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I heard this story from a clip of a podcast and thought it was a brilliant way to illustrate the power of a brand. I can't find who it was so I'm unable to give them credit...please let me know if you recognize the person that originally told it! Mike

Every startup has to find their money-making activities and consistently execute them to get their economic engine firing!

Being an entrepreneur has become sexy. But it's also hard damn work with a lot of risk, not just the fancy cars and yachts you see on Instagram. Here's the truth about being an entrepreneur.

I just had a major breakthrough on a recent trip to Las Vegas that every entrepreneur needs to hear!

Services can be hard to sell. Why? Because they are intangible. Your prospect can't see them or touch them. That's why DEMONSTRATING PROOF is the #1 way to make your services sell faster and more easily. RESOURCES

Is a recession already here?! Some people are saying so. Interest rates are going up. The stock market is tanking. The tech market is in meltdown. And crypto is a total blood bath!

Today's Quote of the Day is, I believe, the key to success and happiness in life and as an entrepreneur: "Learn to be thankful for what you already have, while you pursue all that you want." - Jim Rohn That's a big claim, I know, but listen to this episode and I think you'll agree! All the best, Mike Cooch LVRG.com

A good quote has the ability to get your attention, move you emotionally, and give you insights, clarity, and leverage that oftentimes get lost when you are dealing with the information overload of reading an entire book or listening to one rambling podcast after another. That's why I love quotes, and I've used a 'Quote of the Day' for decades at my businesses and in my personal life to remind me of the most important lessons. Today's quote of the day is "Hope is not a strategy"...one of my all-time favorites and one that I use very often. I hope it's just as valuable for you! All the best, Mike Cooch LVRG.com

Jeff Bezos says that the higher your role is in the leadership of a company, the more you are just getting paid to make good quality decisions. That's your job - make decisions! In fact, he only expects himself to make three good decisions each day. As an entrepreneur running a smaller business, you have to do both the THINKING (making decisions) and the DOING. It's my experience that way too much emphasis is put on the DOING. Hustle! Work harder! Grind! That's all DOING. But an entrepreneur has to make good quality decisions, or all of the hustle in the world is just keeping you on a treadmill. Do you expand into a new market? Launch a new product? Sell your business? These are all critical decisions. But do you have a FRAMEWORK or PROCESS for making high-quality decisions? My guess is no. That's why I think you'll find the resource discussed in this episode incredibly helpful - I certainly have. They are a summary of the key concepts I learned in a book called 'The Right Decision Every Time' - I HIGHLY recommend that you grab a copy. I've also put together a downloadable template of the key framework from the book that you can download here. All the best, Mike Cooch LVRG.com

The pandemic has rocked our economy, destroyed businesses, and made many people feel helpless. Life got real hard, real fast for a lot of people - including many entrepreneurs! So how do you stay on track to hit your goals, even when you feel out of control and uncertain about the future? In this episode, I share a strategy that has worked for me over the last year: setting 'micro-targets'. This was something I decided to do to make sure I stayed focused and managed my fear of the unknown when I realized how bad the pandemic was going to be...and thankfully the results have been fantastic. I hope it's as valuable for you as it has been for me! All the best, Mike Cooch LVRG.com

The #1 reason why people say they started their business - or want to start a business - is because they believe it will give them more freedom. Freedom to decide what you want to work on, who you work with, where you live, how often you travel, what time you get up in the morning, and how much money you make. And a privately-owned business is still the #1 way in this world to create that freedom, which is why entrepreneurship is more popular than ever. But not every business creates more freedom for the entrepreneur that started it. Some require constant operational attention. Others are fixed to a specific location, making it hard for the founder to travel or live where they'd like. Every business has factors that limit its growth and the freedom it gives the entrepreneur - I call this 'friction'. In this episode, I talk about friction and how to remove it to create more freedom from your business. All the best, Mike Cooch LVRG.com PS - Let's connect on Instagram | Youtube | Facebook

I think I can safely say that we are all glad to say goodbye to 2020 - what a mess of a year in so many ways. But, as with all challenging situations, there were a lot of good lessons to take from the year. I found ten lessons from 2020 that I thought were particularly valuable for entrepreneurs. I hope they are as valuable for you as they were for me! All the best, Mike Cooch LVRG.com PS - Let's connect on Instagram | Youtube | Facebook

In this episode, I interview Michael Booker, who shares his experience building a side hustle that he's incredibly passionate about, having lots of fun with, and is using to build more opportunities for himself and his family. If you have a passion that you dream of turning into a side hustle, then you are going to love this episode and get a ton of value from it. Visit Michael's site at https://thebourbonculture.com/ All the best, Mike Cooch LVRG.com

