Onward Nation: Recent Episodes
Stephen Woessner (CEO of Predictive ROI) talks with today's top business ow
America's best podcast for learning how today's top business owners Think, Act, and Achieve. Onward Nation is a five-day-a-week podcast hosted by Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI. Business owners share the most influential lessons learned throughout their careers, including insights into their daily habits, their most vital priorities that have contributed to their business and personal success, and the most challenging time or situation that could have devastated or even ruined their businesses or careers. Business owners share their "recipes for success" including those systems they wish they had put into practice inside their business when first starting out. Each episode concludes with guests sharing two or three practical and tactical strategies they would recommend to brand new business owners in order to best ensure success in their new business and careers. Onward Nation provides business owners with the strategies and tactical step-by-step "recipe" that will help anyone make their business more systematic, predictable, measurable, and repeatable.
For over 25 years, Stephen Woessner has been in the trenches working alongside and consulting with agency owners, business coaches, and strategic consultants — teaching them how to plant their flag of authority within the markets they serve, grow their audience, fill their sales pipeline with right-fit prospects, and ultimately — drive revenue in predictable and repeatable ways.
Stephen founded Predictive ROI in 2009 and remains its CEO and owner. He’s the host of Onward Nation — a top-rated podcast with listeners in over 140 countries and over 1,000 episodes. His marketing insights have been featured in major media, and he’s the bestselling author of four books, including his latest entitled, “Sell with Authority.”
He believes we’re entering the era of the AUTHORITY. Brands that occupy the coveted “expert” status are afforded the highest level of confidence and trust from their customers, prospects, and other stakeholders because they have a depth of knowledge and point-of-view that can’t be denied or easily replicated.
Stephen’s practical and tactical training sessions help companies capitalize on the huge shift taking place in the market today. In our hyper-competitive market for awareness and attention — brands need to plant their flag of authority and then leverage this position to fill their sales pipeline with right-fit prospects while developing deeper relationships with existing customers.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How the journey that has become “Onward Nation” impacted many people and made a difference in businesses around the world
- Why you should keep Sir Isaac Newton’s Third Law of Motion front and center because it impacts the momentum of your business every day
- Why there’s an equal amount of winning in every loss — and — an equal amount of loss in every win
- How to shift your perspective to be thankful for the losses just as much as the wins
- How transitioning from thoughts of loss over to gratitude and thanksgiving when a deep loss happens can be the difference between being able to move on or remaining stuck
- How changes in your team, clients, and revenue are all excellent indicators of your culture and where you’re going
Additional Resources:
- Free Executive Leadership Summary report from Predictive ROI: https://predictiveroi.com/research
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
For over 25 years, Stephen Woessner has been in the trenches working alongside and consulting with agency owners, business coaches, and strategic consultants — teaching them how to plant their flag of authority within the markets they serve, grow their audience, fill their sales pipeline with right-fit prospects, and ultimately — drive revenue in predictable and repeatable ways.
Stephen founded Predictive ROI in 2009 and remains its CEO and owner. He’s the host of Onward Nation — a top-rated podcast with listeners in over 140 countries and over 1,000 episodes. His marketing insights have been featured in major media, and he’s the bestselling author of four books, including his latest entitled, “Sell with Authority.”
He believes we’re entering the era of the AUTHORITY. Brands that occupy the coveted “expert” status are afforded the highest level of confidence and trust from their customers, prospects, and other stakeholders because they have a depth of knowledge and point-of-view that can’t be denied or easily replicated.
Stephen’s practical and tactical training sessions help companies capitalize on the huge shift taking place in the market today. In our hyper-competitive market for awareness and attention — brands need to plant their flag of authority and then leverage this position to fill their sales pipeline with right-fit prospects while developing deeper relationships with existing customers.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How to create a steady stream of well-prepared prospects into your sales pipeline
- How and why you should build out a series of “Transitional Moments” for your audience
- Why you should build out a topic list of your areas of expertise
- How to leverage your topic list into a guest appearance on podcasts, video series, etc.
- How to transform the cornerstone content that comes from the interviews into the “Siphon Strategy”
- How to use the Siphon Strategy and add more people into your email list
- Why you should add each new person to your list into what Stephen called the New Lead Sequence
- How to create your own New Lead Sequence
- How to leverage all of this new content into optimized blog posts for your website
- How all of this content builds out what Stephen calls, “The Infinity Loop” and will drive revenue for you
Additional Resources:
- Free Executive Leadership Summary report from Predictive ROI: https://predictiveroi.com/research
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Harry Morton is the founder of Lower Street, a premium podcast agency helping brands create next-level shows that stand out from the competition and build meaningful audiences. Find out more at lowerstreet.co.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How Harry realized the potential of podcasting for businesses and founded Lower Street, and why he believes it is never too late to start a podcast
- How podcasting for businesses can serve as powerful cornerstone content, and what key questions to ask yourself before starting a podcast
- What tips and strategies Harry has for anyone looking to “skip the awkward years” while hosting a podcast show
- Why preparation and planning are the keys to having a great conversation, and why you should focus on adding value for your audience
- How Harry and his team help new podcast hosts master the interview skills they need to ask deeply relevant, content-rich questions
- Why the “three act narrative” structure can be a valuable way to structure your podcast, and why you should avoid the trap of asking too many boilerplate questions
- Why your conversation with your guest should never feel “salesy”, and why it should always be focused on being helpful to your audience
- What steps you can take to go into a recording session fully prepared, and why having an assistant on the call with you can be helpful
- What resources, tools and software are available to help you make a great podcast, and how a podcast episode can be sliced and diced into smaller “cobblestone” content
Resources:
- Ask us about our Narrated Interview service that elevates a regular interview-based podcast to something unique to your brand. Don’t just start ANOTHER podcast, start something special: https://lowerstreet.co/narrative-podcast-service
- Website: https://lowerstreet.co/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harrymorton/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/lower-street/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/lowerstreetmedia
- Twitter: @podcastharry
Mandy McEwen is the Founder & CEO of Mod Girl Marketing, an award-winning digital marketing agency based in California.
She has been marketing successful brands online since 2007. In 2010, she decided to utilize her online marketing skills to start a marketing agency, Mod Girl Marketing. Now, over a decade later, Mandy and her team at Mod Girl® partner with B2B companies to increase brand exposure and revenue through the power of LinkedIn and humanized content marketing.
She is a renowned content creator, speaker, and mentor with 8+ marketing courses and an Inc-rated Facebook group.
Mandy has been named a Top 24 B2B Marketer by LinkedIn, listed in Search Engine Journal as a Top 12 SEO Expert, and named a Top 20 Female Marketer by G2. Her agency, Mod Girl Marketing, has been consistently named a Top 20 Marketing Agency by DesignRush.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How Mandy started her agency in 2010 after discovering her love of marketing, and how she uses her marketing skills to help business and agency owners
- How Mandy came to focus on Facebook and LinkedIn marketing strategy, and how Mandy’s agency excels in helping create impactful personal brands for clients
- Why Mandy believes that leveraging your connections, mailing list, and friends is the key to launching a thriving Facebook community
- How Mandy grew her business to six figures entirely through organic growth and through her Facebook group
- Why Mandy is focused on mastering the LinkedIn algorithm and utilizing LinkedIn to help humanize brands and tell their stories
- Why LinkedIn’s algorithm is focused on personal connections and conversations more than anything else, and what changes you can make to improve your ranking
- How to do keyword research through LinkedIn to help your content gain visibility on the platform
- What steps to take to maximize the visibility of your content on LinkedIn, and how to slice and dice bigger content into smaller pieces that can be repurposed
- How to get assistance from others on LinkedIn to help boost your posts while helping them boost their own
- Why all of Mandy’s LinkedIn messaging and marketing strategies can work just as well on Facebook
Resources:
- Free LinkedIn Profile Checklist: https://linkedin.modgirl.social/
- Website: www.modgirlmarketing.com
- Website: www.modgirl.consulting
- Website: www.luminetics.io
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mandymcewen/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/mod-girl-marketing-llc/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/mod.girl.marketing
- Twitter: @MandyModGirl
- Twitter: @ModGirlMktg
Mark Colgan is an entrepreneur and revenue leader responsible for increasing revenue across a small portfolio of companies where he leverages his 13 years experience of B2B Sales, Marketing and Recruitment.
Mark currently splits his time as Co-founder of Speak On Podcasts, mentoring B2B Startups via GrowthMentor and ScaleWise, The Product Onboarders and coaching 100s of SDRs through his Outbound Prospecting and Cold Email Bootcamp course via The Sales Impact Academy.
He’s a Techstars 18 Alumni and a regular speaker within the B2B SaaS industry, his work has been published by SaaStock, Mailshake, Pipedrive, LeadSift, Lemlist, SugarCRM and Baremetrics, to name a few.
Mark currently lives and works from Lisbon, is addicted to travelling and exploring new cultures and places. You’ll often hear him saying por que no? (why not?) to anything that sounds fun or gets the heart racing like wingwalking, skydiving and paramotoring.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- Why Mark attributes his career success to his unique ability to match the right people with each other, and why he focused on the podcast thought leadership niche
- What opportunities Mark identified that pushed him to create his Speak On Podcasts business, and why it is a perfect fit for his talents
- How the outbreak of the global pandemic allowed the podcasting industry to explode in popularity and become an even more powerful marketing channel
- Mark describes the step-by-step process he and his agency take clients through to position them as ideal podcast guests and connect them with right fit hosts
- Why offering value for the audience and providing a unique perspective is the key to creating engaging podcast thought leadership content
- What research and screening process Mark and his team follow to identify podcasts that are the best fit for their clients
- Why it is crucial when appearing on a podcast to focus on being helpful to the audience and to avoid being too salesy
- Why it takes time, dedication and a lot of practice to become a great podcast guest, and why developing your storytelling skill is key
- How to reach out to podcast hosts through email to stand out and position yourself as a great guest that could bring value to their audiences
- Why a podcast episode is great cornerstone content that can be sliced and diced into smaller cobblestone content for other platforms
Resources:
- Website: https://speakonpodcasts.com/
- Book a call with Mark and his team: https://speakonpodcasts.com/strategy
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/markcolganmarketing/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/speak-on-podcasts/
- Twitter: @MarkOnPodcasts
Michael Zipursky is the CEO of Consulting Success® where they specialize in helping entrepreneurial consultants grow profitable, scalable and strategic consulting businesses. He has advised organizations like Financial Times, Dow Jones, RBC, and helped Panasonic launch new products into global markets, but more importantly, he’s helped over 600 consultants from around the world in over 75 industries add 6 and 7 figures to their annual revenues. Over 38,000 consultants read his weekly consulting newsletter. Michael is also the author of the Amazon Best Sellers ACT NOW: How successful consultants thrive during chaos and uncertainty, The Elite Consulting Mind and Consulting Success® the book.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How Michael started his first consulting business as he was entering university, and how his career path gave him a broad range of experience in business scaling strategy
- How Michael has scaled his consulting while maintaining a laser focus on serving others and being as helpful as possible
- Why being transparent and vulnerable about his own ups and downs has been a crucial component of Michael’s ability to build credibility and trust
- Michael shares the four stages of the business scaling strategy he takes clients through and he shares why each of these stages builds upon the one before
- Why marketing should be about delivering value and building relationships rather than focusing on sales and promotions
- Why putting your marketing engine in place and following Michael’s three-part process can allow you to raise your prices due to the value you’re offering
- Why mastering the “deep and meaningful sales conversation” can be a powerful way to establish credibility and increase perception of value
- Why the structure of fees you use matters, and why marketing is a skill anyone can learn even if they’re introverted
- Why the kinds of deep and meaningful sales conversations Michael talks about can help you strengthen your long-term relationships with your clients
- Why doing the hard work of building your confidence in your pricing is crucial for business growth
Resources:
- A new study on how to become a consultant: www.consultingsuccess.com/how-to-become-a-consultant
- Free 47 Page Consulting Blueprint Guide: www.consultingsuccess.com/blueprint
- Website: www.consultingsuccess.com/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zipursky/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/consultingsuccess-com/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/ConsultingSuccess
- Twitter: @ConsultingBuzz
Leslie and the talented EW Bullock team work collaboratively with their clients to develop strategic, integrated marketing and public relations plans, lead research studies, build annual marketing budgets, plan effective and efficient media buys, develop and implement creative campaigns, and measure the effectiveness of marketing and public relations campaigns.
Leslie has more than 25 years of leading successful communication campaigns. Her natural sense of curiosity fuels her drive to fully understand each client’s business and their challenges. She believes that having a greater understanding of her clients businesses leads to more innovative and successful campaigns.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How Leslie’s career began with a love of magazines and a passion for advertising, and how that evolved into an understanding of PR strategies for business
- Why there are five key PR channels: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and your own personal website
- What steps you can take to leverage your website to become a powerful PR channel, and why utilizing the blog feature is key to generating traffic
- Why recognizing the areas in which you are an expertise and sharing content with your audience relating to your expertise can help you get noticed
- Why it takes time to see the results of your PR efforts, and why a powerful news hook is crucial for extracting value from your PR strategies
- Why your PR strategies should be centered around getting to the point and starting a conversation with your audience
- How to identify the things you can share that are worthy of being newsworthy, and why knowing the audience you’re trying to reach is important
- Leslie shares how she and her team help their clients, using some of their zoo clients as examples
- How to turn your big wins into helpful content that can lead the way for other business owners, and why the third party endorsement is the Holy Grail of PR
- Why public relations is a marathon, not a sprint, and why it takes practice and patience to see your PR strategies take off
Resources:
- How To Build A Better Press Release: https://bit.ly/Onward_EW_Bullock_PR
- Website: www.ewbullock.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lesliemichenerperino/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/e-w–bullock-associates/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/EWBullock
- Twitter: @EWBullock
Jason Yormark is the founder of Socialistics (www.socialistics.com), a leading B2B social media agency that helps businesses turn their social media efforts into real measurable results. He is a 20+ year marketing veteran whose prior work has included launching and managing social media efforts for Microsoft Advertising, Office for Mac, the Air Force and Habitat for Humanity. Jason has been recognized as a top B2B social media influencer and thought leader on multiple lists and publications including Forbes, ranking #30 on their 2012 list. Jason is a published author having released his first book in 2017, and currently resides in Snohomish, WA. You can learn more about Jason and catch more of his writing on his personal blog www.jasonyormark.com.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- Why developing a social media presence for business success is crucial in today’s competitive market, and how Jason’s career path led to becoming a social media expert
- Why the key to leveraging social media is found in focusing on the right metrics and getting real results
- What challenges Jason and his team have faced in dealing with organizations’ past bad experiences working with marketing agencies
- Why Jason is intentional about his interactions with clients and is focused on building relationships that can blossom over time
- Why a key part of being a successful entrepreneur is learning to overcome fear of being on your own
- Why marketing is often the first thing that gets blamed when there are problems in the business, and why marketing is seldom the fix for deeper problems
- Why being committed to their social media niche has been a powerful catalyst for growth at Socialistics
- Why the key to a successful social media presence for business is to meet people where they are and leverage your reach
- Why the level of intentionality Jason and his team practice and the trusted reputation they’ve cultivated have improved the number and quality of incoming leads they get
Resources:
- Website: www.jasonyormark.com/
- Website: https://socialistics.com/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jasonyormark/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/socialistics/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/socialistics
- Twitter: @jasonyormark
- Twitter: @socialistics
Graeme Strachan is the founder and CEO of ViTL Solutions. He brings his 20+ years of management consulting experience to industries as diverse as financial services, mining, education, digital media, and the nonprofit world. Graeme has a passion for helping companies succeed by aligning operational reality to strategic intent and supporting clients to breakthrough thinking to solve complex business challenges.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- The importance of orchestrating high-level initiatives that impact the bottom line
- Why it’s such a problem when a company’s initiatives don’t fully align with their strategy
- How often Graeme finds that companies are misaligned and how that disconnect develops
- How Graeme and his team create re-alignment in a business and encourage executive-level buy-in
- Why ViTL Solutions are a values-driven company, and what the four cultural tenets are that provide their touchstone
Resources:
- Website: https://vitlsolutions.com/
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/strachangraeme/
- https://www.linkedin.com/company/vitl-solutions/
Dorie Clark helps individuals and companies get their best ideas heard in a crowded, noisy world. She has been named one of the Top 50 business thinkers in the world by Thinkers50 and was honored as the #1 Communication Coach in the world at the Marshall Goldsmith Coaching Awards. She is a keynote speaker and teaches for Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and Columbia Business School. She is the author of Entrepreneurial You, which was named one of Forbes Top 5 Business Books of the Year, and Reinventing You and Stand Out, which was named the #1 Leadership Book of the Year by Inc. magazine.
A former presidential campaign spokeswoman, Clark has been described by the New York Times as an expert at self-reinvention and helping others make changes in their lives. She is a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review and consults and speaks for clients such as Google, Yale University, and the World Bank. She is a graduate of Harvard Divinity School, producer of a multiple Grammy-winning jazz album, and a Broadway investor.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- Why working through the small tasks leads to progression
- How to creatively and intellectually engage employees
- How to leverage your time more efficiently
- Why Dorie was inspired to write her book about productivity The Long Game and some of the biggest takeaways from the book that business owners can apply within their own team
- How to protect 20% of your time for personal growth
- Some of the golden nuggets that Dorie would love business owners to focus on for the long game
- The impact of the Great Resignation on business owners and what you can do to fill the pipeline of talent going forward
- Why strategic thinking is so critical in achieving your long term goals
Resources:
- Website: www.dorieclark.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/doriec/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dorieclarkauthor/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dorieclark/
- Twitter: @dorieclark
Additional Resources:
- You can download her free Long Game self-assessment workbook and learn more at dorieclark.com/thelonggame
Nic Natarella is the founder of AdWise Creative. He is known for his voice-over talents and directs his team in every project that comes into AdWise Creative. His involvement with each individual project assures that you have top-notch and maximum results for all of our clients.
Nic first started “on the air” back when he was eight years old. He started out by making cassette tape recordings of his “radio shows” on the living room stereo system, consisting of a turntable and built-in cassette player. You will have to google “turntable” and maybe even “cassette player” if you have never heard of that before.
His first real air time was just outside of Nashville as the news guy/sidekick on the morning show. His on-air career has involved morning host duties, middays, afternoon fill-in, and nighttime hosting. He also had responsibilities at the radio station with Program Director, Assistant Program Director, Webmaster, and Creative Services Director, just to name a few.
Nic has written radio and production magazine articles, conducted copywriting seminars for radio sales teams, and crafted thousands of commercials for clients looking to have a radio spot sent out. His voice-over work has been used for projects such as:
- Radio commercials
- Video games
- Corporate training materials
- And rock concerts
Want to catch Nic’s attention? He’s a fan of classic cars from the ’40s and ’50s and muscle cars from the ’60s and ’70s. While at home, he is called a shade tree mechanic, turf management supervisor, and natatorium engineer. He is known for cheering for many college football teams, so you will either love him, or he will become your rival.
Nic and his wife, Debbie, live outside Orlando, Florida. Debbie is a private horse trainer and riding instructor at Amazing Grace Equestrian. Their daughter has her Master’s in Social Work and lives and works in Tampa. Nic and Debbie currently share the house with three rabbits and up to eight horses at any given time.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- The power of storytelling in advertising
- How to make meaningful connections through audio
- How to take your audience inside the emotion of an experience with a few powerful words
- Tips on uncovering the story behind your service or product
- Why there is gold in your unconscious competence
Resources:
- Website: https://adwisecreative.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adwisenicnatarella/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adwisecreative
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/adwisecreative
Additional Resources:
- Download The 5 Most Common Radio Advertising Mistakes That Are Costing You Money and How to Fix Them here
Hey Onward Nation — before we dive into the show notes for this solocast — let me first share a really big thank you. Thank you for the 6+ years of support. Thank you for all of the social media posts. Thank you for all the emails. And thank you for all of your encouragement over the last 1,000+ episodes. My Predictive ROI team and I are over the top grateful. THANK YOU!
Okay — while thinking through what I wanted to teach and share during this episode — I decided to build it out differently than any other solocast, so that meant creating show notes that acted more like a companion to the audio instead of highlights. So for this episode — both the show notes and the audio are important. The audio will walk you through how to grow your audience — and — then how to nurture your audience over a day or a decade using the New Lead Sequence (NLS).
The NLS is a strategy I learned from Taki Moore, founder of Black Belt. And as soon as he shared it with us — we immediately put it into a test phase inside the Predictive ROI Lab — and HOLY BANANAS — it works.
During the episode, I break down the timing, highlights, and main components of each of the six emails within the NLS. And then, I included visual examples of each email here in the show notes to make it super simple for you and your team to take and apply the content into your system.
Before we get to the email examples — here are the links to the books I recommended you add to your business library:
Content Inc, 2nd Edition
Killing Marketing
And — if you go here — you can order a 100% free paperback copy of Sell with Authority. No shipping. No credit card. Nothing. Just your free paperback copy shipped right to your door.
Okay — here we go beginning with Email #1.
Well — there you have it — a path you can follow to grow and nurture your audience. *The New Lead Sequence* will help you generate leads without your prospects ever feeling like they were a prospect.
If you have questions or concerns about the NLS or something else — please know — you can always email me at stephen@predictiveroi.com. That’s my direct Inbox, and I read and reply to every email.
I also invite you to join our free Facebook Group call “How to Fill Your Sales Pipeline.” It’s a super-engaged community of agency owners, business coaches, and strategic consultants just like you, sharing their insights, asking thought-provoking questions, and sharing their expertise. If that sounds interesting to you — please join us.
Until then — onward with gusto!
Jamie Shibley believes that successful businesses are created through building strong relationships with prospects, existing clients and business associates.
Giving by nature, and from a young age working in her grandfather’s floral shop, Jamie inherently understands the influence of a meaningful gift. Through her strategic gifting agency, The Expressory, she helps businesses develop long-lasting customer relationships through thoughtfully designed memorable customer experiences.
Jamie has designed experiences for numerous clients across the country, making it simple for companies to stand out and make a lasting impression. Respected as a market leader, Jamie’s gift designs have been featured on Entertainment Tonight.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- Jamie shares how her career started out in corporate IT, and she explains why she left the corporate world and started her own business
- How her first business helped Jamie find her perfect target audience, and how she defines strategic gifting
- Why the right gift can build bonds, strengthen relationships, and open new doors for your business
- Why strategic gifting is about focusing on your prospects rather than on you, and how it can help you turn a prospect relationship into a collaboration
- How strategic gifting can also be a powerful way to engage with your existing clients and help nurture those relationships
- Why the minor cost of strategic gifting can pay massive dividends over the long term of your relationships, and how to get started developing a gifting program
- What kind of return on investment you can see from a gifting program, and why it’s important to listen for further relationship-building nuggets
- Which key steps to follow to deploy your strategic gifting program, and how to build up your established process over time
- Why an ongoing gifting cadence and persistence are crucial for making inroads with your prospective clients
Resources:
- Website: www.theexpressory.com
- Email: jshibley@theexpressory.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-shibley-76a3402/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheExpressory
Art Boulay’s Biography:
Art Boulay, MBA, is CEO of Strategic Talent Management, a consulting firm he co-founded based in Maine with clients all over the US. Like you, he recognizes that organizations spend lots of money solving problems caused by a lack of soft skills among their leaders, managers, employees and new hires. He is an expert in solving those people challenges.
Art brings practical ideas, humor and common sense solutions to each assignment. He specializes in organizational planning, succession & leadership, and is a certified behavioral and leadership coach. He is an expert in applying assessment tools to solve real-world challenges in coaching & development, hiring, promotion and recruitment.
Art has lived in Maine most of his life and enjoys hiking and camping in the beautiful north woods of Maine. He currently makes his home in Brunswick, Maine with his wife Lori.
Sue MacArthur’s Biography:
Sue MacArthur has developed Strategic Talent Management’s national recruiting practice into being one of four key service areas. Prior to joining STM, Sue had a dynamic career in the areas of human resources and operations. She has worked for Westin Hotels, John Hancock Financial Services, and Manpower Staffing Services; and has worn many hats with a variety of startup companies.
Leadership, people, and problem-solving are her passions. Sue’s non-traditional career path allows her to bring unique insights and diverse perspectives to complex situations and produce innovative solutions. As a reformed politician, building consensus and trust come naturally to Sue, which allows her to create relationships, build rapport, and understand the needs of others. Sue’s professional strategy moving forward is to bring her expertise, experience, and passions together to leave a positive legacy.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- Art shares how he co-founded Strategic Talent Management, and he explains how his business has evolved over its existence
- Sue shares how she joined STM and quickly began helping to grow the business and evolving the solutions STM offers its clients
- Why the recurring theme Sue hears from employees leaving their jobs is “I just couldn’t go back there”, and what factors are contributing to The Great Resignation
- Why your employer branding needs to be honest, clear, direct, and should avoid sounding too generic or overly rosy
- Why it’s equally important for candidates to know who they are and what their goals for their career are, and how Art and Sue help candidates clarify their aspirations
- How STM’s assessment works, what data points and tools they use, and how their process helps match ideal employers with right-fit candidates
- Art shares how his team helps employers avoid “bad hire” situations, and he shares how hiring mediocre performers is a bigger problem than hiring bad performers
- Why you shouldn’t be looking for “perfect candidates” but rather should be focusing on what you need in a role and then finding someone who fits those needs
- How behavioral assessment tools (such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) can be useful for learning more about potential hires and how they would fit into the team
- Why your existing team can be an outstanding resource for building a pipeline for talent and bringing in great candidates even during The Great Resignation
Resources:
- Email: solutions@strategictalentmgmt.com
- Blog: https://strategictalentmgmt.com/blog/
- Website: https://strategictalentmgmt.com/
- Art’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/artboulay/
- Sue’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/suemacarthur/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/strategic-talent-management/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/Strategic-Talent-Management-77066671390
Peter Taunton is a pioneer in the fitness industry. In 2003, he had a vision for Snap Fitness: to create an affordable, 24-7, results and value driven gym concept that was differentiated from the impersonal, expensive big-box experience. Today there are Snap Fitness franchises open or in development in 2,500 locations in 26 countries.
Taunton, as the Founder and CEO of Lift Brands, didn’t stop there. Peter is an expert at understanding consumer desires and fulfilling them. Over the years, he has acquired or founded several brands to round out the consumer-fitness experience: 9Round, Farrell’s, YogaFit, STEELE Fitness, Fitness On Demand. Together with the Snap Fitness brand they comprise the world’s largest wellness franchise organizations with over 6000 locations open or in development across multiple brands serving 165 million workouts and counting.
Peter Taunton went on to become the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the year and founder of one of the largest wellness brands in the world. Over the years Taunton has been featured in several prestigious industry and entrepreneurial magazines such as Forbes, Entrepreneur and Inc. 5000.
Taunton credits his success to the fundamental advice passed down from his father; “Don’t wait for business or success to fall in your lap…you need to put yourself out there and go get it!” and Peter did just that…today he has expanded and diversified his business holdings around the globe.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How Peter learned his first important business lessons at just eight years old, selling popcorn in front of his father’s grocery store
- Why one of Peter’s most important business lessons to share is that sometimes it’s necessary for things to get uncomfortable for you to achieve your success
- How Peter helps his coaching clients recognize the changes and pivots they need to make to restart the growth of their businesses
- Why getting your entire team aligned is vital, and what key lessons Peter’s book “Impossible Hill” teaches about discipline, accountability and perspective
- Why we usually see a curated, fictional version of people’s success, and why those who are truly giving of their wisdom are the best teachers
- How Peter built out a thriving, successful team full of coachable people at Snap Fitness, and why this team was crucial for the brand’s success
- Why recognizing team members who are “pulling deep on the oars” with love and respect is vital for building loyalty and strengthening relationships
- How Peter tackled the tough challenge of turning around a failing business by focusing on the opportunity it presented rather than the difficulty
- How 22-year old Peter led by example and created a shared purpose for the club’s team of 50 employees, and how he turned things around in just 8 years
- Why Peter wrote his book “Impossible Hill”, and why he considers himself a “hill-taker” who can overcome unbelievable odds
Resources:
- Impossible Hill by Peter Taunton: https://amzn.to/3hKHbjv
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/peter_taunton/
- Website: www.petertaunton.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/petertaunton/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/Peter-Taunton-105472747590615/
- YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCbhhYacl1jtVPURqqXGP0dA
- Twitter: @petertaunton
Integrative Productivity™ Expert, Angela Kristen Taylor, is mostly known for creating the Productive Flow Mastery™ methodology, her integrative whole body approach to productivity and business growth.
She is an engaging and relatable speaker who has made it her personal mission to help ambitious, purpose-driven entrepreneurs and sales professionals overcome stress & chaos so they can create the life and business they want and ultimately, the freedom and security they created their business to achieve.
Angela’s integrative productivity strategies helped her go from chaotic hot mess with big dreams and failed achievements to the woman who raised and homeschooled 5 children while running and growing a successful coaching company, and always creating the perfect balance for herself, her family, and her business, no matter what obstacle presented itself along the way.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How Angela has found tremendous success and has managed to organize her life so that she works 4-5 hours a day and only 4 days a week
- Why Angela believes that productivity is rooted in emotion, and how dealing with the roots of her “emotional clutter” helped her in overcoming chaos in her life
- How Angela helps her coaching clients by first helping them to “set their GPS” with visualization exercises to help them identify their ideal life
- Why Angela’s focus shifted to working on herself, and how in 2010 she decided to take a new direction in life after struggling through the real estate collapse
- What major changes Angela made that helped her in overcoming chaos and bringing order to her business and home life
- How the four key elements of the Productive Flow Mastery™ methodology are emotion, energy, time and focus
- Why the majority of Angela’s entrepreneur clients struggled with a challenging or traumatic childhood, and why emotional work is key
- Why understanding your goals helps you take the right action to move toward them, block out time to do the work, and set your focus on the right work
- Why emotions are the root of many of our behaviors and unhealthy habits, and what steps Angela recommends you begin taking to begin overcoming chaos in your life
Resources:
- Book a Complimentary Productivity Breakthrough Session with Angela at: https://meet.angelakristentaylor.com/book/u/me/
- Website: http://angelakristentaylor.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/angelakristentaylor
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/angelakristentaylor
- Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/groups/productiveflow
Jon Gordon’s best-selling books and talks have inspired readers and audiences around the world. His principles have been put to the test by numerous Fortune 500 companies, professional and college sports teams, school districts, hospitals, and nonprofits. He is the author of 23 books including 10 best sellers and 5 children’s books. His books include the timeless classic The Energy Bus which has sold over 2 million copies, The Carpenter which was a top 5 business book of the year, Training Camp, The Power of Positive Leadership, The Power of a Positive Team, The Coffee Bean, Stay Positive, and The Garden. Jon and his tips have been featured on The Today Show, CNN, CNBC, The Golf Channel, Fox and Friends and in numerous magazines and newspapers. His clients include The Los Angeles Dodgers, Campbell’s Soup, Dell, Publix, Southwest Airlines, Miami Heat, The Los Angeles Rams, Snapchat, Truist Bank, Clemson Football, Northwestern Mutual, West Point Academy and more.
Jon is a graduate of Cornell University and holds a Masters in Teaching from Emory University. He and his training/consulting company are passionate about developing positive leaders, organizations and teams.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How Jon wrote his bestselling book “The Energy Bus” when he was at a low period in his life, and how he learned to overcome his challenges, fears and negativity
- Why having a positive attitude in business means having fun while following your purpose and continuing to strive for excellence
- Why some people lean towards optimism and some toward pessimism, and how you can train your mind to increase your optimism even if you’re a natural pessimist
- Why success leads to fear, and why before you achieve real success you’re naturally less fearful of taking chances and risks
- Why being fearless isn’t the same thing as being reckless, and why being smart about the risks you take is crucial
- Why it is important to define what winning means to you, and why you shouldn’t fear failure because it offers its own rewards
- Why “anxious” means “divided”, and why developing your strength to face your anxiety is the key to unlocking your potential
- Why love is the greatest success principle of all time, and why loving what you do and who you work with is vital
- How feeling love allows you to perform at a higher level and is the ideal antidote for your fears
Resources:
- Website: http://jongordon.com/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jongordonenergy/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/jongordonpage
- Twitter: @JonGordon11
Sandra Martini, founder of boutique coaching firm The Martini Way, offers her mentoring clients a perfect balance of marketing savvy, intuition and results-driven systemic implementation with a healthy dose of nurturing and love.
Sandra’s style is to learn about your goals and then reverse engineer them to where you are now, so you can create the quickest path to your goals possible without sacrificing your sanity or self care.
The sustainable success Sandra teaches takes time and work. If you’re looking for someone to tell you to call everyone you know and sell them a high level “X”, Sandra isn’t for you.
If you want a partner who understands the big vision and intimate details of running and marketing a successful, sustainable business; who understands you and where you are, who nurtures you while being completely honest and non-judgmental and who can pull from her years of hands-on business and marketing expertise, then Sandra Martini is ready to help!
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How innovating in her prior roles gave Sandra keen insights into membership programs best practices that she carried with her into her entrepreneurial career
- Why a great membership program takes intentionality, hard work, and a laser focus on providing ongoing value to your members to retain them in your program
- Why a thriving membership program needs a great backend to support it, with systems, processes, employees, information-tracking and problem-solving built in
- Why a powerful content library does no good if members in the program don’t know it’s there or how to access it
- What pitfalls, expenses and potential obstacles you should be aware of when considering offering a membership program
- Why it is important to offer upgrades to your members in your value ladder, and why you should avoid overwhelming yourself by trying to over-deliver on your program
- Sandra shares a powerful strategy for targeting and curating your content to elevate your membership experience
- Why an easy-to-navigate onboarding and welcome process is crucial for retention, and why it is important to avoid forgetting your existing members in favor of new ones
- Why falling in love with your program can blind you to issues that can keep it from being profitable
Resources:
- Learn more about membership programs best practices at Sandra’s website
- Free eBook from Sandra: www.membershipprograms.info
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/sandramartini/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/themartiniwayllc
- Twitter: @SandraMartini
For over 25 years, Stephen Woessner has been in the trenches working alongside and consulting with hundreds of clients — teaching them how to plant their flag of authority within the markets they serve, grow their audience, fill their sales pipeline with right-fit prospects, and ultimately — drive revenue.
Stephen founded Predictive ROI in 2009 and remains its CEO and owner. He’s the host of Onward Nation — a top-rated podcast with listeners in over 140 countries and over 1,000 episodes. His marketing insights have been featured in major media, and he’s the bestselling author of four books, including his latest entitled, “Sell with Authority.”
He believes we’re entering the era of the AUTHORITY. Brands that occupy the coveted “expert” status are afforded the highest level of confidence and trust from their customers, prospects, and other stakeholders because they have a depth of knowledge and point-of-view that can’t be denied or easily replicated.
Stephen’s practical and tactical training sessions help companies capitalize on the huge shift taking place in the market today. In our hyper-competitive market for awareness and attention — brands need to plant their flag of authority and then leverage this position to fill their sales pipeline with right-fit prospects while developing deeper relationships with existing customers.
Our purpose is to deliver predictable and measurable ROI by positioning our clients as THE AUTHORITY in their niches and then monetizing that position.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
In this unique episode of Onward Nation, you’ll hear audio from a guest appearance Stephen Woessner recently had on the Profit With Podcasting podcast, hosted by Noah Tetzner. You’ll hear insights about:
- Why Noah’s outstanding initial email where he reached out to invite Stephen to guest on his Profit With Podcasting show immediately caught Stephen’s notice
- Stephen shares the origins of the Onward Nation podcast and discusses how the show has grown over its more than one thousand episodes
- How the Onward Nation podcast led to the Trojan Horse of Sales strategy and Predictive ROI’s focus on thought leadership marketing
- What the Dream 25 list is, and how you can utilize your Dream 25 as a roadmap for getting intentional about your ideal client prospects
- How a podcast can be an ideal vehicle for connecting with your Dream 25 perfect-fit prospects as a Trojan Horse to get you in the gates
- Why the follow-up process after a Dream 25 client appears on your show is the crucial next step for furthering your relationship
- Why your contacts with your prospect need to be about them and their expertise and not be self-aggrandizing
- Why it’s important to slice and dice your podcast episode to share through other channels so that you don’t become a “one-trick pony”
- How the Sell With Authority methodology has grown into an encompassing, multifaceted thought leadership marketing strategy
Resources from the Profit With Podcasting episode:
- Learn more about the power of thought leadership marketing with Noah Tetzner’s Profit With Podcasting
- Email Noah: noah@profitwithpodcasting.com
- Get a free copy of Sell With Authority: https://predictiveroi.com/free-book
- Profitable Podcasting by Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/3qH3yZV
Additional Resources:
- Free Executive Leadership Summary report from Predictive ROI: https://predictiveroi.com/research
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Natalie Ghidotti, APR, is principal of Ghidotti, which she founded in 2007 and has since grown to serve a wide range of clients, including some of the region’s best-known brands. The firm serves clients that span all industries, including retail, healthcare, retirement communities, professional services, nonprofits and more.
Prior to opening her own firm, Natalie was a senior public relations account executive with another marketing/PR firm in Little Rock. Before joining the public relations world in 2004, Natalie served as special publications editor-in-chief at Arkansas Business Publishing Group, where she was editor of Little Rock Family, Arkansas Bride, Little Rock Guest Guide and other magazines for five years. While at ABPG, Natalie won national awards from the Parenting Publications of America for her stories published in Little Rock Family. In her public relations career, Natalie has garnered top Prism Awards from the Public Relations Society of America and Bronze Quill Awards from the International Association of Business Communicators.
Natalie is an active community volunteer, serving on the board of the Rotary Club of Little Rock and the Board Development Committee for the Girl Scouts Diamonds of Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas, and as an active volunteer with Holy Souls School and Catholic High School for Boys. She is a past president of the Arkansas Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America and a past chairman of PRSA National’s Independent Practitioners Alliance. She serves on the Executive Committee for PRSA National’s Counselors Academy, has served as one of a three-member leadership team overseeing National PRSA’s Section Council and has been a speaker for several PRSA International Conferences. Natalie is a member of PRConsultants Group, a collaborative of 50 senior-level PR practitioners representing the top markets in the country.
She has served on the boards of directors for Reach Out and Read, Museum of Discovery, Centers for Youth and Families and the Girls Scouts. She is a member of Leadership Arkansas Class XII, Leadership Little Rock, Class XVI, was named to Arkansas Business’ “40 Under 40,” and is troop leader for her daughter’s Girl Scout Juniors Troop.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How Natalie’s journalism career ultimately led to starting her agency, Ghidotti, and how her agency’s focus is on the power of becoming a thought leader
- How Natalie defines “the mindset of a journalist”, and how capturing that mindset is a crucial component of her team’s thought leadership expertise
- Why understanding what a journalist considers important is the key to focusing on the right angle for your content to best reach and serve your audience
- How being a consistently valuable source for a reporter can help you build a strong, trusted relationship that can be invaluable in becoming a thought leader
- Why a sense of urgency is important when working with media outlets, and how Natalie defines thought leadership
- How PR and content marketing interact with Natalie’s comprehensive, integrated “PESO” content model: Paid, Earned, Shared, and Owned
- How becoming a thought leader and then slicing and dicing your content can allow it to be used across all four channels of the PESO model
- How being intentional and strategic with your thought leadership content is crucial for reaping its rewards
- How Natalie is active within the Executive Committee of PRSA (the Public Relations Society of America) Counselors Academy
- How to learn more about the upcoming PRSA Counselors Academy conference taking place September 19-21 2021 in Nashville, TN
Resources:
- Learn more about becoming a thought leader at the PRSA Counselors Academy 2021 Conference in Nashville, TN from September 19-21
- Website: https://ghidotti.com/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/natalieghidotti/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/ghidotti/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/ghidotticommunications/
- Twitter: @ghidotticomm
With a talent for creating special events that blossomed while working for her dad’s car stereo shop, Nicole Mahoney got her start in marketing at Frontier Field in Rochester and she began serving as the executive director of the internationally known Lilac Festival. Later on, Nicole headed the Canandaigua, New York Business Improvement District while also performing projects for the tourism promotion agency Visit Rochester.
In 2009, Nicole founded Break the Ice Media, with more than 20 years of experience in tourism marketing. She now hosts “Destination on the Left”, a highly successful tourism marketing podcast.
As a business owner, Nicole knows what it takes to be successful. She founded BTI to help businesses tell their brand story through public relations, digital and traditional channels. She has the ability to uncover unique marketing opportunities and develop marketing and public relations initiatives that help clients build long-term success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How Nicole founded her marketing agency, Break The Ice Media, and how she specializes in the travel, tourism, and hospitality industry
- Why the industry at large is experiencing a workforce shortage, and how it is impacting businesses during the global pandemic
- How Nicole built a team that is as passionate about helping businesses in their industry as she is, and why industry collaboration is one of Nicole’s main focuses
- How launching the Destination on the Left podcast helped Nicole clarify her focus and led her to doing a collaboration research study to be helpful to her audience
- Why Nicole set out to answer the question “what makes collaborations work or fail in the travel, tourism, and hospitality industry?” in her research
- How Nicole used her team, her podcast, and her network of connections in the industry as the foundation of her three-month collaboration research project
- What results Nicole and her research partner Susan Baier were able to discover through their research, and what content Nicole was able to develop based on the survey
- How Nicole determined her two-pronged webinar strategy with separate private client and public-facing webinar offerings
- How Nicole uses the research results as cornerstone content and then slices and dices it into many different smaller pieces of cobblestone content
- How planting her flag as the authority on travel, tourism, and hospitality industry collaboration has created new opportunities for Nicole’s agency
Resources:
- Email: nicole@breaktheicemedia.com
- Destination on the Left Podcast: https://breaktheicemedia.com/podcast/
- Website: www.destinationontheleft.com/summit
- Website: https://breaktheicemedia.com/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/nicolemahoney/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/break-the-ice-media/about/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/BreakTheIceMedia/
- Twitter: @Break_TheIce
Additional Resources:
- Edelman’s 2020 Trust Barometer Special Report “Trust and the Coronavirus”: https://www.edelman.com/research/2020-edelman-trust-barometer-special-report-coronavirus-and-trust
- Pricing Creativity by Blair Enns: www.winwithoutpitching.com/pricing-creativity/
- Listen to episode 999 of the Onward Nation podcast featuring Brett Gilliland: https://predictiveroi.com/podcasts/brett-gilliland-4/
- Listen to episode 735 of the Onward Nation podcast featuring Clate Mask: https://predictiveroi.com/podcasts/clate-mask/
- Listen to episode 35 of the Elite Entrepreneurs podcast featuring Brett Gilliland and Clate Mask: https://growwithelite.com/podcasts/solocast-8/
Raphael Bender believes everyone deserves the opportunity to transform into a better version of themselves. His main strength as a teacher and movement professional is the ability to distill complex research findings into a simple, science-based approach to help people move fearlessly, thoughtlessly, and painlessly. He LOVES running, weights, cycling, and Contrology.
Raph holds a Master’s degree in Clinical Exercise Physiology (Rehabilitation), a Bachelor’s degree in Exercise and Sports Science, Diploma of Pilates Movement Therapy, and STOTT PILATES full certification.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How Breathe Education has grown rapidly in just five years, and how Raph and his team plan to achieve their powerful two-year revenue goal of a staggering $50 million
- How Raph navigated a careful strategic pivot to adapt to the realities of the global pandemic, and how this has allowed them to outpace their less nimble competitors
- How Raph learned key leadership skills at each stage of business growth, and he discusses which skills a leader needs to develop to push through their challenges
- Raph outlines an exercise where you measure your work as $10/hr., $100/hr., $1k/hr., $10k/hr., and $100k/hr. activities to help you identify priorities
- What Breathe Education looked like early on, and how intentionality and strategy over the last six years have helped the team enter the pandemic prepared for its challenges
- Why Raph sees marketing and sales as key leadership skills, and why he believes business owners should learn to “think like a marketer and salesperson”
- Why the skills and systems you developed in the “hustle and grind” of getting to $1 million in revenue aren’t necessarily the same ones that will get you to $5 million
- Why it is important to show people how your business can help them by actually helping them, and how this can transform your business
- Why Raph believes that being generous with your knowledge can be a powerful way to attract new customers by becoming a trusted resource
Resources:
- Free, Live Q&A: Stop Faking It & Really Know Your Stuff: https://breathe-education.com/pilates_elephants-register/
- Podcast: https://breathe-education.com/podcast/
- Website: https://breathe-education.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raphael-bender-8b436a1a/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/breathe-education/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_raphaelbender
Additional Resources:
- Edelman’s 2020 Trust Barometer Special Report “Trust and the Coronavirus”: https://www.edelman.com/research/2020-edelman-trust-barometer-special-report-coronavirus-and-trust
- Pricing Creativity by Blair Enns: www.winwithoutpitching.com/pricing-creativity/
- Listen to episode 999 of the Onward Nation podcast featuring Brett Gilliland: https://predictiveroi.com/podcasts/brett-gilliland-4/
- Listen to episode 735 of the Onward Nation podcast featuring Clate Mask: https://predictiveroi.com/podcasts/clate-mask/
- Listen to episode 35 of the Elite Entrepreneurs podcast featuring Brett Gilliland and Clate Mask: https://growwithelite.com/podcasts/solocast-8/
Craig Clark is the CEO of Momentum Consulting — a consulting firm that guides organizations and their leaders in the areas of personal accountability and personal performance by developing and implementing successful strategies. He has spent the past 30 years becoming a foremost expert on the science of human dynamics in the business world and believes that the only reliable approach to produce breakthroughs at any level is to ask, “How do I see myself in the world and amongst others?”
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How Craig defines “iconic moments,” and how iconic moments can shift our reality and allow us to see the world differently
- What an iconic moment looks like, with the example of Sam Walton targeting small towns to create a massive business empire
- How business leaders can easily fall victim to confirmation bias, causing them to have unrecognized leadership blind spots that can hold back their businesses
- Why we must recognize our own leadership blind spots, and why revealing them can create powerful and transformative “iconic moments”
- How seeing what you didn’t see before can give you an opportunity to be accountable and shift your behavior to increase your performance
- Why being open to feedback from others can help you find your leadership blind spots and open up new doors to options and opportunities
- Why the challenges of the global pandemic often cause businesses to retreat to “tried and true” strategies and default behaviors that may hold them back
- Why automatic behaviors are the opposite of “getting into flow,” and why breaking out of automatic behaviors is crucial for achieving flow
- What steps you can take to help your team achieve flow, and why a strong level of trust and respect are key for getting there
- How Craig realized that what he thought was real wasn’t, and how this realization sparked his curiosity and made a powerful impact on his work
Resources:
- Website: www.momentumconsulting.com
- Email: craig@momentumconsulting.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/craiglclark/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/momentum-consulting_2/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/MomentumConsulting
Additional Resources:
- Free Executive Leadership Summary report from Predictive ROI: https://predictiveroi.com/research
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
A senior leadership/board advisor, educator, executive coach, and bestselling author, David Nour is internationally recognized as the leading expert on applications of strategic relationships in profitable growth, sustained innovation, and lasting change. The author of eleven books, including bestsellers Relationship Economics® (Wiley) and Co-Create (St. Martin’s Press), as well as the forthcoming Curve Benders (Wiley, 2021), Nour serves as a trusted advisor to global clients and coaches corporate leaders. He is an adjunct professor at the Goizueta Business School at Emory University and was named to the Global Gurus Top 30 Leadership Professionals and the Thinkers 50 Radar Class of 2021 lists. A Forbes Leadership contributor on the Future of Work, and an Inc. contributor on Relationship Economics, Nours unique insights have been featured in various prominent publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fast Company, Huffington Post Business, Entrepreneur, and Knowledge@Wharton. He’s also the host of the popular Curve Benders podcast.
Born in Iran, Nour immigrated to the U.S. as a teenager with $100, limited family ties, and no fluency in English. He graduated from Georgia State University with a bachelor’s degree in business management and went on to earn an Executive MBA from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University. He resides in Atlanta, GA, with his family. Learn more at www.NourGroup.com.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How David immigrated to the United States from Iran, learned English, finished graduate school, and built an astonishing career as an executive coach, author and expert
- How David defines “relationship economics”, and why prioritizing relationships with intentionality and being strategic in which relationships you invest in is crucial
- How the global pandemic and the need for social distancing have impacted our in-person relationships, and why digital relationships need to be sustained with personal connections
- Why focusing on fewer, more authentic relationships can be a powerful differentiating factor for your business as we emerge from the pandemic
- How David created and curates his own professional community that fosters respectful and civil discourse and authentic engagements
- Why relationships require an investment of time, effort and resources, and why narrowing your focus allows you to build more authentic connections
- How many of David’s clients have had their most successful year ever because they entered the pandemic with great maneuverability
- Why you should “diversify your portfolio of relationships”, and how “hybrid relationships” can benefit you throughout your work and life
- Why learning to ask better questions can be a powerful tactic for stronger relationships, and what skills you should focus on developing to master your relationships
- Why following up on your conversations and relationships and looking for new ways to add value is vital
Resources:
- Read David’s book Relationship Economics and learn how to prioritize relationships
- Website: https://nourgroup.com/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/davidnour/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/nour-group/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheNourGroup/
- Twitter: @davidnour
Additional Resources:
- Free Executive Leadership Summary report from Predictive ROI: https://predictiveroi.com/research
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
David Friedman is an award-winning CEO, entrepreneur, author, and renowned public speaker. In 2011, he published his first book, Fundamentally Different, which is based on the insights he learned and taught throughout his leadership career, and in 2018 he published his second book, Culture by Design, the definitive how-to manual for building a high-performance culture. His current company, High Performing Culture, has helped hundreds of companies throughout North America to implement his culture operating system, CultureWise™.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- David shares how he started as a college philosophy major before moving into the business world, and he shares how he realized the importance of intentional culture
- Why culture has an enormous impact on everything in your organization, and why getting intentional allows you control over your culture
- Why leaders automatically emerge in every group, and why those strong personalities will fill a culture vacuum by creating a culture with our without your influence
- Why too many businesses will plan finances, their sales goals, their business growth and every other aspect of the business but neglect doing work to create an intentional culture
- David shares his Eight Step Framework for “operationalizing” your business culture so that you can intentionally design it to serve your organization
- Why the two most important steps are to completely define the culture you want and create rituals that make your culture sustainable, and how the other six steps support that
- How most businesses articulate their “vision, mission and values” without giving enough clarity, and how David differentiates between core values and behaviors
- Why creating rituals is crucial for success by helping create regular, repeatable, second-nature habits
- What David’s rituals look like, and how David and his team repeatedly go back to and practice those rituals until they become habits
Resources:
- Learn more about creating an intentional culture at David’s website
- Email: david@culturewise.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/david-friedman-01b38a35/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/high-performing-culture/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/MyCultureWise
- Twitter: @CultureWiseUSA
Additional Resources:
- Free Executive Leadership Summary report from Predictive ROI: https://predictiveroi.com/research
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
For over 25 years, Stephen Woessner has been in the trenches working alongside and consulting with hundreds of clients — teaching them how to plant their flag of authority within the markets they serve, grow their audience, fill their sales pipeline with right-fit prospects, and ultimately — drive revenue.
Stephen founded Predictive ROI in 2009 and remains its CEO and owner. He’s the host of Onward Nation — a top-rated podcast with listeners in over 140 countries and over 1,000 episodes. His marketing insights have been featured in major media, and he’s the bestselling author of four books, including his latest entitled, “Sell with Authority.”
He believes we’re entering the era of the AUTHORITY. Brands that occupy the coveted “expert” status are afforded the highest level of confidence and trust from their customers, prospects, and other stakeholders because they have a depth of knowledge and point-of-view that can’t be denied or easily replicated.
Stephen’s practical and tactical training sessions help companies capitalize on the huge shift taking place in the market today. In our hyper-competitive market for awareness and attention — brands need to plant their flag of authority and then leverage this position to fill their sales pipeline with right-fit prospects while developing deeper relationships with existing customers.
Our purpose is to deliver predictable and measurable ROI by positioning our clients as THE AUTHORITY in their niches and then monetizing that position.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- Why your goal should be to use search engine optimization to go narrow
- Why Seth Godin had it right when he urged business owners to focus on the smallest viable audience
- How to find long-tail super-niche “Predictive Keywords” and why they deliver big results
- How to take a meaty piece of cornerstone content, slice it into 4ths, and then optimize each piece for search with long-tail, niche keywords
- How to build your email list by converting your website traffic with your screaming cool value exchange
- Why attribution of results matters and why it’s so easy to get attribution wrong inside your analytics
- How to apply a simple formula/process for attribution
- How to scale your content optimization strategy and efforts so that you’re always helpful to your audience
Resources:
- This is Marketing by Seth Godin
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner
- Tim Cameron-Kitchen, CEO of Exposure Ninjas and Onward Nation Alum:
- Episode 409: Raise your prices
- Episode 966: How to get to the top of Google
- Fernando Angulo, Head of Communications of SEMRush and Onward Nation Alum:
- Episode 964 – How to score a featured snippet in Google
- MOZ keyword suggestion tool
- SEMRush keyword suggestion tool
Additional Resources:
- Free Executive Leadership Summary report from Predictive ROI: https://predictiveroi.com/research
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Ken Knorr is the Founder and CEO of the leading white label marketing company: That! Company, and he is involved in numerous community organizations and is the host of The Daily Drive Show.
A serial entrepreneur, Ken has been in digital marketing since the rise of Google, and he’s been able to pivot several times to react to changes in the marketplace. In terms of collaboration, Ken believes that when you bring people from different backgrounds together, you find out that one plus one equals three or more. His message — particularly the fascinating “Exercise of the Sevens” — is vital for entrepreneurs, leaders in any industry and anyone looking to build their legacy.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How Ken got involved in digital marketing, and how the infamous Superbowl “wardrobe malfunction” taught Ken how to increase website traffic and master SEO
- How the business name “That! Company” came to be, and how a series of happy accidents landed Ken’s business the memorable domain URL www.thatcompany.com
- What has stayed the same in SEO, what has changed, and how you can utilize these concepts to increase your website traffic organically in ways competitors aren’t exploiting
- Why you should look at your metrics and user behavior as a crucial and invaluable resource, and why many too many SEO companies don’t use or even look at this data
- Why Google rewards content that is helpful, generous, and applicable to your audience, and how the algorithm is set up to punish attempts to “game the system”
- How the changing privacy landscape is impacting SEO and data collection as new regulations are created, and why having specialists on your side is vital
- Why user data tools are beginning to go away due to privacy changes, and what that means for paid advertising
- Why That! Company has a complex relationship with the big platforms (Google, Facebook) due to their commitment to putting clients first
- How building a stronger brand reputation starts with doing a search for your brand and understanding the landscape
- Why you need to solicit reviews from your customers to help control your online reputation, and why responding to reviews (especially negative ones) correctly matters
- How Ken’s powerful “Exercise of the Sevens” can help you truly understand your priorities and make the most of your time
Resources:
- Click to learn more about how to increase website traffic at Ken Knorr’s website
- Website: www.thatcompany.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kknorr/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/that-company/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/thatcompanycom
- Twitter: @kenknorr
- Twitter: @ThatCompanycom
Additional Resources:
- Free Executive Leadership Summary report from Predictive ROI: https://predictiveroi.com/research
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Lt. Col. Rob “Waldo” Waldman, CSP, CPAE, MBA – The Wingman is the author of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller Never Fly Solo. A graduate of the Air Force Academy, Waldo is a decorated combat fighter pilot and an expert in helping leaders and organizations accelerate performance in changing environments.
A highly experienced veteran with over 2,650 flight hours, Waldo flew 65 combat missions in Iraq and in Kosovo during Operation Allied Force. Some of his military honors include five Air Medals, two Aerial Achievement Medals, four Air Force Commendation Medals, and two Meritorious Service Medals.
Waldo overcame massive claustrophobia and a fear of heights to become a fighter pilot, and he believes that the key to building a culture of trust lies with your wingmen, the men and women in your life who help you to overcome obstacles, adapt to change, and achieve success. In business and life, you should never fly solo!
In addition to his speaking business, Waldo is also founder and President of The Wingman Foundation, a 501(c)(3) whose mission is to build funds and awareness for soldiers, veterans and their families in need.
Waldo is an inductee into the prestigious professional Speakers Hall of Fame and his clients include Marriott, Hewlett-Packard, UPS and Verizon. He’s been featured on Fox & Friends, CNN, MSNBC, Inc. Magazine and The Harvard Business Review.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How the outbreak of the global pandemic has impacted our business outlook, mindset, and priorities, and why learning how to pivot your business is crucial
- Why business owners have had to learn to adapt to today’s many challenges, and why new tactics and tools are needed to propel your business forward after a pivot
- How Waldo has successfully pivoted his business to a virtual environment by shifting systems and technologies rather than trying to create a new business out of the existing one
- Why especially during the difficult times, it’s crucial to research, network, and reinvest in your business even at the cost of revenue
- Why vulnerability and being willing to say the three most important words you can say you need help is vital especially during challenges
- Why it’s important to continue learning and growing, but it is just as or more important to execute on what you’re learning
- Why Waldo believes your business needs to be “a mint chocolate chip brand in a vanilla chocolate world”
- Why breaking out of your area of expertise is possible but takes careful research and asking the right questions, and why expressing vulnerability here is important
- Why learning how to pivot your business means not just expressing vulnerability but equally means offering to be helpful and focusing on serving others
- Why lifting others up when they are at their lowest can be a powerful way to create real joy in your life, especially when you are at your lowest
Resources:
- A.C.E. Academy: https://ace.yourwingman.com/ace-training-system-b2c/
- Mission Ready video series: www.yourwingman.com/mr
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/waldowaldman/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/WaldoYourWingman
- Twitter: @waldowaldman
Additional Resources:
- Free Executive Leadership Summary report from Predictive ROI: https://predictiveroi.com/research
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Jeff Nischwitz is known as a Snow Globe Shaker who’s on a mission to help people shift how they lead and thereby shift their leadership impact. He’s an international speaker and personal transformation coach and the Founder of The Nischwitz Group, a speaking, consulting and coaching company that transforms people and organizations—one truth at a time! He’s the co-founder of Cardivera.com and co-host of the Leadership Junkies podcast (www.leadershipjunkies.com). Jeff has published four books, including his most recent – Just One Step: Walking Backwards to the Present on the Camino Trail.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How Jeff started his career working for a big law firm, and how he realized the importance of learning business development once he struck out on his own after a decade
- How Jeff learned that becoming a “rainmaker” was more about relationship-building through consistent and reliable behavior
- Why it is impossible to have a team of all rainmakers but it is crucial to have a “rainmaker mindset” that empowers everyone to collectively succeed
- Why teaching your team members business development skills isn’t necessarily the best use of your time as a business leader, and why creating the mindset is more effective
- How Jeff learned that a service mindset was powerful for learning business development, and how he builds a “toolbox” by cultivating relationships within his network
- Why stories serve as powerful connective tissue that builds relationships, and why it is important to tell your story in business development
- Why business development needs a rhythm that can create ongoing momentum to avoid the “peaks and valleys”
- Why there is always a “next action” that needs to be followed up on beyond just reaching out to someone
- Why it is important to avoid being lazy and giving people “homework”, and why you should never have others own the follow up action but should instead follow up yourself
- Jeff shares tips and strategies for building stronger relationships and learning business development skills
Resources:
- Call Jeff: (216) 956-6587
- Learning business development or wanting to further your skills? Visit Jeff’s website for more great resources
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/jeffnischwitz
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jeffnischwitz/
- Twitter: @jeffnischwitz
- Books: www.nischwitzgroup.com/books-products/
Additional Resources:
- Free Executive Leadership Summary report from Predictive ROI: https://predictiveroi.com/research
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Nate Woodbury is the producer for over a dozen YouTube channels. He’s achieved a great level of success, helping speakers and coaches leverage YouTube to generate leads and clients for their businesses. He loves pulling back the curtains to show all the steps he has taken so others can do the same. If you want to know how to get predictable, exponential results on YouTube, Nate’s the guy.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How Nate got started in the SEO space before making the jump to creating YouTube lead generation strategies for his clients
- How Nate and his team refined their formula and truly “cracked the code” for using YouTube as a cornerstone content platform
- Why understanding what questions people are asking is the crucial first step to putting YouTube’s search algorithm to work for you
- Why titling your videos with very specific, niche-focused questions is the key to topping the search results
- What keyword tools are available to understand what viewers are searching for, and why YouTube’s analytics page is a powerful tool for understanding your audience
- Why Nate’s strategy works no matter how many videos you’ve already uploaded in the past, and what five key details to be mindful of when creating videos
- Why your thumbnail images should be custom for each video and should serve to “create curiosity” in viewers
- Why launching five new videos per week is the secret to explosive growth after around four months on the platform
- How Nate employs calls to action in his videos to turn views into leads, and why YouTube is a great platform for this strategy
- Why Nate believes that following his strategy and committing to it for one year can create an additional seven figures of revenue for businesses
Resources:
- Get a FREE gift from Nate to help you master YouTube lead generation
- Website: www.betheherostudios.com
- Follow Nate on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/natewoodbury
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/nate-woodbury/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/BeTheHeroStudios
Additional Resources:
- Free Executive Leadership Summary report from Predictive ROI: https://predictiveroi.com/research
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Kris Kelso is a keynote speaker for leadership conferences, corporate events, universities, and has been both guest and host on television and radio programs. He is the author of Overcoming The Impostor: Silence Your Inner Critic and Lead with Confidence.
Trained and certified as an executive coach, Kris has worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs, business owners, and their leadership teams. He is an advisor and instructor at the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, is a Facilitator / Coach with The Alternative Board, and is a contributing writer for The Nashville Business Journal.
Kris has founded multiple companies and has served on the boards of directors of several non-profit organizations. He is an active member of Cornerstone Nashville, where he serves, teaches, and coaches other leaders. He lives with his wife and three teenaged sons in a suburb of Nashville, Tennessee.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- Why Kris chose to focus his career on solving leadership and communication problems in businesses and overcoming the Imposter Syndrome
- How Kris defines the Imposter Syndrome, and why it causes us to overvalue the accomplishments of others and undervalue our own unique traits and accomplishments
- Why we often find ourselves comparing the reality of our own lives with a simplified, polished and curated version of other people’s lives we see on social media
- Why entrepreneurs by nature are at higher risk of falling to the Imposter Syndrome, and why allowing yourself to be vulnerable is crucial to overcoming the Imposter Syndrome
- Why expressing his own vulnerability to a young entrepreneur gave the entrepreneur a sense of relief and emotional release, and led to Kris writing his book “Overcoming The Impostor”
- Why being open and vulnerable is the antidote to the trap of the Imposter Syndrome, and why community without vulnerability will “feed the Imposter”
- Why you should focus on becoming a part of organizations and communities where vulnerability is the norm and encouraged
- Why it’s important to shift your mindset and realize that failure isn’t the opposite of success but a key part of success
- How legends Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle had the highest number of strikeouts in all of Major League Baseball because they were willing to take chances
- Why you don’t have to love failure to avoid fearing it, and why you should accept the compliments you are given and internalize them
Resources:
- Find out more about Kris Kelso at his website www.kriskelso.com
- Learn more about overcoming the Imposter Syndrome with Kris’s book “Overcoming the Impostor”
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kriskelso/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/thekriskelso
- Twitter: @kriskelso
Additional Resources:
- Free Executive Leadership Summary report from Predictive ROI: https://predictiveroi.com/research
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Good Morning Onward Nation — I’m Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and your host.
Welcome back, and today’s episode is going to be a solocast — it will be just you and me exploring a topic with some real depth.
If you’re new to Onward Nation — I tend to record a solocast every 5 to 6-weeks to share some insights, perhaps some research, or examples I gathered from hanging out and talking with agency owners, business coaches, and strategic consultants just like you.
Or sometimes — I’ll pull some data points and results from the most recent experiments we’ve been running inside the Predictive ROI Lab so you can take and apply the new strategies or tactics to fill your sales pipeline with right-fit prospects.
Okay — let’s shift our attention to today’s topic. I titled this episode “Now Is The Time to Double Down” for several specific reasons. Almost exactly to the day — one year ago — I shared with you a distillation of over 400 pages of research around how business owners marketed their way through a recession like what we were facing back in March 2020…and candidly…are still facing right now in April 2021.
But — the data I shared with you then wasn’t focused on the survival of business owners of just the last recession but the last six recessions.
If you listened to Episode 933 — you and I would have walked through all of that data…and more specifically…how the owners doubled down and made progressive decisions so they could navigate their business through the choppy waters and be in the exact right position to come roaring out the other side of their respective recession.
The last 13-months have certainly taught us many lessons about navigating ourselves through a crisis — painful lessons personally — and of course — inside our businesses.
We learned what it feels like to hurt — and to hurt in a big way — to hurt as family, as friends, as a country — to just hurt and to not feel like there was anywhere to turn.
What it means to truly have grit.
What it means to be compassionate and to take a stand for what we know is right.
What it feels like when we can’t hug a loved one when they need it most.
What it means to look into the eyes of your team and tell them everything’s going to be okay — when you know behind the curtain — you’re struggling to keep your head above water.
In 2020 — we learned so many valuable lessons. And my hope is that through all of the mess that the year was — and the challenges that still linger today — that you also saw some silver linings.
That you took the most overused word of 2020 — which was most likely “pivot” — and you put it to good use.
That you reinvented.
That you asked your clients, prospects, and audience how you could be even more helpful — and you stepped up — and showed your teammates what leadership is all about.
That you jumped into the trenches — back to back — and you dug, slung, and moved the same mud as your team. And that you were open, you were honest, and you let them see you cry when you needed to cry.
We all had those moments. You didn’t — and you don’t have to have all the answers — because you’re human.
So for this solocast…we’re going to take a step back. I’m going to walk you through a small slice of the data from 12-months ago for a couple of reasons.
One — I want you to see how far you have come…how you moved along that path…to reflect on the decisions you made…and the result outcomes. And yes — nothing is ever perfect…but you’re still here. And there’s victory in that.
Two — we’re going to celebrate a few businesses and their owners who really crushed it. And I don’t mean necessarily from a revenue perspective…but I mean from the perspective of being the beacon of hope when we needed them to be.
Being there every time their clients or customers had a question — and oftentimes a difficult one — there they were — being helpful.
Let’s celebrate that because in good times — or in bad, like a global pandemic — it’s a great recipe for us to follow.
And three — as we see the economy recovering — and we see momentum beginning to come back — what are some things you could be doing right now to fill your sales pipeline with right-fit prospects?
I’ll share some insights that you can take and apply.
So you see? Now’s the time to double down.
Now’s the time to push even harder. Now’s the time to say to your team…“We’re going to plant our flag of authority in this niche so that during the next crisis — we will have even further future-proofed our business.”
Now. Right now. Now’s the time to double down.
Okay…deep breath.
I have one more thing to share with you before we dive in.
And it’s a really big, super awesome, and very sincere THANK YOU! If I could give you a big hug — I would.
Today’s episode is number 1,000 of Onward Nation. And that doesn’t happen by accident.
It happens because you and all of our subscribers around the world have shared feedback with us, asked questions, cared enough to point out ways we could be even better, and you shared our episodes with your colleagues, family, and friends. THANK YOU — it has been my honor to sit in this seat for the last 6 years and to have the opportunity to share the insights and wisdom from our guests…with you.
There is also a very long list of family, teammates, mentors, and friends who have made these 1,000 episodes possible.
They were there in the beginning — they prodded me along the way — they encouraged me when I was down — and they held me accountable to get done what I promised to do.
Needless to say — I have a lot of phone calls and thank you cards to write because what John Wooden said was so true — “You will never outperform your inner circle” — and I feel fortunate and blessed to be surrounded by rockstars.
So sincerely, Onward Nation…THANK YOU!
Okay…
I built this solocast to act as a beacon around why — in my opinion — Now’s The Time to Double Down.
What can we do to rebuild — and if we work hard at it — could it be possible to come out of this recession in an even better position than when we went in?
I will — and will continue to argue — yes — it is possible.
And that is what drove me to do the research. To look back through past recessions, past recoveries…to study the winners and the losers…and to share with you what they did…so we can all take some lessons out of their playbooks and put them to work right now.
I’m going to give you the data points and examples to show it’s possible.
And — I’m going to share the next steps that you and your team can take to make it happen as well as share some free resources.
And all of the research citations that I will quote can be found in the endnotes section of today’s show notes on PredictiveROI.com.
With all that said — let’s start stepping through why Now’s The Time to Double Down.
Let’s start off by reviewing three research studies and articles published in the Harvard Business Review. Again all linked within today’s show notes.
The first article is entitled “Preparing your business for a post—pandemic world,” which was published by HBR on April 10, 2020 and was written by Carsten Lund Pedersen and Thomas Ritter, both professors at the Copenhagen Business School in Denmark.
I pulled golden nuggets out of Pedersen and Ritter’s work because of their emphasis on planning before and during a crisis — and how if your planning process was sound, Onward Nation — you will come roaring out the other side of the current recession and future proof your business so you’ll be even more prepared for the next crisis.
But in order to prep the proper response plan with smart strategic decisions, you must first understand the position your business holds in the market.
You can do that by asking yourself and your team some fundamental questions like, “who are we in our market,” “what role do we play in the market? (Are we price-sensitive suppliers, are we market leaders, do our clients and prospects see us as thought leaders, etc.?).” And — what if we double down make immediate course corrections…could we emerge as a market leader fueled by developments, new ideas, service offerings, or invest in new markets while the recession is still here — so that — we come roaring out the other side?[1]
Onward Nation — the right plan should not just map out the where but also the how. You need to map out your action steps and milestones for today, next quarter, and for the remainder of the year.
And it’s been my experience — this is where business owners get snagged. In fact — I just got home after several days in Chicago attending a live and in-person workshop for agency owners hosted by Drew McLellan, CEO of Agency Management Institute.
Okay — quick detour — can I just say — holy frickin’ bananas — it was so awesome to be live and in-person with other owners. To sit, listen, share ideas…share a meal…oh…my…word. Amazing.
Alright — well — one of the exercises during the workshop was the one-year business plan. All it took was a quick show of hands for who actually had a one-page…or any length…written business plan. And only a few hands were raised.
Why? Business oftentimes — we owners create lofty ideas without any of the tactical detail our teams can challenge, make better, and then implement — or worse yet — there’s no plan at all because we rely on winging it. Winging it may work during good economic times — but what we learned in 2020 was that winging it falls super short during a crisis.
Like the former heavyweight champion, Mike Tyson famously said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” Your high-level, half-baked plan quickly falls about without the right operationalized strategy.
And that is exactly why when the U.S. Navy SEALS create a mission plan along with 13 contingencies for each mission they execute. Yes — 13.
The SEALS anticipate that there will be an ebb and flow to the mission plan as the situation evolves and changes with new data points, variables difficult to predict, or sudden changes. They never expect to not encounter changes to the plan.
But if they didn’t have a plan – they wouldn’t know what gear to take, how much gear, transportation, extraction, and the litany of other things that need to be considered. The mission doesn’t change but how you accomplish it will most likely need to ebb and flow along the way.
And yet – I know many business owners who bristle at the thought of planning because they don’t want to feel boxed in or the constraint on flexibility. The Seals would tell you that it is because of how they double down on the planning process that they can be more flexible on the battlefield.
Because of their planning — they have already anticipated and thought through their options – and – have everything they need to quickly proceed with a new direction.
Your business can be just as nimble with the right planning.
Yes, COVID has been confusing. It’s been stressful. And there have been times when working with my leadership team at Predictive over the last 12 months when I felt overwhelmed and just wanted to start doing things to see if anything would stick.
But — we didn’t until we had a plan.
So as we start to see the end of this tunnel we’ve been in — I’m pushing you to take a step back…have discipline…look around…ask yourself and your team questions…look at today…this week…this month…and map out…IN WRITING…the steps you intend to take quickly for both the short—term — and — identify how those steps will set your business up for success in 12-months as it relates to your 3-year mission.
Now — another lesson about planning. The plan is no good unless you have shared it — taught from it — marinated your team in it — and then repeated the process over and over again. You need to communicate the details of the plan as well as the process used to create the plan — with your entire team.
If you or your leadership team works through the planning process in a vacuum and doesn’t share highlights, milestones, or progress as the plan is evolving — I’m telling you — your team will feel lost…they won’t know how to implement it…you will have lost your opportunity to create buy-in…and your culture will suffer.
Your team was just as confused, scared, and concerned as you were when COVID first hit. And now — many of them…if not all of them…are looking forward to the possibilities that await you and your business on the other side of this recession. And you building the plan will help them not only see those possibilities — but — ensure that they see your vision — and — they will know how to make it become a reality.
But to be clear — I’m not suggesting that your entire team needs to be involved in the creation of the core plan.
But what I am suggesting is that you take a lesson out of the book, “Extreme Ownership” where you and your leadership team create the core plan — brief your entire team on the objectives and intent of the plan — and then ask junior members of your team to meet and work out the tactical details for implementing the plan.[3]
Your job is to make sure you are clear on the objectives and the intent of the plan. Then set your expectations for the timing for the completion of the plan — quickly…like 24— to 48—hours — and have each of the junior team members present their portion of the plan back to you and your leadership team. Then everyone asks questions and in doing so – does some stress testing of the plan. It’s crucial to create space for the plan to evolve but that doesn’t mean your planning process needs to take weeks. It can be days and you will be off and running.
I assure you — your greatest challenge during the planning process will be to prioritize. You need to be careful that you don’t start numerous projects that all depend on the same critical resources. If you do — you will burn out your team and nothing will get done with excellence. Instead — take your five, six, or 10 great ideas…apply pressure to them…and distill them down to one to two great ideas with clear steps for the next 30-days. And then keep a list of all of the other ideas and come back to it in 30-days and re-evaluate what should be next.
And if you go to today’s show notes — you will be able to download a super helpful calendar from our good friends at Elite Entrepreneurs — it will help you visualize each and every meeting you should be having with your team throughout the year so that you can communicate the details of your plan.
Now let’s shift our attention to the imagination — because we need it now more than ever.
Martin Reeves and Jack Fuller, both part of the Boston Consulting Group’s Henderson Institute, wrote a brilliant article entitled, “We Need Imagination Now More Than Ever” which was published by the Harvard Business Review on April 10, 2020. A link to the full text of the article can be found in the endnotes section of today’s show notes.
Reeves and Fuller put forth the argument that imagination — in the face of uncertainty, economic recession, and the historic challenges we’re facing right now — is exactly what we need to solve the problem. But it is difficult to apply imagination and all of its benefits when we are in full-on crisis management mode.
Why?
Because when something unexpected and significant happens our first instinct is to defend against it. Then we later move to understand and manage whatever caused the crisis so we can get back to the status quo.
The authors believe – and I agree – “that your capacity to imagine…to create, to evolve, and to pursue ideas — is a crucial factor in seizing and creating new opportunities, and finding new paths to growth.”[4]
But the challenge is — and my guess is when I impressed upon you the importance of planning a few minutes ago — you may have said to yourself “Stephen…there’s no time for planning – I need to double down and take action now.”
Same thing with imagination — because of the pressure of COVID— it will be one of the hardest things to keep alive in your business — both now and into the future.
However — imagination — rethinking how you can double down in what you deliver to be helpful to your clients and prospects is exactly what can help you come roaring out the other side of this recession.
For example — in recessions and downturns, 14 percent of companies outperform both historically and competitively because they invested in new growth areas.
Apple released its first iPod in 2001 — the same year the U.S. economy experienced a recession that contributed to a 33 percent drop in Apple’s total revenue. Still – Apple saw the iPod’s ability to transform its product portfolio so the company increased R&D spending by double digits, which sparked an era of high growth for the company.[5]
But — let’s shine a bright light on some non-Apple companies because sometimes it’s super easy to discount these types of case studies because most of us don’t have several hundred billion lying around that we can invest toward R&D.
That said — if you were to take a look inside the communities of Agency Management Institute, Elite Entrepreneurs, and Smart Real Estate Coach — you could find business owner after business owner who had their best year in history during 2020. I know many business owners who doubled sales, team size, and profit in the last 12-months.
How on Earth is that possible? Were they just lucky — in the right place — at the right time — with the right silver lining?
It would be lovely if it were that simple — but no.
They re-imagined the possibilities.
They doubled down on being helpful.
They asked their clients and prospects what they needed?
They shared their insights and wisdom by teaching generously.
And — they didn’t just focus on service delivery. They marketed. They created content. They stepped up in a big way to be a solution. They rolled out new offerings. Retired old offerings. And they made it even easier to do business with them.
They reimagined every aspect of their business, Onward Nation — and you can too.
And there’s still time.
If you can rally your teams — create an imaginative plan that everyone buys into because they had a hand in building it — you will likely be way ahead of your competitors as we come roaring out of this recession.
Right now — because of everything that has happened over the last year — you might be the only one serving your niche who is actually thinking about how best to double down on being helpful.
The rest of your industry might be thinking about that next promotional push…something…anything in order to get a few dollars in to make Q2 look promising.
But — I’m encouraging you to IMAGINE a completely different path.
A path where you generously share your smarts, your insights, where you teach the best of what you have and how it aligns with the business issues and challenges your clients, prospects, audience face — in good times or in crisis. You do all of this while everyone else is simply reacting.
You’ll be on a completely different level. Why? Because you allowed yourself the time to imagine the blue ocean of possibilities — and — you worked your butt off to make it happen.
Okay — so let’s dial this in a little further.
How do you do all of that?
Let me help by giving you a push from the authors. Instead of asking yourself and your team passive questions like “What will happen to us during this recession?” — flip the script — by asking active, open questions like “How can we create new options?”
Or — “How can we double down and be even more helpful to our clients and prospects during this crisis?”
What could we teach?
What research and strategic insights could we share?
What online event, webinar, or forum could we host for our clients, prospects, and audience that would share the best of what we’ve got to help them navigate what’s next?
And yes — I agree with you — there are no easy solutions or silver bullets. This is a ton of work.
My Predictive team and I have wrestled through many options when we were building out our 1-year Strategic Plan. We’ve worked through everything I’m recommending to you…I have seen it in action. So yes — it’s hard — the discipline you need in order to essentially force yourself to imagine the possibilities — create a plan — and see it through — will — no doubt — be challenging.
But — all of this work — I assure you — will help you plant your flag of authority in the niche you serve — and — you will be of greater service to your clients, prospects, and audience…and…when you do this the right way…and your heart is in the right place…you will attract an abundance of right-fit prospects into your sales pipeline.
And you will come roaring out the other side of this recession.
Okay – the last nugget I want to share with you was a game-changer for me. I have been a student of mindset, attraction theory, and the power of the mastermind for years. I’m a firm believer in that which we focus on we get more of. Perseverating over negative thoughts produces negative results and I have seen the reverse happen, too. And when blended with a great plan, intentional execution, and hard work – the details within the plan become reality.
However — what I learned from this article and wanted to share with you is how this actually plays out in the world of statistics, too.
For example — “when we lose hope and adopt a passive mindset, we cease to believe that we can meet our ideals or fix our problems. In statistics, what’s called “Bayesian Learning” involves taking a belief about a statistical distribution – the prior results in other words – and then updating it in the light of each new piece of information obtained. Essentially — the outcome of the entire process can be determined by the initial belief. Therefore Onward Nation — in a very real way — pessimism can become a self—fulfilling prophecy.”[6]
In the show notes — I cite the section of research from the article I just shared with you so you can do a deep dive into the justification for it if you like.
So let’s go high level for a minute — if you focus on being imaginative, being open to the possibilities, giving your team grounds for hope, encouraging them to be innovative…and all of this is done with the intent of being helpful to your clients and prospects in a way you never have been before…you will make progress.
Meanwhile – your competitors will be bogged down in the myriad of thin things and trapped in a short-term survival mentality that requires them to TAKE from their clients and prospects…and guess what…it won’t work.
There were many silver linings of the last 12-months if we look hard enough — and I will tell you that one of the biggest — is that we as people are even more attuned to generosity, transparency, truth, and it has become super easy to sniff out a fake.
So — imagine yourself generously playing the long game and your clients and prospects will love you for it because they will see you are genuinely playing the game for their benefit.
Trust me when I say that the trench you’re fighting in every day – that trench of pressure, doubt, fear, anxiety, and at times…overwhelm…yep, I know that trench well, too. And I’m right there — right here — with you…slugging it out, too…and working hard.
One thing I’m grateful for is that because of the last 12 months — at Predictive — we sharpened our leadership and planning skills. We were forced to quickly build a plan. My fellow leaders and I prioritized…we mapped out how we could be helpful to our clients and prospects…and we did all of that from the spirit of imagination.
And then we shared it with our team.
Now – taking you behind the curtain in full transparency…we did all of that in 48—hours.
This is not a 4—6 week process.
Don’t get bogged down. Get moving.
Let’s keep up the momentum of the planning process and begin to think about how you could deal with the myriad of business pressures right now.
Do you continue to look to cut operating costs.
Do you reduce staff?
Do you work to open new markets and invest in R&D, or some other combination of strategies?
And – is there an ideal combination or blend of the strategies – and if so – what have been the result outcomes from other companies as they worked to navigate past crises.
Thankfully – there is some excellent research available on all of the above.
With that said – it might seem a bit odd that I am going to now turn our attention toward an article / published study in the Harvard Business Review from 2010.
Why would I pull from an article that is 10—years old?
The article is entitled, “Roaring Out of Recession” and was published in HBR on March 3, 2010.
I’m encouraging you and your team to study it because the data points within the article provide a whole lot of context that will be helpful to what you’re working on today.
Back in 2010 of course – the country was looking for any and all help in pulling itself out of the Great Recession of 2008 and 2009. But in order to make smart recommendations to their 2010 readers – the authors went back and gathered data from the past three global recessions:
- The 1980 crisis (which lasted from 1980 to 1982)
- The 1990 slowdown (1990 to 1991)
- And the 2000 bust (2000 to 2002)
They studied 4,700 public companies, breaking down the data into three periods:
- The three years before a recession
- The three years after
- And the recession years themselves.[8]
It took the researchers over 12-months to complete the research and they focused on publicly traded companies because of the availability and access to data.
Here are some of the strategic insights from the research…
17 percent of the companies in the study didn’t survive their respective recession.
About 80 percent of 4,700 companies in the study (3,760 companies) had not yet regained their pre-recession growth rate for sales and profits three years after the recession.
40 percent of the 4,700 companies (1,880 companies) hadn’t even returned to their prerecession sales and profits levels by the end of the three years post-recession.
For the majority of the companies – the financial impact of the recession were long-lasting.
Only 9 percent of companies flourished after a slowdown and did better than they had before and outperformed rivals in their industry.
Interestingly — companies that cut costs faster and deeper than their competitors didn’t flourish.
In fact – these were the companies in the study with the LOWEST probability — 21 percent — of pulling ahead of their competition when the economy rebounded.
Counterintuitively — the company leaders that decided to double down and boldly invest more than their rivals during a recession also didn’t fare well.
They only enjoyed a 26 percent chance of becoming leaders after a downturn and then into an economic rebound.
And most surprising to me when I studied the research was learning that 85 percent of growth leaders heading into a recession were toppled because of the crisis.
So if you’re not currently the leader in your niche – then right NOW could absolutely be your perfect opportunity if you lead your team correctly, plant your flag of authority, and be the expert your clients, prospects, and audience need you to be.
The post-recession winners were companies that mastered the art of making progression decisions and balancing cutting costs to survive AND investing to grow tomorrow.
And the proof is in the results with 37 percent of the post-recession winners breaking away from the pack.
“The post—recession winners were the companies that cut costs selectively by focusing on increasing operational efficiency — meanwhile — they invested relatively comprehensively in the future by spending on marketing, R&D, and new assets. This is the best antidote to a recession.”[9]
The researchers called the segment of companies that had taken this strategic approach, “Progressive.”
Okay — so let’s define that a little further.
Progressive companies deploy the optimal combination of defense and offense.
Conversely — the “prevention-focused companies” in the study were the ones whose leaders quickly implemented policies that reduced operating costs, shrunk discretionary expenditures, eliminated frills, lowered headcount, and preserved cash. They also postponed making new investments in R&D, developing new businesses, or buying assets such as plants and machinery to expand their capacity.
Prevention-focused leaders cut back on almost every item of cost and investment and reduce expenditures significantly more than competitors.
Focusing solely on cost—cutting causes executives and employees to approach every decision through a loss—minimizing lens and pessimism permeates the organization.
Prevention-focused companies did exactly what Brett Gilliland, CEO of Elite Entrepreneurs, warned us against back in Episode 929 when he shared the lessons around flee, fight — and the most harmful to business owners — and that’s freezing and doing nothing.
Prevention-focused companies were the ones that suffered the most during the recession – and – took the longest to recover. Or – never recovered to their pre-recession levels for sales and profit.
So let’s flip that — is doubling down on promotion the right strategy…right now?
No – it’s not that simple.
When companies in the study focused purely on promotion — essentially having the mindset of we’re going to advertise our way out of the crisis by just shouting more often that our customers need our stuff — it developed a culture of optimism that led companies to deny the gravity of a crisis for a long time.
They ignored early warning signs, such as customer’s budget cuts, and were steadfast in the belief that as long as they innovate, their sales and profits will continue to rise.
They didn’t notice that because the pie was shrinking and that they must capture an even larger share from rivals to keep growing. And this typically leads to intense price competition and a zero—sum game.
No one wins in a race to the bottom.
However — progressive companies — which is where I’m urging you to begin thinking, Onward Nation — they are the companies that cut costs by improving operational efficiency rather than by slashing the number of employees.
Only 23 percent of progressive companies cut staff — whereas 56% of prevention—focused companies do—and they lay off fewer people.
And the offensive moves by progressive are even comprehensive.
Progressive companies developed new business opportunities by making significantly greater investments than their rivals in R&D and marketing, and they invested in expanding their capacity.
Progressive companies developed new markets and invested to enlarge their asset bases. They took advantage of depressed prices to buy property, equipment, etc.
All of that combined is why the post-recession growth in sales and earnings by the progressive lead companies was the best among the 4,700 within the study.
Okay — let’s do a quick recap of what we have covered so far.
First — by the data — you need to have a plan that involves your entire team – you cannot afford to wing it through any crisis…and definitely not this one.
Second — you need to find ways to stay open to imagination and let it impact your R&D and how you approach doubling down on being helpful to your clients and prospects.
And third — if you want your business to make it through the other side of this crisis…and potentially…be in an even better position than when you entered it…now is the time to be progressive. Yes, reduce your operating expenses to boost efficiency…keep your team intact the best you can…and make investments in your marketing and R&D so you can be even more helpful to your clients, prospects, and audience.
Let’s take the ROI around marketing investments a bit deeper with some data points collected from a study commissioned by the Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI).
“ASI studied 2,662 firms from 1970 – 1991 to determine the effect of marketing on a company during a recession. Firms that marketed during a recession increased in value and got more marketing bang for their investment. In some cases – up to three years after the recession had ended. It seems like common sense – if you market when everyone else stops marketing – your message is more likely to be noticed due to a less cluttered market and your business is more likely to be remembered once your competitors begin marketing again.”
In my opinion, Onward Nation — this NOW’S THE TIME for you not to be silent.
You need to be in front of your clients, prospects, and audience — and yes — that is marketing.
But — not pitchy and salesy.
Focus on helping. Drew McLellan and I mapped out a complete blueprint for how to do this — and how to do it well — in our book, “Sell with Authority.” And if you want a free paperback copy — all you need to do is send me an email at stephen@predictiveroi.com and I will ship you a copy. No shipping fees — nothing. Just let me know you want a copy — and we’ll ship it straight away.
I want you to have a progressive mindset about how to lead your business to the other side of this recession — and — I want you to be very thoughtful about the content you and your team creates and shares.
This is why I also want to share some highlights from a special report from Edelman because the context here will help guide the context of your content.
You can access a full copy of the report from the Edelman website using the link at the bottom of today’s show notes.
Edelman is a global communications firm that partners with businesses and organizations to evolve, promote, and protect their brands and reputations. Edelman employs 6,000 people in more than 60 offices. And they have been studying, researching, reporting on the topic of trust for the last 20—years. Their report has become the standard for excellence on the topic.
Edelman conducted a 12—market study on the critical role brands are expected to play during COVID.
They interviewed 12,000 people in Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, South Africa, South Korea, the UK, and the U.S.
I’m going to walk through a high—level overview of just a handful of key insights…
71 percent said if they perceive that a business is putting profit over people, they will lose trust in that business forever.[10]
84 percent said they want advertising to focus on how brands help people cope with pandemic—related life challenges.[11]
77 percent said they want brands only to speak about products and services in ways that show they are aware of the crisis and the impact on people’s lives.[12]
And the study showed that there’s a deep desire for expertise.
84 percent of respondents globally said that they want businesses to be a reliable news source that keeps people informed. They want to receive this information from multiple sources, in part because they are skeptical about any individual medium given the proliferation of fake news.
Taking that further — 85 percent of respondents want you to be an educator, offering your audience instructional information.
With that said — I’m not suggesting that you play doctor or infectious disease expert.
But what I am recommending is that you pick up the torch and lead the conversations in your niche about the business impact COVID has had — and is having — on your customers, your vendors, your industry as a whole.
And — continue to champion the distribution of resources, research, or anything else you think will be helpful to your community of clients and prospects who are desperately seeking answers.
If you’re on our email list – you likely received updates from me when PPP was first a thing — and then the series of resources, calculators, applications, tax resources, etc. that were all made available shortly thereafter.
Our expertise isn’t in the public health arena – but – we absolutely believed we could be helpful to business owners within our community by sharing resources we have curated.
And you know what? The response from our community was incredible because we shared the right resources, at the right time, with absolutely no expectation of return.
Helping, Onward Nation. Not selling.
The team at Edelman believes that COVID has — and will — fundamentally change how we think, behave, and consume.
Business owners that act in the interest of their employees, clients, prospects, and other stakeholders will reinforce their expertise, leadership, and trust and immeasurably strengthen those bonds.
Your community is looking to you to share your thought leadership and expertise – and you can’t do that by shrinking or by being quiet. They want you to demonstrate your authority.
Don’t be promotional – be helpful. Don’t focus on selling – but be solutions-focused.
NOW’S THE TIME to Double down on sharing your expertise like you never have before.
I assure you…creating an authority position will deliver a financial return on your investment.
Okay – let’s begin to wrap up and come in for a landing by circling back to some additional framing about what makes someone an authority.
Thought leaders don’t write content that anyone else could claim. Thought leaders don’t write about anything and everything. And thought leaders don’t compete on price. And because of COVID, the data from Edelman, the data from our own ROI of Thought Leadership study (we’ll add a link in the show notes so you can download a free copy), and many other relevant sources — I will argue — that NOW’S THE TIME TO DOUBLE DOWN and plant your flag of authority.
Churning out generic content to get ahead in Google rankings may have worked 20 years ago – but it doesn’t work today and it’s not helpful to your audience.
In our book entitled, “Sell with Authority”, Drew and I shared highlights from the 2019 Trust Barometer study from Edelman, a global PR agency, which has conducted the study each year for the last 20—years. It’s a worldwide study with 33,000 consumers participating in 27 countries.
One of the biggest takeaways from the study was that buyers assign a high level of trust to people they believe are just like themselves. When you think about the impact that ratings, reviews, and influencers have with their audiences, you begin to see the power of that belief.
But Edelman’s research isn’t about the celebrity influencer. This study documents the rise of the common man influencer – business owners just like you and me, Onward Nation.
It’s noteworthy because it gives statistical validity to the idea of real people as influencers and the impact they can have on the beliefs around a brand.
The one attribute that ranked higher than the trust we have in people like you and me is the trust we have in highly educated experts. The only three groups of people we trust more than people like ourselves are company, industry, and academic experts.
Experts are afforded the highest level of confidence and trust because they have a depth of knowledge in a specific industry or niche. So why in the world wouldn’t you capitalize on that?
Instead of creating generic content that looks and sounds like everyone else during this crisis – take the opportunity to create thought leadership content that is unique, different, and helpful – not promotional.
A true authority has something specific to teach us, and they want to be helpful or illuminating.
They’re eager to share what they know because they have a genuine passion for it, and they don’t fear giving away the recipe to their secret sauce (or so it’s perceived).
That confidence and generosity are contagious. Their expertise is something specific groups of people (their sweet—spot prospects) are hungry to access.
Call them an expert, a thought leader, an authority, a sought—after pundit, advisor, or specialist. They’re all words for the same thing—a trusted resource that has earned that trust by demonstrating and generously sharing the depth of their specialized knowledge over and over again.
Drew and I would argue that a true authority has a strong point—of—view or belief that influences how they talk about their subject area. A narrow niche, a strong point—of—view, and being findable in multiple places are the hallmarks of an authority position.
And — they have a plan for creating content that is helpful to their niche and not focused on selling.
All of the data points to the validity of leveraging your own thought leadership as your core strategy to proactively market your way through the recession and to make it through to the other side in a stronger position than when all of this happened.
You need a plan, with some imagination, some hard work, progressive ideas, and the willingness to invest your time and attention toward execution.
But if you do that – and your clients, prospects, and audience can see that you are being helpful…when they are ready to enter the market again…you’ll have put yourself in the best possible position for a new trajectory of growth.
Your competitors aren’t doing this hard work. And that should be the most compelling reason why NOW’S THE TIME TO DOUBLE DOWN.
The data is all on your side, Onward Nation.
Okay – whew – was that a lot?
Holy bananas – it sure felt like a lot.
And remember — all of the research sources can be found in the endnotes in today’s show notes on PredictiveROI.com.
As always — I look forward to your feedback. The emails you send me — and your comments on social media — all help us get better every day — so thank you for that Onward Nation and keep them coming.
Thank you for taking the time to listen to this solocast and to make Episode 1,000 that much more special. I’m grateful!
And if you need me — you can reach me directly at Stephen@predictiveroi.com.
That’s my actual Inbox and I read and reply to every email.
Okay, Onward Nation — until our next episode — onward with gusto!
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
[1] “Preparing Your Business for a Post—Pandemic World”, Carsten Lund Pederson and Thomas Ritter, Harvard Business Review, April 10, 2020.
[2] “Preparing Your Business for a Post—Pandemic World”, Carsten Lund Pederson and Thomas Ritter, Harvard Business Review, April 10, 2020.
[3] “Extreme Ownership”, Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, St. Martin’s Press, 2015.
[4] “We Need Imagination Now More Than Ever”, Martin Reeves and Jack Fuller, Harvard Business Review, April 10, 2020.
[5] “We Need Imagination Now More Than Ever”, Martin Reeves and Jack Fuller, Harvard Business Review, April 10, 2020.
[6] “We Need Imagination Now More Than Ever”, Martin Reeves and Jack Fuller, Harvard Business Review, April 10, 2020.
[7] “We Need Imagination Now More Than Ever”, Martin Reeves and Jack Fuller, Harvard Business Review, April 10, 2020.
[8] “Roaring Out of Recession”, Ranjay Gulati, Nitin Nohria, Franz Wohlgezogen, Harvard Business Review, March 3, 2010.
[9] “Roaring Out of Recession”, Ranjay Gulati, Nitin Nohria, Franz Wohlgezogen, Harvard Business Review, March 3, 2010.
[10] “Trust Barometer Special Report: Brand Trust and the Coronavirus Pandemic”, Richard Edelman, Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report, March 30, 2020.
[11] “Trust Barometer Special Report: Brand Trust and the Coronavirus Pandemic”, Richard Edelman, Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report, March 30, 2020.
[12] “Trust Barometer Special Report: Brand Trust and the Coronavirus Pandemic”, Richard Edelman, Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report, March 30, 2020.
Brett Gilliland is Founder and CEO of Elite Entrepreneurs, a company that specializes in giving $1M+ business owners the knowledge, processes, and tools to grow to $10M and beyond. Brett is an expert in organization development, leadership, and strategy and spent 10 years helping Infusionsoft grow from $7M in revenue to over $100M. Brett was involved in the foundational work of Purpose, Values, and Mission at Infusionsoft and facilitated the strategic planning process for many years.
One of Brett’s favorite professional accomplishments is co-creating Infusionsoft’s Elite Forum along with Clate Mask and building the Elite business inside of Infusionsoft. As the leader of the Elite business, Brett has helped hundreds of struggling seven-figure business owners overcome their biggest challenges and achieve new levels of success. He also played a central role in the development of Infusionsoft’s Leadership Model and was serving as the VP of Leadership Development when the decision was made to spin the Elite business out of Infusionsoft. As the new owner of Elite Entrepreneurs, Brett can’t think of anything else he’d rather be doing professionally. When Brett isn’t busy helping $1M+ businesses succeed, he is a family man who enjoys spending time with his beautiful wife, Sharon, and their 8 children.
Join Brett and Casey Graham, from Gravy Solutions, for a free “un-webinar” on April 21st at 3 pm ET/12 pm PT for business owners who are looking for the skills, knowledge, and tools needed to grow to 8 figures in revenue…and beyond.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- Why the big lesson to learn from 2020 is that we always need to be ready to respond to change and adapt to the unknown so that we can continue growing through adversity
- How Brett saw that “small business owners” and “entrepreneurs” approached the challenges of 2020 with very different mindsets and achieved very different results
- Why the outbreak of the global pandemic proved that “the best leaders build the best businesses, and the best businesses win every time, in any situation”
- Why strengthening your relationship with your clients and your team is a powerful strategy for growing through adversity and becoming stronger as a business
- Brett shares how a brick-and-mortar music education business strategically engaged their community and found new ways to connect to a broader audience during the lockdown
- Why offering stability to your team through your leadership is crucial during chaotic times, and why great leaders rise to the challenge
- Why reflecting on the last year is a crucial step to ensure that we keep our gains and don’t lose the progress we’ve made through the difficulties
- How intentionality, structure and processes can help bring your team closer together and help you become more nimble and effective as an organization
- Why adversity can actually make our businesses stronger, and why easy times can cause our “business muscles” to atrophy
- Brett discusses the Elite Ignition program and how it can teach anyone looking to shift from entrepreneur to capable business leader
Resources:
- Learn more about Elite Ignition and how it can help your business continue growing through adversity
- Take the Free Elite Business Health Assessment
- Email Brett and His Team at info@GrowWithElite.com
- Visit the Elite Entrepreneurs Website
- Follow Elite Entrepreneurs on Twitter @EliteEntrepren5
Additional Resources:
- Free Executive Leadership Summary report from Predictive ROI: https://predictiveroi.com/research
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Jonathon Hensley is co-founder and CEO of Emerge, a digital product consulting firm that works with companies to improve operational agility and customer experience. For more than two decades, Jonathon has helped startups, Fortune 100 brands, technology leaders, large regional health networks, non-profit organizations and more, transform their businesses by turning strategy, user needs, and new technologies into valuable digital products and services. Jonathon writes and speaks about his experiences and insights from his career, and regularly hosts in-depth interviews with business leaders and industry insiders. He lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife and two boys.
Originally from Silicon Valley, Jonathon got into the digital product space inspired by the incredible people developing new technologies all around him and the possibilities they unlocked. This fueled his curiosity to understand how technology transforms the ways in which people live and work.
That curiosity continues to drive him today, as he works to help businesses harness technology. His work focuses on helping leaders define the value they want to create in a succinct and tangible way; where to focus, why, and what it will take to achieve that outcome. His favorite part is going beyond the idea and mapping how you bring together people, data, and processes so that clients can succeed.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How growing up in Silicon Valley and with a psychologist mother fueled Jonathon’s fascination for the intersection between human behavior and technology
- How Jonathon defines a Value Ladder, and why success hinges upon understanding the value exchange within your business and the problems you can solve for your customers
- Why your value exchange needs to be perpetual, and how companies like Netflix have used their understanding of the value exchange to innovate new customer experiences
- What five key steps you can take to better understand, define and measure your value exchange, and how you can use that information to supercharge your business strategy
- Why Jonathon believes that everything you do and every product you offer should be in service to your customers
- Why it is critically important to fall in love with the problem, not the solution you’re creating
- How to use a simple design tool called an “empathy mapping” exercise to generate a holistic picture of your customers’ environment and needs
- How a staggering 70-95% of all new products and 75-84% of all digital transformation initiatives fail, and why lack of market fit is the number one reason why
- Why understanding your customer and value exchange is the key to avoiding the dangerous lack of market fit
- Why understanding the scope of your customers’ problems is crucial for accurately pricing your solutions to those problems
Resources:
- Register for a free copy of the book Alignment by Jonathon Hensley
- Visit the Emerge website
- Jonathon’s LinkedIn
- Emerge’s LinkedIn
- Emerge’s Facebook
- Jonathon’s Twitter @jonathonhensley
- Emerge’s Twitter @EmergeInteract
Additional Resources:
- Free Executive Leadership Summary report from Predictive ROI: https://predictiveroi.com/research
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Stephen Woessner is the founder and CEO of Predictive ROI, a digital marketing agency, and the host of Onward Nation — a top-rated daily podcast for learning how today’s top business owners think, act, and achieve. Onward Nation is listened to in 120 countries around the world with over 28,000+ email subscribers.
Since the advent of the commercial Internet, Stephen has collected tens of thousands of data points that have given him the ability to identify what he calls the “8 Money Draining Mistakes” and the “8 Money Making Opportunities.” Darren Hardy, then-publisher of SUCCESS Magazine, interviewed Stephen to discuss how business owners can identify and fix the mistakes.
Stephen served in the United States Air Force, spent six years at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse as a full-time academic staff member and taught digital marketing classes to small business owners throughout the state including the prestigious School of Business at UW-Madison, has owned five businesses, and is the author of three books, “The Small Business Owner’s Handbook to Search Engine Optimization”, “Increase Online Sales Through Viral Social Networking”, and “Profitable Podcasting.”
His digital marketing insights have been featured in Forbes.com, Entrepreneur.com, The Washington Post, and Inc. Magazine.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- Stephen offers a high-level review of the “Sell With Authority” methodology outlined in the book of the same name he co-authored with Drew McLellan
- How the research presented in the Edelman Trust Barometer illustrates that an audience trusts industry experts and people like them more than anyone else
- What four key qualifications serve to make someone a true thought leader, and why each of these qualifications matter when creating your cornerstone content
- The three steps to take to “plant your flag of authority” within your chosen niche and with build trust and credibility with your target audience
- How “cobblestone content” can lead people back to your cornerstone content and down your sales funnel
- How to find the real “golden nuggets” in your cornerstone content that can be sliced and diced into your cobblestone content
- Stephen provides several real-world examples of slicing and dicing content and the power of cobblestone and cornerstone content in thought leadership
- Why a weekly Q&A session can be a fantastic way to connect with your audience, and how content can interconnect and cross-promote to expand your reach
- What other powerful and proven resources, tools and other content Predictive ROI has found useful in reaching out to their audience
- Why low-pressure and no-pressure email content can turn out a surprising number of high-quality leads
Resources:
- The Edelman Trust Barometer: www.edelman.com/trust/2021-trust-barometer
Additional Resources:
- Free Executive Leadership Summary report from Predictive ROI: https://predictiveroi.com/research
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Bryan Adams is the CEO and founder of Ph.Creative, recognized as one of the leading employer brand agencies in the world with clients such as Apple, American Airlines, GVC, and Blizzard Entertainment. Bryan is also a bestselling author, podcaster, creative strategist, and specialist speaker.
He is considered a prominent employer brand thought leader and his creative, unconventional and even controversial methodologies are said to regularly change the way people think about employer branding and EVP.
His presentation style is energetic, passionate, thought-provoking and interactive, so get ready to contribute and engage as he reflects on the importance of employer branding in recruitment.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How a negative experience working for someone else led Bryan to found Ph.Creative, and how he works to redefine the importance of employer branding in recruitment
- How Ph.Creative does things differently by focusing on helping businesses attract great team members rather than attracting new clients
- Why Bryan and his team realized that they needed to niche down to build their brand, plant their flag of expertise, and differentiate their company from their competitors
- How employer branding helps attract top talent to Ph.Creative’s clients, and how the idea of focusing on employer branding helped Bryan define his business’s niche
- Why Bryan realized that firing the clients that weren’t great fits for his team was a morale boost and improved their capacity to serve the clients they really wanted
- Why it is important for your organization to hire not just based on whether someone can do the job, but hire based on whether they also fit your culture
- Why the “harsh realities” of working at your company are how your team can find pride and achievement, and why you shouldn’t try to hide those realities from applicants
- Why much of Ph.Creative’s work lies in educating the market on why their methods are so valuable, and how that translates into thought leadership that is changing the industry
- How Ph.Creative’s “Give and Get” philosophy has served as a cornerstone of the work they do and an anchor point within their fairly narrow niche
- How focusing on marketing to the “smallest viable audience” can allow you to dominate, own and transform your chosen niche
Resources:
- Enter for the chance to win a free copy of G&G Employer Branding book!
- Learn more about Ph.Creative’s services
- Free resources from Ph.Creative
- Bryan’s LinkedIn
- Ph.Creative’s LinkedIn business page
- Visit Ph.Creative on Facebook
- Bryan’s Twitter @Bryan_phc
- Ph.Creative’s Twitter @phcreative
Additional Resources:
- Free Executive Leadership Summary report from Predictive ROI: https://predictiveroi.com/research
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Kim Ades (pronounced add-iss) is the President and Founder of Frame of Mind Coaching™ and JournalEngine™ Software. Recognized as an expert in the area of thought mastery and mental toughness, Kim uses her unique philosophy and quirky coaching style to help business owners and leaders identify their personal blind spots and shift their thinking in order to yield extraordinary results. Author, speaker, entrepreneur, coach, and mom of five, Kim’s claim to fame is teaching her powerful Frame of Mind Coaching process to executives, entrepreneurs, and senior leaders world-wide.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How Kim has demonstrated the importance of building business resilience in her own coaching business by adapting to virtual coaching during the global pandemic
- How the key to developing resilience is by letting go of struggles and leverage opportunities, and why the first step is to stabilize yourself
- How Kim defines resilience, and why taking control of your mindset is an important aspect of resilience
- What three-step process Kim coaches business owners and leaders through to stabilize themselves and become stronger leaders through adversity
- Why Kim is focused on “doing fewer things but doing them extraordinarily well”, and what the process of working with Frame of Mind Coaching looks like
- Why too many clients define their goals but then act in ways completely contrary to getting to those goals, and how Kim helps them realign their actions to their goals
- What major coaching mistakes business owners often make, and why “being empathetic” isn’t the same as being understanding
- Why too often business leaders focus on behaviors rather than on the beliefs that are driving those behaviors
- Why, instead of offering instant solutions, you should work to empower your team to find their own solutions
- Kim offers two questions you should write down and answer that can help you achieve greater clarity on your mindset and help you in building business resilience
Resources:
- Listen to Kim’s previous appearance in Onward Nation Episode 215
- Learn strategies for building business resilience with Kim’s The Frame of Mind Coaching Podcast
- Email Kim@frameofmindcoaching.com
- Visit Kim’s Website for more information on her coaching
- Kim’s LinkedIn
- Frame of Mind Coaching’s LinkedIn
- Frame of Mind Coaching’s Facebook
- Kim’s Twitter @kimades
Additional Resources:
- Free Executive Leadership Summary report from Predictive ROI: https://predictiveroi.com/research
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Mary Shores is an innovative collection agency owner, communication expert, and best-selling author who transforms people’s words to help them fall back in love with their work and their customers. Fifteen years ago, Mary discovered a game-changing formula to connect to your customers and clients. It all started with a Do-Not-Say List and grew into an entire strategy that will fix your relationships and grow your business.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- What big changes Mary has experienced in her business and strategic thinking since her previous appearance in Onward Nation episode 781
- How realizing the power of validation communication transformed Mary’s business and created profound opportunities
- How the myriad challenges of 2020 showed us that transparency is a powerful and vital communication tool that builds brand trust and strengthens relationships
- Why strong transparency is the first step in clearly defining and articulating your strategy to those outside your organization
- Why the way we have been conditioned to speak is opposite to how we can actually create a real connection, and why we must learn to communicate differently
- How neuroscience shows that validation communication is a powerful trust builder, and why validating feelings of the people you’re speaking with matters
- Why the secret recipe of “validate, activate, integrate” can transform your relationships with your customers and anyone you interact with
- How the global pandemic has presented a golden opportunity for Mary to teach other debt collection agencies how to communicate with greater empathy and understanding
- What words appear on Mary’s “Do-Not-Say List” in her debt collection business, and why those particular words are banned
- Why now is the ideal time to experience exponential growth in your business and career through the extraordinary power of collaboration
Resources:
- Website: www.maryshores.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/shoresmary/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/shores-communications/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/shoresmary
- Twitter: @mary_shores
Additional Resources:
- Free Executive Leadership Summary report from Predictive ROI: https://predictiveroi.com/research
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Steve and Lauren are the founders of Home On Your Terms and are based in eastern Connecticut. Steve serves as the company’s Acquisitions Director and loves crafting up creative solutions for sellers, while Lauren works as Sales Director and enjoys helping deserving buyers achieve their goal of home ownership. When not working on their own business, they are mentoring other investors who wish to learn the terms of the niche of real estate.
In their free time, they are with their two young children and two dogs. Steve can also be considered a Cornhole connoisseur, so you may find him outside perfecting his form. Lauren is a huge fan of “The Office,” so she may or may not quote some of her favorite lines while on a call with you.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How Lauren and Steve work to help business owners buy or sell homes through their “terms deals”, and how they’ve brought their background experiences into their work
- Why owning a business and buying a house presents unique challenges that make it harder to qualify for a traditional mortgage, and how terms deals can be the ideal solution
- How terms deals, which have been around since the 1800s, are often an overlooked niche within real estate, and how these deals provide alternate solutions to big problems
- Why a terms deal can help a business owner quickly sell a home and get out from under the obligations to that property, freeing funds that can be put back into the business
- Why a terms deal is the ideal way to sell for someone with little-to-no equity in their home, or for someone who wants or needs greater monthly cash flow
- Why these deals can be a great way to avoid high real estate agent fees and guarantee that you can put the full equity of your home in your pocket
- Why Lauren and Steve specialize in creative solutions to meet the needs of both buyers and sellers, and why flexibility is a key feature of terms deals
- Steve and Lauren walk through the process from start to finish and offer example deals to illustrate how terms deals can result in more money for the seller
- How a part of the buyer process involves a pre-qualification check and a thorough credit repair process if necessary to get them mortgage-ready
- Why Lauren and Steve feel passionately about helping connect buyers and sellers who have unique challenges and finding mutually beneficial solutions
Resources:
- Website: http://homeonyourterms.com/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/homeonyourterms
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/homeonyourterms/
- Twitter: @HomeOnYourTerms
Additional Resources:
- Free Executive Leadership Summary report from Predictive ROI: https://predictiveroi.com/research
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Russ Sorrells’s bio, in his own words:
It all started because I wanted to be a better dad. I was driving home with my kids one day and thought, “Why doesn’t the school system teach kids how to live a happy life?” It dawned on me, “because that’s my job as a parent.” Duh.
From then on, I started teaching daily 5 minute lessons to my kids based on everything I’ve learned over my 5 years as a high-performance coach. At first it was hard to add it to our manic morning routine, but now my kids harass me if they don’t get their daily Lunchbox Lesson.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How Russ has expanded his brick-and-mortar business empire since his previous appearance on Onward Nation back on episode 21
- How Russ created Lunchbox Lessons when he saw there are many life lessons his kids weren’t being taught, and realized school doesn’t prepare us for life in some key ways
- How Russ used his Lunchbox Lessons to teach his kids about things like first puppy love and other life experiences
- How each month’s Lunchbox Lessons deal with overarching themes and shares lessons in bite-sized pieces each day
- How Russ structures his Lunchbox Lessons, and how that same learning structure can be applied to business as well
- How Russ deals with feelings of Imposter Syndrome when sharing these important lessons with his kids, and why his goal is to give them an advantage in life
- What vision Russ has for his Lunchbox Lessons business, and how he hopes to create a cradle-to-grave personal development program discussing key life inflection points
- Why too few people engage in personal development, and why having the right mentors and role models can help you achieve your maximum potential in life
- Why Russ has focused on a particular niche by creating content exclusively for the families that would make use of and benefit from it
- Russ shares the story of a clinician friend who excels at connecting with doctors and patients because he leaves his ego at the door
Resources:
- Russ’s previous visit to Onward Nation in episode 21: https://predictiveroi.com/podcasts/russ-sorrells/
- Website: www.lunchboxlessons.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/russ-sorrells-001391b/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/Lunchbox-Lessons-111552050725699/
Additional Resources:
- Free Executive Leadership Summary report from Predictive ROI: https://predictiveroi.com/research
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Sean Doyle has drilled a deep well of unmatched expertise in helping B2B companies sell more to their most profitable customers. With experience spanning over 25 years and more than 5,000 client engagements.
Sean is CEO and principal at FitzMartin Inc, a leading consultancy focused on sales and marketing and management, sales and marketing technology services, and revenue operations.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How FitzMartin works to take businesses beyond the “awareness” level to a deeper connection with their customers
- Why truly understanding sales funnel stages is about early stages and late stages in the sales cycle.
- What important lessons business owners can learn from the Ford Edsel about the value of brand awareness alone
- How the six stages of the transtheoretical theorem mirror the steps of the typical consumer decision journey, and what key concepts we can draw from the comparison
- How a request from a client who accounted for a huge amount of Sean’s team’s business showed the importance of late-stage marketing
- How today’s technology allows businesses to get super granular and targeted in marketing to prospects and going far beyond the awareness level
- Why too many sales people are in a rush to close deals far too soon rather than allowing a healthy relationship to develop through its later stages
- Why science says that 80% of your prospects will retreat right before pulling the trigger, and what steps you can take to overcome some of the obstacles
- Why there’s a big difference between how customers perceive gated versus ungated content, and what message each sends
- How behavioral science is universal and applies to any situation in which you are trying to help someone make a change, from your personal life to sales prospects
Resources:
- Changing for Good by James O. Prochaska: https://amzn.to/39RXw1I
- Shift by Sean Doyle: https://amzn.to/3aGWG7p
- Free marketing resources discussing the sales funnel stages
- Website: https://fitzmartin.com/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/sean-m-doyle/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fitzmartin/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/fitzmartinmarketing/
- Twitter: @FitzMartinb2b
Additional Resources:
- Free Executive Leadership Summary report from Predictive ROI: https://predictiveroi.com/research
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Bill Coletti is a reputation management, crisis communications, and professional development expert, keynote speaker, Wall Street Journal Risk & Compliance panelist, and best-selling author of Critical Moments: The New Mindset of Reputation Management. He has more than 25 years of global experience managing high-stakes crises, issues management, and media relations challenges for both Fortune 500 companies and winning global political campaigns.
Bill previously co-led the Global Risk Management and Crisis Communications Practice for Hill+Knowlton Strategies. He held senior leadership positions in the firm’s Austin, Texas, Los Angeles and Orlando, Florida offices, as a member of the senior management team.
He provided senior counsel in crisis management, corporate communications, and reputation defense to numerous clients, such as AT&T, Target Corporation, American Airlines, The Home Depot, Xerox, Nuclear Energy Institute, and Cargill, as well major universities and global NGOs. Previously, Bill served in the Republic of Bulgaria as a senior advisor to the prime minister, Council of Ministers, and the labor minister. He was the first executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Bulgaria.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How Bill started his career running political campaigns and then pivoted into helping companies develop crisis management best practices
- How Bill defines a crisis differently from a “day-to-day business challenge”, and how “critical moments” are reputation-impacting issues that companies often struggle with
- How an organization’s reputation is found at the overlap of the public perception of the company and what they expect the company to do next
- How the classic four P’s of marketing (price, product, place and promotion) served as a model for Bill’s four A’s of reputation management
- How Bill’s four A’s process (awareness, assessment, authority and action) can help you navigate the complex challenges of reputation management
- Why and how Bill wrote his book “Critical Moments: The New Mindset of Reputation Management”, and what benefits his company has received from the book’s release
- Bill explains why each of the four A’s is an important step in managing the long-term reputation of your business
- Why it is important to express consistency and authenticity in how your company lives its values, and what lessons can be drawn from the many crises of 2020
- How your reputation is built up over a long, slow period and is rooted in your mission and values, and why there’s no “quick” way to manage your reputation
- Why creating a “reservoir of goodwill” can help you manage crisis situations and the public’s expectations and beliefs about your company
Resources:
- Check out Kith’s new crisis management best practices products and services
- Critical Moments by Bill Coletti: https://amzn.to/2MsyTzV
- Website: https://kith.co/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/billcoletti/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/kith-consulting/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/kithconsult/
- Twitter: @kith_co
Additional Resources:
- Free Executive Leadership Summary report from Predictive ROI: https://predictiveroi.com/research
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Many business owners face significant challenges when it comes to buying or selling a home; because your income comes from your own business, the bank creates serious hurdles to qualifying for a mortgage. And selling a home through a bank comes with its own headaches and costs that can eat into your profits. What can you do?
Brian O’Neill is an entrepreneur who specializes in the real estate “terms” niche, circumventing the banks entirely.
Brian O’Neill was born in New York and moved to Florida at age 5 and spent most of his life there. He attended Florida State University and then at the age of 30 he moved to Chicago. Brian has been there for 17 years now and has a wonderful wife, Katie, who he has been married to for 10 years. They have a 9 year old son named Will. They love spending time together and taking family vacations, just the 3 of them. In his spare time, Brian likes to play golf, read, and play sports with his son.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- Why buying a house as a business owner can be difficult even if you have excellent credit, and why “terms” deals are a great alternative to a bank mortgage loan
- How Brian got involved in real estate investing in an effort to be able to spend more time with his family
- Why Brian fell into the habit of talking himself out of starting his business, and how he finally overcame his own limiting beliefs
- Why having the right mentor and a supportive “inner circle” of connections has been instrumental in Brian’s success as an entrepreneur
- Why feeling stuck is often due to not realizing all the options you have available, and what to do if you have little equity or even if you’re upside down in your current home
- What advantages business owners can get from buying or selling a home through “terms” rather than through a traditional bank mortgage
- How selling a home on terms works, and why it can create monthly income without having to deal with the hassles and headaches of being a landlord
- What kind of deal structure options are available for buying or selling on terms, and what happens if a buyer is unable to buy the home by the end of the terms period
- How terms deals can serve as a great option for homeowners who are significantly behind on their property taxes and at risk of forfeiting their home
- How Brian works to educate buyers and sellers on a different perspective and on other problem-solving options they may not have known about
Resources:
- Phone: (331) 803-8268
- Email: brian@BKWPropertySolutions.com
- Website: www.BKWPropertySolutions.com
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/bkwpropertysolutions/
Additional Resources:
- Free Executive Leadership Summary report from Predictive ROI: https://predictiveroi.com/research
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Conventional wisdom says that you should always be pouring money into an IRA or 401k to plan for your eventual retirement. You’re taking money from yourself today, only to pay yourself back in the future. But what if there’s a better way? Russ Morgan and Joey Mure co-founded Wealth Without Wall Street, a company that teaches business owners to put their money to better use than squirreling it away in stocks, a checking account or traditional retirement account.
The strategies Joey and Russ have developed allow business owners to create lasting wealth and positive cashflow today, setting them up for true wealth in retirement.
Joey Mure’s Bio:
Joey Mure, aka, The Stallion started his career in the mortgage business in 2003. He grew to become a branch manager with one of the Nation’s top mortgage lenders leading 25 loans officers. By 2010 he had achieved national recognition. Despite earning an impressive income he still had significant questions about how to save for the future without having to borrow from banks. How does anyone save aggressively for retirement AND simultaneously pay for automobiles, save for college, weddings, and vacations? In 2010 Joey met Russ, who shared the Infinite Banking Concept and everything changed. IBC allowed Joey to get completely out of debt besides paying off his mortgage, he started saving four times the amount he had previously been saving, and now had a clear plan of how to save for all our life’s expenses without giving up retirement savings. Joey decided to join Russ and cofounded a company called Wealth Without Wall Street. They teach people to stop trading time for money to achieve financial freedom by following the 5 Pillars of Wealth Without Wall Street.
Russ Morgan’s Bio:
Russ Morgan, aka, The Idea Guy, started his career in the financial industry. With 4 years of planning under his belt, Russ was stunned in September of 2008 to see the DOW Jones plummet 800 points. He had no idea that the market could react in such a volatile manner and knew this was something he could never have control over. Russ began a journey that day to passionately understand more about how to take back and gain control over his money, as well as that of his clients. Russ believes that it’s time you stop following conventional planning methods and start thinking for yourself. He enlightens business owners and investors with the knowledge they need to make sound financial decisions. The best path to financial freedom is one that frees you to make decisions that allow your money to grow, allow you to have access to this money, and to protect this money from market swings and tax regulations. Yes, all of this is possible, and Russ thrives on helping people in their journey to reach this financial freedom.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- Why building wealth both inside and outside of your business is the most optimized way to achieve your goals
- How Joey realized that he wasn’t on the right career and wealth-building path and needed to make a change and how Russ helped Joey learn the secrets of efficiently building wealth
- How “wealth without Wall Street” is a money mindset that allows business owners to build wealth without taking all the risk of investing in Wall Street
- Why a checking account is one of the worst places to keep your money, and why your business is one of the best places to invest your money to create long term gains
- Why putting money in an IRA or a 401k is really just deferring cashflow until a later time, and why creating cashflow today is much more important
- Why becoming your own banker and loaning your money back to your business can completely reframe how you view your money
- How life insurance can be used in a way similar to a home equity line of credit, giving you cashflow without lowering in value
- How using your money in your business can offer a powerful payoff by freeing up more time and money for you to grow your business even more
- Why there are many options to invest your money even outside your business that create monthly cashflow
Resources:
- Website: www.wealthwithoutwallstreet.com/onwardnation
- Joey Mure’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/joey-mure-b376824/
- Russ Morgan’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/russ-morgan-72595519/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/wealth-without-wall-street/
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/wealthwithoutwallstreet
- Twitter: @withoutwallst
Additional Resources:
- Free Executive Leadership Summary report from Predictive ROI: https://predictiveroi.com/research
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Business exit plan preparation and adding value to your business What You Will Learn: * How Michelle’s ability to close deals led her to becoming regional vice president at Xerox after just six months at the company * Why 70% of businesses which have been operating for 10 years or longer will go out of business because they haven’t adapted to how consumers buy products and services today * How Michelle dipped her toe into working in franchise development while still working at Xerox, and how she sold 100 franchises in six months * How Michelle transitioned her expertise from selling franchises to selling businesses and helping owners develop a business exit plan * Why many established businesses aren’t salable because they are too dependent upon the business owner * What common mistakes business owners make that can end up hurting their company’s value or salability down the road * Why preparing your business for sale requires you to ensure that six P’s are in place: people, product, processes, proprietary, patrons and profits * What important lessons can be learned from explosive brands like Amazon, McDonalds and Apple that can be applied to businesses of any industry and size * What surprising systems, relationships and other assets add value to your company and make it more attractive to potential buyers * Why profits are never the problem hurting your company’s value but are a symptom of the real problems
Business exit plan preparation and adding value to your business Failure to prepare for your eventual exit from your company is a common mistake. This poor planning makes it much more difficult to sell your business when you’re ready to leave, and it has a negative impact on the value of your company when you do eventually sell. In this episode of Onward Nation, business buying, growing, fixing and selling authority Michelle Seiler Tucker shares tips, strategies and actionable steps to help you prepare a business exit plan that will add value to your company now and get it ready for sale in the future.
The importance of a solid business exit plan Here’s a surprising and troubling statistic for you: 70% of businesses that have been operating for 10 years or longer will go out of business, either because they haven’t taken steps to adapt to consumers’ modern shopping habits, or because they have failed to take the steps necessary to get the business ready for sale.
Most business owners plan on eventually exiting their business, either by transferring ownership to a family member or through selling the business at retirement. However, if you wait until you’re ready to leave the business to begin getting it ready for sale, you’re going to have a lot of uphill work to do. Instead, Michelle suggests you begin creating a business exit plan now, so that you’re able to “exit rich” when the time comes.
According to Michelle, there are “six P’s” that determine how valuable a business is to potential buyers:
- People
- Products
- Processes
- Proprietary assets
- Patrons
- Profits
Getting those six P’s in order is crucial for ensuring that your business is saleable. As Michelle explained, a dentist who owns a dental practice but is the only dentist in the practice is going to have a difficult time exiting and selling the business, because the dentist is the business. So, the dentist would need to add people, in this case other dentists, to the business to make it more attractive to buyers.
Look to big brands for inspiration Michelle says that companies like McDonalds and Amazon have a lot to teach owners of businesses of any size or industry about creating a successful business exit plan and how to add value to a business to make it more attractive at sale. For example, McDonald’s isn’t really a fast food chain; it’s a $30 billion real estate company. McDonald’s isn’t in the business of selling hamburgers. The company’s real business is owning real estate that it leases to franchisees.
Amazon started out as an online bookstore. But as Michelle explained, the company realized it excelled in fulfilment, and when it leaned into that strength and branched out beyond books, Amazon became one of the most valuable companies in the world. By asking yourself the right questions, leaning into your strengths, and getting the six P’s in place today, you can make your business much more valuable and attractive to potential buyers in the future.
About Michelle Seiler Tucker Michelle Seiler Tucker is the Founder and CEO of Seiler Tucker Incorporated. As a 20-year veteran in mergers & acquisitions, Michelle has sold hundreds of businesses. She owns and operates several successful companies and holds the following professional designations and certifications: Merger & Acquisition Master Intermediary (M&AMI), Certified Senior Business Analyst (CSBA), Certified Mergers & Acquisitions Professional (CM&AP) Certified Business Broker (CBB), Panelist for M&A Source, Keynote Speaker. Michelle is also the Best-Selling Author of the book Sell Your Business for More than It’s Worth, and her latest book Exit Rich is available now for purchase.
In addition to being featured in INC, Forbes, and USA Magazine, Michelle makes regular radio and TV appearances on Fox Business News and CNBC. She has spoken alongside many prominent speakers: Eric Trump, Kathy Ireland, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Donna Karen, Stedman Graham, Randi Zuckerberg, Steve Wozniak, and more. Michelle also shares her wealth of experience with perspective M&A advisors by conducting multiple training, mentoring, and partnering programs. Over the years, these programs have helped many individuals become successful M&A advisors and business brokers.
Recognized as the leading authority on buying, selling, fixing, and growing businesses, Michelle sees opportunity where many are discouraged or have given up. Her passion is to save businesses that might otherwise close. By identifying and correcting the top mistakes business owners make, Michelle will fine-tune a business into a well-oiled machine. Sometimes investing her own money to help owners build their business, Michelle’s primary objective is to sell for huge profits.
Michelle Seiler Tucker’s remarkable track record proves her dedication to her clients and has solidified her as a formidable force in her industry. She closes nearly 98% of all written offers and, on average, obtains 20-40% above asking price for her clients. Through this process, she empowers her clients to afford the lifestyles they have always dreamed of and, most importantly, deserve!
How to Connect with Michelle Seiler Tucker: * Text “Michelle” to (888) 526-5750 * Website: www.seilertucker.com * Read Michelle’s business exit plan book “Exit Rich”, releasing Jan. 26, 2021 * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/michelleseiler/ * Facebook: www.facebook.com/michele.seilertucker * Twitter: @MichelleSeilerT
Additional Resources: * Free Executive Leadership Summary report from Predictive ROI: https://predictiveroi.com/research * Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13 * Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/ * Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Develop resilience and don’t rush out of your discomfort What You Will Learn: * How the chaos of 2020 impacted Anese and her team, and how they learned to develop resilience and were able to pivot the business to adjust to change * What important lessons Anese has learned from navigating the unprecedented challenges of the past year, and why she believes the work is never “done” * What steps you can take to help your team develop resilience and adapt to the challenges you are facing * Why Anese challenged herself and her team to decide who they want to become in the new year, and why part of Anese’s resilience is in how she wants the pandemic to “serve her becoming” * Why the pandemic has created a universal shared experience and an opportunity for all of us to consider who we want to become as we navigate these challenges * How Anese and her team spent three months in spring 2020 doubling down on their efforts to be helpful, and how that helped create clarity for the rest of the year and 2021 * Why Anese believes being “responsible” and being “response-able” are two very different things with different kinds of energy * How D.E.N.T. (Do what you can, Engage with a full heart, Now, Trust) is a powerful acronym that helps guide and motivate Anese * How Anese and her team use D.E.N.T. to make an impact on the struggle of food insecurity that many people face * How Anese realized that decreasing their prices during the pandemic wasn’t the right move to make, and how instead she focused on adding value and being helpful * Why it is important to not rush out of your discomfort but instead to fully experience your discomfort and the range of feelings that come with it
Develop resilience and don’t rush out of your discomfort The reality is that 2020 was an exceptionally challenging year for businesses and agencies of all kinds — and we enter 2021 with no certain idea of what challenges the new year will bring. However, attempting to rush out of the discomfort we have felt through the last year can cause us to miss the important lessons the challenges we tackled can teach us. Instead, it is important to reflect, learn, and develop resilience to help us prepare for the coming year. In this episode of Onward Nation, encore guest Anese Cavanaugh shares how she and her team learned to develop resilience, and how doubling down on their efforts to be helpful are better positioning them for 2021.
Develop resilience to face the future Think of resilience as armor to protect your business against uncertainty. When you develop resilience, you are better able to persevere through times of hardship and adapt to the unexpected. It is a trait that can be learned, practiced and mastered just like many other business skills. A big part of learning to develop resilience lies in taking the time to feel your discomfort and reflect on your experiences. 2020 was a difficult year for all of us, and it is important to acknowledge this fact and reflect on the trails we faced and the storms we weathered. It also offers us a chance to take stock of what worked and what didn’t, as well as to identify new opportunities presented to us even in the midst of the chaos.
Why the right mindset can help you overcome obstacles Anese’s business has been primarily focused on speaking engagements and hosting leadership events, and the outbreak of the global pandemic meant many of the ways Anese engages her audience weren’t available in 2020 due to social distancing. However, Anese and her team spent three months in the spring focusing on how they could be more helpful, choosing to add value rather than to lower their prices. This important period of reflection and dedication to doubling down allowed Anese’s team to make a big shift to virtual offerings.
Though they didn’t end 2020 where they thought they would, they were much better positioned for a strong 2021 than they would have been had they gone into “survival mode”. Their efforts to develop resilience and focus on being helpful paid off, and the team has a much stronger and more unified focus for the coming year. Anese demonstrates that resilience and the right mindset can help you and your team weather difficult times and emerge from the global pandemic stronger than before.
About Anese Cavanaugh Anese Cavanaugh is devoted to helping people show up and bring their best selves to the table in order to create a significant positive impact in their lives. She is the creator of the IEP Method® (Intentional Energetic Presence®), an advisor and thinking partner to leaders and organizations around the world, and author of CONTAGIOUS CULTURE: Show Up, Set the Tone, and Intentionally Create an Organization That Thrives.
Top innovators and executives in companies like IDEO, Zingerman’s, GM Financial, Vistaprint, 15Five, Fitbit, Nike, Kaiser Permanente, and others have engaged with Anese to strengthen team health, unlock leadership potential, optimize company culture, and maximize impact.
How to Connect with Anese Cavanaugh: * Contagious You by Anese Cavanaugh: https://amzn.to/2Xm1F72 * Website: www.anesecavanaugh.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/anesecavanaugh/ * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/dare-to-engage-inc./about/ * Facebook: www.facebook.com/IEPMethod * Twitter: @AneseCavanaugh
Additional Resources: * Free Executive Leadership Summary report from Predictive ROI: https://predictiveroi.com/research * Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13 * Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/ * Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Niche down your business to create opportunity What You Will Learn: * How Parker’s unique career path and experiences led to his role at Evolved Finance, and why taking the leap was one of the best decisions Parker ever made * Why Evolved chose to niche down and focus on serving the financial services needs of thought leaders, and how that focus has led to their busiest year ever * How working with thought leaders, coaches and influencers differs from working with other types of business professionals * How Evolved has been able niche down and streamline their efforts on their clients’ behalf to “do less but charge more” * How Evolved will reconcile over $100 million in revenue in the thought leadership space by the end of 2020, demonstrating the value of their decision to niche down * How the majority of Evolved’s clients are having booming years in spite of the global pandemic, and why focusing on this niche has helped Evolved grow even during the crisis * Parker shares a case study of how Evolved was able to help a client niche down and become more operationally efficient, and why it made a powerful impact on her business * Why almost every one of Evolved’s clients have found benefits from their efforts to niche down, regardless of their business size * Why building out processes and systems and standardizing procedures is the key to maximizing the benefits of niching down
Niche Down Your Business to Create Opportunity As we’ve discussed many times before on Onward Nation, taking steps to niche down your business and focus on a specific audience — rather than limiting your opportunities as you might expect — opens new doors by helping you plant your flag of authority and becoming a trusted expert within your niche. It allows you to differentiate your business and to compete on value rather than joining the race to the bottom on price. And in this week’s episode of Onward Nation, you’ll hear a perfect example of how tight focus and a dedication to serving a niche can become powerful fuel for your business.
Parker Stevenson is co-owner and Chief Business Officer at Evolved Finance, a bookkeeping firm specializing in helping online coaches, course creators, influencers, and thought leaders to make better business decisions based on solid financial data. This decision to narrowly focus on thought leaders didn’t come lightly, but doing so has made a profound impact on the business and its growth.
Niche down and plant your flag The decision to focus on thought leaders, content creators and online influencers wasn’t made hastily — and Parker says the team was initially apprehensive. What if narrowing their focus meant losing business? Were they making the wrong decision? Despite their worries, the data backed up their conclusion. According to this article from Forbes, e-learning is set to become a $325 billion industry by 2025 — that’s nearly a billion dollars per day.
Working with clients within such a fast-growing segment made sense on paper, so the team decided to go for it — and the decision to focus and niche down paid off. According to Parker, Evolved has had their most successful year and most new clients ever in 2020… even in the midst of the global pandemic. By narrowly focusing on their target audience, the team at Evolved Finance were able to establish their authority and prove their expertise working with that particular type of client. And the result is that Evolved will reconcile over $100 million in client revenue in the thought leadership space by the end of 2020. Not only that, but Parker says it has allowed Evolved to “do less and charge more” by truly specializing in doing a few things better than anyone else.
Even their clients who niche down are seeing the benefits Parker explained that even Evolved’s clients are discovering the value of niching down. Parker shared a case study of a client who was doing decent enough business but was struggling to juggle 15 different revenue streams at once. This lack of focus was eating away at her company’s resources… and her time. After encouragement from Parker’s team, she shifted to offering only one awesome product and selling it well, rather than spreading her efforts across many different products and services. That streamlining helped her turn a moderately successful but unfocused business into a rapidly growing and highly profitable multi-million dollar organization — proving that it’s better to niche down and master just a few things than to be a jack of all trades.
About Parker Stevenson Parker Stevenson is a co-owner and the Chief Business Officer at Evolved Finance; a bookkeeping agency that specializes in helping online entrepreneurs to build more profitable and financially stable online businesses. For over 6 years, Parker has been advising some of the top coaches, course creators, influencers, and thought leaders on how to make more sound business decisions using their financial data. Before joining Evolved Finance, Parker spent five years at Adidas America where he became the US product manager for golf footwear.
How to Connect with Parker Stevenson: * Website: www.evolvedfinance.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/parkerstevenson/ * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/evolved-finance/ * Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/evolvedfinance * Twitter: @evolvedfinance
Additional Resources: * Forbes report on the financial impact of e-learning: https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2018/07/31/e-learning-climbing-to-325-billion-by-2025-uf-canvas-absorb-schoology-moodle/?sh=5550f1283b39 * Free Executive Leadership Summary report from Predictive ROI: https://predictiveroi.com/research * Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13 * Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/ * Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Use Thought Leadership Content to Niche Down What You Will Learn: * How Tim’s career started as a successful journalist before breaking into thought leadership content and marketing * How Tim defines low-quality content, and why good content feels specific, narrowly focused, and personal to the target audience * Why Tim and the team at Layup Content decided to only focus on the financial services and fintech industries * How niching down and keeping a tight focus has helped Tim build his business and reach his ideal clients * Why Tim believes his focus on the financial services and fintech niches has made it easier to get referrals from existing clients based on his depth of expertise * How Tim started in thought leadership content with a book, and how the book led to other projects and opportunities * Why it is important for your content to stay on voice and reflect who you are and what you truly believe * How Tim coaches his clients to understand what unique voice they have to share, and what key skills business owners need to master to become great thought leaders * What critical lesson Tim learned from a past mentor that made a lasting impression that still resonates in Tim’s business today * Why Tim believes creative work comes down to having a plan and knowing where you want to go, and then executing on your plan
Niching Down with Thought Leadership Content Maintaining a tight focus on a specific niche, rather than limiting your opportunities as you might expect, actually has the opposite effect — often opening new doors to opportunity by allowing you to demonstrate your expertise within your chosen niche. Tim Sprinkle knows this lesson well — he is the founder and Chief Strategist of Layup Content, a thought leadership and content marketing agency that specifically focuses on the financial services and fintech industries. Tim has leveraged his expertise and experience into a powerful platform for creating thought leadership content for his specific audience. The effect on his business has been profound. In this episode of Onward Nation, Tim shares how creating the right thought leadership content for the financial services and fintech niches has helped him reach his ideal clients and build out his business.
Thought leadership content: Where do you start? The path to becoming a thought leader can feel overwhelming. Where do you start? What is your niche? Are you smart enough? But I have found most people can get started down the path with minimal effort if they can learn to start creating the right content.
Thought leadership content comes in many, many different forms, but, the best content has a few things in common.
1) It is focused. After all, you can’t be a thought leader in everything.
2) It is deep. This is why books, research projects, and podcasts are popular places to start.
3) You are prepared to back them up with more. One piece of deep work isn’t enough. Writing a book may feel like you just ran a marathon, but the book is only the start.
Tim Sprinkle spent more than 20 years in journalism, working for prestigious outlets like Yahoo Finance and Seeking Alpha. However, Tim’s first foray into thought leadership came from his book “Screw the Valley: A Coast-to-Coast Tour of America’s New Tech Startup Culture”, where he discussed how tech startups are abandoning the insular nature of Silicon Valley and finding tremendous opportunities for innovation all across America.
That book became Tim’s cornerstone thought leadership content and an opportunity to slice, dice, and remix his wisdom. According to Tim, the book also opened many new opportunities to further his thought leadership and became a powerful driving force behind his business. But the book isn’t where Tim stopped.
He KEPT writing great content on his specific focus for years to PROVE that he owned his position as a thought leader.
The power of focusing on a niche By maintaining a focus on his specific niche of the financial services and fintech sector, Tim was able to build a deep level of understanding and expertise in the space. In short, he planted his flag of authority, and in doing so Tim has been able to get referrals from existing clients specifically because he positioned himself as an expert within that space.
Tim works hard to ensure that his thought leadership content is tightly focused and reflects his unique voice, drawing from his depth of experience. In doing so, Tim is able to ensure that the thought leadership content he creates adds tremendous value for his audience.
That, in turn, keeps his audience coming back for more and acts as rocket fuel for his business.
About Tim Sprinkle Tim Sprinkle is the founder and Chief Strategist of Layup Content, a thought leadership and content marketing agency for the financial services and fintech industries. Before that, he spent 20+ years in journalism, working for outlets and publications like Yahoo Finance and Seeking Alpha, while writing on a freelance basis from some of the largest media brands in the world covering everything from business and finance to outdoor sports.
Tim is the author of “Screw the Valley: A Coast to Coast Tour of America’s New Startup Landscape” and is laser-focused on bringing quality, thoughtful content to the world.
How to Connect with Tim Sprinkle: * Website: www.layupcontent.com * Book: http://wearelayup-6521606.hs-sites.com/screw-the-valley-blueprints * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/timsprinkle/ * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/layupcontent/ * Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/layupcontent/ * Twitter: @timsprinkle * Twitter: @WeAreLayup
Additional Resources: * Free Executive Leadership Summary report from Predictive ROI: https://predictiveroi.com/research * Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13 * Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/ * Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Increasing Sales Through the Trojan Horse Strategy What You Will Learn: * Why podcasting is like a Trojan Horse strategy for business * 3 steps for planting your Flag of Authority * Creative ideas for repurposing your podcast * What are the vital metrics we should pay attention to * SEO and Email list building strategies * How to turn your podcast into YouTube videos, weekly newsletters, and a book * How many loyal fans you need * Ideas to help treat your podcast guests like VIPs
Increasing sales through the Trojan Horse strategy In the spirit of the holiday season…my hope is…you, your family and friends, your team, your clients, and all of the people in your community — were able to tap the breaks…to pause…to reflect…and yes, that even during this time of pandemic…and give thanks.
Through all of this — all of the challenges that 2020 represents — and I hear you — it’s a long list — there are some silver linings for your business. You may feel like you are being forced to pivot to survive — and through that — you find a completely new service offering for your clients. Or — you may have needed to restructure your team from full-time employees to having some amazing freelancers ready to rock whatever project you send their way.
Or — maybe through all of the chaos — you have identified topics and lessons your audience needs in order to grow and be better at what they do every day. And you know — deep in your soul — you are just the person to deliver that level of awesomeness.
So as you work hard to close out 2020 and dare to dream about what 2021 might look like — I’m sharing a different twist on a solocast with you to help.
I was recently interviewed by Billy Samoa Saleebey for his podcast entitled, “For the Love of Podcast”. And Billy asked a series of excellent questions that can serve as some foundational elements as you work through your plan for 2021. So as you hear Billy ask me the question…my hope is…you will take notes of what he asked…and then ask yourself the same questions. If you do that — it will help you build a solid plan for 2021.
Also — Billy asked me to map out more detail behind how the Trojan Horse strategy works — you’ll find some real behind the curtain stuff here — as well as how to plant your flag of authority, slice and dice your content into smaller cobblestones, and build out your sales funnels.
The power of the Trojan Horse strategy Thought leadership is a powerful way to connect with your ideal client prospects — through the Trojan Horse strategy. And — a podcast is the ideal vehicle for this strategy. It gives you the chance to plant your flag of authority and invite ideal potential clients to speak on your show — creating a non-transactional relationship with them that can be nurtured over time — without “selling” to them in the traditional sense. When used the right way — the Trojan Horse strategy allows you to organically build a relationship of trust and mutual respect with your Dream 25 — your 25 right-fit clients. Much like the ancient Greeks used the original Trojan Horse to sneak into Troy without alerting the guards — the Trojan Horse of Sales allows you to get past the “sales wall” and build powerful inroads with prospects.
Getting ready for 2021 With 2020 drawing to a close — plus the news of the development of successful vaccines against the global pandemic — 2021 is looking to be much brighter. And — the businesses that will come roaring out of our current crisis are the ones who are well prepared — and ready to take bold action. Now is the time to create a rock solid plan for the coming year. The Trojan Horse strategy can help you connect with your ideal clients — but it’s only the foot in the door. That’s why slicing and dicing your content — so that you can plant your flag of authority and demonstrate that you’re always ready to be helpful for your clients — is so crucial. As you plan for 2021 — I hope you find my conversation with Billy Samoa Saleebey helpful!
About Stephen Woessner Stephen Woessner is the founder and CEO of Predictive ROI, a digital marketing agency, and the host of Onward Nation — a top-rated daily podcast for learning how today’s top business owners think, act, and achieve. Onward Nation is listened to in 120 countries around the world with over 28,000+ email subscribers.
Since the advent of the commercial Internet, Stephen has collected tens of thousands of data points that have given him the ability to identify what he calls the “8 Money Draining Mistakes” and the “8 Money Making Opportunities.” Darren Hardy, then-publisher of SUCCESS Magazine, interviewed Stephen to discuss how business owners can identify and fix the mistakes.
Stephen served in the United States Air Force, spent six years at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse as a full-time academic staff member and taught digital marketing classes to small business owners throughout the state including the prestigious School of Business at UW-Madison, has owned five businesses, and is the author of three books, “The Small Business Owner’s Handbook to Search Engine Optimization”, “Increase Online Sales Through Viral Social Networking”, and “Profitable Podcasting.”
His digital marketing insights have been featured in Forbes.com, Entrepreneur.com, The Washington Post, and Inc. Magazine.
Additional Resources: * Free Executive Leadership Summary report from Predictive ROI: https://predictiveroi.com/research * Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13 * Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/ * Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Inspiring Trust by Owning Your Mess What You Will Learn: * How Scott’s varied career path taught him key lessons about humility in leadership that served as the backbone of his newest bestselling book * Why Scott titled his book “Management Mess”, and why he wanted to write a different kind of leadership book that teaches people to own their mess * Why Scott’s eagerness to talk about his own struggles and to demonstrate vulnerability and humility are key pieces of his book * Why humility in leadership can be a powerful trait for any business leader, allowing you to focus on what is right rather than your desire to be right * Why Scott believes “trustworthy leaders declare their intent”, building trust and creating clarity through their behavior * How to offer a genuine apology that builds trust, doesn’t make excuses, and demonstrates that you recognize the mistake you’ve made and what you need to do to correct it * Why leaders are responsible for the culture they create in their business, and how Scott defines “coaching continuously” * Why a leader’s job is to build capability in their team members, and why continuous coaching is a powerful way to show that you love your people * Why whether your team members stay or leave after the pandemic will be determined by how you treat them during the crisis * Why a great leader makes commitments they can promise and keeps the commitments they make, and why it takes courage to say no
Inspiring Trust by Owning Your Mess Humility is a difficult trait to demonstrate, because many people equate showing vulnerability to showing weakness. However, humility in leadership can be a powerful part of your company culture, because it can build trust and can open the door for your employees to express their own vulnerability. Scott Miller is a 25-year associate of FranklinCovey and serves as the executive vice president of thought leadership, as well as being a bestselling author and the host of the world’s largest and fastest growing podcast devoted to leadership development, On Leadership. Scott recently appeared as a guest on the Onward Nation podcast, where he discussed how showing humility in leadership can build trust, empower your employees, and become a key part of your company’s culture.
Showing humility in leadership Mirriam-Webster defines humility as: “freedom from pride or arrogance, the quality or state of being humble”. As Scott Miller defines it, humility in leadership means “owning your mess” and recognizing that you sometimes make mistakes. Humility is an important component of trust, whether with your clients or with your internal team members. When you make a mistake, Scott says it is important to apologize in the right way and use the right language. It means letting your guard down, not trying to protect yourself or make excuses, and being clear in how you will change your behavior going forward. Showing humility can be uncomfortable, but your authenticity goes a long way in repairing hurt relationships and can show that your word can be relied on. Because your team looks to you as their leader to set the culture of your company, this level of trust can have a ripple effect throughout your organization.
Continuous coaching Part of showing humility in leadership is in coaching continuously, and in the right way. It’s about being clear in your expectations, praising your team when they achieve their goals, and reinforcing positive behaviors. You shouldn’t wait until there’s a problem; instead, you should always be coaching your team. Your leadership guides your team, and continuous coaching can help motivate your team to big wins while identifying areas where you can improve. Coaching should be an ongoing, interactive process that strengthens your culture and the effectiveness of everyone on the team.
About Scott Miller Scott Miller is a 25-year associate of FranklinCovey and serves as the executive vice president of thought leadership. Scott hosts the world’s largest and fastest growing podcast/newsletter devoted to leadership development, On Leadership. Additionally, Scott is the author of the multi-week Amazon #1 New Release, Management Mess to Leadership Success: 30 Challenges to Become the Leader You Would Follow, and the Wall Street Journal best-seller, Everyone Deserves a Great Manager: The 6 Critical Practices for Leading a Team. Previously, Scott worked for the Disney Development Company and grew up in Central Florida. He lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, with his wife and three sons.
How to Connect with Scott Miller: * Read Scott’s book Management Mess to Leadership Success, which discusses how to show humility in leadership by owning your mess * Website: www.franklincovey.com/ * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/scottmillerj1/ * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/franklincovey/ * Facebook: www.facebook.com/scottmillerj1 * Facebook: www.facebook.com/FranklinCovey/ * Twitter: @scottmillerj1 * Twitter: @franklincovey
Additional Resources: * Free Executive Leadership Summary report from Predictive ROI: https://predictiveroi.com/research * Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13 * Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/ * Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
How to engage employees, strengthen culture and thrive in tough times What You Will Learn: * How Chad realized the importance of a strong company culture, and how that realization became the backbone of his blueprint for how to engage employees more effectively * Why a company’s culture is the key to creating an environment that sets employees up for success and helps companies produce the results they want * Why it is vital to double down on your culture and on your team, especially during the challenges of the global pandemic * Why the key to employee engagement is committing to your culture and then creating a shared experience that allows team members to buy in * Why culture starts with the business owner setting the direction for the company and ensuring that everyone on the team understands the destination * How to create clarity and unity of purpose within your team, even though everyone sees things from their own perspective * Why Chad believes the challenge for leaders is that they often spend so much time looking forward that they forget to look back * Why it is critically important for business owners to communicate their expectations clearly and unambiguously to their teams * How business owners and leaders often overestimate what they can accomplish in 12 months but underestimate what they can achieve in three years * Why it is important for leaders to call regular time-outs to question the team’s clarity, alignment and purpose
How to engage employees, strengthen culture and thrive in tough times Getting your employees truly engaged in your work and all moving in the same direction can be a challenging task in the best of times, but during crisis periods like the global pandemic, engagement is both more important and more complicated than ever. Chad Carden is the co-founder of Renzo Consulting, and Chad “is on a life mission to improve the way employers and employees interact to create greater engagement and better results.” During Chad’s visit to Onward Nation, he discussed the crucial role engagement plays in keeping everyone aligned to the company’s values and mission, and he shares tips and strategies for how to engage employees, motivate your team, and provide clarity on your expectations so that everyone is moving in the same direction with a shared purpose.
How to engage employees the right way Nailing down how to engage employees can be one of the more common challenges entrepreneurs and business leaders face. You are already passionate about your company and your work, but how do you ensure that your team shares your passion? For expert Chad Carden, it starts with establishing a company culture that supports the team and offers everyone the opportunity to do their best work. The business owner and leadership team must set the direction for the organization and then ensure that their goals, values and expectations are clearly communicated. Even though everyone brings their own vision and perspective to your team, the map they follow and the destination they move toward must be in alignment, and that comes down to leadership giving clear direction and expectations.
Taking frequent timeouts By setting a culture that creates an environment focused on employee success, you empower your team to get results. By being clear in your goals and expectations, you allow your employees to chart their own success and focus on moving the needle. Especially when things get tough, the clarity you offer is the key ingredient in how to engage employees in your shared vision for the organization. But your culture isn’t set-it-and-forget-it; Chad says it is important to regularly take “timeouts” to question where your company is, evaluate what’s working and what isn’t, and refocus your team’s alignment. As we’ve seen during the global pandemic, things can change quickly and it is important to identify and adapt to these changes strategically.
About Chad Carden The Architect Of People, Chad Carden is on a life mission to improve the way employers and employees interact to create greater engagement and better results. His results-oriented, no-bull style helps people change the way they approach their daily environment. He has been studying and working with companies to improve their number one asset — their people — for over 19 years. He challenges clients to reach outside their comfort zone to achieve heights they’ve never imagined.
Chad's high energy and passion are engaging and infectious! He is a straight shooter and understands that business today is all about building even stronger relationships with the people you work with and serve.
During his 19 plus years, Chad has been fortunate enough to travel the globe working within all levels of organizations of all different sizes. Fortune 100 companies have sought out Chad’s assistance to discover where they want to be, to help create a plan to get there, and to issue a challenge to implement for real results.
Chad has had the privilege of being invited to the White House to discuss how to impact today’s small businesses, and is an accomplished author of two books, Winning The Money Game and P.E.P.P. He has also consulted, and sold products and services in over 40 countries and his work has been translated in over 15 languages.
He continues his vision of providing people and organizations a personalized formula for better employee engagement and positive progress.
How to Connect with Chad Carden: * The Aligned Leader – Virtual Leadership Program: www.renzoprograms.com * Website: www.renzoexperience.com * Reach out to Chad and his team to learn how they can teach you how to engage employees more effectively * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chadcarden/ * Facebook: www.facebook.com/renzoexperience/ * Twitter: @chadcarden
Additional Resources: * Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13 * Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/ * Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Avoiding business mistakes using the science of decision-making What You Will Learn: * How Dr. Gleb’s family life as a child informed his decision to study the behavioral science of risk-taking and decision-making in his career * How Dr. Gleb’s work lies in helping business owners identify and recognize the negative patterns within their decision-making processes that lead to business mistakes * How the “gut instincts” humans developed during our tribal stage of evolution often conflicts with the decisions we have to make in our modern world * How our tribal instincts sometimes lead us to unfounded cognitive biases that lead us to make decisions that make little sense for our businesses * Why entrepreneurs often lean toward “optimism bias”, and how that optimism bias can negatively impact their decision-making and risk-taking * What steps entrepreneurs can take to avoid making decisions based on optimism bias, and what key five questions you should ask yourself to make decisions more effectively * Why resilience is the key to dealing with the long-term, lasting effects of the global pandemic and the chaos it has brought to business owners * Why the ongoing global pandemic is the “new abnormal”, and why our lives will likely be disrupted for as long as seven years until we’re back to normal again * Why the logistics of the vaccines currently in development mean that even once a vaccine is created it will take a long time to deploy to a critical mass of the population
Avoiding business mistakes using the science of decision-making Believe it or not, cognitive science can help us make better business decisions and avoid costly business mistakes. Dr. Gleb Tsipursky is a behavioral economist and cognitive neuroscientist who is an expert at helping business owners recognize and overcome their internal “cognitive biases”. In this episode of Onward Nation, Dr. Tsipursky explains the science of decision-making and shares how our tribal instincts often lead us to make the wrong “gut decisions”. He outlines a realistic timeline of the global pandemic and shares tips and strategies for better judgment and taking the right risks while avoiding the wrong ones so that your business can navigate the pandemic and come roaring out the other side.
The science of avoiding business mistakes and making better decisions By our nature, most entrepreneurs are predisposed to see things from a more optimistic perspective. While this isn’t inherently a bad thing, it can cause us to take unnecessary risks with our businesses. As Dr. Tsipsurky explains, many of the decisions we make are informed by “cognitive biases”, subconscious thought processes left over from mankind’s early, tribal stage. These gut feelings are often ill-equipped to handle the complexities of modern life, yet we are inclined to “listen to our gut” even when it is leading us in the wrong direction. However, by asking ourselves the right questions, we can avoid the trap of the various kinds of cognitive bias that color our decisions. The five key questions Dr. Tsipsurky shared are:
- What evidence didn’t I take into account, and what information didn’t I consider?
- What dangerous judgment errors might be in play in this situation?
- What would a trusted and objective advisor tell me?
- How have I addressed all the ways this could fail?
- What new information would cause me to change my mind?
The “new abnormal” of the global pandemic One of the most pronounced ways “optimism bias” expresses itself can be seen in how we view the global pandemic. Many people are inclined to hold steady and “wait out” the crisis, but as Dr. Tipsursky explained during the interview, the reality is that the chaos and changes wrought by the pandemic are likely to be with us for a long time. Due to the logistics of developing, storing, deploying and administering a potential vaccine, the challenges we are facing today are very likely to be the “new abnormal” for the next several years. As business leaders, it is important to accept this and begin planning long-term strategy around the new reality of business. While an end to these challenging times is certainly in sight and offers hope for a bright future, businesses must be prepared to navigate the many challenges they face in the meantime. The steps entrepreneurs take today can help their businesses reach the light at the end of the tunnel even stronger than before, but only if we make the right decisions through clarity and intentionality.
How to Connect with Dr. Gleb Tsipursky: * Free 8 video-based module course in decision-making and avoiding business mistakes * Never Go With Your Gut by Dr. Gleb Tsipursky * Resilience by Dr. Gleb Tsipursky * Website: https://disasteravoidanceexperts.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/dr-gleb-tsipursky/ * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/disaster-avoidance-experts/ * Facebook: www.facebook.com/DrGlebTsipursky/ * Twitter: @Gleb_Tsipursky
Additional Resources: * Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13 * Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/ * Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Passive income strategies and building wealth from chaos What You Will Learn: * How Mitch’s real estate business is structured, and why his passive income strategies are durable and flexible enough to succeed during the pandemic * Why Mitch believes wealth comes from chaos, and why focusing on helping people has been the key to excelling during challenging times * How Mitch and his team have adapted to the changes brought about by the pandemic such as people not wanting potentially infectious strangers in their homes * How Mitch learned that fixing the houses he bought was time-consuming and wasn’t really adding value, and why he structures his deals to be the “bank”, not a landlord * How navigating the challenges of the 2008 real estate market crash taught Mitch valuable lessons he is using to get through the global pandemic * Why Mitch made the strategic decision to keep his business in his local San Antonio market rather than expanding outward * How Mitch has structured his business into three different segments: one-time cash events, temporary cash deals, and forever cash deals * How Mitch began coaching others in his method, and how he has built out the coaching side of his business over time * Why Mitch does the investing and coaching work he does beyond just making money, and how his efforts benefit himself, new homeowners, and communities at large
Passive income strategies and building wealth from chaos Even in times of chaos, the right passive income strategies can help you build wealth and grow your business. In this episode of Onward Nation, encore guest Mitch Stephen walks us through the important lessons he learned during the 2008 real estate market crash that have helped him continue to thrive during the global pandemic. Mitch explains why his business model is built to be durable, adaptable, and is focused on helping others. He also shares why he keeps a laser focus on his local market rather than attempting to expand beyond the San Antonio, Texas market.
Passive income strategies in the world of real estate Mitch Stephen has spent decades developing his skills as a real estate investor, and over that career he has learned valuable lessons about earning more by doing less. During the episode, Mitch discussed why he shifted his focus from “fix-and-flip” real estate to simply buying and reselling without doing any repairs or upgrades, and he explains how his passive income strategies have evolved through testing, experimentation, and a willingness to learn from his mistakes. As Mitch explained, the 2008 real estate market crash showed him that investing the time and resources into property repairs wasn’t necessary; at the time, he had so many properties going into foreclosure that he couldn’t fix them all, but he was surprised to realize that even without expensive and time-consuming repairs, his properties were moving quickly. This important lesson shows that it is important to periodically question assumptions about our business models and identify opportunities to streamline the business.
Finding opportunities in chaos The 2008 market crash taught Mitch key skills and the value of being ready to pivot to take advantage of opportunities. These lessons are even more applicable today, during the global pandemic. Mitch began coaching other new investors on the passive income strategies, lessons and skills he developed through trial and error, with the important goal of helping others succeed. Today, his real estate coaching has grown to become a key pillar of Mitch’s business empire, and one of the most important lessons he teaches his students is how to identify opportunities during the tough times. As Mitch explained, challenges such as the global pandemic create unique opportunities for business owners to solve problems for their customers, allowing truly creative businesses to better position themselves within their niches. Being adaptable, nimble and ready to deliver creative solutions can help businesses not just survive but thrive during chaotic and challenging times. That’s exactly why it is important to double down rather than retreat during difficult periods.
About Mitch Stephen Mitch Stephen has been a self-employed real estate investor for 25+ years. His real estate investing career started at the age of 23 when he read “Nothing Down” by Robert Allen.
Mitch Stephen has purchased well over 2,000 houses in and around his hometown of San Antonio, TX. Mitch is a high school graduate who never stopped learning. Books, CDs, seminars, and webinars were his classroom.
Today he specializes in owner financing properties to individuals left behind by traditional lending institutions and giving new life to properties that scar their neighborhoods.
He has perfected a method of achieving cash-flow without having to be a landlord and without having to rehab properties. He’s mastered the art of raising private money and the classic “Nothing Down” deal.
He has pioneered the idea that you don’t have to give discounts to sell your notes.
A passionate speaker who delivers the message of integrity first and profits second; an expert at keeping it simple and explaining, in plain English, the theories that made him financially independent. He is always an inspiration to those around him.
How to Connect with Mitch Stephen: * Visit Mitch’s website for more information on his real estate passive income strategies, as well as his podcast and other learning resources * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mitch-stephen-0b32491b/ * Facebook: www.facebook.com/1000Houses/ * Twitter: @Mitch_Stephen
Additional Resources: * Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13 * Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/ * Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Learning the Business Owner Skills Needed to Grow a Thriving Business What You Will Learn: * How Ron realized he needed to make a life change and start building wealth for his family, and how he discovered the potential of real estate * Why Ron needed to make an early pivot in his investing, and how he refined his business owner skills and learned to manage and delegate responsibility * Why Ron’s real estate business is always in demand and recession-resistant, and how adapting to changes in the market has been one of the keys of his success * Why putting the right people in the right roles is crucial, and how Ron started his publishing business, Global Publishing Inc. * How Ron’s mentoring business has become the cornerstone of his real estate empire, and how his organization has grown to include highly successful student coaches * How the global pandemic became the impetus that caused Ron to take his coaching virtual through online events and training * How the switch to virtual has opened up new opportunities and helped to further increase Ron’s mentoring reach * Why marketing to your audience through multiple channels, both online and through traditional media, is crucial * Why YouTube is a fantastic free marketing medium, and why it is the ideal channel to share your testimonials * Why Ron’s number one piece of advice is to find someone who is successfully doing the thing you want to do and then learn everything you can from them
Learning the Business Owner Skills Needed to Grow a Thriving Business Building and growing a business truly is a trial by fire. Learning the necessary business owner skills comes slowly over time, and mistakes will be made. But drawing lessons from those mistakes can be transformative. Master real estate investor and mentor Ron LeGrand joins Onward Nation to share how he developed the business owner skills needed to grow and scale his organization into the thriving empire it is today, and he shares some of the key lessons he learned along the way over the course of his decades-long career in real estate, mentoring and publishing.
Developing Key Business Owner Skills Ron knew early on that the path he was on wasn’t going to provide the life he wanted for his family, and so at age 35 he borrowed $450 from friends and used the money to attend his first real estate seminar. As Ron explained in his interview, he learned “just enough to go out and make a mess”. But the early successes were enough to show Ron that he was on the right track, and so he continued to iterate on and refine his business model. One of the business owner skills that became the backbone of his success was learning to delegate responsibility, from putting the right people into the right roles in his company to hiring his most successful students to become coaches. Today, Ron isn’t just a successful entrepreneur and real estate investor, he also runs a thriving publishing business and has a team of mentors ready to teach others the real estate investing strategies Ron learned through trial and error.
Being Ready to Pivot to the Market The onset of the global pandemic and its unforeseen challenges have impacted many businesses in dramatic ways, but knowing how to successfully pivot has proven to be one of Ron’s most effective business owner skills. He and his team quickly shifted their mentoring business to a virtual environment and adapted to the realities of social distancing, and in doing so they actually increased Ron’s reach and the profitability of the business. As Ron explained in the interview, being ready to pivot and adjust his strategies to the market has always been a crucial part of his success. By staying nimble and thinking creatively, Ron has been able to adapt to every challenge he has encountered and helped his business not just survive these obstacles but thrive through them.
How to Connect with Ron LeGrand: * Website: www.ronlegrand.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ronlegrand/ * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/global-publishing-inc./ * Facebook: www.facebook.com/GlobalPublishing * Twitter: @ronlegrand * Podcast: https://thementorpodcast.com/
Additional Resources: * Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13 * Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/ * Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Learning the Business Owner Skills Needed to Grow a Thriving Business What You Will Learn: * How Ron realized he needed to make a life change and start building wealth for his family, and how he discovered the potential of real estate * Why Ron needed to make an early pivot in his investing, and how he refined his business owner skills and learned to manage and delegate responsibility * Why Ron’s real estate business is always in demand and recession-resistant, and how adapting to changes in the market has been one of the keys of his success * Why putting the right people in the right roles is crucial, and how Ron started his publishing business, Global Publishing Inc. * How Ron’s mentoring business has become the cornerstone of his real estate empire, and how his organization has grown to include highly successful student coaches * How the global pandemic became the impetus that caused Ron to take his coaching virtual through online events and training * How the switch to virtual has opened up new opportunities and helped to further increase Ron’s mentoring reach * Why marketing to your audience through multiple channels, both online and through traditional media, is crucial * Why YouTube is a fantastic free marketing medium, and why it is the ideal channel to share your testimonials * Why Ron’s number one piece of advice is to find someone who is successfully doing the thing you want to do and then learn everything you can from them
Learning the Business Owner Skills Needed to Grow a Thriving Business Building and growing a business truly is a trial by fire. Learning the necessary business owner skills comes slowly over time, and mistakes will be made. But drawing lessons from those mistakes can be transformative. Master real estate investor and mentor Ron LeGrand joins Onward Nation to share how he developed the business owner skills needed to grow and scale his organization into the thriving empire it is today, and he shares some of the key lessons he learned along the way over the course of his decades-long career in real estate, mentoring and publishing.
Developing Key Business Owner Skills Ron knew early on that the path he was on wasn’t going to provide the life he wanted for his family, and so at age 35 he borrowed $450 from friends and used the money to attend his first real estate seminar. As Ron explained in his interview, he learned “just enough to go out and make a mess”. But the early successes were enough to show Ron that he was on the right track, and so he continued to iterate on and refine his business model. One of the business owner skills that became the backbone of his success was learning to delegate responsibility, from putting the right people into the right roles in his company to hiring his most successful students to become coaches. Today, Ron isn’t just a successful entrepreneur and real estate investor, he also runs a thriving publishing business and has a team of mentors ready to teach others the real estate investing strategies Ron learned through trial and error.
Being Ready to Pivot to the Market The onset of the global pandemic and its unforeseen challenges have impacted many businesses in dramatic ways, but knowing how to successfully pivot has proven to be one of Ron’s most effective business owner skills. He and his team quickly shifted their mentoring business to a virtual environment and adapted to the realities of social distancing, and in doing so they actually increased Ron’s reach and the profitability of the business. As Ron explained in the interview, being ready to pivot and adjust his strategies to the market has always been a crucial part of his success. By staying nimble and thinking creatively, Ron has been able to adapt to every challenge he has encountered and helped his business not just survive these obstacles but thrive through them.
How to Connect with Ron LeGrand: * Website: www.ronlegrand.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ronlegrand/ * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/global-publishing-inc./ * Facebook: www.facebook.com/GlobalPublishing * Twitter: @ronlegrand * Podcast: https://thementorpodcast.com/
Additional Resources: * Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13 * Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/ * Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Content Monetization and a Passion for Podcasting What You Will Learn: * How David’s career progressed from entrepreneur to coach and thought leader, and what new opportunities and setbacks he experienced along the way * How the challenges David faced taught him important skills and key business lessons, and how he turned a love of podcasting into powerful content monetization * Why focusing on helping others and adding value proved the key to David’s career pivot, and how David turned podcasting into his primary career focus * How David has been able to monetize his podcast through sponsorships, and how he is rebranding and relaunching his podcast as “The Gonzo Experience” * Why David was inspired to write his third and most recent book, “Crash and Learn: Lessons in Business” * How in times of crisis such as the global pandemic, business leaders need to look for the opportunities and silver linings and work to avoid falling into negativity * Why it is important to look for the lessons and the opportunity to learn when experiencing difficult situations and major setbacks * Why David’s book “Crash and Learn” offers an opportunity to take the lessons David learned and apply them to your own challenges * How David has learned to cut through the podcast noise and make his show stand out from the other 480,000 domestic podcasts * Why the feedback David has received has often stemmed from people’s own internalized fears, and how he has pushed through and doubled down regardless
Content Monetization and a Passion for Podcasting Can you turn your passion project into your only career focus? And if you do — will content monetization negatively impact your love for what you create, or can you keep loving what you do even when it becomes your primary job? Four-time returning guest David Mammano joins Onward Nation to discuss how he found his love for podcasting, and how he was able to chart a new career path with podcasting as his main focus — in spite of naysayers who tried to warn him away from it. And — he shares how going through difficult times can be a powerful teacher, if you look for the lessons and silver linings.
Learning from the Hard Times David Mammano is no stranger to challenge, having once built a successful business before losing nearly everything. As the host of “The Gonzo Experience” podcast, David has spoken with many other business leaders who have shared their own stories of overcoming challenges and coming out the other side stronger and better positioned for success. These stories became the backbone of his book “Crash and Learn”, where David shows readers that we aren’t defined by our failures but by what lessons we learned from them. David collected the shared wisdom of his podcast guests to demonstrate that retaining optimism through difficult times is a crucial business skill, and that even the most difficult of experiences holds lessons we can draw from them that can only benefit us in the future.
Content Monetization as a Business Strategy Speaking of David’s podcast “The Gonzo Experience”, during his interview David shared how he first discovered his passion for podcasting, and why he decided to make the difficult — and scary — decision to double down and make his podcast be his primary business focus. By focusing on helping others and adding value, David was able to attract an appreciative audience. The size of David’s growing audience opened up the opportunity to pursue content monetization through sponsorships to fund his work. Even though David had a number of people telling him that going all-in on podcasting was a mistake, he recognized that their words of caution stemmed not from concern for David but from their own fears. When he shut out the voices that were telling him he couldn’t do it — his own internal voice included — he was able to prove those voices wrong.
About David Mammano David Mammano is most recently known for being the host of The Gonzo Experience Entrepreneur Podcast. He is the author of business and college planning books, a TEDx speaker, a three-time Inc. Magazine 5000 Growth Company winner, and a professor at the University of Rochester.
He is a graduate of the University at Buffalo (SUNY) and also a graduate of the MIT Entrepreneurial Master’s Program (an executive education program offered through the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO)), a board member for the Western NY Make-A-Wish Foundation, and a local board member for Junior Achievement.
David’s most recent book Crash and Learn: Lessons in Business quickly rose to the top of the Amazon bestseller lists. His other books are Make Love in the Workplace, and 101 Things You Can Do to Become an Outstanding Young Adult.
During the last 25 years, David Mammano has been a serial entrepreneur – starting seven businesses from scratch. He now uses those experiences to interview the world’s most interesting entrepreneurs. Each interview is aimed at helping entrepreneurs be their best in all areas of their life.
As a prolific speaker, David is an internationally requested speaker at entrepreneurial, business, sales, and higher education events.
David is most proud of his family in Victor, NY, including three children, Gianluca, Melania, and Alessio.
How to Connect with David Mammano: * Email: david@thegonzoexperience.com * Website: www.thegonzoexperience.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/davemammano/ * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/avanti-entrepreneur-group/ * Facebook: www.facebook.com/theGonzoExperience * Facebook: www.facebook.com/DavidMammanoFan * Twitter: @DavidMammano
Additional Resources: * Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13 * Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/ * Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
The Keys to Scaling a Business the Right Way What You Will Learn: * How mistakenly saving over an invoice led Mike to design the accounting software his business needed, leading to the birth of FreshBooks * How the company that started with six team members in his parents’ basement now has millions of users in more than 160 countries * Why Mike was reluctant to raise outside capital and instead self-funded the business for a long time * Why Mike believes that accepting venture capital during the early days could have undermined the value of the business * What important lessons on scaling a business Mike learned growing FreshBooks from just six employees to more than 400 * What key organizational growth breakpoints Mike identified on the journey, and how the company had to adapt to each new breakpoint * Why having shared values and alignment within your organization is the key to success, and why every problem in business is ultimately a people problem * How Mike addresses the difficult situation of a team member not being in alignment with their role in the company * Why Mike has chosen to dedicate time to his thought leadership efforts, and why he considers it to be “soul food for entrepreneurs” * Why shifting from time-and materials-based billing to value-based billing can be a powerful game-changer for your business
The Keys to Scaling a Business the Right Way William S. Burroughs famously said, “When you stop growing, you start dying.” We all want our businesses to keep growing, but sometimes we hit obstacles and roadblocks during the scaling process — and the solutions we used to get us where we are often don’t work to get us where we want to be. In this episode of Onward Nation, FreshBooks CEO and co-founder Mike McDerment shares how his business, which started out with six team members in his parents’ basement, has grown to millions of users in over 160 different countries. And — he shares key lessons on scaling a business he learned during that remarkable growth journey — lessons that can help you fuel the growth of your own business.
Bootstrapping Rapid Growth Mike created the software that would become FreshBooks after growing frustrated when he accidentally saved over a past billing invoice. That’s when he decided to create a better tool for small business accounting. The tool proved successful — and Mike’s focus shifted to this new business opportunity. One of the important decisions Mike made early in the life of FreshBooks was to walk away from venture capital funding. At the time, Mike was concerned that the need to offer a return on investment could stunt progress in scaling a business — and so for years, FreshBooks was self-funded. Ultimately, this put the company into a great position now that it is in the pre-IPO stage because it allowed FreshBooks to remain more nimble without being beholden to outside investors during its critical growth period. While Mike believes venture capital isn’t always a bad idea, it wasn’t the right choice for FreshBooks.
Scaling a Business Takes Alignment and Shared Values During FreshBooks’ remarkable period of growth, the company reached several key milestones and breakpoints. Each time, Mike and the team had to adapt to change and learn new, critical skills directly tied to scaling a business. For example, early on everyone reported directly to Mike — but eventually, the team grew enough that managers needed to be added. As Mike said during his interview, it was important to identify when these breakpoints happened and to adapt the business to continue scaling through them. And it is an ongoing process — as the business grows, the things needed to keep it moving change. Ensuring that everyone is aligned with your mission and values is critical, and if a team member isn’t in alignment with their role, it is important to address the situation honestly and clearly. As Mike said, every business problem is a people problem at its heart. Getting the right people in the right seats can help you overcome any obstacle.
About Mike McDerment Mike McDerment is the co-founder and CEO of FreshBooks, the world’s #1 cloud accounting software for self-employed professionals. Built in 2003 after he accidentally saved over an invoice, Mike spent 3.5 years growing FreshBooks from his parents’ basement. Since then, over 10 million people have used FreshBooks to save time billing and collecting billions of dollars. A lover of the outdoors, Mike has been bitten so many times it’s rumored he’s the first human to have developed immunity to mosquitoes.
How to Connect with Mike McDerment: * Read Mike McDerment’s free book on value-based billing, “Breaking The Time Barrier” * Learn more about Mike’s company, FreshBooks * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mike-mcderment-68895a1/ * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/freshbooks/ * Facebook: www.facebook.com/FreshBooks/ * Twitter: https://twitter.com/freshbooks * Twitter: https://twitter.com/mikemcderment * FreshBooks YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/freshbooks
Additional Resources: * Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13 * Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/ * Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Rescuing Yourself from The Imposter Syndrome What You Will Learn: * How Tommy spent three years working on his book Legendary, and how the need to help others proved to be the breakthrough Tommy needed to finish it * Why Tommy scrapped his original draft after struggling with The Imposter Syndrome and decided to start his book over again writing from the heart * How Legendary surprised Tommy by opening many new business opportunities including keynote speaking opportunities, coaching and masterminds * What key lessons and golden nuggets Tommy hopes business owners and corporate executives will take from reading his book * What advice Tommy has to offer to business leaders who are struggling with The Imposter Syndrome or feelings of not being good enough or worthy enough * Why loving yourself is the key to conquering your fears, and why it is important to catch yourself in the cycle of self-loathing and interrupt it with thoughts of self-love * Why surrounding himself with people moving in the same direction Tommy is moving in has been crucial for helping overcome his “Tommy-go-round” cycle of negative thoughts * How writing Legendary has helped build Tommy’s business by giving him “instant credibility” * Why writing a book and basing it on vulnerability and authenticity can be a powerful tool that can greatly benefit your business * Why the two best pieces of advice Tommy was ever given were to “participate in your own rescue” and to “take control of your story and write the best ending”
Rescuing Yourself from The Imposter Syndrome Everyone faces the feeling that they aren’t good enough at some point in their lives. The Imposter Syndrome can be debilitating; it can prevent you from making the progress you want for your business and can allow you to convince yourself that you aren’t good enough — so how do you get past it? In this episode of Onward Nation, bestselling author and business, relationship and mindset coach Tommy Breedlove discusses his own battles with The Imposter Syndrome and shares how focusing on others — rather than himself — became the key that unlocked his potential for authenticity, vulnerability, and self-love.
Dealing with The Imposter Syndrome Tommy spent three years working on his book, but once the draft was finished he was left with the hollow feeling that his words didn’t mean anything. Tommy surprised everyone (including himself) by starting over from scratch, but this time he was committed to pouring his passion and authentic self into his words. He felt a drive to help others — and that drive broke him out of his own limiting beliefs. Needless to say, Legendary was a huge success, and Tommy attributes this success to the fact that he allowed himself to be vulnerable, open, and honest. Tommy had to realize for himself that his words had value for others and that he had something profound to offer the world — and this realization formed the backbone of his book. Too many of us struggle with feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt, but Tommy believes that these feelings can be conquered by allowing ourselves to love the people we are and the contributions we have to offer.
When Thought Leadership Becomes a Platform The act of writing Legendary was transformative for Tommy, but even he was surprised by the benefits he received from writing his book. Legendary became a huge credibility-building tool that led to coaching work and other business opportunities for Tommy. The book became Tommy’s cornerstone content — and it all came about because Tommy was able to beat The Imposter Syndrome and achieve a personal breakthrough, by seeking to serve others. The lesson here is that generously offering your expertise can only pay dividends and open new doors and form new relationships. Mindset is the backbone of success, and believing in yourself is an important ingredient in achieving the goals you have set for yourself.
About Tommy Breedlove Tommy Breedlove is a Wall Street Journal & USA Today bestselling author of the book, Legendary, and Atlanta-based business, relationship, and mindset coach who is regularly featured keynote speaker at global events. He serves clients and audiences by empowering them to build and live Legendary Lives. He guides them to build a lasting legacy, work in their zone of brilliance, obtain financial confidence, and live with meaning and balance.
How to Connect with Tommy Breedlove: * Visit Tommy’s website and enjoy free gifts for listeners of Onward Nation * Read Tommy’s book Legendary and learn to conquer The Imposter Syndrome to unlock your own legendary potential * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/legendarybook/ * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/tommy-breedlove/ * Facebook: www.facebook.com/tommybreedlovelegendary * Twitter: @TommyBreedlove
Additional Resources: * Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13 * Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/ * Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Creative Business Solutions What You Will Learn: * How Shane’s upbringing, experience in the U.S. Air Force, and career journey culminated in the launch of health insurance company Hooray Health * Why starting out at the lowest level of healthcare gave Shane a unique perspective on the need for creative business solutions in the health insurance industry * How Shane made the foray into the realm of health benefits, and how he recognized the opportunity to do things differently from the paradigm * Why Shane believes that any life experience can offer valuable lessons that can be applied to future situations * Why hearing the phrase “love the problem — not the solution” from the founder of Waze was a profound, watershed moment for Shane * Why Shane created Hooray Health to address the real challenges and unmet needs of America’s uninsured workers * How Hooray Health is structured differently from others in the health insurance industry, creating a better experience for members * Why too many employees are forced to make difficult healthcare decisions based on their financial situations, and how Hooray Health is working to change that * How Shane is using thought leadership to change perceptions and shine a light on the challenges people face in accessing basic healthcare * How Shane first got started in thought leadership, and how he learned the importance of self-promotion and adding value
Creative Business Solutions and Disrupting the Paradigm Oftentimes we fall into the trap of doing things the way we do them because it’s how we have always done them. But it’s the creative business solutions — not the same old strategies — that have the potential to create new opportunities and even disrupt entire industries. In this episode of Onward Nation, health insurance company Hooray Health founder and CEO Shane Foss shares how identifying the unmet needs of America’s millions of uninsured employees formed the basis for his company’s mission to reinvent health insurance from the ground up, and he explains why thought leadership has proven to be a powerful tool to build credibility and get his message out.
Recognizing Opportunities for Creative Business Solutions For Shane, the “aha!” moment came when he saw firsthand the challenges that uninsured workers were facing in getting access to basic healthcare. Shane began questioning the status quo and wondering if there was a better way to do things — and this train of thought ultimately culminated in the formation of Hooray Health. Shane identified an underserved group and then innovated cost-effective solutions to help them gain access to necessary healthcare services. He saw the problem and then built and iterated on solutions to address it, without falling into the trap of becoming too attached to the solutions his company created. This allowed Hooray Health the flexibility to find new angles and opportunities and to adjust based on the needs of their clients rather than getting too locked into their business model.
Being Bold and Willing to Experiment At every step during the process of building Hooray Health, Shane was told “you can’t do that” or “that will never work”, or “you’ll never find an underwriter willing to take the risk”. Shane might easily have listened to the naysayers, but he kept going. Eventually, he was able to put all the pieces together and offer low-cost, practical healthcare plans that empowered part-time workers and other overlooked segments to attain healthcare while protecting themselves from predatory billing practices. Shane and his team put together creative business solutions that allow them to meet the needs of an otherwise untapped market — while simultaneously creating profits for their business and looking after the needs of their clients. None of this would’ve been possible had Shane just accepted the conventional wisdom of health insurance at face value.
About Shane Foss With over 20 years of tenure as an executive in the medical industry, Shane Foss became frustrated with how under-served Americans were with the current healthcare options. He set out to make a change and in 2018 achieved this goal through launching Hooray Health, an unconventional health insurance company dedicated to providing affordable basic and urgent health care alternatives to high-deductible health plans.
Through Hooray Health, Foss and his team focus on offering peace of mind to lower-income individuals and families who face medical challenges, while also providing business owners with an affordable way to reward and retain employees. Partnering with companies like Sedera, Ameritas, and Aflac, they have been able to add critical services and supplemental plans giving immense value to employers and individuals.
Throughout his professional experience, Foss has negotiated complex, multi-million-dollar contracts, worked in device sales management, created business strategies, and optimized P&L. He holds an MBA from Rice University’s Jones School of Business, a BS from the University of the Incarnate Word, and a Surgical Technologist Certificate from the United States Air Force.
How to Connect with Shane Foss: * Visit Hooray Health’s website for more information on how Shane and his team have innovated creative business solutions in the health insurance industry. * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/shane-foss-083b823/ * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/hoorayhealth/ * Facebook: www.facebook.com/HoorayHealthcare/ * Twitter: @Hooray_Health
Additional Resources: * Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13 * Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/ * Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Business Lessons on Negotiating What You Will Learn: * How the global pandemic is adding new complexity to owning a business, and why Kwame’s invaluable business lessons on negotiating can be a lifeboat for business owners * Why the pandemic has caused many contracts to become unstable due to “act of God” clauses, and why negotiating is the key to shoring up these important agreements * How negotiation skills can be used both offensively and defensively to help protect your business from instability, and to protect your clients and their interests * Why authenticity, empathy, and flexibility are crucial skills Kwame uses to help build relationships and navigate the complexities of negotiation * What steps Kwame follows to build empathy, trust, and collaboration with negotiation partners, and why asking questions helps him better understand their perspective * Why asking the magic question “what flexibility do you have?” is a secret weapon in your negotiating arsenal * Kwame shares key takeaways and pearls of wisdom from his book Finding Confidence in Conflict: How to Negotiate Anything and Live Your Best Life * How Kwame has been able to plant a flag of authority in the realm of business negotiation, and how his focus on personal branding has been crucial for his success * Why Kwame defines his role simply as, “I make difficult conversations easier,” and how that clarity around his brand has helped create new opportunities * What significant growth developments and exciting projects have been happening for Kwame since his appearance in episode 845 of Onward Nation
Business Lessons on the Power of Negotiating Negotiation is a powerful skill — especially in uncertain times. With the pandemic disrupting so many existing business agreements and contracts, renegotiating these arrangements can be the key to salvaging them. But how do you start tough conversations? In this episode of Onward Nation, encore guest, lawyer and expert negotiator Kwame Christian shares key business lessons on negotiation and conflict resolution that can help you survive and even thrive in uncertain times. As the pandemic and the effects of social distancing have made certain obligations difficult or impossible to fill, finding new, mutually beneficial solutions is important.
Ask and Listen First The secret to great negotiation lies in a few key skills: being proactive, authentic, and empathetic, and being prepared to ask key questions and carefully consider the answers you get. Kwame says that expressing empathy and understanding with your negotiating partners’ position can help you generate goodwill and trust, and it can also help you find new solutions that satisfy all parties involved. By showing that you understand their perspective and recognize their expectations, you can find common ground and shore up your agreements with them. We can’t control the impact that the pandemic and social distancing requirements have on our businesses, but we can often find alternative solutions.
Find the Flexibility One of Kwame’s most important business lessons in his career is the power of the magical question, “what flexibility do you have?” By asking this question, you are passively assuming that the other party has room to negotiate, priming them to your way of thinking. This question often catches others off guard and encourages them to be more willing to bend. In return, Kwame says it is important to be willing to bend your own expectations and work toward common ground. Almost anything can be negotiated, Kwame says, as long as you’re willing to ask.
About Kwame Christian Kwame Christian, Esq., M.A. is a business lawyer and the Director of the American Negotiation Institute where he puts on workshops designed to make difficult conversations easier. As an attorney and mediator with a bachelor of arts in Psychology, a Master of Public Policy, and a law degree, Kwame brings a unique multidisciplinary approach to the topic of conflict management and negotiation.
His TEDx Talk, Finding Confidence in Conflict, was viewed over 160,000 times and was the most popular TED Talk on the topic of conflict of 2017. He also hosts the top negotiation podcast in the country, Negotiate Anything. The show has been downloaded over 350,000 times, and has listeners in 181 different countries.
How to Connect with Kwame Christian: * Learn crucial business lessons on negotiating by reading Kwame’s book “Finding Confidence in Conflict” * Free guides from Kwame and the American Negotiation Institute * The Negotiate Anything Podcast * Website: https://americannegotiationinstitute.com/ * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kwamechristian/ * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/american-negotiation-institute/ * Facebook: www.facebook.com/negotiateanything/ * Twitter: @KwameNegotiates
Additional Resources: * Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13 * Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/ * Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
How to Use a Mentor Effectively What You Will Learn: * How Kevin first became an entrepreneur in the early 1980s by way of his family business and how he grew and helped create an entire industry * Why Kevin co-authored his book “Mentor to Millions” in an effort to teach others how to find and how to use a mentor effectively * Why writing a bestselling book was a key goal Kevin set for himself, and how he and his own mentor Mark Timm created the book based on their relationship * Why going all-in with your mentor and committing to being a good student is crucial for you to reap the rewards of the relationship * What advice Kevin suggests for finding the right mentor to work with, and how he leveraged connections he already had to find one of his ideal business mentors * Why now, even during the chaos of the global pandemic, is the ideal time to look for and begin working with a mentor * What tremendous benefits you can receive as both a mentor and as a mentee, and why the relationship should be mutually beneficial * Why it is important to be clear and set your expectations at the beginning of the mentor-mentee relationship * What remarkable opportunities, business ventures, and networking growth Kevin was able to receive from being a mentor
The Mutually Beneficial Power of the Mentor-Mentee Relationship The mentor-mentee relationship is about more than just learning from a more experienced, seasoned business professional. When done correctly, both parties can reap incredible rewards and discover new opportunities. These trusted relationships can lead to new business introductions and even new business ventures for both the mentor and the student. In this episode of Onward Nation, encore guest and “Original Shark” on Shark Tank Kevin Harrington discusses the broad benefits that make these relationships so rewarding, he discusses how to find and how to use a mentor effectively to get the most out of the relationship, and he shares stories of his own experiences both as a mentee and as a mentor to others.
How to Find a Great Mentor Before you can learn how to use a mentor effectively, you have to find the right mentor that fits your business and its needs. As Kevin explained during the interview, the best way to find the ideal mentor is to explore your existing relationships with the lawyers, accountants, and other professionals you’re already working with. Your professional network knows your business and your values and can potentially connect you with a great mentor who would be a good fit for your business and its current challenges. As Kevin suggested, ask yourself who you write checks to and start mining those relationships.
How to Use a Mentor Effectively Once you’ve formed a relationship with a mentor (or as a mentor with a new mentee), be clear and upfront about your expectations. As the mentee, it’s your job to prove to your mentor that you are their best, most attentive student. Respect the wisdom your mentor is willing to share, and take action based on their recommendations. If you “don’t have time” to follow their guidance, why should they spend the time mentoring you? Learning how to use a mentor effectively is about listening, communicating, and then following through. If you put in the effort, the rewards both you and your mentor will discover may surprise you.
About Kevin Harrington As an “Original Shark” on the hit TV show Shark Tank, the creator of the infomercial, pioneer of the “As Seen on TV” brand, and co-founding board member of the Entrepreneur’s Organization, Kevin Harrington has pushed past all the questions and excuses to repeatedly enjoy 100X success. His legendary work behind the scenes of business ventures has produced more than $5 billion in global sales, the launch of more than 500 products, and the making of dozens of millionaires. He’s launched massively successful products like The Food Saver, Ginsu Knives, The Great Wok of China, The Flying Lure, and many more. He has worked with amazing celebrities turned entrepreneurs including, like Billy Mays, Tony Little, Jack LaLanne, and George Foreman to name a few. Kevin’s been called the Entrepreneur’s Entrepreneur and the Entrepreneur Answer Man, because he knows the challenges unique to start-ups and has a special passion for helping entrepreneurs succeed.
How to Connect with Kevin Harrington: * Mentor to Millions by Kevin Harrington and Mark Timm: https://kevinmentor.com * Website: https://kevinharrington.tv/ * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/thekevinharrington/ * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/harringtonenterprises/ * Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialkevinharrington/ * Twitter: @HarringtonKevin
Additional Resources: * Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13 * Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/ * Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Good Morning…I’m Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and your host for Onward Nation.
One of the things that I love most about my role at Predictive — is that every single day — I have an opportunity to talk with, work alongside with, and teach and share with business owners just like you.
They might own a marketing or advertising agency as I do, or they might be a rockin’ awesome business coach, or maybe the owners of a consultancy — and they too love being in the trenches being helpful…sharing the best of what they’ve got with their audience…and as a result…they’ve started to — or have already — built a nation of true fans.
All of the what, why’s, and how to’s for build a nation of true fans is what we’re going to focus on in today’s solocast.
I’ll map it out in full transparency — and as always — please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. I’m happy to help.
As you’ll hear in a few minutes — your first step in building your nation of true fans has nothing to do with the actual content delivery platform — channel — or the type of cornerstone content you create — but has everything to do with the value and helpfulness of what you will be creating, sharing, and delivering to your audience, because your nation of true fans will be built on a foundation of valuable, super helpful content that your audience can use to be better at their jobs everyday.
Your nation of true fans will know your heart and that your intention is to help them grow, to learn, and to be better. It never feels like a transactional relationship.
They don’t feel like you’re trying to monetize them.
Do they spend money on your services and what your team provides — yes — your true fans do. And the rest of your audience are there just for the golden nuggets — and that’s 100 percent okay.
So let’s begin walking down this path — you and I are going to take a look at strategy and tactics for how you can build a nation of true fans from the cornerstone content you are creating on a consistent basis. The way you win long-term is by creating content that develops and nurtures long-term relationships with your audience.
These relationships are what Wired Magazine founder Kevin Kelly calls “True Fans.” And in my opinion — true fans represent your ROI Scorecard’s ultimate vital metric.
To paraphrase Kelly — any business owner can create a solid revenue stream around a community of approximately 1,000 people when they are “True Fans” of what the company sells and when there is a connection between the company and its fans based on the value provided. In this solocast — I will illustrate how a consistent effort toward creating consistent cornerstone content can create a nation of true fans for your business, too.
Your nation of true fans will be fans of you, fans of your point of view, and fans of the helpful content you create and share. Your fans will support you because of the sacred bond you have built with them and because you consistently delivered massive value through your content.
Okay — now let’s get dialed in on building your nation of true fans: a sense of community, collaboration, and profitability around your business.
And could there be a more critical time than right now to do this for your business, Onward Nation?
If you get this right — it will be a super helpful strategy to not only help you come roaring out the other side of this recession — but — this strategy will help you future proof your business for years to come.
Let’s begin by breaking the phrase “Build a nation of true fans” into its three core ingredients. The first is “build”, the second is “nation”, and the third is “true fans.”
Ingredient #1: Build…as in your platform.
How would you begin to “build” a nation of true fans? You’d begin with selecting the form of cornerstone content where you intend to share your insights and wisdom with your audience — or eventual audience.
Whether that’s a…
- Podcast
- Speaking
- Blog
- Video series
- Research project
- Writing a book
- Or something else
The platform you choose is irrelevant from a tech perspective. Any or all of the above can help you build a nation of true fans. The tech behind it all is relatively easy. Is there a learning curve? Sure.
Will you feel at times like you are trying to fly the space shuttle with so many knobs and buttons to push? Sure. How does Facebook Live work? What time of day should I create a story on Instagram? What kind of camera and mic are best if I want to be a serious YouTuber?
All of these are tech questions — and within an afternoon with your best friend Google — you can solve those problems and find the answers as long as you don’t let the fear of the unknown become paralyzing to you.
So let’s shift our focus away from the tech — and instead — focus on the value you will be providing through those channels?
What’s your story?
How will you serve your audience?
How will you make what you are doing so valuable to their business or life, that they actually consider you to be indispensable?
How will you become so consistent in the help, advice, recommendations, and over value that you are providing on a consistent basis — that you BUILD deposits in their emotional bank account?
They begin to trust you — they begin to like you — and then because of them liking you and trusting you…they move even closer to you by truly KNOWING you.
So, your first step in building your nation of true fans has nothing to do with the actual content delivery platform and has everything to do with the value of what you will be delivering — because your nation of true fans is built on VALUE.
And if you get that right — the actual platform — or your conduit through which you share your value — will fall into place — and it will feel less stressful because the value you were called — put on this Earth to deliver — will then be in the driver’s seat.
You, Onward Nation — will become unstoppable.
Will there be profit to be made for your business because you built a nation of true fans? Of course. To date — Onward Nation has helped Predictive ROI generate over $4 million in revenue and we feel blessed and honored about that result outcome. And we believe that this result outcome was made possible because we never placed ourselves first. Ever.
Now let’s shift our attention toward Ingredient #2: “Nation.”
And I want to make sure we address this because we live in a world where bigger lists, bigger subscribers, massive downloads, huge customer lists, etc. etc. etc. is what attracts headlines and massive attention.
You don’t need an email list of 100,000 people. You don’t need to have a podcast that gets a million downloads a month. You don’t need to have a customer list with 20,000 prospects on it.
Nope. You don’t.
That’s not your Nation.
What you need — realistically — depending on the size of your business is somewhere between 100 to 1,000 high-qualified prospects.
That’s it…100 to 1,000 of the very best prospects who precisely match your client avatar — in fact — your knowledge with some of these people is so deep that you can boldly claim them as your Dream 25 prospects.
If you need a refresher on why your Dream 25 matters — go back to Episode 308 of Onward Nation — and I map it all out — how to figure out who your Dream 25 is — and — how to romance your Dream 25 so they understand how important they are to you.
To take this point deeper — I want to share a very tangible example of a company that grew from zero to become a multi-billion a year company — yes — billion — with a capital B.
My mentor, Darren Hardy, former publisher of SUCCESS Magazine…decided to interview my friend Cody Foster, co-founder of Advisors Excel and to share the interview on the SUCCESS CD that rides along with the magazine.
During the interview with Darren, Cody shared several personal stories of very humble beginnings — and how those stories — helped shaped the kind of company Advisors Excel has become.
A company packed full — wall to wall — of incredible people — a team whose sole focus is to deliver more and more value every day to the financial advisors around the country they are there to serve. And Advisors Excel team does it masterfully well. They have BUILT their platform — a platform that is indeed built on a solid foundation of value.
But…did they build this platform by trying to serve the 60,000 financial advisors located in the state of Florida alone?
No.
How about all of the financial advisors up and down the west coast?
Nope.
Did they focus on spending large amounts of advertising dollars trying to reach everyone they could with their message of value, value, value?
Not at all.
Instead…they meticulously selected 1,000 of the very best financial advisors who they wanted to earn the opportunity to serve. Yes, Onward Nation, Cody shared with Darren that they built a list of 1,000 financial advisors — just 1,000 — and then they went to work to deliver more value than another other insurance marketing organization in the industry to the 1,000 advisors they wanted to work with.
The 1,000 advisors became their Nation…and advisors outside of the Nation didn’t exist. Advisors Excel was solely focused on being the best they could be for this small group of prospects.
So what was the result outcome?
Well, in year 8 of the business…they reached over $8 billion in revenue. $8 billion, Onward Nation.
When they are the right prospects — you don’t need 10,000…you actually only need a small number to make your business amazingly successful and profitable. 1,000 people — who you can love on — who you can support — who you can add value to — who then in turn are excited to do for you some of what you already shared with them.
Okay — now let’s move to Ingredient #3 — True Fans
We’ll begin by taking the number 1,000 — deeper — because it is a magical number and a vital priority for your business.
According to Kevin Kelly, if a business created a base of customers who were more like fans — 1,000 True Fans — then that business could become sustainable and profitable by simply focusing on the needs of its true fans.
And if you visit the Show Notes for today’s solocast…you will find a link to Kevin Kelly’s blog post as well as the long tail curve he created to illustrate the 1,000 true fans strategy.
Kelly describes “True Fans” as customers who will help you mobilize and move your business onward to that next level. They are true fans of you — true fans of your message — true fans of your business.
They will support you because of the sacred bond you have built with them.
A bond that was built upon — and continues to be built upon — the foundation of the value you create, you deliver, and the value you share with them on a consistent basis.
Whether you do that every day — every week — no matter what the schedule — no matter what the rhythm — the fact that you are consistent is what is important.
According to Kevin, “A True Fan” is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to visit your location.
They will buy the super deluxe version of your product even though they already own the standard version, too.
They have a Google Alert set for your name.
They have bookmarked your website.
They come to your product announcements — or — ribbon cutting ceremonies for a new office location.
They come to your book signings and ask for you to sign their copy.
They cannot wait for your next webinar — your next podcast episode — your next event — your next release of whatever.
And the best way to increase sales for your company is to connect with your True Fans directly…so you need to have a platform built on value…see? We keep coming back to that foundational truth.
Onward Nation, 1,000 true fans is a very reasonable number. As Kevin explains in his brilliant blog post… “if you added one fan a day, it would take only three years. True Fanship is doable.
Pleasing a True Fan is pleasurable, and invigorating.”
The key challenge is that you have to maintain direct contact with your 1,000 True Fans. And you do that through building your platform — delivering value — and making sure you are using the right conduit so it reaches your 1,000 true fans on a consistent basis.
Again…it doesn’t matter if you use a podcast, blog, write a book, video series, or some other form of cornerstone content.
What’s important to identify is not the form of content where you’re most comfortable — but — the platform your fans use the most. What’s the best conduit to them?
For me — it’s this podcast, the books I write, the annual research we do, the webinars where I can teach longer form, and the videos we share every Sunday.
But there is also another piece to True Fans…and that are the concentric circles of “Lesser Fans.”
This segment of your audience will not purchase everything you produce, and may not seek out direct contact, but they will buy much of what you produce.
The processes you develop to feed your True Fans will also nurture Lesser Fans. As you build your nation of True Fans, you will also add many more Lesser Fans.
And as you are building…don’t avoid…don’t miss the opportunity to go deep…to develop intimacy with your audience…with your true fans.
Onward Nation…that’s one of the reasons I ask for feedback so often.
My team and I legitimately want to get better — but — I also want to hear from you — to get to know you — to learn from you — and to deliver even more value so Onward Nation becomes — and hopefully remains — your most favorite podcast.
Okay…you now have a tangible recipe for building your own nation of true fans — and when you do — your nation will become this amazing, awesome, wonderful, beautiful, incredible community of people who are generous with their feedback and help guide your business in the right direction to deliver value.
Consider Kevin Kelly’s lesson as you build out your cornerstone content. Ask yourself how you can continually add more and more value like Cody Foster and his team at Advisors Excel.
Because when you build your nation — and focus on being helpful not transactions — your business, your team, and your life move onward to a completely new level.
So with that…I want to say thank you again for taking the time to be here with me today.
It’s always an honor to have you here. I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn from today’s top business owners.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation…good or bad…I always want your feedback. That’s how we get better.
Remember — now’s the time to double down — all of the data is on your side.
Until next week — onward with gusto!
Jonathan Silver is Founder and CEO of Affinity Solutions. Affinity is the authoritative source of truth for news outlets, not-for-profits, research firms, and businesses in the US and the only source for purchase insights that can be analyzed by demographic, geographic, lifestyle segment, and political affiliation. Jonathan’s vision is to transform data insights into experiences that improve people’s lives.
What you will learn from this episode:
- Jonathan’s background and his journey into entrepreneurship with Affinity
- How privacy is respected, maintained, and never breached during the data collection process
- Why access to data plays such a profound role in a company’s ability to navigate crises
- How Jonathan was able to pivot his business using data-driven insights as the solution
- The licensing/subscription model Jonathan created for Affinity Solutions
- The skills we need on our team and in our business to make the right decisions using data insights
- Why bringing data solutions to your clients will drastically separate you from your competitors
- How mentorship has paid Jonathan dividends to this day
Resources:
- Website: https://www.affinity.solutions/dataforgood
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-silver-33b456/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AffinitySolutionsWorldwide
- Twitter: @affinitysolutns
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Sean Ammirati co-founded mSpoke, which was the first acquisition of LinkedIn. His next startup was Peak Strategy, which was acquired by Morgan Stanley.
Today, he focuses on being a partner at Birchmere Ventures, where they invest in seed-stage SaaS and marketplace startups. Since its start in 1996, they’ve invested in 135 companies with 51 exits. Sean also teaches entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business.
What you will learn from this episode:
- Sean’s entrepreneurial journey
- The philosophy behind “The Science of Growth: Why Some Companies Scale While Others Stall”
- Why entrepreneurship is more about being obsessive with the problems your customers have than it is about an idea
- Sean’s 3-step framework for how companies scale-up
- How to adapt to a changing marketplace using Sean’s 4 prerequisites
- 4 catalyzing events that can help startups drive growth
- How to vet and evaluate potential capital partners so that you are accepting smart money for your startup
- Why we need a greater number of entrepreneurs now more than ever
Resources:
- Website: http://birchmerevc.com
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanammirati/
- https://www.linkedin.com/company/birchmere-ventures/
- Twitter:
- @SeanAmmirati
- @birchmerevc
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Jacob Morgan is a four-time bestselling author, keynote speaker, and trained futurist who explores leadership, employee experience, and the future of work. He is the founder of FutureofWorkUniversity.com, an online education, and training platform that helps future proof individuals and organizations by teaching them the skills they need to succeed in the future of work. He is also the host of the weekly podcast The Future of Work, where he talks with top-level executives and bestselling authors about everything related to the future of work.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How Jacob’s career journey started with him being a “terrible student”, and why a negative experience with a former boss pushed Jacob into his entrepreneurial journey
- How Jacob’s passion for the future and for leadership became a new career, and how he got certified as a futurist
- Why the six key concepts for the future are AI & technology; the pace of change; the new talent landscape; purpose & meaning; morality, ethics & transparency; and globalization
- Jacob explains these six concepts and shares why each doesn’t stand alone but serve as an interconnected system
- How the average lifespan of a company on the S&P 500 has gone from 60 years in the 1950s to 20 years in 1990 and is expected to drop to just 14 years in 2026
- How the framework of “job, purpose, impact and meaning” offers a guide to achieving your goals and maximizing results as a leader
- Why leaders shouldn’t fear people disagreeing with them but should be more concerned about whether people understand what they stand for in the first place
- What Jacob has determined to be the four mindsets and five skills that business leaders need to master to operate in the future
- How there are two types of challenges for organizations, and how Jacob’s Notable Nine skills can help you overcome both types of challenges
- Jacob shares some surprising research results highlighting aspects of the relationship between employees and their leaders
Resources:
- Jacob’s newest book, The Future Leader, came out earlier this year. It is based on interviews he had with over 140 CEOs around the world, including those from Unilever, Best Buy, Oracle, Dominos, Carnival Cruise Lines, Verizon, and many others. He also partnered with LinkedIn to survey around 14,000 employees. You can get your copy at https://amzn.to/3bkLhdq
- Notable Nine PDF article from Jacob: www.theleadershipdigest.com
- Leadership assessment: www.futureleadersurvey.com
- Leadership course: www.futureleadercourse.com
- Website: https://thefutureorganization.com/
- Email: jacob@thefutureorganization.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jacobmorgan8/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/FuturistJacob
- Twitter: @jacobm
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Cate Stillman, founded Yogahealer.com in 2001, a $1 M+ revenue a year business. Cate is a leader and author in the field of Ayurveda, Peak Performance, and Habits (titles: Body Thrive; Master of You); podcaster with 2M downloads, and global community builder. She runs Yogahealer with her remote team (10 contractors + 40 work studies), so she can ski, surf and run rivers with her family in the Tetons and Mexico.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How Cate recently released her new book, Master of You, and what key information and business skills the book teaches readers
- How Cate’s team became dysfunctional and left her taking over 80% of her team’s work, and how she made a massive change to correct the issue
- How Cate reassembled her team with a diverse and global group of 1099 employees and built a seven-figure “lifestyle business”
- How creating courses and teaching others became cornerstone content that led to Cate’s books, and how the books then feed into an interest in the courses
- How Cate’s wellness business model became another way for her to teach and serve others within the wellness industry
- How the global pandemic has impacted Cate’s business and what silver linings she has been able to identify for her business despite the crisis
- How Cate’s business, at its core, is about helping people and businesses become more adaptable and resilient
- What valuable lessons Cate learned through building her business and during the global pandemic crisis, and how alignment and intentionality were key
- How Cate uses peer mentorship as a cornerstone of her coaching business, and why influencers are powerful resources
- How Cate converted a relatively unsuccessful and unprofitable course she created into the future of her thought leadership cornerstone content
Resources:
- Email: cate@yogahealer.com
- Website: https://yogahealer.com/peak-performance/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cate-stillman/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/yogahealer
- Twitter: @yogahealer
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Tim Cameron-Kitchen is a Digital Marketing expert and Head Ninja at Exposure Ninja. Exposure Ninja works and consults with businesses in every imaginable market around the world, helping them to increase their website rankings, traffic, and profit. Tim has been working in Digital Marketing since 2005, setting up Exposure Ninja in 2012.
Tim’s five bestselling digital marketing books, online courses, seminars, and the Exposure Ninja podcast, teach tens of thousands of businesses each year. Tim is a regular speaker at the B2B Marketing Expo at London’s Excel and at private seminars and workshops.
When he’s not Ninja-ing, Tim’s trying to persuade his son Luca to come to the cricket with him, going to the gym with his wife, or fixing the destruction caused by three cat children, Ninja, Samurai, and Shinobi.
What you will learn from this episode:
- Why the fundamentals of SEO haven’t changed at all since 2012, even if new “flavors” of SEO have come along
- Why the quality of your content is growing to be more important than ever before as Google’s algorithm has evolved over time
- Why posting content without a clear content strategy is the biggest mistake businesses are making in their SEO today
- How the three stages a person will go through when searching for content (curiosity, research, and intent) differ, and why it is important to target people at the right stage
- Why just a few posts will drive the majority of your blog traffic, and how creating a volume of posts is important for creating a few truly powerful posts
- Why having dedicated pages devoted to specific topics is more effective than catchall pages, and why long articles full of interesting content can be highly effective
- Why mapping out potential questions prospects would have about your business can help you determine what content to create to address those questions
- How consulting with your sales team can help you better understand what questions prospects are commonly asking and can give you guidance on your content
- Tim shares strategies for turning your content into more leads and potential customer conversions
- How creating content around trending topics within the news cycle can be a powerful way to be helpful to new audiences
Resources:
- Website: https://exposureninja.com/
- YouTube: www.youtube.com/exposureninja
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/timcameronkitchen/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/exposure-ninja/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/ExposureNinja
- Twitter: @timninjakitchen
- Twitter: @ExposureNinja
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority book written by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library
- Connect with Stephen Woessner on LinkedIn
Chris Prefontaine is the best-selling author of Real Estate on Your Terms: Create Continuous Cash Flow Now, Without Using Your Cash or Credit. He’s also the founder of SmartRealEstateCoach.com and the Smart Real Estate Coach Podcast.
Chris has been in real estate for over 25 years. His experience includes the construction of over 100 single-family and duplex homes (mostly in the 1990’s and selectively to date), has owned a Realty Executives Franchise (Massachusetts 1994-2000) as broker/owner which maintained high per-agent standards and eventually sold to Coldwell Banker in 2000. The 2000’s included coaching ½ million and higher REALTORs® in order to scale & automate their business throughout the US and Canada. He also participated (and still does selectively) in doing condo conversions (multi-family homes to condos) and “raise the roof” projects (converting single-family ranches to colonials in growth neighborhoods).
Chris has been a big advocate of constant education and participates regularly in high-end mastermind groups, as well as consults with private mentors. He runs his own buying and selling businesses with his family team, which buys 2-5 properties monthly, so they’re in the trenches every single week. They also help clients do the same thing around the country.
Chris and his family team have done over 80 million in real estate transactions. They mentor, coach, consult, and actually partner with students around the country (by application only) to do exactly what they do.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How Chris’s struggles during the 2008 economic crash taught him some painful and difficult lessons about guaranteeing his deals with personal credit
- How Chris and his team stuck to their specific niche and requirements regardless of the other areas they could have moved into, and why it matters
- Why firmly planting his flag in the real estate terms niche has positioned him to teach others, especially during these uncertain times
- Why times of crisis are the ideal times to double down on your expertise and be helpful to your audience
- How Chris developed his “stacking” philosophy, and how stacking his tasks and goals helps Chris and his family team continue to move the needle
- How Chris’s theme this year is “bridging the gap”, and how helping people address the gap between themselves and their audience has been key
- Why it is important to find what you love, get passionate about it, then find someone who is experienced with it and learn from them as much as you can
- Why planting your flag of authority can help differentiate you from your competition, establish trust, demonstrate your value, and spread your message
- How Chris teaches his real estate terms deal students to plant their flags as well, and why consistency is vital for planting your flag
- How Chris made the transition from developing his methods to teaching others, and how sharing his own story helped him connect with others
Resources:
- LIVE Event September 16-18, 2020: www.qlslive.com
- Website: http://smartrealestatecoach.com/
- Smart Real Estate Coach podcast: https://smartrealestatecoachpodcast.com/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrisprefontaine/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/smart-real-estate-coach/about/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/smartrealestatecoach/
- Twitter: @SmartRECoach
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority book written by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library
- Connect with Stephen Woessner on LinkedIn
Fernando Angulo is Head of Communications at SEMrush. He has been with SEMrush since the beginning of the company’s marketing efforts and has built its all-star marketing team. Being one of the most recognized faces of the brand, Fernando is speaking at 50+ top conferences worldwide each year. Fernando specializes in B2B search marketing, e-commerce, influencer marketing, and trained marketing teams of companies such as Expedia, T-mobile, Prestashop, and Bing.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How Fernando started out at SEMrush when the team was small, and how the company has now grown to over a thousand people in multiple countries
- How SEMrush expanded beyond their two main tools (keyword search and analytics) as search engine optimization (SEO) has grown more complex
- How SEMrush has recently achieved the new milestone of six million users from just 100,000 users
- How the SEMrush platform grew and expanded to meet the increasingly diverse needs of the company’s growing customer base
- How SEO has become more complicated to achieve as internet user expectations have changed, and how SEMrush addresses this complexity by focusing on the user
- How 20% of your time should be devoted to creating helpful content and then the remaining 80% of your time should be spent featuring and promoting that content
- How there are three main types of featured snippets in Google search results: paragraph, list and table featured snippets, and how to correctly structure each type
- Fernando breaks down important key words that users often use and shares how these words indicate how you should structure your results
- How to tailor your snippet search results for voice search, and how to position your site to land the coveted featured snippet position
- Why building a well-equipped marketing team requires equipping that team with the best technology and tools
Resources:
- Website: www.semrush.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/fernandoangulo/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/semrush/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/SEMrush
- Twitter: @Fernando1Angulo
- Twitter: @semrush
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority book written by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library
- Connect with Stephen Woessner on LinkedIn
Menlo Innovations CEO Rich Sheridan became disillusioned in the middle of his career in the chaotic technology industry. He had an all-consuming thought: things can be better. Much better. He had to find a way. Why couldn’t a workplace be filled with camaraderie, human energy, creativity, and productivity?
Ultimately, Rich co-founded Menlo Innovations in 2001 to end human suffering in the workplace. His unique approach to custom software creation is so surprisingly different, that 3,000 people a year travel from around the world just to see how they do it.
His passion for creating joyful work environments led to his bestselling and widely celebrated book, Joy, Inc. – How We Built a Workplace People Love. His highly anticipated second book, Chief Joy Officer, came out December 4, 2018 and will continue to prove that a positive and engaging leadership style is actually good for business.
What you will learn from this episode:
- Richard shares the story of Menlo Innovations and its focus on ending human suffering in the workplace by spreading joy
- What the 5000+ visitors to Menlo Innovations have seen that sets the company’s culture in a league of its own
- How the global pandemic has impacted Menlo Innovations, and how their powerful culture helped them make the transition to being a 100% virtual office
- How the team adapted to using remote work tools like Zoom and were able to maintain their unique culture even remotely
- How the team developed a sequence to navigate the crisis: survive, adapt, sustain, emerge stronger, and thrive again
- How the outbreak of the pandemic took Richard by surprise and was difficult to adapt to, and why it’s natural to struggle through difficulties
- Why Richard wrote Chief Joy Officer, the follow up to Joy, Inc., and what important topics he covers in the new book
- Why the intentionally joyful culture at Menlo is helping the organization maintain optimism through these difficult times, and why joy isn’t the same as happiness
- Why Richard feels the two strongest aspects of the culture at Menlo are that the team actually believes in it and that they want it to survive
- How Richard equates leading a business with flying an airplane, with forces of lift vs. weight and thrust vs. drag applying to businesses too
Resources:
- Chief Joy Officer by Richard Sheridan: https://amzn.to/2XSv1KW
- Email: rsheridan@menloinnovations.com
- Schedule a tour of Menlo: email experience@menloinnovations.com or visit https://menloinnovations.com/tours-and-workshops/factory-tours
- Website: https://richardsheridan.com/
- Website: https://menloinnovations.com/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/menloprez/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/menlo-innovations/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/menloinnovations/
- Twitter: @menloprez
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority book written by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library
- Connect with Stephen Woessner on LinkedIn
Good Morning Onward Nation – I’m Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and your host.
Thanks for coming back — it’s an honor to have you here, Onward Nation — and this episode is going to be a solocast…where it’s just you and me…taking a deep dive into a topic where I’ve been answering a lot of questions in my daily calls and meetings with business owners just like you.
In addition — several weeks ago — we aired Episode 936 which was my interview with Shay Rowbottom — one of today’s foremost influencers on how to crack the LinkedIn code in order to gain more visibility and to build community.
And the feedback we received from you, Onward Nation made me think it was time to focus a solocast around LinkedIn — but in a super specific way so that you could walk away with specific strategies and steps for filling your sales pipeline with an abundance of right fit prospects.
My thought is — that if you and I could have that type of strategic yet tactical discussion…and we could do that in August…you’d have one more arrow in your lead gen quiver and be ready to make the remainder of 2020 as fruitful and profitable as possible.
So that’s what you and I are going to cover in this solocast…how to effectively use LinkedIn like a pro so you and your team can generate a steady stream of well-prepared prospects so that you have a full pipeline as we step into the final 4-months of the year.
Before we dig in…I want to first make sure that we have a brief discussion around expectations.
Generating leads is not hard work…in fact…it is simple work…especially when you have the right recipe to follow, which I am going to share with you in full transparency in this solocast.
But…just because the work is simple does not mean it is easy.
In fact, I can almost certainly guarantee that you or someone on your team will be frustrated at the beginning because you don’t see immediate success.
You may even pound your first on your conference room table and wonder why the results are not better — or — you may get upset at your sales team for what seems to be a lack of productivity.
The key is — to get out there and start testing for yourself the recipe that I’m going to share with you in this episode.
You need to get as many at bats as you can. And if you strike out — to realize that that’s okay — that that’s too be expected — and you get up, dust yourself off, and you step back into the batter’s box to get ready for another swing.
Because the more at bats you have — the more opportunities you have to make adjustments — to make improvements — and to perfect your swing.
Case in point…let’s take a look at Derek Jeter…arguably the greatest New York Yankee to ever wear the pinstripes.
Jeter is a lock to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer with his long list of impressive accomplishments including five World Series Championship rings
But…what most people don’t know about Derek Jeter is that of all players in Major League Baseball history, he is number 12 on the all-time list of total strikeouts.
In fact, Jeter struck out 1,840 times during his 20-year career.
To say that another way…there have only been 11 people in the history of baseball who struck out and failed more often than Derek Jeter.
So in baseball terms, Jeter failed 1,840 times – but yet – he continued to get up there – to take another at-bat – and he kept on swinging.
And through it all – he recorded 3,461 hits, which is 6th all time and he finished 11 of his 20 seasons with a batting average of .300 or better.
A Hall of Fame resume to be sure.
He never got up to the plate – struck out – and then headed back to the dugout and said, “Well, Skipper — I guess I don’t have what it takes to play ball after all. Thanks for having me but I’m hanging up my cleats.”
To minimize your strikeouts — I’m going to coach you through the right recipe for success…so that you not only have the ingredients you will need…but…you will also have the process so you know what ingredient to blend in and when.
That way — all you need to do is follow the recipe and then rinse and repeat.
Sound fair?
First…some quick words as to why we love LinkedIn as much as we do…and why it should be the cornerstone of your lead gen strategy.
There are approximately 706 million LinkedIn members — yes, 706 million.
And according to research done by Hubspot — LinkedIn is 277% more effective than Facebook and Twitter at generating leads. And 79% of marketers see LinkedIn as a very good source of leads with 43% of marketers saying they have sourced at least one customer from LinkedIn. And B2B marketers shared with Hubspot that 80% of their social media related leads came from LinkedIn.
Next…want to guess the average number of LinkedIn connections for a CEO?
- Interesting.
Why?
Because if 930 is the average — some are higher — some are lower — but you tend not to get 930 connections by accident — you work at it — so if someone has 930 connections — it is likely intentional.
Meaning, LinkedIn is a platform that he or she values — and a place where they spend time — that is great news for you.
Okay, next…some additional insight into why you should care about LinkedIn…27 percent of all members are between the ages of 30 and 49…and another 24 percent are 50 to 64 years old…and 13 percent are over the age of 65.
So to say that another way…over 64 percent of LinkedIn members are over the age of 30…and 38 percent of total members earn $75,000 or more per year.
Bottom line…there are 706 million people on LinkedIn…64 percent of them are over the age of 30…and 38 percent earn more than $75,000 per year…with the average CEO having 930 connections on the platform.
All of that speaks to your opportunity of finding and connecting with the prospects who can fill your sales pipeline, Onward Nation.
Okay — let’s press forward by reviewing the seven ingredients within our recipe.
Our recipe for how to effectively use LinkedIn to fill your sales pipeline consists of seven core ingredients.
I’m going to share the full list with you — and then we will go back and dissect each one.
Ingredient #1: Improve your LinkedIn profile by adding video / audio clips, value proposition, etc. to your Summary.
Ingredient #2: Import your existing email list in LinkedIn and send connection requests.
Ingredient #3: Build your prospect list using LinkedIn’s advanced lead gen tools like Sales Navigator.
Ingredient #4: Send InMail messages to your top prospects — and be sure to speak the language of your “client avatar.”
Okay — let’s dive in and go tree-by-tree so you can see all of the tactical ingredients of this recipe.
Ingredient #1 is all about making sure your LinkedIn profile is not just good — but that it is excellent — dare I say optimized.
Why does this matter?
Because when you send InMail messages as part of Ingredient #4…the very first place your recipients — your prospective clients will go to learn more about you — is your LinkedIn profile.
And if your profile is sparsely populated with value propositions, your connections count is low, you haven’t taken the time to include a quality profile picture, you have zero recommendations, etc. — then it looks like you don’t care.
And if you look like you don’t care — they won’t either — and they won’t respond to you.
Maybe your InMail was just spam — you are ignored — and they move on.
Or, if you take the time to include audio and video clips, Slide Shares of recent presentations you delivered, links to articles you have written recently, blog posts, recommendations from current clients — it not only takes advantage of all the profile building tools that LinkedIn provides you — but — you also visually demonstrate your thought leaderships and expertise to your prospective clients — and that is a very good thing.
Now when they receive your InMail message as part of Ingredient #4 — they move from skeptical questions like “Why did she send me this?” to “Oh, interesting…they would like to talk with me? Awesome.”
Think of your LinkedIn profile as your personal landing page and it needs to be excellent — just like everything else in your business.
And — at Predictive ROI — my team and I have been experimenting with long-form LinkedIn posts…typically about 800 to 1,000 characters…with a bold headline that includes a search term…and we have seen Google indexing this content and ranking well in search results.
So — you’ve undoubtedly heard people talk about “optimizing” your LinkedIn profile for search…yep, it’s a thing.
Okay — this is going to sound self promotional…and hopefully you know me well enough now to know…that I’m only mentioning this to give you a good tangible example.
Go to LinkedIn and look me up — send me a connection request…and you will see illustrations of each step I just shared with you.
Now on to Ingredient #2 — import your existing email list into LinkedIn and send connection requests.
To make sure we’re on the same page here — I’m talking about taking your email list — the list you communicate with often — consisting of customers, prospects, your full community of email subscribers — people with whom you have a relationship — and then uploading that list into your LinkedIn account and inviting them to connect with you on LinkedIn.
But why?
First…when you increase your number of LinkedIn connections — your network and credibility grows. Instead of having several hundred connections — you move to several thousand or more.
And the next time a prospective client checks out your LinkedIn profile — they may see the larger number — and for some people — the larger the number — the more impressive and more credible.
Second…your number of 1st-degree connections in LinkedIn impacts the number of prospects you will be able to see during Ingredient #3 of this process — when you use LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator tool.
To cement this into place — let’s quickly review what LinkedIn defines as 1st degree, 2nd degree, and 3rd-degree connections.
A 1st-degree connection on LinkedIn is — let’s say you are listening to this solocast — you like what you hear — and decide to send me a connection request on LinkedIn — and by the way — you should totally do that!
Anyway — when I receive the request — I personally accept it.
And so you and I become 1st-degree connections. Rock solid awesome!
Now, here’s what’s interesting. My nearly 27,000 1st degree connections instantly become your 2nd-degree connections. And all of my 2nd-degree connections become your 3rd-degree connections.
Again, why is that important?
Well, back to my connections…my 26,000 1st connections theoretically extrapolates out to a total network of 680 million people when considering 1st degree, 2nd degree, and 3rd-degree connections.
Yes, 680 million…which means I can roughly see just about everyone in LinkedIn.
HOLY BANANAS!
I can search through a huge number of people during Ingredient #3 in finding our ideal prospects we might want to reach out to.
So, Onward Nation, building your number of 1st-degree connections is essential to your success on LinkedIn — and uploading your email list and sending out connection requests is a quick and easy way to boost your connection count — and the size of your network — with a couple mouse clicks.
Very powerful.
Here’s how you complete the step. And unfortunately, LinkedIn does not make this process very intuitive or easy. But — hang with me…here’s how you do it.
Click the “My Network” tab in the main navigation. You will then be taken to a screen that on the left side reads “Connections” at the top left column all the way down to “Hashtags” as the last open in the left menu.
Click on the first option…”Connections.”
From this screen — this is where it gets wonky.
On the far left…you should see an option that reads… “Your contact import is ready. Connect with your contacts and never lose touch.”
And you should see a button underneath that reads “Connect”.
Click connect.
Next you will be taken to a screen that shows a list of a whole bunch of people from your contact list, etc. that are on LinkedIn…and LinkedIn is offering to send a bulk connect request to them.
Click the little check box in the upper left — and then the blue “Add Connections” button and by doing so — you will invite hundreds if not thousands of new people into your network.
Awesome…but we’re not done yet.
The next screen will give you a list of people who you know who are not yet using LinkedIn…and LinkedIn is asking you for permission to email them on your behalf to entice them to join LinkedIn.
To me — that feels a bit yucky — so I recommend that you click the “Skip” button.
Okay — then finally…we have almost arrived to what I actually wanted to show you.
When you skip the last step…you will receive a screen with a headline that reads, “Didn’t see anyone you wanted to invite?”
Well — at the bottom…in hard to read gray text…is a link that reads “Done for now.”
And when you click the “Done for Now” link…the magic happens.
You will be taken to a screen where you can do several things…you can connect LinkedIn to your email service and it will pull out your list of contacts for you…awesome.
Or — from this screen…you can also upload your email list and send connection requests to all of them instantly.
BOOM!
Okay, back to lead gen and Ingredient #3: How to build your prospect list using LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator Tool.
Sales Navigator is a premium version of LinkedIn — but and my guess this happens to you a lot, too — I am often offered the opportunity to upgrade from the Free version of LinkedIn into one of the premium versions several times of year.
And when we have a major biz dev push or campaign taking place — we definitely make the upgrade. But for maintaining your profile and sharing your thought leadership content — LinkedIn’s free version works just fine.
So let’s do a quick tour of Sales Navigator.
From within this powerful tool…you will be able to search through your entire network of connections using several powerful filters, such as:
- Keywords
- First Name
- Last Name
- Title
- Company Name
- Location — or mile radius from your office or location
And then you can take it deeper and make your searches more refined by including your prospect’s years of experience, their function within their particular company, seniority level, what they are interested in, company size, and so forth.
By taking the time to get specific about your prospect — you leverage LinkedIn’s database — to deliver back to you a list of prospects who match your criteria and you eliminate the time wasting of sending direct mail to a purchased list and hoping for a better result outcome than the last campaign.
So let’s say that in your first attempt — LinkedIn returns a list of 100 people.
You can then click on the profiles of each person (see — Ingredient #1 is really important) and from their profile — you can better determine if he or she is a good fit for your lead gen efforts.
If yes, add the person and their details to an Excel or Google Sheet so you can keep a running list of who you have reached out to…and no…LinkedIn does not offer any sort of automated CRM functionality.
This is tedious work — I get it — but — it is also where the rubber meets the road in the success of your business and it will fill your sales pipeline.
Okay, so I’m going to assume you did all of the work you needed to do up to this point. You have built a solid profile — you expanded your LinkedIn network by leveraging your email list — and being smart — to also reverse the process and cross-pollinate your connections back into your email list…and now…you have mastered the Advanced People Search tool with the resulting outcome being — a highly targeted prospect list — perhaps the most targeted list you and your sales team have ever had.
So now what?
Ingredient #4 is next.
Crafting your InMail message and sending it to each of the people on the list you just created.
There are seven sub-ingredients, if you will, that make up the InMail message…and they are:
- Include the first name of the recipient in subject line
- Your first 255 critical characters need to be awesome
- Speak to your “Avatar”
- Include credibility indicator(s)
- Include a client testimonial
- Include a call-to-action – reason for your prospect to reply to your message
- Include your email signature
In today’s show notes — I included an actual InMail message — a template — you can use to create your own.
Please use it.
My Predictive ROI team has sent thousands and thousands and thousands of InMail messages on behalf of our client’s lead gen efforts — as well as for our biz dev — and the template we included in today’s Show Notes is the resulting outcome of all that testing and hard work.
You will dramatically shorten your learning curve by using the template.
One last point about the InMail and the template you will see in the Show Notes — there is a reference to “speaking to your client avatar.” And yes, we have a recipe for that, too.
If you go to our free Resources Library at PredictiveROI.com/Resources you will be able to download our free workbook on how to create your ideal client avatar.
Having and mastering this knowledge is a must in writing effective InMails.
Before we close out for today…I’d like to leave you with a couple of important thoughts.
Now that you have learned the recipe – and have seen the typical result outcomes – there are two questions you and your team need to answer.
First…how will we take immediate action based on what you learned here today?
How will you apply it right away to fill your pipeline?
And that leads to the ultimate question.
Are you committed…or are you just interested in having a steady stream of well-prepared prospects flowing into your sales pipeline?
Being committed means knowing exactly how much new business you are seeking, from what sources, and having a strategy in place to fill the pipeline to get it.
Let me share a quick story about Coach Nick Saban from the University of Alabama – who, in my opinion, represents the epitome of being committed.
Alabama is consistently one of the top-ranked teams in college football each year. They were the 2015 National Champion and played again this year for the title but lost to Clemson.
Coach Saban’s reputation is one of precise detail and process.
And once he uncovers a “recipe” for success…he uses it over and over again.
But he also freely shares his secrets without fear that his competitors will be able to duplicate his results.
How is this possible?
Case in point…my good friend, mentor, and three-time guest on Onward Nation, Don Yaeger, interviewed Coach Saban as they considered writing a book together.
During one of Don’s visits with Coach, he asked if there was a secret formula or recipe that gave Saban an edge to recruiting the best talent out of high school year-after-year.
Coach told Don that his recipe is simple. He committed himself to watching every single play that any of their 85 scholarship athletes every played while in high school.
Every play…so he could evaluate talent, effort, and other qualities.
Let’s just think about the magnitude of that for a minute.
Alabama has 85 scholarship athletes…who likely played at least 2-years of high school football…at 10 games per year in high school…and many high school players play both offense and defense during a game, so let’s call it 100 plays per game.
All totaled, Coach Saban watches film on 170,000 plays to make his recruiting decisions.
It is an overwhelming number, right?
How could anyone do that? But Coach Saban does.
And the resulting outcome is that Alabama is consistently the best on the field each year.
So Don asked him, “Coach…aren’t you worried that if we put your secret recipe into this book that people will steal it from you?”
And Saban looked at Don and said, “Nope…not worried at all. Because no one is going to be willing to put in the same amount of effort that I am willing to commit to our success.”
Don’t give up
So my hope is that you don’t leave this solocast thinking – yeah, I knew LinkedIn could do that. My challenge to you is…but is your business doing it?
And as Tony Robbins says…“A real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken a new action. If there’s no action, you haven’t truly decided.”
So I hope you will decide to put this sales pipeline-building recipe into action and then please drop me a line and let me know about your success.
So with that said, Onward Nation…
I want to say again, thank you for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here — your time is sacred and I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
However our daily podcast fits into your daily routine — I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
Remember — now’s the time to double down. The data is on your side.
Onward with gusto!
Robbie Kellman Baxter has been advising entrepreneurs on business strategy for 20 years. Her clients have included solopreneurs and venture-backed startups as well as industry leaders such as ASICS, Netflix, Electronic Arts, and The Wall Street Journal. She has worked with nearly 100 organizations in over 20 industries on growth initiatives.
A sought-after writer and keynote speaker, Robbie has presented at top universities, associations and corporations, as well as to corporate boards and leadership teams around the world. Robbie has created and starred in 10 video courses in collaboration with LinkedIn Learning on business topics ranging from innovation to customer success and membership.
As the author of The Membership Economy: Find Your Superusers, Master the Forever Transaction & Build Recurring Revenue, a book that has been named a top 5 Marketing Book of the Year by Inc.com, Robbie coined the popular business term “Membership Economy”. Robbie’s expertise with companies in the emerging Membership Economy extends to include SaaS, media, consumer products and community organizations.
Prior to launching Peninsula Strategies, Robbie was a strategy consultant at Booz-Allen, a New York City Urban Fellow and a Silicon Valley product marketer. Robbie received her MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and graduated with honors from Harvard College.
What you will learn from this episode:
- Why membership and subscription plans are becoming ubiquitous across almost all industries and types of organizations
- What key trends Robbie is identifying around subscription models, and why subscriptions offer greater value to customers even for physical products
- Why embedding a “forever promise” into your long-term strategy is vital for helping you refocus your business, and how to achieve product/market fit and scale your model
- Why periodically reviewing how you are delivering on your promise is necessary to ensure that you’re doing so in the most effective way
- What common pitfalls to watch out for, anticipate, and avoid when setting up a subscription model
- Why a “dashboard of metrics” can offer you better insights into where your opportunities for improving engagement can be found
- Why identifying your problems and challenges using intentionality and strategy is the secret to providing great value for your membership
- Robbie shares the story of the founders of LinkedIn’s first business, a dating website, and the issues they had with a “short term promise” business model
- How to navigate the infinitely complex issue of pricing, and how to change your pricing in a transparent way
- How to avoid the trap of “subscription fatigue” with your customers by delivering the right amount of unique value, and why hiding your cancel button is a huge mistake
Resources:
- The Forever Transaction by Robbie Kellman Baxter: https://amzn.to/3hLjsNh
- Website: https://robbiekellmanbaxter.com/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/robbiekellmanbaxter
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/MembershipEconomy/
- Twitter: @robbiebax
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority book written by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library
- Connect with Stephen Woessner on LinkedIn
With over 20 years of real estate experience, Chad Heeter is building a family-run real estate investing company based in beautiful Buena Vista, Colorado.
Chad Heeter grew up in a Kansas City real estate family. At 7 years old, he was pulling weeds and picking up trash around the 30+ rental properties that his dad owned. Soon, he was promoted to mowing lawns and painting. Years later, Chad continued on his own, purchasing and rehabbing his own rental properties. After his wife, Elizabeth, passed away in 2017 after 16 years of marriage, Chad needed to focus on raising his children on his own. He decided to get back into real estate investing, something he could manage while the kids were in school.
Not long after, Chad was introduced to Chris Prefontaine and the National Property Team. He’s proud to be connected to this incredible group of investors who are working to build win/win relationships by solving problems that many home sellers face, as well as helping home buyers achieve their dream of owning a home.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How Chad is the third generation of his family to invest in real estate, and how he got bitten by the real estate bug as a kid helping his dad with his own business
- How losing his wife to cancer in 2016 caused tremendous and painful challenges for Chad and his family, and how real estate has been the ideal vehicle to help find himself
- How Chad initially connected with master real estate investor and coach Chris Prefontaine through his Smart Real Estate Coach podcast
- Chad shares a painful story of his then ten-year-old son giving his sick mother water using a syringe
- Why Chad believes there’s value in sharing his story of loss and hope with others and forming genuine connections
- How the global pandemic and uncertain economy has impacted Chad’s investment business and the broader real estate market
- How Chad’s home sale model creates a powerful option for business owners and other self-employed professionals that may even make them more money than a traditional sale
- How buyers can build their own equity in a property while they’re getting their finances in order to buy, giving business owners a proven payment track record as well
- What Chad would say to those who may be skeptical of a real estate “terms” deal structure, especially business owners who may be looking to buy or sell
- What important lesson Chad learned from a mentor about asking questions, failing, and keeping going despite obstacles
Resources:
- Website: http://buffalopeakpropertysolutions.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chadheeter/
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Mark Willis is a man on a mission to help you think differently about your money, your economy and your future. After graduating with six figures of student loan debt and discovering a way to turn his debt into real wealth as he watched everybody lose their retirement savings and home equity in 2008, he knew that he needed to find a more predictable way to meet his financial objectives and those of his clients.
Mark is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER, a two-time #1 Best Selling Author and the owner of Lake Growth Financial Services, a financial firm in Chicago, Illinois. Over the years, he has helped hundreds of his clients take back control of their financial future and build their businesses with proven, tax-efficient financial solutions. He specializes in building custom-tailored financial strategies that are unknown to typical stock-jockeys, attorneys, or other financial gurus.
As co-host of the Not Your Average Financial Podcast, he shares some of his strategies for investing in real estate, paying for college without going broke, and creating an income in retirement you won’t outlive. Mark works with people who want to grow their wealth in ways that are safe and predictable, to become their own source of financing, and create tax-free income in retirement.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How Mark and his wife entered the 2008 recession with six figures of student loan debt and how Mark recognized the urgent need to make some big financial changes
- How our financial habits have turned upside down as we stopped saving money and instead went into significant debt
- How our need for a new financial strategy resulted in Mark's "Bank On Yourself" strategy, and how Bank On Yourself works
- Why one of the most important and fundamental realizations Mark came to is that our money behaves differently depending upon where we put it
- Why liquidity is critical to help you get through challenging times, and why keeping your capital in the right place can help you prepare for the next economic crash
- Why high cash value, dividend-paying whole life insurance is the secret ingredient in steady, predictable growth in your portfolio and can give you immediate access to cash
- How you can borrow against a policy and it will continue to grow as if you hadn't borrowed funds from it, allowing your money to do two things at once
- Why borrowing money against your insurance to pay for something is actually better than paying cash
- What key considerations make an insurance policy a powerful financial asset for your business and your family at the same time
- How your policy can be a "warehouse for your wealth", housing your money outside of your business but not away from your business
Resources:
- Website: http://nyafinancialpodcast.com/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/marklakegrowth/
Additional Resources:
-
Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x18
-
Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
A marketing strategist for over 30 years, Susan Baier founded Audience Audit in 2009 to help organizations understand their best audiences based on attitudes and needs rather than just demographics or purchase behavior. She develops custom segmentation research for marketers and agencies around the world, supporting their efforts to create marketing initiatives that are more relevant, more efficient, and more impactful.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How Susan and her team conduct studies and use the organic data they have collected to identify common, shared attitudes between respondents and identify patterns
- Susan breaks down the four categories of thought leader audience and shares how they came to these identification labels
- How the information discovered through the study can be used to better identify, reach, and be helpful and relevant to your audience
- How the results indicated that 62% of people surveyed would be more likely to recommend a business service provider if that provider is also a thought leader
- What key lessons the results from the survey offer about the importance of thought leadership, marketing, and their impact
- Why trust is a vital key for connecting with your audience and all four categories of thought leader audiences
- Why saying that you are a thought leader doesn’t mean you actually are, regardless of your audience or your content, and why trust is the determining factor
- Why it is important to remember that you can’t be an expert at everything and that you need to focus on your niche
- Why navigating times of crisis successfully requires a “relentless focus” on your target audience and being helpful
- How tailoring your message to each of the four distinct groups can help you engage your audience better and can help your message resonate
Resources:
- Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report: Trust and the Coronavirus: https://bit.ly/2OJNapv
- Website: https://audienceaudit.com/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/susanbaieraz/
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
B. Jeffrey Madoff is the founder of Madoff Productions, based in New York City. Madoff is considered a storyteller and incisive interviewer. He has used those talents to help position major brands such as Ralph Lauren, Victoria’s Secret, Radio City Music Hall, Harvard School for Public Health, Weill Cornell Medical College and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts to name a few.
Madoff began his career as a fashion designer. He was chosen one of the top 10 designers in the U.S. then switched careers to film and video production. He has since expanded his reach to include teaching, book and playwriting, and theatrical producing.
He is an adjunct professor at Parsons School for Design, teaching a course he developed called Creativity: Making a Living with Your Ideas. Every week Madoff has a conversation with a guest from a wide variety of fields, from artists and entrepreneurs to venture capitalists and business leaders. A book about his class, entitled Creative Careers: Making a Living with Your Ideas, is being released June 16, 2020 by the Hachette Book Group.
Madoff has been a featured speaker at Wharton School, NYU Steinhardt, North Carolina State, SXSW Brazil, Vision Summit, Rise: Barclay’s Bank Accelerator, XRB Labs, Mastermind Group, Google Next and many others.
He has written and is producing a play based on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame legend, Lloyd Price. Its world premiere will be at People’s Light Theater in May of 2021.
Madoff graduated with honors from the University of Wisconsin with degrees in philosophy & psychology. Madoff was also on the wrestling team, which combined with his academic studies prepared him for a life in the film and theater business.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How Jeff got involved in the design and manufacturing of clothing, and how his career journey taught him key lessons he was able to apply to other businesses as well
- How Jeff’s New York experience began with a buying position for the company he worked for
- How Jeff overcame the fear of moving to New York and starting out with no job or housing, and why he chose to take a chance on himself in spite of the risk
- Why not being paralyzed and instead having the courage to pivot and go after what you truly want, especially in light of the global pandemic, is critical
- Why Jeff felt compelled to write his book, Creative Careers, and why he chose to name his book after the college course he was teaching
- Why Jeff believes “creativity” deserves a much broader definition than it gets, and why he defines it as “the compelling need to affect change”
- What key concepts Jeff wrote about in his book, including learning how to overcome obstacles and developing your perseverance
- Why Jeff views his parents as his most important mentors, teaching him how to value people and treat them well
- How a great early work experience taught Jeff important lessons about business and leadership
Resources:
- Creative Careers by B. Jeffrey Madoff: https://amzn.to/3fwcuLk
- Website: www.acreativecareer.com
- Website: https://madoffproductions.com/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/b-jeffrey-madoff-5baa8074/
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/acreativecareer/
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Mike Makredes is from Fresno, California. He has been in sales all his professional life, and currently working in the Ag industry for the largest melon, broccoli, and corn grower in the US. He handles sales for over 12 million cases ($150 million) of produce per year.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How Mike’s family’s sacrifice, splitting up the family to move to the US from Greece to build a better life for their kids, pushed him to build a legacy for his family
- How the residential real estate market today differs from the market after the 2008 crash, and how Mike’s real estate investing business has evolved
- Why now is a great time to sell your home, even despite the global pandemic, as some markets are at all-time highs and supply and demand seem to be stable
- Mike defines a “terms deal” and explains how it benefits sellers while also helping buyers who wouldn’t necessarily qualify for a mortgage loan today
- How Mike and his team value residential property, and how the added time a buyer receives from a terms deal can help build up their credit and a positive track record
- Why business owners specifically often find it challenging to prove their ability to pay a traditional loan, and why terms deals may be ideal for home-buying business owners
- How selling a home through terms can save you as much as 9-15% of the value of your house that you would lose through fees and commissions by selling traditionally
- Why a staggering 80% of people wouldn’t be able to prequalify or qualify for a traditional mortgage right now
- How Mike’s terms business allows him to market to a much larger buyer pool than sellers would be able to through a traditional real estate agent
- Why “rent-to-own” often has a negative connotation, and how Mike and his team structure their deals to benefit and protect everyone involved as much as possible
Resources:
- Website: http://mtmpropertysolutions.com/
- Email: mike@mtmpropertysolutions.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/michael-makredes-8359211aa/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/MTM-Property-Solutions-Inc-1410920649238036/
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Good Morning Onward Nation — I’m Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and your host. Thanks very much for taking the time — please know — it’s always an honor to have you here.
Today’s episode is going to be a solocast — where it will be just you and me exploring a topic with some real depth. And this episode is Part 2 of the solocast from several weeks ago that I entitled, “How to Market Your Way through the Crisis.”
If you missed that episode — click here to listen to Part I.
I will start off with a quick refresher of the highlights from Part 1 and then we will take a deep dive into what I wanted to share with you today so that you can continue marketing your way through the crisis — and — to put yourself in the very best position possible to come roaring out the other side.
In Part 1 — I shared a number of 3rd-party research sources that showed the importance of not freezing in place as a result of the crisis…how to keep you imaginative skills running at full capacity…and…that the companies who came roaring out of the last 6 recessions where the ones who made progressive decisions and were not prevention-focused.
The progressive companies smartly reduced operating expenses in order to boost financial efficiency — and — 75% of the companies did not reduce the workforce because they realized that to do so…would mean cutting into the muscle of the operation and would negatively affect their ability to come roaring out…when the economy was on the rebound.
Instead — the progressive companies doubled down by making significant investments in R&D, marketing, equipment, facilities, and a variety of other strategic investments. I shared multiple examples back in Part 1…Episode 933 in case you want to look it up in your listening app…and again…the link is in today’s show notes.
We also took a deep dive into the forms of marketing where progressive companies made their investments. Because what they didn’t do was spent loosely on advertising or other sorts of broad promotional tactics. Instead — they focused their efforts around strategies that would help them build trust in their brands…plant their flag of authority even deeper in the niches and industries they served.
Which was super smart and synced up perfectly with the recent research study that my Predictive ROI team conducted alongside our research partner, Susan Baier, founder of Audience Audit. There is — without a doubt — a direct financial correlation between your authority position and financial ROI.
And much of that is due to the critical importance your prospects and clients place on TRUST.
So let’s peel this back a little bit more so we can explore it.
We are entering the era of the authority. While you may already be tired of the phrase of “thought leader”, the truth is there aren’t that many of them…and there are even fewer occupying that status in the niches you and your team serve.
Thought leaders don’t write content that any other agency, coach, or consultant could claim. Thought leaders don’t write about anything and everything — and thought leaders don’t compete on price.
And their time — your time — is now. Why am I saying that so definitely?
For the last 20-years — the global PR agency, Edelman has conducted research that examines who and what consumers trust and how that trust influences buying behaviors.
I shared some of the results of their special March study during my Market Your Way Through the Crisis webinar several weeks ago…
But if you weren’t able to attend — you can find the free replay here and I also included the full slide deck…all 199 slides that I used. No email required — happy to share it with you and your team.
Some of the biggest takeaway’s from Edelman’s research is that consumers assign a high level of trust to people they believe are “just like me.”
When you think about how ratings, reviews, and influencers affect their audiences — you can see the power of that belief.
Now — it’s also important to not get hung up on the fact that the study involved 33,000 CONSUMERS from 27 countries.
First off — that’s a huge sampling of people — and second — even if you are selling B2B — which my guess is you are — people are people…so if people put this much emphasis on trust in their personal lives…you better believe they behave the same way while at work making even larger buying decisions.
But — here’s what’s interesting.
Edelman’s research isn’t about celebrity influencers. Edelman is documenting the rise of the common man and woman influencer. It’s noteworthy because it gives statistical validity to the idea that real people as influencers and the impact they can have on behalf of their business.
The research asked participants to rank what attributes made an influencer believable and trustworthy. The relatability of the influencer was nearly twice as important as the influencer’s popularity. In other words…when consumers see themselves in an influencer, they were far more likely to follow and trust that influencer.
So — it’s not about having a million followers…it’s about being someone you can relate to and connect with.
For this very reason — if you’ve been avoiding putting together a content strategy where you share your depth of expertise in your niche — I recorded this solocast just for you — so that you rethink that decision.
Onward Nation — the data is all on your side.
Now — let’s continue to peel back the curtain to get a look at some of the attributes of someone who is a true authority.
If you were asked to think of an authority on any subject, who would come to mind? What about them designates them as an authority? What’s true about them? And what does someone have to do to earn and keep the title of authority?
My co-author of Sell with Authority, Drew McLellan, CEO of Agency Management Institute, and I would argue that there are 10 Truths to someone being seen as an authority.
Let’s do a quick review…
Truth #1: They have a focus area or subject matter expertise.
Truth #2: They don’t just repeat what everyone else is saying.
Truth #3: They have a public presence where they share their expertise.
Truth #4: They don’t stray from their area of expertise—think specialist versus a generalist.
Truth #5: They aren’t equally attractive to everyone. In fact, they probably bore most people to tears.
Truth #6: They’re significant—which is different from prolific—in terms of content creation.
Truth #7: They don’t create any generic content that someone with far less knowledge or experience could have just as easily written.
Truth #8: They’re perceived as an educator in some way.
Truth #9: They have a passion for their subject matter.
Truth #10: They have a strong point-of-view, which is the foundation of all of their content.
A true authority has something specific to teach us, and they want to be helpful or illuminating.
They’re eager to share what they know because they have a genuine passion for it, and they don’t fear giving away the recipe to their secret sauce (or so it’s perceived).
That confidence and generosity are contagious. Their expertise is something specific groups of people (their sweet-spot prospects) are hungry to access.
So Onward Nation — to call them an expert, a thought leader, an authority, a sought-after pundit, advisor, or specialist…doesn’t matter. They’re all words for the same thing — a trusted resource who has earned that trust by demonstrating and generously sharing the depth of their specialized knowledge over and over again.
Now — let’s hook this back to the Edelman research for a moment.
Want to know what made an influencer even more compelling to the research participants?
The one attribute that ranked higher than the trust we have in “people like me” is the trust we have in highly educated experts. The only three groups of people we trust more than people like ourselves are company, industry, and academic experts.
Why?
Because experts are often afforded the highest level of confidence and trust because they have a depth of knowledge in a specific industry or niche.
So why in the world wouldn’t you capitalize on that, Onward Nation?
Instead of writing generic content that look like every single one of your competitors, which is what many agencies, coaches, and consultants do because it’s so much easier and they feel compelled to create something and don’t want to invest the time necessary to go deep, deep, deep.
Or — they feel that they should be paid to share their smarts and don’t want to just give it away for free.
Ouch.
My hope is that as we get started in this solocast — my words are serving as a very loud battle cry for you. My hope is you see that now is the time to share your smarts and to double down on being helpful to your niche.
Now is the time for you to jump into the trenches alongside your prospects and clients — who are just as concerned as you are about everything going on — and to begin giving away the best of what you’ve got — and when you do that — you will build so much trust that it will be difficult for you to contain it.
There’s a huge upside for you and your team to do this now. As I said earlier — there are very few thought leaders (and even fewer in the niches you serve)…which means if you can still be one of the early adopters if you commit and boldly step out into this strategy right now.
Okay — now let’s turn our attention toward Part 2…how long will this effort take — and — how do you go about doing it?
Drew and I are often asked, “How long does this take?”
The answer is yes.
Meaning — we can’t give you a precise time frame for you because it’s different for everyone.
There are many factors, including:
The consistency of your content creation
The quality of your content — are you saying something fresh or just repeating old news?
The amount of time and effort you spend promoting your content
The hunger of your audience. Some are starving and will gobble up everything you share, others will only consume the tastiest of offers
But — building your authority position is clearly not a get rich quick scheme. At a minimum, you should count on it taking six months to a year before you reap any significant benefit from your efforts.
By year two — you should be dancing a jig at how well it’s working.
And by year three — you should be well-established as the authority you are.
On occasion — a single podcast episode, video, or book will catapult someone into the spotlight and earn them a huge payout. But that’s the exception, not the rule.
Don’t count on being the exception or you risk being super disappointed and it could derail all of your hard work.
So — I’m going to make an assumption here…that all of the data I have shared with you during Part 1 of this solocast…as well as the 75-minute webinar that I taught several weeks ago…along with everything shared up to this point in this episode has shown you the very significant upside to you doubling down and building your authority position.
If so — awesome — so let’s turn our attention toward some of the key things you will need in order to make that happen.
There are three essentials to building your authority position.
And they are: 1) narrow niche, 2) a strong point-of-view, and 3) being findable in multiple places.
Let’s take a closer look at each.
Narrow is Gold
The first essential in creating an authority position is recognizing that the narrower your audience, the better. It allows you to be quickly discovered and identified as someone your target audience needs to pay attention to, all because you’re speaking their language.
Ultimately, this means you can build an audience much faster. Once you’ve built the audience, and you genuinely know them and what they need, you can provide additional value by creating products and services you can sell.
If you choose to keep serving everyone as a generalist, you can still absolutely monetize a more generic position of authority (say you’re a business coach, for example), but if you want to get to this more quickly, you need to be ruthless in terms of focus.
I agree — it seems counter-intuitive.
Most business owners focus on quantity in terms of audience. Many believe they need a massive audience to hit their sales and financial goals.
But — the data shows that this isn’t true.
You’re actually in a much better position if you’re in front of the right micro audience where nearly everyone is aligned with your ideal client avatar. Would you rather speak directly to 100 of your right-fit prospects…who are perfectly aligned with your ideal client avatar — or — be on stage in front of 10,000 people where there is zero probability that any of them are your prospects?
And yet, when it comes to business development, most business owners toss out a huge net, hoping that the right species of fish will swim in so we don’t go hungry.
Intellectually, we get it, yet our choices often suggest we’re still focusing on quantity, not quality.
Here’s the reality — you don’t need a million downloads to get your podcast sponsored.
You don’t need to speak at 50 conferences to have someone walk up and ask you some questions that lead to a proposal.
And you don’t need to be on the bestseller list to use your book as an amazing biz dev tool. You just don’t.
Most agencies, coaches, and consultants get this completely backward.
They create broad, generic content as opposed to something that captures the interest of their ideal prospects.
The content is fluffy and doesn’t invite anyone to ask questions or lean in to learn more.
But if you were to hone in on your specific audience and ignore the rest of the world (remember, one of the traits of an authority is that most people could care less about their content), the audience does lean in. They do ask questions, and they will eventually put you on a shortlist of prospective partners to consider.
And when you do it exceptionally well, you will be the only one they consider.
You Need a Strong Point-of-View
Here’s what we know for sure. Your industry (no matter what it is) and the world around us are both experiencing change at an unfathomable rate, and it’s only going to get faster.
How you communicate nowadays, at best, is on the fly.
But the one thing that will not change is that unique cocktail that defines our authority position.
It’s the combination of our area of expertise with the strong point-of-view we apply to that area of expertise. Our point-of-view is what we know to be true, and it’s this truth that defines how we approach the work and how we add value.
For example, Predictive ROI’s point-of-view is the most agencies, coaches, and consultants go about sales in the less productive, most painful way possible. They get thwarted by gatekeepers at every turn. As a result — they cannot build long-term relationships with their Dream prospects.
When we layer that point-of-view, on top of our knowledge and expertise around how to grow an audience, nurture leads, and increase sales by helping our clients Sell with Authority, it’s easy to see how and where we can be of help. It tells us who to serve and how to best serve them.
That’s evergreen. You and your team should have a similar combination.
You need to have an opinion about the work you do on behalf of your clients. You need a strong point-of-view about the marketplace, your audience, or your product or service.
As you fight for a prospect’s attention, you must differentiate yourself.
You’ve got to plant a flag in the ground and claim ownership. You need to stand out against the sea of competitors. That authority position—your area of expertise plus your strong point-of-view—becomes the flag you plant.
It’s you laying claim to what is uniquely yours—the ability to serve a specific industry, niche, audience, etc., because of what you know and what you believe.
It holds you firmly in place no matter what else changes. It becomes part of your differentiation equation. And you need both halves of the whole.
Without the point-of-view, even industry-specific content becomes claimable by others. Granted, it narrows the field, but there are certainly others who work in the same industry or niches that you do.
If you can take your content (blog posts, white paper, podcast interviews, etc.) and swap your competitor’s logo for yours without anyone noticing, your content isn’t as unique to you as you’d like.
That’s what we mean by claimable.
But don’t get too finite about this. I’m not suggesting you’re going to create an authority position no one else can replicate.
Odds are, no matter what your authority position, a handful of others could claim it, too. But that’s your goal—a small handful, rather than every competitor out there.
Just to be clear, your point-of-view is the truth you overlay onto your niche or industry-specific expertise. It’s an insight that influences the work you do.
The ideal scenario for building your authority position is one in which you have the one-two punch of a point-of-view paired with that narrow audience or topic area. That’s a powerful combination.
You can carve out a more superficial authority position with just one of the two elements, either a point-of-view or niche expertise, but the consequence is, if you’re going to only include half of the one-two punch, you’re going to share your unique position with more competitors.
At some level, you probably already know what you point-of-view is — but you don’t recognize it as such. Odds are, you either take it for granted because you talk about it so often, or you just need to dig a little deeper to find the gold in what you’re already teaching, talking about, and using to build the recommendations you make to clients.
