Carbon Based Business Units

Happy Valentine’s Day! Today, [insert husband name] is very much in love with [insert wife name] even though there is much talk of second wives and same-sex lovers. That’s all I’ll say about that, so if you really want in on the joke you’ll have to listen. Jessica Evans Makes An Introduction Ralph loves being in the middle of the drama, so when he recently received an apparent spam email from someone named Jessica Evans, introducing him to someone named Donna, he decided to play along. Jessica assured Ralph that Donna provided excellent services and would be a great fit for him. He knows neither of these people, but of course the email was phrased in a way that implied he knew Jessica, who was doing him the huge favor of introducing him to Donna. He responded to Jessica and asked for an introductory call. When he received another email of the apparent auto-generated variety letting him know that she was on maternity leave, things took on a life of their own. Suffice it to say, Jessica, Ralph and Donna exchanged a series of emails that ended in the question: is this a scam? And who is scamming who? The Jessica Character Ralph thinks it’s possible that Jessica is a real person. Well, clearly there is some person on the other end of the email but I think she’s a fraud. And we’ve got evidence. If you look up her photo online, it’s everywhere. But sometimes she’s Samantha. And sometimes she’s Julie. And one time, she was even Mohammed. She has a company website that is so generic as to say nothing at all. And a LinkedIn profile tied to this company that lists it as having 11-50 employees – of which she is suspiciously the only one on LinkedIn. The Donna Character Here’s where it gets weird. Even though Jessica appears to be no more than a façade, Donna has all the hallmarks of being an actual person. She has a real-looking website. And a real-looking profile. She even has a YouTube channel where you can see her giving real-looking talks. Based on everything we've seen, she seems like a legitimate person with a legitimate business. So... how did she get involved with... and who the heck is... “Jessica?” And why is Jessica acting like she knows Ralph and is just making a friendly introduction? A Theory We can’t leave this one alone, so we come up with a theory that Donna has hired one of those companies that promise to get you leads. And that’s exactly what “Jessica” is doing – getting Donna leads. Maybe somewhere, someone set up this fake company with the intent of doing this kind of thing. We can’t imagine why, except that it’s a deception to take money from people who want leads and then sort of spam a bunch of people into being leads. At this point, Ralph is wondering if he’s the one perpetrating the fraud, because he’s pursuing the conversation with no intent to hire anyone. So if Donna is some unwitting player and has gotten involved with a bad company then maybe she is as much a victim of this deception. We decide that instead of being a meanie, Ralph should approach Donna truthfully and find out if she’s part of the scam (if there is one) or offer some friendly advice about not hiring fraudulent companies. Stay Tuned We don’t know where this one ends yet. Maybe neither Jessica nor Donna will respond. We don’t know who they are or what they really want, so maybe they’ll disappear into the internet miasma from whence they came. But if we do hear from or speak to either, we’ll let you know! What do you think? Scam? Fraud? What do these people want? Ten Easy Steps To Spam We’re convinced that there’s a play book out there somewhere telling people how to “reach out” to other business owners with the intent of gaining some advantage – someone to read their book, try their product or let them post on your site. We get the same emails all the time. First, it’s the introductory email where the person praises you and tells you how amazing you would be for [insert thing they want here]. A few days later you get the follow up. “Just want to be sure you received the below.” A few days later you get the next follow up. “I know you’re busy but…” And so it goes. On principle, I won’t talk to anyone who says “the below” because GRAMMAR, people. I also won’t talk to anyone who “knows” I’m busy but decides to keep soliciting me anyway. Personally, I delete them all. Ralph has come up with a macro that he uses to generate a “no thanks” email that tends to stop the deluge of follow ups, so that’s a good thing and definitely worth a try. It just kills me that people do this incessantly, and without a single bit of effort. They just copy, paste and spam. Maybe some of it sticks, who knows. If you’re going to reach out to someone, the least you can do is use their name. My name is everywhere, so for someone to start an email with “hey there” or “dear site owner” it just means they aren’t trying. At ALL. And what should I expect from their book/product/blog post if they can’t even bother to solicit me properly? If you don’t want your solicitation email in the trash, then at least make an effort to connect with the person you’re soliciting. Say something meaningful. Say something real. Don’t just cue the form letter. Things & Stuff Take a look at Jessica Evans’ company website and decide for yourself whether it’s real or fake

In Which I Take Issue With Chris Curran Our loyal listeners may have noticed that our opening drumbeat, courtesy of our good friend Chris Curran, features Ralph’s name. But I want to know why Ralph gets top – and only – billing? Is this the Ralph show? I think not. So I issued a challenge to Chris to work my name into a drumbeat. Creatively. Let’s see what we get. Another Apology Last week Ralph apologized to various people and today I have to issue my own apology, to the great nation of the USA. In last week’s episode I mistakenly mentioned the Whopper as being an item you could eat at Mc Donald’s. Travesty! Are there enough mea culpas? I wonder. In Which We Admire Chris Curran After I expressed my demand for a drum track with my name in it, Ralph mentioned something that Chris did with his businesses that was very clever. Chris has a couple of businesses. One is called Podcast Engineering School, which teaches people how to professionally record, mix, master and engineer podcasts. The school is for people who want a career in podcasting. The other is called Podfudge, an agency that provides editing and marketing services to podcasters. Chris had one of his engineering school graduates produce The Podcast Engineering Show, which is Chris’s podcast. The show sounds great, which goes to prove that Chris is churning out qualified professionals who even HE is willing to hire and trust with his own show. He also hires his grads for his editing business. And Ralph thinks that’s pretty smart. It’s a way to market your product (in this case, school) – not by saying how great you are and not by talking about all the wonderful things you do – but by actually showing it. Show Don’t Tell We had an experience a few weeks ago where we went to a business dinner with colleagues, and in the course of the conversation we gave some advice to one of them about how he might improve his Facebook ads. A few days later, we were at a networking meeting with this same colleague. He stood up and told the room that after implementing our advice, he immediately got seven new leads for his business. We didn’t have to tell people that we know what we’re doing. He told them for us. And that’s worth more than any dollar amount you can spend on an ad. I know a woman who knits clothing. And she wears her own clothing. So when she’s out and someone says, “Hey, nice sweater!” She tells them she makes them for a living. It’s a great way to demonstrate that she stands by her own product. When you do a good job for people, when you stand by what you do, then your work will speak for itself. And if other people speak for you, all the better! A Travel Wrapup Last week we talked about our trip, what we spent and how we can budget next time. This week we summarize a Top Ten list of easy ways to save money so you can travel even if you don’t have a big budget. Bring food. Grabbing Mc Donald’s, grabbing a coffee or a donut or a snack can really add up. Eat at your destination but avoid expensive food traps. Bring water. Don’t spend two bucks a bottle at a convenience store when you can spend two bucks a case at the grocery store. Go where the tourists aren’t. Go to a beach town during the winter or the desert in the summer. It may not be your idea of the perfect vacation but you can still get away and do it a whole lot cheaper. Camp. If you’re adventurous, grab a tent and pitch it. Some campgrounds have great amenities like wifi and electricity. Use apps. Hotel apps can help you get really good deals. If you don’t mind the risk, you can get some great deals by just showing up and getting what’s left. Be flexible. Do things that you might ordinarily think you don’t want to do. With the right mindset you can make the best of things you might not have expected to enjoy. Use a credit card with points. Whether you get points that you can use for a purchase later, or cash back that you can use to pay for whatever you charged, take advantage of the opportunity. Find a library. The wifi is free and it’s a great place to work. Plus, if you’re the camping type, you can use the library to work instead of sitting in a tent all day. Hub it. Find one place to stay and travel out from there instead of moving from place to place. You can get much better deals on rooms sometimes when you stay a few weeks or a month. Keep receipts. If you’re working and traveling, you can write off at least part of the trip on your tax return, and that can save you money. Let People Help You We share war stories today about people who insist on doing things themselves. Ralph talks about trying to help our friend Sophia with her website, only to be un-helped by her interfering. To be fair, Ralph volunteered to help and Sophia wanted to make things easier for him – by doing some of them herself. The problem arose when she started doing things she didn’t understand, which got in the way of what Ralph was doing and ended up making everything take a lot longer and be a lot more complicated. In the end, they both could have handled it differently. Ralph by being clear about his role and what he would do, and Sophia by simply letting him do it. But we get it. When someone helps you, you feel a certain responsibility. You’re grateful, and you may feel bad about adding to someone’s workload. If that’s you, and someone has offered to help you, let them! Just find another way to thank them. A few weeks ago we called a colleague in the HVAC business to help us with a furnace problem. We didn’t ask or expect him to do it for free, but he did. Instead of freaking out and worrying about it, we simply bought him and his wife a gift certificate for dinner. People like to help. YOU probably like to help. So let people help you when they can, and then be grateful. Sometimes that’s enough. If you can return the favor, do it. DIY Madness Sophia wanted to be considerate of someone who was helping her so she tried to do things herself. But some people do things because they simply can’t NOT do them. We had a client for a month who micromanaged everything we did with his website, until we finally gave him his money back and told him he wasn’t ready to hire someone. He ended up getting a college kid to do it because he could sit there and point over her shoulder and bark orders. But at what cost? He could have afforded to hire someone. He just refused to. He wanted to control it himself. Except while he was micromanaging his website, he was not out selling. People who do everything themselves risk two consequences. One is doing a thing wrong. Professionals are professionals for a reason. We don’t replace furnaces or fix car engines, we call professionals. We don’t know how to do their job they way they do. We don’t know what we don’t know. The second is the opportunity cost. What are you NOT doing when you’re doing something you could have delegated? Delegating is a skill that more people need to learn. We Want To Eat Sophia’s Cows But that’s an apology for next time. More Things & Stuff If you’re thinking of a career in podcasting, check out Podcast Engineering School. Listen to the Podcast Engineering Show produced by one of the school’s alumni. If you're a podcaster, visit Podfudge for editing and marketing services. Check out our friend Sophia Lemon’s podcast Double Exposure. And her other podcast, Ridiculously Happy People. If you’re in eastern Canada and looking for a photographer, Sophia is one of the best you’ll find.

