Who is Arba?
Arba Cooper is a distinguished marketeer with a longstanding expertise in technology, dating back to the 80s. Specializing as a digital marketing trainer, Arba dedicates her efforts toward solopreneurs, particularly baby boomers, who are facing challenges with technological advancements. Her passion is fueled by personal experience and a strong desire to help others navigate the complexities of digital marketing, particularly video marketing. Arba is celebrated for her patience and ability to distill complex technological concepts into approachable, relatable lessons.
Key Takeaways
In this episode of “Five Questions Over Coffee,” hosted by Stuart Webb, we dive into a lively and informative discussion with Arba Cooper, an expert in digital marketing and technology. Arbor shares her longstanding experience in technology, having witnessed its evolution since the 80s, and her passion for helping solopreneurs, particularly those within the baby boomer demographic, accustom themselves to the digital age. This episode unveils Arba’s insights on the potency of video as an essential marketing tool, especially in the age of AI.
Arba discusses her role in assisting solopreneurs who struggle with integrating new technologies into their business strategies. She describes how she supports clients by reducing their apprehension towards technology and introducing them to video marketing, a crucial aspect in today’s digital commerce landscape. With attention spans diminishing, she notes that video content can significantly elevate engagement and lead generation. This episode is packed with Arba’s personal anecdotes, expert advice, and effective methodologies in leveraging modern marketing tools.
Key Takeaways:
Solopreneurs, especially baby boomers, often face challenges with technology that Arba Cooper helps them overcome with patience and expertise.
In the realm of digital marketing, video content particularly holds increasing value in engaging audiences and generating leads.
Arbor emphasizes that effectively using AI tools can aid those uncomfortable with appearing on camera to still create compelling video content.
Arba’s commitment is deeply personal, rooted in her own experiences of entrepreneurial struggles when she faced marketing challenges without adequate guidance.
Engaging with a community of learners can enhance one’s skills in video marketing, benefiting from both novice insights and professional expertise.
Notable Quotes:
“The person I am exactly trying to talk to is the solopreneur who is struggling particularly with their marketing.”
“Attention span has become shorter... but you can use technology, what’s called faceless videos, or insert yourself in different parts of your video.”
“If a person’s afraid to be on camera, my job is not to make them comfortable, it’s to show them there are other ways.”
“We would miss out on a lot of the services and products of the solopreneurs.”
“If they have time, I’ll give my talent.”
Resources:
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Transcript
Note, this was transcribed using transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast.
SPEAKERS
Arba Cooper, Stuart Webb
0:00:01 - (Stuart Webb): Fabulous. The countdown didn’t happen. I have no idea what’s going on today. It’s all going wrong here in the studio. It doesn’t happen. It doesn’t matter. Hi, I’m Stuart Webb and welcome back to Five Questions Over Coffee. I’m here today with the wonderful Arbor Cooper. Arbor is a well arbor. We’re going to introduce you in a moment. You are a marketeer, aren’t you? You are, you are. Now, we are just, we’re just talking about the fact that you are never going to be anybody other than Arma Cooper. So, Arbor, welcome to It’s Not Rockets.
0:00:29 - (Stuart Webb): That’s Five Questions over Coffee. I really appreciate you giving up a few minutes to be with us today. Thank you for being here. I look forward to the conversation.
0:00:39 - (Arbor Cooper): Thank you, Stuart. Thank you for having me.
0:00:42 - (Stuart Webb): Now, let’s start with the first question that I always, I always ask, who is the person that you’re trying to help? What is their problem? And please use this as a way to really sort of pinpoint exactly who it is you’re trying to talk to today.
0:01:03 - (Arbor Cooper): Yes, the person that I am exactly trying to talk to is the solopreneur who is struggling particularly with their marketing. And they need more, more guidance, more hand holding. And that’s what I do as a trainer. So you could be at any stage as a solopreneur and just getting started or maybe couple years into your business.
0:01:29 - (Stuart Webb): So, I mean, there are, there must be a lot of people out there that they’ve tried a lot of the traditional, I mean, how would you describe the problems they’ve had? What are the problems that they are that you’re trying to help them solve that they probably, they, they’ve seen podcasts, they’ve been to training courses, they probably read the book, they’ve probably written half the books. What is that? What is the specific problems you see with people like that that you, you help them to, to address?