You just have to peel the onion back several layers to get to something that’s genuinely different enough that you can own it.
You Can’t Be a One-Trick Pony
Essential number three is that an authentic authority is not a one-trick pony.
Meaning — you can’t create content so narrow it only works on one channel. An expert doesn’t have just one book. Or just a podcast. You can’t place all of your bets on one horse (or pony).
The problem is that whatever pony you rode in on is not going to be the popular pony forever, and you can’t rely on all of your prospects consuming that specific channel.
You need to be more findable, which means you need to have your authority-positioned content in more than one place. If you’re going to build an authority position — you have to answer the question, “How does my point-of-view come to life across multiple channels?”
Your goal is to create the impression that you’re everywhere. The good news is that it doesn’t take that many channels to make that happen. You need a cornerstone channel and some cobblestones.
When Drew and I wrote about cornerstone content in our book, Sell with Authority, what we meant was content that’s big and meaty, so it can be sliced and diced into smaller pieces of content—what we call cobblestones.
The definition of cornerstone is that it is the first stone placed. If you were constructing a building, you would carefully set that first stone because you know all the other stones will be set in reference to the cornerstone.
When you take that cornerstone content and break it up into infographics, quote cards, blog posts, tweets, guest appearances on someone else’s podcast, etc., that’s your cobblestone content. The combo of your niche expertise and your unique point-of-view should be woven into every piece of content you create.
In some cases, it will be overt, and in other cases, subtle. But it should always be present to some degree.
Some experts or influencers try to be everywhere, but that stretches them pretty thin pretty quickly.
All you need are a few channels spot-on for your audience that you consistently feed with new content. You need a single cornerstone and at least two or three cobblestone channels. From there, you can use your social media channels to spotlight both.
Just remember, your cornerstone is the primary channel through which you consistently deliver useful content that helps your audience do their jobs better. And it needs to be meaty enough that you can slice and dice it into multiple cobblestones.
Think of the cobblestones as info-snack-sized pieces of content like a quote graphic featuring your podcast guest that someone might stumble upon and be interested in enough that they are led to your cornerstone content. New York Times best-selling author Jay Baer shared the importance of info-snacks during Episode 305 of Onward Nation.
You need both cornerstone and cobblestone content.
But you don’t need dozens.
Cornerstones, by their nature, require a much more significant time investment. Which means you don’t have time to create too many.
Far better to do one exceedingly well than to stretch yourself too thin, and better to be consistently present in a few places as opposed to occasionally showing up everywhere.
And — you want to build something you can sustain for the long haul, and unless you’re going to make being an authority your full-time gig — it’s better to start with one.
Your cornerstone, and at least a few of your cobblestones, need to be built on media you own and control, not on someone else’s platform. That might be your website, a book you write, research you conduct, or your own podcast series.
You can use channels like Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn to highlight your efforts, but your cornerstone content shouldn’t be housed there. You don’t want to go to the effort of creating content only to have some third party (like Facebook) decide to take it down or charge people for accessing it.
While you don’t want to build your cornerstone content on a media channel you don’t own, that doesn’t mean you don’t want to be on other people’s channels.
If your cornerstone content is targeted and tied to your point-of-view, and you’re consistent in creating smaller pieces of content from that cornerstone, you’re going to get noticed.
That’s all you need to get invited onto other people’s channels.
One of the key elements about being an authority is that you don’t want everything to remain on your owned channels. You want to leverage other people’s spheres of influence, and when you appear as a guest on their show or whatever channel they own and control, now they’re endorsing you, telling other people how smart you are, and introducing you to an entirely new audience.
That amplification expands your audience exponentially once you have built the foundation that earns the invites. But they will roll in, in a variety of ways.
You’ll be invited to:
- Speak at conferences
- Be a guest on podcasts
- Write bylined articles for publications
- Sit on a panel of experts
- Serve on a board
- Write a regular column
- Teach a class
- Be part of a webinar series
- Be interviewed as a source by the media
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
On occasion, your cornerstone channel will shift. This shouldn’t be because you’re getting bored or are indecisive. It should be driven by your audience, reactions to your efforts, and potentially, media consumption trends.
The content itself doesn’t shift, but how you deliver the content might.
When I started executing this authority strategy for Predictive ROI, book writing was my cornerstone channel. I was creating a lot of content for publications and was being published in publications like Forbes, The Washington Post, Inc. Magazine, and other media about once a month.
And much of that content was sliced and diced off of my books on search engine optimization and social media that I wrote while I was teaching at the university.
But then in May 2015 — when we ran into revenue challenges at Predictive — and that pushed my team and I to launch the Onward Nation podcast as part of our pivot.
And the growth of the podcast quickly eclipsed my written content and took over as our cornerstone content channel. And then we have added some cobblestones into the mix with our YouTube channel, weekly emails for our community, as well as conference presentations. And — we’ve even worked the cornerstone content process backward…with several episodes being instrumental in helping me write our bestselling book, Profitable Podcasting…and after 3-years…is still one of the best selling podcasting books on the market.
For a complete breakdown on how to create cornerstone content — I encourage you to go back to my solocast in Episode 676 of Onward Nation.
Okay — let’s come full circle and bring this in for a landing. Nothing about this recession has been — or will be easy. To come roaring out of it on the other side will take a lot of hard work, discipline, and generous spirit in doubling down to be helpful.
But if you do — the data is on your side. If you take this time and commit to building your authority position…you will put yourself and your business in the best possible position when the sun begins to shine once again.
This is the time, Onward Nation for you to grab hold of those silver linings — they are there — if you’re willing to look hard enough.
Thanks for taking the time to be here and for sharing a portion of your 86,400 you have today…with me.
I’m grateful and I look forward to you being back for our next episode.
Until then — double down — and onward with gusto!
As I was mapping out and thinking through this episode — I wanted to be sure the content would be super helpful as you continue to navigate your way through the choppy waters that COVID has created for all of us.
Because what’s especially challenging about COVID actually isn’t just the uncertainty — it’s that the uncertainty…is a continuously moving target.
We’ve all seen so much ebb and flow to what is taking place — and because of that — your team, your clients, your audience, your vendors…all of your stakeholders…are looking for guidance. And…dare I say — they’re also looking for leadership. In fact — some are desperate for it.
Because of that — I invited bestseller author and leadership expert, Steve Farber to come back for an encore interview.
Steve and I are going to focus this conversation around how his Extreme Leadership principles can help you and your team navigate your way through COVID — or any crisis for that matter — and come roaring out the other side.
And what I love about Steve is he asks the tough questions — and those questions are asked out of love — but they also might make us squirm a bit in our seats.
And sometimes getting uncomfortable is the point.
Because here’s the reality, Onward Nation.
The data is clear…if you and your team double down and make progressive decisions…if you invest in the right areas while ensuring your operating as efficiently as possible…you will find the silver linings to COVID and you will come roaring out of this recession just like other companies have done after the last 6 recessions.
The silver linings are there — IF — we’re brave enough to look for them and courageous enough to step into them. All of which requires Extreme Leadership from you as the business owner.
That’s why Steve Farber is here.
What you will learn from this episode:
- Steve shares what he means by Extreme Leadership Principles, and he shared why he named his methodology Extreme Leadership
- Why too often we use “leader” as a position title rather than a descriptive term for the person filling that role
- How the LEAP methodology powering Steve’s Extreme Leadership is composed of four principles: cultivate Love, generate Energy, inspire Audacity, and provide Proof
- How love, energy, audacity, and proof are invaluable leadership tools that can inspire your team to new levels of success
- Why the entire LEAP leadership framework is powered by the first principle of cultivating love first and foremost
- Why it is important to learn as much as we can from the challenges and changes brought about by the global pandemic and then to take bold, decisive action
- Why leaders demonstrating love by connecting with their teams during this difficult time is critical
- Why being open, reaching out and being a receptive listener can help you build profound relationships
- Why it is important to decide now what we want our businesses to look like five years from now in a post-pandemic world
- Why too often when the present becomes challenging, business leaders forget about preparing for the future
Resources:
- Website: www.stevefarber.com
- Website: www.extremeleadership.com
- Love Is Just Damn Good Business by Steve Farber: https://amzn.to/2BHiu5u
- Twitter: @stevefarber
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/stevefarber/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stevefarber/
Before he became a company president, John Robertson was a Colonel in the U.S. Air Force who oversaw an $8 billion program. Today he coaches C-level executives on how to take advantage of the coming future tsunami of artificial intelligence.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How John’s career began with joining the Air Force after college, before progressing into the business world and real estate
- How the 1985 economic crash brought John’s business to a screeching halt and left him $2 million in debt with no way out
- How John came out of financial disaster through perseverance and intentionality, and how he now teaches others to prepare for the future
- Why John titled his book “Focus Forward Leadership” after realizing that business of all size often struggle to focus on future progress
- Why maintaining discipline and using quarterly meetings to map your plans for the future are critical steps you can take to stay focused
- Why business leaders often struggle to be clear in communicating exactly what their goals and expectations are and what results they are looking for
- John shares five key action items from his book “Focus Forward Leadership”, and he shares why these key action items will make a difference in your business
- How the numbers “4, 12, 365” are the keys to helping maintain your focus on your goals without getting distracted by the day-to-day
- Why consistency is vital for every role within your organization, from the CEO down to frontline employees
Resources:
- Website: www.focusforwardleadership.com
- Email: john@focusforwardleadership.com
- Focus Forward Leadership by John Robertson: https://amzn.to/31AFoWH
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/leadershipid/
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Master message coach and copy expert Lindsay Hotmire loves to work with coaches and leaders who know there’s nothing formulaic about authenticity. To date, Lindsay has helped 200+ clients (and counting) ditch one-size-fits-all frameworks and formulas so they can simply and genuinely align their message with their beliefs, their values, and (ever-so-importantly) their audience.
Once upon a time (before Google changed the world), Lindsay was a high school English teacher. And while she still gets a bit nerdy over sentence diagrams, she adamantly refuses to take sides on the Oxford comma. These days, she unapologetically geeks out over introducing a little bit of woo to a whole lot of science, and she’s used her intuition, creativity, and slightly dusty math skills to help her clients create $10,000 to $1M campaigns all without losing sight of their true, authentic selves.
Find her at lindsayhotmire.com or connect with her on Instagram @lindsayhotmire.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How Lindsay began as a high school teacher before working on a variety of projects, and how she got into her current work helping entrepreneurs tell their stories in new ways
- Why Lindsay believes that stories have the power to change lives, and why stories can create authentic human connections
- What a “validating circle of inquiry” is, and how it relates to a concept called the “phenomenological nod”, and why this is the goal of storytelling in marketing
- Why assumption bias, leading with what we think we know, is a real problem in modern-day marketing
- Linsday shares examples of costly assumption bias marketing mistakes from major brands Pontiac and Walmart
- Why many entrepreneurs and business owners are being forced to pivot because they didn’t put in the time to do the values work pre-pandemic
- Where Lindsay recommends you begin doing the important value work, and how a tool called the Authenticity Inventory can help determine what work you need to do
- Why your behavior must align with your beliefs, and why too often we think we’re aligned when we really aren’t
- How the global pandemic has changed people’s needs and has altered the world of business coaching as a result
- How a staggering 86% of consumers are looking to brands to fill the gaps that the government doesn’t fill
- How real diamonds and fake diamonds differ, and how that applies to your company’s right messaging
Resources:
- Download Free Authenticity Guide at https://lindsayhotmire.com/
- Website: https://lindsayhotmire.com/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lindsayhotmire/
- Instagram: @lindsayhotmire
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Jennifer Peek provides clients with key strategic insights while helping them develop plans to profitably execute their visions. At Peek Advisory Group, she consults with business owners identifying business gaps and opportunities to increase value and prepare them for the next stage of business evolution from growth to varied exit strategies.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How Jennifer left her corporate career ten years ago and started her own company, Peek Advisory Group, bringing corporate experience to small and midsized companies
- Why the type of economic and social recovery we will see in a post-COVID world is impossible to anticipate
- Why developing the right mindset, seeking out strategic opportunities, and doubling down can help you through this crisis
- How the lens you view the world through determines your outlook, and why the widespread belief that businesses are all in survival mode isn’t always the case
- Why the Harvard Business Review’s article Roaring Out of Recession is worth reading, especially during this challenging time
- Jennifer explains her “opportunistic mindset” and shares the importance of expanding your social outreach efforts
- Why you don’t want to be losing ground or staying stagnant during this crisis, and why you want to work to position your business to capitalize on opportunities in the future
- Why recognizing your clients’ or customers’ changing habits can help you develop new product and service offerings in the future.
- Why this is the ideal time to be doubling down on content and on reaching out to new potential clients with helpfulness, not sales
- Why the most important lesson Jennifer learned from a mentor over the course of her career is the need for a willingness to shut everything down and start over
Resources:
- Harvard Business Review’s Roaring Out of Recession: https://hbr.org/2010/03/roaring-out-of-recession
- Website: http://businessvaluequiz.com
- Website: https://peekadvisory.com/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferjpeek/
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Jeff Koser is a successful entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in executive sales management, consulting, and business strategy. He wrote the book on it. Actually, an award-winning book, Selling to Zebras. Jeff has appeared on some of the largest B2B sales podcasts over the past couple of years and he always leaves listeners with something that increases their sales effectiveness.
What you will learn from this episode:
- Jeff explains what a “zebra” is, and he shares why working for a foreign-owned company with no prior sales in the US became the foundation of the zebra philosophy
- Why identifying the ideal client should be just as easy and recognizable as spotting a zebra
- Why zeroing in on the ideal client helped Jeff and his team close a deal with 90% of the new clients they pursued
- Why recognizing critical business problems for potential prospects and focusing a content strategy around those pain points is the best way to survive challenging times
- Why your content should revolve around seven key attributes, and what those important attributes are
- How Zebrafi is beta-testing software that connects to Salesforce and can help identify prospective clients that match the profile of your existing top customers
- Why focusing on pipeline close rate, average deal size, and length of sales cycle are the three key metrics that will supercharge your sales
- Why Jeff believes that focusing on a high volume of prospects is actually detrimental to the success of your business and a waste of your money and time
- How your proven success with customers like your zebras can help you land business with your zebras
Resources:
- Connect with Zebrafi for a special offer to Onward Nation listeners for six months+ of unlimited free usage of the Zebrafi Salesbot, an AI-driven application that identifies prospects that are similar to the user’s best customers. The offer to be part of the beta program is good for 6 months or more and it’s FREE!
- https://zebrafi.com/salesbot/
- https://zebrafi.com/
- Email: jeff@zebrafi.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-koser-4a3911a0/
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Stacey Kehoe has worked in digital marketing and brand development for the last ten years. She is also a podcast host and chief editor of the small business magazine, The Vault, which has gained her countless media features and award nominations. Since establishing her first business, Brandlective Communications Ltd in 2012, Stacey has built over 500 websites, brands, and marketing campaigns.
As a highly-sought-after expert, social media trainer, and speaker, Stacey has developed the one-of-a-kind Gamechanger Six-Step Digital Marketing Methodology after being approached by client after client who were dissatisfied with other agencies. She published this methodology in her newest book ‘Get Online: 6 Simple Steps to Launching a Digital Marketing Strategy For the Non-Tech Savvy’. The method also forms a core part of Brandlectives services, facilitating campaign development and enhancing the speed at which its clients gain stellar results.
Stacey believes those with an entrepreneurial spirit should have the resources to rise above the noise, stand out from the crowd, and show their audience who they really are. These beliefs tie-in with her commitment to equality. She currently leads a movement called #1MillionDays: an initiative to reduce inequality through social, economic, and political inclusion of all people.
Originally from New Zealand, Stacey lives in London. She loves to travel and spend time with her family and friends.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How Stacey and her team at Brandlective Communications launched their #1MillionDays initiative to align their agency with the UN’s global goals
- How Stacey’s own experiences with inequalities after moving from New Zealand to the United Kingdom in 2006 informs her passion for reducing inequality
- What global projects Brandlective has become involved with, and how they have aligned their efforts with their work
- How Stacey and her team traveled to some of the destinations they have been supporting to meet the organizations on the ground, and why taking the team with her matters
- Why Brandlective doesn’t reveal their efforts as part of their marketing strategy but rather discusses their social work with clients in their welcome packet
- How the #1MillionDays initiative and Brandlective’s global efforts have had an impact on the company’s culture
- How the team at Brandlective have managed to navigate the challenge of the global pandemic, and how they have worked to support their clients through the crisis
- What digital strategies and key advice Stacey would offer to business leaders, and why identifying and reaching out to your ideal client is key
- Why identifying the problems and pain points your ideal prospects are experiencing and then creating content to help solve those problems can be powerful
- Why Stacey recommends focusing on four key types of content: visual (video/graphics), audible (podcast/audio snippets), written (blogs/articles), and actionable (interactive)
Resources:
- Website: www.brandlective.com
- Website: www.brandmag.co.uk
- Website: www.thegamechanger-scorecard.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stacey-kehoe-b8b25319/
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Craig Cody is a Certified Tax Coach and the owner of the New York City based accounting firm, Craig Cody & Company. Craig belongs to a select group of tax practitioners who’ve undergone extensive training and continued education on various tax planning techniques and strategies. Craig is passionate about helping business owners understand the difference between tax planning — and tax paying — by helping them save significant money. Craig is also the co-author of the Amazon bestseller, “Secrets of a Tax Free Life.”
What you will learn from this episode:
- How the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan has changed recently, and what you need to know about the program
- What further changes Craig anticipates the government making to the PPP loan and forgiveness requirements
- How the government has created new options for partnership business that could result in those businesses getting still more money
- How to reach out to Craig if you have any other questions or need clarification on these new changes
- Why additional money for business partners may not have any cap, starting at around $40,000 for the first partner and going up
- Why Craig sees the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) as “cheap insurance” to help protect against whatever may happen in the near future
- What changes Craig believes might happen to the EIDL, and why it is taking a while for small businesses to get approved for EIDL
- How the use of the EIDL funds can potentially increase your business tax liability due to the use of EIDL funds cutting into your tax deductions
- How many of Craig’s clients are operating under business-as-usual with relatively minor changes, with the exception of restaurants which are still struggling
- How to access Craig’s free course “The Five Simple Ways to Save Thousands on Taxes and How Business Owners Can Start Today”
Resources:
- Free Course: www.craigcodyandcompany.com/course
- Email: craig@ccodycpa.com
- Website: www.theprogressivedentist.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/craigcodycpa
Greg Dickerson is a serial entrepreneur, real estate developer, coach, and mentor. Over the past 20 years, he has bought, developed, and sold over $200 million in real estate, built and renovated hundreds of custom homes and commercial buildings, and started 12 different companies from the ground up. Greg currently coaches some of the top entrepreneurs, real estate investors and syndicators in the industry today.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How Greg has always had big entrepreneurial ideas starting from a very young age, and how he found his way into construction and then real estate development
- How Greg built a $30 million real estate development business in just seven short years, and what key lessons he learned during that period of building and scaling
- Why leading, delegating, motivating, effective marketing, and a focus on developing his employees have been critical components of Greg’s success
- How Greg “leads by numbers,” relying on KPIs to measure progress throughout the organization to ensure that the company is always moving the needle
- Why Greg sees his thought leadership efforts as a naturally occurring, organic extension of his business leadership
- How Greg has broken into thought leadership and content creation, and what important lessons he has learned about creating a competitive business edge
- Why being generous with your expertise can position yourself as an authority that your audience knows, likes and trusts
- What benefits Greg has received from his thought leadership efforts, and how he is building out his platform
- Why Greg tackles each day with intentionality and immediacy, and why a sense of urgency is vital for business leadership
- How developing yourself as a leader and understanding the people around you can help you improve your interactions with them
Resources:
- Website: www.GregDickerson.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/agregdickerson/
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Sara Taylor earned a master’s degree in Diversity and Organizational Development from the University of Minnesota. She served as a leadership and diversity specialist at the University of Minnesota for five years and as director of diversity and inclusion for Ramsey County, Minnesota for three years.
Sara is the founder and president of deepSEE Consulting and has worked with companies as large as Coca-Cola, General Mills, 3M Company, AARP, and numerous others. She has a new book, “Filter Shift: How Effective People See the World,” that explores how our unconscious is actually making choices and decisions for us, all without our knowing — and how to change that.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How Sara’s own experience as a white woman in a mixed-race family has helped drive her passion for diversity, equity, and inclusion
- Why Sara created a recent episode of her podcast around what she wishes she had known earlier about racial injustice, in an effort to process her own pain
- Why Sara struggled with some of her own stories, and why we as humans naturally hold onto our pain and trauma
- Sara shares an exchange she had with another small business owner that led to racist comments directed at her husband
- How microaggressions can build up over time to create painful traumas that have lasting repercussions in our lives
- How an episode of John Quiñones’s “What Would You Do” series titled “The Bike Thief” highlights how we all experience the world differently
- Sara shares some of the shocking disparities and inequities that people of color experience in the United States
- How our societal systems have created these inequities and have done exactly what they were designed to do
- Why “equality” and “equity” aren’t the same thing, and why we should be pursuing equity, not equality
- Sara explains and defines cultural competence, and she shares the five distinct stages of cultural competence
- What steps business owners can take to create a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace within their organizations
Resources:
- SEEing the Difference Online Course: https://deepseeconsulting.thinkific.com/courses/seeing-the-difference
- What Would You Do’s “Bike Thief” Episode from John Quiñones: https://youtu.be/ge7i60GuNRg
- Dos and Don’ts Checklist: https://www.deepseeconsulting.com/shop/dos-and-donts-checklist
- Website: www.deepseeconsulting.com
- Website: www.filtershift.com
- Filter Shift by Sara Taylor: https://amzn.to/2N2QWJL
- Email: sara@deepseeconsulting.com
- Podcast: https://whatsthedifferencepodcast.com/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/sarajanetaylor/
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Brian Gill is a computer scientist, entrepreneur, and angel investor. Brian currently serves as Chairman of Gillware, which provides cyber risk assessments, data recovery, incident response, and digital forensics services. He is a co-founder of Phoenix Nuclear Labs and served on PNLs board from inception to when it decided to spin-off SHINE Medical Technologies. Those two companies have raised over 100 million dollars of venture capital and employ hundreds of people in Wisconsin.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How Brian first began a successful data recovery business before getting involved in funding nuclear science technology research
- How the rise in ransomware attacks has helped position Brian’s data recovery business as an industry specialist spinoff of the main business
- How ransomware works, how criminals can gain access to your network, and how “social engineering” scams are the keys they use to get in
- How criminals will encrypt all the data in your network and then blackmail you into paying large sums of money to release your own data
- Why many of these criminals work for state-sponsored criminal syndicates and aren’t even breaking the law in their local jurisdiction
- Why too many business owners are reticent to spend money on security systems, leaving their businesses vulnerable in ways they may not even understand
- How investing into your data security now can help you stave off or minimize costly financial disasters later
- Brian shares some of the early challenges he encountered and mistakes he made and discusses the key lessons he learned
- Why choosing your investment partners to raise capital for your business is vital, and why the right investors can bring more than just money to the table
- How Brian uses both internal and external marketing and thought leadership as a powerful way to repurpose content and connect with existing and new audiences
Resources:
- Website: www.gillware.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/brian-gill-68997a38/
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Darren Virassammy is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of 34 Strong, a team that believes everyone deserves a great place to work and that any workplace can be great. A leading expert in the global employee engagement community, the 34 Strong team leverages the Strengths-Based approach to human development to create massive shifts within organizations, both culturally and on the bottom line. He and his team have created sustainable change in small microbusinesses, all the way up to large organizational teams at the FDA, Bank of America, American Licorice, and The California Department of Public Health. Recently, Darren has served as keynote for Hitachi Global Women’s Conference, The Rotary World Peace Conference, The Professional Grounds Management Society, and Author Mike Michalowicz Profit Con (where he also closed down the conference by performing a solo bass guitar piece he composed titled Metamorphosis as a tribute to the journey of entrepreneurs) Darren’s 34 Strong Business partner, Brandon Miller is the co-author (with his wife Analyn Miller) of a Strengths-Based Parenting book titled: Play to Their Strengths due out in July of 2019.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How a transformational moment with his young daughter awoke Darren to his own potential and forced him to reevaluate his life and goals
- Why Darren’s personal experiences feeling simultaneously engaged and disengaged between two different jobs helped to inform his work today
- Why Darren chose to name his company 34 Strong after being inspired by Gallup’s Clifton StrengthsFinder 2.0
- Why business owners too often minimize or devalue the power of their own strengths, and why leaning into your top strengths is the key to success
- Why as much as 70% of an employee’s level of engagement or disengagement is tied to their manager
- Why 82% of promotions into management roles are based on technical skills and tenure but neglect the importance of talent and training
- Why playing to your strengths and managing around your weaknesses can help improve engagement across your organization
- How Darren’s “Grind, Greatness, Genius” cycle can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses and determine where to focus your time
- What key lesson Darren learned from a Grammy award-winning bass musician mentor that can be applied to daily habits within your business
- Why joining a mastermind group can be a powerful resource to give you a fresh perspective on your business
Resources:
- 34 Strong Overview video: https://vimeo.com/300826565
- Darren’s Creating Excellence Through Strengths: https://youtu.be/EkLUn9Vpfxs
- 34 Strong website: www.34strong.com
- Strengths-Based Parenting Blog: https://www.analynbrandon.com/blog/
- Free Exercise Download: https://www.34strong.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/GeniusZone.pdf
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/strengthsfinder/
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Gideon Shalwick is a serial entrepreneur who’s been creating content in the online video space for over a decade. His entrepreneurial journey started about a decade ago, when he felt unfulfilled in his career. He had a wonderful job in New Zealand, but felt that something was “off.” After leaving his job to work for himself, Gideon and his wife decided to start over, and on a whim they moved from New Zealand to Australia. With this fresh start, they found a renewed energy to focus on their life as an entrepreneurial family.
After learning a few lessons from The Entrepreneurial School of Hard Knocks, Gideon found his niche in video marketing. He honed in on his passion for video content creation, learning all he could about leveraging exceptional video content to reach the right audience in today’s increasingly-noisy digital world. Since then, Gideon has kept his finger on the pulse when it comes to trends in social media and content marketing, and he knows how crucial it is for brands to connect and engage with their online communities through video.
When Gideon realized that 85% of viewers watch video content on silent mode, he realized the importance of captions — and not just native captions, but real, personalized captions that add value to video content. So he launched Splasheo, a video captioning service where his team of real people manually transcribe the videos of brands and influencers, and burn those captions directly into the video using engaging layouts. Because of the human touch, the result is exceptional: appealing videos, free of distracting typos/grammatical errors, to help engage your audience and make an impact.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How Gideon’s entrepreneurial journey began by being stuck in a job that wasn’t making him happy, and how he and his wife decided to immigrate to Australia and start a business
- How writing a successful book taught Gideon the importance of learning to run a business, and how chance and good fortune led him to beginning his work in the video space
- Why video is a unique and empowering medium that allows people to share their message like never before in history
- What issues Gideon recognizes that often holds business owners back from making the jump to video, and why great video content is about authentic messages and connections
- Why Gideon believes we are all motivated by four core drivers: connections to others, feeling significant, the need for freedom, and feeling in control
- How Gideon and his team built the four core drivers into their business model, and why helping clients build significance is the company’s main focus
- How Gideon’s realization that 85% of viewers watch video content with the sound off was important for the success of Splasheo
- How Splasheo users have seen significant gains in their engagement statistics by adding captions to their video content
- Why video captions trigger mental images in viewers, adding an entirely new level of visual element to viewers’ experience
- How video content can be sliced and diced and repurposed for many different uses, and why creating video content is easier than it might seem
Resources:
- Free Trial of Splasheo: www.splasheo.com/onwardnation
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/GideonShalwick
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/gideonshalwick/
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Paul Jarvis is a writer and designer who has had his own company of one for the last two decades. His latest book, Company of One, explores why bigger isn’t always better in business.
He’s worked with professional athletes like Steve Nash and Shaquille O’Neal, corporate giants like Microsoft and Mercedes-Benz, and entrepreneurs with online empires like Danielle LaPorte and Marie Forleo.
Currently, he teaches popular online courses taken by over 14,00 students, hosts several podcasts, and develops small but mighty software solutions.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How Paul’s career started in boutique web design before shifting to creating products like books, courses, and software
- How Paul made the transition between web design and thought leadership over the course of 2 1/2 years
- Why giving up working with long term clients was challenging for Paul, and how he realized that the changing nature of his business required saying goodbye
- How the first product Paul decided to offer was a cookbook that did surprisingly well in sales, helping him enter the product lane
- How Paul listens to his established audience and then designs products such as courses that answer their questions and address their needs and problems
- How Paul was able to use response data from his mailing list to prove the value of his book Company of One to a publisher
- What key concepts Paul’s book shares with readers about why “growth for the sake of growth” isn’t always the best way to run a business
- Why up to 70% of businesses fail because they can’t sustain the resources they need for their own rapid growth
- Why prioritizing growth can often cause you to make poor decisions for the long term health of your business
- Why every business has an “organic size” that they need to be to operate, and why staying at the organic size of your business is critically important
Resources:
- Website: https://ofone.co/
- Website: https://pjrvs.com/
- Company of One by Paul Jarvis: https://amzn.to/2XioA30
- Twitter: @pjrvs
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Michael Redbord is the General Manager of the Service Hub at HubSpot. Prior to that, Michael scaled the HubSpot Customer Support team from 20 people in a single office with single-language phone support to more than 200 people powering a global, multi-lingual, multi-channel support experience. In doing so, Michael turned HubSpot’s customer support team from a cost center to a profit center and one of HubSpots greatest engines of growth, with an unimaginable revenue retention rate of over 100%. Essentially, the revenue the sales and marketing teams generate is worth more because of the customer success team. Michael is a noted writer, speaker, and former competitive classical pianist.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How Michael got started at HubSpot while it was still relatively small in 2010, and how the company rapidly scaled to the powerhouse it is today
- How many of the business leaders at HubSpot got started in the sales, support or customer service areas before advancing to leadership positions
- Why working directly with customers helps anchor the team at HubSpot, regardless of their role, and helps maintain focus on the customer experience
- How Michael navigated a difficult period in HubSpot’s life and managed the complexity of a situation that he refers to as an “acute crisis”
- How the need to rapidly hire new frontline employees helped HubSpot clarify and streamline their interview and hiring processes
- How the HubSpot team learned to scale their business and particularly to hire at scale, building out their team by hiring as many as 20 employees per month
- How doing hundreds of job interviews each week became a primary focus for HubSpot, and how Michael viewed interviewing as his primary job responsibility during that time
- How HubSpot transitioned from single-language phone support to offering global multilingual support, and what challenges they faced during the process
- What tips and recommendations Michael would offer to help you fill your open positions with people who have the right skills and passion for the role
- Why simplification and clarity are the keys to scaling, solving problems, and dealing with crisis situations
Resources:
- Website: www.hubspot.com/service
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mredbord/
- Twitter: @redbord
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
With a talent for creating special events that blossomed while working for her dad’s car stereo shop, Nicole Mahoney got her start in marketing at Frontier Field in Rochester and she began serving as the executive director of the internationally known Lilac Festival. Later on, Nicole headed the Canandaigua, New York Business Improvement District while also performing projects for the tourism promotion agency Visit Rochester.
In 2009, Nicole founded Break the Ice Media, with more than 20 years of experience in tourism marketing. She now hosts “Destination on the Left”, a highly successful tourism marketing podcast.
As a business owner, Nicole knows what it takes to be successful. She founded BTI to help businesses tell their brand story through public relations, digital and traditional channels. Nicole has the ability to uncover unique marketing opportunities and develop marketing and public relations initiatives that help clients build long-term success.
What you will learn from this episode:
- Why the onset of the global pandemic pushed Nicole and her team to “double down” on their thought leadership and content creation
- How Nicole’s investment in her thought leadership has paid off in an overwhelmingly positive response from her audience
- How Nicole’s clients within the travel and tourism business have been significantly impacted by the pandemic, and how she is working to help them through the challenge
- Why focusing on being a great partner, establishing goodwill, and planting seeds now can help you survive and thrive through the crisis
- How Nicole and her team navigated the early days of the pandemic, and why transparency in decision-making has been vital as they navigate the challenge
- How Nicole and her team decided to hold a three-day virtual summit for her community well in advance of the pandemic, and how they have found tremendous success
- How the virtual summit, already planned to be held in April, was ideal under the conditions of social distancing
- How Nicole and her team are now helping their clients convert their own events into virtual shows, and how that service is becoming a new offering for Break The Ice Media
- How the virtual summit gave birth to the idea of offering an online course with modules for clients, and how the team coordinated to create the course
- Why being completely transparent and showing how they have done their work has been key in better serving their clients
Resources:
- Email: nicole@breaktheicemedia.com
- Website: www.destinationontheleft.com
- Website: https://breaktheicemedia.com/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/nicolemahoney/
- Twitter: @Break_TheIce
- Facebook: @BreakTheIceMedia
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Melanie Johnson is the CEO of Elite Online Publishing. She is passionate about sharing people’s stories that educate, motivate, and inspire. She and her team market and promote nonfiction books for business owners and athletes to create expert authority status for marketing impact and influence. She is honored to work one on one with their authors to create the best strategies for their book creation, marketing, and social media. Melanie is a five-time best-selling author.
Melanie graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in communications and was the first girl to receive a varsity letter in a boy’s sport in the state of Michigan. She lives in Houston Texas and is originally from Michigan, where she earned the title of Miss Michigan. She is enjoying raising her two sons, who keep her motivated and young. She loves the beach, traveling, and spending time with her family.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How Melanie’s varied career moved from working as a model and actress to broadcasting, to real estate, and then to the world of publishing
- How working in communications awakened Melanie to the power of writing and publishing a book
- How the Amazon author page can be a powerful marketing resource, including adding blog posts and a bio, putting the power of Amazon to work for you for free
- What obstacles and challenges business owners often get stuck on when considering writing a book, and how Melanie and her team help overcome these roadblocks
- What diverse tools and resources are available to help potential authors take down their thoughts and develop a book
- How Melanie and her team’s “ten-by-ten-by-three” formula can help you quickly generate great content relating to the most important questions your audience might ask
- Why calls to action throughout your book are important, and how to integrate your website into your book and encourage readers to opt in to more content
- How giving away free copies of your book can be a great way to forge new relationships and create business opportunities
- Why a book has incredible longevity and can help keep you top-of-mind with your prospects and potential business relationships
- Why publishing a book has many benefits that other forms of marketing tools lack, and why it can be sliced, diced and repurposed in many different ways
Resources:
- Contact Elite Online Publishing for inquiries about publishing your own book here: https://eliteonlinepublishing.com/author-submissions/
- Website: https://eliteonlinepublishing.com/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/melaniejohnson-eop/
- Twitter: @BookWriting1
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/eliteonlinepublishing
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/eliteonlinepublishing/
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Robert W. Mixon, Jr. is a retired U.S. Army Major General, former President of a manufacturing company, EVP of a diverse, innovative not for profit company, and Leadership Consultant. He serves as a faculty member at the Thayer Leader Development Group at West Point and various premier business schools including The Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester, The Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, and the Cox Business School at Southern Methodist University.
Robert served his country for over three decades in various military leadership roles before deciding to bring his high-caliber leadership style and values to the corporate world in 2007. Robert is an expert in the field of Change Management and has made it his mission to develop cultures defined by trust and empowerment.
He co-authored the best-selling book, Cows in the Living Room: Developing an Effective Strategic Plan and Sustaining It, and founded Level Five Associates, a change management consulting company which helps organizations develop strong leaders and unique cultures through the use of their trademarked “Big 6” Leadership Principles. He’s a recent recipient of a Business Leadership Teaching Excellence Award from SMU Cox School of Business.
What you will learn from this episode:
- General Mixon shares how a football scholarship led to attending West Point and finding his military calling and a sense of belonging
- How General Mixon left his career in military service and reentered the private sector, first with a nonprofit organization and then as an entrepreneur
- Why General Mixon considers leadership to be a privilege, not a right, and why he believes in leading by example
- How General Mixon and the team at Level Five Associates work with their clients to customize leadership training programs and workshops
- General Mixon shares his “Big 6” Leadership Principles and defines each, explaining why they matter
- How the team at Level Five Associates helps leaders evaluate, score, and adjust their Big 6, and how doing so improves their leadership abilities
- Why success requires the ability to have frank discussions and the willingness to work toward sustaining your progress
- Why believing in your culture and “walking the talk” in a transparent and authentic way is vital
- Why the most important lesson General Mixon learned was that “it isn’t about me, it is about us”
- Why, to achieve your full potential as a leader, you must commit to the leadership journey of learning and listening
Resources:
- We’re All In: The Journey to a World-Class Culture by General Robert Mixon: https://amzn.to/3dtzPfs
- Email: robert@levelfiveassociates.com
- Website: www.levelfiveassociates.com/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/robertmixon/
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Drs. Brandon and Heather Credeur are two of the most successful Functional Medicine practitioners and entrepreneurs in history. Their passion, entrepreneurial acumen, and good ole fashion southern work ethic allowed them to build one the largest, if not the largest, single office cash practice in the history of Functional Medicine.
More importantly, their business success allowed them to be able to help tens of thousands of chronically ill patients return to health and escape a broken and destructive healthcare system. The Credeurs are steadfast proponents of functional medicine and getting to the root cause of disease. They are fierce advocates for this model of healthcare in their day-to-day actions and efforts, and they have been healthcare warriors at the regulatory, legislative and legal levels.
Through their coaching, consulting, and mentorship their expertise and wisdom have also been used to train hundreds of FM providers in what they call The FM Success Formula. Drs. Brandon and Heather Credeur believe that Functional Medicine should be Fun, Successful, and most of all Impactful.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How Brandon and Heather discovered their focus on Functional Medicine, and why Heather’s own experience with health issues served as motivation to follow this passion
- What early difficulties they faced after starting their practice, and how they had to discover a working business model and learn to run a business
- How they realized they didn’t know business leadership skills they needed, and how they sought mentorship and training to fill in those gaps
- How Brandon and Heather decided to pivot away from a traditional practice/Functional Medicine hybrid and focus on their passion, and how doing so created powerful growth
- How they turned their focus to three interconnected niches in Functional Medicine: patients with type II diabetes, autoimmune diseases, and cognitive decline
- How Brandon and Heather transitioned to coaching and coaching other doctors in the practice of Functional Medicine through their FM Shift platform
- How their coaching business hit the ground running and has since grown and expanded beyond their expectations
- How the FM Shift business scope has changed over time, and what the business and training platform looks like today
- How Brandon was confronted with a tough reality that made a huge impact and helped him course correct and get out of his own way to becoming an expert
- What important mentoring lesson Heather learned that taught her to reframe her mindset and create new opportunities
Resources:
- Website: https://thefmshift.com/
- Email: drbrandon@thefmshift.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fmshift/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/heather-credeur-dc-1a868b7/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-credeur-4536471a2/
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Shay Rowbottom is the co-founder and former COO of a Facebook agency that worked with companies like Petco, Yahoo, Verlo, and dozens more in creating content and devising content strategies for social media. Since joining the LinkedIn platform in May of 2018, Shay has grown to over 90,000 followers, garnered over four million views of her content, and generated seven figures in sales for partnering media companies. Now, she is ready to share her strategies with you and produce the same kind of results for your brand.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How Shay realized she needed a career shift and discovered the value of monetizing social media content and building a following
- How Shay brought her vast social media experience to LinkedIn and had generated more than six figures in revenue in just two months on the platform
- Why video is becoming an increasingly valuable resource on LinkedIn to help you stand out and gain attention
- Why showing authenticity and vulnerability in your content can help your audience better identify with you
- Why people often struggle to go “off-brand,” and why breaking the habit of sticking to your comfort zone can help you break through the noise
- Why offering free value is a valuable way to spread your message and raise your brand awareness, and why hoarding your knowledge isn’t the good idea it might appear to be
- Why sharing content for free can actually be more profitable in the long run that charging for the same content
- Why consistency in creating content is more important than having a high production quality, and why a cell phone is a great tool when you’re just starting out
- How to create great video content that attracts attention and gets people to pay attention to your message
- Why Shay frequently remixes and reposts high-performing content, and how she comes up with ideas for fresh, valuable content every day
Resources:
- Website: www.shayrowbottom.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/shayrowbottom
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/shayrowbottom
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/shayrowbottom
- YouTube: www.youtube.com/shayrowbottom
- Contact Shay at www.shayrowbottom.com to learn more about her six-week LinkedIn Video Bootcamp
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Ryan Tansom became a business junkie early in life as he watched his father grow a small technology company into one of the market leaders in Minneapolis. He joined Imaging Path full-time during the financial crisis when the business was in rough shape. Ryan started in sales and eventually worked his way up to Executive VP after helping turn the distressed company into a profitable B2B technology provider.
In 2014, he and his dad decided to sell their business to a local competitor for a multitude of reasons. The exit process was an unexpectedly difficult undertaking, but the lessons that were learned have proven to be invaluable and he has taken his experience into multiple business ventures.
Ryan is now a serial entrepreneur, podcast host of Life After Business, Co-Founder of Growth & Exit Planning (GEXP) Collaborative, speaker and soon to be author. He has devoted every waking minute since the sale helping owners grow and exit their companies by developing a framework that guides entrepreneurs through the process.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How Ryan inherited his father’s entrepreneurial bug, and how he learned firsthand the importance of proper exit planning
- What particular factors help make a business salable, and why 80% of businesses have glaring weaknesses that make them unsellable
- Why buyers assume significant risk when buying an existing business, and why outside factors can quickly devalue a business after a new owner comes in
- Why research shows that 75% of business owners who do successfully sell their businesses are unhappy and regret the sale twelve months later
- Why it is important for business owners to be clear on how they personally define success for themselves and their companies
- Why knowing what your business is worth today and what it will need to be worth to give you financial freedom when you sell it is vital
- How each exit option has a direct impact on the value, how much money you will get up front vs. over time, and what relationship you will have with the business post closing
- Why creating a stable, predictable and transferable cash flow for your business is the key to increasing its value, and why you need a team of advisors to help you sell
- Ryan explains the difference between “two-dimensional thinking” and “three-dimensional thinking”
- Why you need to see improvements to your business as a worthwhile investment, and what steps you can take to shift your thinking about your business
Resources:
- Website: www.gexpcollaborative.com
- Life After Business podcast: https://apple.co/2wZtNDD
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-tansom-4a440710/
- The Growth & Exit Planning Quiz: www.gexpcollaborative.com/quiz/
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Polly is co-founder and Chief Strategist at A Brave New, a Seattle digital marketing agency focused on helping businesses accelerate their growth through inbound marketing, branding, and web design. She specializes in working with clients to identify barriers to their growth and overcoming them with strategic content and marketing tactics. She has more than fifteen years of experience in digital marketing and branding.
What you will learn from this episode:
- Why Polly and her business partner Josh decided to become entrepreneurs and found A Brave New, and what areas of marketing they specialize in for their clients
- Why Polly and Josh wanted to move away from nonprofit organizations and specialize in the B2B space when they founded A Brave New
- What early challenges the A Brave New team faced when making the jump to B2B, and why Polly and Josh had to learn to believe in the value they were offering
- How trial and error and experimentation helped Polly and Josh fine-tune their area of focus and helped them develop and grow the firm
- How mentorship and good advice became the foundation of A Brave New’s direction, and why having mentors believe in them was a strong motivator for Polly and Josh
- Why Polly believes it is important to be intentional and focus on a clear plan for the future, even if you are busy with the day-to-day grind
- Why you shouldn’t try to start from scratch but should learn from established business leaders who have already gone where you hope to go
- Why Polly and the team at A Brave New used their own company as an experimentation space to develop new offerings for clients
- Why focusing on helping and adding value can help new clients discover your company, and why the A Brave New team developed a new level of discipline in decision-making
Resources:
- A Brave New Podcast: https://www.abravenew.com/podcast
- Website: www.abravenew.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/polly-yakovich-5a5151b/
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Good Morning Onward Nation – I’m Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and your host. Thanks for coming back – and if you’re new to Onward Nation – please know – I greatly appreciate your time and it’s wonderful to have you here.
Today’s episode is going to be a solocast – just you and me exploring a topic with some real depth.
And sort of a house-keeping heads up – this may very well be one of the longest solocast I’ve ever recorded – if not the longest. In fact – during one of the morning kick-start meetings with my Predictive team this week – I shared with them that I felt like I was back at the university getting ready to teach a half-day session on campus.
For the last several days — I’ve been writing on my whiteboards…erasing…starting over…scouring through literally 400 pages of research reports…and then refining my thoughts.
This will be a long one – but my hope is that when you and I are finished walking through it – you’ll feel it was well worth your time.
As I considered topics that would be helpful to you and your team — I thought about the daily phone calls I’ve had over the last several weeks with business owners…or the emails I have received from owners within our Onward Nation community…business owners just like you…who wanted some help brainstorm strategies, or to have an opportunity to get a sanity check on the next steps they were considering, or to help them talk through decisions they were thinking about making within their business.
Here’s the reality, Onward Nation – without question – we’re facing new and historic challenges
But – even though sometimes the challenges may seem insurmountable – I’m telling you – they aren’t.
I get it — none of us have ever had to deal with something exactly like COVID-19 before – but – we have certainly worked through and navigated some very major crises before…and we survived through it all.
Look – you know that I’m not a rah-rah, blow inspiration your way in order to make you feel better kind of person. I like data. I like examples. I like research. I like proven methods.
So I built the content of this episode from the ground up to be a resource that you and your team can use to market – yes, market – your way through the crisis.
I’m going to share some big golden nuggets from the research that I have curated from a variety of sources – and special thanks to Drew McLellan and Susan Baier for helping me knit the data points together.
I’m grateful for how you always generously share your smarts.
So that’s what you and I are going to talk through today – how you and your team can proactively market your business through this crisis – and at the same time – get through to the other side in a healthy position and ready for the rebound in the economy.
Make no mistake. It is not a quick fix. It isn’t easy. It will take hard work. And it may require that you make some difficult decisions. But — if you do all we talk about in this solocast…you will not only put your business in a position to make it through to the other side…but you will have also future-proofed your business for when the next crisis, challenge, or recession lands on our doorsteps.
Okay – so that’s the plan for today. Deal?
But – before we dive into all of that…I feel like I’d be remiss if we didn’t squarely address the emotional side of what we…as owners…are dealing with right now.
I hope you’ll forgive me here – because the next several minutes might sound like venting…because I kind of am…but my guess is…you might take this opportunity to vent right alongside me as I share this.
Candidly — part of what drove me to do the research, to write, and record this solocast was my own anger — my own frustration, my disappointment, and my sadness around what is happening right now.
I will tell you — there have been some days where I’ve felt bruised, battered, bewildered, and quite frankly…exhausted. My lens through which I normally view the world is to always look for the silver lining – and there are indeed silver linings with today’s crisis – but I admit…it’s taken me longer than normal to see them.
These are some big emotions so I wanted to tackle each of them in front of you because I know many of you have felt the same. You’ve shared that with me in our calls and emails.
Or – maybe you’re wrestling with or feeling something entirely different. Either way – maybe we’ll find some common ground here together.
I’m going to start with sadness.
I’m so sad for all of the families here in the United States and abroad that have had to say goodbye to a loved one, way too soon, because of COVID. I have several at-risk family members and friends — as I’m sure you do, too — and we’d be devastated if we were to lose any of them…ever.
My heart is also broken for business owners who have had to shut down…who are now questioning the livelihoods and the livelihoods of their employees. And to make matters worse — many owners played by all the rules when seeking financial assistance…and yet…they were left out in the cold.
How could this possibly happen?
And — I’m embarrassed to admit…when I think about my feelings of sadness…they quickly transition to anger and frustration.
Even as I thought through and then wrote out what I wanted to share with you today — I felt my eyes welling up as I reflected on my sadness and then I heard my fingers pounding on my keyboard harder and harder because my level of tension grew.
I’m angry and frustrated when I hear of instances where our courageous healthcare workers and first responders who were asked to run toward the fight…yet had to do it at great personal risk because they didn’t have the gear they needed. And yet – our brave men and women didn’t stop — they did their duty because we all needed them to.
Or – I feel myself get angry when I hear politicians on both sides of the aisle and bureaucrats seemingly make decisions with their own best interests in mind and not their constituents. With the end result being that many small business owners were left out of the original stimulus – and have been forced to dangle in the wind and hope they get the assistance they desperately need — because someone, somewhere, was playing favorites.
Yet through it all — as I talk with business owners, Onward Nation – as I’m hearing similar emotions felt — I will tell you what I’m NOT hearing…and that’s the word QUIT.
Out of all of those calls — and all of the emails I have received — literally — not one person has said to me that they had decided to throw in the towel and quit. Not a single person. And that is one of the many reasons why I love business owners as much as I do.
You’re some of the most tenacious, generous, and committed people I know. You give, you sacrifice, and you lend support wherever you can. I love that about you.
So when the roles are reversed and support is promised to you…and you’re told by a big box bank that they’ll be there for you…and then we come to find out that that was never their intention…you bet, Onward Nation…that makes me really, really angry.
I’m angry for every business owner who was given a promise and then that promise was broken. Yes, I get it…life isn’t fair but I was hoping that during this crisis we would have demonstrated that we learned some important lessons from the mistakes of the past.
I’m frustrated that the answers and next steps for business owners have been few and far between.
So – I built this solocast as a way to provide a roadmap for where we as owners can and should go next in the coming weeks. What can we do to rebuild — and if we work hard at it — could it be possible to come out of this crisis in a better position than when we went in?
And that’s is what drove me to do the research. To look back through past recessions, past recoveries…to study the winners and the losers…and to share with you what they did…so we can all take some lessons out of their playbooks and put them to work right now.
I’m going to give you the data points and examples to show it’s possible. And — I’m going to share the next steps that you and your team can take and apply.
Okay — two final housekeeping items before we dive in.
First — thanks for listening to me vent — and I hope you were able to blow off a little steam in the process, too. We all need to give ourselves the grace of being able to do that from time-to-time. Yes, our teams deserve the best leadership and direction we can provide. But — you’re also human — you’re not a rock and sometimes we need to remind ourselves that it’s okay to take a step back and to honor the fact that this is an emotional time…even if that’s for 5 minutes. So thank you for giving me that grace just now, Onward Nation.
Second — all of the citation and references sources that I have included can be found in the endnotes section of today’s show notes on PredictiveROI.com.
And third — as I mapped out all of this content on my whiteboards and worked through the written drafts — holy bananas — I quickly saw that there was no way I could cover everything in the level of detail necessary within one solocast. It would be too long and too overwhelming.
So today’s solocast is Part 1 of 2. But by the time you listen to this episode — I will have likely finished up Part 2 so we will be airing it very soon.
Stepping through the research…
Okay, Onward Nation — with all that said — let’s start stepping through how to market your way through the crisis.
And we will start off by reviewing three research studies and articles published in the Harvard Business Review. Again all linked within today’s show notes.
Okay, Onward Nation — with all that said — let’s start stepping through how to market your way through the crisis.
And we will start off by reviewing three research studies and articles published in the Harvard Business Review. Again all linked within today’s show notes.
The first article is entitled “Preparing your business for a post-pandemic world”, which was published by HBR on April 10, 2020 and was written by Carsten Lund Pedersen and Thomas Ritter, both professors at the Copenhagen Business School in Denmark.
I decided to pull golden nuggets out of Pedersen and Ritter’s work and share it with you because of their emphasis on planning before and during a crisis — and how if your planning process was sound, Onward Nation — that the end-result could be that you will not only survive the current crisis but you will have future-proofed your business so you can survive and thrive future threats.
But in order to prep the proper response plan with smart strategic decisions, you must first understand the position your business holds in the market. You can do that by asking yourself and your team some fundamental questions like, “who are we in our market”, “what role do we play in the market? (Are we price-sensitive suppliers, are we market leaders, do our clients and prospects see us as thought leaders, etc.?).” And — what if we make immediate course corrections…could we emerge as a market leader fueled by developments, new ideas, service offerings, or new markets that we invest in during the lockdown? [1]
Onward Nation — we all know that a plan is a course of action pointing the way to the position you hope to attain. But — the right plan should also map out what you need to do today to achieve your objectives tomorrow. And this is where business owners get snagged. Their plans consist of either lofty ideas without any of the tactical detail their team can challenge, make better, and then implement — or often times — there’s no plan at all because the business owner relies on winging it. Winging it may work during good economic times — but it doesn’t work during a crisis.
And yes, I think Mike Tyson had a point when he famously said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” And that is exactly why when the U.S. Navy Seals create a mission plan along with 13 contingencies for each mission they execute. They recognize that there will be ebb and flow to the mission plan as the situation evolves and changes with new data points, variables difficult to predict, or sudden changes. But if they didn’t have a plan – they wouldn’t know what gear to take, how much gear, transportation, extraction, and the litany of other things that need to be considered.
And yet – I know many business owners who bristle at planning because they don’t want to feel boxed in or the constraint on flexibility. The Seals would tell you that it is because of the intensity of their planning process that they can be more flexible on the battlefield because they have already anticipated their options – and – have everything they need to proceed with a new direction.
Here’s the reality — and I think the authors of the article were spot on when they wrote, “the lack of a plan only exacerbates disorientation in an already confusing situation.”[2]
Yes, this crisis is confusing. It’s stressful. And there have been times when working with my leadership team at Predictive when I felt overwhelmed and just wanted to start doing things to see if anything would stick. But — we didn’t until we had a plan. I encourage you to take a step back…have discipline…look around…ask yourself and your team questions…look at today…this week…this month…and map out in writing the steps you intend to take quickly for both the short-term — and — identify how those steps will set your business up for success in 12-months as it relates to your 3-year mission.
In addition to the planning process that you and your fellow leaders within your business need to be working through — you also need to communicate the plan as well as the process to create the plan — with your entire team. If you or your leadership team works through the planning process in a vacuum and doesn’t share highlights, milestones, or progress as the plan is evolving — I’m telling you — your team will feel lost and your culture will suffer.
Your team is just as confused, scared, and concerned as you are. And many of them might be super scared and concerned for you – way more so than their own job security. So — I’m not suggesting that your entire team needs to be involved in the creation of the core plan.
But what I am suggesting is that you take a lesson out of the book, “Extreme Ownership” where you and your leadership team create the core plan — brief your entire team on the objectives and intent of the plan — and then ask junior members of your team to meet and work out the tactical details for implementing the plan.[3]
Your job is to make sure you are clear on the objectives and the intent of the plan. Then set your expectations for the timing for the completion of the plan — quickly…like 24- to 48-hours — and have each of the junior team members present their portion of the plan back to you and your leadership team. Then everyone asks questions and in doing so – does some stress testing of the plan. It’s crucial to create space for the plan to evolve but that doesn’t mean your planning process needs to take weeks. It can be days and you will be off and running.
I assure you — your greatest challenge during the planning process will be to prioritize. You need to be careful that you don’t start numerous projects that all depend on the same critical resources. If you do — you will burn out your team and nothing will get done with excellence. Instead — take your five, six, or 10 great ideas…apply pressure to them…and distill them down to one to two great ideas with clear steps for the next 30-days. And then keep a list of all of the other ideas and come back to it in 30-days and re-evaluate what should be next.
Okay — before we move on to another ingredient in the planning process – I want to give you a warning so you don’t fall into a mental trap. I learned this lesson during my mentorship with Darren Hardy, former publisher of SUCCESS Magazine when he was on our board of advisors at Predictive. And one day he shared some marketing strategies and tactics with me…and candidly…while he was sharing them with me…I was arrogantly thinking to myself, “Yes, good ideas, Darren but I’ve heard these before.” And then came the two-part question from Darren.
“Stephen – you may have heard these ideas before but…”
Question 1: Are you doing them?
And as soon as he asked me the question – I immediately felt embarrassed. When he was sharing the ideas – I was affirming my own smarts in my head because I wanted to show myself that I had similar ideas to Darren. When instead I should have been thinking… “Yes, I have heard this before…and why aren’t we doing this?” So his challenge landed exactly the way he wanted it to land.
And then the second question…
Question #2: If you are doing it…can you do it better, greater, with more excellence?
So – if you’re already planning…rock solid awesome. I commend you because most business owners aren’t planning right now — they are reacting without a plan, which is dangerous because it forces them to aimlessly wandering through the wilderness while trying to wing it.
So my challenge to you is — can you take a nugget out of what Pedersen, Ritter, and the Navy Seals do for planning and make your planning process even better?
My guess is…we all can.
Now let’s shift our attention to imagination — because we need it now more than ever.
Martin Reeves and Jack Fuller, both part of the Boston Consulting Group’s Henderson Institute, wrote a brilliant article entitled, “We Need Imagination Now More Than Ever” which was published by the Harvard Business Review on April 10, 2020. A link to the full text of the article can be found in the endnotes section of today’s show notes.
Reeves and Fuller put forth the argument that imagination — in the face of uncertainty, economic crisis, and the historic challenges we are facing right now as a nation/world — is exactly what we need to solve the problem. But it is difficult to apply imagination and all of its benefits when we are in full-on crisis management mode.
Why? Because when something unexpected and significant happens our first instinct is to defend against it. Then we later move to understand and manage whatever caused the crisis so we can get back to the status quo.
But we may not be able to return to our familiar pre-crisis reality. Onward Nation – no one knows for sure of course – but if I had to guess – I’d predict that COVID-19 is going to permanently change attitudes, needs, behaviors, and industries.
The authors believe – and I agree – “that your capacity to imagine…to create, to evolve, and to pursue ideas — is a crucial factor in seizing and creating new opportunities, and finding new paths to growth.”[4]
But the challenge is — and my guess is when I impressed upon you the importance of planning a few minutes ago — you felt the pressure to act and may have said to yourself “Stephen…there’s no time for planning – I need to take action now.” Same thing with imagination — because of the pressure of COVID-19 — it will be one of the hardest things to keep alive within your business right now.
However — imagination — re-thinking how you can double down in being helpful to your clients and prospects right now is exactly what can help your business survive this recession.
For example — in recessions and downturns, 14 percent of companies outperform both historically and competitively because they invested in new growth areas. Apple released its first iPod in 2001 — the same year the U.S. economy experienced a recession that contributed to a 33 percent drop in Apple’s total revenue. Still – Apple saw the iPod’s ability to transform its product portfolio so the company increased R&D spending by double digits, which sparked an era of high growth for the company.[5]
Later in today’s solocast — I will share with you some data points from a special coronavirus report from Edelman, which shows that what your clients and prospects want from you right now is to be helpful. Share, communicate, educate, teach, and be supportive. Onward Nation — you cannot do any of those things at a high level, with excellence, by reacting…by winging it…without a plan…and with no imagination.
The authors also surveyed more than 250 multi-national companies to understand what leaders were doing to manage the COVID-19 epidemic and its impact on their businesses. Interestingly, only a small number of companies are at a stage where they’re identifying and sharing strategic opportunities. I suppose this shouldn’t be surprising since big companies take longer to pivot than what our teams within our small businesses can do. But it also paints a picture of opportunity, too, doesn’t it?
If you can rally your teams — create an imaginative plan that everyone buys into because they had a hand in building it — you will likely be way of ahead of your competitors.
And yes I get it – you likely don’t own a multi-national company and you don’t have an R&D budget like Apple did back in 2001. But think of it this way – if multi-national companies that have budgets capable of doubling down on R&D – yet aren’t because they are in reactive mode – just think of the possibilities if you could actual reimage what’s next for you in your industry.
You might be the only one serving your niche that is actually thinking about how best to double down on being helpful. The rest of your industry might be thinking about that next promotional push…something…anything in order to get in a few dollars to survive. But you can imagine a completely different path. One that shares your smarts, your insights, the best of what you have in a generous way while everyone else is reacting and frozen.
You may have a blue ocean of possibilities in front of you if you can take the time to imagine all that can be.
But how do you do that? Let me help by giving you a push from the authors. Instead of asking yourself and your team passive questions like “What will happen to us during this crisis?” — flip the script — by asking active, open questions like “How can we create new options?”
Or — “How can we double down and be even more helpful to our clients and prospects during this crisis?”
What could we teach?
What research could we share?
What online event, webinar, or forum could we host for our audience that would share the best of what we’ve got to help them navigate what’s next?
I know — there are no easy solutions. And my Predictive team and I have wrestled through many options when we were building out our 30-day Priorities. Rest assured — we have worked through everything I’m recommending to you…I have seen it in action. But through it all – in order for this to work for you – you need to be open to new possibilities and not constrict the funnel.
Okay – the last nugget I want to share with you was a game-changer for me. I have been a student of mindset, attraction theory, and the power of the mastermind for years. I am a firm believer in that which we focus on we get more of. Perseverating over negative thoughts produces negative results and I have seen the reverse happen, too. And when blended with a great plan, intentional execution, and hard work – that within the plan becomes reality.
But what I learned from this article and wanted to share with you is how this actually plays out in the world of statistics, too.
For example — “when we lose hope and adopt a passive mindset, we cease to believe that we can meet our ideals or fix our problems. In statistics, Bayesian learning involves taking a belief about a statistical distribution – prior results – and updating it in the light of each new piece of information obtained. The outcome of the entire process can be determined by the initial belief. Pessimism can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.”[6]
So – if you focus on being imaginative, being open to the possibilities, giving your team grounds for hope, encouraging them to be innovative…and all of this is done with the intent of being helpful to your clients and prospects in a way you never have been before…you will make progress. Meanwhile – your competitors will be bogged down in the thickness of things and trapped in a short-term survival mentality that requires them to TAKE from their clients and prospects…and it won’t work.
Onward Nation – as a leader in your business – ask yourself whether you are giving people grounds for hope, imagination, and innovation, or whether you are using pessimistic or fatalistic language, which could create a downward spiral in organizational creativity. Dealing with real risks involves taking imaginative risks, which requires hope.[7]
Trust me when I say that the trench you are fighting in every day – that trench of pressure, doubt, fear, anxiety, and at times…overwhelm…yes, I know that trench well, too. And I’m right there with you…slugging it out, too…and working hard.
But one thing I’m grateful for is that we quickly built a plan at Predictive, we prioritized, we mapped out how we could be helpful to clients and prospects…and we did all of that from the spirit of imagination…and then we shared it with our team. Now – taking you behind the curtain in full transparency…we did all of that in 48-hours. This is not a 4-6 week process. Don’t get bogged down…get moving.
Let’s keep up the momentum of the planning process and begin to think about how you should deal with the myriad of business pressures right now. Do you cut operating costs, do you furlough employees, do you work to open new markets and invest in R&D, or some other combination of strategies? And – is there an ideal combination or blend of the strategies – and if so – what have been the result outcomes from other companies as they worked to navigate past crises.
Thankfully – there is some excellent research available on all of the above. With that said – it might seem a bit odd that I am going to now turn our attention toward an article / published study in the Harvard Business Review from 2010. Why would I pull from an article that is 10-years old?
The article is entitled, “Roaring Out of Recession” and was published in HBR on March 3, 2010. I’m recommending you and your team study it because the data points within the article provide a whole lot of context that matters during today’s crisis.
Back in 2010 of course – the country was looking for any and all help in pulling itself out of the Great Recession of 2008 and 2009. But in order to make smart recommendations to their 2010 readers – the authors went back and gathered data from the past three global recessions: the 1980 crisis (which lasted from 1980 to 1982), the 1990 slowdown (1990 to 1991) and the 2000 bust (2000 to 2002). They studied 4,700 public companies, breaking down the data into three periods: the three years before a recession, the three years after, and the recession years themselves.[8] It took the researchers over 12-months to complete the research project and they focused on publicly traded companies because of the availability and access to data.
At the high level — and I will slice the big nuggets apart in just a minute — but as a business owner this data is helpful because right now you are in the heat of battle. You are a battlefield general. You’re commanding your troops…you’re asking for the best intel…and you and your fellow leaders are trying to react and respond. But without taking the time to plan…to imagine…to think about long-term positioning…I assure you…you will be busy tackling short term priorities and your outlook on the future will continue to be obscured by the fog of war.
Here are some of the highlights…
Seventeen percent of the companies in the study didn’t survive the recession.
About 80 percent of 4,700 companies in the study (3,760 companies) had not yet regained their pre-recession growth rate for sales and profits three years after the recession.
Forty percent of the 4,700 companies (1,880 companies) hadn’t even returned to their prerecession sales and profits levels by the end of the three years post-recession.
So for the majority of the companies – the financial impact of the recession were long lasting.
Only nine percent of companies flourished after a slowdown, doing better on key financial parameters than they had before and outperforming rivals in their industry by at least 10 percent in terms of sales and profits growth.
Interestingly — companies that cut costs faster and deeper than their competitors didn’t necessarily flourish. In fact – these were the companies in the study with the lowest probability — 21 percent — of pulling ahead of their competition when the economy rebounded.
Counter-intuitively — the company leaders that decided to double down and boldly invest more than their rivals during a recession also didn’t fare well. They only enjoyed a 26 percent chance of becoming leaders after a downturn and then into an economic rebound.
And most surprising to me was learning that 85 percent of growth leaders heading into a recession are then toppled because of the crisis. So if you’re not currently the leader in your niche – the current crisis could absolutely be your opportunity if you lead your team correctly over the next several months.
The post-recession winners were companies that mastered the balance between cutting costs to survive today and investing to grow tomorrow. And the proof is in the results with 37 percent of the post-recession winners breaking away from the pack.
“The post-recession winners were the companies that cut costs selectively by focusing on increasing operational efficiency — meanwhile — they invested relatively comprehensively in the future by spending on marketing, R&D, and new assets. This is the best antidote to a recession.”[9]
The researchers called the segment of companies that had taken this strategic approach, “Progressive.”
Progressive companies deploy the optimal combination of defense and offense. Conversely — the “prevention-focused companies” in the study were the ones whose leaders quickly implemented policies that reduced operating costs, shrunk discretionary expenditures, eliminated frills, lowered headcount, and preserved cash. They also postponed making new investments in R&D, developing new businesses, or buying assets such as plants and machinery to expand their capacity. Prevention-focused leaders cut back on almost every item of cost and investment and reduce expenditures significantly more than competitors.
Focusing solely on cost-cutting causes executives and employees to approach every decision through a loss-minimizing lens and pessimism permeates the organization.
Post-recession profits for prevention-focused enterprises typically rose by only $600 million, whereas for progressive companies they increased by an average of $6.6 billion. Prevention-focused companies were the ones that suffered the most during the recession – and – took the longest to recover. Or – never recovered to their pre-recession levels for sales and profit.
So let’s flip that — is doubling down on promotion is the right strategy?
Unfortunately – no – it’s not that simple. A focus purely on promotion develops a culture of optimism that led companies to deny the gravity of a crisis for a long time. They ignored early warning signs, such as customer’s budget cuts, and were steadfast in the belief that as long as they innovate, their sales and profits will continue to rise. They didn’t notice that because the pie was shrinking, they must capture an even larger share from rivals to keep growing. And this typically leads to intense price competition and a zero-sum game. No one wins in a race to the bottom.
However — progressive companies — which is where I’m urging you to begin thinking, Onward Nation — they are the companies that cut costs by improving operational efficiency rather than by slashing the number of employees. Only 23 percent of progressive companies cut staff — whereas 56% of prevention-focused companies do—and they lay off fewer people.
And the offensive moves by progressive are even comprehensive. Progression companies develop new business opportunities by making significantly greater investments than their rivals in R&D and marketing, and they invest in expanding their capacity. Progressive companies develop new markets and invest to enlarge their asset bases. They take advantage of depressed prices to buy property, plants, and equipment.
All of that combined is why the post-recession growth in sales and earnings by the progressive lead companies was the best among the 4,700 within the study.
Okay — let’s do a quick recap from what we have covered so far. First — by the data — you need to have a plan that involves your entire team – you cannot afford to wing it through any crisis…and definitely not this one. Second — you need to find ways to stay open to imagination and letting it impact your R&D and how you approach doubling down on being helpful to your clients and prospects. And third — if you want your business to make it through the other side of this crisis…and potentially…be in an even better position than when you entered it…now is the time to be progressive. Yes, reduce your operating expenses to boost efficiency…keep your team intact the best you can…and make investments in your marketing and R&D.
Let’s take the ROI around marketing investments a bit deeper with some data points collected from a study commissioned by the Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI).
“ASI studied 2,662 firms from 1970 – 1991 to determine the effect of marketing on a company during a recession. Firms that marketed during a recession increased in value and got more marketing bang for their investment. In some cases – up to three years after the recession had ended. It seems like common sense – if you market when everyone else stops marketing – your message is more likely to be noticed due to a less cluttered market and your business is more likely to be remembered once your competitors begin marketing again.”
In my opinion, Onward Nation — this crisis is the time for you not to be silent. You need to be in front of your clients, prospects, and audience — and yes — that is marketing. But — this isn’t the time to be selling. This is the time to be helping. So yes — I want you to have a progressive mindset about how to lead your business to the other side of this but I want you to be very thoughtful about the content you and your team create and shares.
This is why I also want to share some highlights from a recent special report from Edelman because the context here will help guide the context of your content.
You can access a full copy of the report from the Edelman website using the link at the bottom of today’s show notes.
Edelman is a global communications firm that partners with businesses and organizations to evolve, promote, and protect their brands and reputations. Edelman employs 6,000 people in more than 60 offices. And they have been studying, researching, reporting on the topic of trust for the last 20-years. Their report has become the standard for excellence on the topic.
Edelman just conducted a 12-market study on the critical role brands are expected to play during the coronavirus pandemic, completed on March 26. We interviewed 12,000 people in Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, South Africa, South Korea, the UK, and the U.S. This follows on a study that we released two weeks ago on the role of the private sector during the pandemic.
I’m going to walk through a high-level overview of the key points…
If you were ever in doubt that your brand(s) mattered, this new data reveals the power and necessity of brand as well as the urgent need for you to act.
You and your team need to find solutions (think “imagination” – remember that from earlier in this solocast?) instead of selling passion or image.
Your solutions need to be tangible and fast, not impressionistic and conceptual.
Respondents recognized the need for specific actions to help address the societal challenges posed by COVID-19, from protecting the wellbeing of employees to shifting products, services, and pricing to create a sense of community. This crisis is indeed an opportunity for you to step up in a whole new way to be helpful in your niche.
Sixty-two percent of respondents said that their country won’t make it through this crisis without businesses playing a critical role in addressing the challenges. At the same time, 71 percent agree that if they perceive that a business is putting profit over people, they will lose trust in that business forever.[10]
So Onward Nation – if you’re not smart about your context ensuring it’s on-point – you could cause more harm than good from your marketing effort.
Businesses must focus their messaging on solutions, not selling.
Eighty-four percent of respondents said they want brand advertising to focus on how brands help people cope with pandemic-related life challenges.[11]
Seventy-seven percent said they want brands only to speak about products and services in ways that show they are aware of the crisis and the impact on people’s lives.[12]
And Onward Nation — the study showed that there’s a deep desire for expertise. Eighty-four percent of respondents globally said that they want businesses to be a reliable news source that keeps people informed. They want to receive this information from multiple sources, in part because they are skeptical about any individual medium given the epidemic of fake news. The most credible combination is mainstream media plus email.
Taking that further — eighty-five percent of respondents want you to be an educator, offering your audience instructional information about the virus and its effects and how to protect yourselves from it.
With the said — I’m suggesting that you play doctor or infectious disease expert. But what I am recommending that you do is pick up the torch and lead the conversations in your niche about the business impact the virus is having on your customers, your vendors, your industry as a whole. And — champion the distribution of resources, research, or anything else you think will be helpful to your community of clients and prospects who are desperately seeking answers.
If you’re on our email list – you’ve likely received updates from me with PPP resources, calculators, applications, etc. Our expertise isn’t in the public health arena – but – we absolutely believe we can be helpful to business owners within our community by sharing resources we have curated. And the response from our community has been incredible because we shared the right resources, at the right time, with absolutely no expectation of return.
Helping – not selling, Onward Nation.
The team at Edelman believes that this global crisis will fundamentally change how we think, behave, and consume. There will not be a rapid return to normal. And the new world will have trust at its core, with the brand mandate expanded to solve problems for all, protect all, care for all, collaborate with all, and innovate in the public interest.
Business owners that act in the interest of their employees, clients, prospects, and other stakeholders will reinforce their expertise, leadership, and trust and immeasurably strengthen those bonds. Your community is looking to you to share your thought leadership and expertise – and you can’t do that by shrinking or by being quiet. They want you to demonstrate your authority.
Don’t be promotional – be helpful. Don’t focus on selling – but be solutions focused. Double down on sharing your expertise like you never have before. We’re all faced with economic challenges right now – no one is immune – and if you can resist the temptation to sell…I assure you…creating an authority position will deliver a financial return on your investment.
In an upcoming episode of Onward Nation — Susan Baier, founder of Audience Audit – an exceptional research firm and our partner on a recent study on the ROI of Thought Leadership will join me to walk through the findings with you. I will tell you – the results are shocking. Yes, there is an ROI on your thought leadership when done well.
For example…
When a prospect chooses to work with you and your team instead of a competitor – 62 percent of the time that choice was made because of whether they consider you to be an authority or not.
Susan and I are preparing an executive summary with some of the biggest findings from the research. It will be available soon. If you’d like to ensure you receive it when it’s available – go to our Resources Library at PredictiveROI.com/resources and download one of the resources to ensure you’re on our mailing list – or – you can also email me directly at Stephen@predictiveroi.com and I’ll make sure you get on the distribution list.
Okay – let’s begin to wrap up an come in for a landing by circling back to the Edelman data and then some additional framing about what makes someone an authority.
Onward Nation — all of the data points to the fact that we’ve entered the era of the Authority…even before COVID-19…and now even more so as a result of the virus. And while you may be sick of the phrase “thought leader”, the truth is there aren’t that many of them in the niches where you have decided to focus your business. If you haven’t yet niched down – I highly recommend you listen to Episode 930 where Eric Lanel and I talked through the importance of claiming your niche.
But what makes a thought leader a thought leader?
Thought leaders don’t write content that anyone else could claim. Thought leaders don’t write about anything and everything. And thought leaders don’t compete on price. And because of COVID, the data from Edelman, the data from our own ROI of Thought Leadership study, and many other relevant sources — I will argue — that the ideal time for you to double down on your own thought leadership to build your authority in your niche is now.
Churning out generic content to get ahead in Google rankings may have worked 20 years ago – but it doesn’t work today and it’s not helpful to your audience.
In our recent book entitled, “Sell with Authority”, my co-author, Drew McLellan, and I shared highlights from the 2019 Trust Barometer study from Edelman, a global PR agency, which has conducted the study each year for the last 20-years. It’s a worldwide study with 33,000 consumers participating in 27 countries.
One of the biggest takeaways from the study was that buyers assign a high level of trust to people they believe are just like themselves. When you think about the impact that ratings, reviews, and influencers have with their audiences, you begin to see the power of that belief.
But Edelman’s research isn’t about the celebrity influencer. This study documents the rise of the common man influencer – business owners just like you and me, Onward Nation. It’s noteworthy because it gives statistical validity to the idea of real people as influencers and the impact they can have on the beliefs around a brand.
The one attribute that ranked higher than the trust we have in people like you and me is the trust we have in highly educated experts. The only three groups of people we trust more than people like ourselves are company, industry, and academic experts.
Experts are afforded the highest level of confidence and trust because they have a depth of knowledge in a specific industry or niche. So why in the world wouldn’t you capitalize on that? Instead of creating generic content that looks and sounds like everyone else during this crisis – take the opportunity to create thought leadership content that is unique, different, and helpful – not promotional. Your competitors aren’t. So you should.
Now more than ever — you can own an authority position – you can do it – and it will help you future proof your business. There has never been a better time in history to start.
The data is all on your side.
The 10 Truths of an Authority
If you were asked to think of an authority on any subject, who would come to mind? What about them designates them as an authority? What’s true about them? And what does someone have to do to earn and keep the title of authority?
Truth #1: They have a focus area or subject matter expertise.
Truth #2: They don’t just repeat what everyone else is saying.
Truth #3: They have a public presence where they share their expertise.
Truth #4: They don’t stray from their area of expertise—think specialist versus a generalist.
Truth #5: They aren’t equally attractive to everyone. In fact, they probably bore most people to tears.
Truth #6: They’re significant—which is different from prolific—in terms of content creation.
Truth #7: They don’t create any generic content that someone with far less knowledge or experience could have just as easily written.
Truth #8: They’re perceived as an educator in some way.
Truth #9: They have a passion for their subject matter.
Truth #10: They have a strong point of view, which is the foundation of all of their content.
A true authority has something specific to teach us, and they want to be helpful or illuminating. They’re eager to share what they know because they have a genuine passion for it, and they don’t fear giving away the recipe to their secret sauce (or so it’s perceived).
That confidence and generosity are contagious. Their expertise is something specific groups of people (their sweet-spot prospects) are hungry to access. Call them an expert, a thought leader, an authority, a sought-after pundit, advisor, or specialist. They’re all words for the same thing—a trusted resource that has earned that trust by demonstrating and generously sharing the depth of their specialized knowledge over and over again.
One way to recognize an authority is the ability to define them in a single sentence, like Simon Sinek. He’s “the why guy.” Brené Brown is “the dare-to-be-vulnerable woman.” They’ve so narrowly and so carefully defined their expertise that we can capture it with a word or phrase.
Does Simon Sinek talk about other things? Of course. But he always ties it back to his thing—the “why.”
Does Brené Brown write about additional topics? Absolutely. But she always loops it back to being vulnerable and the power that comes from being brave enough to embrace vulnerability.
Beyond that, Drew and I would argue that a true authority has a strong point-of-view or belief that influences how they talk about their subject area. A narrow niche, a strong point-of-view, and being findable in multiple places are the hallmarks of an authority position.
And — they have a plan for creating content that is helpful to their niche and not focused on selling. All of the data points to the validity of leveraging your own thought leadership as your core strategy to proactively market your way through the crisis and to make it through to the other side in a stronger position than when all of this happened. You need a plan, with some imagination, some hard work, progressive ideas, and the willingness to invest your time and attention toward execution.
But if you do that – and your clients, prospects, and audience can see that you are being helpful and not selling…when they are ready to enter the market again…you will have put yourself in the best possible position for a new trajectory of growth.
Your plan – will need to address what my team and I call the 6 tenets of how to Sell with Authority. And I will cover those in full transparent detail in Part 2 of this solocast series.
Okay – whew – was that a lot?
Holy bananas – it sure felt like a lot.
And remember — all of the research sources can be found in the endnotes in today’s show notes on PredictiveROI.com.
As always — I look forward to your feedback. The emails you send me — and your comments on social media — all help us get better every day — so thank you for that Onward Nation and keep them coming.
And if you need me — you can reach me directly at Stephen@predictiveroi.com. Rest assured — that’s my actual Inbox and I read and reply to every email.
Okay, Onward Nation — this is the time to double down like no other in history. But — be smart about it. Invest in the right areas. Make progressive decisions. And if you do all that — you will market your way through this crisis.
I look forward to seeing you on the other side.
Until our next episode — onward with gusto!
[1] “Preparing Your Business for a Post-Pandemic World”, Carsten Lund Pederson and Thomas Ritter, Harvard Business Review, April 10, 2020.
[2] “Preparing Your Business for a Post-Pandemic World”, Carsten Lund Pederson and Thomas Ritter, Harvard Business Review, April 10, 2020.
[3] “Extreme Ownership”, Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, St. Martin’s Press, 2015.
[4] “We Need Imagination Now More Than Ever”, Martin Reeves and Jack Fuller, Harvard Business Review, April 10, 2020.
[5] “We Need Imagination Now More Than Ever”, Martin Reeves and Jack Fuller, Harvard Business Review, April 10, 2020.
[6] “We Need Imagination Now More Than Ever”, Martin Reeves and Jack Fuller, Harvard Business Review, April 10, 2020.
[7] “We Need Imagination Now More Than Ever”, Martin Reeves and Jack Fuller, Harvard Business Review, April 10, 2020.
[8] “Roaring Out of Recession”, Ranjay Gulati, Nitin Nohria, Franz Wohlgezogen, Harvard Business Review, March 3, 2010.
[9] “Roaring Out of Recession”, Ranjay Gulati, Nitin Nohria, Franz Wohlgezogen, Harvard Business Review, March 3, 2010.
[10] “Trust Barometer Special Report: Brand Trust and the Coronavirus Pandemic”, Richard Edelman, Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report, March 30, 2020.
[11] “Trust Barometer Special Report: Brand Trust and the Coronavirus Pandemic”, Richard Edelman, Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report, March 30, 2020.
[12] “Trust Barometer Special Report: Brand Trust and the Coronavirus Pandemic”, Richard Edelman, Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report, March 30, 2020.
Cate Stillman founded Yogahealer.com in 2001, a $1M+ revenue a year business. Cate is a leader and author in the field of Ayurveda, Peak Performance, and Habits (titles: Body Thrive; Master of You), podcaster with 2M downloads, and global community builder. She runs Yogahealer with her remote team (10 contractors + 40 work studies), so she can ski, surf and run rivers with her family in the Tetons and Mexico.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How Cate found her purpose and recognized the problems caused by our materialism and consumerism, and how she came to study Ayurveda medicine and yoga
- Why your mind, body, and spirit are necessary components for your own success, and why bringing these components into balance is critically important
- Why the western version of yoga is an incomplete version that is missing basic connections and important habits that strengthen your mind, body, and spirit
- Why when you eat your meals is as important as what you eat, and why eating your biggest meal late in the day can impact your mental capabilities
- Why holistic medicine teaches that you don’t necessarily feel worse and slow down as you get older
- Why there are visible signs that a person is out of balance, and how you can learn to identify the cause of these symptoms
- Why it is important to reflect on your performance over the course of your day and note whether you were energized and present throughout the day
- Why a major focus in Ayurveda is on digestion, not just physical digestion but also mental and emotional digestion
- What questions to ask yourself to determine where you want to make progress and to determine what areas of your life need more attention
- What key takeaways Cate hopes readers will receive from her new book, Master of You: A Five-Point System to Synchronize Your Body, Your Home, and Your Time with Your Ambition
Resources:
- Master of You by Cate Stillman: https://amzn.to/2XjLPep
- Ayurveda for Peak Performance + Deep Rejuvenation free workshop: https://yogahealer.com/peak-performance/
- Free Body Goals session: https://yogahealer.com/body-goals
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cate-stillman/
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Robin Ryan has appeared on over 2000 TV and Radio shows including Oprah, Dr. Phil, CNN, ABC News, Fox, NBC News, and NPR. Her advice has been seen in most major magazines and newspapers including USA Today, the NY Times, and the Wall Street Journal. She currently writes a weekly career column for Forbes.com
Robin Ryan has a busy career counseling practice offering individual career coaching, resume writing, interview coaching, LinkedIn Profile writing, and job search services to clients nationwide.
She is the best-selling author of 60 Seconds & You’re Hired!, Soaring On Your Strengths, What to Do with the Rest of Your Life, Winning Resumes, Winning Cover Letters, Retirement Reinvention, and Over 40 & You’re Hired. Robin donates the profits from her book sales to Breast Cancer Research.
A popular speaker and corporate trainer, Robin has spoken to over a thousand audiences on careers, LinkedIn and job search topics. She holds a master’s degree in counseling and education from Suffolk University and a bachelor’s degree from Boston College. She is the former director of counseling services at the University of Washington, in Seattle.
“Robin Ryan is America’s top Career Coach.” — Houston Chronicle
What you will learn from this episode:
- Why Robin chose to become a career counselor in the early 1990s, before it was a viable career path, and why she is passionate about her work
- How a guest appearance on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show helped Robin’s career explode, and how a breast cancer diagnosis brought everything to a halt in 2012
- How marketing, networking, and writing have been the cornerstones of Robin’s efforts to rebuild her business, and how she is finding success once again
- Which “three LinkedIn blunders” business leaders often make, why they are a problem, and how to avoid falling into the trap of making these common blunders
- How applicants often use LinkedIn profiles to determine if a business and its culture are a good fit for them, and what steps you can take to improve your profile
- Why your LinkedIn profile should be written in the first person rather than in the third person
- Why 500 networking connections on LinkedIn is the magic number, and why you should accept connections from people outside the circle of people you personally know
- Why your background image should include something to do with your industry, your company name, and logo, and why everyone in your company should use the same image
- What resources are available to learn to better use LinkedIn and create compelling content on the platform
- How mentors have influenced Robin and offered her important lessons she has used throughout her career
Resources:
- 60 Seconds & You’re Hired by Robin Ryan: https://amzn.to/2QKuKpP
- Website: http://www.robinryan.com/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/robinryancareercounselor/
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
- Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
Eric Lanel was born on January 26, 1968, in Queens, New York. He is the only child and son of Julius, a psychotherapist, and Barbara, a social worker, and spent many a dinner conversation discussing human behavior. Eric worked through high school as a mason and started a residential painting company that continued through college. Upon graduating with a degree in marketing from Hartford, Eric worked at CBS Television, Walt Disney Company, and Doubleclick before taking the role of President of GWPinc., a strategy agency. Today Eric lives in Livingston, New Jersey with his wife Francine and daughter Zoe. Eric has two adult sons: Adam who works in advertising and Griffin in the building industry. When not working with companies on strategy and developing content he can be found on a golf course or a stream.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How Eric’s diverse career journey taught him the importance of learning, and how he brings that passion to his work at GWP Inc.
- How a set of unique circumstances led Eric to purchase and take control of GWP Inc., and how Eric has learned throughout his career to create a vision for his companies
- How GWP was operating prior to Eric taking it over, and why he decided to focus the company’s efforts on the particular vertical of the building industry
- How Eric and his team navigated the process of focusing on a specific niche, and what complexities they overcame during the process
- Why “opportunity cost” is a fear that many business owners experience when deciding whether to niche down, and how Eric overcame his own fear
- How one of the first steps Eric took was to determine what the “best” agency in the building space would look like, and how he and his team worked toward that vision
- Why Eric sees his role as a leader as one of always learning, growing, and anticipating the needs of his clients
- How Eric’s podcast, Constructing Brands, offers GWP a platform to better understand their clients’ questions and needs while offering them greater value
- How Eric’s early career experience and family background helped provide him a greater respect for the building trades
Resources:
- Website: https://gwpinc.com/
- Email: elanel@gwpinc.com
- Constructing Brands podcast: https://gwpinc.com/podcast/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/eric-lanel-28a6144/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/gwp-inc-/
- Instagram: @gwp_inc
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
If you’ve been listening to the show for a while now — you know that I like to bring you conversations with guests who are strategic — as well as practical and tactical — and who will generously give you the best of what they’ve got so you can take it and apply it — and move your business onward.
And each of us as business owners — as people — are facing unprecedented challenges right now.
Things many of us could have never imagined as a result of the coronavirus.
And each day — we need to show up as the best leader we can — because our teams, our clients, and communities need that from us.
The business owners I meet with each day are doing everything they can to effectively lead during these challenging times.
But candidly, Onward Nation — today’s business environment requires another level in leadership — it requires proven strategies, a process, and the willingness to put systems into place.
And because of that, I’m grateful that Brett Gilliland, CEO and founder of Elite Entrepreneurs, said yes to my invitation to come back for an encore interview so we could talk through leadership strategies, processes, and systems — which you can take and apply into your business and be better for it.
What you will learn from this episode:
- Beyond “flight” and “fight” — there is a 3rd defensive mechanism that we have — and as business owners — it can actually hurt us the most
- Why the “Stockdale Paradox” is just a relevant today as it was when Admiral James Stockdale first shared it
- Why you need to go narrow in what you allow into your inner circle — from people to media — and why you need to block out everything else
- Now more than ever — business owners need to stay focused on the Big 3 of their role
- Why “Fighting F.U.D” should be your number one priority as a business owner
- Why Brett believes that the best leaders build the best businesses — and — the best businesses win
- Why helping and leading others begins with leading yourself to clarity
- Why you should rest easy — you have a 100 percent track record of getting through hard times…otherwise you wouldn’t be here
Ways to contact Brett:
- Website: www.growwithelite.com
- Email: Brett@growwithelite.com
Additional Resources:
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
Kathy Caprino, M.A. is an international career, executive and leadership coach, writer, speaker and trainer dedicated to the advancement of women in business. She is a former corporate Vice President, trained marriage and family therapist, seasoned coach and the author of Breakdown, Breakthrough. Kathy is also the Founder of Ellia Communications, Inc., a premier career coaching and consulting firm which offers career and leadership development programs including the Amazing Career Project online course, her Finding Brave podcast, and the Amazing Career Certification training for coaches. Kathy is a leading contributor on Forbes, Thrive Global and LinkedIn, a TEDx and keynote speaker, and a top media source on careers, leadership, and women’s issues.
For more info, visit kathycaprino.com and connect with Kathy on Twitter, FB, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How career crisis after career crisis led Kathy to realize she urgently needed a change, and how she realized her focus and passion was to help professional women
- Why professional expectations and attitude expectations differ between men and women, and why women
- Kathy shares insights from her interview with Susan Sobbott, President of American Express OPEN, on how men and women need different things to succeed in business
- How Kathy defines “power gaps” and why many women struggle to speak about how they stand out and what their special skills and talents are
- Kathy defines her seven power gaps and explains why each is a problem that many women in business experience
- Why it is important to recognize your talents and abilities that you are uniquely good at, rather than being modest
- Why scary experiences are an opportunity to grow and strengthen yourself and should be embraced rather than avoided
- Why the blocks and challenges you experience now are often a result of past trauma that you experienced at an earlier point in your life
Resources:
- Website: https://kathycaprino.com
- Podcast: https://findingbrave.org
- Kathy Caprino’s article on Susan Sobbott: https://bit.ly/3ctRcwQ
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/FindingBraveToday/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kathycaprino/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/ellia-communications/
- Twitter: @kathycaprino
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/kathycaprino/
Additional Resources:
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
Upon graduating from college, John Dameron started a career with Marriott International. After almost seven years as a hotel manager, John was seeking more autonomy over his future and decided to change his course. He entered the financial services industry in 1997 and quickly found his niche in helping physicians with their personal finances. As he continued to gain experience in the medical community, John co-founded Spaugh Dameron Tenny in 2002. Today, Spaugh Dameron Tenny educates and advises physicians and dentists in more than 26 states.
What you will learn from this episode:
- Why a family tradition of working in the financial sector inspired John to go into financial planning himself, and how he and his partners founded their business
- Why financial issues are the number two cause of physician burnout, and how John and his team recognized they could assist with that issue through thought leadership
- Why intentionality and team-driven content creation has been the secret sauce powering the growth of the business
- What strong client feedback John and his team are receiving with regards to their thought leadership channels
- Now niching down and focusing on just doctors and dentists was a difficult leap that proved to be one of the best moves the practice made
- Why focusing on a specific niche helped the firm streamline their efforts and helped keep them from spreading themselves too thin
- How John’s team taps into their deep well of experience to utilize in their thought leadership efforts
- Why learning to delegate is a difficult challenge that business owners must master if they want their businesses to grow
- Why, when you’re stuck on a project or idea, you shouldn’t be asking “how” to do it but should instead be asking “who” has the answers
Resources:
- Website: www.sdtplanning.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/johndameron1/
Additional Resources:
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
Laura Gassner Otting speaks with change agents, entrepreneurs, investors, leaders, and donors to get them past the doubt and indecision that consign their great ideas to limbo. She delivers strategic thinking, well-honed wisdom, and catalytic perspective informed by decades of navigating change across the start-up, nonprofit, political, and philanthropic landscapes.
What you will learn from this episode:
- Laura shares her fascinating career path and explains how she ended up working in the White House at age 21 helping to develop AmeriCorps
- How Laura established her own firm, the Nonprofit Professionals Advisory Group, and why she chose to exit the firm after nearly 15 years
- Why exiting her firm was one of the greatest challenges of Laura’s life, and how she came up with an innovative exit strategy
- Why everyone defines success differently, and why Laura defines her own success not by profitability but by happiness and free time
- Why Laura decided to write her book Limitless: How to Ignore Everybody, Carve your Own Path, and Live Your Best Life
- Why Laura began to experience a lack of self-confidence, and how she wrote Limitless in just three weeks once inspiration struck
- How Laura realized that putting clients’ problems first and offering clear solutions was the right path to take in her business
- Laura shares a story of giving a signed copy of Limitless to Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts and then getting a booking on the show as a result
- Why Laura believes that being authentic, offering value, and being open to possibility have been the keys to some of the incredible opportunities she has had
Resources:
- Limitless by Laura Gassner Otting: https://amzn.to/32po05i
- Website: www.limitlessassessment.com
- Website: http://lauragassnerotting.com/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/heylgo
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/heylgo/
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/heylgo/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/heylgo
- YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCKtrsI8y-nZ-iLizqUz_2CQ
Additional Resources:
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
As founder and President of Callis, a full-service ad agency located in Missouri in the heart of the Midwest, Cliff offers his agency’s clients more than 30 years of experience and expertise in marketing, advertising, and public relations.
Cliff has shared his marketing expertise speaking at events, as a contributing author to books and through his agency’s OUTthink thought leadership series. Cliff grew up in the retail business, working alongside his father and brother, where he first learned about the customer experience.
Cliff has been integral in leading the agency through the digital revolution. Callis specializes in the development of strategic and creative solutions with a focus on digital marketing and leveraging digital strategies with proven traditional approaches to get results. Today, he focuses his efforts on client, employee and public relations and working with clients to help grow their business.
He is also President of the Board of Directors of the Center for Human Services, a nationally acclaimed not-for-profit organization that serves those with disabilities. Cliff and his family reside outside Sedalia, Missouri, where he enjoys outdoor sports, travel, and the inspiration of life’s experiences.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How Cliff founded his advertising agency, Callis, and why he chose to set up his business in the rural Midwest
- How Cliff and his team at Callis decided to niche down and focus on advertising for rural American business clients
- Why shifting their focus to rural businesses was a “scary” transition, and how positioning Callis as experts in rural business marketing has benefited the company
- Why specializing in businesses wanting to market to rural America has brought new, unexpected business to Callis
- What key daily habits, routines, and rituals help Cliff get into the right mindset and prepare himself for his day
- Why Cliff believes that listening and people skills are vital components of his success, and why being able to communicate with a diverse audience is key
- Cliff shares the story of an important lesson he learned from a mentor in his career and why he feels passionate about his role as a mentor to his team
- Why Cliff meets with his direct reports once a week to work with them and provide mentorship and feedback, and why doing so is more than worth the time spent
- Why bringing in a mentor who understood the advertising agency environment was a key change that made a tremendous impact on Cliff and his business
Resources:
- Email: ccallis@ecallis.com
- Website: www.ecallis.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cliffcallis/
Additional Resources:
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
Drew McLellan is a 25-year marketing veteran who helps clients create authentic love affairs with their customers. Drew has run his own agency, the McLellan Marketing Group, for over 20 years and helps the owners of over 250 small to mid-size agencies a year learn how to take their business to the next level through his consultancy, the Agency Management Institute. Drew has appeared in the New York Times, Entrepreneur Magazine, Businessweek, and Fortune Small Business. The Wall Street Journal calls Drew one of 10 bloggers that every entrepreneur should read.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How the internet has disrupted buyer behavior and changed the way B2B sales are conducted today
- Why establishing yourself as an authority or expert in a particular niche can be a powerful way to boost your sales
- How being the expert of your niche opens up a larger geographical area for your sales and can allow you to charge a premium
- Why your unique point of view allows you to stand out from competitors and is what you uniquely bring to your business that your competitors lack
- What steps business owners can take to define their point of view and establish their expertise in a niche
- Why attracting “sweet spot” clients is the key to building a base of loyal clients who spend more money and offer better referrals
- Why you should start with robust, informative “cornerstone content” and how your preference between writing and talking can help determine what content to create
- How cornerstone content can be broken up into “cobblestone content” that can be shared across social media and other locations
- Why it is important to develop a relationship through your content before you try to sell to your prospective clients, and why showing authenticity is key
Resources:
- Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/327hSi3
- Website: https://agencymanagementinstitute.com/
- Email: drew@agencymanagementinstitute.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/drewmclellan
- Twitter: @DrewMcLellan
Additional Resources:
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
Alana Tillim is the founder, president and driving force behind Santa Barbara Dance Arts (SBDA) and the non-profit Arts Mentorship Program in Santa Barbara California. They have been featured in Dance Studio Life Magazine as a national model of for-profit and nonprofit programs working together. Founded in 1998, SBDA has received awards for excellence in business, leadership, and community stewardship. She has reached over 100,000 artists through her work and continues to extend her reach by inviting visiting artists and world-renowned choreographers to her space.
She co-founded the Arts Mentorship Program in 2004 with Steven Lovelace, and they have awarded over $500,000 in scholarships for underserved at-risk youth. In addition, she founded the No Limits dance program that provides free dance lessons for children with special needs, and “I am Her. She is Me,” a mother-daughter empowerment workshop.
She is also a Certified Coach for More Than Just Great Dancing and a sought-after speaker, she has been recognized by Pacific Coast Business Times’ Top 40 under 40, received the ‘Inspiration Award’ for her leadership through the Thomas Fire and Debris Flow (More Than Just Great Dancing), and is an Apogee Award for her legacy in dance education in Santa Barbara County (Nebula Dance Lab).
Alana is a devoted mentor and entrepreneur and in addition to her studio and non-profit, she owns a dancewear store, and is currently working on writing her first book. She is a dedicated mother and wife, and her family is the driving motivation behind her passion to make a change through the arts.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How a chance meeting led to Alana owning her own dance studio, and why she considers herself an “accidental” business owner
- How Alana’s side job as a dance instructor turned into a successful business, and why she followed her heart and chose to leave her corporate career path
- How Alana’s business partner served as her mentor, and why their shared values were the key to their strong professional relationship
- Why Alana feels passionate about her work and her role as a powerful role model to the young people she teaches
- Why Alana’s personal growth involved learning from those around her and tempering her passion with wisdom
- Why Alana’s role as a mother served as motivation and pushed her to take a chance on herself and on her unexpected career path
- How Alana balances her time as a mother, wife, entrepreneur and business owner, and why the relationships she has with the people around her are key
Resources:
- Website: https://sbdancearts.com/
- Email: alana@sbdancearts.com
- Website: https://ampsb.org/
Tevis Trower is the founder and CEO of Balance Integration Corporation, focused on helping build corporate cultures that allow employees to thrive. Their remarkable client list includes companies like Google, Yahoo, Disney, Viacom, AOL, Soros, Bloomberg, Morgan Stanley, and more. Tevis is considered a pioneer and leader in the field of cultural transformation at work, with significant expertise in imposter syndrome, trust, innovation, emotionally sustainable leadership, and fostering an environment of resilience. She has been featured in prominent media outlets such as Forbes, Business Week, Fortune CIO, The New York Post, Yoga Journal and many more.
Early in Tevis’s business career, she recognized that there is a need for more human-focused leadership in today’s business world. Many companies say “people are their most valuable asset,” but not enough companies focus on creating powerful people-focused cultures that allow their employees to shine. Tevis believes that the key to being a stronger, more effective and empowering leader is to recognize and embrace the reality that you bring your whole self to work, both your strengths and your weaknesses.
Tevis sees imposter syndrome as a sort of “default human state” that we all experience, created by our fear of failure and our strong need for success. She believes that what pushes many high performers to succeed is not a desire to win but a drive to avoid failure and the stigma associated with it. In her work, she helps people recognize their focus on the things that create discontent rather than the things that bring them joy, and she helps them reconnect with their heart and with the things they love.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How Tevis’s upbringing taught her the value of curiosity and how she realized the importance of leadership engagement
- Why imposter syndrome is a common problem in the C-suite that often affects the people we least expect
- Why Tevis started her company in 2002, and how the needs of her clients caused the company to evolve its focus to culture and wellness
- How, after seventeen years in business, Tevis realized that something was missing from the work she and her team were doing, and what eye-opening realizations she had
- Why Tevis realized the most important contribution she could make to her team was to back up and let them work through their own realizations about what needed to change
- Why employees want their leaders to be vulnerable, human, and unpolished and want to feel a sense that their own voice is helping shape their company
- Why people are trained their whole lives to believe that they don’t have a role in shaping the culture around them and why this creates blind spots in leaders
- Why getting input from your team doesn’t mean that you are an indecisive leader and why that input can be a powerful resource for your business
- Why self-awareness at work helps you further your leadership growth and form stronger relationships with the people around you
Resources:
- Website: www.balanceintegration.com
- Twitter: @corporateyogi
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/tevistrower/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/balance-integration-corporation/
Additional Resources:
- Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
Joey Vitale is an attorney and business strategist for thriving entrepreneurs. As the Founding Attorney of Indie Law, Joey works with small business owners to protect their passions and give them the legal foundation they need to thrive and make an impact. Outside of his firm, Joey provides courses, presentations, and workshops that focus on the legal issues that matter most: trademarks, business formation, copyrights, and contracts. While based in Chicago, Indie Law serves business owners all over the country.
What you will learn from this episode:
- Why Joey decided to break out on his own and began working with small businesses to help them protect their assets
- Why trademark issues are particularly thorny for many business owners, and how Joey helps his clients better understand and navigate these issues
- Why niching down and becoming the expert in his niche has been tremendously helpful in growing Joey’s business
- Why half of the 500,000 trademark applications filed last year failed, primarily due to an existing or very similar trademark in place
- Why trademarking descriptive words and phrases is becoming a major trend impacting sellers on e-commerce sites like Etsy
- How Joey and his team help business owners monitor words and phrases that appear on their goods to help protect them from others who attempt to trademark those words
- Why it is important for business owners to be proactive in protecting themselves, and what resources business owners can use to better understand trademark
- How “common law trademark” and “registered trademark” differ, and how to use the Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS) located at https://uspto.gov
- Why protecting yourself with trademarks proactively is far more cost-effective than trying to fix problems after the fact, and why an attorney’s assistance is invaluable
- How social media platforms are increasingly becoming protective of their names and are going after educators for using the platform name in the title of their courses
Resources:
- Website: https://indielaw.com/faq/
- Free Indie Law guide to the four biggest trademark mistakes to avoid: https://indielaw.com/freeguide-1/
- TESS Trademark Database: www.uspto.gov
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/joeycvitale/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/indielawfirm
- Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/levelupyourlegalside/?source_id=306914809658065
Joe Battista is a professional speaker, instructor, author, and Owner of Pragmatic Passion LLC Consulting. His first book “The Power of Pragmatic Passion” was released in September of 2018. He serves as Vice President and an Executive Coach for the National Athletic and Professional Success Academy. In 19 seasons as the head coach of the Penn State Icers his teams won 512 games and six American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) national championships. Joe helped secure the largest gift in Penn State history from Terry and Kim Pegula ($88 Million) in 2010 to establish NCAA hockey teams and construct the Pegula Ice Arena. He was named Associate Athletic Director to oversee the project. The American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA) named Joe the 2014 winner of the “Lou Lamoriello Award” for his career contributions to college hockey. Joe was a Vice President of the Buffalo Sabres and a Director of Amateur Hockey for the Pittsburgh Penguins. He is a member of the American Collegiate Hockey Association Hall of Fame and the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame. Joe is a 1983 graduate of Penn State’s Smeal College of Business and he resides in State College, PA with his wife Heidi and they have 3 children, Brianna (26), Jon (24), and Ryan (18).
What you will learn from this episode:
- How wise mentorship and coaching from others helped guide Joe to follow his passion into a career in the business and coaching sides of hockey
- How Joe’s time at Penn State was capped by helping raise the largest single financial gift in the university’s history to establish Penn State’s hockey program
- How Joe’s book “The Power of Pragmatic Passion” has been a powerful networking and business development tool for his business
- How Joe defines a “pragmatic passion”, and why he believes passion alone isn’t enough to succeed
- How turning his “pragmatic passion” into a career has given Joe a deeper feeling of fulfillment and purpose
- What Joe’s “seven common sense principles” are, and how business leaders can integrate these principles into their leadership
- Why you should give yourself a quarterly or semi-annual “you review” evaluation of where you are in life and in your career
- Why purpose and passion can be incredible tools to help you get through the “grind” parts of your career
- Why convenience store brand Sheetz employs someone specifically to figure out how to put the company out of business five years from now
Resources:
- Website: www.pragmaticpassion.com
- Email: joe@pragmaticpassion.com
- The Power of Pragmatic Passion by Joe Battista: https://amzn.to/2QCTmRN
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/coachjoebattista/
- Twitter: @coachjoeba
Mark Smith is the Business Development Director of The ChannelPro Network, the premier resource for growing IT service companies. Mark was the Founder of Windows NT Magazine, with a reach of 1.5M unique enterprise IT professionals in 160 countries. Mark sold Windows NT Magazine to Penton Media for $100M. EH Media has helped customers generate thousands of leads, and Mark teaches these marketing automation techniques to MSPs through his online mentoring program called Recurring Profits Mastery.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How Mark helps media companies launch new products and do business development
- Why Mark chose podcasting and video over other media channels
- How Mark found success as a media professional by niching down in the IT industry
- The process and timeframe Mark followed to develop his webinar and online course
- Mark’s N.A.T.I.O.N. framework and how you can use it to generate traction within your market
- The obstacles that entrepreneurs have to overcome to make progress as a media company
- The litmus test (pyramid) Mark developed for his guest funnel
Resources:
- Website: IoTPlaybook.com
- Podcast: https://podcast.iotplaybook.com/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/IoTplaybook
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/markhoustonsmith/
- https://www.linkedin.com/company/iotplaybook/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iotplaybook/
Frank Lunn is a life-long enTREPreneur leading other enTREPreneurs & enTREPreneurial companies in the creation of a collaborative enTREPreneurial support ecosystem! Frank is a proven small business entrepreneur with a passion for maximizing resources and inspiring both individual and business growth. Currently, he is the President/CEO of Kahuna Business Group Inc., a business development company for empowering entrepreneurship.
As President of Kahuna, Frank has played a vital role in the vision, facilitation and leadership of KBGI and its client companies. His unique experience and entrepreneurial leadership has helped transform Kahuna Business Group, Inc. into a multi-million dollar enterprise.
In addition to being an expert business leader and small business entrepreneur, Lunn is a respected authority on leadership, motivation and opportunity. In his books, Frank shares his own life changing experiences providing readers with the proven tools they need to convert life challenges into opportunities for success. Lunn’s books include Stack the Logs!: Building a Success Framework to Reach Your Dreams, Carpe Aqualis! Seize the Wave, and Blessings in Adversity: Convert Challenges, Difficulties & Hardships Into Blessings & New Opportunities.
What you will learn from this episode:
- Why not appropriately planning for an exit from his business ended up costing Frank millions of dollars, and how that experience sparked his current work
- Why the business valuation process was a painful and eye-opening experience, and why Frank was unprepared for the results
- How Kahuna Business Group came to be, why their focus is on helping entrepreneurs, and how the lessons Frank learned exiting his business play a part
- What Frank considers to be the drivers of a business’s value, and why some of the things that give your business value may not be immediately obvious
- Why it is important for the business owner to not be the real driver of the value of the business
- Why having a great CFO who is willing to gently tap the brakes on your big ideas rather than slamming the emergency brake is key
- Why you should be thinking about your future goals and making decisions based around those goals
- What modern valuation tools are available to business owners, and why technology like cloud computing has created new opportunities for entrepreneurs
- Why it is important to identify and understand what is truly driving the value of your business
Resources:
- Website with a free gift from Frank: www.kahunaaccounting.com/onward
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/frank-lunn-5742648/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/kahuna-business-group/
Good Morning Onward Nation — I’m Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and your host. And holy bananas — it’s a New Year and a brand new DECADE!
This time of year is special…maybe it’s because how much I love Christmas…or maybe it’s the second chance to get things right that each New Year represents.
Between Thanksgiving and New Years — I intentionally take time to reflect back on what was accomplished in the previous year — and — consciously direct my attention toward the year ahead.
I map out strategies, action steps, draw out illustrations in my journal of how it will all coming together — and when it’s done — I feel at peace with what is about to be put into place.
Then with each passing day — as we get closer to January 1st — the excitement builds and I can’t wait for the starting line to get here!!!
Because that line was just a few day ago — I elected to focus today’s solocast on two topics that will be helpful to you and your team if your goal for 2020 is to Double Down!
And for covering the two topics — I’m going to take you behind the curtain to shine a light on some of the biggest obstacles to building and scaling that we experienced during the early days of Predictive ROI.
I decided to share these lessons with you in full transparency — although embarrassing — because getting them right was a key to stabilizing and then growing Predictive. And — I wanted to share tangible examples with you…not marketing hyperbole or theory.
I also decided to share these lessons in the hopes that if I can help you avoid some of the mistakes, missed opportunity, or gain traction faster than we did…well…that’s rock solid awesome!
So buckle in — here we go…
The early years of Predictive ROI started over a decade ago.
I wrote my first book — The Small Business Owner’s Handbook to Search Engine Optimization — back in 2009. Shortly after it was published — I started getting offers to do side work projects for companies.
At the time — I was part of faculty and academic staff at the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse and happy with my position within the College of Business. I was teaching at UW-La Crosse and several other UW campuses include the School of Business at UW-Madison.
I was also involved in on-campus research, publishing, and serving our community through board seats and committee work.
I loved being on campus and my plate was full.
For a while — I just declined the side work that came as a result of my book. I said “thank you but no” because I didn’t want there to be any conflict of interest with the university.
But then I did some research — determined that it would be fine to say yes here and there — did a project — and holy bananas…it was a lot of fun.
The side work grew to the point that I had to make a difficult decision. Was I going to stay at the university — or — take on the challenge of trying to build a company?
I couldn’t say no to the challenge — so I resigned from the university and most of the people who knew me thought I was making a mistake.
Not going to sugar coat it for you — the first 5 years of Predictive ROI felt like an impossible grind. There were exceptionally long hours, we aimlessly wandered through wins, losses, and tried to figure out our identity.
On the personal side — my wife and I invested everything we had into the company — and we racked up personal debt.
We were beyond “all in.”
Now that we’re on the other side of it — Praise God — I can see that we struggled because of several fundamental flaws within the business.
One — we lacked clarity around a vision for Predictive.
Two — we had zero idea of what an ideal client or prospect looked like.
And Three — because of points One and Two…we said “yes” to every project and every client, which cost us time and money each and every time but we were too blind to see it.
But thankfully — with the help of incredible mentors and lessons learned from our generous Onward Nation guests — we began to see that in order to be excellent at points 2 and 3 — we had to get our vision for the business down on paper and begin living by it.
So we dug in. And when we did — we learned that “vision” actually meant three things:
1) defining our core values
2) getting clear on our purpose
3) constructing a mission that embodied a bold and audacious goal for Predictive
We didn’t have any of these in the early years.
Because here’s the reality. We were working hard just to survive and we didn’t give ourselves the time to think strategically about the direction of the business.
Candidly — I would have rolled my eyes at the notion of taking the time to work on it. I likely would have said, “Yeah, that’s all well and good — but I have sales to make.”
It’s really hard to think about vision when the pressure of making payroll is upon you.
Sound familiar?
Ever heard the expression, “Running a business feels a lot like fixing the plane while flying it”. Whoever came up with that line was so spot on.
My team and I did a lot of “fixing while flying” and we knitted the early years of the business together.
Then — we got a little breathing room. Then a little bit more. We paid off several chunks of debt and began to see the sun through the clouds.
But as nice as the breathing room was — we also felt some obstacles to going further. We could see ahead but also felt stuck.
Then it clicked — we had taken Predictive as far as we could without putting a proper foundation into place.
Thanks to lessons from our mentors (Drew McLellan and Brett Gilliland if you’re reading this…THANK YOU!), and the hard work put in by my leadership team — and all of our teammates — we now have a foundation (vision) for Predictive that include values, purpose, and mission.
You can find our core values on PredictiveROI.com here.
And funny thing…
As we were going down the path of doing our vision work — I was also interviewing successful business owners for Onward Nation episodes — and I kept hearing our guests talk about the importance of vision, values, purpose, and mission and how completely that work made a huge difference in the trajectory of their companies.
Quick aside for a second…
Have you ever bought what you think is a unique car? And then “all of a sudden” as you’re driving along — you see versions of your new car driving down the road?
The cars were of course there all the time but you didn’t see them because of the “reticular activating system” — or RAS — inside your brain.
Your brain was literally blocking your ability to see the other cars. But your RAS let them in once there was commonality and that data point became relevant to you.
Weird how our brains work, right?
The lessons around vision were always there in front of me — either from mentors or Onward Nation guests — but my brain blocked the knowledge until I was ready to receive it.
So I’m hopeful that if your goal is to DOUBLE DOWN in 2020 — you’ll be open to what I’m sharing with you.
Getting your vision down on paper, building the right team around your vision, and having a structure in place to measure progress is critical if you’re going to scale to an 8-figure business and reach $10 million+ in annual revenue.
I’m going to share two resources that will be helpful as you do your visioning work.
First — I recommend reading some of Jim Collins’ earlier work. You may be familiar with Jim as the author of “Good to Great”, which is a rock solid awesome book to be sure.
But in my opinion — Jim’s earlier and a lesser-known book, “Beyond Entrepreneurship” is better because of the deep dive around vision, values, purpose, and mission.
You can find Jim’s book on Amazon here.
Second — I encourage you to attend the free training that I’m co-hosting tomorrow (January 9th) with Brett Gilliland, CEO of Elite Entrepreneurs. As I mention earlier — Brett is one of my mentors and he’s also a 2-time alum of Onward Nation.
Before founding Elite Entrepreneurs, Brett was one of the key executives at Infusionsoft that helped grow the company from $10 million in annual sales to over $100 million. He now teaches his Elite members the principles he and the team at Infusionsoft used to build, scale, and dominate their industry.
Because I felt the tremendous impact of working through vision alongside Brett and his team — I asked if he would be open to sharing his expertise in a free training session so you could learn directly from him, too.
He graciously agreed. The free training is TOMORROW, January 9th at 1:00 Eastern. This is a private training — just for you and other business owners in our community.
You can find the details here. If you can’t make it live — still register so you get the recorded replay.
Okay — just a couple more insights around the visioning work we did at Predictive.
One — it doesn’t have to take you and your team years to get the work done. I wish we put ours on paper WAY BEFORE year 8 in our journey. Good grief.
Learn the framework from Brett on January 9th, study Jim’s book, and get your vision down on paper…quickly.
If you do that — you will be YEARS ahead of your competition as you step into 2020. Most of them are aimlessly wandering through the wilderness — but you won’t be and that’s a powerful advantage.
And Two — no matter what you put down on paper…just recognize it will evolve over time.
As you bring more people onto your team — they will make it better by pushing against it in new ways. And they will add things to it that you would have never thought of and likely help make it even more audacious. Awesome.
Stop waiting. Push the fear to the curb — take an afternoon. It won’t kill your business if you step away for a few hours (you just think it will — trust me — been there).
Promise yourself that you’ll get it done.
Good?
Okay — I look forward to hearing more about your 2020 plan with your newly defined — or updated — vision. Drop me a line at stephen@predictiveroi.com — would love to hear from you.
Now that the foundation of a vision has been set in your business — let’s work through how to go about building a sales funnel to ensure you have enough opportunity flowing into your business…so there’s enough cash to fund all of the things you need to get done in order to DOUBLE DOWN in 2020.
And let’s start off with setting some expectations and some definitions around what sales funnels are — and — what sales funnels are not.
I’m starting us here because there is so much marketing hyperbole around sales funnels that I can barely spend time on Facebook any more.
If I have to see one more Facebook ad from “business coach” claiming that all I need to do in order to build my business is to download his or her 7-figure email swipe file…I think I might scream.
Most of those ads are gimmicks and are being promoted by coaches who don’t really have an actual business. They have built a revenue stream by selling you a thing that will show you have to build a similar revenue stream by selling the same thing to other people just like you.
Do you remember back in the day the classified ads…mail in $7.00 and you will get this thing that will show you how to place classified ads and you will make a ton of money?
Same game — it’s just now being played on Facebook.
That’s not a business. And that’s not a sales funnel that will help you build a 7-figure or 8-figure business delivering real value to your clients.
And here’s another reality check about those 7-figure business coaches we see and hear on Facebook.
Did you know that…
According to the US Department of Labor — only 4% of the 28 million businesses in this country ever…like ever…reach over 1 million in annual sales.
And I’m pretty sure that the majority of coaches and quasi-experts making the 7-figure claim haven’t truly reached a million dollars in their business, they haven’t owned an actual business, or they’ve never built and scaled a company like what you and I are building.
So our discussion around how to build a sales funnel is going to be much different.
You and I are going to focus on the content you need to create to establish yourself as THE AUTHORITY in your market — and — how to structure your service offering into a VALUE LADDER that actually works for filling the sales pipeline in your business.
No gimmicks. But instead — it will take time and effort but you will have something in the end that is actually helpful to your business.
Good?
The speed at which you build and scale your business will largely depend on two things:
1) your ability to teach and share your expertise to build and nurture your audience through consistent cornerstone content…
And 2) how well you construct your value ladder.
Okay — let’s tackle each of these.
How do you build and nurture your audience?
You do that by creating “Cornerstone Content” and sharing it with your audience.
So what is cornerstone content?
Drew McLellan, CEO of Agency Management Institute and host of the Build a Better Agency Podcast, and I recently finished writing a book entitled, Sell with Authority. So here’s how Drew defines Cornerstone Content…it’s content that’s:
- Meaty enough to produce lost of smaller pieces
- Significiant enough to serve as the epicenter of your promotion, activity, and eventual fame within your circle of influence
- Consistent in how often you create content and how much you stay focused on one topic or area of subject matter
- Sales-free. This is about teaching and helping. Stop. Period. End of story.
- It’s always about your audience. That should be your primary goal.
- It’s a long term play. No one’s going to recognize you as an Authority after three months.
Now do you see why I think the 7-figure email swipe file sounds ridiculous? Argh.
Cornerstone Content is meaty, dense content that gives you plenty of opportunities to slice and dice into what Drew and I call, smaller “Cobblestones.”
Depending on the channel you choose for your cornerstone content, you might only need to create it once a year — like a research study — or in the case of a video or podcast series…it should be once per week.
As you and your team talk through how, what, where, why that you should be creating cornerstone content for your 2020 content strategy — I encourage you to go back to Episode 676 of Onward Nation…because I break it all down.
I think it will be helpful to you and your team.
And it is through consistent cornerstone content that you will build and nurture your audience.
Drew and I are often asked, “But…how long will it take?” And as you may have guessed — the answer is…it depends and there are several factors…
First — the consistency of your content creation. Are you disciplined with a weekly schedule?
Second — the quality of your content. Are you saying something fresh or just repeating old news?
Third — the amount of time and effort you spend promoting and sharing your content.
Fourth — the hunger of your audience. Some of them are starving and will gobble up everything you share. Others may only consume the tastiest of offers.
Fifth — the level of competiton and how narrow you decide to go. If you’re writing about general healthcare marketing, for example, it’s going to be a long haul. If you’re writing about marketing to women over 50 with breast cancer…you’ll have much quicker adoption.
And sixth — those luckly-strike moments like having someone else with a similar audience share your content in their world.
But as I said earlier — building a nurturing your audience is not a get rich quick scheme. Drew and I will often say that you should count on taking six months to a year before you reap any significant benefit from your efforts. By year two, you should be dancing a jig at how well it’s working, and by year three, you should be well-established as the authority you are.
If you go back to Episode 864 of Onward Nation — I walk through the pros of going narrow…and how going narrow is the secret to monetizing faster.
Now that you have a framework for your 2020 content strategy — we can turn our attention to how your content ought to be structured in a sales funnel that will act as a pipeline to grow your business. In order to do that…you need to think of your audience in four different categories.
You have a MACRO audience…a MICRO audience…a NANO audience…and an EXISTING audience.
Let’s break each of these down.
When someone is part of your MACRO audience — they engage with your cornerstone content from the sidelines…at a distance. They consume…they may even subscribe to your podcast via iTunes or your YouTube series…but they are not addressable. Meaning — they yet haven’t stepped forward and shared their email address with you in exchange for a downloadable thing or some other resource.
Website visitors, most social media traffic, and podcast subscribers are all part of your MACRO audience.
For example, iTunes doesn’t allow you to download an email list of your podcast subscribers. You also can’t download an email list of everyone who visits your website on a daily basis.
Yes, your website visitors can be retargeted through paid ads — but even then — they’re still not addressable one-to-one via email.
So your goal is to grow your MACRO audience while remaining focused on your niche. You don’t need a million downloads of your podcast episodes if you’re focused on serving a small, super profitable niche.
Now for MICRO…
Once someone decides to share their email address with you in exchange for a piece of content like an eBook or some other resource…they become part of your “addressable” MICRO audience.
They have moved to the second stage of your sales funnel. MACRO is stage one — and MICRO is stage two. They have raised their hand and said — “Okay — you have earned enough of my trust that I am willing to give you my email address to get access to X resource.”
Yes, one could argue that social media followers are addressable because you could send a direct or a private message to a specific follower.
Or…you could download the email addresses of all your LinkedIn connections and send them an email campaign.
All true.
But — in reality — you have a business to run and will not likely have the time to do much one-to-one messaging on social — and — GDPR made downloading the email list of a LinkedIn connections and hitting “send” — pretty risky.
So — in thinking about what’s realistic — MICRO for you is most likely when someone opts in for your e-newsletter or downloads a helpful resource from your website.
Before we move on to NANO — I want to share another lesson from Drew that had a significant impact on me…and my guess is…it will be helpful to you, too.
And that is that someone may stay in your MICRO audience for a day or a decade. All you can do is be helpful over that period of time. Provide them with helpful resources, great recommendations they can take and apply, and be patient.
When someone in your MICRO audience feels comfortable — and you have delivered the best of what you’ve got — and have done that for years — and have always put their interest ahead of your own — some of them will be ready to move on to stage three…or NANO.
NANO is where the monetization happens.
A whole lot of trust needs to be built before someone moved to NANO.
For example, if one of the podcast guests who happens to be a member of your “Dream 25 Prospect List” decides to engage you and team for a project…or a guest books you teach a workshop, deliver keynote at their conference…or you offer a course to your MICRO audience and it sells…these are all examples of monetizing at the NANO level.
But — and this ties directly into the next chunk of what I wanted to share with you during this solocast. It will be difficult for you to monetize at NANO — or to build a consistent sales pipeline for your business if you haven’t taken the time to build out a value ladder.
Your value ladder provides new and existing clients with defined ways to begin or continue doing business with you. It starts with a low price point and limited scope of work…and progressively increases in price and scope.
When you have your value ladder fully built out — it might include 3, 5, or 8 different rungs that go from free all the way up to your highest priced, and most valuable service level.
But for the ease of discussion and getting started…I want you to think of just three rungs on your ladder…and then you can build it from there and make it more sophisticated over time.
The price point on the first rung on your ladder is FREE. So if you’ve completed the MICRO stage in the sales funnel…you’ve already got the first rung of your value ladder built.
But don’t stop with just one downloadable eBook, guide, or tip sheet. Because if you offer up one thing…it will appeal to a segment of your MACRO audience…but of course…not everyone.
So I encourage you to build out a Resource Library where you are offering your MACRO audience many FREE resources that can be helpful to them across a number of different situations or scenarios.
The Resources Library on PredictiveROI.com could be a helpful example as you and your team build out your own.
Okay — the second rung on your value ladder should be a service offering that you can provide a client priced at about 10-15% of your desired gross profit. Gross Profit is your revenue less any cost of goods sold.
So let’s say your ideal client represents annual gross profit of $50,000 to $200,000 for your company…then the second rung on your value ladder would be scope of work that you could price anywhere between $5,000 and $20,000 in gross profit.
The goal of the second rung is for your prospect client to step into a relationship with you. To evaluate what it’s like to work with you and your team. To see if you can deliver what you promise for a $5,000 project before they commit to a $50,000 spend with you.
So maybe that’s you and your team building out a strategic plan for them. Doing some research with defined scope. Maybe delivering a training program on-site for their team that they can take and apply internally for the remainder of the year.
You decide how you want to knit it together — but the second rung on the ladder is your foot in the door — and your opportunity to demonstrate the smarts of your team in action.
With that said — will some clients step into a larger relationship with you right away and essentially by-pass rung two?
Yes, it will happen and has likely already happened with you.
But you also know — that it doesn’t always happen that way, and my guess is, if your sales strategy is to only present your full scope of work at the maximum price point…you have lost more opportunity than you have won.
So if rung one is free…and rung two is 10-15% of your ideal client spend…then rung three is 50-100% of the ideal clients spend.
Or in this example…$50,000 to $200,000 in annual revenue.
This is where your team is delivering everything. Putting all of their smarts to work in order to solve a client’s business challenges. You’re delivering the best of what you have to offer at rung three — and — this is where you are establishing what will hopefully turn into a long-term relationship with your new client because you and your team have demonstrated how you can deliver significant value.
So let’s sum up a few points before we close out and say goodbye.
Building a scaling a business is hard — I know you don’t need me to tell you that — but sometimes having someone from the outside acknowledge the struggle and the super courageous thing you are doing…well, quite frankly…it feels good.
Next — get your vision down on paper. Read Jim Collin’s book “Beyond Entrepreneurship” and attend tomorrow’s webinar with Brett Gilliland.
After that — build your strategy for cornerstone content.
Then take that content strategy and map it against the MACRO, MICRO, and NANO sales funnel.
And lastly — build your value ladder so it’s as easy as possible for a prospective client to move from MICRO into the NANO stage and begin a relationship with you and your team.
Okay — with that said – I’m over the moon excited for you as you step into 2020.
This is the start of more than just the New Year. It’s the start of a new decade…and my bold prediction is…if you take and apply even just slices of what you and I reviewed during this solocast…you and your team will Double Down in some key areas in 2020.
That’s darn exciting and I’m grateful to you for giving me this opportunity to walk alongside you on the path.
And one last thing before we close out and say goodbye, Onward Nation — I want to give you a very big thank you…in fact…let’s call it a virtual hug.
There’s absolutely no way we’d be approaching 1,000 episodes — and — there’s no way we’d have this opportunity to serve business owners in 120 countries without your support, your encouragement, and your feedback.
Here’s the reality — you help us get better every day, Onward Nation.
To have you here means a lot — so THANK YOU!
I look forward to being back with you again next week – until then – Double Down – and move Onward with Gusto into 2020!
Kevin Kruse is the Founder and CEO of LEADx, offering the world’s first leadership trainer and coach powered by IBM Watson. Kevin is also a New York Times bestselling author of nine books including Great Leaders Have No Rules: Contrarian Leadership Principles to Transform Your Team and Business.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How Kevin first discovered the power of leadership, and how that lesson became the focus of his book Great Leaders Have No Rules
- Why the ubiquitous “open door policy” actually causes more harm than good, and why “closing your door and opening your calendar” is the key to empowering those you lead
- How Kevin and his team developed the first AI-powered leadership trainer, Coach Amanda, to help people develop their leadership skills in a conversational way
- Why every time Kevin wants to start a company, he starts a podcast and then turns the content of the podcast into a book first
- How being a nine-time bestselling author positions Kevin to be an expert and trusted thought leader, and what strategies he suggests for people wanting to write a book
- Why Kevin strongly recommends launching a podcast for anyone wanting to move into thought leadership, and what advantages a podcast can allow you to leverage
- Why focusing on adding value for your audience will help you grow your business exponentially
- How to use, reuse, and repackage your content to be able to share it across many different channels
- How Kevin learned to define success not as a number but instead as the freedom to spend his time how he likes
Resources:
- Great Leaders Have No Rules by Kevin Kruse: https://amzn.to/2qTAt34
- Website: https://leadx.org/
- Website: www.norulesleadership.com
- Onward Nation episode 126 with Kevin Kruse: https://predictiveroi.com/podcasts/kevin-kruse/
- Twitter: @kruse
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kevinkruse67/
- Facebook: https://business.facebook.com/KruseAuthor/
Dr. Mik Kersten spent a decade creating open-source developer tools before realizing that programming was not the bottleneck of large-scale software delivery. Since that time, he has been working on creating a model and tools for connecting the end-to-end software value stream.
He has been named a JavaOne Rock Star speaker and one of the IBM developerWorks Java top 10 writers of the decade. He was selected as one of the 2012 Business in Vancouver 40 under 40 and has been a World Technology Awards finalist in the IT Software category. Kersten is the editor of the new IEEE Software Department on DevOps.
Prior to founding Tasktop, Mik created the Eclipse Mylyn open source project as part of his Ph.D. in Computer Science, pioneering the integration of development tools with the delivery pipeline.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How Mik recognized that the way business software is designed often doesn’t meet the real needs of its users, and why he founded Tasktop to solve problems
- How Mik’s background as a developer gives him an informed foundation to understand customer pain points and problems and insights into how software can address them
- Why maintaining a focus on solving the problems found in business software and customer needs helped Mik pivot Tasktop more effectively
- Why Mik was inspired to move into the realm of thought leadership and write his book Project to Product
- How listening to his customers and understanding their stories was a transformative experience that helped shape Mik’s thought leadership and reframe his beliefs
- How thought leadership has helped to elevate Mik’s message and helped him better align with his customers’ needs and future proof his business against economic recession
- Why the overwhelmingly positive reception to Project to Product was in direct response to Mik’s effort to serve and help his readers
- Mik shares key points and information from Project to Product about his Flow Framework methods and how businesses and software can be better aligned with each other
- How key lessons learned from his mentor helped Mik learn to focus on both long term success and near term profitability
Resources:
- Website: http://projecttoproduct.org/
- Twitter: @mik_kersten
- Project to Product by Mik Kersten: https://amzn.to/2XKSAEx
Ken Hardison has fought for people’s rights as a trusted personal injury lawyer for over 35 years. His ethics, integrity, and passion for his clients helped to build one of North Carolina’s most successful firms, Hardison & Cochran, and a successful Social Security disability firm, Carolina Disability Lawyers, in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Now, as owner and publisher of the law firm management website, Law Practice Advisor, and founder and president of PILMMA, the Personal Injury Lawyers Marketing & Management Association, Ken devotes his time to helping attorneys build their own preeminent law practices with proven marketing strategies and management resources. Ken has been recognized as one of the top 100 Trial Lawyers in North Carolina and is a member of the exclusive Million Dollar Advocates Forum. Systematic Marketing is his tenth book. Ken has authored 5 books on marketing and managing law firms. He is a sought-after speaker throughout the country on marketing and managing law firms.
Ken is known as the “Millionaire Maker” due to his coaching clients doubling and quadrupling their law practices and income following Ken’s practice growing advice and insights.
Ken lives in North Myrtle Beach, SC where he enjoys playing golf and fishing when he is not helping lawyers grow their practices.
What you will learn from this episode:
- Ken shares his career journey that ultimately led to founding the Personal Injury Lawyers Marketing & Management Association (PILMMA)
- How Ken first recognized the importance of legal marketing, and why he chose to learn the intricacies of the business
- Why Ken decided to focus on personal injury clients and worker’s compensation and disability cases
- How Ken and his partners scaled their firm from one office to eight across North Carolina, and what sort of growing pains Ken experienced
- Why Ken’s decades of experience working in the trenches sets him apart from his competitors
- Why keeping a clear focus and managing your time are the keys to success, and what steps Ken takes to avoid “time vampires” throughout his day
- What important lesson Ken learned from his mentor Dan Kennedy about delegating work to others and accepting that “good is good enough”
- Why you should leverage your strengths and then hire the right people to complement your weaknesses
- Why Ken’s experience shows that law firms who focus on a defined mission, clear values, and a shared vision are the ones that are growing the fastest
- What key steps business leaders can take to clarify their goals and align others within their organizations to their vision
Resources:
- Website: www.pilmma.org
- Email: ken@pilmma.org
- Grow Your Law Firm podcast: www.pilmma.org/grow-your-law-firm-podcast/
In 2007, Erin Bradley became self-employed in pursuit of “freedom and flexibility.” Unfortunately, she did so with no game plan and no safety net to speak of. By 2008, she was so broke, she had to ride her bicycle to meet a new client as she didn’t have money for gas. When Erin’s card was declined for a small coffee as the client walked through the door, she realized something had to give…
Erin spent the next 3 years studying the habits of highly successful entrepreneurs, and ultimately developed a strategy to promote her value in a way that felt authentic, easy and FUN! She also started investing in real estate, which now affords her the opportunity to live her dream life, in her dream home. (It’s easier than you might think!)
By 2012, she had gone from broke to 6 figures… and she promptly burned out. Erin had no systems in place to manage the growth and found herself trading her time for money. Pregnant with their second child, she was drowning in life and in business. She tried convincing herself to be “grateful” because they finally had money to pay the bills, but she was ready to throw in the towel altogether.
Luckily, Erin didn’t quit! She sought help, built systems, and started hiring. By 2015, the business had doubled again. Today, their business continues to grow and Erin does much less in order to do much more. She focuses on the essentials and shows others how to do the same!
What you will learn from this episode:
- Erin shares why she became self-employed, and she shares her powerful story of realizing she had to make changes to her strategy after hitting financial rock bottom
- How Erin’s limiting beliefs about money held her back from growing as an entrepreneur, and how she got past that roadblock
- Why Erin had to learn to accept that she deserved the success she earned for herself, and why finding the right coaching was the key to that realization
- Erin explains the difference between viewing money as “tangible” versus “intangible”, and how the way you view money impacts your goals
- Why eliminating financial stress and attaining financial freedom were Erin’s primary goals for herself and her family
- Why Erin chose to move into thought leadership and creating content through her writing and her podcast
- How Erin grew and scaled her business after realizing she couldn’t do everything by herself
- What the “25% rule” is and how it has helped Erin focus on the right priorities and guide her business strategy
- How Erin plans her day with a careful balance to help her maintain a positive level of energy throughout the day
- Why setting boundaries and staying present in the moment are important pillars of Erin’s success
Resources:
- Instagram: @pursuingfreedomofficial
- Email: Erin@pursuingfreedom.com
- Website: www.pursuingfreedom.com
- Pursuing Freedom Podcast: www.pursuingfreedom.com/podcast
- Erin Bradley’s Live Workshop: www.pursuingfreedom.com/webinar
- Pursuing Freedom by Erin Bradley: https://amzn.to/2QnzeTW
Anese Cavanaugh is devoted to helping people show up and bring their best selves to the table in order to create significant positive impact in their lives. She is the creator of the IEP Method® (Intentional Energetic Presence®), an advisor and thinking partner to leaders and organizations around the world, and author of CONTAGIOUS CULTURE: Show Up, Set the Tone, and Intentionally Create an Organization That Thrives.
Top innovators and executives in companies like IDEO, Zingerman’s, GM Financial, Vistaprint, 15Five, Fitbit, Nike, Kaiser Permanente, and others have engaged with Anese to strengthen team health, unlock leadership potential, optimize company culture, and maximize impact.
What you will learn from this episode:
- What exciting things Anese and her business have been up to since her previous appearance in Onward Nation episode #756
- Why Anese chose to tighten her focus, be intentional, and be strategic with her work and the writing of her new book, Contagious You, in 2019
- What key pillars of information Anese addressed in her new book, and why she chose to focus on those areas
- Why the best way to get out of your own way when seeking business success is to focus on servicing your customers and your team
- How to raise the energy level in a room and avoid being sucked into negative people’s energy in meetings
- Why it is important to be very clear in our intention, practice self-care, and be present in the moment
- How to properly address a person who is lacking in energy or carrying negativity into a meeting
- How to conduct a brief energy and presence check at the beginning of each meeting to improve the quality of your meetings
- What actively disengaged employees cost the United States each year nationwide financially and in lost productivity
- What valuable lists Anese has included in Contagious You to help you be more intentional and raise energy as a team
Resources:
- Website: www.anesecavanaugh.com
- Website: www.iep.io
- Contagious You by Anese Cavanaugh: https://amzn.to/2JXhVVN
- Twitter: @AneseCavanaugh
- Instagram: @anesecavanaugh
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/anesecavanaugh/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/IEPMethod
Steve Farber is the founder of The Extreme Leadership Institute, an organization devoted to changing the world through the cultivation and development of extreme leaders in business, nonprofits, education, and beyond. Listed on Inc.’s ranking of the Top 50 Leadership and Management Experts in the world, and #1 on Huffington Post’s 12 Business Speakers to See, Farber is a bestselling author, popular keynote speaker, and a seasoned leadership coach and consultant who has worked with a vast array of public and private organizations in virtually every arena.
What you will learn from this episode:
- Why Steve named his new book “Love Is Just Damn Good Business: Do What You Love in the Service of People Who Love What You Do”
- Why it’s important to consider how you show the love you have for your customers or clients in a clear, repeatable way
- Why there is a common and persistent belief that love has no place in business, and why Steve set out to prove otherwise
- Steve shares key takeaways and lessons from his book that can directly contribute to a business’s growth and success
- Steve shares an example of a real company that had high turnover and went through bankruptcy and how they managed to turn things around by creating a great culture
- What first actionable steps Steve recommends you take to be able to identify and more consistently show your love for your business and customers
- Why Steve’s strategy is applicable to every kind and size of business in an industry-agnostic way
Resources:
- Website: www.stevefarber.com
- Love Is Just Damn Good Business by Steve Farber: https://amzn.to/2Wu2mu1
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stevefarber/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/stevefarber/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/stevefarber
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stevefarber/
Greg Alcorn is the founder and CEO of Global Contact Services (GCS) with locations in North Carolina and New York. GCS provides outsourcing, management and consulting in the area of customer service. GCS currently has over 800 employees. He is a regular speaker on the subjects of “soft skills.”
Greg’s a North Carolina resident, graduating from Catawba College and earning his MBA from UNC-Charlotte. In 2010 he was named Catawba’s Alumnus of the year, 2015 Church and College award and the Adrian Shuford Award in 2016.
For five years, he served on the NC State Board of Education. From that experience, Greg started ApSeed Early Childhood Education in 2015. ApSeed provides eReaders to economically disadvantaged children ages 0-4 years old, 6,000, so far. Recently, he received the MLK, Jr. Humanitarian Award for this work. He remains involved in numerous non-profits.
Greg’s book is a result of many relationships across all walks of life. He has worked in a blazing hot brickyard, played on a Cinderella Final Four basketball team for one week, and for decades, he has helped Fortune 500 companies with customer communications. The book of 7 Dumb Things We All Say is a quasi-memoir filled with soft skills of do’s and don’ts.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How Greg’s background and career journey led him to become the founder and CEO of Global Contact Services (GCS)
- How Greg recognized the importance of incorporating frequent soft skills training internally to his associates
- Why Greg recognized the problem of replying to someone saying “thank you” with “no problem”
- How to identify when you are using negative or passive language, and how to convert it into positive, active statements
- How to avoid common language traps, mistakes, and habits that you may not even be conscious of
- How Greg defines “conversational bullying,” and why it is the antithesis of meaningful dialogue
- How Greg and his team built and scaled GCS to over a thousand employees, and what key lessons he learned in growing GCS
- What critical skills Greg feels a business owner should develop to effectively lead their team
- Why Greg believes strongly in the benefits of having many mentors, and what key lessons Greg has learned from his own mentors
Resources:
- Website: www.gcsagents.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/galcorn/
- 7 Dumb Things We All Say by Greg Alcorn: https://amzn.to/2BfYPFM
- Say THIS, Not That…Most of the Time™ training program: www.gcsagents.com/call-center-training-online
Stephen is the founder and CEO of Predictive ROI, a digital marketing agency, and the host of Onward Nation — a top-rated daily podcast for learning how today’s top business owners think, act and achieve. Onward Nation is listened to in 120 countries around the world.
Stephen is the author of three books, including the #1 bestseller, “Profitable Podcasting,” and his digital marketing insights have been featured in Forbes.com, Entrepreneur.com, The Washington Post, and Inc. Magazine.
H. John Oechsle joined Swiftpage (www.act.com) in July 2012 and currently serves as Chief Executive Officer. John came to Swiftpage with an over 30 year track record of building highly profitable and sustainable revenue growth for emerging companies and established global leaders.
Prior to joining Swiftpage, John served as the Executive Vice President of Strategy and Product for DigitalGlobe. During his tenure, he was instrumental in shaping the future of the company and driving revenue growth through the launch of a number of very successful product lines. Prior to DigitalGlobe, John was the Senior Vice President of Technology and Content as well as Chief Information Officer for IHS Inc. Before that he was the Chief Information Officer and Vice President of Information Management Worldwide for Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, a Johnson & Johnson company, where he was responsible for all technology and e-business. Earlier in his career, John served as the Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Land America Financial Group, Inc., and Director of Global Information Management for Kellogg Company. John holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in computer science from Rutgers University and is a graduate of the Tuck Executive Program at the Amos Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College.
John is an advocate for technology and education in Colorado and has been an active contributor and served as 2007 Chairman of the Colorado Technology Association (CTA). John supports Open World Learning, an organization that uses the power of technology and peer teaching to develop leadership and ignite a love of learning among children. John also supports Kidstek, an organization dedicated to making technology accessible to youth. John has been recognized several times for his involvement in the industry. In 2006 and in 2009, John was awarded the Technology Executive of the Year, and the Titan of Technology awards by the CTA. John was also awarded the Bob Newman Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Community by the CTA in 2011 and the Nancy J. Sauer Philanthropy award in 2016. In 2015, John was appointed to the Business Experiential Learning Commission (BEL) by the Governor of Colorado and continues to serve on that commission today.
While not at Swiftpage, John juggles his time being a husband, father, and grandfather and spends the time he has left playing golf, skiing and boating.
What you will learn from this episode:
- What transformative projects John and his team at Swiftpage have been working on since his prior appearance on Onward Nation in episode #780
- Why Swiftpage’s business strategy of “owning the conversion and retention space for the small- and mid-sized business market” is key to their growth
- Why Swiftpage believes the four digital pillars of growth are presence, traffic, conversion/retention, and optimization tools, and how John defines each pillar
- How Swiftpage determines whether it would be more effective to build a “component” themselves or acquire it through M&A, and how John defines a component
- How niching down, keeping a clear focus on the fifteen-seat company and smaller, and serving their customers has helped Swiftpage evolve and grow successfully
- Why John looks for three distinct qualities and characteristics in the A-players in his team: talent, an insatiable appetite to win, and putting mission before self
- Why a good leader’s role is to mentor and nurture talent, tell a clear story, bring credibility, and build a talented and effective team
- What qualities a leader needs to be an effective mentor to other business leaders outside their company
- Why having the courage to pursue your goals, the passion to push yourself, and the tenacity to keep going are the keys to success
Resources:
- Twitter: @hjoech
- Email: joechsle@swiftpage.com
In 2003, Nick was in a snowboarding accident that left him in a coma for over three weeks. The doctors told his parents that he probably wouldn’t walk, talk, or eat on his own again. Less than three months later, he was running out of Franciscan Children’s hospital. Now a Certified Infinite Possibilities Trainer, Nick speaks to groups that benefit from his message of overcoming adversity.
Nick grew up in the real estate industry and got started on his own at an early age. Most notably, he was knocking on pre-foreclosure doors at 16 and 17, doing up to 50 doors a day. This experience helped shape Nick’s real estate career.
Now, Nick specializes in working with lease purchasers to get them into a home and on the path to homeownership. Regardless of a buyer’s credit situation, he looks at their complete financial picture and comes up with a plan to get them into a home.
What you will learn from this episode:
- Nick’s incredible skiing accident and recovery story – from a coma to running out of the hospital
- The hope and courage that got Nick through his horrible circumstances
- How Nick draws positive influence from the people around him
- Daily habits Nick believes have contributed to his success
- Useful skills for building and scaling businesses
- Nick’s sources of wisdom and mentorship
- The advice Nick has for tuning out the noise and taking the first steps toward success
Resources:
- Email: nick@smartrealestatecoach.com
- YouTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubL3Z-SeEfs
- Website: www.SmartRealEstateCoach.com
After a devastating divorce and bankruptcy, this single mother of two rebuilt her life through real estate. In the process, Dixie Decker accidentally stumbled upon a unique method for buying and profiting in real estate without using any of her own money or credit: student housing.
In just three years, she mastered the process, building her net worth to over $5,000,000 and $100,000 per month in positive cash flow! Today her cash flow machine runs practically on AUTOPILOT, so she can focus on her family, growing investments, building associations with other women, and helping others succeed.
What you will learn from this episode:
- The importance of clarity in Dixie’s life and how she’s spreading the message
- The effects of the people, music, and environment you surround yourself with
- Giving yourself the credit for your successes; nothing just happens to you from nowhere
- Finding the right people to capture your authentic voice
- Dixie’s advice to increase productivity
- Niching down and why it’s such a significant thing to do for your business
- Turning your flaws and failures into “badges of honor” through courage
Resources:
- Website: www.dixiedecker.com
- Phone: (417) 651-5100
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCUSGt5rDIgsXUsvu5onLmQ
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/queenofstudenthousing/
Jesse Cole is the founder of Fans First Entertainment and owner of the Savannah Bananas. His teams have welcomed more than one million fans to their ballparks and have been featured on MSNBC, CNN, and ESPN.
The Bananas have been awarded the Organization of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year, Business of the Year, and won the CPL Championship in their first year. Fans First Entertainment has been featured on the INC 5000 lists as one of the fastest-growing companies in America. The Savannah Bananas currently have sold out every game for two straight seasons and have a waiting list in the thousands for tickets.
Jesse is an in-demand speaker and released his first book “Find Your Yellow Tux – How to Be Successful by Standing Out” in January of 2018. The book launched #1 in three categories on Amazon and has been sold in 18 countries. Staying true to his mantra, “Whatever’s normal, do the exact opposite,” Cole launched the book with a World Book Tour at Epcot.
Cole’s greatest mentors are Bill Veeck, P.T. Barnum, and Walt Disney. All three share a wall in his office on custom-made posters that display the words Innovation, Showmanship, and Vision. Cole believes to be successful you need to stand out and be different.
He releases daily videos, blogs, and articles on LinkedIn. He is passionate about creating attention, loving your customers more than your product, and loving your employees more than your customers. Cole is the host of the Business Done Differently Podcast and has been featured on more than 100 podcasts including the Ziglar Show, StoryBrand with Donald Miller and NPR’s Only a Game.
What you will learn from this episode:
- Why it takes a while to realize what your best at – and why it’s worth it
- The origin story of Jesse’s legendary Yellow Tux
- Where Jesse gets his courage
- The incredible formation story of the Savannah Bananas
- How the Savannah Bananas brand has benefited fans and players and why culture is so critical
- Empowering employees to become leaders and make decisions, especially in tough circumstances
- How Jesse draws inspiration from people like Walt Disney and P.T. Barnum
- The future of the Savannah Bananas and how they continue to put fans first
Resources:
- Website: https://findyouryellowtux.com/
- Savannah Bananas Website: https://thesavannahbananas.com/
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCasNOOUN7FbQXBUsfZD4Y_Q
JT McCormick is the President and CEO of Scribe Media, a publishing company that’s created an entirely new way for you to write a book. The company has worked with nearly 1,000 authors and was recently ranked in their category as the #2 best company to work for in Austin and #4 in their category for all of Texas. JT is also the author of “I Got There: How I Overcame Racism, Poverty, and Abuse to Achieve the American Dream.”
What you will learn from this episode:
- How JT grew his startup from 6 employees to 50 without any outside money
- Why JT’s company culture has been lauded and celebrated by outside sources and how to build this kind of culture
- The values and principles of JT’s company and how the employees live those out
- The three rules JT lives by as a CEO
- Why 90% of salespeople suck – and how they can be better
- JT’s personal and professional definitions of success
- What JT looks for in employees that will make them a great fit in his “tribe”
Resources:
- Website: https://scribemedia.com/
Stephen is the founder and CEO of Predictive ROI, a digital marketing agency, and the host of Onward Nation — a top-rated daily podcast for learning how today’s top business owners think, act and achieve. Onward Nation is listened to in 120 countries around the world.
Stephen is the author of three books, including the #1 bestseller, “Profitable Podcasting,” and his digital marketing insights have been featured in Forbes.com, Entrepreneur.com, The Washington Post, and Inc. Magazine.
After graduating from Clemson University, Scott Fogleman began his career in advertising sales at The Wall Street Journal, followed most recently by a successful sales career with SYNNEX Corporation managing the Google Brand inclusive of Chrome Education.
Scott’s passion for higher education began during his time with Clemson’s Undergraduate Student Government and as a member of President’s Cabinet. At Up&Up, he leads the East Sales Region with a mission to impact change by bringing strong, positive, executable campaigns to his clients and their constituents.
Allison Lanier’s curiosity for the sales process began as a teenager while working in the retail environment. Years later, she graduated cum laude from the University of South Carolina, Aiken Campus and quickly realized her excitement for sales had developed into a true passion.
As a Business Development Manager for Up&Up, Allison brings her experience in sales leadership and execution from past employers such as Verizon Wireless and PepsiCo. At Up&Up, she uses her passion for people to create a positive, effective, and rewarding campaign experience for the West Sales Region.
What you will learn from this episode:
- Why defining and focusing on a niche is far more important than serving everybody and how doing so can help your agency find the right clients
- How society is changing the value of education and how that affects messaging to prospective students
- How asking the tough questions and challenging your clients can uncover the real issues and real solutions
- What a client’s “authentic self” is, how to discover it and why learning it can improve marketing efforts for the long term
- What Allison and Scott think are the most relevant skills for business owners to develop and grow their businesses
- Scott’s best advice for transparency and personal growth for business owners
- How to cope with hearing “no” and use it to empower you
Resources:
- Email: contact@upandup.agency
- Website: https://www.upandup.agency/
- Facebook: @upandupagency
- Twitter: @upandupagency
While trekking through the Himalayas, the Andes and the Alps; while camping in the Arctic Circle and living on a houseboat in Kashmir, India, Bill Cates built and sold two successful publishing companies. For the past 25 years, his mission has been helping professional service companies grow through referrals, introductions, and other relationship marketing strategies. Bill Cates has spoken to over 350,000 professionals worldwide and has trained over 70,000 in his system. You will gain a proven process to enhance client engagement and leverage that engagement into quality introductions that result in new clients.
What you will learn from this episode:
- Why Bill believes having satisfied clients isn’t enough to generate more client referrals and how reinforcing your value can grow your client base
- The importance of creating a strong, precise message to attract more people to your business, rather than casting a wide net
- What a “right fit client” is, how to spot them and how to attract them to create joy and profit for you and your business
- The neuroscience of relevance and how to apply its principles to interactions with all kinds of clients
- How marketing your company in a “compelevant” way keeps clients interested and engaged
- The most crucial emotional skills required to connect with your new clients and keep them coming back
- Balancing the use of analysis and emotional connection to cover a variety of clients across industries
- One of the keys to switching referral growth for your business from incremental to exponential
- Recognizing what Bill says is one of the biggest obstacles to growing your business
Resources:
- Website: www.referralcoach.com
- Website: www.billcates.com
- Twitter: @Bill_Cates
- Facebook: Bill Cates – Referral Coach (@ReferralCoach)
Clate Mask is the CEO and co-founder of Infusionsoft, the leading all-in-one sales, and marketing software built for small businesses and eight-time Inc. 500 or Inc. 5000 winner. Clate was named an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, a Top 100 Small Business Influencer by Small Business Trends, and one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs of 2013 by Goldman Sachs. Clate is a national speaker on entrepreneurship and small business success, and he is the co-author of the New York Times bestselling book, “Conquer the Chaos: How to Grow a Successful Small Business Without Going Crazy.”
What you will learn from this episode:
- Why Infusionsoft created their Mars Mission to help guide them through the transition to working with more small businesses through a new, simpler platform
- Why developing a simpler platform scaled for broader use created new challenges for the company, including splitting their focus and renaming their brand Keap
- How the company began to split their focus starting in 2017, and how their long-term focus was key to navigating the complexity of their two different offerings
- Why developing the simpler platform for small businesses has been a part of the Clate’s long term vision for years, and why that matters to the success of the company
- Why the goal of Keap’s Mars Mission is to simplify growth for 5 million small businesses, and why that specific metric was chosen
- How Clate’s company is inventing a small business solution from scratch, rather than offering a watered-down enterprise solution like their competitors
- Why Clate believes that purpose, mission, and values are the keys to growth, and why leaders must clearly communicate those key aspects to their teams
- What advice Clate has for business owners looking to improve their ability to mentor others
- Clate shares the brand story of his company and of his personal entrepreneurial journey and the many strains and struggles he faced in his company’s early days
Additional resources:
- Website: www.keap.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/clatemask/
- Onward Nation episode 735 with Clate Mask:
- https://predictiveroi.com/podcasts/clate-mask/
- Onward Nation episode 834 with Brett Gilliland:
- https://predictiveroi.com/podcasts/brett-gilliland-encore/
Robbie Kellman Baxter has been advising entrepreneurs on business strategy for 20 years. Her clients have included solopreneurs and venture-backed startups as well as industry leaders such as ASICS, Netflix, Electronic Arts, and The Wall Street Journal. She has worked with nearly 100 organizations in over 20 industries on growth initiatives.
A sought-after writer and keynote speaker, Robbie has presented at top universities, associations and corporations, as well as to corporate boards and leadership teams around the world. Robbie has created and starred in 10 video courses in collaboration with LinkedIn Learning on business topics ranging from innovation to customer success and membership.
As the author of The Membership Economy: Find Your Superusers, Master the Forever Transaction & Build Recurring Revenue, a book that has been named a top 5 Marketing Book of the Year by Inc.com, Robbie coined the popular business term “Membership Economy”. Robbie’s expertise with companies in the emerging Membership Economy extends to include SaaS, media, consumer products and community organizations.
Prior to launching Peninsula Strategies, Robbie was a strategy consultant at Booz-Allen, a New York City Urban Fellow and a Silicon Valley product marketer. Robbie received her MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and graduated with honors from Harvard College.
What you will learn from this episode:
- How Robbie found her way into business strategy and consulting work and has spent most of her career in this space
- Why Robbie believes that narrowing her focus and niching down has actually strengthened her brand and created new opportunities
- How Robbie worked as a consultant for Netflix very early in their business, and why their subscription model appealed to Robbie
- Why subscription pricing is appealing to many businesses, and why being customer-focused to justify subscription pricing is key
- What “subscription fatigue” is, why consumers are learning to game the subscription model system, and why having the right content to fit the model is crucial
- Why Robbie recommends you clarify what promise you need to make to your customers to make a subscription worthwhile
- Robbie shares examples of surprising businesses that could benefit from a subscription model
- Why being clear in knowing who your customer is and what their needs are is the best starting point for determining how you can best serve them
- Why not every customer is the right customer for you, and why bad customers distract you and can cause you to deviate from your model
- What important daily habit Robbie has developed that helps her maintain focus on her priorities
Additional resources:
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/robbiekellmanbaxter/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/robbiebax
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MembershipEconomy/
- The Membership Economy by Robbie Kellman Baxter: https://amzn.to/2Gk3s4H
John Waid has thirty years of sales and sales leadership experience in Fortune 500 companies and twelve years of senior consulting experience in the learning and development field. John earned his MBA in International Business from a top program and is fluent in three languages which has allowed him to work in Europe, North, Central and South America. He started his own firm, C3—Corporate Culture Consulting, to work with leaders and their companies on their cultures.
What you will learn from this episode:
- Why the key to growing a business lies in paying attention to both your people and your business and how John’s parents taught him this lesson early on
- How Chick-Fil-A has built a powerful employee-focused culture that has helped them become a dominant force in the fast-food market
- Why “culture” is defined by your employees and behaviors, and how a major cultural turn-around helped Delta Airlines chart a new path of success
- How a great culture raises employee enthusiasm, which in turn can create brand loyalty and increase profits
- How a Harvard study revealed that a focus on culture offers 3x more profit per employee, 4x faster growth, and 50% better retention
- Key lessons from John’s book, Reinventing Ralph: A Little Story For Salespeople About Culture-Driven Selling, about having a noble purpose, a clear vision, and three values
- Why Southwest Airlines is an excellent example of a company that has developed unique values
- How clear, strong values can help you more effectively hire and onboard new team members and why it is important to train your team on your values
- Why company leadership needs to live their culture and values and why employees will emulate leadership
Additional resources:
- Website: www.c3culture.com
- Reinventing Ralph by John Waid: https://amzn.to/2Llj3oN
Prentice Howe has always believed in underdogs. As Owner and Chief Creative Officer of Door Number 3, a full-service advertising agency based in Austin, Texas, his passion is helping brands embrace their challenger-ability and topple their giants. Prentice has been featured in The New York Times, AdWeek, Inc., and Communication Arts and authored the Amazon best-selling book “The Empowered Challenger Playbook,” which describes his strategies in detail and backs them up with case studies.
What you will learn in this episode:
- Why Prentice thinks that betting on yourself is the best thing you can do for your professional career
- How to adopt Prentice’s growth mindset, what it means for your future, and how to instill that mindset in your employees
- Prentice’s advice for creating a roadmap and acquiring the tools needed to advance your business and achieve your professional goals
- Strategies for “challengers” to shift their focus, make sacrifices, and pursue their goals of competing against market leaders
- The five pertinent personal traits needed to be an empowered challenger
- Finding your niches to diversify your client base and avoid putting all of your eggs in one basket
- What Prentice thinks are the most critical skills for “business masters”
- Why your business should serve YOU and not just your clients
- The life-changing effects of having a mentor and why success leaves clues
Resources:
- Website: https://www.dn3austin.com/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/dn3austin
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doornumber3/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prentice-howe-54163b4/
- Prentice’s new book: https://www.amazon.com/Empowered-Challenger-Playbook-Brands-Change-ebook/dp/B06WLLLVT8
Sharon Spano, Ph.D., helps business leaders transform how they think, adapt, and respond in complex business environments. As a business strategist, author, and Professional Integral Coach, she leads her clients through specific research-based practices that empower them to realign their business strategy with a life of meaning, accelerated performance, and increased profitability.
Sharon is also the author of The Pursuit of Time and Money: Step Into Radical Abundance and Discover the Secret to a Meaningful Prosperous Life.
She is also a scholar-practitioner who enjoys researching and understanding some of the hard stuff of life so you don’t have to. There’s nothing like helping people move through challenges such that they come out more passionate and fulfilled on the other side.
Whether you’re a person in the midst of change, an entrepreneur, or an organizational leader, Sharon would love to help you discover a more meaningful and prosperous life.
What you will learn in this episode:
- How to identify leadership DNA, where it comes from, the benefits, and the drawbacks
- Why the systemic mapping process allows us to see hidden patterns and subconscious dynamics in a concrete way
- How to look at systems from a quantum physics perspective
- How the aforementioned systems transcend generations and affect the unconscious minds of business leaders
- Why bringing the unconscious to the conscious mind allows leaders to make better decisions with more efficiency and less stress
- How to recognize hidden loyalties and use them as an agent for positive change
- What inspires Sharon Spano to bring this methodology to her clients
- How genetics play a prominent role in who you are as a leader
Resources:
- Website: sharonspano.com
- Book: thetimemoneybook.com
- Events: sharonspano.com/workshops
- Contact: sharon@sharonspano.com
- Twitter: @SharonSpano
Adam Honig (HOE-nig) is the founder and CEO of Spiro (SPEAR-oh) Technologies, a CRM company focused on breathing new life into sales technology to help salespeople reach new heights. Adam has worked in the tech industry for over 25 years, building companies that deliver enterprise software and solutions, as well as developing award-winning teams across the globe. Together with Spiros founding team, Adam has developed tech solutions for over 300,000 salespeople in the past 10 years. He's learned invaluable lessons throughout his career, and today he shares his expertise with sales teams across the globe, empowering them to achieve success through targeted relationship-building, proven sales tactics, and inspired technologies.
What you will learn in this episode:
- How the movie “Her” inspired Adam to create Spiro
- How Spiro helps business owners as it relates to how can help and organizations sales team become more helpful and effective
- The problem organizations encounter when it comes to having a sales team record all of the data for their leads and the process that leads to the sale
- Ways that Spiro’s CRM eliminates the gaps in the sales team’s work with data to make them more effective
- The gaps that Spiro has seen with the sales team’s communication with prospects and how Spiro solves them
- What Adam believes is the best way that organizations can improve sales
- The importance of collecting data and seeing how it can be used to elevate the sales team’s performance and achieve goals
- How collecting all the data within your sales team can help you make better predictions for your business
- Why it is important to make sure your customer service is a priority in your business and how it can create opportunities down the road
- The skills a business owner needs to master in order to properly manage a sales team
- Why the tech industry has been leaning on creating specialized sales teams and how that is helping them grow their business
- Ways Spiro helps in creating alerts for communicating with leads
- Why connecting with leads on LinkedIn can be helping when creating and nurturing relationships with leads
Resources:
- Website: spiro.ai
- Resource for listeners: spiro.ai/onwardnation
Eric Thurston has enabled many of the world’s leading organizations to leverage technology solutions to drive business performance. He is currently as President and CEO of Personify, a market-leading technology platform that helps organizations to better engage their constituents, maximize revenue and optimize operations. In his role at Personify, Eric has led the company through a founder transition, successfully acquired three new technology solutions, executed a major product rewrite and positioned Personify to be sold from its private equity sponsor Rubicon Technology Partners to Pamlico Capital.
As host of the Planet Leadership podcast, Eric meets with leaders, influencers, and movers and shakers in the association and nonprofit market to explore the issues and topics keeping up executives up at night, such as how to drive efficiencies within an organization, leverage technology to be more effective, and stay on top of trends in a rapidly evolving market.
Eric has a wealth of experience in the software industry, serving in leadership roles at Mitratech, P2 Energy Solutions, Oracle and SAP. He lives in Austin and enjoys boating, hiking, and fishing with his family.
What you will learn from this episode:
- Eric Thurston’s journey to owning private equity-owned software companies
- Why Eric describes himself as a “Transformational CEO”
- How Eric transformed and grew Personify since 2013 when he became CEO
- The vital priorities Eric’s leadership team planned and followed in order to grow Personify and why they plan over a five-year time frame
- How Eric build out his leadership team within Personify
- Two reasons why the topic of leadership is important to Eric
- The types of organizations that Personify serves
- Two ways that business owners can become transformational leaders
- Inside information about Eric’s new podcast, Plant Leadership and his decision to start a podcast
- The reason why Eric chose the name ‘Planet Leadership’ for his podcast
- Eric’s influential lessons that he learned from his mentors and how that lesson helped him become the leader he is today
Resources:
- Podcast Website: http://theplanetleadership.com/
- Website: personify.com
About Judy Sparks
Judy is the founder, CEO, and President of Smartegies LLC. Founded in 2008, Smartegies is a specialty marketing agency that has helped more than 150 companies across North America build stronger brands, implement effective communications, and develop winning strategies and proposals. Judy has worked in B2B marketing and sales roles exclusively since 1993, specializing in the AEC industry. Judy is a true expert in AEC marketing and has a proven record of success across her 25 years in the field.
About Katie Cash
Katie is an architecture, engineering, and construction marketer with over 15 years of experience serving the AEC industry. Katie is an expert strategist who helps her clients win big projects through creative marketing methods. Katie believes in thinking outside the box and has a gift for tackling challenges by using innovative and unconventional solutions. Today, Katie serves as the Vice President of Smartegies, working alongside Judy to help clients achieve maximum impact in their marketing efforts.
What you will learn in this episode:
- The struggles that Judy saw in the design and construction industry that led her to start Smartegies
- Katie’s path to meeting Judy and what attracted her to work with Smartegies
- The changes that are happening within the design and construction industry and why marketing seems to have become an afterthought
- How Smartegies creates an impact and educates their clients on ways they can build a brand that will help them build their business
- How Smartegies defines marketing and sales
- Why Strategies talks about strategies and how to support their clients’ business goals before getting into a project
- Why looking at other B2B industries can help innovate your marketing strategy
- How companies can stand out in the AEC industry with the “Art of the Pitch”
- The number one prevailing emotion that triggers someone to want to hire a firm
- The three things that Smartegies believes a presentation should do in order to stand out in a pitch
- The importance of incorporating emotional storytelling into your pitch
- Why more agencies/organizations are not implementing the “Art of the Pitch” process
- The skill that business owners need to master before being good at implementing the “Art of the Pitch” process
- Why design and construction firms need to be open to the idea of change
- The importance of recognizing when you need expert’s advice
Resources:
- Website: smartegies.com
- Judy Sparks Email: judy.sparks@smartegies.com
- Katie Cash Email: kcash@smartegies.com
John Iannarelli retired from the FBI after more than 20 years of service, during which time he was a member of the FBI SWAT Team and participated in the investigations of the Oklahoma City Bombing, the 9/11 attack, the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the Sony hack. Among his many FBI assignments, John previously served in Washington, D.C. as the FBI National Spokesperson and later with the Executive Staff of the FBI's Cyber Division. He was a Cyber Squad Supervisor before becoming the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Phoenix Division, the number two position overseeing all Criminal, Cyber and Counter Intelligence investigations throughout Arizona. During his FBI tenure, John was also the recipient of the FBI Directors Distinguished Service Award, for which he was selected from the ranks of the Bureaus 35,000 employees.
An energetic and entertaining speaker, John is the author of four books, including Why Teens Fail and What to Fix, a parents guide to protecting their children from Internet predators and other dangers, Information Governance Security about how businesses can protect their important information from loss or compromise and How to Spot A Terrorist Before Its Too Late, a guide to help people recognize and prevent terrorism before it can occur. His soon to be released fifth book, Disorderly Conduct, examines the lighter side of law enforcement and the humorous moments during Johns FBI career.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- John’s career as a law enforcement officer and special agent with the FBI
- Why businesses are more likely to be robbed behind the keyboard than with a gun
- Simple ways that business owners can prevent being hacked and have money stolen by criminals
- The biggest scams that hackers are currently using to hack your email and take your money
- The policies you need to have in place for money transactions
- Why you need to look into a password manager
- The importance for you and your team to have basic cybersecurity education
- What is malware and how it can cause damage
- How bringing someone in to train your team could be helpful
- An example of how a Law Firm was hacked and had $1 million taken from them
- How dangerous thumb drives and free wifi from public restaurants can be for your work’s network
- What you need to know about Cyber Insurance and an overview of what it can cover
- The responsibilities you have as a business owner when it comes to cybersecurity
Additional resources:
- Website: FBIJohn.com
- Twitter: FBIJohn
Mike Canarelli is the CEO and Co-Founder of Web Talent Marketing and is recognized as one of the top digital marketing agencies in the United States who prides itself on providing unique, scalable long-term solutions for its clients. Mike holds a B.S. from Temple University’s Fox School of Business and Management where he studied Entrepreneurship and Management Information Systems. After six years as a freelance designer and web developer, he founded Axis Creative Group in 2006 and later merged with Web Talent SEO in late 2010.
Marcus Grimm, Chief Growth Officer at Web Talent Marketing, is dedicated to implementing strategies & tactics that utilize emerging technologies, particularly in sales, content marketing and marketing automation. Marcus’ experience extends across the entire buyer journey, from market research, prospect targeting and awareness, to lead acquisition, qualification, nurturing, presenting and closing. Marcus has extensively studied and utilized the latest in behavioral economics to translate decision theory from the classroom to the boardroom.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- Why the "project management triangle" or "iron triangle" of speed vs. price vs. quality doesn't exist on Amazon
- Why Amazon offers the potential for business-to-business organizations, and why business leaders need to research Amazon to take advantage of future opportunities
- Why businesses see better results the more they spend on Amazon advertising, and why this is similar to grocery and retail store "slotting fees"
- Why a company losing a sale to Amazon, even if it is for a product the company manufactured, can cost valuable remarketing consumer information
- Why each business must develop a unique and individual strategy to deal with Amazon based on their business needs
- Why Mike chose to add the position of "Chief Growth Officer" to the business, how he defines the role, and why he brought Marcus into the position
- How the work Marcus does in the position of Chief Growth Officer benefits the company, and what support he needs to be able to do his job well
- Why some customers are the wrong fit for a business, and why part of Marcus's role is to identify those situations
- How marketing automation works, and why moving at the speed a prospect wants to go is the key to a successful campaign
Additional resources:
- Website: www.webtalentmarketing.com
- The Revenue Stream podcast: www.webtalentmarketing.com/podcasts/
Stephen is the founder and CEO of Predictive ROI, a digital marketing agency, and the host of Onward Nation — a top-rated daily podcast for learning how today’s top business owners think, act and achieve. Onward Nation is listened to in 120 countries around the world.
Stephen is the author of three books, including the #1 bestseller, “Profitable Podcasting,” and his digital marketing insights have been featured in Forbes.com, Entrepreneur.com, The Washington Post, and Inc. Magazine.
Our special encore guest today is Kelly Hatfield. Kelly has been in the recruiting and HR field for over 25 years as a successful business owner and entrepreneur. She is the host of the Absolute Advantage Podcast and partner in her most recent venture, Think It. Be It. – a human performance company for high achievers. Kelly’s work with companies in helping them develop their leadership, design recruiting, as well as retention strategies gives her a unique perspective into the hiring experience and leadership from all angles. Now…you may remember Kelly and the wisdom she shared during Episodes 274 and 524 of Onward Nation. And if you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all she shared during her previous interviews…I highly encourage you to add Episodes 274 and 524 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * What Kelly has been working on since her previous appearances on Onward Nation in episodes 274 and 524 * How an interview with guest John Mitchell on Kelly’s podcast, Absolute Advantage, introduced Kelly to the “Think It Be It” methodology * Why Kelly became a partner in Think It Be It after her own incredible success using the methodology * How Think It Be It helps you reframe your thoughts through visualization to create success for yourself * How Kelly uses her visualization techniques to lay the foundation of her day, using specific goals and imagery * How practice and invoking the Reticular Activating System of your brain can help you see opportunities you didn’t notice before * Why it is important as an entrepreneur and team leader to step back and allow your team members to do their work without inserting yourself to “fix the problem” * Why Kelly reads her business plan every single day, iterating and making course corrections as necessary * How the Think It Be It process starts with twelve minutes a day, one sheet of paper, and having clarity in your intent * How to get a copy of a free five-day email course on the Think It Be It methodology and a free ebook
Additional resources: * Website: www.thinkitbeit.net * Website: www.enginuityadvantage.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-hatfield-2a2610a * Text “genius” to 44222
Dr. Deborak K. Ekstrom is the president of Salisbury Plastic Surgery in Massachusetts — a very successful clinic and she’s a highly skilled surgeon and has been honing those skills over decades. But success wasn’t easy. It never is Onward Nation. Even if from the outside, it might seem that way.
It takes hard work — it takes commitment — it takes a drive to get over the obstacles and past the naysayers who are attempting to stand in your way. And it takes mentors who can take us under their wing and share their guidance with us. Dr. Ekstrom had people like that in her path — she listened — and she persevered.
And you will also hear about how she has reached a place in her career and life where she wants to not just give back — but to teach, to share, to be a conduit of educational resources...and so I’m excited for her to walk us through the media company her and her team have created called Deluge Beau.
So, Onward Nation — this will be a conversation around grit, tenacity, smarts, and building for the future that I think you are going to find extremely helpful.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How Deborah's early career as a surgeon began, and the challenges she sometimes faced as a female surgeon in a male-dominated time
- Which valuable skills Deborah had to develop to live an extraordinary life, and how her goal is now to help enable others to live their extraordinary life
- Why the ability to teach yourself and continue to learn is a critical skill that any successful business leader needs to develop
- How Deborah began her career without resources and mentors, and why she now works to serve as a teacher and mentor to others and especially women
- Why Deborah created Deluge Beau, and why creating a magazine was well-suited to her skills and interests
- Why Deborah and her team named the magazine Deluge Beau, and why she believes that too many people are afraid of abundance
- What advice Deborah would offer to anyone who struggles to believe that they are deserving of success
- Why abundance is the natural state of the universe and how someone has to actively take self-destructive steps to avoid abundance
- What sort of women Deluge Beau is seeking to serve and welcome into their community, and what hopes Deborah has for the magazine
Additional resources:
- Website: www.delugebeau.com
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/delugebeau/
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/delugebeau/
Rob Jolles is a sought-after speaker who teaches, entertains, and inspires audiences worldwide. His live programs in and around the world have enabled him to amass a client list of Fortune 500 companies including Toyota, Disney, GE, a dozen universities, and over 50 financial institutions. He is the best-selling author of six books, including his latest release, Why People Don’t Believe You…Building Credibility from the Inside Out. To learn more, visit Jolles.com.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Rob unconsciously excelled at his job at the New York Life Insurance Company in his first year, at just 22 years old, and why that was a problem * Why not knowing what he was doing right for his career became a challenge when he started struggling with the burden of success * How becoming an actor in his spare time became the third piece of Rob’s ultimate career as a corporate trainer * Why Rob wrote his first book, and why he doesn’t consider himself a writer despite authoring six books * Why Rob loves processes, and why he believes success isn’t really about processes but comes down to “percentage points” * Why Rob began teaching people not just what to say, but how to say it authentically and effectively, and how that led to writing his book * Why Rob’s publisher decided to title his book “Why People Don’t Believe You”, and how it relates to Rob’s observations on life * Why the secret to sounding authentic is to be honest and absolutely believe the things you are saying * Why it is important to not make assumptions and tell yourself a made-up narrative about others * Why Rob believes that we should stop using the phrase “soft skills” and should start calling them “performance skills”
How to contact Rob Jolles: * Website: www.jolles.com * Why People Don’t Believe You by Rob Jolles: https://amzn.to/2ElQ8w7
Stephen is the founder and CEO of Predictive ROI, a digital marketing agency, and the host of Onward Nation — a top-rated daily podcast for learning how today’s top business owners think, act and achieve. Onward Nation is listened to in 120 countries around the world.
Stephen is the author of three books, including the #1 best seller, “Profitable Podcasting,” and his digital marketing insights have been featured in Forbes.com, Entrepreneur.com, The Washington Post, and Inc. Magazine.
Public educator, entrepreneur, and CEO of the financial technology company of iFlip Investor, Randy Tate combines Silicon Valley style with his partner and CTO Kelly Korshak’s Wall Street savvy, creating a software to help the ordinary investor preserve, protect and grow their wealth.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * What Randy and his team at iFlip have been working on since Randy’s previous appearance on Onward Nation in episode 658 * Why iFlip is on track for 1000% growth this year, and how they have been developing a stock trading app that will be free to the end user * Why diversification isn’t actually the secret to mitigating investment risk, and why the true secret is to avoid losses * Why losses and fees compound dangerously and why that fact is aggravated by a lack of industry transparency * Why Randy believes that every business owner must financially plan for life after their business * How iFlip’s software anticipated the Q4 2018 market dip and had already moved 87% of the money the software manages into cash before the dip * Why Randy defines “success” as the ability to continually create new possibilities for yourself * How Randy has overcome fear in his own career, and why acknowledging your fear is the key to beating it * Why efficiency is the key to iFlip’s software, as well as the key to its continued business success * Why Randy suggests you automate everything you can as early as you can so that you can more effectively scale
Additional resources: * Website: https://iflipinvest.com/ * Text “invest” to (480) 418-0300
Sean Casto is the Founder of the premier app marketing agency, PreApps, where he has helped thousands of apps reach millions in downloads. He has worked with many million dollar apps such as Flyp, OverKill 2, Gadget Flow, and even billion dollar apps such as Cheetah Mobile’s Security Master with over 550,000,000 downloads. He is also the Creator of the App Marketing Academy, the world’s best online mobile app marketing program.
Today, Casto is one of the most in-demand experts on mobile app marketing and growth. His clients and associates have expanded to 80 countries, in 24 different app categories to create, launch, and market their app, from nothing to millions of downloads and sales. Casto has been a guest speaker at industry conventions for Microsoft and Samsung and lectured at Universities such as Northeastern and Harvard. He has also appeared on and been featured by The Washington Post, USA Today, The Boston Globe, Entrepreneur Magazine, and The Associated Press.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Sean found a love of entrepreneurism as a child, and how he learned the ins and outs of app development * How Sean developed the number one industry-leading app marketing agency, and what services his agency provides to app developers * Why app development and having an app for your business is appealing to business owners in any industry * What new business marketing potential and customer interaction possibilities have been created thanks to smartphone apps * How new technologies like Augmented Reality (AR) can be integrated into an app to differentiate your business from competitors * What key strategies and “seven pillars” are fundamental to finding success when launching an app * Why an app should be user-centric, innovative, and address the needs and wants of your customers * Why it is difficult to cut through the noise and be discovered when there are over 15,000 new apps launching a week, causing 95% of apps to fail * Why virality is probably an unrealistic goal, and why it is important to track analytics on the use of your app * Why understanding where customers typically find apps and understanding Apple and Google’s app store algorithms and optimizing for them is key
Additional resources: * Website: www.preapps.com * App Secrets by Sean Casto: https://amzn.to/2CuDzgw
Angela Ficken is a psychotherapist in Boston, MA. She graduated with a B.A in psychology from Northeastern University and received her Masters in Social Work from Boston College. She began her career as a residence counselor at the OCD Institute at McLean hospital before attending graduate school.
After receiving her MSW, she worked as a senior clinical social worker at McLean Hospital and was a primary therapist for college students at Harvard University before moving to her full-time private practice. She is certified in DBT and CBT and is trained in exposure and response prevention (ERP). Her primary interests are working with young adults who have OCD, eating disorders, and anxiety-related concerns.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * What Angela has been working on since her previous appearance on Onward Nation in episode 537 * Why Angela has been focusing on her writing, which has been published through her blog as well as Huffington Post, Parenting.com and other media outlets * Why stress management is becoming increasingly important today, especially for business owners and entrepreneurs * Why stress and anxiety aren’t the same thing but very often overlap and tend to go hand-in-hand * Why Angela developed her stress-management course as a supplement to her business and her writings * What early success and feedback Angela’s clients have received from her stress-management course * Why our negative thoughts are often based on incorrect assumptions, and why we often overreact to kernels of truth * What suggestions and tips Angela has for business owners who are trying to find balance and manage their stressors * Why small changes to your daily self-care routine can have a profound impact on your stress levels * Why breaking a big, stressful opportunity into small fragments allows you to better deal with anxiety
How to connect with Angela Ficken: * Website: www.progresswellness.com * Email: angela@progresswellness.com
Stephen is the founder and CEO of Predictive ROI, a digital marketing agency, and the host of Onward Nation — a top-rated daily podcast for learning how today’s top business owners think, act and achieve. Onward Nation is listened to in 120 countries around the world.
Stephen is the author of three books, including the #1 best seller, “Profitable Podcasting,” and his digital marketing insights have been featured in Forbes.com, Entrepreneur.com, The Washington Post, and Inc. Magazine.
Corey Kupfer is an expert strategist, negotiator and dealmaker with more than 30 years of professional deal-making and negotiating experience as a successful entrepreneur, attorney, consultant, author and professional speaker. He is the founder and principal of Kupfer & Associates, PLLC, a leading corporate and deal law firm; the founder and CEO of Authentic Enterprises, LLC, a speaking, training and consulting company committed to inspiring authenticity in business; the author of Authentic Negotiating: Clarity, Detachment & Equilibrium – The Three Keys To True Negotiating Success & How To Achieve Them. He is also the creator and host of the Fueling Deals Podcast, which launched in February 2019.
You can learn more about Corey, his companies and current projects at www.coreykupfer.com.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * What Corey has been working on with his business and in the area of thought leadership since his previous appearance on Onward Nation * What issues Corey recognized that were limiting the amount of business he was getting, and how he corrected those issues * How Corey recognized that he himself was becoming a bottleneck in his business and its success * How Corey recognized, identified, and overcame his limiting beliefs that were holding him back, and how he discovered that his limiting beliefs were ultimately wrong * Why Corey decided to dig into his thought leadership, and why he launched his Fueling Deals podcast * What topics and information Corey has covered so far on his podcast, and why he feels passionate about showing the many types of deals available to a business * How business owners can find deals of all kinds, and why networking and connecting with other business leaders in your industry is key * Corey shares case studies of some of the unique deals he has been involved in or helped facilitate * What suggestions Corey has for business owners looking for and planning for an exit, and why it is important to plan for contingencies * Why it is important to surround yourself with other business owners in mastermind groups or as mentors
Additional resources: * Website: www.coreykupfer.com * Website: www.kupferlaw.com * Fueling Deals podcast: www.fuelingdeals.com * Authentic Negotiating by Corey Kupfer: https://amzn.to/2ueLfil
Judy Robinett has been profiled in Fast Company, Forbes, Vogue, CNN and Bloomberg Businessweek as a sterling example of the new breed of “super connectors” who use their experience and networks to accelerate growth and enhance profitability. For more than 30 years, she has helped entrepreneurs find needed capital by connecting them with venture capitalists, angel investors, and other sources of funding. Known as “the woman with the titanium digital Rolodex,” Robinett has served as the CEO of both public and private companies and in management positions at Fortune 500 companies. She has been on the advisory boards of Illuminate Ventures, Pereg Ventures, Springboard Enterprises, and Pipeline Angels accelerators. She was a managing director of Golden Seeds Angel Network (the third most active angel investment group and one of the largest in the U.S.); the CEO of publicly traded Medical Discoveries; and served on the faculty of Goldman Sachs’s 10,000 Small Businesses program.
Previously, Robinett was a member of the Department of Commerce team that defined performance criteria for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for Performance Excellence in Healthcare, for which she received an award from the White House. She regularly presents workshops and keynotes, and has given hundreds of speeches worldwide for audiences at NASA, TEDx, MIT, AT&T, and Walmart. She is the author of How to Be a Power Connector: The 5+50+150 Rule (McGraw-Hill), named the #1 Best Business Book of 2014 by TIME.com; coauthor of a chapter in Crowdfunding for Dummies (Wiley, 2013); and is set to release her newest book, Crack the Funding Code: How Investors Think and What They Need to Hear to Fund Your Startup (AMACOM/HarperCollins Leadership) in 2019.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why Judy wrote her book, “Crack the Funding Code”, as a way to help business owners find and access investor funding * Why there is more venture capital money and other sources of funding available now than ever before * Why coachability is crucial for attracting investors, and why arrogance will scare investors away * Why you should be confident in what you are offering to potential investors and “kick your fear to the curb” * Why investors will consider your character, honesty, and knowledge as much as they will consider the strength of your business * Why it is important to mitigate as much risk as possible for your investors and be clear in the exit you’re offering * How not having the funding or not finding customers are the only two reasons a startup will fail * What “family offices” are, and how they can be a source of funding outside the traditional venture capital * What steps Judy recommends for business owners looking for funding, and what resources are available in every state * Judy’s strategies for building your confidence and kicking fear to the curb, and her “three golden questions” and why you should ask them
Judy’s recommended funding resources: * U.S. Small Business Administration: www.sba.gov * America’s Small Business Development Centers: https://americassbdc.org * New York Angels: www.newyorkangels.com * Brad Feld’s Term Sheet Archives: https://feld.com/archives/tag/term-sheet * Cora Capital Advisors: https://coracap.com/
How to connect with Judy Robinett: * Crack the Funding Code by Judy Robinett: https://amzn.to/2HFwMnI * Judy Robinett’s website: www.judyrobinett.com * Email: judy@judyrobinett.com * Twitter: @judyrobinett
Mark Pattison is a former wide receiver in the NFL, where he played for the Raiders, Rams and Saints. Since retiring from his football career, Mark has been dedicated to challenging his own limits, and one of his life goals is to become the first NFL player to ever climb the Seven Summits, the tallest mountain on each of the seven continents. To date, he has successfully climbed six of the seven, with the most recent being the Vinson Massif in Antarctica.
Mark is also an entrepreneur, motivational speaker and leadership consultant, and he believes passionately in giving others the push they need to exceed their limits, conquer their fears, and find their summits. In addition to his professional work as a motivational speaker, Mark passionately believes in the incredible and transformative power of philanthropic work. That is why he partnered with Chris Long of the Philadelphia Eagles and his foundation, Waterboys.org, to help install life-sustaining water wells throughout Tanzania.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why Mark’s mantra is “get off the sidelines, get back into the game, and find your next summit” * How Mark first got involved in football, and how he turned it into a college scholarship and later a successful career in the NFL * How the end of Mark’s NFL career left him at loose ends and led him to ultimately become a successful entrepreneur * Why a difficult divorce and a personal loss sparked Mark’s interest in becoming the first NFL player to ever climb the Seven Summits * How Mark uses the acronym “S.U.M.M.I.T.” as a guide for turning the spark of ideas into successes * How Mark became involved with NFL player Chris Long’s Waterboys foundation, and what the organization does to help impoverished communities access clean water * Why Mark’s work with business leaders has led him to recognize that too many leaders and organizations are sitting on the sidelines and playing it safe * What important daily habits Mark keeps that have most contributed to his success throughout his career * What Mark believes are the most vital and critical skills business leaders need to master to be successful * Why it is necessary to put in the time, dedication, effort and hard work to be able to achieve your ultimate goals * What important lessons Mark has learned from his own mentors and from other business leaders
Stephen is the founder and CEO of Predictive ROI, a digital marketing agency, and the host of Onward Nation — a top-rated daily podcast for learning how today’s top business owners think, act and achieve. Onward Nation is listened to in 120 countries around the world.
Stephen is the author of three books, including the #1 best seller, “Profitable Podcasting,” and his digital marketing insights have been featured in Forbes.com, Entrepreneur.com, The Washington Post, and Inc. Magazine.
Additional resources: * Niche Down by Christopher Lochhead and Heather Clancy: https://amzn.to/2syZsWr * Killing Marketing by Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose: https://amzn.to/2CtUIGg * Onward Nation episode 805 with Christopher Lochhead: https://predictiveroi.com/podcasts/christopher-lochhead-encore/ * Onward Nation episode 448 with Christopher Lochhead: https://predictiveroi.com/podcasts/christopher-lochhead/ * Onward Nation episode 840 with Robert Rose: https://predictiveroi.com/podcasts/robert-rose/
Hunter is a full-time real estate investor and founder of Cash Flow Connections, a private equity firm based out of Los Angeles, CA. Since starting CFC, Hunter has helped more than 250 investors allocate capital to over 100 properties. He has personally raised more than $20mm in private capital and controls more than $60mm inmedia news outlets, podcasts, and radio shows.
Hunter is also the host of the Cash Flow Connections Real Estate Podcast, which helps investors learn the intricacies of commercial real estate from the comfort of their home, car, or office. commercial real estate.
Hunter has been featured in Forbes, Globe St., Inside Self-Storage, as well as a variety of other media news outlets, podcasts, and radio shows.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why Hunter saw the 2008 real estate crash as an opportunity, and why he moved into real estate during the 2010 European debt crisis and collapse of Greece * Why Hunter has completely cycled his investments out of the stock market and into more simple and safe investments * How Hunter had the idea for Cash Flow Connections, and how the business works to help investors identify opportunities * Why positioning yourself as a passive investor in a syndicated structure opens up a world of flexible investment opportunities * How to get involved in a syndicated investment structure and minimize the risks involved in your investment * What seven steps to follow before getting involved in any real estate investment and particularly a syndicated investment * Why cost-to-build isn’t a key factor in the self storage market, and how to take advantage of buying existing self storage * How Hunter got involved in thought leadership and why he began his Cash Flow Connections podcast * Hunter shares his first attempt at raising an outside capital fund and why it was such a terrible experience * How Hunter has learned to integrate content creation into his thought leadership, and why he cares about quality over quantity
Additional resources: * Website: www.cashflowconnections.com * Email: info@cashflowconnections.com * Cash Flow Connections podcast: www.cashflowconnections.com/podcast/
Kate Paine helps executives and entrepreneurs stand out online so they become a recognized authority in their marketplace or industry, and a respected asset to their company and clients.
She uses her journalism, PR and marketing experience to tease out her clients’ compelling story to position them as an industry visionary or influencer both online and off. Identifying an individual’s “slice-of-life” story makes her expertise uncommon in the world of online personal promotion and social selling. She’s an expert on using LinkedIn as a powerful personal branding tool, speaks at national marketing conferences, and teaches LinkedIn for corporate sales training.
She’s also a volunteer traveling faculty member – teaching how to leverage LinkedIn – for The Honor Foundation (honor.org) in Virginia Beach and Wilmington, NC. THF is a nonprofit, which provides an intense career development program for Navy SEALs and individuals in the Special Forces community who are transitioning from their active duty military service and into a civilian career.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Kate decided she wanted to become a journalist, and how she came to work at the CBS Morning News and eventually CBS Evening News with anchor Dan Rather * How Kate now works with clients on personal branding and LinkedIn, and why the “story” matters so much to her * Why stories don’t necessarily mean brand stories, and why Kate believes sharing your story can help you form connections * How to answer the question of “what do you do?” with a more memorable and engaging answer than just your job title * Why Kate believes LinkedIn is a powerful tool and an opportunity to tell your story and share your expertise * Why your LinkedIn profile should never be a copy-and-paste of your resume and should contain more compelling pieces of information * Kate shares a great way to solicit feedback on your strengths from colleagues that you may not be aware of in yourself * Strategies for using your story on LinkedIn to be disruptive, and why your LinkedIn summary is critical real estate * Why it is important to find your super-specific strengths and talk about your niche and how you excel in it * Why you should never use the default LinkedIn message to connect with someone, and why you should always personalize your invitations
How to contact Kate Paine: * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/katepaine/ * Website: www.standingoutonline.com
Steve Gordon is the author of Unstoppable Referrals: 10x Referrals, Half the Effort, and his latest book, The Exponential Network Strategy. He’s the host of The Unstoppable CEO Podcast and has written over 400 articles on marketing for service businesses. Through his firm, he helps service business entrepreneurs create leveraged marketing systems so they can spend less time on business development, and more time on what matters most.
At age 28, Steve Gordon became the CEO of an engineering/consulting firm. It was baptism by fire… Steve knew nothing about marketing or selling services. His firm got all its business by word of mouth, and they enjoyed a healthy, growing business. But they never knew where the next client was coming from, or when he/she would arrive. Steve spent countless nights staring at the ceiling at 2 am, worried about when the next client might come. So he began studying sales and marketing.
Twelve years later, after growing that firm’s revenue by 10-times, Steve started his second business, consulting with businesses across 30 industries—including manufacturing, professional services, construction, and consulting—to design sales, marketing, and referral systems for high-ticket/high-trust products and services. Today he continues sharing his expertise with clients across the world, opening their eyes to their unique growth opportunities and helping them build the right systems to attract their ideal clients.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Steve started out as an engineer and made CEO in four years, and how that experience taught him to run a service business * How Steve has shifted his focus to helping service-based business owners, and why he chose the word “unstoppable” * Why Steve believes that persistence is the most important factor in finding your success in a service-based business * What important lessons can be taken from Steve’s latest book, “The Exponential Network Strategy” * What networking opportunities can be found in participating in podcasts and sitting down with other business leaders * How reciprocal networking works, and how it can be mutually beneficial for adding value to your audiences * How to leverage a podcast or a mailing list to effectively promote yourself to all of your contacts * Why LinkedIn is an excellent tool for networking, but only if you utilize it correctly * Why it is critical to building a solid team with the skills that can support your efforts * Why it is so important to be intentional in your business and to keep your priorities in order
Additional resources: * Website: www.unstoppableceo.net/onwardnation/ * Unstoppable Referrals by Steve Gordon: https://amzn.to/2E0jr7e * The Exponential Network Strategy by Steve Gordon: https://amzn.to/2N2IdXj
Greggory R. Garrett is the CEO and Managing Director of CGS Advisors, a boutique strategy and innovation advisory firm. As such he pushes the limits of corporate cultures by developing and implementing unique strategies that capitalize on technology-oriented disruptions to industries and markets. In 2017 he founded and chairs Connected Detroit Innovates, a membership-based business renewal accelerator made up of Chief Innovation Officers.
Gregg has received numerous professional and civic accolades. He is a member of Oakland County’s 2015 40 under 40, a recipient of Oakland University’s Distinguished Alumni Service Award, a Rotary International Paul Harris Fellow, amongst others.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why starting his first company at age 16 set Gregg on the path to lifelong entrepreneurship * Why Gregg chose to leave his previous employer and create CGS Advisors, and what work CGS does for their clients * Why Gregg titled his book “Competing in the Connecting World: The Future of Your Industry is Already Here” * How the idea for Gregg’s book came about, and why the writing of the book happened organically as his ideas spread * Which important lessons Gregg feels are the biggest takeaways from his book, and how to take action on those points * Why complacency is dangerous, and why mid-sized firms who are doing “well enough” are often adversely affected by new technologies * Why “structural inertia” and “dominant logic inertia” are the two main threats to a company that can cause it to stand still * How to break out of your own patterns and take brave steps to shake up your business * What influential lesson Gregg learned from his grandfather that shaped his career and business philosophies * What four key strategies and pieces of advice Gregg wants to share with business owners
Additional resources: * Website: www.cgsadvisors.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/greggorygarrett/ * Twitter: @GreggoryGarrett * Competing in the Connecting World by Gregg Garrett: https://amzn.to/2SFIPHg
Les McKeown became the co-founder an incubation consulting company that advised on the creation and growth of literally hundreds of organizations worldwide, with at its peak 13 offices in 7 countries worldwide.
Now Les advises CEOs and senior leaders of organizations just like yours on how to achieve scalable, sustainable growth, speaks to Fortune 500 companies about his breakthrough strategies, is one of Inc.’s top contributing authors. He is also the author of three books on growth leadership, one a Wall St Journal and USA Today bestseller, and a much-in-demand public speaker.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Les began his entrepreneurial journey, starting with his role as an independent consultant in his early 20s * How Les’s role began to transition into joining and helping found startup businesses as a serial entrepreneur * Why Les began teaching entrepreneurs to start and grow their businesses and transitioned his career again * What patterns Les looks at to predict the success or failure of an organization, and what life cycles every business goes through * How Les’s work helps business owners put their challenges and opportunities into perspective * Why it is possible to reverse an organization’s “aging” and go back to the predictable success stage * Les shares case studies of organizations that went through the aging arc into decline * Why the parts of an organization can be in different parts of the life cycle, and why the parts on the right side of the arc can bring down the rest * Which skill is most important to help business owners move from the whitewater stage to the predictable success stage * Why Apple CEO Tim Cook is an excellent example of a leader scaling a business through effective team-building
Additional resources: * Website: www.predictablesuccess.com * Predictable Success by Les McKeown: https://amzn.to/2Bju2Iy
Jay Baer, CSP is the world’s most retweeted person among digital marketers. He is a business strategist, keynote speaker, and the New York Times best-selling author of five books including “Hug Your Haters.” Jay has advised more than 700 companies including Caterpillar, Nike, Allstate, The United Nations and 32 of the FORTUNE 500. He is the founder of Convince & Convert, a strategy consulting firm that helps companies gain and keep more customers through the intersection of technology, social media, and customer service. His Convince & Convert Media division owns the world’s #1 content marketing blog, the world’s top marketing podcast, and many other educational resources for business owners and executives. Jay is the creator of five multi-million dollar companies, he is an active venture capitalist, and technology advisor, as well, Onward Nation…an avid tequila collector and certified barbecue judge.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why Jay wrote his new book “Talk Triggers: The Complete Guide to Creating Customers with Word of Mouth” * Why word of mouth is the best and most effective way to grow your business, and why it is too often ignored * Why it is difficult to measure word of mouth success, and why being good at your business isn’t enough to get people talking about you * How Jay defines a talk trigger, and how Jay’s 4-5-6 system can help you create a good talk trigger * Why an effective talk trigger must always be remarkable, repeatable, reasonable, and relevant * Why going over the top with your attempt to get people talking about your brand often backfires * What are the five types of talk triggers, how each is distinct, and how you should stick to just one type * Why the culture of your business may favor one particular type of talk trigger over the others * How to create an effective talk trigger including the important steps you must take to get the results you want
Additional resources: * Website: www.convinceandconvert.com * Talk Triggers by Jay Baer and Daniel Lemin: https://amzn.to/2RJwXiZ * The Talk Triggers Show podcast: www.talktriggersshow.com
Bruce Mack, owner and founder of Platinum Financing Group, knows that his funding options and asset protection programs are the perfect solution for all business owners to achieve complete financial freedom. With his impressive credentials and decades of experience helping thousands of clients, Bruce has honed unique skill sets and the ideal perspective to help entrepreneurs achieve their goals by implementing customized funding solutions tailored to each needs.
Platinum Financing Group has the most comprehensive funding programs available in the industry. Their 0% APR program for up to 21 months is just one unique example of a program that typifies Bruce's quest to bring the best options to startups and existing business owners. As a licensed financial advisor and past owner of a licensed and bonded credit repair company, Bruce empowers small business growth through lines of credit, corporate credit building programs, term loans, bridge, and gap loan financing. He also promotes a highly-specialized self-directed retirement account as a funding option that can be used for any business purpose. Bruce is especially passionate on educating clients about asset protection and the tax mitigation benefits through the utilization and implementation of his unique, specialized Business Trust.
With a client-first philosophy, Bruce and his team at Platinum Financing Group are working to build whatever their clients need to achieve their dreams.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Bruce transitioned a career as a corporate headhunter and banker into his current role with Platinum Trust Group * Why Bruce got involved in real estate transactions, and why it set him on his current path helping others maintain their finances * How Bruce helps his clients with funding, asset protection, and repairing their credit reports and scores * Why people often end up hurting their own credit situations out of necessity, and why 30% utilization hurts your credit * Why you should be using business cards for your purchases as they don’t report to your FICO * Why inconsistencies between your reports with the three credit bureaus can harm your credit standing * How inquiries can damage your credit, and why inquiry removal as a form of credit repair can help * Why asset protection is vital for any business owner, and why a “corporate veil” isn’t sufficient protection * How to find out more information about asset protection and Platinum Trust Group’s services * Why it is important to go to a professional for assistance rather than trying to do it yourself
Additional resources: * Website: www.platinumtrustgroup.com/onward/ * Telephone: (702) 371-2345
Ted Thomas is a Florida based educator, publisher and author. Thomas is publisher and author of more than 30 books. His guidebooks on Real Estate have sold in four counties of the world. In the recent past, over 75,000 clients have carefully evaluated Ted Thomas’ QuickStart Introduction In Secured Tax Lien Certificates and have chosen to become associated with the market leader. Thomas’ Home Study Materials are international bestsellers and draw clients from Europe and South America.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Ted transitioned a career as an airline pilot into a real estate business, and became an advisor to others * What leverage risks Ted warns against, and how he helps others create value and grow their wealth * What a tax lien certificate is, and how you can buy tax liens to create profits from unpaid taxes safely * Why tax certificates are an underutilized and secure way to invest your money, and how their returns work * How the rules for tax certificates very by states, and why it is important to understand the rules and penalties * Why auctions are prevalent all over the country, but are a hidden investment gem that few people take advantage of * Why the southern part of the United States is the most friendly toward tax certificate sales * How 97% of all tax certificates will pay you out in 6 months or less, and how you will get ownership of the property if you don’t get paid * Why the rules governing tax certificates often predate the interconnectivity of the states from the interstate system * How to get more information and learn about Ted’s tax lien certificate purchase system
How to reach out to Ted Thomas: * Email: ted@tedthomas.com * Website: www.tedthomas.com
John Mitchell is fascinated by how a person can take science and apply it to their life to substantially increase their success and achievement in life. In particular 2 scientific discoveries that were profiled in a Time magazine cover story. John’s 12-minute a day success formula impacts a person’s career, significant other relationship, and their health. It doubles their control over themselves and focuses them on what really moves the needle in their life.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * What has been happening for John since his previous appearance on Onward Nation in episode #581 * Why turning 50 was a defining moment for John, inspiring him to change his approach to life with the goal of making $1 million a year * How the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill changed John’s life, and how John implemented the book’s wisdom into his life twelve minutes a day * Why John feels passionate about sharing his Think It Be It methodology with high-achieving business leaders * How John’s methodology differs from everything else in the areas of personal development and success * How to evaluate your life and determine which areas you could stand to make improvements in * Why twelve minutes a day is enough time to completely reprogram your brain and become the person you want to be * Why John’s methods are based upon brain science and its application, and how the science works * John shares his story of realizing that his methodology is only meant for people willing to put in the twelve minutes a day necessary
How to reach out to John Mitchell: * Text “genius” to 44222
Bob Dusin is the co-author of Creating the High Performance Work Place. Collaborating with leaders and organizations in all industries, he instills this philosophy to help create the highest performing and most highly engaged work environments possible.
Bob grew up on a wheat and cattle farm in western Kansas and earned a degree in Civil Engineering from Kansas State University, followed by a Master of Business Administration from Rockhurst University. In the early part of his career he worked as a Construction Project Manager, then went on to be the co-owner of a concrete construction company. Following that he altered his career course, becoming the Human Resources and Training Director for a national construction firm. Bob has been a trainer, facilitator, coach and speaker for more than 15 years.
Bob is a member of the National Speakers Association and speaks at numerous expos and events throughout the country each year. He is also a commercial voiceover and video actor, and a professional comedy improvisor.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Bob’s career journey taught him the value of a work ethic and gave him perspective on the people side of business * Why Bob feels passionate about his hobby of performing improv comedy, and how it taught him to confront his fears * What valuable business lessons Bob has been able to draw from his experience with improv groups * Why the key to a high-performance workplace is in having a deep belief that the people on your team are capable and have value * Why a high-performance workplace needs to have strong relationships and allow people to thrive and excel * What important lessons Bob feels can be drawn from his book “Creating the High Performance Work Place” and applied to your own business * How to foster a workplace environment where your team feels valued and empowered to succeed * Why positive reinforcement needs to involve gratitude, an explanation of the impact the team member has made, and recognition of what it says about their character * Why you should try to avoid the word “but” and say “and” instead, and why punishment never makes someone get better at their job
How to reach out to Bob Dusin: * Website: www.hpwpgroup.com * Creating the High Performance Work Place by Sue Bingham and Bob Dusin: https://amzn.to/2sVB0ih
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to well over 50,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * What has been happening for Colin since his previous guest visit to Onward Nation in episode 730 * How Colin is refocusing and re-prioritizing his efforts in 2019 and measuring the “right” metrics * Why Colin owns his challenges and mistakes, and why he believes strongly in the Law of Attraction * Why your daily habits and your thoughts directly impact the energy you attract into your life * How Colin uses abundance and gratitude meditation to put himself into the mindset for success every day, morning and night * Why it’s critical to be clear, deliberate and intentional in what you want (and don’t want) in your life * How to avoid “self-fulfilling prophecies” by changing your mindset and opening yourself to an abundance * How Colin’s team invokes the Law of Attraction throughout all aspects of his business * Why the words “I am too busy right now” actually mean “you are not a priority to me right now” * Why Colin defines happiness as the ability to do what he wants, when he wants, with whom he wants, without being constrained by time or money
How to connect with Colin Sprake: * Website: www.mymsuccess.com * Podcast: www.mymyourbusiness.com
Sean Pillot de Chenecey has over 20 years experience as a brand expert, combining marketing consultancy with ethnographic activity and trend research around the world. His clients have included Unilever, Swatch, Heineken, Diageo, General Motors, Beiersdorf, AXA, Costa, Vodafone, Kerrygold and Starwood. He’s collaborated with numerous international advertising, branding, design, media and PR agencies. He is a lecturer at the University of the Arts London, and has written for Dazed, Admap, Brand Strategy, Marketing and Contagious. A public speaker, he’s given speeches for over a decade in Asia, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and North America.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Sean’s background, including service in the British army, and his transition into the business world * How Sean’s work has evolved to helping brands navigate the difficult business challenges of today * Why the societal challenge of truth and trust extend beyond politics to the business world * How Nike found itself at the center of a cultural storm in the 90s, and how its ad agency navigated the challenge * Why trust is the key to every relationship in your life, whether professional or personal * Why things have dramatically changed for Silicon Valley companies as trust in them has weakened * Why privacy is an ongoing concern for global society, and why brands are expected to address these serious concerns * Why you as a business owner must be passionate and adhere to your beliefs, especially in your business dealings * Why lies are becoming more common, and why it’s important to break through with honesty and authenticity * How Facebook’s recent privacy and honesty challenges have expanded beyond their business to impact many areas of society
How to contact Sean Pillot de Chenecey: * Website: www.brandpositive.org * The Post-Truth Business by Sean Pillot de Chenecey: https://amzn.to/2HqxBCf
Stephen is the founder and CEO of Predictive ROI, a digital marketing agency, and the host of Onward Nation — a top-rated daily podcast for learning how today’s top business owners think, act and achieve. Onward Nation is listened to in 120 countries around the world.
Stephen is the author of three books, including the #1 best seller, “Profitable Podcasting,” and his digital marketing insights have been featured in Forbes.com, Entrepreneur.com, The Washington Post, and Inc. Magazine.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why focusing on a huge audience or more customers isn’t as important as focusing on the audience you have * Why focusing on going narrow and deep with your business in 2019 will help you find true success * How true thought leaders aren’t superficial, and why their authenticity and focus on their audience is key * Why you should read the book “Niche Down: How to Become Legendary by Being Different” by Christopher Lochhead and Heather Clancy * What benefits you can expect from taking a niche down approach to your business this year * Why your business should have three tangentially connected areas of expertise, and why it’s okay that some clients aren’t the right fit for your business * Why focusing on a niche audience will help you monetize your content much faster than if you were to go broad * How the book “Killing Marketing: How Innovative Businesses Are Turning Marketing Costs Into Profit” by Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose can help you monetize your content * What three actionable steps you can take to maximize the impact of your narrow but deep cornerstone content * Why you should listen to Onward Nation episode 854 as a great companion to this episode
Additional resources: * Niche Down by Christopher Lochhead and Heather Clancy: https://amzn.to/2syZsWr * Killing Marketing by Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose: https://amzn.to/2CtUIGg * Onward Nation episode 805 with Christopher Lochhead: https://predictiveroi.com/podcasts/christopher-lochhead-encore/ * Onward Nation episode 448 with Christopher Lochhead: https://predictiveroi.com/podcasts/christopher-lochhead/ * Onward Nation episode 840 with Robert Rose: https://predictiveroi.com/podcasts/robert-rose/
Rick Miller is an unconventional turnaround specialist, a servant leader, and a go-to Chief. He is also an executive coach, an author, a speaker, and an expert at driving sustainable growth. For over 30 years, Rick served as a successful business executive in roles including President and/or CEO in a Fortune 10, a Fortune 30, a startup, and a non-profit. In each case, he was recruited from the outside to turn around poor performance in difficult times.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Rick learned valuable business lessons from his father, the only HR person at one of the only non-union machine shops in Massachusetts * Why Rick is as focused on “human capital” as he is on financial capital in the organizations he works with * Why Rick chose to call his book “Be Chief: It’s a Choice, Not a Title”, and how it relates to his definition of power * How energy comes from self-understanding and the ability to “be still” despite all the background noise * Why clearly understanding your own values is critical for leading and influencing other people * Why all of Rick’s proceeds from the sales of his book will be donated to children with special needs * How to get access to a free questionnaire that will help you define your values compass and score you on clarity, influence, energy, confidence and impact * What differentiates “go go”, “go… but” and “no go” employees from each other, and why the distinction matters * What “I3K” is, and why it is the secret recipe for success in a leadership role and in business * How to reach out to Rick Miller, and why Rick’s book is different from other leadership books available
How to contact Rick Miller: * Be Chief by Rick Miller: https://amzn.to/2Mo0H3W * Website: www.beingchief.com * Website: www.bechief.com
Jeff Koser is the spirited founder and CEO of Selling to Zebras. Zebra is an AI-driven Sales Enablement Automation Platform that creates a guided sales experience that directs sellers and buyers through a sales engagement. Zebra identifies perfect prospects (Zebras), decision makers and generates buyer specific presentations that are presented right in the software. Leverage ZEBRA to run your sales engagements and close 90% of the business you pursue faster, more easily and more profitably!
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Jeffrey’s 30+ year background in software and sales helped guide his career path to his current position as CEO of Zebrafi * Why the cumbersome difficulty of using Excel caused Jeffrey’s company to decide to develop its own software * Why Jeffrey’s 20-year-old “Selling to Zebras” B2B consultancy business transitioned to Zebrafi on January 1, 2019 * How Jeffrey and his team recognized the opportunity to pivot their business into a new SaaS (software as a service) entity * How Jeffrey’s company evolved, and how they developed their new business model to solve their clients’ problems * Why some salespeople struggle to become a “trusted advisor” to their clients, and why Zebrafi is different * How Zebrafi’s software determines a “zebra” through rating seven attributes on a scale of 0-4 * How Zebrafi helps their customers clearly define their purpose, culture and what they need to do to find success * What important lessons Jeffrey learned from his own mentors, and how they impacted his business philosophy * Why perseverance was critical to Zebrafi’s success, despite some early failures developing their own software
Additional resources: * Email: jeff.koser@sellingtozebras.com * Email: jeff@zebrafi.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-koser-4a3911a0
Named Trust Across America 2018 Top Thought Leader in Trust, Anne Bahr Thompson has been inspiring business leaders to use their brands as a force for change for many years. With more than 25 years of experience as a global brand strategist, Anne is the author of DO GOOD, which explains her pioneering model of Brand Citizenship® and the cultural dynamics that led to the creation of the model.
A former executive director of strategy and planning and the head of consulting at Interbrand, Anne is the founder of Onesixtyfourth, a creative and strategic consultancy that helps that leaders integrate purpose and social responsibility into their brands, business strategy, and corporate culture.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * What has been happening for Anne since her previous appearance on Onward Nation in episode #709 * Why Anne has firmly focused her thought leadership around the specific area of brand citizenship * How Anne spent seven years on semi-sabbatical while writing her book, due to the research time involved * How Anne’s dedication to brand citizenship started when she was nine years old and questioning the decisions of others * Why authenticity and aligning your values with your brand are an important component of brand citizenship * Why it’s important to have everyone in your organization working toward the same purpose and goals * Why basing your choices solely on profitability can cause more problems than they solve * Why Anne defines success as having the ability to contribute your unique gifts to the world and those you serve * How clearly defining your purpose can resonate throughout your organization and guide your operating principles * What advice Anne would share about overcoming your fears and standing up for your beliefs
Additional resources: * Twitter: @annebt * Email: abt@onesixtyfourth.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/anne-bahr-thompson-626116 * Website: www.brandcitizenship.com * Website: www.onesixtyfourth.com
Scott Royal Smith is a real estate investor and asset protection attorney in Austin, TX. Scott became an entrepreneur while still in law school, purchasing and running an auto mechanic shop, to pay his way through school. After graduating, Scott begin his law career as a high-stakes corporate litigator. He spent the last 8 years of his career analyzing real estate investment and asset protection. Today, Scott is the Founder and CEO of Royal Legal Solutions. A firm he built to offer tax, business and legal strategies to clients all over the U.S and Canada. He continues to educate the public on asset protecting strategies to help circumvent debilitating lawsuits for his clients.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro under the worst possible weather conditions mirrors Scott’s overall outlook on life * How going from four to thirty-five teammates in 2018 put strain on Scott’s business, and how he managed the challenge * Why asset protection is a critical tool in any business owner’s arsenal, and why it matters * How asset protection is structured using LLCs to protect your business from legal claims and predatory lawsuits * How proper asset protection helps dissuade lawsuits from ever getting filed in the first place * How Royal Legal Solutions helps small businesses access the same asset protection strategies the big corporations use * Why insurance is an important layer of protection for your business, but why it’s important to not go overboard * How to “hide” the ownership of your assets so that what you own remains secret from the general public * How land trusts work to protect your real estate assets in the same manner that an LLC protects your monetary assets * Why business owners can retroactively implement asset protection strategies, and how a series LLC structure works
How to contact Scott Royal Smith: * Website: www.royallegalsolutions.com * Telephone: (512) 757-3994
Amber McDonald is the Co-Founder and CEO of Indemnis, Inc. From an early age Amber has been an extremely hard worker; having supervised 150 employees by the age of 21, her ambition and work ethic weren’t in short supply. Her experience ranges from managing programs and finances for a company with $30M in assets to serving on an ANCSA board holding co. with over $250M in annual revenue. She’s a founding member of Indemnis and leads business operations, legal, finance divisions, business development and sales, human resources, marketing, customer support, and FAA compliance.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * What Indemnis Inc. does, how their products work, and how those products are making drones safer and more cost-effective * Why Amber keeps daily and weekly goal lists, and how it helps her to focus and accomplish tasks * How Amber’s workweek “flows” through preplanned and scheduled activities, while still staying prepared for the unexpected * What difficulties Amber and Indemnis were forced to face, and how they overcame those challenges * Why Indemnis had to pivot away from their first product focus and come up with a new solution * How Amber approached the difficult conversation of having to redirect her entire team and start over from scratch * What critical skills Amber has found to be the most important for her to develop throughout her career * How mentors have impacted Amber’s career, and what important lessons she learned from her mentors * Which strategies can help business leaders and their teams solve the most complex problems * What areas Amber would advise Onward Nation business owners to focus on to ensure the success of their businesses
Additional resources: * Website: www.indemnis.com
Today we are speaking with Chris Westfall, a sought-after business consultant, communication coach, keynote speaker, and the author, co-author, or publisher of eight books. Advising hundreds of thousands of leaders from high-growth entrepreneurial enterprises, Shark Tank startups, and Fortune 100 companies, he has helped create multi-million-dollar revenue streams for businesses on four continents. He is the U.S. National Elevator Pitch Champion and the author of the new book Leadership Language: Using Authentic Communication to Drive Results (Wiley, 2018). To learn more, visit westfallonline.com.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Chris was recognized as the U.S. National “Elevator Pitch” champion, and how that has translated to his work * Chris explains the building blocks and critical components of an elevator pitch, and how to effectively share your story * How to use “you language” to build universal connections and start powerful conversations * Why “entrepreneur-itis” is a common ailment that keeps you in the engine room of your business rather than steering it from the deck * Why Chris felt driven to write his book “Leadership Language: Using Authentic Communication to Drive Results” * Why Chris defines a client as anyone upon whom your success depends, whether it be your board of directors, your investors, or your spouse * Why “the empty chair” is a seat at the discussion table reserved for your client’s clients * Why anticipation is a super-power, and why “I’ve thought this through” are four incredible words to use throughout your life * How it’s critical to live in the moment, move beyond past experiences to look toward the future * How Chris’s experience with an unexpected mentor impacted his life and changed his outlook on life
Additional resources: * Website: www.westfallonline.com * Youtube: www.youtube.com/westfallonline * Instagram: www.instagram.com/westfallonline * Twitter: @westfallonline * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/westfallonline * Leadership Language by Chris Westfall: https://amzn.to/2D1irz0
Thom King always struggled with his weight before adopting a ketogenic lifestyle. In Guy Gone Keto he details how perseverance and a high-fat, low-carb diet enabled him to drop five waist sizes in a single year. His essential wellness program includes tips for reading and understanding food labels, supportive techniques to make you feel capable and empowered, as well as tasty recipes and easy-to-follow meal plans that will keep you fit and healthy for life.
Thom King is the founder and CEO of Steviva Brands Inc., one of the largest importers, manufacturers, and distributors of natural sweeteners. A self-described “bio hacker,” he has made it his life’s work to study food science and use his knowledge to help people eat healthier, avoid harmful sugars, and maintain diet and exercise habits that defeat metabolic disease. His company, based in Portland, Oregon, derives its name from stevia, the South American plant extract that is calorie-free yet three hundred times sweeter than sugar, and does not contribute to the combination of metabolic diseases that Thom calls “diabesity.”
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * What has been happening with Thom and his business since his previous appearance on Onward Nation in episode 589 * Why Thom decided to write his book “Guy Gone Keto: How to Lose Weight, Feel Great, and Achieve Lifelong Fitness” * Why Thom started living a ketogenic lifestyle, and what changes it brought to his life and wellbeing * Why improved sleep and a corrected sleep cycle have been tremendous benefits Thom has received from his new lifestyle * How liver health can impact all aspects of your life, and how a ketogenic diet can help with liver health * How the ketogenic diet works, what foods are acceptable, and how to properly balance your foods to maintain ketosis * Why the first week is the most difficult, and how you will begin to see changes almost immediately * How balancing your microbiome can help with decision-making, depression and energy levels * Why you should research the real science behind the principles of the ketogenic diet and its benefits * Why shaming yourself–especially body-shaming–is only harmful and why self-acceptance is important
How to contact Thom King: * Guy Gone Keto by Thom King: http://a.co/d/6inAEz1 * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/steviva * Twitter: @thomking * Website: www.iconfoods.com
Having been a leader in motivational and sales training since 1979, Steve Schiffman is a Certified Management Consultant and has trained and consulted to a wide range of corporations including IBM, AT&T, Motorola, Sprint, CIGNA, and a host of other organizations throughout the world. He has also trained over 500,000 professionals in over 9,000 companies.
Millions more have read Steve’s best selling books internationally. Some of his accomplishments include the development of highly pragmatic sales training and management programs that adapt effectively into a broad range of sales environments and industries. All of his training is based upon actual sales experiences and are proven successful. Steve was rated as the number one sales expert in prospecting by Personal Selling Power magazine.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How a desire to work for himself led Steve to start and grow his incredibly successful sales company * Why one of the most important lessons Steve learned is that selling isn’t filling a need, it’s helping people achieve their goals * How necessity forced Steve to let go of his hesitation and scale his business over time * Why Steve wrote his book “Creating Sales Stars: A Guide to Managing the Millennials on Your Team” * Steve shares key takeaways from his book on the importance of instilling motivation in your teams * Why it’s important to be excited about your work, your goals, and your contributions to the business * Why business owners should break their own bad habits and continually reinvent themselves every 5-6 years * What Steve says is the single most crucial skill business owners need to develop to succeed * Why it’s important to take the time to think and reflect on your behavior and goals * Why creativity and experimentation are skills that we should invest the time to develop in ourselves and our teams
How to contact Steve Schiffman: * Website: www.steveschiffman.com * Email: sschiffman@steveschiffman.com * Telephone: (646)341-6947
Janine K. Iannarelli is the founder and president of Par Avion Ltd. She has more than 30 years of business aviation experience representing numerous corporations and private individuals worldwide with the sale and purchase of business aircraft. Par Avion is an aircraft marketing firm that specializes in the exclusive representation and acquisition of aircraft with an emphasis on pre-owned business jets valued upwards of $65,000,000 (USD).
Ms. Iannarelli has extensive experience in cross-border transactions, with nearly 90 percent of Par Avions business concentrated in this area of specialization. The scope of her experience with aircraft sales transactions reaches well beyond the procurement process in that she has in-depth interactions with the OEMs, maintenance facilities and completion centers specific to these aircraft. Ms. Iannarelli also works directly with designated representatives of the Federal Aviation Administration as well as with many other countries civil aviation authorities where she has placed or procured aircraft.
As a sought after mentor and inspirational advisor, she often speaks before women and youth organizations about career development and life skill set necessary to navigate the business world. Ms. Iannarelli routinely serves as a reliable source on business aviation for local, regional, national and international media on a variety of business aviation and small business topics. She is a regular panelist and presenter at industry events that focus on current valuations and trends in the new and preowned global marketplace for aircraft.
Ms. Iannarelli is a passionate supporter of the arts and charities that benefit children and animals.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Janine’s career path led her to the world of business aviation and to founding a $65 million company * How an encounter with a fellow female entrepreneur helped set the stage for Janine’s business success * How Janine’s childhood and upbringing helped her gain a sense of satisfaction for a job well done * What skills Janine feels are crucial for business professionals to develop to manage stress and get ahead * What regular habits and traits Janine developed that helped contribute to her business success * How the 2008 economic recession impacted Janine’s business, and how she overcame the challenges she faced * What service Janine’s business provides, and how the economic downturn created new opportunities * Why Janine’s advice to entrepreneurs is to manage your time well and to trust your intuition * What important lessons Janine learned from her first business mentor and former boss early in her career * Why Janine draws inspiration and insight from Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” and considers it required reading
How to contact Janine Iannarelli: * Website: www.paravionltd.com * Telephone: (713) 681-0075
Good Morning…and welcome to another episode of Onward Nation. I’m Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and your host. If you’ve been listening to Onward Nation for a while now — I’d like to start off with a big thank you.
My team and I appreciate all of your support and all of your feedback. You help us get better each and every day.
And if you’re new to Onward Nation — thank you for joining me. It is great to have you here — and of course I’m biased — but I think you pick a great episode to start off with.
Today’s episode is going to be a solocast — just you and me exploring a topic with some real depth. And the idea for this topic — and actually the ideas for my next several solocasts — came from some feedback from you, Onward Nation.
Some of our listeners reached out and asked me to take the conversation deeper around cornerstone content, what it is, how to create it, and how to monetize it.
So that is what I’m going to do over the next month or so…to help set a practical and tactical foundation around cornerstone content and your thought leadership so you can take it and apply it right away in 2019.
But before we get into the strategy around creating content and how to monetize it – I am going to use today’s solocast to explain why you and your thought leadership cannot afford to be seen as a one trick pony.
Okay — so what do I mean by one trick pony?
Listen to today's episode to find out, and you can find the full show notes here.
Lorraine Ferguson is a dynamic trainer and coach who accelerates growth in companies by focusing on the right behaviors, attitudes and techniques that drive success. Ferguson has brought the Sandler Selling System to hundreds of selling professionals and businesses. Companies and individuals have transformed their business development ability by working with Ferguson.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Lorraine dealt with the difficult challenges of being a woman in the male-dominated sales field * Why Lorraine’s views on sales evolved as she better understood herself and her place in the business world * Why time has made things somewhat better for women in sales roles, and why things need to keep improving * Why Lorraine titled her book “The Unapologetic Saleswoman: Breaking the Barriers, Beating the Odds” * How Lorraine found self-empowerment in finding her voice and being assertive in her role * Why Lorraine believes in the idea of “sell more by caring less” and how it helps her mindset * What takeaways Lorraine wants to share from the contents of her book, and why they’re important * What sort of pushback Lorraine gets from sales professionals, and how she overcomes the objections she hears * Why it’s important to have mutual agreements and be clear on the next step you need to take throughout the sales process * Why you should always go into a sales call with a “pre-call plan”, and why it helps you be prepared and confident
How to contact Lorraine Ferguson: * The Unapologetic Saleswoman by Lorraine Ferguson: http://a.co/d/8THZhkk * Website: www.sandler.com * Email: lorraine@sandler.com
Zachary Beach grew up in central Massachusetts but relocated to Newport, Rhode Island when he graduated from college. After graduating from college, he had no idea what he wanted to do; the only thing he knew was that he didn’t want to be an employee. That word just makes Zach feel trapped. He decided to bartend and become a personal trainer for the time being while he decided what he wanted to do and soon realized that he was burning the candle at both ends, working late nights and early mornings, and he knew there was a better way.
At age 25 Zach decided to jump into the family real estate business. It was one of the first big risks he took in his life. The business at the time was small and nothing was guaranteed. Plus he knew absolutely nothing about real estate and was as green as green could be. Fast forward almost 3 years later and he is a partner and buys all the properties that come through their personal buying and selling entities. He went from bartender to million dollar business owner in just under 3 years.
After their family investment company grew their coaching company began growing as well. Zach now coaches associates and students around the country. Their mission is to empower individuals and families to create the life of their dreams and he believes they are doing just that. At this time they buy and sell roughly 10 plus properties a month around the country.
Biggest Business wins: Zach completed an owner financing deal on a property that is worth over a million dollars. He purchased it for $940,000 with principal only payments of 2500 per month. The house is worth over a million dollars and they have multiple exit strategies that will equal over $200,000 in profits.
Biggest Personal Win: Besides marrying the girl of his dreams and having his beautiful baby boy, Zach was able to buy an amazing home overlooking the water with beach rights on terms. He purchased it on a lease purchase with $5,000 down and is getting $1,000 off the principle every month. This significantly reduces the amount that he will need to bring to the table when he gets a traditional loan.
Biggest Challenge: From the age of 14-20 years old, Zach was either using or addicted to drugs. He lost a best friend, multiple other friends, and a father to drug abuse. He was able to climb out of that hole by feeding his mind and body with positive food. He became very interested in personal development and constantly works on himself. Zach is also a huge advocate for health and fitness and has to work out or be active 5-6 days a week and has built his morning routine around that.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Zachary got involved in real estate by approaching his father-in-law, real estate guru Chris Prefontaine, for advice * Why Zachary had to work even harder because of his father-in-law watching over his shoulder * How Zachary buys and sells properties on “terms”, through owner financing, and “subject to” (and what all those things mean) * How owner financing eliminates the need to go through banks and deal with banking regulations * Example deals that Zachary has closed on, and what advantages for both buyer and seller are built into his methods * Why the number of owner-financed real estate deals is rapidly growing and set to be up to 20% of the market in the near future * Why Zachary’s investment strategies work for many different types of properties and can be used to build a full portfolio * What important skills Zachary suggests you develop to be able to fully implement his real estate strategies * What wisdom Zachary learned from mentors throughout his career, and how it shaped his business management style * Zachary’s advice for business leaders looking to move into investing in the real estate market
How to contact Zachary Beach: * Email: support@smartrealestatecoach.com * Website: www.smartrealestatecoach.com/webinar
Leif and Erin are the co-founders and CEOs of FREY, the modern lifestyle brand shaping the clothing care experience. They began FREY after they attended college and were introduced to the task of doing their laundry and quickly found themselves underwhelmed at the products available for consumers. After months of arduous research, they started a Kickstarter campaign and began filling orders from their basement. Since then FREY has evolved to become much more than detergent and is now a full clothing care line.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why Leif and his brother founded Frey due to being underwhelmed by the laundry products that were available * Why Leif went to Kickstarter to fund his efforts and took an unusual path to growing his business * How starting a business with minimal funding forces you to learn discipline and budget management * How the motivation behind Frey was a mix of the small idea of helping Leif’s friends and the big idea of disrupting the laundry detergent market * How Frey’s marketing is tailored to their target customers rather than trying to attract everyone * Why Frey chose to go with a subscription-based model, and how it has helped grow their business * What vital skills and daily actions Leif developed to keep his business from stagnating * How critical guidance from mentors shaped Leif and his brother’s business knowledge * Why continually talking to customers and getting feedback has been critical to Frey’s success * What factors determine who comprise the most valuable customers, and how Frey tracks that information
How to contact Leif Frey: * Website: www.livefrey.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/leif-frey-76a3b63a
Michael Rosenblum is one of Chicago’s most successful residential real estate brokers, having generated career sales of over $400 million. Nationally, he’s been inducted into the Berkshire Hathaway Hall of Fame and is consistently ranked in the top half, of 1% of 46,000 real estate brokers in the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices network. In a career spanning three decades, Rosenblums collaborative style and integrity have also earned the abiding loyalty and admiration of his clients and colleagues within the industries of media and real estate. Born in Dallas, Texas and raised in the Washington D.C. area, Rosenblum studied business administration at the University of Missouri (Columbia). After graduation, he moved to Chicago to live Happily Ever Always which is the title of his first book.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Michael’s career journey led him from journalism and media sales to the world of real estate * Why Michael chose to name his book “Happily Ever Always” based on living an always-happy life * Why Michael believes that happiness is an entitlement and that positive effects can come from negative experiences * Why people are like mirrors, reflecting positivity and negativity at each other in every interaction * Why Michael wrote “Happily Ever Always” with the intent of sharing his journey and prompting the readers to reflect on their own lives * Why Michael will sometimes tell his clients not to buy a property, despite losing the commission on the sale * How Michael defines “customer service”, and how he works to go the extra mile for his clients * Why “luck = preparation + opportunity”, and why being extraordinary comes from pushing yourself * How excellent customer service can be a competitive edge for your business that sets you apart from the competition * Why it’s important to correct your errors, right your wrongs, think outside the box, and find your gifts
Additional resources: * Website: www.happilyeveralways.com * Book: http://a.co/d/gZw72xy
Maxwell Cohen is currently 27 years old. As founder and CEO of Peel Away Labs, Inc., Maxwell is part of a true entrepreneurial family. All of the Cohen children were expected to have started a business by the time they turned 26. Maxwell started his company while a student at the University of Arizona where in 2013 he earned a B.S. in Environmental and water Resource Economics.
Maxwell is the founder and CEO of Peel Away Labs, the innovative start-up company that developed Peelaways, the bedding industry’s first multilayered, disposable, waterproof fitted sheet designed for the home, industrial and healthcare markets. While attending the University of Arizona, Cohen observed students were not changing their bed sheets because stripping the bed, doing the laundry and remaking the bed were such a hassle. He also noticed his grandparents were struggling to change their own fitted sheet. Realizing this was a challenge for multiple life stages including parents of toddlers, Cohen knew there had to be a better way. As a result, he created the patented solution, Peelaways, enabling consumers or health professionals to simply peel away the top layer to reveal a clean sheet below in seconds.
Today, Cohen has secured major retailers and distributors worldwide, including consumer retailers Walmart, Amazon, BedBathandBeyond.com, BuybuyBaby.com, and Zulily, and hospital distributors Cardinal Health and McKesson. Cohen has also appeared on ABC’s Shark Tank in 2015. Peelaways are now being distributed internationally to address issues such as the water shortage in South Africa.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Maxwell’s family of entrepreneurs encourages its members to start a business by age 27 * Why not landing a deal during his appearance on the TV show “Shark Tank” was the best thing that could have happened for Maxwell’s business * Why Maxwell and his team at Peel Away Labs are on their 32nd product iteration, and why they continue to improve their products * Which daily habits Maxwell practices that have most contributed to his success and his business vision * What skills Maxwell believes are critical for business owners and leaders to master, and what important lessons he learned from his mentors * What systems Maxwell would have put in place earlier if he had it all to do over again * Why the international healthcare markets have been an appealing entry point for Maxwell’s business * What advice and strategies Maxwell would recommend to entrepreneurs just starting out in their business * Why you need to surround yourself with a team that shares in your vision for your business * Why it’s important to raise capital by finding the “right” investors within your community
Ways to contact Maxwell: * Website: www.peelaways.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/maxwell-cohen-10862836
Christine Comaford is sought after for providing proven strategies to shift executive behavior to create more positive outcomes, enroll and align teams in times of change, profoundly increase sales, product offerings, and company value. Her coaching, consulting and strategies have created hundreds of billions of dollars in new revenue and company value for her clients.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * What has been happening in Christine’s business since her last appearance on Onward Nation in episode #579 * How to completely change your mindset from feeling overwhelmed to feeling empowered with Christine’s maneuvers of consciousness, in just twelve minutes * How Christine’s mother was able to reframe her leukemia as something to be grateful for before she passed * Important lessons from Christine’s new book “Power Your Tribe: Create Resilient Teams in Turbulent Times” * Why we all have the right to exist, to have needs, to take action, to have consequences for our actions, and to love and be loved * Why Christine defines the word “success” as the choice to determine how she spends her time and energy * Why the ability to decide whether or not to work with a client is important to Christine * How Christine and her team have developed a “recipe” for book launches that works on a systemic level * How the word “CURVE” holds the key to engaging people with your work and successfully promoting yourself * How tying all of Christine’s wisdom together can help you turn a group into a cohesive tribe
Ways to contact Christine: * Website: www.workwithsti.com * Website: https://smarttribesinstitute.com/
Resources: * Emotion Wheel * STI Quick Reference Guide * STI Maneuvers of Consciousness * STI Organismic Rights * STI Reframing
Cheryl Bachelder is a passionate, purpose-led business leader — the former CEO of Popeyes® Louisiana Kitchen, Inc. Cheryl is known for her crisp strategic thinking, a franchisee-focused approach, and superior financial performance. Guided by the servant leadership thinking of Robert Greenleaf, she believes highly caring, collaborative leaders with big ambitions for the enterprise, not themselves, generate the conditions for people to perform their best work.
Cheryl served as CEO of Popeyes® Louisiana Kitchen, Inc., a NASDAQ traded company with over 2,600 restaurants in 26 countries, from 2007 to 2017. The story of Popeyes success is chronicled in her book, Dare to Serve: How to drive superior results by serving others. During her tenure, Popeyes stock price grew from $11 to $61, at which time the board sold the company to Restaurant Brands International Inc. for $1.8 billion dollars or $79 per share in March 2017.
Cheryls earlier career included brand leadership roles at Yum Brands, Dominos Pizza, RJR Nabisco, The Gillette Company and Procter & Gamble.
Cheryl is a director and compensation committee chair at Pier 1 Imports, Inc. (PIR). She sits on the advisory board of Procter & Gamble’s franchising venture, Tide Dry Cleaners. She is a member of C200, an organization that fosters, celebrates and advances women’s leadership in business.
Cheryl holds a Bachelors and Masters of Business Administration degree from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. She is married 36 years to Chris Bachelder and they have three grown daughters, two terrific sons-in-law, and three handsome grandsons. Cheryl and Chris reside in Atlanta, Georgia and attend Buckhead Church. They are avid learners, fans of the classical education movement, and can always be found reading a good book!
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Cheryl’s career path and personal life have bought her many fantastic leadership opportunities * Why Cheryl wanted to demonstrate an example of clear, competitive marketplace performance during her time leading Popeyes * Why Cheryl chose to title her book “Dare to Serve: How to Drive Superior Results by Serving Others” * Why tracking the P&L figures of Popeye’s franchisees was a critical change Cheryl made that helped rebuild trust * How the changes Cheryl spearheaded helped Popeyes restaurants increase their sales by an average of 45% * What lessons from Cheryl’s book “Dare to Serve” are the biggest takeaways that business owners can learn from * Why it’s important to ask yourself “why do I lead?” and to answer the question honestly * Why the biggest legacy of Cheryl’s time at Popeyes lies in the development of future leaders * Why clear communication and talent management were major pillar of growth for the Popeyes organization during Cheryl’s tenure as CEO * Why human dignity is a deep belief Cheryl holds, and why she feels your deep beliefs should be reflected in your work
Additional resources: * Website: www.cherylbachelder.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cherylb * Twitter: @CABachelder * Dare to Serve by Cheryl Bachelder: http://a.co/d/7wzfB0Y * Derailed by Tim Irwin: http://a.co/d/2jduELd
Sarah Noked is an MBA graduate, Certified Online Business Manager and Digital Marketing Strategist with more than 10 years business experience in the online world. With her stellar team of OBMs, they help their clients stay on track for growth and development. They do this by managing their projects, teams, operations, automation, and launches. In turn, their clients gain the much needed time to focus on their big picture, revenue-generating ideas. Everyone wins!
When she’s not working in the agency and with 6 to 7 figure entrepreneurs scaling their businesses, she’s helping other VAs and OBMs realize their worth and potential to scale and grow profitable teams and businesses. As a Certified OBM Trainer, Sarah trains and certifies fellow OBMs in the online business industry.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How family and a desire for flexibility were the catalyst for Sarah’s decision to leave her corporate job to become an online business manager * How Sarah describes the role of an OBM and the value the position provides to entrepreneurs in streamlining and scaling their business * What strategies and methods Sarah and her team use to help business owners scale their business… without scaling their work hours * How Sarah’s team manages product launches, handles SEO and advertising, and other tasks to minimize day-to-day operation headaches * Why efficiency is one of the key aspects an OBM works on to improve the smooth operation of the business * What daily habits have most benefited Sarah and contributed to her career success * Why project management software can be a powerful efficiency and communication tool to coordinate your teams * Why having a clear vision is the vitally important foundation an entrepreneur needs to create a successful organization * What key lesson Sarah learned from a former client that reshaped her business philosophies * What advice Sarah would offer to business owners looking to maximize efficiency and minimize day-to-day effort
Ways to contact Sarah: * Free Resources from Predictive ROI: www.predictiveroi.com/resources/ * Website: www.sarahnoked.com/onward/
Kwame Christian, Esq., M.A. is a business lawyer and the Director of the American Negotiation Institute where he puts on workshops designed to make difficult conversations easier. As an attorney and mediator with a bachelor of arts in Psychology, a Master of Public Policy, and a law degree, Kwame brings a unique multidisciplinary approach to the topic of conflict management and negotiation.
His TEDx Talk, Finding Confidence in Conflict, was viewed over 24,000 times in 24 hours and was the most popular TED Talk on the topic of conflict of 2017. He also hosts the top negotiation podcast in the country, Negotiate Anything. The show has been downloaded over 350,000 times, has listeners in 181 different countries.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Kwame’s passion lies in psychology, self-awareness and understanding others, and how that relates to the business world * Why people are sometimes cognitively incapable of understanding your perspective, and how you can work around those barriers * Why someone’s professionalism often masks the fact that you’re really negotiating with their “inner toddler” * Why the three-part key to negotiating is to acknowledge emotions, show compassionate curiosity, and share in joint problem solving * Examples of how to implement Kwame’s three-part strategy to diffuse a difficult conversation * How to get a free copy of Kwame’s 18-page negotiation guide, covering topics like negotiation preparation, conflict negotiation and salary negotiation * Kwame shares wisdom from his book “Nobody Will Play With Me: How To Use Compassionate Curiosity to Find Confidence in Conflict” * What the most powerful business lesson Kwame learned was, and why he considers himself a “recovering people pleaser” * Why an unhappy experience at six years old shaped Kwame’s need for friendship and conflict avoidance when he was older * What advice Kwame would share with others looking to improve their confidence and become better ant difficult conversations
Ways to contact Kwame: * Free Resources from Predictive ROI: www.predictiveroi.com/resources/ * Nobody Will Play With Me by Kwame Christian: http://a.co/d/hqEIEcB * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kwamechristian * Website: www.americannegotiationinstitute.com
Evan Hackel is the creator of the concept and the author of “Ingaging Leadership”. He’s a successful business owner who has started more than 10 companies and is recognized as a thought leader, speaker, and author on leadership. One of his signature achievements was turning around a bankrupt business in four years and more than doubling system-wide sales to exceed $2 billion. He is also Founder and Principal of Ingage Consulting, a consulting firm headquartered in Woburn, Massachusetts.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why Evan lives a “portfolio life”, and how he strives to positively add to the businesses he works with * What Evan has been working on since his last visit to the Onward Nation podcast in episode #585 * Why the theme of Evan’s upcoming franchise executive conference is “Rethink Everything”, and how that can apply to businesses of all types * How technological advances will completely alter the world of business and the way customers interact with companies * Why retailers must change their thinking to remain relevant in the age of in-home purchasing * Why the divide between urban and rural lifestyles will only grow exponentially in the future * How Evan defines success, and why economic bounty isn’t necessarily the right measure to determine success * Why fear is the most powerful motivator, and why complacency is the biggest risk businesses have to deal with * Why today’s barrier of entry for new businesses is lower than it has historically ever been before * Why it’s easy to miss what’s right in front of you, and why it’s critical to get an outside perspective
Ways to contact Evan: * Website: www.ingage.net * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/evanhackel * Twitter: @ehackel
Bryan Miles is CEO & co-founder of BELAY. A leading US-based, virtual solutions company, BELAY has over six hundred team members all working from home, remotely. BELAY has graced the Inc. 5000 list three times and was awarded the number one spot in Entrepreneur Magazine’s Best Company Culture. BELAY provides virtual assistants, bookkeeping, copywriting, and webmaster services to leaders and fast-paced organizations. BELAY’s services equip leaders and organizations with the ability to climb higher when and where they need it most. BELAY’s vision is to help clients achieve their vision.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The book that helped Bryan begin his journey toward becoming an entrepreneur even after he initially thought his chance had passed him by. * How a conversation with his wife about what he had in mind had her deciding to take the leap with him. * Why Bryan believed the combination of her experience at executing plans with his vision would make them a powerful team. * The importance of working to your strengths and how Bryan and his wife understand their strengths and divide their responsibilities accordingly. * Why delegating the tasks you’re not accomplished with can be the best possible solution for your business. * Why Bryan believes it’s important never to lose sight of people. They are the ones who build his business, who his business serves, and he feels it’s his responsibility, perhaps even purpose, to care for those people. * The role faith plays in the way Bryan runs Belay and why he feels it’s so important to him to be led by his beliefs and his faith. * Why the statement “You stand for something or you fall for everything,” has special meaning to Bryan. * What Bryan is doing that has helped Belay, a company that has only been in business for eight years, make the Inc. 5,000 list for four years in a row. * The daily habits Bryan believes are essential for his success in life and in business. * What Bryan believes is the greatest thing he and his wife (who is also his business partner) can give their children. This one might not be what you expect.
Ways to contact Bryan: * Website: www.belaysolutions.com * Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bryanmiles/
Joyce Bone, MBA equips other achievers in skyrocketing their financial results through her guidance as a speaker, podcast host of the Anxiety-Free Selling show, author of Millionaire Moms, sales coach and business consultant. She is also active in real estate as both an investor and licensed agent.
At age 28 as a former stay-at-home mom, Joyce co-founded and led EarthCare, an environmental company traded on NASDAQ achieving $125 million annual revenues. She has raised over $65 million dollars and has pitched investors nationally and internationally including Sweden, India and Canada. Since that time, she has successfully helped other companies and individuals learn to influence and sell in a more productive and empowering way.
Past clients range from Fortune 500s to, “Eat What You Kill” (1099) sales professionals in the real estate, financial services, insurance, mortgage, and direct marketing sectors, to small business owners including IT and CPG companies.
As an entrepreneur, she is nationally recognized for her business acumen. Featured on CNBC’s The Squawk Box, and in Kiplinger, Money, Woman’s Day, Forbes, Atlanta Business Chronicle, and a host of other media outlets, Joyce is who the media often turn to for sound business advice.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How it all got started for Joyce with a bottle of Tide. How that moment made her decide to change the financial story for her family. * The way Joyce’s childhood experiences shaped her drive and determination to provide more for her family. * The importance of overcoming obstacles and how Joyce overcame what she perceived as her first obstacle as she launched her business. * How one little tweak in her mindset, the way she viewed obstacles, changed the course of her life and how it affects all entrepreneurs as they begin their journeys. * The aggressive goal Joyce set for herself by the time she was 30 (and she was only 28 when the bottle of Tide was out of reach) and how that goal shaped the type of business she’d have to create. * The importance of a lunch meeting with her former boss and how an idea was born out of that meeting (and a partner made)! * Why Joyce believed that buying up smaller companies to form a larger company and then going public would be her ticket to the aggressive goal she set for herself. * Roadblocks and obstacles Joyce faced along the way that redirected and refocused her efforts. * Why Joyce firmly believes you don’t have to know everything to start. You just have to start and then move forward. * Why it’s easier to sell people your dream and raise money when you’re talking to people who understand the industry you’re working in. * The importance of mentors and continuous self-improvement and the people who have helped Joyce along the way. And how some mentors can teach you from afar.
Ways to contact Joyce: * Website: www.joycebone.com * Email: joyce@joycebone.com
Our special encore guest today is Michael Stallard. Michael is a former Wall Street executive who left the Street 15 years ago to found the Connection Culture Group, a leadership training firm and focuses on improving workplace cultures. He’s a keynote speaker and expert on how effective leaders boost human connection in cultures to improve the health and performance of individuals and organizations. Michael is also the author of two books, “Connection Culture” and “Fired Up or Burned Out.” Now…you may remember Michael and the wisdom he shared during Episode 794 of Onward Nation. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during his previous interview…I highly encourage you to add Episode 794 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * What’s new with Michael and his business since he last joined us 6 months ago * Insight into what Michael and his team teach leaders about culture when they work with a company * The new e-course Michael is developing: how it brings people together in collaboration and what you can expect from the course * Michael’s definition of culture in the workplace, and why it boils down to thoughts, words, and deeds- how these three things can make happier, better employees * How humans are hardwired to connect, making connection a superpower for a leader in a business * What the predominant mindset of Wall Street is and why it’s so harmful and counterproductive * Best practices for creating a connection culture in your business * The vision, value, and voice of the band U2, and how that’s a great example of a connection culture * Strategies Alan Mulally used to create a connection culture and turn things around at Ford * What displacement aggression is and how it can ruin a whole culture from the top down * The five unique benefits of connection within an organization as well as how disconnection undermines performance * How to identify leaders in your organization who are good at connecting * Examples of the thoughts, words, and deeds powerful leaders use to create a connection
Ways to contact Michael: * Email: Mike@connectionculture.com * Website: Connectionculture.com
In the fifth grade, Robert Rose’s teacher sent him home with a note that said Robert likes to tell stories. Well, as it turns out, she was right. Robert is the founder and Chief Strategy Officer of The Content Advisory, the consulting and advisory group of The Content Marketing Institute. Robert has been helping marketers tell their story more effectively through digital media for more than 20 years. Over the last five years, Robert has worked with more than 500 companies of all sizes, including 15 of the Fortune 100. Hes provided strategic marketing advice and counsel for global brands such as Capital One, Dell, Ernst & Young, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and UPS.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The strategy Robert came up with to win when he was part of a startup competing against big companies like Microsoft * What Robert did to become successful and build up Content Marketing Institute to where it is today, helping major companies get things done * How Robert views work and marketing and how that sets him apart from others in his field * Ways marketing has changed over the last 18 years because of consumers, and how Robert based his book, ”Killing Marketing: How Innovative Businesses Are Turning Marketing Cost Into Profit” on this change * Traditional marketing- how it is based on an efficiency model, and how it differs from a new marketing strategy that giants like Amazon, Netflix, and Apple are using * An example explaining why it might be better to create your own audience than to find an audience through a platform like Facebook * Why it’s so much more valuable to have direct access to your customers, and how Robert can help you do that * How Red Bull is actually a media company that happens to sell energy drinks, and how this helps their sales * What Terminus did to be a media company and give their brand value * Practical steps you can take to build a media company within your overall company * The biggest mistake Robert sees both small and large companies make and what you can do to avoid making that same mistake * Why you need to focus on optimizing specific areas of your business, and why it doesn’t work to try to do everything at once * One of the most important things you can do when finding your audience, and why it’s one of the hardest things to do, too
Ways to contact Robert: * Website: Robertrose.net
Daniel Gefen is the founder of Gefen Media Group — a done-for-you podcast booking service that helps inspiring authors sell more books by getting them booked as guests on relevant podcasts. He’s the best-selling author of The Self Help Addict and the top-rated podcast host of The Daniel Gefen Show and Can I Pick Your Brain. Daniel has been featured in major publications including Forbes and Inc. and has been a guest on over 50 podcasts.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Daniel’s childhood and how his time in school often felt like a prison sentence where he couldn’t be himself and how that transitioned into his early jobs in adulthood. * How not fitting into the usual boxes was a hindrance to Daniel in school and when working for others, but how his unique personality helped him excel as an entrepreneur. * Why going into business for himself didn’t quite live up to Daniel’s expectations at first * He didn’t get the freedom he expected. * The best move Daniel believes he’s made in his business and why it was so important for him. * Why it is so important for you to know what your strengths are in business and play to those strengths while finding the right people to manage the other aspects of your business. * How boredom played a role in taking his business to the next step. Once Daniel automated his original business idea to the point where he was barely needed, he had too much time on his hand and began developing new ideas. * Podcasting. How Daniel fell in love with the microphone from day one and how that created new opportunities through Podcasting two shows of his own and then into creating Gefen Media Group. * What Gefen Media Group does in helping people produce podcasts and matching up guests with podcasts in search of them. * The reason no one inspires Daniel the way his grandfather did because of his dedication to serving others. * Why Daniel believes it’s so important to become a better listener in business and in life.
Ways to contact Daniel: * Website: http://www.danielgefen.com/
Elise Keith is the founder and meeting maven for Lucid Meetings — an online meeting platform that helps teams run highly productive meetings. She’s also the best-selling author of Where the Action Is: The Meetings That Make or Break Your Organization.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Elise began her career in business and the fortuitous twists and turns that led her to where she is now. * Why Elise was motivated to strike out on her own after observing far too much discord and dysfunction in the company she initially worked with. * Elise’s observations about the structure of larger companies for making decisions and her decision to create a product that would help smaller companies structure meetings so that they could make the transition from concept to reality without the drama and dysfunction that was prevalent in her own organization. * The things people need to bring into meetings to solve problems and move forward: intentionality, purpose, structure. And how having a system aided in that. * The importance of following a process when conducting meetings, including having rules that work for your organization. * How Amazon conducts meeting sand why it works for them. Not to mention how similar rules might work for other organizations. * The way your business conducts meetings reflects on your entire operation. When you get things done in your meetings, prospective clients notice. * Why meetings need structure and not just a set of rules or a code of conduct to follow. Structure can be anything from “icebreakers” to moments of silence before getting into the meat and potatoes of the meeting. * The three main components of the meeting operation system: performance criteria, meeting flow models, and support. * The importance of measuring meeting results. If your meetings aren’t productive, the way you’re conducting meetings has to change. But, how do you measure the results? * Why you need to know, going into the meeting, what kind of meeting it is or what kind of meeting you need to schedule.
Ways to contact Elise: * Website: www.LucidMeetings.com * Email: Elise@LucidMeetings.com
John Fairclough is the President and Founder of The Resicom Group which helps retailers optimize the way they improve and maintain their store environment. Under his leadership, the company has evolved from a local construction company into an international provider of facility maintenance and construction services. Now John enjoys sharing his story to inspire others.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The important role John believes the resilience he learned as a child has had on the business leader he has become. * The strength that comes from difficult times often shapes the business leaders and how that has helped John persevere when many other leaders crash and burn. * How seeing a need for businesses created a niche that John was able to fill with his company and run with on a widescale level. * Why John believes it’s important to be useful to clients on a broader scale and how that sets his business apart from so many others. * John’s belief that it’s just as easy to plan for one project with the same organization as it is to plan for 1000 and why he isn’t interested in one and done projects at this point in his business. * Avoiding distractions. Why that is so important for keeping your business focus and not chasing revenue for revenue’s sake but only doing so when it falls within the scope and scale of what your business does. * How John went from living in his car to founding a company that employs 80 people within six and a half years. * The right size for a business is what it can properly manage. The hard way John learned that lesson and what it has meant for him and the way he does business today. * The importance of having the right team around you and why you sometimes need to simplify the process to move forward sometimes. * Why John believes it is sometimes necessary to walk away from the business that grew your business in order for your business to grow further.
Ways to contact John: * Email: John@JohnCloud.com
Our special encore guest today is Sue Hawkes. Sue’s first interview aired as Episode 826 just a few weeks ago. And I typically don’t invite a guest back for an encore so quickly — but — during our post-interview chat — I knew I had to invite Sue to come back right away because our first discussion was so helpful and off-the-charts amazing. We dug into imposter syndrome, how it creeps in, and how we as business owners tend to chase perfection — and on the surface — that’s fine and dandy — but we also need to realize that perfection is just an illusion and there are some keys to maximizing success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why Sue believes that business leaders gain incredible freedom once they’ve reached a place of internal peace and unshakable excellence. * The stepping stones to becoming the type of leader that has that peace and confidence that comes with excellence. * Imposter syndrome. What it is and why Sue believes it is how you respond to it when it shows up that defines you as a leader. * Why Sue believes that chasing perfection is such a waste of time for entrepreneurs. * What is EOS, entrepreneur operating system, and why Sue believes that every entrepreneur needs some sort of operating system in place as it allows you to control your business rather than being controlled by your business. * Maintaining sanity with “clarity breaks.” All leaders need time to sit, think, and expand their minds and visions. * Why these clarity breaks are really helpful even though it goes against everything that’s instinctive to promote your business – especially for people who are “doers” by nature. * Different types of sanity breaks that have been effective for others and why it’s important to find your own. One that feeds your mind and soul. * The staggering number of things that are on our minds at any given time and how simplifying those things free up our minds to focus on the most critical problems – and what an operating system has to do with that. * The three things Sue does for companies she works with: vision, traction, and health. Plus, why these things are so important for growth and success. * Why Sue’s book isn’t meant to be read through in one sitting and how she intends it to be used instead.
Ways to contact Sue: * www.sayyess.com * www.chasingperfection.net
Good Morning, Onward Nation — it’s Saturday, December 1, 2018 as I sit down to record this solocast. And I have to say — I’m so fired up for 2019 to get here. I’m fired up because for the first time in Predictive ROI’s history — we have given the coming year a theme and are building a strategy around that theme.
2019 is going to be the year of “Doubling Down” at Predictive ROI.
So I’m going to do something in today’s solocast that I have never done before. I’m going to take you way, way, way behind the curtain at Predictive to share how we’re going to Double Down in 2019.
But to be clear — this solocast is not a Predictive ROI commercial. Instead, I’m going to share insights into our plans, our concerns, our vulnerabilities, where we think we can be more helpful, and our strategy so you can take this episode and perhaps the lessons we have learned along the way might also be helpful to your team, too.
More specifically…I will take you inside how we’re doubling down on:
- Being helpful to you, Onward Nation
- Being helpful to our clients
- Building and investing in our team
- Our offering at Predictive ROI
- Our ability to share our story
- Revenue and reinvestment back into the business
After you listen to the solocast, please remember that we all have the same 86,400 seconds in a day. Our time here is a gift from God. How you use your time – how you apply your abundance of gifts and talent is your gift back to God.
So make 2019 the year you double down on your intensity and the abundance will be around the corner.
Make 2019 your year – the year you Double Down!
Brett Gilliland is Co-Founder and CEO of Elite Entrepreneurs, which specializes in helping 7-figure business owners with the knowledge, tools, and processes they need grow to $10 million and beyond. He’s an expert in organization development, leadership, and strategy and spent 10 years helping Infusionsoft grow from $7 million in annual revenue to over $100 million. One of Brett’s favorite professional accomplishments is co-creating Infusionsoft’s Elite Forum alongside CEO Clate Mask and building the Elite business.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Only three percent of businesses ever make it to the million dollar mark for revenue. It helps when you begin that business within the safety of another business. * Why Brett decided to “spin out” Elite from InfusionSoft and how he believes it has helped Elite grow exponentially. * The “value ladder.” What it is, the strategy behind it, and how the “slices” stack up. * Building a customer acquisition machine and how Brett had to do it after the fact when Elite spun out from InfusionSoft. * What is Elite Forum and how that transitioned to the need for Elite Momentum and why it matters for the clients Brett serves. * Why it’s important for entrepreneurs to ask the following questions: “How can we provide more accountability? How can we offer more value? How can we be helpful at this level – and the next?” And then listen to the answers. * Why Brett has so much respect for businesses that have built from the ground up without the safety net of a larger organization like InfusionSoft. * Brett’s advice to entrepreneurs just getting started in creating a business. * What it means to be intentional when beginning a company and why it’s so important. * Why Brett believes it’s important to become the leader of your business so that you’re running your business rather than being run by your business.
