Carl Gould #70secondCEO

Alignment Creates Opportunity Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. 24 conversations with concepts, where you're saying, how can we work together better? What can we do more to align? I wanna hear about what's going on with you guys and how we can work together. We have found that if you have 24 meaningful and some sort of cadence of conversation, once a month, once a quarter, twice a year, I see you at these four events. However it goes, that you tend to get one referral per month, per brand. What does that mean? Somebody says, you'll get a call from somebody that says, hey, we found somebody that I think is good, but they're not a good match for us. What else you got? Yeah. Have you called a franchisor and said, what do you do with all your dead leads? Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould, and this has been your #70secondCEO.

High-Level Prospects Don't Keep Banker's Hours Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.  My business consulting services, I text my prospects before 7 a.m. Why? Because they're up and they're on their phone. And I had to reschedule somebody that I'm supposed to meet with tomorrow, and he said, and they always say the same thing, I don't normally like to do this, Carl, but I'm available Saturday if you want. So I have a couple of calls on Saturday. My point is, use personalized check-in, right? And if you've got somebody right now on your list that's a business owner, they think about this sort of thing in non-traditional hours. Right now, they're busy. And I'm not saying don't call them during the day. Of course you do that. If I could, I would try to get them before the day started. And I would call on Saturday, and I have long stopped pretending that Sunday's off limits. So I will call and text because I know that they're on their phones. I know what they're thinking about. I know they're thinking about their year. Now's the time, okay? I love the holidays. People always say to me, I can never get to these decision makers. I know where they are, off hours.  Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

Stop Selling on a Banker's Schedule Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. Until they tell you to stop, contact them every week. we were kind of planning out our calendar. And I said, block off Wednesday night through Sunday night, Thanksgiving weekend. And she said, okay, that's fine. And so as we're getting close, I have a nine hour day on Friday. So even though I blocked out the day, my assistant said, hey, can you talk to so and so about this? Can you talk to so and so about that? This one's interested in this. And I kept saying like, well, you know, that's supposed to be a day off for me. Well, you know, that's supposed to be a day off for me. You know, I'm not supposed to be doing that on that day. My day starts at 7 am and it ends about 530, right? And I've got an hour break here and a little bit of break there. But I started out with a day that was supposed to be open to a day that's full. Why? Because business owners work non-traditional hours. If you have a multi-unit person that you're talking to, if you've got somebody who's a business owner, I guarantee you, you can get them on a week like this.  Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

Position Yourself Before They Position You Pt 2 Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. But I would be telling them, here are my goals, right? So for example, one of the techniques that I'll do is I will take essentially personal responsibility either for a brand or a territory, and I would say, listen, there are a few brands that I work with very, very closely, ABC, DEF, and GHI. And I want to really help them with their launch, or with their Northeast expansion or with their non-traditionals that they just introduced. And I'm going out to the people that I think would be a good match. You're among the first that I'm contacting. So that could be a nice reset message. I'm looking to work with this kind of person. I've got these kinds of goals. I'm working with these sorts of brands and here are their goals. So I'm looking at people who want to partner in that. You are among my first calls, okay? Now, based on our categories, if we believe they are a client or deal now, we want to be talking to them every week. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould, and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

 Position Yourself Before They Position You Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. That you position yourself with your prospects, What I would be doing is I would be going out to our prospects as you're engaging with them and letting them know what your goals are for the coming year. Let them know what you'll be doing differently in the coming year and how they can be part of it. So, for example, I'm committed to hitting a goal of one deal per quarter. I believe in the franchising world the average sales cycle is 105 days. So that means theoretically you would have, on the last week of a quarter, if you were to bring in a lead, that would close by the end of the following quarter on average. I know some go quick. I know some take a while. I just sold two units of a franchise company within 60 days. The buyer was very ready and the deal went through very quickly. So that was very nice. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

 Is It Really a Deal Yet? Pt 2 Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. Are the ones that are going to close. Maybe they're doing this to educate themselves on the process. It's all good. It's just they are going to drain our resources. And we want to be very, very careful not to spend too much time with client laters. Client laters and deals later, they take a lot of resources. So what do we want to do? We want to focus most of our energy on the deal now people. The deal now is that we should be speaking to just about every week. We should be sending them gifts. Have you guys read the book Giftology by John Rulon? If you haven't, check it out. It's a really good book. It's how using gifting is a way to build. It's good for nurturing existing clients. And it's also good for winning new ones. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

Is It Really a Deal Yet? Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. Is categorize who it is in our pipeline that we're speaking with. or a deal now, meaning somebody is engaged, they're talking, they're going to all the steps, they're asking all the right questions, they are liquid, they are rolling over their 401k into an entity that can fund a deal, they are applying to the SBA, they're taking all the steps and they're making all the moves that are indicative of somebody that's serious and that is moving forward. I call that person a client now, or in your case, a deal now. There's either a deal now or everybody else goes into the deal later bucket. Okay, here's the mistake we all make. Mike doesn't make this mistake, but Scott does, I'm sure of it. I'm kidding. So here's a mistake that we make as salespeople. We think if we're at least talking to them, we're in the game. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

