Authentic Business Adventures Podcast

Richard Parker - Become a Business Buying Expert

On keeping it moving: "Well, you know, sure as God created little green apples, I certainly want to buy a business that's on its way up, not on the way down."

The two best days a business owner's life, or just like those of a boat owner: the day you buy it and the day you sell it.

But just like when you sell a boat, or anything for that matter, you want to get the highest return.  Just as often, the market that may want to purchase your business is likely fairly small, which can drive the price down.

So how do you sell your business and what is the best way to buy a business?

Listen as Richard Parker explains the nuances of buying and selling businesses and how you can prepare to make a solid offer on a great business.  The tips Richard shares on buying a business will be an extreme help you you as you venture into new business ventures.

Enjoy!

Visit Richard at: RichardParker.com

Podcast Overview:

00:00 Author helps business buyers through book and experience.

06:36 Embracing the Internet's potential for global influence.

15:06 Match your skill set to drive business.

19:57 Avoid buying distressed or turnaround businesses for entrepreneurs.

24:06 Consider business performance, customers, competition for evaluation.

26:23 Invest in business for high returns, control.

35:02 Business brokers often sell unprepared businesses for sale. This results in 75% of businesses not being sold. Sellers should prepare their businesses for sale by addressing key buyer concerns. Good books and records are essential.

38:09 Start small, reinvest, don't turn stagnant.

44:44 Lack of trust can hinder employee performance.

53:01 Hiring process requires multiple interviews and delegation.

54:11 Immerse in business, no absentee-run beliefs.

01:01:27 Prepare for financing when selling a business.

01:05:41 Great conversation, check out richardparker.com.

Podcast Transcription:

James [00:00:01]:

You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumph and successes of business owners across the land. We're locally in a written by the Bank of Sun Prairie. If you are listening or would love to listen to some audio episodes that you can download at no cost, you can always go to drawincustomerscom, and hit the podcast link. We are excited because selling businesses is always a good time. Right? That's, It's just like a boat. Right? The 2 good days, I think, when you buy

Richard Parker [00:00:31]:

2 good days, buy it and sell it.

James [00:00:32]:

Right? Start it and then when you sell it. Right? So today we're welcoming slash preparing to learn from Richard Parker of Diomo Corporation, the business buyer resource center. So Richard, You are helping businesses get bought and sold, I imagine.

Richard Parker [00:00:48]:

Yeah. That's, spot on. I I've been in this, It's a game for over 30 years on all sides of the, m and a world. You you you look shocking because maybe you figured I look even older than that.

James [00:00:58]:

Did I just start when you were 4? What's going on here?

Richard Parker [00:01:01]:

Yeah. No. I'm an old fart. I I I'm 62 years old right now, and, so I started really when I was 29. And in February February 1st, it's gonna be 34 years that I've been doing this. And, when I say doing this, start up buying businesses And then evolved into, helping some people, acquire some business. Started to get a bit of a reputation where I grew up in Montreal, And did that more on a in a on a casual basis, and then started acquiring more and more companies. And, to date, I've acquired them plus one co investment and a huge range of sizes from, like, $50,000 businesses up to over 200,000,000.

Richard Parker [00:01:39]:

And, along the way, I was involved in a transaction shortly after I relocated to Florida in 1996. And as I was digging into the business, the business I was looking to acquire, it wasn't a huge, Acquisition was a little over $1,000,000, which I guess is large enough, and certainly was significant at the time for me. And, as I was going through a price and deal terms, you know, all set and embarked upon the due diligence, And, I found the there was just a lot of shenanigans going on. I'm I'm not suggesting that there was fraudulent activity, but There was multiple companies and they're moving money from 1 company to the other and paying bills from 1 that were incurred expenses from the other. It was really like, I like to describe it, like a whole plate of spaghetti, and, it it really, incentivized me and and My curiosity peaked as far as, you know, what does the average person do who's looking to buy a business? What do they do to go about it? I I'm not a a smart guy. I just happen to been doing it for a long time, so I was able to identify the problems. And I when I told the owner that I was wasn't buying the business and walked out of his I remember, like, it was yesterday standing in the parking lot saying, you know, the average schmuck would have bought this business, and that really motivated me to find out what's out there. It was the Start of the Internet, really, and I spent a year doing research related to this whole subject matter.

Richard Parker [00:03:02]:

And After interviewing hundreds of perspective business buyers, others who had bought businesses, some had turned out good, some had turned out poorly, business brokers, Accountants attorneys realized that there was really no good resources for buyers. And I had looked at a 100 plus businesses at that point and decided that, you know what? I I really wanted to provide Something valuable to people that are looking to change their lives, realize their dreams of business ownership, and really memorialize all my files. I kept Unbelievable files of every transaction, everything I did, what happened, the outcome, good, bad, and otherwise, and said, you know what? I wanna put it, I wanna put it to paper To show people how to walk through this whole process, tell them what they need to do, what they need to know, what they need to do, and how to do it. And I had no aspirations for This turning into a business, I I really wanted to just help 1 person. I mean, that was that was my goal. It was never done for money. And, lo and behold, here we are, You know, a bunch of years later, I've sold over a 100,000 copies of this program and helped thousands and thousands of people. And, and I stayed in the world of m and a, buying and selling and helping people and representing sellers in in the lower market, you know, What's considered businesses about a 1,000,000 to $10,000,000 of EBITDA, but my true love has really been on the buy side of helping Smaller main street USA type business buyers or or, aspiring entrepreneurs and And dreaming business owners to help them get to the finish line, and I spend most of my days doing that answering calls and emails.

Richard Parker [00:04:31]:

I never charge people. I just really enjoy it. I'm not motivated by the money, so it's, that provides a real nice umbrella of of help to everything, and it's it's It's worked out unbelievably, and then it's like I said, I'm just incredibly proud of how many people we've been able to help.

James [00:04:49]:

Nice. Richard, I'm listening, you know, 30 years of doing anything seems like a long time.

Richard Parker [00:04:56]:

And I can imagine long time if you love it.

James [00:04:58]:

No. Fair. Totally fair. I'm just thinking 30 years of deal making, and especially when I'm thinking the Internet was way infancy 30 years ago.

Richard Parker [00:05:07]:

Oh, was it ever? I mean, it when I started when I this the the deal that I was looking at that I referred to happened in 1999. So that was the Internet bubble. Yeah. When I started looking into this and really educating myself about resources, So you had, you know, like, local score chapters of the SBA and and the library. Right? And then you have the yeah. Yeah. I remember those, and then he had the Internet. But the Internet at that point and just pre bubble bubble bursting was everything was free.

Richard Parker [00:05:42]:

And despite the fact that I never went into this for the financial aspect of things, my thinking at that point was As long as all this information no one was really selling a lot of merchants. You had Amazon, but, you know, their stock, I think, was at, like, $67 at that point or something.

James [00:05:58]:

Yeah. 99. That's

Richard Parker [00:05:59]:

Yes. Something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Books. They were selling books. But my feeling was As long as all this information was gonna be free, it probably wasn't gonna have a whole lot of value Because it cost nothing.

Richard Parker [00:06:16]:

The if you're gonna give it away from free, how much time were people We're really going to invest, or quality people going to invest to provide information that was really valuable versus Someone who has nothing to gain, nothing to lose, just putting a shit on the Internet. Excuse my French. Right?

James [00:06:34]:

No. You're good.

Richard Parker [00:06:36]:

And and so That thinking was, well, if if I'm going to do this and take you know, leverage the Internet because I was really fascinated by it, I think I've gotta wait till this evolves because it's either gonna turn into something where it's gonna be this great marketplace of of value, Or it's just gonna disappear. I mean, that's what I was thinking, especially because you had this bubble. And shortly thereafter within a couple years, it started to make this shift Towards, you know, people monetizing information and products and services, and that's why I felt That going down the road of the Internet versus publishing a a traditional book would make a whole lot more sense because The Internet would ultimately reach, you know, global proportions....

