed-Parish's way of engaging his audience. He will tell us about using video to turn your best prospects into paying clients, how to stop wasting time on the wrong people, and how to get offered great speaking gigs.

Get hold of Tommi here and download his free beginner instructions PDF: https://www.conversionsforcoaches.com/

--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/epic-engagement-adventure/message

Still reading? Fantastic!!! For those that read this far, I have a special gift. 🎁

Come have a beverage with us in The Come Wright Inn. It's full of people who are looking to connect with other visionary entrepreneurs. And for a better way to do their marketing. Also, we have fun. Lots of it. 🎉

Transcript

Interview with Tommi Murshed-Parish

RJ Redden: Hey everybody. Welcome back at the same bot time, same bot channel over here today. A special guest a special guest. For those of you who have been watching me lately, you know that I'm low-key, obsessed with entrepreneur and my friend Tommi, right here and gave me that link.

So all of you who have watched the videos lately this is where it comes from. Tommi is a video and is just a storytelling professional. He, what he does behind a camera is magic, and I invited him on the show to come talk to us about what he does and tell us how he engages his folks. Tommi, welcome to the Adventure.

How are you?

Tommi Murshed-Parish: I'm good. Thank you. I appreciate the introduction. Your $5 is in the post.

RJ Redden: I knew I could count on you, my friend. Fabulous. Tell us, tell the people what you do, who you are, and what you do.

Tommi Murshed-Parish: I help people win over their prospects in two minutes or less using video testimonials.

RJ Redden: Okay. God, I love it. like some introductions are like long and it, hard to understand. You use that first sentence to put a picture in people's mind.

So how do you, what tools do you use? What do you use to help people win over their prospects in two minutes or less? In

Tommi Murshed-Parish: the long, long ago, the prehistoric era before, the pandemic happened when we were, pining on walls. I was filming people in person and I literally had to get on buses and get stuck in traffic and things like that, because that's what people wanted.

We tried it out on Zoom because somebody didn't want me to travel, and spend money on me wrecking a hotel. I'm joking, of course. And so we tried it on Zoom and it was the best one that I'd done for him. He was happier than with the others, that we'd gone with a camera to the office of that person, but we, I didn't think the market would tack, so I just put it in the drawer and felt not fought enough of it.

Pandemic happens. Everybody's freaking out. I'm worried, somebody gets, when the, I have this Zoom thing going on in the, in the cupboard. They says, can you do one for. And we did one, and then somebody gets one and says, can you do one for me as well? I saw that one and I had enough to keep me going, just about during the pandemic's worst moments.

And then, I thought that the world would go back to normal and we'd all be having it be in person again. And instead the doll opened up to the American, the Australian, the Canadian markets and the Irish. And even the Maltese when I was in England from Malta and vice versa. So it, there are many, there are probably more than mun.

I just prefer Zoom because everybody's familiar. It has the least as the least amount of faffing and messing around, and it's easy for people to say, oh, and I can record it and edit it well, afterwards it's pretty easy and the quality is. If it's set up properly. So that is the tool I use.

I can use MS teams, but most people struggle with it. So there you. . Yeah, ,

RJ Redden: most people do struggle with MS teams. I'll tell you I was a, like one of the first Skype users back in the day. So yeah, zoom zoom is awesome. So you had to, recreate during the pandemic, which most of us had to do in one way or another.

What is it that you love about video?

Tommi Murshed-Parish: Videos are broad term, and there are many kinds, there's the Spielberg type epics. And there's what, I'm doing on a very more intimate scale, should we say. I like the validation. I like people seeing people be validated.

I was the guy who didn't get picked for the football team, or for the, when they're handing out B. , during physical education and I was always one of the guys, two people out of about 30 who didn't get a bib, I was like literally visibly a reject. So you can imagine the opposite of that feeling is you are picked, it's like the lottery guy pointing the finger at somebody.

I like the scene that people are getting chosen cuz a lot of them didn't, but beyond that it's nice to be valued. What, for what we do, there's a scene at the end of a beautiful. With Russell Crow where he's been certifiably, with mental problems for many years. And then all these students right to the end when he is older and he is got his gray hair, go up to him and give him what is an honor by putting their expensive pens is terrible.

And he doesn't realize all along that's what people thought of him. And that's the thing I like seeing, don't get me wrong, a lot of the people I work with are coaches and they know they're good. They just don't realize how. Same with marketers. We all make a difference in people's lives.

We all get caught up in the misery and the drama sometimes of business. And there is a fair bit of it from time to time. And it's starts to be told that we do make a difference. We

RJ Redden: do. And it takes a set of objective eyeballs. It takes a person like you to come in and have the artistry.