In this episode, I share a critical lesson for anyone selling to the small business community. Selling to small businesses can be TOUGH! And it's made much tougher if you are focusing on the wrong things when you feel stuck and aren't getting enough sales. But you may not have a SALES problem at all...here's what it likely REALLY is, and what to do about it. For more content on the topic of building a scalable business when selling to the small business community, please visit my other site: https://digitalmarketinglab.io/ All the best, Mike Cooch LVRG.com

In this episode, I interview Nehal Kazim - one of my favorite entrepreneurs ever! I first met Nehal when he was still in college. He was hustling to provide for his family while still in school and had come to my Sales Bootcamp event in Denver, CO to learn how to build a sales process to grow his business. That kind of drive and willingness to invest in himself is what has always set Nehal apart from other people. Since then, he's gone on to build a very successful Facebook advertising agency - AdPros.com. But it's the WAY that he's accomplished his success that I think is most inspiring. He is a perfect example of what I call a B.O.L.D. Entrepreneur (that stands for Business Ownership + Lifestyle Design - using your business to fuel the life that you want). He has very deliberately designed his dream life and used his business to give him the ability to live it. He's a true 'digital nomad', that is now living in Colombia. He's learned to dance the Salsa, and met the woman of his dreams. And most importantly, he's giving back to people in ways that will give him a huge impact. This interview has SO MANY lessons for today's entrepreneur, and I think his story will inspire anyone with a pulse! Be BOLD, take action, and get it done! All the best, Mike Cooch LVRG.com

Warren Buffet said something that has stuck with me over the years that I try to keep in mind when evaluating business opportunities. And I have to admit...I'm pretty terrible at following his advice in this case. But the 'Automatic Car Wash Lesson' is probably one of the most important lessons for understanding risk vs. reward and how it impacts your ability to create wealth as an entrepreneur. I hope you enjoy it! All the best, Mike Cooch https://lvrg.com/ https://www.instagram.com/getlvrg/

How do you get and keep momentum as an entrepreneur? So much of it is your psychology. In fact, I think the psychology of the entrepreneur is perhaps the single most important factor in the growth of a business. So what about your psychology takes away from your momentum? There is one factor that I see very frequently in small business owners and would-be entrepreneurs that I work with that impacts everything from their ability to pick up the phone to prospect, to their willingness to ship new products. In this episode I share what it is. While you are here...please follow us on Instagram! All the best, Mike Cooch LVRG.com

Entrepreneur's everywhere struggle to sleep - it's a curse! We have so many things going on in our heads at any one time, that shutting down at the end of the day can be hard. I've tried just about everything other than sleeping pills (those freak me out), and some things have definitely helped. But there is one secret that has made the biggest impact by far, and I think it will be true for you as well. All the best, Mike Cooch LVRG.com

If you aren't advertising on the Facebook Ad platform, you're missing out on the most powerful and affordable tool to get more attention, leads, and customers that's ever been created! But many local businesses have struggled with using Facebook Ads at one point or another - spending too much money and not getting the results they are looking for - so they give up. You can't give up! Use my 4 step process to create winning local Facebook Ad campaigns every time! If you want more detailed step-by-step instruction on how to create your campaigns, check out my special offer at https://labspecial.com/localads . All the best, Mike Cooch LVRG.com

If you're selling services to the small business community, you have three different types of potential customers that all get lumped together as 'small businesses', but they are very different in what they want to buy and how much they'll pay. A common mistake - which kills your profitability - is selling the wrong services to the wrong buyers, oftentimes without even knowing that you're doing it To grow your business quickly and profitably, you must know the three different types of customers, be able to identify them in your sales and marketing process, and strategically design your services to meet their needs at the right price points. I hope you enjoy it! Mike Cooch PS – If you're an Agency, consultant, or freelancer that would like to know how to package your services for faster sales, more profit, and greater scalability, check out Services that Scale – my program where I share the lessons I learned building and selling multiple fast-growth, seven-figure service businesses.

I learned this rule early in my career, and I think it's been one of the most important - but little known - factors in creating a profitable, scalable service business of any kind. Digital Agencies, consultants, coaches, and freelancers would all be very smart to pay attention to this rule and adopt it at their business! I hope you enjoy it! Mike Cooch PS – If you're an Agency, consultant, or freelancer that would like to know how to ‘productize’ your services for more profit and scalability, check out Services that Scale – my program where I share the lessons I learned building and selling multiple fast-growth service businesses.

