Podcasts about sops

In this episode of the Blogging Breakthroughs podcast, I am sharing a live panel discussion I had on Business Power Hour with Faith Mariah. My guests and I discussed: Identify Time-Consuming Tasks: Discover those areas of your business that eat up your precious time and energy. Once you have a clear vision, it's time to simplify! Task Management Apps: Learn about game-changing task management apps like Asana and ClickUp. Set up recurring tasks, create boards for different projects, and assign tasks with deadlines. These apps will help you master your to-do list and conquer your day! Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs): Building basic SOPs for your processes is the secret sauce to streamlining your business. Discover how to break up tasks, assign them to yourself or your team, and give them clear deadlines. Finding the Right Level of Systems: Don't fall into the trap of blindly following popular trends. Find the sweet spot where your systems are tailored to your business's unique needs. It's all about what works best for YOU and YOUR goals! Avoid Digital Hoarding: Our speaker shares their confession of being a self-proclaimed "digital hoarder." Discover why it's essential to resist the urge to buy unnecessary digital items and focus on what truly adds value to your business. ⚡️ Join the Becoming Boss Mastermind HERE. ⚡️ Sign up to get notified when Power Hour is happening live! ⚡️ Find all of the info about the speakers and grab their free gifts here ⚡️ Join the Free Facebook Group ⚡️ Instagram ⚡️ TikTok ⚡️ www.faithmariah.com

AJ Nealey and Joe Hanson discuss the use of Google Workspace in their auto service businesses. They explore the different applications within Google Workspace, such as Google Meet, Gmail, Google Sheets, Google Docs, Google Slides, Google Calendar, and Google Drive, and how they utilize them for communication, document storage, and collaboration. They also discuss the benefits of controlling intellectual property, and the efficiency and organization that Google Workspace provides. AJ Nealey, Nealey Auto Service, Edgewater, MD. AJ's previous episodes HERE Joe Hanson, Gordie's Garage, Roseville, MI. Listen to Joe's previous episodes HERE. Show Notes Watch Full Video Google Workspace Overview (00:02:00) The different applications within Google Workspace and give a high-level overview of its capabilities. Using Google Workspace for Data Storage (00:04:11) Using Google Workspace for data storage, specifically for storing scanned invoices and documents. Collaboration and Communication with Google Workspace (00:06:05) Google Workspace for collaboration and communication within their teams, including weekly meetings, document sharing, and multi-location file management. The use of Google Workspace (00:08:28) Discussion on the different levels and costs of Google Workspace, the importance of being logged into the correct account, and the benefits of using Google Admin and email groups. Creating users and email groups (00:09:24) Explanation of how to create users and email addresses in Google Admin, the use of email groups for appointment requests, and the ability to add people outside of the organization to certain groups. Protecting intellectual property and controlling access (00:11:19) Overview of using Google Vault to control downloads and reset passwords, the importance of protecting intellectual property, and the ability to control access to shared drives and apps. OCR and Scanning in Google Drive (00:18:34) Explanation of how OCR works in Google Drive and the importance of properly scanning documents for accurate indexing. Using Google Forms for Time Off Requests (00:20:23) Explanation of how Google Forms is used to streamline the time off request process and improve organization and communication within the team. Internal Chats and Spaces (00:25:04) The use of Google Workspace for internal communication and collaboration, including one-on-one and group chats, similar to Slack, and the creation of spaces for specific teams or topics. Assigning Tasks and Accountability (00:27:01) Google Workspace allows for the creation of to-do lists and the assignment of tasks to specific employees, increasing accountability and streamlining workflow. Collaboration and Communication (00:32:30) How Google Workspace has improved communication and collaboration within their auto service businesses. Creating and Updating Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) (00:35:41) How Google Docs in Google Workspace enables them to create and update SOPs collaboratively, with input from the experts in the field. Integration with AI in Google Sheets (00:41:06) AJ mentions his experience working on a Google Sheet and how it automatically recognized the formula he was looking for, showcasing the integration of AI in Google...

Imagine journeying from the brave world of firefighting into the creative realm of podcasting. That's exactly what our guest, Corey Paul, did. Corey is a testament to the transformative power of podcasting and entrepreneurship. This episode is ripe with insights from Corey's journey and his book 'Path to Podcast Success'. The book captures his experiences and learnings while working with giants like Google and PRX. We delve into Corey's interesting history and his quest for financial literacy. Have you ever wondered how mindfulness can help overcome challenges and help you find your purpose? Corey answers this by sharing his experiences from the Google/ PRX Fellowship program. He reiterates the importance of determination and tenacity, two qualities that played a crucial role in his success. We also touch upon the significance of community-building and continual education, with Corey recounting an inspiring networking story with the CEO of PRX. This intriguing conversation led to her writing the foreword of his book.We then transition into how empathy and understanding your audience can lead to better content creation. We discuss the vital role of standard operating procedures (SOPs) in podcasting and how these SOPs can help in delegation and creating an efficient workflow. Lastly, we highlight the balancing act required to manage a business, a team, and a personal life. Drawing from his personal experiences, Corey shares his insights on how to optimize time and strike the right balance. Be it a budding podcaster or a seasoned entrepreneur, this episode has something for everyone to take away.Support the show

Comprehensive and clear systems and processes are essential if you want to deliver consistent experiences, take time off, work ON the business or sell it. See standard operating procedures - also known as SOPs - as a complete blueprint on how to run your business. Investing into SOPs is not glamorous or sexy, but getting this right will have a huge impact on the experience you provide and the value of the company.   Enquire about The Fit Guide's SOP Course ➜ team@thefitguide.com THE FIT GUIDE The Fit Guide helps fitness lovers find and experience the world's best fitness clubs and studios; and helps fitness clubs create incredible, five star client experiences every time. Visit The Fit Guide The Fit Guide on LinkedIn The Fit Guide on Instagram The Fit Guide Newsletter   SHOW RESOURCES Jack Thomas on LinkedIn Fitness Business Asia Website Fitness Business Asia Instagram  

Ever wondered how focusing on business processes can transform not just your business, but also your life? In this episode, I'm joined by Layla Pomper, CEO of ProcessDriven.co, a company that takes geeking out on business processes to a whole new level. Layla and her team offer deep insights on how to structure and implement processes in your business—everything you need to grow, scale, and avoid catastrophic failure. Listen in as Layla shares her secrets for maintaining an email-free company culture, garnering team buy-in for new processes, and understanding why SOPs are crucial for both scaling businesses and established companies. She also reveals how she leverages automation bots and AI to streamline operations and offers advice on avoiding common mistakes in business processes. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://tinyurl.com/m7fy2vun  Interested in our Private Community for 7-Figure Store Owners?  Learn more here.   Want to hear about new episodes and eCommerce news round-ups?  Subscribe via email.

What happens when key personnel leave? How can leaders ensure their people are heard, valued, and part of the team? What processes and systems need to be in place to ensure that intellectual property is not lost? We explore these questions and more on this episode of Ask Denis. We discuss the importance of having standard operating procedures (SOPs) and processes in place to document information, store it in a repository, and retain IP even when people leave. We also look at ways to brainstorm and create processes for any type of organization – from large corporations to small businesses. Tune in for an invaluable discussion on how to keep intellectual property within a business!In this episode:Discover how you can keep IP (Intellectual Property) in your businessExplore different methods for documenting systems and processesThe reason why investing in people is essential for your team and businessMain takeaways:As a leader, ensure you are conducting one-on-one sessions with individuals to understand their current states and positions and subsequently assign them tasks, initiatives, and projects that will challenge and encourage their growthManaging people is essential, but processes and systems are also importantAnyone successful in life and business has standard operating procedures (SOPs) in placeDocumenting processes and systems is vital to retaining IP within the businessEnsure you care for your team members by regularly meeting with them, fostering their involvement and collaboration, and encouraging them to share their knowledge with othersQuotes:“Make sure you're not being caught out by people leaving your organization with the IP of your business.” - Denis Gianoutsos“Organizations and leaders that are great are the ones that actually have in place standard operating procedures (SOPs)” - Denis GianoutsosConnect with Denis: Email: denis@leadingchangepartners.comWebsite: http://www.leadingchangepartners.com/Leadership Is Changing Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/LeadershipIsChanging/Leadership is Changing LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/leadership-is-changing-podcast/

Are you ready for a thought-provoking discussion on the power of AI and automation to revolutionize your business? We promise to guide you on an enlightening journey, where we discuss the potential of these tools, data privacy, and provide practical steps. Discover AI Exchange and streamline your core business systems—Fulfillment, Marketing, Sales, and Operations. Learn to automate tasks, find useful tools, and enhance your social media strategy. Get set for a journey of insights and game-changing strategies!In this episode, you'll learn:How to unlock the power of AI and automation and understand the critical importance of data privacy when integrating these tools into your operationsHow AI Exchange can supercharge your operations and boost productivityThe four core business systems and how to streamline processes, automate tasks and discover helpful tools. How to set up automations and workflows for creating and approving social media postsRick Mulready's Links:Visit Rick's websiteDM Rick on InstagramFull episodes of The Art of Online Business Podcast on YouTubeKwadwo [QUĀY.jo] Sampany-Kessie's Links:Become a Facebook Ads Lead Gen Cheat Code Founding Member!Visit Kwadwo's website for Facebook Ads helpVisit Kwadwo's website to learn how he can hire a VA for you:https://quayjo.com/hireyourvaSay hi to Kwadwo on InstagramSubscribe to Kwadwo's YouTube channel to learn with him as he learns about personal finance, financial freedom, foreign languages and enjoying life!Timestamps:04:37 — The importance of data privacy06:40 — Creating workflows and automations in your business08:49 — The role of standard operating procedures (SOPs)09:58 — Creating Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)19:54 — Creating Workflows and Automations27:37 — Efficient Content Generation with Notion29:41 — Automating Social Media Posts30:51 — Using Chat Base for Simplified Workflows31:53 — Creating a Tech Stack for Social Media Posting 40:40 — Final step: Teach your team & conclusionPlease support the podcast by giving an honest Rating/Review for the show on iTunes!Leverage QUĀY.jo's three years of Facebook Ads experience to double your leads and set up your lead gen ads in days (not weeks) with the confidence to lower your lead costs like an expert. Become a Founding Member of the Lead Gen Cheat Code Facebook Ads course.Visit https://quayjo.com/foundingmember to secure one of the remaining spots. Head to Kwadwo's website https://quayjo.com tohave Kwadwo review your ads, ads strategy or funnel or tobook a call to talk with him about his ads management services.

Hey there, CEOs! Dive into my conversation with Becca Mai, a business strategist and wedding planner, as she offers tangible tips to streamline your business backend. From organizing your inbox and cloud storage to the importance of SOPs, Becca breaks down strategies to make your business more efficient and profitable. Don't miss out on these actionable insights that can keep your digital world from looking like an episode of TLC's Hoarders. Let's build a better more profitable wedding industry together! =========================EPISODE SHOW NOTES BLOG: www.brandeegaar.com/204=========================JOIN THE WEDDING PRO CEO ACCELERATOR!!!Transform From Overwhelmed Business Owner to Confident CEO:https://brandeegaar.com/accelerator=========================SUPPORT THE PODCAST! LEAVE A REVIEW HERE: https://ratethispodcast.com/swd=========================Click to Join my FREE Training: How to Double Your Wedding Business Revenue (even in a down market) Join the Wedding Pro CEO Accelerator!!Support the show

If you've ever been overwhelmed with the mental to-do's, the steps needed to get stuff done in the classroom, or just didn't have the time to show a colleague, student, or parent how or what to do, then you need the ultimate tool for streamlining and simplifying as a teacher.Here's the thing, every minute counts during our workdays as educators, and the demands on teachers seem to multiply daily. That's why finding effective solutions to simplify your workload and regain control of your teaching experience can be a game-changer. That's where Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) step in as your secret weapon.In this episode, we dive into the power of SOPs in simplifying your teaching life and preventing burnout, the 10 reasons you need to start creating SOPs for your classroom, templates to get you started, and a game-changing, less-than-60-second hack that will completely transform how you automate your classroom tasks. FOR ALL THE FREEBIES OR RESOURCES DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE: →HEAD OVER TO THE SHOW NOTES: teachingmindbodyandsoul.com/episode72

Master the magic of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) with me on this enlightening episode of the Poddy Report. As a proud member of Amy Porterfield's momentum community, I'll share some invaluable insights from her brilliant templates and reveal how they've transformed my business operations. I assure you that by the end of this episode, you'll comprehend the magnificence of SOPs and how they can revolutionize your business - just as a checklist refines the content creation process.We'll also briefly explore the captivating world of Marie Forleo's Time Genius program. You definitely don't want to miss out on this unique and highly effective program. Plus, I'll expose the treasures hidden within SOPs, and how they can be your secret weapon for efficient time management and productivity. So grab your earbuds and join me on this journey to decode and master the art of SOPs. We'll design and implement SOPs that can elevate your business to unimaginable heights.Register for Amy Porterfield's once a year bootcamp, Course Confident! When you join with my special partner link, you'll get my brand new, exclusive audio training “Money Mindset for Creators” ($97 value) Learn More: https://krystalproffitt.com/amy-bootcamp

In this interview, you'll learn about how you can improve your listening skills so you get to the core of an issue. Barry Coziahr is an entrepreneur who wants to share how listening and training are so important to building a company. One of my favorite stories is when he shares how his employee struggled with new software and what he did to overcome the problem. Highlights from the interview: What Barry's first businesses were as a kid and young adult.He talks about how he survived school while being such a bad student.Creating a foundation of support when you are struggling.Why he focused on sales.Using his communication skills to keep moving things forward.Why anxiousness isn't a bad feeling.What the voice inside his head was thinking when he felt anxious.Why he didn't fit in with other kids.Learning how to study and how it helped him.Getting to the bottom of what people need by asking great questions.How to get comfortable when feeling uncomfortable.The importance of being persistent.Reviewing work and training others to improve.Finding gaps in our processes.What traits he looks in others when he hires an employee.How to encourage people to speak up.How he created SOPs that helped the whole company.Helping someone when they take on a new role.When an employee struggles, it's often due to communication issues.Why explaining the purpose of a process is so important.Using the 80/20 rule to make better decisions.What can we do to outsource the tasks that someone else can do better than us. You can learn more about Barry Coziahr over at Freetime Solutions. You can also connect with him on LinkedIn. And as always, if you have any questions or want to submit a guest for the podcast that you think would be amazing, just reach out to me on the Dig to Fly website, and I'll do my best to get them on. If you enjoy the interview, please take 30 seconds to rate the Dig to Fly podcast on your favorite platform. Thanks!