0:01:58 - (Arbor Cooper): Well, Stuart, specifically narrowing down my niche even more is that I’ve been in technology all my life, ever since the 80s, 70s, so I’m not intimidated or overwhelmed with technology. But I’ve noticed that other baby boomers, so I’m giving a little hint as to my age. I don’t mind. My birthday, by the way, is tomorrow.
0:02:24 - (Stuart Webb): Anyway, happy birthday, Abba. Thank you for spending the eve of the birthday here.
0:02:29 - (Arbor Cooper): Yes. So particularly my niche is baby boomers and beyond who are very good in their jobs, you know, their nine to five jobs or their regular jobs, but they have either been misplaced or displaced from their jobs or have left their jobs to start their own business. And they’re behind in technology so they’re intimidated with it, they’re overwhelmed. And so yes, there’s a lot of videos you can watch, books you can read, all of that, but they really need someone like me who has the patience and will train them and bridge that gap for them with technology.
0:03:16 - (Stuart Webb): And we’ve already got, well, Perennial Life TV and we’ve also got, got another one of your friends here, Gladys, who is. Hi Gladys, we’re pleased to see you. So, so, so give us, give us a bit more of the sort of. They’re good at what they do. They’re the sort of people who are, who are, who are, who understand their market. What is it you’re actually focusing them to do?
0:03:45 - (Arbor Cooper): Well, there’s a lot of things I focus on when it comes to digital marketing, but particularly today’s talk, I’m focusing on videos and the fact that now with AI, there’s so much more you can do with videos and so much more than I can teach because it used to be that you would have to be degree, not so much degree trained in IT to be able to use the technology, but now with having someone like me who is patient and, and works with people and there’s a lot of low cost AI tools, then all you need to do is just have the time.
0:04:28 - (Arbor Cooper): And you know, I have free training classes that people can attend and then if they want a little more hand holding then they can come to book a private session with me.
0:04:40 - (Stuart Webb): So tell me, what are the impacts that you, you will. That a business owner will find by using video? Because video is, is, is becoming very important. It is highly ranked by Google. If you’ve got video on your website, it is something which is, I think, something that pretty much every business owner needs to understand. But what is the impact that you’ve seen in some of the clients you’ve helped?
0:05:01 - (Arbor Cooper): Well, what I’ve seen because I always, any, anything that I teach means that I’ve used it myself. So people’s attention span is, is becoming shorter and shorter and shorter.
0:05:15 - (Stuart Webb): I’m sorry, I’ve done what you said.
0:05:17 - (Arbor Cooper): What did you say exactly? That’s my point. So attention span has become shorter and not everybody is comfortable on camera. So you have the people that will say, you know, that you need to be on camera, people need to see you and so forth. But that’s not necessarily true because, because there are some products and services that you don’t need to see the actual person who’s providing it. You know, when you think about commercials that have been around for, for ages, you know, it’s the, the people that are doing the commercials are not necessarily the creator or the inventor of the product, but they’re helping to promote it.
0:05:59 - (Arbor Cooper): So what I have seen for myself is I’m not afraid to be on camera, but I show clients both ways, is that you can use technology, what’s called faceless videos, or you can just insert yourself in different parts of your video. So what I have seen is it has allowed me to reach other people, new clients, and get leads because they are engaged in my videos. And then even if they like it, this is something I teach in my social media training.
0:06:34 - (Arbor Cooper): If they like whatever I post, then I engage by asking. I reach out and say, what particularly did you like about that post, that video? Whatever. So that’s how I’ve seen it increase my leads and increase like the, the couple of people that are on the call today by me doing videos and posting. So.
0:06:59 - (Stuart Webb): And, and you’ve got Premier Life tv. Is. Am I saying that her name is Pam.
0:07:05 - (Arbor Cooper): Her.
0:07:06 - (Stuart Webb): Hi, Pam. What Pam says video imagery is an essential part of the messaging toolkit. Arbor does a great job of sharing these tools. So there’s a great endorsement for you there. And, and thank you, Pam, from. For saying.