LVRG.com In this episode, I share a lesson I was reminded of as I watched Apple's recent earnings report announcement. Their 'wearables' division is growing so fast that it's now bigger than their Mac business, and if split out as a separate company would be one of the 150 largest companies in the world. That's insane! It also was a powerful reminder about how you can add huge amounts of profitability to your business. I hope you enjoy! Mike Cooch LVRG.com PS - if you want to know how to 'productize' your services for more profit and scalability, check out Services that Scale - my program where I share the lessons I learned building and selling multiple fast-growth service businesses.

Building a business can be an all-consuming combination of sprint and marathon for years on end - it's unlike anything else! It's only natural that you may need to take a break at some point. But when? And why? And does that mean you're just going to sit on a beach for a year, or will you still do something else to be productive? I took a break from focusing on growing my business for about 18 months, and it was really good for me. I didn't stop working altogether, I just didn't focus on growth, which requires a different level of energy and focus than just maintaining. In this episode I share why, and how to consider if and when a break is a good idea for you. All the best, Mike Cooch https://lvrg.com/

Each New Year (and new decade in this case) brings excitement and the sense of having a fresh start. It acts as a cue for people around the world to spend time reflecting on the past, considering their priorities in the year ahead, and resolving to make specific changes. And for a period of time, however brief, many people will get better performance from themselves for the days and weeks ahead. Unfortunately, as we all know, for most people that improvement in performance will be temporary. I believe it's a particularly important learning opportunity for entrepreneurs, who must be able to create their own 'cue' for peak performance each day if they hope to thrive. I hope you enjoy! Mike Cooch https://lvrg.com/

In this episode I share with you what I believe is quite possibly the most important skill that you can learn as an entrepreneur…heck, as a human being! I’m also going to share with you some of the particular strategies and techniques that I have learned around maximizing the skill. This audio is from a video I recorded, that you can watch on my youtube channel here: https://youtu.be/-7dtjFV1Noo Or read the blog post here: http://bit.ly/2UI9554 Let me know your thoughts! All the best, Mike Cooch LVRG Stay in touch: Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/getlvrg/ IG: @getlvrg Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LVRGforEntrepreneurs LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikecooch/ Twitter: @mcooch Website: http://getlvrg.com/

In this episode I share what I believe may be THE most important lesson I've learned about selling to small businesses: You MUST focus on a single vertical market (at least until you are doing seven-figures of revenue). There are so many benefits to doing this. In this episode I share four critical reasons why you need to make this decision to focus and go 'all in' on a single vertical if you hope to compete and thrive when selling to small businesses. I'd love to hear your thoughts! All the best, Mike Cooch LVRG Stay in touch: Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/getlvrg/ IG: @getlvrg Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LVRGforEntrepreneurs LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikecooch/ Twitter: @mcooch Website: http://getlvrg.com/

In this episode, I share what in my experience is the #1 factor impacting the rate of profitable growth at your business, particularly if you are running a service business of any type: Agencies, consultants, coaches, etc. This single factor may seem obvious at first, and I think that's why entrepreneurs overlook it and don't give it enough attention. But it has tremendous 'downstream' impact throughout your business, and should be your focus, particularly in the earlier stages of your business. Enjoy and let me know what you think! All the best, Mike Cooch LVRG Stay in touch: Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/getlvrg/ IG: @getlvrg Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LVRGforEntrepreneurs LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikecooch/ Twitter: @mcooch Website: http://getlvrg.com/

Entrepreneurs, beware the Sales Prevention Department! What is the Sales Prevention Department, you ask? It's the stupid things happening at our business that are causing us to lose sales we should otherwise win. And EVERY business has a Sales Prevention Department, whether you realize it or not. It could be that you have salespeople not properly following up on leads, information missing from your CRM that causes you to miss opportunities, broken processes that slow down your service delivery and cost you referrals, or nasty contract terms that are unnecessary and scaring away good clients. Or, unfortunately, it could even be you. Yes, even as the owner of your business, you are most likely doing things that prevent you from winning more revenue. It hurst, but it's true! In this podcast episode I discuss what you can do about it. Mike Cooch Founder http://getlvrg.com/

I've been fortunate to build multiple seven-figure, very fast growth business in a variety of industries. There is some luck that comes with that. However, one of my favorite sayings is 'Hope is not a strategy'. I do everything I can to shift the odds in my favor. The most important and reliable way I've found to do that in business is by utilizing what I call a 'Growth Operating System'. A Growth Operating System is a combination of process, tools, and culture at your business that leads to consistent, predictable improvement in the key areas of your business that will lead to growth. In this episode I cover how to create a Growth Operating System at your business in just a few simple steps. I hope you find it valuable and look forward to hearing your feedback!

