Build Trust, Not Trends: A Practical Guide To Customer-First Content

Stop performing for the algorithm and start creating content that actually books appointments. We sit down with Charles from Become the Authority to unpack how a COVID-era pivot from insurance to full-stack marketing led to record-breaking results and a repeatable playbook any service business can use. The secret isn’t flashy editing or the latest sound—it’s a simple system: hook their problem, teach one useful insight, and give a clear next step.

We get specific about what works. Charles breaks down why “boring” educational videos convert better than trends, how to craft hooks that win the first five seconds, and how to replace jargon with everyday language your ideal client understands. We also map the full funnel—from pinned comment links and keyword DMs that trigger automatic outreach to confirmation flows that remove friction and speed up bookings. You’ll learn why YouTube should be your searchable library for SEO and trust, then how to repurpose long-form into dozens of high-impact shorts using tools like Opus Clip.

Beyond tactics, this conversation reframes marketing as a connected system. Instead of chasing isolated wins, stack touchpoints to hit the rule of seven: organic discovery, targeted retargeting, warm emails, timely texts, and personal DMs that feel human. We also tackle the growing fatigue with AI-generated content and why authenticity—yes, even a shaky handheld video—often outperforms glossy, artificial polish. If you’re a clinician, agency owner, or local service pro tired of empty virality and ready for consistent client acquisition, this is your roadmap.

If this resonated, hit follow, share it with a colleague who needs a simpler plan, and leave a quick review telling us the one hook you’ll test this week.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Welcome to another episode of Marketing 101. We have a great guest this week, Charles from Become the Authority. Thanks for being with us and taking some time.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

I'm glad to be here.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Yeah, I love what you do. I mean, we kind of crossed paths. Your team reached out to me, and I was like, this is what we need to talk about content creation, videos king, how to capture this stuff. And it's exactly what you do across multiple different industries, which is super cool.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Yes.

COVID Pivot To Marketing Systems

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Yeah. How'd you get into this? How did you find a passion for this? What do you do now? Where do you see yourself going in the next five years with all this stuff?

Results Spark A New Agency

SPEAKER_01 0:55

So this agency uh was actually born out of COVID. Everybody remembers COVID. Um, and I was working in insurance at the time. Uh, I had my own agency, uh, and we and I was directly responsible for, I believe it was about 10 agents at the time. And when COVID happened, we had to switch from going out and seeing potential clients in person to having to sell to them over the phone. And the way that they were marketing, the phone system they set us up with, the tools that they gave us, it was very janky, uh, very, very uh low quality, and there just wasn't a lot of um, there just wasn't a lot of good flow with using it, and our team was struggling with it. And so thankfully, being an agency owner at the time, I had a little bit of pull with the company, and I said, Hey, I'm gonna go ahead and build out my own marketing system. I'll put my own money into it, I'll do the research, I'll do whatever it takes, but I need to make sure that my team can eat. And so that's when I started diving into things like digital advertising, meta-ads, Google ads, CRM setups, automated follow-up, the, you know, the whole, the whole rigmarole, right? And as a result, uh, even during a global pandemic, our team was able to still hit record-breaking numbers as an insurance agency. So that was very powerful for me. And people were seeing the results of it, and someone reached out to me and they said, Hey, could you build something like this for my business? And I said, sure. Uh, and I I don't even remember how much I charged him at the time. I I know I grossly undercharged myself because I had no idea what I was doing as far as running this as a business. Um, but we wound up setting up an internal marketing system for him. And sure enough, he saw about a 40% uh growth in his annual revenue after using it for the first year. So we understood just how powerful these systems could be. And for myself, I noticed wow, I enjoy working B2B, I enjoy working with other business owners, and I can be of real value and service if I take this seriously. And so as a result, uh I started expanding my services, getting more aggressive with building up the agency, and three years later, here we are.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

Awesome. Good work, good work, and the thing I like about you is your focus on uh you actually go to the businesses and you capture content for them. So you, I mean, you're uh insurance broker, digital agency, videographer, uh you know, you're doing it all, and that's why I wanted you on the show is because a lot of healthcare professionals get caught up on the on the content. We're we're doctors, right? We go to through all this schooling. This was the last team that this was the last thing we thought about 15 years ago or 20 years ago when we graduated that we'd be doing this crap. And here we are in front of cameras, and we're we're presenting ourselves as doctors, so we're thinking completely the wrong way. We want to present ourselves as uh the authority, uh, proof, uh you know, um capture, you know, using way too much wordage, you know, over the head of our clients, over the head of the viewers. We're speaking like doctors, no one wants to hear a doctor talk, right? No, uh when you come on site and be like, Hey, listen, just follow me, let's capture this stuff, I think is is really huge. What are some tips um that you found across all industries when it comes to capturing content? Let's start there and we're we'll get in some cool stuff.