Apologies And Statements Ralph has a few things to clear up before we jump into this episode, and it begins with apologizing for mispronouncing the name of one of the co-hosts of Social Media Unscrambled. Of course, next week he will apologize for calling it “Social Media Scrambled” in this episode. He also takes umbrage with Janet Johnson, one of the hosts of Business Growth Time, whose marketing campaign had a typo, but who didn’t respond when Ralph pointed it out. Mostly, he wants to know: whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy? Finally, SuperFred and friend Nadia Bracken let us know that we may have used the a-s-s word too many times in last week’s episode, especially since her mom listens, too. We apologize profusely because we’re just so happy to hear that her mom listens to our podcast! Traveling On A Budget. Or Not. Last week, Ralph asked me to tally up the expenses of our 11-week cross-country road trip. So I did. On this episode we disclose the amount we spent. But why? It’s important to let you know that we’re not “lifestyle entrepreneurs.” We don’t work from the beach and insist that you can too, if only you follow our ten-step plan and sign up for our email list. So we’re not talking about money to tell you how amazing we are or to pitch you on doing things our way. We just like to travel. We discovered that recently, when we did it for real for the first time. And we were fortunate enough to have a really good year financially, so we didn’t have to travel on a budget. We were cost-conscious in some ways, and extravagant in others. But we know we COULD travel on a budget if we wanted to. Here’s what we learned about traveling smart, so that if you want to get out of a stuck space and spend time somewhere else, you can do it even if you have a small budget. It’s a matter of mindset and a willingness to compromise. The Expenses After tallying it all up, the receipts, the credit card bills and the little bit of cash we brought, we spent about $22,000. Rounding it up just to have a nice even number, and in case we left anything out, let’s call it $25,000. That includes a place to stay, food, gas, parking, and entertainment. It also includes anything we spent on incidentals on the road. Like toothpaste. And coffee. It doesn’t include money we spent on souvenirs. We spent a couple hundred dollars here and there on t-shirts (one from every city and town!), gifts, and other fun things, but I don’t count that as a travel expense. It was totally optional. That’s less than Ralph thought we spent, and more than we could have. But what if you don’t have $25,000 lying around? Eating Smart You’ve got to eat. And you’ve got to do that whether you stay home or travel across the country. So if you eat smart then you don’t have to figure much if any additional budget for food. We went to restaurants when we arrived at our destinations but we almost never ate from the road. We bought a cooler and filled it with fruit and bottled water, and stocked up on non-perishables like nuts and granola bars. Grab a loaf of bread, some cold cuts and a little PB&J and you can eat anywhere, anytime, inexpensively. If you stay somewhere with a kitchen (or even an outdoor grill) you can cook for yourself instead of spending on restaurants. Our cooler was a lifesaver. We bought a Yeti cooler, because we had experience with their products in the past and we know how awesome they are. We used one of their travel mugs for years. You can make a cup of tea in the morning and it will still be piping hot by afternoon. We also got their half gallon jug. We put a cold beverage inside and days later it was still ice cold. So getting a Yeti was more expensive than getting a traditional cooler but it was easy to carry (more like a giant purse than a cooler) and it kept food cold for days. We could stock up on food from farmer’s markets, roadside stands and grocery stores. It was like having a mini refrigerator. We saved a ton of money simply by not buying bottled water on the road. Compare two bucks a case at the supermarket to two bucks a bottle at a gas station. That can really add up. Staying Smart Our trip included one very expensive, luxurious week at the Salish Lodge and Spa in Washington state. That one week accounted for a sizeable chunk of our budget, but it was our anniversary and we gave ourselves a present. It’s not the kind of thing you do on every trip but it was totally worth it! We got a suite on the waterfall and enjoyed every second of the beautiful room, the stunning scenery, the great people and the incredible food. If you want to feel like you’re on top of the world and have money to spend, we highly recommend it. But if you’re on a budget, there’s a lot you can do to keep your room costs in check. Start with one of the hotel apps, like Priceline or Hotels.com. If you can stand a little risk, pull the app out when you show up in a town and see what the deals are. You can sometimes get great deals at the last minute. Airbnb is another great option for lower cost rooms. If you’re OK sharing space with other people, you can get pretty good rates on rooms in other people’s homes. If you want a little more privacy, like your own bathroom, you’re going to pay more, but you can still find nice places at good rates. If you’re using Airbnb, look for rules and amenities that suit you. You can find places that allow pets, include parking, wifi, kitchens and patios, and a lot more. Some people don’t allow shoes or meat, others want quiet time by 9PM. Find something that fits your lifestyle. Look for extended stay hotels or Airbnbs that offer discounts for a longer stay. If you want to get away and aren’t looking to do the touristy thing, go someplace for a month and you’ll get a better deal than if you place-hop every few nights. Sometimes a MUCH better deal. Go off the beaten path. If you aren’t looking to go to the biggest tourist havens, you can get much better rates. January in our breach town is deserted, so rooms are much cheaper than they are in July. Don’t mind being in Arizona in the dead of the August heat? You can get some super nice rooms for dirt cheap. We even found hotels that did “stay two nights get one free” deals, so look for those, too! And finally: campgrounds. We didn’t stay overnight at one but it’s a possibility next time. You might be surprised by some of the amenities. You can find campsites with showers, electricity, and even wifi. And there are often common rooms where you can meet and socialize with other people, and even use laundry facilities. Yes, you can spend a little more and get yourself a cabin, but for very little money you can get a spot to park your car and either sleep right in it, or pull out a small tent. Depending on where you are, you could spend no more than $20 a night. And since you’re a nomad now, you can leave your camping spot during the day and do a little sightseeing, or go park yourself at a café and work right from there. Travel More, Spend Less Knowing what we know now, we could do another 11-week trip and easily cut our budget in half. We could do that without even thinking too hard, without having to sacrifice our private bathroom, and even getting to go out for a nice filet mignon and lobster tail dinner now and then. So yes, if you’re having a great year and want to treat yourself to something fun, grab your keys and go see some of this amazing country. But if you’re daydreaming about getting out of town “if only you could afford it”, then grab your keys anyway, stock up on granola bars and go find someone with a room to rent. If you’re willing to take a chance, to leave your “safe space” for a little while and roll with whatever happens, it really can be that easy. A Final PSA We learned early on that using a debit card on the road was a really bad idea. If it gets stolen (and ours was, numerous times), that’s a direct line to your bank account. Use a credit card instead because you’re protected if it's stolen and it won’t affect your cash. As for credit cards, use one with rewards if you’ve got it. We used our Discover card, which amounted to several hundred dollars of cash back at the end of the trip, and that’s like free money you can use to help pay for the credit card! Things And Stuff This episode was like one giant ad for stuff we love, and we think some of these people should pay us for raving about them. If you run into them in the street, let them know! Check out Yeti products if you camp, hike, travel or just want something you can keep out in the sun on barbecue day that won’t melt in an hour. Book yourself a room (even better, book a suite) at the Salish Lodge and Spa if you want to be pampered. Listen to Social Media UNscrambled and Business Growth Time and tell them we sent you. Also, big props to Bensound for providing the royalty-free music that we used behind Ralph's apologies.  Finally, enjoy this skit from Key and Peele, related to a reference Ralph made that we’ll apologize for next week.

The best podcast on earth is back on air! We’re talking about Social Media Unscrambled, hosted by our friends Chris Curran and David Deutsch, masters of the mic and all things unscrambled. They were on hiatus for a long time but it’s great to have them back. You know, hiatus. A thing we would never do around here. Except for that first one. And then this last one. Well, we’re back too, after several months and a 10,000-mile cross country trip during which we planned to podcast and never did. So what happened? Creative Block We went through a phase where we started scripting this podcast and that started getting less and less fun. We had an idea in our heads that it would help us stay more focused on a topic and have a higher quality show. In the end we struggled to make a scripted show sound anything but scripted and sort of lost our mojo. So we ditched the script and went back to having fun. Lesson learned. When We Last Left Our Heroes… We were on our way to Podcast Movement in Anaheim, one stop of many on our cross country trip. Some two dozen states and eleven weeks later, we learned a lot about ourselves and our business along the way. For starters, we learned that we’re not the planning type. Much like we started trying to plan this podcast, we started traveling with a serious plan. We had dates and stops and things to do and people to visit. But after two stops and a handful of days, we realized that planning was just holding us back. We didn’t need to know where we were going. We just needed to go. So we threw out the plans and got in the car and drove. We drove for as many as 15 or 20 hours depending on our mood and whether there was anything we wanted to see along the way. Then we’d pull into a town somewhere and pull up the Priceline app or the Airbnb app and figure out where to stay. If that sounds a little scary, perhaps it was at first. But after a while we got used to the idea of not knowing and were even comfortable sleeping in our car if we had to. It’s not something that I would have thought would work. But it did. Sometimes you have to forget what you think you know about yourself and let something else happen. Working On The Road It seems like it would be a challenging thing. After all, routines get disrupted, cell phone service drops out, and there are so many amazing things to see and do that work could easily fall by the wayside. It didn’t. In a completely counterintuitive experience, working on the road was easier than working from the same old table we’d been at for months. We had our work days. And we had our play days. The new environments were exciting and interesting. Our creative juices flowed. We got into an exploratory mindset and that transferred to our work. Being in great places made us feel great, which meant we got to be more focused and enjoy what we were doing, whether it was gaping in awe at the deep blue of Crater Lake or writing a blog for a client. Planning helped in that regard. One thing we did plan for was working. We got ourselves a mobile hotspot. We made sure we had plenty to do on our laptops even if we absolutely couldn’t get an internet connection. We made sure that we scheduled our client calls and we showed up, even if it was at 5AM our time. So it can be done! Far from being distracting and chaotic, working on the road was relaxing, energizing and fun. More Things We Learned Being on the road was a bit of a revelation. We learned more than the fact that we could survive without a plan. We learned that we’re better in long bursts than short ones. When it comes to driving, 20 hours doesn’t phase us. It’s a lot more enjoyable than 3 hours. In a way, we work that way, too. Long bursts of super focused time and then a break. We learned that we enjoy the outdoors more than we thought we would. We learned that we’re not city people, which was a strange thing to discover since we’re New Yorkers at heart and love the city. We love to visit, to dine, to explore. But then we go home. And then we hike with elk, and that makes us happy. We avoided most cities, from Nashville to Portland to Denver. But we hit lots of mountains and waterfalls and trails. We especially enjoyed our stay in Marin Country in California, where we had a cottage on a farm in a beautiful place with great people, great food, and plenty of elk. We learned that we can do it, and we know we’ll do it again. This time, without even pretending to make a plan. The Rest Of The Story Next time we’re going to talk about how to travel even if you’re on a budget. We didn’t exactly do that, but we did find ways to save and to spend a lot less than we might have. Until then, check out some of the other cool stuff we mentioned in this show… Podfudge, Chris Curran’s new podcast production and promotion agency. Double Exposure, our friend and wedding photographer Sophia Lemon’s podcast. In Episode 62 she and her co-host discuss a client who demanded a refund because they were offended by the use of the word “shoot” in “photo shoot.” We might even have an opinion on that next time. And of course Social Media Unscrambled, which is lots of fun.