Helena Gibson - Unveil Restorative Hair Care

On keeping it moving: "What am I gonna do? I've had 19 years of this business, and now all of a sudden the government can shut it. I've gotta come up with something else."

Helena Gibson has built a successful business with her hair salons in the San Diego, California area.  But a funny thing happened in 2020, and she had to temporarily close her doors.  As we all know, the pandemic came around and the government forced many businesses to not be in business with little to no warning.  We've all heard the word pivot more than we'd like, but this story goes well beyond that.

Sometimes we are forced to make a decision that will change the course of our business.  Do you cry and wait, or do you find and appreciate the opportunity in order to utilize it and grow?  The strength of entrepreneurs is amazing in trying times, and the results are impressive.

Listen as Helena explains her story and how she created a new business, designed to help those experiencing hair loss.  She went through the trials of finding the right chemistry, the right packaging and the right marketing to take her phenomenal products to the world.  It almost makes you appreciate the struggle.

Enjoy!

Visit Helena at: https://unveilhaircare.com

Podcast Overview:

00:00 Researched and created US hair product line.

05:43 Expanding online sales to reach nationwide market.

08:15 Leveraged knowledge of hair products for formulation.

11:54 Hair loss impacts cancer patients' identity and confidence.

14:24 Rising demand for gluten-free, cruelty-free products.

17:54 Consumer perception studies show hair growth results.

21:28 Managing stress, importance of self-care, business success.

23:53 Sent gift baskets, held weekly staff meetings.

28:48 Managing separate ecommerce and brick-and-mortar teams.

29:48 Support for hair loss, career growth, digital marketing.

35:57 Selling products in stores and directly to customers.

38:20 Challenges with website management and team coordination.

41:11 Beneficial business practices and ego management.

43:22 Glass bottles weighed differently, prompting packaging adjustments.

46:09 Thicker, manageable hair, no need for wig.

52:13 Transition from store ownership to philanthropy and coaching.

Podcast Transcription:

James [00:00:00]:

You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphal successes of business owners across the land. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie. If you're listening or watching this on the web, you could do us a huge favor and share it with your entrepreneurial friends. Audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found at draw in customers.com. Today, we're welcoming slash preparing to learn from Helena Gibson from unveil restorative hair care. And, Helena, how is it going today?

Helena Gibson - Unveil Restorative Hair [00:00:32]:

It is going awesome. It's Beautiful weather. It's nice, like, overcast day in sunny California.

James [00:00:40]:

Oh, nice. Well, any day in California is probably better than a day in Wisconsin, and so you win. Okay. You definitely win. So tell us, what is Unveil?

Helena Gibson - Unveil Restorative Hair [00:00:51]:

So Unveil is a restorative hair care line that helps to thicken the hair. So a lot of our clients, I have brick and mortar stores that I've had for the last 21 years in San Diego And in Fresno, California, which is central California. And I noticed a lot of the people were coming in and buying, Rogaine based products. There are certain ones, Viviscal, RevitaGen, and there were things that they didn't like about it because they had synthetic ingredients or they had shellfish in them. And so I started thinking about that when COVID happened and it shut my business down. I was like, okay. What am I gonna do? I've had 19 years of this business, and now all of a sudden the government can shut it. I've gotta come up with something else.

Helena Gibson - Unveil Restorative Hair [00:01:38]:

Well, I couldn't do wigs because wigs are all usually manufactured overseas. So then I thought, okay, what's my next biggest SKU And that I can create in the US, which were these hair products and which were these things that clients had been complaining about over the years. So I started doing some research and I found that plant stem cells actually can regenerate. And what happens is as our hair gets older, our Scalp and our hair follicles, they miniaturize. And these plant stem cells actually help to you can imagine it Kind of coming down and, like, atrophy, it actually helps the bulb, and so the hair starts regrowing again. And so then I just, you know, hired some formulators. I went through, like, 3 different ones and everything during COVID that could Come up trying to, you know, find people and chemists I could work with and understand their lingo, and I would want this, and they would say that wouldn't work. Well, After 2 years, unveil was finally born with my hero product, which is our syrup.

James [00:02:37]:

Wow.

Helena Gibson - Unveil Restorative Hair [00:02:38]:

Yeah.

James [00:02:39]:

That is crazy.

Speaker C [00:02:41]:

So you

James [00:02:41]:

took this pandemic. You know, it's interesting how a lot of people reacted to the pandemic. Because, I mean, shutting your business down, that had to be a not great thing. I certainly know it wasn't a great thing on our end.

Helena Gibson - Unveil Restorative Hair [00:02:51]:

Yeah. No.

James [00:02:52]:

And that's, but that's very interesting that you took that gear shift to something like we're coming up with a whole new product, designing it from scratch or something?

Helena Gibson - Unveil Restorative Hair [00:03:01]:

Scratch? I believe. Yeah.

Speaker C [00:03:02]:

Yeah. Wow.

James [00:03:04]:

That is cool.

Helena Gibson - Unveil Restorative Hair [00:03:05]:

So Yeah. I was very Oh,

James [00:03:07]:

I'm sorry. With the, with the salon, what did you end up doing with the salons? Because California I'm trying to think where California was at with their closing and stuff like that.

Helena Gibson - Unveil Restorative Hair [00:03:17]:

Oh, he closed us. Yeah. We're not in Florida. We got closed. Luckily, though, I'm not an actual Salon. So what I've done for all these years is I'm in hair replacement. So I do wigs and hair pieces for cancer patients. So we do cranial prosthesis.

Helena Gibson - Unveil Restorative Hair [00:03:33]:

So after I was done crying for about 3 days in my shower, then I realized to let my salon license go, And we went we opened back up 3 days later as DME, as durable medical equipment for the cranial prosthesis. So I actually didn't close.

James [00:03:50]:

Smart woman.

Helena Gibson - Unveil Restorative Hair [00:03:51]:

I love it. So 3 days later, we were back open. Now Later. Staff didn't wanna come back. So my Fresno store was completely closed. I just stayed open down here in San Diego, and I was open 2 days a week by appointment. So then people would come to the website, and I would just stack them on those days. And we actually did the same volume during those 2 months that I didn't have staff in As we usually do just by booking them, you know, because they were serious to come in.

Helena Gibson - Unveil Restorative Hair [00:04:22]:

I had the referring to me. I let them know I was still open because, unfortunately, people were still losing their hair, and there's still mirrors in their houses, and they still wanted to feel Good during COVID, and so the business actually took off. And then on the days I wasn't in the store, I was working on launching unveil.

James [00:04:39]:

Wow. That is impressive.

Helena Gibson - Unveil Restorative Hair [00:04:41]:

Thank you.

James [00:04:42]:

Oh, I love him. People like you on the podcast. That's fun.

Helena Gibson - Unveil Restorative Hair [00:04:45]:

Yeah. Well, you know, I mean, that's what entrepreneurship is about. Right? Is you know, all these things come at us, but it's, what are you gonna do about it? Yeah. I mean, I did. I cried for 3 days, you know? But then And I sat down and thought, okay. What can I do? Because I'm a single mom. My daughter was just in her senior year of college. She was flying back.

Helena Gibson - Unveil Restorative Hair [00:05:05]:

She was in Canada. So she's watching what I'm doing. I had to finish paying off her school. I mean, I had a lot of obligations, so We just had to make it work and figure out how to do it.

James [00:05:17]:

Work. Yeah.

Helena Gibson - Unveil Restorative Hair [00:05:18]:

I love it. Work.

James [00:05:19]:

Yeah. So tell me, what was the you I guess you had to understand that going through trying to come up with a serum thing was gonna be a huge undertaking. So on top of the stress of your business being challenged with the pandemic and all that jazz. Now you're taking on a whole new business. Was that what was going through your head to say this was the best path forward?