To create a story around that person to, to, create a, create video. I'm fascinated with video. I holy moly, if I could clone myself and have a second career I would be doing some crazy video stuff because I think that it encompasses so much doesn. When you've got so many things working, the lighting, the sound the person themselves, whatever they're wearing it's this little kind of rectangle of us.

But you get to focus on, how well that person is represented. I think it's fascinating what you do. Who are the clients that you

Tommi Murshed-Parish: love working?

It's a pretty broad church. I work with a lot of coaches, consultants, mentals, whatever fancy term you wanna throw it. And those are Paul labels to begin with. Or people in marketing. I've worked with funeral director, I've worked with a funeral director before in the past, to be honest, it's just the people I get along with, in every business.

And I can say this with the absolute top tier of profess. You know of coaches or Mac as well. There's people we get on with and there's people add energy and walk away feeling. I just love working with that person. And then there's people, to Melbourne phrase, do our freaking editing.

We don't get along with so well and they suck the energy out of us, like vampires. And if we can quietly move that clientele out of the way and focus more on getting more of the people who add as en add energy to our business, they'll support us anyway. We'll grow just by being around.

And I prefer to focus on those people and get more of them.

RJ Redden: I prefer it too, because at the end of the day, when I'm working with a client who, as you say, gives me energy, I'm getting paid twice. I'm getting paid in the normal way, but that person is also maybe pushing me to grow or think differently or, have a different kind of adventure with them and that kinda.

awesome. It makes me feel like, yeah, this is what I was put here to do. But when I'm working with the other kind, I'm getting I'm getting paid and I'm getting older and that's it. You can't . I also prefer to attract those kinds of people that really, light my creative fire. Is there anything special that you do to attract your perfect ideal client?

Tommi Murshed-Parish: Interesting question. I think the people you work with. Cause I do my own testimonials. I'm looking at respects, reflect the kind of people I like to work with, and in a way, a bit my own personality. Cuz of our interactions, they, you pick that up from the way they talk about. , I'm not about how great I am or whatever.

Just the personality, as much as anything I get a lot of my clients, through networking b and I or at least I get a lot of my leads through networking. I get a lot of 'em through LinkedIn and a lot of that is to do with the way you show up. I am a mouth noner who maybe not in put in print, swears quite a bit and some people get along with that and some people.

I'm careful where I shoot my mouth off. But at the same time, the stories I tell and the way I show up is pretty much me, and that's gonna reflect people that I get along with. That's gonna usually attract people I get along with. And if it doesn't, I'm usually not being myself. I've being real and that I hear the word offensively, but if somebody is not true to the way they are, that you are pull in a different crowd of people.

and those are usually the energy vampires.

RJ Redden: Yeah. Yeah. F familiar with that and to some extent I, very often, in my early days of business, I failed to represent myself. I thought that I was doing, saying words that the s e o people wanted me to say and avoiding the words that Facebook didn't want me to say.

And I thought that I was doing all the right things, but I didn't seem to be attracting anybody. That I really, the kind of jobs that I was doing were a little odd and it was just a mess. But when I was confident enough in myself to be myself, then things changed a lot for me.

So I'm smelling what you're cooking there. Why testimonials? You you said that in your intro through testimonials. How how did that come

Tommi Murshed-Parish: about? Because it was cheap and it delivered a high return relatively. I It's now not so cheap, but people pay me for my interviewing and editing expertise and not the technical side of things, and I started out in video and.

Cause I'm a frustrated filmmaker in many respects from film school, but when I first started out it was like that guy, he's got a suit on, right? And he's got minions working under him and he is got expensive equipment. I'm like, I'll never, it'll be years before I get to that level and then I'll be competing against him.

And at some point I was, I got one job from a person who known us a long while, and that says a lot for relationships. He knew us for ages before he, we chatted and arranged to do and we were doing a long project with him trying to remember lines when I begged him not to write lines. And we, it was going pretty difficult. But in the meantime, we were going to film his clients showing him doing what he does, cuz he is a, he was a social media guy, he was taking pictures, videos of his client's work now was taking videos of him, taking videos of his clients, whilst I was there,

I was sat between him and his client and both of them were friends of mine. So being British, I could make fun of them both if I wanted to a little bit. And I said to him, why did you pick him and do your social media? It was a counter of provocative question. And the guy actually sits and thinks about, he goes, strikes his chin like Ming the merciless and goes, and without thinking why I hit the record button, I didn't think it was gonna be useful. I just hit, I just, I kind of guy will press a record button on. near enough. Yeah. And he says I didn't want him to do my social media. At first I wanted to do it, but then I realized I got 10 vans. I haven't got the time.

So I got him to do it as a trial. And then after a while, the notice his words started sounding like the way I talk. And I liked that. And that was it. And I didn't think anything of it. And I sent the guy everything else and bin that bin it. That's how. How little I regarded at the time. And he says, where's that video?