0:07:18 - (Arbor Cooper): Yes, thank you.
0:07:19 - (Stuart Webb): So, so, so, so, so an essential part of the toolkit. Absolutely critical that somebody masters it. Let’s, let’s take an example of somebody who is shy to get on front of, in front of camera, which I clearly am, because you can just, you can tell what is it you’re going to do to help me overcome some of that initial fear of doing and seeing and hearing yourself, which is such actually frightening thing to do when you watch back after you’ve completed one of these things.
0:07:52 - (Arbor Cooper): Well, first of all, I don’t. My job is not to make people feel comfortable on camera because clearly one of the biggest fears of people, especially when they become an adult, is getting on camera. So as I said, it’s not necessarily that you. When, when I say video, that does not necessarily mean that you need to get on. Okay.
0:08:19 - (Stuart Webb): You can help create a video which you’re not even part of.
0:08:22 - (Arbor Cooper): Correct? Correct. And now with AI, you can, especially with women. When it comes to women. Now, I’m not one that does a lot of makeup and so forth, but you saw me playing with my hair earlier. But when it comes to women, you can get a good shot, a good day, a good hair day or whatever, and then Create an avatar now with AI of yourself. And then you can inject that into your videos if you so choose.
0:08:50 - (Arbor Cooper): But again, I’m not one that’s really pushing people to say you, you gotta get on camera because not everybody is gonna get in front of the camera or really should be in front of the camera. I know that that’s probably. There’s people that feel differently, but I’m just like, do video. That’s all I’m saying is that you need to learn how to create videos. Whether you’re in it or not is a, is a whole nother discussion.
0:09:22 - (Stuart Webb): So Arbor, we have got some, some, some landing page and things like that from into our vault. And you can go to our vault. It’s called free stuff. It’s absolutely free. You just go here. Do you just go to five questions over coffee.com forward/freestuff. You log on everything that our guests have ever given us this year. But tell us what you have put in here because it’s a great landing page and, and it’s, it’s a great offer. So tell us a little bit more about what you’ve done for, for our listeners and viewers today.
0:09:51 - (Arbor Cooper): Yes, what, what I have is actually the link to my website, which is so simple. Arbacooper.com and on there I list there’s a lot of different things that I offer. But since we’re talking about video training, then I have on there a link to join my video training. I do monthly. I have a community actually of other people who are either learning how to do videos, they’ve been doing videos. Some are professionals and help people to learn whatever stage you’re at with video.
0:10:31 - (Arbor Cooper): So what’s in there is a link to join my free monthly community and just learn more about videos.
0:10:39 - (Stuart Webb): And I’m going to make it dead easy. I’m now going to adjust what’s in our vote. If you go to five questions over coffee.com freestuff at the top under Arbor’s name, you will see that link directly. You won’t have to hunt for it on a website. It will take you straight to that free training. And thank you for that, Arbor, because I think that’s a really useful offer. But it brings me to how did you learn so much about video? How did you. You’re obviously, you like marketing, but how did you learn that video was such an important part? Was there a, a course you took, a, a book you read? Was it just a discovery that you came across that made you think, I’ve got to help people get this video thing nailed.
0:11:20 - (Arbor Cooper): Well, I mean, first of all, I’ve loved technology ever since middle school, and I’ve already confessed that was like in the 70s, 80s. So, so I, I’ve always kept my pulse on technology and I learned how to do videos, you know, like I said a couple of years ago, but as a. I started to become more prevalent and even the AI tools that I have used has become more advanced and more fun. So it’s been that I actually attend other gurus, you know, that teach video.
0:11:57 - (Arbor Cooper): And so I take what they teach and then I break it down and simplify it and teach it to the people that follow me or that come to my training. So it’s really been. I’m a lifelong learner and you have to be when you’re in technology. So it’s, it’s a combination and just trying it, I, I make the mistakes, you know, the way you can learn the best is from people that have made the mistakes and tell you what not to do, how not to eat up your AI credits.
