Your Next Referral Might Come from an Algorithm

Intro

Welcome to the Growth Minded Accountant Podcast, where our experts share best practices on running your firm in the digital age. This podcast is brought to you by CountingWorks PRO. Let's get started.

Lee Reams II

Welcome back to another episode of The Growth Minded Accountant. My name is Lee Reams II. I am the founder and CEO of County Works and I am joined as always by Rebekah Winters Barton back from I don't even know like the bottom of the earth. Where were you?

Rebekah Winters Barton

The far reaches of the earth. We were in Indonesia, Singapore, and Taiwan.

Lee Reams II

Wow. And and you and they let you off the island.

Rebekah Winters Barton

Off of Taiwan. No problem. They let me come home. They let me leave. It was good. We went to the top of the 101. Saw the whole island. It was very exciting.

Lee Reams II

That sounds like an awesome trip. Um well, while it would be fun to talk about your trip, we're gonna actually talk about um something that might sound a little futuristic, but it's actually happening right now. We're seeing it with our clients. We're starting to see it on our legacy clients um where they're, you know, on their older technology and even new clients who are starting to lose some website traffic and even some referrals and they're wondering what is going on. And today we're going to break that down. What has changed? Um, we have been mentioning for a while now how this AI disruption is not slowing down. Um, and I'm not trying to be like fear and you know scare people.

I'm just saying this is what's changing and I think it's more of an opportunity for those that are smart enough and aware enough to jump on it. So um, what the topic today is your next referral might not come from a person. it might actually come from an algorithm. What do you think about that, Rebekah?

Rebekah Winters Barton

I love it. Um, I think like you said, this isn't meant to incite fear. This is just the world we live in now. And the faster you embrace it and the faster you're willing to say, "Hey, this is where things are going," the easier it's going to be for you to get ahead of the game. So, that's what we're trying to do here is just kind of explain to you what's happening and tell you how you can keep up. So the what we mean by this is that basically word of mouth may not come now from someone's best friend or their colleague or someone at a networking event. It might come from their AI assistant. Um chat GPT perplexity whatever it is they're using. So I think that's what we're going to kind of get into here.

And it's it's really fascinating actually the way things have shifted so quickly.

Lee Reams II

Yeah. I mean the referral loop hasn't died. Um it just went digital. So, Google and ChatGPT are now the new word of mouth. Um, and the crazy part, you might already be showing up in ChatGPT um, right now just because your website was done fairly well in the beginning or unfortunately uh, you might be completely invisible. And what do I mean by that? It's uh, we've been saying cookie cutter is dead. What is cookie cutter? Well, cookie cutter is the the way most tax and accounting firms put together their website is they copy someone else's. I want my site to look like theirs. I want sections to sound like theirs. I want to go after these industry just like theirs. And guess what? In the new modern conversational world of AI and LLMs, um there's no differentiation.

So, they don't know these these artificial intelligence engines don't know which brand to talk about, right? So they're actually seeking out what firms have custom narratives, what firms actually tell a story, who are experts in verticals, who are local experts. Okay? And this is happening faster than you realize. So we're going to break this down into what's actually changed. We're going to give you what's great, of course, is we're going to give you takeaways that that you can actually utilize and see results very quickly. So let's start with the shift itself. Five years ago, referrals came from three main sources. Clients, partners, or local word of mouth, right? Uh, social media started jumping in there. But fast forward to today, AI has entered the conversation. And Lee, what do you mean AI has entered the conversation?

People are literally asking ChatGPT questions like, who's the best small business accountant near me? Who can save me taxes on my escorp? Uh, and the answers are not random. And that's what we're going to kind of put to together today. We're give you like a playbook on how to deal with this. They're pulled together from AI models that uh that trust your website, your reviews, your blogs, your digital footprint. Rebekah, what am I talking about? What do you mean trust your content? Um, AI is actually going to pull this content and put you like in part of the conversation with someone having a conversation in ChatGPT.