Why Now Is the Time to Raise Your Prices Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   Your good clients expect your prices to go up. So put them up, right? And I get you might have a certain cadence to it, but I would encourage you all, and if you wanna talk offline about how to do it, I'm happy to do it, but I would encourage you guys today, look at what segment of clientele or what segment of services or what segment of product and raise those prices today.   I don't care if you just did them in September or January 1, whatever. Wherever you think you can raise your prices, raise them. Because if you're not getting the yes, but, you have not gotten to where your clientele is willing to, the upper end of where they're willing to pay. So I'd highly recommend that you guys do that. OK? All right? And so just keep asking the question. Get with your team. If we raise it 1%, a supermarket can raise it a quarter of a point. can go from 1.3 of assets under management to 1.6 or 1.4.   Whatever it is for you, look at where you can raise it and raise it, right? Because you will get to the place where you'll have your best clients, and you'll use pricing as a qualifier and you'll start to differentiate, here's why it matters. During volatile economic times, buyers defer to experts.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

 Progress Beats Perfection  Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.  Or in business history, have you been rewarded for just trying, right? So more than ever, we–we have the opportunity to just get out there and be (unclear follows), right? Not only is it okay that you make a mistake, but it's actually rewarded when you do, because you're not perfect, right? Social Media for the most part, is the highlight reel is like, you know, when you see somebody at a networking event, how's it going? Good, busy, busy, yeah busy, so the family likes everything's pretty good, we're really good, that social media. So somebody's actually authentic enough to say, Hey, I tried this didn't work well, that was because what I–I try never to do that again, more and more, they're rewarded for it. So we live in an age where performance is rewarded almost as much as the result. Now you're highly skilled people. I mean, think about it. If you tried something three times, you're likely to get it right. If I gave you five times or 20 times to get something right? Do you think you'd get it right? I've even told you what it is and you still like, give me 20 I'll get it, right? You're too skilled not to get this stuff, right? So it's not like you're gonna be fumbling your way through social media for the next year. You might get it wrong or not perfect, like two or three times then you're like, alright, everybody, hey everybody, check it out. Nail it, right? And you're going to show the result.  Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

Why Letting Go Is the Hardest Part of Growth  Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one-minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. I was just reading an interview, an old interview with Bill Gates where he said in the early days of microsoft he--he wrote all the code and then when they bought in coders, he had to sign off on all the code before it went out and then they bought in Steve Ballmer and Steve was like Bill does anything happening that's it, you're not doing that anymore and--but Bill Gates had a hard time letting go of the coding because that was his area of competency, right? And so it's usually the main problem tends to be the founder because we got off the ground and we prove our concept based on the founder's drive but now we've got to--we've got to let go of that, let the next generation take over. This is very very common in family-run businesses, where parent(s) won't let go, and so a family can't scale and have it grow beyond--have it grow beyond what the founder first envisioned and they hold on to the point where their family members are scattered. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

Schedule It or It Disappears Part 2 Hi Everyone, Carl Gould here your #70secondCEO, just over a minute of investment per day for a lifetime of results.  Sometimes when you're in the jar, you can't read the label, alright, so I know it sounds silly, but we're out here reading the label for you. Ok, so do yourselves the favor of holding each other to getting it on your calendar. So, if we wrote November 1st, 2023 at 12 oclock put it in your calendar as an appointment and invite the person you're doing it with to that appointment, that's our weekly meeting to talk about PTO approvals, so this is our weekly meeting, if I have to send a marketing budget draft to somebody, make an appointment with that person, on that moment I'm going to send it. That's when we're going to have that meeting. So, you know you have the right action item if you can put it into your phone as an appointment. When we talk about leveraging technology later, whoever is in that session, we're going to talk about how to use your calendar as your ops manual. The calendar, the old thinking that that's my appointment calendar. That is like so last week, we're not doing that anymore, it's your ops manual. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

Schedule It or It Disappears Part 1 Hi Everyone, Carl Gould here your #70secondCEO, just over a minute of investment per day for a lifetime of results. This is the one thing, the main thing that trips up your progress is scheduling conflicts. That's why we developed the Annual Milestones Planning the way we do. Where you put it on the wall, and you step back and you're like, you're going to do that? At the same time, we're doing that? That sounds crazy! That's just a macro example of how you're not managing the resources. This is just a micro example, alright? So, absolutely have your device with you, go to that time, if it's November 1st on this day, make sure there's nothing else going on. I guarantee for a number of you, you're going to find out there's a scheduling conflict. I want to spend more time with my family, cool! What time's your family home? Oh, 4-6. I want to hit the gym, got to go to that class, what time's the class? 5 o'clock….You see a problem? No, put it on your calendar...oh, right...oh, ok, so, unless we make you do it, one of them is just going to fall off. Well, I can't do that because that's right in the middle of family time. Well, did you think about putting it on in the morning? That's a good one, good one. Good one, 5, yeah, got a lot of time in the morning.  Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould, and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

