Storytelling is Dave Munson’s secret weapon when it comes to converting his prospects into customers | #424

Tim

You are a tough guy.

 

Dave

I think I could take it out if I were jumping off a porch or something and coming down at it.

 

Tim

On a more serious note. Tell me how did the saddleback brand come about. Because I’ve read the story on your website and it involves bull fighters and guns and giraffes and a lot of travel in a lot of countries. But what’s the short version.

 

Dave

Okay so I was teaching English in Mexico as a volunteer in 99. I needed someone to make a bag for me to carry my books and I had this bag in my head something like Indiana Jones would carry. So, I found a bag maker he made it for me I sketched it out I prayed, God I want this to be the coolest bag ever and I got this bag back and it was really cool. And everywhere I went when I got back up to the US, everywhere I went people were asking me, Hey excuse me sir where can I get their bag. Where can I have a bag like that. All day long four or five times I get asked that. So, I ended up moving towards Mexico across the border from El Paso Texas and I lived in a little 100 dollar apartment, slept on the floor with my dog Blue, a black lab named Blue for three years no hot water no heat no air conditioning just all the money that I made by selling the bags that were deposited in the bank in Mexico. The father and son were making my bags. They would make them and they would send them up on the bus. I’d go to the bus station get him take him over to El Paso and I was selling them on eBay. It got so popular that they couldn’t keep up anymore with demand. I met my wife on Myspace. We got married. We got married six months later. Yeah, we moved down to Mexico found a third of our own factory. Now we’re making bags for other people and we’re making bags for ourselves and the business has really grown.

 

Tim

So, it really was just, I love businesses that come out of a need that you couldn’t solve elsewhere. You wanted just the most beautiful leather bag in the world. I love the idea of what you say that Indiana Jones would carry. So Dave what are the things that, in looking at the saddleback brand what you’ve done is create wonderful stories around it. To me that seems to be how you built it. If I define a brand as being an emotional attachment you created some wonderful emotion around this brand because at the end of the day it’s a leather bag. I was going to say just a leather bag but I thought you might come and get me if I said. Many manufacturers of physical products don’t get this idea of creating emotion. So stories very important to you isn’t it.

 

Dave

You know people love stories and a lot of times they want to know what you value also and through story you can tell what you value and if all your values money then what’s going to happen is there’s stories about yourself and about money bubbling up and you can’t really help it is going to accidentally happen. If you value people you value other people’s success you value your travel you value your family all of those come up in stories. And then people go oh I value what he values and taking risks. Living like a dog for a while. So you can start about I value these things and I value quality and value these things. And so we transmit that through story.

 

Tim

And did you make a decision back when you started Saddleback that you were going to create a whole lot of stories in order to build the brand. Or are you just by nature a storyteller.

 

Dave

Yeah, my kids say I talk too much. I love telling stories. I remember laying there on the floor on a mattress on the floor. And I remember thinking. Wouldn’t that be cool if I could travel the world and just tell stories about my bags. I think people would like that.

 

Tim

Let’s talk about the different ways you tell a story. You seem to do it a lot by video and listeners, just to give you some examples of what we’re talking about. Dave has done a video reviewing a bag in front of Niagara Falls. He talks about his 100-year warranty in front of a very old castle, medieval castle in Scotland. And there’s even a video where Dave you show people how to copy one of your Saddleback bags we’ll talk about that in a minute but how does storytelling show itself in Saddleback brand beyond those examples.

 

Tim

How does it show itself?

 

Tim

Yeah. Is it just through video?

 

Dave

No. Almost every design every product that I have I tell a story about what inspired me or what I value about this product. And so I tell a one story about how I was using, I think it was my regular briefcase but I showed up this town called Ochocinco near Guatemala and middle of the night we finally hitchhiked. We got away into this town and we found a little hotel and we woke up in the morning and everyone is staring at these three clean-cut white guys and it’s really indigenous area and all that. Well it turns out everyone and all the Indians there thought that we were government spies or working for the FBI or something and all of the government thought that we were bringing arms and money to the rebels. So we’re feeling really uncomfortable in this town. It had a blood bath big blood bath. Five years before we were there. We said maybe we should go. Anyway, I tell that story I added in a product that was when your on the go and when it’s time to get out of town you want something that doesn’t stand out that sort of thing. So yeah so we do that. We have story written and also, we tell stories in video form. Even when we’re doing a product demo videos I’d start off with the story. Part of the story that I go into the description of the bag and in the end with summing up the story.