Helena Gibson - Unveil Restorative Hair [00:05:43]:

I think it was because that was something I could do in the US. It was something that is My stores, I've only been able to sell to a 30 mile area in each location, so I've always been landlocked. And the only way to grow after being in this business for so long is opening more stores. And I didn't want that headache, especially being in the state of California with more employees because Most of the time, I'm at about 12 between both locations. I didn't wanna deal with more landlords. The retail rents have gone through the roof because It's not like office space. Everybody got PPP, so we also had money to pay rent. So it was, okay, what can I do that's online? Well, the The cool thing now is I sell to the whole country.

...

Luke Infinger - Hip Creative

On getting marketing to go viral: "You wanna get it to the point where you no longer have to do sponsored ads because your information is so good. People are sharing it. You have people viewing it, and you don't have to be paying a penny now."

One of the smartest things you can do in business is to find and focus on a niche.  This helps you hone your craft to a specific group of clients without you having to be everything to everyone.

Marketing is one of those businesses that really thrives with this focus.  So many marketing firms try to sell themselves on able to build any brand for any client.

But we all know that each business vertical is different.  How, where and when you communicate with your potential clients will be different, depending on the type and style of the business.

Listen as Luke Infinger, co-founder and CEO of Hip Creative, a marketing agency for orthodontists, details how his company evolved and is now helping orthodontits grow their practices with the proven Hip Creative formula.

Enjoy!

Visit Luke at: https://hip.agency/

Podcast Overview:

05:59 Focused on strengths, helped achieve goals, built team, pursued freelance work, discovered agency model.

11:12 Creative people struggle with lack of control.

16:07 Juggling business and field work with marketing.

18:39 Embracing honesty and making positive life changes.

22:37 Summary: Secret shop software measures website responses.

23:26 Managing voice, text, and email communications efficiently.

29:25 Analyze, improve, and optimize online advertising tactics.

32:51 Veterinary clinics struggle with business management.

33:48 Challenges getting input, understanding and cooperation.

38:24 Address onboard terrorism within the business culture.

41:17 Pride in a job well done explained.

43:36 Focus on positive outlook, offer hope to others.

47:09 Feedback is essential in patient-client relationships.

Podcast Transcription:

James [00:00:01]:

You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumph and successes of business owners across the land. We We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Saint Prairie. If you'd like to listen to some audio episodes, you can download them at the podcast link found at draw in customers.com. My name is James Kademan, and today we're welcoming slash preparing to learn from Luke Infinger, the CEO and cofounder of Hip creative, which is probably the coolest company name ever created. So, Luke, how is it going today?

Luke Infinger [00:00:33]:

It's going great. Thanks for having me.

James [00:00:35]:

Yeah. Tell us what is hip creative.

Luke Infinger [00:00:38]:

So hip creative really started, just a little over 9 years ago as a marketing agency. We thought we We would be, local agencies. We're in Pensacola coast, so serving the Gulf Coast, Southeast. But as we grew, myself and my business partner, Justin Huell really wanted to focus on really looking at all aspects of the business. So there's 4 main components, marketing, sales, operations, and finance. And so while we started as a marketing company, we realized that marketing really just Poses problems. And that's why, like, you hear all these stats, like 80% of small businesses fail. And so we had to zoom out and look at things much More holistically, today we've built a framework that is made up of 3 main components and it's marketing, software, and coaching.

Luke Infinger [00:01:33]:

And so we package that up and it's more or less a, a growth framework, versus just marketing.

James [00:01:41]:

So tell me, let's just start with the marketing when you first started out. 9 years ago, it was a little bit different landscape, I guess. Internet was still a thing. So but, social media was definitely different back then. Yeah. So were you tackling the digital side, the billboards, radio, TV, a little bit of everything, or did you have a focus anywhere?

Luke Infinger [00:02:02]:

Yeah, it was mainly digital. So it was, you know, 9 years ago it was heavy with content, websites, blogging, you know, funny enough, we didn't get into running like actual Facebook ads or Google ads till Probably 2016 or so. Okay. So we started in 2014. So that took us a little bit of time. But, yeah, I mean, The marketing now is, primarily focused in digital with certain partners. We do graphic design, so we'll do Referral pads, billboards, posters, mailers. We'll do some of that stuff.

Luke Infinger [00:02:43]:

It's largely dependent on The client that we have their needs and their, their budget. Are they maximizing the digital areas that, In many cases are going to be your lowest acquisition cost. And then we can expand into some, some other areas. So It just depends. And and, you know, we try and tie everything back to goals versus just doing things to to do things. So, like, what's the actual target here? And then let's put a plan together to figure out how to get there.

James [00:03:14]:

All right. So let's talk about when you started this or right before you started this, Were you working a day job as a marketing person, or what get got you into the whole marketing game?

Luke Infinger [00:03:24]:

So I tell everyone that Everything I'm in, more or less happened by accident. So I'll kind of tell Just a little bit of the longer story. So my background is in design. I ended up going to college in Savannah, which is, SCAD. It's a big design school, Savannah College of Art Design. Some of the world's best designers go to that school. And after finishing up there, my degree was in motion graphics. So, you know, things like title sequences, Show packages when you watch, you know, an NFL game or, you know, NASCAR or whatever it is, the graphics that fly in or, you know, maybe the world news.

Luke Infinger [00:04:10]:

Just about every show you're going to watch, You know, like Yellowstone, there's an amazing title sequence. That's a popular show. So that's what I went to school for. And then I moved to New York and started working in a design shop, in the city. And when I realized, you know, through actual actually getting a professional job, I realized that More or less, I hated it. I was working, you know, 7 days a week, where I worked, You know, and, and largely this is a job you're going to find in New York city, maybe Chicago, Portland and LA, maybe Atlanta. So, now that's probably changed and most people are virtual, but you know, that's where all the the motion graphic studios are. So we would be working, you know, 9 am, 10 am to midnight every day.

Luke Infinger [00:05:06]:

You would take hard drives home, and you would make very little money, because you know, most money in production is spent on the front end And then they go over budget. And what we do was on, you know, post production, the backend. And so it's like pinching pennies to get the work done. And so, you know, a lot of times you're dealing with small budgets, so you're working for a shop that is really trying to squeeze, everything out, of its team that it can. I loved motion graphics when I could do projects for myself, but getting into the real world, it just wasn't for me. And, a lot of things happened when I was in New York and and one of it, which was, realizing That I just needed to regroup. And so I moved back home. I'm from Pensacola, Florida.

Luke Infinger [00:05:59]:

And, really just started to focus on my strengths, Which was always kind of selling myself, and also coupled with just helping people reach their goals. So, I started to do that and get some freelance work, whether it be rebrands, websites, You know, graphics, odds and end types of things. And just naturally, I kind of started to build a team so I wasn't bogged down in the work. And, I read a book back then, how to make money with social media. It's completely outdated today, but back then it was like Just a light bulb for me that that went off and it really pitched a model. So the book even pitched an agency model with a company called HubSpot, which is a huge CRM. They're out of Boston. And at the time and I don't know how this works now, but at the time, HubSpot Had an agency program where they would even assign you a coach.

Luke Infinger [00:07:00]:

They would teach you, you know, kind of how to sell. You could even like Role play or go through sales calls with them, and they would show you price points. Here's what you need to include. I mean, they did a pretty good job of, You know, helping, agencies, you know, and at the time we were brand new, figure out how to, to get some traction and get some Retainers that were, focused on long term goals and, and had actually pretty decent pricing. So that's what I did. And, I rolled some clients into that automatically. And then as we grew, You know, it just didn't make sense for us to, to stay partnered with HubSpot. In fact, we have our own software now called practice beacon.

