Podcasts about e myth revisited

On this ThrowBack Thursday, Rich gives a book review about the Entrprenurial classic - “The E-Myth Revisited”

Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 1719: Brian Tracy shares eight critical questions every business owner should continually ask to drive long-term growth and success. These thought-provoking prompts help sharpen your focus, align your strategy, and ensure you're constantly improving how you serve customers and manage resources. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.briantracy.com/blog/business-success/business-development-8-questions-you-should-never-stop-asking-as-a-business-owner-strategic-plan/ Quotes to ponder: "Clarity is the starting point of success." "Your weakest key result area sets the height of your income and your success." "The more clearly you can define your ideal customer, the more effective your marketing efforts will be." Episode references: The E-Myth Revisited: https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-About/dp/0887307280 Think and Grow Rich: https://www.amazon.com/Think-Grow-Rich-Landmark-Bestseller/dp/1585424331 The Lean Startup: https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Startup-Entrepreneurs-Continuous-Innovation/dp/0307887898 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 1719: Brian Tracy shares eight critical questions every business owner should continually ask to drive long-term growth and success. These thought-provoking prompts help sharpen your focus, align your strategy, and ensure you're constantly improving how you serve customers and manage resources. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.briantracy.com/blog/business-success/business-development-8-questions-you-should-never-stop-asking-as-a-business-owner-strategic-plan/ Quotes to ponder: "Clarity is the starting point of success." "Your weakest key result area sets the height of your income and your success." "The more clearly you can define your ideal customer, the more effective your marketing efforts will be." Episode references: The E-Myth Revisited: https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-About/dp/0887307280 Think and Grow Rich: https://www.amazon.com/Think-Grow-Rich-Landmark-Bestseller/dp/1585424331 The Lean Startup: https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Startup-Entrepreneurs-Continuous-Innovation/dp/0307887898 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

00:00 - IntroductionWe open with coffee talk today–and sugar intake, including some beverage shortcuts. Tyler calls it cheaping out; Eddie calls it hillbilly lemonade. We also reminisce about our favorite waitress, 4'10” Miss Connie with the beehive haircut. Oh yeah, also pickle races. Poor Miss Connie.08:05 - Entrepreneurship: A Good Idea?A few weeks ago, guest Matt Aston recommended the book The E-Myth Revisited (now available in an updated version). Tyler shares that this book hit him in the teeth when he picked it up recently. We're discussing this book today because it's filled with great content for construction-related entrepreneurs. Business is hard. Each year, 627,000 businesses are started and 595,000 businesses fail. Many of those may have been active for several years, but still, it's clear that starting and running a business successfully is tough work. Author Michael E. Gerber shares his insights by telling the story of Sara, a fictional pie maker.12:46 - Initial E-Myth Takeaways Eddie shares the first bits of insight that he took from this book. Gerber distinguishes between the technician,  the manager, and the entrepreneur. These are three roles may exist in A technician is the person who can do something well. A manager the person who is good at logistics and task completion. An entrepreneur is the person who works not so much in the business and on the business. Tyler explains that many businesses are started by technicians who quickly find themselves needing to now fill all three of these roles. And since they may not have management strengths or entrepreneur strengths, their businesses often fail. Tyler and Eddie both share examples of how this pattern played out in their respective businesses, ABSI and Storybuilder. The pattern is one that will sound familiar to you if you've started your own business. As a company grows, team members are added in a less-than-strategic manner, resulting in confusion and frustration. The next step is often a soft collapse back to the point where the business owner is once again handling almost everything.   22:55 - SystemsTyler shares that his entrepreneurial journey has gone through the first part of this cycle. Tyler and Eddie discuss the smoothness of the system that makes this podcast operate and Tyler contrasts that with his business. Eddie discusses Gerbers references to Ray Kroc and what he did with McDonald's. Kroc bought a system. Gerber makes the argument that even owners of small businesses need to approach their business like a franchise in regard to team-building, systems, and training. Tyler refers to the movie Founder, which tells Kroc's story. This leads to some talk about the turn-key revolution pioneered by McDonald's. Tyler encourages business owners to check out Loom as a means of creating operational guides.32:12 - Training and More Eddie shares that one of the lessons from the book that most resonated with him was the importance of determining your primary aim. In other words, what is your life goal? If this business cannot generate that reality, then don't pursue the business. Tyler critiques this a bit, saying that the process needs to be considered as much as the primary aim. He said that the path to that end is just as important. Structuring a desired lifestyle now is as important as an entrepreneurial endgame. Eddie discusses the book's 4 tenets of strategy: organization, management, people, and marketing. Then there's a 5th-systems–that was more than we could discuss today. 36:12 - The HotelTyler and Eddie discuss Gerber's hotel storyline. Gerber recounts his experience learning about the systems that enabled this hotel to operate on such a high level. Then Gerber contrasts this hotel experience with a barbershop that provides high-quality service up front but was unable to repeat the quality of that experience over time. Tyler discusses the importance of not just first but also second, third, and fourth impressions. It's about consistently focusing on the things that are essential.  Check out the partners that make our show possible.Find Us Online: BrosPodcast.com - LinkedIn - Youtube - Instagram - Facebook - TikTok - Eddie's LinkedIn - Tyler's LinkedInIf you enjoy the podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to us! Thanks for listening!

In this episode of The Steward Chair, Gabrielle Mills, President and Founder of Sourced., shares her journey of leading with intentionality and empathy, exploring how faith, values-based leadership, and strategic delegation drive meaningful, long-term success. We discuss how fractional teams can empower small businesses, the evolving role of a founder-turned-CEO, and the balance between personal stewardship and business leadership, providing actionable takeaways for leaders committed to stewardship, integrity, and impact. Key Takeaways The power of delegation and fractional leadership to scale with integrity The personal and spiritual convictions that shaped Gabrielle’s entrepreneurial path Why focusing on people before profit builds stronger, sustainable businesses Resources Mentioned Visit https://www.getsourced.me/ Follow Gabrielle on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabriellemills Recommended reading: The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber Join the ConversationThe Steward Chair is about equipping and inspiring business leaders to build organizations that stand the test of time. If this episode resonated with you, share your biggest takeaway and tag us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/chatwithleaders/ and https://www.linkedin.com/company/end-of-the-line-productions/. Elevate your podcast, company meeting, or industry event strategies to better engage stakeholders and drive meaningful growth! Visit ChatWithLeaders.com to learn more about how we can help.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How do you scale a premium service brand in a saturated industry while maintaining quality, consistency, and culture? Building a luxury home improvement franchise may seem like a high-stakes gamble in an industry plagued by unreliable contractors and inconsistent service. But Nick Lopez, Founder & Steward of LIME Painting, has turned that challenge into a national success story—elevating home services into a premium experience and creating a business model that continues to gain momentum across the U.S. Lopez started his entrepreneurial journey out of necessity, launching a painting business in college to help pay tuition. What began as a way to stay in school became a calling when he noticed a glaring gap in the home improvement space: high-end homeowners had few reliable options for quality craftsmanship and professional service. By focusing on elite clientele and emphasizing consistency, Lopez built what has become a standout luxury home improvement franchise. LIME Painting wasn't designed to compete on price. From the start, the brand positioned itself around delivering value, not volume. Lopez realized that high-end clients didn't just want paint on walls—they wanted trust, responsiveness, and excellence. The LIME model filled that void. Clients praised the company simply for answering the phone and showing up. In an industry where the bar was low, exceeding expectations became a growth engine. Ford Saeks emphasized the value of positioning during the conversation, noting that it takes the same effort to sell a premium service as it does a budget one. That insight aligns with Lopez's strategy: rather than cut corners or race to the bottom, LIME Painting doubled down on quality, communication, and client experience. At the core of LIME's success is a business model designed for scalability. Long before awarding its first franchise, Lopez was focused on building systems. Inspired by The E-Myth Revisited, he used his college years to build out standardized processes that could be replicated across markets. This methodical approach laid the foundation for a franchise system that now spans over 100 awarded territories. The success of LIME Painting as a luxury home improvement franchise is also rooted in its culture. The company's values—Gratitude, Enthusiasm, Tenacity, Love, Integrity, Mission, Excellence, and Discipline—form the acronym GET LIME and serve as a compass for every team member and franchise partner. These values aren't tucked away in an employee handbook. They inform how the business shows up in every market and how it delivers what Lopez calls “happiness” to clients. The franchise's growth has not come without challenges. Lopez addressed current concerns around supply chain volatility, shifting immigration policies that affect labor availability, and ongoing changes in product regulations. These complexities are part of what makes the model so valuable. LIME's ability to navigate external pressures while maintaining high standards is a direct reflection of its disciplined structure and strategic foresight. Lopez credits much of LIME's operational success to recognizing his own role as a visionary. By building a team of integrators and leaders who execute the brand's mission at every level, he's ensured the company remains agile and focused. This clarity has allowed LIME to grow without losing sight of the customer or the culture that defines its brand. The customer experience isn't a marketing tagline at LIME Painting—it's a measurable standard. From branded vehicles and professional uniforms to personalized touches like delivering key lime pie after project completion, every step reinforces the brand's premium identity. Clients aren't just hiring a painter; they're engaging a team that treats their property and their time with the highest level of professionalism. LIME Painting has positioned itself as the leading luxury home improvement franchise by addressing the gaps in an industry where high-end service was once rare. The brand's growth is proof that when value is clearly communicated and consistently delivered, scaling becomes a byproduct of trust and performance. Watch the full interview on YouTube. Don't miss future episodes that feature business leaders and growth strategies from across industries. Join Fordify LIVE! Every Wednesday at 11AM Central on your favorite social platforms and catch The Business Growth Show Podcast every Thursday for a weekly dose of business growth wisdom. About Nick Lopez Nick Lopez is the Founder & Steward of LIME Painting, a national luxury home improvement franchise redefining quality and service in the home services industry. A first-generation college graduate and entrepreneur, Nick launched his first painting business at 19 and went on to create a scalable model that now serves high-end clients across the country. His passion for craftsmanship, leadership, and values-driven growth has positioned LIME Painting as a standout brand in a competitive market. For more information, visit LimePainting.com. About Ford Saeks Ford Saeks is a Business Growth Accelerator with more than two decades of experience helping organizations drive innovation, expand brand reach, and generate over a billion dollars in global sales. As President and CEO of Prime Concepts Group, Inc., Ford works with businesses of all sizes—from startups to Fortune 500s—to attract loyal customers, increase profitability, and create sustainable growth strategies. A serial entrepreneur, Ford has founded over ten companies, authored five books, earned three U.S. patents, and received multiple industry awards. He's also a recognized expert in AI prompt engineering, recently taking the stage at the prestigious “Unleash AI for Business Summit” to share insights on how ChatGPT is transforming business operations, marketing, sales, and the customer experience. Learn more at ProfitRichResults.com and watch his show at Fordify.tv.

https://youtu.be/_FFUS8tb-b4 Michael E. Gerber, author of The E-Myth Revisited and over 35 other books, is driven by a mission to transform the state of small business, entrepreneurship, and economic development worldwide. We explore Michael's origin story and the moment that sparked the E-Myth movement, including his revelation that most business owners don't understand their own businesses. He shares how his intuitive and soul-driven approach led to the creation of the first business operating system and the now-iconic principle of “working on your business, not in it.” Michael introduces his Eightfold Path Framework, built on the eight discrete personalities of an entrepreneur: The Dreamer, Thinker, Storyteller, Leader, Designer, Builder, Launcher, and Grower. We also discuss his Dreaming Room methodology, the Radical You 5-year entrepreneurial school, and how AI is enabling the creation of 199 vertical-market E-Myth books. --- Awaken Your Inner Entrepreneur with Michael E. Gerber Good day, dear listeners. So guess who I have here as my guest today. After five years, we finally got to the day when I can interview Michael E. Gerber, who is the author of the E-Myth Revisited, E-Myth Mastery and 35 other best-selling books that have sold over 5 million copies in 30 languages and 150 countries. Michael was the original mastermind behind the concept of the first business operating system back in 1986. And he coined the idea of Working On Your Business, Rather Than In Your Business, which idea touched at least 100 million entrepreneurs worldwide. So Michael is also currently the founder at age 88, almost 89. He is the founder and CEO of the Michael E. Gerber companies, owning programs including Gerber Works, Radical You, Become The One, and The Dreaming Room most recently, and he owns the rights to 35 E-Myth books. So Michael, without further ado, welcome to the Management Blueprint Podcast. I'm delighted to be here. Thank you, Steve. I'm so excited because really, I read your book back in the early 2000s. I got immediately smitten. I actually started a side business trying to implement your system without any training from you, which unfortunately was not successful. So I had to close down my side business, but we definitely implemented it in my own business. And I was just very enamored. I also got a dog-eared copy of E-Myth Mastery, which is like a big volume, and I kind of went through all the ideas there. And finally, to have you be a guest is a great honor, and it's a very exciting day. I'm delighted to be here. Thank you. So, Michael, I'm going to start with my favorite question, even though you are like a super guest here, but tell me about your personal “Why” and how it influenced your life and how it got you where you are at age 88, almost 89, still going strong, still being an entrepreneur. So, what was that “Why” that you had and have? Well, I have said it so many times, it's to transform the state of small business worldwide. To transform the state of small business worldwide. I can almost dance to it because that is what I've been working on all these years. And in the heart of that is to transform the state of entrepreneurship worldwide. And in the process of accomplishing each of those to transform the state of economic development worldwide. Because were I capable of doing the first in order to do the second, I would absolutely achieve that result, economic development worldwide.Share on X And within that resides the spirit of all that, but you know all about that. Well, I mean, I know as much as you've written down and as much as you told me, I definitely know that part. I don't know what's going on in your mind because you're still being creative. You're still developing programs, which is amazing to me. I like to be like you when I get to your age. It's definitely awesome. So tell me about the beginning. What prompted you to write the E-Myth?

What if the most powerful move you could make as a founder is to stop being the one doing it all?Today's episode explores the mindset shift that turns your business from a job into a scalable, valuable system. Bill is joined by legendary entrepreneur and author Michael E. Gerber to discuss why strategically working on the business, not in it, is the single most important shift a founder can make. From designing scripts to building systems that run without you, Michael shares what it truly means to scale with intention.Michael E. Gerber is the author of the best-selling E-Myth Revisited and with over 28 other books, Michael has spent decades helping entrepreneurs turn chaos into structure and systems. His latest creation is The Dreaming Room, an immersive experience designed to help business owners redefine their business vision and create a roadmap for success.Topics explored in this episode:(02:45) The Origin of the E-Myth*How a chance encounter led Michael to uncover the hidden flaw in small businesses.(08:05) Systems Are the Brand*Why the DNA of a brand lives in its systems and not in its logo or marketing.(11:45) From Script to Soul*How do you express the same message over and over with intention and passion?(14:15) Why McDonald's Gets It*What entrepreneurs can learn from Founder Ray Kroc about scaling through consistency.(18:20) Sarah's Pie Shop and the Power of Working On It*An impactful story about a small business owner's transformation from technician to entrepreneur.(27:40) The Dreaming Room and the Eightfold Path*The dreamer, the thinker, the storyteller, the leader, the designer, the builder, the launcher, and the grower.(31:25) The Business Is the Product*Don't let the business become your boss.*You have to create something of value in your business, or else you will go out of business.*Most Small businesses are doing the wrong type of work. (40:45) From NuCo to Scale*Why scaling means letting go of “OldCo” and creating something that lives beyond you.Thanks to Michael E. Gerber for being on the show!Learn more about The Dreaming Room: https://www.michaelegerbercompanies.comContact Michael directly: michael@michaelegerbercompanies.comConnect with Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelegerberBill Gallagher, Scaling Coach and host of the Scaling Up Business podcast, is an international business coach who works with C-Suite leaders to achieve breakthrough growth. Join Bill in the Growth Navigator Coaching Program: https://ScalingCoach.com/workshop Bill on LinkedIn: https://www.LinkedIn.com/in/BillGallBill on YouTube: https://www.YouTube.com/@BillGallagherScalingCoach Visit https://ScalingUp.com to learn more about Verne Harnish, our team of Scaling Up Coaches, and the Scaling Up Performance Platform, which includes coaching, learning, software, and summit. We share how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail. We help leadership teams with the biggest decisions

Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 1684: Steve Chou unpacks the tension between traditional academic success and entrepreneurial risk-taking, revealing how the habits that make straight-A students thrive in school, like rule-following and risk aversion, can stifle creativity and resilience in business. His story offers valuable insight for anyone struggling to break free from the “safe path” and embrace the messy, uncertain road of entrepreneurship. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://mywifequitherjob.com/when-getting-good-grades-and-entrepreneurship-dont-mix/ Quotes to ponder: "Being a good student is all about following the rules. But being a good entrepreneur is about breaking them." "I was taught that making mistakes was bad. But in the world of business, failure is a requirement for success." "Straight A students are often rewarded for doing what they're told, but entrepreneurs thrive by thinking differently." Episode references: The E-Myth Revisited: https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-About/dp/0887307280 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 1684: Steve Chou unpacks the tension between traditional academic success and entrepreneurial risk-taking, revealing how the habits that make straight-A students thrive in school, like rule-following and risk aversion, can stifle creativity and resilience in business. His story offers valuable insight for anyone struggling to break free from the “safe path” and embrace the messy, uncertain road of entrepreneurship. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://mywifequitherjob.com/when-getting-good-grades-and-entrepreneurship-dont-mix/ Quotes to ponder: "Being a good student is all about following the rules. But being a good entrepreneur is about breaking them." "I was taught that making mistakes was bad. But in the world of business, failure is a requirement for success." "Straight A students are often rewarded for doing what they're told, but entrepreneurs thrive by thinking differently." Episode references: The E-Myth Revisited: https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-About/dp/0887307280 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of The Entrepreneur Gene, host Laurie Barkman sits down with Nick Hutchison, CEO and Founder of BookThinkers. They discuss Nick's entrepreneurial journey, how books changed his life, and his rebellious nature that drove him to create successful businesses. Nick shares key decisions and challenges in scaling BookThinkers, emphasizing the importance of systems and strategic growth. The conversation also touches upon personal anecdotes, Nick's passion for endurance sports, and his excitement about becoming a father. Listeners gain insights into leveraging books for personal growth and the importance of creating structured business systems.   Takeaways: Delve into books that other successful entrepreneurs recommend to gain knowledge and different perspectives. Consider books like "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki, "The E-Myth Revisited" by Michael Gerber, and "Traction" by Gino Wickman. Focus on making small, incremental improvements over time. Break your long-term goals into manageable quarters or small steps progress steadily. Invest in systematizing your business processes. Standard operating procedures (SOPs) and centralized systems can help scale operations efficiently. Consider hiring consultants or coaches who can provide expertise in specific areas, such as backend infrastructure, to streamline your business operations. Ensure your team is aligned with the new systems and processes. Change management is critical, and getting buy-in from your team is essential. Networking is powerful. Engage with people, attend events, and build relationships that can support your business growth.   Quote of the Show: “I genuinely believe at my core and in my bones that the right book at the right time can permanently change somebody's life.” - Nick Hutchison Links: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bookthinkers/  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bookthinkers/  Website: https://bookthinkers.com/   

SIGN UP FOR OUR LIVE MONTHLY WEBINAR: https://www.controlandcompound.com/live-webinar If you're an entrepreneur or  business owner, you do not want to miss this week's episode! Darren and Christina are going over the book “The E-Myth Revisited” and break down the key concepts for how business owners can properly run their business. These include knowing your vision, your strategic objectives, your systems strategy, as well as serious emphasis on making time to work ON the business, not just IN the business. Tune in now! Show notes: 00:00 - Introduction 1:30 - The best resources for business owners and entrepreneurs 3:30 - What is the entrepreneurial myth? 5:40 - Breaking down the technician, the planner, and the entrepreneur 8:30 “You need to be working on your business, not just in your business” 13:25 - Key concepts in The E-Myth Revisited - What is your vision? 15:45 - Key concepts in The E-Myth Revisited - Why are you doing this? 17:00 - Key concepts in The E-Myth Revisited - What are your strategic objectives? 18:00 - Key concepts in The E-Myth Revisited - What is your organization strategy? 20:45 - Key concepts in The E-Myth Revisited - What is your systems strategy? 22:55 - You NEED to dedicate time to work ON your business 24:30 - Start with small steps 25:45 - Don't forget to delegate! 27:10 - Real life example of growing a business 29:30 - Final thoughts BOOK A CALL WITH US NOW: https://www.controlandcompound.com/contact-us FIND US ON: INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/controlandcompound/ TIKTOK: https://www.tiktok.com/@controlandcompound?lang=en FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/controlandcompound JOIN OUR FACEBOOK COMMUNITY: https://www.facebook.com/groups/controlandcompound

Running a business is tough—but why do so many fail within 5-10 years? In this episode of Retirement Straight Talk, Paul and William break down the key reasons most business owners struggle, burnout, or go under—and, more importantly, how to avoid becoming a statistic. Whether you're a sole practitioner or managing a team of 50, this episode will help you shift from working in your business to working on your business. Inspired by The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber, they explore: ✅The three business owner personalities: Technician, Manager, and Entrepreneur ✅ Why systemizing your business is the key to long-term success ✅ How to create a business that runs without you—not one that runs you ✅ The essential processes every business must have: lead generation, sales conversion, operations, and customer service ✅ How to overcome the fear of delegation and free up your time

Open Forum: A new participant shared his interest in marketing and received advice on starting his business, including a book recommendation. The discussion also explored the difference between building a business and simply working, with insights on client acquisition and financial benefits. Concerns about fear and social media were addressed, encouraging authenticity over follower counts. The group also decided to reduce Atlanta gatherings to quarterly for a more focused experience. Business owners received advice on balancing their ventures with jobs, managing early-stage growth, and securing clients before structuring their businesses. Other topics included workplace reconciliation, church finances, and the role of mega-churches. Personal testimonies highlighted the power of forgiveness in marriage and workplace relationships.  Partner with Us: https://churchforentrepreneurs.com/partner Connect with Us: https://churchforentrepreneurs.com                  