Half of the problems you're dealing with right now is because you didn't build the SOPs in the first place. That's one of many value bombs you're going to get on this episode. Joining us is Uzair Ahmed to talk about how he started as a mobile mechanic and is now an Automations Specialist, helping companies document and implement their whole operation so that people can run the systems that run the company. Learn more: https://www.cottonwoodautomation.com/ Connect with Uzair: https://www.linkedin.com/in/uzairahmed2/ Experience Jobber for yourself, tell them Andy sent ya: https://go.getjobber.com/CamoCrewJunkRemoval Watch This Episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS6JTsKzkNM Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@trashtalkbusinesspodcast ------- Listen in as industry experts Andy Weins, of Green Up Solutions, and Casey 'Bubba' Lawrence, of The Junk Coach, break it down for you. Join our VIP Listeners Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/trashtalkbusinessowners Connect with Andy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyweins/ Get Andy's Book: https://a.co/d/9uIApkU Connect with Casey: https://www.linkedin.com/in/casey-lawrence-b37275b3/

Ready to embark on an inspiring journey with Derek Vickers, the man who exchanged his door-to-door insurance sales career for the lucrative mobile home park investment? Join us, as we wander through Derek's intriguing life story from Virginia to Florida, from the insurance field to the challenging but rewarding world of the real estate market. As COVID-19 hit, he saw the opportunity in mobile home parks and took on this venture with his exceptional cold-calling skills. Derek's first real estate deal was no smooth sail, but he weathered the storms heroically. He shares his triumphs in turning around a troubled trailer park in Brevard County, Florida, into a desirable place to live. He navigated through difficult owners, delinquent tenants, and even municipal regulations. Particularly, his struggles in Florida, offer a unique perspective on the complexities and rewards of investing in mobile homes. Derek does not stop at sharing his experiences but also shares tips on overcoming real estate challenges. From leveraging his team for consistent leads to staying persistent when making sales calls, he is a treasure trove of useful advice. He also underscores the importance of systems and processes in this business, with examples from his own journey. Wrapping up, Derek discusses his approach to automation, the importance of standard operating procedures, and provides a sneak peek into his masterclass program, where he lays out the ins and outs of underwriting, structuring, and financing deals. Tune in and be enlightened!Link to Derek's Free e-book:https://go.ondemandcontents.com/checklistLink to IG: https://www.instagram.com/derekvickers885/Link to X (FKA twitter): https://twitter.com/derekvickers885https://linktr.ee/derekvickers885

In this episode, Steve Fretzin and Brett Trembly discuss:Scheduling time off, not dropping agreements with yourself. The need to delegate to grow your firm. Tracking ALL of your time (not just the billable time). Getting over the mental minutia and the fear of hiring.  Key Takeaways:You are losing money every time you do a $10 job that you can pay someone else for when you charge way more than that per hour. Hiring a good executive assistant will free up enough time for you to double your output and double your income. Your first hire should be someone to delegate to so you can protect your time as a law firm owner and allow you to focus on what only you can do (and what you love to do). When you hire, you can use those employees to help build your training material and process and procedure manuals. But you need the hands-on deck before you can build those SOPs. "You absolutely need to protect your time as the law firm owner more than anything else." —  Brett Trembly Get a free copy of Steve's book “Sales-Free Selling” here: www.fretzin.com/sales-free-selling Thank you to our Sponsors!Get Staffed Up: https://getstaffedup.com/bethatlawyer/Overture: https://overture.law/Get Visible: https://www.getvisible.com/Moneypenny: https://www.moneypenny.com/us/ Episode References: Sign up for the next BE THAT LAWYER: Marketing Mavericks - September 28th, 2023 - https://www.fretzin.com/blog/category/events/How I Built This with Guy Raz - https://wondery.com/shows/how-i-built-this/ About Brett Trembly: Lawyer / Entrepreneur / Author / Delegation Expert 4 time Inc. 5000 Honoree (#67 in 2022 & 2 companies on the ranking) Published Author: The Danger Zones Adjunct professor Miami Law 40 employee team Trembly Law (12 attorneys) 150+ employee team Get Staffed Up Connect with Brett Trembly:  Website: https://getstaffedup.com/fretzin  Book: http://24monthstofreedom.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bretttrembly/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/getstaffedup/Twitter: https://twitter.com/btremblyTwitter: https://twitter.com/Getstaffedup1Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/l3community/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getstaffedup/ Connect with Steve Fretzin:LinkedIn: Steve FretzinTwitter: @stevefretzinInstagram: @fretzinsteveFacebook: Fretzin, Inc.Website: Fretzin.comEmail: Steve@Fretzin.comBook: Legal Business Development Isn't Rocket Science and more!YouTube: Steve FretzinCall Steve directly at 847-602-6911  Show notes by Podcastologist Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it. 

Ensure your brand is safe on Amazon with Steven Pope. Listen as, Steven dives into the importance of permanently affixed branding on your product packaging.Amazon has tightened its rules around branding, and merely using stickers or labels won't cut it anymore. He explains how brands are being removed from Amazon's Brand Registry due to inadequate packaging branding. He highlights the risks this poses to sellers and offers a practical solution – using permanently affixed labels on your products.He also provides insights into dealing with other potential reasons for Brand Registry removal, such as blacklisted lawyers and how to prepare for the appeal process.If you're an Amazon seller, protecting your brand is crucial. Don't miss this informative video that provides essential advice to help you navigate Amazon's ever-evolving rules and maintain your brand's integrity.

Are you utilizing AI to make your documentation and processes more efficient? With its ability to classify, regenerate, and label things in operations, AI is a great tool in helping you be more efficient and productive and hit your bottom line. In this episode of The Agency Blueprint, I'm joined by Juliana Marulanda, a business operation expert, speaker, and the founder of ScaleTime. She has over 13 years of experience across Wall Street, the non-profit sector, technology startups, and family-owned businesses; she now helps service-based businesses. Listen in to learn how to use AI in operations for documentation and customer insights to leverage your ability to be more efficient and scale effectively. You will also learn where to get started optimizing your documentation and systems with AI. Key Questions: [01:34] How can we utilize AI to be able to change how people utilize documentation and process? [19:17] How well have AI language models been able to follow your organization's SOP formats? What You'll Discover: [01:51] The things AI is great at in operations and how it can be used for documentation and customer insights. [04:44] How to use AI to help you be more efficient and productive to hit your bottom line. [06:30] Understanding where to start optimizing your documentation and systems with AI. [15:32] SOPs creation process – creating, standardizing, and optimizing with video as the first step. [20:03] Understanding that AI language models are excellent in getting SOP formats right. Connect with Juliana: WebsiteLinkedInFree Gift

In the heart of every entrepreneur lies a story waiting to inspire. This week, Chaz Wolfe introduces us to the phenomenal Natalie Guzman, a beacon of resilience and grit. Once navigating the turbulent waters of the foster care system, she now stands tall as a CEO, symbolizing the epitome of transformation. After sharpening her skills as a virtual assistant, aiding entrepreneurs globally to streamline their operations, Natalie birthed Nadora.org. This online powerhouse offers essential tools, enabling businesses to craft compelling marketing campaigns, foster robust customer relationships, and generate leads without breaking a sweat. Natalie doesn't stop there; she's taken her expertise on the road, educating aspiring moguls about amplifying their digital presence through optimized websites and seamless business automation.Dive deep into the podcast as Natalie unravels the reasons behind the hesitance of business owners to draft standard operating procedures (SOPs). She staunchly believes in the sanctity of marriage, placing it atop her priority list above all else, including her thriving business. Natalie also emphasizes a crucial distinction: the importance of mastering holistic business skills versus just mastering the trade. With book recommendations like "Profit First" and "Start Ugly", and a shoutout to the Chalene Johnson Marketing Impact Academy, you're bound to leave with a treasure trove of resources. So, what are you waiting for? Hit play and let Natalie's journey ignite the entrepreneurial fire within you.Ready to be inspired? Tune into Episode #347 and let Natalie Guzman redefine what's possible for you!During this episode, you will learn about;00:00 Introduction01:55 Introduction to Natalie Guzman and her business04:00 What is a VA?06:52 Natalie's Why15:10 From call center employee to VA Mogul20:42 The reason that business owners struggle with SOP's26:25 A bad business decision30:19 How Natalie goes all in with family and business38:35 What Natalie would tell her younger self40:00 How to connect with Natalie41:24 How to connect with Gathering The Kings Books and Resources Recommended:Profit First:https://www.amazon.com/Profit-First-Transform-Cash-Eating-Money-Making/dp/073521414XStart Ugly:https://www.amazon.com/Start-Ugly-Unexpected-Everyday-Creativity/dp/0991755790Chalene Johnson Marketing Impact Academy:https://www.chalenejohnson.com/testimonials/marketing-impact-academy/Let's Connect!Natalie Guzman:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nkeyes91Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsnatalieguzman LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalieguzmanva/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@itsnatalieguzmanChaz Wolfe (Host): Linktree:

Join this podcast's Facebook Group: The Dental Marketer SocietyJoin my newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/[Click here to leave a review on iTunes]‍‍Guest: Yolanda MangrumBusiness Name: Fortune ManagementCheck out Yolanda's Media:Website: https://www.fortunemgmt.com/Email: yolandamangrum@fortunemgmt.comPhone: 707-478-6394‍Other Mentions and Links:CostcoUCSFHire to InspireSuperCampDDS4KidsMother Teresa‍‍‍Host: Michael Arias‍Website: The Dental Marketer Join my newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/‍Join this podcast's Facebook Group: The Dental Marketer Society‍‍My Key Takeaways:Learn what you want to do in life and shape your practice to support that!Aligning core values and designating purposeful work is essential with new hires.We don't want head bobbers with no input in our team. If they are asking questions and engaging, they will be stronger leaders for their role!Responding to angry patients with an apology and offer to help will prove much more fruitful than defensiveness.We want to support our team members in solving the problems they have rather than just solving them for them.Each team member is a leader of their role. Let them have say in the areas that they are the expert!‍Please don't forget to share with us on Instagram when you are listening to the podcast AND if you are really wanting to show us love, then please leave a 5 star review on iTunes! [Click here to leave a review on iTunes]‍p.s. Some links are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. Please understand that we have experience with these products/ company, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions we make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money unless you feel you need them or that they will help you with your goals.‍Episode Transcript (Auto-Generated - Please Excuse Errors)Michael: Alright, it's time to talk with our featured guest, Dr. Yolanda Mangram. Yolanda, how's it going? Excellent. Excellent. That's wonderful to hear. So if you can tell us a little bit about your past, your present, how'd you get to where you are Yolanda: today? So, uh, Post dental school. I guess we can start there.I started a dental practice after two years of being out of dental school. Immediately after dental school, I went into being hired as a educator, the a professor at U C S F. And so I was teaching, two days a week. I was associating two days a week by the time that I started my practice and I was opening my practice two days a week.it was a busy, busy time for Michael: sure. Okay. So you opened your practice two days a week and two days a week you were working and two days a week you were educating. So you had one day Yolanda: Yeah. To go to Costco to buy stuff for the practice or to go to whatever. It was an Aaron's day.that's how I got started in the practice. Fast forward, I grew that practice to be basically what I felt was like a teenager. My baby kind of grew up to be a teenager and and I'd already had at that 0.2 babies. And I shaped my practice to be. The way I wanted it for my life.And so I had the great benefit of starting my practice pretty much six months out with a coach. and, you know, the big centering point was, what do you want in life? And let's shape your practice to be that. So at different times, I wanted to be at home to be able to, breastfeed or I wanted to be able to have certain times or days off so that I could pick up the kids.So the practice was kind of shifted and shaped to support that. fast forward, we were in this having kids stage. and I had a maternity leave and basically at that point it made sense that I have an associate. So we ended up having, coverage for the first baby, and then by the second baby she became a partner.so that I could have that life balance. What I didn't plan, 'cause that seemed like a logical thing, being a mom and do that. What I didn't plan was being approached to buy another practice. And I was like, oh no, that's not my plan. My plan is this. when this came about I actually took a different trajectory and did invest in another practice and we came up with a bigger why.And that y became our 10 year mission, in growing this second practice and that y became so big that, it meant that I actually would do something that I would've never, ever thought I would do, which is sell my baby, let my baby that grew up to be a teenager. Go on and exist.In my hometown and have me move one town over and grow a multi-specialty medical and dental practice. So that's where I am today. I have a 10,600 square foot building, 16 op operatory, a med spa, dental spa, and education center. all because of my big why. that I wanted to be able to have a practice, have the passion, in my practice, and also have all this dedicated time to support my family.we had this plan for 10 years. my kids were hitting junior high to do dental missions and to travel the world and to service. and that happened pre covid, thankfully. Because if it had happened a year later my 10 year goal would not have came to a full, existence.So we traveled to probably, I. Five or more countries. and the kids were homeschooled and we did a lot of family values, time in incorporating family values into, experiences through traveling and service. Michael: So you guys still do that right now? Yolanda: they're now in high school.we did it pre covid, and we've done only one mission post covid. we basically weave in. When we do traveling, there's always a way to do some service with it. Even concierge at Nice Hotels can set up a service mission for you. They can look into some local and find ways for you to do a give back, we've done it in Jamaica, Costa Rica.And those have been more just like checking with the local concierge and asking them how can we help? The other things that we did were more with organizations and they were like planned just to go for that. But almost always especially when you're traveling to these beautiful tropical countries, there's plenty of needs in those communities.So, One day excursion being of service is been the way that we've been, bringing our children into a give Michael: back. And they appreciate that. the people appreciate it, but your children will, you know what I mean? Like, it's gonna open up their give back even more.Right. Hospitality, things like that. that's really good. If we can rewind a little bit. You were hired as an educator. but that was Yolanda: immediately after dental school. Yeah I was very active in dental school and I've always been happy sharing and teaching. so about, for about three to four years, I was I don't know what the title was, but some kind of professor, like an assistant associate or somebody about professor at U C S F.I was low on the totem pole, but yes I did some education right after dental school and was teaching things like anesthetic and being on the clinic floor and. And that type of thing. And so all those education things, I was a dental assistant before I went into dental school.I went to lab, tech school before dental school. So that really helped to have a full experience of all the different fields in dentistry before, I opened up my practice 'cause I, I literally know how. It feels to be in each position in the practice, and there are challenges. So that's what's been a key success, I think to me in 2011, I wrote a book knowing that I wanted this mission to be able to travel with my kids. it's called Hire to Inspire. I've. Updated it, but I haven't published the newer version post 10 years after that. But hired to inspire, it was two things that I realized as an employer.One, I only wanted to work with happy people, and two, I only wanted to work in partnership with them. and that meant that I needed to be surrounded by leaders, people that were working on their leadership development. And I never wanna be in a management position. When I hire people in my practice, I sit down and I have a conversation with them about purpose Ikigai is a term in Japanese that's called your reason for being.We start from the very beginning, on our onboarding, which is part of the Hire to Inspire process, which is basically to, from the beginning, make sure that we have matching core values and that we have purposeful work. And so this may be only a point in time for you as far as this leveraging you to your next place.So I always say, you know, as long as this is your happy place. To come to work, then we're in alignment. But I only wanna work with happy people. So if we get to the place where you really, find that your passion is somewhere else, then I'm gonna help you to find your happy place.And that means we'll continue our journey, but in a different way. So you will go off to be, say, a hairdresser. Which ironically yesterday, one of my former employees did. or you'll, we'll stay here and we'll continue to grow together, but ultimately we all have to be continuing to grow and.Be passionate about our work. So Hire to Inspire was a shift in 2011 for me, and I literally took each chapter and I sat down and I read it out loud with my team, many of which are still here with me. many who also have came. And I've supported to go off into other areas. So, So the idea is just to continue to inspire them to look for what their purpose is.so that's our onboarding process is to really get things straight about our core values, who we are. I have a culture handbook that we go over, and we have what's called Operating Principles. Operating principles. Are basically staying, how we do things, why we do things what our why is, is really important.And basically team members. as people, we all want to do, a good job and feel good about our work. But we often don't know how. Or what the best way for that work to show up is. So the more clarity we can have, especially onboarding people, the better. right now we have 50 something people in our practice.Between the two practices. it's always a work. I'm the culture keeper. That's my role is to just keep the culture and it's not always easy. because everybody has different beliefs and things, but. Ultimately having good communication lines and having clarity around your values and, our why is how we, continue to ha live in a happy place and have, that line when you cross over, it's showtime, we're here to serve.Michael: Interesting. So you mentioned you only hire leaders. what's your hiring process look like? How do we even find leaders in that sense, or the ad and everything like that? You know what I mean? Yolanda: Yeah. That's the irony. Everybody can be a leader everybody is a leader to some degree.It's just how well developed are they? most importantly, Do they want to be developed in that way? That's probably number one is everybody in our practice, no matter what your role is, if your role is to clean the toilets, then you are the leader of cleaning the toilets.So we will listen to you when it comes to taking care of that. It doesn't matter what it is. you know, If you are, the Hy Hygienist, you're the leader of the periodontal therapy, and when it comes to you telling us what needs to happen in that department, you're the expert, you're the person who's going off and making a hyperfocus in that area.And so we're gonna, all collaborate on things, but at the same time you're the person steering the ship on that area. As a c e o, as an owner I have to be surrounded by smart people and I want people that are thinking, I want people that are speaking their mind. I don't want people just being head bobbers.Yep yep. Oh, that's not gonna work. Yep. She's gonna fail on that. Nope. I want them to say, I like where you're going, but maybe we need to consider a different direction. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah reasons, or have you considered this? Or, what's gonna happen with that?So I want people asking questions. Is it frustrating sometimes to be like all excited about doing something, but then have someone put all these questions around? Absolutely. So that's where I had to grow my own leadership. You know, I had to grow who I am to not have such an ego about me being all knowing, we do a collaborative process and everything is about leadership development. I personally, Don't want to be in a conversation where I'm managing something, because stressful at that point. If we're collaborating, if we're working towards brainstorming on how to make things better, then it's a very easy light energy um, process.Michael: Uhhuh, okay. So there has to be like a balance of with every person you find. Humility and confidence, basically. Right? Yeah. Because it's like you gotta be confident enough to know you're the leader for this, and you're gonna tell us how to do it. Give us instructions, manuals, things like that. SOPs, and then humble enough to, yeah, you're cleaning the toilets, but you're the leader for that right.Kind of thing. Yolanda: Whatever it is. to some degree. Um, We all have certain innate skills in certain ones and some things that we have to work on. it's progress over perfection, all the time.And then we're appreciating also that, failures lead to learning. there's um, many different keys in our development process in fact one historical thing that's shaped me and continued and those that have children highly recommend super camp. There's the eight keys of excellence.It has been a hundred percent woven into my structure of living my life. And, we actually weave it into our culture handbook. The eight Keys of Excellence with Super camp. And they have some education on bringing children and teaching children personal development skills.Early on I was a team leader, during undergrad, and so I did three or four years of that When I got out, I was really looking for that camp experience where personal development was forefront in having a team surrounding me with those kind of skillsets, communication, personal development, mindset, all of that.And so I looked and I, interviewed many different. Consultants. And I knew that I needed to have you know, this ongoing constant learning, environment. and after, probably more than a hundred different seminars of sitting in practice management, learning learning, learning what I could. I came across something called Fortune Management, and that's another part of my life now because I've been Coaching for now 10 years, but been coached for 25 years with Fortune Management and it's about extraordinary life, extraordinary practice.So that was the key thing when I had the startup. It's like, what do you want in life? Let's shape your practice to meet that. So fortune, has had a huge impact on me and my. thinking, my processing, our team development, super camp, this, personal development skills, started young.Yeah, I think that these things are a real big part of our development. The reality is, we don't get taught how to talk. We don't get taught how to have relationships, how to get through conflicts. There's a lot of conflicts that can happen in dental practices, and we need to learn how to, come out stronger on the other end.A bad review is an opportunity because it's a cry for help. It's a cry to say, Hey this happened to me. It's not easy to lean in on those things but if someone comes to you say in the office and they haven't actually sprayed it across the, Google and Yelp and all that, then they're coming to you with a concern, or you might call it a complaint, but then they're caring enough to share.So humility again, comes into the place of listening to understand. And also understanding that, we're never gonna be perfect. So if that was that one person's experience, what can we learn from that? Our team is encouraged to basically lean into issue processing, and that's a leadership skill too.Because at first a reaction would be go into defense mode. instead of just apologizing first and then, thinking them immediately for bringing the concern to you, it puts you in a different state.Now you're not in a defense state. know, I apologize for the impact that had on you. Certainly wasn't my intent. thank you for bringing this to my attention. I wanna help boom, you just say those things to anybody that is upset with you at any time. Now, what do you, how would you feel about that?Yeah. If I said that to you and you were upset with me how would you Michael: feel? I'd feel calm. I'd be like oh, oh wait. Okay. I feel, you know what? I feel heard validated like, oh, okay. You're, yes, you're listening to me. Yes. Yolanda: So part of fortune's training is to, understand that there are human needs, people have human needs, we don't know what's going on in their life.It's most likely more to do about them than it has to do with you, And to feel validated, that one, they're being seen, they're being heard and that they matter is huge. And then you get to choose from that point. How much of that is really mine and how much of it is theirs?there anything we could change in our systems or in our processes that could shift the dynamic here? 'cause we are practicing, so let's. Figure out how we can have an issue come up, but then make it better the next time, So we learn from it and we see that as an opportunity to grow.Versus when we're in a mode of defending, we're not in a mode of growing. So I highly encourage that in the leaders to be big instead of to be small. when you are, thinking small, you're in that defense mode. But when you're willing to set that aside and lean in and get curious about it and think like, how could that have happened?How could we have done better? Where did this, go to that side what's missing here? Oh, they don't really understand this part And the, key thing is, That you may get to the place where you totally understand that they don't know what they're talking about when they're talking to you, but if you shift right away into telling them something, you have to remember, are you in rapport with them now?What I said in the beginning that set the framework was to start to get rapport with you, Michael. Mm-hmm. I apologize. it's not my intention. I would never want you to feel like that. So now that was the beginning of rapport. And in our processes and fortune, there's the steps of enrollment, there's steps of getting into rapport with people. that we train, our team members to go through because rapport is everything. Rapport with your team members, rapport with your patients, rapport and influencing. You influence people all the time, getting really good at influencing it and really good at influencing yourself, like talking yourself off the ledge to be defensive.is a big deal. So those are some of the skills that we focus on in, in our leadership development. But basically everybody is in leadership development all the time. You never get out of that school. Michael: Gotcha. And you're a hundred percent right Yolanda, like when it comes to defending We've hear this all the time, they're like, it's good to apologize. It's good to say sorry. Right? It's super good to do that. But you try being the first one to do that, right? Yep. Then it becomes, oh my God. Well, If they say sorry, I can say sorry. You know what I mean? But you know, I'm the first one. I don't know. You know what I mean? Because then you start defensive mode. it takes a bigger viewpoint of there's a bigger thing happening here than just like that little, oh my gosh, we're arguing about the bad review or the defensive, or, I'm not paying you for this or that.There's a bigger picture that we gotta look into. Yeah. that's really valuable. Super camp, Yolanda: what is that? Yeah. Super camp is what's called quantum learning. And personal development. Super Camp is held on colleges all across the world. Actually. I even taught in Hong Kong. dental school got in the way, or I'd have been in many other countries, but, it's a really cool 10 day camp.It focuses on the eight keys of excellence one day, each skill is focused on, so eight keys of excellence. Is this, is it like living in the moment? I'm not gonna list all of 'em right now, but communications, speak with good purpose, failures lead to success. All amazing things to get straight in your head as you leap into the world, So basically you go through a 10 day. Personal development, but also there is these quantum learnings where you learn speed reading. different ways to look at math. s a t prep of some sort. Mm-hmm. So, it's a big impact.10 days. And I was able to be a team leader. It is not inexpensive to do that, and I certainly would've not been able to attend from a financial standpoint at that point. But as a team leader I got to absorb a lot of those teachings and I was taught to teach them. So, It was like the best of all worlds.Michael: Nice. Okay. So you were able to absorb as much and you still carry it on until today. Yeah. From what we're talking about, right? Yeah. One of the things I wanted to ask you is, it sounds like from the beginning you've had I guess like a mission or, my children.I wanna be with them. I wanna be with my family and everything like that. How did you keep that mission in front of your eyes this whole time? for example, I'm opening a practice, then you're just, that's my baby. I gotta do that practice. Then another one, oh, then we get mom guilt and stuff like that. How did you keep that mission in front of your Yolanda: eyes? Yeah, it's a daily mindset for sure. And it's what you're saying yes to, means what are you saying no to? you always have to look at your yeses and your nos.And you also have to be really focused on your, why Is it bringing you closer to your why? I certainly, I. Have made more mistakes than, it feels like anyone in making this mission come together. you know, and people think that success is just straight up, but it's like this, you know?Mm-hmm. you just dip and then you come back up and you dip and you come back up. you win, you lose, you win. You lose. it's just a matter of better the next time. And that's where leaning into issue, processing, leaning into, facing the things that didn't work.And it's about getting back on the bike and continuing to pedal. So I know that, with my kids it was definitely always the centering for me, and my why I was working and how we were developing the team members. The good thing is that I happen to be one of those people that really enjoy.Service and support, and I get a lot out of seeing people grow. More than my own successes. it gets me really excited to see someone figure something out and to have been, this little part of it, or maybe just enough to, get them to jump up.So in my lifetime in the beginning, We got a post-its and we got a big board and my husband and I boyfriend at the time, said, okay, what do we wanna accomplish with this practice? fast forward looking 10 years from now, looking 20 years from now, what do we wanna see after all of our years of work?And that's where. being in the future is really valuable because now you get your why, but then you have to come back and we have to be in now. What can we do now? What's the best resources now? Because if we're always just like dreamy, dreamy, dreamy over here, then we're not actually accomplishing things.And the other thing is, that if we're always looking back, What ifs? Should'ves. Could'ves. Wished of, you know, wished, wished, wished. If I'd only known then now we're not doing anything about the now. Things are not moving forward. They're just staying behind. So I think the present, the key, this is it, It's hugely beneficial to stay in the now. each one of those keys, the eight Keys of excellence really keeps me centered. Michael: Yeah, that's a really good point. I feel like if you stay in the, now you stop so much procrastinating 'cause of the future, right? You're like thinking of my why.Oh, I'm gonna get there. And then you eventually, you know what I mean? Or it's gonna get there. If you're in the now, you're like, okay, now I got to do this in that moment kind of thing. I only have Yolanda: now, right? Yeah. Yeah. I only have now Michael: really good. You mentioned, two words that I kind of want to ask you about issue processing.is Yolanda: that? So issue processing, this is where real leadership comes into play because, we look at, say an issue. maybe the phone's getting answered. Mm-hmm. You take an issue and we all, put our emotions aside and we at it and, how could we do that better?And if we are in a process of brainstorming with all these different people, like how can we get this better? How can we get this better? And the focus is around that one issue. Now some solutions start coming up. What I'm not a fan of is having someone hand me their monkey and then I'm supposed to put their monkey on my back.Basically, as a leader, their issues come up, but if they just wanna say, here's my problem, so I don't need people coming to me with their problems, basically, that's their monkeys, and I wanna be able to support people to figure things out. I wanna be able to support them to be making some decisions. In fact, we have a process called decision Tree.So basically my goal is to help them to know which decisions they need to just make and which decisions they need to bring to me. So in a tree, for instance, I'm the roots, you know, in the trunk, but I want my team members to make some branch decisions, or at least the leave leaf decisions.I don't want them bringing me all the leaves, I don't wanna be raking up all those leaves all the time because then that's a whole different level of energy. I want them to feel empowered to make some decisions. So when they're part of issue processing. Then they can understand like, how I'm thinking, what I'm thinking.for instance, a patient's upset and they're complaining about their crown. Maybe you don't give the entire crown away. Don't just say, we're gonna do it for free. Don't worry. I don't want you to be upset. Yeah. Maybe we come up with a better decision. So, As a leader, leading leaders, I'm careful to Squish them in a place when they've made a decision. And then I said that was a bad decision, so I have to develop them in that regard. So I want them to stay open to possibilities in that issue processing. I want them to have some. Initiative I want them to be willing to defend their decision.So why did you decide that? Why did you decide, not from a defense standpoint, but ex explain to me, help me understand. ' cause if I can understand why you did that and what you're thinking was, now I can put you on a different level of thinking because, obviously we can't give away every crown.How could I pay you? what else could have happened Is this, So now you've got that muscle built up and you're building their leadership muscles. So how we talk to them is really, really, important. Build up versus tear down. Michael: Yeah. You're teaching them basically how to make decisions, And I like that because they're not always gonna go to you and being like, what should I do? What should I do? What should I do? And then you're kind of like, man, I'm always having to tell you what to do. But I guess it comes back to us as a leader where we never help them develop that muscle, like you said.Yeah. Teach 'em to fish. Yeah. Yeah. Teaching to fish. I like that. So then if we fast forward a little bit more, you were approached to buy another practice. Yes. And your why changed? So what was your Yolanda: why before. So my why before had much to do with being able to have choice picking up my kids after school, be able to comfortably care for them as a mom, a working mom, Then when I took on the partner, I thought my why was gonna be so that I could be like p t a mom, you know, I could be very active in school and, spend a lot of volunteer hours doing things, but still make enough money and, be able to be at home. And so I was preparing for 50% work, type thing.and then this other big opportunity came up and, my knee jerk was, no, that's not my why. That would mess up that. And so then my husband and I sat down literally on the staircase up there We said, you know, what's the bigger picture here with raising these kids?You know, what do we want? What is our job as a parent? We wanna make sure that they have the values, and their own leadership to lead their own lives, if they're always dependent on us, that would be a problem. Not that I couldn't have done that as my other plan.There became this bigger opportunity because we literally have been in the same home, in the same town growing up in this little area. And we didn't really want them to just have this little microcosm of, of life. We wanted them to be have the humanity to understand the whole world and that the whole world was an opportunity for them.But how do you travel and. Expose them to things like that. in the current position I was in, even with bringing on an associate and now having that as an a partner, I was not necessarily making money unless I was there. So if I clocked out, say for a month, Then, my income stream is going way down.ultimately the idea of, go big or go home, I guess came in the thing is about being small. you either stay small or you go big and in the middle you get pounded on with all kinds of, business growth and changes. And that was something that was really clear.We were reaching the middle ground with that practice that had its own challenges, its own growth challenges. So ultimately, I. The goal of our family and the idea came into play to be able to travel with them. And for two years we did that. we homeschooled them. We traveled basically about every month. six weeks at a time was our biggest one. And then two weeks being gone was our normal time. So we'd come back, we'd go, so we were traveling a lot each place had a different perspective and a different reason for being there.But, what I needed to do for that is my team had to be able to take the reins and keep the practice going with or without me. I had to create this practice that these leaders could run the practice with me, still having my extraordinary life without them. this whole way of developing this leadership was a necessary process in order to accomplish my goal of being able to come and go as I want in my practice and have the extraordinary life or whatever life I want.Michael: that's what your why kind of evolved into. Yes. It's like I just want to do my own thing. Interesting. real quick, which place, 'cause you said each location gave you a different perspective, change your life. Which one to you was like, this one was a whole 360 Really changed my life, my perspective.Yolanda: I would say that one of my favorites was our Asian tour. I really, really love. Asia. And so that would be one of my favorites. And, post COVID, we haven't been able to get, back to Vietnam, but my plans and my involvement with d d s. Four kids.org continues.I still fundraise and do lots of things with DDS for kids. It's the number sign four. And Lon Jones, who's the founder of this, she's like a mother Theresa, x fold better. She's like this most beautiful person. And so having met her and having my kids get to know a person that's beautiful. So giving, who's, hasn't had children of her own, but she says the whole world is her children. And so she cares and loves and goes into all these different places to take care of them and make a difference. So having that impact and having my kids know.That type of person. Knowing you know, when we went to Haiti, That was a little much, that was a lot, much for me. Dr. Laurenti Barnett. He's been doing such amazing things in Haiti for so long, and I'm so grateful that we got that experience to go and do work there.there's so much going on there. Unfortunately, it's also so corrupt. and, got a lot of dangers I think for traveling. But Dr. Barnett and his, decades and decades of giving and service to Haiti and really helping has been beautiful.So, Having my kids, having had the influences of these people that do things like that, Michael: priceless. Yeah. Priceless. Yeah, man, that's beautiful. Okay. So then one of the last questions I wanted to ask you, Yolanda, is you mentioned made many mistakes, right? Yeah. So I guess from the moment you decided okay, I'm going to start my own practice, right? today, what's been some of your biggest struggles or fails or pitfalls? Yolanda: it has a lot to do with this leadership development. wasn't always as strong of a leader, I certainly had to lean in on, messing up certain relationships along the way because I wasn't, Ahead of this pre communication, I had to have things onboarded with team members, and not have it go longer term because I didn't have my vision or my communication about what I was looking to accomplish.So clearly documented, so clearly, able to reference. To where anybody walks into the practice that they can understand a direction. I think that we lost a lot of time and a lot of energy with emotions being misunderstood with different things because we didn't have those clear directions and, mistake or just journey.It was a journey. you journey through and you learn things along the way, and hopefully you don't have to keep making those mistakes over again. But I think the biggest thing is any team members, and there's been hundreds and hundreds of team members that I've had at this point.They've all taught me something. I've learned to be better because maybe I wasn't as good at the time. But how can I get better? How can I get better? Has been, definitely a support for me in this journey. Yeah, Michael: I like that. Thinking about each team member and looking at them and saying, can I learn from you?You know what I mean? Yeah. and it goes back to what you said, it's gonna be like this. Yes. sometimes right now, I know a lot of our listeners may be like, man, I'm trying to reach to that million dollars a year, mark, you're gonna get there, I feel. But then it's going to, there's still gonna be times where you're like, my team, it's worse. I'd rather sacrifice the money and, you know what I mean, Seasons. Two seasons. Yeah. Yolanda: Go through seasons learning's never out, at all.It's constantly about learning constant and never ending improvement all the time. And when you buy in and you get your team to buy into some of these belief systems, you accelerate. That was probably the smartest thing I ever did is from the beginning is, stay with a coach, keep a relationship.Have someone who's on the outside telling you, with all authenticity, then reality, you screwed up. this isn't being your best self. you're thinking small. Be big be the bigger person, apologize, 'cause team members can't do that to you, you're like, okay, you're fired. You know, it's like, it's, there's only so much that they're gonna be able to authentically be your board of directors. that's something to do easily is get a board of directors, get people, be a board of director for someone else, and, get mastermind groups together.and speak authentically to each other. you're not perfect. This could have gone better this way and recognize that when someone's giving you an opinion, there's plenty of 'em. Maybe that one is not exactly the right one too.Just because people have an opinion doesn't mean that you need to embrace that opinion too. think through it, continue to be a critical thinker. Michael: Wonderful. Yeah. Thank you so much, Yolanda, for being with us. It's been a pleasure. But before we say goodbye, can you tell our listeners where they can find you?Yolanda: You can find me Yolanda Mangram at Fortune Management, which is fortune mgmt.com. That's my email. Or you can call me on the phone seven oh seven, 4 7 8 6 3 9 4. I'm always happy to help, in any way. It's really a beautiful journey. And try to be really nice to yourself.Mm-hmm. You work really hard and your intentions are straight so, be nice to yourself. Self-talk and self-love is definitely where my focus is right now. We are type A people most of the time and we're pretty hard on ourselves. So as much as I was talking about being humble and taking on, all the learning moments, remember to also focus back on some self-love and giving yourself a lot of credit.Michael: Wonderful. Thank you so much Yolanda, for being with us guys. That's all gonna be in the show notes below, so definitely reach out to Yolanda and thank you for being with us. It's been a pleasure and we'll hear from you soon. Sounds great.‍‍‍