Luke Infinger [00:07:45]:

That is a simplified version For the verticals that we serve. So that's how I got into this whole game is, You know, just kind of by accident and putting 1 foot in front of the other, around my strengths and figuring out how I was going to add value To businesses. I've always, been drawn to business. And, you know, even when I was, 12/13. I had my mom driving me door to door to knock on doors and say, Hey, can I mow your lawn? I've actually got my Stuff here. I can do it right now, you know, convenience. So I've always been entrepreneurial and always known I have known that if I wanted something, I would have to go out and earn it because my parents only gave me like food and basic Clothing. I wasn't this kid who had cars and game consoles and all this.

Luke Infinger [00:08:40]:

I have always, had to go out and get it myself. And I, I am glad, you know,...

Nestor Gutierrez - Rancho Express Lube

On getting marketing to go viral: "You wanna get it to the point where you no longer have to do sponsored ads because your information is so good. People are sharing it. You have people viewing it, and you don't have to be paying a penny now."

Almost all of us drive cars and almost all of those cars will eventually break and they will certainly all need maintenance of some kind.  That is to say, we rely on auto repair shops to keep commerce moving.

How do you start an auto repair shop?  How do you hire for an automotive repair shop?  Listen as Nestor Gutierrez explains how he grew from mechanic to automotive repair shop business owner of Rancho Express Lube and how he has grown through the past few years.

Enjoy!

Visit Nestor at: https://ranchoexpresslube.com/

Podcast Overview:

00:00 Supportive boss assures employee, invests in development.

07:48 Expanded tire services, building customer awareness.

11:01 Tire margins are small, balancing brings profit.

17:40 Prioritizing quality, training, and loyalty in employees.

22:16 Earning respect from father led to loan.

30:50 Entrepreneur built successful car cleaning business.

32:25 Established trust, contract led to bigger opportunities.

41:25 Create shareable content to eliminate sponsored ads.

43:21 Instagram influencers and car enthusiasts attract customers.

52:45 Car repairs in 2022 were tough due to parts shortage.

54:24 Improving business through customer service and learning.

01:03:33 Authentic Business Adventures featuring Nestor Gutierrez.

01:04:38 Exciting podcast available at DrawInCustomers.com.

Podcast Transcription:

James [00:00:01]:

You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found at draw in customers.com. We We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie. And today, we're welcoming slash preparing to learn from Nestor Gutierrez, owner of Rancho Express Loo. So, Nestor, how are you doing today?

Nestor Gutierrez [00:00:26]:

Hey, James. I'm doing great. And thank you for having me today. I'm super excited to share my story. And, Like, at the end of the day, everything's possible. You just gotta follow through, and, don't don't don't, step back when the times get hard. You know? So, I'm really excited to share my story.

James [00:00:42]:

Very true. So tell me, the Rancho Express Lube, is that I imagine that's just what it sounds. Right? It's a express lube place?

Nestor Gutierrez [00:00:49]:

That's correct. Yeah. So, real quick. So I started working as an employee, for this company in, May 20 2015, And I, I started as a lead technician. And really quick, I I got bumped up to manager within 2 months. And, what happened was really the owner really noticed I was hustling. You know, I was pretty much doing everything. The management was really poor Back then when I first started, it was it was it was very poorly ran, like, just to be honest.

Nestor Gutierrez [00:01:18]:

You know? I I got to the point where I didn't wanna be here anymore. My dad wanted to quit because I wasn't I didn't like the way I was treat being treated. You know? I didn't like I talked to the owner. Point is, you know, he, promoted me to manager. We got a really good relationship. I would work anytime. Like, I was, like, Pretty much like it was my business, but it wasn't. You know? So it got to the point where he gave me a percentage of of, of the of the sales for the shop.

Nestor Gutierrez [00:01:46]:

And, in in 2018, He he came up to me, and he's like, hey. This place is gonna be yours. I was like, I don't think I'm ready. I mean, I was really young at the at the at the time. I was, well, like, 20. And I had school full time, and I had a lot of things going on. So I didn't see that happening anytime soon. I told him that would be more like in the forties, you know, later on.

Nestor Gutierrez [00:02:07]:

And he's like, no. This is gonna be yours. And then he like, a couple times, he came up to me. He's like, are you sure you don't wanna take that over? I'm like, I'm not ready. Don't I don't feel ready. So, fast forward to 2020, COVID, everything going on, he came up to me. He said, look. If you're not gonna take over, I have a have a few buyers.

Nestor Gutierrez [00:02:27]:

Even if I I I sell it to them, I'm a give you a percentage because you you've been a great employee, and I wanna take care of I mean, you know what? We're gonna take care of this. I don't know how I'm a get the money, but I'm gonna buy this business. And I was it was supposed to happen March 2020, but with everything going on, It got backtracked to, August 2020. I took over in, August 2020. And, obviously, the the road hasn't been pretty, but this year is, really my breakout year. And that happens to be due to, a lot of personal development. I've I've invested over a 100 k this year in personal development with, Really good mentors, Ben Cardone, and local people. So that's really the the the change in my business for the has been great.

Nestor Gutierrez [00:03:10]:

Like, I I've doubled up what I made every year. I've doubled up everything, I've made the previous year. So, It's like I mean, I went from employee to CEO, like, without even planning on it. You know? It just it happened. You know? And it's it's crazy how things lighten up.

James [00:03:27]:

It is super cool. So tell me Mhmm. No. Go ahead. Go ahead.

Nestor Gutierrez [00:03:31]:

And, when I first started, this was just an oil change spot. It was just purely oil changes, simple, in and out, express. Now I kinda transform the the business. We do everything, from Oil changes to preventative maintenance, brakes, tires, suspension work, AC. We work on everything. We get a lot of we're in an area where we get a lot of nice far as we get, Bentleys, Rolls Royces, a lot of nice cars. You know? So we kinda open the door for anyone and, any vehicle, you know, any brand. So Now we're we're to the point where a lot of people know us locally, and, they feel comfortable bringing in their vehicles because I'm part of the Chamber of Commerce for the city.

Nestor Gutierrez [00:04:13]:

And, I think that's really building a trust, within the company. So they really trust us, and and it that's that's one of the reasons why the business is doing so good.

James [00:04:22]:

You got it. That's super cool. That's impressive. So when you when you bought the business, did you get real estate as well, or did you just more like

Nestor Gutierrez [00:04:29]:

No. So so when I bought the business, I just bought the brand. I bought the name of the business, which came with, the equipment and everything. You know? I I don't own the property. I lease a property, but that's something I do plan to do within the next 3 years to buy the property. Oh, great. And it it it's in a good, very good area. I don't know if you've heard about, Route 66, but it's on Route 66 So it's a very big area.

Nestor Gutierrez [00:04:52]:

A a lot of traffic. So, I I I love it. Honestly, I I love where, Where where I'm at, I love the location. I'm super blessed.

James [00:05:00]:

Oh, that's impressive. That's super cool.

Nestor Gutierrez [00:05:02]:

Yeah.

James [00:05:02]:

Yeah. Route 66, my buddies and I went on a a road trip from Chicago to, I wanna say, Kingman, Arizona. We're we're

Nestor Gutierrez [00:05:12]:

both from

James [00:05:13]:

California. Okay.

Nestor Gutierrez [00:05:14]:

Oh, but that was

James [00:05:15]:

a long time ago. Yeah.

Nestor Gutierrez [00:05:16]:

My butt,

James [00:05:16]:

61 Buick. It was a blast.

Nestor Gutierrez [00:05:19]:

Damn. That's badass.

James [00:05:20]:

Yeah. It was fun. It wasn't so badass going through the desert when my buddy was worried about overheating, so turn the heat on.

Nestor Gutierrez [00:05:27]:

Yeah. Yeah.

James [00:05:27]:

Not great. Not great.

Nestor Gutierrez [00:05:29]:

It's a

James [00:05:29]:

long distance between exits, but no worries. That's super cool.

Nestor Gutierrez [00:05:32]:

Yes.