Hooks, Editing, And “Boring” That Converts

SPEAKER_01 4:55

So when it comes to our content strategy, um we try to lean towards simple education. Okay. So there's there's two ways that you can go about content. You can lean towards virality, or you can lean towards genuine customer and client acquisition. Okay. And what we sometimes notice is that people are either not putting out any content at all, or all of the content they're trying to put out is just focused around being trendy, doing the latest sound, maybe getting everyone in your office to do a TikTok dance, things like that. That's not what our team suggests to people. So we don't we don't like having people debase themselves. Uh, we like our content to be just boring enough that the ideal prospect is going to sit there, watch it, be interested, and then go down your pathway, but just entertaining enough that it's able to grip them, right? So that's where we focus on good editing, strong hooks, um, and just sort of like that first five to 10 seconds of a video is absolutely crucial because it's going to hook them. So instead of just diving into uh, you know, oh, this is how we can help you fix your back pain, you want to say something like, most people don't know that this is what's wrong with their spine, you know, and and now they're like, wait, what's wrong with my spine? You know, so it's just about focusing on hooking people, educating them, and opening the door for them to come and ask you more questions and then pushing them into your funnel.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

I love that. I mean, I love how you see, and this is why I love this podcast, and I learned so much from you guys because I can't see it from my perspective. I love how you divide it into virality going viral and you know, structured content, which is two different avenues you can go. And what we look at all the time is we're like, what gets views? And unfortunately unfortunately for business owners, it's virality. So we're going down, you know, the Jersey Shore guys and seeing what they're doing, and it does not fit the mold for what we need, what we need to do. We're not gonna dance around and throw whipped cream at each other's faces. Like that's not that's not what's gonna catch. But we have to take that idea to grab the attention of our audience because they are being trained at four million to one on virality content versus us, you know, it's just it's just not there. So, but you you hit it, you hit the nail on the head there with we want to be boring enough to catch their attention because that boring content is where your ideal client lies. Is that they're sitting there not knowing that the information's coming as they scroll up in the next scroll, where you come up and you say, Hey, did you know your spine isn't functioning well? Yes, they're like, What? What exactly I think I have a spine issue, my back hurts. Like, I think my spine is in my back, right? I mean, we have to think that way that people don't know the language we know. Uh, as doctors, when we say, you know, do you have degenerative disc disease? People are like, What the heck is that? What the hell is that exactly? Right? So, yeah, exactly. So that's great. So I love that perspective. Now, now, what's one way with your clients that you help them get that type? I don't even know if you think like this when you when you're working with them with the viral content. If you walk into a business and you're like, How how can we create content that helps this business go viral? I don't even think you overlap the two, do you?

Funnel Design And CTAs That Move

SPEAKER_01 8:43

Viral is not my concern, right? Uh, my my concern is purely client acquisition, customer acquisition, however you want to put it. And so our content is designed around again, getting a person's attention who might have a particular problem that we can solve, presenting it to them in a way that gets their attention, right? Like so instead of just saying you have degenerative spine disease, whatever it was that you just said, that was a lot. But um, but you could just have a quick zoom in on your face just say, You've had some back pain lately, haven't you? This might be why, right? And so it completely the same sort of content, but you hook them first. So now that gives you the opportunity to get into the exact issue, explain some commonalities around it, and then have a call to action at the end where it's like, hey, you can comment ABC Word for us to reach out to you, or click this link and you can book some time with us, we'll give you a free consultation. Um, you know, but our main focus is 100% on customer acquisition when it comes to our content. And that's why I say we like boring content because we understand that if the content is just a little bit boring, we're not gonna get a bunch of tire kickers who are just kind of floating through and maybe they're interested, maybe they care, maybe they don't. No, these are people that sat down, they watched your somewhat educational boring video. Right. And then they're like, you know what? Yes, I need help with this. So it eliminates a lot of the we're focusing on not just the customer acquisition, but eliminating a lot of the friction and objections that tend to go into closing a sale. And that whether it's whether you're working as a doctor or a landscaper, there's always going to be people who like to quote unquote shop. Right. You know, so by eliminating as much friction as possible in the content strategy and then setting up a really robust funnel that moves quickly and gets people to the next step very smoothly, uh, that's how you're able to start pulling in customers online without a whole lot of uh back and forth nonsense.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

Yes, love it. Perfect stuff. Uh, when you go into the businesses, what's your primary focus of the goal of the content that you're trying to leave with? I mean, uh each business is different, but try and answer that question. What's your goal from your perspective? Because that's I think as a business owner, our perspective, when we're trying to shoot our selfie videos of this content ourselves, right?