Rebekah Winters Barton

Yes. So AI has very literally entered the chat. Um I think that's you know what we're trying to say here. So instead of just looking at backlinks which is a big part of what Google used to do. It looked at backlinks. It looked at keywords. It's where the idea of keyword stuffing came from. You wanted these specific terms on your website because the algorithm was looking for specific terms and it was a bunch of ones and zeros. And if it saw those particular sequences of letters that made up those phrases, then you were going to rank higher than your competition. That is not how AI works. These are smarter systems. They're more conversational. Yes, they're still algorithms. They're still ones and zeros, but they function differently. They're looking for authority. They're looking for authentic content. They're looking for fresh content.

And they're looking for things that set you apart from your competitors. That's where niching down is really important. It's where these multichannel campaigns are important. Um, so posting on Reddit, posting on YouTube, posting on your blog, posting on Instagram, all of these things kind of come together and help form a picture of who your firm is for these AI systems. And therefore, when they see all of this come together, they're going to recommend you because it can tell that you know what you're talking about. It can tell you're engaged, and it can tell you really care and are passionate about the services that you're offering.

Lee Reams II

Yeah. So, I laugh. I'm laughing right now. So cookie cutter is dead. We that's our basic that's on our homepage of countingworkspro.com right now, but we did a funnel is dead uh podcast several weeks ago. And what Rebekah is basically saying is people don't follow a linear path anymore, right? So let's say let's just pretend Aunt Susie still referred you as a CPA. Um most likely they probably are going to Google you. So now you got Google AI coming back and saying, "Oh, this is a this is who they are and what they are." They may go on to ChatGPT and say, "Hey, should you know, is Lee Reams and Associates a good CPA for me?" Um, and it's going to give your strengths and weaknesses. They may go on LinkedIn. They may look on social media.

They may look at your Facebook account. Are you posting? They may just Google you and look at your Google business. So there's all these different touch points, we call them. Um, this is where search everywhere optimization is a term that we start to use. But the reality is AI now is scanning all of these narratives, okay? And it's putting together what it considers like a trust signal from your brand. Um, so what's happening is the next evolution of word of mouth um is is it's everything except the mouth. It's now data. Okay? It's your context that you're sending. And the more human and consistent your data, this is the blogs you're writing, the FAQs, your story, your insights, your expertise, your tone, your voice, your personality, the more likely AI is to recommend you.

Um, so let's talk about this in a I don't care about this. This isn't going to affect me, but it is. It's happening right now. And my guess is by the time tax season rolls around, you're going to see a difference um in the way you find new clients or new clients find you. And Rebekah, let's talk about what what is happening and why this isn't a someday thing.

Rebekah Winters Barton

It's not a Sunday thing. So SG, which is Google's AI-driven search, is here. It is rolling out currently. It's already working. You've probably already noticed it even if you don't realize that you've noticed it. uh the top the little AI result that comes up at the top. That's part of it. And then you can do even more. I don't know if any of you guys have gotten the the little popup that says, "Welcome to our AI-driven search." And you can click I'm interested, learn more. So that's rolling out to almost all Google users now. ChatGPT is gaining market share handover foot. I don't know anybody who even uses Google anymore. All of my friends are using GPT for everything. We don't even use Google um or very rarely. Perplexity is popular.

There's all these different search engines that people are using that are all generative. So, this is what is happening. It's it's here. It's it's what people are already using. So, when we when we talk about it's happening fast, it's kind of already happened. And I do agree, Lee, that moving forward over the next few months, we're kind of in warp speed here. AI has taken over, not in a literal sense, but AI has become such a part of our everyday lives so quickly. The technology is advancing so rapidly. Six months from now, I think you are going to see a massive shift in how you're obtaining clients and how you get new clients for tax season, even in how your clients are referring you.

I think as they're sitting around talking to people, even if you are recommended word of mouth, people are then going to turn to their their chat GPT assistant and that's how they're going to research you. I just think that's where things are going. So that's why, you know, posting on all of these places, creating this brand identity is so important. I would say even more important than it's ever been online because these generative systems are looking everywhere and they're very smart and they're pulling together who you are very easily from all of the content and all of the information that's out there about your firm. Um, so you're saying your therapist chat GPT you utilize for everything and a lot of people are doing the same. Yes.