Discover the top pitfalls to avoid when selling on Amazon with Steven Pope, the founder of My Amazon Guy. He shares his expertise on how to steer clear of common mistakes that can hinder your Amazon business.From neglecting inventory management to overlooking essential PPC strategies and ignoring critical SEO practices, Stephen offers valuable tips on what not to do as an Amazon seller. This episode provides essential guidance, whether you're just starting or looking to improve your Amazon game.Don't miss out on this opportunity to learn from Steven's years of experience, helping Amazon sellers navigate the challenges and achieve success.

Steven Pope shares the strategies he used to revive one of his top products and skyrocket its sales back to the top.Learn how to:1. Adjust pricing to boost sales2. Target the right keywords3. Use PPC campaigns to increase visibility4. Optimize your listing with A+ content5. Use compelling imagery to highlight your product's unique qualitiesYou'll learn how to harness the power of PPC campaigns to boost visibility, leveraged A+ content to optimize the listing, and used compelling imagery to emphasize the product's unique qualities. Transform a struggling product into a sales powerhouse. Uncover the strategies, insights, and actionable tips that can help you recover and reignite your own best-selling items.

Key Drivers Of Business Value Part 4 of 10 | Human ResourcesWhen we talk about Human Resources (HR) SOPs in the context of a business's exit plan, they hold significant value. Here's why:1. **Smooth Transition**: An exit plan is often about transition. Whether the business is being sold, merged, or passed on to heirs, clearly defined HR SOPs ensure that personnel changes, responsibilities, and shifts are carried out with minimal disruptions. 2. **Protecting Employee Rights**: HR SOPs provide clear guidelines on handling resignations, terminations, retirements, or even massive layoffs. Ensuring that these procedures are carried out legally and ethically protects the company from potential lawsuits or public relations disasters.3. **Valuation and Sale**: When selling a business, potential buyers are interested in all operational aspects of the business. Clear HR SOPs signal to potential buyers that the business is well-organized, reducing perceived risk and potentially increasing the valuation of the business.4. **Knowledge Transfer**: SOPs help ensure that the knowledge is not just in the heads of a few key employees. They provide a blueprint for new leadership or owners on how various HR tasks are carried out, preserving organizational memory.5. **Consistency**: Whether during regular operations or a company's exit, consistency in processes ensures predictability. This helps both employees and leadership know what to expect, making changes less jarring and maintaining company culture.6. **Legal Compliance**: HR operations often intersect with local labor laws and regulations. Well-defined SOPs ensure that the business is always in compliance, particularly during sensitive periods like business exits when scrutiny may be higher.7. **Efficiency**: As businesses prepare for an exit, they often look for ways to streamline operations and reduce costs. SOPs can point out redundancies or inefficiencies in HR processes, paving the way for smoother operations.8. **Employee Morale and Retention**: During times of transition, employees often feel insecure about their roles and futures. Clear HR SOPs related to communication, severance, or potential re-hiring can alleviate some of these concerns, leading to better morale and reduced turnover.9. **Stakeholder Communication**: Stakeholders, including investors, partners, and even customers, often have an interest in a business's exit strategy. Clear HR procedures can help guide communication strategies and stakeholder management.10. **Flexibility**: As contradictory as it might sound, having clear SOPs can provide a business with the flexibility to adapt. By having a clear structure, businesses can identify what's essential and what can be changed or adjusted during the transition.In essence, HR SOPs offer a roadmap that can be invaluable during the potentially turbulent times of a business exit. They provide clarity, protection, and structure, ensuring that the human side of the business – its employees – are managed with care and foresight.Chapters:00:00 Key Drivers Of Business Value Part 4 of 10 | Human Resources01:28 Leadership Development Program05:26 SOPs for Training and Onboarding08:40 SOPs for Human Resources Administrative Functions11:00 ComplianceAbout Inside BS Show with The Godfather and Nicki GThe Inside BS Show with the Godfather and Nicki G provides business leaders with inside business secrets to help them make a great living and live a great life.Since its inception in 2020, the show has been a valuable resource for CEOs and business leaders seeking the personal and professional knowledge they need to take their businesses to the next level while making the journey more rewarding. Dave Lorenzo and Nicola Gelormino have the unique ability to get their guests to share the insider secrets that have helped them dominate their industries. A new episode is released at 8 AM each business day.