Who is Len?Len Bruskiewitz is a seasoned advisor specializing in strategic exit planning for small to mid-sized business owners. With a focus on businesses generating between $1 million and $15 million in revenue, Len understands the critical importance of having a written exit plan. He is passionate about helping entrepreneurs navigate the complexities of succession planning, especially given that approximately 60% of business owners lack a formal plan. Len emphasizes the necessity of being proactive, as waiting until a traumatic event or a sudden desire to exit can often be too late. Through his expertise, he guides his clients to ensure a smooth and profitable transition when they decide to leave their businesses.Key Takeaways00:00 Founders can't scale businesses without delegating decisions.05:00 Failure to document and lack of guidance.09:04 Evaluates current business value and improvement areas.11:19 Found "why" through "The E Myth Revisited."15:53 Dependence on one entity risks business stability.17:30 Daily practices essential for business innovation, diversification.20:43 Subscribe for guest updates and podcast replays._________________________________________________________________________________________________Subscribe to our newsletter and get details of when we are doing these interviews live at https://TCA.fyi/newsletterFind out more about being a guest at : link.thecompleteapproach.co.uk/beaguestSubscribe to the podcast at https://link.thecompleteapproach.co.uk/podcastHelp us get this podcast in front of as many people as possible. Leave a nice five-star review at apple podcasts : https://link.thecompleteapproach.co.uk/apple-podcasts and on YouTube : https://link.thecompleteapproach.co.uk/Itsnotrocketscienceatyt!Here's how you can bring your business to THE next level:If you are a business owner currently turning over £/$10K - £/$50K per month and want to grow to £/$100K - £/$500k per month download my free resource on everything you need to grow your business on a single page :It's a detailed breakdown of how you can grow your business to 7-figures in a smart and sustainable way————————————————————————————————————————————-TranscriptNote, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)SUMMARY KEYWORDSBusiness coach, certified exit planning adviser, business owners, exit plan, business life, retirement, traumatic event, crisis, business challenge, independence, salable company, scaling, founder, decision-making, documentation, systems, automation, business valuation, free advice, business valuation calculator, industry, revenue, profits, readiness, business innovation, Michael Gerber, The E Myth Revisited, recurring revenue, customer base, business buyer, business value, strategic buyer.SPEAKERSLen Bruskiewitz, Stuart WebbStuart Webb [00:00:31]:Hi, and welcome back to It's Not Rocket Science, 5 questions over coffee. Delighted this afternoon to be joined by Len, Len Bruskewitz. I'm gonna get that wrong. Aren't I, Len? But, thatLen Bruskiewitz [00:00:43]:was a good That was a pretty good run. Pretty good run at it.Stuart Webb [00:00:48]:Len is a business coach, and he's a certified exit planning adviser. That's a conversation I'm really interested in having because so many business owners don't think about their exit nearly early enough in their business life. You start a business and then you suddenly realize, there's a crisis in life or there's a time to think about retirement. And then you ask the question, well, how long is it gonna take you to get out of this business? It's nearly always longer than you think. You need to start thinking about this much earlier in your business life.Len Bruskiewitz [00:01:15]:So I think this is going to be a really excellent conversation. And I'm really delighted thatStuart Webb [00:01:15]:Len has made a few minutes in his day to join us to have this discussion. So welcome to It's Not Rocket Science 5 Questions Over Coffee, Len.Len Bruskiewitz [00:01:29]:Great. Thank you, Stuart. I'm I'm, I'm really happy to be here and and, looking forward to sharing some information with, with your viewers and listeners.Stuart Webb [00:01:38]:So I may have sort of cited, already to sort of tee you up on who the person is that you help, but let's just let's just let's just fully understand exactly sort of what the business owner is that you help, how you how you sort of how they should be identifying themselves.Len Bruskiewitz [00:01:55]:Yeah. You you absolutely hit it. You know, if if I think about who my ideal client is, it's a business owner, probably 1 to $15,000,000 in revenue. And the the challenge that they're facing is what you hit upon. About 60% of business owners don't have any kind of written exit plan. And that's a big challenge because as you said, once a traumatic event happens, you know, a death, divorce, disability, it's too late. And it's also too late when you say, I wanna be out of this business in a year. Right? That's it's too late.Len Bruskiewitz [00:02:36]:You need you need some time. Right? And and so that's the biggest challenge I see. Right? But if you think about when when I start working with a client, the biggest challenge that that I have is helping them get independence from their business. Right? You know, if it's the case where every decision runs through them, everything to run the businesses up in their head, nobody else can can do anything, that ends up leading to a company that's worth next to nothing, unfortunately. So that's, yeah, that's the biggest challenge. Once I start working with somebody is to get them to back away, from the day to day and and, you know, let make the company salable.Stuart Webb [00:03:22]:Yes. Interesting interesting line. You've you've used a couple of real key terms because I deal with businesses who are sort of really scaling, and they have the same image. You have the same problems. You know? You have a founder who's there making every decision, and you cannot scale a business if the only person in the business that can make a decision is the founder. And when they go on holiday, they don't make a decision. In fact, so many of them don't even bother to go on holiday because they know it's a problem. So you've just started me into the sort of the second bit of this discussion, which is, so what are the things they've tried to do themselves before they sort of suddenly come across somebody like you that sort of changes all of that?Len Bruskiewitz [00:04:01]:Yeah. I think I think there are a couple things they they think they do or or, make an effort at.Stuart Webb [00:04:07]:Up, please.Len Bruskiewitz [00:04:09]:One of the first ones is they think they've communicated well, to their family, to their employees, and in in in essence, they haven't. Right? I'll I'll just use an example of some data around succession. Right? So the idea of of a older generation with the idea to pass along the business to a younger generation. Data says about 50% of the older generation think that the younger generation is going to take over. In reality, that only happens about 25% of the time. So you've got a big gap there. And what does that do to? It's because the 2 parties haven't communicated well enough and it's the same to employees. Right? Am I going to sell this business? Am I going to sell it to you, the employees or the management? So communication is definitely one of the biggest things that they do.Len Bruskiewitz [00:05:00]:The other is just waiting too long. You've hinted at it before. You know, they know they need to document everything that's going on in their business, but, you know, it's just easier because I know it in my head, I, you know, I'll just do it and then something happens and and it's really a a can be a pretty traumatic experience. The final thing is that, they try things but they don't have any kind of sounding board. Right? Running a business is pretty lonely, and, they just don't have the the background and what it takes to get to get a business ready because for most business owners, this is their one and only time that they are transitioning out of a business. So they just don't know what they need to do and they're, you know, there shouldn't steps you need to take. And so that's a big piece of what they think they've tried but haven't really done all that well.Stuart Webb [00:05:53]:Then you you hit about something very interesting there, which is documentation. And and once again, in my work, I spend an awful lot of my time working with people with documentation and systems to automate things largely because once again, it makes a business scalable, but it also ensures these businesses don't run into those repeated errors, which so often the full cause business valuations to crash. But but I read, and I I don't know whether or not this is your experience, but a business is is often 2 to 3 times more valuable if it's just got simple documentation which tells other people how to run the business so that somebody else can step in and start running it fairly immediately. And I don't have to go through the pain of trying to work out how on earth everything works around here.Len Bruskiewitz [00:06:36]:I completely agree with that data. And if you think about the the things if you if you think about the other side, what what absolutely crushes the value of a company? It's that lack of independence, lack of documentation, and bad accounting. Right? Those three things, are are the killers. But but I agree with you. Documentation feels like such an important thing for many reasons. You know, exit aside, just making the business run better, but but there isn't that rigor. I think it's always a, I mean to do this, but the status quo is just easier to, to maintain.Stuart Webb [00:07:16]:And it's it's true, isn't it, that you, you know, you find yourself fighting fires everywhere. And and then when somebody turns around and says, we should write down what happens is, well, we're never gonna get into that problem again, so why should we? So, you know, it becomes just one of those self fulfilling prophecies, doesn't it?Len Bruskiewitz [00:07:33]:It absolutely does. So, you know, this is a I think this is a human problem. Right? I I mean, everybody deals with this in their personal life, in their business life. It's hard to take the time even though, you know, the data will tell you that 5 minutes here is going to save you, you know, 50 minutes down the road or 500 minutes, whatever the multiple is.Stuart Webb [00:07:56]:Brilliant. Brilliant. Len, now this is where we get to the the really valuable thing for people who are watching or listening or, coming back to this recording, and that is I think you have got a very valuable piece of free advice that you can you can have. And I I think I've put on screen here the place where to you go in order to to get that piece of free advice. It's greater heights coaching dot com. That's greater heights coaching dot com. That that'll be in the notes. But tell us, what will we find at greater heights coaching dot com?Len Bruskiewitz [00:08:27]:Well, that's my personal website. So you'll find a fair bit of information about the exit planning process, about some of the options that are out there for people. But what I process, about some of the options that are out there for people. But what I really like everybody to check out is I've got a free business valuation calculator. There's a link up at the top right of the site. It takes about 15 minutes and what it does is gives you a basic idea of what your business is worth today. That's based on your industry, your location, your revenue and your profits today. And then it asks you a set of questions that really get to how ready is your business.Len Bruskiewitz [00:09:04]:And so what it does is it comes out with a valuation of what your business is worth today. And then based on your answers to those kind of readiness questions, it gives you an idea of how much more value is missing, and the basic areas that you need to work on in order to, you know, to close that gap between what your business is worth today and what it really could be. So it's a, you know, it's not gonna answer every question for you. But in 15 minutes, it gives you a pretty good feel for what the areas are that you could really improve upon to increase the value, should you cut to that point where you wanna turn around and sell your business down the road.Stuart Webb [00:09:45]:Great great piece of, great piece of of work, and I sincerely hope people go and take advantage of it because, you know, knowing the first step to knowing where you have to go is having some sort of map. And, a simple document like that, which just points out where things are missing, is the first step to a really good map.Len Bruskiewitz [00:10:04]:Yeah. And it's simple. Like I said, it's this isn't a this isn't a a challenging thing. It's 15 minutes, and you get some really great, really great feedback there.Stuart Webb [00:10:15]:Brilliant. So, Len, what what what was it in your in your in your past history? What was it that sort of brought you to this? Was there a particular experience or a program, a book, which sort of started you thinking about how do businesses or business owners exit from their business as well?Len Bruskiewitz [00:10:33]:Yeah. I think I I'm gonna bring up 2 points, not to cheat on the question here. The the first was an experience. I started out doing kind of generic business coaching. Right? I was helping small business owners. And one of my first clients was a 72 year old woman who had run her business with her husband for over 50 years. And, he unfortunately passed away. And as much as she was involved in the business, she really didn't have a good feel for what was going to happen to it.Len Bruskiewitz [00:11:01]:You know? She's 72. She said, hey. I need a plan here. So, when we first started talking, she said, Len, I can't sleep at night because I don't know what's going to happen to my business. We sat down. We worked through options. We came up with a plan. She's implementing that plan now, and she said, Len, I can sleep at night now.Len Bruskiewitz [00:11:19]:So to me, that was a huge, you know, kind of I think I found my why. So that was the first event. And then the the piece of of literature around that was a book by by Michael Gerber called The E Myth Revisited, which I think is just an unbelievable way. He he does a great job of laying out why most businesses aren't successful, and the hint is we've already talked about it. The the business owner is too much in the business, in the weeds of running everything and not stepping back and looking at the big picture. But to me, that book is really excellent at laying out the things that, you know, that a business owner needs to do. And that's really, you know, keep innovating, document everything. Have we talked about that before? And really understand what your metrics and business drivers are.Len Bruskiewitz [00:12:18]:Those are kind of the 3 key pieces to take you from, you know, a a single business to something that can scale.Stuart Webb [00:12:27]:I love it. Okay. We've had a really interesting discussion, but I I sense there is a question that you think I should have asked, which I haven't asked yet. This is my get away from the get away from it and not do too much work on these things, questions. So then there's a there's a question that you're thinking I should have asked by now. So come on. Tell me, what is the question you want me to ask? And then, obviously, you know the answer to the question that you've just posed.Len Bruskiewitz [00:12:53]:Yeah. I think a lot of people who are who are, watching this, listening to it are saying, well, how does the business get valued? So I think that's the question I would like you to ask me and and let me take a run at it. So this is really you know, it it's a bit of a loaded question because businesses are valued depending on a number of factors. So one of the factors is, you know, ultimately who the buyer is. So there are buyers that are going to ultimately pay less for a business that might be your children, right, or your employees. Or it may be somebody who just wants to kinda run come in and run the business. They're they're gonna probably pay a little bit higher. The highest, value payers are those who this business is strategic to them.Len Bruskiewitz [00:13:39]:So they can take what you're doing and leverage it with what they're doing. Right? Maybe it's an opportunity for them to sell additional things, your product to their customers or their product to your customers, whatever. So that usually yields the highest value. So so that's a big it depends answer on who the buyer is. But I wanna go one level below that and say, how is value driven regardless of who they are.Stuart Webb [00:14:03]:Great question. Great question.Len Bruskiewitz [00:14:05]:Yeah. And so this is this is one that I think will surprise some people. Only about 20% of the value of a company is are the things that you can see externally. So what's the status of the market? What's the company's kind of position within that market? Only about 20% of the value is driven that way. Fully 80% of the value of a company is driven by what are called the intangibles. Right? And these are we I I think about this in 4 big categories. Right? So we call them the 4 c's. They're different kinds of capital.Len Bruskiewitz [00:14:41]:The first one is the structural capital. So are your processes documented? Do you have metrics in place that you understand? Right? So those that's one big piece. And again, that's that translates really well to somebody else who wants to buy the business. The second one is the customer capital. So do you have recurring revenue? Is all of your revenue dependent on 1 or 2 customers? That's a huge risk if it is. Right? So how dependable is your future revenue? How dispersed is it amongst different customers? That's customer capital. The third one is social. This is really what's the culture of your company.Len Bruskiewitz [00:15:20]:Is there owner independence or not? Right? And the final one is the human capital. So do you have a great team? Is there some know how within your company that nobody else has? That again, if you do, that's a huge value adder. If you don't, that doesn't add a ton of value. So I think about those those intangible things that are built into your company that are only visible from the inside, really. And that's what drives the vast majority of the the value in a business.Stuart Webb [00:15:53]:Do you know it's, it's interesting you you've you've made 2 comments, in the last couple of minutes, which I think, is not well enough understood. Maybe I'll just expand that to 3, having said that then. But let's say, the power of 1 is something which I worry about a lot with with businesses. They are often dependent upon 1 business, 1 customer, 1 supplier, 1 route to market. I was in a position like that with one of my businesses where I had one very large customer and when they canceled that contract, you can imagine the devastation that had upon the business. It it meant basically restarting from scratch trying to build a customer base. We had relied upon this customer for a very, very long time, and they just seem to be reliable until eventually it was one day, yeah, we're canceling. We're no longer needing 35, 40, 50%.Stuart Webb [00:16:44]:I think it was something about 75% of my workforce. We're all dedicated to this one customer. That can be a huge risk. But it's equally, you know, one person in your business who knows everything. You know, that can be the founder, but it can also be one key person that's been there from day 1, and you're there thinking to yourself, Joe's always been hugely reliable. They're never gonna leave, and then they do, and everything suddenly falls apart. So the power of 1 is hugely important. And the other thing that I think you just basically alluded to, which I think is really important, you know, you need to keep innovating.Stuart Webb [00:17:19]:If you haven't got a team that are empowered and ready to innovate, you're stymieing your own growth and causing yourself more issues than you can think of.Len Bruskiewitz [00:17:30]:I completely agree. And and what's what's important to to realize is that these are all daily things. Right? This isn't something you do in an annual planning process. This is these are things you have to live every day. And, you know, not not to steal too much thunder from my valuation calculator, but some of the questions some of the things you just brought up are questions. You know, are you innovating? Do you are you getting ideas throughout your organization? Are you reliant on only 1 or 2 customers? And and I think this also gets back, Stuart, to, you know, that timeline we talked about early on. Right? So if you're trying to innovate and if you're trying to to diversify your customer base, You can't do that in 30 days. Right? So my timeline when I when I talk to clients is, you know, a minimum of 2 years, and it's really 3 to 5 years, before your business is ready.Len Bruskiewitz [00:18:25]:And then once it's ready, now it's maintenance mode. But the reason I say that is if in in many transactions, it just once you, agree to sell your company, it's 9 months to a year before that Yeah.Stuart Webb [00:18:39]:That's the that's the you know? Yeah.Len Bruskiewitz [00:18:41]:Right? So if you take 1 year, then now, okay, that's a year out. Now you've gotta get ready. If you've got, you know, some accounting maybe that's not so pleasant, you know, that takes another couple years to work its way through. Documenting all your processes. Right? Leveraging, you know, figuring out what you're really good at and going for that. It all takes time. So can you sell a company in less than 3 to 5 years? Yes. You can.Len Bruskiewitz [00:19:07]:But it's probably not gonna be for the value that you want because some of these things just have to happen and they take time.Stuart Webb [00:19:15]:And I think you've hit upon a couple of good things as well then, which is, you know, doing these things means that when somebody knocks on the door, that strategic customer that sort of, you know, you've been working with that says, you could be a really key part of my organization. I'd like to buy you. If you then turn around it's a bit like, you know, oh, I've got an opportunity. I now need to put together the document, the sales document. If if it's not there ready to go, you spend the next I don't know how long putting together your sales document, and then the opportunity is gone. So be ready at every time by putting these processes, these thinking, this stuff in place from day 1.Len Bruskiewitz [00:19:49]:Exactly right. You know, you you hit upon the exact, example I give. Somebody could walks in the door, and it does happen. Somebody walks in the door and says, hey. I wanna buy this business. If you say, hang on. Come back in 18 months when I'm ready. They're not coming back.Len Bruskiewitz [00:20:08]:SoStuart Webb [00:20:08]:Yeah. Agree. Agree. Len, it's been absolutely brilliant having this, conversation with you. We we could obviously talk far too long and probably would if we didn't bring it to a whole and bore quite a lot of people. But I think the important thing is we've left them with just enough information to think to themselves. I think I better go and have a look at greaterheightscoaching.com and see what, the valuation of my business could be. And I'm also gonna put in a plug for, my own newsletter, where I talk about the sort of brilliant people like Len, who are coming up on this podcast in in a few days.Stuart Webb [00:20:43]:Normally, it comes out on a Tuesday morning about that Tuesday's guest. And if you wanna go to link.thecompleteapproach.co.ukforward slash newsletter, link. Thecompleteapproach.co.ukforward slash newsletter. You can get, that newsletter delivered to your inbox just twice a week. Once with the who's coming up and you can immediately get on and ask questions of people like Len when they're here live. And then also hear them when we replay them on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all the other usual Pod places. Len, thank you so much for coming and spending some time with us. Really appreciate the effort you put in and I think if people haven't by now realize selling your business is not gonna happen if in the next 5 minutes.Stuart Webb [00:21:28]:You really have to prepare and think about it in the most strategic way, then, then they've they've not been listening properly. So I thank you for coming on to tell us about it.Len Bruskiewitz [00:21:36]:Thank you. I appreciate the time. Get full access to It's Not Rocket Science! at thecompleteapproach.substack.com/subscribe

Are you truly delegating, or are you just offloading tasks? Delegation is a critical skill for business leaders, entrepreneurs, and parents alike—but it's often misunderstood. In this episode of The Overlap Podcast, we break down the art of delegation and how to do it effectively. From avoiding costly mistakes to elevating your leadership, we're sharing personal stories, expert strategies, and actionable insights that will help you delegate with confidence and get real results. Whether you're running a business, managing a team, or just trying to get your kids to clean their rooms without a meltdown, this episode is packed with practical takeaways that will make your life easier. What You'll Learn in This Episode The difference between delegating and abdicating your responsibilities How poor delegation can cost you money and time (including Keith's $10,000+ mistake) A 5-Level Framework to help you delegate like a pro Why inspecting what you expect is the key to delegation success How delegation applies to parenting and setting kids up for success The hidden dangers of AI and automation creep in business expenses Key Topics Discussed The financial impact of bad delegation (Keith's book publishing nightmare) The fine line between delegation and dumping responsibilities The "I Do, We Do, You Do" framework for training employees and kids Why business owners must stay engaged without micromanaging The power of Key Risk Indicators (KRI) in smart delegation The 5 Levels of Delegation and how to build trust over time Parenting and delegation—why chores build confidence and responsibility How to avoid subscription and automation overload in your tech stack Quotes From the Episode "You can have control, or you can have growth, but you can't have both." "Inspect what you expect. People respect what you inspect." "Self-esteem is an inside job. It's not given, it's earned through responsibility." "Your personal assistant shouldn't have a personal assistant." Show Resources & Links Recommended Reading & Tools Traction by Gino Wickman – Learn how to implement the EOS framework for better delegation Make Your Bed by Admiral William H. McRaven – Simple habits that create discipline in life and business The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber – Why most small businesses fail and how to build scalable systems Sponsor Spotlight C2 Wealth Strategies – Personalized financial planning and wealth management. c2wealth.com Tree Business – Essential resources and insights for tree care professionals. treebusiness.com Barranco & Associates – Expert bookkeeping and accounting for business owners. barrancocpas.com Content Fresh – Automated marketing solutions for CRM and social media. contentfresh.com Conclusion Effective delegation is about more than offloading tasks; it's about elevating your leadership, empowering your team, and creating freedom in your life. By setting clear expectations, utilizing the right frameworks, and maintaining consistent follow-up, you can master the art of delegation. Reflect on areas where you can delegate more effectively this week. Share your experiences with us. If you found this episode valuable: Subscribe to The Overlap Podcast. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Follow us on social media @OverlapLife. Visit OverlapLife.com for additional resources and coaching. Thank you for tuning in. Remember, delegation isn't just about getting things done—it's about doing them right.

In this episode of Grow a Small Business, host Troy Trewin interviews Matthew Pollard, founder of Rapid Growth Academy. Matthew shares how he empowers introverts to thrive in business, scales his team to 12 members, and transforms professional service businesses. Discover his proven rapid growth strategies, focus on passion-driven models, and approach to achieving six-figure revenues. Gain insights into building a profitable and sustainable business while embracing your unique strengths. Tune in for actionable tips to drive business success! Why would you wait any longer to start living the lifestyle you signed up for? Balance your health, wealth, relationships and business growth. And focus your time and energy and make the most of this year. Let's get into it by clicking here. Troy delves into our guest's startup journey, their perception of success, industry reconsideration, and the pivotal stress point during business expansion. They discuss the joys of small business growth, vital entrepreneurial habits, and strategies for team building, encompassing wins, blunders, and invaluable advice. And a snapshot of the final five Grow A Small Business Questions: What do you think is the hardest thing in growing a small business? According to Matthew Pollard, the hardest thing in growing a small business is standing still long enough to get the strategy right. He emphasizes the importance of resisting the urge to act on unvalidated ideas or self-importance, as proper strategy is key to sustainable growth. What's your favourite business book that has helped you the most? Matthew Pollard's favorite business book is "The E-Myth Revisited" by Michael Gerber. He highlights how it taught him the importance of systematizing a business and focusing on what truly matters, rather than trying to do everything himself. Are there any great podcasts or online learning resources you'd recommend to help grow a small business? Matthew Pollard recommends the podcast "Smart Passive Income" by Pat Flynn as a valuable resource for growing a small business. He found it helpful for discovering strategies, tools, and insights to build an online business, though he advises being selective to avoid unnecessary expenses What tool or resource would you recommend to grow a small business? Matthew Pollard suggests project management software, such as Monday.com, as a valuable tool for growing a small business. He also emphasizes the importance of social media posting tools that automate and optimize content sharing, ensuring efficiency and a consistent online presence. What advice would you give yourself on day one of starting out in business? Matthew Pollard advises his day-one self to "stop taking yourself so seriously." He highlights the importance of focusing on having the best intentions for clients rather than striving for perfection or overthinking outcomes​. Book a 20-minute Growth Chat with Troy Trewin to see if you qualify for our upcoming course. Don't miss out on this opportunity to take your small business to new heights! Enjoyed the podcast? Please leave a review on iTunes or your preferred platform. Your feedback helps more small business owners discover our podcast and embark on their business growth journey.     Quotable quotes from our special Grow A Small Business podcast guest: Success comes from creating a business that aligns with your passion and values – Matthew Pollard Building a profitable business starts with putting purpose ahead of profit – Matthew Pollard Introverts thrive when they embrace their unique strengths and work with systems – Matthew Pollard  

