Full Circle Marketing Strategy with Wayne Mullins TB

Full Circle Marketing w/ Wayne Mullins

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Welcome back to the Daily Mastermind. George Wright III with your daily dose of inspiration, motivation, and education. And today we have a great guest. We're going to be talking about business and marketing.

We've got the CEO and founder of Ugly Mug Marketing, Wayne Mullins, in the house. How are you doing, Wayne?

I'm doing great, George. Thank you.

I'm really glad to have you here. And just to give some background for everybody, you're the founder of Ugly Mug Marketing, and it's one of the most successful marketing agencies in the world.

You've also created the Freelance Academy, and you're the author of a book, Full Circle Marketing. But you've personally trained 20,000 marketers. You've launched New York Times bestsellers. You recently mentioned to me that you’ve grown a company—one of your clients—from $20 million to $600 million in just five years.

So today, I'm really excited to talk about strategies and tactics with people who generally think of marketing in certain ways that I think you and I have learned are different.

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Wayne Mullins' Background and Journey

So start us out with just some of your background. Did you grow up a marketer? How did you get into the whole industry? And tell us about the origin of Ugly Mug Marketing.

Yeah, absolutely.

It's actually Zig Ziglar's fault. Some of your listeners may be familiar with Zig Ziglar, one of the greatest motivational speakers probably of all time. Zig Ziglar used to teach a lot of sales training programs, and somehow I ended up with one of his programs. That led me down this entire path of wanting to go into sales, wanting to hone my ability to sell and influence other people to make purchasing decisions.

I started my career in sales and spent three years at it. First of all, I was horrible at sales. I had so many doors slammed in my face. But I guess my stubbornness really paid off because I just kept doing it, kept learning, kept growing, kept improving.

It got to this point, George, where what I noticed was that the amount of revenue I was making for the company was going up fairly rapidly, but my commission was only slowly going up. That gap kept getting bigger and bigger.

I had this dangerous idea: what if I went and actually did something for myself? What if I went and sold something on my own? At that time, the only other skill I could really think of that I had other than sales was cutting grass. I'm born and raised here in Louisiana, and the grass-cutting season is nine months out of the year. All through high school and college, I cut grass to make extra money.

So, much to the dismay of my parents and probably my professors—I had just earned a four-year degree—I decided to start a lawn and landscape company. I really applied my sales approach and some very unique marketing approaches to that business. Over the course of three years, I grew that business to a fairly good size.

I reached a point where it would either involve expanding into another territory about a hundred miles away—which I really didn’t want to do—or doing something else. I decided to put the business up for sale. It was December when I put it up for sale, which is the best time to sell that business. Within three weeks, I actually had a couple of offers on the business and ended up selling it in January of the next year.

Through the course of growing that business, I started having a lot of clients of the lawn company come to me. They were mostly commercial accounts. These entrepreneurs would ask me, “How are you growing your business so rapidly?”

The answer was marketing. We were doing very specific, very unique things to market that business. Those conversations led to consulting around marketing, which eventually turned into Ugly Mug Marketing.

That's great. I tell you, there are a couple of great lessons in that story. People need to notice that you weren’t born a salesperson, and I don’t know that anyone really is born a salesperson.

I'm a big Zig Ziglar fan. I’ve read all his books, and he spoke for me a few times before he passed away. You can learn those skills, but also, you didn’t go into your education or your business thinking you were going to be a landscaper. Yet, you ended up selling it, and through that process, you learned the skills that developed.

People need to take note that sometimes you don’t know what the end goal is. But if you’re excelling in your craft, you’re going to pick up the skills needed.

That’s great. I know you have an amazing team now. You’ve got a great group of people who are very unique in the industry.

I think that brings us to a really good topic. A lot of business owners, whether they’re marketers or not, see marketing as “Let’s get a lead and convert it. Let’s make a bunch of sales. We need more sales.” I think a lot of people don’t even value marketing like they should. You have a different approach to the nuances and natural progression of marketing. Talk to us a little bit about that approach and how you do that with your clients. Let’s start down that path and see if we can give some new perspectives to people listening to marketing in general.

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The Importance of Incremental Growth

Before I jump into that, I’ll just tag on to what you were saying. I’m a huge believer in incrementalism—in other words, getting a little bit better each day.

I see it so often, George. Exactly what you’re saying. People try to wait and figure out, “What’s the perfect path for my life? What’s the exact purpose? Where should I be heading?”