 

Tim

This is really important. This is a massive massive marketing lesson that we’ve not spoken about in detail on the show so I just want to unpack that a little bit Dave because what you do there is similar. I do a lot of keynote speaking at conferences and the idea, in order to get a point across your point is hey wouldn’t it be good if you bought one of my bags you got to tell story. Yeah because that’s what gets people sitting up and taking notice. So I would love nothing more than my listeners walking away from this interview going. That’s how you create story you know because you do it very naturally. Where do you start. Is it just about identifying a story somewhere in your business or personal life that you could relate back to the product.

 

Dave

I believe the more you share that you’re a real and authentic person. I believe that people really value that because they don’t get it very often. And so it’s a breath of fresh air to hear someone tell a story and it doesn’t have to be I was swinging on the vine and we’re going out into the middle of this jungle river and it doesn’t have to be that. It could be, I was arguing with my wife the other day and I came across and I realized I shouldn’t have said that and I was wrong and I talked to her about that and I asked for her to forgive me and she did. And that’s you have to tell a real story just a short real story. People smile and go, I’ve gone through that, I’ve experienced that. If you have been married Yeah.

 

Tim

You’re relating. What you’re doing is creating stories that people can relate to and they’re starting to lean in going, yeah, I get Dave or Dave’s a funny guy or Dave’s quirky and so when it comes time to share information in your case about your bags they’re paying attention yeah.

 

Dave

Well you’ve established a relationship with them and yourselves by from the person that they have a good relationship with and they may stop searching because if they have a good relationship with you then that means they kind of trust you. And the more you share about yourself and become a little vulnerable it doesn’t have to be I struggle with this and that if you become a little vulnerable you’ve shared a little of personal stuff and now they go hey he’s my friend and I want him to be successful.

 

Tim

Yeah. And you don’t talk about price a lot on your website but what it does do, because your bags aren’t the cheapest but I’m guessing in telling story people become less price sensitive.

 

Dave

That is exactly right. They also become less price sensitive when you educate them on what real quality looks like. And quality becomes really easy to get used to. So when people start realising that you are doing a quality, considering that you’re not going to get them on prices later you explain all the little details of what could happen, you’re educating them here, if you don’t use me that’s fine. But if you use who are looking for asking these questions before you sign a contract with them or before you buy one of their products or before you use their service and you educate them they go Ah love this guy. I didn’t know that they have filters instead of jelly. I didn’t know that. And now your friend.

 

Tim

That’s a wacky example but you’re right. And education we talk a lot on this show about helpful marketing the idea of actually as a business owner sharing your knowledge so that your customers and prospects can make a more informed decision and you seem to do that really really well. So Dave you are one for marketing ideas that don’t necessarily cost a fortune. You want to maybe share two or three that you feel as you’ve hit pay dirt with.

 

Dave

Yeah yeah yeah. So one thing that we’ve always done is there’s video and now I’m a more casual business and so it may not fit for some businesses. And I do a lot of my own camera holding and that sort of thing. But even having medium production value or something with video that didn’t cost them much, more especially educating people on video, doing short little videos that educate people. People share them. People get excited about them and it’s free marketing. As long you’re trying to help people. People or sensitive you’re trying to make money off of them. But if you’re just trying to help people if they go are looking at you, you’re looking for sort of building a house and I build houses. Believe me I know. So here are some things you want to make sure you get in the contract you get my list of things and explain why and where to go over the roof next. Then we’re go over the foundation. We make sure they agree to these things and you go through a whole series of videos that don’t cost you much is very inexpensive and those things are googled all day long and people are researching who to build your home.

 

Tim

I’ve looked at a lot of your videos and the production values. I would say they’re beyond medium. And each one of them has a love. They all have lovely charm and an idea in them. So when you decide I’m going to do another video for Saddleback bag. What’s your kind of thinking in terms of how you approach it.

 

Dave

Well. I’m moving over to go pros now. So I have my office in tent. Now it’s a safari tent from Kenya. They’re really super cool and I’m going to do it on my product videos from my desk with a GoPro or a couple of GoPro set up and I’m going to be explaining as I’m spinning around in my tent. So I do. We do have some really high production value pieces. We have some and some film festivals and that sort of thing. But we have one, I was in Morocco not too long ago or six months ago or something like that and this guy was carving I mean maybe this isn’t exactly marketing video but he was carving with his toes. Toe carving in Morocco.

