There is a difference how Beckham plays football and how I play.
David Beckham signed a contract in 2007 to join Los Angeles Galaxy. His deal was widely reported to be $250 million over five years. In his first year of retirement, Beckham posted the highest earnings of his career with $75 million in 2014. He ranks second behind Michael Jordan in Forbes’ look at the highest-paid retired athletes.
In September 2014 I joined PowerLeague Docklands 5 aside in Canary Wharf and paid £120 for 8 weeks with my mates. Every year I pay £720 to play football plus travel expenses. If I retire from football, I will save around £900 per year.
What is the difference between me playing football and Beckham? Huge right? I didn’t train like Beckham, I used to play professionally until I was 17 and then stopped. I didn’t make it a carrier. I didn’t put in the work and the passion in becoming better every day and training 15 hours per day. The difference is that Beckham decided and stayed committed to his goal. Me on the other hand, I gave up. He became a professional football player. For me football is a hobby where I used to play every Tuesday with my mates for an hour and pay for that.
In a glimpse he was a professional football player and I’m an amateur. That’s the reality. The same applies in any industry and especially in marketing. There are so many agencies and people that claim that they do marketing but we need to ask and question on what level? As a hobby or as professionals? How we can find out is by doing our own research. Not by listening to me or anybody, just research.
There are different agencies out there, there are different marketers out there, there are different designers that charge a different fee. For example, at IQD we are getting paid to solve our client’s problems. Our fees are different from other agencies; our skill sets are different. We are one of the best agencies out there that provide amazing service and great phenomenal stories. How do I know that they are amazing? Pretty simple results always speak for themselves.
We live in an era where it’s so easy to fake it; print a business card write founder of a company, create a free google website, write some testimonials from friends, add a few logos of work that you might have done (or friends businesses) and there you go; you have a company. It’s easy to believe that this is a professional and legit brand.
The other scenario is when a business associate referred that company because they did business together in the past. Of course you will trust your associate, he must be good. It doesn’t mean that your business associate did his own research and knows about that accountant or that marketing agency.
The easiest way to sell to somebody is to tell them what they want to hear, how advertising and marketing used to work in the past. How they learned in their Universities. Times change, things changed dramatically. It’s time to research and educate ourselves.
The best way not to get tricked is to do our own research. When you are looking for an accountant, plummer or a marketing agency do your own research. Google the following; success stories; what is content marketing; what is storytelling; great marketing campaigns; great social media accounts; what is influencers marketing or any other questions you might have. It will help you save money and choose the right supplier.
