Jim Fuhs & Chris Stone Of Dealcasters: Five Things You Need To Build A Trusted And Beloved Brand
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Be authentic. People use the word ‘authenticity’ a lot — but it’s very important, especially on live video, to come across as a believable, trustworthy source of information that your viewer can use. Being yourself is a strategy that sounds easy — but for many, it’s unfortunately not — and it takes many repetitions to be comfortable being on live video for the world to see.
As part of our series about how to create a trusted, believable, and beloved brand, I had the pleasure to Interview Jim Fuhs and Chris Stone, founders of Dealcasters, Livestreaming Amazon Influencers who interview experts and entrepreneurs while training Amazon customers how to overcome the fear of technology, start and flourish in their content creator journeys.
Jim Fuhs of Fuhsion Marketing and Chris Stone of Cast Ahead are the founders of Dealcasters: Livestreaming Amazon Influencers who interview experts and entrepreneurs while training Amazon customers how to overcome the fear of technology and start and flourish in their content creator journeys. In just over a year, Dealcasters have established themselves as a trusted authority not only in the live video and podcasting space but also in the education of the Amazon Influencer program and the development of Influencers already on the platform. They’ve spoken on stages and virtually at PodFest Expo, VidFest Expo, StreamYard Industry Showcase, Agorapulse Agency Summit, Midwest Digital Marketing Conference, Social Media Week Lima and others.
Jim and Chris collaborate as remote live producers and have led, assisted and coordinated production teams with clients such as IBM, StreamYard, United Nations Global Compact, MIT, Toastmasters International, Glasko Smith Kline (GSK), Jamaican Chamber Of Commerce and USABizParty, which has included speakers such as Gary Vaynerchuk, Seth Godin, Darren LaCroix and many more.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Chris: I began in the music industry with Sony and have worked with content creators all my life. Being a musician myself, I not only “carried the bag” when it came to creating and broadcasting content — I learned firsthand how to sell, market and make content sound and look the best it can be. Walking out of the music industry and into the podcasting and Livestreaming space with Cast Ahead in 2019 was seamless for me.
Jim and I met at a Podcast Atlanta Meet-up and found that our businesses were very similar. We both worked as producers, editors and marketers for a number of driven entrepreneurs and businesses. Jim and I knew that we wanted to do a show together, but we needed to do something unique that also allowed us to demonstrate our skills as producers, content creators, and editors — all while being able to show our individual personalities.
Jim: I’m a retired Marine LtCol turned Digital Marketing Consultant and like to say I “Do Marketing The Marine Corps Way,” at Fuhsion Marketing where I apply my 20+ years of leadership experience as a Marine Corps Officer to lead others to a successful Content Creator Career. A few months after meeting Chris, I watched a video on YouTube from our good friend Ross Brand about “How To Apply For Amazon Live” and I knew this was our chance to do the show we wanted to make. I was approved in just a few minutes — called Chris — and we spent the next few hours developing Dealcasters Live.
Can you share a story about the funniest marketing mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Jim: Our first interview on Dealcasters Live was with Jennifer Watson from The Weather Channel. Because I have many existing relationships with content creators like Jennifer, we were able to secure a big name for our very first interview and Chris and I were excited to “Weather The Storm.” Little did we know, there was about to be a hurricane of technical difficulties right before we went live.
Chris: Jim and I thought we did all of our homework before going live on the platform but couldn’t figure out why we were not able to go live on Amazon as it was giving us error messages while Jennifer sat in the green room (for 45 minutes!). Thank God Jennifer is a wonderful and patient person because we had to figure out that we couldn’t broadcast at 1080p on Amazon! Thankfully, we got everything sorted and Jen delivered like the pro that she is.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Chris: We began Dealcasters with one thing in mind. We wanted to help people get past the “mind-junk” that comes with the fear of technology and sometimes makes great people stop creating or even begin. Our expectations of financial success were minimal, so any gains we’ve seen we consider a gift.