First, Housekeeping. We’re actually, really leaving for California in a week! And we’re taking two weeks off from podcasting to get there and attend Podcast Movement. We’ll be back with lots of new stuff and hopefully some good travel stories soon. In the meantime, would you be kind enough to leave us a rating and review on iTunes or Stitcher? We had some great feedback on the Web.Search.Social podcast but those reviews didn’t come with us when we switched to the new feed. We’d love and appreciate your reviews! So You’ve Quit Your Job And Started A Business! Now What? The subject came up during lunch with our business partner Michael last week. Until recently he had a “day job”. A 9-5 work-at-a-desk job. But he had enough freelance clients that he decided to strike out on his own. When he asked us what he should be thinking about in terms of starting a business, first, we poured the cocktails. Then we came up with this list. It’s not an exhaustive list, but put it in the “what we wished we knew” category of stuff we learned. Feel free to add yours to the comments below! 1. Give Yourself A Day To Work On The Business When you’re an employee, someone else makes the decisions. Someone else sets the strategy, for everything from hiring to marketing. But when you’re the boss, it’s up to you to do that. And you can’t do it if you’re constantly in a whirlwind of client work. Set aside a day – not five minutes, not an hour, but a solid day – each week to think about your own business. Plan. Strategize. Put systems in place. Brainstorm ideas. Learn a new skill. Go to the bank with your checks! Make that day about your business, period. 2. Don’t Negotiate With Yourself We’ve talked about this before. And it manifests in a couple of ways. It can mean that you’ve pre-decided the outcome of a conversation. For example, Michael was working with a client and completely stressing out because he was worried whether the client would like the color he chose for the design. And whether the client would like the font. And whether the client was going to ask for changes and what he’d say about that. In the end, the client loved everything. In other words, Michael spent a lot of time worried about something that never happened. On the other hand, you might pre-negotiate your pricing before presenting it to a prospect. You’ll wonder if it’s too high. You’ll tell yourself they can’t afford it. You’ll second guess everything and that’s all before you even talk to the client. Stop! Act and react when you need to. Don’t worry about what hasn’t happened. Have the courage of your own convictions. 3. Follow An Organizational Paradigm That Works For You We’re big fans of GTD. That’s Getting Things Done, an organizational system created by David Allen. It’s based on the premise that your brain is not a storage unit. You need it for thinking and creating and planning. So if you’re constantly trying to remember things, likes dates and deadlines and what color the client wanted, then you’re going to drive yourself nuts, be less productive and probably be miserable. Ralph has notebooks by Field Notes that he loves. And he uses them to capture every thought, idea and note. Then he organizes them into an app called OmniFocus. This works well for him. You have to find your own system. Just remember that your brain needs space to think, so get organized by getting stuff out of it. 4. Don't Get Lost In Apps While you’re searching for that perfect organizational paradigm, just remember that there are a LOT of apps out there. And you don’t need to use or try every one. There will always be something new to try. From CRMs to proposal writing software to project management. Skip the new shiny. As your business grows you’ll probably outgrow apps and need to find something else, but if you’re constantly trying new things then you’re wasting time you could be spending growing your actual business. Pick something. Stick to it. You’ll live. 5. Automate What You Can, Despite Your Feelings About Customer Service Solopreneurs often do everything with the good intention of "customer service." Talking, phone calls, emails, meetings. But more service is not better service. When you talk and write less and save your customer valuable time, that's when they respect you more. Here's an example. When a client needs to have a conversation, what happens? They reach out to you and ask you when you can talk. You respond with options. They tell you those options aren't good. You go back and forth, sometimes forever. A better approach is to automate the process. Use a service that lets you give clients a link where they can see your availability and schedule themselves accordingly. It saves both of you a lot of time. 6. Have Controls In Place When you’re an employee you have a boss. When you work for yourself you have two or ten or fifty bosses, and they’re called clients. But that’s not how it should be. You control how your business runs. You control your time and services. You need to control your clients, too. Set expectations for how you work, when you deliver, when you can be reached, what you charge. In our contracts, for example, we say that we don’t do in-person meetings. If you want us to drive 45 minutes to your office, that’s an extra charge. Don’t set the precedent that you’ll go anywhere, do anything. Don’t answer emails in ten seconds. Set controls and stick to them. 7. Find A Good Attorney Maybe two. That last thing you want to do is be on the hunt for an attorney in a crisis. Instead, find a couple of attorneys that look like a good fit. Ask people you trust and respect to suggest attorneys for you and then look them up online. Interview them. Most will give you an initial meeting for free. Use it! Go to their office because you can see what kind of shop they run and how attentive they are to you. Don't be afraid if an attorney looks too expensive because appearances aren’t everything. But conversely, if you show up and the attorney is late and looks like he or she hasn't showered in a week, then that could be a bad sign. Consider having multiple attorneys. First, some attorneys specialize in specific areas and second, there’s always the possibility that your attorney is also the attorney of an opposing party. 8. Have A Contract And don't hire a lawyer to write one. We started out with a legal contract. It cost thousands of dollars and nobody understood it. We didn’t even understand it. It took forever to close a job because our prospect would want their attorney to review it, then they’d have questions, then our attorney would have to review it again. Instead, use your contract to set expectations in plain English. How you work. What you bill. What you do and don’t do. Add to it as you learn and grow. Besides, if you’re ever in a situation where you want to sue someone because they haven’t paid you and you think the contract is going to help… it isn’t. It’s a lot more complicated and expensive than that. 9. Consider Taxes, Fees And Dues When you were an employee, someone else was thinking about this stuff. Now that’s your job. Taxes, fees, licenses, software, hardware, staplers. All of that comes out of your pocket now. Be sure you understand what your fixed expenses are and get comfortable with the idea that expenses can sometime be out of your control. 10. Get Insurance Period. At a minimum you need E&O (errors and omissions). It’s not that expensive. And it will protect you in the event that something goes wrong. In our business, let’s say we post something to Facebook and a client loses business because we said something stupid and they sue us. Insurance. Depending on what you have or where you work, you may want property insurance as well. If your computers or desks or equipment go up in flames or get stolen, how will you compensate? Insurance. 11. If You Are Too Busy, Raise Your Rates Don't fall into the trap of thinking that the best way to get clients fast is to lower your rates. You may close more business, but at what cost? You’ll have less time to service those clients (and make less money doing it), and you may not have time to work on your business. When you get swamped, you need to do one of two things: stop bringing in new business or make the new business worth your time. Don’t worry about losing clients. You may lose one or two or even more. But that will give you more time to work on servicing the ones you have, the ones that are paying you better. And it will give you more time to work on getting new – and better clients. You don’t want more clients. You want fewer clients paying you more money. 12. Set Pricing If you have to think about what you’re going to charge a customer, you’re doing it wrong. Don't customize your pricing every time. That costs you brain cells and lengthens your sales cycle. It leaves room for negotiating with yourself, and means that you’re probably not valuing your time and talent appropriately. You need a rate sheet or formula. You don’t have to make it available to the client but you need it so that you can determine pricing without thinking about it. If you have materials costs, know what they are so if you have to put together a proposal you can just add them in. Whatever you do, don’t line-item your invoices to the customer! The more line items you show someone the more likely they are to Chinese menu it. They’ll want to know what everything is and then talk about removing things. And you’ll burn time and brain cells explaining and over-explaining. YOU need to know your pricing methods. The client only needs to bottom line. It also saves them the hassle of trying to understand and process a whole bunch of costs. Here’s an example: we wanted to print t-shirts for Podcast Movement. I got a quote for $3 per shirt. It sounded great until the line items started getting added, then my three-dollar shirt turned into twenty. I get it. There are costs. But don’t make me (or your customer) figure them out. Nobody really wants a billion options or line items. They just want the bottom line. 13. Create An Onboarding Process And Stick To It A few weeks ago, we talked about a client that we brought on. That client did not want to follow our onboarding process and we decided to be flexible with him. In the end we both lost. You are the expert in what you do, and your most important priority is to make sure that projects get into and out of your pipeline as fast as possible so that you can churn out happy clients and get paid. If you have to invent a new onboarding process for each client, then you'll never have time to grow your business. That doesn’t mean you can’t modify your process or come up with a new one if the job is worth it. If it’s a great opportunity, and you want the job and the money is there, then go ahead and make an exception. But having a foundation will go a long way to setting expectations and keeping you sane. 14. Have Systems Onboarding is a system. So is invoicing, project management, task collection. If you have to do something more than once then know how you're going to do it. Don't burn brain cells figuring it out every time. While you’re at it, have a system for what will happen to your clients and their stuff if you get hit by a bus. Do you have backups, copies, contingency plans? Can you leave for a day without your business falling apart? Most solos can’t just drop everything and run off to Tahiti for a month, but if you have systems you can plan and work around things that pop up. We’re driving to California so there will be days when we don’t work. We don’t have staff, but we have systems. That means we’ve planned for this trip and our business will continue to run even if we spend 15 hours driving one day or take a week off to attend the conference. 15. Control What You Give Away For Free Would you hand a client a bunch of money? No? Then you shouldn't provide your service for free either. If you want to do something for free – to build a relationship or extend a courtesy – then go ahead. But doing free work for a client that bitches and moans at you all the time ends up looking like an apology. Your time is valuable. Be selfish with it. But if you do want to be generous with your time, do so for the mutual benefit or your relationship and not because you feel guilty or pressured. And by the way, one of the most valuable things you can get is a referral from a happy client. Unless you’re doing free stuff for that client and he refers you to a friend as “that cheap guy who does free stuff.” Those are not the kinds of referrals you want, nor can they sustain your business. 16. Don't Over Deliver It’s sort of a cliché at this point. “Under promise and over deliver.” Well, I say no. The more you do and the more available you are, the more it becomes expected. Then simply doing your job isn't good enough anymore. Follow the schedule you set. Follow the expectations you set. Deliver exactly, precisely what you promised. You CAN over-deliver but do it with intention. Maybe you particularly like someone or you feel compelled to help them out. Maybe they’re a potential source of good referrals. But be selfish with your time. Do what you say you’ll do. There’s no rule that says you have to do more. You can still do a great job and be ethical without going overboard. You’re not in business to be a martyr. You’re in business to make money. 17. Participate In A Mastermind Or Get A Mentor There’s a business adage that says, "Always be the dumbest person in the room." Or maybe just not the smartest. You want to be around people who can help you grow, who can teach you from their mistakes, who have value to bring that elevates you and your business. But you must give value in return. Getting in a good mastermind is not easy. You can’t expect to be the only one learning so you need to bring your A-game. If you're just getting started and you can't find a mastermind, find a mentor who will be willing to advise you. There are plenty of organizations that provide free services for new business owners, online and offline. Learn from the mistakes of others. You have a lot to gain. 18. Take Care Of Yourself At work you'd quit at 5. At home you'll work all night. You need breaking points or you won't be productive. Your mental health will suffer. Your physical health will suffer. You’ll be less productive. The more you do, the less you get done. Your brain needs time off. So spend at least as much time taking care of yourself as you do taking care of your business. Or, as Ralph says, exercise, eat right and drink a lot of mojitos. 19. Read More Books Consuming fresh ideas is a great way to stimulate your own ideas. The trick is finding the right books to read. We'll put a few recommendations in the show notes, but in general, stick to books that you love, books that you can relate to, books that speak to you and help you. Don’t get caught in the trap that once you’ve started a book you have to finish it. Your time is valuable. Be selfish with it! 20. Treat Your Business As A Job If your new office is at home and you’ve got kids or a family, someone is bound to ask you to do something during the workday. Take the kids to soccer, pick up the laundry. Even something as small as, “What do you think of these blue curtains?” can seem like a harmless conversation but it sucks your time up and takes you away from your job. People who have a job leave their work at work. Solos don’t always have that luxury. It’s important to set boundaries around your time and space. Your family may not get it. So it’s your job to help them. Let them know that you’re working, that you’re not “home”. Let them know what to expect from you and your time. Make compromises. Work out days and times and responsibilities with your family so everyone is on board. Then, when it’s work time, they’ll know what that means. Conversely, when it’s not work time then you need to detach and be present with your friends or family. 21. Control Your Business. Don’t Let The Business Control You. A lot of people walk around reacting from thing to thing to thing. You can't ask them to lunch because they are always tied up. They can't take your call because they’re always behind on something. This usually happens when the business, and more specifically your clients, are making demands of you. If you don't process those requests effectively, you'll always be chasing time you never seem to have. Schedule your time. Know what you’re doing and when. We used to take Tuesday afternoons off to see a movie. It was just part of the schedule. If you’re constantly running and jumping at demands, then the business will control you. 22. You Don't Need A Social Presence. Grow your business, not your “presence”. It’s a myth that you need to be online. Plenty of businesses do very well without a Facebook page. Retweets don’t pay the mortgage. Likes don’t get your book published. Comments on your blog don’t help you finish that project. If you do engage in social networking, choose your channels wisely. If you get an influx of business from LinkedIn, designate some time to network there. Just forget this idea that you need a “presence”. You need to be present to your clients. Not to random person on Twitter. Start with the premise that you don’t need to be online. Then if you choose to be, do it with intention. Have a system. Have a schedule. Have a reason. 23. Learn To Say "No" New business owners are so afraid of losing new work that they instinctively say "yes" to everything. But you have to take on the work that is in the best interest of your business. Recently, we gave a client some prudent advice. They chose not to follow it and the project exploded in their face. They came back to us and said, "Hey we're in a pickle now, please help fix this…" And we said, "No." Not because we didn't want to help, but because the “fixing” part wasn't in our area of expertise. It wasn’t going to be personally rewarding. It wasn’t going to be profitable. Not to mention the fact that we had advised them to do it right tin the first place and they chose not to. Sometime opportunities are just distractions in disguise. And That’s A Wrap! If you’ve got other ideas, or questions about anything we’ve talked about here, let us know. We’re happy to continue to conversation. We’ve been in business for nearly 20 years and have a learned a lot, and a lot of it the hard way. Maybe we can make it a little easier for you! Links Learn more about the GTD system Read one of our faves, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown Or this one… Deep Work: Rules For Focused Success In A Distracted World by Cal Newport Leave us a rating and review on iTunes …Or Stitcher Check out OmniFocus, one of our favorite productivity apps See if you love Field Notes notebooks, too

Our Trip, Plan B. Or Maybe C. A few weeks ago we said we'd be leaving for California. Yet here we still are, and probably not leaving for a few more. Why? Business decisions, that's why! We've made some bad ones, and that has led to a lot of mistakes. But we rethought, reworked and figured out a better way so that we can keep moving forward. The most important thing is launching our Podcaster's Toolbox product. And on further reflection, we realized that spending four weeks driving cross-country on our way to Podcast Movement was not only risky but costing us time we could be spending working on our app. So the new plan is to spend only one week driving out, then seven or eight back at our leisure. We also have a backup to our backup plan - if things go really, really south then we'll fly out, attend Podcast Movement where we'll launch our app, fly back, THEN drive to California! In the end we decoupled "trip" from "launch" which means we can do both - with a lot less stress. Let's Make Mistakes! Admittedly they're not fun but there are things to be learned. And ours became glaringly clear after a conference we attended last week called Laracon, which is a conference for developers that is focused on a specific development platform called Laravel. It turned out to be a lot less code-centric than I had expected it to be, which meant I got a lot out of it from a business perspective. Mostly, it made us realize that we were following the wrong path and we got a serious kick in the butt to get back on track with our software launch! The thing is, I didn't hear anything earth-shattering. Nothing was particularly new to me. But we've been so stuck in the weeds of our daily activities that we lost sight of the big picture. And if we can get so lost in our own heads, after 18 years and four business ventures, then we bet you can too. The trick is to get going in the right direction again, which is what we're talking about today. You may not hear anything earth-shattering here, either. But maybe it's the reminder you need to get out of your own weeds and start moving forward in your business. Mistake #1: WTF MVP? We've developed a lot of apps in our time, and we've worked with other people who have. And one of the core principles of launching an app is MVP: Minimum Viable Product. That means figure out the minimum thing you need to get your product out the door, and do that. You may have a lot of big ideas and grand visions, but you need to start somewhere. And start small. If we'd been advising a client, we would have insisted on an MVP. But when it came to our own product, we completely lost sight of that. We wanted it all. We wanted every feature. And we wanted them to be perfect. Except that's not how anything in life works. So we had to stop and reassess. What's our MVP? And are we taking the right actions to reach MVP or are we digressing back into the weeds of big ideas? Launch something good. Not perfect. Then make it better. Mistake #2: Putting Design Before Content If we'd been working with a client, we would never have made this mistake. But again, we lost sight of what was important in our own busyness and excitement. We got caught up in building pretty landing pages and awesome email templates and cool buttons, but didn't build a single feature. Part of the problem was focus. It's a lot easier (and more fun) to work on the pretty stuff. The stickers and postcards and colors and pictures. It's not as much fun to draw flowcharts for user interaction and error control. Sometimes you have to do the stuff that's not as sexy. The boring stuff. The hard stuff. Get rid of distractions, and focus. Mistake #3: Mismanagement I get to blame this one on myself, and oh the irony! In one of our recent episodes I lamented the lack of leadership in another business that I'm not involved in. Well, this time I get to wear the mantle of poor leader. The problem is that I am not a programmer. So when Ralph, my primary programmer, tells me something that sounds like a foreign language, not even human, I nod dumbly and say ok. I assume that I'm not going to understand it so I'll let him steer the ship. Turns out he needs a manager. After the conference we attended, I realized that there is a lot I can understand - conceptually, if not specifically. I don't have to know how to program to understand concepts like, "Don't spend all day tweaking code when you haven't even built a feature yet." Part of my job has to be learning more, not just accepting what I don't know. As the team leader, I have to understand at least enough to be able to set targets and expect results. And I have to ask lots and lots of questions. There's no excuse for ignorance. Nobody has to know everything. But everyone (everyone who wants to succeed, that is) has to know something. An Inspirational Tale At the conference, one of my favorite speakers was Justin Jackson. I'm in a few of his developer communities and have watched some of his courses related to launching an app. And he told a story that was like a punch in the face. In short, he decided one day that he wanted to build something and make a dollar that very day. So he did. He set up a landing page, offered a simple service for $10 per month, and by the end of the night he had 36 people sign up. It really was that simple. And why did it happen? Because he decided to do it. He didn't spend days and months tweaking landing pages and copy. He didn't overthink features and functionality. He did it. He had a clear goal and he delivered. And if he can do it, so can we. So can you. Your Turn If you're feeling stuck or if you've been sitting on an idea forever (maybe you've been working on one forever?) then it's time to stop and take a hard look at what you're doing. For us, we had to step outside ourselves and ask, "What would I tell a client if they were in my position?" The answers were right there, and I bet they're right there for you, too. Make a change, take a step, and get something done. Even if you think everything is running smoothly, I bet there are places you can improve. Cut something from a five minute task to a three minute task. Offload something to a VA. Whatever it is, do it in pursuit of your MVP. Make something happen, something simple, something small. Then keep making it better. If you've got a story to share or a place you're stuck, let us know! We're good at doling out advice. Occasionally we're even good at following it.