In this episode I share the 7 C's of Success from the book The Art of Achievement by Tom Morris. This is a book I read years ago, but I found his 7 C's to be so clarifying for me that I wrote them down in my personal development journal and I've referred to them often ever since. No matter what new venture or journey you're considering - personally or professionally - having some sort of 'filter' to run your idea through is incredibly important. By doing so, you make sure that you are pursuing something that is really worthwhile and that will capture your full attention and energy. The 7 C's have been one of the best filters I've found. I hope you enjoy! Mike Cooch http://getlvrg.com/

The businesses that seemingly go from $1 Million in revenue to $1 Billion in revenue overnight are the ones that get all of the attention from the media. Is that what you should be aiming for? Moonshot ideas and growth? I don't think so. Here's what you should do instead.

Technology has so much promise to improve our businesses and our lives, but it can also be a huge pain, expense, and distraction. How do you evaluate the technology to use at your business? When's the right time to rip out that old platform you are using, and replace it with something new? How often should you be looking at new technologies, versus staying focused on operating with what you have? These are questions I addressed in this episode (recording quality sucks...sorry. I was on a hike!).

One of the incredible benefits of more people becoming entrepreneurs is that you can find more ways to work with them that are a win-win that don't follow a traditional compensation model. Instead of hiring, find people that you can collaborate with. Not in all cases of course, but in more and more situations this is what we're doing, and the results are outstanding! Visit our website: http://getlvrg.com/ Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getlvrg/

Everyone knows that small business that has a far better product or service than the market leader, and yet the national competitor is crushing them. Why? Because the small business doesn't have the top line revenue to invest back into their business. A maniacal focus on top line revenue growth is mandatory for small businesses that want to win.

Being an entrepreneur can be a very lonely road, which makes it critical that you deliberately find the people that understand you, can support you, and that give you energy. The harsh reality is that may not be your spouse, your sibling, or even your best friend. You must find your people! Thank you so much for tuning in! Visit us at http://getlvrg.com/ Follow us at https://www.instagram.com/getlvrg/ MORE FREEDOM. MORE MONEY. MORE IMPACT.™

We are in the Experience Economy. Customers are looking for more than just tangible benefits from businesses - they want an experience. I discuss two ways to bake experiences into how you do business

Stories are incredibly powerful and important for fueling growth. In this episode I share Four Critical Stories to Develop For Your Business.

We are all fighting for the attention of our customers. Attention Arbitrage means finding ways to procure that attention for less than market rates. Here’s a practical way to do that.

Certain processes in your business will rob your business of cash flow and growth. That’s when we look to introduce overhead absorbers to get some of that cash back! Here’s how.

Most businesses are service businesses. Unfortunately most of them get stuck being too similar to other services they compete with. So how do you differentiate a service? Here are a few specific ideas

This one is for you entrepreneurs running service businesses. I share 'The Service Business Ad Writing Acid Test' from Harry Beckwith's excellent book 'Selling the Invisible'. It's a critical lesson!

Every product has Critical Moments of Truth. These are moments in the customer experience where the customer is testing you, and if you fail at these moments you kill growth. Win, and growth speeds up

The key to an effective business strategy is differentiation. But being different isn't enough, you need to celebrate where you differentiate at every possible turn so your customers never forget.

Every entrepreneur has top-line revenue goals, but most don't have enough focus on the process of how they'll achieve those goals. Here's how to create a growth plan with a focus on the process.

Strategy can often seem like a distant concept to startup entrepreneurs, but it shouldn't be. A great strategy is critical to success! Here are the three things a great strategy must have.

Instead of focusing on the cheapest way to get new customers, what if you focused on being able to spend more than your competition so you can grow faster and steal market share?

Early in the founding of any new business or idea, its critical that you do things that don't scale. This is a concept made popular by Paul Graham of Ycombinator, and a critical lesson for growth.

Smart businesses look for ways to turn their expenses into profits, sometimes creating huge new opportunities along the way.

Channels are anyone or anything that has already gathered your ideal audience and will give you access to them. They are key to explosive growth!

If you aren't in the top three in business, you are left with the scraps! You must define a new category and win it!

Tangible benefits + Uncommon Offering