In a world where your potential clients are constantly inundated with marketing content, how do you create trust and ensure your property management business sticks out? In today's episode of the #DoorGrowShow, property management expert Jason Hull sits down with Dan Lievens, Founder of Share One, to talk about the benefits of collecting and utilizing client testimonial videos. You'll Learn [01:56] Getting Started as an Entrepreneur [08:41] The Impact of Social Poof and Positive Reviews [15:39] How to Ask Your Clients for Video Testimonials [24:53] Handling Objections and Retaining Clients Tweetables “Marketing is always evolving as well. Like it's not like you learn to do it once and then you're done forever.” “If I say it, no one believes it because it's my business, but if my clients say it, that's the ultimate social proof.” “The ability to be able to create human connection in any marketing or any business, I think is absolutely critical today.” “A lot of people think, "Well I have a skill in doing something. Maybe I could start a business doing that thing," but the skill is the technician-level work.” Resources DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind DoorGrow Academy DoorGrow on YouTube DoorGrowClub DoorGrowLive TalkRoute Referral Link Transcript [00:00:00] Dan: Even if you have a solid business model, like property management, for example, which is obviously needed you know, how do you communicate that? [00:00:06] Dan: How do you attract the right people? And so it's a constant exercise of being able to put yourself in a position of your customers.  [00:00:15] Jason: Welcome DoorGrow property managers to the #DoorGrowShow. If you are a property management entrepreneur that wants to add doors, make a difference, increase revenue, help others, impact lives, and you are interested in growing in business and life, and you're open to doing things a bit differently, then you are a DoorGrow property manager DoorGrow property managers love the opportunities, daily variety, unique challenges and freedom that property management brings. Many in real estate think you're crazy for doing it. You think they're crazy for not because you realize that property management is the ultimate high trust gateway to real estate deals, relationships, and residual income. At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management business owners and their businesses. We want to transform the industry, eliminate the BS, build awareness, change perception, expand the market, and help the best property management entrepreneurs win. I'm your host, property management, growth expert, Jason Hull, the founder and CEO of DoorGrow. Now let's get into the show. All right. My guest today is Dan Lievens. Dan, welcome to the show.  [00:01:23] Dan: So glad to be here and looking forward to meeting your amazing community here. Thank you.  [00:01:29] Jason: Awesome. So Dan and I, we met at a local mastermind in the Austin area, which is really cool because I need more friends and I was like, how can I meet some? I'm in all these different masterminds, but I'm like you're traveling all over the US I'm like, I don't get to hang out with any of these people that often. So yeah, so I joined a local one and there's some really cool people in that group, which is really awesome. [00:01:53] Jason: So Dan's one of them and Dan, why don't you give us a little bit of background on yourself as an entrepreneur and then we'll get into what you do.  [00:02:02] Dan: Yeah, absolutely. So, this is actually my 12th business and in a variety of different industries from technology to health and wellness. [00:02:12] Dan: And my last big venture was opening up coworking facilities in the Philadelphia area. So I was one of the first people to open coworking facilities there and basically catering to startups and small businesses. And we very quickly became a business incubator and a business accelerator and supporting, you know, small startups and getting going right? [00:02:35] Dan: And what I noticed pretty quickly was there is a pretty high rate of failure, and the rate of failure was primarily due to not necessarily the idea of being bad but more the lack of the ability to communicate the value proposition. So that's when I kind of pivoted and said, "Hey, how can I continue growing my impact and helping these folks?" [00:02:56] Dan: That's when I started getting into marketing, really helping them be able to communicate a little bit better in terms of why they do what they do and really meeting the clients where they're at. And so we started getting into video production and pre pandemic, we had a huge video studio with audience, live audiences and all sorts of recording stuff. [00:03:18] Dan: And then the pandemic hit and that's when we kind of realized that, "Hey, at the end of the day, yes, fancy videos are good to have, but what's really going to help people move the needle is social proof. So how can we create a service for businesses to be able to leverage social proof, in other words, video or testimonials basically, to give consumers exactly what they're looking for?" [00:03:42] Dan: So if you're in a market to, you know, rent an apartment or to buy something somewhere, the first thing you do is you look at reviews and So that's how Share One began is really being able to help businesses capture legitimate social proof to grow their businesses.  [00:04:00] Jason: Yeah, awesome. Business can be tough. And like you're saying, there's a lot of good ideas out there, or there's a lot of people that think they have good ideas and you know, I've noticed not everybody tests those ideas. They just, they think the idea is so good, they're like, "everybody else has to love it." And they're surprised when nobody else has the same taste as them. You know? Other people don't love it. Or there's so many pieces that go into it kind of like the book The E Myth Revisited, a lot of people think, "Well I have a skill in doing something. Maybe I could start a business doing that thing," but the skill is the technician level work. Usually like "I can bake a cake, so maybe I should start a bakery business," you know? And then they're like, "Oh, accounting, marketing, sales, prospecting, like all the details, inventory, all the stuff besides baking a cake is where they get hung up on and they get frustrated. [00:04:59] Jason: And then there's just people that are just really bad marketers. They just don't know how to get the message across. Sometimes you run into the opposite problem though, right? Like I've had coaches and people I've worked with that were really great marketers, but their stuff wasn't super great. [00:05:14] Jason: I've had that situation happen as well. But even if they were great marketers and their stuff wasn't great, they still were making money... unfortunately. [00:05:25] Dan: Yeah, absolutely. You know, most entrepreneurs, you know, me included, we find a passion, we find a purpose and we come up with some kind of a amazing technology or whatever that may be. [00:05:35] Dan: And then, you know, our personality is just jump in and do it, you know. And it's so valuable now to really kind of take a step back and understand, you know, what the consumer wants and it goes beyond that. I think it really goes into, you know, even if you have a solid business model, like property management, for example, which is obviously needed you know, how do you communicate that? [00:05:58] Dan: How do you attract the right people? And so it's a constant exercise of being able to put yourself in a position of your customers. Right. And then even as time changes as AI comes in, which hopefully we can talk about a little bit today the landscape changes and consumer behavior patterns changes and what people are looking for changes as well. [00:06:18] Dan: So to, to have that finger on the pulse of, "Hey, what are my prospects actually thinking? What's going through their head?" Is a constant exercise that I think every single entrepreneur needs to do. And then from that perspective, it's like, okay, how do I reverse engineer what's in their mind? [00:06:34] Dan: How do I meet them where they are? Create the language and then slowly kind of invite them into the product and service that you're offering.  [00:06:41] Jason: Yeah. Marketing is always evolving as well. Like it's not like you learn to do it once and then you're done forever. Right? Like what I did to grow DoorGrow in the beginning doesn't work anymore. [00:06:53] Jason: Right? Some of the things that we were doing, like I had LinkedIn automation that was able to generate profile views. And then people would look at the profile view and go, "Oh!" And it's like "somebody viewed your profile." So they go look at mine, which I had set up like a sales page and then I was getting messages and then I would message them, "Hey..." I was getting friend requests or whatever you call it, connections on LinkedIn. [00:07:16] Jason: And then I would send them a message. "What prompted you to reach out?" And then they started clamping down on how many views you could generate a day. And like, then the automation, like, and eventually that whole mechanism pretty much died, you know, and then it was Facebook groups for a while. For a while, the Facebook algorithm was heavily aligned towards Facebook groups. [00:07:34] Jason: So that went crazy for us there was a time where it was like, you know It was just, you know, organic Google was doing its thing. We still get business through that, but you know, it's always evolving as well, which is a challenge. Now, one thing that has always worked well, always, is testimonials that has always worked well for us. [00:07:56] Jason: And so we have more testimonials. I realized this early on. If I say it, no one believes it because it's my business, but if my clients say it, that's the ultimate social proof. That's the ultimate evidence. And so gathering testimonials has always been a like a focus of us at DoorGrow and we have more video testimonials than any other coach or consultant in the property management space. [00:08:24] Jason: I mean, we've been doing this a long time, but we're also really good. But the challenge is how do you show that you're really good in a way that people believe it? Well, I just capture other people's results. So we're always having clients share their wins on our calls and then we're recording it and stuff like that. [00:08:41] Jason: So what, what prompted you to start to focus on testimonials as a business idea?  [00:08:48] Dan: So I do have, you know, pretty strong tech background. So being able to leverage the technology and human resources to be able to give businesses truly what they need. Just as an example we'll take care of the entire invitation interview process with the real producer and edit everything down for less than 200 a piece, right? [00:09:09] Dan: So our next competitors to do the same thing. are $3,000 to $5,000. So we've really, you know, grown this entire business to be able to scale and give businesses exactly what it is that they need. And as I mentioned before, over the years, it's like, yes, you can get super fancy with different things. But video testimonials today by far are the strongest piece of marketing content that you can use as you just mentioned. There's research that says there's an up to 62 percent increase in conversions. So the conversion could be a schedule, a call or schedule, a visit, or, you know, fill in the form. An increase of 62 percent if you start showing video testimonials on pages. [00:09:51] Dan: And today, recent research also shows that 82 percent of consumers have some level of suspicion towards written reviews. That includes Google, Yelp. Amazon today employs 12,000 full time employees just to track down fake reviews. So, you know, talking about market change, right? So that is definitely something that's changing. [00:10:10] Dan: And so being able to capture somebody in the comfort of their homes or their offices, truly speaking from their heart and sharing where they were before and how they met you and what your lives look like today and sharing that transformation is, you know, ultimately the most powerful thing you can do because it's believable, right? [00:10:29] Jason: Yeah, it's reality. It's not AI. It's not you know, even text testimonials, like on Amazon, there's lots of fake reviews. Like, you can have fake text. Somebody could type out anything. You got to chat GPT. "Type out a fake review that sounds credible," you know, or something like this. [00:10:46] Jason: Yeah.  [00:10:47] Dan: So be super careful with that. If anybody out there is, you know, starting out and you're looking for some kind of social proof on your website or anything, the FTC had a new bill in October really cracking down on people that are using fake reviews, $27,000 fine, and just some really crazy stuff. [00:11:05] Dan: That's, you know, consumer protection.  [00:11:07] Jason: You have to be able to back it up. So, yeah, you put some text on something with a testimonial, if you have the video original of that, you're good, right? [00:11:15] Dan: Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, in my company, we take a lot of care in terms of certifying that every single video that we conduct is a true human transformation. [00:11:24] Dan: So it's a critical component, but at the end of the day, it's like, you know, any listeners today. What's the first thing that you do when you go on Amazon? You look at the number of reviews, look at the number of stars. Is that like four? Is it four and a half? Or is it five? Right? [00:11:36] Dan: And then we scroll down and say, does anybody have any videos? And do these things look legitimate? Right? It's, that's the first thing that we, that anybody does when purchasing something new. And that's part of human nature, right? Dr. Robert Cialdini has a really famous bestseller book called Influence. [00:11:52] Dan: I don't know if you've read that. It's all about the psychology of persuasion. And in there, he mentions that, you know, out of 95 percent of all consumers are what they call imitators and only 5 percent are initiator. So what that means is only 5 percent of people will be open and willing to go be that first person to try something, right? [00:12:15] Dan: Yeah. 95 percent of consumers are waiting for some kind of social proof. They're imitating somebody else's results.  [00:12:22] Jason: That's why the bandwagon approach is so effective. Most people on the planet want safety and security. It's more important to them than freedom or fulfillment in life. [00:12:35] Jason: They want safety and security first. Those people are not entrepreneurs They work for entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are a small percentage of people and they value freedom and fulfillment over safety and security. We want that too, but our priority is in a different order.  [00:12:50] Dan: Yeah, absolutely. And I think, you know, even attracting tenants or you know, bigger decisions to there's especially with the age of AI. [00:13:01] Dan: So I personally believe that we're going into next six months to a year. I mean, things are moving so quickly right now is that there is going to be a revolution or direct kind of already is of like humans against bots, right? So the ability to be able to create human connection in any marketing or any business, I think is absolutely critical today. [00:13:22] Jason: And  [00:13:22] Dan: most people aren't doing it. So you can definitely be ahead of your competition if you start leveraging and building that human connection into your marketing. And one of the easiest way of doing that is allowing your happy clients to tell a story.  [00:13:35] Jason: Yeah, I totally believe that. I think, you know, that all the interactions that AI can do are going to put a premium on humanity. Human connection and human conversation and human relationship is going to be a premium luxury product in some way. And so that's one way to set yourself apart always is to go deeper and to show care  [00:14:03] Dan: Yeah. [00:14:04] Jason: Most companies are going to leverage ai and people are going to leverage ai to go wider but it's not going to have the same depth AI doesn't have that soul. Might get there. [00:14:14] Jason: Yeah, I can see that. And that'll be important. The other challenge I've noticed though, with gathering testimonials is that if I do it, It feels a little awkward and it feels a little forced. Hey, what do you think about my business, you know? And so I think there's an advantage in what you're doing. And then like I know what it takes. Like we have somebody on my team that can edit video and can reach out and like do interviews. And like this is a difficult thing for the typical business owner to like go and do. It's like almost a whole nother thing, a whole nother business or something that we've had to incorporate over the years. And our best testimonials are the unprompted things that we randomly captured during our calls, which we do three, one hour calls weekly coaching clients, group calls. And we just. Have the whole thing recorded. So we capture stuff constantly, just unsolicited, unprompted, great things. [00:15:14] Jason: But when I have to go ask the client, "Hey, how did you like this event?" It just gets awkward and it's not as effective and they can't think of what to say. And they're like, oh yeah, it's really good. And I'm like, "no, tell me about all the problems you had and tell me about all the success we've helped you create." [00:15:31] Jason: But in that moment, they're like, "oh my gosh, I'm taking a test right now in front of a camera. I don't know what to say." And then I don't get something good. So.  [00:15:39] Dan: Yeah, there's quite an art to doing that. And the word awkward definitely sticks out like a sore thumb from the invitation, like asking your people, "Hey, would you record a video testimonial?" All the way to interviewing them as well. [00:15:53] Dan: So we take a slightly different approach. And the invitation, we have a 47 percent success rate in getting your clients to show up for an interview. And that's all about the way our white glove invitation process works. [00:16:06] Jason: This is like all of their clients that they give you their information, you reach out and you can get about half to give you a full testimonial. [00:16:16] Dan: Yeah. [00:16:17] Jason: It's an amazing stat that I'm just saying, by the way, everybody, imagine if you got half of all of your clients to give you testimonials, you would look like an amazing business.  [00:16:27] Dan: So whether you're doing it yourself or somebody else, let me just give you a couple of pointers. We never use the words "video testimonial." [00:16:34] Dan: So it's always something along the lines of, "Hey, I realized that, you know, you've been living here for a month and you seem really happy." Or, you know, "you've recently had a transformation...  [00:16:44] Jason: We've managed your property for a while.  [00:16:45] Dan: Yep. So think something along those lines and say, "Hey you know, there are a couple of really cool individuals that we're trying to bring into our community, and they're on the fence about moving here, if they could hear firsthand what it's like living here from somebody like you, I think you'd have, you know, great neighbors, right?" Something along those lines. "Would you be open to meeting with one of our producers just for a quick 15 minute chat over video, just to ask you a few questions about your stay here? And you know, your story can be truly inspiring to others. And maybe you'll meet some new neighbors," something along those lines, right? So really getting creative and the invitation don't ask for video testimonials, really about, hey, how can you as the client contribute to somebody else's wellbeing, right? That's another human nature thing that's important. And then being able to pass it off to say, "Hey, when you meet with my producer," so it becomes less of you know, it's almost like if I said, "Jason, I'm going to send a news crew to your house tomorrow to interview you."" [00:17:41] Dan: You'd be like, "Oh my God, great!" Like you feel honored. Right? So that's the kind of invitation that we're trying to create here too.  [00:17:46] Jason: Yeah.  [00:17:47] Dan: And then honoring their time, honoring their stories and being a super, super easy, you know, real human being kind of conducting the interview and our 15 minute interview, it gets edited down to, you know, sometimes 60 seconds, maybe two minutes tops just for the golden sound bites that you need to help your your free marketing conversions. [00:18:04] Dan: So yeah, don't go out and ask for video testimonials. That's not going to go over very well. Just get creative with the invitation.  [00:18:10] Jason: Yeah. Good tip. So explain how your service works and what it is and what it's called. And like, so that people can understand the advantage that this can give them.  [00:18:21] Dan: Yeah, absolutely. [00:18:22] Dan: So we're a membership model. We are currently $189 per month to be a client of Share One. And we take care, as I mentioned before, the invitation. So we'll invite your clients. We'll remind them, answer any questions, scheduling and all that. And then basically schedule a call with one of our producers. [00:18:39] Dan: All of our producers are going to be highly trained on the specifics of what you're looking for. So your branding you know, what locations you're trying to fill, whatever that may be our producers already know going into the interview, what the soundbites are you looking for? And we'll basically coach them into answering questions. [00:18:55] Dan: So we'll help them with their cameras a little bit, their lighting. And say, Hey, why don't you finish this sentence and, you know, make sure it doesn't ramble on and on. So we're literally producers looking for these soundbites. So we'll coach them into basically saying the things that we need them to say. [00:19:09] Dan: And that 15 minute interview gets edited down. We add captions and then we deliver that back to you. And from inside of our portal, you can easily say, "Hey, this is a cool testimonial. I want to run it as an Instagram Reel or Facebook ad or anything like that. And we'll recut and reedit everything for you. [00:19:27] Dan: So we're basically completely done for you video testimonial service. Yeah, so we're affordable. We're white glove and we're extremely effective at what we do.  [00:19:38] Jason: Yeah, I mean at 189 a month, it's an absolute no brainer. Just the cost of getting people to do this stuff, or trying to go out and get cheap places to do it, like to edit some video that you capture yourself, the quality's just not going to be there. [00:19:53] Jason: I think the magic is probably in the coaching and in the right questions and in the process and then the editing, putting it together is going to make it all work.  [00:20:02] Dan: And then once you have the video testimonial, we have a couple of really cool new piece of technology that we can automatically push testimonials to certain parts of your marketing assets. [00:20:13] Dan: So we have a, like a floating widget that can sit in any corner of your website that says video testimony. As soon as you click on it, it pops up and people can start watching mobile friendly. You know, when consumers are about to take action. So whether it's a book a tour or schedule a call, there's this anxiety inside of them when they click that. So we have this really cool inline widget that can sit underneath the buy button or schedule button that basically it's just a whole bunch of videos that they can watch some quick social proof in terms of that they're making the right decision. [00:20:44] Dan: Send them over the edge. [00:20:45] Dan: Absolutely. So as a member of Share One and we'll push all those videos automatically as we collect them onto the different parts of your marketing assets.  [00:20:54] Jason: Yeah, nice. So this can be it like there's a code snippets that you can embed on your website stuff like that. Very cool Yeah, we found that conversion rates increase... we'll do on our websites that we do for clients, I call it a testimonial sandwich. So basically we have the main call to action form that's lower on the page and we'll put like maybe two testimonials above it could be videos most of the time It's like a face image and text and then below that we'll have testimonies that have been gathered from their review websites, but videos would maximize if you just had two or three videos that somebody watched before signing up with you, there's a scripture in the Bible that says "in the mouth of two or three words shall every word be established." [00:21:41] Jason: There's this thing that happens in people, if they watch two or three videos of testimonies, or even just see that you have two or three, and there's some sort of headline below them that, like, sums up what it's about, they'll just believe it. They think that this is how everything happens at your business. [00:21:56] Jason: And so the power of just having even two or three videos, now if you have a lot, and you're able to continually gather these from clients, and then maybe leverage getting them to give you positive reviews on review sites, as well, then maybe after they leave the video, there's this other thing, I think Cialdini talks about this as well, that once somebody takes a certain action, they're more likely to believe in that like a positive action towards a business are more likely to want to continue to do that. [00:22:27] Dan: Validates their decision, right? [00:22:29] Jason: Right. And so once somebody gives you a positive review like if a tenant gives you a positive review or an owner gives you positive review, what happens is they tend to have a longer lifetime value. They stay longer and then when you have a problem because something inevitably comes up. The tenant gets frustrated, or the owner gets frustrated about something. [00:22:51] Jason: They're more likely to give you the benefit of the doubt, because previously they acknowledged they had a good experience with you, and they're more likely to say, "Oh, they'll figure it out. And so, it just makes business easier. What we coach our clients on is the best time to get a testimonial or a review is at peak happiness. And for most tenants and owners, that's usually around tenant placement. That's once the tenants in place, the tenant's happiest and the owner is now happy. "Hey, I've got a tenant and they're paying rent," and that's when everybody's happiest. And so during their and owner, new client onboarding processes. [00:23:29] Jason: They could build in this connection with you guys to give you their info and you reach out and ask about their experience. And our usual script for clients when we're coaching them to do this directly is that they reach out, point out the good that they've done for them so far, and then ask them the loaded question, like how do you feel we've done so far? [00:23:51] Jason: And then they're like, "Oh, well, you just told me you did all this you took care of that leaky toilet. You did this and property is ready for me And yeah, it's been great." " What's your experience been like with ABC property management so far?" "Oh, yeah It's been great." Because you just pointed out all the good. For the owner, you're like we got a tenant in place. We got the rent collected should be hitting your bank account in the next couple days. Like how do you feel ABC property management's done so far?" [00:24:15] Jason: "Oh, yeah. You guys are great." "Awesome We love hearing that would you be willing to share that feedback with us online? Or would you be willing to share that feedback with somebody else? That would really help us out." "Oh, yeah." So, it's called the Law of Reciprocity. They want to reciprocate, because you pointed out that you did something for them. [00:24:35] Jason: Yeah, there's kind of this debt or this leverage and they're like, "yeah, sure. I'd be happy to. Awesome. I'm going to have our producers-" you say right? "Our producer reach out and they'll do a little interview with you and I think you'll really enjoy it, and we're really good at making you look good." [00:24:51] Dan: Yeah, so great point. [00:24:53] Dan: I mean, testimonials build trust ultimately, right? And trust lasts a very long time. So even being able to send testimonials to existing tenants or existing owners as a reassurance, like, you know, if an owner has been with you for years, it's like, "Hey, If they're ever doubting about leaving us, let's send them like a case study or something, you know, once every six months or so, just to kind of reaffirm that you guys are really good. [00:25:15] Dan: So, so we actually have technology. We actually have technology that can build into the CRM process to know exactly when to reach out. So that can be automated. And we also upon completion of the video testimonial, we automate the whole Google or Yelp or any other types of site reviews. Automatically for the people that we interview and then one more thing I want to touch on Jason is objections, right? [00:25:37] Dan: So video testimonials are super powerful to use to address all objections before they even come up. So if you know right off the bat that nine times out of 10 people are going to say, well, you're, you know, such and such place is cheaper or other property managers or, you know, only charge 8 percent or whatever." [00:25:55] Dan: Then using the video testimonials and you can cue your producers into collecting that as like, "Hey, initially I thought that going with X was going to be a little bit more expensive, but little did I know they took care of X, Y, Z." Right. So being able to have those little seeds or saying, "Hey, you know, yes, this apartment building is probably not the cheapest around, but I'm so glad I chose this because of XYZ. So being able to take those objections and understanding how to reverse engineer these interviews to be able to get those soundbites that are going to help you with your closing.  [00:26:24] Jason: So this is something that your producers are trained on. That is in part of your onboarding process with new clients, then it's probably to identify what actions or challenges do they tend to deal with? [00:26:36] Jason: And then as you're gathering testimonials, it becomes a goal to offset those.  [00:26:41] Dan: Absolutely. So every new client that comes on board, we do a deep dive really understanding. who their audiences are going to be, who they're trying to attract, where these video testimonials are going to be displayed where these people are coming from, essentially trying to understand like what's in that prospect's mind frame, like what are they looking at when they're watching this? So that we can really kind of, you know, hit a home run for them. [00:27:03] Jason: Yeah, I love this. I think good testimonials are more important than most companies' marketing. They're more important than most companies' websites. They're more important than most everything that a company does to try and get new business. They don't understand the impact. And if you have negative reviews, which is like the opposite, it's like a clamp on anything that you could potentially do in your entire sales pipeline, any marketing you do, anything else, if you have negative reviews. People will check you out. People want to know, can they trust you? So they're looking for indicators. Even if they heard about you word of mouth or whatever, they might still go check and they're like, "well, they have a bunch of bad reviews. Maybe we should do some more research and find another company." And so the impact of that, I think is often underestimated. You can have the ugliest website. You can have the worst branding. You can have all the other leaks that exist in businesses, but if you have great testimonials and great reviews online, people will still work with you and those will be warm leads. [00:28:08] Jason: Like they'll trust you. There's stats that suggest that people trust online reviews or testimonials as much as word of mouth from a trusted friend or advisor if the reviews are credible, unlike some on Amazon. And then, so like the conversion rate or the close rate then is really high and you don't have to have as good of a website, you don't have to be as good at sales. You don't have to be as good at marketing. Good testimonials and good feedback really solves a myriad of marketing sins.  [00:28:37] Dan: Yeah, absolutely. And then it's reputation management too. So if you do have some bad reviews on Google, you can easily upload videos onto your Google business profile and you can upload positive video reviews. [00:28:49] Dan: And when somebody reads something that's written that's negative and they go to your website and there's what we call wall of love, which is basically a whole bunch of videos saying how great, you know, you are, that's a game changer.  [00:29:00] Jason: That's an outlier. That negative review is now an outlier. You know, owners know that there's going to be upset and negative tenants. [00:29:06] Jason: And that's a given in property management. But they want to know that you know how to deal with those situations and that you're making changes or improvements or whatever. So having good responses is also can be important on those reviews. So having a whole wall of proof, yeah, that overcomes a lot of challenges. [00:29:24] Jason: So well cool, Dan. I appreciate you coming on the show. I wanted to announce Dan, you're coming to DoorGrow Live. You're going to be talking at our event in May about some of this stuff, but going even deeper into how people can have an impact in a way that I think would help grow and scale their business, which was what we're all about at DoorGrow. [00:29:45] Jason: And so everybody, make sure and go and check out the details at doorgrowlive.Com. And we were bringing in some really cool experts that are going to be talking about a variety of different things. And Dan is going to be one of those. So really excited to have you at that, Dan.  [00:30:02] Jason: Super excited. Can't wait for it.  [00:30:05] Jason: Yeah, that's going to be really cool. And so if you want to take things to the next level and grow your business, this is the place to be. And can you give them a teaser of what you might be sharing at this?  [00:30:15] Dan: Yeah, absolutely. So, being able to present actual case studies in terms of property management and give solid advice and examples on how you can immediately start using video testimonials and leveraging social proof to be able to increase your conversions and also teaching you how to collect them. [00:30:33] Dan: And everything to do with social proof. So I'm super excited about that.  [00:30:37] Jason: This will be really cool. So make sure to get your tickets to DoorGrow Live. Go to doorgrowlive.Com. Dan, I appreciate you coming on the show. How can people learn more about Share One and get connected with what you're doing? [00:30:51] Dan: Absolutely. So our website is www.share.one O N E. And I think, Jason, we might put something nice together for your listeners and we'll add that to the show notes.  [00:31:01] Jason: Awesome. All right, appreciate you coming and hanging out with us here on the DoorGrow show and excited to do more stuff with you in the future. [00:31:08] Jason: All right. So, if you are a property management entrepreneur and you're wanting to grow your business, add doors, reach out to us at DoorGrow. We can help you with that. So until next time, everybody to our mutual growth. Bye, everyone. [00:31:19] Jason: you just listened to the #DoorGrowShow. We are building a community of the savviest property management entrepreneurs on the planet in the DoorGrowClub. Join your fellow DoorGrow Hackers at doorgrowclub.com. Listen, everyone is doing the same stuff. SEO, PPC, pay-per-lead content, social direct mail, and they still struggle to grow!  [00:31:46] Jason: At DoorGrow, we solve your biggest challenge: getting deals and growing your business. Find out more at doorgrow.com. Find any show notes or links from today's episode on our blog doorgrow.com, and to get notified of future events and news subscribe to our newsletter at doorgrow.com/subscribe. Until next time, take what you learn and start DoorGrow Hacking your business and your life.