Revolutionize your Amazon product copy with the power of AISteven Pope unveils a rapid, effective technique to optimize your listing. With AI-generated content, transform your product descriptions and bullet points into strategic keyword-rich content.Focus on Strike Zone keywords (ranked 20-50) during SEO Phase Three for enhanced visibility and clicks. Craft product descriptions emphasizing these keywords using AI, fine-tuning the output to align with your brand voice. Utilize the generated content to enrich behind-the-scenes elements like alt text for improved indexing. Leverage your product's Search Query Performance Report to refine content and PPC campaigns, strengthening your market position.Enhance PPC campaigns with well-crafted keywords to boost organic ranking and market share. Stay committed to ongoing optimization and monitoring for sustained growth. Book a call at MyAmazonGuy.com/book for expert advice.

Streamline and Scale Profitably: Mastering Business Systems  Malcolm Peace is the founder of Tsetserra Growth Partners, is making a remarkable impact in Texas by assisting small to midsize businesses. He specializes in assisting long-standing enterprises whose founders are planning to retire yet still want to see their businesses succeed. In order to ensure a smooth transfer while maintaining the owner's ethos, Malcolm and his team completely rewrite the operating playbook. Within two years, the company's revenue is intended to treble thanks to their emphasis on operational efficiency. Malcolm offers the required tools and techniques despite the challenging task, providing business owners confidence in the future success of their enterprises.  In this episode, you will learn the following: ●        The significance of documenting standard operating procedures (SOPs) when acquiring and managing businesses ●        The prevalence of QuickBooks online among small businesses ●        Tracking key data points is invaluable in analyzing business performance ●        Standardizing business processes and pricing for better decision-making ●        Hiring individuals who align with the company's values, possess the necessary skills, and fit the culture contributes to long-term growth and success. Links: https://tsetserra.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/malcolmpeace https://twitter.com/peace_malcolm   Hi, I'm the Profit Answer Man Rocky Lalvani! I help small business owners simplify their financial reports to make more informed business decisions with fewer hassles. We utilize the Profit First system created by Mike Michalowicz Our Q&A call on the 2nd Thursday of the month at 1 pm Eastern:  https://bit.ly/PFcall Sign up to be notified when the next cohort of the Profit First Experience Course is available! Schedule your free, no-obligation intro call: https://bookme.name/rockyl/lite/intro-appointment-15-minutes Check out our website: http://profitcomesfirst.com/ Questions: questions@profitanswerman.com Email: rocky@profitcomesfirst.com Relay Bank (affiliate link) - https://relayfi.com/?referralcode=profitcomesfirst  Profit Answer Man Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/profitanswerman/ My podcast about living a richer more meaningful life: http://richersoul.com/ Profit First Toolkit: click here to sign up This episode is part of the SMB Podcast Network. Find other great interviews from around the internet just like this one at https://www.SMBPodcastNetwork.com Music provided by Junan from Junan Podcast Any financial advice is for educational purposes only and you should consult with an expert for your specific needs.

This week's episode of Win The Hour, Win The Day Podcast is sponsored by Win The Hour, Win The Day's Signature Coaching Program the Winners Circle. Kris Ward who helps entrepreneurs to stop working so hard interviews,  Karen Laws. Ready to break free from the chaos that's holding your business back?Well, you're in for a treat!Listen in as Karen Laws and I hit it hard, talking about the real game changers in business and life. In this jaw-dropping chat, you'll discover: -How an entrepreneurial quiz can unlock your potential.-What virtual assistants can do to level up your game.-The overlooked systems and processes that can save your sanity. Whoa, trust me, you don't want to miss this one!  We're tackling the entrepreneurial challenges that keep you up at night.  So, plug in those earbuds and prepare to be amazed.  You're just one listen away from transforming your business and ditching the stress!  Power Personality Quizhttp://winbacktimequiz.com/Win The Hour, Win The Day! www.winthehourwintheday.com  Podcast: Win The Hour, Win The Day Podcast  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/winthehourwintheday/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/win-the-hour-win-the-day-podcast  You can find Karen Laws at:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karenlawslive/Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/ontariodogtrainerYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOntarioDogTrainerWebsite: https://ontariodogtrainer.com/  Win The Hour Win The Dayhttps://www.winthehourwintheday.com

PPC costs keep going upPinterest adsMore data, more reportsBrand AnalyticsFBA storage limits Q4 every year from here on outWe don't see an Amazon competitor emerge until at least 2026The fastest way to grow on Amazon will continue to be add new productsUnlock the future of Amazon for FBA sellers with Stephen Pope, founder of My Amazon Guide! In this insightful video, Stephen delves into predictions, best practices, and trends for 2023 and beyond.

Standard Operating ProceduresIf you want to add HUGE value to your business, you will follow the guidance in this video to the letter.Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are written documents or protocols that provide detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to perform a specific task or operation. SOPs are used in various industries to ensure consistency, maintain quality, and protect workers from hazards.Value to a Business:1. Consistency: SOPs ensure that tasks are performed in a consistent manner every time, regardless of who is performing the task. This helps in producing uniform outputs and maintaining the desired level of quality. 2. Efficiency: When employees follow well-documented procedures, there's a reduced need for training, decision-making, and problem-solving on the spot. This leads to quicker task completion and more predictable results.3. Training: SOPs serve as a reference guide or a training tool for new employees. Instead of relying on word-of-mouth training, new hires can refer to SOPs to understand how specific tasks are done, ensuring they align with company standards.4. Safety: In sectors where safety is paramount (like chemical manufacturing or aviation), SOPs help ensure that all processes are carried out in the safest possible manner, reducing the risk of accidents.5. Regulatory Compliance: For many industries, especially those that are heavily regulated, SOPs are vital for proving that tasks are carried out in accordance with legal or regulatory standards.6. Accountability: SOPs make it clear who is responsible for what. If something goes wrong, it's easier to trace back the issue to its source, be it a flaw in the SOP itself or an error in its implementation.7. Continuous Improvement: SOPs can be regularly reviewed and updated to reflect new best practices or improved methods, ensuring that the business continually refines its processes.8. Scalability: As businesses grow, SOPs can help in onboarding new teams, divisions, or even branches, making sure that everyone adheres to the same operational standards. This creates a cohesive operational strategy regardless of company size or location.SOPs are integral to any business that values consistency, safety, and efficiency in its operations. They not only guide employees in their daily tasks but also set a foundation for growth, compliance, and continuous improvement.Chapters:00:00 Standard Operating Procedures01:23 The Value of SOPs04:50 How to Create a Standard Operating Procedure08:00 Example from Everyday Life08:45 Example from Our ShowAbout Inside BS Show with The Godfather and Nicki GThe Inside BS Show with the Godfather and Nicki G provides business leaders with inside business secrets to help them make a great living and live a great life.Since its inception in 2020, the show has been a valuable resource for CEOs and business leaders seeking the personal and professional knowledge they need to take their businesses to the next level while making the journey more rewarding. Dave Lorenzo and Nicola Gelormino have the unique ability to get their guests to share the insider secrets that have helped them dominate their industries. A new episode is released at 8 AM each business day.

Does the way your CSRs answer the phone, communicate with & onboard your customers seem to be inconsistent? Is every one of your ROs processed the same through metal, paint & final delivery?Are your Google or CSI reviews suffering due to delayed deliveries, poor communications or inconsistent quality?The missing link could be the lack of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). This episode unravels the critical role of SOPs in shaping up your business, impacting everyone from your technicians to your most valuable asset - your customers. Discover the massive difference standard procedures can make in controlling the quality in your  repairs and how this minor yet significant change can reap major benefits. But, it's not just about your collision repair business. SOPs are a game-changer across industries, from small enterprises to corporate juggernauts. Get practical insights on how to create and implement effective, easily understood SOPs that can streamline your operations and elevate customer satisfaction. This week, I'm sharing a ton of resources, tips, and methods to get your SOPs up and running. And most importantly, learn why it's essential to have your employees on board with your SOPs from the outset. Let's switch gears and drive your business to its full potential. Grab pen & paper and  take some notes... you're NOT going to want to miss this episode!Support the showJoin our Mind Wrench mailing list!

Watch as Evangeline from My Amazon Guy reveals potent enhancements for your Amazon strategy.Uncover the traffic-driving magic of keywords and harness a dynamic balance between organic and sponsored ratios. Explore untapped potential, closing the gap between you and competitors, increasing visibility, and boosting revenue.Dive into optimizing your image gallery, A+ content, and listings. Craft compelling titles, bullet points, and captivating images that resonate with your audience. Discover modules that silence competitors and maximize listing impact.Ready to supercharge your Amazon sales? We master PPC, SEO, design, catalog merchandising, empowering your business growth.

Mastering Amazon PPC: Unlock the Power of Click-Through Rates!Are your Amazon PPC campaigns leaving you with questions about click-through rates (CTR)? Wondering if your CTR is up to par? I'm Steven Pope, the mastermind behind My Amazon Guy, and I'm here to unravel the secrets of CTR and guide you toward PPC success.

Steven Pope shares the latest update on his struggle with Amazon's sudden brand registry removal and reveals the significant damage done to his brand, Age of Sage, due to this unexpected development.Clicking on his listings now directs customers to the search results page instead of his Brand store, disrupting customer experience, leading to lost sales, and other various issues including redirecting to other stores.Amazon's lack of clear communication and the removal of thousands of attorneys from Brand Registry have created a chaotic situation for sellers. He highlights the need for Amazon to address these issues and provides a glimpse into the challenges Amazon sellers face.Stay updated on Steven's journey by subscribing to My Amazon Guy and exploring the full series to gain insights into dealing with Amazon's complex policies and unexpected obstacles.

When is the right time to transition your business? Bill Spohn, President and Owner of TruTech Tools, plans to retire in three years. TruTech Tools is an award-winning e-commerce reseller of tools and test instruments for HVAC and building performance professionals. He's working on making the company less dependent on him by adding capable leaders, documenting workflows, and keeping a notebook of ideas. Bill joins host Laurie Barkman on Succession Stories for a "Legacy Series" conversation how entrepreneurs can start plan your future exit and benefit from talking about it.   Listen in to learn more about: Ensuring your business can thrive without you Hiring the right talent Portfolio approach to building wealth When to start transition planning Why it's good to talk about your exit intentions Documenting workflows and standard operating procedures (SOPs)     Guest and show notes: Bill Spohn LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billspohn/ Building HVAC Science Podcast: www.buildinghvacscience.com Download a guide to better SOPs: https://bit.ly/SOPGuide   Learn how Strategic Business Transition Planning with Laurie Barkman can bring clarity to your biggest succession questions by visiting https://thebusinesstransitionsherpa.com    THE BUSINESS TRANSITION HANDBOOK: Get a free PDF copy of "The Business Transition Handbook" by author Laurie Barkman:  https://thebusinesstransitionhandbook.com OR text TRANSITION to +1 (762)320-2826     SHOW US THE LOVE :   RATE + FOLLOW SUCCESSION STORIES SUBSCRIBE wherever you listen and follow on YouTube Write a review using Rate This Podcast https://ratethispodcast.com/successionstories        

How Much Does Amazon PPC Cost? #amazonppc How much does PPC usually cost?What is a good click-through rate for Amazon PPC?Picture this: You're diving into the world of Amazon PPC, and you're on the brink of success. But hold up, how much should you budget for this game-changing advertising strategy? The answer might just surprise you.In the last 30 days, I've been crunching the numbers for my own campaigns, and the results are in. The average cost per click across different categories is fluctuating, but fear not — I'm here to guide you through it.Here's where the magic happens, if your product thrives on repeat business, a calculated loss upfront might be your ticket. But if you're in it for one-time purchases, every click counts. Every PPC sale sparks a chain reaction, yielding three organic sales within six months. It's the gift that keeps on giving and don't even think about turning off PPC — it's your ticket to keyword domination.

Join Steven Pope, as he takes you through his recent experience of dealing with Amazon's unexpected brand registry removal. Steven shares his journey from submitting an appeal to Amazon's response six days later, which led to a unique solution for verification.Amazon's response required Steven to schedule an episode conference, where he would demonstrate his brand ownership by opening packages of his products. Surprisingly, this episode conference is set a month in the future, underlining the prolonged process sellers like Steven have to endure.He also sheds light on the broader issue of Amazon blacklisting attorneys and unclear policies affecting numerous sellers. Despite the setback of a potential 50-day brand registry suspension, Stephen remains positive.For those navigating similar challenges, Stephen offers insights into the appeal process and expert advice for overcoming Amazon hurdles. Subscribe to My Amazon Guy for updates on Stephen's journey and valuable strategies to safeguard and elevate your brand on Amazon.