Ways to contact Brett: * Website: www.growwithelite.com * Email: Brett@growwithelite.com
Emily Hirsh is an industry-leading Facebook ad manager and sales funnel strategist who has built an expert team of top-level professionals to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses using proven social media sales strategies and creativity that converts.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How a simple task as a virtual career path become the inspiration for a lucrative and satisfying career path. * Emily’s path from loading Facebook ads for VA clients to running her own team of 24 people who run the ads for her. * The way Emily’s business grew after hiring the first person to help, and then the second, and how she developed a process for teaching others to perform the tasks required, a system she calls the “Hirsh Process.” * Why Emily decided to take the time to create a course outlining and training others to do what she does intuitively and how this “conveyer belt” strategy has helped her business grow. * The difference when you’re representing yourself to clients and when you’re training others to represent you to your clients and why that distinction is important when creating training materials. * Emily’s ideal client and why it’s important for entrepreneurs to understand who their ideal clients are and how choosing someone who isn’t right for your business can be bad for your business and the client. * Why Emily believes it’s hard, but sometimes necessary to say “no” to clients who simply aren’t ready for the services she has to offer and can’t get the full benefit of what she has to offer. * Facebook and Instagram. Why these are the two platforms that deliver the best results for Emily’s style and why she loves them. * Tracking progress. Why Emily’s team tracks results at all stages of the funnel to help identify strengths and weaknesses and improve results all around. * The importance of having a plan before going live with a campaign and why Emily warns against proceeding as an entrepreneur without one. * What they are and why Emily dislikes “Like” campaigns. * The most critical skill Emily believes to develop for high-level results in your business and in your campaigns. * The importance of doing one thing well and building on that instead of 20 mediocre things.
Ways to contact Emily: * Website: http://www.emilyhirsh.com/
Gary Melling is the President and CEO of Acquired Insights, which is an artificial intelligence and machine learning company bringing new and disruptive, cross-industry, cross-functional solutions to market. His expertise has been referenced by organizations and clients such as NASA and the US Federal Reserve Bank. Gary has over 40-years of experience working in classified military defense systems, global enterprise management consulting, corporate transformations and turnarounds, business systems integration, and predictive analytics.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How growing up in a military family taught Gary to embrace change and prepared him to be a leader * The background and future of artificial intelligence and how it’s disrupting a lot of businesses and industries * An example of how predictive analytics, a type of artificial intelligence, is changing healthcare and helping children with cancer have better chances * The aspect of his job that makes Gary excited to go to work every day * Why the world of artificial intelligence is still considered the wild wild west, and where Gary sees it going in the future * How we all have robots in our homes and everyday lives without even realizing it, and what that says about the evolution of technology and artificial intelligence * Where technology is headed in the future and how it can make every aspect of our lives better * The future of human jobs with such an increase in artificial intelligence and the role of ethics management in Gary’s company * Reasons North America is behind other areas of the world when it comes to humanoid robotics * Why new, innovative products often aren’t heavily regulated and whether that’s a good thing or not * Ethical and moral considerations when dealing with developing artificial intelligence
Ways to contact Gary: * Website: https://www.aiinc.cloud/ * Phone number: 1-800-627-4151
Mike Banks is the COO of Fund & Grow, providing financial and strategic advisory services to business owners and real estate investors. They help their clients obtain unsecured funding with creative 0% interest business credit lines. Fund & Grow handles all of the time-consuming work of establishing and building business credit for their clients, including developing new financial relationships, as well as structuring all legal agreements and authorizations required before beginning the credit building process.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why Mike stopped going to college and got started with Fund&Grow * How Mike has personally benefited from Fund&Grow, giving him the confidence to get started in real estate * The way business credit works and why you should avoid using personal credit for your business * Examples of ways you can use Fund&Grow for your business * Repairing your credit if you need to get it higher in order to use Fund&Grow’s services * Benefits you’ll get, including big savings, if you check out Mike’s webinar * Strategies you can use to get a loan with more money at a lower interest rate * How to manage your business loans to keep them zero interest for as long as possible * The things Mike will look at for you if you get a free Fund&Grow consultation, and the type of advice they will give you to prepare you for their services * Why it’s okay to max out your credit cards, but what you should be doing with the balance to help your credit score * Various aspects of your credit and what plays into your credit score, including things you could be doing that aren’t “bad,” but are negatively affecting your credit score * The danger of using a no limit flexible spending credit card * Common errors on credit reports that can be fixed to improve your score * An insider tip to help you grow your business to the next level
Ways to contact Mike: * Email: mike.banks@fundandgrow.com
Our special encore guest today is Justin Copie. Justin is the CEO of Innovative Solutions and is leading a bold move forward — instilling growth in employees and inspiring change well beyond the four walls of Innovative. Yes…the 80 people working at Innovative don’t work for him — he works for them. As CEO and leader, Justin provides safety and direction, safety in voicing opinions, trying new things, failing, and direction in where to go on the path to success. Now…you may remember Justin and the wisdom he shared during Episode 584 of Onward Nation. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during his previous interview…I highly encourage you to add Episode 584 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Justin, as CEO, works for his employees, rather than the other way around, and what he does to create a positive working environment * Principles for success Justin follows himself and teaches to his employees * The way Justin navigated the most challenging professional experience of his career, and what the results have been so far * Where Justin gets his courage and inspiration from to make bold moves in business * Justin’s unique philosophy on business and ways he has improved his business and his employees’ productivity based on this philosophy * Takeaways Justin got from Zappos Culture Camp and why he decided to attend in the first place * Ways that Justin mixes employee satisfaction with productivity to benefit both employees and customers * A story about the passing of Justin’s friend’s father that illustrates what Justin believes to be true success * What Justin means when he says fear is like a muscle and how understanding this premise can make you a great business owner * Secrets behind recruiting and retaining quality talent for your business, and what sets A players apart from others * Why Justin allows startups to share his company’s office for free * Strategies to help you get past your plateau and on to the next level in your business
Ways to contact Justin: * Website: http://www.innovativesol.com/ * Twitter: @InnovativeSol * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/innovative-solutions/
Dr. Larry Senn is a pioneer in the field of corporate culture, having conducted the world’s first research on corporate culture in 1970. As chairman and founder of Senn Delaney, a global transformational and culture-shaping organization, Larry has been on a mission to make “culture shaping” an everyday practice of companies around the world. Larry is also the best-selling author of several books, including, 21st Century Leadership, Winning Team Winning Cultures, and most recently The Mood Elevator.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How people are greatly influenced by significant adult figures in their lives and who first influenced Larry. * Larry’s first entrepreneurial efforts and how they worked for him through school and then through college. * The reason Larry compares many companies to dysfunctional families (with turf wars, politics, and trust issues). * Larry’s connection to Walmart and its founder who envisioned bringing low-priced consumer goods to rural America. * Why leaders have obligations to become their best selves. Hint! It has something to do with organizations becoming shadows of their leaders. * How Larry developed a passion for helping companies develop a company culture. * What it means to operate as an effective entrepreneur and why Larry believes it means operating lean, with few inefficiencies or redundancies. * Why Larry chose “culture shaping” as his career and why it’s so important for businesses. * Curiosity vs. judgment and why curiosity can help transform the way you approach problems or challenges in life and in business. * Mood elevators and what they have to do with the way you respond to issues you address throughout the day. * How riding the mood elevator influences everything in your life from your relationships to your personal effectiveness and even your professional success. * How you can reduce the frequency with which you visit the lower floors of your mood elevator and to spend more time moving up.
Ways to contact Larry: * Larry@themoodelevator.com
Danny Schuman is a writer, marketer, entrepreneur, and president of the marketing consultancy, Twist, which specializes in brand marketing as well as product and service innovation. Before starting Twist, Danny wrote and directed marketing campaigns that helped build iconic brands like Quaker Oatmeal, Coors Light, and Gatorade. His bestselling book “The Worst Business Model in the World: A New Kind of Guide for a New Kind of Entrepreneur” is available on Amazon.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How the big economic downturn of 2008 launched a new adventure for Danny. * How crumbs from agencies Danny worked with in his corporate career become the dough for his business when he created Twist. * Why Danny believes the economic downtime was actually the perfect time to go out on his own when conventional wisdom suggests otherwise. Hint! The numbers support him. * Why Danny continues to operate on a “startup” model even though Twist has been in business for 10 years now. * How Danny came up with the title of his book. Why he almost changed it. And why he ultimately decided to keep it. * Danny’s belief that each new project is an opportunity to solve a different problem and why that appeals to him. * Danny’s belief that it’s more important to shift the focus to making friends rather than making money and how by developing those relationships with friends, you’re essentially creating a network that will help you make even more money in the end. * Why Danny doesn’t prepare for meetings. And, why he thinks you shouldn’t prepare for them either. Hint! It’s more about listening than talking. * What Danny believes is the most critical skill business owners need to master for success in today’s highly competitive marketplace. * The most influential lesson Danny has learned from a mentor and how that lesson has shaped the way he operates his business. Not to mention his bottom line. * Who Susie is and how creative types of business owners need a Susie in their lives and how more business oriented business owners need someone more creative to help with their businesses. It all goes back to that important lesson Danny learned from his mentor.
Ways to contact Danny: * Website: www.TwistYourThinking.com
Jared Nichols is a futurist, advisor, and faculty member at the University of Tennessee’s Haslam College of Business, in Graduate and Executive Education. He is the founder of The Foresight Academy where he teaches leaders, teams, and individuals, how to think like futurists so they can create the best future possible, for themselves and the people they serve. Jared is sought out by leaders, organizations, and entrepreneurs to help them identify how emerging trends in technology, media, business, and public policy, may fundamentally change society and shape the future.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Jared responded when he came to a crossroad in his life and in his business. * The way Jared was able to reach and teach more people by leveraging the tools and technology available to him. * What Jared meant when he described himself as feeling misaligned in what he was doing before and what it took to realign him and his mission. * Authenticity. Why Jared believes it’s so important to help you understand your motivations and get them across to others. * Clarity. Why Jared believes it doesn’t matter what kind of people you want to serve, what industries you want to reach, or who you’re trying to connect with. Clarity is the most important thing you need to have about who you are and how that translates into the business you’re working in. * Why having the right mentor and the right coach can sometimes help you cut through the noise to help you sort that out and find the clarity you require. * Identifying the mission became Jared’s first priority. Once he did that, he was able to shift focus to leveraging technology to reach more people for the sake of his mission. * What a “futurist” is and how thinking like one can help teams create their best possible futures. * How Jared came up with the idea for the Foresight Academy and what students will learn through the 12-week program. * Jared’s four Cs. Conscious. Curious. Creative. Collaborative. * Why Jared believes it’s essential to challenge the norms by asking better questions, like what “else” might be possible. * Why Jared includes a call to action in each part of his course and why he thinks giving students “quick wins” is so important. * Jared’s belief that what you think about the future is far less important, in the grand scheme of things, than HOW you think about the future.
Ways to contact Jared: * jared@thenewfuturist.com
Sue Hawkes helps CEOs and their leadership teams succeed. As a bestselling author, keynote speaker, and globally recognized, award-winning seminar leader, she brings over 25-years of experience to her clients. She is CEO of YESS!, founder of Ideal Coaching international, Inc., and has designed and delivered programs for thousands of people. Her most recent book, Chasing Perfection: Shatter the Illusion, Minimize Self-Doubt, & Maximize Success, is available now.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why Sue believes you’re either learning or winning in business and what that means in the grand scale of things. * Overcoming imposter syndrome and why it’s so important to do just that. * Why Sue believes it’s important for business owners to get what they want out of their businesses rather than feeling chained to their businesses. Hint! It can cause resentment toward the business. Even leading to fantasies of being employed. * The importance of being self-aware and understand what we’re not good at, as entrepreneurs because that’s the only way we’re going to solve the problems we create. * Why Sue decided on this title for her book: Chasing Perfection: Shatter the Illusion, Minimize Self-Doubt & Maximize Success. * The fact that nearly 80 percent of leaders have moments of excruciating self-doubt. It’s normal. It may even be essential for good leadership. The ones who never experience it are the one’s Sue believes you need to worry about. * Why Sue believes continuous self-improvement leads to increased freedom and internal and unshakeable excellence for you as a leader. * The reason Sue designed her book to be read in segments and why that matters so much for her intended audience. Plus, Sue’s instructions for reading her book. * How “unkind wonderful” words are sometimes the perfect words to hear. Especially when they’re as painful as they are insightful. * Sue’s belief that every problem is an opportunity for growth. All you need is to figure out how to flip it upside down and why it’s important to be on the front of the pack, leading the pack rather than reacting. * Sue’s advice to entrepreneurs everywhere, about not giving up because people always seem to quit just before amazing things happen.
Ways to contact Sue: * www.suehawkes.com * www.sayyes.com
Dr. Alice Loy is the co-founder & CEO of Creative Startups. She has over 20 years of experience working with entrepreneurs in the creative industries. Widely considered a leading authority on entrepreneurship in the creative economy, Alice built the Creative Startups Accelerator with a vision for catalyzing high growth company formation in the under-served creative economy. Today the accelerator operates on four continents serving over 50 creative companies each year. Alice also co-authored the book, Creative Economy Entrepreneurs: From Startup to Success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Alice defines entrepreneurship * The story behind the book, Creative Economy Entrepreneurs * How creative entrepreneurs are transforming the global economy * The startup accelerator for creative entrepreneurs and how it works * Why startups are a race against time * Keys to focusing on your vital priorities * The importance of building discipline in your thinking * How social change happens * How mentorship can accelerate success * The best way to build and scale your business
Ways to contact Alice: * Website: www.creativestartups.org * Email: alice@creativestartups.org * Twitter: @createstartups * Instagram: www.instagram.com/createstartups * Facebook: www.facebook.com/createstartups
Bianca Caban is Director of Partnerships and Business Development at Republic, a platform that connects tech startups and blockchain projects with retail investors from around the world. Prior to Republic, she worked on Wall Street for five years and also founded a consultancy, Tai — eeno Capital, where she worked with various entities on new fund infrastructure and business development. Bianca is a member of the World Economic Forum Global Shapers and the Milken Institute Young Leaders Circle.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How successful leadership in Rwanda, where 70 percent of parliament was comprised of women at the time inspired Bianca to invest in revitalization strategies for businesses closer to home. * Why Bianca is so committed to bringing investment capital to women-owned businesses in areas that are seeking to revitalize (Detroit, Puerto Rico, etc.). * Bianca’s discovery that women were the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs throughout the U.S. and how important access to capital is to them. * The importance of scalable technology for driving business growth. * How Title Three opened the doors wide for crowdfunding and what that meant for Republic and how it operates today. * Why Bianca is dedicated to helping under-represented groups in business gain access to capital and what it has meant for her organization to do so. * The importance of diversity, not only in the people operating businesses, but also the businesses and products themselves, is so vital to Republic and the people who invest. * The five Ts and what they mean to Republic and Bianca. * How passion factors into the equation and why Bianca is so passionate about her role in helping connect entrepreneurs and startups with the capital they need to get things rolling. * Why it matters that Republic has access to more than 80,000 investors looking for the perfect opportunities and how that helps ensure the right investor finds the right project.
Fernando Schiantarelli is an entrepreneur, TV and radio producer and creator of “Cómo Lo Hizo”, which translates to “How did they make it?” — a podcast that focuses on helping Latino entrepreneurs in co-production with iHeart Radio in Los Angeles.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Inspiring stories of creative entrepreneurs who immigrated to other countries and were able to build successful businesses out of pure innovation and hard work * Two of the most important qualities for an entrepreneur are humility and resilience * Humility is required, because it’s important to understand your place in the market, how to properly approach new contacts, and where you need to go to succeed, keeping everything grounded in reality * Resilience is important because there will always be naysayers who try to discourage entrepreneurs from pursuing specific goals or who are sure that an idea is doomed to failure – people you have to press past * However, passion can only get you so far, and it’s important to not mistake resilience for ignoring the warnings signs and investing too much time or money into an idea that is not properly research * Once you understand your product idea entirely, where it fits in the market, how it would be made, and how (and at what price) it is likely to sell, then you can start using your passion to drive the idea forward * “Most of our enemies are inside our own heads,” and entrepreneurs can’t let their own fears or uncertainties get the best of them when building company – and sometimes the inner voices are the hardest to work through * Intuition and understanding are also important parts of being an entrepreneur: You have be able to listen to the investors and business contacts you’re talking with, and read between the lines to see the things they aren’t saying * How you can be a successful entrepreneur without a mentor – because part of the process is learning everyone around you, not just a specific tutor or leader you respect * More information on Latino entrepreneurship, Latina woman in the industry, and many more interesting facts!
Ways to contact Fernando: * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/fschiantarelli
Good Morning — I’m Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and your host for Onward Nation. I’m excited to share the lessons and the insights of today’s episode with you — but before I do that — I wanted to take you behind the curtain to share some additional context with you around why I have been focusing my last several solocasts as well as my weekly videos on YouTube around the Trojan Horse of Sales Strategy.
My decision to do this has been based on several recent conversations with business owners who are also avid Onward Nation listeners. Each of them took the time to walk me through why they thought it would be helpful if I broke down the Trojan Horse strategy into granular steps…into more detail…and…why it would be helpful if I connected it back to the actual Trojan Horse story so the strategic metaphor that I am making when I say “Your Trojan Horse of Sales” could be better established.
To say that I was grateful for their feedback is a major understatement. I say often how much I value your feedback because it helps us get better each and every day…and here is a perfect example where Onward Nation listeners reached out to me — said hey — could we talk about this — and then they showed me how my team and I could get better. So thank you, Nancy — thank you, Bill — if you’re listening — I appreciate you so very much.
With that said…we are going to take a deep dive into what has been the best biz dev strategy for Predictive ROI — and as you might have guessed based on what I just shared with you — it is the Trojan Horse of Sales. And I am going to walk you through the strategy in two different ways.
First — I am going to share the highlights of the Trojan Horse story so we can get a solid foundation around why the story is, in my opinion, an excellent metaphor to the ideal sales strategy.
Second — I’m going to insert into this solocast the interview where I was a guest on Take the Lead Radio, hosted by Dr. Diane Hamilton. And you may remember Diane from Episode 505 of Onward Nation. After being my guest — Diane invited me to be her guest — and we talked through a number of topics including how the Trojan Horse of Sales Strategy can be helpful to business owners. More specifically, Diane asked me to share…
- How I made that $2 million dollar mistake in 2014 and why it was a powerful lesson
- Why my Predictive ROI team and I decided to start Onward Nation back in June 2015
- How we initially began to “monetize” the podcast — but we didn’t do it by attempting to monetize you…our audience
- How Onward Nation quickly became our best biz dev strategy to grow Predictive ROI
- And how your podcast, your video series, your blog — whatever channel that serves as your hub for cornerstone content — how it, too, can play the role of your Trojan Horse of Sales
Full show notes here: https://predictiveroi.com/podcasts/stephen-woessner-solocast-episode-82
Shannon Miles is the CEO and Co-founder of BELAY, a staffing company serving businesses all over the U.S. Without an office, BELAY has graced the Inc. 5000 list four times — and four years in a row — and was awarded the number one spot in Entrepreneur Magazine’s Best Company Culture. Shannon’s new book The Third Option: Why a Woman Doesn’t Have to Choose Between a Career and Family, but Can Actually Have Both and Succeed is available now.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The story behind how Shannon and her husband started their business, BELAY * How having the right help can help you grow your organization * Why it’s vital to ensure that your team is happy * Why it’s not wise to satisfy other people’s perceptions of you * Why business owners need to consider what working remotely would look like for them * Why Shannon was compelled to write her book, The Third Option * The importance of having the mindset that you don’t have to do it alone * Why you need to assign value to your time * The power that comes from shifting your mindset to owning, not running, your business * Why you should consider developing and promoting employees from within your organization
Ways to contact Shannon: * Website: belaysolutions.com * Instagram: @shannonkmiles * Book: The Third Option
Our special encore guest today is Jody Steinhauer. Jody is the Founder, President and CBO (Chief Bargain Officer) of the Bargains Group — an award-winning discount wholesale and promotional products company. She is also the founder of Engage and Change — a national charity focusing on “good people working together for the good of people.” — and Kits for a Cause, a social enterprise that helps companies make a positive impact in their communities. Now…you may remember Jody and the wisdom she shared during Episodes 20 and 364. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all she shared during her two previous interviews…I highly encourage you to add Episodes 20 and 364 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The rise of social enterprise, or finding out how businesses can help fix problems in society while also being business – a concept that Jody’s company has been practicing for 30 years * How businesses can help society in specific ways without being a charity and constantly asking for things, like money and volunteers * Why social enterprise needs to be a part of your marketing strategy, both for your company’s benefit and for organizational purposes * Why jumping into social enterprise also requires careful planning for budgeting and picking the right cause, as it aligns with the company’s mission statement and interests * How Jody’s new project has quickly spread from Toronto in the past year and how she has been contact by major companies in other countries that want to take part in specific projects or copy successful events * Why — if you want to do more charity or volunteer work — you need to find a company that has had many years of experience and done many events * Why flexibility is important in social enterprise – for example, Jody always contacts the end-user organizations when building kits, and often finds that some components just aren’t needed, so things need to be changed * The nuts and bolts of how an organization like Jody’s partners with a more traditional company for a big social enterprise event, including first meetings, plans, and getting volunteers * How to leverage materials like photos and video for marketing purposes and where to send them to let clients know your work in social enterprise * The power of spotting problems in social enterprise and nonprofit work, and targeting those problems with specific solutions to create truly effective social enterprise profits
Ways to contact Jody: * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jodysteinhauer * Website: www.bargainsgroup.org/about-jody-steinhauer * Website: jodysteinhauer.com * Website: www.kitsforacause.com
Peter Mehit is the Owner and Chief Operating Officer of Custom Business Planning and Solutions. After a successful career in the Fortune 100, he has helped over 2,500 clients start, grow and expand their businesses and has written business plans that have raised over $160 million. He is also the co-author of Killer Business Plan, a book that can help you choose the business that is right for you.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The reason Peter stepped away from Fortune 100 and what he decided to do instead * How Peter’s life completely changed after he said “no” to his boss * Why small businesses are so important and how Peter helps them succeed * One of the obstacles to success in today’s day and age and Peter’s technique to overcome this * Examples of simple systems that can help you make the most out of each day * What a good, usable business plan looks like along with the most important question you need to answer to guide your plan * The types of businesses investors are interested in * How to get your business running when you’re really good at the vision end, but less experienced in running the actual business * Why it’s essential that you actually write a business plan before you get started * The reason you can’t lie to yourself about what your strengths and weakness are * What Peter thinks is the most critical skill a business owner needs to master in order to be successful today * Reasons it’s essential to be self-educated to succeed in business today * The most influential lesson Peter ever learned from a mentor and how to get the most out of your relationship with a mentor * How knowing what you want will get you exactly what you need from your mentor * Why paying for something makes you more committed to it
Ways to contact Peter: * Phone: 800-741-8444 * Email: pmehit@custombps.com
Molly Grubb is the President and founder of Grubb Wealth Management, an exclusive wealth management firm that helps business owners gain control of their business in order to allow them to realize their purpose and build personal wealth through a well-defined process. She is one of only 200 Certified Business Exit Consultants and less than 7 percent of advisors that utilize all the fundamentals of wealth management. Molly has been a featured speaker and presenter at many professional organizations and business groups.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How nothing improves you more as a person than being a business owner * Working with the people you know vs. the experts you need * How to prepare your business for a market decline * Key ways to free up your wealth within your business * Why it’s vital to have a process for everything * The one question that you should ask yourself, as a business owner * What you can do to ensure that your business is serving you instead of you serving your business * Common mistakes that business owners make that can devalue a business * Why you need to have a clearly defined exit plan * The importance of protecting your dynasty while building it
Ways to contact Molly: * Website: www.grubbwealth.com/onward * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mollygrubb * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/grubbwealth * Twitter: @grubbwealth * Facebook: www.facebook.com/GrubbWealthManagement
Sam Silverstein is founder and CEO of Sam Silverstein Enterprises, Inc., an accountability think tank dedicated to helping companies create an organizational culture that prioritizes and inspires accountability. He’s a leadership keynote speaker, business advisor, and author of seven books including Non-Negotiable, No More Excuses, Making Accountable Decisions, No Matter What, and The Success Model. Global Gurus recently announced Sam as one of the World’s Top 30 Organizational Culture Professionals.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Sam came to the realization that everything comes down to accountability * Why focus is a vital trait to have in business * Why you need to pay attention to staying in your lane * How to make your product even more valuable * The real problem in organizations today * Why everything we’ve been told about accountability is wrong * How all rises and falls with leadership * The importance of aligning your actions with your words * The real value of relationships, family, and caring for people * Why we need to hold ourselves accountable first, before others
Ways to contact Sam: * Website: www.samsilverstein.com * Website: www.beaccountable.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/samsilverstein * Book: No Matter What: The 10 Commitments of Accountability (No More Excuses Series)
At age 40, Gary Wilson retired as the corporate vice president of mergers & acquisitions from a national bank — and then embarked on building his wealth in real estate. In his first 6 months after earning real estate license, he created a six figure income by working with investors. He has since traded over 3,000 investment properties, written five books sharing his expertise so others in the business can do the same, and has taught his Path to Prosperity System to over 14,000 agents and investors across the country. Gary has appeared on over 100 national and local media outlets including CBS, FOX News, NBC, ABC, and Business Week.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Gary got involved in real estate in a small way which quickly grew in a large regional business – which wasn’t entirely satisfying * How finding passion later in life can be a great way to kickstart your career and become a happier person overall with a little thought * How important localization is when selling real estate * Gary’s expertise in scaling real estate businesses effectively and growing a business into different region…by appealing to a rare market, the investors themselves * The importance of being thankful for your life and what you are able to accomplish at any stage of your life * Vision exercises: Why everyone should take time to plan out their future successes, not just in the short term but in the coming years, to help orientate their actions * How helping people, and learning to network in productive ways, is a key tool for success * Why when working toward success in business, it’s important to start small and carefully prepare rather than aim immediately for explosive growth * Carefully considering your “inner circle,” your mentors and the people you got to for advice or leads – and thinking about how dependable they are so you can improve your inner circle in realistic ways * More about the classes and seminars Gary teaches on investment, real estate, contacting investors, and other topics
Ways to contact Gary: * Personal email: gary@myinvestmentservices.com * Email for info on Chicago event: info@myinvestmentservices.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/thegarywilson * Facebook: www.facebook.com/myinvestmentservices * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/winteam
John Furth is the President of Furth & Associates where he works with leadership teams to achieve breakthrough performance and growth. He has spent 25-years working with CEOs and their C-suite executives at some of the largest corporations in the world. In 2015, John became Vistage’s Chair for Brooklyn, a role which allows him to draw on his experience and extensive network to coach and advise CEOs and business owners of NYC-based small and medium-sized companies. John is also author of the new book, “Owning Tomorrow: The Unstoppable Force of Disruptive Leadership.”
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why you need to first learn how to disrupt yourself before you can disrupt others * How the things we don’t know can disrupt our lives * How John came up with the title for his book, “Owning Tomorrow: The Unstoppable Force of Disruptive Leadership” * Why most successful disruptors make a ton of money * How, in disruption, more stays the same than changes * Why there is very thin line between disruption and destruction * Why it’s vital to understand finance as a business owner * Why emotional intelligence and having a personal life are important when it comes to success in business * Why you need to be aware of how you appear to others as a leader * How all processes look like a failure in the middle
Ways to contact John: * Phone: 917-626-0065 * Email: johnffurth@aol.com * Website: furthandassociates.net * Website: johnffurth.com * Book: Owning Tomorrow: The Unstoppable Force of Disruptive Leadership
Jon Vroman inspires others to Live Life In The Front Row™ by teaching the art of moment making. He is an award-winning speaker, #1 bestselling author of The Front Row Factor, podcast host, and founder of Front Row Foundation, a charity creating front row experiences for individuals who brave life-threatening illnesses.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The “why” and the stories behind Jon’s Front Row Foundation * The importance of finding ways to lift other people up * The power of giving * Why many men hide behind their work * How changing the conversation changes the game * Why you can’t measure good deeds * The power of creating moments in small ways * Why you need to be conscious of the story that you’re telling yourself * Why it’s a natural thing to get caught up in your past * Why you need to have a mindset of possibility and potential
Ways to contact Jon: * Website: FrontRowFactor.com * Website: FrontRowDads.com * Instagram: @jonvroman * Facebook: www.facebook.com/jonvroman * Book: Front Row Factor
Kirk Deis is the CEO of Treehouse 51, a digital agency based in Newport Beach and the new web app “The Bug Squasher,” designed to simplify and streamline project communication and website management. Kirk has worked with clients all over the world and has been a featured contributor for several sites including Forbes.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * One of the biggest lessons that Kirk has learned on his entrepreneurial journey * Why having a beginning, middle, and end to a story is so important * The importance of being confident and okay with failure * Why you need to always be focusing on business development * The value of focusing on building a team of talented people and providing an environment where they can grow * Why you need to strive to always be a student of your industry * Why you should always be testing your marketing * Why you shouldn’t underestimate the value of free * Why it’s critical to take risks when things are tough * Passing the DUMB test before spending money on something
Ways to contact Kirk: * Website: thebugsquasher.com * Website: www.Treehouse51.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kirkdeis
Phillip Stutts is the founder and CEO of two startup marketing agencies, “Go BIG Media” and “Win BIG Media” and has been lauded as a “marketing genius” by FOX BUSINESS. He is also the author of Amazon.com Best Seller, “FIRE THEM NOW”, and one of the masterminds behind the curtain of political marketing. Phillip is fighting a rare and incurable disease — so his mission today is to find a cure and pursue a life of constant growth and giving.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Phillip Stutts entered politics and went on to contribute to many successful gubernatorial, US Senate, and Presidential campaigns * How Phillip launched his company, Go Big Media, and built it into a $20 million business in just four years * How Phillip is dealing with an incurable esophageal disease called Achalasia and fighting to manage its symptoms * Why Phillip decided not only to combat his disease but to work on finding a cure for the incurable * Why Phillip believes being diagnosed with Achalasia saved his business, his marriage, and his life * How Phillip has found success in business marketing by applying principles he learned from working in politics * Some of the key takeaways from Phillip’s book “Fire Them Now: The 7 Lies Digital Marketers Sell” * Why your marketing firm is probably more concerned with checking boxes than building personal, authentic relationships with your customers * How to effectively bring the idea of “political attack ads” to comparative advertising * How to access a free article, “3 Secrets You Need to Know Before You Hire (or Fire) a Marketing Company” * How to get a free 5-minute marketing audit of your business and its digital footprint
Ways to contact Phillip: * Twitter: @phillipstutts * Website: www.phillipstutts.com/offer * Website: www.phillipstutts.com/audit * Book: “Fire Them Now: The 7 Lies Digital Marketers Sell…And the Truth about Political Strategies that Help Businesses Win”
Ed Rush is a 5-Time #1 Best Selling author and a former F-18 fighter pilot. His combat career included over 50 missions and two tours to Iraq. While in the Marines, Ed served as one of the country’s leading instructors on aerial dog fighting and recently worked as a key player in the development of the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. His books and expertise have been featured on CBS, FOX, ABC, and NBC. Ed’s latest book, “The 21-Day Miracle,” is available now.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Ed’s latest book, “The 21 Day Miracle,” was born and the philosophy behind it * How the most successful entrepreneurs are the ones who build their lives out of strategic sprints * Ed’s fundamental philosophy for life * Why most entrepreneurs feel like they’re not getting enough done * The importance of setting goals so big that people will laugh at you when you say them * Why you shouldn’t spend time in the future on mistakes you’ve made in the past * The single most important thing you can do as a business owner * Why you need to spend more of your time on things that are important, not urgent * The benefits of thinking in the long term vs. the short term * Why you need to be able to communicate, influence, and persuade * How true mind mastery can give you freedom
Ways to contact Ed: * Website: edrushbook.com
Good Morning — I’m Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and your host for Onward Nation. I’m excited to share the lessons and the insights of today’s episode with you — but before I do that — I owe you a really big thank you.
I owe you a big thank you, Onward Nation because each and every day you give my team and I the hug or the push we need to get better. Each day — I get to walk into my office and have this amazing privilege of hanging out with you — while you and I both learn from some of the top business owners on this planet. You are right there beside me — as we learn together. And all of the feedback you share — the tweets you send — hitting me up on LinkedIn — and dropping me lines of support on Facebook…I appreciate all of it and am so very grateful.
We are now impacting business owners in 102 countries and I don’t take that lightly. That didn’t happen by accident — it happened because of you finding something here in our episodes and then taking the time to share it with your friends and co-workers.
And because of this amazing journey over the last 800+ episodes — my life has been enriched in so many wonderful ways. I have been invited to write a book, speak at events, and Predictive ROI has grown, too. And all of that — all of that — is because of this wonderful Onward Nation community that you, my friend, are a part of.
So thank you — from the bottom of my heart — thank you! Airing 800 episodes has been a real joy and pleasure — and I assure you — we are just getting started. From our daily Onward Nation episodes, to our weekly video series on YouTube, to our next book being released in 2019, and how we are going to absolutely raise the bar on LinkedIn where the community is now 25,000 strong — we are just…getting…started.
So thank you, Onward Nation — thank you very much.
Full show notes available here: https://predictiveroi.com/podcasts/stephen-woessner-solocast-episode-81
Allison Maslan is the CEO of Allison Maslan International, a global business mentoring company and is the #1 bestselling author of “Blast Off.” Her new book, “Scale or Fail: How to Take the Leap from Entrepreneur to Enterprise Without a Safety Net” hits bookstores this month. Allison’s built 10 successful companies starting out at age 19. Now she pays it forward helping ambitious business owners around the world grow high-revenue businesses and passionate lives. Allison’s been featured in SUCCESS, Fortune, and Forbes and is a regular contributor to Entrepreneur Magazine. She’s also a featured expert on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and FOX.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How to preorder Allison’s new book “Scale or Fail,” available for purchase October 16 * Allison’s history, career journey, and how she became a business-scaling expert * How a near-fatal car accident forced Allison to re-prioritize her life and take a different career path * Why growing your business sometimes means letting go of responsibilities and old habits when scaling to the enterprise level * What the five phases of building a team-managed company are and why they matter * Why employee disengagement is a major problem for most growing companies and what you can do about it * How to address vision and leadership issues within your company and refocus your efforts * Why personal growth as a business owner is an important component to scaling your business * Allison’s recommendations for business owners who want to scale up their businesses but aren’t sure how * Allison’s advice and strategies for business-scaling success, and why it’s critical to dream big
Ways to contact Allison: * Website: www.allisonmaslan.com * Email: support@allisonmaslan.com * Book: www.scaleorfail.com
Steve Farber is the President of Extreme Leadership, Inc. and the founder and chairman of The Extreme Leadership Institute, organizations devoted to the cultivation and development of extreme leaders around the world. He’s listed as one of Inc.’s Global Top 50 Leadership and Management Experts and is a bestselling author on extreme leadership. His three books include “Greater Than Yourself,” a Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestseller; “The Radical Edge”; and “The Radical Leap,” which was recently named one of the 100 Best Business Books of All Time.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The framework for extreme leadership * Why you need to ask yourself how you can become an expert in your field * How to determine if your point of view is of great value to people * The value of constantly learning and becoming a student of your mentor’s work * How you develop your own body of work * How to apply the LEAP framework to your business * How the greatest leaders become the greatest leaders * Why love is such a powerful business principle * The importance of creating a culture that people love working in * How it all starts with asking yourself the right questions * Why doing what you love is important, but not the whole story
Ways to contact Steve: * Website: www.SteveFarber.com * Book: “Greater Than Yourself: The Ultimate Lesson Of True Leadership”
Josh Fonger is the owner of WTS Enterprises and an expert in designing and implementing systems to help small businesses grow. The foundational methodology he uses was developed by his business partner — author, Sam Carpenter, in his book, “Work The System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less.” Josh is also an international business consultant, coach, and speaker and helped fix hundreds of businesses across multiple industries, from start-ups to billion-dollar operations.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Why you need to focus on working on the systems that produce results * Why the owner is typically the bottleneck to growing and scaling a business * How it can be helpful to take an objective perspective of your business * Why it’s vital to just simplify your business’ systems and processes * How to calculate the exact time of day that you’re most productive * The reason you need to master the skill of playing the long-game * Why you shouldn’t wait for the “perfect” client * The value of supporting your clients in the long-term * The importance of focusing on selling when first starting your business * The importance of writing down a vision for your business and taking ownership of it
Ways to contact Josh: * Website: www.workthesystem.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/workthesystem * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/joshfonger * Group Coaching: www.workthesystem.com/coaching
Our special encore guest today is Mike Michalowicz. He is the author of “Profit First,” “Surge,” “The Pumpkin Plan,” and his newest release, “Clockwork: Design your business to run itself.” By his 35th birthday, Mike had founded and sold two companies - one to private equity and another to a Fortune 500. Today, he is running his third multi-million dollar venture, Profit First Professionals. Now...you may remember Mike and the wisdom he shared during Episode 361. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during his first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 361 to your list of vital priorities.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * The story behind why Mike wrote his latest book, “Clockwork” * The four elements that make up every business * Why business owners must support all decision-making from their employees when it comes to delegation * The one thing that entrepreneurs don’t do, but is the most important thing to do * Why we need to change the reward mechanism from following instructions to achieving outcomes * Why Mike believes that success comes in stages * Why it’s critical to identify your queen bee role * The reason most organizations don’t know the critical function that it should depend on * Why it’s vital to know the one thing that differentiates you from everyone else * Why you need to declare a four-week vacation away from your business
Ways to contact Mike: * Website: www.mikemichalowicz.com * Book: "Clockwork"
Our special encore guest today is Christopher Lochhead. Christopher is a retired three-time, Silicon Valley, public company CMO, entrepreneur, and category designer. Fast Company Magazine calls him a “Human Exclamation Point” and The Economist calls him “off-putting to some.” He’s also an acclaimed public speaker and proud advisor to non-profit “1 Life Fully Lived.” Now...you may remember Christopher and the wisdom he shared during Episode 448. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 448 to your list of vital priorities.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Why Christopher and his co-author decided to write their new book, Niche Down * How “niching down” will not take away from, but rather catapult you into opportunity * Why you should follow your niche, not your passion * What we are taught about the pathway to success * The characteristics of people who make a difference * How great marketing can both attract and repel * Why entrepreneurs need to focus on the exponential value of what makes them different * Why we are at the lowest level of entrepreneurship in American history * Why it’s vital to reinvent the entrepreneurial dream * The value of creating an environment where people can rise up
Ways to contact Christopher: * Website: legendsandlosers.com
Hundreds of thousands of business students have learned about marketing from Michael Solomon’s 30+ books, including “Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having, and Being” -- the most widely used book on the subject in the world. He is a professor of marketing, keynote speaker, and an advisor to global clients in leading industries on marketing strategies to make them more consumer-centric. He regularly appears on television shows including The Today Show, Good Morning America, and CNN to comment on consumer issues, and he is frequently quoted in major media outlets such as The New York Times, USA Today, Adweek, and Time. And today...we’re going to dive deep into Michael’s latest book entitled, “Marketers, Tear Down These Walls! Liberating the Postmodern Consumer.”
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Why it’s not about what you buy, it’s about why you buy * How to succeed with your marketing in today’s super competitive marketplace * Why storytelling is vital to a brand’s success * Why your deliverable is not about the attribute of your brand, but rather the benefits * How Michael selected the title of his new book, “Marketers, Tear Down These Walls! Liberating the Postmodern Consumer” * How consumers are no longer confined to traditional categories * Why you shouldn’t define your business in terms of how you see it, but how your customer sees it * Why your best employees are likely your best customers * Marketing to your customer vs. marketing with your customer * How the best suggestions for new product modifications come from your lead customers * How authenticity is a key component to break down the barrier between the company and the consumer
Ways to contact Mike: * Website: www.michaelsolomon.com * Email: michael@michaelsolomon.com * Book: "Marketers, Tear Down These Walls! Liberating the Postmodern Consumer"
Our special encore guest today is Henry DeVries. Henry is a book publisher, bestselling author, Forbes.com columnist, and professional speaker. He is an expert on helping people close more sales by teaching them how to persuade with stories on how they took a client from mess to success. In 2014, he founded Indie Books International, the marketing with a book and speech company. Now...you may remember Henry and the wisdom he shared during Episode 433. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 433 to your list of vital priorities.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * How powerful it can be when you get the story right * The three characters that you have to put into a story * Why people remember stories — not lectures * Why it’s getting tougher and tougher to get really good people to join your company * What to do if you want employees to follow core values * How it all comes back to business and storytelling * The #1 marketing tool and the #1 marketing strategy * The eight great stories that humans are hardwired for * The four magic words of the English language * The importance of creating a stream and a pipeline
Ways to contact Henry: * Website: indiebooksintl.com * Email: henry@indiebooksintl.com
Paola Girotti is the founder and owner of Sugarmoon, a sugaring business with three salons, take-home sugaring and organic body care product lines, and the Sugarmoon training academy. She spent 10 years growing her successful brand — and then four years fighting — and winning — a trademark battle dispute that almost robbed her of the Sugarmoon name. I am so excited for this conversation, Onward Nation because Paola is going to share some of the lessons learned from the experience and her big plans for the future.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * The importance of protecting your brand name and slogans * The benefits of being an early-riser * Why you need to be flexible and adaptable to change * Why it’s vital to have a plan for growth in place * Why it’s important to align yourself with people who have gone through what you’re going through * Why you need to recognize what you need from a financial perspective * Why you need to put together a strong leadership team, sooner rather than later * The importance of having the right people in place on your team * The value of having a good strategic plan when starting your business
Ways to contact Paola: * Email: Paola@sugarmoonsalon.com
Jeff Rohrs serves as chief marketing officer for Yext, the leading Digital Knowledge Management platform that gives companies control over their customer-critical facts across the digital universe. His first book, “Audience: Marketing in the Age of Subscribers, Fans and Followers”, has been lauded by marketers and executives as a must-read. Prior to joining Yext, Jeff served as Vice President of Marketing Insights for Salesforce and ExactTarget.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * How Jeffrey’s vision for digital research coincided with—and was enhanced by—Morgan Stewart, founder and CEO of Trendline Interactive * Why audiences can be built as a proprietary marketing asset, as well as the responsibilities of growing them from such a foundation * How today’s social media channels, like Instagram, are constantly shifting * How to target your most loyal advocates and amplifiers as these shifts happen, assuring you’re never too far from your most valuable customers * Why audience management, now, is a core marketing responsibility, as well as the impact of public relations in our socially connected digital landscape * Why email is the “secret sauce” of any digital marketing campaign, and why Jeffrey uses it as a home base to re-acquire consumers lost in the ever-shifting digital world * Jeffrey’s “helpfulness” mindset when creating a content marketing strategy * How voice search has changed the marketing world, and how Jeffrey’s approach to voice search is critically important to organizations * How to build an enterprise straight from the talent pipeline, as well as how to scale globally without losing previous talent * The importance of developing mentor relationships within your network, as well as the importance of staying flexible as your business evolves
Ways to contact Jeff: * Website: www.yext.com * Website: www.geomarketing.com * Conference: www.onward18.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jkrohrs * Twitter: @jkrohrs
My special, encore guest today is Misty Lown. Misty is the founder, president and energized force behind More Than Just Great Dancing. Her accomplishments in giving back to the community are on a scale seldom seen by small businesses owners. Her studio, Misty’s Dance Unlimited, founded in 1998 and named a “Top 50 Studios in the Nation” by Dance Spirit Magazine, has provided over $200,000 in combined cash and studio scholarships for young women and she is the founder of the “A Chance to Dance Foundation.” Misty is also the author of the bestselling book, “One Small Yes: Small Decisions that Lead to Big Results.” You may remember Misty and the wisdom she shared during Episodes 80 and 544. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all Misty shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episodes 80 and 544 to your list of vital priorities.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * How Misty’s brand new international performing arts center came to be * How finding a mentor who aligned with her values has helped Misty to grow * The value of moving your energy away from day-to-day operations into more of a strategic role * How Misty discovered that she was the biggest constraint to the growth of her business * The importance of building up your team to take on more responsibility * How Misty defines success and how that’s changed over the last 20 years * Why you need to be fully present wherever you are * The value of building something that you can live with * Why you need to define how fast and how hard you want to go to get to the next level
Ways to contact Misty: * Website: mistylown.com * Twitter: @MistyLown
Glenn Elliott is the founder of Reward Gateway, a world leader in integrated employee engagement technology with more than 1,800 clients worldwide. His new book, “Build it: The Rebel Playbook for World-Class Employee Engagement,” which he co-authored with Debra Corey, highlights practical improvements that organizations can make to build a highly engaged company culture.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * How good founders know instinctively what the market needs to be successful * Why you always need to keep your team under constant review * How you shouldn’t hire people for what they’ve done in the past but rather what they’ll do in the future * Why Glenn and his co-author, Deborah, decided to write the book “Build it: The Rebel Playbook for World-Class Employee Engagement” * Some of the ways that companies are disengaging employees * How the path to better engagement is different for every organization * The importance of helping people develop their skills * How honesty and transparency can help you be successful at managing employee engagement * Why it’s important to focus on how you make people feel * Why you need to always be thinking about your customer
Ways to contact Glenn: * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/glennelliott * Twitter: @glennelliott; @rebelplaybook * Website: www.rebelplaybook.com
Our special encore guest today is Ace Chapman. Ace bought his first business when he was 19 years old. It was an online stock market simulator called CoolWallStreet. After selling it, and seeing the benefits in buying a business over starting one, he caught the business buying bug. Since then he has bought and sold over 40 businesses and has helped his clients all over the world buy companies. Now...you may remember Ace and the wisdom he shared during Episode 561. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 561 to your list of vital priorities.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Ace’s 19 years of success since his first successful venture at age 19, when he got involved in the technique of selling businesses professionally * The brief history of purchasing small Internet businesses and what it can show us about the art of buying mature entities * A behind-the-scenes look at private equity firms, as well as how to leverage a budding infrastructure with future potential * How to find deals when you can’t compete in your area (including the ins and outs of finding lucrative opportunities in international business) * Ace’s private equity partner program, which thrives on progressive financing options designed to give an earn-out based upon funding deals * The intricacies of nurturing your business’ “secret sauce,” or unique strength and the importance of making these strengths approachable—so as to not alienate, and push away, prospective buyers * How to put yourself in the shoes of the customer in today’s business-selling world, as well as the power of catering to Corporate America * Leveraging the entrepreneur mindset, wherein startup owners might be a difficult sell, overall, due to their independence and need to nurture something entirely their own * How to establish a legacy for your business and how to conduct your due diligence while your prospective buyers do theirs
Ways to contact Ace: * Website: www.acechapman.com * Twitter: @acechapman * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/acechapman757
Good Morning Onward Nation…I’m Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and your host for Onward Nation. And today’s episode is going to be a solocast…where it’s just you and me exploring a topic at some real depth — something helpful — so you can build and scale your business. So let’s dive in.
Much has changed since I wrote The Small Business Owner’s Handbook to Search Engine Optimization in 2009.
Google now has a longer and more complicated recipe of factors it uses to rank you and your competitors as you attempt to earn the attention of your prospects and customers.
And many of the factors within Google’s list are not properly setup within the typical small business website.
That means fewer leads and perhaps less opportunity to generate higher sales.
All of which makes it important — for you as the business owner — to know some of the fundamentals to SEO. Not so you can do the work — but so you can establish expectations for your team — and then audit their results.
So for today’s solocast — I am going to share with you what is, in my opinion, one of the biggest, most expensive money draining mistakes business owners make. And that mistake is being too passive regarding the amount of traffic the website for their core business is attracting. And that number should be 60 percent of your total traffic — so 60 percent, Onward Nation, of your website’s traffic should be coming from organic search — a combination of Google, Bing, and other search related sources.
Full show notes available here: https://predictiveroi.com/podcasts/stephen-woessner-solocast-episode-80
Jason Hsiao is the co-founder and chief video officer of Animoto, an award-winning online video maker that makes it easy for anyone to create professional-quality marketing videos. Animoto is a certified partner with Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and the Small Business Administration and give it unique insight into the changing social media and business landscape -- which may be why more than 1-million businesses around the world are already using Animoto to create marketing videos. Prior to founding Animoto, Jason was a producer for MTV Networks and Comedy Central.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Why all businesses are trying to stand out on social media with video * How video is becoming the preferred way that people want to consume information * Why you should think of video as a form of communication * The method to use to come up with video topics * How social media has been a game-changer for small businesses * Why video is a great investment * Why you need to be aware of how you approach the small things in life * The importance of surrounding yourself with people who actually get stuff done * How to maximize the potential of your team * How video is a way to amplify what you know already works
Ways to contact Jason: * Website: animoto.com/onwardnation * Facebook: www.facebook.com/Animoto * Twitter: @Animoto, @jason_hsiao * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/animoto * Medium: medium.com/@Animoto * YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCeqtYy6WpYkZ3Q_EUnY0fVQ
David C. Baker is an author, speaker, and advisor to entrepreneurial creatives worldwide. He has written 5 books, advised 900+ firms, and keynoted conferences in 30+ countries. His work has been discussed in the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Forbes, USA Today, BusinessWeek, and Inc. Magazine. He lives in Nashville, TN. His work has also been featured in the NY Times, where he was referred to as the expert’s expert.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * David’s history approaching U.S. Businesses after arriving in America at age 18 and the foundation upon which he’s build a legacy: an intense desire to learn and the bravery to start an agency with self-taught business approaches * The secret behind creating something from nothing and how David’s approach to risk-taking thrives on calculated spontaneity * How the challenges of an entrepreneur’s “professional DNA” manifest in multi-project tackling * The pitfalls of having multiple great ideas and why it’s important to divide your time wisely * The importance of focusing on several service options you can provide extraordinarily well * David’s idea-decision principal: saying “No” to most distractions * The pitfall of fear: Why entrepreneurs feel the need to constantly reinvent to avoid starving * David’s most valuable habit, which is to keep developing his own insight * The art of embracing problems as the chance to create new solutions—and how to make efficiency a constant goal * The cycle of learning, and why it’s important to put aside client work every so often to pursue education * How to decide when it’s time to reinvent yourself, and surviving the mental tug of what-if’s which arise from leaving old projects
Ways to contact David: * Website: www.davidcbaker.com * Book: www.expertise.is * Twitter: @recourses * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/authorspeakeradvisor
Michael Stallard is a former Wall Street executive who left the Street 15 years ago to found the Connection Culture Group, a leadership training firm and focuses on improving workplace cultures. He’s a keynote speaker and expert on how effective leaders boost human connection in cultures to improve the health and performance of individuals and organizations. Michael is also the author of two books, "Connection Culture" and "Fired Up or Burned Out.”
What you'll learn about in this episode: * The story of how Michael became interested in culture * How having more human connection in your life can be beneficial to your health * The metrics that are used to define levels of loneliness * How we can be so focused on chasing money and power that we crowd out time for relationships that really matter * The benefits of using social media to establish offline connections * The power of having face-to-face connections * Why, as a leader, it’s vital to care about both people and results * Why you need to be intentional about achieving both task AND relationship excellence * Why it’s important to identify a specific client problem to solve * Why you need to listen closely to what your clients are saying
Ways to contact Michael: * Website: www.michaelleestallard.com * Book: "Connection Culture"
After traveling the world, David Osborn returned home to Austin, Texas broke and unemployed...at the age of 26. Though his travels may not have yielded wealth, they instilled the key motivation that he brings to every part of his life -- to create it freedom. David began to test his entrepreneurial merits and the results were nothing short of remarkable. In less than 10 years, David built one of the top real estate brokerages in the world, founded over 50 companies, and became the best selling author of “Miracle Morning Millionaires” with co-author, Hal Elrod.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * How saying “yes” to taking a trip around the world turned into a valuable learning experience for David * Why it’s a bigger risk to NOT take risks * How David’s book “Wealth Can’t Wait” & “Miracle Morning Millionaires” came about * Why you need to focus on hiring great people * Why you’ve got to put yourself in a position to get lucky * The importance of managing your expenses * Why David believes that there should be abundance for everyone * Why it’s vital to have clarity of your vision as a business owner * The power of working more effectively * Why you need to always be prospecting for next clients
Ways to contact David: * Website: www.davidosborn.com * Book: Miracle Morning Millionaire
Craig Clark is the CEO of Momentum Consulting — a consulting firm that guides organizations and their leaders in the areas of personal accountability and personal performance by developing and implementing successful strategies. He has spent the past 30 years becoming a foremost expert on the science of human dynamics in the business world and believes that the only reliable approach to produce breakthroughs at any level is to ask, “How do I see myself in the world and amongst others?”
What you'll learn about in this episode: * How having a breakthrough can change the way you see yourself in the world * Why it’s important to get “out of your box” * What you need to do to create change within your team * The importance of identifying behaviors in your organization * Why it’s vital to practice fundamentals * Why you should acknowledge your mistakes and use them as teachable moments * Taking accountability for your blind spots * Why self-development is a critical skill to master * Why it’s vital to create an environment where people can give feedback * Why you need to be in it for others — not yourself
Ways to contact Craig: * Website: momentumconsulting.com * Email: craig@momentumconsulting.com
Barbara Turley is an investor, entrepreneur, and the Founder & CEO of The Virtual Hub — a business she started by accident that exploded in the space of 12 months to become one of the leading companies that recruits, trains, and manages virtual assistants in the digital marketing and social media space for businesses who need to free up time and energy.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * The story of how Barbara “accidentally” started her business * Why it’s vital in business to find a problem that people will pay you to solve * The importance of mastering sales * Why you need to know how to create internal leverage within your business * The benefits of having a 10-15 minute daily ‘huddle’ with your team * How a business is really a set of systems — not a set of people * How a lot of entrepreneurs are great at having big picture ideas, but not at leading a team * Why your mindset is your most important asset * Why you need to be able to sell before you can scale * Why you need to stop expecting marketing to work
Ways to contact Barbara: * Website: www.thevirtualhub.com * Website: www.thevirtualhub.com/onwardnation * Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheVirtualHubLtd * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/barbara-turley-b6a981a
Jakob Heuser is the Owner and Principal of Lead SV — a consulting firm that develops custom learning and development solutions for engineering organizations and the teams they impact...with the goal of helping them retain their talent. Jakob has over 15 years experience leading people in both technical and management roles and loves the intersection of people and engineering and the challenges that emerge from that relationship.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Jakob’s focus on human-centered instruction and how it’s customized for the learner, not optimized for the instructor * How training needs to be real, relevant and repeatable to make an impact * The importance of defining what success looks like to you * Why it’s vital to put into practice what you learn in training * Why you need to put a time-box on your goals * How turning off your email notifications during the day can help you be more productive * Why it’s critical in business to ask people what they really want * The value of committing to the idea of always being better * How Jakob uses a stream of post-it notes to stay organized * How the pursuit of learning can contribute to your success as a business owner
Ways to contact Jakob: * Website: www.leadsv.com/onward * Website: www.leadsv.com/hcn * Facebook: www.facebook.com/engineeringleadership
Ed Molitor has spent the last 26 years developing his leadership skills and helping people, teams, and organizations become the best versions of themselves while coaching college basketball at the highest level, succeeding in one of the most competitive mortgage markets in the country...Chicago...and serving as VP of Operations in an industry-leading recruiting firm where he specialized in consulting clients and placing former, exiting, and retired military candidates in jobs throughout the country. Ed is also host of the podcast, The Athletics of Business.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * The story behind how Ed started his company, The Molitor Group * The value of working with the mindset of success * Why you should embrace failure * How Ed applies the principles taught in Stephen Covey’s book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” * Why you should focus on being a servant rather than being served * How self-discipline and where you direct your mind will generate your thoughts * The importance of mastering your calendar * Having a growth mindset vs. a fixed mindset * Why it’s critical to have a positive attitude and approach * Why you need to just focus on the task at hand AND what’s coming next
Ways to contact Ed: * Website: themolitorgroup.com * Twitter: @themolitorgroup * Facebook: www.facebook.com/themolitorgroup * Email: ed@themolitorgroup.com
Asha Saxena is a director for several for-profit companies. She served as CEO of ACULYST Corp., a Healthcare Data Analytics Firm, built an eCommerce Company and served as a CEO of Future Technologies Inc., an international data management solutions firm for twenty years. Asha is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School, where she teaches Big Data Analytics and Entrepreneurship courses for graduate students and is a keynote speaker on big data. She is also the host of the Dive With Data podcast.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * How to overcome the challenges of being the CEO of a very fast growing company at a young age * The importance of investing in your people when building a company * Why many businesses go out of business because of too much opportunity * Why you need to focus more on what you’re good at, rather than being a generalist * The value of aligning your business strategies to the technology that you have * The most important job of a true leader * The benefits of having a team who understands your vision and strategy * Why you need to define what success looks like for you * Why it’s critical to be a mentor to your employees * Why it’s vital to have a solid financial plan when starting a business
Ways to contact Asha: * Email: asha@ashasaxena.com or asha@divewithdata.com * Podcast: Dive With Data * Website: Future Technologies, Inc.
JT McCormick is the President and CEO of Scribe Media, a publishing company that’s created an entirely new way for you to write a book. The company has worked with nearly 1,000 authors, and was recently ranked in their category as the #2 best company to work for in Austin and #4 in their category for all of Texas. JT is also the author of “I Got There: How I Overcame Racism, Poverty, and Abuse to Achieve the American Dream.”
What you'll learn about in this episode: * The importance of documenting your family history and your life story so that your descendants know where they came from * The importance of pulling yourself up by the bootstraps, not letting excuses get in the way, and making something of yourself to achieve the American Dream * Why it takes a lot of guts and courage to open yourself up to potential criticism * Refusing to be a victim and overcoming your circumstances * How there is always the opportunity to change, whether that's during the next hour, the next day, the next week, the next year, or the next decade * The importance of not letting your destiny be determined by events that took place decades ago * How only you can change the things you don't like about your life * How to view Monday as the best day of the week by viewing life as a blessing and an opportunity * How being able to wake up every morning and work towards your goals and dreams is a blessing * The importance of credibility when it comes to thought leadership and lead generation
Ways to contact JT: * Twitter: @realjtmccormick
Carol Tuttle is a teacher, speaker, online influencer, and pioneer in the field of personal development. She’s the best-selling author of five books including her newest entitled, “Mastering Affluence,” releasing nationwide this fall. For over 25 years, she has supported hundreds of thousands of people worldwide with her life-changing books and online learning programs.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Branding your name and face: why it’s one of the first things Carol did and why she believes it’s so important * The correlation Carol discovered between marketing in book stores and marketing books on the World Wide Web * Why it’s good to emulate what successful people in your field are doing and why Carol chose to do what best-selling authors were doing * The subtle shift Carol made along the way to make her audience the star rather than focusing all the attention on herself * Why Carol believes she is her own story and why that makes all the difference in the way she tends to her business * The importance of training your thoughts and controlling the inner voice that guides your action and how Carol works with her audience to begin reprogramming their thoughts to put their goals in the driver’s seat rather than their fears, their hurt, or their anger * Your thoughts are like a muscle: why Carol believes this and what it means for you as an individual * Why Carol subtitled her book “Six Lessons to Create a Life Your Love” and what those six lessons are * The habit Carol practices that she believes has contributed to her success
Ways to contact Carol: * Facebook: www.facebook.com/caroltuttle * Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/dressyourtruth * Instagram: @caroltuttle * Twitter: @caroltuttle * Books: www.amazon.com/Carol-Tuttle/e/B001K8PEX4
Good Morning — I’m Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and your host for Onward Nation. I’m excited to share today’s episode with you because my hope is that’s going to helpful to you in a couple of different ways.
So here’s the first way…
This episode loops back and connects with the video we aired last week on our Predictive ROI YouTube channel where I shared some insights around how to create content while you’re running your business.
I know you’re busy. I know you have a compressed schedule. I know there are not enough hours in the day to lead your team, take great care of clients, devote yourself to your family, your community, and the myriad of other roles and responsibilities that are important and you want to show for as your best self.
And through all of that…you’re being encouraged to create weekly, if not daily, cornerstone content that firmly plants your flag — your point of view into solid ground — which becomes your thought leadership — and to do that in such a way it drives revenue back into your business.
Seriously…how is there possibly enough time in a day or week to get it all done? And yet it is possible — with the right framework in place.
Here’s what I mean.
Full show notes available here: https://predictiveroi.com/podcasts/stephen-woessner-solocast-episode-79
Nicole Holland is a podcast guesting authority who has been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, and The Huffington Post, as well as countless podcasts and virtual productions. She is often called upon to share her expertise with business owners throughout the United States and Canada who are interested in leveraging modern marketing strategies in order to increase their visibility, likability, and credibility.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * How podcast guesting can positively impact your business and your overall brand * How to do podcast guesting the right way to maximize the positive influence it has on your business, brand, and sales * How business owners can get their message out about their business, brand, and products * How to build and scale a business for success after the early formative years * Whys podcasts are a good opportunity to not just get a message out to the public, but also to build strong relationships * How some guests are just trying to get their message on as many platforms as possible * The importance of being a good guest when it comes to podcasts and how to be a good guest * How referrals and connections can be the source of your most wonderful clients and customers * The importance of making the most of every podcast guesting opportunity as an entrepreneur or business owner * How the podcast guests who get the biggest results are the ones with the most bandwidth and resources
Ways to contact Nicole: * Twitter: @niczthename * Website: interviewsthatconvert.com
Over the past two decades, Jon Tota has established himself as a pioneer in online education for corporate training. He began his career on Wall Street in sales and technology positions at PaineWebber and UBS. Then after years as a business analyst to some of the largest firms in financial services, Jon co-founded Edulence in 2002 to develop online training solutions for corporate educators. He now spends his time focused on discovering the best experts and helping them turn their knowledge into a subscription business on Knowledgelink.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * How Knowledgelink Network morphed in to what it is today * Why you should turn your knowledge into a product and then scale it * The power of having a positive focus * The importance of building a strong team that will support you * Why you need to be able to pivot and adapt as a business owner * Why you should focus on profit margins rather than revenue growth * A valuable lesson that taught Jon how to be secure when it comes to handling failure * The value of developing systems around decision-making * Why you should focus on the one thing where you provide the most value * Why you need to focus on moving a little bit closer to your goal every day
Ways to contact Jon: * Website: knowledgelinknetwork.com * Podcast: Learning Life
Don Barden is a speaker, author, professor, and advisor. He is also someone who practices what he preaches. Don is the owner and managing partner of 3Ci – an Atlanta-based business and technology consulting firm employing over 300 people, diversified into leadership training, financial sales consulting, and technology staffing. His books are published in over 39 countries, including The Perfect Plan – revolutionary outcome of his 10-year global research study to discover what the world’s top performing business leaders and sales professionals do differently. And Don was awarded the distinction of being named one of The Top 30 Most Transformational Leaders 2017 in North America, by John Maxwell.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * The conversation that sparked Don’s curiosity for behavioral economics * How there is a universal quality about people who perform at the highest levels in leadership * Understanding why and how elite performers make the decisions that they do * The value that comes from treating people the way that they want to be treated * Why being great at something means that you have to be humble and serve others * How emotions are such a dominant fact in decision-making today * How men and women compare on the emotional scale * Why you need to surround yourself with other people who will hold you accountable * Why you shouldn’t hire someone just because you like them * The importance of having an attitude of gratitude
Ways to contact Don: * Email: don@dwbarden.com * Website: leadershipmindsetseries.com
Mary Shores is the founder and CEO of Midstate Collection Solutions — which has collected more than $40 million to date for its clients. As a speaker, entrepreneur, and CEO, she teaches business owners how to fearlessly create their own realities and reach their full potential by using her groundbreaking “Words That Work System.” Mary is also author of the book, “Conscious Communications: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Harnessing the Power of Your Words to Change Your Mind, Your Choices, and Your Life.”
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Mary’s “words that work” system was born * Why you need to tell people what you can do rather than what you can’t do * The value that comes from creating connections with your customers * How your own belief systems can hold you back from living the life of your dreams * Why you need to shift your energy and focus on a state of empowerment vs. disempowerment * How Mary created the time to write her book, “Conscious Communications” * The importance of setting up systems and processes in your business and documenting everything * Why you need to have a consistent training program set up in your business * How having a one-page action plan for smaller projects will minimize overwhelm * What you can gain by asking yourself the question, “Where do you want to be two years from now?”
Ways to contact Mary: * Website: maryshores.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/shoresmary * Facebook Group: Fearless Ambition * Book: "Conscious Communications"
John Oechsle is the President and CEO of Swiftpage — providing digital marketing and CRM solutions that help businesses grow, including Act!…their flagship and industry-leading software. He has an over 30-year track record of building highly profitable and sustainable revenue growth for emerging companies and established global leaders, including DigitalGlobe, Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, Land America Financial Group, and Kellogg Company.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Why you need to marry business and technology to be successful * The #1 barrier that people need to overcome in order to scale * The value that comes from getting everyone to move in the same direction * The importance of creating a culture where everyone has a purpose * Why you need to lay out a 90-day strategy plan * A common mistake that many small businesses make * How to be a fearless leader * Why it’s important to have alignment and focus when going through a transformation * Why you need to have courage, tenacity, and passion to thrive as a business owner * A valuable lesson that John learned about having a vision
Ways to contact John: * Twitter: @hjoech * Email: joechsle@swiftpage.com
Mike Compton is the co-founder and executive producer of Three Chairs Productions, a video production and marketing company that specializes in broadcast, online, and digital content serving a variety of regional and national clients. They help with the production of a client’s content, as well as manage, measure, and optimize video to drive greater results. Mike is passionate about producing strong creative videos that are engaging, stimulating, and empowering.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Why you need to build a culture — not just a brand * Creating lists to help you stay focused on your most vital priorities * Why you should start with small goals and build up from there * The importance of nurturing the relationships that mean the most to you * Staying focused on your goals at all times and keeping moving forward * An important lesson that Mike learned about growing your business by doing the right thing * Why building a strong network is critical for success today * The value that comes from surrounding yourself with people who are going to push you in the right direction * Why you need to stay in front of your customers and prospects on a consistent basis * The significance of staying the course during challenging times and not being afraid to pivot
Ways to contact Mike: * Email: mike@threechairsproductions.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/ThreeChairsProductions * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/three-chairs-productions
Our special encore guest today is Mitch Russo. In 1985, Mitch co-founded Timeslips Corp, which grew to become the largest time tracking software company in the world. Timeslips was later sold to Sage and Mitch went on to run all of Sage U.S. as Chief Operating Officer, a division with over 300 people. Later, Mitch joined Chet Holmes and Tony Robbins and together created Business Breakthroughs International, a company serving thousands of businesses a year with coaching, consulting, and training services. Today, Mitch helps companies with courses and training programs to get their students to complete their programs and be more successful. Now...you may remember Mitch and the wisdom he shared during Episodes 340 and 368. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 340 and 368 to your list of vital priorities.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * What Mitch enjoys most about his podcast, Your First Thousand Clients * How having a podcast can provide an important business development component * Why being a guest on a podcast can provide you with great opportunity for exposure * The multiple benefits of looking at success with a three dimensional perspective * The power that comes from asking yourself, “Who do you want to be?” * Why it’s vital to be able to give of yourself at the highest level when it comes to mentoring * Why building your audience is truly about the art of communication * A personal and powerful story that changed Mitch’s life forever * Why you should tie your business to something that you’re passionate about * Creating accountability partnerships with the Results Breakthrough Network
Ways to contact Mitch: * Website: mitchrusso.com * Website: ResultsBreakthrough.com
Jay Owen is the Founder and CEO of Design Extensions, a digital agency he started at the age of 17 — while still in high school — and continues to run today. His goal is to help businesses grow online, become more efficient through online marketing, and to create a better image and brand for themselves and their companies. Jay is also the host of the “Building a Business That Lasts” podcast, where he interviews other business owners who have over 10-years of experience and want to share their stories to help others.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Why supportive relationships are so critical to long term success * How building constraints into your calendar can help you create freedom * Why you need to be producing cornerstone content * Taking what you learn from the books that you read and applying it in your life * Why it’s so important as a business owner to take the time to disconnect * Why you need to build your business to sell * How relationship development extends into every area of your business * Why you need to find a way to develop recurring revenue * The value that comes from having tactical business education * Why you need to ask yourself “How can I do that better next time?”
Ways to contact Jay: * Twitter: @owendesign * Website: www.designextensions.com * Book: "Building a Business That Lasts"
Greg Gray is the Founder and CEO of Gray Solutions where he is a leadership and business consultant. He has a background in lean methods, project management, strategic planning, business development, operations management, and human capital. Greg and his team specialize in providing mentoring, training, and coaching to people and organizations in the industries of agriculture, manufacturing, franchising, biotechnology, textiles, services, insurance, and network marketing. He is also the host of the new podcast, “Business Owner Freedom.”
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Why we’re going to see a lot more consolidation in certain industries * Why small business owners are craving tools and resources that larger corporations have had for a long time * The story behind why Greg titled his podcast “Business Owner Freedom” and how he curates content around that topic * Why a lot of business owners are “accidental” business owners * Common obstacles that many business owners face when trying to get to the next level * How to create a more sellable business and why you need to consider your business as an asset * Why it’s critical to master your own blind spots * The value that comes from working with an executive coach * Why you should never try to mimic what someone else is doing, but rather be the best version of YOU * The importance of having a marketing system in place for your business
Ways to contact Greg: * Website: www.businessownerfreedom.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/gregory-gray-2661013
Jordan Harbinger has always had an affinity for social influence, interpersonal dynamics, and social engineering...helping private companies test the security of their communications systems. He then spent several years abroad in Europe and the developing world, including South America, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East, and speaks several languages. He has also traveled through war-zones and been kidnapped...twice. He’ll tell you...the only reason he’s still alive is because of his ability to talk his way into...and out of...just about any type of situation.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * How Jordan got started in decoding human behavior * The power of getting people to know, like and trust you and how that can be your competitive advantage * How doing good things for other people will help get you what you want * Why body language and non-verbal communication skills matter * How Jordan’s podcast, The Jordan Harbinger Show, got its start * The benefits of being insatiably curious * How to improve your social dynamic skill set * Why it’s important to focus on outreach networking and re-engaging with old connections * The one area of your business where you can’t make up for lost time * How to increase the rate of reply to an email
Ways to contact Jordan: * Podcast: The Jordan Harbinger Show * Training Program: advancedhumandynamics.com/levelone
Tom Kulzer is the founder and CEO at AWeber, a leading small business email marketing software, where he is actively involved in the company's strategic direction, growth, and evolution. Over the company's 20-year history, Tom has nurtured it from a small start-up to a robust organization serving over 100,000 customers, all without public or venture funding. He laid the foundation for AWeber while working at a computer hardware firm in the mid-90s where he realized sales prospects were falling through the cracks due to the lack of proper follow up. By automating the delivery of personalized follow-up emails to prospects, company-wide sales skyrocketed, and sales associates had additional time to spend pursuing new prospects.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Reinventing yourself and your team as it grows * Why you should focus on creating remarkable experiences * Looking at how meaningful we can make relationships and connections in our lives * Why you need to be adaptable as a business owner in order to thrive * The value of understanding that you don’t know what you don’t know * Seeking out a professional network that you can confide in * The importance of getting uncomfortable and stretching your boundaries * How to overcome fear and uncertainty * Why you need to have a set of goals that aren’t so big that they feel insurmountable * How we can be our own biggest bottleneck
Ways to contact Tom: * Twitter: @tkulzer * Email: tom@aweber.com * Website: aweber.com/connect * Blog: blog.aweber.com
Tracey Wozney is the founder and director of Taking Shape, a non-profit organization whose mission is to grow young leaders who impact others Here, Near and Far. She is the publisher of the STAR Leadership youth leadership curriculum program that is used by over 35 affiliate dance studios, youth clubs, and organizations throughout the nation. Tracey has recently launched a mission camp organization serving children in Port au Prince, Haiti where young leaders serve on a global front. Tracey is also a business owner of dance schools in rural Missouri for over 25 years and is an Enterprise member with Misty Lown’s More Than Just Great Dancing studio owner coaching program...and you may remember Misty as our guest here on Onward Nation for Episode 80 and 544.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * How Tracey’s farm background influenced her work ethic * The passion and purpose behind Tracy’s non-profit, Taking Shape * The importance of implementing the tools that you’re given * How time management and prioritization have contributed to Tracey’s success * Why you need to focus on working on the business, not in the business * The value of mastering the skill of organization * What true leadership means to Tracey * Finding out what your ‘why’ is in life
Ways to contact Tracey: * Website: www.takingshape.care * Email: tracey@takingshape.care
Ron Carucci is co-founder and managing partner at Navalent and is a seasoned consultant with more than 25 years of experience working with CEOs and senior executives of organizations ranging from Fortune 50s to start-ups in pursuit of transformational change. He’s a two-time TEDx speaker, a popular contributor at Harvard Business Review and Forbes, and is the best selling author of the book, “Rising to Power.”
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Why you need to be open to receiving change * The importance of having a sense of your most vital daily priorities * The value in starting your day with gratitude * The one thing that every entrepreneur has to decide * Why you should pay attention and understand your impact on others * The power of demonstrating that we care about other people’s stories * Why you shouldn’t be afraid to ask for help in areas that you need to stretch and learn * Why you should seek out people who push you * Why you need to take control of your narrative * Setting your sights on what you can do to help other people succeed
Ways to contact Ron: * Website: www.navalent.com * Twitter: @RonCarucci * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/navalent
Resources: * Book: “Rising to Power” * Free eBook: www.navalent.com/transformation
Brian Burke is an active owner and president of SellYourMac.com, the world’s most trusted and highest independently rated Apple trade-in company and whose mission is to make it fast, safe, and easy to buy, sell, and service Apple products. His company has served over 100,000 customers, paid out $19 million, and has been featured on USA TODAY, MacWorld, and ABC News.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * How Brian’s passion for sales and entrepreneurship led to him starting his business, SellYourMac.com * The importance of having systems and processes in place * Brian’s business model and why there will never be a shortage of used Apple products to resell * How packaging can play a key part in the consumer experience * The importance of developing healthy habits * Why it’s critical to have a clear vision for your business * How determination and persistence helped Brian to become the business owner that he is today * Why you need to have data tracking analytics in place * The benefits of having a team that supports one another * The value of staying ahead of the competition
Ways to contact Brian: * Website: www.SellYourMac.com * LinkedIn (personal): linkedin.com/in/brianburke4 * LinkedIn (company): linkedin.com/company/sellyourmac.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/sellyourmac
Paul Spiegelman is the co-founder of the Small Giants Community, a peer-group of purpose-driven business leaders. He is the former chief culture officer of Stericycle, the co-founder and former CEO of BerylHealth and the founder and chairman of The Beryl Institute. He’s a New York Times bestselling author and has been honored with the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. Paul is a columnist for Forbes.com and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and Inc. Magazine.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * How the Small Giants community got its start * The impact that accepting outside capital can have on your business * How to measure the ROI of your business’ culture * How to create a values and purpose-driven business that is sustainable * The three things that every team member wants * The power of focusing not just on your company’s vision, but on every employee’s vision * How to approach having tough conversations with your employees * The value of having a mentor as an entrepreneur * Why you shouldn’t underestimate what your gut is telling you * Why you need to pay attention to how you spend your time and prioritize your work
Ways to contact Paul: * Website: paulspiegelman.com * Website: smallgiants.org
Good Morning...I’m Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and your host for Onward Nation.
Before we dive into today’s episode — which is going to be a solocast where it’ll be just you and me spending some time together exploring a topic that my team and I have been watching very closely — I want to make sure you’ve heard about our new Alexa Flash Briefing that we launched yesterday...and how you can get free access to the daily content.
You can activate it with a simple voice command to your Amazon Echo device by saying…“Alexa, enable the Onward Nation Flash Briefing” and you will be all set to receive our daily, short, business building tips and strategies anytime you ask Alexa for your Flash Briefing.
Please give it a try and let me know what you think — thumbs up or thumbs down. Your feedback helps us get better each and every day.
And if you’re asking yourself, “What the heck is an Alexa Flash Briefing?”... during our time together in this solocast...I’m going to share the ins and outs to Alexa Skills and Briefings and how Alexa can impact your biz dev strategy in big ways...and I will share why my team and I at Predictive ROI have been studying the broader category of “Voice” for a while now...and I will even take you behind-the-curtain into the four reasons we felt it was important for us to launch the Onward Nation Flash Briefing.
Full show notes available here: https://predictiveroi.com/podcasts/stephen-woessner-solocast-episode-78/
Elizabeth Engen is an Online Business Strategist and Founder of Premier SEO Ninjas - a digital marketing agency that helps doctors and lawyers grow their practices by creating online strategies that increase their number of clients and boost their bottom line. Premier SEO Ninjas aims to be the leading provider of innovative, comprehensive, state-of-the-art, and results-driven digital and Internet marketing solutions to enable their clients to become successful.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Elizabeth’s path that made her realize that she’d been in the wrong line of work for 18 years * The struggles many business owners go through trying to balance the desire to gain customers in any way possible with learning to focus on the niche that suits them * How Elizabeth learned to keep negative ideas and beliefs from gaining a foothold and prevent her from pursuing promising business opportunities * The way Elizabeth approaches sales with the mindset of what she’s got to offer versus what she’s going to gain from the encounter * The advice she received from mentors to get herself into a “beautiful state” when it came time to approach a new business opportunity * The technique Elizabeth’s team use to start each morning, where they answer questions designed to establish the tone of how they’d approach the rest of the day * Why Elizabeth feels it’s important for entrepreneurs to start out with solid goals and an idea of the traits their ideal client would have * The way Elizabeth learned to use the story of her own path to bond with potential new customers and give them a reason to want to do business with her * How her company differentiated themselves from other competitors by proving their worth to clients with solid research * Elizabeth’s recommendations to new business owners to use affirmative prayer, reflection, and set yourself up properly for the next chapter in your life
Ways to contact Elizabeth: * Website: premierseoninjas.com/onward-nation * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/%E2%9C%AF-elizabeth-engen-630460113 * YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCgq84bc2q8Wbh56335qiEDA/videos
Our special encore guest today is Chris Prefontaine. Chris has been in the trenches of the real estate industry for over 25 years. His company has done over $80 million in real estate transactions. He is a practitioner at heart — which is why his company still buys between 4 to 10 properties each month where Chris and his family practices what he preaches. He is the author of the best selling book, “Real Estate on Your Terms.”
I invited Chris back for an encore because of a fundamental problem that most business owners struggle with -- how to get their wealth out of their business and into other assets -- just in case they don’t have an opportunity to sell the business -- or even if they do sell the business -- awesome -- the diversification of assets can provide a very balanced portfolio. And real estate may be one of those investment strategies to consider as you are building out your plan.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * How to get your wealth out of a business and into other assets while still running the business smoothly * Diversifying your portfolio in real estate * How to develop and help people grow to reach their full potential * How to run a family business smoothly and efficiently * The unique advantages and disadvantages of running a family business * The importance of having each family member take on a specific role within a family business * How to show people that they actually have a pathway to financing and homeownership * How to amass millions in cash outs over the next three years * How to make money from the three paydays of real estate and how to morph the three paydays into four or even five paydays * Whether you should have accountants and attorneys advise you for higher-end deals
Ways to contact Chris: * Website: www.smartrealestatecoach.com * Twitter: @chrispre * Book: "Real Estate on Your Terms: Create Continuous Cash Flow Now, Without Using Your Cash Or Credit"
Chad Littlefield and Will Wise are Co-founders of We!™ — an organization whose mission is to create conversations that matter. Chad is a keynote speaker, who has spoken at TEDx and is the creator of We! Connect Cards™, which are now used to create conversations that matter on campuses and companies in over 50 countries around the world. Will has over two decades of experience in custom building leadership programs for corporate and non-profit groups. Together, Chad and Will have launched a new book, Ask Powerful Questions: Create Conversations that Matter, now a #1 Amazon.com Bestseller.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Getting clear on creating conversations that matter * Small talk vs. conversations that matter * Why you need to ensure that there is trust within your organization * Communicating with a person based on what they’re doing vs. who they’re being * The power of being clear about your intent and sharing it * How to not have impossible conversations * Low curiosity small talk vs. high curiosity small talk * How to increase the climate of belonging in your business * Why you should follow your natural genuine curiosity * A powerful question to ask yourself repeatedly that will reap great rewards
Ways to contact Chad & Will: * Website: weand.me * Free tools: weand.me/ideas
Ron Alvesteffer is the President and CEO of Service Express, a company that specializes in on-site data center hardware maintenance services. Under his leadership, Service Express has averaged double-digit revenue growth year over year and has expanded their geographic footprint nationally. Service Express has been named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing privately held companies for 10-years, but Ron is most proud of their strong company culture which has led to the company being named one of the nation’s Best and Brightest Companies to work for for the past several years.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * How Ron decided on his 2020 BHAG goal for Service Express and worked to achieve it by focusing on nurturing the personal growth of the people they hired * Working to help Service Express consistently achieve double-digit growth each year by using the type of employees they hired as the differentiator from their competition * The way Ron feels it’s important to always let people know the value they add to a company * How Service Express came up with a system presenting the personal ROI of employees to keep everyone on the same page when it comes to achieving overall company goals * The importance of setting a clear direction for employees to prevent them from feeling lost or not needed by the company * Service Express’ use of mentors as a way of providing consistent feedback to employees about their performance and their hopes for future development * How Ron feels putting their employees first, even over customers, helps them provide a better overall service experience * Ron passing on his habit of reading each day to his employees as a way to engage their minds and encourage new ideas to aid growth * The importance of developing skills aiding in picking the right people for your company * What Ron learned from his early mistakes in recruiting the wrong people and how he refined his choices using the topgrading interview methodology * The way Ron took to heart lessons from his mentor on making connections with the people who worked for his company
Ways to contact Ron: * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ronalvesteffer * Email: ron@serviceexpress.com * Blog: ronalvesteffer.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/weareserviceexpress, www.facebook.com/ronalvesteffer * eBook: www.serviceexpress.com/careers/the-service-express-ebook
Stacy Jones is the CEO and founder of Hollywood Branded, a Los Angeles influencer and entertainment marketing and strategy agency. She has over 20 years of leadership experience building global influencer and entertainment branding campaigns for top Fortune 500 companies and hundreds of brands. Acknowledged as an expert in the field, Stacy has appeared on CNN and MSNBC, spoken at conferences around the globe from Germany to Beijing, and has been featured in Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Advertising Age, and other media outlets.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Why influencer marketing has become so significant for both brands and influencers * The difference between a ‘social’ celebrity and ‘real’ celebrity * Why all celebrities need to figure out how to be social influencers * How to determine if you should make social influence part of your marketing plan * Why micro-influencers have more power than any other type of influencer out there * Creating a paid course curriculum based on cornerstone content from a podcast * What a strong influencer campaign looks like * Things that you cannot ask an influencer to do * The importance of helping your employees to continually grow * Why it’s critical to develop processes and put systems in place sooner rather than later
Ways to contact Stacy: * Email: stacy@hollywoodbranded.com * Website: HollywoodBranded.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/hollywoodbrandedinc * Twitter: @Hollywood_PR * Instagram: @hollywoodbranded
Resources * Blog: blog.hollywoodbranded.com * Programs and Reports: learn.hollywoodbranded.com
Phil Singleton is a web designer, SEO expert, award-winning author and CEO of the digital agency, Kansas City Website Design & SEO. He is co-author of the Amazon bestseller, “SEO for Growth: The Ultimate Guide for Marketers, Web Designers and Entrepreneurs” — a book that he co-wrote with John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing and listed as a top marketing book by Huffington Post. He’s also the author of a popular WordPress SEO plugin that has been downloaded over 100,000 times in the last year. Phil’s latest venture, Podcast Bookers, is a service that helps marketers and executives get booked on established podcasts.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * How after returning stateside after 10 years in Taiwan, Phil successfully began to develop websites while living in Kansas City and soon saw the potential they added to ecommerce * The growing importance of SEO (search engine optimization) for those buying and selling items on the internet * The value of sharing information on other podcasts, especially in areas of well-defined expertise, such as Phil's awareness of the impact of SEO * Ways that appearing as a guest on another's podcast also increases the person's credentials as they share the expertise with other podcasters, even if they have their own show * How having an expertise in SEO and understanding the impact of a well-written call to action (CTA) allow you to enhance your web presence and ranking * Ways that podcast guests can help promote themselves and the podcast they appeared on by sending a resource email of things mentioned on the show, SEO suggestions, and other content to assist the host * Reasons that some podcast guests offer to assist with funding the transcription of the broadcast, since it benefits them as well as the person who interviewed them on the podcast * The significance of reviews and the growing review-based culture in which many entities with an online presence will ask you to evaluate their online offerings * How the quality of podcasts have improved as talent brings their best stuff and shares their ideas * Ways that focusing on an SEO strategy that emphasizes personal branding and the authority people bring to the table drives more traffic to high-quality web pages
Ways to contact Phil: * Websites: kcwebdesigner.com, seoforgrowth.com, kcseopro.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/seokansascity * Facebook: www.facebook.com/kcseopro, www.facebook.com/philipmsingleton * Twitter: @kcseopros, @seoforgrowth * Book: “SEO for Growth: The Ultimate Guide for Marketers, Web Designers & Entrepreneurs”
Ken Pasch is the President of KiVisions Inc., a leader development company that utilizes the innovative 7-Step Successful Ventures in Human Dynamics Model™ and the Make Your M.A.R.K! cycle™ — the basis for the entire leader development process. He’s a leadership authority, having worked for 30 years to develop, test, and refine the process that revolutionizes the tools available to leaders. Ken is the host of the syndicated radio show “Unlock Your Full Potential” and is also the author of the book, "On Course: Become a Great Leader and Soar!”
What you'll learn about in this episode: * The value of sharing the "we-win" mentality, providing information that helps others become better at the things you already do so they can advance as well * Why leaders try to get everyone on board so that they realize that their contributions really matter * The importance of looking for things that cause us to drag, slow us down, and ultimately impact our return on investment * How good people become great leaders by adopting the proper mindsets and skill sets in tandem * Why true leaders have the courage and confidence to listen to others' input and build the team before making a final decision * The significance of focusing on priorities and clearly demonstrating in your deeds that you are a leader who does what you do for higher purposes * How people become great leaders by having the desire to succeed, following the process that takes them where they want to go, and accepting constructive criticism along the way * The significance of mentorship in professional development * Reasons that "good" is not good enough when we have so much more potential within ourselves * Why leadership development is not a one-size-fits-all proposition, meaning that we need to work with people at their expected level of "leader-readiness" and devote our energies to emerging leaders, growing from there
Ways to contact Ken: * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ken-pasch-certified-leader-coach-713b4a2 * Website: www.kivisions.com * Twitter: @Ken_Pasch * Facebook: www.facebook.com/KiVisions * Book: "On Course: Become a Great Leader & Soar!" * Community: The Make Your M.A.R.K.! Community™
Matt Theriault is a real estate investor and mentor, entrepreneur, author, and United States Marine Corps Desert Storm Veteran, who teaches people how to create wealth, financial independence and freedom through financial literacy and a creative real estate investing education. He’s built a cash-flowing real estate portfolio of over 100 units over the last 10 years. using a conservative, simple, and efficient approach. Matt is also the host of two podcasts, including the popular real estate investing podcast, Epic Real Estate Investing and Do Over, a top-rated personal development podcast.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * How Matt recovered from a failed venture in the independent music industry by refocusing his energies in the area of real estate investing * Three ways that his real estate investing has taken shape in the past 12 years: doing it with you, doing it for you, or showing you how to do it yourself * Ways that real estate investing allowed him to focus on developing strategies to live largely off of residual income with a plan for that income to exceed his monthly expenses * How the first step involved taking care of basic necessities, followed by a plan to create his own wealth and a solid financial foundation once he had surpassed that point * The value of maintaining a to-do list and assessing your goals every quarter, as well as making sure you get the top three things on your list out of the way * Why we must remember that technology enhancements do not diminish the importance of having strong communication and people skills * The significance that his "Daily Success Report" has had in strengthening both his financial awareness and his ability to share his expertise with others * How Matt's podcast has become an incredibly successful part of his business through the way it attracts clients and builds relationships with them * Matt's three strategies for new business owners: 1. Education is important, but expert-level education is not necessary; 2. Create an environment for success by associating with others doing what you want to do; and 3. Find a mentor among those associates * Why building networks with those having mutual interests is a great investment in time
Ways to contact Matt: * Facebook: www.facebook.com/EpicRealEstateInvesting * Podcast: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/epic-real-estate-investing/id446611090?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 * Twitter: @EpicREInvesting * YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UC8ZYmCweKD2x-wy8PDEiFog * Daily Success Report: epicrealestate.com/daily-success-report
Shannon Adkins is the President and CEO of Future State, a consulting firm that works with companies and their leaders to help them realize their “Future State” and remain productive inside a constant state of change. In 1996, she started working for a small company, Tech Prose, where she successfully started the web division. Shannon worked for numerous startups and tech companies before returning to Tech Prose, where she helped to revive the company. The changes led to a doubling in revenue in 24-months, new offerings, new clients, new leaders, and a new name, Future State, where she has served as the CEO since 2015.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * A take-away lesson that Shannon learned early on in her career * Why we need more businesses that recognize that people should be their most strategic asset — not profit * The benefits of building your culture with intention * How to ensure that your system works cohesively * The power of knowing what makes your business unique * Why you need to ask for and receive feedback through every interaction that you have * How it’s not about what you know — it’s about what you’re willing to learn * Creating outrageous visions for yourself
Ways to contact Shannon: * Website: www.futurestate.com
Chip Franks is the co-founder of JoeVolunteer— a philanthropic company that connects people who need help with people who want to help…by using an app that’s like Uber for volunteers. He was also a successful real estate broker, having owned a residential real estate and property management company with 20 agents and a staff of 10, which he sold in March 2017 following a stroke. After selling his company, Chip wrote his first book, "Life Lessons from Dad: 101 Ways to Get More From Life”.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * The power of doing something good for yourself every single day * A turning point in Chip’s life that lead him to create an app for volunteers, Joe Volunteer * Why you need to lead with revenue * An important question that all entrepreneurs need to ask themselves * Finding a way to impact as many people as possible * The three big components that can help you to get really good at what you do * How self-development is the best thing that you can do to live a better life and create a better business * The emotional story behind why Chip wrote his book, “Life Lessons from Dad: 101 Ways to Get More From Life” * Taking control of your day vs. the day taking control of you
Ways to contact Chip: * Website: chipfranks.com * Book: "Life Lessons from Dad: 101 Ways to Get More From Life (From Someone Who Loves You)" * Free Report: lifelessonsbonus.com
Our special encore guest today is Bill Troy. He is an Inc. 500 CEO who helps global brands like Sony, Disney, and Nestle see the world from a different perspective. As CEO of Civilis Marketing, Bill and his team help companies initiate and nurture relationships that drive business growth using today’s digital communication tools. He is also the author of the book “CLICKSAND: How Online Marketing Will Destroy Your Business (And The Unlikely Secret To Saving It).” Now...you may remember Bill and the wisdom he shared during Episode 597. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 597 to your list of vital priorities.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Why Bill was driven to write his book “CLICKSAND” * The importance of being more specific when it comes to business development and recruiting * Why you should not be afraid to repel potential customers * How millennials are looking for personal relationships as a source of trust * Using modern marketing tools to create something of value * Why you need to start with what you want to accomplish and THEN choose the tools * Recognizing the ‘magical moments’ in the relationships that you’re developing * Why you shouldn’t have a fear of scaling your business to get larger customers * Hiring people who will add value to your team * Why you need to think like an owner — not like a manager
Ways to contact Bill: * Website: www.clicksand.net/onward
Our special encore guest today is Tim Fargo. He is a successful entrepreneur, speaker, and investor and founded investigative business firm Omega Insurance Services in 1996 with a credit card, grew it to over 300 employees, and sold it in 2003 for $20 million. He is now the President and CEO of socialjukebox.com — a social media content management system he developed and designed. Tim is also the author of Alphabet Success — Keeping it Simple. My Secrets to Success. Now...you may remember Tim and the wisdom he shared back in Episode 63 of Onward Nation. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 63 to your list of vital priorities.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * How the freemium model works well for some business models and service offerings, but doesn't work as well for others * How to determine whether the freemium model will work for your own business model * How paying customers tend to be the easiest work with while "free" customers have a tendency to ask lazy questions * Why many companies invest a lot of resources into creating a free product only to not receive much in terms of returns from the free product * The differences between the freemium model and offering a free trial, and how to transition from the former to the latter * How very few people tend to convert from the freemium model to the paid version of the product * The importance of focusing on the needs of your business and not paying attention to what others believe you need to do or have to be successful * How moving away from the freemium model can reduce operating costs without impacting the top line revenue of a business * The importance of recognizing that it is largely a waste of time to try and please everyone, particularly individuals who cannot be pleased under any reasonable circumstances * How not every customer or client is an individual that your company should have a relationship and that it is okay to let some customers or clients go * The importance of choosing the freemium model for the right reasons and not because someone told you that you should
Ways to contact Tim: * Website: www.socialjukebox.com (Use code “Onward20” for a special Onward Nation listener discount) * Email: tim@socialjukebox.com * Book: "Alphabet Success: Keeping It Simple - My Secrets to Success" * Twitter: @tim_fargo * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/timothyfargo
Anese Cavanaugh is devoted to helping people show up and bring their best selves to the table in order to create significant positive impact in their lives. She is the founder and creator of the Intentional Energetic Presence Method, an advisor and thinking partner to leaders and organizations around the world, and author of Contagious Culture: Show Up, Set the Tone, and Intentionally Create an Organization That Thrives. In addition to appearing in publications like Harvard Business Review, The Huffington Post, and the NY Times, and she writes regularly for Inc.com in her column “Showing Up”. And...she is currently working on her next book due out this year.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * How to bring best self to the table on a regular basis and have a good impact on the lives of your employees, customers, and the people around you * How to have an intentionally energetic presence through the way you walk into a room, engage in a conversation, etc. * How cultivating an intentionally energetic presence will give you the influence and foundation you need to make great things happen in both your business and personal life * The importance of the IEP method, which emphasizes impact, self-care, and people, and how to make this method work for you * How to reboot your presence no matter where you are and no matter the circumstances * How to build a strong energetic foundation so that you are able to be resilient and recover your stamina and energy so that you are able to effectively lead * The importance of having clean intentions that are in the service of others and not just yourself * How having good intentions and making these intentions clear will make it easier for you to persuade people to help you work towards a goal * The importance of doing away with the idea that self-care is somehow selfish or unnecessary * How taking extra time for yourself will make it easier for you to create an impact * How you need to be able to show up for yourself first before you are able to how up for others
Ways to contact Anese: * Book: Contagious Culture: Show Up, Set the Tone, and Intentionally Create an Organization that Thrives * Live event: www.anesecavanaugh.com/iepmethod/iep-live-2-day-event * Website: www.anesecavanaugh.com * Twitter: @AneseCavanaugh * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/anesecavanaugh
Our special encore guest today is Scott Dubois. He is the co-founder of Pidalia, a digital agency in Boston, that provides clients with solutions to their challenges in advertising, software design, and business process management. Scott specializes in media selection, campaign strategy, and analytics and applies his knowledge of business processes through consultation with clients. Scott is also an internationally recognized speaker on the topics of marketing strategy, user engagement, and cross-media communications. Now...you may remember Scott and the wisdom he shared during Episode 526. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 526 to your list of vital priorities.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * The importance of having an onboarding process for your clients * Why you should use a survey data tool to gather client feedback * Why Scott believes that success cannot be defined * How the failure of Scott’s first business taught him a huge life lesson * What makes an ‘A-player’ an ‘A-player’ * The power of being able to ‘see around the curve’ * How to become a better mentor to your team * Why you need to realize that it’s about your team — not about you * The benefits and value of adding an assistant to your team * Focusing on the plan — not just the achievement
Ways to contact Scott: * Website: pidalia.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/scottdubois
Dr. John Johnson is the President and CEO of Edgeworth Economics, one of the most prominent economic consulting firms in the world. He uses econometrics and economic theory to develop careful analyses in a wide range of antitrust, labor and employment, class action and damages-related matters. He writes and presents on economic topics related to litigation, including several highly-cited papers on rigorous analysis in antitrust class actions. Dr. Johnson is also the author of EVERYDATA: The Misinformation Hidden in the Little Data You Consume Everyday. Now...you may remember John and the wisdom he shared during Episode 344. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 344 to your list of vital priorities.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * How John takes data sets and simplifies them for everyday people * The importance of starting your business with core values * Why you need to determine what differentiates you from your competitors * How being a thought leader in your space can drive your business * Why your reputation is critical for your business success * The importance of working with the clients that fit with your values * Why John feels success is being proud of the company he built * The importance of finding employees who are driven, motivated, and smart * Why you need to listen to your employees and engage who they are as people * The importance of consistently evaluating size, scale and scope
Ways to contact John: * WeWebsite: www.edgewortheconomics.com
Duane Brown is the founder and head of strategy for Take Some Risk, Inc., a performance marketing agency working with startups and brands to discover what is not working, convert traffic they have or improve and scale what is already working. He has over 11-years of digital marketing and branding experience working with clients including ASOS and Cineplex.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Why Bing.com can be a good advertising tool for niche businesses * Why Duane started Take Some Risk, Inc. and what makes them unique * The benefits of hiring people with senior level experience * The importance of finding an audience through empathy * Why getting to work early is an important daily habit * Why organization is key to helping your business run smoothly * The importance of working on only the things that keep your business moving forward * Why managing cash flow is the most critical skill to master * The importance of consistently reviewing and evaluating operating expenses * The benefits of staying focused on your goal and not allow yourself to get distracted
Ways to contact Duane: * Website: www.takesomerisk.com * Twitter: @duanebrown
You may have heard me recently talking about point-of-view (POV) — why it is so important — and what can happen to a business if the owner doesn’t get serious about defining it — and building a strategy around it.
Without a clearly defined POV, you will not be able to attract or retain the clients and prospects you want — and your biz dev strategy will suffer as a result.
But...if you and your team do the hard work to gain clarity around your POV...why you do what you do...who you do it for...and for whom you don’t do it for...you will be able to attract the clients and prospects to your business who are exactly aligned with the sweet spot of your business.
Originally, I considered making today’s episode a solocast -- where it would be just you and me exploring a topic without a guest. But — I changed my mind because I wanted you to have the benefit of getting some additional perspectives on this very critical topic...and I wanted you to get the perspectives from someone who has a real depth of knowledge not only in point-of-view and why it matters, but in business development, and in branding.
So my guest for today’s episode is Drew McLellan. You may remember Drew from several other Onward Nation episodes -- in fact...this is Drew’s 5th visit to Onward — more than any other guest.
Drew is one of my most influential mentors -- and -- he works in the trenches with my leadership team and me helping us build and scale Predictive ROI. Without a doubt...his insights, knowledge, and wisdom have been critical to our success over the last five years.
Drew is the CEO at Agency Management Institute and has owned and operated his own marketing agency over the last 23 years. He has written two books and has been featured in the New York Times, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Fast Company, and Fortune Small Business. The Wall Street Journal called Drew’s blog “One of the 10 blogs every entrepreneur should read.”
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Why every business has a point-of-view — whether they have identified it or not * How the brand of the business is grounded in the “why” the company exists * How the process of gaining clarity around the POV of the business should be collaborative * The questions you and your team should ask each other during the process of defining your POV * Why business owners should then take their POV and “plant their flag” with it by producing cornerstone content that cements their flag in firm ground * Why true thought leaders are more than one-trick ponies — their content is available across multiple channels * Why your content strategy needs to be channel agnostic * What it means to be “intentional” about creating content around your POV * How great marketing “repels” customers you would never been able to make happy * How business owners can increase their opportunity for success by creating a POV that enables them to niche down
Ways to contact Drew: * Email: drew@agencymanagementinstitute.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/drewmclellan * Twitter: @DrewMcLellan * Website: www.agencymanagementinstitute.com
Connor Gillivan is the co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of FreeeUp.com — the top marketplace to hire pre-vetted freelancers online in eCommerce, Amazon, digital marketing, advertising, web development and design. He has sold over $30 million online, has hired hundreds of freelancers to build his companies, is a published author, and is the owner of ConnorGillivan.com — a blog where he shares industry insights on lessons he’s learned in growing his first Amazon business and FreeeUp.com.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Why Connor and Nathan founded FreeeUp.com and what makes it unique * How FreeeUp.com offers 85 different freelance skill sets * How short term planning and sharing ideas with others keeps you focused on your goals * The importance of having an accountability partner * Why having an outlet such as exercise at the end of your day to decompress is important * The importance of building relationships with your customers * How having a referral program and building partnerships can help your business grow * How you can build your business without needing an expensive advertising campaign * Why you need to surround yourself with people that compliment your skills * Why you need to be willing to let go of things in your company that are not working
Ways to contact Connor: * Website: www.FreeeUp.com * Website: ConnorGillivan.com * Email: Connor@FreeeUp.com
Our special encore guest today is Nick Sonnenberg. He is a serial entrepreneur with a passion for creating companies that disrupt the way people live. Nick is the co-founder of Leverage and the co-author of the book “Idea to Execution”. His personal mission is to help busy entrepreneurs and executives optimize their lives in a meaningful way and help them go from idea to execution in as few steps as possible. Now...you may remember Nick and the wisdom he shared during Episode 431. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 431 to your list of vital priorities.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * The benefits of documenting, optimizing, and automating your processes * The importance of having employees rotate throughout the company * How success can be defined as working on the things you are passionate about * Why there are many more levels to success than just the money component * Why you always need to remain open minded and a constant learner * The benefit of writing down your processes and handing it over to someone else to review * The three processes every company could start evaluating and improving * Why every company needs to have effective communication * Steps you can take to get your business as efficient as possible * The importance of giving your employees more ownership and responsibility
Ways to contact Nick: * Website: www.getleverage.com * Email: Nick@Leverage.com * Book: “Idea to Execution”
Tom Carmazzi is the CEO of Tuthill Corporation, a privately held and 4th generation manufacturer of industrial products. His role is to bring to life the COMPASS of the corporation. The COMPASS is Tuthill’s version of a vision and mission statement, however, it is radically different from the norm. Their version is all about “ALIVENESS” with a “Purpose to Wake the World.” This HUGE undertaking requires a culture where folks want to live into their full potential not only for the company, but for their families, their communities, and the world.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Why grace, gratitude, and love should be core components in your company culture * The importance of accepting feedback and making changes where necessary * Why you need to have daily discipline and accountability to stay the course * Why your company structures and processes should have the goal of getting people together in relationships to bring their best * How removing the fear from your employees helps them perform in remarkable ways * Why Tom feels that when we come alive, the world comes along * How vulnerability-based trust helps break down fear * Why you have to go first and model the culture you want for your business * The importance of being in the moment * Why you need to trust yourself
Ways to contact Tom: * Email: tcarmazzi@tuthill.com * Website: www.tuthill.com
Dr. Steve Bistritz is the Founder and President of SellXL, a sales training and consulting firm for professional salespeople selling in a business-to-business environment. He has more than 40 years of high-tech sales, sales training, and sales management experience, including 27 years with IBM. He is also co-author of the best-selling sales book, “Selling to the C- Suite,” and the 2nd edition was just released.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * How writing a book can help your business by building credibility * Why you need to get involved in the project early when selling to the C-Suite * The importance of having a strong presence on LinkedIn * Why companies are looking for the value you will bring to them * How sales people identify the relevant executive for the sales opportunity * How to take your cornerstone content and spread it across many platforms * How to gain credibility with a C-Suite Executive * Why referrals become your best source of your next client * Why organization is a critical skill to master * The importance of doing everything for your client in a responsive and responsible way
Ways to contact Steve: * Website: www.sellxl.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stevebistritz * Book: “Selling to the C-Suite, Second Edition: What Every Executive Wants You to Know About Successfully Selling to the Top”
John Lincoln is the Co-founder and CEO of Ignite Visibility, a leading digital marketing agency that was ranked as the 698th fastest growing private company in America on the Inc. 5000 list in 2017. He’s also a digital marketing teacher at the University of California San Diego and author of the book, “Digital Influencer: A Guide to Achieving Influencer Status Online.” John has worked with hundreds of companies, ranging from startups to household names, and has won awards in search engine optimization, conversion rate optimization, analytics and social media. He’s also been featured on Forbes.com, Entrepreneur.com, and Inc.com.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Why John decided to step out of the box and make movies around SEO and social media * The positive outcomes of making the SEO and social media movies * How the documentaries have impacted John’s business, Ignite Visibility * The importance of being unique to stand out in the marketing space * The importance of finding everyone you need to influence to be successful in your space * Why John felt compelled to write his book “Digital Influencer: A Guide to Achieving Influencer Status Online” * What skill sets are needed to achieve influencer status * Why you need to be willing to put yourself out there and not care what others think * The importance of paying close attention to your daily analytics * Why you need to find what works, look at your numbers and then scale it
Ways to contact John: * Blog: ignitevisibility.com/blog * YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/IgniteVisibility * Twitter: @johnelincoln * Website: www.ignitevisibility.com
Jeanne Bliss is the President of CustomerBliss, where she guides C-Suite and Chief Customer Officers around the world on earning business growth by improving customers’ lives. She pioneered the role of Chief Customer Officer, holding the first ever CCO role for over 20 years at Lands’ End, Microsoft, Coldwell Banker, and Allstate where she drove achievement of 95 percent loyalty rates. Jean is a sought after speaker and thought-leader, co-founder of the Customer Experience Professionals Association, and the author of three best-selling books, including the newly released, “Would You Do That To Your Mother?”
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Why Jeanne wrote her latest book “Would You Do That to Your Mother?” * The importance of taking business personally * How Jeanne’s book “Would You Do That to Your Mother?” can be helpful to every member of your organization * Why you should strive for goodness driven growth within your organization * The importance of connecting to your mission * Why you need to earn the trust of your customers * How to become innovative to meet the needs of your customers * Why you need to think through the lens of your customer * How being deliberate in your treatment of your customers turns you into a “make Mom proud” company * The importance of leaders enabling their employees to bring their best selves to work
Ways to contact Jeanne: * Website: www.make-mom-proud.com * Website: www.customerbliss.com * Twitter: @JeanneBliss * Book: “Would You Do That to Your Mother?: The Make Mom Proud Standard for How to Treat Your Customers”
Racheal Blackmore is the Founder and CEO of Blackmore Marketing Solutions, working with a limited number of clients to explode their brand, voice, and story through what she calls the omni-present digital footprint. She’s a successful copy and content writer specializing in brand recognition and digital marketing. Over the past 10 years, Racheal’s owned and managed businesses as well as ghost written for hundreds of companies, bloggers, and solopreneurs.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Why vanity likes and content do not translate into sales * How merging content, copy and true followers helps businesses grow * The importance of posting content that is relevant to your business * Why you need to share your business story * Why your business needs a content mission statement * How businesses create followers with content that resonates with customers * The benefits of outsourcing as much as you can once you have your mission statement * The value of consistently producing great content and engaging with your audience * How often you should be posting on social media * How taking on the hard things in your business can lead to your biggest wins
Ways to contact Racheal: * Website: www.blackmoremarketingsolutions.com
Our special encore guest today is Sheryl O’Loughlin. She is a serial entrepreneur and author of KILLING IT! An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Keeping Your Head Without Losing Your Heart. She has served as the CEO of Clif Bar, where she led the concept development and introduction of Luna bars. Sheryl is currently CEO of REBBL, a fast-growing maker of plant-based drinks. Now...you may remember Sheryl and the wisdom she shared during Episode 428. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all she shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 428 to your list of vital priorities.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * How to get through challenging situations one step at a time * The importance of nurturing the people you work with so they are able to share their feelings * The vital role culture plays in your business * The importance of hiring people who have experience in scaling a businesses * Why as a company you have to stand behind your brand to gain customer loyalty * The importance of surrounding yourself with the right board and the right investors * Why you need to keep your board and investors up to date every step of the businesses journey * Why you need to think of your board and investors as a team * How REBBL was created as a tool to help combat human trafficking * How creating a business to do good in the world affects your company culture
Ways to contact Sheryl: * Website: www.rebbl.co * Facebook: www.facebook.com/REBBLElixirs * Twitter: @REBBLelixirs
Lane O’Bryon is the president and founder of Capital Connection, providing access to the best sources of real estate capital. He’s been active in the lending industry for over 17 years and has successfully helped thousands of his clients fund both residential and commercial transactions. Lane has also coached, mentored, and trained hundreds of finance brokers on the secrets of the top producers.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * How Capital Connection serves as a valuable resource for real estate investors and finance brokers * Why investors struggle to gain access to capital * The definition of a hard money loan * Why Lane feels crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending will be the lending of the future * Why many of the lending platforms are not good at marketing * The typical investor profile that Capital Connection works with * Why banking restrictions have left many investors needing to seek funding from an alternative source * Why business owners who are interested in real estate investing need to have a strategy * The importance of reaching out to experts and educating yourself before investing in real estate * Why you should start small when getting into real estate investing
Ways to contact Lane: * Website: www.capconnectnow.com
Jeff Piersall is the Founder and CEO of SCB Marketing, an award-winning, multimillion-dollar integrated media and marketing company that connects, empowers and educates entrepreneurs, business leaders, and communities through its four business and lifestyle journals, numerous specialty publications, and marketing services. He is co-author of the new book, “Dogs Don’t Bark at Parked Cars: Your GPS in an Era of Hyper-Change” - a motivational guide for success in a continually changing business environment that transcends generations and professions.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * The purpose and mission behind “Dogs Don’t Bark at Parked Cars: Your GPS in an Era of Hyper-Change” * The biggest drivers of change that will affect businesses in the future * The impending impact of 70 percent of existing businesses changing hands or going out of business over the next 8 years * Why a large number of companies have gone extinct due to changing technology * The four pillars of freedoms and why they are important * The importance of business owners’ ability to communicate and build relationships * Why validating employees desires is an important skill for business owners to master * How the power of synergy shows employees the importance of working as a team * Why you have to lead from a position of influence and not imposition * Why as an entrepreneur your responsibility is “why” and “what”
Ways to contact Jeff: * Website: www.jeffpiersall.com * Book: "Dogs Don’t Bark at Parked Cars: Your GPS in an Era of Hyper-Change" * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jeffpiersall * Facebook: www.facebook.com/Jeff-Piersall-156119281107226 * Twitter: @jeffpiersall
James Whittaker is the author of the newly released book “Think and Grow Rich: The Legacy” and co-executive producer of the film of the same name. With a diverse entrepreneurial background, he’s launched successful companies and products across a range of industries. James has also interviewed more than 100 of the world’s leading athletes, entrepreneurs, and business leaders to unlock their secrets to success. His mission is to share the success habits of high performers to give people of all backgrounds the tools to take ownership of their financial, physical, and mental health.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * How all works in the self-help field stem from “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill * The importance of finding a way to connect with your audience * How success can be obtained by a consistent application of a proven set of success principles * Why you need to be mindful of the people you spend the most time with * Why James feels the first principle of desire in “Think and Grow Rich” is important * The importance of giving of yourself unconditionally without expecting anything in return * The importance of never accepting temporary failure as permanent defeat * How James worked on updating “Think and Grow Rich” with stories of today * Why we are not defined by our past actions, we are defined by our future decisions and actions * Why James feels one of the most important success habits is unwavering self-belief
Ways to contact James: * Website: www.jameswhitt.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/JWhittaker01 * Instagram: www.instagram.com/jameswhitt * Twitter: @JWhittaker01 * Book: Think and Grow Rich The Legacy: How the World's Leading Entrepreneurs, Thought Leaders, & Cultural Icons Achieve Success
Matt Heinz is the President and Founder of Heinz Marketing, with 20 years of marketing, business development, and sales experience from a variety of organizations and industries. He is also a speaker, author, and nationally recognized, award-winning blogger. Matt has helped organizations such as Amazon, Seagate, Morgan Stanley, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and many others create predictable, repeatable sales & marketing engines to fuel growth and is also a repeat winner of Top 50 Most Influential People in Sales Lead Management and Top 50 Sales & Marketing Influencers.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * The importance of creating a business that allows you to live the life you want * Why working with clients that respect your values and your team is important * The power of recognizing the work of your team members on a daily basis * The importance of regularly reinforcing your core values * Why Matt creates a “daily do” list each day * The importance of staying calm in moments of turmoil * Why you need to define and understand your “why” * Why you need to create your business with intentionality * The benefit of changing your mindset from the fear of missing out, to the joy of missing out * The importance of having a list of daily priorities to ensure the most critical tasks get done
Ways to contact Matt: * Website: www.heinzmarketing.com * Twitter: @HeinzMarketing * Email: Matt@HeinzMarketing.com
Ray Rothrock is CEO of RedSeal, a premier cybersecurity analytics platform. RedSeal’s corporate customers span the finance, utility, technology, and retail sectors and their government clients include defense, intelligence, and civilian agencies. He is also author of the newly released book, “Digital Resilience: Is Your Company Ready for the Next Cyber Threat?”
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Why you can’t predict where the next cyber threat will come from * The importance of being prepared to respond to cyber threats with the right people, systems, strategy and processes * How RedSeal helps businesses prepare for any potential cyber attack * Why the biggest cyber threat to businesses today is phishing * The importance of having your internet traffic filtered * Why some businesses should consider outsourcing their cyber security * Why you need to put cyber risk into numbers that management can understand * The important role of your Chief Information Security Officer * Why planning is the most critical part of being prepared for a cyber threat * Why ensuring the security of customers data you collect is critical
Ways to contact Ray: * Website: www.redseal.net * Email: ray@redseal.net * Twitter: @rayrothrock * Book: “Digital Resilience: Is Your Company Ready for the Next Cyber Threat?”
Mike Robbins is the author of four books, including his latest, “Bring Your Whole Self to Work: How Vulnerability Unlocks Creativity, Connection, and Performance.” He's a former professional baseball player, sought-after keynote speaker, and thought-leader whose been working with Fortune 500 companies for the past 17 years - helping leaders, teams, and organizations thrive. Mike’s clients include Google, Wells Fargo, Microsoft, eBay, and many others.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * The importance of appreciating your journey while it’s happening * Why being fulfilled is more of an artform than a science * What the fundamental difference is between recognition and appreciation * The importance of hiring the right people that fit with your culture * Why you need to consciously and continuously build your culture * Why culture is more important than strategy * Why you need to bring your whole self to work * How psychological safety helps create high performing teams * Why micromanaging creates an environment where employees are afraid to make mistakes * Why employees are more likely to thrive in an environment where the bar is set high and your employees know you care about them
Ways to contact Mike: * Website: www.mike-robbins.com * Website: www.mike-robbins.com/work * Book: “Bring Your Whole Self to Work: How Vulnerability Unlocks Creativity, Connection, and Performance” * Twitter: @mikedrobbins
Today on Onward Nation we're going to be talking about the topic of how to monetize content. It’s a big topic -- and to do it justice -- it needs to be sliced and diced into smaller bite-sized pieces.
Go here for full show notes: https://predictiveroi.com/podcasts/stephen-woessner-solocast-episode-77/
Brett Gilliland is founder and CEO of Elite Entrepreneurs, which specializes in helping business owners who are running companies that generate a million dollars or more in annual revenue by giving them the knowledge, tools, and processes they need grow and scale to $10 million and beyond. He’s an expert in organization development, leadership, and strategy and spent 10 years helping Infusionsoft grow from $7 million in annual revenue to over $100 million. One of Brett’s favorite professional accomplishments is co-creating Infusionsoft’s Elite Forum alongside CEO Clate Mask and building the Elite business inside of Infusionsoft.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * The importance of scaling a company with a culture that you are passionate about * How Brett’s path and journey led to him to co-create Infusionsoft’s Elite Forum * How Elite Forum helps small businesses scale and be built to last * The predictable stages that all small businesses grow through * The importance of transitioning your mindset from entrepreneur to CEO * Why you need to set your vision, enroll people in the process of that vision, and then get them to execute the vision * Why the number one role as a leader in your business is to set the vision * Why as a leader you need to ensure you are consistently reinforcing your vision * The importance of hiring the right employees that fit with the culture and values of your business * How taking a step back from the whirlwind of your business allows you to make decisions and refocus
Ways to contact Brett: * Website: www.growwithelite.com * Email: brett@growwithelite.com
To access and download the “Stages of Small Business,” just go...
- Text option: In the United States, you can text the word “Stages” to 72000
- Or, via email: https://fm129-b7c0cc.pages.infusionsoft.net/
For more information about the Elite Forum...
- Visit the “Elite Entrepreneurs” website: www.growwithelite.com
- Or, via email: info@growwithelite.com
Clate Mask is the CEO and co-founder of Infusionsoft, the leading all-in-one sales and marketing software built for small businesses and eight-time Inc. 500 or Inc. 5000 winner. Clate was named an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, a Top 100 Small Business Influencer by Small Business Trends, and one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs of 2013 by Goldman Sachs. Clate is a national speaker on entrepreneurship and small business success, and he is the co-author of the New York Times bestselling book, “Conquer the Chaos: How to Grow a Successful Small Business Without Going Crazy.”
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Why the challenges of being an entrepreneur never go away * Why every service business should build a productized component to what they do * The advantages of delivering your product on a subscription basis * The importance of targeting customers who need the product you are offering * Why you need to have discipline to say no to the wrong customers * Why businesses that have capital behind them often fail * The importance of being intentional and very clear about the vision for your business * Why you need sales, marketing automation and a CRM to grow your business * The importance of having the right mentors at the right time * How Infusionsoft continues to work to simplify growth for millions of small businesses
Ways to contact Clate: * Website: www.infusionsoft.com * Email: clate@infusionsoft.com * Twitter: @ClateMask
Judith Humphrey is the founder of The Humphrey Group, a premier leadership communications firm. She is a communications expert whose business teaches global clients how to communicate as confident and compelling leaders. Judith is the author of three books including the upcoming “Impromptu: Leading in the Moment”, an acclaimed speaker, and a columnist for Fast Company. And in 2012, Judith was the recipient of the prestigious YWCA Women of Distinction Award for Entrepreneurship.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * The importance of making your message inspirational to the audience * Why inspirational leadership is critical * Why leadership today has nothing to do with your title, your rank, or your power * Why Judith felt it was important to write her latest book “Impromptu: Leading in the Moment” * Why business owners need to train and prepare themselves for impromptu speaking * Why listening is very important in impromptu speaking * The importance of knowing your audience and reading them well * Judith explains the 4-part template for structuring the leader script * Why communication is the most important skill when running a business * Why you should always prepare to be spontaneous in your role as an entrepreneur
Ways to contact Judith: * Website: www.judithhumphrey.com * Book: Impromptu: Leading in the Moment * Twitter: @Judith_Humphrey
Al Harris was a founding partner of the Chicago law firm of Ungaretti & Harris, which in 2015, merged with the national law firm of Nixon Peabody. At Ungaretti & Harris, he served for many years as managing partner and then as a member of its Executive and Compensation Committees. Al is co-author with his wife, Andie Kramer, of the book Breaking Through Bias: Communication Techniques for Women to Succeed at Work, which was named one of the best business books of 2016 by Women@Work. He is also the co-author of over 150 articles and blog posts on promoting diversity and overcoming stereotypes and biases.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Why Al and his wife Andie were committed to writing “Breaking Through Bias” * How many well intentioned businesses often times have unconscious biases * The importance of overcoming the affinity bias * How the negative bias pigeonholes women * How the agentic bias affects women in the workplace * Why every business must assume that some level of gender bias is occurring within their organization * The best way to try to reduce gender bias within your company * The importance of being careful when making decisions that affect people’s careers * The value of having two different individuals perform evaluations * Why when making career affecting decisions you should compare individuals against each other
Ways to contact Al: * Website: www.andieandal.com * Email: al@andieandal.com * Twitter: @AndieandAl
Stephanie Chandler is the Founder and CEO of the Nonfiction Authors Association - an educational community for experienced and aspiring writers. She is the author of several books including “Own Your Niche” and “The Nonfiction Book Marketing Plan.” Stephanie has been featured in Entrepreneur and BusinessWeek and is also the Founder of the Nonfiction Writers Conference - an annual event held entirely online and this year scheduled for May 2nd through the 4th.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Why Stephanie felt it was important to start her business, the Nonfiction Authors Association * The typical member profile for the Nonfiction Authors Association * Why you should consider having a book as part of your business development plan * How having a book makes you an instant expert * The importance of finding your target audience and building a community * How to use your book as a stepping stone to where you want your business to go * What are some common obstacles to writing a book * How you can use your blog content to help you write a book * The importance of building a plan and a revenue stream around your book * Why perseverance is the most critical skill needed to succeed
Ways to contact Stephanie: * Website: www.nonfictionwritersconference.com * Website: www.nonfictionauthorsassociation.com * Email: stephanie@nonfictionauthorsassociation.com * Twitter: @Steph_Chandler
Our special encore guest today is David Burkus. He is a best-selling author, a sought after speaker, and associate professor of leadership and innovation at Oral Roberts University. His forthcoming book, Friend of a Friend, offers readers a new perspective on how to grow their networks and build key connections. It can be pre-ordered right now on Amazon. His TEDx talk, Why you should know how much your coworkers get paid, has been viewed over 1.8 million times. He is a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review. Now...you may remember David and the wisdom he shared during Episode 338. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 338 to your list of vital priorities.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Why David felt compelled to write his forthcoming book “Friend of a Friend” * The science behind networking * Why you don’t have a network, you exist inside of one * The importance of learning how networks work and how networks provide value * Thinking three dimensionally about the people you know * What David refers to as “weak and dormant ties” and why they are important * Why reconnecting with your weak ties should become a habit * The importance of finding your own authentic way of reaching out to your connections * The importance of creating a diverse network * Why success can be defined as the balance between drive and gratitude
Ways to contact David: * Website: www.davidburkus.com * Book:Friend of a Friend: Understanding the Hidden Networks That Can Transform Your Life and Your Career * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/davidburkus * Twitter: @davidburkus
Colin Sprake is the owner and lead trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting, founded with a passion to assist entrepreneurs in realizing their full revenue and profit potential and doing it with heart. His business philosophy coupled with his results-driven business success system of live events, group accountability programs, and online trainings have created a vibrant, mutually supportive community of over 60,000 entrepreneurs across Canada and now the United States. Colin is a #1 best-selling author of four books, including Entrepreneur Success Recipe Book and is also the host of the top-rated podcast, MYM Your Business: The Brutal Truth.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Why Colin lives by two key statements; be real, be vulnerable * Why Colin believes “your mess is your message” * How the events of your childhood shape the person you become * How you change the way you perceive events that have happened in your life * How to discover the obstacles that are holding you back in your business * How your habits will either drive you up or drive you down in every area of your life * Why you set intention for each hour of your day * How replacing a bad habit with a good habit can get you to where you want to be * The influential lesson Colin shares about viewing employees as team members * Why you should not only read your vision statement, but feel your vision statement everyday
Ways to contact Colin: * Website: www.mymsuccess.com * Twitter: @ColinSprake
Good Morning Onward Nation…I’m Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and your host for Onward Nation. Welcome to Episode 729, which will be solocast — with a twist. If you have been listening to the show for a while now, you know that from time-to-time I change up my solocast recipe and I share an episode where I was a guest of another business owner on his or her podcast.
And I do this from time-to-time because my goal is always to be helpful to you — provide some key insights, some strategies, some new perspectives, some helpful advice or recommendations. And as much as I love going deep into a particular topic during one of our traditional solocasts…sometimes the questions asked by another host are awesome and the overall conversation would also be helpful to you, Onward Nation.
And that is what I am going to share with you this morning. My good friend, Leanne Pressly, a two time guest here at Onward Nation, invited me back from an encore interview for her show called, The Business of Craft.
I was eager to share this with you because Leanne asked me some detailed questions about how to drive revenue and make money from podcasting. You may find the strategies along with the step-by-step recipes I shared with Leanne to be helpful.
Leanne and I also go down the path of mistakes business owners need to avoid if they decide to launch a podcast as part of their cornerstone content strategy.
We even cover specific equipment and the minimal amount of tech a business owner needs to master in order to have successful podcast out in front of their business. Because being successful with your own show, Onward Nation, is less about the microphone and much more about your content strategy, who you are looking to serve, how you serve them, how you will be helpful to your audience, and then ultimately, how your podcast will drive biz dev for your company.
Which is why Leanne and I worked our way through the top three monetization strategies that my Predictive ROI team help clients get into place — and how you can do the same for your business.
And last but not least…Leanne and I confront some of the biggest obstacles to success with FEAR being the most paralyzing. Onward Nation, FEAR is nothing more than the imposter syndrome trying to rear its ugly head — so don’t let it. Leanne and I give you some tips on how to break past this obstacle.
Okay…one last thing before we dive into the discussion with Leanne…our first YouTube video will air on Thursday, May 3rd — it is in our airing schedule — we have been collecting the final footage over the last couple of weeks while we have been in Austin, Seattle, and San Diego working on-site with some of our Predictive clients as well as a couple of speaking engagements.
I am very excited to share Episode 1 of our YouTube series with you on Thursday, May 3rd — stay tuned.
Okay…now let’s dive into the conversation with Leanne Pressly and me on her show, the Business of Craft.
Our special encore guest today is Scott Beebe and he is the founder and head coach of MyBusinessOnPurpose.com and the host of the “Business On Purpose” podcast. He liberates Small Business owners from the chaos of working IN their business and helps to get their lives back by articulating and implementing intentional Vision / Mission / Values, Systems, and Processes. Now...you may remember Scott and the wisdom he shared during Episode 521. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 521 to your list of vital priorities.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Why you should create a vision story for your business as well as your family * The importance of writing your vision story down * How having a vision story for your family allows you to set your families course * Why it’s okay to either run towards your vision or away from it * Why vision without implementation is hallucination * Why you need to have awareness of what success looks like * How great effort combined with extensive training makes an A-player * Why strategy is part of Scott’s 12-week plan * What the makeup of a great team should be
Ways to contact Scott: * Website: www.MyBusinessOnPurpose.com/vision
Chris Hallberg is a seasoned business consultant, turnaround expert, United States Army veteran, and the author of The Business Sergeant’s Field Manual. In 2014, he founded Traction Inc., a business advisory company, to focus full-time as one of 65 Certified Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS®) Implementers nationally. Chris is also ranked #9 on Inc.’s “Top 50 Leadership and Management Experts.”
What you'll learn about in this episode: * The importance of having a passion for leadership * The benefits of adopting a military team based mindset within your company * Why Chris wrote his book in the style of a military field manual * Why vision without traction is hallucination * The importance of understanding that you do not need to be an expert at everything within your business * Why having the right people in the right places is critical to your businesses success * How having A-players on your team helps the profitability of your company * How the level of profitability your willing to accept in your company is a mindset * Why you need to know your goal behind the goal * The importance of having a commitment and a passion for what you do
Ways to contact Chris: * Website: www.tractioninc.com * Website: www.bizsgt.com * Book: The Business Sergeant's Field Manual: Military Grade Business Execution without the Yelling and Push-ups * Twitter: @ChrisHallberg09
Tricia Brouk works in the entertainment industry and applies her expertise as a director and writer for film, television, and theater to the art of Big Talks. She’s written two musicals, a play, a sitcom pilot, a feature film, and is the executive producer of TEDx Lincoln Square. She also hosts the podcast “The Big Talk” on iTunes and is currently writing a show called “Mothers and Daughters” based on interviews she's had with women from the ages of 12 to 90.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Why Tricia applied to be a TEDx organizer * Why the speakers Tricia works with often walk on stage as someone, but walk off the stage completely different * How switching your point of view can make your idea global * Why speaking on topics you are passionate about will organically drive business to your company * Why you should view your presentation as a gift you are sharing with others, not an ask * How a keynote and a TEDx talk are different * What skills you will need to master to be able to give a keynote or a TEDx talk * Why you do not need to be a professional speaker to appear on a TEDx stage * The importance of knowing you are the brand of your company * The importance of being selective on which TEDx you apply to
Ways to contact Tricia: * Email: tricia@thebigtalknyc.com * Twitter: @TriciaBrouk
Rod Turner is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Manhattan Street Capital — the #1 Growth Capital marketplace for mid-stage companies and mature startups. Throughout his career, he founded multiple startups, three of which were sold to public companies. He played a key role in building Symantec where he lead their most strategic acquisition of Norton Antivirus, which has been called the best merger in the tech industry. Rod is also a consultant to CEOs of large companies and startups and is an expert in crowd funding in businesses.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * What an initial coin offering (ICO) is * Why bitcoin is a very high potential technology * How companies are using bitcoins and in some cases actual tokens * How blockchain technology can help track the history of what bitcoins were used for * Why the SEC has stepped in to regulate initial coin offerings * The size of the SEC compliant token offering market worldwide in 2017 and 2018 * What size company would be best suited to do a token offering * What types of companies are best suited for a Regulation A offering versus a token offering * The importance of working with a firm that has experience and knowledge helping businesses navigate the Reg A+, IPO and ICO process * How the ability to raise funds has advanced due to the new ways to gain access to capital
Ways to contact Rod: * Email: rodturner@manhattenstreetcapital.com * Twitter: @IamRodTurner
Al Zdenek is the President, CEO and Founder of Traust Sollus Wealth Management — one of the premier wealth management companies in the United States. Al is certified public accountant and a personal financial specialist with over thirty years of experience providing wealth management services to senior executives, physicians, and business owners. Al has been selected to appear in lists of the nation’s top financial advisors and is often quoted in Forbes, New York Times, Yahoo Finance, Fox Business Radio, U.S., World News Report, and is an Amazon.com best-selling author.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Why managing cash flow in a business is critical to success * Why you need to ensure the best customer and best client you have is you * The importance paying close attention to your payables * Why you should manage your business like it is your best customer * Why you as the owner should have a CFO mindset * The need to surround yourself with a championship team * Writing down daily goals at the beginning of each day: an important daily habit * The importance of taking quick action during the rough times in your business * Why communication is a critical skill to master for business success * The importance of ensuring your business provides you the lifestyle you want now and into the future
Ways to contact Al: * Website: www.alzdenek.com * Twitter: @AlZdenek
Brad Deutser is founder and CEO of Deutser, an award-winning management consulting firm focused on helping organizations and their leaders achieve clarity to drive business performance, and the Deutser Clarity Institute, a think tank, idea accelerator, and innovative learning center. He is also the author of Leading Clarity: The Breakthrough Strategy to Unleash People, Profit and Performance.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * How clarity helps drive performance to a fundamentally different level * Why clarity is a business tool that rises above strategy, culture and innovation * Why Brad wrote his book “Leading Clarity: The Breakthrough Strategy to Unleash People, Profit and Performance” * How clarity is about saving lives and changing futures * Why performance is driven inside the box * The importance of starting each day being purposeful and intentional * Why we are not products of our environment, but products of our expectations * The importance of a leader believing they can accomplish their goals * Why the most critical skill to master is leadership * The importance of being committed, not just compliant
Ways to contact Brad: * Website: www.braddeutser.com * Email: bdeutser@deutser.com * Book: Leading Clarity: The Breakthrough Strategy to Unleash People, Profit and Performance * Twitter: @BradDeutser
Good Morning Onward Nation...I’m Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and your host for Onward Nation. Welcome to Episode 722, which will be a solocast -- where it will be just you and me covering a topic.
Before we dive into what I would like to share with you this morning -- I would first like to say thank you and to give you an update.
I want to say thank you for you taking the time to be here -- you have a lot of demands on your time -- I know your schedule is compressed -- I know that the life of the business owner means you are pulled in many different directions -- so I greatly appreciate you choosing to be here this morning -- to share some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds that you have today, with me -- I take that very seriously so I wanted to be sure to let you know how much your time means to me.
Second...I owe you an update. In January, I shared that one of our 2018 vital priorities at Predictive ROI was for us to launch a YouTube series -- and our original plan was to have it launched by April -- right now. And it isn’t ready. And I am the reason why. We made some excellent progress -- and then I felt the onslaught of the imposter syndrome and the myriad of questions and a flood of presuppositions hit me -- and in full transparency, Onward Nation -- I let the imposter syndrome break my momentum -- and worse yet -- affect the schedule that I had promised you.
Well, Katherine Baessler, our director of content marketing and a member of my leadership team here at Predictive ROI, called me on it. During our off-site leadership session last week...she asked me why I had fallen behind. She forced me to recognize what was going on -- and it wasn’t comfortable. And she would not let me off the hook until we had a plan in place that I committed to.
So...our first YouTube video will air on Thursday, May 3rd -- it is in our airing schedule -- we are collecting the final footage over the next couple of weeks while my team and I are in Austin, Seattle, and San Diego working on-site with some of our Predictive clients as well as a couple of speaking engagements.
All that is to say -- my team kicked me in rear when I needed it because that is what great teammates do, and as a result, I shoved the imposter syndrome to the curb and got my act together. So...I am very excited to share Episode 1 of our YouTube series with you on Thursday, May 3rd -- stay tuned.
Okay...so for today -- we are going to talk about quitting because the temptation to quit is something we all face -- when the stress is high -- when the problems pile up -- when the fear seems insurmountable -- the temptations to quit a project, quit the business, or the myriad of other temptations can seem more and more attractive. Our momentum breaks, we start to lose our focus, and then pretty soon, we have drifted out to see and are far from the goal back on the shore.
And again in full transparency...had it not been for Katherine on my team stepping in and snapping me back to reality -- we may not have checked the YouTube series off our list of 2018 vital priorities. But -- when Katherine stepped in -- I got mad -- not at her -- but at myself -- because I have never, ever, ever, quit on anything in my life. And I don’t plan to start now.
Quitting in life, quitting in business, quitting on family -- quitting in all its shapes and sizes. It breaks my heart when I see it happen. People who possess an abundance of God-given talent -- as we all do -- but then don’t apply it.
It’s tragic. So I wanted to share some insights about quitting that I have learned over the last 25 years of my career as a business owner -- owning five companies -- but as the lessons I re-learned again last week -- despite all of the experience someone has, the resolve, the commitment, and the track record -- the temptation to quit can still rise up.
So it needs to be counteracted and pushed aside, Onward Nation.
My hope for you is that today’s discussion will help you to push aside any temptations to quit that you may be feeling, too.
So I’m going to start us off by introducing you to one of the most influential mentors in my life...he is someone you have likely never read about, never heard of, never quoted...in fact...one the surface...most people might think he led a rather ordinary life because his name was never up in lights.
He never graced the cover of SUCCESS Magazine...he was never the author of a bestselling book. And he never made the list of top influencers...but...that did not limit his influence or the impact he created in the lives of many.
Because the exterior trappings of success are not the true testimony of the quality of someone’s life. The relationships, the love, the personal impact is the really good stuff, Onward Nation.
I have met many successful people by the world’s standards...they had everything...they had fame, they had fortune, they possessed every material thing you could imagine, and yet, they were miserable.
Their spouse was miserable because he or she never got to see them.
Their kids were miserable because the deep emotional connection that should have been there was missing -- a terrible hole was there instead. A hole that can only be filled by a steady stream of love and caring.
But, the person I am referring to taught me the true definition of success, as well as the power of persistence, the power of tenacity, the power of grit...the power in moving slowly, consistently, and pursuing something over the long haul.
Because when we do these things...great things happen...and all of that was made possible because of his quiet, relentless attitude toward never, ever quitting.
He never quit.
His name was Peter Maronitis.
Peter was born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1902. His family was Greek but they lived in Istanbul. And this was a time when it was not awesome to be a Greek male living, working, or trying to raise a family in Turkey.
There was ethnic cleansing -- a Greek genocide -- such an awful term -- and so it was common that an Greek adult male wouldn’t make it back to his home at night because he had been whacked behind a shed somewhere or rounded up to fight for the Turkish army against whoever they were fighting at the time.
That was the harsh reality of the day -- that Peter’s father had to navigate each day when he left his home for work.
And one day, tragedy struck and Peter’s father didn’t come home. Peter was the ripe old age of 8 years old...his father didn’t come home...and now it looked as though Peter was the man of the house.
Peter ran out of the house...in pursuit...to find his Dad...he searched the city...he got onto a train...he continued his search...looking...desperately...he didn’t quit...it was Peter’s first taste of a the relentless pursuit for someone -- for something he loved.
But still...his father would never return.
So, Peter at 8 years old was indeed the man of the house.
He dropped out of the third grade in order to make enough money to support his mother and his younger brother and sister.
Eight years old, Onward Nation.
Peter did it...without complaining...without feeling self-pity...without feeling disadvantaged. He did his duty and he did it with excellence.
Every day...for 10 years.
And despite the end of his formal education at the 3rd grade...he never stopped learning. He studied and read whatever he could get his hands on...and in doing so...a dream was sparked in his mind.
His dream...Peter wanted to make his way to the United States and then own his own restaurant...to build a better life for himself and his family.
He promised his mother, sister, and brother that if he made it to America, he would save his money and come back to get them so they could all live together.
When Peter was 18 years old -- he received that opportunity!
Through some mutual friends...Peter’s dream was set into motion. But isn’t it interesting, Onward Nation...how through determined, unrelenting focus, hard work, and grit -- what we want most in this world finds its way into our circle?
And Peter’s focus had definitely been unrelenting.
So, Peter made it to the United States with no money and couldn’t speak the language. He followed the mass of Greeks who were headed to Canton, Ohio to work in the steel mills.
Peter worked in the mills for a couple of days and realized that was not going to be the path that would get him closer to his dream of owning his restaurant.
Instead, he pursued a job in a downtown Canton restaurant where he would cut vegetables and wash dishes on the night shift. As you might imagine, Onward Nation...it was back-breaking work...he bent over a sink and then a cutting board...all night, every night.
But he did it...with a happy and grateful heart because he was in the pursuit of his total happiness, Onward Nation. He was working in pursuit of his dream and he would not quit!
During those years working in the restaurant, Peter learned English. And then providence set in. One of the cooks on the day shift befriended Peter and gave him his old knife set so that Peter could refine his food preparation skills.
That knife set end up being Peter’s ticket to getting off of the night shift and onto the day shift as an apprentice where he could make more money.
Within a short period of time...Peter was on the day shift and saving all his money.
After just 6 years later, Onward Nation, without knowing English, without any money, without a formal education, without a network of influential contacts, and while gritting it out doing work that many people today would refuse to do -- Peter had saved enough money to open his own restaurant and bring his family from Istanbul to live with him in Canton.
The restaurant was called the Ideal, which ended up being the first in a total of three restaurants Peter would go on to own.
He delivered on his promise to himself and to his family.
How?
Not by getting funding from so angel investor. Not through a Kickstarter campaign. Not through loans from family members. Not through an economic development grant. No!
He was successful because he refused to quit when his body and mind tried to convince him to do just that.
He refused to quit.
But...as you may have already guessed...there’s more to this story.
Peter opened his restaurant called “The Ideal” in downtown Canton at a time when Canton was often considered “Little Chicago” because of how organized crime running rampant.
In fact, if you read Napoleon Hill’s brilliant book, “Outwitting the Devil”, he shares a story about his visit to Canton in July 1926 to meet with local publisher Don Mellet. And how Mellet was gunned down by mobsters while Napoleon was in town for the meeting.
And the mobsters who killed Mellet also threatened Hill and forced him out of Canton. Yep, that was Canton, Ohio at the time...the same time Peter was courageously running his brand new restaurant downtown...right in the thick of all the action.
Insane, Onward Nation.
But even the threat of organized crime didn’t persuade Peter to quit. He pushed forward.
And just when he thought he was making progress...the United States and the world entered the Great Depression in 1929 -- just a few short years after opening his restaurant.
Here is a photo of Peter standing behind the lunch counter of “The Ideal” during the Great Depression. You will see the humble beginnings of a very humble man. And if you were to have asked Peter about his business plan during the Depression, he would have said, “If you take care of your customers, they will take care of you. Because everyone’s got to eat.”
A simple business plan that Peter executed flawlessly every day.
In my opinion, Peter was also the creator of the original value meal...he sold homemade soup and sandwich for a nickel. During the Depression, he gave away more soup than he ever sold.
And yet, the story of Peter doesn’t end there.
Peter married the woman of his dreams in Julia Katsaris -- and together -- they ran the restaurant and raised four wonderful kids along the way.
In their kids, they instilled their lessons of Family Comes First...you take care of your customers...and all of the other business lessons they had learned through 42 years in the restaurant business.
And when Peter and Julia retired...they shifted their attention toward their 10 grandchildren and instilling all of these powerful lessons into them so they could be well equipped to move ONWARD and become leaders in business, within their communities, and to become great parents.
Peter and Julia wanted their grandchildren to understand their family’s history...the risks they took to get here...to stay here...and what it takes to create a meaningful life that revolved around service...around grit, tenacity, and never ever quitting...no matter the odds.
And in the end...how important it is to be kind and compassionate...because those are the true keys to success.
Some years later -- after Peter’s retirement -- his adult son Bill Maronitis, who also became the owner to two successful restaurants, asked his father, “Pop, why did you give away so much soup during the Depression?”
And Peter looked at Bill, and with compassion and kindness in his eyes, said to him, “I gave away the soup because I know Jesus is coming back some day -- I don’t know what Jesus will be wearing -- or what Jesus will look like when he comes -- so I’m going to be kind to everyone.”
When Bill Maronitis shared that story with me -- he had tears in his eyes because that lesson from his father was that impactful and had helped shaped who Bill had becomes as a person and how he served his customers as a business owner.
Look, Onward Nation...there will be times that will weaken the best of us. But the truly great, those like Peter, they are the ones who got back up...dusted themselves off and got back to their work without feeling sorry for themselves. There was no victim mentality in his spirit -- only a commitment to what he believed was right and why he was put here on this Earth.
Don’t let yourself fall into the seductive trap of self-pity -- yes, it can be comforting for a season during a period of loss -- of grief -- and we need to take the time to honor the loss -- but if we are not careful -- the thoughts of self-pity, or telling ourselves that we cannot move past an obstacle, or that we are somehow not worthy to conquer that next challenge -- or saying to ourselves over and over again that we can’t do something -- those thoughts of low quality, of pessimism, will destroy your pursuit of happiness.
Your thoughts of fear will cause you to slow down -- ever so slightly -- each day -- and you will begin to move at the pace of the herd.
And that is not the pace and tempo you need to run at, Onward Nation.
Little by little -- if you are not vigilant -- you will slowly quit, each day.
But don’t ever quit, Onward Nation. Ever.
Happiness is only achieved by the relentless pursuit of what you love most in this world -- something or someone -- you love more than anything else -- that your love is so intense you cannot breathe without it.
For Peter -- his happiness was driven by creating a better life for himself, his family, and taking the steps and necessary risks to make that happen.
And he did it.
He didn’t wait for someone to make it happen for him. He was generous, he gave, he took care of the people around him -- and they took care of his during his times of need, too.
But, and maybe you’re asking yourself… “How does Stephen know all of this to be true about Peter?”
Well, Onward Nation...Peter Maronitis was my grandfather.
And Bill Maronitis, Peter’s son from the soup story...is my uncle...and my godfather.
My Uncle Bill is also one of my first mentors, one of my first employers -- I started washing dishes in his restaurant when I was 11 years old -- and he has always been a strong and dependable father figure in my life -- and still is to this day.
I have the honor of being one of the 10 grandchildren who had the privilege of learning these lessons of success directly from Peter. And the four amazing kids Peter and Julia raised...are my Aunt Joy, my Uncle Bill, my mother, and my Aunt Elaine.
And Canton, Ohio -- well -- that is my beloved hometown, Onward Nation.
Peter was a great man who gave everything for what he believed in. He took great risks coming to a foreign country seeking to create a better future for his family -- to create legacy for all of us grandkids.
So the photo of Peter in his restaurant that I mentioned earlier -- it hangs on the wall in my office next to my desk -- and my Uncle Bill has the same photo framed on the wall in his restaurant.
It is a visual reminder of our family’s legacy -- where we came from. Our entrepreneurial DNA -- our roots.
There has been many a long night when I am working in my office late -- when I would much rather quit and go to bed...and then I look up from my work...and see Pop looking at me from the photo on my wall...and I think to myself...he did all that he did for me so I could live this kind of life...so I could have the opportunity to spend time with you Onward Nation, so I could do all that I do and enjoy today.
He did that for me.
He worked so hard and took so many risks.
So what in the world is my excuse? That I can’t send out that last email...write one more invitation to a rockin’ awesome guest...create the strategy for one more client...that I can’t get that YouTube series launched?
His legacy helps keep me laser-focused on my most vital priorities -- and right now -- that is Thursday, May 3rd for Episode 1 on YouTube.
And my hope is that Peter’s story has done the same for you, Onward Nation.
So don’t ever quit. Never ever give up.
You were meant for greatness. You are a child of the most high God. You are instilled with an abundance of talent and gifts. Please don’t let something so small as fear -- or your circumstances -- limit all you were meant to be.
As my mentor and great friend Don Yaeger says, “Greatness is available to all of us IF you are willing to do the common things uncommonly well.”
So be uncommon, Onward Nation -- and never ever quit.
So with that said...
I want to again say thank you for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation...good or bad...I always want your feedback. My direct email address is stephen@predictiveroi.com -- and yes -- that is my actual Inbox. No fancy filters or filing system and I read and reply to every single email.
So please let me know how you think we are doing. I look forward to hearing from you.
We will be back tomorrow with an incredible interview. Don’t miss it.
Until then, onward with gusto!
Carolyn Cole is Show Host of the global Boomtank Business Show podcast, for sharp female entrepreneurs and cool guys who support them. For nearly two decades, she was a Fortune 100 and Fortune 200 senior corporate trial attorney. Now she makes the case on behalf of others' business and career dreams - happiness too. She offers global business consulting and coaching for executives, teams, entrepreneurs and business owners. She is an organization development consultant, business strategist, entrepreneur, Livestreamer, speaker and certified professional coach.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why anyone at anytime can seize their life and make a decision to change it * How a podcast can serve as a platform for your business * Why visibility is the lifeblood of your business * How making a list of your top three priorities for the next day can be a time saver * Why you should have a presence on social media but should not live there * Why the practice of positivity on a daily basis can set your day for success * How doing the right things on a consistent basis keeps your business moving forward * The importance of being clear on who you are and what you offer * Why playing small serves no one * The importance of not making the mistake of undervaluing what you are offering
Ways to contact Carolyn: * Website: www.boomtank.com * Twitter: @CarolynColeLive
Our special encore guest today is J.D. Graffam. He is a user experience expert and business leader. He founded his first business, Simple Focus, a digital experience company, in 2009. Today, his holding company, Graffam Companies, manages three digital agencies and six product businesses, all of which are bootstrapped and profitable. In his industry, he co-founded “CSS Off”, the world’s first philanthropic CSS contest, speaks nationally about creative leadership, user experience, and business, and is the author of the book “CSS for Print Designers.” Now...you may remember J.D. and the wisdom he shared during Episode 354. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 354 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why you need to learn to trust your own patience * The role common sense plays in being successful in business * Why success is however we define it for ourselves * Why you should not be afraid of failure * Why J.D. feels failure should be considered an organic natural outcome from doing things * Why anxiety is not fear, it is a negative prediction * Why hiring A-players is not the only way to get A-players * Why you should gain satisfaction from an A-player moving on to other opportunities * The value of having relationships with your employees on an individual level * Why you have to have the ability to critically evaluate your current scenario
Ways to contact JD: * Website: www.simplefocus.com * Email: jd@simplefocus.com * Twitter: @jdgraffam
Laura Roeder is the CEO and founder of MeetEdgar, a social media automation tool designed to prevent status updates from going to waste. She has given talks at conferences like BlogHer and South by Southwest, and has spoken about the value of independent entrepreneurship at The White House. Laura’s also appeared in Forbes, Fast Company, Mashable, CNET, and other major publications.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The value of independent entrepreneurship * How time blocking helps increase productivity * The importance of consistently focusing on the priorities of your company * The value of giving yourself a mental break to help regain your focus * How MeetEdgar saves time by automating your social media posts * The benefits of saving and recycling old social media posts * Why you should be posting more updates and content on your social media * Avoiding the mindset that you are annoying people with your social media updates * Why letting others help you is a critical skill to master * Why you should not wait until something is perfect before making it live
Ways to contact Laura: * Website: www.meetedgar.com * Email: support@meetedgar.com * Twitter: @lkr
Susan Baier founded her company, Audience Audit, in 2009 in order to help organizations understand their best audiences based on attitudes and needs rather than just demographics or purchase behavior. With 30-years of experience as a marketing strategist, she develops custom segmentation research for marketers and agencies around the world, supporting their efforts to create marketing initiatives that are more relevant, more efficient, and more impactful.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Audience Audit gives small to midsize businesses access to marketing research * The importance of focusing on an audience when building a business * The two questions that help define your audience * Why you should stop focusing on the demographics of your audience * Why you need to identify the problem your audience is trying to solve * The importance of building the audience you want to work with * Why you should use your website as a sales tool * How to use your website to target the clients you want to work with * The importance of working with clients that are the right fit for your business * Why you should not rely on searches for exactly what you sell
Ways to contact Susan: * Website: www.audienceaudit.com * Email: susan@audienceaudit.com
Michael Dunn is the Global Brand Strategist and Chief Creative for D U N N — an independent marketing consultancy specializing in inspired thinking, creativity and content-driven brand development. Over the past 15 years, he has worked in a variety of senior-level executive and creative positions throughout the world in advertising, marketing, merchandising and public relations, gaining experience and racking up successes on both the agency and client sides of the business. Michael is currently working on the book “Brains, Beauty and Belief: How Brands Work and Why You Should Care.”
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why Michael feels a brand is a vessel of trust * Why business owners need the ability to constantly shift gears * Why observing people’s behavior helps you become a good brand consultant * The importance of reading everyday * The value of reaching out to authors and thought leaders * The importance of being open to ideas no matter who they come from * The benefits of stepping out of your comfort zone * Why Michael feels keeping your atena up for ideas is a critical skill * The importance of knowing how your brand makes people feel * The benefits of putting design as part of your business strategy
Ways to contact Michael: * Website: www.dunnbrand.com * LinkedIn: Michael Dunn Brand
Our special encore guest today is Christine Kloser. She is an international speaker on the topics of transformational authorship and transformational leadership and is the author of thirteen books, including the best-selling and award-winning books, Conscious Entrepreneurs, Pebbles In The Pond, Get Your Book Done, and this is the 10th anniversary of The Freedom Formula and she is releasing an updated version. She has trained 70,000 writers in more than 125 countries, teaches her signature Get Your Book Done program online, and facilitates transformational writing retreats throughout the year. Now...you may remember Christine and the wisdom she shared during Episode 432. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all she shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 432 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Christine shares what a transformational book is and its value to business owners * The benefit of Christine’s group mentorship program “My Time to Write” * The four quadrants needed to form a transformational book * How following the four quadrants helps you become a transformational author * How writing a book can have a powerful impact on your business * The power of writing a book targeted to one person rather than thousands * How success can be defined as doing work that is fulfilling and impactful to your clients * What makes an “A player” is someone who believes in the mission of your business * Why a plateau in your business may be the result of a plateau in you as a person * The importance of maintaining creativity and productivity to keep your business moving forward
Ways to contact Christine: * Email: info@christinekloser.com * Website: www.christinekloser.com
Good Morning Onward Nation – I’m Stephen Woessner and welcome to Episode 715 – this week’s solocast.
I am excited about you and I will cover today because it addresses a gaping hole that exists inside most businesses.
And that hole is the lack of qualified leads flowing into a the sales pipeline -- or -- potentially the lack of a sales pipeline altogether.
Here’s the most recent data…of the 28 million small business owners in this country – over 43 percent of them cite “growing revenue” as being their top challenge in their company.
That is over 12 million business owners in this country, Onward Nation.
And yes, the challenge to grow revenue can be complex – there can be a myriad of factors or obstacles in the way.
But, in my over 20+ years of experience in owning five different companies – and having interviewed over 700 of today’s top business owners – I will say that the inability to generate leads – or to generate high quality leads that consistently flow into a well-defined sales pipeline represents the most significant challenge to building a scaling a business.
So that is going to be where we spend our time together today.
We will focus on how to effectively use LinkedIn to fill your sales pipeline like a pro. Today’s lesson will provide you with the tools, resources, and the step-by-step you and your team can take and apply right away to begin building momentum with your lead gen.
Before we dig into the tactical step-by-step…I want to first make ensure that we level set around mindset.
Here’s what I mean.
Generating leads is not hard work. In fact…it is straightforward and very little tech…especially when you have the right recipe to follow.
But…just because the work is simple does not mean it is easy.
In fact, I can almost guarantee that you will be frustrated at the beginning, you may even pound your fist on your desk and wonder why the results are not better, and you may get upset at your sales team for their lack of productivity.
I am sharing this with you so that when it does happen – instead of getting frustrated and thinking that success will always elude you – I want to you to say to yourself, “Ah, Stephen said that I would think this right.” And then push forward.
Because pushing forward, whether we are talking about generating leads, or pursuing your life’s passion, is what it takes to be successful. As Vince Lombardi once famously said, “The man at the top of the mountain didn’t fall there.”
But, if you remain focused on continuous improvement – refining your recipe — you will be successful.
This is a long haul – it requires data collection – testing – adjusting – testing again – scaling – making mistakes – testing again.
So let’s dig into the recipe and all of the ingredients.
First…some quick words as to why I love LinkedIn as much as I do, and why in my opinion, it should be the cornerstone of your lead gen strategy.
There are approximately 500 million LinkedIn members — yes, 500 million. Hugely valuable community.
Next…want to guess the average number of LinkedIn connections for a CEO?
- Interesting.
Why?
Because if 933 is the average — some are higher — some are lower — but you tend not to get 933 connections by accident — you work at it — so if someone has 933 connections — it is likely intentional.
Meaning, LinkedIn is a platform that he or she values — and a place where they spend time — that that is great news for you.
And yes, you should be reaching out to the CEO — the top decision maker at your prospect client — but that can be a topic for a completely different solocast.
Okay, next…some additional insight into why you should care about LinkedIn…27 percent of all members are between the ages of 30 and 49…and another 24 percent are 50 to 64 years old…and 13 percent are over the age of 65.
So to say that another way…over 64 percent of LinkedIn members are over the age of 30…and 38 percent of total members earn $75,000 or more per year.
Bottom line…there are 433 million people on LinkedIn…64 percent of them are over the age of 30…and 38 percent earn more than $75,000 per year…with the average CEO having 933 connections on the platform.
All of that speaks well to your opportunity of finding and connecting with the prospects who can accelerate you biz dev, Onward Nation.
So let’s press forward by reviewing the seven ingredients within our recipe.
Our recipe for how to effectively use LinkedIn to fill your sales pipeline consists of seven core ingredients, and they are:
Ingredient #1: Improve your LinkedIn profile by adding video / audio clips, value proposition, etc. to the Summary.
Again — we will get tactical here in just a minute — and I will give you tangible visual examples within today’s Show Notes for each ingredient.
Ingredient #2: Import your existing email list in LinkedIn and send connection requests.
Ingredient #3: Export your LinkedIn connection list and import into your client’s email list.
Ingredient #4: Personalized thank you message sent to each new connection
Ingredient #5: Build your prospect list using LinkedIn’s Advanced People Search tool.
Ingredient #6: Send InMail messages to your top prospects — and be sure to speak the language of your “client avatar.”
Ingredient #7: Create and send consistent nurturing email campaigns with exclusive content just for your LNKD connections so they feel valued to be part of your growing community.
Okay, now that the high-level view of the forest is complete — let’s dive in and go tree-by-tree so you can see all of the tactical ingredients of this recipe.
Ingredient #1 is all about getting ensuring that your LinkedIn profile is not just good — but that it is excellent. Why does this matter?
Because when you send InMail messages as part of Ingredient #6…the very first place your recipients — your prospective clients will go to learn more about you — is your LinkedIn profile.
And if it is sparsely populated with value propositions, your connections count is low, you haven’t taken the time to include a quality profile picture, you have zero recommendations, etc. — then it looks like you don’t care — and they won’t respond to you. Maybe your InMail was just spam — you are ignored — and they move on.
Or, if you have taken the time to include audio and video clips, Slide Shares of recent presentations you delivered, links to articles you have written recently, blog posts, recommendations from current clients — it not only takes advantage of all the profile building tools that LinkedIn provides you — but — you also visually demonstrate your thought leaderships and expertise to your prospective clients — and that is a very good thing.
Now when they receive your InMail message as part of Ingredient #6 — they move from skeptical questions like “Why did she send me this?” to “Oh, interesting…they would like to talk with me? Awesome.”
Think of your LinkedIn profile as your personal landing page and it needs to be excellent — just like everything else in your business.
If you would like a tangible example — check out what my team has built for me on LinkedIn…look me up…send me a connection request…and you will see illustrations of each step I just shared with you.
Let’s move on to Ingredient #2 — import your existing email list into LinkedIn and send connection requests.
To make sure we are on the same page here — I am talking about taking your email list — the list you communicate with often — consisting of customers, prospects, maybe even vendors — people with whom you have a relationship — and then uploading that list into your LinkedIn account and inviting them to connect with you on LinkedIn.
But why?
First…when you increase your number of LinkedIn connections — your network and credibility grows. Instead of having several hundred connections — you move to several thousand. And the next time a prospective client checks out your LinkedIn profile — they may see the number — and be impressed.
Second…your number of 1st-degree connections in LinkedIn impacts the number of prospects you will be able to see during Ingredient #5 of this process — when you use LinkedIn’s Advanced People Search. To cement this into place — let’s quickly review what LinkedIn defines as 1st degree, 2nd degree, and 3rd-degree connections.
A 1st-degree connection on LinkedIn is — let’s say you are listening to this solocast — you like what you hear — and decide to send me a connection request on LinkedIn — and by the way — you should totally do that — anyway — when I receive the request — I personally accept it.
And so you and I become 1st-degree connections.
Now, here’s what’s interesting. My nearly 24,000 1st degree connections instantly become your 2nd-degree connections. And all of my 2nd-degree connections become your 3rd-degree connections.
Again, why is that important?
Well, back to my connections…my nearly 24,000 1st connections extrapolates out to a total network of over 20 million people when considering 1st degree, 2nd degree, and 3rd-degree connections.
That means…I can search through a huge number of people during Ingredient #5 in finding our ideal prospects we might want to reach out to.
So, Onward Nation, building your number of 1st-degree connections is essential to your success on LinkedIn — and uploading your email list and sending out connection requests is a quick and easy way to boost your connection count — and the size of your network — with a couple mouse clicks.
Very powerful.
Here’s how you complete the step. Click your “My Network” on the left side of the menu and then you should see an option on the right side of the screen to import your contacts.
Then click “Add Contacts” and you will see a screen with options to connect LinkedIn with your email service
Definitely do that — as well as the option to upload your email list and send out a massive number of connection requests all at one a couple of clicks.
In the testing that we have done here at Predictive ROI over the years -- is that about 30% of your recipients will accept your mass connection request within the first 72-hours. So this is an efficient way for you to boost your number of 1st degree connections -- nearly immediately.
Moving on to Ingredient #3: You should export your LinkedIn connection list and import into client’s email list.
This might seem a bit backwards after you just uploaded your email list into LinkedIn — why am I now recommending that you reverse the process and export the list back out and import it into your email list?
A couple of reasons:
First…LinkedIn is the only social media platform that gives you the ability to export the contact and profile details of your connections — and that is just plain awesome!
Second…the email address someone used when getting onto your email address may be different than the email address they use within a professional community like LinkedIn — so you should have both inside your email list.
This gives you the ability to cross-pollinate — ensure your high-quality email content that you will be sending (ahem — only high-quality content here, Onward Nation) — will be able to reach them via LinkedIn posts — as well as via email.
And third…there may be some hundreds of people who connect with you via LinkedIn — and not know how to signup for your email list.
No problem…if you are importing and exporting on a consistent basis…you will solve that problem to ensure you are fully covered.
Okay, onto Ingredient #4. Do you feel the momentum starting to build, Onward Nation?
You just beefed up your profile so it is ready to be checked out by the highly targeted prospects who will soon be coming your way. And then you expanded the size of your network so you have tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or maybe even millions of people you can sort through to find the right prospects.
Rock solid awesome!
With ingredient #4…I recommend that you send a personalized thank you message to each new connection — and — that the message includes something of value — and — it is a personal message. Not one of those automated messages that feels like a heavy-handed sales pitch as soon as you connected with someone.
Ugh — those are awful and I tend to remove someone as a connection as soon as I receive one because I feel as though I got duped into a sales pitch.
Yack. We will not be doing that with Ingredient #4.
No...instead I recommend you send something personal — a warm hello and thank you — some personalized context so he or she knew that the message was just for them and then a link to the video.
Now, here is a little scaling secret, Onward Nation — you — you personally — do not need to be the one who sends each of these messages.
You can and should delegate this to a member of your team — maybe even an unpaid intern on your team — and my team at Predictive ROI has been blessed to have worked with 24 rock star interns who were assigned this project as well as other front line — forward facing activities.
And if you’re thinking “unpaid interns — he is out of his mind — there’s no way we could recruit unpaid interns in this market.” Let me just say…we have worked with interns who were students at Duke University, Ohio State, Purdue University, University of Northern Iowa…and many other schools around the country — all unpaid.
If you want our recruiting recipe — go take a listen to Episode 137 — because I share all of the step-by-step of how we do it in full transparency.
Okay, back to lead gen and Ingredient #5: How to build your prospect list using LinkedIn’s advanced search tools.
With these tools, you will be able to search through your entire network of connections using several powerful filters, such as:
- Keywords
- First Name
- Last Name
- Title
- Company Name
- Location — or mile radius from your office or location
And then you can take it deeper and make your searches more refined by including your prospect’s years of experience, their function within their particular company, seniority level, what they are interested in, company size, and so forth.
And if you are looking to upgrade to a premium membership -- I am a big fan of LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator because of the additional granularity in data that can be pulled as well as how leads can be categorized and some of the reporting actions or reminders you can put into place. Sales Navigator is not a CRM but it is definitely getting closer to that.
Okay, by taking the time to get specific about your prospect — you leverage LinkedIn’s database — to deliver back to you a list of prospects who match your criteria and you eliminate the time wasting of sending direct mail to a purchased list and hoping for a better result outcome than the last campaign.
So let’s say that in your first attempt — LinkedIn returns a list of 100 people. You can then click on the profiles of each person (see — Ingredient #1 is really important) and from their profile — you can better determine if he or she is a good fit for your lead gen efforts.
If yes, add the person and their details to an Excel or Google Sheet so you can keep a running list of who you have reached out to.
I get it -- this is tedious work — I completely understand — but — it is also where the rubber meets the road in the success of your business and it will fill your sales pipeline.
Okay, so if you have worked you way through all of the ingredients, you will have built a solid profile — you expanded your LinkedIn network by leveraging your email list — and being smart — to also reverse the process and cross-pollinate your connections back into your email list…and now…you have mastered LinkedIn’s search tools with the resulting outcome being — a highly targeted prospect list — perhaps the most targeted list you and your sales team have ever had.
Now what?
Ingredient #6 is next.
Crafting your InMail message and sending it to each of the people on the list you just created. There are seven sub-ingredients, if you will, that make up the InMail message…and they are:
- Include the first name of the recipient in subject line
- Your first 255 critical characters need to be awesome
- Speak to your “Avatar”
- Include credibility indicator(s)
- Include a client testimonial
- Include a call-to-action – reason for your prospect to reply to your message
- Include your email signature
- Here is an actual InMail message — a template — you can use to create your own.
Please use it.
My team at Predictive ROI has sent thousands and thousands and thousands of InMail messages on behalf of our client’s lead gen efforts — as well as for our biz dev — and the template we included in today’s Show Notes is the resulting outcome of all that testing and hard work.
You will dramatically shorten your learning curve by using the template.
One last point about the InMail and the template you will see in the Show Notes — there is a reference to “speaking to your client avatar.” And yes, we have a recipe for that, too.
If you go to Episode 208, I explain in full detail how to identify your client avatar — how to speak directly to him or her — and how to deliver value in the process.
Having and mastering this knowledge is a must in writing effective InMails.
And now we have arrived at our final ingredient…Ingredient #7…creating and sending consistent lead nurturing content to LinkedIn connections.
When you export your LinkedIn connection data — and then import into your CRM like InfusionSoft, etc. be sure to add the emails to a special list tagged as “LinkedIn Connections” or something else that lets you know these email addresses are super special.
This list represents your MVPs and your goal should be to create content just for them — exclusive — and then share it with them — letting them know it was created just for them — and that your connection means something to you — your connection is important — that you value their opinions — that you want to hear from them and how you can do better — and that you share your insights and expertise along the way in such a context that you are providing value that can be incorporated into their business straight away.
So that when you do reach out to them to explore the potential of a business relationship — you are not reaching out to a stranger with a cold call — you are reaching out to someone who already knows you, already likes you, and may already trust you because you offered tremendous value first — and that is an awesome way to begin a business relationship.
Before we close out for today…I’d like to leave you with a couple of important thoughts.
Now that you have learned the recipe – and have seen the typical result outcomes – there are two questions you and your team need to answer.
First…how will we take immediate action based on what you learned here today?
How will you apply it right away to fill your pipeline?
And that leads to the ultimate question.
Are you committed…or are you just interested in having a steady stream of well-prepared prospects flowing into your sales pipeline?
Being committed means knowing exactly how much new business you are seeking, from what sources, and having a strategy in place to fill the pipeline to get it.
Let me share a quick story about Coach Nick Saban from the University of Alabama – who, in my opinion, represents the epitome of being committed.
Alabama is consistently one of the top-ranked teams in college football each year. They were the 2015 National Champions and won the title again at the close of the 2017 season.
Coach Saban’s reputation is one of precise detail and process.
And once he uncovers a “recipe” for success…he uses it over and over again.
But he also freely shares his secrets without fear that his competitors will be able to duplicate his results.
How is this possible?
Case in point…my good friend, mentor, and three-time guest on Onward Nation, Don Yaeger, interviewed Coach Saban as they considered writing a book together.
During one of Don’s visits with Coach, he asked if there was a secret formula or recipe that gave Saban an edge to recruiting the best talent out of high school year-after-year.
Coach told Don that his recipe is simple. He committed himself to watching every single play that any of their 85 scholarship athletes every played while in high school.
Every play…so he could evaluate talent, effort, and other qualities.
Let’s just think about the magnitude of that for a minute.
Alabama has 85 scholarship athletes…who likely played at least 2-years of high school football…at 10 games per year in high school…and many high school players play both offense and defense during a game, so let’s call it 100 plays per game.
All totaled, Coach Saban watches film on 170,000 plays to make his recruiting decisions.
It is an overwhelming number, right?
How could anyone do that? But Coach Saban does.
And the resulting outcome is that Alabama is consistently the best on the field each year.
So Don asked him, “Coach…aren’t you worried that if we put your secret recipe into this book that people will steal it from you?”
And Saban looked at Don and said, “Nope…not worried at all. Because no one is going to be willing to put in the same amount of effort that I am willing to commit to our success.”
So my hope is that you don’t leave this solocast thinking – yeah, I knew LinkedIn could do that. My challenge to you is…but is your business doing it?
And as Tony Robbins says…“A real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken a new action. If there’s no action, you haven’t truly decided.”
So I hope you will decide to put this sales pipeline-building recipe into action and then please drop me a line and let me know about your success.
So with that said, Onward Nation…
I want to say again, thank you for taking the time to be here with me today.
It is an honor to have you here — thank you for tuning in — your time is sacred and I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
However our daily podcast fits into your daily routine — I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
I look forward to being back with you again tomorrow as we spend time learning from another one of today’s top business owners.
But until then -- onward with gusto!\
Our special encore guest today is Jill Schiefelbein. Jill helps business owners increase sales, enhance product experience, and retain customers. Her first business, Impromptu Guru, helps people improve their presentation and public speaking skills. She created a YouTube series that was syndicated by Entrepreneur Network and brings in thousands of new viewers each week. She’s a video partner and a contributor to Entrepreneur Magazine. Her latest book is entitled, “Dynamic Communication: 27 Strategies to Grow, Lead, and Manage Your Business.” Now...you may remember Jill and the wisdom she shared during Episode 453. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all she shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 453 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The importance of defining your ultimate goal when deciding to write a book * Why you should systematize innovation within your company * The value of asking yourself “where does my business come from?” * Why you need to understand how to present in a technological environment * Why you should know how to use the technologies at your disposal * How to overcome fear by identifying the real obstacles in the way * Why you should focus on empowering and educating your customers * The two questions Jill uses to define success * Why when seeking advice, you need to look at the life situation of the individuals providing the advice * How to be a better mentor by setting clear expectations and being clear about your mentorship style
Ways to contact Jill: * Email: jill@thedynamiccommunicator.com * Website: www.thedynamiccommunicator.com * Twitter: @dynamicjill * LinkedIn: Jill Schiefelbein
Jane Mosbacher Morris is the Founder and CEO of TO THE MARKET, a socially-inspired business connecting ethical producers around the world with consumers and businesses seeking to make a social impact. TO THE MARKET works with large corporations such as Macy's, Levi's, Capital One, UBS, Experian, General Mills, and many more. Her written work has been published on platforms ranging from the National Defense University to Refinery29.com. She is the author of the forthcoming book, “Buy the Change You Want to See: Harnessing Your Purchasing Power for Good”.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why Jane’s vision was changing the way businesses identify and source product * How farm to table allows people to better connect with the supply chain of food * Why fashion and product are headed towards the same model as farm to table * How we can all make change in the world by harnessing our purchasing power * How your brand can be congruent with what it is you value and care about * Why Boomerang for Gmail is a valuable tool for email management * Why persistence when starting and running a business is a critical skill to master * Why Jane wrote her forthcoming book “Buy the Change You Want to See” * What the term “Buycott” means and how it relates to consumer purchasing power * The importance of making a change in the world by choosing to spend money with social impact businesses
Ways to contact Jane: * Website: www.tothemarketcustom.com * Website: www.tothemarket.com * Book: “Buy the Change You Want to See: Harnessing Your Purchasing Power for Good”
Our special encore guest today is Melinda Emerson. Melinda is the founder and president of the Quintessence Group, an award-winning marketing consulting firm with notable clients including FedEx, Verizon, Xerox, and American Express. She is also the host of #Smallbizchat, the longest running live chat on Twitter for small business owners. Melinda’s small business advice is widely read reaching more than 3 million entrepreneurs each week online and she was named the #1 woman for entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter by Forbes Magazine. And the author of the new book, “Fix Your Business”.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why Melinda wrote her book “Fix Your Business” * What the 12 “P”s are for running a successful business * The importance of focusing on your most high value activities * Why having a 90-day turnaround plan for your business is critical to your success * What the three “people issues” are in your business * The importance of having a mobile ready website * Why having a business that works well for you is one way to define success * The importance of having a balance of doers and thinkers on your team * How to overcome fear in your business by creating a plan * Why you never lose in business
Ways to contact Melinda: * Twitter: @SmallBizLady * Facebook: Small Biz Lady * Instagram: Small Biz Lady * LinkedIn: Melinda Emerson * Website: www.fixyourbusiness.com * Book: “Fix Your Business: A 90-Day Plan to Get Back Your Life and Remove Chaos From Your Business”
Our special encore guest today is Mark Faust. He is an expert on growth strategy, sales, and performance improvement. For the last 27 years, Mark has run Echelon Management, a growth consulting firm. He is an advisor on company boards and he has conducted hundreds of sessions for dozens of the worlds largest companies including John Deere, Apple, Bayer, IBM, P&G, and over four dozen third-generation family owned companies and many start ups.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How growth is an aspect of strategy * How all growth happens through relationships * The benefits of reading “High-Growth Levers” together as a company * Having quarterly depth interviews with your customers to nurture relationships * The importance of asking your customers how you can help them grow * Why the two core functions of business are marketing and innovation * How success is a combination of defining the direction and the journey towards the path * How management can intensify focus * How to pivot from your competitors and leverage your positioning to gain an advantage * Why you need to be improving yourself to be a better mentor to others
Ways to contact Mark: * Website: www.highgrowthlevers.com * Book: “High-Growth Levers: How the Turnaround Mindset Propels Your Company” * Twitter: @MarkFaustSr * Phone: 513-621-8000
Good Morning – I’m Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and host of Onward Nation. And welcome to Episode 710 – this week’s solocast.
Well, this is a solocast with a twist.
If you have been listening to Onward Nation for a while now – you know that sometimes I take an interview where I was a guest on someone else’s show – and we essentially re-air it during my solocast.
I do this from time-to-time for several reasons.
First...doing this is an excellent opportunity for you to hear me in the hot seat per se. Someone gets to fire questions my way – and in the process – I get to share perspectives, insights, opinions, or strategies that I might not normally think to share during an interview with one of our Onward Nation or one of my solocasts.
Second...by doing this I am able to introduce you to another host who I think has some chops – someone who has an interesting point-of-view – or someone who I enjoyed talking with.
Which is definitely the case with Stephanie Scheller. Stephanie and I met through an introduction from Dave Denniston – and Dave was my awesome guest on Episode 244 of Onward Nation.
Following Dave’s intro – Stephanie invited me to be a guest for her YouTube series. I said yes, for a couple reasons.
One – I knew it would be a lot of fun and I am always game to talk with someone about building and scaling a business.
Two – I knew it was going to be a video interview, and like I shared a couple months ago, being excellent on YouTube this year as a company is one of our vital priorities for 2018 – so the interview would be another asset that would help us do that.
What I enjoyed about my time with Stephanie is that she asked great questions about my story, how Predictive ROI landed on and decided to go deep in all things voice and video to help our clients win, and we even dug into trends behind podcasts...and whether or not it was getting harder and harder to stand out.
I shared my insights from the perspective of someone who has owned five companies – and – interviewed nearly 1,000 of today’s top business owners – and hopefully Stephanie’s audience found the strategies and recommendations helpful.
So for today’s solocast – I wanted to share the conversation I had with Stephanie...with you...because there may be a nugget or two in there that could be helpful in your business.
And lastly, the reason I wanted to share this interview today is because it is another tangible example of how one piece of content can be transformed into another piece of content pretty easily.
Here’s what I mean.
Stephanie and I connected on Zoom and recorded a video interview. She then posted the content to her YouTube channel and shared it with her community.
Then Dallas Hendrickson on my Predictive ROI team, grabbed the video file and stripped out the audio portion of the file, and now we are going to re-air the audio within the middle portion of this episode of Onward Nation.
All I am doing right now is giving you an introduction so you have context as to why – instead of just jumping into the interview with Stephanie and it potentially being confusing.
In addition, we will likely transform the interview with Stephanie into a blog post, social media posts, a LinkedIn article, and it will become a feature in our weekly email.
And you have similar opportunities with the cornerstone content you create – or could create – on a daily basis.
You don’t need to create everything from scratch – it doesn’t have to be perfect – but it does need to be helpful to your audience.
If you focus on being helpful, being generous with your expertise, and meeting your clients and prospects where they need you – then you will be successful in building your own nation of true fans and growing your business.
So ultimately, I wanted to share this interview with you as a tangible example – a recipe – that you could take and implement into your own biz dev strategy.
Go here for the video interview with Stephanie.
I hope you find what I shared with Stephanie to be helpful. Especially in the areas of voice and video – how they are growing – and why I believe so strongly that you, too, need to be there as part of your biz dev strategy.
There is so much happening right now with voice that it is becoming difficult to keep up with. All of a sudden, my Predictive ROI team is building Alexa Skills and Flash Briefings that are connected back into the podcast content for clients, and all of that is tied into a product or service rollout.
My mind starts racing with all the possibilities. Wow.
So if you want an overview of how voice is changing the game of biz dev, I encourage you to go back to last week’s solocast, Episode 705, where I break down some of the latest tech and trends.
And more importantly – how you can drive your business forward if you begin taking action around these opportunities.
So with that said...I want to say thank you, Onward Nation.
Thank you for taking time to be here – thank you for sharing your feedback, opinions, and insights with us for over 700 episodes.
You are rock solid awesome!
Please know – I appreciate your time and attention so very much – thank you for helping us get better each and every day.
And I am thrilled that we crossed another milestone with 700 episodes – and we are continuing pushing forward and doing an even better job in how we look to serve you the best going forward this year.
I wish you a wonderful rest of your week and look forward to having you back tomorrow for another great interview with one of today’s top business owners.
Until then...onward with gusto!
Anne Bahr Thompson is the Founder and Chief Strategist of Onesixtyfourth — a boutique consultancy that integrates cultural shifts and a social conscience into brand development. Anne was named a 2018 Top Thought Leader in Trust. She’s the pioneer of the Brand Citizenship movement and has more than 25-years of experience as a global brand strategist, including a former executive director of strategy and planning and head of consulting at Interbrand, the world’s leading brand consultancy. Anne is also an accomplished researcher, speaker, and the author of the new book, “DO GOOD: Embracing Brand Citizenship to Fuel Both Purpose and Profit.”
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * What Anne’s trend research in 2011 showed regarding people’s views on corporate citizenship * A breakdown of the meaning and implications of Brand Citizenship * The five step model of how Brand Citizenship moves across the Me-to-We continuum * Why trust is the first step in the Me-to-We continuum of Brand Citizenship * Why consumers are looking to companies to enrich their lives * How corporate responsibility is the pivot point on the Me-to-We continuum * Why consumers value companies who are focused on the community * Why contribution is the final step on the Me-to-We continuum * Understanding the symbiotic relationship between earning a profit and doing well * Why being a good Brand Citizen not only appeals to consumers but also helps recruit prospective employees
Ways to contact Anne: * Twitter: @annebt * LinkedIn: Anne Bahr Thompson * Website: www.brandcitizenship.com * Website: www.onesixtyfourth.com
Lee Caraher started Double Forte in 2002 as a new kind of communications firm designed to provide the best service in the business. Lee has managed multiple offices and hundreds of people of all ages and was named in the 40 under 40 by PRWEEK Magazine. She holds a bachelor’s degree in medieval history — which she finds useful every day. You may also remember Lee and the wisdom she shared during episodes 180, 269, 523, 669, and 680 of Onward Nation. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all that Lee shared during our earlier interviews...I highly encourage you to add her episodes to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why you need to pay attention to all your social media channels * Why you should purchase any URLs that could be associated with your business * The importance of using alerts on social media platforms * Why you should have a set time to monitor your social media throughout the week * The importance of having a plan for handling negative comments on social media * How to get the conversation moved off of the social media platform * How to handle an “internet troll” who is just trying to take advantage of your business * The importance of handling legitimate complaints in a timely and professional manner * Why you want to be as transparent as possible on social media * The importance of not being drawn into public disputes on social media
Ways to contact Lee: * Email: lcaraher@double-forte.com * Website: www.double-forte.com * Website: www.leecaraher.com * Twitter: @LeeCaraher
Resources: * Social Media Checklist
Rob Dube is President and Co-Founder of imageOne, the leading organization in Document Lifecycle Management, which is well-known as an exceptional company, receiving local and national recognition for its multi-award-winning culture, including being ranked as one of the Top 25 Small Businesses in America on the 2017 list of Forbes Small Giants and one of Inc. 5000’s Fastest Growing Private Companies in America. Rob is also the author of “donothing™: the most rewarding leadership challenge you will ever take” and organizer of the donothing™ leadership silent retreat.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The importance of staying focused on your business’ core competency * How focusing your time allows you to accomplish great things * Why your organization needs to define its values * Using meditation to enhance your leadership skills * The value of open-book management and how it helps your business become stronger * Why listening and being present for the conversation is the most critical skill to master * How to make your business stronger by incorporating best practices from other companies * Why you should embrace a process for running your business and stick with it * The importance of being mindful of emotional intelligence and being self aware * The need to have really strong self management and empathy
Ways to contact Rob: * Website: www.donothingbook.com * Twitter: @robdube
Susan Berkley is one of the most listened to voices in America. She’s a top voice-over artist and telephone voice for Citibank and many others. An internationally known communications expert, Susan is the author of “Speak To Influence: How To Unlock The Hidden Power Of Your Voice” and her latest book, “The Persuasion Code.” She is president and founder of The Great Voice Company and provides training in persuasive speaking techniques for business and sales professionals worldwide, as well as training in voice-over technique. A former radio personality and frequent media guest, she has been featured in on ABC News, CNBC, To Tell The Truth, and in The NY Times, The LA Times, and Business Week.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How business owners can speak to influence * The importance of meeting your audience at a level where they know you care * How business owners can make the most of all points of contact * Why speaking is one of the most powerful ways to grow your business * Why we have to be an enhanced version of ourselves when we speak in front of others * How your voice and the way you use it has the power to generate emotions and feeling in people * The importance of not hiding behind your email * Why making a to do list for the next day is a helpful daily habit * Why communication is the fastest way to grow your business * The concept of transparency
Ways to contact Susan: * Website: www.greatvoice.com/onward * Website: www.greatvoice.com * Email: susan@greatvoice.com * Phone: 800-333-8108 * Twitter: @greatvoice
Good Morning...I’m Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and host of Onward Nation – and I’d like to welcome you to Episode 705...this week’s solocast.
In case you’re new to Onward Nation...a solocast is where you and I take a deep dive into a topic...just you and me...without a guest.
And this one-on-one opportunity provides the necessary time to really explore a topic with some depth. And during a solocast, I typically share my point-of-view – when relevant – on trends my team and I are watching play out with business owners every day in the marketplace.
Or, I may share the most important lessons I am learning during conversations with other owners either during our Onward Nation episodes – sometimes during the recording or behind-the-green-curtain discussion I get to have – or – when I am out on the road teaching at conferences, or the new tools and tech I am learning about during mastermind sessions, or weekly check-ins with my accountability partners.
So these solocasts are the place where I can share all of these points with you – and hopefully – I am able to share them in a practical and tactical way that the information and ideas serve you, your team, and overall, are helpful as you work toward building and scaling your business.
So for today...I am going to explain why I believe so strongly that “voice” represents that next opportunity – that next patch of fertile ground – for significant business development.
What’s Voice? Let’s start off with some context around the word “voice” and what it covers. And then we will dive deeper into what, in my opinion, likely represent three of the most significant business development opportunities for you as it relates to voice – and how you and your team can win if you were to add a voice-centric strategy to your overall biz dev plan.
Okay, so what do I mean when I say “voice” and why does it matter?
The term “voice” today is being used to essentially encapsulate all voice-activated or operated devices, apps, and Internet of Things accessories that you may have in your home or office. So for example, if part of your daily routine while you’re coffee is brewing is to say, “Hey Alexa, give me my flash briefing,” you are using voice to get information.
Or, maybe part of your daily routine is to say, “Hey Google...dim the kitchen lights to 50 percent,” you are using a voice command to get a desired result.
Or, let’s say you are working on a research report and you grab your iPhone X and say, “Hey Siri...what is the 52-week high for Disney stock,” you are using voice to pull data from a search engine.
Or, maybe you want to listen to your favorite podcast and you say, “Hey Alexa, play the Onward Nation Podcast,” and the most recent episode begins playing.
And over the last couple of years, we have seen a real proliferation of voice-controlled devices or VCD for short...to the point that we are seeing a category emerge with a real acronym...VCD...voice controlled devices. And we as consumers are responding and voting with our wallets.
To help illustrate this...I want to share some of the trends and data points we are watching really closely here at Predictive ROI.
According to Techcrunch...the Echo Dot was the best-selling product on all of Amazon during the 2017 holiday season.
Amazon did not release the actual number sold, but they did confirm for Techcrunch that tens of millions were sold.
According to comScore...the number of U.S. households with smart speakers grew by 49 percent from June to November 2017. And smart speakers currently consist of Amazon Echo, Google Home, Apple HomePod, and others. Amazon Echo continues to be the market share leader but Google Home is gaining ground quickly.
Here’s a market share estimate that shows Amazon with 88 percent market share in 2016. Their share dropped to 52 percent in 2017.
Source: https://alpine.ai/voice-search-trends/
It is also important to realize that the overall market is exploding and that Amazon is still selling millions of Echos – and – from an software perspective...Amazon provides buyers with a library of over 30,000 Alexa Skills that can be verbally installed so that Alexa can perform certain tasks for you, as compared to Google Home’s library of less than 1,000.
But, Google’s major advantage is its dominance in search. Right now, when you ask Alexa to search for something online, she is only able to search the topic using Wikipedia, which is not as comprehensive as using Google, which comes native as part of Google Home.
This provides Google with a huge advantage to penetrate more and more areas of our home.
A results of a recent Google survey estimated that 72 percent of people who own a voice-activated speaker say that their devices are often used as part of their daily routine.
But the market share competition for voice controlled devices is not being waged just by Amazon, Google, and Apple. Samsung is expected to get into the smart speaker space – and according to Forbes, Spotify has been rumored to be preparing the release of their smart speaker.
And, Spotify is about to conduct a $1 billion initial public offering for their stock, so the stakes are high that they execute their products strategy carefully so they can diversify revenue beyond being a music subscription service – otherwise – the company would not be worthy of such a lofty valuation.
So let’s shift our attention away from devices and think about search and how we as consumers are being to use search engines to find what we need.
According to Branded3 and data collected from IBM, 25 percent of searches on Windows 10 taskbar are voice.
According to a report in Search Engine People, 20 percent of mobile searches on Google are made via voice command. And according to comScore, 55 percent of teens and 41 percent of adults already execute voice searches multiple times per day, and the forecast is that by 2020, 50 percent of all searches will be via voice.
Onward Nation, I have even read reports predicting that by 2022, our computers will no longer come with keyboards because your laptop will essentially become a voice controlled device.
It blows my mind to think about that – but – the data does seem to point in that direction.
And what about podcasting as part of growth – is it still a growing category? And I get the fact that for me to have a bullish voice in this area makes me seem biased...so let me share some data from Edison Research.
They are the leaders in collecting and sharing the growth related data in their annual report, which you can download here.
Podcasting...even though it may seem like it is exploding right now...by the numbers...is growing at a slow and steady clip. There does not seem to be a podcasting bubble – instead – the data seems to indicate that there is some significant upside potential and we are just beginning to scratch the surface as more and more listening channels come online making the content that much more accessible.
24 percent of Americans have listened to a podcast in the last month – up from 21 percent 12 months ago.
And 40 percent of Americans have ever listened to a podcast...up from 36 percent 12 months ago.
The awareness of the term podcasting increased to 60% up from 55 percent 12 months ago.
And 15% of Americans said that they listen to podcasts on weekly basis up from 13 percent 12 months ago.
See what I mean?
Slow and steady growth – even though – sometimes it can feel like every business owner on the planet has podcast and everyone is listening...the reality is not that.
In fact, there are only a few podcasts – there is a lot of room in the market especially for really good content – and there is still a lot of blue ocean out there with growth potential.
And we are seeing this steady growth as smart phones become more and more sophisticated, podcasters are developing their own apps so their audiences can find their content with just one tap or click, and their continues to be a proliferation of channels where the content can be accessed.
For example, when we launched Onward Nation on June 15, 2015...705 episodes ago – yay! – you would have been able to listen to our episodes on iTunes, Stitcher, and our website.
That was it.
Now...you can listen to our episodes on iTunes and Stitcher as well as Amazon Echo by asking Alexa, you can find us on Spotify, on CastBox, on iHeart Radio, and on Google Play. And I am sure we will see more and more channels come online as the competition for subscribers and downloads continue.
Lastly...we are also seeing large brands beginning to make significant investments in voice as part of their overall marketing strategy.
According to AdAge, and what might be an industry first, JPMorgan Chase recently appointed VaynerMedia as its agency of record for “voice marketing” as the financial services giant looks to amplify its strategy around the nascent practice.
Onward Nation, there are a number of reasons why I think this news is significant – but most of all – brands have been resisting for years and years the naming of an agency of record for any part of their business.
Because awarding an agency with that title anoints them with a high level authority – certainly at the strategy level – above all other agencies. It is typically reserved for something very significant – and it is rarely used in today’s advertising world.
Instead, brands are breaking up with agencies, slicing and dicing responsibilities across many agencies where they think they can get the best pricing, etc.
So for JPMorgan Chase to make the bold move toward voice and to do it such a way that named Gary and his team as the agency of record – is huge.
Huge kudos to Gary – major win. We are definitely witnessing the fulfillment of some of the predictions he made during Episode 42 of Onward Nation.
Okay, let’s bring this full circle...all of this combined is why I firmly believe that the momentum we are experiencing around podcasting – and more macro – what we are experiencing around voice – is just the tip of the iceberg and all of this exciting momentum represents a myriad of opportunities for you and your team to plant your business development flag.
So let’s take a look at four business development strategies that in my opinion, you and your team should seriously consider. These are not pie-in-the-sky ideas that you might be able to implement if we go keyboard-less computers in 5-years.
Strategy #1: Launch a podcast Hosting your own podcast is an exceptional opportunity for you share your point-of-view with your customers and prospects, to be helpful to them as they work hard to grow their businesses, and to grow your audience and influence. Once you launch your show...be sure to get your content into all of the major distribution channels like Spotify, Alexa, CastBox, iTunes, Google Play, iHeart Radio, Soundcloud and the myriad of other channels were podcasts live today.
If you want a complete list of what we consider to be the big ones...go to PredictiveROI.com and click on “Podcast” and you will see a long list down the right side of the site with links to each channel.
A podcast will also provide you with numerous monetization opportunities from developing business relationships with your guests, to promoting products and services to your audience, selling sponsorships to third party brands who want to pay you to access your audience and many more.
If you’re consider launching a podcast – or some other form of cornerstone content – I highly recommend going back to Episodes 676 and 659 so you and your team can refer to all of the step-by-step tactical plans I included in each episode for creating and monetizing your cornerstone content.
Strategy #2: Launch an Alexa Skill or Flash Briefing Okay, once your podcast is launched, and your episodes are available on Amazon Echo via Alexa voice commands, then I recommend you give some serious thought to building your own Alexa Skill or Flash Briefing.
At the time of this recording, we are about 2 weeks away from launching a beta version of our Predictive ROI flash briefing where we will provide helpful insights from our guests that were not aired during their actual episode – a collection of behind-the-green-curtain conversations – and the daily Flash Briefing would be the perfect channel for sharing that super exclusive content.
In addition, we may also include research points, the answers to FAQs, and other ways we can be helpful to business owners who may be looking for resources on how to gain clarity around their point of view and use cornerstone content to share their thoughts and wisdom with a larger audience.
A key point for you to consider as you map out your Alexa strategy is that Alexa can do more than just straight responses to specific questions. Alexa can also be configured to access and pull data from sources like Google Analytics – all of which is possible by making the correct API calls.
Incredible!
If you log into your Amazon account, you will be able to access the Alexa Skills Kit so you and your team can begin reviewing all of the technical specifications involved in the process.
One of the most interesting features for Alexa Skills is how you can require that someone who enables the skill – also “links” their account. Which means they have to accept granting linkage to their Facebook account which then you as the marketer have access to their email address and Facebook messenger.
So...if you build a rockin’ awesome Alexa Skill, it can not only help you be helpful to your audience – but – the Skill can also build your email list.
SUPER AWESOME!!
Strategy #3: Convert your blog into audio content Say you are struggling to think of how you might host a podcast – or – the thought of you interviewing your dream prospects as guest makes you uncomfortable – but – you also recognize the power of voice and you happen to have a rockin’ awesome blog that you have spent the last several years building out.
Wonderful. Enter...Voxsnap.
Voxsnap is a recently launched service where you can provide them access to your written content – and they will convert it into audio files for you. Voxsnap has a stable of professional voice actors who will read and record your blog content and then give you back a professional sounding mp3 file of your content that you can then share via iTunes, etc...all of the podcasting channels we discussed earlier.
So if writing is your preferred way to create cornerstone content, and you are uncomfortable with the thought of recording audio, continue writing with excellent and then leverage the power of voice through Voxsnap.
Strategy #4: Optimize your content for voice search And lastly, you and your team need to get up to speed with the changes voice is having on search engine optimization. I mentioned earlier how comScore predicts that nearly 50 percent of all searches in just a few short years will be voice activated – and that means we need to create different content – and serve it up to Google differently if we want to continue driving organic traffic to our websites.
And with voice search...there seems to be one vital priority at the moment and that is to create and optimize content so that it is worthy of becoming the “Featured Snippet” in the search results.
The featured snippet is the content that is ranked so high in the search results that Google tends to put it inside a box and it is typically the answer to a question you may have asked when searching.
So why is the featured snippet so important to voice? Because Google tends to highlight featured snippets in the voice search results and read them to you audibly.
So, if you score a featured snippet ranking for your content – you will not only be served up to searches who are using Google the traditional way – but you will also be served up first to voice searches and your content will be shared with them audibly.
Come on...how cool is that, Onward Nation?
So...how do you score a featured snippet ranking? Well, I will likely dedicated a future solocast just to this topic because as you might imagine – it is a deep one all by itself.
But for now...I will share several quick guidelines.
First, you need to begin creating content for your website that is focused on answering “what,” “how,” or “why” questions from searchers. “What” your product or service does, “how” your team solves problems, and “why” you and your team believe so strongly in supporting the industry through your annual research report on trends, etc.
So you need to think creatively about matching your content with the intent of voice search so that they sync up.
Second, Google has shared data about how searchers who are using voice are also using long keyword strings – or what is often referred to as long-tail keywords. Gone are the days of someone going to Google and searching for a single keyword but instead of searching for a solution to a problem.
For example...the deep dive solocast that I record that will focus on voice search might be entitled: “Okay Google, how do I optimize my website for voice search?”
Because I will want anyone who is struggling with that topic to find my solocast.
So you need to think of your keywords from a long-tail perspective but also from a question and answer or solution perspective.
And third, I would highly recommend you and your team doing some research and testing using Schema.org – often referred to as Structured Data. With Structured Data, you will have more opportunities to tell Google, Bing, etc. what your content page contains – to label it – identify it and to make it easier for them to index and rank.
Recent studies have shown that of all the content pages in the same that were ranked by Google with a featured snippet, over 40 percent of the pages were using Structured Data as part of their optimization recipe.
Again, I will record a separate solocast on voice search engine optimization to share all of our steps in full transparency – but for now – if you and your team begin reviewing your content from the perspective of those three areas, you will likely be ahead of 95 percent of your competition.
Okay, there is one final reason why I am urging you to immediately consider voice as part of your business development strategy.
Because if you truly want to be a thought leader – and you want to leverage your thought leadership so that it serves you in attracting new clients as I have shared with you in past solocasts, then you cannot be a one trick pony.
Here’s a quick video snippet about why I think that is the case.
Your content cannot just be available on your blog...or just your YouTube channel...or just your podcast...or your latest book. Your content needs to be available across multiple channels and you reaching your audience and being helpful in multiple ways...and voice gives you that exceptional opportunity.
With voice...you have the opportunity to no longer be a one-trick pony.
With voice, you can create new content and then transform it into written content.
Now, with the launch of Voxsnap, you have the opportunity to take your written content and transform it into voice.
There is so much opportunity today to take one piece of cornerstone content and to transform it into many different spokes – and unfortunately – if you are not doing that – you are missing out on significant business development opportunities.
So with that said...I want to say thank you, Onward Nation – thank you for taking time to be here – thank you for sharing your feedback, opinions, and insights with us for over 700 episodes.
Please know – I appreciate your time and attention so very much – thank you for helping us get better each and every day.
And I am thrilled that we crossed another milestone with 700 episodes – and that feels wonderful – but I think we are just scratching the surface in how we look to serve you the best going forward this year.
I wish you a wonderful rest of your week and look forward to having you back tomorrow for another great interview with one of today’s top business owners.
Until then...onward with gusto!
Our special encore guest today is Thor Conklin. He is an entrepreneur, profitability consultant, and host of his daily podcast, Peak Performers. The first company he created was a global risk management consulting firm that served the private equity community. His top 15 clients had a combined revenue of $12.7 billion and operated in over 100 countries worldwide. Now...you may remember Thor and the wisdom he shared during Episode 493. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 493 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why you should constantly evaluate your peer groups * The importance of surrounding yourself with mentors that are accomplishing amazing things * Why you don’t need to learn more, you just need to do what you know * The lesson of “just start” and why your product or service will improve over time * Why consistency is the key to improving and honing your business * How having a vision for your life can help you define success * Overcoming fear with the strategy of “1-2-3 - Go” * The importance of pushing and keeping momentum going within your business * What characteristics do you need to become a great mentor * The need for a highly visible scorecard of your business
Ways to contact Thor: * Email: thor@thorconklin.com * Twitter: @ThorConklin
Russell Whitney is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and a recognized worldwide leader in the business, real estate investment, and financial training fields. Over the past 15-years, he has traveled the world speaking to audiences and has spoken alongside luminaries including Robert Kiyosaki and Tony Robbins always spreading his message of how to take immediate action to achieve financial goals and dreams by following his easy-to-follow, step-by-step process. It was during that time he met his success coach, mentor, and eventual business partner, Kevin Harrington, one of the original sharks on “Shark Tank.” Today you can find Russell speaking at events all across the country, giving his students the tools, guidance and knowledge they need to be wildly successful in their fields.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The importance of seeking out help and not trying to do it all on your own * How seeking out coaching and mentoring can help shortcut your process * Why you should always be transparent in life and business * How meditation and prayer can be beneficial daily habits * The value of goal planning each day * Why you should make a “not” to do list * Selling is important, but marketing is a critical skill to master * Why you should seek to hire people who are smarter than you in your business * The importance of hiring and paying for quality people * Why you should always try to set your employees up for success
Ways to contact Russell: * Instagram: @russellwwhitney * Facebook: AskRussellWhitney * Email: russell@russellwhitney.com * Twitter: @russellwhitney
Our special encore guest today is Daina Middleton. She is the CEO of a leading national to local marketing company, Ansira. Prior to heading up Ansira, Daina served as the head of global business-to-business marketing at Twitter as well as successful leadership positions at Performics, Moxy Interactive, and 16 years at Hewlett Packard. Daina is also the author of two books: “Marketing in the Participation Age” and “Grace Meets Grit.” Now...you may remember Daina and the wisdom she shared during Episode 397. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all she shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 397 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why it’s so critical now, more than ever, to brand to local space * Why you need to have both a local and a national brand relationship with your customers * How your mindset has such an impact on your influence potential * Why, as a leader, it’s about empowering others…not about having power over others * Why Daina believes that success is about the everyday journey - not just about the end outcome * Why it’s more important how you recover from mistakes rather than how you make them * Why it’s essential to recognize the type of person that you need for the type of environment or business * The value of finding your passion and authentic voice * The importance of continually transforming your company
How best to connect with Daina: * Website: dainamiddleton.com * Website: ansira.com * Email: daina@dainamiddleton.com * Twitter: @DainaMiddleton
Brandon Bruce is the chief operating officer and co-founder of Cirrus — an all-in-one sales productivity platform that connects Gmail and Outlook with Salesforce. Since launching the business in 2011, the company has grown to $12 million in annual revenue, 65 employees, and was ranked #41 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing companies in 2016.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Focusing on your customers: the key to getting any business off the ground * How starting a business is like an endurance sport rather than a sprint * The importance of looking towards and planning for the future to ensure you are prepared for changes when they arise * How entrepreneurs are able to pursue many different interests within their business * Why reading is an important daily habit * How daily exercise can help clear your mind and stimulate new ideas * Focusing on the right things first: an important skill to master * The importance of making decisions quickly * The influential lesson of meeting with anyone, anywhere, at anytime * Why the number one strategy to ensure success is sell first
Ways to contact Brandon: * Website: www.cirrusinsight.com * Email: Brandon@cirrusight.com * LinkedIn: Brandon Bruce * Twitter: @cirrusinsight
Our special encore guest today is Kathy Kolbe. She is the global leader in discovering and accessing the power of human instincts. She is an acclaimed theorist, bestselling author, entrepreneur, educator, organizational strategist, consultant and speaker, and is the founder of Kolbe Corp and Dynamynd, Inc. Now...you may remember Kathy and the wisdom she shared during Episode 466. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all she shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 466 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How OPgig can help guide individuals into careers suited for who they are * How OPgig can show you which jobs are available in your area that are suited to you * The negative consequences of working with others who work and think like we do * The importance knowing who we are and valuing our own abilities * The value of seeking people who have differing abilities than our own to work with * The pitfalls of the narrow-minded thinking of today and why it needs to be changed * Why Kathy feels the definition of success is the freedom to be yourself * The need to work together through all our differences * The benefits to working with others who share your values
Ways to contact Kathy: * Website: www.dynamynd.com * Email: kkolbe@dynamynd.com * Twitter: @KathyKolbe
Our special encore guest today is Bill Jelen and he is the host of MrExcel.com and the author of 54 books about Microsoft Excel including “Excel Gurus Gone Wild”, “Pivot Table Data Crunching”, “Power Pivot Alchemy” and “MrExcel Live”. Before founding MrExcel.com in 1998, Jelen spent 12-years “in the trenches”, as a financial analyst for the accounting, finance, marketing, and operations departments of a publicly held company. Since then, his company automates Excel reports for hundreds of clients around the world. The website answers over 30,000 questions a year for free for readers all over the world. You may remember Bill and the wisdom he shared during Episode 131. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 131 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How to stay focused on your goals by avoiding distractions * The benefits of tackling your most important tasks first * The value of taking cornerstone content and repurposing it for other platforms * Using keywords within YouTube to bring people to your site * How you can build your business by being an expert in a particular field * How answering questions on Quora.com can benefit your business * The differences between having your book self-published or using a publisher * How being genuine in your efforts to help people rather than sell can lead to a successful business * The benefits of a book distributor when self-publishing a book * The importance of loving and having fun with what you are doing
Ways to contact Bill: * Website: www.mrexcel.com * YouTube: Bill Jelen * Twitter: @MrExcel
Andie Kramer is an attorney and partner in the international law firm of McDermott Will & Emery where she heads its Financial Products, Trading, and Derivatives Group. She’s an influential voice in her field, praised for her significant contributions to tax policy. Andie was named one of the 50 Most Influential Women Lawyers in America by the National Law Journal and along with her husband, Al Harris, wrote the book Breaking Through Bias – Communication Techniques for Women to Succeed at Work.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why Andie feels it is important to speak and write about how women can overcome gender bias in the workplace * The stereotypes women encounter within the workplace * The differences between how men and women talk about their accomplishments * How businesses can do a better job in avoiding stereotypes and bias * Why not watching television can make your success more efficient and effective * The benefits of having a coping sense of humor in challenging situations * The importance of having a sense of flexibility while staying focused on your objective * Why focusing on the care and feeding of your team is an important part of building your business * The importance of developing a sense of confidence * Why writing down a time when you felt strong or powerful can be beneficial
Ways to contact Andie: * Website: www.andieandal.com * Book: “Breaking Through Bias: Communication Techniques for Women to Succeed at Work” * Twitter: @AndieandAl
Today’s episode is going to be different from any other -- in fact -- it is fair to say that today’s episode will be another powerful lesson on how outward success is an inside job. Our special encore guest today is Bobby Albert and he is the CEO and President of Values-Driven Leadership, LLC, which is focused on teaching others the growth enabling potential of building foundational values into company culture. He is also author of the book “Principled Profits — Outward Success Is an Inside Job,” where he pinpoints specific, time-tested principles that can supercharge any enterprise. You may remember Bobby and the wisdom he shared during Episode 399. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 399 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The benefits of having a mindset to simply make a difference every day * Confidence, contentment, and courage: three ways to define success * How to become a more effective leader by focusing on relationships and results * The benefits of having an abundance mindset versus a scarcity mindset * Why discovering your core values is a process, not an event * Why core values are determined by the owner, not the leadership committee * The difference between aspirational values and authentic values * Becoming a better mentor by learning to ask high quality discovery questions * The importance of having an owner that is open to change * The positive outcomes of you as the business owner growing in your core values
Ways to contact Bobby: * Website: www.bobbyalbert.com * Book: “Principle Profits: Outward Success In an Inside Job” * Twitter: @BobbyAlbert
Today’s episode is going to be different from any other -- in fact -- it is fair to say that today’s episode will be another powerful lesson on why you shouldn’t try to be everything to everybody. Our special encore guest today is Bobby Klinck and he is an online entrepreneur and intellectual property attorney. He helps businesses, innovators and entrepreneurs harness the power of their intellectual property rights. He is also the founder of Your Online Genius, LLC, which helps entrepreneurs protect their online businesses by giving them access to the information and resources they need. You may remember Bobby and the wisdom he shared during Episode 498. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 498 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The basic legal protections all business owners need to have done * The importance of speaking with a CPA when setting up your business * Why every important agreement in your business needs to be in writing * The need to do a trademark search when naming your business * How to protect your confidential information * What website documents businesses need to have in order * How to keep your business moving forward by avoiding procrastination * What Bobby describes as the three pillars of success * How to become a better mentor to others * The importance of always reading and learning
Ways to contact Bobby: * Website: www.youronlinegenius.com * Website: www.klinckllc.com * Website: www.learn.youronlinegenius.com/onward * Twitter: @BobbyKlinck
Good Morning, I’m Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and your host for Onward Nation.
Welcome to Episode 695 – this week’s solocast.
I greatly appreciate your time and am grateful that you decided to share some of your precious 86,400 seconds that you have today with me – thank you, Onward Nation.
Before we dive into how to recognize and solve what may be the two biggest challenges or obstacles to scaling your business...I want to provide some additional context as to why I chose this topic for our time together today.
You might recall that in Episode 685...you and I took a deep dive into the Imposter Syndrome.
We defined it and then sliced apart the Syndrome’s two main ingredients so you could recognize it whenever it rises up to block you on your path to success.
However, when I went back through my notes for Episode 685 and re-listened to the content...I realized that the ingredients I shared were a bit incomplete because they weren’t part of a more comprehensive recipe including more ingredients and a series of action steps.
And that comprehensive recipe is what we are going to cover today.
So if you haven’t listened to Episode 685 yet – I encourage you to go back and review it so you have the full context from beginning to end.
Being armed with both episodes will help you solve what may be the biggest challenges or obstacles in your business -- those things that are really holding you back from jumping off the plateau you may be on right now – and leaping onward to that next level.
So here’s what we will cover today...
First, I will show you how to spot the two biggest obstacles currently preventing you from moving your business onward to the next level.
Second, I will show you how to attract the right mentors to help you overcome the obstacles and accelerate your results.
Third, I will show you how to implement and master a specific system that will dramatically expand your network and sphere of influence.
Sound good, Onward Nation? Okay...let’s dive in.
What if I told you that the two biggest challenges preventing you from moving your business onward to the next level have nothing to do with the business climate, the economy, the skill level of your employees, the location of your business, your pricing strategy, your current customer base, the size of your marketing budget, the quality of your products, your distribution channels, or the myriad of other reasons we are given today by the media and government as to why businesses fail at such a staggering rate in this country?
What if the obstacles in your way had nothing to do with any of that?
And in instead, what was blocking you…the obstacles keeping your business in check…are the same obstacles that have always attempted to keep you in check throughout your entire life.
Your enemy is not the myriad of reasons I just listed…instead…your first challenge…or better yet…your first enemy is the Fear of Poverty.
And yes, there is a correlation to the Imposter Syndrome – you may recall that in Episode 685 when we dissected the syndrome into its most basic form...we could see that it was just fear.
So now...I want us to dissect fear into a couple of smaller ingredients so we can have an even clearer view.
And for that...let’s go back to 1937 and into the pages of the brilliant work by Napoleon Hill, “Think and Grow Rich.” The book sold over 70 million copies worldwide because it is such a compendium of knowledge.
The book was made possible by Andrew Carnegie.
Carnegie at the time was the wealthiest man in the world, met Napoleon Hill, liked him and offered to commission him to open the doors to the greatest industrialists of the time.
That was 1908.
And he said, “I’ll open the doors if you’ll sit down with these top business owners and figure out their secrets to success. What they do, their methods, their mindsets that have caused their extraordinary success and you put it into a book and publish it and make it available to the world.”
So, Napoleon sat down with Henry Ford, Edison, Schwab, Wrigley, and both Rockefellers.
Imagine being able to spend time with those business owners and pull out their best ideas for success and achievement.
If you have read, studied, and applied the book…you understand the great knowledge in this book and are already ahead of 98% of your competition.
But often times…this book is an easy to forget treasure because it was written in 1937 – but the strategies in this book are still just as applicable today.
If you have not yet read, studied, and applied the book – then consider this a million dollar resource you have just been given. You can go to OnwardNation.com/book and get the Audible version of Think and Grow Rich for free…that’s OnwardNation.com/book.
The Fear of Poverty is one of the 6 basic fears but it is also the most pervasive, destructive, and confusing to understand.
But why?
On the surface, it seems as though this fear would revolve around the fear of becoming poor – and there definitely is that component.
But, the way this particular fear manifests itself is what makes it easy to spot.
We become so fearful of poverty…that we freeze and are plagued with indecision, indifference, doubt, worry, over-caution, and procrastination.
Just when you ought to take action…you don’t.
When sales are declining…you ought to make more sales calls…but you don’t…we sometimes freeze because the fear of poverty may hold us hostage and keep us from moving forward.
Just when you should be investing in that new expansion – that new marketing strategy – that new development – hiring new employees – you don’t.
You become overly cautious. Or…you disguise your caution by saying you’re “skeptical”. Which is a more pleasant way of saying, “I am afraid.”
You become so fearful of hitting the wall – that all you do is focus on the wall.
And then what happens?
Exactly…you end up hitting the wall.
To be clear…I am not suggesting that you throw caution to the wind and become financially irresponsible and then lose your business as a result of mismanagement.
That would be silly.
But I am trying to bring into focus that our Fear of Poverty can be one of the major obstacles that hold us back from the abundance at that next level.
And it doesn’t matter who you are – we have all felt it before – especially when trying to pursue something new – that next level.
Remember, if you focus on the wall…you will hit the wall.
But if you focus on the infield – you may still eventually hit the wall…but your opportunity likely increases by a factor of 10 IF you steer your business where you want it to go instead of letting yourself and your business become paralyzed by indecision, indifference, doubt, worry, over-caution, and procrastination.
So if the Fear of Poverty is the first challenge – what is the second one keeping you from moving your business forward?
It is the Fear of Criticism and is also one of the 6 basic fears…and it too is easy to spot.
This fear what prevents you from making that sales call to that prospective client everyone in town wants because you hear that voice inside your head that says…
“Oh come on…who do you think you’re kidding calling them? You have nothing to offer. They only work with big companies. You’re too small.”
You hear… “You’re not good enough…you don’t have the skills, you will never make it…why bother trying…there are others who are more gifted, talented, they already have all the connections…what could you possibly offer that would be unique and different…just try something that is more at your current level – call on someone smaller – don’t call the president or owner – call someone who reports to them – that would be easier.”
“Why can’t you just be normal?”
The fear of criticism can be overcome with grit…with tenacity…with perseverance…with the shouting into the abyss…I will not be defeated.
You saying… “I will WIN THE DAY”.
And when you do that – and I believe when you’re moving in the direction of God’s plan for your life – there is nothing that can stop you.
Now that we have identified the 2 biggest obstacles holding you back – which really aren’t obstacles at all are they – they all are in your mind – now let’s work through our first recipe.
RECIPE #1: FOCUS ON MENTORSHIP If you have listened to our Onward Nation episodes, you already know that I ask every single guest to share the most influential lesson they ever learned from one of their mentors that helped them become the business owner they are today.
And wow…our guests have shared some outstanding lessons.
So for this solocast, I am going to share a very specific recipe for attracting and finding the right mentor.
But let’s make this more specific.
Why find a mentor?
And yes, there is a specific recipe you can use to find a mentor and I am going to share that with you.
Before I share the step-by-step ingredients to this powerful recipe…I will share two of the most influential lessons I ever learned from one of my mentors…Darren Hardy, publisher of SUCCESS Magazine.
For 12-months, Darren was a member of our board of advisors at Predictive ROI. So we would get together either in-person or over the phone. And during one of our monthly calls, I explained to Darren some of my reservations about building a big business.
I wasn’t sure how big I wanted Predictive ROI to become. And so I was nervous about it.
And I said, “Gosh, Darren – you know – I’ve never thought of myself as being a great manager of people. And quite frankly, honestly Darren, I kind of suck at it.”
And then Darren said to me, “Stephen…stop SUCKING at it!”
And I said, “What do you mean?”
And he said… “Don’t give me that lie or tell me that myth that you are telling yourself. Don’t use that as a frickin’ excuse to stop moving forward. Stop telling yourself that limiting belief and that lie that you’re not a good manager or leader. Be better at it. Don’t give me the excuse.”
And so I’m standing there almost like totally stripped down – I was like, my word, he just totally called me on it right.
It was embarrassing – because Darren’s assessment was spot on, Onward Nation!
And that’s what a good mentor does for you – they call you out when you need to be called out – they support you when you need to be supported and they teach you when you need to be taught.
But they don’t do the hard work for you – that’s on you.
So here are the specific 11 ingredients for finding the right mentor for you:
Think about your own talents and skills you would like to strengthen — weaknesses you would like to lessen — areas of your business you would like to improve, etc.
Then make a precise list that details everything you just thought about.
This process helps you identify the person you need to become in order to move your business onward to the next level
This is a really hard exercise because you have to force yourself to take a critical look at yourself (and by the way — most people are not willing to get really honest with themselves — and that is one of the major reasons they never grow)
Once you have the list — look for people who are crushing it in these areas — the same areas where you need to grow.
Then contact those people — invite them to lunch — let them know you are packed full of questions for them
Be very prepared — they will love that
Interview them and put what they share with you into practice — turn it into a blog post and your clients will love you for it
Loop back to your mentors and share your success
When you do, they will invite you to sit down so they can share more with you.
Soak it all up — then put it into practice.
Remember…a good mentee takes action on what is learned — and the responsibility is on you.
Here’s the reality, Onward Nation…you are the average of who you spend the most time with as Jim Rohn so brilliantly shared decades ago.
So you need to spend your time with people you have a common future with – not a common past.
Let me close out this first recipe by saying…you can want to find a mentor – the recipe that I just shared with you could be worth millions of dollars in new sales to your company – but – it won’t be worth anything unless you DECIDE to take action.
As Tony Robbins says, a real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken action – in fact – that you have taken massive action. And if there’s no action – then that is simply an indicator you haven’t really decided anything.
Now that we have conquered and overcome the two main challenges standing in your way – and now that I have shared with you a very specific recipe with all of the step-by-step ingredients (in the proper syntax) so you can find your right mentor or mentors…it is now time to really accelerate your results and move your business onward to the next level.
RECIPE #2: GROW YOUR INFLUENCE The next recipe I am going to share with you could represent a billion – yes, with a “B” – billion dollar strategy for your business.
I am going to share a recipe for mastering a specific system that will dramatically expand your network and sphere of influence – and – I will also share with you how you can then monetize these valuable relationships into mutually beneficial partnerships and revenue for your business.
And yes, I know it may sound crass or inappropriate when I say monetize relationships – unfortunately, I can’t think of a better word – I think you get what I am driving at.
But before we get to the recipe…let me put typical “networking” into context.
Most business owners go to an event with a large number of “prospects”.
They pass out business cards.
They chit chat small talk with the same people they met their last month.
They collect others business cards.
More chit chat and participate in some more small talk.
They might even schedule some lunch meetings.
Why do we do this?
Here’s why.
Because it is safe. It is easy. It does not put us out there or force us to face our fear of poverty or our fear of criticism.
We begin to ask ourselves several horrible questions like we discussed in Episode 685. Questions like... “What would people think if I did this or that…or spent time with so and so?”
I am going to work hard here to shift your paradigm and perspective of what is possible, Onward Nation.
And that is why I love this quote from Archimedes. “Give me a prop strong enough, and a lever long enough, and I can single-handedly move the world”
This next recipe I am about to share with you will become your lever and your prop.
And it is big – this is literally a billion dollar recipe – and I am going to introduce you to the top business owner who is using it generate a billion dollars.
She describes herself as a billionaire in the making and her name is Stacey Alcorn, our brilliant guest for Episode 3 of Onward Nation.
During our interview, one of the stories Stacey shared was about the afternoon she had spent with Kevin O’Leary, Mr. Wonderful from ABC’s Shark Tank. They spent the afternoon tasting wine and exchanging business mantras and best lessons. As you might imagine, Stacey and Kevin had quite the masterminding session.
There is always a strategy behind what Stacey does – and if you go back and re-listen to Episode 3, you will hear her map out her entire biz dev strategy with precision.
But, let’s review one of the golden nuggets from that conversation – Stacey’s billion-dollar biz dev strategy and it revolves around swing for the fences with respect to the relationships you are seeking to develop.
Most people will not swing for the fences – but Stacey does. And your ability to be bold with this biz dev strategy is the first ingredient and key to your success.
So here are the other 9 ingredients in Stacey’s biz dev recipe.
- Make list of influencers in your industry and / or your Dream 50 clients / prospects
- Connect via social media, email, or call
- Ask for 30-minutes so you can interview them on their path / keys to success
- Do your homework – prep excellent questions
- Be excellent during the interview
- Briefly share what you and your company does at the close of interview
- Invite / open the door for future opportunities
- Then share guest’s expertise on your blog, media outlets, your podcast, etc. – your platform
- Rinse and repeat – rinse and repeat
And here is another key benefit to this strategy, Onward Nation. If you interview the movers and shakers in your industry – they become your informal mentors…and you become one of the movers and shakers in the industry as a result.
If you want a BIGGER – more ROBUST – more INFLUENTIAL network – then YOU must become bigger…your platform must become more robust…and you must become more influential.
But – let me also share a WARNING or a potential ROADBLOCK with you.
You might be thinking – “Sounds awesome, Stephen…but Stacey has an email list of 65,000 people and has interviewed all of these celebrities and big-time business people – I don’t have those connections.”
Or, maybe you’re thinking… “My business just started…I don’t have mindshare in the marketplace, I’m not a published author, I don’t have a platform, no one knows who I am, who will listen to me – what do I have or could I share that would be relevant for anyone to listen to, I don’t have a network – I wouldn’t even know how to start.”
I get it, Onward Nation. Honest I do. I asked myself those same questions when I sent out my initial invitations for guests to join me for an interview. I thought, “Who am I to send an invitation to these incredible people? Why on Earth would they say yes to me?”
And yet...they did. And in the process of receiving the yeses – I realized that what I was doing was making excuses. I was allowing the Fear of Poverty and the Fear of Criticism to work against me, Onward Nation.
Please don’t allow that to happen to you.
If you hear those voices in your head – if you are having thoughts that are even remotely similar to what I just mentioned – let that be your litmus test – you now know you are heading in the right direction.
Push forward – don’t stop – don’t let your fear hold you back from breaking through to that next level.
Remember, you are the average of the people you spend the most time with…and look who Stacey is spending the most time with.
She refers to herself as “A billionaire in the making.” And in order for that vision for her life to become a reality – she knows that she needs to spend as much time as possible with other billionaires.
Well, I will let you in on a secret she told me during our interview – Stacey didn’t have those connections several years ago.
But she decided to change her circumstance – her current network and then took action to make it happen.
And I know you can too.
Okay, Onward Nation – so with that said...I just want to say thank you again. I greatly appreciate your time, I greatly appreciate all of your feedback, and I am grateful that you decided to share with me some of your precious 86,400 seconds you have today.
Please know – I always look forward to your feedback. You can reach me at Stephen@predictiveroi.com, on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook. Just drop me a line and let me know what you thought of today’s solocast – thumbs up or thumbs down.
Until tomorrow – onward with gusto!
Rob Emrich is a serial entrepreneur and the Founder and CEO of Gimbal, which was named the fastest-growing tech company by the Los Angeles Business Journal in 2016 and ranked #66 on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in America in 2017. Gimbal is the market leader in the emerging category of physical world marketing automation. The company counts over 10,000 end customers including Ford, Citibank, Walgreens, and other Fortune 500 firms. Rob has been featured in the The New York Times Bestselling book The Lean Entrepreneur & 21 Questions for 21 Millionaires. He has been recognized by the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award and “Forty under 40.”
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why having a strong online presence depends on how efficient your marketing is * How marketing successfully and determining ROI can help grow a company quickly * How simplifying the supply chain can equal higher ROI to your customers * The benefits of using physical world data for marketing purposes * How beacons help businesses gather more precise marketing information * Why daily habits for some entrepreneurs can be situational depending on where their business is at a particular time * The importance of being flexible in your thinking * Why comfort with uncertainty is a critical skill for business owners to master * How focusing on the objective and not the obstacle will lead to success * The value of journaling about three good things that happened in your day
Ways to contact Rob: * Website: www.gimbal.com * Website: www.robemrich.com * LinkedIn: Rob Emrich * Twitter: @robemrich
Larry Haas is the Founder and CEO of Global Aperture Inc., a management consulting firm specializing in helping companies transform to achieve their strategic goals in industries such as Aerospace and Defense, Agriculture, Homeland Security, and Nonprofits. Prior to founding Global Aperture, Larry served as a consultant and leader in several organizations including Procter and Gamble, Boeing, and as an officer and program manager in the United States Air Force.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The definition of an “SOS moment” * Setting clear priorities for your day: an important daily habit * Why you should turn your phone off during your work day * Avoiding procrastination on your high priorities * Why you should not take criticism or critique from clients personally * Being flexible and open in your business * The importance of being connected to your customers * The influential lesson of “assume any and all authority, not specifically denied” * When starting a business, find an enduring need that is growing * The importance of finding a mentor in your industry to learn from
Ways to contact Larry: * Website: www.globalaperture.com * Email: larry@globalaperture.com * Email: info@globalaperture.com * Book: “SOS to ROI” * Twitter: @larryahaas
Darla Hall is the owner of In the Sports Zone, creating licensed activity books for college, NFL, MLB, NBA and other brands. Her idea started as a gift for a little boy who was struck by a car and suffered two broken legs. She developed the first Roll Tide Activity Book as a gift for him and secured her first license in 2012. He has fully recovered and Darla has grown her business by adding product lines, teams, and leagues each year. She is currently writing a memoir titled, “Ball Cap, Boots, Backflips & Business”, which will be released in 2019.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why focus is hard to accomplish * The importance of having a drive and passion for your business * How having a daily task list helps keep you focused * The benefits of spending 80% of your day on selling * How to use social media to build your platform and impact your business * Why selling is the most critical skill business owners need to master * Why you can’t be afraid of failure when you are trying to build relationships and sell * The value of mentors and surrounding yourself with smart people * Why you should look at every day as a new slate * The need to fight for what you believe in and not to back down
Ways to contact Darla: * Website: www.inthesportszone.com * LinkedIn: Darla Hall * Facebook: Darla Hall * Facebook: In the Sports Zone * Twitter: @inthezone777
Jeff Hyman is the Chief Talent Officer at Chicago-based Strong Suit Executive Search — whose focus is on recruiting and building rockstar teams for growth companies. He’s recruited over 3,000 people and has advised hundreds of entrepreneurs along the way on the recruitment process — and from that experience — he wrote the book “Hiring Growth Rockstars: The 10 Step Playbook to Find the Winners and Ignite Your Business” to share the lessons he learned. Jeff also hosts the five-star podcast, Strong Suit.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Hiring the very best talent can be what helps your business win in your industry * How rockstar employees are up to 10 times more productive and efficient than average employees * What happens if you hire 5 rockstar employees but pay them like 8 rockstar employees * Why you should not look at hiring employees as an expense * The importance of having a compensation philosophy * The benefits of not paying top of market prices for an employee * How to find a rockstar employee that is the right fit for your business * Why setting priorities and being protective of your time each day are important daily habits * How purposeful networking can lead to business growth and success * Why having candor in your company and learning to have the tough discussions is vital to success
Ways to contact Jeff: * Website: www.recruitrockstars.com * Email: jeff@recruitrockstars.com * Twitter: @JeffHymanTweets * Book: “Recruit Rockstars: The 10 Step Playbook to Find the Winners and Ignite Your Business”
Good Morning – I’m Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and your host of Onward Nation. And welcome to Episode 690, which is this week’s solocast.
Before we go behind-the-green-curtain of today’s topic...I want you to know how extremely grateful I am for your time – and I am also grateful that you have chosen this episode to be what you listen to – to study.
Or, maybe you’re taking our podcast with you on your daily commute – or however the lessons we share make their way to you – please know – I am thankful we have become part of your day.
Thank you.
We all have the same 86,400 seconds to invest today...and the fact that you have chosen to invest a portion of your time in taking this journey with us means a great deal to me.
So thank you, Onward Nation.
For our time together today...I am going to step us through what I see as the four seasons each and every business owner needs to recognize in order to successfully navigate their company, employees, and clients through as part of the business’s natural life cycle.
Every business experiences these seasons – no matter what industry and no matter how successful.
And yes, there is some correlation between the seasons we will walk through during today’s discussion and some of the traditional growth models you may have studied in school like Growth-Share Matrix made popular by the Boston Consulting Group.
This is the one with a quadrant – grid layout where a business needs to fit inside one of four boxes. One was labeled Cash Cow, one for Star, one for Question Mark, and one for Dogs.
A business would be classified into one of the quadrants based on their growth rate and market share.
If growth is high and market share was also high...the business would be a star. The opposite of the Star is the Dog quadrant.
I like what the Boston Consulting Group did with the matrix. And it is ideally suited for large corporate entities operating in well-defined industries with easy to calculate market shares.
That is not most business owners, Onward Nation.
It doesn’t fit Predictive ROI and my guess is it doesn’t fit your company either.
And in my opinion, business owners need a practical framework for connecting the seasons of their business into their thought leadership – into their point of view – and how these blend together to form cornerstone content that can be used to move any business forward.
And also recognizing that there should be healthy period of rest in the business.
I will also share some tactical next steps to consider while you and your team are working your way through each season.
How you can continue to nurture and build your nation of true fans, how you can continually refine and clarify your point of view, and how you can prepare your business to move onward to reach that next level of success.
Okay, let’s dive in. Ultimately, there are three main reasons why I wanted to share this with you this morning, Onward Nation.
First...and you may have heard me talk about this before...but I am sick of all the “marketing hyperbole” I hear from digital marketing gurus, business coaches who have never run a business, and consultants who are promising you that their system – if only applied – can give you that coveted 7-figure business.
You just need to download their thing, buy their course, or join their super expensive mastermind.
These gurus are trying to entice you with their get rich quick promises of following their funnel blueprint or this email sequence – just apply this swipe file into your campaigns – and WHAMMO – you too can have a 7-figure business just like they do.
Um, no thank you.
Here’s the reality, Onward Nation...
Of the 28.1 million businesses in the United States...only 4 percent of them ever reach the $1 million a year in sales.
Yep, just 4 percent.
With that said...there are certainly legit experts – those who have truly done it before. But the different is that a true thought leader has a fully transparent body of work that is easy to see.
You can review and scrutinize their track record...and their content is true thought leadership versus a self-aggrandizing YouTube channel.
You can easily see how they have built a business of their own and how they truly work in the trenches with others to help build a client’s company.
Onward Nation, growing a company to $1 million in sales is a big deal – and if it is one of your goals – super awesome! But to get there...you need to remain cognizant of the fact that your business will go through a healthy process of seasons so you can stay focused and ready to deploy your precious resources at the right time – hence the importance of today’s discussion.
Second...I want to help you set expectations on timeline because there is so much glitz and glam surrounding success today that it is really easy to fall into the trap that success can happen overnight.
And even when we logically know and conceptually understand that success takes time and a whole lot of hard work – we can see a business or a celebrity and think, “Wow...how did that happen for them so fast?”
Because we fit all about their behind-the-green-curtain backstory – we only see the flashy front of stage. Here...let me give you two quick examples.
Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart are two of the biggest names in entertainment right now – and earners – in Hollywood. So they are great examples of the point I want to make.
With Dwayne, aka The Rock, one of his first starring roles was a movie called The Scorpion King back in 2002...16 years ago, Onward Nation. And before that...he was a professional wrestler from 1996 to 2004.
But...for the better part of 21 years, Dwayne Johnson has been perfecting his craft to the point that he was one of 2017’s highest paid actors earning $65 million.
He has also built a nation of true fans, who flock to see his latest blockbuster when he shares snippets of the film in his daily posts with his 100 million Instagram followers.
The Rock deserves every ounce of his success – it’s fun to watch from the outside looking in – and he is the furthest thing from an overnight success. He is now reaping the harvest of his 20 plus years of sowing.
Or how about Kevin Hart? He has been perfecting his comedy craft since 2001. Kevin was cast as The Rock’s co-star in two recent movies, including the international sensation “Jumanji”.
And not only did the starring roles represent success for Kevin Hart all by themselves...but...they also helped further expand his profile and fan base to where he is now breaking box office records with his current comedy tour entitled, “Irresponsible.”
Kevin and his team sold an unprecedented 500,000 tickets during the first week of opening. And he now has 57 million Instagram followers.
When I look at Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart, I immediately want to know the behind-the-green-curtain of their success...their team...their systems...their practice sessions...the training...the preparation...and all of the hard work...night after night...all the doubt when they must have thought they wouldn’t “make it”.
And yet they kept work through the seasons and they did it for decades. Because they knew that was the price that success required to be paid in order for them to get them to where they are now.
How they persevered.
How they ignored the naysayers.
How they kept pushing.
I respect that level of dedication to their craft and what they wanted to achieve – but interestingly – if I were to interview them for an Onward Nation episode – I suspect they would both say that as good as things are for them right now...they likely feel like they are just getting started.
Both are legit business owners – not just on-screen talent – so watch what they are doing, Onward Nation, and how they are executing every day. It is mastery and discipline at work.
Third...I wanted to walk you through the seasons so you can had a roadmap for building your business in a strategic and thoughtful way.
A blueprint that helps you build a nation of true fans around your point-of-view, around what makes you unique, your thought leadership, and the value you and your team deliver for clients.
Okay, so let’s dive into the four seasons that every business, and every business owner, needs to work through.
Season 1: Get back to basics In my opinion, this first season is experienced when you need to ignite new growth in your business – and – when you have just reached that next level.
Getting back to the basics, which I believe are re-grouping with your team, skills training, evaluating the resources on your current team and making additions or adjustments, revisiting your point-of-view, how your POV is driving what you earlier defined as your three uniques, and how both are driving your cornerstone content.
As a quick aside, Onward Nation...if you want more detail on POV, three uniques, and how they blend to form your cornerstone content...just go back to Episodes 676 and 659. You will find some good step-by-step detail in both episodes.
So if you just completed a successful business development campaign, launched a new product or service, attended a major trade show and rolled out something innovative – as a result – achieved that next level of your business you are likely now in Season 1.
Versus...continuing to push and push in order to move to yet another level.
Onward Nation, more companies go out of business from indigestion due to too much opportunity versus starvation and not having enough new business to keep them alive.
So if you reached that next level – awesome. Take some time to celebrate and evaluate how you got there by asking yourself some key questions.
Review how your team performed – and more specifically – what skill sets were critical to your success? And do you have enough capacity in that skill going forward?
What value did you deliver to customers?
What feedback did you receive from customers?
What feedback did you receive from vendors?
How many new customers did you take on – and why?
How many customers did you lose – and why?
What about your sales pipeline worked really well and what didn't?
Did your pool of prospects grow and why?
Did you social media ecosphere grow and why?
Or...maybe the reverse is true. Your business has not reached a new level on the upside but instead has reached a new low. Well, the questions we just covered apply for your business, too.
So no matter if you are coming off some massive growth – or some massive struggles – Season 1 is the reset. We all need a reset – to clear away all the clutter and to then focus on renewal and moving forward. It is part of the Law of the Harvest. Just think about that for a second.
Say you are farmer and you just had a record harvest – more corn – more potatoes – more produce than you have every harvested from your fields in the history of your family working the soil for decades.
You put new technology, new tools, and a new team into place the resulting yields we off the charts.
But now the harvest is over. It is time to get back to the basics and prepare for next year’s harvest by working through the same evaluation process I just shared with you.
Or, let’s say you’re the farmer again and you just had the worst yielding harvest ever in the history of your farm.
What do you do?
You get back to the basics and prepare for the next harvest and setting yourself and your team up for success during the next harvest period.
Season 1 is critical to Season 4...it is the Law of the Harvest and it is alive and well on the family farm just as it is in your business. You cannot experience massive growth year after year without coming back to Season 1 and renewing...and getting ready for the next harvest.
For example...at Predictive ROI...we recently experienced a leveling up...new clients...new teammates...a successful launch of our latest book, Profitable Podcasting – and thank you for all of your support, Onward Nation – I am so very grateful for your helping in making the book so successful...becoming a #1 Amazon.com best seller list in 18 hours was awesome.
We had an excellent Season 4 harvest. And we are not done growing Predictive ROI – but we do need to take a brief pause and realize that we are now in Season 1 so that we can prepare for our next Season 4 harvest.
So this week...Erik Jensen and I – my business partner at Predictive ROI – we met up in Austin, Texas – he flew in from Salt Lake City and I flew in from La Crosse, Wisconsin for five days of business development – meetings with several of our Predictive ROI clients and then Erik and I are also investing 2-1/2 days with our mastermind group that consists of other agencies owners – as part of the Agency Management Institute.
The 12 owners in the mastermind all refer to our group as Velocity – and I absolutely love the owners in the group – and this is the perfect Season 1 activity for Predictive ROI...as we plan our next iteration of Seasons 2, 3, and 4.
Season 2: Sow your seeds for long-term Let’s stay with the farmer example as we walk through the other seasons. In Season 2...again...no matter if you just reached a new level of growth in your business...a record harvest...or...you are grinding in order to rebuild...Season 2 is all about sowing. Season 2 is about generously sowing the right seeds, in the right amounts, and in the right areas in order for new growth to occur.
According to the Law of the Harvest, we will only reap at the time of harvest what has been sown.
So if we have not been generous in helping clients grow, helping our prospects learn and develop all without some hidden agenda, and to generously share our time with our teammates, then how can we expect that our harvest in Season 4 will be abundant?
In addition, the Law of the Harvest also says that we will reap the same in kind as we sow.
Or, to say that another way...you cannot share small tidbits of your knowledge with your prospects and then expect abundance at the time of harvest. You cannot give pennies and expect dollars at harvest.
But also remember this...the Law of the Harvest also says that you will reap more at harvest than what you sow.
So your generosity with customers, clients, teammates, vendors, and all of your other stakeholders during Season 2 will pay big dividends during your harvest.
So if your business is struggling...should you be financially frugal during Season 2? Yes, absolutely!
That is part of being a good steward. But what you should also do is to creatively find ways to share your wisdom and expertise with your clients and prospects – to sow seeds – to build your list – to share your thought leadership – to guest blog – to write that book you have been wanting to write and share the content for free with your clients as a sneak preview and special thank you.
Build a rockin’ awesome Instagram account – follow Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart – and watch what they are doing – how they let their followers into their lives – they have pulled back the curtain – you can do the same thing with your prospects and clients.
And yes, you don’t have 100 million followers – so what – you have the number of seeds you need for your next harvest. You just need to get out there and sow them.
Season 2 is all about planting your flag – your POV in the hearts and minds of your customers and prospects...and you do that through sowing seeds – as many as you can – through your cornerstone content.
You can do this...I believe in you, Onward Nation.
Season 3: Tend to the new growth If you have done the hard work of Season 1 – put the plans in place and have been diligent about sowing the right seeds and in the right amounts during Season 2...you will begin to see signs of new growth.
New opportunities will begin to come your way.
New prospects will invite you in to present your services, to share your story, and to discuss how you and your team might be able to add value to what they are trying to accomplish.
You will start to meet prospects at trade shows who come up to you and say, “Hey, I have been listening to your podcast – or watching your YouTube channel – or reading your blog – or – I have been on your email list for a while now – and I really like some of the things you have been sharing and was hoping we would have an opportunity to meet at this show.”
Or...how about this, “I knew I just had to attend your workshop because every time I turn around with a problem or crisis in my business – there you are – ready to be helpful.”
Okay...how awesome is that, Onward Nation?
And those are all signs of new growth. New opportunities that need to be nurtured – and when that begins to happen – you will know you are firmly planted in Season 3.
It is time for you to water the seeds you have sown, get down on your hands and knees and pull the weeds, gently till the soil to let more air in on the roots, and to prune the growth you are now seeing.
All of this hard work – getting into the trenches with your community – with your audience – with your nation of true fans is critical.
It is the right thing to do in order to remain congruent with the person who just did all of the Season 2 sowing. And, you need to remain congruent with the Law of the Harvest.
If you notice growth and don't water it...or pull the weeds...your new growth will dry out and die.
But oftentimes, I see business owners do the hard work of Season 1 and Season 2 and then expect that the floodgates of the abundant harvest will now come flowing into their business – but that circumvents the law of the harvest.
Nature doesn’t work that, way and you cannot expect that the natural laws that govern relationships will work that way either.
So respect the process. Season 3 must be followed if you want to have an abundant harvest in Season 4.
Season 4: Harvest and reap what you sowed Okay...now Season 4 is here. It is time for your book launch, it is time for your product launch, it is time for you to roll out your new service offering, it is time for you to unveil your latest innovation to your sales team at your private event at the industry trade show – something you and your team have worked so hard to achieve...yes!!!
It’s here...THE HARVEST.
And if this is where you are at right now, Onward Nation – congratulations – please know – I am super happy for you.
You didn’t move into Season 4 by accident. You didn’t wake up one day in Season 4 without some serious hard work – so virtual high five – I respect your effort and hope the abundance of your harvest overflows.
Just like the farmer doesn’t wake up one day in early August and say to his team... “You know what I think we ought to do today – let’s go pick some corn!” And then they look out to a field without any corn – covered in weeds – not going to be a good harvest.
But, if the farmer and his or her team have done all of the hard work in Seasons 1, 2, and 3...they should be ready for an abundance harvest. And they also know that as soon as all of the hard work of the harvest is complete...they will immediately move back into Season 1 because the preparation for next year’s harvest begins.
So just like with the Law of the Harvest – the seasons your business experiences will follow a similar pattern.
However, I also want to make sure I clarify that I am not suggesting that the seasons are an annual cycle for your business are they are when we are talking about growing corn.
You may have an abundant harvest in Season 4...move into Season 1 for planning...and then move through Seasons 2 and 3 to prepare for the next harvest...all in a matter of a few short months.
And for your business or the dynamics of your industry – that may be possible. Or, Seasons 1, 2, and 3 may take you a year or two to get through...especially if you are coming off a harvest that did not produce the results you wanted.
You did not receive great feedback from customers.
You realized that you might need to make some adjustments to your team to level up.
You noticed some adjustments to your product or service to make sure it is properly aligned with the cornerstone content you are producing.
Or, you have now realized how important it is to get clear on your POV, your three uniques, and why you should be sharing cornerstone content on a consistent basis to add value during Season 2 – sowing your seeds.
Regardless of what season your business is currently in – please know – being aware of the Law of Harvest can help you move your business through the seasons – and onward to that next level.
I wish you much success during your next harvest, Onward Nation.
So with that said...I again want to say thank you. Thank you for being here and generously sharing your time and all of your feedback so that we can continue to get better each and every day.
We will be back tomorrow with another helpful episode with Jeff Hyman as my guest. I know you will find the conversation with Jeff helpful because shares insights and the economics around recruiting rock stars for your team. You will not want to miss Jeff Hyman.
Okay, Onward Nation – until then – onward with gusto!
Brandon Steiner is the CEO and Founder of Steiner Sports. Over 30-years ago, he started Steiner Sports with $4,000 and a computer and has grown it to be a leader in the sports memorabilia and marketing industry. Brandon is also a speaker and host of the Unplugged Podcast and the author of two bestselling books, "The Business Playbook" and "You Gotta Have Balls."
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The power of relationships when building your business * Why you need to create a lot of chaos and confusion before you can see the clarity in your business * The importance of thinking outside the box and having your own thoughts and ideas * Why resilience and diligence are two important daily habits * How being a good communicator helps others join in your vision * Why picking the right customers and clients to sell to is a key to success * Why thinking is the hardest work you are going to do in your business * How the art of selling is differentiating yourself, adding value, and serving * Learning how everything is negotiable in business and in life * The importance of being prepared and confident in your abilities
Ways to contact Brandon: * Website: www.BrandonSteiner.com * Twitter: @BrandonSteiner * LinkedIn: Brandon Steiner * Facebook: Brandon Steiner
Today’s episode is going to be different from any other -- in fact -- it is fair to say that today’s episode will be another power installment of How to Do the Hard Right Over the Easy Wrong. I can boldly make such a claim because my guest today is Larry Broughton. Larry is Founder and CEO of broughton HOTELS; Broughton Advisory Group; and yoogozi.com. Larry is an award-winning entrepreneur & CEO; a best-selling author; keynote speaker; and former U.S. Army Green Beret -- who is committed to helping visionaries, leaders and high-achievers step into the leadership gap. You may also remember Larry and the wisdom he shared during Episodes 18 and 166 of Onward Nation. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all that Larry shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episodes 18 and 166 to your list of vital priorities. You’ll be glad you did.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why entrepreneurship and capitalism are catalysts for positive change in the world * Larry Broughton’s new book “VICTORY”: a road map to launching your business * Why the American form of capitalism is the best in the world * The importance of having a compelling vision when starting a business * Why doing research and intel is vital to your businesses success * What a competitive set analysis is and why it’s important for your business * The need to have a coach or mentor to become a high achiever * How to get people to work to their strengths while you celebrate their achievements * The importance of setting up systems and operations within your organization * The benefits of taking rapid action and executing your business plan
Ways to contact Larry: * Book: www.larrysnewbook.com * Website: www.larrybroughton.me * Twitter: @larrybroughton
Jim Horan is the founder and president of The One Page Business Plan Company, an experienced Fortune 500 executive, sought after thought leader, advisor to startups, CEOs and their management teams as well as other industry leaders. Seventeen years ago, Jim simplified the business plan to a single page and began a revolution that continues to this day. Jim’s first book, “The One Page Business Plan for the Creative Entrepreneur” instantly became an Amazon best seller and Inc. Magazine listed the book as one of the Top 10 “Start Your Own Business” books of 2015.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why business is first and foremost about people * The purpose of a one page business plan * Why the most significant risk to your business is not being understood * How a one page business plan helps your business clarify its objectives * The importance of professional trade business associations * The power of picking up the phone to accelerate your business * Why you should not try to sell to people within your network * The value of business relationships when building your business * When client acquisition becomes easier * Listening to your intuition and moving towards things you are attracted to
Ways to contact Jim: * Website: www.onepagebusinessplan.com * LinkedIn: Jim Horan * Facebook: Jim Horan * Email: jhoran@onepagebusinessplan.com * Phone: 510-705-8400
Ian Lamont is the founder and president of i30 Media Corporation, a media venture specializing in reference materials, technology news, and how-to guides, including the award-winning “IN 30 MINUTES” series of guidebooks and “PRIORITY PAYLOAD REPORT”, the independent newsletter of industrial automation. He is also the creator of the Lean Media framework, which helps creative people and production teams develop media that matters.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why businesses today need to have the DNA of being a media company * The importance of building an audience for your brand * What issues surround creating media for your business * What mistakes businesses make when creating media * The benefits of making a list to help tackle your priorities each day * The importance of knowing when your most productive time of the day is * Why the most critical skills to master are building and selling * The need to create media that is going to benefit your customers * What mistakes to avoid when creating media for your business * Why finding a product or service that people really want or need is critical
Ways to contact Ian: * Twitter: @ilamont * Book: “Lean Media”
Good Morning Onward Nation...I’m Stephen Woessner and welcome to today’s solocast.
As part of my role as host of Onward Nation...and as CEO of Predictive ROI...I am blessed with this amazing opportunity to meet, talk with, and really get to know business owners as well as the critical skills and strategies they have applied to be successful and the lessons they learned along the way. But these owners have also been kind enough to take me behind the green curtain and share their fears, their insecurities, and the constraints to success that they face each and every day.
And the constraints can vary from business owner to business owner...and from industry to industry. But there is one constraint that is universal. There is one constraint that affects all of us. There is one constraint – that no matter who you are – you have faced and have been impacted by it.
So for today’s solocast...I am going to take you on a deep dive into this constraint, and more importantly, how to conquer it and give you a couple of key ingredients so you can push it aside when it begins to impact you and your business.
And the constraint that I am talking about is the Imposter Syndrome.
The Imposter Syndrome isn’t some mystic dark magic voodoo. No, it’s the little voice you hear – a whisper – a question – that asks... “Who do you think you are to attempt something so grand...a goal so big. Who would ever pay for that? What makes you think you can deliver that type of project? Why would that company choose you to work with when they could hire anyone they want?” And the list of bad questions that we ask ourselves each and every day can go on and on.
These questions that we pose to ourselves can cause us to question our competency. The questions might give us pause. The questions – and the ensuing internal dialogue – may cause you to show up to a meeting with an important client in a less confident way. Your employees may wonder if you have what it takes to be the inspiring leader they were hoping for when they joined your team.
And then all of that negative self-talk results in a self-fulfilling prophecy, which is then followed by another round of doubt from the syndrome. “See, aren’t you glad you didn’t get your hopes up? It’s better this way...then there is no disappointment.” And here too...the list can go on and on.
So, the Imposter Syndrome is real. It is unrelenting. It doesn’t get tired. It knows all of your weaknesses and how best to mask your strengths.
The Imposter Syndrome will cheat you out of your destiny. It will cheat you out of the application of your God-given talents. And it will cheat you out of being the owner of the thriving, wonderful, game-changing business you want to lead.
So buckle in Onward Nation. We’re going for a deep dive into the Imposter Syndrome and how you can conquer it...once and for all.
I will share some definitions and some context for when the Imposter Syndrome was discovered, how you can avoid it, as well as several examples of the syndrome hard at work so that you can spot it when it tries to sneak up on you.
My hope is that this discussion will be helpful to you recognizing how the seemingly innocent thoughts, or a minor procrastination, can change the course of your destiny without you even realizing it.
Why?
Because your thoughts become your actions -- and your actions -- become your destiny.
So here we go, Onward Nation!
First, the Imposter Syndrome is something we all face. Everyone on Earth faces it -- no matter who they are. It is just that some people have deliberately conditioned themselves to be better than most at pushing themselves past it the fear created by the syndrome.
If you are hearing the term “Imposter Syndrome” for the first time -- let’s start us off with some context and background.
The term Imposter Syndrome was first coined in 1978 by clinical psychologists Dr. Pauline R. Clance and Suzanne Imes and was used when referring to high-achieving individuals marked by an inability to internalize their accomplishments and a persistent fear of being exposed as a “fraud.”
Despite external evidence of their competence, those exhibiting the syndrome remain convinced they are frauds and do not deserve the success they have achieved. In fact, they take their proof of success and pass it off as luck, timing, or as a result of deceiving others into thinking they are more intelligent and competent than they believe themselves to be.
Some studies suggest the impostor syndrome is particularly common among high-achieving women while other studies indicate that men and women are equally affected.
However, based on my experience over the last 20+ years in business, and having interviewed close to 700 of today’s top business owners -- some of the most ambitious super achievers in business today -- I can confidently say -- that the Imposter Syndrome does not have any such gender bias.
It attacks both men and women equally -- so nice of it to do so, right Onward Nation!?!
Now let’s take that definition and break it down into its two core ingredients.
Ingredient #1: the inability to internalize accomplishments and a persistent fear of being exposed as a “fraud.” Have you ever felt walking into a meeting that you weren’t worthy -- or that you didn’t belong there? Perhaps someone on the selection committee, the award committee, or board of directors had somehow made a mistake in selecting you.
Heck, maybe even some of your colleagues, family members, or friends looked at you and even validated your own suspicions and asked you the seemingly innocent question of “So why did they pick you?”.
I began to learn about the imposter syndrome back in 2009. My first book had been published while I was an academic staff member at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. My book had become popular with small business owners and several of the UW campuses around the state started asking me to teach a class at their respective campuses. Awesome.
So one day I mentioned the opportunities to a family friend -- that I was headed to UW-Green Bay the next day to teach a class based on my SEO book...and my friend looked at me and said, “Well, why are they having you teach the class? Couldn’t they find someone else locally to teach the class?”
My friend was not trying to be hurtful -- not in the least. But those comments hit me hard. Never mind that my SEO book was #3 in the United States, I had just been interviewed for Inc Magazine and other credibility indicators.
When he asked me that question -- I actually paused and thought about it. “Yeah, why are they hiring me to teach...am I good enough...do I have what it takes...am I the best they could bring in...did I deserve to be there...was I a fraud...did I know what I was talking about?”
Or, there was another instance -- with this same family friend -- when we were having dinner following a recent trip where I was in Washington DC doing what’s called a “Speaker Visit” at Leading Authorities, one of the speakers bureaus that represent me. They had just started representing me and the visit was an opportunity for me to make a brief presentation to showcase my areas of expertise, answer questions, and just help their sales team get to know me a bit better for when any of their clients might need a professional speaker with my skill set.
And during the Q&A portion of the discussion, some members of the Leading Authorities sales team asked me some questions about how best to promote one of their newest clients online -- a very big name -- retired military officer -- and big headlines at the time. Awesome -- I love that kind of Q&A -- and it was really fun sharing some strategies and steps they could use to make a big impact.
So when I got home -- and had dinner with my friend -- I told him about the experience at Leading Authorities and how excited it was. And after I was finished telling the story -- he said to me -- again not trying to be mean to me -- but he asked, “So why did they ask you about how to help?”
A legitimate question...and my answer could have been to share aspects of my experience that were relevant to the conversation in D.C. and specifics about how I helped.
Instead, I let the Imposter Syndrome rise up -- destroy my confidence -- and the end result was that I even began to question why I had been asked. It was a complete 180 in my confidence -- but -- it also proved to be a critical lesson in learning how to defeat the Imposter Syndrome -- and part of your weaponry needs to be protecting your inner circle -- who gets to be inside your circle -- and the information you share or don’t share with members outside your circle.
But, there’s nothing unique or different about these stories. We have all had these experiences of the little voice in our heads whispering -- or in some cases shouting -- “Who do you think you are to do something so amazing?”
That is the Imposter Syndrome, Onward Nation and it is likely holding you back -- it is rearing its ugly head in the form of fear -- and you need to push it aside so it doesn’t block your progress in moving forward.
Here’s the reality...high-performers work hard to prevent people from discovering they are "impostors." This hard work often leads to more praise and success, which perpetuates the impostor feelings and fears of being "found out." The "impostor" may feel they need to work two or three times as hard, to over-prepare, tinker, and obsess over details. This can lead to burnout and sleep deprivation.
I have felt that way before. With each new interview, success quote, media feature that I received from my books -- I would think -- goodness -- did I deserve to be there? YES -- but it took me a long time to believe it -- and I still wrestle with it today.
Ingredient #2: the “imposter” takes the proof of success and passes it off as luck, timing, or as a result of deceiving others into thinking they are more intelligent and competent than they believe themselves to be Has your business ever gone through a growth spurt and you wondered why?
Have you ever looked around your office and suddenly realized you have some amazing people working for you, looking to you for leadership, and you cannot figure out what they see in you?
Have you ever felt uncomfortable heading into a presentation with a new client and you wonder why they invited you to the table?
Or, in a personal situation -- have you ever felt like you married up -- that your husband or wife -- was not only your better half -- but completely out of your league?
Why do we ask ourselves such losey and unfair questions?
And here’s the important point that I really want you to get, Onward Nation. When you ask yourself “How on earth were we able to hire such amazing employees? Don’t they know that we don’t know what in the world we’re doing?” -- your brain does a funny thing...it gives you an answer.
Your brain doesn’t want to make you out to be a liar -- so it gives you the answer to fit your story.
You start hearing things like… “Yeah, boy, you really pulled the wool over their eyes on that one. Hope Becky doesn’t figure it out -- because if she leaves -- then Tom is sure to leave, too.”
Or, “Why did client X invite us here? We don’t really have a shot at winning this pitch, do we?”
And then answer you get back might be something like, “Nope, we have no chance of winning -- especially if they knew all about the mistakes we made just last week on Client Z’s account. We are lucky to have kept Client Z -- hope X doesn’t ask for references. Maybe we ought to back out of the process now.”
What nonsense. The reality is that you were invited into the evaluation process because you have a stellar network -- perhaps stellar credentials -- and you deserve to be at the table. The voice on your shoulder -- the voice whispering in your ear -- is the imposter syndrome.
And we all deal with it.
It doesn’t matter who you are thinking of right now...Tim Ferriss has dealt with it...Joel Osteen has dealt with...all of the incredible business leaders that grace the covers of SUCCESS Magazine, Inc, Fast Company deal with it.
Heck, I struggle with it, too… “I think to myself all the time -- I can’t invite that person to be a guest on my show -- they’ll for sure say no!”
Good grief! Why do we do this ourselves, Onward Nation?
Every business owner -- every political leader -- every leader throughout history has dealt with this. George Washington did not feel he was worthy to be this country’s first president. No one is immune from the Imposter Syndrome. But if you know that -- you can defeat this secret enemy.
But here’s what is unique -- and what is special -- is when someone stares into the face of potential rejection -- faces their fear and they do it anyway.
And to quote the rock solid awesome words of Dr. Marcie Beigel -- a three-time guest of Onward Nation...she said to me in her first encore interview in Episode 144 said to me, “Stephen...be scared, and then do it anyway!”
Wow...I loved that.
Because it is oftentimes fear -- which is another way of describing the imposter syndrome -- it is fear that gets in your way more than anything else. You -- you, Onward Nation...are your business’s biggest constraint.
Not the market, not your lack of customers, not your pricing, not your product quality...no...it is you. You -- as the leader -- as the business owner -- you set the pace and tempo of your company -- either fast or slow -- you do.
So I asked Dr. Marcie during that special encore interview to share how business owners can reach that elusive next level? She was kind enough to map it out into three simple steps.
- Get clear on what the next level is — how will you know when you’re there?
- Walk through your fear -- make a plan -- and just do it
- Find a mentor -- we learn best from the people who have been there
And let’s look at all three of these.
First...get clear on what the next level is. Well, if the imposter syndrome (aka FEAR) is making you believe that you are not even worthy of your current level of success -- how could you possibly believe that you are worthy of more? So how could you define what the next level looks like?
Great question, right?
Instead, perhaps you need to spend some time in gratitude being thankful for what you have already accomplished -- consciously acknowledging that what you have achieved was deserved because you worked hard to get there and you applied your God-given gifts and talents to get there -- and now -- to realize your full potential -- it is time to leap off your current plateau and move onward to that next level -- and you deserve to be at the next level -- because you’re an expert.
But the first step is to give yourself permission to define that next level so you know when you and your business have arrived.