I met Daniel Andrews through someone who has been monitoring Unstoppable Mindset and who told me that Daniel would be an interesting guest. How true it was. Daniel is a South Carolina guy born and bred. He makes his home in Columbia South Carolina. While in college he took a summer job with Cutco Cutlery after his sophomore year. I guess he liked the position because he stayed with Cutco for 15 years in sales positions.   While at Cutco his mentors introduced him to the concept of personal development. As you will see, he is widely read on the subject and he also learned to put his book learning to good use.   In 2013 he made the move to becoming his own boss and developed a true entrepreneurial spirit that still drives him today. He helps clients grow their businesses by seeking real quality contacts. He tells us that his goal is to introduce clients to 72 or 120 clients per year. As Daniel points out, a network of thousands of people is not nearly as effective as a smaller network of persons with whom you develop real credible relationships.   Daniel offers many wonderful and relevant tips on relationship and network building that I believe you will find useful. And, if you want more, Daniel provides his phone number at the end of this episode so you can reach out to him.       About the Guest:   Daniel grew up in Columbia, South Carolina after his dad moved from active duty USAF to reservice duty, in 1976. He attended college in Atlanta Georgia, where he took a summer job with Cutco Cutlery after his sophomore year, in 1988. His mentors, Ray Arrona, Ken Schmidt (RIP), Earl Small, and Don Freda introduced him to the concept of personal development, and his early career (the “summer job” lasted 15 years) was influenced by the writings of Zig Ziglar, Og Mandino, and Dale Carnegie.   He moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 2003 with his first wife, and switched careers. In his second career, a mix of B2B and B2C, he was influenced by  the writings of John Addison, Harland Stonecipher, and Jeff Olsen, encouraged by his mentor Frank Aucoin.   After his move to Houston, Texas, in 2013, he decided to become a true entrepreneur, and not just an independent contractor. The E-Myth Revisited, by Michael Gerber, Quench Your Own Thirst, by Jim Koch, and Profit First by  Mike Michalowicz were instrumental in making this jump, and he's currently engrossed in Super Connector by Scott Gerber and Give & Take by Adam Grant, as he builds a business based around showing people how to identify, find, meet, and grow relationships with a handful of key referral partners, to make sure there is a steady pipeline of 72-120 warm introductions to ideal client prospects every year.   He's been married to Adina Maynard since July 5th, 2019, after he returned to his hometown in the fall of 2016.     Ways to connect with Daniel:   Other handles: DanielPAndrews@outlook.com Pinterest link: https://www.pinterest.com/danielpandrews/   Daniel Andrews' personal FB link: https://facebook.com/danthemanwiththeplan1967   Daniel Andrews LinkedIn URL: https://www.linkedin.com/in/niasoutheast/   FB link - business page https://facebook.com/danandrewsnia   My video platform https://events.revnt.io/cutting-edge-business-coaching-llc   About the Host:   Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/   https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening!   Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast   If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset .   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review   Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.       Transcription Notes:   Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.     Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Well and hello everyone. This is Michael Hingson, your host for unstoppable mindset. We're glad you're with us today, and really glad to have the opportunity once again to be with you and talk about all sorts of different sorts different kinds of things, as we do every week. That's why we call it an unstoppable mindset, where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet, because unexpected is much more fun. Keeps us all on our toes. Our guest today is Daniel, and would like to welcome you to unstoppable mindset, and we really appreciate you being here. Yeah,   Daniel Andrews ** 01:58 it's good to be here. Happy to participate. And really, I'm honored by the fact that you invited me to be here. So thank you for that. Well, we   Michael Hingson ** 02:05 made it. It's It's been fun, and we, we got introduced through Noah, who, I guess, does publicity for you.   Daniel Andrews ** 02:19 He and I have talked about that at some point. I'm trying to remember the entire chain that got me to you. You know, the person introduced me to him, to her, to him, to her, to him, to her, to you, right? I need a family tree of an introductory tree on my wall over here. I just keep up with all the connections. Yeah?   Michael Hingson ** 02:38 Keeps you alert and keeps you alert, you know, yeah, for sure. Well, I really am glad that you're here. And Daniel has a, I think, a great story to tell. He lives in Columbia, South Carolina, which he's really mostly called home, although he was born elsewhere, but sort of since roughly a fair, well, a fairly short time, he moved to Columbia and has been there. So I won't go into all those details. We don't need to worry about him, unless he wants to tell them, but Columbia has been home most all of his life. He did live a little ways, a little while away from Columbia, and on that, I'm sure we're going to talk about, but nevertheless, Columbia is home. I've been to Columbia and enjoy it, and I miss South Carolina sausage biscuits. So I don't know what to say, but nevertheless, one of these days, I'm sure I'll get back down there, and the people I know will make some more. But meanwhile, meanwhile, here we are. So why don't you start by telling us a little bit about kind of the early Daniel, growing up and, you know, all that, just to give people little flavor for you, sure,   Daniel Andrews ** 03:46 older brother two years older than me, exactly. I mean, within a couple days of two years, we're the only two no other siblings. Dad was an Air Force fighter pilot, and people think that must be pretty cool, and at some level, it is. But to help frame it better and give you a better detail of the experience of being the son of a fighter pilot, I encourage people that I talk to to remember the movie Top Gun. Not the second one where everybody was a good guy, they were older and more mature and, you know, but in the first one where there was the good guy that was a jerk and the bad guy that was a jerk, but they were, they were both jerks. And you know, it's a weird environment to grow up in when the biggest compliment one man can pay another is you don't suck that bad, right? That's literally the biggest compliment they're allowed to pay each other. So I grew up always thinking like I was coming up short, which has got some positive and some negative attributes. My clients love it because I tend to over deliver for what I charge them, but it kills my coach because he thinks I'm not I'm not fairly pricing myself in the marketplace, but I it made me want to be an entrepreneur, because the benchmarks are clear, right? You? In a sales environment, you know whether you're ahead or behind. You know what you got to do to catch the number one guy or gal if you're trying to beat the competition, you know how big your paycheck is going to be if you're working on, you know, commission or base, plus commission and and I really enjoyed the environment of being, I don't want to say competitive, but knowing that, you know, I was competing with myself. So many of my friends are employed by academia or small companies or big corporations, and even when they benchmark really good results, the pay, the compensation, the time off, the rewards, the advancements aren't necessarily there. So I really like the idea of having a very specific set of objectives. If I do this, then that happens. If I work this hard, I get this much money. If I achieve these results, I get, you know, moved up into into more authority and more responsibility, and that really made a world of difference for me, so that that has a lot to do with it. And as a result of that, I've opted for the self employment   Michael Hingson ** 05:54 certainly gives you lots of life experiences, doesn't it?   Daniel Andrews ** 05:58 It does. And I think, I think that people that work for other people is certainly learn, learn a lot as well. Meaning, I've not had to have extended co worker relationships or manage those over time. My first wife was fond of saying that Daniel's good in small doses, right?   Michael Hingson ** 06:15 So here we are, Ayan, so you're, you're telling us a little bit about you and growing up,   Daniel Andrews ** 06:22 sure it just you know, father is fighter pilot, right? And always pushing me to do more, be more. And that led me to choose a route of self employment, usually as a in the early parts of my career, independent contractor for other people. So I still had a structure to work in, but I knew what my objectives were. I knew how much money I would earn if I produced X result. I knew what it meant to get more responsibility, and that worked well for me. And then about eight years ago now, I decided to become a full fledged entrepreneur and really do my own thing and create some fun stuff. And it's been a fun ride in that regard, but I do love the freedom that comes from setting my own objectives on a daily basis. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 07:07 there's a lot to be said for that, and then not everyone can do that, because it does take a lot of discipline to be an entrepreneur, to do the things that you need to do, and know that you need to be structured to do the things that that have to be done at the same time. You do need to be able to take time off when that becomes relevant. But still, it does take a lot of discipline to be an entrepreneur and make it work successfully,   Daniel Andrews ** 07:35 right? And I don't know that I've mastered the discipline for it, but at least I'm working on my objectives and not somebody else's. The only person I'm letting down is me. You know, when I, when I, when I miss a deadline or don't execute, so that feels better to me than having the weight of somebody else's expectations on me   Michael Hingson ** 07:52 counts for something, doesn't it? I think so well. So you, you grew up in Columbia, but then you went off to college. Where'd you go to college?   Daniel Andrews ** 08:02 Down in Atlanta, Georgia, small school there. But I had a choice of three places, and each of them had offered me scholarship funds that equaled the same cost to me. IE, the packages were different, but the net cost to me in each case was going to be about the same. So rather than pick based on the financial aid or the scholarships are being offered, I picked on which city it was in. And I figured being a college kid in Atlanta, Georgia was a good move. And it turned out it was a good move. There was lots to see and do in Atlanta, Georgia, only about four hours from home. And it just it worked out to be pretty good that my other choices were Athens, Georgia, which is strictly a college town. And you know, when the summer rolls around, the place is empty. It goes down, and the other was a school and Farmville, Virginia, excuse me, the closest town is Farmville, Virginia, where the 711 closed at six. And I'm not exaggerating when I say that, yeah, not too sure. I want to be that far out in the sticks right as a 19 year old away from home for the first time, I wanted. I wanted. I wanted to have something to do with my freedom, meaning, if I was free to do what I wanted to do, I wanted to have something to do with that so and not not sit around Farmville, Virginia, wonder what was going to happen next. Yeah. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 09:19 so what did you major in in college?   Daniel Andrews ** 09:23 That question always comes up, and I'm always hesitant to answer that, because people think it has something to do with what I do today, and it does not in any way shape or stretch. I got a BS in psychology, which I tell people was heavy on the BS and light on the psychology, but at   Michael Hingson ** 09:38 the same time. And so my master's degree is in physics, although I ended up not going into physics, although I did a little bit of science work. But do you would you say, though, that even though you got a BS in psychology and you went off and you're clearly doing other things, did you learn stuff, or did that degree benefit you? And do you still. I have skills and things that you learned from that that you use today. I   Daniel Andrews ** 10:04 used to tell people that I had three facts that I used in college, that I learned in college, that I used on a daily basis, and for the longest time, I could recite all three. But nobody asked me what they were for the longest time, and I'm sure I still use all three of them, but I can only recall one, so the answer is, for the most part, no. But I think I went to college for a piece of paper. Someone else was paying for it. In this case, the school, not my parents. It was a scholarship, and I went to school not to learn anything. I went to school to get a piece of paper. I started off as a physics major, by the way, and when I got to the semester where they were trying to teach me that light is both a particle and a wave, I'm like, Yeah, we're going to need a different major, because I did not get my head around that at all. And and the degree that was had the least hurdles to get to switch majors and finish at that moment in time with psychology. So that's the route I took. I was just there for the piece of paper.   Michael Hingson ** 11:05 Physics wasn't what you wanted to do, huh?   Daniel Andrews ** 11:08 I did. But if the textbook had said light has attributes of both a particle and a wave, I might have been able to grasp it a little bit quicker. But it said light is both a particle and a wave, and it was the week of finals, and I was struggling with the intro in chapter one for the textbook, and I'm like, yep, might be time for different major at this point,   Michael Hingson ** 11:29 my master, my master's is in physics, and you mentioned and I enjoyed it, and I and I still have memories and concepts that I learned, that I use today, probably the biggest one is paying attention to detail and physics. It isn't enough to get the numeric right answer, you got to make the units work as well, which is more of a detail issue than just getting the numbers, because you can use a calculator and get numbers, but that doesn't get you the units. And so I found that skill to be extremely important and valuable as I worked through physics and went through and I actually got a master's and also a secondary teaching credential, and I thought I was going to teach, but life did take different directions, and so that's okay.   Daniel Andrews ** 12:18 Well, when you frame it that way, I will say that there is something that I learned that I that I use, maybe not in my work, but in my field of vision, and that's this, you know, lab and experimental methods taught me to ask the question, how did they ask the questions? Right? What was the structure of the test, the experiment, the the data collection right? Because you can do an awful lot of things. For example, they have found that if a doctor says to a patient, we have a chance to do surgery, there's a 10% chance of success, meaning that you'll live, they get a better up to uptake than if they say there's a 90% chance that you'll die. Yeah, it's the same information, but you always have to look at the way the questions are framed. Polls are notorious for this right data collection from my days in Cutco, I read a study and I put quotes around it right? A study that said that wooden cutting boards retain less bacteria than plastic cutting boards or polypropylene polyurethane, which is clearly blatantly wrong if you're treating your cutting boards correctly. And I looked into it, and they simply wiped the surface and then waited a day and measured bacteria count? Well, if you don't put it what you can dishwasher a plastic cutting board and sterilize it, right? Why would you simply wipe the surface? In the case of the wood, the bacteria was no longer at the surface. It had sunk into the woods. So there's not as much on the surface. I'm like, oh, but it's still there. It's just down in the wood. You have to literally look at the way these tests are done. And I guess the wooden cutting board industry paid for that study, because I can't imagine anybody else that would would a care and B make the argument that a wooden cutting board was better than a plastic one for sanitation reasons,   Michael Hingson ** 14:13 because it's clearly all it's all sales. And of course, that brings up the fact that you get that kind of knowledge honestly, because when you were a sophomore, you got a summer job with Cutco.   Daniel Andrews ** 14:24 I did, yeah, and I remember 3030, what is that? 36 years ago, now having to explain what Cutco was, but Cutco has been around for so long in America that most American households have at least some Cutco on them at this point. So I find most people already know and understand, but it was a direct sales job. It was not structured the way an MLM or a network marketing company has, but my job is to literally take, you know, a kit full of samples, right? Some some regular, normal, standard products that we would use and sell, and take them into people's homes and sit at the kitchen table and demonstrate. Right? The usefulness. Go over the guarantee, go over the pricing options, and you know what choices they could pick stuff out, and it turned out to be a lot of fun. Turned out to be more lucrative than most people imagine. I don't want to brag too much about how much reps make doing that, because then customers get upset we're being overpaid, but yeah, that's not true either. But it was a blast to to do that and the learning environment, right? What I learned about setting my own goals, discipline, awareness of the way communication landed on other people. I don't the psychology of communication, being around people, helping them understand what I knew to be true, finding ways to address concerns, issues, objections, without making them feel wrong or awkward. You know, it was a good environment, and that's why I stayed for 15 years. For   Michael Hingson ** 15:52 me, after college, I went to work with an organization that had developed a relationship with Dr Ray Kurzweil, the futurist and who now talks a lot about the singularity. And at that time, he had developed a machine that would read print out loud. Well, it would read print, and he chose, for the first application of that machine to be a machine that would read print out loud so that blind people could read print in books, because his technology didn't care about what type styles or print fonts were on the page anyway. After the job was over, I went to work for Ray, and after about eight or nine months, I was confronted with a situation where I was called into the office of the VP of Marketing, who said, your work is great. We love what you do, but you're not doing anything that produces revenue for us, because I was doing Human Factors work helping to enhance the machine, and so we're going to have to lay you off, he said. And I said, lay me off. And he said, again, your work is great, but we don't have enough revenue producers. We're, like a lot of startup engineering companies, we've hired way too many non revenue producers. So we got to let people go, and that includes you, unless you'll go into sales. And not only go into sales, but not selling the reading machine for the blind, but there's a commercial version that had just come out. So I ended up doing that, and took a Dale Carnegie sales course, a 10 week course, which I enjoyed very much. Learned a lot, and have been selling professionally ever since, of course, my story of being in the World Trade Center and escaping on September 11 after that, I still continue to sell. What I tell people is I love to view my life as now selling life and philosophy. Rather than selling computer hardware and managing a hardware team, it really is about selling life and philosophy and getting people to understand. You can learn to control fear. You can learn to function in environments that you don't expect, and you can go out of your comfort zone. And there's nothing wrong with that, you know. So that's it's been a lot of fun for the last 23 years to do that.   Daniel Andrews ** 18:00 Okay? Now you got me curious. What's the commercial application of a machine that will take a printed book and read it out loud? What I can clearly see why people with various and sundry?   Michael Hingson ** 18:12 Well, for people who are blind and low vision, well, so let's, let's deal with it. The commercial application for that particular machine is that people will buy it and use it. Of course, today it's an app on a smartphone, so it's a whole lot different than it was as a $50,000 machine back in 1978 1979 but the idea behind the machine was that libraries or agencies or organizations could purchase them, have them centrally located, so people who never could read print out loud before could actually go get a book, put it on the machine and read it.   Daniel Andrews ** 18:46 Okay? So this would make sense libraries and institutions of public knowledge, okay. But then, as I could see, where someone would want one in their home if they had need of it. But I was just curious about the commercial application well.   Michael Hingson ** 18:57 But then over time, as the technology advanced. As more were produced, the price went down. And it went from $50,000 down to $20,000 and you started to see some in people's homes. And then, of course, it got less and less and less and eventually, before it became almost a free app on a smartphone today, it used the Symbian operating system and Nokia phones, and the the technology, in total, was about $1,800 and then, of course, it became an app on a smartphone, and a lot of OCR today is free, but the other side of it was the machine I sold was a version that banks would use, lawyers would use, other people would use to be able to take printed documents and get them into computer readable form, because people saw pretty early on that was an important thing to be able to do so they could peruse databases and so on and so the bottom line is that it was very relevant to do. Yeah, and so there was commercial value, but now OCR has gotten to be such a regular mainstay of society. You know, we think of it differently than we did then, very   Daniel Andrews ** 20:10 much. But yeah, we still have one that can read my handwriting   Michael Hingson ** 20:15 that is coming. You know, they're my handwriting. I wanted to be a doctor, and I passed the handwriting course, but that's as far as I got. But, and as I love to tell people, the problem was I didn't have any patients, but, you know, oh boy. But the the bottom line is that there were applications for it, and and it worked, and it was great technology. So it taught me a lot to be able to be involved in taking the Dale Carnegie sales course, and I know he's one of the people that influenced you in various ways. Very much, very important to recognize for me that good sales people are really teachers and advisors and counselors. Absolutely you can. You can probably talk people into buying stuff, which may or may not be a good thing to do, but if we've really got something that they need, they'll figure it out and they'll want to buy   Daniel Andrews ** 21:11 it. Yeah, the way it was summarized to me, and this particularly relates around, you know, the Cutco product or another tangible you know, selling is just a transference of enthusiasm, meaning, if they knew and understood it the way I did, it would make perfect sense. So the question was, how do I find a way to convey my enthusiasm for what I knew about the product? And as simple, I don't wanna say simple, it sounds condescending in as few words as possible, in ways that made it easy for them to digest, right? Because some people are, are tactile, and they want to hold it, look at it. Others are, you know, knowledge oriented. They want to read the testimonials and a guarantee and, you know, things like that. So just, how do you, how do you kind of figure out who's looking for what? Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 21:56 and the reality is, everybody is a little bit different in that arena. And as you said, conveying enthusiasm, you'll either be able to do it or you'll find that what you have isn't really what's going to make them enthusiastic, which can be okay too. Yep, the important thing is to know that and to use that information. And when necessary, you move on and you don't worry about it, correct? We have cut CO knives. We're we, we're happy. But anyway, I think the the issue is that we all have to grow, and we all have to learn to to do those things that we find are relevant. And if we we put our minds to it, we can be very productive people. And as you pointed out, it's all about transmitting enthusiasm, and that's the way it really ought to be.   22:54 Yeah, I think so.   Michael Hingson ** 22:55 So you talk about, well, so let's, let's go back. So you went to work for Cutco, and you did that for 15 years. What would you say the most important thing you learned as a as a salesperson, in working at Cutco really came down to,   Daniel Andrews ** 23:16 there's so many fundamental lessons in the direct sales industry, right? It's why, you know, so many people got their start with Encyclopedia Britannica or Southwestern books or Cutco knives, right? There's a, there's a, I mean, in the 90s, CentOS, the uniform people and sprint when cell phones were new and actually had to actively be sold because people had to be talked into it, yeah. You know, they ran whole recruiting ads that said, Did you used to sell knives, entry level work, starting at base, you know, salary plus commission, right? Because it was so foundational. So it's hard to say the most important thing, but I would say the ability to take control of my own schedule, and therefore my own actions, right, was a huge part of it. But then the ability to really know what, understand the people that I was working with as customers. As my time at ketco matured, and even after I left working with them full time, I still had a database of customers that wanted to deal strictly with me and the fact that they were happy to see me right? That when I was again, after I'd moved away, if I came back to town, that my customers would be like, Oh, I heard you're in town when you come to our house and have dinner, right? And just the way, I was able to move from business relationship into one where I really connected with them. And you know that many years, seeing that many customers give me some really cool stories too, which I'm not going to eat up most of this, but I've just got some fun stories of the way people responded to my pleasant persistence, follow through, follow up, knowing that I could run into any one of them anywhere at any moment in time. And not feel that I had oversold them, or I had been pushy, right, that they would be happy and what they bought. And as a matter of fact, I've only ever had one customer tell me that they bought too much Cutco. And she said that to me when I was there sharpening her Cutco and selling her more. And she said she had bought more than she needed for her kitchen. Initially, I'm selling her more for a gift, let me be clear. And I paused, and I said, Do you remember how the this is like five or six years later? I said, you remember how the conversation went? Because I use the story of that demo when I'm talking to other people and to other reps. She said, Oh yeah, no, no. She goes, I will 100% own that I chose to buy more than I needed. She goes, I was not trying to pin that on you. I was just trying to tell you that that's what I did. I said, Oh, okay, because I wanted to be clear, I remember very clearly that I offered you the small set, and you chose the big set. And she goes, that is exactly what happened. I made the choice to over buy, and that's on me, and that level of confidence of knowing I could go through time and space, that I could meet my customers here, you know, when I came back to town, or now that I moved back to town, and I don't have to flinch, right? But I'm not that I did it in a way that left them and me feeling good about the way I sold them. That's pretty it's pretty important,   Michael Hingson ** 26:15 and it is important, and it's, it's vital to do that. You know, a lot of people in sales talk all about networking and so on. You, don't you? You really do talk about what I believe is the most important part about sales, and that's relationship building, correct?   Daniel Andrews ** 26:34 I took, took my theme from The subtitle of a book called Super connector, and the subtitle is, stop networking and start building relationships that matter. And I'm, I'm comfortable using that, by the way, there's another book titled networking isn't working, and it's really hitting the same theme, which is, whatever people are calling networking is, is not really, truly building a network and relationships that make a difference. It's social selling. I call it sometimes. It's being practiced as speed prospecting, right? Or marketing by hand. There's, there's, there's a bunch of ways that I can articulate why it's not literally not networking. It's simply meeting people and treating them very one dimensionally. Will you buy my thing? Or do you know somebody That'll buy my thing right? And those are very short sighted questions that have limited value and keeps people on a treadmill of thinking they need to do more networking or meet the right people. I get this all the time, if I can just find the right people, or if I could just be in the right rooms, right at the right events, and I'm like, or you could just be the person that knows how to build the right relationships, no matter what room you're in. Now, having said that, are there some events, some rooms, some communities, that have a higher likelihood of high value? Sure, I don't want to discourage people from being intentional about where they go, but that's only probably 10 to 20% of the equation. 80 to 90% of the equation is, do you know what to do with the people that you meet when you meet them? Because anybody that's the wrong person, and I simply mean that in the context of they're not a prospect. Knows people that could be a prospect, but you can't just go, Oh, you're not going to buy my thing. Michael Hinkson, do you know, anybody that's going to buy my thing that's no good, because you're not going to put your reputation on the line and refer me somewhere, right until you have some trust in me, whatever that looks like.   Michael Hingson ** 28:30 And that's the real issue, right? It's all about trust right down the line. You know, network is meeting more people, meeting more people. That's great. I love to meet people, but I personally like to establish relationships. I like to get to know people, and have probably longer and more conversations than some of my bosses would have liked. But the result and the success of establishing the relationships can't be ignored   Daniel Andrews ** 29:05 correct. And I think that you kind of threw in a word there that I think some people will internalize, or it will reinforce some of their preconceptions. And I think it's worth addressing. And I'll just give you a quick example. Six, six weeks ago, four weeks ago, I had a conversation with somebody I was introduced to. His name happens to be Michael as well. Michael, Mike Whitmore. He was impressed with the quality of our first well, it went 45 it was scheduled for 25 and I went 45 because we really gelled. And he invited me to come to a cocktail party that was being hosted by a company he was affiliated with three hour event, and we spoke again later to make sure you know everything was in order, because it involved me flying to Salt Lake City for a cocktail party I did. He was there. We spoke briefly. We both mingled with other. People. I had breakfast with him the next day. This is yesterday that I had breakfast with him. And as we're talking, he's like, Okay, I have 80 people that need what you've got. He's, he's basically, after a few conversations, gonna refer about $400,000 for the business to me, right? And I'm like, Okay, and so what people miss is that you can build that relationship quickly if you're intentional about building the relationship. And where I see the mistake most people make. And God bless Dale Carnegie, and Dale's Carnegie sales training course, right? But that that the model, what I call the cocktail party model, or the How to Win Friends and Influence People, model of getting to know somebody you know. How about that ball team? You know? Did your sports club win? Right? How's the weather up there? Did you hear about the you know, how's your mom, right? When's the last time you were camping with the fam? All legitimate questions, but none of them moved the business conversation forward. And so the ability to build a productive business relationship faster by focusing on the mutual shared value that you have between each other and the business aspects, and including the personal as the icing on the cake is a much better way to do it, and that's why I was very particular about the fact that, you know, when I was talking about my experience with ketco, that it was over time that the personal aspects, that the friendship looking aspects, evolved On top of the business relationship, because it is way easier to mix the ingredients, to put the icing or friendship on the cake of business than it is to establish a friendship and then go, by the way, it's time for us to talk business, right? You need to our client, or you need to let me sell what I'm offering that can get become jarring to people, and it can call into question the whole reason you got to know them to start with, right? So I much prefer the other route. And just one other brief example, speaking with a woman in a in what I, you know, a first paired interview, Quick Connect, 25 minutes long, and she's like, understand, you know, relationships, it's the, you know, it's the way to do it, right? It's the long play, but it pays off over time. And you know, as long as you stay at it, and I'm like, Why do you keep saying it's the long play? Well, because relationships take time. And I'm like, You say so. And we started to run long and realized we had more value, so we booked it. Ended up being about four or five weeks later, because my calendar stays pretty full, and she's so we've been in 125 minute phone call. We start the second zoom with her, with Peggy asking me who's your target market again. And I gave her the description for a $25,000 client. And she said, I have three people that I can refer you to in that space that might might want to be clients. And then she started to try and tell me how relationships are the long play? Again, I'm like, thank you. Hold up. We spent 25 minutes together a month ago, and you started this conversation by referring $75,000 worth of revenue to me. What makes you think relationships are the long play? I think you can make them last if you want them to last, but it doesn't take a long time to build those I said I knew what I was doing with those first 25 minutes. That's why, at this stage of the game, you're looking to refer business to me. Yeah, right, yeah. And so I don't think it's a long you're not establishing a marriage relationship, right? You're not deciding who your new best friend is going to be, right? You're trying to establish a mutually beneficial business relationship and see what it takes you right with the right set of questions, it goes so much faster   Michael Hingson ** 33:49 and and that's really a key. And for me, one of the things that I learned in sales, that I really value a lot is never answer or ask close ended questions. I hate yes and no questions, because I learned a long time ago. I don't learn much if I just ask somebody. Oh, so you, you tell me you need a tape library, right? Yes, and you, you ask other questions, but you don't ask the questions like, What do you want to use it for? Why do you really need a tape library today? What? What is it that you you value or that you want to see increased in your world, or whatever the case happens to be, right? But I hate closed ended questions. I love to engage in conversations, and I have lots of stories where my sales teams. When I manage teams, at first, didn't understand that, and they asked the wrong questions. But when I would ask questions, I would get people talking. And I was I went into a room of Solomon brothers one day back in like, 2000 or so, or 2000 early 2001 and I was with. My best sales guy who understood a lot of this, but at the same time, he wanted me to come along, because they wanted to meet a sales manager, and he said, I didn't tell him you were blind, because we're going to really hit him with that. And that was fine. I understood what he what he meant, but also he knew that my style was different and that I liked to get more information. And so when we went in and I started trying to talk to the people, I turned to one guy and I said, tell me what's your name. And it took me three times to get him to say his name, and finally I had to say I heard you as I walked by. You know, I know you're there, what's your name? And then we started talking, and by the time all was said and done. I got everyone in that room talking, which is great, because they understood that I was really interested in knowing what they were all about, which is important,   Daniel Andrews ** 35:53 correct? And I mean part of it right, particularly if you're problem solving, right? If you're there with a solution, a sales environment, open ended questions, predominantly the way to go. There's always going to have to be some closed ended right? What's the budget for this? Who are the decision makers in the process? But, and I certainly think a lot of the same ones apply in decision making. Meaning, it's probably an 8020 split. 80% of the questions should be open ended. 20% you know, you know, you just need some data from the other person, right? Because, as I'm meeting people, I need to decide who to refer them to, right? I know I can think off the top of my head of three different resume coaches, right? People that help people get the resume, their cover letter and their interview skills together. And one charges, you know, four to 5000 for the effort, right, depending on the package, right? One charges between 2030 500 depending on one guy charges, you know, his Deluxe is 1200 bucks, right? And the deliverable is roughly the same. Meaning, I've never looked for a job using these people, because I've been self employed forever, but I would imagine the deliverable is probably not three times as or four times as good at 5k at 1200 Right, right? But I need to know the answer, what you charge, because the rooms I will put people in are going to differentiate, right? I actually said it to the guy that was charging 1200 I said, Where'd you get the number? And he told me. And I said, Do you realize that you're losing business because you're not charging enough, right? And he said, Yes, some prospects have told me that. And I said, I'm sorry. Plural. I said, How many? How many are going to tell you before I before you raise your rates? And I said, here's the thing, there's communities, networks that I can introduce you to at that price point, but the networks that I run in won't take you seriously if you're not quoting 5000 for the job. Yeah? And he just couldn't get his head around it. And I'm like, Okay, well, then you're stuck there until you figure out that you need to triple or quadruple your price to hang out in the rooms I hang out in to be taken seriously.   Michael Hingson ** 37:57 Yeah? And it is tough for a lot of people, by the way, with that Solomon story, by the time I was done, and we had planned on doing a PowerPoint show describing our products, which I did, but even before we did that, I knew our product wasn't going to do what they needed. But went through the presentation, and then I said, and as you can see, what we have won't work. Here's why, but here's what will work. And after it was all said and done, one of the people from near the back of the room came up and he said, we're mad at you. And I said, why? He said, Oh, your presentation was great. You You gave us an interesting presentation. We didn't get bored at all. The problem was, we forgot you were blind, and we didn't dare fall asleep, because you'd see us. And I said, well, well, the bottom line is, my dog was down here taking notes, and we would have got you anyway, but, but, you know, he was he we had a lot of fun with that. Two weeks later, we got a proposal request from them, and they said, just tell us what we're what we're going to have to pay. We got another project, and we're going to do it with you. And that was   Daniel Andrews ** 39:02 it, yeah, and because the credibility that you'd established credibility,   Michael Hingson ** 39:07 and that is a great thing,   Daniel Andrews ** 39:09 that was part of the discussion I have with some of my clients today when I hold a weekly office hours to see what comes up. And I said, it's just important to be able to refer people to resources or vendors, as it is to refer them to a prospect, right? If you don't have the solution, or if your solution isn't the best fit for them, the level of credibility you gain to go, you know what you need to do? You need to go hang out over there. Yeah, right. You need to talk to that guy or gal about what they have to offer. And the credibility goes through the roof. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 39:39 we've been talking about networking, and I think that's everything we've talked about. I think really makes a lot of sense, but at the same time, it doesn't mean that you don't build a network. It's just that networking and building a network are really two different sorts of things. What are some of the most important things that you've learned about building. That   Daniel Andrews ** 40:00 works. Sure, there's several, and some of them come as a bit of a shock to people. And I always say it's okay if it's a shock to you, because it was a shock to me. But I don't take I don't have opinions. I have positions based on data. Right? You know that from your from your days as a scientist, what you think ought to be true absolutely irrelevant in the face of what the data tells us is true. But I think one of the important things is that it's possible to give wrong. Adam Grant says in the first chapter of his book, give and take. That if you look at people's networking styles, and I'll use the common vernacular networking styles, you have givers, people that tend to give more than they, you know, receive takers, people whose objective is to always be on the plus side of the equation. And then matchers, people that practice the degree of reciprocity. And I would even argue that that reciprocity and matching is a bad mentality, just so you know. But if you look at the lifetime of success, a career is worth of success. In the top levels of success, you find more givers than takers and matchers, which makes a lot of sense. In the lowest levels of success, you find more givers than takers and matchers. They're giving wrong. They tend to polarize. They tend to either be high achieving or very low achieving, because they're giving wrong. And so I and Michael, let me use his name. We had breakfast yesterday morning after the happy hour, and I said, Mike, are you open for coaching? And he said, You know I am. He said, I didn't have you flat here in Salt Lake City, because I don't respect you. What do you got for me? I said, Josh kept thanking you yesterday for the things you've done for him in his world lately, you know, over the last several years. And he kept saying, What can I do for you? And you said, Oh, no, I just love giving. I love giving, right? You know, it's not a problem. You know, I'm in a great position. I don't need to have a lot of need of resources. And I said, and you're missing the fact that he was explicitly telling you this relationship feels uneven. I said it takes longer to kill it, but you will kill a relationship just as quickly by consistently over giving as you will by taking too much. And it's a little more subconscious, although in Josh's case, it was very conscious. He was actively trying to get Mike to tell him, what can I do for you so I don't feel like I'm powerless in this relationship. And Mike was like, Oh my gosh, I never thought of that. Said, Look, I said, I don't know how your kids are. He said, well, two of them are married. And I said, my grown daughter argues with me over who's going to buy dinner. But I get it because I used to argue with my dad, who was going to buy dinner. Yeah, dinner together, right? It feels weird for someone, even somebody, that loves you, right? And, of course, the only way I can do it with my daughter is to explain, it's her money anyway. I'm just spending her inheritance on her now, it's the only way she'll let me buy dinner every time we meet, and she still insists that she pays the debt, because over giving will get in the way of what we're trying to accomplish, right? That's fair, yeah. And so people miss that, right? I get this law of reciprocity. If I just give and give and give to the world, it'll all come back to me. No, ma'am. We have 6000 years of recorded history that says that's not   Michael Hingson ** 43:18 how it works. There's there's something to be said forgiving, but there's also receiving. And in a sense, receiving can be a gift too. So you're mentioning Michael and Josh. Josh would have loved, as you're pointing out, Michael to tell him some things that he could do for Michael, and that would have been a great gift. So the reality is, it's how people view giving, which is oftentimes such a problem. I know, for me as a public speaker, I love dealing with organizations that are willing to pay a decent wage to bring a speaker in, because they understand it, and they know they're going to get their money's worth out of it. And I've gone and spoken at some places where they say, well, we can't pay you a lot of money. We're going to have to pay just this little, tiny amount. And invariably, they're the organizations that take the most work, because they're the ones that are demanding the most, even though they're not giving nearly as much in return. And and for me, I will always tell anyone, especially when we're clearly establishing a good relationship, I'm here as your guest. I want to do whatever you need me to do, so please tell me how best I can help you, but I know I'm going to add value, and we explore that together, and it's all about communication.   Daniel Andrews ** 44:48 I think so well. And in the case, you know, just go back to the mike and Josh story real quick, right? There's, there's number one, there's a sense of fairness. And I don't like the word reciprocity or magic, right? I like the word. Mutuality, but there's a sense of fairness. Number one. Number two, it's a little bit belittling to Josh, for Mike to act like Josh doesn't have anything to offer him, right? It's a little bit condescending, or it could be, Mike doesn't mean it that way, right? No, what he means is my relationship with you, Josh is not predicated on us keeping a scoreboard on the wall and that we make sure we come out even at the end of every quarter, right? But, but. And then the third part is, you know, I said, Mike, think of how good you feel when you give. He says, I love it. It's great. That's why I said, so you're robbing Josh of the feeling of giving when you don't give him a chance to give. I said, you're telling him that your joy is more important than his joy, and he's like I never thought of over giving or not asking as robbing people of joy. I said, You need to give the gift to Josh and the people around you to feel the joy that comes from being of use, of being helpful, of having and I said, even if you have to make something up or overstate the value of a of a task that he could do for you, I said, if you literally don't need anything in your world, Mike, find some job Hunter that's looking for work. And say, Josh, as a courtesy to me, would you meet with Billy Bob and see if you can help him find work somehow give Josh the sense that he's contributing to the betterment of your world, even   Michael Hingson ** 46:26 if it may not work out that this person, Billy Bob would would get a job, but it's still you're you're helping to further the relationship between the two of you, correct, right? You're   Daniel Andrews ** 46:38 helping him feel like he's an equal in that relationship. And that's an important part of it. It really is. It's now I do an important part. I do believe we absolutely should tithe. We should give of our time. We should be at the homeless shelter on Thanksgiving. If that's what we're called to do, we should be, you know, you know, aid to the poor, you know, mentoring junior people who don't have a lot to offer us. I absolutely believe that's true. So when I say give strategically or given a sense of mutuality, but we need clear delineations on you know what we're doing, because if we give indiscriminately, then we find out that we're like the people in chapter one of Adam Grant's book that are in the lower quartile of success, even though we're quote, doing all the right things. And the best way to make you know, the example I give on that, and I'll articulate this little bit, I'm holding my hands apart and moving them closer together in stages, just because the visual will help you here too. But I tell people, right? I hold my hands apart and I say, you know, we're going to spend this much time on the planet alive, right? And this much time on the planet awake, right, and this much time on the planet at work. And then I'll pause and go, these are approximations right, because clearly they are right, and this much time on the planet dealing with other people. So if, if it's true that we only have a limited or finite resource of time to spend building a network with other people, then why wouldn't we choose people whose message is worth amplifying and who we're well positioned to amplify and vice versa? And to make that even more clear for people, if you're a real estate agent, you could find a lot of people that would refer business to you, but you could find a few people that would refer a lot   Michael Hingson ** 48:25 of business, a lot of business. Yeah,   Daniel Andrews ** 48:27 you could find a mortgage lender, a divorce attorney, a moving company, a funeral home director, a nursing home director, right? And and if you're going to spend time building relationships with people, why wouldn't you find the people who are positioned to touch more people that you need to touch, particularly if there is some mutuality, meaning, as a real estate agent, I would be just as likely to be able to help a mortgage lender, a moving company, a funeral loan director, etc, etc, etc, right? All those things can come into play. And you know, the John gates, the salary negotiation coach, right? And Amanda Val bear, the resume writing coach, anybody can refer business to Amanda, but John's going to refer a lot more business to Amanda. Anybody can refer business to John, but Amanda's going to refer a lot more business to John. And and, you know, given that we've only got a finite number of conversations we're able to hold in our lifetime, why wouldn't Amanda and John be spending time with each other rather than spending time with me, who might occasionally meet somebody who needs them, but not on a daily basis the way Amanda meets John's clients? John meets Amanda's potential clients.   Michael Hingson ** 49:32 So here's the other way to spin. May not be the right word, but I'll use it. Frame it. Frame it. So you've got somebody who you're not giving a lot of, let's say a real estate agent. You're not giving that person a lot, but you're giving Elmo Schwartz, the real estate agent down the street, a lot more referrals and so on. Then the real estate agent who you're not referring a lot of people to, comes along and says, You. You know, I know you're really working with this other guy, but you know you and I have have had some conversations, and so how come I can't take advantage of the many opportunities that you're that you're offering? And I, for me, I always rejoice when I hear somebody ask that question, because at least they're opening up and they're saying, What do I need to do? At least, that's what I assume they're asking,   Daniel Andrews ** 50:24 yes, yeah, and that's a question that I teach people to ask, under what conditions would you feel comfortable referring business to me, right? Right? And you know, they may go, well, we don't share the same last name, but all my referrals go to, you know, Billy Bob, because he's my brother in law, and Thanksgiving gets weird, right? If he realizes I've been given leads to you, right? You know, it may never happen. Now, in my case, I believe in having multiple referral partners in every industry, right? Yeah, I don't just pick one, because personality plays part of it, right? I mean, and we can go back to real estate just because you say you're a real estate agent, I'm a real estate agent. I mean, we're calling on the same market. Same market at all, right, right? You could be a buyer's agent. I could be a seller's agent. You could be calling on, you know, what's a probate and estate issues? I could be dealing with first time homebuyers and young people, right? And therefore, and a lot of times it's personality, meaning, I personally, is not even the right word approach to business, meaning, there's some people that I would send to Ann Thomason, and there's some people I would send to Kim Lawson, and there's some people I would send to Elaine Gillespie, and some people I'd send to Taco Beals, right? Because I know what each of their strengths are, and I also know what sort of person they want to work with, right? Right? That's 1/3 person would appreciate them.   Michael Hingson ** 51:42 And that's the important part that that when somebody comes along and says, How come such and such, you can answer that, and you can do it in a way that helps them understand where they can truly fit into what you're offering, and that you can find a way to make it work, and that's really important. I've always maintained the best salespeople or teachers, pure and simple, in almost everything, and preachers, but but listening preachers. So it is, it is important to, yeah, well,   Daniel Andrews ** 52:16 and I bring this up in the context because we have a Bible college here in our town. So when I was a manager for Cutco, right? We get the college kids, right? Some of these seminary students, you know, looking for summer work and right? And they're like, you know, how does sales relate to, you know, being in the ministry later, I said, man. I said, Are you kidding? You kidding? I said, it's the purest. I said, you've got the hardest sales down on the roll. You ask people to pay the price now, and the payoff is at the end of their life. That's not sales. I don't know what is. At least, when people give me money, I give them something for it within a couple of days, you know, I said, I said, You better be good at sales if you're going to be your preacher eventually. Because you the, you know, the payment, the cost comes now, and the payoff, the reward comes later. I said, Man, those are the same but teachers the same way, right? You've got to invest the kids, the kids or the student, no matter how you know and what they're learning and why it's going to be relevant down the   Michael Hingson ** 53:06 road, right? Yeah, well, you You clearly have, have accepted all of this. When did you realize that maybe you were doing it wrong and that you re evaluated what you do?   Daniel Andrews ** 53:17 That's a great story, and there was a light bulb moment for me, right? I think the kids these days call it the origin story, right? You know. And and to tell the story correctly, but I have to give labels to the other two people involved, because their names are so similar that when I tell the story, I managed to confuse myself who was who. So I was in St Louis, Missouri, which, for reasons I won't go into for this podcast, is a weird town to be involved in B to B business in. They literally would prefer to do business with somebody they went to high school with. It's just a It's strange, but true. And I can go into the background of why it's true. It just is. It's accepted by people that have sold in towns other than St Louis. It's they know that St Louis is weird. Okay, so I'm having trouble not getting the traction I want. Who's in my industry, he agrees that we're going to partner and we're going to have a revenue share. I don't believe in finder's fees, but if you're going to co create the value with me, that's a different thing altogether, right? Writing a name on a piece of paper, I'm not paying for that. But if you're going to go with me on the appointment and help me get the job done. Yeah. Okay, back to the point. So my wingman, right? My partner, I call him wingman for the version this story, local, been around forever, prospect, business owner, right? We've got a B to B offered that's going to be fairly lucrative, because he's part of a family that owns a family businesses quite, quite a large there in St Louis. And we had met with the CFO because that was the real touch point on the business. As far as the value proposition over lunch, the four of us have been there prospect wingman CFO, of the prospect of myself, and it went reasonably well. Out they wanted to follow up to make the decision, which is not, not atypical. So we're back there standing in the parking lot of the prospects business, and the prospect points at me and says, Who is this guy? And my partner says, he's my guy. And the prospect points at me and goes, but I don't know this guy, and my partner says, but I know this guy, and the prospect points me and says, Well, what happens if something happens to this guy? And my partner says, I'll find another guy. And that was the purest, simplest form of what's truly happening when you're building a network. See, my days at Cutco were predicated on some of the same things. I go to Michael's house. I asked the name of your neighbors, your best friends, your pastor, your doctor, whoever you think, and then I would call them Hey, your buddy Michael insen said you'd help me out. So I'm borrowing a little bit of credibility, but the sale was made in the product, right? I'm only asking for a moment of your time, but I expected to show up, meaning I was only borrowing someone else's credibility to get a moment of your time. But I expected to show up and let the product and my Sterling personalities, I like to think of it, shine through and make the sale. There you go. And I realized, because when the prospect pointed me and said, Who is this guy, I thought my partner would say, he's my guy. Daniel, here's your chance to rise and shine, bring it, do that song and dance that you do, right? And he didn't. He kept the focus on the real point, which was that the prospect had credibility with my partner, and my partner had credibility with me. Yeah, right. And, and, and in that moment where he refused to put the spotlight on me, my partner kept it on himself, and he said, Mr. Prospect, don't worry about him. I'm not asking you to trust him. I'm asking you to trust me. And that was the light bulb where I said, Oh, what we're building is not introductions. We're building endorsements. When I get to the prospects door. I have the all the credibility that came from Bert, who referred me right, whatever credibility my partner, Bert, had with the prospect Butch. I show up on Butch is doorstep with that credibility. And when Butch starts to question it, the prospect starts to question it, my partner goes, What do you question? You're going to question him. We're not talking about him. We're talking about you and me, and we've known each other 30 years. What are you doing here? And I'm like, oh, that's why we're doing this. That's the point. I'm not asking to borrow your Rolodex. I'm asking to borrow your credibility.   Michael Hingson ** 57:38 And the other part of that question that comes to mind is, did the credibility that Bert and Butch have with each other ever get to the point where it transferred to you, at least in part? Oh, yeah,   Daniel Andrews ** 57:55 yeah, we got the sale. Yeah. I mean, that was the conversation where he's like, All right, we're going to do this. I'm like, because it was a big deal. It was a very large deal. And, yeah, but in   Michael Hingson ** 58:04 general, you know, I hear what you're saying, and in general, somewhere along the line, the prospect has to say, has to hopefully recognize this other guy really is part of the process and has value, and so I'm going to like him too, correct,   Daniel Andrews ** 58:23 and you can drop the ball. It's possible to screw it up, but I'm starting at a level 10 in the case of this particular pair of people, and it's mine to lose, as opposed to starting from zero and trying to get up to five or six or eight or whatever it takes to make the sale, and that's the biggest difference, right? It will, it will transfer to me, but then it's up to me to drop the ball and lose it, meaning, if I don't do anything stupid, it's going to stay there. And you know what was great about my partner was he didn't even not that I would have but he didn't give me any room to say anything stupid. He's like, he's like, let's not even talk. Put the spotlight on Daniel. Let's keep the spotlight on the two of us, and the fact that I've never let you down in 30 years. Why would you think this is going to be a bad introduction   Michael Hingson ** 59:09