I believe you could plug into any organization and hone your craft, hone your skill, where you personally take responsibility for your development and growth. If you get a little bit better every single day, it’s going to open up so many doors and opportunities for you because of that step—because of that faith, really, in just stepping out and taking that next step. Even though it may not be where you think you want to end up in the future.

No, I think that’s huge. I really like that. Growth is really the path to discovering the natural talents you’re going to develop. If you’re not growing and trying to get better, you’re not going to discover the things you’d be great at.

If you’re not focused on growing where you’re at and what you’re doing incrementally, you’re always chasing shiny objects. You’re always living in the past or trying to look into the future.

I love that incremental daily progress because it leads you to where you want to be. Case in point: your business. I don’t think you ever thought, “I’m going to be a marketer and have a big marketing company,” right?

No, absolutely not.

The beauty is that taking that approach and imparting that approach into your team... We’re based in Alexandria, Louisiana. Population: 48,000. No big cities around. The closest “big city” is about 75–80 miles away, with a population of 120,000.

So, again, we’re in the middle of nowhere. But because of that approach, we’ve been able to work with New York Times bestsellers, Fortune 500 companies, and literally clients from around the world—all from here.

It’s all because of, number one, incrementalism, which we’re talking about. But number two, this thing called the natural progression, which you brought up a second ago.

That’s a great segue because incremental growth and natural progression in marketing are a great tie-in. So, yeah, tell us about your thoughts on that.

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Understanding Marketing and Sales

Again, my background is in sales. Marketing and sales, in my opinion, are almost one and the same. I believe marketing’s job is to make sales unnecessary.

In other words, if I do my job well as a marketer, it shouldn’t take any convincing, persuading, or controlling from a salesperson or sales team to get you to want to buy my product.

If marketing is done right, it should do the bulk of the heavy lifting for the salesperson.

This whole idea of the natural progression works like this: imagine an old analog clock hanging on the wall. At the top of that clock—the 12 o’clock spot—are strangers.

A stranger is someone who you believe would benefit from your product or service, but they simply don’t know about you yet.

Your job as a marketer is to identify those people, get them to know about you, and then get them to like you. If you do those two things well, they’ll become your friends.

So, at the 3 o’clock spot on the clock, you’ve now turned strangers into friends.

Here’s where I see so many marketers mess up. They believe their marketing campaign should take someone all the way from stranger to handing over their wallet in one campaign, one Facebook post, or one fill-in-the-blank tactic.

Yeah, it just doesn’t work that way.

Right, there are incremental steps that we have to walk through. It’s just like sales. It’s psychology, really.

I want to emphasize what you said because I’ve always told clients that marketing, when it’s done right, is like selling without physical presence.

The marketer’s job is to create the who, what, why, and how you’re going to help your customer and really help engage them. But I also believe the key behind marketing is patience.

It’s definitely a scalable resource and skill that you can learn, but getting people to know you, like you, trust you, and buy from you is a logical progression.

I think sometimes businesses get impatient. They want to go straight from “find out who I am” to “buy from me.” We’re all consumers, so we realize that’s not the way it works. You’ve got to get some type of connection.

With most clients I’ve worked with, it’s often that repetition—three, four, five, six times seeing or hearing about you—that builds trust before they buy, even if it’s not intentional. So, how do you take people through that process? Are you generally talking about online marketing and things like that to lead them from knowing you to liking you? Or is this a process you apply to whatever channel they’re using to find their ideal clients?

Yeah, I would say it’s first about getting crystal clear about the “who.” In other words, who are those strangers? Because when you fully understand who those people are, you’ll know where they are.

You’ll know if they’re on Facebook, Instagram, or not online at all. Are they listening to the radio? Are they watching TV? Until you get clear about who those people are, you’re going to waste money putting your message out there. Then you’ll complain that marketing or advertising doesn’t work.

The reality is, you’re putting your money and message in places where your “who” simply isn’t. They’re not there.

You’ve got to be crystal clear. I get it—I’m very impatient. I don’t want to have to sit down, think through, and really understand where they are. What are their hobbies? What do they drive? What do they listen to? What do they read?

I’d rather just turn on an ad, spend some money, and then complain when it doesn’t work. But instead, doing a little due diligence to truly understand your “who” is crucial.