James [00:05:33]:

So when you are you still in the same building as when you bought the house

Nestor Gutierrez [00:05:36]:

in 2020? I'm still the same building. So the building, It's it's a pretty big, location. I would say it's about a 8 3 or 0.2, so it's a big block. And, there's there's a lot of opportunities still, like, around me. It's it's just, like, there you can say, but there's a lot of potential for, like, opening up, more little offices to either even a a lease or or even do something else for my own self. You know? So Oh, wow. I do plan on on opening up a wrap Shop, a vehicle wrap shop. The vehicle wraps is is, really growing in California, so that's that's my my next, journey.

Nestor Gutierrez [00:06:12]:

And then right now, I'm also, Hosting an event in, in a few weeks, November 18th for entrepreneurship. So I wanna kinda, like, pass on what I know, bring in all the mentors that I've had, And share with all the people that that are ready to learn and and really, make a change in their life. You know?

James [00:06:30]:

Oh, that's super cool. Tell me, how many bays do you guys have?

Nestor Gutierrez [00:06:33]:

So, at the current shop we're now, we have, 4 base.

James [00:06:36]:

4 base.

Nestor Gutierrez [00:06:37]:

4 base. And when I first took you over, it was only 2 base, And the other 2 based plot. Yes. So then I talked to the to the owner of the property, and I told him that I wanted to take over the the other building because so what they did was 1 big building, but they cut it in half. And then, they did window 10 next door, and they did the repair on this side....

Brienne Hennessy - Your Vocal Vitality

On knowing that you can take steps to keep your voice strong: "If you're speaking for a dense period of time and your voice starts to crack, starts to sound hoarse, you can't get through a workday, let alone a workweek, there has to be something more we can do."

We all use our voices on a daily basis.  As creatures that thrive on communication, we use our voices on the phone, giving speeches, chatting with friends and shouting for joy when our kid scores a goal.  But when was the last time you took some time to think about your voice, and the mechanics in your body happening to make sure your voice stays healthy?

Brienne Hennessy, founder of Your Vocal Vitality, joins us on the show today to discuss why her business was built, what we can do to prevent voice issues and how important it is to keep our voices strong.

Listen as Brienne gives us some tips to keep this often overlooked tool in tip-top shape so that the next time you need to communicate with someone, you have the voice you want.

Enjoy!

Visit Brienne at: https://www.yourvocalvitality.com/

Podcast Overview:

02:03 Increasing responsibility load & challenges in healthcare.

03:46 Talker owns need for vocal self-care

06:49 Some voices have personalities, can be grating.

11:53 Voice training incorporates exercises for vocal warm-up.

15:27 Skeletal muscle fatigue similar to voice fatigue.

18:57 Indications for lifestyle changes, allergies, acid, laryngologist. Comprehensive approach for untreated issues.

21:30 Helping restore sound and speech, with preventative care.

25:44 Challenging environment, struggling teachers, confident speakers.

28:40 Identifying nervousness and training for presentations.

29:56 Beliefs, perceptions, experiences shape public speaking.

35:05 Getting comfortable with uncertainty is key.

38:47 Improved audio quality signals clearer communication.

39:41 Great mentors have helped me build businesses.

42:32 Teams is a struggle, trust is important.

48:22 Task delay causes disconnect and tough decisions.

50:10 Understanding teamwork, maintaining momentum, and growth.

Podcast Transcription:

James [00:00:01]:

You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found at draw in customers.com. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie. And today, we're welcoming slash preparing to learn from Breanne Hennessy, owner of Your Vocal Vitality. And I'm excited because it's a podcast, and we chat a lot. Yep. So then let's start with what is your Vocal Vitality?

Brienne Hennessey [00:00:32]:

It is the business that I started with the mission of Empowering our voices. Oh. What that means is to me is that our voices are an expression of who we are, but also, I believe, a conduit To our well-being. And what do I mean by that? If you don't have your voice, you can't do what you need to do effectively. Interesting. And so that's the the idea behind it, and I go So about that in a few different ways.

James [00:00:57]:

Alright. And you've been in this industry for a while?

Brienne Hennessey [00:01:00]:

Yes. So my background is actually as a speech and voice pathologist, and I've done that, 14 15 years.

James [00:01:06]:

Wow. Okay.

Brienne Hennessey [00:01:06]:

Yeah. So that was that was the kind of core, crux of my training and my specialty and really Digging into knowing all things about voice, and then that really opened up the possibility for me to fill in the gaps that I saw, shall we say, for where I could serve people in a greater way.

James [00:01:24]:

Alright.

Brienne Hennessey [00:01:24]:

Yeah.

James [00:01:24]:

So you were working in a mansion for some corporate giant?

Brienne Hennessey [00:01:27]:

I used to. Yes. Yes. So a couple of the the places I've been fortunate enough to learn from was Emory Voice Center in Atlanta. I was then at Vanderbilt Voice Clinic in Nashville, See?

James [00:01:37]:

Okay.

Brienne Hennessey [00:01:38]:

And most recently, I was at UW, a voice and swallow clinic just down the street in Madison.

James [00:01:42]:

Gotcha. So what made you make the jump from there? Mhmm. You know, the biweekly paycheck, the paid vacation, whatever, the things to starting off on your own.

Brienne Hennessey [00:01:54]:

In the day Today, my favorite thing was sitting in front of that person in the room and being able to interact with them in their voice.

James [00:02:02]:

Alright.

Brienne Hennessey [00:02:03]:

Anything outside of that It started to become very heavy, and that could be anything from the responsibility load that was increasing. For those of you in health care, you know that that is It's continuing to be a a challenging time for folks. Plus, I saw this continual gap between folks who would come in Say, I don't know what's going on with my voice. I've been able to talk for x number of years. Why now? I never heard of this before. I didn't know I could take care of my voice before something goes wrong, and that gap never really closed. And so I saw this opportunity to be Preventative. Alright.

Brienne Hennessey [00:02:37]:

Proactive. And for most things in health care, we talk about preventative wellness, but I don't always see The follow through with that.

James [00:02:47]:

No. Not at all. Not at all. Because I think we'd be told to exercise more and eat better.

Brienne Hennessey [00:02:52]:

Yeah.

James [00:02:53]:

But we are now see are now told, I should say, here's a pill.

Brienne Hennessey [00:02:57]:

Yes. Who wants the quick fix?

James [00:02:59]:

Go away.

Brienne Hennessey [00:02:59]:

Yeah. Yes. How can I make this go away quickly enough? And I think there's there's There's a bigger holistic approach we could take.

James [00:03:05]:

Totally understand. Yeah. Yeah. So when I met you, I remember thinking, wait. What do you do? Because I understand if you wanna be healthy, right, quote, unquote, exercise, eat well Mhmm. But making your voice healthy

Brienne Hennessey [00:03:19]:

Mhmm.

James [00:03:20]:

Mhmm. That never dawned on me. What do you do? Like, I'm trying to think. You do barbells on your vocal cords or something? How do you How do you take care of your voice?

Brienne Hennessey [00:03:30]:

The the crux of it does come down a lot to exercises. There are actual exercises, and most people think of, Sample, well, it must be only for singing, but my focus is really the speaking voice. You and I spend the majority of our time speaking as do many professions.

James [00:03:45]:

Arguably too much. Right?

Brienne Hennessey [00:03:46]:

Sometimes. Admittedly, I'm a talker. I'll own it. And so that is something that we can look at and say, if you're speaking for an Densive period of time and your voice starts to crack, starts to sound hoarse, you can't get through a workday, let alone a workweek, there has to be something more we can do, And exercise is a great start. But the other piece of that is exercises alone aren't enough. For example, if anyone listening ever had the experience of speaking out, sharing your opinion, asserting yourself, leading a group or or a show, and not feeling heard? That can take an emotional toll as well.