From the archive: This episode was originally recorded and published in 2021. Our interviews on Entrepreneurs On Fire are meant to be evergreen, and we do our best to confirm that all offers and URL's in these archive episodes are still relevant. Michael E. Gerber is the author of the NY Times mega-bestseller, for two consecutive decades, "The E-Myth Revisited" and nine other worldwide best-selling E-Myth books concerning small business entrepreneurship, leadership, and management. Top 3 Value Bombs 1. If you're to become someone you're not, or you're to possess something you don't feel, or you're unwilling to go one step further in your life without discovering who you are and why you're here, then The Dreaming Room Online is for you. 2. The entrepreneurial spirit, despite the desire to not experience pain, is incapable of not doing what's necessary to be done despite the pain that comes with it. It's driven from within - from the notion that we're born from the image of God. 3. The four personalities an entrepreneur is comprised of — the dreamer, the thinker, the storyteller, the leader. Transform Your Life. Realize Your Dream. Vision. Purpose. Mission - Michael's website Sponsors HubSpot When you combine the power of Marketing Hub and Content Hub, you can have your best quarter, every quarter. Visit Hubspot.com/marketers to learn more Notion Combines your notes, docs, and projects into one space that's simple and beautifully designed. And now it has the power of AI built right inside of it! Try Notion for free when you go to Notion.com/johnleedumas Optimize To chat with JLD about Optimizing your life, click here: EOFire.com/optimize