Um, so I think there's a couple takeaways here uh about the you know accountants and how fast this is happening. So the good news for the accounting industry and the tax industry for the foreseeable future is u we're very very busy. You are very busy. If anything, you don't have enough staff, enough capacity to handle the workloads that you have. And this this podcast is not about how to use AI to save you time. It's more of how to use AI to stand out. But the reality here is with this tax season coming, this trend line is going to get faster and faster and faster. Um, and that's what's happening in every marketing shift. So, you know, social media, mobile first, local SEO, early adopters got huge returns. Everyone else played catchup.

And what we want to make sure is specifically our audience and our more importantly our clients. We're not going to let that happen to you. And we're already seeing incredible um success stories where new firms, brand new firms, are able to out compete and outrank traditional firms that have been around for a long time by utilizing the strategies that we're talking about. So in an AI-driven world, the most discoverable firm wins, okay? Not necessarily the biggest. You don't have to outspend the big firms. You just need to out teach them. Um and we're going to go into a little bit of what that means. and and and I'm going to jump ahead before we get to the segment three. Um the gatekeeper isn't human anymore.

And I want Rebekah if you can kind of understand like how is an algorithm trained on your public story. And we always say narrative and sometimes I don't know if people understand what we mean by narrative. It is branding 101. It's writing custom content on your website across all your branding that talks exactly who you are, why you do this, and who you're helping. And if you don't have that story or it's cookie cutter, looks like everyone else. I mean, all our competitors have the exact same website over and over again. You think ChatGPT is going to be able to tell one version from the other? No. So, there's a huge opportunity to create that narrative, to create that custom copy and understand that this new gatekeeper is not a human that just has knows you.

This is a computer that knows all the computer or all the competitors, all of the landscape and they know the personality as the the preferences of the person using ChatGPT. So, it's going to recommend it specifically for them. So, kind of explain that before I get into um the opportunities and how to deal with this. Yeah. So, I think this is really important because a lot of times when we're doing onboards and things like that, I get people who will still give me kind of generic answers. Well, we provide a personal touch. Okay. how what makes you different than other people providing a personal touch because I hear that 40 times a week. Um so you know sometimes I have to kind of dig my heels in a little bit to get people to talk to me.

So the big thing to remember here is that as these systems look at your public story if the only thing they can find about you is that you prepare taxes that's what they're going to spit out. That is not appealing to anyone. They know you you prepare taxes. They're looking for a tax preparer. They want a tax preparer who provides um guaranteed 24-hour answers to their questions. They want a tax preparer who provides, you know, a guarantee that if there's a problem with their return, they'll eat the cost. These are the types of things that set people apart. They want someone who specializes in their industry. We actually had a really great onboard just today. They only work with dairy farms. Really, really interesting, tight niche.

Um, so that's the kind of thing that you want to have as your story. So, I was just working on the content for that site before this podcast, and it's great because it's super niched down. It's super tight. There are like some jokes about cows in the content. It's just fun and different, and it talks a lot about, you know, deductions that are specific to that industry, things that these people in the dairy farm industry are going to really care about. So, that's the type of thing you want to keep in mind. Who do you serve? What do they care about?

What type of content do you need to be putting out into the world so that ChatGPT and all of these other systems understand who you really are as a firm beyond, well, we can use QuickBooks and we can submit a tax return.

Lee Reams II

Rebekah, do you know what I learned today? That cows are more aerodynamic than a Jeep Wrangler.

Rebekah Winters Barton

Really?

Lee Reams II

Yeah. The cow's head and then the lines of the cow. And if it's going through

Rebekah Winters Barton

This is great trivia.

Lee Reams II

Yeah. Well, you know, the things you can learn online. Uh, so I I want what the another way I want people to think about this is go ask ChatGPT the strengths and weaknesses of your firm. And then what I want you to see is what are the gaps and what it says is your weaknesses. Perhaps there's strengths. Maybe you do focus on dairy farms, but there's no comment or no mention of it because guess what? You haven't fed any of that information on your website through your FAQs. um to actually communicate in a conversational way. This is what I do and this is who I work with. So um that's issue one I think and the other one is to understand that the old one-to-one referral game is limited just to who you know right or who knows you.

