The Focus Factory: Recent Episodes
Jeff Pickett
Growing a business, no matter the size, is challenging! Each Tuesday, join Jeff Pickett as he interviews guests who are successful in their pursuits. If you're a business owner, entrepreneur or start up who seeks motivation, perspective and great advice, this is the podcast you've been looking for.
IMPORTANT POINTS * 4:30 - The determination of what lifestyle we want determines the business model we build. * 6:30 - Knowing your story helps you understand why you are in business. * 8:00 - The best business model for you * 9:15 - The secret behind good decision making * 10:30 - Avoiding the golden handcuffs * 14:45 - The BURN Process - find the lasting value in your life + Beginnings - starts with a loss or a leap + Urgency - when you have to do something + Refinement - street lessons, street skills, divine appointments + Newness - going forward with newness * 21:00 - Putting BURN to work in the workplace * 22:10 - The Burns happen in cycles - the lasting value survives the burn to be used going forward * 24:10 - Identify your life cycles with BURN * 28:30 - The BURN process helps you identify where your street skills are so you can determine the skills you can teach to others * 30:00 - The BURN process equips others to work for you autonomously * 32:04 - How to use BURN to correct mistakes or make new decisions * 34:30 - How Throne Publishing can help you with this process and how to understand your story * 36:15 - The importance of pausing and identifying your story * 37:45 - The one focus point from Jeremy
IMPORTANT LINKS * Jeremy’s email address * Jeremy’s website
IMPORTANT POINTS 3:30 - Will’s background story and joining a franchise
6:45 - When “You’ve Arrived” doesn’t always mean you’ve arrived
8:00 - The value of growth through observing industries outside of your own
9:45 - Start local and pay attention to the small things
11:30 - Will’s favorite podcasters and instructors - Grant Cardone, John Maxwell, Tai Lopez
12:30 - Looking at the lifestyle of others to serve as a model for your growth - scale it all to where you’re at
Instead of looking to compete, I wanted to dominate my market.
14:30 - Taking your resources to train those around you to lift everyone up
15:33 - Get around people who are better than you
16:45 - The concept of “Price is made up”
18:45 - The impact of transitioning mindset leads to better sales and business
19:30 - The fear of training others, fearing competition - and how that hurts you more
21:00 - Find a fit instead of the warmest body
22:00 - Understanding you won’t attract all the clients - and why this is a good thing
24:00 - Don’t be the cheapest in town and racing to the bottom
26:00 - The progression towards a personal brand and consistent effort
28:05 - Demonstrations of why niching in makes you a specialist and more profitable, even in a super niche field
30:30 - Changing mindset - or not - will define your future and success
33:00 - The value of investing in your ongoing education and applying it to your growth
36:00 - Positive attitude leads to treating your job like a career versus a job
37:20 - Focus advice of the week: Find what works for you and train on it regularly. Get your mind right everyday.
IMPORTANT LINKS Will on Facebook
Will’s website - Kwik Kerb
Will on Instagram
The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone
If you’d like to know more about how to get a Video Business Card for your business, click here
IMPORTANT POINTS 4:00 - Who Ryan looks like and his background story
6:00 - How Ryan’s services led to building an online community
9:30 - We’re live and unedited
10:20 - The origins of Ryan’s call to build community in real life - college, faith, his family
12:45 - Becoming part of something bigger than one’s self with community
14:00 - Building community with friends and close proximity
15:00 - The tangible benefits of community
17:30 - What community, through podcasting or business, gives you - a desire to serve even with no monetary gain
19:05 - Relational over transactional - how that builds into your business and guides who you work with
21:10 - Being authentic within community and its importance - but does it work for everyone?
23:00 - Vulnerability, freedom and reduced fear
26:00 - The faster people understood the real you, the faster you learn if you’re a fit
27:21 - Peeing your pants - (yeah, we went there!) sharing your faults to relate to others
28:00 - Pre-qualify you and others through vulnerabilities expressed
29:25 - Building communitie(s) wherever you are
30:50 - Dealing with negativity within community through core values
33:00 - Be sure those in your community offer value to you and others
34:58 - Transitioning real-life community into online community to avoid online drama
37:20 - Good community self-selects for the betterment of the whole
39:00 - Challenge but being cautious on personal attacks within online community
40:30 - Focus advice of the week: know yourself and be yourself and align that with what you deeply care about; otherwise life will present challenges to you. Create opportunities to give to each other.