Director Mindset Over Videography

SPEAKER_01 11:37

Yeah. So my goal and the beauty of this is that I am not a videographer, I'm more of a director, if anything. Okay. So I'm able to defer to my videographer. We're partnered with a local media production company, and that's how we're able to offer the videography and social media services. Um, I'm able to rely on him for things like the visual, the editing, the things like that, right? And I can focus purely on this is how you should phrase that. These are the sort of hooks you should do, etc. So our goal is to showcase their expertise in a way that is consumable for the average consumer. You know, we like you said, typically when you're a doctor or a business owner or this or a that, you tend to speak in the language of the industry. But the people who are consuming our stuff, the people who are using our services or our product or this or that, do not speak the industry language. They just know their back hurts. They just know they need this service performed. And so we have to look at how can we help you showcase your expertise while at the same time not speak above people? That's where I can help people bridge the gap. So my goal is to showcase the expertise in a way that gets people into the funnel and then pushes them to an appointment with you guys so that you can start doing the things you need to do. Nice.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

Yeah. So yeah, and you already said the whole funnel in the video of what the structure is, the beginning, the middle, and the end of a video, whether this is a 30-second video or a 30-minute video, the hook at the beginning is what catches them, and then the content in the middle is what captivates them, and then the call to action is just the icing on the cake at the end because they've watched the whole video. They're like, Well, where do I click? What do I do? You know, as and in many cases, you don't even have to have a discount, it's just they're in.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

They just need to be in. Oh, and this is a pro tip too, since we're on the subject. Yeah. Uh, a lot of people, and we're seeing this with the algorithms lately. A lot of people are still putting their link for things directly into the status or the caption of the video that they're posting. And the algorithm is deprioritizing that because they want to keep people on the app as long as possible.

SPEAKER_00 14:14

Yes, great point. I was gonna do a whole podcast on this.

Structure: Hook, Teach, Clear Action

SPEAKER_01 14:17

So, what you want to do is instead of putting that link in the caption, you want to put it as the first pinned comment on whatever the video is. So, whether you're on LinkedIn, whether you're on Instagram, whether you're on Meta, uh, you put it as that first comment with a call to action right there. And then, of course, you also have it on your page. The other side of what you want to look at doing is adding keyword automations to your Instagram, to your business, Facebook, to where you can instruct them to comment a certain word, and then a DM will go out to them uh with a link that they can click to start getting into your funnel. And the beauty of that is twofold. Number one, you're gonna start pulling in customers, but number two, if you're instructing people to leave a comment and they start leaving comments, that's gonna tell the algorithm people are interested in what this person is saying. We need to show this to more people.

Links, Algorithms, And Pinned Comments

Keyword DMs And Engagement Signals

SPEAKER_00 15:20

Perfect. You nailed it. I did not I learned something too. I knew the link linking or landing pages or websites that direct off of Meta hit hit the algorithm in a bad way. They don't like that. They want you to stay in here. That's why a lot of the ads we do are still in forms because the forms are getting better and better and better because meta is actually, you know, the the it's actually AI now. Meta used to do an algorithm, the algorithm is no longer controlled. The AI is running the algorithm. So, and it's trying to keep them on meta, not have them leave, which is great. So that is getting better. So it's this yo-yo. I don't know how long you've been doing this, but over the last six years, I mean it's been like, okay, go to websites, go to landing pages, back to informs, back to landing pages, but you know, because you're always changing crap. Yeah, you got it. But that's cool that you can put the link in the comment and that you found that that's not affecting the algorithm in a negative way. That's cool. So it's kind of like uh an aside to that whole rule. That's great. I'm glad you actually populated, like you've actually experienced that. So that's that's awesome. Cool, cool tip there. Uh, when it comes to content, because uh that's why you're on the show, man. I mean, you you've been doing this. Um, is there some type of recipe that works? We're always baking a cake. I've done this show for three years. I I work one-on-one with chiropractors. I'm like, it's all marketing's always a cake. It's all it's I don't care if you're gluten-free, if you're using flour, whatever it is, it's the same ingredients every single time. You need egg, flour, and milk to do this, to bake this thing, uh, but the rest is all icing and all the stuff on there. The recipe that works for content that you see that that's going, um, what do you think is the best do-it-yourself way for a lot of chiropractors? Because this is what they're gonna digest today. And then hopefully they call you and be like, you know what, this this sucks. I'm gonna call Charles and he's gonna do it for me. That's the whole that's the whole point. But what's the do-it-yourself um way of this when we go into content? Because a lot here's the point chiropractors are burnt out. They're like, okay, I'm doing the content stuff, I've gotten better. Uh, and now I'm like, do I just have to keep shooting new videos? The point of this is that you create such good content that you can repurpose it over and over. You get winning ads, you get winning content that just is used for a long time. I have one video I used for three years, it's on the intro here, the disc herniation video. I keep getting spinal decompression patients from that video for the last three years. I don't have to do anything with it.