Jim: Givers gain, and we are always looking to give back to the content creator community. One of the greatest things we see periodically during our shows that keeps us motivated is when people tell us that they are starting their podcast or livestream or any other form of content that day with the tips they’ve gotten from watching and interacting on our show.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
Jim: On May 26–29, we’re super excited to be able to lead an entire day focused on Amazon Influencer & Liveselling in Orlando at PodFest/VidFest Expo. We’re putting together a plan for that day for Influencers to learn the basics of Amazon Liveselling and equip existing influencers to maximize their efforts and gain greater influence.
Chris: We’re working together with PodFest to put together a list of Influencers, speakers and experts we believe will fill the room with eager entrepreneurs, brands, sellers and content creators ready to be a part of this community.
Ok let’s now jump to the core part of our interview. In a nutshell, how would you define the difference between brand marketing (branding) and product marketing (advertising)? Can you explain?
Chris: Brands need to build trust to sell products. The more human you can make your brand as an influencer or product, the more likely you will build “know, like, and trust.” People will not buy products from brands they don’t trust as they want to build relationships and feel like they are a part of that brand’s community.
Jim: In today’s world of social media and influencer marketing, people are looking for word of mouth, expert opinion or referral as they make a product buying decision. Brands that market themselves well are becoming a part of the conversation.
Can you explain to our readers why it is important to invest resources and energy into building a brand, in addition to the general marketing and advertising efforts?
Jim: Building your brand is the most important thing to invest your time and resources in. Dealcasters is not just about getting known, having a cool logo, or showing up on Amazon. Our brand is built based on how people trust us to deliver the honest and transparent information they need to solidify their buying decisions.
Chris: We’ve invested in many top-level descriptive domains from TrueName (the words to the right of the dot on a url) to be memorable, align with our brand, redirect the complicated links we’re given and get found. For instance, dealcasters.live sends someone to our latest Amazon Live show, dealcasters.shop sends them to our Shop Page, and dealcasters.contact to all our contact information. This allows us to speak those words in any social audio platform, virtual or IRL event and not be forgotten. It also presents a trusted and branded link to the viewer or listener instead of some shortened smartlink with slashes and indistinguishable characters. And since each word to the left and right side of the dot counts, using a descriptive domain also name makes it a keyword-rich and effective SEO tactic.
Can you share 5 strategies that a company should be doing to build a trusted and believable brand? Please tell us a story or example for each.
1) Be consistent. As content creators, marketers and business owners know — consistency is the key. When you think no one is watching or listening — they are. You have to consistently develop content to drive brand awareness (SEO) and show your potential viewers, listeners and customers that you are driven to do the work necessary to be successful. Your viewers see the consistency and dedication. That dedication helps them develop the trust that you aren’t just talking about being dedicated to your craft — you’re doing the work.
2) Be the “go-to” authority. We have been tapped to speak at many events, podcasts, etc., because we take the time and effort necessary to know everything about Amazon Live Influencer Marketing and stay abreast of changes. We constantly experiment with new platform changes, provide information to other communities and are looked at as leaders in the space, which has become a part of our brand.
3) Focus on the viewers (your customers), not yourself. This will help build a community, which will evangelize for you and your brand. We found a way to incorporate Amazon Merch into our live shows and not only sell Dealcasters shirts, hoodies and swag — we have fans and guests that buy our shirts and post themselves wearing them on social media. You cannot buy that kind of branding.
4) Get found. In order for anyone to know you exist — you need to build an awareness strategy. We needed to be known outside of the Amazon Live ecosystem, and since “Live” was a part of our brand, we bought the top-level domain Dealcasters.Live. This not only catapulted our brand, it also put our Amazon Live show as the number one result for “Dealcasters” when searched for.
5) Be authentic. People use the word ‘authenticity’ a lot — but it’s very important, especially on live video, to come across as a believable, trustworthy source of information that your viewer can use. Being yourself is a strategy that sounds easy — but for many, it’s unfortunately not — and it takes many repetitions to be comfortable being on live video for the world to see.
In your opinion, what is an example of a company that has done a fantastic job building a believable and beloved brand. What specifically impresses you? What can one do to replicate that?