46:00 - Real-life community is sooo important
IMPORTANT LINKS Patrick Lencioni book -
Ryan’s website - How to Connect to your Clients through Story
Ryan’s email
Ryan’s Studio Sherpas podcast site
People-Centric podcast
Video Business Card - if you’d like to find out more details about how to obtain a Video Business Card to further yourself and your business - just click here
IMPORTANT POINTS 3:30 - How Sarah’s networking strategy paid fresh out of college to work with $100 million brands and beyond - becoming the youngest vice president for Gannett. Yeah, that Gannett!
6:25 - The value of networking face to face
7:15 - How to start an advisory board and locate mentors for your business
You need to be brave yourself and to start connecting and meeting with those that you admire and want to be like.
11:30 - Put yourself out there, forget about competition and take action
13:45 - Dream big - but execute on those dreams. Be a massive executor.
14:35 - A great advisory board should give you permission to say yes AND no to their advice.
18:30 - Sarah’s recommended reading (links to books listed below)
24:00 - Influencer marketing - what it is and how to do it right
26:20 - Nano-influencers and micro-influencers - for targeted results
28:30 - Associate your brand with the proper and complementary influencer
33:00 - Influencer insider tips and engagement ratios
35:00 - Focus of the Week: Turn off notifications and detox your digital space
IMPORTANT LINKS Sarah on Instagram
Sarah on Facebook
Sarah’s email address
The Kurtenbach Group website
The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
The Magic of Thinking Big
Sun Stand Still
If you’d like more information about our Video Business Card, learn more here.
In the start-up as well as in the ongoing direction of a business, a make or break decision can move you forward or derail the entire trip. In today’s episode we speak with Eric Ronke, attorney at law, to discuss the value of great advice and the shortfall of where most people are getting advice today.
IMPORTANT POINTS 3:30 - Where the dangers of business advice originate from these days
5:00 - Why the internet is not always your friend
6:45 - Online groups
Don’t ask directions from someone that has never been where you are going.
8:45 - People have the best intentions with their advice, but the advice is not always the best for your situation
10:40 - How to determine if the individual giving you advice is worth applying to your business
14:45 - The dangers of confirmation bias and seeking different perspectives
17:00 - Overcome the fear of seeking in person assistance
22:00 - Great and free local resources that aren’t online
25:00 - The difference between doing it yourself and having others assist you
27:45 - The danger of hustling and grinding and where your time is best spent
30:00 - Seek advice from more than one source to be efficient in your business
32:20 - Dwell on Eric’s quote: Don’t ask directions from someone that has never been where you are going.
LINKS
Eric’s Website
Eric’s email address
In business, we’re often faced with challenging times, especially when it comes to maturing relationships, challenging employees or just our own mindset and self-confidence. Relational psychology coach and corporate wellness builder, Megan Spawn, has over 20 years of experience in this field and in this episode, she provides real world advice and some 180 degree spins on how we may be thinking versus how we should be thinking.
Video version of the show
IMPORTANT POINTS 3:17 - The value of communication
4:05 - What our body language might say
5:25 - Cultural differences in eye contact and how to get around issues of aggression
6:30 - Call out perceptions you have to confirm
7:10 - Conflict resolution - what does that mean and how can we get through it?
9:00 - Sample conversation between an employee and manager
12:20 - The right time to engage in conflict
14:15 - The stigma of mental health and wellness - and how to get around it
16:00 - The challenges of self-confidence in business
17:00 - Our confidence is impacted through our ownership
18:20 - Tips to Increase your sales and confidence
21:00 - When sales falter and you want a mental check in, revisit your goals and reinvest in your process
25:35 - Dealing with generational differences in the workforce
28:30 - Being present - leaving work at work - to find more balance at home
32:00 - Our Focus Point of the Week - Be present and aware of yourself in all circumstances - and stay in yourself
33:15 - Megan’s online service for clients wanting a more private encounter utilizing your smartphone
LINKS Megan’s Website
Megan’s email address
In this episode we talk with business owner, Troy Klongerbo, founder of Fisheye Marketing. In the theory of finding your audience, we discuss the detriment of assuming everyone is your audience and instead prefer the value in niching in.
Is it Niche or is is “Neesh?” - we talk about that, too!
IMPORTANT POINTS 2:25 - What is Fisheye Marketing?
3:35 - The topic of niche - and how do you pronounce it?
5:50 - One example of niching in - a lake fisherman
7:15 - Even those who don’t appear to be a niche - they are
8:30 - The difference between being a generalist and a specialist and its impact on your profitability
9:30 - Determine who you service or what you provide as a niche
There are two ways you can specialize, either who you service or what you provide.