The "Add Missing Attributes in Bulk" tool – a newfound gem to enhance your listings. By navigating to the inventory page and selecting "Add Missing Attributes in Bulk," you open a lot of optimization.Generate a downloadable Excel file and discover your top-performing SKUs, vital data, and crucial missing attributes. Unravel mysteries like "height base" or "material type," refining your product listing.

The "Add Missing Attributes in Bulk" tool – a newfound gem to enhance your listings. By navigating to the inventory page and selecting "Add Missing Attributes in Bulk," you open a lot of optimization.Generate a downloadable Excel file and discover your top-performing SKUs, vital data, and crucial missing attributes. Unravel mysteries like "height base" or "material type," refining your product listing.

Unleash Unprecedented Sales Surge at Amazon with AI-Powered Review Insights!In this game-changing video, we'll explore the remarkable potential of harnessing AI for optimizing your product reviews and propelling your sales to new heights.Discover how to leverage cutting-edge AI technology to analyze and extract invaluable insights from your Amazon reviews. Witness real-time results as we delve into a live report using the Genie Reviews tool, uncovering patterns, sentiments, and actionable data that can transform your product listings.Uncover hidden opportunities, fine-tune your product features, and capitalize on strengths while addressing weaknesses. Learn how to enhance your product images, descriptions, and targeting strategies to create an Amazon presence that stands out in the crowded marketplace.Embrace the future of selling with AI and watch your sales soar.