 

Tim

I’m sure you found an angle.

 

Dave

Yeah it was super fascinating. So I just got a video and in my camera and my phone and I just started filming. We got five hundred and sixty-six thousand views.

 

Tim

So how does that translate into business for Saddleback bags.

 

Dave: [00:14:08] So the next video that we put on the link there was how to knock off a bag. The video that I described the quality of our bag and how people knocking off the bag. Here’s how you do it for cheaper. And so I did those. So the next one was that. We had about all that we could track about forty-five thousand dollars in sales from just that toe carve in video.

 

Tim

I just thought I would play the opening few seconds of the video we’re talking about. So what it is, is Dave is sitting at his desk. Quite a beautiful little setting actually. He’s got a fake leather copy of one of his bags next to him and this is what he says. Hey check this out. It’s fake. Dave of Saddleback leather and I notice lot of people knocking off my bags and I thought maybe they could use a little help in case they’re missing some of the parts. So I want to show you how to knock off one of my bags. So that sound effect is actually Dave whacking the fake bag off his desk and replacing it with one of his beautiful saddleback bags. And then he goes on to explain why people shouldn’t cop. Worth a watch go into the show nodes for this episode and take a look if you want to see the whole thing or look up saddleback leather on YouTube. Back into the studio to spend some more time with Dave. Well it’s a funny video with a serious message which is don’t even bother knocking off our bags because this is what’s involved in doing it. And as a result of that video you get forty-five thousand dollars’ worth of sales. Is that the kind of flow?

 

Dave

That’s kind of the idea. We get them in an interesting video that people are just forward in around. As they are Googling or search on YouTube. They just sort of pop up. They watch it and they go. This is from Saddleback leather company. And then the next video pops up is how to knock off a back or it’s a higher production value video. It’s a product demo video. I have a guy in Jamaica showing how to turn a briefcase into a backpack. But anyway, I noticed that later I guess smoking weed.

 

Tim

That video about how to knock off your bags. Very funny video with a serious message. I love the fact that you kind of taking the fight up to people who are trying to knock your bags or other leather manufacturers bags off but you’re having fun with it along the way and I think more business owners need to do that is to as the batman character the joker says why so serious? One of the great scenes from one of the great films. What are some other. Give us a couple of before we finish up Dave. A couple of more kind of cheap marketing ideas that you have. You’ve had success with.

 

Dave

I put on my web site a tribute to my black lab blue. He died in 2008 and I really miss the guy. He was a great dog. So I put a tribute to my dog which people read and so I said Hey why don’t you guys honor your dog in their death as they or your pet as they honoured you in their life. And so it’s a nice way that I can let people honor their dogs so they leave little tribute they put pictures there that sort of thing. Daily, we have people doing it daily. I come to find out Google really appreciates it. So Google says Oh look all this traffic these people who go to Dave’s Web site and all this fresh content all the time. And so what Google does is they reward us because they see that we’re always adding content for really our customers adding content.

 

Tim

Yeah. This is such a big learning last week we had Rand Fishkin who is the owner of moz on the show and you know Rand everyone listening we’ve got to keep updating our websites. Google love it. It’s good for us because it means we’re sharing knowledge, our customers are sharing their knowledge and leaving comments and we’re adding new blog post. It’s just a good strategy. Dave do you do anything off line.

 

Dave

Yes. So well not as much. We’re really online but what we do also is we have strategic partners that we deal with. So people who are like minded who are not competing with so I could have a beer or oil company and he does. He has called it canyouhandlebar and he has handlebar mustache wax its beard oil has a beard oil brush. He has all these different things. Well I wrote him an occasional newsletter, Christmas Gift Guide that sort of thing. He promotes me to all of his audience who are super diehard people and super diehard fans of his stuff. And so we cross promote with each other. We also give a lot of bags out for reviews. I recommend to small business owners to do stuff for free. Give away your stuff and ask people to review it and just send it out. We just sent out about 5000 little Cable wraps or other strips of leather that wraparound your charging cables your earbuds that sort of thing. And just by being generous we just gave them out not expecting anything. Well we’ve been giving a lot of reviews by a lot of really influential people who have said that these guys are cool. They didn’t have to send me that. No strings attached just a gift. Give them to your employees just have fun. Merry Christmas. And they just write reviews. Getting other people’s audiences to join you, to know about you is really important and we let other people know about the people that we value.