A Puzzling Mystery Solved In our last episode, we talked about how right before we went on hiatus from podcasting last year, the official Web.Search.Social puzzle was left in the hands of Alisa Meredith. So we called on Alisa to get back in the game and start recirculating the puzzle among listeners again. And then we heard from Alisa. Turns out, at the same time that she got the puzzle, she also adopted a stack of kittens. And it appears that in the game of Kittens vs.Puzzle, kittens win. Alas, the puzzle is no more. But fear not, Carbon Nation, we'll find another, and if all you can think is, "OMG, I want to be in on the game and do the puzzle too!" Then let us know and we'll add your address to the recipient list! Dumb Marketing Strikes Again We've talked about "follow the leader" marketing before but since it's not going away, today we bring up an email that I received recently where the subject line was "Please unsubscribe." We know this hustle. It's the "I'm cleaning my list and if you're not going to buy something from me then get off it" silliness. Which really boils down to the "I'm doing this because some other marketer told me this was a good way to jolt my list into action" folly. Come on, people. If your only trick for getting people to act is to insult them, then maybe it's time to stop marketing until you come up with something better. First of all, I've been on this person's list for a long time. I've read and shared her content. So to be told to "unsubscribe" only makes me say, "Ok. Bye." If you really can't think of a better way to get someone's attention then at a minimum segment your list so only people who haven't opened, read, clicked or shared will get your dumb unsubscribe email. Better yet, how about an authentic and human way of getting someone's attention? How about reaching out and asking WHY someone hasn't opened or read your emails. How about asking whether there is anything better you can do to help or inspire someone? When we were sending out regular emails, we would often take time just to say "hi" to our readers. No marketing, no selling, no expectation. And when that happened, we got feedback from people we never heard from otherwise. Imagine if we had asked them to unsubscribe. Well, once we sort of did… Actually, we wrote a tongue-in-cheek email playing off the whole unsubscribe thing. It was meant to be a joke, over the top, a goofy way to get a response. Well, we got a response. We got unsubscribes in droves. Turns out that some people were not amused. Some were, and we got some great feedback and lots of folks enjoyed the joke. But some didn't and boy were they mad. Just goes to show that even with the best of intentions you can't always figure how someone will react. So keep that in mind as you follow tired advice. Consider how your reader will perceive your words, whatever you say. Working In Your Pajamas I admit it. I love working in pajamas. Well, more like sweats, but I wear them from bed to work to the bank to the grocery store. I bet lots of work-at-home entrepreneurs and business owners do that, at least sometimes. Turns out that may not be the best idea. We got a comment from a listener recently who told us that when she gets dressed, even just to work from her kitchen table, she is much more productive. And it's true. How you dress affects your mindset. If you're in raggedy old sweats, nice and comfy on your couch, you're probably in a pretty relaxed and comfy mindset. But put on a nicely ironed shirt and an actual pair of shoes and you're dressed for "work." We're not saying you need to get dressed in a suit and tie but if you want to be successful then you need to dress the part. Figure out what works for you, then do that. And we bet it's not sweats! For our listener, Sarah Dawn, wearing the knitwear that she designs is perfect. When I taught kindergarten years ago, I used to wear clothes that had big giraffes up the leg, complete with matching earrings and accessories. For painting with kids, that was great. But when I transitioned into marketing, that wasn't so great anymore. As Sarah said, she's a walking advertisement for her clothing. But even if you don't design clothing, you're still a walking advertisement - for yourself. You may run into clients or prospects. You may run into perfect strangers who present networking opportunities. And if you're wearing your pajamas or sweats or pink fuzzy slippers, you're probably not presenting yourself at your best and most professional. My father is an accountant and the CFO of one of our businesses. During tax season, he made a lot of trips to the post office to mail tax returns. One of the people at the post office noticed, and asked him to be her accountant. He got a new client that he may not have gotten if he'd slouched his way into the post office wearing sloppy clothes. So you never know. And it's true that people who run into you may understand that you're just a busy person running errands and they'll look past your fuzzy slippers. But probably not. Admit it - you make snap judgements. And so do other people. So give people every reason to make a positive judgement about you - one that accurately reflects the successful business person that you want to be. On The Flip Side… We actually lost a job once because we appeared too successful. We had pitched a prospect and were pretty sure we'd get the job. Except one day, he saw us pull up to his office driving a BMW. And he told us that we clearly didn't need his money, so we didn't get the job. Like we said before, you just never know! You can't always figure everything out. But you can do your best to be the best. And that's all that really matters. Getting Fat One of the side effects of working in pajamas and sweats is that I gain weight. If I don't have to get dressed and go out and look professional, I tend to sit around the table eating cookies while I work, and before you know it, stuff stops fitting. It really all goes back to taking care of yourself. When you get up and get dressed you're demonstrating a certain level of self-care. You're taking care of yourself physically, which helps you take care of yourself mentally. Ralph says that he is in better shape when he makes it a point to get up in the morning and dress professionally. That makes it easier for him to draw delineations in his mind between work time and relaxing time and exercise time. So physically changing from one set of clothing to another helps him mentally shift gears, too. Clothing As Networking Here's a tip someone shared with me once. The next time you're waiting on line at Starbucks or the bank or wherever, instead of checking Facebook or your email, strike up a conversation with someone who is wearing a t-shirt or jacket with a company name or logo. For example, if you see someone wearing a t-shirt with a painter's logo, ask him whether he works for that company. If he says yes, explore the opportunity to network. If he says no, ask what he does and use that as an opportunity. Try it, because if there's one thing we've established today it's that you just never know!

Get Back In The Game! Long ago and far away when Carbon Based Business Units was the Web.Search.Social podcast, we had a jigsaw puzzle that we started to circulate among listeners. Each person solved the puzzle, took a photo then sent it to another listener. Then we went on hiatus, and somewhere around that time, very sexy friend of the show Alisa Meredith took possession of the puzzle. And there is disappeared. We assume she’s not actually holding it hostage, so Alisa, it’s time to get back in the game, solve that baby and send it on its way! And if you, dear Fred, would like in on the traveling puzzle, shoot us a message in the comments, on social, or via email and we’ll add you to the list! Traveling Begins Soon In about two weeks we’re starting our two-month road trip to Anaheim California, where we’ll attend Podcast Movement and launch our newest product, Podcaster’s Toolbox. We’ve talked a bit about it before, but today we’re diving a little deeper into what Podcaster’s Toolbox is, where we are, how we got here the mistakes we made along the way and the failures we learned from. A Bunch Of Tools There’s a lot that goes into podcasting. From ideas to research, planning, guest booking, audio production, and editing, it takes time to produce a single episode. And it doesn’t stop there because having an episode is not as good as having one that people listen to. Even after an episode is published, you still need to have email campaigns, social promotions, graphics, and all the things that go into getting the word out. So we started building ourselves tools to make it easier to manage our podcast workflow. I would say something like, “OMG I HATE DOING THIS!” And Ralph would come up with some kind of automation script to make it easier. And that worked, mostly. But we had to manage and maintain the tools, which ended up being more work. Plus there were a bunch. And they were all separate. At some point we thought, if we find tools like this helpful, we bet other podcasters will, too. So we decided to build a business around creating a toolbox for podcasters to help automate and streamline all those aggravating, repetitious things. Thing Went Well For Three Seconds We started our partnership with me, Ralph, our creative director Michael, my father as CFO, and another partner responsible for sales. We were excited and ready. Until we tried to name the product. If you’ve ever tried to name a product AND come up with a domain name at the same time, you feel our pain. It took us a year to come up with the name because we didn’t want to be either too clever or too boring. Plus, there was the practical reality of needing a name that wasn’t already taken by some domain squatter. But our bigger problem was that we were out of synch with one of our partners. Ralph, Michael and me have been working together for a long time and we have a very collaborative creative process. For example, when we named the company, we went back and forth with lists and ideas and spreadsheets (and arguments and some snark) for a very long time. In spite of disagreements and frustration we all enjoyed the process and we ended up with something we all loved. On the flip side, our other partner believed we should all stick to our individual roles. He believed, for example, that as our creative director, Michael should design the logo and we should all stay out of it. His argument was that we had asked Michael on board for a reason and we should trust in his judgement. Whether you want to collaborate or not in your business, it’s up to you. But you have to be in synch with your other partners or it will just cause frustration. And that’s where we ended up. Some of us wanted to collaborate. Some of us wanted to separate responsibilities. Nobody was happy. The Partnership Breaks Up In June of 2016, as we were preparing to go to Podcast Movement to announce our product, the partner who didn’t agree with our approach to building the business decided to drop out. That left us in the lurch, one person short of what we had expected. In the long run, it turned out to be a good thing. We had too many disagreements and nobody would have been happy. But even though it was the best thing for the business and for us in the long run, it still affected us personally. Our lost partner was a friend, so we were not only relating to him as a business partner but as a friend. We didn’t make the best of business decisions because we were thinking like friends. The fact is, you can’t separate business from personal. What happens to you personally affects your business. It affects how you feel. It affects what you do. We went through some personal unhappiness and a long depression dealing with the partnership breakup. We Move On The breakup set us back. Not only being one man down, but being personally affected, meant that we didn’t get where we wanted to be. We made a lot of promises to a lot of people and failed to deliver on them. We set launch date after launch date and missed every one. Then on top of being in a bad place, we were feeling pretty miserable about our own failures. We got to a point where we were afraid to say anything at all because we had little faith in our own ability to deliver. But we didn’t give up. This is our business and our baby. We know it can grow and we know we’re onto something that people want. So we moved on. It took some time, but we picked up and got ourselves going again. We refocused. This is “do or die” time as we gear up for Podcast Movement. We’ve streamlined operations in our marketing business so we would have more time to focus on Podcaster’s Toolbox. And we dedicated ourselves to launching an MVP (minimum viable product) with only a small set of key features so people can start using them and we can iterate from there. In fact, releasing a product with a bunch of features is dumb. We’d rather give people the things we know they want, then listen to what they need. We’re better off starting small and growing. We’ve also gotten pretty good at firing clients. Not in a burning bridges way but in a way where we’ve focused solely on projects that hit that sweet spot between “good fit” and “profitable.” That has given us some much needed extra time to focus on what we really want to do instead of what we think we “have to” do. Lessons Learned For me, one of the biggest lessons is that any partnership needs good leadership. If you’re working with friends or people you already have a relationship with, it can be tough to give directives. It was tough for me to tell friends what to do, or to recognize that we weren’t in synch from a business standpoint. It’s been tough for me to give my father directives. He’s my father… I don’t tell HIM what to do! But I’m the CEO and for the business to succeed, I need to be a leader. I need to be sure our team is working together, that we’re all doing our jobs, that we’re all being heard. Even if it’s uncomfortable. Also, patience. Things don’t always go the way you want. Sometimes they take a lot longer than you’d like. It gets frustrating. It gets draining. You’ve got to deal with it, adapt and keep going. Homework Do you have a business story? A tough time, a failure, a lesson learned that has made you better and stronger? Share it with us. We’d love to talk about it!