11:30 - The fear of niching in and the discovery journey of your niche
15:00 - What the value of niching in looks like - real customer reaction and perpetuating it in the real world
19:30 - Careful considerations of niching in
21:40 - The definitions of niche and how they may get in our way
23:00 - Your niche may be your value you provide
By niching in we’re able to provide such a better customer experience by understanding them in a very intimate way.
26:20 - Are you the general practitioner or are you the cardiologist of your industry?
27:25 - The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan - recommended reading
29:27 - What’s more profitable - being niched in or not?
30:15 - The value of less customers and doing work you love - by niching in
32:45 - Focus of the Week: - Consider how your business would improve by specializing further into your niche - and are you niched in?
LINKS Troy’s company website - Fisheye Marketing
Troy’s Instagram account
Troy’s Twitter account
In this episode we talk with Megan Dahle, business owner, Virtual CFO and Profit First professional. Megan’s real world experience with helping businesses put their profits first puts her in a unique position to put the book “Profit First'“ into action to turn businesses around and away from the red.
IMPORTANT POINTS 1:05 - A bit of intro conversation about Avengers:Endgames (totally off-focus, my apologies)
3:00 - Introduction of Profit First book by Mike Michalowicz
4:00 - What is Profit First? Mike’s story
5:15 - Profit First is a behavior switch
5:55 - When businesses get profit wrong, shiny objects, running your business on expenses, etc.
7:00 - How to make that switch from expense being your focus to profit
8:00 - There is a difference between making a profit and your salary as a business owner - rewarding yourself
When you start having a plan for that money, then this dream that you’ve always had for what a business could do for you personally can become a reality.
10:00 - The five basic accounts to get your Profit First system set up and how (as a behavior based system)
12:30 - Who this system is designed for (hint: both small and large businesses)
13:30 - Megan’s personal story of implementing Profit First
15:30 - The biggest barrier - setting up numerous bank accounts - is easier than you might think in order to implement Profit First
18:00 - How Profit First can help you in times of great need or unplanned expense
19:38 - The right way to set up your bank accounts for Profit First - and an additional two accounts at a separate bank to put certain accounts into hiding
21:00 - The benefit of Profit First is rewarding yourself (mandatory step)
22:00 - The trap of judging yourself by sales versus profitability
87% of businesses are living paycheck to paycheck…
23:15 - Don’t lose focus by putting your eyes on revenue too much; sales won’t fix it all
24:00 - Profit First gets you paid twice plus your taxes are paid ahead of time with no subtraction at tax time
25:50 - What would it look like if Profit First were in place when you saw your business go wrong
27:00 - What a Profit First Professional is, like Megan
29:20 - Don’t make this mistake that Jeff did…
LINKS Check out the book, Profit First by Mike Michalowicz
Megan’s website
Megan’s email address
Megan’s LinkedIn profile
Megan is on Facebook, too
Clockwork: Design Your Business to Run By Itself by Mike Michalowicz
Megan’s Free Offer: The first two free chapters of Profit First
Paul Xavier is a highly successful entrepreneur and the founder of the Next Level Creator - an online course specific to videographers and filmmakers. Paul was recently featured on Entrepreneur.com for his work with his clients helping them earn a total of $27.6 million.
Paul has spent the last few years turning critics into fans and clients and his successful business methods will challenge the way you think, prompting you to take action.
IMPORTANT POINTS 2:30 - Paul talks about being featured in Entrepreneur magazine
4:30 - How to get over skeptics and criticism in your business (spending over $100,000 in social media ads/month)
7:30 - The secret behind Earning The Deal and developing your sales
10:00 - Earning more sales through challenging your current sales mindset
Release attachment to getting a yes and put all of your focus into diagnosing what is the individual actually wanting in their life.
12:00 - Why the traditional budget model is flawed - and holding you back from really moving your business forward
15:30 - Your mindset is a by-product of your environment - and totally changeable
Your environment dictates who you are far more than you might think.