Um the new one you know you have basically an army of salespeople out there. It scales infinitely if you do this right. So if your content teaches AI what you do, it will recommend you 247. So Rebekah, let's get into now some of the details of what are the things that make authentic voices and our trust signals. Like what kind of content should you be using and what will make the algorithm, you know, refer you? I guess we could do an entire podcast just on this. So I'll try to keep it succinct for for the purposes of today. But there are a lot of things here that that we need to think about. So the first thing is that it needs to be human content. It needs to sound human, not robotic.

This does not mean by any stretch of the imagination that you can't use AI to help you. But you don't want content that just sounds like it's been regurgitated by a robot. Like we prepare taxes, we do bookkeeping. We're here to help you. We're your trusted local accounting firm. You want to really tell a story. Conversational voice is critical. You mentioned FAQs a minute ago and that's something I want to get into here for a minute as well because this is a really really great place to answer questions to provide conversational answers and to answer the sorts of questions that people are actually asking within GPT and other generative systems. So make sure you have an FAQ page. You can answer questions like what kind of audience does, you know, company name serve?

Uh what types of services does company name provide? What industries do you specialize in? All of these different things can be addressed in an FAQ very easily, very neatly. It's public data. It gets it out there. I think one of the biggest problems, which we've alluded to, but haven't set out right, is that firms are not putting what they really do out into the internet. They are just putting basic generic tax and accounting information. So, the systems don't really understand who your firm is. So, an FAQ is a great place to kind of start doing that. Another thing you want to do is post custom blogs. Blogs are a great place to post localized content. GPT, other generative systems, they love localized content.

So, the more you can post about, you know, um, the top 10 things dairy farmers in Michigan need to know, that's a great blog topic. That's something that is going to appeal to these systems. It's going to h they're going to hone in on that and say, "Oh, wow. Here is some valuable information for my searcher who happens to be a dairy farmer in Michigan." So, that's the sort of content you want to be putting out there on a regular basis. And freshness matters to you. You want to post regularly. Another great thing about blog content is that you could take each of those 10 points and turn them into 10 social media posts. So, you can repurpose this content. This does not have to be something that takes you hours and hours a month.

It can be something you do fairly quickly and then you break it down and use your AI system to actually help you feed the AI system. So, it's a nice little loop and it kind of ties itself up with a bow. Um, I'm laughing because a lot there are elements of how everything has been disrupted so much from traditional old search engine optimization to the newer world, but there's a lot of elements that are really the same. And uh, what those are are reviews and blogs at some point were like kind of forgotten in some ways. And the reason they did not do or perform as well for smaller and medium-sized tax and accounting firms is your version of the article would always get outranked by Nerd Wallet. It would get outranked by Forbes. It would get outranked by CNBC.

So some journalist who just graduated, sorry Rebekah, don't get upset. I'm not putting journalists down. But some journalist that just graduated college is writing about the tax code has no idea and they're outranking you because of the old algorithm that Google used. It was a popularity contest. They have more inbound links. They must be more of an expert. Guess what? Chad GBT has changed that completely. And now, of course, what Google's doing with their AI and Gemini. So, you now as a small firm have the ability to localize your data, localize your city, localize your blog content, your niche, your services, and feed that to these tools. And now you're in the conversation. They're not going to be referencing some, you know, CNBC writer that writes about the tax code. They're going to be referencing you.

And so, meaning if you are looking for creatives, let's say in San Diego, you're going to want to write your content that include those kind of words, but in a conversation. So, you're going to write as if, and I don't want to call it keywords, but it is in fact somewhat keywords, but you're going to have a conversation. That blog will be so write in a narrative format. tell a story and write about these are the 10 best tax tips for San Diego uh digital creators, okay? Or influencers and you're already now you have a niche, you now have a local that is when you're going to be recommended, you're going to be referenced in these results in these conversations. So explain a little bit more about that.