Jim: We trust and depend on the livestreaming software StreamYard for all of our livestreams on Amazon. Despite StreamYard’s growth, Geige and Dan do a weekly Town Hall to listen to their community, ask them questions and engage with customers. StreamYard’s community group on Facebook is something that the company takes very seriously and is constantly providing help where needed. StreamYard has regular enhancements and makes sure that these updates are rock solid before they are released to the public. We trust this platform for every one of our live streams. A brand can build trust not only by having a great product or service but also by being accessible and listening to their customers. StreamYard is the model for others with respect to that.
In advertising, one generally measures success by the number of sales. How does one measure the success of a brand building campaign? Is it similar, is it different?
Chris: It’s very different in this world. Brands reach out to many Amazon Live Influencers multiple times every day, and they have no visibility to the number of units that these particular influencers are responsible for. After only a year, we’ve been approached by some of the top brands in tech — just because we were being noticed on the Amazon platform, speaking at various events and consistently amplifying our brand on social media channels. Brands and product sellers see the incredible value of Influencers driving sales online and we’re able to be in the center of one of the biggest platforms in the world doing it. As mentioned earlier, Jim and I measure our success with Dealcasters differently than just sales. We are driven to move creators forward and love to see others succeed, knowing that maybe we had a small part in their success.
What role does social media play in your branding efforts?
Chris: We launched Dealcasters Live only on Amazon initially and then built our social media channels after the fact. By implementing the redirect link dealcasters.live on our social media; we drove traffic to our Amazon show and shop by including a more “trusted” domain (dealcasters.live) into every post, bio, etc. Trust for a brand is as much about the URL as it is about your copy.
Jim: Many times, creators will be on all social media platforms, but most people are smart enough to look at the social proof of whether or not that particular creator or influencer is really engaging with their followers. We don’t treat our social media like a trumpet — we will engage with everyone and are “social” — especially on the platforms we gravitate towards most, like Twitter.
What advice would you give to other marketers or business leaders to thrive and avoid burnout?
Chris: Invest in your business to create systems and people that do at least some of the work for you. As entrepreneurs, we cannot possibly do everything. We need to tap into others who are more than willing to help us flourish. This will give you the time to spend with family, friends and the things you love outside of your business.
Jim: Schedule your time on social media — you don’t have to be on 24–7. Small scheduled bits of time throughout the day will allow you to keep up without feeling overwhelmed. We are big fans of Lately.ai, which we can upload content to and uses artificial intelligence to craft great social media content we only have to tweak.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 😊
Chris: Our industry mostly requires some sort of gear or gadgetry for creative people to do what they do best. Unfortunately, this gear requires a budget — and while we believe that it doesn’t take a lot of money sometimes to get some sort of starter kit, many people don’t even have the means to acquire that. I would bet that many reading this have a closet full of gear that would be a welcome gift to a creative person in need. That person could change the world if they only had that microphone you haven’t used in three years, or that recording device you’re hanging onto ‘just in case.’ We still see young creators going to libraries to record their podcasts on rented gear.
Jim: I have a heart for children who go hungry. Stopping child hunger is something that is not only sad from a nutritional standpoint, it also affects many things like their ability to learn.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Jim: When I wake up in the morning and sometimes feel uninspired — I think about the quote from Braveheart: “Every man dies, but not every man really lives.” Every day is a gift, and we’ll never wish we had worked more — only lived more.
Chris: I’m a big fan of the “Man In The Arena” speech from Roosevelt, which in summary drives someone to action, and not to sit back and criticize others who are actually doing the work. In the creator world, there is too much comparison and drive to generate social proof as to your worth. Yet others are taking their shots every day and while they are failing at times, they are learning from it and becoming greater. “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
We are blessed that very prominent leaders in business and entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world with whom you would like to have a lunch or breakfast with? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)
Chris: There are so many, but I think it may be cool to sit down and break bread with Sting. I know many say that we shouldn’t ‘meet your heroes,’ but Sting has been a tremendous influence on me on the bass guitar, songwriting and musicianship.
Jim: I would love to have breakfast with baseball legend Cal Ripken. His work ethic and what he does in the community have always inspired me.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
https://twitter.com/dealcasterslive
https://www.instagram.com/Dealcasters/
https://www.facebook.com/DealcastersLive/
https://www.pinterest.com/Dealcasters/_created/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/dealcasters-live/
https://www.twitch.tv/DEALCASTERS
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
Thanks so much for the opportunity!