Second...be scared about the next level...and do it anyway. Set your fear aside -- what is the worst that could happen? Prospective customers could say no. You might make a bad decision and lose some money?
An employee or a group of employees may disagree in how you’re redirecting the company and could decide to leave.
Okay?
Are any of these life-threatening situations? Did anyone die? No. And like Mike Stromsoe taught us in episode 24 of Onward Nation -- did anyone die, no? then move on!
Stopping making each decision more -- or bigger -- than it has to be.
Just make a decision...then move on. It doesn’t have to be more complicated than that.
So, Onward Nation, just be scared -- and then do it anyway.
And lastly...find a mentor to learn from. More specifically -- find a mentor or group of mentors who are all moving at a pace and tempo that is faster than you.
I know I say this a lot -- but only because it is critically important. It matters who you spend your time with -- and if you spend your time with people who are moving at your current pace -- or slower -- those people may make you feel comfortable to be around -- they may not challenge you -- they may not push you or ask you tough questions -- and it is easy to relax and unwind.
But guard yourself -- if you don’t protect your time -- you will slow down as a result.
Why?
Because as Coach John Wooden once said, you will never outperform your circle. You won’t -- it is just human nature.
So you need to make sure the mentors you select are operating at a completely different level than you are currently at -- that you reach -- that you stretch -- that you get yourself into a group of people where you don’t currently belong. And then you work like crazy to not get left behind -- and in the process -- you will expand and grow -- and leap off your current plateau onto that next rung.
And as Scott McKain recently taught me, “Stephen, you cannot reach that next rung, unless you are willing to let go of the current one you are hanging on to.”
Very wise words, Onward Nation.
Please recognize the imposter syndrome for what it is...it is nothing more than fear. Please also know that we all deal with it...you are not different because you feel it...you are not uniquely burdened or yoked.
But what can make you unique and distinctive is your ability to refuse the status quo and to push past your fear -- to shove the imposter syndrome aside and to not let yourself be your own limitation.
You were meant for greatness. You are a child of the most high God. You are instilled with an infinite abundance of talent and gifts. Please don’t let something so small as fear limit all you were meant to be.
So with that said...
I want to say thank you for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here -- thank you for tuning in -- your time is sacred and I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
However our daily podcast fits into your daily routine -- I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation...good or bad...I always want your feedback. My direct email address is stephen@onwardnation.com -- and yes -- that is my actual Inbox. No fancy filters or filing system and I read and reply to every single email.
So please let me know how you think we are doing. I look forward to hearing from you.
We will be back tomorrow with an interview with Ian Lamont. I think you will find Ian helpful because we explored how today’s successful companies – at their core – as part of their DNA – have became media companies and how this transformation is likely to continue. My guess is you will find our conversation thought-provoking as I did – it is well worth your time.
Until then, onward with gusto!
Patrick Ewers is an executive coach and the founder of Mindmaven, a company that helps professionals generate more opportunities by introducing experience-based relationship management -- and -- helps them drive growth by increasing their overall mindshare within their network. He was called Silicon Valley’s top relationship management expert by Forbes and was also one of LinkedIn’s earliest team members, where he was responsible for launching and building up “LinkedIn for Groups.”
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The story of how Patrick ended up at LinkedIn so early in the life of the company * The four life themes that came to Patrick while meditating on a Buddhist retreat that led him to starting his business Mindmaven * Why what’s common to you isn’t always common for everyone else and why you need to focus on that to deliver greatness to the world * Positive alacrity: delivering micro-experiences to others that have a profoundly uplifting impact * Why good things happen when you do counterintuitive things (which Patrick learned firsthand when he left LinkedIn) * Spending 10-20% of your time to focus on your relationships and how that will dramatically impact your business * Why staying top of mind is a great strategy to drive referrals * Building a list of 30 people called “legends” and emailing one a day to really build that connection over time * The Five Freebies: Five ways to interact with people with who you already have a relationship in a way that you don’t have to think a lot about what you write
Ways to contact Patrick: * Website: www.mindmaven.com/onward * Email: patrick@mindmaven.com
Robert Glazer is the founder and Managing Director of Acceleration Partners and the founder and Chairman of Brand Cycle. He is a serial entrepreneur with an exceptional track record and passion for growing revenue and profits for business-to-consumer based companies. He has extensive experience in the consumer, e-commerce, retail, online marketing, and ad-tech industries—partnering with brands such as Adidas, Reebok, Target, Tiny Prints, and Warby Parker. Robert is a highly sought-after speaker who presents to global audiences and serves as an advisor to high-growth businesses.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Robert’s purpose: finding a better way to do things * Acceleration Partners: the top independent affiliate marketing agency in the US * Is affiliate marketing right for you? * Using The Whole Life Dashboard to set up your morning for success * Getting your top priorities checked off as soon as you can each day * Focusing on strategy, thinking, and quiet * Learning from Player-Coaches: coaches/mentors who have actually done it * Vision and prioritization: why these two skills have to go hand in hand for business leaders * Chunk it: chipping away at your goals one chunk at a time * Figuring out what your core values are and getting rid of everything that doesn’t align with who you are and what your goals are * Building a company manifesto so that you attract the right employees (and so the wrong ones decide to leave) * Using an alignment strategy so that you the behavior you talk about is the behavior you reward * Why great execution is more important than great strategy
Ways to contact Robert: * Book and free chapter: www.performance-partnerships.com * Company Website: www.accelerationpartners.com * Personal Website: www.robertsglazer.com * Blog: www.fridayfwd.com
Brendon Lundberg is co-founder of Radiant Pain Relief Centres whose vision is to build the safest, most consistently effective, and appealing solution to the epidemic of chronic pain. Combining a mission to change the way chronic pain is treated, Brendon and Dr. David Farley opened Radiant Pain Relief Centres in February 2014 and have plans to open centres in new markets, both nationally and internationally. Previous to founding Radiant Pain Centre, Brendon played key operational and business development roles for two other businesses and was the Director of Sales and Marketing for a medical device start-up.
What you will learn in this episode: * Why a Regulation A-Plus Offering might apply to your business * How to learn more about the Regulation A-Plus Offering process * The importance of having the right mindset * The benefits of setting your day with intention * How having ambition without the right discipline can lead to being unfocused * The importance of building relationships and connecting with people * Daily strategy: knowing and applying the key performance measurements that matter * Why you should “live into who you want to be” * When starting a new venture, don’t wait for it to be perfect, just jump in * The importance of surrounding yourself with people who can help you
How to contact Brendon: * Website: radiantpainrelief.com * Twitter: @radiantrelief
Angelique Rewers is the CEO of The Corporate Agent and her team helps small businesses and self-employed professionals land corporate clients. In four years, she went from the starting gate to being among the top 1 percent of women business owners nationwide and was recently named an Enterprising Woman of the Year by Enterprising Women Magazine. Her groundbreaking INSIDE EDGE global conference has brought entrepreneurs together with major brands like IBM, Intel, HP, PayPal, AT&T, Marriott, Chevron, and Major League Baseball, to help them work together more effectively.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The importance of focusing your energy into what you want to create * How business requires us to have a certain degree of inner strength and grit * Why it’s all about the speed in which you need to make decisions as a business owner * Why you need to have the skill set to navigate the decisions that you make * Mastering the skill of critical thinking as a small business owner * The joy and success that comes from running straight into challenges * The only three problems that you have to overcome in winning clients * Why you need to build a business development framework in your business
How best to connect with Angelique: * Website: www.thecorporateagent.com
Lee Caraher started Double Forte in 2002 as a new kind of communications firm designed to provide the best service in the business. Lee has managed multiple offices and hundreds of people of all ages and was named in the 40 under 40 by PRWEEK Magazine. She holds a bachelor’s degree in medieval history — which she finds useful every day. You may also remember Lee and the wisdom she shared during episodes 180, 269, 523, and 669 of Onward Nation. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all that Lee shared during our earlier interviews...I highly encourage you to add episodes 180, 269, 523, and 669 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why people are so skeptical about fake news * Why your followers trust you more than they trust news sources * How the news business has changed so dramatically in the last decade * How fake news increases the distrust of information across the board * How we are all influencers, but don’t even know it * Why we should all become media companies * Why you should master, not just own, your website, blog, and social media channels * The importance of letting your website show what your company is all about * Why what other people say about you and what you say about yourself must be equal * Why every brand needs to have a virtual presence * Why you need to be where your customers want to communicate with you online * Why it’s vital to secure your business name on every social media platform
How best to connect with Lee: * Website: leecaraher.com
Our special encore guest today is Mark Howley and he is the CEO of Pacific Bag, Inc., which manufacturers unique pre-made bags for specialty coffee, tea, pet food, specialty foods, ag, chemicals, and other niche markets around the world. Mark’s company serves over 5,000 customers in over 60 countries. Mark’s experience covers the gamut of sales, marketing, product management, and executive management. You may remember Mark and the wisdom he shared during Episode 552. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 552 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * One of the biggest challenges for small businesses today * How the quote “When you’re in your own mind, you’re behind enemy lines” can apply to many things in your life * The value of pausing and getting someone else’s perspective on something * Why you need to have an intimate awareness of people when you own a small business * The most important time to communicate with your customers * Why it’s important to be pumped up about what you’re doing * The value of having a team around you that you can decentralize * The importance of taking the time to perfect your craft * As a mentor, taking the time to get to know people and how they want to be mentored * Why you shouldn’t get comfortable with where you are, but rather extend into New markets
How best to connect with Mark: * Website: pacificbag.com * Website: www.mvhspeaking.com
Our special encore guest today is Dianna Booher and she is the founder and CEO of Booher Research Institute and author of “COMMUNICATE LIKE A LEADER.” Dianna works with organizations to help them communicate clearly — and with leaders — to expand their influence by having a strong executive presence. She works with some of the largest Fortune 500 companies and governmental agencies, such as IBM, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Siemens, NASA, and the U.S. Navy. She has been featured on Good Morning America, and in USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, Investor’s Business Daily, CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. You may remember Dianna and the wisdom she shared during Episode 502. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all she shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 502 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why it’s vital to build your brand along with systems and processes * Why your company name has to be linked as the thought leader in your area of expertise * The value of having cornerstone content * Asking yourself “what’s the worst thing that can happen” when you’re in a fearful situation * Why you should always grow your business on equity, not on debt * What to do if a publisher doesn’t want your book * The three prongs of success * Why it’s essential to have strong relationships with both friends and family * Why you need to live with intention, not live by default * The key characteristics that make an ‘A’ player an ‘A’ player * The importance of putting together an advisory board * Taking the time to stop and think about being on track to where you ultimately want to go
How best to connect with Dianna: * Email: dianna.booher@booherresearch.com
Eric Levenhagen founded ProWise Financial Coaching (formerly known as ProWise Tax & Accounting) in 2005. His mission is to perform a comprehensive service for his clients, unlike any other firm out there, and help clients lead a life of financial abundance. He is both a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Tax Coach who integrates both disciplines into a holistic, client-centered approach towards maximizing his client’s after-tax income and wealth. You may remember Eric and the wisdom he shared during Episode 25. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 25 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The two biggest advantages for business owners with the new tax reform * Why vehicle deductions are getting better under the new law * The family tax strategy: how this has improved * How the qualified business income deduction works and how it can benefit business owners * The importance of managing your taxable income * Why S-Corps are still a great strategy for businesses that are actively earning income * The benefits that come from working with a professional tax strategist * Doing the additional work to maximize the tax benefits under the new tax code * The value that comes from consistently optimizing your deductions * Why you need to make sure that you have a proactive tax planner on your team
How best to connect with Eric: * Website: www.iowataxplanner.com
How to strategically create cornerstone content, with Stephen Woessner. Good Morning Onward Nation – I’m Stephen Woessner and welcome to today’s solocast.
Before we dive into the strategies that I wanted to share with you this morning – I first wanted to say thank you. Thank you for making 2017 the best year for Onward Nation – the most downloads we have ever had...the most countries we have ever reached...and the most impact we have ever created.
Each and every day – my team and I are so very grateful for your generous gift of you sharing your time with us by listening to our episodes and then sharing your feedback by letting us know – thumbs up or thumbs down and how we can get better the next time.
I am honored that you choose to invest a portion of the 86,400 seconds you have each day with our guests and with me. So I want you to know how much I appreciate you and that we are committed to raising the bar – the standard of excellence – the value we deliver to you.
We as business owners – each of us every day – when we wake up and our feet hit the floor – need think of ways to deliver even more value to the customers and clients we have the privilege of currently serving – and – the customers and clients we look forward to serving in the future.
There needs to be that insatiable hunger in you that drives your business to give more...to create more...to deliver more...because when that hunger is there...it not only elevates your business to that next level – but – it protects you by giving you what you need for survival.
I have a Successories quote hanging on the wall behind my desk that encapsulates how I feel about the power of starting the day with the right momentum.
The quote is called... “The Essence of Survival” and it goes like this...
“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed...every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter if you are the lion or the gazelle...when the sun comes up...you’d better be running.”
So thank you, Onward Nation, for being the driving force for my Predictive ROI team and I. We appreciate all of the hugs you have given us – and we appreciate the pushes, too. Please know – we are working hard to get better each and every day and please keep the feedback coming.
So now let’s turn our attention toward today’s strategies...
During Episode 659 several weeks ago...I shared some insight into why I firmly believe that most business owners look at marketing through the wrong end of the lens – and because of this – they tend to see an incomplete set of vital metrics – and consequently – they miss opportunities in lead gen, selling, and driving revenue.
Onward Nation...in addition to expecting your sales and marketing efforts to create and nurture demand for your product and service offering...your marketing, and the content you create to power it, should also represent a profit center in your business – not a cost center.
Yes, you should get paid to create content.
And that is possible when you begin looking at your marketing through the correct end of the lens. You will see revenue opportunities beyond lead gen and customer acquisition.
You will begin to see the opportunity for sponsorships, events, book deals, speaking engagements, and much more.
During Episode 659 several weeks ago...I shared tangible examples of what I call Cornerstone Content. I defined what cornerstone content is and shared several specific strategies for how you can monetize the cornerstone content you create.
So for today...we are going to take a step backward in the process – well before monetization – because I want to share with you a strategic framework that you and your team can use to create the content that you will later monetize.
And yes, I agree – this does seem a bit backwards. Why share monetization strategies before sharing the strategy framework that makes it all possible.
I decided to organize it this way...because if you are like me...and most business owners...I thought I need to paint the picture of what was possible in Episode 659...to give you a why this matters...because I could give you the road map for the “How”.
So for today – I am going take several pages right out of the Predictive ROI cookbook so it can guide the strategic conversations you should be having with you and your team. This recipe contains the actual ingredients my team and I use when we are on-site working with clients during our 2-day intensives.
The topics are deep...the topics will likely push you and your team to think creatively about your business development...and will challenge you to hold each other accountable. This framework will chart the course for you and your team so that when you wake up, you can start running and confidently know...you are running in the right direction.
And ultimately, as a result of this process...you will be able to look at your marketing through the correct end of the lens, which will help you move your business onward to that next level because your marketing will no longer be a cost center – but a profit center for your business.
Let’s get started by reviewing what I believe you and your team need to accomplish during Day One.
Begin the process with a deep dive into your point-of-view – your position about why you do what you do within your business. Your point of view, or POV for short...is a bold statement about what you believe to be true. It might be provocative and thought-provoking...maybe even controversial.
It may be turn off a wide swath of people who are not your audience – but for those who are part of your tribe, or could be...it will be a beacon in the night for them.
When you say it...when you share it...when you build content around it...your tribe will hear and respond. Your POV will help you build an audience – it is that magnetic.
And because of these attributes of a well-crafted POV...it may take some digging to find it. It typically doesn’t reside on the surface. You and your team will need to push each other to find it.
It’s not about customer service, features, advantages, or benefits. It is about experience – why a customer chooses you over the myriad of other options in the marketplace.
To help...think of some thought leaders and what they stand for and what their brands stand for...or what their positions stand for...or how they built a category when previous to them entering the market...the category didn’t even exist.
Just like Simon Sinek did when he encouraged us to “Start with Why”. Simon now owns that very simple phrase – but because of his POV – and the cornerstone content he builds around it – it is very clear what he stands for and it drives everything in his business.
Here’s my point. You can do the same thing in your business when defining your POV. You just need to take the time to do it.
So...ask yourself...what do you stand for. What is the flag you want to plant in firm ground?
And don’t move on to the next piece in the process until you have your POV complete.
Next...who is it you want to serve?
I often to refer to the client avatar lessons I learned directly from Darren Hardy, former publisher of SUCCESS Magazine.
In fact, if you go to Episode 308 of Onward Nation...you will find a detailed recipe for mapping out and identifying the attributes of your client avatar.
But identifying the attributes of your client avatar is only one piece of the puzzle. You need to take that a step further by converting the avatar into a list of your Dream 25 prospects – these are the people you would most like to serve as clients for your business.
So how do you do that? LinkedIn.
Here again...another free resource for you. Just go back to Episode 455 of Onward Nation and you will have access to our full recipe on using LinkedIn to identify your Dream 25 prospects.
The recipe is comprehensive – but working through it – will give you everything you need to ensure you are using LinkedIn effectively to fill your sales pipeline.
Next...you and your team will need to identify three unique attributes to your brand – what truly makes you distinctive in the marketplace? What do you provide that no other company provides?
For example...at Predictive ROI...our three uniques are:
One -- we help clients get clear on their point-of-view
Two -- we help them create high-quality cornerstone content that cements their POV into the hearts and minds of their audience with consistent thought leadership
And three -- we help clients drive revenue by transforming their content into a Trojan Horse of Sales, which you can learn more about this strategy back in Episode 600 where I break it down in full transparency.
We also help our clients attract an audience so a third party brand will want to pay to gain access to our client’s valuable audience.
All of this combined typically represents a 5x to 7x return on our client’s investment, which gives Predictive ROI a compelling – and unique – value proposition.
So what are your three uniques?
Talk about it with your team. But don't accept surface answers. Dig deep. And when someone suggests that it might be X...push back with the question, “Okay, why is X important to our customers?” And when one of your teammates answers the question, ask the same question again, “Okay...that makes sense...but why is that important?”
Repeat the process three times to keep peeling back the layers. And by the third time...you will arrive at something truly unique about your offering.
Okay, by this time in the day – you will have accomplished a lot – your team will likely be ready to wrap and be finished – and deservedly so – you have checked some large boxes off the list.
There is just one more box that needs to be checked to complete Day One – and that is to give your process for delivering your uniques...a name.
At Predictive ROI...we call ours The Predictive ROI Method. I encourage you to keep it simple. Simple is best because if you are not careful, it will start to sound like marketing hyperbole, a bit slick, and too showy. And you don’t need that.
Keep it simple. And then go celebrate with your team – you just accomplished some serious business development and strategic work.
Okay...now come back refreshed for Day Two, which is all about defining what type of cornerstone content you plan to create -- and -- how you will define success and measure your progress along the way.
You will begin the process by deciding what type of content will become your cornerstone. For example...do you prefer to speak or do you prefer to write? If you prefer to speak, you may want to consider a podcast, speaking engagements, or a video series as your cornerstone.
Or, if you prefer to write...you might select blogs, articles, books, or research reports as your cornerstone.
Or, you may enjoy aspects about both. For example, I enjoy interviewing guests for our Onward Nation episode – but – I also enjoy writing books. So for now, these are my primary cornerstones.
So what do you prefer? To begin – you only need to – and only should – select one cornerstone. Then master the system and process with it before you select another one.
Ideally, you should have at least two because that will keep you from being seen as a one trick pony – true thought leaders share their content across multiple channels, which gives – or creates the impression – that their content is everywhere, which of course it isn’t – but it sure seems that way to their target audience.
Your POV will be the anchor within your cornerstone content. Each and every episode – every article – every blog post – will all point back to your point of view, which continues to plant your flag in firmer and firmer ground.
And one of the most powerful aspects to creating high-quality cornerstone content is the amount of leverage each piece of content gives you through slicing and dicing. For example...you could take one of your podcast episodes...and transform it into 10 tweets, an eBook, top insights briefing that can be shared with your best customers, etc.
Or, you could distill the content from 100 episodes down into a research report that truly sets your company apart from competitors in your industry.
The point is that there a myriad of ways for you to slice and dice your cornerstone content into additional “spokes” that move out from the hub...and each spoke helps you extend your thought leadership even further and attract an even larger audience.
Once you define the type of cornerstone content you will be producing and some of the spokes – the slicing and dicing that each cornerstone will provide you...it is time to begin formalizing your 1 and 3-year plans.
Obviously, 3 years is a long time given the dynamics in tech, ever-changing economy, and the other factors that make predicting the results of a 3-year plan challenging at best.
So for this exercise, I recommend you focus your attention around what success would look like for you at the end of 3 years. How will you know when you have reached where you wanted to go?
Is that a number of employees, is it the size of audience, is it the amount of revenue generated by sponsorships, is it the number of attendees at a private event you are hosting, or how you have turned your business into a media channel?
If you don’t take the time for you and your team to conceptualize a 3-year view of your business – then you may lose valuable time aimlessly wandering the wilderness, much like a leaf blowing in the wind.
It has been my experience, that the following core elements are what makes up a simple – yet sound – plan to keep you and your team on track:
First...identify your most vital priorities – the core things that you must accomplish or nothing else matters.
Second...what are the measurables? How will you know when you have arrived - what does it look like?
Third...what is the tactical plan? Who is going to do what, and when?
Fourth...what are the obstacles or roadblocks that will likely rise up to get in your way – and if they do – what are the likely solutions that can be executed quickly?
And lastly...accountability – who will be held accountable, to what, by whom, and when will checkpoint meetings or scorecard reviews be held so that progress can be evaluated and course corrections can be made if necessary?
So...as we bring today’s solocast to a close...I want to leave you with one more example as to why this final thought regarding the strategic framework that we just reviewed.
When you get this right – you give yourself the freedom and flexibility to build the kind of business that you want – that you desire – to truly live the kind of life that you want to live.
Recently, I interviewed Dianna Booher for an encore episode, which airs on Monday, February 5th as Episode 678 – and during our discussion – Dianna explained how she was able to sell her company because of the reputation she had built in the industry as a thought leader because of her books, training courses, and other ways she helped create impact with her audience. Her body of work is impressive and she was rewarded for it – and you can follow a similar path if you are willing to put in the work.
So with that said...I want to again say thank you. Thank you for being here...thank you taking some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have today and sharing them with me.
Please drop me a line at Stephen@predictiveroi.com and let me know what you thought of today’s solocast – thumbs up or thumbs down.
I always want to know what you think so we can continue to get better and better and be of greater value to you and your team.
We will be back tomorrow with an encore interview with Eric Levenhagen. You may remember Eric from the tax planning strategies and recommendations he shared way back in Episode 25. And when the new tax laws were passed, Eric and I quickly compared schedules to get him back from an encore interview. I wanted Eric to share his insights and recommendations from the perspective of a business owner to help make sense of the new legislation – but even more importantly – what you can do about it to protect yourself, your family, your business – while minimizing the taxes you pay. What Eric shared could represent tens of thousands in tax savings for you and your business.
Until then...onward with gusto!
Jennifer Sertl is a business strategist and internationally recognized as an influencer in social media and a thought leader in the emerging field of corporate consciousness. She is president and founder of Agility3R, a leadership development company dedicated to strengthening strategic skills and helping leaders become more resilient, responsive, and reflective. She is also co-author of the book, “Strategy Leadership and the Soul.”
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The importance of giving frontline people the tools that they need to create value for the customer * Why business isn’t about customer acquisition, but about employee delight * How our competitive advantage is not about our skill set, but rather how well we read our environment and how we use that to act * Thinking and acting globally * Why everyone should have an 18-month calendar * How being afraid to choose can dilute your value proposition * Why leaders today really need to be versed in social * The value that comes from spending time with people who you respect the most
How best to connect with Jennifer: * Twitter: @JenniferSertl * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-sertl-922177 * Website: www.agility3r.com
Resources: * Strategy Leadership & the Soul Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS5BpO6l8mo * Book: Strategy, Leadership and the Soul
Bernie Swain is the founder of the Washington Speakers Bureau, a lecture agency which represents many prestigious authors, politicians, journalists, athletes, and business leaders. At the firm’s start back in 1980, he began signing every speaker with a handshake -- this proved to be the hallmark of trust that helped accelerate the company’s growth. Years later, Bernie’s roster of speakers would be the greatest in history and the firm still continues its practice of signing speakers on the strength of a handshake. Today, the best of Bernie's fortunes turned out to be the speakers themselves because these remarkable leaders had become his friends and he captured many of their most personal, powerful influences and defining moments in his book, “What Made Me Who I Am.”
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How an error became a defining moment in Bernie’s career * Why passion is so much more important than talent when you’re starting a company on your own * Why there are no shortcuts to long term success * How a handshake can create an environment of trust and honesty * Why Bernie felt compelled to write the book, “What Made Me Who I Am” * How turning points in our life define our successes and accomplishments * How you earn opportunities by making wise decisions * The importance in taking your time to make life decisions * Why you need to remember that no matter what you do, you are your brand
How best to connect with Bernie: * Website: bernieswain.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/BernieSwainAuthor * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/bernie-swain-0a704b4
Gordon Tredgold is a business and IT transformation expert who has successfully delivered $100 million programs, run $300 million departments, and led teams of 1,000 staff members for Fortune 100 companies. Gordon is the author of the critically acclaimed book “FAST” and works with enterprises on implementing results-based leadership initiatives to rapidly accelerate growth. You may remember Gordon and the wisdom he shared during Episode 446. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 446 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How to make writing articles seem a little less daunting * The three key components of every article * Why context is so important when writing an article * As a leader, why it’s about the command that you have rather than the orders that you give * How to get everyone on your team to believe that the goal that what you want to achieve is possible * The power of starting small and aiming high when it comes to writing a book * How complexity kills execution on a team * How to create a culture of success * The importance of not comparing yourself to anyone else * Why you need to start small, celebrate, and just keep going
How best to connect with Gordon: * Website: gordontredgold.com * Twitter: @gordontredgold * Email: gordon@gordontredgold.com
Jake Jorgovan is the founder of Lead Cookie, which helps B2B sales teams generate leads through done-for-you LinkedIn prospecting and Outbound Creative which helps consulting companies win their dream clients through custom consulting and done-for-you outreach campaigns. He is also the author of the upcoming book “Win Your Dream Clients.”
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why LinkedIn is such a powerful social network and a great tool for new business development * The importance of being consistent with your morning routine * The value of writing down your top three wins for the day * A dark spot in Jake’s life that forced him to reflect on what he was really good at * Why you need to have self-awareness and the ability to recognize your own ignorance * Understanding the financials of your business * How to get things off your plate that drain energy from you * Creating a vision and focus for everyone in the organization * Why you need to focus on creating value when starting a business
How best to connect with Jake: * Website: LeadCookie.com
Resources: * Blog Post: A How to Guide on LinkedIn Lead Generation
Tiffany Wojtkiewicz is the Chief Revenue Officer and co-founder of ONEHOPE, a lifestyle brand with a world-class vineyard and winery in the heart of Napa that makes a measurable impact for its charitable partners through its family of brands. She is responsible for all revenue generation channels and accountable for driving integration and alignment between the sales, marketing, and customer support departments. Tiffany has successfully lead the company from $60,000 in sales in 2007 to approximately $25 million in sales in 2017 while experiencing triple digit growth over the last three years.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The two traits you need to help you be successful as an entrepreneur * How ONEHOPE is able to make a social impact and give back to the non-profit organizations that they support * Why you need to make sure that your product messaging is on point * How ONEHOPE’s brand ambassador program viaONEHOPE allows people to raise money locally through in-home wine tasting parties * Why it’s important to have a plan and be able to communicate that plan * Why everyone in your company should know what your top three goals are at all times * The importance of hiring people who are smarter than you * The value of having a mentor * Why you should always put your customers first
How best to connect with Tiffany: * Website: www.onehopewine.com
Mike O’Krent is the founder of Life Stories Alive, a business specializing in the making personal history “legacy” videos for families. In a life-changing experience, from 1996 through 2000 Mike interviewed Holocaust survivors for Steven Spielberg’s “Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation”, now the USC Shoah Foundation. It was through that experience that Mike discovered the significance and technique of recording the life stories of loved ones. The business has since expanded its expertise beyond capturing personal histories for families to now include recording the histories of businesses and non-profit organizations. You may remember Mike and the wisdom he shared during Episode 484. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 484 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why Mike wrote his first book, “A Conversation You’ll Never Forget — A Guide to Capturing a Life Story” * The value of capturing stories for your business, not just for your loved ones * The power of marketing through storytelling * The quote that has helped Mike get through the tough times of being an entrepreneur * Why you should reconnect with your purpose of why you started your business * How telling your life story can help you discover things about yourself that you didn’t even know * What Mike calls ‘the chill of the sigh’ and how it helps him define success * Finding your ‘why’ * How all successful business owners have a team to help them * Why you need to make it about the prospective customer or client — not about you * Why listening intently is the biggest skill you can ever have
How best to connect with Mike: * Website: lifestoriesalive.com * Vimeo: vimeo.com/lifestoriesalive * Email: mokrent@lifestoriesalive.com * Phone: 512.431.8166
Lee Caraher started Double Forte in 2002 as a new kind of communications firm designed to provide the best service in the business. Lee has managed multiple offices and hundreds of people of all ages and was named in the 40 under 40 by PRWEEK Magazine. She holds a bachelor’s degree in medieval history — which she finds useful every day. You may also remember Lee and the wisdom she shared during episodes 180, 269, and 523 of Onward Nation. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all that Lee shared during our earlier interviews...I highly encourage you to add episodes 180 and 523 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How workplace issues have exploded in the media in 2017 and how that’s created a cultural shift * How women are getting more comfortable in exerting themselves in the workplace * How harassment cases will continue to come forward in 2018 * How a business owner can prepare for being accused of gender bias, unequal pay or harassment * Why you need to have sustainability built into your business * The many things that can be done to ensure that everyone is listened to equally, regardless of gender * The importance of admitting a mistake and committing to fixing it * Why you need to have a communication plan in place to deal with harassment happening within your company * Why and how to get rid of harassment happening within your company * Why it’s vital to talk to your employees about workplace issues
How best to connect with Lee: * Website: leecaraher.com
Chris Dayley is passionate about helping businesses learn what their users want on their website through psychology based testing and analytics. He started his conversion optimization agency, Dayley Conversion, in 2014, which he later merged with Disruptive Advertising, where he currently works as vice president of site testing and optimization. You may remember Chris and the wisdom he shared during Episode 457. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 457 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The six major areas that typically have the biggest impact on conversion rates * Some recurring pain points that business owners experience when it comes to scaling * The power of holding people accountable and doing so in an environment where they still feel enabled to succeed * Why it’s good for businesses at any stage to look back and feel good about the progress that they’ve made * How most people suffer from some degree of fear and procrastination * Defining success by determining what brings value to your life * Being in control of your own happiness * The value of finding and working with people who will continually challenge you * Knowing your business well enough that you can answer any question presented to you * The importance of challenging your assumptions
How best to connect with Chris: * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrisdayley * Twitter: @Chrisdayley * Website: disruptiveadvertising.com/guide
Fabiola Hesslein is the co-founder and CEO of Tryon Entertainment. For over 25 years, she has led a rewarding career as a multi-faceted entertainer, having graced the stage with global artists that include Michael Jackson, Pink, Marc Anthony, Usher, and has appeared on various programs including Saturday Night Light and The View. With a degree in business, cultivated talent, and a progressive mindset, Fabiola not only provides her creative expertise but a hands-on approach and a top-notch team for all entertainment and production needs big or small.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Fabiola’s transition from show business to becoming a business owner of a full-scale production company * The power of waking up with a sense of gratitude * The value of creating a to-do list * Investing in proactively marketing your business * Why communication is such a critical skill to master * A valuable lesson learned about over-delivering to your clients * Why you need to have a strong support system in place * Focusing on innovation and what makes you unique * The importance of having high standards with your work
How best to connect with Fabiola: * Website: TryonEntertainment.com * Instagram: @TryonEntertainment * Phone: 646.525.7745
Renee Wang is the CEO and Co-Founder of CastBox, the global leading spoken audio platform pioneering in-audio search to deliver contextual recommendations for listeners of podcasts, on-demand radio, and audio books.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The story behind how Renee raised money for her startup, CastBox * How CastBox’s audio search engine feature works * Using Google Calendar and Google Keep to stay focused and prepared * The power of reflecting on things you can improve on * The top three skills that business owners need in order to thrive today: people, money, and direction * A lesson that Renee learned from one of her mentors on becoming a thought leader * How globalization is becoming more and more important * Why you should never give up as a business owner * The importance of building strong team that you can trust
How best to connect with Renee: * Email: renee.wong@castbox.fm * Website: http://castbox.fm/channel/id52716
Wendy Keller is an award-winning former journalist, a respected literary agent, an author, speaker and acclaimed book marketing consultant. She has sold nearly 2,000 rights deals worldwide including 16 New York Times Bestsellers and 9 international bestsellers. She got her first job as a newspaper reporter as a 16-year-old college freshman. Since then, Wendy worked for PR Newswire; the Knight-Ridder newspaper chain; as managing editor of Dateline magazine.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * What an agent does * Why you need an agent in order to get a deal with a publisher * Being clear on your outcome before committing to writing a book * What a platform is and why you need to build one if you want to write a book * Working with a publisher vs. self publishing * Different scenarios where self publishing might be your best option * Strategies for success when considering writing a book * Why you need something to differentiate yourself from everyone else * The top things that you should be doing to build your platform
How best to connect with Wendy: * Website: kellermedia.com * Book submission guidelines: kellermedia.com/submission-guidelines * Webinars: kellermedia.com/webinars * “Rent” Wendy’s brain: kellermedia.com/rent
Gal Ratner is an award winning technology veteran and the co-founder and CEO of ShopSnap, a modern e-commerce platform, and the founder and CEO of Inverted Software, a consulting firm in Los Angeles. His designs are responsible for powering Fortune 500 companies in multiple industries. You may remember Gal and the wisdom he shared during Episode 370. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 370 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The big market need right for increasing conversion rate * How artificial intelligence is going to add value to both business owners and consumers * The strategy that Gal uses to help him keep a focused mindset throughout the day * The importance of defining small successes * The value of caring about other people’s successes before yours * Why Gal believes so strongly in the law of attraction * Why a team player is more important than an ‘A’ player * The three key factors that contribute to being a good mentor * Why you need to know how to tell your company’s story * Why you need to determine your company’s tipping point * Finding creative ways to get more out of your existing customers
How best to connect with Gal: * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/galratner * Website: shopsnap.io * Website: www.invertedsoftware.com
Jeff Kreisler is a Princeton-educated lawyer turned author, speaker, pundit, comedian, and advocate for behavioral science. He uses humor and research to understand, explain and change the world. Winner of the Bill Hicks Spirit Award for Thought Provoking Comedy, he writes for TV, politicians and CEOs, shares insights and wit on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, SiriusXM, and tours most of this planet. Jeff is the co-author of the new book, “Dollars and Sense: How We Misthink Money and How to Spend Smarter.”
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The story behind the book that Jeff co-authored with Dan Ariely, “Dollars and Sense” * How we think improperly about money * The shortcuts we commonly use to determine the value of something * Why a healthy dose of irrational confidence is required in creative and freelance work * The importance of mastering good communication * The value of having a point of view or vision * How emotions come into play in organizational and personal decision making * Why you need to acknowledge fear and the impact it has on you * Why you need to be aware of sunk costs
How best to connect with Jeff: * Website: jeffkreisler.com * Website: peoplescience.com
Resources: * Podcast: Dollars and Nonsense
Julie Broad is an Amazon Overall #1 Best Selling Author, an International Book Award Winner, and a recipient of the Beverly Hills Book Award for Best Sales book. Her latest venture, Book Launchers, helps entrepreneurs and professionals build their brand and boost their business by writing, publishing, and selling a top quality book. You may remember Julie and the wisdom she shared during Episode 350. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all she shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 350 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The major benefits that writing a book can provide to a business owner * Why you need to write a book if you want to be a paid speaker * Why communication -- both spoken and written-- is critical * Common obstacles that a business owner may encounter in not being able to write a book * The power that comes from defining yourself * The process that a business owner needs to be prepared for to work through writing a book * Why it’s vital to have an outline and plan for a book before writing it * How to easily double the sales of your book * The metrics to use to determine a strong book launch * Why the vast majority of business owners should not pursue a traditional publishing deal * The importance of taking small improvements daily
How best to connect with Julie: * Website: www.booklaunchers.com * YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/julieabroad/featured
Resources: * eBook: 8 Ways to Sell 1,000 Books for Under $100
David Mattson is the CEO and President of Sandler Training, he oversees the corporate direction and strategy for Sandler’s global operations including sales, marketing, consulting, alliances and support. Under David’s leadership, the Sandler organization expanded domestically and internationally to over 250 offices in 27 countries around the world. David is a Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek bestselling author. You may remember David and the wisdom he shared during Episode 469. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 469 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * What micro-learning is and what it consists of * The new way to send company-side messages * Why you shouldn’t rest on your past successes, but rather continually push forward * The importance of sharing what success means to you with your team * The three questions to ask yourself if you don’t hit your goals * Why you need to separate role failure from self concept * Why you need to find people for your team who are where you want to be * The difference between mentorship, training and coaching * How to avoid creating a culture of learned helplessness * Determining if you want a tribe and the purpose behind having it * The value in building and training your management team
How best to connect with David: * Website: www.sandler.com
Monetizing Your Content, with Stephen Woessner
Good Morning Onward Nation – I’m Stephen Woessner and my hope for you is that 2018 has started off with renewed momentum and velocity in your business.
And that you have been able to take time to invest in planning and getting clear on what you most want to accomplish in 2018 – your most vital priorities.
The days between Christmas and New Year's are my favorite of the year because of the opportunities to spend time with family and friends, to truly unplug, to think, to pray, and to journal.
And this year...I was able to get the time and space that I needed to think deeply and work through my vision for Predictive ROI in 2018.
How we are going to grow our team...where we are going to invest our time, talent, and resources...and my Predictive ROI leadership team and I even identified several bold, new initiatives that we will tackle in 2018.
We also zeroed in on how we will add greater value to the clients we have the honor of serving each day at Predictive ROI.
I also invested time mapping out the practical and tactical lessons I want to share with you, Onward Nation, during the 258 episodes we will air in 2018.
We are hard at work in raising the bar in our business – because we want you to raise the standard of what you expect from us each and every day.
In fact...one of the ways of the ways we believe we can be of even greater service and value to you also aligns with one of the bold and new initiatives we plan to tackle.
Launching a YouTube series. Now, if you just rolled your eyes at the thought of yet another YouTube series...I am actually with you on that...and that was one of the main reasons we have not launched a series sooner.
The last thing that business owners need is another self-aggrandizing, reality TV style series that is packed full of drama, busy work, and very light on practical and tactical knowledge that can be applied.
Instead...our commitment is to launch a video series that serves as an extension of our Onward Nation podcast...that documents – visually – and in precise detail -- the stories of successful business owners in 2018 and beyond will be the ones who are no longer looking at marketing through the wrong end of the lens – instead – their marketing goes beyond generating new clients and has become an actual revenue stream for their core business...a true profit center.
The business owners we will introduce you to have transformed their company’s marketing from an expense on the P&L to a profit center by getting very intentional in three essential areas.
First...they got really clear and defined their distinctive point of view – so clear that they created differentiation for themselves in the process, and with it, they gave themselves the ability to charge a premium price for their service offering.
Let’s call this their POV for short. The POVs we introduce you to will be bold, some even provocative, but they all add value to the core business by attracting attention of the audience the business is focused on serving.
Second...we will introduce you to business owners who have made a commitment to creating strategic, high-quality cornerstone content on a consistent schedule – all designed to cement their POV into the hearts and minds of the people who are following them today – and – their content was good enough to attract the attention of new people...so their audience grew.
Third...they were able to monetize their content so that their marketing became a revenue stream. And I am not talking about selling an info course to your email list.
But what I am talking about is attracting enough people into your audience – building a nation of true fans that love you so much that you also attract the attention of third party brands who may want to pay you to get in front of your audience with your endorsement.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg but that is what can happen when you begin thinking of your content as a service to your audience and you begin thinking of you and your business as a media company.
So...I am really excited to bring you lessons from business owners who are doing this successfully so you can take and apply the lessons into your business.
We are shooting a lot of video interviews and back stories in Walt Disney World; New York City; Austin, Texas; Providence, Rhode Island, and locations in between.
The series will likely launch on YouTube in late March or early April. And I look forward to your feedback once we launch it so we can make it even better and more helpful for you.
I will keep you posted on the launch.
Okay...so for today’s lesson...let’s go back to how business owners look at marketing, and how if we shift our mindset, we can proactively transform our marketing into a profit center not just a lead generating activity.
And I will share with you several powerful examples of business owners whose marketing efforts are not only opening up new opportunities with customers – but they are being paid to produce content...they have truly monetized their content.
Sound good? Okay...let’s dive in.
In my opinion, most business owners look at their own marketing through the wrong end of the lens. Meaning...they evaluate the success of their marketing efforts solely through vital metrics like website traffic, email optins, click through rates, conversion rates, customer acquisition cost, lifetime value of a customer, retention rates, and so forth.
All of these metrics are definitely important for evaluating the health of your sales pipeline and your business development strategy for converting leads into sales.
But there can be more – a lot more as it relates to your marketing’s ability to generate revenue.
Onward Nation, thanks to the democratization of media channel thanks to social media, email, podcasting, YouTube, and the myriad of other channels, today’s top business owners are now seeing themselves as media companies.
When I interviewed Gary Vaynerchuk back in September of 2013...he and I talked about how every company – every business owner needs to think of themselves as a “media company.”
And that bold statement is now taking hold – and today’s top business owners are making what may have seemed unrealistic to many several years ago to becoming a critical component within a company’s marketing strategy.
So, Onward Nation...if you execute properly – and by that I mean create high quality content, which I will define more clearly here in just a minute – and you share that content across multiple channels – and build an engaged audience across those channels...then you have successful taken your first steps to becoming a media company where the content you produce can generate revenue.
How can the content by itself generate revenue?
Because there will be other brands who may also want to get in front of that audience...and are willing to pay for that access.
When that happens...you as the business owner now have the best of both worlds. You have an audience that loves you and what your company does...and you can generate leads and sales to support your core business from your audience. Awesome.
And, you have attracted an audience that other companies will pay you to access and get in front of...and now the content you are creating as part of your marketing strategy also generates revenue.
But in order to be successful in monetizing your content...you first need to produce content that is worthy of monetization.
So what makes content worthy of monetization? In my opinion, there are two main ingredients to the worthiness recipe:
- That the content you are producing is valuable and helpful to your current audience -- and – it is valuable enough that it attracts to new people into your community so your audience grows
- And you are not a one-trick pony. That you are producing quality content, sharing it across multiple channels, and you have created “media properties” because having the properties is what makes your more “sponsorable.”
And becoming sponsorable is something I learned from our incredible guest, Linda Hollander in Episode 383 of Onward Nation. I encourage you to go back to Episode 383 to learn more about her recipe for helping business owners attract annual sponsorships of $10,000 to $100,000 – she shares the recipe in full transparency.
Okay...so let’s dive a bit deeper into each ingredient.
Here’s ingredient #1...does your content provide helpful, practical, and tactical advice and recommendations that when someone finishes listening, reading, or watching that they can go implement something?
Are they smarter as a result of what you shared?
Can they provide more value to their customers because of the time they invested in your content?
Are they somehow able to move their business onward to that next level?
If yes...then awesome.
What this world doesn’t need is more yacking into a microphone or having a video camera follow you around an airport, drama, and drawing attention to yourself...none of that self-aggrandizing content adds value to your audience.
So...get your plan together.
Maybe it's a top-rated podcast, a video series on YouTube, maybe you want to write a book, or write long form articles for LinkedIn or in the media, maybe you have a passion to speak on stage, or host webinars, or a combination of these channels...whatever your passion is...create helpful, valuable content around that topic, and over time, you will build an audience.
And as Dorie Clark shared with me during our encore interview in Episode 628... at the end of the day creating content — whether it’s a book — a podcast — or even a blog — showcases what you know.
Dorie said to me, “Stephen, business owners need to focus on content creation. People always think, ‘Oh, there are so many blogs! There are so many podcasts!’ The truth is, too few people are leveraging the power of content creation because we think about content the wrong way. Content creation is not about how many people view your article. The goal of content creation is to create a piece that shows your credibility and makes it easier for a prospect to say ‘yes’ to working with you.”
Dorie’s right.
When you create a piece of content, Onward Nation, the number of people who see it doesn’t matter. What matters is whether or not you make the next sale — and it’s much more likely that you are able to do that when you can point a prospect to a piece of content that shows off how knowledgeable and credible you are.
And all of that credibility and expertise helps you build an audience, which leads up into the second ingredient in the recipe of creating content that is worthy of monetization.
Here’s ingredient #2: Multiple channels and properties to become more sponsorable
Okay, Onward Nation – it isn’t enough to have great content. And it isn’t enough to consistently produce great content. Today’s top business owners are consistently creating great content...sharing it across multiple platforms...and then slicing and dicing the content into multiple media properties to increase their “sponsorability.”
For example...let’s say you host your podcast. Awesome. Some additional opportunities to consider would be to take the transcripts from three of your very best interviews with influential thought leaders and use the content to create an eBook with an introductory letter from you on the inside cover.
Now you have an additional asset that your audience will find helpful – and – you have an additional asset a sponsor may want to be part of for a fee. One of our Predictive ROI clients just sold a $12,000 sponsorship of his podcast to one of his vendors who also wanted to get in front of his audience – and – our client sold a $10,400 sponsorship to two other vendors for an eBook.
Our team took 10 of his interviews...created an eBook that distilled the 10 best lessons from the interviews into an actionable plan...and our client sold the sponsorship of the eBook to the two vendors for $5,200 each.
Or, say you teach workshops and you attract attendees from around the country. At your next workshop...record the entire event on video...the actual teaching sessions...the behind the scenes side conversations...the Q&A...the social functions if there is a dinner or reception.
Record all of it.
You then cut up the video and it becomes what you need to launch a video series on YouTube – and then you sell sponsorship of your YouTube channel to one of your vendors.
And you transcribe the audio files from the entire workshop and the content can be transformed into webinar series that is sponsorable...or a book that is sponsorable...or podcast that is sponsorable.
Or, say you are a software consultant and represent a number of different software vendors. What if you were to host your own podcast and your guest list was comprised of the top prospects for the software companies you represent? You then use your podcast as what I like to call, The Trojan Horse of Sales...because your podcast becomes your “All Access Pass” to your top prospects.
They want to be a guest on your show...and you go to one of your vendors...and sell them the opportunity to underwrite or fund the entire program.
They get the leads...you get the opportunity to create great content and build your audience...and your guests get exposure and the ability to share their thought leadership.
A very solid win-win-win.
You can go back to Episode 600 where I broke down the recipe for the Trojan Horse of Sales step-by-step.
The final example I would like for you to take some time to consider is what Jay Baer, our outstanding guest for Episode 305, has done with his company, Convince and Convert.
Jay is New York Times best selling author, has built a thriving consultancy in Convince and Convert, but they have also created a division of the company entitled Convince and Convert Media.
Because Jay and his team have been able to build a large audience of business owners and marketers, brands who also want to sell to the same audience, now reach out to Jay’s media company to pay for access.
It is an innovative approach. And here is a link to Jay’s media guide as well as the pricing his team charges for the various placements they offer brands.
The key to success here is to not fall into the trap of thinking that you need to have a large audience to be successful in monetizing your content.
You don’t need a million listeners.
You don’t need 500,000 YouTube subscribers.
You don’t.
What you need is high quality content...shared on a consistent basis...with a growing audience who loves you...across multiple channels. In fact...the more narrow, or the more niche, you go with your audience – the better.
Onward Nation, sometimes going narrow is what gives us the ability to create a nation of true fans faster and with less expense.
Yes, it may take you months to make this transition from marketing as lead gen and a cost center to marketing as both...generating new customers and producing content that is “monetizable” – or it may take several years for you to reach this level of traction.
But they key to remember is that it is possible – that you can begin looking at marketing through the correct end of the lens. So set the fear, the apprehension, the concerns aside.
Yes it’s scary – I get that. But when you start, and when you make mistakes, and when you make adjustments, you will also create momentum.
This is a long-term play – but it can’t be – if you don't ever start.
So with that said...I want to say thank you. Thank you for being here...thank you taking some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have today and sharing them with me.
Your time and attention are precious to me and I wish you the best of success in 2018.
Please drop me a line at Stephen@predictiveroi.com and let me know what you thought of today’s solocast – thumbs up or thumbs down.
I always want to know what you think so we can continue to get better and better and be of greater value to you and your team.
We will be back tomorrow with another great episode with David Mattson from Sandler Training. You will not want to miss it.
Until then...onward with gusto!
Randy Tate is the CEO of Flipping Wall Street -- the world’s first and fully automated stock trading platform. In 2001, he started and developed Game Day Athletics, an athletic apparel company, and grew revenues to $5 million before selling the business to the publicly-traded sporting goods company Sports Chalet in 2007. Randy has led small business education and training for InfusionSoft and has spoken to small business owners on stages throughout the world about growth, sales, marketing, and investment strategies.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * A platform that was built for the average investor that will allow them to preserve, protect and grow their wealth — fully automated * The myths that we’re fed from Wall Street that we’re led to believe * The power of recognizing someone on your team every day * The benefits of putting together a great team and culture * The importance of doing your paperwork * The biggest thing that Randy sees people fail at when it comes to partnering with someone * Why it’s critical to track your numbers daily and weekly * How you’re only as strong as your team * Why you need to understand that we are all unique observers * Why you need to stop being right and be genuinely curious instead
How best to connect with Randy: * Website: flipwallstreet.com * Email: randy@flipwallstreet.com
Resources: * Webinar: Discover the 5 Myths That Wall Streets Wants Everyone to Believe
Mike Giannulis is the owner of Pixx Marketing, which specializes in lead generation for professional services and information businesses. He’s a serial entrepreneur, speaker, trainer, copywriter, and a real marketing guru. His campaigns have generated millions of dollars in revenue across multiple industries during the last 12-years. His companies are on pace to generate $25 million in revenue over the next 12-months.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * What attracted Mike into business * Why it’s important to increasingly charge more for your services * How pricing is really a brand strategy * The difference between the front-end and back-end of a sale * How higher volume can lead to a lower conversion rate when you offer something for free * Why you need to be able to write converting ads & copy * The value of getting better at presenting what you’re selling * Why you need to make sure that your product/service fixes a problem * The importance of continuing to take action no matter what happens
How best to connect with Mike: * Website: www.onlyonemike.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/MikeGiannulis * Twitter: @mikegiannulis * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mikegiannulis
Resources: * Free Book: How to Obliterate The Blank Page
Jeffrey Gitomer is an international sales trainer, world-renowned keynote speaker and #1 best-selling author of 13 books, including the New York Times best sellers The Sales Bible, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Black Book of Connections, and the Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude. He helped create Outstand, the first CRM program that actually helps salespeople MAKE SALES and he developed The Gitomer Learning Academy — an interactive sales training and personal development platform that is designed to evaluate, educate, help you understand, and reinforce your learning.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Creating a reputation based on value * Building your online platform presence * A formula that leads up to trust * Why you have to be easy to do business with, both online and offline * What it really means when a customer says “I’m not interested” * Why it’s all about the questions that you ask and the credibility that you build * How to create value attraction * Why it’s vital to keep up with the times to stay in business * A lesson Jeffrey learned from one of his mentors on how hard work makes luck * Why attitude and resilience are keys to determining your fate * The importance of realizing that you cannot do everything * Why you need to treat your employees better than you treat your customers
How best to connect with Jeffrey: * Website: www.gitomer.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/JeffreyGitomer * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreygitomer
Resources: * Podcast: Sell or Die
Ken Rutsky and has spent nearly 25-years in B2B marketing roles, launching the “Intel Inside” broadcast co-op program in 1994 and then the Internet’s first affiliate marketing program, Netscape Now, while at Netscape from 1995 to 1999. Ken also ran network-security marketing at McAfee, where he developed and executed a marketing strategy that grew its web security business from $60 million to nearly $200 million. Today, Ken’s firm helps clients lead their markets. He is also the author of the book, “LAUNCHING TO LEADING: How B2B Market Leaders Create Flash Mobs, Marshal Parades, And Ignite Movements”. You may remember Ken and the wisdom he shared during Episode 458. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 458 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * What Ken’s been up to recently and what he’s looking forward to in the coming months * How having the ability to tell your story can help with success * Why it’s critical to carve out a position in the market that’s unique and valuable to both end customers and investors * A space where B2B market leaders can convene and talk about what they do * The definition of a Go To Market professional * Why you need market, customer, and industry knowledge to drive leadership * Why it’s better to lose than not try at all * Why you need to be able to let go of some parts of your business to transform to your next phase of growth * What the best predictor of performance and success is * What business owners can do to become better mentors * Strategies to apply if you are interested in starting up a group of industry leaders * The importance in staying connected to the “tribe” that you want to be a part of
How best to connect with Ken: * Website: kenrutsky.com * Website: gotomarketdojo.com
Russ Perry is the founder of Design Pickle — the #1 flat-rate, on-demand graphic design company in the world. And, he recently finished writing his first book entitled, The Sober Entrepreneur, a personal account of his journey toward living a sober life and creating the business of his dreams.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How to silence the internet trolls that are trying to hurt your business * Building a business that delivers value to clients * Overcoming addiction as an entrepreneur * Why you need to document your story * Where you can get a free copy of Russ’s book The Sober Entrepreneur * The daily habits that have contributed to Russ’ success * Understanding paid acquisition * Why you’re the only one that knows the answers to your questions * The best strategies for entrepreneurs to find success
How best to connect with Russ: * Website: Soberentrepreneur.com * Instagram: Instagram.com/RussPerry
Jeremy Adams is one of Forbes’ & Influencive.com’s Top 30 Entrepreneurs Under 30 and not timid to climb the ladder of ultimate success. Prior to turning 30, he’s launched multiple businesses and helped entrepreneurs with his sales and digital marketing background. Jeremy launched his first startup, Prestige Food Trucks at the age of 22 years old. Jeremy was able to quickly turn Prestige Food Trucks into the world’s leading custom food truck & trailer manufacturer. He then landed multi-truck deals with clients like the U.S. Army, The Salvation Army, Dunkin’ Donuts, Taco Bell and many more. Jeremy was also a co-founding partner of Quantum Media, with Maxwell Finn -- and -- the original Shark from Shark Tank, Kevin Harrington.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The story of how Prestige Food Trucks got started * Why delegation and finding a great team are critical skills that business owners need to master * The true definition of owning a business * The value that can come from partnering with a competitor * Why you need to drop your ego and think abundantly as a business owner * The importance of continually learning through self-education * Connecting with people who are where you want to be * How adding value to a person can help you build good relationships * How realizing that no one has everything figured out can help you with your self-confidence * Why you need to stay positive and just keep moving forward
How best to connect with Jeremy: * Website: unicorninnovations.com * Website: www.unicorncourseiq.com/ad-iq-academy * Email: jeremy@unicorninnovations.com
Terry Brock is a communicator who helps individuals and organizations master technology and relationship marketing to build their business and be more profitable. He currently is a leader in the blockchain and cryptocurrencies space helping people make sense of and make money with these game-changing tools. You may remember Terry and the wisdom he shared during Episode 337. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 337 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * What Terry’s been working on and what’s he’s excited about in the next year * Blockchain technology and how it’s going to affect every business * What cryptocurrency is and how it works * Why you need to keep adapting and changing * Why there is no such thing as job security * Being willing to fail * How learning something new and challenging yourself can help you to live longer * The importance of thinking of creative ways that you can take what reality is and adapting to it * The value of working with a mentor or coach * Why there is no better time in history to be alive than today * Why you need to find out what your customers really want
How best to connect with Terry: * Website: www.TerryBrock.com * Website: www.BrockonBlockchain.com
Tommy Breedlove is the founder of Choose Goodness, a company dedicated to helping executives and entrepreneurs focus beyond the financial bottom line. By empowering leaders, Tommy bridges the gap between humanity and profitably. He transforms organizations to attract and retain the best and brightest people, create a loyal customer base and promote goodwill within their communities. Choose Goodness provides both the rational and emotional perspectives to the strategic and financial decision making process.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The importance of living by your value system and having a purpose in life * How making conscious and courageous choices to invest in yourself can change your life * Why you shouldn’t live in a state of fear or scarcity * Asking yourself the question, “Did I choose goodness for myself today?” * Being present in the moment, no matter who you are talking to * The many different masks that we wear to cover up things in our lives * Serving yourself before you serve others * Why you should work on your mental and emotional state * Focusing on what you’re good at and delegating the rest * Having an accomplishment list instead of a priority list
How best to connect with Tommy: * Email: tommy@choosegoodnessnow.com or tommy@tommybreedlove.com * Website: www.choosegoodnessnow.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/choosegoodnessnow * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/3691549
Manoj Madhusudanan is the Co-founder and CEO of Ziligence, an AI-driven platform that reveals insights on businesses. Before starting Ziligence in 2017, Manoj led the creation of InsightBee, a platform for on-demand custom research. Earlier, he served as the global head of operations for corporate and professional services verticals at Evalueserve and was responsible for a global team of over 700 professionals serving clients a variety of sectors. You may remember Manoj and the wisdom he shared during Episode 444. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 444 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- What Manoj has coming up in the next few months
- How AI and the advancements within AI are growing at a very fast rate
- The key to getting the most out of your day
- How success can mean different things to different people
- Why you should think of your customer’s problems as your own problems
- What fear really is and how it impacts entrepreneurs
- What makes an ‘A’ player an ‘A’ player
- The hardest part of hiring new employees
- How to improve your ability to provide mentoring to your teammates
- Strategies for creating and building platforms
- The importance of defining your processes that allow you to scale up
How best to connect with Manoj:
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/manojmadhusudanan
- Email: manoj.madhusudanan@ziligence.com
Website: www.ziligence.com
Marie White is the author of five books, including the award-winning #1 bestseller entitled, Strength for Parents of Missing Children: Surviving Divorce, Abduction, Runaways and Foster Care. She is also a missionary, traveler, entrepreneur and the host of Bible Stories for Adults on YouTube with over half a million views. She is also the owner of Zamiz Press, an inspirational publishing company.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Marie’s story of courage and strength * The purpose behind Marie’s publishing company * Building a relationship with your audience before thinking about how you’re going to monetize something * The benefits of learning new technology and platforms sooner rather than later * Creating a daily habit of getting outside in the sunshine * Why constant learning and adaptability are critical skills to master * Why you need to ask yourself if your product or business is important enough for you to get out of your comfort zone * The importance of working through the hard parts of the process to get to the desired end result * Facing the challenge of building your platform or process over time * Realizing that you have something valuable to offer other people
How to best connect with Marie: * Website: www.MarieWhiteAuthor.com
Resources * Book: "Strength for Parents of Missing Children"
Sander Flaum is CEO of Flaum Navigators, a consulting firm that helps companies accelerate business growth through transformational ideas that galvanize leadership, brand building, and innovation. He is chair of the Fordham Leadership Forum at Fordham University and Executive-in-Residence at The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business, and is the author of several books including “Boost Your Career: How to Make an Impact, Get Recognition, and Build the Career You Want.”
What you'll learn about in this episode: * Focusing on the important things first on your priority list * Implementing reading into your daily routine * Why you need to just listen instead of thinking about your response * The story behind why Sander wrote his new book, “Boost Your Career” * How to make an impact on someone * Strategies to distance yourself from queasy environments * Becoming a master of embracing change * A life lesson that taught Sander to work harder and smarter than his competition * Why you need to discern the real problems that a customer is having * The importance of developing relationships * The power of knowing what you are good at
How to best connect with Sander: * Email: sflaum@flaumnavigators.com * Website: www.flaumnavigators.com
Resources * Book: Boost Your Career
Carmine Denisco is a successful entrepreneur, inventor, author, podcaster, investor and sought after business startup consultant. Many of the products he has developed or aided in the design of over the years have sold in retail stores, TV shopping channels, online, and infomercials or have gone on to be licensed by major corporations. Along with his business partner, Rick Valderrama, Carmine co-founded Inventors Launchpad™, which is dedicated to helping inventors navigate the invention and manufacturing process to ensure their best shot at success. Carmine is also the host of the Inventors Launchpad Podcast.
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT IN THIS EPISODE: * Why Carmine and his partner started Inventors Launchpad * The benefits of having a podcast * As an inventor, the top things that you must do in sequence in order to reach success * How a provisional patent works * Why your patent is only as good as the amount of money that you have to protect it * Why being flexible and open-minded are critical skills to master * Being passionate about your business without falling in love with it * Why you shouldn’t be embarrassed if you need to close or get out of a business * Why you absolutely need repeatable systems in place for your business * The importance of saving as much cash as possible when you’re first starting out
HOW TO BEST CONNECT WITH CARMINE: * Website: www.inventorslaunchpad.com
RESOURCES * Book: The Inventor’s Roadmap to Success
Alex Charfen is the co-founder and CEO of CHARFEN. He has spent his life seeking to understand how to make businesses grow, which evolved into the question, “How do you help people grow?” Through his research and years as a top consultant the Fortune 500 and Global 100, this question led Alex to discover the long-misunderstood Entrepreneurial Personality Type or EPT. Alex is a highly sought-after speaker on entrepreneurial awareness and has spoken around the world in front of tens of thousands of entrepreneurs and top global businesses to help them identify and live within their strengths.
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT IN THIS EPISODE: * What differentiates entrepreneurs from everyone else * What laid the groundwork for Alex’s book, “The Entrepreneurial Personality Type” * The common attributes of the entrepreneurial personality type * How high sensitivity and awareness allows you to make things happen in your life * How low pressure and noise compares to high pressure and noise * Why Alex believes that entrepreneurs don’t know the difference between happy and sad * The one thing entrepreneurs are driven by * The power of taking on challenges while facing resistance * How we become cognitively clearer when in momentum * The four different types of people in the world
RESOURCES * Entrepreneurial Personality Type book: freemomentumbook.com * Podcast: momentumpodcast.com * Momentum Masterclass: www.momentummasterclass.com
Linda Adams has over 40 years of experience as a Human Resources Executive with leadership roles at several marquee corporations such as Ford, PepsiCo, and Level 3 Communications. Abby Curnow-Chavez has over 20 years of experience as an HR leader and management consultant for several fortune 500 companies. In 2008, Linda co-founded the Trispective Group, an all female-owned leadership consulting firm based in Denver, and Abby later joined as a partner. Together with their partners, Linda and Abby co-authored the new book, “The Loyalist Team: How Trust, Candor, and Authenticity Create Great Organizations.”
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT IN THIS EPISODE: * How and why the book, “The Loyalist Team,” was developed * How only 15% or less of teams are highly-functioning and productive * The characteristics that define a loyalist team * The obstacles that prevent business owners and leaders from developing a loyalist team * An area where leaders tend to struggle * One of the most important things for a team to do * Why you need to model the type of culture that you want to have as a leader * The best thing that leaders can do to help their teams evolve and develop * One of the greatest skills and gifts that a mentor can give someone * How to raise the performance levels of a team through mentorship and coaching
HOW TO BEST CONNECT WITH LINDA AND ABBY: * Website: www.theloyalistteam.com * Website: www.trispectivegroup.com * LinkedIn (Company): www.linkedin.com/company/the-trispective-group * LinkedIn (Linda Adams): www.linkedin.com/in/lindajadams * LinkedIn (Abby Curnow-Chavez): www.linkedin.com/in/abby-curnow-chavez-69bb164
RESOURCES * Free assessment: takesnapshot.com
Dixie Decker is a real estate investor and housing specialist who has extensive experience with complex real estate transactions having bought, financed, and overseen transactions in excess of $26 million. She specializes in student housing, turning regular single family homes into multiple units for students and now has over 200 tenants. Dixie also hosts multiple workshops and tours, even introducing her local competitors and their business models…in full transparency…to create an exceptional learning experience for all of her attendees. Dixie attributes her success to her team building, talent, and systems in place for automating the business.
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT IN THIS EPISODE: * The power of changing your mindset * Why follow-up and taking action are vital habits for success * How documenting your actions can help free up your time to do other things * How pace, patience, and persistence can lead to more money and opportunity * Why you should consider getting a mentor sooner rather than later * Mastering your inner circle * Why you shouldn’t give up on a strategy before you find out if it’s working * Taking action to generate revenue * Why you need to have systems in place * How the fear you feel can be false
HOW TO BEST CONNECT WITH DIXIE: * Website: www.dixiedecker.com
Kevin Bupp is a Florida-based real estate investor and serial entrepreneur with over $40 million of real estate transactions. Today, you will find him educating investors to locate, acquire, and create “higher than average” returns in the Mobile Home Park investing niche through his Mobile Home Academy and sharing his expertise as host of the top-rated iTunes podcast “Real Estate Investing for Cash Flow”.
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT IN THIS EPISODE: * Doing whatever it takes to get things done * The most important part of having a mentor * How commercial real estate helped Kevin scale his business to a much larger size in an efficient manner * The different type of seller or buyer in the commercial side vs. the residential side of real estate * What attracted Kevin to the commercial side of real estate * How Kevin got started in investing in mobile home parks * Having a recipe in place to ‘plant a flag’ in your niche * Understanding what you are passionate about * The reason why a barrier to entry exists for mobile home park investing * Why the ROI is different with mobile home park investments compared to other investments
HOW TO BEST CONNECT WITH KEVIN: * Website: www.kevinbupp.com * Email: kevin@kevinbupp.com * Website: www.MobileHomeParkAcademy.com * Website: www.SunriseCapitalInvestors.com
Vince Parry is a 30-year veteran of the health and wellness communications industry and a branding expert. He is the founder of the Parry Branding Group, and throughout his distinguished career, he has worked on many of the most well-known corporate, franchise, service, and product brands. Vince has appeared on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, guest lectures at the Rutgers Pharmaceutical MBA program on healthcare branding, and is the author of the new book Identity Crisis: Health Care Branding’s Hidden Problems and Proven Strategies to Solve Them.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Vince’s new book, ‘Identity Crisis: Health Care Branding’s Hidden Problems and Proven Strategies to Solve Them’ and why he felt compelled to write it * How healthcare branding is different from consumer branding * How writing a book can positively impact your business development plan * Having discipline around how frequently you check your email & how it can influence your productivity * Why you need to be aware of your key stakeholders personal and business objectives * Mastering the skill of listening * Knowing what your identity is & what you’re promising people * An influential lesson that Vince learned that taught him how to embrace failure * The value of admitting what you don’t know & finding someone who does * Broadening your revenue stream to give you more financial security
How to best connect with Vince: * Website: www.parrybrandinggroup.com
Steve Weiss is the founder & CEO of MuteSix, a performance marketing powerhouse that has grown at a rate of 300 percent per year since 2013 and is the most awarded Facebook advertising agency, with more Facebook and Instagram marketing case studies than any other agency. In 2017, MuteSix was named one of Inc. Magazine’s “Best Workplaces” and also ranked #341 on the Inc. 500 list for being one of the fastest growing private companies. Steve is passionate about building and recruiting agile marketing teams that execute and can be heard weekly on the “Spend $10K a Day” Digital Marketing Podcast.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Steve’s background & what led him to co-found MuteSix, named one of the fastest-growing private companies in 2017 by Inc. * A trait that every one of Steve’s team members has & why he loves it * The main part of being successful * A common mistake that business owners make within their Facebook campaigns * The importance of providing a purpose for someone to join your email list * Why you need to ask yourself why you are building your email list * Being aware of how intelligent consumers are & the value that you are bringing to them * The skill of being able to hire people who are smarter than you * Why you need to be always working on your ‘A’ game * Having consistency in your daily routine
How to best connect with Steve: * Email: steve@mutesix.com * Website: mutesix.com * Website: mutesix.com/spend-10k-day-podcast
Kylie Wright-Ford is the co-author of THE LEADERSHIP MIND SWITCH, a C-level executive, board member, speaker, entrepreneur, avid traveler, and farmer. She was most recently the chief operating and strategy officer for World 50, a company that exists to connect executives with their peers for conversations about topics like leadership, sustainability, global politics, and how to keep up with digital innovation.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * A lesson on how you should be open to all that’s possible in life * Why having a routine can be a potential enemy * How prioritization is key to everyone, not only in business but in life * Why co-writing the book, “The Leadership Mind Switch,” was important to Kylie * Why legacy, heritage & culture are so important * The most critical skill that business owners need to master to be successful in the coming future * The importance of coming up with your own “playbook” and competing with yourself * Setting up a culture where everyone can thrive * How the best lessons can come from your customers if you’re in business * Being aware of what’s going on around you at any given time
How to best connect with Kylie: * Website: www.MakeTheMindSwitch.com * Website: www.kyliewf.com
Andy Swann is the author of THE HUMAN WORKPLACE and leads the development and delivery of people-focused transition management for organizations undergoing change at BDG Architecture and Design. He is also the founder of Simple Better Human, a creative organization development consultancy specializing in helping employees thrive so their organizations can too. He runs the All About People conference and speaks around the world on the benefits of taking a more human approach to organizational development.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why you should be open to opportunities as they present themselves * The importance of doing something you love * Andy’s new book, “The Human Workplace” and why he felt so strongly about writing it * Why companies need to give people the opportunity to be their best * Why Andy decided to start and organize the ‘All About People’ event * Why it’s important to think about how you define success * Why it’s all about connections & building relationships * Taking the time to step back and look at things from a different perspective * One of the key skills for any organization, regardless of size or scale * Why doing things for the right reasons can lead to big wins
How to best connect with Andy: * Website: www.andyswann.co
Dr. Glenn Livingston is a veteran psychologist and was the long time CEO of a multi-million dollar consulting firm which has serviced several Fortune 500 clients in the food industry. Disillusioned by what traditional psychology had to offer overweight and/or food obsessed individuals, Glenn spent several decades researching the nature of binging and overeating via work with his own patients AND a self-funded research program with more than 40,000 participants. You may remember Glenn and the wisdom he shared during Episode 251. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 251 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- The benefits of working with people who are just as excited about your mission as you are
- The joy that Glenn is experiencing from the impact of his research and book
- Why Glenn is a firm believer that discipline creates freedom
- The power of focusing on what you want
- Why a lot of entrepreneurs get stuck
- Why Glenn defines success as having the ability to work and to love in balance
- Why you need to remember that feelings aren’t facts when it comes to fear
- How, from a marketing standpoint, people today are still underestimating how much proof you need of your core value proposition
- Why you need to be good at calling out to a specific audience
How best to connect with Glenn:
Website: www.NeverBingeAgain.com
Pam Wasley is the Co-founder & CEO of Cerius Executives and Cerius Advisors. She has personally sold companies, led a management buyout, and advised hundreds of companies on strategies for growth and higher shareholder value. She’s served on several private boards and has been featured in prestigious publications such as Forbes, Entrepreneur, Fortune, and Bloomberg Businessweek on the topics of mergers and acquisitions, the workforce of the future, and global contingent workforces.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * One of the first things that Pam learned when it comes to people * The value of realizing that you don’t know everything * Some tips to keep up with the fast pace of the world today * Why you should be thinking outside of the box when it comes to your business * How being bored is good for your mind * Surrounding yourself with people who are smarter than you are * Why you need to focus on hiring well, especially with your executive team * The one thing that is important for any business & how it can help you grow * Building a team of advisors that help you in areas that you have big challenges
How to best connect with Pam: * Website: getcerius.com * Website: getcerius.com/onwardnation
Good Morning Onward Nation...and welcome to Episode 636.
Before we get to lesson I prepared for today’s solocast...I wanted to share with you that Onward Nation is now available on Amazon Echo -- holy bananas!
So if you have an Echo -- you just need install the skill called “AnyPod” -- and then the command goes like this, “Alexa...ask AnyPod to play Onward Nation” and then Alexa will play our latest episode.
You can even say, “Alexa, ask AnyPod to play Episode 636 of Onward Nation” to play a specific episode.
Rock solid awesome!
So for today’s solocast...I am going to focus our time and attention around how to become an excellent host – whether we are talking about you hosting your own podcast – vlog – or perhaps you are creating content for your rockin’ awesome blog and you will be interviewing guest experts.
It takes hard work to becoming good at interviewing – to hosting and facilitating a conversation – for some – like it did for me – it takes many hours of practice.
In full transparency, Onward Nation, it took me until Episode 77 with Mark Sanborn as my guest to really feel like I had gotten my sea legs and could do a good job as a host.
And fast forward, this is episode 636...and each and every day that I get behind the microphone and talking with a guest I am learning – so there is always room for improvement.
So my hope is that the recipe I have included within this solocast will shorten – or compress – the learning curve and accelerate your results and success.
This solocast can serve as your practical and tactical guide to becoming an excellent host. I will share several of my insights that I have learned along the way as well as what I learned from two Onward Nation guests and fellow podcasters: Drew McLellan and John Livesay.
Drew McLellan is the host of the brilliant podcast, Build a Better Agency. Drew is the Top Dog at the Agency Management Institute, host of the exceptional podcast Build a Better Agency, and has owned and operated his own agency over the last 20-years.
Drew also works with over 250 small to mid sized agencies a year in a variety of ways: peer network groups, workshops for owners and their leadership teams, on-site consulting, and one-to-one coaching with owners.
John Livesay is the host of the successful podcast, The Successful Pitch. Inc. Magazine calls John the “Pitch Whisperer.” He is also the author of the book also entitled, “The Successful Pitch.”
John helps CEOs craft a compelling pitch to investors in a way that inspires them to join a startup’s team and he is a phenomenal professional speaker.
Okay, Onward Nation...let’s get started.
In fiction, a “foil” is a character who contrasts with another character (usually the protagonist) in order to highlight particular qualities of the other character.
In my opinion, your ability to play the role of the foil will determine if you are an excellent host or mediocre.
You need to use your interview (again – this could be for a podcast, vlog, or written article) to help your guests advance their agenda – share their wisdom and expertise – not yours.
Avoid telling stories about yourself even if they are validating what your guest just said.
Your role is not to validate what your guest just said. You guest doesn’t need you to validate their experience. Attempting to do so can be seen as arrogant or like you are trying to steal the show.
Don’t do that. And if you have been listening to Onward Nation for a while now – you know – it is a very, very rare occasion that I will tell a story during an interview. I tend to save those observations or lessons for a solocast...because during an interview with a guest...they need to be the star...not you.
Instead, summarize, reflect back to your guest the impactful highlights of what he or she just shared, add a comment or two from what you have seen in your experience, and then ask your guest if you got all of that correct.
By asking the question, “Did I get all of that correct, Sally?” you do three things:
- You demonstrate to Sally that you are listening to every word she shared
- What she said mattered because you connected it to your own experience
- And lastly, you subtly prompted Sally to go deeper with her examples and experience sharing
Next, start out the conversation with some light questions and then build trust and rapport in the first few minutes of the conversation.
Be engaging, personable, and if you are able to make your guest laugh in the first couple of minutes, congratulations – you’re building rapport.
Avoid asking deep, emotionally charged questions early on in the interview. It will not go well. Your guest will likely think you are trying to move too deep too quickly.
I asked Drew McLellan for his insights on the most critical skill business owners need to master to be successful at podcasting. Drew shared that he believes it is a combination of skills — but — that the most important skill was for the host to check their ego at the door.
Drew said to me, “Stephen, my job when I'm hosting is to augment and put the spotlight on my guest and their expertise. I do that by listening really hard to what they say and running it through my filter of, ‘What else would an agency owner want to know about that?’ I'm not talking over them, I'm not trying it jump in and show how much I know about the topic.
“I am listening super hard. I am asking what I hope are great follow-up questions. I'm really trying to stay out of the guest’s way so they have as much airtime as possible to share their expertise.
“I think part of listening with real intent is to able to ask the question that, I'm always thinking, ‘If somebody is driving while they're listening to this, or walking on the treadmill, or whatever, what would they want me to ask?’
“Or, do I frustrate them by not asking the follow-up questions that they want me to ask? I'm always listening with that intent.
“What should I be asking next?
“What did somebody want to hear more about or how would they want to drill deeper into this?’
“I'm trying to ask those questions because I don't want any of my listeners thinking, ‘I can't believe he didn't ask X?’”
I asked John Livesay for his insights on the same questions of critical skills. John explained to me why and how he uses empathy and listening to make connections with guests.
John said, “Stephen, one of the investors on my show told me that the more empathy you show for your customer, the more the customer feels like you understand that customer and can solve that problem.
“I think what makes you have empathy for someone is your ability to listen to them and put yourself in their shoes.
“The more you can do that with your guests and respond to what they’re saying and make them feel heard and then summarize what you’re hearing for your audience as the takeaways, that, in my opinion, is what it takes to be really great as a podcast host.
“Stephen, you do it in spades. It’s easy for you. You’re probably not even aware that you're doing it, it’s part of who you are, but if you don't have that in your DNA, then it’s a skill that you really need to develop to be a successful host.”
Okay...so now, Onward Nation...let’s move on to one of the best ways to ensure your excellence as a host.
And that is in how you help a guest prepare to be a great guest on your show.
You can do that by implementing a solid guest advocacy system that shares all of the logistics of their interview multiple times in advance of the day and time of the interview...shares the questions you plan to ask...and give them tips on how to sound the very best they can.
And you ought to supplement your guest advocacy system by personally setting expectations with guests.
In my opinion, Drew does this masterfully well.
Drew shared with me, “Stephen, what I discovered is that the minute I checked my ego at the door, I realized the show wasn’t about somebody listening to me, it was about me cultivating this great list of guests and serving guests well, which serves my audience well.
“So, if I allow my guests to have the spotlight, and I allow them to really share their expertise, and I prep them properly, so it’s like, ‘Look there is no selling, this is not about you getting clients, this is about you generously sharing your expertise.
“Here are the kind of questions I'm going to ask, if you're not comfortable answering those questions, don't come on the show.’ None of that was about me. It’s about serving up the best content possible for my audience by putting my guest in the best possible light.”
So, Onward Nation...in addition to sharing insights from Drew and from John...I wanted to formalize this into a recipe – into a checklist that you could study before your next interview.
Okay, so here we go...the 10-point CHECKLIST FOR HOSTING WITH EXCELLENCE
- Check your ego at the door. Your show is about making your guest the star. Your show should not be about you.
- Study. Listen to other hosts and hear how they interact with their guests.
- Keep the conversation casual yet focused on the result outcomes you want to deliver to your audience.
- Help your guests prepare by implementing a guest advocacy system so they receive email and text reminders before your interview as well as tips on how to sound their best during the recording.
- Also help your guest prepare by emailing them your questions in advance along with some insights regarding your audience so your guests have context and know how best to answer your questions.
- Begin on time and end on time. This shows respect for your guest’s schedule.
- Turn off your email, your cell phone, all social media, and listen intently to your guest so you can think of follow-up questions your audience would want you to ask.
- Summarize and recap your guest’s awesomeness during the interview. Then ask your guests if you got the summary right or if you’re missed something. This is the perfect invitation to a guest to go deeper and share even more value with your audience.
- Thank them before the interview, during the interview, and after the interview for taking the time to generously share their wisdom with your audience.
- Have confidence. You are good enough to do this. You are worthy. You will make a difference in the world by sharing the wisdom of your guests. You are building a nation of true fans. Kick the Imposter Syndrome to the curb by remembering the wise words of Walter D. Wintle, quoted by Napoleon Hill, author of Think & Grow Rich:
“If you think you are beaten, you are,
If you think you dare not, you don’t.
If you like to win, but you think you can’t,
It is almost certain you won’t.
If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost,
For out in the world we find,
Success begins with a fellow’s will –
It’s all in the state of MIND.
If you think you’re outclassed, you are,
You’ve got to think high to rise,
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.
Life’s battles, don’t always go
To the stronger or faster one
But soon or later the one who wins
Is the one WHO THINKS THEY CAN!”
So with that said...
Thank you again for taking the time to be here today...I am grateful for you making Onward Nation what you listen to and study. We all have the same 86,400 seconds in a day and I appreciate you taking some of your invaluable time and sharing it with me.
Until tomorrow...onward with gusto!
Jacob Baadsgaard is the Founder & CEO of Disruptive Advertising, a company that helps businesses advertise and market themselves profitably and efficiently on Google and Facebook by leveraging their software and team of marketers. After starting Disruptive Advertising in 2012, the company grew to over 60 employees and $9 million dollars in annual revenue in just 3.5 years. They have worked with over 1,000 businesses and found that an average of 76% of AdWords and Facebook ad budgets are wasted.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How you can make some very impactful decisions for your business with the power of data * The benefits of connecting marketing all the way through to a sale * How, on average, 76% of ad budgets are wasted * Why you should let your budget flow through what’s performing best with your ads * The two high-level metrics that matter for any business * Why it can be more expensive to go for the “cheap” traffic * What most businesses are doing wrong with Facebook ads * How to leverage social media & maximize the ROI * How being direct and holding people accountable can help you to become a better leader * Why you need to learn how to say no to bad revenue
How to best connect with Jacob: * Website: disruptiveadvertising.com/audit
Nicole has worked as a client-facing business executive for Fortune 500 companies in both sales and marketing for over ten years. Everyone from stay-at-home parents to small-business owners can access her affordable and entertaining webinars and private monetization coaching. Using her trademarked Pitch & Pray™ method, Nicole will help you embrace the #monetizethyself™ mindset and realize your brand’s fiscal goals.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Key ingredients to get started on building momentum if you want to pursue speaking engagements * Why it’s always a good thing to get in front of a demographic that aligns with your audience * What led Nicole to get a television development deal that will follow her entrepreneurial journey * Why you should consider live streaming to your audience with controversial, relatable, or incredibly valuable content * The power of being able to say no to things to get you where you want to be * Why now is the time to launch a course if you’ve been wanting to get into that space * Strategies to help you overcome fear & kick it to the curb * How to improve the way you show up to others * One strategy that you can use to build a solid platform for your business * How to get to the next level if you’re feeling stuck
How to best connect with Joe: * Website: www.nicolewalters.tv
Resources: * Fierce Clarity Course: myfierceclarity.com
Joe Vitale is President of Hypnotic Marketing, Inc., a marketing consulting firm and the author of many best-selling books, including “The Attractor Factor”, “”Life’s Missing Instruction Manual”, “The Key”, “Attract Money Now”, “Zero Limits”, and “The Secret Prayer!” He is also one of the stars of the hit movie “The Secret”, featured as an expert on the Law of Attraction. Joe recently released The Secret Mirror program, helping thousands of people to attract their desires using his newly developed Mirror Technique.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The definition of Hypnotic Marketing * Why learning to be a good writer is critical to success * How to use publicity to draw attention to your product or business * Why you must clear your negative beliefs to achieve success * The importance of having a business coach * The value being part of a mastermind group can provide * Why communication is a critical skill to master * How you can help your business by thinking like a publicist * Why you should combine offline media with online media for more impact
How to best connect with Joe: * Website: www.attractmoneynow.com
Rosalie Chamberlain specializes in maximizing talent and productivity within organizations. Her mission is helping organizations become inclusive environments where everyone has the opportunity to succeed and to help individuals become their best authentic self to lead effective careers and lives. You may remember Rosalie and the wisdom she shared during Episode 284. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all she shared during our first interview…I highly encourage you to add Episode 284 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Letting go of self-judgement and negative self-talk * The importance of assessing your fear * The need to understand your biases and the beliefs you hold * How your biases and beliefs have an impact on your decisions * How having a vision board can help you reach your goals * Why knowing your message is important * Tips on how to apply to be a TEDx speaker * What Rosalie’s acronym for F.E.A.R. is * How fear prevents us from recognizing privilege * Why continual learning is important for business owners
How to best connect with Rosalie: * Website: www.rosaliechamberlainconsulting.com * Twitter: @rosaliechamberl * LinkedIn: Rosalie Chamberlain * Facebook: www.facebook.com/rosaliechamberlainconsulting
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of three bestselling books including the recently released Profitable Podcasting. He is also a speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation and welcome to Episode 631…it is always a pleasure and honor to have you here with me. Before we get to today’s solocast, Onward Nation – I owe you a couple important thank you’s.
First, I want to say thank you for all of the ratings and reviews on iTunes. We just received a wave of new reviews and I want you to know how grateful I am for that.
You taking time out of your day to let us know what you think of the show is something my team and I take very seriously – something we consider sacred – whether you give us a thumbs up or a thumbs down – hearing from you is how we get better each and every day.
So thank you, Onward Nation, for your continued support, feedback, and all of your ratings and reviews.
And second, I want to say thank you for sharing Onward Nation episodes with your friends and colleagues…because each and every share, retweet, and post you do helps Onward Nation become heard by more people in more countries. Because of you…listeners in 119 countries have become part of Onward Nation. Because of you…business owners from around the world are able to learn from other successful business owners and how they think, act, and achieve.
So thank you, Onward Nation!
I appreciate your time and attention more than you will ever know – and the fact that you have chosen to invest a part of your day making Onward Nation what you listen to and study means a great deal to me and to my entire team.
Okay, now let’s dive into today’s solocast.
And with today’s solocast – I am going to include a twist similar to what I did back in Episode 612 when we decided to air an interview from when I was the guest on the Integrate and Ignite Podcast…which is hosted by my friend, Lori Jones…CEO of Avocet Communications.
Being a guest on another podcast gives me a special opportunity to share perspectives, insights, and experience that I might not normally share during an episode with an Onward Nation guest.
So I wanted you to hear the episode with Lori because of the takeaways that might be helpful if applied into your business.
So for today’s solocast…I am going to follow a similar recipe. We are going to air an episode where I was a guest on the podcast, MYM Your Business: The Brutal Truth, hosted by Colin Sprake.
I wanted you to hear this interview because of the depth that Colin and I explored the value of mentorship, the biggest mistake I made by not listening to the advice of Darren Hardy, one of my personal mentors, and the impact the right mentorship program can have on your company, its culture, as well as the dollars and cents behind it, in my opinion.
Colin and I also went pretty deep into business development and why I think business owners are missing a big opportunity by not focusing their time and attention on their Dream 50 prospects.
Okay, Onward Nation…so without further adieu, here is Colin Sprake from MYM Your Business: The Brutal Truth, and yours truly, as his guest.
======================
Okay…welcome back, Onward Nation.
I hope you found the conversation with Colin Sprake to be helpful in illustrating the power and influence of great mentorship and the impact it can have within your business and on your team.
In fact…we take mentorship so seriously here at Predictive ROI that each member of our leadership meets each week for a dedicated, one-on-one mentorship session with each of the teammates on their respective teams.
This process has helped us grow as a team, become stronger has a team, reinforced our values as a team, and helped us uncover potential problem areas for clients and solve them before they became actual problem areas.
And most importantly…the weekly sessions have helped us invest in our younger leaders – both in them as teammates and in their career path.
We do and invest in all of this so that on the day one of our teammates is invited to join the Predictive ROI leadership team, they are well-prepared, they have seen the situations before, and they know they have teammates around them who will support them no matter what.
That is a valuable culture…so that when the going gets tough and we all need to dig even deeper…or…when we are riding high and there is praise and thanks to go around…we stay grounded and realize that is all about the team.
So for all of us here at Predictive ROI…it is always…100% of the time…about the team…and my hope is that some of that message came through in my discussion with Colin – and – that there were takeaways that you can apply into your business, too.
So with that said…
Thank you again for taking the time to be here today…I am grateful for you making Onward Nation what you listen to and study. We all have the same 86,400 seconds in a day and I appreciate you taking some of your invaluable time and sharing it with me.
Until tomorrow…onward with gusto!
Dustin Mathews is the co-founder of Speaking Empire – the disruptive company in the leadership and education space – whose chief mission is advancing the human race by empowering leaders to communicate powerfully, unlock their fullest potential, and ultimately step into their greatness. He is the author of several bestselling books, including his latest that he co-authored to Dan Kennedy, “The No B.S. Guide To Powerful Presentations: The Ultimate No Holds Barred Plan to Sell Anything with Webinars, Online Media, Speeches, and Seminars”.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The importance of having a message and delivering it with passion * Why you should develop core content and figure out different ways to deliver it * The value of education-based marketing through speaking * The importance of providing value to your audience * Why you should approach situations with a student mindset * Why building relationships and delivering value is important * The need to have influential communication * The five core components of a powerful presentation * How to show your audience you are relevant and credible * The importance of differentiating your message
How to best connect with Dustin: * Website: www.nobspresentations.com * LinkedIn: Dustin Mathews * Book: “The No B.S. Guide To Powerful Presentations: The Ultimate No Holds Barred Plan to Sell Anything with Webinars, Online Media, Speeches, and Seminars”
Barbara Trautlein is author of the best-selling book “Change Intelligence: Use the Power of CQ to Lead Change That Sticks”. She is the Principal and Founder of Change Catalysts and originator of the CQ System for Developing Change Intelligence. For over 25 years, Barbara has coached executives, trained leaders at all levels, certified change agents, and facilitated mission-critical change management initiatives – achieving bottom-line business and powerful leadership results for clients.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Recognizing that with change sometimes comes fear * The importance of having empathy * Why you need to be change friendly, ready, and intelligent * What CQ means and why it is important * Why 70% of major organizational changes fail * The importance of change leadership * How to overcome resistance to change * What the three main styles of leading change are * How business owners can assess their CQ * Which change leader styles are most prevalent and how they lead
How to best connect with Barbara: * Website: www.changecatalysts.com * Book: “Change Intelligence: Use the Power of CQ to Lead Change That Sticks”
Dorie Clark is an adjunct professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and the author of “Entrepreneurial You” — and — “Reinventing You” and “Stand Out”, which was named the #1 Leadership Book of 2015 by Inc. Magazine. Dorie is also a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review and consults and speaks for clients including Google, Microsoft, and the World Bank. You may remember Dorie and the wisdom she shared during Episode 97. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all she shared during our first interview…I highly encourage you to add Episode 97 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why Dorie wrote her new book “ Entrepreneurial You” * How to monetize your expertise * How to be successful in the entrepreneurial economy * Why entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs need straight and honest talk * The business impact of writing a book * Why success is maximizing your own potential * The importance of not looking too far ahead but focusing on the next goal * Being a good mentor by letting people see beyond the surface * The three things you need to stand out and become an expert in your field * Why focusing on content creation is a key strategy for success
How to best connect with Dorie: * Website: www.dorieclark.com * Twitter: @dorieclark * Book: “Entrepreneurial You: Monetize Your Expertise, Create Multiple Income Streams, and Thrive”
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of three bestselling books including the recently released Profitable Podcasting. He is also a speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
For a full transcript please visit this link.
Joe Schmit is an author, a 18-time Emmy award-winning broadcaster, community leader, and popular keynote speaker. As a sports broadcaster, he has covered every major sporting event in the past three decades and has interviewed many of the biggest names in sports. His award-winning book, “Silent Impact-Stories of Influence Through Purpose, Persistence and Passion” is now in its 4th printing. You may remember Joe and the wisdom he shared during Episode 310. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during our first interview…I highly encourage you to add Episode 310 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How great leaders are discovering new ways to lead * Why silent impact is the future of leadership * The importance of making your team feel significant * How we make our biggest impact when we are not trying to be impressive * Why some of the best bosses and leaders are tough but fair * What the great leaders have figured out about success * The value of making connections which then leads to making an impact * Why scheduling impact time is important * How a business owner can become a better mentor to their team * How you can get your business to the next level by making it about the employees
How to best connect with Joe: * Website: www.joeschmit.com * Book: “Silent Impact: Stories of Influence through Purpose, Persistence, & Passion”
Shiv Kera is the founder of Qualified Learning Systems USA. He is the author of 14 books including the international bestseller “You Can Win”, which has sold over 3.5 million copies in 21 languages. His 30 years of research and understanding has put organizations on a path of growth and fulfillment and tens of thousands of people have benefitted from his dynamic workshops internationally in over 20 countries. Shiv’s trademark is “Winners don’t do different things, they do things differently”.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The importance of accepting that some things are out of our control * Remembering life is full of choices and compromises * Why we cannot choose the cards that are dealt to us, but we can choose how we react * Why Shiv says “winners don’t do different things, they do things differently” * How you can make positive habits into a reflex action * The importance of forming good habits * The benefits of journaling every day * How winners form the habit of doing things that losers don’t like to do * Why you not only need the skill to do a job, but also need the will * Why regardless of your profession, there is no competition
How to best connect with Shiv: * Website: www.shivkhera.com * Book: “You Can Win: A step by step tool for top achievers”
Gina Bianchini is the Founder & CEO of Mighty Networks…a rapidly growing SaaS platform for creating your own network effects brands and businesses –– replacing a blog or website with a niche social network. Gina and Mighty Networks have been featured in Fast Company, Wired, Vanity Fair, Bloomberg, and The New York Times. Before Mighty Networks, Gina and Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen launched Ning, a pioneering global platform for creating niche social networks. She also co-founded LeanIn.Org with Sheryl Sandberg, an organization dedicated to women leaning into their ambitions, where she launched Lean In Circles worldwide.
What you'll learn about in this episode: * How creating a community around a niche topic can lead to a successful business * Why the demand for niche businesses is increasing * Why digital entrepreneurs need to put a community at the core of the business they are building * The value of connecting your customers and having them to talk to each other * The need to learn quickly so you can make better and more informed decisions * The importance of setting goals and intentions * Why having a sponsor is important and how it is different than having a mentor * Why being on more than one social media platform is important * The importance of asking yourself “what do I want to learn next” * How eliminating self doubt and negative thoughts leads to success
How to best connect with Gina: * Website: hosts.mn.co
Maxine Harris is the CEO and co-founder of Community Connections, a large social service organization operating in Washington, D.C. She is a national expert in clinical practices for treating persons with serious mental illness, substance addiction, homelessness, trauma, domestic violence, and traumatic loss. She has authored or edited nine books and 10 training manuals and recently released her newest book, “LESSONS FOR NON-PROFIT AND START-UP LEADERS: TALES FROM A RELUCTANT CEO”.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How our mistakes can be our greatest teachers * When starting out in business, why you should not hire your friends * The reasons why you need to learn to delegate * The importance of knowing what your priorities are * The power of keeping your office door open and the sense of availability it provides * Why culture is not something that you prescribe, it’s something that you live * The importance of having a diversified revenue stream * The value of taking a step back to be able to view the big picture * Why you should look to hire individuals who have a passion for what they do * How ongoing self-assessment is essential to your success
How to best connect with Maxine: * Website: www.communityconnectionsdc.org
Johann Van Tonder is COO at AWA Digital — an award-winning conversion rate optimization agency that helps e-commerce businesses around the world grow online conversion rates and sales using a scientific process. He is also the co-author of the book, “E-COMMERCE WEBSITE OPTIMIZATION: WHY 95% OF YOUR WEBSITE VISITORS DON’T BUY, AND WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT”.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The value of using speaking engagements as an opportunity to teach rather than sell * Why Johann and Dan wrote the book “E-Commerce Website Optimization” * Why value proposition is a central concept in marketing and conversion rate optimization * The importance of understanding and shaping consumer behavior * How to research your customers to determine their consumer behavior * The benefits of doing usability testing using online video services * How to turn more of your website visitors into customers * Why you should grow your business methodically over time * The importance of listening to your customers * Why the most critical skill to master is understanding the components that make up your profit
How to best connect with Johann: * Website: www.awa-digital.com
Ron Schutz consults with business owners to help them realize their full potential for their business, while also developing strategies and workable solutions to prepare them for transition. He has been giving financial advice to business owners for over 50 years and is the author of the new book, “AMERICAN FATHERS”, which explores the ideas of moral capitalism and what it means to be an entrepreneur in a global society with different values.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Some of the challenges that entrepreneurs are facing today * Building yourself into a media channel to promote your business * How technology has changed the way business owners spread their message * The importance of collaborating with other business owners * Why having more dialog with your clients, employees and vendors is important * Taking time to be thankful and grateful * The most critical skill needed to thrive in business: being an active listener * Why having the ability to stay focused is vital to success * How looking at a situation through another’s lens leads to greater appreciation * Why you should always look to continuously improve
How to best connect with Ron: * Website: www.ronschutzauthor.com
Dina Dwyer-Owens is the co-chair of The Dwyer Group, a service-based franchise company which now includes 19 service brands and accounts for more than $1.5 billion in system-wide sales. She’s a certified franchise executive with more than 35 years of industry experience — 15 years as CEO of Dwyer Group. America also knows her for participating in CBS’s Emmy-winning hit reality show “Undercover Boss” and the first-ever special episode “Undercover Boss: Epic Bosses.” Dina is the author of two books: Live R.I.C.H. and Values, Inc. that both share her global message for living and leading with a proven code of values.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The importance of celebrating the successes of yesterday but learning from the mistakes * Why leading with values is important within a company * Why you should always treat people with respect and dignity * How to create a system around your company’s values * Why “living” your values is critical to success * Gaining access to a free “Create Your Culture Workbook” * Why you should take every day as a learning opportunity * Looking for the solution via your values when facing obstacles in your business * The lessons that can be learned by letting yourself be vulnerable * Why, as a leader, you have to be willing to let go of wanting to be great at everything
How to best connect with Dina: * Website: www.dinadwyerowens.com
Naphtali Hoff is an executive coach and president of Impactful Coaching & Consulting. He completed his doctorate in human and organizational psychology and holds two master’s degrees in education and educational leadership. Naphtali’s personal experience in the leadership field allows him to understand leaders’ needs and craft solutions to help them optimize their performance and success. He is also the author of the new book, “Becoming the New Boss: The New Leader’s Guide to Sustained Success”.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The outcomes of starting a new leadership position with success * How having a podcast gives a business owner a new way to connect with people * The importance of reaching out to other business owners and mentors * Why setting goals is a critical daily habit * How avoiding distractions allows for a high impact work day * Why having a clear sense of direction is a critical skill to master * The benefits of bringing everyone in the organization together to help make decisions * Why it is important to define your core values * Why learning to listen well is critical to success * The benefits of having a business coach
How to best connect with Naphtali: * Website: www.impactfulcoaching.com * Website: www.becomingthenewboss.com * Email: nhoff@impactfulcoaching.com * Book: “Becoming the New Boss: The New Leader’s Guide to Sustained Success”
Gavin Zuchlinski is the founder of Acuity Scheduling, the slickest way for businesses to automate and manage their appointments online, allowing clients to schedule themselves. He is a self-professed tech geek who wholeheartedly believes that business should be fun. Acuity Scheduling supports over 50,000 businesses of all sizes, from people working for themselves to major corporations with thousands of employees.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The benefits of building your business slow and steady * Why you should focus on creating a product that people will love * How setting up a checklist of tasks to improve your product will improve your business * Why spending time improving your product before you market the product is important * The importance of listening to your customer’s feedback * How reading and researching every day makes you and your business better * Building a business with recurring revenue makes the business more attractive to buyers * The importance of remembering the reason your business exists is to help its customers * Why staying connected to your customers and the technical aspects of your business is important * The power of being happy in the moment and taking joy in what you do every day
How to best connect with Gavin: * Website: www.acuityscheduling.com/onward
Mike Canarelli is the CEO and Co-Founder of Web Talent Marketing and is recognized as one of the top digital marketing agencies in the United States who prides itself on providing unique, scalable long-term solutions for its clients. Mike holds a B.S. from Temple University’s Fox School of Business and Management where he studied Entrepreneurship and Management Information Systems. After six years as a freelance designer and web developer, he founded Axis Creative Group in 2006 and later merged with Web Talent SEO in late 2010.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How organization can help you tackle your daily vital priorities * The importance of focusing on the details of each project * The benefits of clearing out your email inbox by the end of each day * The obstacles that can be overcome when your organization works as a team * How adversity leads to great lessons on how to rebound and come out stronger * Why being a strong leader can help your team weather the tough times * Remaining calm under pressure: a critical skill for business owners to master * Remembering to stop, breathe, think then act when facing adversity * The importance of trusting those you hire * Why you need to find a good mentor and lean on them for sound business advice
How to best connect with Mike: * Website: www.webtalentmarketing.com * LinkedIn: Mike Canarelli * Email: mike@webtalentmarketing.com
Peter Lisoskie is the founder of Chatbot Nation — a technology that fosters a more humanized and connected relationship between people and brands using chatbots, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. He helps business owners and entrepreneurs create an interactive experience with chatbots to deliver leads, improve sales conversions, provide customer service, sell products, and win new clients.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- What a chatbot is
- How chatbots create an instant interactive experience
- How to use a chatbot as part of a lead generation strategy
- Why Peter feels businesses will be moving away from email marketing
- How chatbots allow the user to drive the experience
- The advantages of using a chatbot for customer service
- How chatbots contribute to your company’s bottom line
- The power of Messenger Codes as a marketing tool
- Why having an animated chatbot character helps create an elevated human connecting experience
- The importance of having clarity and focus to best ensure success
Ways to contact Peter:
- Website: www.chatbotnation.co
- Website: chatbotnation.co/ill-build-your-chatbot
- Twitter: @chatbotnation
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/petelisoskie
Beth Storz is President and Innovation Process Consultant at Ideas To Go with a rich history of helping companies and brands to be more innovative. Beth's experience ranges from managing large flagship brands to smaller strategic portfolios. Beth is the co-author of the recent book, “Outsmart Your Instincts: How the Behavioral Innovation Approach Drives Your Company Forward.”
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- What cognitive biases are
- The cognitive biases that impede innovation
- How to overcome the cognitive biases and get your business to the next level
- How the negativity bias holds back innovative thinking
- The power of using positive words to trick the brain into problem solving
- What the curse of knowledge is and how it puts constraints on innovation
- How the fear factor can hold you back from trying new ideas
- Understanding that you alone do not have all the answers is a critical skill to master
- The impact of surrounding yourself with those who are smarter than you
- The importance of continuous improvement within your business
Ways to contact Beth:
- Website: www.ideastogo.com
- Twitter: @bethstorz
- LinkedIn: Beth Storz
- Book: "Outsmart Your Instincts: How the Behavioral Innovation Approach Drives Your Company Forward"
Amy Kirsch is the Director of Investor Relations at RealtyShares, an online marketplace for real estate investing connecting individual and institutional investors to private U.S. real estate investments. She has over 10 years of financial services experience & has worked in wealth management for Merrill Lynch, Dearborn Partners, and JP Morgan’s Private Bank before working as the Head of Investor Relations for PeerRealty, a Chicago real estate crowdfunding platform.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How real estate investing has become democratized
- What steps need to be taken to become a real estate investor
- The benefits of making a vital priorities list for the week
- How time blocking can become an important part of your success
- Why the most critical skill to master is focus
- The importance of doing right by your clients, following up, and following through
- Why you should celebrate and reward the wins of your team
- Why having employees who have a sense of urgency is important
- The importance of having a team that supports and encourages each other
- Why it is critical to your success to have a mentor
Ways to contact Amy:
- Website: www.realtyshares.com
- Email: invest@realtyshares.com
Our special encore guest today is Jay Irwin and he is an adventurous soul who is determined to inspire people through wilderness experiences. He teaches audiences, from inner-city youth to executives, how to bring the gifts learned from wilderness experiences into daily life to create powerful and long-lasting change. He is the owner of CBST Adventures where he takes clients out of their comfort zone so they can experience the metaphors of nature. You may remember Jay and the wisdom he shared during Episode 306. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during our first interview…I highly encourage you to add Episode 306 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * What experiential leadership is * The benefits of experiential leadership training * How experiential leadership training leads to team building * How experiential leadership training can help businesses with succession planning * Why finding your motivators and demotivators is vital to your team’s success * How being successful is more than just having financial success * The importance of having a positive impact on others * The power of being grateful for success and giving back to the community * What characteristics Jay feels makes an “A” player * Why defining your vivid vision for your business is important
How to best connect with Jay: * Website: www.cbstadventures.com * Twitter: @jayirwin66
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of three bestselling books including the recently released Profitable Podcasting. He is also a speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation and welcome to Episode 612…it is always a pleasure and honor to have you here with me – I greatly appreciate your time and attention – and the fact that you have chosen to invest a part of your day making Onward Nation what you listen to and study means a great deal to me.
So thank you very, very much.
Today’s episode is going to be a solocast – with a bit of a twist. If you have been listening to the show for a while now – you know that from time to time, I record an episode without a guest – and I call those solocasts – and I do this – because a solocast gives you and me an opportunity to go deeper on a topic and to really explore the depth of a particular lesson.
But for today’s solocast – there is a bit of a twist.
And the twist is that my team and I are going to use this solocast as an opportunity to share an episode where I was recently the guest on the Integrate and Ignite podcast…hosted by my friend, Lori Jones…CEO of Avocet Communications.
Okay…so why did I decide to air another podcast’s episode inside today’s solocast?
I made that decision because of the value I think this interview with share with you.
For example…
Lori and I talk more about how – if you were to launch a podcast, YouTube channel, rockin’ awesome blog, or another form of cornerstone content – it could become your Trojan Horse of Sales and ignite your business development strategy within your company.
You and I went deep into this topic during Episode 600 of Onward Nation – but the perspective I share with Lori and what she shares with me will provide additional context that will be helpful to your biz dev.
Lori and I also talk about the importance of thought leadership and how it can be used to share your expertise with your dream prospects – and – add value to your existing customers, which is an important lesson for most business owners, especially those who are being forced to pivot their business over the next 12-36 months.
I also helped Lori’s audience see – and I want you to see, too, Onward Nation, how a piece of cornerstone content – again…that may be a podcast episode, a YouTube video, a blog article, etc. can then be used to create 30, 40, even 50 pieces of smaller content.
And this adds leverage into your business and helps you create scale.
Plus, this portion of the conversation with Lori begins to fulfill the promise I made to you during Episode 600 when I said that I would go deep into the content creation process during a future solocast, which I will still do and am preparing that episode right now, in fact.
But the conversation with Lori is an additional layer of introduction that provides some helpful context as we continue moving down the content creation path.
And lastly…Lori and I also address another scaling issue – and that is how to get your internal team onboard with the strategy of creating cornerstone content to drive business development – and – that this strategy is going to run alongside the Trojan Horse of Sales.
And I know it may be surprising, Onward Nation – but – you will be able to complete a lot of this work if you were to recruit and hire several talented and highly motivated unpaid interns to your team.
Lori and I talk about the recipe we have used here at Predictive ROI to do just that – we have recruited and hired 25 unpaid interns over the last several years – and they have been extraordinary. So don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you need a large team of expensive talent to be effective in this strategy.
Okay, Onward Nation…here is Lori Jones from the Integrate and Ignite podcast, and yours truly as her guest.
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Okay…welcome back, Onward Nation.
I hope you found the conversation with Lori Jones to be helpful in illustrating the power that cornerstone content can have within your business development strategy.
In fact…Erik Jensen from my Predictive ROI team and I were just on-site for a 2-day strategy session with a company in the financial services industry – and during the discussion – one of the business leaders said, “Wow…now I get it…now I see how our podcast could become the center of our entire content strategy.”
And yes, he was correct…your podcast…when executed properly…doesn’t just help you build a nation of true fans…or an audience…but each and every episode is cornerstone content that can fuel your entire business development strategy.
I will break this down into precise detail during my next solocast and illustrate the full power of the strategy – but for today, my hope is that the additional context was helpful.
Thank you again for taking the time to be here today…I am grateful for you making Onward Nation what you listen to and study. We all have the same 86,400 seconds in a day and I appreciate you taking some of your invaluable time and sharing it with me.
Until tomorrow…onward with gusto!
Yann Ilunga is a podcasting consultant and the host of four podcasts. His latest show, The Podcaster Lab, teaches and discusses podcasting with a brand new approach. Dubbed as a “Podcasting Advocate” by Forbes, Yann is also the founder of the Podcast Success Academy and the creator of what has become the world’s biggest virtual summit for podcasters: The Podcast Success Summit.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * How hosting your own podcast can help express yourself * How you can build a business around podcasting * How having a podcast can help build your existing business * Having your own podcast to help connect to clients in a more human way * Why podcasting is a marathon and not a sprint * Why it is necessary to be flexible and willing to pivot and change if necessary * Not letting fear or self-doubt keep you from having a podcast * How to leverage your podcast as an asset for your business * The importance of focusing on building your own community for your podcast * How being strategic with your time and money can help build your podcast audience
How to best connect with Yann: * Website: www.yannilunga.com * Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/groups/PodcastGrowthMastermind
Isaac Lidsky is the New York Times best-selling author of “Eyes Wide Open: Overcoming Obstacles and Recognizing Opportunities in a World That Can’t See Clearly.” Diagnosed with a blinding eye disease when he was 13 years old, Isaac slowly lost his sight over the next 12 years. He graduated from Harvard at age 19 with a degree in mathematics and computer science; founded an Internet startup that later sold for $230 million; and became the only blind person to clerk at the U.S. Supreme Court when he worked for Justices Sandra Day O’connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * The power of the mind to shape and create the reality that we experience * The importance of challenging assumptions * How we have the power to choose the life we are going to live * Why fear is one of the biggest obstacles keeping you from living the life you want * Why many times what you are perceiving as truth or being out of your control really isn’t * How being honest, transparent, and accountable to yourself are keys to success * The importance of having your own definition of success * Why building the life you want for yourself has to come from you * How we grow from our challenges * Why performing effectively as a team is a key strategy to success
How to best connect with Isaac: * Website: www.lidsky.com * Book: “Eyes Wide Open: Overcoming Obstacles and Recognizing Opportunities in a World That Can’t See Clearly”
Aaron Hendon is one of the top real estate agents in Seattle, Washington. He and his team bring together a diverse background and history, including transformational leadership, entrepreneurial start-ups, and consistently outperforming the local market, selling homes for over 5 percent more than the local market average. He founded a New York bagel shop in 1989 and 9 years later — sold it with a gross revenue of over $1 million annually. Aaron is currently at work on his next book entitled, “Short Changed by Short Cuts: 44 Surprising Ways People Rip Themselves Off When Buying or Selling Their Home.”
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Hiring the right people that will assist in making sound business decisions * The importance of creating a system of accountability * The value of reading and learning about the Profit First System * Why Aaron wrote his latest book, “Short Changed by Short Cuts” * One way people short change themselves when buying or selling their home * Why consistency is a critical skill to master * The power of outworking the competition * How seeing employees through their view will change how you treat them * The importance of being true to yourself and having integrity * The degree of which you can listen to people from where they are is the degree that you can be a contribution to the world
How to best connect with Aaron: * Email: aaron@rationalrealestate.pro
Craig Ballantyne is the author of “The Perfect Day Formula: How to Own the Day and Control Your Life”. He discovered The 5 Pillars of Success, which he used to overcome his crippling anxiety attacks, and today, shows men and women how to use the 5 Pillars to overcome any obstacle in their way. You may remember Craig and the wisdom he shared during Episode 264. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during our first interview…I highly encourage you to add Episode 264 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Why Craig built the Work-Life Mastery program * How striving for work-life balance causes business owners anxiety * The importance of building a better vision for yourself and setting the bar higher * How to enjoy work and make an impact on the world guilt free * The benefits of tackling your hardest or least desirable project first thing in the morning * The importance of using all the media channels available to you * What Craig defines as the four values of success * Why you should tell positive people around you what you want to achieve * How to attract, recruit, hire and surround yourself with “A players” * Building a better platform by stepping back and asking what is going to work best for your business
How to best connect with Craig: * Instagram: @realcraigballantyne * Email: craig@godfather.com
Rich Sheridan is the CEO and co-founder of Menlo Innovations and author of “Joy, Inc.: How We Built a Workplace People Love”. His company was founded with the purpose of bringing joy to the world through software and to teach this method to others. Rich spends the majority of his time sharing the “Menlo Way” through teaching classes, leading tours, speaking at conferences and mentoring entrepreneurs in the community. You may remember Rich and the wisdom he shared during Episodes 37 and 286. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during our other interviews...I highly encourage you to add Episodes 37 and 286 to your list of vital priorities.
What you'll learn about in this episode * The benefits of focusing on leaders, rather than bosses * The outcomes of having a leadership model versus a hierarchical model * How the culture of Menlo is shared openly * The importance of being flexible and adaptable to change * How you can learn and grow by being willing to challenge assumptions * Why creating joy within your organization should be one of the more important things to be thinking about * The importance of being intentional about the culture within your organization * The power of asking “who do we serve and what would delight look like for them” * The benefits of servant leadership * How to build the energy of a team
How to best connect with Rich: * Website: www.menloinnovations.com * Book: Joy, Inc.: How We Built a Workplace People Love
Les Trachtman is the CEO of The Trachtman Group, focusing on helping companies grow and scale, as well as managing director of “Purview”, an early stage company focused on disrupting the medical imaging business. For the past two decades, he has taught and lectured at numerous universities across the country, including the Harvard Business School and the MIT Sloan School of Business. A portion of Les’ career is chronicled in the Harvard Business School case study: “Les is More Times Four”, which educates entrepreneurs at leading business schools.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * The importance of having a succession plan for your business * How far into the future you should be looking into a business succession plan * Why identifying the truth in an organization is important * How celebrating mistakes leads to learning opportunities * The importance making employees feel safe to voice thoughts and opinions * Why choosing the right individuals to hire is vital to your business’s success * How picking the right customers leads to great client relationships long-term * Why delegation is the most critical skill to master * Having confidence in yourself knowing what you are doing is making a difference * One of the keys to success as a leader is being a great communicator
How to best connect with Les: * Website: www.foundertransitions.com
AJ Wilcox is a LinkedIn ads pro who founded B2Linked.com, an agency that specializes in account management and consulting with LinkedIn Ads. He is globally recognized as one of the top LinkedIn ads experts and speaks, trains, presents, and manages advertising campaigns for executives and teams around the world. And his agency recently became a Certified LinkedIn Partner.
What you'll learn about in this episode * The benefits of using LinkedIn paid ads to generate leads for your business * Determining if LinkedIn ads are the right fit for your company * The two different channels of digital marketing * How to use account based marketing to target customers * Why you should approach any social channel with a thought towards audience, messaging and offer (AMO) * Lead costs and quality comparison between LinkedIn and Facebook * How the traditional model of selling is changing in the digital age * How overcoming your fear of failure can lead to success * The importance of testing your product in the marketplace * Why understanding your customers needs is vital to your success
How to best connect with AJ: * Website: www.b2linked.com
Josh Tickell is an award winning film director and bestselling author. His films and books focus on critical issues including the need for alternative energy, reversing climate change, and the power of Millennials to change the world. He co-directed the film “GOOD FORTUNE”, the rags to riches story of Paul Mitchell and Patron cofounder, John Paul DeJoria. He regularly films and interviews luminaries such as Elon Musk, Woody Harrelson, and Sheryl Crow. Josh has been a guest on The Tonight Show, Good Morning America, Morning Joe, and The Today Show. His new book, “Kiss the Ground” with a foreword by Whole Foods Founder, John Mackey, hits store shelves in November.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * How cynicism can be destructive, caustic, and contagious * The importance of turning a negative situation into a positive * What the B Corp classification model is * Becoming a better business by taking care of the people who are taking care of you * What the fundamental resource of our economy is * How soil has the power to reverse climate change * How pesticides kill the nutrients in soil * Why the food pyramid has become outdated * Why reading “Kiss the Ground” will challenge your assumptions regarding our food system * How regenerative agriculture is going to bring a huge change and profit to agriculture and food in the future
How to best connect with Josh: * Website: www.joshtickell.com * Website: www.kissthegroundthebook.com * Book: Kiss the Ground: How the Food You Eat Can Reverse Climate Change, Heal Your Body & Ultimately Save Our World
Our special encore guest today is Anne Deeter Gallaher and she is the Owner and CEO of Deeter Gallaher Group, a marketing, public relations, and digital media firm. She is the co-author of the book, “Students in High Gear: A Guide for Students and Aspiring Game Changers in Transition from College to Career” -- and -- “Women in High Gear: A Guide for Entrepreneurs, On-Rampers, and Aspiring Executives”. You may remember Anne and the wisdom she shared during Episode 316. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all she shared during our first interview...I highly encourage you to add Episode 316 to your list of vital priorities.
What you'll learn about in this episode * The importance of being gracious and kind to everyone you come in contact with * Being aware that your business holds the key to controlling its own brand and content * The need to control your personal brand in addition to your businesses brand * Why being honest and not just telling your clients what they want to hear is important * The importance of knowing how your business is being presented online * What it means to be “high gear” * Why success means something different to each person depending on the stage they are in * How hiring employees with different skill sets than your own leads to success * The steps needed to build your platform * Why you need to surround yourself with people who will challenge you
How to best connect with Anne: * Website: www.deetergallahergroup.com * Twitter: @annedgallaher * Book: "The Future Belongs to Students in High Gear: A Guide for Students and Aspiring Game Changers in Transition from College to Career" * Book: "Women in High Gear: A Guide for Entrepreneurs, On-Rampers, and Aspiring Executives"
Ava Kaufman has the heart of a 17-year-old boy…literally. Just a few years ago, she was a successful businesswoman in Los Angeles, but after being diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disorder, life changed dramatically. She lost everything. After going through a heart transplant, Ava founded a nonprofit called “Ava’s Heart Foundation” which provides resources and case management to organ transplant patients and their families – filling a critical void in the healthcare system.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * The importance of living in the moment * Why it’s important to celebrate all the stakeholders in a project * Why donors and recipients have two different sets of emotions * How Ava’s Heart is meeting a financial gap for organ recipients * How Ava’s Heart provides education and resources to both donors and recipients * The goal of Ava’s Heart: to become the go-to foundation for both donor and recipient families * How sometimes businesses are formed out of great tragedy and then go on to serve a great purpose * The importance of setting goals within your organization * Why marketing and strategy are vital to a nonprofit’s success * When forming a nonprofit, treating it as a business to ensure an easier path to success
How to best connect with Ava: * Website: www.avasheart.org * Email: ava@avasheart.org
Chad Hendricks is the vice president, owner, and digital marketing manager at Brand Outcomes. He is also the host of the top rated Recruit and Retain Podcast. He is an entrepreneur at heart with a natural attraction to new ideas. He thrives on variety and is driven by consistent learning, generating innovative ideas, and improving workplaces. Chad has a well-rounded background with past experience in sales, accounting, high school teacher, coach, a business owner, and is currently a wanna to be ukulele player.
What you'll learn about in this episode * How people grow and learn when pushed beyond their comfort zone * The importance of retaining employees due to the high costs of replacement * Finding value and learning through group mentorships, books, and podcasts * Why having good communication with your employees is important * Being able to have tough conversations by breaking through barriers of fear * The power of being a good mentor to others within your organization * Using self-awareness to become a better person and leader * Becoming a better leader by not avoiding tough conversations with employees * Why having a good work environment is vital to employee retention * Looking at obstacles and struggles as a way to improve and grow
How to best connect with Chad: * Website: www.brandoutcomes.com
Good Morning, Onward Nation…I’m Stephen Woessner and welcome to Episode 600!
Today’s episode is going to be a solocast — where I fly solo without a guest so that you and I have an opportunity to explore a topic with some real depth — and in the process — I can share practical and tactical steps — also with some real depth — that you can take and apply into your business right away to accelerate your business development with more leads and sales.
And we are going to follow that exact recipe today.
But before we do — I owe you a very big thank you. Seriously…episode 600!?!
Seriously…it feels like yesterday when Scott McKain and I recorded Episode 1. And we have had the privilege and honor — that we take very seriously — of being able to serve business owners in 115 countries with our daily episodes.
All of which is possible because of the questions YOU ask me, the feedback YOU send my way where you help us see what we are doing right — or — when YOU push us to go where we need to go in order to get better.
So before we get into today’s lesson — I wanted you to know how much I appreciate you…and how I do not take for granted the generous gift that your time and attention represents.
You make my team and I better every single day — so thank you, Onward Nation — thank you so very much.
So now let’s shift our focus toward today’s lesson…and why I believe so strongly that business owners are going about selling the wrong way.
To help illustrate that…let me share a couple of scenarios that I see happening inside the typical business.
The owner is busy…so he or she doesn’t believe they have the time in their day to do “prospecting” so they hire a junior person, or several junior people, to run point and “get out there and kick up some prospects for us to sell to”.
The owner rationalizes their decision by saying, “Well, if we are going to scale this business…then someone other than me needs to be able to sell what we do.”
And the sales team does what they are asked to do. They research…they call…they follow up…they schedule appointments…and sometimes they make pitches.
And sometimes…they even close a deal or two giving them confidence that the hard core sales process works…and it does from time to time…it just isn’t that efficient or cost effective.
And you know what? That is exactly how I learned some extremely valuable sales skills early on in my career. One of my first positions inside an advertising agency when I was 21 years old was to go through the yellow pages (I know, cringe…the yellow pages!) and then cold call everyone in town…and then go meet with anyone who would listen.
I learned a lot about persistence and tenacity…and we closed some business… but I wasn’t really that effective.
So now let’s also consider another scenario…this time replacing the heaving lifting of hand-to-hand combat — that sometimes prospecting can become — with inbound digital tools designed to advertise and promote your business to a vast audience who doesn’t yet know you — where there is no context of relationship — but over time and if you invest the right budget — you will be able to win them over and they pick up the phone and call you…to become your next big client.
But oftentimes…this is filled with marketing hyperbole because it is not that simple as launching a Facebook ad and connecting it to an email sales funnel…then voila — you have well prepared prospects who are desperate to become your next client.
Logically, we know it takes more than one Google Adwords campaign, or one Facebook ad, or a retargeting campaign on AdRoll to earn the trust of your next client. Digital marketing is great — heck — Predictive ROI…my core business is a digital marketing agency…and we have worked hard to earn our chops in this space.
Relying on a purely digital model is the wrong sales strategy for a business, too. Because…what I oftentimes find is that the business owners who are reluctant to get out and sell are the owners who are the most attracted to an inbound or digital marketing model for what should be a true sales strategy.
So let’s set these two scenarios aside for a moment — and instead — I want you to consider the potential impact on your business if you and your team stopped the aimless prospecting — and paused your digital marketing budget budget — so you could take some time to get really clear on who you wanted to serve.
Where you and your team sat down and made a list of your Dream 50 prospects — the companies you would most like to serve — but for whatever reason — you haven’t had an at bat just yet. And take it deeper that just saying… “Oh, we want to work for Harley Davidson!” Of course you do…and so do all of your competitors. Instead…you and your team need to get laser focused and say… “We want to develop a relationship with Sarah Jones at Harley Davidson because she is the type of business leader we most like to work with and for whom we can create the greatest impact.”
And then instead of unleashing your junior salespeople or a digital armada on Sarah Jones and your other 49 Dream prospects…you first reached out to Sarah personally to begin building a relationship. But not a cold call.
Instead, you will be seeking to build a relationship that is architected to remove all of the friction and uncomfortableness that can sometimes creep into the sales process. You will make Sarah feel valued…and most importantly…she no longer felt like a prospect.
Wouldn’t that be rock solid awesome for Sarah and for you?
And the sales process I just described…is what I call The Trojan Horse of Sales…and it has the potential to change the game for you and your business.
The legend of the Trojan Horse comes from the story of the Trojan War between the Greeks and Troy chronicled in the Odyssey written by Homer near the end of the 8th century BC. The story – which could be fact or fiction – is a great illustration of strategy and subterfuge.
According to the legend, the Trojan War ended in a stalemate because Greece was unable to devise a strategy to circumvent the city walls of Troy. The 10-year battle ended and the Greek army made what looked to be a retreat to their homeland.
The Trojan army investigated and found the beach abandoned. The Greek armada was gone and a large wooden horse was all that remained on the desolate shore.
The Trojans believed the Greeks had left the horse as a peace offering.
They gleefully accepted the offering and pulled the horse from the beach, past their impenetrable city gates, into the city square, and began to celebrate their victory over the Greeks.
However, a little due diligence by the Trojans would have been prudent. Perhaps they would have found the Greek strike force tucked quietly inside the horse.
The Greeks seized their opportunity late that night when they snuck quietly out of the horse and opened the city gates so the balance of their army could enter unencumbered.
The Greeks proceeded to sack the city. The story gave birth to the expression “Beware a Greek bearing gifts.”
The business development strategy for your company, if executed properly, will work in a similar way.
For example, a typical salesperson may have their access to a decision maker within a dream prospect’s company — like Sarah Jones in our example — blocked by a “gatekeeper.” Any sort of sales opportunity is thwarted and the salesperson may be forced to move on to her next prospect.
However, what if you happen to be the host of a top-rated podcast — or a YouTube channel — or a popular blog with a lot of subscribers — and you are getting in touch with Sarah Jones — one of your Dream Prospects — because you would like to interview her about her journey, her secrets to success, and the wisdom she could share with others in her industry or the broader business community?
Well now, you just changed the entire game, didn’t you?
Your podcast — video interview — or article for your blog — just increased the probability of a one-on-one, private, 60-minute conversation with your ideal prospect.
But how did your podcast give you this “All Access Pass?”
Your podcast changed the game because you are no longer perceived as a business owner looking for a new account.
You are now perceived as a journalist and your show is a media channel – a conduit – to an audience the guests on your show want to reach and influence.
It’s as simple as letting the decision maker at your dream prospect wheel the horse past the company’s gatekeeper – and park it right in the center of the C-suite. You now have an opportunity to dazzle your dream prospect with your brilliance and intimate industry and company knowledge during the interview.
Your podcast has done its job. Now it’s time for you to do yours. Sell to Sarah!
And your sales strategy should be a blend of traditional sales tactics like scheduling appointments, making presentations, providing proposals, evaluating your sales team’s workflow in your CRM, and so forth — AND — employing some digital marketing tools, too.
So after your interviews with your Dream prospects, you share the insights and wisdom collected from your guests through research guides, eBooks, webinars, and tag your guests in social media so they can feel the love — and — the appreciation you have for their contribution to your community.
My Predictive ROI team and I call this process creating “Cornerstone Content” and it plays a vital role in the long term success of your Trojan Horse of Sales strategy.
So whether you are comfortable writing articles, recording audio, or being in front of a camera — you should…without a doubt…interview each of your Dream 50 prospects with the result outcome being “Cornerstone Content” that you can share to build your platform — AND — relationships you can build, nurture, and cultivate over time so your Dream 50 prospects truly KNOW you…they truly LIKE you…and most importantly…they TRUST you.
And all the while…you are also sharing your message publicly through your platform…and then an interesting thing begins to happen.
You — yes, YOU as the business owner become known — you begin receiving invitations to be a guest on podcasts, you get quoted in the media, perhaps an agent or publisher approaches you to write a book, you are asked to speak at an industry conference, and on and on.
All of this content forms the foundation of your thought leadership — and it is thought leadership — true thought leadership in today’s world of biz dev that separates the progressive market leading companies from the wannabes.
In a future solocast — I will share some specific strategies and recipes you can use to create cornerstone content as well as how you can plug it into your Trojan Horse of Sales strategy.
But for today…I want you see how the sales process in your business likely needs to change — and how if you put a Trojan Horse of Sales out in front of your business — and get clarity around your Dream 50 prospects — how you will improve your entire sales pipeline from end to end.
I wanted to get you thinking about that.
To take that thought process even further…I am going to share a story of how the strategy of the Trojan Horse of Sales changed every aspect of biz dev for my core business, Predictive ROI — and in the process — took us to a completely different level.
It was a quiet Sunday afternoon in the middle of May 2015. I was sitting at my dining room table looking out the front window at my daughter and her friends having fun at our neighborhood playground.
All was well outside – but not inside. I was under a great deal of stress.
We had a just lost a major client. And although every business experiences this pain from time to time, what made this particular loss so painful was that we were overstaffed.
The loss in revenue made our reality even more excruciating.
I had purchased the domain name OnwardNation.com about 12 months earlier but had no idea why. No strategy; I just felt compelled to make the purchase.
Funny how God whispers the seeds of inspiration into your ear sometimes and then just lets them sit until He is ready for them to germinate into some remarkable.
That Sunday must have been germination day. As I sat there at my dining room table, I remembered the OnwardNation.com purchase and made the decision that we would create and launch a daily podcast using that name.
Next, I crafted an enthusiastic, optimistic email explaining that Onward Nation was the solution we’d been seeking to turn Predictive ROI lead gen and sales activity around (mind you, I had zero strategy, only unbridled optimism).
In the email I set an aggressive launch date of June 15th. I closed the lid to my Mac Book, and somehow felt good about the decision (or chaos) that I had just initiated.
Why chaos, you ask?
Well, I should probably share that the decision to create and launch a podcast in 30 days was made in complete and utter ignorance. I knew nothing about creating or launching a podcast.
Sure, I had been a guest on a couple of podcasts such as EOFire with John Lee Dumas and ReLaunch with Joel Boggess. So I knew how to put on a headset and open Skype, which comprised my entire body of knowledge in the podcast world up to that point.
Now let’s fast forward to launch day, Monday, June 15th.
Remarkably, we launched on schedule and the first day of Onward Nation ran smoothly. We aired three episodes on launch day: Episode 1 with Scott McKain, Episode 2 with 10-time New York Times best selling author Don Yaeger, and Episode 3 with real estate mogul Stacey Alcorn.
All three guests are rock stars and Onward Nation was off and running.
Several weeks later, I attended my Agency Management Institute mastermind group. By then, Onward Nation had aired 47 episodes, daily downloads were steadily increasing, and we had scored top rankings in iTunes.
I was feeling proud about our accomplishments. We had gone from zero to 60 in about 3.5 seconds. Not bad.
But we were missing a vital outcome: Revenue!
My mastermind group – all exceptional agency owners from across the country – asked me how I was going to make money from Onward Nation. Excellent question, but I had no idea of the answer. “I don’t know,” I said. “But we will figure it out.”
Then providence set in.
Two of our Onward Nation guests got in touch with me and asked, “Hey, could you do that for me?”
“Do what for you?” I asked.
“Build me a podcast!” they said.
Like any enthusiastic entrepreneur in need of revenue, I said…achem…“Yes, we can!”
So my team and I stripped out the branding and content from the Onward Nation system and replaced everything with our client’s branding, episodes, content – and voila! We launched two more podcasts and earned $26,000 for our effort.
Rock solid awesome!
Now, a smart businessperson would have said, “Hey, we might be onto something here. This could be worth pursuing.”
But I didn’t say that.
Instead, I returned to thinking about how we were overstaffed and needed to grow revenue. Ironic, isn’t it? I often say that if God wants me to get the message, He needs to take out a billboard or hit me over the head with the brick. Subtlety is lost on me.
In late October, one of those clients (Drew McLellan, host of the Build a Better Agency podcast) said to me, “The podcast you built for me is awesome. And Onward Nation is awesome. Why in the world are you not building more of these?”
In my brilliance, I said, “For who?”
Drew rolled is eyes and said, “There have to be more Onward Nation guests who would love to have a podcast of their own!”
He took the lesson he was teaching me deeper, adding, “Look, here’s what you do. You create a Silver, Gold, and Platinum Elite package…you charge this much, this much, and this much, and get out there and sell them to guests.”
Brilliant!
My team and I immediately got to work creating the packages Drew had recommended.
And then providence struck a second time. On November 17, 2015 — I interviewed Wendy Keller, literary agent extraordinaire, for Episode 106 of Onward Nation. The conversation started out lovely – just what I had envisioned.
Then, suddenly, I felt like I’d been punched in the stomach and the air knocked right out of me. Wendy told her emotional and devastating story about the tragic car accident that she and her husband, along with their two children were in while on vacation in Europe.
Her children were killed, she was critically injured, and her life was changed in an instant. My legs felt weak. In shock, I didn’t know what to say.
Wendy had to be the strongest person I’d ever met. After continuing for a few minutes, she paused and gave me a moment to catch my breath. Then we continued the interview. I was captivated by Wendy’s courage, her commitment, and her resolve.
What could stop this woman?
When we finished the interview she turned the tables on me, asking about Onward Nation.
Why was I doing it?
What was the end game?
I told her I was planning to write a book that distilled all the wisdom collected during the episodes of the podcast. I could practically feel her smile on the other end of our Skype connection.
And then she asked me a life-altering question: “Hmm… Why don’t you write a book about how business owners can use podcasting to grow revenue and their business? That’s where the real opportunity is for a book.” Bam. Providence!
Quick side note…Wendy is the one who gave me the idea and push to write Profitable Podcasting…which we released a few short weeks ago…and it became a #1 New Release on Amazon.com in just 18 hours and is currently rolling out to retail stores.
So…back to the story…following the interview with Wendy, my Predictive ROI team made it a vital priority to accelerate the sales of our newly minted Silver, Gold, and Platinum Elite packages. We were on a mission to create a bone fide monetization strategy.
Our goal was to grow revenue, and at the same time, create a compelling proof of concept for the system that would eventually become this book.
We grew podcast-related revenue to $223,000 between November 17 and December 31, 2015 and built a sales pipeline of $380,000 during Q1 2016. We scaled our production and sales teams and created step-by-step documentation of our system.
And now we predict $2 million in podcast-related revenue during the next 12 months.
We accomplished this thanks in part to several amazing mentors who stepped into our path. We listened to them, and we did exactly what they recommended — and — we put the Trojan Horse of Sales to work and built a complete business development system around the entire process.
But your story of growing your business, expanding your platform, and building a nation of true fans can be just as amazing if you put the right sales strategy to work for you.
So in my next solocast…I will take this lesson deeper with more of the “How to” — but for now — I encourage you to take some time to consider the “Why” and how the game would change for you and your business if you were open to the possibilities of what the next level of biz dev may hold.
In the coming weeks, I will share our full blueprints or “recipes” for success with you. I will share each and every step we took along the way in complete transparency.
Not a single step will be hidden from you. It will all be here, in plain sight.
So before we go…before we close out and I say goodbye…I just wanted to say thank you again.
Thank you for listening…thank you for making Onward Nation what you listen to and study.
Thank you for making Onward Nation part of your daily routine — please know — I am grateful for your time and I encourage you to drop me a line at stephen@onwardnation.com if you ever have any questions, concerns, or feedback on how we can get better.
Let me know what you think of the show — thumbs up or thumbs down. I want to know because that is the only way we can get better.
Until tomorrow — onward with gusto!
Nathan Hirsch is a serial entrepreneur, an expert in remote hiring, and eCommerce guru. Selling online since 2010, Nate has sold well over $25 million worth of product through his eCommerce business. He is now the co-founder and CEO of FreeeUp.com, the hands-on hiring marketplace connecting hundreds of online business owners with reliable, pre-vetted remote workers. FreeeUp is redefining how businesses are able to hire remote freelancers online.
What you'll learn about in this episode * How to find weaknesses within your business and turn them into strengths * The importance of communication when hiring remote workers * How FreeeUp.com connects business owners with freelancers * Tackling your vital priorities by valuing not only your time but also your team’s time * Focusing your time as a business owner on tasks that grow your business * How finding time, either early morning or late evening can maximize your productivity * Why diversifying your business is critical to your success * The importance of being a good problem solver within your business * The need to figure out the “why” behind your business * Why making customer service the core of your business is important
How to best connect with Nathan: * Website: www.freeeup.com * Twitter: @freeeup
Nancy Bleeke has spent years in the trenches as a Sales Professional, Sales Manager, and Sales Coach. She is the winner of the Top Sales World Magazine’s 2013 Gold Medal Book Award for ‘Conversations That Sell’, declared a “must-read” for sales teams around the world. Nancy’s practical focus since 1998 has been equipping companies to grow Sales, Customer Loyalty, and Employee Engagement through customized Training, Consulting, Assessments, and effective Processes.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Looking at sales as simply helping others through the decision making process * The need for more technical sales training in multiple business fields * How to overcome overwhelming and scary feelings about being a salesperson * The importance of finding a positive mentor to lean on in times of struggles * How stepping out of your comfort zone may push you to success * Why learning to sell is a critical skill to master in business * The importance of identifying your approach to doing business * Building trust with your potential clients and existing customers * The power of having transparency and being genuine in your sales approach * The importance of not losing sight of the enjoyment and fun your business provides you
How to best connect with Nancy: * Website: www.salesproinsider.com/onward * Email: nancy@salesproinsider.com
Bill Troy is an Inc. 500 CEO who, for 25 years, has helped global brands like Sony, Disney and Nestle see the world from a different perspective. As CEO of Civilis Marketing, Bill and his team help companies initiate and nurture relationships that drive business growth using today’s digital communication tools. He is also the author of the book “CLICKSAND: How Online Marketing Will Destroy Your Business (And The Unlikely Secret To Saving It).”
What you’ll learn about in this episode * The importance of testing your assumptions to know that they work * Finding a balance between what is effective and what is efficient * Why online marketing may not be the answer that your business needs * Being weary of online marketing pitchmen using questionable tactics and data * Why it’s important to build customers face to face through human contact * The importance of having a balanced marketing strategy * Learning to navigate through the confusing world of sales and marketing * Staying focused on the measurables within your business * Building human relationships into a process * How spending time with three types of people, successful peers, mentors, and customers will lead to success
How to best connect with Bill: * Website: www.clicksand.net * Website: www.clicksand.net/onward
Yigal Adato is a leadership expert, speaker, and an executive coach to business owners and is on a mission to build a legion of leaders. He dedicates himself to helping business owners master self-leadership skills, make more money, stress less, and have more freedom to do what they love. Yi – gall is also the Founder of “Unlock the Leader” and the host of the show “Small Business – Big Leaders.”
What you’ll learn about in this episode * How to unlock the leadership potential within yourself * Finding a different avenue of leadership to reduce the stress in your life * How to be a great leader by having clarity, courage, and commitment * Why learning to delegate can lead to having more time to do what you love * Working on yourself in all areas of life to help you become a better leader * Why not being afraid to be honest is a critical skill to master * The importance of setting boundaries within your work and personal life * Why as a leader you need to humble and learn to apologize when you are wrong * Being clear about exactly where your business stands at the moment * How having integrity and being nice to your employees and customers leads to success
How to best connect with Yigal: * Website: www.unlocktheleader.com * Twitter: @yigaladato
Charles Carroll is an eight-time Culinary Olympian, speaker and Executive Chef of the third busiest country club in the United States – Houston’s River Oaks. He won his first Culinary Olympics gold medal at the 1988 games at the age of 24 & was named one of the year’s Great Country Inn Chefs by the James Beard Foundation in 1993. Charles was personally commended by U.S. presidents Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama for his work with U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2011 and 2013.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Keeping roadblocks from standing in the way of reaching your goals * Why learning to listen is a critical skill for business owners to master * The importance of being a good teammate * How hiring the right people is vital to success * Focusing your efforts into what you excel at * Why it’s important to always dream big * How taking a leap of faith can lead to success * The power of persistence and how it leads to opportunity * Not letting the negative hold you back in your business * Being okay with the process and letting opportunity happen
How to best connect with Charles: * Website: www.chefcharlescarroll.com * Book: “The Recipe: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Ingredients of Greatness”
Adrienne Garland is the founder of She Leads Media, a media company dedicated to leadership – both professionally and personally – for women, worldwide. The mission of She Leads Media is to inspire, educate and ultimately, to showcase women as the leaders we were all meant to be. You may remember Adrienne and the wisdom she shared during Episode 320. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all she shared during our first interview…I highly encourage you to add Episode 320 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Why Adrienne created the “She Leads” conference to be practical and tactical * The importance of avoiding procrastination and distractions * Why your definition of success will change throughout your life * How fear can lead to missed opportunities * Recognizing you may need another perspective to help you push past challenges * Learning to lean on others when you don’t have all the solutions * The importance of having open, honest communication with everyone on your team * Mentorship: asking the right questions and really listening to the answer * How empowering your employees to make decisions can lead to learning opportunities * Looking inward to determine how to transition your business to the next level
How to best connect with Adrienne: * Website: www.sheleadsmedia.com * Email: adrienne@sheleadsmedia.com
Lauren Magura is the founder and CEO of Cinematcher – the matchmaking app for film, TV, and digital media jobs and events. She came up with the idea of Cinematcher through her passion for connecting people. Lauren has a background from NBC operations and Universal Pictures in marketing and film. The true dedication of everyone in the industry, and the need for an instant and location-based hiring process to keep up with the massive increase of content creation, influenced her to put Cinematcher into motion.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * How writing lists helps you accomplish your vital priorities each day * Why scheduling all calls or in-person meetings for the same day can be a time saver * How following your internal clock can lead to being more energized throughout your day * Reducing distractions during the day by setting your cellphone aside * The importance of not letting negative criticism affect you but rather turn it into a positive * Surrounding yourself with people who know what you don’t * The power of being present in everything you do * How making mistakes leads to being a better leader and business owner * The importance of staying focused on your goals * Why the key to success in your business is being persistent
How to best connect with Lauren: * Website: www.cinematcher.com * Email: lauren.magura@cinematcher.com
Charles Dobens is the co-founder of the Multifamily Investing Academy – an educational foundation dedicated to working with new investors to train them in the correct way to acquire, operate and own multifamily property. A Boston-based attorney and founder of Dobens Law, Charles has also acquired over 800 apartment units around the country and works exclusively with investors looking to acquire multifamily properties.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * How the best learning experiences often arise out of failures * Avoiding mistakes by verifying everything and learning you can’t always trust everyone * The 5 points of how to make money in multifamily properties * The importance of businesses having total control of their records, accounting, and cash * Why the most critical skill for business owners is to master is sales and marketing * The key lesson of being a good mentor and helping others succeed * Focusing on both the front end and back end of a business deal at the same time * The importance of finding the right customers and treating them right * The need to be patient and understanding business take time to build * Why you need to take action and not wait for opportunities to come to you
How to best connect with Charles: * Website: www.themultifamilyattorney.com * Website: www.dobenslaw.com * Email: info@multifamilyinvestingacademy.com
Vince Menzione is the founder of Cloud Wave Partners, a company that helps technology organizations build profitable relationships and execute effective partner strategies to grow their business. He’s an award-winning leader who was in charge of the launch of Microsoft’s cloud offerings & enabled the organization’s transformation to a cloud services model. Vince is also the host of the podcast ‘Ultimate Guide to Partnering’, which focuses on helping technology giants connect & thrive in the rapid age of digital transformation.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * The importance of keeping pace with rapid changes in technology within your business * Why commitment to change must start at the top of the organization * The need for grit and determination for your business to be successful * How being adaptable in the technology age will benefit your business * The benefits of focusing on your three most important tasks each day * How starting your day with some form of exercise can help you focus on your day * Having the courage to make the tough decisions when necessary * Why patience and consistency are critical skills to master * The importance of guarding the doorway to your mind * Having an ideal customer profile leads to working with the right clientele
How to best connect with Vince: * Email: vincemenzione@gmail.com * Twitter: @vincemenzione
Brian Safdari is America’s Leading College Admissions and Funding Expert. He has helped over 25,000 families get their child accepted into their dream college while making the cost affordable. You may remember Brian and the wisdom he shared during Episode 31. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all Brian shared during our first interview…I highly encourage you to add Episode 31 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Connecting the dots of your business to see the larger picture * How doing less, not more can lead to greater focus on vital priorities * The importance of implementing and trusting your system * The need to feed your mind with positivity * How focusing on being valuable to others will help bring you success * Becoming valuable by listening and asking your clients questions * Having gratitude sessions with yourself every day to help minimize fear * Why falling in love with what you do over and over again is important * How overcomplicating things can get in the way of success * The importance of surrounding yourself with the right people
How to best connect with Brian: * Email: brian@collegeplanningexperts.com * Website: www.collegeplanningexperts.com
Thom King is the founder of Steviva Brands, one of the largest importers, manufacturers, and distributors of clean-label sweetening systems and natural sweeteners that provide consumers with a healthy alternative to sugar. Focusing on simple, elegant solutions that yield a dramatic impact, his work is responsible for food manufacturers creating products that contain 50% – 90% fewer sugars. Part CEO, part personal development work, and part biohacker-info geek, Thom is a self-confessed serial entrepreneur.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * How to take a genesis of an idea and turn that idea into a business * The importance of never doubting yourself when facing struggles in your business * Understanding the grind and hustle needed to succeed in business * Using your experiences in business, both good and bad, to shape the person you are * How contributions by your employees and customers impact your success * Why leadership is the most critical skill business owners need to master * How surrounding yourself with the very best people leads to success * Avoiding pitfalls in your business by having standard operating procedures * Why looking for emotional intelligence in new hires is important * The power of planning your work and working your plan
How to best connect with Thom: * Website: www.steviva.com * Twitter: @thomking * Email: thom.king@steviva.com
Tony Daloisio is the author of CHANGE! THE WAY YOU CHANGE, a principal of The Highlands Group and founder and CEO of Charter Oak Consulting. He specializes in consulting with CEOs and their teams to build capability, implement strategy, and support major change. He has extensive experience coaching senior executives and executive teams to effectively transform their business. He has worked with leaders from Emory University Healthcare, New York Life, the US Social Security Administration, and others.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Why engagement of the strategy by key stakeholders is important * Why less than 30% of change efforts are successful * The importance of delegating tasks * Why you shouldn’t let yourself get bogged down with perfectionism * Having a “heads up, heads down” mentality * How to create real change within your organization * Creating a safe environment so your employees feel free to express their opinions * The importance of creating a personal relationship with your employees * How being open to feedback can lead to great success * Why going the extra mile for your customers is critical to your business’s success
How to best connect with Tony: * Website: changethewayyouchange.com * Email: tdaloisio@gocg.com * Book: “Change The Way You Change”
Bix and Joe Bickson are organizational consultants who have consulted with major corporations, institutions, non-profit organizations and individuals throughout the world. They have helped transform the cultures of some of the world’s most recognizable brands including Microsoft, Ford, Starbucks, and many more. Today, they are regarded as “Future Hackers” – re-imagining management for today’s world by providing leaders with the essential tools required to push past what’s in the way of creating and fulfilling the future.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Why leaders need to change themselves in order to affect their company’s performance * Self-transcendence: the need to adapt and evolve * Finding the solution to the presenting problem within your business * The importance of recognizing the need for a support system * Knowing the difference between “knowing” your thoughts and “being” your thoughts * The importance of taking actions that create new habits * How culture is the conversations that take place in the organization * Improving company culture by having employees take ownership in the decisions being made * Recognizing you have a story but you don’t have to be your story * How learning who you are is vital in developing your businesses core values
How to best connect with Bix and Joe: * Book: www.thebixbook.com * Website: www.bickson2.com
Meredith Bell is co-founder and President of Performance Support Systems, a global software company whose products are used by business consultants, executive coaches, and Human Resource professionals to help managers become more effective leaders. She’s an expert in helping companies develop the people side of their business and understands what’s required to build the loyalty and commitment that lead to repeat business and referrals.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Creating leaders that bring out the best in their employees * How having good managers leads to employee retention * The importance of having shared values within your organization * Using a timer to reduce distractions and maintain focus * Why writing a list of projects and associated tasks are important * The power of expressing daily gratitude and appreciation * Growing your business based on the life you want to lead * Looking for ways to provide value to other people without expecting something in return * Why having fun and not taking yourself too seriously is a key to success * The positive outcomes that can result from looking at your business as a scientist
How to best connect with Meredith: * Website: strongforperformance.com * Twitter: @MeredithMBell
Evan Hackel is the creator of the concept and the author of, “Ingaging Leadership”. He’s a successful business owner who has started more than 10 companies and is recognized as a thought leader, speaker, and author on leadership. One of his signature achievements was turning around a bankrupt business in four years and more than doubling system-wide sales to exceed $2 billion. He is also Founder and Principal of Ingage Consulting, a consulting firm headquartered in Woburn, Massachusetts.
What you'll learn about in this episode * The importance of sharing the vision and plan for the business with employees * Empowering employees and how it leads to your company’s success * Emphasising employee growth and training within your company * Why asking for your employees ideas is critical to your businesses success * How acknowledging employee ideas can be a powerful management tool * Creating a positive and engaging company culture starts with the owner * The importance of employee retention * How listening to understand can change the way you communicate with your employees * Sharing gratitude with others everyday and treating others with respect * Studying and emulating successful business owners who do what you do
How to best connect with Evan: * Website: www.tortal.net * Website: www.ingage.net * Twitter: @ehackel * Twitter: @IngageConsultin * Email: ehackel@ingage.net * Book: "Ingaging Leadership"
Justin Copie is the CEO of Innovative Solutions and is leading a bold move forward — instilling growth in employees and inspiring change well beyond the four walls of Innovative. Yes the 75 people working at Innovative don’t work for him — he works for them. As CEO and leader, Justin provides safety and direction, safety in voicing opinions, trying new things, and failing, and direction in where to go on the path to success. He serves others in cultivating a culture where people can come to work every day feeling safe and free to do what they love to do, and in turn help Innovative reach its vision.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Why culture is vital to your businesses success * Coming together as a company with a common set of values and beliefs * Letting the company’s standards and values drive hiring decisions * The importance of writing down your vital priorities at the beginning of each day * How planning for a small win each morning can affect your outlook for the day * Why pacing your energy each day can have a big impact on your success * Using self-awareness to become a better person and leader * The power of empathy when interacting with employees and clients * How using good judgement translates into making good decisions * Having a positive mindset by never seeing failures, just learning opportunities
How to best connect with Justin: * Website: www.innovativesol.com * Twitter: @innovativesol * Email: jcopie@innovativesol.com
Lori Ames, a veteran book publicist, is the president and founder of ThePRFreelancer, a public relations agency specializing in publicity, marketing, and public relations for non-fiction book authors. She started her business in late 2010 after her son was diagnosed with an inoperable malignant brain tumor and believes that her reason for success is very simple - and that’s why she’s been nice to every person she’s spoken to for the past 25 years.
What you'll learn about in this episode * How stubbornness and determination can lead to success * How having fewer rules and more flexibility in the workplace leads to more focused employees * The importance of not listening to those who say something can’t be done * Why good communication is the most critical skill business owner need in order to thrive * Choosing good mentors who you respect and can learn from * Keeping emotion out of the hiring and firing of employees * Knowing when the time is right to start hiring employees * How being nice to everyone you come in contact with will help your future success * Staying true to your business by building a niche and being known for that niche * Blocking out negative talk by those who tell you that you won’t succeed
How to best connect with Lori: * E-mail: lori@theprfreelancer.com * Website: www.theprfreelancer.com
Murray Priestley is a partner at Global Private Partners, a private equity investment firm based in Hong Kong. Since 1988, he’s provided executive level management to a range of businesses. Working from an in-depth understanding of financial markets, information technology & customer service, Murray has bridged the gap between strategy & operational requirements. He’s also the author of two books, including “The Great Business Shape-up” and “The $1 million Pay Day”.
What you will learn in this episode:
- Why the biggest problem with most small businesses is often the owner
- Helping expand your customer base by stepping back to focus on the big picture
- Why having multiple centralized systems in place is important
- Preventing a communication breakdown between you and your employees
- Split testing: what is it and how can it help your business grow
- How most businesses fail to take advantage of every marketing opportunity
- As a business owner, why it’s important to be honest with yourself regarding your business
- How to master asking yourself the right questions in your business
- Knowing the right time to move on from an opportunity that is no longer working
- Focusing on the thing you are best at and not trying to be everything to everybody
How to contact Murray:
- Website: www.globalprivatepartners.com
- Website: www.murraypriestley.com
- Book: www.1mpayday.com
John Mitchell nearly owned 12 percent of the Dallas Cowboys and shares the incredible story at the beginning of our interview. Today, John is an entrepreneur and founder of “Think It, Be it” — a human performance company for high achievers that was born out of his fascination of how a person can take science and apply it to their life to substantially increase their chances for success, both personally and professionally. John’s 12-minute a day success formula helps people to gain more self-control and focus to up their game and move to the next level.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Being straight with your customers and looking after their best interests * How to apply science to your life to substantially increase your chance for success * Seeing the big picture and pushing past perceived barriers * Having the ability to determine what matters and what doesn’t in your business * Why being successful comes down to the actions you are taking * A 12 minute a day success formula * Exploring how repetition and the subconscious mind can help achieve goals * How to obtain your goals by feeding a detailed vision to yourself every day * Tracking your key behaviors * Eliminating negative self-talk
How to best connect with John: * Email: john@thinkitbeit.net
Evan Polin is the co-author of SELLING PROFESSIONAL SERVICES THE SANDLER WAY which teaches non-selling professionals how to sell. He is also a certified Sandler trainer who plays an important role in Sandler’s worldwide organization, Sandler Training – the world leader in sales development training programs. Along with his father, Evan co-heads a Sandler Training center in the Philadelphia area.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Why selling and business development is important * Having the right mindset to be successful * Why if you are not willing to grow, you are not willing to change * Sales: a skillset that needs to be built over time * How to set sales goals by making a plan * How to apply the sales plan to obtain business prospects * Why tracking your sales activity is important * Qualifying or disqualifying your business opportunities as quickly as possible * Keeping focused and prioritize to achieve your sales goals * Seeking out a mentor is critical to your success
How to best connect with Evan: * Website: www.trainingresourcegroup.sandler.com * Twitter: @trgevan * E-mail: evan.polin@sandler.com * Book: Selling Professional Services the Sandler Way:: Or, “Nobody Ever Told Me I’d Have to Sell!”
Christine Comaford is a leadership and culture coach and New York Times bestselling author. For over 30 years, she has helped leaders navigate growth & change. Christine is sought after for providing proven strategies to shift executive behavior to create more positive outcomes, enroll and align teams in times of change, profoundly increase sales, product offerings, and company value. Her coaching, consulting and strategies have created hundreds of billions of dollars in new revenue and value for her clients.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * The story being Christine’s newest book, “Power Your Tribe” * How to align people around your values & create tribal agility as a team * The recipe for emotional engagement * The benefits of creating a cultural game plan & the key components * Important questions to ask when recruiting to help you determine if someone is ‘tribally’ aligned with you * The secret behind onboarding and keeping people at your company * The power of asking more questions & not assuming * Why emotional agility is so important * Why you need to focus on the outcome that you want to create * The importance of asking the question “what’s working?”
How to best connect with Christine: * Website: poweryourtribe.com * Website: smarttribesinstitute.com
Shawn Murphy serves as CEO of WorqIQ, formerly Switch and Shift, an organization that helps leaders transform the work experience to be positive, energizing & optimistic. His debut book, “The Optimistic Workplace: Creating an Environment that Energizes Everyone”, is out now. Shawn was recently named a “Top 100 Leadership Speaker” in Inc.com and has over 25 years’ experience as an organizational and culture change practitioner and workshop facilitator.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Why change is a very emotional experience for people * Where a lot of business owners lose sight when changing their business * What happens when business owners don’t account for emotional impact * Why you need to be able to work with detractors who are resistant to change * Working together to figure out what change means * Why vulnerability is a key skill that’s needed during times of change * The valuable lesson that Shawn learned that helped him with sales * Why you need to have a shared sense of purpose with your team * How clarity gives people the comfort to act autonomously * The importance of having mentors to be successful in business
How to best connect with Shawn: * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/shawmu * Twitter: @TheShawnMurphy * Email: shawn.murphy@workiq.com
Elizabeth Crook has been the CEO of Orchard Advisors for the past 20+ years and in that role, has helped other CEOs and entrepreneurs think and act strategically to grow their companies & find greater personal satisfaction. She has shown countless individuals how to invent and reinvent themselves. Elizabeth knows how to inspire people to gain a fresh sense of what they can accomplish in their lives, think about themselves with compassion, develop a sense of humor about their challenges, and ultimately…take action.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Embracing how big you really are, without diminishing yourself * Using your talents, experiences, resources, and knowledge in an intentional way * Understanding the connection between your wellness and success * Working together with others to pursue the common good * Time blocking strategies that will help you to accomplish your goals * Putting your most vital priorities into order and finding clarity for you day * Developing habit that can contribute to your success * Finding the discipline to use writing to improve your life * Cultivating self-awareness, the most important skill for entrepreneurs today
How to best connect with Elizabeth: * Website: www.ElizabethBCrook.com * Twitter: @elizabethcrook
Dr. Jeff Thompson is an executive advisor and chief executive officer emeritus at Gundersen Health System, pediatrician, author, and speaker. His experience in leadership is far-reaching, having led diverse teams, projects, and divisions, before holding multiple senior executive roles, including fourteen years as CEO of Gundersen Health System. Dr. Thompson is also the author of “Lead True: Live Your Values, Build Your People, Inspire Your Community.”
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Unleashing the power of multiple people with the same set of values * Jeff’s involvement in developing an advanced care planning program for seniors that is the most widely used in the world today * The benefits of building a culture that focuses on something bigger than yourself * Having the discipline to live by the values that you develop * Why there should be no exceptions to treating everyone with respect * Why you shouldn’t be afraid of high standards when you’re building a business * One of the key pieces to innovation * Why CEO’s & leaders need to get out where the work really is * Jeff’s new book “Lead True: Live Your Values, Build Your People, Inspire Your Community” * The importance of reading as much as you can
How to best connect with Jeff: * Website: jeffthompsonmd.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-thompson-33400a6b
David Fairley is the founder and president of Website Properties.com, a brokerage that specializes in selling established and profitable Internet-based businesses. David also personally developed, bought and sold Hammocks.com, Strollers.com, Drums.com, Unicorns.com and over 60 website businesses in multiple niches. He has represented more than 475 Internet-based business owners in the sale of their websites.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Successfully navigating building and exiting from companies * Lessons learned from working through sales and acquisitions * How to be organized and energize yourself to work through the day * New opportunities for those looking to sell or acquire businesses * Taking advantage of opportunities that make the most profit * Being driven to succeed no matter what your circumstances * Preparation and diligence that are required to act on opportunity * How to leverage multiple revenue streams in the online marketplace * Crafting a business that matters and serves a higher purpose
How to best connect with David: * Email: dfairley@websiteproperties.com * Website: www.websiteproperties.com * Twitter: @websiteprop
Stephen Petith is an internationalization architect, working to create internationalized businesses and lifestyles for his clients. He has started, sold, and operates businesses around the world. Stephen uses his knowledge gained from past businesses and political roles to provide his clients with strategic advice on business and personal internationalization.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Buying and selling businesses internationally * Embracing the globalized economy and profiting from it * Processes and practices that lead to growth internationally * Using international hubs to be at the epicenter of the global economy * Creating the right foundation for globalization * Avoiding the money draining mistakes of taking your company international * Having the right relationships to go take part in the worldwide economy * Excellent time management strategies for personal growth * Constantly seeking and finding new knowledge
How to best connect with Stephen: * Website: www.StephenPetith.com
Sam Mallikarjunan is a Marketing Fellow at HubSpot and former Head of Growth at HubSpot Labs, the somewhat-secret experimental arm of the world’s #1 Sales & Marketing platform. Sam teaches Advanced Digital Marketing at the Harvard Division of Continuing Education, and is the co-author of the book “How To Sell Better Than Amazon” (which, thanks to the publisher, is ironically available for purchase on Amazon).”
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Using online marketing in creative ways that cost nearly nothing * Cutting down on your “cognitive calories” to focus on useful tasks * Motivational techniques derived from evolutionary science * What cognitive science researchers have learned about human needs * Mitigating the toll taken by stress or pressure from work and life * Consistently challenging yourself on your values * The latest social research from Deloitte * Customer obsession and methodical empathy for enhanced business development * Why HubSpot became the number one marketing platform based on customer focus
How to best connect with Sam: * Twitter: @Mallikarjunan * Website: www.mallikarjunan.com * Email: sam.mallikarjunan@gmail.com * Book: How to Sell Better than Amazon
Kendall Lyman is the author of “CHANGE THE WAY YOU CHANGE!”, a founding principal of The Highlands Group, a firm specializing in strategy, organizational change, and leadership development. He helps leaders around the world to navigate change, improve employee engagement, and transform culture. Kendall has consulted with a wide array of organizations ranging from Fortune 500 to small and midsize firms.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Increasing your own capacity as a leader * Tips and strategies for expanding your influence * Developing the self-awareness needed to be a great leader * Time blocking strategies that help you guard your calendar * Focusing on strategy rather than tactics * Why the effective vs. efficiency dichotomy is a sucker’s choice * Adopting a holistic view in order to be a successful leader * Raising your standards and what you expect in order to live a better life * Managing by wandering, looking at the journey and not the destination
How to best connect with Kendall: * Website: www.ChangeTheWayYouChange.com
Mark Sears is Founder and CEO of Cloud Factory, a fast-growing startup focused on changing how the world works. They’re using technology to make it super easy for startups and fast-growing companies to scale, by offloading routine, data-centric work so they can focus on innovation and growth. Their mission is to create meaningful work for 1 million people in the developing world.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Scaling up human potential with innovative cloud-based strategies * Promoting the flourishing of yourself and your people * Doing good work and living your values by helping those in need * Cloud labor and what it can offer to your growing organization * The online work movement and how it can revolutionize your business * How to access thousands of high-performing and motivated workers * Developing the skill of learning and using it to power your success * Improving the experiences of your employees and customers * The importance of mentorship when on a path to success
How to best connect with Mark: * Podcast: info.cloudfactory.com/podcast * Twitter: @marktsears
Christina Crawford is the president of Bubble Pop Beauty, an Atlanta-based, e-commerce hair and skincare brand designed for young female consumers. She was inspired to launch the brand by her seven-year-old daughter. Before launching Bubble Pop Beauty, Christina held various positions in marketing, branding, and promotions at various corporations for more than 13 years. She is a fashion junkie, an avid reader, loves to travel, cook, exercise, and most importantly, spend time with her family.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Defining your everyday course in which you live your life * How to define yourself and be who you want to be * Getting past whatever is stopping you * Using mindfulness meditation to refocus and empower yourself * Getting down the details in order to grow your new business * Finding the inner strength to move forward even when it seems impossible * Why entrepreneurship is a unique opportunity for women * Overcoming the mental obstacles that stand between you and your dreams * The most critical skill business owners need to master to thrive
How to best connect with Christina: * Twitter: @BubblePopBeauty * Instagram: @ChristinaCCrawford * Website: www.bubblepopbeauty.com
Sophie Wade is the author of EMBRACING PROGRESS and the founder of Flexcel Network, which provides consulting services to maximize the benefits and minimize the disruption in the transition to the new work environment. She is an authority on the wide-ranging Future-of-Work issues impacting companies – such as attracting, engaging, and retaining talent, workplace flexibility, Millennial demands, purposed-driven culture, and more.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Balancing work and life by making work more flexible * How to facilitate fluidity in your workplace or for your employees * Why there is a need to make work more humane * How lack of engagement is leading to a reduction in productivity * Making your company a place where people want to work * Enhancing the talents of your people by knowing what they want * Creating a culture that inspires people to be their best * Connecting with the people on your teams to help them succeed * Why empathy is the key characteristic of modern leadership
How to best connect with Sophie: * Website: www.sophiewade.com * Twitter: @ASophieWade
Tim Rhode is the creative force behind 1-life-fully-lived.org. He is a rare individual who “walks the walk” of what he teaches. Tim came from a very humble background, growing up in a blue collar family in a blue collar town. Although he barely graduated high school and never attended any college, Tim went on to dream, plan, and create his own “magnificent life.” Tim has a diverse range of talents that can help YOU create the life of your dreams.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * How to figure out who you are and what you should do * A holistic approach to a life well lived * Taking charge of your life and making a change happen * Finding a community of peers who can elevate you * Investing in yourself to get somewhere much better down the road * Training and conditioning that every top performer goes through * Working on honing your craft every moment of every day * Taking your vertical income and creating horizontal income * Developing a laser focus on your goals – daily and long term
How to best connect with Tim: * Email: tim@timrhode.com * Website: www.1lifefullylived.org * Website: www.1lifefullylived.org/sac7 * Twitter: @1LifeFullyLived
Brad Chandler is CEO of Express Homebuyers and President of Brad Chandler Coaching. Brad read a book about buying real estate with no money down when he was in the 9th grade and has been passionate about it ever since. He built, from scratch, a 7th-level real estate investing business that does 200+ deals per year, makes $500,000 a month every month in wholesale fees, and operates without his day-to-day involvement. Since 2003, he has been part of over 5,000 real estate transactions, and he is dedicated to sharing his experiences and helping others through his podcast…”The Real Estate Investing Hot Seat” – and through coaching and mentoring.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * How to get your business to where it runs without your direct involvement * Networking to make the connections and find the knowledge needed to succeed * Putting in the work to understand your business most comprehensively * Building your success around finding your one objective to make your life easier * Using time-blocking to eliminate distractions and focus on what you need to do * Thinking about building your team and helping them to find their fit * Crafting a solid selling strategy that speaks to your customers’ needs * Focusing on learning and implementing what you find every day * Changing what you’re doing to get the most out of your life
How to best connect with Brad: * Email: Brad@ExpressHomebuyers.com * Twitter: @ExpresHomebuyer * Real Estate Investing Hot Seat Podcast: www.bradchandler.com/podcast * Website: www.bradchandler.com * LinkedIn: Brad Chandler * Phone: (877)804-5252
Seth Buechley is a serial entrepreneur with a unique background. He grew up in a commune in the woods of southern Oregon, married his high school sweetheart, skipped college, and still managed to build and sell several companies resulting in multi-million-dollar exits. He enjoys connecting high-potential leaders with the ideas and resources to grow their business or organization while achieving lasting leadership impact.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Understanding how people achieve success * Intentional mentorship that challenges others to think about their choices * Developing clear conviction and cultivating gratitude * Leading in a way that shows appreciation for everything you experience * Cultivating an intentional mindset that can guide you through life * Serving those you follow as an authentic leader * Time management strategies for anyone to use * The daily habits that contribute to success * Cultivating focus and developing effective follow through
How to best connect with Seth: * Website: www.sethbuechley.com * Twitter: @SethBuechley * Book: Ambition
Robin Behrstock has been starting businesses since she was a kid. Most of them were failures, which — as they should — became learning experiences. At the age of 33, it all paid off when she started a copper mug business just as they became a popular trend. In less than three years, she grew the business to annual sales of $3 million. With that success came the realization it wasn’t what she wanted to do with her life. The best part of being an entrepreneur—for her—wasn’t making money or selling lots of copper mugs, it was inspiring people, which led Robin to write the book, “Adventures of Women Entrepreneurs: Stories That Inspire”…with the goal of inspiring women around the world to do something different, to step outside their comfort zone or move beyond their present circumstances and make their dreams a reality!
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Becoming purpose-driven in your business and career * Using your time effectively with self-motivating management techniques * How to develop habits that contribute to success * Leaving your comfort zone to break your routine and learn from challenges * Testing the market to gather essential data for product development * Using online marketplaces to test product viability * Calculated risks that can bring to birth new business ideas * Managing international supply chains in the modern marketplace * Raising your awareness of new business opportunities and taking action on them
How to best connect with Robin: * Email: robinbehrstock@gmail.com * Twitter: @Robinbehrstock * To purchase her book: www.AWEbook.com * Amazon: Adventures of Women Entrepreneurs – Stories that Inspire
Kelly Roach handled hundreds of millions in assets and managed dozens of teams across 17 locations to engineer record-breaking turnarounds for companies and departments in the Fortune 500 company she helped led..all before she was 30. Fast forward to today…and Kelly is the powerful host behind the top-rated Unstoppable Success Radio podcast, best selling author, and founder of Kelly Roach Coaching International, where she helps business owners unleash their greatness, build unstoppable momentum, and achieve anything.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Overcoming difficult circumstances to become financially free * Making an impact in the world by building businesses around your passion * Dedicating your entire life to accomplish a specific goal * How to advocate for yourself at work and in your career * Being in touch with your purpose and what your gut tells you * Seizing on the opportunities that will bring you fulfillment * Prioritizing commitments to yourself as much as those you make to others * The courage and commitment required to challenge yourself * Slowing down and taking time to think about what brings you happiness
How to best connect with Kelly: * Podcast: Unstoppable Success Radio * Website: www.automation-secrets.com
Jaymie Tarshis is a marketing strategist that helps small businesses and entrepreneurs get more traffic, leads, and sales by leveraging the power of Facebook ads. If you want to grow your business and create a system that brings in a consistent amount of customers on auto-pilot, then connect with Jaymie at JaymieTarshis.com or on her Facebook page www.Facebook.com/jaymietarshis.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Leveraging Facebook Ads to generate greater lead volume * How to build a foundation for online marketing * Amplification strategies for generating new leads * Targeting traffic with great accuracy and retargeting your contacts * Using Facebook Ads to build a relationship with your business * Getting deeper with your leads through retargeting and warming your relationship * Batching your activities to maximize productivity * Why marketing is the most important skill for every business * Simple tools for success to use early on in your business development
How to best connect with Jaymie: * Email: hello@jaymietarshis.com * Twitter: @jaymietarshis * Website: www.jaymietarshis.com * Facebook: Jaymie Tarshis * Services page: www.jaymietarshis.com/services
Adam Urbanski arrived in United States from Poland with only $194 in his pocket and a limited ability to speak English. Within 10-years, he was able to build and sell his first 7-figure empire in the restaurant industry. Then he lost it all. He rebuilt and has consistently stayed on the bleeding edge of market trends. Today, he is the personal coach and mentor to some of the biggest names in the personal and professional development spaces. Over 100,000 coaches, consultants, speakers, experts, online marketers and entrepreneurs world-wide turn to Adam for advice.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds with resilience and strength * The story of an immigrant to the US who changed his own life * Seizing on opportunities as they present themselves * The important thing to do every morning * Taking lessons and turning them into actions * Cultivating your focus to improve your work * Putting systems into place that help you manage your time * Turning around from failure and making it success * How to be really good at sales and growing your business
How to best connect with Adam: * Email: adam@interviewsthatconvert.com * Twitter: @AdamUrbanski * Website: themarketingmentors.com
Ace Chapman bought his first business when he was 19 years old. It was an online stock market simulator called CoolWallStreet. After selling it, and seeing the benefits in buying a business over starting one, he caught the business buying bug. Since then he has bought and sold over 30 businesses and has helped his clients all over the world buy over 100 companies.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * The realities of developing and selling businesses * How to assess potential business deals * What makes a business attractive to potential buyers * Putting systems in place to create a self-sustaining business * Getting into a business deal with the proper planning * How to pitch in order to make the deal work every time * Discerning which businesses are ripe for buying and which to avoid * Always being in the market to acquire businesses * Building strategic value through business acquisition
How to best connect with Ace: * Twitter: @acechapman * Email: Ace@acechapman.com * Website: www.acechapman.com/contact
Moustafa Hamwi is recognized as the world’s leading expert on “Passionate Leadership.” He has achieved in one year what took others 20 years to achieve…to an extent he has been nicknamed “Mr. Passion”. He has interviewed over 180 global leaders, experts, authors, coaches, award winning artists, Nobel prize laureates, and Olympians on his talk show “Passion Sundays”. Moustafa has been selected by Dr. Marshall Goldsmith as one of the top 100 coaches globally.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Knowing what you need so you can find the right questions * Life-changing advice from a world traveling speakers and coach * How to discover your calling and build your career on it * Insights that lead to finding the right path * Finding the determination to keep striving toward your purpose * Building a brand over time that will sustain you * Simple rules for building an audience that can grow your business * What you can do with the energy generated by your emotions
How to best connect with Moustafa: * Email: moustafa@moustafa.com * Twitter: @MoustafaHamwi * For free ebook: moustafa.com/OnwardNation
Robert Kohler founded Kohler Law Group over 20 years ago and his firm has represented thousands of venture-backed and publicly-traded technology companies worldwide. In addition to being involved in the legal field, he has real-world business experience as a successful entrepreneur and has founded and sold several technology companies.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Strategies that leverage what you love into new business opportunities * The simple habits that lead to focus on moving forward * Using consistency to build the foundation of your growth * How to know your strengths, act on them, and recruit people to help you * Integrating teams across an enterprise with diverse revenue streams * Systems that will grow your business from the very start * What you can do to protect your business while expanding * Creating synergy across your endeavors * Why networking helps generate sales
How to best connect with Robert: * Email: rkohler@kohler-law.com * Twitter: @KohlerLaw
Resources: * www.kohler-law.com * www.seeitbuy.it * www.bonafeyed.com * www.demonpore.com * www.saucesf.com * www.sleepsf.com
Calvin Correli is an artist, entrepreneur, and the CEO of a holistically focused, multi-million dollar software company called Simplero. Calvin is passionate about helping online business owners do exactly what brings them most alive and is currently working on branching out to bring all of his talents — including music, spirituality and personal growth into an exciting new service for entrepreneurs.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Infusing spirituality and creativity into your business and your life * Combining all of your talents to create your success * Identifying the right people for the roles you have at your company * Building your systems incrementally without taking on too much * A comprehensive approach to developing a curriculum for coaching * Using mind maps to conceptually refine your presentations * Daily habits that keep you focused on your success * Insisting on enjoying every moment today * Self-awareness that can help you continue to move forward
How to best connect with Calvin: * Email: calvin@interviewsthatconvert.com * Website: simplero.com * Twitter: @calvincorreli
Lisa Allanson and Lisa McDonough have over 25 years experience in Human Resources Management and Leadership Coaching — and they are the founders of Teenhackz. Lisa and Lisa are on a mission to shape the future of work one teen at a time. Their focus — their one vital priority is to help equip teens (and their parents) with the necessary skills for success in work and in life. Lisa and Lisa also share their insightful process within their two books: “Raising Resilient Teens: A Practical Guide to Preparing Your Kids for Life & Work in the Real World”, and “Teens: Understanding & Loving the Creatures We Live With.”
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Why to start planning your future when you’re a teenager * Helping teens along in their search for identity * Insights gained from over two and a half decades in corporate HR * How to use the results of personality tests * Identifying dominant behaviors and what these indicate about ourselves * What great leaders have in common that allows them to inspire others * The value of excellent emotional intelligence * An engaging assessment tool for helping teens understand themselves * Navigating difficult conversations with teens
How to best connect with Lisa & Lisa: * Twitter: @teenhackz_l2 * Website: www.teenhackz.com * Podcast: www.teenhackz.com/raising-resilient-teens-podcast
Kathy Knowles is a speaker, trainer, and consultant who speaks on The Seven Step System for Creating more Purpose, Profit, and Possibilities rather than running a business that’s stealing your soul. She works with entrepreneurs and small business owners to reduce turnover and have more loyal and dedicated employees and customers. Ultimately, her clients make the leap out of the day to day and onto playing a much bigger playing field so they can do the work that’s in their heart and leave their legacy.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Finding clarity on the important issues in your life * Understanding how to focus on your priorities * Making decisions that will create systems you can use to thrive * Considering what you need to do and being mindful of your habits * Using your enthusiasm to develop your ideas while being mindful of the basics * Thriving using excellent communication strategies * Maintaining good client relationships with the best CRM technology * Creating consistency that will develop successful habits
How to best connect with Kathy: * Email: kathyknowlesfl@gmail.com * Website: www.kathyknowles.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/Kathy.Knowles.Coaching * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kathy-knowles-009a2b3a * Free eBook available: Find & Fill: The Ultimate Playbook for Creating Your Dream Team
Pamela Herrmann is a best-selling author, host of the daily video series, “The Morning Would Show”, a national keynote speaker and co-founder of CREATE Buzz, a customer loyalty consultancy firm. A short list of her clients include jetBlue, State of Colorado Economic Development, North Carolina Main Street Alliance, New Jersey Main Street Alliance, and Oklahoma Main Streets. Her book, “The Customer Manifesto”, was ranked #3 by Business.com in their list of “Excellent Customer Service Books Every Business Owner Should Read.”
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Overcoming personal obstacles to thrive in business * Resisting the urge to focus on short-term results * The instant value of excellent web copy * Time saving techniques for tackling vital priorities * Learning and seeking knowledge every day * Developing content that can be brought to local businesses to help them thrive * The most critical skills business owners need to survive * Articulating your narrative in a relatable way * Staying open to feedback from those with whom you collaborate * Incorporating neuroscience into your marketing strategies and messaging * How to engage your audience with simple communication strategies
How to best connect with Pamela: * Email: pamela@pamelaherrmann.com * Twitter: @pamherrmann * Website: www.PamelaHerrmann.com * Website: www.CREATEBuzzNow.com
Jessica Nazarali knew from an early age that personal development would be part of her life’s work. But it wasn’t until she started a passion project – a blog and health food website in 2011 – that Jessica’s dream came to fruition. Today Jessica merges business with her desire to help people through the courses she releases through It Girl Academy and her podcast It Girl Radio. She is passionate about helping women to use the evergreen model for enrolling consistent clients without having to launch.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Presenting expertise and skills that others want to emulate * Focusing on preparation when starting new businesses * Managing your calendar well with every task you need to accomplish * Developing the habit of “showing up” to execute everything you plan * Maintaining a resilient attitude to avoid “podfading” and letting your show go * Using your data in a way that powers your revenue stream * How to keep your focus on revenue-generating activity * The best email marketing platforms available * Simple strategies that will ensure success at any point in your journey * Leaving space for forgiveness and understanding mistakes * Setting realistic expectations for growth and development of greater capacity
How to best connect with Jessica: * Email: Jessica@jessicanazarali.com * Twitter: @jessnazarali * www.jessicanazarali.com/webinar * www.jessicanazarali.com/businessmastery * www.jessicanazarali.com/coachingmastery
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of three bestselling books including the recently released Profitable Podcasting. He is also a speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation — I’m Stephen Woessner — and welcome to Episode 553. And welcome to today’s solocast.
Now, truth be told…it has been about 8 weeks since my last solocast recording — and I really missed the process of preparing a deep lesson — something meaty — that I could share with you on a Wednesday morning — just you and me.
And today’s lesson has me really excited — because we are going to dig deep into navigating success…not how to become successful…as in the magic or myth of an overnight success. But instead…as you put in the long hours, as you make the sacrifice, as you put in the major, consistent effort, as you invest the long nights, as you get up early in the morning…as you push yourself to make one more phone call when you would rather relax after an already long day…and you have done all of that and you begin to start to see success coming your way…and you begin to see the laws of momentum turn toward your favor…the four keys to navigating success that I shared with you today will help you maintain perspective…they will help you keep a level head…and keep you on the lookout for new opportunities…and focused on creating the right team with the right culture…so you not only enjoy your current level of success but you will be well positioned to enjoy what is yet to come on your horizon.
I am very excited about today’s lesson and what I call the 4 keys to navigating success.
A transcript of this episode is available here: onwardnation.com/stephen-woessner-solocast-episode-61
Mark Howley is the CEO and majority owner of Pacific Bag, Inc., which manufacturers unique pre-made bags for specialty coffee, tea, pet food, specialty foods, ag, chemicals, and other niche markets around the world. Mark’s company serves over 5,000 customers in over 60 countries — and — Pacific Bag celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2015. Mark’s experience covers the full gamut of sales, marketing, product management, and executive management. He has spoken at events throughout the world and has written articles for industry magazines.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Framing the issues you have to deal with right now * Getting into the mindset where you’re compelled to do what you love * Moving forward even when it feels like you’re stuck in place * Keeping doing what you’re doing until you forge success * Succeeding no matter what struggles you might face * Proven daily practices that put you on the path to success * Doing the next right thing every day * Learning to play the game and win * The discipline you need to get what you want
How to best connect with Mark: * Email: mvhowley@pacificbag.com * Twitter: @MarkHowley7 * Website: www.pacificbag.com * Website: www.mvhspeaking.com * Website: www.mvhcareer.com
Mac Prichard is the founder and publisher of Mac’s List, an online community for people looking for rewarding, creative, and meaningful work. More than 80,000 people a month visit the website, which includes a job board, a blog, and courses about the nuts and bolts of job hunting and career management. Mac also hosts a weekly podcast called, “Find Your Dream Job” and is the author of the new book, “Land Your Dream Job Anywhere.”
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Proven strategies for success in every industry * How to decide what to say “yes” and “no” to every day * Habits that will shorten your path to success * Using systems to manage the most important aspects of your business * Letting go of people so you can find those with the right fit * Creating hiring systems to know exactly who you need * Relying on your plans to take you through to success
How to best connect with Mac: * Email: mac@prichardcommunications.com * Twitter: @mac_prichard * Website: www.macslist.org * Book and free book chapter: www.macslist.org/onwardnation * Website: www.prichardcommunications.com
David Covey is co-author of the new book, “Trap Tales: Outsmarting the 7 Hidden Obstacles to Success.” David is also the 3rd son of Stephen R. Covey, author of the groundbreaking book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” David served as the chief operating officer of FranklinCovey and later left to start his own company called SMCOV. SMCOV works with the best intellectual property content experts on the planet and helps distributes their content globally through licensees. David loves working with impactful IP and setting up distribution systems around the globe.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * The purpose of the book that David co-authored, “Trap Tales: Outsmarting the 7 Hidden Obstacles to Success” * Traps that are keeping us from success in our life * The importance of having a shared vision for your relationship/marriage * Learning to say no so you can say yes to the things that you value the most * The killer trap of growth & transformation * The four aspects of our career that we should be 100% satisfied in * The difference between primary & secondary greatness * How David defines success * How anybody can change the trajectory of their life at any stage of their life * How differentiating yourself by defining your voice can help you move onward to the next level * What separates the successful entrepreneurs from the unsuccessful entrepreneurs
How to best connect with David: * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/david-m-r-covey-10410239 * Twitter: @davidmrcovey * Facebook: www.facebook.com/TrapTales * Book: “Trap Tales: Outsmarting the 7 Hidden Obstacles to Success”
John Dame is a business strategist who has built a reputation for insightful evaluation, planning, and a passion for driving results — all of which have grown his involvement with companies and organizations internationally as an executive coach and leadership development facilitator for senior teams. John understands the risks, challenges, and opportunities facing both seasoned and emerging CEOs, and guides leaders as a Vistage Chair for executive peer groups. John is also focused on the role of purpose in business and the new challenge of transitioning toward a millennial-based workforce. So in 2015, he introduced an annual business conference called “EVOLUTION” and focused on implementing purpose-driven leadership.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * The biggest issue impacting business today * The importance of establishing your vital priorities every day * Why you need to slow down to speed up * Why you need to stay in the moment and stay focused when talking with someone * Why having self-awareness is a critical skill to master * The value of working on something immediately, even if it’s difficult * Why the vision needs to be defined, clear, and in line with the purpose * Taking time to define roles and behaviors from people that you want to see in your organization * Being aware of how you show up as a leader
How to best connect with John: * Email: jd@johndame.com * Website: www.damemanagementstrategies.com * Website: www.evolutionconference.org * Website: www.johndame.com
Gabrielle Taylor is the author of the book, “LEGACY OF WISDOM”, where she blends practical scientific research and multi-generational family stories to provide a look into what the word “wisdom” truly means, how we can develop it, and most importantly, how we can pass it on. Gabrielle also leads a strategic management consultancy based in Littleton, Colorado.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * The benefits of using 30 minutes of quiet time in the morning to center & focus yourself for the day ahead * How to lessen the impact of feeling overwhelmed * Keeping hydration and nutrition front of mind every day * A challenging time for Gabrielle, what she learned, and how that affected her business * How being open to change is critical in business today * The power of racing towards what you fear the most * A powerful lesson in grace and accountability that Gabrielle received from one of her mentors * Why you need to listen to the market and be responsive * Why layoffs should be the last thing that happens when things are going bad in an organization * Why you need to be checking in with employees at all levels
How to best connect with Gabrielle: * Twitter: @legacyofwisdom7 * Website: LegacyOfWisdom.zone
Angela Ficken is a psychotherapist in Boston. She began her career as a senior clinical social worker at McLean Hospital and was a primary therapist for college students at Harvard University before moving into private practice. Angela’s primary interests are working with young adults who have OCD, eating disorders, and anxiety-related concerns. She is also a contributor to the HuffingtonPost.com.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * What OCD is and how it manifests itself * How Angela uses her online calendar to help her stay organized & tackle her daily priorities * The value of asking yourself the question “What’s next? * How Angela uses reflection as a coping strategy * How having a good, healthy coping strategy can help business owners thrive today * The importance of having a life outside of the office * Examples of healthy coping skills to use when you’re feeling stressed * The best advice that Angela received from one of her mentors * Surrounding yourself with people who will both challenge you & have your back
How to best connect with Angela: * Website: progresswellness.com * Email: angela@progresswellness.com
Dr. Hans Finzel is a successful author, speaker and trusted authority in the field of leadership. For 20 years, he served as President of international non-profit at WorldVenture and worked in over 65 countries. Hans speaks, writes, and teaches practical leadership based on real world experience. He has written 10 books, including his latest book entitled, “Top Ten Ways To Be A Great Leader”. Hans has trained leaders on five continents and his books have been translated into over 20 languages. Today, Hans serves as President of HDLeaders and teaches and speaks globally on all things leadership.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Why the most important thing is what you learn – not what you’re born with * The value of understanding what part of the day is your most productive time of day * Managing accessibility by using the philosophy of ‘yes, no or later’ * Hans’ new book, “Top Ten Ways to Be A Great Leader” & why he wanted to go deeper into the topic * Some of the essential skills that can help you to become a better leader * The two most important words in a leader’s vocabulary * Caring more about the good of your team than your own enrichment * The one quality that is most important for a good leader * How emotional intelligence better determines your success than your IQ * A tool used to help leaders get feedback from their team on how they’re doing * One of the most powerful things you can do to develop people
How to best connect with Hans: * Website: www.hansfinzel.com * New Book: “Top Ten Ways to Be a Great Leader” * All of Hans Finzel’s Books: www.hansfinzel.com/my-books
Sharon Spano has a PhD in Human and Organizational Systems. She is an author, corporate business strategist, workforce expert, professional speaker, and former radio host of WorkSmart Live. Sharon empowers business leaders and entrepreneurs to maximize performance, improve employee engagement, and increase bottom-line results. She is also a Certified Professional Integral Coach dedicated to helping others adopt new paradigms about time and money so that they can step into radical abundance in every area of their lives. And her latest book is being released in August and entitled, “The Pursuit of Time and Money: Step Into Radical Abundance and Discover the Secret to a Meaningful Prosperous Life.”
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Sharon’s new book, “The Pursuit of Time and Money: Step Into Radical Abundance and Discover the Secret to a Meaningful Prosperous Life” & what inspired her to write it * How moderate scarcity & moderate abundance can look very much alike * How our story lines that we grew up with are impacting the choices we make today * Balancing letting go & learning from the systems of the past * How stepping into radical abundance can help you to embrace a meaningful life of joy & prosperity * A moment that Sharon realized she was not in service to the person, but rather to the larger system * How seeing something without judging it can help you open up your eyes to see what’s not visible * The importance of becoming a student of human behavior * Tapping into coaching or mentoring to help you develop and move to the next level * Honoring what you have & paying attention to how you use your resources
How to best connect with Sharon: * Website: sharonspano.com * Book: “The Pursuit of Time and Money”
Misty is the founder, president, and energized force behind More Than Just Great Dancing. Her mantra that drives her and her team is “We don’t teach kids to make great dancers, we teach dance to make great kids.”
Misty’s studio is frequently recognized as one of the best in the dance studio industry. Her Performance Companies have performed at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York, on Carnival Cruise Lines, and at Walt Disney World. Misty is a sought after mentor, speaker, and the author of the rock solid awesome new book “One Small Yes.”
If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all Misty shared during our first interview…I highly encourage you to add Episode 80 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Misty’s new book “One Small Yes” & what inspired her to write it * Why it’s harder to stay successful rather than become successful * Creating a focal point for your day by asking yourself the question, “Will I be proud of the decisions I’ve made?” * How Misty defines success * Strategies to help you push through fear & keep moving forward * The value of being open to receiving feedback * Strategies to become a better mentor * One of the biggest misconceptions of building a community or a ‘tribe’ * Taking the time to reflect on what getting to the next level means to you * The importance of keeping both passion & priorities in focus
How to best connect with Misty: * Website: mistylown.com * Book: “One Small Yes”
Rick Cesari is the Founder and CEO of Cesari Media — one of the top brand building and response generating agencies in North America. Rick has been a pioneer in the direct response industry since the early 90s and has used brand response techniques to build many iconic brands. Products like The Juiceman, Sonicare, The George Foreman Grill, and OxiClean. Rick has helped companies like GoPro grow from a startup to over $1 billion in sales. He is the author of two books with his latest entitled, “Building Billion Dollar Brands.” Rick’s latest venture is “Cesari Ignite” where his team helps business owners and CEOs on create strategies, structure, and accelerated growth for their businesses.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * What makes authentic storytelling a powerful marketing technique * One of the first things Rick does when he’s trying to market a new product * The best salesperson for your product/service * A challenging time that taught Rick to never give up * How distribution channels have changed over time but the basic elements of branding & marketing have stayed the same * Five keys to building a great brand * The power of shifting the focus from the features to the benefits when marketing * The Golden Rule of branding * Why you need to move on if the marketplace isn’t responding to your product/service * The importance of learning from other people’s experiences
How to best connect with Rick: * Website: www.cesariignite.com * Website: www.cesariignite.com/branding * Email: rick.cesari@cesariignite.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/rickcesaridrtv
Adam Hudson is a serial entrepreneur who has built several multi-million dollar companies in both Australia and the United States. Adam is an Amazon thought leader & has been featured in Sky Business News, the Brian Tracy show, Eventual Millionaire Podcast, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, WebRetailer.com, Inc.com, and Newsweek. He currently owns an Amazon marketing services firm, a homewares brand (that sells its products exclusively through Amazon into more than 30 countries), and Reliable Education, an online education company where they teach how to build profitable Amazon businesses and generate reliable income streams.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Two of the biggest issues for online entrepreneurs * The fundamental tenets that Adam teaches people about building a business on Amazon * Renewing your mind with meditation * The value of keeping the saying “Nothing in life is permanent” front of mind * A moment that taught Adam that he had to either make a decision to step up or continue to make excuses * Mastering the skill of objectivity * Focusing on solving the problem & not on creating the next big thing * Why gratitude is an incredibly powerful ingredient in building a successful business * The importance of becoming aware of your repeating thoughts * Why you need to have a clear set of standards for your business * A great question that we should all be asking in our businesses
How to best connect with Adam: * Website: www.reliable.education * Facebook: www.facebook.com/ReliableEducationAcademy * Free Amazon Training Course: online.reliable.education/free-amazon-training-course
Ty Crandall is an internationally known speaker, author, and business credit expert. With over 17 years of financial experience, Ty is recognized as an authority in business credit building and is the author of two books on credit named Perfect Credit and Business Credit Decoded and has been featured by Entrepreneur, Inc, and Forbes. Ty currently serves as the CEO at Credit where he has helped create and grow one of the biggest and most credible business coaching operations in the United States.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * How a business, even a start-up, can obtain real, usable credit that that is linked to an EIN, not a social security number * Important steps to establish business credit tied to an EIN * The problems with using consumer credit to fund your business * How a business owner can go about finding business accounts * The key to filling out an application so that it’s filed under your business * Determining your baseline so that you know where to build from * Why you shouldn’t get discouraged if you get disapproved at one store * Why big companies borrow money even if they’re sitting on billions * Why there is no reason at all to put your family’s finances in harm’s way when it comes to running your business
How to best connect with Ty: * Website: creditsuite.com/ein
Jason Treu is an executive coach who works with senior leaders to help fully develop their leadership potential and increase their performance. He does this through deep self-inquiry, practical skill development, and shared experiences. Jason also has “in the trenches experience” helping build a billion dollar company and working with many Fortune 100 companies. He’s worked alongside well-known CEOs such as Steve Jobs, Mark Hurd, Mark Cuban, and many others. Through his coaching and influential network, his clients have met industry titans such as Tim Cook, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Peter Diamandis, Chris Anderson, high profile VCs, and investment bankers. He’s also helped his clients create more than $1 billion dollars in wealth over the past three years and secure seats on influential boards such as TED and xPrize.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Why it’s vital to seek out coaches & mentors in the areas that you need help with * Why it’s harder than ever before to break through * Creating an abundance mindset vs. a scarcity mindset * How everyone at some point plateaus and gets stuck & strategies to get to the next level * How being smart & performing is no longer what you need to be successful in an organization * Why you need to be able to influence people throughout every step of your life * The importance of getting out there and taking the next step, even if you don’t want to do it * Why you need to master communication & social skill sets in order to thrive today * The power of getting to know more about people and their interests outside of work * Focusing on understanding the pillars of mastery
How to best connect with Jason: * Website: www.jasontreu.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jasontreu * YouTube: youtube.com/user/jasontreucoaching * Facebook: www.facebook.com/BeExtraordinaryNow
Tom Mulliez is a father, husband, entrepreneur, and the visionary behind iTREKKERS. Tom founded the company in 2014 after realizing that bringing together vetted professional captains and guides on one platform would help guarantee that everyone had a better experience in the outdoors. His mission is threefold: to get people to experience the outdoors through iTREKKERS; to help people get outdoors, period, by providing useful tips and referrals; and to educate people about the outdoors and ways to be mindful. For Tom, the only passion greater than a love of the outdoors is his love of family. Tom and his wife often spend time outdoors camping, at the beach, or on their boat with their three young children.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * How being outdoors can create transformational experiences * The “weekly take” and how it helps Tom to focus and prepare * Asking the question “Is this the most impactful thing I can be doing right now?” & how it can contribute to your success * Picking partners who have the backgrounds in the fields that you need to lead you to success * Surrounding yourself with people who complement you & will help you along the way * Why business owners today need to master motivation * Knowing when to let someone else make a decision * A lesson Tom learned about the benefits of talking to other people about your business * Empowering your people through the ’scrum’ process
How to best connect with Tom: * Email: tommulliez@itrekkers.com * Website: itrekkers.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/iTrekkersLLC * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/tommulliez * Instagram: www.instagram.com/itrekkers
Richard Chapo is an Internet lawyer by day — and — avid traveler whenever he has time. Based in San Diego, Richard has been practicing law for nearly 25 years. He advises online businesses small and large on how best to comply with Internet laws while minimizing the chance of being dragged into litigation. He has represented companies in multi-million dollar insurance disputes, and in 1999, he took a sabbatical to teach at the Chita [cheetah ] State Technical University in Chita, Russia. Richard eventually returned to California and opened his current practice.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Why the worldwide internet might become a little less worldwide * Focus and organization: two of the most critical skills business owners need to master * Being responsible to your core business and have a core profit * The importance of developing your own products and building your business around them * Why the Digital Millennium Copyright Act [DCMA] was created (and how it works) * Building your social media community on the foundation of your own content – not someone else’s * Being proactive around problems and issues that come up in your business * The value of providing exceptional customer service * Using the five-year rule to deal with doubt and fear
How to best connect with Richard: * Website: www.socalinternetlawyer.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/richardachapo
Matt Inglot is the creator FreelanceTransformation.com where he helps freelance designers, developers, and marketers to win clients and build a dream lifestyle through freelancing. Matt’s expertise comes from running a web agency for 11 years which he transformed from a traditional bricks and mortar office and 80 hour work week to significantly less work and far greater profitability. From that experience Matt has realized that most freelancers and consultants make life far more difficult for themselves than it needs to be.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * What inspired Matt to help other people become better freelancers, consultants & agency owners * How the biggest gains come from figuring out where to focus your efforts * The importance of getting the fundamentals of your business right before attempting to scale it * Why flexibility is king with any business * How a lot of business owners don’t understand deep down why their business exists * How you create a successful product * The importance of knowing why your customers are buying from you & who they are * The benefits of thinking about your customer’s problems * The difference between really understanding what your clients are struggling with vs. what you think they’re struggling with * Taking the time to think through the skills that you have to offer
How to best connect with Matt: * Website: freelancetransformation.com/onward * Website: www.tiltedpixel.com * Twitter: @mattinglot
Patty Alper is author of “Teach to Work: How a Mentor, a Mentee, and a Project Can Close the Skills Gap in America.” Patty’s 35-year career as an entrepreneur and business executive, coupled with two decades of hands-on experience working with youth, helps her understand the growing skills gap from both perspectives: the employers who seek to build a pipeline and hire better prepared youth for 21st century jobs, and the youth who are often ill equipped or ill trained to enter the new workforce. Patty bridges the business and academic sectors uniquely with a proven mentorship formula, told through best practices, case studies, and heartwarming true tales of youth.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Where the skills gap exists and why it’s problematic * How youth are not being prepared well enough to enter the 21st century job market * What employers and corporations want educators to teach * How Patty defines mentorship * How the world is heading towards more service employment * Why you shouldn’t be scared of mentorship but rather face it with a place of gratitude * Why autonomy and having the ability to be creative matters * Why Patty loves having and teaching the ability to plan * How you can get more out of mentoring than you could possibly imagine
How to best connect with Patty: * Website: teachtowork.com
Adam Anderson is a long-time small business owner who also happens to be one of the leading authorities on small business cyber security. He is a serial entrepreneur, author, founder, and chairman of Palmetto Security Group, an IBM Premier Cyber Security Business Partner. With 20 years in Cyber Security, Adam understands both sides of the Cyber Security equation in a way most experts don’t. Adam is also the co-author of the book, “Small Business Cyber Security: Your Customers Can Trust You…Right?” and he is on a mission to help fellow business owners find the answer to the question, “Should I even care about cyber security?”
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Eye-opening stats on cyber crime with small business owners * How social engineering works * Strategies that business owners can use to protect themselves against cyber crime * Five key points to follow to build a cyber fortress * The importance of moving as much as you can to the cloud * Why resilience is a critical skill to master * Why getting coaching is the best thing that Adam has ever done * Taking care of your hierarchy of needs so you can effectively help other people * The importance of getting really good at understanding how your business works * Why the only person who matters is your customer
How to best connect with Adam: * Website: adamanderson.info/onwardnation * Twitter: @AdamAndersonCEO * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/adam-anderson-28a97811
After 10-years of running the company he founded -- and having worked with dozens of early-stage founders and CEOs -- Bruce Eckfeldt developed 52 habits that help entrepreneurs be better managers -- because most entrepreneurs struggle to be good managers. And now Bruce shares a habit a week with his ever growing community -- which are easy to use tips on how to apply them to your day-to-day work and grow your business faster and easier.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Creating a defensible calendar to help you accomplish your ‘big rocks’ * Forming a habit of assuming positive intent * Using relationship power over role power * An important decision-making process that Bruce learned in the early stages of his business * Making the transition of being focused on the client to being focused on the culture when you are in a founder role * Why entrepreneurs are typically bad managers * Developing a way of thinking that focuses on ‘we’ not ‘I’ when it comes to the work * The value of implementing a 90-day planning cycle * How a talent review, clear priorities, and a culture of accountability can ensure success
How to best connect with Bruce: * Email: bruce@eckfeldt.com * Website: www.eckfeldt.com/onwardnation
Andrew Sherman is a Partner and Chair of the Washington, D.C. corporate department of Seyfarth Shaw LLP. His practice is focused on issues affecting business growth for companies at all stages, including licensing and leveraging intellectual property, intellectual asset management and harvesting, and international transactional and franchising matters. He has served as an advisor to dozens of Fortune 500 companies and hundreds of emerging growth companies. He also counsels on issues such as franchising, licensing, joint ventures, strategic alliances, capital formation, distribution channels, technology development, and mergers and acquisitions. Andrew has written nearly 30 books, published many articles, and is a frequent keynote speaker. He has appeared on CNN, NPR, CBS News Radio, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes, U.S. News & World Report, and other media.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Andrew’s testimony in front of Congress and why it was a dream for him * The importance of giving thought to your legacy and mortality * Returning to the core and asking yourself why you started your business in the first place * The dangers of not having a succession plan * What Andrew uses to help him get focused and be prepared each day * How your habits evolve as your life goals, perspective and wisdom evolves * Why you need to show genuine empathy and appreciation towards others * Andrew’s new book “The Crisis of Disengagement” and some staggering stats that show we’re in a true crisis * Why you need to take an engagement audit of your workforce and what it involves * The impact of robotics and how our whole world and workplace is about to change because of it * The ‘E.N.C.’ syndrome and why it is affecting so many leaders
How to best connect with Andrew: * Website: seyfarth.com * Author page: Amazon * Book: “The Crisis of Disengagement Book”
Steve Olsher is known as the world’s foremost reinvention expert. Famous for helping individuals and corporations become exceptionally clear on their WHAT – that is, the ONE thing they were created to do – his practical, no-holds-barred approach to life and business propels his clients towards achieving massive profitability while also cultivating a life of purpose, conviction, and contribution. Steve is the Chairman & Founder of Liquor.com, a New York Times bestselling author of “What Is Your WHAT? Discover The ONE Amazing Thing You Were Born To Do”, host of the #1 rated radio show / podcast Reinvention Radio, international keynote speaker, and has appeared on CNN, The Huffington Post, and countless other media outlets.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Steve’s background & an upcoming event that has him excited * How Steve’s book “What is Your WHAT” can help you discover your natural gifts * Accomplishing the most important thing on your daily to-do list that moves you closer to accomplishing your big picture goal * Why a lot of entrepreneurs fall short in accomplishing their goals * How perseverance can contribute to your success * Looking at failure as success with an unintended ending * An invaluable lesson where Steve learned to seek multiple opinions before making a decision * Keeping an eye on the big picture to help keep things in perspective * Taking personal responsibility for everything that happens in your life * Focusing on something that is both meaningful & balanced with the opportunity to be financially fulfilled * Taking the time to recognize that you are the solution to someone else’s problem
How to best connect with Steve: * Website: steveolsher.com * Free Book: “What is YOUR What? Discover The ONE Amazing Thing You Were Born To Do” * Podcast: Reinvention Radio * Event: New Media Summit
Mike Smith is the author of “THE NATIVE ADVERTISING ADVANTAGE” and senior vice president of revenue platforms and operations for Hearst Magazine’s Digital Media and senior vice president of advertising platforms for Hearst’s Core Audience. He is responsible for digital media revenue platforms, including the company’s programmatic sales engineering efforts through the Hearst Exchange, the company’s auction system for selling advertising on its hundreds of websites. His previous book, “Targeted”, was named one of the “Top 6 Business Books to Read” by Inc.com and won the Axiom Gold Medal Award for best advertising / marketing book for 2015.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * An important innovation that will affect advertising for a long time * The two big categories of digital advertising * How native advertising was designed to ‘fit in’ * Using Franklin Covey’s system and tools to stay organized and focused * Daily habits that contribute to Mike’s success and effectiveness * Valuable lessons that Mike learned from some of his mentors, including the late Dr. Stephen Covey * Having a business strategy in place that is very product and customer focused * The importance of hiring effective people * Having a prudent financial strategy and course correcting as needed * Globalizing your network
How to best connect with Mike: * Facebook: www.facebook.com/mikesmithblog * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/msmith99 * Twitter: @msmith * Email: michaelsmith@hearst.com or msmith99@gmail.com
Craig Cody is a Certified Tax Coach and the owner of the New York City based accounting firm, Craig Cody & Company. Craig belongs to a select group of tax practitioners who’ve undergone extensive training and continued education on various tax planning techniques and strategies. Craig is passionate about helping business owners understand the difference between tax planning — and tax paying — by helping them save significant money. Craig is also the co-author of the Amazon bestseller, “Secrets of a Tax Free Life.” You may remember Craig and the wisdom he shared during Episode 178. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all Craig shared during our first interview…I highly encourage you to add Episode 178 to your list of vital priorities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * What Craig has been up to and has coming up in the next 12 months * How Craig defines success * Strategies to use to help you get past your fears * What makes an A-player an A-player * What the hardest hire is for any business owner * Remembering how you got to where you are and how to get others to the same point * Game plan to extend your platform and build thought leadership * Expensive mistakes to avoid as a business owner * Why Craig strongly believes in starting a podcast * Why you need to always be marketing * Using CPA’s and accountants as allies to move your business forward
How to best connect with Craig: * Website: www.craigcodyandcompany.com * Phone: 516-869-4051 * Free Book: “The 10 Most Expensive Tax Mistakes That Cost Business Owners Thousands”
Lou Diamond is a master at putting great people in touch with other great people. He has over 25-years of experience in sales, relationship management, business development and executive coaching. Lou’s authenticity, energy, and enthusiasm, along with his unwavering passion and desire for helping people achieve their dreams, is unmatched. He has been a top producer at every firm he’s ever worked, has led teams at Accenture, Deloitte, Omnicom, Merrill Lynch and Bank of America to achieve record revenues year after year. And he is now the Founder & CEO of THRIVE, a leading consulting and coaching company focused on making the most incredible leaders and top performers even more amazing.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * How sales is the result of what we do – not the process * The events that led up to Lou writing his book “Master the Art of Connecting” * Why a portion of your day always needs to be focused on business development * Making sure that your target sees the value in the service or product that you’re providing * Why picking the right client is just as important as saying no to the wrong ones * Mastering the skill of connecting to manage & grow your business * Why you need to focus on getting to ‘no’ faster * Having a structured game plan when you’re first starting out * Identifying who you will connect with that will most effectively add to your world
How to best connect with Lou: * Website: thrivepartners.net * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/thriveloud * Facebook: www.facebook.com/ThriveLouD * Podcast: Thrive Loud * Book: “Master the Art of Connecting”
Cole Fox is a passionate believer in sales and entrepreneurship. He started his career in the wine industry and then immediately founded a vodka company. Then during the 2008 economic meltdown, he shifted his career into sales…full-gear…he sold office supplies, door-to-door. And that wasn’t easy Onward Nation…so he soon discovered the magic of technology and was lucky enough to be among the first hired at LinkedIn. From there, he became passionate about startups and has recently been a ‘resident sales hacker’ at many venture-backed tech startups. He now runs sales for a sales hacking tool called LeadIQ.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * How bio-hacking can contribute to your success * How LeadIQ works * The top preparation and time-saving tools that Cole uses and highly recommends * A tough lesson that taught Cole to take logic into play * Mastering the essential skill of sales in order to thrive in business today * Filling in the holes in your business development and sales pipeline * The main challenge that business owners face * Why you should focus on continually improving yourself a small amount every single day * The importance of implementing a list-building tool as part of your business development plan * Getting outside of your head and the way you view the world
How to best connect with Cole: * Website: leadiq.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/colejfox
Aaron Walker is without question a veteran entrepreneur. Starting his first business at 18 and selling to a Fortune 500 company nine short years later demonstrates Aaron’s passion for succeeding. Unwilling to rest on past success Aaron started, bought and sold eight successful companies over the past 37 years. Having a strong desire for personal development has kept Aaron in a weekly mastermind group for more than a decade with Dave Ramsey, Dan Miller, Ken Abraham and seven other notable Nashvillians. Aaron has enjoyed a 36-year marriage with his wife, Robin. Today Aaron spends the majority of his time HELPING MEN GROW IN SUCCESS AND SIGNIFICANCE as President and Founder of VIEW FROM THE TOP, a premier life and business coaching resource. Aaron’s new book, View From The Top is guaranteed to motivate and inspire you to live a successful and significant life.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Aaron’s new book, “View From the Top” and why it almost didn’t happen * The benefits and power of being in a mastermind group * Being true to yourself and having the ability to stand alone * Why you need to be willing to have conflict in your life in order to make a stand * How significance differs from success and how to be significant in the life of others * A place where businessmen struggle today * Being available to others when it’s not convenient for you * Contentment vs. complacency * How fear of the unknown is one of the biggest hurdles for business owners to overcome * Having people in your life that are willing to tell you the truth
How to best connect with Aaron: * Website: www.viewfromthetop.com/onwardnation
Scott Dubois is the co-founder of Pidalia, a digital agency in Boston, that provides clients with solutions to their challenges in advertising, software design, and business process management. Scott specializes in media selection, campaign strategy, and analytics and applies his knowledge of business processes through consultation with clients. His consulting focuses on enhancing his clients’ relationships with existing audiences and helping them reach new audiences. Scott is also an internationally recognized speaker on the topics of marketing strategy, user engagement, and cross-media communications.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * The tool Scott uses to prioritize and organize his daily thoughts * Creating a habit of starting the day at Inbox Zero and how Scott achieves it * A great learning experience that taught Scott to always do right by the client * Mastering the skill of short-term patience * An important lesson that Scott learned on how to view things in the proper perspective and why not to overreact to conditions * Implementing a project management system sooner rather than later * The benefits of looking at other companies in the same vertical and applying the same successes that were achieved with other companies * The importance of pitching and communicating value * Why you shouldn’t try to be all things to all people
How to best connect with Scott: * Website: pidalia.com/onwardnation * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/scottdubois * Twitter: @ScottDubois * Facebook: www.facebook.com/scottdubois
Jocelyn Jones is an Instagram expert, international speaker, international bestselling author, and online marketing consultant. Her socializing strategy for connecting businesses with their perfect audience is second to none. Her simple “3 Step Formula” teaches you how to attract followers, build your list and convert them to customers in as little as 15-minutes a day allowing you more time to do the things you love.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * How to use Instagram to build your list and relationships * The importance of having a morning routine to get you focused and prepared to handle the day * Taking the time to focus on yourself and your needs first * Knowing what skills you are good at and mastering those * Speaking with authenticity * Getting clear on what it is that you want to do * The importance of engaging and having conversations with your followers on social media * The calls to action that work best on Instagram * Cutting your learning curve by working with a mentor
How to best connect with Jocelyn: * Facebook: www.facebook.com/jocjones75 * Instagram: @theigmama * Free Guide: Rockin’ Instagram
Kelly Hatfield has been in the Recruiting / HR field for 20 years as a successful business owner and entrepreneur. She is co-founder of the firm Enginuity Advantage and the host of the top-rated Absolute Advantage podcast. Kelly believes people are the greatest asset any business has, and to be successful, business owners must cultivate the talents of their team. Because of these core values, Kelly has created an outstanding referral-based network that has built and continues to build her businesses.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Where bad hiring decisions live * Using the best practices of marketing and sales to attract talent vs. clients * A recruiting method that can constrain the growth of your business * Strategies that business owners can use when it comes to recruitment marketing * Why Kelly defines success as progress * The importance of having clarity of your self-awareness when it comes to fear and challenges * What makes an A-player an A-player * Why it’s vital to attract people who are going to be a good fit for your organization and repel the ones who aren’t * The importance of painting a clear picture around your culture * Understanding and having clarity around the direction you’re headed in and why you’re headed there * Taking a close look at the processes and structure you have in place in order to take you to the next level
How to best connect with Kelly: * Email: kelly@enginuityadvantage.com * Website: www.enginuityadvantage.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-hatfield-2a2610a * Podcast: absoluteadvantagepodcast.com
Lee Caraher is the CEO of Double Forte, a public relations and digital marketing firm based in San Francisco with offices in Boston and New York City. Lee is an acclaimed communication strategist and known for her practical solutions to big problems. Double Forte works with some of the top consumer and technology brands in the country. Lee has a reputation for building cohesive, high producing teams who have fun together at the same time. She is a straight talker who doesn’t hold too many punches, although she does her best to be pleasant about it. Her big laugh and sense of humor have gotten her out of a lot of trouble and her latest book is entitled, “The Boomerang Principle.”
What you’ll learn about in this episode * What Lee has been up to recently, including the launch of her new book, “The Boomerang Principle” * What Lee believes is the missing piece in business * How ‘The Boomerang Principle’ works and how it came about * Why bringing people back to a job that they left can be so powerful * How all companies are always competing for the top ’25%-ers’ and why you need to keep them in-house if you have them * Why companies need to shift from being employer-brands to being talent-brands * How the top ’25%-ers will propel your business forward regardless of the size, industry or location of your business * The Netflix Culture Deck and why it’s considered to be one of the most important documents to come out of Silicon Valley * How boomers, Gen X-ers, and millennials can all thrive in the same environment * Why organizations where people feel more appreciated perform at a higher level
How to best connect with Lee: * Website: leecaraher.com * Twitter: @LeeCaraher * Book: “The Boomerang Principle: Inspire Lifetime Loyalty from Your Employees”
Roberta Matuson is the president of Matuson Consulting, and for over 25-years, she has helped leaders at General Motors, New Balance, The Boston Beer Company, as well as small to mid-size businesses, achieve dramatic growth and market leadership through the maximization of talent. Roberta is the person that Monster.com and Staples turn to for advice on talent. She is the author of the newly released, “The Magnetic Leader: How Irresistible Leaders Attract Talent, Customers and Profits.” She is also an expert blogger for Forbes and Glassdoor.com and a former columnist for The Boston Business Journal.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * How maximizing talent in an organization is hard but at the same time, easy * Why leaders need to work on themselves and relationships with employees * Providing the best value that you can to your clients * Why you need to be a master marketer to thrive in business today * Marketing elements that should be applied to your business to attract talent * Why it’s vital to be intentional and not just sit back and hope for something to happen * The benefits of having a strong online platform * The process of writing a book proposal and doing it in a way that works * Why you have to keep producing intellectual property * Being really clear on what market you are trying to serve
How to best connect with Roberta: * Website: www.matusonconsulting.com * Email: roberta@matusonconsulting.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/roberta-chinsky-matuson-51a5a * Twitter: @matuson * Book: “The Magnetic Leader”
Scott Beebe is the founder and head coach of MyBusinessOnPurpose.com, and the host of the “Business On Purpose” podcast. He liberates Small Business owners from the chaos of working IN their business and helps to get their lives back by articulating and implementing intentional Vision/Mission/Values, Systems, and Processes. Scott is the creator of the “Four Steps To Business Freedom,” a 6-month group coaching experience exclusively built for small business owners to help guide them through building the systems and processes they need to get their businesses and lives back on track.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * The daily habits that help Scott to focus and prepare daily * Why the vision story is the most underutilized and most powerful tool in your personal and business arsenal * A challenging time that was a turning point in Scott’s professional life * The importance of having someone to confide in and boost your confidence when you need it most * Why you need to document the next you’re going to do like it’s the last time you’re going to do it * Why systemization has to be imbedded into the world of small business * Scaling faster with people * Putting in the work to learn and grow * Living out your disciplines
How to best connect with Scott: * Landing Page: www.mybusinessonpurpose.com/onwardnation * Website: www.mybusinessonpurpose.com * Website: fourstepstobusinessfreedom.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/mybusinessonpurpose * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/scottebeebe
Vera Fischer is founder and CEO of 97 Degrees West — a rock solid awesome agency in Austin, Texas. The agency has been the recipient of 15 international creative and marketing awards. Vera is a member of the Advisory Board for the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Texas State University and a mentor at Capital Factory. You may remember Vera and the wisdom she shared during Episode 204 of Onward Nation.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * What Vera has coming up in the next 12-18 months * How programmatic media buying works and why it should be important to business owners * The benefits of geo-targeting ads * The number of times it takes for someone to see your ad before they take action on it * How programmatic can be leveraged in your marketing program * How programmatic fits into the B2B niche market * The power of changing ad creative based on keyword searches * Why it’s easier to target to a very specific niche market * Tools to help you become successful with programmatic * Focusing on doing one or two marketing strategies really well
How to best connect with Vera: * Twitter: @VeraFischer97 * Email: vera@97dwest.com * Podcast: systemexecution.com
Corey Jahnke is the Chief Imagineer at Mind*Star Academy, a Best-Selling Author, Speaker, Coach, Community Pharmacist, Lifelong Learner, and Enthusiastic Dog Lover. Corey has devoted his life to helping people re-engineer their confidence levels so that they can explode their businesses, expand their influence, and live the kind of magical life that he gets to live on a daily basis.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * How to re-engineer your confidence levels * The ways Corey combatted emotional, financial, and physical struggles * How to stop thinking inside the box * Why you should stop feeling sorry for yourself * Why you shouldn’t discount your community * Why you should admit your weaknesses and fill in the gaps * Not letting fear keep you from reaching your goals * Strategies for improving as a business mentor * Why being a better person can make you a better boss * Steps you can take to get to the next level in business
How to best connect with Corey: * 12-week group coaching program: www.twelveweeksfree.com * Book: “The Successful Thinker” * Website: www.MindstarAcademy.com * Email: CoreyWJahnke@gmail.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/coreywjahnke * Twitter: @cwjahnke * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cwjahnke
Nikki Fogden-Moore is known as the Mojo Maker. She specializes in working with Fortune 500 CEOs, entrepreneurs, and their highly-driven organizations to create the business and life they want. The true 1 percenters. Her decades of experience blend both business with personal high performance for ultimate success. She divides her time between her private coaching business called, Corporate Vitality, retreats, workshops, and speaking. Her Vitality Coach Podcast has listeners in over 80 countries, she is the author of a blog with subscribers around the world, and Nikki is an author of two books, her latest is entitled, “FITPRENEUR – how to be the CEO Of Your Business and Your Life.”
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Nikki’s background and why she’s known as the “Mojo Maker” * How Nikki’s eclectic experience contributed to her expertise * The three ways people end up losing their mojo * Why striving for agility can be a problem * The difference between working hard and hard work * What “winning weeks” are, and how Nikki uses them to succeed * Building “me time” looks into a healthy schedule * How Nikki organizes her weekly task lists * Figuring out your best times for creative thinking * Why leaders must do chemistry checks in their businesses * Growing your skills over time * Why honesty is important to finding the solution * The way integrity and transparency can build trust * Why staying calm is always better than focusing on the drama * What you can find in the “Nikktionary” * What people do wrong in weekly meetings * How to schedule “one percent” meetings * The one thing that separates successful people from people who just want success * The importance of taking time to learn more * Why work and life aren’t a balance
How to best connect with Nikki: * Email: nikki@thevitalitycoach.com.au * Website: thevitalitycoach.com.au * The Vitality Coach podcast: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/vitality-coach-podcast-nikki/id752922884?mt=2 * Twitter: @nfogdenmoore * Facebook: www.facebook.com/nfogdenmoore * Instagram: @nfogdenmoore * Fitpreneur, by Nikki Fogden-Moore: thevitalitycoach.com.au/fitpreneur-book
Vinnie Fisher is an entrepreneur, author, husband, and father. Vinnie left a successful law practice as a corporate and tax attorney in 2007 to drive his passion as an entrepreneur. After a few successful businesses in the digital space, Vinnie discovered a much needed service for business owners, so in 2014, he launched his next venture called, Fully Accountable, an accounting solution called ‘Your Back Office’ that provides owners and accounting professionals with the tools to excel at accounting, human resources and legal. Vinnie is also the author of two books, “The Best Investment: A Better You” and “The CEO’s Mindset: How to Break Through to the Next Level.”
What you’ll learn about in this episode * The #2 reason small businesses fail and how to avoid it * The key fact 5.9 million businesses need to hear about * Why sometimes the first step to being profitable is cutting revenue streams * Vinnie’s “game changer” habit that helps him practice simplicity and focus * A practical tip to discover where chunks of time are going * How devotional time and daily prayer help Vinnie focus * What a multimillion dollar loss taught Vinnie about himself and how that’s changed how he sees problems in his company now * The difference between being content and being complacent * Why understanding “wealth has wings” is integral to success * The critical skill all entrepreneurs should have regarding time * An important lesson Vinnie learned from the Spiritual Discipline Handbook: Practices that Transform Us by Adele Calhoun * Why 71% of business owners leave their accountants * How “toilet bowl marketing” is the primary reason small businesses fail * Marketing tips based on Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Swartz * Why “knowledge is power is a lie”
How to best connect with Vinnie: * Website: FullyAccountable.com * Website: VinnieFisher.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/vincent.fisher.984 * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/vinniefisher * Demo: go.fullyaccountable.com/demo
Jesse Kay is a 16-year-old junior in high school and the host of the 20 Under 20s Podcast where he interviews successful entrepreneurs in their 20s or younger from around the globe. Jesse’s obsessed with sharing practical lessons and stories from some of the best minds on the planet to help inspire young men and women to become tomorrow’s entrepreneurs. Jesse was born into an entrepreneurial family and started his first business at 9-years old flipping sneakers on eBay. Jesse also plays tennis for his high school tennis team and will be applying to colleges next fall.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * The importance of giving rather than taking in business relationships * Jesse’s passion for inspiring and educating the next generation of entrepreneurs * How you can build a network without any contacts * Habits that Jesse attributes to his success * How overbooking can lower your value * Why communication and persistence are critical skills * How Jesse uses Attention Deficit Disorder to his advantage * Why the best time to start your business is now
How to best connect with Jesse: * Website: 20under20s.com * Instagram: www.instagram.com/jesse.kay11 * Twitter: twitter.com/jessekay811 * Facebook: www.facebook.com/jessekay811 * Email: jessekay811@gmail.com
Drew McLellan is a 25-year marketing veteran who helps clients create authentic love affairs with their customers. Drew has run his own agency, the McLellan Marketing Group for over 20 years and helps the owners of over 250 small to mid-size agencies a year learn how to take their business to the next level through his consultancy, the Agency Management Institute. Drew has appeared in the New York Times, Entrepreneur Magazine, Businessweek, and Fortune Small Business. The Wall Street Journal calls Drew one of 10 bloggers that every entrepreneur should read. You may also remember Drew and the wisdom he shared during Episodes 32, 167, and 292 of Onward Nation.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Drew’s latest endeavors and what he’s bringing to the community * How Drew helps agencies improve their work * What prompted Drew to start his podcast * Why it’s critical to delegate tasks * What to think about first thing in the morning for time management * What business owners need to let go of in order to grow * How fighting fires all day can hurt your business in the long run * How constant reinvention slows development * What thought leadership really does for businesses * The value of sharing without arrogance * How rapid growth can kill a business * Why developing your business by referral can be a problem * The importance of planting seeds every day
How to best connect with Drew: * Website: agencymanagementinstitute.com * Email: drew@agencymanagementinstitute.com * Twitter: @DrewMcLellan
Michael Papanek is the author of “FROM BREAKDOWN TO BREAKTHROUGH: Forging Resilient Business Relationships In The Heat Of Change” and is the principal and founder of Michael Papanek Consulting. Michael has over 30 years of expertise leading successful large-scale initiatives and increasing the performance of people and organizations in complex, competitive markets. Michael works with senior leaders facing new challenges, due to either an expanded role, new business targets, new strategies, or other key change initiatives, mostly in large organizations and fast-growing high-tech companies in complex global markets.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * How Michael went from a people-averse programmer to a leadership mentor * The lessons Michael learned from starting a business in 2008 * How working with a team and having a coach helps Michael get things done * Why Michael believes that “no one’s done anything significant by themselves” * Michael’s surprising daily practice that helps him to focus * Michael’s takeaway lesson from his biggest professional challenge * A definition of perspective to help you stay true to your values * What “Action Learning” is and the benefits it has * The important business asset to have when times are tough * How scarcity thinking can prevent you from having the business you want * Why the universe does not react well to ambiguity when beginning a business * How a CFO would have gotten him to his goal 50% faster * Definition of “resilient relationships” and how to develop them * Strategies and advice for new entrepreneurs
How to best connect with Michael: * Website: michaelpapanek.com
Carl Gould serves as the emcee for “EO Nerve” and “Facilitator of Breakthrough the Barriers” and “The Firewalk Experience.” Carl is a business growth expert, mentor, and entrepreneur. He built three multi-million dollar businesses by age 40, has mentored the launch of over 5,000 businesses, and has trained and certified over 7,000 business coaches in 35 countries. Carl has written three best-selling books on business strategy and growth, with the most recent entitled, “Biz Dev Done Right.”
What you’ll learn about in this episode * An evaluation checklist if you’re looking for a coach * How advance preparation can lead to big wins in all areas of your life * Carrying strong physical and mental energy throughout your day * The critical skill of persuasion: the most important skill you will ever learn in life * A never-ending role and function of your business that you need to master * How a garden hose is like a sales cycle * Why you need to spend at least 90 minutes a day on marketing * The biggest accelerant of your business * The importance of creating the systems that help you get sales/leads before you scale * Knowing who your ideal client profile is and what they are passionate about when it comes to your product/service
How to best connect with Carl: * Email: carl@carlgould.com * Twitter: @carlgould * Website: carlgould.com * Book: “Biz Dev Done Right” * Book: “7 Stages of Small Business Success”
Karla Nelson has built several businesses and has learned that in business and in life, “Relationships Are Everything.” And now she had put it all in a form that’s easy to learn and use: The People Catalysts which is also the name of her super-awesome podcast which I highly recommend that you download. Karla and her team have used Who-Do Method with 25 of the Fortune 100 and dozens of mid-market companies and startups. Typically, they cut 50-80% off cycle time and produce better results with happier people. The Who-do Method’s client list includes Target, Best Buy, Disney, Comcast, 3M, Amazon, General Mills, HP, Coca-Cola, Deloitte, Cargill, Chase, US Bank, State Farm Insurance, IBM and many other corporate market leaders.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * The Who-Do method and a breakdown of the four roles that make it up * The constraints to grow within a company and getting everyone properly aligned with their roles and responsibilities * The importance of making relationships a priority on your checklist * The two things that can cost your business the most * How every challenge can always be brought back to a people or leadership problem * The importance of connecting with other human beings * Why you need to be coachable even as a leader * Empowering other people to be the leader of their work and owning their space * Speaking in context, not content, when speaking to your team
How to best connect with Karla: * Website: thepeoplecatalysts.com * Podcast: karlanelson.com * Email: next@karlanelson.com
Aaron Agius is one of the world’s leading digital marketers according to Forbes. He is CEO of Louder Online, one of the world’s leading digital and inbound marketing agencies and works with clients such as Salesforce, IBM, Coca-Cola, Intel and scores of leading brands, showing them how to optimize their sites, perform influencer outreach and link acquisition and produce and distribute content that drives significant lead generation and ROI. Aaron is a highly sought speaker at Search, Content Marketing and Growth Hacking conferences around the world. He is also a regular contributor to some of the world’s largest editorial publications including Entrepreneur.com, Hubspot.com, and many more, with thought leadership on marketing and business growth.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Aaron’s first online business paycheck * The importance of spending time writing guest articles and blogs * How to take baby steps to build your brand * Building credibility * Increasing efficiency * Why a supportive team is essential to success * What Aaron has gained from other leaders in the industry * Why there is no such thing as overnight success * The kinds of jobs lead to commitment and happiness * What Aaron wishes he had done more of earlier * Building a brand: the key to success * The importance of sharing knowledge * Why both personal and professional brands are necessary * How regular content creation affects your business * What information should be in your content * How to find the answers people are seeking * The best way to focus your efforts
How to best connect with Aaron: * Louder Online: louder.online/onwardnation * LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aaronagius * Twitter: @iamaaronagius
Nick Snapp is building the most effective, action-driven accountability platform for entrepreneurs on the planet, Real Accountable. He is the owner of Inspire Me Solutions, where he consults with organizations to remove bottlenecks, save time and increase profitability through productivity and project management. He obtained Lean/Six Sigma and Project Management Professional certifications and worked 14-years in the nuclear and phosphate industries, where he led teams as a capital project manager, responsible for multi-million-dollar projects. Nick leverages his leadership and technical background in everything he does. He is best known as the atypical-engineer host of The Make it Snappy Productivity Show podcast, and all things “snappy,” for that matter.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * What Nick did when he felt like his entrepreneurial spirit was squashed * The story behind Nick’s first business that he started as a kid * Why soft skills are more important than technical knowledge * The importance of paying attention to where people are in the process of things to make sure they follow through * How Nick harnessed his skills as a connector to bring people together and keep them accountable * The importance of having a flexible mentality * Nick’s number one tip for being productive and staying focused * Why it’s important to learn to say no * How decision fatigue can have a negative impact on your productivity * A story about Nick Saban and how he avoids decision fatigue * How Nick learned that you need to be on the same page with the people your entrepreneurial endeavors affect * Why you should focus on agreements and eliminate all expectations * An anecdote that proves that doing the same thing over and over again really does make a difference * Why healthy eating, sleeping, and exercising are all essential for productivity and effectiveness * Why it’s not sustainable to have an 80 hour work week * The importance learning from mentors and actually applying what you learn
How to best connect with Nick: * Podcast: www.makeitsnappyshow.com * Twitter: @thesnappyshow
Lyndsay Phillips is a serial entrepreneur, self-professed organizational freak, client-appointed task master plus project ninja, and warrior content marketer for life & business coaches, accountants, and other online entrepreneurs across the globe. As the CEO & Founder of Smooth Sailing Business Growth, she leads a rock star team to support entrepreneurs who are seeking fast-paced business growth but finally have come to the realization that they can’t do it alone, do it all, and do it well. She is also the host of Sailing To Success Podcast and Smooth Sailing Online Support TV – – and loves sharing practical tips, business building & content marketing strategies so that you can be more productive and attract more customers faster.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * What inspired Lyndsay Phillips to go from a part-time job being paid $11/hour to founding a six figure business * 4 key signs you need to off-load some of your work * Lyndsay’s top two secrets to tackling your priorities every day * A surprising daily habit to help you get more done in less time * The unexpected challenges Lyndsay’s seen when growing her business and how she overcame those challenges * Recognizing when you need to change your process so you can scale and accept growth * Two critical skills every business owner must have to succeed * How joining a Mastermind group propelled Lyndsay’s business forward * The one system Lyndsay wishes she put in place sooner * 4 (new) tools Lyndsay loves right now * The 3 strategies new business owners need to ensure success
How to best connect with Lyndsay: * Podcasts: SailingtoSuccesspodcast.com * Videos & Blogs: www.lyndsayphillips.com * Website: www.smoothbusinessgrowth.com
Karim Bishay helps companies become insanely efficient. His purpose at Living Orgs is to empower organizations towards a clear, agile structure, and stronger purpose. He is an industry leading consultant and blends a variety of approaches such to help companies find a system that works well for them. Over the past few years, Karim has companies restructure how they organize their teams. While most companies rely on the standard top down style of management, Karim introduces new organization styles that create more clarity and accountability throughout the organization — and — a stronger culture that helps them adapt quicker to the changing marketplace.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * The three prong approach that Karim uses with every organization that he works with * The importance of organizing around the work, instead of the people * Stepping out of the victim mentality and becoming the hero of your own story * Creating clarity and structure that gives people the power to step into their best selves * Using the power of the group and the collective to keep each other honest and disciplined * How to enforce positive behavioral change with discipline * A painful lesson that taught Karim to look inwardly instead of blaming other people * The importance of knowing how to strategize and say ‘no’ to things * Making the implicit explicit * Appreciating the ingenuity and creativity of having different people with varied ideas on your team * How having objectives and key results in place can lead to big wins
How to best connect with Karim: * Website: www.livingorgs.com * Website: www.livingorgs.com/speaking * Facebook: www.facebook.com/livingorgsconsulting * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/karimbishay
Rob Greenlee is the Head of Content at Spreaker.com and Adore.fm. He was inducted into the Academy of Podcasters Hall of Fame in 2017 and served as the EVP / CTO at PodcastOne.com — and — formerly as the Content and Business Manager of Podcasts / TV at Microsoft’s Xbox Live. He currently hosts the “Spreaker Live Show.com” podcast. He is also former lead host of WebTalk World Radio Show, which is recognized as the first nationally syndicated radio program in the world to begin podcasting on September 15th, 2004.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Rob’s background and how he got started in live radio * The growth of the podcasting medium and how it is perceived * How podcasting is fundamentally different from radio * Some things to consider if you’re considering starting a podcast (including duration and content) * Why every business can benefit from having a podcast * How the way we consume content is going to change * Why verbal communication is a critical skill to master * The benefits of working with a mentor who has experience and a background in areas that you aren’t strong in * Why it’s critical to lead by example * How to get more people to say “yes” to your business approach * The three key principles to success
How to best connect with Rob: * Twitter: @robgreenlee * Twitter: @spreaker * Facebook: www.facebook.com/spreaker * Email: rob@spreaker.com * Website: www.robgreenlee.com * Website: www.spreaker.com/start-your-podcast * Website: www.spreaker.com * Website: blog.spreaker.com * Podcast: SpreakerLiveShow.com, Weds at 3 pm PST * Podcast: NewMediaShow.com/live, Sat at 9 am PST/Noon EST
Marc Vollenweider is co-founder and Chief Strategist of Evalueserve, an industry-influencing global research, analytics, and data management solutions provider known for its mind+machine™ process that combines a global network of expert analysts and best-in-class technology. A former partner at McKinsey & Company in Zurich and India, he has extensive consulting experience in such industries as telecommunications, banking, and pharmaceuticals.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Why it’s become mandatory to create & build lots of machines to work alongside analysts * Marc explains why he wrote his book, “MIND + MACHINE” and how the mind will be supported by machines * How artificial intelligence & machine learning has a big role to play in business * The value-added food chain and the different layers that make it up * Why business owners need to be careful about not getting sucked into non-value adding activities * Using key performance indicators to measure where you are spending your time at on a daily basis * The importance of being with your clients & serving them even if you are in a CEO role * Marc’s fundamental belief that if you are happy at home, you will perform well in business * Having a constant balance between short, medium, and long-term decision-making * How no business is going to be successful without taking calculated risks
How to best connect with Marc: * Website: www.evalueserve.com * Email: marc.vollenweider@evalueserve.com * Book: “MIND+MACHINE: A Decision Model For Optimizing And Implementing Analytics”
Dr. Diane Hamilton is a speaker, nationally-syndicated radio show host, author, and educator. She focuses on emotional intelligence, engagement, generational conflict, and other common business success-related issues. Forbes and other top companies have hired her to speak to groups to improve employee relationships, increase engagement, improve productivity, and reduce conflict. Diane’s extensive background includes nearly four decades of working in pharmaceuticals, banking, social media, and education. She has authored three books including, “It’s Not You, It’s Your Personality.”
What you’ll learn about in this episode * When a painful experience can lead to something that is better * Why you should just take action instead of overanalyzing something * The benefits of finding a mentor who is super efficient & does things differently than you * How effective leaders create leaders from the people that they lead * Staying true to your personality when having conversations with people * Treating people how they want to be treated * The problem with having a team that is not diverse * Why personality tests can be extremely beneficial * Some of the biggest issues Dr. Hamilton is seeing with soft skills in business settings * Learning everything you can about what it is you want to do
How to best connect with Dr. Hamilton: * Website: drdianehamilton.com * Radio show: drdianehamiltonradio.com * Book: “It’s Not You It’s Your Personality”
Terry Dean went from delivering pizzas for $8 an hour to creating a full-time income online in 1996. He has been called one of the grandfathers of internet marketing and was one of the first online marketers to demonstrate the power of email, generating $96,250 from one email to his list in front of live audience. Over the past two decades he has helped thousands of clients set-up profitable internet businesses in hundreds of different markets.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Terry’s background and how he got his start his business * How Terry uses time blocks and the Pomodoro Technique to help him focus on writing and other tasks * A simple yet powerful habit that Terry believes strongly contributes to his success * Why it’s so important with advertising to test and scale over time * A breakdown of what a good Facebook test ad budget looks like * The expectations that you should and shouldn’t have when it comes to advertising on various ad platforms * Facebook ad stats that you should be paying attention to * Focusing on your audience and creating an irresistible offer * How you need to be using retargeting in your systems if you are using any form of paid advertising * What the ‘five fingers of the golden glove’ are and why it’s vital to your success * A strategy that Terry uses when starting out with a brand new market * An extremely effective irresistible offer that works well for business to business clients
How to best connect with Terry: * Website and Free Email Conversion Kit: www.mymarketingcoach.com
For more than a decade, Ron Kaminski has helped organizations and leaders build high-performance teams. Specializing in workplace culture, change management, and team development, Ron excels at helping companies engage their employees to grow and thrive. Ron has worked with organizations like Bank of America, Siemens, Ingersoll Rand, Charles Schwab, and the U.S. Army as well as dozens of small businesses. His style and practical solutions have also made him a trusted advisor to many midsize CEO’s who seek better engage and leverage their people.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * The three things that all companies need * How meditation and prayer help Ron to focus and prepare for his day * The method Ron uses to get his top priorities done in a day * How staying in a place of gratitude can help you put things into perspective * How a tough decision that Ron had to make led to ‘hockey stick’ growth * What an integrator is and how that role is important to a company * An important lesson that Ron learned about work/life balance * Finding a compelling vision that is authentic to you * How to free up your time to focus on bigger opportunities
How to best connect with Ron: * Website: cultureshoc.com * Email: ron@cultureshoc.com
Dianna Booher is founder and CEO of Booher Research Institute and author of “COMMUNICATE LIKE A LEADER.” Dianna works with organizations to help them communicate clearly — and with leaders — to expand their influence by a strong executive presence. She works with some of the largest Fortune 500 companies and governmental agencies, such as IBM, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Siemens, NASA, and the U.S. Navy. She has been featured on Good Morning America, and in USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, Investor’s Business Daily, CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Dianna’s new book “Communicate Like a Leader” * The 2x2x2 rule that Dianna uses to stay focused and organized * Why you should always work ahead of your deadlines – no matter what * Not hesitating to cut staff during slow times * Staying closely attuned to your cash-flow * Communication: the basic business act * An important lesson that Dianna learned about hiring the right people * Some questions to ask in interview situations to determine a candidate’s values and competence level * Why it’s vital to have a consistent drip system in place to use with clients * Why you need to know your clients and be accessible to them
How to best connect with Diana: * Website: www.booherresearch.com * Book: www.communicatelikealeaderbook.com
Jessica Rhodes is the founder and CEO of InterviewConnections.com, the premier Guest Booking agency for podcasters and guest experts, and she is the acclaimed author of Interview Connections: How to #RockThePodcast From Both Sides of the Mic! Jessica is the host of Interview Connections TV, where each week she helps her viewers rock the podcast from both sides of the mic. She hosts/co-hosts three podcasts: Rhodes to Success, The Podcast Producers and The Parenting Rhodes. The Podcast Producers was selected by Apple as a “How to Podcast” show in iTunes and has also been included in the syllabus for a course about podcasting and audio journalism at Western University in Ontario, Canada. And, Jessica is has been a speaker at Podcast Movement, Podfest.us, and Dream Business Academy.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * What Jessica has been up to since we last talked with her in Episode 151 * Jessica’s transition from virtual employees to full-time in-house employees and why she chose to go along that route * How Jessica’s role has changed in her business * Why you’re never too good to go back to the entry level job * The importance of knowing where your ideal clients are coming from * Ensuring that there’s value in the content that you’re creating * The bigger purpose in marketing: building your brand * Some of the biggest challenges Jessica has faced in building her team * When hiring, why it’s vital to find someone who fits in with the rest of your team * Being okay with divorcing some of the strategies that you’ve used in the past
How to best connect with Jessica: * Website: InterviewConnections.com
Ben Chiriboga is an entrepreneur, lawyer, and growth counselor dedicated to the idea of unlocking everyone’s inner entrepreneur. Through his ventures “You the Createur,” “En Masse Growth Counsel,” and “LeanGC”…Ben is in the business of helping you get into business then thrive, grow, and protect that business for you, your employees, and your personal mission.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Why there has never been a better time to be an entrepreneur * A more affordable option for business owners when it comes to getting legal work done * Making sure you deliver the most value up front * How most outward challenges are due to a lack of internal organization * Aligning your business goals are with your personal mission * Why it’s critical to have confidence with perspective * What solving problems in business is really all about * How what you’re doing needs to fit in with who you want to be * Why it’s vital to get “you” right
How to best connect with Ben: * Website: www.youthecreateur.com * Email: benchiriboga@gmail.com * Twitter: @benchiribogaYTC
Matthew Turner is an author and storyteller who works with entrepreneurs, founders, and creative thinkers to build thriving businesses that light a fire within them. After interviewing 163 authority figures, Matthew’s unearthed how successful people overcome failure and adversity, ensuring they fulfill their potential and craft epic successes.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Some of the biggest lessons that Matthew has learned from * interviewing people for his book, ’The Successful Mistake’ * Why your job as an entrepreneur is to make decisions * The one mistake all entrepreneurs need to make at some point * Minimizing risk risk in making a bad hire * Taking time for personal reflection time * Defining what success means for you * Learning through interviewing people * Mastering relationships: a key for business owners to thrive today * Why you shouldn’t have a fear of doing the right thing * Being conscious of nurturing relationships
How to best connect with Matthew: * Website: successfulmistake.com * Email: matt@turndog.co
Bobby Klinck is a best-selling author and intellectual property attorney. He helps entrepreneurs, startups, and innovators harness the power of their intellectual property rights and reduce exposure to lawsuits or brand challenges in the marketplace. His book “The Entrepreneur’s IP Planning Playbook” provides a short, understandable roadmap for entrepreneurs – from solopreneurs to startup founders – to handle their intellectual capital.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * The de facto partnerships many entrepreneurs are in and why this is a huge mistake to make * Why, as a founder, you need to assign all of your intellectual property to the company * Eye-opening stories about how some business owners did not have written agreements in place in their businesses * The importance of mastering the attribute of persistence for today’s business owners * How a lot of intellectual property issues are related to lack of focus * The patent system: how it works and how many variables there are in the process * Putting out a good product in a timely fashion rather than waiting for it to be perfect * Why you should adopt non-traditional marketing techniques sooner rather than later * How ‘playing small ball’ helps entrepreneurs succeed * The importance of specializing your business on a particular client and not trying to be everything to everybody
How to best connect with Bobby: * Website: www.klinckllc.com * Free Online Course: www.klinckllc.com/podcast
Croft Edwards is a Master Certified Coach, Social Media Influencer, President of CROFT + Company, and the genesis behind LeadershipFlow, the study of how to help individuals and organizations be at their best. He has been helping leaders and their teams find their Flow since 2001 in a variety of fields: mining, refining, government agencies, sovereign nations, manufacturing, start-ups, small businesses, and healthcare. Two miles down in a mine or up on the 8th floor, Croft coaches wherever there are leaders who desire a different result.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Croft’s first book, “LeadershipFlow | Perfectly Square, A Story about Learning to Lead and Transforming a Company” * Why the most difficult person you ever have to lead is yourself * How showing up in our bodies determines what’s possible * Challenging yourself to look at what you really fear and why * Why resignation and resentment are the two most common moods found in organizations * Fundamentally changing an organization by having the right person in a leadership role * Star leaders * The key to being a great mentor * Asking powerful questions and just listening for the response * Looking at the conversations and moods within your organization
How to best connect with Croft: * Email: croft@croftandcompany.com * Website: www.croftandcompany.com * Twitter: @croftedwards * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/croftedwards
Mark Asquith is a serial entrepreneur who has built globally successful design & marketing, SaaS and digital businesses since he quit his job in 2005. A passionate podcaster, perpetual learner and helpful guy, Mark has a giant dog and an embarrassing beard.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Mark’s entrepreneur background * Why many people still don’t feel successful, even when they deliver 100% * How a person can record and release a podcast without truly “podcasting” * What strategy accomplishes for entrepreneurs * Why it’s important to be mentally prepared * Why assuming that work and life can be equally weighted is dangerous * How the “Triple I” Principle works * Organizing a productive day * Making time for other people * How being helpful can grow a business * Why Mark doesn’t think of himself as an entrepreneur * What happens when you compare your beginning to someone else’s middle * Why finding your own rhythm is crucial to success * The difference in value between listening and pitching * Why productizing your business can be effective
How to best connect with Mark: * Website: www.excellence-expected.com * Product launch guide: www.excellence-expected.com/s1 * Website: podcastwebsites.com * Email: mark@excellence-expected.com * Twitter: @MrAsquith
Bobby Martin believes that too many startup founders pivot too early, quit too early, and expect rapid takeoff. Through his experience of starting and selling First Research (a leader in sales intelligence) for $26 Million to Fortune 500 firm, Dun & Bradstreet, he’s learned first-hand the challenges and solutions at each stage of entrepreneurial growth. Bobby is the author of “The Hockey Stick Principles: The Four Key Stages to Entrepreneurial Success,” which was named an 800CEORead Bestseller. Bobby’s current adventure is as chairman and co-founder of Vertical IQ, a leading provider of sales research insight for banks. Bobby is an angel investor and serves as an active board member with several innovative start-ups, including Local Eye Site, Boardroom Insiders, MyLifeSite, Sageworks, and etailinsights.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * The 80/20 rule for staying focused on your most vital priorities * How most successful startups have revenue growth curves that are shaped liked a hockey stick * Planning for at least 3 years of hardship and tweaks for your business to take off * Selling: why it is the most important and overlooked skill a startup needs to succeed * Why it’s vital to know your KPI’s (key performance indicators) really well * Keeping things simple by choosing to say “no” * Why you cannot predict what your actual cost is going to be when starting a business * The systems Bobby would go back and put in place sooner if given the opportunity * The two things that successful founders do to become successful * Why most businesses should try to get to “ramen profitability” as quickly as possible
How to best connect with Bobby: * Website: www.bobbymartin.me
Lindsey Anderson is often called “One-Click Lindsey.” She is a web strategy expert who works with small business owners to help them utilize the web to produce more website traffic and leads. Lindsey is the founder and CEO TrafficAndLeads.com that specializes in driving traffic, getting leads and the art of nurturing leads to become lifelong clients. Lindsey is an expert in landing pages, email sequences, search engine ranking, newsletters, analytics, social media, pay-per-click ads, websites, blogging, and the list goes on. She knows how to utilize the myriad of online marketing options to generate more traffic and leads which produces more paying clients.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Why business owners want more than just a website * Lindsey’s quest to help business owners succeed in online marketing * Why the most important thing business owners need to do today is focus on their email marketing list * What a good irresistible offer looks like * Putting a Facebook Ads system in place in order to produce results * Why business owners need to grasp the power of delegation & know where to spend their time * All of the statistics that you need to look at to determine if an ad is performing well * How working with a business coach really helped Lindsey * Why you need to start your email list on Day #1 that you are in business * Why you should be putting a pop-up on your website * Why it’s so important to install the Facebook pixel & Google Analytics code on your website
How to best connect with Lindsey: * Website: www.oneclicklindsey.com * Website: www.trafficandleads.com * Website: trafficandleadsmembership.com * Twitter: @oneclicklindsey * Podcast: Traffic & Leads
Thor Conklin is an entrepreneur, profitability consultant, and host of his daily podcast, Peak Performers. This marks his 17th year as an entrepreneur. The first company he created was a global risk management consulting firm that served the private equity community. His top 15 clients had a combined revenue of $12.7 billion and operated in over 100 countries worldwide. His background, in risk management, served him well when he lost 1/3 of his team, in the World Trade Center attacks, on 9/11. Since that time, he has started, bought and sold several multi-million dollar businesses making him a sought after, cross-industrial resource for entrepreneurs and executives in all stages of business.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Thor’s background & how he got his name * The story behind how Thor lost a third of his team in the 9/11 attacks & how that affected his business * How the ‘ultimate success map’ provides the foundation for everything that Thor does * Why you need to ask yourself ‘Is this business working for me or am I working for the business’ * The difference between making a decision and being committed * Why you need to figure out what you want the vision for your life to look like * Why Thor believes that work should be supporting our lives & vision * How Thor sets micro-commitments every day to help him prepare * Why you need master the ‘personal touch’ in order to thrive in business today * Why you just need to keep moving forward & never give up to be successful * Why the process of ‘leaning in’ has been so important for Thor * Why culture has got to be at the center of every organization
How to best connect with Thor: * Website: www.thorconklin.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/Thor.Conklin * Twitter: @thorconklin * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/thor-conklin-9b2b087 * Email: info@thorconklin.com * Email: thor@thorconklin.com * Podcast: Peak Performers * Free eBook: “The 7 Execution Killers”
Scott Schwertly is the Founder and CEO of Ethos3 and the creator of Badge, a proprietary presentation assessment tool, which helps presenters discover and maximize their presentation style. He is also the author of two books and his most recent entitled, “What’s Your Presentation Persona?”. If Scott is not working with his team building presentations, or co-hosting his Presentation Scientists Podcast, you will find him in the pool, on the bike, or on a long run since he is a two-time Ironman, seven-time marathoner, and competitive triathlete.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Telltale signs that a PowerPoint presentation is not delivering to it’s audience * How knowing what your energy levels are like can help you capitalize on work or other activities * How exercise & reading contribute to success * Why you need pure, raw grit when it comes to chasing your dreams of starting a business * Why it’s critical to master the skill of patience to be successful * Why you need to be responsive and timely with your communication * The moment when Scott realized that there were multiple things wrong with his business * How content marketing can help you in so many ways * Why Scott believes in out teaching the competition * How people who are passionate and have a good work ethic add value to a company * Why you need to be working more on your business, not in your business
How to best connect with Scott: * Website: www.ethos3.com * Book: “What’s Your Presentation Persona”
Dr. Anne Marie Knott is the author of “HOW INNOVATION REALLY WORKS: Using The Trillion-Dollar R&D Fix To Drive Growth.” She is a Professor of Strategy at the Olin Business School at Washington University, and prior to her position at Olin, Dr. Knott served as Assistant Professor of Management at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Her primary research area is innovation – both large-scale R&D and entrepreneurship, which stems from her previous career at Hughes Aircraft Company developing missile guidance systems. Her research has received two grants from the National Science Foundation and has been covered by CNBC, Forbes, BusinessWeek, and the Wall Street Journal. She has published numerous articles in Harvard Business Review and many other publications.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Anne Marie’s background and her innovation research * Anne Marie’s work on missile guidance systems * How the “Mary Poppins philosophy” helps Anne Marie be productive * Why making work fun is the key to accomplishing things * How to chunk your day to improve your productivity and creativity * Why many successful people lose sight of their accomplishments * Why it’s important to have good intuition about what will drive a company’s growth * How Anne Marie developed a way to measure R&D * Why new ideas are critical * How everyday activities are different from strategies * Why it’s important to keep sight of your strategy * Why business owners should revisit their larger plans on a regular basis * How Anne Marie was motivated by being held to high standards * What a mentor truly is * Why many current lessons about innovation are wrong * The biggest reason R&D productivity has declined * What a business research quotient (RQ) is and how to measure it * Why open innovation is often a mistake
How to best connect with Anne Marie: * Book: “How Innovation Really Works: Using the Trillion-Dollar R&D Fix to Drive Growth” * Email: knott@wustl.edu
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation – I’m Stephen Woessner and welcome to Episode 490 — and today’s vital priority is to serve up Part 2 of how to sell a $30,000 sponsorship.
A couple weeks ago…I promised to you that I would invite Dave Mammano, host of The Avanti Entrepreneur podcast back to Onward Nation to share his personal story of how he sold a $30,000 annual sponsorship to the company, Paychex…and today’s the day Onward Nation.
I interviewed Dave in order to capture and document his exact step-by-step recipe so that you could apply it into your business straight away. I am so fired up to share the details with you.
Let me first share a brief backstory in order to give you full context regarding why what you are about to learn from Dave can be so impactful in your business.
Many Onward Nation listeners are business owners whose primary focus each day is to drive business development for their company. To drive new revenue, from new customers, and within new markets.
All of that is consistent with the small business revenue data we consistently see…that points to how 43 percent of owners are cite growing revenue as the top challenge within their company – so – winning at biz dev needs to be at the forefront of an owner’s vital priorities.
And breaking down the 43 percent for a second – that number – 43 percent – represents over 12 million business owners in this country who are concerned about growing revenue.
One of the proactive and super successful biz dev strategies proactive business owners have implemented is to put a podcast out in front of their core business – and then – to use their show as I like to call, a Trojan Horse of Sales – meaning – their podcast drives new client revenue into their core business by opening up biz dev relationships with the guests they interviewed for their show.
If you haven’t started your own podcast – but – you like the sound of having a Trojan Horse of Sales out in front of your business – then I encourage you to go back to Episode 445 of Onward Nation for the full recipe – in complete transparency – so you can take and apply all of the step-by-step ingredients.
And then, several weeks ago, I took our biz strategy even deeper during Episode 460 by taking you on a deep dive into how to get a $10,000 to $100,000 sponsor for your podcast.
But – I want to make sure I am very clear here – the recipe I shared in Episode 460 was not my recipe. It is a recipe I learned directly from the brilliant and super talented Linda Hollander.
Linda is one of today’s leading authorities on how to sell sponsorships to top tier sponsors – and – our incredible guest on Onward Nation and she was kind enough to let me pick her brain for Chapter 16 of my upcoming book. Linda, if you’re listening, you are a rock star – thank you for everything!
Now, Linda’s sponsorship recipe is not just any recipe – it’s a recipe that can help you sell a $10,000 to $100,000 sponsorship for your business.
No hyperbole. It is truly that awesome. And that is where Dave Mammano comes in.
Dave decided to sit down and really study Episode 460. He wanted to learn from Linda all about how to get a sponsor – and then – he immediately…and I do mean immediately, applied what he learned.
And when he was all done – he went out to sell it.
Then Dave called me a few days later and let me know that he sold a $30,000 sponsorship.
Yes, Onward Nation – Dave sold a $30,000 annual sponsorship that stretched over his podcast, YouTube channel, all of the other properties within his business.
Definitely an incredible result outcome for Dave – but – it is also a real testament to the community, purpose, and high-quality content his Avanti Entrepreneur team are building.
And one of the most incredible aspects of the sales process is that the negotiations with the sponsor were never about monthly downloads, website traffic, social media shares, or email optins.
Instead, the focus was about building relationships – about aligning the sponsor’s brand with Dave’s content and his ever-growing nation of true fans because both companies serve the same customers.
So Onward Nation, your ability to sell your own $30,000 or even a $50,000 sponsorship, or a $100,000 sponsorship rests solely on you creating “properties” that attract the prospects and customers who your sponsor wants to be doing business with – and – that you create the type of culture a prospective sponsor wants to be aligned with.
That should be your biz dev strategy, Onward Nation.
And of course, it’s exciting to think about building a YouTube channel with hundreds of thousands of subscribers or a super popular Instagram account.
But for most small business owners…becoming Internet famous…is not what is going to move the needle…and it shouldn’t be your vital priority.
To be clear…I am not saying credibility on social media doesn’t matter…but…what I am saying is that just because you don’t have a million followers, doesn’t mean you can’t build an incredible core business where sponsors will absolutely want to pay you $50,000 to be part of the special relationship you are building with your customers and nation of true fans.
What you do need above anything else is the confidence to know that it is possible.
That you can do it.
That you can be successful.
That you can deliver value to a sponsor.
That you have built an audience, a customer base, a loyal following – no matter the size – who value you, who love you, who appreciate your opinion, your insights, and they look to you for guidance. You have so much to be grateful for.
So now I am going to share with you the conversation I had with Dave Mammano – so you can hear in his own words – the process – the recipe – the step-by-step of how he sold a $30,000 sponsorship so you can follow the exact same steps.
Here we go, Onward Nation!