Um and then we're going to talk about well if you don't believe everything we're saying, what is the cost of winning?

Rebekah Winters Barton

That sounds fun.

Lee Reams II

Um, so to get into this a little, that's our fear part. That's our like come on. It is. We're gonna fearmonger just a little. No. Um, but on a serious note, my friends and I who are in the industry, we've kind of been calling these topical terms as opposed to keywords. That's a term that we've kind of been throwing around a lot when I talk to people who do what I do, who I know, who are in the same field. So, you're wanting to focus more on topics now than specific search terms. It doesn't matter as much if the actual word San Diego tax advisor for creatives is in the article as long as it is content that is geared toward those people.

The more you write naturally and the more you're writing topical content, the phrases and terms that you need to be in them are going to be there naturally because you know what you're talking about. So, if someone is a creative in San Diego and they happen to be searching for a tax preparer or an accountant, they are naturally going to search for things like, who is someone who can help me with the home office deduction? Can I deduct this trip that I created content on as a tax deduction? If you write a blog post, hey, San Diego content creators, can you deduct a vacation as a tax deduction? the terms that need to be there are going to naturally be in that article without you focusing too much on this specific syntax.

So I would say focus more on the big picture than on syntax which is a change from SEO 15 years ago where we really did want to focus on the specific syntax. These days things can be a lot more natural. They can be a lot more authentic and in fact they should be to really resonate with these geo systems. Um geo is generative engine optimization. I don't know if we've actually defined that today and we probably should. Kind of the new frontier of SEO. I would say you know 80% of my job now is is geo not SEO focused just because that's where the world is headed.

So, it's really an important thing to understand and I think it's actually easier in a lot of ways because you can simply write what you know and you're going to have more success than with traditional SEO which there was a little bit more of a game with it as far as getting these specific terms and these specific places and using this many the city this many times and the state this many times back in the day we would actually do math um to write a blog post and today you don't have to do that anymore which is great if you're not someone who has worked in this world and is spending, you know, time analyzing the algorithms and all of that. Yeah.

And what's great about the tools that we have today, so um CountingWorks Pro, for example, I'll just tell you what we're doing for clients. So, we built a an intelligence layer called Max that sits on top of these models. And Max now helps us automate building these custom narratives for our clients at scale doing custom FAQs authentic to that particular client in their voice in their local in their niche unique to them. We do blog articles the same way and we're literally Max is literally writing thousands and thousands of one-to-one um conversation like articles content that's now feeding these uh the go the LMS. Okay. Um, so instead of, you know, feeding the algorithm just like this garbage template that you see out there, you're feeding it your story. And that's what is that's what's really important here.

So, we're going to talk a little bit about risk now and the cost of inaction. Uh, because I think this is real. And again, I think most tax and accounting firms are killing it. They are super busy, but we're starting to see those that are starting to struggle. Um, they're closing down. I can't get business. And it's like, there's so much business out there. you just need to communicate it. Um, and it's not just about losing search engine rankings. You're you're being erased in some ways from the discovery layer that is ChatGPT. So, I used to say this in SEO, you know, there's there's lots of business. There's lots of search, the old Google blue links. People were getting business from that. They were getting leads from creating content.

Um, and then the people that weren't were like, why am I not getting it? And it's because you were not being ranked. But there was there was millions and millions of traffic and qualified people coming through. So it's the same thing the same truth here now with ChatGPT, right? Um so you know next tax season the firms that show up in AI tools will now be the default choices. They're going to want be the ones that people are comparing between and if your firm isn't there you're invisible to the next wave of clients. I think this is really important to understand and my guess is most people are starting to see I mean most are seeing a decrease in the traffic to their websites already. You're seeing that a trend across all major um major brands too.

So a lot of big brand websites are starting to lose traffic and they're all now trying to focus on this geo site. So Rebekah, we're not trying to scare, but you know, what do you think is going to happen here as Google continues to change the blue link to an AI first world? You know, what what do you think the winners are going to be? The people that adapt now or, you know, are they going to be able to catch up? I guess is my question.