James [00:04:24]:

Oh, interesting. Okay.

Brienne Hennessey [00:04:25]:

So it comes into both sides of the voice. If If you are physically overdoing it too much, too loud, too often, you're gonna feel that. Whether you're a sports coach, a teacher in the classroom, Sales on the phone, whatever the case may be. But on the flip side, I've even had clients who don't feel heard at their own dinner table with their families.

James [00:04:44]:

And is this because of their voice or their

Brienne Hennessey [00:04:47]:

tone? Or Yeah. Good question. It can come across that way. I believe the voice a barometer, so it's going to give those little signals that something underlying is is probably the culprit. It can be how they believe about themselves and whether they think they're worthy to be heard. And that's the biggest thing that I started to see over the years, self worth or a lack of self worth was actually being expressed through their voice. So you add that to the stresses of the day, how much you have to talk, and that can all culminate as risk factors for the voice starting to have

James [00:05:18]:

Yes. Interesting. Yeah. So it goes well beyond just how are your vocal cords.

Brienne Hennessey [00:05:22]:

Yes. But to your question about tone, that's the first thing most of us humans perceive. What is someone's tone? What is it telling us? It's gonna give a lot of clues, and there are times where the tone of voice can be misunderstood. I spent The 1st 32 years of my life being misunderstood for my tone of voice. And 32 years? Oh, yeah.

James [00:05:43]:

That seems like a while. Was it It was. Was it monotone? Was it high? Were you super low? I

Brienne Hennessey [00:05:48]:

don't know. Yeah. No. Great question. There there are folks That that do experience that and kinda get stuck, like, in a a certain type of voice, think of mine was more I would say something and I expressed myself, and it would come across as maybe too harsh Oh. Or too irritable, too Whatever the person perceived it as. And internally, I'm thinking, I'm just trying to share. I'm just trying to express myself.

Brienne Hennessey [00:06:13]:

Right. But there was this disconnect between Me believing in what I was saying truly and trusting what I was saying Oh. And how my voice was conveying that. And so when people didn't Perceive me as hearing kind of what I was trying to say, that would start to create these, like, miscommunications,...

Victoria Thayer - Novii CPA

On staying as a corporate employee vs. starting on her own: "Once you become partner, you walk in clouds and everything is just rainbows and hearts... It was death, pretty much."

Death and taxes it has been said are the two things we can always count on.  Victoria Thayer started Novii CPA to help you with your taxes, so you don't die from the stress of trying to figure them out.

Victoria was working her way up the corporate ladder at a large CPA firm.  Then one day, she realized she was working very hard for a type of success that did not align with the success she wanted.

So she started Novii CPA, her own CPA firm to do things different and to do things better.

Listen as Victoria details her story and gives us insight into the inner workings of larger CPA firms and how she has found success making herself her own boss.

Enjoy!

Visit Victoria at: https://noviicpa.com/

Podcast Overview:

02:20 Relationship-based accounting and tax services with value.

06:04 Determining ideal package for different businesses.

06:42 Discovery call assesses client's needs, gathers info.

12:23 Tax law changes require continuing education.

15:03 Paying self employment taxes: explore alternatives.

18:04 Key importance in evaluating discovery call; paperless, cloud-based, Quickbooks online, willingness to switch, hybrid firm.

19:49 Finding team members outside of posting job.

24:03 Becoming partner doesn't guarantee happiness, freedom.

29:01 Hired more staff, but became a bottleneck.

30:30 Busy entrepreneur hires experienced CPA, finds success.

35:05 Transparent culture fosters teamwork and inclusivity.

37:42 Setting up workflows to maintain reputation.

39:42 Opportunity for growth attracts passionate team members.

44:36 Client coordinator found through UW job posting.

48:48 CPA firm provides continuous service, tax return.

52:33 Quit job, start own business, fears, preparations.

Podcast Transcription:

James [00:00:01]:

You have found authentic business adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle, stories and triumphs and successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link. [email protected] Today we're welcoming slash preparing to learn from Victoria Thayer of Novii CPA, which, you know, everybody loves taxes. So we figured we should talk to Victoria here. So, Victoria, how are you doing today?

Victoria Thayer [00:00:27]:

Amazing. Thank you so much for the invitation today, and it's a pleasure to connect with all of you.

James [00:00:32]:

Yeah, this is exciting. You know, I guess my friend Jenna.

Victoria Thayer [00:00:35]:

Yes. And you were just talking to me.

James [00:00:38]:

I guess, off the air about a meeting that you had with her and that was a trigger or she just kicking the shin to start your own business. Tell me a story about how that happened.

Victoria Thayer [00:00:46]:

Yes. So I was talking to Jenna or a mutual friend, and I met her in a networking event. She's amazing. You should follow her. And she started asking me about what my goals were in the future, and I started thinking, oh, yes, I want to do this and this. But then the way I thought it was the traditional way to get there was not exactly what I truly wanted. And sometimes it is hard to acknowledge that we want something and say it out loud.

James [00:01:15]:

Okay.

Victoria Thayer [00:01:16]:

I guess because sometimes we're just scared, like, oh, maybe it's too big. Maybe it's too big for me. Can I really do that? Oh, who do I think I am to be able to do that? So those were the fears I had, and she helped me kind of uncover it and be like, I think you truly want to do this. You just are afraid to say it.

James [00:01:35]:

All right.

Victoria Thayer [00:01:36]:

So she really helped me see that. And it was only a couple of months after that coffee that we had together that quit my job and started my own adventure. For good or for bad. Yeah, right, exactly.

James [00:01:51]:

Some bad thrown in there, but that's just nature of the beast.

Victoria Thayer [00:01:54]:

Yes.

James [00:01:54]:

So you own your own CPA firm.

Victoria Thayer [00:01:56]:

Correct.

James [00:01:57]:

So to me, that seems like a challenging first business. I don't know anything about CPAs other than I have to pay them a lot of money once a year. But outside of that, for a first business, I feel like the knowledge that you have to have for that is just books upon books upon documents and all that kind of stuff. You're tax CPA, is that right?

Victoria Thayer [00:02:19]:

Yes.

James [00:02:20]:

Okay.

Victoria Thayer [00:02:20]:

Correct. Yes. But you're spot on. A lot of professional services are very hard to be, like, the first business to start because all we're selling is hours, so there is a limit on how many hours we can do. And so my value proposition was based on creating a relationship with the client. So the services that I provide are accounting services, as well as tax services, tax planning. So what I try to bring to the table is create that relationship with the client so that we're working with them every month, creating financial statements or every quarter, depending on their needs. But that allows me to bring something to the table that is now like an autopsy, that at the end of the year, you bring me your box of stuff and you're like, here it is.

Victoria Thayer [00:03:07]:

This is what happened. That's not what I want. I want to be able to have this ongoing communication with you about like, hey, what is your business doing now? How can we be proactive and actually Treat the patient when it's sick instead of like, when it's dead? And I cannot do anything at that point.

James [00:03:23]:

So prevent the cancer.

Victoria Thayer [00:03:24]:

Exactly. Prevent the cancer. No, let's not treat the sickness. So that was my value proposition. And you were spot on with professional services, and selling hours can be very challenging. So that's why I created this bundle of services. And I use a subscription model because for me, from the beginning, I knew I didn't want to be self employed. I always wanted to become a business.

James [00:03:47]:

Owner instead of owning the job.

Victoria Thayer [00:03:51]:

Yes, Exactly. So for me that was very clear. So I knew that I wanted to use value pricing and have a subscription base which allowed me to kind of bring on team members more easily because I'm not just kind of like at the mercy of like, am I going to have a couple of clients? Are they going to need me next month? I have a constant cash flow every month that I can use projections to see the health of my own business.

James [00:04:16]:

Okay.

Victoria Thayer [00:04:16]:

Yeah.

James [00:04:17]:

So when you put together your business plan, how did you figure that out?