Get Your Fizz On! Today we've got lots of good takeaways about how to start, grow and scale a business. We talk with Jessica Rhodes of Interview Connections, a company that helps people find guests for their podcasts or get booked as a guest on other podcasts. At the time we recorded this in February, Jessica had just moved into a new and bigger office. As she was in the middle of the move, running her business, raising her kids, and taking care of her family, we saw her at Podfest where she was both selling and speaking and still making time to get to the hotel gym. So basically we wanted to know how the heck she does it. Turns out it's about hard work, commitment and being smart about how you imagine and grow your business. It's also about making time for yourself and taking care of yourself, which is something we all know yet so rarely do. Competition Gets Real Jessica refers to her company as a "premier guest booking service". When she started her company, she was the only booking service. But now a bunch of imitators have sprung up to do what she does. And we wonder how that's affected her business. Jessica says that it's the challenge of every entrepreneur to channel a mindset of abundance. It's not always easy but you have to believe that there is a place for everyone. What she's come to realize is that the market is big enough to hold her and her competitors. And since each of them is slightly different in their approach, style, and the types of clients they work with, she's found a way to not only keep going but to grow. Jessica Is A Bitch And that's a good thing. While she doesn't recall anyone actually calling her a bitch to her face, she has been called abrasive and intimidating. And that's because she doesn't put up with any BS. Case in point: at a recent staff meeting, she called everyone to task for dropping the ball on some things. Everyone got a little nervous as Jessica laid it out. She said, "I'm not your friend. This is a business." And she's right! We ask her if she thinks people have called her abrasive, blunt and other similar things because she's a woman, and she says she does. She speaks directly and doesn't use phrases and manners of speaking typically associated with women. In other words, she isn't going to coddle or nurture or tell you that if you mess up it's ok. Because it's not ok. She says men speak the same way, but people don't question it. Growing A Seven Figure Business Jessica thinks she can get there in the next few years, but recognizes that to do that she needs higher ticket services to sell. So she plans to expand her product offerings not just to provide more services, but to provide higher value services. The key for her is not necessarily to get more clients but to get higher paying clients. But it's more than just the numbers. You can make a lot of money on paper but if you're not profitable, it doesn't matter. Jessica says that it's important to hire the staff you need and no more. She says the work you give someone will expand to fill the time you give them. But that's not necessarily efficient. So she makes sure that someone has plenty to keep them busy, so they're not just "filling time". And only when that person can't take on any more work does she hire new staff. She also says it's important to price your services correctly. She realized at some point that her prices were not high enough to be able to pay herself and hire people to help her. It took some time to figure out, but eventually she got there. When Money Is Tight It's one thing to decide not to pay yourself but if you've got people working for you, you still have to pay them. So when things are not as profitable as you'd like, what do you do? Jessica says she had other work she was doing at an hourly rate, so that helped subsidize the lack of income from her business. And she racked up a lot of credit card debt. There are always "experts" out there who will tell you not to use your credit card or go into debt, but there's a perfect world and there's the real world. It comes down to this: you do what you have to do. Jessica wasn't spending frivolously. She was spending money that the business needed. So was it ideal? No, but it gave her the flexibility she needed to grow and to get to a point where she's now paying down large chunks of that debt because she's profitable. Raising Prices We want to know when and how Jessica decides to raise her prices. She had to do it at least once, when she realized her prices were not high enough to sustain her. And she's done it since. For Jessica it's pretty simple. She knows that she's profitable right now. But she also knows that she could charge more. She says that she raises her prices until she starts to get pushback. If nobody is complaining about your prices, she says, then you're not charging enough. Get Out Of Your Own Way One of Jessica's most recent changes was to rebrand from what has essentially been "Jessica Rhodes" to Interview Connections. Jessica spent time building a personal brand, which has helped her get recognized in the industry and get invited to speak at industry events, but she doesn't want to be her business. She wants the business to stand on its own, so she can do other things. So rather than be the face of the business, she's giving it its own identity. Like having a child then sending it off into the world to make its own way. She's still working in - and on - the business, but she has a team, and those people are the faces behind the business. Bigger Space, Bigger Vision Jessica recently moved into a much larger office space when she realized that her current space was a bit small. At the same time, her husband, who works at home, was talking about possibly getting his own office space. It was perfect timing, and the price was right on a local office space even though it was a lot more space than Jessica needed. But she says that being in a large space has actually helped her expand her vision and see how her company can grow even more. She says her vision was literally held back by the four walls she saw it in every day. And now she has all that extra space in her house to actually have a house! Leading By Example In light of how much time and energy Jessica puts into her business, we wonder how she manages the rest of her life. She has a philosophy that it's important for her to demonstrate to her kids that she takes care of herself (hence her gym trips) and that she is committed to her business. She says nothing sends a message to kids about independence and work ethic like being an example. And nothing contributes to gender equality like demonstrating that she is a strong, independent and powerful career woman. Now that's a philosophy we can get behind. Links Want to find a guest for your podcast or be a guest on one? Interview Connections can help. Listen to Jessica's podcast, formerly Rhodes to Success, now Interview Connections.

Politics, Religion And Sex That’s what today’s episode is about. Yes, it’s safe for work! This is one of the episodes we recorded in February at Podfest and it’s with Daniel J. Lewis, host of the Audacity to Podcast. The conversation was precipitated by a controversial Facebook post where Ralph called out Daniel, who is a Christian, and asked him to explain how it’s possible to reconcile President Donald Trump’s behavior with Christian values. That wasn’t the controversial part, though. In the Facebook post, Ralph mistakenly said that Daniel had endorsed Trump, which he didn’t. So Ralph apologized for the error and the rest of the conversation was amicable. The controversial part comes in when other people jumped onto the thread to denounce Ralph for “attacking” Daniel, and in turn Christianity. Nothing of the sort happened. But people reacted. So today’s question is: why can’t we have a conversation about faith or politics without everything turning into – or being perceived as – an attack? Daniel says this drives him crazy, too. He thinks people are too sensitive and instead of having an open conversation, people simply react. Respect goes out the window. Dialogue goes out the window. People take their beliefs so personally that any disagreement is seen as a personal attack. He thinks that you can communicate with passion and with truth, but it’s important to do it with gentleness, love and respect. Love The Haters? Daniel hosts another podcast called Once Upon A Time, which is all about the TV show. And he took a lot of heat for one episode where he didn’t comment on a scene in the show that was related to homosexuality. Fellow Christians were angry that he didn’t address it from a Christian perspective. And people who support same sex relationships were angry because they thought he was ignoring it and being a “hater.” But Daniel’s podcast isn’t about morality. It’s about the TV show. So he didn’t feel it was necessary to discuss the issue. That didn't stop people from being outraged, though. Some even threatened him. Sometime later, another episode of the TV show had a similar scene. And this time Daniel addressed it. According to Christian values, homosexual behavior is a sin. But Daniel told people that it was not his (or anyone’s) place to judge any person’s sin as worse than any other person’s. Homosexual behavior is no reason for any more moral outrage than lying or cheating or anything else. The difference for Daniel the second time around was that he spoke honestly, with love, kindness, gentleness and care. And he managed to bring people from both sides of the equation together. They may not have agreed, but they understood. No threats. No trolling. Some hate – but far less than he had expected. Be Yourself. But Not Really. One of the contradictions of social media is that you constantly hear people talk about “being yourself” online. Yet the moment you’re “yourself”, someone gets all uppity and rants about your opinion or behavior or thoughts. Daniel says that people are presented with so much stuff on social media, and it’s a such a constant stream of information, that it’s hard to process it in context. You’re not reading a social media post in the context of a relationship you have with someone, or an understanding you may have reached. You’re just getting bombarded by words, without the emotional context, without being able to hear someone’s tone of voice or look into their eyes. And by the time someone gets to your post, maybe they’ve already read ten things that were negative or that bothered them. Daniel says they’re already “negatively charged” and that’s when people become reactionary. The Emotion You Express Is The Emotion You Attract Daniel says if all you’re putting out is negativity, you’re going to get negativity back. You can “be yourself” but still be mindful of what you post and how you post it. Sometimes there are topics not worth posting on social media, especially knowing what we know about how social media works. There are some things not worth being associated with. Perhaps if we all spoke with more gentleness and kindness, we could disagree and still coexist peacefully. And just maybe, we could open a door to change people's minds. Links Listen To Daniel’s show, the Audacity To Podcast If you’re a fan of the TV show, listen to Once Upon A Time

Our First Mobile Podcast Yes, we’ve been mobile podcasting for a bit, but this episode is actually our first official one. We recorded this back in February as we drove down to Podfest in Orlando. We recorded a bunch, actually, and we’re finally ready to start releasing them. This one was recorded with Jennifer Crawford, host of the JellyVision Show and organizer of DC Podfest, and her husband Thor, who is an up-and-coming podcaster. We recorded in the lobby of the Hyatt where we were staying, sans script, but when has THAT ever been a problem? Let’s start! Should It Be Illegal For A Woman To Refuse To Take Her Husband’s Last Name? Yes, that’s how this episode starts. Jennifer read an article that surveyed women who suggested it should be. And we all think that’s pretty nuts. Jennifer and Thor have a solution: name swapping! A woman takes her husband’s name, and he takes hers. Paperwork all around! Why Podcasting? We want to know: what makes Jennifer tick? One day she wasn’t podcasting, and then she was. So, why podcast? Jennifer says she’s always been a fan of the underdog. In 2008 she opened a coworking space for creatives – artists, writers, performers. But she wanted more people to know about these artists and help them expand their audiences. In an effort help her underdog artists get more exposure, she started a podcast. She started out live streaming, thinking, “How hard can this be?” And for Jennifer it turned out to not be very hard at all, because she’s no stranger to bootstrapping. She doesn’t need fancy equipment or the best mic or the coolest camera. She just needs an idea and the determination – both of which she has plenty. She wasn’t thinking five-year plan. She wasn’t thinking of process or editing. She just went with it, then went from live streaming to audio (which turned out to be simpler and more portable). And now, 200-plus episodes later, she’s still going. According to her, she even surprised herself. So How Much Money Is This Making Her? Well, technically… none. Jennifer does it for the passion. She hasn’t tried to monetize in the traditional sense, but she has certainly seen benefits. She’s met people who have helped her in various business situations. She’s made friends. She’s used it to help the clients of her social media company generate business. She’s used her podcast to generate business for herself, and even though that’s not usually what “monetizing” means, it certainly brings in the money, and that’s the key. In fact, Jennifer thinks monetization is overemphasized in the podcasting community. People tend to think they have something of value and then over-value it, thinking that advertisers will be flocking to their show. People think it’s easy and they’re going to quickly get their 15 minutes of fame. Sadly, this is a myth perpetrated by people who sell the idea that everyone can make money and all it takes is knowing a few simple steps. Part of the problem is that the “experts” are constantly pushing monetization. Buy my thing, my webinar, my book, and learn how to make a lot of money. Give me money so I can tell you how to make money. Jennifer shares our view of business, meaning that if you’re running one, you should be selling a product or service. Does that sound obvious? Well, if you’ve been around the internet you know that a lot of what passes for a “product or service” is really someone selling you “inspiration”. They start a Facebook group so they can “inspire you”, throw some motivational quotes at you, then sell you a webinar or book on how to start your own Facebook group based on their success starting a Facebook group. Jennifer calls it a snake eating its tail. Sounds about right. It’s an old story, but it infiltrates podcasting, too. But we also think people podcast because they love podcasting. Now if only they could ignore “the experts!” Should You Be “Vanilla” To Attract A Larger Audience And More Advertising Dollars? If you use bad language or say controversial things, you’re going to have a smaller audience. You probably aren’t going to command big advertising dollars. Does that matter? Is it better to have a smaller, niche audience who loves you, or a big one that advertisers love? Jennifer says it comes down to who you are as an individual. As for her, she would rather be homeless than give up her creative freedom. She never wants sponsors because she feels she’d be responsible to them and would lose some of her creative freedom. Plus ads are really annoying. And with the “skip ahead 30 seconds” button, I tend to push the button whenever one comes on. That breaks the flow of listening and dilutes the experience. So ads don’t work for Jennifer or for us. But that’s us. We also collectively believe that everyone has to figure out what fits for them. Not All Value Is Monetary For Jennifer, her podcast is a bit cathartic. Plus, she gets to meet a lot of great people. And once in a while, the best reward: an email from a listener who says the episode resonated with them and helped them get through a difficult situation Like Jennifer, we love being able to say we created something. We’re proud of our accomplishments in podcasting, even if they’re not perfect. Some people believe that you need a plan and a goal and an exit strategy. You need benchmarks and if you don’t hit them, it’s time to rebrand, start over, quit, come up with something new. But we don’t buy it. We think that if you’re doing something that matters to you, if you’re getting what YOU want out of it (and not what someone told you to want) then that’s what important. Jennifer says something that’s podcast music to our ears: she doesn’t like formulas. Doors open, she says, because you’re doing something. There are other opportunities to be had. Thanks to podcasting Jennifer has now put on a podcasting conference that she never would have done before, and has a whole new skillset that she brings to her business. Jennifer Makes It Sound So Easy So we want to know if starting something new always came easy for her or if she had to learn that. Jennifer tells us that she grew up poor, which means she was unburdened by choices. Her resources were limited so when she wanted to make something happen, she learned to do it any way she could. When you can’t solve problems by writing a check, you’ve got to get creative. Jennifer actually likes being underfunded. In fact, of all the businesses she’s run, the only one that failed miserably was the one she went into with money. And she lost it all, and then some. When it comes to podcasting (and business), people get hung up on “things.” The mic, the sound, the time of day. Sometimes you have to just go out there and do your thing. Be careful about taking opinion as fact. There’s no such thing as “the best mic.” Or the right episode length. Or the best time or day or tone or topic. That’s true in podcasting, and it’s true in business and life. There is only, as Jennifer says, “the best fit.” And what fits for you may not be what fits for someone else. Now get out there and do your own thing. Listening To Podcasts Ralph mentions a podcaster who he listens to, who says that he doesn’t listen to podcasts. And we all think that’s crazy. How can you be part of a community and not support it? Especially one as niche as podcasting. I usually find people to be supportive, but there are definitely outliers. If you’re a creative person, you have to be supportive in the creative community. If you’re a podcaster, you should absolutely be listening to other podcasts. How about listening to your own episodes? Should you? Of course! You should be listening for continuity, for how well you interact with guests, to your own speech patterns so you can improve yourself. If you hire someone to edit for you, we think that’s smart for saving time and for being consistent about getting content out even if you don’t have time to do it yourself. But it’s a good idea to edit your own episodes for at least a little while. You can learn the nuances of how you speak and communicate, and be more connected to what you’re producing. Then you can be a lot smarter about what you hand off to editors. Thor edits the JellyVision show and he’s perfectly happy behind the scenes. This is the first time he’s been on mic, in fact! But he does have an idea for his own podcast. Near his home there are woods where homeless people live. And he wants to do profiles on them, find out how they got there and ask them about their lives. Jennifer says homeless people feel invisible because people don’t make eye contact, don’t talk to them, in fact, try to avoid them. But they deserve to have their voices heard. She’s excited about helping Thor get started. Sounds like a brilliant idea to us, but Thor is more about thinking than jumping in like Jennifer, so he hasn’t gotten started yet. We throw down the gauntlet and make him put a date on the calendar. As of now, we haven't heard anything, but we’re still nagging. We’ll let you know if and when it happens. Show him some encouragement! Links To Stuff Listen to Jennifer’s totally fun and creatively inspirational podcast, the JellyVision Show Find out more about DC Podfest and join us in November for a ton of fun and learning