From the archive: This episode was originally recorded and published in 2021. Our interviews on Entrepreneurs On Fire are meant to be evergreen, and we do our best to confirm that all offers and URL's in these archive episodes are still relevant. Michael E. Gerber is the author of the NY Times mega-bestseller, for two consecutive decades, "The E-Myth Revisited" and nine other worldwide best-selling E-Myth books concerning small business entrepreneurship, leadership, and management. Top 3 Value Bombs 1. If you're to become someone you're not, or you're to possess something you don't feel, or you're unwilling to go one step further in your life without discovering who you are and why you're here, then The Dreaming Room Online is for you. 2. The entrepreneurial spirit, despite the desire to not experience pain, is incapable of not doing what's necessary to be done despite the pain that comes with it. It's driven from within - from the notion that we're born from the image of God. 3. The four personalities an entrepreneur is comprised of — the dreamer, the thinker, the storyteller, the leader. Transform Your Life. Realize Your Dream. Vision. Purpose. Mission - Michael's website Sponsors HubSpot When you combine the power of Marketing Hub and Content Hub, you can have your best quarter, every quarter. Visit Hubspot.com/marketers to learn more Notion Combines your notes, docs, and projects into one space that's simple and beautifully designed. And now it has the power of AI built right inside of it! Try Notion for free when you go to Notion.com/johnleedumas Optimize To chat with JLD about Optimizing your life, click here: EOFire.com/optimize

In this episode of Grow a Small Business, host Troy Trewin interviews Julie Bee, founder of Julie Bee Consulting. Julie shares her journey of starting a marketing agency in 2008, growing it to a 15-member team with 7-figure revenue, and her eventual exit. She discusses her book Burned, which helps business owners navigate burnout, and provides insights on leadership, financial strategy, and redefining success. Tune in to learn actionable strategies from Julie's inspiring career. In her book Burned: How Business Owners Can Overcome Burnout and Fuel Success, she addresses the widespread issue of burnout among business owners, emphasizing that traditional advice—such as taking vacations, exercising more, and practicing meditation—does not provide the real solutions they need to overcome this challenge. Why would you wait any longer to start living the lifestyle you signed up for? Balance your health, wealth, relationships and business growth. And focus your time and energy and make the most of this year. Let's get into it by clicking here. Troy delves into our guest's startup journey, their perception of success, industry reconsideration, and the pivotal stress point during business expansion. They discuss the joys of small business growth, vital entrepreneurial habits, and strategies for team building, encompassing wins, blunders, and invaluable advice. And a snapshot of the final five Grow A Small Business Questions: What do you think is the hardest thing in growing a small business? Julie Bee believes the hardest thing in growing a small business is delegating effectively, particularly sales, which is often challenging for small business owners to let go of. She emphasizes the importance of training others and building systems to enable growth without micromanagement. This includes creating processes, empowering teams, and resisting the urge to fix every problem personally, which can hinder scalability and efficiency. What's your favourite business book that has helped you the most? Julie Bee's favorite business book is The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber, which she finds invaluable for its insights on building systems and processes to scale a small business. She also highly recommends The Great Game of Business by Jack Stack, appreciating its practical advice on financial transparency and employee engagement, which are crucial for sustainable growth. Both books have significantly influenced her entrepreneurial journey. Are there any great podcasts or online learning resources you'd recommend to help grow a small business? Julie Bee recommends several podcasts and online learning resources to help grow a small business, including Jay Klaus's Creator Lab, which focuses on helping creators and entrepreneurs, Speaker Lab, a podcast she frequently listens to, especially as speaking engagements are part of her career, and Don't Write That Book, a fantastic resource for aspiring authors that she wishes she had discovered earlier. These resources cover a range of topics, from general entrepreneurship to specific skills like public speaking and writing, making them valuable tools for business growth. What tool or resource would you recommend to grow a small business? Julie Bee recommends using project management software like Asana right from the start to help grow a small business. She emphasizes that getting used to such tools early on can make it easier to scale and manage your team as your business grows. By adopting project management software, you can streamline workflows, improve organization, and facilitate collaboration, which are essential for sustainable business growth. What advice would you give yourself on day one of starting out in business? Julie Bee would advise herself on day one of starting out in business that success and goals are not the same thing. She emphasizes the importance of defining success outside of just achieving goals because, as a business owner and high achiever, you often move on to the next goal immediately after reaching one, leaving little time to feel successful. She would tell herself to create a definition of success that goes beyond goal achievement, such as enjoying personal relationships, flexibility, and well-being, to truly feel fulfilled in both business and life.  Book a 20-minute Growth Chat with Troy Trewin to see if you qualify for our upcoming course. Don't miss out on this opportunity to take your small business to new heights! Enjoyed the podcast? Please leave a review on iTunes or your preferred platform. Your feedback helps more small business owners discover our podcast and embark on their business growth journey.       Quotable quotes from our special Grow A Small Business podcast guest: Success isn't just about achieving goals; it's about defining what truly matters to you beyond the numbers — Julie Bee Measure your well-being like you measure your business KPIs—what gets measured gets managed — Julie Bee Leadership isn't about fixing problems for others; it's about teaching them how to solve them — Julie Bee      

In this episode of Grow a Small Business, host Michael Denehey interviews Mike McHenry, founder of Seamless SMSF, shares his inspiring journey of scaling from a solo venture with one team member to a thriving business with 50 staff. Based in Gold Coast, Australia, Seamless SMSF audits over 30,000 funds for 360 firms, emphasizing a people-first culture. Mike reveals key lessons on building processes, maintaining strong relationships, and fostering team development. His insights offer valuable takeaways for entrepreneurs navigating growth. Why would you wait any longer to start living the lifestyle you signed up for? Balance your health, wealth, relationships and business growth. And focus your time and energy and make the most of this year. Let's get into it by clicking here. Michael delves into our guest's startup journey, their perception of success, industry reconsideration, and the pivotal stress point during business expansion. They discuss the joys of small business growth, vital entrepreneurial habits, and strategies for team building, encompassing wins, blunders, and invaluable advice. And a snapshot of the final five Grow A Small Business Questions: What do you think is the hardest thing in growing a small business? Mike McHenry believes the hardest part of growing a small business is managing people. He emphasizes that while people are the greatest asset, they can also be the biggest challenge. Success comes from hiring for cultural fit over skill alone, fostering trust, and building a supportive and aligned team culture. He stresses that having the right people who follow effective processes is essential for delivering outcomes and sustaining growth. What's your favourite business book that has helped you the most? Mike McHenry's favorite business book is "The E-Myth Revisited" by Michael Gerber. He appreciates its focus on the importance of systems and processes in creating scalable and successful businesses. Mike considers it a foundational read for anyone starting or running a business, highlighting how it teaches entrepreneurs to understand their customers deeply and build businesses that feel personal and supportive. Are there any great podcasts or online learning resources you'd recommend to help grow a small business? Mike McHenry recommends exploring sales-focused podcasts and resources like Simon Sinek's insightful YouTube content, which emphasizes people and leadership challenges in the modern era. While he doesn't follow specific podcasts regularly, he values recommendations from trusted contacts and seeks out learning opportunities that align with his interests. What tool or resource would you recommend to grow a small business? Mike McHenry highlights culture as the most critical "tool" for growing a small business. He emphasizes creating a people-first environment where empathy, respect, and collaboration are central. Building strong relationships with employees and customers fosters trust and engagement. Additionally, he recommends developing clear systems and processes to deliver consistent outcomes. McHenry advises asking, "What do I want people to say about my business when I'm not in the room?" and aligning your actions to achieve that reputation. What advice would you give yourself on day one of starting out in business? Mike McHenry's advice to himself on day one of starting out in business is: "Don't panic. It's going to be okay." He stresses the importance of staying calm, focusing on the bigger picture, and forgiving yourself for mistakes, as they are part of the journey. He encourages new entrepreneurs to approach business as a game, focus on their intent, and trust that things will work out with perseverance and a people-first mindset. Book a 20-minute Growth Chat with Troy Trewin to see if you qualify for our upcoming course. Don't miss out on this opportunity to take your small business to new heights! Enjoyed the podcast? Please leave a review on iTunes or your preferred platform. Your feedback helps more small business owners discover our podcast and embark on their business growth journey.     Quotable quotes from our special Grow A Small Business podcast guest: Success in business starts with giving a genuine care about people and their needs — Mike McHenry Outstanding culture drives outstanding results; never compromise on it — Mike McHenry True business growth happens when you leave your ego at the door — Mike McHenry  

Originally aired in February of this year, this episode revisits timeless insights from Michael E. Gerber, author of The E-Myth Revisited and one of the world's most renowned thought leaders on small business success.What does it take to build a business that operates without relying entirely on you? How do you design systems that scale while staying true to your vision and values?In this episode, Bill Gallagher reconnects with Michael to explore foundational principles for creating scalable systems and impactful businesses. Michael reflects on his journey, the lessons from his bestseller, and why the concepts from The E-Myth remain as relevant today as ever.Topics explored in this episode:- The key difference between owning a business and having a job.- Why most small businesses fail—and how to avoid the pitfalls.- The Eightfold Path to evolving a company from 1 to 1,000 employees.- The critical role of storytelling in creating a lasting legacy.- Lessons from McDonald's and other scalable business models.- Why repeatability and ritual are at the heart of business success.Chapters(02:00) Michael's Accidental Journey into Business(09:30) The Importance of a Selling System(17:00) Lessons from McDonald's: Building Scalable Systems(22:00) The Dream, Vision, Purpose, and Mission Framework(31:00) Practice, Ritual, and Mastery in Business(45:00) Addressing Remote Work through Timeless Principles(50:00) The Eightfold Path: Evolving a Company from 1 to 1,000Michael E. Gerber has spent over 40 years revolutionizing the way small businesses operate, starting with the principles in his global bestseller, The E-Myth Revisited. His work has inspired millions of entrepreneurs to systematize their businesses, transform their approach, and build enterprises that thrive without them.Learn more about Michael's transformational programs: MichaelEGerber.comJoin Michael in The Dreaming Room: A six-week immersive experience to awaken the entrepreneur within.Connect with Michael:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelegerbercompanies/Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/michaelegerberVisit https://ScalingUp.com to learn more about Verne Harnish, our team of Scaling Up Coaches, and the Scaling Up Performance Platform, which includes coaching, learning, software, and summit. We share how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail. We help leadership teams with the biggest decisions around people, strategy, execution, and cash so that they can scale up successfully and beat the odds of business growth. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so, then please leave a review! Help other business leaders discover Scaling Up Business with Bill Gallagher so they, too, can benefit from the ideas shared in these podcasts.Subscribe via Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3PGhWPJSubscribe via Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3PKe00uBill on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/billgall/ Bill on Twitter/X:

In this episode of Grow a Small Business, host Troy Trewin interviews Solomon Thimothy, founder of ClickX, about his journey from freelancing in a café to leading a team of 80 across multiple business ventures. Solomon shares insights on building sustainable growth, mastering lead generation, and his proven Growth Formula. Learn how his focus on systems, partnerships, and mindset helped him scale ClickX and beyond over 18 successful years. Why would you wait any longer to start living the lifestyle you signed up for? Balance your health, wealth, relationships and business growth. And focus your time and energy and make the most of this year. Let's get into it by clicking here. Troy delves into our guest's startup journey, their perception of success, industry reconsideration, and the pivotal stress point during business expansion. They discuss the joys of small business growth, vital entrepreneurial habits, and strategies for team building, encompassing wins, blunders, and invaluable advice. And a snapshot of the final five Grow A Small Business Questions: What do you think is the hardest thing in growing a small business? According to Solomon Thimothy, the hardest thing in growing a small business is getting out of your own way. Many entrepreneurs struggle to delegate and scale because they want to handle everything themselves. He emphasizes the importance of shifting from doing the work to leading, building systems, and trusting others to take ownership. Overcoming this fear and mindset is critical to achieving sustainable growth. What's your favourite business book that has helped you the most? Solomon Thimothy highlights that his favorite business books are those focused on personal development, like those by Brian Tracy. He believes these books are instrumental in shaping the mindset needed to tackle challenges and grow a business. For tactical advice, he recommends scaling-focused books like Scaling Up by Verne Harnish and The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber, which teach how to build systems and create a scalable business structure. Are there any great podcasts or online learning resources you'd recommend to help grow a small business? Solomon Thimothy recommends How I Built This by Guy Raz as one of his favorite podcasts, offering inspiring stories behind successful businesses, and also mentioned Business Wars as a valuable resource for understanding competitive dynamics between top brands. While he prefers books for professional development, consuming several at a time through Audible and AI-assisted tools, Solomon emphasizes the importance of personal development and mindset-focused materials early in a business journey, followed by tactical and scaling-oriented resources as the business grows. This reflects his belief in continuous learning to drive small business success. What tool or resource would you recommend to grow a small business? Solomon Thimothy highlighted google.com as a powerful and versatile tool for growing a small business. He emphasized that advanced search techniques on Google can provide a wealth of information and solutions, often outperforming more specialized tools. Solomon described Google as "the original chat GPT," offering immense value for resourceful business owners without requiring additional subscriptions or tools. What advice would you give yourself on day one of starting out in business? Solomon Thimothy's advice to himself on day one of starting out in business would be to take more risks. He reflected on how fear and uncertainty in his early years held him back from taking on larger projects, despite their potential for monumental growth. Book a 20-minute Growth Chat with Troy Trewin to see if you qualify for our upcoming course. Don't miss out on this opportunity to take your small business to new heights! Enjoyed the podcast? Please leave a review on iTunes or your preferred platform. Your feedback helps more small business owners discover our podcast and embark on their business growth journey.     Quotable quotes from our special Grow A Small Business podcast guest: Success is built on systems, not shortcuts. The right systems can scale your business beyond your wildest dreams – Solomon Thimothy Partnerships that focus on serving customers, not just profits, are the ones that truly last – Solomon Thimothy Growth happens when you master acquisition, retention, and the mindset to keep pushing forward – Solomon Thimothy      

What does it take to build a business you love—and sustain that love for decades, even into your 80s and 90s? In this episode, Jaryd is thrilled to sit down with Michael E. Gerber, the legendary author of The E-Myth Revisited, a New York Times bestseller. Michael is not only a prolific author of more than 30 books but also recognized by Inc. magazine as the world's #1 small business guru. Together, they explore the secrets behind his unparalleled success in building the world's largest small business consulting firm and helping countless entrepreneurs overcome the staggering failure rates of new businesses. Michael shares insights from his revolutionary eight-step path to business success, a system that has transformed businesses across countless industries and models. They also dive deep into the common barriers business owners face—like emotional blockages and self-doubt—and Michael's strategies for breaking through them. As he passionately explains, success isn't just about following a system but also about having the mindset to embrace it fully. Michael reveals his ambitious goal of writing 190+ books and how his love for business fuels this extraordinary vision. At 88 years young, his passion for business is both inspiring and contagious, leaving us all wondering: what's the secret to loving what you do for life? This conversation is packed with value, wisdom, and insights from one of the greatest business minds of our time. Tune in and create a business—and a life—you love. Episode Highlights 03:00 About Michael's written books 07:00 How to scale a business? 15:00 Michael's advice for entrepreneurs 21:30 How to have a long-term passion for your business? 30:00 Passion to create is the “key”     Key Takeaways ➥ Successful entrepreneurs must transition from working in the business to working on the business by implementing scalable systems and stepping out of the day-to-day operations. ➥ Entrepreneurs often face internal resistance, such as self-doubt and limiting narratives. Gerber's system addresses these by emphasizing discipline and a clear focus on foundational goals. ➥ A guided process where entrepreneurs clarify their dream, vision, purpose, and mission—the essential foundation for building a thriving business. About The Guest Michael E. Gerber is the author of the mega-seller “The E-myth Revisited”, NYT best seller for 2 decades, has written 28 other business coaching books, keynote speaker on over 400 stages and and Inc. Magazine called him  “The worlds #1 small business guru”. Connect with Michael E. Gerber  ➥ https://www.michaelegerbercompanies.com/  Resource Links ➥ Sell your business to us here - https://buyingonlinebusinesses.com/sell-your-business/ ➥ Buying Online Businesses Website - https://buyingonlinebusinesses.com ➥ Download the Due Diligence Framework - https://buyingonlinebusinesses.com/freeresources/ ➥ Hostinger (Website Hosting) - https://bit.ly/3HUqW0s ➥ Market Muse (SEO tool) - https://bit.ly/3Me39L0 ➥ Convert Kit (Email Software Provider) - https://bit.ly/3o10Xgx  

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Send us a textImperfect Marketing with host Kendra CormanEpisode 251: Personal Branding with AI: Building Your Unique VoiceKendra discusses how to leverage AI for personal branding while maintaining authenticity and consistency across platforms.Highlights from today's episode include:Creating a voice paragraph to guide AI in mimicking your brand voiceExperimenting with different tones and styles for various platformsDeveloping a "words not to use" list to refine AI-generated contentTips for training AI to amplify your unique voiceThe importance of authenticity in AI-assisted personal brandingResources:AI Prompt to create a voice ParagraphYou're an AI system that has been trained to analyze the text below for style, voice and tone, then use NLP to create a voice paragraph. The Voice Paragraph you write is designed to prompt a future AI system to write in that same style, voice and tone. It should NOT be specific to the actual content, company, or industry; instead, it should focus on the style of writing. Here is the input text to write your voice description based on:Example 1:NOTE: ADD EXAMPLES THAT ARE ALL THE SAME. INSTAGRAM, LINKEDIN, ONE BLOG POST, ETC. DO NOT MIX POST TYPES FOR THIS INFORMATION.Book mentioned: "The E-Myth Revisited" by Michael E. GerberConnect with Kendra Corman:LinkedInWebsiteJoin us every Tuesday and Thursday for more insights on marketing strategies and how to embrace imperfection in your branding journey. Don't forget to rate and subscribe! Looking to leverage AI? Want better results? Want to think about what you want to leverage?Check and see how I am using it for FREE on YouTube. From "Holy cow, it can do that?" to "Wait, how does this work again?" – I've got all your AI curiosities covered. It's the perfect after-podcast snack for your tech-hungry brain. Watch here

Change can be daunting, but as Ethan Powsner explains, it's often the key to unlocking your agency's true potential. Hear firsthand how he helps title professionals overcome the inertia and resistance that so often derail even the best-laid plans. Discover the mindset shifts, stakeholder alignment strategies, and data-driven approaches that can propel your agency to new heights!     What you'll learn from this episode ●     What it means to work on vs. in the business ●     Challenges title agencies face in implementing strategic changes ●     The Lean principles for streamlining title operations ●     Reasons why a title agent should have a clear vision, set specific goals, and manage change effectively ●     Advantages of understanding business fundamentals and using metrics to make better decisions     Resources mentioned in this episode ●     The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber | Paperback and Kindle ●     Pitch Anything by Oren Klaff | Hardcover and Kindle ●     Advance in a Male-Dominated Title Industry as a Woman with Kelly Resendez | Apple Podcasts     About Ethan Powsner With over 30 years of experience spanning law, real estate, sales, and profit center management, Ethan Powsner offers title agencies a unique, expansive approach to enhancing profitability, expanding market share, and planning strategic acquisitions. As VP of Technology and Market Development at Fidelity, Ethan also focuses on guiding agency owners toward orderly succession planning, aligning operational excellence with long-term business goals.     Connect with Ethan ●     Website: Fidelity National Title® ●     LinkedIn: Ethan Powsner     Connect With Us Love what you're hearing? Don't miss an episode! Follow us on our social media channels and stay connected.   Explore more on our website: www.alltechnational.com/podcast Stay updated with our newsletter: www.mochoumil.com Follow Mo on LinkedIn: Mo Choumil    

Do you want to get better at asking questions? Do you want to learn more about having stellar sales calls with potential clients? Are you on the verge of making a big leap and need a pep talk from an expert? We are covering these topics and more in this episode about the difference between therapy and coaching. Join us to learn more!Caryn Gillen is a coach and strategist for coaches who helps them make their businesses as great as their coaching. After getting her master's in counseling psychology and working as a therapist, she turned to coaching and found her sweet spot that's fueled her passion for the past 15 years. Her coaching practice centers around her personal values of spaciousness, integrity, wholeheartedness, connection, and growth. Caryn lives and works in Eugene, Oregon. Show Highlights:Caryn's story of discovering coaching and settling into this profession after a short stint as a therapistCaryn's perspective on the difference between therapy and coachingThe process of coaching so you can hold space for someone and feel confident and trusting of yourself“Coaching IS questions. Coaches are professional question-askers.”Caryn's favorite coaching questions come from “left field” and her intuition.The role of intuition in Caryn's business, even in making difficult decisions and taking big leapsCaryn's advice about finding your “number” and building toward that for safety and securityCultivating relationships to benefit your businessA look at Caryn's astrology–and what it says about connection, success, and entrepreneurshipStellar sales calls that deliver results from a place of curiosityCaryn's process of loving peopleA pep talk to coach yourself through a moment of “stuckness”“An exceptional life requires taking exceptional steps.”Making sense of human designThoughts on spaciousness, alignment, and purposeHear Caryn's answers to rapid-fire questions about helpful advice, morning routine, what she's reading right nowResources:Connect with Caryn GillenWebsite (Contact Caryn for The 30-Day Guide to Powerful Questions.) *Mentioned in this episode: Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey, On Our Best Behaviour: The Price Women Pay to Be Good by Elise Loehnen, and The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. GerberConnect with PaulaGet 1:1 astrological support to align with your purpose, assess compatibility, and find auspicious timing for launches and sales in a day-long. Can potentially be in person. Only 5 spots are available in the fall. More info here.Get your free Heal Your Money Karma checklist & training here.Get the 2025 Astrology Guidebook and receive all my hand-picked lay-low and auspicious days for the year, plus major transits and auspicious dates from the Indian calendar that you can drop right into your Google calendar. We have added exciting, new features in the latest version of the...