Exit or Evolution—You Need a Plan-Part 2 Hi Everyone, Carl Gould here your #70secondCEO, just over a minute of investment per day for a lifetime of results. You're gonna say, you're gonna say, all you're gonna say is, "There's a seat for every one of you on the bus." And over your head on this, over this shoulder is going to be today's organizational chart with all the names in it, and tomorrow's, or your five or ten-year plan, or whatever. And, for example, the job you're in right now you won't be in that in five years. Alright, so if you're a CEO now, you might be a Chairman of the Board then. So, in the future org. Chart you're gonna write CEO, question mark. So you'll be here, your team is there, that's all you'll have to say. They will get the fact that there's an opportunity to grow within the company. All you gotta do. "There's a seat for every one of you on the bus." Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould, and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

Exit or Evolution—You Need a Plan - Part 1 Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. An exit strategy. As a matter of fact, when I first started my business, my landscaping company, very community-based, very local, I never left 30-50 miles of radius around my house. And I used to do snow removal as well, and that's Latin for, you never get to take a vacation, 'cause you never know when it's gonna snow. Right? So, I could never go anywhere, it's very very local. But, since then, since I started coaching and speaking, I have now spoken in 68 countries. And what I have found is that in every country I've gone to, no matter what the translation for the word is, every employee of a company has the same word for exit strategy. You know what that word is? I'll give you a hint, it starts with the letter 'R' and it rhymes with detirement. Right? Retirement. Okay? So, this, what I highly recommend is that you, is that you create your exit or evolution plan and share it with your team.  Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould, and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

Why People Must Feel Safe Before They Act  Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. Let's talk a little bit about how we can influence another person. Because at the end of the day, we're gonna go from potential to performance. But the idea here is that you will be influential to another person, alright? Now building rapport and ultimately influencing something, somebody, it's a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy, that's a bit of an automatic reflex. In other words, wired into our central nervous system is a safety mechanism that tells us if are we in rapport with our surroundings or not. Are we safe in our surroundings or not? Okay, so if you want to influence another person to your point of view or influence them to so they take action in any way, you have to make them feel safe and the way that they do that is they have to decide if they like you, or not in the way that you're thinking like, you know, not like I like to spend time with that person. But on some level am I like that person? Do we have something in common? Right? So on some level, your audience has the feel that they are like you. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

Success Puts You in Uncharted Territory  Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.  You know, one of the first things I learned as a coach was that there are two types of distress you're going to deal with a lot as a coach. And the number two type of distress is, I know what I want. I haven't gotten there yet and I'm not either. I'm not sure or lack of strategy, or I don't have the resources, or whatever the number one type of distress is, I've achieved my goals, I set out to achieve certain things. And I've done that now. And the question I'm asking myself is, now what? Or what's next? Right? You see in sports all the time, a team gets out to a big lead, and then they give it back, right? The team that's catching up always has a target to go after. But the team out in the lead never knows what to do with themselves. And they almost always pull back. And so it is happens in life and in business because I promise you this. There are people out there, most of the people out there that have achieved a fair amount of success in business. At some point, they've achieved more than they thought higher than they thought they would be like, Wow, I never thought it would get this big. I never thought it would go that fast. I never thought it'd be this successful. And then they're in uncharted territory, and they're standing outside their identity, their definition of themselves. Wait a minute, I'm just a small-town boy or a small-town girl. Now I'm in the big city. I must be an imposter shortly someone's going to expose me.  Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

Writing a Book Isn't About the Book Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. Okay, so you write a book for three reasons, one of three reasons: I want to get rich, I want to get famous, or I want to get something off my chest, right. So most of the people I believe you're working with are trying to get rich or trying to get famous. Some might be writing something to get off their chest, but I suspect that's probably not the case. I want to get rich, meaning not just from the book, but I want to use this to catapult my next part of my career, or I want to be famous. I'm using it as a brand building opportunity. Is that fair to say that it probably falls in those two, three?  Yeah, I would agree.  Okay, so there you go. So they're likely not 100 years old, they're likely not over 70. What is their age group likely? I'll give you a hint. The average age of an entrepreneur is 42 years old. I was just gonna say about 45.  There you go. So who are you really talking to? You're talking to that group right in their, in their 40s looking to, you know, start to grow their thought leadership, right? They've gone to their 20s and 30s. They've done all the hard work. And now they're looking to take advantage of that experience and wisdom and start to help others and scale and expand their business. So I might–now again, somebody at 60 years old comes to you and says I want to get something off my chest. God bless them, take them all day long. But if you nail that group who's trying to get rich, trying to get famous, you'll get the I want to get something off my chest. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould, and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