Yeah, people think it sounds like more work. But it’s actually less work when you can get clear about who your end buyer is. Like you said, you know exactly where to go and what to do.

It’s so important. It’s like with life. If you want to live a great life but don’t take time to clearly define what that’s going to be like, how will you know what you’re looking for?

You’re going to end up with something you didn’t think you wanted in the first place because you assumed you’d figure it out as you go. You can’t do that in life, and you can’t do that in marketing. I agree with you 100%.

Yeah, exactly.

The next step, once we get them to know about us and like us, is to move them to the 3 o’clock spot where they’re actually friends of ours.

One side note here: that’s a great time to do some form of lead capture. Whether it’s offering a free report, getting them to opt into a newsletter, or following you on social media, that’s the time to connect with them.

Then, you can move them to the next step—taking them from 3 o’clock to 6 o’clock. That’s moving friends into customers, where they actually pull out their wallets and hand you money.

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Building Trust in Marketing

Now, the one huge ingredient here is this magic word: trust.

They have to trust you. They have to trust that your product or service will do what you say it will. They have to trust that you’ll stand behind it if something goes wrong.

They need to trust they’ll receive more value from your product or service than the money they’re parting with. There has to be a fair value exchange.

One of the biggest mistakes I see marketers make is assuming people are going to trust them. The reality is, we live in a very skeptical society, especially here in the States. Consumers don’t trust marketers, salespeople, or business owners.

Here’s an interesting thing: if you go to Amazon and look for a new tube of toothpaste, you’re not going to buy it before scrolling down and looking at reviews and testimonials.

Exactly!

You’re going to trust a bunch of strangers you’ve never met—who could all be psychopaths—way more than you’re going to trust the company.

Yeah, that’s true.

But as marketers, we think people will just trust us. We think because we’ve spent time, energy, and money developing our product, people will believe us. But it doesn’t work that way. They’re going to trust what other people say about it.

Right. The lesson for us as marketers is this: who is speaking on your behalf?

Who is out there that you can leverage to build trust? Testimonials, reviews, case studies—who are those people for you? Leverage them during that phase of moving people from friends to customers.

‍Yeah, it goes back to this: some people don’t think trust matters. But think about it. If you travel and use a smartphone, you pull up an app like Yelp, Google Reviews, or even Facebook Reviews when looking for a restaurant. You’re going to check those reviews before you go to that restaurant, right?

Exactly.

What you’re doing is looking for somewhere you can trust. Maybe you’ve only got one night in that town and don’t want to waste it on a mediocre or terrible restaurant. You’re looking for a place you can trust to have great food, great service, and a great experience. Even in the little things, like coffee shops or restaurants, trust is involved.

Absolutely.

Here’s the thing: trust isn’t just a “nice-to-have.” It’s essential. And as marketers, we need to view trust not just as a byproduct of good service but as a strategy.

I see so many marketers think of testimonials and reviews as secondary. They think, “That’s for customer support,” or, “That’s for some other department.” But if you’re a marketer, having those testimonials, reviews, and case studies makes your job so much easier.

Yeah, I absolutely love the way you talk about it as a strategy. Most people know they need testimonials and reviews, but you’re saying it’s a tactical necessity. It creates more buyers and likely more qualified buyers, too.

Exactly. When we take the time to build trust with people during the process, it speeds them through the progression.

The problem for us as marketers is that we think getting reviews or case studies is someone else’s job. But when marketing, sales, and customer support work together cohesively, not in silos, you create a better customer experience.

Yeah, and I think it’s something that needs to be part of an overall corporate strategy. Too often, marketing creates the lead, sales tries to close it, and then customer support is left to clean up the mess. But when you align all three departments, it accelerates your success.

It really does. And here’s the thing, George: most marketers stop at 6 o’clock on the clock. They think, “I’ve got a customer,” and that’s it. They wash their hands and start looking for the next stranger to bring into the funnel.

But I believe the real opportunity starts at 6 o’clock. That’s where you can use your marketing skills to turn customers into evangelists for your brand.

Turning Customers into Evangelists

That’s the 6 o’clock to 9 o’clock move. When customers become evangelists, they share their experience with their friends.

Here’s why that’s so powerful: we live in a world with 6.4 billion smartphones. At any moment, your customer can pull out their phone and share their experience with the world—or at least with their sphere of influence.