Dov Baron has been speaking internationally for over 30-years, he’s the man with a finger on the pulse of the evolving world of NextGen leadership. One of Inc. Magazine’s Top 100 Leadership Speakers to hire, Dov is a master storyteller and considered by many as the leading authority on Authentic Leadership, and the founder of Full Monty Leadership and The Authentic Speaker Academy for Leadership. Dov also works with multi-disciplinary leaders and executive teams to build the bonds that create organizational cultures that become fiercely loyal. Dov is a bestselling author of several books and his latest is entitled, “Fiercely Loyal; How High Performing Companies Develop and Retain Top Talent.” He has been featured on CNN, CBS Small Business Pulse, Yahoo Finance, Boston Globe, USA today, Entrepreneur and many more.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Dov’s background * Why being a leader is not only a position…it’s an image * Vulnerability: the greatest power you have as a leader * Why you want people to see your humanity as a strength * Building a culture around authenticity * Why it’s important to master the skill of courageous conversation * Why you need to learn to be a great speaker if you’re going to be a great leader * Recognizing that fear is part of the journey – giving into it is not * Being honest with both your strengths & weaknesses * How your purpose is hidden behind the pain that you refuse to look at * How there are things in your history, whether positive or negative, that can be incredible catalysts for business growth
How to best connect with Dov: * Website: fullmontyleadership.com * Email: dov@dovbaron.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/DovBaronLeadership * Twitter: @TheDovBaron * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/dovbaron
Dr. Mark Goulston is widely regarded as a “people hacker,” in that he listens “into” people and intuitively reads their minds. He started out in his career as a clinical interventional psychiatrist specializing in suicide where he would often tune into people’s suicidal thoughts that they weren’t expressing. He later went on to train FBI and police hostage negotiators and advise attorneys in high profile cases. He was an advisor to the prosecution in the OJ Simpson criminal trial providing insights into the jury. Recently, he has tuned into and channeled Steve Jobs coming back from the dead and turned it into a one-man show entitled, “Steve Jobs Returns.” In it, he IS Steve Jobs and as Jobs explains how he turned around Apple between 1997 to 2007 and also gives insights into Jobs that even he didn’t have about himself. Attendees are entertained — of course — but they also learn how to create and build insanely great companies.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * The difference between listening ‘to’ you & listening ‘into’ you * Why the world is hungry to see people who talk with each other rather than at each other * Why we give advice & solutions to people even if they don’t ask for it * The story behind the POP Protocol non-profit organization & why law enforcement loves it * How you can get people to do what you want them to do without using persuasion * What ‘got to have it’ is & the four elements that make it up * Why people remember what’s different…not what’s better * Steps to creating the ultimate user experience for your customers * The six things that you want to do if you’re a leader
How to best connect with Mark: * Website: markgoulston.com * Website: goulstongroup.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/markgoulston * Facebook: www.facebook.com/drmarkgoulston * Twitter: @MarkGoulston
Chris Prefontaine has been in the trenches of the real estate industry for over 25 years. He has learned the business from the ground up by building over 100 single family homes, owning a Realty Executives franchise, and then selling his brokerage business to Coldwell Banker. Chris is a practitioner at heart — which is why his company “Pre Property Solutions” still buys between 4 to 10 properties each month where Chris and his family practices what he preaches. His company has done over $75 million in real estate transactions. Chris has passion for helping others and for helping them grow and realize their full potential, which is why Chris also coaches other investors on how to apply the system he developed and mastered over the last several decades.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Finding a mentor that mimics the success that you want to achieve * How the ‘Power of 1 Daily Discipline’ keeps you accountable to your goals * Staying focused with time blocking techniques * A valuable lesson on communication that Chris learned from one of his mentors * How mental strength affects everyone & why it’s a critical skill to master * The value of outsourcing tasks to other people * Adding income streams & putting people in those roles * The importance of having an accountability partner * Why you need to be 100% coachable * How to be at the top 5% of your field
How to best connect with Chris: * Website: www.smartrealestatecoach.com * Email: chris@smartrealestatecoach.com * QLS Home Study Course: www.smartrealestatecoach.com/quantum-leap-video-series
Phil Town is an investor, motivational speaker, hedge fund manager and two-time New York Times best-selling author. Through “Rule #1 Investing”, he teaches personal investing at a free 3-day workshop where he empowers people to invest money on their own and stop relying on fund managers to determine their financial future. Phil has been featured in MSNBC, BusinessWeek, FOX, and CNBC, and has shared the stage with Steve Jobs, Colin Powell, Bill Clinton, and many others.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Phil’s background and how he learned to invest * Why “showing up” is the first step to getting on the right path * Why investing is not about money; it’s about knowledge * The four Ms and how they apply to businesses * The basic principles of long-term investing * Why you should focus on investments that align with your values * Where private businesses make the biggest mistakes * How to look for a competitive advantage in potential investments * What talent and integrity mean for a business * How good business practices compare to military leadership philosophies * How to read the emotions of the market * What dharma means for investors * Why it’s important to evaluate your passions and talents * The differences among moats and how to identify yours * The importance of building a brand
How to best connect with Phil: * Website: ruleoneinvesting.com/onwardnation * Twitter: @Rule1_Investing
Ric Edelman is widely regarded as one of the top advisors in the advisory field, having been named in 2016 among the country’s Top 10 Wealth Advisors by Forbes Magazine — and — the nation’s #1 Independent Financial Advisor (three times) by Barron’s. Ric is a #1 New York Times bestselling author with more than 1 million copies of his eight books in print worldwide — and — his latest New York Times best-seller is entitled “THE TRUTH ABOUT YOUR FUTURE: The Money Guide You Need Now, Later, and Much Later.” For more than 25 years, Ric has hosted a nationally syndicated weekly radio show — and — he serves as the resident financial expert for The Dr. Oz Show.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Ric’s mortgage strategy * The rapid speed at which new, exponential technologies are being introduced to the world * Why any company built in the 20th century will fail in the 21st century * The most innovative fund that allows you to invest in companies that are using technology to build their business * The most powerful & significant innovation in our lifetime, the ‘Block Chain’ * How over half the jobs in America will disappear in the next 15 years * How DNA is being edited to remove defective genes that lead to illness * Why we are going to have to go to school on a continual basis to stay current with the technological opportunities that exist * The biggest change that we’re not prepared for yet
How to best connect with Ric: * Website: ricedelman.com * Book: “The Truth About Your Future”
Mike O’Krent is the founder of LifeStories Alive, a business specializing in the making personal history “legacy” videos for families. In a life-changing experience, from 1996 through 2000 Mike interviewed Holocaust survivors for Steven Spielberg’s “Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation”, now the USC Shoah Foundation. It was through that experience, that Mike discovered the significance and technique of recording the life stories of loved ones. The business has since expanded its expertise beyond capturing personal histories for families to now include recording the histories of businesses and non-profit organizations. Mike’s unique interviewing skills bring out the heart and essence of the interviewee, thus making powerfully valuable connections to the intended audience.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * How hiring a business coach changed Mike’s path in life * Why the best tool to improve on is your listening skills * Creating a safe place for people to tell their stories * Important conversation skills like showing sincere interest & genuine curiosity * The importance of capturing the stories of the ones that you love * Why paying attention to what your clients & potential clients want is the most important skill to have * Why you need to keep in the back of your mind that ‘you have one shot at it’
How to best connect with Mike: * Email: mokrent@lifestoriesalive.com * Phone: 512-431-8166 * Website: lifestoriesalive.com
Todd Tresidder has been a serial entrepreneur since childhood. He went on to build his own wealth as a hedge fund investment manager before “retiring” at age 35. He grew his net worth from less than zero at 23 to the point of financial independence just 12 years later. Todd has maintained his wealth by remaining an active investor and utilizing statistical and mathematical risk management systems for investing. Through his website at FinancialMentor.com, he teaches advanced investing and advanced retirement planning principles. Take the next step beyond conventional financial advice and discover what works, what doesn’t, and why, based on years of proven experience.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Why exercise is a key component of success * Intrinsic motivation: what is it? * How to develop your wealth plan and why risk management is a critical piece it * Profitability vs. payoff * The philosophy built around the math that drives wealth growth * How large negative payoffs change people’s lives & how to protect against them * How action & results always speak the truth * Why you need to just play full out & ‘just do it’
How to best connect with Todd: * Website: financialmentor.com
Resources: * Financial coaching: financialmentor.com/financial-coaching * Free calculators: financialmentor.com/calculator * Wealth planning course: financialmentor.com/educational-products/seven-steps-to-seven-figures/wealth-plan
Moran Pober is the founder of abd Assets and former soldier in the IDF — Israel Defense Forces. Moran has had extensive dealings with many entrepreneurial projects. He founded iTips, a Top 100 app in 100 stores around the world in the app store including the United States, Canada, and the UK. Moran has carried out extensive consulting assignments with many companies — and — his current company seeks to acquire equity stakes in companies with growth prospects with a view to assisting them develop managerially and strategically.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Moran’s background * The different factors that go into determining what is/is not a good deal * Using visualization to keep on track with your goals * Becoming the person you want to be by acting that way * Teaching: the best way to learn * Learning from someone who is already where you want to be * Why you need to enjoy your path to success, including failures * How adding value to other people will make you happy & successful * The benefits of investing in an existing business instead of a start-up * Why you need to shift your focus to sales & marketing if you’re not making money
How to best connect with Moran: * Facebook: www.facebook.com/moranpober * LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/moranpober * Website: moranpober.com * Website: abdassets.com * Email: moran@abdassets.com or info@abdassets.com
Mark Stoner, author of “BLUE-COLLAR GOLD: How To Build A Service Business From The Dirt Up,” has been in the chimney industry for 30-years. He ran a one-truck company for 18-years until 2003, when he changed his path and built a multi-million dollar chimney company only a few years later. Mark is the current president of the Chimney Safety Institute of America, is the past vice president and treasurer, and has also served as the National Chimney Sweep Guild Ethics Committee Chairman. Mark was also featured on Season 2 of the CNBC-TV series “Blue Collar Millionaires.”
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Mark’s background * Why you shouldn’t do anything that you can pay somebody else to do * Why it’s really what you do between the hours of 7pm-2am that will change the trajectory of your life * Why the leadership of people is so important * Why you need to focus really hard on what’s in front of you * Why you should get your business to a self-sustaining level before looking for other opportunities * Why Mark believes that you need to build your business like you are going to sell it * Why you need to think about how you are going to be working yourself out of a job * The importance of reading every single day * Why you need to understand the difference between a job & a business
How to best connect with Mark: * Website: markstoner.com * Book: “BLUE-COLLAR GOLD: How To Build A Service Business From The Dirt Up”
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning, Onward Nation and welcome to Episode 480 – this week’s solocast.
And I am so fired up for this discussion – that I can hardly wait to share a major win from one of our Predictive ROI clients and avid listeners!
No hyperbole – this win is really off-the-charts amazing.
Here’s a brief backstory.
Many Onward Nation listeners are business owners whose primary focus each day is to drive business development for their company. To drive new revenue, from new customers, and within new markets.
All of that is consistent with the small business revenue data we consistently see…that points to how 43 percent of owners are cite growing revenue as the top challenge within their company – so – winning at biz dev needs to be at the forefront of an owner’s vital priorities.
And breaking down the 43 percent for a second – that number – 43 percent – represents over 12 million business owners in this country who are concerned about growing revenue.
One of the proactive and super successful biz dev strategies proactive business owners have implemented is to put a podcast out in front of their core business – and then – to use their show as I like to call, a Trojan Horse of Sales – meaning – their podcast drives new client revenue into their core business by opening up biz dev relationships with the guests they interviewed for their show. Very smart and my Predictive ROI team are experts at helping owners of business-to-business professional services firms drive hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars in new revenue into their companies, through our Podcasting for Profit System. It is awesome.
If you haven’t started your own podcast – but – you like the sound of having a Trojan Horse of Sales out in front of your business – then I encourage you to go back to Episode 445 of Onward Nation for the full recipe – in complete transparency – so you can take and apply all of the step-by-step ingredients.
And then, a couple weeks ago, I took our biz strategy even deeper during Episode 460 by taking you on a deep dive into how to get a $10,000 to $100,000 sponsor for your podcast.
But – I want to make sure I am very clear here – the recipe I shared in Episode 460 was not my recipe. It is a recipe I learned directly from the brilliant and super talented Linda Hollander. Linda is one of today’s leading authorities on how to sell sponsorships to top tier sponsors – and – our incredible guest on Onward Nation and she was kind enough to let me pick her brain for Chapter 16 of my upcoming book. Thank you, Linda – you are a rock star!
Now, Linda’s sponsorship recipe is not just any recipe – it’s a recipe that can help you sell a $10,000 to $100,000 sponsorship for your business.
Again, no hyperbole. It is truly that awesome.
Here…I’ll prove it.
Dave Mammano, a three-time guest here at Onward Nation, host of the Avanti Entrepreneur Podcast, and one of our Predictive ROI clients…decided to sit down and really study Episode 460. He wanted to learn from Linda all about how to get a sponsor – and then – what did he do?
He immediately…and I do mean immediately, Onward Nation…he immediately applied what he learned. He went to work creating what Linda calls the “Sponsorship proposal.”
He then emailed me the draft and I could see that he had applied Linda’s insights and wisdom exactly as she had recommended.
He wrote his story – he shared insights into the good – the challenges along the way – and all of those things that make Dave the amazing, awesome, and incredible business owner he is today.
He talked about his previous company that he recently sold and the story behind his latest venture. All in brilliant storytelling form.
Dave’s proposal also included details about his podcast, his YouTube channel, and all of the other ways he communicates with his growing nation of true fans within in his community.
And when he was all done – he went out and started to sell it.
Then Dave called me a few days later and let me know that he sold a $30,000 sponsorship to the company called, Paychex.
Yes, Onward Nation – Dave sold a $30,000 annual sponsorship that stretched over his podcast, YouTube channel, all of the other properties within his business.
Definitely an incredible result outcome for Dave – but – it is also a real testament to the community, purpose, and high-quality content his Avanti Entrepreneur team are building.
And one of the most incredible aspects of the sales process is that the negotiations with Paychex were never about monthly downloads, website traffic, social media shares, or email optins.
Instead, the focus was about aligning the Paychex brand with Dave’s content and his ever-growing nation of true fans because both companies serve the same customers.
So Onward Nation, your ability to sell your own $30,000 or even a $50,000 sponsorship, or a $100,000 sponsorship rests solely on you creating “properties” that attract the prospects and customers who your sponsor wants to be doing business with – and – that you create the type of culture a prospective sponsor wants to be aligned with.
That should be your biz dev strategy, Onward Nation.
And of course, it’s exciting to think about building a YouTube channel with hundreds of thousands of subscribers or a super popular Instagram account.
But for most small business owners…becoming Internet famous…is not what is going to move the needle…and it shouldn’t be your vital priority.
To be clear…I am not saying credibility on social media doesn’t matter…but…what I am saying is that just because you don’t have a million followers, doesn’t mean you can’t build an incredible core business where sponsors will absolutely want to pay you $50,000 to be part of the special relationship you are building with your customers and nation of true fans.
What you do need above anything else is the confidence to know that it is possible.
That you can do it.
That you can be successful.
That you can deliver value to a sponsor.
That you have built an audience, a customer base, a loyal following – no matter the size – who value you, who love you, who appreciate your opinion, your insights, and they look to you for guidance. How amazing is that, right? You have so much to be grateful for.
Okay, let’s bring Dave’s success, and how you can do it too, back into focus.
I didn’t want to get you all fired up – and encourage you to go out there and start selling – without taking an opportunity to arm you with even more strategy and step-by-step process.
Yes, the recipes provided in earlier episodes will provide you with the right tactical ingredients – but in addition to Dave’s success story – I also received feedback from other listeners who felt they needed more detail. In fact…they wanted a lot more detail.
When I shared Dave’s story with them…they encouraged me to ask him to come back to the show and take us step-by-step through each and every detail that he experienced along the way.
Great push back, Onward Nation – thank you.
So I asked Dave – and – he agreed to come back and share each and every step…all the granular detail.
How he wrote his story.
What he decided to include or exclude.
How he designed the Pitch Deck or the visual format of his proposal.
How he presented it to Paychex.
And every detail in between.
Dave is going to share his story with you in full transparency because hearing his words may help move past any of the reservations – any of the hesitancy – any of the fear you may be feeling – that may be holding you back.
And we are going to air that interview two weeks from today, Onward Nation…Episode 490 on Wednesday, May 10th. Be sure to listen…download it…share it with other business owners who you think can benefit from the recipe…this biz dev strategy could be a game changer for your business and my hope is you will take advantage of it right away.
So, Onward Nation, here’s what I want to leave you with today.
The key to success with this biz dev recipe, or any of the biz dev recipes we share here, is to get out of your own head, to allow yourself to study this recipe, and to give yourself the opportunity to apply it.
Who cares if the first prospective sponsor you approach says no?
So then you make some revisions to your proposal and you keep right on going.
Just think about all of the studios and production companies that told George Lucas no – that his idea for Star Wars wasn’t going to go anywhere.
Or, the many editors from many publishers who told JK Rowling that her story about a young boy, a wizard named Harry, didn’t have what it took to be successful.
Well, billions and billions of dollars in sales later, and we all know what happened when the creators of Star Wars and Harry Potter believed enough in their purpose and vision – amazing things!
Will your business enjoy similar success?
I don’t know – but the point is – the only way you will know for sure is if you get out there and try.
Some sponsors will say no – but all you need is 1 to say yes.
Be sure to listen to Episode 490 that will air two weeks from today – May 10th – and you will get the exact roadmap – the exact recipe from Dave Mammano’s success.
So with that said…I want to say thank you.
Thank you for being here and for making Onward Nation what you listen – what you study – and maybe what you take with you on your morning run – or your daily commute.
However we fit into your compressed schedule – I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable time with me today.
And I encourage you to listen to tomorrow’s episode with Mark Stoner, who built and scaled his business from a one-man operation to now being featured in the primetime television show Blue Collar Millionaires on CNBC.
You will not want to miss, Mark, Onward Nation. He is rock solid awesome!
Until then – onward with gusto!
Tom Hogan is the author of “THE ULTIMATE START-UP GUIDE: Marketing Lessons, War Stories, And Hard-Won Advice From Leading Venture Capitalists And Angel Investors,” has more than 25-years of marketing experience, including roles as vice president of marketing at Oracle, Borland, Lucent, and VitalSigns Software. As Oracle’s original creative director, he managed the global advertising, direct marketing, seminar/trade show, and creative departments.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Tom’s background * The story behind how Tom & his partner launched 45 startups in the last 8 years with Crowded Ocean * The four levels of marketing in hi-tech today * How sales-based marketing works * The importance of listening to the guys on the front-line * How to structure your company & what to hire to * Why Tom tells his startups that they only need two marketing employees * Why you have to hire by function – not by intelligence * Why you have to base your business on what the market is telling you
How to best connect with Tom: * Website: www.crowdedocean.com * Book: “THE ULTIMATE START-UP GUIDE: Marketing Lessons, War Stories, And Hard-Won Advice From Leading Venture Capitalists And Angel Investors”
Dr. Paul Zak is the author of the new book “TRUST FACTOR: The Science Of Creating High-Performance Companies”, is founding Director of the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies and Professor of Economics, Psychology, and Management at Claremont Graduate University. He was part of the team of scientists that first made the connection between oxytocin and trust. His TED talk on the topic has received more than 1.4 million views. Paul is also the author of “The Moral Molecule”, has appeared on ABC World News Tonight, CNN, Fox Business, Dr. Phil, and Good Morning America.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Dr. Zak’s background * Why Dr. Zak believes that it’s our decisions that make us interesting * How any positive social interaction will trigger the release of oxytocin * The importance of managing your energy * Why Dr. Zak believes that there is no work-life balance – only work-life integration * How getting up & walking around can profuse your brain with fresh, oxygenated blood * Why it’s so important to know where you are going * How empowering individuals around you to be successful can free you up to have more cognitive space * The importance of listening more as you become more successful * Why it’s so important to have a good culture fit when hiring people * Why Dr. Zak believes that the most difficult part of managing an organization is the people * How to create a high trust organization & the benefits of having one
How to best connect with Dr. Zak: * Website: www.pauljzak.com
Resources: * Book: “TRUST FACTOR: The Science Of Creating High-Performance Companies” * Free Tools: ofactor.com
Dr. John Hayes was introduced to the franchise community in 1979 while an assistant professor at Temple University. Dr. Hayes has since been a franchisee of several concepts, a franchisor of a major American franchise company, and a consultant for franchisors in the U.S. and abroad. For more than 25 years he has taught “The A to Zs of Buying a Franchise,” the most popular symposium at the International Franchise Expo. Dr. Hayes has also written several books with franchisors, including “Start Small, Finish Big, Fifteen Key Lessons to Start-and-Run Your Own Successful Business,” with Fred DeLuca, the co-founder of Subway Restaurants.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Dr. Hayes background * Why it’s important for your personality to fit when considering to become a franchisee * Why business owners need to master selling * The importance of trusting your own instincts * Why it’s so important to follow the franchisor’s system * Free resources to look into to determine if you are a good fit to be a franchisee * Strategies to ensure success as a franchisee
How to best connect with Dr. Hayes: * Website: www.howtobuyafranchise.com * Website: tituscenterforfranchising.com
Kevin Van Eekeren started his career as a logistic officer for a S.W.A.T. team, that gave him insight into the criminal justice world and he soon found that training S.W.A.T. teams was the best way to reduce the use of force while ensuring national security. Fulcrum Tactical was born out of that idea and within 18 months he took it from a charity to a for-profit company. He started investing in startups on the side but focused on Fulcrum Tactical and his new venture, Fulcrum Farms, a sustainable farm producing high-quality meat and eggs for families and restaurants in the Chicagoland area. After 6-years Kevin sold Fulcrum Tactical and moved on to investing in startups full-time by starting Fulcrum Investing. He is also the co-host of a podcast called “The State of Logic.”
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Kevin’s background * Why Kevin believes that all business owners should be somewhat of a holist * The best way to save time and money * Why Kevin aims to be objective with information that he receives when making a decision * Why you need to be an expert in whatever you’re trying to accomplish * Why Kevin believes that there is not a point in running a business unless you can run it morally * Why Kevin firmly believes in hiring the right people the first time * Why Kevin looks for employees that want to constantly be learning & have a thirst for knowledge * Making sure that the way you’re running the business is what’s best for the business * Why it’s important to give your employees honest feedback as to how they are doing
How to best connect with Kevin: * Twitter: @FulcrumTactical * Email: info@fulcruminvesting.com * Website: fulcruminvesting.com * Podcast: The State of Logic
Lolly Daskal is the founder of Lead from Within, a global leadership and consulting firm based in New York City. With more than 30-years of experience in her field, Lolly is one of the most sought after executive leadership coaches and leadership consultants worldwide. Lolly has worked with a top-shelf roster of clients, including many Fortune 500 companies and organizations of all sizes in a wide range of industries. Lolly uses a heart-based leadership approach designed to help people achieve their full potential to make a difference in the world. Lolly was named one of the Top Leadership Experts to Speak at your next event, and Top 50 Leadership and Management Experts by Inc. Magazine — and — The Huffington Post named Lolly the most inspiring person in the world.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Lolly’s background * Lolly’s approach to coaching: empowering yourself by leading from within * How fixing someone else’s problem can be disempowering * Utilizing your weakness in a way that allows you to stand in your greatness * Why you need to understand who you are being while you are living & leading * Why you need to ask yourself “What did I do great today?” * How failures always have something to teach us * Embracing the whole of who we are – both strengths & weaknesses * Why it’s important to find a mentor that can speak to you at a ‘heart’ level * Why leaders need to embrace who they hire with great skills & ask them to help * Why you need to choose greatness
How to best connect with Lolly: * Website: www.theleadershipgapbook.com * Website: www.lollydaskal.com * Twitter: @LollyDaskal * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lollydaskal
Amy Bruske, author of BUSINESS IS BUSINESS: Reality Checks for Family-Owned Companies, is the president of Kolbe Corp and leads seminars for business leaders throughout the world. She was recently named Business Owner of the Year by the Phoenix chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO).
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Amy’s background and the goals of Kolbe Corp * How Amy marries business with human behavior studies * Why being “the smartest person in the room” doesn’t always yield productivity * The definition of “conative” * How the conative part of the mind can be used as a model for success * Why you should focus more on the end result than the process whenever possible * The recipe for “analysis paralysis” and how to avoid it * Why people fail in organizational training courses * How running a business is similar to parenting * Amy’s prioritization techniques * Why it’s important to measure mental energy rather than time * When to say “no” * Amy’s daily habits for achieving success and reducing stress * What to aim for as an entrepreneur * Why “good advice” can be harmful
How to best connect with Amy: * Book: “Business is Business: Reality Checks for Family-Owned Companies” * Website: www.kolbe.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/AmyKBruske
Sara Taylor is the president and founder of deepSEE Consulting. She is a nationally-recognized speaker and consultant specializing in the areas of leadership, diversity, and organizational effectiveness. With over 25-years of experience, Sara balances her real-life anecdotes with research-based theories to deliver for her reader what she delivers for her clients.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Sara’s background * Why it’s important to develop our skills for experiencing others * Why people need to feel more comfortable with talking about differences * The stage of development that we all get stuck in * How you’re missing out on the complexity when you focusing on similarities * How we pay most of our attention to frames, but it’s our filters that are actually in control of us * The ‘golden’ & ‘platinum’ rules * Why we need to get to the level of seeing unconscious filters * How, in order to be effective with other people, you need to be able to respond based on their filters – not yours * Why you need to approach both your personal & professional life with positive intent * Why you need to take accountability for your own filters
How to best connect with Sara: * Website: filtershift.com * Website: www.deepseeconsulting.com * Book: “Filter Shift: How Effective People SEE the World”
Tony Grebmeier is a builder. While most well-known for building a multi-million dollar business with his childhood friends, it is Tony’s mission to build a community where struggling entrepreneurs know they can achieve anything they want despite their past. In 2001, he built his second supplement company, ShipOffers, with two of his childhood best friends. Fifteen years later, ShipOffers is an eight-figure business that has been an Inc. 5000 Company for the past three years. In 2015, Tony launched his podcast, “Entrepreneur Unplugged” to bring together his loves for business, radio, and life. Tony welcomes guests to share to-the-point, actionable tips for business success, but also share their journey in an authentic and transparent way.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Tony’s background * Why asking for help is not a sign of weakness but actually a sign of greatness * Tony’s purpose in life: to help people and live in gratitude * Tony’s ‘Living a Fulfilled Day’ worksheet and how it contributes to his success * Why it’s critical to stop and spend some time in reflection * Visualizing and being present in everything that you do * The importance of having integrity and being authentic with people * How mastering communication can help you to create anything you want in this world * How people treat you the way you train them to treat you * Why it’s important to create chemistry in your organization * Knowing what you’re passionate about & living out your dream
How to best connect with Tony: * Website: www.tonygrebmeier.com * Email: tony@shipoffers.com * Podcast: tonygshow.com * Email: info@thetonygshow.com
Jared Nichols is a deep futures strategist, executive advisor, speaker, and coach. He provides the tools to help business owners and their organizations gain competitive advantage, seize new market opportunities, drive in new revenue, and increase profits. Jared is also the host of the small business podcast presented by the National Small Business Association entitled, “The Road Ahead: Small Business in the 21st Century”, which focuses on practical tips and insights for small business owners on how to create growth in a volatile and uncertain environment.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Jared’s background * What a deep futures strategist is * Market want vs. market need * Why you need to know how to create context * Avoiding habits that drive your productivity down * Why it’s important to be comfortable thinking about the future * Why you need to be bold and trust yourself * Having the ability to anticipate change and disruption and take action in the present * Why you have to risk being disliked in order to truly help people * Why you need to always be aware of your intention and your reaction to what you do
How to best connect with Jared: * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jarednicholsgrp * Email: jared@thejarednicholsgroup.com * Free eBook: Waypoint: Mapping The Future of Talent In The Age of Automation * Book: Rethinking Your Next Quarter (Century): How to Create Continuous Growth And Ensure Future Relevance
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation – I’m Stephen Woessner and welcome to Episode 470 – this week’s solocast.
And it’s during these weekly solocasts that I tend to go deep into tactics…where you and I get our hands dirty…where we cover a series of step-by-step business building recipes that oftentimes focus on scaling, sales, lead gen, hiring, or other business development topics that can help you move your business onward to that next level.
But today I am going to turn the tables…on you and on me.
I’m still going to share and teach but it is going to be from the perspective of a guest on another podcast. The Avanti Entrepreneur Podcast, which is hosted by my good friend, Dave Mammano, a three-time guest on Onward Nation.
You may remember Dave and the wisdom he shared during Episodes 17, 145, and 438 of Onward Nation.
Dave recently launched his own podcast and he already has listeners in 67 countries – and – his show has been a major source of new revenue for his business.
When Dave invited me to be a guest on his show – I said – “Heck, yeah, I want to do that!”
What I love about Dave’s interview style – and I think you will too – is that he is fun, energetic – but – he still asks the tough questions.
During the interview, Dave asked me to share the story and the lessons learned when Predictive ROI, my core business, lost $200,000 when we had to cancel a major live event. It was a major mistake and a very painful failure – and I share all the details with Dave. Nothing hidden.
Dave also asked me to share that proverbial moment from May 2015 when I decided to launch Onward Nation and the business case behind the show.
We even talked through some of the lessons and legacy I learned from my grandfather and how what I learned has shaped our company culture here at Predictive ROI.
Dave and I also dug deep into mentorship, how I meet one-on-one with all of my direct reports at Predictive ROI each week for mentorship lessons – and – how I have become a better mentor as a result of my accountability calls every Friday morning with my good friend, Don Yaeger.
And…I even share with Dave some of my experiences from working with nuclear missiles when I served in the United States Air Force – and – what it was like the one day my team and I had to rush into a silo one day to stop a missile from catching fire. Yeah – that was a rock solid awesome day to be sure, Onward Nation – but more importantly – it was from lessons like these that I learned that I have a real love and skill for troubleshooting and quickly solving problems.
Okay…so here we go…Dave Mammano…and me…on The Avanti Entrepreneur.
So there you have it Onward Nation. I hope you had as much fun listening to the conversation, as it was to record.
Dave is awesome…and if you haven’t listened to his show before this one…I highly recommend you visit AvantiEntrepreneurGroup.com for his other outstanding episodes and free resources.
So with that said…I want to say thank you, Onward Nation.
Thank you for being here – thank you for all of your support – thank you for all of your daily encouragement – thank you for all of the wonderful emails sharing what you like about the show – and just as important – sharing how my team and I can get better – how we can deliver even more value to you.
I appreciate the emails, the tweets, the Facebook posts, and all of the connection requests on LinkedIn. I want you to know how much you mean to me – how much you and what you share with us energize my team and me.
You and your feedback is the lifeblood of the show and so before we dive into today’s lesson – I want you to know how much I deeply appreciate you taking some of your precise 86,400 seconds you were blessed enough to receive today – and sharing your time – your most precious asset – and deciding to share it with me.
I wish you the best of success as you conquer big goals and challenges the rest of this week – and look forward to having you back here tomorrow when we will have the opportunity to learn directly from Jared Nichols – you will not want to miss it.
Until then…onward with gusto!
David Mattson serves as the CEO and President of Sandler Training, he oversees the corporate direction and strategy for Sandler’s global operations including sales, marketing, consulting, alliances and support. His key areas of focus are sales leadership, strategy, and client satisfaction. Under David’s leadership, the Sandler organization expanded domestically and internationally to over 250 offices in 27 countries around the world. He added numerous program offerings to Sandler’s training portfolio, including Enterprise Selling, Leadership, and Customer Service programs, along with Sandler Certification — and — David is a Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek bestselling author.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * David’s background * Why David believes that salespeople are made…not born * How confidence & conviction can help you get through your fears of being an introvert * How to avoid being reactive * What habits Dave believes have contributed to his success * How to build trust with your team * Why every position within a company needs to act as if they own the organization * Why all business owners need to master communication & accountability * Why Dave believes that business owners need to come up with the questions and the issues, not the answers * Why the #1 thing you should focus on is sales * Creating behavioral plans
How best to connect with David: * Website: www.sandler.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/dave-mattson-99538612
Corey Kupfer has negotiated successful deals for over 30 years as an entrepreneur and lawyer. He’s the author of Authentic Negotiating: Clarity, Detachment & Equilibrium – The Three Keys to True Negotiating Success & How to Achieve Them. Corey’s clients include best-selling business author David Bach and Ajay Gupta, financial advisor to Tony Robbins. He’s committed to inspiring authenticity in business. He has facilitated workshops for Entrepreneurs’ Organization, Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services, AICPA, Citibank, Schwab Advisor Services, and numerous other organizations. Corey is also very active with many nonprofit and public interest organizations. For many years, he was a leader of the New York community of The Hunger Project, an organization that empowers people to end their own hunger.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Corey’s background * Why it’s important to be at a place of gratitude * Why you need to prepare both internally & externally * Why you will have much more success if you plan your days intentionally * Why you need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable * Why you need to get connected to the ‘gap’ * How context can give you a place to truth back up to * Why it’s important to identify your purpose and fully commit to it * Why you need to do the work to figure out the deep ‘why’ * Trusting your inner guidance
How best to connect with Corey: * Website: coreykupfer.com * Website: authenticenterprises.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/coreykupfer * Facebook: www.facebook.com/CoreyKupfer * Twitter: @coreykupfer * Book: “Authentic Negotiating: Clarity, Detachment & Equilibrium The Three Keys to True Negotiating Success & How to Achieve Them”
Mark Walker has been a real estate investor since 2004 and founded Luxmana Investments in 2011. Mark has successfully overseen the operations of his own assets, and that of other investors, in Colorado, Texas, Florida and Illinois. This includes his involvement with MBP Capital and Catalyst Multifamily Management — a successful multifamily investment, management, and brokerage firm. During this tenure, Mark has had property management oversight of his Dallas area multifamily portfolio, while also assisting with acquisitions and dispositions of assets.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Mark’s background * Why it’s important to know how much your desired lifestyle costs you * Why investing is really a team sport * How Mark networking has contributed to his success * Why you need to trust, but also verify * Why you need to constantly ask yourself what’s working, what’s not working, and what can improve * Why business owners need to master their time-management skills * How you can tap into systems & other people to leverage them to rapidly scale your business * Why you need to know your goal & what it looks like * Why, if you’re not having fun, you really need to question what you’re doing & why
How best to connect with Mark: * Website: www.luxmana.com * Free Gift: “10 Things I Am Going to Do Today to Escape the Rat Race”
Kathy Kolbe is the author of the new book BUSINESS IS BUSINESS: Reality Checks for Family-Owned Companies and is also the global leader in discovering and accessing the power of human instincts. She has done the brain research to prove the relevance of her Kolbe Theory of Conation to individual and organizational success. Kolbe was the first person to connect conative behavior to instinctive drives, which she postulated as the source of the patterns of mental energy commonly known as a person’s “MO.”
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Kathy’s background * Why you need to be smart about how you deal with your emotions * How the creative process encompasses all three parts of the mind * What happens when you combine cognitive and conative behavior * Why birth order & gender are not the crux of how you succeed working together in a family owned business * How Kathy can predict failure just as well as she can predict success * Why you need to look at your natural conative abilities * How Kathy’s data shows that there is universal equality * Why the most important thing to know is yourself * Why collaboration is the key to any organization’s success * Why we should avoid hiring people who are like us
How best to connect with Kathy: * Website: kolbe.com * Website: www.aptcareers.com * Email: kkolbe@kolbe.com * Book: “Business is Business: Reality Checks for Family-Owned Companies”
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation — I’m Stephen Woessner. Have you ever noticed how most people only pay attention to the final product of a successful business owner?
They say things like…“I can never be like them.” or “They got lucky.”
What most people don’t see is what the business owner overcame on their path to becoming successful.
All of the struggles. All of the daily rejections. The heartaches. The betrayals. The rumors. The criticism.
Even the empty bank accounts.
And all of those lonely nights while they worked hard to make their vision become a reality.
You see, Onward Nation, the only difference between the one who quits, and the one who doesn’t, is that the successful owner showed up every day.
The successful owner worked hard every day.
They hustled every day.
They learned from a proven mentor every day. They worked hard to improve every day.
They did all this…even though they felt like quitting…every day.
And eventually, they became who they are today…a successful business owner.
All of this is a very powerful lesson that I learned from Patrick Bet-David, founder and host of the popular YouTube channel, ValueTainment.
Onward Nation, if you haven’t already subscribed to Patrick’s YouTube channel, I highly recommend it.
Patrick is exceptional at teaching success principles and lessons you can apply immediately in order to move your business onward to that next level.
And during this solocast, we are going to dig deep into one of the fundamental – yet underlying principles that I just shared from Patrick. The principle is fundamental to success — but Onward Nation — it is also easy to miss, overlook, or to take for granted.
The principle is that there is no such thing as an overnight success.
There isn’t. No matter what industry — no matter what sector — the companies that have achieved sustainable success reached their pinnacle after years and years of perfecting their craft.
Successful people think about long-term wins – not short-term wins. It is about the long-haul, it is about endurance, and outlasting the competition not just for today – but for years and years down the road.
So I am going to share some examples to illustrate this powerful principle.
Why?
Because it is critically important to realize that success takes time.
Your success requires your full attention. Your success requires failure, it requires making adjustments, repositioning, trying again, failing again, reintroducing products, and maybe even being on the brink of collapse as was the case with Apple, before you finally, truly “make it.”
My hope for you is that you will celebrate the challenges and obstacles that are in your way right now.
With the right perspective – you will see them as the gift that they are. Each challenge – each obstacle – each setback – is actually making you stronger — if you let them.
Each embarrassing failure is forcing you to think differently — they are testing your commitment to your vital priorities, vital function, and your wherewithal.
Will you push forward — or will you quit, Onward Nation?
My hope is that you will always push forward and never quit.
There is no such thing as an overnight success. Instead, it takes persistence and tenacity over the long haul. The path to success often winds and swerves – and then ultimately – you make it – after 15 to 20-years of grinding it out and remaining focused on your vital priorities that you are then seen as an “overnight success.”
To that point, I encourage you to go back and re-listen to my interview with Verne Harnish in episode 205 and listen carefully to how Verne introduces himself to you, Onward Nation.
Verne says this is his 34th year of doing just one thing — helping companies scale up. His organizations and companies are devoted to this “one thing”…his books are dedicated to this “one thing” and even his family and friends are dedicated to supporting him be successful with this “one thing.”
The discussion with Verne is so compelling because he takes some time to dispel the overnight success myth by sharing some interesting data points and stories. One of those data points is that there are over 11,000 new companies launched every hour all over the world today.
Just think of that, Onward Nation…11,000 new companies an hour.
However, the vast majority of those companies will not be successful — they will lack the fortitude — the staying power to effectively scale their business. For example, Verne went on to share that of the 28 million businesses in the United States, about 24 million of the total are solopreneurs and will never scale up.
Why?
Most lack the resources — and I don’t mean just financial. Often times, as Verne shared, it is not a question of “how much do I need to scale?” but typically a question of who do I need to be in association with in order to scale up over the long haul.
Verne cited Apple and how the company had slowly moved along with their 25-year timeline — nearly collapsed — until Steve Jobs came back. At the time Jobs returned, they had 9,800 employees and were nearly broke.
And likely all of us know what happened following the iPod’s release in 2001 — but it didn’t succeed right away…in fact…the iPod floundered a bit for a couple of years.
But in 2003, it got some traction and now Apple has scaled to over 110,000 employees during the last 13 years. It would be very easy to forget about those first 25 years of trial, error, struggle, losing millions of dollars, nearly going broke, and then focusing on just one thing and doing it with excellence in the iPod — and then traction takes hold.
Success requires a disciplined effort over a long period of time.
Some people look at Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of Vaynermedia in New York City, as this guy who came out of nowhere to leap in front of the social media space and is now super popular with a massive following. Couldn’t be further from the truth — and Gary would be the first one to tell you. His story is one of grit, tenacity, outworking the competition, and playing to win for the long term.
When Gary launched Wine Library TV — his daily show — for about the first year, his audience was really small…almost discouragingly small…but Gary didn’t quit. Then year two…then year three…then year four…then year five, and then year six.
Six years, Onward Nation!
Six years of producing a high-quality show of 20 to 30-minutes of engaging video content — every day — that’s what it took for Gary Vee to win.
Just think about that for a minute. The magnitude of content he produced. It is really easy to look at Vaynermedia today and become impressed with the success — heck — nearly 900 in NYC and five other locations across the United States — those are significant accomplishments.
But to me, and I suppose it is because I’ve had the rare opportunity to be Gary’s guest at Vaynermedia, to go behind the green curtain to interview him and to learn from him, I know that one of the things he is most proud of — and he should be — is all of the hard work, the struggle, the determination to make something out of nothing.
Gary truly enjoys the journey to success — and he would be another one to tell you there are no shortcuts to success.
And just because someone gets paid over $50,000 to deliver a keynote today — like Gary does — there is precious backstory there and it’s the backstory that is much more interesting.
Let’s take a look at the late Peter Drucker, arguably the godfather of modern day management.
Verne Harnish shared with me during our interview that of Peter’s 39 groundbreaking books, only 13 of them were written before Peter’s 65th birthday. Peter wrote twice the number of books after he turned 65.
What?
It takes a long time, Onward Nation, to collect, curate, and share the wisdom that is deep and impactful enough to matter and add value to a lot of people, like Peter did.
Or, how about Picasso?
Of his top 10 paintings — six of them were painted after he had turned 50. And four of the of 10 paintings were completed when Picasso was 51.
Again…it’s the long-term commitment to your vital priorities and vital functions…perfecting your craft with years, and years, and years of disciplined effort.
I have mentioned vital priorities and vital functions a couple of times this morning — so if you want a refresher on terminology — just go back and listen to episode 203. I dedicated an entire solocast to the topic of the vitals in your business and the lessons I learned from one of my mentors, Darren Hardy.
So let’s move onto another example of long-term success. It would be very easy to look at James Patterson, one of the most successful novelists in history, and think — wow — here’s a guy who has it made. How amazing to be that lucky — to just write all day — what a joy.
Again, let’s go behind the green curtain.
I had an opportunity to interview the incomparable Linda Kaplan Thaler — oh my word, Onward Nation — Linda is brilliant. She was the creator of the AFLAC duck and so many ad campaigns that I know you will recognize if you go back to listen to our interview.
But during our conversation, Linda told me about how she used to work for James Patterson when James was the creative director of the agency where Linda worked. James and Linda worked together for 17-years and became great friends. As Linda shared with me, James did not become a great novelist by accident or luck. Instead, to perfect his craft, James would get up every morning at 4:00 and would write for four hours until 8:00 when he would leave his home for the agency.
He would then put in a full day — go home — and be in bed by 8:30 every night. And he rinsed and repeated this process for 21 years, Onward Nation. Staggering. 21 years!
Just think about how many times during those 21 years that he would have second guessed himself, called himself bat crazy, how much criticism he received from friends and family encouraging him to just quit and to give up on his dream, and so much more.
But he didn’t.
He remained committed to his vital priority — and after 21 years — he became the successful James Patterson we know today.
Or, how about Henry Ford? He was 40 years old when he founded the Ford Motor Company with the help of friends, family, and several investors who collectively helped him raise $28,000 in capital in 1903.
And if you look through Mr. Ford’s timeline, you will see trials, tribulations, blood, sweat, tears, heartache, success, followed by disappointment, followed by triumph, followed by obstacles.
So, let’s put all of these stories and principles into context by remembering the excellent lesson taught to us by Cody Foster, founder of Advisors Excel, our exceptional guest on Episode 81 of Onward Nation. Cody said to me, “Stephen, don’t compare someone else’s front-of-stage with your back-of-stage.”
If you only look at someone’s front-of-stage — what you see in the public eye — you miss all of the struggles, the obstacles, the pain, the suffering, the courage, and their zig-zagged journey to where they are now.
For example…we could look at Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock, one of Hollywood’s hottest and most in-demand actors today…and it would be easy to fall into the trap of thinking that his path to success was different…that it wasn’t full of struggle, grinding it out, working hard to be the best…and most importantly…that it took 20-years for Dwayne to reach the pinnacle of success that he now enjoys.
An injury on the football field at the University of Miami that ended any hope of a professional football career that then he directed his attention toward professional wrestling.
And then he worked tirelessly to perfect his craft…slowly…training…making mistakes…until he made it to the big show…22,000 people in New York City’s Madison Square Garden…and a pay-per-view television audience for his first big shot at a win back in 1996.
And due to all of the excitement…he forgot to direct his attention toward the correct camera…so the huge at-home audience saw a lot of The Rock’s back.
Did this send him spinning and worrying about the mistake?
No! He got back to work…and ground it out for years until he won his first WWE championship.
And then that success led to controversy and tension…which he battled through…and finally some smaller movie roles…then a movie series…then some larger roles…and in November 2016…a starring role in Disney’s Moana as the mythical, Maui, whose bigger than life personality is a perfect fit for The Rock.
And if you want to see some awesome behind the scenes video for the recording of Moana – just check this out:
But what if The Rock would have quit after football?
What if he would have quit in his early WWE career and let the frustration of not getting an early break set him back? What if he approached the smaller movie roles with less than full enthusiasm and instead decided to hold out for the big one?
What if, Onward Nation…The Rock had not been willing to invest the 20 years of blood, sweat, and tears to become an overnight success?
What if?
And what if you don’t? You will be robbing the world of your special gifts and talents.
What if Napoleon Hill gave up and quit because he had not become an overnight success?
But, most people don’t know the story behind the success of “Think & Grown Rich” — and how the first edition, per se, was a great book but not well-received by the American public.
Why? Well, several factors.
First, it was published in 1928 — just one year before the Great Depression.
The American public was not looking for — or ready for — a success manuscript at that time. And second, the book was huge and it was under a different title. It was the 612-page “Law of Success” — wow. I own the book — it is sitting on my desk right now — and it is amazing.
It is essentially a more comprehensive version of “Think & Grow Rich.”
Smartly, Napoleon decided to revise and repackage the Laws of Success by trimming it down — making it more concise — and then publishing it as “Think & Grow Rich” in 1937, nearly 10 years later, following the Depression.
“Think & Grow Rich” then went on to sell 70 million copies worldwide.
Again, no such thing as an overnight success.
So don’t give up, Onward Nation!
I hope you realize that the struggles you are facing — perhaps the abyss you are staring into right now — is all part of the master plan. You are more talented, more wonderful, more gifted, more incredible than you can possibly imagine.
You are a child of the highest God and were blessed with an abundance of talent — so don’t quit — don’t give in — don’t stop. Keeping moving forward — success is there for you — just not overnight.
So with that…I want to thank you again for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here — thank you for tuning in — I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
However our daily podcast fits into your daily routine — I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation…good or bad…I always want your feedback.
My direct email address is stephen@onwardnation.com — and yes — that is my actual Inbox.
No fancy filters or filing system and I read and reply to every single email.
So please let me know how you think we are doing. I look forward to hearing from you.
Until then, onward with gusto!
Through his life in martial arts, Jim Bouchard transformed himself from dropout, drug abuse, and failure to successful entrepreneur and a Black Belt. Over 30 years of practice, studying, and teaching, he has developed the tools needed to master life, career, and business. As a speaker, trainer, and author of “THINK Like a BLACK BELT” and “THE SENSEI LEADER”, Jim is in demand internationally among corporate and conference audiences. He appears regularly on TV and radio including BBC Worldview and FOX News.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Jim’s background * Some of the greatest gifts that martial arts have given Jim * How mastery is about getting somewhere, not about being somewhere * The techniques Jim uses to stay on course for the day * The importance of developing the habit of discipline * Why you need to ask yourself “Am I where I want to be today?” * Why, as leaders, you need to let people fail constructively * Why you need to respect your core values to do the difficult things * Why you need to be comfortable with uncertainty * Why Jim feels that success is nothing more than the product of abundance
How best to connect with Jim: * Website: www.thatblackbeltguy.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jimbouchard
Rick Crossland is an internationally known expert and thought leader on A Player Talent. His innovative approach to developing and validating high performers has been published in leading business sites such as Inc.com and Fortune.com, where Rick contributes articles as a Fortune Insider. Rick has almost 30 years of experience developing, recruiting and leading high performers, and developing high performing cultures at companies. Before founding his executive coaching, leadership, and talent development company, Rick had worked at Johnson and Johnson, Ford Motor Company, and Limited Brands.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Rick’s background * Why you should look for passive candidates when hiring * Why, when interviewing people, you should always ask about their results * Why you need to clearly define the position you are hiring for * Why it’s so important to be able to hold others accountable * The difference in how both accountable & non-accountable people talk * Why you need to get focused on productive return on investment oriented marketing * How you can be a better leader immediately just by upgrading your team * Why you need to become a talent scout * Why you shouldn’t ask somebody to do something that you haven’t mastered yourself
How best to connect with Rick: * Website: aplayeradvantage.com * Book: “The A Player: The Definitive Playbook and Guide for Employees and Leaders Who Want to Play and Perform at the Highest Level”
Dr. Rocco Martino is the inventor of the SmartPhone — and — has been a pioneer in the tech industry for 65 years. He is the author of 28 non-fiction books and five novels. His most recent book is entitled, “The Coming Technology Tsunami”, which shared Rocco’s vision of how technology will affect all of us in the next 10-years. It will be an unsettling time, but full of promise. Millions of jobs will be lost. Deliveries will be made by robots in driverless vans. The Smartphone will revolutionize education. We will launch our first colonization trip to Mars. The status quo will be disrupted and no profession or activity will be unaffected. And it will all happen in the next 10-years. This is going to be an insightful conversation!
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Dr. Martino’s background * The story of the early days behind the CyberFone & SmartPhone * Why Dr. Martino changed his strategy of trying to sell the hardware to trying to license the software * How Dr. Martino could not enforce his patent because he was not a telephone or communications company * How Dr. Martino created a $750 billion industry but received nothing * Dr. Martino’s dream of going to outer space * Why Dr. Martino feels that the history of the future is so obvious * How we are close to being able to carry on a conversation with a robot * How the power of association has been a contributor to Dr. Martino’s success * Why, if you’re down, pray, meditate, & move forward
How best to connect with Dr. Martino: * Website: BlueNosePress.com * Email: roccomartino@gmail.com
Frank Cottle is CEO of Alliance Virtual Offices and Chairman of the Alliance Business Centers Network with over 650 centers operating in 42 counties. He is the recognized expert on flexible working, the virtual office movement, and third place working. Prior to creating the Alliance brand, Frank successfully operated his own portfolio of business centers in multiple locations across North America. Frank has spent almost 30 years delivering business services that are finely turned to the workplace needs of startups, entrepreneurs, and growing small businesses. He has worked with tens of thousands of business owners and has become the go-to authority on flexible and remote work.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Frank’s background * Why Frank believes that the secret to time-saving and focus is building a team * Why you cannot leave anyone out of the communications in a company * Why you need to find joy in your work every day * Why Frank’s goal is to be the best student of his industry * Why you need to understand cycles and treat them differently * Empowering people so that they can make decisions above & below their responsibilities * Why you need to look at how you’re going to react quickly to any given situation * Why stagnation kills companies * Why the most important thing in business is flexibility
How best to connect with Frank: * Website: www.alliancevirtualoffices.com
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation – I’m Stephen Woessner and welcome to Episode 460 – this week’s solocast where I will share the specific step-by-step recipe for how to get a sponsor for your podcast, a lesson that I learned directly from one of today’s leading authorities on the topic of sponsorships. Her name is Linda Hollander, and she is off-the-charts amazing. I’m telling you – the lesson in this solocast is going to help you monetize your podcast in new ways – or – if you already have sponsors – it may give you some new insights so you can sell your sponsorships upwards of $100,000 per year.
Before we get to today’s lesson…I want to thank you. Thank you for being here – thank you for all of your support – thank you for all of your daily encouragement – thank you for all of the wonderful emails sharing what you like about the show – and just as important – sharing how my team and I can get better – how we can deliver even more value to you and your teammates.
I appreciate the emails, the tweets, the Facebook posts, and all of the connection requests on LinkedIn. I want you to know how much you mean to me – how much you and what you share with us energize my team and me.
You and your feedback is the lifeblood of the show and so before we dive into today’s lesson – I want you to know how much I deeply appreciate you taking some of your precise 86,400 seconds you were blessed enough to receive today – and sharing your time – your most precious asset – and deciding to share it with me.
And because time is the most precious asset for all of us – I have invested my time in building a lesson for you today that will add value in potentially many areas of your business. But I will say – despite the value this lesson will provide you – it may make you uncomfortable. You may feel put on the spot.
As you consider the potential of executing on the ideas I share with you this morning – you may immediately begin to talk yourself out of the opportunity. You may second-guess yourself.
You may feel that you and your business are not worthy of such lofty goals.
So as we move through the lesson…as I share with you the practical and tactical of what you need to do when you work to attract a sponsor for your podcast…and you start to second-guess yourself…and begin to feel that your show or your business is not at that right level…I want you to remember the wise words of Marianne Williamson when she said…
But…how do I know this to be true?
Because Onward Nation, Marianne’s words struck me to the core the first time I read them. I was hit hard. I knew she was speaking to me and other people who felt the same way as me. In three simple sentences – she beautifully addressed head on the biggest obstacle of success that was blocking my path.
So now, instead of praying and focusing on opportunity to come my way…I have shifted the context to be more in-line with being ready to accept the abundance – to be okay in becoming the person I need to become to be the best steward possible – to be open and let the light shine in to cast out the darkness – so that I can see my full destiny unfold.
I am sharing all of this with you, in full transparency, so you have an opportunity to get your mindset right – to know you are worthy – that you are ready – that you can be more – that your business is ready for that next level – that your podcast is ready for a sponsorship – and that you are ready to apply all you learn here today.
And that I know the points where today’s lesson about attracting sponsorships will make you feel uncomfortable because I have been there. I have felt the uneasiness of “not being ready” first hand. But I am telling you, Onward Nation – if you apply what I share with your this morning, you will push past the fear and leap onward to that next level.
For example, when my Predictive ROI team and I launched Onward Nation in June of 2015…some of the first questions from people closest to us had nothing to do with the tactical of how we were able to build the show from scratch and launch it in less than 30-days…or…how we were able to soar to the top of iTunes within just a few short weeks.
Nope.
Oftentimes, one of the very first questions I received from those closest to me was…
“When are you going to sell a sponsorship?”
This was a frequently asked question because having a sponsor was an outward sign of success – of legitimacy – that we had made it – that we were on our way to doing something special.
But here’s the truth, Onward Nation. The thought of selling a sponsorship early on terrified me. I was afraid of the rejection. I was afraid of sharing what might seem like small numbers for a new show.
I didn’t want to waste my time or the time of the prospective sponsors. I was afraid of being embarrassed during the process.
And the list goes on and on. But ultimately, I didn’t feel that this show – a couple of years ago – was worthy of a paid sponsorship.
But there was something else – and potentially even more paralyzing. I had no idea what to do – I didn’t know the first thing to attracting let alone selling a sponsorship for our podcast. I knew zero. In fact, to say that I knew zero was to give me a compliment – I knew less than zero.
So my lack of knowledge – and my emotional insecurity around the topic of sponsorship – caused me to answer those initial questions on the topic as the opportunity of sponsorships didn’t matter as a revenue stream because we were focused on building the core business, which was true…but only a half truth.
Here’s what I have learned in the over two years of hard work since that time.
Sponsorships matter. Sponsorships of course matter from the perspective of revenue – but this is the less important compared to the credibility and cache that a sponsor can bring to your show.
For example, let’s say you’re considering listening to Onward Nation for the first time…and you see an ad for…
“Onward Nation with Stephen Woessner.”
Versus if you happened to hear…
“Onward Nation with Stephen Woessner, brought to you by Bank of America.”
Which one sounds more credible?
Exactly! The opportunity of having a Bank of America or some other large brand connected to your brand provides you with some degree of transference of their credibility over to you and your brand.
So, I knew that I needed to figure out the strategy behind sponsorship as a way to take Onward Nation to that next level. But I had no idea where to start.
And then – as is the case often in life – I got the push that I needed in order to make the change that I needed to make.
AMACOM, my publisher for my book being released in mid-September entitled “Profitable Podcasting,” asked me to write a chapter that provided insights into how to attract and sell a sponsorship for a podcast.
“I’m sorry, what was that?” is how I initially felt. Gulp.
I had no idea how I would provide value in an area where I had not developed mastery. However, instead of letting the fear of the assignment linger, I quickly told myself that the recipe that would result from the assignment would give me with another example to share how a podcast could be used as a tool to collect the primary research needed so the chapter — a book chapter outside of my expertise — could be done and done efficiently.
And in full transparency, doing the research, filled in a skills gap for me so I know have what I need in order to close a big sponsorship deal on behalf of Onward Nation. I will share the news toward the end of this year — but oh my — it’s exciting to think about. Game changing.
So, for today’s lesson, I will share the full sponsorship recipe with you. What I learned along the way, from whom I had the honor of learning, and how you can take and apply the same knowledge to attract the right sponsor for your podcast.
Okay…so how did I do the research?
In order to write a great chapter for the book, I knew that I needed to interview the right expert. So my first call was to Wendy Keller, my exceptional literary agent and great friend. She orbits the distant moon of awesome – she is otherworldly. Yes, I’m kind of a big fan.
When I shared my challenge with Wendy, she quickly said to me, “Oh, I know exactly who you should interview for the chapter.”
BA-BAM. And that’s another reason why you need the right inner circle, Onward Nation. Why you need to surround yourself with the right experts, the right mentors, and friends who are moving at the same pace and tempo you want to be moving at.
Five minutes later, Wendy had connected me with Linda Hollander, one of today’s leading authorities on the topic of sponsorships. Both Inc. Magazine and Entrepreneur Magazine have featured Linda as the industry leader in how to sell corporate sponsorships. Linda has over 20-years of experience as a business owner. Her clients and sponsors include Microsoft, FedEx, Citibank, Mattel, Bank of America, Marriott, Health Net, American Airlines, IBM, and Wal-Mart. Her client list reads like a “Who’s Who” in corporate sponsorship.
Just go to www.sponsorconcierge.com to find Linda.
Wendy suggested I interview Linda then transcribe the interview and turn it into a chapter for the book. Brilliant.
I followed Wendy’s blueprint — interviewed Linda — and viola — Chapter 16 with deep expertise from one of the industry’s leading experts on the topic was done.
And I was a heck of a lot smarter after having learned directly from Linda. Rock solid awesome!!
But in order for that to happen – I had to set my fear and ego aside and focus on the assignment – and let go of the fact that I didn’t know something about the world of podcasting. I am taking you so deep behind the green curtain here because I want you to see – everyone deals with fear – everyone has obstacles – everyone is uncomfortable from time-to-time in their business – everyone deals with the imposter syndrome.
Everyone.
But the true measure of greatness – is whether you will let it paralyze you – or – will you push past it and walk toward your destiny. I believe in you, Onward Nation. You are just one phone call or one interview with an expert away from finding that missing piece that will ignite your business to the next level.
Have the guts to make the calls, Onward Nation. Get out there and leverage your podcast as a tool for collecting primary research from top experts — even if your expertise lies outside the area being researched. The interviews you conduct will provide your podcast listeners and true fans with exceptional value, just as Linda did for you.
And the transcripts of your interviews can be converted into chapters for your book.
So here we go…let’s dig in to learn how to master a new skill…the skill of attracting the right sponsor for your podcast…a sponsor who can provide financial resources to support your show…but more importantly…a sponsor who can lend their brand to you…and in doing so…provide you and your show with additional credibility.
So you can get the full context of what I learned from Linda, I am going to share the specific questions I asked Linda – so you can model them – revise them – and then use them when you interview your industry experts.
So here we go…
For my first question, I asked Linda…
“Please take us back to the beginning and your first event so business owners reading this can have the full context of what you have accomplished.”
I asked Linda this for two reasons: 1) it is an easy, soft question that helps develop rapport at the beginning of a conversation when two people are just learning about one another. It would be inappropriate if I asked Linda to share all of her deepest and most valuable sponsorship strategies as the first question. That would be way too abrupt. So focus on building some rapport first. And 2) because I always wanted to know Linda’s backstory because it is wonderful context to know that she came from nothing – and yet – she pushed herself to be more – and despite the odds and the fear – she was successful in securing Bank of America as her first sponsor. She is amazing.
So in Linda’s words…
She had the privilege of working with some great top tier sponsors but it wasn’t always that way. Many of her clients early on in her business were women so she wanted to start the Women’s Small Business Expo to deliver even more value to clients. But she needed sponsors because putting on an event is cash intensive. Ultimately, her first sponsors were Bank of America, Wal-Mart, and IBM.
She had never done an event in her life. She had no idea how to do an event. She had no experience. She had no following. She had her parents on her email list. She put her brother-in-law on her email list, too. They weren’t going to tell her no. If she could have put her cat on there, she would have done that. But despite how she started out, she was able to attract several top tier sponsors.
And when her event attendees came, they would ask Linda, “How the heck are you getting these sponsors? We thought you had to be a big company and have all this experience and track record,” and Linda said, “Absolutely no.” Then Linda knew there was a need in the marketplace for training business owners how to attract sponsors.
She lost a lot of time and money when she first started to learn the sponsorship game. It took her six months to get my first proposal together and she lost $75,000 in the process.
Linda told me, Onward Nation that it was painful, it was excruciating.
Some people wouldn’t even talk to her because she was a micro-business. But, there were also people who said to Linda, “You know what? I’ll talk to you. I’ll help you.” Then she said to herself, “When I learn this stuff, I’m going to teach other business owners how to do it.”
Amazing backstory don’t you think, Onward Nation? Does that help push some of the fear or apprehension aside for you? She started with nothing – no following – nothing – and she went out and did it anyway. She is rock solid awesome.
Okay, let’s press on. Next I asked, Linda…
“Let’s start off with some definitions. When we hear “sponsor” that could mean different things depending upon someone’s business model. What does sponsorship mean, what does a sponsor want to sponsor, are they programs, events, or businesses?”
Linda shared that the definition of sponsorship is “Connecting a company with people who can buy things.” If you know people who can buy stuff, then you can get sponsors. Linda wants you to know that it is a lot simpler than what most business owners think.
In fact…here’s what is “sponsorable.”
- If you have a business — that could be sponsored.
- If you host a radio show
- If you host a podcast
- If you host a television show or YouTube channel, or a blog
All of that can be sponsored. And of course, if you host events like Linda, you can get sponsors because sponsors love live events.
If you’re a speaker or an author, you can get sponsored, because as a speaker and an author you have access to an audience — a fanbase of people — who know your work and know your book, and as a speaker you command the platform.
Companies don’t have people who can speak, who can command a platform, or capture the attention of an audience. So that is a huge advantage for you, Onward Nation!
At this point in my interview with Linda – I started feeling excited and actually really confident.
And the fear, you might ask? What fear? HA! Linda had me so completely energized by the possibilities I was learning from her!
Next I wanted to learn about the pitfalls – the common mistakes business owners make when they head down the sponsorship path so you, Onward Nation – and me – could try to avoid the same $75,000 mistakes Linda had experienced.
So I asked Linda…
“What are some of the biggest mistakes you see business owners making time and time again as they pursue sponsorships?”
She let me know there are a few mistakes to be weary of, and she’s made all of them, so the lessons she could share were directly from her hands-on experience.
The first mistake is, believe it or not, is not asking for enough money.
What?!? I thought to myself!
Linda went on to explain that asking for too little money can hurt a business owner because they are, in effect, telling a sponsor they don’t have anything of value to offer.
Linda often gets calls from business owners who are trying to sell their $500 sponsor package. They’re going to be presenting to a busy, stressed-out person inside a company, and if they see a sponsor package priced at $500, they’re going to think the business owner doesn’t have anything of value.
In the sponsorship process, you have what’s called your “Champion,” and this is the person within the sponsoring company who loves you, but they have to sell you and your program to their colleagues, their team, and their boss, and maybe the people working under them to get it approved. Onward Nation, your pricing strategy needs to communicate value in order for them to do that.
For most of Linda’s clients, what she sees them typically win is between $10,000 and $100,000 in annual sponsor fees.
If you do an event, if you have a podcast, or something else that is episode-to-episode, bundle everything together for the year and sell an annual sponsorship because you’re going to be more successful in properly positioning yourself with sponsors.
The second mistake business owners make is not using an industry standard proposal.
According to Linda, your sponsor proposal is one of the most important but least understood documents. You have to use an industry standard format or you will not get funded.
Your proposal must look amazing and have the right compelling benefits.
So to recap, Onward Nation – the two biggest mistakes you need to avoid are asking for too little money and not having a good proposal.
Okay, I was really intrigued by what Linda was teaching me, and I knew that in order for the lessons to have the most value to you and to the readers of my book, Linda and I needed to drill in deeper on the topic of sponsorships for podcasting.
So I asked Linda…
“Let’s say you’re a podcaster. Sounds like you would try to sell an annual sponsorship of your show instead of weekly episodes, but you would also package in your entire platform including social media, email lists, webinars, events, etc., right?”
In Linda’s opinion, yes, you want them to sponsor your entire brand — not a single show.
It took Linda a while to figure this out because at first she started to have sponsors for her events and then thought, “Wait a minute, I’ve got a whole brand here.” When she had them sponsor her brand, she made a whole lot more money. Instead of a business owner saying, “I’m a podcaster,” you should brand yourself as a “media company” who does podcasting because sponsors are not quite in love with podcasting yet. It’s still new. It’s still cutting edge.
But if you say you’re a media company, Onward Nation then their ears are going to perk up.
Then they’re going to be interested.
Talk about your podcast, but then talk about the other things you do such as, email blasts, social media, maybe even YouTube. Talk about all of the touch points you have. Then Linda took me back to the definition of sponsorship; “Connecting a company to people who buy things.”
Onward Nation, you need to tell your prospective sponsors how you can connect them to people who could but their stuff.
At this point in the learning from Linda, I was feeling really confident about the steps, the process, the upside, and the mistakes that needed to be avoided in order to save time and cash. Then I had another spark of fear – but in full transparency – it was probably more ego than fear – when I had the thought, “Wait a minute…if I sell a sponsorship for Onward Nation to a Bank of America, for example, doesn’t that diminish our own brand in some way?”
So, I took the opportunity to ask Linda because I figured if I was thinking it – and could potentially turn that into a roadblock – then maybe other business owners would be asking themselves the same question. The best way to push that aside was to ask the expert.
So Linda…
“Do I diminish my own brand if I go get a sponsor?”
And she put my mind at ease by letting me know that she is asked that question a lot because as business owners, we want to be independent, we don’t want to have a company influence what we’re going to say, and we don’t want the appearance that we’re biased.
Linda has never had a sponsor try to influence her content in 16-years of doing this. And if they ever did, she would just say, “Hey, that’s not part of the program.” Onward Nation, you design your program — the sponsor writes the check — that’s what goes on with sponsorships.
Also, the promotion of your sponsor does not have to be outlandish or in your face. The promotion can be elegant and understated, such as signage, banner ads, or things you put on your website. And if you do recommend a company like when Linda was working with Citibank, and she would recommend Citibank, she would disclose it by saying, “I need to disclose that Citibank is my sponsor,” and then you are in integrity by disclosing it.
So know Linda was removing trap door after trap door and each and every excuse I was letting creep back into my mind. I was loving this conversation and the opportunity to learn from someone who has been so successful in this arena – but for me – even more important – was that she had scraped her knees, and busted an elbow, a time or two. She had the in-the-trenches experience that I love and really value.
And if you have been listening to Onward Nation, you know I am a big fan of success secrets…those things…that if we apply them give us the ability to make stochastic jumps onward to new levels.
So I asked Linda…
“Are there any secrets to success business owners need to apply in order to be successful in attracting a sponsor?”
Linda let me know that a secret is to make your sponsor the star. Most business owners when they try to get a sponsor, they fall into the trap of talking about what their business does, they might say things like, “I’ve have this great podcast, I have this great book, I have a great business, I have a great non-profit, or event, etc.”
Business owners can sometimes talk about themselves and that’s not the way to get a sponsor.
The way to get a sponsor is to talk to the sponsor about what you can do for them. Say, “Hey, Mr., Ms. Sponsor, I’m going to educate people about your products and your services. I’m going to help you increase your product and your brand loyalty. I’m going to help you grow your customer base. I’m going to help you drive sales and traffic.”
Do you see the difference, Onward Nation?
You’re saying, “Hey, the sponsor is the star” and your prospective sponsor is going to look at that and say, “Hey, this business owner understands that it’s about me and not about them.”
You’ll tell them a little bit about what you do because they have to understand it, but mostly what you’re going to tell the sponsor is “Here’s how I’m going to benefit your company, here’s what I’m going to do for you.”
Okay, Onward Nation – at this point in the interview, my confidence was soaring. I was beginning to think through the pitch and presentation – my thoughts were going to sales strategy and other ideas were firing. But, an essential component to any strategy is timing. How long would something like this take to pull together?
So I asked Linda for her help about timelines…
“Let’s talk timelines. How fast does, or maybe how long, is the sales cycle you typically see for attracting $10,000 to $100,000 sponsorships?”
Linda started by reminding me that sponsorships are a relationship business. You need time to develop relationships with companies. Here’s where it’s going to be maybe a little bit of a shock to business owners. Linda recommends eight months to a year before you need the funding to start approaching prospective sponsors. Linda went on to tell me why.
If you’re approaching Microsoft, FedEx, Staples (those are called the “Top Tier” sponsors), they have a process. You have to apply and you have to wait for them to approve it. They like to have a lot of lead time because whatever you are doing you have to talk about how you are going to work with their company, what kind of a program you are going to build together, and it takes time to develop that depth of a relationship.
It will take time to get your first sponsor.
But, Linda also shared some thoughts on how to complete the process quicker. There are “Top Tier” sponsors and then are “Second Tier” sponsors. In the banking industry (and banks are a great place to find sponsorships, by the way), Linda has worked with Bank of America and Citibank. They are top tier. But there may be a local community bank where you live, Onward Nation. There may be an up and coming player in the banking industry you might want to work with.
That won’t take as long because it’s easier to get to the decision makers and to get that process of sponsorship started.
The amazing thing about sponsorships being a relationship business is that there is something called renewals in sponsorships. And renewals are magic. Renewals are your cash machine because if a sponsor likes you, they can fund you this year, next year, and the next year. Linda has sold multi-year sponsorships with FedEx and Citibank. Her clients have had multi-year contracts with Verizon, Dole Foods, and Black and Decker just to name a few.
It’s not a quick cash strategy. It is a long-term strategy to fund your business, Onward Nation.
That’s why Linda recommends that business owners go for a one-year contract because one-year is about enough time to really analyze the relationship and if the sponsor wants to continue. If your sponsorship is from event-to-event, or episode-to-episode, a sponsor is not going to see that much growth as far as return on investment, so they are less likely to renew.
Now it was time to begin formalizing the recipe – I could see the individual ingredients – but I needed Linda’s master skills with the recipe to help pull it all together so I could see the result outcome she was already envisioning.
So I asked Linda…
“Let’s get tactical and think about key steps in the process, the action plan, things that are going to improve the probability of success. If you were to give business owners one, two, or three things they need to do, what would those steps be?”
Linda was kind enough to share a three-step process to attracting a sponsor.
The first part is to do what she calls the “Sponsor Wish List.”
The wish list is the list of companies that you would like to have as sponsors. Remember in your sponsor wish list to include both Top Tier and the Second Tier sponsors. Most business owners when they start their wish list think only of Top Tier sponsors. Go deeper.
Since Linda and I had already talked about the banking industry, she then shifted to talk insurance.
Yes, banking and insurance may be perceived by some business owners as boring industries. Everyone wants glam sponsors like fashion, cosmetics, and accessories. But the boring companies have the money.
Let’s take the insurance category, you’re going to think of State Farm, and AFLAC, and all the ones that have paid to be top of mind. Then go a little deeper by doing some Google searches into smaller insurance companies, the up and coming brands, because the up and coming brands need you to get their name out.
Linda told me that these second tier companies are outstanding prospects because they don’t have the brand awareness of the big brands and will be more open to what you have to offer, Onward Nation.
Linda then shared a tangible example of that in practice. She worked with a company called Evolution Insurance Brokers. Nobody has ever heard of Evolution Insurance Brokers, and that is exactly why they sponsored her. They wanted to get the word out about their company. They’re not AFLAC, they’re not State Farm, they’re not the big players in the industry.
But, Onward Nation…the second tiers have money to invest. Linda was not able to disclose exactly the value of the sponsorship with Evolution Insurance Brokers, but it was 5-figures.
Step two is preparing your professional proposal. Linda recommends writing what she calls an “Industry Standard Sponsor Proposal.”
The full sponsor proposal is about eight to ten pages in length and here’s what it includes:
- A description of your “property.” Onward Nation, write down the word “property” because what you do now is called the “property.” Your podcast is a property. Your book is a property. Your speaking business is a property. Your business, your event, your non-profit, whatever you are doing is called a property. You want to describe that.
- You should include your sponsor’s goals, which should be similar to what we talked about earlier in this chapter, such as increasing brand loyalty and customer base, and educating people, and driving traffic and sales, and all that.
- You should include a one-page marketing plan. It includes all the ways you’re going to get the word out about the sponsor. Sponsors are interested in this because marketing is the difference between a good idea someone has in their head and something that actually has legs and is sustainable.
- You should include your demographics. Whether your demographics are mothers, the parent market, the entrepreneurial market, the urban youth, the baby boomer market, you need to describe your demographics. Include any testimonials you have.
- You should include your sponsor fees like the ones we’ve talked about.
- The last thing, and here is how Linda and her team write proposals differently than anyone else in the country, is storytelling.
You want to have good storytelling inside your proposal. Linda calls it “passion points.”
Linda is able to sells sponsors because she doesn’t just put in the proposal what’s called your “pretty bio.” The pretty bio is your education, and the awards you won, and your experience. All of that is nice but what you want is to be vulnerable, you need to make a human connection, because you’re not just pitching to a faceless cooperation. You are pitching to a person, a human being, and you want to show your humanity.
In Linda’s story, she talks about how she was in the poverty trap. She talks about how she was in an abusive relationship. Her story has helped her secure sponsors because you want them to see you as a real person.
The emotional connection is important, Onward Nation. You want to put beautiful storytelling in there. If you don’t want to include your own story, put the story of someone you’ve helped through the work you do.
Be sure to include some emotion. Business owners often make the mistake of thinking, “Oh, I’m going to impress them, and I’m going to put facts, and figures, and statistics in there.” But unfortunately, that is not going help you rise above the competition. Be human.
All of the proposal ingredients from Linda really had me energized, Onward Nation. But then I started thinking about tools and other resources that I might also need to know about in order to make the process of selling a top tier sponsor as efficient as possible from a time perspective.
So I asked Linda…
“Are there any other tools, any other resources you think business owners ought to study to make this process as efficient and effective as possible?”
Linda shared that her website at www.sponsorconcierge.com includes two free gifts. One is the “Number 1 Secret to Getting Corporate Sponsors.” And the second is that she does free sponsor strategy sessions with business owners so they can book a sponsor strategy session with me. During the sessions, she takes a look at what you’re currently doing, and together, you develop a success strategy to attract the right sponsor.
To close out the interview, I asked Linda if she had any final advice that she thought we might have missed during our discussion.
Linda closed by sharing how important it was for business owners to know that they can do this. The number one question Linda is most often asked is, “Why would a sponsor want to work with little ole’ me? I’m just getting started. I’m not a big company. I don’t have a track record. I don’t have a big following.”
And Linda said to me, “Stephen, please know you can do this. You have value. You have things a sponsor is going to be attracted to. You just need to package it in the right way.”
She reinforced the point by telling me the story about how she got her first sponsor…
Linda lives in Los Angeles, California, so when she first had the idea to do her initial event, she was driving around in her clunker car and she of course was stuck in a traffic jam. She looked up and see a billboard for Bank of America and there’s a woman featured within the billboard design, so Linda thinks to herself, “Okay, they’re trying to get the women’s market.”
Immediately, she starts doing self-sabotaging and thinking, “Why the heck would they talk to me? I’m just working from my home from my kitchen table. I’m not a big company. What the heck am I going to offer Bank of America?”
But Linda’s dream and mission to help people was so strong that she couldn’t get it out of her head. So she got the courage to make a call to Bank of America and finally got the person who could greenlight the sponsorships. She finished her proposal, got everything done, and had an appointment at their office – and she was super nervous.
Then he said to Linda, “Well, let’s see your proposal,” and she handed it to him. And he said, “Okay, well we’re going to go for this level of sponsorship,” and it was a five-figure sponsorship.
Linda had to act like she did this all the time so she said, “Oh, great,” and then had to shake his hand but her hand was so clammy she had to wipe it off!
She got back in my car and did the happy dance right there in the parking lot! She drove home and waved to all the Bank of America branches on her way home.
You never know what’s going to happen, Onward Nation. It all starts with a thought. It starts with a dream. It starts with a vision. We’re taught to have these big dreams but we’re not taught how to finance the dreams, and dreams take money, and that’s where sponsors come in.
You can do this!
Hold your head up high. Know that you have quality and you bring value to your sponsors — and — you can fund your dreams.
So with that said, Onward Nation…
I want to thank you for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here — thank you for tuning in — your time is sacred and I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
However our daily podcast fits into your daily routine — I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And if you haven’t already downloaded your copy of our 12 Success Strategies eBook, just text the word “onward” to 6-6-8-6-6. Again, text the word “onward” to 6-6-8-6-6 and we will send it right to your Inbox.
Onward with gusto!
Adam Robinson is the author of the new book of “THE BEST TEAM WINS: Build Your Business Through Predictive Hiring,” and the founder and CEO of Hireology, where he is on a mission to help business owners make better hiring decisions using predictive data and technology. Hireology’s cloud-based hiring platform is used by over 3,000 organizations in the United States and Canada. In 2015, Robinson was named to the Chicago Tribune Blue Network, a listing of Chicago’s most influential entrepreneurs and innovators, and named a “Top 25 HR Industry Game Changer Under 40” by Workforce magazine.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Adam’s background * How relentlessly focusing on one thing at a time helps Adam stay productive every day * Why you need to know what you want to get out of your day to succeed * Why you need to fully understand the relationship between your growth rate and your balance sheet * Why it’s so important to identify, recruit, and keep good people * Why the company with the strong execution and strong team is always going to win * Why you need to be able to recognize ‘dips’ and ‘cul-de-sacs’ * What you need to do if you’re unhappy with your current situation in business or life * Why you need to be clear on the vision and agree on the outcome * Why you need to ask yourself what you want out of this experience
How best to connect with Adam: * Website: thebestteamwins.com * Website: www.hireology.com
Ken Rutsky is the author of the new book, “LAUNCHING TO LEADING: How B2B Market Leaders Create Flash Mobs, Marshal Parades, And Ignite Movements.” Ken is also a B2B marketing consultant focused on helping his clients break through and become market leaders. He has spent nearly 25 years in B2B marketing roles, launching the “Intel Inside” broadcast co-op program in 1994 and then the Internet’s first affiliate marketing program, Netscape Now, while at Netscape from 1995 to 1999. Since then, Ken served as the CMO at several start-ups and ran network-security marketing at McAfee, where he developed and executed a marketing strategy that grew its web security business from $60 million to nearly $200 million. Today, Ken’s firm, KJR Associates, Inc. leverages his knowledge from his extensive Silicon Valley career to help his clients lead their markets. In the seven years, his firm’s clients have generated more than $10 billion in shareholder value through IPOs, acquisitions and late stage private equity rounds.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Ken’s background * How Ken takes a much more structured approach to how he thinks about his business * The method Ken uses to increase his awareness & focus to his clients * The importance of keeping a healthy routine * The importance of understanding your financial picture both personally & professionally * Why Ken feels that customer empathy is the most critical skill needed to thrive today * How the customer’s journey connects to market leadership * How transforming customers to the reason you exist can lead to profit * Why, as an entrepreneur, you shouldn’t just focus on making money * Why you need to just embrace the fear & understand that it’s normal
How best to connect with Ken: * Website: kenrutsky.com
Chris Dayley is passionate about helping businesses learn what their users want on their website, through psychology based testing, and analytics. He started his conversion optimization agency, Dayley Conversion, in 2014, which he later merged with Disruptive Advertising, where he currently works as vice president of site testing and optimization.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Chris’ background * What is behind driving conversions as well as obstacles that get in the way * Why businesses shouldn’t just dump their whole story on a conversion page * Why it’s important to designate certain times to check & respond to emails * How daily mindfulness meditation contributes to Chris’ success * Why part of A/B testing on your site always involves both good & bad data * Why you need to learn how to detach your worth & your value from what you do * Possessing the critical skill of challenging your assumptions * Why you need to just focus on doing a few things really well * Why you need to live deliberately
How best to connect with Chris: * Website: www.disruptiveadvertising.com * eBook: www.disruptiveadvertising.com/guide * Twitter: @chrisdayley
Michael Sacca is the President of Crew and Host of Rocketship.fm. He started his career by moving to LA and pursuing music. After three years of waiting tables and little success, he decided to teach himself how to code. He used his coding skills to launch Tiny Factory, a web development agency that won clients like GE and Kobe Bryant. While running Tiny Factory, he started the Rocketship podcast and built many other apps and products. One of those products was recently acquired. Michael joined Crew two years ago as Head of Partnerships and has now taken over as President. Companies have trusted Crew to source freelancers for over $30 million in design and development projects.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Michael’s background * Why, in the tech world, it’s not about your resume – it’s about your performance * How Michael’s daily approach to focus & preparation is different than most * The importance of looking at your data & checking on the health of your business * Why Michael believes that communication is such a critical skill to master in order to thrive * Why, as a business owner, you need to be the best one at communicating your vision of the company * Why it’s so important to give your employees the tools that they need to succeed * Why you should continue to look at the systems & processes you have in place during different levels of growth * Why you should hire specialists underneath generalists * Why it’s vital to validate your business idea & do customer research
How best to connect with Michael: * Website: crew.co * Podcast: rocketship.fm * Email: michael@crew.co * Twitter: @michaelsacca
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation – I’m Stephen Woessner and welcome to Episode 455 – this week’s solocast.
I am excited about the lesson that I prepared for our time together because it addresses the gaping hole that exists inside most businesses. I have been talking about it for a while now and the hole is the lack of qualified leads flowing into a business owner’s sales pipeline for his or her company. Here’s the most recent data…of the 28 million small business owners in this country – over 43 percent of them cite “growing revenue” as being their top challenge in their company. That is over 12 million business owners.
And yes, the challenge in growing revenue can be complex – it can certainly be impacted by value proposition – perhaps a business is trying to solve a problem that doesn’t actually exist. Or, perhaps their pricing is off. There could be a myriad of factors or obstacles in the way of a business owner’s ability to grow revenue.
But, in my over 20+ years of experience in owning five companies – and having interviewed over 450 of today’s top business owners for Onward Nation – I will say that the ability to generate leads – and – to generate leads at such consistency that a steady stream of well-prepared prospects flow into a business owner’s pipeline – represents the most significant challenge.
So that is going to be where we spend our time together today. We will focus on how to use LinkedIn to fill your sales pipeline like a pro. Today’s lesson will provide you with the tools, resources, and step-by-step you and your team need in order to begin using LinkedIn to fill your sales pipeline like a pro.
And if you want to take the process even deeper, I encourage you to register for the web workshop I am teaching tomorrow called the 4-Steps to Filling Your Sales Pipeline. Just go to OnwardNation.com/webinar for the details. That’s OnwardNation.com/webinar.
Rest assured — I know you are busy. I will respect your time by delivering a workshop packed full of real, actionable strategies, that when followed, will fill your sales pipeline in 30-days or less.
I look forward to seeing you there.
Okay, let’s bring our focus back to today’s lesson…how to use LinkedIn like a pro so you and your team can generate a steady stream of well-prepared prospects, grow revenue, and scale your business.
Before we dig into the tactical step-by-step…I want to first make ensure that we get your mindset right. Generating leads is not hard work…in fact…is it simple work…especially when you have the right recipe to follow, which I am going to share with you in full transparency in this solocast.
But…just because the work is simple does not mean it is easy. In fact, I can almost guarantee that you will be frustrated at the beginning, you may even pound your first on your conference room table and wonder why the results are not better, and you may get upset at your sales team for their lack of results.
All of this will most likely happen…initially. I am sharing this with you so that when it does happen – instead of getting frustrated and thinking that success will always elude you – I want to you to say to yourself, “Ah, Stephen said that I would think this right.”
And then push forward. Because pushing forward, whether we are talking about generating leads, or pursuing your life’s passion, is what it takes to be successful. As Vince Lombardi once famously said, “The man at the top of the mountain didn’t fall there.”
In fact, let’s think about the path of one of the most successful Hollywood actors of all time, Sylvester Stallone.
I learned this story from Tony Robbins. Stallone knocked on the doors of 1,500 talent agents in New York City and many of them multiple times.
And each time, Stallone was rejected, made fun of, and utterly ridiculed when he was thrown out of their offices. But he didn’t give up.
He knew his goal – he knew his destiny.
He didn’t send out one direct mail letter or email campaign – receive zero results – and then thought – “Well, the market doesn’t want me so I guess I will try something new.”
NO!
He was committed to what he wanted so he continued to adjust his presentation…he adjusted his offering…and focused on delivering even more value to the market.
And ultimately…that led to him delivering a huge amount of value in the form of the script of “Rocky”.
And then – Stallone “Made it.”
He appeared on the silver screen in the starring role as what seemed to be an overnight success. But that couldn’t be further from the truth, Onward Nation.
He had gritted it out for years and years and stood fast in the face of brutal and cruel rejections, in being dirt broke, and having to sell his dog just to buy some food.
But he didn’t quit – he kept getting up – to take another swing. You need to continue taking your at-bats because if you don’t…you may very well miss your golden opportunity for success.
Case in point…let’s take a look at Derek Jeter…arguably the greatest New York Yankee to ever wear the pinstripes.
Jeter is a lock to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer with his long list of impressive accomplishments including five World Series Championship rings.
But…what most people don’t know about Derek Jeter is that of all players in Major League Baseball history, he is number 12 on the list of total strikeouts. So to say that another way…there have only been 11 people in the history of baseball who struck out more often than Derek Jeter.
In fact, Jeter struck out 1,840 times during his 20-year career.
So in baseball terms, Jeter failed 1,840 times – but yet – he continued to get up there – to take another at-bat – to keep on swinging.
And through it all – he recorded 3,461 hits, which is 6th all time and he finished 11 of his 20 seasons with a batting average of 300 or better. A Hall of Fame resume to be sure.
But he never got up to the plate – struck out – and then headed back to the dugout and said, “Well, I guess I don’t have what it takes to play ball after all. Thanks for having me Skipper, but I am hanging up my cleats after that at-bat.”
The stories of Stallone and Jeter are perfect illustrations of how important it is to remain focused on the long-term – the long play – the end game – and getting better every single day so you continue to deliver more and more value — whether that value is delivered on the silver screen, the ball diamond, or in your marketplace as a business owner.
If the market rejects you – celebrate it – because that feedback is priceless.
Then be smart and use it – learn from it – apply it – get better – and take another at-bat. Onward Nation, if you remain focused on continuous improvement – you will be successful in implementing the lessons I have prepared for you in this solocast.
This is a long haul – it requires data collection – testing – adjusting – testing again – scaling – making mistakes – testing again. But, if you stick with it…you grow and scale your business in such a way that your competitors will wonder what your secret recipe is.
And how will that change the game for you? It’s exciting to think about. No doubt it’s substantial.
I believe the great Archimedes had it right when he so wisely said… “Give me a lever long enough, and a prop strong enough, and I can single-handedly move the world.
So, what will your lever and prop be, Onward Nation?
You guessed it…chocolate cake.
I know – chocolate cake sounds silly, right?
But let me explain why this metaphor makes so much sense.
Let’s say that I happen to make the world’s best chocolate cake. The absolute best.
And I have spent the last 20 years perfecting my process.
And then you come along and ask me to teach you how to make my cake – the same cake – the one that took me 20 years to master!
How could this be possible?
You, Onward Nation, may not have spent the same 20 years perfecting your baking skills.
How could someone other than me even come close to duplicating my chocolate cake?
What would I need to give you to prepare you – that could ensure your success?
For one…I would need to give you my recipe, right?
Because with my recipe, you can see my full process. You can see the strategy behind the chocolate cake.
With the recipe, you begin to get the overall picture of what needs to happen.
But, what else? What else do you need beyond the recipe?
Yep, you need the actual ingredients!
With both the ingredients and the recipe, you now know how to put all of those things together – in the right order – in the right amounts – at the right time – and how long to bake the cake and at the right temperature.
And if you follow the recipe – and if I didn’t accidentally leave anything out of the recipe card that I gave you – you now have the ability to duplicate my success.
In fact, duplicating my success becomes easy – IF – you are willing to make the EFFORT.
So here’s the key…with the right recipe, you are able to compress the process of learning 20 years of my knowledge down into the audio of this solocast.
Learning and then compressing the outcomes into a shorter time period is one of the powerful benefits to getting the right training and aligning your business with the right mentors.
So let’s dig into the recipe.
First…some quick words as to why we love LinkedIn as much as we do…and why it should be the cornerstone of your lead gen strategy.
There are approximately 433 million LinkedIn members — yes, 433 million. Hugely valuable community — just ask Microsoft — they agree since they acquired LinkedIn for $26 billion in an all-cash deal.
Next…want to guess the average number of LinkedIn connections for a CEO?
- Interesting.
Why?
Because if 933 is the average — some are higher — some are lower — but you tend not to get 933 connections by accident — you work at it — so if someone has 933 connections — it is likely intentional.
Meaning, LinkedIn is a platform that he or she values — and a place where they spend time — that that is great news for you.
And yes, you should be reaching out to the CEO — the top decision maker at your prospect client — but that can be a topic for a completely different solocast.
Okay, next…some additional insight into why you should care about LinkedIn…27 percent of all members are between the ages of 30 and 49…and another 24 percent are 50 to 64 years old…and 13 percent are over the age of 65.
So to say that another way…over 64 percent of LinkedIn members are over the age of 30…and 38 percent of total members earn $75,000 or more per year.
Bottom line…there are 433 million people on LinkedIn…64 percent of them are over the age of 30…and 38 percent earn more than $75,000 per year…with the average CEO having 933 connections on the platform.
All of that speaks well to your opportunity of finding and connecting with the prospects who can accelerate you biz dev, Onward Nation.
So let’s press forward by reviewing the seven ingredients within our recipe.
Our recipe consists of seven core ingredients, and they are:
Ingredient #1: Improve your LinkedIn profile by adding video / audio clips, value proposition, etc. to the Summary. Again — we will get tactical here in just a minute — and I will give you tangible visual examples within today’s Show Notes for each ingredient.
Ingredient #2: Import your existing email list in LinkedIn and send connection requests.
Ingredient #3: Export your LinkedIn connection list and import into your client’s email list.
Ingredient #4: Personalized thank you message sent to each new connection
Ingredient #5: Build your prospect list using LinkedIn’s Advanced People Search tool.
Ingredient #6: Send InMail messages to your top prospects — and be sure to speak the language of your “client avatar.”
Ingredient #7: Create and send consistent nurturing email campaigns with exclusive content just for your LNKD connections so they feel valued to be part of your growing community.
Okay, now that the high-level view of the forest is complete — let’s dive in and go tree-by-tree so you can see all of the tactical ingredients of this recipe.
Ingredient #1 is all about getting ensuring that your LinkedIn profile is not just good — but that it is excellent. Why does this matter? Because when you send InMail messages as part of Ingredient #6…the very first place your recipients — your prospective clients will go to learn more about you — is your LinkedIn profile.
And if it is sparsely populated with value propositions, your connections count is low, you haven’t taken the time to include a quality profile picture, you have zero recommendations, etc. — then it looks like you don’t care — and they won’t respond to you. Maybe your InMail was just spam — you are ignored — and they move on.
Or, if you have taken the time to include audio and video clips, Slide Shares of recent presentations you delivered, links to articles you have written recently, blog posts, recommendations from current clients — it not only takes advantage of all the profile building tools that LinkedIn provides you — but — you also visually demonstrate your thought leaderships and expertise to your prospective clients — and that is a very good thing.
Now when they receive your InMail message as part of Ingredient #6 — they move from skeptical questions like “Why did she send me this?” to “Oh, interesting…they would like to talk with me? Awesome.”
Think of your LinkedIn profile as your personal landing page and it needs to be excellent — just like everything else in your business.
If you would like a tangible example — check out what my team has built for me on LinkedIn…look me up…send me a connection request…and you will see illustrations of each step I just shared with you.
Let’s move on to Ingredient #2 — import your existing email list into LinkedIn and send connection requests.
To make sure we are on the same page here — I am talking about taking your email list — the list you communicate with often — consisting of customers, prospects, maybe even vendors — people with whom you have a relationship — and then uploading that list into your LinkedIn account and inviting them to connect with you on LinkedIn.
But why?
First…when you increase your number of LinkedIn connections — your network and credibility grows. Instead of having several hundred connections — you move to several thousand. And the next time a prospective client checks out your LinkedIn profile — they may see the number — and be impressed.
Second…your number of 1st-degree connections in LinkedIn impacts the number of prospects you will be able to see during Ingredient #5 of this process — when you use LinkedIn’s Advanced People Search. To cement this into place — let’s quickly review what LinkedIn defines as 1st degree, 2nd degree, and 3rd-degree connections.
A 1st-degree connection on LinkedIn is — let’s say you are listening to this solocast — you like what you hear — and decide to send me a connection request on LinkedIn — and by the way — you should totally do that — anyway — when I receive the request — I personally accept it. And so you and I become 1st-degree connections.
Now, here’s what’s interesting. My nearly 4,000 1st degree connections instantly become your 2nd-degree connections. And all of my 2nd-degree connections become your 3rd-degree connections.
Again, why is that important? Well, back to my connections…my nearly 6,000 1st connections extrapolates out to a total network of 20 million people when considering 1st degree, 2nd degree, and 3rd-degree connections.
That means…I can search through a huge number of people during Ingredient #5 in finding our ideal prospects we might want to reach out to.
So, Onward Nation, building your number of 1st-degree connections is essential to your success on LinkedIn — and uploading your email list and sending out connection requests is a quick and easy way to boost your connection count — and the size of your network — with a couple mouse clicks.
Very powerful.
Here’s how you complete the step. Roll your mouse over the “My Network” section of the LinkedIn menu…and then the option “Add Contacts” will appear.
Then click “Add Contacts” and you will see a screen with options to connect LinkedIn with your email service — definitely do that — as well as the option to upload your email list and send out a massive number of connection requests all at one a couple of clicks.
Moving on to Ingredient #3: You should export your LinkedIn connection list and import into client’s email list.
This might seem a bit backwards after you just uploaded your email list into LinkedIn — why am I now recommending that you reverse the process and export the list back out and import it into your email list?
A couple of reasons:
First…LinkedIn is the only social media platform that gives you the ability to export the contact and profile details of your connections — and that is just plain awesome!
Second…the email address someone used when getting onto your email address may be different than the email address they use within a professional community like LinkedIn — so you should have both inside your email list. This gives you the ability to cross-pollinate — ensure your high-quality email content that you will be sending (ahem — only high-quality content here, Onward Nation) — will be able to reach them via LinkedIn posts — as well as via email.
And third…there may be some hundreds of people who connect with you via LinkedIn — and not know how to signup for your email list. No problem…if you are importing and exporting on a consistent basis…you will solve that problem to ensure you are fully covered.
Okay, onto Ingredient #4. Do you feel the momentum starting to build, Onward Nation?
You just beefed up your profile so it is ready to be checked out by the highly targeted prospects who will soon be coming your way. And then you expanded the size of your network so you have tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or maybe even millions of people you can sort through to find the right prospects.
Rock solid awesome!
With ingredient #4…I recommend that you send a personalized thank you message to each new connection — and — that the message includes something of value — and — it is a personal message. Not one of those automated messages that feels like a heavy-handed sales pitch as soon as you connected with someone.
Ugh — those are awful and I tend to remove someone as a connection as soon as I receive one because I feel as though I got duped into a sales pitch.
Yack. We will not be doing that with Ingredient #4.
Here are several examples of thank you notes my Predictive ROI team used following the interview I did with Gary Vaynerchuk — our guest for Episode 42 of Onward Nation.
When someone connected with me on LinkedIn, I sent a personal thank you message to my new connection — with a warm hello and thank you — some personalized context so he or she knew that the message was just for them and then a link to the video.
Now, here is a little scaling secret, Onward Nation — you — you personally — do not need to be the one who sends each of these messages.
You can and should delegate this to a member of your team — maybe even an unpaid intern on your team — and my team at Predictive ROI has been blessed to have worked with 24 rock star interns who were assigned this project as well as other front line — forward facing activities.
And if you’re thinking “unpaid interns — he is out of his mind — there’s no way we could recruit unpaid interns in this market.” Let me just say…we have worked with interns who were students at Duke University, Ohio State, Purdue University, University of Northern Iowa…and many other schools around the country — all unpaid.
If you want our recruiting recipe — go take a listen to Episode 137 — because I share all of the step-by-step of how we do it in full transparency.
Okay, back to lead gen and Ingredient #5: How to build your prospect list using LinkedIn’s Advanced People Search tool.
From within this powerful tool…you will be able to search through your entire network of connections using several powerful filters, such as:
- Keywords
- First Name
- Last Name
- Title
- Company Name
-
Location — or mile radius from your office or location
And then you can take it deeper and make your searches more refined by including your prospect’s years of experience, their function within their particular company, seniority level, what they are interested in, company size, and so forth.
By taking the time to get specific about your prospect — you leverage LinkedIn’s database — to deliver back to you a list of prospects who match your criteria and you eliminate the time wasting of sending direct mail to a purchased list and hoping for a better result outcome than the last campaign.
So let’s say that in your first attempt — LinkedIn returns a list of 100 people. You can then click on the profiles of each person (see — Ingredient #1 is really important) and from their profile — you can better determine if he or she is a good fit for your lead gen efforts.
If yes, add the person and their details to an Excel or Google Sheet so you can keep a running list of who you have reached out to…and no…LinkedIn does not offer any sort of automated CRM functionality.
This is tedious work — I get it — I completely understand — but — it is also where the rubber meets the road in the success of your business and it will fill your sales pipeline.
Okay, so I’m going to assume you did all of the work you needed to do up to this point. You have built a solid profile — you expanded your LinkedIn network by leveraging your email list — and being smart — to also reverse the process and cross-pollinate your connections back into your email list…and now…you have mastered the Advanced People Search tool with the resulting outcome being — a highly targeted prospect list — perhaps the most targeted list you and your sales team have ever had.
Now what?
Ingredient #6 is next. Crafting your InMail message and sending it to each of the people on the list you just created. There are seven sub-ingredients, if you will, that make up the InMail message…and they are:
- Include the first name of the recipient in subject line
- Your first 255 critical characters need to be awesome
- Speak to your “Avatar”
- Include credibility indicator(s)
- Include a client testimonial
- Include a call-to-action – reason for your prospect to reply to your message
- Include your email signature
- Here is an actual InMail message — a template — you can use to create your own.
Please use it.
My Predictive ROI team has sent thousands and thousands and thousands of InMail messages on behalf of our client’s lead gen efforts — as well as for our biz dev — and the template we included in today’s Show Notes is the resulting outcome of all that testing and hard work.
You will dramatically shorten your learning curve by using the template.
One last point about the InMail and the template you will see in the Show Notes — there is a reference to “speaking to your client avatar.” And yes, we have a recipe for that, too.
If you go to Episode 208, I explain in full detail how to identify your client avatar — how to speak directly to him or her — and how to deliver value in the process.
Having and mastering this knowledge is a must in writing effective InMails.
And now we have arrived at our final ingredient…Ingredient #7…creating and sending consistent lead nurturing content to LinkedIn connections.
When you export your LinkedIn connection data — and then import into your CRM like InfusionSoft, etc. be sure to add the emails to a special list tagged as “LinkedIn Connections” or something else that lets you know these email addresses are super special.
This list represents your MVPs and your goal should be to create content just for them — exclusive — and then share it with them — letting them know it was created just for them — and that your connection means something to you — your connection is important — that you value their opinions — that you want to hear from them and how you can do better — and that you share your insights and expertise along the way in such a context that you are providing value that can be incorporated into their business straight away.
So that when you do reach out to them to explore the potential of a business relationship — you are not reaching out to a stranger with a cold call — you are reaching out to someone who already knows you, already likes you, and may already trust you because you offered tremendous value first — and that is an awesome way to begin a business relationship.
Before we close out for today…I’d like to leave you with a couple of important thoughts.
Now that you have learned the recipe – and have seen the typical result outcomes – there are two questions you and your team need to answer.
First…how will we take immediate action based on what you learned here today?
How will you apply it right away to fill your pipeline?
And that leads to the ultimate question.
Are you committed…or are you just interested in having a steady stream of well-prepared prospects flowing into your sales pipeline?
Being committed means knowing exactly how much new business you are seeking, from what sources, and having a strategy in place to fill the pipeline to get it.
Let me share a quick story about Coach Nick Saban from the University of Alabama – who, in my opinion, represents the epitome of being committed.
Alabama is consistently one of the top-ranked teams in college football each year. They were the 2015 National Champion and played again this year for the title but lost to Clemson.
Coach Saban’s reputation is one of precise detail and process.
And once he uncovers a “recipe” for success…he uses it over and over again.
But he also freely shares his secrets without fear that his competitors will be able to duplicate his results.
How is this possible?
Case in point…my good friend, mentor, and three-time guest on Onward Nation, Don Yaeger, interviewed Coach Saban as they considered writing a book together.
During one of Don’s visits with Coach, he asked if there was a secret formula or recipe that gave Saban an edge to recruiting the best talent out of high school year-after-year.
Coach told Don that his recipe is simple. He committed himself to watching every single play that any of their 85 scholarship athletes every played while in high school.
Every play…so he could evaluate talent, effort, and other qualities.
Let’s just think about the magnitude of that for a minute.
Alabama has 85 scholarship athletes…who likely played at least 2-years of high school football…at 10 games per year in high school…and many high school players play both offense and defense during a game, so let’s call it 100 plays per game.
All totaled, Coach Saban watches film on 170,000 plays to make his recruiting decisions.
It is an overwhelming number, right?
How could anyone do that? But Coach Saban does.
And the resulting outcome is that Alabama is consistently the best on the field each year.
So Don asked him, “Coach…aren’t you worried that if we put your secret recipe into this book that people will steal it from you?”
And Saban looked at Don and said, “Nope…not worried at all. Because no one is going to be willing to put in the same amount of effort that I am willing to commit to our success.”
So my hope is that you don’t leave this solocast thinking – yeah, I knew LinkedIn could do that. My challenge to you is…but is your business doing it?
And as Tony Robbins says…“A real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken a new action. If there’s no action, you haven’t truly decided.”
So I hope you will decide to put this sales pipeline-building recipe into action and then please drop me a line and let me know about your success.
So with that said, Onward Nation…
I want to say again, thank you for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here — thank you for tuning in — your time is sacred and I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
However our daily podcast fits into your daily routine — I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And remember… if you want to take the pipeline process even deeper, then register for the web workshop I am teaching tomorrow called the 4-Steps to Filling Your Sales Pipeline.
Just go to OnwardNation.com/webinar for the details. That’s OnwardNation.com/webinar.
Rest assured — I know you are busy, Onward Nation. I will respect your time by delivering a workshop packed full of real, actionable strategies, that when followed, will fill your sales pipeline in 30 days or less.
I look forward to seeing you there and thanks again for being here — today.
Onward with gusto!
Jonathan DeYoe is the author of “MINDFUL MONEY: Simple Practices For Reaching Your Financial Goals And Increasing Your Happiness Dividend,” a California-based financial advisor. During his twenty years as an advisor, he has managed investments at Morgan Stanley, UBS PaineWebber, and Salomon Smith Barney. In 2001, he founded his own wealth management firm, DeYoe Wealth Management. Today, Jonathan’s firm manages nearly $250 million for over two hundred families and foundations in the United States and overseas.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Jonathan’s background * Why Jonathan believes that we are stewards of our human, financial & environmental resources * How the “six most, vital one” process guides Jonathan’s focus on a daily basis * How Jonathan grew during a rough time in his career * Why it’s so important to sharpen your saw * Why Jonathan is so interested in what makes us behave the way we do * Why people need to apply themselves across all categories in life * Why you need to commit to playing offensively * Why you need to be able to hear many different opinions & then make a decision * How all of us have the ability to get through what happens in our environment * Why you need to focus on getting yourself in order
How best to connect with Jonathan: * Website: happinessdividend.com * Book: “Mindful Money: Simple Practices For Reaching Your Financial Goals And Increasing Your Happiness Dividend” * Facebook: www.facebook.com/HappinessDividend
Jill Schiefelbein is an award-winning business owner, author, and recovering academic. She taught business communication at Arizona State University for 11 years, analyzed terrorist documents to help provide counter-terrorism strategies to the United States military, and was a pioneer in the online education space, creating an office serving 60,000 students and adding $1M in revenue in its first year to the University. In 2011, she ventured into entrepreneurship and hasn’t looked back. Her first business, Impromptu Guru, helps people improve their presentation and public speaking skills. She created a YouTube series that was syndicated by Entrepreneur Network and brings in thousands of new viewers each week. Jill also creates and executes strategies that help business owners increase sales, enhance product experience, and retain customers. She's a video partner and a contributor to Entrepreneur Magazine. Her latest book is entitled, “Dynamic Communication: Strategies to Grow, Lead, and Manage Your Business.”
What you'll learn about in this episode * Jill’s background * How reverse engineering taught Jill to approach problems from multiple angles * Why you need to look at output first when analyzing a problem * Why you should go outside of the traditional checklist when hiring * Making sure that you have a clear to-do list before diving into your day * Why it’s so critical for business owners to know how to answer questions * Why the way we market to customers has to fundamentally shift * Why we need to change our perspective of how we are communicating with our customers * Why you need to listen more strategically * Why you need to get your ego out of the way
How best to connect with Jill: * Book: "Dynamic Communication: 27 Strategies to Grow, Lead, & Manage Your Business" * Facebook: www.facebook.com/dynamicjill * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jillschiefelbein * Twitter: @dynamicjill * Instagram: @dynamicjill
Perry Marshall is one of the world’s most expensive and sought-after business consultants. Clients seek his ability to integrate engineering, sales, mathematics, biology, art, and psychology. He has launched two online revolutions. He pioneered many best practices in paid search and wrote the world’s bestselling book on web advertising, “Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords.” More recently, he’s turned 80/20 into a verb. 80/20 is not just a fact about your business, it’s action you take on your business. 80/20 is the central lever for every great strategy. His book “80/20 Sales & Marketing” is mandatory in many growing companies. He is referenced in dozens of influential business books by authors like Jay Conrad Levinson, Mark Joyner, Joel Comm, and Mari Smith. He’s shared the stage with Barbara Corcoran, Brian Tracy, and Les Brown, having consulted in over 300 industries.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Why Perry believes that there is going to be some massive dislocation somewhere in the world in the next year * Why it’s important to know how things fundamentally work in the world * How business & engineering are intertwined * What Perry considers to be the biggest untold story in the history of science * How cells are like entrepreneurs * The story behind the swiss army knife concept * Why Perry believes that there is a whole systematic creativity mechanism that is going on in nature that optimizes things * Why evolution is always an intentional process * Why you need to be a fearless seeker of the truth
How best to connect with Perry: * Website: cosmicfingerprints.com * Book: “Evolution 2.0”
Ken Baker is currently serving as a member of Gensler’s Board of Directors and the Gensler Management Committee. As a Co-Regional Managing Principal of Gensler’s Southeast Region and past Co-Managing Principal of Gensler’s UK, Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Gulf Regions, Ken is a global expert on workplace design and planning, particularly for law firms. Ken frequently speaks about the power of design at industry events around the world and his focus on maintaining strong client relationships is a core tenant of his leadership philosophy and design strategy.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Ken’s background * Why you should focus on developing a professional relationship with your clients * Why you need to surround yourself with great, talented people * Being on the lookout for the next generation of leaders and working to develop their skills * Why you should rely on your team to build your business & make your clients happy * Having a sense of urgency & being a good listener * Helping your employees build their careers * Knowing if you have the right people in place to get the work done
How best to connect with Ken: * Email: kenneth_baker@gensler.com * Website: www.gensler.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kenneth-p-baker-7984996
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation…I’m Stephen Woessner…and welcome to this week’s solocast…Episode 450.
I am excited to be back here with you — because — when you apply the lessons we cover today — you will change the game for your business. I promise you — what you learn in this episode can be that impactful for you, your business, and your revenue.
I decided to record another revenue-focused solocast this week for several important reasons.
First…last week’s solocast where we drilled deep into how to monetize a podcast was one of our highest downloaded solocasts – ever! Rock solid awesome and we received some wonderful feedback, Onward Nation – thank you for that.
I am so happy you found the strategies and step-by-step process within last week’s monetization the lessons to be helpful.
And second…I have been giving a lot of thought recently to my life’s purpose. I know – big topic. But I have been giving deep consider to what kind of problems I really enjoy solving – where do I really love creating impact – and what kind of impact do I find the most rewarding?
Just in full transparency, Onward Nation…I have done a lot of soul searching on these questions during the last several months…and have found some very powerful perspective and themes emerging and they really strike a cord with me.
For example, I realized that helping small business owners is not only something I enjoy doing and find super rewarding – but – I have been in the trenches…on the front lines helping small business owners grow their companies over the last 23-years.
Time flies when you’re having fun.
When I took some time to think about some of those experiences – it brings a smile to my face.
But aside from the joy and personal satisfaction – I realized that my drive for helping small business owners goes deeper – like all the way to my DNA.
I have owned five small businesses, with Predictive ROI being my fifth company, but love of entrepreneurship is something I learned while growing up in my Aunt and Uncle’s restaurants and my mom’s bakery and catering business back in Canton, Ohio. Go Buckeyes! Had to sneak that in there.
But it goes even deeper still.
It goes back another generation to my grandfather who came to the United States from Istanbul, Turkey as a Greek immigrant who couldn’t speak the language…he had no money…he didn’t have a robust LinkedIn account…or a thriving YouTube channel…he had no social circle.
But what he did have was incredible work ethic, he had grit, and he had a truckload of tenacity.
And in 1926 – just six years after my grandfather arrived in the U.S…he had saved enough money working on the night shift at a downtown Canton, Ohio restaurant to be able to open his own place, which he called The Ideal.
Just two years before the Great Depression.
But, my Pop survived — our family survived – and helped his customers survive, too – by giving away more homemade soup than he ever sold. He believed so strongly in taking care of his customers because they would take care of him in return. And they did.
So, Onward Nation – the reason I love small business owners as much as I do is because I have tremendous respect for the 28 million owners in this country who are grinding it out, just like my Pop and my family did.
Owners who are working their guts out to make ends meet – who are making the sacrifices at their own dinner table so they can make sure they don’t miss payroll for their employees.
I understand how hard it is – my family has been there – I have been there – and maybe you are part of the 43 percent of small business owners right now who consider growing revenue to be their top challenge they are facing.
And that 43 percent equates to 12 million business owners in this country who are challenged with growing revenue. My word.
Something needs to be done about that number, don’t you think, Onward Nation. That’s too many businesses and too many families who are risk.
I’m committed to driving this number down – it is a worthy goal and I am just now realizing that is has been my life’s work – but – now that I am hyper focused on the problem – watch out. This is going to be awesome. I have discovered my “Why” – as Simon Sinek would say.
So this solocast is the first of a brand new 3-part series that I am dedicating to providing you will critical lessons and the practical and tactical tools you need to change the game for your business.
To grow revenue in unique and different ways. To give you a competitive advantage and distinctiveness like no other company in your industry.
So for today…I am going to share two lessons that I learned directly from my time with Christopher Lochhead, one of today’s leading authorities on the topic of how companies can become what he calls a “Category King.” Chris was my exceptional guest for Episode 448 of Onward Nation.
But before diving into the category design and category kingship – let me first share some context about Chris and why the lessons you learn from him will be a game changer for your business.
Chris is co-author of the book, “Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets.” Chris is also the host of the Legends & Losers podcast. Chris is a retired three time Silicon Valley public company CMO, entrepreneur and category designer.
I smiled when I learned that Fast Company Magazine calls Chris a, “Human exclamation point” and The Economist (my favorite magazine) calls him, “off-putting at times”.
And because he is also passionate about entrepreneurship — he’s a proud advisor to the non-profit “1Life Fully Lived.”
When you listen to 448, you will get Chris’s first-hand perspectives on grit, persistence, and the challenges he had to overcome on his path to success. He is remarkable and it was an honor to learn from him.
I also recommend you go to Amazon and pick up a copy of Chris’s book because it is excellent. Plus, come on…any business book that also blends in something about pirates, well…I am totally game for that.
Okay, here’s a quick, personal side note…you likely know that Disney World is my favorite place on Earth – and – yes, I actually do have a thing for pirates. Aye. So…if you want a good laugh…go to the show notes for this solocast and you will see what I mean. Yes, that is actually me in the photo.
That is all I am going to say right now about pirates. But feel free to hit me up on Facebook or Twitter and let me know how hard you laughed when you saw the photo!
Okay, back to today’s lessons. Let’s start off with some additional context about category design and kingship…so I am going to quote Chris and his co-authors when I say…
“In a well-honed category-driven strategy, the company designs the category, evangelizes the problem, offers its solution to the problem, and then the category makes the company its king. The greatest power comes from the people proclaiming their own king. A self-determined king that isn’t made by the category is a hollow despot destined to be overthrown at the first sign of weakness.”
So Onward Nation – when you focus on becoming the king of your category – or better still – creating a brand new category – you control the economics of your industry, your sales pipeline gets filled with so much opportunity it is difficult to contain, and you enjoy a market leadership position that gives you the power to price yourself how you want to price yourself.
Interested? Let’s dig into the first lesson that I learned from Chris.
Lesson #1: You control the game when you are the Category King.
Onward Nation, we live in an increasingly winner-take-all kind of dynamic in business. For their book, “Play Bigger,” Chris and his co-authors analyzed every tech company founded from 2000 through to 2015 that received venture capital funding.
They studied data around what happened to those companies. One of the questions they asked was, “What percentage of market cap goes to the leader in any given market category – or – to say that in another way – the Category King?”
They crunched the numbers, Onward Nation, and their findings were staggering. In the tech industry, 76 percent of the market cap, or the total value of all of the companies in a given category, is owned by the Category King.
Amazing!
But Chris and his co-authors also talked to a lot of other people outside of tech for the book, too, and as you might imagine, they told them that the winner-take-all dynamic they had uncovered in tech was happening everywhere.
So Onward Nation – the research Chris and his co-authors did showed with clarity that we as business owners must figure out how we can design and dominate our industry so that we become the Category King, not somebody else.
However, what Chris and team also found is that we as entrepreneurs tend to only pull two levers when building a company. We think, “Hey, I’m going to build what I hope is a legendary product or service, and then secondarily, I’m going to build what I hope is a legendary company to deliver that product or service.”
And then whatever we face in the world, whether it’s an opportunity or a threat, these are the only two levers we pull. That is our toolbox…that is our arsenal.
We essentially pile on more features…make a better product…make it faster…make it cheaper, etc.
We think scaling the company will do it. So we hire more sales people, it more geography…we apply a better business model…we sell on the Internet…we open more physical locations…we move our operation to virtual…we go digital.
But all of these variables are just components of the same two levers, Onward Nation. The product lever and the company lever.
What business owners often do is they make is an unconscious decision to put their new legendary product out in the world, and for the most part have what looks and sounds a lot like a product or features conversation with customers and prospects.
And those conversations sort of sound like, “Look at how awesome this new product is! It slices and it dices and it twirls and it spins,” and it does all this stuff.
But, when you study what did Steve Jobs did, and what Mark Bennioff, the founder of Salesforce.com did, and what did Henry Ford did, and what did Clarence Birdseye did…as Chris and his team did…you begin to realize is they pulled three levers…not two.
Chris and his team uncovered how Jobs and Ford absolutely got legendary product and company down — but the third lever they pulled – was that they didn’t do marketing in any traditional sense that most business owners would consider as marketing.
Instead…they sort of understood intuitively that they would need to condition the world or educate the world to think about a problem in a different way…and therefore…the world would demand a solution…that Jobs and Ford would then be happy to provide in the form of their product.
But right now – the problem we have in business today is that we have too many solutions without a problem…and the end result is…43 percent of small business owners are facing the same top challenge…how to grow revenue?
For example…in 2001 Microsoft launched the Tablet PC. Microsoft was the first big company to launch a tablet computer. But, it didn’t go anywhere because for the most part Microsoft had a features discussion and the world didn’t understand what problem those features solved.
But, when Apple launched the iPad, Steve Jobs stood up on stage, at the big Mac Developer Conference and he puts up a slide that on one hand has a picture of the iPhone and the other has a picture of the iMac, and then there’s a hole in the middle.
Jobs literally said, “We believe there’s room for a third category of device. Now let me tell you why.”
Then he begins to paint a picture with something you could call a point-of-view about how the PC and the phone are actually not great for consuming rich content, and they’re not great communication platforms for the new social, mobile world.
That argument opens our minds up to thinking about the possibility of a third device…the iPad. Boom – a category is created and Apple is its King…because the market demands that of them.
The Chris shared another example with me. This time, he chose Sara Blakely…the founder of Spanx.
Spanx has become an incredibly successful company and product line because Sara made a very important decision. When Sara launched Spanx she did not tell the world that what she was selling was underwear.
And, she didn’t call it a “Girdle 2.0”, either.
www.inc.com/sara-blakely/how-spanx-founder-turned-5000-dollars-into-a-billion-dollar-undergarment-business.html
Instead, she said, “It’s a new kind of under garment called shape wear.” In so doing, she distinguished the difference between all that had come before her and her innovation because she understood that if I don’t explain to the world what problem this solves – and why that problem matters – they’re not going to want my solution.
When she had no money, she no relationships…she cold called buyers…but she had grit. So she designed that first, initial prototype and she wore it to meetings to try to get buyers interested and then holy bananas, she wound up on Oprah after gritting it out, but yet she didn’t tell anybody in Oprah’s network that she was going to have to make them, pack them, ship them all out of her apartment. How in the world was she going to be able to meet the demand?
But she found a way.
And now she’s a billionaire.
She created a category and then worked her guts out to make her dream a reality.
Here’s key point that I learned from Chris, Onward Nation — “Legends teach the world to think differently about a problem, and therefore a solution. And when we accept their definition of the problem, we want the solution, and we literally line up in front of their store to get the new version when it comes out.”
The magic thing that Sara, Steve Jobs, or any other Category King did successfully is that prosecuted the magic triangle, using Chris’s words.
That is to say, they get product, category, and company right.
On the category side, I’m sure you’ve heard that famous quote from Victor Hugo, “Not even all the armies of the world can stop an idea whose time has come.”
That leaves us with the question, Onward Nation, “How do I make it my time?” So let’s move on to Lesson #2.
Lesson #2: Position yourself or be positioned.
This lesson is what category design is fundamentally about. For a tangible example…let’s take a look at Muhammad Ali. He brilliantly controlled the positioning of his own brand.
Ali said many famous things, of course, but one of Chris’s favorite quotes was when Ali said, “If I don’t tell them I’m the greatest, how are they going to know?”
We knew he was the greatest – because Ali wasn’t afraid to tell us what category he was in.
It was the category of “The Greatest” and it was a category of ONE. And because he WAS the category – he controlled the economics of that category and everyone else was simply an inferior competitor.
The categorization of companies and brands is a continuous thing. We as humans put everything, products, companies, services, and even other human beings into buckets in our head.
Buckets like “must have,” “nice to have,” or maybe “I don’t care.”
But then some marketers and business owners say, “We’ve got to figure out how to make people believe we’re a vitamin, not an aspirin.”
But, as Chris taught me, what they’re really saying is, “Our category has to be urgent and important and worthy of investment.”
Chris then shared a very tangible example with me. In 1999, Michael Dell was one of the most celebrated entrepreneurs on planet Earth. He was running an incredible company called Dell Computer. He was on the cover of Fortune Magazine and Multi billionaire, etc. You probably know the story, Onward Nation.
However, if you roll the clock forward today, Michael Dell could walk through Times Square in New York City and go unrecognized yet he still runs the same company and he still sells the same kind of products that he sold back then. But now the company is in a lot of trouble. Had to do some horrible reverse engineering and merge with other companies and it was really fighting for its life.
Onward Nation, we might ask, “But what changed?”
Same guy, same products, same company, what changed is what Chris and his team call “Category violence.”
The cloud, virtualization, social, mobile and all the things that we today take for granted came along, and made laptops, desktops, storage and servers not that important.
In other words, the market shifted from where Dell was to where it is today, and that’s what legendary category designers do. They take a different approach to educating the world, to shift the world from the way it is to the way they want it to be. In so doing they open the world to a new problem and a new solution.
When that happens a new category emerges, and if you prosecute the magic triangle, as Chris likes to say, you can get two-thirds of the economics in your space.
When that happens you get to hang out with Sara Blakely.
Even companies that we think of as exceptional marketers, like Disney, struggle in getting category right. For years, and still to some degree today, is struggling with how to position Animal Kingdom.
One of the things that drives Disney crazy is when people refer to Animal Kingdom as a zoo, and their defense back has been, “It’s not a zoo,” and they’re trying to make it not a zoo, and now they’re finally getting traction, and that park is well over a decade old.
So, Onward Nation, if you don’t tell people what you are then they’re going to apply whatever filter – or bucket — to what you do.
And they’re going to make that up.
Chris has discussions with entrepreneurs all the time and he asks, “Tell me about your business.” It’s my favorite opening question to ask, and often what I hear is similar to Disney’s Animal Kingdom, “Well, we’re sort of like this, but we’re not really like that. We do kind of this, but we’re a new version of that.”
Then there’s this sort of discussion about all the things that they’re not, and so they go on for ten minutes trying to convince Chris they’re not a zoo. But guess what Chris is left with in his mind after all that convincing? That Animal Kingdom is a freaking zoo!
Or you’re a Zoo 2.0.
“2.0” is the word we put after things we don’t know.
If you want to stand alone, and declare your product, your service as a true innovation then by definition it’s got to be a new category.
Onward Nation, we accept other people’s thinking about the world, about our business, about our life. Category design really is trying to say to the entrepreneurs and the innovators in the world, every market or category got designed by somebody, either intentionally or on purpose, and the minute you position yourself, your company, your product inside an existing category, you are playing their game.
In other words, you are living in somebody else’s thinking about how the world should perceive the value you provide — and particularly — the problem that you are solving and why solving that problem matters.
What Chris and his team know is legends don’t live inside other people’s thinking. Legends ask themselves the questions, “How do I want this market to behave? Why is it the rules are this way?”
Another example is Netflix vs. Blockbuster.
Reed Hastings says it’s ridiculous that customers had to go to a video store, they don’t have the video that you want, you pay a late fee, etc. And instead asks the question, “Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could just go to a website, type in all your favorite movies and they magically show up in your mailbox?”
In so doing Reed hacks the future, he changes the future, he creates by reimagining the problem called how do I get video into the home, and teaching us to think about how he thinks about it we all accept his problem definition, and therefore his solution.
Conversely, Blockbuster went bankrupt because they couldn’t solve the problem and now Reed Hastings is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the consumer Internet today.
Our job as leaders, as entrepreneurs, is to create the future of our choosing and not to accept somebody else’s definition for how things should be.
Legendary innovators do not leave their market category to chance. They don’t do marketing. They don’t do traditional marketing, Onward Nation.
They articulate a point-of-view, and that point-of-view evangelizes a problem, and when that resonates with customers and it resonates with people at scale…everything changes.
Once the world sees the problem the same way you want them to, Onward Nation, they cannot un-see it. Then they have to have YOUR solution. You become KING.
Well, that’s what Henry Ford did.
Legendary category designers understand that on the one hand you’ve got to meet the market where it is because if he had said the word “automobile” the world would not have understood. It’s shapeware vs. girdle. And we wouldn’t know who Henry Ford is. But, he was a category designer.
He found a way to meet the world where it was and to use language in a very powerful way…a new language.
He created a new language to take the world from where they were to where he wanted them to be. So he called his product the horseless carriage.
And in so doing everybody understood what a horse and buggy was, right? Then you say horseless carriage and you go “Oh!” and the world stops.
So take this lesson from Chris — think about what are things called and why are they called that, Onward Nation.
When what today we call smartphones first came out, for a long time they were called, “Wireless phones.” They were in the context of what they’re not. Today they’re beginning to be described more like what they are…smartphones.
And fully loaded iPhone 7 Plus, out the door is $1,000, and the reason Apple is able to do that is because we don’t think it’s a phone anymore.
So, Onward Nation — pay attention to what things are named.
When you position yourself inside of somebody else’s category, you are letting somebody else designed the game.
And when that happens, you’re probably not in the position to take two-thirds of the economics and be the category king.
Instead, Onward Nation…be intentional about category and follow Chris’ advice for prosecuting the magic triangle…and pull three levers…not the typical tow.
When you do that…you will be in a position to command the economics in your category – because you will likely have created a brand new category just like Sara Blakely.
With that said…I want to say thank you for being here today. I always appreciate your time and feedback.
I also encourage you to download next week’s solocast – part two in our Grow Revenue series. We will dig deep into tools and the precise steps you can apply in order to fill your sales pipeline like a pro.
Why is that important?
Because like we discussed at the onset of today’s conversation…nearly 12 million business owners cite “Growing Revenue” as their top challenge.
They are indeed feeling category pressure – and – these owners are searching for answers on how to generate the right number of leads, from the right type of prospects, to buy the right service, at the right margin.
So, I am focusing next week’s solocast on providing you with the right tools and insights you need to solve those challenges.
In the meantime, you should also visit OnwardNation.com/webinar and register for the free workshop I am teaching on March 23rd that will take a deep dive into how you can harness the power of LinkedIn to generate a steady stream of well-prepared prospects flowing into your business.
Again, that’s OnwardNation.com/webinar.
Until then…Onward with gusto!
John Pollock doesn’t just talk about entrepreneurship — he lives it. As the CEO of Financial Gravity, John has grown his business from the dining room table to a national organization of 25 employees and led his company to 700% growth in one year. John is also disrupting industry standards for the better. After seeing the lack of integrated advice for business owners across tax planning, financial services, and business strategy, he created the first national tax firm specifically designed to help entrepreneurs reduce their personal tax liability by an average of $21,000. He is also a frequent contributor to various media outlets, including Fox Radio Network, Forbes, and Amex OPEN Forum.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * How a reverse merger works * How drive itself drives John * How lack of focus can be a gift * How you could benefit from going to conferences that are not related to your industry * Why process has to be built into everything that you do * Why success is not a destination, it’s a journey * Why there is more skill than luck involved in business * The three questions that you have to ask yourself
How best to connect with John: * Website: lowertaxhigherprofit.com * Website: financialgravity.com * Website: www.johnpollockinc.com * eBook: Bust the 10 Tax Myths Sabotaging Your Small Business Growth
Christopher Lochhead is co-author of the book “Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets” and Christopher is also the host of the “Legends and Losers” podcast. Christopher is a retired three-time, Silicon Valley, public company CMO, entrepreneur and category designer. Fast Company Magazine calls him a “Human Exclamation Point” and The Economist calls him “off-putting to some”. He can recite much of The Big Lebowski, but can’t remember his wife’s phone number. He’s also an acclaimed public speaker and proud advisor to non-profit “1 Life Fully Lived.”
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Chris’ background * Why you need to figure out how to design & dominate your own space * The two levers that all high-level entrepreneurs want to pull to be successful * Why, today, there are too many solutions without a problem * Why it’s key to create a new category and become the ‘category king’ * Why it’s so important to be self-actualized and self-aware * Why you need to be able to explain what problem you solve & why your product is different * Why you need to create by reimagining the problem * Creating the future of our choosing and not accepting somebody else’s definition of how something should be * How to determine the value of your company
How best to connect with Chris: * Website: www.legendsandlosers.com * Book: “Play Bigger” on Amazon & Audible
He has a background in accounting that he gained from a variety of other business ventures. Apex Fun Run’s passion is to help teachers, students, and schools. His company partners with schools to raise funds for equipment and other campus needs through a two-week character-building and leadership program that culminates with a student “run” to raise donations for schools. Students ask people they know to pledge money for each completed lap. Apex Fun Run raises more money for schools than any other fundraiser, averaging about $23,000.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Jeremy’s background * Jeremy’s fundraising program: Apex Fun Run * Why Jeremy believes in having a daily, top 5 priority list * Why Jeremy takes every day as a challenge to do his best * The huge impact that Apex Fun Run has had on kids nationwide * Why you can’t do it all as an entrepreneur — and why that’s okay * Why Jeremy believes delegation is so critical to success * Why failure and making mistakes is not always a bad thing * Focusing on something that you are passionate about that has a demand * Why you need to go “all in”
How best to connect with Jeremy: * Website: apexfunrun.com
Gordon Tredgold is a business and IT transformation expert who has successfully delivered $100 million programs, run $300 million departments, and led teams of 1000 staff for Fortune 100 companies. Gordon is the author of the critically acclaimed book “FAST” and works with enterprises on implementing results-based leadership initiatives to rapidly accelerate the organization’s growth.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Gordon’s background * Why you must be able to influence people, not just direct them * Why you need to aim high, start small, celebrate, and keep going * Why persistency and consistency are the keys to success * Why you need to write for the benefit of your audience * Leading with integrity and love * How your job as a leader is to serve and protect your team * How the more recognition you give out, the more success you will have
How best to connect with Gordon: * Website: gordontredgold.com * Twitter: @gordontredgold * Book: FAST: 4 Principles Every Business Needs to Achieve Success and Drive
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation…I’m Stephen Woessner and welcome to this week’s solocast…Episode 445.
During last week’s solocast — we tackled two of three most frequently asked questions I hear from business owners when they are considering having a podcast…which are 1) “Stephen, how much time is this going to take me?”, and 2) “How am I going to get great guests to come onto the show — especially when I am just starting out?”
I appreciate all of the feedback from last week — I’m glad you found the strategies helpful. I also received some feedback letting me know that the monetization topic — which was one of the three FAQs that I skipped last week but promised to share in a future solocast — was a really important topic.
So, based on your feedback, I moved monetization up in our airing schedule and that is what we will focus on today.
I always appreciate your thoughts and suggestions, Onward Nation — thank you!
In today’s solocast…I will share several practical and tactical strategies you can take and apply that will help you monetize your podcast — which is a trendy way to say — “How your podcast will generate revenue” — or grow revenue for your business.
If you have been listening to Onward Nation for a while — you know that I like sharing strategies along with all of their tactical step-by-step processes that help business owners create predictable, measurable, and repeatable success for themselves and their teams.
Today’s solocast will be no different.
Here’s the reality…when it comes to generating revenue for your business as a result of your podcast…there are significant challenges. It is not as simple as turning on the microphone, recording a conversation with a guest, sharing it on iTunes, and then all of a sudden — you have thousands of people beating down your door to do business with you. There is so much marketing hyperbole circulating around the web and social platforms — and it makes business owners think there is some sort of “pot of gold” at the end of their podcast rainbow.
But…are there business owners whose podcasts are generating hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars a year in revenue for their core business?
Absolutely. But this doesn’t happen by accident.
It takes intention. It is the result of a lot of hard work, decades of subject matter expertise within their core business, a commitment to creating content with excellence, a heart that wants to give way more than ever asking, and ultimately, a smart strategy that ties their podcast into their core business.
There is no such thing as an overnight success, Onward Nation.
To help give you as much context and share as much value as I can…I am going to give you another sneak peek from Chapter 4 of my upcoming book, Profitable Podcasting.
We are going to drill into this chapter because I use it to focus attention on the recipe — the practical and tactical steps — any business owner can apply to craft the right monetization strategy behind their podcast.
And after our dive into strategy…we will go deeper still.
I will share a recent interview that my good friend, Mitch Stephen, fellow business owner and podcaster, and I did on his show, Real Estate Investor Summit. During the show, Mitch shared his story about how his podcast had driven over $60,000 in new revenue into his business within the last 90-days.
I say HAD driven — because I had a quick call with Mitch last week — and he let me know that his podcast has generated another $30,000 in revenue the day before.
I want you to hear Mitch’s story in his own words. It is inspiring and tactical, which is always a great combination.
So here we go, Onward Nation — let’s answer the question — “How can my podcast generate revenue for my business?”
When executed properly, your podcast will be uniquely suited to accomplish three vital priorities:
- Expand your platform or extend your thought leadership.
- Build a nation of true fans.
- And…grow your business revenue.
And…your opportunity to grow revenue will likely fit into three primary categories:
- Offering premium priced services to the business owners who have appeared as guests on your show.
- Offering less expensive, entry-level programs to your concentric circles of lesser fans, which I cover in chapter 6 of the book.
- Attract the right sponsorships to boost revenue and credibility with your listeners, which I cover in chapter 17 of the book.
In my opinion, you will have a healthy and stable core business when you sell your services directly to your guests — and — this represents the majority of your podcast-related revenue.
This sales strategy will ensure there is ample revenue flowing into your core business to cover overhead, generate profit, provide ample funds to reinvest and further expand by introducing new services to continue the life cycle of a balanced business.
It is important for your podcast to feed your core business, Onward Nation.
It is also important for you not to become distracted with creating a passive revenue income as your first step. Passive revenue streams can be helpful and provide high-margin sources of revenue.
However, it can sometimes be tempting to want to create a passive revenue stream first because it feels less like selling. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to wake up each morning and see all of the successful credit card transaction receipts in your inbox?
Of course it would.
But not at the expense of your core team not having enough work to do. If you pursue the goal of creating a passive revenue stream for your business — before you address the lead gen and revenue needs of your core business — you run the very real risk of losing valuable time, getting sidetracked, and going out of business.
And that is expensive.
So let’s focus our attention on your guests.
You will maximize your revenue opportunity, and ensure the health of your core business if you quickly begin using your podcast as what I like to call your “Trojan Horse of Selling.”
Selling directly to your guests represents your lowest hanging fruit, your shortest path to revenue, and it is not a complex sales strategy. It could be as simple as sharing ideas with a guest following your interview, in an informal manner, looping back to them after you flesh out the ideas further, and then asking for their permission to proceed.
Lee Caraher, host of the “Focus Is Your Friend” podcast, shared her sales strategy with me.
She said to me…
“Stephen, there’s usually 15-minutes before we start the interview where I say, ‘Oh my gosh, Hi. Blah, blah, blah.’ Then afterwards, I am sharing with them, ‘I have an idea for you’, which is where I’m really good. That’s one of my strengths. ‘Oh, here’s an idea! Or, here’s a different idea!’ I share the ideas after the interview is over. Depending on how my guest reacts, if they say, ‘Oh that’d be a great idea. How do I do that?’ Then I say, “Let me think about it some more.’
“A week or two later, I’ll noodle on the idea a little more. Then I’ll email them with, “You know, I thought about that idea. Here is how I think you could implement it. Here is what I think the lift will be. Here is what I think the cost will be. We can’t do that for you — or — we can do that for you.’ Of that, 25 percent of the time the ideas are coming back to us in some sort of project. Our podcast has been super helpful in growing revenue for Double Forte.”
So Onward Nation…here is the first ingredient to consider as part of your monetization strategy. I call it “The Campfire Pitch.”
Lee developed a straightforward sales strategy. Her podcast opened the door with the right decision-maker, she conducted a rock solid interview, and then she enthusiastically shared ideas with her guest.
This The Campfire Pitch…here’s why.
When you were a kid, did you ever go camping with family or friends, or have a bonfire in your backyard?
Maybe you were sitting around the fire, feeling warm, and sharing stories with your friends. The energy of the group was awesome. But then the party was over, it was time for bed, and when you woke up the next morning, the same people were with you but the energy of the moment was gone.
That’s what entrepreneur and brand expert Chris Smith calls the Campfire Effect.
It happens in business — after a great interview, for example — and it happens in social situations.
Lee knows this and has astutely aligned her sales strategy to the Campfire Effect. When the energy of the interview has climaxed, she smartly shares an idea or two.
The prospective client (her guest) on the other end of the Skype connection is receptive to the ideas, because of several key ingredients:
For one thing, Lee is brilliant at what she does, and she is sharing excellent ideas. Also, the guest is receptive because of the Campfire Effect and the value Lee has just shared by inviting them onto her show.
Lee is airing approximately 50 to 70 guest interviews per year — so if her team continues to close 25 percent of the opportunities, then her podcast will help Double Forte onboard approximately 15 new projects every 12-months.
Think about that in the terms of your core business and revenue model, Onward Nation.
If you could take on 15 new projects from clients within the next 12-months, how would your business change?
No doubt the change would be substantial.
One of the reasons Lee has been successful with her Campfire Pitch sales strategy is because she doesn’t approach the conversations with her guests as selling at all.
She enthusiastically shares ideas with the goal of delivering value. One Onward Nation guest told me, “Selling is simply the transference of your enthusiasm over to your prospect.”
Lee has mastered this principle. Her guests don’t feel “sold.” In fact, the exact opposite happens: They feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to be a guest on her show.
Lee’s ideas were a value-added bonus.
Now let’s move to the second ingredient in a proper monetization strategy. I call it the Social Media Warm-up.
The Campfire Pitch Lee Caraher uses is masterful. But, I also realize it might not be for everyone because not everyone will feel comfortable to share ideas and sell so early in the relationship. I respect that.
So the Social Media Warm-up sales strategy is already baked into the overall recipe of your Profitable Podcast. In Chapter 12 of my book, you will learn how to promote the airing of each of your guest’s episodes via social media using two key ingredients — but — I am going to share some highlights right now. The two ingredients are:
- First, promote the airing of each episode and the wisdom shared by your guest to your social media community
- Then, tag your guests in each post whenever possible so they are nudged to share and retweet your content. This helps build your nation of true fans by exposing their community to your content.
But in addition — your social media strategy does more than help you promote your episodes and build your nation.
By highlighting your guest’s wisdom in each tweet, and by tagging the guest, you are continually reminding your guests of the value they shared with your community.
This makes your guests feel good – and rightly so.
After all, they delivered massive value – you recognized that – and you are now shouting it from the rooftops. By doing so, you are continually stoking the Campfire Effect with each of your guests.
With some of your guests, the fire will begin burning hot so that when you reach back out to them to discuss how your core business might be able to help their business, one of the first things they may say to you at the onset of the call is, “Thanks for all of the tweets!”
Then you will know that your social media warm-up opened the door exactly as you intended.
You will smile when it happens — trust me — it’s rock solid awesome!
Okay…now let’s switch gears and really cement this monetization strategy into place by listening to Mitch Stephen — and yours truly — share specific examples about how a podcast has generated revenue for Mitch and his company.
Here’s Mitch Stephen, host of the Real Estate Investor Summit Podcast…
reinvestorsummit.com/stephen-woessner
Okay, welcome back, Onward Nation.
My guess is Onward Nation, that the success Mitch Stephen has achieved through his hard work and having the right monetization and business development strategy behind his podcast has been inspiring and maybe helped you think about new directions and maybe some next steps.
But I want to take it deeper still. If you go to today’s show notes…you will find a recent video we received from Drew McLellan, top dog at the Agency Management Institute, where in less than 2-minutes, he describes why he wanted to start a podcast, some of the obstacles that held him back, and how the podcast has generated over $200,000 in revenue for his business in the 18-months that it has been live.
Committing to investing a few hours per week, for 18-months, to generate $200,000 in revenue is fantastic ROI, Onward Nation.
Don’t let the fears, or the imposter syndrome, well up inside and rob you of your destiny — your exceptional opportunity to be more — to share more — to deliver more — to create more impact.
Is having a podcast scary? Heck yes, it is — at first.
But as Dr. Marcie Beigel encouraged us in Episode 144… “Onward Nation…you need to be scared and do it anyway.”
Les Brown once said, “Unless you attempt to do something beyond what you have already mastered — you will never grow.”
Your podcast represents an exceptional opportunity for you to grow your business revenue, Onward Nation — and — it represents an exceptional opportunity for you to grow as a person…as a thought leader…and as someone who your nation of true fans will love and respect.
So with that said…
I want to say thank you for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here — thank you for tuning in — your time is sacred and I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
However our daily podcast fits into your daily routine — I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation…good or bad…I always want your feedback. My direct email address is stephen@onwardnation.com — and yes — that is my actual Inbox. No fancy filters or filing system and I read and reply to every single email.
So please let me know how you think we are doing. I look forward to hearing from you.
We will be back tomorrow with Gordon Tredgold in Episode 446. Gordon shares his thoughts on why as leaders we need to serve and protect our teams — not the other way around. You will not want to miss Gordon — he is rock solid awesome, Onward Nation.
Until then, onward with gusto!
Before starting InsightBee in 2014, Manoj worked with Evalueserve for over a decade in several roles and led the creation of industry-focused business research teams at the firm. He served as the global head of operations for corporate and professional services verticals and was responsible for a global team of over 700 professionals serving clients across technology, energy, chemicals, consumer goods, transportation, manufacturing and professional services. Manoj has also served as a management consultant with Accenture’s consulting practice in Asia and spent about 50% of his time serving clients across Middle East, Europe and South East Asia in a variety of assignments spanning from devising the go-to-market strategy for a B2B e-commerce platform to optimizing the distribution network of global companies.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Manoj’s background * Manoj’s time-saving secret recipe for success * Why Manoj believes that you need to go slow to go fast * Why you should be focusing on the customer experience * Why resilience is such a critical skill to master * The benefits of jumping into the unknown * Why you need to make sure that your service mindset doesn’t get diluted * Using the lean startup approach
How best to connect with Manoj: * Website: www.insightbee.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/manojmadhusudanan * Free Resource: resources.insightbee.com/top-global-technology-trends-2017
Gene Hammett helps leaders go from status quo to exceptional to accelerate their business growth. Gene has been a business leader for over 20 years. He has started and ran multiple million dollar companies. He has succeeded, failed, reinvented himself, and succeeded again. On his podcast, “Leaders in the Trenches”, Gene has interviewed hundreds of thought leaders and best-selling New York Times authors. Gene is honored to have shared the platform with the legendary Jack Canfield and has been featured in Forbes, NBC, SUCCESS Magazine, and Huffington Post. Gene is also a regular contributor for Entrepreneur.com.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Gene’s background * Why you need to have a platform * Why you need to ask yourself who you’re here to serve * Why you need to be THE choice, not just A choice * Why you need to have “what can I do for you?” conversations * The importance of being thoughtful and provocative * Being intentional about what you want * Building your dream list * Why you shouldn’t wait to be discovered
How best to connect with Gene: * Website: leadersinthetrenches.com * Website: leadersinthetrenches.com/onward * Website: thetrapofsuccess.com * Twitter: @genehammett
Susan Friedmann is known as The NichePreneur Coach. She is an internationally recognized niche marketing expert and “how-to” coach. She’s worked with hundreds of companies representing more than 30 different industries in the North and South America, Europe, and South East Asia. She is a prolific author, having written 14 books including her bestsellers, “Meeting & Event Planning for Dummies,” and “Riches in Niches: How to Make it BIG in a small Market,” plus many other titles. She’s appeared on a variety of radio talk shows and as a guest expert on CNN’s Financial Network and Bloomberg’s Small Business.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Susan’s background * Making it big in a small market * Why Susan makes a 2-hour appointment with herself every morning * Stream-of-consciousness writing exercise * Why Susan believes that mindset is critical to success * Why taking action in the right direction warrants a higher likelihood for success * Why you need to know how to ask for help * Not allowing yourself the fear of failing or being successful * Taking charge of procrastination & perfectionism
How best to connect with Susan: * Email: susan@richesinniches.com * Phone: 518-523-1320
Nick Creswell leads the talent and development agenda for Thomson Reuters enterprise technology and operations. He partners with leaders to deploy, develop and engage diverse talent across this 15,000-person strong global team. He has worked at Thomson Reuters since 2009, during which time he has led the enterprise performance and talent management agenda, been head of talent for the Financial & Risk business unit and set up the talent function in the Corporate Technology group. Before Thomson Reuters, Nick worked in recruitment at Google, Korn/Ferry, and United Biscuits. Nick lives in London, and – having moved 16 times before the age of 16 and lived in four countries by the age of 10. Nick is a champion of change and diversity.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Nick’s background * Staying focused on your vision * How being more intentional can help you be successful * The behaviors of a leader * Managing your talent * Being deliberate about how you want your culture to be * How “behaviors” are just as important as the “smarts” * Why you need to have a leader-led culture
How best to connect with Nick: * Twitter: @ncreswell * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ncreswell
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation…I’m Stephen Woessner and welcome to this week’s solocast…Episode 440.
If you have been listening to Onward Nation for a while — you know that I like sharing strategies along with all of their tactical step-by-step processes that help business owners create predictable, measurable, and repeatable success for themselves and their teams.
Today’s solocast will be no different.
We are going to dig into how hosting a podcast can be a perfect strategy for owners of business-to-business professional services firms.
I am going to take you deep into a sneak peek of the pages of my latest book, entitled Profitable Podcasting.
The book will not be released by my publisher until September but I want to begin sharing some of the insights now so you can begin to apply.
This book is comprehensive — and it is a research-based book that shares our full blueprint or “recipe” for podcast success with you.
Each and every step is presented in complete transparency. Not a single step has been be hidden from you. It’s all here, in plain sight.
Within the book, I will walk you behind the green curtains of Onward Nation and Predictive ROI so you can learn our proven system. You will also have access to in-depth insights from 10 business owners just like you. Each of them decided to create a podcast to change the game – and then did it.
Their impressive stories are shared in full transparency too.
But why write such a comprehensive book?
Because you deserve a resource that eliminates the guesswork, demystifies the process and gives you a clear and concise strategy for going from zero to launch in about 30 days.
Only limited resources were available when my Predictive ROI team and I decided to create Onward Nation. Sure, there were plenty of hyperbole packed eBooks and webinars that led me into the sales funnels of information marketers, but those resources lacked depth, and candidly, they lacked business acumen.
We quickly consumed the resources and were left with more questions than answers.
Plus, the resources lacked full transparency. They typically provided just enough to get you interested in learning more, and then pitched a $997 online training or mastermind program.
All of which drove me crazy and didn’t solve our problem. Not awesome!
But there are much more important reasons I decided to go as deep as possible with the book.
In my opinion, podcasting – as a medium – deserves a long-form guide, an encyclopedia of how to do it right. When I interviewed Gary Vaynerchuk before the release of his social media book Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook (by the way — still the best book on the market regarding social media and the business strategy behind it all), we discussed how it wasn’t just a social media book, but a business book that would elevate social media to a new level of legitimacy.
My hope is that this book will raise the bar for podcasting just as Gary did for social media marketing.
So on the surface, Profitable Podcasting looks like a podcasting book.
But it’s actually a business book about how business owners just like you are using podcasting to grow their companies, expand their platforms, and build nations of true fans. I promise you — each chapter includes step-by-step instructions so you can create, launch, market, and monetize your own podcast.
The book includes checklists, production schedules, weekly goal tracking, social media strategies with visual examples, promotional emails, guest invitations, exclusive access to private online video tutorials, and other resources including time-saving third-party tools.
I am excited to share this resource because small business has been my focus for 23 years. This is my third book devoted to helping small business owners succeed.
Helping small business owners is deeply rewarding for several reasons. First, having owned five small businesses, I know that in today’s economy, if one wants to have an impact (as I strive to do), then small business represents a tremendous opportunity. Small business owners are the lifeblood of our economy.
Second, the 28 million small businesses operating in the United States today, according to the Small Business Administration, account for 55 percent of all jobs and 54 percent of total revenue generated. I want to help as many business owners as possible grow so they can create more jobs and improve the lives of their families, employees, and communities.
Third, this book tackles the top challenge facing most business owners: According to a recent survey of 1,100 small business owners, 43 percent of respondents identified growing revenue as a top challenge facing U.S. businesses in 2016. That’s more than 12 million businesses expected to face the same challenge.
Driving this number down is a worthy goal of this book. And if you know my family history — and our story — you will understand why I am so passionate about the success of small business owners.
But…there are significant challenges to small business owners who want to have a podcast. It is not as simple as just turning on the microphone, recording a conversation, and distributing it out to iTunes. Sure you can do that…but it is highly unlikely that your time and effort will pay off for your business.
So for today’s solocast…I am going to address the challenges that typically paralyze business owners from either getting started — or — keep them from achieving the success they aspire to achieve from their podcast.
So here we go, Onward Nation.
Ready for the deep dive? Rock solid awesome!
First…a podcast is just a tool. It’s just a platform, Onward Nation.
A platform is simply a conduit for distributing or sharing content. No platform in and of itself will help your business grow revenue. This is a very important point. Just because you have a podcast — does not mean — that prospective customers or even an audience will begin to flock to you.
Not at all.
In order for your podcast to be of value to your business, there needs to be purpose behind the guests you invite to be on your show.
There needs to be purpose behind the questions you ask your guests.
There needs to be purpose behind how you nurture and take care of your guests before their interviews and after their episodes have aired.
And ultimately, you need a strategy for how your podcast will grow your business, expand your platform, and build your nation of true fans.
Having interviewed nearly 500 of today’s top business owners – and having talked with, consulted with, or worked with many of them in producing and launching their own podcasts – I can say with certainty that there are typically three primary challenges or questions that well up in the mind of a business owner who is considering a podcast.
Some business owners need to confront all three; others may just need to confront two.
But I assure you, Onward Nation — every business owner will need to confront at least one.
Question #1: How will my podcast make money and help grow my business?
Question #2: How much time with this take me?
Question #3: How will I get guests? (Or, the variation: What if no one accepts my invitation to be a guest on the show?)
I will devote a future solocast to the revenue topic.
But for this week — we will dive deep into Questions 2 and 3 because they are critically important to getting your mindset right before heading down the podcasting path.
If you don’t get your mindset right, I assure you, there will be setbacks and challenges along the way. Without the correct preparation you will be tempted to quit – and you likely will…quit.
Most podcasters quit after just 7 episodes. It is called “Podfading” — because a business owner launches his or her weekly show — then expects the show to set the world on fire just because it is available — and when it doesn’t — they quit after not even two months.
Really sad.
However, if I help you properly set expectations, when the challenges come your way, instead of being tempted to quit, you can confidently say to yourself, “Ah, Stephen said this would happen and that I’d feel this way” – and you will push forward.
Don’t ever quit, Onward Nation.
Let me help you AVOID THE TIME TRAP.
One of the questions I am asked most often by business owners who have considered a podcast for their business is, “How much time will having a podcast take out of my schedule?” It’s a great question because we should all protect our schedules.
Most business owners assume the answer is 10 hours a week – and that the solution will require them to add staff and make other investments. But here’s the reality: You can have an awesome, top-rated podcast in iTunes by investing less than four hours per month.
Yes. Four hours.
Would you grow revenues faster if you invested more time? Likely yes, but four hours a month is an excellent place to start.
So why would business owners assume that my answer would be something like 10 hours a week?
Because then it would be easy for them to justify why they hadn’t pursued it more seriously. But in fact, it isn’t the perceived time commitment that stops a small business owner from having a podcast.
It is fear.
Fear often rears its ugly head in an attempt to derail the entrepreneurial journey you’re on. Fear will beat you to your knees if you let it.
Fear will cheat you out of success in all aspects of your business, including developing a great platform like a podcast so you can grow revenue and build a nation of true fans.
Once business owners are assured that their time investment will only be about four hours per month, a second challenge typically comes to mind – this one with the subconscious goal of thwarting the podcast from gaining any additional momentum; to snuff out the fire that was building.
But what will be YOUR BIGGEST MOST PAINFUL CHALLENGE on your path to use podcasting to grow your business?
Well, you may be asking yourself the question right now, “Stephen, how will I get guests?”
Or maybe the variation: “What if no one accepts the invitation to be on my show?”
These two fear-laden questions should serve as warning signs that something sinister is lurking. If you let them, they will keep you in check and prevent you from moving forward.
The truth is, we all face such challenges. It’s just that some people are better than others at pushing themselves past them.
In my opinion, this challenge may be blocking your success not just with podcasting, but in other areas of your business as well.
The challenge is known as the “Imposter Syndrome.”
Clinical psychologists Dr. Pauline R. Clance and Suzanne Imes coined the term in 1978 to describe high-achieving individuals who are unable to internalize their accomplishments and who consequently fear being exposed as a “fraud.”
Actual, objective evidence of their competence doesn’t matter to those who exhibit the syndrome. They remain convinced that they’re frauds. They feel that they don’t deserve the success they have achieved.
Calling it “luck” or “good timing,” they never take credit for their accomplishments.
Perhaps they believe that they’ve tricked others into thinking they are more intelligent and competent than they actually are.
Now let’s take that definition and break it down into its two core ingredients.
Ingredient #1: the inability to internalize accomplishments and a persistent fear of being exposed as a “fraud.”
Have you ever walked into a meeting and felt that you weren’t worthy — or that you didn’t belong there? Perhaps someone on the selection committee, the award committee, or board of directors had made a mistake in selecting you.
Heck, maybe even some of your colleagues, family members, or friends even validated your own suspicions and asked you the seemingly innocent question: “So why did they pick you?”
I began to learn about the imposter syndrome back in 2009, around the time my first book was published. I was an academic staff member at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
After my book became popular with small business owners, several of the UW campuses around the state asked me to teach a class at their respective campuses. Awesome.
One day I mentioned this opportunity to a family friend: I told him I headed to the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay the next day to teach a class based on my SEO book.
My friend looked at me and said, “Well, why are they having you teach the class? Couldn’t they find someone in Green Bay to teach it?”
My friend was not trying to be hurtful — not in the least. But those comments hit me hard. Never mind that my SEO book was #3 in the United States, or that I had just been interviewed for Inc. Magazine, or any of the other credibility indicators.
When he asked me that question, I actually paused and thought about it. “Yeah, why are they hiring me to teach? Am I good enough? Do I have what it takes? Am I the best they could bring in? Do I deserve to be there? Am I a fraud? Do I even know what I’m talking about?”
There is nothing unique about my story. We have all had these experiences where we begin to hear the voice in our heads whispering — or in some cases shouting — “Who do you think you are?”
The imposter syndrome will work hard to hold you back.
High-performers with imposter syndrome may work obsessively hard to prevent people from discovering that they’re “impostors.” And talk about a vicious cycle: The hard work leads to more praise and success, which only perpetuates the impostor feelings, leading the “imposter” to work even harder, which can lead to sleep deprivation, burnout and worse.
Ingredient #2: the “Imposter” takes the proof of success and passes it off as luck, timing, or as a result of deceiving others into thinking they are more intelligent and competent than they believe.
Has your business ever gone through a growth spurt that you couldn’t explain? Have you ever looked around your office and suddenly realized you have some amazing people working for you and looking to you for leadership – and yet, you cannot figure out what they see in you?
Have you ever felt uncomfortable before a presentation with a new client?
Did you wonder why they invited you to the table?
Why do we ask ourselves such lousy and unfair questions?
Here’s the important point that I really want you to get.
When you ask yourself, “How on earth were we able to hire such amazing employees? Don’t they know that we don’t know what in the world we’re doing?” — your brain does a funny thing…it gives you an answer.
It’s a crummy answer but it’s an answer.
Your brain doesn’t want to make you out to be a liar — so it gives you the answer to fit your story.
You start hearing things like, “Yeah, you really pulled the wool over their eyes on that one. Hope Becky doesn’t figure it out — because if she leaves — then Tom is sure to leave the company, too.”
Or, “Why did client X invite us here? We don’t really have a shot at winning this pitch, do we?”
The answer you get back might be something like, “Nope, we have no chance of winning — especially if they knew about all the mistakes we made just last week on Client Z’s account. We are lucky to have kept Client Z — hope X doesn’t ask for references. Maybe we ought to back out of the process now.”
What nonsense, Onward Nation!
You were invited into the evaluation process because you have a stellar network — perhaps stellar credentials — and you deserve to be at the table. The voice on your shoulder — the voice whispering in your ear — is the imposter syndrome.
And we all deal with it. It doesn’t matter who you are thinking of right now. Tim Ferriss, the bestselling author of The 4-Hour Workweek, has dealt with it. Joel Osteen has dealt with it.
All of the incredible business leaders that grace the cover of Entrepreneur magazine deal with it. Every business owner — every political leader — every leader throughout history has dealt with this. George Washington did not feel he was worthy to be this country’s first president.
No one is immune from imposter syndrome.
But what is unique — and what is special — is when someone faces the fear of potential rejection.
To quote the beautiful words of educator and behavior expert Dr. Marcie Beigel — a two-time Onward Nation guest: “Stephen…be scared, and then do it anyway!”
I loved that.
Because it is oftentimes fear — which is another way of describing imposter syndrome — gets in your way more than anything else. You may be your own biggest constraint.
Not your ability to schedule guests on your show, not your ability to sell, not the market, not your lack of customers, not your pricing, not your product quality.
No, it is you.
You, as the owner, set the pace and tempo of your company — either fast or slow.
I asked Dr. Marcie to share how business owners can reach that elusive next level. She was kind enough to map it out into three simple steps:
- Get clear on what the next level is — how will you know when you’re there?
- Walkthrough your fear; make a plan — and just do it
- Find a mentor — we learn best from the people who have been there
So let’s look at all three of these.
First, get clear on what the next level is for you and your business. Well, if imposter syndrome (aka FEAR) is making you believe you are not even worthy of your current level of success, then how could you possibly believe you’re worthy of being the host of a top-ranked podcast?
Great question, right?
Instead, perhaps you need to spend some time being thankful for what you have already accomplished — consciously acknowledging that what you have achieved has been well deserved because you worked hard and you applied your God-given gifts and talents to get there.
Now, to realize your full potential, it’s time to leap off your current plateau and move onward to that next level.
You deserve to be at the next level.
You’re an expert.
The first step is to give yourself permission to define that next level so you know when you, your podcast and your business have arrived.
Second…be scared about the next level…and do it anyway. Kick fear to the curb. What’s the worst that could happen? Prospective customers could say no.
You might make a bad decision and lose some money. An employee or a group of employees may disagree with how you’re redirecting the company and could decide to leave.
Okay. Are any of these life-threatening situations?
Did anyone die? No? Then move on!
Stop making each decision more than it has to be. Just make a decision. Then move on. It doesn’t have to be more complicated than that. As Dr. Marcie said, “Be scared and then do it anyway.”
Finally, find a mentor to learn from as Don Yaeger recommended in the Foreword of this book. More specifically, find a mentor or group of mentors who are all moving at a pace and tempo that is faster than you.
It matters who you spend your time with — and if you spend your time with people who are moving at your current pace — or slower — those people may make you feel comfortable to be around — they may not challenge you — they may not push you or ask you tough questions — and it is easy to relax and unwind.
Why? Because as Coach John Wooden once said, “You will never outperform your circle.” That’s just human nature.
So you need to make sure the mentors you select are operating at a completely different level than you — a level to which you can reach and stretch.
You want to get into a group of people where you don’t currently belong and then work like crazy not to get left behind. In the process you’ll expand and grow.
You will then be able to leap from your current plateau onto the next rung.
As Onward Nation guest Scott McKain taught me, “Stephen, you cannot reach that next rung, unless you are willing to let go of the current one you are hanging on to.” Wise words.
You were meant for greatness, Onward Nation. You are instilled with an infinite abundance of talent and gifts. Don’t let something so small as fear limit all you were meant to be.
Don’t give up — keep pushing — and don’t ever, ever quit.
If you are going to be successful at using podcasting to drive your business onward to that next level — you need to get your mindset right first. Because when you do — you will no longer be at risk of podfading — and then the next step — will be for you to bolt on a monetization strategy to your podcast so you have an opportunity to drive significant revenue into your business. I will cover monetization in a future solocast.
So with that said…
I want to say thank you for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here — thank you for tuning in — your time is sacred and I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
However, our daily podcast fits into your daily routine — I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation…good or bad…I always want your feedback. My direct email address is stephen@predictiveroi.com — and yes — that is my actual Inbox. No fancy filters or filing system and I read and reply to every single email.
So please let me know how you think we are doing. I look forward to hearing from you.
We will be back tomorrow with an exceptional interview with Nick Creswell from Thomson Reuters in London — who will take us inside why he believes that today’s leaders lead with culture. Nick is off-the-charts amazing. You will not want to miss it.
Until then, onward with gusto!
Javier Montes is on a mission to bridge the gap between Gen Xers and Millennials in today’s world. As a millennial himself, Javier has spent his entire entrepreneurial journey working almost exclusively with a millennial workforce. He has built a successful event entertainment company in South Florida and now he is sharing how he experienced such success with a team of millennials. Javier writes and speaks regularly on the topic and recently published his first book “Millennial Workforce: Cracking the Code to Generation Y in Your Company.”
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Javier’s background * Why you need to fully embrace millennials if you want to survive * Why millennials value purpose and happiness over security * Why the negative stereotypes about millennials exist (and what they really mean) * Javier’s morning routine that keeps him stay aligned with his purpose * Why millennials believe that their personal and work lives are intertwined * Why you shouldn’t call your team members employees * Why your core values must be non-negotiable * How millennials define success — and how that’s different from other generations * Why lifestyle is important to millennials * Why millennials have a very short time horizon
How best to connect with Javier: * Website: meetjavier.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/MeetJavier * Book: “Millennial Workforce: Cracking the Code to Generation Y in Your Company”
David Mammano’s mission in life is to help people realize their highest potential. He founded the Next Step Education Group in 1995 and successfully grew the business over 20-years making the Inc Magazine list multiple times. One of his greatest achievements was building a culture of high-performance within his team. Then Dave turned Next Step Education Group over to his leadership team so he could focus his time and energy toward his passion for helping other business owners realize their highest potential. And that is what we are going to dig into today during this special encore interview.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Why David started Next Step magazine * Why David elected to franchise the magazine out into different regions instead of taking it national * Why moving the magazine from print to digital wasn’t enough and why David turned Next Step into a college planning training program * David’s why: helping others — especially teens — find their own why * Why you need to keep your ego in your back pocket, never feel satisfied, and push for more * Why David started Avanti to coach entrepreneurs * Avanti Summit: David’s one-day boot camps for entrepreneurs * Mangiamo: David’s mastermind group and why it’s a great resource for entrepreneurs that want to reach the next level * Avanti Entrepreneur: David’s podcast * Why you can’t be afraid to change the rules as an entrepreneur * Why you need to change the definition of failure
How best to connect with David: * Email: david@davidmammano.com * Website: davidmammano.com
David Bush was an All-American football player at the University of South Dakota — then pursued a professional football career, which landed him a starting role with the Iowa Barnstormers in Arena Football League. He played four years and earned two trips to the World Championship game. After football, David became a partner and co-owner of a regional mortgage company with 18-production offices in and continued his success in management and business as a co-owner of the organization. He exited the mortgage business in 2005 to pursue his dream of becoming a lifestyle entrepreneur. He has since coached and mentored thousands of people on how to live healthy, successful, and more significant lives.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * David’s background * The benefits of repetition & hard work * Using Franklin Covey’s alphabet strategy * How spending just 23 minutes per weekday on your highest leverage activities can add an entire work day to your month * Why you need to take control your habits & personal discipline * Why you should master the skill of listening * Differentiating between what’s good and what’s great * Why you should have a plan for your health & mental well-being * Knowing your purpose of why you started your business * Partnering with people who believe what you believe
How best to connect with David: * Website: www.ehealthcoaching.com * Email: david@ehealthcoaching.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/davidbush65 * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/david-bush/8/524/487 * Resources: bit.ly/BusinessGrowthSummit
Cameron Herold was an entrepreneur from day 1. At age 21, he had 14 employees. By 35, he’d help build his first TWO $100 MILLION DOLLAR companies. By the age of 42, Cameron engineered 1-800-GOT-JUNK?’s spectacular growth from $2 million to $106 million in revenue, and 3,100 employees— and he did that in just six years. Cameron is a top rated international speaker and has been hired in 26 countries. He is also the top-rated lecturer at the EO / MIT’s Entrepreneurial Masters Program.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Cameron’s background * Setting & working on your top 3 goals every day * Why you need to focus on employee satisfaction * Focusing on saying no more than saying yes * How Cameron uses reverse engineering * Why culture is so important * The simplicity of business * Why you should focus on your ‘A’ players * Getting into organizations where you can learn & grow
How best to connect with Cameron: * Website: www.cameronherold.com * Book: “Double Double” * Book: “Meetings Suck” * Book: “The Miracle Morning for Entrepreneurs”
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media. Good Morning Onward Nation…I’m Stephen Woessner and welcome to this week’s solocast…Episode 435.
Where we are going deep — deep — deep — behind the scenes of one of today’s top reality TV shows. In fact, the Emmy-award winning SHARK TANK on ABC has become the most successful business reality TV show of all time.
And it because of our incredible guest, Kevin Harrington, that we received a backstage pass – including Kevin’s lessons learned – and how – if we apply what he shared during Episode 410 – you too can be a shark.
He is exceptional, Onward Nation.
So during today’s solocast — I am going to distil down all we learned from directly Kevin into five lessons that you can immediately put into practice within your business. No matter if you want to increase revenue by 10 percent this year – or – you are the path to building a $100 million company as Kevin has twenty times with his companies – there is something here for you in this solocast.
I am going to start us off with a sharing some of the highlights from Kevin’s career as an entrepreneur, and then we will dive into the six lessons. Kevin has been a successful entrepreneur over the last 40 years – he is the exact opposite of an overnight success – he started working when he was just 11 years old. I will come back to that story in a minute.
As I mentioned earlier – Kevin is an original shark from Shark Tank. He is also the inventor of the infomercial and “As Seen On TV” pioneer – and the story behind the brilliance of that invention — tie into lesson two this morning.
Kevin is also a co-founder of the Entrepreneur’s Organization and has launched over 20 businesses that have grown to over a hundred million dollars in sales each — and has been involved in more than a dozen public companies — launched over 500 products, generated more than $5 billion dollars in sales worldwide with iconic brands such as Jack Lalanne, Tony Little, George Foreman, and the new I-Grow Hair Restoration product on QVC.
And it is because of this track record – Mark Burnett handpicked Kevin to become Shark where he filmed over 175 segments.
As I prepared for my time with Kevin – I found one of his quotes that seemed to really speak to who I knew Kevin to be and his path to success. Kevin once said, “If it doesn’t challenge you – it won’t change you.”
In looking back on what I learned from Kevin during our time together – I can confidently say that these words have served like a creed guiding his life…and it started at a young age for Kevin.
So let’s jump in.
Kevin started his entrepreneurial journey working as an 11-year old dishwasher inside his father’s restaurant. At 11…Kevin learned lessons of grit, tenacity, and persistence that he still carries with him today.
For example…
Kevin’s dad had been an entrepreneur his entire life and wanted his son to follow in his footsteps — but Kevin’s mom — wanted him to become a doctor or lawyer because her father had enjoyed a successful career in banking.
Kevin’s mom grew up in a household where the corporate life was the norm – the predictability felt comfortable.
But, Onward Nation…entrepreneurship requires swimming against the norm — swimming upstream — it requires us to swim against the rapids — against the odds — and to confidently swim toward the white water, and doing so, we need to have great anticipation for the unknown…the challenge of it all.
And sharing his personal story is how Kevin taught me the first lesson of what it takes to be a SHARK.
Lesson #1: SHARKS seek out the challenge.
When someone tells a SHARK that it can’t be done…or that there is an easier, less trampled path…the SHARK sets out to map his or her own course.
Kevin, Onward Nation, is quite comfortable in swimming in the deepest of water…finding the blue ocean…and swimming all by himself if he needs to.
Kevin doesn’t need the approval of his peer group.
He is not looking for validation. He is a SHARK and knows it.
A SHARK, like Kevin, never gets confused thinking they are something they are not. They don’t forget their gifts and talents…or…try to become something they are not.
They are acutely aware of who they are and they revel in it for all of their competitors to see.
And because of Kevin’s self-awareness…he knew at avery early age that entrepreneurship — and the uncertainty — the challenge of it all suited him perfectly.
He learned the ups and downs of running a business working alongside his dad. Kevin’s father was his first mentor — someone who gave Kevin the right challenges to conquer at the right time. To push his son — to show him what needed to be learned — what needed to be mastered — and how to be successful so that when it was time for Kevin to swim out into the deep blue ocean to see his own challenges…he was ready.
Kevin used the story of his next adventure in life to teach me the second lesson of what it takes to be a SHARK.
Lesson #2: SHARKS seek out opportunity.
By the time Kevin was ready to own a car, and then later to attend college, there wasn’t enough money to go around. His two older sisters and brother had already gone off to college and the family budget was stretched.
Kevin realized that if he was going to have a car and to attend college — he was going to have to pay his own way.
So what does a SHARK do, Onward Nation?
He searched the waters for opportunity. He needed to find an opportunity that would help him fund the next step in his journey.
To buy his car…Kevin started a driveway sealing business.
Not easy work…but the grit, the tenacity, the persistence he was learning was becoming part of his DNA…and he accomplished his goal.
But…because Kevin grew up in Ohio…his driveway sealing business was seasonal summertime work. So he looked at the market to seek out a new opportunity…something he could do year-round. And that landed him in the heating and air conditioning business because of the steady stream of year-round opportunity.
Great catch.
So during his freshman year in college, Kevin started an HVAC company and it was a success. As a freshman…he had 25 employees and was generating $1 million dollars a year in revenue. And just for context, Onward Nation — that was back in the 1970s, which would equal $6.2 million in today’s dollars.
All the while…Kevin was a college student. Super impressive!
After college…it was Kevin’s ability to seek out opportunity that fueled the acceleration of his career to become one of today’s top business owners.
When Kevin was in the heating and air conditioning business — he would travel around the country to different trade shows looking to learn and to seek out the next opportunity.
He would go to home shows and heating and air conditioning shows — and it was at one of the home shows that the inspiration for his next opportunity hit him.
So then Kevin told me the full story behind his invention of the infomercial.
He watching one of the exhibitors at a show sell a knife set and was impressed with the demonstration and the entrepreneur’s ability to sell the small audience watching the demo on the benefits of the knife set. But, the entrepreneur was only pitching 10 people at a time…and yes…eight people out of the 10 would want to buy at the end of the demo…but it was still only 8 sales.
That compelling demo flashed Kevin back to his recent experience as a brand new cable subscriber. He had asked the cable company to give him all the channels they could – the biggest package available – which was 30 channels back in the early 80s. He got a 24-hour news channel, CNN, a 24-hour movie channel, HBO, 24 hours a day of sports, ESPN. Rock solid awesome.
But, when he turned on the TV late one night…for what he thought would be 24-hours of national geographic shows…it wasn’t there…all he saw were color bars.
So Kevin called the cable company and said, “Hey, I just got your 30 cable channel package but I’m looking at all the channels, but Discovery is not coming through. Is there a technical problem? What’s happening?”
They said, “Oh, Discovery is only an 18-hour a day network. We, as the cable company, deliver the channels that we get. We don’t produce anything. We’re just a delivery vehicle. They give us 18-hours a day. We put up the bars, so you know there’s nothing that supposed to be there. It’s six hours a day of dark time.”
That’s when the lightbulb went off for Kevin.
He asked the representative at the cable company if he could come down and talk to somebody about putting something on the network during the dark time that they could both make money at.
So let’s go back to the home show…Kevin watching the knife demo – cutting through a Coca-Cola can – a powerful visual demonstration. The knife set was called the “Ginsu” and Kevin knew it would be perfect for TV – and could fill the empty inventory that the cable company clearly had.
So Kevin…following his own lesson…and wanting to find his next opportunity went up to the entrepreneur doing the demonstration and said, “Hey, let’s turn the camera on. Capture your pitch that you just gave selling those knives. We’re going to put on that downtime on Discovery channel.”
Onward Nation…Kevin started locally in Cincinnati, Ohio and bought up the excess programming inventory.
And then when they had proof of concept…Kevin went to Discovery Channel at the network level and said, “Hey, I’ll program six hours a day for you”, which turned into a long-term contract and that led to a deal with the Lifetime network.
Then boom. Acceleration.
Onward Nation, Kevin’s imagination and his pursuit of opportunity gave birth to the infomercial at a time when the market was ripe for disruption. Kevin went on to work with Jack Lalanne, Tony Little, Billy Mays, and even George Foreman with his popular Foreman Grills.
And all of this was years before QVC ever started.
But a very key piece in this lesson, Onward Nation, is that Kevin realized there were significant opportunities on the front-end and back-end of the infomercial business.
For example, he signed contracts with inventors of products and pitchmen to create the right TV presence, the right story, the right direct response marketing to consumers…but…Kevin also realized there was money to be made on the back-end…in the customer service…in the manufacture and distribution of all the goods, too.
So when Kevin approached a business owner with an opportunity to join his portfolio of products…he was providing an A to Z solution that was very compelling and provided built-in marketing and distribution.
And then it went viral, Onward Nation, before “viral” was even a thing.
Kevin shared with me how one opportunity built on and led to the next. They took it viral not only in the US then went to England with Rupert Murdoch…then to Italy…then into Spain…into Germany…to Sweden, Latin America, and Japan.
Their distribution went worldwide viral through the TV networks with an 800 number on the back of it. Kevin’s system generated hundreds and millions of dollars over several years.
And they were able to do that because Kevin and his team were not just creating content for stations – they also manufactured the products, imported the products, created a phone center to accept orders, set up a fulfillment center to ship the goods, a bank to cash the credit cards, a customer service center to handle the customer service.
Kevin capitalized on the opportunity to create a complete front and back end marketing and distribution machine. He was the pioneer behind the catchphrase – “not available in stores.” And that ensure that all of the dollars for their products flowed through their own front and back end system. Direct to consumer. Brilliant.
And once the system was built – he achieved scale by recruiting as many products as possible – and because of the results he was creating for his partners – they would often introduce him to the next ones. One of them said to Kevin, “Hey, did you meet Billy Mays? Billy has a product. I’ll introduce you.”
Kevin was able to tie up the rights to all of them with all of their ideas, all their products. Kevin and his team created an industry but it started with seeking out an opportunity and then not being afraid of the enormous challenge that it represented. Lessons #1 and #2, Onward Nation.
And Kevin still applies this same level of curiosity today by attending 25 to 30 trade shows a year. I interviewed him just days before he left for CES in Las Vegas. He speaks at the events…meets with business owners in his portfolio of companies…and then is always on the lookout to be pitched the next opportunity.
Let’s move to Lesson #3, Onward Nation: SHARKS are relentless.
SHARKS never stop swimming toward their goal — because if they do — they will suffocate and die.
And that makes a SHARK relentless. They have a strong will to win. But their will to win isn’t because they just want to survive – no – a SHARK is driven to thrive. Even if that means they will collect battle scars along the way…each scar is just additional experience.
A SHARK’s relentless pursuit to thrive is what has made them the undisputed top of the oceanic food chain. A Great White shark will nearly eat anything. And if a competitive feeding frenzy ensues – the SHARK with the strongest, most unrelenting will is the one who gets the most meat.
It is their relentless nature…their relentless pursuit of an opportunity…that produces incredible success.
Onward Nation…don’t you think it is reasonable to think that Kevin Harrington received some naysayers who listened to his idea about pitching products on TV at 2:00 in the morning…who giggled a little bit. I can almost hear the skepticism now. Oh come on, Kevin…who is going to buy something they see on TV? How many people are actually awake that late? If people were actually interested in watching TV that late…don’t you think the networks would already have programming?”
And yet…he relentlessly did it anyway. Because that is what SHARKS do, Onward Nation.
Time for Lesson #4: SHARKS never stop learning.
And because SHARKS never stop learning — they are excellent problem solvers — and they pivot when necessary, and consequently, are on the front-end of the disruption.
SHARKS are early adopters to new tech so they can continue their position of market leadership and being at the top of the food chain. But they also help set the new trends and can be excellent teachers if we are willing to watch and learn.
For example, when Kevin attends a trade show…it is often in the role of being the keynote speaker. And he is there to share content about the disruptions he is seeing in the marketplace – where is the market headed. He can share those types of insights because he never stops learning – he doesn’t rest on his laurels – his relentless nature of being a SHARK demands that he continue to learn – to continually perfect his craft in order to be the best expert he can be.
And his thought leadership is highly sought after because the “As Seen On TV” industry is in the midst of a serious disruption. For example, I learned from Kevin that there are 50 percent fewer viewers on TV today than there were 10-years ago.
Let’s take a deeper look.
When shows launch today – if it’s good – it will receive 5 to 6 million viewers – and maybe 7 to 8 million viewers if it is really good.
And if you go back just 10 years, those same shows would be doing double that.
But, today’s audience is gone. They are either on YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime, or getting their content on their iPads, iPhones, etc.
Kevin described it as “cord cutting” and it is taking place at a very rapid rate right now. And because of that…industry associations are turning to Kevin – who built such incredible success around TV with his empire of products and back-end fulfillment systems – to now teach what is next. And because Kevin saw the trends coming – because of his study and learning – he smartly pivoted.
As a result…he is profiting within completely different platforms because he has learned what the consumer wants – and – where they want it.
Kevin urges today’s business owners to “Follow the eyeballs. They’re on Facebook. They’re on Pinterest. They’re on Instagram. Which is why 80 percent of Kevin’s business comes from digital channels versus 100 percent coming from his TV presence just 5-years ago.
Lesson #5: SHARKS are decisive
Onward Nation, when was the last time you watched Shark Week on the Discovery Channel and you saw a shark being indecisive?
Did you see it hesitate?
Did you see it circling around an opportunity and never taking action to either strike or move on?
Living in fear and not knowing if they should move in to investigate and then decide if they should eat it or not doesn’t happen in the wild.
No?
Why?
Because sharks in the wild are decisive. And SHARKS in business share that same trait with their oceanic counterparts.
How often have you seen Kevin and his fellow SHARK investors inside the Shark Tank waffle around a deal? Never. It doesn’t happen.
Within minutes, they decide if they will — or won’t invest — in someone’s dream. They don’t belabor a point…they are either in or they are out. They are decisive about an opportunity.
When they see an opportunity…they move.
I have been a fan of SHARK TANK for a long time – so during our pre-interview chat – I asked Kevin if he would be willing to take us behind the scenes of SHARK TANK. I was delighted when he agreed.
So here we go, Onward Nation…way…way…way…behind the scenes. It is as if Kevin gave us an all access studio pass. Here are some of the highlights.
Shark Tank is filmed on a soundstage on the Sony movie lot in Culver City, California – just outside Los Angeles — where all the original big movies with Clark Gable and today’s biggest Hollywood blockbusters are filmed. Gulp.
And during the shooting of the first several episodes, the Shark Tank soundstage was physically right next door to the soundstage where Robert Downey Jr. was filming the first Iron Man movie.
So at lunch, Kevin and his fellow SHARKS were at lunch, and the Iron Man cast and crew was also at lunch. There were hundreds of crew and staff there, and the Sharks were like, “Wow, there’s Robert Downey Jr. — Hey, we’re from Shark Tank.” And the reaction from everyone was “Who the heck are you guys?”
Onward Nation…nobody knew what Shark Tank was at that point. It was brand new. I am so glad Kevin shared that insight – because – it illustrates so perfectly that even one of the biggest shows on TV – had to start somewhere and that somewhere was at the bottom.
And they had to work like crazy to make the show a success. But not without needing to conquer number of intimidating moments along the way. And just like Kevin taught me during this interview – “If it does challenge you – it doesn’t change you.”
For example…
The ceilings within the soundstage were 60-foot high with 16 cameras and a crew of 150 people bustling about!
Now, Kevin came from a television business – he shot many infomercials and being in front of a camera was easy for him. But, a big expensive shoot in Kevin’s world before Shark Tank was five cameras – and now he was on the Sony movie lot inside a soundstage that cost $1 million to build with 16 cameras and a 150 person crew.
There’s the challenge Kevin spoke about, Onward Nation.
This was Hollywood. This was ABC, Sony, and big time Mark Burnett. He produces the biggest and the best from Survivor and all that.
Using Kevin’s words…it was a little bit intimidating. But then Mark Burnett came over to Kevin and asked, “Kevin, tell me how you feel. What’s going through your mind right now?”
Kevin said, “Well, it’s a little intimidating, Mark. I’m not going to lie to you. I’m sitting here. I’m looking at 150-person crew, 16 cameras, Sony music movie lot. Mark, I feel really good because I know what is happening here…the entrepreneurs who are coming in…they’re going to be pitching me and this is what I do every day in my business.”
Then Mark Burnett said, “Kevin. Just put blinders on. Don’t think about the cameras. Don’t think about the crew. Don’t think about anything. I want you to focus on the entrepreneur coming out, giving you the pitch. What would you do if that was in your office?”
Kevin told me… “Stephen, That’s when it all came together.”
Because of Mark’s words, Kevin had a peaceful feeling and he could just focused on his expertise and what he did best.
But there was also another form of risk to the SHARKS themselves.
At that particular time, ABC had not committed to air SHARK TANK. So Mark Burnett still had to negotiate for distribution of the show.
So the reality was – that the SHARKS were investing in deals that had no guarantee of distribution on TV.
Kevin is one of the original SHARKS who helped forge the show because we went all in – he wrote checks to companies that were coming on SHARK TANK with no guarantee of distribution – no guarantee of getting eyeballs for those investments.
So for the SHARKS – it was a very risky proposition. They were investing hundreds of thousands of dollars of their own cash into deals that may never be seen by anybody on TV. The initial episodes were pilots.
Fortunately, selling to the networks is a skill for Mark Burnett. He got it sold into ABC, and the show launched in 2009, and the rest is history.
But SHARK TANK — as well as Kevin Harrington’s incredible career — are great illustrations of how there is no such thing as an overnight success. Onward Nation…it takes grit, persistence, and tenacity to make your dreams a reality.
Don’t give up — keep pushing — don’t ever quit.
So with that…
I want to thank you for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here — thank you for tuning in — your time is sacred and I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
However our daily podcast fits into your daily routine — I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation…good or bad…I always want your feedback. My direct email address is stephen@onwardnation.com — and yes — that is my actual Inbox. No fancy filters or filing system and I read and reply to every single email.
So please let me know how you think we are doing. I look forward to hearing from you.
We will be back tomorrow with an interview with Cameron Herold, the top-rated lecturer at the EO / MIT’s Entrepreneurial Masters Program.
Until then, onward with gusto!
Phil Gerbyshak works with salespeople and leaders to increase their influence, impact and ultimately, their income. Phil believes in the power of social selling and connection. With a unique speaking style — part sales expert and part entertainer — Phil keeps his audiences engaged while providing actionable steps to bring in more leads, more referrals, and more business. If he’s not traveling, speaking, or making new connections, Phil writes. He’s published five books, including “10 Ways to Make It Great” and “#TwitterWorks”, more than 2,500 articles, and been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Financial Times and a long list of other media.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Phil’s background * Why LinkedIn is the most powerful social selling tool on the planet * The importance of adding value to people’s lives & why that matters * Asking yourself “how can I do better?” * How to add productivity time to your week * Why focus is such an important skill to master * Practicing being “you” * Why your message needs to be packaged in the right way * Getting clear on who you are as a business owner * Finding great people to surround yourself with * Learning by example
How best to connect with Phil: * Website: www.philgerbyshak.com * Email: phil@philgerbyshak.com * Phone: 414-640-7445 * Facebook: www.facebook.com/philgerbyshak * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/philgerb * eBook: “12 things you can do each day on LinkedIn to increase your impact, influence and income.”
Henry DeVries is the CEO of Indie Books International. He works with consultants and coaches who want to attract more high-paying clients by marketing with a book and speech. Henry has helped ghostwrite, edit, and co-author more than 300 business books, including his bestseller “How to Close a Deal Like Warren Buffett. He is also the president of the New Client Marketing Institute, a training company he founded 18 years ago — and — has serves as a marketing faculty member and assistant dean of continuing education for the University of California San Diego.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Henry’s background * Conquering your roadblocks * What Henry considers the #1 marketing tool & #1 marketing strategy * Why you need to just write instead of striving for perfection * Being persistent & taking action * The importance of knowing your numbers * Why you need to maintain your daily and weekly standards * Creating a business development machine
How best to connect with Henry: * Website: marketingwithabook.com * Website: marketingwithabook.com/events * Website: indiebooksintl.com * Email: henry@indiebooksintl.com
Christine Kloser is known as “The Transformation Catalyst®,” and has trained nearly 70,000 authors and entrepreneurs from more than 100 countries and is well recognized as a leader in her field. Whether through private mentoring, group coaching, transformational retreats, live events, speaking or global virtual trainings programs, Christine’s clients feel seen, heard, understood, valued and transformed in ways they never thought possible. As a result, they take action, claim their worth, write their books, experience life-changing breakthroughs and fulfill their heart’s calling. Christine has personally authored and co-authored more than a dozen award-winning and best-selling books including “The Freedom Formula, “A Daily Dose of Love” and “Pebbles in the Pond.” Committed to making a difference in the world, and raising the consciousness of humanity.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Christine’s background * Why Christine believes that less is more when it comes to your daily to-do list * Why Christine starts every day with quiet time * Why you don’t need to always have all of the answers * Why you should build a business that extends beyond you * Speaking in authenticity * Why you need a community of champions & believers * Creating & growing your business in a way that is right for you
How best to connect with Christine: * Website: christinekloser.com * Webinar: “How to Get Your Book Done”
Nick Sonnenberg is a serial entrepreneur with a passion for creating companies that disrupt the way people live. Nick is the co-founder of Leverage and the former CEO of CalvinApp. Before making the jump to the startup technology space, Nick spent more than eight years on Wall Street as a high frequency algorithmic trader. His personal mission is to help busy entrepreneurs and executives optimize their lives in a meaningful way and help them go from idea to execution in as few steps as possible.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Nick’s background * The importance of identifying your strengths * Why you need to be able to delegate more * Why you need to give people the feeling that you’re adding value * Why you shouldn’t discount your services * Automating your systems * Why you need to build something scalable * Why you need to clear the “crap” out of the way * Utilizing tools to help you be more productive
How best to connect with Nick: * Website: getleverage.com * Blog: blog.getleverage.com * Book: “Idea to Execution” * Podcast: Optimize, Automate, Outsource * Podcast: The Leverage Podcast
Marissa Levin has been an entrepreneur, speaker, & globally recognized growth strategist for over 20-years. Her lifetime legacy mission is to educate, equip, & empower 100 million entrepreneurs & leaders with the skillsets and mindsets they need to reach their greatest potential. As CEO of Successful Culture, Marissa helps other CEOs master the 3 most critical aspects of business growth: leadership development, strategy formulation & execution, and organizational culture assessment & improvement. She also helps CEOs select and implement highly effective advisory boards using her patented SCALE Model, which is an essential strategy for any business looking to grow exponentially.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Marissa’s background * Why you should not limit yourself * Why Marissa believes in the ‘oxygen mask’ analogy * Why you should face conflict head-on * Why you should be intentional with your time * Why you need to be true to your personal brand * Mastering your mindset * Why you need to define boundaries * Why you need to identify your core values, mission, and vision * Why you need to determine your target customer profile * Having a proactive mindset
How best to connect with Marissa: * Website: successfulculture.com * Twitter: @marissalevin * Instagram: @marissalevin1 * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/marissalevin1
Amy Anderson is the creator of Transformative Writing for Non-Writers, founder of Anderson Content Consulting LLC, and former senior editor of SUCCESS magazine. She's an Emmy Award-winning writer, writing coach, and speaker who has worked with clients like John Addison, Todd Duncan, John Assaraf, and Darren Hardy, as well as companies like Advisors Excel and Dell. Today, Amy has turned her years of experience toward helping experts, coaches, and consultants discover their authentic voice and write with confidence so they can build connection, inspire action, and change lives.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Amy’s personal story * Why you need to deal with your deeper wounds * Why freedom is the definition of success for Amy * Why you need to look at suffering as something you can build upon * The importance of freeing yourself from toxic relationships * Why, when you have that moment of clarity, you need to do something right away * Why you need to figure out what you are so afraid of * Why you need to be authentic & not run from who you really are
How best to connect with Amy: * Website: www.amykanderson.com * Email: amy@amykanderson.com
Sheryl O’Loughlin is a serial entrepreneur and author of KILLING IT! An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Keeping Your Head Without Losing Your Heart (Harper Collins, December 2016). She has served as the CEO of Clif Bar, where she led the concept development and introduction of Luna bars. She then went on to co-found and serve as CEO of Plum Organics. She was the Executive Director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Sheryl is currently CEO of REBBL, a fast-growing maker of plant-based drinks.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Sheryl’s background * Why there is a light side & a dark side to entrepreneurship * Why entrepreneurs all need to understand & support each other * Protecting your self worth * Putting passion & grit into everything you do * Finding people who care deeply about your purpose * Why you need to go on an epic adventure * Why you need to have bold humility * Finding a valuable, sustainable business model
How best to connect with Sheryl: * Website: rebbl.co * Website: www.sheryloloughlin.com
Mike Glauser has extensive experience as an entrepreneur, business consultant, and university professor. He is the co-founder and chairman of My New Enterprise, an online training and development company for aspiring entrepreneurs. He is also the founder and former CEO of Golden Swirl Management Company and of Northern Lights. Mike has consulted with numerous startup companies and large corporations in the areas of business strategy, organizational effectiveness, and leadership development. His clients have included Associated Food Stores, The Boeing Company, Department of Workforce Services and others. Mike is currently the Executive Director of the Clark Center for Entrepreneurship at Utah State University. He has published numerous articles in magazines and two books on entrepreneurship: Glorious Accidents and The Business of Heart. His latest book, Main Street Entrepreneur, chronicles a 4,000-mile cross-country bicycle journey he took to interview 100 successful entrepreneurs across the United States.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * What the future of work looks like * Why you should not be fearful of failing * Having a problem-solver mindset * Why you need to have a purpose behind your business * Why you should study other successful entrepreneurs * Why you need to hire ‘A’ players * Why you need to build a platform to reach potential customers * Why you need to look at your business as a portfolio of products
How best to connect with Mike: * Website: www.mikeglauser.com * Website: www.themainstreetentrepreneur.com * Website: www.mynewenterprise.com * Email: mike@mikeglauser.com
John Dwyer is a marketing enigma, unique in the field. When it comes to creating sales for businesses, his thinking is refreshingly unconventional. John preaches "in a sea of sameness in your industry, you need to stand out like a beacon - and the best way to do this is by using wow factor marketing techniques". He thinks "way outside the square" and brings proven marketing ideas to the table for business owners - not the motherhood marketing waffle we all hear from many self-professed advertising experts. And let's not forget, he’s the guy who got Jerry Seinfeld out of retirement to front an Aussie bank’s advertising campaign! So, Onward Nation, if you’re looking for “NEW IDEAS” of how to attract new clients, get ready – because you’re about to get an avalanche of great marketing ideas!
What you'll learn about in this episode * Why everything starts & finishes with understanding sales & marketing * Why you need to make sure that your most important priorities rise to the top of your task list * Why you need to look at your most profitable target audience & then look for more people who look like them * Why ‘challenger’ brands should use a different form of marketing * The benefits of ‘wow’-ing your customers with an artificial wow * Why you don’t want to be selling based on price * Why you need to build a business based on proper marketing * Why you need to collect & segment data
How best to connect with John: * Website: www.theinstituteofwow.com * Website: wheelofwow.com
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation…I’m Stephen Woessner and welcome to this week’s solocast…Episode 425.
Today, we are going to build upon the mentorship lessons, strategies, and tactics we studied together last week. I firmly believe that as a leader — mentorship — should be one of your most vital priorities. And it is through your consistent and thoughtful mentorship — that you will be able to create the culture of high-performance, of accountability, of proactivity — a culture that reflects your core values.
So if mentorship is truly a critical skill for any business owner to make mastery a vital priority — are there others?
And yes, I would argue that recruiting, interviewing, onboarding, and preparing your employees is equally as vital. As Jim Collins masterfully wrote in his book, “Good to Great,” we must have the right people sitting in the right seats on the right bus. If we don’t — no amount of mentorship you provide will be overcome the challenge of misalignment within your team. And part of being an excellent mentor is showing your team how and why making adjustments within the team is critical for the overall health and performance of your team.
But — where should you go to recruit your next rock star employees? Where can you find the A-players that we all want to have as part our respective teams?
And it may surprise you — when I recommend that you hire “A Players” — I don’t mean adding several high salaried or highly commissioned positions to your team. Instead, I am referring to the incredible and very realistic opportunity of you hiring “A Players” who also happen to be unpaid interns.
Yes, I did say unpaid interns.
Here at Predictive ROI…we have started calling it “Building our team through the draft.” Just like the great NFL teams do — they take their time — they look for the best talent in the draft — while realizing they need to have the right onboarding system in place to marinate their rookie players in the culture of the team, the values of the organization, and the vision for the future.
We do the same thing at Predictive ROI.
We have built an outstanding internship program and have provided over 22 unpaid internships over the last several years to students in their senior year of study at Purdue, Duke, Ohio State, University of South Florida, University of Northern Iowa, and many other universities throughout the country.
So…I decided to focus today’s solocast on how you can use the recipe we have created so you can recruit rock star interns to scale your team.
Why do I think this is important to share?
Because I often have conversations with business owners who don’t believe it is possible — that they will actually find interns with exceptional talent, work ethic, and a burning desire to learn. When the reality couldn’t be further from the truth.
I recently had a conversation with a marketing manager inside a company — and as is typical — the manager was responsible for everything — new content development, generating qualified leads, optimizing content, email campaigns, print collaterals materials, trade show analysis, trade show displays, PPC campaigns, coordinating all of the in-house experts for any technical writing, the blog, video production, and the dizzying list went on and on.
My word.
Toward the end of our first day together — I asked him if he had access to any interns who could provide some additional production capacity and support so he could focus more of his time toward his most vital priorities.
He quickly said no — but then went on to share some insights about their corporate culture, its view of interns, and actually needing permission to hire a full-time employee even if he only wanted to hire an intern — because they wouldn’t hire an intern unless there was a pathway to employment.
And since their operating budget was tight — no funds were available for recruiting and then paying interns.
So I asked… “What about unpaid interns?”
I then received the reaction that I have become very used to seeing or hearing when I mention unpaid internships.
A typical reaction sounds like this… “Unpaid interns? I bet you’re only be able to recruit the unmotivated…the students who are just looking to check the box off the list…they are there to do the bare minimum…and nothing more, right?”
And I suspect that has been the actual experience for most companies.
However, our experience at Predictive ROI has been a remarkable 180 degrees in the opposite direction.
Our recipe for recruiting rock star interns is outstanding and I am going to use today’s solocast to share it with you so you can apply it right away.
But before I do…I want to take this opportunity to pull back the green curtain and take you behind the scenes so you can meet some of the rock star members of our Predictive ROI team who pull all the levers regarding the day-to-day production behind Onward Nation as well as the 20 other podcasts we produce for clients.
So for Onward Nation…let me introduce you first to Katherine Bartlett — yay, Katherine! Katherine is our director of content marketing and the wizard behind all of our episodes — how they sound — and how they look on social media. She also runs point on Predictive ROI marketing and promotional work. Anything audio and visual related is all orchestrated by Katherine.
Katherine began her career at Predictive ROI as an unpaid intern. She was one of those people who raised her hand and said — “Um, I know that I am only required to do 10 hours per week for this internship. But, could I do more?” And our response was…oh my…yes, please. During her internship, Katherine was responsible and demonstrated leadership potential that as an unpaid intern — she managed 6 other unpaid interns. Yep, she is that good!
When her internship was complete…we transitioned Katherine to what we call “Super Intern” during her final semester at the University of Northern Iowa. She received a small stipend of compensation while she focused on finishing her education.
And when she graduated, she became a full time salaried employee. Katherine is a rock star!
Then there is Louie Schuth…who is in-charge of all our show notes, email campaigns, blog posts, our Twitter strategy, and LinkedIn articles.
Louie is an amazing writer and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Louie finished his unpaid internship and super internship last summer and just celebrated his 6-month anniversary as a full time member of our team.
We are thrilled to have Louie as a member of our team…because he and Katherine are cut from the exact same cloth of — “Yes, please — can I do more?”
We started Louie off with a variety of writing projects and he quickly excelled. And then he asked if he could allocate a portion of his time to WordPress and managing some of our websites.
Uh, yes please!
And he excelled there, too.
And Louie is the one who stays up late with me Tuesday nights before my solocasts air to make sure the show notes and audio file are set correctly.
Then there is the trailblazer…Jessica Zickert. Jessica finished her unpaid internship in December and is now working to complete her super internship, which will end in April when she scales to a full-time member of our team. Jessica has taken over the day-to-day editing and production of all of our Onward Nation episodes as well as assisting Katherine whenever there is a need…and…Jessica is an exceptional graphic designer.
Jessica is a rock star — just like Katherine and Louie.
And last but not least…I’d like to introduce you to Erik Jensen, our vice president of client services for Predictive ROI. He oversees our entire production team and he is now my business partner at Predictive.
I first met Erik while I was a part of the academic staff at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. I served at the Small Business Development Center on campus. One day, the chair of our marketing department suggested to Erik that he come see me regarding a business plan that Erik and his business partner were developing for a competition at Duke University. We met and I was blown away by his professionalism and grasp of so much detail.
Later that night — I said to my wife, “Wow…this guy is amazing — I hope some day there is an opportunity to work together on something.”
Years later…Erik became our first intern at Predictive ROI…he then became full time employee #3 as an associate…we then promoted him to engagement manager…then the leadership team…then vice president of client services.
Erik helped set the standard by which we evaluate and measure all interns.
He invested a full-time schedule toward his internship even though it wasn’t required. And that is the type of heart you are looking for, Onward Nation, in your interns.
So with that…I am going to share the complete recipe for how we recruit rock star candidates to our unpaid internship program.
Please note:
We only take students in their senior year of school. We have had positive experiences with juniors (but that is often not the case) and we have had positive experiences with interns post graduation (but that is often not the case as well).
So we decided to focus on seniors and have found them to be the most motivated, eager to learn, and hungry to gain experience because graduation is looming and so is their job search.
Ingredient #1: Define your culture with your leadership team, employees, and post a page on your website for candidates to study.
My leadership team, which consists of Katherine and Erik who I introduced you to a few minutes ago, have been studying the book Traction by Gino Wickman. Excellent book — and within one of the first chapters in the book — Gino talks about why mission, purpose, and values are so important — and how — a leader ought to go about creating and documenting it. We worked through the process and realized the following describes what we value here at Predictive ROI.
- Proactivity
- No ego in anything we do
- Learning goes both ways
- Consistent self-improvements
- Seek first to understand
- Create win-win-win relationships
- We value everyone
- We are persistent
It is important for you to share your values, talk about them often, so you are constantly marinating your team in the culture of your organization. And the perfect time to start that with your team — is — when they are interns and wanting to learn everything they can about your company.
Ingredient #2: write a position description that is in-line with your culture and post on your website.
Go here for an example: http://predictiveroi.com/we-are-hiring/
Ingredient #3: post testimonials / social proof on your website because “A-Players” want to work with other “A-Players” — or — where other “A-Players” have worked.
“The team at Predictive ROI is incredible. They are so talented and passionate about this industry, and that really makes such a difference. I feel like I have learned much more through this internship than I ever expected. With every step of the way, I felt involved in the process and that my thoughts and ideas mattered. Through the help of some pretty great mentors, I was able to not only learn more about this industry, but was able to apply what I was learning first-hand.” — Whitney Puent
“There’s one word that comes to mind when looking to describe the Predictive ROI internship: special. Predictive ROI gives you the opportunity to do great work that has an impact. But, more importantly, at Predictive ROI you work with the greatest team you could ever ask for, a team that will have your back and guide you so that you’re better prepared for the working world, and better prepared for life. If you’re willing to put in the hard work, don’t think twice about applying for an internship with Predictive ROI. You won’t regret it.” — Louie Schuth
“Applying for an internship with Predictive ROI was the best decision I’ve made in a long time. Going into my final semester of college, I knew I wanted an internship that would allow me to hone and develop my professional skills by making impactful contributions within an organization. An internship with Predictive ROI gives you exactly that. At Predictive ROI, you are given the opportunity to work with an unbelievable team that will teach you the the tools and skills needed to be successful in your career.” — Alex Krupski
Ingredient #4: weed out B and C players by sending a pre-qualifying email with challenging thought provoking questions to each candidate.
We send the following email immediately after receiving someone’s application / resume:
[Candidate’s First Name]…thank you for your interest in our internship!
As the first step in our process…please review the following questions and email us back your thoughts for each.
Your answers to each question will give our team an opportunity to: 1) understand how we can create the right internship experience for you and ensure you learn everything you want to learn, 2) evaluate your written communication skills, and 3) assess your depth of interest in joining our team.
-
Please introduce yourself (beyond what we can learn by reading your resume) and why our internship is of interest to you.
-
Please describe the top three things you would like to learn during this internship. And we encourage you to be as specific as possible.
-
Tell us about your digital marketing experience up to this point (and if it is zero…that is okay).
-
Things we cannot teach are work ethic, commitment to teammates, integrity, and excellence. Please share an example of when you consistently demonstrated excellence in your work.
-
Please share an example of when you demonstrated integrity.
-
What are the attributes or qualities you look for in teammates?
-
How can we help support your growth and development during this internship?
This is my direct email address — please feel free to reply here.
We look forward to talking with you.
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely Yours,
Stephen Woessner
Host of The Onward Nation Podcast
CEO of Predictive ROI
Ingredient #5: conduct initial call to assess cultural fit and subject matter expertise deep dive
If the answers provided back are at our standard of excellence — I will schedule a subject matter expertise-focused phone call in order to assess:
1) cultural fit
2) depth of current knowledge.
Their current knowledge is not a deal breaker because we train and teach all we do — but it is good to have a baseline. I also make a decision — along with the candidate — on whether or not there is a good enough of a fit to move on.
Ingredient #6: conduct team interview with the candidate.
Team interview with the candidate, Katherine (former intern now our director of content marketing), Erik (former intern now our vp of client services and co-owner), Alex Krupski (former intern and now our SEO and systems specialist), and me.
Our focus during this interview is to answer any questions from the candidate about Predictive, the internship, and where the company is headed.
And we ask a lot of questions about teamwork, proactivity, independent working / thinking, etc.
Ingredient #7: make a go or no go decision — then send “Congratulations” email
Good Morning [Candidate’s First Name]…thank you again for your time yesterday afternoon!
I am excited to give you a very warm welcome to the Predictive ROI team.
Katherine, Erik, Alex, and I thoroughly enjoyed our time with you yesterday and look forward to having your contribution to the work we are all doing.
I am preparing a formal acceptance letter that will detail initial responsibilities, internship duration, etc. I will email it to you on Friday for your review and approval.
But at this point…would Monday be a good start date for you?
And would you be able to attend our 8:45 am kick-start meeting via Zoom?
Onward with gusto!
Ingredient #8: kick-off the semester long internship.
You need to treat your unpaid interns exactly as full-time members of your team and you will get a higher level of production and proactivity. And because we do that — our full time…including interns…are all held to the same standards of excellence — and we ensure excellence with a daily and weekly rhythm of accountability.
For example…we have a daily kick-start meeting at 8:45 am Monday through Friday where each person answers four questions:
- My three most vital priorities for the day are…
- What I didn’t get done yesterday but should have (not a judgement question — but an ask for teamwork)
- This is where I need some help
- I do / don’t have available time today
Take vital projects off your plate and give them to your interns — not filing projects — put them on the front lines with meaningful work. They will love you for it if you do.
You will recruit A Players — rock star unpaid interns — just like Predictive ROI and Onward Nation has if you apply these 8 ingredients.
So with that said…
I want to say again, thank you for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here — thank you for tuning in — your time is sacred and I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
However our daily podcast fits into your daily routine — I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation…good or bad…I always want your feedback. My direct email address is stephen@onwardnation.com — and yes — that is my actual Inbox. No fancy filters or filing system and I read and reply to every single email.
So please let me know how you think we are doing. I look forward to hearing from you.
We will be back tomorrow with an encore interview with John Dwyer — where he will take you behind the Million Dollar wheel — a promotional strategy he created for one of his clients that added tremendous growth to their business. JD is off the charts amazing just like he was back in Episode 242. You will not want to miss JD’s encore.
Until then, onward with gusto!
Jake Kloberdanz is the CEO and Founder of ONEHOPE, a lifestyle brand with a world-class vineyard and winery in the heart of Napa. ONEHOPE makes a measurable impact for its charitable partners through its family of brands. Jake has been recognized by Businessweek as one of the “Top 25 under 25”, Wine Enthusiast’s “Top 40 Under 40”, and was the youngest nominee for Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young in 2009. Jake has also been featured as a speaker at numerous events including TEDx, The UN, Stanford, U.C. Berkeley, UCLA, and MIT. As founder of the ONEHOPE Foundation, he has worked with hundreds of nonprofit partners and donated over $2 million to nonprofits and helped other non-profits raise well over $20 million serving as a board member and advisor.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Jake’s background * Why you need to write out your goals & commit to them * Why you should get clarity around your three must-do tasks every day * Why you need to listen to your body * The value & power of meeting in-person * Why you need to surround yourself with a good team of people * Why you need to stay true to who you are * Why you shouldn’t be fearful to put your name on something
How best to connect with Jake: * Website: www.onehopewine.com * Website: www.viaonehope.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/onehopewine
Damian Mason resigned his post in corporate America in 1994 and started his own company, Executive Entertainment, as a selling forum for his new endeavor: comedically impersonating Bill Clinton for corporate meetings. He delivered nearly 100 presentations annually and picked up a few movie credentials and TV spots along the way. Times change and so do presidents. In the mid 2000s, Damian successfully transformed himself from a political satirist to an extremely in demand agriculture and business speaker. With several years of struggle in between. Today, Damian speaks on business reinvention along with managing his farm and other investments. He helps businesses and individuals “reinvent with intent” to create the life and business of their choosing for longevity and success.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Damian’s background * Why you should focus on making whatever you’re working on better * Why you need to be constantly reinventing yourself * Why you should always be thinking about your next endeavor * The importance of creativity * Why you should always bring your clients something unique * Why you should do more of what you want to do and less of what you don’t * Always asking yourself how you can make your product better
How best to connect with Damian: * Website: www.damianmason.com * Twitter: @damianpmason * Facebook: www.facebook.com/DamianMasonProfessionalSpeaker * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/damianmason
Laura Cheek is the Founder and Social Brander of Insperience It. Insperience It is a social branding company specializing in branding and social media management. Laura and her team help small business owners realize the power of their brand by leveraging social media with creative content and innovative strategy. Insperience It official when it opened its doors on September 1, 2016. With a solid handful of clients, Insperience It is taking the industry by storm with creative partnerships and fresh, out-of-the-box social ideas. Laura and her team believe in the power of people and looks forward to connecting and inspiring like-minded entrepreneurs.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Laura’s background * Why you need to plan your week & prioritize your most important tasks * The tools that Laura uses to keep herself organized * Why you shouldn’t underestimate the power of a consistent routine * Why Laura begins her day with quiet time * Why you shouldn’t give in to the road of least resistance * Why you need to “keep it simple stupid” * Why you need to be able to break down your ideas into the simplest form * The power of self-awareness
How best to connect with Laura: * Website: www.insperienceit.com * Email: laura@insperienceit.com * Twitter: @laurabcheek * Twitter: @insperienceit * Facebook: www.facebook.com/insperienceit * Instagram: www.instagram.com/insperienceit * Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/insperienceit * Newsletter: bit.ly/2bH6UHD * Free Consultation: www.insperienceit.com/schedule-a-consultation
David Arison leads Global Relations for Arison Investments and The Ted Arison Family Foundation, and serves on two major boards at the Arison Group, a global business and philanthropic group operating in 40 countries across five continents. As part of the senior executive team of an established multi-generational family, David’s position centers on representing the Arison family’s shared legacy and values, which stem from the vision of Doing Good. This long-term vision is at the core of The Doing Good Model that he shares worldwide. This unique values-driven model is implemented across the Arison Group’s companies and organizations to create positive impact on all levels – social, environmental, and economic.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * David’s background * Why you should pick people that are much smarter than yourself to run the business for you * Why you need to lead with your values and your vision * Why you need to trust yourself and listen to your intuition * Interfering with the business vs. creating value for the business * The value of looking at everything as a learning process * Why you need to be able to adapt and continuously learn
How best to connect with David: * Website: www.arisoninvestments.com
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation…I’m Stephen Woessner and welcome to this week’s solocast…Episode 420. My hope for you is that your week has started off with some excellent momentum, that you are checking your vital priorities off your list, that your daily work has revolved around your vital functions, and that you are measuring your activity with the right vital metrics…and that everyone on your team is following your lead — your tangible example — as they witness your level of commitment to excellence in accomplishing what you set out to accomplish.
Each and every day — whether we acknowledge this reality or try to ignore it — or run from it — we we are mentoring everyone around us each day. We are mentoring when we are having a bad day — and we are mentoring when we are having a great day. In my opinion, mentorship — giving and receiving — is one of the most vital priorities for successful business owners. And here at Predictive ROI…my team and I strive to be the best we can possibly be — to study mentorship — to continually learn — to watch other great mentors to uncover how they do their best work — and then apply those same strategies into our business to accelerate our performance.
My team and I are in continuous learning mode…that is one of the reasons why I started our Onward Nation podcast…to take our education to a completely new level — to learn from the best of the best — and it has definitely delivered. We also look to attend workshops, seminars, lectures, study books as a team, and invest a great deal of time toward one-on-one mentorship.
So when Drew McLellan, top dog at the Agency Management Institute, and three time alum here at Onward Nation, recently let my leadership team and I know about a workshop he was hosting that would focus on managing the Millennial workforce — but more specifically — the workshops would dive deep into mentorship strategies that could be applied across all generations — we were all in!
It was easy to see that the workshop would be an opportunity for us to take our mentorship capability onward to a completely new level.
And that is exactly what happened.
So for today’s solocast — I am going to share several of the biggest, most tangible takeaways from the workshop. I am going to pass them on to you in full transparency so you can apply them with your team straightaway.
But before I do…I want to introduce the instructor of the workshop and creator of the curriculum. His name is Mitch Matthews. You may remember Mitch and the wisdom he shared during Episode 94 of Onward Nation when he shared the powerful lesson of “Be interested — not interesting”.
Mitch is also a keynote speaker, a success coach, and a best-selling author. His podcast, “DREAM. THINK. DO.” is at the top of the iTunes charts and he has worked with leaders and teams from organizations like NASA, Disney, Booking.com, and the Principal Financial Group. Plus, Mitch speaks on college campuses around the country. He’s passionate about helping entrepreneurs and leaders to dream bigger, think better, and do more of the stuff they were put on the planet to do.
Let me tell you, Onward Nation…being in the classroom as one of Mitch’s students — as opposed to interviewing him for our show — was like experiencing a whole…new…level of AWESOME!
What my leadership team and I learned from Mitch will take our mentorship and leadership here at Predictive to a completely different level.
Mitch and his curriculum were transformational — and I don’t use the “transformational” word lightly at all.
Our time with Mitch was so transformational that I am going to share some of my biggest takeaways with you this morning — during this solocast — so you can immediately take what we learned — and apply it directly into your mentorship sessions with your team.
You will then see the results like what we are seeing here at Predictive.
Philip McKernan works with entrepreneurs and business leaders all over the world. When people are seeking clarity about their future or want to move through roadblocks, seen and unseen, they call Philip. He helps people get clear on who they are and where they need to go. He helps them transition in their personal and professional lives so people feel aligned in all areas of life. He has worked with the Canadian Olympic Team, The Pentagon and has shared the stage with other speakers like the Dalai Lama and Richard Branson.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Why you can't put people on a pedestal * Why Philip doesn't consume a lot of information * Why you need to evaluate if what you're doing fits who you are * "One Last Talk": why you need to think about what you would talk about if you were given one last talk to give * Why you should go on the road for three days with nothing but a journal and no reason * Why you should do "isolated dreaming" -- just draw what's possible for your life
How best to connect with Philip: * Website: philipmckernan.com * Website: giveandgrow.com
Mark LeBlanc has delivered over 1,000 presentations, coached over 1,000 business owners, and is the author of “Growing Your Business and Never Be the Same.” His book was inspired by walking the 500 mile, Camino de Santiago trek across Spain. In fact, he walked it twice! Mark also started a foundation to support young entrepreneurs and they recently awarded their 8th grant of $3,000. The proceeds from Mark’s books are used to fund the grants. Mark has also conducted over 100 weekend business retreats called the “Achievers Circle” -- which has now become the ultimate, anti-boot camp experience.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Mark's background * Why extreme focus is everything * Mark's AM/PM questions he uses to keep himself on track * Why Mark's alarm goes off at 5 AM every day * The story of when Mark fell flat on his face when starting a new business * How to be a great listener * Why you can't ever leave someone waiting * Why you need to get good at asking for help * Why you must have a mastermind group * Why you need to get a handle on your numbers
How best to connect with Mark: * Email: mark@growingyourbusiness.com * Phone: (800)690-0810
Ari Meisel’s story starts in 2006, when some unexpected news derailed his booming real estate career: Crohn’s Disease: A highly-debilitating digestive ailment, Crohn's kept Ari from leading a normal life. He lost weight, energy, and the ability to work with regularity—in fact, there were times he could only work for sixty-minutes a day. With a blossoming business to run, Ari knew an hour per day was unacceptable. Against the advice of doctors and loved-ones, Ari embarked upon an extraordinarily painful journey to cure what medical textbooks consider an incurable disease. Through excruciating amounts of trial and error, Ari not only regained control of his life but beat this seemingly unbeatable disease—and is now symptom-free. “Less Doing, More Living”, “Less Doing Virtual Assistants” and “Less Doing BPO” are the result of Ari’s amazing journey back to health, happiness, and well-being.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Ari’s background * How to leverage free tools * Why you should be setting limits & structure for yourself * The benefits of having an optimistic mindset * Why it’s important to have a habit of tracking * Why Ari doesn’t believe in goal-setting, but rather continual improvement * Why you should focus on quality control when scaling * Why you need to work to solve a problem that actually exists * Creating a business that is sustainable beyond you
How best to connect with Ari: * Website: getleverage.com * Blog: blog.getleverage.com * Podcast: getleverage.com/podcasts
Josh Brown is a franchise attorney and has built a thriving national practice helping business owners make smart franchise decisions, identify good franchise systems, work through legal challenges surrounding franchising, and grow through the franchise model. Josh speaks, blogs, writes articles and white papers, and is the proud creator and host of the podcast, “Franchise Euphoria,” a top-rated podcast on iTunes.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Josh’s background * The benefits of repurposing content * Why you need to be consistent and professional when it comes to producing podcasts * The importance of writing down your to-do’s and keeping on top of them * Why Josh begins his day with getting clarity on what he needs to accomplish * How to handle obstacles and continue to grow * Why you need to master what you do and be able to sell it to be successful * Not letting fear hold you back from what you want to do * Why you shouldn’t make business more complicated than it is * Why you need to make sure that your business is predictable, process-oriented, proven, profitable and branded
How best to connect with Josh: * Website: indyfranchiselaw.com * Email: josh@indyfranchiselaw.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/indyfrchslaw * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/joshfbrown * Twitter: @IndyFrchsLaw
Kurt Mortensen is an international authority on charisma, human nature, and influence. Kurt has invested over 20 years researching persuasion and motivational psychology and he teaches on the university level. Kurt is the author of “Persuasion IQ, Laws of Charisma” and the best-selling book “Maximum Influence”. His Books have been translated into 28 languages. Kurt teaches how professional success, personal relationships, and leadership potential depend on your ability to persuade, influence, and motivate others. The key, Onward Nation, is to get others to want to do, what you want them to do and like doing it.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Kurt’s background * The importance of learning and mastering soft skills * Why you need to ask yourself “Is this an income producing activity?” * Why creating balance is so important to personal development * A humbling experience that taught Kurt to take his life & income to the next level * Why you need to ask yourself, when facing a setback, is it going to make you a better person or a bitter person? * Why you need to master influence & persuasion to be successful * Understanding self-persuasion * Why you need to be aware of what drains your willpower battery * How making your vision stronger will make your worry will go away
How best to connect with Kurt: * Website: www.persuasioniq.com * Website: influenceuniversity.com * Website: maximizeyourinfluence.com * Twitter: @influencemax
Pat McDaniel is the founder of WiseInsights.net, a website dedicated to helping motivated (but weary) people to keep moving forward by finding the smartest path toward their success. Pat is passionate about sharing his story of repeatedly hitting a wall despite his hard work until he discovered the unseen forces that were holding him back. Pat has a highly diverse background and a distinct talent for helping entrepreneurs and leaders avoid unnecessary heartache, including making better decisions for a better life. With that, his current research project is on decision-making: helping business owners understand how to overcome the hidden influences that can lead to bad outcomes.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Pat’s background * The importance of blocking off time for your top priorities every week * How to get more done in less time * How daily affirmations & visualizations can help you mentally prepare for your day * Why you need to focus more on the important things vs. the urgent things * Getting rid of self-limiting beliefs * Why having the right mindset is so important * Why you should approach life with humility * How to optimize your decision-making process * Why you need to be constantly learning & understanding
How best to connect with Pat: * Website: wiseinsights.net * eBook: “The Scientifically Proven 5 Step Process To Making Better, More Successful Decisions”
Josh Elledge is the Founder and Chief Executive Angel of SavingsAngel.com and is one of the nation’s leading experts on consumer savings. He is a weekly syndicated newspaper columnist – reaching more than 1.1 million readers and regularly appears on more than 75 TV stations across the country – having appeared on TV or radio more than 1,500 times. Josh is also the founder of upendPR, which provides step-by-step video coaching, live training, direct access to over 1 million media contacts, media monitoring for ongoing story-ideas, agency-level journalist inquiry monitoring, ongoing pitch creation, and impactful consulting for entrepreneurs and startups seeking to exponentially increase sales and traffic.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Josh’s background * Why, in business, exposure is everything * Why you shouldn’t be afraid to give away your best information * Why you should always be building that “know, like & trust” value with your audience * The importance of serving your audience and bringing them value * Asking “Who do I get to serve today?” instead of “Who do I have to sell to today?” * Why it’s so important to focus on building your authority first * What to focus on to improve your digital reputation * Why you need to be able to communicate authentically and organically
How best to connect with Josh: * Website: upendpr.com * Twitter: @joshelledge * Twitter Publicity Mastery Course: upendpr.com/onward
Sy Belohlavek is from Columbus, Ohio but has had the privilege of living and working in Kyrgyzstan the past 5 years laying the foundation for his business, June Cashmere. His motivation to get involved in this project developed as a result of having a business degree, a longstanding interest in other cultures, and a desire to leverage commercial activity to help address issues of disparity and disadvantage around the world. Sy now runs a start-up in a place of the world he had previously known little about and is building a value chain that spans three continents.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Sy’s background * Keeping a visual sketch of your to-do lists and top priorities * Why doing the small things & doing them well over time is so important * Why you shouldn’t put off things that are unpleasant or cause discomfort * Why you need to have a plan & stick with things when they’re falling apart * The importance of having the right mentality & principles * How being a master researcher & connector can help you be successful * Why you need to learn how to adapt & respond * Mastering personal self-management to ensure success
How best to connect with Sy: * Website: www.junecashmere.com * Email: sy@junecashmere.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/junecashmere * Instagram: www.instagram.com/junecashmere * Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/junecashmere * The Story of June Cashmere: ssuu.com/junecashmere/docs/junecashmere
Rob was inducted into the Podcasting Hall of Fame in 2016. Rob is the Vice President of Podcaster Relations for Libsyn. Prior to joining Libsyn he founded podCast411, Inc in 2004 and is Co-Author of the book “Tricks of the Podcasting Masters.” He has consulted on podcasting for Jack Welch, Senator Edwards, Governor Bill Richardson, Tim Ferriss, Dr. Mark Hyman and the Sacramento Kings to name just a few. Rob is also the host of “Today in iOS Podcast” – The first and largest podcast about the iPhone and also the “KC Startup 411 Podcast”, which covers the Kansas City startup scene.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Rob’s background * How podcasting can give you a chance to connect on an ongoing basis with your customer base * Why any business, no matter what industry, should have a podcast * Making your podcast educational & entertaining * Why you need to be good at identifying & delivering good, valuable content to your audience * Why prepping & planning is so important when it comes to podcasting * Why audience growth is not guaranteed * How focusing on great content can grow your audience * Why over-promoting will lead to losing your audience * Why you shouldn’t be worrying about your download numbers
How best to connect with Rob: * Website: www.libsyn.com * Twitter: @podcast411 * Email: rob@libsyn.com
Kevin Harrington has been a successful entrepreneur over the last 40 years. He is an Original Shark on the ABC hit, Emmy award-winning TV show, “Shark Tank.” He is the inventor of the infomercial, “As Seen On TV” pioneer, Co-founder of the Electronic Retailers Association and Co-founder of the “Entrepreneurs’ Organization”. Kevin has launched over 20 businesses that have grown to over $100 million in sales each, has been involved in more than a dozen public companies, launched over 500 products generating more than $5 billion in sales worldwide with iconic brands such as Jack Lalanne, Tony Little, George Foreman, and the new I-Grow hair restoration product on QVC. His success led Mark Burnett to hand pick Kevin to become an Original Shark where he filmed over 175 segments.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Kevin’s background * The birth of the infomercial * An inside look at how the hit ABC reality show “Shark Tank” got started * How Kevin handles all of his interests & the challenges that come with them * How challenges lead to success * How Kevin seeks out problems, solves them & moves on * Why you should build a dream team around you * Focusing on a great business plan * Why it’s important for entrepreneurs today to be open-minded to changes in their industry * Why you cannot rest on where you are today
How best to connect with Kevin: * Website: www.kevinharrington.tv * Twitter: @HarringtonKevin
Tim Cameron-Kitchen is a bestselling digital marketing author, Head Ninja at Exposure Ninja, a British digital marketing agency specializing in building and ranking websites, and host of the Exposure Ninja Digital Marketing Podcast. His goal in life is to rid the world of lifeless, underperforming websites and to make ninja digital marketing the primary source of income for 10,000 businesses.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Tim’s background * Why Tim’s life is focused around maximum impact * Blocking out time every day for your three highest priorities * Designing your week based on your goals * Why you should be checking emails only once a day * Why you need to be looking at the money in your business * Having a completely virtual team * How raising your prices can increase your conversion rate * Why you should do the thing that you are most scared of…right now * Why you need to get over the fear of rejection
How best to connect with Tim: * Website: www.exposureninja.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/timninjakitchen * Twitter: @timninjakitchen * Book: “How to Get to the Top of Google”
Keith Callahan is a leader of leaders in the field of personal growth-focusing on mental, emotional, spiritual, financial, and physical well being. He teaches that through self reliance, determination, community support, and mentorship everyone can break through their self imposed limits and live the big, beautiful, bold dream life they have tucked away.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Keith’s background * Why you should create a business that serves your life (and work your business around the type of life that you want to live) * Why you need to be systemizing things in your business * Why Keith begins his day with high-focus activities * Why you need to be draining the chatter in your brain * Why research & planning are so important in business * Mastering patience * Why you shouldn’t be putting your mentors up on a pedestal * Developing your strength & personal power
How best to connect with Keith: * Website: keithcallahan.com
Mark Podolsky (AKA The Land Geek) is widely considered the country’s most trusted and foremost authority on buying and selling raw, undeveloped land within the United States. He has been actively investing in Real Estate and Raw Land since 2001 and has completed over 5,000 unique transactions. Mark has achieved this level of success due to his core business philosophy – “Happy Customers Guaranteed.” Mark is the host of three top-rated podcasts in iTunes aptly entitled “The Best Passive Income Model” and “The Art of Passive Income.” He is also the host of the “Land Geek Podcast- Work Smart. Earn More. Learn How.”
What you'll learn about in this episode * Mark’s background * Why you need to plan for both good & bad years * Why Mark outlines the three big things that he wants to accomplish for the week that are going to move * him towards his goals * How meditation & working out contribute to Mark’s success * Why focus & grit are so important for success today * Why it’s important to focus on things in your business that move the needle * Identifying the 80/20 rule in your business * Why you need to be asking yourself how you can be free * The importance of finding a mentor that’s already done what you want to do * Why you need to know your market before you do anything
How best to connect with Mark: * Website: www.thelandgeek.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/thelandgeek * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/thelandgeek * Twitter: @TheLandGeek
Wes Pinkston is an Entrepreneur and Transformational Business/Life Coach. At the age of 29, a profound inner transformation radically changed the course of his life. He is now devoted to understanding, integrating, and deepening that transformation, which has marked the beginning of an intense inward journey. Weaving together both Western and Eastern influences, he is able to guide his client’s through their journey in all phases of life.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Wes’ background * Why effective communication is so important not only with others but with yourself * Having a clear vision of your ideal day & the role you play in it * How adapting your awareness to your experience can change your life * Why changing your viewpoint from competitive to collaborative can help you be successful * Why you need to take accountability for both the good and the bad * How making simple tweaks can drastically change things * Why you need to be expressing, not suppressing * Why you should just “be” when you are at home * The importance of bringing back your childlike enthusiasm
How best to connect with Wes: * Website: www.wespinkstonnow.com * Email: wespinkston@gmail.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/WesPinkstonNow * Instagram: www.instagram.com/wespinkstonnow * Twitter: @WesPinkstonNow
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation…I’m Stephen Woessner and welcome to this week’s solocast…Episode 405.
Today I am going to share a lesson about why — and how — you need to “go long” with your Dream 50 — each and every week.
But first…I hope 2017 has started off with so much momentum for you that you’re scrambling to hang on to all of the opportunity by your fingernails — and that you are being forcefully pushed to scale your business — that your expertise is in such high-demand that you’re looking for any and all ways to expand what it is you’re offering to your customers — and that your view of your most profitable customers is getting clearer and clearer — giving you the opportunity to serve the customers who value you and your team the most — and in the process — you’re delivering your best work to the customers who appreciate most what you are delivering — and as a result — you are creating very happy customers!
If that sounds like you — you are likely building a predictable, scalable, repeatable — and — profitable business.
Again, that’s my hope for you in 2017.
But — if this is not what is currently happening in your business — and instead you find yourself prospecting and working hard to turn over every stone you can — looking for new sources of revenue — or you’re being forced to work with customers you would rather not take on — you and your team are stressed trying to meet unrealistic demands of clients who abuse your team with insane deadlines and critical feedback — or maybe your prospective clients are sitting on the fence while taunting you with threats that they are continuing to evaluate all you and your competitors.
Does any of that sound familiar?
Then this week’s solocast is for you, Onward Nation.
Of course…we have all been there. Some of us multiple times — being a business owner for any period of time means you have likely experienced the Entrepreneur Roller Coaster — great book by Darren Hardy by the way if you haven’t already read it.
We have all experienced the highs and the lows — and sometimes — it can feel like we will never break free from the lows — and that the highs are way too short-lived.
If you are feeling like you’re operating your business at the mercy of the market — it is a symptom of two chronic problems.
Problem #1: that you have not precisely defined your client avatar. But that is easy to fix. Just go back to Episode 396 and get my complete blueprint for creating your client avatar — the questions you need to ask — the full process — it is there in complete transparency. Again, that’s Episode 396 — just a couple of weeks ago.
Problem #2: you haven’t defined your Dream 50 clients — the people who you most want to serve. Your Dream 50 are of course in-line with your avatar — but these 50 prospects — they represent the best of the best. The highest level — the clients you would most like to serve — your ultimate dream clients.
Do you have a Dream 50 list prepared, Onward Nation?
If not…you need to. Like immediately.
In fact, I have our Predictive ROI Dream 50 list hanging on the wall right next to my desk in my office — I can turn to see the list at any point throughout the day — it is a constant reminder.
I think about the list — strategize about the list — every day. You need to do the same with your own Dream 50.
Please go to back to Episode 308 for deeper insights into the Dream 50 process — it’s a lesson I learned from Darren Hardy. He told me, “Stephen…you need to create your Dream 50 list — and then — you need to develop a strategy for how you are going to show them the love — consistently — so they know that doing business with you would be one of the best decisions they could make.”
And one of the best ways to show your Dream 50 the love is to go long — or share valuable long form content — each and every week.
As Jay Baer, our outstanding guest in Episode 305 encouraged us… “You need to give away your best content — your secret sauce — for free.” In full transparency, Onward Nation — give it all away.
Every step — every detail — each and every piece.
So that if they wanted to — they could steal it all from you and do it themselves.
I love that. And if you have been listening to this show for a while — you already know that I am firm believer in that philosophy. I give away the strategies my Predictive ROI team applies for our clients every day — I give those to you for free — in full transparency.
Let’s look at this solocast so far…I just referred back to the Client Avatar workshop you can find in Episode 396 — at Predictive — we charge clients for that work. But I am giving it to you.
Why?
Because I hope it serves you — I want you to steal it — I want you to take it — I want you to apply it — I want you to grow your business as a result of applying it.
That is my hope for you.
And someday — when you are looking for a content marketing and lead gen agency to help you scale your business to that next level — my hope is you will remember my team at Predictive ROI and we will get a call from you.
But until that day comes — you’re going to get it all for free in order to help you move onward to that next level.
And you need to do the same — in long form — with your Dream 50 — each and every week. Just like I am doing with you right now.
Whether you have your own podcast — or maybe you love video and you want to have a remarkable YouTube channel — or you love to write so your blog is going to be the next must-read on the Internet — it doesn’t matter what medium or social media platform you choose — just choose one and begin going long.
So, let’s dig deeper in what I mean by going long — or long form. And yes, there is a time and place for short posts — Facebook Live videos — Instagram stories — short content is awesome.
And in today’s attention starved society — short can be great. Let’s take something else from Jay Baer and call these short pieces of content…little info snacks.
But, no amount of info snacks replaces the meal that long form content provides your audience.
It is only through long form that you can share the true depth of your expertise and short info snacks cannot possibly match it. It is through long form that you can really open yourself up to your Dream 50 — show them who you are — where you come from — what you believe — your values — and where you draw inspiration from.
Why is this important to your Dream 50?
Because as John Jantsch explains in his brilliant book “Ducktape Marketing”…the conversion or decision-making path is all about someone getting to know you — then liking you — then trusting you — then trying you out — then buying from you — then repeating the purchase — and then becoming your brand ambassador by telling the world.
So using long form content to help your Dream 50 move along this decision-making path — at their own speed and pace — is one of the best sales and marketing strategies you can implement for your business.
Here, let me make this a bit more concrete with a new business development example.
Last week…during one of my biz dev calls with a prospective client for Predictive ROI — I was amazed at the immediate rapport we felt at the beginning of our call. It was electric — as if she already knew me — like we were long lost friends — and not that this was our first phone call.
During our conversation, I mentioned my family in passing and she jumped on it — and proceeded to tell me how she knew just how important family is to me — how I learned my entrepreneurial lessons from my grandfather and so on.
And then she cited several Onward Nation episodes as the source for where she learned all about me. I was blown away and it felt awesome. Impact, Onward Nation.
Or, last Friday…on another biz dev call…our prospective client shared with me that he had checked me out — had done his homework — and felt confident he knew me as a person because of the podcast and the quality of people I spend time with — the incredible guests on our show. Rock solid awesome — always great to hear. And earlier today — we received word that the prospective client had agreed to join forces with Predictive ROI so our team will now be in the trenches with their team to launch an incredible podcast so they can share the same long form love with their own Dream 50.
Going long with your Dream also helps you build your platform — your profile as a business person — as an expert — as the go-to-person in your industry. Yesterday, at the end of an interview with a guest, he called me the world’s leading authority on business-to-business podcasting. I thanked him for the amazing compliment, then quickly disagreed with him, but it felt awesome to hear something like that.
So why did he say something like that to me?
Because the Onward Nation podcast has increased my personal brand equity to the point he felt it was an accurate assessment. And because of the show — I get to hang out on a daily basis with some of the top business owners in the country and around the world. Last week, I interviewed Kevin Harrington from Shark Tank and the inventor of the infomercial. Amazing conversation — and when I have let people know about the time I spent with Kevin — I get an eyebrow raise and a high five. Why? Because there is a small transference of Kevin’s credibility over to me — and that helps my personal brand. By the way — we air Kevin’s episode one week from today — and he is off the charts amazing.
But here’s a little secret…you can do the same thing.
There is nothing unique and special about what we are doing — the only difference between me and the other 98% of business owners is that I stand up and ask — I make the ask to our guests — and then have the guts to do a great interview.
That’s it, Onward Nation. You can do the exact same thing.
To prove the point…I urge you to go back to Episode 3 and listen to Stacey Alcorn share her story of how 5-years ago she had zero social circles — she didn’t know any movers and shakers but she did have a desire.
So she started a blog — ever so slowly — and now — several years later — she is doing wine tasting on a Thursday afternoon with Kevin O’Leary from Shark Tank while they were both in Boston.
What???
The difference between Stacey and other real estate brokers in her marketplace — is that Stacey decided to go long — to create a blog — to create excellent long-form content — and then to use it to share the love with her Dream 50 — and — as the ultimate business card to get in front of the key influencers she wanted to meet.
Oh, and Stacey just shared some photos of her recent adventure hanging out with Sir Richard Branson on his private island — yes, his private island. Stacey started with nothing — but — she decided she could be more and has used long form content as her strategy to get it.
Here are some other thoughts to consider on the topic of long form.
By building your personal platform through long-form content, you will also help your core business grow organically. The most content you create — the more expertise you share — the more you give away — the more you stay in the consciousness of your Dream 50 — the more likely your core business will grow as a result.
Predictive ROI — my core business — has grown as a result of Onward Nation — and the core businesses of all our clients — have grown as a result of their podcasts and their weekly long-form content, too.
In fact, I was catching up with one of our Predictive clients earlier today and he told me that his podcast has already generated $50,000 in new business to his company.
$50,000, Onward Nation!
As a result of the success of Onward Nation, we are now producing 20 podcasts for the business owners of other professional service firms. These owners saw what we were doing — the synergy between Onward Nation and our core business of Predictive ROI — and wanted to learn more. When they did — they wanted us to help them apply the same long form content strategy into their business — and now they are growing as a result of the love they are sharing consistently with their Dream 50 and giving away their best content for free.
But you must be willing to go long. Going long gives you an opportunity to get real and authentic with your audience — to really let them in — just like I let you in, Onward Nation. There have been times when I am with a guest, and the stories are so emotional, that I tear up…or I get goosebumps, and I share with you how I am feeling — and sure that may be too much for some of you…but that is me.
I tend to wear my emotions on my sleeve — and generally my view of the world is AWESOME — but the reality is that not everything is rock solid awesome 100 percent of the time…and I think it is okay to let your audience see that…so they know you are human.
Your platform also creates a conduit of trust between you and your Dream 50. I share stories about my family — how my grandparents immigrated here from Greece and Turkey — how they struggled as entrepreneurs through the Great Depression — how they gritted it out — and how we as kids learned those same lessons — and how my entrepreneurial DNA was sharpened — oddly — to razor’s edge while I worked on nuclear missiles while in the Air Force. I have shared some of biggest failures — moments that have made me want to run and hide — and yet — I have shared them with you.
Why?
Because you cannot hide behind the curtain, Onward Nation if you are truly trying to build trust and authenticity with your audience. We cannot love someone in slices…so yes…I have failed…many times…I have made mistakes that have cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars…and each time it happened…I wanted to puke in the nearest trash can.
And now I share those stories with you so you can hopefully avoid the same mistakes — and along the way — realize that I have been in that trench, too. And someday, if we are sitting across the dinner table together — you will have all of that context and that creates rapport like nothing else can, Onward Nation.
So — please take today’s message — think about what I said — and decide to go long with your Dream 50 at least once a week. Launch a podcast, create a YouTube channel, dominate Medium, be the next Insta king or queen, find the platform that syncs up with your skill set the best — and do it.
Don’t wait. Do it.
And yes, your content might not win any awards or even recognition at first. But that is part of the process.
Want a litmus test? Go and watch Episode 1 of Gary Vaynerchuk’s Wine Library TV. It’s not good — the lighting is bad — the structure is bad — and he is experimenting — and that is what makes it absolutely priceless. He could have never gotten to Episode 1,000 if he had never started at number 1. And that is why I love #1, way more than Episode 1,000 — I respect Gary’s journey, his hard work, and the grit it took to get to 1,000 — and the courage it took to launch # 1.
And then recognize you don’t — and maybe you shouldn’t do this — on your own. You will need a support team around you. And I don’t mean you need to hire an agency to do this for you. Instead, recruit several unpaid interns to help you with audio, or design, or content…but begin building out your team…so you can focus on content and taking great care of your Dream 50.
Get started, Onward Nation. Go long with your Dream 50 and it will be a game changer for your business in 2017.
So with that…I want to say thank you again for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here — thank you for tuning in.
I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation…good or bad…I always want your feedback. Hit me up on Twitter or LinkedIn — or stop by our Predictive ROI Facebook page — and let us know what you think of the show — thumbs up or thumbs down. Either way — we want to know. Your feedback will help us get better.
And remember…you can always email me at stephen@onwardnation.com and I reply to every single message.
So please let us know how you think we are doing. I look forward to hearing from you.
We will be back tomorrow with an incredible interview with Wes Pinkston — likely one of the most thought-provoking, profound, and counterintuitive conversations we have ever had her at Onward Nation. You will not want to miss Wes’s lesson of how to avoid complexification.
Until then, onward with gusto!
Rita Schiano is the founder of Live A Flourishing Life™, which provides strategic, resilience-building, personal, and professional development programs that strengthen work relationships through team building, stress management, effective communication, and critical and creative thinking skills. As a former corporate vice president and small business owner, Rita's leadership knowledge, strategies, and insights draw from both sides of the aisle. Rita is also the author of several books, including "Live A Flourishing Life" as well as numerous articles for The Huffington Post and Psychology Today.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Rita’s background * Why having excellent time management techniques are so important to success & controlling stress * Why Rita is a big proponent of the to-do list * Why it’s important to understand the elements of leadership * The importance of discipline & having a schedule * Setting your intentions for the day * Exploring ideas in a critical & creative way * The value of having integrity & being authentic with people * Why you need to quit using the word ‘fail’ & how to view it in a different way * Keeping focused on your message & mission
How best to connect with Rita: * Website: www.ritaschiano.com * Email: rita@ritaschiano.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/RItaSchiano.LiveAFlourishingLife * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ritaschiano * Twitter: @RitaSchiano * Phone: 774-230-5670
Justin Deese is a highly sought-after business strategist, visionary, and self-made entrepreneur. He simultaneously built three flourishing in-home service companies in multiple states. He is a certified E-Myth Business Coach and an expert at helping fellow business owners structure and manage their companies for maximum profitability.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Justin’s background * How business owners make things way more complicated than they need to be * Why Justin is so guarded & structured about his morning routine * Why it’s so important to know what your vision is * How having a business coach can help hold you accountable * Why having systems in place is one of the most important parts of your business * Why the owner of a company needs to change their perspective of who and what they are * Why you shouldn’t try to outwork your problems * How writing your own eulogy can help you focus on what’s important * Why you need to know what you’re trying to build
How best to connect with Justin: * Website: justindeese.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/justin.deese.14 * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/justin-deese-02213712
Adam Hergenrother is CEO and Chairman of the Board of Hergenrother Enterprises, which includes Keller Williams Realty Vermont, Hergenrother Realty Group, BlackRock Construction, Hergenrother Capital, and Hergenrother Foundation. In less than ten years, Adam has built these rapidly growing companies through his commitment to thinking big and never giving up. Fearless and purposeful; unconventional and systematic, Adam sets a seemingly impossible goal then quickly gets to work on closing the gap to achieve it – – no limits, no regrets. Through Adam’s bold vision, Hergenrother Enterprises is developing leaders and building businesses worldwide.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Why it’s important to stay focused as your business grows * Why the first 60 minutes of your day are so important * How journaling can help ground you & discover the small things that you’re grateful for * Why personal development is so vital to your success, personally & professionally * Why the formula for success & fulfillment is growth * How all of our experiences, whether good or bad, shape who we become * Why you need to overcome the voice in your head that says “no” & go after your own life * Why you should be hiring people that are better than you * How expanding your search for employees outside of your local area can benefit you * Why you need to be sharing your vision consistently, clearly & as often as possible * Why you need to be operating in your “strength zone”
How best to connect with Adam: * Website: www.adamhergenrother.com * Website: www.hergenrotherenterprises.com * Website: www.hergtraining.com
Kyle Reyes is the President and CEO of The Silent Partner Marketing, a nationwide marketing agency headquartered in Connecticut. Kyle is an acclaimed Keynote Speaker on entrepreneurship, leadership, marketing and social media. Kyle a former Producer of News and Special Projects worked in broadcast journalism for nearly a decade. His team offers a marketing one-stop-shop, filling the role of a Chief Marketing Officer and support staff at a fraction of the cost of having to worry about the payroll, taxes, benefits, equipment and training. And he has appeared in multiple media outlets including, Fox & Friends, AOL.com, Yahoo, and Bloomberg Business.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Kyle’s background * Why it’s important to create a company culture where all employees feel like they’re part of something bigger * Why you need to hustle & work hard to succeed * Why Kyle believes that failure is the best teacher * Why consistency is so important for discipline, focus & stress relief * Why you need to invest money in your business to help you grow & scale faster * Why you need to be aware of your strengths, weaknesses & limitations * Why you need to focus on the art of communication * How being 100% authentic, real, and candid will help you win * Why you need to be engaging with people where they are right now
How best to connect with Adam: * Website: www.thesilentpartnermarketing.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/KyleReyesCEO
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation — I’m Stephen Woessner — Happy New Year and welcome to this week’s solocast. And today’s episode also happens to be Episode 400 — so before we dive into the sales pipeline building toolbox that I want to share with you — first — I need to offer up a very big thank you, Onward Nation.
If someone would have told me back on June 15, 2015 that we were about to launch a podcast that would soar to the top of iTunes New & Noteworthy, that our email list would grow to over 20,000 people, that we would receive feedback every day from business owners who we have impacted in a positive way, that our message would now reach 105 countries around the world…and that all of the knowledge we collected in the last 18-months would turn into a book that a major publisher would want to buy and then publish…there is no way I would have believed that person.
In fact, I might have run the other way.
And yet, what I just shared with you is exactly what happened. And it happened because of you, Onward Nation.
Because you downloaded episodes and then let us know how we could make them better.
You emailed me, you hit us up on Twitter, you shared your thoughts on Facebook — and my team and I listened. We made adjustments and then you offered even more advice.
So we pivoted again. And again. And then again.
And we will continue to pivot and adjust because our goal is to deliver as much value to you, Onward Nation as we possibly can.
Please continue to let us know what you think of Onward Nation…thumbs up or thumbs down. We want to get better — and our first 400 episodes — are just the beginning.
So thank you for being here — and please know — how much you downloading, and listening to our episodes, and sharing your feedback means to me and my team.
Thank you, Onward Nation.
Now…
Let’s continue the momentum that we started during last week’s solocast…Episode 396 that I entitled, “Get Your Hands Dirty” and we focused on two main lessons:
1) why and how you should jump into the trenches with your team — and the impact you getting your hands dirty — will have on your team
And…
2) how to create your client avatar so you and your team focus your valuable time and attention toward the right customers.
And as I walked you through the practical and tactical steps last week — the “in the trenches process” that you need in order to create your client avatar — I also made you a promise.
I promised that last week’s solocast would be the first in a series of four tactical lessons you take and apply in order to fill your sales pipeline.
So today’s solocast is my next step in fulfilling my promise.
Today’s lesson is going to tactical and provide you with another opportunity to get your hands dirty working alongside your team.
However, I am also going to push you to think differently before you dig into the tools.
I am going to do that so you can be sure to get your mindset right — to get your head right — so you are ready to unleash your full potential. If you work through the client avatar exercise from last week without getting your mindset right — you may focus on clients who don’t push you — who will not challenge you to grow — you may focus on the ones who you think are safe — prospects who are lower hanging fruit — decision makers who operate at lower levels in the organization instead of the C-suite.
Run from those thoughts, Onward Nation.
I believe it was Albert Einstein who said, “The same thinking that got you and your business to your current level – is not the same thinking that is going to get you to where you want to go.”
So you must push yourself to be open to the ideas I share with you – even if I challenge you – even if I make you feel uncomfortable from time-to-time – please know – that’s what a good mentor does – they help you see the path you need to take.
For example…I can almost certainly guarantee that as you and I move our way through the lessons over the next several weeks…you may begin to think of challenges you expect to encounter if you were to implement what you learn.
You may think to yourself…
“That would never work in my industry.”
“I can work on that when I have more time.”
“I would put that into practice if only my team were up to the challenge.”
“My sales have slumped because I have a couple of really tough competitors – or – our pricing is too high.”
I am here to tell you – as a good mentor would – your key challenge – your key obstacle to having a vibrant, full sales pipeline heading into 2017 – with a steady stream of qualified prospects is not being blocked by any of these.
Okay, so then what is blocking you from having a full sales pipeline?
It’s you, Onward Nation! Yes, you.
But how could I say such a thing? Please…just hear me out.
We as business owners…we fall victim each day by asking ourselves really horrible questions like…
“Am I good enough?”
“Am I smart enough?”
“Oh, that company over there would never want to do business with us because we are too small!”
We tend to set ourselves up for failure before we ever start.
We tell ourselves we can’t do something. The way we speak to ourselves — in our own heads — can be truly cruel at times.
Instead…as you are building your client avatar…you need to get your mindset right…to eliminate the word “Can’t” from your vocabulary.
Why do you need to eliminate this word – and these thoughts?
Because this word is the root of the Imposter Syndrome – and if you don’t take aggressive action – the word will build a stronghold in your mind…and the Imposter Syndrome will keep you as its victim.
The Imposter Syndrome is your one and only barrier to success – and it will keep your sales pipeline empty if you let it.
Onward Nation — you are good enough – you are worthy of more – you have worked hard!
Don’t let the Syndrome become a roadblock to your next level.
In fact, next time you catch yourself asking yourself road-blocking questions…I want to you to apply a little success secret to push past the blockade.
Here it is…
“Decide to win – before – you ever start.”
And that’s a powerful lesson I learned from Joanna Riley during Episode 324.
She went from zero to being the largest shareholder in her company now worth over $800 million.
Jo has accomplished much – but – it is because she learned at the age of 14 what it took to believe in herself – and that winning was as much about performance as it was deciding to win at the outset.
I believe in you, Onward Nation – you are far more capable, amazing, awesome, wonderful, and beautiful than you give yourself credit for.
And now I want to repeat the two warnings from last week because they still apply for today’s lesson.
As we move through the steps…you may catch yourself saying… “Oh, I already know that…”
If you catch yourself saying that – take a moment – and instead ask yourself – “But have I mastered it?”
And then take it deeper by asking yourself, “Can I leverage it even greater that what I am currently doing?”
Deal?
Okay, so let’s jump in.
The primary tool we will focus on today is LinkedIn.
Why? Because LinkedIn is the platform where business-to-business deals get done – and – get done quickly.
Plus, there are over 433 million business people on the planet who use LinkedIn.
So it is highly likely that your top prospects are there – using LinkedIn – every day.
And you should be, too, Onward Nation.
LinkedIn members also may represent the right demographic – the right economic earning potential – that fits your ideal prospect or client avatar.
So let’s begin…and in total…I am going to share tactical steps — or tools — you can use to find your client avatar in LinkedIn, build your Dream 50 list, expand your number of connections, and then reach out to your Dream 50 to generate leads to fill your sales pipeline.
Step 1: Boost your LinkedIn profile.
You need to do this by giving it a serious, deeply critical look. Does it include a deep summary description?
Have you linked videos from your YouTube account?
Do you have your experience section properly built out? And if the answer is “no” to any of these — you need to make immediate adjustments.
Why? Think of your profile as your landing page within LNKD. If it’s not up to par — then prospects will bounce off your page and move on with their day.
Step 2: Participate in LinkedIn’s Pulse publishing platform by sharing your long-form content at least once per week.
Publishing to LNKD gives you the opportunity to share your expertise and deliver value to your connections – and – to boost credibility on the platform.
Go to my LNKD profile for tangible examples that you can dissect and get some ideas.
Step 3: expand your LNKD connections
I encourage you to export your existing email list, import it into LinkedIn, and send connection requests. But why?
Because with each new LNKD connection, your network of 1st degree, 2nd degree, and 3rd degree connections expands. This will give your team a larger network to search within for high-value prospects — your client avatar.
For example, I have over 4,000 1st degree connections on LinkedIn, which equates to a lead gen network of approximately 17 million people for business development team here at Predictive ROI, my content marketing and lead gen agency.
By expanding your connections, your will be able to “see” as many high-value prospects within LNKD as possible.
Step 4: expand your email list!
Now you should reverse the process from Step 3 and export your list of LNKD connections — and then — import the email addresses back into your email list.
LinkedIn is the only social media platform that allows you to export the email addresses of your connections.
This rinse and repeat cross-pollination will ensure yours prospects receive future content via multiple channels.
Step 5: build your Dream 50 list
Here is where you will take the details you identified regarding your client avatar using the recipe I shared with you in Episode 396 — and then apply it — to build your Dream 50 list using LinkedIn’s Advanced Lead Builder tool.
The Advanced Lead Builder gives you the opportunity to conduct custom searches based on keywords, titles, industry, years of experience, employee size, geographic proximity to a zip code, and a variety of other variables.
But…just a heads up…LNKD recently announced their decision eliminate a number of the searching options because not enough members were using them.
Ugh. So we will have to wait and see what the revised version of Advanced Lead Builder will look like — I will keep you posted.
Once you have your Dream 50 list compiled — you will be ready for Step 6, which is sending your InMail messages. InMail is kind of like LNKD’s version of email — except it is only available to premium members — you can only send 30 InMail messages per month without buying more credits — credits cost $10 each — and — the process cannot be automated…each InMail is sent to each recipient manually…one at a time.
Yes, I know — it is time consuming…but…that is also why we often see response rates of 10-20 percent…because there is very little spam via InMail.
You can go to Episode 298 of Onward Nation for our complete InMail template so you can swipe it and then customize the content for your business.
Now, that covers some of the core LinkedIn ingredients but there is another success secret I learned from Jeffrey Hayzlett in Episode 121 that I want to share with you right now.
And that is – to Crawl – Walk – Then Run.
Yes, it is going to take you time to perfect this recipe.
My team and I have sent thousands and thousands and thousands of InMail messages within the last 24-months alone.
Did it take us time to develop the expertise that we now have?
Of course it did.
So do as Jeffrey says…Crawl…Walk…and then Run. And soon…you too will have mastered LinkedIn and your pipeline will be full.
So with that…I want to thank you again for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here — thank you for tuning in — I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
However our daily podcast fits into your daily routine — I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation…good or bad…I always want your feedback. My direct email address is stephen@onwardnation.com — and yes — that is my actual Inbox.
No fancy filters or filing system and I read and reply to every single email.
So please let me know how you think we are doing. I look forward to hearing from you.
We will be back tomorrow with an incredible interview with Kyle Reyes — where we focus on the power of not losing your identity as a business owner — and how your identity can, and should, become the foundation of your brand. Kyle is rock solid awesome.
You will not want to miss it, Onward Nation!
Until then, onward with gusto!
Bobby Albert led a small, local family business to become a nationally recognized leader in its industry and explains how it happened in his book, “Principled Profit—Outward Success Is an Inside Job.” He pinpoints specific principles that can supercharge any enterprise. The book will be released in 2017, but Bobby is here today to share how he went from a humble start to good to great in his business -- and -- how any leader can leverage the same principles and practices in his or her own organization.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Bobby’s background * Why it’s important to have an abundance mindset * The importance of putting together a to-do list of your highest priorities * Why Bobby begins his day with quiet time & exercise * The difference between leading and managing * Participative leadership style * Why you should give your customers an experience that exceeds their expectations * Why it’s important to focus on the foundational things that help you develop a culture where people thrive & profits soar * Why you must get focused on your core values * Being a values-driven company instead of a results-driven company * Why you should focus on developing leaders around you vs. developing followers
How best to connect with Bobby: * Website: bobbyalbert.com * Website: bobbyalbert.com/onwardnation * Book: "Principled Profits"
At 19, Evan Carmichael built and then sold a biotech software company. At 22, he was a venture capitalist helping raise $500,000 to $15 million. He now runs EvanCarmichael.com, a popular website for entrepreneurs and breathes and bleeds entrepreneurship. His goal is to help 1 billion entrepreneurs and change the world. He speaks globally and calls Toronto home.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Evan’s background * Why it’s more about the mindset than hitting the target when it comes to goals * Why it’s important to Evan to make the entrepreneurial path easier for others * Why having a morning routine & an environment for success is so important * Why you need to consume some kind of content every day that gets you thinking bigger * What you can learn from looking at other business models as well as other people’s successes & failures * Why you should master self-awareness * Why it’s important to build your business beyond just yourself * Why you need to spend more time doing what you’re really good at * What makes a successful entrepreneur * Why you should just get started and adjust along the way instead of planning for perfection * Finding the schedule, routine & balance that works for you
How best to connect with Evan: * Website: www.evancarmichael.com * YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/ModelingTheMasters * Twitter: @EvanCarmichael * Book: “Your One Word: The Powerful Secret to Creating a Business & Life That Matters”
Daina Middleton is a Principal at Larcen Consulting Group and author of “GRACE MEETS GRIT: How To Bring Out The Remarkable, Courageous Leader Within.” Prior to launching her consulting work, Daina served as the head of global business-to-business marketing at Twitter as well as successful leadership positions at Performics, Moxy Interactive, and 16-years at Hewlett Packard. In all, Daina possesses three decades of hands-on business experience as a proven leader and CEO. She now works with executives from large and small companies who seek to take their business to the next level. She helps them understand the importance of leadership development that accompanies success.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Daina’s background * How having processes and routines helps contribute to Daina’s time-saving success technique * Why transformational leadership is a critical skill for business owners to master * Why it’s important to invest and take time for yourself * Finding the right mentors for the right time in your career * How mastering consistent, repeatable processes can drive value * Why finding a core value to stand for is so important for a company to succeed * Why you shouldn’t change yourself to the whim of your customers * Why it’s important to balance your strengths & weaknesses * Why you need to have self-awareness * Why it’s important to have mindfulness in work situations
How best to connect with Daina: * Website: dainamiddleton.com * Email: daina@dainamiddleton.com * Twitter: @DainaMiddleton
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning, Onward Nation — I’m Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and welcome to this week’s solocast.
Can you believe it? In less 4 days — we will ring in 2017.