0:12:29 - (Stuart Webb): What a great, what a great, what a great thing. Arba. As we’re coming towards the end of our time together, there must be. And I’ve just seen that Pam has let me know that obviously we haven’t got that link properly sorted out yet because we only discussed it just before we came on air. So I should be putting that link on as soon as I leave the studio. Just, just finally. Is there a question I haven’t asked you? Because we’ve talked about the wonders of video, but there must be a question. You’re thinking, well, he’s going to ask me that killer question which really nails the subject any moment now.
0:13:06 - (Stuart Webb): But I’m gonna have to be honest. I don’t know what that question is. So I’m gonna ask you to tell us what is the question I should ask you and then obviously you have to answer it for us.
0:13:13 - (Arbor Cooper): Okay. The question that I get all the time is why do I have such a passion and focus on solopreneurs that that’s not where the money is? That’s the question.
0:13:29 - (Stuart Webb): Now you want, why is it that you have such a passion for solopreneurs? Cause you’re right, they’re. They are largely very, very hard strapped for cash. And every penny counts.
0:13:41 - (Arbor Cooper): But if somebody doesn’t, then how will we get a lot of the. We would miss out on a lot of the services and products of the solopreneurs because. Just because someone might be a little cash strapped right now. Doesn’t mean that they’re not worthy of the support. Support. And personally, that’s my story, is that back in the 90s when I had a lot of money, I had a lot of money as an engineer, left my full time job, wanted to start my own business or did start my own business, but I did not understand marketing. And as you probably know, Stuart, marketing is a very predatory business and you can end up spending a lot of money turning your wheels, trying to figure out things.
0:14:33 - (Arbor Cooper): And that’s what happened to me. To the tune of house getting foreclosed, car repossessed and I lost my marriage. And so my passion is that if a entrepreneur solopreneur, if they have time, then I’ll give my talent and that’s my passion, is that just giving some of my time, some of my talent. And if they just give their time and they can do it theirself, teach a man how to fish instead of giving them a fish.
0:15:06 - (Stuart Webb): Oh, but what a wonderful message and what a wonderful way to finish. Listen, I think that’s wonderful. I think that’s truly fantastic. I’m so, I’m so grateful that you’ve spent a few minutes telling us that today. I would just like to say one thing as we come to an end and it almost, it almost goes without saying, you go find Arbor online, go and find her and, and, and take the advantage of listening to somebody who’s so passionate about this stuff.
0:15:35 - (Stuart Webb): But if you would like to talk to and, and and be available to, to come and speak to and ask questions, we have Pam today asking questions. If you go to 5questionsover Coffee.com you will find a link there to subscribe to this feed and you will find other great entrepreneurs who are coming up. I post out to people who are subscribing who’s coming up in the next in the next episode of this so that you will get a notification that tells you that somebody is coming onto the, onto the podcast and you can come and join like Pam today and ask questions. So Arpa, thank you so much for spending a few minutes with us.
0:16:11 - (Stuart Webb): I really appreciate what you’ve come on and set and I do hope you continue to help as many of those entrepreneurs discover, because you’re right, video is so important in today’s marketing mix and it is badly done by most of us and you’re clearly somebody who knows how to write, how to make it happen. So thank you so much for coming on and telling us.
0:16:30 - (Arbor Cooper): Thank you, Stuart. And there was someone else too that was on today. I want to thank. It was Candace.
0:16:36 - (Stuart Webb): There was. There was. We had. We had. We had Pam and we had Gladys.
0:16:43 - (Arbor Cooper): Gladys, yes.
0:16:45 - (Stuart Webb): Yeah. You know, Gladys as well.
0:16:46 - (Arbor Cooper): Yes, yes. Yeah. That’s one thing. I knew there was two, so. Thank you.
0:16:50 - (Stuart Webb): Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Pam. Thank you, Gladys. Really appreciate you being here. And listen, Alba, Pam, Gladys, you know where Arbor is, but everybody else, go check out Arbor, get it. Get a link from the, from the vault, from the free stuff and. And have a look at some of Arbor’s great stuff. It’s really great. Thank you very much indeed.
0:17:15 - (Arbor Cooper): Thank you. All right. Bye.
0:17:18 - (Stuart Webb): Bye. Bye.