When they do, they’re essentially bypassing all the effort it took to turn strangers into friends. They’re bringing you referrals from people who already trust them, which is far more valuable than chasing strangers.

Yeah, I think most people in business know it’s more expensive to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one. But I don’t think they realize how much value there is in leveraging their current customers to bypass the top of the funnel entirely.

Exactly. When a customer shares their experience, it’s an endorsed message. It’s coming from them, and it bypasses the skepticism people might have about your company.

For example, some companies I’ve worked with run Facebook ads not through their own accounts but through their customers who have become evangelists. Those ads are far more effective because they’re coming from a trusted source.

Yeah, I love that. It’s not just a great strategy; it’s transformative. When you’re in the business of expanding and multiplying your customer base through evangelists, you’re building a long-term, fast-growing business.

Exactly. If you survey business owners and ask where their best customers come from, they’ll say “referrals” or “word of mouth.” But when it comes to marketing, they don’t invest the time to think about how to turn customers into evangelists.

That’s the power of leveraging your existing customers.

Yeah, and if you’ve been in business long enough, you know the difference between a customer who comes in as a stranger and one who comes as a referral. The process is simpler, faster, and more profitable with a referral.

Absolutely.

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Addressing the “Long Process” Concern

When I talk to businesses about this, they often say, “Wayne, that sounds like a long process. I don’t have time for that.”

But here’s the thing: it doesn’t have to be a long process. The difference isn’t the time; it’s whether you’re being strategic or just tactical.

Too often, business owners jump from one tactic to another. They’re running Facebook ads one day, YouTube ads the next, then trying radio. It feels fast because they’re doing a lot, but there’s no strategy behind it.

If you take the time to think strategically about who your customers are, where they are, and how to connect with them, you’ll actually bring them through the process faster.

Yeah, I agree 100%. Tactics will get you results, but strategy combined with tactics will scale your business. Without strategy, you might do a million dollars in sales but spend a million dollars to do it. Strategy helps you scale profitably.

Exactly. Strategy ensures your efforts align with customer expectations. When you lead them through a thoughtful, strategic process, they’re more likely to have a great experience and become evangelists.

Yeah, and I think you’ve explained the progression beautifully. Starting with strangers, turning them into friends, building trust so they become buyers, and finally turning them into evangelists. What else would you say is important in this process?

It’s all based on human psychology. People won’t buy something they don’t know exists. They won’t buy something they don’t like. And they won’t buy something they don’t trust.

As marketers, our job is to build that know, like, and trust factor. Beyond that, we need to turn our customers into evangelists. If we don’t, we’re leaving so much value on the table.

Yeah, I think if listeners take one thing away from this, it’s that creating evangelists is the key to long-term growth. Most companies don’t think about it, but it’s where the real power is.

Yeah, if you’ve been around marketing long enough, you’ve heard about the importance of getting people to know, like, and trust you. But I love the extra step you’ve added—investing in your customers to turn them into evangelists. That’s where exponential growth happens.

Exactly. And here’s the thing, George: turning customers into evangelists isn’t just a nice idea; it’s a deliberate strategy. You have to invest in empowering, supporting, and building those relationships.

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Strategic Marketing Advice

Let me ask you this, Wayne: if someone is listening to this and wants to get more strategic about their marketing, where do they start? Should they focus on their current customers or step back and reassess their strategy as a whole? What’s your advice for someone already doing marketing but looking to level up?

Great question. I’d say step one is this: evaluate your current strategy.

The results you’re getting are a direct reflection of the strategy you have in place. If you don’t like your results, that means your strategy isn’t strong.

Take a step back, look at the outcomes, and then reverse-engineer them. Ask yourself, “What strategy produced these results?” If you’re happy with the results, keep scaling and pouring more into that strategy. If you’re not, it’s time to rethink things.

The second piece is ensuring you’re exceeding expectations. If you want customers to become evangelists, you have to deliver an experience that’s better than they expect.

Here’s a fascinating statistic from Bain & Company. They surveyed 400 small businesses in the U.S. and asked the owners to rate the level of service they provided on a scale of 1 to 5—1 being terrible, 5 being phenomenal.

Eighty-two percent of those business owners rated themselves a 5. Bain & Company then went to their customers and asked them to rate the service they received. Only 8% of the customers rated it as a 5.

Wow, that’s the complete opposite of what the owners thought.