Victoria Thayer [00:04:21]:

Or.

James [00:04:22]:

Let me back up a step before we answer that. You were working as a CPA before?

Victoria Thayer [00:04:26]:

Correct.

James [00:04:26]:

Was the firm you were working for, were they doing this?

Victoria Thayer [00:04:29]:

They were using mostly hourly.

James [00:04:31]:

Okay.

Victoria Thayer [00:04:32]:

And when they use fixed fee, it was only for financial statements, not for the whole bundle of services. And with hourly, the issue is that either the client gets an extra bill that they're never happy about, and that stopped. This is something that I experienced with all my prior jobs. Clients will be scared of, like, oh, I don't want to ask them something because they're going to get a bill. Yeah, they're afraid, and I don't blame them. And it's like nothing against the law. Sometimes you give a call. I was thinking the exact same thing.

Victoria Thayer [00:05:05]:

You're charged per like the half an hour or things like that. So I was noticing that there was that need in the market from my prior experiences. So I want to do things a little bit different. So that's why I decided to take this approach a little bit different. But I have followed a couple other CPA firms in California and in other states that are really moving forward with this kind of value pricing and kind of subscription model. So I was okay, like, I haven't seen that many here in Madison. So I wanted to bring this kind of, like, relationship subscription approach to the accounting and tax industry.

James [00:05:45]:

All right, so it's interesting you mentioned the attorney thing. I had a call with an attorney, this was a few years ago, and he's like, hey, James, beautiful day. And I'm like, we don't have time to talk about the weather, buddy. Not at your rates. Yeah, we got to get down to business.

Victoria Thayer [00:06:03]:

Don't ask about anything.

James [00:06:04]:

Yeah, just strict black and white. Let's go. We don't need to talk about the birds or anything. So you have a subscription model. So how do you figure out with a small business or a client that you're working with, what is their ideal package or something of that nature, since some businesses are organized and others are space cadets, and I imagine even if you went on revenue, a retail business is going to have thousands of transactions where a service based business, like a business like yours, I imagine, is going to have dozens or hundreds of transactions, which should be, in theory, simpler. So how do you figure that out?

Victoria Thayer [00:06:42]:

Right when we are connecting with a new client, with a new prospect, we have a discovery call. During that discovery call, we kind of see what are the pain points, what the industry, they have, what accounting software they're using. And after that, we can tell if we can actually add value to them or not....

Scott McGohan - McGohan Brabender and author of Culture Is An Inside Job

Real Life Advice You Can Use: "What if we just stood in front of the workforce and just said, "Hey, I just I just wanna be better." That's a lot more honest than saying, I wanna be great."

Every company has a culture.  Just like any relationship between a group of people does.

The challenge is being aware of what the culture is and knowing if the culture your company has is serving your company and it's employees well, or if it is causing some negative results.

Scott McGohan, entrepreneur and author of Culture Is An inside Job, details how important company culture is, what to look for to find out what your employees believe is your company's culture and what you can do to make sure the culture you want is more aligned with the culture your business has.

Enjoy!

Visit Scott at: https://www.mcgohanbrabender.com/

Culture Is an Inside Job Book: https://www.amazon.com/Culture-Inside-Job-Self-Awareness-Organization/dp/B0C31F5WYV

Podcast Overview:

03:47 Supporting employees financially, including retirement and shares.

08:29 Tax benefits for businesses to reinvest profits.

11:27 New employees seek rules and rewards. Culture shapes.

13:49 Self-awareness, emotional intelligence, rebuilding, founder's kid, revenue management.

19:10 Revealing personal growth and self-acceptance journey.

20:35 Reflecting on change, coaching, and self-awareness.

24:10 Dichotomy between pursuing goals and their consequences.

29:15 Balancing ego and time as a business owner.

31:43 Business owners frustrated with excessive paperwork piles.

33:31 Learning from life mistakes and experiences.

37:44 Improving honesty, not greatness, is essential.

40:23 Storytelling reinforces organization's values and behavior.

48:03 Perception of caring versus actual care.

51:22 Resistance to change leads to confusion and disapproval.

54:40 Authentic Business Adventures features business owner stories.

Podcast Transcription:

James [00:00:01]:

You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found at draw in customers.com. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie. My name is James Kademan, entrepreneur, author, speaker, a helpful coach to small business owners across the country. And today, we're welcoming slash preparing to learn from Scott McGowan of McGowan Broadbender. But I am excited to talk to Scott because we're talking about company culture, which is something that I didn't even know was a thing until I got employees. So, Scott, why don't you tell us let's just start with what is, McGowan Broadbender, and then we can dive into company culture.

Scott McGohan [00:00:44]:

Yeah. Well, hey. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. We represent, about 1500 employers. So what we really do is actually help Employers make decisions in regards to their benefit structure, their health plans, disability, dental, and help them, orchestrate those financially, communicate those to the workforce strategically, and then reach back and service the those employers and those, those employees along the way. So about a 100,000 employees that we represent inside of our customers, Roughly about, maybe I say, quarter of a 1000000 belly buttons, moms, dads, kids, families, and about a 1000000000 and a half of health care health care spend. And, we love what we do.

James [00:01:27]:

Alright. How did you get into that?

Scott McGohan [00:01:30]:

You know, my dad started in 1972. Woah.

James [00:01:34]:

Okay. That's a while ago.

Scott McGohan [00:01:35]:

Yeah. He started in 1972. I started here. I think I was the, 6th employee in 1988. Today, we probably have roughly between 2 companies close to 500 people and 5 different offices. And

James [00:01:50]:

Wow. Alright. And are you in charge of all that?

Scott McGohan [00:01:54]:

I was. I went from a CEO role. That changed in September. We've transitioned our leadership team to a new CEO and a new president. Okay. And then we actually sold our company to our employees, right in the middle of COVID. So we are an ESOP employee owned company.

James [00:02:13]:

Wow. So is that was the planning for that pre pandemic, or was that during the pandemic?

Scott McGohan [00:02:20]:

I think it was really the whole thing around, you know, obviously, you know, private equities coming at us, Public companies were coming at us, and we probably could've sold for a lot, had a cool beach house, and all kinds of stuff like that. But, You know, I've been on around long enough to know what happens, and there's nothing wrong. I mean, capitalism's wonderful in this in this world. That's why we have it. But what we really cared about is each community, our workforce. And we knew the ESOP was probably had the most virtue inside of that decision.

James [00:02:51]:

Okay.

Scott McGohan [00:02:52]:

To keep jobs locally and keep our organization local. And, so it was really around A position to be fiercely independent.

James [00:03:01]:

Oh, interesting. Okay.

Scott McGohan [00:03:03]:

And we've had that posture, well, since the inception.

James [00:03:07]:

So the ESOP thing, I guess, let's just go down that rabbit hole a little bit because that's always been intriguing to me. I I have a buddy of mine that used to work at a place that has ESOP, and they've been that way for a long time. It was grocery store or is a grocery store. And there are baggers, grocery tellers, and stuff like that that made they became millionaires because they stayed working that long, and the business grew really big from just a few grocery stores. So it's interesting to me like, woah, that's a thing. Yeah. So it's interesting. So can you tell me more about that? I guess, why why you chose that road and how big of a deal or how challenging it was to put that together? It's tough.

Scott McGohan [00:03:47]:

It's only for the right, you know, right kind of people, because it is, It is a long process, you know, legally, structurally, those sorts of things. But, you know, we also You know, one of the things that we really wanted to do, and it was kind of an edict from my dad, is that he never wanted an employee have to come in and ever borrow money to to get a paint plane ticket to go see their kids. Oh. We we always had this position that we would match our four zero one k up to 6%. Always have, always will. And then the ESOP is really it's, it's probably like a just a stack on top of a retirement plan. So every year, employees are given shares of the company. They don't have to buy them.