YouTube As The Content Engine

SPEAKER_01 17:44

So, I my suggestion lately to people, especially in the wellness space and things like that, has been I want more of you guys to migrate to YouTube. Now, the reason why I say that, number one, uh, especially when it comes to things like chiropractors, wellness clinics, things like that, right? Folks are actively searching for these problems on Google. Google is directly connected to YouTube. So if you have a library of content that answers a lot of their questions right there on YouTube, that's an amazing top of funnel. Number two, just before we jumped on the call, you bought up uh because our our main thing is not just marketing, we're marketing and automations. That's what we focus on doing, building out automations that allow for you to do one thing and 20 things happen in the background. And so we were talking about Opus Clip. So if you start posting your walkthroughs on maybe how to decompress your spine, common spine issues, things like that, and you post it on YouTube, you get the software Opus Clip, which is going to take those YouTube videos that you post, automatically begin the process of clipping them, and then set it up to where you can automate the process of posting them to your Facebook, your TikTok, your Instagram, your LinkedIn, etc. So you're able to make one great piece of content for YouTube, and then that piece of content can be turned into 20 and 30 reels that can be posted out to all of your different channels, creating max visibility for your service or offer.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

Yep. Love it. Yeah, I mean, let this let these tools work for you, right?

SPEAKER_01 19:44

Yes, uh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:45

So I and I've always been a big fan of YouTube. I I've told a lot of chiropractors because then they're like, Oh, how do I go viral on YouTube and make money? I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. It is your digital library. Yes, make sure you follow the rules and uh put all the video and store them there because it's there, it's an easy way, it doesn't clog up your memory banks. It's all there, it's all saved for you, and it's serving a purpose on Google for your SEO. If you tag this stuff properly, you keyword the stuff properly, it's only gonna serve you better. Yeah, great point. Great point on that.

Repurposing With Opus Clip

SPEAKER_01 20:17

And and again, virality, and I want to say this, I will say it till the cows come home. For business owners, virality is not the goal. No, there are people right now who can tell you how to go viral and they can make it happen a million times out of a million times, but the only thing that they're going to get is a few dollars from social media for the viral post, and they're still not going to get any customers in because what's the point of having a video that gets a million views, but all of your viewers are in a bunch of states that you don't work in?

The Trap Of Empty Virality

SPEAKER_00 20:57

Great point. We have a guy that came into our practice last year, he's still with us and he runs Massage, okay, kinesiology. I'll give you his link. Uh, you go to him, he gets he's approaching, he's approaching a hundred million. No, he's approaching a billion views a month. He's got about 400 to 600 million views on Instagram a month. And he, I'm like, how you know, how's it going? He's like, Yeah, I make like two, three thousand off TikTok, and I'm starting to make some money off Instagram. Like, that's pretty cool. Way to go! And he's a massage therapist. We have people in our waiting room from Portugal, Germany, Singapore, Tennessee, we're in Florida, New York, Philadelphia, and they're coming in for one or two massages. I'm like, what is going on? Like, and and he, you know, we thought it was all cool, but now he's burnt out because these people can't come back, right? No, he's not building a client base, exactly. It's like this burnout, and then uh, but he's he's going, he did the virality path on his Instagram. So he's got the the dubbed music in the background, pain points, and he and he's scraping muscles, different muscles all the time. It's great content on Instagram. When you're there, you're seeing someone's calf getting scraped, and he's linking it to like neck pain. He's like, Hey, people don't know that Achilles tension can also lead to headaches. And they're like, Wait, what? Um, so he's got it, he's got it. Mapped out for virality, and unfortunately, when it comes to practice, uh, he's got to think way bigger now. Now he's got to open up clinics all over the world to capture these people, which is, I guess, a great problem. I guess I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 22:33

That sounds that sounds convoluted to me, but just gonna say for the average, not so much the average business, right?