AMAZING!
My hope for you is that 2016 was your best year yet.
— AND —
That 2017 will absolutely blow your accomplishments from this year out of the water in every way that matters to you. That you will be able to enjoy all of the freedom that running a successful, predictable, repeatable, and profitable business should afford you, your family, and your team.
Which if you just had a great 2016 — or maybe you didn’t — making 2017 your best year ever will be a tall order.
To be successful…you and your team will need a strategy coupled with a practical and tactical execution plan for you and your team to follow.
You may need an even heightened level of focus on who you should be serving.
Who are the customers and prospects in your current sales pipeline? Are they companies who you most want to serve?
Do they represent your Dream 50 clients? If not…adjustments need to be made.
And once the adjustments are made — you need a system that consistently adds value to what the companies within your sales pipeline — within your Dream 50 — are trying to accomplish in 2017.
Over the next several weeks, I am going to use my weekly solocast to answer these questions and guide you along the path to creating the strategic plan you and your team need.
I will share insights, step-by-step detail, recommendations, and system execution processes in full transparency as always — all within a practical and tactical 4-part series that you and your team can immediately apply.
My hope is that the result outcome for you is that you will be able to fill your sales pipeline so you and your team have more revenue opportunities at your fingertips than ever before — and those opportunities are with the type of companies you most want to serve — your Dream 50 clients.
Over the next four weeks…you and me…we are going to get our hands dirty, together. We are going to get into the trenches to not only fill your pipeline — but — to demonstrate with excellence to your team members how it should be done so they can model your behavior going forward.
This level of hands-on leadership — as you push for new heights — is critically important. Because how can your team do more if you have not shown them how?
So…in turn…I will show you where you can dig in your business to find gold — to go an inch wide and a mile deep to strike oil — to find the data points you need to make great decisions — and all along the way — to be able to look your team members in the eye with confidence so they can see how the business is moving forward.
When you jump into the trenches with your team due to deadlines — due to a large number of orders that need to be shipped — due to some problems with key clients — whatever the reason — your actions in those moments demonstrate how important it is to create big wins for clients.
And…even more importantly…your actions demonstrate that you have your teammate’s back — that you will not let them down — that they can count on you when the going gets tough. That they can count on you to take care of them while taking care of customers — with excellence.
This level of leadership should be one of your most vital priorities in 2017.
There is no better team building move a leader can make like stepping out of their executive office, rolling up their sleeves and riding with the sales team, making presentations to prospective customers, call customers, making deliveries, or shipping orders when there is a backlog.
To be clear — I believe in delegation — I absolutely do — it is a key ingredient to scaling a business. And here at Predictive ROI, my content marketing and lead gen agency, my leadership team and I stress delegation, we support and fund personal development for all our teammates, and each of us pushes one another whenever possible to grow and develop.
Doing all of this is a key to scaling.
But, getting my hands dirty with the practical and tactical is something I love to do — I love to solve problems — I am driven by it. I love jumping into the trenches with my team to work alongside them — to look them in the eye when we are faced with a big challenge so they can see my confidence and how much I believe in them.
It is part of the entrepreneurial DNA that I was blessed to receive my family — and — it was honed to a razors edge during my enlistment in the United States Air Force.
At the close of each day in the Air Force, I was typically covered in diesel fuel, brine, grease, battery acid, cobwebs, and dirt from crawling around the floors inside the 150 nuclear missile silos where I performed hundreds of maintenance procedures as part of a team.
During my enlistment, I was stationed at Ellsworth Air Force Base near the Black Hills of South Dakota — the prairies were my commute to my office — and my office was 1, 2, or 3 Minuteman II ICBM nuclear missile silos each day that I served.
And I loved every second of it. Most days were like 100 percent pure adrenaline, Onward Nation.
It was absolutely awesome!
And it was in those days — where my team and I worked our guts out — where we stood fast in the face of numerous technical challenges happening concurrently, in the face of impossible timelines and pressure, and the ebb and flow of an ever changing schedule — but — when we successfully navigated it all — when we got back to our base following a 17-hour shift — and debriefed with our supervisors — we felt a major sense of accomplishment.
We did it. And we did it with excellence. There was no finer feeling after a hard day of slugging it out in the trenches then being able to look back on what we had done along the way with pride.
That what we had just done — really mattered.
So let’s bring this back to the leadership lesson I want to make sure you take out of this solocast. When we were working within a missile silo…one of the things we enjoyed most was when our supervisors and leadership from our squadron paid us a visit. Sometimes as a complete surprise.
Our field supervisors wanted to inspect what they expected — to watch us perform while we were knee deep in problems inside a silo. It was nerve racking to be sure — because we didn’t want to make a mistake — but — sometimes, one of our supervisors — all former technicians themselves — couldn’t resist the temptation to jump into what we were working on so they could get some grease on their hands — to help us save time — or to provide us with a teaching moment and mentorship to make us better for our next dispatch.
For example, one of our supervisors might jump in and operate a crane while we were replacing a brine chiller — or help drive one of our maintenance trucks if we were short handed.
What we did on a day-to-day basis was dangerous, Onward Nation. There were significant risks. We were working six feet away from a nuclear missile inside a buried silo — for 17- hours at a time. And as you might imagine, our stress levels could rise pretty quickly within the team — so we had to keep our cool through solid communication and leadership.
So, seeing the willingness of our supervisors to jump in when they didn’t have to was inspiring — it was motivating — it was awesome seeing them get dirty right alongside of us — they looked us in the eyes and gave us courage that we could get the job done and get the heck home to our families — safe and sound.
You and your team, Onward Nation, may not be working inside a nuclear missile silo — but — if you, as a leader, jump in — with the heart to help and not micro-manage — to be a resource — to share your insights and experience — to be in the trenches — to look them in the eye so they know it will all be okay — your team will love you for it — and that momentum will carry you to new heights in 2017.
So that is why over the next several weeks, you and I will be in the trenches together. We will get our hands dirty — together. You and I will get tactical on the curriculum I prepared for you — the step-by-step details along with the metrics you can use to ensure your team is on-track.
January is a perfect time for you to jump in with your team — to get your hands dirty — to pull some levers and let your team see how much you care — put in the hours — to build the business — together.
They will love you for it.
The first practical and tactical lesson I am going to share with you is how to define your client avatar so you know exactly who should be inside your sales pipeline. It is impossible to answer the question of “Who do we want to serve” if you have not completed the exercise.
Or, if you have already completed — like my Predictive ROI team and I did a year ago — it is likely time for you to rinse and repeat the exercise just like we finished doing ourselves. And low and behold — we discovered that over the last several years — a shift had taken place.
That was exciting to see — so we pivoted — and made our sales pipeline much better as a result!
Yes, the exercise is hard work. It can be time consuming. You and your team need to challenge yourselves and not accept surface answers. But the reward is high. Because not getting your avatar right can be one of the single biggest and most expensive mistake business owners make — not knowing who to sell to — or why they choose to sell to one customer instead of another.
Before we jump in — I want to offer up a couple of warnings.
As we move through the steps…you may catch yourself saying… “Oh, I already know that…”
If you catch yourself saying that – take a moment – and instead ask yourself – “But have I mastered it?”
And then take it deeper by asking yourself, “Can I leverage it even greater that what I am currently doing?”
This recipe represents such a significant opportunity for you and your business because only about 2 percent of the business owners listening right now will take action on the steps I share.
Onward Nation, you may nod your head in agreement when you hear this recipe — you may even take some notes – or even share this episode with a colleague.
But ultimately, your inaction will signify your acceptance of operating your business at the status quo — instead of at the level of excellence.
Please don’t let this be you, Onward Nation!
Don’t fall into the trap of procrastination. My hope for you is that you will take the notes – have the discussions with your team — and then put the steps into action — swiftly. That is how excellence is reached.
Let’s dig in by starting with a question.
What’s the number one reason people buy anything?
I will give you a hint. It has nothing to do with the features, advantages, or benefits of the product or service.
In fact — it has everything to do with just one, four-letter word.
And that word is “HOPE.”
The only reason we buy anything is because we HOPE that tomorrow will somehow be better than today as a result of buying the product or service we are considering.
That’s it — HOPE.
So in order for you to fill your sales pipeline like never before — perhaps your goal is to 10x your pipeline in 2017 — you need to understand how to make an emotional and empathetic connection with your prospects and customers.
You do this by becoming a HOPE Dealer to your customers.
Let’s take this a little bit deeper with another question.
What percentage of people make a purchase decision based solely on emotional reasons?
Would you guess 20%? 30%? Maybe even 50%?
The answer is 100%. Yes, 100%.
Now, we like to think we are such rational creatures and we only make decisions based on objective data and thoughtful analysis. But the reality is that all of our decisions — yes, 100% of them — are made for purely emotional reasons.
And if you go back to Episode 392, our amazing guest, Dave Hoffeld will share the science behind selling and the emotionality of the decision making process. He is brilliant.
And because this percentage is so high — you and your business must become HOPE DEALERS to your customers. You can do that by connecting on an emotional and empathetic level with your “client avatar”.
You can do this by understanding their challenges.
You can do this by understanding their pain points.
You can do this by going beyond demographic and economic data by metaphorically “Laying in their bed at night” to understand what is causing them pain…so you can get into the hearts and minds of your customers and prospects.
You need to understand the last thing they think about before they go to bed — and — the first thing they think about when they wake up in the morning.
Every piece of communication you send to your customer and prospect lists needs to speak directly to what we like to call your customer avatar.
You should give your avatar, him or her, or both a name. As if you were having a one-on-one conversation with them…right now…just you like and I are having…right now.
Again, as you and your team work through the 10 specific questions I am about to share with you — don’t allow surface answers — challenge yourselves to dig deep and push to find specific examples of situations that either reinforce or contradict what is currently believed to be true.
Question 1: what things are challenging our customers right now?
Be careful here — because this question does not have anything to do with challenges your customers may or may be experiencing right now in working with you. Instead, think about it from the perspective of when your client wakes up — what challenges concern them about their business and in moving their business forward.
Question 2: what are our customer’s emotional fears or worries?
Again, from the perspective of them running their business — not fears or worries as it relates to their working relationship with you.
Question 3: what are their dreams and aspirations?
What would need to happen in 2017 for their company to have their best year ever?
Question 4: what are their pain points?
What are the challenges that really cause them pain — is it a distribution channel — is it a dealer network — is a supplier? What is it? Because if you can solve that problem — you will be hero in 2017.
Question 5: what are their values — and are their values the same as yours?
This is key because it helps to determine if your two companies will be a good fit working together — or will you end up being at odds and fighting. Ugh. Who wants that? There is an abundance of opportunity in the market, Onward Nation — you do not need to work with companies whose values are incongruent with your own.
Question 6: who do they want to impress the most?
If you can help your clients look good in front of who they want to impress — well — they will love you forever.
Question 7: what frustrates them about our industry?
This question is indeed about you — actually — about you and your industry as a whole. And if you know the answer to this question — you can change and pivot to create distinction from your competitors — and in the process — appear to be that beacon in the night for your Dream 50 prospects.
Question 8: what do they want from our business?
Or perhaps said in a slightly different way — how can you best add value to them?
Question 9: what’s the one thing — or result — that if you could guarantee — your customers would pay a premium for?
BOOM! Probably enough said there.
Question 10: finish this statement on behalf of your customers…“You will gain my trust and comfort by…”
Once you have collected that data – you will have all you need in order to create your “Client Avatar.”
But, please remember, your client avatar is one person. Not an email list of 20,000 people.
One person and you should give him or her a name, a personality, you hang a photo of her on your conference room wall, and every time you write an email campaign, shoot a video, etc. you speak directly to your avatar.
Here, I will take you inside Predictive ROI to illustrate this point. Our client avatars are “Harry” and “Sally” (we chose those names because When Harry Met Sally is one of my favorite movies of all time).
All of our conversations with Harry and Sally are personal — they are emotional — and they are always authentic.
Let me introduce you to Sally…
- Sally runs a business-to-business professional services firm with revenue between $1 million and $20 million per year
- Sally and her team are ambitious and want to learn new things
- She knows there is more opportunity and growth “out there” and is frustrated she does not know how to capitalized on it, faster
- he reads lots of books but doesn’t know a good idea from a bad one
- She is uncertain and afraid to fail
- She has been fooled before and does not know who to believe
- Everything sounds too good to be true
- And Sally has said to me…“Stephen…I want to trust you…that you can do what you say you can do…show me the evidence quickly that it is working and that you are delivering on your promises”.
And Onward Nation, during more than one presentation to a prospective client, “Sally” has said to me – “My goodness, that’s me!” It is magic when that happens because I know we just made a powerful, emotional connection with Sally.
But for your team to get this process right — they need you. They need your leadership — they need you to push them — they need to see the importance you give the process by jumping in and getting your hands dirty. Just like my field supervisors did for me while we were out working on the missile silos in South Dakota.
For next week…I will share several research tools you can use to collect the right detail you need to find the specific companies, and the decision makers within the companies, that match your client avatar so the result outcome will be a full sales pipeline as you head into 2017.
So with that…I want to thank you again for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here — thank you for tuning in — I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
However our daily podcast fits into your daily routine — I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation…good or bad…I always want your feedback. My direct email address is stephen@onwardnation.com — and yes — that is my actual Inbox. No fancy filters or filing system and I read and reply to every single email.
So please let me know how you think we are doing. I look forward to hearing from you.
We will be back tomorrow with an incredible interview with Daina Middleton — where she teaches how grit meets grace — and as a leader — the lessons we all need to apply in order to be more effective with our teams and customers. The conversation with Daina is powerful!
You will not want to miss it, Onward Nation!
Until then, onward with gusto!
Nav Athwal is Founder and CEO of Realty Shares, an online marketplace for real estate investing connecting individual and institutional investors to private U.S. real estate investments. By infusing technology into the archaic real estate industry, Nav and his team are able to connect accredited and institutional investors with pre-vetted real estate companies and operators looking to raise debt and equity capital. To date, Realty Shares funded more than $200 million across 400 deals in 31 states, and they are growing rapidly. Nav is also is a regulator contributor to Forbes and TechCrunch.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Nav’s background * Why creating more efficiency around your time is very important * How getting your Inbox to zero every night can help you start your day off focused * Why what you do outside of work can help contribute to your success * Why having a single decision-maker can make a company more efficient & effective * Why it’s important in tough situations to be amicable * Why you need to master hiring as a critical skill in order to thrive as a business owner * Why it’s so important to cultivate talent & create a culture for retention * Why mentors & advisors are so critical for founders & CEOs * Why taking the time to think creatively is so important to having a successful business * How creating more ways to communicate effectively can be highly beneficial for your business * How thinking about technology can help you do your job more effectively * How to make your employees & company more effective, scalable & efficient
How best to connect with Nav: * Website: www.realtyshares.com * Twitter: @navathwal * Email: nav@realtyshares.com
Mark Faust is an expert on growth, strategy, sales, and performance improvement. For the last 26-years, Mark has run Echelon Management, a growth consulting firm. He is an advisor on company boards and he has conducted hundreds of sessions for dozens of the world’s largest companies including Apple, IBM, Procter & Gamble, John Deere, Monsanto, Bayer, and over three dozen third generation family-owned companies. His first book “Growth or Bust! Proven Turanround Strategies to Grow Your Business” was a bestseller and his new book “High-Growth Levers” is also available at BarnesAndNoble.com. Mark is also adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati and Ohio University.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Mark's background * Focusing on your customer's customers * Breaking down your to-do list into your A's and B's * Mark's customer interviews that drive 7-9 figures of revenue * Strategy, culture, and innovation: the three high-growth levers * Echelon strategy dialogues * Why you need to only hire eagles (not turkeys) * Finding islands of profit in the sea of red ink * Why you need to think bigger
How best to connect with Mark: * Website: highgrowthlevers.com * Phone (515)621-8000
John Livesay is a funding strategist and helps CEOs craft a compelling pitch that engages investors in a way that inspires them to join a startup’s team. He is partners with Judy Robinett in “Crack The Funding Code,” which gets founders — funded — fast. He hosts “The Successful Pitch podcast” with investors from around the world. He is the Pitch Mentor at Startfast.net, the number one accelerator in Upstate New York. INC magazine calls John “The Pitch Whisperer.” After a successful 20 year career in media sales with Conde Nast where he worked across all 22 brands in their corporate division, John won salesperson of the year in 2012. John is the author of The Successful Pitch: Conversations On Going From Invisible To Investable.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * The strategy behind John’s podcast * How John overcame the three faces of fear * Why you should not take rejection personally & why you should never reject yourself * Why collaboration is the secret to overcoming your fear of the unknown * How John created a huge shift in his business * Why John believes the “team” you have is everything * How having a podcast has changed John’s personal life & career * Why empathy is the most critical skill to having a successful podcast * How John learned to let go of the need to be perfect * Why you need to be gentle with yourself when starting anything new * Why you need to keep your focus on how you can serve your listeners
How best to connect with John: * Website: johnlivesay.com * Twitter: @john_livesay * Report: 3 Mistakes to Avoid When Pitching
David Hoffeld is the CEO and chief sales trainer of Hoffeld Group. He’s pioneered a revolutionary sales approach based on neuroscience, social psychology, and behavioral economics that radically increases sales. David literally wrote the book on basing sales strategies on scientific evidence in his groundbreaking book, “The Science of Selling.” David works with small and medium businesses to Fortune 500 companies showing them how to align their sales behaviors with how the brain naturally forms buying decisions. David is a contributor to Fast Company and has been featured in Fortune, U.S. News and World Report, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Investors Business Daily, CBS Radio, Fox News Radio, and more.
What you'll learn about in this episode * David’s background * How adapting science-backed behaviors can improve your sales ability * How to align your sales processes with the brain’s natural commitments to buy * How emotions impact selling & the decision-making process * Why pre-loading your decisions and linking them to external references with action triggers will increase your chances of following through * Why you should view failure as feedback to help build your growth mindset * Why to get rid of beliefs that aren’t serving you and embrace ones that are * Why, as a business owner, you need to learn how to influence others * How science-based selling is aligned with what you like about selling * Why you should be mindful of the relationships you have & the influence they have on you * Why you should always give more value than you take
How best to connect with David: * Website: www.hoffeldgroup.com * Twitter: @DavidHoffeld * Book: The Science of Selling
Matthew Pollard has built five multi-million-dollar business success stories and is the prestigious Young Achiever Award. Matthew is a true differentiation, niche marketing, and sales powerhouse. He is a recurring guest on Fox7's Good Day Austin as well as a featured contributor to Fortune, Entrepreneur, and CEO Magazine. Matthew was recently honored with induction into the International Sales Blogger Awards Hall of Fame and is the 22nd most retweeted business coach on Twitter.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Matthew’s background * How every single skill set is obtainable * How introverts become the gate to their industry * Why adapting to a sales system can help you be more authentic * Why you don’t have to be the person asking for the sale * How to make a sale through telling a story * Why it’s important to ask the right questions * Why you should avoid technical jargon when attempting to make a sale * Why people feel like they get stuck when trying to sell * Why it’s important to get back to what you’re passionate about * Creating a unified message * How to create rapid growth in your business
How best to connect with Matthew: * Website: matthewpollard.com * Website: matthewpollard.com/rapid-growth-academy * Website: matthewpollard.com/webinar * Website: matthewpollard.com/archetype * Website: matthewpollard.com/growth * Website: matthewpollard.com/sales * Twitter: @MatthewPollard_ * Facebook: www.facebook.com/MatthewPollardSpeaker * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/matthewpollardspeaker * Podcast: Better Business Coach
Cindy Georghiou has more than two decades of retail industry experience and is an expert in the fashion and beauty industries. She began her career as an assistant buyer out of college, and moved up the corporate ladder to head buyer soon thereafter. She then made the move to the wholesale side for sales, product development, and e-commerce. In 2006, Cindy and a partner launched BlueSource Inc., a full-service web design company where she acquired extensive knowledge and experience in e-commerce, design, and merchandising. Then in 2012, Cindy and a partner acquired the intellectual property for JAQUA, one of today’s fastest emerging natural bath and body brands.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Cindy's background * Cindy's strategy for keeping her email organized * Why it's so vital to be flexible * Why Cindy and her team had to downsize because of uncertainty with a client * Why you can't get tied into the minutia * Not sweating the small stuff * Why you need to secure funding early * Why your best employees must be persistent * Understanding you market * Setting up your path for success
How best to connect with Cindy: * Email: cindyg@jaquabeauty.com * Website: www.jaquabeauty.com
Jason Blumer is the Chief Innovative Officer of his firm, Blumer & Associates, CPAs. The firm was one of the first to move from a traditional office to a virtual environment, where they serve digital, marketing, and design agencies. Jason is also the host of two podcasts, “The Thrivecast” for CPAs and “The Businessology Show” for agency owners. He has been honored as one of the 40 under 40 in the profession by CPA Practice Advisor as well as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting by Accounting Today.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Jason's background * Why you need to right team around you * Why Jason brought a partner into his business * The rhythm of business * Giving yourself the freedom to work the way you work best * How Jason and his partner survived losing too many people at the same time * Learning to choose and move forward * Why Jason believes in a client onboarding system for every business * Why you need to know what others don't know and be willing to do what others are not
How best to connect with Jason: * Twitter: @JasonMBlumer * Website: http://www.jasonblumer.com/
Garrett Gunderson is Founder and Chief Wealth Architect of Wealth Factory, and New York Times bestselling author of Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths That Are Destroying Your Prosperity. And he’s personally helped countless business owners create efficient wealth strategies that fit their unique strengths.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Garrett’s background & personal wealth building story * How Garrett is a leader at both home and work * Basic rules and foundations of the five-part framework to creating economic independence * Why Garrett starts every day with a “producer power-hour” to put him in the right mindset * Why he believes we’ve been trained improperly about money * Why you need to think about investing as investing - not as gambling * Why you need to move to cash and start increasing your investor IQ in things that you pay attention to - focus on those & forget about the rest * Why it’s so important to have integrity and restore it if it’s broken * Why learning to say no to good opportunities to reserve yourself for the great opportunities can help you create more happiness * Why you should compare yourself on a progress level to where you’ve been instead of where you’re going * Applying the 5-5-5 strategy * Why you should delegate roles instead of tasks
How best to connect with Garrett: * Website: wealthfactory.com * Twitter: @GBGunderson * Book: Send a text to 801-396-7211 with the subject “WWRD” (“What Would the Rockefellers Do?”) for a free downloadable copy
Michele Wucker is a global thought leader with experience in strategy, policy, turnarounds, and crisis management. Her most recent book is “THE GRAY RHINO: How to Recognize and Act on the Obvious Dangers We Ignore.” After nearly three decades in media and non-profit management and content creation, she recently founded Gray Rhino & Company to help leaders and organizations to strategize responses to risks that are neglected despite - or often because of - their size. Her previous positions include Vice President for Studies at The Chicago Council on Global Affairs; President of the World Policy Institute, which she re-launched in 2007; and Latin America Bureau Chief at International Financing Review. She has been honored as a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and a Guggenheim Fellow.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Michele's background * Michele's book "The Gray Rhino: How to Recognize and Act on the Obvious Dangers We Ignore" * Why you need structure in your daily life to run a business effectively * Why Michele begins her day by walking her dogs * Why you need to listen as a business leader * What you can learn from Kodak's collapse * Focusing on what you need and how to get it * Shedding what's holding you back
How best to connect with Michele: * Website: thegrayrhino.com * Email: m@thegrayrhino.com
Terry Gremaux is an entrepreneurial leader, training business owners worldwide how to use free social media strategies to grow their market presence & business revenue. Terry is an expert at helping you expand your positive business presence on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter & Instagram. He’s helped thousands of business owners catapult to get success using the free social media strategies that he teaches.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Terry’s background * Why Terry starts his day with meditation, journaling, reading, affirmations and movement * Why it’s important to operate at your own highest capacity * Why having the right mindset is so important for instantaneous change * Why Terry asks himself every day what he is afraid of and how that keeps him going * Why Terry believes that social media is the new telephone * Why you need to find your target customer and who they are following on social media and have conversations with them…every day * How Terry steals attention on Facebook and why he creates content “like crazy” so that people stay addicted to him * How to out-attention your competition so you can win * Never stopping hustling
How best to connect with Terry: * Website: thehashtaghunter.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/terry.gremaux * Instagram: @terrygremaux
Kate Sweetman is a founding partner at SweetmanCragun and co-author of the upcoming book, Reinvention: Accelerating Results in the Age of Disruption. Sweetman was listed as an Emerging Guru with Thinkers50, and is co-author of the bestselling business book, The Leadership Code published by Harvard Business Press. Her first-hand experience with world leaders, Fortune 100 organizations, and Asian multi-nationals provides a substantial foundation for insights that extend beyond borders. A former editor at Harvard Business Review, she has been published in HBR, Sloan Management Review, Boston Globe, and the Times of India, and has appeared on CNBC in the U.S. and India. She is also a coach and visiting lecturer at MIT’s Legatum Center for Entrepreneurship.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Kate's background * Keeping Stephen Covey's Important vs. Urgent Matrix front of mind * Why you need to do three tasks every single day * Getting information delivered to you so that you are always learning and spreading that knowledge across your network * Why Kate begins her morning with quiet time * What Kate and her team did when her contact page was broken for 2.5 month after a book launch * Why you have to double check to make sure your technology is working correctly * Why you need to talk about what it is that you're doing with other people whose opinions matter * Staying focused on your end goal
How best to connect with Kate: * Email: kate@sweetmancragun * Website: www.sweetmancragun.com
Craig Clark helps guide his clients in the pursuit of organizational or personal excellence resulting in above average results consistently over time, or MOMENTUM. His team’s approach is to affect how people work together and impacting their engagement. Craig provides insights spanning 25 years of bringing transformational answers to everyday business problems — around the globe.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Craig's background * Why Craig started Momentum Consulting * Sandbox rules for adults * How to discover where your blind spots are and how to cover them up * Why Craig questions how he looks at things * Building ownership accountability into your organization * Modeling the behavior you want in your organziation * Why you need to hold everyone accountable * Why you need to understand your core values * Being cognizant of where you slip into being a victim of circumstances
How best to connect with Craig: * Email: craig@momentumconsulting.com
Linda Hollander is often referred to as the Wealthy Bag Lady. She has been featured by Inc. and Entrepreneur Magazines as the industry leader in corporate sponsorship. She has over 20-years of experience as a business owner and does sponsorship and business consulting. Her clients and sponsors include Microsoft, FedEx, Citibank, Mattel, Bank of America, Marriott, Health Net, American Airlines, IBM, and Wal-Mart.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Linda's background * What sponsors are * What can get sponsored * Mistakes people make when attempting to obtain sponsorships * Why you shouldn't market yourself as a podcaster or a blogger but rather as a media company * Why your worries about having sponsorships are unfounded * Why you should make the sponsor the star * Why you should enter one-year contracts * Why banks are great sponsorships * What your sponsor wishlist should look like * Creating a great sponsor proposal * The #1 secret to getting corporate sponsors * How she got Bank of America as her very first sponsor
How best to connect with Linda: * Website: sponsorconcierge.com
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation…and welcome to Episode 382…I’m Stephen Woessner. Thank you for taking the time to be here this morning and for making Onward Nation part of your daily routine.
I want you to know how much your time and attention mean to me. I’m keenly aware that there are many demands on your time — at this moment — and yet you chose to spend some of your precious time with me to learn more about the lessons we share from today’s business owners.
I take the trust you place in us pretty seriously.
My team and I know that we need to deliver practical and tactical knowledge within every episode — knowledge you can take and apply into your business to accelerate your results, quickly.
But oftentimes — a critical component to being successful when applying newly found knowledge is fighting back the fear and temptation to procrastinate. The overwhelm — the delay — in reaching back out to your top prospect who has not made a decision on your proposal yet — and guess what — fear and procrastination is what is holding them back from making a decision in your favor, too.
But Onward Nation…if you solve for the fear on both sides of the equation — meaning your fear and their fear — your probability of success increases exponentially.
Or, maybe you are plagued by the failure of a previous venture or a series of ill-advised decisions — and there are days when the burden of money lost and opportunity squandered makes you feel like quitting.
I get it — I’ve been there.
I have been at the top and I have been at the bottom. I know what the daily pressure feels like when you need to add employees because of increased demand but you can barely afford the team you currently have because you are still paying for mistakes in year’s past.
But, rest assured, Onward Nation, the pressure you may be feeling right now…the pressure that seems unending…is actually refining you.
As you feel your business model being compressed, pushed, and pulled — all of it — it is actually a beautiful thing.
The intensity of your situation right now is refining you into something spectacular — if you let it. You and your business may be a diamond in the rough — and it is the intense pressure of today that is refining you, cutting you, removing all of the impurities from your business — and if you have the guts, the mental and physical fortitude to stick it out, you will be a brilliant diamond on the other side of it with exceptional cut, clarity, and color.
So as odd as it may seem — and as painful as it is to endure — enjoy this time — focus on the result outcome — and apply proven, practical, and tactical knowledge to get you through to the other side.
And that is what I am going to share with you during today’s solocast.
I am going to share my favorite success quote — I am going to share some of the behind-the-scenes of one of my biggest and most terrifying business failures that caused me to have many puke in the bucket moments.
And I am also going to share the story behind a one-on-one call with my mentor, Darren Hardy and how he properly shifted my mindset, like iron sharpening iron, and gave my team and I the momentum we are still riding today here at Predictive ROI, the content marketing and lead gen agency that I lead alongside our incredible team when I am not interviewing today’s top business owners.
And I am going to share all of this insight by sharing — in its entirety — my full interview with John Lee Dumas, host of the exceptional EOFire podcast. John invited me to be his guest for Episode 649 of EOFire and it was an incredible experience. JLD asked me tough questions and I’m excited to share with you the blueprint for eliminating the guesswork behind building an audience — and overcoming the fear and procrastination that often holds us back.
Onward Nation, the lessons you will learn as a result of listening and studying this interview are timely — because if you put them into practice — you will take several large leaps ahead of your competition and be well on your way to ensuring 2017 is your most successful year ever — in whatever way you define success — because it is a deeply personal metric and is different for all of us.
So without further adieu, here is John Lee Dumas, and me, in Episode 649 of EOFire: www.eofire.com/podcast/stephenwoessner
Hey — welcome back, Onward Nation — I hope you found the practical and tactical recommendations I shared with JLD, and now with you, to be valuable as you refine and sharpen your plans for 2017.
Remember, all of the intense pressure that may be bringing you to your knees each and every day…is helping you…if you let it.
Learn from it…adapt…change course…and get mad…fight back…but next time…fight back using the wisdom of what you learned…and you will begin to see the cuts and clarity taking shape, Onward Nation.
You will walk brilliantly into 2017 as the perfectly crafted diamond you were meant to be because you will have allowed the process of pressure and heat to unlock all of God’s abundance.
So when you are feeling that pressure…just take a moment to remember the wise words of Marianne Williamson, who said…
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
So, Onward Nation…you are capable — you have the gifts and talent to get through whatever the pressure you are feeling at this very moment — you can get past it — and you will make 2017 the best it has every been.
With that, Onward Nation…I want to thank you again for taking the time to be here with me today.
It is always an honor to have you here — I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation…good or bad…I always want your feedback. You can hit me up on Twitter, find us on Facebook, me on LinkedIn, or you are always welcome to email me directly at stephen@onwardnation.com — and yes — that is my actual email address — no fancy filters or filing system — it will come directly to me.
We will be back tomorrow with an incredible encore interview with Linda Hollander — she is rock solid awesome and will take you by the hand, behind the green curtain of sponsorships, and how you can leverage your business platform into a sponsorship of $10,000 to $100,000 with a large corporate brand. She is amazing and shares the details in full transparency! You will love it.
Until then, onward with gusto!
Tiffani Bova is the global customer growth and innovation evangelist at Salesforce, where as an industry thought leader, she watches overall market trends to uncover best practices on how to improve sales performance and enhance the overall customer experience. Tiffani has extensive knowledge of go-to-market, sales and channel strategies. Prior to Salesforce, she spent 10 years at Gartner as a vice president, distinguished analyst and research fellow, covering sales transformation and indirect channel innovation. She won the Gartner Thought Leadership Award for her comprehensive work on the Future of Sales and has delivered more than 200 keynote presentations around the globe to over 250,000 people on sales transformation and business model innovation. Tiffani has been published in Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and The Huffington Post. She was named one of the 50 Most Powerful and Influential Women in California in 2014 by the National Diversity Council and named by Inc. Magazine as one the 37 Sales Experts You Need to Follow on Twitter.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Tiffani's background * What Tiffani does to plan out her daily priorities * Why you should take the time to connect people in your network * Being respectful and responsive when people reach out to you * Why Tiffani kept changing sales jobs early in her career when that wasn't very common -- and why that wasn't always the right decision * Why you have to think ahead as a leader * Why to be a great leader you need coaching * How Tiffani grew her confidence muscle * Why you need to take the time to listen to people who ask you questions -- if you don't -- they might not ask a question again * Why you have to invest in yourself
How best to connect with Tiffani: * Twitter: @Tiffani_Bova * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/tiffanibova
Lisa Bodell is CEO and founder of futurethink and author of WHY SIMPLE WINS: Escape The Complexity Trap And Get To Work That Matters. A globally recognized innovation leader and futurist, Bodell founded futurethink in 2003 to provide a simple approach to the otherwise complicated topic of innovation.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Lisa's background * Why Lisa started groupthink * Why you need to simplify * The addiction to more (and what can be done about it) * Tips for saving time in email * Getting rid of stupid rules * Evaluating your to-do list to figure out what is truly valuable and worth your time * Standing up for what you believe in * Why you have to focus * Why you need to get over failure quickly
How best to connect with Lisa: * Email: innovate@futurethink.com * Website: futurethink.com * Twitter: @LisaBodell
Dana Malstaff is a mother, author, business & content strategist, coach, podcaster, and blind spot reducer. Dana is the author of Boss Mom: The Ultimate Guide to Raising a Business & Nurturing Your Family Like a Pro, and the founder of Boss Mom. She serves Boss Moms who yearn for more time and less guilt when it comes to building their business and raising their family, by providing the tools they need to get more out of their content and business, without sacrificing their family goals.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Dana's background * How Dana came to start Boss Mom * Crafting your movement manifesto * Saying no to things that don't financially benefit your business * Getting clear on your brand and message and repeating it the same way every time * Why you have to become a working sales page * Why it's not your job to work harder than your clients * Why you need to hire a team sooner than later * Why you need to assess your relationship with money * Getting clear on your dream-makers and deal-breakers * Why you need to write down what you're good at and what you're not
How best to connect with Dana: * Website: boss-mom.com * Trello training: boss-mom.com/trello
Dr. Alan Pitt is an attending physician and professor at the Barrow Neurological Institute, a national center of excellence in Phoenix, Arizona. He is also an entrepreneur engaging with multiple companies in the device and health IT space. His current focus is on medical collaboration and technologies bringing care teams together. In addition to his clinical responsibilities, Dr. Pitt is the chief medical officer of Avizia, a global provider of telemedicine services. He is also the author of a popular blog at healthcarepitstop.com.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Alan’s background * Why team is most important in the healthcare arena * Why you need work with someone who understands healthcare if you want to start a healthcare based business * The challenges business has that healthcare does not * Why — if you want to affect change — you need to be the change * Why you need to guard your cash like its your own blood * Recognizing personal strengths and weaknesses * Big challenges facing the investment community today * Getting technology not just created but adopted * Why you need partners that help mitigate risk * Why you need to fully understand the problem and the competition in the space * Why you need to begin to think about your exit strategy before you start
How best to connect with Alan: * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/alanpitt * Blog: www.healthcarepitstop.com
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media. Good Morning Onward Nation...welcome to Episode 376...I’m Stephen Woessner. I hope you had a wonderful and very Happy Thanksgiving last week with friends and family — and in the process — you were able to take some time to think about all of the people and opportunities in your life to be grateful and thankful for. Because we all — no matter what the circumstances pulling or pushing us from inside or outside of the business — have an abundance of opportunity and much to be thankful for.
Now, if your business is breaking into new levels and momentum is at full force — having an abundance mindset, is quite frankly, easy.
But, if you are struggling to make ends meet, if you are in danger of not making payroll (I’ve been there by the way), or you have employee issues, customer issues, and nothing seems to be going your way — and you just need a break — thinking about abundance may seem like mystic dark magic voodoo or a bit like staring into a crystal ball and to learn any sort of nugget about your future.
And when you’re back is up against the wall — and mine has been, Onward Nation — so I get it — I understand it’s hard to show up every day with your mind fixated on abundance. But if you just break free, inch by inch, and realize that you don’t need to win the war all in one day, that sometimes solving just one problem today build momentum.
And then tomorrow another.
And then tomorrow another.
And eventually you can begin to feel confident in metaphorically putting on what Garrett Gunderson recently described to me as “The Armor of Abundance.” And he wears his every day.
You will soon hear Garrett tell his story in Episode 388 that will air on December 15th, Onward Nation, and how even when the times were the toughest for him, the toughest for his family, and for his business — he refused to give up.
Even when he was writing checks for tens of thousands of dollars or hundreds of thousands of dollars to vendors who had done him wrong...he pushed forward.
He refused to, using Garrett’s words, he refused to “Gnaw on the bones of scarcity.”
And who taught him those lessons? Mentors.
Onward Nation...nothing will affect the trajectory of your business or your life like a good — or bad — mentor can. We talk a lot about mentorship with our guests — but — it has been some time since I shared any of my thoughts on the importance of your inner circle, how to build a culture of greatness within your company, and ultimately, how to find great mentors and advisors who will help you unlock that next level in your business.
So to add some value in each of these areas during today’s episode — I am going to share with you — in its entirety — an interview Laura Steward and I did when she was kind enough to invite me to be a guest on her show, entitled “It’s All About the Questions” and you can find her at LauraSteward.com.
True to the name of the show — Laura asked great questions and we dug into mentorship, inner circle, how to make the difficult transition from one circle to another, how to deal with the insecurities of others and not letting them affect your business and life, and a more — all focused on how to eliminate the guesswork to mentorship and learning — because getting it right is critical to your success.
So, here we go, Episode 81 of “It’s All About the Questions” with Laura Steward and me. Episode Link: www.laurasteward.com/81-stephen-woessner-onward-nation-digital-marketing-simplified.html
My hope for you is that you found the lessons Laura and I discuss to be helpful — to be recipes and tactical ingredients you can break down and insert into your business right away to accelerate your results — to be able to build a culture of greatness within your business while measuring your ROI in a complex digital world.
So with that, Onward Nation...I want to say thank you again for taking the time to be here with me today.
It is an honor to have you here — thank you for tuning in — I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation...good or bad...I always want your feedback. You can hit me up on Twitter, find us on Facebook, me on LinkedIn, or you are always welcome to email me directly at stephen@onwardnation.com — and yes — that is my actual email address — no fancy filters or filing system — it will come directly to me.
We will be back tomorrow with an incredible encore interview with Dr. Alan Pitt — don’t miss it because Alan digs deep into how the healthcare industry has and continues to change — and the impact that will have on us as consumers within the system. The conversation with Alan is transformation — you will love it.
Until then, onward with gusto!
Chris Paradiso is one of the most passionate and dynamic agency owners in the insurance industry today. His passion for digital marketing, a strong drive to improve efficiency, and his unwavering dedication to exemplary customer service has led Christopher to build and grow his own agency. His clear vision has helped direct other insurance agencies to push the envelope and find their own success as well. In 2011 Chris, was excited to introduce “Paradiso Presents” a social media marketing program aimed at teaching other agencies how to survive and thrive in today’s complex online marketing world. His innovative marketing solutions have been recognized and implemented into agencies nationwide.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Chris' background * Why the fear of being outworked is Chris' driving force * Why you have to read every single day * Why Chris reads two different books at the same time * The time where Chris found almost all of his employees new jobs and started his business over * Why accepting change is the most critical skill for business owners * Why you can't ever show up one minute late * Why "garbage in, garbage out" is a lie * How hearing "work on your business, not in your business" changed Chris' life * Why you need to buy your domain name * Why you need a coach * Why you need an app for your business
How best to connect with Chris: * Email: cparadiso@paradisoinsurance.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/paradisoinsurance
Laura Rittenhouse is a keynote speaker, financial strategist, business coach, and best-selling author. She advises CEOs and CFOs on how to increase employee creativity and accountability to boost results and revenue. Her Candor Academy workshops strengthen trust between investors, customers, and employees. She partners with executives, visionary managers, and inventors who align conversations and culture to become more effective problem-solvers. Her Candor Analytics methodology was chosen by the CFA Institute as a “Future of Finance” initiative. Laura’s book, “Investing Between the Lines”, showcases a decade of research connecting trustworthy leadership with financial returns that consistently outperform the market and was endorsed by Warren Buffett.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Laura’s background * Why language has such a profound impact on Laura * Why candor is so important * Why the authenticity is tied to vulnerability * Why Laura starts every day with a half hour of meditation * Why Laura left her job to find what calls her “thumbprint” * Why you need to believe and have faith * Why you need to trust your intellect * Developing a words matter mindest
How best to connect with Laura: * Website: www.rittenhouserankings.com
Don Osmond is a marketing professional, speaker, and writer focusing on authentic marketing to help businesses develop sound, branding strategies. Widely regarded as a marketing and communications thought leader, Don works with his business clients to develop the genuine narrative of their companies, which becomes the foundation for their branding and messaging. Son to international entertainment icon Donny Osmond, Don’s approach to marketing incorporates lessons from the entertainment industry, which he integrates into effective business strategies. After years of education and experience, he knows firsthand that good marketing requires truth-telling and invitation, not spinning. Don believes that authenticity is the only true value proposition a company can offer, so he serves clients by developing genuine story-based marketing and authentic marketing strategies.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Don's background * What he learned from his dad, Donny Osmond * Why storytelling is so pivotal * What Don's learned from Judy Robinett * Why Don starts each day by being of value to his network * How Don uses Audible to be a constant learner * Doing the one thing you need to do each morning * Don's soul-searching that led him to marketing * The importance of integrity * The major lesson Don learned about storytelling from his college English professor * Operation, capital, and awareness: the three things your business comes down to * Why you need to stick with processes and tweak them until they yield results
How best to connect with Don: * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/donosmond * Twitter: @donosmond
Damion Lupo started his first business at age 11, has started 30 since, and is the published author of five books. As a thought leader and bold executioner, his first rental house was purchased Dec 31, 1999 using his VISA card and a bucket of courage. That decision grew into a 150+ house, 7 state empire over the next 5 years culminating with a total meltdown and reinvention in 2008. This drove him to create the Austin-based FinTech Total Control Financial in 2016 to disrupt Wall Street and empower Main Street with a patented technology and artificial intelligence based tool to reinvent old archaic ideas around retirement and financial freedom and empower people with control of their financial lives. His powerful patented tool is called the eQRP, a retirement vehicle 10 times more powerful than an IRA, giving investors checkbook control of their 401k and IRA money and keeping track of it on their iPhone.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Damion's background * The time blocking strategy Damion learned from "The ONE Thing" by Gary Keller * Damion's "no-ding" policy in his office * How Damion uses Hal Elrod's "The Miracle Morning" and starts his day out with S.A.V.E.R.S. * The collapse of Damion's real estate business and his life in 2008 * The lessons Damion learned during that dark time * What it takes to reinvent yourself * Why you need a coach * Why you need to own every single piece * Why can't show up -- or work with -- people who or less than awesome * Why you need accountability with metrics * Why you should take your goals and figure out how to do 10x those * Why you should find the things that scare you and chase them * Listening to the feedback the world gives you
How best to connect with Damion: * Website: totalcontrolfinancial.com/stephen
Joe Kashurba grew the freelance web design business that he started in high school into a digital agency with a virtual team and clients around the world. He went from building $300 websites to building $30,000 websites and managing 6-figure digital advertising budgets for some of the largest manufacturing and construction companies. Joe now advises and mentors other freelance web designers and digital agency owners on how to develop and scale their businesses.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Joe's background * Why you need to plan out tomorrow before you go to bed * Getting an important task done in the first 15 minutes of work * Why constant marketing is so crucial for your business * What Joe did after not selling to 25 people in a row that he had consultion phone calls with * Generating leads that fit what you're trying to sell * Why having the right mindset is so crucial for success * Looking at your business from a diagnostic viewpoint to see what's working and what isn't * Why you need to niche down and stick to the exact thing you do well * Being prepared for and fighting through the fear * Building a system to get sales
How best to connect with Joe: * Website: agencyaccelerator.guru
Gal Ratner is an award winning technology veteran. He is the co-founder and CEO of ShopSnap, a modern e-commerce platform and the founder and CEO of Inverted Software, a software consulting firm in Los Angeles. With over 20 years of software experience, his designs are responsible for powering Fortune 500 companies in multiple industries. Gal led international teams on major financial, media and entertainment, gaming and e-commerce projects. Some of his projects include Microsoft’s Windows 8 download manager, the Volusion eco system, Rockstar Games’s online store, and ShoppingCart.NET, which he wrote as a pet project and was the most downloaded .NET shopping cart on the Microsoft App Gallery. Gal is also an open source community supporter and contributor with projects ranging in capacity from parallel workflow processing frameworks to extensible caching systems. He is an avid blogger and enjoys passing his extensive software knowledge on to upcoming talent.
What you'll learn about in this episode * Gal's background * ShopSnap, Gal's modern e-commerce platform * Why conversion rate and security are the two most important things in e-commerce * Gal's visualization technique * Gal's seven daily habits that keep him focused and on track * What Gal learned from Perry Marshall that changed the way he does business * Why you need to get great minds in a room every week and work on strategy * Why you need to carve your own path * Why you need to calculate risks * Why you need to plan, plan, and plan again * Why you need to look at your customer's world through their eyes * Why you need to be flexible
How best to connect with Gal: * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/galratner * Website: shopsnap.io * Website: invertedsoftware.com
Bill Watkins is a West Point graduate, decorated Army officer, world-class athlete, corporate executive, and an entrepreneur who took his business from his garage to an eight-figure enterprise before he sold it. As co-founder of the Rusty Lion Academy, Bill now connects to and coaches successful men seeking more significance, clarity, wealth, fun, freedom, joy, and control in both their businesses and lives. He leverages his story of financial success combined with nearly catastrophic personal failure to shortcut men beyond such catastrophes and toward permanent growth using proven, proprietary methods.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * Bill’s journey * Owning your morning to build your perfect day with Bill’s weekday warrior morning * Bill’s priority management system that helps him focus his time * Saying no to unimportant many and saying yes to the critical few * The disease of yes * The 25-year desired future: writing the life you want to live * The seven freedoms * Getting clear on what you’re deeply passionate about * Getting clear on what you’re really good at * Figuring out how to get people to pay you for the two above things
How best to connect with Bill: * Website: rustylionacademy.com/register
In 1985, Mitch co-founded Timeslips Corp, which grew to become the largest time tracking software company in the world. In 1994, Timeslips was sold to Sage. While at Sage, Mitch went on to run all of Sage U.S. as Chief Operating Officer, a division with over 300 people. Later, Mitch joined Chet Holmes as President of Chet Holmes, International. Soon thereafter Mitch and Chet, along with Tony Robbins, created Business Breakthroughs International, a company serving thousands of businesses a year with coaching, consulting, and training services. Mitch was the President and CEO for four years. After the untimely death of Chet, Mitch left Business Breakthroughs to help CEOs build their own “Invisible Organization” using the principles outlined in this powerful book.
What you’ll learn about in this episode * What Mitch does with the first 60 minutes of his day * Mitch’s daily initiaives list * Mitch’s favorite quote from Steve Jobs that helps him stay on track * Why you should never compare yourself to others — only the you of yesterday * Why you must dismiss fear as the emotion it is — you are not your emotions * Why — when you’re hiring — you need to screen for emotional makeup * The personality tests that Mitch uses to screen different types of employees * Why you should have a membership site or a learning management system to stay engaged with your audience * How to tap into recurring revenue streams * Why you need to network like crazy * Why it’s so important to take things lightly
How best to connect with Mitch: * Website: mitchrusso.com
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation…welcome to Episode 367…I’m Stephen Woessner. Before we dig deep into today’s solocast and the lesson I prepared for you — I want to take a minute to say thank you!
Thank you because as we rapidly close in on our 400th episode — amazing — 400!!! — we are experiencing another level of growth.
Downloads worldwide are up, the number of countries we are reaching on a daily basis continues to increase, the number of guests reaching out to us requesting to be on our show is up, and the amazing — awesome — and incredible feedback we receive from you, Onward Nation — is up.
And I want you to know how much you being here and making what we do part of your daily routine means so much to my team and me.
We are very grateful to have this opportunity to share the lessons we collect from today’s top business owners — and we rejoice with every piece of feedback you share with us — good or bad — because you help us get better.
We love all of your Facebook comments, Tweets, LinkedIn comments, and your emails, too. Please keep them coming.
And remember, my direct email address is stephen@onwardnation.com. Drop me a line anytime and let me know what you think about the show — I always want your ideas and to hear your thoughts.
Rest assured — I read and reply to every single email. So thank you, Onward Nation — my team and I appreciate you more than you will ever possibly know…
Okay, just wanted to begin today’s lesson by expressing some gratitude. So now let’s jump into what we are going to cover today. And that topic is cash or capital you can apply toward the growth of your business — but more specifically — if you are considering outside investment as part of your growth strategy — what’s the recipe — what steps must you take in order to make your team and business attractive to investors so you go from invisible to investible, as my good friends Judy Robinett and John Livesay shared last week during Episode 362.
Judy and John shared some excellent insights and very specific tactical steps, which I am going to summarize for you here — but I am also going to share some additional context about approaching investors because I understand first-hand how intimidating the process can feel like — especially when you are on the outside looking in, don’t know the players, how no idea what your message ought to be, and then fear creates this feeling of being trapped.
And that is exactly what happened to me. In August of 1999, several business partners and I founded a company called FortifiedNutrition.com, back when everyone had a dot com company, taking the companies public, and cashing in once the IPO soared to record levels.
So as the tech and product distribution sides of our business were being built out by my co-founders, I was in charge of attracting investors. And I was terrible at it and it really showed.
My prospecting consisted of aimlessly wandering around the Internet to find venture capital firms who were typically located in the valley, then emailing them our PowerPoint overview of the business (and wow was it horrific!) and then receiving lots of thanks but no thanks emails.
But finally, we made our way in front of a couple of investors and our initial ask was $7 million for 20 percent of our business. Yes, $7 million. We had placed a valuation of our business at $35 million — but wait — here’s the best part — we had not made one single sale at the point of the ask.
Yep, we felt confident our company was worth $35 million even though we had zero sales. Good grief!
Now, you have probably seen some of those ill-fated pitches on Shark Tank, right? When the business owner has zero sales and then tries to justify a ridiculous valuation to the Sharks.
Yep, that was me, Onward Nation. My team and I in a conference room — as I floundered my way through my pitch.
Plus, I had very inconsistent valuation numbers. The valuation I had put together for Ernst & Young’s review a couple of weeks earlier was only — HA — only — $10 million.
Yeah, I had missed the inconsistency — I failed to see the problem of $10 million a couple weeks ago, and now that I am in front of investors, yeah, let’s go with $35 million.
Thankfully, the investors we were presenting to saw something in us — some glimmer of hope — that with the right mentorship — we could build something valuable. They took us under their wing, mentored us, shortened our learning curve through powerful education, and ultimately invested in us at a $3 million valuation — not $35 million — and it wasn’t until we had six months of growing sales under our belt.
So why am I sharing this painful and embarrassing story with you?
Because all of the pain, suffering, and time lost in countless meetings, phone calls, and emails could have been avoided if I would have had a system — a process — a recipe to follow. Which I have now learned as a result of spending hours with Judy Robinett and John Livesay during our episodes as well as outside of the show.
They are brilliant subject matter experts — they really know their stuff — but beyond that — they are generous with sharing their expertise. So if you have listened to and studied Episodes 329, 360, and 362 — I highly encourage you to add them to your list of vital priorities — you will be glad that you did.
So let’s dig into the ingredients to a “Getting Funded Recipe” that I wish I had had for attracting investors back in the days of FortifiedNutrition.com.
Ingredient #1: kick fear to the curb Judy and I talked a lot about fear during Episode 329 and how it can rise up and attempt to keep her trapped. And it isn’t because she doesn’t know what she is doing — my goodness, no. Judy is one of the most connected — deeply networked people I have ever met. She is an in-demand global thought leader, plugged into the investment community, sits on the right boards, knows all the right players, and even attended two business and networking events at The White House this year.
What!?!
Yeah, Judy has a titanium Rolodex.
Yet despite all of that — there is fear. So Judy has to force herself to kick fear to the curb, where it belongs, and push past it!
Why is getting past the fear important?
Because if you don’t, I guarantee you the first excuse you will tell yourself as to why investors have not knocked down your door with briefcases full of money with your name on it is because “No one is investing — there isn’t any money available — or — investors don’t want to invest in a company like mine.”
You need to know — thoughts like that are simply the Imposter Syndrome trying to rise up and keep you from your destiny.
Because here is the reality — Judy shared some estimates she collected from Credit Suisse — that by 2019 there will be over $329 trillion in household wealth worldwide.
$329 trillion, Onward Nation.
More specifically, within the venture capital and angel investor communities, there are estimates of $70 billion sitting on the sidelines and that is likely on the light side.
So to Judy’s point — there is not a lack of capital. In fact, it is the complete opposite — there is an abundance of capital — but — and because Judy is on the inside she hears these conversations — investors are frustrated because they cannot find good, solid, investable companies to put their cash to work.
That was a game changing paradigm shift for me, Onward Nation, when Judy shared the data points.
So let me say that again…availability of cash is not the issue. The cash is there. But positioning your company correctly so an investor sees you as investable — and — getting yourself into the right room with the right investors — now that is a whole different story.
But, what investors are craving right now is deal flow — a steady stream of investable companies. You solve that problem for them — you get funded and you get funded fast.
So how do you do that?
Let’s move to Ingredient #2: how do you show an investor — or group of investors — that you are investable?
As you might imagine, it is a process. You begin by answer two key questions that I learned from John Livesay (who by the way Inc. Magazine calls the Pitch Whisperer) and the questions are: 1) Why you? and 2) Why now?
To even get a seat at the table, you have to be able to answer these two questions succinctly. In fact, John helps business owners craft what he calls a “pitch deck”, which is essentially 10-minutes worth of content involving 10-12 slides all following a very specific formula.
For example, you have to grab an investor’s attention in the first 90-seconds, even if you’re given 10-minutes. If you don’t grab them with a compelling opening, they won’t pay attention for the whole 10-minutes because they hear pitch after pitch.
They literally hear 2,500 pitches a year and might only fund 25. So you really need to give deep consideration, Onward Nation to the content on your slides, what you are going to say, how you will answer the “Why you? / Why now?” questions and then be ready for the rapid-fire Q&A that follows.
I laughed — but when John shared these insights with me — he said, “Stephen, if you got the questions before you took a test, it would be cheating, but following this recipe is called preparation.”
And he is so completely right.
But there is more to the preparation and transforming your business from invisible to investable. And John was kind enough to break it down for me so I could really see behind this green curtain that he and Judy work behind every day.
John let me know that a business owner needs to think of the investment process as kind of a ladder with different rungs on it.
The bottom rung would be labeled “Invisible”. Much like dating, when you see somebody you’re attracted to, but they don’t know you exist. Awesome! Well with investors, it’s the same thing. You have an idea, you don’t have anybody on your team yet, so you’re invisible.
Then the next rung up is “Insignificant”. What’s worse, being invisible or being insignificant? They see you but they don’t really care — that happens when you’re insignificant. Ouch. So you have a couple of people on your team, but you really haven’t tested out your business model to see if anybody wants to use it or would be willing to pay for it.
Then you get to the “Interesting” rung of the ladder. Going back to John’s dating scenario, let’s say you say something clever or funny, the person is interested in you but they’re not going to go out on a date with you yet. So now you have some people on your team, you’ve got a business that has some scalability to it, but you don’t have connections and you aren’t really great at pitching.
But with the right coaching and mentors, and some hard work, you finally move up to the next rung of the ladder, which is where you’re “Intriguing”.
You’re not quite investable yet, but you’re getting a whole lot closer. And my guess is, Onward Nation — this has happened to you before — you pitch someone something and in response, they say to you, “I’m intrigued. Tell me more.” That’s what you want to hear from an investor because as I learned from Judy and John, your vital priority with the initial 10-minute pitch and the 10-minute Q&A is simply to get the second date — or the second presentation.
Then you get to the “Irresistible” level. That’s really where you become investable and that’s where you and your team receive multiple offers from multiple investors. But, this is also where you want to have experienced mentors in your corner who can help you negotiate the best deal — and — mentors who have the capability to help you leverage all that is going on during this process for your benefit.
So once you and your team have ascended the ladder and become investable and Irresistible, you now need to get in front of the right investors.
And that is where having influential and well-connected advisors and mentors as part of your team can deliver a major return on investment.
Why?
Because as I learned again from Judy and John, let’s say an investor decides to fund 25 deals in a 12-month period of time…it is highly likely…that 24 of those 25 deals came to them by way of a warm introduction. So, you can do all of the hard work and reach the Irresistible stage — but — if the right investors never meet you — you are still stuck.
You need to build a board of advisors by connecting with people who are capable of opening the right doors for you. Because when you are in the right room, with the right investors, and you have followed the recipe for becoming Irresistible in their eyes, and you deliver a compelling pitch — you will create FOMA — or the fear of missing out — so the investors will compete for your attention.
And that is a game changer, Onward Nation!
So before we close out for today…I want to share one final and very important lesson that Judy shared with me — and it was a question that I never answered while running Fortified Nutrition…and that was…what is the exit strategy of the business — and while you are in the business — how you will grow and capture market share?
This is critically important because investors do want their money back with a significant return so you need to be really clear on your exit strategy — and you get there by having a deep understanding of your market and what is happening in your industry. You also need to be able to articulate your customer acquisition cost and how you are going to acquire customers.
And lastly, be sure to avoid the amateurish mistakes. One of the biggest ones is saying things like, “If we just get one to two percent of the market in China, we’ll be a billionaire in six months.” That’s a top-down sales forecast and sophisticated investors know you’re going to have to start from the bottom up with metrics like how many phone calls are you going to have to make, how will your leads convert, and really understanding those customer acquisition cost are critical to your success.
And then let’s end with some resources you can use and study further. First…be sure to listen to Episodes 329, 360, and 362 for deeper dives into blueprints and recipes you can apply to put yourself in the best position possible to access the cash you need to grow your business.
In addition, Judy and John teach a detailed webinar that goes even deeper with more examples and action steps. You can find it here. Register for it and drop me a line — would love to hear more about what you learned.
So with that…I want to thank you again for taking the time to be here with me today.
It is an honor to have you here — thank you for tuning in — I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation…good or bad…I always want your feedback. You can hit me up on Twitter, find us on Facebook, me on LinkedIn, or you are always welcome to email me directly at stephen@onwardnation.com — and yes — that is my actual email address — no fancy filters or filing system — it will come directly to me.
We will be back tomorrow with an incredible encore interview with Mitch Russo — don’t miss it because Mitch shares the recipes behind building constant and steady cash flow into your business. The conversation with Mitch is rock solid awesome — you will love it.
Until then, onward with gusto!
Jay Samit is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on disruption and innovation. He launches billion dollar businesses, transforms industries, revamps government institutions, and for over three decades continues to be at the forefront of global trends. Jay helped grow pre-IPO companies such as Linkedin and eBay, held senior management roles at Sony and Universal Studios, pioneered breakthroughs in mobile video, Internet advertising, e-commerce, social networks, ebooks, and digital music used by billions of consumers every day. Jay is also the consummate dealmaker; his list of partners and associates reads like a who’s who including Bill Gates, Steven Spielberg, Steve Jobs, Reid Hoffman, David Geffen, Richard Branson, and Paul Allen. Jay also serves as an adjunct professor at USC and is author of the internationally best-selling book “Disrupt You! Master Personal Transformation, Seize Opportunity, and Thrive in the Era of Endless Innovation.”
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Jay lost a MAJOR contract that he maxed out credit cards to win -- and Jay tells the whole story here.
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "You have to be the best at what you're doing or the only one doing it."
How best to connect with Jay: * Twitter: @jaysamit * Website: jaysamit.com * Book: "Disrupt You!: Master Personal Transformation, Seize Opportunity, and Thrive in the Era of Endless Innovation"
Al Pittampalli started his career as an IT consultant for Ernst & Young where he advised Fortune 500 organizations all over the country. This is where he first realized that mediocrity and ingrained stubbornness were epidemics. Al now helps organizations like NASA, Hewlett Packard, Abbot Labs, transform their organizational cultures. He is the author of two books that help individuals and organizations adapt to a fast changing world. In latest book, “Persuadable: How Great Leaders Change Their Minds to Change the World,” Al uses decades of social science to reveal how being persuadable is not only the right thing to do, its the smart thing to do and creates a powerful advantage in both business and life.
Secret – timesaving technique Al takes time every day to prioritize work with his program manager -- 20% of what you do contributes 80% of your results. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Tap into your creativity -- Al starts each day by following Julia Cameron's Morning Pages strategy.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Al was seduced by short-term opportunities -- and Al tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "In a world that's constantly changing -- being persuadable -- the ability to adapt to changing circumstances -- is the real competitive advantage."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Being safe is now risky."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Realize the cost of planning 2. Just test it out
How best to connect with Al: * Website: www.alpitt.com
As President and CBO (Chief Bargain Officer) of the Bargains Group, Jody has mobilized her award-winning discount wholesale and promotional products company to revolutionize the business landscape. A winner of the Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Canada’s Top 40 Under 40, and a PROFIT W100 Recipient, Jody Steinhauer uses her network of resources and leveraged buying power to aid every company and not-for-profit agency that she touches to maximize their buying dollar. Since 1988, Jody has grown Bargains Group from her apartment to a multi-million-dollar-a-year business. Jody is also an official Huffington Post blogger.
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? Jody sets two alarms so she wakes up in time, visualizes her day while in bed, listens to the news, goes into her personal email, drops off her kids at school, and then jumps into a conference call in the car. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? Be comfortable in your own skin.
How do you define success? Success is different in every area of your life -- and you need to reevaluate it regularly.
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" is someone who fits your culture.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? 1. Show your employees that you're there for them 2. Teach your employees how to mentor others 3. Go out into the community and share your beliefs and volunteer 4. Recognize negative mentors and learn how not to act as a leader
How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Take a look at yourself and your company and where you're head and shoulders above your competitors 2. Figure out where you can enter into mutually beneficial partnerships
How best to connect with Jody: * Website: jodysteinhauer.com * Website: www.linkedin.com/in/jodysteinhauer
Jon Levy is a human behavior scientist who studies influence and adventure. Fast Company called him “the most well-connected behavior scientist you’ve never heard of.” He helps companies brilliantly transform how they approach marketing, sales, influencers program development, consumer engagement, and product design. His “Influencers Model for Engagement” inspires fresh approaches to marketing, sales, innovation, PR, events, product design, customer relationships and building brand loyalty. Jon's book, “The 2 AM Principle: Discover The Science of Adventure”, was released on Tuesday. The book highlights his discovery of The EPIC Model of Adventure - A four stage processes that when applied makes every experience more exciting and adventurous.
Daily habit that contributes to success Get the sleep you need -- Jon doesn't set alarms and never has a morning meeting.
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "What defines the quality of our lives are the people we surround ourselves with."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Get clear on your core competency and learn to express it as clearly as possible 2. Build a diverse network, even within your industry
How best to connect with Jon: * Website: jonlevytlb.com * Twitter: @jonlevytlb * Instagram: @jonlevytlb * Jon's new book: www.amazon.com/AM-Principle-Discover-Science-Adventure/dp/1942872690/
Today’s show is really special — we have two Onward Nation alums returning for what will be a fast-paced, practical and tactical discussion around how business owners can get funded — fast. You may remember Judy Robinett as our guest in Episode 329. Judy gives speeches worldwide on business strategy and high-end strategic networking to specific outcomes. Judy has served as the CEO of both public and private companies and in management positions at Fortune 500 companies. She has been on the advisory boards of several prominent venture capital firms and is the author of “How to Be a Power Connector: The 5-50-100 Rule”. Judy’s business partner in Crack the Funding Code is John Livesay. John was our guest in
Judy’s business partner in Crack the Funding Code is John Livesay. John was our guest in Episode 360 and he is an expert at helping CEOs craft a compelling pitch that engages investors in a way that inspires them to join a startup’s team. INC Magazine calls John “The Pitch Whisperer” and he also the author of The Successful Pitch: Conversations On Going From Invisible To Investable and host of The Successful Pitch Podcast.
What you'll learn about in this episode * What Crack the Funding Code is and how Judy and John came up with it * What a pitch deck is and what it needs to do * Family offices that are looking for investments * The amount of money that is sitting out there waiting * The key adjustments companies need to make to go from invisible to investible * Why it's important to share information and to get a lead investor first * What "smart money" looks like * Questions that investors ask and what you need to know to give the right answers * Why you need to know your numbers and your exit strategy * What a strong strategy for using investor money looks like * Why treating an investor pitch like a customer pitch is a terrible idea (and why giving a product demo is not smart) * How to get an advisory board * Why you should put competitors on your advisory board * Mallory Dyer -- an example of someone who as been through this all very successfully * Why you shouldn't go it alone * Why you need to learn, pivot and persist
How best to connect with Judy: * Twitter: www.linkedin.com/in/judyrobinett * LinkedIn: @judyrobinett * Email: judy@judyrobinett.com
How best to connect with John: * Twitter: @John_Livesay * Website: johnlivesay.com
On his 35th birthday Mike Michalowicz had founded and sold two multi-million dollar companies. Confident that he had the formula to success, he became an angel investor and proceeded to lose his entire fortune. Then he started all over again, driven to find better ways to grow healthy, strong companies. Among other innovative strategies, Mike created the Profit First Formula, a way for businesses to ensure profitability from their very next deposit forward. Mike is now running his third million dollar venture, is a former small business columnist for The Wall Street Journal; is the former MSNBC business make-over expert; is a popular keynote speaker on innovative entrepreneurial topics; and is the author of Surge, Profit First, The Pumpkin Plan and The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, which BusinessWeek deemed the entrepreneurs cult classic.
Secret – timesaving technique Mike tells himself that he is the most impactful small business author of this century -- before the world sees something in you -- you need to see it in yourself. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Don't structure your to-do list by due dates -- Mike writes a to-do list and prioritizes tasks with symbols.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "You have to deliver on your promises."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Everyone is giving you the wrong information -- everyone has a bias."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Don't follow your passion -- follow your purpose 2. Test, test, test 3. Don't pivot -- align
How best to connect with Mike: * Website: mikemotorbike.com * Wall Street Journal Article: www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704723104576062231197795222
John Livesay is a funding strategist and helps CEOs craft a compelling pitch that engages investors in a way that inspires them to join a startup’s team. He is partners with Judy Robinett in “Crack The Funding Code”, which gets founders — funded — fast. He hosts “The Successful Pitch podcast” with investors from around the world. He is the Pitch Mentor at Startfast.net, the number one accelerator in Upstate New York. INC magazine calls John “The Pitch Whisperer.” After a successful 20 year career in media sales with Conde Nast where he worked across all 22 brands in their corporate division, John won salesperson of the year in 2012. John is also the author of The Successful Pitch: Conversations On Going From Invisible To Investable.
Secret – timesaving technique John prepares and stacks his "moments of certainty" -- investors give money to those who are confident. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Plan tomorrow today -- John writes down the three things he must get done.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience John got 71 no's in a row -- and John tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Listening -- when you become a great listener -- then you become a great storyteller."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Smart leaders are smart readers."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had the foresight to use Trello to keep track of the podcasting process.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Focus on activities that generate revenue. Period.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would have to share in my vision.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Make sure you are very clear on who you help and what problem you solve 2. Why you and why now? 3. Make sure your why is bigger than just making money
How best to connect with John: * Twitter: @John_Livesay * Podcast: sellingsecretsforfunding.com/#podcast * Book: www.amazon.com/Successful-Pitch-Conversations-Invisible-Investable/dp/0982285353
Robert Mallon is a nationally recognized professional speaker, business coach, and mentor. For the first 20 years of his life, he was a successful executive in the restaurant and software industries. In 2002, he hired a coach who helped him become a motivational speaker. Since then, he has delivered nearly 2,000 full-day seminars and inspired thousands to achieve their unrealized potential. And over more than a decade as a business coach, he has personally helped hundreds of people with their leadership, business, and life.
Secret – timesaving technique Robert has a weekday warrior morning program -- spend your morning on what's important for preparing for your day. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Set good goals -- Robert takes steps each day to accomplish his goals.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Robert lost his wife to cancer -- and Robert tells the whole story here.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Invest in tools for managing people effectively 2. Become sophisticated at time management skills
How best to connect with Robert: * Website: rustylionacademy.com * Podcast: rustylionacademy.com/podcast * Email: robert@rustylionacademy.com
The Wall Street Journal calls Chad Hymas one of the 10 most inspirational people in the world! In 2001, at the age of 27, Chad's life changed in an instant when a 2,000-pound bale of hay shattered his neck leaving him a quadriplegic. But Chad’s dreams were not paralyzed that day he became an example of what is possible. Chad inspires, motivates, and moves audiences, creating an experience that touches hearts for a lifetime. Chad is a best-selling author, president of his own Communications Company, Chad Hymas Communications, Inc. and is a world-class wheelchair athlete. Chad’s speaking in the areas of leadership, team building, customer service, and mastering change has brought him multiple honors. He has graced the stage of hundreds of professional and civic organizations including Wells Fargo, Blue Cross Blue Shield, AT&T, Rainbird, IHC, American Express, and Prudential.
Favorite quote or lesson? "Fear can be a marvelous teacher."
How do you define success? Success is knowing that those that know you the best love and care about you the most.
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" is the one who dishes out assists.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? 1. Realize what a mentor is -- someone with the ability to obtain a follower 2. Mentorship is demonstrated through behavior -- it's not a title 3. Mentors teach others how to be mentors themselves
How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Don't get complacent 2. Socialize with people who are doing better than you are 3. Execute
How best to connect with Chad: * Website: www.chadhymas.com
Dr. Marcie Beigel has been redesigning behavior for professionals, families, schools, and businesses for over 15 years. Her specialty is engaging with behaviors directly and giving clear and insightful directives to clients who are oftentimes business owners looking for balance at home to help create balance at work or new approaches to become better leaders. Her approach is heartfelt, but filled with tough love. You can get her weekly behavior newsletter at BehaviorAndBeyond.net. Dr. Marcie is also featured on NBC's Parenting Toolkit.
Why did you write your book? Dr. Marcie had people come up to her for years asking for her to write a book -- and she talked to people that read books like the one she would be writing so that she would have content that would connect with her readers and not just content that she would enjoy.
What have been the big benefits of the book? Writing a book will get people to take you more seriously -- and Dr. Marcie has found that people are more willing to dive in deep with her after reading because they feel they already know her.
Why did you decide to hire a publicist -- and -- what has been the impact of that decision? Hire people to do the things you don't want or have the expertise to do -- and Dr. Marcie hired someone with the expertise to cultivate the right marketing plan for her book.
What is the most critical skill for getting your book done? 1. Take small steps -- and don't get derailed. 2. Manage the people that you outsource pieces of the process to
What has been your proudest moment as a business owner? A lot of Dr. Marcie's employees work remotely -- and Dr. Marcie gets very proud of what she's built when they all get together for a business dinner. AWESOME!
What's one secret you can share to help move businesses onward? 1. You need to speak with purpose 2. You need to do more and speak less 3. Choose honey -- you have to come from a positive perspective
How best to connect with Dr. Marcie: * Website: http://www.behaviorandbeyond.net/
Jeanne Bliss is the Founder and President of CustomerBliss, and the Co-Founder of The Customer Experience Professionals Association. She is one of the foremost experts on customer-centric leadership and the role of the Chief Customer Officer. She guides C-Suite and Chief Customer Officer clients around the world toward earning the right to business growth and prosperity, by improving customers’ lives. Jeanne pioneered the role of the Chief Customer Officer, holding the first ever CCO role at Lands’ End, Microsoft, Coldwell Banker, and Allstate Corporations. She has driven achievement of 95 percent loyalty rates, improving customer experiences across 50,000-person organizations. Jeanne is also the author of the groundbreaking book, “Chief Customer Officer.”
Secret – timesaving technique Jeanne writes a to-do list by sending texts to herself -- she then deletes the texts when they are completed -- stay focused on what you need to accomplish. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Make sure you have time for what matters -- Jeanne carves out time for exercise and her family daily.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Jeanne learned she had to check her ego at the door -- and Jeanne tells the whole story here.
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Write like you talk."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have networked more than I did.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Define what you're passionate about 2. Create your personal code of conduct 3. Build the journey of the customer's life that you're improving 4. Find your way to deliver value
How best to connect with Jeanne: * Website: www.customerbliss.com * Twitter: @JeanneBliss
Lori Jones is the President and CEO of Avocet Communications and brings top retail, consumer product, business-to-business and nonprofit organizations knowledge and experience in all aspects of integrated marketing to clients. Her experience with Fortune 500 brands and entrepreneurial start-ups, enables her to contribute a keen understanding of the intricacies today’s businesses. Lori is also the host of the brilliant podcast, Integrate and Ignite, recently launched on iTunes and soaring up the charts. You may also remember Lori and the wisdom she shared during episodes 130 and 280 of Onward Nation. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all that Lori shared during our first interview…we highly encourage you to add episode 130 and 280 to your list of vital priorities.
What is your show structure? Integrate and Ignite explores the nature of what it means to be an entrepreneur. She interviews startup entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 CEOs about a number of topics including philosophy and leadership.
What does a personal brand and how can a business owner use their brand to create differentiation? A personal brand is your full-time commitment to the journey of positioning yourself as a leader and how it shapes the manner in which you serve others.
Why did you start your podcast? Lori is very inquisitive -- and she wants to learn from the best.
What impact has your podcast had on your business? The podcast has given Lori's business the credibility to work with people that she wouldn't have been able to otherwise.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful at podcasting Don't just use your script -- pivot -- think on your feet and ask relevant questions to what your guest is saying
How much time do you spend on a podcast? Lori spends about 10 hours a week into her podcast for about 2-3 interviews a week -- and her team spends an additional 15 per week.
How best to connect with Lori: * Twitter: @LoriJones * Email: lori@avocetcommunications.com
J.D. Graffam is a user experience expert and business leader. He founded his first business, Simple Focus, a digital experience company, in 2009. Today, his holding company, Graffam Companies, manages three digital agencies and six product businesses, all of which are bootstrapped and profitable. In his industry, he co-founded “CSS Off”, the world’s first philanthropic CSS contest, speaks nationally about creative leadership, user experience, and business, and is the author of the book “CSS for Print Designers.”
Secret – timesaving technique J.D. has three rules for processing information -- and it begins with putting personal communication first. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Take care of yourself -- J.D. works on his physical well-being and is present for his family.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience J.D. had his two biggest customers let him go within the same week -- and J.D. tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Know what cashflow really is."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Business is more common sense than you think."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Trust in the scale of our economy 2. Know that you can do it
How best to connect with J.D.: * Twitter: @jdgraffam * Email: jd@simplefocus.com * Website: simplefocus.com
Thomas Lindsay has 20 years of insurance and professional employer organization (or PEO) industry experience in C-level management, focusing on all aspects of workers compensation, risk management, loss control, employee benefits, HR, and payroll. He recently resigned as the COO of a large PEO and is currently the owner and CEO of Humanly HR, a PEO services sales organization, and founder and host of SmallBiz Brainiac, a podcast providing employer intelligence to small business owners. His goal is for his clients to thrive as an employer and become a leader in their industry.
Secret – timesaving technique Thomas turns off his phone, turns the notifications off on his computer, and closes the door -- eliminate distractions so that you can focus on what needs to get done. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Keep track of your important ideas -- Thomas writes down his thoughts and then implements the important ones into his CRM.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Thomas had to close his doors when he couldn't find insurance after the industry was impacted by 9/11 -- and Thomas tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Financial discipline -- at the end of the day you need be profitable."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Be tenacious and don't give up."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have been more focused on a specific service offering and do that better than anyone -- don't try to be all things to all people.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Focus on short term objectives and break them down into tasks.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Keep your business model as simple as possible 2. Always be profitable -- focus on today 3. Say no to distractions
How best to connect with Thomas: * Website: www.smallbizbrainiac.com * Email: tom@smallbizbrainiac.com * Twitter: @smallbizbrain * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/tomlindsaycpcu
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation…welcome to Episode 352…I’m Stephen Woessner. I am really looking forward to this solocast — because — we are going to tackle what I am beginning to consider as the most expensive money draining constraint inside any business.
And I suppose it is not fair or accurate to say inside any business — because this mistake actually happens inside us. It is something that is completely within our control — and to make matters worse — it is a constraint we put into place — and it keeps us from moving forward.
That constraint is the Imposter Syndrome, Onward Nation.
After interviewing nearly 400 of today’s top business owners around the world — I can tell you with 100 percent certainty — that every single person who has walked this Earth has felt the effect of the syndrome pushing them down and applying great weight to their shoulders.
No matter how big and successful someone may seem on the outside — the syndrome is there.
If you have been listening to Onward Nation a while now — you have heard our guests talk about the Imposter Syndrome — and — what the syndrome actually is. And that is fear.
Fear of uncertainty — or there is also the reverse of that — the fear of certainty.
The fear of not achieving significance.
The fear of failure or the fear of success.
There are many types of fear and it paralyzes us from making important decisions or taking action on new opportunities like you hiring the additional staff we need because remain small seems like the prudent thing to do.
Or…not buying the new piece of equipment because what if you don’t have enough orders to run it at full capacity?
Or…not launching that podcast you have always dreamt of because what if no one tunes in an listens and you can’t get guests to join you on the show?
Or…not knocking on the door of investors who would be excellent partners of yours but you are tired all getting all of the NOs!
So here’s the good news.
All of the pain and pressure fear causes us to feel on a daily basis is actually pretty simple to fix when have the right recipe for success. And the recipe I am going to share with you is something I learned from John Livesay, a good friend of mine and one of today’s leading experts in helping business owners go from invisible to investible.
John helps business owners and executives craft a compelling pitch that engages investors in a way that inspires them to join a startup’s team. John is also the host of the brilliant “The Successful Pitch podcast,” the author of the new book “The Successful Pitch — Conversations About Going from Invisible to Investible,” and Inc. Magazine calls John “The Pitch Whisperer.”
Impressive credentials.
But, John and his business partner — Judy Robinett — also help business owners get ready to make a successful pitch to investors so the business gets funded — and in many instances — get funded fast — because of Judy’s impressive connections within the investor community.
You may remember Judy as our rock solid awesome guest in Episode 329 of Onward Nation and John will be my guest on Episode 360, which will air on Monday, November 7th.
What I love about John’s approach to working with business owners in creating their successful pitch is how he smartly addresses what he calls “The Three Faces of Fear” right at the onset the working relationship.
Why is this important?
Because if John can help a business owner get past their fear — and these three fears specifically — then the probability of the business owner delivering a successful pitch and getting funded increases exponentially.
How does John know this?
Because it is exactly what he had to do inside his own business.
The tech startups John was helping with their pitch kept telling him, “This is great. We definitely need help but what we also need are warm introductions to investors now that we have this great pitch.”
But John kept saying to his clients, “I don’t do that. I don’t know any investors.”
But, there were enough business owners asking John to make the introductions that he realized he should follow his own advice… “If your customers and clients are telling you something that they want and are willing to pay for, then maybe you should figure out how to get it for them.”
So John’s Successful Pitch podcast was his way of building up his network of investors so he could introduce his clients, which it definitely did — but before he could begin to build the initial momentum — he had to overcome the Three Faces of Fear.
John shared with me that when he gets afraid to do something outside of his comfort zone, he has found success when he puts a “face” on it — otherwise, it just becomes too overwhelming and so fearful.
But if he can make the fear more tangible — then that’s the first step to overcoming the fear.
The three faces of fear are:
The Fear of Rejection.
The Fear of Failure
The Fear of the Unknown.
For John, he ran into the Fear of Rejection when he would say to himself, “Well, what if I invite someone to be on my podcast and they say, “No thanks,” or “Let’s hear several other episodes before I accept.”
But, he was able to push past this initial fear by drawing on his years of sales experience that told him — despite the fear, doubt, and pressure he was feeling inside — that key to victory was to never take rejections personally and to never reject yourself.
Onward Nation, don’t say “no” on behalf of your clients or prospects.
If they say no — so be it — but keep yourself in the game and keep on fighting.
The second fear John had to overcome was the Fear of Failure.
When you’re starting a podcast, a new business, or seeking capital from an investor, the Fear of Failure will knock on your door and say, “What if you invest all this time and all this money and nobody downloads and episode? Won’t that be humiliating? Won’t that be a waste of time and money?”
But thankfully for John, one of his early podcast guests was Jay Samit who wrote a book called, “Disrupt You.” In the book, Jay wrote, “Failure is just feedback. Keep going until you get a zombie idea so great it won’t die.”
Excellent advice from Jay, Onward Nation. And just a heads up — make a mental note — Jay Samit will be our guest on Episode 366, which will air on Tuesday, November 15th.
So John if you are listening — thank you for the wonderful introduction to Jay.
Then the third fear is the Fear of the Unknown.
The list of things John didn’t know about starting his podcast was a mile long, including what microphone to buy, how to edit the episodes, how to promote the show, all the way to what questions to ask during the interviews.
John had been a guest on many shows and media appearances, but never hosted one, which is a very different experience being on the host-side of the microphone. John found all of the technology-related items to be overwhelming and potentially could have been the thing that stopped him from launching the show.
But, then John found someone who could produce the show for him and all he had to focus on being a great host.
Boom. No more Fear of the Unknown.
John’s approach to conquering the three faces of fear is masterful and I encourage you to apply it. I also want to share with you and early detection system — something to warn you when you are about to get bombarded by fear — how can you prepare yourself for the thoughts to come next?
Excuses are an early indicator to fear. When we hear excuses playing or circling around in our mind — matched up with some sort of justification — it is likely because we are feeling the impact of fear. So I want to arm you with a list of 50 excuses that Napoleon Hill documented in his groundbreaking book, Think & Grow Rich.
If and when one of these thoughts comes into your mind, let it be your litmus test, that you are heading down the path of fear — it is time to confront it for what it is — dismiss it and move on. Or, if you hear one of your employees, colleagues, or friends say something similar to what is on the list…ask them…what are they afraid of…what is the worst that could happen?
Here is the complete list of 54 excuses…courtesy of Napoleon Hill:
- If I didn’t have a wife and family…
- If I had enough “pull”…
- If I had money…
- If I had a good education…
- If I could get a job…
- If I had good health…
- If I only had time…
- If times were better…
- If other people understood me…
- If conditions around me were only different…
- If I could live my life over again…
- If I did not fear what “they” would say…
- If I had been given a chance…
- If I now had a chance…
- If other people didn’t “have it in for me”…
- If nothing happens to stop me…
- If I were only younger…
- If I could only do what I want…
- If I had been born rich…
- If I could meet “the right people”…
- If I had the talent that some people have…
- If I dared assert myself…
- If I only had embraced past opportunities…
- If people didn’t get on my nerves…
- If I didn’t have to keep house and look after the children…
- If I could save some money…
- If the boss only appreciated me…
- If I only had somebody to help me…
- If my family understood me…
- If I lived in a big city…
- If I could just get started…
- If I had the personality of some people…
- If I were not so out of shape…
- If my talents were known…
- If I could just get a break…
- If I could only get out of debt…
- If I hadn’t failed…
- If I only knew how…
- If everybody didn’t oppose me…
- If I didn’t have so many worries…
- If I could marry the right person…
- If people weren’t so dumb…
- If my family were not so extravagant…
- If I were sure of myself…
- If luck were not against me…
- If I had not been born under the wrong star…
- If it were not true that “what is to be will be”…
- If I didn’t have to work so hard…
- If I hadn’t lost my money…
- If I lived in a different neighborhood…
- If I didn’t have a past…
- If only I had a business of my own…
- If other people would only listen to me…
And…here is the greatest excuse of them all, Onward Nation…
“If I had the courage to see myself as I really am, I would find out what is wrong with me and correct it, then I might have a chance to profit by my mistakes and learn something from the experience of others, for I know that there is something wrong with me, or I would now be where I would have been if I had spent time analyzing my weaknesses, and less time building excuses to cover them.”
Onward Nation, please realize that the fear you may be feeling right now is not real.
Fear is made up.
Fear doesn’t exist. Fear doesn’t have any power over you unless you let it.
The next time you are feeling pressure — the next time you are feeling fearful — would you please do me a favor?
Just pause — take a deep breath — tell yourself the emotions you are feeling right now are not real — that they are simply the Imposter Syndrome trying to keep you from your destiny — and then — remind yourself of the wise words from Marianne Williamson…
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’
“Actually, who are you not to be?
“You are a child of God. Playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
“We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
“As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” — Marianne Williamson, Author of A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles”
Okay, Onward Nation?
So with that…I want to say thank you again for taking the time to be here with me today.
It is an honor to have you here — thank you for tuning in — I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation…good or bad…I always want your feedback. You can hit me up on Twitter, find us on Facebook, me on LinkedIn, or you are always welcome to email me directly at stephen@onwardnation.com — and yes — that is my actual email address — no fancy filters or filing system — it will come directly to me.
We will be back tomorrow with an incredible encore interview with Thomas Lindsay — you will not want to miss Thomas’s philosophy why keeping things simple — no matter what business you’re in — tends to be the pathway to profitability, Onward Nation. The conversation with Thomas is rock solid awesome.
Until then, onward with gusto!
Steve Goldstein is a proven leader who has held executive positions with leading global brands, such as Chairman and CEO of American Express Bank, President of Sears Credit, and Citigroup, as well as several early-stage enterprises. Steve has been an investor, advisor, and interim CEO for more than 10 venture backed e-commerce companies. He currently works in the private equity industry as a Senior Advisor with the consulting and advisory firm Alvarez & Marsal, serves as Chairman of US Auto Sales, serves as a Senior Advisor to Milestone Partners and an Industrial Advisor to EQT Partners (a global private equity firm based in Stockholm).
He has also advised CEOs and private equity owners providing counsel on performance improvement with their companies in addition to acquisitions and merger integration opportunities. His talks are based on his Five Principles of Engagement and are interwoven with stories from global companies to mid-size companies to startups.
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? Steve gets a lot done before anyone else wakes up -- he works out, eats breakfast, reads a couple of newspapers, checks his email, and takes a shower -- all before 7:30. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? "Leadership is the courage to admit mistakes, the vision to welcome change, the enthusiasm to motivate others, and the others to stay out of step when everyone else is marching to the wrong tune." - Edward N. Cole
How do you define success? Success is when you have an organization of people who fully understand what is required that are empowered to do whatever is needed to deliver what your customers want, when you have the ability to change and reinvent yourself, and when you create a sustainable business that morphs and endures.
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" is are highly qualified individuals that deserve to be there -- get rid of the people that are holding you back.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? 1. Be a resource -- but don't give detailed instructions
How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Assess your business from an outside perspective 2. Meet with employees and get their perspective on what is working 3. Go through the same process with your customers
How best to connect with Steve: * Website: stevendgoldstein.com * Book: www.amazon.com/gp/product/1626343233 * Email: steve@sdgoldstein.com
Julie Broad is an award-winning entrepreneur, recognized real estate investor, and a popular speaker and workshop trainer. Known for helping new entrepreneurs who aren’t naturally born to sell, build a brand to get results, make an impact and ultimately make more money. Julie’s first book, “More than Cashflow”, debuted at #1 overall on Amazon Canada. Her newest release, “The New Brand You” is quickly climbing the sales charts after its official release in July.
Secret – timesaving technique Julie believes it's about managing energy -- not managing time -- plan out your day the day before. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Hope is not a strategy -- Julie doesn't use words like "hope," "might," or "wish."
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Julie put an incredible amount of time and money into a project that completely flopped -- and Julie tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Know your audience and know what hooks them in."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "You are the average of the 5-7 people you spend the most time with."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have tested everything before doing a full scale launch.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Surround yourself with great people 2. Plan for things to take longer and cost more than you expect 3. Take action
How best to connect with Julie: * Website: havemoreinfluence.com
George Athan is one of New York City’s top business growth experts. He has successfully consulted for companies in 75 different industries including niche markets. George specializes in helping business-to-business companies create predictable and scalable sales processes to achieve rapid business growth.
Secret – timesaving technique George breaks down 90-day goals into 30-day goals into weekly and daily tasks -- focus on the tasks that you need to do to accomplish your goals. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Strategy isn't enough -- George habitually gets himself "juiced up" every day.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience George tried to be all things to all people -- and George tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Intense focus -- specifically on sales and marketing."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Stop being a perfectionist -- you'll never be perfect."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have focused on our lead generation process.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Keep your why in front of you 2. Focus on what can be done -- not what can't
How best to connect with George: * Website: www.mind-storm.com * Twitter: @georgeathan
John Hall is the co-founder of Influence & Co, a company focused on helping brands and individuals extract and leverage their expertise to create, publish, and distribute content to gain influence, visibility, and credibility with their key audiences. John has grown Influence & Co. into one of the largest providers of high-quality expert and influencer content to the world's top publications, ranking No. 72 on Forbes Most Promising Companies in America list and named Empact's Best Marketing and Advertising Company of 2014 at the United Nations. Influence & Co. was recently mentioned in Inc. as the # 1 Company Dominating Content Marketing. John was recognized by Forbes as the #1 Keynote Speaker For Digital Trends. He also has a weekly column for Forbes and Inc. and has contributed to more than 50 publications.
Secret – timesaving technique John uses Antnotes -- keep track of what needs to be done and then accomplish it. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Think about who you talk to -- John challenges himself to be more thoughtful and helpful with his employees and others that he interacts with.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience John went to a conference in the early days of his business -- it did not go well -- and John tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "You always need to be learning."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Be the person everyone wants on their team."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have drunk our own Kool-Aid a lot more.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Invest in yourself 2. Control your story
How best to connect with John: * Email: john@influenceandco.com * Twitter: @johnhall * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/johnhall4 (remember to mention Onward Nation) * Blog: blog.influenceandco.com * Forbes column: www.forbes.com/sites/johnhall * Forbes column: www.inc.com/author/john-hall
Jennifer Briney is the host of Congressional Dish, a twice monthly podcast exposing the secrets drowned out by the partisan noise in the United States Congress. By interpreting legislation, summarizing Congressional hearings, and following the money, Jennifer analyzes the actions of Congress that are generally ignored by the corporate media, delivering the information from the perspective of a fed up taxpayer who bears no allegiance to any political party or ideology.
Secret – timesaving technique Jennifer only looks at email a couple times per week -- turn off your email notifications and only look at email during dedicated email time. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Listen to your mood -- Jennifer gives herself the flexibility to do her work when it's going to be done best.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Jennifer was working on her podcast full time when her husband lost his job -- and Jennifer tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "All business owners need to master prioritization."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "You're not going to please everyone -- focus on your most important customers."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have hired a professional audio engineer sooner.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Just start 2. You will figure it out
How best to connect with Jennifer: * Podcast: www.congressionaldish.com * Twitter: @JenBriney
J V Crum III helps established entrepreneurs create a Big Impact and Big Profits by growing businesses that make a difference in the world. J V is a speaker, coach, Huffington Post Columnist, and #1 best-selling author of “Conscious Millionaire: Grow Your Business by Making a Difference.” J V hosts the top-ranked “Conscious Millionaire Show & Podcast.” He is the Founder CEO of ConsciousMillionaire.com, a global coaching and entrepreneur training business.
Secret – timesaving technique JV uses his formula for creating wealth -- use conscious focused action. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Plan your day based on what you want to achieve -- JV has no more than three priorities in a day.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Get clear on what your destiny is."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Every second counts -- so do the things that count."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had great marketing, sales, and distribution systems.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Get out there and make sales 2. Survey as quickly as possible
How best to connect with JV: * Website: consciousmillionaire.com * Free book: consciousmillionaire.com/freebook * Podcast: consciousmillionaire.com/podcast
Lt. Col. Rob Waldman “Waldo” -- was his call sign -- he’s the author of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller “Never Fly Solo.” A graduate of the Air Force Academy, Waldo is a decorated combat fighter pilot and an expert in helping leaders and organizations accelerate performance in changing environments. Waldo overcame massive claustrophobia and a fear of heights to become a fighter pilot and believes that the key to building a culture of trust lies with your wingmen the men and women in your life who help you to overcome obstacles, adapt to change, and achieve success. In business and life, you should never fly solo! Waldo is also the founder and President of The Wingman Foundation, a 501(c)(3) whose mission is to build funds and awareness for soldiers, veterans, and their families in need. Waldo is an inductee into the professional Speakers Hall of Fame and his clients include Marriott, Hewlett-Packard, UPS, and Verizon. He’s been featured on Fox & Friends, CNN, MSNBC, Inc. Magazine and The Harvard Business Review.
How do you define success? Success is contentment and peace with the thought of putting in the work.
What strategy do you use to combat fear? Waldo puts in the work -- and Waldo tells the reasons why here.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Get a group of like-minded people together 2. Set a time to hang out formally and informally 3. Tap into what defines your success 4. Don't be afraid to ask for help 5. Find ways to serve
How best to connect with Waldo: * Website: yourwingman.com * Email: info@yourwingman.com
Dr. John Johnson is president and CEO of Edgeworth Economics, a professional economist, expert witness, internationally renowned speaker, and author of EVERYDATA: The Misinformation Hidden in the Little Data You Consume Everyday. Dr. Johnson has helped some of the world’s largest companies understand how to interpret data and is known internationally for his ability to explain highly sophisticated concepts in a simple, straightforward manner, helping his audiences become more confident and discerning consumers of data and make better decisions in their professional and personal lives.
Secret – timesaving technique John starts his day by working out -- find your time to step away and think. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Use lists to keep track of what you need to do -- John uses pen and paper to keep his lists.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience John and his team had to pay an employee's salary when she was diagnosed with cancer -- and John tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Impatience and diplomacy."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "I learned many skills like how to lead a group from my dad."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had brought IT systems in-house sooner than I did.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Focus -- and use the EOS (entrepreneurial operating system) discussed earlier in this episode.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would think harder and realize that success comes from preparation and hard work.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Make sure you set very clear goals for yourself and your business 2. Take chances 3. Go for it with incredible passion and drive and refuse to take no for an answer
How best to connect with John: * Website: www.johnhjohnsonphd.com
Mark Winters is the co-author of the brilliant book, Rocket Fuel — the one essential combination that will get you more of what you want from your business. He has been an entrepreneur since the age of 28, after catching the bug during business school at the University of Chicago. He's started / bought / sold / or shut down 10 different companies. A recent venture, as a Founder and CEO, had a successful exit yielding a 100x cash return in less than three years. Mark’s passion is helping entrepreneurs get unstuck so they can pursue their freedom. Mark’s talent for introducing just the right combination of perspective and process sparks teams to start moving, move faster, or begin moving in the proper direction. Mark spends most of his time directly engaged with entrepreneurial leadership teams as a Certified EOS Implementer helping them implement EOS in their own companies. He's delivered over 300 full-day EOS workshops with companies from around the United States.
Secret – timesaving technique Mark uses time blocking -- divide your time into free days (no business at all), focus days (primary business activity), and buffer days (preparing/practice). ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Make it a point to take care of your body -- Mark does something physical every day.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Mark got a cease and desist letter from a competitor -- and Mark tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Clarity -- clarity about now -- clarity about the predicted future -- and clarity of vision."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "You need to get an assistant."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have put in better financial systems -- it's easy to fly by for a while -- and it's suddenly too late.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Focus -- and use the EOS (entrepreneurial operating system) discussed in this episode.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would be a leader and a manager and would also be accountable.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Understand your unique ability -- and recognize what you're not great at 2. Build a unique ability team 3. Have a combination of visionary and integrator 4. Be crystal clear on what you're trying to achieve 5. Implement your EOS
How best to connect with Mark: * Website: energyproltd.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/markcwinters * Twitter: @MarkCWinters
Jeff Kleid is the author of “Networking with the Cards You Are Dealt”, and also a speaker, business strategist and consultant. His expertise in creating a best in class sales and customer service teams started back in his days working as a tipped valet for Disneyland hotel, where he could learn from people like Michael Eisner, former CEO of The Walt Disney Company. Jeff’s genuine approach to helping others has afforded him the opportunity to grow, build, and ultimately sell his shares in the same company where he started out as a commissioned salesperson.
Secret – timesaving technique Jeff looks at his next day at the end of each night -- review your schedule before heading to bed. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Focus on the day at hand -- Jeff is persistent and focused.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Jeff went all in growing a business -- all of their potential clients pulled out last minute -- and Jeff tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "You have to be a great listener."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Some people manage as managers and some people manage as leaders."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Build relationships with people at the same level as you -- and don't look past those people 2. Don't just call people when you need them -- stay engaged with them
How best to connect with Jeff: * Website: www.cardsyouaredealt.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/jeffkleid * Instagram: @jdkleid
Linda McMahon is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Women’s Leadership LIVE. Her company uses live events and ongoing mentorships to educate and inspire women to launch and expand their own businesses, advance their careers toward executive roles, and pursue opportunities for leadership in public service. Linda is also a co-founder and former chief executive officer of WWE — on the New York Stock Exchange as WWE. She stepped down as CEO in 2009 to run for the U.S. Senate and was the Republican nominee to represent the people of Connecticut in 2010 and 2012. As CEO, Linda helped grow WWE from a modest, 13-person operation to a publicly traded global enterprise with more than 800 employees in offices worldwide. Linda has been widely recognized as one of the country’s top female executives and for her numerous philanthropic contributions including the company's “Get R.E.A.L.” educational and literacy programs and The Make-A-Wish Foundation recognized WWE as a top wish granter.
Secret – timesaving technique Linda keeps track of what she needs to get done with lists -- but you have to be nimble enough to react when an opportunity knocks on your door. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Start your day in a way that gets you going -- Linda works in the morning with a personal trainer 4-5 times a week.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Linda had to declare bankruptcy -- and Linda tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "You must not be arrogant and not be willing to shore up your weaknesses."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Come to work every day as if it's your first day on the job."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would retarget marketing when the marketplace is shifting.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. You have to be passionate about your business 2. You need a good business model 3. Always build a cash reserve
How best to connect with Linda: * Website: womensleadershiplive.com * Website: www.lindamcmahon.us
In 1985, Mitch co-founded Timeslips Corp, which grew to become the largest time tracking software company in the world. In 1994, Timeslips was sold to Sage. While at Sage, Mitch went on to run all of Sage U.S. as Chief Operating Officer, a division with over 300 people. Later, Mitch joined Chet Holmes as President of Chet Holmes, International. Soon thereafter Mitch and Chet, along with Tony Robbins, created Business Breakthroughs International, a company serving thousands of businesses a year with coaching, consulting, and training services. Mitch was the President and CEO for four years. After the untimely death of Chet, Mitch left Business Breakthroughs to help CEOs build their own “Invisible Organization” using the principles outlined in this powerful book.
Secret – timesaving technique Mitch starts every day by figuring out who he can help today -- and ends every day by figuring out what he wants to do tomorrow. ONWARD!
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Nobody fails until they voluntarily quit."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Figure out what you did in the past that had the biggest impact 2. Sell that to others
How best to connect with Mitch: * Website: mitchrusso.com
Daven Michaels is the CEO of 1-2-3 Employee and has made a career of living the American Dream. Starting his entrepreneurial career at age 15, Daven never looked back. Daven has turned multiple passions into prosperous businesses and careers. He has been a bestselling music and television producer, author, speaker and successful entrepreneur. Daven has helped thousands of small business owners transform their businesses by showing them how to play ball with the big corporations and beat them at their own game. Daven’s new book “Outsource Smart” has propelled him to the top of the bestseller lists. New York Times bestseller, Los Angeles Times bestseller & Amazon #1 bestseller, Daven has become an advocate for the small business owner and has appeared on numerous radio and TV shows globally.
Secret – timesaving technique Daven uses Google Voice -- use this platform to send text messages with greater efficiency than with a phone. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success If you have to stop and switch gears, it kills your productivity -- Daven blocks out certain hours where no one can reach him.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Daven brought in a hot shot sales VIP -- it was a disaster -- and Daven tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Get out of your own way."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor Write down what you learn from your mentors.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Find a mentor 2. Before you build a product or service -- run a test 3. Just go for it and ignore the voice in your head
How best to connect with Daven: * Website: davenmichaels.com * Website: 123employee.com
David Burkus is passionate about leadership, innovation, and strategy. He has made it his purpose to facilitate the transfer of good ideas. Toward that end, David is focused on filling the gap between what science knows -- and -- what we most often do. He is the author of “The Myths of Creativity: The Truth About How Innovative Companies Generate Great Ideas” and he writes regularly for Harvard Business Review and INC. Magazine -- and -- is the host of the brilliant podcast, Radio Free Leader, where he shares insights on leadership, innovation, and strategy. When David is not speaking, writing, or podcasting, he’s in the classroom serving as an associate professor of management at Oral Roberts University.
Secret – timesaving technique David believes there isn't time management -- but there are priorities -- say no to the things you don't want to do. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Don't put everything on one device -- David keeps his work things on his phone and his "fun" things on his iPad -- and he only uses the one he's supposed to be using at the proper time.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience David spent 12 hours pretending he was at a level he hadn't reached yet -- and David tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Humble yourself and realize that it's up to you to figure out what customers want."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Give yourself a longer runway."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had a better system for connecting with listeners and readers.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Figure out what to copy
How best to connect with David: * Website: davidburkus.com
Terry Brock is someone who solves problems. He works with organizations to build relationships with customers, suppliers, employees and other stakeholders. His Relationship Marketing emphasis shows how to leverage the power of technologies like video, social media and other tools, to achieve bottom-line results. When Skype needed a new Chief Enterprise Blogger to help with their social media and blogging, they hired Terry. When AT&T needed a new Editor-in-Chief for their award-winning and biggest blog, they hired Terry. He worked with a team of over 100 geniuses to help generate over $2 Billion in sales during his tenure. He’s the co-author of the bestselling book, “Klout Matters”, and a syndicated columnist.
Secret – timesaving technique Terry uses Google Spreadsheets to track the tasks that he needs to complete -- be willing to do what others won't. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Study, exercise, and meditate -- Terry does daily SEM.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Terry got a D in accounting when he went back for his MBA -- and Terry tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Learn how to learn fast."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Find out what everyone else is doing and do something different."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have kept track of people more -- use a CRM.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Listen to others 2. Get out there and produce
How best to connect with Terry: * Website: terrybrock.com
Dr. Steve Fawkes is an internationally recognized expert on energy efficiency with over 30 years experience including delivering large energy management programs, co-founding two energy service companies, implementing innovative energy services deals, and advising governments. His roles include: Senior Adviser to the Investor Confidence Project, Independent member of the Investment Committee of the London Energy Efficiency Fund, Trustee of the National Energy Foundation and advising companies, cities, and investors on energy efficiency programs. He has published extensively on energy efficiency including more than 250 papers and articles, three books and a regular blog: www.onlyelevenpercent.com and makes presentations globally.
Secret – timesaving technique Steve picks at most three things to get done each day -- a lesson he learned from Monty Python's John Cleese. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success The first step is the hardest -- Steve believes in just getting on with it.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Steve saw his market evaporate -- and Steve tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Use your listening skills to determine a course of action."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Don't react -- stop and think before you respond."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had developed systems for all products.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Work on the business -- not in the business.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would go out of their way to learn about the business.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Think about what the purpose of the business is 2. Systems -- work on the business -- not in the business 3. Put your fears aside and get on with it
How best to connect with Steve: * Website: energyproltd.com * Website: www.onlyelevenpercent.com * Twitter: @drstevefawkes
Steve Fry is the co-founder of three companies over the past 19 years under the umbrella of Spindustry...Spindustry Digital, a digital marketing agency (in 2013 named the top place to work in Iowa by the Des Moines Register... Spindustry Staffing, a professional services staffing company...and Spindustry Training, an IT training center. The Spindustry team achieved both Inc. 500 and Inc. 5000 recognition several times for these businesses and a variety of other "Bests" in their industry.
Why did you write your book? Steve wanted to take 20+ years of experience and put it on the table.
What is the most critical skill for getting a book done? 1. Find your area of expertise 2. Figure out how to organize your thoughts into something that's meaningful 3. Commit to getting it done
How do you define success? Success is having the opportunity to work on things you love to do.
What strategy do you use to combat fear? Steve believes in finding people who love to do what you fear -- and Steve tells the reasons why here.
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" is someone who -- first and foremost -- has a great attitude.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? 1. Be there and be supportive 2. Set a good example -- don't ask people to do things you wouldn't be willing to do yourself 3. Offer constructive ideas in a respectful way
How can we build an audience? 1. Have breakfast clubs -- get together with people of common interests 2. Invite business leaders into your business and buy them lunch
How do you attract good employees? 1. Have a strong job description 2. Have the mindset that recruiting has to be done all the time 3. Use Facebook targeting 4. Target your targets spouses 5. Use video to showcase jobs 6. Create an online diary with employee promotion of jobs 7. Drive traffic to the position through PPC and other forms of ads
How best to connect with Steve: * Email: sfry@spindustry.com
Billee Howard is the Founder & CEO of Brandthropologie, an artist collective that helps place brands at the epicenter of culture and commerce. Billee is also the author of “We-Commerce” a book designed to help companies and leaders embrace the principles of the collaborative economy in ways that improve their bottom line.
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? Billee begins her day by looking at what's going on in the world -- spot trends and apply them into your business. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? "If you're not the lead dog, the view never changes."
How do you define success? Success is really knowing that you've pushed yourself to be the best you can be at any moment.
What strategy do you use to combat fear? Billee looks at others and says "if they can do it -- I can do it" -- and Billee tells the reasons why here.
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" is someone who can constantly evolve and find new and exciting ways to develop their own skills.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? 1. Don't try to make your mentees a carbon of you 2. Allow yourself to be mentored by people you wouldn't think of as mentors
How can we build an audience? 1. Build a collaborative culture inside your organization 2. Understand how you are going to meet the needs of consumers 3. Put communications at the beginning of a supply chain of invention instead of at the end
How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Look at how you can change up your routine and shed what's holding you back 2. Take yourself out of your comfort zone and look at how to expand your offering 3. Embrace failure as a tool to drive yourself towards new success
How best to connect with Billee: * Website: www.brandthropoloie.com * Email: billee@brandthropologie.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/billeehoward * Twitter: @Mashuptweet
Paul Maskill invested in his first TGA franchise in 2011, combining his business experience with passion for sports. TGA makes golf and tennis more accessible to students ages 3 to 15 through on-campus after school programs, summer camps, parent / child events and more. Over the last 4.5 years, Paul has grown his business to four franchises, impacting thousands of kids each year. At the end of 2015, Paul sold his four franchises for over 6x his initial investment and 3x his net profit. Paul then accepted a position with the franchisor to lead business development and helps current franchise owners to help build their businesses through people, processes, and systems so the business thrives without relying on the owner.
Secret – timesaving technique Paul time blocks his morning -- have a plan and stay organized. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Stay organized -- Paul believes in documenting everything you can in your business.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Paul reached a breaking point where he couldn't do it all anymore -- and Paul tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Organization and hard work."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Show up every day and work hard."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have been proactive with my schedule and got my must-do things done by noon.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Do the little things and big things will happen.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would take initiative.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Start with the end in mind and stay consistent 2. Just get started and make mistakes 3. Trust your staff until they give you a reason not to
How best to connect with Paul: * Twitter: @PaulMaskill * Email: pmaskill@playtga.com * Link for Onward Nation listeners: franchisetga.com/onward
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation…I’m Stephen Woessner. And I am really really excited for today’s solocast because — it is going to be rock solid awesome!
One of the reasons that I am so excited is because I am returning to full teaching mode this morning with a powerful lesson about building your platform — more importantly — some practical and tactical steps about building a nation of what Kevin Kelly describes as “True Fans” who will help you mobilize and move your business onward to that next level.
True fans of you — true fans of your message — true fans of your business.
Fans who will support you — because — of the sacred bond you have built with them.
A bond that was built upon — and continues to be built upon — the foundation of the value you created, you delivered, and the value you shared with them on a consistent basis.
Whether you do that every day — every week — no matter what the schedule — no matter what the rhythm — the fact that you are consistent is what is important.
This is going to be such an awesome solocast — and I am delighted you are here with me — your time and attention mean so very much to me.
But before we dive deep into today’s lesson…I have a very important favor to ask. In fact, this is the first time I have ever asked this favor within one of my solocasts.
So, if you could do this — please know — it would mean a lot to me.
I’d be grateful — and would really appreciate it — if you would go to iTunes and give Onward Nation a rating and then write a review for our podcast. I respect your time so I wanted to make this as efficient as possible to find us in iTunes…so my team created a special link to save you time.
So if you go to www.onwardnation.com/itc you will go directly to our channel within iTunes.
Okay, why am I asking for this favor?
Last week, I was excited to share with you how Onward Nation is now listened to in 102 countries — and — that we had surpassed the milestone of 50,000 downloads. WOW — still a bit unbelievable — not going to lie — need to pinch myself to realize that yes, this is indeed our reality.
And I credited our growth to our incredible guests and all of the wonderful feedback we have received from you, Onward Nation — all of your comments on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, — and — all of your emails. Thank you!
But in celebrating these amazing milestones — I made a mistake!
I forgot to mention a critical type of feedback that helps us reach more and more people with each one we receive…and that’s…all of the ratings and reviews we receive inside iTunes.
With each rating and review we receive, Onward Nation…you help us increase our rankings within iTunes — and — higher rankings means more people will see us in their search results — and potentially they will be seeing us for the very first time.
Each and every review helps more and more people in more countries to hear the wisdom and expertise shared by our guests each day.
So, if you haven’t already given us a star rating and written a review — it would really mean a lot to me if you did.
It’s simple to do. It doesn’t take much time.
Again, just go to www.onwardnation.com/itc — or — if you are listening on your phone — you can give us a rating and write a review from within your podcast app on your phone.
We’ve occasionally received feedback that leaving ratings can be a confusing process, so here are the steps in detail:
First, after going to the www.onwardnation.com/itc link, please click the blue button that “View in iTunes.”
Next, click on the link titled “Ratings and Reviews.”
Next, click on “Write a Review.”
If you are not signed into iTunes, you will be asked to sign in. If you are already signed into iTunes, it is likely that you will skip this step.
Finally, you will be able to leave a review. Don’t forget the star rating!
So thank you, Onward Nation — and please know — I greatly appreciate all of your help, support, encouragement, and feedback — you make me and my team better every day — and — it is an honor to be here with you again this morning.
With that said…let’s get dialed in and ready for this week’s lesson.
You ready? Because I’m so totally ready — I’m going to bring the thunder this morning, Onward Nation…YES!
I spent quite a bit of time working through and preparing what I wanted to share with you today. Such an important lesson. How one of the vital priorities in your business should be to build a nation of true fans — to develop a sense of community, collaboration, and profitability around the purpose of your business.
Let’s begin by breaking the phrase “Build a nation of true fans” into its three core components.
First — let’s tackle the word, “Build.” How would you “build” a nation of true fans. Whether that’s a…
- Podcast
- Blog
- YouTube channel
- Instagram stories
The platform from a tech perspective is irrelevant — any or all of the above — will serve your purpose of “building” a nation of true fans. The tech behind it all is relatively easy. Is there a learning curve? Sure.
Will you feel at times like you are trying to fly the space shuttle with so many knobs and buttons to push? Sure. How does Facebook Live work? What time of day should I create a story on Instagram? What kind of camera and mic are best if I want to be a serious YouTuber?
All of these are tech questions — and within an afternoon with your best friend Google — you can solve those problems and find the answers as long as you don’t let the fear of the unknown become paralyzing to you.
So let’s shift our focus away from the tech — and instead — focus on the value you will be providing through those channels. What’s your story — how will you serve your audience — how will you make what you are doing so valuable to their business or life, that they actually consider you to be indispensable. That you become so consistent in the help, advice, recommendations, and over value that you are providing on a consistent basis — that you BUILD deposits in their emotional bank account. They begin to trust you — they begin to like you — and then because of them liking you and trusting you…they move even closer to you by truly KNOWING you.
So, your first step in building your nation of true fans has nothing to do with the actual content delivery platform and has everything to do with the value of what you will be delivering — because your nation of true fans is built on VALUE. And if you get that right — the actual platform — or your conduit through which you share your value — will fall into place — and it will feel less stressful because the value you were called — put on this Earth to deliver — will then be in the driver’s seat. You, Onward Nation — will become unstoppable.
Now let’s shift our attention toward the word “Nation” and break that down. And I want to address to make sure we address this because we live in a world where bigger lists, bigger subscribers, massive downloads, huge customer lists, etc. etc. etc. is what attracts headlines and massive attention.
I’m here to share with you the reality…you don’t need an email list of 100,000 people…you don’t need to have a podcast that gets a million downloads a month…you don’t need to have a customer list with 20,000 prospects on it.
Nope. You don’t.
That’s not your Nation.
What you need — realistically — depending on the size of your business is somewhere between 100 to 1,000 high-qualified prospects.
That’s it…100 to 1,000 of the very best prospects who precisely match your client avatar — in fact — your knowledge with some of these people is so deep that you can boldly claim them as your Dream 50 prospects.
If you need a refresher on why your Dream 50 matters — please go back to Episode 308 of Onward Nation — and I map it all out — how to figure out who your Dream 50 is — and — how to romance your Dream 50 so they understand how important they are to you. Again, that was in Episode 308.
To take this point deeper — I want to share a very tangible example of a company that grew from zero to become a multi-billion a year company — yes — billion — with a capital B.
My mentor, Darren Hardy, former publisher of SUCCESS Magazine…decided to interview my friend Cody Foster, co-founder of Advisors Excel and to share the interview on the March 2014 edition of the SUCCESS CD that rides along with the magazine.
You may remember Cody Foster, and the wisdom he shared, as my guest on Episode 81 of Onward Nation.
During the interview with Darren, Cody shared several personal stories of very humble beginnings — and how those stories — helped shaped the kind of company Advisors Excel has become.
A company packed full — wall to wall — of incredible people — a team whose sole focus is to deliver more and more value every day to the financial advisors around the country they are there to serve. And Advisors Excel team does it masterfully well. They have BUILT their platform — a platform that is indeed built on a solid foundation of value.
But…did they build this platform by trying to serve the 60,000 financial advisors located in the state of Florida alone? No. How about all of the financial advisors up and down the west coast?
Nope.
Did they focus on spending large amounts of advertising dollars trying to reach everyone they could with their message of value, value, value?
Nope. Strike three.
Instead…what they did focus on was carefully, meticulously selecting, 1,000 of the very best financial advisors who they wanted to earn the opportunity to serve. Yes, Onward Nation, Cody shared with Darren that they built a list of 1,000 financial advisors — just 1,000 — and then they went to work to deliver more value than another other insurance marketing organization in the industry to the 1,000 advisors they wanted to work with.
The 1,000 advisors became their Nation…and advisors outside of the Nation didn’t exist. Advisors Excel was solely focused on being the best they could be for this small group of prospects.
The result outcome? Well, in year six of the business…they reached over $4 billion in revenue. $4 billion, Onward Nation.
When they are the right prospects — you don’t need 10,000…you actually only need a small number to make your business amazingly successful and profitable. 1,000 people — who you can love on — who you can support — who you can add value to — who then in turn are excited to do for you some of what you already shared with them.
So now, let’s take this number — 1,000 — deeper — because it is a magical number that we all ought to really focus on in our businesses.
Kevin Kelly was the first person — at least I think he was the first person — who popularized the theory — the notion — the strategy that if a business created a base of customers who were more like fans — 1,000 True Fans in fact — then that business could become sustainable and profitable by simply focusing on the needs of its true fans.
And here is a link to Kevin Kelly’s blog post as well as the long tail curve he created to illustrate the 1,000 true fans strategy.
Kelly describes — or defines — “True Fans” as customers who will help you mobilize and move your business onward to that next level. They are true fans of you — true fans of your message — true fans of your business.
Fans who will support you — because — of the sacred bond you have built with them.
A bond that was built upon — and continues to be built upon — the foundation of the value you create, you deliver, and the value you share with them on a consistent basis.
As I mentioned at the onset of this solocast.
Whether you do that every day — every week — no matter what the schedule — no matter what the rhythm — the fact that you are consistent is what is important.
According to Kevin, “A True Fan” is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to visit your location.
They will buy the super deluxe version of your product even though they already own the standard version, too.
They have a Google Alert set for your name.
They have bookmarked your website.
They come to your product announcements — or — ribbon cutting ceremonies for a new office location.
They come to your book signings and ask for you to sign their copy.
They cannot wait for your next webinar — your next podcast episode — your next event — your next release of whatever.
And the best way to increase sales for your company is to connect with your True Fans directly…so you need to have a platform built on value…see? We keep coming back to that foundational truth.
Onward Nation, 1,000 true fans is a very reasonable number. As Kevin explains in his brilliant blog post… “if you added one fan a day, it would take only three years. True Fanship is doable. Pleasing a True Fan is pleasurable, and invigorating.”
The key challenge is that you have to maintain direct contact with your 1,000 True Fans. And you do that through building your platform — delivering value — and making sure you are using the right conduit so it reaches your 1,000 true fans on a consistent basis.
Again…it doesn’t matter if you use a podcast, blog, robust LNKD profile and LNKD publishing, long form posts on Medium, Instagram stories, Facebook Live, and the list goes on.
What’s important to identify is not the platform you are most comfortable — but — the platform your fans use the most — what is the best conduit to them?
For me — it’s this podcast, my LinkedIn account, email campaigns, and webinars.
But there is also another piece to True Fans…and that are the concentric circles of “Lesser Fans.”
These folks will not purchase everything you produce, and may not seek out direct contact, but they will buy much of what you produce.
The processes you develop to feed your True Fans will also nurture Lesser Fans. As you build your nation of True Fans, you will also add many more Lesser Fans.
And as you are building…don’t avoid…don’t miss the opportunity to go deep…to develop intimacy with your audience…with your true fans.
Onward Nation…that is one of the reasons I ask for feedback in every solocast. My team and I legitimately want to get better — but — I also want to hear from you — to get to know you — to learn from you — and to deliver even more value so Onward Nation becomes — and hopefully remains — your most favorite podcast.
Okay…with that said…and before we go…I want to make one final connection between today’s lesson and the favor that I asked you to do for me at the onset of our discussion today.
I know that I have absolutely no permission to make an ask of your time — unless — I have consistently delivered value.
And — even if I have consistently delivered value — I must be considerate in the favors I ask for — no one wants to spend time with the takers — the people who just ask, ask, ask, and never ever give.
So, Onward Nation — I am using today’s solocast as a way to ask for a legitimate favor — and — to give you a recipe for how you can do the same to build you own nation of true fans — and when you do — your nation — just like Onward Nation has become this amazing, awesome, wonderful, beautiful incredible platform of people who are so generous with your feedback and help guide your business in the exact direction it needs to go in order to deliver even more value to what it is they need.
So build your own platform for your business — or if you already have one — think about Kevin Kelly’s lesson — and ask yourself how you can add even more and more value to your the people already in your community — and build your nation of true fans.
Because when you do — your business, your team, your life will move onward to a completely new level.
So with that…I want to say thank you again for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here — thank you for tuning in — I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation…good or bad…I always want your feedback.
We will be back tomorrow with an incredible encore interview with Paul Maskill — you will not want to miss Paul’s philosophy when he encourages you to, “Go ahead — make mistakes on purpose,” Onward Nation. The conversation with Paul is packed full of discussions regarding systems — and more specifically — how he used systems to sell his company for 6 times what he bought it for and 4 times the profit. This systems discussion will help you create financial leverage within your business.
Until then, onward with gusto!
Gina Pellegrini is the owner of Pellegrini Team Consulting -- a Minneapolis-based firm specializing in leadership training, staff development, and practice management. Gina helps business teams streamline their systems, increase productivity, strengthen accountability, and improve communication. With the help of Gina and her team, business owners become better leaders, and employees get more involved in their company’s vision, decision-making, and growth.
Secret – timesaving technique Gina created an "ideal week" with "buffer days" and "focus days" -- schedule your week out with the right amount of each. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Delegation -- Gina delegates work to her team so that she can focus on what she needs to focus on.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Gina's bookkeeper recommended closing the doors -- and Gina tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Hire the right team members and let them do what they were hired to do."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Be direct -- and understand through someone else's eyes."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have grown my practice quicker if I had put time management systems in sooner.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Accountability -- if there's no accountability -- it slides by.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would have the right attitude -- you can teach people anything -- if they have the right attitude.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Hire someone as soon as possible 2. Stay engaged with your employees 3. Have them build their "ideal week"
How best to connect with Gina: * Website: www.pellegriniteam.net * Phone: (952)829-5300
Dan Lok is the world’s most cherished entrepreneur, business mentor, and internet marketing authority, with an inspirational story that resonates around the globe. “The Dan Lok” brand is a global movement with one mission: To empower 1,000,000 entrepreneurs to become successful in life and in business. With nearly 1,500 members, Dan operates one of the largest entrepreneurial community in Canada – Vancouver Entrepreneurs Group. Dan’s recently launched his YouTube Channel already has nearly 300,000 views, expanding his reach to every corner of the globe.
Secret – timesaving technique Dan designed his environment to fit his lifestyle -- your environment is more powerful than your willpower. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Attitude or gratitude -- Dan listens to specific audios every morning and focuses on what he's grateful for every morning.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Without the right mindset -- the best skill set in the world won't help you."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "You have to learn to be comfortable with success."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Get a mentor -- join a mastermind group -- seek help from others 2. Look at yourself in the mirror and reflect
How best to connect with Dan: * Website: www.danlok.com * YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/vanentrepreneurgroup
Judy Robinett is a business thought leader who has been profiled in The Street, Vogue, CBS, NBC, Forbes, The Washington Post and Bloomberg Businessweek as a sterling example of the new breed of super-connectors who use their experience and networks to accelerate growth and enhance profitability. She gives speeches worldwide on business strategy and high-end strategic networking to specific outcomes. Judy has served as the CEO of both public and private companies and in management positions at Fortune 500 companies. She has been on the advisory boards of several prominent venture capital firms and is the author of “How to Be a Power Connector: The 5-50-150 Rule”, which ranked #1 of The Top Ten Business Books of 2014 by Inc.com.
Secret – timesaving technique Judy utilizes the PADD strategy when she's on a phone call -- write down the purpose, action, details, and deadline to keep you focused during important conversations. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Have affirmations to help you when times are tough -- Judy tells herself she is perfect for what she needs to do.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Judy was broke and had to pay off debt -- and Judy tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "It's absolutely critical to have metrics to know your numbers inside and out."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "They can break you -- but they can't kill you."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have been smarter on sales and figured out my ideal customer.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Get an advisory board 2. Don't listen to the naysayers
How best to connect with Judy: * Twitter: www.linkedin.com/in/judyrobinett * LinkedIn: @judyrobinett * Email: judy@judyrobinett.com
Resources: * Founders Dilemma from HBR. This says you can be rich or you can be king. It takes a team. Research shows 67% of teams implode with partner conflicts * Connections between financials. This is from a professor out of his excellent book, and generously he shared this and allowed Judy to share it with Onward Nation. * Seven Investors to Avoid. Some angels are devils and some venture capitalists are vultures. Do as much due diligence on them as they do on you. * How to Tell if Your CEO is Clueless. This speaks to how crucial it is to mitigate risk as viewed by the investor not how wonderful your Kool-Aid is.
Peter Strohkorb is an international speaker, sought after consultant and the CEO at Peter Strohkorb Consulting International. He has 20 years of hands-on Sales & Marketing experience in executive sales and marketing positions for some of the largest corporations on the planet, such as SONY, 3M, and Canon. Peter is the creator of the OneTEAM Method, author of a book of the same name, and a guest lecturer in the Executive MBA program of the Sydney Business School.
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? Peter reads his email first, figures out what he needs to get done, and blocks out his calendar based on what he has to do. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? "If you don't believe in yourself -- why should others."
How do you define success? Success is being able to do what you want to do when you want to do it -- and not having to ask for permission.
What strategy do you use to combat fear? Peter forces himself to go out of his comfort zone -- and Peter tells the reasons why here.
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" is someone who can interact with a customer to a degree where they feel they are equals.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? 1. Just listen -- and try to come up with an external solution
How can we build an audience? 1. Decide what platforms you want to be on 2. Be visible when customers come looking 3. Niche yourself down
How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Allow other people to step in and make decisions without you 2. Make your business more nimble
How best to connect with Peter: * Website: www.peterstrohkorbconsulting.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/peterstrohkorbsalesmarketing
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation…I’m Stephen Woessner. And before we dive into the business building lessons within today’s solocast…I want to take a few moments to thank you.
“Thank you” to you, Onward Nation. Here’s why…
Recently, we reached two very significant milestones. Neither of which would have been possible without all of the help, support, love, and encouragement we receive from you, Onward Nation — every day.
Your feedback is uplifting…your feedback is inspiring…through all of your Facebook comments, Tweets, comments on LinkedIn, and the emails you are so kind enough to send to us — you let us know we are headed in the right direction — or — if we need to make a course correction or two.
I want you to know how much all of this means to me and my team.
We love it — because — we want to get better — and getting feedback — is our best tool for learning what we need to learn in order to deliver even more value in each episode.
And you are helping us do that — so thank you!
And we have learned along the way…so much so…that the world is taking notice. I am proud to say that Onward Nation is now listened to in 102 countries. 102 countries! My word — there are some days — that I need to pinch myself that this has become our reality — that we have this kind of opportunity — to be able to share, talk with, and learn from you, Onward Nation — 102 countries strong — each day. What an incredible gift.
Every time you write a review…every time you share a Facebook post, Retweet one of our Tweets, or write a comment on LinkedIn…you are helping us share the powerful lessons from our incredible guests.
I want you to know how much I appreciate it.
I want you to know sincerely grateful I am for all of your support.
To be able to reach 102 countries is a major accomplishment — and it is because of you — that we have been able to do that.
And the second milestone? Well, we just blew past 50,000 downloads!
Yes, 50,767 downloads and climbing.
Not only have listeners in 102 countries around the world subscribed to Onward Nation — but — we have been able to share the great lessons of our guests with an ever-growing audience within those countries.
So thank you, Onward Nation. And please trust me when I say — we are just getting started. Even though this is Episode 327 of Onward Nation…we are truly…just…getting…started.
Okay, now let’s shift our attention to several key business building lessons that I believe will help you move onward to that next level.
Jodi Flynn, our two time guest on Onward Nation in Episodes 125 and 263…taught me much during our two interviews. In fact, one of the most powerful lessons we covered was during our encore interview was the Imposter Syndrome — and — more importantly — how to defeat it every day.
How the Syndrome holds us back every day — how if you let it — you will lose your destiny — you will begin to play too small — it is easy to let that slippery slope of sliding backwards inch by inch rob you of everything so special God has planned for you.
But you have to reach for it. You have to commit…you have to lead your team…you have to push the boulder up the hill…and then go back down to the bottom of the hill and get another one…maybe even a larger one…and then push that one up the hill.
It’s not all peaches and cream all of the time. Of course not.
But that is what leadership is. Sometimes leadership is getting into the trenches — side by side — with your team — looking them right in the eyes — and showing them — telling them — we got this…and we got this together…and then you push the boulder up the hill.
And then Jodi invited me to be her guest — on her podcast called — Women Taking the Lead. Brilliant show. And one of the lessons I shared with her audience might even surprise you, Onward Nation.
I believe you are already a leader and mentor…whether you want to be or not — whether you accept this responsibility or reject it — either way — you are being a positive influence — or a negative influence.
But you are creating influence.
So why not create positive influence, right?
As you might imagine — given the title of Jodi’s show — we dug deep into a variety of leadership questions — some deeply personal stories, Onward Nation, and how some of the women in my life impacted my career — impacted me as a person — and gave me the confidence to tackle any challenge.
I thought the best way for me to share all of these insights would be to air the full interview — Jodi and me — from Women Taking the Lead — aired as part of today’s solocast.
And then I will be back to wrap it up at the end with a powerful lesson you can think about as you move through the rest of today — and your week.
Okay, Onward Nation…here’s my good friend, Jodi Flynn…from Women Taking the Lead.
[You can listen to my interview with Jodi inside today’s episode.]
Before we close out for today — I want to reinforce a point from my interview with Jodi. Is being a leader hard? Of course.
Is being a mentor challenging? Absolutely.
Is the Imposter Syndrome nipping at your heels — and in your head — every single day — trying to rob you of your destiny? Most definitely.
But, as Marianne Williamson so brilliantly…
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
So, Onward Nation…you are capable of so much more — we all are. We are not doing God — our customers — or the world any favors by playing small.
In fact, we are cheating our customers, cheating the world, and being disrespectful to God by not applying all of the abundance of talents and gifts we were so richly blessed with.
And oftentimes — what is the biggest obstacle in our way? Yep. Ourselves.
So, if you want a good laugh today — go to the show notes of this episode and there is a link to a Saturday Night Live skit from many years ago when Bob Newhart was the guest host of the show — it’s hilarious — and the first time I watched it, I laughed so hard, I cried.
It will help you put your Imposter Syndrome into its proper place — and you might laugh hard enough to get those endorphins flowing.
So with that…I want to thank you again for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here — thank you for tuning in — I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation…good or bad…I always want your feedback.
We will be back tomorrow with an incredible encore interview with Peter Strohkorb — you will not want to miss Peter’s philosophy about “If you don’t believe in yourself — why should others?”, Onward Nation. Peter and I dig deep into topics like success, leadership, how to conquer fear and many other powerful lessons. The encore with Peter is off-the-charts amazing, Onward Nation! Don’t miss it.
Until then, onward with gusto!
Phillip Van Hooser works with organizations that wish to build leadership bench strength, performance, and productivity. From his work as a former human resources manager in corporate America -- to his leadership as a director in the bank boardroom -- to his experience as a speaking / training leadership authority for top U.S. companies -- Phil helps organizations grow by improving communication skills between employees and leaders, managing conflict, confrontation, and change while preparing for leadership transition and development. Phil is the author of five books and more than 100 training videos on leadership. His latest book, “Leaders Ought To Know: 11 Ground Rules for Common Sense Leadership”, is a must-read handbook for leaders who are feeling the pressure to perform.
Secret – timesaving technique Phil spends his time on creating and communicating -- create a deeper base of knowledge and then communicate that knowledge to others. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Make your routine a habit -- Phil gets up early, gets exercise in, does spiritual study, and then tries to maximize his creative output early.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Phil got very sick -- and Phil tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Mastery, communication, and leadership."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "It's not how much money you make -- it's how much money you keep."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Learn as much about what you do and why you do it as humanly possible 2. Commit to a self-determined quest for personal mastery 3. Don't quit
How best to connect with Phil: * Email: phil@leadersoughttoknow.com * Phone: (270)365-1536
Melinda Chen is a sales coach helping women entrepreneurs sell to big clients. She is also a sales executive with an impressive sales track record of 8 figures. Her company, Women Making Big Sales, helps women take control of their lives by going for big clients, closing important deals, and dramatically expanding their businesses. Melinda helps women entrepreneurs to connect with — and sell to — big clients in just 5-weeks.
Secret – timesaving technique Melinda looks through a list of 5-10 clients that she wants to target before each week -- make sure you allocate the time to focus on the right clients. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Network with people in the industries you're in -- Melinda goes to at least three networking events for every industry she works in.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Melinda made 100 cold calls a day and she wasn't getting any results -- and Melinda tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Be able to take on the creative and the analytical."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Do you truly believe in the product?"
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had very, very focused markets.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Go to LinkedIn and search for prospects by industry and location 2. Pick 20-30 people and try to find everything you can to figure out why they would work with you 3. Start crafting your plan to marketing to them
How best to connect with Melinda: * Website: womenmakingbigsales.com
Joanna Riley is the CEO and Co-founder of 1-Page. Her company is building the next generation of talent sourcing and engagement solutions for enterprises. 1-Page is also the first Silicon Valley tech company to list on the Australian Stock Exchange. 1-Page specializes in helping companies with more than 1,000 employees and serves several Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies with its SaaS platforms. Joanna founded 1-Page with her father, Patrick, and its company was inspired by his best-selling book, The One-Page Proposal. The book provides job seekers with the knowledge to pitch a one-page job proposal to an employer -- and how to be evaluated on what they can do -- versus being judged on previous accomplishments, experience, age, or gender. Joanna lives in San Francisco and is active in raising awareness of female entrepreneurship and the need for more women in tech.
Secret – timesaving technique Joanna surrounds herself with the right people -- your employees are your superpowers. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Take care of yourself -- Joanna takes the time to run and it gives her the time to think.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Joanna gave someone too much power and they tried to take over her business -- and Joanna tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "You can't do it yourself."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Decide to win before you even start."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Have a very deep time to decide what you're willing to give up to be successful 2. Be fueled by no's
How best to connect with Joanna: * Twitter: @JoRileyWasTaken * Website: @1pagebiz
Nancy Marshall is known as The PR Maven(R), after having worked in public relations for 30 years. She recently published her first book called PR Works!
Why did you write your book? Nancy wrote my book to position herself as an expert — and was able to give away her knowledge like Jay Baer said to do in episode 305.
Are you glad you wrote the book? “It’s the best business card ever!”
What is the most critical skill for getting your book done? Create an outline and make it as detailed as possible.
What has been your proudest moment as a business owner? This past year is the 25th year of Nancy’s agency — and Nancy was invited into the state legislative chambers where her agency was recognized. AWESOME!
How did you convince yourself to let someone take over running your agency — and what have the benefits been? Nancy hired someone 20 years ago part-time to read newspapers from her home. She did everything so well that Nancy begged her to join her full-time and eventually became the president of Nancy’s agency.
What’s one secret you can share to help move businesses onward? 1. Create your most-wanted media list (20-30) 2. Start following those media 3. Try to identify the angles you would use with those journalists 4. Pick up the phone and call journalists with your pitch 5. Build a media kit 6. Do media training in your business 7. Submit letters to the editor 8. Do media follow-up
How best to connect with Nancy: * Agency website: http://www.marshallpr.com * Personal branding website: prmaven.com * Email: nmarshall@marshallpr.com
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation…I’m Stephen Woessner. And welcome to Episode 322 — where 5-days a week — I interview one of today’s top business owners so we can learn their “recipe for success” — how they built and scaled their business. In fact…have you downloaded our 12 SUCCESS Strategies eBook? It’s a distillation of the best business building advice we have collected from our incredible guests. You can get yours at OnwardNation.com/12download.
So for today’s solocast — we are going to continue the momentum we have built over the last two weeks by sharing lessons I learned during my interview — as a guest — on the Business Rescue Road Map podcast.
Now, if the name Business Rescue Road Map sounds familiar — you may recall — the host of the brilliant show is Stacy Tuschl — a three-time guest on Onward Nation. Stacy was our guest for Episodes 6, 174, and 287 of Onward Nation.
And during each of our interviews — Stacy shared deeper and deeper insights. For example, in Episode 6 — she taught us great lessons about how to prepare for growth — and transparently — connected it back to story when one of her companies grew so fast — it outpaced her and her team’s ability to adapt to the rapid changes.
But, they prioritized and successfully rebalanced the ship.
In Episode 174 — I asked Stacy to take us deep into platform building — and she generously did. We dug into what Stacy describes as her “three steps to platform building” and how her business strategy is focused on all three — each and every day.
Intrigued — I had to learn more — especially with how Stacy’s three steps were baked into the strategy behind her amazing podcast. I wanted to find out how podcasting became a key component to her business strategy.
So we had a “Why Podcasting” discussion in Episode 287 — and let me say, Onward Nation — it is rare that a business owner will say — “Oh sure…you want to know the innermost workings of my business — for me to take you deep behind the green curtain so you can learn all my secrets? Absolutely, walk right this way.” But that is what Stacy did in all three episodes — and that is what all of our Onward Nation guests do — each and every day.
Pure awesomeness from our guests.
If you haven’t listened to — studied — and applied all of the pure awesomeness Stacy Tuschl shared with us during Episodes 6, 174, and 287 — I highly encourage you to add all three episodes to your list of vital priorities.
You will be glad you did.
And then shortly after Stacy was my guest on Onward Nation — she invited me to be a guest on her podcast called…Business Rescue Road Map…and wow…that was an outstanding conversation.
Now she was interviewing me — interesting role reversal — and true to form — Stacy is an incredible host.
She has this innate gift of being able to ask the questions she knows her listeners are hoping she will ask. She gracefully guides each guest down the exact right path to make sure her audience learns what needs to be learned during each and every episode.
As I am sure you can tell, Onward Nation — I am a bit of a Stacy Tuschl fan.
So, when she asked me if I would be guest on her show…I responded with the lesson Jay Baer recently shared with us during Episode 305… “Hell yes, I’ll do that! WOW!”
And like Jay said…if we are not letting the “It’s a hell yes, or it’s a no” principle guide our decision making, Onward Nation — then you are saying “yes” way too often.
I learned a lot from Stacy when she interviewed me, which is why — in just a moment — we are going to air the full interview as part of today’s solocast.
The discussion with Stacy is that impactful.
One of the lessons I shared with her audience might even surprise you — when you hear me encourage business owners to “embrace the challenge” and why enjoying those moments of struggle are key to your success — and happiness.
Stacy and I also dug into:
- The story of why my first company failed, how I recovered from losing $100,000 when I was just 28 years old, and how those painful lessons formed the foundation what we have build here at Predictive ROI.
- Why it is important to be at your best when the fight is the hardest. I am a firm believer, Onward Nation, in never ever giving someone the permission — anyone — to tell me what is so — to tell me what my destiny is. I’ll explain why I am so fixated on this point during the discussion with Stacy — coupled with — how the the transformation of challenges forcing you to become somebody different on your way to accomplishing a goal, that’s what makes this entire process so rewarding — becoming more — becoming the person you always dreamt of becoming, Onward Nation.
- We also talk about why it is important to think thoughtfully about the things that are important — about the benefits of prayer, meditation, or just general thinking time.
Stacy and I wrap up the interview with some things to consider if you happen to be thinking about or contemplating — quitting — throwing in the towel — and closing your business.
To be clear, there are oftentimes some really good reasons why a business should close its doors — but it has been my experience — that business owners can be tempted to give up way, way, way too early. So Stacy and I share some thoughts and suggestions to consider — things business owners should really look at before closing their doors.
Onward Nation — there’s always a way to build capital.
So, I thought the best way for me to share these insights would be to air the full interview. I think you will get a lot out of the discussion.
And as always…please let me know what you think. Drop me a line. Thumbs up or thumbs down.
One point that I want to make sure I emphasize before we close out for today — during my conversation with Stacy — you heard us offer several recommendations for business owners to consider before closing their doors. And one particular area I have studied even more intensely since being a guest on Stacy’s show is the number of companies — more specifically — the number of business owners who struggle with generating enough leads — high quality leads flowing into their business on a steady basis…like a stream of prospects flowing right into their sales pipeline.
In fact, the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs recently released a study showing that the top goal of 85 percent of today’s companies is lead gen.
85 percent, Onward Nation. Staggering.
Here’s today’s reality — there is a gaping hole inside most businesses — and that hole — is the lack of qualified leads within their pipeline. It has been my experience, Onward Nation, in 20+ years of working with business owners all over the country — most do not have a sales pipeline — and the stress of how they will meet this month’s budget — or next quarter’s — can feel crushing at times.
I am on a mission to help change that, which is why I shared several pipeline filling steps within Episode 298 several weeks ago.
But you know what…when I relistened to the episode — I thought — “Hmmm, I can do better than that — I should have gone here and talked about that — and darn it — I missed this, this, and this. Arrgghhh.”
So, I decided to create a masterclass on the 4-steps to Filling Your Sales Pipeline. You will see the full details and all we will cover — in full transparency — in very specific detail — on-screen demonstrations — it will be a very deep dive — so you can take and apply this lead gen recipe immediately inside your business.
I look forward to seeing you — virtually at least — on September 21st.
So with that…I want to thank you again for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here — thank you for tuning in — I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation…good or bad…I always want your feedback. Hit me up on Twitter or LinkedIn — or stop by our Predictive ROI Facebook page — and let us know what you think of the show — thumbs up or thumbs down. Either way — we want to know.
Your feedback helps get better. And remember…you can always email me at stephen@onwardnation.com and I reply to every single message.
Please let us know how you think we are doing. I look forward to hearing from you.
We will be back tomorrow with an incredible encore interview with Nancy Marshall — my word, Onward Nation — you will not want to miss Nancy’s third visit to the show. We took this opportunity to dig deep into Nancy’s book — to dive into several of the exceptional PR strategies within the pages — as well as — Nancy’s business strategy behind the book and how it has become her best business card ever. So…if you have ever thought of writing a book…listen to Nancy Marshall tomorrow…because she lays out her entire strategy in precise detail. Nancy is off-the-charts amazing, Onward Nation. Don’t miss the show.
Until then, onward with gusto!
Kute Blackson is the secret weapon of some of the world’s most successful people - top CEOs, supermodels, pro athletes, and the Hollywood elite. His new book, “YOU.ARE.THE.ONE” is a new breed of self-help book for millennials and was released in June. Kute unravels the layers of temptations that stand between you and a more amazing life than you could ever imagine. In YOU.ARE.THE.ONE., Kute guides readers on a spiritual journey spanning London, Bali, India, and Los Angeles that will crack them wide open and leave them reborn as the person they were always meant to be — their authentic selves.
Secret – timesaving technique Kute stays in touch with his mortality and focuses on what matters -- embrace death and make it your motivator. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Make your health non-negotiable -- Kute wakes up and starts exercising.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Kute was stuck and his business wasn't growing -- and Kute tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Get into your target customer's mind and heart and feel them fully."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Every moment is a moment to serve and love."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Change yourself -- cultivate a commitment to personal growth 2. Be willing to go where it's scary 3. Focus on being of service
How best to connect with Kute: * Website: www.kuteblackson.com * Website: www.youaretheonebook.com
Adrienne Garland is the founder of She Leads Media, a media company dedicated to leadership - both professionally and personally - for women, worldwide. The mission of She Leads Media is to inspire, educate and ultimately, to showcase women as the leaders we were all meant to be. Adrienne has an extensive marketing background and has helped media companies such as Cablevision, DIRECTV, SiriusXM, PR Newswire and PricewaterhouseCoopers with customer growth and digital transformation over the course of her career. She is a sought-after marketing consultant with expertise in bringing together and activating audiences and brands to achieve tangible results. Adrienne is a New York Business Journal 2016 class of Women of Influence honoree.
Secret – timesaving technique Adrienne relies on writing things down -- get everything out of your head and get it on paper. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Be fully present with what you're doing -- Adrienne does whatever she does 100%.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Adrienne's partner left -- and Adrienne tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Create businesses that can scale."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Put your business plan on paper 2. Get help -- get feedback 3. Think big
How best to connect with Adrienne: * Website: www.sheleadsmedia.com
Rick Enrico is the CEO and Founder of SlideGenius Inc., a presentation design agency with over 1,000 clients around the world. He is also a marketing and technology serial entrepreneur, having founded companies like Twenty6 Red, Juice Media, Carstir, and others.
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? Rick begins his day with a 20-minute zazen meditation -- this meditation helps to be compassionate and patient. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? "Whether you think you can or think you can't -- you're right." -- Henry Ford
How do you define success? Success is creating a culture that puts employees first.
What strategy do you use to combat fear? Rick meditates -- and Rick tells the reasons why here.
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" goes above and beyond for clients and each other.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? 1. Have weekly one-on-ones with your direct reports
How can we build an audience? 1. Carve out a niche and excel at producing content in that space
How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Let go and let managers run their divisions -- mistakes and all 2. Take time with people development 3. Stay curious
How best to connect with Rick: * Website: http://www.slidegenius.com/
Ari Weinzweig is CEO and co-founding partner of Zingerman's Community of Businesses, which includes Zingerman's Delicatessen, Bakehouse, Creamery, Catering, Mail Order, ZingTrain, Coffee Company, Roadhouse, Candy Manufactory and the newest business, Cornman Farms. Zingerman's produces and sells all sorts of full flavored, traditional foods in its home of Ann Arbor, Michigan to the tune of $55,000,000 a year in annual sales.
Ari was recognized as one of the Who's Who of Food & Beverage in America by the 2006 James Beard Foundation and has awarded a Bon Appetit Lifetime Achievement Award among many recognitions.
Ari is the author of a number of articles and books, including Zingerman's Guide to Better Bacon (Zingerman's Press), Zingerman's Guide to Giving Great Service, Zingerman's Guide to Good Eating (Houghton Mifflin), Zingerman's Guide to Good Leading, Part 1: A Lapsed Anarchists Approach to Building a Great Business, and Zingerman's Guide to Good Leading, Part 2: A Lapsed Anarchists Approach to Being a Better Leader. Zingerman's Guide to Good Leading, Part 3; A Lapsed Anarchist's Approach to Managing Ourselves, was released in December of 2013. Zingerman's Guide to Good Leading, Part 4; A Lapsed Anarchist's Approach to the Power of Beliefs in Business is scheduled for release in the first part of 2016.
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? Ari journals every morning on yellow legal pads -- clear your mind and focus on the positives. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? "Just go ahead anyway."
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" is built by having the right ecosystem -- people do their best work when they're part of a great team.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? 1. Have positive beliefs about your mentee's ability
How best to connect with Ari: * Email: ari@zingermans.com * Books and training: www.zingtrain.com * Food: www.zingermans.com
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation...I’m Stephen Woessner. And welcome to Episode 317 -- where 5-days a week -- I interview one of today’s top business owners so we can learn their “recipe for success” -- how they built and scaled their business.
But on Wednesday’s each week...I record what I like to call a solocast -- where I fly solo for an episode -- just me -- no guest. And this gives us the opportunity to really dig deep into a particular topic or lesson -- and take the time to get super tactical where cover vital priorities like lead gen, sales pipelines, how to defeat the imposter syndrome, and even how to recruit A-players into your company.
Speaking of which -- thank you very much, Onward Nation for all of the feedback regarding Episode 298, my solocast from a couple of weeks ago that I named, “How to Fill Your Sales Pipeline.”
Episode 298 was my longest solocast to date -- but -- I did that because I wanted to tackle a chronic problem most business owners are facing.
And that problem is the lack of qualified leads flowing into their sales pipeline. It has become a gaping hole inside most businesses.
In fact, the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs recently published a study concluding that the top goal of 85 percent of companies today is lead generation. Yes, 85 percent Onward Nation. Staggering!
So, I was really pleased to read all of the wonderful feedback we received following 298 -- Awesome!
And I have to say...your feedback...inspired my team and me so much that we decided to go even deeper and create a FREE 17-page Quick Start Guide on How to Fill Your Sales Pipeline.
Just go to OnwardNation.com/Pipeline and you can download it for FREE. Katherine and Louie on my team did an outstanding job creating the guide -- thanks guys -- and my hope is that you and your team will find it helpful as you work through the recipe I shared in Episode 298.
And as always -- if you have questions -- let us know -- and remember -- my direct email address is stephen@onwardnation.com. I read and reply to every single email.
Please let me know what you think -- thumbs up or thumbs down.
So for today’s solocast -- I am going to do something a little different by continuing the momentum we started last week.
Instead of me sharing or teaching a step-by-step lesson per se -- I am going to re-introduce you to Kelly Hatfield, our great guest for Episode 274. Shortly after Kelly was my guest -- she invited me to be a guest on her podcast, Absolute Advantage...and that was an outstanding conversation. The leadership lessons Kelly and I exchanged were insightful -- and -- I think I might even surprise you, Onward Nation when you hear me encourage you to “Let your team kick you out of projects” and why this is critical to scaling your business.
Kelly and I also dug into:
- The lessons of parenting that can be used when running a company
- How to find “A Players” and recruit them into an internship program
- The improvements my team and I have had to make to our employee onboarding process due to previous failures in that area
- Why overnight success is a myth
- How to retain your best talent
- Why you need to be completely transparent with your mentors
- What separates the super-high achievers from the rest
I thought the best way for me to share these insights would be to air the full interview. I think you will get a lot out of the discussion.
And as always...please let me know what you think.
One point that I want to make sure I emphasize before we close out for today -- during my conversation with Kelly -- you heard me talk about how we have built our Predictive ROI team from the “Draft” -- we have built our team through a powerful internship program. And over the last 20+ years...I have had many business owners -- even colleagues -- tell me that an unpaid internship program is not possible -- that it can’t be done -- that it is wrong to do -- or -- if you do attract candidates -- they won’t be the best candidates. I am here to say -- that none of that is accurate.
If you’re interested in having a rock solid awesome internship program at your company -- a program that delivers great value to your business -- AND -- delivers an amazing educational experience for your interns -- then take a listen to Episode 137 of Onward Nation.
I shared the complete recipe we have developed and used to build our internship program.
My hope is that the recipe will save you some time and add some value to your process.
So with that...I want to say thank you again for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here -- thank you for tuning in -- I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation...good or bad...I always want your feedback. Hit me up on Twitter or LinkedIn -- or stop by our Predictive ROI Facebook page -- and let us know what you think of the show -- thumbs up or thumbs down. Either way -- we want to know.
Your feedback helps get better. And remember...you can always email me at stephen@onwardnation.com and I reply to every single message.
Please let us know how you think we are doing. I look forward to hearing from you.
We will be back tomorrow with an incredible encore interview with Ari Weinzweig -- you will not want to miss Ari’s philosophy and strategy behind how to defeat what he calls the self-fulfilling belief cycle. He will take you deep inside his research and application into these principles and how they add value to their 700 employee, $60 million operation in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Ari is off-the-charts amazing, Onward Nation! Don’t miss it.
Until then, onward with gusto!
Anne Deeter Gallaher is Owner and CEO of Deeter Gallaher Group, a marketing, public relations, and digital media firm with offices in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania and Nashville, Tennessee. Anne is the co-author of the book, “Students in High Gear: A Guide for Students and Aspiring Game Changers in Transition from College to Career” and “Women in High Gear: A Guide for Entrepreneurs, On-Rampers, and Aspiring Executives”. Honored as one of Pennsylvania’s “Best 50 Women in Business”, Anne is a frequent speaker and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, and is a contributor to several blogs.
Secret – timesaving technique Anne figures out her must-do project for the day -- don't do anything else until that is done. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Bring an air of optimism wherever you are -- Anne deliberately is positive around the office.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "If you can master the power of language -- you can soar."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Separate business from emotion."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have gone high-gear sooner.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Write down your five high-gear goals 2. Assemble a personal board of advisors 3. Master the skill of language
How best to connect with Anne: * Website: www.deetergallahergroup.com * Twitter: @AnneDGallaher * Book: studentsinhighgear.com * Book: womeninhighgear.com
Jefferson Lilly is a self-made millionaire mobile home park investment expert, educator, and industry consultant. Prior to co-founding Park Street Partners in 2013, Jefferson spent seven years investing his own capital acquiring and operating his own mobile home parks. Before becoming a full-time investor, Jefferson spent nine years in sales leadership roles with several venture-backed startups in Silicon Valley. Jefferson has been featured in The New York Times, Bloomberg Magazine, and on the “Real Money” television show.
Secret – timesaving technique Jefferson is trying to hire more employees -- it's important to delegate tasks. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Always be learning -- Jefferson spends weekly time in a mastermind group.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Jefferson got a letter in writing from the government saying his first mobile home park's sewage lagoon was built to code -- and it wasn't -- and Jefferson tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Be persistent in all facets of business."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Buy great businesses at fair prices -- not fair businesses at great prices."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had more financial controls and would have had a bookkeeper.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Delegate -- and make sure things are getting done.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would have the ability to think for themselves and overcome obstacles.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Get yourself mentors 2. Set yourself plans and write them down
How best to connect with Jefferson: * Website: www.parkstreetpartners.net * Website: www.mobilehomeparkinvestors.net
Diane Gardner is an expert tax coach, Quilly award recipient, and best-selling author whose proactive tax planning approach gives clients a leg up on Uncle Sam and helps them dodge the tax bullet. Diane saves small business clients between $5,000 and $50,000 in taxes in as little as 60 minutes! Her tax coaching prowess has resulted in a combined savings of nearly $500,000 to-date of hard-earned profits small business owners would have given to the government by overpaying taxes. Diane is the co-author of the bestselling books, “Stand Apart” and “Why Didn’t My CPA Tell Me That?” She has also authored four other books including her newest, “Stop Overpaying Your Taxes! 11 Ways Entrepreneurs Overpay and How to Stop it Now!”
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? Diane starts her day by planning the rest of her day -- don't go into your day without a plan. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? "Life begins at the edge of your comfort zone."
How do you define success? Success is working the hours that I choose to work -- not because I have to work them -- so that I can help people because I want to help them -- not because I have to help them.
What strategy do you use to combat fear? Diane thinks you just need to change your mindset -- and Diane tells the reasons why here.
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" is someone show shows up with their mind, body, spirit, and soul.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? 1. Never ever give up
How can we build an audience? 1. Be a giver
How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Look at your financials
How best to connect with Diane: * Website: www.taxcoach4you.com
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good morning Onward Nation…I’m Stephen Woessner. My hope is that on this Wednesday you have already experienced an incredible week thus far — one that has pushed you to grow — one where you have experienced some big wins — and one where you have had opportunities to learn along the way.
I got home on Saturday from a week long trip to Spokane, Washington to visit my Aunt and Uncle followed by several very intense — but awesome — days of masterminding in Portland, Oregon with a group of marketing agency owners. We get together every six months in a different city across the country to share our financials, our biggest challenges, our biggest opportunities, and to seek the advice and recommendations of each other — all the owners in the group.
My fellow owners are exceptional — they are part of my inner circle — they are all moving at the pace and tempo that I want to move at — if not faster — and that makes them the perfect people for me to spend my time with — and to learn from.
The leader and facilitator of our owner group is one of my most influential mentors, Drew McLellan. You may remember Drew as our rock solid awesome guest in Episodes 32 and 167 of Onward Nation. I have learned a lot from him and I am grateful he has been a guest of mine, twice, so he could share his wisdom and expertise with you, too.
Aside from being an incredible mentor and successful business owner — Drew is also the host of the brilliant podcast, Build a Better Agency. And it was such an honor when Drew invited me to be as a guest on his show — in order to share business building insights with his audience — and not just for agencies — but insights any business owner could apply directly into their business to increase sales and profits.
So for today’s solocast…we’re going to do something a little bit different.
Instead of me sharing a lesson today — we are going to air the interview Drew and I did for his show because the questions he asked me were excellent — and I predict you will find the advice and recommendations that came out of the conversation — to be valuable for what you are working on right now in your business.
For example…Drew and I discuss…
- How to charge a premium free while building trust and providing expertise
- How to fix the money draining mistakes that are likely sucking cash out of your business
- How you can use a Predictive ROI scorecard inside your company
- How to combat the fear of criticism
Okay, Onward Nation…I hope you enjoy the discussion between Drew McLellan and I…and as always…please let me know what you think. Thumbs up or thumbs down.
One point that I want to make sure I emphasize before we close out for today…and that is…when you tackle your client’s biggest pain point, Onward Nation, you’re no longer a vendor. You become a true partner.
So when you see challenges…when you see your client having difficulties…when you see your client bogged down in a myriad of difficulties and they don’t know where to turn…those are signs of opportunity…for you to dig in…add value…help them solve the most difficult challenge in their business…and you will quickly move into partner status…and leave vendor-hood behind — which will likely mean happier clients and greater profitability for you.
So with that…I want to say thank you again for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here — thank you for tuning in — I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation…good or bad…I always want your feedback. Hit me up on Twitter or LinkedIn — or stop by our Predictive ROI Facebook page — and let us know what you think of the show — thumbs up or thumbs down. Either way — we want to know. Your feedback will help us get better. And remember…you can always email me at stephen@onwardnation.com and I reply to every single message.
So please let us know how you think we are doing. I look forward to hearing from you.
We will be back tomorrow with an incredible encore interview with Diane Gardner — you will not want to miss Diane’s philosophy of “Life begins at the edge of your comfort zone” and how this permeates every aspect of her business strategy — and how she pushes herself to become more each and every day. Diane is off-the-charts amazing, Onward Nation!
Until then, onward with gusto!
David Finkel is an ex-Olympic-level athlete turned business multimillionaire. He is The Wall Street Journal and Business Week best-selling author of 11 business books. David wrote his current bestseller, “SCALE: 7 Principles to Grow Your Business and Get Your Life Back”, with Jeff Hoffman, co-founder of Priceline.com. David’s weekly column has been published on Inc.com, Huffington Post, and over 6,000 newspapers and publications. He is also the CEO of Maui Mastermind®, the nation’s premier business coaching company specializing in helping business owners with annual sales between $1 million to $25 million create growth -- AND -- at the same time increase owner independence.
Secret – timesaving technique David claims three days a week to do A-level activities -- identify what you do that creates the most value for your company. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Work on "above the line" tasks -- David organizes his priorities based on importance.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience David lost 40-50% of his revenue in an instant -- and David tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "What matters most? For the sake of what? And how much is enough?"
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Give your clients your best professional advice -- it's up to them to take it or not."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have made key hires sooner -- and given them clear accountability.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Narrow your focus to a smaller niche 2. Engage your teams to build teams with you 3. Ignore all the "doom and gloom" stuff
How best to connect with David: * Website: mauimastermind.com
Michael Roderick is a founder, speaker, and connector. His company, “Small Pond Enterprises” specializes in relationship design for founders, authors, and speakers interested in playing a bigger game. He works with thought-leaders to curate, extend, and leverage their existing networks for the purpose of getting paid engagements for higher fees, speaking opportunities, and interviews. He developed this methodology from his own journey of high school English teacher to Broadway producer. Michael is also the founder of “ConnectorCon”, a conference for connectors as well as the co-host of the “Access to Anyone” podcast.
Secret – timesaving technique Michael focuses on what is most important -- time, connections, or money -- everyone has a TCM index. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Take the time to meditate -- Michael laughed at meditation initially -- but now it's a crucial part of his day.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Michael was banking on a certain project and turned away other projects -- and Michael tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "You need to be in the present while listening."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "You have to take time to clean your pipeline and curate your network."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? Have a spreadsheet to track your network.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Focus on what you can learn -- failure is an opportunity to learn
How best to connect with Michael: * Website: www.smallpondenterprises.com * Twitter: @michaelroderick
Joe Schmit is an author, award-winning broadcaster, community leader, and popular keynote speaker. As a sports broadcaster, he has covered every major sporting event in the past three decades and has interviewed many of the biggest names in sports. He joined KSTP-TV in Minneapolis-St. Paul in 1985 and has won 17 Emmys from the National Television Academy. He was also honored with a National Headliner Award in 2001. Joe is also a regular on 1500 ESPN radio. His award-winning book, “Silent Impact-Stories of Influence Through Purpose, Persistence and Passion” is now in its 4th printing.
Secret – timesaving technique Joe writes up a list of tasks to do each day -- do the worst task you have to do first. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Prepare for tomorrow today -- Joe begins his list of tasks the night before.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Joe suddenly found his job disappear -- and Joe tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Positive reinforcement is the essence of great leadership."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "You never know when you're going to be that person that can lift someone up."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Never, ever give up 2. Learn to say no and figure out what works for you 3. Overdeliver 4. Show them your heart
How best to connect with Joe: * Website: joeschmit.com * Book: "Silent Impact: Stories of Influence through Purpose, Persistence, & Passion"
Ross Bernstein is a best-selling author of nearly 50 sports books and an award-winning Hall of Fame business speaker who has keynoted conferences for Fortune 500 companies on four continents for audiences as large as 10,000 people. Ross and his books have been featured on thousands of television and radio programs including CNN, ESPN, FOX News, and CBS This Morning, as well as in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times and USA Today.
Secret – timesaving technique Ross works smarter -- not harder -- but work hard when you have to. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Stay focused on what you're good at -- Ross focuses on his keynotes and ignores social media.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Ross was a walk on to the Minnesota Gophers hockey team and got cut -- and Ross tells the whole story here.
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Philanthropy isn't just good purpose -- it's good business."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Find your currency 2. Give unconditionally 3. Gather video testimonials 4. Focus
How best to connect with Ross: * Website: rossbernstein.com * Twitter: @rossbernstein
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation…I’m Stephen Woessner. Thank you very much for taking time to be here — and — I gotta say — I am so excited about the lesson we are going to dig deep into this morning.
Why am I so excited?
Because we’re going to dig deep into how to specifically identify — how to get a crystal clear view of your client avatar — the people who you want to be doing business with — and through this discussion — I will remove all of the mystic dark magic voodoo — and how to give him or her a name — the questions you should be asking — and — I will share with you — the single most powerful four-letter word you can use when attempting to connect with these key people.
We also going to dig into “Your Dream 50”.
Who are they — why they matter to you — and once you know — what you should do with your Dream 50 list. To help cement the importance of this lesson into place — I will share a painful and very costly mistake that I made, which could have devastated or even ruined our business because I didn’t pay attention to the lessons that were right smack in front of me.
It was sure one heck of a tuition payment, Onward Nation!
And I structured today’s topic so that it connects — so it builds upon — the Fill Your Sales Pipeline lesson we covered together in Episode 298, where we went an inch wide and a mile deep into the step-by-step recipe my Predictive ROI team uses to generate highly qualified leads for our clients.
Let's dive in.
Earl Bell is the Principal of EARLBELL.com and author of Winning in Baseball and Business, Transforming Little League Principles into Major League Profits for Your Company. Earl’s mission is to inspire and teach leaders who want to gain a competitive edge in the game of business so they can make more money and have more fun.
Secret – timesaving technique Earl takes a look at his daily and weekly calendar at the end of every night -- get the top 2-3 things done that you need to get done every day. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Be disciplined and have focus -- Earl isolates himself in his home office and focuses on what he needs to accomplish.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Earl spent a lot of time trying to serve clients he wasn't equipped to serve well -- and Earl tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Learn how to deliver on a consistent basis what your clients really want."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "If you want to succeed in business, learn what your customers want and give it to them."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have gone back and inserted a most effective filter for finding the right clients.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Understand what you do well -- and what you don't do well.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would buy into your beliefs, values, and culture from the very beginning.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Figure out how to create more lifetime clients 2. Figure out how to build a super team of employees that have fun delivering awesome experiences that ultimately lead to lifetime clients 3. Focus on systematizing everything that works in your business and eliminating everything that doesn't work
How best to connect with Earl: * Website: www.earlbell.com * Email: earl@earlbell.com * Twitter: @Earl_Bell * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/earlbell
Jay Irwin is an adventurous soul who is determined to inspire people through wilderness experiences. During his 23-year career in the computer software industry, Jay created entrepreneurial initiatives within some of the largest software companies in the world. After a year-long sabbatical, Jay now combines his love of adventure with his desire to make a difference in the lives of others. He teaches audiences, from inner-city youth to executives, how to bring the gifts learned from wilderness experiences into daily life to create powerful and long-lasting change. He is the owner of CBST Adventures where he takes clients out of their comfort zone so they can experience the metaphors of nature.
Secret – timesaving technique Jay begins his day with a specific morning routine -- start and finish your day the same every day. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Set up the time to work with zero distractions -- Jay shuts down for 90 minutes and focuses on his most vital priority.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Jay went from $1 million net worth to almost bankrupt -- and Jay tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Systemization and delegation."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Live without regret."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had a financial system for viewing profitability sooner.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Work on open communication with your team 2. Assume positive intent 3. Create a foundation of trust 4. Gain a commitment around your organization's goals 5. Have an accountability system in place 6. Focus on the result outcomes
How best to connect with Jay: * Email: jay@cbstadventures.com * Website: cbstadventures.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jayirwin66
Jay Baer, CSP is the world’s most retweeted person among digital marketers. He is a business strategist, keynote speaker, and the New York Times best-selling author of five books including “Hug Your Haters.” Jay has advised more than 700 companies including Caterpillar, Nike, Allstate, The United Nations and 32 of the FORTUNE 500. He is the founder of Convince & Convert, a strategy consulting firm that helps companies gain and keep more customers through the intersection of technology, social media, and customer service. His Convince & Convert Media division owns the world’s #1 content marketing blog, the world’s top marketing podcast, and many other education resources for business owners and executives. Jay is the creator of five multi-million dollar companies, he is an active venture capitalist, and technology advisor, as well, Onward Nation…an avid tequila collector and certified barbecue judge.
Secret – timesaving technique Jay believes in this philosophy -- if you don't say "Hell yes!" -- you must say no. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Be very reachable -- Jay responds to email within minutes.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Jay's weakness is valuing ideas over execution -- and Jay tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Lack of fear -- fear holds people back."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Give your clients your best professional advice -- it's up to them to take it or not."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had more systems to track and measure things from the beginning.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Take everything you know and give it away for free -- one bite at a time.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would think strategically and act fast.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Write down your fears 2. Understand the business you're in
How best to connect with Jay: * Website: www.convinceandconvert.com * Twitter: @jaybaer * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jasonbaer * Website: www.hugyourhaters.com * (If you buy the book and send Jay the receipt he will send you socks!)
John Pollock doesn’t just talk about entrepreneurship he lives it. As the CEO of Financial Gravity, John has grown his business from the dining room table to a national organization of 25 employees and led his company to 700% growth in one year. John is also disrupting industry standards for the better. After seeing the lack of integrated advice for business owners across tax planning, financial services, and business strategy, he created the first national tax firm specifically designed to help entrepreneurs reduce their personal tax liability by an average of $21,000. He is also a frequent contributor to various media outlets, including Fox Radio Network, Forbes, and Amex OPEN Forum.
Secret – timesaving technique John does a weekly clarity break once a week -- take time to review your week and plan your next week. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Show up before everyone else -- John gets a lot done before anyone else arrives at the office.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience John had trouble trusting his instincts -- and John tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Discipline and focus -- it's easy to get sucked into the next thing."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Find a hole that you're really good at and drive a freight train through it."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Focus on the one thing that is your unique genius 2. Stop watching the news
How best to connect with John: * Free Book: Text "tax book" to 33444 * Website: financialgravity.com * Twitter: www.johnpollockinc.com
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation…I’m Stephen Woessner.
My hope is that you’re having a rock solid awesome Wednesday…and…that you’re making consistent and steady progress toward your vital priorities for the week, for the month, for the quarter, for the year, and for your life. Moving toward your goal — even if it seems like your progress is just one inch at a time — movement — and movement forward is vital.
So keep moving forward Onward Nation! Don’t ever quit.
And one of the ways for us to stay motivated to continue pushing forward is to have a crystal clear vision of our destination. And I know that sounds cliche — and you may have just rolled your eyes at me — and I get it. We all hear how important goals are — goals for sales, goals for new employees, goals for new markets, new products, goals for this — goals for that.
And I find myself creating goals — new goals — new adventures — new challenges — new ways to push what we are doing to that next level…but rarely — if at all — have I ever considered profit as a goal.
Yeah, seriously, a profit goal.
Like never — at least until recently thanks to the urging and prodding of my certified tax coach, Eric Levenhagen, our guest on Episode 25 of Onward Nation.
Eric’s profit-focused lessons to me — more like thumping me over the head with knowledge — consistently — relentlessly actually — finally got through.
He has been teaching and coaching me through the Profit First System — and it is beginning to revolutionize my company. Profit First was created by Mike Michalowicz and the book — the philosophy — the mindset shift behind it — is phenomenal.
You can find the book here.
Aside from my ringing endorsement of Mike’s book — I am also pleased to share that Mike will be our guest on Onward Nation Episode 361 — rock solid awesome — just confirmed that yesterday. And Eric — if you are reading — thank you for the wonderful introduction to Mike — much appreciated, my friend.
So for today’s solocast…I am going to share — what I hope will be — valuable lessons into a variety of metrics that will help you become more profitable.
Let's dive in.
John Bowen is co-founder of AESNation.com, a rapidly growing community of entrepreneurs dedicated to accelerating their success while making a difference in the world. Three days a week, he hosts the “Accelerating Entrepreneurial Success” podcast featuring revealing, in-depth interviews with today’s leading entrepreneurs. A lifelong entrepreneur himself, John is also founder and CEO of Financial Advisor Select, an organization dedicated to helping successful individuals and families make informed decisions by introducing them to top vetted financial advisors in their communities. He is also founder and CEO of CEG Worldwide, where he has helped hundreds of financial advisors build simple and elegant wealth management businesses that make them indispensable to the right affluent clients while improving their profitability and enhancing their lives.
Secret – timesaving technique John uses Smartsheet -- you've got to be organized. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Have a plan -- John has two 90-minute sessions where he does specific tasks -- and those 90-minute sessions are set in stone.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience John built an office building -- the stock market took a major downturn -- and John tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "We all need to master marketing -- but we need to nail down that world-class experience first."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "It's cheaper to hire the most expensive person."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have used technology much more efficiently.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Deliver a world-class client experience and really focus on the first 100 days.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Focus on the client experience 2. Pay yourself first
How best to connect with John: * Website: www.aesnation.com
Chris McCluskey is frequently cited as the “Father of Christian Coaching.” A visionary thought leader, he transitioned out of ownership of the largest Christian psychotherapy practice in Tampa Bay in 1998 and founded what is now the largest distinctly Christian coach training school in the world, the Professional Christian Coaching Institute. A popular keynote speaker, best-selling author, and top-rated podcast host, he lives with his family of nine on their ranch near St. Louis, Missouri.
Secret – timesaving technique Chris spends time each morning by reading scripture and meditating -- today is a gift -- treat it that way. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Leaders are readers -- Chris reads a lot -- but not until he does his morning scripture is completely finished.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Chris got bitten by a Lyme-infested tick before Lyme disease was a well-known disease -- and Chris tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "You must have a mindset of adaptability."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Work on your business -- not in your business."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have systematized my blogging and social media.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Contract out what you need done 2. Delegate roles to your contractors 3. Coach and mentor your contractors
How best to connect with Chris: * Website: professionalchristiancoachingtoday.com
Carrie Hartunian Smith has a diverse background in retail, hospitality, event production and promotions. In 1993, Carrie started a joint venture building a startup media company growing revenue to nearly $100 million before selling in 2007. After the sale of the company, she was asked to stay on with the new organization being an integral part of their aggressive acquisition strategy, 5 companies in under 24 months. Carrie’s expertise in fostering winning cultures within organizations increases productivity while reducing costs in mission-driven environments.
Secret – timesaving technique Carrie starts her morning by running down her list and taking a moment of prayer -- try to stay open to what the day will throw at you. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Do what needs to be done -- Carrie believes it's not about doing what's easy.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Carrie decided to leave her job -- and Carrie tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Increase the numbers of customers, get customers to spend more, or increase the number of transactions."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Identify who your market is 2. Have your message speak to your market 3. Get in front of them
How best to connect with Carrie: * Website: smartmarketingconsulting.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/Carrie-Hartunian-Smith-312259675623007 * Twitter: @cccarrie7 * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/carriehartuniansmith
Lynne Lavers is a Natural Health Practitioner and an expert in the field since 1987. She holds several degrees including a bachelor’s in biology, master’s in holistic nutrition, doctorate in naturopathy, and is currently pursuing her doctorate in integrated medicine. Lynne and her team provide consultations for maintaining health and wellness as well as help with disease and health challenges. One of Lynne's passions is working with individuals and their families who have been diagnosed with cancer. Lynne is also the owner of a private family practice in Nashville where she works with individuals of all ages from birth to the elderly and everyone in between — and — is in the process of expanding her practice to include a clinic in Venice, Florida.
Secret – timesaving technique Lynne sets aside 30-40 minutes of quiet time before she does anything else -- prepare yourself to start your day. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Plan tomorrow before tomorrow begins -- Lynne plans out 60% of her schedule the day before so that she knows what she's doing and has time to take a break if she needs one.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Lynne went $500,000 in debt at the beginning of a recession -- and Lynne tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Manage your emotions."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Take calculated risks."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have made sure everything was duplicatable.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Be unique 2. Surround yourself with people who know more than you
How best to connect with Lynne: * Email: laverslynne@gmail.com * Website: optimalhealthmanagement.net
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation…I’m Stephen Woessner!
In case this happens to be the first Onward Nation episode you are listening to — I wanted to welcome you. Each day, here at Onward Nation, we have this incredible opportunity to sit down and learn from some of today’s top business owners in the country — and around the world — and then to be serve as this conduit — to share all that we learn during the interviews directly with you.
What an incredible honor it has been — and to see that Onward Nation is now listened to in over 100 countries around the world is so much more than we could have ever imagined. So thank you, Onward Nation — thank you for being you — thank you for all of the support — all of the encouragement — and for letting us know — thumbs up or thumbs down what you liked — and didn’t like. Every day — you help us get better — we love your messages on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter — and email, too.
Keep them coming!
Again, if you are listening today for the first time — or if this happens to be the 298th episode you have listened to and studied — I appreciate your time more than you will ever know. Thanks for being here.
Okay, let’s jump into today’s solocast. Just a warning here — isn’t that a great way to start off a discussion?
We’re going to go really deep today into a topic — both strategic and super tactical during this solocast. And brace yourself — this may end up being the longest solocast I have ever recorded to date — but honestly — I have added so much value into this episode — it will be absolutely worth your time.
I am going to share — in absolute full transparency — the step-by-step recipe my team at Predictive ROI uses to generate highly targeted and qualified leads for clients.
The recipe delivers a 10-20% response rate — meaning — when we reach out to prospects on behalf of our clients — we receive a response from prospects 10-20% of the time.
Rock solid awesome.
And I am going to share with you each and every step — what we do — how we do it — why we do it — and the results you can expect along the way if you follow the same recipe for success.
The primary tool or platform we are going to focus on today is LinkedIn. I will explain why — from a demographic perspective (especially if you own a business-to-business service firm — meaning your customers are other businesses versus retail, consumer packaged goods, etc.) — why making LinkedIn a cornerstone of your lead gen strategy is an absolute must.
But before we dive into the tactical…I want to make sure you get your mindset right. That you are thinking proactively — that you are open to new ideas — and even some ideas that might push you a little bit.
So download the episode and let's dive in
Ryan Ayres is a business coach and virtual chief operating officer who has had the privilege of working with companies of all sizes from Microsoft, Sports Illustrated, and Time Inc. to hundreds of small businesses in the last 20 years. His business, Focus 53, is focused on Business Operations and helping business owners identify and solve opportunities and roadblocks with the people and processes in their company. Ryan is also the host of the outstanding podcast, Focus 53.
Secret – timesaving technique Ryan uses Trello to stay organized -- you need a simple, distraction-free way to organize the tasks you need to execute on every day. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Get the blood flowing -- Ryan finds that his worst days are the days when he doesn't exercise.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Ryan had a client that consistently made him unhappy -- and Ryan tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Focus -- work on the right things at the right time."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Own the successes -- and the failures."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had a system that forces me to vet the tasks I'm doing.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Do more doing -- and less thinking and pontificating.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would be a good genuine person that works hard.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Make sure you don't get stuck on the things that bog you down 2. Have resources to help you
How best to connect with Ryan: * Website: www.focus53.com * Twitter: @ryanayres53
Caroline Balinska has a rare and unique talent for online business and has mastered three key areas of online marketing which give her eCommerce clients a special insight into how to sell out their products online. Caroline combines her savvy digital marketing skills with her talent for website design and development and then meshes them with her deep knowledge of how business works to maximize profit. These three key areas have poised Caroline to help over 200 clients generate revenue streams of 6-7 figures online. Passionate about business and marketing, Caroline mentors and speaks professionally about a multitude of business and marketing topics and often focuses around marketing pertinent to eCommerce businesses.
Secret – timesaving technique Caroline recently started using a daily planner -- and she's become much more focused and productive. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Exercise is so important for your health -- Caroline exercises before she does anything and will go for a walk if she needs a break during the day.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Caroline lost about $100,000 at 25 years old -- and Caroline tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "If you can't do the marketing yourself, hire someone."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Put all of your proprietary knowledge in one document."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had a Proprietary Knowledge Kit in place.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would be a great communicator.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Take away your ego 2. Only take advice from the people whose shoes you want to be in 3. Have a plan
How best to connect with Caroline: * Facebook: www.facebook.com/carolinebalinskabrand * Free download for Onward Nation listeners: carolinebalinska.com/onwardnation * Email: caroline@carolinebalinska.com
For five years in a row Jim Cathcart has been selected as one of the Top 5 Speakers on Sales & Service in an online survey of over 14,000 people. With over 39 years of professional speaking around the world, Jim is one of the best known and most award-winning motivational speakers in the business. He has delivered more than 3,000 presentations to audiences in every state of the US, most provinces of Canada and countries from Scotland to Singapore. A business strategist, psychological researcher and philosopher at heart, Jim is also a down-to-Earth regular guy. He has worked in warehouses, driven trucks, sold donuts door-to-door, been a bank teller, plays guitar in night-clubs and pubs, and has toured much of the world on a motorcycle.
How do you define success? Jim believes success is living fully in all the areas that count -- mental, physical, family, social, spiritual, career, financial, and emotional. You can't be a 10/10 in all of these areas all the time, but you can 9 in one today and a 7 in another tomorrow.
How best to connect with Jim: * Website: http://cathcart.com * CD: guitarmusiclive.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/jim.cathcart * Twitter: @jimcathcart * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cathcartinstitute
Kristin Marquet is a public relations, branding, and integrated marketing expert in both the non-profit and for-print sectors. She serves as the Creative Director of Creative Development Agency, a full-service lifestyle public relations in New York City. Kristin has also written for several fashion and business magazines and appeared in several media outlets including Entrepreneur, Business Insider, American Express Small Business, and Enterprising Women magazines. She currently writes for Entrepreneur.com.
Secret – timesaving technique Kristin keeps a handwritten to-do list right next to her -- crystallize and prioritize your tasks. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Relieve stress in the way that works for you -- Kristin runs for at least an hour a day to relieve stress.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Kristin had a huge franchise client not pay the bill -- and Kristin tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "You need to be a critical thinker and a confident decision maker."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "The two most important things that you need to do are offer value and be different."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. You need to have a business plan 2. You need to be flexible
How best to connect with Kristin: * Website: www.creativedevelopmentagency.com * Email: kristin@creativedevelopmentagency.com
Mike Coughlin is the owner of Digital Blue Creative, a full-service digital advertising agency in Boston with core competencies in marketing analytics consulting, search engine optimization, social media, global paid search management, and video production. Throughout his career, Mike gained a wide range of knowledge and experience working with global companies in almost every industry, including Sony Music, SAP, Four Seasons Hotels, Humana, Wharton School of Business, Scholastic, National Grid, BMW, DirecTV, and The Boston Globe.
Secret – timesaving technique Mike is his own skeptic and tries to see his own challenges down the road -- work smarter, not harder. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Stay focused -- Mike creates a list of the five most important things he has to do each day.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Mike signed a partnership agreement that was not a good agreement -- and Mike tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Don't compete -- create."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "You don't need a partner."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had hired a consultant sooner rather than later.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Go against the trends -- the majority is usually wrong.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would have a tolerance for risk taking and creative thinking.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. You have to do your due diligence before taking the plunge 2. Prepare for things to not go well for a while 3. It's all about reading
How best to connect with Mike: * Personal Twitter: @mpc85 * Company Twitter: @thedigitalblue * Website: www.digitalbluecreative.com
Drew McLellan is a 25-year marketing veteran who helps clients create authentic love affairs with their customers. In 1995, Drew started his own agency -- McLellan Marketing Group. He also helps other agency owners learn how to take their business to the next level through the consultancy -- Agency Management Institute. Drew is also one of the world’s top marketing and branding bloggers, according to AdAge’s Top 150 index. He’s written the book 99.3 Random Acts of Marketing and co-edited the Age of Conversation series of books. He has appeared in the New York Times, Entrepreneur Magazine, Businessweek, and Fortune Small Business. The Wall Street Journal calls him one of 10 bloggers that every entrepreneur should read. Drew also hosts the brilliant Build a Better Agency Podcast.
What is your show structure? Build a Better Agency is an offshoot of Agency Management Institute -- so the audience is very narrow -- people who run small to midsize agencies. The guests are wide in range -- but they all have something to teach these agency owners.
Why did you start your podcast? 1. I wanted to increase the digital footprint of myself and AMI which would hopefully lead to more AMI workshop registrations and things like that 2. I wanted to add more value with experts than I was able to add on my own
What impact has your podcast had on your business? 1. I have deeper connections with these guests and I'm a much better referral force now 2. I've been able to audition event speakers as guests 3. I've been able to collaborate with guests on different projects
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful at podcasting The most important skill is for the host to check their ego at the door -- put the spotlight on your guest and find out what they have to say.
What was your biggest obstacle -- or challenge? The challenges are very human challenges. What if I'm not good at it? What if no one wants to listen? But get out of your own way and put the spotlight on your guests.
How much time do you spend on a podcast? I don't work on podcasts every week -- but when I do it takes about 90 minutes of my personal time to prepare and record each podcast. After that my team -- Predictive ROI -- takes it from there.
What was your biggest unexpected surprise? My digital footprint is growing faster than I would have expected -- and all because of the podcast.
How best to connect with Drew: * Twitter: @DrewMcLellan * Facebook: www.facebook.com/drew.mclellan * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/drewmclellan * Email: drew@agencymanagementinstitute.com * Website: agencymanagementinstitute.com * Website: www.drewmclellan.com
Matt Curry was diagnosed at an early age with Attention Deficit Disorder (A.D.D.) and suffered with the typical symptoms: hyperactivity, trouble with finishing tasks and staying focused, being disruptive, not following the rules, being impulsive, etc. Matt has gone on to become a highly successful entrepreneur and automotive industry expert with more than 30 years' experience. From his first job changing tires at age 15 to his current accomplishments as a best-selling author and consultant, Matt is a visionary whose achievements have been recognized across the business world. Matt started his flagship company, Curry’s Auto Service, in 1997 with one shop and grew the company to 10 locations. When he sold his business, Curry’s had annual revenues of almost $20 million and had won numerous awards.
Secret – timesaving technique Matt believes in the "two-minute meeting" -- reinforce your company's policies every day. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Manage by walking around -- Matt believes you need to talk to every employee -- you can't just talk to the managers.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Matt got cocky and thought everything he touched turned to gold -- and Matt tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Problem-solving -- you have to get through the static and solve the problem."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Be prepared to be busy."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Wake up early, get there early, and work your butt off 2. Begin at the beginning 3. Have set of rigorous, written policies and procedures
How best to connect with Matt: * Facebook: www.facebook.com/matthybrid1 * Website: www.adashofcurry.com * Book: "The A.D.D Entrepreneur"
Marc Mawhinney has a passion for entrepreneurship, having started a number of businesses in his life and growing one to 100 employees. Marc is now on a mission to help coaches build stronger businesses! After becoming a coach, he saw the struggles that coaches face while trying to build a successful business, and decided to do something about it! He launched “Natural Born Coaches”, a daily podcast where he interviews successful coaches to share their advice with listeners, and he has created a number of innovative programs to help coaches get more clients and less stress, including his 6-week “Seize Your Niche” program!
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? Marc begins his day with the "Seinfeld Strategy" -- do what you need to do every single day and don't break the streak. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? "The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me." - Ayn Rand
How do you define success? Marc uses Bob Dylan's definition -- success is waking up in the morning, going to bed at night, and getting to do everything you want in between.
What strategy do you use to combat fear? Marc tries to stay out of his head and takes action -- and Marc tells the reasons why here.
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" is on the ball -- you can't haul them across the finish line.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we build an audience? 1. Choose something that you're good at 2. Don't give away everything
How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Hire a coach 2. Get a mentor 3. Stick with what you're good at
How best to connect with Marc: * Website: www.naturalborncoaches.com
Shelley Davidescu is a business mentor for health and wellness coaches and the founder of Clean Forks. Professionally trained in mental health, Shelley helps health and wellness coaches master their online business. Shelley teaches how to build trusting relationships with their audiences through powerful message and sharing vulnerable parts of their story to authentically attract more dream clients in a magnetic way. Shelley has been featured in Huffington Post, Mind Body Green, Elite Daily, and Fit Life TV.
Secret – timesaving technique Shelley loves to batch -- block out specific activities and only do that thing in those specific time. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Take care of yourself first -- Shelley gets up and goes for a walk before starting her work and then dives into mindset work.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Shelley was 20 minutes into a huge webinar and the audio was broken the whole time -- and Shelley tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "If you are in business -- you are in the people business."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Exist in your fear and harness it."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have a system for connecting with my audience before launching a product.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Systematize how you will connect with people.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Focus on people, not products 2. Share your own story 3. Stay connected to a tribe that really gets you and supports you
How best to connect with Shelley: * Website: www.cleanforks.com * Facebook Community: www.facebook.com/groups/930890123655960
Mitch Stephen is a nationally known real estate entrepreneur, trainer, and consultant who has purchased over 1,300 houses in his hometown of San Antonio, Texas. He is also the author of two books, “Failing Forward to Financial Freedom” and “200+ Ways to Find Bargain Properties.” Mitch is a high school graduate who never stopped learning from books, seminars, and webinars, a graduate of "La Calle U" (which means “The Street" in Spanish), and a fine example of what “on-the-job-training” can produce in a person. Mitch now teaches others how to become financially independent and invest for more than just the typical lump-sum check.
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? Mitch has the systems in place so that he can spend the first hour of his day in bed answering emails -- and then his day begins. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? "Action overcomes fear."
How do you define success? Success is a business that relatively recession proof.
What strategy do you use to combat fear? Mitch believes that financial freedom isn't tied to wealth -- and Mitch tells the reasons why here.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? 1. Don't make excuses -- find the right deal
How can we build an audience? 1. Talk to someone else who has already built the platform you want
How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Never -- ever -- stop your education
How best to connect with Mitch: * http://1000houses.com/
Stacy Tuschl is a speaker, business coach, and the owner of The Academy of Performing Arts in Wisconsin. She is the author of “Is Your Business Worth Saving” where she reveals proven strategies for pulling entrepreneurs out of a rut and launching them toward business success. She is the host of the brilliant podcast Business Rescue Road Map, which became the #1 podcast in iTunes New & Noteworthy just 48-hours after launch!
What is your show structure? Business Rescue Road Map airs three episodes a week -- interviews with high-achieving entrepreneurs on Monday and Wednesday and a solocast on Friday. Stacy loves the mix, especially since she gets to learn answers to questions like whether or not work-life balance exists.
Collection, Engagement, Conversion -- how do these tie into the success of your podcast? 1. Collection is the opt-in -- you have to provide something so valuable that people can't believe you're giving it away for free 2. Engagement -- you have to stand out when everyone is doing the same thing 3. Conversion -- if your free stuff is great, they'll be ready and waiting to hand you their money
What impact has your podcast had on your business? 1. The relationships I'm building -- I get free mentorship from people who charge a lot for consulting 2. The opportunities -- guest appearances on other podcasts, affiliate opportunities, etc.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful at podcasting People are listening to your show -- you need to understand that people are there for your opinion and not just your guests -- so have a real conversation.
What was your biggest obstacle -- or challenge? Launching is a challenge -- so you need to have a great strategy and support team around you.
How many hours a week do you spend on podcasts? I spend only my Wednesdays on podcasts by batching them. And even though I air two episodes a week -- I record three episodes a week so I can build inventory.
What was your biggest unexpected surprise? Even though the podcast didn't exist at that point -- I was able to get some amazing people to be my initial guests. Don't sell yourself short because people will look into you.
How best to connect with Stacy: * Website: StacyTuschl.com * Free invite email: stacytuschl.com/onwardnation * New podcast: businessrescueroadmap.com
Richard Sheridan, author of "Joy, Inc.", has never shied from challenges or opportunities. Rich’s focus has always been on technology, his passion is process, and teamwork with the goal of Joy.
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? Rich's day starts with coffee, has breakfast, and checks his email -- keep yourself connected to the world. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? "Everyone wants to work on something bigger than themselves."
How do you define success? Success is service to others.
What strategy do you use to combat fear? Rich believes you lose creativity, innovation, imagination, and invention when you motivate with fear -- and Rich tells the reasons why here.
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? Rich doesn't believe in the "A Player" mindset -- he believes in great teammates that put others first.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Define joy -- who's life do you want to make better?
How best to connect with Rich: * Website: www.menloinnovations.com * Twitter: @menloprez * Email: rsheridan@menloinnovations.com * Book: "Joy, Inc."
Jim McCabe is Vice President and General Manager for SUCCESS. With 25-years experience in the media industry, Jim has seen the industry change from traditional print to early digital adoption, and finally, print and digital integration, and has successfully led major publications through these challenges. Before joining SUCCESS in 2014, Jim’s leadership as a partner at LongBoard Media, executive vice president of PC Mag, and publisher of Fast Company and Worth magazine earned him a reputation as a champion for leading print publications into the digital age.
Secret – timesaving technique Jim writes down a list of priorities -- continuously evaluate what needs to be done. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Work on your relationships -- Jim connects with everyone on his team every day.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Focus -- determine with your team what you want to accomplish, where you want to go, and a clear path on getting there."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "It's more important to include people than exclude people."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems should business owners put into place sooner? I would put in personal development systems -- people value other people that are trying to get better.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Be committed to the purpose 2. Have courage 3. Be flexible
How best to connect with Jim: * Website: www.success.com * Email: editor@success.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/SUCCESSmagazine * Twitter: @successmagazine * Podcast: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/success-insider/id1091005446?mt=2
Rosalie Chamberlain specializes in maximizing talent and productivity within organizations. Her mission is helping organizations become inclusive environments where everyone has the opportunity to succeed and to help individuals become their best authentic self to lead effective careers and lives. She is a nationally recognized consultant, facilitator, coach, and speaker in the areas of diversity and inclusion strategy, multicultural competency, leadership development, and talent management, with expertise in managing and leveraging diverse talent. She is the author of Conscious Leadership in the Workplace: A Guidebook to Making a Difference One Person at a Time; and has been quoted in numerous national and legal publications, as well as The New York Times.
Secret – timesaving technique Rosalie schedules everything on her calendar -- block out your schedule. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success It is all about self-awareness -- Rosalie pauses, thinks, and is intentional about her actions.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Rosalie was kind of lonely after moving to Denver -- and Rosalie tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Self-awareness -- we cannot get to where we want to go if we don't know where we are."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Purpose is concerned with every task that you do."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had gotten assistance sooner.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Be collaborative -- we need the diversity of ideas.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would have integrity and authenticity.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? Look fear in the face, acknowledge it fully, and take it apart. Use this FEAR acronym:
- Fight or flight
- Exclude
- Avoidance
- Respond
How best to connect with Rosalie: * Website: rosaliechamberlainconsulting.com * Email: rosalie@rosaliechamberlainconsulting.com * Twitter: @RosalieChamberl * Facebook: www.facebook.com/rosalie.p.chamberlain
Good Morning Onward Nation…I’m Stephen Woessner. During today’s solocast…I am going to dig really deep — get personal — and share a story that will push my comfort zone quite a bit — but — the lesson in teamwork is powerful and that is why I want to share it with you, Onward Nation.
And so for this solocast — I am following the advice of many of our Onward Nation guests — when you feel that anxiety bubbling up — when you feel anxious about a topic — about a problem — about a situation in your business — you are likely headed in the right direction.
Don’t run from it — instead — run toward it.
Don’t let your fear overpower you — run toward the situation, Onward Nation — and you will likely be running toward your destiny.
You see…your destiny is really big, impressive, and if God were to reveal it to you all at once…it would likely frighten the living daylights out of you…without the context of how you will also grow along the way in order to get there.
So today, I am going to share a story about a situation that caused me to grow — it pushed me like I had never been pushed before — and I grew as a result.
And then nothing I have faced ever since has even come close to being anywhere close to as difficult of a challenge.
Nothing, Onward Nation. Because of this one day…I feel prepared to tackle any challenge — but not going at it alone.
No…this is not lone wolf story — this is not a story about individual heroism — or some sort of self-aggrandizing.
No, this is a story about teamwork and what happens when you and your team decide to follow what my good friend and mentor, Don Yaeger discusses in his newly released book, “Great Teams”…when he illustrates in detail how great teams win in critical situations.
I had the privilege of interviewing Don for a third time recently — and — we aired Episode 282 yesterday so he could take us deep inside his latest book, “Great Teams — the 16 things high performing organizations do differently.”
And Don’s principle of how Great Teams win in critical situations was so inspiring to me that I wanted to share how I have seen this personally play out and hopefully this story will have value to you — despite how it is pushing my comfort zone to share this with you.
To take you deep inside this principle of Great Teams — I am going to take you back to the summer of 1990…June 17, 1990, to be exact.
Don Yaeger has been as our incredible guest in Episodes 2 and 160. He is also one of Stephen Woessner’s (host of Onward Nation) most influential mentors -- and someone who keeps him on the straight and narrow both professionally and in life. Don is the author of over two dozen books, a 9-time New York Times bestselling author (soon to be 10) a highly sought after, nationally acclaimed professional speaker, and one of the world’s leading authorities on what makes the great teams great -- and -- how to put their proven practices into application inside any organization -- to propel a team to new levels of achievement.
Why did you write "Great Teams"? Don was challenged to study this topic -- and he talks all about going on the road and talking to all the great team leaders in the episode.
What was the process like? Don talks about defining what a great team is -- and -- choosing who to study.
What are the parallels from Great Sports Teams and Great Business Teams? It's your team that is going to make or break your business.
What are the four essential pillars teams use to create the right culture? 1. Target purpose 2. Effective management 3. Activating efficiency 4. Mutual direction
How are Great Teams able to stay relevant? 1. Talent comes and goes -- Great Teams focus on culture. 2. The grit -- and the glue
Why is leadership the core of the Great Team? Leadership has to inspire others -- trust allows you the opportunity to do something special.
How best to connect with Don: * Don's new book "Great Teams: 16 Things High Performing Organizations Do Differently" * Don's Free Grit and Glue survey (and corresponding report)
Geoffrey Colon works at the intersection of marketing, tech, and popular culture. Data punk, DJ, podcaster, and author of the book Disruptive Marketing, Geoffrey is a communications designer at Microsoft, where he leads a team of disruptive marketers to develop creative and analytical strategies for the company’s search advertising business. Previously he was vice president of digital strategy at Ogilvy & Mather, digital communities supervisor at 360i, and social media specialist at Bond Strategy and Influence. He has written for The Futurist, Advertising Age, and Fast Company, and been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Billboard Magazine, Advertising Age, Los Angeles Times, and on NPR.
Secret – timesaving technique Geoffrey believes in having periods of the day away from technology -- we aren't designed to be around them all the time. ONWARD!
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Soft skills -- they come with time and learning."
How best to connect with Geoffrey: * Website: geoffreycolon.net * Twitter: @djgeoffe * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/geoffreycolon
Lori Jones is the President and CEO of Avocet Communications and brings top retail, consumer product, business-to-business and nonprofit organizations knowledge and experience in all aspects of integrated marketing to clients. Her experience with Fortune 500 brands and entrepreneurial start-ups, enables her to contribute a keen understanding of the intricacies today’s businesses. Lori is also the host of the brilliant podcast, Integrate and Ignite, recently launched on iTunes and soaring up the charts. You may also remember Lori and the wisdom she shared during episode 130 of Onward Nation. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all that Lori shared during our first interview…we highly encourage you to add episode 130 to your list of vital priorities.
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? Lori gets up at about 4 AM, gets some of the things off of her desk that she was not able to complete the previous day, does some heavy thinking for the day, and wakes up her children -- cherish the important moments. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? "Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon." - Paul Brandt
How do you define success? There are personal, business, and mentorship forms of success -- and Lori shares how she defines the three kinds in the episode.
What strategy do you use to combat fear? Lori reflects on pros and cons of a situation with pen and paper and then takes 24 hours to think about it -- and Lori tells the reasons why here.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Work on a personal brand to differentiate yourself from the competition 2. Develop a brand manifesto
How best to connect with Lori: * Twitter: @LoriJones * Email: lori@avocetcommunications.com
Aaron Anastasi is a serial entrepreneur with online businesses such as Superior Songwriting Method, Singing Success, and the internationally recognized, Superior Singing Method, an online singing lesson program that grosses seven-figures annually. Aaron has the #1 singing / life lesson channel on YouTube and has over 11.5 million organic views and over 130 thousand subscribers total on his three channels. Aaron is also a prominent success coach for clients in industry-leading roles, ranging from film directors to marine biologists to TEDx speakers. His new book, The Voice of Your Dreams, was released in April 2016 and reached Amazon's top 100 best sellers within the first week of release.
Secret – timesaving technique Aaron starts his day with meditation -- go over examples that refute the lies you tell yourself. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Give yourself time to refresh throughout the day -- Aaron goes into his walk-in closet to renew his mindset.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Aaron launched a product to zero customers -- and Aaron tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Commitment and tenacity."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "You can be 30 years old with a degree or you can be 30 years old without a degree."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had an assistant sooner.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Keep your vision front and center and rehearse it every day.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Ask yourself how you can contribute the most 2. Find and hone your voice 3. Get a coach
How best to connect with Aaron: * Website: thevoiceofyourdreams.com * Twitter: @AaronAnastasi * Instagram: @AaronAnastasi * Facebook: www.facebook.com/aaronanastasi
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation…I’m Stephen Woessner. I hope you are having a wonderful week — a week filled with new opportunities in your business, new relationships personally and professionally, and yes, I even hope you have experienced some challenges along your path this week, too.
Why?
Because it is through the challenges that you are given the opportunity — the blessing — to grow, to make changes, and to learn. It is through the challenges — even the fiercest of obstacles that try to impede you on your path — that is when you are truly tested – and success is right at your doorstep.
You will grow the most, Onward Nation, when you are pushed to your limits — when you are…stress-tested. When I think about my darkest times as a business owner — or — when I think back to how when I was in the Air Force and situations sometimes went from bad to worse while I was working on a nuclear missile silo in South Dakota — I never quit — but more importantly — I looked at those challenges as opportunities to learn, grow, and oftentimes improve the system.
But part of being able to push through the challenges and achieve success as has more to do with our mindset than external factors. It is your belief system – what you believe you can do that will largely determine if you succeed or fail.
Your belief system – Onward Nation – is a complex interwoven network of inputs – your experiences – the people you spend the most time with – and so on. But there is one voice you hear and listen to most often – and this voice is the one that has the greatest amount of influence over your belief system.
And that one voice is yours Onward Nation. You speak to you more often throughout the day – consciously or unconsciously – than anyone else.
Your voice is the one that helps create beliefs, destroy previously held beliefs, and sets the trajectory of your life.
So it matters how you talk to yourself every day, Onward Nation.
And let's dive in.
Ford Saeks is the president & CEO of Prime Concepts Group. Ford’s extensive background in the business world and the Internet provides his clients with a unique advantage. His practical marketing approach and proven strategies have been applied across a wide range of industries and applications. He has successfully founded 10 companies, received three U.S. Patents, sold millions in sales, and is the genius behind many successful ventures. He has helped thousands of people improve results, monetize their websites, leverage social media, and expand market share. He is an entrepreneur in every sense.
Secret – timesaving technique Ford uses Act to block time -- use a CRM that fits you to save yourself time. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success What you focus on you attract -- Ford starts every day with positive messages.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Ford marketed an event for a year and only sold 65 tickets -- and Ford tells the whole story here.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Create a "dream board" of what you want to do, have, and become 2. Create a success library 3. Only surround yourself with quality people 4. Make sure you take time for yourself
How best to connect with Ford: * Text "superpower" to 33444 for a special bonus * Website: www.primeconcepts.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/primeconcepts
Nicole Walters quit her 6-figure, 9 to 5 corporate job LIVE in front of 10,000 people on Periscope...and six months later...she built a million dollar business while teaching others how to monetize their passions. Monetize Thyself™ Nicole is creating a transformative lifestyle brand that offers online training courses, consulting, mentorship, networking, and a full suite of resources to help everyday people -- brands -- and leaders -- realize their full potential.
Secret – timesaving technique Nicole uses the tool Wunderlist -- use the tools that exist to make your life easier. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Talk to your audience -- Nicole starts her day with social media.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Nicole scrapped her product and redid it before launching -- and Nicole tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Listen to your audience -- and -- be responsive."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "You don't need to listen to everything -- listen to what speaks to you."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had ran surveys right from the beginning.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? You need to use multivariate beta testing within your team.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? If you're having trouble selling something:
- Fix how you're selling something
- Fix what you're selling
How best to connect with Nicole: * Website: www.nicolewalters.tv * Twitter: @NapturalNicole
Coach Jim Johnson developed winning high-school basketball teams for 30 years, taking over three losing varsity programs and turning them into winners in short periods of time. Of his 428 career victories, one in particular will surely never be duplicated. On February 15, 2006, Coach Johnson made the kind-hearted gesture of inserting his autistic manager, Jason McElwain, now known to the world as J-Mac, into Greece Athena High School’s final home game, which the Trojans won 79-43. J-Mac scored 20 points in just over four minutes, including six three-point baskets, to become an instant national celebrity. Since that night in February, Coach Johnson has made a number of radio and television appearances, including the Oprah Winfrey and Jim Rome shows to tell this incredible story. Coach Johnson has retired from teaching and is now a professional speaker focusing on teamwork, goal setting leading by example.
Secret – timesaving technique Jim studies success and leadership -- you have to make life a study. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Have a specific morning routine -- Jim starts his day off with a nutritious breakfast and then takes the time to pray, writes down his 17 goals, reads, exercises, and listens to educational and inspirational audio.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Jim had anarchy amongst the parents of his basketball team -- and Jim tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Know what you're all about -- and master the art of sales."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "You have to live your life with integrity."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had systems for leading to new opportunities following speaking engagements.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Be clear on your mission and vision -- and then attract those are passionate about your vision.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would believe in the same values that you do.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Be clear on what you're all about 2. Come up with routines and disciplines that you can do on a daily basis 3. Continue to grow as a person
How best to connect with Jim: * Website: coachjimjohnson.com
A recent speech from Jim:
Kelly Hatfield is co-founder of Enginuity Advantage based in Everett, Washington. She has been in the recruiting and HR field for 20-years and loves serving others. Kelly and her business partner have built three successful companies with the purpose of helping others succeed and delivering remarkable results. Kelly and her team strategically align themselves as “The Partner of Choice” with clients and strive to be the first place clients call when they are looking for extraordinary service, quality, and reliability. The result outcome has been an outstanding referral network that has built and continues to build their companies. h3>Secret – timesaving technique Kelly plans tomorrow today -- you can't sleepwalk through your day. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Appreciate what you have -- Kelly starts her day with gratitude.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Kelly's most challenging time was the first two years of her business -- and Kelly tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Be really, really open-minded."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Anything you set your mind to, you will be successful at."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have implemented our onboarding system sooner.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Start with the end in mind -- and start with your vision.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would focus on building relationships -- not the sale.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Know your why 2. Be clear about your vision and direction 3. Focus on sales and marketing
How best to connect with Kelly: * Email: kelly@enginuityadvantage.com
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation…I’m Stephen Woessner. And thank you for taking the time to be here this morning…and for all the support, the encouragement, and the notes letting us know how we can improve and deliver even more value.
I appreciate the feedback so very much.
Each week — we receive virtual high fives, thumbs up, posts on Facebook, Tweets, LinkedIn messages, and emails letting us know how much Onward Nation means to you as well as the value delivered by the incredible transparent lessons learned shared by our rock star guests.
I want you to know that my team and I are deeply committed to our mission and purpose of sharing practical and tactical insights you need in order to think, act, and achieve like today’s top business owners — so you can move your business onward to that next level.
So thank you, again, Onward Nation — it is an honor to be here with you — just 2 days after July 4th — a day for us to remember how fortunate and blessed we are to live in a free country — where we can chart our own course — where we can be a business owner if we choose to be — and where we can create the life of our dreams…if we just have the grit, the persistence, the tenacity, and the courage to do so.
Thank you also for helping us celebrate our recent 1-year anniversary. Episode 258 on June 15th with Wendy Keller as our great guest marked 12 full months of Onward Nation…and what started as our mission to help business owners here in the United States…quickly spread globally.
In fact, two of our early guests, Afraa Zammam in Episode 9 and Albrecht Behmel in Episode 12— both business owners from Germany — started our international expansion, which has grown steadily to the point that our episodes are listened to in 91 countries around the world. 91!
So thank you, Onward Nation — thank you for everything.
It is hard for me to express just how much these last 12-months have meant to my team and me. To be able to see our hard work provide so much value is rewarding.
And…it is especially rewarding to me because I know the backstory…the story of how Onward Nation almost never happened.
This dream of ours almost never got off the ground.
The concept of Onward Nation could have vanished before it ever started — if — I would have let FEAR cheat us out of our full potential.
So for today’s solocast, I am going to take you deep behind the green curtain of Onward Nation — and — deep behind my personal green curtain by sharing Onward Nation’s startup story — it is a story about fear, about procrastination, perseverance, and then success — but — FEAR could have derailed Onward Nation from launching or from becoming a top-ranked business podcasts that it is today.
Stephen Christopher is the founder of Seequs Marketing Technologies, a web marketing firm designed to help business owners achieve results they never thought possible. Before starting Seequs, Stephen started and ran several other award-winning businesses. One of which was a mortgage company from 2004 to 2008. With the crash of the mortgage industry in 2008, he learned what it’s like to go from profitable to over $100,000 in debt overnight. From this failure, he learned more about business than any school or program could ever teach. Since then he has become an avid student of personal and business development and his number one focus is helping businesses thrive.
Secret – timesaving technique Stephen uses a daily tracker that tracks his 3 big daily wins, his daily "aha's," and his daily accomplishments -- the power of forward progress is amazing. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Be very deliberate with where you spend your time -- Stephen monitors his minutes.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Stephen's partners weren't working as hard as him -- and Stephen tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Be persistent -- don't let anything get in your way."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "We have the power to choose to focus on the positive instead of the negative."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have painted a clear vision and had a niche focus for my business.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Know your why 2. Remember that fear is fake
How best to connect with Stephen: * Email: stephen@seequs.com * Website: bizrevolution.com * Stephen's Daily Success Tracker
Greg Kaplan is a college application strategist and author of Earning Admission: Real Strategies for Getting into Highly Selective Colleges. Greg focuses on empowering families to develop their children’s high-value skills, interests, and passions and market the value they would bring to colleges. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business and UC Irvine School of Law, where he received almost a full tuition scholarship.
Secret – timesaving technique Greg writes down today the tasks he needs to accomplish tomorrow -- go to bed with a plan. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Take the time to invest in your health and happiness -- Greg works out early every morning.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Greg didn't launch well and considered backing out -- and Greg tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Be flexible and understand the changing market."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Cash flow is key."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had reached out for more support.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Never lose sight of the forest through the trees -- keep the big picture in mind.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would have perspective that I don't have.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Be flexible and open-minded about collaboration and outsourcing
How best to connect with Greg: * Website: www.earningadmission.com * Twitter: @Greg_Earn_Admsn
Lee Caraher started Double Forte in 2002 as a new kind of communications firm designed to provide the best service in the business. Previously Executive Vice President at Weber Shandwick, president and founder of Red Whistle, and Vice President of SEGA, Lee has managed multiple offices and hundreds of people of all ages and was named in the 40 under 40 by PRWEEK Magazine. She holds a bachelor’s degree in medieval history -- which she finds useful every day. She lives with her husband and two sons on the San Francisco Peninsula.
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? Lee gets up, doesn't look at email, goes for a walk, listens to a podcast, showers, dresses, and is off to work -- master your calendar, don't let your calendar master you. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? Focus is your friend.
How do you define success? Success is delivering on currency -- and currency isn't just money.
What strategy do you use to combat fear? Lee has two provisions in place in her contracts -- and Lee tells the reasons why here.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Don't try to do it by yourself 2. Figure out a side gig
How best to connect with Lee: * Website: www.leecaraher.com * Twitter: @LeeCaraher * Facebook: www.facebook.com/LeeCaraher1
Swen Nater didn’t make his high school basketball team and didn’t start one college game. Yet, Onward Nation…he made it to the NBA. But Swen didn’t just make it to professional basketball; he excelled. His INCREDIBLE STORY, from being born in the Netherlands and rising the NBA, is a must hear — and that is why I invited Swen to be here this morning. After his playing career, Swen went on to become an executive at a Fortune 500 company, has authored six books, and is now a highly sought after speaker.
Secret – timesaving technique Swen uses the same tactics in life that he did when rebounding in the NBA -- it's how you face change that's important. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success You've got to work hard to be the best you can be -- Swen gets up at 4 AM and reads.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Swen was horribly abused as a kid -- and Swen tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful You haven't taught until they've learned."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Great teachers have high expectations."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Make the effort to become the best you're capable of
How best to connect with Swen: * Website: www.swennater.com
Nathan Jamail has either been setting sales records or training others on how to do so for more than two decades. Nathan has produced top performing sales teams in business sales, direct consumer sales, indirect sales, as well as distribution and marketing for several Fortune 100 companies. Today, he is the president of Jamail Development Group where he trains, coaches, and mentors sales professionals and leaders in many industries. His latest book “The Leadership Playbook”, is ideal for all leaders in any capacity- teaching successful coaching principals. He is known as an invincible sales leader, with the ability to take the lowest producing areas of the country and build exemplary business teams. His coaching and programs implement strong positive belief systems and creates winning environments within organizations cultivating the highest levels of success. His coaching and training programs have helped organizations increase their productivity up to and over 300%.
Secret – timesaving technique Nathan gets up 30 minutes earlier than he likes to -- use this extra time to get your mind right. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Commit to "The Big 3" -- Nathan writes down the big three things he needs to get done tomorrow.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Nathan ran out of all of his savings in just 30 days -- and Nathan tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "You've got to be able to coach people."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Practice your skill."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. You've got to be willing to go for broke 2. There is no work that's out of bounds 3. There's no such thing as life and work balance -- be present
How best to connect with Nathan: * Website: nathanjamail.com
Craig Haworth is passionate youth sports coach, a husband, a father of three, and a believer that coaches can change the self-esteem and future of the young people we coach. He believes in his passion so much that he started Winning Youth Coaching in 2014 to share coaching successes and lessons with other parent coaches who share this passion of the impact, responsibility, and fun of positive coaching. He is also the host of a successful podcast where he interviews great coaches from around the country, writes a blog, and shares expert resources. Craig has also co-founded a mastermind of like-minded entrepreneurs in the youth sports space, called the Sportepreneurs.
Secret – timesaving technique Craig is deliberate about scheduling out when he checks email and social media -- get the "time vampires" off your bus. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Make sure you're learning as much as possible -- Craig listens to audio books and podcasts.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Craig launched to crickets -- and Craig tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Define who your customer is and understand their needs."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Have a clear vision of where you're going."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have reset my mindset -- I would have chosen to be confident.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Sell a product before you build it.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would realize my vision -- and it's up to me to communicate that vision effectively.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. You have to have the passion 2. Be ready to not make money for two years
How best to connect with Craig: * Website: www.winningyouthcoaching.com * Website: www.winningyouthcoaching.com/onwardnation
Alan Becker is the CEO and Founder of Retirement Solutions Group, Inc., and founder of RSG Investments, Inc., a leader in the world of financial security for pre-retirees and retirees. With over 18 years of helping his clients learn to plan with purpose, Alan utilizes his proprietary financial tools in addition to the best available industry services.
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? Alan begins his day by thinking in the shower, spending time with his family, and working on his physical and mental health -- make sure the beginning of the day prepares you for the day ahead . ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? If it's not good enough for family, it's not good enough for clients.
How do you define success? Success is how you impact others people lives.
What strategy do you use to combat fear? Alan believes that you have to invest in yourself -- and Alan tells the reasons why here.
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" has to go to work, put in the time, and be willing to do what others won't.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? 1. Lead by example 2. Be open to others opinions
How can we build an audience? 1. Figure out what your brand represents and always put that foot forward
How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Drop your ego -- there's no I in team 2. Trust your team 3. Take a chance
How best to connect with Alan: * Website: rsgusa.net * Email: planning@rsgusa.net
Craig Ballantyne is a productivity and success transformation coach from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and the author of The Perfect Day Formula: How to Own the Day and Control Your Life. He’s been a contributor to Men's Health Magazine since 2000. On his own journey to success, Craig had to overcome crippling anxiety attacks, and he beat them with his 5 Pillars of Transformation. Today, Craig shows men and women how to use the 5 Pillars to lose 10 to 75 pounds, get a raise, make more money, find the love of their life, and overcome any obstacle in the way of success.
Secret – timesaving technique Craig utilizes the "brain dump" to get his ideas down on paper -- success today started last night. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Wake up 15 minutes early -- Craig gets up early and uses that time to think about his #1 priority.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Craig had crippling anxiety attacks -- and Craig tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "You need the skill of saying no."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "You can't out give the universe."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have put in the system of getting up right away in the morning and writing.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Come in, be prepared, and focus on your #1 priority.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would leverage great content.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Pick your one bullet -- you can't do 19 things at once 2. Take a 100-year approach for your business -- do what you'll be proud of
How best to connect with Craig: * Website: www.earlytorise.com * Website: www.craigballantyne.com
Jodi Flynn left a successful career in the financial industry to help business leaders who are experiencing self-doubt and overwhelm in order to overcome stress, get organized, and create the business and the life they’ve dreamt. Jodi is also the host of the brilliant podcast, Women Taking the Lead, where she inspires women to overcome self-doubt and lead with confidence, integrity, and a sense of humor.
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? Jodi begins her day by checking her phone, and after that she puts it away and stretches, meditates, exercises, and gets going -- go forth into the day calm and relaxed. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all." -- Helen Keller
How do you define success? Success means being financially secure and doing meaningful work.
What strategy do you use to combat fear? Jodi believes you shouldn't suppress the fear -- and Jodi tells the reasons why here.
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" is someone who is in the right culture -- they're working for a team aligned in their vision.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? 1. It can't be about you -- find out what your protege wants 2. Listen from a place of curiosity
How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Reach out to the people you admire and try to work with them or their coach 2. Delegate some of the day-to-day
How best to connect with Jodi: * Website: womentakingthelead.com/
Nicole is a true leader, risk-taker, and entrepreneur. She grew up in a family-owned business, which taught Nicole what it took to be a leader. She worked her way up to president of ROC Communications, an automotive electronics retailer with $5 million in annual sales. During her tenure, the company grew from a one-location, $1 million a year company with 10 employees to a multi-location, $5 million a year company with 60 employees. Fast forward to today — and after several successful ventures — Nicole is now the owner of Break the Ice Media. A boutique marketing and communications firm with a focus on food, wine, travel, and hospitality. Nicole and her team specialize in collaborations that leverage resources of multiple partners for the creation of successful marketing programs in the travel and hospitality industry. Nicole and her team think of these programs as coop-etition where partners cooperate with their competition to create a program that is larger than one they can execute alone.
Secret – timesaving technique Nicole lists out the top five things she needs to get done each day -- even if the tasks are small -- you need to list them out to stay focused. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Remember to breathe -- Nicole uses deep breathing techniques to unclutter her mind.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Nicole had to step away from the business and hire an employee she couldn't afford when her daughter got sick -- and Nicole tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "You just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Change the words you tell yourself."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have understood my finances.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Collaboration.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would be dedicated to themselves.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Be decisive 2. Be strategic 3. Trust your instincts
How best to connect with Nicole: * Website: breaktheicemedia.com * Email: nicole@breaktheicemedia.com
David Blackston founded the Blackston Financial Group in 1998 and is also a Certified Estate Planner®, Certified Senior Advisor®, Investment Advisor Representative, and a Licensed Insurance Agent. He has over 40 years of experience in the financial industry and is one of the authors of the recently published book, "Have You Ever Been Bitten by an Elephant? The Definitive Guide for Retiring Well." David's unique approach to financial planning includes investment advisory services, tax forecasting, and estate planning — all working together to provide a comprehensive plan for clients. His methods include safe money, risk money, and how these two competing worlds can be brought together to provide a worry-free lifestyle.
Secret – timesaving technique David has mentors that keep him in check -- if you don't have a mentor, get one. ONWARD!
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience David felt that he wasn't worthy of mentors -- and David tells the whole story here.
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Be the exception."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Believe in yourself 2. Get a mentor
How best to connect with David: * Website: blackstonfinancialgroup.com * Phone: (888)319-5656 * Website: david.blackston@blackstonfinancialgroup.com
Charles Kirkland is the founder of the Media Buyer Association and has deep expertise in paid online traffic. He was frustrated with his limited ability to help more than a few coaching students at a time and angry that the business owners he could not reach were being lead down a path by hucksters. So he set out to change the situation by created a paid traffic community that would allow him to interact with thousands of business owners, share his expert knowledge, save others from seeing their businesses die slowly from lack of quality traffic.
Secret – timesaving technique Charles gets plenty of sleep, exercise, and water -- staying up until you fall over while hyped up on caffeine is not the answer. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Don't waste effort planning what you want to wear -- Charles lays out his clothes every evening before bed.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Charles had Google close his ad accounts -- and Charles tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "The ability to learn new skills quickly."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "You need to do one thing really, really, really good."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have put in systems that could be repeatable by someone else.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Always optimize.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Believe in yourself 2. Just keep going
How best to connect with Charles: * Website: mediabuyerassociation.com
Paul Kirch is the host of BOSS Academy Radio…and BOSS stands for Business Ownership Success Strategies. BOSS is an interactive talk show focused on providing entrepreneurs and business owners real strategies to help them grow their business. Paul is a sales leader and entrepreneur with more than 26 years of practical experience that he leverages for commentary, interview interaction and thought leadership. Paul’s unique perspective stems from a lengthy career in sales, marketing, research, leadership, and business growth — and that’s what it takes to succeed in business today.
Secret – timesaving technique Paul focuses on his "why" when planning out his day -- build your schedule around your "why." ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Morning rituals are extremely critical -- Paul meditates and stays away from technology for the first 15 minutes every morning.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Paul has experienced a number of times where his personal life hindered his ability to do business -- and Paul tells the whole story here.
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Always be a resource to your clients, prospects, and anyone you run into."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. If you want to do it, start sooner than later 2. Create your own personal board of directors
How best to connect with Paul: * Website: www.bossacademy.com * Email: info@bossacademy.com * Twitter: @yourbossacademy
Wendy Keller is an award-winning former journalist, a respected literary agent, an author, speaker and acclaimed book marketing consultant. She got her first job as a newspaper reporter as a 16-year-old college freshman. Since then, Wendy worked for PR Newswire; the Knight-Ridder newspaper chain; as managing editor of Dateline magazine.
Favorite quote or lesson? Stay in the present moment -- and -- look at the situation from the other person's perspective.
How do you define success? Success is freedom -- Wendy craves the ability to set her own tasks.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? 1. Ask questions 2. Listen for the answers 3. Trust your instincts
How can we build an audience? 1. Build a Facebook public figure page 2. Utilize "giver's gain" -- write an eBook, create an MP3, create an instructional video, etc.
How best to connect with Wendy: * Book: "Ultimate Guide to Platform Building" * Business website: www.kellermedia.com/ * Email: help@kellermedia.com
Suzanne Doyle-Ingram is the best-selling author of seven books, and she has written or co-written a total of 13 books. She coaches and trains business professionals on how to write and publish a book, AND how to use that book as leverage to increase their visibility, open doors for speaking engagements, grow their brand and business, and much more. Suzanne has also helped over a hundred business professionals get published by bringing together the collaborative efforts of experts in various fields that contribute to one book on a specific topic. Suzanne has had tremendous success with this model.
Secret – timesaving technique Suzanne knows what she's doing by the time she gets to her desk -- always plan tomorrow today. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Live your life with positivity -- Suzanne believes that anything is possible.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Suzanne lost about $100,000 overnight -- and Suzanne tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "If you can focus on one thing at a time -- you will achieve success a lot faster."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Sales is all about giving someone an opportunity -- and if they don't want it -- just move on to someone else."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have created detailed, weekly checklists.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? 30-30-30 -- reach out to 30 people every day -- respond to those who want to work with you within 30 minutes -- and look at your notes from the past week for 30 minutes.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Focus on one niche 2. You're going to fail -- pick yourself up 3. Work long hours
How best to connect with Suzanne: * Website: prominencepublishing.com
Glenn Edley is the founder and CEO of Spike, a digital agency that specializes in email marketing and are experts in monetizing a database. Spike works with businesses that range from retail to real estate, baby clothing to health stores, insurance, recruitment and energy providers. Glenn and his team use the insights gained from email campaigns and business data to help companies send “Email With Purpose.” Glenn has always been passionate about helping business owners send better email because he believes having consistent and clear communication with your clients and customers is the best way to stay top of mind, sell stuff, and keep your customers.
Secret – timesaving technique Glenn does the things that drive his business forward -- you need to actually know what your vital priorities truly are. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Meditate with purpose -- Glenn uses breathing techniques to meditate.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Glenn business halved overnight -- and Glenn tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Grow future leaders in your business."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Nothing happens without a sale."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have started personal development programs for my teams sooner.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Clarity and consistency.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would listen to our clients and be great executors.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Have a database and focus on growing it 2. Document your processes 3. Find a mentor
How best to connect with Glenn: * Website: spikehq.com * Google "Glenn Edley"
Roger Whitney believes that retirement is not about managing money. Instead, retirement is about managing time. He is a certified financial planner and focused on helping people like walking the journey toward and into retirement. Roger is known as the Retirement Answer Man. Too many people sacrifice the life they have to make sure they are OK tomorrow. Roger is on a mission to change that. He wants to help change the concept of retirement and to help clients dream, plan, and live out their lives focused on the things they care about most.
Secret – timesaving technique Roger practices "box-breathing" and journals every evening before bed -- be as intentional as possible each day. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Keep yourself the right frame of mind -- Roger uses a specific affirmation every day.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Roger scrapped it all and started over -- and Roger tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Have lots of little conversations."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Retirement doesn't mean that you disengage from work that is meaningful -- it just means that you do it on your own terms."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had project management systems.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Give your 80% every day -- don't fall into the trap of burnout.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would be great communicators that could anticipate my needs.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Go build relationships 2. Create solutions that make people's lives easier 3. Do it consistently
How best to connect with Roger: * Podcast: The Retirement Answer Man * Website: rogerwhitney.com
Lyle Martin is a successful healthcare entrepreneur and corporate executive with 20+ years developing and leading teams in all operational and business functions. After 17-years in various commercial functions with AstraZeneca and Allergan, Lyle entered into the startup world by leading the go-to-market strategy and launch for two early-stage medical device companies. In July 2015, he founded Springboard Equity, a premier alternative investment marketplace dedicated exclusively to the healthcare industry with the mission of bringing capital to early-stage companies, while giving investors access to top deal-flow.
Secret – timesaving technique Lyle begins each week by writing down his three goals for each week -- make sure your daily activities fit your goals for the week. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Make communication a key part of your business -- Lyle has a daily routine of meeting with his core team members.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Lyle had to put his business on hold for six weeks after launch -- and Lyle tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "You have to have the ability and openness to adapt and maybe even completely pivot and change your business model."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Hire smart people and get out of the way."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have gotten to market as soon as possible.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? You have to have a customer centric attitude.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would be innovative.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Focus on the main thing 2. Hire smartly 3. Never give up
How best to connect with Lyle: * Email: lyle@springboardequity.com
Laura Leigh Clarke was formally trained in theoretical physics. Today, she's made it her mission to integrate spirituality, information theory, and quantum physics to help her clients and those around her realize possibilities beyond their comprehension. Her clients have found the ability to increase their income, 10X their lives, build wealth, and overcome their own internal barriers to creating the life they want. Laura is also a mastermind leader, business coach, digital nomad, martial artist, and the author of Wire Yourself for Wealth, Founder of ProsperityQM, and Creator of (VIRTUALLY) EVERYTHING STORY - the first of its kind online conference for screenwriters, novelists, and storytellers.
Secret – timesaving technique Laura doesn't open her email until well into her afternoon -- you need to avoid what she calls "decision-making fatigue." ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Take the time you need to get into the right place -- Laura regularly takes head space for herself.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Laura hired the wrong people -- and Laura tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Understand at the deepest level the stories that you're telling yourself -- these govern what you allow yourself to achieve."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "What if people want to work with you because of who you are -- not in spite of it?"
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had a really good hiring system.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Choose the one thing every day that's going to move the needle.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would understand what their role in the company's narrative is.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. No one thing is going to make or break your business 2. Every great story has conflict -- but you get to choose how to deal with it 3. Focus on writing the story of your life/business -- stop trying to rewrite failure
How best to connect with Laura: * Conference website: virtually.everythingstory.org/OnwardNation_interviews
Kellie Hill is a bestselling author and television personality, Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, founder of The Right Plan, and former International Radio Talk Show Host of Eat Well to Live Well with Kellie Hill. Battling back from near death, medical experts worldwide were astonished she was able to achieve miraculous results in a short time frame. Kellie now devotes her life and work to helping others find their optimal health and lose weight using only whole foods - no cans, boxes, or supplements. She has been helping others transform their lives quickly and simply, not just here in the United States, but across the globe.
Secret – timesaving technique Kellie makes priority lists every day -- focus on your top 3-5 priorities every day. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Don't get sidetracked online -- Kellie doesn't have a homepage other than Google.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Kellie had a heart attack -- and Kellie tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Focus and organization."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Don't sweat the small stuff."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have passed off my weaknesses and focused on my strengths.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Focus -- and make sure your entire team can focus.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would be great at customer service.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Surround yourself with the best people 2. Have great systems in place that don't rely on the business owner
How best to connect with Kellie: * Website: therightplan.com
Dr. Glenn Livingston is a psychologist and marketing consultant who's companies have sold more than $30,000,000 to Fortune 500 companies like AT&T, American Express, Citibank, Colgate-Palmolive, Whirlpool, Ford Motor Company, Lipton, Panasonic, Novartis, Nextel, and more. He's built and sold a 21 person online advertising company, co-founded a coach training and certification organization, and his latest incarnation rests on a lifetime of study into the nature of overeating. Disillusioned by what traditional psychology had to offer overweight and/or food obsessed individuals, Dr. Livingston spent several decades researching the nature of bingeing and overeating via work with his own patients AND a self-funded research program with more than 40,000 participants. Most important, however, was his own personal journey out of obesity and food prison to a normal, healthy weight and a much more lighthearted relationship with food.
Secret – timesaving technique Glenn goes back to sleep if he wakes up tired -- do what you need to do to take care of your body, mind, and soul. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Get things done -- Glenn works really to make sure there's not a ton that has to get done every day so that he can work on what he wants to work on.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Glenn learned that the bottom is a lot further down than you think it is -- and Glenn tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Reality, testing, and research."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "If your marketing isn't working -- break it in pieces."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have started hiring and delegating sooner.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Figure out the most important keyword in your business 2. Fail fast -- fail often -- fail cheap
How best to connect with Glenn: * Website: freemarketingaudios.com * Website: makethembuy.com
Michael Hauge has been one of Hollywood’s top script consultants, story experts, and speakers for more than 30 years. He coaches screenwriters, novelists, filmmakers, professional speakers, internet marketers and corporate leaders, helping transform their stories and their audiences using the principles and methods of Hollywood’s most successful movies. Michael is the author of “Selling Your Story in 60 Seconds” and the new 20th Anniversary Edition of his classic book Writing Screenplays That Sell. He has consulted on films starring – among many others - Will Smith, Tom Cruise, Reese Witherspoon, Julia Roberts and Morgan Freeman, and has presented lectures and workshops to more than 70,000 participants worldwide. According to Will Smith, “No one is better than Michael Hauge at finding what is most authentic in every moment of a story.”
What does transformation in storytelling mean? Transformation comes through the hero's inner journey -- it's what's going on inside the hero -- it's going from living in fear to living courageously.
How does transformation happen to the storyteller? The transformation happens to the hero when they are vulnerable enough to face their fears -- when you're willing to dig into your own fears when telling a story -- you're going to be forced to change along with the hero.
Why is the question "why?" so important in storytelling? Fear is rooted in the belief system -- beliefs are always logical but they're never true.
How best to connect with Michael: * (Virtually) Everything Story conference
Steve Jermanok left his job as a broker in Manhattan and booked a year-long ticket to the South Pacific in the summer of 1990. Upon his return, he would write his first article, “Dining with Descendants of Cannibals in Fiji”, for The Miami Herald. He is now considered one of the most prolific travel writers in North America, having explored more than 90 countries, and written over 1,500 articles on a range of subjects, from food to art to adventure. He has worked as a columnist for National Geographic Adventure, contributing editor for Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel, guest editor for The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, and writes regularly for The Boston Globe, Men’s Journal, and Yankee Magazine. In May 2012, Steve and his wife Lisa launched ActiveTravels, a new type of travel agency where your travel advisors have more than likely been to that one country that entices you. ActiveTravels has booked over 1,000 trips to all corners of the globe.
Secret – timesaving technique Steve is a master list-maker -- write down your most important tasks and then accomplish those tasks. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Constantly work on content creation -- Steve blogs about a travel topic every morning and promotes it on his social media.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Steve lost at least 15 editors when travel journalism hit a sorry decline -- and Steve tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Embrace all forms of marketing."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Enjoy the ride."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had an excellent support staff.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? It's all about the numbers -- have a year-end sales goal.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would have excellent communication skills.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Have the patience to plan out your business 2. Persevere through all the naysayers 3. Once the business is up and running; promote, promote, promote
How best to connect with Steve: * Phone: (617)614-9877 * Email: steve@activetravels.com
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation…I’m Stephen Woessner. And thank you for joining me for this week’s solocast.
I enjoy every solocast — and I especially enjoyed the solocasts the last several weeks. They have been so special because of the opportunity to open up and share a deeply personal story about one of my most influential mentors, my grandfather…and the impact he had on my life…and how one of those lessons was to never ever quit.
No matter what the odds — no matter the circumstances — no matter who believes in you, or doesn’t — no matter what — you keep pushing forward to pursue your version of total happiness.
My grandfather Peter Maronitis did that…when he came to this country, he couldn’t speak the language, he had no money, no social circle, no rich friends, he couldn’t go on to Kickstarter and raise funds for the restaurant he dreamed that he would open.
Nope.
But what did he do? He got to work…and saved his money…learned English, perfected his talents and skills in the kitchen, and six years after coming to the United States he had saved enough money to launch his dream. Six years, Onward Nation. Six.
A remarkable man — a humble man — who quietly did remarkable things.
How? Because he never ever quit.
And then last week, to be able to continue the momentum by sharing the story of Sylvester Stallone — how he was broker than broke — so broke that he didn’t have anything to eat — he couldn’t heat his New York City apartment so he had to go to the public library to find a warm seat — and so broke that he was forced to sell his dog, his best friend in the whole world, for $25 so he could buy some food.
That’s broke, Onward Nation.
And yet, despite it all — despite being rejected over 1,500 times — and despite being told that he looked funny, talked funny, and that he would never amount to anything — despite all of it…he didn’t quit.
He kept pushing forward — he met the conflict head on — transformed as a result of the conflict — and then became one of Hollywood’s most successful actors.
Because he refused to quit. Love that story.
So for today’s solocast lesson — I am going to continue that momentum — in what — on the surface, may seem like a strange way to do so.
Because today…I am going to share with you what is, in my opinion, one of the biggest, most expensive money draining mistakes that business owners make. And the mistake is made because they quit too soon. They don’t push for answers…they don’t do the depth of research they should…they assume someone on their team took care of it already…or they use the excuse of, “Ugh, Stephen, I don’t need to know how to do that…I have people on my team who can do that.”
In other words…they quit.
So what is the money draining mistake we are going to confront this morning? It’s search engine optimization, Onward Nation.
Jason Hartman is the host of 20 podcasts with over 3,000 episodes where he shares powerful strategies for business, investing, and living the good life. He is a genuine self-made multimillionaire and serial entrepreneur who has started 21 businesses in the investing, financing, real estate development, and tech spaces. He has owned properties in 11 states, had hundreds of tenants, and been involved in thousands of real estate transactions. Jason has visited 79 countries, enjoys adventure, fitness, and lifelong learning.
Secret – timesaving technique Jason sorts his priorities into three groups -- understand your A, B, & C priorities. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success "Keep the main thing the main thing" -- Jason applies this key Stephen Covey principle.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "You need management skills and business scaling skills."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had web-based systems to help run the business.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Have faith in yourself and your idea 2. Be willing to accept feedback from the marketplace
How best to connect with Jason: * Website: www.jasonhartman.com * Website: hartmanmedia.com * Twitter: @JasonHartmanROI
Eliot Wagonheim is a lawyer, writer, educator, speaker, and strategist. As a highly acclaimed business lawyer, Eliot not only represented entrepreneurs, innovators, and creatives but also came to the realization that his outlook and approach propelled him beyond the traditional lawyer's role. Through his “OutLawyer Philosophy” and his “Fire, Aim…Ready” platform, Eliot teaches clients and business owners how to achieve their goals, manage risks, and overcome real-life obstacles.
Secret – timesaving technique Eliot does whatever it takes to create an easy customer experience -- always make it easy for people to do what you want them to do. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Rub shoulders with people you admire -- Eliot reaches out to people that he thinks are cool, intelligent people.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Eliot thought he was going to be disbarred -- and Eliot tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "You have to be coachable."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Make sure you plan for what is ahead -- but also take the time to focus on what is important."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have a much better hiring and onboarding system.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Bloodless autopsies -- bring your team together to examine what is and isn't working in your business.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would be an expert communicator.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Figure out who your best customers are and what they look like 2. Figure out what kind of work gives you the highest quality of life 3. Focus in on where the above two intersect
How best to connect with Eliot: * Website: outlawyerinsights.com * Twitter: @wagonheim
Caitlin Pyle is a business coach and a transformation consultant. Through her blog and online courses, she works with freelancers to build location-independent businesses from anywhere in the world. Caitlin also collaborates with other business owners in related niches to help them grow their online courses using her proven marketing strategies. At 29, Caitlin may be on the younger side, but she's a lean, mean, growth-and-marketing machine.
Secret – timesaving technique Caitlin uses the project management software Teamwork -- organize and plan out your day. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Don't focus on the finish -- focus on the steps -- Caitlin celebrates the small victories every day.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Caitlin had people publicly spreading lies about her -- and Caitlin tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Answer your email -- and do it in a timely manner."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "I learned from past bosses how I didn't want to treat my employees."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have mapped out my projects into bite-size chunks.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Get organized 2. Just get started
How best to connect with Caitlin: * Website: proofreadanywhere.com * Website: theworkanywherelife.com
Jim Harshaw has learned many life lessons on the wrestling mat. Failure, struggle, and setbacks are not only an inevitable part of life but a necessary step on the path to success. Having been a Division I All-American and won three ACC Championships for the University of Virginia, trained at the Olympic Training Center, and competed overseas for Team USA, he has experienced significant triumph and devastating defeat. He relates those powerful lessons of failure, struggle, and setback to empower his audiences to overcome their own challenges and achieve success despite their inevitable failures. Jim is now a professional speaker, executive coach, and host of the “Wrestling with Success” podcast.
Secret – timesaving technique Jim uses the productive pause -- take a short period of focused reflection around specific questions that leads to clarity of action and peace of mind. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Stay active -- Jim keeps fitness as a regular part of his life.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Jim had to completely reevaluate his life -- and Jim tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "You can be successful at anything you want if you are willing to go through pain and suffering."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "You've got to work harder than anyone else -- you can't simply be among the hardest workers in the room."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. You've got to normalize failure 2. Start/join a mastermind group
How best to connect with Jim: * Free downloads from Jim for Onward Nation listeners: jimharshawjr.com/onward * Website: jimharshawjr.com
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation…I’m Stephen Woessner. And thank you for making last week our highest download week ever here at Onward Nation. I want you to know how grateful I am that you take the time to download our episodes, to listen, and to share your wonderful feedback. Thank you so very much.
And if you listened to last week’s solocast, you know that it was a deeply personal topic for me because I took you really far behind the green curtain and into my relationship with one of my first — and one of my most influential mentors — my grandfather, Peter Maronitis — and how he taught me to never ever quit.
And there were times when I struggled getting through last week’s message — but — that is just because the life he led and the lessons he taught to me were so uncommon and immensely valuable. But…we made it through, right, Onward Nation?
So for today’s solocast, I am going to — in some ways — pick up where we left off last week — regarding quitting. And how we should never ever quit. I will illustrate that by sharing a lesson I learned from Tony Robbins. It is a story you may know — and some of you may know it very well. Just like last week in the story about Peter Maronitis, this will be a story about grit, about perseverance, about tenacity — and being so committed to what you want to do — what you believe in — your why — that you work desperately to create it.
You must relentlessly pursue your dream — your passion — what will make you totally happy in this world.
So this week…I will share the story of the humble beginning’s of Sylvester Stallone — one of Hollywood’s most successful actors of all time. But Stallone didn’t have success handed to him…he had to earn it…he had to knock down obstacles and barriers to prove he was worthy…he had to starve, he had to endure hardship, he had to freeze in his New York City apartment, he had to go without everything, he had to find solace and heat in the public library.
He had to face brutal and cruel rejection over 1,500 times, Onward Nation. And yet…despite all of that…he did not quit…ever. There’s a lesson in greatness in this story — so let’s jump into the story as it was shared by Tony Robbins.
John Dwyer is a marketing enigma, unique in the field. When it comes to creating sales for businesses, his thinking is refreshingly unconventional. John preaches "in a sea of sameness in your industry, you need to stand out like a beacon - and the best way to do this is by using wow factor marketing techniques". He thinks "way outside the square" and brings proven marketing ideas to the table for business owners - not the motherhood marketing waffle we all hear from many self-professed advertising experts. And let's not forget, he’s the guy who got Jerry Seinfeld out of retirement to front an Aussie bank’s advertising campaign!
Secret – timesaving technique John uses Management By Objectives techniques -- set and evaluate deadlines every day. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Surround yourself with positivity -- John surrounds himself with people who say "why not?" -- not "why?"
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience John lost $2.5 million in a week in 1995 -- and John tells the whole story here.
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Just keep on getting up."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would identify your most profitable customer, create a WOW factor to take customers eyes off the price, have a problem-solution scenario, fix your website, and simulate repetitive trade.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Go to my website (linked below) 2. Put in place the five-step process outlined in the previous question
How best to connect with John: * Website: www.theinstituteofwow.com * Free tickets to John's event: www.wowmybusiness.com
Dennis Brown is a LinkedIn marketing and social selling expert, consultant, and speaker who has built three multi-million dollar businesses during his 20+ year career as an entrepreneur. His companies have been ranked by Inc. Magazine six times as one of the fastest growing companies in America. He is also the author of the "The 7 Habits of Highly Successful LinkedIn Users" and lives in Clarence, New York with his wife and two children.
Secret – timesaving technique Dennis creates an Outlook event that reminds him of his goals every morning -- set big, hairy goals and make sure that you see look at and think about them every single day. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Spend time on personal development -- Dennis is a student at heart and loves to learn new things.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Dennis' business was put on its knees after 9/11 -- and Dennis tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Social selling -- using LinkedIn to sell was such a game changer."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Never be the smartest guy in the room."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Position your business as a thought leader, resource, or expert by providing valuable content to your market for free.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Find a mentor or coach 2. Get outside your comfort zone 3. Focus on delegation
How best to connect with Dennis: * Free Book: "The 7 Habits of Highly Successful Linkedin Users!" * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/askdennisbrown
Mikki Williams is a CSP, certified speaking professional, a member of the prestigious Hall of Fame and a TEDx speaker. She was chosen as one of the best speakers in the country by Meetings and Convention Magazine along with Tony Robbins, Bill Gates, Lou Holtz, Zig Ziglar and Jay Leno. Mikki is an award winning Vistage speaker, the world's leading executive organization and also Chairs two of their peer advisory boards. If that's not enough, this busy entrepreneur runs Speakers Schools, The Mikki Mouth Club, Keynote Kamp, Outrageous Orators and is an in-demand speech coach. She has spoken in every US state, every Canadian province and every continent except Antarctica,where she can't wear her stilettos.
Secret – timesaving technique Mikki still uses a paper calendar -- do what you need to do to keep yourself organized. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Don't do things you don't want to do -- Mikki works hard to structure her life so that she a great work-life balance.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Mikki doesn't look at experiences negatively -- and Mikki tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Understand that no matter what you're doing -- there's a business that underlies it."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "You don't have time for a pity party."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would invest in yourself -- even when you can't afford it.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Align yourself with people that can offset your strengths and weaknesses.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would have the right behavior -- and I would use a system to figure this out before hiring.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Set very clear goals 2. Be flexible
How best to connect with Mikki: * Email: mikki@mikkiwilliams.com * Website: mikkiwilliams.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/MikkiWilliamsUnltd * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mikkiwilliams * Twitter: @mikkiwilliams
Doug Parker has led Repair My Credit Now Services, Inc. from its inception as a small sole proprietorship to its 2008, 2009, and 2010 selection by Inc. Magazine as one of the fastest-growing private companies in America. Ranked No. 408 in ’08 on the Inc. 5000 list, Repair My Credit Now has risen to become a major employer in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and is recognized nationally as a leader in the financial services industry. Doug is also the host of the brilliant radio show and podcast, Ambitious Radio.
Secret – timesaving technique Doug uses Outlook to organize his schedule -- review your calendar every day to keep your vital priorities on track. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Getting rest is a huge deal -- Doug gets at least 8 hours of sleep every night.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Doug's business was investigated by the Federal Trade Commission -- and Doug tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Be resilient -- make decisions -- and correct course."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "If you just help enough people get what they want in life -- you will get what you want in life."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have hired lawyers a lot sooner.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Have a clearly defined vision and stick to it.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would be great at customer service.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Begin with the end in mind in terms of an exit 2. Do things you like to do
How best to connect with Doug: * Website: www.repairmycreditnow.com * Email: dp@rmcm.com
Good Morning Onward Nation…I’m Stephen Woessner. Thank you for taking the time to be here with me for today’s solocast — cannot wait to jump into the lesson today — when I wrote out my thoughts to share with you this morning — my pen couldn’t move fast enough on the paper and I started getting cramps in my hand.
Perhaps that is a sign that today’s message is something deeply personal to me — and — really gets me totally fired up.
We’re going to talk today about quitting!
Quitting in life, quitting in business, quitting on family — quitting in all its shapes and sizes. It breaks my heart when I see it happen. People who possess an abundance of God-given talent but don’t apply it.
It’s tragic.
But first…before we dig in…I want to thank you to all of our new listeners to Onward Nation. I appreciate you being here.
Our daily downloads continue to rise — the encouragement we receive through social media — and all of the wonderful emails — are just off-the-charts, Onward Nation. So thank you very much for your kind words.
We are going to be here for a very very very long time — and I greatly appreciate you walking alongside us on this journey.
So, if by chance this happens to be your first episode of Onward Nation — or perhaps your first solocast from me…let me take a brief moment to share some context and then I’ll jump into today’s lesson.
Once a week, I fly solo for an episode without a guest. I call it a solocast. And I started doing that because I had a conversation with one of my mentors and he said to me…
“Stephen, Onward Nation is great and it is wonderful how you always put the spotlight on the business owners — the incredible guests on your show – but I want to know more about what you think — what your path has been — tell me more about what you think about the same questions you ask your guests.”
And I thought — wow — that is a really good question — but it really pushed my comfort zone. Although as I thought about his question — I realized this would be an opportunity to add and share value with you, Onward Nation, in a completely different way.
So I accepted his challenge – and I have to say — I really LOVE preparing for and delivering my weekly solocasts. It gives me an opportunity to really dig deep into a topic or business issue – strategies and ideas – recipes I have learned that you can then take and apply to your business right away to make it more systematic, predictable, repeatable, and measurable.
That gets me so fired up.
And again…if you’re listening to Onward Nation now for the first time…I’ll briefly introduce myself to provide some context to the voice behind the microphone.
Hi…I’m Stephen Woessner and I’m the host of Onward Nation – but – when I am not interviewing today’s top business owners, I am the CEO of Predictive ROI…a digital marketing agency based in Wisconsin. Now, I don’t particularly like the label of digital marketing agency because Predictive ROI does so much more than digital marketing.
What makes us truly unique…is our ability to predict a client’s increase in sales as a direct result of our work…their actual financial return on investment in the form of dollars and cents…and then we take it further than any other company in our industry by guaranteeing our performance…or our work is free.
And because of that – we find ourselves deep inside a client’s systems, inventory, sales team, and all sorts of business development processes.
I love the problem-solving work we do – it oftentimes reminds me of my days of troubleshooting when I was a missile technician working inside nuclear missiles silos on the prairies of South Dakota while I was in the Air Force many years ago. I have been in digital marketing since the advent of the commercial Internet.
I am the bestselling author of two books in the area, I spent nearly 6 years at the University of Wisconsin – at the La Crosse campus, and I taught throughout the state include the UW-Madison School of Business, and my business building insights have been featured in Inc. Magazine, Entrepreneur, Forbes, SUCCESS, The Washington Post and some other media.
And I am currently working on my third book. My agent is negotiating with publishers right now and I think we are pretty close to being able to share some awesome news! I will keep you posted for sure, Onward Nation.
Okay, let’s jump into today’s lesson.
Today I'm going to introduce you to one of the most influential mentors in my life…he is someone you have likely never read about, never heard of, never quoted…in fact…one the surface…most people might think he led a rather ordinary life because his name was never up in lights.
And I'm going to talk to you about something I learned from him that I will never, ever forget.
Dr. Sharon Livingston is a natural born interviewer and trainer. She learned early on to engage with others by asking them questions and helping them to reveal their stories. She uses this ability to train coaches to best identify their strengths and specialties so they can inspire others. She has personally interviewed over 60,000 people and trained hundreds of coaches.
Secret – timesaving technique Sharon exercises first thing every morning while listening to audios -- start off every morning by working off excess anxiety. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Allow yourself to be excited about the day -- Sharon wakes up every morning excited about what the day is going to bring.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Sharon's business was severely impacted by 9/11 -- and Sharon tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Put your own ego aside and really listen to what people need."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Take full responsibility."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would go back to not knowing anything.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would listen to what I was trying to accomplish and do what they can to help me accomplish that.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Hire a business coach 2. Get an accountability partner 3. Join a mastermind group 4. Have a specialty
How best to connect with Sharon: * Website: coachcertificationalliance.com * Website: www.takethecoachingtest.com * Phone: (603)505-5000
Corinna Essa is known internationally as the go-to person when it comes to social media marketing. She was raised in Greece and at the age of 17, left to London to study television production only to have her dreams shattered as she discovered the very unstable nature of the industry and the myth of careers. Corinna then decided enough was enough and began her journey online. Quickly discovering a few powerful strategies that would allow her to leverage the power of social media and the Internet, Corinna started using Twitter to market products. Within 3 weeks, she had replaced her full-time income working only 2 hours a day. Corinna now owns a social media marketing company helping businesses around the world leverage the power of social media without doing any of the legwork. She shares her groundbreaking strategies to people around the world get consistent returns from their social media marketing efforts.
Secret – timesaving technique Corinna exercises right away in the morning and meditates in the afternoon -- care for yourself first. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Learn something new every single day -- Corinna makes personal development a daily priority.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Corinna's business was thriving but her life was suffering -- and Corinna tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Sales skills -- period."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Money is always outside your comfort zone."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have hired my first team member faster.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Build a mailing list -- a mailing list gives you a license to print money.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would have a great work ethic.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Assemble your audience 2. Never assume you know what your audience wants
How best to connect with Corinna: * Website: www.socialmediaworldwide.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/SMWonline * Twitter: twitter.com/smwonline
Perry Marshall is one of the world’s most expensive and sought-after business consultants. Clients seek his ability to integrate engineering, sales, mathematics, biology, art, and psychology. He has launched two online revolutions. He pioneered many best practices in paid search and wrote the world’s bestselling book on web advertising, Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords. More recently, he’s turned 80/20 into a verb. 80/20 is not just a fact about your business, it’s action you take on your business. 80/20 is the central lever for every great strategy. His book “80/20 Sales & Marketing” is mandatory in many growing companies. He is referenced in dozens of influential business books by authors like Jay Conrad Levinson, Mark Joyner, Joel Comm, and Mari Smith. He’s shared the stage with Barbara Corcoran, Brian Tracy, and Les Brown, having consulted in over 300 industries.
Secret – timesaving technique Perry understands that the world is exponential and focuses on the right things — there are $10/hour jobs, $100/hour jobs, and $1000/hour jobs. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Exercise your creative and spiritual muscles — Perry prays and journals for an hour before he does anything else.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Perry had a bunch of customers vanish overnight — and Perry tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “Wisdom and discernment.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Inside every 80/20 is another 80/20.”
Joe Woodard is an author, consultant, Intuit contractor, and national speaker. He has trained over 75,000 accounting professionals in practice development, changing technology trends, and how to maximize the use of QuickBooks. Joe regularly publishes articles for Intuit publications and for Insightful Accountant. Joe is consistently featured in Accounting Today and AccountingWEB. Joe heads up the Woodard Companies, which include: Woodard Events, Woodard Consulting, Woodard Network, and Insightful Accountant. In 2012, 2014 and 2015, Joe was recognized by Accounting Today as one of the Top 100 Influencers within the accounting profession.
Secret – timesaving technique Joe believes in the four D's from David Allen's "Getting Things Done" -- Do It, Delegate It, Delete It, Defer It. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Begin with the end in mind -- Joe starts each day with knowing the end result he wants to accomplish and building a plan to accomplish it.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Joe thought he had to give up what he loved doing for his family -- and Joe tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Better understand metrics."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Delegate authority -- not just tasks."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have prioritized anything that creates collaboration between team members.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Make sure your end is tied to some greater end.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would lean appropriately on their fellow team members.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Find a mentor 2. Stay harmonized with your personal life 3. The dread of a thing is always worse than the thing itself
How best to connect with Joe: * Email: jwoodard@woodard.com * Website: www.woodard.com
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning…I’m Stephen Woessner. It is always an honor and privilege to be back here with you, Onward Nation. Thank you for being so awesome and for being here this morning for today’s solocast.
For our time together this morning — we are going to revisit a critical lesson. A lesson that I re-learned through several recent conversations with a couple of business owners and a third person who was considering becoming an entrepreneur — but then quit — he gave up on his dream before he had even truly started.
The lesson is all about learning how to conquer — how to crush — how to rip out of your consciousness — what’s called the Imposter Syndrome.
Onward Nation, the syndrome is unrelenting — it does not tire — it knows all of your weaknesses — and — how best to mask your strengths.
And if you let it…the Imposter Syndrome will cheat you out of your destiny. It will cheat you out of your abundance of God-given talent. And it will cheat you out of being the owner of the thriving, wonderful, game-changing business you have always wanted to lead.
So buckle in Onward Nation…we’re going for a dive…a deep dive into the Imposter Syndrome. On this journey, I will share some definitions, some context for when the Imposter Syndrome was discovered, how you can avoid it, as well as several examples of the syndrome hard at work — so that you can spot it when it tries to sneak up on you.
The examples I will share with you are all intended to give you greater context — and — to help you recognize how the seemingly innocent thoughts, or a minor procrastination, can change the course of your destiny without you even realizing it.
Why?
Because these seemingly innocent thoughts are actually your Secret Enemy — the Imposter Syndrome hard at work trying to derail you.
So don’t let it, Onward Nation. Let this discussion be your guide. It is a fact…your thoughts become your actions — and your actions — become your destiny.
Here we go, Onward Nation!
Leanne started her marketing agency called Stitchcraft Marketing over 5 years ago — and she did that to meet the every changing needs of the yarn and craft industries. Leanne and her team work with manufacturers within the fiber arts industry across the country to increase website traffic, build their brand and platform, and ultimately…to increase sales.
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? Leanne begins her day by doing a workout and working on her physical therapy due to a recent hip surgery -- you only have one body. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? "Real life isn't always going to be perfect or go our way, but recurring acknowledgement of what is working in our lives can help us not only to survive but to surmount our difficulties." -- Sarah Ban Breathnach
How do you define success? Success is more than dollar signs -- it's the connections you have with other people.
What strategy do you use to combat fear? Leanne in learning everything you can about fear -- and Leanne tells the reasons why here.
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" is someone who can see what is coming next, they're resilient, has initiative, and is passionate.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? 1. Find the teachable moment 2. Use the "sandwich" technique
How can we build an audience? 1. Try to build on the one thing you know very well 2. Be in all the places where your niche knowledge is valued
How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Carve out the time for you to grow as a business owner 2. Surround yourself with those who know more than you in the areas you feel deficient
How best to connect with Leanne: * Website: stitchcraftmarketing.com * Email: leanne@stitchcraftmarketing.com
Adam Hergenrother, a born and raised Vermonter, is CEO and Chairman of the Board of Hergenrother Enterprises, which includes Keller Williams Realty Vermont, Hergenrother Realty Group, BlackRock Construction, Hergenrother Capital, and Hergenrother Foundation. In less than seven years, Adam has built these rapidly growing companies through his commitment to thinking big and never giving up. Fearless and purposeful; unconventional and systematic, Adam sets a seemingly impossible goal then quickly gets to work on closing the gap to achieve it – – no limits, no regrets. Through Adam’s bold vision, Hergenrother Enterprises is developing leaders and building businesses worldwide.
Secret – timesaving technique Adam has a very specific and very detailed morning routine -- how you start your day is so important for where you end up. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success The standards in your life affect your ability to grow -- Adam sets standards in every area of his life.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Adam hired a pathological liar that cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars -- and Adam tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "You've got to be willing to fail as fast as possible."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Understand that fear is going to be with you every step of the way."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have a system for scaling the recruiting and hiring people.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Personal development -- for you and your entire team.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Resist the urge to pay yourself more 2. Leverage early and often 3. Think globally and exponentially
How best to connect with Adam: * Facebook: www.facebook.com/herglife * Website: herglife.com * Website: www.hergtraining.com
Aaron Walker is without question a veteran entrepreneur. Starting his first business at 18 and selling to a Fortune 500 company nine short years later demonstrates Aaron’s passion for succeeding. Unwilling to rest on past success, Aaron started, bought and sold eight successful companies over the past 36 years. Having a strong desire for personal development has kept Aaron in a weekly mastermind group for more than a decade with Dave Ramsey, Dan Miller, Ken Abraham, and seven other notable Nashvillians. Aaron has enjoyed a 35-year marriage with his beautiful wife, Robin. Today Aaron spends the majority of his time HELPING MEN GROW IN SUCCESS AND SIGNIFICANCE as the president and founder of VIEW FROM THE TOP, A PREMIER life and business coaching RESOURCE.