Stop Letting Your Heart Kill Your Sales  Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. In the game we're in, we sell us as good as anyone, and we have to sell us, alright. Now- Nobody does (unclear word follows)  Nobody does, right? However, I've learned a few things after certifying and helping 7,000 people like you launch their business, is you are heartless servants. You want to change the world, you want to help people, and you will work for free to help somebody else rather than make them uncomfortable by charging them. And before you tell me no, that's not me, right? It's all of us. So we need a system to be the bad cop. You need some bad cops in your life. You are the good cop. The good cop is the one who delivers on the content, who delivers on, right. So the bad cop sells, the good cop delivers. So you say, wait, does it have to be the bad cop? Your job is to magnify their emotion beyond their capacity to handle it. Yes, you are the bad cop. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

Consistency Beats Intensity in Growth   Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. Now, as a general rule of thumb, we say 90 minutes a day of business development. Whatever these five are to the best that you can, do 90 minutes a day. If you can't avoid it, try not to do more than that. Unless you're like, I'm at a networking event. It's eight hours long. Like when I'm at Board of Advisors, Ray and I are members of Board of Advisors in Minnesota, you know, it's an all-day event. So I'm, you know, networking more than 90 minutes those days, but then there are some days I don't do it, right. You know, if you stick to 90 days, it's not too much. It's enough that you stay consistent. Right? And so you could build 90 minutes a day, or 90 minutes into a day, reasonably. Reasonably. Now, you might say, Well, can I leverage that up to my team? Yes, you can. However, I would say don't yet. Until you nail your– you nail. Like you walk into a room and you're like, where are my bad four-quarter Johns? 1,2,3,4 I could tell by your dress how bad that quarter was. I know exactly what to ask this one. Like you walk into a home and you know that room. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

Urgency Starts With Knowing Their Pain  Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. What you do want to ask yourself is what keeps them up at night? Because if you're going to solve the problem of what keeps them up at night worrying, and what exists in their life or their business right now that makes calling you a necessity today, then you are really well dialed in to who your ideal client is, right? So you know, I live in the northeast, I live right near our ski resort. There's probably two weeks left of the ski season. Skiers know this. This is a problem for skiers. Skiers want to get that last couple runs in before the end of the year. So if you're a skier, what exists right now. It's a sunny day. I walked out today and like oh, you know, I feel like I missed the whole ski season. I'm a skier. I live near the ski resort. What do you think that company ought to be doing right now? Right. Trying to push that pain button, alright. Hey, two more weeks. That's it and the season's over. One last chance, come on out. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

If You Won't Guarantee It, Why Should They Buy? Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. The issue is who has the guts to take the mark? Because you all know the answers to, right. So I trade now. So I use this in all of our businesses, and I use this with all of our clients. So I've trained over 7000 business coaches, right, to that long and a have a business coaching and consulting business. And so one of the things that I teach is for them to give you. So think about this next time you hire consultants of five to one guarantee, which means if they are not making your saving five times the amount of the fee, their fee, then the whole thing is free. How much advice do you have currently that offers a five to one ROI guarantee? Now, how many of you do you think could offer you that? How many could offer? All of them. They all could. They don't do their job, they can't give you your money back? They can all do it. How many of them do? None. I offer a five-to-one guarantee, so who am I competing with? Nobody. We'll know what the problems are,right? Who has the guts to just say, I'll stand up, and I'll deliver your money back. Oh, I don't know, what if they don't take the action? And what if they don't follow through and I can't hold them accountable and I'm short that meetings. That's a problem with you--then your programs not compelling enough that they want to show up on a phone call, that's not their problem. That's your problem, right? Well, how am I going to control my supply chain? Right, I have yet to meet now by coach a lot of you types already. You will fall in love with your supply chain and very efficiently at the best price and you stick with it. I've yet to find a company where the diversity of their supply chain is their problem, if you know what I mean. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

 Stop Selling Positives—Solve Problems Instead  Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. Now, I know the biggest mistake you kick your way, I want to know what the biggest mistake you are making in your business is, so we can go and fix that problem. Here's the biggest mistake. Talking about the positives of your business too much, or giving it too much airtime, right. That's not what it is in a current client working. In the season of business that we're in cold winter, people defer to experts, right. Experts are people that can do two things: solve problems no one else can solve and then charge what no one else can charge. Those are the two things that will determine whether your clients will keep you as an expert or not, right. So here's what we start. So for those of you out with the last one, we'll do a little bit last time, is first thing we want to do is we want to hear, what are the top complaints that you are getting from your prospects and your clients? And what are the top complaints about your industry, not just about you, and some of these complaints that might not even be about your company. But take a moment, write down what are the top five complaints you are hearing from your prospects and your clients about working with a company like yours. What I used to hear is people will start on time, tell me you're going to start (unclear follows) You say you're gonna be done by April 1st, you're not done by April 1st. Tell me one price and there are complaints, change orders or you don't have, you know, you quote them with one price, but then you're short on supply, but you can find it from another source as long as they're willing to pay more. And in my service business, the complaint was we didn't give enough, long enough guarantee on the hardscape and landscape materials. And there wasn't a senior manager on site, those are the top five I heard. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