We Get An Autoresponder After sending Nick Snapp an email and getting an autoresponder back, we decided to critique it. Couple of reasons… First, Nick is a big productivity guy. And he’s big on accountability. On his podcast, the Make It Snappy Productivity Show, he asks his listeners to hold him accountable. So in the interest of holding him accountable, and sharing some insights into auto emails in general that everyone can learn from, we decided to rake him over the coals and tell him how he’s completely ruining the internet… I mean, provide constructive criticism. Here’s the email in full. Hi - Thanks for your email! Just so you know, I have joined this group of crazy people who think they can get more done and make a bigger impact by only checking email twice a week (which is why you’re receiving this autoresponder)… Like you, I get a lot of email, and for my personal sanity and better productivity, I’ve decided to create a schedule to review and respond to emails…I know…I know…imagine that. Here’s how I manage email: My assistant is in my inbox every day. He will read the email and if he can help you, he will respond. If he thinks I’m best to handle this with you, we’ve finally worked out a process for him to flag it so I can reach out to you directly. This means that depending on when you sent your email it could be next week before I’m able to respond accordingly. You are important to me (and us), so I will respond as soon as possible…AND… …If you require immediate assistance, please REPLY to this email and let us know it’s urgent so he can bring it to my attention, or text me directly if you have my cell phone (always a better option for me than email). I look forward to connecting with you, talk soon. With Purpose, Nick Snapp, MBA PMP Productivity Aficionado Inspire Me Solutions, LLC RealAccountable.com The Make it Snappy Productivity Show MakeitSnappyShow.com Please note: to reduce your email clutter and mine, I commit to never sending you a reply message with just “thanks.” If you seek confirmation of receipt, please indicate so in your message. HOLY COW That Was Long Ralph and I took turns sharing our thoughts, so here we go… First, Ralph says this email doesn’t even need to exist. Just because someone sends you an email, doesn’t mean you have to reply immediately. So Nick can wait a few days before answering without needing an intermediary email explaining all those details. Ralph doesn’t think anyone needs all those words, and I agree. Perhaps taking the TL;DR approach can work. Open with a simple, one or two sentence statement that says the most important thing up front: thanks for your email, if I don’t answer you for a few days, don’t panic! Then if someone wants to read about how and why you’re doing that, you can add that later. Next, Ralph thinks that it takes way too long to get to a point in the email where it’s about him as the reader. From a marketing perspective, the email is all about Nick’s process which doesn’t bring the reader in. So start with your reader, and make it less me-centric. Make your reader feel like the most important person in the world. If Nick had led with a simple statement, followed by his reason for doing what he’s doing, and lastly his process, he could have framed it in the context of the reader. In other words, be helpful. Instead of sharing it as “this is what I’m doing”, frame it as “hey, want some ideas that you can try yourself?” That might inspire people to follow your lead and at the same time it will make the email about them. I also think he needs to lose the PS. Too many words, too much information and an extra unnecessary layer of complexity. Stuff Beyond The Email Some of our comments were specifically about the email. Some were more about the process. After receiving the email, Ralph posted in Nick’s Facebook group, telling everyone that we were going to critique the autoresponder. Someone else in the group said he would do a podcast talking about how great it was. The problem is that everyone in the group is a big fan of Nick’s. And sometimes fans see you through fan-colored glasses. They love you. They love what you do. Which means you’d better break out of that bubble if you want some tough love! Make sure you have people around you who will tell you the cold, hard truth. Like us! We’re super fans but we do try to be objective, too. We want to help our friends be better all the time, and we want our friends to do the same. We don’t want to be in a room full of yes-people. So listen to people who don’t love everything you do. Not the haters – that’s a whole different thing. But honest people, who honestly want to help you. One of the things that freaked me out, was the part where he mentions having an assistant read his email. I had no idea that someone else would be reading my email. I don’t know the assistant. I don’t feel comfortable knowing that someone else is reading my personal email. Generally, when you’re emailing a specific person, you don’t think anyone but that person will read it. What if we sent something confidential? Or made a weird inside joke that could be misinterpreted by another person? So maybe don’t tell me you have an assistant. I know he was trying to be open about it, but how much disclosure is too much? Better yet, Ralph thinks Nick should have a general “business” email, like support@ or help@, so there isn’t the same expectation of communicating with someone personally. Show, Don’t Tell Towards the end of the email, Nick tells us how important we are. But that’s so far down on the page… long after he’s talked about his process, and how important that is. And his sanity, and how important that is. Finally, he gets to us, but saying “you’re important” doesn’t make it true. Show me. Make the email about me. Involve me. And while you’re at it, skip the “us” part. I didn’t email an us! I didn’t know there was an us! Who is us? The assistant? The rest of the company? Other unnamed person who may be reading my stuff? Maybe a preemptive email to his list letting people know that this is the new process would help mitigate the unexpected nature of this email. Maybe springing all these details on someone out of the blue is too jarring. While we’re on the topic of “feeling important”, Nick also mentioned that we could text him – if we have his number. Ok, but what if I don’t? Now I feel really left out! How come I’m not in the special insider group of people who have his cell phone number? We think Nick needs to control that message a little better. And make it a bit easier to communicate if he really thinks we’re important. If he really wants us to text, how about including his number? Or maybe don’t say that at all, if there’s a chance he would refuse to give it to someone who asks. Messing With My Productivity Reading this very long and unexpected email took up some time! But that’s not all, because after reading it, I had to make a bunch of decisions. First, is what I need urgent? How urgent? Urgent enough to email back? Urgent enough to text? If I decide it’s urgent, then I have to take a second action. And then if I want to make sure he received my email, I have to take yet another action! So thanks to Nick wanting to be productive, I’ve had to be pretty unproductive and take multiple steps to get to the same result The key here is to simplify. Fewer words can get to the point the same way. Want to give people more information? Organize it in a way that makes it easy for people to decide whether they want to know more. Always make it easy for people to communicate with you. Don’t ask them to take multiple steps. Good Intentions We know Nick has good intentions. He wants to let people know he may not get back to them right away. He also wants to share what he’s learned about being more productive to help people improve. So keep the intention, we love it. Just make it simple, and think about the reader. In a nutshell, we love Nick Snapp! And we thank him for being such a good sport. Now, Fred, go listen to his podcast and get your productivity on! Got any thoughts on the email? Anything you think we're wrong about? Any ways you'd improve it? Let us know!