Exactly. And the takeaway here is that we all think our business is delivering phenomenal service because it’s our baby. But sometimes, we need to take a step back and ask, “Are we truly exceeding expectations?”

If your customers don’t feel like they’re getting level 5 service, they’re not going to become evangelists for your business.

Yeah, and I think one of the biggest lessons for listeners is this: whether you’re crushing it or struggling, it’s always helpful to step back and evaluate your strategy. Are you intentionally building relationships, trust, and evangelists? Most companies don’t start with that as their strategy.

Exactly. And the only way to find out where you stand is to interact with your customers. Ask for their feedback. Find out where you’re exceeding expectations and where you’re falling short.

As business owners and marketers, it’s easy to get caught up in the grind. We’re so busy executing that we don’t make time to step back and think strategically. That’s why I always encourage blocking out time on your schedule specifically for strategy.

Yeah, I love that. If you’re always in the weeds, you’re not being strategic. And without strategy, it’s impossible to build a sustainable, scalable business. I really love the way you’ve broken this down, Wayne. It’s such a clear and actionable process.

Thank you, George. I really appreciate that.

What’s the best way for people to follow you and stay connected? Where can they find more of your insights and ideas?

Two places. The first is our website: UglyMugMarketing.com. You’ll find all our contact info there—email addresses, phone numbers, and links to our social channels.

The second is Instagram. My handle is @FireYourself. There, I share a mix of marketing advice, personal insights, and family-related content.

I love that—Fire Yourself. It ties in perfectly with the mission behind The Daily Mastermind and even my company, Evolution Group, which is all about building the life you’re meant to live.

Exactly. If you want to build a business that supports your life instead of controlling it, you have to create systems and empower your team. That’s how you fire yourself from the day-to-day operations and focus on what really matters.

Wayne, this has been an incredible conversation. I know our listeners are going to get so much value from this. I’d love to have you back sometime—maybe for one of our mastermind events where we can dive deeper into specifics and get interactive with our members.

I’d love that, George. Thank you so much for having me.

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Conclusion and Final Thoughts

As we wrap up, I want to challenge everyone listening: take a step back and evaluate your strategy. Whether it’s your business or your personal life, get clear on what you’re trying to build and make sure you have a plan in place to get there.

If you found value in this conversation, share the show. This is the kind of message that can help so many people. Hit us up on Instagram and Facebook @TheDailyMastermind, and I’ll put all the links to Wayne’s website and social channels in the show notes.

Once again, my name is George Wright III. This has been The Daily Mastermind. Have a phenomenal day.

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About Wayne Mullins:‍

Wayne Mullins is a passionate entrepreneur committed to creating remarkable experiences, and building a team at Ugly Mug Marketing that produces extraordinary results for their clients.

He has been called “the guru’s guru,” as he is regularly called upon for advice from industry leading CEO’s, New York Times Best Selling Authors, and Silicon Valley startups. He loves helping entrepreneurs challenge their assumptions, create value from places they’ve never looked, and reach goals they never believed possible. He has personally worked with clients in 91 different industries, from 34 states, and 11 countries.

Ugly Mug Marketing, which Wayne founded 10 years ago, has won the praises of some of the leading influencers in the business world, such as, Neil Patel (Founder of QuickSprout & Kissmetrics), Chris Voss (New York Times Best Selling Author of Never Split the Difference), and Ari Weinzweig (Co-Founder of Zingerman’s Community of Businesses). Wayne’s work directly influences more than a quarter million entrepreneurs annually through his blog, books, and training programs.‍

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Guest Resources:

Website: UglyMugMarketing.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fireyourself/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fireyourself/

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About George Wright III:

George Wright is a Proven, Successful Entrepreneur- and he knows how to inspire entrepreneurs, companies, and individuals to achieve Massive Results. With more than 20 years of Executive Management experience and 25 years of Direct Marketing and Sales experience, George is responsible for starting and building several successful multimillion-dollar companies. He started at a very young age to network and build his experience and knowledge of what it takes to become a driven and well-known entrepreneur. George built a multi-million-dollar seminar business, promoting some of the biggest stars and brands in the world. He has accelerated the success and cash flow in each of his ventures through his network of resources and results driven strategies. George is now dedicated to teaching and sharing his Prosperity Principles and Strategies to every Driven and Passionate Entrepreneur he meets. His mission is to Empower Entrepreneurs Globally to create Massive Change and LIVE their Ultimate Destiny.

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