Today's guest is a former engineer at Yahoo who understands search engines second to none. We talk about all the ways to run an agency wrong, hoping to teach you how to be successful and do it right. He founded BlitzMetrics, a digital marketing company that provides training and mentorship for aspiring entrepreneurs across the globe. On a mission to create a million jobs internationally, please welcome Dennis Yu. Dennis Yu, it's a pleasure. Welcome to the Learning from Others Show. How you doing, man? Good, Damon, and it's awesome hanging out with you again. I wish it was in person like we were driving race cars in Vegas. I. That was fun. You know, we got a couple stories we could probably hit. Um, you and I have engaged on mostly Facebook over the years and kinda got a little friendship going on and, um, yeah, I, I flew out and I, every time I fly out somewhere I try and kinda keep track of who's where and, um, I. And meet up with somebody and establish a relationship a little bit better. So I appreciate the opportunity of you being willing to go hang out. And we did, we went and did a limo in race cars and um, I mean, you live in Vegas, but we, we did the tourist a little bit of the touristy thing. Yeah. Yeah. And, and thanks for taking the time. That was such an honor. And you know, you're one of the few ss e o people out there. I know this is being recorded. You're one of the few ss, e o people out there that is legit and drives results. And I am not being compensated to say this. But I've been sharing this and I'm, I know people that are watching this and have seen my Facebook posts. They're coming to you. Yeah, no, I appreciate that. It's, um, we'll probably talk 'cause you're legit about that today, you know? Yeah. Not, not about me, but about the industry. And, um, for, for me, that's been, uh, Good and bad to throw rocks at my own industry. Right? Like, it's unfortunate that that's such a valuable sales proposition to distinguish yourself as actually doing your job. But, but it is. So why don't we, why don't we start there? So, um, actually before we get into it, um, let's, let's have you talk about yourself the most, uh, enjoyable, comfortable part of a podcast. Um, I, I actually like how you put it on the intake form when, uh, so I ask the guests, you know, what's your elevator pitch that we can use? And Dennis just puts Google me. If we're talking about s e o and, and you don't have a knowledge panel show up when I Google you, you're a fat weight loss coach. Fat weight loss goes, where's, where's the analogy of a fat weight loss coach? Oh, fat, okay. Overweight weight, weight loss coach. That's overweight. Got it. Yeah. Yeah. So Dennis, um, has been in marketing for how, how long have you been in marketing? 30 years. Yeah, how'd you get into it? And I was one of the original people, one of the first people at Yahoo. So I built the internal analytics at Yahoo. So I'm a search engine engineer, so I'm not an S E o. I am the person who's trying to protect the results from the SS e o people trying to trick us. Yeah. Have you got jaded over the years knowing like how this works and being able to see the manipulation that's going on when it's not done for the right audience and the right users? Do you think that weight loss scams will ever go away? Every year there's a new scam, right? And people fall for it. 'cause they're just like, how do you not know that? It's a scam? Hey, if I take this one pill, you're gonna lose 30 pounds in 12 days. Like it's a scam, right? Mm-hmm. So the salespeople are always inventing new techniques. And I remember, this is like back in my day, we used to walk uphill both ways. I built websites by hand using Microsoft Front page. It was engineers that were building websites, people like us that actually physically knew how to do the thing. It was before the marketing people and all that came in back then. You remember it was called web mastering. Mm-hmm. Before it became digital marketing and social media and influencer and all these other words that are now really just buzz words, new words for the same thing. Mm-hmm. Right. And now I'm, I'm gonna blame the internet money Bross. Yeah. And the motivational speakers for now, all of them are ai. Experts and crypto experts and chat G P T experts and they're SS e o experts too. So all these people have come in in the last few years seeing easy money and now they're gonna start selling S E o. I was a Josh Nelson seven figure agency conference and Josh Nelson's amazing. I love the guy. They're people that come into that program 'cause they think it's easy money. And in the program Josh teaches you should sell s e o, but he also says you should also deliver s e o too. You should also understand what it is. Some agency owners, the guilty will be unnamed, are selling ss e o and they don't even know what it is, but they know that people want it and they need it. So they sell it for $2,000 a month and they're making all this money. This one company that I'm probably gonna release a full investigation later today is making three. Well, they're, they were making last month, $320,000 a month off of 150 clients that are paying for s e o and Facebook ads and websites and things like that. It is a scam. There's no way to defend it. It's a scam, but it's a sales guy running it. He has no operations, he has no marketing. He's a sales guy and some of them even white label their stuff out. So they have no idea what it is and someone else is doing it. They, the client doesn't know anymore. I mean, you know, they, but they're selling it 'cause they're salespeople. There's too many salespeople in the s e O space. Mm-hmm. We need more mechanics, not people in the car dealership wearing a tie. Slick hair saying all these things about the car. We need more mechanics that actually have grease on their fingers, like you and me. Yeah. I mean, I often get asked what, um, what should I know as I shop s e o and, and I think that why people are so attracted to, to you know, you and your transparency is because it establishes trust when you're willing to go, Hey, you know, One example, s e o takes time, but here's why. And then you explain it. Or, hey, not only here are the advantages of s e o, but here are the disadvantages because what they're getting pitched to you. You nailed it with the sales bros and not enough actual people doing the work is the majority of the time. These people that. Sounds smooth, are not the people that are actually doing any of the work. So they're gonna tell you whatever they think that you want to hear. And so when, when I get asked, you know, what should I be, be looking out for? And I'd be curious, some of the things that are top of your mind is, is my first thing is transparency. Like, they should be able to communicate. You don't need to know, you know, the, the full granular details of, of everything that's going on, but you should be able to clearly communicate, you know, here's. The intent behind why we're gonna focus on this thing in content, not just, we're gonna write stuff, you know? Mm-hmm. And what's, how, how are we gonna measure progress? Right. And how long is this gonna take and why? Yeah. But the majority of the people that are out there are just like, oh yeah, no, we'll get to it. You know, we'll get there, you'll see. And it's just like these vague responses, and I think that's become a thing of, of. Beyond just ss e o, but you and I are, are in that space more so just marketing in general is these constant sales bros of it's yell loud or talk louder or be flashier. Mm-hmm. And the emotions overtake the sales process. And then it doesn't matter, like right before we hit record, I was telling you about somebody that we're working with and they're killing it and the data shows they're killing it. But a, a sales bro got in their ear about, Hey, you need to be louder and flashier, and they're tearing it all down. Mm-hmm. Yeah. The sales bross are focused on collecting the money. I. They'll make huge promises. They're, they don't even know whether they can hit those promises 'cause they're not operators. The fact that you are posting screenshots, of course you're masking out like the client name and the keywords and all that, but showing the increase in traffic and sales, not just ranking on more keywords. 'cause you can rank on a bunch of garbage keywords and claim victory. Yeah. We need more people doing what you're doing and actually teaching the techniques. Not that these clients wanna learn how to, you know, who wants to learn how to change a transmission or, but at least if you know that that guy who is an actual mechanic is posting videos of him as he's, you know, working on the transmission and got grease on his hands as he's working on the car. There's a lot more trust there and especially if the mechanic shows what they're doing, right? I'd love to, you know when, when you go to a car or uh, you know the dealership and something's wrong with the car, they're gonna give you an itemized list. Of the things that are broken and what, and therefore the toll and you know, maybe the dealership will still overcharge you, but at least you know what they're doing, right? Yeah. If you're buying a new car or not a new car. So Damon, let's say you're buying a, a car off of whatever, like Facebook marketplace and the guy says, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's always been in the garage the whole time and never been driven. And you see it's got 150,000 miles on it. I don't know if that's exactly true. Oh, it's, it's never been in a crash, really. I don't know. It just looks like some of these. Here don't look like they were the original parts. Are you sure? Oh yeah. It's brand new. You know, it's, it, I don't trust, I just hate to be cynical. I don't trust what other people have to say. So if you're gonna buy a car, Damon from somebody, third party, are you just gonna take what that guy says or are you gonna have a mechanic check it out real quick? Yeah. You, you're, you're doing the equivalent of an audit. Yeah. So I, you know, audits take two minutes. In two minutes we can spot all kinds of garbage. That you and I know, like buying a bunch of fake links or most commonly having done nothing. Yeah. And letting the, especially in a service-based business, letting the G M B and the reviews that are actually done by the client carry the weight and claiming credit for that. Yeah. How dare you claim credit for something the client did? Yeah. And dressing it up as, oh well, Google's algorithm changes all the time and it takes a while and it's a mystery. And I can't tell you our methods 'cause they're proprietary, can't give you access to our systems. I hope you understand. It's such a big secret. I'd have to kill you. Proprietary is one of, if the not top red flag for me, as soon as somebody says that in, in a marketing sales discussion, because we're all using the same dozen or two tools. Mm-hmm. It's just who knows how to use them most efficiently in which combination to deliver on the results. Yeah. If any that you have mapped out into SOPs, Can you imagine if you ask a mechanic, so you're fixing my transmission. What tools are you using? Oh, it's prop tools. Using wrenches are secret. Yeah, yeah, I can understand if you're like Mrs. Field's chocolate chip cookies, but even they put their recipe out there as like a, a campaign to try to, you know, what was like a gorilla campaign? 'cause they, they planted that thing to try to make it popular. But I flew back from LA yesterday to Vegas and the pilot greeted me. I always liked to just have a quick chat with the pilot if I'm the last one on the plane. And can you imagine asking the pilot, so, um, How did you learn how to fly? A 7 27? And he says, oh, it's a secret. I can't tell you. It's super proprietary. No, there's flight training manuals and all that kind of stuff out there. It's, it's public. In any field. If you're a doctor, hey, you're a heart surgeon and you're gonna do heart surgery on me, what scalpels are you using? Hell yeah. Super proprietary, the scalpel and you know, it's the scalpel that I use. It's, you know what, you could be a heart surgeon too. If you pay me $10,000 and sign up for my weekend course. I'll teach you how you can be a heart surgeon just in a weekend, because I'm also gonna give you access to my proprietary scalpels. It's the skill of who's using the scalpel. It's the, do you remember Mars Blackman and the Air Jordan campaigns? I think you're old enough to remember that. Uh, I never got in the shoes and think that, but that's No. Uh, but it, but so they had Air Jordan, you know, Michael Jordan, the most famous basketball player ever, and they were making fun. It was, the commercials back in the eighties were hilarious. Mm-hmm. That Mars Blackman, who was Spike Lee would say, it's the shoes. It's the shoes. Got the shoes, Uhhuh. You could jump as high as Michael Jordan and hit your head on the rim, right? Yep. So do you think if I switched from Adidas to Nike that I'd all of a sudden be a better basketball player, do you think If like me doing ss e o, if I just switched from my primary tool to, you know, the proprietary ones or Majestic or Hfss or SEMrush, like, do you think that would matter? No, it's all the same data. There's no proprietary, like you said. Yeah, it's, it's your skill. The other red flag for me is guarantees and, and my position on gu. Sure, they sound lovely. I get why they're attractive, uh, attractive to the consumer and attractive to sell. Um, and, and, and in some forms of marketing, maybe there's guarantees. But in s e o there, there's so many abstract variables and, and wildcard that you should be able to communicate why they're variable in a wildcard and also communicate. Why you can't offer a guarantee on it. What you can do though, is you can communicate averages and expectations. Mm-hmm. You know, you can't guarantee you're gonna be on page one in 10 months, but you could say on average it's 12 months or whatever, give or take. You can talk about the home runs that took four months. But to me it's a huge red flag. It it's a sales guy. Anytime I hear somebody saying there's a guarantee. As you talked earlier, it's the guy doing the sales and not the person actually doing the fulfillment and the guarantee in our space, what, what you and I are doing, it's competitive SS e o. So for us to move from position five to position one, that means we have to get ahead of those other four guys. So we, we can't, we. Guarantee what those other four people are doing. Yeah, we can, we can guarantee our effort level, we can guarantee higher r o i because we can focus where there's less competition or where there's more bang for the buck by going, by changing our strategy. Yeah. But we can't guarantee number one on Google for city name, you know, plumbing or whatever it is. Real estate city name. Yeah. Well, let's talk to, um, Let's talk to the aspiring agency owner and how they can avoid being part of our future discussions and how to approach. You do not want me writing an article about you in that I love writing articles about people, and they're either very positive, which is 99% of the time, like I love Uplifting You, Damon. And then there's the 1% of the people that are outright scamming 'cause A, they're not delivering, and B, they know it. There's a lot of people that are unintentionally ignorant. And this is the advice that we're giving agency owners right now. You wanna take care of your clients. You recognize there's a lot of stuff that you'll never know as much as Damon Burton, but there's certain things you do need to know. You've gotta learn the basic tools to see that rankings turn into traffic. That turn into sales. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And if you just generate, so there's one personal injury client that they were paying this guy. His name sounds like a whiskey. His first name is Jason. You can maybe figure out who it is. And he was charging this personal injury attorney $70,000 a month. And what he did was upload a dictionary to the site on how do you get a commercial truck driving licenses. So they, you know, attorneys, they want truck driving cases. 'cause those are million dollar cases versus like fender-bender ones, right? They really want the truck driving cases. So, This guy was ranking on all these, these truck driving terms, but they're all like, how do, what are the, you know, how long does it take to get a commercial truck, uh, driving license? And what is a C D L? And none of them had the intent of someone who got hit by a truck. Yeah. And this guy that was charging $70,000 a month, what he did was he was, he was creating 200 garbagey posts in a glossary every month. I told you about this one. Mm-hmm. We talked about this before. Yeah. And. The client who's wealthy and has made, you know, over a billion dollars, didn't know any better, but he suspect it's, you know, these guys are not dumb, but they don't know about s e o. They're real smart and they, like, you don't wanna try to pull the wool over. Just because they don't know about SS e o doesn't mean they're dumb. Okay. They're, they can kind of, they're busy. Yeah. They're, they're good at the thing that they do, and you're good at the thing you do, and I get that, but, So this guy Jason was claiming, look at all the look we're driving, we're ranking on another 2000 keywords. Yeah, but they're all garbage. And I looked inside the analytics and there is no more phone calls and no more cases being driven off of this s e o. All the cases from a search engine organic search standpoint, we're coming on. People searching for the client's name. This, this client is on TV, billboards. He has more billboards in Kentucky than anyone else. He's all over the place, right? So they Google his name and, and then this s e o guy was claiming credit for this guy's TV ads and billboards. So my number one thing for people that your agency owners and your, you know, you need to offer, you can't just offer Facebook ads 'cause then you have a 90 day churn. That's just unfortunate, right? Mm-hmm. You can't offer social media by itself unless you just wanna churn it out. You have to offer s e o, you have to offer some kind of P P C or whatnot to show that you can drive results. But the key is start with the results first. Yeah. Don't talk about all the s e o, whatever. Start with you need more cases, you need more clients, you need more book jobs, you need more phone calls. And that comes from people that. Come to our website because they search on these certain keywords and here's the competition on those keywords. So most of these s e o people, they use the s e O tools that you and I know that generate that auto, generate these reports and put the agency's name on them, right? Mm-hmm. Because why wouldn't, why wouldn't I wanna use these different tools that just send out reports to make it look like there's work being done? Mm-hmm. But that's not work that's being done. It's just showing rankings that go up and down. Hopefully the numbers are going up every month and if the business is doing well and they're taking care of their customers, even if you do nothing from an ss e o standpoint, those s e o numbers will go up, won't they? Yeah. So don't rely upon rankings. Rankings are nothing compared to traffic. And traffic is nothing compared to sales. 'cause even if you drive more traffic, this one personal injury attorney was, was driving an extra, I forgot the number, but two or 3000 visits a month to their website. People that were looking to become truck drivers. Yeah. And then that pollutes our remarketing audiences. 'cause we pay to remarket against people who come to the site. Right. 'cause all of those could be cases. So we're remarketing everywhere. 'cause of the pixels. Yeah. So s e o start, it sounds fundamental and it doesn't matter if you do Facebook ads or website building or email. Start with the client's goal and what that's worth and then trace it back to what you do. Yeah. Like there's one client, they're a big personal injury. Firm for some reason. We got a lot of these PIs and they're spending 1.7 million a month on Google ads. Yeah. And they're also doing SS e o. They're using Ben Fisher for L S a I love Ben. They're using Steve Wedeman for SS e o I love Steve. And there's more calls that are coming in. The firm has been growing, but they couldn't figure out where this. Cases were coming from because there's 10 different systems that have to be tied together. Hmm. And sometimes the in, in CallRail or, or RingCentral, we can automatically append where that call came from. But sometimes we have to ask 'em. And a lot of what we call digital plumbing wasn't in place 'cause, you know, multiple LSAs and a different website for P P C versus one for the main firm for different reasons. So we had to tie all this stuff together and it was only last week. Outta this firm's 15, 20 years. It's only last week that for the first time we're able to see Marketing Source. So if you're the agency, you've gotta be able to show that what you are doing goes all the way down to the bottom line where there's sales. And that means you often have to go into the call rail or into their C R M or whatnot. What percent of the time Damon are SS e o agencies going all the way down to see that there was a sale that was occurring. And or do you think that's important? I think it's important, but not, you know, most people don't, uh, almost never. It's, it's mind boggling to me when I get on, uh, a lead call and they're with an agency already, and I ask them for basic stuff. What, what are you currently targeting? What's been done today? And. I for, I'm 17 years into doing this and it still blows my mind like the first time. Every time when their reply is, I don't know what we're targeting. I'm like, okay, well what have they done to date? I don't know what we've done to date. They just send me these flashy reports every month that said they did something. It is surprisingly, the majority of the time, and I can't wrap, you know, I have such a hard time with this because even though I see it so often, I can't put myself in that position to rationalize that approach. And so it's such a, it's like a twilight zone to me because I can't, I can't relate to it whatsoever. Yeah. There's so many scams. I wrote an article like 15 years ago and I think it was something along the lines of, I mean we could Google it to find it, but you know how to, how to sell ss e o and I basically, it was a joke 'cause it was revealing the techniques and I said, you know, the best way. To win a client. 'cause these guys are all, all the sales bros are all about selling, selling, selling, right? They don't care about delivery. They just wanna sell. So I'm like, okay, you wanna sell? Here's the easiest way to sell. Before you go into that sales meeting, put up a blog post on a site that at least has a little bit of juice. Like hopefully you have a blog that has some amount of trust and ha optimize it for a long tail keyword. So let's say that this is, uh, you're talking to a. Veterinarian. So then write a blog post that ranks for Boulder, Colorado, golden Retriever, toenail clipping tips. Mm. Right. How difficult do you think that would be? Yeah, not at all. You were difficult to zero, right? Yeah. So write a blog post, make a video about it, rank for it, and then go in there. And say, yeah, you know, with S E O I even came prepared and I know you're a veterinarian. Go ahead and go into Google right now on your computer, on your phone and search Golden Retriever toenail clipping tips. Boulder, Colorado, and like, oh look, we're number one. See? Yeah. Then if that doesn't work, 'cause sometimes it doesn't work, you know, sometimes whatever, sometimes your site has no power. Then buy that on Google. Buy that keyword on Google and Geotarget just to Boulder, Colorado on golden retriever, toenail clipping tips. Exact match, right? And put a dollar a day on that campaign and say, go ahead and search. And then you could, ideally, they do a search on it and they see your ad and they see that you rank number one on that. That's fantastic. That's so funny. Yeah, because it's especially with local like you and I know with local, we're not talking about national golden retriever, toenail clipping tips. We're saying in Boulder, Colorado. How many other people are writing articles about Golden retriever toenail clipping tips? No one. Yeah, no one. So with SS e o, I think so. To be clear, I know it's easy to rag on these ss e o people 'cause it like 95% of it's scam, unfortunately. But here's the good news. You and I know that ranking for local. It's way easier 'cause you only have to beat the other people in Orange County, California that do whatever the thing is. You know, meds, liposuction, orange County and other Santa Ana and Newport Beach. Like that's, that's not competitive, but liposuction, if I like, how much effort would it be to rank on liposuction if I, you know, needed you to, to do that for some reason versus liposuction, small city name. Yeah. Oh, it could, it could be a night and day difference depending on the location. Yeah. 