In this episode of The Pilates Business Podcast, host Seran Glanfield shares her all-time favorite business books that have shaped her approach to leadership, marketing, and growth. Whether you're looking for strategies to scale your boutique fitness studio, create a standout brand, or shift your mindset for success, Seran's curated list of must-reads will inspire and guide you. From foundational concepts on business structure to powerful insights on marketing and leadership, these books provide practical takeaways that studio owners can apply today.Key Takeaways:How to scale your studio with systems from The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber.Crafting a compelling brand message with Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller.This is Marketing by Seth Godin—rethinking marketing as service, not selling.Developing leadership skills with Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek.The power of mindset with The Gap and The Gain by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy.Tune in to hear actionable advice on how to apply these lessons to your studio for long-term growth and success.Got a question for Seran? Add it here

In this episode of the Untrapped Podcast, Keith Kalfas interviews Dan Platta, the Home Service CFO and founder of Best Dan Bookkeeping. They discuss key topics such as managing chaos in business, the importance of having the right team, effective organizational strategies, and Dan's journey from the corporate world to entrepreneurship. The conversation touches on the significance of recruiting top talent, leveraging checklists for operational efficiency, and the biggest lessons learned from past mistakes. Dan also shares his vision for future ventures and insights on balancing business and personal life. Throughout the episode, actionable advice is provided for small business owners aiming to scale and improve their operations.   "Find good mentors and learn from their mistakes"   Dan Platta Topics Covered: Revenue and Services: Dan's Business Insights Organizational Strategies for Success Recruiting the Best Employees Top Influential Books Overcoming Entrepreneurial Fears Advice for New Entrepreneurs Short-Term Goals and Business Philosophy Customer-Centric Business Philosophy The Importance of Zero Attrition Big Hairy Audacious Goals Overcoming Business Challenges Lessons from Business Mistakes The Value of Good Bookkeeping Key Takeaways Revenue Achievement and Service Diversification: Dan Plata discusses achieving nearly $4 million in revenue, emphasizing the importance of offering diverse services such as window cleaning, pressure washing, maid services, bookkeeping, recruiting, and marketing. Key takeaway: Diversification can lead to higher revenue, but managing multiple services requires robust organizational strategies. Importance of Support Systems: Dan highlights the critical role his wife plays in his success, even though she isn't directly involved in the business. Key takeaway: A strong personal support system can significantly boost business performance and personal well-being. Organizational Strategies: Dan stresses the importance of checklists and to-do lists to maintain accountability and ensure that employees stay on task. Key takeaway: Simple organizational tools like digital checklists can streamline operations and prevent errors in repetitive tasks. Recruitment and Quality of Employees: Dan learned to recruit high-quality employees rather than hiring quickly to fill positions. By finding the best candidates in advance, he ensures that he can select from the top talent when needed. Key takeaway: Continuous recruitment and having high standards for employee selection can improve service quality and business growth. Influential Books: Dan recommends "The E-Myth Revisited," "Peak Performance," and "Leadership and Self-Deception" as pivotal books that have impacted his business approach. Key takeaway: Reading and learning from comprehensive resources can offer new perspectives and practical strategies for business improvement. Facing and Overcoming Fears: Dan reflects on his fear of leaving the corporate world to become an entrepreneur, but realized the risk was worth the learning experience. Key takeaway: Overcoming initial fears and making calculated risks can lead to greater opportunities and personal growth. Mentorship and Learning from Others: Dan advises new entrepreneurs to find good mentors and learn from their mistakes to avoid common pitfalls. Key takeaway: Leveraging the experiences of successful mentors can shorten the learning curve and provide valuable insights. Prioritizing Customer and Employee Satisfaction: Dan's goal is to build a business driven by customer demand and employee satisfaction rather than solely focusing on financial targets. Key takeaway: Focusing on creating value for customers and providing a great work environment for employees can lead to sustainable business growth and profitability. Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG): Dan's major life goal is to combine his passion for business with his love for outdoor activities by creating a mastermind group for business owners that includes outdoor adventures. Key takeaway: Aligning personal passions with business goals can lead to a more fulfilling career. Handling Mistakes: Dan admits that growing his business too rapidly and spreading too thin were significant mistakes but valuable learning experiences. Key takeaway: Learning from business missteps is crucial. Scaling should be done thoughtfully to avoid overextension and operational disarray. Understanding and Leveraging Financial Data: Dan emphasizes the importance of having impeccable bookkeeping to make better business decisions and ensure financial clarity. Key takeaway: Accurate financial data helps in making informed decisions, which is essential for managing growth and ensuring long-term success.   Connect with Dan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-platta-30736b31 Connect with Keith Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keithkalfas/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thelandscapingemployeetrap Website: https://www.keithkalfas.com/resources Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@keith-kalfas   Resources and Websites: 

Send us a textFrom accountants to chiropractors, and digital marketers to bakers, the idea of starting a business based on your current career can seem like a straightforward pathway to success. But it's not enough to just excel in your trade - you need to master the complex nuances of the business world too. Most businesses that are failing have the same problem: they haven't created an easily replicable (but unshakeable) selling strategy. Someone who has built a whole empire teaching business owners this skill is our guest this week, Michael E Gerber. After his brother-in-law introduced him to Silicon Valley investors over half a century ago, it set off a cascade of career-changing events that left him one of the most sought-after sales consultants in the USA. Since then, Michael's passion has been helping budding entrepreneurs understand the fundamentals of business and apply them to a wide-ranging kaleidoscope of careers with the same end goal - scaling for consistently successful results that can be reproduced time and time again. He authored the business bible ‘The E-Myth: Why Most Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It', which has sold over 5 million copies and has been labelled the best-selling business book of all time. Michael generously shares his best advice with us, from future-proofing for potential acquisitions, to monetising creativity, and the key skills all business owners need to know. Join me for a conversation with one of the biggest players in the marketing industry - we're going back to basics, mastering skills that are just as relevant today as they were 50 years ago. Episode Highlights:(00:03) The man, the E-Myth, the legend(00:51) Michael's answer to the cocktail party question(01:50) How E-Myth was created: the selling strategy problem(07:42) The most common mistakes new business owners make(10:58) Mastering the fundamentals of business (the McDonald's franchise story)(17:52) Prepare now for all possible futures(18:17) Only 2% of people in the world are brilliant creators(22:49) The businesses Michael has spent half a century buildingAbout Michael E Gerber:Michael E. Gerber is the author of the NY Times mega-bestseller, for two consecutive decades, "The E-Myth Revisited" and nine other worldwide best-selling E-Myth books concerning small business entrepreneurship, leadership, and management. His mission is "to transform the state of small business worldwide”.Connect with Michael E Gerber:⏩ Join Michael's personal mentoring and development coaching course ‘The Dreaming Room' Resource Links:⏩ Your Social Voice Website (https://www.yoursocialvoice.com.au/)⏩ Join our Mogul Mastermind (https://www.mogulmastermind.com.au/)⏩ Join our Free Facebook Community (http://www.joinmygroup.com.au/)Connect with Kim Barrett:⏩ Follow Us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/mrkimbarrett⏩ Follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/realkimbarrett/⏩ Follow me on TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@realkimbarrettThank you so much for listening! If you liked this episode, please don't forget to subscribe, tune in, and share this podcast.⏩ Subscribe to YouTube https://bit.ly/3ApZLpL⏩ Subscribe to Apple Podcasts:

Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 1448: Nick Loper explains how the combination of autonomy, mastery, and purpose can dramatically increase fulfillment in your career and side hustles. Drawing from psychological insights and practical examples, he shows how aligning your work with these three elements leads to greater satisfaction and success. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.sidehustlenation.com/autonomy-mastery-purpose/ Quotes to ponder: "People who feel they have autonomy over their work are more likely to experience higher job satisfaction and motivation." "Mastery is about the pursuit of excellence and constant improvement, which can be deeply fulfilling." "Purpose brings meaning to our work, and when we align our actions with a higher cause, our efforts feel more significant." Episode references: The E-Myth Revisited: https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-About/dp/0887307280 Drive: https://www.amazon.com/Drive-Surprising-Truth-About-Motivates/dp/1594484805 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 1448: Nick Loper explains how the combination of autonomy, mastery, and purpose can dramatically increase fulfillment in your career and side hustles. Drawing from psychological insights and practical examples, he shows how aligning your work with these three elements leads to greater satisfaction and success. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.sidehustlenation.com/autonomy-mastery-purpose/ Quotes to ponder: "People who feel they have autonomy over their work are more likely to experience higher job satisfaction and motivation." "Mastery is about the pursuit of excellence and constant improvement, which can be deeply fulfilling." "Purpose brings meaning to our work, and when we align our actions with a higher cause, our efforts feel more significant." Episode references: The E-Myth Revisited: https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-About/dp/0887307280 Drive: https://www.amazon.com/Drive-Surprising-Truth-About-Motivates/dp/1594484805 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rereleasing one of DAT's most popular episodes! Want to know the secret to wowing your patients? Kiera shares it in THIS episode. Some spoilers to ask yourself: What experience do you want your patients to have when they enter your practice? Fun? Relaxing? Modern? What companies have the type of experience you want your patients to have? The Dental A-Team's model companies are, for example, Disneyland, Amazon, Apple, and Google. What would mimicking those companies' experiences feel like in your practice? How can you ensure that every team member provides the same experience? Once these questions are answered, you can roll your practice's vibe into your social media and other marketing efforts. Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Watch DAT Podcasts on YouTube Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:05.742) Hey everyone, welcome to The Dental A Team podcast. I'm your host, Kiera Dent, and I had this crazy idea that maybe I could combine a doctor and a team member's perspective, because let's face it, dentistry can be a challenging profession with those two perspectives. I've been a dental assistant, treatment coordinator, scheduler, pillar, office manager, regional manager, practice owner, and I have a team of traveling consultants where we have traveled to over 165 different offices coaching teams. Yep, we don't just understand you, we are you.   Our mission is to positively impact the world of dental. And I believe that this podcast is the greatest way I can help elevate teams, grow VIP experiences, reduce stress, and create A -Teams. Welcome to the Dental A Team Podcast.   The Dental A Team (00:51.064) Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and all right, let's chat about how you guys can do the patient experience. As you guys know, patient experience is something really big in every single practice and making sure you guys are really solid and set for it is a huge indicating factor. What do I mean by patient experience? Patient experience is everything from A to Z. How do we answer the phones? How do we walk our patients back to the rooms? How do we present treatment plans?   Honestly, the number one thing you should be asking when you dive into this patient experience is, what do we want our patients to experience? Okay, so let's start there. I'm gonna walk this down with you guys. What companies, what experience do you want your patients to have? I would start there. Do you want it to feel spa -like? Do you want it to feel fun and peppy? Do you want it to feel relaxing? Do you want it to feel professional? Do you want it to feel modern and chic?   Do you want it to feel family -friendly? Every single one of those you guys could feel a different color scheme You could feel a different style You could have just a completely different experience based on what you want your patients to experience So at Dental A Team, I want everybody to have an incredible experience and that means I want it to be fun I want us to be very approachable very Just I always say I'm cured it from the block. I'm not a dentist. We're not scary So we have cartoon characters   We want you to feel like it is very doable. We want it to be very simple and we want to have a lot of ease. That is what we want our clients to feel. And we want them to feel that they're going to get results and they're going to get massive results working with us. That is the experience. I want you to walk in with the most white glove. We take care of you. You have never been treated better by another company. We respond within 24 hours. That is the vibe of Dental A Team. And I will tell you that did not come overnight. We have worked really hard on that.   We used to not have VIP patient experience. We used to have a lot of struggles in our company, but that is the experience. When I think of a client calling us, I want them to have happy people on the other side. I want us to be very complimentary. I want us to be very understanding. I want you to have a ton of fun when you work with us while seeing insane results. That was my vision for Dental A Team, and yet it's changed over the years. So that's first and foremost, like what is the actual experience that you want? Number   The Dental A Team (03:15.424) is come up with companies that resemble the experience you want. So the companies we model off after our Disneyland, you guys think about Disneyland, they go above and beyond on every single thing that they do. That's what I want Denali team to be. I want our company to go above and beyond. I want us to do things to just blow your minds like our swag boxes for summit. Super fun. All of our clients just got a book called the Humanized Leader by Mary Pat Knight. I want to surprise and dazzle our clients.   with amazing value. Everything we ever do has value behind it. Disneyland, everything they do is to create magic. That is something, that's a company we model after. We also model after Amazon. Amazon is insanely easy. Everybody uses them. They are the best out there right now. Okay? So Amazon's a huge company we model after. We also model after Apple in the sense that everything they do, you guys can judge me or not, you can agree or disagree. Apple, everything they do is very simple.   It's very easy to use. Children can use an iPhone. AirPods connect in. They think of little easy ways to make it all connect together. Of course, it doesn't always work. That's OK. But even like the boxes that they send to you are amazing and simple, a simple design, easy to use. I love that everything's white. All the cords are white. Everything is square. It's very clean cut. They have a very strong brand. That's what we thought. So those are the companies we model after Disneyland, Apple.   Google, Google's another one that we model after, because Google is so simple. They're on top of it. They have a very fun culture. Their employees love to be there. How many of you have wished that there was an easy way to get that dang operations manual done? Well, guess what? We are here to deliver. That's right. Join us for an entire eight hours and get eight hours of CE, Friday, September 17th, for our operations manual creation. That's right. We are literally going to walk you and your team through step by   workshop style. It's virtual and you're going to get that operations manual started and quite a few pieces completed. So join us on Friday, September 17th. Utilize our coupon code podcast ops. That's podcast OPS. Head on over to thedenaliateam .com backslash events. I cannot wait to see you. Let's get that operations manual done, done and done. Bring your entire team and I'll see you guys there.   The Dental A Team (05:36.952) So I would choose number one, what's the experience you want your patients to have? And then number two, what are some companies that your practice models after? What's really helpful is what I'm trying to do is paint pictures for your team members to be able to model and mirror. All of us use Amazon, all of us use Apple, all of us use Google, all of us, hopefully, and if not, call me up, I'll be your friend, have gone to Disneyland. So those are very easy pictures for my team to understand. These are the companies we wanna be   This is the experience that we want our clients to feel. And so for you guys in your dental practices, creating this patient experience is going to be tenfold for you. You're going to be able to have them then tangibly taste it, feel it, experience it. And then from there, we start to fine tune our handoffs, our phone calls, because now I can think of, OK, if I was working at Disneyland, how would I answer the phone? Well, I'm going to answer it a lot differently than when I say,   We are always amazing on our customer service, right? Like people can physically feel the difference. They can see it. If I were working at Google, how would I treat our clients? How would I treat our patients? If we were Amazon, Amazon's quick. If something's not delivered to your house, no problem. They fix it for you. That's the type of culture that we want our patients to experience. So I really want you guys to pay attention to what is your patient experience? What do you want your clients to have? And then what are the companies that you're practice models after? Choose them.   Doctors, this is usually driven by you, office managers you can influence. We've got to make sure it's the feel, vibe. Our dental practice in Colorado was a very hipster feel. We wanted people to feel like it was modern, it was chic. Because we literally played Drake. That was the music we played. We did not appeal to all clients and that was fine. Our doctor had a mohawk, she called it a prohawk. We had a very, very unique practice. We had modern, we were downtown Denver and that was the vibe we wanted. We had modern art in there.   And it was a very fun, different culture vibe. We attracted those people. We wanted them to have this very chic experience. So we had this coffee bar, we had different menus, we had different pieces because that was the vibe we wanted them to have. I did not tell them companies we should have modeled after. That would have helped my team understand more tangibly all of us being able to offer the exact same patient experience. And then you want to make sure every team is providing the exact same type of patient experience. You don't want them to go to Kiera and have one experience.   The Dental A Team (08:00.802) and then go to Tiffany and have another experience. You want it to be a very similar experience whether they see your dental assistant, your hygienist, your front office, the dentist. All of us are speaking similar languages. And not all of us have to have same personalities. Tiffany, Brittany, and I all have very different personalities. Yet we all have the same type of style, the same type of fun, but yet we come with our own flair to it. And that's what you want to make sure your practice is doing. I'm really impressed.   with offices that are able to be consistent on their patient experience. If you guys have not read the E -Myth Revisited, read it. There's a really great story where they talk about the haircut. It's a famous, famous example where this guy goes in to get his haircut and the first time he gets like a neck massage, he gets a glass of brandy, I think, and gets an amazing haircut. The next time he goes in, they don't give him the head massage, they give him a glass of brandy. The next time he goes in, he gets a head massage.   but no brandy. And the idea behind it was he actually stopped going because it was not consistent. And so having a consistent patient experience every time they call, how are we answering the phone? How do we handle their billing? How do we handle their handoffs? How do we communicate inpatient charts to ensure that every patient's having the exact same experience? These are pieces that are really going to grow your practice, which it sounds silly, it sounds ridiculous, but that consistency piece is going to help   I know a lot of consultants, actually just sent Brittany and Tiffany into an office that I was in. Yes, they're going to bring a different flair. However, the experience, not the how -to, but the experience, the way our clients felt of positive, they're able to do this, that they feel empowered, that it was a fun experience, that it was done with ease. All of that, our client should have picked up. It should have felt like Disneyland. It should have felt like Apple and Google and Amazon. That's how it should have felt.   And I know that office felt that way and they felt massive value from it. So that way your team can start to feel that way. Then you guys can go on to a fun brainstorming exercise of, so let's say our practice was Nordstrom. That was the example of the dental college I was at. Midwestern University in Arizona, the dean told us, Kiera, I want our office, our dental practice to feel like Nordstrom. Great, I got it. He was like, you always have excessive composite out for them.   The Dental A Team (10:20.118) We never have it feel like we're running out on supplies. You go above and beyond. Yes, that meant that I had to definitely go into some of those students' drawers and recoup all the composite that they were hoarding because they were scared that we wouldn't have enough. However, my job was to always make sure that there was more than enough out there because he wanted them to feel like they were at the Nordstrom of dental schools. And that was literally what we created. So let's say you'd say your practice is the Nordstrom of dental practices. How would you treat your patients?   Well, when they come in, you're probably gonna give them a really nice folder. They're probably gonna have nice velvet or leather chairs to sit in. It's gonna be very relaxed. You're gonna be playing more spa -like music. Your team member's gonna come out and call them by name and not shout across the waiting room. You're gonna escort them back. You're probably gonna have very neutral, beautiful colors in there. All these things are the experience that that patient's having, and then staying consistent with that patient experience is going to allow your entire team   to deliver again and again and again. And people love consistency. People love knowing that when they come to the dental practice, it's going to be the same. It does not matter if you change team members. Like I get it, it's the great resignation across the nation. I understand. But what is the experience they're getting? What do you want them to? Have you even thought about these things? Cause I know I haven't. And then I don't even know where I made it up. just, I hope I probably read it in a book, but I just thought I need my team to be able to understand who we are and what we are and what we're not.   This is kind of part of marketing as well, because then that will fall into your social media. It will come across on all your marketing materials that go out. Every marketing material that we send out to people should be fun, should be positive, should be lighthearted and empowering. That is the vibe. That's what we're pushing out. It should be easy. Our podcast is always quick, easy, down and dirty things you can implement. There is a reason that is our brand, that is our style. So once you guys figure out this patient experience, then roll it into your marketing, then roll it into your social media. But practice this.   Ask your team, have them feel it, talk about it every single week, literally in the Dental A Team. You guys, one of the reasons I love doing the podcast is because I got so sick of listening to certain podcasts where people would say something on the podcast and I'd go meet them in real life and that wasn't how they were. And I've tried and vowed that if I say something on the podcast, guys, I'm sure I've made some mistakes. I try really, really, really hard to be honest and authentic. So when I say that we do this every week, that is not an exaggeration.   The Dental A Team (12:43.118) every single week in our level 10 meeting with our whole team, whether I'm present or not, they just did the meeting without me today, we go over our core values, the companies we model after, and what our experience is every single time. I don't say our experience is what our niche is, what our mission and vision statements are, what our core values are, and the companies we model after every single week, because I believe this is something that should be over -communicated so your whole team knows what they should be experiencing and what you want your patients to experience. So with that, guys,   Action time is come up with the feel you want them to feel. Come up with the companies you want them to model after. Come up with what that experience should feel like within, like tangible. So what should our handouts be? What should our phone calls be? What should, when they walk into the office, what should it be? What should they be getting for their injections? How should we be explaining Perio? Every single one of those pieces. And then over communicate it every single week. Ask your team. Continue to refine, refine, refine.   because patient experience is all about consistency and making sure your team knows that this is your culture because I believe patient experience number one is driven by culture. All right, you guys, as always, thank you for listening. If you find this podcast helpful, download it, subscribe to our podcast, share this with a friend, leave us a review. I love hearing from you or email us, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. I'd love to hear from you. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on The Dental A Team Podcast.   The Dental A Team (14:06.062) that wraps it up for another episode of the Dental A Team Podcast. Thank you so much for listening and we'll talk to you next time.