How Structure Creates Scalable Systems  Part 1  Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. Buy a system i.e you buy a franchise before that franchise can be successful you must have a structure in place, so what's the difference? Structure means you're taking people and putting them in certain roles and giving them certain task, now that is different than a system because in the beginning you are not controlling 100% of everything they do, this is one of the hardest things to grasp in a business because you need to put people in place and with minimal training they have to serve the client and use initiative and their flexibility and along the way of putting people in place, putting people in that structure out of that you will begin to develop your systems. Much like an airplane that sits on a runway,  awaiting its time to take off. The pilot must use his common sense and the maximum amount of flexibility in order to get the plane, the cargo and the people in it in the air. He is given a system in the beginning, there is a system for having a plane take off, and there is a structure and a checklist in order for that pilot to launch that plane into the air. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. Before he does that, there must be a structure in place and he is given that structure, that structure is called the standard day, meaning the ideal conditions in order to take that plane off, based on weather and weight and wind he–there is a very specific structure in order to take that plane off, off and get it off the ground. If the pilot waited for that ideal day to come around, the standard day, how long do you think the pilot in that plane would remain on the runway waiting to take off? If you guess 6 to 9 months? You'd be close. Now we get upset when we wait an extra 15 minutes in a plane, imagine the pilot announcing that we have to wait for the perfect conditions in order to take off because the systems says so, we cannot exercise any common sense or any judgment whatsoever so therefore we will wait for the ideal day in order to take off and hope we don't run out of water and hope we have plenty of batteries because it might be a while. And that standard day that ideal day, comes around a few times a year. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould, and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

How Structure Creates Scalable Systems  Part 1  Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. Buy a system i.e you buy a franchise before that franchise can be successful you must have a structure in place, so what's the difference? Structure means you're taking people and putting them in certain roles and giving them certain task, now that is different than a system because in the beginning you are not controlling 100% of everything they do, this is one of the hardest things to grasp in a business because you need to put people in place and with minimal training they have to serve the client and use initiative and their flexibility and along the way of putting people in place, putting people in that structure out of that you will begin to develop your systems. Much like an airplane that sits on a runway,  awaiting its time to take off. The pilot must use his common sense and the maximum amount of flexibility in order to get the plane, the cargo, and the people in it in the air. He is given a system in the beginning, there is a system for having a plane take off and there is a structure and a checklist in order for that pilot to launch that plane into the air. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

 Stage 7 - Have You Reached the Final Stage of Growth?  Hi Everybody, Carl Gould here, author of The 7 Stage Growth Method and your #70secondCEO, where you invest a little more than one minute a day for a lifetime of results. Today's topic is - Stage 7 The Succession Stage We're ranking your business right now, where are you in this growth trajectory? 1 is, huh? 10 is, we got it! Alright, The Succession Stage, to what degree do you have a: Management team in place? Tight controls?  Solid operations?  You're running like a finely tuned machine? You have a lead generation machine? A sales team that's closing it?   Clients are happy ?  And you're on the leading edge of product development?  This is rarified air folks. We gotta make sure that you're fully there, if not, put a comment in the bottom, what do you need to do to maximize your 7th Stage here? Rank yourself on a scale of 1-10, tell me your score, and where is your area of improvement? Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

Stage 6 - Can Your Business Run Without You?  Hi Everyone, Carl Gould here, I am your #70secondCEO and the author of The 7 Stage Growth Method.  Just a little bit more than a one minute investment each day for a lifetime of results.  Are we ranking your business on the 7 Stage Growth model OK? Stage 6, give yourself a ranking on a scale of 1 to 10. This is the Stage of Salability. Remember way back to Stage 3 when you're building your implementation team? Now you're building your management team, OK? You need to have in place a consistent resource for a lead generator: Your chief marketing or lead generation officer Your VP of sales  Your director of operations who handles all things fulfillment  At a minimum, that's got to be your management team. To what degree do you have those three in place, and they are running the day-to-day operations so you don't have to be there, and you can start to maximize the salability of your business? Also, you need to be cash flow positive on a monthly basis and have enough buying power to take advantage of an opportunity should it present itself. Give yourself a rank. Huh? That's a 1, 10, NAILED IT!  Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

 Stage 5 - Are You Known Beyond Your Product? Stage 5 - Sustainability Hi Everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO, I'm also the author of The 7 Stage Growth Method. Today's topic- Stage 5- The Sustainability Stage  This is the stage when you can first start considering scaling your business. You've laid the foundation in stages one through four. Let's see how you doing in Stage 5, give yourself a rank on a scale of 1-10, 1 low, 10 high. Stage 5 is when the systems have taken over to the point they've created such a consistent experience for your customer base that you are now known for something other than your product and service. Starbucks- the experience, McDonald's- convenience and real estate. They are known for things other than their core product and service. Are you? Give yourself a score on a scale of 1 to 10. One, we're not known for that at all, 10, we are, all the ancillary benefits people really know and know really well. Put your score in the comments section.  Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