Rebekah Winters Barton

I think no. Um, and I don't say that to scare people, but I think if you look historically at every major shift in technology, the early adopters have been the people who won. Um, I think if you look at, you know, the early days of the internet, would Jeff Bezos be a billionaire if he hadn't purchased Amazon.com when he did? You know, I mean, I think there are these little stories of like you adopt things early, people who adopted the internet early, who bought those early URLs and now have eBay is another great example. Just such a random purchase at the time and it has exploded largely because it gained authority just from being such an early purchase. So, I think with every iteration of the internet, we've seen the early adopters win.

There is absolutely no reason why it's not going to be the same this time. I do not think AI is the exception of the rule. I do think that it is easier to catch up now. We're still early enough in the game that if you say, "Okay, I I believe you. I want this. I want to start ranking." If you go out, start putting out really great localized content in a very specific niche in your area, I think you could see yourself ranking in AI. And I'm not over exaggerating, within a few days. We've seen people do it. So, I think that is very possible that within a week, if you post three blog articles that are in a really great content cluster, you could see yourself start showing up very quickly here.

So, it's a it's kind of a bigger return on investment in some ways, or at least a faster one than what people would see with Google, which I think makes it more appealing. there is an actual chance that you could search for yourself within, you know, a week from from this date and actually start seeing some return. We love instant gratification as a species and AI gives it more than traditional SEO search did. So, jump in, see what happens. You can kind of test this out. You can post a few things that are really, really targeted, you know, really high quality targeted niche content. test some searches next week and see if you're pulling. It's as easy as that to test our theory and see if you you've started to rank already. This isn't hard.

Um in the sense that waiting six months for Google to catch up to something was

Lee Reams II

Yeah. And I mean, we're doing it every day. We we just did some tests on some blog content that we outranked Thompson Reuters um and in the in the ChatGPT world in one day. And in the old days in Google, you know, Counting Works is a little brand versus a multi-billion dollar brand. Um, that wouldn't have happened. And I think that's really important. The other thing that's a huge differentiator is what I call the human edge. So, it's the human side. AI isn't replacing trust, okay? It's scaling it, right? So, the accountants who sound the most human, who tell their story, who talk like real people are the ones who win both clients and win over the algorithm. So, uh, I think that's important that you don't sound too corporate, okay?

You don't want to you don't want to just write a generic or have ChatGPT or Max, for example, write a generic article about you. You want to sound real. You want to have you real use cases. And even if you're utilizing AI tools, you need to put all these snippets into your content. This is, hey, this is a client, a doughnut shop that I helped, they were in a cash flow crisis that I helped them, you know, there was an illness, whatever. and putting that real life um how you've helped families, how you help small business owners, how you help creators um those are things that going to help build trust with these AI tools as well. And why is that? Because it is artificial intelligence. It's looking for those cues. So authenticity does what? It scales.

And Rebekah, just kind of circle in on that and then we're gonna wrap this thing up. I think we've covered this fairly well, but go ahead and just give any insight. I I love that.

Rebekah Winters Barton

I think authenticity is really important. We've seen for a long time that content creators who post authentic content typically are the ones who stand out. And I'm not speaking content creators in the sense of like being a multi-billion dollar beauty influencer or something like that. But people who are putting content out there that is very real, that is human, that people can connect with, that's what you want. And in this case where you are perhaps wanting to serve other small business owners who are facing similar crisis, maybe you know their mom has cancer and now they're in a cash flow crisis because all of their money is going to pay for this medical treatment or whatever.

That's the type of thing that happens to real people in real America in real small towns and that's the kind of lives that a lot of people are living. So the more corporate you sound, the less you're going to resonate in a lot of cases unless you happen to be working with high-flying executives and that's your niche market. But for most most of the clients I work with here, they are working with everyday people. And so to post those everyday stories and to let them see that like, hey, I've helped somebody just like you. They didn't have, you know, $100,000 that they could throw at me to to pay for these services. They were having struggles. They were having problems.