 

Tim

Yeah that’s a great strategy. Dave before I let you go because I know your wife has many jobs lining up as you told me before you started. I can’t let the fact go that you just very casually said, Yeah look our office is we’re moving into a safari tent. What’s that about.

 

Dave

Marketing. Don’t tell anyone though. So the greatest tent maker in the world from my understanding. That’s what I could find live in Nairobi Kenya. He’s been doing it for about 25 years. So we’re setting up these tents. We have four of them. One is my office and the kitchen. It’s about 40 feet long and about 15 16 feet deep metres divide by three and the cellar and then the living room. The house. So we have the whole tent set up right. It’s really beautiful tent they are air conditioned we have flushing toilets we have a septic system. Hardwood floors but there canvas the whole thing’s made of canvas. These things are when we take pictures of these people are going to go oh my gosh its a cool company I thought it was cool before but now I found it they live in tent. Oh my gosh that’s so cool. And hopefully we’re going to submit to these different magazines and Web blogs about Saddleback Leather’s headquarters.

 

Tim

Man, you are going to get so much coverage.

 

Dave

Oh my gosh no kidding. And so we’re working on a two story tent when I get it done. You’re going to see it, the world going to see it.

 

Tim

I love it. Great story Dave. I mean you are living the dream you are living the brand. Now I do love my listeners to hit my guests up on Twitter. What’s your Twitter. Saddlebackbags and the website is saddlebackleather dot com and I encourage everyone to go and buy just one because poor old Dave and his family are living in a tent. They’re doing it hard. Let’s if we can get them into a house by 2016. Hey Dave thanks for sharing some marketing gold made on the show.

 

Dave

Thanks for having me on. I really enjoy it.

 

Tim

As often happens after I stop recording my guest share more marketing gold. Well fortunately I’m ready for it these days. So here’s another idea Dave had to share.

 

Dave

We’re doing a show called the not dead yet show. Our slogan is they’ll fight over it when you’re dead for my company so we’re doing a weekly content of eight minutes, nine minutes, sometimes three minutes but we have something every single week. We’re behind today but we’ll have it up tomorrow. We’re behind this week. But it’s just kind of what’s going on in the business what’s going on with our family. It’s almost like a little reality TV show. I just record all the stuff on GoPro, on my iPhone and then I upload the files to YouTube just raw. And our film guy. We have a video guy. He just puts it all together and call it the not dead yet show and we got a local television station for Dallas Fort Worth area. He saw the tent in one of them early on and he said oh my gosh can we do a story on that for our broadcast news. We’ve got about 30000 sales from it. We did no other marketing at the time that. It has 631 shares on their own Facebook page and about our tents. But it was Saddleback leather company he had a bag in there. He explained what we do, a successful business owners family are living in tents.

 

Tim

So, the premise of the not dead yet show is simply for you and your wife to sort of check in on a weekly basis with your customers and prospects. Yeah?

 

Dave

Exactly.

 

Tim

Sharing personal stuff

 

Dave

Sharing personal stuff. This next one is the kids we took on Kuroda fishing and we try not to be too businessy and marketing-ish. We try to just spend time, show what’s going on in our lives because we do have kind of some interesting things going on and people seem to like they get a breath. They’re not very popular or anything. We don’t have that many views to them. But the way you get good at it. The way you get to video and to share this, the way you get good a video by doing in the same way you do public speaking. So how do you knock off our bag video was by far our most valuable video. It was number two hundred and twenty-two. And so of all the videos we did is number 222 and it took 221 figuring out how to do it right. And so the trick to video marketing is just to keep on doing it and keep on doing it and keep on doing it. And then pretty soon you get to see what people like in you know what they might like and you keep adjusting and you get really good to do a video.

 

Tim

Yeah you do and that’s the wonderful thing about the online world. Not all marketing is online as I keep saying but the feedback we get and the instant and constant feedback that you get when you put something out there or lack of feedback as well and you know oh that touched a nerve, that didn’t and you do more of the stuff that touches a nerve and you’re right. I mean you know the minute I think I’ve nailed podcasting I’ll probably give up but I’m always finding new ways of doing it.