21:35 - Instead of judging yourself against those who are more successful than you, you’re costing others from not delivering your value
23:30 - How you can gain more focus in your business by estimating where your time and energy are currently going towards
24:33 - If your goals and actions are not in alignment, success will elude you
25:55 - Going from six figures to seven figures means you have to shift your mindset to get to that next level; what served you in the past may not serve you to add that extra digit to your revenue
26:50 - If you’re not sure where to go, consult with others to learn how to do those things
27:36 - Make your goals real; plan as if it is happening
29:00 - This Week’s Focus Challenge: Be self-aware of what you’re actually doing with your time. Analyze what you’re consuming and what is in your environment - and subtract that which is not helping you grow to your goals. 32:30 - The value of video, of knowing your audience, and of tweaking your message for better marketing efforts
LINKS
Paul on Facebook
Paul on Instagram
Paul on LinkedIn
Paul on Twitter
Paul on Vimeo
Paul on YouTube
Paul on Sound Cloud
Paul on Medium
Paul on Crunchbase
In this episode, we speak with Jason Reisdorfer, Director of Innovation & Technology for the City of Sioux Falls. However, in this episode we cover his former position as Director of Operations for Weisser Distributing, a Fortune 5000 company who last year reported sales of $70 million.
Not too shabby, right?
As someone who is great at creating order from chaos, Jason speaks to us about the importance of culture, how it was built and maintained at Weisser, and how you can do the same for your business.
Video version of podcast is available here (Vimeo link)
MPORTANT POINTS 2:22 - How Weisser Distributing began and the start of building culture.
3:50 - Building a $70 million empire with 160 employees
5:00 - Celebrating with Buffalo Wild Wings - and a tradition that stuck and became part of the culture
7:55 - Creating culture is more than just free food for your employees
Culture starts at the top.
8:45 - EOS and Traction (links are below if you’d like to order) - and using them to create culture and core values
9:45 - How to create core values - using your current high performing employees as a start
13:25 - Using an EOS-based core value process is repeatable for other areas of your life
14:12 - Every decision you make revolves around those core values
15:20 - Reinforce your core value and culture through quarterly recognition events
16:30 - Level 10 meetings
17:17 - The indirect results of a good culture
18:55 - Building a culture committee increases a sustainable culture
20:00 - Be the example for your employees - culture starts at the top
21:00 - Outcomes of a great culture - awards, company ratings at the local level, attracting employees, building the brand
22:55 - Making family members happy adds to employee happiness
24:25 - Weisser employees video talking about their culture through testimonials (total video is shown below)
27:25 - How you can use Jason’s tips to impact your business and culture
31:15 - Your weekly focus charge: culture is a commitment, so start the journey by self-evaluating and researching good partners to help you and mimic other company’s actions if they fit your model
LINKS Jason on Facebook
Jason on LinkedIn
Weisser Distributing
Complete Weisser Distributing Culture Video
EOS BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Traction: How To Get a Grip in Your Business by Gino Wickman
What the Heck is EOS by Gino Wickman
In Episode #2, we speak with Dan Olson, owner of StonePoint Financial.
As a seasoned financial investor and planner, Dan speaks to today’s business owner about the potential hazards associated with owning a business and the plans one should keep in mind to stay financially viable.
Important Points 3:30 - When should a business owner get serious about their finances? The best time is now. To avoid debt and to show you have skin in the game, save up before starting up your business.
5:50 - There is no silver bullet - you have to find out what works best for you.
6:50 - Common mistakes that business owners make. If you build it they will come is wrong. In addition focusing purely on gross sales is also a bad habit owners make. Profitability is the true metric.
If you start a business and you’re making money, that’s a business. If you start a business and you’re not making money, that’s a hobby.
10:25 - How many years will you invest your time and energy and pursue that dream before you move on and never get profitable? Be optimistic, but be realistic.
11:41 - Increase your profitability instantly.
14:30 - Pricing strategies to become more profitable.
16:50 - Tips to make your business more sustainable.
20:00 - Have an exit strategy for your business and avoid an emotional attachment for your business.
21:55 - What is the best mindset shift a business owner can make?
23:00 - Are you willing to struggle for your business to keep it afloat?
24:50 - Be wary of pride as a business owner.
27:30 - Make better purchases that merit financial gain in the long run.
29:45 - There’s no replacement for hard work, no matter the age.
Links Stone Point Financial’s website
In this inaugural episode, we discuss the reasons behind The Focus Factory and our main audience - the business owner.
We give a few tips about the Brendon Burchard book, High Performance Habits and its companion planner, the High Performance Planner. Both of these resources are highly recommended, as they help you develop six core habits to make you a better individual and business person.
As we kick this show off, it is our intent to release a new episode every Tuesday, but we kicked this show off knowing it may take a few extra days to work the bugs out of the system and get listed on iTunes. Instead of it being perfect, there was the need to ship it, as Seth Godin might say, so we shipped - and now we wait.
In the meantime, please visit our Facebook group and let us know what you think. We welcome your suggestions.
Thanks for listening!