In this episode of Grow a Small Business, host Troy Trewin interviews Benny Rubin, Founder of Senders, Benny shares insights on how he scaled his email deliverability business to serve hundreds of clients, generate millions in revenue, and send tens of millions of emails annually. He covers solutions for email sending and delivery challenges, the technical details involved, and the critical role of email marketing. Benny also highlights the importance of continuous testing and iteration in marketing strategies to drive business growth. Other Resources: Business Transformation ProgramMarketing Funding Flywheel Ebook Why would you wait any longer to start living the lifestyle you signed up for? Balance your health, wealth, relationships and business growth. And focus your time and energy and make the most of this year. Let's get into it by clicking here. Troy delves into our guest's startup journey, their perception of success, industry reconsideration, and the pivotal stress point during business expansion. They discuss the joys of small business growth, vital entrepreneurial habits, and strategies for team building, encompassing wins, blunders, and invaluable advice. And a snapshot of the final five Grow A Small Business Questions:   What do you think is the hardest thing in growing a small business? Benny Rubin believes the hardest thing in growing a small business is managing the mental game, including dealing with self-doubt and the uncertainty of success. Even with confidence, the psychological challenges can be significant and ongoing. What's your favourite business book that has helped you the most? Benny Rubin's favourite business books include "Built to Sell" for its insights on preparing a business for sale, "The E-Myth Revisited" for its focus on working on your business, and "King Larry" for its unconventional story of DHL's founder. He values books that provide both practical advice and historical perspectives. Are there any great podcasts or online learning resources you'd recommend to help grow a small business? Benny Rubin prefers historical business books and insightful podcasts over modern advice. He recommends Nathan Latka's podcast for quick, actionable SaaS insights and John Marlowe's podcast for valuable exit strategies. For a broader view, "The Man Who Solved the Market" offers foundational knowledge on high-frequency trading. What tool or resource would you recommend to grow a small business? Benny Rubin recommends Missive, an email tool that transforms emails into a chat interface for team collaboration. It allows for seamless communication and drafting, enabling efficient management and integration of client interactions without traditional email complexities. What advice would you give yourself on day one of starting out in business? Benny Rubin advises himself to “stay calm and carry on.” He emphasises the importance of maintaining composure and keeping focused, despite the challenges and lengthy discussions about uncertainties. Book a 20-minute Growth Chat with Troy Trewin to see if you qualify for our upcoming course. Don't miss out on this opportunity to take your small business to new heights! Enjoyed the podcast? Please leave a review on iTunes or your preferred platform. Your feedback helps more small business owners discover our podcast and embark on their business growth journey.     Quotable quotes from our special Grow A Small Business podcast guest: Work should never feel like a grind; if it does, something's off – Benny Rubin Stay calm and carry on; keep your head in the zone despite the uncertainties – Benny Rubin For a clear perspective, focus on historical insights rather than breathlessly chasing the latest trends – Benny Rubin      

Ryan & Becca discuss some lessons learned after Ryan recently listened to some of The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber. They specifically focus on the idea of the entrepreneur, the manager, and the technician and dive a little bit into franchising as the author explains as well. We share some insights related to our own businesses as we converse. We plan to have another book recap in our episode releasing Saturday, September 7th if you'd like to read "Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear" by Elizabeth Gilbert before we talk about it.Resources"The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It" by Michael E. Gerber"Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear" by Elizabeth GilbertListener QuestionsSend us questions so we can answer anything you've been thinking about on a future episode. Send those through Instagram @wheeltalkpodcast or email us at wheeltalkpodcast@gmail.com.SponsorsL&L Kilns - The durable kiln that potters trust to fire evenly & consistently. Find your L&L kiln at hotkilns.comSpeedball Ceramics - Check out their new underglaze formula and colored plastic bats online or from a distributor near you. Find out more at speedballart.com.Support the show on Patreon for as little as $3 per month: https://patreon.com/WheeltalkpodcastFollow us on Instagram:@wheeltalkpodcast@rdceramics@5linespotteryVisit our website:www.wheeltalkpotcast.comWheel Talk YouTube ChannelSupport the Show.

What if a shift in mindset could transform your life? Listen to this episode with Brad Chandler as he reveals how he turned million-dollar mistakes into a thriving business and personal fulfillment. Discover powerful insights on overcoming childhood programming, mastering your mindset, and achieving lasting happiness.     What you'll learn from this episode Strategies for title agents to work effectively with investors and wholesalers Why mindset shifts are crucial for business success and personal fulfillment The role of fine-tuning systems and processes in scaling a business Key advice for maintaining work-life balance and prioritizing self-care How to identify and overcome limiting beliefs through self-love     Resources mentioned in this episode  The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber | Paperback, Hardcover, and Kindle The Way to Love by Anthony de Mello | Paperback, Hardcover, and Kindle   Take our LimitlessYou Self-Love Quiz at https://unlocklimitlessyou.com/self-love-quiz/ to discover how deepening self-love can lead to greater joy, healthier relationships, and professional success. Start your transformation today!     About Brad Chandler Brad Chandler has been shaping Express Homebuyers into a customer-driven real estate company since 2003. But Brad's been fascinated by real estate since the 9th grade when he read a book on how to buy houses. As Express Homebuyers' CEO, Brad leads EHB with a solid moral compass and is proud of helping build a team of hardworking homebuyers who care.   After completing his undergraduate degree at Virginia Tech and his Master's degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Brad moved back to his native Charlottesville, Virginia, where he co-founded the company with Judson Allen, EHB's president.   While CEO is his job title by day, at the end of a work day, he's just “Dad.” He enjoys spending time outdoors with his two children and his mini golden doodle or decompressing with a good workout.     Connect with Brad  Website: Limitless You | Express Homebuyers LinkedIn: Brad Chandler Podcasts: How To Be Happier For Entrepreneurs | Apple Podcasts Instagram: @unlocklimitlessyou Facebook Group: How to be Happier - For Entrepreneurs YouTube: LimitlessYou     Connect With Us Love what you're hearing? Don't miss an episode! Follow us on our social media channels and stay connected.  Explore more on our website: www.alltechnational.com/podcast Stay updated with our newsletter: www.mochoumil.com Follow Mo on LinkedIn: Mo Choumil

In this episode, we dive into the distinction between working on your business and working in your business, as popularized by Michael Gerber in "The E-Myth Revisited." Side Hustle School features a new episode EVERY DAY, featuring detailed case studies of people who earn extra money without quitting their job. This year, the show includes free guided lessons and listener Q&A several days each week. Show notes: SideHustleSchool.com Email: team@sidehustleschool.com Be on the show: SideHustleSchool.com/questions Connect on Instagram: @193countries Visit Chris's main site: ChrisGuillebeau.com Read A Year of Mental Health: yearofmentalhealth.substack.com If you're enjoying the show, please pass it along! It's free and has been published every single day since January 1, 2017. We're also very grateful for your five-star ratings—it shows that people are listening and looking forward to new episodes.

In this episode of Grow a Small Business, host Troy Trewin interviews James Ashford, founder of Go Proposal. James discusses his journey to building a successful business, leading a dedicated team, and achieving impressive revenue growth. With insights on maintaining high standards, strategic planning, and exit readiness, James offers valuable advice for small business owners. Tune in to discover how his leadership and vision have driven Go Proposal's success. Other Resources: NPS Score: An easy way to measure if your customers love you in 21 minutes – use the Net Promoter Score (NPS). And it's FREE. How James Ashford Sold his 12 Employee company for 8-figures Why would you wait any longer to start living the lifestyle you signed up for? Balance your health, wealth, relationships and business growth. And focus your time and energy and make the most of this year. Let's get into it by clicking here. Troy delves into our guest's startup journey, their perception of success, industry reconsideration, and the pivotal stress point during business expansion. They discuss the joys of small business growth, vital entrepreneurial habits, and strategies for team building, encompassing wins, blunders, and invaluable advice. And a snapshot of the final five Grow A Small Business Questions: What do you think is the hardest thing in growing a small business? James Ashford believes the hardest thing in growing a small business is maintaining balance. He emphasizes the challenges of juggling various roles and responsibilities, especially when managing both personal and professional demands. He highlights the importance of being kind to oneself, recognizing the inherent difficulties, and staying resilient amidst the pressures of entrepreneurship. What's your favourite business book that has helped you the most? James Ashford's favorite business book that has helped him the most is "E-Myth Revisited" by Michael E. Gerber. He also highly recommends "Built to Sell" by John Warrillow, which he considers a distilled and improved version of "E-Myth Revisited." Additionally, he finds "Key Person of Influence" by Daniel Priestley and "They Ask, You Answer" by Marcus Sheridan to be particularly impactful for his business thinking and marketing strategies. Are there any great podcasts or online learning resources you'd recommend to help grow a small business? James Ashford recommends Joe Rogan's podcast for its insightful discussions and the High Performance podcast in the UK for valuable insights. He also highlights the effectiveness of email marketing and suggests platforms like Infusionsoft and Go High Level for comprehensive marketing capabilities in small business growth. What tool or resource would you recommend to grow a small business? James Ashford recommends email marketing as the most effective tool for growing a small business. He highlights the ability to nurture and engage a captive audience through regular communication, leveraging platforms like Infusionsoft or Go High Level for comprehensive marketing automation and online course creation. What advice would you give yourself on day one of starting out in business? James Ashford advises himself on day one of starting out in business to remember that "it's going to be alright." He emphasizes the importance of staying calm and being kind to oneself amidst the challenges and uncertainties of entrepreneurship. This mindset helps navigate the inevitable ups and downs with resilience and perspective. Book a 20-minute Growth Chat with Troy Trewin to see if you qualify for our upcoming course. Don't miss out on this opportunity to take your small business to new heights! Enjoyed the podcast? Please leave a review on iTunes or your preferred platform. Your feedback helps more small business owners discover our podcast and embark on their business growth journey.   Quotable quotes from our special Grow A Small Business podcast guest: As you grow, your standards don't have to drop, you maintain them throughout – James Ashford You want a multiple option strategy as fast as possible, because you have no idea what's coming in the future – James Ashford Be kind to yourself. You're a human being with all your perfectly perfect imperfections, doing your best – James Ashford  

Learn More About Attending the Highest Rated and Most Reviewed Business Workshops On the Planet Hosted by Clay Clark In Tulsa, Oklahoma HERE: https://www.thrivetimeshow.com/business-conferences/ See the Thousands of Success Stories and Millionaires That Clay Clark Has Helped to Produce HERE: https://www.thrivetimeshow.com/testimonials/ Clay Clark Testimonials | "Clay Clark Has Helped Us to Grow from 2 Locations to Now 6 Locations. Clay Has Done a Great Job Helping Us to Navigate Anything That Has to Do with Running the Business, Building the System, the Workflows, to Buy Property." - Charles Colaw (Learn More Charles Colaw and Colaw Fitness Today HERE: www.ColawFitness.com) Download A Millionaire's Guide to Become Sustainably Rich: A Step-by-Step Guide to Become a Successful Money-Generating and Time-Freedom Creating Business HERE: www.ThrivetimeShow.com/Millionaire See Thousands of Actual Client Success Stories from Real Clay Clark Clients Today HERE: https://www.thrivetimeshow.com/testimonials/ See Thousands of Case Studies Today HERE: www.thrivetimeshow.com/does-it-work/  

You've heard me say it before, learning is earning.But not all learning is created equal, especially when it comes to maximizing your earning potential.In this episode, I'm breaking down four books that have been incredibly helpful and helped me earn millions over the last couple of years. 1. "The Richest Man in Babylon" by George Clason – your go-to for mastering money fundamentals. 2. "The E-Myth Revisited" by Michael Gerber, a must-read for anyone serious about building a business, not just a job. 3. "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield, which tackles the resistance we all face when creating something extraordinary. 4. "Influence" by Robert Cialdini, the Bible of persuasion that can skyrocket your influence.Let's turn these pages into profits together. What books have been game-changers for you? LEAVE A REVIEW if you liked this episode!! Let's Connect On Social Media! youtube.com/anthonyvicino twitter.com/anthonyvicino instagram.com/theanthonyvicino https://anthonyvicino.com Join an exclusive community of peak performers at Beyond the Apex University learning how to build a business, invest in real estate, and develop hyperfocus. www.beyondtheapex.com Learn More About Investing With Anthony Invictus Capital: www.invictusmultifamily.com Multifamily Investing Made Simple Podcast Passive Investing Made Simple Book: www.thepassiveinvestingbook.com

00:00 - IntroductionWe open with coffee talk today–and sugar intake, including some beverage shortcuts. Tyler calls it cheaping out; Eddie calls it hillbilly lemonade. We also reminisce about our favorite waitress, 4'10” Miss Connie with the beehive haircut. Oh yeah, also pickle races. Poor Miss Connie.08:05 - Entrepreneurship: A Good Idea?A few weeks ago, guest Matt Aston recommended the book The E-Myth Revisited (now available in an updated version). Tyler shares that this book hit him in the teeth when he picked it up recently. We're discussing this book today because it's filled with great content for construction-related entrepreneurs. Business is hard. Each year, 627,000 businesses are started and 595,000 businesses fail. Many of those may have been active for several years, but still, it's clear that starting and running a business successfully is tough work. Author Michael E. Gerber shares his insight by telling the story of Sara, a fictional pie maker.12:46 - Initial E-Myth Takeaways Eddie shares the first bits of insight that he took from this book. Gerber distinguishes between the technician,  the manager, and the entrepreneur. These are three roles may exist in A technician is the person who can do something well. A manager the person who is good at logistics and task completion. An entrepreneur is the person who works not so much in the business and on the business. Tyler explains that many businesses are started by technicians who quickly find themselves needing to now fill all three of these roles. And since they may not have management strengths or entrepreneur strengths, their businesses often fail. Tyler and Eddie both share examples of how this pattern played out in their respective businesses, ABSI and Storybuilder. The pattern is one that will sound familiar to you if you've started your own business. As a company grows, team members are added in a less-than-strategic manner, resulting in confusion and frustration. The next step is often a soft collapse back to the point where the business owner is once again handling almost everything.   22:55 - SystemsTyler shares that his entrepreneurial journey has gone through the first part of this cycle. Tyler and Eddie discuss the smoothness of the system that makes this podcast operate and Tyler contrasts that with his business. Eddie discusses Gerbers references to Ray Kroc and what he did with McDonald's. Kroc bought a system. Gerber makes the argument that even owners of small businesses need to approach their business like a franchise in regard to team-building, systems, and training. Tyler refers to the movie Founder, which tells Kroc's story. This leads to some talk about the turn-key revolution pioneered by McDonald's. Tyler encourages business owners to check out Loom as a means of creating operational guides.32:12 - Training and More Eddie shares that one of the lessons from the book that most resonated with him was the importance of determining your primary aim. In other words, what is your life goal? If this business cannot generate that reality, then don't pursue the business. Tyler critiques this a bit, saying that the process needs to be considered as much as the primary aim. He said that the path to that end is just as important. Structuring a desired lifestyle now is as important as an entrepreneurial endgame. Eddie discusses the book's 4 tenets of strategy: organization, management, people, and marketing. Then there's a 5th-systems–that was more than we could discuss today. 36:12 - The HotelTyler and Eddie discuss Gerber's hotel storyline. Gerber recounts his experience learning about the systems that enabled this hotel to operate on such a high level. Then Gerber contrasts this hotel experience with a barbershop that provides high-quality service up front but was unable to repeat the quality of that experience over time. Tyler discusses the importance of not just first but also second, third, and fourth impressions. It's about consistently focusing on the things that are essential.  Check out the partners that make our show possible.Find Us Online: BrosPodcast.com - LinkedIn - Youtube - Instagram - Facebook - TikTok - Eddie's LinkedIn - Tyler's LinkedInIf you enjoy the podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to us! Thanks for listening!

It's my birthday! I know I'm incredibly blessed… and that the abundance I have today is the result of some hard lessons I learned a few birthdays ago.    Today, I want to share the most important gift I ever received — the lesson that took me from struggling artist to thriving business owner.   In this episode, I share the story of how my life and business transformed into the incredible reality I have today. If I could give every jewelry designer a gift, this lesson would be it.    So tune in to hear me read the first chapter of my book, The Desired Brand Effect, to hear about: …The moment in my first business when I realized I had NO money left over after delivering a $100,000 order (and what happened next)... …The book that blew my mind about the problems in my business and helped me see how to transform my maker mindset to become the leader of my business… …Why becoming the chief visionary officer (CVO) of your business can help you get great at turning your dreams into reality instead of continuing as a maker struggling to bring your vision to life… …And how I went from being a broke designer to having my work stocked in over 350 stores around the world (with celebrities like Halle Berry and Charlize Theron loving on my work).   If you've been struggling to make a sustainable living from your jewelry designs, if you're burned out, scared of your numbers or just know it's time to take your business to the next level, this one's for you.   And if you can find the courage to act on what you hear, by the time your own birthday rolls around next year, maybe you'll be telling an incredible transformation story of your own.    Listen to episode #474 of Thrive by Design to get your all-access pass to It's My Birthday! A Dramatic Reading of the First Chapter of My Book.   The greatest birthday gift you could give me today is to go and listen to this episode.    My life's purpose is to help creatives like you to start thriving in their art, and it truly lights me up to hear it when someone starts making a change after hearing this story.    xo, Tracy Here are the resources mentioned in the show: The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber Buy My Book: The Desired Brand Effect   Are you enjoying the podcast? We'd be so grateful if you gave us a rating and review! Your 5 star ratings help us reach more businesses like yours and allows us to continue to deliver valuable content every single week.  Click here to review the show on Apple podcast or your favorite platform Select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” Share your favorite insights and inspirations   If you haven't done so yet, make sure that you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts and on Apple Podcast for special bonus content you won't get elsewhere.   xo, Tracy Matthews   Follow on Instagram: Follow @Flourish_Thrive on Instagram Follow @TracyMatthewsNY  Instagram Follow Flourish & Thrive Facebook   Follow us on Tik Tok: Follow @Flourish_Thrive Tik Tok Follow @TracyMatthewsNY on Tik Tok  

Dan Longhouse is the Founder and President of LHT Learning, a professional eLearning consulting firm providing innovative training services to Fortune 500 companies. With over 25 years immersed in the learning industry, Dan has a strong passion for leveraging technology and creativity to enhance organizational learning and impact. Under his leadership, LHT Learning has earned a reputation for its customized eLearning solutions and personal touch, which have garnered the team numerous accolades, including over 100 industry awards. Outside of LHT Learning, Dan co-founded Soundsmack and Compliance Cartoons, expanding his influence in educational technology. In this episode… Many entrepreneurs and business leaders face difficulties growing their businesses without compromising their commitment to innovation and learning. The challenge often lies in integrating advanced technologies with traditional business models and finding the right balance between growth and stability. This is especially true in the eLearning industry, where keeping up with technological advancements is crucial for business success. With extensive experience in corporate training and eLearning, Dan Longhouse emphasizes the importance of implementing professional management systems and fostering a culture of continuous learning within organizations. He shares actionable insights on how books like E-Myth Revisited and Traction have transformed his approach to business management, facilitating the effective growth of his operations while fostering innovation. Dan also discusses his entrepreneurial journey, from childhood ventures to founding LHT Learning, highlighting the pivotal roles of passion, focus, and strategic partnerships. Tune in to this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast as John Corcoran interviews Dan Longhouse, the Founder and President of LHT Learning, about integrating innovation and technology in corporate learning environments. They also discuss the challenge and triumph of shifting from solo work to building a team, the impact of strategic management literature on his business philosophy, and the importance of customization in eLearning solutions.

To be honest, I avoided reading this book for quite a while. This is just my opinion, but the title is boring and misleading, and the cover art is pretty bad. I know, “Don't judge a book by its cover” and all that, but it's actually really bad in my opinion. What finally got me to cave was multiple guests on this podcast kept recommending it to me, people I really respect and enjoy talking to. So Charelle and I decided to crack it open! Now, while I don't agree with everything in E-Myth, it turned out there were more valuable takeaways than I think either Charelle or I were expecting, which was such a lovely surprise. As per usual, Charelle and I flagged at different sections and had some really different takeaways. I cannot wait for you to listen to our conversation and see what you think.MAKING GOOD SHOWNOTES:https://makinggoodpodcast.com/237CONNECT WITH ME ON INSTAGRAM:https://instagram.com/laurentildenGET 100 MARKETING PROMPTS (free!):https://makinggoodpodcast.com/100promptsStuck on what to say in our marketing? Download this free resource of 100 marketing prompts: https://makinggoodpodcast.com/100prompts.

Join hosts Mike and Mark for an insightful journey into entrepreneurship and small business management in our latest episode of the Moonshots Podcast! This time, we're diving deep into the groundbreaking book, "The E-Myth Revisited" by Michael E. Gerber.

#213:  As per The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber, most business owners start as technicians.  For them to move past being the chief cook and bottle washer, they have to learn to improve their systems and create repeatable processes that others can do.  The goal is to get to a point where personal needs are met and there is a little extra to take care of others, gain more freedom, etc.  Part of that process includes learning to think like an investor.  While many people make decisions based on the short term and what feels good, investors think about the long term.  Charlie Munger said, “Most people are too fretful, they worry too much. Success means being very patient, but aggressive when it's time.” Some of the characteristics of those who think like investors are: They know the best path isn't always intuitive They balance their decisions for both short and long-term gains They understand math They know how to view others They invest in what they understand By listening to Think Like an Investor, you'll learn actionable steps on how to think and make better decisions today. Your current and future self will thank you! Listen to this episode, apply what you learn, and teach it to others. By the way, be sure to connect with me on Instagram! Listen and grow! Your Financial Coach, Billy  P.S. If you or someone you know is looking for a plan to dial in their finances and achieve some financial freedom, book a short call with me here!  P.P.S. You can book a call at that same link if you are interested in getting your financials dialed in and efficient with bookkeeping. Remember there are no successful fitness business owners who don't have accurate financial records and reporting! It's an absolute game-changer and one of the best things you can do.       

Coaching is secondary. Business is first. Learn how to be an owner, not just a technician or manager, for business success. Check out the E-Myth Revisited to read more on this subject. Coaching is Secondary for Business Success Consider this scenario. Someone becomes an expert in creating a certain craft or providing a certain service. Maybe this is butchery, baking, or candlestick making. Because friends and family love what this person does, their friends and family encourage this person to become a butcher, baker, or candlestick maker and start his own business. It fails. Why does it fail? Because the technical aspect is secondary. Business is first. If you decide to start your own business, you are a business owner, manager, and coach. Coaching is secondary to business success. You must spend time managing and owning the business. Coaching is Secondary: How to Be an Owner The E-Myth Revisited discusses the three different roles in a business: technician, manager, and owner. When you start your business, you must do all three (unless you happen to be rich and can hire people from day one). You cannot delegate any tasks. Over time, you can begin to delegate first the technician work and then the managerial work. If this bothers you - if this sounds like the opposite of why you signed up - you may want to reconsider starting a business. You may want to see if you can work for someone else. That's okay. Why? Because coaching is secondary, being a manager and owner is primary for business success. Learn how to be an owner. This podcast is brought to you by TurnKey Coach. Enhance your coaching effectiveness and efficiency with TurnKey Coach. You can learn more by going HERE. Check out Coaching 101 - the new Academy course designed to cover the basics of coaching. It's leaner and tighter than our other offerings (and cheaper). Check out the Barbell Logic podcast landing page. Get Matched with a Professional Strength Coach today for FREE! No contract with us, just commitment to yourself: Start experiencing strength now: https://store.barbell-logic.com/match/ Connect with the hosts Matt on Instagram Niki on Instagram Andrew on Instagram Connect with the show Barbell Logic on Instagram Podcast Webpage Barbell Logic on Facebook Or email podcast@barbell-logic.com