SPEAKER_00 22:41

It's like Portugal because exactly we don't have the accreditation to go do that, or whatever. So, anyways, it's it's bizarre. I mean, he's got like NFL. We have NFL players from all over the league coming in. We got world tennis players. I'm like, this is cool, but I mean, uh yeah, anyways, just optional virality where it can go, right? And and becoming the authority. I mean, that's just a separate podcast on that, but but for you, it's about our content for our business owners. This is great, man. What's what's uh what's something you want to leave us with uh that you know that we're going into in 2026? I mean, you're doing the automations, you're doing the flows, you're hitting all the pain points for business owners with capturing content, marketing, getting the lead funnel in, capturing the lead, getting to the lead, and hopefully booking a new client or a new uh customer. You know it all. Where where are we going with this? How is the market responding to marketing? Are we getting text dead yet? Are we are I mean, people say go to email now? We're not to email now. No one opens emails anymore. Uh, you know, where are we? Where are we going?

System Thinking And Rule Of Seven

Don’t Over-AI Your Brand

SPEAKER_01 23:51

I think that we're at a point where people need to think of their marketing as an all-encompassing system. Okay. What we notice is that a lot of people try to itemize it, bit and pieces of it, right? Uh, I had one person who was like, Oh, Charles, we're getting a much higher conversion rate on our text messages. Why don't we just scrap emails? And what I had to point out to him, because we track everything in our agency, right? I was like, Here, here's this client. Before the client responded and converted via the text message, he opened the emails. He looked at the ads online. He we have to think about what's called the rule of seven for marketing, right? Where you need to touch a person at least seven times before they transact with you. And so the fastest way to get to that seven is of course, they're going to see you online, whether it's a piece of content, a paid ad, something like that. That's touch one. Come through the funnel, fill out your form, that's touch two. Uh, you send out whatever information to them, that's touch three. Then how can we get to those remaining four touches? Let's text them, let's email them, let's create visibility in a bunch of different places so that we look bigger than we might actually be. And so that's going to stick in a customer's mind and say, you know what, these guys are the real deal. I need to at least book a call with them. So you really have to think about how this is an entire system of marketing and build a system around it and not just try to bit and piece things. And then the other thing I want to point out too is don't try to AI yourself to death. Okay. There's a lot of AI stuff out there, and there's quite a few cool things that AI can do. But if you go and talk to the average consumer, again, we have to think we're marketing to the average consumer. The average consumer does not really care for a lot of this artificial intelligence stuff. Like sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's whatever, but you'll do infinitely better shooting a shaky video uh with rough cuts, selfie style, and posting it online. You'll get more customers and more traction and more trust than you ever will by just putting up a chat GPT or a Sora video or something like that. Um, because people are just kind of like, Well, this was entertaining, but I don't really trust it.

SPEAKER_00 26:41

They don't. They actually are they don't like it. There's almost disappointment. Yes, it's getting so good where like the first three seconds are like, Whoa, what's going on? And they're like, Oh, is this real?

SPEAKER_01 26:52

Yeah, and it's AI, and then they're irritated.

SPEAKER_00 26:56

Yeah, they're like, That's not real. So, using that for your business, I think, is a bad idea. I think it's really bad. Uh, it's again a virality tool, right? Yeah, Sora. If you want to go viral, use Sora. I mean, yeah, it's hilarious what it can do. Um, no, that's great stuff, man. You definitely know your stuff. If you have any deeper questions, I say reach out to Charles. He looks like someone who will respond to an email. Um, give him a shout, become the authority. Um, and then you we will drop all your handles in there in the in the podcast thing. Anything you want to leave with or close us out with?

SPEAKER_01 27:27

Um, no, I'm excited to speak with all of you. Um I appreciate you having me on to kind of you know to get into some stuff and talk about a few different things.

SPEAKER_00 27:37

Um your crew's based in uh Ohio, right? You're in Cleveland.

How To Reach Charles And Services

SPEAKER_01 27:41

Yeah, I'm in Cleveland, Ohio. Uh, we do work, uh our services for the most part are digital, but there are a few states such as Ohio, Nevada, uh, and potentially California here shortly, where we'll be able to offer those uh videography services. Yes. Um but yeah, so you'll have all my handles. But if you want to look me up on social media, you can just type in my name. Uh, I'm on Facebook. Uh if you type in Charles Craggett, you'll see me sitting next to a tiger. And if you want to find me on Instagram, it's Charles.nwm. And then you'll also post uh the website if you want to get in contact with me. Um right now our website is geared more towards trades-based businesses, but if you're still interested in getting a custom proposal uh for your business and just seeing what we can do for you, go ahead and fill out that form, walk through it, and uh we're more than happy to help.

SPEAKER_00 28:45

Yeah, that's great. I know some people will definitely at least ask you some questions about how um how this stuff is all going, or maybe your expertise as well. Uh thanks for being on the show, man. This was great. You did great. I appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah.