Podcasts about friel autopilot entrepreneur program

On today’s episode of Just the Tips, Dean and I pull your head out of the sand and make you think about the one thing no entrepreneur likes to consider: Money. And to do that, we have Brie Sodano on the show. Brie is a financial adviser and founder of From Sheep to Shark. Her goal is to help a million women manage their money and offer real-life advice that doesn’t come from a handbook. Brie has a great story and great advice. If you’re still struggling with money even if your income is rising, you need to listen to this week’s episode. Learning money management “on the job” Brie and her husband had a kid young, and by 23 she found herself a mom and a homeowner, with a husband who was an EMT. So managing the household budget became a matter of necessity. She then got into work at a nonprofit and realized that while she loved the work, she wasn’t making any money. So she taught herself how to trade stock options as a side hustle. And when it came time for the next thing, she realized that financial planning was the way to go. Her story will resonate with a lot of listeners, and if you listen to this episode, you can hear Brie’s advice for how life is really lived. How to get out of your financial comfort zone As Brie says on this week’s episode of Just the Tips, sometimes more income doesn’t actually change how we handle our money. Whether it’s habits you learned growing up or when you were struggling, it’s sometimes difficult to break out of our mindset around money. For instance, if you’re able to balance your income with your expenses, sometimes if your income goes up, your expenses do, too, because you’re not used to having the “extra” money. Brie works with clients all the time to get them out of those old habits, and walks listeners through one of the exercises she conducts to break you out of that mindset. Why budgets don’t work Brie works with clients for six months to tackle their financial problems, and the first thing she does is help them wrangle their cash flow. The first thing she does is get people out of thinking about “budgets.” It’s very difficult to think about your budget written on a piece of paper at home when you’re at Target buying toilet paper. So Brie came up with something called the “invisible method” to help people manage their cash flow without having to think about it at every step. And the first step is to create five bank accounts. Five. Why? Listen to this week’s Just the Tips to find out. Entrepreneurs: Keep it clean Brie works with a wide variety of clients, but she specifically works with entrepreneurs, too, on straightening out their finances. And as she says on this episode of Just the Tips: You have to keep it clean. You have to keep your personal finances separate from your business finances. That can be a very difficult thing to do, but Brie has been doing this a long time, and has great ideas for how entrepreneurs can achieve financial “cleanliness.” Sound like something you could use help with? Listen to this week’s Just the Tips. Outline of This Episode [3:45] How Brie got into helping people with money [5:44] What Brie learned as a financial planner [6:55] Why people get into financial troubles [8:46] How to break out of old habits [12:12] Why budgets don’t work [19:14] What about credit cards [24:05] Entrepreneurs who need help with money [26:08] Brie’s Sheep to Shark system Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Resources Mentioned Sheep to Shark Sign up for the Invisible System Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Billion Dollar Project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BillionDollarProject/

On today’s episode of Just the Tips, Dean and I welcome a mononymous icon in the world of advertising: Spanky. Ken “Spanky” Moskowitz has worked for some of the biggest brands in the world, including kicking off a huge campaign for Coca-Cola. On today’s episode, Spanky tells us how he got his nickname, why he embraced it, how story can transform advertising, and how you can tap into your own personal history to make your advertising connect with your audience. Spanky is such a great podcast guest, full of high energy and incredible insights. Literally a life spent in advertising Despite being saddled with a nickname he (initially) hated, Spanky always dreamed of carving out a spot for himself in branding. When he was 13, the very same uncle who gave him his nickname also gave him $500 in cash, and he was able to take that money and make himself a small recording studio. But instead of making music, Spanky made advertisements. He’d always been fascinated by radio ads, and so at 13 he hung out in his house while his family went to the beach and recorded high-quality ads that no one would hear. You know how they say you should do what you love and what you’re passionate about? It doesn’t get much more passionate than a 13-year-old kid making ads for fun. The key to writing great copy This show is called Just the Tips, so we asked Spanky to tell us exactly what the key to writing great copy is. And his answer is maybe a little counterintuitive: Stop trying to write great copy. And what he means by that is stop trying to make a pitch, or writing what you think is the greatest copy in the world. The key is to dig into your life experiences, try to tap into the pain and the joy of your intended audience, and write to that. Tell stories, because stories connect every one us. As Spanky says, if movies were written like ads, they’d bomb. But how do you convey a story in a short ad? Keep listening. How to make your ads story-based Spanky told us this story about a friend of his who owned a swim school. And the ad they were using was very pretty, showed happy kids swimming. But they weren’t getting any conversions. So Spanky dipped into his own childhood, when an incident in a pool almost led to him drowning because he couldn’t swim, and he crafted a 100-word ad that appealed to that fear in parents. He put together the ad and almost instantly they had six months of bookings. And that’s what Spanky has learned: Companies get caught up in what their offer is, but forget the why behind why their audience may even want that offer. Not every ad needs a story Even though Spanky is an evangelist for making your ads a story, he says that not every ad needs a story. An example of that may be when you’re working someone through a sales funnel. Maybe the story grabs them, but the second time they see an ad, it’s just a straight list of sales and benefits. Or maybe your first ad doesn’t have a story but the re-targeting ad does. You need to think through what works best for your company, but you should have the story in mind whenever you’re crafting your ads. Spanky is a true pro, and this is a must-listen episode of Just the Tips. Outline of This Episode [1:42] Why Spanky? [4:35] How Spanky got into copywriting and branding [8:32] Getting his start in radio [10:00] The key to writing great copy [17:35] Spanky shares an example of making a whiskey ad emotional [23:23] Should every ad tell a story? [25:29] Can anyone do this? [31:10] Why Ken started Ad Zombies Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Resources Mentioned Ad Zombies Use promo code TIPS15 to get 15% off Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Billion Dollar Project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BillionDollarProject/

On today’s episode of Just the Tips, Dean and I welcome two business partners who have been incredibly successful for a number of years. Jack Gibson and Jeff Schechter (aka Shecky) have been killing it for years, and nowadays work together in real estate. But as they discuss in this week’s episode, they wouldn’t be anywhere if they didn’t get their mindset right. On today’s episode, we talk about why entrepreneurs need to be able to take a few lumps, how to build that resilience, and why Shecky celebrated turning 60 by starting a new company. The one key to success for entrepreneurs We don’t let up on Jack and Jeff on this week’s episode of Just the Tips, and so right from the get go I asked them for the one trait every entrepreneur needs to be successful. And Jack summed it up in one word: persistence. Shecky put it a little differently, demanding that entrepreneurs “don’t be a frickin’ baby.” As he said, “You’re going to get kicked in the teeth a lot, and you have to get used to it.” Still want to be an entrepreneur after that? Then keep on listening to this episode of Just the Tips. When Jack and Shecky had to dig down and find their resilience Jack and Shecky talked so much about resilience, I had to ask them for a time when they had to deal with some serious adversity, and how they overcame it. And Jack told us a whopper of a story about a time they were dealing with, as he put it, some “serious, serious fraud” from some former business partners. They had to go back to their investors and pay out several hundred thousand dollars to make them whole again. As they say, it’s been the hardest year for their business, but by keeping the right mindset and supporting each other, they’ve been able to plow through it. How to maintain your focus in the face of adversity So how do Jack and Shecky maintain that focus when everything is coming at them? As we’ve talked about before on this show, they emphasized the need to unplug. Whether it’s meditation or yoga or getting out in nature—or taking a vacation—Shecky reiterated that it’s necessary to withdraw from the business for even just a few minutes at a time. And as they both said, they always try to begin and end every meeting with an inspirational quote or some note of support so they know they have each other’s back even when they’re facing something very difficult. Diversifying your investments There’s no doubt that 98% of an entrepreneur’s energy goes into their business, and 98% of their income comes from that business. But that doesn’t mean that entrepreneurs should just accept that as the way. It’s really important to diversify, as Jack told us on this week’s episode of Just the Tips. You’re going to have ebbs in your business, and having investments in other areas that can bring return can not only stabilize your bank account, but allow you to continue to focus on your business without the stress of worrying about your balance. Jack and Shecky are two true pros, and you’re going to want to hear what they have to say on this week’s episode. Outline of This Episode [3:05] Getting right into it [8:22] Jack deals with some fraud [10:56] How to maintain your focus in the face of adversity [15:35] Why Shecky started a business at 60 [20:43] How important is it to diversify your investments? [23:12] Advice for entrepreneurs starting out Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Resources Mentioned High Return Real Estate Extreme Ownership The High Return Real Estate Show Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Billion Dollar Project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BillionDollarProject/

On today’s episode of Just the Tips, Dean and I welcome Stephanie Blake to the podcast. Stephanie is at the forefront of Facebook Messenger bots, and how they can help marketers take the next step in their field. Stephanie has an amazing and relatable story, being a work-from-home mom with an affinity for taking online courses, and she’s used that to really place herself on the vanguard of bots. We talk with her about how she got into marketing, how she discovered bots, and how you can leverage bots to make your marketing sing. How bots work for your marketing Stephanie is the quintessential entrepreneur. She’s gone from getting laid off by her work-from-home job, to becoming a self-taught expert in a cutting-edge field. And she says bots are really at the forefront because they allow you to interact with your customer on a much more personal, individual level at a time when we’re seeing click-through rates and retention rates on emails and webinars decline. If this is all new to you, or you’re also worried about the effectiveness of your tried-and-true tools, you have to listen to this week’s episode of Just the Tips. Bots are a revolution in communication Stephanie calls bots a communication revolution. And while she’s already seen how Facebook Messenger bots can change things for companies, it’s not stopping there. She told us about how tech giants like Google are asking phone companies to switch from SMS messaging to RCS messaging. And that change will make a seismic shift in how people communicate with their phones, so there will be much more opportunities for dynamic interactions (including buttons, links, etc.) that will be a marketer’s dream. So if you already know how to communicate well with a bot, you’ll be able to jump on when it expands so rapidly. With great bot power comes great bot responsibility Stephanie points to a company called Smart Moms Plan Disney as an example of someone who is using a bot effectively and, well, intelligently. According to Stephanie, the owner of Smart Moms makes her bot very interactive, including having visitors take quizzes or surveys so that she can help serve them better. And Stephanie has some great ideas for how to get people subscribed to a bot beyond simply asking someone to subscribe. This is truly a tip-filled episode of Just the Tips. Bots haven’t killed email lists As Stephanie told us on this week’s Just the Tips, if you have people subscribed to your bot, you don’t own that list. That’s why email lists will never truly be replaced by bots. But while she walks us through a lot of the similarities between bots and email, she says one of the worst things you can do is copy and paste email campaigns into bots. So what should you do instead? Listen to this week’s episode of Just the Tips to find out. Outline of This Episode [3:19] How Stephanie got into marketing [7:48] What is a bot? [10:51] How to make your bot look like it isn’t spam [15:40] How to get someone subscribed to the bot [18:10] Bots are saving entrepreneurs money [21:37] Do you own the list of subscribers to your bot? [24:54] Don’t copy and paste email campaigns [28:30] How bots are like a Choose Your Own Adventure [34:26] Getting in touch with Stephanie Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Resources Mentioned Smart Moms Plan Disney Social Sparrow BotBoss BotBoss on Facebook Social Sparrow on Facebook Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Billion Dollar Project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BillionDollarProject/

On today’s episode of Just the Tips, Dean and I dive into the much-misunderstood but vital piece of the selling puzzle, closing. And who better to talk closing with than the man who literally wrote the book on it (Closer Secrets), Randall Grizzle. Randall spent 15 years closing high-ticket deals for some of the top marketers in the world before he struck out on his own to helps closers level up their games. His company, Closer Secrets, has been around less than a year and is already closing multiple six-figure deals. Listen to this week’s episode to find out how Randall works his way through a sale, what’s in his pitch decks, and why Dean may have a leg up on other closers. If you want to close, you have to have a game plan Because Randall has had such tremendous success with closing high-ticket deals, I had to ask him what’s the one thing that everyone has to do, if they even dream of closing a sale. And while it may sound simple he says: You have to have a game plan. And that’s because things come up, opinions change, but if you have a game plan in place, then you can adapt and execute according to that plan. If you don’t have a game plan, then it gets awkward. And nobody likes awkward. Except for Dean. He’s all about it. The church of the game plan Randall is a unique thinker, and so when I asked him what a game plan looks like to him, he didn’t cite the titans of industry who have made millions on their sales. He cited Andy Stanley and Joel Osteen, two of the most famous ministers in the country. But he says if you look at those guys, who have build enormous communities, you can see the game plan. They come out every Sunday with their introduction, setting the right tempo. Then they switch to their investigation, where they probe and ask questions. Then they get into their “blast,” where they let the congregation know they have options, and then the pre-qualification commitment. You have to hear how he breaks it down on this week’s Just the Tips. Closing is all about the process A lot of times, when an entrepreneur is building a sales team, they’ll say, “I need a closer.” But as Randall says, that’s like building a tower from the spire down. Closing is all about the process. He walked us through what he sees as the ideal process for closing a sale, and it begins with the closer working with the person who booked a call with a potential client. He breaks down how the landing page should look, what you should be putting together for a complete pitch, and how to eliminate rejections before you even hear them. Closing begins in pre-qualifying One of the fascinating things that Randall says on this week’s episode of Just the Tips is that closing actually doesn’t happen at closing. Closing happens at pre-qualifying, getting that commitment at that point, so that once the proposal comes through (keep it simple), then you’ve already closed. It’s as simple as asking, “Is there any reason why we shouldn’t work together?” Randall really is on another level with closing sales, and Just the Tips listeners will gain incredible insight by listening to this week’s episode. Plus Dean’s there. Outline of This Episode [3:24] How Randall got his start in sales [5:20] Have a game plan [10:05] Randall’s sales process [17:30] Pre-qualifying a commitment [19:10] Pitching the proposal [24:45] What’s in a pitch deck? [28:22] How Randall gets his potential clients prepared [30:30] Getting in touch with Randall Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Resources Mentioned Closer Secrets Randall on Instagram Grateful Closers on Facebook Closer Secrets on Facebook Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Billion Dollar Project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BillionDollarProject/

On today’s Just the Tips, it’s just Dean and I sharing a podcast episode for two for Valentine’s Day. This is actually the one place where I can tell Dean I love him, because he’s actually taken a hiatus from social media lately. At first I thought I wasn’t seeing his posts, but he tells me it’s been an intentional pullback from social media. Why? Find out on this very special, intimate Valentine’s Day episode. Dean goes dark Back in December, everything had been going well for Dean, when suddenly he got really sick. He tried to go into work, but had to turn back home and ended up spending about six days in bed, unplugged from the world. At that time, he’d also just dropped and smashed his phone, so his new phone had none of his contacts, none of his apps, etc. And what he realized was that he was always reaching for it, even though there was nothing to do on it. And it was then he realized he had an addiction to his phone. Taking a break After realizing that he had a habit of checking social media compulsively, Dean decided to go cold turkey. For three weeks he didn’t check his social media, barely checked his email and went online as little as possible. And what he found was that his head was feeling a lot clearer. What he realized was that he was just passively consuming “other people’s crap,” and not focusing on what he thought was important. If this sounds like you (it sounds like just about everybody), this episode is for you. You’re not good at multitasking One of the effects of leaving social media, Dean found, was getting a whole bunch of time back. All that time he wasted on social media, but then also all the time he lost by losing his focus. Humans are not good at multitasking, no matter what anyone says. Studies show that the human mind is better off focusing on one thing at a time in order to be most productive. And so by turning off his phone or by not checking his email or Facebook incessantly, Dean was actually able to get his focus back. Figure out what’s distracting you Now that Dean has found that he’s much more productive not going on social media or not picking up his phone every 20 minutes, his next step is to make a list of everything that causes a distraction. Phone calls, notifications, Slack notifications, etc. And he wants to figure out which of those are essential to him, and which he can remove so he can take his focus to the next level. It’s important to set expectations with people that you’re not always going to be available at the time, so you’re not ghosting your friends and family. But try removing some of the noise, and you’ll be amazed by how productive you can be. Outline of This Episode [3:30] Why Dean has gone silent [8:30] Dean realizes it’s just a habit [10:00] Three weeks off social media [11:41] Wrong metrics for success on social media [17:36] How to get past your performance gaps [21:20] Make a list of everything that creates a distraction [26:55] Set expectations [31:08] Dean’s making a comeback in the book challenge [37:06] Abandon the good for the great Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Billion Dollar Project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BillionDollarProject/

On today’s episode of Just the Tips, we welcome a top performance coach who has worked with some of the NBA’s biggest stars, including Kevin Durant, Alan Stein, Jr. But right off the bat, we learned one of the most mind-blowing facts about Alan, his middle name: Alan “The Ballbuster” Stein, Jr. Alan is a world-renowned coach, author and speaker. After a career working with NBA players, he now teaches audiences and clients how to utilize the same strategies in business that elite athletes use to perform at a world-class level. Move over Dean “Bearded Wonder” Holland, the Ballbuster is here. The intersection of love and work Alan took a different path than pretty much any other business coach you know. He started playing basketball when he was a kid, and then played in high school and college. Once that was done, he transitioned to coaching, specifically focusing on performance training (running faster, jumping higher). Alan had a great mentor say to him one time: Find out what you love to do, find out what you’re good at, and work at the intersection of those two. And luckily Alan found that with coaching. Respect the process Alan had friends and colleagues in the corporate world, and began talking with them about the concepts of his training and coaching, and how they could apply off the court. And what he realized is that the mindset of the athlete actually has a lot in common with the mindset of the entrepreneur. You have to respect the process, you have to embrace change, having rituals and routines, and never getting bored with the basics. Alan is a top-notch communicator, and the connections he makes here will blow your mind. Have the humility to identify your performance gaps As Alan says even the most advanced athletes and performers have what he calls “performance gaps.” No one is elite at everything. So the first step is to have the humility to see that you have those gaps. Then, he has a three-step process to overcoming those gaps. The first step is to pick one gap, then work on it for 66 days, and the third step is to keep the spotlight on it. He says the number-one reason new years resolutions fail is because they try to change too many habits at one time. You pick the one habit you want to address, and you focus on successfully getting over that. Applying these concepts to organizations Alan is a man of process, and when I asked him about how to apply some of these habit-breaking concepts to larger organizations, he laid out a clear way for a company to foster a culture. The first step is to identify your core values, your north star, what the whole company is working towards. Once you have that, you set standards and processes that move your company toward the goal. Then you create accountability to ensure that all of those standards are upheld. Easier said than done, but Alan is a convincing guy. If you’re looking to establish some better habits, you have to listen to this week’s episode of Just the TIps. Outline of This Episode [3:45] How Alan got into performance coaching [6:20] Alan’s past as an entrepreneur [11:02] How Alan transitioned to the corporate world [14:01] Why athletes have difficulty with business after sports [16:54] How to get past your performance gaps [19:17] The three-step process to get rid of bad habits [24:52] How do you pick the right habit to address [28:33] Applying these concepts to organizations [34:01] Active listening [35:25] Alan’s book, Raise Your Game [37:00] What Alan’s working on right now Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Resources Mentioned Raise Your Game Atomic Habits AlanSteinJr.com Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ

On today’s episode of Just the Tips, the Bearded Wonder Dean Holland and I welcome my good friend Joe Marfoglio to the show. Joe is an expert in creating engaging content and making YouTube work for businesses, but the really big news on today’s show is that this is the first time Joe’s been on a podcast. So I broke out all of my new fancy gear, and we talked about how Joe got into the entrepreneurship game, how he got into the palm-tree game, and how to break out of in-the-box thinking. Being the glue as an entrepreneur A lot of people say they’re self-made men, but Joe actually is. After barely graduating high school, Joe had a roommate who would repair vinyl car upholstery for good money, but wouldn’t teach Joe how to do it. So he went out to Montana from San Diego, got the training, came back and started doing the work himself. From there, he somehow got started importing glue from Italy (long story), wining and dining glue exporters from The Boot. And with that money he started investing in real estate around San Diego, and also sold palm trees for a while. Joe has done it all, and is a great storyteller, making this episode of Just the Tips a blast. How Joe (sorta) blackmailed his first client How did Joe go from being an importer, a real estate mogul and the palm tree king of San Diego and find his way to search engine optimization (SEO)? As he says, he had his fingers in so many pies, he eventually became way over-leveraged, and the bottom dropped out. He was looking around for a job, something, and a friend offered him a job at IBM. But instead, he decided to tackle marketing for small, local businesses. His first client was a guy who initially said no, but then Joe was able to get his video onto page one. And from there he knew he was onto something, and he closed his first $100,000 in sales in the next 60 days. When it comes to SEO, sales, all of that, no one knows it better than Joe. Think outside, outside the box Joe has always been hustling, always been an entrepreneur who has seen a need and done his best to fill it. And as he says, creativity is incredibly important for entrepreneurs. But when people say “think outside the box,” what do they really mean? Well, Joe has a theory about a new way we should look at creativity. As Joe says, from day one of your life you’re put into a box. At school, you’re told to memorize and to think a certain way. You’re chained to a work/reward system, where if you do a certain amount of work, you get rewarded. And that trend continues throughout your entire life. But if you can see that box for what it is, then you can step outside of it and figure out what actually brings you value or brings you closer to your goals. Learning to work as an entrepreneur is like learning a new language As Joe says, if you want to break out of the box, you have to reevaluate what’s holding you back, and then work toward the goal you want. Joe told us about how he met a guy who went to Harvard and claimed Joe had an advantage because he had been forged by his struggles coming from a blue-collar background. Yes, a guy from Harvard said the other guy had the advantage. That’s the type of thinking Joe wants to break people out of. I carry a coin in my pocket with the latin phrase amor fati inscribed on it. And it means: Play the hand you’re dealt like it’s the one you wanted. Outline of This Episode [5:02] How Joe got into the game [10:00] Selling palm trees in San Diego [19:50] Joe’s first SEO client [25:20] How to be more creative as an entrepreneur [35:40] Where to begin with thinking outside the box [45:20] It’s easy to learn, but you have to take action Musicfor “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Resources Mentioned Joe Marfoglio Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Billion Dollar Project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BillionDollarProject/  

On today’s episode of Just the Tips, I welcome a new and improved Dean Holland. He hasn’t actually changed a thing, but I’m trying to spice things up a bit. And Dean and I together welcome Nathan Hirsch. Nathan started his first eCommerce business out of his college dorm room and has sold over $30 million online, and is now the co-founder and CEO of FreeeUp.com, a marketplace that connects businesses with pre-vetted freelancers in eCommerce, digital marketing, and much more. We talk with Nathan about how he started FreeeUp, the pitfalls of hiring freelancers, and how his first business nearly put his college bookstore out of business. From cease and desist to rise and persist Nathan told us a great story on this week’s Just the Tips of how, when he was in college, he began selling books out of his dorm room and the trunk of his car, until the school sent him a cease and desist letter. But by then he had set his eyes on bigger pies, and he began selling products on Amazon. He tried to move beyond books, but no matter what he tried to sell, he kept failing, until at the age of 20, he sold the one thing that all 20-year-old, male college students think about: baby products. But it all took off for him, and taught him hard lessons about selling online. The number-one problem for entrepreneurs: That first hire When Nathan was in college as a business major, he remembers one talk by the woman who led his school’s entrepreneurship program. While all of the business professors were telling him to take economics or finance, she just got onstage and said, “If you want true financial freedom, be an entrepreneur.” And from there he was hooked. But I had to ask him, what was the one lesson he’s really learned out in the field that they never taught him in college. And sure enough: It was hiring. Luckily, there’s no one better to talk to about hiring than Nathan, and that’s why we got him on this week’s Just the Tips. How Nathan made his best and worst hire Nathan told us about how when he first started his business, the only people he knew he could hire were college students; not exactly the most reliable pool of workers. His first hire was a buddy in his business law class, and that ended up being his best hire ever. But it also gave him the false impression that hiring was easy. So he then made bad hire after bad hire, not really understanding what was going wrong. It took him years to figure it out, and that process is what led to FreeeUp.com. FreeeUp and solving the problem of freelancers FreeeUp receives hundreds of freelancer applicants each week to join its marketplace. Nathan’s team interviews and vets them, and takes the top 1% (based on skill, attitude and communication), and makes them available to their clients quickly whenever they need them. It’s a little different than, say, Fiverr, which is an open market. FreeeUp, because it was built by entrepreneurs, is build to solve entrepreneurs’ problems. They have 24/7 support and have a no-turnover guarantee covering replacement costs if the freelancer ever quits. Nathan really has hiring down to a science, and he gives us a ton of great advice on how entrepreneurs can improve their own hiring. Outline of This Episode [3:45] How Nathan nearly put his college bookstore out of business [8:45] When the entrepreneur seed was planted [11:19] Why Nathan decided he had to hire his first person [14:30] FreeeUp’s model [21:35] How FreeeUp has mastered hiring [23:30] Who uses FreeeUp Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Resources Mentioned FreeeUp.com Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Billion Dollar Project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BillionDollarProject/  

On today’s episode of Just the Tips, Dean and I and Dean’s beard welcome William Leach to the show. If you want to know some Jedi mind tricks to get into the subconscious of your ideal customers or clients, Will is the guy you want on your side. Will is the founder of TriggerPoint, a leading Behavioral Research and Design consultancy specializing in System 1 marketing. TriggerPoint helps today’s largest brands understand and change consumer behavior through Behavioral Research and Design. Will has over 20 years of behavioral insights experience and is a behavioral design instructor at the Cox School of Business BLC at Southern Methodist University. How Will discovered the subconscious side of marketing Anyone who is interested in marketing and upping their sales game is going to have an interest in studying psychology and what gets people to buy things, but Will takes it to a different level. He took a look at the latest in neuroscience and behavioral psychology and learned how to apply those principles to marketing. As he says on this week’s Just the Tips, people make 35,000 decisions a day, and obviously not all of those are conscious decisions, a lot of them are operating below the surface. So rather than trying to change someone’s mind and convince them to buy something, Will looks at how those subconscious decisions impact sales decisions. The four factors that contribute to decision-making Will told us about behaviorally designed marketing on this week’s episode. He said there are four factors that get someone into the mode of “hot state decision-making,” which means they are emotionally and psychologically ready and wanting to make a decision (think about what Vegas does to you). The four factors that get someone into that hot state are goals, motivation toward those goals, what’s called regulatory fit (think approach vs. avoidance), and then finally triggers. Will clearly explains what each of those factors mean, but you’ll have to listen to this week’s Just the Tips to get the truly deep dive. How behavioral psychology works in action Will told a really fascinating story on this week’s Just the Tips about how he’s applied his four factors in the real world. When he was working for PepsiCo, his team had to figure out how to make a discount “bundle” of products (soda and chips, etc.), appealing to customers. So at first they discounted the whole bundle together, but that didn’t really work. And then they thought through what those customers in convenience stores are there for, what their goals are (to get through the next part of their day), and what their motivation is (to have a bit of a respite and get the fuel to get through their day). Mark walked us through all four factors, and how he came to a decision on how to re-market the products that boosted their sales by 20%. It’s fascinating stuff. Focus on the trigger So while you should consider how to apply all four factors to your full marketing approach, a quick tip Will told us about to quickly boost sales is to just focus on the last one: the trigger. Tell people what you want them to do and when to do it. “Buy now,” “sign up today,” etc. It may look ugly, but it will drive short-term sales. He also provides another quick-hit tip. One is to focus on promotion or prevention (i.e. talking about the benefits of a product or what the product removes negative impacts). It may be a simple technique, but it can really help change things for your marketing. All of this is in Will’s book Marketing to Mindstates, but you can hear it first in this week’s Just the Tips. Outline of This Episode [3:24] How Will got interested in behavioral science [6:45] Triggerpoint’s origin story [9:51] The four factors [14:17] An example of Will’s approach in action [18:24] The easiest thing to do [23:56] How to not overthink it [28:30] How this applies to sales Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Resources Mentioned Marketing to Mindstates Marketing to Mindstates website Triggerpoint Design Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Billion Dollar Project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BillionDollarProject/

On today’s episode of Just the Tips, we have a guest who has been a mentor to me, someone who has been very instrumental in changing my thinking in terms of not just marketing but entrepreneurship in general. Perry Marshall is an accomplished and sought-after business coach who has been featured in Forbes and Inc. He’s also the author of the essential Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords. But today we’re talking with him about the biggest impact he’s made on not just internet marketing, but even NASA: the 80/20 rule for productivity. This is a can’t-miss episode of Just the Tips. How Perry drank the Kool-Aid but didn’t drown in it Perry discovered his love of entrepreneurship not by becoming an entrepreneur, but by becoming an engineer. In high school he got really into repairing and installing stereos and car stereos, and so the entrepreneur side just became the way he could do the thing that he loved. From there he hopped on the Amway train, and as he says drank the Kool-Aid. It took him a while to resurface, but when he did, he realized he wanted to do something on his own. Of course, once he went off on his own he ended up becoming a massive success and a huge influence on countless entrepreneurs, but you’ll have to listen to this week’s Just the Tips to get the whole story. Getting in early on direct-response marketing online Perry got his first job in internet marketing in 1997, before the Internet really took off. But he was able to figure out something that nobody really had up until that point: Direct-response marketing online was not that different from direct-mail marketing and sales, which he had already done. And so he gets a job with this company and starts working on their website and starts generating a healthy number of leads, even at the dawn of the Internet age. And then one night, not too long after he was fired from another job, his boss came over to ask Perry how they could keep him at the company. So Perry figured out something early on, and then grew it from there. So on this week’s Just the Tips you’re getting the best advice from literally a primary source on online marketing. You better understand what you bring to the table as a salesperson Perry tells this great story on this week’s Just the Tips about how he walked into a meeting at his work, and introduced himself as an electrical engineer, and his boss corrected him and said, “No, Perry is in sales, but sometimes forgets what his job is.” And that interaction led to a light bulb going off in Perry’s head. If you don’t know what type of salesperson or marketer you are, then you are going to get shoehorned into a type of marketing by someone else. And that led Perry to create a “Marketing DNA” test, which helps salespeople understand who they are and what their unique selling proposition (UPS) is. 80/20 and gaining leverage Perry’s 80/20 rule says simply that 20% of what you do produces 80% of results (4x leverage), whereas 80% of what you do produces 20% (1/4x), and so the difference is enormous. As Perry says, 80/20 is a very counterintuitive process. What it teaches you is how to understand where you need to put in your effort, and when you need to quit something. Perry dishes all sorts of fascinating stories that illustrate the 80/20 rule on this week’s episode of Just the Tips, even (sssshh) when to fire your customers. Don’t miss it. Outline of This Episode [2:43] Perry’s early days as an engineer [8:15] Why do entrepreneurs quit? [16:30] How Perry figured out how to make sales work [22:13] The dawn of Internet marketing [31:00] Marketing DNA [36:55] How important is it to endure pain? [39:39] 80/20 and leverage [43:20] What people get wrong about 80/20 Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Resources Mentioned PerryMarshall.com Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Billion Dollar Project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BillionDollarProject/

We all have adversity in our lives, and it’s really what we do to overcome that adversity that shows what kind of person we are. And some have more adversity than others. That’s the case with our guest on Just the Tips today. Jeff Hall talks to us about how he overcame a troubled childhood by learning to become an entrepreneur, and how that’s shaped him for the rest of his life and career. He’s also the founder of Overflow Café, a company that has changed over his career, but now gets amazing results for clients looking to boost their web presence. All along he continues to give back and if you’re looking for a little New Year’s inspiration, this is the episode for you. How the adversity Jeff faced as a kid made him an entrepreneur Growing up, Jeff’s parents were gainfully employed. But it was their management of money that really did them in. Both of his parents were careless with money and had gambling problems, and so they lived a very poor lifestyle, often getting evicted and dodging creditors, even though the revenue was coming in. Jeff saw this, and he knew there had to be a better way. So he started his own company when he was 7, selling candy to his classmates. Unfortunately, his mother saw how well he was doing and started taking his profits. But the desire for entrepreneurship was forged, and Jeff never let it go. The reality check of having an online business I asked Jeff what the number-one obstacle is for a company starting out online, and he said something that rang very true: Not having the patience to see something through. Many entrepreneurs want to see instant results online, but it can take a long time to bring your website up the Google rankings, and it can take years to build a customer base. Jeff actually said something that really surprised me: He said that he always asks clients who their competitors are, and 50% of potential clients say they have no competitors. So there’s a reality check coming for a lot of entrepreneurs, and Jeff gives great advice for how to dodge that check on this week’s Just the Tips. How to boost your conversions A lot of what Jeff says on this week’s Just the Tips is common sense, but it bears repeating and integrating. If you want to increase not just the number of people who visit your website, but the number of people who buy something from you, then you need to build what Jeff calls “credibility.” That means your company name needs to be prominent, your offerings need to be prominent, and everything on your site should contribute to the ease of your user’s experience (as he says, we don’t need to see pictures of your cats). Jeff’s best website horror story Jeff’s company, Overflow Café, has had thousands of customers, so he’s seen every kind of business come and go online. So I had to ask him, what was the biggest mistake/best horror story you have of a client that just didn’t get it. I don’t want to spoil it for you, but let’s say that it contains three elements of every great business story: 1) a clueless client 2) questionable purchases of *very* personal items and 3) an angry wife. If for nothing else you have to tune into this week’s episode of Just the Tips to hear this amazing story. Outline of This Episode [2:51] Jeff’s tough childhood [8:00] How Jeff moved out and focused on building his company [10:54] Jeff’s advice for getting out of a bad situation [12:02] The evolution of Overflow Café [14:00] The reality check of the Internet [18:30] Be very careful about how you spend your money [24:57] How to improve your conversion rate [30:20] Jeff’s best horror story Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Resources Mentioned Overflow.com Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Billion Dollar Project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BillionDollarProject/

Today on Just the Tips, I make the huge mistake of being outnumbered by Brits, and immediately lose control of the show. But luckily, our guest, Tom Breeze, is such an insightful guy that the episode turned out to be more bangers than mash. Tom is the founder and CEO of Viewability, a company specializing in YouTube advertising, boasting an impressive client list of international, personal and corporate brands. Tom is also a speaker, author and consultant, teaching businesses around the world how to advertise successfully on YouTube. There are so many ways to leverage YouTube ads for your business that it can be daunting. Luckily, Tom is here to undaunt them for you. How did Tom get into YouTube ads? There are a lot of British things that happen in this episode of Just the Tips, but one story Tom tells about how he headed down the rabbit hole of YouTube ads was maybe the most British of them all. Tom had started dabbling in internet marketing for his own business, largely focusing on things like search engine optimization. And while the business was doing okay, he decided to make a video that potential clients could watch to learn about why they should work with him. He woke up the next day and saw that he’d had a lot more success overnight and thought, in that most British of ways, that something had gone wrong, and the data was bad. But in reality, he’d just discovered the power of YouTube ads. YouTube ads are not just for lead generation Tom notes that a lot of what users go to YouTube for is to learn something. Maybe it’s how to fix something wrong with their make and model of car, or maybe it’s how to lose weight, etc. But there is a huge user base of YouTube going there to learn every day. And so it’s no surprise that a lot of YouTube ads are designed to generate leads for educators. If you want to learn more about how to market your business, an ad promises, follow the link to download a PDF. But I asked him if you can do direct sales through YouTube and he told me about how you can go straight from an ad to an order page. If you’re new to YouTube ads, you have to listen to this week’s episode of Just the Tips. The different type of YouTube ads There are so many different types of ads that pop up when you watch a YouTube video, I had to ask Tom what the differences are and when you should use one over the other. He told us that the little banner ads you see pop up while watching a video are actually part of the Google display ad environment. But there are also bumper ads, the six-second ads you see before your video starts, but those are mostly for brand awareness, because there’s no link to click through to your site. Then there are the big, 20-second ads that a lot of big brands use. But what Tom says most businesses use are in-stream ads and discovery ads. Want to know more about those? Listen to this week’s Just the Tips. YouTube ads are a different marketing beast Tom broke down how to actually structure a solid ad, and it’s very counterintuitive for people use to common marketing principles. Tom says that within 30 seconds, you have to tell your audience that this is an ad, and there’s a call to action. You may lose viewers, but that’s okay, because the ones who stay are the ones who are going to click. It runs against the received wisdom of “sell them on a story first,” but Tom knows his stuff. If you’re interested in YouTube ads, Tom is offering tons of insights on how to make them work for you on this week’s episode of Just the Tips. Outline of This Episode [4:00] How Tom got started with YouTube [12:26] Are YouTube ads still unexplored territory? [17:55] Are YouTube ads just for lead-gen, or can you sell directly? [20:42] The different type of YouTube ads [26:00] How to structure an ad [35:58] How to connect with Tom Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Resources Mentioned Viewability Viewability the book Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Billion Dollar Project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BillionDollarProject/

A lot of people talk about paid-ad traffic, and the various ways to make ads online work best for your business. But getting referrals can seem like a dark art, and so today on Just the Tips, Dean and I welcome Bill Cates, a master of these dark arts. People tend to separate their customer acquisition into two camps: the things they’re doing to actively acquire business (thinks like paid ads, events, etc.) and then the passive effects of doing good work, like referrals. As Bill says, people tend to think of getting referrals as just the “icing on the cake” of doing good work. But Bill breaks down how that’s bad thinking, and actually leads to people leaving money on the table, this week on Just the Tips. How a referral changed Bill’s business forever Bill told us on this week’s Just the Tips that his entry into the world of entrepreneurship came through book publishing. He wrote a book about referrals and marketing, and that led him to start a publishing company, which led him to literally selling his books to bookstores door to door. So he went into one store where the owner wasn’t interested, but he referred him to another store that sold the type of book Bill was putting out there (this one was called Hooked on Seafood). And then an executive walked into that store and loved the book, and long story short, a major company ordered 400,000 copies of that one book. You’ll have to listen to this episode of Just the Tips to hear the whole story, but it’s a doozy. What do we mean when we say referral business? Bill has been focused on accelerating referrals for businesses for 25 years, and as he says, a lot of people confuse getting referrals with networking or referencing a business. And certainly those are elements of referrals, but they’re not the whole picture. Bill boils it down to one important action: Introductions. He says it’s first about engagement, getting to know people, and then getting those people to introduce you to people who could use your help, and then forming a connection with those people. Bill has it all distilled down to a science, and you’ll want to hear about it on this week’s episode of Just the Tips. The super-referral: Getting referrals without having to ask them Bill says it’s important to keep an eye out for engaged clients or engaged customers. Those are the clients and customers who go beyond hiring you and who know and trust you. As he says, you let them know, “don’t keep me a secret.” In other words, without having to ask them, plant the seed that they could and should refer you. And Bill says something so key in this episode of Just the Tips: It’s about being authentic, not necessarily about being different. Sure, being different can help, but Bill says it’s most important to coach them in how to talk about your business, so they really make it click for a potential client. How referrals are a perpetual revenue machine Bill shares so much insight on this week’s Just the Tips about how to drum up referrals. He talks about what he calls “reputation marketing,” which is all about doing good work, and then making sure good people see that good work. If you can offer something of value to people who can help you back, then you’re really onto something. Bill talks about his principles of engagement that allow you to continually land more and more referrals, creating what Bill calls a “perpetual revenue machine.” That’s a pretty sexy name, and you have to hear how Bill makes it work on this week’s episode of Just the Tips. Outline of This Episode [3:11] How Bill became fascinated with referral business [4:34] Where Bill started his entrepreneurial journey [9:00] The referral that changed BIll’s life [12:50] What we mean when we talk about referrals [21:37] Reputation marketing [30:10] The perpetual revenue machine Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Resources Mentioned Multiply Your Best Clients ReferralCoach.com TheCatesAcademy.com Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Billion Dollar Project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BillionDollarProject/

Sometimes you have a guest with amazing credentials, and sometimes you have a guest with White House credentials. Our guest today is Scott McKain, an expert on how businesses distinguish themselves from the marketplace and win and retain customers. And he’s the author of ICONIC: How Organizations and Leaders Attain, Sustain, and Regain the Highest Level of Distinction. But perhaps the coolest credit on his bio is the fact that Arnold Schwarzenegger once saw him speak, and booked him a presentation at the White House in front of the president. You know we talk about that on this episode of Just the Tips, and you’re going to want to hear that story. How Scott was invited to the White House So one day Scott walks out to give a presentation, and there sitting in the audience is Arnold Schwarzenegger. After the talk, Arnold told Scott that one day they would work together, but this was during the first Bush presidency, and Scott didn’t expect to be in the next Terminator movie. But Schwarzenegger was named by President George H.W. Bush as the chairman of the president’s Office of Fitness and Sports and he invited Scott to give a talk. And as Scott says, everyone in the audience was famous, and he was the only one he’d never heard of. Scott is a truly in-demand speaker and full of incredible insight and anecdotes on this week’s Just the Tips. Helping companies stand out in the marketplace Scott is an expert at helping companies stand out, and the way he came about that is actually a funny story. Scott was working with speakers bureaus, but not landing many gigs. So he started researching how he could differentiate himself, and realized there wasn’t a lot of literature out there about how to stand out. So, he stepped in to fill the void. But sometimes that’s what it takes: a personal journey that discovers a universal problem. This is a really exciting episode of Just the Tips that’s full of great advice for helping your company stand out. The four cornerstones of becoming iconic Scott says there are four cornerstones to helping you get your business to stand out. The first is clarity. Scott says that’s especially tougher for a smaller company, because it’s so easy to just chase after money, no matter where it’s coming from, when you’re just starting out. But you have to focus and be ready to say “no.” As he says, if you can express in six seconds what you do, then you’re on the right path. And that’s not a slogan, cautions Scott. A slogan is what you try to sell someone on, but a focus is what you are. You can tell Scott has done the research, and you won’t find a more eloquent speaker on how to make your business stand out. And it’s all on this episode of Just the Tips. Creativity is key to standing out and becoming iconic Another cornerstone of standing out is creativity. Now that doesn’t mean you have to do something totally different from someone else, but it means you have to find a new way of doing it, or presenting it. The third cornerstone is communication. That may sound obvious, but Scott has a unique spin on it that you won’t hear anyone else. And what’s the fourth cornerstone? You’ll have to listen to this week’s episode of Just the Tips. Outline of This Episode [3:22] How Scott got booked at the White House [5:15] Scott helps companies stand out [10:48] How to stand out and become iconic [15:26] How Scott coaches businesses to achieve clarity [19:15] The difference between a slogan and a focus [25:05] You have to be creative [31:05] How to improve your communication [37:32] Scott's book ICONIC Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Resources Mentioned ICONIC: How Organizations and Leaders Attain, Sustain, and Regain the Highest Level of Distinction Scott on Twitter Scott on LinkedIn Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Billion Dollar Project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BillionDollarProject/

Good graphic design can be the Achilles heel of any business. It’s hard to find a good designer, it’s hard to find one that is affordable and can work on tight deadlines. Enter Penji.co, Johnathan Grzybowski’s on-demand graphic design membership platform. But Johnathan has done so much more than create Penji, helping entrepreneurs in a million different ways, and hosting the popular Blind Entrepreneurship podcast. Johnathan is a truly insightful guy, and we dig deep into what makes a company’s culture, so you’re not going to want to miss this episode of Just the Tips. How to recognize when the problem you’re facing could lead to a business Johnathan told us that as he dove further and further into digital marketing, he realized that he was being slowed down by the need for good graphic design. It was hard to find reliable freelancers, sometimes he worked with students. But it never quite worked. That was the seed that led to him creating Penji, but I had to ask him: How did he know the problem he faced was something that wasn’t particular to just him and was big enough to be a problem that could lead to a business? What does “culture” really mean when it comes to business? A lot of entrepreneurs talk about the “culture” of their business, but what does that really mean? A lot of times companies will buy pizza for staff on Fridays and call it a day, but is that really creating a culture? Johnathan has a really interesting approach to fostering the culture of Penji: He did it from the ground up. He found common areas of interest and value among the early employees, and fostered community around those values. So there’s an open-door lunch time where employees can eat together and chat, and share things that they’re excited about. It’s a really refreshing take on what makes a “culture,” and you have to listen to this week’s Just the Tips to hear how Johnathan lays it out. What is the one question that determines your culture? Whenever Johnathan interviews a job candidate, he asks one important question that helps determine his company’s culture: What is your dream? And then the follow-up question is: What can we do to help you fulfill your dream? Johnathan says they place a high importance on the answer to that question, and what that person says helps determine if they have the same values and drive as Johnathan and his co-founder. You can tell when Johnathan talks about this stuff that he takes it very seriously and has carefully crafted his company’s culture. You’ll want to hear about how he does that on this week’s episode of Just the Tips. How cultural diversity strengthens the company On this week’s episode of Just the Tips, Johnathan talked about how his company has hired a lot of first-generation immigrants, and predominantly women as well. And that diversity helps bring in a diversity of perspectives and experiences, which has helped inform the company’s values and goals. There are a million small things that his staff is able to catch because it’s not just one type of person. If you’re assembling or growing a team, you have to listen to this week’s episode. Outline of This Episode [3:46] How Johnathan is living his dream [8:13] What triggered Johnathan to realize there was a big problem that needed solving [11:34] What it means to be all about business culture [14:40] The one question Johnathan asks prospective employees [17:45] How cultural diversity strengthens the company [21:20] Does the customer avatar inform Penji’s approach? [23:55] How to communicate your ideas to a designer [27:35] Revisions are a natural part of the design process [33:05] Dean eating horror story Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Resources Mentioned Penji Penji on Facebook Penji on Instagram Penji on Twitter Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Billion Dollar Project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BillionDollarProject/

On today’s episode of Just the Tips, Dean and I welcome a good friend of ours, Rachel Pedersen, aka the Queen of Social Media, aka the woman who dethroned the previous Queen of Social Media, Dean Holland. Rachel is the founder of Social Media United and is a top social media marketer and consultant, and leading authority on storytelling through social media and Facebook ads. She’s so in-demand she’s doing this interview from the back seat of an Uber, and we’re so glad to have her. How to be more engaging on social media Rachel told us about how for a long time, she worked in a buttoned-up corporate job, and so when she discovered social media and began using it for marketing, one rule rose above all else: Be yourself. And that wasn’t easy for her at her corporate job. And as she says, even making that decision was so difficult—abandoning the safety net of corporate. But as you’ll hear on this episode of Just the Tips, Rachel is a natural when it comes to social media, and she’s especially talented at helping others leverage social media. You don’t want to miss this. How to find clients on LinkedIn According to Rachel on this week’s episode of Just the Tips, LinkedIn is highly underrated for entrepreneurs. It’s not sexy or fun with a lot of bells and whistles, but as she’s shown me in the past, LinkedIn can be a highly effective lead-generation tool. LinkedIn is all about building and expanding your network, which means you’re expanding your opportunities to find clients. So we use Dean as an example of someone who is vaguely aware of social media, and walk him through how he can get started using LinkedIn to grow his business. This is a conversation you don’t want to miss. Which social media platform should you focus on for your business? Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat—there are so many platforms these days that business owners are told they should be on. But really, what’s best for your business? Rachel says there isn’t as much of a demographic difference depending on the site (except Pinterest, which is about 70% women). This may surprise you, but Rachel suggests that Instagram is probably the most difficult platform to grow organically. As she says, unless you’re a celebrity, it’s very difficult to get people to care about your photos. Rachel tells us on this week’s episode of Just the Tips that you’re better off investing your time where your audience is. The biggest mistake entrepreneurs make on social media Here’s the thing: Even your customers who love you don’t want to hear about your product all the time. And that is the one big, major mistake that Rachel sees entrepreneurs making all of the time. If you’re supposed to be yourself on social media, you wouldn’t talk about your product to your friends and family all day long, right? Organic social media just isn’t about products, it’s about So how do you make people care about what you’re doing on social media? Rachel tells us all about it on this week’s episode of Just the Tips. Outline of This Episode [3:46] How people can be more engaging on social media [5:09] The fundamentals of making viral posts [7:27] Why Rachel left her 9 to 5 [9:51] How Rachel got her business off the ground in six months [15:30] How to get started on LinkedIn and generate leads with almost no effort [22:30] Which social media platform should you focus on? [23:40] How to invite people in on social media [27:22] What are some strategies for social media ads? Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Resources Mentioned Rachel Pedersen Rachel’s matchmaking service Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Billion Dollar Project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BillionDollarProject/

On today’s episode of Just the Tips, Joseph Romm joins Dean and me to teach us in the art of persuasion. Joseph is Chief Science Advisor for "Years of Living Dangerously," which won the 2014 Emmy Award for Outstanding Nonfiction Series and now generates viral videos online seen by tens of millions a month. He is also the founding editor of ClimateProgress.org, which New York Times columnist Tom Friedman called an “indispensable blog.” Romm is also a senior advisor for New Frontier Data, the leading “big data” firm providing actionable analysis in cannabis, whose content reaches hundreds of millions of people a year. We chat today about Joseph’s extensive storytelling experience and expertise and how he uses that storytelling prowess to create viral content. Making it clicky and sticky Joseph first dipped his toe into blogging when it became a popular way for companies to connect with customers. And soon, he became a bit of a data junky, tracking performance metrics on his blog post, and really putting in the work to figure out what makes a post popular, what makes it really shareable for readers, etc. As he says, he was trying to figure out what makes something “clicky and sticky.” You’re going to want to hear what he has to say about that on this week’s episode of Just the Tips. The fundamentals of making viral content The first step to making a great piece of viral content, Joseph told us on this week’s Just the Tips, is writing a great headline and then delivering on the promise of that headline. So there is a lot of clickbait out there with catchy headlines to draw readers in, but then the post doesn’t deliver. Eventually, you’re not going to be able to build a good relationship with your readers if you’re pulling a bait and switch. And even then, you shouldn’t expect a headline to bring the entire Internet to your post. As Joseph says, a good post by him has about a 15% clickthrough rate. And it’s all about appealing to reader emotions. Listen to this week’s episode of Just the Tips to find out how. How Jesus became the first viral content creator In Joseph’s book, How to Go Viral and Reach Millions, he talks about how Jesus is a great example of someone who knew how to reach lots of people with just how he crafted a story. As Joseph says, Jesus never traveled further than about 100 miles, but his story got out there because he knew how to tell a story in metaphor, various figures of speech, repetition, etc. But Joseph looks beyond historical figures to look at contemporary storytellers who have been able to connect with large audiences based on their storytelling techniques. And luckily Joseph is full of helpful advice on how they did it on this week’s episode of Just the Tips. The three A’s in storytelling One of the things that Joseph tells us in this week’s episode is that you have to grab your audience in the first seven seconds, or you’re going to lose them. And a big part of that is appealing to their emotions, which he breaks down as the three A’s: Anger, Awe and Anxiety. He really digs into the meat and potatoes on this episode, including how videos connect with an audience when that audience isn’t even listening to it (as many people online do). And that’s just the beginning of what Joseph has to say on this week’s Just the Tips. Outline of This Episode [3:23] How Joseph got into creating viral content [5:09] The fundamentals of making viral posts [10:21] Why Jesus is the most viral person in history [12:10] The three-act structure [17:57] The crucial first seven seconds [23:17] What makes stories memorable [30:15] Why short words sell   Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Resources Mentioned How to Go Viral and Reach Millions Years of Living Dangerously Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Billion Dollar Project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BillionDollarProject/

On today’s episode of Just the Tips, we have an amazing guest in Nicholas Bayerle. Nicholas is the founder of Billion Dollar Body, the Billion Dollar Brotherhood, and the Three-Dimensional Businessman. No one is more committed to helping people improve themselves not just through fitness, but in business and in relationships. He’s the total package. Nicholas is a good friend of mine, and a mediocre friend of Dean’s, and this a great episode for anyone looking for that extra boost to get them to take the next step in their lives or careers. The three-dimensional businessman Nicholas has individually coached 600 clients over the course of five years, so when he came up with the idea of the three-dimensional businessman, he didn’t pull it out of thin air. He looked at the clients he’d been helping and realized that “everything was out of order.” The top three priorities, he says, should be health, wealth and relationships. And many of the problems people run into come up because their fifth, sixth or seventh priorities are actually taking precedence over the top ones. We cover all the bases here at Just the Tips. Without human investment there is no human appreciation Nicholas told us about how when he was 13 he had a falling out with his father. And he had, up until that point in his life, mostly seen his own value as filtered through his dad’s approval. After that, he gained a lot of weight, started failing at school and after school continued to run into problems. But as he says, you can’t teach what you haven’t lived, and so he’s been able to get himself out of that bad mindset. His first step was getting his health in order, because the fact that he wasn’t taking care of himself was directly related to letting himself get overweight. As he says, without human investment there is no human appreciation. If you’re in need of a little inspiration, this is the episode of Just the Tips for you. #SuccessWithoutSacrifice We’ve talked on this show a number of times about periods in our lives when we were making a lot of money and were outwardly successful, but feeling incredibly unfulfilled. And Nicholas is right on that wavelength. As he says in this episode, if you’re pursuing wealth at the detriment of personal relationships, or if you’re building your social media presence while you’re sitting next to someone who feels neglected, you’re not necessarily being successful. That’s why Nicholas’s mantra is #SuccessWithoutSacrifice. You have to prioritize the most important things, health and relationships right alongside wealth accumulation. And luckily Nicholas is full of helpful advice on how to get there on this week’s episode of Just the Tips. Find the person who has what you want I asked Nicholas to give us the first step for someone who knows they’re priorities are out of whack, but aren’t quite sure how to to get to the next level. And he said something we’ve discussed before on Just the Tips: Peer group. Find the person or people who are doing what you want to do, and surround yourself with them. If you can find those people and pick up their habits and skills, you’ll take that next step. And that’s just the beginning of what Nicholas has to say on this week’s Just the Tips. Outline of This Episode [2:23] Nicholas blows some sunshine [4:40] How James improved his sleep [10:45] Success without Sacrifice [19:06] Why communication breaks down [21:58] Find the person who has what you want [29:11] How to expand your peer group, and get into the one you need [35:45] Standoff with Dean [41:10 How to connect with Nicholas Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Resources Mentioned Oura Ring Billion Dollar Body Billion Dollar Brotherhood on Facebook Nicholas on Instagram Pablo’s Instagram Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Billion Dollar Project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BillionDollarProject/

On today’s episode of Just the Tips, we “celebrate” Dean turning 34, and give a shout-out to our one true fan who bought him a Bond license plate for his birthday. And we celebrate having Yara Golden on the show. Yara is a storytelling expert who helps businesses up their communications game, build effective product launches and tell the right stories that will click with the right people. And speaking of clicking, she’s writing the entire indoctrination sequence for ClickFunnels. Yara knows stories inside and out, so today we’re talking with her about what goes into a good story, how entrepreneurs can leverage story, and what “storyselling” really means. And of course she gives Dean plenty of shit. What is Storyselling? Like so many of us, Yara gets offer after offer emailed to her by marketers, and as she says, so much of those offers just say “Buy my shit, buy my shit, buy my shit.” Which is not the most effective pitch. So she came up with this idea of storyselling, which wraps a story from the seller’s life around the product being sold. The audience then gets to know, like and trust the entrepreneur, and then the next obvious step is that the audience reaches out to that entrepreneur to help them with their problem. This is a foolproof method. Even if you’re as unlikable as Dean, if you have a cute puppy, you can just tell stories about the puppy. We cover all the bases here at Just the Tips. You don’t have a list, you have people Yara brings up a really important point on this week’s Just the Tips: You can’t treat your “list” as though it’s made up of numbers and not people. You may be tracking numbers and data, but that’s just an expression of people’s behaviors. People get into internet marketing as though you can throw out all the rules of normal human behavior, like you can just sell and market to people and they’ll opt in without you ever having to genuinely engage with them. But that’s only going to take you so far. As Dean says so many people behave as though they need to beat their list over the head with their message and get as much money out of them as possible, rather than trying to build a long-term relationship. How storytelling translates to selling Everyone is worried about their indoctrination sequence, but as Yara says, if you know the story you want to tell, and you tell it like your audience is comprised of people you want to hear it, then everything falls into place. You can tell that story for your indoctrination sequence, you can tell it in videos, you can tell it in emails, blog posts. Once you get that down, then you have loads of content you can use to connect with your audience. And Yara is full of amazing tips on how that all comes together, but you’ll have to listen to Just the Tips to get them. Familiarity mixed with curiosity Yara makes the great point in this episode of Just the Tips: The salutation that happens at the beginning of every email “Hi [YOUR FIRST NAME] is the fakest way to sound authentic, and it’s the first thing she edits out of any copy she edits. She drops the salutation and gets right into what she wants to talk about, the same way you would do if you were talking with a friend. The second thing she does is instill curiosity. Present a problem or a question to the audience that will make them want to click through. And from there, you have to make each sentence heighten the drama on the last sentence. This is a really great, meat-and-potatoes episode of Just the Tips that you have to hear. Outline of This Episode [3:30] What does “storyselling” mean [6:01] You don’t own the list [9:30] Why nurturing your list is so important [15:20] How to repurpose your story [17:36] How to talk with your audience like their people [24:10] How to educate without condescending [25:53] How to find the right story [33:15] The biggest mistake we make in running our businesses Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Resources Mentioned Yara Golden Yara on Facebook Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Digital Business Entrepreneurs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DigitalBusinessEntrepreneurs/

On today’s episode of Just the Tips, Dean finally comes clean, months into our contest, that he’s just not going to get his book written. But that’s okay! I’m still in a groove with mine, and on today’s episode we dig into the subject of the chapter I’m currently writing, which also happens to be one of the biggest challenges for entrepreneurs. As you’ve probably heard me say on this show, systems are all about people, process and tools. So today we’re digging into people, how to recruit them and how to hire them. Also, I reveal the tentative title for my book, but you’ll have to tune in to find out what it is. The one thing every entrepreneur says about hiring How many times have you said, or heard another entrepreneur say: I’m terrible at hiring, or I’m just no good at managing people? It’s a constant refrain. And for some reason, entrepreneurs just chalk it up to some sort of innate deficit, rather than something they could improve upon. But there are skills you can develop, and there are ways of behaving when managing people that you can learn that can actually make you better at it. So if you find that recruiting or hiring or managing—or all three—is difficult for you, this is the episode of Just the Tips you need to listen to. Why is managing people the entrepreneur’s Achilles heel? Dean told a very revealing story about his own early struggles with hiring and managing people. His first foray into hiring came when he signed on a virtual assistant. But it quickly became clear that he had to spend a good deal of time training and then managing that assistant. And as he says, pretty soon he wasn’t able to do it anymore, and it even went so far as he stopped responding to the VA’s questions. And this leads into one of the root issues as to why managing people can be so hard: Conflict is difficult. There is going to be conflict, and you’re going to have to face it, but no one ever likes to. So we give you a few ideas for how you can address conflict before and after it happens on this week’s episode of Just the Tips. Don’t be afraid to say what needs to be said A huge part of why conflict can seem so daunting to entrepreneurs is because a lot of people are scared of saying what needs to be said. That’s really what it boils down to. And that’s really what leadership is all about. Not every employee is going to be a diamond in the rough, but you can’t sit around and hope that someone reaches their potential. You have to set expectations and then help that person meet those expectations. This may be a bold thing to say, but I truly believe that poor leadership stifles people in their careers more than just about anything else. How do you avoid that? Listen to this week’s episode of Just the Tips to find out. Do you need to recruit and hire the best? One great question that Dean raises on this episode of Just the Tips gets to the heart of the hiring issue: Do you need to hire the absolute #1 possible candidate for a job? The answer of course depends on the position, but often it’s no. What you need is someone who will be a good fit, who is a team player, who is enthusiastic about your mission, and who understands their objectives. Every hire is going to be different, but if you do the work ahead of time, before you even start looking to hire someone, then you’ll be in good shape. Outline of This Episode [4:30] The single sentence every entrepreneur repeats [10:45] Why hiring is so difficult [13:30] People avoid hiring because they don’t want to lead [16:32] What to think through before hiring someone [18:46] Do you need to hire the top candidates [24:00] We are the creators of our own worlds [28:50] The number one thing you can do right away to improve your hiring [33:15] The biggest mistake we make in running our businesses Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Billion Dollar Project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BillionDollarProject/

Today’s episode of Just the Tips starts off a little testy as Dean does his best to drive a wedge between me and today’s guest. But luckily, Dean’s best is still kind of the worst, and he’s unable to create any tension between me and Noura Salman, my former neighbor down in Miami and a woman who has arrived at entrepreneurship via an unusual path. Noura began her career as a CPA, but then transitioned to creating her own businesses, and now she’s bringing those sorely needed accounting skills to other entrepreneurs, helping them get their financial houses in order. On today’s episode, we talk about how entrepreneurs can sharpen their skills, hire the right person, and save their financial ass. Breaking free of the chain at her desk Noura’s story of how she got into accounting, and how she got out of accounting, is fascinating. Her parents struggled with money when she was a kid, and she watched that take a toll on their marriage. So she naturally gravitated toward getting ahold of her finances. But then, as she became more and more successful as a CPA, she realized that the only way she could make money was to be at her desk working, and whenever she wasn’t doing that, she wasn’t making money. So to free herself from the chain at her desk, she decided to take another path. This is a really great episode of Just the Tips for anyone who is wondering what their next step should be. The biggest financial mistakes entrepreneurs make when starting out As we’ve mentioned before on Just the Tips, and as Noura says on this episode, many entrepreneurs are great at their craft and at making money, but aren’t skilled in managing their money. As she says, it’s a lot like people who are trying to cut calories but afraid to step on the scale. So she recommends looking at your financial statements once a month, at least, as part of your routine, so you have a handle on what money is coming in and what money is going out. And you might just discover you’re still subscribed to that service you haven’t used in 15 months. How to read your financial statements if you’ve never done that before One of the problems entrepreneurs face isn’t just that they don’t look at their financial statements, it’s that they don’t know what they’re looking at when they finally do. No one actually taught them how to read their statements and how to glean the necessary information. Noura does a great job breaking down what reports you need to look at (yes, P&L is one of them), and how to read them to ensure you’re getting what you need. We also dive into net profits and what that really means, as opposed to simply money in the bank, and I promise it’s a lot more fun than all of that sounds. This is a bit of a 101 class for Just the Tips listeners, but it’s vital to running a successful business. How to hire and manage a CPA Not every entrepreneur is obviously going to want to spend their time keeping their books, so Noura and I do a deep dive into what you should look for in a CPA, how that person should present that information to you, and how you should work with that person to make sure you’re getting understandable information on a regular basis. We talk through how to hire someone, how to manage them, and even when to approach them with bigger projects (i.e. not around tax time). This is a really value-packed episode of Just the Tips, on a topic that can be scary for entrepreneurs, but in the end is very important. Outline of This Episode [2:45] Dean tries to co-opt Noura’s friendship [4:00] How Noura went from bean counter to entrepreneur [8:40] What are the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make when starting out? [11:43] How to read your financial statements [17:30] Why net profit isn’t actually how much money you’re making [21:29] How to hire out your accounting [29:02] What are the red flags that your bookkeeper isn’t doing their job? [35:00] Ensure your costs and bills are categorized correctly [37:40] Noura walks us through her course Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Resources Mentioned Save Your Financial Ass Super Freshies Lean Out Now Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Billion Dollar Project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BillionDollarProject/  

On today’s episode of Just the Tips, it’s Dean and I flying solo again, and we start off by acknowledging Dean’s, um, contributions to the show, before discussing how I, for once in my life, am all talked out, having just made six months worth of video content. So on today’s episode, we check in on what we’re both working on, take note that Dean is still way behind on our book-writing contest, and discuss such matters as how to be more productive and how to send Dean subliminal messages. And believe it or not, despite all of that goofing around, we dig into some ways you can be more productive. Embrace change or face stagnation Early on in the episode, as we were checking in with each other on what’s new, Dean confessed a few things to me that I think a lot of entrepreneurs can relate to. Aside from the fact that I’m smoking him in the book contest, he also confided that despite 2018 being the year of simplicity, as we’ve agreed on this podcast, he’s getting ready to launch about seven new projects. And in doing so, he’s essentially reinvented himself and his company. It’s something a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with: To stay the comfortable course or veer off on a new path if that’s what your gut is telling you to do. The change can be painful, but as Dean says, he’s really excited for what’s coming next. When at first you don’t succeed just lower your standards Dean copped to being only about 600 words into his book, which is supposed to be done by the end of the month. But as we discuss on this episode, a lot of gurus and marketers like to pass off leaflets and collected blog posts as books. As Dean says, there was one “thought leader” teaching people how to transcribe webinars and call it a book. So really, anything could be a book in the end. As I tell Dean in this episode of Just the Tips, if at first you don’t succeed, just lower your expectations! How to make yourself more productive with time chunking As listeners of Just the Tips know, Dean and I always have a lot of things going on at once. So do you, because as entrepreneurs we tend to take on a lot. But one thing I’ve recognized as being very helpful for getting things accomplished is something called “time chunking.” Essentially, you want to lay aside chunks of time for one specific task. For instance, this week I’ve been working on my videos. And that time is set aside strictly for videos. If, instead, you “task switch,” meaning you’re working not only on different things but different kinds of things, you’re always going to be taking yourself out of the mindset needed to really focus and get one thing done. So you end up slowing yourself down a lot, and you’ll see a steep dropoff in your productivity. Batch your work together to make it stretch Peng Joon is the master of time chunking, and I learned a lot when I heard him speak. He says that he actually makes 90 days of content in just three days, and then he doesn’t have to worry about it for another three months. That inspired me for my approach to video and content making, so I had a video crew come in and record a ton of videos all at once, so I’ll have all of this content to roll out in various forms (video ads, social media videos, memes, etc.) Time chunking can not only force you to set aside the time to get work done, it can get you into the right frame of mind to be creative. I highly recommend this approach for any Just the Tips listeners out there who feel their productivity slipping. Outline of This Episode [3:17] What is time chunking? [6:46] Why Dean feels like he’s starting over [14:02] What is a book? [19:40] How time chunking can make you more productive [27:35] How to plan your creative content [33:00] How James’s lead magnets and funnels work Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Resources Mentioned Peng Joon Time chunking Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Digital Business Entrepreneurs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DigitalBusinessEntrepreneurs/

On today’s Just the Tips, we talk with Matt Watson, who had enormous success early in life as co-founder of Vinsolutions, and after selling that company for $150 million, started Stackify to solve the biggest problems he had at Vinsolutions. Matt tells us about his early days, how he sort of fell into work on Vinsolutions and how it went from side hustle to major hustle. And he shares his unique insights as a developer and an entrepreneur, and how his parents’ entrepreneurial spirit inspired him as a kid. He’s no Dean “Pigeon Man” Holland, but Matt has a great story to tell. The “back of a napkin” story come to life Matt’s story as an entrepreneur literally starts with the apocryphal “back of a napkin” at Applebees. Matt was selling computers at Sears in the early aughties when a customer came in and asked if anyone could help him with a software solution. Matt volunteered and became a de-facto cofounder. After two years of getting Vinsolutions off the ground, he was able to quit his job, and then after another six years sell it for nine figures. It’s something of a meteoric rise, but it also speaks to Matt’s work ethic and eye for solving a market’s problem. And one of the fascinating things he says on this episode of Just the Tips is how they never got into a “startup” mindset. They were just running a business. Solve the problem you see in front of you Matt’s time at Vinsolutions let him peak behind the curtain a bit, and see what problems both businesses and developers were wrestling with. And so that’s how he started Stackify, which essentially lets businesses see how well their applications are performing. In other words, if you go to a restaurant’s website and order food, and the application you’re ordering through is slow or crashes, you’ll likely lose that customers. So Stackify lets a business see how well an application is running, how satisfied customers are, etc. It’s a really savvy approach, one forged in the fires of running a large business. How do you decide when to add features and when to focus on stability? One of the interesting things about the software space right now is that there’s huge pressure to constantly add features and iterate. As Matt says, agile development is the name of the game right now, but it can be a difficult balance to strike between having a stable software solution and adding more bells and whistles to it. As Dean says, he’s dipping his toe into software development, and has really tried to focus on having the software just do one thing, so it stays as simple as possible. And as Matt says, that’s very important when you go to market. Why Matt invested in content marketing One of the problems Matt discovered with Stackify was that it was really difficult to reach his target audience. Senior software developers tend to use ad blockers and other means to avoid being marketed to. So his company released a free tool for developers that became popular and served as a calling card, and then he also turned to content marketing. And he has a very unique way of going about content marketing. He calls it a three-pronged approach. What are they? You’ll have to tune into this week’s episode of Just the (Prong) Tips to find out. Outline of This Episode [3:00] How Matt got started with VinSolutions in 2003 [8:12] How Vinsolutions didn’t operate like a startup [10:05] What is Stackify? [12:48] How do you decide when to add features and when to focus on stability? [15:30] Why Matt invested in content marketing [18:34] Content marketing is a long game [21:30] SEO is really about creating quality content [24:20] Matt’s advice for people starting a business [28:38] What Matt has learned not to do Musicfor “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Resources Mentioned VinSolutions Stackify Startup Hustle Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Digital Business Entrepreneurs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DigitalBusinessEntrepreneurs/

On today’s episode of Just the Tips, I’m in a much better mood, having adjusted to the keto diet, though Dean’s fitness advice could put me back over the edge. But in the meantime, Dean and I dive into something that has come up numerous times on the show, but we haven’t quite been able to take our time with the topic. It’s a question that nearly every business owner confronts at some point: What if I’m selling to the wrong customer? And if the answer is “no,” it’s a real turning point for entrepreneurs, because you can either continue selling to people you’re not excited about, or whom you aren’t really helping, or you can wrack your brain trying to get in front of the customers you do desire. So today, we break it all down for you, our loyal Just the Tips listeners. How to recognize when you’re selling to the wrong people As Dean says as we dip into the conversation, it took him a long time to even recognize the problem. At first he was just wondering why he hated his life, even though outwardly things were going well for him. And what he realized was that despite the fact that he was selling a lot and was making good money, the people he was selling to weren’t actually using what he was giving them. And so the impact he’d hoped to achieve wasn’t there, because the wrong people were taking what he was selling and letting it go to waste. It’s a really interesting distinction, and fascinating to hear Dean talk about it on this week’s Just the Tips.   What is being an entrepreneur? Dean’s conundrum actually strikes at the heart of what it means to be an entrepreneur. I have a quote from Tony Robbins that I return to again and again that says: “Contribution is not an obligation, it’s an opportunity.” And I think that really is what drives entrepreneurs: You find a problem that people have and you try to solve it for them, and you make money as you do so. And so that’s really the first step to figuring out how to dig you out of this hole: Go back to the drawing board and figure out who you are selling to; what they need and how you can help them. It’s sort of back-to-basics approach, but it’s a great gut-check for entrepreneurs that we explore on this week’s Just the Tips. If you’re not in love with your customer, it’s just work One of the things that Dean says on this week’s episode of Just the Tips that sheds a light on a very common problem for entrepreneurs is that he never really went through and looked at who he was selling to when he first got started. He just started selling. And that’s often how people get started, but eventually that work is going to start to feel empty, and you’re going to need to figure out who the person is who you’re helping with your product or service. It’s like being in a relationship: If you’re just doing something because that’s what you do or you feel obligated, you’re going to start to resent the person you’re with. It’s the same thing with customers. If you’re serving the wrong customer, you have nothing to lose Dean told me about how, when he was feeling the most miserable, he was at his most successful. And that’s a very difficult faucet to shut off. People often feel scared that they’re going to lose everything if they change course. But the truth is, you’ve already lost. If you don’t have the desire to drive your business forward, then your business is already slipping away. And the way to get that back is to find your ideal customers and help them. You don’t have to burn everything to the ground to make this happen. This is a really great episode of Just the Tips that gives practical advice for a common, but somewhat difficult-to-pin-down problem. And unlike Dean, you don’t have to burn everything down to fix it. Outline of This Episode [3:53] Introduction of the problem [5:26] How to recognize when you’re selling to the wrong people [8:43] What is being an entrepreneur? [10:15] Going back to the drawing board   [19:45] Your business is like your own personal club [24:13] If you’re serving the wrong customer, you have nothing to lose [28:45] The scalpel over the sledgehammer [35:15 How to fix things without burning everything down Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Resources Mentioned Magnus Unemyr’s blog Magnus’s free book Magnus’s latest book on marketing with AI Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Digital Business Entrepreneurs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DigitalBusinessEntrepreneurs/

As listeners to Just the Tips know, I am all about systems. You put a system in place and get it running smoothly and you open up hectares of time for high-value work. On today’s episode, we have a guest who puts my love of automation to shame. Magnus Unemyr has worked in software development and the Internet of Things for 25 years, and has really dedicated himself to marketing automation and marketing with artificial intelligence and the internet-of-things. Specifically, he’s figured out how to combine AI and IoT to create an automated, state-of-the-art marketing system. Hold onto your hats. We discuss what we mean when we say AI, how you can use it for your business, and some great AI-gone-wrong stories. This is some Spielberg stuff right here. Artificial intelligence marketing for small businesses So artificial intelligence sounds like a very expensive tool for small businesses to adopt, but as Magnus told us, there are cost-effective solutions for even smaller companies, like website chatbots or Facebook Messenger chatbots. But there are other options as well, including using artificial intelligence for email marketing, determining the optimal send time for emails to individuals. And there are already Google AdWords optimization tools to help you improve your ROI for your ads. This is truly cutting edge stuff, and I think Just the Tips listeners will be fascinated by these options. Artificial intelligence sounds great! What is it? Artificial intelligence is everywhere these days, in the news, in various sales pitches. And there is a lot of fear of it, and questions of what it can and can’t do. So I had to ask Magnus how he defines AI, and he had a surprising answer. Magnus told us we don’t actually have artificial intelligence at the moment, what we really mean is machine learning and predictive analytics. The difference is that now what we have software that essentially uses advanced computing to solve problems. But what Magnus calls “strong AI” is more akin to a software robot who can learn to build things they haven’t been pre-programmed to do at all. We’re not there yet, but there are already a lot of applications for Just the Tips users in the “soft” AI currently available. How artificial intelligence marketing can help with lead generation Nearly every business is looking for quality lead generation, so I had to ask Magnus—after dipping into some scary AI stories—how artificial intelligence can facilitate lead-gen. Without even blinking he discussed options such as automated or semi-automated content generation and curation. Content curation tools can help a business save a lot of time to find content that’s worth sharing. But if you move a little further down into the marketing funnel, there are a lot of tools that can help with conversion rate optimization (CRO). For instance, there is a tool that can generate hundreds of thousands of different designs of a landing page, and assess a user’s preferences and show them the one that would work best for them. That’s just one instance of an extremely useful tool you’ll hear about on this episode of Just the Tips, the business podcast OF THE FUTURE. Lead generation and lead scoring through artificial intelligence One of the uses for artificial intelligence in marketing that really perked up my ears was using it to assist with lead scoring. Lead scoring is a very important piece of lead generation, but it’s also a very manual process. So selfishly, I asked Magnus what tools are out there that can help with this, and was surprised to find out there are a number of them already on the market. This is a really eye-opening episode of Just the Tips that proves the future is now. You can get ahead of the curve by listening to this episode and applying some of these solutions to your marketing today. Outline of This Episode [3:00] How Magnus became obsessed with automation and AI [5:04] Can small businesses use AI, or is it just a deep-pocket game? [9:15] What do we mean when we say “AI”? [10:57] What happened with Facebook’s AI. and why they shut it down [14:24] How AI facilitates marketing [19:38] Predictive lead scoring [25:28] Is hardware the next step for marketers? [27:29] How Amazon uses AI Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Resources Mentioned Magnus Unemyr’s blog Magnus’s free book Magnus’s latest book on marketing with AI Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Digital Business Entrepreneurs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DigitalBusinessEntrepreneurs/  

Longtime listeners of Just the Tips know that Dean and I are in an epic race to see who can finish their book first. It was a challenge set by Ken Dunn, our guest on episode 44, and as of this recording, there’s no real easy way to put this, I’m mopping the floor with Dean. I may even be able to finish my book and come back and write his. But aside from the friendly competition (which isn’t that friendly and which I am winning), putting my thoughts down in a book has been great for me to help organize my ideas around why entrepreneurs hit roadblocks. So on today’s episode of Just the Tips, I’m talking about the ideas I’m working through in my book, and hopefully this sneak peek will help all of you if you encounter a roadblock. The three false beliefs Some entrepreneurs feel like they need to do everything themselves. And not only can they not do everything themselves, they shouldn’t do everything themselves. And there are three false beliefs that drive entrepreneurs to take on too much. The first is a sort of hero complex, where entrepreneurs can feel like they are the reason the company exists, and everyone else exists to take tasks off of their plates. But once you build a team, you need to identify people who have superpowers that cover your weaknesses. If this sounds like you, you need to tune into this week’s episode of Just the Tips. What to do if you can’t afford to hire So let’s say you’ve convinced yourself that you are ready to delegate, what’s the next, inevitable roadblock? You’re not sure you can afford to hire anyone. I have a very detailed McDonald’s analogy in this episode that you just have to hear, but the short and long of it is that every hour you don’t have someone who can do something better than you can, you’re not making the money you think you’re making. You’re effectively losing money. It’s a difficult thing to wrap one’s brain around, and of course it doesn’t fix the problem of being cash-strapped, but I think this bit of advice could really help Just the Tips listeners. Buy back your own time When you’re thinking of hiring someone, don’t think of it as paying them for your time. Think of it as buying back your own time. Because every chance you have to buy back your time so you’re not working on low-value tasks frees you up to work on high-value tasks. And if that seems a little selfish to you, think of it this way: Anytime you are not optimizing your time and doing the highest-value work, you are restricting the flow of money to other people, too. As Dean and I discuss on this episode, payday is the best day for an entrepreneur, because you know you’re paying people who can then go on to have a good life Trust people to work for you So the third false belief, then, is that you can’t trust someone else to do a good job. And it’s not just that you’re a control freak and you want to do everything. It’s just that you don’t have a feedback loop set up so that you can verify that you’re spending your money well. You need to have accountability, and you need to have a way for both you and the person working for you to know they’re delivering value. If you have a system in place, then you can ease some of this anxiety. This week’s Just the Tips is all about the psychology of being an entrepreneur, and destroying Dean Holland in the book race. That too. Outline of This Episode [2:00] Currently owning Dean in our book competition [3:48] Why some people get stuck [6:40] The first false belief [13:10] The second false belief [20:25] Buy back your time [30:00] Stop being a control freak [36:45] Doing stuff because it’s quicker than training someone else [43:45] You’re a busy fool Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Digital Business Entrepreneurs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DigitalBusinessEntrepreneurs/  

On today’s episode of Just the Tips, we have a bit of a wildcard, who jumped into the show before I could introduce him, and then served as a Don King-style hype man for Dean and myself. But that’s Alex Dee, a man who brings enormous energy to everything he does. The origins of this episode may have come from an evening in a hot tub, but Alex actually has an amazing story of triumphing over adversity as he came to America, triumphing again when his life hit the skids, and then turning everything around to help entrepreneurs with his Success Hacks program. You need to listen to the whole episode to hear all about Alex’s online entrepreneur academy. Alex is the real deal, and as you can tell Dean and I have a lot of respect for and fun with this guy. Hired and fired within a week Alex moved from Iran with his family when he was 8 to escape fighting in the country, and moved into an apartment right next to one of the most prestigious high schools in the U.S. So right from the start, his parents valued and emphasized education and bettering yourself, a theme Alex would return to again and again. One of the funniest things that happened to him, though, was his first job straight out of college. He was hired and then fired by a major telecom company within one week. Of course Alex tells that story first, but we got him to tell the story about traveling 20 miles through the desert as his family smuggled him out of the country. As you can tell, Alex is a straight shooter, and this is just the beginning of his journey as an entrepreneur. Are you going to crumble, or climb back up? Like many entrepreneurs, Alex has had his ups and downs. But one down period in particular was rough for him. In 2008 when the financial crisis hit, he lost almost his entire net worth, and he and his wife got divorced. But his lawyer actually had some really great advice for him about how to turn his life around. So Alex started reading every book about entrepreneurship that he could get his hands on, and implementing every solid piece of advice he could grab. And that mindset is what allowed him to turn things around, and then begin to share what he learned with others. This is a really honest story on this week’s Just the Tips that you just have to hear. Don’t be a donkey Alex’s story is amazing, but we have him here on Just the Tips to provide one thing: Tips. And the first he serves up is a parable about a donkey that an entrepreneur once told Alex. We won’t try to recreate it here, but the thrust of it is that we all want to do everything, but we can’t. So we need to focus on one thing at a time and knock each of those out sequentially. This is truly a clinic in how to adopt a successful mindset, and one every entrepreneur needs to hear. How to be happy Read any book, ask any person, and you will get a billion different answers to the question: “How can you become happy?” Alex, though, breaks it down in a very simple and amazing idea: creation. Being able to wake up every morning and being able to create something that you really care about, whether it’s actually making something with your hands, or creating moments with your friends and family. Alex may be my partner in crime when it comes to pranking Dean, but he’s a seriously great guy, who has used all of his life experiences to really make an incredible life for himself. If you’re in a rut, you have to listen to Alex on this week’s episode of Just the Tips. Outline of This Episode [4:34] Alex’s incredible story [12:00] How perspective is important [14:25] How Alex’s gratitude helped him weather tough times [19:00] The donkey parable [24:58] How to be happy [34:42] My epiphany at the racetrack [42:02] Alex’s online entrepreneurial academy Resources mentioned Success Hacks on Facebook Success Hack Nation on Instagram Online Entrepreneur Academy Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Digital Business Entrepreneurs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DigitalBusinessEntrepreneurs/  

On today’s episode of Just the Tips, Dean and I are reunited over the Internet after being together in person for Dean’s wedding! After admitting the entire ceremony was a ruse just to get me to the U.K., Dean and I talk about a little cake controversy after the wedding, and all of the podcast fodder that Dean’s groomsmen bestowed upon me during their speeches. So today’s episode is all about war stories from jobs and companies past. And of course, we kick it all off with Dean selling parakeets. Because he’s Dean Holland and that’s what he does. You say budgie, I say budget Because it was brought up in one of the speeches, I had to ask Dean about selling parakeets (or as they call them in the UK, budgies) when he was a kid. And so it turns out that young, entrepreneurial, 12-year-old Dean decided that he was going to turn his parents’ garden shed into a bird sanctuary of sorts. But Dean quickly realized he could make more money if he bought show birds, rather than common parakeets. But the story took a tragic turn, when he went out to the shed to discover the birds were killing each other. And the story gets even stranger from there! Trust me, there are tips here on this week’s Just the Tips beyond “don’t be an amateur bird breeder.” James’s first sale I told Dean about how I first dipped my toe into enterprise. When I was about 10 years old, my parents had left me home alone, and I was hanging out in front of my house when a neighbor pulled his pickup into my driveway. After a little chit-chat, he mentioned that he liked my swingset. And boom, I made him make me an offer, and a salesman was born. There’s more to the story than that, and this is a really fun episode of Just the Tips, where we tell the shaggiest of shaggy dog stories from our past. The early entrepreneurial bug As many of our guests have mentioned on the show, there’s something about entrepreneurs that gets them started at a young age But as Dean says on this week’s Just the Tips, the idea of seeking help, of appreciating mentorship or studying under a coach, didn’t really sink in with him early on. For the most part, he always wanted to figure things out himself. But it was a spark of curiosity in people and what made people do certain things that eventually led him to his current path. Follow your curiosity I told Dean this story about a time in college when I was delivering pizzas, and I saw this guy driving this really nice car. So I asked him about it, what he does and how he got to the point where he could afford the car. And not only that, I took a quick break from my work to go chat with the guy some more, and he ended up being someone who gave me a lot of good advice after that, as well. And so you never know unless you start talking to someone, just what you can learn from them. This was a super fun episode of Just the Tips, opening up the closet and seeing what budgie skeletons are in there. Outline of This Episode [6:13] The value of vacation [16:23] The early days of enterprise [20:20] Learning to accept coaching [22:30] Follow your curiosity Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Digital Business Entrepreneurs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DigitalBusinessEntrepreneurs/  

For all of the many skills an entrepreneur applies to their work and life, often taking care of their financial well-being isn’t one of them. Planning for retirement and making sure you are “financially healthy” can be intimidating to think about. But on today’s episode of Just the Tips, Dean and I talk with a guy who knows how to talk with entrepreneurs about money. Bradley Gibb is the co-founder of Atlas Wealth Solutions and CashFlow Tactics, and as he told us in this week’s episode, entrepreneurs often get into the field because they have a great idea or they love sales or business, but that doesn’t mean they’re great at managing their money. Bradley understands all of this, which is why you have to listen to this week’s episode. Transition out of hustle mode As Bradley says, he and his company step in to help entrepreneurs when they realize they’ve been hustling and grinding for five or ten years to build their business, and they’re looking around and realizing they need to be able to hang onto this money they’re making. So entrepreneurs either blindly trust whatever advisor is in front of them, or they put their heads in the sand and don’t think about it. If this sounds like you, if you think you land in one of those two camps, you need to tune into this week’s episode of Just the Tips. Financial advice is not one-size-fits-all One of the biggest problems with financial advice, Bradley told us, is that often we think a “cookie cutter” or “silver bullet” approach will work. But the fact is we all are in different stages of our lives and our businesses, and there’s no one piece of advice that’s going to work for everyone. The other thing we, as entrepreneurs, need to remember is that financial products are products. They have marketing budgets and customer avatars and they’re being sold to us whether or not they solve the specific problems we have. That’s not an evil thing, that’s what we all do, but that also means we have to be very selective in who we trust and what advice we take. But of course, you can trust everything I say, and about 30% of what Dean says, ons Just the Tips. The fundamental principles of strong financial health Because this show is called Just the Tips, we had to ask Bradley for some good, fundamental advice for entrepreneurs. His first answer was actually somewhat surprising: It’s that entrepreneurs should remember that they have a superpower that no one else has: They print money. They literally make money. And so step one is to re-invest in yourself and your business. And so if you have the mindset to do that, you have the mindset to make great decisions with your money. And as Bradley continues to roll out the advice, it’s so clear that he understands exactly the needs of entrepreneurs. This is a really great episode and one you have to listen to if you own a business. Outline of This Episode [4:00] Transition out of hustle mode [7:30] Financial advice is not one-size-fits-all [11:30] Bradley’s story [19:25] Fundamental principles of good financial health [28:00] Best tips for investment strategies [33:30] The playbook Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Resources Mentioned The Atlas Wealth Solutions Playbook Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Digital Business Entrepreneurs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DigitalBusinessEntrepreneurs/  

On today’s episode of Just the Tips, Dean and I chat about the importance of taking breaks, going on vacation, leaving the grind behind and resetting. This is a really important episode for anyone who is feeling the burnout, or who is eyeing an upcoming vacation with anxiety because they feel like they just can’t step away. Dean talks about how he sometimes realizes he’s a bottleneck in his business that’s unplugged once he’s unplugged, and I tell a story about an epic vacation decision that demonstrates how important it is to surround yourself with the best people. Take a vacation When we recorded this episode, I was just back from a vacation, and as I told Dean, even though I know it’s true, I’m always surprised by how good vacations are for me. It can take a few days to reset, but eventually I get there. And Dean agreed, saying that for a time, he wouldn’t allow himself to take vacations because he wasn’t happy with where his business was at the time. So he’d just plow through, not recognizing a break would do him good. This is all part of something we’ve been talking about: When you own a business, the goalposts are always moving, so there’s a good chance you’re always going to feel there’s “more work to be done.” If this sounds like you, you need to tune into this week’s episode of Just the Tips. Break out of your own system As you know, we’re all about systems here. But Dean brought up a good point. When you have everything running on systems, theoretically it should be easier to step away. But you also become systematized, and it can be difficult to unplug yourself from your work. For me, it’s less about feeling like I have to stick with the system, and more about the guilt I feel for not working. When you’ve been pursuing some sort of work for most of your life, the guilt is real when you take time away. And as Dean says, sometimes when he steps away, things progress rapidly and he realizes he was the one holding things back. That’s more a Dean thing than mine thing, but still, it’s a salient point. It’s a less-talked-about aspect of owning a business, and an important discussion on this week’s Just the Tips. The six-inch putt Dean and I chatted about how you empower people on your team both in your absence and in their day-to-day jobs. I told him this story of an executive coach I had early in my career who had a philosophy of a “six-inch putt.” And what he meant was that it was his job to make the final decision that something was ready. So in golf terms, it was the team’s job to drive the ball, chip it up onto the green, get it within six inches of the cup, and then when it’s a sure thing, he can tap it in. But if it’s not at that point, then it’s not his job, and it is someone else’s. So that’s how you empower people, you get them to see their role as important to getting to that six-inch putt. You are only as good as your peer group I told Dean this story about my vacation, where I was hanging out with a great group of friends who are all doing amazing things and really pushing boundaries. On the last night of the trip, we were in Albuquerque, and it was the birthday of one of the guys on the trip. So we were trying to figure out what to do for it, and I suggested something kind of crazy (Sorry, you have to listen to find out). Everyone quickly got on board, and we made an amazing few days happen. As Jim Rohn says, you will become the average of the five people you hang around with the most. This is a really great episode and fun conversation with a guy I try to limit my time with, Dean Holland. Check out this week’s episode of Just the Tips. Outline of This Episode [1:15] The value of vacation [7:55] The dark side of systematizing [14:14] Empowering your team [19:30] The six-inch putt [26:05] Hero syndrome [29:37] The importance of your peer group Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Digital Business Entrepreneurs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DigitalBusinessEntrepreneurs/  

On today’s episode of Just the Tips, Dean and I punch above our weight a bit by having Richard Chapo, a lawyer specializing in internet law for businesses, on the show. Richard is a business lawyer in San Diego who has been practicing for 25 years and advises small and large online businesses on how best to comply with laws applicable to conducting business online. We dig into some pretty gnarly legal stuff this week, including GDPR, collecting sales tax, and what's up with Apple and its back taxes. This is a great episode of Just the Tips that you won’t want to miss. What is an Internet lawyer? Sometimes the Internet may feel like a lawless land, so I had to ask Richard what he means when he calls himself an Internet lawyer. And he said that when he started out, it was just a pretty simple thing, but it’s become increasingly complex over the years, including sophisticated privacy statutes like GDPR, shifting sales tax questions and copyright issues. If you have an online business, or even just an online component to your business (as many do), you need to listen to this week’s episode of Just the Tips. What do business owners need to watch out for online? Richard, of course, watches the space closely for any legal issues that may pop up, and it’s fascinating to hear him run through examples big and small of mistakes people make online. He cited everything from Apple owing massive back taxes in Europe, to very small companies making mistakes early on that become huge problems as they scale, to casinos failing to properly disclose information in promotional videos. The legal world is, as always, a minefield, but luckily Richard knows where the mines are buried. This is truly a unique and fascinating episode of Just the Tips. What do businesses have to do with GDPR? Of course one of the most prominent laws impacting online businesses this year has been GDPR, the General Data Protection Regulation passed in the EU focused on data protection and privacy. As Richard says, the right to privacy in the EU is as valued as the right to free speech in the U.S., and GDPR is the enforcement of that right. As Richard says, a company’s decision to comply with GDPR should be based on the cost of compliance. If you have only 10 sales in the EU, but the cost of compliance is $10,000, maybe it makes more sense to not sell in the EU than comply with GDPR. We think of the Internet as a worldwide thing, but regulations like GDPR could actually segment it. Really interesting stuff from Richard on this week’s episode of Just the Tips. Supreme Court and the state sales tax One of the big decisions to impact businesses that sell online was South Dakota v. Wayfair, a case heard by the Supreme Court in June. As Richard says, the legal precedent on whether businesses in one state that sell to another state have to pay the sales tax in that other state came from the 1970s and was based on catalog sales. And it held that businesses did not have to pay that sales tax. But things have changed, in June the Supreme Court reversed that decision. What does that mean for your business? Well, Just the Tips is always here for the free legal advice, so you have to listen to this episode! Outline of This Episode [3:28] What is an Internet lawyer? [4:44] What do business owners need to watch out for online? [7:39] What mistakes do people make? [16:38] Complying with international law [21:28] GDPR [29:00] Supreme Court and the sales tax [29:47] How Erik audits a company’s marketing [38:36] Don’t let this stuff stop you from selling online Musicfor “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Resources Mentioned Richard Chapo Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Digital Business Entrepreneurs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DigitalBusinessEntrepreneurs/  

On today’s episode of Just the Tips, Dean and I welcome one of the best copywriters around, an award-winning designer, and a guy who knows his way around conversion rates and online marketing. Erik Stafford has won several AAF-ADDY Awards and ARDA Awards for his work, and now heads up Stafford Marketing, where he helps businesses define their brand, their tone of voice and all of the personality attributes a company needs to connect with their audience. This is a great episode of Just the Tips that you won’t want to miss. “Hey I bought a circus today.” Many of our guests start out in the corporate world and then get the bug to become an entrepreneur, but Erik has a truly unique background. His grandfather was a Russian immigrant who came over and worked his butt off and was the type of guy who would come home and tell his wife “Hey, I bought a circus today, or I bought a leather store today,” says Erik. So it was always in his blood. But growing up in Chicago, Erik took up graffiti art, and made money airbrushing jackets and more for gangs. But then he went to college as a fine art major, became a graphic designer, and eventually got into web design. All of this happens in the first five minutes of this episode of Just the Tips, so you know you’re in for a ride. Creating beautiful online brochures for no one to look at Erik did get a job as a web designer at an agency, and he learned quickly how to make beautiful websites and online content. But just as quickly he learned that he was making “beautiful online brochures” that would just sit there and no one would see. So he started digging around and learning about direct response marketing, and realized there was a better way to do things. So he was able to combine his experience doing brand strategy and brand voice, with the more action-driven angle of direct response, making him a Swiss Army knife of marketers. What is an empathy map? One of the fascinating things that Erik says in this episode is that he works with companies on building empathy maps. And what he means by that is creating an understanding of what motivates people, and what core emotions they’re looking to experience. And from there he builds a narrative that helps connect a company to that intended audience. The first step is building credibility, and from there it’s really fascinating how it all unfolds. Find out how on this week’s episode of Just the Tips. How Hollywood impacts your marketing Erik actually applies a Hollywood three-act structure to his clients’ work, meaning he tells them a story in a way that feels familiar to them, and ends with the action, the conversion, the company wants. It’s act one, the setup and the premise, act two is the climax or the confrontation, and then act three is the resolution. When you take an arc like that, that builds drama but has a payoff at the end, it’s something everyone recognizes even if they don’t realize they’re recognizing it. It’s a really fascinating breakdown, and the results speak for themselves. Listen to the episode! Outline of This Episode [3:44] Erik’s origin story [8:26] How he became a brand strategist [10:35] What is an empathy map? [12:33] How storytelling is important [16:19] The three-act structure [23:15] How story archetypes play out in marketing [29:47] How Erik audits a company’s marketing [40:21] Be an ethical marketer Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Resources Mentioned Stafford Marketing Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Digital Business Entrepreneurs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DigitalBusinessEntrepreneurs/  

On today’s episode of Just the Tips, Dean grants me a new nickname that I actually earned back in the day when I worked in London, The Loud American, but I quiet down a bit to listen to a good friend of mine, Shawn Lynam, tell his story of how he went from the corporate world, to the real estate world, to internet marketing. Shawn really knows his stuff, and in this episode we talk about how to not complicate matters, how to model your success on others, and how to position your offer to make it really sing. This is a great episode of Just the Tips that you won’t want to miss. Jack of all trades, master of all trades Shawn’s story of how he got into entrepreneurship generally and internet marketing specifically may be one that’s familiar to you. He took a job out of college with Lockheed Martin, working up the corporate ladder. But when his sister handed him a book (no spoilers) that also changed my perspective at a similar point in my life, Shawn started getting into real estate. He eventually became so skilled at real estate investing that he quit his job, and then after 10 years of doing that, with a family on the way, he decided to switch it up and start down the path of internet marketing. Since then, he’s killed it in yet another industry. If you’re interested in getting into internet marketing, or looking to step up your business’s online effort, you have to listen to this episode of Just the Tips. Sell what’s already selling Sometimes someone says something so simple, you smack your head for not coming up with it first. But when I asked Shawn how to make a great offer, he said: “Sell what’s already selling.” And what he means by that is do your research: Know the market for what you’re selling, and analyze the demand for what you’re selling. You can’t come up with a successful product out of thin air and make people suddenly want it. Now, what exactly does that mean? Sell what someone else is already selling, or sell something slightly different? You’ll have to listen to this week’s Just the Tips to find out. Don’t use your cell Shawn and I actually conducted a really interesting experiment a couple years ago, right before the election, where we started selling election-related hats. We built a funnel and decided to see if anyone would buy, and then suddenly there was a deluge of sales. It was such an enormous rush that we actually had our account frozen for processing too many sales. So I had to open up a new account, and I made one rookie mistake that I’ll never make again: I put my cell phone number down as the contact info. It’s a funny story, but as Shawn says, it’s a legitimate problem that a lot of people run into. Find out how he gets around it on this week’s episode of Just the Tips. It’s funnel modeling, not funnel hacking Shawn says something so smart about halfway through this episode, during a discussion about not reinventing the wheel. As he says, “funnel hacking” isn’t really hacking at all, it’s funnel modeling. So you take something that works, and you take those fundamentals, and you apply them to what you want to do. You don’t have to dream up a new way to do it, you just have to model your success on others. We also dive into the importance of positioning and how that communicates the value of your offer to your customers. Listen to the episode! Outline of This Episode [4:00] Shawn’s entrepreneurial origin story [6:13] Sell what’s already selling [10:33] Case study of what went wrong in a funnel [14:45] Don’t reinvent the wheel [18:00] Positioning is so important [24:00] The red rose guarantee [27:00] Do your homework [31:30] Always be learning Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Resources Mentioned Shawn on Facebook Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Digital Business Entrepreneurs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DigitalBusinessEntrepreneurs/

Today’s episode of Just the Tips finds me recovering from an accidental 22-mile walk, but that doesn’t stop me from getting excited about our guest, Chris Dayley. Chris is a mastermind at conversion, having done more than 1,000 split tests in his time, and applying psychology to marketing to really help businesses dig into what makes customers convert. On today’s show we talk about the assumptions people make about websites, how most of them are wrong, and how to run a proper test to grow those conversions. This is a hugely valuable episode of Just the Tips that you won’t want to miss. Traffic rises, but conversions stay stagnant Chris’s story of how he got into conversion is a really great lesson for anyone out there trying to parse what analytics mean the most to their business. He was in-house at a company and focused on organic traffic. And in fact, his team tripled the company’s organic traffic in just six months, which is a phenomenal climb. But as the traffic rose, the conversions remained stagnant, and no one could tell Chris why that was. And as Chris says, if you’re getting lots of organic traffic but few conversions, there are basically two problems: Either you’re showing up for an irrelevant search term, or there’s a problem with the website. And so Chris created a split-test that looked worse than the current website, but worked better. Why? That question has fueled Chris’s career, and provides the launchpad for a fascinating episode of Just the Tips. What works best doesn’t always look best What Chris found so fascinating about his test is that the page he created looked, aesthetically, way worse than the current site. So much so that the designer said he would never put it on the site. But still, it converted better. We often make the mistake that the most important thing about a website is that it looks good. But really, you want something that works well. Chris tells a really interesting story about something he calls “an existence test,” which you’ll want to hear about. It’s really savvy stuff you’ll hear on this week’s Just the Tips. Pick and choose Chris told us about how he helped a client sell $25,000 more in one week through one of his split-tests. How? He says that businesses tend to make a lot of dangerous assumptions about their customers and websites. And sometimes there is data behind those assumptions, but the data doesn’t tell the whole story, or we read into the data the story we think is correct. The other assumption people make about websites is that they think they need to put everything on there: Dump everything onto the site so that there’s something for everyone. But as Chris says, his split-tests have shown that old theory is wrong. Run the test One thing that Chris said that really stuck with me is that you have to build the site that your audience wants. They need to tell you (through their behavior) what they want in your site. So even though simplicity is often good for a site, sometimes your audience may not want the site to be so simple. It’s all about throwing out the assumptions that we make without doing the hard work of split-testing. As Chris says, even customers may not know what they want. You can’t ask people what they want on the website. You have to run the test. Listen to the episode! Outline of This Episode [5:15] How Chris got started studying conversion [9:26] What looks best doesn’t always convert best [12:45] An existence test [17:41] The psychology of conversion [24:45] Why our assumptions are so bad [29:43] What’s a good conversion rate? [32:50] Chris’s toolkit Musicfor “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Resources Mentioned Disruptive Advertising Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Digital Business Entrepreneurs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DigitalBusinessEntrepreneurs/  

On today’s episode of Just the Tips, Dean comes through with the promise of something he teased in an earlier episode, which is a hugely successful marketing strategy that he’s implemented for his own business. In the last episode, Dean said he was working on the strategy that had been crushing it, but then he turned it into an episode of Zero Tips and wouldn’t tell us what it actually was. Well, today the wait is over, and we can now hear about what Dean has been up to and how he’s been killing it lately. Dean apparently has been getting death threats since the episode aired for not saying what the strategy was, so we’re here to clear both the air and Dean’s good name (what’s left of it). And as a bonus, you get the inside scoop on a killer approach to marketing. Know your customers, serve your customers Dean told me about how he has a number of lists from all of the different projects he’s done over the years, and of course the most valuable of those lists is the customer list, the one comprised of people who have purchased something from his business. So he surveyed those customers and one of the most common bits of feedback he received was that business owners have invested all they can, and they don’t have more money to put into another offer. And rather than just accept the answer that they didn’t have the money to spend, Dean thought about how his offers could actually help these people. So he followed up, sending another survey, to figure out where these people were stuck. This is pretty remarkable, the amount of attention Dean is giving to his customers knowing full well that there may be nothing in it for him, in the end. Identify the pain points Dean spent a week poring over the answers to the survey questions, and looking for commonalities, what pain points his customers shared. The end goal was to sell a coaching program that could help them bypass those pain points. But people don’t want to hear they’re being sold a coaching program when they’re hurting for cash, even if that program could help them. So all he said was, “I’ve read over your feedback, and I’m considering putting together something that could help you. If you think I should do that and you’d be interested in it, reply to this email.” And what’s fascinating is that when he emailed the list saying he was going to create this, he had more people respond to that email, than to his initial email. And that is how you know you’ve hit on something. This is a really fascinating case study on this week’s Just the Tips, that you have to hear. Be systematic about it Now that he knew he had something people wanted, Dean had to create the something. So what he offered them was a day-by-day plan, where they could actually watch him tackle their problems as if he were in their shoes. So for one hour a day, he would act as though he were in their position, and show them exactly what he would do to get over the hurdles. Now how he got the people to sign up is a stroke of brilliance that includes lowering the offer price, creating exclusivity, and building an offer that sells out in just a couple of hours. This is truly a clinic in how to get people to buy into what you’re selling, and it’s a great story that Dean shares on this week’s Just the Tips. Track your soldiers One of the most important lessons Dean shares on this week episode of just the tips is that the important thing in any marketing campaign or any sales how about selling that initial service for initial product. It's about building a long-term relationship with a customer. And so after that initial offering Dean emailed the 50 people who had signed up and said “I'm thinking of continuing this program now that it's over, would you be interested?” And 35 said they were. Now that is a return and it shows how Dean and really created something of value to his customers. This episode is no exception and you have to hear it, to hear how Dean pulled it off. Outline of This Episode [2:29] The basics of Dean’s approach [11:54] The subtle offer [15:55] How he got the sign-ups [22:00] The real takeaway [26:15] You must over-deliver [35:00] Everyone is a buyer [42:40] Everyone has a problem to solve [46:30] Talk to your customers Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Digital Business Entrepreneurs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DigitalBusinessEntrepreneurs/  

Today’s episode of Just the Tips has me welcoming two guests to the show, one being former co-host Dean Holland whom I have summarily downgraded to recurring guest. The other is a guy who knows a thing or two about digital marketing, the amazing Mike Schmidt. MIKE is the CEO and Founder of a digital marketing agency based in Tucson, Arizona, and using his experience building a team of 20 in-house web professionals, Mike founded Agency Mastermind to share his craft and nurture and encourage more web professionals. Agency Mastermind is a thriving online community of web and digital professionals that range from the currently employed moonlighting pro, to the seasoned freelancer/entrepreneur, to the larger agencies with an international client list. This guy is the real deal, and you won’t want to miss this episode. Advice for starting your own agency Mike has been running his own successful digital marketing business for 15 years, which basically makes him an O.G. in this world. And since I’ve seen more and more entrepreneurs thinking of starting their own agencies, I had to ask him, what would be your one big tip for someone just getting started with their own agency. And Mike actually said something that every entrepreneur needs to hear: Don’t do everything yourself. That will be your impulse, but don’t do everything yourself. As he says, look at what you enjoy doing the most, and focus on that niche. If you’re thinking of starting your own agency, you need to listen to this episode of Just the Tips. Never too old for a new focus MIke’s agency does all of the digital things a small, local business needs to be able to do to compete, but often struggle to do. And he said one of the things that he found was that when he spoke to local business owners, a lot of times they had people who did discrete jobs, like their web guy or their social media person, etc. So what he realized was that businesses really need help with review and reputation management. As he says, it may not be a “sexy” idea, it’s something that every business owner worries about and cares about, and once he helps them with that problem, he has his foot in the door to offer them other services. It’s really savvy stuff you’ll hear on this week’s Just the Tips. The coolest webinar story (seriously) Mike works with local businesses, but what he realized was that there were so many businesses throughout the country that needed help with reputation and review management. So he started an online course to help businesses get a handle on it. He started offering the webinar in September 2017, but found that the cost per registrant was something on the order of $22. But after just a small tweak to the headline—same webinar, just a different offer wording—it went from $22 to $6. It’s a great lesson in not being afraid to tweak and rework until you find what sells. Curiosity hooks Mike has done it all in digital marketing, and as this episode proves, he’s constantly learning and constantly iterating to get better at his work. He drops so much knowledge in this week’s episode of Just the Tips, it’s a must-listen for anyone trying to get a handle on their digital marketing. Not only is his webinar story great, but what he does by planting “curiosity hooks” throughout, makes it a killer client acquisition tool. How does he do that? Listen to the episode! Outline of This Episode [4:15] Mike on the pitfalls of running your own agency [12:12] Mike’s agency’s new focus [16:51] The online course [25:08] How Mike transitions webinar recipients [29:25] Where to find Mike’s webinar Musicfor “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Resources Mentioned ReviewPro Launchpad Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Digital Business Entrepreneurs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DigitalBusinessEntrepreneurs/  

Today’s episode of Just the Tips is just Dean and me, and it starts off with two interesting premises: 1) I’m nice to Dean and 2) Dean doesn’t like podcasts. What better way to start a podcast off than that? But actually, we use the dull podcast that Dean listened to make a larger point about how brands that are connecting with their audiences and customers are the ones who show personality. Riffing on a Wendy’s Twitter takedown of Chick-Fil-A, we make the point that we’re not attracted to people who don’t exhibit personality, so why would we be attracted to brands that don’t? From there, we dive into what’s been happening with the two of us, what secrets I’ve been keeping from Dean, and something that’s been working really well for companies I work with. This is a really fun episode of Just the Tips that I think you’ll really enjoy. An easy way to assess your company’s performance Every business has five pillars that make it sustainable: marketing, sales, operations, delivery and finance. As a business owner, you need to take those five pillars, and rank them red, yellow or green based on how well they’re performing and how well they’re systematized. Red means you’re basically getting nothing out of your systems, yellow means it’s firing on all cylinders, and green means things are cooking. And what’s great is that you can take this framework, apply it to almost any business, and see right away where you are. If you’ve ever wanted a very simple and transparent way to immediately know where you need to improve your company, you need to listen to this episode of Just the Tips. Simple is what gets people to use things At the beginning of the year, both Dean and I talked about how we wanted to prioritize simplicity this year. And while the framework I talked about may simple, the fact is that simplicity is what gets people to use things, and simplicity is what gets people to understand things. Even just breaking things down and saying simply: Here are the five pillars of my business, that can help you identify the hidden structure of your company, and you won’t get lost in the weeds trying to identify what needs to be tweaked or improved. It’s something we’ve said often on Just the Tips but it bears repeating: Simplicity is king. All of the pillars need attention Dean actually shared a great example of what can happen when you’re not paying attention to each “pillar” of your company. When he made the transition from running his company out of his home into an office, he had built up a substantial cash reserve in the bank. But he had to spend that money to outfit the space, expand the team, etc., and that became the main focus. So the cash reserves started dwindling and as he said, all of a sudden he looked and realized they weren’t selling anything to replenish those reserves. It’s a great lesson in ensuring all of your pillars are systematized, and it’s a great story that Dean shares on this week’s Just the Tips. Track your soldiers Even though money is a huge part of why we all become entrepreneurs, it’s often the pillar that people avoid. I told Dean about an episode of Shark Tank, in which one of the sharks said he considers his money soldiers, and that he wouldn’t send his soldiers out unless he thought they could come back. And that is such an important lesson, you have to track your soldiers. You may be a creative entrepreneur, and that’s fine, but then you need to find someone who will handle your finances for you. As Dean says, this is a really value-filled episode of Just the Tips. Outline of This Episode [3:15] The problems with podcasts [6:36] James’s framework [10:50] The power of simplicity [14:43] Dropping the ball on finance [23:00] The money is not sexy [33:56] Dean’s grab bag Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Digital Business Entrepreneurs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DigitalBusinessEntrepreneurs/  

Today’s episode of Just the Tips dives into a topic that everyone is talking about but few understand: cryptocurrency. Our guest is Brian Keith Noonan, a guy I’ve known for several years as a top marketer, but in the last couple years he’s really become a leader in the world of cryptocurrency, running The Official CryptoDynamics™ Investment Club and helping people wade into the world of Bitcoin and more. On this episode, we talk about how Brian went from internet marketing to cryptocurrency, why cryptocurrency shouldn’t scare anyone, and the biggest mistakes new investors make. Crypto without the stress Catching up with Brian, I had to ask him how he ended up leaving his successful work as an internet marketer and delving into online currency, and believe it or not, he said investing in cryptocurrency was actually less stressful. He’d been doing internet marketing for 15 years, and running huge ad campaigns and tracking conversion rates can wear on a person. So as he began reading more and more and about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, it seemed like a field he could jump into. And while he acknowledged that cryptocurrency can be a volatile market, his work is actually to help people invest safely and without the huge risk swings. If you’ve ever been interested in cryptocurrency, you need to listen to this episode of Just the Tips. A holistic approach to Bitcoin Brian takes a holistic approach to cryptocurrency, advising that people diversify their crypto portfolio the way they would any other investment. He says there are some other top coins out there right now that have a bright future like Bitcoin (among the 1,500 currencies right now!), and the whole market is still in the early adopter phase. As Brian says, it allows for the democratization of money, where large banking and credit institutions don’t need to get involved. As Brian says, this could potentially cut down on corruption, as well as the small cuts that financial institutions take per transaction. It’s a really fascinating conversation, and one you’ll want to hear on this week’s Just the Tips. Demystifying cryptocurrency What’s so interesting about Brian’s approach is that he talks about investing in cryptocurrency not as some new gold rush, or something that is somewhat nebulous to the masses. He talks about it like any other investment. He helps people invest who have a range of interest: Some people want to sit at their computer and trade all day long, some people just want to buy and let it appreciate value and not even think about it. So for all of the new technology and the new marketplaces, really Brian treats it like any investment you’ve made before. It’s a really refreshing look at cryptocurrency, and one you’ll only hear on Just the Tips. The biggest mistakes people make with cryptocurrency Because it’s still in the early adoption phase, I had to ask Brian what he sees as the biggest mistake newbies make when investing in cryptocurrency. His answer? Listening to their friends. Or at the very least, diving in without knowing much, and investing in extremely unstable currencies without doing their research. As he says, if you invest in the top currencies, you’ll see some swings, but you should be fine. You need a strategy just like any other type of investment. This is a really surprising episode of Just the Tips, and an eye-opening one that demystifies cryptocurrency and makes it seem like something very approachable. As Brian says, you don’t have to be a computer geek or a tech person to invest. Outline of This Episode [3:30] How Brian got started in cryptocurrency [10:17] THe democratization of money [12:53] Dealing with risk [15:45] Diversification [20:05] A refreshing take [21:15] Biggest mistakes people make [22:21] Brian’s cryptocurrency group Resources & People Mentioned The Official CryptoDynamics™ Investment Club Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Digital Business Entrepreneurs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DigitalBusinessEntrepreneurs/

Today’s episode of Just the Tips is all about a mystery to me: relationships. Unless we’re talking about one’s relationship to spreadsheets, this is basically a foreign subject to me, but Stacey Martino and her husband Paul have been helping people find true satisfaction and happiness in their relationships through their site RelationshipDevelopment.org and RelationshipU®. They help people transform their relationships even when one partner is not cooperating. But the proof will be in the pudding today as we see if she can fix my broken relationship with Dean. The suspense is killing you, I know. A passion borne of necessity What’s fascinating about Stacey’s story is that she got into relationship development thanks to her own personal experience. She was a corporate tax accountant when 20 years ago, her husband Paul, walked out on her. As she says, he was done with their relationship. Wanting to find some way to make the relationship work, Stacey dove headfirst into personal development and was able to save her marriage. Since then, she and Paul have been stronger than ever, and they then began to notice many great relationships go down in flames because the people didn’t have the tools necessary to stick together. She found her passion in life, and since then she’s been helping people all over the world with their relationships. You’re going to want to hear what she has to say about how to make yours even stronger. Start with you One of the most innovative things that Stacey and Paul have done is eschewed the pain of couples therapy. As she says, couples work is often very painful and very destructive, and so what Stacey and Paul do is teach people how to “master themselves.” If you know yourself better, and how you relate to people, you can improve how you are in a relationship, which will improve it even if your partner is unwilling or never changes. It’s basically self-improvement with a selfless goal. It’s a really fascinating conversation, and one you’ll want to hear on this week’s Just the Tips. Relationship development You may be thinking that Stacey’s work is only for romantic relationships, but given my roller-coaster relationship with Dean, I had to know if her principles apply to business relationships as well. And Stacey let us in on her eight-step program, almost all of which apply to business relationships as well (the sex one probably isn’t applicable). But the core principle of Stacey’s approach is helping people see how others see things. As she puts it, everyone is wired differently, and so you’re not going to be able to change how people are wired. But if you can figure out how that other person is wired, and appreciate the differences in others, it can be revolutionary to how you handle relationships. This is a bit departure for Just the Tips, but it’s a must-listen episode. Appreciation, not judgment The first thing you can do to help build stronger relationships, whether you’re in a business or a romantic relationship, is come from a place of appreciation, not judgment. So if you have a member of your team who you’re clashing with, you want to identify their strengths and appreciate what they do, rather than sit in judgment of what you see as their drawbacks. That’s just the tip of the iceberg for how to apply Stacey’s approach to your business relationships, and you’re going to want to listen to the whole episode of Just the Tips to get the complete picture. Outline of This Episode [3:18] How Stacey got started in relationship [6:30] Stacey’s approach [8:42] Does it work for business relationships? [10:37] Stacey’s entrepreneurial journey [13:15] Seeing how others are wired [17:57] How to get in touch with Mark [20:54] What’s in Stacey’s relationship toolbox [23:42] Left Hand/Right Hand approach [32:30] How entrepreneurs can have stronger relationships Resources & People Mentioned 2-Hour Free Web Class Live Event Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Digital Business Entrepreneurs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DigitalBusinessEntrepreneurs/

Today’s episode of Just the Tips sets a world record for Quickest Burn on a Podcast with Dean laying into me not ten seconds in, but we right the ship in time to welcome an amazing guest, Mark Podolsky, a man known across the Internet as the Land Geek. Mark has done more than 5,200 land deals since 2001, and knows about as much as anyone about generating passive income through land investing. And while “land investing” may not sound like the most cutting-edge topic, Mark actually has a fascinating system that you’re going to want to hear about. The Land Geek System I think I can guarantee that Mark has a system that will blow your mind, and that you might have to rewind a couple times to catch it all. In his example, he looks up a 10-acre plot that the owner owes back taxes on (in this case, he uses me as the owner). He buys it from me at a steep discount to get those back taxes off my hands, and then he turns around and sells it to my neighbor (Dean) at market value. And if that doesn’t work? Then he has a whole system for turning that piece of land into passive income, but you’re going to have to listen to him walk us through it on this week’s episode of Just the Tips. America’s hunger for land I had to ask Mark how many of these deals are legitimately out there, and was surprised when he said there are billions of acres ready to be bought in America. And there are more buyers than you’d expect. He said it would take about 60 days to get your first land deal under your belt, and a lot of that consists of getting the right data from county officials and then scrubbing it the right way. But from there, it’s a niche worth exploring. And I asked him how much you can realistically make doing this, and he said $100,000 a month is not out of the question. It’s a really fascinating conversation, and one you’ll want to hear on this week’s Just the Tips. The secrets to influencing others Mark was really open with us about what happens to a land investor when the real estate market crashes, and it was definitely not a pretty picture for him. In 2010, 50% of his income went away overnight. He ended up selling off his house and his cars, and having to scale back his lifestyle dramatically. But now he says the business is going better than ever, and he’s picking up a lot of clients. In fact, he’s made an incredible offer for our listeners that you’re going to want to take advantage of. This is a must-listen episode of Just the Tips. Outline of This Episode [3:09] What does it mean to be a land investor? [8:56] How long it takes to get started [13:37] How much can you make from this? [14:38] How Mark got into the field [20:00] What happened during the crash [29:50] How to get in touch with Mark Resources & People Mentioned The Land Geek The Art of Passive Income Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Digital Business Entrepreneurs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DigitalBusinessEntrepreneurs/  

On today’s episode of Just the Tips, Dean and I welcome someone who has written extensively and authoritatively on the use of influence and persuasion. Bob Burg is the co-author of the Go-Giver, a book that has sold more than 700,000 copies and has become hugely—pardon the pun—influential. On this week’s episode, we talk about what it really means to influence others, how doing so requires you to master your emotions, and Bob’s five secrets for gaining influence. His philosophy is about more than business success, it’s about becoming a better person. It’s really wall-to-wall with tips this week, so you don’t want to miss this one. Nobody every bragged about having a lot of “push” We got going right away with Bob, diving into what “influence” actually means. And Bob talked about the need to have pull, to actually pull someone toward you or along with what you’re doing, rather than pushing yourself onto someone. And to do that, you have to bring value, and see how what you’re asking someone to do aligns with their values. And as Bob says, if we ask ourselves these questions genuinely and truthfully, we get a lot closer to collaborating with others and influencing them in a genuine way, rather than trying to get them to comply with our values. Bob is full of distilled wisdom on this week’s episode, and you gotta hear him get on a roll. Let go of having to be right It probably comes as no shock to any of our listeners that we live in a time where people are divided along cultural and political lines. We talked with Bob about why that is, why people are accusatory and insulting toward each other, rather than trying to influence and come together with people from “the other side.” And so much of what he said was right on: It’s simply easier to demonize those who disagree with us, and actually getting those people into our world requires we first go into theirs, understand where they’re coming from, and show where there’s common ground. As Bob says, you have to let go having to be right, of the feeling that you always have to be right, and instead go into “learner mode.” It’s a really fascinating conversation and one you’ll want to hear on this week’s Just the Tips. The secrets to influencing others Bob has a number of “secrets” to influencing others that are all outlined in his books, but he was generous enough to share them with us on this week’s episode. The first is to master your emotions, which Bob points out doesn’t mean suppressing or ignoring your emotions. It just means being in control of them so you’re able to keep a level head when someone is pushing your buttons. Bob also has a great technique for mastering your emotions. It’s all about imagining the feeling you’ll have after handling an emotional situation well. It’s best to hear him explain it, but it’s a really eye- and mind-opening way of improving your emotional mastery. Reset the frame Once you’ve become adept at harnessing your emotions, you have to be able to reset the frame, so that it’s no longer a negative thing. You’re positively connecting with someone. It really is some Jedi-level mind tricks that you’re pulling, but with all good intentions: to connect better with people. There are two more secrets that you’re going to have to listen to the episode to hear, but trust us, this is one episode of Just the Tips that you have to hear. Outline of This Episode [3:51] What is influence? [8:11] Why are we naturally adversarial? [15:34] How Bob got involved in influence [18:28] The secrets to influencing others [20:30] How to master your emotions [29:21] Reset the frame [32:45] How being influential means you can be influenced as well Resources & People Mentioned The Go-Giver Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Digital Business Entrepreneurs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DigitalBusinessEntrepreneurs/  

It is the rare episode of Just the Tips where our guest receives the trumpet fanfare typically reserved for my esteemed British co-host Dean Holland. But if anyone deserves it, it’s Brandon Carter, one of the funniest and most strategic marketers in the game. You may know Brandon as a fitness expert, but we’re talking to him today about his marketing success story. If you want to know how to get yourself out there, and how to really connect with your audience, you need to join the millions of other people who follow him. And you need to listen to this week’s episode of Just the Tips. Born and raised on the South Side Brandon told us his story of discovering fitness and turning his life around, and it’s not the typical one you hear. Brandon grew up on the South Side of Chicago, where gangs were prevalent and difficult to avoid. His parents, suspecting Brandon was heading down the wrong path, sent him to military school, where he quickly found a need to be stronger and be able to defend himself. His first summer home from school, he found a fitness coach and began training daily. And that really turned his life around, setting him on a path to be a personal trainer, something he did in college before turning professional. If you want to hear about the seed of someone’s success, you need to listen to this week’s episode of Just the Tips. Happiness is a stupid goal Brandon has had, as he put it, a lot of crazy shit happen in his life. When he realized that personal training was a tough business if you wanted to make a lot of money, he started dealing drugs. And then one day he got a call that his dad was missing and had left a suicide note behind. That one event changed everything for Brandon, and he began to work several jobs to make money for himself and his family. I had to ask him on this week’s Just the Tips, how did he have the mindset to pull himself out of that situation? How did he not assume the fetal position? And his answer was straightforward enough: It’s not about being happy, it’s about doing what you have to do. Find your marketing avatar Just to throw out some numbers, Brandon has more than 1.5 million followers on Facebook and more than 750,000 subscribers on YouTube. His smallest social channel is Instagram with just under 150,000. How does he do it? He has one overarching principle: Post awesome shit frequently. But beyond that, Brandon talks about how he created a marketing avatar: The type of person he wants to market to, and then crafts his message based on what they’re into, and what problems they need solving. This is a hilarious and insightful episode of Just the Tips, with lots of candid and surprising advice. Outline of This Episode [3:47] How Brandon got started [8:38] How Brandon found his ambition [15:54] What changed his life around [20:30] The key to social media success [22:26] Business owners are allocators of resources [27:00] Find your marketing avatar Resources & People Mentioned Brandon Carter Brandon Carter Quiz Brandon’s YouTube Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Digital Business Entrepreneurs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DigitalBusinessEntrepreneurs/  

This week on Just the Tips Dean and I sit down to process an amazing experience I had recently, where I had the opportunity to see Warren Buffett at the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. I had high expectations for the event, and I have to say it was even more amazing than I thought it would be. So on this week’s episode, Dean and I talk about what it was like going to such a huge event as that, what lessons I learned and what perspectives I gained, and how I ended up getting a selfie with the Kool-Aid Man. Not every business needs to be giant to be successful Berkshire Hathaway is an enormous conglomerate, with ownership stakes in brands like Geico, Coca-Cola, Heinz. You name it, Berkshire Hathaway likely owns a piece. They do about $262 billion a year. And if you had to guess, how many people would you say are on their core team? The answer is 25. Just 25 people running one of the largest corporations with one of the wealthiest people in the world at its helm. And half of that core team is comprised of auditors, who are there to ensure the numbers reported to them are accurate. So if you’re the type of person who thinks you will never have a “big” company without scaling up to hundreds or thousands of employees, take a look at one of the biggest. Q&A with Warren So if you go to the Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Meeting, it really is like nothing you’ve seen before. The first day is a trade show, as big as any trade show you’ve seen. But the difference is that the companies represented in the trade show are the companies BH owns. And then on the second day, the company rents out a sports arena, and then 10,000-plus people file in, and there are Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, 87 and 94 respectively, on stage. And they sit and they answer questions for six hours. They’re able to sit there and answer every question in detail, and they give honest answers. Warren Buffett himself said there were days when he didn’t feel like the company was making progress. Every company has its dark days, even the ones in the 12 figures. One-legged man in an ass-kicking contest I took away so many amazing lessons from the event, and you’ll have to listen to this week’s episode of Just the Tips to get them all. But some bullet point takeaways: Berkshire Hathaway isn’t into flipping companies. They don’t want to find a business in turmoil and turn it around, replace the CEO, etc. They’re looking for successful businesses with solid plans to invest in their growth. Another insane thing? Warren Buffett said he reads for five to six hours every day. Remember that the next time some guru tells you that you need to be thinking ROI and grinding every hour of the day. And Charlie Munger told the crowd that if you’re not learning every day, you’re like a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest. If that doesn’t entice you to listen to this week’s Just the Tips, I don’t know what will. Outline of This Episode [3:15] Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting [5:50] What the event was like [9:55] The Berkshire approach [18:48] Huge takeaway from the meeting [22:26] Business owners are allocators of resources [28:47] Know your numbers Resources & People Mentioned Berkshire Hathaway Musicfor “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Digital Business Entrepreneurs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DigitalBu

This week on Just the Tips we have a guest who has been through it all. He’s been homeless, and he’s run multiple seven-figure companies, and he’s always found a way to give back. Akbar Sheikh is a best-selling author, speaker and philanthropist with a concentration on orphans and giving the gift of vision to blind children. Akbar tells us all about finding himself in the hospital near death, and then finding the will and drive to live. He ended up homeless with his brother, and now the two of them are enormously successful entrepreneurs. You have to hear this inspiring story that doesn’t end with Akbar’s success. It’s just the beginning. Into the closet Akbar opened up to us about what happened that sent his life into a tailspin. As he says, everything was “off.” He was overweight, he was in a terrible marriage, he had bad friends, he had bad habits. And all of that led him to having a crippling anxiety disorder. Eventually, he says, he ended up half-dead in a hospital. He says he used that experience to go cold turkey: Lose the bad habits, lose the bad relationships and focus on what was good for him. But, he still didn’t have a place to live. And when he moved to San Francisco, he rented an electrical closet in an old office building for $75 a month as he tried to figure out what he should do. Epiphany on Craigslist So Akbar was living in a closet, trying to figure out his “why,” what he was supposed to do, when he happened upon one of those “make money from home” ads on Craigslist. And as he says, he went to the “cheeseball” site and something clicked for him: He could see why the person behind the site placed everything on the site where they did, and why everything was there (the smiling woman, the “make money” sticker, etc.). And even though he found the site to be unethical, he did fall in love with the psychology of it, the desire to persuade someone. And that was when it clicked for Akbar and he found his why. Find a why that makes you cry Aside from Akbar’s own incredible story, he’s helping rewrite the stories of others. We talked with him about his amazing philanthropy efforts, specifically helping blind children in third-world countries receive the cataract surgery they need to be able to see. And at first, cutting checks for those charities was the fuel behind his hard work on his business, but after a while he says, the check for those kids just became another check. So he’s taklng it to another level and became much more hands-on with his philanthropy efforts, brainstorming amazing ideas. If you’re looking to get inspired, not only on your own journey but in helping others, you have to listen to this week’s episode of Just the Tips. Outline of This Episode [4:02] How Akbar became homeless [10:06] The moment when Akbar turned things around [14:05] Akbar’s awakening [20:59] How he got out of being homeless [27:30] Akbar’s philanthropy efforts Resources & People Mentioned Akbar Sheikh Akbar’s book Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Digital Business Entrepreneurs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DigitalBusinessEntrepreneurs/

This week on Just the Tips we have a guest who is a very good friend of mine (confirmed by both parties, after Dean questioned whether it was a one-way friendship), who is not only one of the best coaches out there for digital marketing, she also has a remarkable story of pulling herself up by her bootstraps and creating something out of almost nothing. On this episode, we talk about how she hit rock bottom, how she then rocketed to success, and how she helps people do the same. Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! When someone describes their life as The Young and the Restless meets Jerry Springer, it’s not good. But that was the situation Julie found herself in when she was in her 20s. As she says, when most people were going to grad school or starting their careers, she was “popping out kids.” And after some traumatic family relationships came to a head, in 2014, with three kids, she and her husband divorced. As she says, “she just snapped” when she found out during her divorce proceedings that she was pregnant. She had no job, no training, and had to figure out what she was going to do. It may sound like a daytime drama, but it was Julie’s life, and in just a few short years it’s amazing what she’s done. Hitting rock bottom can be a gift Julie said something so insightful in this episode about her journey: While most people switch to being an entrepreneur because they want the freedom, she was actually looking for control. She knew it would be risky to go out on her own, but she needed to find a way to make money that she controlled, and she found Russell Brunson and ClickFunnels and it, well, clicked for her. As she says, the pressure cooker she was in made her prioritize revenue, and not get distracted by shiny objects. Having hit rock bottom already, Julie didn’t have the hesitancy that some may have, she just had to go for it. It’s a truly inspiring story, and one that made Dean get serious for a whole 30 seconds. How Julie became a lightning-quick writer I had to ask Julie how she can crank out as much as 10,000 words in an afternoon (not an exaggeration), but you may not like her answer. It turns out that she worked on her writing for seven years when she was a stay-at-home mom, blogging and writing every day. So there is no trick, there’s no book or video series she took to make her a more efficient writer, she just practiced. And that’s one of the tips that’s hard for people to understand but that we hear again and again: If you want to get good at something, you have to practice it consistently. How Julie became a lightning-quick writer Want to become a coach? Become a piano teacher. Julie talks about how her experience as a piano teacher, breaking it down for young kids, showing them each individual component, how to operate their hands independent of each other, that all helped her when it came time to teach people how to use funnels. But of course the conversation doesn’t stop there. Julie gives some great tips on how to develop and monetize the skills they have, turning those skills into an online business. This show is called Just the Tips, and Julie provides plenty of them, but it also goes a lot deeper with someone who has traveled an amazing journey. Outline of This Episode [4:25] Julie’s origin story [11:07] How hitting bottom helped her [15:04] How Julie writes so quickly [19:17] Julie’s opinions about college [25:35] How Julie helps beginners Resources & People Mentioned https://juliestoian.com/ http://www.createyourlaptoplife.com/ https://thedigitalgangsta.com/register Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Digital Business Entrepreneurs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DigitalBusinessEntrepreneurs/  

Our guest on this week’s Just the Tips is a man who spent 14 years in investigative and tactical policing, but that’s not the most interesting thing about him. He also went on to start a company that eventually sold for eight figures, but that is not the most interesting thing about him. He also started an international supply company that did $34 million in two years and, you guessed it, that’s not even the most interesting thing about him. Our guest Ken Dunn has done a lot and lived a full life, but what’s fascinating about him is that he’s now turned his attention to reading and writing, not only helping people write books, but helping create the next generation of readers. He’s the founder of GoRead.com, one of the leading online retailers for books and a man who has helped dozens of authors finish their books. This is an episode that’s going to surprise you, and not just because it’s the first one that ends with Dean and me in a duel. The publishing roller coaster My first question to Ken, because he’s written so many books and been neck deep in the publishing industry for nearly two decades, is how things have changed. And he had some pretty surprising insights to share. He talked about how Amazon first started to grow market share in the early aughties, and how that really brought credence and credibility to self-publishing. And what’s really fascinating is that ebooks, while the grew quickly to grab the largest market share in 2011, that was their peak, and since audiobooks have really become the preferred method of reading (with print books holding steady). Ken knows this business inside and out, and if you’re an entrepreneur looking to get your book out there, you have to listen to this episode. Helping people produce non-shitty books When Ken started in the publishing industry, one disturbing trend stood out to him: the sheer number of shitty books. He told us that 50% of authors who write books, don’t even read books, so they don’t know whether they’re producing good work or not. And as he says, his heart went out to entrepreneurs who wanted to write books because they’re so vital to getting one’s name out there, to repurposing the content for courses or whatever else you’re doing to market yourself or your company. But the self-publishing game was full of companies that will take your money and happily let you publish a crappy book. The mistakes every entrepreneur makes Ken has a fascinating approach to writing that may sound counterintuitive if you’ve never written a book before. As he says, most first-time writers have stories about themselves they want to tell, their own rags to riches stories. But as Ken says, it’s about the reader’s journey, not the author’s, and so the book has to address the reader where they are now, and show them the way to get to where the author is. They published just under 500 books using this system now, and it’s really a revolutionary way of looking at business books, even if it seems so simple, and you have to hear him walk through it in detail on this week’s episode of Just the Tips. Write and read more Ken has a program where a new author can write a book in 30 days, using up just 20 minutes a day. But he also has a great system for reading more, vital to anyone who wants to not only improve as a writer, but drive change in their business. Two quick tips include reading as soon as he wakes up for just ten minutes before getting out of bed, and always having the next book ready, so you don’t lag, trying to figure out what to read next. Ken is a trove of information about writing, publishing and everything you could possibly want to know about books, and it was so generous of him to be here on this week’s episode of Just the Tips. Outline of This Episode [3:31] How publishing has changed [8:53] Writing non-shitty books [12:30] How to write a good book [21:15] Improve your reading habits [26:55] Ken’s free book for authors [33:51] James throws down the gauntlet Resources & People Mentioned GoRead.com SnagThisBook.com Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Digital Business Entrepreneurs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DigitalBusinessEntrepreneurs/

This week on Just the Tips we have a guest who has been a client of mine, a friend of mine, and ultimately someone I greatly admire. Krista Mashore is a realtor in Northern California who has sold more than 100 house a year for nearly her entire career, placing her in the top 1% of realtors in the nation. She’s someone who has really found her own way of doing things, and obviously found enormous success in her own approach. So on this episode we talk not just about her secrets to real estate, but how her approach translates to sales in general. It’s not often you get to talk to someone who’s in the top 1% of their field, and you’re going to want to hear what she has to say. You’re always on a job interview Krista’s story is kind of amazing: She was a teacher for years, and she left that job to sort of casually sell real estate and be home with her family more. Well, as soon as she made that transition, she learned her husband was having an affair, and went from being a dabbler in real estate to selling 69 homes in her first year. As she says, she went into “pure survival mode” and became an expert seller. As Krista says on this episode of Just the Tips: “You’re always on a job interview.” No matter what you do, people are always going to be aware of you and how you do things. So if you do things well and you do them differently or in your own way, you have a real chance to distinguish yourself. And how do you do that? Listen to this week’s episode. Always bring value Aside from being an enormously successful realtor, Krista has launched a red-hot coaching business in the last year. Just in the last week, before we recorded this episode, it brought in more than $100,000. And one of the keys to that is what she calls “engagement marketing,” where you’re educating your consumer on the subject matter you’re an expert in. That means not just providing them with valuable content, but also contributing to the community. And how does she do that? Listen to this week’s Just the Tips to learn her big tip (after she spends some time questioning the title of this show). The overnight success that took years Krista has been incredibly forward-thinking about her use of engagement marketing and her use of video to connect with customers, and it’s really put her ahead of the curve. But as Dean says on this week’s episode, hers is really the “overnight success that took years,” because she put in the work to understand video, facebooks ads, content marketing, etc. But then once she did all of that work, now it’s up and running and the ROI is off the charts for her. And she is full of great advice for how you can translate her success to your business, though for some reason when I asked her about my business, she just used a hot dog-fart analogy. Nevertheless, she is full of energy, full of insight, and I think you guys are really going to love this episode of Just the Tips. Outline of This Episode [3:45] Krista’s origin story [5:53] The secret to staying on top of your game [9:18] Creating a great customer experience [17:25] How she built her coaching business [20:36] The overnight success that took forever [27:50] Working with entrepreneurs Resources & People Mentioned Krista Mashore Krista’s book Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Digital Business Entrepreneurs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DigitalBusinessEntrepreneurs/  

This episode of Just the Tips talks with two people who have boldly gone where few dare to tread: starting a business together as a married couple. Natasha and Rich Hazlett had very successful corporate careers, Natasha as an attorney, before deciding to get into the coaching business. And their careers have just soared since then, doing amazing things for their clients and for women entrepreneurs in particular. They are experts at helping clients build communities around their products or services, and creating that elusive “tribe.” This is a really great episode for anyone who’s looking for a little inspiration to make that leap into entrepreneurship, or interested in adding a little good to the world as you’re pursuing your passion. Taking the leap While Rich was always something of an entrepreneur, running a car wash business when he was 12, and always pursuing a side hustle while he was working in advertising, entrepreneurship was new to Natasha. She said she was working in her law firm, two years out of law school, and just had an “Oh God” moment where she realized that was going to be her life for the next 40 years and she had to get out of it. And around that time, she’d met Rich and Rich had become interested in network marketing, so Natasha grabbed the bulls by the horns and said they were going to do it together. They stayed at their jobs, but then came home and worked from 7pm to 1am every night to get the business up and running. Why did they do it? You’ll have to listen to this week’s episode of Just the Tips to find out. The Setback Rich and Natasha’s network and email marketing business as doing well, but then they got hit with an enormous setback, essentially being told by a compliance agency that they couldn’t do what they were doing anymore. Natasha got fed up and quit, but as she says, Rich “took it like a champ,” and soldiered on, getting the business back online and rolling again. It’s a really fascinating story and shows how many potholes there are in the road, and how deep and dangerous those potholes can be. But then they were able to turn things around, and now they’re helping clients like one in particular, whose now raking in seven times more in revenue per month than she was before working with Rich and Natasha. This may not be a rags to riches story, but it is the story of how working through adversity can really transform a business and business owners. Build a tribe One of the things that Natasha and Rich are so good at is helping their clients build a community or a tribe around what they’re doing. And Natasha says something so smart on this week’s Just the Tips: A lot of people want to build a tribe or a movement, but what they don’t realize is they can’t just declare that’s what they’re doing. Other people are the ones who will make what you’re doing a movement. And so what Rich and Natasha do is work with people on building relationships with large groups of people, getting your message out to those people, so you’re not just working each client one by one. You’re creating a community where everyone is helping each other out. And they provide some great tips on how to do just that. The good kind of manifesto Rich and Natasha provide some great advice on this week’s Just the Tips episode, particularly in terms of building a tribe or community. The first tip is actually something Dean and I have talked a lot about on this show, which is not chasing after every customer or community member, but finding the right people who are right for what you’re selling and right for contributing to the community. Another important ingredient is community guidelines so you can kick people out if they’re disruptive (so long, Dean) and a manifesto that clearly lays out why the tribe is important. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg for this episode, you’re going to have to listen to hear the rest of this awesome advice. Outline of This Episode [5:44 How they got started as entrepreneurs [10:04] Why they took the plunge [11:27] Big setback [16:14] How to build a tribe [19:11] Us vs. Them [23:36] Writing a manifesto [32:14] What it’s like to be married and working together Resources & People Mentioned Unstoppable Influence The Unstoppable Influence Challenge Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Digital Business Entrepreneurs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DigitalBusinessEntrepreneurs/  

You know you’re talking to a real entrepreneur when one of the first things they say is “I’ve made a lot of mistakes.” The journey of the start-up business owner is one paved with mistakes and missteps, but on this week’s episode of Just the Tips, Dean and I are talking to someone who has come out the other side and is now killing it. Marcos Moura runs Amada Senior Care a franchise brand that is on track to do $75 million in revenue. And to hear him talk about it, he’s so humble, discussing the way running a franchise company is really not just about your own success, but about helping other entrepreneurs succeed. Which is, coincidentally, what Just the Tips is all about, too. Mistakes were made I had to ask Marcos to provide us some examples of mistakes he made earlier in his career. And he told us about how he was a mortgage broker in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2007 and 2008, when the housing bubble burst and the market tanked. So he was basically at Ground Zero for the downtown, wearing a “Kick Me” sign on his back. And as Marcos says, it was a lack of humility that ended up getting him. He and his partners were making so much money, they thought they were smart and savvy. But if they’d really been paying attention to what was going on inside and outside of their business, they would have recognized what was coming. And Marcos talks about something that a lot of our listeners could probably relate to: Carrying around that failure as though it was a flaw in him, like it was his fault. How Marcos turned it around So if the 2008 crash was a defining moment in Marcos’s career, I had to ask him how he didn’t let it define him. And what Marcos says is really interesting: It wasn’t a book or a mentor or a life event that suddenly changed things for him. In fact, it was a series of small steps, small changes in habits that got him to success again. He likens it to losing weight: It’s going to be the little changes you make that add up to a big change in your life. That, and as he says, you have to work your ass off. This is a really inspiring episode of Just the Tips that you won’t want to miss. The Death Star wins Marcos also talked about some of his crazier mistakes, from branding misses to his own “Star Wars” moment. He told us about how he started a video game retail franchise and painted Game Stop as the Empire with the Death Star, and his own company as the retail alliance. But in his story, Luke misses the drop, and the Death Star incinerates planets willy-nilly (i.e. Game Stop won). But he talks about the one key mistake he made was not making sure the franchisees were a good fit. He said they were just ready to take money from anyone who had it, without understanding their audience. A New Hope One of the key changes for Marcos was working with people who he knows are a good fit, who are good people, and who make you excited to go to work every day. As Marcos says, you should have a “no assholes rule.” And I think listening to this week’s episode, you’ll hear what a good guy Marcos is. He’s so open about the mistakes he made in the past, and how he changed things with his present company, every entrepreneur should listen to this week’s episode of Just the Tips. Outline of This Episode [7:01] Marcos’s first mistakes [12:08] How Marcos turned it around [19:58] Big franchise mistake [25:00] Marcos’s new approach [33:03] What Marcos has learned at his new company Resources & People Mentioned Marcos Moura Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Digital Business Entrepreneurs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DigitalBusinessEntrepreneurs/