'cause you, you also have to take into consideration the indirect competition. And I think this is something that, um, I don't, I don't really hear a lot of other SEOs talk about. I'm sure plenty of 'em know about it, but I. What this goes into the transparency thing when you're explaining the realistic expectations to your client is you not only have to take into consideration the quantity of results that you're fighting against, but the quality of the big players that are in the way too. I mean, there's so many variables in in which you look at. These results that, um, you know, I don't know where I'm going with this, but I think it's just, at the end of the day, it's, you can't outrun your reputation. Right? And so these, these people that say sells over service, right? And, and just like you said, where it's just, just sell more is, is the solution that won't last forever. And then, and then what are you gonna do? Yeah. Reputation's everything I think. I'd be curious to see if you agree, but I believe that pro-level SS e o is indistinguishable from pr, reputation management, social media, whatever it is, because it's other people that are credible in that particular topic that are talking about you co-creating content like we're doing here. And that's showing up on reputable industry specific websites, not like random websites that happen to be DR. 73. About websites that are authoritative and rank on those keywords in that industry. So if you build those relationships, if you have that expertise and you've done a great job, then your reputation's great and your SEO's great. I don't know how, how someone could have great s e O in a competitive area and not have a great reputation as if me at Google, well, I was at Yahoo, but a lot of my people I trained went to Google as if we couldn't tell. Who is legit and what links were real or not, and if that content was generated by chat PT or you know, if it didn't have, maybe we can't tell if it was autogenerated, but we can certainly tell if it has pieces of experience in there as part of eat. Yeah. You know, you know, maybe what you and I should do is create, um, an ss e o escrow validating company. Oh. I do that all day. Where it's like, you know, we don't want your business, we just want to, you know, we charge a consulting fee to protect you, help vet which your choices are, you know, bring us a three. You're considering, and we'll tell you the pros and cons of all of 'em. There we go. Thanks everybody. I would love to do that. Yeah, that, I mean, I've been doing that for 20 plus years. How many friends have you had coming saying, you know, Hey, you know, can you just like look at my s e o real quick? I, I'm sort of suspicious every day. That's like a, a dude saying, I think my, I think my wife's cheating on me. Do you think like, if they're ha if they're having to ask, I think you know what the answer is, right? Yeah. Every day I had, uh, co comes and goes, uh, in higher quantities, uh, on certain days, but it is nearly, I've had three, it's, we hit record at 1:00 PM today and by 1:00 PM I had three just today that asked me that. Yeah. I've had 35 in the last 10 days. Yeah. Yeah. And it's consistent. Yeah. And I help most people for free. Like there's this one that hit me up literally just 15 minutes ago and I'm looking at their text. Hey Dennis, my name is Chris. I'm a friend of so-and-so. She gave me your number in regards to an SS e o audit I was hoping to get done on a site I'm working on. And then there's some specifics there. I'd love to chat if you're free. Anytime. Yeah, I'll, when we're done, I'll call him back. I'll take a look at the site and in three minutes I'll tell him what's going on. Yeah. Yeah, because you and I are mechanics, we pop open the hood, we take a look, we hook up the diagnostics, and we're like, okay, here's what's actually going on with the car. Why don't we talk about, you know, you, you just made the comment that you'll, you'll usually help 'em for free. Um, as do I. And a lot of times the, the industry will tell you to do otherwise. It's, it's charged. They're sales oriented, and yes, your time is valuable and like, I'm not gonna get on a whole hour call. I'll just do a, a look at a couple quick things and because I think that, I know it's an unpopular opinion, but I think s e o is, is now verticalized. It's better to, if, if I know a lot about liposuction, I can do li, I can do ss e o for liposuction, doctors all over the place. I'll just have a competitive advantage over all the other people like. Over people like you and me that are just like good generally, but we also know certain categories. You've been doing 17 years, you know, a number of categories by now. But I think that when people come in and I do a quick audit, like any of us can do this, looking at the basics. Mm-hmm. It's easy to do the analysis. Doing the work is different. I'll pass them to someone that I know, like I'll pass 'em to you. Mm-hmm. Or I'll pass them to someone that's really good in that particular industry for real estate agents. For insurance brokers, for e-commerce, for like whatever, right? And the days when 25 years ago, you, you, you could be a generalist, but I feel like you have to be vertically specific if you really want to be world class. It's, it's literally minutes. Yeah. I mean, yeah, why not? Why put the berry up? Yeah. Literally, you're right. Two minutes I can, I can audit someone at two. And I've done this like we did one last week for the city of San Francisco and the small Business development center, which is this nationwide thing, part of the S B A and people were signing up. We had a whole bunch of people on Zoom and I just did audit after audit after audit. People love doing it. We've been doing it now for 18 months 'cause they started it up in the middle of Covid and we've been doing it every month. It's great. Yeah. Free audits. Why not? Not selling anything, but people say, oh, can you recommend someone to, you know, my website's on Wix. Okay. Go to Upwork and use the job postings that we have on converting and, and here's the job posting. This is my website. It's on Wix. I wanna move to WordPress. Here's another guy's website. Don't copy it exactly. But can you make it like that and host it on WP Engine? And I wanted to meet this other criteria. We have website, we have criteria. You can literally Google it, like website audit checklist, blitz metrics, you'll see. And, and it also has to fit this criteria. How much? $300. Okay, cool. This guy's 95% and has 200 ratings, and his earnings are $200,000. Like he's in Pakistan. Okay, fine. Sure. $300, let's do it. Right? Yeah. And we teach people how to hire VAs and how to hire people in Upwork, in Fiverr. But the data that you get is, is infinitely, it's worth more, more than that. I mean, you're, you're buying so much wisdom in such a compressed amount of time to make a long-term decision. Yeah. And so if it's a, it's a Fortune 500 company, I'll say, okay, it's a power hour, go to blitz metrics.com/powerhour and we have an onboarding process because they don't want just three minutes of my time. I'll give anybody three minutes of my time. 'cause it's just, it's too rude to say no and I'm important or whatever. I'll just give you three minutes of my time. Fine. Right? Mm-hmm. I'll prerecord it so it doesn't require being live. Yep. But if it's a, well, yeah, it's a well-known company, then I'm like, yeah, it's 15 hundreds, nothing for you. Mm-hmm. So we'll do that. And we had one two weeks ago and they bought that and they said, yeah, you know, we really are struggling. Can you help us? The s e o agency is playing games and like, yep. I already know what they're saying. And now we have a large contract. Yeah. So the 1500 led to, it was basically like a paid sales call. Yeah. If you're an agency, know that when you do, when you do it the right way, you just, you provide value, whether it's free or charged, or you know, you will drive more real clients because they trust you. Yep. And, and from my perspective, uh, I've talked about how there's only three types of content consumers. So the, the, and this is why you should give away your, your content for free or, or give your time as as availability permits. So consumer number one is the person that takes your advice and runs. Okay. Well they were never a client anyway, so you didn't lose them, but now you increased your reputation and your reach. Right? And then content consumer number two is somebody that may not need what you offer now, but knows somebody that does or they come back later, or three is they buy. Mm-hmm. So from my perspective, you have no losing reason to not just give away. All the answers for free, right? 'cause I want the person that values time more than money. So if, if they can implement it, I'm happy they made progress with it. Otherwise, you know, we, we, we establish trust, we establish credibility, and then when it makes sense, it, it just eliminates the sales walls. They would've been a horrible client to begin with. So we call those free tarts, right? You're a D I Y, you're gonna try to do it yourself. Save every penny. You know, you go and get your own groceries. I have the freaking ghost groceries delivered to me from Costco. I'm not gonna be a driver of like, I, you know, so those pe you give away your information for free because you don't want those kinds of clients to come to you. 'cause they're just gonna complain. They're nightmare clients. They're gonna, they're cheap. You know, you all. But I can get that for way less from the Philippines. Yeah, you go do that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, um, I think you and I could talk indefinitely, um, about a variety of things, especially this in this, this topic of the industry. Um, now, now as we get kind of closer to wrapping up, let's, let's kinda take the opposite approach. Um, so we've kind of, we've kind of beat up on our own industry a little bit. Um, let's, let's kinda help the aspiring, um, Agency owners with some, some wins, right? So we've said, don't do these things, which I guess imply the opposite of do these other things. But, um, you know, how did you start to build up your reputation? How did you start to get your foot in the door? How did you start to earn the trust of people? So we can kind of maybe end with a couple little tips there on the high note. So I believe that, you know, when I was a, a young adult and I. I didn't even speak English, you know, until I was seven. I always felt that I wasn't good enough and I felt that all these other people were so much bigger and better than me. And I remember going to Pubcon and Kevin Lee of did it was speaking. And this guy started analytics company. He's well known in the world of SS e o, and I thought, wow, this guy's like a God. I would love to be able to do SS e o and all this, but I don't think I'm like him. He's so well spoken and just everything about him. I just worshiped this guy. Now, I was an engineer at Yahoo and I was a great engineer, but I didn't know how to communicate and. I didn't know if I could make promises to the client. 'cause you know, I wanted to make money as an agency 'cause on my way, you know, as I was about, about to leave Yahoo. And, but I didn't, you know, I knew I'd work really hard and I knew I was honest and ethical, but I, I, I didn't wanna go out there and just start making promises 'cause there's a chance I couldn't deliver. So, you know, I would tend to not say anything or tend to not. I put myself out there 'cause I thought all these other people are out there just aggressive, fast talking salespeople didn't wanna be like that. 'cause I heard so much the garbage, like what we talked about. And then I realized, you know, there are clients, if you find the right clients that they will, it's like night and day. So when we had Quiznos as a client, Hmm. They were a fantastic client. They weren't the nightmare where they're, every day they're like checking their rankings and asking what's going on. And they paid us a lot of money, and I find that if you're an aspiring s e o and you're growing, it's yes, obviously learn from people like Damon and keep improving and work hard and have great operations and all that stuff, but I think client selection is the most important part. When you have the right client and you're transparent with them and you have a relationship with them, and you, you, you go out to dinner with them, maybe if you could meet them, right? It's just so much better and it results in retention and you feel good about what you're doing. And then you have 'em on your podcast as you start to have results and they love to talk about you. Like we did this for the Golden State Warriors, the basketball team. And I loved working with the Golden State Warriors. They treated us so well. I got to meet Steph Curry and hang out in the locker room and go to the playoff games. They paid us a lot of money. And here's the, the thing that may seem too far away for most younger ss, e o people, I put them on stage. I was given the opportunity to speak, to be a keynote speaker at one of the largest conferences in Europe. The last year's keynote was Richard Branson. And they wanted me to be keynote, and I said, no, no. Instead of me being the keynote, I wanna put the head of marketing from the Golden State Warriors, the very popular basketball team as the keynote, and I'll introduce 'em. Right? And that worked wonders. There was a case study that was done by Facebook on us. So your reputation carries everything. The relationships that you have, interviewing your clients, interviewing other people that are competitors, you know, maybe Damon or I are competitors. Not really. 'cause there's plenty out there for all of us. So by having the abundance mindset that enables us to be able to share what we've learned and elevate other people like, wow, Damon just wrote this great article. I'm gonna share it. I don't if he generates more clients because of that, that is fantastic. It doesn't have to come to me. Most of my posts that I put out there on Facebook are elevating other people and how awesome they are. I think that's hard to do if you're small and you're not making money. You're like, oh, I want every dollar that comes my way 'cause I need every penny to pay rent and whatnot. I get it. But if you change your mindset, this is the last I'll say about this whole like motivational speaker walk on Kohl's, Tony Robbins kind of thing. But I found if, and I wish I knew this 20 years ago, that. If I spent more effort honoring and elevating other people in the industry that will drive me more of the right kind of clients that I want, even without me talking about my expertise or what I know or how good I am. I closed five clients last week on SS e o pieces because I was elevating, you can go back to my Facebook mm-hmm. And figure out what it was. But by elevating other people that are well-known. Industry. I interviewed yesterday on my podcast, one of the top content marketing experts, and she's a big deal at LinkedIn that's driving my reputation up. People buy based on your reputation. It's all based on your perceived authority. That's why clients buy if you're a sales minded person. The perceived authority gives you the opportunity to get the right client. And then, like you said, Damon, those three, three categories, when you do the audit, figure out which one they are. Mm-hmm. And if they're great, then you have to deliver. As long as you can deliver, then you're great. Right? And so I approached from the standpoint of I learned how to deliver first as a search engine engineer. So I feel like Damon, I'm credible to talk about ss e o 'cause I'm one of the few people that actually worked at the search engine and you know, like I have a good opinion about this thing. I have some credibility here. And so now it's easy for me to audit. It's, I've done this enough times, I've learned from, from other people. So I would hang out in, in like London. Singapore with Rand Fishkin and his mom, Jillian, who's the one who's really running the show. Mm-hmm. And you know, we're putting together s e o presentations, we're hanging out with the conference organizers, and I realized these are these people that I thought were gods, were humans too. Kevin Lee, who I told you was the guy I worshiped before he, he invited me on his podcast twice. And I said, I said to him on the podcast, I can't believe you can even Google it. And see, this is what I said. I can't believe I'm on, I'm hanging out with you, Kevin. I mean, this is a guy, like when you were done speaking on stage and then all the people would come up to you, I, and I'd never get a chance to talk to you like, oh, one day I'd love to talk to Kevin Lee. And here I, here you are reaching out to me to be on your podcast. What the heck is going on here? He said, no, no, no, Dennis, I'm just honored to be spending time with you. And then he said all these great things about me. And I said, this is being recorded, isn't it? Yeah. But maybe, you know, if you're doing ss e o and, and you feel like you don't know as much as Damon or whatnot, you know, sometimes you, you have to step back and look at how much you know. So when you interview someone or someone else interviews you, you realize like, oh wow. I actually have come a long way. I've actually learned a lot. That puts you in a, in a position of gratitude and you honor your clients and you're not worried about poaching, you're not worried about other people that do s e o I help other people that do s e o for a living. I'm, you do that too, Damon. Mm-hmm. Does that hurt your business at all in any way? Not at all. It helps your business. So we have a lot of clients do that. We do s e o for, and still I'm talking about Damon and I'm sending people to Damon and it doesn't hurt me at all. Yeah. And, and it, it only, it only helps. And, and when Dennis says he, 90% of his posts are about lifting other people up. He, he's very literal. It's. Probably 90% or, or plus. And it's just, you know, it's not necessarily contact creation, but documentation of Yeah. What you're doing and the engagements and the people that you're connecting with. Um, and, and I actually just made a post on LinkedIn this morning about, um, on the same topic, there's somebody who I've been mentoring and. I send them business. Right? Yeah. Because then it helps the the person that I connected them with to finally get somebody that can support them morally and ethically, and then it helps a young aspiring entrepreneur to build their business up and then they're going to reciprocate the other way when, when it's a client that's a little bit outta their league. Yeah, but it's a, it's amazing to watch for, for me, the, the part that I find most fascinating, obviously, yeah, sales is great. Um, growing is great, but the Wild Card is, is always what I find the most fascinating and rewarding, where you get a relationship that you didn't expect or an opportunity to, to meet or do a thing. You know, just like you said, you, you got to go, um, in the locker room, meet Steph Curry, just like those things that. You, you didn't have on your to-do list. But then when it happened, it was such an amazing thing. That's what I find the most rewarding about serving and helping others and, and just being moral and transparent. Yeah, serendipity. And you build these relationships over time and they start to unlock other things. And in finance, this is called a, a real option. So by having the Golden State Warriors as a client, we then were able to work with the N F L. Yeah, and the N B A and all these other sports teams came calling, and I never would've realized. I guess in hindsight it's like, well, yeah, obviously you're promoting how awesome the Golden State Warriors are. Facebook wrote a case study. Mark Zuckerberg mentions you on stage, you know, and how we got a 39 r every dollar got $39 back of what we invested. Of course that would've happened, but you never at, in the moment, you're not thinking about that. Mm-hmm. So really when you, when you have great relationships that for you young s e o people focus on the relationships, focus, make sure your communication is great. The ss e o people have a reputation for being geeks that don't communicate. Be personable. You, you sent me some cookies, Damon. Wow, that was so awesome that that was serendipitous. I enjoyed that. And that that's just building relationship. Checking in on people, clicking like on their posts and delivering great work leads to so much more. The referrals that you get from your existing clients are worth more than any marketing you could ever do. You do a good job of that. You never need to do marketing. Uh, I, I'm 17 years in and this is the first year I've considered spending a dollar on advertising. So the entirety of this multimillion dollar business has built, uh, purely on reputation and results because you've earned it. You have the perceived authority and you have the actual authority. Yeah. Well, Dennis, um, I appreciate, uh, that I, I just love talking to you. You got a good vibe. Um, it's good to be in company with somebody else who's transparent and straightforward. Um, I did not pay Dennis to say kind things about me, but I greatly appreciate them. Are you giving me a commission at all? No, I, because 'cause I believe in you. Yeah. And you've, you've taken the effort and I've taken the effort to build the relationship over years and people can tell. Yep. Yeah. And then once you get in, as you just started talking about with Golden State Warriors and then other professional sports teams, when you get in with somebody, you know, I'm not gonna refer anybody to somebody that I won't put my name behind. And I'm sure you feel the same way, right? Yep. And so when you get in and you establish these relationships with people at high level, they, they have a, a. A, a circle of trust, right. That you get exposed to once you establish your authority and your ability to deliver. So, I mean, there's so many different, to kind of wrap this up on the, the thing of, you know, you can't outrun your reputation and you can't outsell your reputation. You can probably get pretty far in the beginning by focusing on sales and not reputation. Yeah. Uh, but eventually you hit that. Amplifier of, of reputation where it begins to go tenfold times tenfold, times tenfold. That you couldn't spend, I mean, you couldn't have bought your way into a relationship with the Golden State Warriors. No. Because they get three calls a day from people that are offering ss, e o, and P p C and all kinds of magic promises. Yeah. You know, funny. Um, I got to work with, uh, Utah Jazz on their retail division, team store. Same thing. Came from a relationship. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If you're, if you're a player in the game, you wanna be here long term, focus on relationships. If you just wanna make some quick money now focus on sales, but you'll, you'll be run out and then whatever the next new thing is, you'll do that in a year or two. But if you wanna be like Damon relationships all day, I know like people say that all day, but I, I promise you that's the thing. It's not sales calls. It's not the cold email. Magic blasting using ai. That's not it. Yeah, Dennis, you blitz metrics. Uh, how can people get ahold of you, learn more about you? They can Google me and they can see a full knowledge panel and whatever your favorite channel is, and I respond to everybody. It's not a va, it's me. It might take me a few days, but I, you know, LinkedIn's probably the best way to reach me from a business standpoint. Well, Dennis, you blitz metrics, Google m Dennis, last name, y u. It's been a pleasure looking forward to meeting up again and doing our thing wherever that is next time. Awesome Damon. Appreciate you

In this episode, let's talk about when should you start to systemize your Amazon businesses with SOPs and processes. An incubator program for Amazon brands to scale and exit, and what you need to know when hiring talent from the Philippines.

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