Where he is saying how great I am? I go, what video? And I sent him the wrong one twice. That's how little thought I'd put into it. And he says, no, you can't bend it. God's sick. That was the thing I wanted, most of all, because it, and he's a marketer, that's how he thinks. And I've, I went digging around cuz it was a bit of a panic button, hit and I found it and he stuck it line almost straight.

and the light bulb goes off and goes, wait a minute. If he wanted it that much, and that cost me next to nothing to make with the least amount of trouble. Why am I trying to copy cap the guys in suits wearing, with big cameras and hustling for big projects when I could do this? And some people said, oh, that could be the stepping stones, the bigger project.

But somebody else said you could do free those and make it like changing faces. Like Phil Collins, you got three clients on one video and I thought that'd be pretty cool. That's all I did. And I told people at my local B and I said, I only do this. And they all go, so you mean that you don't film our faces?

We don't have to be in the video. Great. Here's some money. Yeah, , is it that easy? I was like, so I did nothing else for years. Ironically, I do actually film the business owners sometimes now cuz they get asked, but generally speaking, they love the fact that it was their clients talking about and not them trying to sell themselves.

And it just built upon and built upon that.

RJ Redden: there's something to be said for micro niche. There's something to be said for being a specialist in what you do. There I would much rather hire an expert. at this one small thing. Then hire a generalist who has to keep up on a whole bunch of stuff and communicate with the guys in this or com, compete with the P people in the suits.

I would much rather hire somebody whose entire business is this one thing because I know I'm gonna get the value out of it. Yeah. That's fascinating.

Tommi Murshed-Parish: It's interesting because you're getting a lot. people. D DIYing it now, which is great. People believe in it and people are making a habit of doing it.

And I, as I preach that and there's a lot of people at the bootstrapping level who can only do that and should. And then you get the people who have got the money but are tried to serve it by DIYing it ironically, when they could give it out, which is interesting. People.

Pay me because I'm a brilliant technician. That's why I avoided expensive camera equipment in the first place. People pay us cuz I can interview, it, it's, I listen to people and I, I'm curious as to what they've got to say, and then I just rearrange the dots.

But as a technical skill it goes down its own rabbit hole. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. It, I. Some niches, you don't know how niche they are until you go down them.

RJ Redden: Absolutely. And and then, when people ask you what You don't have, you don't have 30 seconds of people used to ask me how I do what I did a long time ago, and I was everybody's technology marketing coach. And so I did everything. And people would ask me what I did at some marketing event or whatever, and I would laugh and I would say it would be easier to explain what I don't do.

And they always laughed. I can make people laugh. , it leaves people so confused when we can't articulate what we do. And when you micro niche, you can say, yours is awesome. I get people to, fall in love with you with in under two minutes with the testimonial. Okay, I need people to fall in love with me in under two minutes.

Do you know what I mean? Like it's easy for people to match to that when you've micro niche down. One of the mini flavors of.

Tommi Murshed-Parish: There's the pitching way of doing it, which is me trying to explain in a very tiny amount of time, it is almost like a cold elevator pitch style description.

Yeah. And what you do to a degree has, what we both do has quite a technical element, but in your case, for example, the bot's end of it. I wouldn't try to dare explain to anybody what you do. I, one of the bigger influences on my own work was a guy called Andrew Gib. He wrote an interesting book called What's the R u I P, and I would attend his lectures and his whole point was don't try to explain, how plumbing works are, how bots work.

Just try to explain it in terms of outcomes. You helped a person in this sector make this much money. I'll get a contract with this type of firm and take more time out to spend with our. With less drama, whate, whatever the result is, and then tell the type of stories that you want more work from.

If it's a marketing story, that's obviously gonna get you more marketers. So tell those types of stories. It's the same thing when sharing testimonials. If you're sharing, if you're sharing stuff related to financial advice, you're go you're gonna more likely get financial related.

Clients come into your. . So the stories you tell and the testimonials you share are gonna attract more of that type of client. Some of those, some of the nuances between sectors are so great that they're gonna think that you need to know their sector quite well for them to work with you.

RJ Redden: Yeah. Gosh. I love what you chose to do and the way that you chose to do it. That, that, that's a beautiful story about that little bit that you threw in the bin and and having, and the client needing you to rescue that because they thought it was the most important thing.

That's awesome. Now, so to the question that I ask every episode here, how do you engage your audience, Tommy? You

Tommi Murshed-Parish: mean how That's quite a broad .

RJ Redden: How do use like when you when you communicate and first connect with people, how do you use engagement to your advantage? How do you get them to interact with you?