Stage 4- Systematize for Growth Hi Everyone, Carl Gould here, author of The 7 Stage Growth Method and your #70secondCEO,  just a little bit more than a one minute investment per day for a lifetime of results. Today's topic - Stage 4. Rank yourself on how well you have created your systems. This is the Systems Stage, where you decide on the ecosystem or the type of business you're going to be. Up to this point you've been an entrepreneurial-run business; now we're making the switch to a professionally managed business, where you systematize every single aspect of your business. Little hint, start with the most frustrating part of your business and work your way back from there, because any frustration in your business means that you lack a consistent and viable system in that particular area of your business. Give yourself a rank, 1-we haven't figured out what we want to be when we grow up, 10- we've nailed it! Put your score in the comments section below.  Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

Stage 3 - Building a Team That Believes Stage 3 - The Synergy Stage  Hi Everyone, Carl Gould here, author of The 7 Stage Growth Method and your #70secondCEO, a little more than a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. Today's topic -Stage 3.  Give yourself a rank on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 low, 10 being high. Stage 3 is the Synergy Stage. This is where you're building your implementation team. If you have a great plan you're an authority in your niche now you're busy and in demand, and you need people to help you. They have to be fully aligned and bought into: Your mission Your vision Your values  Your purpose for your business Give yourself a ranking on a scale of 1 to 10, how aligned and enthusiastic is your team about your mission? All right, because that'll tell you how dedicated they are to the long-term goals of your company. Put a comment below, what's your score? I wanna know, all right?  Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

Stage 2 - From Unknown to Industry Expert Stage 2- The Specialty Stage  Hi Everyone, this is Carl Gould author of The 7  Stage Growth Method and your #70secondCEO, just a little over a one minute investment each day for a lifetime of results. Today's topic is stage 2 the specialty stage.  Alright, here we're judging how much of an expert in your niche are you? How much of an authority? Give yourself a ranking on a scale of 1 to 10. One, nobody knows who I am. Ten, I'm an ABSOLUTE authority in my niche. Here's how you know. Somebody unsolicited comes up to you at an industry conference or somebody in the industry contacts you and says, "hey, can I can I bug you a little bit can I ask you a few questions? Buy you a cup of coffee and pick your brain because you've figured out some things that I just haven't been able to figure out and you seem to really have that worked out." So, how often does that happen to you and how much of an expert are you in your niche? One, you're a Houdini, nobody knows who you are, you're a disappearing act, 10, you're a celebrity in your niche. Put a comment at the bottom, let me know what your score is.  Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould, and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