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? Aaron begins his day by sitting quietly while drinking water or coffee and then spends an hour to and hour and half praying and reading scripture -- keep a regular routine. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? Can't couldn't do it and could did it all. Fear missing an opportunity more than you fear failure.
How do you define success? Success is relationships -- at the end of the day, it's all that matters.
What strategy do you use to combat fear? Aaron believes you need to just stop listening to the naysayers -- and Aaron tells the reasons why here.
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" has the mindset of being an "A Player."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? 1. Be a constant student -- constantly work on your personal development
How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Allow your senior leadership to evaluate you 2. Don't stay in ivory tower -- go out where the work is being performed 3. Require personal development
How best to connect with Aaron: * Website: www.viewfromthetop.com * Free gift for Onward Nation listeners: www.viewfromthetop.com/onward
Mike Glauser has extensive experience as an entrepreneur, business consultant, and university professor. He is the co-founder and chairman of My New Enterprise, an online training and development company for aspiring entrepreneurs. He is also the founder and former CEO of Golden Swirl Management Company and of Northern Lights. Mike has consulted with numerous startup companies and large corporations in the areas of business strategy, organizational effectiveness, and leadership development. His clients have included Associated Food Stores, The Boeing Company, Department of Workforce Services and others. Mike is currently the Executive Director of the Clark Center for Entrepreneurship at Utah State University. He has published numerous articles in magazines and two books on entrepreneurship: Glorious Accidents and The Business of Heart. His new book, Main Street Entrepreneur, chronicles a 4,000-mile cross-country bicycle journey he took to interview 100 successful entrepreneurs across America. The book is available now wherever books are sold.
Secret – timesaving technique Mike creates a plan for what he wants to achieve in the next year or two -- plan your days so that you make steps for achieving these goals. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Taking breaks is critical -- Mike takes a break every morning to exercise.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Mike's company was seeing a major decline in sales in its established locations -- and Mike tells the whole story here.
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Business is all about relationships."
How best to connect with Mike: * Course: mikeglauser.com/mainstreet
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation — I’m Stephen Woessner and thank you so much for joining me today. For today’s solocast…I am going to share another lesson learned during my recent life-changing weekend visit to New York — but this time — we will shift our focus from leadership lessons learned at West Point — and now turn our attention toward how and why you should create “Distinction” within your business.
We will also delve deep into the importance of creating distinction within the hearts and minds of your customers through incredible experiences that not only meet expectations — but exceeds expectations in phenomenal ways.
To help make this lesson as practical and tactical as possible, I am going to share with you a complete illustration from the inside-out of what is, in my opinion, one of today’s most distinctive companies.
And finally, I will share two recipes — or strategies — you can take and apply into your business straightaway that will help you…first…create your distinction…and second…help you communicate and share your distinctive story with your customers and prospects.
John Sparks has been recognized as one of the Top 100 SocialMedia Power Influencers of 2015…Ranked #66 on StatSocial.com List.He’s also been recognized as one of the Top 50 Most Valuable SocialMedia Influencers. He is the founder and CEO of the social mediacoaching and consulting company, Online ImageWorks, as well as anadjunct professor teaching courses at The University of NorthTexas. He teaches how to make money and building relationships onFacebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+, and YouTube. In2015, Sparks released his first book, “365 Ideas To Go From Good ToGreat On TWITTER!” The Kindle version became a #1 bestseller in itscategory the first weekend. Sparks earned the distinction ofbecoming known as the “Go-To Guy For Twitter” because he grew hisaccount from less than 800 followers to almost 200,000 in just twoyears — and — he did not buy any of his followers.
Secret – timesaving techniqueJohn only focuses on one thing at a time -- stop trying tomultitask and put firsts things first. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to successBe consistent -- John has identified his routine that works andhas stuck with it.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluablelearning experienceJohn finds his days filled with small setbacks -- and John tellsthe whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master tobe successful"Attitude and persistence are key."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor"You can get anything in life that you want if you just helpother people get what they want."
FinalRound – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success”What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus onto best ensure success?1. Focus onthe people first and the product second 2. Askquestions, engage, and listen How best to connect with John:* Twitter: @IAmJohnSparks
Linda Kaplan Thaler is responsible for some of America’s most famous, relevant, and touching advertising campaigns, including the Aflac duck and the daring “Yes, Yes, Yes” for Clairol Herbal Essences. She has authored and composed jingles that are among the industry’s gold standard, including “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up, I’m a Toys ‘R’ Us Kid,” and “Kodak Moments.” Linda served as Chairman of Publicis Kaplan Thaler, a fully integrated advertising agency that was the U.S. flagship within the Publicis Worldwide Network with a blue-chip client roster. Linda was also CEO and Chief Creative Officer of the Kaplan Thaler Group, founded in 1997 and grew from a fledgling startup to a company with over a billion dollars in billings. Linda has worked on several political campaigns, including the presidential runs for Clinton/Gore in 1992 and Hillary Clinton in 2008. Today, Linda is a world-renowned motivational speaker, author, and president of Kaplan Thaler Productions.
Secret – timesaving technique Linda starts every day with at least an hour of really intense exercise -- do it at the same time every. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success There is nothing more rewarding than checking something off a list -- Linda writes everything she has to do on a list.
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "The people who support you -- those are the people that you have to appreciate the most."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would be collaborative -- they never say no.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success?
- Even if you think it's perfect -- spend 30 more minutes on it
- Make small talk and make people feel comfortable
How best to connect with Linda:
- Website: grittogreat.com
- Email: linda@thalerproductions.com
- Twitter: @lindathaler2
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/LindaK.Thaler
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/linda-kaplan-4562821
Steve Tenney is a Senior Vice President of Wealth Management at UBS Financial Services in Portland, Maine and leads the Family Wealth Management Partners team. They help business owners bridge the gap from where they are today to their vision of the future. Steve has worked at UBS for 23 years, always working with individuals and families, many for 3 to 5 generations. He also had the great fortune of working with his father for four of those years, experiencing many of the same issues that all family owned businesses deal with. He knows firsthand that running a business is filled with rewards and challenges. He spends his days working to solve problems and provide solutions for clients, ultimately making a meaningful difference in their lives. Outside of work, Steve is quite a competitive athlete, sailing, swimming, rowing and has even completed two Ironman triathlons.
Secret – timesaving technique Steve delegates things to his team -- it's critical to have a team you trust to take care of the tasks you delegate. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Incorporate the "Hell yes!" rule -- Steve and his team only jump on an idea if they have an overwhelmingly positive response to it.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Steve's dyslexia makes reading challenging -- and Steve tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Effective communication moves a company forward."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Ask questions -- ask for advice -- and listen to the advice."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have developed an expert network sooner.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Pay a great deal of attention to balance.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would share the same priorities and would always be willing explore for new solutions.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success?
- Develop and nurture your network
- Get and stay uncomfortable
How best to connect with Steve:
- Email: steven.tenney@ubs.com
- Phone: 800-944-4847
Dave Denniston is an accomplished author and podcaster. He has written six books on finances for small business owners and doctors. He hosts his own podcast named after his latest book, the “Freedom Formula for Physicians.” Dave has been interviewed by CNN, Kiplinger’s, BusinessWeek, and Physician Financial Success Podcast. He also contributed articles to Physicians Money Digest, Physicians Practice, Minnesota Medicine, Young Ophthalmologists, and AAOS. He has been featured in speaking events with the Minnesota Medical Association at the University of Minnesota and the Mayo Clinic as well as at the AAO (American Academy of Ophthalmologists National Conference).
Secret – timesaving technique Dave shuts his door -- do what you have to so that you can focus. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Dwell on the positive moments in your life -- Dave journals regularly on things he wants to remember.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Dave invested hundreds of thousands of dollars -- and then 2008 happened -- and Dave tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Get a handle on automation."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Buy your building."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had a podcast -- and other social media -- sooner.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Integrating direct mailing and phone calls with online marketing.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would be a self-starter with a hunger and drive.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Get out and network
How best to connect with Dave: * Email: dave@daviddenniston.com * Website: doctorfreedompodcast.com * Five Free Tools: doctorfreedompodcast.com/onward
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation -- I’m Stephen Woessner. It is an honor to be with you here this morning, and my hope for you is that this week -- the final week of April 2016 -- has brought you happiness, that this week has also brought you success, that this week has brought you opportunity, that this week has brought you some challenges that have pushed you to expand your knowledge -- to learn new things -- and most of all -- I hope during this week -- and right now specifically -- you will give yourself the time to consciously consider whether or you have given you and your team the FREEDOM TO FAIL.
Yes...you heard me right. I said the FREEDOM TO FAIL.
It is fascinating to me how the word failure has become all the rage -- almost a buzzword or mantra -- and is being used by personal development gurus, digital marketing consultants, business leaders, to politicians. But these three simple words -- FREEDOM TO FAIL -- have a completely different meaning to me because of my experience this past weekend.
I spent Saturday at West Point...the United States Military Academy in New York State. To say that spending the day at West Point was a life-changing experience would be a significant understatement.
I was in awe.
My pride as an American citizen soared. The honor I felt since serving our country in the Air Force was taken to a whole new level. And to top it off...I was able to share the experience with a group of friends who we affectionately refer to ourselves as the Circle of Greatness.
At the center of our group -- our founder father so to speak -- the man who pulled us all together, first to meet one another, and then to develop some wonderful friendships, is Don Yaeger.
I hear me mention Don in nearly every episode of Onward Nation because he has been one of my most influential mentors, my weekly accountability partner, and has become one of my closest friends.
Three years ago, Don decided to organize a group of people who have had a significant impact on his life from both a professional and personal perspective. Don’s wife, Jeanette began referring to us as Don’s Circle of Greatness...an appropriate moniker since researching and studying the topic of “Greatness” has become Don’s passion and life’s work. In fact, one of the books Don author is entitled, "The 16 Characteristics of Greatness."
There are about 30 of us in the Circle -- and this weekend -- 20 of us were able to make it to New York City for a weekend together. All of which was masterfully orchestrated by Jeanette Yaeger, Don’s wife. Jeanette -- if you are listening -- thank you so much, my friend. You are beyond amazing!!!
One of the members of our Circle is Colonel Bernard Banks, professor and department head of behavioral sciences and leadership at West Point. Colonel Banks invited all of us to West Point to spend the day as his guest and to learn about the values and leadership development process they apply to create our nation’s next military leaders. When we all read that West Point was on the agenda for the weekend...we were all excited for the lessons that were about to come our way and extremely grateful that such an uncommon opportunity came our way.
To be the guest of Colonel Banks -- at West Point -- for the day...are you kidding me? Incredible!
Onward Nation, being at West Point was one of the most intimidating -- inspirational -- and humbling experiences of my professional career.
So for today’s solocast...I am going to share with you the major highlights -- the core lessons -- that I learned from the cadets who guided us through the breathtaking campus -- and the leadership lessons Colonel Banks shared with us during a private leadership class with just our “Circle.”
So buckle in, Onward Nation...I promise...this discussion will help you move your leadership development process within your business to the next level.
Leadership Lesson 1: Honor your history and core values
I want to start off this first leadership lesson by sharing something that is deeply personal among all of the cadets at West Point. And it goes like this...
“Make us choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong and never to be content with a half truth when the whole can be won.”
What I just read to you is know as the Cadet Prayer. Anyone can see it -- read it -- as they enter the academy. It is proudly displayed inside the Thayer Hotel at the entrance to West Point.
The prayer also embodies the Cadet’s honor code, which reads, “A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.”
When I thought deeply about both of these powerful statements -- these core values -- I was taken back to episode 18 of Onward Nation and my powerful conversation with Larry Broughton. During our conversation -- it was Larry -- who first taught me the Cadet Prayer -- in fact, he recited it during our interview. After all these years...the Cadet Prayer was still his mantra -- the creed by which Larry lives each day and how he leads his company.
Larry had learned it during his 9 years of service in the US Army Green Berets. So to read it at West Point brought me full circle and reaffirmed how important it is that we honor our core values -- that we as leaders personally stand for something our employees and customers can believe in -- and that our business lives our core values every day -- just like the cadets and faculty at West Point do. Day in and day out.
Leadership Lesson #1 also involves honoring our history because our past is critical to our future success. Our ability to study the failures, the challenges, the tribulations, and the triumphs of leaders who have gone before us -- and then applying what we have learned -- will almost assuredly accelerate our own accomplishments.
At West Point, when you walk around campus, you will see statues, monuments, and buildings dedicated to our country’s greatest military and political leaders -- as well as the conflicts and wars where they lead.
Why?
So our cadets -- this country’s future leaders -- have an opportunity to be reminded of what has already been learned so that experience, wisdom, and perspective can become their guide throughout their own leadership development process.
Leadership Lesson 2: Preparation ensures success Our Circle members were able to see first-hand how seriously the cadets at West Point take leadership. And I was reminded of this quote.
“There are no bad crews -- only bad leaders.” -- United States Navy Seals
Even though that mantra -- that purpose -- was created and used by the Navy Seals...it was evident the West Point cadets believed its message throughout their corps of cadets.
When we arrived at West Point, we were greeted by three cadets and Colonel Banks waiting outside the Thayer Hotel. The cadets were in charge of escorting us from the hotel to the athletic complex so we could watch the opening ceremony and the Special Olympics competition taking place.
Every year, West Point hosts the largest Special Olympics competition in New York State, and the cadets play a very active role in service to the Olympians. An amazing site to see.
Our cadets briefed us on the logistics and schedule of the day with precision. We had a lot of places to be and not much time in each location. Plus, there were 20 of us to keep track of. Not an easy task.
But, the cadets were prepared with every detail. It was evident they didn’t just show up to be our guides for the day because Colonel Banks had asked them to...or because Don Yaeger also serves as a senior fellow at West Point. The cadets had studied, they had planned, and they were ready to help us make this a day to remember.
The cadets also served as our historians for the day. They taught us about the pivotal role West Point had played during the Revolutionary War including the story of Benedict Arnold and the plan he and the British had conspired to create with the goal of capturing General George Washington during his visit to West Point.
Our cadets also took the time to explain -- and -- to take us inside the day and life of a cadet. They shared their passion -- their desire -- to ultimately receive the reward of active duty status in the Army upon graduation. Amazing.
West Point is home to 4,400 cadets who all share the same passion, drive, and determination to become prepared to serve our country as military leaders and beyond.
Our cadets -- all of the cadets -- are an extraordinary group of people and I look forward to my next opportunity to visit West Point and learn more leadership lessons from them.
Leadership Lesson 3: Seek opportunities to serve and encourage others I mentioned a few minutes ago how West Point, its faculty, and its corps of cadets host New York State’s largest Special Olympics competition every year. Why? Because ***Leadership Lesson
3*** that I learned at West Point is about seeking out
opportunities to serve and encourage others.
To illustrate how the cadets not only serve -- but encourage -- I included a short 30-second video of the cadets and several Special Olympians during the javelin competition.
As I watched the Olympians and the genuine, authentic encouragement and love they received from their cadets -- I was moved. It was such an emotional experience to see a group of young men fully focused, devoted, and present for their mission for the day. And they did their duty -- not out of responsibility because they had been assigned -- but as you will see in the video -- they did their duty because they loved performing the service. They were overjoyed to celebrate the successes of the Special Olympians.
Onward Nation, our cadets, actively seek out opportunities to serve and encourage each other -- and they are also committed to living these values outside of West Point as an example of excellence. West Point’s upperclassmen mentor, coach, and lead their underclassmen -- not by yelling, hazing, or by rank.
Instead...and this may seem counterintuitive when thinking about the United States Army...but the cadets “hug” and then “push” each other. They hug and then push. Each cadet -- along with the faculty of this impressive campus -- is there to serve one another to help every one growth, develop, and become the leader they were meant to become.
Plus, as we later learned from Colonel Banks, many of these 4,400 cadets will serve and work alongside one another for decades into the future. They will be forever bonded by service and encouragement to each other and to their core values.
So it was a very special sight to see the cadets live their values -- in how they treat each other -- and how they stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their Special Olympians to serve and encourage.
What an incredible display to have the privilege to witness.
Leadership Lesson 4: Provide your future leaders with the FREEDOM TO FAIL During our day at West Point, Colonel Banks surprised us by inviting us into his classroom for a private leadership session. He asked if he could take some time to share and illustrate to us West Point’s three stage leadership development process as well as the curriculum cadets need to master before they can graduate and become officers in the United States Army. West Point created -- then applies -- an intentional process for leader development. The faculty at West Point believes that great leaders are developed -- it doesn’t happen by accident.
Colonel Banks began by sharing that leaders first need to inspire the people around them every day. As you will see and hear Colonel Banks say, “The English word 'inspire' comes from the Latin word ‘inspirare,’ which means to breathe. Leaders have the opportunity to help others take the next breath in their journey. Many times, we, as leaders, are the ones who make people feel as if they cannot breathe. Research has indicated that 75 percent of all employees report that the most stressful part of their job is their immediate supervisor. The research is quite clear. People don’t quit the company. Your people quit you. And so that’s the opportunity you have every day -- to help your people take that next breath -- to inspire them -- to live their life in a better way.”
Breakdown of West Point’s Leadership Development Process Stage 1: Developmental Experiences Challenge:
- Novelty
- Difficult goals
- Conflict
- Loss, failure
Variety:
- Broad range of situations and demands
Assessment:
- Feedback
- 360 degree and self-assessment
- Formal and informal
Support:
- Confirming advice
- Encouragement
- Acceptance
- Resources
+
Stage 2: Individual Readiness * Openness * Reflection
+
Stage 3: Time = Leader of Character
But this leader development process would not be possible without two critical foundational philosophies...and those are...cadets must be given the FREEDOM TO FAIL and cadets must be clear on WHO OWNS THE EXPERIENCE.
If cadets are not given the freedom to fail -- to make their own decisions based on what they have learned from other cadets and faculty -- then they will never learn. Instead, West Point will have created cadet robots and not leaders who can think under extreme pressures and situations. However, if they are given the freedom to fail and then mentored on the path to improved performance -- mastery can be reached and excellence obtained. Colonel Banks told us that they are in the business of tearing muscle with purpose -- so that it can be rebuilt and it becomes stronger where the initial tear was. Awesomeness.
And the cadets know they own the experience. They are not alone in their journey -- they have all of the resources of West Point available to them -- but ultimately, success or failure is their responsibility. No excuses. No pointing fingers. They own the experience. Impactful lessons taught at an institution I am so proud to have been able to visit and spend time at in such a deep and meaningful way.
Colonel Banks...if you are listening...thank you so very much for generously sharing your expertise and wisdom with us -- we are all so grateful.
Leadership Lesson 5: Protect your inner circle One of the most valuable lessons I have learned from Don is something he learned during the 12-years of one-on-one mentorship with the late Coach John Wooden. Coach taught Don that he would never outperform the people he spent the most time with. In fact, the people you spend the most time with -- in effect -- become your inner circle. So, you need to protect your inner circle by being very selective and deliberate about who gets access into your circle.
Don practices this lesson with precision. How?
Don investing the time and energy to create our Circle of Greatness is an excellent, tangible example of being deliberate with Coach Wooden’s strategy. And I encourage you to take the same lesson out of Coach Wooden’s playbook.
So Onward Nation, my challenge to you is to think about who you spend the most time with. Are they moving at the same, or even better yet, a faster pace and tempo then you? Are they doing things in their life or business that challenge your own perspectives of what is possible? Are they growing personally and professionally in ways that push your comfort zone? If so -- good -- these are people you should spend more time with.
Or, are they content with life and not learning anything new? Are they so full of potential but don’t seek out any new ways to apply their talents and gifts?
One of our guests shared a metaphor with me that I thought was perfect...and it was this...let’s say you walked into your house and found Superman with his boots kick up on your ottoman and he was laying down on your couch, eating a bowl of ice cream and some cookies, while vegging and watching TV. And let’s say that he had been doing that for days to where it became a habit for him. Would you look at Superman and think to yourself, “Rock solid awesome...way to go Superman.” Or, would you think to yourself… “What in the world are you doing...you should be out saving the planet! Stop wasting your potential.”
Onward Nation, my hope is that you will begin to think carefully about each person in your inner circle. Ask yourself...are they headed in the same direction as you?
If not, you need to make changes so the people closest to you become your own version of a Circle of Greatness. We all need a Circle of Greatness in our lives to “hug and push us” to that next level -- just like the West Point cadets do for each other.
So with that...I want to thank you again for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here -- thank you for tuning in -- I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
However our daily podcast fits into your daily routine -- I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation...good or bad...I always want your feedback. My direct email address is stephen@onwardnation.com -- and yes -- that is my actual Inbox. No fancy filters or filing system and I read and reply to every single email.
So please let me know how you think we are doing. I look forward to hearing from you.
We will be back tomorrow with an incredible encore interview with Dave Denniston, host of the Freedom Formula for Physicians podcast. You will not want to miss this discussion, Onward Nation!
Until then, onward with gusto!
Joan Sotkin has helped entrepreneurs and practitioners use their inner resources and practical techniques to experience freedom from personal, professional, and financial struggles for over 25-years. Thousands have benefitted from her groundbreaking book “Build Your Money Muscles: Nine Simple Exercises for Improving Your Relationship with Money” and her ongoing support programs. Joan is a Prosperity and Mindset Mentor and a dynamic, inspiring speaker who brings a depth of knowledge plus a huge dose of empathy and compassion to her work. She is THE expert when it comes to understanding how emotions learned in early childhood can affect a person's earning capacity as an adult.
Secret – timesaving technique Joan meditates for 10-20 minutes before sitting down at the computer -- let your mind go where it wants to go. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Exercise -- Joan goes for a walk with her dog every day at 4:30.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Joan played it way too safe -- and Joan tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Get in touch with your emotions."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Anything negative is a waste of time."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Be kind to each other.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. It's all about connection -- find a networking method that works for you 2. Love yourself 3. Let go of all the story you're telling yourself
How best to connect with Joan: * Website: prosperityplace.com
Shola Abidoye is the co-founder of Convertport.com. She believes the only safe ship in the sea storm of business is the science of customer and company acquisitions. Having grown three businesses by 10,000 percent, her mission is to liberate 1 million business owners from the pain and powerlessness of unpredictable sales using Convertport's technology. Her hard-won lessons come from the school of hard knocks, Swarthmore College, Oxford University, and Sweden's famed Royal Institute of Technology. Shola wakes up naturally -- set your schedule based on your body clock. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Nothing amazing happens by happenstance -- Shola believes in writing out exactly what she's going to accomplish every day.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Shola's brother died before the age of 50 -- and Shola tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Every stage of business has a different critical skill." And Shola shares the skills in the episode.
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "If you really want to win, start playing games that are ethically stacked in your favor."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Become a student of good delegation and leverage.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Pursue entrepreneurship through acquisition rather than startup
How best to connect with Shola: * Website: convertport.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/sholaabidoye
Lt. Col. Rob Waldman “Waldo” -- was his call sign -- he’s the author of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller “Never Fly Solo.” A graduate of the Air Force Academy, Waldo is a decorated combat fighter pilot and an expert in helping leaders and organizations accelerate performance in changing environments. Waldo overcame massive claustrophobia and a fear of heights to become a fighter pilot and believes that the key to building a culture of trust lies with your wingmen the men and women in your life who help you to overcome obstacles, adapt to change, and achieve success. In business and life, you should never fly solo! Waldo is also the founder and President of The Wingman Foundation, a 501(c)(3) whose mission is to build funds and awareness for soldiers, veterans, and their families in need. Waldo is an inductee into the professional Speakers Hall of Fame and his clients include Marriott, Hewlett-Packard, UPS, and Verizon. He’s been featured on Fox & Friends, CNN, MSNBC, Inc. Magazine and The Harvard Business Review.
Secret – timesaving technique Waldo figures out his plan for tomorrow before he leaves the office each day -- you have to own your mission. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Don't get complacent -- Waldo works every single day to make his body strong.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Waldo had to quit on a mission -- and Waldo tells the whole story here.
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Be compassionate -- not judging."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Work on yourself -- complacency will kill you 2. Ask for help 3. Build and nurture relationships 4. Form a mastermind group
How best to connect with Waldo: * Website: yourwingman.com * Email: info@yourwingman.com
Morag Barrett is founder and CEO of leading HR consultancy SkyeTeam (which was just named one of HR.com's Top 15 Small Leadership Partners and Providers for the third year running) and author of CULTIVATE: The Power of Winning Relationships (a second edition of which launched on January 5th, 2016 with Greenleaf Book Group). With 25+ years experience in senior executive coaching and developing high-impact teams and leadership development programs across Europe, America, and Asia, Morag intimately understands the challenges of running a business and managing people. In case you were wondering, her name is Scottish, and means great.
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? Morag is a night owl and not a morning person -- she checks her email, reads the newspaper, writes a to-do list -- it's okay if it takes time to get going. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? Move forward in spite of fear. -- Brené Brown
How do you define success? Success is having fun.
What strategy do you use to combat fear? Morag believes in being fearless and doing it anyway -- and Morag tells the reasons why here.
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" is someone who has the passion and sense of humor to have fun and see fun in what they do.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? 1. Have a mentor yourself
How can we build an audience? 1. Who knows you is different from who do you know 2. Look for opportunities to find your opinion
How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Define what it is that you're trying to achieve
How best to connect with Morag: * Email: morag@skyeteam.com * Website: skyeteam.com
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation — I’m Stephen Woessner. Just wanted to start off today’s solocast with a big thank you.
I appreciate all of the feedback — thoughts — recommendations — and encouragement following last week’s solocast.
I love hearing when our work is helping to make a difference for you — to create an impact for you, Onward Nation — and perhaps this may sound odd — but I also love hearing when we have missed the mark. If and when we underdeliver — because knowing that — helps us get better! All of your feedback helps us move onward to that next level.
So thank you, Onward Nation.
I appreciate you being here. I appreciate you sharing some of you invaluable time with me today. Please continue letting us know what you think.
Thumbs up or thumbs down. We appreciate you so very much.
So for today’s solocast…I am going to take one of the themes from last week and go an inch wide and a mile deep.
You may recall, that last week’s solocast, I addressed the slippery slope — the mental trap — that is so easy for any business owner to fall into. It is the trap of thinking that becoming an overnight success is possible — and — comparing your back-of-stage with another company’s front-of-stage. It’s a tempting thought — it can be so intoxicating to hope for — or to do those comparisons — but there is no such thing as an overnight success, Onward Nation.
The insights I learned directly from Verne Harnish, founder of EO and Gazelles — duringepisode 205 speak directly to this point. Verne took me behind the green curtain at Apple to discuss how they struggled for their first 25 years — 25 years, Onward Nation. And finally in 2001, they began to rapidly scale following the introduction of the iPod. But it took 25 years of struggle — and nearly going broke several times — in order to get there.
Verne also shared the story of Peter Drucker, the godfather of modern day management…and how Peter reached his most creative and productive point in his career after the age of 65. Peter wrote twice the number of books after his 65th birthday than he did when he was younger. It takes a long time Onward Nation to curate that level of content and develop that depth of expertise.
Verne then shared insights regarding Picasso and the number of masterpieces he produced after turning 50 years old. Picasso created the majority of his most famous works after he had turned 50!
And then the insights I learned from Linda Kaplan Thaler — our guest in episode 226, which will air on Monday, May 2nd — and the story she shared about the acclaimed novelist, James Patterson. Thanks to Linda — we now know James had been hard at work perfecting his craft for 21 years before his first bestseller. Honing his skills, day in and day out. Every day — hours and hours — working on his craft from 4:00 in the morning until 8:00 — and then going off to his day job at one of New York City’s leading advertising agencies, where he worked with Linda for over 17 years. An amazing story of grit, tenacity, persistence, and never giving up.
So for today’s solocast…I am going to share some additional perspective and lessons I began to share last week regarding what I have learned from spending time with Gary Vaynerchuk. I will share those lessons deeper — and then connect them to what I want to share with you today, which is how and why you should build a platform to grow revenue for your business. But again — this too, Onward Nation is a long term play. Building a platform is not an overnight thing as you will see with Gary’s story.
There are no shortcuts. It takes hard work and disciplined effort. But your hard work will create distinction for you — because the majority of your competitors will not want to work that hard.
And grounded in that reality, Onward Nation, is your major opportunity. IF — you are willing to seize it. Just like Gary Vee did. He recognized it and then capitalized by being willing to work his guts out to make his vision a reality. I have a lot of respect for Gary — and anyone — who is willing to do that.
My guess is you are already familiar with Gary Vee — but just in case you’re not — Gary is the founder of Vaynermedia and one of today’s foremost social media experts. He is the bestselling author of four books. In my opinion, his social media book, “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook” is the best social media book ever written. It is outstanding. And it is just as relevant today as it was when it was released in November 2013. The consumer behavior and platform strategy Gary sets forth within the book is still spot on.
But “Gary Vee” has not always been “Gary Vee.”
In fact, just a mere 10 years ago, Gary was largely unknown on the social media scene. Gary was the director of operations at his family’s liquor store in New Jersey. He didn’t have 1.2 million Twitter followers then. Vaynermedia didn’t exist. YouTube was just getting underway, same with Twitter, and nearly zero companies were investing in building out video blogs or becoming their own “media channel”.
But Gary was different. He could see that he needed to create a “platform” by sharing valuable content via the social Internet. And he decided to do just that.
Before we go much further — let’s have a quick definition — what’s a “platform?”
At its core — a platform is what you stand for — your ideals — your vision — your purpose inside your business or in your life. But, platform has also morphed into meaning your audience, or followers, your tribe, your community, or sometimes even the size of your audience.
So from a business perspective, building a platform, depending on your industry, can make all of the difference.
During episode 42 of Onward Nation, you will hear Gary and I talk about the early days of Wine Library and his strategy behind it.
Gary said to me, “I started Wine Library TV because I was worried about the vulnerability of us and wineries selling direct to consumers. And I figured if I became influential, that me as a curator would protect me against wineries selling direct to consumers.” — Gary Vaynerchuk, episode 42 of Onward Nation.
You can also find the video interview Gary and I did at Vaynermedia here:
Gary launched Wine Library TV on May 17, 2006. Very few businesses had a video blog — and no one in the wine industry did. Yet he did it anyway.
And for the first year or so — each episode reached more and more people — but slowly. Wine Library TV was not an overnight success.
To Gary’s credit — and one of the things I admire most about him — he looks for opportunity in business — where are the untapped “wells” — and then he plants his flag — he puts up his drilling rig — and he drills and inch wide and a mile deep — and doesn’t stop.
Now, truth be told, Gary might be the only person in the field drilling — and sometimes, Onward Nation — being the early adopter, can be a very lonely feeling. But when Gary is convinced the strategy will work — he commits the necessary resources to learn all that is necessary and then make it work.
Does that mean Gary is successful 100 percent of the time?
No, no one ever is. But success and failure are all part of the process — the ying and the yang to it all.
But he was willing to stake his claim and then make improvements along the way. To illustrate my point…if you go to the show notes for this episode — we have embedded the videos for Gary’s Episode 1 and Episode 1,001 so you can see how the Wine Library TV evolved over time. Take some time to compare the on-screen graphics, Gary’s comfort level in front of the camera, the background, and the lighting between the two episodes.
Both episodes are off-the-charts for content — and this may surprise you a bit — but I actually prefer Episode 1 over Episode 1,001. But it isn’t because Episode 1,001 under delivers — it doesn’t. I like Episode 1 so much because it is the start of something amazing, something inspiring. It is the first edition of something that went on to change the wine industry and to propel the success of Gary’s family business. Wine Library TV — and Gary’s talent of discerning opportunities from the clutter — thrust him into the social media spotlight.
Episode 1:
Episode 1001:
I like Episode 1 because of the guts it took Gary to produce it — and then — the commitment to produce an excellent show fives times a week. That is how you build a platform, Onward Nation. Not overnight. Gary knew he could win over the long term if he was willing and disciplined enough to play for long term wins…and not to try and create an overnight success.
So what was the resulting outcome of Wine Library TV? Gary and his family grew their business from $3 million to over $60 million a year in sales as a direct result of Wine Library TV.
Wow, Onward Nation. 20x growth for their business. And they did it because of Gary’s unwavering long-term commitment to this philosophy. “Creating content for the social Internet is literally the cost of relevance in today’s society.” — Gary Vaynerchuk
Well done, my friend.
Now, if you are thinking about Gary’s success — his long-term commitment — and then thinking to yourself, “Yeah, but I could never do that.” And you are starting to feel some hesitation right now as you question yourself on whether you could follow in Gary’s footsteps and apply his recipe and strategy to your industry. The answer is yes you can…but…I want you to take a moment to consciously realize something here.
I want you to realize that any hesitancy you may be feeling right now about building your platform is the Imposter Syndrome attempting to hold you back!
That voice you may be hearing inside your head asking you the painful question of, “Who do you think you are? To launch a podcast — who would listen to you — what do you have to say that is worthy of sharing?”
Those are tough questions to listen to, Onward Nation. Very tough. Aren’t they?
And I will tell you that I hear the voices and those questions every day. And whoa…the voices really kick into overdrive every time I sit down at my desk to write out my thoughts for each and every weekly solocast.
But…and this is really important…I push through the fears, the doubts, the struggles with myself because my conviction behind the purpose of Onward Nation is drilled deep into the Earth.
My team and I are fully committed to being outstanding — delivering our best to you every day, no matter how long it takes us to build what we are focused on building. This is a long-term strategy for us just like Wine Library TV was as it has been for Gary.
So, Onward Nation — for you to build a rockin’ awesome platform that creates distinction for you in your marketplace or industry, you need that same time of long-term commitment. No matter what the tech is — doesn’t matter if you create a podcast, an awesome YouTube channel, an insightful blog as a resource for your customers and prospects, or if your customers are on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter in droves — then be there with them to have a conversation.
Or, if your customers are on Instagram — then be there.
If they are on Snapchat — then be there.
Or, if you have a decent connection with customers via email — then strengthen your relationships via email and provide deep, deep, deep value.
To help guide you on this path — I outlined 5 key steps in a brief action plan that I think will be helpful as you consider the type of platform you want to build. But one final word of caution before I share the steps. And that is — in the wise words of Ty Bennett, “Just pick one platform — master it — go deep — and then maybe add a second. But first — master one.” Wise words that Ty shared during our recent encore interview…episode 212.
So here are the action steps, Onward Nation. A business building — platform building recipe for you. My hope for you is that you will put these steps into practice with relentless action and execution:
- Find out where your customers hang out. Do they listen to podcasts? Are they on Twitter? Are they on LinkedIn? Are they on YouTube? Find out. How? Ask them. Take a survey. Send an email. Make some phone calls. Post on Facebook, post on Twitter…pick a path and create a conversation and ask your customers and prospects questions. Have the courage to ask and learn — even if the answers make you uncomfortable. Think of it this way…if the answers make you uncomfortable — wouldn’t you rather have that information sooner rather than later so you can make changes and deliver more value to your customers instead of them leaving and doing business with a competitor who they believe is more influential and delivers more value than you do? I know…ouch, right? But you can’t fix it if you ignore there’s a problem or an untapped opportunity, Onward Nation.
- Create a content strategy. And your strategy should accomplish two things: 1) deliver massive value to your customers and prospects. MASSIVE VALUE. Don’t skimp. And 2) ensure that what you are delivering will position you as a thought leader and influencer just like Gary Vee accomplished with Wine Library TV. And by doing so — you will create distinctiveness for your business — just like Scott McKain recommends, our guest duringepisodes 1 and 136 of Onward Nation.
- Ignore the Imposter Syndrome. Push past it and begin building your content, building your platform, and prepare for launch. Don’t let the questions in your head derail your success. I encourage you to go back and re-listen to episode 158 — which I dedicated toward defeating the Imposter Syndrome — it will be a great resource for you. Because Onward Nation…you are more talented, more wonderful, more gifted, more incredible than you can possibly imagine. You are a child of the highest God and were blessed with an abundance of talent — don’t give in — build the content and it will get easier over time.
- Execute your strategy — push the launch button! Will your podcast, videos, or blog be perfect on day 1? No! Will you be embarrassed at first? Maybe. But as Reid Hoffman the founder of LinkedIn said, “If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.” Does that mean you just launch something that is half-baked? No, it doesn’t. But it does mean that your podcast will never be perfect…you will learn along the path…your listeners will help you get better…and until you have the courage to put yourself out there…you will never receive that valuable feedback. So have the guts — build something great — realize that perfection is not attainable — and that part of the fun is to improve along the way. It’s the journey, Onward Nation — it is valuable to your growth and really fun for your listeners to watch how you evolve and change because of their comments and recommendations.
- Don’t stop. Never give up, Onward Nation. Keeping moving forward — success is there for you — just not overnight. It will take time — but it is funny how quality eventually rises to the top. It is a struggle — you will feel the pressure but pressure is a necessary force of nature — and pressure creates an astonishing result outcomes. For example…how is a diamond formed? By placing coal under intense pressure for a very long time. Or, how is oil formed? By placing organic material under extreme pressure and heat for a long period of time. Or, say you turn your garden hose on without any sort of nozzle at the end. What happens? Right, you get a steady stream of water coming out the end of the hose. But what happens when you place your thumb over the end of the hose and apply pressure to the water? The water shoots out the hose, doesn’t it? See? That is how pressure transforms and creates a fun and exciting result outcome. So don’t run from the pressure in your business or the pressure you might be feeling as you consider a podcast or some other platform building strategy. That pressure is your guiding force and it will direct you toward big result outcomes if you let it. So don’t ever give up — just remember — when you are feeling the pressure — you are likely to soon experience massive growth and your business is about to jettison forward into something amazing. Keep the faith, Onward Nation and never give up.
So with that…I want to thank you again for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here — thank you for tuning in — I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
However our daily podcast fits into your daily routine — I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation…good or bad…I always want your feedback. My direct email address is stephen@onwardnation.com — and yes — that is my actual Inbox. No fancy filters or filing system and I read and reply to every single email.
So please let me know how you think we are doing. I look forward to hearing from you.
We will be back tomorrow with an incredible encore interview with Morag Barrett, founder and CEO of leading HR consultancy SkyeTeam. You will love her message about the imposter syndrome and how she believes we are all making it up, every day. She’s amazing. You will not want to miss this discussion, Onward Nation!
Until then, onward with gusto!
Justin Christianson is a 14-year digital marketing veteran and #1 bestselling author of “Conversion Fanatic: How to double your customers, sales and profits with A/B testing.” He is also the co-founder and President of Conversion Fanatics, a full-service conversion rate optimization company helping companies get more out of their advertising through data-driven optimization and testing services.
Secret – timesaving technique Justin reviews his calendar and email at his desk -- not on his phone -- and then sets his plan for the day -- delegate the tasks you don't need to accomplish yourself. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Exercise and meditate -- Justin believes business is easier when he works on his mind and body.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Justin was in a lawsuit that he couldn't afford to fight -- and Justin tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Stick-to-it-iveness."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Live your best life daily."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have focused more on developing a business development process.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Work on increasing your conversion rate.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would have open, responsive communication skills.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Don't try to do it all yourself 2. Put the right the people in the right places 3. Hire slow and fire fast 4. Make sure you process everything out
How best to connect with Justin: * Website: conversionfanatics.com * Social: clyxo.com/justinchristianson
Kara Ronin is an Australian entrepreneur, social skills expert, and founder of Executive Impressions. Passionate about teaching people the social skills to thrive in any business or social situation, and in any country, Kara created Executive Impressions, an online education platform that receives thousands of visits every month. Kara has spent over 10-years living an international life in Japan, the United States, and Europe including Tokyo, New York, and Lyon, and speaks Japanese as well as French. At one stage, Kara moved countries or cities every year for 10 years straight. Now she lives in France, just two hours from the French Alps, where she took a leap of faith and created her own business.
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? Kara is the first one to get up every morning, and she eats breakfast, checks her email, and goes for a run three times a week -- take care of yourself in your morning. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? "What doesn't work gets you one step closer to success." -- J.K. Rowling
How do you define success? Success is the amount of impact that you have somebody else's life.
What strategy do you use to combat fear? Kara uses visualization techniques -- and Kara tells the reasons why here.
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" is someone who has the same vision as you -- and they have perseverance and the willingness to move forward.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? 1. Share articles that you enjoy with your community
How can we build an audience? 1. Choose just two or three platforms and become really, really good at those platforms 2. Create a free enticement on your website that is connected to your newsletter
How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Utilize visualization at this stage of business 2. Be okay with taking risks 3. Get a mentor -- they can help you see things you can't see yourself
How best to connect with Kara: * Website: www.executive-impressions.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kararonin * Twitter: @execimpressions
Kim Ades is the president and founder of Frame of Mind Coaching and Journal Engine Software. Author, speaker, entrepreneur, coach, and mother of five, Kim is recognized as one of North America's foremost experts on performance through thought mastery. By using her unique process of integrating online journaling in her coaching, Kim helps her highly-driven clients to examine and shift their thinking in order to yield extraordinary results.
Secret – timesaving technique Kim tries to be completely present wherever she is -- be exactly where you are. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Journal every single day -- Kim believes this allows you to focus, brainstorm, and overall just get your mind in the right spot.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Kim had her integrity challenged by someone she was thinking of partnering with -- and Kim tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Master the art of getting back up."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Conflict is not something that should be avoided."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have really, really honed in on a niche.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Increase your awareness of the way your thinking influences your team.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would be accountable without my interference -- and they would keep me accountable.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Challenge your own thinking 2. Focus on what you want 3. Leverage your resources
How best to connect with Kim: * Website: frameofmindcoaching.com
Jordan Goodman is America's Money Answers Man who has been answering American's questions about personal finance for over 35 years. He was the Wall Street Correspondent at MONEY Magazine for 18 years, financial commentator on NBC News for 9 years, on Marketplace radio for 6 years and he is a regular on many radio and TV programs around the country. He has written 14 books on personal financial topics including Fast Profits in Hard Times, The Dictionary of Finance and Investment Terms and The Ultimate Guide to Student Loans. His website is moneyanswers.com.
Secret – timesaving technique Jordan figures out what will give him the biggest payoff -- write those things down and make those your priorities. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success You need someone to hold you accountable -- Jordan hires a trainer to make sure he gets his physical activity in.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience The person who was on the cover of Jordan's book was extradited by the FBI -- and Jordan tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Leverage -- you can only do so much yourself."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "When speaking, get the people out of their room and into your room."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had "captured the heat" sooner -- be prepared to get people interested in your products.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. You need an area of specialty 2. Create a persona 3. Continuously work on your brand
How best to connect with Jordan: * Website: www.moneyanswers.com
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation — I’m Stephen Woessner. Have you ever noticed how most people only pay attention to the final product of a successful business owner.
They say things like…“I can never be like them.” or “They got lucky.”
What most people don’t see is what the business owner overcame on their path to becoming successful.
All of the struggles.
All of the daily rejections. The heartaches. The betrayals. The rumors. The criticism.
Even the empty bank accounts.
And all of those lonely nights while they worked hard to make their vision become a reality.
You see, Onward Nation, the only difference between the one who quits, and the one who doesn’t, is that the successful owner showed up every day.
The successful owner worked hard every day.
They hustled every day.
They learned from a proven mentor every day. They worked hard to improve every day.
They did all this even though they felt like quitting every day. And eventually, they became who they are today…a successful business owner, Onward Nation.
All of this is a very powerful lesson that I learned from Patrick Bet-David, founder of PHP Agency, an insurance marketing organization, and is the host of the popular YouTube channel,ValueTainment.
Onward Nation, if you haven’t already subscribed to Patrick’s YouTube channel, I highly recommend it. Patrick is exceptional at delivering impactful education, success principles, and business lessons any business owner can apply immediately in order to move onward to that next level.
And during this solocast, we are going to dig deep into one of the fundamental – yet underlying principles that I just shared from Patrick. The principle is fundamental to success — but Onward Nation — it is also easy to miss, overlook, or to take for granted.
The principle is that there is no such thing as an overnight success. There isn’t. No matter what industry — no matter what sector — the companies that have achieved sustainable success reached their pinnacle after years and years of perfecting their craft.
So I am going to share some examples with you over the next several minutes to illustrate this powerful principle.
Why?
Because I think it is important to realize that success takes time. That success requires your full attention. That success requires failure, making adjustments, repositioning, trying again, failing again, reintroducing products, and maybe even being on the brink of collapse as was the case with Apple, before you finally “make it”.
I want you to rest easy today — and to celebrate the challenges and obstacles that are in your way right now. They are a gift — they are making you stronger — if you let them — they are forcing you to think differently — they are testing your commitment to your vital priorities, vital function, and your wherewithal.
Will you push forward — or will you quit, Onward Nation? My hope is that you will always push forward and never quit.
Back when I was a sophomore in high school, I decided that I wanted to play football. Now, truth be told, I didn’t know the first thing about football…literally…I didn’t even know the positions on the field. I knew zero plays…nothing. And to make matters worse, I was 6 feet tall and about 150 pounds, slow, lanky, without any skill at all.
In fact, I was so bad — and I am honestly not exaggerating at all — I was so bad, Onward Nation, that I actually sat on the bench during practice. As a young kid in high school, I thought my coaches were disrespecting me by not letting me practice.
Now that I am older — I can only imagine the coaches meetings — they probably went something like this. “Ahem, okay gentlemen, we need to make some adjustments here in practice…has anyone seen that Woessner kid, yeah, he’s really bad. He has no talent on the field. Let’s let him stay on the team but we need to keep him busy on the sidelines because he is so bad that he will get destroyed even in practice.”
Which was likely followed by lots of agreement and laughing. I distinctly remember talking with my dad one night when I felt like quitting because I was frustrating with my lack of opportunity — again — I didn’t realize the coaches were helping me, they weren’t trying to hold me back — they were actually ensuring I could move up just not in football — and my dad told me it would be okay if I quit.
And that took me back a little bit. Quit?
After the call, I thought long and hard about what he said — and I later decided that it was not okay if I quit.
Quitting was not okay — and even if I never played another down on the team — I would not quit. I would attend every practice — every game — and root on the guys who were much better than me.
But I would never quit. I wasn’t going to be successful in football but quitting to me felt like I would be given up on a lot more than just 10th grade football. So I finished the season no matter how embarrassed I was to be riding the pine bench.
I think about those lessons often because they still fuel me today, Onward Nation, and my hope is that the lessons fuel you, too. Don’t ever give up. Remain committed to your vital priorities — and eventually — you will succeed.
There is no overnight success — it takes persistence and tenacity over the long haul.
To that point, I encourage you to go back and relisten to my interview with Verne Harnish in episode 205 and listen carefully to how Verne introduces himself to you, Onward Nation.
Verne says this is his 34th year of doing just one thing — helpful companies scale up. His organizations and companies are devoted to this “one thing”…his books are dedicated to this “one thing” and even his family and friends are dedicated to supporting him be successful with this “one thing.”
The discussion with Verne is so compelling because he takes some time to dispel the overnight success myth by sharing some interesting data points and stories. One of those data points is that there are over 11,000 new companies launched every hour all over the world today.
Just think of that, Onward Nation…11,000 new companies an hour.
However, the vast majority of those companies will not be successful — they will lack the fortitude — the staying power to effectively scale their business. For example, Verne went on to share that of the 28 million businesses in the United States, about 24 million of the total are solopreneurs and will never scale up.
Why?
Most lack the resources — and I don’t mean just financial. Often times, as Verne shared, it is not a question of “how much do I need to scale?” but typically a question of who do I need to be in association with in order to scale up over the long haul.
Verne cited Apple and how the company had slowly moved along with their 25 year timeline — nearly collapsed — until Steve Jobs came back. At the time Jobs returned, they had 9,800 employees and were nearly broke.
And likely all of us know what happened following the iPod’s release in 2001 — but it didn’t succeed right away…in fact…the iPod floundered a bit for a couple of years.
But in 2003, it got some traction and now Apple has scaled to over 110,000 employees during the last 13 years. It would be very easy to forget about those first 25 years of trial, error, struggle, losing millions of dollars, nearly going broke, and then focusing on just one thing and doing it with excellence in the iPod — and then traction takes hold.
Success requires a disciplined effort over a long period of time.
Some people look at Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of Vaynermedia in New York City, as this guy who came out of nowhere to leap in front of the social media space and is now super popular with a massive following. Couldn’t be further from the truth — and Gary would be the first one to tell you. His story is one of grit, tenacity, outworking the competition, and playing to win for the long term.
When Gary launched Wine Library TV — his daily show — for about the first year, his audience was really small…almost discouragingly small…but Gary didn’t quit. Then year two…then year three…then year four…then year five, and then year six.
Six years, Onward Nation! Six years of producing a high-quality show of 20 to 30-minutes of engaging video content — every day — that’s what it took for Gary Vee to win.
Just think about that for a minute. The magnitude of content he produced. It is really easy to look at Vaynermedia and get impressed with the success — heck — 500 employees on Park Avenue in NYC — and that is darn impressive.
But, to me, because I have had an opportunity to be Gary’s guest at Vaynermedia, to go behind the green curtain to interview him, and to learn from him, I know that one of the things he is most proud of — and he should be — is all of the hard work, the struggle, the determination to make something out of nothing — he truly enjoys the journey to success — and he would be another one to tell you there are no shortcuts to success.
And just because someone gets paid $50,000 to deliver a speech today — like Gary does — there is all kinds of back story there — and it’s the back story that is so interesting.
Let’s take a look at the late Peter Drucker, arguably the godfather of modern day management…Verne Harnish shared with me during our interview that of Peter’s 39 groundbreaking books, only 13 of them were written before Peter’s 65th birthday. Peter wrote twice the number of books after he turned 65. What?
It takes a long time, Onward Nation, to collect, curate, and share the wisdom that is deep and impactful enough to matter and add value to a lot of people, like Peter did.
Or, how about Picasso?
Of his top 10 paintings — six of them were painted after he had turned 50. And four of the of 10 paintings were completed when Picasso was 51.
Again…it’s the long term commitment to your vital priorities and vital functions…perfecting your craft with years, and years, and years of disciplined effort.
I have mentioned vital priorities and vital functions a couple of times this morning — so if you want a refresher on terminology — just go back and listen to episode 203. I dedicated an entire solocast to the topic of the vitals in your business and the lessons I learned from one of my mentors, Darren Hardy.
So let’s move onto another example of long term success. It would be very easy to look at James Patterson, one of the most successful novelists in history, and think — wow — here’s a guy who has it made. How amazing to be that lucky — to just write all day — what a joy. Again, let’s go behind the green curtain.
Last week, I had an opportunity to interview the incomparable Linda Kaplan Thaler — oh my word, Onward Nation — Linda is brilliant. She was the creator of the AFLAC duck and so many ad campaigns that I know you will recognize when you hear our interview.
Cannot wait to share our discussion — we will air it as episode 226 on Monday, May 2nd — so stay tuned for that.
But during our conversation, Linda told me about how she used to work for James Patterson when James was the creative director of the agency where Linda worked. James and Linda worked together for 17 years and became great friends. As Linda shared with me, James did not become a great novelist by accident or luck. Instead, to perfect his craft, James would get up every morning at 4:00 and would write for four hours until 8:00 when he would leave his home for the agency.
He would then put in a full day — go home — and be in bed by 8:30 every night. And he rinsed and repeated this process for 21 years, Onward Nation. Staggering. 21 years!
Just think about how many times during those 21 years that he would have second guessed himself, called himself bat crazy, how much criticism he received from friends and family encouraging him to just quit and to give up on his dream, and so much more.
But he didn’t.
He remained committed to his vital priority — and after 21 years — he became the successful James Patterson we know today.
Or how about Henry Ford…he was 40 years old when he founded the Ford Motor Company with the help of friends, family, and several investors who collectively helped him raise $28,000 in capital in 1903.
And if you look through Mr. Ford’s timeline…you will see trials, tribulations, blood, sweat, tears, heartache, success, followed by disappointment, followed by triumph, followed by obstacles.
So, let’s put all of these stories and principles into context by remembering the excellent lesson taught to me by Cody Foster, founder of Advisors Excel and my guest on episode 81 of Onward Nation. Cody said to me, “Stephen, don’t compare someone else’s front-of-stage with your back-of-stage.”
Meaning…if you only look at someone’s front of stage — what you see in the public eye — you miss all of the struggles, the obstacles, the pain, the suffering, the courage, and their zig-zagged journey to where they are are now.
And the last example I want to leave you with is Napoleon Hill. If you have been listening to Onward Nation for a while now — you know I love Napoleon’s book, “Think & Grow Rich.” I have such high regard for this book — it is, in my opinion — the ultimate guide to achieving success.
But, most people don’t know the story behind the book’s success — and how the first edition, per se, was a great book but not well-received by the American public. Why? Several factors. First, it was published in 1928 — just one year before the Great Depression.
The American public was not looking for — or ready for — a success manuscript at that time. And second, the book was huge and it was under a different title. It was the 612-page “Law of Success” — wow. I own the book — it is sitting on my desk right now — and it is amazing.
It is essentially a more comprehensive version of “Think & Grow Rich.”
Smartly, Napoleon decided to revise and repackage the Laws of Success by trimming it down — making it more concise — and then publishing it as “Think & Grow Rich” in 1937, nearly 10 years later, following the Depression.
“Think & Grow Rich” then went on to sell 70 million copies worldwide. Again, no such thing as an overnight success.
So don’t give up, Onward Nation!
I hope you realize that the struggles you are facing — perhaps the abyss you are staring into right now — is all part of the master plan. You are more talented, more wonderful, more gifted, more incredible than you can possibly imagine. You are a child of the highest God and were blessed with an abundance of talent — so don’t quit — don’t give in — don’t stop. Keeping moving forward — success is there for you — just not overnight.
So with that…I want to thank you again for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here — thank you for tuning in — I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
However our daily podcast fits into your daily routine — I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation…good or bad…I always want your feedback. My direct email address is stephen@onwardnation.com — and yes — that is my actual Inbox. No fancy filters or filing system and I read and reply to every single email.
So please let me know how you think we are doing. I look forward to hearing from you.
We will be back tomorrow with an incredible interview with Jordan Goodman, America’s Money Answers Man. You will not want to miss this discussion, Onward Nation!
Until then, onward with gusto!
When Ty was 21 years old, he and his brother Scott started a business in direct sales, which they built to over $20 million in annual revenue while still in their twenties. Since that time, he has developed over 500 sales managers globally with sales and leadership in 37 countries. As a young entrepreneur, Ty continues to engage his team's focus in growing sales. He uses the power of influence and storytelling to get buy-in to the vision of growing their multimillion-dollar sales organization.
With a natural ability to engage and empower others, Ty draws on his experience in the trenches to share real and tangible techniques about the principles of leadership that continue to create his success. The founder of Leadership Inc., who has been featured as one of the Top 40 Under 40, Ty is a young fresh voice providing interactive presentations that are engaging, dynamic and inspiring.
His clients include some of the most recognizable brands in the world such as Coca-Cola, Subway, Wounded Warrior Project, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Remax. Ty has shared the stage with celebrities, Olympians and world-renowned thought leaders such as President Bush and President Clinton.
Ty's best-selling books The Power of Influence and The Power of Storytelling: The Art of Influential Communication are used in graduate courses at multiple universities including MIT, as today's version of How to Win Friends and Influence People.
In June 2014, Ty Bennett received the CSP Designation. At just 32 years of age, he is one of the youngest ever to receive the award in the shortest amount of time. Less than 5% of speakers earn the CSP honor.
Ty lives in Utah with his wife Sarah, daughters Andie and Lizzy and sons Tanner and Drew.
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? Ty schedule changes drastically based on whether he's at home or on the road -- but every morning begins with prayer and study, exercise, and listening to audios for getting the mind right. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? "If you're interested, you do what's convenient; if you're committed, you do what it takes."
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" has the right attitude -- they're committed, authentic, trustworthy, and hard-working.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? 1. Identify the key people you need to keep mentoring 2. Find the consistent timeframe for meeting 3. Set mentor-mentee expectations
How can we build an audience? 1. Give consistent value 2. Figure out the specific platforms that you want to use
How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Focus on what you are amazing at 2. Never get too busy to work on yourself
How best to connect with Ty: * Website: tybennett.com
Kerry Heaps is the host of Strictly Marketing Talk Radio and publisher of Strictly Marketing Magazine. The magazine has recently spun off an online community for Strictly Women in Marketing, for Women looking to gain more media exposure. Her passion is to help other Entrepreneurs with their marketing efforts to continue their dream of running a successful business. Kerry has interviewed celebrities such as Co-Host of Shark Tank, Barbara Corcoran; Authors Larry Winget and Jeffrey Hayzlett; and many more successful business entrepreneurs. Kerry is also the founder and president of Kerry’s Network, Inc., a marketing organization that provides business-to-business marketing services.
Secret – timesaving technique Kerry ends her day by making to-do lists for tomorrow -- keep things organized in a way that is comfortable for you. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Take action every day -- Kerry schedules 3-4 hour blocks for making phone calls.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Kerry was forced to change the name of her business -- and Kerry tells the whole story here.
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "You have to learn to promote yourself."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. You need to stay focused 2. Find a mentor -- not a coach 3. Get an accountability partner 4. Learn to have fun -- and take a break 5. Develop a sense of humor
How best to connect with Kerry: * Website: strictlymarketingmagazine.com
Brad is the founder of Baldridge College Solutions, a Certified Financial Planner, and a member of the Financial Planning Association. He helps parents of high school students plan and pay for college using strategies such as merit aid, need-based aid, tax planning, savings and investing for college, negotiating with colleges, scholarships, and loans. Brad has helped hundreds of families plan and pay for college. He has provided in-depth college plans resulting in increased financial aid, scholarships, identification of the right schools at the right price, and better loans. Brad’s expertise is also featured weekly on his podcast, Taming The High Cost of College.
Secret – timesaving technique Brad spends his time working directly with his clients -- spend your time on what's important for you to do and delegate everything else. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success If you're on top of your industry, you can take advantage of its changes -- Brad reads to stay on top of the constantly changing financial industry.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Brad and his college planning program were being turned away by high schools -- and Brad tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Be able to communicate your value to people that don't know they need you."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Understand a niche -- if you do everything, you do nothing."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have understood and gotten involved with social media sooner.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Recognize when something is repetitive, and then build a system.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would both plug into systems and be able to build new ones.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Be able to communicate your value 2. When the going gets tough -- keep going
How best to connect with Brad: * Website: www.tamingthehighcostofcollege.com
Donna and her team teach a 3-Step Social Selling Process that helps sales professionals generate qualified leads and increase sales effectiveness and performance. Her latest online training course is called “Social Selling Using LinkedIn” and is designed to drive a company's total revenue and improve quota attainment. Donna has deep expertise in working with sales leaders and sales teams on increasing win rates by designing and delivering prescriptive, learning programs that are tailored to the specific needs of each salesperson. Donna has taught her process with sales professionals in a variety of industries.
Secret – timesaving technique Donna is always capturing data with Evernote -- keep everything organized with a system. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Get up in the morning and exercise -- Donna believes her best ideas flow during exercise.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Donna almost launched her course before it was ready -- and Donna tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "If you're not focused on achieving something -- you'll never achieve anything."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Be giving -- have a huge desire for your clients to succeed."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had a content strategy.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? If you're not looking at the data, then you're guessing.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would take ownership in the business.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Take steps daily 2. Lean on other people
How best to connect with Donna: * Website: www.donnamccurley.com
Good Morning Onward Nation — I’m Stephen Woessner. During episode 193…I shared the deeply personal backstory of one of my biggest professional failures. It took me about 8 years before I could even speak about it.
It was the story of FortifiedNutrition.com and how my team and I built the company up to a valuation of $10 million (which was insane but par for the dot com course of 1999), and as a result, I was worth $3 million at the ripe old age of 28. That’s just bat crazy!
Then fast forward to March of 2000…Fortified Nutrition imploded when the dot-com bubble burst and the NASDAQ crashed.
My wife and I nearly lost everything — we nearly lost our house — and we definitely lost our life’s savings. Over $100,000 in cash sucked right out of our pockets. It was absolutely devastating.
But — we dug in — we rebuilt, we reinvented, and we came back stronger as a result of that failure. You can go back to episode 193 and listen to the whole story in excruciating detail.
But the Fortified Nutrition story inside episode 193 is not the end of my mistakes. As we know…many entrepreneurs have more than one epic failure in their journey or pathway to success — and I am definitely no different. So, unfortunately — or fortunately, depending on one’s perspective — episode 193 was not the end of the story.
I’m not sure who this quote belongs to, but I like it… “An entrepreneur is someone who makes enough money to pay for his or her mistakes.”
So, Onward Nation, during this solocast, I am going to share with you Colossal Failure #2…but more importantly…I am going to share with you a series of 13 questions you can ask yourself to help you avoid your own colossal mistake.
In fact, this next mistake makes the Fortified Nutrition loss of $100,000 out to be a walk in the park. It was a $200,000 failure called Predictive ROI LIVE and I recently shared the deep deep deep backstory with Jessica Rhodes when she interviewed me for her “Rhodes to Success” podcast. You can find the full episode right here.
Jessica gave our episode the fitting title of “How to Lose $200K & Still Rise Above The Failure.”Awesome!
I’m not going to repeat the Predictive ROI LIVE story during this solocast — you can get all of the fully transparent and completely candid details during my interview with Jessica. But let’s review why the event failed and how you can prevent mistakes like this from happening inside your business.
In short…the event failed for three simple reasons:
First, I was unwilling to shut down my ego and truly listen to what my mentor, Darren Hardy was saying to me about how to promote our event, Predictive ROI LIVE. As you will hear me say to Jessica, I just thought any business owner would love to come to the Ritz Carlton in Orlando, pay $7,000 to hear some amazing speakers and learn a few digital marketing strategies along the way. Good grief — I was so wrong.
Second, I was unwilling shut down my ego and take the necessary time to answer three very simple questions — and had I answered them — would have delivered a completely different result outcome.
And third, I was unwilling to define the avatar of our ideal event attendee.
So, your answers to the first set of three questions that I am about to share with you will help guide your overall communication strategy with customers and prospects. Your answers will help establish your expertise and why your message is relevant and deserves to be heard. But — your answers need to come from the perspective of your customer.
The second set of 10 questions will help ensure you are speaking to the RIGHT or most ideal customers and prospects. The 10 questions are the same 10 questions my team and I use at Predictive ROI to help our clients define their customer avatar…sometimes called a customer persona…or other similar terms.
Let’s not get hung up on terminology right now — and instead — focus on questions you can ask yourself and your team to properly define the “WHO” as it relates to your ideal customer and prospects.
So, I will share the full 13 questions with you. Had I taken the time to answer these questions — in precise detail — we likely would not have lost $200,000 on Predictive ROI LIVE.
We would have either have had a much more precisely defined value proposition — or — we would have discovered that at the time of our business — the event was too soon — we were swinging for the fences when we should have been paying attention to getting on base and scoring some runs.
So now let’s review the three questions to guide your overall communication strategy with customers and prospects.
First off…you need to remember that your customers will not remember what you said…but how what you said made them FEEL. And in order for them to feel something as a result of what you said…you need to have established the credibility in their mind’s eye so you have enough permission to say what needs to be said.
Throughout the entire conversation — heck — you may even be doing it now as you hear my voice — your audience will be asking themselves three simple questions…and you must answer them…or the conversation is over.
Question 1: Who are you?
Question 2: Why do I care?
Question 3: What’s in it for me?
Now, you may not like the questions — they may be too direct for your particular style — but they are, in reality, the essence of what your customers are asking themselves as they listen to you.
Let’s take a quick look at the questions.
The first two questions of “Who are you?” and “Why should I care?” are — at the core — credibility indicator questions. When beginning a conversation — especially with someone new — you need to answer these two questions in a short and succinct manner. No one likes the “Me Monster” at a party who goes on and on with the self-aggrandizing. So don’t do that. But a short sentence — or at the most — two sentences that answer these questions from the perspective of your customer is perfect.
And the third question of “What’s in it for me?” is the ultimate value proposition question. If you listen to the interview with Jessica Rhodes, you will hear me admit that one of the reasons our Predictive ROI LIVE event failed was because I — personally — yes, me — could never specifically explain, or define, why a business owner would want to invest $7,000 and head to the Ritz Carlton in Orlando, Florida to learn about digital marketing strategies. The pricing was off, the value proposition was non-existent, and the worst part, Darren Hardy, my mentor asked me this same question every time we talked. During every call he asked me, “Stephen, why would anyone want to come to this thing?” And I never set my ego aside — I never listened to Darren — and I never answered his very simple question. So the resulting outcome was that the event failed. Not awesome, Onward Nation.
When you are communicating with your audience…be sure to answer:
- Who are you?
- Why do I care?
- What’s in it for me?
Next…once you have your core message defined — it is time to crystallize with whom you are going to share your message — and — how to create emotional impact with your audience at the same time.
To help with this piece…I am going to show you how to fix one of the most expensive mistakes any business can easily make within their marketing strategy.
In fact, I call it Money Draining Mistake #5…or “Not Knowing Your Customer.”
I am excited to share this strategy and recipe with you. We are going to dig deep into why most companies fail at delivering high-quality communications to their customers. It is because they have not taken the time to understand their customers from an emotional perspective.
In fact, I will show how a single WORD can completely change a situation – and I am going to give you a specific step-by-step strategy or recipe for understanding exactly how to connect with your customers on a different and more valuable level than what you may be doing currently.
My hope for you is that you will take this recipe — apply it — and see predictable, measurable, and repeatable increases in sales inside your business as a result.
This recipe represents such a significant opportunity for you and your business because only about 2 percent of the business owners listening right now will take action on the steps I share.
Some words of caution, Onward Nation. You may nod your head in agreement when you hear this recipe — you may even take some notes – or even share this episode with a colleague.
But ultimately, your inaction will signify your acceptance of operating your business at the status quo — instead of at the level of excellence.
Onward Nation — please don’t let this be you!
Don’t fall into the trap of procrastination. My hope for you is that you will take the notes – have the discussions with your team — and then put the steps into action — swiftly. That is how excellence is reached.
This strategy has the potential of being a game-changer for you. Okay, let’s dig in.
First…I will ask you another question.
What’s the number one reason people buy anything?
I will give you a hint. It has nothing to do with the features, advantages, or benefits of the product or service.
In fact — it has everything to do with just one, four-letter word.
And that word is “HOPE.”
The only reason we buy anything is because we HOPE that tomorrow will somehow be better than today as a result of buying the product or service we are considering.
That’s it — HOPE.
So in order for you to fix this Money Draining Mistake, you need to understand how to make an emotional and empathetic connection with your prospects and customers.
You do this by becoming a HOPE Dealer to your customers.
Let’s take this a little bit deeper with another question.
What percentage of people make a purchase decision based solely on emotional reasons?
Would you guess 20%? 30%? Maybe even 50%?
The answer is 100%. Yes, 100%.
Now, we like to think we are such rational creatures and we only make decisions based on objective data and thoughtful analysis. But the reality is that all of our decisions — yes, 100% of them — are made for purely emotional reasons.
And because this percentage is so high — you and your business must become HOPE DEALERS to your customers. You can do that by connecting on an emotional and empathetic level with your “customer avatar”.
You can do this by understanding their challenges.
You can do this by understanding their pain points.
You can do this by going beyond demographic and economic data by metaphorically “Laying in their bed at night” to understand what is causing them pain…so you can get into the hearts and minds of your customers and prospects.
You need to understand the last thing they think about before they go to bed — and — the first thing they think about when they wake up in the morning.
Every piece of communication you send to your customer and prospect lists needs to speak directly to what we like to call your customer avatar.
You should give your avatar, him or her, or both a name. As if you were having a one-on-one conversation with them…right now…just you like and I are having…right now.
No surface answers — challenge yourself — and your team — to dig deep and push to find specific examples of situations that either reinforce or contradict what is currently believed to be true.
So now I am going to share 10 specific questions you and your team need to ask each other and then go out and ask your prospects and customers the same questions.
Question 1: what things are challenging our customers right now?
Question 2: what are our customer’s emotional fears or worries?
Question 3: what are their dreams and aspirations?
Question 4: what are their pain points?
Question 5: what are their values — and are their values the same as ours?
Question 6: who do they want to impress the most?
Question 7: what frustrates them about our business or others like us in the industry?
Question 8: what do they want from our business?
Question 9: what’s the one thing — or result — that if you could guarantee — your customers would pay a premium for?
Question 10: answer this on behalf of your customers… “You will gain my trust and comfort by…”
Once you have collected that data – you will have all you need in order to create your “Avatar.”
Some words of CAUTION!
Your avatar is one person. Not an email list of 20,000 people.
One person and you give him or her a name, a personality, you hang a photo of her on your conference room wall, and every time you write an email campaign, shoot a video, etc. you speak directly to your avatar.
Let me take you inside Predictive ROI to illustrate this point. Our client avatars are “Harry” and“Sally” (we chose those names because When Harry Met Sally is one of my favorite movies of all time).
All of our conversations with Harry and Sally are personal — they are emotional — and they are always authentic.
And this is Sally:
- Sally and her team are ambitious and want to learn new things
- She knows there is more opportunity and growth “out there” and is frustrated she does not know how to capitalized on it, faster
- She reads lots of books but doesn’t know a good idea from a bad one
- She is uncertain and afraid to fail
- She has been fooled before and does not know who to believe
- Everything sounds too good to be true
- And Sally has said to me…“Stephen…I want to trust you…that you can do what you say you can do…show me the evidence quickly that it is working and that you are delivering on your promises”.
During more than one prospect client presentation, “Sally” has said to me – “My goodness, that’s me!” I love it when it happens because I know we just made a powerful, emotional connection.
I just wish we would have completed the same Avatar definition exercise BEFORE planning and promoting Predictive ROI LIVE. Our probability of success would have likely increased by a factor of 10.
You can too if you answer the ten avatar definition questions on behalf of your customer and then quickly apply what you learned.
So with that…I want to thank you again for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here — thank you for tuning in — I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
However our daily podcast fits into your daily routine — I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation…good or bad…I always want your feedback. My direct email address is stephen@onwardnation.com — and yes — that is my actual Inbox. No fancy filters or filing system and I read and reply to every single email.
So please let me know how you think we are doing. I look forward to hearing from you.
We will be back tomorrow with an incredible interview with Donna McCurley — and we get practical and tactical about generating qualified sales leads through LinkedIn tools and systems — powerful conversation. You will not want to miss this discussion, Onward Nation!
Until then, onward with gusto!
Rochelle Rice is a nationally recognized speaker, author, and educator. A former professional jazz dancer, her passion stems from the inordinate amount of stress in our society placed on thinness rather than overall health and wellness. She motivates people to bridge the gap between knowledge and action, information, and implementation when it comes to their health. Rochelle is the only woman to currently hold the Accredited Speaker designation from Toastmasters International and the Certified Speaking Professional designation from the National Speakers Association.
Secret – timesaving technique Rochelle spends her time on the projects that bring in revenue soonest -- focus on the income-generating tasks. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Stretch your mind, body, and soul -- Rochelle begins each day by journaling, praying, and stretching her muscles.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Rochelle business was directly affected by 9/11 -- and Rochelle tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Fit your business around your health."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Make sure the information sits well with you."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had QuickBooks back then -- but unfortunately it didn't exist.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would enjoy what they're doing -- and it's up to me to play to their strengths.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Ask for help -- people want to help you 2. Trust your intuition
How best to connect with Rochelle: * Website: rochellerice.com * Email: rochelle@rochellerice.com * Phone: (212) 689-4558
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Get ready to have your thinking challenged and expanded as you learn from an internationally recognized leadership expert. Mark is a bestselling author and noted authority on leadership, service, and extraordinary performance. His bestselling book “The Fred Factor”, which sold more than 2 million copies to date has established him as the expert on turning the ordinary into the extraordinary, in business and in life. Mark is an adjunct professor at the University of Memphis. He is featured by Crestcom in DVD-based training taught in 90 countries. His list of 2,500+ clients includes Harley-Davidson, Costco, Cisco, ESPN, First Data, and many others.
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? Mark feeds his dogs, goes through his email and social media, prays and studies the Bible, exercises, heads to the office, and figures out what his two top priorities are before he gets there -- how well you start your day determines how well you spend your day. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? "Fear nothing but to waste the present moment because if you take care of the moments, the moments become your life."
How do you define success? Success is coming as close as possible to fulfilling your unique potential.
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" is a contributor, cooperative, communicative, and committed.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? Ask these three questions:
- What did you learn?
- What do you most need to learn?
- How can I help?
How can we build an audience? 1. Have a product or service that is so good that people instantly 2. Put the right content on the right platform
How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Don't stop doing the things that have made you successful because of complacency 2. Look for the low-hanging fruit so you can quickly improve
How best to connect with Mark: * Website: www.marksanborn.com * "Fred Factor" website: fredfactor.com
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Secret – timesaving technique Verne believes that you have to find the vital 90 minutes a day several times a week to get good at what you want to get good at -- if you don't commit it will never happen. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success You have to get a peer coach -- Verne believes in working with your peer coach to help hold yourself accountable.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Verne lost about $1 million in eight weeks after 9/11 -- and Verne tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Leaders are readers."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Write down the names of the 25 people you need to get to support your venture."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have built my business model around cash flow.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Decide the word or two you can own in the minds of the market -- and become the king/queen of that every single day.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would know what needed to get done -- and they'd put in the time to get it done.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Make your list and work it 2. Pick the words you want to own -- and get on it 3. Find 90 minutes to work on the most important thing 4. Don't run out of cash
How best to connect with Verne: * Website: scalingup.com
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Vera Fischer was born in Frankfurt, Germany and immigrated to the United States. She grew up on the edge of poverty in Florida. In 1993, she landed her first position in advertising at GSD&M. After several positions in various agencies in Austin, Texas she moved over to the client side as Director of Marketing for a public software company, Forgent Networks. Three years later, while on maternity leave, she was laid off in a corporate restructuring. Vera immediately started 97 Degrees West — her own agency in Austin — the day she received the news. 12 years have gone by and they have been filled with ups and downs — but through it all — 97 Degrees West has grown to become an international award winning agency.
Secret – timesaving technique Vera gets up at 5:30 every morning and eases into her morning -- start the day off in a place of calm. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Never forgo your health for your business -- Vera goes to pilates in the middle of the day, three times a week.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Vera merged her agency with another business -- and two years later her partner just left -- and Vera tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "The ability to compartmentalize is critical."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "I'm going to do it the way I want to do it."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I knew the systems I would need from working in other agencies -- and one of the most crucial was QuickBooks.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? You have to follow through and commit.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Sleep -- you have to sleep 2. Exercise 3. Have faith that whatever journey you're, you will get there
How best to connect with Vera: * Email: vera@97dwest.com * Twitter: @VeraFischer97 * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/verakfischer
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation -- and I hope you are having a rock solid awesome, Wednesday and that you are making consistent and steady progress toward your vital priorities for the week. And how can this be the last week in March already? We will close out the first quarter of 2016 tomorrow and then launch into second quarter strong.
And one of the ways we can be sure to end our quarters strong -- and our years right on track -- is to pay very close attention to our vital priorities, our vital functions and our vital metrics.
All of which are lessons I learned directly from one of my most influential mentors...Darren Hardy, former publisher of SUCCESS Magazine.
“Vitals” are top of the mind awareness for me right now because I just spent 2-½ days in Palm Beach with Darren and 20 other business owners from fast-growth companies where we focused on getting to that next level -- and vital metrics plays a critical role.
An amazing -- yet mentally exhausting experience!
And no joke, Onward Nation, within the first 30-minutes of meeting this elite group, I wrote in the upper left corner of the first page in my notebook, “I am the dumbest person in the room -- this is definitely the right group for me.”
Why? Because you need to be in a group that challenges you. That doesn’t let you get by with the status quo -- or zero growth. We all need to be pushed and put under pressure -- because that is where the growth is. And that is what Darren has always done for me when we spend time together -- he pushes me.
So during this solocast, I am going to share the story about how I first met Darren and then take you through vital priorities, vital functions, and vital metrics and then we will wrap up with a 33 question quiz -- or assessment -- you can use to evaluate the vitals in your business to determine your readiness to move onward to that next level.
Deal?
Okay, let’s dive in.
Darren Hardy, former publisher and founding editor of SUCCESS Magazine has been one of the most influential mentors in my business and life. I met Darren when I was invited to attend one of his original High-Performance Forums at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, California.
I was one of 23 CEOs of fast-growth companies invited to spend two and a half days with Darren and the other CEOs. We spent the time together working through the latest in sales and marketing strategies with some intense masterminding.
Gulp. To say I was nervous would be an understatement. The imposter syndrome attempted to stop me from completing the application, booking my travel, from getting on the plane, checking into my hotel room, and actually making it to the conference room the next day.
The room Darren booked for our sessions overlooked the majestic Torrey Pines golf course, which has played host to the US Open and other prestigious events. I felt grossly out of my league.
I later learned from Darren that all of the signs of trepidation I was feeling were not reasons to turn and run – but instead – were indicators I was doing the right thing. Success would follow if I had the courage to push through the resistance. Steve Rodgers, the former CEO of Prudential Real Estate, shared this brilliant statement with me during our Onward Nation interview, “Resistance is part of the chemistry of success.” Steve went on to tell me that the amount of resistance one feels regarding a particular course of action, product rollout, new hire, or the internal debate whether their company should launch a new marketing strategy, is a direct reflection of the amount of payoff at the end of the tunnel.
Being there to meet Darren and the other CEOs was exactly the right place for me to be. In fact, Darren even boldly said to us within the first several minutes, that there was no more valuable place on the planet any of us could be then with that group for the next several days as it relates to growing our businesses. Spot on.
I began to get my sea legs under me after the first morning and lunch. My confidence began to build when I learned that others in the room were struggling with the same constraints and challenges facing my business.
Wait...What? These business rock stars were people, too? By dinner that evening – I was feeling like I deserved to be there.
By the time the weekend was over, Darren had accepted my invitation to speak at an upcoming live event Predictive ROI was hosting. Darren and I also worked out an agreement for him to join our board of advisors for 12-months where he would personally mentor me on growing our business and new directions we ought to consider. It was the most intense 12-months of my business career. However, it was exactly what I needed to learn despite the process being challenging and sometimes painful. A great mentor pushes even when the last thing you want is to be pushed.
At Darren’s forum is where I met Don Yaeger, 9-time New York Times bestselling author, owner of three companies, outstanding man of faith, devoted husband, and one of the most rock star fathers I have seen in action. Don and I became accountability partners following that weekend and agreed to call each other every Friday morning at 7:30 a.m. to report our Wins, Losses, AH-HAs, and Fixes. We have maintained that weekly accountability for nearly four years and Don has become one of my best friends and trusted advisors. Don is also writing the Foreword to the book I am currently working on. The imposter syndrome tried to cheat me out of this relationship, too.
Darren used a portion of the forum to teach all of us about the importance of our “Success Vitals.” What were they? How to measure them? How to assess our current business health? The lessons I learned were so impactful and have added so much value into Predictive ROI and our ability to generate revenue from Onward Nation that I wanted to devote this solocast to sharing the most relevant insights.
My hope for you is that this solocast will help bring into focus what I often refer to as the Vital Metrics controlling the growth of a business. I learned the Vital Metrics principle directly from Darren. Our “vitals” represent a snapshot and oftentimes a visualization regarding the overall health of your business at any given moment. The metaphor Darren used when teaching this lesson to me was, “Stephen, think about if you went to the emergency room because you had a severe leg injury from a car accident. Would the medical team in the ER start your treatment by taking care of your leg? Or, would they first check your vitals – your pulse, check your breathing, check your eyes for trauma, check your abdomen for internal bleeding, and so on?”
A medical team knows the importance of completing an immediate diagnostic of a patient’s vital signs to ensure some underlying life-threatening trauma has not taken place before they address what seems to be the injury affecting a patient. Otherwise, the team could direct their attention to setting a cast on my leg and then I die because of a punctured lung. My wounded lung likely would have been found by checking my breathing during those critically important first few seconds.
I will review our comprehensive Evaluation of Predictive Success Metrics (EPSM) as a tool for you to complete later in today’s solocast. Your score will give you a snapshot view of the sales and marketing vitals in your business.
Why is your score within the EPSM important? This evaluation will help you diagnose any critical areas that may need attending to before an inflow of new leads and sales opportunities flow into your business. In addition, your result outcomes / score may indicate several corrective actions that need to be addressed so your marketing strategy has the highest probability of success.
The corrective actions are also important because increasing the flow of leads and sales into an inefficient, ineffective, or absent system within your business is a recipe that could spell disaster. More companies go out of business from indigestion from too much opportunity than from starvation from the lack of opportunity. Having the right systems in place at the outset is essential to your long success.
Let’s first begin with several definitions to make sure we get the terminology right.
We will focus on: Vital Priorities, Vital Functions, and Vital Metrics.
I will show you how to identify the five or six most relevant Vital Metrics you need to pay close attention to in order to ensure your overall sales and marketing strategies are turning your business into what I like to call a “Sales Generating Machine”.
The first term we need to define it Vital Priorities. What are they and why they are…vital?
Let’s think of Vital Priorities as your big goals over the next 12-months – and if you didn’t accomplish anything else – the year would have still been a major success because your Vital Priorities were checked off the list. Conversely, the rest of the year would not have mattered if you didn’t accomplish these vital few.
That is the importance of Vital Priorities. What are the Vital Priorities in your business right now?
Then there are the Vital Functions. These are the skills – the processes – the talents you possess that make you the best person inside your company at a certain set of tasks and projects. Vital Functions are the tasks you cannot delegate – you cannot hire out. Not only because you are so good at them – but because you drive the growth of your business by being the one who performs the Functions.
For minister Joel Osteen, his singular Vital Function is delivering the 27-minute sermon on Sunday at Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. He used to try and manage the lights, the audio, the editing, and the myriad of other details that went along with producing a high-quality broadcast. But then he realized, the growth of their ministry was driven by one single metric. Was he excellent on Sunday? And if yes, they would grow. He delegated the rest of the tasks because they were not his Vital Function. He now invests four days of his week in focusing on his one Vital Function. Can he delegate the sermon to someone one? No, it's a vitally important function – therefore, it remains as Joel’s Vital Function.
Take a moment to consider your Vital Functions. What functions are critically important to the success of your business and cannot be delegated away? Resist the temptation to let yourself say things like bookkeeping, answering the phone, emailing customers, preparing proposals, and a variety of other functions. Are all of those important? Yes. Are they vital? Yes. Can they be delegated? Yes!
Dig deeper.
What are you world-class at – or could become world-class at if you dedicated the right amount of focus – and if you achieved world-class proficiency – would move the business along a completely different trajectory? The answers are your Vital Functions.
Then there are the Vital Metrics. These metrics are how you will quantifiably measure your success toward accomplishing your Vital Priorities.
Before I share the Vital Metrics with you – let me try to preempt a question that tends to hook business owners and prevent them from moving forward. Oftentimes a business owner will say to me, “Stephen, this sounds great but I have people on my team who are in charge of these metrics. Why do I need to care about these? I don’t want to learn this stuff and I certainly don’t want this to become my Vital Function.”
Excellent question and here’s what I want you to consider. You don’t need to be the one who pulls the levers or turns the knobs – these metrics do not need to become your Vital Functions – but if you don’t pay attention to them or care about them, no one else will, at least not as closely as you would.
I asked Avinash Kaushik, digital marketing evangelist for Google the same question, and his answer was, “Stephen, it’s because if you care about it — and you understand it — then you will be rich. But if you just dump it on someone else’s lap, then you will be poor. That should be incentive enough.” Well, said Avinash.
In my opinion, there are six Vital Metrics you need to consistently monitor as it relates to the result outcomes of your marketing strategy. And they are:
- Change (increase / decrease) in unique website visitors to your website
- Change (increase / decrease) in conversion rate of unique website visitors into email optins (list building to be used to increase size of your audience)
- Change (increase / decrease) in conversion rate of email optins into leads
- Change (increase / decrease) in conversion rate of leads into proposals
- Change (increase / decrease) in conversion rate of proposals into sales
- Total revenue for your business
Are you currently tracking and monitoring vital metrics similar to these in your business?
If you are, WELL DONE!
You and your business may already be a superstar at growing revenue from your marketing strategy. But if you’re not already paying attention to these vital metrics, the quiz or assessment I am about to share with you will help guide you through making the necessary adjustments so you can put precise checklists and ROI Scorecards into place to ensure a regular rhythm of evaluation.
Are you ready to take your evaluation of your vitals even deeper?
Here’s what I like to call our Evaluation of Predictive Success Metrics (EPSM) as a tool to provide a snapshot view of the sales and marketing “vitals” in any business.
This evaluation will help diagnose any critical areas that may need attending to before an inflow of new leads and sales opportunities flow into your business. Just answer the questions and then tally your score at the end.
I am going to review all 33 questions with you now -- and -- if you visit the show notes for this episode -- you will find them all listed as well. So tally up your score. How did you do?
If you scored between 33 - 50 points...ugh. But no problem -- this quiz will be a great guide for you.
If you scored between 51 - 75...congratulations...solid foundation...and the sky’s the limit.
If you scored between 76 - 85...You feel that? It’s Momentum -- and it feels awesome!
And if you scored 86 - 99...rock solid awesome...you better send me an email because I want to interview you on Onward Nation! WOW!
So with that...I want to thank you again for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here -- thank you for tuning in -- I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
However our daily podcast fits into your daily routine -- I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation...good or bad...I always want your feedback. My direct email address is stephen@onwardnation.com -- and yes -- that is my actual Inbox. No fancy filters or filing system and I read and reply to every single email.
So please let me know how you think we are doing. I look forward to hearing from you.
We will be back tomorrow with an incredible interview with Heather Ann Havenwood -- and she shares an inspirational story of how she got back to building again after overcoming several very significant challenges in her way. You will not want to miss this discussion, Onward Nation!
Until then, onward with gusto!
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Andy Paul is a best-selling author, top-rated blogger and podcaster, speaker and executive coach, Andy helps sales teams get unstuck and on track to accelerate their sales. Andy is the author of “Amp Up Your Sales: Powerful Strategies That Move Customers To Make Fast, Favorable Decisions.” “Amp Up Your Sales” is on Amazon’s list of the 20 Top Rated Sales Books of All Time. Andy is also the author of “Zero-Time Selling: 10 Essential Steps to Accelerate Every Company’s Sales,” which won Top Sales World's award as one of the Top 3 Sales & Marketing books of 2011. His podcast, “Accelerate! with Andy Paul,” is a top-rated, go-to resource offering the latest insights from the leading authorities to help sellers accelerate the growth of their sales and their businesses.
Secret – timesaving technique Andy looks at his calendar each night -- make sure you're completely prepared for tomorrow. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Be present in every moment -- Andy believes preparation is so important for doing this.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Andy went into business with a customer that expected more from his company than his company was used to -- and Andy tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Be willing to accept help."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Always have integrity."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have invested in resources to accomplish nonessential functions.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Deliver something of value in every sales interaction.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Make sure you understand who you're selling to and create a customer profile for them 2. You need to go out and sell yourself
How best to connect with Andy: * Email: andy@zerotimeselling.com * Phone: (619) 980-4002 * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zerotimeselling * Twitter: @zerotimeselling * Website: www.andypaul.com
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Alex Wehrley is a national TV host, former Miss Wisconsin USA and the creator of Empowerista, a media movement and mentorship program to inspire, celebrate and empower women. She has hosted for the Miss USA telecast, E!, VH1 and ABC red carpets. Alex also acts in national commercials for brands like Fidelity Investments and 5 Hour Energy. She recently made her big screen debut in the movie Rudderless, starring Selena Gomez. Through Empowerista, Alex reaches more than 40,000 ambitious women online with her empowering content. She also mentors women one-on-one, and in group settings, to help them have more confidence, focus and strategy while pursuing their goals.
Secret – timesaving technique Alex looks at things holistically -- make sure you work on every area that needs working on. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success If you write things down they don't seem as daunting -- Alex loves using lists.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Alex couldn't find a job out of college -- and Alex tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "It sounds so simple -- but it's consistency and discipline."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "You have to hang in there to see results."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have built a list from the very beginning.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Add value to your tribe.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Map out a plan -- know where you're going 2. It's the small steps that lead to big changes
How best to connect with Alex: * Instagram: @empowerista * Twitter: @AlexWehrley * Website: empowerista.me
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Amy Anderson is an Emmy Award-winning writer, the former senior editor of SUCCESS magazine, and founder of Anderson Content Consulting. Most recently, Amy is also the founder of Freelance Academy, a resource for freelancers at all stages of their careers. She has a passion for coaching and mentoring people to find the freedom they long for in their businesses and their lives.
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? Amy wakes up 30 minutes before her son, reads/meditates, spends an hour and a half with him, and then a half hour on a number of different activities -- rigidity is not a measure of consistency -- let your day flow as it needs to. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? "What you can do -- or dream you can do -- begin it! Boldness has genius, power and magic in it." -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
How do you define success? Success is freedom -- and Amy talks about what freedom means to her.
What strategy do you use to combat fear? Amy starts her fear defense plan by writing down all her fears -- and Amy tells the reasons why here.
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" is first and foremost a good person. They're kind and hardworking.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? 1. Relate -- you need to share your own experience 2. Listen -- after relating it's time to listen 3. Assess your ability to help 4. Gauge that person's commitment to action
How can we build an audience? 1. Start today 2. Don't be afraid to re-share content
How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Back up and start with yourself
How best to connect with Amy: * Free course: www.youcanfreelance.com/onward
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Kenny Nguyen is the CEO and Founder of Big Fish Presentations, a company whose mantra is turning presentations into experiences. Kenny and his entrepreneurial/presentations tips been featured on TEDx, Hubspot Inbound Conference, General Assembly, Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, Yahoo, Business Insider, Mashable, Huffington Post, and the Washington Post. He is a co-author of the McGraw-Hill published presentation book, "The Big Fish Experience: Create Memorable Presentations that Reel in Your Audience."
Secret – timesaving technique Kenny writes down his to-do list every single day -- block out your schedule completely and don't forget reflective time. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Don't say yes to everything -- Kenny says no a lot.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Kenny's presentation wasn't working on his Fortune 200 company's computer -- and Kenny tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Learn how to focus."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Be transparent with your crew."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had a more formal hiring and onboarding process.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Ask yourself "why?" five times.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would speak up -- I hire people to tell me what they think.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Get the right mentors in the room 2. Make sure you have the right five people around you
How best to connect with Kenny: * Email: kenny@bigfishpresentations.com * Twitter: @bigfishkenny * Book: "The Big Fish Experience"
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning, Onward Nation -- Stephen Woessner here.
Before we dive in -- and if you’re listening to Onward Nation for the first time -- I will give a very brief personal intro to provide some context behind the voice.
Hi -- I’m Stephen Woessner. I am the host of Onward Nation – but – when I am not interviewing today’s top business owners, I am the CEO of Predictive ROI -- a digital marketing agency -- and I don’t particularly like that label because Predictive does so much more than digital marketing. Yes, we do the traditional things like increasing site traffic, leads, and sales. But what makes us truly unique -- is our ability to predict a client’s increase in sales -- their actual financial return on investment in the form of dollars and cents -- and then guarantee that performance -- or our work is free. And because of that -- we find ourselves deep inside a client’s systems, inventory, sales team, and all sorts of business development processes.
I love the problem solving work we do -- it oftentimes reminds me of my days of troubleshooting when I was a missile technician working inside nuclear missiles silos on the prairies of South Dakota while I was in the Air Force many years ago. I have been in digital marketing since the advent of the commercial Internet. I am the best selling author of two books in the area, I spent nearly 6 years at the University of Wisconsin – at the La Crosse campus, and I taught throughout the state include the UW-Madison School of Business, and my business building insights have been featured in Inc. Magazine, Entrepreneur, Forbes, SUCCESS, The Washington Post and some other media. And I am currently working on my third book.
Okay, let’s press on to solving big challenges in our business – big obstacles – those things that are really holding you back from jumping off the plateau you may be on right now – and leaping onward to that next level.
That’s what we are going to focus on during this episode.
First, we all know that building and scaling a business is hard work. But when you have the right strategy – that right “recipe for success” to follow – the action steps become more like “ingredients” and can be added systematically into your business – one ingredient at a time.
And every day at Onward Nation, I have the incredible opportunity to interview today’s top business owners and ask them to share their specific recipes for success – and to break those strategies down into tactical step-by-step processes and systems.
I distilled all of those ideas, strategies, steps down into actionable “recipes” you can take and apply into your business right away.
If you are not familiar with my recipe and ingredient thought process -- you may be thinking you just walked into a baking podcast by mistake. Close -- but not quite.
Let me explain the recipe metaphor this way.
Say I make the world’s best chocolate cake. And I grew up working in my mom’s bakery – so my chocolate cake is actually pretty good.
And say you come up to me and say, hey Stephen -- I cannot bake anything, in fact, boiling what is hard for me -- but -- I love your chocolate cake. Could you teach me how to bake your cake so that it turns out just like yours?
How could that even be possible?
I’ve been perfecting my chocolate cake for the last 30 years -- and you have zero baking skills.
How could you possibly think that you could duplicate my results?
To even have a shot at it – is there something I could give you – some edge – some insider’s knowledge?
Of course -- I need to give you my recipe.
The recipe will act as your “strategy” behind the cake. Right?
With the recipe -- you can see the entire process -- the flow -- the visualization of the goal -- how you need to setup the environment, i.e. your kitchen -- all the steps -- all the tools you will need.
But the recipe is just one piece -- what else do you need?
Right! The ingredients.
You need to know the specific amounts and specific qualities of the ingredients, right?
And then there is one more thing -- you have the recipe -- you have the ingredients -- but -- you must also follow the syntax.
And syntax is a fancy word that simply means the order of the process.
So think about a recipe you have followed in the past -- we have all done this -- we mix the eggs together with the flour before we put in the oil and now we have goo. Not awesome.
So the syntax -- or the order in which we execute the strategy really matters.
So I’m going to share some incredible business building recipes with you -- but I’m going to share the ingredients -- and I’m going to give you the syntax or the process for all the steps.
Hopefully that makes sense.
And as Jim Rohn said,
“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”
Now, maybe you are hearing Jim’s pearls of wisdom in this quote for the first time. I was having lunch with some friends the other day and I shared that quote and I could tell they were a bit shocked by it – so I took another minute to explain.
I shared several scenarios to illustrate the powerful lesson Jim taught us in that quote -- and I will share the same with you.
Say you’re walking down a hallway with your one of your top clients -- and your client has a faster pace than you.
What do you do?
Do you walk your normal pace or do you speed up?
Does your client slow down? Likely not.
Our natural instinct is to speed up – to keep pace.
So let’s consider a different scenario.
Let’s say this time you are walking with a group of four other people through the mall and they are all walking slow -- like dreadfully slow -- painfully slow.
What do you do?
You may start to think of some creative ways to speed them up -- but they don’t speed up -- in fact -- they may even slow down further -- but how is this possible?
And if you try to speed up -- you simply get out in front of them and create stress for yourself and for the group.
Here’s the reality: you will not de-stress until you are free from the slow group and find a group that wants to move at your same – faster speed – or potentially even faster than you so you are challenged to grow and speed up to keep up.
Because if you don’t -- eventually you will slow your pace to conform to the group – because you don’t want to be rude -- so you slow down.
This episode will move at a pace and tempo that is uncommon -- we are going to move at the pace of today’s top business owners.
And if you listen to Onward Nation on a consistent basis – today’s top business owners are the people you are spending time with – and that is awesome.
So here is the first lesson I want to share with you -- if you want to move your business onward to that next level -- then you need to spend time with business owners and mentors who are ALREADY at that next level – AND — they move at a pace and tempo faster than you.
And when you join that group – or have that person as your mentor – you will grow.
Hope that makes sense – and I have prepared a very detailed recipe on mentorship for you during today’s discussion.
More on that in a few minutes.
So make it a commitment – to find other business owners who are already at that next level – and spend time with them – learn from them – and you will naturally speed up to keep pace and as a result you will be moving toward the next level yourself.
So here’s what I am going to cover during today’s episode – let’s call it an agenda of sorts – as Kim Garst said to me during our interview – “you gotta have a checklist, Stephen.”
- First, I will show you how to spot the two biggest obstacles currently preventing you from moving your business onward to the next level
- Second, I will show you how to attract the right mentors to help you overcome the obstacles and accelerate your results
- Third, I will show you how to implement and master a specific system that will dramatically expand your network and sphere of influence
So let’s dive in.
What if I told you that the two biggest challenges preventing you from moving your business onward to the next level have nothing to do with the business climate, the economy, the skill level of your employees, the location of your business, your pricing strategy, your current customer base, the size of your marketing budget, the quality of your products, your distribution channels, or the myriad of other reasons we are given today by the media and government as to why businesses fail at such a staggering rate in this country.
What if the obstacles in your way had nothing to do with any of that?
And in instead, what was blocking you -- the obstacles keeping your business in check -- are the same obstacles that have always attempted to keep you in check throughout your entire life.
Your enemy is not the myriad of reasons I just listed off -- instead -- your first challenge -- or better yet -- your first enemy is the Fear of Poverty.
Many of you have read – but possibly not in a while – this incredible book, "Think and Grow Rich" published in 1937 by Napoleon Hill.
If you have listened to Onward Nation episodes – and my guess is you have or you would not be here this evening – our guests often reference "Think & Grow Rich" because it is a compendium of knowledge.
The book was made possible by Andrew Carnegie.
Carnegie at the time was the wealthiest man in the world, met Napoleon Hill, liked him and offered to commission him to open the doors to the greatest industrialists of the time.
That was 1908.
And he said, “I’ll open the doors if you’ll sit down with these top business owners and figure out their secrets to success. What they do, they’re methods, they’re mindsets that have caused their extraordinary success and you put it into a book and publish it and make it available to the world.”
So, Napoleon sat down with Henry Ford, Edison, Schwab, Wrigley, and both Rockefellers. Imagine being able to spend time with those business owners and pull out their best ideas for success and achievement.
If you have read, studied, and applied the book -- you understand the great knowledge in this book and are already ahead of 98% of your competition.
But often times -- this book is an easy to forget treasure because it was written in 1937 – but the strategies in this book are still just as applicable today.
If you have not yet read, studied, and applied the book – then consider this a million dollar resource you have just been given. You can go to OnwardNation.com/book and get the Audible version of "Think and Grow Rich" for free -- that’s OnwardNation.com/book.
The Fear of Poverty is one of the 6 basic fears but it is also the most pervasive, destructive, and confusing to understand. But why?
On the surface, it seems as though this fear would revolve around the fear of becoming poor – and there definitely is that component.
But, the way this particular fear manifests itself is what makes it easy to spot.
We become so fearful of poverty -- that we freeze and are plagued with indecision, indifference, doubt, worry, over-caution, and procrastination.
Just when you ought to take action -- you don’t.
When sales are declining -- you ought to make more sales calls -- but you don’t -- you freeze because the fear of poverty has you paralyzed.
Just when you should be investing in that new expansion – that new marketing strategy – that new development – hiring new employees – you don’t.
You become overly cautious. Or -- you disguise your caution by saying you’re “skeptical”. And by the way — that is code for “I am afraid.”
You become so fearful of hitting the wall – that all you do is focus on the wall.
And then what happens?
Exactly -- you end up hitting the wall.
To be clear -- I am not suggesting that you throw caution to the wind and become financially irresponsible and then lose your business as a result of mismanagement.
That would be silly.
But I am trying to bring into focus that our Fear of Poverty can be one of the major obstacles that hold us back from the abundance at that next level.
And it doesn’t matter who you are – we have all felt it before – especially when trying to pursue something new – that next level.
Remember, if you focus on the wall -- you will hit the wall.
But if you focus on the infield – you may still eventually hit the wall -- but your opportunity likely increases by a factor of 10 IF you steer your business where you want it to go instead of letting yourself and your business become paralyzed by indecision, indifference, doubt, worry, over-caution, and procrastination.
So if the Fear of Poverty is the first challenge – what is the second one keeping you from moving your business forward?
It is the Fear of Criticism and is also one of the 6 basic fears -- and it too is easy to spot.
This fear what prevents you from making that sales call to that prospective client everyone in town wants because you hear that voice inside your head that says,
“Oh come on -- who do you think you’re kidding calling them? You have nothing to offer. They only work with big companies. You’re too small.”
You hear -- “You’re not good enough -- you don’t have the skills, you will never make it -- why bother trying -- there are others who are more gifted, talented, they already have all the connections -- what could you possibly offer that would be unique and different -- just try something that is more at your current level – call on someone smaller – don’t call the president or owner – call someone who reports to them – that would be easier.”
“Why can’t you just be normal?”
The fear of criticism can be overcome with grit -- with tenacity -- with perseverance -- with the shouting into the abyss -- I will not be defeated.
You saying -- "I will WIN THE DAY".
And when you do that – and I believe when you’re moving in the direction of God’s plan for your life – there is nothing that can stop you.
Now that we have identified the 2 biggest obstacles holding you back – which really aren’t obstacles at all are they – they all are in your mind – now let’s work through our first of several recipes during this solocast.
Recipe #1 focuses on mentorship.
If you have listened to our Onward Nation episodes, you already know that I ask every single guest to share the most influential lesson they ever learned from one of their mentors that helped them become the business owner they are today.
And wow -- our guests have shared some outstanding lessons.
So for this solocast, I am going to share a very specific recipe for attracting and finding the right mentor because Onward Nation listeners have asked me exactly that – as well as to help them understand what would be expected of them as a mentee?
But first – let’s make this more specific. Why find a mentor?
And yes, there is a specific recipe you can use to find a mentor and I am going to share that with you.
Before I share the step-by-step ingredients to this powerful recipe -- I will share something I have not shared during Onward Nation episodes -- two of the most influential lessons I ever learned from one of my mentors -- Darren Hardy, former publisher of SUCCESS Magazine.
For 12-months, Darren was a member of our board of advisors at Predictive ROI. So we would get together either in-person or over the phone. And during one of our monthly calls, I explained to Darren some of my reservations about building a big business. I wasn’t sure how big I wanted Predictive ROI to become. And so I was nervous about it.
And I said, “Gosh, Darren – you know – I’ve never thought of myself as being a great manager of people. And quite frankly, honestly Darren, I kind of suck at it.”
And then Darren said to me, “Stephen -- stop SUCKING at it!”
And I said, “What do you mean?”
And he said -- "Don’t give me that lie or tell me that myth that you are telling yourself. Don’t use that as a fricken excuse to stop moving forward. Stop telling yourself that limiting belief and that lie that you’re not a good manager or leader. Be better at it. Don’t give me the excuse."
And so I’m standing there almost like fricken naked – totally stripped down – I was like, holy crap, he totally called me on it.
That’s embarrassing – because he was right!
And that’s what a good mentor does for you – they call you out when you need to be called out – they support you when you need to be supported and they teach you when you need to be taught. But they don’t do the hard work for you – that’s on you.
So here are the specific ingredients for finding the right mentor for you:
- Think about your own talents and skills you would like to strengthen — weaknesses you would like to lessen — areas of your business you would like to improve, etc.
- Then make a precise list that details everything you just thought about.
- This process helps you identify the person you need to become in order to move your business onward to the next level
- This is a really hard exercise because you have to force yourself to take a critical look at yourself (and by the way — most people are not willing to get really honest with themselves — and that is one of the major reasons they never grow)
- Once you have the list — look for people who are crushing it in these areas — the same areas where you need to grow.
- Then contact those people — invite them to lunch — let them know you are packed full of questions for them
- Be very prepared — they will love that
- Interview them and put what they share with you into practice — turn it into a blog post and your clients will love you for it
- Loop back to your mentors and share your success
- When you do, they will invite you to sit down so they can share more with you.
- Soak it all up — then put it into practice.
Remember -- a good mentee takes action on what is learned — and the responsibility is on you.
Let’s go deeper by taking a look at three of our Onward Nation guests and how they are crushing it with mentorship.
First, Don Yaeger – episode 2 of Onward Nation.
What is the difference between Don Yaeger and another professional speaker you could hire for an event?
Don has mentored with the greatest champions of our time – including Coach John Wooden for over 12 years -- and Don distilled all of this knowledge into what he calls the 16 Characteristics of Greatness. Now, it would be easy to say – “Well sure, Stephen, Don can do that because he has all of the connections.” And true – Don can get anyone in the world of sports to take his call.
In fact, I was staying with Don and his family for a week in Tallahassee and one morning, Don’s cell phone rang and Don said to me “It’s Bob Kraft” -- and I said, “Wait, what? You mean like Bob Kraft who owns the New England Patriots?”
But don’t forget, Onward Nation -- even Don Yaeger had to start somewhere. So will you sit around and be fearful for another year – or – will you start getting mentored and move your business onward?
Next, Stacey Alcorn -- episode 3 of Onward Nation.
What is the difference between Stacey Alcorn and another real estate professional?
Stacey has mentored with some of the best and brightest minds in business and connected those relationships back into building her real estate empire. I will later share with you a billion dollar recipe right out of Stacey’s cookbook -- and I know we have several real estate professionals on the workshop right now -- Stacey’s firm had 324 closings in June. Bam!
And lastly, Nancy Marshall – episode 19 of Onward Nation.
What is the difference between Nancy Marshall and another marketing or PR professional you could hire?
Nancy realizes that she may be located in the state of Maine – but the market for Nancy Marshall Communications is worldwide -- which is why she has invested the blood, sweat, and tears it takes to write a book, develop a trademarked process in her agency called The Marshall Plan, and to invest in building a network through mentoring with the right people – and giving back – and now her network helps her company grow in the good times and become a safety net in the downturns – because the storm clouds will come no matter who you are or what kind of business you run.
Here’s the reality -- you are the average of who you spend the most time with. So you need to spend your time with people you have a common future with – not a common past.
Let me close out this first recipe by saying -- you can want to find a mentor – the recipe that I just shared with you could be worth millions of dollars in new sales to your company – but – it won’t be worth anything unless you DECIDE to take action.
As Tony Robbins says, a real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken action – in fact – that you have taken massive action. And if there’s no action – then that is simply an indicator you haven’t really decided anything.
Now that we have conquered and overcome the two main challenges standing in your way – and now that I have shared with you a very specific recipe with all of the step-by-step ingredients (in the proper syntax) so you can find your right mentor or mentors -- it is now time to really accelerate your results and move your business onward to the next level.
The next recipe I am going to share with you could represent a billion – yes, with a “B” – billion dollar strategy for your business.
I am going to share a recipe for mastering a specific system that will dramatically expand your network and sphere of influence – and – I will also share with you how you can then monetize these valuable relationships into mutually beneficial partnerships and revenue for your business.
And yes, I know it may sound crass or inappropriate when I say monetize relationships – unfortunately, I can’t think of a better word – I think you get what I am driving at.
But before we get to the recipe -- let me put typical “networking” into context.
Most business owners go to an event with a large number of “prospects”.
They pass out business cards.
They chit-chat small talk with the same people they met their last month.
The collect others business cards.
More chit-chat small talk.
They might even schedule some lunch meetings.
Why do we do this? Here’s why.
Because this is safe – it is easy – it does not make us face our fear of poverty or our fear of criticism. What would people think if I did that -- or went here -- or spent time with so and so -- they will all think I am too big for my britches.
I am going to work hard here to shift your paradigm of what is possible.
And that is why I love this quote from Archimedes. “Give me a prop strong enough, and a level long enough, and I can single-handedly move the world”
This next recipe I am about to share with you will become your lever and prop.
And it is big – this is literally a billion dollar recipe – and I am going to introduce you to the top business owner who is using it generate a billion dollars.
She describes herself as a billionaire in the making. And I believe her.
Let me introduce you again to Stacey Alcorn. Her episode is still on our leaderboard of top podcasts.
During our interview, Stacey told me about the afternoon she had spent the week before with Kevin O’Leary, Mr. Wonderful from ABC’s Shark Tank – they spent the afternoon tasting wine and exchanging business mantras and best lessons. Stacey and Kevin had quite the masterminding session.
There is always a strategy behind what Stacey does – and if you go back and re-listen to episode 3, Stacey maps out her entire business building strategy with precision.
But we are going to focus on the billion-dollar recipe that Stacey has developed.
Most people will not swing for the fences – but Stacey does. So here are the specific ingredients in Stacey’s recipe.
- Make list of influencers in your industry and / or your Dream 50 clients / prospects
- Connect via social media, email, or call
- Ask for 30-minutes so you can interview them on their path / keys to success
- Do your homework – prep excellent questions
- Be excellent during the interview
- Share what you and your company does at close of interview
- Invite / open the door for future opportunities
- Then share guest’s expertise on your blog, media outlets, your podcast, etc. – your platform
- Rinse and repeat – rinse and repeat
Key point: if you interview the movers and shakers in your industry – they become your informal mentors -- and you become one of the movers and shakers in the industry as a result.
If you want a BIGGER – more ROBUST – more INFLUENTIAL network – then YOU must become bigger -- your platform must become more robust -- and you must become more influential.
Warning — ROAD BLOCKS!!
Now, some of you listening to this recipe right now may be thinking – “Oh sure, Stephen -- Stacey has an email list of 65,000 people and has interviewed all of these celebrities and big-time business people – I don’t have those connections.”
Or, maybe you’re thinking -- “My business just started -- I don’t have mindshare in the marketplace, I’m not a published author, I don’t have a platform, no one knows who I am, who will listen to me – what do I have or could I share that would be relevant for anyone to listen to, I don’t have a network – I wouldn’t even know how to start.”
All of those excuses – all of those alibis – those are the Fear of Poverty and the Fear of Criticism working against you again.
If you hear those voices in your head – if you are having thoughts that are even remotely similar to what I just mentioned – let that be your litmus test – you now know you are heading in the right direction.
Push forward – don’t stop – don’t let your fear hold you back from breaking through to that next level.
Remember, you are the average of the people you spend the most time with -- and look who Stacey is spending the most time with.
She refers to herself as “A billionaire in the making.” And in order for that vision for her life to become a reality – she knows that she needs to spend as much time as possible with other billionaires.
Well, I will let you in on a secret she told me during our interview – Stacey didn’t have those connections several years ago.
But she DECIDED that was going to change and then she took action to make it happen. I hope that makes sense.
Okay, Onward Nation – I hope this solocast was valuable to you. Please drop me a line and let me know what you thought.
Thumbs up or thumbs down? Please drop me a line and let me know.
Onward with gusto!
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Amir Haque is founder and CEO of SUPERMOON, the independent Santa Monica ad agency awarded Ad Age 2014 small agency of the year for its size. A business strategist by trade, Amir has an MBA from Yale and spent time at the Boston Consulting Group in Toronto before starting his agency 14 years ago. His agency was instrumental in the foundational and explosive growth of many LA-based national brands including eHarmony, LegalZoom, and TrueCar. Amir brings an irrational passion for solving business problems that positively impact society and the world.
Secret – timesaving technique Amir writes down all his creative ideas in Evernote -- make sure you don't forget your ideas. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Success for Amir is feeling a sense of richness -- Amir starts every day by playing with his son -- even if it's just for 10 or 15 minutes.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Amir's relationship with his business partner crumbled -- and Amir tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Be able to adapt while focusing and staying the course."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Be calm and listen to your intuition."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have hired slow and fired fast.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Have a strategy that allows for experimentation.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Do less wheel-making -- put processes in place 2. Make sure you invest in all the relationships 3. Be really clear on roles
How best to connect with Amir: * Email: amir@supermoon.com * Twitter: @ahaque
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Christine is the president of Idea Agency located near Boston. She is driven to unleash her clients’ greatness to build amazing brands. As the only Certified Brand Strategist in New England, Christine is uniquely qualified to help her clients put their stake in the ground for their teams and customers to rally behind. Christine is an expert workshop facilitator and a sought-after speaker on brand development, integrated marketing, and ideation.
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? On her best day, Christine gets up and goes for a run, showers, eats a good breakfast, checks her email at home -- try to do the things in the morning that set you up for your best day. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? "Believe in what you do."
How do you define success? Big picture success is creating and running a business where I get to help people solve their problems -- and Christine shares more kinds of success in this episode.
What strategy do you use to combat fear? Christine reads writing from Seth Godin -- and Christine tells the reasons why here.
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" is passionate.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? 1. Lead by example -- be who you are -- own up to your mistakes 2. Be transparent -- share with your employees 3. Bring your learning inside your agency
How can we build an audience? 1. Understand what you have that others want 2. Pick the platform that fits your audience -- don't try to be everywhere 3. Cultivate your superfans -- they will help your spread your platform
How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Make sure you have a clear brand definition 2. Deliver your brand day in and day out 3. Make sure what you have to offer is desired by your audience 4. Make sure the three above are all in alignment
How best to connect with Christine: * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/christieri * Facebook: www.facebook.com/christieri * Twitter: @christieri
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Matt McCoy is the co-founder and COO of Scanalytics Inc., a software company focused on presence detection and customer engagement. Scanalytics proprietary offering is the SoleSensor, an intelligent floor sensor, which anonymously measures real-world foot traffic. Matt is an entrepreneur, Internet of things (IoT) expert, experienced research consultant, and public speaker. Matt has worked closely with Fortune 500 brands to deliver consumer insights through big data. His enthusiasm for technology and the art of storytelling has helped drive Scanalytics success as a top-ranked IoT company.
Secret – timesaving technique Matt takes the time to have conversations -- talk to people to get the information you need right away. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Check in with clients every day -- Matt keeps over 80% of his clients by doing this.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Matt had to say no to an opportunity that could have grown his business immensely -- and Matt tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Go back to the basics of communicating with other people."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Don't worry about the things you can't change."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have taken more notes and documented more.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Underpromise and overdeliver.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Understand that you're going to make mistakes 2. Ask for help -- get mentors and advisors
How best to connect with Matt: * Email: matt@scanalyticsinc.com
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Heather Ann Havenwood is a serial entrepreneur and regarded as a top authority on Internet marketing and business strategies. Heather Ann has been named by a few as an “Icon Creator” or the “Wizard Behind the Curtain”. In 2006, she started, developed, and grew an online information marketing publishing company from zero to over $1 million in sales in less than 12 months. Starting without a list, a product, a name or an offer, Heather Ann molded her client into a successful guru now known as an expert in his field. She has instructed, coached and promoted hundreds of entrepreneurs leading them down the path to success. She has produced and managed over 350 seminars and events.
Secret – timesaving technique Heather Ann "eats the frog" -- figure out quickly what the priorities are. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Be really structured with your time -- Heather Ann lives on her calendar.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Heather Ann's business partner emptied their bank account -- and Heather Ann tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Mindset. Mindset, mindset, mindset."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Does this feed my confusion or strengthen my clarity?"
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had an email marketing system and been consistent with it.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Focus on who you are -- and focus on who your clients are 2. Being a marketer is a good thing 3. Have consistent communication with your customers
How best to connect with Heather Ann: * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/heatherannd * Website: heatherhavenwood.com * Website: sexybossinc.com * Podcast: Win, Entrepreneur, Money (coming late March 2016)
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation -- and I hope you are having a rock solid awesome, Wednesday. And that your week has been a blend of some amazing wins...some exciting surprises...even some difficult challenges so that you can be pushed to dig deeper. Because sometimes it is the challenges that force us to leap off our current plateau -- and then to reach onward to that next level. Like Scott McKain shared in our encore interview -- episode 136 -- you need to realize that in order to get to that next level in your business -- the next rung up -- you have to be willing to let go of the rung you are currently on. Otherwise -- you’re stuck!
Oddly, Onward Nation...some of my best weeks are the weeks where we experience a loss or two. Hopefully nothing devastating -- but a loss can oftentimes wake us up -- knock us out of a trance. Or help move us off our infatuation with a recent success -- or -- the danger or arrogance of our own ego if we fall into the trap of believing our own headlines and forgetting how attractive humility is and how polarizing arrogance is.
So sometimes a loss or a challenging moment in our past can be the perfect instrument to lead us to greater levels of success. And attempting to define that word -- SUCCESS -- will be my focus in today’s solocast. It is a deeply personal word -- a deeply personal definition -- unique to each of us. But sometimes, having models or mentors share their definition of success can help us look inside ourselves to reflect and think about how we would define it. Defining success for yourself should not feel like something you should be pressured to do. What would be the point in that? Instead...crafting your own definition will help you define the path you are on -- what is right for you -- and how you can become the best version of yourself.
So to get this lesson moving in the right direction...I am going to share with you a definition of success Amy Anderson was kind enough to pass on to me. It is her personal definition -- and -- something she shared with me during our recent encore interview. (Amy was also my guest on episode 27).
But, you won’t be able to listen to the interview just yet because Amy was my special encore guest for episode 200, which doesn’t air for a couple more weeks.
True to Amy Anderson form -- she was -- again -- off-the-charts amazing. Can’t wait to share episode 200 with you -- but for now -- here is how Amy defines success.
Success at the core for Amy is Freedom. And freedom feels like being free enough from fear to act on her own intuition.
Freedom feels like being free from the prison from her own perspective that used to tell Amy that she was nothing but a victim and that the world was her enemy.
Freedom is also being financially free to travel, to spend time with her loved ones, and having the ability to secure the future for her family.
Freedom for Amy also means being able to give time and resources to charitable groups she cares about and the causes she believes in.
Freedom for Amy also means being able to speak what is in her heart and in her mind to others. The freedom to love herself as her creator loves her.
In a word, Onward Nation, success for Amy Anderson is freedom.
When she shared this deeply personal and beautiful definition of success with me...I was really taken back. A bit breathless actually. In fact, when you listen to the episode in a couple of weeks you might even hear me gasp a bit. But that is why I love conversations with Amy -- that is the depth of discovery you need to be prepared to have -- because she doesn’t hold back -- and she freely shares it. One of the many reasons I am such an Amy Anderson fan.
I think one of the reasons why Amy’s definition of success was so impactful for me -- or on me -- is because I share her definition. Line by line. In unison. Loved every word and every syllable she shared. But it wasn’t always that way for me. There was a time and place early in my career where my definition of success looked nothing like what Amy was generous enough to share with us.
As you know, Onward Nation, I rarely tell personal stories during our episodes -- but today I will because it directly relates to the definition of success -- and oddly -- it is a story of epic failure. And it is because of that epic failure -- my perspective has changed. Even though the story I am about to share with you happened back in 1999 to 2001, the first time I ever shared the story during an interview was with John Lee Dumas during episode 648 for his EOFire podcast. EOFire is a brilliant podcast -- highly recommend it.
What I am about to share with you is a time when I failed so huge that my wife and I could have lost it all. To say we were all in is a major understatement.
We were left with nearly zero. But we fought our way back -- and through that struggle I learned a lot about myself -- I grew -- I changed -- and was prepared to lead the business I am leading today. But it took me eight long years to recover, Onward Nation, before I could even discuss what happened. I was that devastated by it.
So, let’ go back...to the summer of 1999. It was the height of the dot com bubble. But I didn’t realize it was the height and the tide would soon be turning. I was 28 years old -- a young man in a hurry. I was a partner in a small advertising agency in La Crosse, Wisconsin -- my wife and I had bought our first house five years earlier, we had saved our money, and I had the urge to do more -- to accomplish more -- to earn more.
I was frustrated reading the headlines of dot com company after dot com company receiving millions of dollars in venture capital on the east coast and west coast while I was working day to day in a small midwestern city out of the action.
Silly -- but that was the message my ego drove home to me every day. I felt like I was missing out.
Until finally, I had had enough and joined forces with two partners and we began the long process of building FortifiedNutrition.com.
And on a shoestring budget -- we actually did it -- and it was miraculous. The website worked and it worked well. So well, that we attracted the attention of Wells Fargo in town and I convinced them to provide us with a $100,000 line of credit. Yes, I said $100,000. Based on some very loose financial pro formas and my personal guarantee. Insane.
And then we attracted the attention of two private investors who invested $60,000 contingent upon us finalizing our spokesperson endorsement deal we were negotiating with Lou Ferrigno. Yes, Lou Ferrigno -- the Incredible Hulk. During my first phone call with Lou...I’m not sure that I heard a word he said because I kept saying to myself over and over again, “Oh my word...oh my word...I’m on the phone with the Incredible Hulk! The INCREDIBLE HULK.”
An amazing man, by the way, Onward Nation. I thoroughly enjoyed every meeting and interaction I had with Lou and his wife, Carla. Top notch people of integrity and professionalism.
So while we are working out the deal points with investors and Lou -- we then attracted the attention of a digital marketing agency in San Francisco who agreed to perform all of our design work in exchange for 7.5% of our common stock.
I couldn’t say yes fast enough.
I was on cloud nine...it was all coming together, Onward Nation.
Are you kidding me? An agency in San Francisco, two investors, a line of credit, and Lou Ferrigno.
Just when I couldn’t imagine it getting any better -- we met with our attorney at Ernst & Young’s office in Akron, Ohio to discuss our plans for an initial public offering. Yes, an IPO. Again, insane.
But wait -- trust me -- it gets even more ridiculous.
We all sat around a very large conference room table and looked at what had to seem like the most baseless valuation ever put on paper.
Why do I think that?
Because I created it the night before and had zero experience in doing anything remotely similar. Our attorneys and Ernst & Young team looked at the valuation I had prepared, and said, yep -- looks good to us. I’m sorry -- what?
And now -- now, Onward Nation -- my partners, investors, and I were the proud owners of a $10 million company. I was worth nearly $3 million at 28 years old. I couldn’t wait to show my wife my stock certificate.
She calmly looked at the certificate and said, “Ahem, can we take this piece of paper and go buy a new house?” I said, “Well, no, but…” And she followed that up quickly by asking, “Could we take this certificate and go buy a new car?” I said, “Well, no, but you see…” And she again followed that up quickly by asking, “Could we take this certificate and go buy some groceries?” And I said, “Well, no” and now squarely getting her point. And then Christine said to me, “Yeah, so, come back and see me when this is actually worth something.”
And wow...she was so right. The truth is...I was worth $3 million on paper but chasing my dream of success had meant that we were living on her income -- and that was it. I had not taken a grand total of $1,200 out of FortifiedNutrition.com over the course of 18 months, Onward Nation.
Why? Because at the time of my master valuation presentation...we had not sold one customer -- made 1 sale -- had any revenue -- I mean literally nothing.
We were still four weeks away from even going live and our valuation was $10 million. Brilliant.
So let’s fast forward to March 2000.
I was in San Francisco trying to present Fortified to more investors.
Except the market had started to tighten and tighten. What was that you said? A bubble bursting? Ha...that couldn’t happen!
Well, we all know it did and I happened to be in San Francisco, on the ground floor if you will, when it did as I shared with John Lee Dumas during our interview.
The NASDAQ started its slide and I went from trying to sell 20 percent of my company for $7 million to as much as you want for as little as you will give me. It became the FortifiedNutrition.com fire sale.
The $10 million valuation of our company evaporated just as quickly as it has risen. I immediately lost the value of the stock -- no big deal -- that was just paper.
But what really hurt, was that my wife and I lost all of our savings in trying to save the business. We invested nearly every penny of the equity in our home. I nearly had to sell my car just to keep our heads above water.
All totaled...I lost $100,000 of my own money, Onward Nation. Real cash -- that was literally sucked right out of my pocket and gone. Our life’s work up to that point -- destroyed. I felt like a complete failure -- my definition of success, which had been solely financial up to that point had been shattered.
Christine and I went to work and picked up the pieces. I found another advertising and marketing job in town...got my butt back to school to finish my bachelor’s degree and went on to get my masters...scored some good wins in business...began saving some money...started investing again...started a couple of side-preneur ventures...did well...then accepted a full-time academic staff position at the University of Wisconsin at the La Crosse campus...started teaching digital marketing classes to business owners throughout the Wisconsin system...and wrote a couple of books. So that over 12 year period -- I built up enough experience, an influential network, and enough courage to launch Predictive ROI, the company I have run with my team for the past 7 years.
I now have a completely different view of success.
Do I still have financial goals? Yes. Are they big? Yes, they are huge!
But the purpose behind the goals is completely different.
I now subscribe to Andrew Carnegie’s philosophy to building wealth. He said...you should spend the first half of your life making a fortune so you can spend the second half of your life giving it all away.
I like that -- a lot.
Again -- I am now so aligned with Amy Anderson’s definition of success that I shared with you a few minutes ago. For me...and maybe for you, too...success feels like freedom. The freedom to choose what feels right for you. To do what you want to do...not what you feel pressured to do. To be the person -- the whole person -- you were created to be.
You are more powerful, more amazing, more gifted, more talented than you could ever possibly imagine, Onward Nation. You are a child of the Most High God and you were intended to live a life of freedom.
So no matter how you define success -- my hope for you today is that you will take a moment -- to find a quiet spot -- to think -- to write down your definition. Don’t compare it to anyone else’s -- it is uniquely yours. But writing it down is a powerful process -- and I hope that doing so unlocks freedom for you.
So with that...I want to thank you again for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here -- thank you for tuning in -- I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
However our daily podcast fits into your daily routine -- I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation...good or bad...I always want your feedback. My direct email address is stephen@onwardnation.com -- and yes -- that is my actual Inbox. No fancy filters or filing system and I read and reply to every single email.
So please let me know how you think we are doing. I look forward to hearing from you.
We will be back tomorrow with an incredible interview with Heather Ann Havenwood -- and she shares an inspirational story of how she got back to building again after overcoming several very significant challenges in her way. You will not want to miss this discussion, Onward Nation!
Until then, onward with gusto!
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Peter Strohkorb is an international speaker, sought after consultant and the CEO at Peter Strohkorb Consulting International. He has 20 years of hands-on Sales & Marketing experience in executive sales and marketing positions for some of the largest corporations on the planet, such as SONY, 3M, and Canon. Peter is the creator of the OneTEAM Method, author of a book of the same name, and a guest lecturer in the Executive MBA program of the Sydney Business School.
Secret – timesaving technique Peter writes out his daily task list -- carve out the time each day to complete your tasks. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Be disciplined about not getting to excited by the new -- Peter stays focused on the tasks he has to complete before jumping to the next thing.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Peter faced a market that refused to accept they had a problem -- and Peter tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "It's so important to get out of your office and actually talk to your prospects, customers, and peers."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Be entrepreneurial, but in a disciplined way."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had an advisory board.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Do not look at your people as people in specific departments.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would use their ears and mouth proportionally -- you have two ears and one mouth.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Internal: Look at how your business is structured and get some advice 2. External: Try to talk to your clients and prospects and let them figure out that they have a problem that you can solve
How best to connect with Peter: * Email: admin@peterstrohkorbconsulting.com (ask for the smarketing checklist) * Book: www.amazon.com/OneTEAM-Method-Marketing-Collaboration-business/dp/1507834705 * Website: www.peterstrohkorb.com * Website: www.peterstrohkorbconsulting.com * Self Assessment Tool: www.peterstrohkorbconsulting.com/self-assessment-tool
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com ------
Billee Howard is the Founder & CEO of Brandthropologie, an artist collective that helps place brands at the epicenter of culture and commerce. Billee is also the author of “We-Commerce” a book designed to help companies and leaders embrace the principles of the collaborative economy in ways that improve their bottom line.
Secret – timesaving technique Billee pushes herself to a place of discomfort -- innovation is discipline. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Understand the context of the environment of who you're talking to -- Billee strives to not be overly insular.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Billee was forced to leave her industry -- and Billee tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Creativity needs to be a centrality of business -- and view storytelling as a business competency."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Reward somebody who deserves to be rewarded before they ask for it."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would take the time to deconstruct what went right and what went wrong.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Successful business today should be able to embrace ideas no matter where they come from.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would push themselves every day.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Understand that there has never been a better time to be an entrepreneur 2. Believe in yourself -- you cannot succeed if you don't first fail 3. Have a niche focus -- don't be all things to all people
How best to connect with Billee: * Website: www.brandthropoloie.com * Email: billee@brandthropologie.com
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Dr. George Browne is the owner, allergist, and immunologist of Bless You Allergy & Asthma. His practices focus on caring for patients in the areas of environmental allergies, food allergies, asthma, eczema, contact dermatitis, stinging insects, and immunological defects. Dr. Browne opened his practice two years ago after being in academic medicine so he could do it his own way.
Secret – timesaving technique George writes out his daily and weekly schedules every night -- stay on point for your week and your day. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Prepare your mind, body, and soul for the day ahead -- George gets up every morning and prays and works out for 30 minutes each.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience George almost gave up on medicine because he was overwhelmed -- and George tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "You have to be able to cut out the noise -- and carve out the time to continuously learn."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Talk to people like they're the only person that matters in that moment."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have learned my electronic medical records system better.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Take care of your clients first.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would be honest -- honesty goes so far.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Be yourself -- you can't be anyone else 2. Don't take yourself too seriously 3. Keep learning
How best to connect with George: * Email: georgebrowne@blessyouallergy.com
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Diane Gardner is an expert tax coach, Quilly award recipient, and best-selling author whose proactive tax planning approach gives clients a leg up on Uncle Sam and helps them dodge the tax bullet. Diane saves small business clients between $5,000 and $50,000 in taxes in as little as 60 minutes! Her tax coaching prowess has resulted in a combined savings of nearly $500,000 to-date of hard-earned profits small business owners would have given to the government by overpaying taxes. Diane is the co-author of the bestselling books, “Stand Apart” and “Why Didn’t My CPA Tell Me That?” She has also authored four other books including her newest, “Stop Overpaying Your Taxes! 11 Ways Entrepreneurs Overpay and How to Stop it Now!”
Secret – timesaving technique Diane time blocks her calendar -- if you don't put it on your calendar, it won't happen. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Communicate well with your team -- Diane and her team send out daily emails that outline their respective days.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Diane bought her building at the top of the market -- and then 2008 happened -- and Diane tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "If you can be flexible -- you'll always come out stronger in the end."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "If you are willing to be a giver -- you can't help but reap the benefits down the road."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have documented the systems we use in our office -- don't carry it all in your head.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Break your big goals into smaller steps.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would be focused on meeting short-term goals.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. You can do anything you set your mind to
How best to connect with Diane: * Website: www.taxcoach4you.com
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation -- how can this be episode 188 already? My goodness. The time has really flown by. So before I jump into the lesson -- the purpose behind today’s solocast -- want to say some brief words of thanks. What an honor it has been to be able to be here with you five days a week -- for what is now 188 episodes.
I am grateful to you, Onward Nation for listening -- for sharing all of your feedback -- all of which has pushed us to do an even better job with each and every episode. And thank you to all of our extraordinary guests -- for what our podcast -- this community of Onward Nation -- has become.
Sometimes, I do feel like I need to pinch myself in the morning when I get ready to do an interview or I read my email -- Facebook -- the kind words on Twitter -- or a post on LinkedIn.
Thank you, Onward Nation -- you help my team and I get better every day. I so appreciate your review and critique -- good or bad -- more than you will ever know. So thank you for sharing your time with me this morning.
I also grateful for my amazing team of A Players who make up Predictive ROI -- they are the ones who are responsible for every Onward Nation episode day in and day out -- since the beginning. So thank you, Katherine, thank you, Louie, thank you, Erik, thank you, Alex, thank you, Matt, and thank you, Christine. I appreciate all of your hard work more than you will ever know.
Being surrounded by my team of super committed A Players who want our business to succeed as much as I do is a wonderful feeling. But building a team of A Players didn’t happen by accident.
A Players, Onward Nation, are going to be our focus this morning -- but more specifically -- how to attract, recruit, hire, and lead a team of A Players. I am also going to include several lessons that will help you avoid expensive hiring mistakes and then provide you with a recipe for attracting, recruiting, and hiring A Players into your business to make it a fast growth, high performing company -- or Gazelles, as Verne Harnish, co-founder of Gazelles Growth Institute would describe them as.
I am going to share with you lessons I have learned during the last 23 years of working in a variety of companies, owning five businesses, and even spending six years as a full-time academic staff member at the University of Wisconsin -- at the La Crosse campus.
I will also blend in some of the most valuable lessons and expertise shared by a few of our Onward Nation guests -- including one of my most influential mentors, Darren Hardy. All of these lessons -- these ingredients, Onward Nation -- shaped the recruiting and hiring recipes we use at Predictive ROI to grow slowly -- intentionally -- and to build a team that only consists of A Players.
Does that mean that we have never made a hiring mistake? Good grief -- I wish that was the case. We definitely have those stories, too. But all in all -- our track record has been good because we have applied the lessons that I am going to share with you this morning.
One last thing before we jump in -- as a free companion to today’s solocast -- I encourage you to go to OnwardNation.com/12download and get your copy of our free eBook, The 12 Success Strategies of Today’s Top Business Owners. It is a distillation of the best lessons we have learned from our guests and I will refer to one of those lessons during today’s discussion.
Let’s start off with a definition to establish some common ground. What makes an A Player...an A Player?
In my opinion, A Players are the team members who are not threatened by other super achievers in their midst -- in fact -- it is the exact opposite -- the more super achievers the better. A Players love to learn -- they seek out new challenges to push themselves mentally and want to be intellectually pushed by their peers.
A Players are also the team members who have high emotional intelligence -- you will not typically find them caught up in unproductive conversations or at the center of some sort of office controversy.
Instead, you will find them off solving mission critical problems -- or vital priorities -- by filling their vital functions -- and delivering on their vital metrics -- while proactivity reporting back to you when the priorities are accomplished. That’s an A Player, Onward Nation. And I am proud to say that Predictive ROI is packed full of them.
Lori Highby, two-time guest of Onward Nation recently said to me, “Stephen, I think an A Player is someone who is passionate about the work being done, someone who never stops learning, and someone who is driven towards to success.” Couldn’t agree more with Lori.
The passion Lori describes is essential because -- look -- work is hard -- it is demanding -- the hours are long -- and sometimes the schedule is unforgiving. And if your team members don’t have a passion for the work, and they don’t really love it, or they don’t love you and what you stand for -- they will not stay for very long -- or if they do stay -- you will not be getting their A level work. And A Players will not tolerate that type of situation for long -- they want to work with other A Players so the passion you so loved having in your company -- will also be the same passion that pushes them to move on to a different venture. And perhaps that new venture might also provide a path for continual learning.
A Players want to be challenged by conferences, by seminars, by workshops, by other forums where they can meet their fellow A Player peers and be challenged in a fast-paced, compressed, learning environment. And when the education component is provided to an A Player -- it becomes easier for them to see how the time they are investing into your company, Onward Nation -- is contributing to their long-term success.
Don Yaeger, also a two-time guest at Onward Nation, described an A Player to me as someone who wants to work with other A Players -- but -- and this is an important distinction that I had never heard before Don shared it with me, Onward Nation -- Don shared with me that A Players don’t frighten other A Players.
A Players are not intimidated by other A Players -- INSTEAD -- they are energized by the possibilities -- they are energized by the professional competition -- by the ambitious drive to make each other better. Not to beat out the other person but in making each other better so the collective team is better, stronger, as a result. Oh, AWESOME!!!
Steve Jobs famously said, “A Players hire A Players and B Players hire C Players. We only want A Players here at Apple.” I think he was really right with this.
Can you think of a couple of A Players on your team who are doing that right now for you, Onward Nation -- or -- can you think of a time when you and a fellow A Player professionally competed with one another?
Where you cheered each other on -- you celebrated each other’s wins -- you helped each other through the losses -- and in the process -- you made each other better. That was an awesome feeling, wasn’t it? Why not create it again inside your own company -- if you’re not currently experiencing it.
And then Shane Stott -- another a two-time guest on Onward Nation -- got really specific with me and shared what he believes are four “qualifiers” that A Players fill...think of them as pre-requisites -- if you can’t put a checkbox next to each of these when thinking about a particular person -- they are likely not an A Player.
First -- they manage themselves better than you could. A Players do not need you looking over their shoulders or micromanaging their work. In fact, that type of managerial style is the perfect recipe for pushing A Players out of your company. Instead -- define your expectations -- provide the resources -- and then get the heck out of the way of your A Players. They will move heaven and earth to exceed your highest expectations!
Second -- A Players bring new ideas and direction continuously. A Players tend to be idea and solution machines. They are looking for new ways to challenge the status quo -- to push -- to move mountains.
They are proactive, Onward Nation...love that word...it is my favorite in the English language...and it is so easy to spot on an A Player!
Third -- A Players are an active study themselves -- meaning -- they are always learning like we discussed earlier. So, Onward Nation -- you need to create an education plan -- some structure -- so they know where and when you will be providing educational opportunities. If you don’t -- they may misunderstand your lack of specific direction or leadership in this area to be ambivalence -- and then your A Players will be polishing up their resumes.
And Fourth -- they don’t take things personally. A Players recognize the mission and purpose of what they are working on is bigger than them -- there is no ego in the work -- and consequently, when something fails, or an idea doesn’t work -- they don’t take it personally and their confidence is shattered in the process.
That doesn’t happen with A Players. Each win or each loss is simply a series of data points from which many things can be learned -- and applied -- so that future work is enhanced and better as a result.
So there you have it, Onward Nation -- a complete and thorough description of A Players -- a detailed avatar if you will of the elusive team members you want to hire. And as Jim Collins, author of Good to Great famously said, “The single most important thing you need to do is pick the right people and keep them. There is nothing more important than this.”
So the next step in today’s solocast that I wanted to share with you was a specific recipe for attracting and hiring A Players. How do we do this? I will give you a hint to the recipe...Jim Rohn said, “If you want to be a leader who attracts quality people, the key is to become a quality person.”
I learned this recipe directly from my personal mentorship sessions with Darren Hardy. This recipe -- although potentially painful -- will help you fill your team with A Players so your business is filled up -- wall-to-wall -- with exceptional talent.
A Player Recipe Ingredient #1: Get out a white sheet of paper.
Ingredient #2: Brainstorm a list of 50 attributes you want to have your employees -- or future employees -- exemplify -- to demonstrate to your customers on daily basis. Just write fast as you can. Go total stream of consciousness. Quickly make the list -- fast, fast, fast. Make a full list of 50. Okay, do you have the full list ready?
Ingredient #3: Now go back through your list and give very careful consideration so you can remove the duplicates, remove anything that might be similar, and then distil the list down into what you consider to be your Vital 12 Attributes. These 12 are the attributes your ideal team members would represent and live out every day.
Ingredient #4: Let the list rest for a day -- sleep on it -- then review and critique it again in the morning. Make sure your final list of 12 is ready to be shared. But don’t share the list with your team. Instead...take the 12 attributes and use them to create survey form with a rating scale of 1 to 10 -- with 10 being the highest. You could use a paper-based survey, Survey Monkey, or another tool. Something that is easy to distribute and share.
Ingredient #5: Now ask your leadership team and all of your employees to anonymously rate YOU according to those 12 attributes. They do not rate themselves -- but YOU, Onward Nation.
Ingredient #6: Sit down and review the data. The survey results represent how you -- as the leader -- need to improve in order to attract, recruit, hire, and effectively lead A Players representing your Vital 12 Attributes. This exercise -- and your ability to authentically recruit A Players who match the 12 -- requires you to be there yourself.
Remember -- you, Onward Nation -- you -- you are the ones who set the pace within your company. The leader sets the pace -- the pace of the leader sets the pace of the pack. It is an incontrovertible fact. You can try to run from it -- to hide from it -- but in the end -- there it is.
Therefore, if you want to attract and hire A Players who represent those 12 attributes -- you need to become the living embodiment of those 12 -- if you are not already.
So with that...I want to thank you again for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here -- thank you for tuning in -- I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
However our daily podcast fits into your daily routine -- I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation...good or bad...I always want your feedback. My direct email address is stephen@onwardnation.com -- and yes -- that is my actual Inbox. No fancy filters or filing system and I read and reply to every single email.
So please let me know how you think we are doing. I look forward to hearing from you.
We will be back tomorrow with an incredible interview with Diane Gardner -- she is a tax savings superhero and she shares some insights into how she saved one of her business owner clients $50,000 in taxes. You will not want to miss this discussion -- stop overpaying taxes, Onward Nation!
Until then, onward with gusto!
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Melissa is a former Wall Street executive and now the founder of The Lion’esque Group, a firm of pop-up shop experts who have produced more than 100 retail experiences in New York City, Los Angeles, and the Hamptons. Some of her clients include brands such as COTY / Marc Jacobs, CAT Footwear, J. Hilburn, and Food52. Melissa shares her experiences in her book, “The Pop-Up Paradigm: How Brands Can Build Human Connections in a Digital Age.” Melissa was awarded “Innovator of the Year” for pop-up retail experiences by Retail Touchpoints in 2015. She is the co-founder of THE MARKET at the Roger Smith Hotel, and an advisor to startups, TheStoreFront.com, and Fotofwd. She is also a guest blogger on pop-up and immersive retail strategies for various outlets.
Secret – timesaving technique Melissa lists out her daily tasks -- calendar management is everything. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Step outside and go for a walk -- Melissa does this often to give her mind a rest and it often sparks inspiration.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Melissa invested time in training the wrong people -- and Melissa tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Execution -- be able to execute your ideas."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "By genuinely paying it forward -- the universe brings you back some amazing energy."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have focused -- you can't get seduced by opportunity.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Have a strong communication strategy on a daily basis.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would be willing to jump in and help when they're done with their own projects.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Don't be so hard on yourself 2. Set short and long-term goals 3. Do your own books
How best to connect with Melissa: * Twitter: @melsstyles
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com ------
Pam Friedman has over 20 years of financial planning and investment experience. Prior to partnering with Silicon Hills Wealth Management, Pam was on Wall Street in New York as well as serving in London structuring and raising capital for both public and private companies. Pam is the author of the book, “I Now Pronounce You Financially Fit” and is an expert is marital financial planning. In addition to Pam’s extensive writing, speaking, and financial planning experience, she also served six years as a member of the Finance faculty at The University of Texas at Austin.
Secret – timesaving technique Pam writes down what has to be discussed -- preparation is 100% of your success. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Carve out time -- Pam blocks Tuesday and Thursday morning on her schedule for regrouping and thinking.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Pam gets angry calls from clients when the market is down -- and Pam tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Patience -- I'm a big fan of patience."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "You have to take calculated risk -- you can't be afraid to take them."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have found someone who knows the technological systems inside and out if I started on my own -- but luckily our firm had someone who knew them.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Take things one at a time -- don't try to be all things to all people.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would think ahead and be present.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Be patient -- it's going to take 10 years to build a reputation 2. Be transparent with your partners -- and be hard on them when you have to 3. Take a risk -- what's the worst that can happen?
How best to connect with Pam: * Website: siliconhillswealth.com
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Michael Maher’s story is one for the movies. Born into a family living in a shack in a small town in Kansas and knowing only poverty, food stamps, and hand-me-down clothes, Michael conquered incredible challenges and a near-death experience then went on to design a system, the (7L) System, based around a philosophy of generosity. He and those who have implemented the system have found that a business based on generosity leads to reciprocity in the form of referrals, help, and good beyond anything they could ever imagine. His book, 7L: The Seven Levels of Communication has been Amazon.com's #1 bestseller in the Real Estate Sales category for 5 straight years. Michael inspires audiences with his powerful, true story and has shared the stage with President George W. Bush, Tony Robbins, and John Maxwell.
Secret – timesaving technique Michael uses the four enriching rituals -- make yourself more efficient, more orderly, and more productive. ONWARD!
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Seek advice from those who are more successful than you."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Commit to a "no matter what" philosophy 2. Be specific with what you want 3. Practice proactive generosity and appreciative receiving
How best to connect with Michael: * Website: www.michaeljmaher.com * Website: 7lsystem.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/ReferralGuru
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Michael Hauge has been one of Hollywood’s top script consultants, story experts, and speakers for more than 30 years. He coaches screenwriters, novelists, filmmakers, professional speakers, internet marketers and corporate leaders, helping transform their stories and their audiences using the principles and methods of Hollywood’s most successful movies. Michael is the author of “Selling Your Story in 60 Seconds” and the new 20th Anniversary Edition of his classic book Writing Screenplays That Sell. He has consulted on films starring – among many others - Will Smith, Tom Cruise, Reese Witherspoon, Julia Roberts and Morgan Freeman, and has presented lectures and workshops to more than 70,000 participants worldwide. According to Will Smith, “No one is better than Michael Hauge at finding what is most authentic in every moment of a story.”
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Michael got a mediocre rating in a big magazine -- and Michael tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "The ability and willingness to incorporate stories in any communication."
How to create a good story 1. Identify the hero of the story -- who is the main character? 2. Create a setup -- describe the life the hero was living before the story began 3. Present the hero with opportunity (and create empathy in the process) 4. Put the character in a new situation based on the opportunity 5. Create a clear, visible goal with a clear finish line in the end 6. Create conflict 7. The climax of the story -- paint a picture of what success was like 8. The aftermath -- paint a picture of the new life because of making the journey
The three kinds of stories business can tell 1. Autobiographical -- the story about you 2. Case study -- take someone who has benefited from your product or service and talked about how you and your product or service has changed their life 3. The "Wise Man" story -- repeat a story and how you or your audience can learn from their lessons
Most influential lessons learned from a mentor 1. "The seat of the pants to the seat of the chair." 2. "Don't get it right, get it written." 3. "You've got to reject rejection."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? I ask myself if whatever I'm going to try sounds like fun -- and if it does, I'll try it.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Don't be afraid of telling stories 2. Ask yourself where you draw the line -- and then take small steps toward confronting you fear
How best to connect with Michael: * Website: www.storymastery.com * Website: storyformarketers.com
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Steve Rodgers is a business, lifestyle consultant, author, and leader who helps others discover, maximize, and increase their highest good and purpose in life and business. Steve’s extraordinarily successful career spans being the CEO of a real estate firm generating $25 billion in annual sales, almost 40,000 transactions, managing a team of 4,600 agents, and starting and running his own real estate company. One of Steve’s career highlights was meeting and working for Warren Buffett for many years. His inner circle includes leaders such as John Assaraff, Brian Tracy, Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Thompson.
Secret – timesaving technique Steve scores himself on his body, bond, being, business -- hold yourself accountable for the things that have to get done every day. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Take time for yourself -- Steve meditates multiple times a day to stay tuned into life.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Steve had to close 40% of his offices -- and then he got fired -- and Steve tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Become an expert in your field -- as quickly as you can."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Don't underestimate people -- sometimes people disappoint you -- but sometimes they surprise you."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have utilized the "stop -- start -- continue" strategy -- a strategy to use to analyze what is and isn't working in the business.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Prospect, prospect, prospect, and prospect some more.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Find out your true personal legend is as soon as possible 2. Be curious
How best to connect with Steve: * Website: thealchemyadvisors.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/steverodgerstoday * Phone: (858) 829-2969
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Lori Highby is the owner of Keystone Click, an interactive marketing agency in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Since 2008, her agency has seen consistent growth. Lori is the 2013 recipient of the "Bravo! Entrepreneur Award" from BizTimes Media. She has been helping businesses market themselves online for nearly 15 years. Lori speaks and blogs on the topics of social media, e-commerce, online marketing, and entrepreneurship.
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? Lori uses the six strategies found in "The Miracle Morning" under the acronym SAVORS -- silence, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading, scribing. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? "I dream my painting, then I paint my dream." - Vincent van Gogh
How do you define success? Success is a lot of things -- I have a lot of different definitions -- celebrate the little victories.
What strategy do you use to combat fear? Lori believes in doing a "power stance" and positive affirmations -- and Lori tells the reasons why here.
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" is passionate, never stops learning, and is driven towards to success.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? 1. Always be teaching -- approach everything as a learning opportunity 2. Do what you're telling others to do 3. Never stop learning
How can we build an audience? 1. Be consistent in frequency and value
How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Get out side of your comfort zone 2. Join a mastermind group and hire a coach
How best to connect with Lori: * LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lorihighby * Email: lori.highby@keystoneclick.com * Website: keystoneclick.com
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Susan RoAne was a teacher, laid off in a massive budget cut, then created a career change workshop, started her business and authored the book, “How To Work a Room” and 7 other books. Susan now speaks globally for Fortune 20 to Fortune 500 companies, universities, and associations…plus she doesn’t have to grade papers anymore!
Secret – timesaving technique Susan meets her deadlines -- you get more done when you give yourself deadlines. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Hire someone to do what you don't want to do -- Susan focuses on what she's good at -- like social media -- and delegates the rest.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Susan had to take a lot of time off to write a book -- and Susan tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "The buck stops with you."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "My mentor told me to get out from behind a lectern."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Know what you're going to do -- know your expertise 2. Have a kitchen cabinet
How best to connect with Susan: * Website: www.susanroane.com * Website: www.howtoworkaroom.com * Email: susan@susanroane.com * Phone number (for speaking engagements): (415) 461-3915
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Lee Caraher started Double Forte in 2002 as a new kind of communications firm designed to provide the best service in the business. Previously Executive Vice President at Weber Shandwick, president and founder of Red Whistle, and Vice President of SEGA, Lee has managed multiple offices and hundreds of people of all ages and was named in the 40 under 40 by PRWEEK Magazine. She holds a bachelor’s degree in medieval history -- which she finds useful every day. She lives with her husband and two sons on the San Francisco Peninsula.
Secret – timesaving technique Lee starts every day by looking at her calendar -- batch your work as much as possible. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Move every day -- Lee moves around if she's been sitting still for more than 45 minutes.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Lee lost her biggest client who represented a third of her income -- and Lee tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "The most important thing business owners need to be good at is listening."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Reset every day so that you don't walk into it with false expectations and assumptions."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have put in more discipline reporting -- even though we had nothing to report.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would ask for help because they know that their work can be improved on.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Understand what your special gifts are 2. Spend your time where it's most viable 3. If you told yourself that it's too hard -- it's time to do it
How best to connect with Lee: * Email: www.leecaraher.com * Twitter: @LeeCaraher
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Matt spent the first nine years of his career as an Air Force pilot before entering the private sector to work in both the medical device and advertising industries. While a top performer in the corporate world, his long-term desire was to be his own boss. A good friend one day mentioned the gumball machines he and his young daughters owned, and that conversation began a 10-year business quest that has brought Matt's company, School Spirit Vending, to the cutting edge of both the vending and school fundraising industries. Today, School Spirit Vending's franchising program provides a proven and profitable business system for busy professionals and their families looking to develop secondary income streams with a limited time commitment.
Secret – timesaving technique Matt uses an Excel spreadsheet to manage his priorities -- look at your priorities in 90-day increments. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Get up early -- Matt starts focusing on his priorities by getting up before everyone else in his household.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Matt had his commission and bonuses cut by $80,000 -- and Matt tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Hands down -- it's communication."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "There's value in building and maintaining relationships."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have begun promoting and marketing what we do much, much sooner.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? No doubt about it -- it's keeping your pipeline full.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would have an entrepreneurial mindset themselves.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Get started immediately -- stop thinking about it
How best to connect with Matt: * Email: matt@ssvbusiness.com * Free eBook for Onward Nation listeners: http://ssvbusiness.com/onward/
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Craig Cody is a Certified Tax Coach and the owner of the New York Accounting Firm, Craig Cody and Company. As a Certified Tax Coach, Craig belongs to a select group of tax practitioners who’ve undergone extensive training and continued education on various tax planning techniques and strategies. Craig is passionate about helping business owners understand the difference between tax planning and tax paying and helping them save significant money. Craig is the co-author of the Amazon bestseller, "Secrets of a Tax Free Life."
Secret – timesaving technique Craig turns off his email service off at certain times in the day -- take time and turn off the outside world. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Protect your schedule -- Craig blocks out time to do certain tasks.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Craig had to fire a very valuable client -- and Craig tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "The ability to multitask but prioritize."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "One word: systems."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have gotten an all-encompassing piece of software.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Integrate marketing into your everyday ideas -- marketing is like breathing -- if you stop, you die.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would have a focused team approach.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Keep more of what you make
How best to connect with Craig: * Phone number: (516) 869-4051 * Email: craig@ccodycpa.com * Free copy of Craig's bestselling book: craigcodyandcompany.com/onwardnation
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Nathan Latka is the host of the brilliant and top ranked podcast The Top and continues to take iTunes by storm. He grew up in Northern Virginia where he learned to love to build things, and he went to Virginia Tech to study architecture. After realizing that nobody was hiring architects after the financial crash of '08-'09, Nathan quickly pre-sold $70,000 worth of Facebook fan page tabs at $700 each. He then learned to code, launched Heyo, raised $2.5 million and increased the revenue to $5 million, grew the team to 25 people, and just sold the company.
Secret – timesaving technique Nathan pays for people to do tasks that aren't worth his time -- delegate the tasks that you don't need to do yourself. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success You have to batch like tasks -- Nathan records 15 podcasts a day, two days a month.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Nathan got major backlash for an email he sent -- and Nathan tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Delegation."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Ask good questions and trust that you're going to learn something important."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? None -- I think I am maybe the smartest in the world at building systems.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? You can't build systems around the things that you're doing unless you know what you're doing.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Don't invent a problem just to be an entrepreneur -- focus on a problem that you face
How best to connect with Nathan: * The Top Podcast: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/top-entrepreneurs-in-money/id1023761733 * Screenshot yourself subscribing to The Top and text Nathan at (703) 431-2709 and listen every Monday for a chance to win $100 * Podcast episodes on selling Heyo: nathanlatka.com/thetop177 * Nathan's profit and loss statement: text "nathan" to 33444
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional speaker, and bestselling author who works with companies and organizations who want to build loyal relationships with their customers and employees. His articles have been read in hundreds of publications, and he is the author of "Moments of Magic, The Loyal Customer" and the Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestsellers, "The Cult of the Customer" and "The Amazement Revolution," which was also recognized as a New York Times bestseller, and, his latest book, "Amaze Every Customer Every Time." He is also the creator of The Customer Focus program which helps clients develop a customer service culture and loyalty mindset.
Secret – timesaving technique Shep is handed tomorrow's schedule today -- have a daily plan -- and delegate the creation of that plan out to people better at creating it than. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Use a "daily reflector" -- Shep uses a daily planner and writes down something good that happened to him today, both personally and professionally.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Shep's company was sold and his job was gone -- and Shep tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Delegation."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "The job isn't doing the speech -- it's getting the speech."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have written a book much sooner -- I don't know if I was capable at that time -- but it would have helped my credibility.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Get everyone into alignment through communication.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would love their job.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Love what you do 2. Surround yourself with really, really smart people -- both mentors and employees 3. Create a 10-year plan
How best to connect with Shep: * Website: hyken.com * LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/shephyken * YouTube: sheptv.com * Twitter: @Hyken
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Shawn Casemore is the President and Founder of Casemore and Co Inc., a management consultancy helping business owners and executives enable their teams to participate in accelerated growth. Shawn is the author of “Operational Empowerment: Innovate, Collaborate and Engage to Beat the Competition” from McGraw Hill. He travels the globe speaking on topics related to improving business performance -- and -- capitalizing on employee empowerment.
Secret – timesaving technique Shawn notes his three most critical priorities every day -- make sure you've got your priorities straight. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Exercise, call people you don't know, and have a meaningful conversation with someone -- Shawn does all these activities daily to work on his health -- both physical and mental.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Shawn parted ways with a company he was doing business with -- his income slowed way down because of it -- and Shawn tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "You need to become adept at prioritizing time."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Build and sustain confidence -- be comfortable being bold."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have been much more diligent at sustaining and keeping in touch with relationships that I've built -- as well as being bold and reaching out directly to people that I could help.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Communication is missing in most organizations -- keep the communication flowing by having regular meetings.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would demonstrate caring for the customer.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Always be clear on what the fundamentals are for growing your business -- and make sure someone is always focused on them 2. Be genuine 3. Be persistent -- you can never, ever, ever give up
How best to connect with Shawn: * Book: "Operational Empowerment: Collaborate, Innovate, and Engage to Beat the Competition" * Free Chapter: casemoreandco.com/free-chapter * Website: casemoreandco.com * Twitter: @shawncasemore * LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/shawncasemore
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Stacy Tuschl is a speaker, business coach, and the owner of The Academy of Performing Arts in Wisconsin. She is the author of “Is Your Business Worth Saving” where she reveals proven strategies for pulling entrepreneurs out of a rut and launching them toward business success. She is the host of the brilliant podcast Business Rescue Road Map.
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? Stacy wakes up before her husband and kids, eats breakfast, drinks tea and an apple cider vinegar drink, does her morning stretches, listens to a podcast, and dives into priority #1 -- take care of yourself physically and mentally right away each morning. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? "Work like there is someone working 24 hours a day to take it away from you." - Mark Cuban
How do you define success? Success is the ability what you want, when you want -- the more successful you are, the better your work-life balance will work for you.
What strategy do you use to combat fear? Stacy believes realizing that things are harder than we realize is a good thing -- and Stacy tells the reasons why here.
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" is smarter than you in their specific area -- and extremely loyal.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? 1. Give mentees the skills to help them long-term, not just right now 2. Lead by example
How can we build an audience? 1. Practice and get proficient in video -- it's the easiest way to connect 2. Collection, engagement, and conversion -- these three steps are key for platform building
How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Get out of your comfort zone -- go somewhere new by yourself 2. Go somewhere to clear your mind -- take some time to think
How best to connect with Stacy: * Website: StacyTuschl.com * Free collection, engagement, and conversion guide for Onward Nation listeners: stacytuschl.com/onwardnation * New podcast: businessrescueroadmap.com
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Good Morning Onward Nation...this is Stephen Woessner, host of America’s best podcast for learning how today’s top business owners Think, Act, and Achieve. And when I am not interviews today’s top business owners -- I am serving as the CEO of Predictive ROI.
I am thankful, Onward Nation, that you have made the decision to be here -- with me -- right now.
Why?
Because we all have the same 86,400 seconds in a day -- we all have the same number of sacred seconds -- so I consider you being here a sacred exchange of time for value. And I know that I need to be excellent during each and every solocast. In order to be excellent, Onward Nation -- I have to put in the effort -- because it is only through effort can I hope to deliver enough value necessary for you to consider this to be a worthwhile exchange for your time.
But let me share a secret with you. There is an additional motivation -- an additional force that pushes me -- that drives me to be excellent during each and every episode. Working hard -- demonstrating what it takes to be excellent -- not only provides you with value -- but it publicly sets a standard of what is acceptable here at Onward Nation and Predictive ROI. My team sees that -- our clients see that -- and they see what it means to be commitment to being outstanding, every day, without exception. A standard of excellence -- a standard of awesome.
That is how committed I am today solocast topic -- how to be a great mentor.
My most vital priority within Predictive ROI is mentorship -- I am fully committed, Onward Nation, to being the mentor our team members need each day. My greatest gift that I can offer my team is mentorship. To be there to praise them when they need to be praised. To be there to kick them in the pants when they need to be kicked. To be there to hug them when they need to be hugged. To be a friend -- to be a motivator -- to ask them hard questions -- to help them see they can be more powerful than they could ever possibly imagine. To help show them the abundance of God given talent they already possess.
And Onward Nation -- that is your role as a business owner, too. So we are going to focus today’s discussion toward the critical topic of mentorship.
Because whether you want to be one or not -- whether you have accepted the tremendous responsibility that mentorship represents or not -- whether you focus on mentorship as your most vital priority -- you are one, Onward Nation.
Just like in parenting -- right now -- there is someone on your team who is watching your every move -- and your actions -- your actions are showing them your standard -- your standard of you deem to be acceptable. Are you setting excellence as your standard -- or something else? Are you showing them how to become more? Or are you showing them how to become or remain average?
With all of that said -- I don’t consider myself a great mentor -- but I am striving to get better every day. How or from whom do I learn from in order to make this pursuit of excellence a reality?
I work hard and learn every day by studying the incredible wisdom shared by our amazing Onward Nation guests. And during today’s solocast, I am going to share with you several very specific ingredients I have learned from our guests so you can be a great mentor. Please take and apply these ingredients within your company -- so you can create Mentorship Excellence with your team.
Over the past several weeks, I have conducted eight ENCORE interviews with Onward Nation alums. So far, eight guests have already come back to Onward Nation to share their insights on how to be a great mentor. I am grateful for their extreme generosity and demonstration of what it means to be excellence. I love that.
So, my special thanks to...
- Scott McKain, episodes 1 and 136
- Don Yaeger, episodes 2 and 160
- David Long, episodes 5 and 139
- Shane Stott, episodes 8 and 150
- Marty Wolff, episodes 7 and 143
- David Mammano, episodes 17 and 145
- Larry Broughton, episodes 18 and episode 166
- Nancy Marshall, episodes 19 and 135
- Drew McLellan, episode 32 and 167
- Dr. Marcie Beigel, episodes 82 and 144
Thank you, Onward Nation alumni -- you inspire all of those around you each and every day -- and it is an honor to call you friends -- to call you “mentor.” You have taught me so much.
Okay, Onward Nation -- without further adieu -- let’s dig in. Here’s how to become a great mentor.
Ingredient #1: “Be willing to have difficult conversations” -- Drew McLellan We as mentors need to have the courage -- be brave enough -- to ask better questions. Don’t be dispensers of advice -- instead -- resist the temptation to give your mentees all of the answers. Ask open-ended questions. Press them to think and find their own solutions.
Drew has taught me that a great mentor is present. A great mentor is present to celebrate. But it is easy to be great when it is all sunshine and rainbows -- when there is something to celebrate. But greatness is also having the courage to be present to commiserate -- to share in the losses -- to show your team how to bounce back into the light. To climb out of defeat -- even if it is one inch at a time, Onward Nation.
Drew also taught me how to be regular -- to be consistent with your mentorship. Mentorship is not a part-time vital priority. It is your most vital priority, Onward Nation. It is not a sometimes thing -- it is an all the time thing.
Ingredient #2: “You have to have a mentor to be a mentor” -- Larry Broughton In order to be a great mentor -- you have to humble yourself and realize that you in fact need a mentor. Every great business leader -- every great person -- is able to point back to the mentor or mentors he or she had to push them along their journey. And one of the most important skill that we as leaders -- as mentors must possess -- is the drive -- the hunger -- to keep learning. Your ongoing education from podcasts, books, conferences, mentors, represent a body of knowledge and experiences you can then share with your mentees.
And lastly, Larry taught me the importance of just starting. Don’t allow yourself to get sucked into the mistake of thinking there are people who are better than you and that you don’t have anything to offer as a mentor. Those thoughts, Onward Nation, are the imposter syndrome rearing its ugly head. Don’t listen -- press on!
Ingredient #3: “Your mentees must be active participants” -- Don Yaeger Don has been one of the most influential mentors in my life. During our encore interview, he shared how he frequently receives requests for his mentorship. He always replies to each request with the framework and expectations he has for an excellent mentee. And then majority of people never reply. Why? Because being an excellent mentee is hard work -- but most prospective mentees have the perception that getting a mentor is a way to find someone to do the work for you. No! A great mentors will force their mentees to be an active participant in the mentor-mentee relationship — otherwise you can’t mentor them, Onward Nation!
Ingredient #4: “Be the change you want to see” -- Carl Wright Carl taught me how great mentors are fully transparent with their team -- they allow their team members to see the wins and to see the losses. We should alway strive for excellence -- 100 percent of the time. But winning 100 percent of the time will never happen. Each loss can be used as a wonderful learning experience -- to give us that pit in our stomach -- that bitter taste in your mouth -- that you never want to experience ever again. And part of being transparent with your team is consistent communication with your entire team -- your entire business -- Carl taught me to allow your team to see your mindset -- to let them behind the green curtain -- or better yet -- raise the curtain. And let your team inside -- they will love you for it.
Ingredient #5: “Set the example” -- Shane Stott I have seen first hand how Shane leads his team. I have spend many days on-site with him and his team -- watched as he facilitated meeting with his team -- watched as he committed the resources necessary to achieve big goals within his companies. Inspiring to watch. Leading and making the initial decisions is the easy part, Onward Nation. But Shane showed me the critical importance of staying connected with those who you are mentoring -- it is a consistent process of checking in -- mentoring up -- making adjustments -- and continual guidance.
Ingredient #6: “Your mentees are watching your every step” -- David Mammano Dave stressed to me the importance of being cognizant of what you’re doing -- just like in parenting. Your teammates, Onward Nation, are watching your every step. So if you are not committed to excellence -- and you do it half-way -- don’t be surprised when you get a half effort. If you are not willing to take out the trash -- don’t be surprised when others on your team don’t think it is their responsibility either. If you are not willing to work late -- you are setting an example. Dave taught me the critical importance of not just saying what your mentees should do -- but -- be the example -- by doing it yourself.
Ingredient #7: “Be clear on how your mentee can do it better” -- Dr. Marcie Beigel Dr. Marcie’s two interviews were powerful. She is a behavioral expert so our conversations along with the lessons learned dug deep into the psychological motivations of mentees and mentors alike. For example...one of Dr. Marcie’s principles is to say what you mean and mean what you say -- which is one of the best ways to ensure you are being clear with your expectations of mentees. How can you expect to hold your mentees accountable when you have not provided clear expectations? If you have not done that, Onward Nation -- you need to know that is on you -- not your mentees. And yes, it will be scary to work through the details -- to provide that level of precise mentorship when you may have never done it before. But, as Dr. Marcie so eloquently said to me, “Stephen -- be scared and do it anyway.” BAM!
Ingredient #8: “Model the behavior you expect of others” -- Marty Wolff Marty taught me how to be a great mentor from the perspective of integrity. How can someone be a great mentor without integrity -- without being the shining example of what is ethical? And yet, business leaders attempt to do it -- yet -- eventually it catches up to them. Marty stressed to Onward Nation that a great mentor needs to be of high integrity all the time, always look for an opportunity to help someone, and help their mentees see all their possibilities. Help them, Onward Nation, see how they can become more -- and -- are capable of just that. That they have been blessed with an abundance of God given talents -- and your greatest gift to them as their mentor -- is to help instill in them the guts and courage to apply all of their gifts and talents.
Ingredient #10: “Be the mentor you’d want to mentor you” -- David Long I absolutely love this lesson from David. If you want to be a great mentor to your mentees -- think about the kind of mentor you would want to mentor you. What would he or she do -- teach you -- how would that person push you -- encourage you -- and help you grow? Part of being great is to analyze -- diagnose -- identify all of these points -- and then you push yourself to become more to embody those things. Being a great mentor is also the perfect opportunity to groom your team to take over for you -- so you can exit the day to day operations of the business giving you the time to focus on your most vital priorities -- like being a great mentor.
Ingredient #11: “Walk the talk — so people know whether or not you can do it” -- Scott McKain Scott teaches us the ultimate in credibility indicator. This lesson of greatness is more than being willing to perform the day-to-day tasks in your company as a good leader -- or a good example should. Instead, it is about you holding your team accountable by walking the talk. For example, great mentors beget great mentors. You must encourage and push your mentees to also be great mentors -- to get out there and find mentees of their own. That is how they learn a completely different level of awesome then they could have learned from you. They need to be in the trenches all on their own. I have several mentors who hold me accountable to walk the talk -- and I walk the talk with my mentees every day -- and I hold them accountable so they walk the talk with their mentees. So walk the talk, Onward Nation.
Ingredient #12: “Spend time with your employees — both in and out of the office — this is how they’ll learn” -- Nancy Marshall And bringing us home with this very important discussion is the lesson from Nancy -- how can you expect, Onward Nation, for your team to learn from your when your on-boarding process is a baptism by fire. When on their first day at your company -- they have a client meeting that afternoon? That is not setting your team up for success -- that is setting them up for horrible failure. Instead, take them under your wing -- show them how it is done -- that is how they will learn your standards of excellence -- and your employees want your time. The time you can spend with them -- one-on-one is treasured and can be special opportunities for not just mentorship -- but also relationships. If you don’t invest in your team -- don’t expect them to invest their hearts and minds into your business. Spend the time, Onward Nation -- being a great mentor is not something you do as you run past someone’s office -- or the occasional high five in the hallway. Nancy’s emphasis on teaching is an excellent principle -- because being great requires that we teach -- everything we know. That is how you help create A Players, Onward Nation.
So with that...I want to say thank you again for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here -- thank you for tuning in -- I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
However our daily podcast fits into your daily routine -- I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation...good or bad...I always want your feedback. My direct email address is stephen@onwardnation.com -- and yes -- that is my actual Inbox. No fancy filters or filing system and I read and reply to every single email.
So please let me know how you think we are doing. I look forward to hearing from you.
We will be back tomorrow with an incredible ENCORE interview with Stacy Tuschl, the author of the book “Is Your Business Worth Saving?” and the host of the amazing brand new podcast Business Rescue Road Map.
Until then, onward with gusto!
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The Wall Street Journal calls Chad Hymas one of the 10 most inspirational people in the world! In 2001, at the age of 27, Chads life changed in an instant when a 2,000-pound bale of hay shattered his neck leaving him a quadriplegic. But Chad’s dreams were not paralyzed that day he became an example of what is possible. Chad inspires, motivates, and moves audiences, creating an experience that touches hearts for a lifetime. Chad is a best selling author, president of his own Communications Company, Chad Hymas Communications, Inc. and is a world-class wheelchair athlete. Chad’s speaking in the areas of leadership, team building, customer service, and mastering change has brought him multiple honors. He has graced the stage of hundreds of professional and civic organizations including Wells Fargo, Blue Cross Blue Shield, AT&T, Rainbird, IHC, American Express, and Prudential.
Secret – timesaving technique Chad puts his daily tasks into four different categories -- organize your tasks so that they'll get completed at the right time. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Start the day off right -- Chad says a prayer every morning and reads verses from the bible.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Chad's dad walked away from him -- and Chad tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "You need to realize you have the ability an influence over other people."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Go find someone to serve without being asked to do so and watch what happens."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have taken more risks.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Have a strategic plan, make it simple, and break it into parts.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would realize the people we serve are our greatest assets.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Hang out with people more successful than you 2. Focus on what you have, not your losses
How best to connect with Chad: * Website: www.chadhymas.com
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Dr. Carri Drzyzga is known internationally as The Functional Medicine Doc the go-to expert on finding the root causes of health problems so you can feel normal again. She is a chiropractor and naturopathic doctor, host of the popular podcast The Functional Medicine Radio Show, and author of the hit book, “Reclaim Your Energy and Feel Normal Again! Fixing the Root Cause of Your Fatigue with Natural Treatments.” Dr. Carri is the creator of Entrepreneurial Fatigue: How to Fuel Your Brain & Body for Entrepreneurial Success. Her private practice is Functional Medicine Ontario located in Ottawa, Ontario.
Secret – timesaving technique Dr. Carri wears a sleep mask over her eyes every night -- you need great sleep to maximize your energy. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Take care of yourself -- Dr. Carri suggests eating a healthy breakfast full of protein and good, healthy fat.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Dr. Carri realized that she didn't love being a chiropractor -- and Dr. Carri tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "You need to know where your strengths and weaknesses are -- and where your weaknesses are, hire people that have those strengths."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Take it day-by-day and step-by-step."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have gotten the advice of a mentor or coach really early on.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Have really great communication with your team.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would take the things off my plate that I don't need to be doing.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Read the book "The Slight Edge" 2. Read the book "Think and Grow Rich" 3. Surround yourself with people that are better than you
How best to connect with Dr. Carri: * Website: www.drcarri.com
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David Covey is the 3rd son of Stephen R. Covey, author of the groundbreaking book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” David was the chief operating officer of FranklinCovey. He then left Franklin Covey to start his own company, now called SMCOV. SMCOV works with the best intellectual property content experts on the planet and helps distributes their content globally through licensees. David loves working with impactful IP and setting up distribution systems around the globe.
Secret – timesaving technique David gets his email inbox empty at least once a week -- you've got to have a system. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Take the time to ask for help -- David prays and reads scripture every morning and night.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience David faced tremendous challenges in starting over and beginning his business -- and David tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Perseverance and focus."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "My father was the most influential person in my life -- and I try to live the Seven Habits."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would do a lot more trial and error and experimentation -- it takes a lot of time to get things right.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? You need to create something unique.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would be truly passionate.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Make sure being an entrepreneur is the right fit for you emotionally 2. Make sure you have a unique strategy 3. Experimentation and failure is part of the process
How best to connect with David: * Website: www.smcov.com
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
John Warrillow is the author of books “Built to Sell” and “The Automatic Customer” and founder of The Value Builder System™ where advisors help company owners increase the value of their business. Previously, he founded Warrillow & Co., a subscription-based research business dedicated to helping Fortune 500 companies market to small business owners. A sought-after speaker and popular Inc.com columnist, John lives in Toronto.
Secret – timesaving technique John writes in his gratitude diary every morning -- do this right away every morning. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Do the big projects first -- John saves the small projects for the end of the day and starts on the big ones early in the day.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience John had to realize the hard way that your employees are not your friends -- and John tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Inbound marketing and the ability to change your marketing."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Never share equity with employees."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Blow up your business plan and go sell something
How best to connect with John: * Website: valuebuildersystem.com
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation...I’m Stephen Woessner. And I have to say -- today’s solocast topic has me so fired up because over the last couple of weeks -- we have been delving deep into some critical topics likes excuses -- or alibis as Napoleon Hill describes them -- and the week earlier -- I shared with you how destructive the imposter syndrome can be -- and -- how easy it can be to allow that to happen.
Yesterday, Jodi Flynn -- one of our Onward Nation guests -- and the host of the brilliant podcast, Women Taking the Lead, invited me to be a guest on her show to discuss leadership, mentorship, and some of the influential women who have been powerful mentors in my life. The conversation was off the charts -- Jodi had me teary eyed with her very first question -- no joke. The interview goes live in late March and we will be sure to share the link. During the conversation with Jodi we talked about the imposter syndrome -- about the constraints the syndrome can place us under -- about how the syndrome can grip us in what seems to be paralyzing fear -- and then procrastination sets in. Lack of performance sets in -- loss of relationships can set in -- all the while -- the whirlwind of compounding negativity can easily swallow us up -- if we let it.
And Jodi had a different term for the imposter syndrome, which I thought was spot on -- so I wanted to share it with you. When she is working with her coaching clients -- or even keeping herself on the right track moving onward with gusto -- she refers to the syndrome as her inner critic. She said that and I thought -- oh -- now that’s a perfect description. She made me laugh when she said, “Oh yeah, and my inner critic is mean -- she has a foul mouth and disposition.” I laughed -- but then I thought, wow -- this is such a brilliant point because our inner critic can get away with saying things to us that we likely would never allow another human being to say to us -- but those comments are going on in our heads every minute of the day. Why?
The imposter syndrome works because the person’s words that have the most influence over you -- and that don’t have to ask your permission to speak up -- are yours, Onward Nation. You are the one who is speaking over and over again -- whispering in your own ear -- throughout the day -- day after day -- month after month -- year after year.
So for today’s solocast topic...thanks to the inspiring conversation with Jodi Flynn...I am going to show you how your words become your reality. Your words are what empowers your inner critic. Your words, Onward Nation, are what empowers -- or -- disempowers your entire life.
Every aspect. It is not some mystic dark magic voodoo -- luck -- destiny -- the winds of fate -- the power that someone else possesses and wields it for your misfortune. Well, actually -- that last part isn’t entirely true. Because the power to control your destiny is in someone’s hands -- your hands -- or more accurately said -- in your mind.
And I will show you how during today’s topic -- your words become your reality.
Let’s dig in by starting with a quote from Henry Ford.
He said, “Whether you think you can -- or you think you can’t -- you’re right.”
Success -- or accomplishing that which you seek and desire, Onward Nation, is oftentimes the result of simply deciding and being committed to the result outcome you want to produce. And believing -- and understanding -- it is up to you to make it happen for you. It is not someone else’s responsibility. It is your own.
So if you have an idea you want to pursue -- a new product -- a new business -- a new service -- a once in a lifetime vacation -- and you begin to craft a plan -- your inner critic may try to derail your planning process right away with thoughts of self doubt, fear, you’re being too ambitious, what would your family think when you share the news with them, and so on. Whether you think you can or you think you can’t -- you’re right. Isn’t it fascinating that before you have even collected any data from the market -- given your idea of any sort of litmus test -- you already encounter obstacles. In my opinion, more than half the battle of being successful is getting the right words to yourself down on paper so you can retrain your brain -- your subconscious mind on what the plan of action will be. Again, Onward Nation, whether you think you can or you think you can’t -- you will be right.
So let’s take this deeper.
I have studied and continued to study Napoleon Hill’s timeless work, "Think & Grow Rich." Hill includes a verse that speaks directly to how your words become your reality, so I wanted to share it with you, Onward Nation. Hill writes:
Please download the episode to hear Hill's verse.
The words you speak to yourself -- the building blocks of the thoughts you think to yourself -- eventually become your actions. And your actions direct your destiny. So if you can get the words you speak to yourself correctly aligned with where you want to go -- then you will realize your full potential.
Hill dedicates a full chapter to the technique of autosuggestion -- which is the process of getting the words you speak to yourself correctly aligned with your purpose -- your mission in life -- your most vital priorities -- what you are striving to accomplish. Tony Robbins also addresses autosuggestion -- although differently -- he calls the process “Incantations.” What I love about Tony’s process of incantations is how he breaks down the word when he is teaching this powerful technique because he ties it back to the Henry Ford quote I shared with you earlier… "Where you think you can or you think you can’t -- you’re right."
Just look at the word incantation. You can either emphasize the “can” in the word...In - CAN - tation when you pronounce it. Or you can emphasize the word can’t...In - CANT - tation. And even just that subtly could tell you where your thought process is currently.
But neither Tony Robbins or Napoleon Hill were the ones who discovered the power of autosuggestion or incantations. I will argue it comes from the book of Matthew -- but will also give you a more modern or recent example.
Let me introduce you to Dr. Emile Coue, who was a French psychologist and pharmacist. It is he who introduced autosuggestion as a form of psychotherapy and self-improvement. Dr. Coue lived from 1857 to 1926. Napoleon Hill first published his Laws of Success in 1925 and then later refined the manuscript into Think and Grow Rich in 1937.
In addition to his discoveries around autosuggestion, Dr. Coue also discovered what became known as the placebo effect.
He became known for reassuring his clients by praising each remedy's efficiency and leaving a small positive notice with each given medication.
His book, “Self-Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion” was first published in England (1920) and then in the United States (1922).
Many American thought leaders of the time adopted his ideas and methods, such as Norman Vincent Peale, Robert H. Schuller, and W. Clement Stone, and then became famous in their own right by spreading his words.
Dr. Coue developed what he later called, “The Coue Method”.
The application of his mantra-like conscious autosuggestion, “Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better.” It is sometimes quoted as saying, “Day by day, in every way, I'm getting better and better.” Or, “Day by day, in every way...I’m getting stronger and stronger,” which is similar to the Tony Robbins version.
The Coué Method centered on a routine repetition of this particular expression according to a specified ritual—preferably as much as twenty to 100 times a day, and especially at the beginning and at the end of each day. And expressed out loud -- with full emotional power and belief.
When asked whether or not he thought of himself as healer, Dr. Coué often stated that “I have never cured anyone in my life. All I do is show people how they can cure themselves.”
Coué believed that curing some of our troubles requires a change in our unconscious thought, which can be achieved only by using our imagination -- and getting our thoughts correctly aligned with our goal.
Coué noticed that in certain cases he could improve the efficacy of a given medicine by praising its effectiveness to his patients. He realized that those patients to whom he praised the medicine had a noticeable improvement when compared to patients to whom he said nothing.
This began Coué’s exploration of autosuggestion. The good doctor certainly believed in the effects of medication. But also believed that our mental state is able to affect and even amplify the action of these medications. By consciously using autosuggestion, he observed that his patients could cure themselves more efficiently by replacing their "thought of illness" with a new "thought of cure". According to Coué, repeating words or images enough times causes the subconscious to absorb them. The cures were the result of using imagination or "positive autosuggestion" to the exclusion of one's own willpower.
Coué thus developed a method which relied on the principle that any idea exclusively occupying the mind turns into reality, although only to the extent that the idea is within the realm of possibility. For instance, if a person firmly believes that his or her asthma is disappearing, then this may actually happen, as far as the body is actually able physically to overcome or control the illness. On the other hand, thinking negatively about the illness (for example, "I am not feeling well") will encourage both mind and body to accept this thought.
Likewise, when someone cannot remember a name, they will probably not be able to recall it as long as they hold onto this idea (for example, "I can't remember") in their mind.
Coué realised that it is better to focus on and imagine the desired, positive results (i.e. "I feel healthy and energetic" and "I can remember clearly").
So the experiment that lead to the discovery of the placebo effect went like this. Coue was making his rounds with patients and providing them with their medication. He also instructed each patient to say out loud to themselves with full enthusiasm, belief, and faith -- “Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better.” And to repeat the process 100 times a day -- with conviction.
What Coue noticed was an increase in the efficacy of the medication as a result outcome of the words his patients were audibly saying to themselves each and every day. So then Coue tried something even more radical. He replaced the medication with a placebo -- while instructing his patients to continue with the autosuggestion as they had been doing.
And the result outcome was staggering. His patients continued to recover despite the absence of medication.
Onward Nation...your words affect your thoughts...your thoughts affect your actions...and your actions affect the trajectory of your life.
How often do we see professional athletes walking into a stadium before a big game listening to their noise cancelling headphones? Why are they doing that? To block out the distractions and to listen to music to increase their concentration -- their mood -- tempo -- their thinking.
Or, how often do we see Olympic athletes getting ready to ski jump, race downhill, snowboard, do a gymnastic routine, and we can see them visualizing the result outcome -- rehearsing over and over in the mind the moves they need to make -- the result outcome they want to see.
That is the power of visualization, Onward Nation. And it is a visual version of the principle of autosuggestion developed by Dr. Coue. Elite athletes know they need to get their words right -- their visualization right -- in order to direct the actions they take during their performance or competitive event.
Well, if autosuggestion and visualization can be used to increase the efficacy of medication -- or to guide the performance of Olympic athletes -- and used by Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Andrew Carnegie, JP Morgan, and many of the other industrial giants interviewed by Napoleon Hill to direct and influence the words they spoke to themselves...then why not you, Onward Nation?
I mentioned earlier that autosuggestion can be connected back to the book of Matthew in The Bible. And perhaps in a future solocast -- we will dig deeper -- but for now -- let me just share with you...Matthew chapter 7 versus 7 reads, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”
These are the power of your own words, Onward Nation. When mixed with faith and the belief that the result outcome will occur -- if we ask -- by conditioning our minds that the result outcome is indeed possible.
But many of us don’t ask. Why?
The fear of rejection. “What if I don’t receive what I have asked for?”
Or, pride. “I don’t want to sound silly for asking.” Or, “I cannot ask because if I do ask, that means I am less because I was forced to ask -- or forced to submit.”
Don’t fall into the mental trap that is as old as time itself, Onward Nation.
Instead...realize that your inner critic attempts to derail you every day -- but -- as in all aspects of your life -- you have the power to change the outcome.
Your inner critic will listen to you -- but -- you need the right script. You need to give conscious thought to the words that will create the right thoughts -- then the right actions. Your thoughts become your reality -- and the origin of your thoughts are the words you speak to yourself throughout each and every day...and what you ask for.
Remember Dr. Coue’s autosuggestion… "Day by day...in every way...you are getting stronger and stronger,” Onward Nation!
So with that...I want to say thank you again for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here -- thank you for tuning in -- I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
However our daily podcast fits into your daily routine -- I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation...good or bad...I always want your feedback. My direct email address is stephen@onwardnation.com -- and yes -- that is my actual Inbox. No fancy filters or filing system and I read and reply to every single email.
So please let me know how you think we are doing. I look forward to hearing from you.
We will be back tomorrow with an incredible interview with John Warrillow -- he is the author of several groundbreaking books, “Built to Sell” and “The Automatic Customer”. His insights are counter intuitive, John’s strategies and recommendations are precise, and the entire conversation is packed full of wisdom that can be applied to your business right away. Please don’t miss it.
Until then, onward with gusto!
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Drew McLellan is a 25-year marketing veteran who helps clients create authentic love affairs with their customers. In 1995, Drew started his own agency -- McLellan Marketing Group. He also helps other agency owners learn how to take their business to the next level through the consultancy -- Agency Management Institute. Drew is also one of the world’s top marketing and branding bloggers, according to AdAge’s Top 150 index. He’s written the book 99.3 Random Acts of Marketing and co-edited the Age of Conversation series of books. He has appeared in the New York Times, Entrepreneur Magazine, Businessweek and Fortune Small Business. The Wall Street Journal calls him one of 10 bloggers that every entrepreneur should read. Drew also hosts the brilliant Build a Better Agency Podcast.
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? Drew gets up, goes for a walk, eats breakfast, and then starts on the task he wants to do least -- and start and end your day in gratitude. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? "Gratitude, Give, and Grace."
How do you define success? Success for Drew is freedom -- but don't let other people your definition of success.
What strategy do you use to combat fear? Drew assumes that he will figure it out -- and Drew tells the reasons why here.
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" has the things you can't teach.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? 1. Be willing to have difficult conversations 2. Ask better questions -- don't give your mentees all the answers 3. Be present -- commiserate and celebrate 4. Be regular with your mentorship
How can we build an audience? 1. Figure out what you have to offer and pick the platform that makes the most sense 2. Bring all of you to the platform you choose -- don't be stiff and rigid
How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Recognize that the next level is optional -- sometimes bigger isn't better 2. Know what you're willing to sacrifice 3. Define where you want to land -- then figure out the baby steps
How best to connect with Drew: * Twitter: @DrewMcLellan * Facebook: facebook.com/drew.mclellan * Email: drew@agencymanagementinstitute.com * Website: agencymanagementinstitute.com * Website: www.drewmclellan.com
You can also find us here: -----OnwardNation.com -----
Larry Broughton is Founder and CEO of broughtonHOTELS; Broughton Advisory Group; and yoogozi.com. He’s an award-winning entrepreneur & CEO; a best-selling author; keynote speaker; and former U.S. Army Green Beret committed to helping visionaries, leaders and high-achievers step into the leadership gap.
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? Larry begins tomorrow before he goes to bed today -- write down in a gratitude journal the things you're thankful for tonight and do some deep breathing when you wake up tomorrow. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? "A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week." - George Patton
How do you define success? Success is a byproduct of living a life of significance.
What strategy do you use to combat fear? Larry believes we need to embrace failure -- and Larry tells the reasons why here.
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" is motivated and has integrity and capacity.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? 1. Leaders are learners -- read, listen to podcasts 2. Just start mentoring -- you can't give yourself the excuse that there are people better than you 3. You have to have a mentor to be a mentor
How can we build an audience? 1. You have to be writing blogs, recording podcasts, speaking, and writing books 2. Engage with people -- utilize social media
How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Focus on personal mastery and personal development 2. Hire a coach/mentor and join a mastermind group 3. Help other people
How best to connect with Larry: * Website: http://yoogozi.com * LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/larrybroughton * Twitter: @larrybroughton * Facebook: facebook.com/larry.broughton
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Kris first took the business world by storm in 1999 when he founded Pepperjam, a full-service internet marketing agency and affiliate network that was sold for millions to eBay ten years later. Pepperjam distinguished itself as one of the most successful, fastest growing companies in the country and the three-time consecutive recipient of the prestigious Inc. Magazine Fastest Growing Company award (2006, 2007, 2008) as well as dozens of other awards and honors. Since the sale of Pepperjam, Kris has continued his significant contributions to the business world as investor, CEO, best-selling writer, speaker and dedicated philanthropist.
Secret – timesaving technique Kris uses a program called Rapid Planning Method -- capture: write down what you want to achieve and schedule: make these goals become real. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Commit to waking up earlier -- Kris wakes up an hour earlier than his wife and kids.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Kris had to lay off over 40 members of his staff -- and Kris tells the whole story here.
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "You have the power."
How best to connect with Kris: * Twitter: @krisjonescom * Facebook: facebook.com/kbjcapital * Agency Website: lseo.com * App Development Website: appekapps.com * Career Website: passionsintoprofits.com
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
John T. Meyer is the Co-Founder and CEO of Lemonly. Lemonly helps companies tell their story through visuals. Specializing in infographics, videos, and interactives. Lemonly works with brands like Marriott, Major League Baseball, Netflix, Lego, Under Armour, Salesforce, the Green Bay Packers, and the United Nations. John is a member of the Young Entrepreneur Council and in 2013 was named to Entrepreneur Magazine's Top 10 Emerging Entrepreneurs. John loves to cheer on the Minnesota Twins, spend time with his wife Paige and daughter, Margot. He also writes about focus and productivity within a weekly newsletter called “Point Letter.”
Secret – timesaving technique John does six professional tasks and two personal tasks every weekday, six personal tasks and two professional tasks on Saturday, and then he's off on Sunday -- make it eight for the day. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Saying "no" today means you can say "yes" tomorrow -- John takes control of his schedule by saying "no."
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience John had to have a hard conversation with his brother who he was in business with -- and John tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Communicate your value."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "It's not just luck."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have developed a stronger backbone -- don't be afraid to give clients pushback.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Get out of the way and let your team work -- the killer to productivity is too many managers and too many meetings.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Know when and where to draw a line in the sand 2. Be prepared to adjust and adapt
How best to connect with John: * Twitter: @johntmeyer * Website: johntmeyer.com
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation...I’m Stephen Woessner. And before we jump into today’s solocast topic -- I want to say thank you for all of the thoughtful and specific feedback following last week’s solocast, episode 158...which I entitled, “How to defeat the imposter syndrome.”
I love feedback -- good or bad -- and often encourage it at the end of my solocasts. But last week’s solocast was followed by more feedback than normal...and I am grateful.
I received notes via email, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. I appreciate the kind words -- but even more so -- for the insights into how the discussion helped. It is always awesome to find out someone likes what you have to say -- and it is so rewarding to hear the connecting points between what is being shared and an experience. Those are powerful and I am grateful -- thank you, Onward Nation.
So same request goes for today’s solocast -- please let me know what you think -- thumbs up or thumbs down -- I want to know what you think and appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts.
It is a gift, a privilege, and an honor to be with you each and every day. It is important to me that you know how much I appreciate your time -- I consider your time sacred -- because it is -- and am looking forward to spending time with you this morning delving into yet another deep topic that affects all of us.
So for today’s solocast...I am going to focus our attention toward an obstacle we all experience -- something we all face. In fact, it is fair to say that everyone on Earth faces it no matter who they are. The obstacle is art of making excuses...or “alibis” as Napoleon Hill described them in in his timeless work, "Think & Grow Rich."
Hill goes on to explain that “Building alibis or excuses with which to explain any failure has become a national pastime. The habit is as old as the human race and is fatal to success. People defend their alibis because they create them. A person’s alibi is the child of his own imagination. It is human nature to defend one’s own brainchild.”
I am not going to get political -- I have no conversation for you there whatsoever -- but I will set Washington as a prime example of excuses -- and then defending one’s position vehemently -- and sometimes until the bitter end. Instead -- an intelligent, non-defensive discussion that leads to a win-win compromise is often the best policy.
In an effort to dig deep into this topic...let’s examine some of the most common excuses Hill shares in his book. People who fail to succeed have one distinguishing trait in common. They know all the reasons for failure and have what they believe to be airtight excuses to explain away their own lack of achievement.
Some of the excuses are clever -- and a few of them justifiable by the facts. As I read you the list -- examine yourself -- your thoughts -- your actions carefully and think about how many -- if any -- of these excuses you have used.
I will say this -- if you are open and honest as I share this list with you -- it may be a painful process -- as it was for me when I first reviewed and considered the list. In fact, as I read it the first time...I highlighted 17 excuses off the list and set about to resolve those and eliminate them from my thought process.
Please listen to the podcast for Napoleon Hill's complete list of excuses.
And...here is the greatest excuse of them all, Onward Nation…
“If I had the courage to see myself as I really am, I would find out what is wrong with me and correct it, then I might have a chance to profit by my mistakes and learn something from the experience of others, for I know that there is something wrong with me, or I would now be where I would have been if I had spent time analyzing my weaknesses, and less time building excuses to cover them.”
This is a lesson -- about the greatest excuse -- is a lesson that I tend to learn and relearn over and over again. One of the most painful examples was taught to me was in June of 1990. I was stationed at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas for basic training. About midway through our training, we were asked if anyone was interested in volunteering and trying out for the Air Force special forces. Uh Rah! Count me in. So I volunteered to spend that Saturday gritting it out with the best on the base to see who would make the cut.
It was a long day...by the end...I was beat down. I was tired...had swam a mile and a half. Had run a mile and a half. Had just done pull ups, sit ups, and a variety of other exercises. I was hot, I was sweaty, I was exhausted.
My energy level was beat to the pulp.
But it was time for push ups, which perked up my energy level a bit because push ups had normally been a decent exercise for me.
This time...it came with specific instructions, which I failed to hear. And it wasn’t because the instructions weren’t loud enough -- oh no -- our instructors did not have an issue with volume. The instructions were to perform the movement in stages...you would lower your chest to the mat until you touched your spotter’s fist with your chest...and then raise yourself back to the starting position...hold yourself there for a beat...and rinse and repeat.
All the while...I needed to be looking face up...not down at the mat...throughout the entire movement. If any of these instructions were not followed...the repetition would not be counted.
I was feeling confident because this was “my” exercise -- I knew I could bang out a bunch of reps despite being exhausted so I was excited to get started -- so excited -- that I did not pay close attention to the instructions.
I thought -- very arrogantly -- that I had this competition “in the bag” and based on my previous swim, run, etc. Yeah! I was going to be a candidate for the special forces. Well, I was about to learn how painful it can be to come up short -- and the creative force to making up excuses that followed.
When the instructor yelled, “begin”...the race was on and we were on the clock to see how many push ups we could complete within the specified time. I was so concerned about speed...and quantity...I failed to perform a critical step. I was looking down at the mat during the completion of each rep for the first four...instead of “eyes front.”
It was after four repetitions, that my spotter pointed out my mistake, and I made the correction on my fifth repetition -- and then my heart sank when I heard my spotter say loudly count out...“ONE”. Oh no...I was at least four reps behind. And I never did catch up.
By the time the exercise was over...I was still four reps behind the pack...and I knew I was probably sunk.
Then it was the long wait for the instructors to tabulate our scores and announce their selections. If you were selected, your normal basic training would be over and you would immediately join the special forces training program -- first stop -- the Bahamas for scuba diving. Um...yes, please!
But, when the instructor came out to announce the list of names...mine was not called. I had missed the cut by four points.
I had battled all day -- and lost by four points. But did I blame myself for not following the very specific -- very loud -- and clearly articulated instructions? No. I blamed my spotter. For what? For doing his job? He wasn’t supposed to count bad reps -- and he did me a favor by even telling me about my mistake.
He didn’t have to do that.
He, too was competing to win a spot on the list. But he did tell me.
My success was up to me, Onward Nation. Not him. And yet I blamed him.
Deep down inside, I couldn’t bare the thought that it was me who had failed -- and to Napoleon Hill’s point -- I then created an alibi that rationalized the loss and tried to make it sting a little less.
Several weeks later, I learned from the mistake at I made at the special forces qualification. I was outside my dorm on a break with my squad...and a drill instructor...not assigned to our squad decided to come up and harass us to see if she could get us to misspeak, not follow protocol, or make some other mistake. And for whatever reason, I was the lucky one she picked. Not awesome.
I don’t remember the line of questioning she bombarded me with -- but -- I missed something and made a mistake. I next found myself standing outside my squadron commander’s office in the hallway. My drill instructor had been summoned -- we made eye contact as he walked down the hallway -- and he shook his head in disappointment.
As I was called into my commander’s office to explain the situation, they were looking for any sign of weakness -- of excuse making. I didn’t provide one. I apologized for the situation and accepted full responsibility without excuse.
I passed. But why?
Because I didn’t throw someone under the bus. I stood up and acknowledged the situation -- accepted responsibility -- and then moved on.
And it has been my experience in business and in life -- and likely yours, too -- that if we simply acknowledge our mistake -- as hard as that may be to do -- set our ego aside and apologize -- and accept responsibility -- then our customers, employees, spouse, or children are more willing to forgive us because everyone makes mistakes.
But no one likes excuses.
Michael Jordan famously said, that “A loss isn’t a failure until you make an excuse.”
When you make excuses -- you lose credibility -- you lose the respect of your peers -- and you run the risk of damaging relationships.
So stop the excuses, Onward Nation.
Forget the alibis -- do your best every time -- own your mistakes -- learn from them -- and you will achieve success and greatness.
You were indeed meant for greatness. You are a child of the most high God. You are instilled with an infinite abundance of talent and gifts. How can I be so sure, you might ask? Because Luke Chapter 17, Verse 21 says so. The scripture reads, “The Kingdom of God is within you.” The kingdom of God is indeed great...and if the kingdom is within you...then that makes you great, Onward Nation. So please don’t let something so small as making excuses -- and creating elaborate alibis -- cheat you from your success...your greatness...your destiny!
So with that said...
I want to say thank you again for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here -- thank you for tuning in -- I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
However our daily podcast fits into your daily routine -- I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation...good or bad...I always want your feedback. My direct email address is stephen@onwardnation.com -- and yes -- that is my actual Inbox. No fancy filters or filing system and I read and reply to every single email.
So please let me know how you think we are doing. I look forward to hearing from you.
We will be back tomorrow with an incredible interview with John T. Meyer -- he is off the charts amazing. His productivity strategy of “8 for the day” and the discipline he applies to mastering it is remarkable -- which has helped him build a phenomenal business.
Until then, onward with gusto!
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Patrick Henry is a former Nashville songwriter and SiriusXM Radio personality on the Family Comedy Channels. Today he delivers entertaining and funny keynote presentations that show how to create extraordinary customer experiences. Patrick has spoken to over 1,000 audiences around the world and is also the author of the book entitled, "The Pancake Principle: Seventeen Sticky Ways to Make Your Customers FLIP For You."
Secret – timesaving technique Patrick gets up early and works out daily -- create time for yourself everyday. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Be deliberate in carving out the time you need -- Patrick carves out the time he needs to be creative.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Patrick's speaking business was hit hard in the recession -- and Patrick tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Understand who you are and what you do."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Every speech is a performance."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would surround myself with people -- get a mastermind group.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Make sure your employees are operating from an authentic place -- continue to create a community.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would champion your business.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Believe there's a successful place for you in your line of business 2. Surround yourself with positive, talented people
How best to connect with Patrick: * Website: patrickhenryspeaker.com * Book: "The Pancake Principle" * Comedy Album: "Married Man"
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Jim Palmer is a marketing and business building expert and host of “Newsletter Guru TV” and “Stick Like Glue Radio”. He is known internationally as ‘The Newsletter Guru’- the go-to resource for maximizing the profitability of customer relationships. Jim is the author of 6 six books and also the founder and President of Custom Newsletters, Inc., parent company of “No Hassle Newsletters”, “No Hassle Social Media”, and Success Advantage Publishing.
Secret – timesaving technique Jim focuses on what he needs to focus on each day -- focus on high revenue-generating activities only. ONWARD!
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Jim got called out and embarrassed by a friend -- and Jim tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Any success business is built on trusting relationships that a business has with its customers."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "You will earn infinitely more income for who you are than what you do."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have actually put systems in place -- this is so necessary if you want to sell -- or -- heaven forbid -- tragedy strikes.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Recognize that someone has already paved your path -- learn from them 2. Stop trying to be all things to all people 3. Don't let anything hold you back
How best to connect with Jim: * Website: www.getjimpalmer.com
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Don Yaeger is a nationally acclaimed inspirational speaker, longtime Associate Editor of Sports Illustrated and author of 25 books, nine of which have become New York Times Best-sellers.
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? Don's days don't always begin the same way -- if he's at home, he spends time with his wife and son -- but if he's on the road, he begins his day with exercise and listening to podcasts. Whether you're at home or on the road, begin the day in the way it needs to begin. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? "Make each day your masterpiece." - John Wooden
How do you define success? "Success is the peace of mind that comes from knowing each and every day that you've done your very best." - John Wooden
What strategy do you use to combat fear? Don believes you need to let your fears go if you want to overcome them -- and Don tells the reasons why here.
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" wants to work with other "A Players" -- "A Players" don't frighten "A Players."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? 1. Force your mentees to be an active participant in your mentor-mentee relationship -- otherwise you can't mentor them
How can we build an audience? 1. Provide value to others -- otherwise they'll follow someone else 2. Be consistent -- people have to know that you're going to be giving them something on a schedule
How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Get out of your comfort zone -- it's all about thoughtful risk 2. The ability to put failure in perspective
How best to connect with Don: * Email: don@team180.com * Website: DonYaeger.com
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Rob Berger has practiced law since 1992 -- and then in 2007 -- he started a personal finance and investing blog. It was more of a hobby than a business -- but -- over the next several years, however, it turned into a business. By 2009, he was making a full-time living, and by 2010 he was making more from his blog than practicing law. Today, Rob runs DoughRoller.net and AllCards.com. He also writes for Forbes, U.S. News, and The Huffington Post.
Secret – timesaving technique Rob stands up while he works -- when standing you're less drawn to time-wasting activities. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Don't lose focus of your bigger picture, long-term goals -- Rob works on long-term writing projects for a couple hours before getting into his daily task-list.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Rob got too focused on search engine traffic -- and Rob tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "The thing that has really powered my business is the relationships I've developed over time offline."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Once you realize it is possible -- it really changes your mindset."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have diversified my traffic sources early on -- make sure you build your email list.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Constantly evaluate those things that drive profit.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would do quality work when they said that they were going to do it.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. You've got to connect with others in your line of work 2. Keep costs down -- know whether the ROI will be worth it
How best to connect with Rob: * Email: dr@doughroller.net * Website: www.doughroller.net * Podcast: www.doughroller.net/thepodcast/
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation...I’m Stephen Woessner. And before we jump into today’s solocast topic -- I want to wish you a very belated Happy 2016. My hope for you is that your New Year has started off with the momentum you envisioned, with the progress you wanted and desired, and that you and your team are executing on all the plans and strategies you crafted toward the end of 2015. My additional hope is that during all the Christmas and New Year celebrations, you also made time to practice Habit #7 that we learned from the wisdom of the late Dr. Stephen Covey is his groundbreaking book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
We all must take time to “Sharpen the Saw” as Dr. Covey so masterfully described it. If you don’t maintain your health, maintain your sanity, take time to relax, rejuvenate, unwind, de-clutter, spend time with family and friends, and nurture relationships, your “Saw” -- or your production capability -- becomes dull and ineffective.
Just like a dull blade on a saw that has been overused and becomes dull then needs to be sharpened before it can be put back into useful service.
The holidays are an excellent time for sharpening -- but -- not the only time.
Today is Wednesday, January 27th...and Habit #7 is partly the reason behind today’s episode being my first solocast of 2016. I have been spending time with family, friends, traveling for a couple Predictive ROI engagements, and for the last 2-weeks, I have been in Disney World to teach a workshop, attend another, as well as some family down time.
It has been the perfect start to 2016 -- a fine balance in which to sharpen the saw.
And it is a wonderful honor and privilege to be back here with you, Onward Nation, this morning for today’s solocast. Thank you so much for being here with me.
So for our time together...I am going to focus our attention toward an obstacle we all experience -- this obstacle is something we all face. In fact everyone on Earth faces it no matter who they are -- it is just that some people are better than others at pushing themselves past it.
The obstacle is known as the “Imposter syndrome.”
If you are hearing the term for the first time -- I will start us off with some context and background.
The term Imposter Syndrome was first coined in 1978 by clinical psychologists Dr. Pauline R. Clance and Suzanne Imes and was used when referring to high-achieving individuals marked by an inability to internalize their accomplishments and a persistent fear of being exposed as a “fraud.” Despite external evidence of their competence, those exhibiting the syndrome remain convinced they are frauds and do not deserve the success they have achieved. In fact, they take their proof of success and pass it off as luck, timing, or as a result of deceiving others into thinking they are more intelligent and competent than they believe themselves to be. Some studies suggest the impostor syndrome is particularly common among high-achieving women while other studies indicate that men and women are equally affected.
Now let’s take that definition and break it down into its two core ingredients.
Ingredient #1: the inability to internalize accomplishments and a persistent fear of being exposed as a “fraud.” Have you ever walked into a meeting and felt that you weren’t worthy -- or that you didn’t belong there? Perhaps someone on the selection committee, the award committee, or board of directors had somehow made a mistake in selecting you. Heck, maybe even some of your colleagues, family members, or friends looked at you and even validated your own suspicions and asked you the seemingly innocent question of “So why did they pick you?”
I began to learn about the imposter syndrome back in 2009. My first book had been published while I was an academic staff member at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. My book had become popular with small business owners and several of the UW campuses around the state started asking me to teach a class at their respective campuses. Awesome. So one day I mentioned the opportunities to a family friend -- that I was headed to UW-Green Bay the next day to teach a class based on my SEO book...and my friend looked at me and said, “Well, why are they having you teach the class? Couldn’t they find someone else locally to teach the class?”
My friend was not trying to be hurtful -- not in the least. But those comments hit me hard. Never mind that my SEO book was #3 in the United States, I had just been interviewed for Inc. Magazine, and other credibility indicators. When he asked me that question -- I actually paused and thought about it. “Yeah, why are they hiring me to teach...am I good enough...do I have what it takes...am I the best they could bring in...did I deserve to be there...was I a fraud...did I know what I was talking about?”
There is nothing unique or different about my story. We have all had these experiences of the little voice in our heads whispering -- or in some cases shouting -- “Who do you think you are to do something so amazing?” That is the imposter syndrome, Onward Nation, and it is holding you back -- it is rearing its ugly head in the form of fear -- and you need to push it aside so it doesn’t block your progress in moving forward.
Here’s the reality...high-performers work hard to prevent people from discovering that they are "impostors." This hard work often leads to more praise and success, which perpetuates the impostor feelings and fears of being "found out." The "impostor" may feel they need to work two or three times as hard. They over-prepare, tinker and obsess over details. This can lead to burnout and sleep deprivation.
I have felt that way before. With each new interview, success quote, media feature -- I would think -- goodness -- did I deserve to be there? YES -- but it took me a long time to believe it -- and I still wrestle with it today.
Ingredient #2: the “imposter” takes the proof of success and passes it off as luck, timing, or as a result of deceiving others into thinking they are more intelligent and competent than they believe themselves to be Has your business ever gone through a growth spurt and you wondered why?
Have you ever looked around your office and suddenly realized you have some amazing people working for you, looking to you for leadership, and you cannot figure out what they see in you?
Have you ever felt uncomfortable heading into a presentation with a new client and you wonder why they invited you to the table?
Or in a personal situation -- have you ever felt like you married up -- that your husband or wife -- was not only your better half -- but completely out of your league?
Why do we ask ourselves such lousy and unfair questions?
And here’s the important point that I really want you to get, Onward Nation. When you ask yourself, “How on earth were we able to hire such amazing employees? Don’t they know that we don’t know what in the world we’re doing?” -- your brain does a funny thing...it gives you an answer.
Your brain doesn’t want to make you out to be a liar -- so it gives you the answer to fit your story.
You start hearing things like…”Yeah, boy, you really pulled the wool over their eyes on that one. Hope Becky doesn’t figure it out -- because if she leaves -- then Tom is sure to leave, too.”
Or, “Why did client X invite us here? We don’t really have a shot at winning this pitch, do we?”
And then answer you get back might be something like, “Nope, we have no chance of winning -- especially if they knew all about the mistakes we made just last week on Client Z’s account. We are lucky to have kept Client Z -- hope X doesn’t ask for references. Maybe we ought to back out of the process now.”
What nonsense. The reality is that you were invited into the evaluation process because you have a stellar network -- perhaps stellar credentials -- and you deserve to be at the table. The voice on your shoulder -- the voice whispering in your ear -- is the imposter syndrome.
And we all deal with it. It doesn’t matter who you are thinking of right now...Tim Ferriss has dealt with it...Joel Osteen has dealt with...all of the incredible business leaders that grace the cover of SUCCESS Magazine, Inc, and Fast Company deal with it...heck, I struggle with it… “I think to myself all the time -- I can’t invite that person to be a guest on Onward Nation -- they’ll for sure say no!” Good grief!
Every business owner -- every political leader -- every leader throughout history has dealt with this. George Washington did not feel he was worthy to be this country’s first president. No one is immune from the imposter syndrome.
But what is unique -- and what is special -- is when someone stares into the face of potential rejection -- faces their fear and they do it anyway.
And to quote the beautiful words of Dr. Marcie Beigel -- a two-time guest of Onward Nation...she said to me in her recent encore interview for episode 144 said to me, “Stephen...be scared, and then do it anyway!”
Wow...I loved that.
Because it is oftentimes fear -- which is another way of describing the imposter syndrome -- it is fear that gets in your way more than anything else. You -- you, Onward Nation...are your business’s biggest constraint. Not the market, not your lack of customers, not your pricing, not your product quality...no...it is you. You set the pace and tempo of your company -- either fast or slow -- you do.
So I asked Dr. Marcie during that special encore interview to share how business owners can reach that elusive next level? She was kind enough to map it out into three simple steps.
- Get clear on what the next level is — how will you know when you’re there?
- Walk through your fear -- make a plan -- and just do it
- Find a mentor -- we learn best from the people who have been there
And let’s look at all three of these.
First...get clear on what the next level is. Well, if the imposter syndrome (aka FEAR) is making you believe that you are not even worthy of your current level of success -- how could you possibly believe that you are worthy of more? So how could you define what the next level looks like? Great question, right? Instead, perhaps you need to spend some time in gratitude being thankful for what you have already accomplished -- consciously acknowledging that what you have achieved was deserved because you worked hard to get there and you applied your God given gifts and talents to get there -- and now -- to realize your full potential -- it is time to leap off your current plateau and move onward to that next level -- and your deserve to be at the next level -- because you’re an expert. But the first step is to give yourself permission to define that next level so you know when you and your business have arrived.
Second...be scared about the next level...and do it anyway. Set your fear aside -- what is the worst that could happen? Prospective customers could say no. You might make a bad decision and lose some money. An employee or a group of employees may disagree in how you’re redirecting the company and could decide to leave. Okay? Are any of these life threatening situations? Did anyone die? No. And like Mike Stromsoe taught us in episode 24 of Onward Nation -- did anyone die? No? Then move on!
Stop making each decision more than it has to be. Just make a decision...then move on. It doesn’t have to be more complicated than that. So, Onward Nation, Be Scared -- and then do it anyway.
And lastly...find a mentor to learn from. More specifically -- find a mentor or group of mentors who are all moving at a pace and tempo that is faster than you. It matters who you spend your time with -- and if you spend your time with people who are moving at your current pace -- or slower -- those people may make you feel comfortable to be around -- they may not challenge you -- they may not push you or ask you tough questions -- and it is easy to relax and unwind. But guard yourself -- if you don’t protect your time -- you will slow down as a result. Why? Because as Coach John Wooden once said, you will never outperform your circle. You won’t -- it is just human nature.
So you need to make sure the mentors you select are operating at a completely different level than you are currently at -- that you reach -- that you stretch -- that you get yourself into a group of people where you don’t currently belong. And then you work like crazy to not get left behind -- and in the process -- you will expand and grow -- and leap off your current plateau onto that next rung.
And as Scott McKain recently taught me, “Stephen, you cannot reach that next rung, unless you are willing to let go of the current one you are hanging on to.”
Very wise words, Onward Nation.
Please recognize the imposter syndrome for what it is...it is nothing more than fear. Please also know that we all deal with it...you are not different because you feel it...you are not uniquely burdened or yoked. But what can make you unique and distinctive is your ability to refuse the status quo and to push past your fear -- to shove the imposter syndrome aside and to not let yourself be your own limitation.
You were meant for greatness. You are a child of the most high God. You are instilled with an infinite abundance of talent and gifts. Please don’t let something so small as fear limit all you were meant to be.
So with that said...
I want to say thank you for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here -- thank you for tuning in -- your time is sacred and I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
However our daily podcast fits into your daily routine -- I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation...good or bad...I always want your feedback. My direct email address is stephen@onwardnation.com -- and yes -- that is my actual Inbox. No fancy filters or filing system and I read and reply to every single email.
So please let me know how you think we are doing. I look forward to hearing from you.
We will be back tomorrow with an incredible interview with Rob Berger -- he is off the charts amazing. Don’t miss it.
Until then, onward with gusto!
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Allen Martinez is a film director and producer in California. After graduating from the Art Center College of Design, his career was launched when he was hired by Quentin Tarantino to direct television commercials through Miramax'’s partner company; A Band Apart. Realizing the shift happening in digital marketing, Martinez founded NobleDigital.com in 2012 and took his decades of experience creating scaled-out corporate commercial strategies for Fortune 500s and successfully applied them to digital campaigns to create respective impact for scale-ups as well. His current focus is on helping new ventures create a successful balance between "push and pull" across all digital strategies before scaling up to more traditional tools.
Secret – timesaving technique Allen starts his day by getting centered -- you must get to the right state of mind so you're not overthinking important things. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Map out a plan for the next 90 days -- Allen makes this plan and then breaks it down into what needs to get done today and this week.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Allen was completely shot down by his film school teacher -- and Allen tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Understand your data -- it's so critical to understand your day-to-day metrics."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "My mentor empowered me to be a leader by making me take over a call with my clients."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I wouldn't -- I'm still waiting for technology to catch up to what I want to do.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Be in the moment -- and stay in alignment with what you agree to.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would be amazing in the three areas of technology, creativity, and data.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Ask the right questions -- everything you need to know is out there 2. Do the research -- you have to find out what you need to know
How best to connect with Allen: * Website: nobledigital.com
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Paul Brown is the owner of Cold Hollow Cider Mill in Waterbury Center, Vermont. The mill was started in 1974 — it ran successfully for 26 years — and then Paul purchased the business in 2000. Cold Hollow is a top producer of fresh apple cider in New England and one of Vermont’s most popular tourist attractions. That’s because Cold Hollow is committed to doing it the old-fashioned way, making pure cider with a traditional rack and cloth press built in the 1920s. Cold Hollow is also the home of the legendary “Cider Donut”, which Gourmet Magazine called one of the country’s four best donuts. During the last 15 years, Cold Hollow has expanded to include a jelly room, large production facility, two cold-storage rooms, and a large bottling facility.
Secret – timesaving technique Paul checks on Monday morning who called in sick, who got hurt, and what broke -- focus on the realities of your business and try to negate the problem areas. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Don't leave anything on your desk to take care of tomorrow -- Paul cleans his desk off every single day before leaving.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Paul tried to grow too big in one year -- and Paul tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "You really need to know your customer."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Never ask a staff member to do something you aren't willing to do yourself -- lead by example."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I wish I hadn't tried to do too much -- focus on one area and get it right before working on something else.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Get clear on your vision -- and make sure everyone is laser-focused on that vision.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would be organized -- they need to put together a gameplan for the day, week, month, year.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. You're going to struggle for at least five years -- you need to know that 2. There are challenges every day -- the fun comes from fixing the day's problems 3. Celebrate the small victories -- and celebrate with your team/staff
How best to connect with Paul: * Email: paulb@coldhollow.com * Website: coldhollow.com * Phone: (802)279-1150
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JP Moery is founder of The Moery Company in Washington, DC. He has 25-years of experience in the association industry, having built a track record of success at the nation’s most influential associations. JP previously served as Senior Vice President at the United States Chamber of Commerce where he oversaw the Association Committee of 100, the most prestigious group of association CEOs and executives in the country. During his tenure at the chamber, JP developed and launched a program that added more than 250,000 companies to the organization’s membership. JP also has experience in the digital media world, having served as Executive Vice President of Association Relations for SmartBrief: a corporation that produces co-branded electronic publications with leading associations for 3 million subscribers. Under his leadership, the number of partnering associations for SmartBrief doubled in less than 3 years.
Secret – timesaving technique JP looks at his year-long goals every single day, looks at his six action items he must achieve each day, and fills his schedule around it -- do what you have to do to get the important things done. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Take care of yesterday's emails before you hit today's -- JP uses Yesterbox to put this into practice.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience JP realized nobody cares if you're doing good or bad -- and JP tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "You're the number one sales person -- learn how to sell."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "If you don't have the cash, you're not going to make the dash."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Burn the boats behind you -- go absolutely all in 2. Price you product or service the right way 3. Get ready to work your fanny off
How best to connect with JP: * Website: moerycompany.com
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Carl founded the Wright Partners in 1998. Since then, his Team has developed Real Estate Projects valued at over $200 million and currently owns and manages a portfolio of over $100 million.
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? Carl gets up at 5:30 AM and reads for at least 30 minutes, makes a green blender drink with his wife (recipe in the episode), then takes on his number priority of the day -- these three chunks will give you a sense of accomplishment early in the day. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? One project at a time.
How do you define success? Success is consistent progress toward your ultimate personal and professional vision.
What strategy do you use to combat fear? Carl believes what counts in life is what you do after the pain sets in -- and Carl tells the reasons why here.
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" have "the four E's and the P" (from Jack Welch's "Winning"): excecution, edge, high energy, energize others, and passion.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? 1. Be the change you want to see -- allow them to see your wins and losses 2. Have weekly meetings with your entire business -- allow them to see your mindset
How can we build an audience? 1. You are always selling you -- be kind, be encouraging -- make people want to work with you
How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. "Quit every job you do, except the one that brings the most value to your company." - Ken Fisher, "The Ten Roads to Riches" 2. Master your profession -- learn faster than your competitors 3. 3+ system: emphasize a point three times to make sure it is received
How best to connect with Carl: * Email: carl@wrightld.com * Website: www.wrightld.com
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Morag Barrett is founder and CEO of leading HR consultancy SkyeTeam (which was just named one of HR.com's Top 15 Small Leadership Partners and Providers for the third year running) and author of CULTIVATE: The Power of Winning Relationships (a second edition of which launched on Jan 5 2016 with Greenleaf Book Group). With 25+ years experience in senior executive coaching and developing high-impact teams and leadership development programs across Europe, America, and Asia, Morag intimately understands the challenges of running a business and managing people. In case you were wondering: her name is Scottish, and means great.
Secret – timesaving technique Morag's word for 2016 is intentional -- be intentional about everything you do. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Actively build a community on social media -- Morag has LinkedIn open on any computer she uses and works her network regularly.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Morag lost her mojo for sixth months -- and Morag tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "You can't be successful in business or in life if you can't cultivate successful relationships."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "We are all very smart at what we do -- but when we take the time to involve others we get exponentially smarter."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I wish I had automated and hired professionals to do the things I shouldn't have been doing myself.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Get over the fear -- you're just one conversation away from taking a step closer to your dreams.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would fit your culture -- how someone does business is the most important.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Understand your definition of success 2. Intentionality -- what do you need to do to reach your success? 3. Consistency -- follow through
How best to connect with Morag: * LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/moragbarrett * Website: skyeteam.com
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ReLaunch – Become Known in Your Niche – podcasts and resources to inspire entrepreneurial confidence, maximize visibility and promote business growth. Founders Joel and Dr. Pei.
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? Joel sets a timer for 15 or 20 minutes and writes in his journal about everything he's thankful for -- keeping this in your in routine is a game-changer. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? "There are no traffic jams along the extra mile." - Roger Staubach "Talent wins games but teams win championships. - Michael Jordan
How do you define success? Success is being able to work from wherever you want and from whatever situation you're in and being able to provide tremendous value to the people that are relying on you as well as yourself.
What strategy do you use to combat fear? Joel believes you need to do it anyway -- and Joel tells the reasons why here.
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" fills the responsibilities you require -- hire for responsibility, not for personality.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we build an audience? 1. Pick a platform -- pick where your peeps hang out -- and become a rockstar at that platform
How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Elimination -- look at what's not working and get rid of it 2. Zero in on a strategy that's working -- spend your time there 3. Look for a strategy that works in tangent with your already working strategy
How best to connect with Joel: * Website: relaunchshow.com * Podcast: relaunchshow.com/itc
Recommended reading: * Book: "Edgy Conversations: How Ordinary People Can Achieve Outrageous Success"
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Jessica Rhodes is the founder and CEO of Interview Connections, the premier source for booking outstanding podcast guests. The Interview Connections team of Booking Agents works with podcasters to find and book guests for their shows. They also represent dozens of highly qualified guest experts to connect them with podcast hosts for interviews. Jessica is the host of the hit weekly web TV show, Interview Connections TV, she’s the host of the Rhodes to Success podcast and she is the co-host of The Podcast Producers, a ten episode audio series selected by Apple as a “How to Podcast” show in iTunes. Jessica is a regular speaker at Dream Business Academy and has shared the stage with dozens of top podcasters at Podcast Movement.
Secret – timesaving technique Jessica blocks and schedules her time -- focusing on specific tasks at certain times increases productivity. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Pay attention to your health -- Jessica has made exercising and eating healthily very important in her life.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Jessica had to let employees go after not being clear with them on expectations -- and Jessica tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Know how to hire, fire, and manage people."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Stay committed to your marketing."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I wish I had used the CRM called Highrise -- and Jessica shared the reason why this CRM is so cool.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Focus on how to keep clients longer instead of trying to bring in new clients.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would underpromise and overdeliver -- they go above and beyond.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Follow the money initially -- focus on what you're passionate about later 2. Get yourself a coach, mentor, or mastermind group -- you need someone to keep you on track 3. Go to live events -- build relationships with people like you -- you're not going through it alone
How best to connect with Jessica: * Website: www.jessicarhodes.biz/onwardnation * Free Download: www.jessicarhodes.biz/onwardnation
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Shane Stott is CEO of Walker Tape Co, and the co founder of Zen Float Co. He's an inventor at heart and has revolutionized both of his industries. His inventions have been featured on The New York Times, ABC, MSN, and Yahoo. He is a very active industry expert in both fields producing webinars, interviews, and how-to videos that can be found at ZenFloatCo.com and WalkerTapeCo.com.
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? Shane wakes up at 6:00 AM and works out to motivational videos -- trade in an hour of sleep for exercise and meditation (and read "The Miracle Morning"). ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? Hire an assistant -- and have them fill out your schedule completely.
How do you define success? Success is results -- don't get fooled by what success isn't.
What strategy do you use to combat fear? Shane believes you need to spend time out of your comfort zone -- and Shane tells the reasons why here.
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" fills these four qualifiers: 1.) they manage themselves better than you could, 2.) they bring new ideas and direction continuously, 3.) they are an active study themselves, and 4.) they don't take things personal.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? 1. Set the example 2. Stay connected with those that you are mentoring
How can we build an audience? 1. Get someone to network every single day -- it's realistically probably not going to be you
How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Get around people that are like you -- these people need to be further along than you 2. Network -- with thresholds -- find the right group for you
How best to connect with Shane: * Website: http://www.shanestott.com
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Gerard Adams is the co-founder of Elite Daily, the No.1 news platform for Generation Y, is an experienced angel investor, millennial thought leader and social entrepreneur who overcame early adversity to become a self-made millionaire by the age of 24. Now 30, he has built, backed, or invested in nine businesses and trades across multiple industries that have all delivered over seven-figure profits. While he continues his role as an investor and influencer, his mission in life is to mentor and inspire young entrepreneurs on what it takes to be successful and how to turn dreams into reality.
Secret – timesaving technique Gerard takes down notes every night of what he learned that day and what he wants to accomplish tomorrow -- hold yourself accountable, be self aware, and have a good mindset. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Have a regular process -- Gerard firmly believes in using quarterly reports.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Gerard was a month away from not making payroll -- and Gerard tells the whole story here.
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "I'm no expert of any one thing -- I'm an expert of experts."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I wish I had realized how important how important it is to have a process -- you can't just wing it.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Consistency, consistency, consistency -- you and your team need to be consistent as possible in every area.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Be proactive, not reactive -- don't wait for something to happen
How best to connect with Gerard: * Website: gerardadams.com
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
John Addison is the newly appointed Leadership Editor of Success Magazine and CEO of Addison Leadership Group. John is renowned for his insight and wisdom on leadership, personal development and success. A sought-after, world-class speaker and motivator, John is sharing his business know-how and leadership insights in his upcoming book, “Real Leadership”, which shares his straightforward practices for successful leadership through his personal and professional journey, helping leaders at any level understand and emulate the nine principles that fostered enduring results on his path to success. He is also the former co-chief executive officer of Primerica. Following the financial crisis of 2008, he spearheaded the process of separating from Citigroup. These efforts culminated with a successful IPO in 2010 that was 22 times oversubscribed.
Secret – timesaving technique John works to make -- and finish -- daily goals -- spend your time focusing on being the best you that you can be. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Show up early every day and go throughout your day with a positive attitude -- John believes the greatest ability is likability.
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Everybody has their walk in life -- you need to love everybody."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Spend time on team-building -- if your team works together -- truly together -- you can accomplish anything.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Turn your fears into fuel -- you'll never conquer them -- but you can turn them into what drives you
How best to connect with John: * Website: johnaddisonleadership.com
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Ira Chaleff is the author of a very unusual book called Intelligent Disobedience; Doing Right When What You’re Told To Do Is Wrong. It was named the best leadership book of 2015 by the University of San Diego and has been featured in many publications including Fast Company and Forbes, as well as in the New York Times Educational Supplement. Ira is a frequent speaker and workshop presenter on Courageous Followership and transforming hierarchical relationships into powerful partnerships. Ira is also the founder and president of “Executive Coaching & Consulting Associates” and an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University.
What does a small business owner need to understand? You need to hope your employees say what is needed -- don't create an environment where they would be afraid to give you valuable insight.
What are some strategies small business owners can use to launch a new product? Don't put out your new ideas too enthusiastically -- ask for feedback first and invite discussion.
Are there other skills business owners need to master to reap the benefits of a 'culture of candor'? You have to master your body language -- learn to master how to get feedback and not seem defensive.
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Slow the motion down and understand the situation."
What should the leader/follower dynamic look like? Being a "follower" isn't a personality trait -- it's a role -- not everyone needs to be a leader all the time -- be able to pay both roles.
How does 'intelligent disobedience' fit into being a parent? We put too much weight on obedience in childhood development -- we inadvertently contribute to a mindset where we believe he must do what authority says.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Focus on missions and values -- what are we here to do?
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would come to understand their mission, value, and role -- and no longer needed orders.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Pay attention to cashflow -- don't take your eye off the ball 2. Have exceptional customer service -- your customers won't let you know if they leave because of bad customer service 3. Build a culture
How best to connect with Ira: * Website: www.irachaleff.com
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Paul Akers is founder and president of FastCap, based in Bellingham, WA. FastCap is an international product development company founded in 1997 with over 2,000 distributors worldwide. A prolific inventor, Paul holds US and international patents. His company launches approximately 20 new innovative products per year and won business of the year in 1999 and 2010. Paul and his wife, Leanne, have built FastCap from their garage into a multi-million dollar company in 13 years.
Secret – timesaving technique Paul works to make today better than yesterday -- deliberately improve every day. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Read or listen to audiobooks consistently -- Paul has read at least one book a week every week since college.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Paul spent too much money way too fast -- and Paul tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Uncover the greatness in every human being -- harness their greatest asset -- awaken the genius in human beings."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Become fearless about innovation."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I wish I had popped out of the womb and been told to "lean" -- eliminate waste and solve all your problems.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Learn the eight wastes -- and Paul shares the eight wastes here.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would be humble -- and they must want to learn.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. You need a mentor that you regularly consult with
How best to connect with Paul: * Email: paul@fastcap.com * Website: 2secondlean.com/ * Talk: youtube.com/watch?v=gPUmY8WnnpU
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Dave Mammano is the founder and CEO of the Next Step Education Group. His mission in life is to help people realize their highest potential through education. Next Step is a multi-media enterprise that has grown to become a nationwide resource with prestigious awards and honors, including being named a three time consecutive Inc. Magazine 5000 growth company and Top 100 growth company in Rochester, New York. David has spoken at hundreds of high school, college, business and EO events, including TEDx, and is the author of the new book, “Make Love in the Workplace”.
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? David reads immediately upon waking up at 5:30 in the morning, meditates, and exercises -- don't leave your morning up to chance. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." - George Bernard Shaw
How do you define success? Success is all about balance -- it comes down to faith, family, finances, food, fitness, fun -- the 6 Fs of success.
What strategy do you use to combat fear? David believes you have to put your focus on the goal -- not the negatives -- and David tells the reasons why here.
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" is an "A player" on their own -- and it's up to you to nurture them.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? 1. Be cognisant of what you're doing -- your mentees are watching your every step 2. Walk the talk -- don't just say what your mentees should do -- do it yourself
How can we build an audience? 1. Create a lot of free content that people want in an easily digestible format -- blogs, podcasts, webinars, speeches 2. Turn the things that help you into content that can help others 3. Get a coach
How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Admit that you're vulnerable and need help 2. Join groups and programs to learn and grow
How best to connect with David: * Email: david@nextstepu.com
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Dr. Marcie Beigel has been redesigning behavior for professionals, families, schools, and businesses for over 15 years. Her specialty is engaging with behaviors directly and giving clear and insightful directives to clients who are oftentimes business owners looking for balance at home to help create balance at work or new approaches to become better leaders. Her approach is heartfelt, but filled with tough love. You can get her weekly behavior newsletter at BehaviorAndBeyond.net. Dr. Marcie is also featured on NBC's Parenting Toolkit.
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? Dr. Marcie starts her morning by waking up to a real alarm clock (not her cell phone), lies in bed and plans her day, and does yoga -- stay away from technology for as long as you can. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? "You're braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." – A.A. Milne
How do you define success? Success is happiness -- it's the fullness and richness of life that defines success.
What strategy do you use to combat fear? Dr. Marcie believes you need to embrace your fear -- and Dr. Marcie tells the reasons why here.
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" does exactly what they love -- hire those that are kids in the candy stores you need populated.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? 1. You need to walk your talk -- be the example 2. Be clear with your words on how your mentee can do it better -- but you must be encouraging
How can we build an audience? 1. Do what you do with consistency -- let people rely on you 2. Figure out what platform you want to work with 3. Remember that every email address is a person
How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Get clear on what the next level is -- how will you know when you're there? 2. Walk through your fear -- make a plan and just do it 3. Find a mentor -- we learn best from the people who have been there
How best to connect with Dr. Marcie: * Website: http://www.behaviorandbeyond.net/ * Email: info@behaviorandbeyond.net
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Marty Wolff is an entrepreneur, business coach and business journalist. He's the President of Marty Wolff Business Solutions.
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? Marty starts every morning out with prayer/Bible study, exercise, healthy eating, and then goes into email and social media -- clear your slate of necessary communication to have the time to do the important things. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? "Make a mistake of aggression, not of omission."
How do you define success? Success is making a difference -- in an individual's life, in a group that you're working with, in someone you're coaching, or in your family's life.
What strategy do you use to combat fear? Marty believes you have to feel worthy of success -- and Marty tells the reasons why here.
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" is a good team member -- the most unique skill set is caring.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? 1. Model the behavior you expect of others -- be of high integrity all the time 2. Always look for an opportunity to help someone 3. Help other people see all their possibilities
How can we build an audience? 1. Be excellent -- do good work 2. Have a system -- regularly schedule things
How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Stay aggressive -- and continue to learn 2. Make a difference -- everyday
How best to connect with Marty: * Email: marty@martywolffbusinesssolutions.com * Website: http://martywolffbusinesssolutions.com/
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Jennifer Maffei is the Founder and President of VEA Services; a coaching and consulting firm specializing in helping CEOs get the most out of their Executive Assistants. Jennifer developed her A-Z approach after working for more than 20 years as both a Business Owner and as an Executive Assistant - from Fortune 500 companies to small firms. Jennifer is also a Vistage Resource Speaker - presenting How to Maximize the Executive and Assistant Relationship, to CEO peer groups across the country.
Secret – timesaving technique Jennifer calendars absolutely everything -- schedule time for yourself to sit and think. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Review your priorities every single day -- Jennifer reviews her to-do list immediately before bed and again when waking up.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Jennifer was severely injured while working in San Francisco -- and Jennifer tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Focus, focus, focus -- close you door."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Never give up, keep getting up when you get knocked down, and provided that you have done your due diligence and properly researched your idea, never let anyone steal your dream because if you believe in it and work hard enough, it will happen."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I wouldn't do anything differently -- everything in life is a learning opportunity.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Communicate -- communicate -- and communicate some more. Have regular meetings with your teams.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would identify the issues -- and fix them themselves.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Be bold -- not brash 2. Guard your time -- be accessible yet not available at any minute 3. Be coachable -- and only hire coachable people
How best to connect with Jennifer: * Website: veaservices.com/
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Virginia "Ginny" Roth is president of PPO&S in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania based marketing and advertising firm serving clients in 14 states. Her 30-year career launched in the arena of media research and has evolved as she now owns the firm offering integrated marketing communications counsel to clients in insurance, finance, the environment, higher education and issues management. PPO&S was recently selected as the 2015 Small Business of the Year by the Harrisburg Chamber.
Secret – timesaving technique Virginia starts her day by making her plans for the day, week, month, quarter and figuring out her schedule -- have a set morning ritual to keep your day on track. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Make yourself as available as you can -- Virginia keeps herself free by making lists and staying focused during vital priorities.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Virginia's mentor and business partner was given a terminal diagnosis -- and Virginia tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "You have to meet people where they are."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Own up when you make a mistake."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I wish I had know myself better -- know what motivates you, what deflates you, what re-energizes you, what flips your switch.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Hold yourself -- and your team -- accountable.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would have unrequited confidence and be a super communicator.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Do something that you love -- and stick yourself into a positive environment 2. Make sure your schedule accommodates your sleep schedule
How best to connect with Virginia: * Email: vroth@pposinc.com
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
David Long is a Speaker, Author, Successful CEO and Student of the Game of Business. Founder/CEO of MyEmployees, a 26 year-old firm in the Top 1% Worldwide in the Employee Engagement and Recognition industry.
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? David wakes up between 5:45 and 6 AM -- with no alarm. He also reads -- both The Bible and other books -- you have to constantly seek out learning. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? "Is the highest and best use of my time right now?"
How do you define success? Success is finding the will of God for your life -- and doing it. David learned powerful lessons on success from his father.
What strategy do you use to combat fear? David believes you can't wait for all the answers before you start -- and David tells the reasons why here.
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" has to be all in.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? 1. Be the mentor you'd want to mentor you 2. Groom the people in your business that you want to take over from you 3. Hold your mentees responsible -- the relationship goes two ways
How can we build an audience? 1. Do more than you're paid for -- make people remember you 2. Be remarkable -- you can't afford to be ~~normal~~ boring
How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. What got you here won't get you to the next level -- you need to adapt 2. Hire people that want to achieve so much that they'll die if they don't
How best to connect with David: * Email: davidlong@top10manager.com * Company website: myemployees.com/ * If you buy David's Book "Built to Lead" on Amazon, email David and he will send you a free copy of the Kindle version as well as a workbook that he created so you can maximze what he teaches in the book
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Becky McKinnell is an entrepreneur who loves design and believes that building a company should be fun. She started her first company, iBec Creative in 2006 the day after graduating from the University of Southern Maine. She taught herself web development, design, and digital marketing and was able to grow to over $1 million in revenue in 6 years by bootstrapping. She currently has 14 amazing, kind, and talented full time employees, and 200 happy clients around the country who are growing their businesses. Becky has been featured Business Week's Top 25 Entrepreneurs 25 and Under, awarded the Small Business Administration's Young Entrepreneur of the Year, and a recipient of the Stevie Women in Business Award.
Secret – timesaving technique Becky brings her paper and pencil to-do list to bed -- plan tomorrow today -- and know what you're going to do right when you wake up. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Be timely in your communication -- Becky returns emails immediately -- even if she doesn't have an immediate answer.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Becky had two employees leave her business right after the birth of her daughter -- and Becky tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Be able to write your own vision -- and -- plan the vision for your own company."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Once you start measuring things you automatically improve."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I wish I had spent more time on training -- you can't assume that an employee knows something.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Start off your day with your team -- have a morning meeting that everyone attends and shares what they're doing today.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would have high emotional intelligence.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Do the things that unsuccessful people are unwilling to do 2. Just start something -- and fail often -- and improve 3. Work on getting things to DONE -- complete one thing then move to the next thing
How best to connect with Becky: * Website: ibeccreative.com
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation...I’m Stephen Woessner.
Before we jump into the topic of today’s solocast -- I wanted to take a moment to wish you, your family, and your friends a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
My hope for you is that you will be able to take some time away from your business to celebrate all of the wonderful blessings in your life -- and to take this opportunity to plan for 2016 and to gain even more clarity on your most vital priorities for the coming year.
How will you make 2016 your best year ever?
I can tell you for certain -- that becoming your best and achieving more -- will not be the result of you working harder -- or even as a result of you working smarter as we often hear.
Nope.
You need to add more scale and leverage into your business -- to make your business more systematic, more predictable, repeatable, and measurable.
All of which are key ingredients we talk about with today’s top business owners here at Onward Nation.
With that -- again -- I wish you, and all those in your life, a very Merry Christmas and Happy 2016.
Our Onward Nation and Predictive ROI families are taking a break as well. We will not be airing new episodes tomorrow or Friday so our team can spend time away from the business on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
We will follow the same schedule next week by not airing new episodes on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day.
Have a wonderful holiday week -- and take some time to practice Habit #7 -- or “Sharpen the Saw” from the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Everything you need to make 2016 your best yet -- the year of your dreams -- is already in your midst.
So let’s keep this momentum of 2016 going by focusing on a key ingredient that can propel your business onward to that next level.
Hiring “A Players” -- but -- I don’t mean adding several high salaried or highly commissioned positions to your team. Instead, I am referring to the opportunity of hiring “A Players” who also happen to be unpaid interns.
Yes, I did say unpaid interns.
On the Predictive ROI side of our business, we have built an outstanding internship program and have provided over 20 unpaid internships over the last several years to students in their senior year of study at Purdue, Duke, Ohio State, University of South Florida, University of Northern Iowa, and several other universities throughout the country. I decided to focus today’s solocast on how to recruit rock star interns because last week, I was on-site with a client leading a 2-day intensive on SMART Search Engine Optimization and Lead Gen.
And like in many companies, the marketing manager was responsible for everything -- new content development, generating qualified leads, optimizing content, email campaigns, print collaterals materials, trade show analysis, trade show displays, PPC campaigns, coordinating all of the in-house experts for any technical writing, the blog, video production, and the dizzying list goes on and on. My word.
Toward the end of our first day -- I asked him if he had access to any interns who could provide some additional production capacity and support so he could focus more of his time toward his most vital priorities.
He quickly said no -- but then went on to share some insights about their corporate culture, its view of interns, and actually needing permission to hire a full-time employee even if he only wanted to hire an intern -- because they wouldn’t hire an intern unless there was a pathway to employment.
And since budget was tight -- no funds were available for recruiting and then paying interns.
So I asked… “What about unpaid interns?”
And I received the reaction that I am very used to seeing or hearing when I mention unpaid internships.
The typical objections are that you will only be able to recruit the unmotivated...the people who are just looking to check the box off the list...they are there to do the bare minimum...and nothing more.
And I suspect that has been the experience for most companies.
But not at Predictive ROI...our sister company to Onward Nation.
In fact...our recipe for recruiting rock star interns is so good...I am going to share all of the ingredients during this episode. I am going to give you the exact recipe so you can take it and apply it into your business right away.
But before I do...I want to take this opportunity to pull back the green curtain and take you behind the scenes at Onward Nation for a minute so you can meet some of the rock star members of our Predictive ROI team who pull all the levers regarding the day-to-day production behind Onward Nation as well as the other podcasts we produce for clients.
I should also point out that not everyone on our Predictive ROI team is part of the Onward Nation team. For example, Alex Krupski, Whitney Puent, and Hagan Whiteleather are interns and assigned to other teams. I will be sure to introduce you to them during a future solocast where we focus on search engine optimization and content development. Because all three of them are absolutely rock stars -- and their expertise is deep!
So for Onward Nation...let me introduce you first to Katherine Bartlett -- yay, Katherine! Katherine is our full-time multi-media producer and the wizard behind all of our episodes -- how they sound -- and how they look out on social media. Anything audio and visual related is all orchestrated by Katherine.
Katherine began her career at Predictive ROI as an unpaid intern. She was one of those people who raised her hand and said -- “Um, I know that I am only required to do 10 hours per week for this internship. But, could I do more?” And our response was...oh my...yes, please.
When her internship was complete...we transitioned Katherine to what we call “Super Intern” during her final semester at the University of Northern Iowa. She received a very small stipend of compensation while she focused on her remaining education. And when she graduated, she became a full time salaried employee. Katherine is a rock star.
And then there is Louie Schuth...who is in-charge of all our show notes, email campaigns, blog posts, our Twitter strategy, and LNKD articles.
Louie is an amazing writer and a graduate of University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Louie finished his unpaid internship today and will begin his super internship on Monday, January 4th.
We are thrilled to have Louie as a member of our team…because he and Katherine are cut from the exact same cloth of -- “Yes, please -- I can do more.”
We started Louie off with a variety of writing projects and he quickly excelled. And then he asked if he could allocate a portion of his time to WordPress and managing some of our websites.
Uh, yes please!
And he excelled there, too.
And Louie is the one who stays up late with me Tuesday nights before my solocasts air to make sure the show notes and audio file are set correctly.
We are excited for Louie to complete his super internship and then become a full time member of our Onward Nation and Predictive ROI teams.
Then there is the trailblazer...Christian McCauley. Christian was a critical part in the launch of Onward Nation. It was Christian who created the framework of our Show Notes -- and our daily ONE email system was his invention.
Christian also took over the editing of our daily episodes from me so I could focus on other vital priorities.
He built a system -- a process -- a recipe -- that later, Louie picked up and ran with.
Christian provided scale to Onward Nation and we provided him with an opportunity to sharpen and refine his marketing education that he received from Walsh University in North Canton, Ohio.
Following his internship with us, Christian went on to work full-time at Waggoner’s Chocolates and is building a career in the confection industry and using what he learned at Predictive ROI every day.
We are thrilled to watch his success. You’re a rock star, Christian -- thank you!
And last but not least...I’d like to introduce you to Erik Jensen, our vice president of client services for Predictive ROI and he also oversees our entire production team for Predictive and Onward Nation.
I first met Erik while I was a part of the academic staff at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. I served at the Small Business Development Center on campus. One day, the chair of our marketing department suggested to Erik that he come see me regarding a business plan that Erik and his business partner were developing for a competition at Duke University. We met and I was blown away by his professionalism and grasp of so much detail. Later that night -- I said to my wife, wow...this guy is amazing -- I hope some day there is an opportunity to work together on something.
Years later...Erik became our first intern at Predictive ROI...he then became full time employee #3 as an associate...we then promoted him to engagement manager...then the leadership team...then vice president of client services...and within the next several months...Erik will become an equity partner in Predictive ROI. Erik is a rock star in the truest sense of the word.
Erik helped set the standard by which we evaluate and measure all interns.
He invested a full-time schedule toward his internship even though it wasn’t required. And that is the type of heart you are looking for, Onward Nation, in your interns.
You need to treat your unpaid interns exactly as full-time members of your team and you will get a higher level of production and proactivity.
So with that...I am going to share the complete recipe for how we recruit rock star candidates to our unpaid internship program.
Please note:
We only take students in their senior year of school. We have had positive experiences with juniors (but that is often not the case) and we have had positive experiences with interns post graduation (but that is often not the case as well).
So we decided to focus on seniors and have found them to be the most motivated, eager to learn, and hungry to gain experience because graduation is looming and so is their job search.
Ingredient #1: Define your culture with your leadership team, employees, and post a page on your website for candidates to study. On our culture page for Predictive ROI, we define with the following phrases (and more):
"We promise to provide our clients with the very best, most outstanding consulting and training services available.
"We are so committed to being outstanding that we deliver a minimum of 200 percent financial return on investment to clients. We take it further by guaranteeing each client’s ROI.
"And refund our fee if we do not deliver what we promise.
"We demand a standard of excellence of ourselves and are committed to delivering that standard to clients 100 percent of the time. No excuses or exceptions.
"We are a team. We work hard. We rise together – because as our clients succeed – we succeed."
You can find our full culture description here: http://predictiveroi.com/culture/
Ingredient #2: write a position description that is in-line with your culture and post on your website. We clearly define who and what we're looking for in our position descriptions. Here's how we begin our description of what we do -- and -- who exactly we are looking for:
"Predictive ROI is a growing digital marketing consulting agency that works with an array of visionary businesses in many industries. We work with our clients to help them achieve explosive growth by reaching their digital goals. This includes increasing their ROI and enhancing their brand across many platforms/mediums. We are looking for candidates who embody our standard of excellence, our culture of teamwork, and who are enthusiastic about learning while delivering their best work. We offer the flexibility of working remotely, a robust on-boarding program, training through our Predictive ROI Institute, a team of like-minded high achievers and opportunities for advancement.
"If you are a member of the Predictive team, or a client, you are family. We work together to achieve our goals, we care and we go all in to get it done."
You can find full position descriptions here: http://predictiveroi.com/digital-marketing-careers/
Ingredient #3: post testimonials / social proof on your website because “A Players” want to work with other “A Players” -- or -- where other “A Players” have worked. “The team at Predictive ROI is incredible. They are so talented and passionate about this industry, and that really makes such a difference. I feel like I have learned much more through this internship than I ever expected. With every step of the way, I felt involved in the process and that my thoughts and ideas mattered. Through the help of some pretty great mentors, I was able to not only learn more about this industry, but was able to apply what I was learning first-hand.” — Whitney Puent
“There's one word that comes to mind when looking to describe the Predictive ROI internship: special. Predictive ROI gives you the opportunity to do great work that has an impact. But, more importantly, at Predictive ROI you work with the greatest team you could ever ask for, a team that will have your back and guide you so that you're better prepared for the working world, and better prepared for life. If you're willing to put in the hard work, don't think twice about applying for an internship with Predictive ROI. You won't regret it.” — Louie Schuth
“Applying for an internship with Predictive ROI was the best decision I've made in a long time. Going into my final semester of college, I knew I wanted an internship that would allow me to hone and develop my professional skills by making impactful contributions within an organization. An internship with Predictive ROI gives you exactly that. At Predictive ROI, you are given the opportunity to work with an unbelievable team that will teach you the the tools and skills needed to be successful in your career.” — Alex Krupski
Ingredient #4: weed out B and C players by sending a pre-qualifying email with challenging thought provoking questions to each candidate. We send the following email immediately after receiving someone's application / resume:
[Candidate's First Name]...thank you for your interest in our internship!
As the first step in our process...please review the following questions and email us back your thoughts for each.
Your answers to each question will give our team an opportunity to: 1) understand how we can create the right internship experience for you and ensure you learn everything you want to learn, 2) evaluate your written communication skills, and 3) assess your depth of interest in joining our team.
- Please introduce yourself (beyond what we can learn by reading your resume) and why our internship is of interest to you.
- Please describe the top three things you would like to learn during this internship. And we encourage you to be as specific as possible.
- Tell us about your digital marketing experience up to this point (and if it is zero...that is okay).
- Things we cannot teach are work ethic, commitment to teammates, integrity, and excellence. Please share an example of when you consistently demonstrated excellence in your work.
- Please share an example of when you demonstrated integrity.
- What are the attributes or qualities you look for in teammates?
- How can we help support your growth and development during this internship?
This is my direct email address -- please feel free to reply here.
We look forward to talking with you.
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely Yours,
Stephen Woessner Host of The Onward Nation Podcast CEO of Predictive ROI
Ingredient #5: conduct initial call to assess cultural fit and subject matter expertise deep dive If the answers provided back are at our standard of excellence -- I will schedule a subject matter expertise-focused phone call in order to assess:
- cultural fit
- depth of current knowledge.
Their current knowledge is not a deal breaker because we train and teach all we do -- but it is good to have a baseline. I also make a decision -- along with the candidate -- on whether or not there is a good enough of a fit to move on to Step 3.
Ingredient #6: conduct team interview with the candidate. Team interview with the candidate, Katherine (former intern, now our multi-media producer), Erik (former intern, now our vp of client services and co-owner), and me. Our focus during this interview is to answer any questions from the candidate about Predictive, the internship, and where the company is headed. And we ask a lot of questions about teamwork, proactivity, independent working / thinking, etc.
Ingredient #7: make a go or no go decision -- then send “Congratulations” email Good Morning [Candidate's First Name]...thank you again for your time yesterday afternoon!
I am excited to give you a very warm welcome to the Predictive ROI team.
Katherine, Erik, and I thoroughly enjoyed our time with you yesterday and look forward to having your contribution to the work we are all doing.
I am preparing a formal acceptance letter that will detail initial responsibilities, internship duration, etc. I will email it to you on Friday for your review and approval.
But at this point...would Monday be a good start date for you?
And would you be able to attend our 8:45 am kick-start meeting via Zoom?
Onward with gusto!
Ingredient #8: kick-off the semester long internship. After they've accepted the internship, we bring them into our daily kickstart meetings at 8:45 am where we all answer four questions:
- My three most vital priorities for the day are…
- What I didn’t get done yesterday but should have (not a judgement question -- but an ask for teamwork)
- This is where I need some help…
- I do / don’t have available time today
Take vital projects off your plate and give them to your interns -- not filing projects -- put them on the front lines with meaningful work. They will love you for it if you do.
You will recruit "A Players" -- rock star unpaid interns -- just like Predictive ROI and Onward Nation has if you apply these 8 ingredients.
So with that said...
I want to say again, thank you for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here -- thank you for tuning in -- your time is sacred and I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
However our daily podcast fits into your daily routine -- I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation...good or bad...I always want your feedback. My direct email address is stephen@onwardnation.com -- and yes -- that is my actual Inbox. No fancy filters or filing system and I read and reply to every single email.
So please let me know how you think we are doing. I look forward to hearing from you.
Merry Christmas and we will be back on Monday with an incredible interview with Becky McKinnell -- she is off the charts amazing. Don’t miss it.
Until then, onward with gusto!
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Scott McKain’s keynote presentations benefit from three decades of experience, combined with his innate talent for articulating successful ideas. McKain has spoken before and consulted for the world’s best companies.
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? Scott begins his day with stretching -- your body and mind both need warm ups in the morning. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? "That which is easy to do is also easy not do -- which is why most people won't do it." - Jim Rohn
How do you define success? It's the progressive realization of a worthy goal -- Scott learned this lesson from the late Earl Nightingale.
What strategy do you use to combat fear? Scott looks at every decision as a trade -- and Scott tells the reasons why here.
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" has to be willing to do the work, is open to change, and has a sense of purpose.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? 1. Walk the talk -- people know whether or not you can do it
How can we build an audience? 1. Clarity is the beginning -- where is your flag in the ground? 2. Be creative -- you need to find a way to make people interested
How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Define what makes you truly unique -- why would the customer choose you? 2. Define what it feels like to do business with you -- what is so compelling about your experience that you'll get referrals?
How best to connect with Scott: * ScottMcKain.com
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Nancy Marshall is known as The PR Maven(R), after having worked in public relations for 30 years. She recently published her first book called PR Works!
What do you do in the first 60 minutes of your day? Nancy begins each day with a swim -- exercise, meditation, and time to think about the day ahead are building blocks of a successful day. ONWARD!
Favorite quote or lesson? "Whatever you want to do, if you want to be great at it, you have to love it and be able to make sacrifices for it." - Maya Angelou
How do you define success? It's all about the relationships -- Nancy gets such a feeling of accomplishment from being able to keep up with the people in her life.
What strategy do you use to combat fear? Nancy sought out a hypnotherapist to overcome her fear of public speaking -- and Nancy tells the whole story here.
What makes as "A player" an "A player"? An "A player" has to have a deep rooted desire to be a continuous learner, a leader, and a follower.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How can we become better mentors? 1. Spend time with your employees -- both in and out of the office -- this is how they'll learn 2. Take an employee with you as much as possible -- you need them to be your ears
How can we build an audience? 1. I put out two monthly e-newsletters 2. I'm really active on social media -- it's important to maintain relationship 3. Write a book -- it'll open up doors for you
How can business owners reach that elusive next level? 1. Let people talk about themselves -- listen to them -- they'll think you're super smart
How best to connect with Nancy: * Agency website: http://www.marshallpr.com * Personal branding website: prmaven.com * Email: nancy@prmaven.com
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Marc Mawhinney has a passion for entrepreneurship, having started a number of businesses in his life and growing one to 100 employees. Marc is now on a mission to help coaches build stronger businesses! After becoming a coach, he saw the struggles that coaches face while trying to build a successful business, and decided to do something about it! He launched “Natural Born Coaches”, a daily podcast where he interviews successful coaches to share their advice with listeners, and he has created a number of innovative programs to help coaches get more clients and less stress, including his 6-week “Seize Your Niche” program!
Secret – timesaving technique Marc time batches -- schedule certain tasks at certain times so you're at your best and most efficient. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Journal and read on a daily basis -- Marc ends every day by reading and journaling in a moleskine notebook.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Marc's real estate business had to shut down in 2009 -- and Marc tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "You have to have persistence and grit."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Keep moving forward."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I wish I had sat down each week and planned out how my ideal would look like.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Delegate -- get everything off your plate that you can.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would know and understand our mission.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Be prepared -- but just jump in and do it 2. Stick with it -- lightning doesn't strike in a bottle
How best to connect with Marc: Marc Mawhinney:
- Facebook: facebook.com/marc.mawhinney
- Twitter: @marcmawhinney
- LinkedIn: ca.linkedin.com/in/marcmawhinney
- Google+: plus.google.com/107600753876061567446/posts
Natural Born Coaches:
- Facebook: facebook.com/NaturalBornCoaches
- Twitter: @NBCoaches
- LinkedIn Group: linkedin.com/groups/8286141/profile
- Website: naturalborncoaches.com
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Monica Wofford has been seen on CNN and Fox News. They have quoted her in Forbes, Bloomberg, and Investor’s Business Daily. She has spoken in all 50 states, 27 different countries, and began her speaking career 25-years ago. Monica is a former corporate training executive, author of six books on leadership topics, and CEO of the training firm, Contagious Companies. Monica has trained and coached thousands of managers on how to become better leaders, even if they are faced with difficult barriers, employees, bosses, or people. In fact, she wrote the book “Make Difficult People DISAPPEAR.”