And still, we were able to help them. and we were able to save this business or save, you know, maybe it's a restaurant that's existed for 50 years in a little town and you're able to help rescue them from some sort of a financial meltdown. That's the type of story that is going to resonate with people and that's the type of story that one is going to help hook chat GPT and then in turn it's going to help hook the person who did the search and that's how you get your referral through an AI algorithm.

Lee Reams II

Yeah, I'm going to go a step further and our just my testing and and this is more of a subjective kind of commentary. I have found that boutique firms, even if you're in the corporate side, if you're going for high-end clients, um what I have noticed is the bigger uh the big monster firms are not doing as well when it comes to the ChatGPT side. And even in the comparisons when you're saying, you know, should I hire this big brand versus the boutique? It's actually what I'm seeing is the boutiques that have stories, they have real people behind the stories. So meaning it's not this huge company with thousands of people and there's no personality there. The boutiques are able to communicate that personality. So in the AI area, your best marketing strategy is to be findable, quotable, and credible.

And you can do that as a small or medium-sized firm. So uh I think we've hit it all. I we've given examples um how to do this FAQs, blogs, putting in the local information, making it human, um adding case studies and testimonials, do storytelling versus listing services. Those are the firms that are going to show up in these conversations. So, the takeaway here is referrals are not disappearing. They're evolving. Okay? So AI is going to be the new middleman. And your job is to make sure it knows who you are, who you help, and why you're worth recommending. Okay? And it starts with your story, your content, and your consistency. Let's do one more comment about consistency. I have seen so many DIY sites and people that just put up these thin sites and have no blogs anymore.

Um, they're not posting on an an ongoing basis. and even their content. These these tools like you to refresh the content, believe it or not. But why is consistency so important?

Rebekah Winters Barton

Consistency matters because it tells these systems that you're actually doing the work, that you're present, that you're online, that you are who you say you are effectively. The more consistent you are, the more reliable you seem, and the more trustworthy you seem. And these are algorithms. They need consistency to understand who you are, just like a person would, honestly. Like if you're working with a client, consistency matters, right? Deliverables on time, that matters. Providing them with value on a regular basis, that is how you retain clients. It's also how you retain ranking. You are effectively delivering a deliverable to the algorithm that says, "Hey, you should keep ranking me." Well, that's what your blogs are. They are deliverables to the algorithm. your social media posts.

All of these things are basically your deliverable to the algorithm to say, "Hey, please keep ranking me where I want to be ranked." That's all it is. And I think that's maybe a really easy way to think about it is that you are just providing a deliverable to it in the same way you would to a client. And the more consistently you do that, the more reliable and trustworthy and authentic you're going to appear.

Lee Reams II

So takeaway, last takeaway, feed them your expertise before your competitors do, and you can kill it. Uh, I will say it again, cookie cutter is dead. Narrative wins. Um, if you want are interested in anything that we've talked about, we have figured out a process to do this on autopilot to do like literally customized content in your voice, your personality. every best practice we gave you. We've figured out how to get our Max tool to take inputs from your website, from memories that we put in. Um, highly trust, accurate information. We've made it so you can scale this content on autopilot.

Literally you turn you have let's say there's a vertical you're going after you turn that playbook we call them playbooks uh and you turn it on it takes all these inputs and creates highly personalized very uh conversion uh centered copy that really will drive business to you. So uh I hope this has been valuable. Um I love all we had a huge increase in the amount of listeners to the growthminded accountant. Rebekah was gone. We did one early and maybe it was just because October 15th ended. Um, but yeah, we had a a huge surge. We really appreciate it. Uh, please share our podcast with your friends and family. Feel free to like our podcast. That actually feeds the algorithm and will help us build our firm.

We're looking to, you know, have an army of the top tax and accounting professionals in the industry. We want you guys to own the next 5 years, 10 years. So, that's what we're all about. You know, if AI doesn't know your story, it can't refer you. So hopefully you have some good takeaways from this. Uh thank you for being a listener of the Growth Minded Accountant podcast and we will see you next week. Thank you.