Tommi Murshed-Parish: I was influenced a lot by a book by Stephan Thomas the Networking for Dom's book and, they had a different titles since then. I can't remember if it was John up networking. I have to get it right, but what Stefan said was that, your network online and offline. Now, originally offline was all in person and technically we're on Zoom.

So technically it's online, but it's personal interaction. So I would still call it offline. The online. is what people see when you're not talking to 'em directly, but you are putting stuff out there. So I might network, I'm networking in tomorrow morning. We might be in a group, right?

And that's when I meet them in person. But from between Fri this Friday and the next Friday, they're gonna be seeing the content I put out. A lot of them, the stuff I put out is adding something to what they already know about. The more good content I put out, the more they start to see, understand what I do buy into my story, however I want to tell it or not buy into it, depending on how they're way inclined.

And I engage two ears in person and you know when they're not, when we're not talking in person. And both those add up.

RJ Redden: It starts to compound, doesn't it? It starts to, you were talking about your posts online and everything and when people start, start seeing that, seeing what you're producing, it starts having a compounding effect.

And and I know the more consistent I am the more. The more meetings get added to my calendar for sure. That, that is a great answer. That's a great answer. And, getting folks to interact sometimes it can be hard. Sometimes people are a little. A little jaded, a little guarded.

They've gotten too many too many terrible pitches in their inboxes or whatever. But but obviously, you have found a way around that. You brought a little gift for the audience. Can you explain what that is while I put it in the chat?

Tommi Murshed-Parish: Yeah. I. I, sorry, I made a pdf of all that was in my head that I could teach people and write down, at least for them to consume without their edge bursting.

So on the subjects of video testimonials and out make and out share 'em and out to use 'em if they download that, they can take a pretty decent stop of it without me being there. And, I'm always here to answer.

RJ Redden: Yeah, that, that's beautiful. So hit that link and what you, y'all will be able to do is, generate using instructions on there generate something for yourself. And and time around for questions. A a very smart individual to talk to as if you didn't know that by watching us for the past half an hour.

But somebody who to tell who is a great visual storyteller and and I really like that about you. You have any last pearls of wisdom for us as we as we sign off?

Anything

Tommi Murshed-Parish: final. People are done with smoke and mirrors, I'm sorry. What people are not really keen on smoking mirrors, we often try to pretend to be something that we aren't because we're after getting contracts that'll pay more towards the rent. Or that's what we think we're gonna do, but it'll end up doing our heads in.

That's, that makes people. It, to be honest, people zone in on what they relate to and yeah years ago maybe everybody did have to wear the suit and have to act in a certain way, but what I've found is there are enough eccentrics wearing purple ties and Mohawks and, having white straps of pit in the air.

The, and don't get me wrong, I'm not like for one crowd and anti the. . But what I'm saying is there are enough people who are a little bit quirky or they go their own way for everybody else to find the right tribe. We found each other randomly at an event, and you're in the middle of the states and I'm in the middle of the Mediterranean.

And before we used to, lived in a village. I grew up in a tiny little village and there wasn't people that I really gelled with. There's a couple of people I got along. But the chances of me finding them were pretty slim because of the geographics, that not business, just friendships.

And now because we're up and all over the place, we don't have to just hang around with people that we mildly get along with. We can actually find the people that we can move mountains with, yeah. And that's the interesting thing I've noticed with business. You can talk to somebody other side of the world that can put the idea in your head that can blow everything up and.

The only way you're gonna find those people and they're gonna come to you is if you show up as you are. Come as you are. Like, K Ben said,

RJ Redden: I think that's great. For me, the principle of identification. is the strong it's the biggest thing you need to know about marketing. No matter where you are, no matter what you do, no matter what technology you employ, as you were talking about when you get, when you get these testimonials it is about somebody seeing that and going, yeah, that's , that person understands my problem.

Gosh, I wanna thank you for being here. It has been lovely for me. I know you stayed up a little much later than you usually do to get online with me. And I just wanna thank you and thank you for the gift. Thank you for the gift that you gave our the people. And gosh, I hope I get to interview you again sometime, Tommy.

Tommi Murshed-Parish: Yeah, I'd love that.

RJ Redden: All right. All right, my friends. That's it for this time. Same bot time, same bot channel. Next week, we'll see you on the next epic engagement adventure. See ya.

Tommi Murshed-ParishProfile Photo

Tommi Murshed-Parish

Hi I'm Tommi. Thanks to having aspergers, I grew up with no clue when people were either hurt, spooked, or amused by whatever I said.

Life saw many setbacks; knocked around at school, bullied at the office, struggles to make friends and build a career.

So I learned how to survive through reading people's eyes, voice tone and body language, and making them keen to open up.

Thanks to this and my video background, I now get hired by coaches (and their clients) to turn their best prospects into paying clients, using client feedback filmed over zoom.