Secret – timesaving technique Monica keeps a list with four quadrants -- continuously get the information out of your head. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Connect regularly with people you want to do business with -- Monica makes phone calls to five people at least three times a week.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Monica got stabbed in the back by an employee -- and Monica tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "The ability to lead yourself as well -- if not better -- than you lead other people."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Keep trying -- even in the face of the failure -- success sometimes requires failure."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I wish I had set up a system for calling five people, three days a week sooner -- the human touch is so important.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Clearly and quickly understand the people that surround you in your workplace.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would show self-leadership, self-acceptance, and understanding of others.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Make three different lists -- What don't you want? -- What do you want? -- What would occur when what we want happens? 2. Keep trying -- even if you hit a brick wall 3. Take note of how far you've come
How best to connect with Monica: * Email: monica@contagiouscompanies.com * Company number: (866)382-0121 * Company website: www.contagiouscompanies.com/ * Speaking website: monicawofford.com
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media. Good Morning Onward Nation...I’m Stephen Woessner.
Since the advent of the commercial Internet, I have collected tens of thousands of data points that have given me the ability to identify what I call the 8 Money Draining Mistakes. These are the things -- the simple mistakes -- that can cause of business to leak serious money every single day. Cash being sucked right out of the company. I devoted last week’s solocast...episode 127...to taking you on a deep dive into the 8 Money Draining Mistakes.
But say you studied last week’s solocast -- and have taken corrective action and you have plugged all of the holes in the bottom of the boat. All of the leaks -- the money draining mistakes have been solved. Awesome!
The next step is to master and apply what I call the 8 Money Making Opportunities. These 8 opportunities are like a big outboard motor that you put onto the backend of the boat you just fixed -- and then you can zoom across the lake. These 8 opportunities are where ROI in your online marketing gets turbocharged.
So in today’s solocast, I am going to take you on a deep dive into the 8 Money Making Opportunities. But why take you on that journey?
On the Predictive ROI side of our business, I see it all the time: many business leaders feel overwhelmed by digital marketing or the strategies being applied by the people within their company. Business owners have told me that they often worry they’re not keeping up with the latest advances but fear looking foolish if they ask for help. After 20-years of academic research and private sector experience at Predictive ROI, we’ve developed proven and reliable ways to increase website traffic, leads, and sales. I am going to share the best of what we have with you right now.
And if you go to predictiveroi.com/3download you can get access to a private VIP video training series that I created -- it walks alongside of this solocast and provides and even deeper step-by-step process to follow. Each video is 100 percent free training -- I am standing at the whiteboard -- sketching out the recipes so you can put that into practice in your business straightaway.
So let’s dig into 8 Money Making Opportunities.
Money Making Opportunity #1: HARMONIZE OFFER WITH NEED. The first money maker is adapted from what SUCCESS Magazine publisher Darren Hardy calls “the white knight strategy”.
Essentially, you take your X-Y-Z statement (for more on the X-Y-Z exercise, see Money Draining Mistake #2 in last week’s solocast) and then blend it with what you know about your client avatar (again, see Money Draining Mistake #5 for more on the client avatar strategy), and create a statement that shows prospects you have the solution to all their pain points.
That makes an empathetic connection with your clients and prospects.
Serve up your offer in a way that will inspire an emotional response from your client. For example, many of our clients have been burned by so-called experts, so we include a money back guarantee in our statement.
This gives people a sense of relief at the low risk involved in their decision to engage our team.
Use your new white knight statement in presentations, articles, proposals, books, training videos, or wherever you make an introduction to your company’s value.
Money Making Opportunity #2: BUILD YOUR LIST. The most valuable asset of any business is the client list.
To build your list you’ve got to develop a screaming cool offer, such as a free pdf, video series, or exclusive audio insights podcast. The value you create must be massive.
Don’t hold back.
Share your expertise and keep it focused in the area of your XYZ statement. Then, feature this offer throughout your site for maximum distribution. One of the best tools for maximizing distribution is WP Popup Magic. It's very simple to use.
If your value exchange is truly valuable enough, 6 to 13 percent of the visitors to your site will give you their email address just to access what you’re offering.
Money Making Opportunity #3: NURTURE RELATIONSHIPS AND INCREASE SALES. Once you have someone’s email, you can guide them into what John Jantsch, in his book "Duct Tape Marketing," calls “the know, like, and trust funnel.”
Email marketing is the most effective way to build trust relationships with prospects. By giving, giving, giving to your list through content distribution, you create well-prepared prospects.
Then when you offer something really awesome, like a discounted training program for a very limited time, you get immediate and intense conversions for huge revenue.
Make your list members feel like they’re in on an exclusive conversation, like they’re sitting around a campfire among only a select few.
When you send these Campfire Effect Emails™, you’ll be amazed at the response. Be sure to base your content on your client avatar’s pain points and your white knight statement.
Money Making Opportunity #4: NO-FRICTION LEAD GENERATION. The form that visitors use to enter their email addresses needs to be in an environment that encourages trust.
What is your form next to on your homepage? Ads? Your blog roll?
Put that lead generating form next to a value exchange, such as an offer for a free download or video. You can even put your credentials adjacent to the form to help instill a sense of security in your qualifications as prospects hand over their contact information.
Dr. Flint McGlaughlin, my guest for episode 41 of Onward Nation, taught me a very valuable lesson about friction and lead generation. Flint is the director of MECLABS and Marketing Experiments -- the leading researchers in online marketing for the past 15 years. During our interview...he explained that in your optin forms -- every field you include beyond just email -- will reduce your conversion rate by 50 percent. Every field, Onward Nation.
Money Making Opportunity #5: CREATE ANTICIPATION. You need to continuously seed and open loops to your sales message within your email funnel, blog posts, webinars, and presentations.
Within value based emails, be sure you’re not trying to sell anything. Just offer a tip—for example, one of 47 tips you have for increasing the value of your home. Deliver awesomeness one small piece at a time while mentioning that there are 47 tips total.
That opens a loop in their minds, and they’ll be more inclined to read your email next time to learn the next tip. You can also tease your upcoming events, planting a seed that you’ll expand on in a later email dedicated to promoting the event.
Money Making Opportunity #6: SOCIAL MEDIA DONE RIGHT. When visitors come to your website from Facebook, Twitter, or other social network, your conversion rate increases dramatically.
In fact, social media visitors are 780 percent more likely to buy from you because they’re already social followers. This remarkable finding was part of my thesis at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. I later took the data set, methodology, and result outcomes and had them published in the Journal of E-business...a peer reviewed academic journal. And then I included it in my second book, "Increase Online Sales through Viral Social Networking."
But why 780%? Because your connections -- your social media followers -- are further along in the know, like, and trust funnel than someone who finds you through a Google search.
We’ve found that if you post twice a day, morning and afternoon, you’ll get and retain the most followers.
Use our six to one ratio for posts: six professional or life posts for every one product or sales post. So create six posts related to events you’ve attended, awards you’ve received, blogs you’ve written, or vacations you’ve taken with your family. Let people get to know you.
Then write one post that invites followers to buy now, download an offer, or attend a webinar. Our studies show that this strategy will increase site traffic by 23 percent.
Money Making Opportunity #7: MULTIPLY CONVERSION RATE BY 200 TO 800%. We strongly encourage our clients to use Adroll.com, the leaders in ad retargeting, or re-marketing as it’s oftentimes called. Retargeting your site visitors means that after someone has visited your site but not converted, they’ll see your ads as they click around to other sites.
These retargeted ads increase your conversion rates by 600 to 800 percent because they build on the familiarity prospects already have with your website.
But here is the most often made mistake when marketers create a retargeting campaign. Don’t use retargeting to sell. Instead, use retargeting to give! Promote the screaming cool value exchange that leads to an optin. You will experience a much higher conversion rate and your list will grow so you can develop a relationship over time.
Money Making Opportunity #8: AND FINALLY…CONDUCT A/B TESTING TO FURTHER INCREASE CONVERSION RATE. Before you make any major change to your site code, conduct A/B testing to see which changes produce positive results in your conversion rate. Online programs like?
Visual Website Optimizer help you create a test in a few minutes. We have increased conversion rate by 200 percent through one A/B test. Remember to make one improvement at a time and see how your results change.
By incorporating the 8 Money Making Opportunities, you’ll increase leads, conversions, and revenue. A consistent, test-as-you-go method will allow you to see the power of various strategies and start seeing results right away.
None of these strategies require specific expertise—you can do this.
So with that...
I want to say again, thank you for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here -- thank you for tuning in -- your time is sacred and I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
However our daily podcast fits into your daily routine -- I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation...good or bad...I always want your feedback. My direct email address is stephen@onwardnation.com -- and yes -- that is my actual Inbox. No fancy filters or filing system and I read and reply to every single email.
So please let me know how you think we are doing. I look forward to hearing from you.
I will be back tomorrow with my interview with Monica Wofford -- another one of today’s top business owners.
Until then, onward with gusto!
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Bill Jelen is the host of MrExcel.com and the author of 49 books about Microsoft Excel including “Excel Gurus Gone Wild”, “Pivot Table Data Crunching”, and “Power Pivot Alchemy”. He has made over 80 guest appearances on TVs “Call for Help with Leo Laporte” and was voted guest of the year on the Computer America radio show. He writes the Excel column for Strategic Finance magazine and has produced over 1,900 episodes of his daily video podcast “Learn Excel from MrExcel.” Before founding MrExcel.com in 1998, Jelen spent twelve years "in the trenches", as a financial analyst for the accounting, finance, marketing, and operations departments of a publicly held company. Since then, his company automates Excel reports for hundreds of clients around the world. The website answers over 30,000 questions a year for free for readers all over the world.
Secret – timesaving technique Bill gets his one or two most vital priorities before he ever opens his email -- email is a huge time-waster. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Write a book in pieces -- Bill writes a book in 120 pieces so that he can write a book in just four months.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Bill had to go broke printing extra copies of his fast-selling books -- and Bill tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "You need a $20 item."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "You have to simplify."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I wish I had realized that I didn't need to convert everyone into a customer -- you just need 1 out of every 100 or 1000.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Build content that answers someone's problem -- it's the beacon that allows them to find you.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would be passionate -- they need to create a following for themselves.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Don't be afraid to conduct an informal survey -- your customers know what they want -- listen to them
How best to connect with Bill: * Website: www.mrexcel.com/
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
With more than 25-years of experience in the marketing field, Lori Jones brings top retail, consumer product, business-to-business and non-profit organizations knowledge and experience in all aspects of integrated marketing. Her experience with Fortune 500 brands and entrepreneurial start-ups, enable her to contribute a keen understanding of the intricacies today's businesses. She has presented at numerous industry sales and marketing meetings and small business forums on topics such as "Selling on the Trade Show Floor, “Tips on Growing a Small Business in a Down Economy”, "Brand Differentiation", and more.
Secret – timesaving technique Lori gets up every morning at 4 AM -- schedule yourself alone time to think and strategize. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Have a synchronized approach to everything you do -- Lori has specific daily team meetings that help each team member do their work.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Lori had to fire her gorilla client -- and Lori tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Be a leader -- not a boss."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "I learn each and every day -- I never want you to stop learning."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I wish I had not lost sight in the value I bring in selling our business -- no one has my passion for this.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Integrate marketing solutions -- you can't put your eggs in one basket.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would be innovative and gutsy -- they have to think outside of the box -- and the box is huge today.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Define what the end game is 2. Make sure you are budgeting for marketing 3. Surround yourself with loyalty
How best to connect with Lori: * Twitter: @LoriJones * Email: lori@avocetcommunications.com
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Randy Long grew up in a family of 6 kids. His dad was a pastor and his mom took care of the kids. His father pastored small churches and so Randy’s family had very little. That encouraged all of the family to work from early ages to buy what they needed, help out the household, and give back to the Lord. Randy worked for many self-employed people and this gave him a great respect for business owners and made him also want to become self-employed. So Randy went into business to provide services to business owners and their families. Randy has also practiced law but his primary focus today is running a business consulting company called Long Business Advisors, where Randy and his team coach business owners, provide BraveHeart Planning, and manage the sale of businesses for those who do not desire to transition their company to the next generation.
Secret – timesaving technique Randy makes a list of the top three or four things he needs to do each day -- prioritize and do these things first. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Don't leave out the important parts of your life -- Randy spends quality time with his wife and kids every day.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Randy had to split in a business and it drove away a huge portion of their clients -- and Randy tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Business owners need to be continuous learners -- and the need to encourage continuous learning."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Specialists make more money than generalists."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I wish I had invested in systems that I could plug other professionals into so that they could see things the way I saw them.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Understand and discover the unique abilities of yourself and your team -- and exploit those abilities.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would be self-managed, self-motivated, want to make the entire team successful, and think like an owner.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Work in a business that utilizes your own unique ability 2. Build a team that utilizes that uses the team's unique abilities 3. Realize that you and your team continuously need education
How best to connect with Randy: * Website: www.longbusinessadvisors.com/
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Rick Enrico is the CEO and Founder of SlideGenius Inc., a presentation design agency with over 500 clients around the world. He is also a marketing and technology serial entrepreneur, having founded companies like Twenty6 Red, Jubaloo, RamAir International, SlideSuite, ShopStir, HF USA, and Juice Media.
Secret – timesaving technique Rick optimizes his time by having his assistant handle the scheduling of his phone calls -- utilize what Rick calls "telephone efficiency." ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Stop during the day and focus on your breathing -- Rick does this in five minute segments during the day as well during morning meditation.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Rick was heavily leveraged with his own personal capital in his company when the market collapsed -- and Rick tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Learn to pause -- business owners say 'yes' too often."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "It's all about the people -- behind every CEO is tens or hundreds of thousands of good people."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I wish I had pursued my business full time -- don't wait to put full energy into your business.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Create an environment where employees can be themselves and have fun -- in a fear-based environment you'll never win.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would be persistent and hyper-focused on attention to detail.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Carve out a specific niche -- don't try to be everything to everybody 2. Know your ideal your customer -- be equipped for them 3. Focus on marketing first -- scale sales second
How best to connect with Rick: * Website: http://www.slidegenius.com/
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation...I’m Stephen Woessner.
In today’s solocast I am going to take you on an even deeper dive of the 8 Money Draining Mistakes than we have ever taken before. In previous solocasts I have singled out a mistake or two -- and gone pretty deep with the recipe on how to fix the mistake -- but today I am going to address all 8 mistakes.
On the Predictive ROI side of our business I see it all the time: Businesses that miss opportunities and waste money online.
Over the past 20 years of conducting academic research and working with clients in the private sector, we have collected tens of thousands of data points that show there are 8 areas where most companies misunderstand online consumer behavior.
These money draining mistakes cost you visitors, leads, conversions, and massive return on your online investment -- but rest assured, Onward Nation -- they are fixable.
So let’s dive into what I mean by the 8 Money Draining Mistakes -- and why they are fixable for any business.
I also created a free 3-part video training series that walks alongside of today’s episode that you can download at predictiveroi.com/3download.
Mistake #1. NO BASELINES OR S.M.A.R.T. GOALS. Do you use Google analytics? If not, start now. It’s a dashboard that’s easy to understand, and best of all, it’s free. You’ll discover how many visitors are finding your site, how they’re finding it, and what they’re doing once they get there. From those
statistics, create a baseline for metrics like unique visitors and lead generation. Next, establish S.M.A.R.T. predictives. In Living Your Best Year Ever, Darren Hardy recommends setting goals that are S.M.A.R.T.— specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-sensitive. Apply these qualifiers to your goals for measurements like lead generation and site traffic.
Mistake #2. LACK OF DISTINCTION. What are you uniquely qualified to provide, and who are you providing it for? We walk all of our clients through an “XYZ exercise” to help them flesh out their value to potential clients. If you can’t clearly articulate why someone should visit your site and buy from you, how can you expect them to take any action?
Fill in the blanks of this XYZ statement: We do ____(x)_____ for _______(y)______ so they can ______(z)_____. Here’s a simple example for a bakery: “We bake quality, gluten-free treats for cookie lovers in University Park so they can enjoy sweets without getting sick.”
Now, post this statement on the left side of your homepage above the fold. (Only about 10 percent of visitors will scroll below that fold on any content page.) Visitors to your site will self-select, saying, “Yes, that’s me, and you have just what I’m looking for!”
Mistake #3. HIGH BOUNCE RATE. When a visitor arrives at your site and immediately leaves without making a single click, that’s a bounce. The typical business website has a bounce rate between 50 and 60 percent. Your goal should be 30 percent or less.
A high bounce rate is the most expensive money drainer. Why? Let’s say you have the standard conversion rate of 2 to 4 percent, and your bounce rate is 50 to 60 percent. If you lowered your bounce rate to 30 percent and still converted 2 to 4 percent of your now 70 percent of visitors, you’d increase your revenue by 42 percent!
Getting your XYZ statement right will help reduce bounce rate. So will reducing visual clutter on your homepage to only three main elements. The Harvard Business Review recently published a story that said more choice results in less action by consumers.
So when you want them to act, be sure you have a clear call to action. Whether the next step is to sign up for a newsletter, register for a webinar, or buy now, make it easy to take. Think of the opt-in or buying process like leading someone down a garden path in the dark. You’ve got to point out each stepping stone as you go.
One of the free videos I prepared for you focuses specifically on bounce rate and the recipe for reducing it. You can access the video series at: predictiveroi.com/3download.
Mistake #4. SEO DONE POORLY. Good SEO requires expanding your site’s meaningful content with these principles in mind:
Select predictive keywords that relate to your site’s themes and have proven performance on search engines. You can create a free account on SEObook.com and use their Keyword Selector Tool for keyword guidance. Look for a variety of niche keywords with 1 million or fewer competitors.
Then include keywords in your page titles, which are the links to your site in Google search results, in your meta keywords, and in your 23-words or less meta description (that sentence or two that runs under your page title on a Google results list).
Limit each page’s content to a single, meaningful topic and keep it between 500 to 1,000 words. Fewer than 500 words will prevent you from including enough keyword mentions, and more than 1,000 will lose visitors’ attention.
Mistake #5. NOT KNOWING YOUR CUSTOMER. We’ve created two client avatars we call Sally and Harry. They’re ambitious business owners who are active learners. However, sometimes they feel like they don’t know what they’re doing — especially in the area of digital marketing. They’ve been burned in the past by self-proclaimed experts, and they yearn to trust someone who will deliver on promises.
Knowing this professional and emotional information about my clients has helped me serve them better and tailor my site content to meet their needs. To create your own client avatar, think of your best clients and then imagine their fears, worries, and needs.
Mistake #6. POOR CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE. Use your new client avatar to evaluate your website. Is it easy to navigate for someone unfamiliar with your product, service, or industry? What is your visitor hoping to do the first time they visit? What about returning visitors? Insert easy-to-follow instructions, buttons, and other cues to guide visitors.
Mistake #7. TOO MUCH INSTITUTION SPEAK. People want to do business with people. Avoid institutional language or industry jargon. Rather than impress your visitors, you’ll alienate them. Aim to make an emotional connection with your prospects, and let them know you’re human.
Mistake #8. AMBIGUOUS CALLS TO ACTION. Have you been to a website and wanted to buy something but you can’t figure out how to give them money? It’s ridiculous. Customers shouldn’t have to wonder what the next step is or have to spend time searching for how to take it.
We’ve found time and again that by eliminating these 8 Money Drainers from your site, you’ll see improved analytics data and significant increases in revenue.
So with that...
I want to say again, thank you for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here -- thank you for tuning in -- your time is sacred and I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
However our daily podcast fits into your daily routine -- I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
And please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation...good or bad...I always want your feedback. My direct email address is stephen@onwardnation.com -- and yes -- that is my actual Inbox. No fancy filters or filing system and I read and reply to every single email.
So please let me know how you think we are doing. I look forward to hearing from you.
I will be back tomorrow with my interview with Rick Enrico -- another one of today’s top business owners.
The discussion with Rick is amazing -- and how they have built their company -- SlideGenius to 65 employees serving over 700 clients.
Until then, onward with gusto!
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
With a dream to become the next Bill Gates, Kevin Kruse started his first company when he was just 22 years old. Despite big dreams, his company failed after just one year. But after discovering the power of leadership and extreme productivity, he went on to start, build, and sell several multimillion dollar companies that have won both an "Inc 500" award for fast growth and a "Best Place to Work" award. He is a New York Times bestselling author and his new book is “15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management” based on interviews with over 200 self-made billionaires, millionaires, and successful entrepreneurs.
Secret – timesaving technique Kevin time-blocks his day with 50-90 minute Jam Sessions of uninterrupted time -- don't fall prey to to-do lists. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Prepare your body and mind every morning -- Kevin wakes up, drinks a lot of water, gets 30 grams of protein by the time he's been up 30 minutes, gets 20 minutes of exercise, thinks of three things he's grateful for, meditates, and -- if there's time -- hops on the treadmill for an additional 20 minutes.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Kevin killed his first couple companies in just two years -- and Kevin tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Communicate clearly and persuasively -- become a ninja at communication."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "The power of dreaming big and being outrageous."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I wish I had established a cadence for my communication -- have regular, specific meetings with your teams.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Have a system for providing regular free content -- people that know and trust you are more likely to buy from you.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would take ownership of their position -- they know how to take care of our customers.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Write and publish a book -- the key word in authority is author
How best to connect with Kevin: * Website: kevinkruse.com * Free copy of Kevin's book: 15timesecrets.com
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
After a successful career in mutual fund operations as the Assistant Vice President of Corporate Quality, Jodi Flynn set off on a new adventure and founded Luma Coaching. Her specialty is partnering with business leaders who experience self-doubt and overwhelm in order to overcome stress, get organized, and start creating the business and the lifestyle they dreamed of having. Her podcast, Women Taking the Lead, inspires women from humble beginnings to overcome self-doubt and lead with confidence, integrity, and a sense of humor. The podcast hit #1 in 3 categories of iTunes New and Noteworthy: Business, Careers, and Society and Culture.
Secret – timesaving technique Jodi carefully curates a list of project and tasks that are time-locked by day -- spend time making sure the right items get done on the right days. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Start your day from a calm place and get in a state of gratitude -- Jodi meditates and journals each morning.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Jodi made 30% of her projected income – and Jodi tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Listen -- listen on many levels."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Overwhelm is a choice."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I wish I had started small and gone from there.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Take care of your current customers and referral partners – the most powerful referral tool you have is inside your business.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would be innovative -- they help me think outside the box.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Understand the value of what you're offering -- and find out more about what your clients and customers want 2. Pay attention to what's working -- and do more of it 3. Find time to play and have -- this restores the rest of you
How best to connect with Jodi: * Website: womentakingthelead.com/
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Mark Hanson is a lifelong entrepreneur and pioneer in the outdoor lighting industry. As president and founder of TouchStone Accent Lighting, Mark develops, manufactures, and markets their proprietary line of outdoor lighting products and the iDzyn iPad app.
Secret – timesaving technique Mark uses several task tablets -- keep your task lists organized by when things need to be done. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Review your previous day's to-do list -- Mark understands that you have to keep yourself accountable.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Mark spent all of his capital on a product that didn't sell – and Mark tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Understand technology."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Plan -- follow the plan -- and be willing to adjust as you go."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I wish I had focused diversification.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? It might sound repetitive -- but -- make a plan -- follow the plan -- and be willing to adjust as you go.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would listen to what we are, what we have, and what we're doing -- and build off their contacts to build us.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Leverage your contacts -- use the people around you 2. Follow your gut 3. Remain focused
How best to connect with Mark: * Email: markhanson@touchstonelights.com/
You can also find us at: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Bill Hoagland is the founder of company called Squid Ink. He started the business 25-years ago in his garage with just 2-½ gallons of ink he developed. Fast forward two and half decades and Squid Ink does business in 61 countries, operates six manufacturing facilities, employs 130 people, and has distribution points in 87 countries around the world.
Secret – timesaving technique Bill makes an "AB" list every morning -- prioritize your day, every day. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Figure out problems before they arise – Bill talks to as many people in his company on a daily basis as he can.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Bill went into debt and then the recession hit – and Bill tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "You need to understand strategic thinking."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Hone your listening skills – listen to what people are telling you."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I wish I had a capital raising system to hire the employees I need rather than those I could afford.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Hold everyone accountable – there needs to be common goals throughout the company.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would accelerate the learning curve.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Make sure you're using your listening skills 2. Go out and seek help – you can't go it alone 3. Get up early – being an entrepreneur is not an eight hour a day job
How best to connect with Bill: * Cell number: (612)859-2098 * Corporate headquarters 800 number: 1-800-877-5658 * Company Website: http://www.engagetechnologies.net/
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation...I’m Stephen Woessner. Before we jump into today’s topic...I just want to say thank you for all the feedback...the emails...the text messages...the Facebook posts...the tweets...and the comments on LinkedIn. I am so grateful for you being here and being part of the every growing community that is Onward Nation.
Please continue to let me know what you think of Onward Nation...good or bad...I always want your feedback. My direct email address is stephen@onwardnation.com -- and yes -- that is my actual Inbox. No fancy filters or filing system and I read and reply to every single email. So please let me know how you think we are doing. I look forward to hearing from you.
Now, during today’s solocast, I want to focus your attention on one four letter word that we all hear quite often -- or at least the manifestation of the word -- when we are in conversations with other business owners, friends, family, or even in the self-talk we have with ourselves...and that four letter word is FEAR!
To feel fear is of course natural. Everyone feels it whether in business or in life -- it is a human emotion that is as much a part of us as breathing.
But the key is to be able to recognize that fear is all in your mind -- it doesn’t actually exist -- therefore it has no real power over you unless you let it. But oftentimes people are embarrassed to admit their fears -- or that they are feeling fearful about something. So they try to mask it by saying “Oh no...I’m not scared...or I’m not afraid...I’m just stressed.”
And as I learned from Tony Robbins...anytime someone says to you that they are just “stressed”...that is code for… “Help, I’m afraid or fearful about something going wrong.”
To help illustrate these important points about FEAR...I am going to share a deeply personal story with you, Onward Nation...a story that I have not shared during in a solocast before. Maybe I have been afraid to, because I am always self-conscious about an episode being too much about me...and then missing the mark with being relevant.
It’s a story from way back...23 years ago to be exact...the summer of 1992.
I was the ripe old age of 20. I was an airman in the United States Air Force stationed at Ellsworth Air Force Base just outside of Rapid City, South Dakota. My job was like 100 percent pure adrenaline nearly every day. You see...I had the honor of working on the Minuteman II Intercontinental Ballistic Missile System -- or ICBMs for short...yes, nuclear missiles. So for about 3-½ years...my office...was deep inside missile silos...and I loved every second of it. And I got pretty good at troubleshooting systems, fixing the systems, and my curiosity for bigger and more complex challenges grew more and more insatiable. Then one day -- I met my match.
Listen to the rest of the story in the episode.
Onward Nation, I had a choice that day in the silo. I could have chosen to be paralyzed by fear, which would have caused us to lose critical time, and then that could have cost me my life, or perhaps the lives of my teammates. Or, I could decide to push through the fear and do what I knew MUST be done.
I have never been scared. I was fearful. I thought there was the distinct possibility might die inside that silo.
And it was also exhilarating -- I felt blood pumping into areas of my body that I didn’t know existed.
But where did the power and energy to move forward through the fear come from?
It is because finding a solution was a MUST...it was not a SHOULD...and we were prepared to take action and make the result outcome so.
Steve -- who you will meet inside the full story in the episode -- and I did not look at each other and ask, “What do you think...should we find a solution to this problem?” No! We were all in. We were PREPARED and fully committed to finding a solution. It was a MUST because our lives depending on finding a solution. And we made it so.
So how does all of this relate to you inside your business, Onward Nation?
Most of us when we are fearful in our business — or in relationships — we are not afraid because we don’t know what needs to be done. Instead, we are afraid to do what we DO KNOW needs to be done. The only reason we are afraid is because we haven’t made that opportunity, that decision, that new venture, that new hire, that need business partner...a MUST. It is still a SHOULD...and we are asking ourselves questions like, “Should I do this?” “Should I consider this instead?” “Should I wait a little while longer?” Should I ask the advice of a couple more people?”
And then what happens is that we “SHOULD” all over ourselves.
JUST DECIDE...make it a MUST...and move forward with gusto, Onward Nation!
Let’s take this deeper by bringing in some insights and wisdom from several of our Onward Nation guests.
Aaron Walker, my incredible guest on episode 108, said to me, “You need to fear missing an opportunity more than you fear failure.” Just think about that for a moment. “You need to fear missing an opportunity more than you fear failure.”
You will miss all of the shots you never take...you will fail at all of the new product introductions you never introduce...every high performing employee you never hire and take a chance on, will be lost opportunity. And the list goes on.
The NBA legend Michael Jordan once said, “A loss is never a failure until you make an excuse.” So stop making excuses, Onward Nation and instead pursue all of those opportunities with gusto...with proactivity...with all of the energy and enthusiasm that pursuing a MUST requires. As if nothing else matters.
And then there was the powerful message I learned from the wisdom of Kara Ronin, my guest on episode 96. She said to me, “Stephen, you can only grow as far as your biggest fear – there’s always going to be fear that will limit you if you let it.”
BOOM, Onward Nation.
Fear will drag you down and keep you there if you let it.
But realize...it is you who is allowing that to happen because you are manufacturing the fear. It is your creation. But if we follow Kara’s advice...and we do not let fear limit us...then we can rush into that missile silo and diffuse the situation...or we can rush into our businesses, Onward Nation and ignite the sales forecast, we can hire the team members you know you will need, we can have the courage to invest in R&D, or have the guts to fire the destructive customer that Scott McKain in episode 1 warned us about.
And last but not least...I want you to thoughtfully consider the wise words of Leanne Pressly, my guest for episode 48. “Fear can be crippling in a business — learn to slay the dragon and keep it at bay.” So when you are finished listening and studying this episode...take 10 minutes...sit quietly...without distractions...and thoughtfully consider this question, “Who or what is the dragon in my business right now that I need to slay in order to move to that next level?”
And then realize that any of the fears you have associated with that dragon -- or the slaying of that dragon -- are completely made up in your own mind. They are all in your mind.
Just DECIDE to slay the dragon, Onward Nation, and make it a MUST! Don’t be paralyzed by fear.
You are more beautiful…more amazing…more powerful than you could ever possibly imagine. You have an abundance of talents and God given skills within you that you haven’t even begun to reach for yet. Sometimes we all need someone to help you uncover those things so you can see and realize you are powerful beyond measure. My hope for you is that you have realized some of that today while listening to this.
I learned several important lessons that day in the silo. First...that anything is possible -- and I -- you -- we all have the power to make it so. Second...I learned that leadership and mentorship can unleash a person’s true potential. Had Steve, my team chief on that day in the silo, shown me fear — I too would have been even more afraid.
Had he acted hastily, I would have acted hastily.
Had he hesitated, I would have hesitated.
He did not stand up and say… “Follow me because I am your leader…I am your mentor.” He earned that position and respect from me through his actions. He showed me talents and abilities I didn’t even know I had.
Onward Nation...you need to do the same things for the employees you lead in your business every day.
So with that...
I want to say again, thank you for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here -- thank you for tuning in -- your time is sacred and I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine. However our daily podcast fits into your daily routine -- I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
I will be back tomorrow with my interview with Bill Hoagland -- another one of today’s top business owners. And the discussion is off-the-charts amazing. Until then, onward with gusto!
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Jeffrey Hayzlett is a primetime television host of C-Suite with Jeffrey Hayzlett and Executive Perspectives on C-Suite TV, and business radio host of All Business with Jeffrey Hayzlett on CBS on-demand radio network, Play.It. He is a global business celebrity, speaker, best-selling author, and Chairman of “C-Suite Network”, home of the world’s most powerful network of C-Suite leaders. Hayzlett is also the author of three bestselling business books, “The Mirror Test,” “Running the Gauntlet,” and “Think Big, Act Bigger.”
Secret – timesaving technique Jeffrey uses an app called To-Do -- makes lists every day. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Focus on the most important thing – Jeffrey on "killing squirrels," a valuable metaphor he learned from the Pixar movie Up.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Jeffrey had an employee murder three other employees – and Jeffrey tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Listen. Be observant. What I mean by that is 'I don't know what I don't know.'"
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "I've never had a formal mentor. I've always networked with people that I've considered to be very very successful. By observing, I've learned a great deal from these people."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would go into my new business and completely clean the place – a clean boat is a happy boat.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Crawl, walk, run. Take the steps needed to get to where you're going.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Man up – get over it 2. Don't accept anything but the best 3. Remember the "Caitlin Rule" – each employee gets 21 question – they better use them wisely
How best to connect with Jeffrey: * Website: hayzlett.com/ * Twitter: @jeffreyhayzlett * Facebook: facebook.com/Jeffrey.Hayzlett * LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/hayzlett
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Dr. Tony Alessandra helps companies turn prospects into promoters. His focus is on how to create instant rapport with prospects, employees & vendors; how to convert prospects and customers into business apostles who will preach the gospel about your company and products; and how to out-market, out-sell and out-service the competition. Tony is CEO of Assessments 24x7, a company that offers a variety of online assessments, including the widely used DISC profile, the Hartman HVP, Motivators assessment, and several 360º effectiveness assessments. He is also a prolific author of 30 books translated into over 50 foreign language editions and is featured in over 100 audio/video programs and films.
Secret – timesaving technique Tony goes through the progression of the "four D's" -- drop, designate, delegate, do -- use these four steps to save yourself time. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Focus on what is most important – Tony puts on his blinders and works on one task to completion.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Tony's divorce had a big impact on his business – and Tony tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Hire, onboard, motivate, and engage good employees."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "You need to let yourself come out on stage – stop trying to be someone else."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I wish I had a system for marketing, sales, and service and one for employee selection and engagement.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Try to focus more on your current customers vs. trying to find new customers.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would have great people skills, be proactive, and be a creative thinker.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Make sure you can develop or improve a product or service that has a uniqueness that customers value 2. Make sure you have the right team behind you – you need employees that can deliver
How best to connect with Tony: * Website: http://www.alessandra.com/ * Assessment website: http://assessments24x7.com/ * Email: aja@alessandra.com
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation...I’m Stephen Woessner.
Thank you for taking the time to be here with me for today’s solocast -- especially today -- the day before Thanksgiving. It’s a special time of year for all of us to consciously consider all we have to be grateful for in our lives.
And no matter the season your business is in -- whether it’s growing -- whether it’s slowing -- or maybe you’re in the fight of your life as you consider whether your business is worth saving -- I want you to know -- all of your fellow business owners who make up Onward Nation have all been there before.
We have all experienced those moments when we cried as we held our head in our hands...sobbed at the same bad decisions we made for more than the first time...or grappled with how we would make payroll the next day...and the only solution is to not take a paycheck...yet again. Awesome.
But through it all...you continued to have hope...you continued to believe in your dream...you continued to push through and not give up. And for that...there is much for all of us to be thankful for.
You should be thankful for your courage...thankful for your blessings of family and friends who have been your shoulder to cry on when you needed it and the ones to kick you in the hind-end when you have needed that, too.
Thankful for all of your mentors and the lessons they shared that helped lead you to where you are and the next levels to come.
Thankful for all of the goodness in your life outside of your business -- and it is because of that goodness that we do this crazy thing called owning a business, right?
And let’s even challenge ourselves to be thankful for the dark times because they force us to grow -- they force us to be strong. The dark times put us in seemingly unimaginable situations where we are doomed to fail -- and yet -- we find the will to fight, the will to push on, the will to survive, and these times show us the power of humility and being humble. That we don’t know it all -- not even close. And to be better -- not bitter -- because if we choose to be better, we will move on to reach that next level and to move our business onward. And we can do all of that if we approach life with a sense of humility.
In fact, humility is one of the themes of today’s solocast. I ask each of our guests to share their perspectives regarding “the most critical skill they think business owners need to master in order to be thrive today.” So I am going to use this solocast to focus our attention toward three of these critical skills shared by our outstanding guests...the top business owners in the country.
In episode 116, the amazing Wendy Keller joined me as my guest. I asked her the question about critical skills...she answered me with one word at first...“humility.” She paused and then took her thoughts deeper by sharing that it is only through humility that we become teachable. Until we are humble enough to set our ego aside and realize the answer we need in order to get our business back on track, or to that next level, may lay outside our expertise -- the answer will allude us.
Our ego prevents us from seeing the solution even if it is staring us right in the face. It is only through humility can we begin to learn. I am grateful, Wendy -- thank you for sharing such a critical skill with Onward Nation.
I am also grateful for all the lessons shared by David Long, my guest for episode 5. When I asked David the critical skills question, he reinforced that business owners need to “tap minds that are greater than your own.” We went on to have a deep discussion about the power of masterminding and how the collective force can and will propel a business for growth. Onward Nation...if you are not currently a member of a mastermind...I highly encourage you to find one...or create one. The proper mastermind can be the ignition to growth in your business. Thank you, David -- you are a powerful mentor.
Then in episode 27, Amy Anderson shared her perspective of the most critical skill as being a “business owner has to have resilience in order to survive the bottomless pit that is entrepreneurship.” As Amy shared deeply during our discussion...it was resilience that was necessary for her to make it through several challenging moments...one of them life altering...and had it not been for her resilience...she would not have become the incredible business owner she is today. Thank you, Amy for being so generous with your expertise and so transparent -- letting us inside your story -- so we could learn from all of your experiences. I am grateful.
Onward Nation… these three critical skills...humility, tapping minds greater than your own, and resilience are also interdependent with one another. For example, in order to tap minds greater than your own -- one must be humble enough to learn from the experiences shared by those around us -- and humble enough to apply the newly found knowledge into our businesses.
And when times are tough...it takes resilience to get you through to the other side -- but often times -- our resilience can be strengthened by what we learn from others while in the place of humility.
So Onward Nation…I am grateful for you being here. Each day is an opportunity to spend time with you and today’s top business owners. I approach each episode with humility and eagerness to learn by tapping into minds and experiences greater than my own.
But why do I do this?
Because I know that when times get tough -- the knowledge I have learned from our guests and all of these collective experiences will fuel my resiliency. So I have the courage to stand in the storm -- to see it through to the other side -- and shout, “I will not give up until I WIN.”
We will all face storms, Onward Nation...and my hope for you is that these three skills will serve you well during your storm.
You, Onward Nation...you...have 86,400 seconds today -- and I encourage you to dissect the three skills I just shared with you and quickly apply them into your business and into your life.
And lastly, I just want to say thank you...thank you for being here, Onward Nation, and thank you for giving me the privilege to be with you each morning -- to share strategies to help you move your business onward to that next level.
I will be back on Monday -- following a two-day break for Thanksgiving. On Monday, we will share my recent interview with Dr. Tony Alessandra -- another one of today’s top business owners.
Until then, please know how grateful I am you are part of the ever growing Onward Nation. I wish you and your family a very Happy Thanksgiving.
Onward with Gusto!
You can also find us here: ----- OnwardNation.com -----
Wendy Keller is an award-winning former journalist, a respected literary agent, an author, speaker and acclaimed book marketing consultant. She got her first job as a newspaper reporter as a 16 year old college freshman. Since then, Wendy worked for PR Newswire; the Knight-Ridder newspaper chain; as managing editor of Dateline magazine. She founded what is now Keller Media, Inc. in 1989. She has sold an astonishing 1,200 rights deals worldwide, including 16 New York Times best sellers and 9 international best sellers.
Secret – timesaving technique Wendy is obsessively focused on lists – and she also blocks out all distractions. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Focus every morning on detachment, service, and love – Wendy starts every day with meditation.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Wendy was dealt the worst personal tragedy imaginable – and Wendy tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Humility is so important – be teachable."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Nobody gives a [bleep] what you want to write about – they are only interested in what interests them."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had hired a fulltime, live-in nanny (especially if you're a single mom) – don't live with constant mother guilt.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Respect and pay attention to your employees – trust them and allow them to grow.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would be equipped to succeed – and you have to work with them to get them there.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Don't cut corners – you are responsible for the quality of your service 2. Find an environment where you can focus 3. Make sure that any contract you are involved in has been vetted by an attourney 4. Get a DBA – you really do need it
How best to connect with Wendy: * Personal website: http://wendykeller.com/ * Business website: http://www.kellermedia.com/queries * Email: wendy@kellermedia.com * Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/WendyKellerCompassionPage/
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Dr. Pamela Dennis has helped some of the world’s top leaders successfully build their organizations from global Fortune 100 companies such as GE, Merck, JPMorgan, and GM to emerging companies and closely held partnerships in private and public sectors for the last 30-years. She successfully founded and ran a consulting firm for over 20 years, which was consistently recognized as one of the 100 fastest companies in Colorado and in the top 25 women-owned business for size and revenue. This experience also provided her with all of the invaluable insights necessary to publish the book “Exit Signs: The Expressway to Selling Your Business with Pride and Profit.” She speaks to international and national organizations on leadership and change, with the emphasis on leading transitions. Pamela is also affiliated with the Women’s Council of the Leeds School of Business, which supports developing women in leadership at the University of Colorado.
Secret – timesaving technique Pamela thinks in terms of bifocals – you need to be able to see in the distance clearly and also have a very short focal point to see what needs to be done today, this week, this month, this year. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Make lists – Pamela believes in having a organized daily, weekly, monthly, yearly agenda.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Pamela made a major client very unhappy – and Pamela tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Have a great sense of what you're looking for in a person – and have your sense of when to let go f your illusion of control."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "You have to face reality – as hard as it."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had a better system for revenue generation – don't waste time elsewhere.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Be clear about where you're headed – and have a plan to get there.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would have the same values as we do – hire values over resume.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Begin with the end in mind – you need to know where you're going 2. Build an equity based business – you need to build the business so that you can leave it
How best to connect with Pamela: * http://pameladennisphd.com/
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation...I’m Stephen Woessner.
Thank you for taking the time to be here with me for today’s solocast. It is an honor to have you here -- thank you for tuning in -- your time is sacred and I am delighted you have chosen Onward Nation and this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine. However our daily podcast fits into your daily routine -- I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners.
During today’s solocast, you and I are going to dive into a topic area that I just mentioned...and that’s morning routines -- sometimes we call these habits, maybe even rituals. But whatever name, title, acronym, or description we put on them...they represent the things we do every morning consciously or sometimes unconsciously that guide our success for the day.
What I have discovered after interviewing over 100 of today’s top business owners is that they do not leave their mornings to chance. In fact, if you were to ask them, most would say that their mornings -- or the night prior -- are the most important parts of their day for a couple of key reasons.
The night before is when they take time to reflect on the day that just was...perhaps add to their gratitude journal...and prepare their list of priorities for the next day. And by doing this, they consciously take the time to acknowledge all the good that happened that day and to get their mind into a peak state before bed, so that while they are sleeping, their brains are processing, thinking, solving, and getting ready to be at their best when they wake up.
I first learned this principle way back in my senior year of high school. My Senior Math teacher said to us one day in class...if you’re struggling with a problem and you cannot find a solution...then do your absolute best to solve it right before bed. Thinks of all the possibilities, think of all the solutions, give it your very best effort. And if you solve it before bed...great. But if you don’t, you will have loaded your brain with all it needs to be able to solve it while you are sleeping.
I thought to myself -- “Okay, this could be awesome because this class is really kicking my butt and I need all the help I can get.” So I tried it that night. I saved my math homework for last...I followed the specific recipe he had outlined in class earlier that day when I got stuck on one particular problem. I did exactly as he had taught us to do. And then I went to bed while hoping the recipe would work.
The next morning...I got up...went over to my desk where I had kept all of my work, my notes, my scratch sheets...all of my frustration from the night before. And no joke, Onward Nation...honest...I reviewed the problem again and the correct solution was as clear as day. I was stunned.
Here’s what I learned. Your brain is a very powerful tool -- a supercomputer -- the best ever invented. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come with an owner’s manual so we need to learn along the way from others who have faced similar struggles or who are knocking it out of the park. People who are operating or living life at a completely different level than we are...but where we know we can be if we apply the right recipe.
So here we go...let’s go deep into dissecting the morning routines, the morning rituals, the morning habits of today’s top business owners so you can apply a similar recipe to your morning.
The owners I have interviewed are strategic about what they do each morning, about how they prepare for each morning, and how they understand that what they do each morning sets them up for success the rest of the day.
I am going to share five morning habits shared by some of our most recent guests. But what has been fascinating to listen to -- and to discover along this journey of learning -- is the commonality shared across all of our guests.
For example...you could go all the way back to Episode 1 with Scott McKain and listen to his powerful morning routine and daily habits.
In fact, if we were to take a survey of our Onward Nation guests...I suspect over 90 percent of them share some aspect of a morning ritual designed to kick-start their day -- and in some instances -- the days of their employees, customers, and other stakeholders.
With that...let’s dive into the morning habits of today’s top business owners. These habits are simple and can be easy for you to apply into your business.
Habit #1: Focus on One Most Vital Priority Episode 98 with Larry Winget (despite the fiasco I had with my microphone that day -- so sorry about that Onward Nation!) was an exceptional discussion with one of the most motivating and inspirational business owners I have had the joy of interviewing. Which is a bit counterintuitive because Larry does not consider himself a motivational speaker -- nor does he subscribe to any of today’s popular personal development mumbo jumbo. But that does not mean he is not focused on personal development or getting better every day...his approach is just radically different and a refreshing change from the sea of others out there.
Larry’s success -- the root of all that makes him so powerful at what he does every day and the value he delivers to his customers -- is that he does the one thing each day he knows he MUST get done. He only allows himself to focus on his number one most vital priority each day. That’s it. Just the one.
Where did that singular focus come from? If you listened to Larry’s, you heard him talk about how he went from rich to poor in a single day through no fault of his own. He had bills to pay and had to make money. How did he work through the devastation of losing his business? He distilled everything down to selling a training course that we quickly developed -- and he started with the As in the phone book and started selling. He knew that his most vital priority -- his one thing that had to get done that day was selling. Nothing else mattered...it was his singular focus for the day...and every day.
So maybe yours is not selling...maybe it is leadership...maybe it is hiring the best talent...whatever your most vital priority is...how you move the needle...it deserves all of your attention...today and every day.
Joining Larry in his focused pursuit of one most vital priority each day is John Gumas...my guest on episode 92.
John is the founder of Gumas in San Francisco, an incredible advertising agency that helps challenger brands take on larger, more well-funded competitors. And they are excellent at it.
John Gumas sets one goal a day – accomplishing the daily keeps him positive and moving forward.
Habit #2: Create a Priority List Adam Carroll, our amazing guest on episode 113, starts every day by creating his Power Priority List. And he only focuses his time around completing the task or priorities on the list.
Adam even separates the priorities into multiple categories, such as income producing, or business development, etc. But the key about his time management or Power Priority List system is how he assigns the time for each task.
We have all felt this before -- that if we have an hour to do something -- oddly, it takes us about an hour to get it done. But if we are leaving that afternoon for a two week vacation -- it is amazing how productive we are that morning, right?
So Adam brilliantly uses the same principle by assigning the amount of time he thinks each task on his list will take to get done -- and then he races the clock to beat the estimate. Then checks the items off the list as he goes, and in the process due to his efficiency, he is creating more time in his day because he is now running ahead of schedule. Wow, Onward Nation!
Habit #4: Get Up Early I recently had a thought provoking conversation with Joe Calloway during episode 112 of Onward Nation. Joe shared and taught us several valuable lessons that revolved around the fact that value never goes out of style. And how part of being at his best for customers, and getting ahead of competitors, is to get up early -- no later than 5:00 in the morning. This of course requires discipline, Onward Nation but the rewards are substantial.
And then Aaron Walker during episode 108 shared how he blends getting up early with the power of prayer during his first 60- to 90-minutes of his day to get centered and ready to tackle his most vital priorities.
Aaron’s morning habit of prayer and centering is shared by over 80 percent of the most elite athletes, high performing business owners, leaders, etc. The best in the world all have some form of daily meditation, reflection, centering, or prayer. And I share the same practice of daily prayer, as Aaron described, and it is the most powerful part of my day and an invaluable part of my morning routine. I smiled a big smile when Aaron shared it during our interview.
Habit #5: Get Focused and Eliminate Distractions Gene King, my guest during episode 107, shared some specific, practical, and tactical recipes with Onward Nation -- including patience and persistence -- but what was so compelling about our conversation was how he approached each day with the attitude of “you have to get up and go, no matter what.”
And sure there will be days, Onward Nation that you don’t want to...there will be days when you would prefer to hit the snooze button. But, if you get up early like Joe Calloway and Aaron Walker and you apply Gene King’s outlook on life with the Get Up and Go mentality...your productivity and success will soar to new heights...you will push through the fears...you will push through self imposed obstacles (because most obstacles are self-imposed) and you will move your business onward with gusto!
And combine Gene’s Get Up and Go attitude with Jim Cathcart’s (episode 106) strategy of starting your day by eliminating external distractions -- you will be part of the uncommon few. You will be among the top business owners in the country. You will be able to, like Jim, start your day with a fresh mind so you can focus on doing the things he needs to do in order to become the person he wants to be.
And that is what it is all about, Onward Nation...so you can be the person you want to be -- so you can live the life you want to live -- and you don’t waste your precious time living someone else’s dream, life, or building someone else’s business.
You, Onward Nation...you...have 86,400 seconds today -- how will you apply your time toward making your dreams come true and leaving a lasting legacy in this world -- making someone else’s life better as a result of you being you.
Onward Nation, I just want to say thank you...thank you for being here and for giving me the privilege to be with you this morning -- to share some strategies and recipes for success. I wish you the best of success as you move your business onward to that next level.
I will be back tomorrow with my interview with Dr. Pamela Dennis -- another one of today’s top business owners. Until then, onward with gusto!
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Adam Carroll is quickly being recognized as one of the top financial educators in the country with his core message being "You are the architect of your own life and that starts with your behavior around finances.” Having presented at over 500 colleges and universities nationwide, hundreds of leadership symposiums, and countless local and regional organizations, Adam’s message of “Building A Bigger Life, Not a Bigger Lifestyle” has been heard by over 200,000 people.
Adam successfully crowd-funded a documentary on student loan debt, raising nearly $70,000 in 45-days. The film, “Broke Busted & Disgusted” will soon be released and is already garnering critical acclaim following Adam’s recent TEDx talk at UW-Milwaukee. The mission of the film is to start a national debate about changing the way we fund college and not crippling 20 somethings with mountains of debt.
To stop the problem before it starts, Adam's book, Winning The Money Game, and curriculum, are being used in high schools and colleges as a financial literacy supplement. Students and educators are calling it a “game-changer” when it comes to handling money.
Secret – timesaving technique Adam starts every day by writing his Power Priority List – and separates these into three different categories. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Meditate – Adam listens to his inner-knower, the part of your body that knows what you should be doing.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Adam's wife got pregnant right as he was taking a huge new business risk – and Adam tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "The ability to see systems within your business is critical."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "My dad help me understand that there are things that I would want to in in life, but if I waited and held back a little I would make a better decision."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had a much more robust CRM system.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Get really good at clarifying your expectations daily – of yourself and your team.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would effectively communicate my brand – maybe even better than I do.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Surround yourself with a mastermind group and an accountability partner 2. Get in contact with your "why" – why do you do what you do? 3. Create a power 100 list – the people that like and respect you – and be in at least quarterly contact with them
How best to connect with Adam: * http://www.adamspeaks.com/
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Joe Calloway helps business leaders, entrepreneurs, and owners improve performance and grow their businesses. He helps organizations focus on what is truly important, inspires new thinking about challenges and opportunities, and motivates people to immediate action. Joe has been a business author, consultant and speaker for 30 years and his client list reads like an international Who’s Who in business, ranging from companies like Coca Cola and IBM to Cadillac and American Express. Joe is the author of “Be the Best at What Matters Most” and five other ground-breaking business books including “Becoming A Category of One” and his newest book “Magnetic: The Art of Attracting Business”.
Secret – timesaving technique Joe is very intentional about staying focused – you can't just give focus lip service. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Get up early – Joe gets up no later than 5 AM every day.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Joe's consulting business evaporated after the 2008 recession – and Joe tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Listen and understand what the market is saying."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Successful people say yes a lot. Extremely successful people say no to almost everything."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had a system for filtering the kind of business and clients we take on.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Respond immediately to customers, potential customers, partners, and those people that are essential to your business – this is the most overlooked competitive advantage out there.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would stay relevant to your business.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Get as clear as you can on the value of your product or service – who's going to buy it? 2. Make it really easy for people to do business with you 3. When in doubt – take action
How best to connect with Joe: * http://joecalloway.com/
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Randy Pennington is an award-winning author and respected authority on how leaders deliver positive results in a world of accelerating change. He's author of three books, "Make Change Work," "Results Rule!", and "On My Honor, I Will." Randy has earned 17 outstanding teacher awards as an adjunct instructor in the Cox Business Leadership Center at Southern Methodist University. His clients range from the Fortune 10 to companies as small as 25 employees, and he's worked with government agencies and elected officials at the local, state, and national level. Randy's life has taken him from a locker room attendant at a public swimming pool to the Board rooms of corporate America to stages throughout the world.
Secret – timesaving technique Randy keeps a running list of what needs to be done – writing these all down helps him focus. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Exercise your mind and your body – Randy reads and exercises every single day.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Randy had his business completely evaporate in a couple of months – and Randy tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "If you're in a business with employees – build a culture."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "The most decision we ever made in our business was the decision to be the best."
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have focused on lead-capture – capture leads systematically rather than accidentally.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Pursue what is best – not what is easy.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would care about the work – and they do work that delivers value.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Get your mindset right – wherever you are is where you've earned the right to be 2. Figure out the processes and systems that allow you to execute every single day 3. Focus on the culture – make sure your culture allows you to sustain and grow
How best to connect with Randy: * http://www.penningtongroup.com/
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Mitch Stephen is a nationally known real estate entrepreneur, trainer, and consultant who has purchased over 1,300 houses in his hometown of San Antonio, Texas. He is also the author of two books, “Failing Forward to Financial Freedom” and “200+ Ways to Find Bargain Properties.” Mitch is a high school graduate who never stopped learning from books, seminars, and webinars, a graduate of "La Calle U" (which means “The Street" in Spanish), and a fine example of what “on-the-job-training” can produce in a person. Mitch now teaches others how to become financially independent and invest for more than just the typical lump-sum check.
Secret – timesaving technique Mitch lightens his load by delegating to others – you have to finish the job, even if it's not you doing the finishing. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Work on your networking – Mitch takes long lunches every day with people he wants to network with.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Mitch sat on $1 million worth of lots that nobody would look at – and Mitch tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "The ability to establish the value of your product accurately."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "When you change your self-talk you change the path of your life."
Final Round – "Breaking Down the Recipe for Success" What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have watched my finances and known where my money was going sooner.
What one strategy or "recipe" would compound into big wins for business owners? The owner-financier strategy is the best strategy in the world – and Mitch spelled out the entire strategy here.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Have a round table – consult them when you need to. 2. Always continue your education
How best to connect with Mitch: * http://1000houses.com/
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation. This is Stephen Woessner.
I am grateful you decided to be here this morning — to be here right now –– to share your most precious resource with me and Onward Nation –– your resource of time. We all have the same 86,400 seconds in a day and I consider it a sacred exchange of time and value — so I am delighted you and I can have this time together today.
Let’s start off by considering some difficult questions — and then as I always try to do — I’ll leave you with some action steps that you can apply into your business to move onward to that next level.
How do we become great?
How do we achieve greatness in all we do?
How do we realize our full potential — your dream for success?
Les Brown said, “I don’t believe that any of us are giving dreams that we cannot accomplish. It is possible. You can have your dream as you run toward it.”
So why can’t you be the best in your industry? Why? Why not you?
You may have heard these words from Sylvester Stallone…
“Let me tell you something you already know. The world is not all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place. And I don’t care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is going to hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done. Now, if you know what you’re worth — then go out and get what you’re worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hits. And not pointing fingers and saying you ain’t where you want to be because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that, and that ain’t you. You’re better than that.”
Onward Nation…even some of the people who are closest to you — want you to fail. It isn’t because they are bad people. It’s because they love you and don’t want to lose you. But you can’t let their fears stop you. You have to decide that no matter what — no matter what you have to sacrifice in order to achieve greatness — you simply have to decide and finally agree with yourself that you are worthy to pursue your dream. That your dream — that deeply personal dream you are scared and afraid to be bold enough to chase with all of your gusto — that you are worthy to achieve that dream. That you will SHOW the world how great you are.
Playing small does not serve your purpose — does not serve your WHY — and certainly does not serve God with all of the abundance of talents you were blessed with so you could build an extraordinary life for you, your family, and leave your impact on this world.
If you are not making someone else’s life better — then you are wasting your time.
Onward Nation…pain is temporary — it may last for a hour, day, a week, or even a year. But it will subside and be replaced by something else. But if you quit…your pain of regret will last forever.
Instead, I encourage you to dig deep and pursue greatness like Bryan Arzani did. Bryan was my guest on episode 75 of Onward Nation.
Bryan was broken…he was beat down by circumstances…by the fear of failure. He nearly went bankrupt twice. But he had the guts to keep moving forward. He said no to the fear and said “I WIN” and now he has. Because he decided greatness and success would be his fate.
Or maybe you a listening to my voice right now and thinking to yourself…easy for you to say, Stephen…I just got served with this lawsuit from someone I trusted…a family member…or a business partner. How can I possibly go on?
And if that is you…then do what Tim Fargo, my guest for episode 64, did. Tim shared the story of when he was at a Christmas party with friends and business associates and was served papers for a $10 million lawsuit — while he was at the party. Who was suing him? His former business partner — who also happened at the party! Did he quit? No. Why? Because Tim wanted to succeed as bad as he wanted to breathe. He dug deep — he fought — he won — and went on to great success when he sold his company.
Oftentimes, one of the keys to success is being all-in on what you working so hard to accomplish. Eliminating any path of retreat. So Onward Nation, are you financially all-in with your business like Cody Foster? Cody was my guest during episode 80. Cody and his two co-founders at Advisors Excel invested everything they had 10 years ago to create the company. And it was not millions of dollars. It is was a modest amount while sitting at Cody’s kitchen table. Cody, Derrick, and David were all in ten years ago — and now they have built a company that will achieve over $5 billion this year.
Or how about Carl Wright, my guest on episode 45 of Onward Nation. After the real estate market crashed…Carl was $14 million in debt. $14 million! He didn’t quit — instead — he took a few days to sit, think, and let the plan come to him. And then he decided he would make it happen. He would do it. And then he did it. He pursued it with all the energy he had — to make his vision a reality.
You, Onward Nation, need to be the only person who you give permission to tell you what is so. And that is what Carl did, and now his company has built a real estate portfolio worth $100 million. All because Carl had the desire to be great and the will to win that pushed him forward. Carl was willing to pay the price and a little bit more.
You have to do whatever it takes to get the job done. In the words of Art Williams… “Just do it, and do it, and do it, and do it, until the job gets done,” Onward Nation.
The real challenge of greatness comes when you get knocked down and how you respond. Do you remember the story of Larry Winget, my guest in episode 98? He went to work, rich — and then by the time he left to go home that same day, he was poor and had lost everything. Not because of anything he did but because of circumstances outside his control in his industry.
What did Larry do? Did he feel sorry for himself? Did he gather around a support group to listen to all of his misfortune and tell him it would be better someday? No. He developed a training program that contained four modules and then he started at the “A’s” in the phonebook selling the modules. Was it a glamorous way to make money? No. Was it effective? Yes. Why? Because no one else is willing to make that sacrifice — that same level of commitment. But that is what Larry did, and he won.
Or how about David Mylrea, my guest on episode 35. At the beginning of his career, he was selling cars at a small town dealership in the heart of Wisconsin. When the gas crisis of the late 70s hit — and the country seemingly was no longer in the market for large gas guzzling cars, and the foot traffic at the dealership slowed –– did David quit? No. What did he do? He and his wife sat at their kitchen table…and typed letters to people right out of the phonebook…and mailed them. And what happened? People brought the letters into the dealership to see David and bought some cars. Why? Because no one had ever done that before.
Onward Nation…it would have been easy for David, Larry, Carl, Bryan, and Tim to quit. But they didn’t. They allowed their pain to be part of their prize — to be part of their journey. They harnessed their will and challenged themselves to be successful.
Just like Stacey Alcorn, my amazing guest for episode 3. When she had lost it all she could have given up and no one would have blamed her for quitting. But she didn’t. Instead she said yes to her dreams, she said yes to her unfolding future, instead of saying no. Now Stacey is a billionaire in the making and dominating the real estate industry in Massachusetts.
Failure is the an ingredient to the recipe for success and greatness. Just listen to the stories of all the amazing and incredible business owners who have graced this show — the one thing the majority of them have in common is some sort of failure and sometimes a cataclysmic collapse — an epic failure of massive proportion.
The loser is the one who fails and then quits.
The loser and the winner have both failed. The difference is that the winner got back up again — got back into the ring — and pushed forward — learning from the past. While the loser sat there feeling sorry for himself or herself — making excuses why it didn’t work out, looking for a sympathetic ear, looking for a shoulder to cry on…anything to point to so that it didn’t have to be them who had failed.
Fear kills dreams, Onward Nation. Fear kills hope. Fear puts people in the hospital. Fear can age you. Fear can hold you back from doing something that you know within yourself you are capable of doing but it will paralyze you.
You are an incredible child of the most high God. You have every talent and skill already inside you that you need in order to be successful.
It’s not easy. This road — this journey to success. But success leaves clues so let me share with you what I learned from Don Yaeger, one of my closest friends and most trusted mentors. Don created a list that he calls the 16 Characteristics of Greatness that he built after interview the most successful champions of our time. And then Don took the list deeper by creating the “Greatness Action List”.
Step 1: I will not make excuses. Michael Jordan said, “A loss is not a failure until you make an excuse.”
Step 2: I will constantly evaluate my inner circle, surrounding myself with those headed someplace special.
Step 3: I will set aside time each day to re-center myself.
Step 4: I will encourage at least one person each day.
Step 5: I will do the necessary “homework” to make each day — each meeting — as productive as possible.
Step 6: I will seek out a new opportunity for personal or professional growth every day.
Step 7: I will envision success – actually see it in my mind — in all I do.
Step 8: I will be better, not bitter, in moments of adversity.
Step 9: I will not be intimidated by taking thoughtful risks.
Step 10: I will stay open-minded, not allowing old patterns or habits to hold me back.
Step 11: I will point out the contributions of others.
Step 12: I will consider what I can do or sacrifice to help strengthen my team.
Step 13: I will do something today for someone who cannot give me anything in return.
Step 14: I will act all day as if my son or daughter (or my future child) were sitting by my side.
Step 15: I will relish the chance to be a standard for others.
Step 16: I will remember that my life requires balance.
Put those characteristics to work in your business — in your life. And if you want a daily dose of greatness…go to DonYaeger.com and subscribe for his daily dose of greatness email — it is amazing.
So, before I leave you today…there is one last point I want to make. Our time here on this Earth is limited — so please don’t waste it living someone else’s life. We all have the same 86,400 seconds in a day so make sure, Onward Nation, that you are living the life you want to live and building the business you want to build and pursuing the dreams you want to pursue. That your dreams are big enough, bold enough, courageous enough, so you can look back on your life with no regret.
Please don’t settle. Have the courage to follow your heart. You are going to experience a lot of setbacks, a lot of pain…but you are more powerful than you could ever imagine. You are greater than your circumstances.
You can look at that snooze button and go back to bed…or you can get up at 4:00 in the morning and get a 4-hour start on most of your competitors…get a half-day’s work in — 50% more strategy, 50% more content written, 50% more sales calls, 50% more emails to prospects…all of that — 50% more of your vital metrics by just getting up early.
You can lay there in bed and dream about your dreams — fantasize about them — or — you can punch that clock, get up, and go pursue them. There’s a reason why we release all of our daily episodes at 4:00 in the morning, Onward Nation.
One last quote…and I have this hanging on one of my office walls… “Every morning in Africa, a Gazelle wakes up and knows that it must run faster than the fastest Lion that day, or it will be killed and eaten. Every morning in Africa, a Lion wakes up and knows that it must run faster than the slowest Gazelle that day, or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter, Onward Nation, if you are a lion or a gazelle: when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.”
Decide to make a great day. And I look forward to being with you again tomorrow when we share my interview with Mitch Stephen.
Until then…Onward with gusto!
------ OnwardNation.com ------
Aaron Walker is a businessman and life coach. Aaron helps business owners reach their full potential and discover their identity, how to live a successful and significant life, and how grit and determination pay off. He has inspired many through his leadership, mentorship, and consistent pursuit of excellence. He enjoys helping others and believes experience is a great teacher. 35 years of entrepreneurship and marriage have given Aaron a wealth of experience. Aaron continues to reach new heights and broaden his perspective of the terrain by examining his experiences and growing from them.
Secret – timesaving technique Aaron focuses blocks of time – productive multitasking is a myth. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Start every day early – Aaron wakes up between 4 and 5 AM and spends his first hour to an hour and a half in prayer.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Aaron made a decision that almost cost him his family – and Aaron tells the whole story here.
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Fear missing an opportunity more than you fear failure.”
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have started each day figuring out how to make someone's life better.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Figure out how to do things differently – there are some things in every industry that need changing.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would look outward – they need to have an abundance mentality.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Get involved in a mastermind group – there's wisdom in the council of multitudes. 2. Read Charles Duhigg's book "The Power of Habit." 3. Read Greg McKeown's book "Essentialism."
How best to connect with Aaron: * Aaron is offering Onward Nation free access to three documents that he normally sells at http://www.viewfromthetop.com/onward * http://www.viewfromthetop.com/ * https://twitter.com/VFTCoach
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Gene King is the Senior Managing Director of Sequence Holdings. He has been involved diverse industries, such as Construction, Banking, Insurance, Securities, Human Resource Outsource Management, Consulting, Real Estate, and Investment Banking. Gene has more than 40 years of practical business experience as a serial entrepreneur primarily focused on the hunt - Business Development / Revenue Production.
Secret – timesaving technique Gene is persistent and patient – these two traits need to be worked on every day. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Get up and go, no matter what – Gene doesn't let the little things get in his way.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Gene had to completely scrap his business model in one board meeting – and Gene tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful "Understand the mastermind theory in Napoleon Hill's 'Think and Grow Rich.'"
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor "Every time I need mentoring I go back to Napoleon Hill's 'Think and Grow Rich.'"
Final Round – "Breaking Down the Recipe for Success" What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would immediately know and understand and have a CP set up my financials and have a cash flow analysis on a daily basis in my hand – your income statement and balance sheet are incredibly important.
What one strategy or "recipe" would compound into big wins for business owners? Have an annual strategic plan – and have day-to-day and month-to-month achievable goals.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would exactly how successful they can be – and I'd help them have a plan to achieve that success.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Passion – unwavering, first kiss passion 2. Patience – the patience it takes to wait on a baby to come out of the womb 3. Persistence – the persistence to get up – every day – and go 4. Planning – you have to have a plan 5. Perspiration – you have to do what it takes – no matter what 6. Prayer – it doesn't matter what you believe in – believe in something – believe in yourself
How best to connect with Gene: * gking@sequenceholdings.com
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
For five years in a row Jim Cathcart has been selected as one of the Top 5 Speakers on Sales & Service in an online survey of over 14,000 people. With over 39 years of professional speaking around the world, Jim is one of the best known and most award-winning motivational speakers in the business. He has delivered more than 3,000 presentations to audiences in every state of the US, most provinces of Canada and countries from Scotland to Singapore. A business strategist, psychological researcher and philosopher at heart, Jim is also a down-to-Earth regular guy. He has worked in warehouses, driven trucks, sold donuts door-to-door, been a bank teller, plays guitar in night-clubs and pubs, and has toured much of the world on a motorcycle.
Secret – timesaving technique Jim starts his day without external distractions – start the day with a fresh mind. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Do the things you want to do as the person you want to be – Jim stimulates himself by trying to be his ideal self.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Jim made an incredibly bad business deal – and Jim tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “The more effectively we learn to think, the more successfully we will live our life – take charge of your own thinking.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Spend one hour a day studying in your field – you'll be an expert in five years.”
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have been more disciplined about saving money – no one gets rich from what they earn – they get rich from what they keep.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Spend time in the next month writing down what you want your future to be like – reach farther than you'd ever hope of achieving – it's possible.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would take personal responsibility for the achievement of the outcome – they do their job and do it well.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Build habits. 2. Notice more than anyone else.
How best to connect with Jim: * http://cathcart.com/ * Jim is offering a 30 day free trial at https://www.thrive15.com/ for Onward Nation guests with the code word "acorn"
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
James Goebel is a founding partner of Menlo Innovations. Menlo uses highly collaborative project teams to design and implement innovative products for clients that place high value on user adoption. Representatives from start-up companies as well as large Fortune 500 firms routinely tour Menlo's Software Factory environment to study its implementation of agile. James has worked in a variety of environments, from two employee startups, up to billion dollar organizations. As a coach and change agent, James has helped organizations achieve dramatic transformations in both process and culture. He enjoys speaking at conferences, teaching classes, and speaking to small local groups in order to share the lessons he has learned.
Secret – timesaving technique James and his team sit together and plan their tasks together – the simple things save the most the time. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Spend time with your team and customers – James gets to know his people and understands their needs.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience James' business changed its model and dropped significant revenue – and James tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “Communications – if I can form a picture in my head, how well can I help you form a picture in your head?”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Ask 'why am I doing this?' – if the answer is 'make money' – something is wrong.”
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have completely redone the way we used our systems – give all your employees access.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Set your business free through risk – but don't let your employees live in fear.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would put the needs of others ahead of their own – they are true team players.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Develop a peer group – share the downs with them – don't scare your employees. 2. Have an obvious purpose/mission – define it as clearly as possible. 3. Learn to articulate clearly what the future holds – pick a specific day and describe what that day is like
How best to connect with James: * https://www.menloinnovations.com/
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Tom Schwab is an accomplished Inbound Marketer, speaker, entrepreneur, and author. At the peak of the recession in 2009, Tom transformed his business from a regional player to a national leader using an Inbound Strategy. One of the earliest e-commerce users of HubSpot, he also realized he had a passion for empowering entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, and small business owners. He built an inbound marketing agency focused on working with high potential entrepreneurs and small business owners to take them beyond just an efficient transaction to become a profitable lifetime brand. He helps them easily understand and use digital tools to build a scalable automated sales and marketing machine.
Secret – timesaving technique Tom figures out his one most important thing every day – take 5-10 minutes and figure this out every day. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Schedule time where it matters – Tom looks long term when planning his calendar.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Tom's website was hacked – and Tom tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “Tactics don't win wars – strategy wins wars – go back to the basics and get your strategy right.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Nobody cares about your product – focus on a need, not a product.”
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have put in systems to analyze feedback – customers vote with their dollars.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Use a system and track your Net Promoter Score – this number is the only number you really need to grow.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would have a business mindset – they don't do just what you tell them.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Define who your ideal customer is – you don't need to thrill everyone in the world – focus on them
How best to connect with Tom: * http://www.tmschwab.com/onward * http://www.tmschwab.com/ * https://twitter.com/TMSchwab * https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasmschwab
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Lisa Ford is a speaker and author on helping companies create customer focused cultures. She is the author of a best selling dvd series, “How to Give Exceptional Customer Service.” Lisa provides highly customized content for clients such as Edward Jones, Kaiser Permanente, Allstate, Motel 6, and Verizon Wireless.
Secret – timesaving technique Lisa creates to-do lists the night before – focus and attitude helps her hit the ground running. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Get your exercise in – Lisa starts every morning with a walk while listening to podcasts.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Lisa speaking opportunities dried up – and Lisa tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “Focus on the customer – someone on your team has to be the customer champion.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Ask for business – and aim high.”
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have built my email list – do it faster, smarter, and better.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Be consistently reliable on behalf of the customer – focus on the fundamentals that your customer needs.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would understand their purpose – they need the right attitude and motivation.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Do the hard work. 2. Deliver the value your customers need – make your customer your partner. 3. Have a sounding board – find someone to be transparent with.
How best to connect with Lisa: * http://www.lisaford.com/
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Steve Goldstein is a proven leader who has held executive positions with leading global brands, such as Chairman and CEO of American Express Bank, President of Sears Credit, and Citigroup, as well as several early-stage enterprises. Steve has been an investor, advisor, and interim CEO for more than 10 venture backed e-commerce companies. He currently works in the private equity industry as a Senior Advisor with the consulting and advisory firm Alvarez & Marsal, serves as Chairman of US Auto Sales, serves as a Senior Advisor to Milestone Partners and an Industrial Advisor to EQT Partners (a global private equity firm based in Stockholm).
He has also advised CEOs and private equity owners providing counsel on performance improvement with their companies in addition to acquisitions and merger integration opportunities. His talks are based on his Five Principles of Engagement and are interwoven with stories from global companies to mid-size companies to startups.
Secret – timesaving technique Steve make a list of what people owe you and what you owe them – stay on top of what moves the needle. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Get a good workout in – Steve starts every morning with exercise and is ready to go.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Steve thought he was going to be fired – and Steve tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “The most important thing is engagement – roll up your sleeves – look ahead and make sure obstacles don't get in your way.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Everyone has value in an organization – regardless of the role they have.”
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had a maniacal focus on cash – don't allow your business to become vulnerable.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Treat every day like a new adventure – constantly innovate and be creative.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would be independent – they will figure things out and not wait around for you.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Make sure you're really, really committed – it's hard running a business. 2. Raise more money than you think you need to – don't lowball what you need to get started.
How best to connect with Steve: * http://sdgoldstein.com/
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Justin Roff-Marsh is the founder and president of Ballistix and the author of the new book, "The Machine: A Radical Approach to the Design of the Sales Function". Justin is a thought leader in sales management, a radical new approach to the management of the sales function. He is also the editor of the popular Sales Process Engineering blog, read by thousands of people around the world. Over the past decade, Justin has presented Sales Process Engineering at events to tens of thousands of executives the world over. He has been guest speaker at scores of industry events, conferences and association meetings, and has facilitated workshops to hundreds of companies in a variety of industries throughout North America and Australia.
Secret – timesaving technique Justin has an executive assistant plan every minute of his day – focus on what you’re good at, not planning. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Outer your competition – Justin reads a lot and listens to podcasts – usually at 1.5-2 times their normal speed.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Justin had to turn his back on what was making him money – and Justin tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “Manage technology and developers – be able to communicate clearly with your developers.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “You need to get the hell out of your office – if you spend all your time in the office, all you’re ever going to have is a small business.”
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would avoid ever billing clients on a time and materials basis – sell your services as if access to them were memberships.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Treat your team like a machine – focus employees on things that increase sales.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would focus on increasing sales numbers.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Know what you’re getting into – don’t romanticize or simplify business. 2. Figure out what is right for you – owning a business may not be for you.
How best to connect with Justin: * "The Machine: A Radical Approach to the Design of the Sales Function" * twitter.com/justinroffmarsh * www.salesprocessengineering.net
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Stephen Woessner is the host of this great podcast, but before Onward Nation, Stephen served in the military, worked for several advertising agencies, taught at the University of Wisconsin, and then formed his own agency Predictive ROI. At Predictive ROI, he and is team currently help clients from coast to coast understand their customers better and leverage technology smarter so they can more effectively generate leads, sales, and repeat business.
Secret – timesaving technique Stephen uses daily systems – he starts every morning in the gym, has three vital priorities each day that he reviews with his team, and has checks and balances for his clients. ONWARD!
System that helps run a virtual business In addition to lots of emails, phone calls, and Zoom meetings, Stephen and his team have a daily kickstart where they each answer four questions:
- These are my three vital priorities today
- What I didn’t get done yesterday but should have
- This is where I need help
- Do I have any available time today
Daily habit that contributes to success Be consistent in your prayer/meditation – Stephen spends 30 minutes every day marinating on what he needs to do today.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Stephen’s $2 million event sold three tickets – and Stephen tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “Be disciplined – it’s so easy to just give up – don’t let anyone get in your way.”
Something all Onward Nation guests have in common Every guest has had amazing mentors – and they themselves are good mentees.
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Show me a person’s friends – and I will know everything about that person.”
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have been quicker to implement the Predictive ROI system on ourselves – not just on our clients.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Make 60 cold calls every single day and interview people on a podcast or blog – grow your sphere of influence.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would be a proactive teammate – they need to jump in and help their teammates.
Why do you treat your employees like your family? I can’t be somebody at work and somebody different at home. Loving my team is just who I am.
What is one thing you’re doing different because of an Onward Nation guest? Just keep moving forward – don’t pay attention to negative talk.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Be excellent at your own marketing – no matter how busy you are – always have a sales driving machine 2. Never stop looking for mentors – find models in other industries – you don’t have to know your mentors personally 3. Pay attention to the vital metrics – don’t mistake activity for accomplishments
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation…Stephen Woessner here.
Last week, in episode 93, I shared that after 20+ years of owning five companies, and having an opportunity to work with and interview some of today’s top business owners here on Onward Nation, I’ve noticed 12 reoccurring themes – or Master Success Strategies of today’s top business owners — that come up over and over again because they have contributed to the success of our amazing and incredible guests at Onward Nation.
I shared 5 of the master success strategies as well as some of the key insights learned from our first 99 guests along this great journey that has been Onward Nation.
Wow…I am still getting used to the fact that tomorrow will be episode 100.
100 went by so quickly — and we are just getting started, Onward Nation! There is so much more to come.
The feedback after sharing five of the success strategies was awesome — that the solocast was a helpful resource.
And speaking of resources…did you download our 12 Success Strategies of Today’s Top Business Owners eBook? If not…why not?
You can still download it here.
For today’s solocast…I selected 5 more of the 12 master success strategies — and we are going to do a deep dive.
So that when we are done with today’s episode, you will have last week’s solocast to pair up with today’s, and you will have deep dives into 10 of the 12 strategies.
Plus, the eBook we created for you contains all 12 success strategies.
But…before we dig into today’s 5 strategies…I owe you and everyone in Onward Nation a very big thank you.
If you are listening to your first-ever Onward Nation episode — I want to say thank you — and let you know how much it means to me that you decided to share your precious time with the ever-growing Onward Nation…today.
Look, I know there are lots of excellent podcasts you can choose from — and I am grateful you chose to be here…right now.
And if you have been listening to Onward Nation for a while now…you may already know how I feel about the sacredness of your time.
We all have the same 86,400 seconds in a day — and I consider you being here — in this moment — right now — to be a sacred exchange of time and value.
You are generously giving me your precious time — and in exchange — right now — I have to be at my best to deliver the value you expect.
I know that I have to be at that quote – unquote “next level” to ensure you come back and continue to listen. So if I am serious about your time being sacred — then me going all-in and working hard at making this episode excellent is the best way for me to express my gratitude for you being here.
And at any point — if you think I’m missing the mark — or — if I shared something helpful to you and your business — please let me know. I love feedback because it is the only way for me to get better.
My email address is stephen @ onwardnation.com — and yep — that is my actual email address.
No fancy filters. You send me an email and it will come right to my Inbox. I answer every single email.
So please let me know — any time — thumbs up or thumbs down. Deal?
Okay, Onward Nation…here we go…a deep dive into 5 bonus master success strategies from today’s top business owners.
Some of the strategies are simple and will only take a minute or two to cover, which also makes them easy to put into practice inside your business.
But there are also several strategies that will require a deeper explanation. I will guide you through the step-by-step to putting each strategy into practice.
And I’m also going to share the links to some of my favorite resources with you in today’s Show Notes.
Let’s dive into Strategy #4. Look for feedback
Onward Nation…you will find success by looking for constructive feedback. All the time.
The relentless pursuit of feedback as Joel Boggess, my guest during episode 4 of Onward Nation described.
You must swallow your pride. You have to set your ego aside and then recognize that getting better is a process.
As Vince Lombardi said, “The man on top of the mountain didn’t fall there.”
And the only way to climb that mountain is to push your way up the side of the mountain — one step at a time. To conquer your fear of criticism.
Because it is the fear of criticism that keeps you — that prevents you from asking for feedback. Fear prevents you from getting real — getting honest with yourself — getting honest with your performance — and getting honest with your scorecard.
Looking for feedback takes guts, Onward Nation.
It takes guts to seek out and listen to feedback. It is the only way to improve what is otherwise unknown.
The relentless pursuit of feedback is not about seeking out compliments — it rests solely on seeking out how to get better.
You cannot get to that next level — to move onward to that next level — until you start asking those who you currently serve — how you can get better — how you can do better for them — how you can deliver more value to them.
Feedback is a critical ingredient for your entrepreneurial recipe.
So what is the process to look for feedback?
First…you need to surround yourself with mentors, books, training resources, and a trusted network of advisors. They will be invaluable to you in sharing the feedback you need to grow.
Second…Onward Nation…you need to have the guts to ask customers
Third…you need to ignore the fear of criticism.
Fear is self-imposed. You are the one who creates it.
Fear doesn’t actually exist but in your own mind. So don’t let fear keep you from asking for feedback, Onward Nation.
You already know that owning a business is not always pretty — but everyone has to start somewhere — so don’t compare yourself to others who have been doing it longer than you.
Cody Foster, my guest on episode 80 of Onward Nation taught me that very powerful lesson. I was in Topeka spending some time with Cody and his team at Advisors Excel and one night at Cody’s house he shared some stories from the early days of Advisors Excel — what it was like when there were only the three co-founders…and how they grew the business…and now…to look at Advisors Excel…it’s a multi-billion company with 350 employees and a 100,000 square foot office — and then compare their “front-of-stage” with your “back-of-stage” — or your present day reality.
That is not a fair comparison.
Now that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t seek out and use models of other successful companies to improve our own trajectory.
But to compare your current state with a company that has been doing for 10-years longer than you can destroy the amazing, wonderful, and beautiful things you are presently working on. Comparisons are not feedback.
Instead, look at their path and let that serve as inspiration of what is possible and not a comparison of where you are currently at. Don’t turn their path of success somehow into a mirror to see that you are underachieving.
Remember, Onward Nation, “Limits like fears are often just an illusion.”
So go out — set the fear of criticism aside — and look for feedback.
Jim Rohn said,
“If you help enough people get what they want — you will get what you want.”
And the only way you can help them get what they want is by asking them — look for feedback — to learn how you can serve — how you can give.
Let’s keep that momentum of giving going…because strategy #6 is Give until there is nothing left
Have you watched the movie “Pumping Iron” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno?
It’s more than a movie, Onward Nation — it’s more like a powerful documentary — an illustration of what it is like to give and give and give until there is nothing left — and just when you think you cannot give any more toward the pursuit of your dream — you reach down deep — and you find a way to give just a bit more.
I’ve studied the sport of bodybuilding and Arnold is the only competitor I have ever heard describe the intensity of his workouts to where he would push, and push, and push until he literally vomited in a trash can at the gym.
So he would sit and rest for a few minutes. Then he would get up and get back to work. Right back at it.
What was the result outcome for Arnold after all that intensity?
He won the Mr. Olympia competition 6 times in a row.
Then he took 5-years off from bodybuilding — but surprised the sport when he came back in 1980 and won the title again — just to show he could and that he was still the best. Even after taking 5-years off.
Shane Stott, my guest for episode 8 of Onward Nation, said to me,
“Stephen, the only way a successful individual will get off the entrepreneurial treadmill is when they fall to the floor dead.”
You, Onward Nation, have to be that committed to your treadmill — that committed to your success.
There is no such thing as an overnight success. You have to willing to conquer the twist and turns through faith — the faith in knowing you are on the right path — and that you will not change course.
As John Lee Dumas said in episode 38…you need to F.O.C.U.S…which stands for Follow One Course Until Success, Onward Nation.
So don’t think small when you CAN and SHOULD think BIG!
I am going to link in the Show Notes one of the best motivational videos that I have ever watched. I have listened to it hundreds of times. I shared it with Shane Stott a couple of years ago and he converted it into an MP3 file and now listens to it every morning on his drive to work. It is part of his pre-work morning ritual.
Watch the video — listen to the message — and when you do — ask yourself this question…“Have I given all that I can give toward being successful?”
I guarantee that your answer — if you are honest with yourself — is no — there is still more you can give.
You still have more, Onward Nation! You are well able to give more and become more.
How Bad Do you Want to Succeed Motivational Speech
And now I will move to strategy #7: Eliminate distractions and then DO IT!
In episode 9, Afraa Zammam — who joined me on Onward Nation from her office in the countryside outside of Berlin, Germany — said to me,
“Stephen, you must get rid of any distractions in your environment — because distractions aren’t just wasting your time — they are diminishing — they are wasting away your ability to accomplish your goals.”
Here’s the reality…if you are spending an hour checking Facebook every day — or Twitter — or watching 40-hours of TV each week (which is the average of the US population by the way) — if that is what you’re doing — you are not only distracted — but you are investing heavily toward your failure — versus investing heavily toward your success!
You must eliminate the distractions and sometimes the distractions are not Facebook, Twitter, or putting a better time management system into place.
Sometimes the greatest distractions are people on your team who are not moving at the pace and tempo you need them to.
Remember Onward Nation, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” Wise words from Jim Rohn.
So release the non-performers — they are a distraction to you and your team of A Players. And by releasing them…you will empower your A Players to perform at the level they want to.
Now, once you eliminate the distractions — you need to stop making excuses and get back to the business of hard work by putting your mind to the task at the hand…and just do it.
If you want a great resource on excuses…flip to page 189 of Think & Grow Rich and you will find a list of 57 excuses that we all tell ourselves every day — and those excuses are robbing you, Onward Nation of your future.
Excuses like:
- If I had the money to invest
- If I had a good education
- If I only had the time
- If other people understood me
- If conditions around me were only different
- If I could only do what I want
- If I could meet the right people
- If I could just get a break
And the list goes on. There are 57 of them.
Read the list — study the list — and then don’t let yourself use those excuses. You are better than that, Onward Nation.
In this section of today’s Show Notes…I am also going to include a link to another resource — a well-known speech by Art Williams, entitled Just Do It.
Art’s words will make you laugh and he may even call you on the carpet in a few areas because his words might expose some of the excuses you have been telling yourself. And how you have allowed yourself to become distracted.
Watch it. Study it. You will be glad you did.
Okay, Onward Nation… 2 more strategies to go…let’s power through…now on to Strategy #10: Decide if this is right for you
Marianne Williamson said…
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
Onward Nation, there will be days when you question your sanity for doing what you are doing. Today may be one of those days for you.
The first step to you being successful is simply deciding that this is the right thing for you. Is it? Or isn’t? If you are in — then be all in. Burn the boats — eliminate any chance of retreat — and be all in.
And as I learned from Tony Robbins…we all have the power to decide — to decide to make a radical change. Change doesn’t have to take a long time — change can happen in an instant when the decision you make is a MUST.
It is completely within our ability to harness the power of decisions that guides our trajectory, Onward Nation.
Does that mean that being successful is as easy as making the decision to be successful?
No, but making that decision — a true decision — is the critical first step — and then you have to work your face off, like Gary Vaynerchuk says…my guest for episode 42 of Onward Nation.
With that said…if you want some insights — some quotes — to carry you through the rest of the day…then I have another resource for you. It is an incredible video compilation and I will include it in today’s Show Notes.
Now, Onward Nation…it is time for the final master success strategy. It is Strategy #11: Do it the right way
Larry Broughton, my guest for episode 18 on Onward Nation taught us much about excellence…perseverance…tenacity…and always working to do the right thing…and not giving up.
You see…Larry spent nine years in the U.S. Army Green Berets where the words “quit” or “half-way” were not part of the vocabulary. In fact, Larry said to me, “Stephen, you have choose to do the hard right over the easy wrong.” An anthem — a mission — the Green Berets use every day to guide their work — their pursuit of excellence.
What a powerful lesson about doing it the right way. The right way is the only way, Onward Nation.
David Mammano, my guest on episode 17 of Onward Nation, believes that success will come to business owners if they stay committed to implementing excellent standards and developing a pristine culture.
So be committed, Onward Nation, to building a culture of greatness within your company.
How?
You need to coach your team on how to do it the right way — you set the pace — you must show them how to do it the right way — how you manage your time with excellence — but if you suck at those things or are average — then don’t expect your team to be excellent.
How can you expect them to do it the right way when you don’t do it the right way?
Don’t take shortcuts — shortcuts will inevitably lead to failure.
Remember, you set the pace…you are the example of excellence in your company…you must be committed to doing it the right way…and if you are…your team will do it the right way and you will succeed at strategy #12.
Okay, Onward Nation – I hope those 5 master success strategies shared in this solocast were valuable to you.
Please drop me a line and let me know what you thought. You can share your comments at the bottom of the show notes for this episode – or – you can email me anytime at Stephen @ onwardnation.com and yes – that is my actual email address – comes directly to me – no fancy filter, routing, or sorting…comes right to my Inbox.
Feel free to use it anytime.
Let me know…thumbs up or thumbs down?
We will be back tomorrow with episode 100 — a very special episode — a special milestone. It is such a privilege to be here with you — to have been here for 99 episodes — thank you, Onward Nation.
Until tomorrow…onward with gusto!
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Larry Winget is a bestselling author, television personality, social commentator and internationally acclaimed speaker. His newest book, Grow A Pair: How To Stop Being a Victim and Take Back Your Life, Your Business, and Your Sanity is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller. He has also written five additional New York Times / Wall Street Journal bestselling books that have been translated into over 20 languages including Shut Up, Stop Whining and Get A Life; You’re Broke Because You Want To Be; It’s Called Work For A Reason; People Are Idiots And I Can Prove It; and Your Kids Are Your Own Fault. Larry is a regular contributor on many national television news shows on the topics of success, business, personal finance, and parenting. He is also a member of the Speaker Hall Of Fame and is the trademarked Pitbull of Personal Development®.
Secret – timesaving technique Larry doesn’t listen to the motivational mumbo jumbo people believe – work hard, pull in profits, and you’ll achieve success. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Do the one thing every day that you MUST get done – Larry focuses on his number one vital priority each day.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Larry came on hard times and had to mow lawns for extra income – and Larry tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “Customers want honesty, authenticity, and integrity – don’t focus on the hyperbole.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor ”What is easy to do is just as easy not to do.”
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have become more authentic quicker – be transparent.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Get out three sheets of paper – and write down where you are, where you want to be, and what you’re going to give up.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Work your ass off every single day – just do it 2. If you’re working on the wrong thing – you’ll figure it out 3. Do what you said you would do – when you said you would do it – the way you said you would do it
How best to connect with Larry: * larrywinget.com
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Dorie Clark is an Adjunct Professor of Business Administration at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and the author of “Reinventing You” and “Stand Out”. A former presidential campaign spokeswoman, she is a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review, TIME, and Entrepreneur. Recognized as a branding expert by the Associated Press, Inc., and Fortune, Clark is a marketing strategy consultant and speaker for clients including Google, Microsoft, Yale University, Fidelity, and the World Bank. You can download her free 42-page Stand Out Self-Assessment Workbook at dorieclark.com.
Secret – timesaving technique Dorie uses ScheduleOnce – have an online calendar that allows people to book time with you. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Stay informed – Dorie reads the newspaper everyday, and it helps her business relationships.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Dorie suddenly wasn’t getting any new business – and Dorie tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “Form positive relationships with customers – and seek out those relationships.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor Current relationships lead to future relationships – be cordial to those around you.
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have built up my email list – you own those relationships.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Keep in touch with your most important professional relationships – and use Contactually to do it.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual will succeed – but you need to spend dozens of hours to allow them success.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Establish what you’re going to be known for – then work on getting known for it 2. Get inside peer groups – they’ll help you grow your business
How best to connect with Dorie: * dorieclark.com
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Kara Ronin is an Australian entrepreneur, social skills expert, and founder of Executive Impressions. Passionate about teaching people the social skills to thrive in any business or social situation, and in any country, Kara created Executive Impressions, an online education platform that receives thousands of visits every month. Kara has spent over 10-years living an international life in Japan, the United States, and Europe including Tokyo, New York, and Lyon, and speaks Japanese as well as French. At one stage, Kara moved countries or cities every year for 10 years straight. Now she lives in France, just two hours from the French Alps, where she took a leap of faith and created her own business.
Secret – timesaving technique Kara checks her email and social only twice a day – it’s too easy to waste time. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Go for a run three times a week – Kara finds that exercise helps her motivation and energy.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Kara’s business wasn’t growing at all – and Kara tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “Persevere – things aren’t going to work immediately.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “You can only grow as far as your biggest fear – there’s always going to be fear that will limit you if you let it.”
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have made a schedule for my blog – my non-plan didn’t work.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Refine and polish your appearance and your interpersonal skills – this soft skill needs to be polished.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would persevere – they need to keep their eyes on the end goal.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Don’t give into your own self-doubt – come up with a strategy and a plan 2. Don’t give into other people’s self-doubt – don’t let other people stop your dreams
How best to connect with Kara: * www.executive-impressions.com/
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Amber Lambke is the president of Maine Grains located in Skowhegan, Maine. The company is housed at the Somerset Grist Mill. The Mill provides a space for farmers, entrepreneurs, and community members to assemble and operate a variety of programs and businesses. The Somerset Grist Mill is nationally recognized as one of the country's emerging rural “food hubs.” Amber is also the executive director of the Maine Grain Alliance Market, a mom, wife, former speech-language pathologist, home baker and passionate gardener.
Secret – timesaving technique Amber surrounds herself with mentors – find those with experiences you haven’t had. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Engage in self-talk – Amber encourages herself through the rough times.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Amber had grain that wasn't performing for her customers – and Amber tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “Overcome your self-doubt and fear of failure – try new things.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Don’t be afraid to think large – analyze your competitors and see your strengths.”
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have imagined five years out – imagine what your dream team looks like.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Communicate with your team – be clear with you mission.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would be one with our goal – they need to be heading the same direction we are.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Solve problems one step at a time – every step forward is a step forward 2. Celebrate the small successes – these successes are the way forward
How best to connect with Amber: * mainegrains.com
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Mitch Matthews is a keynote speaker, a success coach, and a best-selling author. His new podcast, “DREAM. THINK. DO.” is at the top of the iTunes charts. Mitch has worked with leaders and teams from organizations like NASA, Disney, Booking.com, and the Principal Financial Group. Plus, Mitch speaks on college campuses around the country.
He’s passionate about helping entrepreneurs and leaders to dream bigger, think better, and do more of the stuff they were put on the planet to do! Mitch has built three successful businesses himself including one fully automated online training-based business that has helped coaches around the world and brought in over a million dollars in revenue.
Most importantly, Mitch lives a “highly-caffeinated” lifestyle in Des Moines, Iowa with his wife, Melissa and their two sons. And for those animal lovers… the Matthews also currently have 1 dog, 1 “cat with OCD,” 8 fish and a snail named “Steve Dangerous.”
Secret – timesaving technique Mitch has a calendar driven to-do list – don’t put things on your list that you don’t have time for.ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Ask yourself affirming questions – Mitch searches for the answers to the most important questions.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Mitch had very low turnout to a big live event – and Mitch tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “Be intentional in directing your thinking – our outcomes come first through our thoughts.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Be interested, not interesting – you have to connect with customers.”
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have started the “Dream. Think. Do.” process earlier – dream first, think second, and then do it.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Get clear on success – and have effective feedback loops.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would learn fast and limit risk – they need to be good communicators.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Ask yourself what success looks like for you personally – focus on yourself and you business 2. Direct your thinking – ask yourself what you want to do today 3. Ask yourself who you’re going to learn from – and answer the question every single day
How best to connect with Mitch: * mitchmatthews.com
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation…Stephen Woessner here.
We all know that building and scaling a business is hard work…but when you have the right strategy — the right recipe for success to follow — the action steps become more like “ingredients” and can be added systematically into your business — one ingredient at a time.
After 20+ years of owning five companies, and having an opportunity to work with and interview some of today’s top business owners here on Onward Nation, I’ve noticed 12 reoccurring themes – or master success strategies — that come up over and over again because they have contributed to the success of our amazing and incredible guests at Onward Nation.
During today’s solocast, I am going to share the 5 of the 12 strategies with you. Unfortunately, I cannot cover all 12 due to time constraints — but — we created a free eBook to go along with today’s episode that covers all 12 strategies and how to apply them right away. You can download the 12 Success Strategies eBook here.
Some of the strategies are simple and will only take a minute or two to cover, which also makes them pretty easy to put into practice inside your business.
And there are several strategies that will require a long explanation. But I will guide you through the step-by-step to putting each strategy into practice.
I decided to dedicate today’s solocast to these Success Strategies because during each episode of Onward Nation — our guests share lessons with you on how to make your business more systematic, repeatable, measurable – and successful!
But, as Onward Nation has grown and enjoyed some success — and thank you for listening and being part of the ever-growing nation — the amount of data and recommendations is starting to grow rapidly. The eBook represents a distillation of some of the best strategies shared by our incredible guests — from episode 1 to episode 92.
So let me know what you think of this solocast — please download the 12 Success Strategies eBook — and drop me a line.
I recognize that getting better is a process. As Vince Lombardi said,
“The man on top of the mountain didn’t fall there.”
So I would greatly appreciate your feedback — thumbs up or thumbs down. Your feedback helps us get better every day so please keep it coming.
Okay, Onward Nation…here we go…the 5 Success Strategies of Today’s Top Business Owners.
Strategy #1: Fire the Destructive Customer Way back in episode #1, Scott McKain shocked me when he said,
“Stephen, a business owner will find success if they are willing to fire the ‘destructive customer’.”
Which if you have studied Scott’s books and curriculum — you know this is a rather counterintuitive thing for him to say. Scott is all about exceeding a customer’s expectations — creating that distinctive experience so customers are compelled to come back instead of visiting your competition.
So firing a customer — where did that come from?
Scott when on to explain to me that destructive customers want to buy products or services outside of your company’s core offering. And they push you to deliver.
Destructive customers are demanding and time-consuming.
Oftentimes, this becomes detrimental to your company’s ability to serve other customers because you are spending so much time trying to satisfy one set of needs.
And when he said that…I thought… “Oohhhh. Darn it. Been there. Scott is so right.”
But Scott took it deeper by also sharing how each of us can protect or business from The Destructive Customer.
According to Scott…most business owners aren’t willing to say “no” to a destructive customer.
Why?
Because the fear of losing those sales is a near and present danger to cash flow. And by the way, Onward Nation…the fear of losing sales is the Fear of Poverty creeping back in. If you are listening for the first time, the Fear of Poverty is one of the 6 fears we all struggle with from time to time — sometimes consistently — throughout our business and life.
All 6 Fears are documented and explained in depth by Napoleon Hill in his groundbreaking book, Think & Grow Rich, published in 1937 and still just a relevant today. I also do a deep dive into the Fear of Poverty in episode 65 of Onward Nation.
So how do we protect ourselves?
You as the business owner have to be bold and courageous enough to go an “Inch wide and a mile deep” with your company’s expertise instead of trying to be everything to everyone.
Developing deep expertise will give you the ability to command a premium price for what you do at your company – and in the process – you will attract the right customers.
And then you will be better equipped to say no to the destructive customer because you will no longer be in a position of need to take on whatever business you can get.
Strategy #2: Become a Master Storyteller Business owners will find success if they become master storytellers through mentorship…and that is another powerful lesson I learned from one of my mentors, Don Yaeger.
You hear me talk about Don and his influence on nearly every episode of Onward Nation. AndDon is the one who said during episode #2,
“Stephen, the reality is…whoever tells the best story wins.”
Onward Nation, learning the principles of storytelling will help you clearly articulate your journey to yourself, to your employees, to customers, and to all of the stakeholders in your business.
Mentorship is an invaluable asset that directly correlates and strengthens your ability to storytell because of the experience sharing and growth you will go through when you find the right mentor.
ROADBLOCK…don’t get stuck in the mental trap of thinking you need to find mentors exclusively from within your industry.
One of my closest and most trusted advisors at Predictive ROI is John Lyche — and he does not come from the digital marketing space. He has built a career in excellent in manufacturing, distribution, and product innovation.
And he is an expert in scaling a small company into a large company.
Oh, awesome — I want to learn those things…and he has been an incredible mentor and teacher. Because the lessons of how to scale effectively transcend industry — so don’t make the mistake — don’t fall into the trap of thinking that your business — your industry is so unique and different and no one outside of it could offer valuable insights.
And that is why Don shared that oftentimes the most enlightening lessons are learned from those who can offer you a completely different perspective.
So how do you find the right mentor? Here’s a quick checklist. 1. Think about your own talents and the skills you would like to strengthen – areas of your business you would like to improve, etc. 2. This process will help you identify the person you need to become to take your business to the next level. 3. This is really hard because you have to take a critical look at yourself. Most people are not willing to get honest with themselves and that is one of the major reasons they never grow. 4. Once you have the list — look for people who are crushing it in these areas. The same areas where you need to grow. 5. Contact those people. Invite them to lunch. Let them know you are packed full of questions for them. Be very prepared — and they will love the fact you took the time with them seriously enough to do your homework. 6. Interview them and put what they share with you into practice. 7. Turn it into a blog post and your clients will love you for it because you just shared some critical insights with them, too. 8. Then loop back to your mentors and share your success. 9. When you do, they will invite you to sit down so they can share more with you. 10. Soak it all up — then put more of it into practice.
Remember Onward Nation…a good mentee takes action on what is learned!
Strategy #3: Eat Rejection for Lunch So many of our Onward Nation guests have this strategy in common.
The reality is Onward Nation, we will find success by eating rejection for lunch and ignoring the naysayers. Ignore the doubters. Ignore the people who say you’re not good enough — that you can’t do it — that you don’t have the pedigree, the education, the background to get it done.
My grandfather immigrated to this country from Istanbul, Turkey in 1920…couldn’t speak the language and he had $10 in his pocket. He cut lettuce and washed dishes on the night shift at a Canton, Ohio restaurant…gritted it out…then moved to the day shift as a cook so he could make more money. And in 6 years…he had saved enough money to open his own restaurant…that he ran for over 40 years…including running the business through the Great Depression.
Onward Nation…you have to refuse to take “NO” for an answer — you have to break through the fears, doubts, worries, struggles – those pits in your stomach.
And as Stacey Alcorn shared with us in episode #3….she said…
“Stephen, when you feel that fear and doubt are creeping in – let them be your signs – that you are headed in the right direction – and it is time to slam the gas down on the floor!”
One of my favorite quotes of all time is “Fear and procrastination are the enemies of success”.
My cousin, Dean Bacopoulos shared that with me when he and I were partners in a dot com together back in the late nineties. And I never forgot it. I have it now framed in my office as a constant reminder to the great wisdom in those words.
So how do we break through the fear of rejection?
Here are three simple steps.
Step #1: Refuse to accept “NO” as an answer.
Step #2: See step 1. Rinse and repeat.
Breaking through the initial stage of dismay will allow you to pursue your biggest dreams.
Success, Onward Nation, will come to those who refuse to accept “NO” as an answer.
You will overcome your apprehension and gain the freedom to decide that NOW is your time — it’s time to take action toward your dreams.
It’s not rocket science. The only way to truly ensure success is to “work your face off”. As Gary Vaynerchuk likes to say.
There are no shortcuts. This is not an easy way to conquer and achieve your biggest goals. It takes persistence and tenacity.
Success takes GRIT, Onward Nation.
Surround yourself with mentors, books, training resources, and trusted networks will be invaluable to getting the feedback you need to grow your business.
Owning a business is not always pretty — but everyone has to start somewhere – so don’t compare yourself to others who have been doing it longer than you.
In the interest of time…I’m going to fast forward to Strategy #9: Good Execution Ensures Success.
[Remember…we will email you the entire eBook that has all 12 Success Strategies. You can request it here.]
Steve Olson, our guest on episode 15 said to me, “Good execution ensures success. Plain and simple.”
A simple but very powerful lesson.
Onward Nation…you can read all the books, craft an incredibly detailed business plan, and put all of the pieces into place for that product launch…but unless you execute and do the good work…you will not be successful.
Jerry Rice, the hall of fame NFL wide receiver famously said…
“Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t.”
And yes to say, it’s all about commitment to sound cliche — but it is the truth.
So should we approach this — what are the tactical steps to ensure success? Here are four to put into practice right away?
- Seek out advisors who are specialized and can help support the development of the most vital functions in your company.
- Continually evaluate your business plan because conditions are changing in our rapidly evolving business environment.
- Take rapid action, find a way to get results, and be able to learn from the mistakes.
- Ask your clients how to improve a product because they know best.
Remember, your success depends upon your ability to convert the recommendations from your advisors, and the strategies you develop, into actionable items.
Strategy #12: Build Your Network Two really amazing guests, Stacey Alcorn…episode #3 and Nancy Marshall…episode 19 are the queens of building impressive networks!
Both Stacey and Nancy shared how business owners can and will find success by building their network of personal relationships — and — by being strategic about who you meet and who you spend your time with.
During my interview with Nancy…she shared a very powerful story about how when her agency, Nancy Marshall Communications had lost a key account, it was her network that pulled her through those dark times. And now that once lost client — is back at her agency — and business is better than ever. But without a strong network in place — the temporary loss could have been devastating.
So how should we go about building a network?
Pay close attention to the little details, show gratitude, and make sure to nurture your relationships over time.
Focus on clients, vendors, and most importantly family.
Keep a gratitude journal to remain consistent with your relationship building.
Plan strategically, identify your goals, and then measure your success along the way and then follow the interview and publish the recipe that Stacey Alcorn mapped out for you in episode 3. Put that into practice and you will see your network, your platform, and your influence grow…nearly exponentially.
Okay, Onward Nation – I hope this solocast was valuable to you. Please drop me a line and let me know what you thought. You can share your comments at the bottom of the show notes for this episode – or – you can email me anytime at Stephen @ onwardnation.com and yes – that is my actual email address – comes directly to me – no fancy filter, routing, or sorting…comes right to my Inbox.
Feel free to use it anytime.
Let me know…thumbs up or thumbs down?
I will be back tomorrow with my interview with Mitch Matthews — and oh my word — it is a conversation you don’t want to miss.
Until then…onward with gusto!
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
John Gumas is a veteran of the advertising and interactive marketing industry. John founded GUMAS in 1984. Today, the award-winning firm is consistently named as one of the top branding and interactive marketing firms by the San Francisco Business Times.
John is recognized as one of the country’s foremost authorities on challenger brand marketing. He is the author of the popular book “Marketing Smart”, which describes how challenger brands can effectively develop marketing strategies to take on their larger competitors. John is an adjunct professor of branding, advertising and interactive marketing, a sought-after speaker and a regular columnist for several publications and blogs.
John was recently inducted into the San Francisco State University Hall of Fame, recognized for his community service and leadership by the U.S. Senate, the San Francisco Giants, and was selected as the Man of the Year by The Elios Society.
Secret – timesaving technique John sets one goal a day – accomplishing the daily keeps him positive and moving forward. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Engage with your key employees – John keeps his team motivated.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience John had to make tough employment decisions – and John tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “Create the right company culture – your employees need to be proud to come to work each day.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Don’t get burnt out – delegate what you don’t like to do.”
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had a realistic business plan – stay focused on realistic goals.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Have a perfect elevator pitch – you can’t be everything to everyone.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would have a good heart – they need to be caring individuals.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Think like a challenger brand – focus on what makes you unique 2. Create a concise, compelling message – and make sure everyone in the company knows it 3. Love what you do – make your job not feel like work
How best to connect with Olie: * jgumas@gumas.com * gumas.com
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Eric Douay started his career in the hospitality industry, for the French multi-national hotels company, Accor Group, in Paris and progressed quickly to open their first sales & marketing office in Canada.
In 1997, he created D-TOUR MARKETING Inc., a company specialized in sales & marketing for international hotels chains that wanted to be present in Canada, without all the headaches of opening their own Canadian offices. The company was also involved in property development in Canada, the United States, and the Caribbean.
In 2007, Eric created a new core business, on top of his existing business, by offering payments solutions to the hospitality, travel and tourism industry. His company now optimizes payment processing systems for private clients and has helped hundreds of merchants collectively generate over $1 billion of accumulated transactions volume, while saving serious money in the process.
Secret – timesaving technique Eric visualizes his two or three actions – be productive. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Express gratefulness – Eric thanks God everyday for giving him the new breath of life.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Eric lost 50% of his business – and Eric tells the whole story here.
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Reinvest in knowledge – school only prepares you to be on the team – get on the field and score.”
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have delegated, automated, and eliminated – learn what you need to take off your plate.
You can find us here: ------OnwardNation.com------
Olie Jentzsch is the president of Flitz International, a family-owned business based in Wisconsin. Flitz serves customers around the world by supplying a variety of high-quality cleaners, polishes, and protectants for applications in automotive, marine, sporting goods, aviation, and household-related industries. Over the last 37 years, Flitz has made a name for themselves with customers who want to do it the right way — the first time. Olie and his team have steadily grown the company into an international leader within their industry.
Secret – timesaving technique Olie uses a day-timer – stay organized. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Review your goals – Olie writes out his goals at least biweekly.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Olie made a mistake – and Olie tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “Get to know your customers – and listen.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Make the right introduction – be a chameleon.”
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have had a formal education – learn the foundations of business.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Change – you either grow or you die.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would pick up new rocks – they think outside the box.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Surround yourself with the best – and trust those you surround yourself with 2. Stick with it – don’t give up 3. It takes money – there are ways to get money
How best to connect with Olie: * ulrich@flitz.com
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning Onward Nation – I am so excited for today’s solocast!
I’m excited because we are going to continue the momentum we have been building over the last several solocasts where we have begun to uncover what I call the Money Draining Mistakes.
These are the mistakes that we all make – yes, everyone one of us from time to time – have made these mistakes in our business – and the net result is that cash has been literally sucked right out of our companies.
Very expensive.
And yes, I know that sounds a bit overly dramatic but when I share today’s Money Draining Mistake with you – by the end of this episode – my hope for you is that you will see why I consider this one – this mistake – to be one of the most expensive.
It is a silent killer for most businesses.
But before we jump into this one – I want to go back to the two biggest challenges that are preventing you from moving your business onward to that next level because those challenges – those barriers to your success have nothing to do the business climate, the economy, the skill level of your employees, the location of your business, your pricing strategy, your current customer base, the size of your marketing budget, the quality of your products, your distribution channels, or the myriad of other reasons we are given today by the media and government as to why businesses fail at such a staggering rate in this country.
The obstacles in your way have nothing to do with any of those things.
Your two biggest obstacles are the Fear of Poverty and the Fear of Criticism.
I am not going to dissect both of these Fears here – instead, I encourage you to go back and re-listen to episode 65 to understand both fears more deeply – but what I will say is that the Fear of Criticism will directly impact your ability to stay plugged in to this episode and push forward to really want to master the recipe that I share with you during our time together this morning.
I guarantee you...if you are like most business owners…as soon as I say the words “Bounce Rate” as part of today’s recipe – you will begin to tune out and lose interest.
Or, as I share “data points”...as I discuss things like the “psychology of your customer”, or need to create “clear calls-to-action.”
It will be real easy for you to say something like, “I have someone on my team who does that, Stephen...I don’t have to know it.”
Why do I think you will say or at least think that?
Because you – me – we are all afraid of the unknown. We are uncertain – we are afraid we might fail to understand the concept – the lesson. And so the best way for us to defend against that fear – to protect ourselves – is for us to say, “Oh Stephen, I don’t need to know that because someone on my team gets it...they have it down. I’m all set.”
Do they?
Do they really?
And if you don’t understand it – how can you possibly hope to measure their success in it?
Discounting the potential knowledge without really understanding the value of the knowledge is sort of like when we were all back in high school and it came time for Algebra or Biology class – or insert the name of your scary class here – and we tried to convince ourselves that we would never need to have access to that knowledge in our lifetime. Somehow we felt prepared to make that decision at 16 or 17 years old.
And yet, if you were to sit down with someone like Mark Cuban, one of the acclaimed investors from Shark Tank and ask him what he wishes he would have done a better job of learning along the way…he readily admits…that he would have done a better job studying those things that he quickly discounted – that he told himself he would never need – and now he wishes he had mastered those skills early on…things like Algebra, Biology, and so forth.
So this episode – episode 89 – you need to know that I am likely going to push you...to push your Fear of Criticism.
But in full transparency – I think that is part of my job to help you grow – to help you become more certain – to help you reach that next level.
And as my drill instructor said to me once – well, he actually shouted it to me one morning – I think he just wanted to be sure I heard him and never forgot the message – he stood over top of me as I was doing sit ups during PT one morning in basic training…it was June of 1990 at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas...5:00 in the morning and it was already about 90 degrees – how was that even possible – and as I was doing each repetition – St. Hodge looked down at me and yelled, “Airman Woessner, you are required to perform 25 repetitions of this exercise.
HOWEVER...you are encouraged to do more.” He set the standard of excellent for me that morning. The standard was not the bare minimum of doing what was required – knowing what you had to know – or doing the least possible with as little effort as necessary.
No, the standard was more – a lot more – and undefined – my standard – my bar was to do the most repetitions that I could possibly do – my personal best – to pursue excellence – and I never forgot the message – and now I pass it on to you.
So to get that next level – you need to learn things you didn’t think you needed to learn – to master skills that someone on your team may also know – and to execute and implement with a standard of excellence – not the bare minimum.
You Onward Nation are not average.
You Onward Nation have a different standard.
You Onward Nation are moving your business to that next level. And you do that by pushing past the Fear of Criticism – the fear of failure – the fear of not thinking you are worthy or smart enough.
Because you are smart enough – you can absolute master this...and this...Onward Nation...is Money Draining Mistake #3...High Bounce Rate. Are you ready to move onward with gusto?
Let’s start this off with a scenario that happens every day within a typical business…
Someone visits the website’s home page, a product page, or perhaps a blog post the business owner wrote.
The person quickly scans the page from top to bottom, left to right, and after a second or two, they decide they hate it. They puke in a bucket and then immediately leave.
And they continuing searching...except they continue searching SOMEPLACE ELSE.
That person “bounced” because he or she was not motivated enough to make one single click within the site.
Bounce rate is one of the most powerful metrics we have because it gives us insight into whether or not our customers believe we are delivering the value they want and need.
Most un-optimized websites have a bounce rate between 50 to 60 percent (this represents huge opportunity for you if you apply steps 1-2-3 below).
In other words, after all of the hard work you put toward building traffic through trade shows, advertising, public relations, email campaigns, content development, social media, and search engine optimization, between 50 and 60 percent of the people you attract will immediately leave without making one single click.
And that is why I called this mistake the silent killer way back in my introduction to this episode.
Let’s do a quick test. Pause this episode, open your Google Analytics dashboard, and check your bounce rate.
If it 30 percent or less, give yourself a pat on the back because that is the target you should strive to reach.
But if your bounce rate is above 50 percent, then the rest of this article will provide you with three steps you can apply to drive down bounce rate while converting more of your traffic into leads and sales.
Let’s first calculate the dollar value that bounce rate is currently costing you.
Say your website attracted 12,539 unique visitors during the past 12-months.
And let’s say your website bounce rate is currently right in the middle of the 50 to 60 percent range (54.88 percent to be exact).
That means 6,881 site visitors immediately bounced from your website during those 12-months (12,539 x .5488 = 6,881).
The remaining 5,659 were the suspects you could attempt to convert into a lead or sale through some form of call-to-action, such as a phone call, visit to your store, etc.
Now, let’s say your call-to-action process has been fine-tuned over the years so 4.77 percent of your suspects are converted into leads (between 2 to 4 percent is the global standard).
This means 270 leads, phone calls, store visits, etc. were generated during the 12-months (5,659 suspects x .0477 conversion rate = 270).
And lastly, let’s assume you have a history of converting 50 percent of your leads, such as inquiries, phone calls, store visits, etc. into sales, and each sale has an average value of $500.
The revenue generated via your website should have been approximately $67,500 (270 x .5000 = 135 sales x $500 value = $67,500).
Now, let’s lower bounce rate to the target level of 30 percent.
I first learned about the 30 percent target from my friend and mentor, Avinash Kaushik, digital marketing evangelist for Google and co-founder of Market Motive.
You can learn more about Avinash in episode 40 of Onward Nation.
Now only 3,761 of the visitors bounce during the same 12-month time period (12,539 x .3000 = 3,761).
You now have 8,778 suspects instead of 5,659. Big difference.
Let’s also assume you maintained your 4.77 percent conversion rate into leads and your average order remained at $500.
Your 8,778 suspects would convert into 418 leads, and those leads would convert into 209 sales, which would result in $104,500 in revenue (418 x .0477 = 418 x .5000 = 209 x $500 = $104,500).
This represents a 54.81 percent increase in sales. Awesome.
And the only thing that changed was bounce rate.
Here’s the good news...any business owner can apply three simple steps to reduce bounce rate.
At the bottom of this today’s Show Notes you will find a mini-class I recorded to provide some additional bounce rate insights. Free video training resource – I hope you find it valuable.
So what is the first step?
We – and our business – must be distinctive.
Now, distinction is not just about being different.
Distinction creates loyal customers who continue coming back to you over and over again.
If you want to learn more about distinction – go back to episode 1 and listen to the words of wisdom from Scott McKain, the leading authority on the topic of distinction and its importance in your business.
And one of the very best recipes for how to create distinction is one that I learned from Darren Hardy, publisher of SUCCESS Magazine.
Darren calls it the X-Y-Z Exercise and there are 3 simple steps.
Step 1: Complete the X-Y-Z Exercise Just answer three questions and blend the answers into a clear and concise statement. Caution: the questions are simple but they are not easy to answer. It will likely take you and your team about 60 to 90-minutes to complete this exercise with excellence.
- We do X (X equals the products and services your business provides to customers)
- For Y (Y equals the profile of your typical customer)
- So that they can Z (Z equals the result outcomes your customers receive from your products or services)
Then place your X-Y-Z statement on your website above the fold – meaning – so the visitors to your website do not need to scroll in order to read it. Why above the fold?
So your visitors will see it right away and they will know they are in the right place.
When that happens, bounce rate goes down.
Step 2: Eliminate Visual Clutter The January-February 2013 issue of the Harvard Business Review reported the results of a study on consumer choice, which confirmed that providing more options did not increase choice. In fact, more options actually decreased choice.
So instead of having 15 options on your website, i.e. photos, copy blocks, or calls-to-action, just have three easy-to-understand options and eliminate all the rest. Your customers see a multitude of options as visual clutter and that encourages bounce.
Step 3: Create Clear Calls-to-Action Dr. Flint McGlaughlin, director of Marketing Experiments once said to me, “Clarity always trumps persuasion.”
So are you being clear with customers regarding the steps they need to take along the decision-making path?
Have a clear and concise path to purchase. That’s all you need.
Okay, Onward Nation – that was Money Draining Mistake #3…High Bounce Rate.
Now, if you if you are hearing those voices in your head – if you are having thoughts that are even remotely similar to what I described at the beginning of this episode – don’t run -- let those thoughts be your litmus test – they are telling you that you are heading in the right direction.
Push forward – don’t stop – don’t let your fear hold you back from breaking through to that next level.
And remember, you are the average of the people you spend the most time with…and look who Stacey Alcorn from episode #3 is spending the most time with.
She refers to herself as “A billionaire in the making.” And in order for that vision for her life to become a reality – she knows that she needs to spend as much time as possible with other billionaires.
Well, I will let you in on a secret she told me during our interview – Stacey didn’t have those connections several years ago.
But she DECIDED that was going to change and then she took action to make it happen.
I hope that makes sense.
Okay, Onward Nation – I hope this solocast was valuable to you.
Please drop me a line and let me know what you thought. You can share your comments at the bottom of the show notes for this episode – or – you can email me anytime at Stephen @ onwardnation.com and yes – that is my actual email address – comes directly to me – no fancy filter, routing, or sorting…comes right to my Inbox. Feel free to use it anytime.
Let me know…thumbs up or thumbs down?
Drop me a line.
I will be back tomorrow with another amazing interview with one of today’s top business owners.
Until then…onward with gusto!
Stephen
You can find us at: -----OnwardNation.com------
Todd Kim has helped personal clients, business owners, professionals and financial institutions reach and maximize their financial goals for over 20-years. As a trusted financial advisor, Todd has worked with many retirees and pre-retirees in the construction and implementation of secure retirement income plans avoiding risks and maximizing full income potentials. Todd is considered a specialist in his field, coaching and training other advisors and financial and legal professionals seeking direction in the design and execution of well-crafted, defined benefit plans.
Secret – timesaving technique Todd visualizes what will happen each day – focus on the outcome. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Separate your negative energy – Todd uses visualization to achieve objectivity.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Todd lost 70-80% of his business fast – and Todd tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “Have a good succession plan in place – have a strong retirement cash flow.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Do the job right the first time – put yourself in the place of the business owner.”
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have put in a higher quality system of checks and accountability – define roles and responsibilities.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Consistently survey your clients – find out what they’re interested in.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual would focus, focus, focus – and give them a permission slip to give complaints without penalty.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Keep your overhead low – don’t dream too big 2. Be focused on your marketing – market your product in a way that’s not expensive 3. Be in tune with what your clients want – what they want may be different than what they say they want
How best to connect with Todd: * (801) 797-6232 * galileofn.com/
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Cathy Mendell has an extensive background in business development and growth management. Her roles have included 25-years as a senior executive with a Fortune 500 company. Additionally, she has been a founder and Vice President of Sales in two startup companies. Cathy has taken her passion for business growth to a new level in assisting individuals in their financial success. Cathy is also the Fundraising Chair for The Orphanages of Kenya. She is responsible for the funding resources of the orphanage — and through her efforts — 36 children now have a home to call their own, loving guardians, medical care, and are receiving an education.
Secret – timesaving technique Cathy keeps the main thing the main thing – don’t get distracted. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Find your quiet time – Cathy gets up early and focuses.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Cathy had to back away from her business – and Cathy tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “Success is the result of your daily actions – the compound effect of what you do daily brings success.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Change the word ‘but’ to ‘and’ – it changes a wall into a door.”
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have been more focused – concentrate on your goals.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Decide what you want – find what doesn’t work – pay the price.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual matches your own commitment – and don’t hire too soon.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Believe in your mission – understand your impact 2. Spend the time you need to train – find the people that can make you better
How best to connect with Cathy: * orphanagesofkenya.org
You can find us here: ------OnwardNation.com------
Patricia Fripp is one of the few professional speakers who can transform the presentation skills of others — she is an executive speech coach and sales presentation skills trainer. Kiplinger’s Personal Finance wrote that “one of the best investments in your career is Patricia’s presentation skills training.” She is now virtually everywhere with her interactive training, FrippVT.com.
Secret – timesaving technique Patricia is disciplined – and she lives a good, clean life. ONWARD!
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “You need to be able to tell your story effectively – answer the question of what do yo do in an interesting and not a dull, predictable way.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Don’t concentrate on making a lot of money – concentrate on becoming the type of person people want to do business with and you most likely will make money.”
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” How do you make the audience the hero of the presentation? Find the heroes in your own life – talking about them will earn you respect with your audience
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Take advantage of all the digital tools that are available to you today that weren’t around when I stated 2. Target the people you already know for future business 3. Stop considering customers your customers – they’ll leave
How best to connect with Patricia: * FrippVT.com/ * Fripp.com/
You can find us here: ------OnwardNation.com------
Anthony is the Managing Director of B2B Sales Coach & Consultancy, a boutique sales coaching and consulting firm. Anthony works with Fortune 500 sales organizations like Accenture, Abbott Laboratories, and CH Robinson. He helps companies produce increase sales by improving individual sales representative performance, providing tools and methodologies for more effective sales management, and through executive level coaching to senior managers. Anthony is a prolific writer, posting daily to his personal blog: The Sales Blog, which was named the #1 sales blog in the world in 2010. Anthony was named one of the 50 most influential people in sales and marketing in 2012. He also publishes a bi-monthly column in the Think Sales Journal and is a Contributing Editor at SUCCESS Magazine.
Secret – timesaving technique Anthony spends Saturday organizing his life and Sunday planning his week – be proactive, not reactive. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Have coffee and head to the gym – Anthony creates the energy he needs to succeed each day.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Anthony had his revenue cut by 45% in one day – and Anthony tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “You have to figure things out – answer the questions that haven’t been asked yet.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Your job is to go out and create as much value as you can in the area where you can make the greatest difference.”
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have figured out who my dream clients are very early – don’t get distracted by “opportunities.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Businesses exist to create customers – take care of sales and marketing first.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual is resourceful – and has the initiative to get it done.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Focus on sales and marketing – feed your marketplace with the “why” you are different 2. Make sure your employees understand the “why” 3. Become a sales leader
How best to connect with Anthony: * http://thesalesblog.com/
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Good Morning, Onward Nation…I’m Stephen Woessner.
Since the advent of the commercial Internet…I have collected tens of thousands of data points that have given me the ability to identify what I call the 8 Money Draining Mistakes. These are the things that literally cause a business website – like yours – to leak serious money every day.
You may remember that I mentioned the Money Draining Mistakes during episode #68…but we didn’t have time to dig deep.
So for today’s solocast, I decided to loop back around and dedicate today’s episode toward how to fix one of the most expensive mistakes.
It’s Money Draining Mistake #5…and I call it “Not Knowing Your Customer.”
I am excited to share this strategy and recipe with you because every time I sit down to prepare for a solocast…I think about you…and what I hope will be the result outcomes for you as a result of you listening and applying what you learn.
Why do I do this?
Because we all have the same 86,400 seconds in a day and I take it very seriously that you chose to share some of your invaluable time with me today. As a result…I put in the time – the hard work to ensure that I deliver significant value.
It needs to be a fair trade of your time for the business value I deliver. I consider your time investment to be sacred.
So here it is – for this episode – we are going to dig deep into why most companies do not know their customers – how they miss the single WORD that could completely alter the customer relationship – and I am going to give you a specific step-by-step strategy or recipe for understanding exactly how to connect with your customers on a different and more valuable level than what you may be doing currently.
My hope for you is that you will take this recipe – apply it – and see predictable, measurable, and repeatable increases in sales inside your business as a result.
This episode represents such a significant opportunity for you and your business because only about 5% of the business owners listening right now will take action on the steps I share. You may nod your head in agreement – maybe even take some notes – or share this episode with a colleague.
But ultimately, your inaction will signify your acceptance of operating your business – and maybe even your life – at the level of the status quo. Onward Nation – please don’t let this be you!
Don’t fall into the trap of procrastination. My hope for you is that you will take the notes – have the discussions with your team – and then put the steps into action – swiftly.
This strategy has the potential of being a game-changer for you.
Let’s begin. First…I will ask you a question.
What’s the number one reason people buy anything? I will give you a hint. It has nothing to do with the features, advantages, or benefits of the product or service.
In fact – it has everything to do with just one, four-letter word.
And that word is “HOPE.”
The only reason we buy anything is because we HOPE that tomorrow will somehow be better than today as a result of buying the product or service we are considering. That’s it – HOPE.
So in order for you to fix this Money Draining Mistake you need to understand how to make an emotional and empathetic connection with your prospects and customers.
You do this by becoming a HOPE Dealer to your customers.
Let’s take this a little bit deeper with another question.
What percent of people make a purchase decision based solely on emotional reasons?
Would you guess 20%? 30%? 50%?
The answer is 100%.
Yes, 100%. We like to think that we are such rational creatures and we only make decisions based on objective data and thoughtful analysis. But the reality is that all of our decisions – yes, 100% of them – are made for purely emotional reasons.
I explain why within the solocast.
This is an incontrovertible fact. Therefore, you need to understand your prospects and customers from an emotional perspective.
You need to understand their challenges.
You need to understand their pain points.
And as one of my mentors, Darren Hardy likes to say, you need to metaphorically “Lay in their bed at night” to understand what is causing them pain.
So during this solocast, I share eight specific questions you and your team need to ask each other and then go out and ask your prospects and customers the same questions.
Once you have collected that data – you will have all you need in order to create your customer or client “Avatar.”
CAUTION!
Your avatar is one person. Not an email list of 20,000 people. One person and you give him or her a name, a personality, you hang a photo of her on your conference room wall, and every time you write an email campaign, shoot a video, etc. you speak directly to your avatar.
For example...when I am not interviewing today’s top business owners for Onward Nation episodes, I am the CEO of Predictive ROI…a digital marketing agency that specializes on delivering guaranteed sales and financial return on investment for our clients, or our work is free.
So at Predictive ROI…our client avatars are “Harry” and “Sally” (we chose those names because “When Harry Met Sally” is one of my favorite movies of all time).
And this is Sally:
- Sally and her team are ambitious and want to learn new things
- She knows there is more opportunity and growth “out there” and is frustrated she does not know how to capitalized on it, faster
- She reads lots of books but doesn’t know a good idea from a bad one
- She is uncertain and afraid to fail
- She has been fooled before and does not know who to believe
- Everything sounds too good to be true
- And Sally has said to me…“Stephen...I want to trust you...that you can do what you say you can do...show me the evidence quickly that it is working and that you are delivering on your promises”.
During more than one prospect client presentation, “Sally” has said to me – “My goodness, that is me.” I smile when it happens because I know we just made a powerful connection.
You can too if you answer the eight questions in this episode and apply what you learned.
In closing…remember this reality…you are the average of the people you spend the most time with.
So you need to spend your time with people you have a common future with – not a common past.
And by consistently listening to Onward Nation – you are spending time with today’s top business owners…the people who are crushing it and already at the next level…the people whose recipes and strategies can help you grow your business, make your network more robust, and become more influential.
All so you can reach your goals and move your business onward to that next level.
I hope that makes sense.
Okay, Onward Nation – my hope is this solocast was valuable to you.
Please drop me a line and let me know what you thought.
Keep the feedback coming.
You can reach me directly at stephen at OnwardNation.com and let me know -- thumbs up or thumbs down?
Onward with gusto!
-- Stephen
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Payman Taei is the founder of Visme and HindSite Interactive. In late 2001 he started creating websites for businesses to pay his way through college. With $170 and a vintage Pentium processor in the corner of a small apartment, over the last 14 years he grew HindSite to a stable award winning web consulting company with two profitable divisions; a web consulting firm and a Software as a Service (Visme) which allows 250,000 businesses and individuals to create professional presentation and infographics right in their browser.
Secret – timesaving technique Payman has a daily task/goal list to stay focused – be productive every day. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Be consistent – Payman sees success by keeping clear, consistent goals in sight.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Payman’s nine-month developed product wasn’t being used – and Payman tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “You need to have passion to be a business owner – you’ll only get so far without it.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “There is no shortcut – extremely hard work allows you to achieve your goals.”
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have listened to my instincts – be grounded.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Listen to your customers – but know when to say no.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual is in line without vision – and is passionate about our business.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Be ready to change angles at any given time 2. Create a product you know there’s a need for – and make it the best product you can 3. Differentiate yourself from the field
How best to connect with Payman: * https://twitter.com/PaymanTaei * https://www.linkedin.com/pub/payman-taei/0/973/8b4
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Dr. Marcie Beigel has been redesigning behavior for professionals, families, schools, and businesses for over 15 years. Her specialty is engaging with behaviors directly and giving clear and insightful directives to clients who are oftentimes business owners looking for balance at home to help create balance at work or new approaches to become better leaders. Her approach is heartfelt, but filled with tough love. You can get her weekly behavior newsletter at BehaviorAndBeyond.net. Dr. Marcie is also featured on NBC's Parenting Toolkit.
Secret – timesaving technique Dr. Marcie delegates tasks so that she has the time to do the things she loves – hire employees that love the tasks you don’t. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Never stop learning – Dr. Marcie continues to learn so she can share her knowledge with others.
Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Dr. Marcie had to completely rehaul her business model – and Dr. Marcie tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “You catch more bees with honey than with vinegar – find the positive way to get it done.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “It’s never personal.”
Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have scheduled everything – my calendar used to only include my appointments with other people.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Business owners need to lead by example – actions speak louder than words.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual treats the business as their own – and brings their own dreams to the table.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Mean what you say and say what you mean 2. Take massive action – actions speak louder than words 3. Treat everyone around you with amazing gratitude and appreciation
How best to connect with Dr. Marcie: * http://www.behaviorandbeyond.net/
You can also find us at: ------OnwardNation.com------
Cody is one of the three Founders of Advisors Excel. In 2004, after leaving a corporate job to partner with David Callanan to be financial advisors, they decided there was an opportunity in the marketplace. So, in 2005, along with Derek Thompson, they formed Advisors Excel. Currently, Cody plays an integral part in the development and execution of the revolutionary marketing and training systems that Advisors Excel continues to bring to the table for their advisors.
Advisors Excel has become one of the fastest growing insurance marketing organizations in the country, and their story has been featured in SUCCESS Magazine, Cody was interviewed by Darren Hardy publisher of SUCCESS who also profiled Advisors Excel in his latest book The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster. Cody and his organization were also featured in Tony Robbins' #1 New York Times bestselling book, Money -- Master the Game.
Secret -- timesaving technique Cody focuses on three priorities that align with their organizational model. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Cody likes to wake up early to exercise, which fuels his energy for the rest of the workday.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Cody dealt with a family member running into financial trouble -- and Cody tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “Business owners need to provide a clear corporate vision -- only the owner is responsible for this vision.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Nothing beats hard work -- success comes to those who put the hours in -- serve the client"
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have gone back and implemented a team-building system versed in unity and collaboration.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Business owners need to create a favorable client-experience -- it’s about a personalized positive impact.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who is honest -- trustworthy -- and has an unwavering attitude due to their effort.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Accept Responsibility 2. Simplify your Business
How best to connect with Cody: * http://www.advisorsexcel.com/team/cody-foster.php
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Misty is the founder, president, and energized force behind More Than Just Great Dancing. Her mantra that drives her and her team of 39 is “We don’t teach kids to make great dancers, we teach dance to make great kids.”
Misty’s studio is frequently recognized as one of the best in the dance studio industry. Her Performance Companies have performed at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York, on Carnival Cruise Lines, and at Walt Disney World. Misty is a sought after mentor, speaker, and recently shared her business methods as a guest blogger for SUCCESS.com.
Secret -- timesaving technique Don’t look in the rearview mirror -- look forward -- make a calendar -- own your time. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Misty likes to wake up early -- eat the biggest frog first and everything else will become much easier.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Misty opened a second location after quick success -- and Misty tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “Business owners need to limit interruptions and regain their focus so they can work towards a goal.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Leave a great taste -- the customer needs to either touch, taste, or feel a difference.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have went back and implemented a CRM system to help with our personal data collection.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Business owners need to have a JAM session -- this uninterrupted session helps to move the ball forward.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who understands everyone is self-employed -- we can’t write a check if the money’s not coming in.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Overcome the battle 2. The wolf you feed the most wins
How best to connect with Misty: * http://mistylown.com/
You can also find us here: ------OnwardNation.com------
Hamid is addicted to the high of making products that people love to use. Sometimes, the users even pay for them, which is how he funds his enormously high cost of body-hair removal. Along the way, he’s made a couple of companies including Axosoft and Pure Chat and has helped Arizona’s tech scene create its voice with AZTechBeat.com. He’s passionate not only about achieving financial success in business but also success in health and wellness as an owner and also for his employees.
Secret -- timesaving technique Hamid tries to focus on one task at a time -- don’t get caught up in the daily complexities that tie business owners down. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Coffee! Hamid drinks three cups a day to refuel his energy reserve -- it’s a great decision-making partner.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Hamid learned through experimentation -- and Hamid tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “Business owners should learn to make the best decision for their company by first determining the correct path.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Entrepreneurs have to understand the more is better attitude is a complex and dangerous strategy.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have gone back and implemented a system to help our team gain market share through sustainable resourcing.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Business owners need to think outside of their wheelhouse of expertise and continually evaluate consumer sentiments.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who looks at work as a personal craft -- it’s viewed as a major contribution to the universe.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Self-doubt can be conquered 2. Simplify your business -- less is more
How best to connect with Hamid: * http://www.hamidshojaee.com/
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Mike Kawula is the CEO of Social Quant, a tool that helps entrepreneurs increase their marketing impact on Twitter. Michael has started and sold several businesses with his most recent being ranked the 144th fastest growing company by Inc. Magazine. He’s an author of Social Media book “Connect”, has been featured in 100’s of publications & media outlets and has been interviewed by Anthony Robbins & the late Chet Holmes.
Secret -- timesaving technique Michael makes a list of activities -- and circles a few vital priorities to tackle in the morning. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Look at analytics -- measuring your activity can be a very effective way to gauge progress.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Michael’s primary account was frozen due to the rapid success of his online business -- and Michael tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “Business owners should consider feedback from their customer base -- and grow through implementing solutions.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have gone back and implemented a system versed in interpersonal customer service during onboarding.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Business owners need to break down their planning into different quadrants to record those big wins.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who finds new ways to overcome traditional problems -- with the ability to think outside the box.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Measure everything 2. Continually evaluate your business
How best to connect with Michael: * https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelkawula
You can also find us here: ------OnwardNation.com------
Get ready to have your thinking challenged and expanded as you learn from an internationally recognized leadership expert. Mark is a bestselling author and noted authority on leadership, service and extraordinary performance. His bestselling book “The Fred Factor”, which sold more than 2 million copies to date has established him as the expert on turning the ordinary into the extraordinary, in business and in life. Mark is an adjunct professor at the University of Memphis. He is featured by Crestcom in DVD-based training taught in 90 countries. His list of 2,500+ clients include Harley-Davidson, Costco, Cisco, ESPN, First Data, and many others.
Secret -- timesaving technique Mark reverse engineers his priorities by looking at the accomplishments for an organization then peeling back the steps. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Think proactively -- don’t get caught up within burdensome reactions during the workday.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Mark had to learn to build reserves in 2008 -- and Mark tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “Business owners should learn to identify key competencies that make their organization great.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “In retrospect, you have to choose good partners, comprehensive systems, and find a single way to maintain success.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have went back and implemented a system versed in maintaining success over a prolonged period.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Business owners need to get their teams together and make top-ten lists to clarify blurry objectives.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who can grow from a good performer to a superstar by taking on those big challenges. “ABCD”
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Put in the work 2. Have Fun
How best to connect with Mark: * http://www.marksanborn.com/
You can also follow us here: ------OnwardNation.com------
Howard Partridge grew up on welfare in Mobile, Alabama and left home at 18. He arrived in Houston, Texas on a Greyhound bus with only 25 cents in his pocket. At age 23, he started his first business out of the trunk of his car and built it up to a multi-million dollar enterprise. He has owned 9 small businesses altogether and owns 4 companies at the time of this printing.
He is president of Phenomenal Products, Inc. which helps small business owners stop being slaves to their businesses by transforming it into a predictable, profitable, turnkey operation. For the past two decades, Howard has helped small business owners around the world dramatically improve their businesses. He currently has coaching members in 97 industries and 7 countries.
Howard Partridge is a #1 Amazon.com best selling author of four books. He has led hundreds of seminars, webinars, workshops and holds his own live multi-day events which have featured some of America's top business trainers including John Maxwell, Michael Gerber, Bob Burg, Dr. Joseph A. Michelli, Darren Hardy, Dr. Robert Rohm and American legend Zig Ziglar.
Secret -- timesaving technique Howard believes an organizational system can turn into a huge timesaving technique. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Howard enjoys reading -- building relationships -- and working on personal development.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Howard’s company accumulated debt over a period of time -- and Howard tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “Business owners should learn to build and maintain mutually beneficial meaningful relationships.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Find the people who have already been where you want to go -- personal growth is unlimited.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have gone back and implemented a five spoke system that’s versed in comprehensive development.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Business owners will record big wins if executive leadership can effectively communicate their vision.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who understands their own potential -- the opportunity within our organization -- and the five spoke system.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Encourage others 2. Build Relationships 3. Be accountable
How best to connect with Howard: * http://howardpartridge.com/
You can also find us at: ------OnwardNation.com------
16 Years ago, Bryan took the leap to being accountable for his own results! After coming close to bankruptcy twice, and co-raising 4+ children, Bryan and his team are now celebrating The Results Group’s 10th year in business! The Results Group is the Master Distributor in North America for Innermetrix. His team supports clients across the US with a psychometric suite of tools that provide business owners and executives with insights into the most valuable asset in their company, THEIR PEOPLE! Bryan’s organization empowers clients to do what every consultant wishes they could do…GET RESULTS! Bryan’s team instructs and supports all of the HR Managers and VPs to get results immediately at the point of incident versus waiting to talk later. As you will hear in Bryan’s voice and throughout this conversation — he is passionate about helping people get better results more often with less energy!
Secret -- timesaving technique Productivity is derived from unwavering performance -- continual learning is essential. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Brian turns his nearly 35 miles commute into a mobile classroom with audio recordings.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience We almost had to file for bankruptcy during a rough patch -- and Brian tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “An organizational system has to be revisited -- look at your practices daily and reevaluate.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Would your client still say yes today -- serve the client -- earn the right year after year.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have went back and implemented a client tracking system versed in data collection.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Business owners will record big wins by measuring the performance of their organization and evaluating talent.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who understands there's not a shortcut -- fail and get up again -- put in the work.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Give back to the community 2. Get better -- play where others aren't playing
How best to connect with Brian: * http://www.whatsyourgenius.com/find-a-coach/bryan-arzani-the-results-group-llc
You can also find us here: ------OnwardNation.com------
Croft believes that if a leader wants a different result, if they want to create a different future for their organization, change begins with them.
Croft Edwards passion is coaching clients to reach for #LeadershipFlow - a heightened state of being which in turn produces peak performance at critical moments. His methodology has evolved over many years of leadership in the military, and coaching business leaders and teams. His approach begins with Self Mastery, where clients develop a clear understanding of themselves and what is masking their authentic nature. A powerful synthesis of language, moods and emotion, and history are developed through three systems of action Croft calls:
- Visioning the Future
- Cultivating other Leaders and Teams
- Creating Culture and Expanding Capacity
A key result of #LeadershipFlow coaching is an increase in his client's capacity to navigate inevitable changes and crises. Since 2001 Croft has coached hundreds of individuals, from leaders and executives, to boots-on-the-ground team members, in both private and group settings.
Secret -- timesaving technique Mental perseverance can be derived from a morning workout routine, which helps an individual to remain focused during the workday. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Croft meditates throughout the day -- meditation is a great way to start and end the workday.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Croft had to overcome a client breakdown -- and Croft tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “Keep your calm -- there is always someone who’s overcome a far worse situation.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “You have the ability to envision your own future -- show up -- control your own destiny.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have gone back and implemented a system focused on continual self-improvement.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Business owners can lead a high-performing organization by showing they care -- set an example.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who is ready to become one of the biggest advocates for our company.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Manage your emotions 2. Effective communication is essential
How best to connect with Croft: * http://www.croftandcompany.com/
Find us at ------OnwardNation.com------
Laurie is Thomas College’s 5th President, and the first female and alumna, to lead the College in its 120-year history. From 2004 - 2012, Laurie served as President and CEO of the Maine Development Foundation. Prior to MDF, Laurie served three governors as the Maine State Economist and before joining state government, she served as the Corporate Economist at Central Maine Power Company.
Laurie frequent author and speaker on leadership, education, and the economy in the state of Maine. Laurie also has a passion for workforce development and job readiness so the graduates leaving Thomas College are ready and well able to deliver the most value possible to their employers — or — perhaps start their own businesses.
Secret -- timesaving technique Make a list of accomplishments -- try to stay within your framework to reach those specific goals. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Laurie writes down five things she’s grateful for each day -- ending the day with an attitude of gratitude helps you sleep easier.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience We failed to reach our enrollment target -- and Laurie tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “Provide a path for growth -- listen to feedback -- strive to be a leader who improves the lives of others.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Don’t tell them what they want to hear -- tell them what you believe to be the right answer.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have gone back and implemented a system that could be applied to multiple operations.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Business owners will record big wins by accepting feedback from peers as well as the greater community.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who can implement an actionable system versed in continued growth.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Beware of shortcomings 2. Invest in yourself -- personal growth
How best to connect with Laurie: * https://www.linkedin.com/pub/laurie-lachance/55/526/565 * http://www.thomas.edu/explore-about-thomas/our-president/
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
With her passion for problem solving and quest for continuous improvement, Christine works with businesses, brands, communities, and individuals to help build their path to success. As the only Certified Brand Strategist in New England, Christine is driven to discover her clients unique position, put a stake in the ground, and build programs to support company goals. She founded the agency over 20 years ago to help her clients solve business problems with creativity.
Prior to smith&jones, Christine worked for New York City ad agencies from creative boutiques to global firms. She took the good (amazing creative and incredible service), left the bad (bureaucracy, expensive sandwiches), and started up her own agency back in Sturbridge where she grew up.
In addition to the many creative awards bestowed upon her agency, Christine has also been named Business Person of the Year by her local Chamber of Commerce and one of Central Massachusetts Outstanding Women In Business by the Worcester Business Journal. Christine is a sought-after speaker on the topics of brand, integrated marketing, and ideation. She is an expert facilitator of workshops that help companies solve business problems creatively. She is author of the blog BrandStanza.com little ditties that build big brands, and a certified member of the Brand Establishment and member of Agency Management Institute.
Secret -- timesaving technique Christine take a few moments to daydream -- save time -- envision where you're headed. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Christine likes to see if she moved the ball down the field by employing a daily scorecard.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Christine learned to overcome entrepreneurial fear -- and Christine tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner needs to grow by overcoming challenges -- go out and conquer your fears.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Become your own personal brand -- authenticity and transparency leads to personal brand consistency.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have gone back and simplified our systems -- less is more when it comes to systems.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Business owners need to identify what makes their brand different from the competition.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who serves the client well -- collaborative, creative, curious and tenacious.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Have FUN 2. Problem Solve
How best to connect with Christine: * http://www.ideaagency.biz/agency/christine-tieri/
Find us at -------OnwardNation.com-------
Laura Henderson is a successful technology executive who first made her mark in the industry as the General Manager of TEKLYNX Americas, Inc., the leading global provider of barcode and label software. As a strategic, results-oriented leader with a keen ability to create high-performing operating cultures, Laura consistently achieved double-digit top and bottom-line growth at TEKLYNX.
After nearly two decades of success leveraging technological advancements for the betterment of businesses across a variety of industries, her marriage to a special education teacher, and being the mother of five children, Laura recognized a need for technological advancements in an entirely different area — the gap between education and 21st century skills.
So Laura set out to close the gap with the 2014 launch of a personalized learning software application called Epiphany Learning.
Secret -- timesaving technique Laura empowers others so that they can focus on a single vision, which eliminates major distractions. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Laura gets great sleep -- you have to take control of your daily schedule -- start with rest.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Laura had to deal with deconstructive criticism -- and Laura tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner needs to learn to inspire everyone that comes in contact with their business.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Positivity changes the dialogue in the office -- leadership is often derived from confidence.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have gone back and put a system in place with an emphasis on human capital and growth.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Business owners must invest in the maintenance and management of their teams.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who truly has a deep desire for lifelong learning and continual growth.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Consider the perspective 2. Seek feedback 3. It’s not personal
How best to connect with Laura: * https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauramariehenderson
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Steve Fry is the co-founder of three companies over the past 19 years under the umbrella of Spindustry...Spindustry Digital, a digital marketing agency (in 2013 named the top place to work in Iowa by the Des Moines Register... Spindustry Staffing, a professional services staffing company...and Spindustry Training, an IT training center. The Spindustry team achieved both Inc. 500 and Inc. 5000 recognition several times for these businesses and a variety of other "Bests" in their industry.
Secret -- timesaving technique Steve prioritizes by making a basic list, which helps manage the flow of the workday. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Steve has found great success by learning to network and service the local community.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Steve experienced a prolonged slowdown -- and Steve tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner needs to understand how to add value to their clients or the other businesses they service.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Surround yourself with people that are much smarter than you -- pick their brain.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have gone back and put a system in place to help our team cast a vision for the company.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Business owners must look at a candidates comprehensive talents during the hiring process.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who truly cares and feels good about the work they are doing for the company.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Study the intricacies of business 2. Act as if -- be who you want to be before you're there
How best to connect with Steve: * http://info.spindustry.com/blog/author/steve-fry * sfry@spindustry.com
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Sharon Toerek is Principal of Toerek Law, a national intellectual property and marketing law firm focused on helping professionals in the advertising, marketing and creative services industries protect and monetize their intellectual capital, and manage the legal implications of their marketing and advertising work. Toerek is also a frequent speaker to professional organizations, advertising agencies, in-house marketing teams, on marketing industry legal issues.
Secret -- timesaving technique Sharon prepares for tomorrow with a tactical pen to paper approach, which has a calming effect. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Sharon takes the time to call her family on a daily basis -- it is a great way to show you care.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Sharon had to learn to make timely decisions -- and Sharon tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner needs to learn to communicate -- without hiding behind new media platforms.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “You learn the most from the people you expect to be the least influential -- recognise it and listen.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have gone back and put a system in place to help identify patterns and common problems among clients.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Business owners who have unwavering confidence in their judgement at all times.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who can think strategically -- find viable solutions -- and make a difference for our clients.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Networking 2. Timeliness and Stress Management 3. Finding a Niche
How best to connect with Sharon: * http://www.legalandcreative.com
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Good Morning, Onward Nation…Stephen Woessner here.
I am going to continue the solocast momentum that was started last week in episode 65 with today’s episode – episode 68.
I am pleased to report that last week’s solocast went well – despite making me uncomfortable and really pushing my comfort zone – smiling – so I am going move onward with gusto and record a new solocast once a week so I can really dig deep into a topic or a business issue.
I will then share strategies and ideas that we have tested and applied in our companies so you have the same opportunity to apply those recipes into your business.
As I prepare for each of these solocasts…I think about you…and what I hope will be the result outcome for you as a result of listening.
So here it is – for this episode – my hope for you is that this episode will help bring into focus the 6 Vital Metrics controlling your growth.
More specifically…here’s what we will cover during this episode.
1) We are going to define some terminology like Vital Priorities, Vital Functions, and Vital Metrics.
2) I will show you how to identify the 5 or 6 Vital Metrics you need to pay attention to in order to ensure that your sales and marketing strategies are turning your business into what I like to call a “Sales Generating Machine”.
3) And lastly…I want you to give me a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” on this episode by reaching out to me at stephen at onwardnation.com.
So let’s get started.
The first term we need to define it Vital Priorities. What are they and why are they relevant?
Let’s think of Vital Priorities as your big goals over the next 12-months – and if we didn’t accomplish anything else – the year would have still been a major success. But if you didn’t accomplish these goals, then the rest of the year would not have mattered.
That is the incredible importance of Vital Priorities.
Then there are Vital Functions and those are the skills – the processes – the talents you possess that make you the best inside your company at certain tasks and projects. We aren’t going to spend time delving into Vital Functions during this solocast but I will likely dedicate a future show specifically to taking Vital Functions deep.
Then there are the Vital Metrics and this is how you should quantify and measure your success – your progress toward accomplishing your Vital Priorities.
I should also cite the source and give credit where credit it due. The terminology of Vital Priorities, Vital Functions, and Vital Metrics is not my own. It is a process – a strategy – that I learned from one of my influential mentors, Darren Hardy, Publisher of SUCCESS Magazine. Darren and I have spent a lot of one-on-one time together – some of it painful – because learning those lesson that need to be learned can sometimes be a painful experience.
Darren has been an incredible mentor.
Before I share the Vital Priorities with you – let me proactively answer a question that tends to cloud the minds of business owners. Oftentimes a business owner will say to me, “Stephen, this sounds great but I have people on my team who do this digital marketing stuff. Why do I need to care about this? I don’t want to learn it.”
You don’t need to be the one who pulls the levers or turns the knobs, but if you don’t pay attention to the scorecard, no one else will. I asked Avinash Kaushik, digital marketing evangelist for Google the same question, and his answer was, “It's because if you care about it — and you understand it — then you will be rich. But if you just dump it on someone else's lap, then you will be poor. That should be incentive enough." Well, said Avinash.
Here are the three Vital Priorities:
1) Acquisition: you need to pay attention to the amount of traffic flow to your digital existence – your website – and the sources of that traffic to ensure the sources are high quality and consist of the right audience. If your site is attracting the wrong traffic from the wrong sources, your lead generation and revenue generation efforts will suffer.
2) Engagement: yes, Facebook Likes, Twitter followers, comments, shares, etc. are all valuable metrics that indicate engagement with your content and online community. But for the “engagement” Vital Priority, what you should be looking for is a reduction in bounce rate, increase in time on site, or other metrics that indicate the behavior of your audience is indicating that you are creating well-prepared prospects.
3) Transaction: this is the ultimate litmus test of success – did you sell something? Were you able to convert site traffic into leads and then those leads into buyers? Did the average conversion value increase, did the number of days to convert someone from a lead into a sale decrease, and did total company revenue increase? If not, then the strategy / recipe needs to be revisited with your team and likely revised.
Along with the three Vital Priorities, there are also 6 Vital Metrics. And they are:
1) Change (increase / decrease) in unique website visitors
2) Change (increase / decrease) in conversion rate of unique website visitors into email optins for Flitz
3) Change (increase / decrease) in conversion rate of email optins into buyers
4) Change (increase / decrease) in overall conversion rate of site visits into buyers
5) Change (increase / decrease) in average order value
6) Increase in total company revenue
And during the solocast…I also explain the S.M.A.R.T. framework to goal setting and how the lack of baselines and S.M.A.R.T. goals creates one of the most expensive Money Draining Mistakes for an organization.
In closing…remember this reality…you are the average of the people you spend the most time with.
So you need to spend your time with people you have a common future with – not a common past.
And by consistently listening to Onward Nation – you are spending time with today’s top business owners…the people who are crushing it and already at the next level…the people whose recipes and strategies can help you grow your business, make your network more robust, and become more influential.
All so you can reach your goals and move your business onward to that next level.
I hope that makes sense.
Okay, Onward Nation – my hope is this solocast was valuable to you.
Please drop me a line and let me know what you thought.
Keep the feedback coming.
You can reach me directly at stephen at OnwardNation.com and let me know -- thumbs up or thumbs down?
Onward with gusto!
-- Stephen
Jane Park is the President and co-owner of Belle Destination Weddings & Events, Inc., a luxury wedding planning and design firm based on the island of Maui. Jane began her event planning career in 2005. After working in the industry for another planning firm, Jane identified a lack of luxury planning & design services in the Hawaii destination event industry. Focusing on this niche, she formed Belle Destination Weddings & Events in 2008.
Undeterred by the bleak state of the economy at the start of the recession, Jane began Belle with one motto, "Do things the right way the first time around", setting up her business to grow successfully. She was joined 2 years later by fellow event designer and business partner, Lena Sebag. With the addition of Lena's talents, the two catapulted Belle Destination Weddings & Events into the company that it is today. With an almost obsessive attention to detail, an emphasis for design, and a "little black book" of some of Hawaii's leading professionals, Belle quickly climbed the ranks of Hawaii's elite event planners. Today, Belle Destination Weddings & Events is one of the most successful planning firms in the industry and was voted one of Hawaii's Fastest 50 growing small businesses for 2015 by Pacific Business News.
Secret -- timesaving technique Jane makes a master list of priorities for each of her individual clients and updates the lists daily. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Jane exercises in the morning because it cultivates positives vibes for the workday.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Jane launched her business during the recession -- and she tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner needs to create an organizational system and learn to communicate effectively.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Preparation is essential for business owners -- always prepare before the event.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have gone back and put a system in place to help us with strategic marketing.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Business owners who deliver inimitable service to others -- resourcefulness -- and open-minded problem solving.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who maintains a positive attitude -- and is fully committed to the client.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Do it the right way 2. Build a strong foundation
How best to connect with Jane: * http://www.belledestinationevents.com
Find us on iTunes at ---------- OnwardNation.com ----------
When Ty was 21 years old, he and his brother Scott started a business in direct sales, which they built to over $20 million in annual revenue while still in their twenties. Since that time, he has developed over 500 sales managers globally with sales and leadership in 37 countries. As a young entrepreneur, Ty continues to engage his teams focus to grow sales. He uses the power of influence and storytelling to get buy-in to the vision of growing their multimillion-dollar sales organization.
With a natural ability to engage and empower others, Ty draws on his experience in the trenches to share real and tangible techniques about the principles of leadership that continue to create his success. The founder of Leadership Inc., who has been featured as one of the Top 40 Under 40, Ty is a young fresh voice providing interactive presentations that are engaging, dynamic and inspiring.
His clients include some of the most recognizable brands in the world such as: Coca-Cola, Subway, Wounded Warrior Project, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Remax. Ty has shared the stage with celebrities, Olympians and world-renowned thought leaders such as President Bush and President Clinton.
Ty's best-selling books The Power of Influence and The Power of Storytelling: The Art of Influential Communication are used in graduate courses at multiple universities including MIT, as today's version of How to Win Friends and Influence People.
In June 2014, Ty Bennett received the CSP Designation. At just 32 years of age, he is one of the youngest ever to receive the award in the shortest amount of time. Less than 5% of speakers earn the CSP honor.
Ty lives in Utah with his wife Sarah, daughters Andie and Lizzy and sons Tanner and Drew.
Secret -- timesaving technique Developing a morning routine is essential -- starting your day early is a vital priority for Ty. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Ty has a few daily habits -- prayer, meditation, and a moderate exercise at the gym.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Ty had to overcome a few emotional roller coasters -- and Ty tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner needs focus on their strengths -- become a true leader -- and learn to inspire others.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Make sure to write the book for the reader -- not for the writer -- find a way to inspire your audience.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have gone back and put a training system in place to help with our sales distribution.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Business owners who plan and prioritize effectively will be able to develop a habitual routine that compounds over time.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who goes beyond their specific role and truly cares about our work.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Find a mentor 2. Don’t quite because it’s totally worth it
How best to connect with Ty: * http://tybennett.com
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Good Morning, Onward Nation…Stephen Woessner here…
I am going to do something really different for this episode…episode 65 (and I cannot believe this is 65 already).
I decided to go solo today and fly this episode without a guest.
And I did that because recently I was having a conversation with one of my mentors and he said to me…”Stephen, Onward Nation is great and it is wonderful how you always put the spotlight on the business owners – the incredible guests on your show – but I want to know more about what you think – what your path has been – tell me more about what you think about the same questions you ask your guests.”
And I thought – wow – that is a really good question – but it really pushed my comfort zone. Although as I thought about his question -- I realized this would be an opportunity to add and share value with you, Onward Nation, in a completely different way.
So I accepted his challenge – and depending on how this episode goes – I am planning to record a new solocast once a week where I really dig deep into a topic or business issue – strategies and ideas – recipes I have learned that you can apply into your business right away to make it more systematic, predictable, repeatable, and measurable.
Again…this is my first solocast – and it feels a bit awkward – so I’d really like your feedback after you listen – drop me a line – let me know – thumbs up or thumbs down. Trust me – I love feedback – good – bad – whatever. So please share it with me.
Before we dive in…and if you’re listening to Onward Nation now for the first time…I will give a very brief personal intro to provide some context behind the voice.
Hi…I’m Stephen Woessner. I am the host of Onward Nation – but – when I am not interviewing today’s top business owners, I am the CEO of Predictive ROI…a digital marketing agency…and I don’t particularly like that label because Predictive does so much more than digital marketing. Yes, we do the traditional things like increasing site traffic, leads, and sales. But what makes us truly unique…is our ability to predict a client’s increase in sales…their actual financial return on investment in the form of dollars and cents…and then guarantee that performance…or our work is free. And because of that – we find ourselves deep inside a client’s systems, inventory, sales team, and all sorts of business development processes.
I love the problem solving work we do – it oftentimes reminds me of my days of troubleshooting when I was a missile technician working inside nuclear missiles silos on the prairies of South Dakota while I was in the Air Force many years ago. I have been in digital marketing since the advent of the commercial Internet. I am the best selling author of two books in the area, I spent nearly 6 years at the University of Wisconsin – at the La Crosse campus, and I taught throughout the state include the UW-Madison School of Business, and my business building insights have been featured in Inc. Magazine, Entrepreneur, Forbes, SUCCESS, The Washington Post and some other media. And I am currently working on my third book.
Okay, let’s press on to something more valuable like solving big challenges in our business – big obstacles – those things that are really holding you back from jumping off the plateau you may be on right now – and leaping onward to that next level.
That’s what we are going to focus on during this episode.
First, we all know that building and scaling a business is hard work. But when you have the right strategy – that right “recipe for success” to follow – the action steps become more like “ingredients” and can be added systematically into your business – one ingredient at a time.
And every day at Onward Nation, I have the incredible opportunity to interview today’s top business owners and ask them to share their specific recipes for success – and to break those strategies down into tactical step-by-step processes and systems.
I distilled all of those ideas, strategies, steps down into actionable “recipes” you can take and apply into your business right away.
If you are not familiar with my recipe and ingredient thought process – you may be thinking you just walked into a baking podcast by mistake. Close…but not quite.
Here let me explain the recipe metaphor this way…
Say I make the world’s best chocolate cake. And I grew up working in my mom’s bakery – so my chocolate cake is actually pretty good.
And say you come up to me and say, hey Stephen…I cannot bake anything, in fact, boiling what is hard for me…but…I love your chocolate cake. Could you teach me how to bake your cake so that it turns out just like yours?
How could that even be possible?
I’ve been perfecting my chocolate cake for the last 30 years…and you have zero baking skills.
How could you possibly think that you could duplicate my results?
To even have a shot at it – is there something I could give you – some edge – some insider’s knowledge?
Of course…I need to give you my recipe.
The recipe will act as your “strategy” behind the cake. Right?
With the recipe…you can see the entire process…the flow…the visualization of the goal…how you need to setup the environment, i.e. your kitchen…all the steps…all the tools you will need.
But the recipe is just one piece…what else do you need?
Right! The ingredients.
You need to know the specific amounts and specific qualities of the ingredients, right?
And then there is one more thing…you have the recipe…you have the ingredients…but…you must also follow the syntax.
And syntax is a fancy word that simply means the order of the process.
So think about a recipe you have followed in the past…we have all done this…we mix the eggs together with the flour before we put in the oil and now we have goo. Not awesome.
So the syntax…or the order in which we execute the strategy really matters.
So I’m going to share some incredible business building recipes with you…but I’m going to share the ingredients…and I’m going to give you the syntax or the process for all the steps.
Hopefully that makes sense.
And as Jim Rohn said…”You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”
Now, maybe you are hearing Jim’s pearls of wisdom in this quote for the first time. I was having lunch with some friends the other day and I shared that quote and I could tell they were a bit shocked by it – so I took another minute to explain.
I shared several scenarios to illustrate the powerful lesson Jim taught us in that quote…and I will share the same with you.
Say you’re walking down a hallway with your one of your top clients…and your client has a faster pace than you.
What do you do?
Do you walk your normal pace or do you speed up?
Does your client slow down?
Likely not.
Our natural instinct is to speed up – to keep pace.
So let’s consider a different scenario.
Let’s say this time you are walking with a group of four other people through the mall and they are all walking slow…like dreadfully slow…painfully slow.
What do you do?
You may start to think of some creative ways to speed them up…but they don’t speed up…in fact…they may even slow down further…but how is this possible?
And if you try to speed up…you simply get out in front of them and create stress for yourself and for the group.
Here’s the reality: you will not de-stress until you are free from the slow group and find a group that wants to move at your same – faster speed – or potentially even faster than you so you are challenged to grow and speed up to keep up.
Because if you don’t…eventually you will slow your pace to confirm to the group – because you don’t want to be rude…so you slow down.
This episode will move at a pace and tempo that is uncommon…we are going to move at the pace of today’s top business owners.
And if you listen to Onward Nation on a consistent basis – today’s top business owners are the people you are spending time with – and that is awesome.
So here is the first lesson I want to share with you…if you want to move your business onward to that next level…then you need to spend time with business owners and mentors who are ALREADY at that next level – AND -- they move at a pace and tempo faster than you.
And when you join that group – or have that person as your mentor – you will grow.
Hope that makes sense – and I have prepared a very detailed recipe on mentorship for you during today’s discussion.
More on that in a few minutes.
So make it a commitment – to find other business owners who are already at that next level – and spend time with them – learn from them – and you will naturally speed up to keep pace and as a result you will be moving toward the next level yourself.
So here’s what I am going to cover during today’s episode – let’s call it an agenda of sorts – as Kim Garst said to me during our interview – “you gotta have a checklist, Stephen.”
1.First, I will show you how to spot the two biggest obstacles currently preventing you from moving your business onward to the next level
2.Second, I will show you how to attract the right mentors to help you overcome the obstacles and accelerate your results
3.Third, I will show you how to implement and master a specific system that will dramatically expand your network and sphere of influence
So let’s dive in.
What if I told you that the two biggest challenges preventing you from moving your business onward to the next level have nothing to do with the business climate, the economy, the skill level of your employees, the location of your business, your pricing strategy, your current customer base, the size of your marketing budget, the quality of your products, your distribution channels, or the myriad of other reasons we are given today by the media and government as to why businesses fail at such a staggering rate in this country.
What if the obstacles in your way had nothing to do with any of that?
And in instead, what was blocking you…the obstacles keeping your business in check…are the same obstacles that have always attempted to keep you in check throughout your entire life.
Your enemy is not the myriad of reasons I just listed off…instead…your first challenge…or better yet…your first enemy is the Fear of Poverty.
Many of you have read – but possibly not in a while – this incredible book, Think and Grow Rich published in 1937 by Napoleon Hill.
If you have listened to Onward Nation episodes – and my guess is you have or you would not be here this evening – our guests often reference Think & Grow Rich because it is a compendium of knowledge.
The book was made possible by Andrew Carnegie.
Carnegie at the time was the wealthiest man in the world, met Napoleon Hill, liked him and offered to commission him to open the doors to the greatest industrialists of the time.
That was 1908.
And he said, “I’ll open the doors if you’ll sit down with these top business owners and figure out their secrets to success. What they do, they’re methods, they’re mindsets that have caused their extraordinary success and you put it into a book and publish it and make it available to the world.”
So, Napoleon sat down with Henry Ford, Edison, Schwab, Wrigley, and both Rockefellers.
Imagine being able to spend time with those business owners and pull out their best ideas for success and achievement.
If you have read, studied, and applied the book…you understand the great knowledge in this book and are already ahead of 98% of your competition.
But often times…this book is an easy to forget treasure because it was written in 1937 – but the strategies in this book are still just as applicable today.
If you have not yet read, studied, and applied the book – then consider this a million dollar resource you have just been given. You can go to OnwardNation.com/book and get the Audible version of Think and Grow Rich for free…that’s OnwardNation.com/book.
The Fear of Poverty is one of the 6 basic fears but it is also the most pervasive, destructive, and confusing to understand. But why?
On the surface, it seems as though this fear would revolve around the fear of becoming poor – and there definitely is that component.
But, the way this particular fear manifests itself is what makes it easy to spot.
We become so fearful of poverty…that we freeze and are plagued with indecision, indifference, doubt, worry, over-caution, and procrastination.
Just when you ought to take action…you don’t.
When sales are declining…you ought to make more sales calls…but you don’t…you freeze because the fear of poverty has you paralyzed.
Just when you should be investing in that new expansion – that new marketing strategy – that new development – hiring new employees – you don’t.
You become overly cautious. Or…you disguise your caution by saying your “skeptical”. And by the way -- that is code for “I am afraid.”
You become so fearful of hitting the wall – that all you do is focus on the wall.
And then what happens?
Exactly…you end up hitting the wall.
To be clear…I am not suggesting that you throw caution into the wind and become financially irresponsible and then lose your business as a result of mismanagement.
That would be silly.
But I am trying to bring into focus that our Fear of Poverty can be one of the major obstacles that hold us back from the abundance at that next level.
And it doesn’t matter who you are – we have all felt it before – especially when trying to pursue something new – that next level.
Remember, if you focus on the wall…you will hit the wall.
But if you focus on the infield – you may still eventually hit the wall…but your opportunity likely increases by a factor of 10 IF you steer your business where you want it to go instead of letting yourself and your business become paralyzed by indecision, indifference, doubt, worry, over-caution, and procrastination.
So if the Fear of Poverty is the first challenge – what is the second one keeping you from moving your business forward?
It is the Fear of Criticism and is also one of the 6 basic fears…and it too is easy to spot.
This fear what prevents you from making that sales call to that prospective client everyone in town wants because you hear that voice inside your head that says…
“Oh come on…who do you think you’re kidding calling them? You have nothing to offer. They only work with big companies. You’re too small.”
You hear… "You’re not good enough…you don’t have the skills, you will never make it…why bother trying…there are others who are more gifted, talented, they already have all the connections…what could you possibly offer that would be unique and different…just try something that is more at your current level – call on someone smaller – don’t call the president or owner – call someone who reports to them – that would be easier."
"Why can’t you just be normal?"
The fear of criticism can be overcome with grit…with tenacity…with perseverance…with the shouting into the abyss…I will not be defeated.
You saying…"I will WIN THE DAY".
And when you do that – and I believe when you’re moving in the direction of God’s plan for your life – there is nothing that can stop you.
Now that we have identified the 2 biggest obstacles holding you back – which really aren’t obstacles at all are they – they all are in your mind – now let’s work through our first of several recipes this evening.
Recipe #1 focuses on mentorship.
If you have listened to our Onward Nation episodes, you already know that I ask every single guest to share the most influential lesson they ever learned from one of their mentors that helped them become the business owner they are today.
And wow…our guests have shared some outstanding lessons.
So for this solocast, I am going to share a very specific recipe for attracting and finding the right mentor because Onward Nation listeners have asked me exactly that – as well as to help them understand what would be expected of them as a mentee?
But first – let’s make this more specific. Why find a mentor?
And yes, there is a specific recipe you can use to find a mentor and I am going to share that with you.
Before I share the step-by-step ingredients to this powerful recipe…I will share something I have not shared during Onward Nation episodes…two of the most influential lessons I ever learned from one of my mentors…Darren Hardy, publisher of SUCCESS Magazine.
For 12-months, Darren was a member of our board of advisors at Predictive ROI. So we would get together either in-person or over the phone. And during one of our monthly calls, I explained to Darren some of my reservations about building a big business. I wasn’t sure how big I wanted Predictive ROI to become. And so I was nervous about it.
And I said, “Gosh, Darren – you know – I’ve never thought of myself as being a great manager of people. And quite frankly, honestly Darren, I kind of suck at it.”
And then Darren said to me, “Stephen…stop SUCKING at it!"
And I said, “What do you mean?”
And he said…”Don’t give me that lie or tell me that myth that you are telling yourself. Don’t use that as a fricken excuse to stop moving forward. Stop telling yourself that limiting belief and that lie that you’re not a good manager or leader. Be better at it. Don’t give me the excuse.”
And so I’m standing there almost like fricken naked – totally stripped down – I was like, holy crap, he totally called me on it right.
That’s embarrassing – because he was right!
And that’s what a good mentor does for you – they call you out when you need to be called out – they support you when you need to be supported and they teach you when you need to be taught. But they don’t do the hard work for you – that’s on you.
So here are the specific ingredients for finding the right mentor for you:
- Think about your own talents and skills you would like to strengthen -- weaknesses you would like to lessen -- areas of your business you would like to improve, etc.
- Then make a precise list that details everything you just thought about.
- This process helps you identify the person you need to become in order to move your business onward to the next level
- This is a really hard exercise because you have to force yourself to take a critical look at yourself (and by the way -- most people are not willing to get really honest with themselves -- and that is one of the major reasons they never grow)
- Once you have the list -- look for people who are crushing it in these areas -- the same areas where you need to grow.
- Then contact those people -- invite them to lunch -- let them know you are packed full of questions for them
- Be very prepared -- they will love that
- Interview them and put what they share with you into practice -- turn it into a blog post and your clients will love you for it
- Loop back to your mentors and share your success
- When you do, they will invite you to sit down so they can share more with you.
- Soak it all up -- then put it into practice.
Remember…a good mentee takes action on what is learned — and the responsibility is on you.
Let’s go deeper by taking a look at three of our Onward Nation guests and how they are crushing it with mentorship.
First, Don Yaeger – episode 2 of Onward Nation.
What is the difference between Don Yaeger and another professional speaker you could hire for an event?
Don has mentored with the greatest champions of our time – including Coach John Wooden for over 12 years…and Don distilled all of this knowledge into what he calls the 16 Characteristics of Greatness. Now, it would be easy to say – “Well sure, Stephen, Don can do that because he has all of the connections.” And true – Don can get anyone in the world of sports to take his call. In fact, I was staying with Don and his family for a week in Tallahassee and one morning, Don’s cell phone rang and Don said to me “It’s Bob Kraft”…and I said, “Wait, what? You mean like Bob Kraft who owns the New England Patriots?”
But don’t forget, Onward Nation…even Don Yaeger had to start somewhere. So will you sit around and be fearful for another year – or – will you start getting mentored and move your business onward?
Next, Stacey Alcorn…episode 3 of Onward Nation.
What is the difference between Stacey Alcorn and another real estate professional?
Stacey has mentored with some of the best and brightest minds in business and connected those relationships back into building her real estate empire. I will later share with you a billion dollar recipe right out of Stacey’s cookbook…and I know we have several real estate professionals on the workshop right now…Stacey’s firm had 324 closings in June. Bam!
And lastly, Nancy Marshall – episode 19 of Onward Nation.
What is the difference between Nancy Marshall and another marketing or PR professional you could hire?
Nancy realizes that she may be located in the state of Maine – but the market for Nancy Marshall Communications is worldwide…which is why she has invested the blood, sweat, and tears it takes to write a book, develop a trademarked process in her agency called The Marshall Plan, and to invest in building a network through mentoring with the right people – and giving back – and now her network helps her company grow in the good times and become a safety net in the downturns – because the storm clouds will come no matter who you are or what kind of business you run.
Here’s the reality…you are the average of who you spend the most time with. So you need to spend your time with people you have a common future with – not a common past.
Let me close out this first recipe by saying...you can want to find a mentor – the recipe that I just shared with you could be worth millions of dollars in new sales to your company – but – it won’t be worth anything unless you DECIDE to take action.
As Tony Robbins says, a real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve take action – in fact – that you have taken massive action. And if there’s no action – then that is simply an indicator you haven’t really decided anything.
Now that we have conquered and overcome the two main challenges standing in your way – and now that I have shared with you a very specific recipe with all of the step-by-step ingredients (in the proper syntax) so you can find your right mentor or mentors…it is now time to really accelerate your results and move your business onward to the next level.
The next recipe I am going to share with you could represent a billion – yes, with a "B" – billion dollar strategy for your business.
I am going to share a recipe for mastering a specific system that will dramatically expand your network and sphere of influence – and – I will also share with you how you can then monetize these valuable relationships into mutually beneficial partnerships and revenue for your business.
And yes, I know it may sound crass or inappropriate when I say monetize relationships – unfortunately, I can’t think of a better word – I think you get what I am driving at.
But before we get to the recipe…let me put typical “networking” into context.
Most business owners go to an event with a large number of “prospects”.
They pass out business cards.
They chit-chat small talk with the same people they met their last month.
The collect others business cards.
More chit-chat small talk.
They might even schedule some lunch meetings.
Why do we do this?
Here's why.
Because this is safe – it is easy – it does not make us face our fear of poverty or our fear of criticism. What would people think if I did that…or went here…or spent time with so and so…they will all think I am too big for my britches.
I am going to work hard here to shift your paradigm of what is possible.
And that is why I love this quote from Archimedes. “Give me a prop strong enough, and a level long enough, and I can single handedly move the world”
This next recipe I am about to share with you will become your lever and prop.
And it is big – this is literally a billion dollar recipe – and I am going to introduce you to the top business owner who is using it generate a billion dollars.
She describes herself as a billionaire in the making.
Let me introduce you again to Stacey Alcorn. Her episode is still on our leaderboard of top podcasts.
During our interview, Stacey told me about the afternoon she had spent the week before with Kevin O’Leary, Mr. Wonderful from ABC’s Shark Tank – they spent the afternoon tasting wine and exchanging business mantras and best lessons. Stacey and Kevin had quite the masterminding session.
There is always a strategy behind what Stacey does – and if you go back and re-listen to episode 3, Stacey maps out her entire business building strategy with precision.
But we are going to focus on the billion-dollar recipe that Stacey has developed.
Most people will not swing for the fences – but Stacey does. So here are the specific ingredients in Stacey’s recipe.
- Make list of influencers in your industry and / or your Dream 50 clients / prospects
- Connect via social media, email, or call
- Ask for 30-minutes so you can interview them on their path / keys to success
- Do your homework – prep excellent questions
- Be excellent during the interview
- Share what you and your company does at close of interview
- Invite / open the door for future opportunities
- Then share guest’s expertise on your blog, media outlets, your podcast, etc. – your platform
- Rinse and repeat – rinse and repeat
Key point: if you interview the movers and shakers in your industry – they become your informal mentors…and you become one of the movers and shakers in the industry as a result.
If you want a BIGGER – more ROBUST – more INFLUENTIAL network – then YOU must become bigger…your platform must become more robust…and you must become more influential.
Warning -- ROAD BLOCKS!!
Now, some of you listening to this recipe right now may be thinking – “Oh sure, Stephen…Stacey has an email list of 65,000 people and has interviewed all of these celebrities and big time business people – I don’t have those connections.”
Or, maybe you’re thinking… “My business just started…I don’t have mindshare in the marketplace, I’m not a published author, I don’t have a platform, no one knows who I am, who will listen to me – what do I have or could I share that would be relevant for anyone to listen to, I don’t have a network – I wouldn’t even know how to start.”
All of those excuses – all of those alibis – those are the Fear of Poverty and the Fear of Criticism working against you again.
If you hear those voices in your head – if you are having thoughts that are even remotely similar to what I just mentioned – let that be your litmus test – you now know you are heading in the right direction.
Push forward – don’t stop – don’t let your fear hold you back from breaking through to that next level.
Remember, you are the average of the people you spend the most time with…and look who Stacey is spending the most time with.
She refers to herself as "A billionaire in the making." And in order for that vision for her life to become a reality – she knows that she needs to spend as much time as possible with other billionaires.
Well, I will let you in on a secret she told me during our interview – Stacey didn't have those connections several years ago.
But she DECIDED that was going to change and then she took action to make it happen.
I hope that makes sense.
Okay, Onward Nation – I hope this first solocast was valuable to you. Please drop me a line and let me know what you thought.
Thumbs up or thumbs down? Please drop me a line and let me know.
Onward with gusto!
-- Stephen
Called an “uncommonly honest author" by the Boston Globe, a "marketing guru" by The Wall Street Journal, and a sales guru by the Financial Times, Michael Port is a NY Times bestselling author of six books including Book Yourself Solid, The Think Big Manifesto and his hot new release, Steal the Show. Interestingly, he is probably the only NY Times bestselling business book author to have also been a successful professional actor, guest starring on shows like Sex & The City, Law & Order, Third Watch, All My Children and in films like The Pelican Brief and Down to Earth. These days, Michael can be seen regularly on MSNBC, CNBC, and PBS as an on-air expert in communication and business development.
Secret -- time saving technique Don’t try to do everything yourself -- create a collaborative environment at your workplace. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Michael wakes up early -- is proactive throughout the workday -- and does something special for someone in need.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Michael learned to identify constraints -- and Michael tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner needs to serve their audience through commitment and fulfillment.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Do it for the right reason -- Focus on mutually beneficial relationships that are grounded in results.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have gone back and put a system in place to help with scaling back the unnecessary workload.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Business owners who put in the work -- utilize a balanced strategy -- and maintain quality over a period of time.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who adheres to deadlines -- has a natural sense of urgency -- and is willing to make decisions.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Attribute success 2. Authenticity and openness
How best to connect with Michael: * michael@micahelport.com * http://www.michaelport.com/
---------Find us at Onwardnation.com---------
Growing up in a blue-collar neighborhood, Tim sought out his fortune early, but it remained elusive. Even after bankruptcy in 1991, he persevered. In 1996, he started his umpteenth business, but this time he grew it to over 300 employees and sold it for $20 million in 2003. Now, he's bootstrapping again with his time-saving content manager, tweetjukebox.com. Having laid a tremendous groundwork through his two years on Twitter, the app is taking Twitter by storm. In 2016, the service will expand to other social media platforms as well.
Secret -- time saving technique Making a list of two or three vital priorities is the go-to timesaving technique that helps Tim move his business forward. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Tim exercises every morning, which helps him kickstart the early part of the workday.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Tim had to go through a long legal process -- and Tim tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner needs to understand that expertise isn't determined by a range of skills.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “There are a number of important values to impart on a business's culture -- so keep the ball rolling.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have gone back and put a simple component based system in place to help with the flow of business.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Being nimble is dictated by a business owner's ability to simplify a series of process.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who brings energy -- devotes their time -- and is dedicated to problem-solving.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Keep a journal 2. Find simple solutions
How best to connect with Tim: * http://alphabetsuccess.blogspot.com/
----------Find us at Onwardnation.com--------
Paul Ahlstrom is a co-founder of Alta Growth Capital and Alta Ventures, both based in Mexico. Paul’s passion is supporting the growth of Latin America’s vibrant entrepreneur ecosystem and has invested into more than 30 promising companies focused on Mexico and Latin America.
Paul has operated on both sides of the table as a venture backed entrepreneur and now as an investor. After directly observing the patterns of startup success and failure of more than 100 startup investments over the past 15 years, he noticed some amazing patterns of entrepreneurs that had the habit of getting it right. Paul distilled these observations on how to increase the odds of getting it right in the book Nail It then Scale It.
He received his BA in Communications from Brigham Young University and received an honorary Doctorate from the Netanya Academic College in Netanya, Israel.
(Part 1 airs on 9.3.15) Secret -- timesaving technique Paul focuses on a few priorities, which include getting the biggest task out of the way first. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Paul makes a list detailing new ideas -- sources of inspiration -- and ways to achieve goals.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Paul had to overcome swinging door obstacles -- and Paul tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to communicate effectively and learn to understand the consumer.”
Most influential lessons learned from a mentor “A mentor helped me get through the nuances of business by helping me to develop a series of processes.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” (Part 2 airs on 9.4.15) What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have gone back and put a system in place to aid with the start-up process.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Business owners who focus on building the foundation of their organization -- you have to have a solid platform to build upon.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? It starts with hiring. An individual has to fit within your company’s culture first and foremost.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Know the customer 2. Innovative ideas are simple and sometimes stupid 3. Get everyone on board
How best to connect with Paul: * http://altaventures.com/paul-ahlstrom/
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Paul Ahlstrom is a co-founder of Alta Growth Capital and Alta Ventures, both based in Mexico. Paul’s passion is supporting the growth of Latin America’s vibrant entrepreneur ecosystem and has invested into more than 30 promising companies focused on Mexico and Latin America.
Paul has operated on both sides of the table as a venture backed entrepreneur and now as an investor. After directly observing the patterns of startup success and failure of more than 100 startup investments over the past 15 years, he noticed some amazing patterns of entrepreneurs that had the habit of getting it right. Paul distilled these observations on how to increase the odds of getting it right in the book Nail It then Scale It.
He received his BA in Communications from Brigham Young University and received an honorary Doctorate from the Netanya Academic College in Netanya, Israel.
(Part 1 airs on 9.3.15) Secret -- timesaving technique Paul focuses on a few priorities, which include getting the biggest task out of the way first. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Paul makes a list detailing new ideas -- sources of inspiration -- and ways to achieve goals.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Paul had to overcome swinging door obstacles -- and Paul tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to communicate effectively and learn to understand the consumer.”
Most influential lessons learned from a mentor “A mentor helped me get through the nuances of business by helping me to develop a series of processes.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” (Part 2 airs on 9.4.15) What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have gone back and put a system in place to aid with the start-up process.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Business owners who focus on building the foundation of their organization -- you have to have a solid platform to build upon.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? It starts with hiring. An individual has to fit within your company’s culture first and foremost.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Know the customer 2. Innovative ideas are simple and sometimes stupid 3. Get everyone on board
How best to connect with Paul: * http://altaventures.com/paul-ahlstrom/
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Dr. Alan Zimmerman has spoken to more than one million people across the United States and around the world, giving them the tools they need to achieve their goals on and off the job. He is the author of award-winning book, Payoff Principle: Discover the 3 Secrets for Getting What You Want Out of Life and Work. Dr. Zimmerman is also a highly sought after speaker and works with a variety of organizations and professional associations.
Secret -- timesaving technique Dr. Zimmerman believes the only place success comes before sweat is in the dictionary. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Dr. Zimmerman puts time aside every day to conduct research and focus on writing.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Dr. Zimmerman learned to deal with difficulties -- and he tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner will find payoff if they have a purpose, passion, and a specific process.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “People learn and change through experiential activities when they can get their hands on the material.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have gone back and put a system in place to identify my purpose rather than pick it.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? It’s about making your client feel welcome, appreciated, and truly important to your organization.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who has a good attitude because they are on the same page emotionally and intellectually.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Persistence 2. Character 3. Passion
How best to connect with Dr. Zimmerman: * http://drzimmerman.com/ * http://thepayoffprinciple.com/
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Kim is the best-selling author of Will The Real You Please Stand Up; Show, Up, Be Authentic, and Prosper in Social Media. She is also the CEO of Boom Social, a social selling training and consulting company that helps businesses of all sizes leverage social and digital marketing strategies to increase their traffic, leads, and sales.
She is internationally recognized as a thought leader in the social media space. Forbes named her as one of the Top 10 Social Media Power Influencers and she regularly contributes to Entrepreneur.com and Huffington Post. Her own blog, KimGarst.com, is one of the top social media resources in the world.
Secret -- timesaving technique Kim makes a basic list -- making a list helps Kim manage and structure her time. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Kim wakes up with a servant based heart -- it’s about doing the right thing every day.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Kim initially struggled with the business learning curve -- and Kim tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to be open to continual learning and mentorship from others.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Make a list -- go through the list -- check off each task that you're the only person who has the ability to complete.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have gone back and put a system in place to help with outsourcing and customer relations.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? A consistent strategy versed in simplicity -- focus on your strengths and outsource your weaknesses.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who has expertise in a certain field -- is passionate -- and truly loves their job.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. What is your why? 2. Who are you going to serve?
How best to connect with Kim: * http://kimgarst.com
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Joshua is an entrepreneur and speaker. He and his team build products and companies. Joshua is the founder of ChopDawg.com and has been featured on FOX, MSNBC, CBS, Technically, and Mashable.
Secret -- timesaving technique Joshua identifies his time sensitive vital priorities the night before to ensure he can move forward the next day. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Joshua likes to meditate every morning -- it’s a great way to relieve stress and remain focused.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Joshua had to figure out how to better manage clients -- and Joshua tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to have emotional stability -- don’t get too high or too low.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Don’t be satisfied -- complacency will lead to your downfall -- continue to evolve.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have gone back and put a system in place to help with hours and hierarchy.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Hire the best of the best to attract the top clients -- it’s about the overall quality of your work.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who over-delivers and under-promises -- fits in with the rest of the team.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. First impression -- bring your “A” game 2. Take advantage when an opportunity presents itself
How best to connect with Joshua: * http://chopdawg.com/
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Melinda Emerson is known as the Small Biz Lady — and is Americas #1 Small Business Expert and the author of “Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months: A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Work.” She is an internationally known keynote speaker and expert on small business start-up, business development, and social media marketing. Melinda’s advice is widely read reaching more than 3 million entrepreneurs each week online. And Forbes magazine named her the #1 woman for entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter.
Secret -- timesaving technique Melinda always creates a list of five vital priorities the day before she sets out to complete each individual task. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Melinda wakes up early -- gets her vital priorities done by 11:00 am -- and even finds a way to budget time for herself.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Melinda built a business that could not run without her -- and Melinda tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to learn to plan for long-term success -- and focus on identifying the characteristics of their perfect customer.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “You have to maintain your reputation -- your brand is an extension of your personal self.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have gone back and put a system in place to help define our niche -- you have to niche to get rich.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Develop a niche target customer -- you have to pick a marketing target that you can actually reach.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who seeks to add value to our company and looks at their occupation as a career, not a job.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. You win or you learn in business 2. Don’t make a hire that you can’t fire
How best to connect with Melinda: * http://succeedasyourownboss.com/
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Anthony Lee Witt is the founder and creator of The Champion Entrepreneur — a top-rated podcast in iTunes and resource for entrepreneurs. He believes in challenging limitations and has spent his life looking for how he can create and provide value to others and their businesses by changing the status quo. The Champion Entrepreneur provides valuable information and resources to help others become the Champion they know that deep down inside they already are. Anthony believes that no matter who you are — there will always be struggles that attempt to hold us back from becoming the champions we were meant to be. He takes great pride in helping others overcome these struggles.
Secret -- timesaving technique Anthony creates time blocks -- which help him remain efficient throughout the workday. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Anthony wakes up early -- getting up before the kids can be a great way to remain focused.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Anthony was paying attention to a few false indicators -- and Anthony tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to learn to reduce non-productive activities and start to implement their own plan -- know your personal traits.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “If you're not adding value -- nobody benefits -- make sure your actions are adding value.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have gone back and put a system in place to develop a series of task-oriented processes -- virtual assistance.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Develop a mastermind group -- cohesiveness always compounds over an extended period of time.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who knows exactly what the customer wants -- with the ability to intuitively provide them what they need.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Search for inspiration 2. Listen -- Read -- Study
How best to connect with Anthony: * https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleewitt
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Mark Babbitt is the co-author of A World Gone Social: How Companies Must Adapt to Survive, an Amazon best-seller that takes an inspiring look at the impact of social media on today's business world. Mark is the CEO and Founder of YouTern, an award-winning social community for young professionals and was recently named to Inc.’s 100 Great Leaderships Speakers and to Business News Daily’s Top Entrepreneurs to Follow on Twitter. Mark is a contributor to Harvard Business Review, Inc., and Huffington Post; his work has been featured in Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, USA TODAY, Bloomberg News and many other publications and media outlets.
Secret -- timesaving technique Mark is a morning person -- kickstart your day early -- take advantage of the extra hours. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Mark takes the time to build mutually beneficial relationships with his client base -- know them on a personal level.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Mark had to rethink his B2B model during the recession -- and Mark tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner can benefit greatly by becoming a mentor -- teaching is invaluable.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “You have to learn the art of pace -- shut it down once in awhile -- without a reasonable pace we become overbearing.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have gone back and put a system in place versed in continually upgrading our team.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Cohesiveness -- we have to create a team that is comprised of passionate individuals who take ownership.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who is passionate about the mission -- has grit -- as well as some good old-fashioned ingenuity.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Develop a personal board of advisors 2. Surround yourself with people that are smarter than you
How best to connect with Mark: * http://www.youtern.com/
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Ari Weinzweig is CEO and co-founding partner of Zingerman's Community of Businesses, which includes Zingerman's Delicatessen, Bakehouse, Creamery, Catering, Mail Order, ZingTrain, Coffee Company, Roadhouse, Candy Manufactory and the newest business, Cornman Farms. Zingerman's produces and sells all sorts of full flavored, traditional foods in its home of Ann Arbor, Michigan to the tune of $55,000,000 a year in annual sales.
Ari was recognized as one of the Who's Who of Food & Beverage in America by the 2006 James Beard Foundation and has awarded a Bon Appetit Lifetime Achievement Award among many recognitions.
Ari is the author of a number of articles and books, including Zingerman's Guide to Better Bacon (Zingerman's Press), Zingerman's Guide to Giving Great Service, Zingerman's Guide to Good Eating (Houghton Mifflin), Zingerman's Guide to Good Leading, Part 1: A Lapsed Anarchists Approach to Building a Great Business, and Zingerman's Guide to Good Leading, Part 2: A Lapsed Anarchists Approach to Being a Better Leader. Zingerman's Guide to Good Leading, Part 3; A Lapsed Anarchist's Approach to Managing Ourselves, was released in December of 2013. Zingerman's Guide to Good Leading, Part 4; A Lapsed Anarchist's Approach to the Power of Beliefs in Business is scheduled for release in the first part of 2016.
Secret -- timesaving technique Keep a journal -- writing down your thoughts each morning is a great way to stay organised. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Ari likes to cook during his free-time at home -- being in the food business requires experimentation.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Ari dealt with growing his business over the years -- and Ari tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to stay grounded -- resist the hierarchical model -- and focus on self-management.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Don’t look for one heroic person -- the world is a giant classroom full of information.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have went back and put a system in place to hone the practicable skill of creating a vision.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? There’s three steps to great customer service -- the key is to create an ecosystem of collaboration.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who can collaborate -- service the customer -- and reflect on their actions daily.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Business is exhausting 2. Try to focus on self-management
How best to connect with Ari: * http://www.zingermanscommunity.com/press/bios-of-key-people/
--------- Find us at OnwardNation.com -------
Josh is the founder of Social Change Nation, whose mission and passion is to provide startup social entrepreneurs with the best tools for growing their ventures. He hosts a podcast featuring interviews with the worlds leading change agents and creates online content to help startups make a dollar AND a difference.
When he's not podcasting, Josh can be found cooking up the latest Paleo dish (his fiances fault), cycling all over Gods creation, and/or endeavouring to understand the mysterious ways of the universe.
Secret -- timesaving technique Get your hardest task done first thing in the morning -- this mindset will help boost productivity. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Joshua likes to exercise -- a fitness routine helps to create positive energy and motivation.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Joshua had to find a way to create valuable content -- and Joshua tells the complete story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to be disciplined -- patient -- and focused on the day to day grind.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “If you want to make a million dollars -- solve a problem that touches a billion people.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would have implemented a system to help with promotion as well as creating high-quality content.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Use the beginning of each quarter to develop a detailed plan-- then focus on marketing.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who can lift others up -- believes in social entrepreneurship -- and lives each day to the fullest.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Passion restores hope 2. Creativity is an essential component
How best to connect with Joshua: * http://socialchangenation.com/
--------- Find us at OnwardNation.com --------
Justin Topliff is a Product Marketing Manager at Infusionsoft, one of Arizona's top tech startup success stories. He is helping change the future for 30,000 small businesses. Justin leads the product messaging and launches for Infusionsoft’s core and ancillary products and has led the marketing efforts that helped grow annual revenues by 40%.
He is also the founder of ProductMarketingSummit.com, which disseminates free knowledge from over 40 of techs top product marketers and create a community for product marketers to share their tribal knowledge and learn from one another.
Secret -- timesaving technique Justin learned to say no -- avoid shiny object syndrome -- and not to juggle too many tasks at once. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Justin likes to exercise -- you can’t neglect your body -- exercise is a great way to clear your head.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Justin switched companies during a challenging time -- and Justin tells the complete story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to be able to question themselves -- and check their ego at the door.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Don’t be obsessed with the pursuit of perfection -- relax -- mistakes will happen.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would have implemented a system to help with our data-driven decisions and the overall customer experience.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Don’t stop -- follow a formula -- and make sure to entice your audience with a clear value.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who remains disciplined -- takes small steps -- and can chip away at rather large tasks over the period of a year.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Take a deep breath -- Relax 2. Help others -- add kindness when you can
How best to connect with Justin: * https://www.linkedin.com/in/justintopliff
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Lori Highby is the owner of Keystone Click, an interactive marketing agency in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Since 2008, her agency has seen consistent growth. Lori is the 2013 recipient of the "Bravo! Entrepreneur Award" from BizTimes Media. She has been helping businesses market themselves online for nearly 15 years. Lori speaks and blogs on the topics of social media, e-commerce, online marketing, and entrepreneurship.
Secret -- timesaving technique Lori stays focused and remains productive due to the allocation of a diverse Post-it note system. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Lori plans her workday every morning -- she gives herself plenty of time to focus on her vital priorities.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Lori decided to leave a full-time job -- and Lori tells the complete story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to remain focused -- don’t always chase the shiny object.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Honesty is the best policy -- always be forthcoming and honest with your clients.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would have implemented a program to aid the sales funnel -- possibly a CRM system.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Time -- manage your time effectively -- it’s about getting it done and out the door.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who communicates with others -- and brings value to the workplace.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Get outside of your comfort zone 2. Put in the time to create a process
How best to connect with Lori: * https://www.keystoneclick.com/
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Alan Becker is the CEO and Founder of Retirement Solutions Group, Inc., and co-founder of RSG Investments, Inc., a leader in the world of financial security for pre-retirees and retirees. With over 18 years of helping his clients learn to plan with purpose, Alan utilizes his proprietary financial tools in addition to the best available industry services.
Secret -- timesaving technique Take a few minutes of quiet time -- make a list -- try to progress through the list during the workday. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success You have to show up -- it’s pretty simple -- your presence is the first step to success.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Alan brought people into his business that he shouldn't have -- and Alan tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to be able to plan -- manage their time effectively -- and study the industry.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Last week is over -- what are we going to do this week -- learn to deliver consistently.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would have systematized my practice through the implementation of a diverse database system.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Consistency -- clear and concise communication -- and the ability to follow a system.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who has the passion and drive to help fulfill the needs of our clients.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Think big -- review your plan once a week 2. There will always be an opportunity for growth
How best to connect with Alan: * http://rsgusa.net/
Chris Brogan is CEO of Owner Media Group, a highly sought after professional speaker, and the New York Times bestselling author of eight books and counting...including the forthcoming...Insider: Strategies and Secrets for Business Growth in the Age of Distractions.
Chris has spoken for — or consulted with — Disney, Coke, Google, Microsoft, and many more. He’s appeared on the Dr. Phil Show, interviewed Richard Branson for a cover story for SUCCESS Magazine...and once...even presented to a Princess.
Most importantly, Chris provides education and tools to help you make your life and your business thrive, by teaching you which actions will get you what you want. Through books, speeches, courses, and workshops, Chris is dedicated to helping you grow your capabilities and connections and to getting you to that next level of success -- no matter where you are in the process right now.
Daily habit that contributes to success Chris places emphasis on health and fitness -- it’s important to develop a daily routine. ONWARD!
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to learn to communicate in an effective manner -- clear and concise communication is invaluable.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “You live and die by a database -- treat your list with the utmost respect.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Lean to follow the “Ask” -- “Do” -- “Share” recipe.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. The inbox is surrounded by a velvet rope -- use it to your advantage 2. Give and interact with your audience through a newsletter
How best to connect with Chris: * http://chrisbrogan.com/
-------Find us here: onwardnation.com------
Leanne started her marketing agency called Stitchcraft Marketing over 5 years ago — and she did that to meet the every changing needs of the yarn and craft industries. Leanne and her team work with manufacturers within the fiber arts industry across the country to increase website traffic, build their brand and platform, and ultimately…to increase sales.
Secret -- timesaving technique Trello is a website that acts like a sticky note bulletin board -- this website helps to save a ton of time. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success You have to have the right work life balance -- finding the right balance will help with focus and motivation.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Leanne had to rebrand her company-- and Leanne tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to become a leader who truly cares about every person in their circle.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Fear can be crippling in a business -- learn to slay the dragon and keep it at bay.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would have joined a round-table group -- to reap the benefits of a collaborative environment.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Networking within your community -- personal satisfaction can be achieved through service.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who cares for others -- wants to give -- and is passionate about servicing our clients.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Look at the big picture 2. Stick it out
How best to connect with Leanne: * http://stitchcraftmarketing.com/about/
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
I'm a Denver native and a graduate of Mullen High School and Regis University. I have been in the mortgage industry since 1997. I opened this branch in July of 2000 as a broker shop, and it has evolved over that time to become what is now Hallmark Home Mortgage in Colorado.
Formerly the #1 one producer at other companies as well as my own branch until 2008, I now get more pride developing talented people to their full potential. My #1 job today is helping loan officers close more deals following systems that produce the career and life they wanted when they chose this industry.
- Our Core Purpose is to have a Profoundly Positive Impact on the lives of our staff, the clients we serve, our referral partners, business partners and vendors, and on the world in which we live.
- We live out that Core Purpose by embracing our Core Values in the approach we take to both our work and our lives.
- Embracing our core values is how we are able to deliver on our brand promise of closing loans on time, under budget with no surprises.
We've taken the approach that we want to be a great company - and not just a big company. Quite simply, we believe we provide the very best lending experience by focusing on 3 key areas of service:
- Excellent proactive communication and follow up systems
- 100% pre-approval to closed loan ration with money back guarantees
- On Time, Under Budget No Surprise Closings, with money back guarantees
Secret -- timesaving technique Plan tomorrow today -- Dave plugs his appointments into a spreadsheet and pays close attention to his calendar. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Dave has developed a daily routine that contributes to his productivity during the workday.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Dave had to deal with failure during the first few years -- and Dave tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to be a leader -- leadership is a pivotal component to a successful business."
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “An ego can be detrimental -- give credit where credit is due -- it will be returned.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would have implemented a system to help with the hiring process -- as well as reduce the turnover rate.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? We try to have a rhythmic meeting schedule -- which bolsters engagement through preparation.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who wants to come into the business and learn without taking any shortcuts.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Be proud -- it’s not about the money 2. Maintain your values -- no regrets
How best to connect with Dave: * https://www.hallmarkhomemortgage.com/index.php/denver-colorado
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Kristian L. Finfrock is the Founder/Financial Advisor at Retirement Income Strategies. Kristian is an active member of the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) and Advisors Excel, a national group founded to provide guidance and education to the highest level of financial professionals in the industry. In his current practice, Kristian and his team help individuals and business clients establish sophisticated—yet easy to understand—solutions for protecting and preserving wealth while minimizing tax exposure.
Secret -- timesaving technique Our team has a strategy session at the start of the week -- we are able to tackle the financial service workload. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Kristian likes to have a power hour -- his power hour helps him to dial in on his business.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Kristian felt restricted as a captive agent -- and Kristian tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to hire the right people -- and delegate tasks to the appropriate team-members.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Marketing is everything -- find a way to deliver the message -- find a new and unique way to tell the story.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would have implemented a system to simplify the process of scaling my business.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? It’s very important to expect the unexpected -- change is inevitable -- and preparation is essential.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who takes ownership -- works towards a goal -- and never backs down from a challenge.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Plan to fail -- it leads to opportunity 2. Just do it -- believe in yourself -- embrace the challenge 3. Find a mentor
How best to connect with Kristian: * https://madisonsfinancialplanner.com/media/
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Carl founded the Wright Partners in 1998. Since then, his Team has developed Real Estate Projects valued at over $200 million and currently owns and manages a portfolio of over $100 million.
Secret -- timesaving technique Wake up early -- dive into your number one challenge for the day -- tackle the hardest task. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Constant learning and improvement -- try to be better than who you were last week.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Carl was heavily invested in the real-estate market of 2008 -- and Carl tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to be able to listen to their clients -- ask them how you can help.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Know your vital functions -- know when you're working inside of them -- know when you're working outside of them.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would have implemented a system to help me with the fundamentals of checklist management.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Business owners have to study trade journals -- listen to podcasts -- and take advantage of diverse learning channels.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who is committed to continual learning -- you can always better yourself.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Be comfortable being uncomfortable 2. Keep learning
How best to connect with Carl: * http://www.wrightld.com/index.php
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Art Boulay is the CEO of Strategic Talent Management. Art helps leaders fully realize their own talent, and the talents of their employees. He brings practical ideas, humor and common sense solutions to each assignment.
Secret -- timesaving technique Hiring -- putting the right person in the right position at the right time can save a ton of time. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Present moment awareness -- try not to lose track of the current business environment.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Art had to overcome the recession of 2008 -- and Art tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to understand cash-flow -- be able to take a long look in the mirror -- and communicate effectively.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Get out of your own way -- get on with it -- just do it -- it’s your own personal responsibility to make it happen.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would have implemented a system to help me bring my conceptions and various ideas to fruition.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Business owners have to develop meaningful relationships within their organization and also with external publics.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who can expand our networks -- display an unwavering level of commitment -- and fit into our culture.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Focus on the client 2. Know who you are and what you're good at
How best to connect with Art: * http://www.strategictalentmgmt.com/author/art/
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Dr. James Rouse is a naturopathic doctor, entrepreneur, wellness magazine founder, motivational speaker and trainer, author, impassioned athlete, Ironman competitor, father, and married to Debra for over 20 years.
Dr. James Rouse is committed to inspiring everyone to imagine and achieve the vibrant, high-performance lives we all deserve. Through leading-edge ideas, practical life strategies, and superior products, Rouse’s mission is to help guide all into a healthy lifestyle.
His vision is a world in which everyone has the opportunity to thrive.
Secret -- timesaving technique Shoot the arrow -- go to the most desired target -- envision your target -- remain focused. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Movement increases your dopamine -- thus making you more proactive -- become a sweaty genius.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience James had to overcome the brain's innate negativity bias -- and James tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to learn to love the plateau -- give yourself total permission to feel engaged.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “All motion creates positive emotions -- therefore, everyone has a huge opportunity to move into a favorable situation.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I implemented a system surrounding three principles -- self-care, balance, and controlled breathing.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Business owners have to understand vulnerability in order to build a level of cohesiveness in the organization.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who has a special skill that can be used in our environment and knows how to use that skill when necessary.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Follow your passion 2. Become a leader through service
How best to connect with James: * http://drjamesrouse.com/
You can also find us here: ------ OnwardNation.com ------
Gary Vaynerchuk builds businesses. Fresh out of college he took his family wine business and grew it from a $3M to a $60M business in just five years. Now he runs VaynerMedia, one of the world’s hottest digital agencies. Along the way he became a prolific angel investor and venture capitalist, investing in companies like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Uber, and Birchbox before eventually co-founding VaynerRSE, a $25M angel fund.
Gary also currently hosts The #AskGaryVee Show, a way of providing as much value as possible by taking questions about social media, entrepreneurship, startups, and family businesses and giving his answers based on a lifetime of building successful, multi-million dollar companies. The show is also available as a podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, and SoundCloud.
A Few Steps Ahead: * Don’t be crippled by trying to quantify success -- use all the tools at your disposal -- try to be four to five years ahead of everyone else
Technology and Innovation: * The company’s of now will be done in eight years if they refuse to adapt and change -- to grow you have to ask dumb questions grounded in the future of business
Storytelling: * Every business has a story to tell -- don’t disrespect social channels -- they are a living and breathing channel of communication
Transparency: * We live in an ever-changing transparent world -- if you're company’s in the yellow-pages or newspaper because you're afraid of social -- then an opportunity will be missed
Humanise It: * People will follow the story -- communicate the story -- humanise it -- where is the personality
Give or Push: * Old fashioned rules -- you have to become a giving business through social channels -- before you ask and receive
Value-Proposition: * A good value-proposition shows your consumer the value they will receive
How best to connect with Gary: * https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/
Dr. Flint McGlaughlin the founder of MECLABS, the world’s largest independent research institution focused on offer response optimization. His work has led to many discoveries regarding the philosophy of human choice, experimental design, and the cognitive psychology of conversion. Dr. McGlaughlin has written or edited more than 250 articles and texts, he has won multiple awards, and he has been quoted in more than 13,000 online and offline sources.
Leadership: * Don’t optimize offers or websites -- optimize thought-sequences -- by gauging the perception of value-force and value-cost
Sustainability: 1. You have to do something fundamentally different 2. Limit internal arrogance at the leadership level derived from ignoring consumers 3. Limit the all-in risk -- focus on small discoveries that compound
Actionable Steps: 1. Try to see through the lense of the consumer 2. Employ the consumer mindset -- understand their thought-sequence 3. Speak in their vernacular -- ineffective communication proves to be costly
Articulate: * Clarity trumps persuasion -- once you can articulate the value with clarity -- you will get an answer in return.
Value Proposition: * Focus on developing a clear value-proposition -- with an emphasis on the consumer and channel of communication.
How best to connect with Dr. Flint McGlaughlin: * http://www.flintmcglaughlin.com/ * https://twitter.com/flintsnotes * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_McGlaughlin * https://www.linkedin.com/pub/flint-mcglaughlin/51/582/62
Avinash Kaushik is the co-Founder of Market Motive Inc and the Digital Marketing Evangelist for Google. His prior professional experience includes key roles at Intuit, DirecTV, Silicon Graphics in the US & DHL in Saudi Arabia.
Through his blog, Occam’s Razor, and his best selling books, Web Analytics: An Hour A Day and Web Analytics 2.0, Avinash has become recognized as an authoritative voice on how marketers, executives teams and industry leaders can leverage data to fundamentally reinvent their digital existence.
Bounce Rate: * The percentage of visitors to a particular website who navigate away from the site almost immediately -- (bounce route should be at or below 30 percent).
Reduce Bounce Rate: 1. Focus on optimizing your display campaigns through targeting 2. Spend time optimizing your landing pages 3. Understand why consumers come to your site
Metrics: 1. Measure your acquisition strategy 2. Measure consumer behavior on the site 3. Measure the outcome of a visit
Digital Marketing: * Humanise your advertisements -- don’t shout at the consumer -- connect with the most favorable audience (18-24 years) -- build a relationship through their hangout (YouTube)
Incentives: * Change the incentive structure -- senior leadership has to imagine the endless possibilities -- then create based on the vision
How best to connect with Avinash: * https://www.linkedin.com/in/akaushik * https://twitter.com/avinash * http://www.marketmotive.com/ * http://predictiveroi.com/avinash-kaushik/
Steve Kleber is the founder and president of Kleber & Associates, an integrated marketing and communications agency. He has a deep passion for the home and building industry.
Secret -- timesaving technique Utilize cloud-based applications to keep your team connected -- the cloud is innately versed in virtual connectivity. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Aggregate content and employ thought-leadership techniques to bolster our client's image.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Steve dealt with an egregious economic cycle -- and Steve tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to remain focused and become an expert at one specific trade.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Focus on the fundamentals -- treat the customer with respect -- wake up early -- work passionately.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “We have a rhythmic system that helps us stay within our own career specialization.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Business owners who can bring innovation to the team by building a bridge between marketing and sales.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who can follow the frame of reference and scale expectations, while remaining committed to their respective specialization.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Stay the course, but make sure it’s a sustainable specialization 2. Don’t devalue your role as an expert
How best to connect with Steve: * http://kleberandassociates.com/
John Lee Dumas is the Founder and Host of EntrepreneurOnFire, an award winning Podcast revealing the journey of today’s most inspiring Entrepreneurs 7-days a week. EntrepreneurOnFire generates over $250,000 a month in revenue & offers a free 15-day course on Podcasting at FreePodcastCourse.com. With over 1 million unique listens a month, EntrepreneurOnFire has inspired Fire Nation to take control of their life and take the Entrepreneurial leap. Are YOU prepared to ignite?
5 Podcasting Tips -- with John Lee Dumas “Podcasting is a legitimate medium of communication.”
- Escape the Imposter Syndrome:
- ✭ Don’t be afraid of launching a podcast -- everyone has the right to launch an authentic podcast on any number of topics
- Jump In -- Try not to Delay the Launch:
- ✭ Disseminate your podcast -- it will be a truly gratifying moment that will help you conquer the initial learning curve
- Focus on a few Distribution Channels:
- ✭ Podcasts can be disseminated through a diverse group of channels, iTunes and Stitcher Radio both have huge followings.
- Climb the New and Noteworthy Charts:
- ✭ The momentum will start to pick up when your podcast climbs the charts and generates buzz in the podcast community
- Remain Confident:
- ✭ Don’t let a ranking slip deter your spirit -- you have to remain confident and overcome obstacles
How best to connect with John: * http://www.entrepreneuronfire.com
Joy, Inc. author Richard Sheridan, has never shied from challenges or opportunities. Rich's focus has always been on technology, his passion is process, and teamwork with the goal of Joy.
Secret -- timesaving technique Check your email at the start of the day -- build relationships through your inbox. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Follow a habitual routine -- collaborate with team-members -- try to make a synchronized schedule.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Rich had to crawl his way out of the trough of disillusion -- and Rich tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to master the fundamental skills derived from authenticity and transparency.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Treat everyone with the utmost respect -- build a joyful business with an exceptional culture.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would have implemented a system to bolster our team discussions -- you have to feel comfortable with your team.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Business owners have to work as hard as they can to align three main data points during the life of their business.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who exhibits good kindergarten skills -- plays nice -- shares -- cares -- and is curious.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Gather stories 2. Work openly with your team 3. Joy is personal
How best to connect with Rich: * http://www.onwardnation.com/book * https://www.menloinnovations.com/
I provide the blueprints, strategies, and game plans that take corporate and independent business women from struggling to do more with less to ABSOLUTELY CRUSHING IT on all fronts by creating AMAZING strategic blueprints, reengaging their subordinates, and developing unstoppable game plans.
My latest book “The SUCCESSFUL Thinker” lays out the 7 Laws of 21st Century that serve as a roadmap for getting the best out of yourself and your team. Visit www.TheSuccessfulThinker.com to learn more.
Using my Prescription For Sanity System, the busy executive no longer has to struggle to figure out how to be all things to all people.
Secret -- timesaving technique Identify a few periods of free-time during the workday -- focus on 15 minute blocks -- measure the value of these time blocks. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Corey likes to pre-frame his day, which saves a tremendous amount of time. Start the day off in full stride.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Corey had to learn the intricacies of his target-audience -- and Corey tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to be able to control their schedule by creating a healthy balance between work and their personal life.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “You grow through exposure -- it's merely a conception until you actually bring your idea to fruition.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would have implemented a system to help me grow and expand my email list during the initial stages.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Business owners have to serve their customers better than the competition through follow-ups.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who spends 10% of their time finding the problem -- while the other 90% of their time is dedicated to finding solutions.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Encourage your audience 2. Interact with your audience 3. Co-create your business
How best to connect with Corey: * http://www.successequalsvalue.com/
David Mylrea has extensive experience in complex commercial finance transactions involving offerings of debt and equity, leases, loans and project financing. He handles all facets of complex, multimillion-dollar financings, including origination, negotiation and preparation of definitive documentation, closing and funding. Secret -- timesaving technique Reflect on your time spent on a task -- entering your time spent into an automated system is a regular practice for lawyers. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success David likes to plan for the day ahead through scheduling and becoming immersed in his priorities.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience David had a client that filed bankruptcy -- and David tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to be able to understand the intricacies of their business -- how is the business going to work.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “You can’t sit and wait for an opportunity -- differentiate yourself from the pack -- try something new.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would have implemented a system to improve the overall quality of our transactions.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Business owners have to build and maintain their networks in a strategic manner with emphasis on delivering value.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who can work well with others inside the office and also externally with clients.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Think outside the box 2. Take action now -- not later
How best to connect with David: * http://www.hinshawlaw.com/attorneys-David-Mylrea.html * https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmylrea
Amy Tierce is celebrating her first year anniversary with Wintrust Mortgage as Regional VP in New England where she is growing a team from the ground up, she is enjoying her 30th year in the industry!
Secret -- timesaving technique If you can do it in three minutes or less then get it done -- it’s just easier to do it in real time. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Amy checks her personal channels of communication with an emphasis on Facebook, LinkedIn, and blogs pertinent to her industry.”
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Amy had to find a way to gauge commitment -- and Amy tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to be empathetic, connected, and understanding of their client base through meaningful communications.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Inches apart -- don’t get angry when you are inches apart -- meet in the middle and stay calm.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would have implemented an advanced CRM system to help us master our database.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Respond. Business owners have to be responsive to customer inquiries and fulfill the needs of their audience.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who does their job -- tells the truth -- and strives to be the best in their respective occupation.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Read 2. Get the right people on the bus -- and the wrong people off 3. Listen to critical feedback
How best to connect with Amy: * http://amyrates.com/
Rory Vaden: Cofounder of Southwestern Consulting™, New York Times bestselling author of Take the Stairs and Procrastinate On Purpose, international speaker, and the worlds leading expert on overcoming procrastination and improving self-discipline.
Secret -- timesaving technique The real magic comes from a significance calculation -- multiply time by thinking about significance over a period of days. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Rory believes in counting your blessings -- envisioning the future -- and making choices through the “focus-funnel.”
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Rory had to rethink the purpose of his business -- and Rory tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to be inspired, able to communicate their corporate vision, and remain self-disciplined.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “You have to think about your margins -- don’t make decisions based on an inadequate technique.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would have implemented Infusionsoft earlier -- we quadrupled once we finally implemented this system.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Control -- if you can control your budget driven goals -- then measure your objectives.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who truly sets out to exceed expectations in every facet of their life.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Focus on generating sales
How best to connect with Rory: * http://roryvaden.com/
Drew McLellan is a 25-year marketing veteran who helps clients create authentic love affairs with their customers. In 1995, Drew started his own agency -- McLellan Marketing Group. He also helps other agency owners learn how to take their business to the next level through the consultancy -- Agency Management Group.
Drew is also one of the world’s top marketing and branding bloggers, according to AdAge’s Top 150 index. He’s written the book 99.3 Random Acts of Marketing and co-edited the Age of Conversation series of books.
He has appeared in the New York Times, Entrepreneur Magazine, Businessweek and Fortune Small Business. The Wall Street Journal calls him one of 10 bloggers that every entrepreneur should read.
Secret -- timesaving technique Wunderlist is an excellent application that can be used to optimize your schedule. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Drew believes in maintaining a level of gratitude during the workday -- return the kindness.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Drew once took his eye off the ball for a split second -- and Drew tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to focus -- prioritize their schedule -- and pursue the long-term vision.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Simply help others -- go into every situation with a service attitude -- serve the client first.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would have implemented a system to help me with the sales funnel because the family and friends pool dries up.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? There has to be new business at all three levels -- micro -- macro -- and even at the nano level.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who has an attitude of gratitude -- and understands that our absolutes have deadlines.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Ignore the noxious individual 2. Believe in yourself
How best to connect with Drew: * http://agencymanagementinstitute.com/ * http://www.mclellanmarketing.com/ * http://www.drewsmarketingminute.com/
Brian Safdari is America’s Leading College Admissions and Funding Expert. He has helped over 25,000 families get their child accepted into their dream college while making the cost affordable.
Secret -- timesaving technique Go to bed thinking about what you're going to do the next day -- identify your vital priorities -- you have to be eager. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Brian enjoys working out daily -- he has also learned to work the “NO” muscle -- saying no will help you remain focused.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Brian learned to overcome obstacles during his early life -- and Brian tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to empathize with their target-audience -- follow their passion -- and want to make a difference in the world.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Go beyond your own knowledge -- expand your horizon -- and utilize a diverse set of learned skills.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would have implemented a system to aid my comprehensive business plan.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Never give up -- stick with your long-term plan -- and try to enjoy the entire journey.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who can bring a wealth of knowledge to your business -- try to strengthen your business with specialists.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Be gracious 2. Don’t be a follower
How best to connect with Brian: * http://collegeplanningexperts.com/our-team
Frank Bria helps consultants and coaches turn their 6-figure practice into a 7-figure business. He has built and sold tech start ups as well as consulted for the largest international corporations in high tech, finance, and retail on 4 continents. A former university math instructor turned entrepreneur, he now takes what he used to teach the Fortune 500 and applies it to other entrepreneurs looking to scale their businesses. He is a 3-time author, speaker, strategist, and host of the podcast, 6 to 7 Figures Show. He is also star of the new TV show Startup Relaunch.
Secret -- timesaving technique Focus on one task a day -- set your schedule up while placing emphasis on that specific task. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Frank likes to start of his morning by reading about something new -- it’s about setting up a daily routine versed in priority.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Frank learned to walk away from the big-money project -- and Frank tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to be able to take feedback and use it to scale their business.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Once you understand the client audience -- connect with an individual member -- and thus service the entire audience.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would have put a system in place to speed-up the product development process and then monetize it.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Set daily targets for lead-generation campaigns and then refocus your marketing efforts.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who comes to the workplace -- buys into the team -- and zones in on the desired outcome.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Serve the client -- get your hands dirty 2. Identify the needs of your audience
How best to connect with Frank: * http://briastrategy.com/
Darren Hardy is the visionary force behind SUCCESS magazine as its Publisher and Founding Editor.
Darren mentors many of today’s high-performing CEOs, advises many large corporations and sits on the board of several companies and non-profit organizations.
Darren is also a highly sought after keynote speaker, media contributor and the New York Times bestselling author of The Compound Effect and Living Your Best Year Ever.
8 MONEY DRAINING WEBSITE MISTAKES …AND HOW TO FIX THEM IMMEDIATELY 8 Money Draining Mistakes 1. NO BASELINES OR S.M.A.R.T. GOALS. 2. LACK OF DISTINCTION. 3. HIGH BOUNCE RATE. 4. SEO DONE POORLY. 5. NOT KNOWING YOUR CUSTOMER. 6. POOR CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE. 7. TOO MUCH INSTITUTION SPEAK. 8. AMBIGUOUS CALLS TO ACTION.
http://predictiveroi.com/money-draining-mistakes-online
This free video training series is based on over 20-years of research, analysis, and application.
Learn how to fix the money draining mistakes — and in doing so — you will expand your website traffic, generate more qualified leads, and increase your return on investment by 200 to 500%.
Series is taught by Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI.
Video 1: https://youtu.be/A7dyDVvoqQE
Money Draining Mistake #1: Lack of Baselines and S.M.A.R.T. Predictives
Video 2: https://youtu.be/nXcaGyj9FuQ
Money Draining Mistake #2: Lack of Distinction
Money Draining Mistake #3: High Bounce Rate
Video 3: https://youtu.be/UjvYx7MU9Hg
Money Making Opportunity #2: Build Your List
Money Making Opportunity #3: Create Well-prepared Prospects
8 Money Making Opportunities 1. HARMONIZE OFFER WITH NEED. 2. BUILD YOUR LIST. 3. NURTURE RELATIONSHIPS AND INCREASE SALES. 4. NO-FRICTION LEAD GENERATION. 5. CREATE ANTICIPATION. 6. SOCIAL MEDIA DONE RIGHT. 7. MULTIPLY CONVERSION RATE BY 200 TO 800%. 8. CONDUCT A/B TESTING TO FURTHER INCREASE CONVERSION RATE.
http://predictiveroi.com/8-money-makers/
Josh Turner is the founder of Linked Selling, a B2B marketing firm specializing in fully outsourced LinkedIn lead generation campaigns.
Secret -- timesaving technique Delegate your duties -- focus on the most important task -- gain control of the entrepreneurial mind. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Josh likes to exercise daily with an emphasis on running and meditative techniques.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Josh was the CFO of a construction company that had to shut it’s doors in 2009 -- and Josh tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to learn how to grow their organization through marketing and sales.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “It’s a whole life -- you have to have other interests outside of the business realm.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would have put a system in place to aid our small team in marketing and sales.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Empower the people on your team to conduct business and their lives the way they best see fit.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who comes to the workplace and understands the system -- yet can still think outside the box.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Don’t sell yourself short 2. Exceed limitations
How best to connect with Josh: * http://linkedselling.com
Amy is the former Senior Editor of SUCCESS magazine and the Emmy Award-winning Founder of Anderson Content Consulting LLC. As a writer, ghostwriter, editor, and strategist, Amy helps her clients to tell stories that make a difference.
Secret -- timesaving technique Optimize your brain -- develop a set pattern of behavior -- make a journal with identifiable strengths. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Amy is a huge advocate of daily habits, which she believes compound over time.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Amy almost gave up on her craft during rigors of the graduate admissions process -- and Amy tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to have resilience in order to survive the bottomless pit that is entrepreneurship.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Access to experts and advisors is unlimited -- anyone can find answers to their own questions.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would have put a system in place to separate fantasy based ideas from reality -- almost like an accountability partner.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Influential client relationships are versed in loyalty, commitment, and trust.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who can communicate a message in an emotionally mature manner.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Cultivate your entrepreneurial voice 2. Feelings are not facts 3. Build yourself up
How best to connect with Amy: * www.andersoncontent.com * Free e-Book download: www.andersoncontent.com/onwardnation
Jason Pero is a real estate investor who built a company allowing him to walk away from a lucrative career in the medical device industry to pursue his passion and purpose.
Secret -- timesaving technique Identify your three biggest tasks -- ask yourself if each task aligns with the end goal -- delegate your duties. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Jason’s daily habits revolve around self-care, meditation techniques, and self-enrichment.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Jason had to learn to overcome fear after an unexpected building fire -- and Jason tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to adapt and become a master of their craft through personal development.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “It’s great to follow in the footsteps of others -- but at the end of the day you're the business owner.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would have put a system in place to help with bookkeeping and limiting errors.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Always try to affiliate and associate your organization with the highest quality people.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who comes to the workplace with confidence and the ability to communicate with their peers.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Dream big 2. Battle through the difficulties
How best to connect with Jason: * jasonpero@yahoo.com * http://www.perorealestate.com
Eric Levenhagen is committed to helping entrepreneurs achieve personal success and financial peace of mind by helping them overcome their biggest financial obstacles.
Secret -- timesaving technique Get into the flow of the workday by limiting distractions -- Identify your vital priorities. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Eric makes a visual map -- takes time to look at it throughout the workday -- and uses it as a revitalization tool.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Eric had to overcome the major challenge of leaving a secure job for the world of entrepreneurship-- and Eric tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to implement a proper financial system to drive profitability.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Stop trying to promote yourself and just focus on quantifying the value you bring to consumers.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would have put a system in place to control the influx of unnecessary work and client scheduling.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Protect your cash-flow with an adequate system because it’s vital to the sustainability of your business.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who comes to the workplace with the viewpoint that their occupation is more than a job.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Put profit first 2. Find innovative ways to get more done for less
How best to connect with Eric: * http://www.iowataxplanner.com
President and team leader of proactive and dynamic total protection team, teaching families and businesses how to properly protect everything they work so hard for. Our agency is licensed in 23 states. Author of 5 books on various types of insurance and business matters, founding member of the the National Society of Agents for Consumer Educational, national speaker on various insurance matters, founder of the Unstoppable Profit Producer Program, featured on Fox news as special insurance correspondent, certified workers compensation advisor, featured on Access to Experts. Our goal is to be the premier Independent Agency in our area. Our core value is "Do Unto Others".
Secret -- timesaving technique Plan your day the night before -- execute -- guard your time to limit any distractions. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Mike follows an exercise routine and writes a note to his wife so she can hold him accountable.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Mike had to separate an altercation between teammates -- and Mike tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to be able to look in the mirror and figure out how they can achieve a personal level of mastery.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “You can recover from any business situation -- did anyone die -- no -- then move on.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would have put a system in place that could document my planning and free up time so I could make good hires.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? If you want to grow your business -- you have to understand marketing.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who has a set plan -- makes the decision to give first -- and believes everything else will take care of itself.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Improve yourself daily 2. Create a systematic business plan for the next three years
How best to connect with Mike: * http://www.siaonline.com
Mandy is a 29 year old entrepreneur that has a passion for working with children. She has had the opportunity to grow her business from $60K total revenue to $2MM in 4 years.
Secret -- timesaving technique Wake up early -- Identify a time during the day when your production levels are at their highest. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Mandy listens to audiobooks during her morning commute, which happens to be an hour long.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Four years ago, Mandy signed a very expensive lease -- and Mandy tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to have grit, a ton of courage, and unwavering determination.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “It’s not about revenue -- it’s about turning a profit -- make sure to have an accountability partner.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would have put a system in place to aid the hiring process, which was very hard in the beginning.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Focus on your top three priorities and evaluate those priorities weekly.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who is a self-starter, a go-getter, and has a solution based mindset.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Go all-in 2. Don’t limit your potential
How best to connect with Mandy: * http://www.brookfielddanceacademy.com/contact-us.htm
Beau Henderson is a financial advisor, syndicated radio host and best selling author. He writes and speaks internationally helping people create success with both money and life. The new release of his best selling book The RichLife -Ten Investments for True Wealth can be found at www.RichLifeBook.com.
Secret -- timesaving technique It’s simple, just do less -- focus on three items -- to really optimize your day focus on one item. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Beau has a set routine that he calls a power hour. This routine helps him to remain focused during the workday.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Beau dealt with the great real estate meltdown of 2007 -- and Beau tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to be able to communicate and interact with people effectively.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Don’t get frustrated with the journey because it’s truly about progress not perfection.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would have put a system in place that could have helped me bring in even more competent people.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Consistency is the key ingredient at the foundation of a successful recipe.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who has autonomy-- can measure their activities-- and reports to management.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Action has to be balanced with strategic planning 2. Add value to everyone you touch
How best to connect with Beau: * http://www.richlifeadvisors.com
P.S. We are giving away Beau’s new book to the first three responders. To get a copy of Beau’s book email Wendi: wendi (at) onwardnation dot com.
Russ Sorrells helps people that want to help themselves - make a plan for their lives - so they can lead a high impact - high performance life.
Secret -- timesaving technique Identify six priorities. Send those priorities to everyone in the organization. Then identify five organizational priorities and make sure your six daily priorities align. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Russ enjoys meditation, moderate exercise, and writing in his journal every morning.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Russ received a large order, but the product they delivered underperformed -- and Russ tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to be able to adapt and have a certain level of flexibility.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Reading about emotional intelligence was an invaluable lesson about interfacing with my customers.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would have put a system in place to make our marketing efforts more efficient.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? 90% of the owner's responsibility is focusing on the sales process.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who understands sales strategy, refines the sales process, and masters the materials given to them.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Identify an end goal 2. Outwork the competition
How best to connect with Russ: * http://www.carolina-automation.com
As President and CBO (Chief Bargain Officer) of the Bargains Group, Jody has mobilized her award winning discount wholesale and promotional products company to revolutionize the business landscape.
A winner of the Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Canada’s Top 40 Under 40, and a PROFIT W100 Recipient, Jody Steinhauer uses her network of resources and leveraged buying power to aid every company and not-for-profit agency that she touches to maximize their buying dollar. Since 1988, Jody has grown Bargains Group from her apartment to a multi-million dollar-a-year business. Jody is also an official Huffington Post blogger.
Secret -- timesaving technique Make a gratitude journal -- Identify three priorities -- Try to get the hardest task done first. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Nancy utilizes a daily wrap-up. Five minutes of disclosure at the end of the day helps everyone remain on the same page.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Jody had to strategize when Walmart moved into Canada -- and Jody tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to recognize their strengths, delegate their duties, and hire smart people.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Building a strong team is essential to growing your business and getting out of the day to day operations.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I wish we would have implemented a CRM system when we first started the business.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Make everyone happy -- under promise and over deliver.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? Orientation and integration -- You have to cross-pollinate by forming bonds with your co-workers.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Passion drives business 2. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, build an advisory board 3. Build a network
How best to connect with Jody: * http://jodysteinhauer.com
Nancy Marshall is known as The PR Maven(R), after having worked in public relations for 30 years. She recently published her first book called PR Works!
Secret -- timesaving technique Hire great people and try to empower everyone. This is a long-term timesaving technique. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Nancy always builds her network. Connecting with others and expanding your network is an invaluable daily habit.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Nancy lost a major contract that her company held for nearly twenty years -- and Nancy tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to combine traditional relationship building methods with characteristics pertinent to the era of social media.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Its not just making a list of a bunch of people, it’s about building truly meaningful relationships.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would have put an operations system in place versed in documentation and replication.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Create templates for everything-- it’s all about brand consistency.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who believes in the corporate vision, the organization's system, and the long-term journey.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Network 2. Be grateful to others
How best to connect with Nancy: * http://www.marshallpr.com
Larry Broughton is Founder and CEO of broughtonHOTELS; Broughton Advisory Group; and yoogozi.com. He’s an award-winning entrepreneur & CEO; a best-selling author; keynote speaker; and former U.S. Army Green Beret committed to helping visionaries, leaders and high-achievers step into the leadership gap.
Secret -- timesaving technique Utilize a traditional to-do list and don’t be afraid to delegate your duties. Always focus on your passion. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Larry has developed a morning routine grounded in meditation and personal enrichment.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Larry lost nearly 40% of his hotel investments during 2001 -- and Larry tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to become a skilled life-long leader who can do the hard right over the easy wrong.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “You have to push yourself to become a fully transparent expert in your respective field.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would systematically build my corporate and personal brands at the same time.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Be slow to hire and quick to fire -- make sure to do your homework.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who communicates with teammates and dares to fail greatly.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Develop a board of advisors with a vested interest 2. Find a good mentor 3. Take rapid action
How best to connect with Larry: * http://yoogozi.com
Dave Mammano is the founder and CEO of the Next Step Education Group. His mission in life is to help people realize their highest potential through education. Next Step is a multi-media enterprise that has grown to become a nationwide resource with prestigious awards and honors, including being named a three time consecutive Inc. Magazine 5000 growth company and Top 100 growth company in Rochester, New York. David has spoken at hundreds of high school, college, business and EO events, including TEDx, and is the author of the new book, “Make Love in the Workplace”.
Secret -- timesaving technique Focus on your priorities. For example, Dave likes to get the hardest task done first thing in the morning. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Dave enjoys running in the morning because it provides a spark of energy for the rest of his day.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Dave hired an individual with a noxious personality who almost ruined his company’s culture -- and Dave tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to effectively manage their time by learning to schedule.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “You have to have balance -- there has to be a balance between family and business.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would have implemented a system that could bring the team together and gauge individual metrics.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Identify one vital priority a day.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who can challenge management by independently thinking of new ideas.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. It’s a step by step process 2. Passion has to relate to profitability
How best to connect with David: * http://www.nextstepu.com * (585) 742-1260
Husband and dad. Podcaster at ConversionCast. Conversion Educator at LeadPages. Voice actor. Aspiring Superhero. Orangeman.
Secret -- timesaving technique Have a set routine. For example, Tim starts his day by going to the gym. Don’t let others dictate your schedule. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Tim believes health and nutrition are components of becoming a successful entrepreneur.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Prior to starting his entrepreneurial venture, Tim was working extremely long hours -- and Tim tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to be able to understand copywriting because its the linguistic art of selling.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “When you wake up -- identify something that you can’t pass up because you are so passionate about it -- and then do it.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would implement a system that could help me grow my email list much faster.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Focus on different ways to grow your email list.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual who understands the corporate system, finds solutions, and works with flexibility.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Embrace fear, doubt, and worrying 2. Entrepreneurship is not for everyone
How best to connect with Tim: * http://www.timthepaige.com/
Authority and Thought Leader on outsourcing contract startup, contract analysis, and contract administration systems. Deep Experience – 15 years of lessons learned and best practices from starting up the contracts of 114 of the world’s leading [Fortune 100 & Fortune 500] corporations and U.S. federal and state government agencies.
Click to tweet: Steve Olson shares his outstanding experience and insights on Onward Nation!
Secret -- timesaving technique Begin each day with the end in mind. Make a list ranking your top five priorities. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Steve makes sure to spend 75% of his time prospecting to find clients through networking.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Steve’s transition from a secure high paying job to a new business owner was very difficult -- and Steve tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to be able to satisfy the needs of their customers by understanding the marketplace.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Learn to develop a comprehensive marketing plan versed in strategic objectives.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “It’s not necessarily a particular system, but I would make sure to find trusted advisors.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? You have to develop, implement, and maintain a strategic marketing plan.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual with integrity, a diverse set of skills, and the ability to understand your corporate mission.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Find trusted advisors 2. Review your business plan
How best to connect with Steve: * steveolson@cms-groupinc.com * http://cms-groupinc.com
Tony Parinello created his own brand of sales training called Selling to VITO™, the Very Important Top Officer in 1995. Today, he is trusted by the majority of Fortune 1,000 and over 2.5 million sales people in more than 30 countries to help them create bigger deals in less time.
Secret -- timesaving technique Start your day doing something you love to do, identify a time during the day when you can do your best work, and get the hardest task out of the way first. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Tony tries to develop an unshakeable belief that is derived from identifying a single purpose.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Tony was ready to release an audio album, but failed to deliver a pitch to a notable producer -- and Tony tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to be able to look at the end result and make it a priority before everything else.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Size does not matter and it never will.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would put a system in place that could help with leveraging distribution points and international channels.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? You have to make it clear to the marketplace that your organization has an unshakable belief in their product or service.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual that can think independently, but still understands how their thoughts align with the organization.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Understand your purpose. 2. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. 3. Find a reliable mentor.
How best to connect with Tony: * http://www.vitoselling.com/tony-parinello
Jim Traister is the CEO of HospitalityFan, a Social Media & Creative agency that drive sales via social media for independent hospitality businesses every day across the country.
Secret -- timesaving technique Consolidate your channels of communication, utilize email in an effective manner, and make sure to turn off all unnecessary notifications that can become distractions. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Jim’s success can be attributed to family and an overall willingness to tackle the hardest task at the start of the workday.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Jim had to let go of a valued salesperson and consequently lost one of the company’s largest accounts -- and Jim tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to be committed to their customers, understand the customer's point-of-view, and remain persistent.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “It’s so easy to be great if you have a good work ethic because there is very little competition out there.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would have put a system in place to help with sales because an inadequate system can’t fully prepare a salesperson.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Caring is the recipe for success. Very few companies try to form mutually beneficial meaningful relationships.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual that can communicate effectively, take initiative, and become a proactive problem solver.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Find your future self. 2. Don’t listen to your friends and family if they can’t relate. 3. Be Persistent and care for everyone.
How best to connect with Jim: * http://www.hospitalityfan.com
Albrecht was a co-founder of Student-Online, a pioneer start-up in electronic publishing and online dictionaries in the early 1990's. He is the founder (and 2008- 2012 CEO) of Berliner Filmforum a business club and network for film and media professionals with 10,000 members. As a consultant Albrecht has worked for Osram, Europcar, Daimler, VW, Total, Cisco Systems, the Vatican, US-State Department and a number of Start-Ups and SMEs.
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Secret -- timesaving technique Make a schedule and understand your individual strengths. Try to identify a specific time during the day when you can excel at your trade. Don’t try to work when distractions are present. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Albrecht makes sure to close the door to signify when he is working. Closing the door limits unnecessary distractions.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience When Albrecht left Syria during a period of civil unrest he lost all of his business connections -- and Albrecht tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to learn to say no and prioritize their day in an efficient manner.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “90% of what people say is total nonsense and the other 10% of the noise actually matters.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would try to get out of the system. The educational systems I progressed through prepared me for a world that did not exist. I would love to go back and prepare myself for the real world.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Repetition is an invaluable technique that helps business owners achieve a level of mastery.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual that can identify with the organization, hold onto their own ideas, and refrain from developing an ego.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Don’t be afraid. 2. Identify your core strengths. 3. Keep asking questions.
How best to connect with Albrecht: * http://www.themagicoftheswarms.org
Tom Dunkel has 25 years of finance and real estate experience. He currently runs 4 alternative investment companies and volunteers with the Boy Scouts of America. He enjoys sports, music and spending time with his family.
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Secret -- timesaving technique Employ traditional and simple methods. Get a journal and write down your ideas. Tom believes traditional methods compound over time and promote efficiency throughout the workday. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Over the last few years, Tom has made exercise and continual learning major priorities in his daily routine.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience A trading partner stole nearly $750,000 of investor-raised capital from Tom’s business -- and Tom tells the full story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to have the ability to communicate their vision with the utmost clarity.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Take personal responsibility to become more and your success will correlate with the person you become.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “A system versed in communicating with internal personnel and outside stakeholders.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Identify three vital functions to limit distractions and bolster concentration.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? Clear away the clutter, limit distractions, and deliver consistently.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Find a mentor. 2. Work towards your entrepreneurial vision. 3. Create a life plan and build your business around it.
How best to connect with Tom: * tdunkel@usmresolution.com * http://usmresolution.com/ * Office: (484) 498-8254
Entrepreneur, Hyper Networker, and Success guru. I am known for the companies and groups I have started, the thought leadership in Enterprise Architecture, and my community contribution and support.
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Secret -- timesaving technique Focus on your top three income-producing activities. Focusing on your top three income-producing activities will help your team stay on track and the revenue should follow. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Phil follows a personal fitness routine to bolster his energy levels. Phil credits the routine for his energy throughout the workday.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience One of Phil’s largest clients sent a letter notifying the company that there was a breach of contract -- and Phil tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner needs to be determined and have the ability to persevere through hardship.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Done is better than perfect. The creative process is dynamic, but you have to get the job done.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would go back and look at systems versed in planning with an emphasis on life planning.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Everyone within the organization has to understand what needs to be done to bring income into the company.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? You have to be committed to customer service and creating meaningful relationships.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Find a mentor. 2. Be comfortable with change. 3. Reflect daily regarding the state of your business.
How best to connect with Phil: * http://cadeon.com
Afraa Zammam is co-founder of "The Magic of the Swarms", a charity for refugee children based on her husband's art.
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Secret -- timesaving technique Get an accountability partner. An accountability partner is anyone who is going to help you stay focused. Afraa believes accountability partners help an individual to adhere to their daily schedule. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Afraa makes a sincere effort to mediate and take walks throughout the workday.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience A war in Syria broke out and took a toll on Afraa’s international cosmetic company -- and Afraa tells the whole story here.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “A business owner has to have patience and excellent communication skills.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Live life by design instead of life by default. Environment is everything. Your environment is a direct reflection of yourself.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I don’t think I would go back and push the reset button to add a specific system. We’ve found a way to take advantage of our particular situation over the past three years.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Take ownership of your responsibilities, don’t make excuses, and never blame others for your own mistakes. “Do you want to be the wave or do you want to be the surfer?”
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? Write down all your goals and make sure to stay on track.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Just do it. 2. Surround yourself with people you admire. 3. Get rid of any major distractions that hinder your business.
How best to connect with Afraa: * http://www.themagicoftheswarms.org
Shane Stott is CEO of Walker Tape Co, and the co founder of Zen Float Co. He's an inventor at heart and has revolutionized both of his industries. His inventions have been featured on ABC, MSN, and Yahoo. He is a very active industry expert in both fields producing webinars, interviews, and how-to videos that can be found at ZenFloatCo.com and WalkerTapeCo.com.
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Secret -- timesaving technique Make a “WIN-list” not a to-do list. Making a win list allows an individual to focus on their vital priorities. Starting with the hardest task on your WIN-list is a great way to initiate the day. This recipe helps Shane’s build enough momentum to conquer major challenges. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Shane has developed a morning routine that consists of his daily workout regiment, a balanced breakfast, and this motivational audio (Link to MP3) that gets him in the zone during his commute to work.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Shane was working on an innovative prototype when it literally sprung a leak. Ultimately, Shane’s team went back to the drawing board to find a solution -- and in the process -- improved the product.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “Business owners need to take advantage of our information world by accessing free information and making a commitment to constant learning.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “I chased it and I got it, but it didn't bring me the joy that I had initially expected.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “I would build a beta testing group for both of my businesses at a very early stage.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Welcome feedback as a team because it’s an opportunity for growth.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? Individuals who can manage themselves in their own respective field with the utmost honesty and humbleness.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Give it your best effort until you have nothing left to give. 2. Have total faith that you can conquer the twists, turns, and obstacles. 3. Don’t limit your potential.
How best to connect with Shane: * shane@walkertapeco.com * shane@zenfloatco.com * http://www.shanestott.com
Entrepreneur, business coach and business journalist. President of Marty Wolff Business Solutions.
Secret -- timesaving technique It’s all about the fundamentals. Observe the practice, write down your goals, and try to review them on a regular basis. Get your heart and mind behind your goals. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success A morning routine initiated by a brief prayer. Immediately after prayer, Marty reviews his goals, creates a concise to-do list, and continually checks his progress throughout the day.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Success at a young age gave Marty a sense of invincibility. He decided to go into a struggling retail business with the idea of reinventing the organization. He ultimately failed by hanging on too long.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “To thrive in the current business environment you have to read, keep learning, and continually absorb information to feed the mind.”
Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “You know you young guys think it gets easier. It doesn't. It just changes over time.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “Financial systems, financial accountability platforms, and systems that help an individual formulate a better understanding of financial projections.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Share the big picture within your corporation, get everyone rowing in the same direction, and implement internal systems to spread your vision.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual can exceed expectations by being a great team member.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. “Gut check.” Why are you doing what you're doing? 2. Ask for help. Don’t try to do it all on your own.
How best to connect with Marty: * marty@martywolffbusinesssolutions.com * http://martywolffbusinesssolutions.com/
Stacy Tuschl is a speaker, business coach, and the owner of The Academy of Performing Arts in Wisconsin. She is the author of the forthcoming book, Is Your Business Worth Saving?, where she reveals proven strategies for pulling entrepreneurs out of a rut and launching them toward business success.
Secret -- timesaving technique Do everything you can to prepare for tomorrow before you go to bed tonight!
Daily habit that contributes to success Delegate -- but -- follow-up to check in on progress without micro-managing -- by scheduling a series of specific, regularly occurring checkpoint meetings each week.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Stacy tells her story of trying to keep her head above water at the time her business began to grow quickly -- so she hired several people without having a plan or management team in place -- all of which compounded in more problems. She was forced to learn how to onboard, train, and delegate...quickly!
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “The preparation behind your performance.”
Most influential lesson learned a mentor “Things are never as hard as they look.”
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “Hire an assistant immediately”...someone who can do all of the $10 an hour jobs so you can focus on accomplishing your most vital priorities each day.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Set up and schedule a consistent rhythm of checkpoint meetings -- and then train your team to wait until the meetings to provide feedback all at once so it can be dealt with all at once.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? Be a self-starter. But don’t ask questions -- instead -- raise questions. As a business owner, you should hire people who are smarter and more skilled than you for your various departments and then ask them to self-start projects.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. “Say no a lot” and protect your schedule and only say “yes” to amazing opportunities. 2. Find a coach or mentor right away to help bring the best out of you (and Stacy outlines an excellent recipe for how to find the right mentor).
How best to connect with Stacy: * Go to StacyTuschl.com to get details about her forthcoming book, weekly video blog, and training programs. * Two of Stacy’s favorite productivity resources: + ODesk.com + Elance.com
Speaker, Author, Successful CEO and Student of the Game of Business. Founder/CEO of MyEmployees, a 26 year-old firm in the Top 1% Worldwide in the Employee Engagement and Recognition industry.
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Secret -- timesaving technique Take your skill set, and the skill sets of your team, to the next level by reading every day. What started as 30-minutes a day has morphed into three to four hours. This recipe has resulted in David being able to build an incredible team and he now takes 25 weeks of vacation a year. ONWARD!
Daily habit that contributes to success Get up early and then jump start your day with prayer and thoughtful learning while everything is quiet and the distractions are minimal.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience David, with full transparency, shares the story of when two people (a family member and close friend) copied David’s business. David battled through the betrayal, the lost sales, and the competitive struggles. It forced him to create a revolutionary sales strategy, which ultimately won his business $3 million in new sales.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “Tap minds that are greater than your own.”
Most influential lesson learned a mentor “You don’t have a great business unless you have a great team.” David shares a specific recipe for honoring and recognizing employees consistently.
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? Read, study, and apply the systems described in The E-myth Revisited, by Michael Gerber. Onward Nation -- get your free Audible version of E-myth Revisited here!
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Learn together -- with your team. David describes the massive ROI and teamwork his company has generated through the “Book Club” at his company, MyEmployees.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? Demonstrate how you want to be better...every day.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Hire slow and fire fast. Don’t make the mistake of keeping an employee on your team who is not a cultural fit -- even if they are a high performer. 2. Constantly look for more and more ways to add value to your clients.
How best to connect with David: * Reach David here. * Find MyEmployees here. * Get a free chapter of David’s award-winning and Wall Street Journal Bestselling Book, Built to Lead, here.
Bonus: Get a free Kindle version and companion workbook to Built to Lead when you buy a copy of the book from Amazon. Just email David at: Davidlong @ toptenmanager dot com with the subject line: “Send Kindle Version”.
ReLaunch – Become Known in Your Niche – podcasts and resources to inspire entrepreneurial confidence, maximize visibility and promote business growth. Founders Joel and Dr. Pei.
Secret -- timesaving technique Technique learned from Darren Hardy, publisher of SUCCESS Magazine -- schedule a “90-minute Jam Sessions” to work on your most vital priorities.
Daily habit that contributes to success Consistently working out / fitness has been a game-changer because it provides the energy to carry out what needs to be done.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Joel produced eight podcasts before The Relaunch Show took off. All of those lessons of what not to do contributed to Relaunch becoming the massive success it is today. But it took determination to work through those painful lessons learned in online marketing, business systems, and how to build a strategy to reach the right audience.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful Business owners need to master themselves by learning their strengths, features, talents, and skills so they can move their business from A to B.
Most influential lesson learned a mentor The power of “Success Vitals” learned from Darren Hardy during his live High Performance Summit in La Jolla, California. We need to zero in like a laser beam in order to maximize our result outcomes.
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? Developing a good understanding of what content your customer avatar wants -- and then setting up a content funnel inside an email distribution system to deliver exactly that and nurture the relationship. “Your list is your currency.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Make 15 cold calls every day in order to present offers and pitches to develop new business relationships -- and meticulously track all of the metrics and touch points.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? Delegate and teach your team to take more and more off your task list so they can “do things today that will create time for you tomorrow.” Powerful lesson Joel and Dr. Pei learned from Rory Vaden, author of Procrastinate on Purpose.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Don’t be afraid to ask for feedback (it is the only way you can get better). 2. Surround yourself with the best books and the best training resources. 3. Surround yourself with relationships -- link arms with a mentor -- people who will not only teach you but will let you stand on their shoulders so you can get up there and see what you currently cannot see. 4. Practice the daily rituals / habits you must do...day in and day out.
How best to connect with Joel and Dr. Pei: * About The Relaunch Show * Get a copy of Joel’s book “Find Your Voice” from Amazon here * Or, go here and get the Audible version of Joel’s book free.
Stacey is an entrepreneur, author, business owner, attorney, blogger, and mom. Stacey’s keynotes, blogs, and radio show continue to offer a compelling message about defining and achieving your dreams.
Secret -- timesaving technique Wake up early (4:00 to 4:30 a.m.) because by the time 8:00 a.m. hits -- the day is no longer your own. It belongs to your clients, employees, meetings, etc. During those early hours -- focus on several key priorities that are necessary for you to “win the day”.
Daily habit that contributes to success Never focus on the immediate results.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience In 2005 - 2006 the real estate market changed. Stacey went from having it all -- to having to sell it all in order to keep her business afloat. She sold her house, sold her cars, and moved into one of her investment properties. She then dug in, used the right affirmations, and has since battled back to success! “The stories in our head become the stories of our life.”
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful If you want to build a successful business -- and have an awesome life -- you must recognize that you are the average of the people you spend the most time with. In this interview -- Stacey shared her step-by-step recipe for connecting with, interviewing, and doing business with the most affluent business leaders, millionaires, and billionaires throughout the Boston marketplace. She is now a contributor to Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, and Fast Company. Onward Nation...apply Stacey’s million dollar recipe for massive success within your industry. And if you want to get published in Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, and Fast Company -- Stacey can connect you. Contact Stacey directly using the details below.
Most influential lesson learned a mentor When you are being mentored by someone -- it is a compliment to them -- if you someday fly the coup and do your own thing.
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? “Wished I would have applied the strategy of interviewing people 10 years ago. I cannot imagine the size of the network I would have by now had I started sooner.”
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Build your own personal board of advisors by studying the books from all of the top people you want to learn from -- and share those resources with your employees to facilitate continuous learning. Then take immediate action on what was learned.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? Hire people who are master networkers and excellent at strategically selecting people they want to spend time with, interview them, and expand their sphere of influence in the process.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Never take “no” for an answer. You need to eat rejection for lunch. 2. Believe in “you” even when no one else does. Ignore the naysayers. 3. Break through the fear and pursue your big dreams.
How best to connect with Stacey: * About Stacey -- register for her weekly newsletter and receive her most recent interviews * Get a copy of Stacey’s latest book, “Reach!: Dream | Stretch | Achieve | Influence”
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Don Yaeger is a nationally acclaimed inspirational speaker, longtime Associate Editor of Sports Illustrated and author of 24 books, eight of which have become New York Times Best-sellers.
Secret -- timesaving technique We simply need to do the common things uncommonly well. Don’s success comes from his ability to delegate to his team of 18 employees around him.
Daily habit that contributes to success Read something positive in the early morning “before the world gets into my head.” And that led to the creation of Don’s “Daily Dose of Greatness”.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Don tells the painful story of when a close family friend, who also served as the office manager of his company, stole over $300,000 from his business. Don and his family had to deal with the betrayal, unpaid expenses, taxes, etc. that she had not paid. A near crippling situation -- but Don and his team persisted and made it through.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful You cannot lead people you don’t know.
Most influential lesson learned a mentor “You will never outperform your inner circle. Do you want to know what your capacity for greatness is? Just look at the people who are around you -- the people in your personal life and your professional life -- because you will never outperform them.” -- Coach John Wooden
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? Great teams are more focused on their culture than their product. Every great team should go through the process of creating a “culture document” and put the culture into practice throughout the company.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Great teams run the most efficient meetings, or “huddles”. They recognize that the habit of great meetings is a strategic advantage.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? If we create a culture of empathy -- then our employees will know what is happening in each other’s lives -- and care about each other. As a result, teamwork will improve and that flows to our customers.
What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? Be a better storyteller -- he or she who tells the best stories wins.
Don’s final advice Don’t be stuck on finding mentors exclusively from within your industry. There are amazing lessons to learn from people who can offer you different perspectives that they learned outside your industry -- but can be applied to move your business onward.
How best to connect with Don: * DonYaeger.com * Don’s latest book, The Two Most Important Days of Your Life, can be found here
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McKain’s keynote presentations benefit from three decades of experience, combined with his innate talent for articulating successful ideas. McKain has spoken before and consulted for the world’s best companies.
Secret -- timesaving technique “There are no secrets to success -- but there are systems.” Scott shares his insights including how to understand your best way to learn and create the right system for you.
Daily habit that contributes to success Scott shared a daily habit he learned during dinner with Zig Zigler.
Could have ruined your business -- but now -- an invaluable learning experience Scott shares the excruciatingly painful story of losing his wife to a battle with ovarian cancer -- and how it would have been easy to quit the business -- but Scott made the decisions and fought through the financial devastation -- and moved his business onward.
Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful Learn how to create distinction in the marketplace and attract loyal, more profitable customers. Bonus resource: free video training where Scott focuses on how to create distinction and provides a precise recipe you can apply in your business.
Most influential lesson learned a mentor Scott’s mentor in the speaking business was Grady Nutt. Scott admired Grady so much he tried to be the next “Grady Nutt” -- until Grady taught Scott this very important lesson.
Final Round -- “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? Focus on setting up value delivery systems instead of sales systems. Make the customer the star of the show.
What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? The precision with which you deliver the customer experience.
How to exceed expectations and add the most value? Remain focused on creating the “ultimate customer experience” -- make it the priority of the organization -- and do whatever it takes to deliver that level of experience. Hire “customer people” to work inside your business.
What 2 or 3 strategies you would recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? 1. Are you willing to fire a customer? 2. Go an “inch wide and a mile deep” with your expertise instead of trying to be everything to everyone. 3. Are you customer-focused or more focused on your product / service?
Scott’s final advice Focus on how you can make a critical difference for your customers. What can you do that will attract them to you?
How best to connect with Scott: * ScottMcKain.com * 7 day free trial at: DistinctionInstitute.com * FREE book: get the Audible version of Scott’s latest book, The 7 Tenets of Taxi Terry
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