Stage 1 - Ranking Your Business  Hello Everyone, this is Carl Gould, author of The 7 Stage Growth Method and your #70secondCEO just a little over a one minute investment per day for a lifetime of results. Today, we are going to start ranking your business according to the 7 Stage method.  Stage 1- give yourself a ranking, one low, BORING! 10 high, inspiring and compelling. To what degree are your strategic planning documents, all those great ideas you got out of your head and onto paper, not only are they documented they are inspiring and compelling. What you do, how you do it, why you're doing it, all that together has to be a 10, a 10 in each one, so give yourself a ranking. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   We've coached about 150,000 people now. And we ask everybody, how did you ever get started in your business, if they're a business owner? Or how did you choose this career path if you work for an organization? The number one answer that we get as the reason why somebody chose a career path is that someone else believed in me. Someone else said, hey, you know, you're really good at this, or you have a, I went into accounting and finance. This is how the meeting went, senior year in high school. My guidance counselor said to me, Carl, your math scores are really high. You should become an accountant. And I was like, well, that sounds cool. I should do that. So I went to school for accounting and finance, and I had no clue what it was. But I did it because my career counselor said to me, well, you have a proficiency in that area. Your scores are really high. You should go into that field. So I did. I had no clue what accounting and finance meant until I got to college, right? But it's the most common answer we have is somebody believed in me. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. Your language means this is where knowledge, credentials comes into play. You need to be the smartest person in whatever room you walk in. Or if you're on a project and you're doing a build-out or you're doing a budget, you want to be among, if not the smartest person in that room because you can then direct the room because people follow certainty. They follow leaders, okay? So you want to be the lead dog. So most people say, oh great, I don't have to worry about that 7%, I'll just focus on the body language. Uh-uh. We need it because it's the lead dog. The body language will do most of the work, but we do need the words for the as the lead dog. Everybody okay with that? Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. Not as important, but it is very important, especially in a commercial setting, to respect. Can you handle the task at hand, right? So whatever your title is, can you handle the job that you say you can do? Here's why that's important. Because if I don't respect you, I won't bother telling you the truth. I won't bother bringing things to you because you can't handle it. Why would I bring a problem to you if you can't handle it, okay? Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more.  My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. And you can't find something in common, it's painful. You meet somebody. Hey, how are you? Nice to meet you. Oh, yeah, I'm Carl. How are you doing? Oh, good to meet you. Oh, yeah, it's your first time at this? Yeah, great, cool. So you into sports? Nah, not much of a sports person. Oh, oh, OK. So what are some of your hobbies? You know, I don't have a lot of hobbies, so I'm just more of a stay-at-home kind of person. Now, that's just two sentences. How hard was that to watch? And we've all been there, OK? So we have to remove the barriers, have the common goals, master the word yes. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. Now that we have rapport, we can now influence somebody to our point of view, right? Remember, there's three styles, right? So think about it. When you walk around every day in your work and you say, you know, that department, I don't know how they hired those people. They don't deserve to have jobs. How do they make it through the day? Ever have one of those moments, right? Because those people aren't wired like whom? Like you. They're fine. They weren't put on this earth simply to annoy you. They have a purpose. And guess what? They're thinking the same thing of you. Like, I don't know how he or she makes it through the day. I have to help them find their keys. I have to let them in. They forget their security pass all the time. Like how are we relying our future on that person, right? And yet they get a lot done, right? There are just different styles.We just have to find the style. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. Why do we care that we have rapport? Why do we care that we have influence? Well, first off, we need rapport because we need to build a relationship. I'm going to ask you a couple of questions in a moment, but we need to build a relationship with other people. And there are only three styles out there. You're one of them. There are two others. And for our purposes, you are basically wired like one-third of the population when it comes to your communication style. You don't have to do any work. You connect with them very easily. They, wow, that person is really cool. I get on very easily with them. It's the other two thirds that we have to work on. So you have to know your style so you can understand others' styles so you can adapt. And that's what today's about. It's about situational communication, situational leadership. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould, and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. Next, the business plan. Who are we? What is our product? Or service or idea? Who are our customers? What is our market? Who is our competition? Where will we operate? How will we advertise? How will we market ourselves? What is our unique selling proposition? What is our business identity? What size will our company be? And what size will our company eventually become? How long do we plan to stay in business? How much money do we intend to make? Will we operate on a fiscal year or a calendar year? What is our corporate structure? What industry will we operate in? What are the strategies that will govern our overall operations? What are the tactics we will use to implement our strategy? What work needs to be done? And by whom? and by when? Who is on our advisory board? How will we build our executive team? These are some questions that you'll ask as you formulate your business plan. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. The vision statement, where will we be in five years? 10 years, 20 years from now? Where will we be in one year? Where will we be in three years? What does the future look like for the business in our mind's eye? When we close our eyes and think about our business? What do we see? I know what do you see. Next, our values statement, what do we hope our business will be remembered? As what are we here to contribute? Who are we here to educate? What experience will people come away from? How will we empower our clients? How will we make our customers feel better about themselves and their lives and their businesses, if that's appropriate, by being part of our organization, whether they are employee or customers? What are we going to stand for? What are our priorities for our business? Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. So, identifying the issue, we are looking for the cause, not the symptom. It's good to know the symptoms, but we need the cause, okay? So I'll give you an example, all right? Let's identify what the issue is in this particular situation, okay? A client of ours just built a brand new state-of-the-art building in New York City, okay? Multiple floors that requires elevators. They had the latest and greatest elevator system go in. It is optimized based on how many people at what time come into the building, what floors they go to. These elevators can't be tuned to move any faster than they are. They can't be sped up, they can't be reconfigured, you know, to drop or go to certain floors or skip certain floors any better. It's been optimized based on the foot traffic in that building already. Elevators, brand new. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould, and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. Now this is gonna take discipline from you as a team member because, as their manager, because you can't allow them to come to you with just the problem. They have to come to you with not only the problem, well defined, and then more than one solution. So you can pick your max now. Your job is to have your team come to you, hey, we noticed this one problem, hey, there's a challenge with this one client. Hey, this client had a question or wants something new that I'm not sure we've done before. And when they bring it to you, they bring almost a little plan of how they would solve it. And as a manager, this can be hard because sometimes you're sitting back like, oh my God, stop talking, I could have fixed this halfway through your sentence. I already know what to do. You have to hear them out. So let's give them a format of how they can come back to you, how they can come back to you with a solution, and how you can coach them to take more initiative. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one-minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   There's no way, especially as you get bigger, and there's no way anyone on the team is gonna like everything that's going on, you just have to advocate for the process. So in everything in your professional life that you don't like, are you guys familiar with the law of opposite values? You guys familiar with what that is? So have you ever heard the expression that you can't understand light until you know dark? You can't be cold unless you've been hot? That's the law of opposite values. In other words, if there's something that bothers you about the company or a process, that means on some level you like it. And if you hate something, there's something about it you love. Like the stronger the reaction, which means you hold the opposite strong reaction. So anytime you're like, oh, what did I do this for, this is stupid. You're like, oh, hang on. That means what do I love about it? So you just have to be able to make both sides of the argument. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   So you've heard the term over-communicate. We have to over-communicate. That doesn't mean just talking more. That means being very, very specific in how we give instructions. Okay, and when we do the situational leadership, we'll talk about that some more because we need to stop being descriptive and we need to start being instructive. So as a manager, as a leader, that's what this group needs to do, right? So in other words, somebody's gonna go and if you were to say to somebody that's heading out to a job site for a client, say, hey, do a great job, do it the source one way, that's descriptive. There are 15 different or ultimately infinite number of interpretations of that. Now, you wanna be instructive, right? Okay, and when you get there, I expect a call as soon as you get there. Let's do a video walkaround. Here are our steps, here's our agenda and our script, and that's what we want you to do.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. Anytime there's a handoff, so if you're in sales and someone's engineering, someone's on the service desk, right, those handoffs have to be managed tight and you always cover your teammate's back, right? So that's where, so we have to define how that box runs, okay, and that'll be one of our challenges because we speak American English, that's our challenge, our English is so bad. You try handing it off to somebody who actually knows English and you'll find out how bad you're English. My English is terrible. My team, Alex, is like, Carl, that's not what you said and I'm like, I remember what I said, but that's not what it means, that's the problem, right? So we will define how our box or how our lane works. What we need to do is make sure we can pass that off to others, right, to the workforce and we need to manage those handoffs. Those will be the areas that will be really important to us. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. So if you're working on something as a team, whether you're the leader, you're the manager, whatever, doesn't matter. Take 100% responsibility for the outcome, which means if Nicole and I are working on something and Nicole has her tasks and I have mine, I'm going to take 100% responsibility for hers, she'll do the same for me, and what that is, that will give enough overlap that makes sure we're going to get this job done. So if she's struggling in an area, I'll jump in and help, but I'll be aware of it. Going back to the quarterback analogy, I need to know what every player on my team's job is so I can help if I need to. I'm not going to do her job unless she needs me or asks me to, she's not going to do my job unless she needs or asks me to, but we want to be aware of that. If we each take 100% responsibility for the outcome, there's a good chance the objective gets done, it gets done on time the way we need to. So we have to start thinking as a unit, right?   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. Take a moment right down what is that--what is the top five complaints about your industry, maybe not about you as a company, maybe you as a company but maybe not, but about your industry so how would you know that? So think of the a customer negative customer--customers review you've gotten or competitors have gotten, the sales objection you get from a prospect when your telling them about your product or service and when you--when you win a project and they tell you why they choose you there are lot of times they tell you why they didn't choose somebody else those are your complaints, those are the distresses. Now let's add to that what's going on in their life right now, that makes calling you a must? What was the trigger event or events that may calling you a must not a nice to have but a must like its origin I don't mean life and death but its an origin. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO - just a little over a minute investment everyday for a lifetime of results. Our topic today is - Are you a Muddy Fish or are you a Clean Fish? I wonder. So, a muddy fish. Are you the kind of person that is fast-paced and outgoing? You're not very detail-oriented. You’re results-driven. You like things new, trendy, flashy. You tend to be on the business development and visionary side of the business. Or are you a clean fish? You like the water clean. You like systems and processes and predictability and consistency and high-quality. You're not necessarily the front-of-the-house person like those muddy fish. You're more a back-of-the-house person, a clean fish. You like things well planned out very systematic so you can be very predictable and deliver consistent high quality results. Which one are you doing? Because you will find that there are pros and cons to both. Muddy fish you are usually great at the front of the house, clean fish you are at the back of the house. Which one are you? I want to hear it. Like, follow and subscribe to the podcast and comment, are you a clean fish or are you a muddy fish?   This is Carl Gould and this is your #70secondCEO.

Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO - just a little over a minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   They're not going to pay a whole bunch of money on the off chance you're good. They're going to think you're really good already. They're going to think, and by the way, if you fire them, guess what they lose? You, and they think you're the best option, right? That's why I was in a position one time in my landscaping company where I was in a position where I had to give back the guarantee, but if I gave him back the check then I was walking off the job and he had two days to get this thing done. I'm like, I can write you the check back, but then we're leaving. What do you mean you were leaving? I said, well, you just fired me and he's like, oh, all right. Well, can you get done by Wednesday? I'm like, we'll get done by Wednesday. So there was one time that I was in that position.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one-minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. Wouldn't it be nice to know and be able to categorize your clients based on their pricing? So I offer a success fee option and I offer a retainer option. Remember I said before that if the industry's sideways you gotta give something for free and you gotta bundle, right? And you say, well how am I gonna know where the industry is? You're not. You're gonna offer a menu of pricing and you're gonna let your clients are gonna tell you based on where they buy where the industry is, okay? The professionals are likely gonna, the lefties are gonna buy the no smudge or they're gonna buy, and the pros are gonna buy the $4 marker. We use these a lot. That's cheap for me. The person who's just doing one project or it's something at school might just spend a dollar. The person who forgets things all the time, they might say, that could be useful. So based on your pricing, your clients are gonna categorize themselves. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one-minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. A year, that means you're one in 600 people. That is 10 million or more, and we need to walk into a building that has 12,000 people in it to meet a peer. What we do is not easy, right? So you're doing all of this work only to price yourself to where you're invisible. That's got to change. It is unacceptable to me that you sit down with a client, you're as knowledgeable as you are, you teach them everything they need to know, and they get up and go buy from somebody else. Like, no way, right? Listen, your business is about, signing new business is about two things: the right traffic and the right offer. Most of you have pretty good traffic, meaning qualified leads. You're talking to the right people, but your offer's just not there. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.