Podcasting From The Car We just got out of a business meeting where we closed a new client and decided that we’d podcast our way home. So we hit record and, in spite of having a script, ended up doing what we do, which is talk. A lot. About stuff that isn’t on the script. So next time we tell you what we’re going to talk about on the next episode, don’t listen to us. Closing The Deal With Confidence In a prior episode we talked about a new electric toothbrush that we got and how it’s made a tremendous difference in how white our teeth are. During the business meeting, as I was talking with our prospect, Ralph noticed my shining white smile. He also noticed how awesomely I closed the deal, but apparently my teeth were the highlight. And in a way, the teeth mattered! A few years ago I did Invisalign because my teeth started to migrate to their post-teenager-with-braces place. Before doing that, I wasn’t happy about my smile, so I tried not to use it. Then afterwards and with a bit of whitening, I felt a lot more confident. Since we’re both pretty avid tea and coffee drinkers, we end up with stained teeth easily. But the new electric toothbrush has made such a difference that it really does affect my confidence. Speaking of tea, our friend, Superfred and listener Cyndi Harron, one of the owners of our favorite tea company, Simpson & Vail, wrote to us after the toothbrush episode to say that her teeth had been stained from medication she took as a child. She’d always been self-conscious about it until getting veneers, and even had one customer admonish her for her hygiene! Unfortunately, people do judge us based on our appearances, even though sometimes things are out of our control. So we just have to do the best we can with what we have, and assert our confidence in other ways. Are You Confident In Your Own Value? Many of us underestimate our value. We compare ourselves to other people and wonder how we stack up. We wonder if we’re charging too much, or if we don’t know enough. But if you want to do well in business and sell your services to clients, then you need to know and express the value that you bring. That means understanding what you do well. And what you don’t do well. It means saying “no” when someone asks if you can do it cheaper. No, you can’t, because you know what you do and you know what it’s worth. And if you simply start cutting out services to make it cheaper, then you’re not really bringing your true value anymore, are you? Once you open the door to lowering prices for someone, it’s pretty hard, maybe even impossible, to close it. It’s taken us a long time to get to a point where we know what we want to sell and are confidently able to tell someone what it’s worth. It takes practice. And it helps to think about it ahead of time. Set your price and then don’t negotiate it with yourself. Don’t wonder if it’s too high. Understand that what you do is worth what you’re charging. Of course, that means you have to think long and hard about what you’re worth! Again, practice. Do some research. Know yourself. Track your time. See how what you do is benefiting those you’re doing it for. Measure and quantify that. Then stick to it. Pricing Is Not Arbitrary We didn’t wake up one day and decide how much money we want to make. We base it on our time, experience, effort, and what we know we can and will deliver. That’s why we don’t negotiate. Yes, you can negotiate under certain conditions if you choose to. But if you’re pitching someone and you give them a price, and they ask you to do it for less, and you agree … then what was your service really worth? That only gives the impression that your pricing was, in fact, arbitrary. You made something up then changed it. Because. Your position should be, “No, I can’t change it. Because…” And have a reason for that. Everybody wants a deal. It’s almost guaranteed that everyone is going to try to negotiate your price. Your job is to say no. Don’t Focus On Your Pitch When we pitch clients, we don’t tell them what we do. We don’t talk about ourselves. We talk about how we’re going to solve their problems and make their lives better. You don’t need to talk about yourself to express your value. Listen to what someone needs and then tell them how they’re going to get it. Listen to what someone is concerned about and then tell them why they don’t have to worry. One of the sentences that our clients most love to hear from us is, “Don’t worry about it, we’ll take care of it.” We make their lives easy. We manage what needs to be managed. We’ll educate them if they want or need to be, but when it comes to websites, or domains, or social media, or Google… don’t worry about it. We’ll take care of it. Find out what your prospects or clients want. Give it to them. On Patience We’ve been working on closing this deal for about two years. It’s not like we sat down, shook hands and made a boatload of money. So what did we do for two years? We listened. We helped. We said “no.” Our prospect asked several times if we would change our pricing, or our services, at one point even offered us a commission on sales. We said no. We said no for two years until he realized that he needed to say yes. Before that, he even decided to work with someone else. It was a deal he set up in trade, a service for a service. I offered to review the proposal. I gave him advice and told him where it was strong and where he might want to ask a few more questions. All along, we never had to tell him that we were awesome. We never had to explain our value. He figured that out all on his own because we spoke to him in a way that demonstrated it. We don’t pitch. We don’t “sell.” We tell people how to solve their problems and make ourselves available if they want to hire us. On Being A Doormat That story had a happy ending. But our second story didn’t. In this story, we started building a website three years ago for a price so low that it was almost not even worth charging anything. We did it because the client was a colleague, bordering on friend, and he had hired someone else, paid a deposit and gotten a whole lot of not-much in return. So we stepped in and offered to help. In the end, we did a whole lot more work than we initially agreed to do, because in spite of the money we wanted the site to be great. On top of it we spent three years chasing the client down for photos or content or other materials we needed. A few weeks ago I started applying pressure to get the site done because this is the only project that doesn’t fit with our core service offerings and we want it off our plates. But we couldn’t launch the site because he wasn’t happy with his logo, which we didn’t design. In the interest of speeding the project, I called the designer and got him to revise the logo. Our client was happy. Everyone was happy. The site was ready to launch. Yay! This is the part where we’re supposed to get paid the balance of the project and go home. Except not. Because our client has his email and hosting at Yahoo’s web division, which is now owned by Abaco. And Abaco only supports technology that has been extinct since 2009. There was literally no way for us to install a 2017 site on 2009 software. So we introduced our client to an IT company to help move his services to another provider. The IT company told our client that email, domain and other services would be $67 a month, and that was a catastrophic deal breaker. For perspective, Ralph and I pay more than that for services just the two of us. Because we want to be current and secure. Because stuff costs money. But our client, used to absurdly cheap pricing on an outdated service, was outraged. So what does that mean to us? It means we couldn't launch the site. The site that’s done. The site that we spent three years working on for $500. Then because we didn’t want to spend one more second answering one more question, waiting for him to decide what he wanted to do, or chasing him down to pay us, we decided to waive his $500 balance and sever ties. We exported the WordPress site that we developed to flat HTML, which stripped out all the functionality but allowed us to install the site at Abaco, said “it’s done” and called it a day. And whose fault is all this? Mad At Myself The only reason that web project turned out as it did is because I let it. The client has every right to demand whatever he wants. I have every right to say no. I could have told him that certain items were out of scope. I could have told him there were extra fees for certain things. Maybe I couldn’t have sped up the process but I certainly didn’t have to spend three years exerting energy on this project. It’s something worth coming to terms with. Are you doing something because you choose to do it, or because you tell yourself you have to do it? If your client called you up and asked you to bring him an ice cream Sundae, you could do it. You’d be nuts, but you could. And if you did do that, you have no right to complain about the client. Either choose to do it, or don’t do it. Every bit of extra effort that I put into that project that I didn’t have to, was my fault. Every extra demand I met, was my fault. I do that a lot. But if I put it into perspective, not by complaining about a client but by reflecting on the demands I put on myself, it becomes a lot easier to manage those relationships. Apparently, this business stuff is hard work.

Nothing Is Certain But Death And Taxes We were going to talk about Carbon Based investing today but decided to record a short episode because we recently lost a friend to a heart attack. His name was Ed, and in addition to being our friend, he was a doctor, avid cyclist and husband. So today we wanted to talk about the thing that nobody ever really wants to talk about – death. How Much Runway Do You Have Left? In the startup world, “runway” usually refers to how much time you have left before you run out of money. But what about your own runway? If you run out of time, will your business survive? Are you prepared for catastrophic loss? Can your business function without you? As entrepreneurs our businesses are often our babies. We invest ourselves in them as the face and brand, but what happens when we’re gone? There comes a time when we’d do a better service to our businesses, clients and families if we detached a bit so we weren’t so central to the business. Are you the only person who knows how things run? Who knows what the password are? Who knows where the documents are? Can someone else pick up where you left off so your clients and family are taken care of? What If We Get Hit By A Bus? Ralph and I have the “what if we get hit by a bus” rule, which means that we need to have plans in place for our business and clients in the event that we die. We work together, travel together, are pretty much together 24/7 so if something happens to us, we want to be sure our clients’ businesses don’t come to a halt. It’s not the most pleasant thing to think about, but it’s a reality and it can’t be ignored. So take a look at your business. Can it continue if you die? Will your family be protected? Will your clients be protected? And for that matter, are you taking care of yourself while you’re alive? Are you living every day that you’ve got here on this earth or are you living in a whirlwind without paying attention to what’s happening around you? We don’t have all the answers, but we think the questions are worth asking. Don’t wait for a crisis to plan for a crisis. Get your ducks in a row now. We’ll be back next week with our regular conversation and in the meantime if you want someone to bounce ideas off of or talk to about crisis planning, let us know. We’re happy to help.

Genius In A Bottle We started this episode with an overview of the few things we wanted to talk about. But before we jumped in I had a brilliant idea to share with Ralph that I wanted him to hear for the first time while we were on mic. The other day as I was working out on the elliptical and listening to the Make It Snappy Productivity Show with Nick Snapp, I noticed that Nick refers to his listeners as “Snappy Nation.” And that’s when it struck me that you, Fred, are rulers of a very special domain. And yours is called… Carbonation! Get it? And don’t you love the idea of being fizzy and zesty and full of energy with a total excitement for life? My genius on full display. I’m so proud of myself for this little revelation that it’s kind of embarrassing. Nick Snapp Throws The Gauntlet Back On our first episode of Carbon Based Business Units, otherwise known as episode 181, we challenged Nick Snapp (he’s getting pretty famous at this point, don’t you think?) to tell us why he always says that he wants to grow his business to be a $2-5-million-dollar business. On episode 114 of his show, Nick answers us. You’ll have to listen to it to find out why (hey, we don’t do spoilers!) but he did issue a challenge of his own. And what Nick wanted to know from us was: why didn’t we put a hyphen between Carbon and Based? According to rules of grammar, a compound adjective of the Carbon-Based variety definitely needs a hyphen. Well, after he threw my inner grammar nerd into a snit, I Googled it to find out if I had to use the hyphen. I mean, in a world where I can use the word literally to mean not literally, could I get away without the hyphen? Nope, not according to the internets. Once it was clear that we were breaking grammar rules, I thought about it for a bit and decided hey, I’m no Grammar Nazi! I can break rules if I want to. But it nagged a bit, so I thought well, if I ask Michael our creative director to change it – again – he’ll probably shoot me. But finally I decided that since our very existence – our raison d’ être if you will – depends on us challenging the status quo, it would be remiss of us to succumb to something as banal as a grammar rule just to say we followed the book. We don’t want a hyphen. It doesn't look very cool. And thus the hyphen is being completely and deliberately ignored. Because hyphens ain’t the boss of us! A Bit Of Oddball Business Advice Recently Ralph was having a conversation with a fellow entrepreneur who asked Ralph to give him a bit of business advice – but the requirement was that it couldn’t be remotely like any of the usual advice. You know, get up early, do yoga, all the stuff that makes it onto all the lists. So Ralph dropped this knowledge bomb: go buy an electric toothbrush and a metal tongue scraper. Ralph bought a brand new electric toothbrush recently, the Oral B Genius Pro 8000, and he’s a big fan. He’s got me using it now, too. It comes with different heads for different purposes, like plaque removal and whitening. Since we both drink a lot of tea and coffee (and one of us has a love affair with red wine), it helps us restore our less-than-pearly whites. It’s a pretty awesome toothbrush and within days of starting to use it, our teeth were noticeably whiter. And that’s cool but… how does that relate to business? The answer is: appearance. In our travels and business ventures we’ve met with a lot of people who are less than hygienic. Stink breath, sloppy clothes, nothing particularly appealing. They don’t exactly exude the kind of image you’re looking for in a business colleague. And we’re not being judge-y, but it does matter. Appearance matters. How you are perceived, especially upon meeting someone, matters. The Professional Pajama Wearer A friend recently asked Ralph to critique the intro to her new podcast. And in it, she mentioned being a professional pajama wearer. Well, Ralph thought that wasn’t a good impression to make, especially since sitting around in her pajamas is not her M.O. So why give people that impression? Why imply that you’re perhaps lazy or not-quite-so-professional? Ralph thinks she was just trying to be “cute” but the result was to diminish her work ethic. So she changed it to “bacon lover” which is still kind of weird but at least doesn’t conjure images of her sitting in her basement wearing a hairnet or something. Now, if you really do sit around working in your pajamas and that’s your thing, and you’re looking to use it as part of your image to attract a certain type of client, then go for it. But for a person like our friend who is looking to portray herself as a professional, she was doing herself a disservice. Portray an image that says, "I respect myself therefore I will respect you." If you don’t look like you can take care of yourself, why would clients believe you can take care of them? Homework Take a look in the mirror! How do you present yourself to your clients, prospects, colleagues?  What’s your hygiene ritual? Do you pay attention to the impression you make? The Google Doc Scam If you’re like one of the billion zillion of us who got sucked into the Google phishing scam recently, then you know what happened. If not, lucky you! A scam circulated like wildfire last week where an email appeared to come from someone you knew with a request to view a Google doc. And when you clicked the link, it then asked for permission to access your account, like many apps do. But once you gave it permission it then took over your contact list and sent the same email to everyone in your address book. Well, Ralph received that scam email and the timing couldn’t have been worse. Normally he’s on top of these things, but it just so happens that it’s the end of the semester at the college where he teaches and he was expecting his students to send him their final projects. So when he received an email appearing to come from one of his students, he clicked it, thinking she was submitting her final assignment. And once the scammers had access to his contacts, the same scam email went out to them. On the plus side, after years of preaching to friends and colleagues about the dangers of scam emails and warning about clicking on links, a bunch of people contacted Ralph to ask if the email was legitimate before clicking. So it was nice to see that! The other fortunate thing is that the day before this all happened, we’d decided to start using two-factor authentication for our accounts. More on that in a minute, but the good news is that even with “permission” the scammers couldn’t actually take over Ralph’s account beyond simply sending out an annoying email. So. What’s with the two-factor thing? Trust me, you want to know. Two-Factor Authentication Security is not getting any better. These things happen every day. So you have to protect yourself. And in spite of big scary words like “two-factor authentication”, it’s not hard to do. Two factor authentication is actually quite simple. It means that in order to log into your account, you need two things. One is a password, and the other is “something else”. That something else is typically a code. So to log into your account, say your Gmail, you enter your password and then Google sends you a super secret code via text (or you can use an app). Then you enter the code and that’s it. So even if someone knows or illegitimately obtains your password, they still can’t access your account because they can’t get the code. The cool thing about the code is that it expires after about 30 seconds, so even if that code ends up floating around, it would be useless after a few seconds anyway. It’s so easy to set up. And it’s free. If you have a phone with text, there’s no reason you can’t easily set up two-factor and save yourself from the nightmare of someone getting your password and getting into your account. Just go into the security settings of your account, look for it by name, and follow the (very super ridiculously simple) instructions. It’s too easy not to do. Sadly, there are a lot of websites that don’t use it. Surprisingly, I found out that my banks don’t. Nor do my credit cards! You’d think they would be at the top of the list when it comes to locking down your accounts. I couldn’t even find it for my QuickBooks account. But Google does, and so does Facebook, so at a minimum, start there. Here’s an example of two-factor authentication in real life. When you go to a restaurant and hand over your credit card to pay for dinner, that is the first factor. When you sign it, that’s the second. And we know full well what the consequence is of paying without signing. We’ve had our debit and credit card numbers stolen more times than we can count when we’ve been on the road and used our cards at convenience stores and gas stations that don’t require a signature. There’s been a bit of a crackdown on that recently, but it just goes to show that two “proofs” that you're for real are better than one. My Password Is… Actually neither Ralph nor I have any idea what any of our 700-odd passwords are. That’s because we use a password manager that automatically generates and secures the passwords for us. So we don’t have to remember them. We don’t have to worry about where they are. And whether we’re on our computers or on our phones, it’s easy to log into any account safely. If you don’t use a password manager, if you’re one of those people who use the same basic password for everything because you can’t remember so many, if you’ve got any password on a sticky note on your computer monitor… check out any one of the myriad password managers. We’ve used Passpack for a long time, but it’s a pain on mobile. So we recently switched to 1Password and so far we love it, especially how easy it is to use on the phone, where it can be annoying to try to type in a password all the time. They’re all super cheap or even free and there’s no reason to remember – or even know – your passwords ever again. More Homework! What password manager do you use? And if you don’t, why not? And I know what the excuse is going to be if you don’t. “Because it’s inconvenient.” But which is more inconvenient: taking that extra two seconds to set up your password manager and using it to log into your accounts, or dealing with someone stealing your password, getting into your accounts, stealing your money or even your identity? What Did We Learn? I’m a genius. ‘Nuf said. And you should be listening to the Make It Snappy Productivity Show. We learned that we do judge a book by its cover, so how you present yourself at first glance is important. Plus, your security chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Don’t be that weak link! Go get yourself a password manager and start using two-factor authentication. And finally, if you have a Mailchimp account and enable two-factor authentication, they’ll give you 10% off your monthly payments. That’s how important they think your security is. We only wish everyone else did, too! Next Time In Carbonation We talk about why we just spent a bunch of money on a third computer for Ralph. Sounds like a dumb decision. Stay tuned! Extras Listen to episode 114 of The Make It Snappy Productivity Show where Nick Snapp answers our challenge Listen to our friend “no longer a professional pajama wearer” Sophia’s podcast, Ridiculously Happy People Take a look at 1Password Check out the Genius 8000 electric toothbrush

Greeting Carbon Based Humans! Also known as Fred… It’s an exciting episode today because we’ve added our first official Carbon Based Title to the roster. It goes to Nadia Bracken, who is now officially our self-designated Carbon Based Critic. She emailed us after last episode to let us know that our intro wasn’t quite chipper enough. Not only that, but we also noticed that we made an egregious error by failing to mention YOU, Fred. For shame! So we re-recorded it and hope you like it. Knowing us we’ll redo it another six dozen times before we’re sort of happy with it, so by all means, share your thoughts! Lisa Gerber Is Sexy Fan of the show and prior guest Lisa Gerber has a podcast! It’s called the Gear Show and we think it’s pretty great. If you’re an outdoors-y kind of person and you like getting your gear on, this is a great listen. She’s also a pretty amazing marketer whose blog articles continue to inspire us. And she agreed that we should have started Carbon Based Business Units at episode one, which makes her extra special awesome. Outrage! Last episode we talked about the United Airlines snafu in the context of customer service. Afterwards, Ralph heard an episode of Penn’s Sunday School podcast that gave him food for thought when it comes to outrage, social media and clickbait. What else can we say? No doubt the internet is full of outrage. And while the United Airlines scene was a bad one, it was isolated, and it was definitely blown up on social media. But the more people jump on the bandwagon, the more a story takes on a life of its own, maybe even out of proportion to the big picture. In Other News… You may have heard about the murder committed on Facebook Live. It was a horrible thing, but the conversation that subsequently focused on “what can Facebook do” is somewhat misguided. The truth is, people are going to be horrible whether they have a live audience or not. And nobody can read someone’s mind to prevent a horrible thing from happening. Facebook should do exactly what they did: swiftly remove the video and cooperate with law enforcement. Some people have suggested that Facebook should have a reaction button related to crime or danger that automatically triggers a takedown of the offending content. But we think that could seriously backfire if people use that reaction to sabotage other people or viewpoints they don’t like. That horrible murder was an isolated case and building mob mentality into preventing content from being displayed can become a detriment to free speech. Facebook Live isn’t going away. Nor are horrible people. The best we can do is deal with what happens as it happens. Maybe it’s partly our jobs to be vigilant, and even to foster better behavior and peace in our own worlds. Hm. We Have An Emotional Experience Our main conversation today revolves around an email that I got late Wednesday evening from a client. The email boiled down to this: he knows there is something seriously wrong with his website. He isn’t getting any traffic. He knows that Ralph and I have taken ourselves out of working on marketing and SEO for clients so we have time for our startups and podcast. He needs admin access to his site so he can fix what’s wrong with it right away. And he can’t wait days or weeks for me to respond. Without context, that may seem like just an ordinary email, albeit one from an unhappy client. But it wasn’t an ordinary email. It was actually a very upsetting one, for a couple of reasons. First, this is a long-time client we’ve worked with for two decades. For two decades we’ve been personally invested in him, his business and his success. While we currently aren’t actively working on his marketing (because he hasn’t hired us to do so, and insists that marketing won’t help his business), we do ad hoc work when he needs it. Anything from updating his website to sending out email campaigns. Second, we’ve done a lot of pro bono work for him. We know what tough times are, so when we can help a fellow business person and human being, we do. We’ve done it without expectation and never under duress. It’s been our choice and we’ve been happy to do it. Perhaps most importantly, though, the things he said in his email were provably untrue. And they were particularly hurtful in light of how much time and effort we’ve put into his business over the years and the type of relationship we thought we had. Let’s start with the facts. We have not taken ourselves out of client work. Client work is what sustains us, pays the bills, allows us to spend time podcasting and building our startups – one of which isn’t making any money yet because we make sure our clients come first. So to say that we’re not invested in our clients anymore was wrong and hurtful. We don’t take days or weeks to respond. In fact, I had just spoken to him two days earlier. I’ve worked for him nights, and weekends when he’s needed something done quickly. So to say that it takes weeks for us to get back to him was wrong and hurtful. We also have provided him with admin access to his site – very specific, specialized and custom-built access designed around his exact needs. So to say that he cannot access his site is wrong. So when that email came in, I reacted. I was mad, I was upset, I was frustrated – but I went to bed and decided to sleep it off and address it fresh in the morning. But instead of feeling clearer in the morning, I was just as bent out of shape, so I emailed my client and told him what I just told you – not in an angry way, but in a factual way. Yes, I told him he was wrong! And I addressed his request for admin access to his site. I told him that he did have admin access, and if there was something he needed to access but couldn’t, he had to let us know what that was so perhaps we could build something for him to do so. I also addressed something that has come up before, which is the crux of this story. We host his site and have a strict security policy that does not allow the typical cpanel access to the database and files that you might get at a host like BlueHost or Godaddy. In the past, he’s accused us of “holding him hostage” and I reminded him of what I always say: if he needs that type of access, we will move his site to another host that allows it. No ransom required. And They All Lived Happily Ever After… But Not Really Well, my response didn’t go over well. My client accused me of failing to answer his question. And then referenced the last episode of our podcast where we talked about the manager that kicked us out of the restaurant, and told me that I was doing the same thing to him. Which is kind of funny in that not-funny way, since one day I was holding him hostage and the next I was kicking him out. The bigger issue here is that this was not the first time we’d been accused of various things by this client – from the hostage scenario to failing to respond and on and on. But overall we had thought it was a good relationship. We liked him. We were, as I mentioned, personally invested. And for the most part those unpleasant times rolled over us and we moved on. But this time felt like the last straw. So we decided that in the best interests of our business and his satisfaction, we’d move his site to a host that allows him full and unrestricted access to his site, and essentially sever the business relationship. We’ve been maybe a little too personally and emotionally invested in his business and it was time to step back. It was a hard decision to make after a 20 year relationship, but we felt that it needed to be done in the best interests of everyone. This Isn’t A Bitch Session. We’re Just Carbon Based Humans. We didn’t have this conversation to spend an hour complaining or calling out a client. We’re sharing this story because we know that people have been in this same place too. Whether you’re in a relationship with a client that goes south, or you’re putting too much in and getting not enough out, or if you’re doing something that isn’t working for you or your client, it’s easy to get caught up in it. And at the same time it’s easy to feel like you’re alone in that. Well, you’re not. We’ve all been there. We all have those hard times that feel like crap, when we have to make hard decisions, and are forced to recognize our limitations. And at the end of the day, we’re all told to “build relationships”, which isn’t a clinical thing. It involves some emotional investment. So when this stuff happens, it affects us. In the short term, it feels crummy. It feels like failure. It lacks the kind of closure you’d want for a relationship that’s lasted for 20 years. But long term, we feel that this is the best decision for us, and for him. Nobody was happy with where the relationship was headed, and in the end everyone needs to move on. What do you think? Have you been in a scenario with a client where you had to end the relationship as a wise business decision but that left emotional sludge in its wake? If you’ve got a story, we’d love to hear it. And let us know what you think of ours. Extras Visit Big Leap Creative and read Lisa's marketing brilliance Listen to the Gear Show on Stitcher or iTunes Check out Penn's Sunday School. The episode we mentioned is 283, The Packaging of Outrage

Welcome to the first episode of Carbon Based Business Units! Also known as episode 181, but we’ll get to that in a minute. If you’re joining us from the Web.Search.Social Podcast, we’re so happy you’re back after our extended hiatus. If you’re a new listener, we’re equally happy that you’re here and look forward to meeting you. If you haven’t listened to the last episode of the Web.Search.Social Podcast, you can do that here. It will provide some context for this next phase of our journey. Web.Search.Social ran for 180 episodes and here we are continuing with episode 181, but rebranded as Carbon Based Business Units. Why? Well, because we wanted to talk more about business and entrepreneurship, less about web, search and social marketing. That doesn’t mean we won’t talk marketing, but we wanted to broaden our conversations to include all of work and life. What it’s like to start a business. What it’s like to run a business. What it’s like to succeed and fail in business. The challenges we’ve faced, the joys we’ve experienced, and how we tie our business into our lives – not just “balance” them, but live work and live life as part of our collective journey. It’s still me, and it’s still Ralph, and we’re continuing our journey with you, Fred. Let’s go! A Challenge To Nick Snapp This episode opens with a challenge to podcast friend Nick Snapp, of the Make It Snappy podcast (all about productivity and so worth every minute of listening). He opens his show by talking about the journey to grow his company to a $2-5-million-dollar business. And we want to know: why? Why two-to-five? Why not one? Why not ten? This question is important to us, since we run three businesses – one that’s been around for nearly two decades and two startups – and while we all want to be millionaires, we wonder: what’s the right amount of revenue to aim for? We can’t wait to hear his take on it! A Tale Of Two Customer Experiences Our conversation today starts with a story of two restaurants we visited recently. One, to a restaurant in Virginia, ended in the manager “refusing service” and kicking us out. The other, to a restaurant in New Jersey, ended with the manager giving us a free dessert and a gift certificate for our next visit. Guess which restaurant we’ll be going back to? I don’t want to give away all the details, but let’s just say that neither of those visits had to end the way they did. It was simply a matter of one manager treating us as dispensable and one treating us as people. And when it comes to business, it’s always about the people. How Much Are You Worth? When we went on hiatus, we thought we had solved all the world’s problems. Turns out there are still one or two left, and one of those is the persistent failure of many businesses to put value before price. A colleague recently told us that he might be shutting his business down because he’s simply not making enough money. And that’s not because there isn’t enough business. There is. It’s not because his service isn’t amazing. It is. It’s because he consistently undervalues himself and his price tag reflects that. Instead of charging what he’s worth, he’s become known as “the cheap guy” and you can never sustain a business on that. We don’t think it’s a money thing. We think it’s a confidence thing. Too many people are afraid to ask for what they’re worth. This isn’t a psychology lesson but it’s food for thought, because if you aren’t confident in your value and you don’t put that first, before the price tag, you’re always going to be underselling yourself. In the past we had a habit of “negotiating with ourselves”. We’d set a price then wonder if it was too high. Then lower it. Then imagine that nobody would pay it. Then lower it some more. Before we’d ever met with a prospect we’d already negotiated ourselves down. All we’re going to say right now is: don’t do that! Let’s Talk! As always, we want to have a conversation with YOU. We want to know your story, your challenges, your interests and joys. If you have questions, ask! If you have complaints, share. If you have comments, do tell. Pop a comment below, find us online on social media or contact us here. We’d love to answer your questions on air or share your insights and experiences, too. See you next time!