Scott McGohan [00:04:29]:

They're actually given to them.

James [00:04:31]:

Okay.

Scott McGohan [00:04:32]:

And then when you leave here, You leave with your four zero one k savings. You leave with your ESOP shares. And, you know, and hopefully, at the end of the day, you know, we have Folks here that are here 20, 30 years and retire very, very comfortably.

James [00:04:46]:

Alright. So is there tell me about an employee that comes on. Is there a minimum length of time before they join the ESOP? And then if they leave, what do they do with the shares? Who do they sell them to?

Scott McGohan [00:04:58]:

Yeah. There's like a vesting schedule. So bay and every company's, you know, different. So, when we when we actually started it, everyone that, actually was physically there in the room the day we announced it, got chairs, which was really cool. Okay. I had a new hire come up to me, and she goes, I'm gonna go call my mom and dad. I'm like, what are you gonna tell them? And she said, I'm gonna tell them I own a company. I'm like, that's awesome.

Scott McGohan [00:05:21]:

Go call your mom and dad. Tell me you own a company. But, you know, when you leave, employment, then the ESOP actually buys those shares back.

James [00:05:31]:

Alright. And how they how do they figure out value at that moment?

Scott McGohan [00:05:37]:

Every year, there's an evaluation That's done by an outside entity, so an a trustee manages that. And that trustee is really hired to protect the employees.

James [00:05:48]:

Okay.

Scott McGohan [00:05:49]:

Because you can imagine. I don't know. There's probably be some shenanigans if you had a bunch of business owners saying, hey, we're gonna sell the company to the employees, and we'll let them know what it's worth. And I'm not saying that, you know, people are manipulating, but there is an independent trustee that sits over the entire thing, and their job is solely to protect the employees of the organization.

James [00:06:09]:

Alright. So as I'm picturing this, you correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like every time you add an employee that the total number of shares would then increase. Is that correct? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yep. So then if you take the total valuation of the company each share, every time you add an employee, then it goes down a little bit. Is that right?

Scott McGohan [00:06:29]:

Yeah. There's a way to neutralize on that. It's almost like buying a you know, every year, the the the the, the stock, obviously, the price changes. Hopefully, it goes up, And it has gone up significantly. But because of the distribution of new shares, it it would not mean that other owners would get suppressed because of that.

James [00:06:47]:

Okay.

Scott McGohan [00:06:48]:

Yeah. So everyone's protected in that. The same same case would be if someone sold a lot of shares. They're not suppressed by that financial liability of paying off shares.

James [00:06:59]:

Got it. Okay. Interesting. So how does that work from the company side? Because that means that you, the company, I guess, the ESOP,...

Jason Brown - The Brown Report

Real Life Advice You Can Use: "We have the knowledge and the power to make money if stocks are going up, sideways or down."

Getting rich quick seems to be the big dream.  But like any good investor, we know that it is easier to get rich slow and build upon your success.  How do you invest in the stock market to make the returns you want?

Jason Brown of The Brown Report details how he is helping everyday people learn how to read a stock chart, pick the right stocks and methodically make money.  He has a system he has developed, going from sleeping on the floor to driving a Rolls Royce, he has a proven process that he is teaching.

Listen as Jason details the value of investing and some tips on making some money in the stock market.

Enjoy!

Visit Jason at: TheBrownReport.com

Podcast Overview:

00:04:46 Discovering stock patterns, increasing earnings through scholarship.

00:10:18 Manages fear and greed with rules and ratios.

00:11:03 Summary: Trade right and live another day.

00:17:21 Stock charts: like weather app for stocks.

00:19:40 Support and resistance determine buying and selling.

00:26:17 High profits possible with skills and capital.

00:35:35 Options: Controlling stocks, not owning them.

00:39:04 Stock market: profit from stocks' movement.

00:43:34 From small trades to big dreams.

Podcast Transcription:

James [00:00:01]:

You have found Authentic Business Adventures, a business program that brings you the struggle, stories, and triumph and successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found at draw in customers.com. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie. Today, we are welcoming slash preparing to learn from Jason Brown of the Brown report, which, Jason, I gotta say, I'm pretty excited. I dabble in the stock market enough to make a profit, but I get the impression that I'm nowhere near the level you are at. So I'm excited to learn from you today. Let's start with what is the Brown report?

Jason Brown [00:00:36]:

Awesome. Well, I'm excited to be here, so thanks for having me. And Yeah. Hopefully, I can impart some knowledge upon you and the community. As far as what is the Brown report, I know sometimes people think because I'm black, it's called the Brown report. Was actually not my last name is Brown. It's Jason Brown. And so the Brown report was really, started because, You know, I don't know how much of my story, you know, but, like, we grew up pretty poor in in Detroit, Michigan.

Jason Brown [00:01:05]:

And We were sleeping in sleeping bags when we were young.

James [00:01:09]:

Oh, wow. So we

Jason Brown [00:01:10]:

didn't even we didn't even have beds. I remember going to my best friend's house. I was like, wow, you have a bed. And he kinda looked at me like, Of course, have a bed. I was like, well, I thought beds were for grown ups because we stopped in sleeping bags. And so we didn't get beds till later on.

James [00:01:23]:

Alright.

Jason Brown [00:01:23]:

So just to give you an idea just how broke we were. And so I always wanted to make money and figure out how do we change our situation. And I remember, you know, studying and trying to figure out how do people get Wealthy, and it's, like, always about the stock market. And so I was like, alright. I wanna get into the stock market. Because you hear those stories where it's like, If you woulda took $2,000 and put it away when you were 18 and came back later, you'd be a millionaire. So Yeah. Right? That's a right.

Jason Brown [00:01:50]:

So I'm like, why don't more people do that? So I took my graduation money at 18. I take $2,000 and I put it in a, I go to a well known bank. I'm like, I wanna open an investment. She's like, what's your goal? I'm like, I wanna be rich. Like, why why does anybody wanna do this? And, so she's like, so you want aggressive funds. Right? And I'm like, Yeah. I want aggressive funds. And so, James, I come back 2 years later after putting my $2,000 from graduation money, all the money I had at that time.

Jason Brown [00:02:19]:

Come back 2 years later, I'm thinking I'm gonna be at least up 4,000, $6,000. And I go to check on my account, and it's down to $700.

James [00:02:28]:

Oh, wrong direction.

Jason Brown [00:02:29]:

Right. And so I asked the lady, like, what happened? Y'all lost $1300. I'm like, I coulda lost $1300 of my own money. And so I was, like, give me because I in my head, I'm thinking, you go to the professionals because they don't lose money. And so that was kinda the best and worst day of my life. And once I realized that they lose money, I'm like, I could've lost my own money. So I said, I'm a take the $700. I'm gonna do it myself.

Jason Brown [00:02:56]:

So I spent $200 on some gym shoes, something to make me feel better. I'm like, if I lose this other money, at least I got some gym shoes or something to

James [00:03:02]:

show you.

Jason Brown [00:03:04]:

And so at the time, I'm making $8 an hour working for Sprint PCS. I'm selling cell phones inside of Best Buy. And so I'm making $64 on a Saturday, and I thought to myself, So I could just make $50, and I wouldn't have to work Saturday, and I can have my Saturdays back. So our stock has Sprint was $5 a share. I got $500. I'm like, great. I can buy a 100 shares, and all I needed to do is move 50¢, and I can make my $50. Right? So I bought at 5.

Jason Brown [00:03:34]:

It immediately falls down to 4. I'm, like, this doesn't work. Stock but but But not that it doesn't work. I'm like, I got these conflicting message. I'm like, well, people say you gotta be in it for the long term. You gotta be patient. So I'm like, alright. Let's wait.

Jason Brown [00:03:49]:

Let's see what happens. It goes back up to 5. Now I'm like, okay. Great. I just need to go to 550. Falls to 4 again. At that point, I'm pissed. I think the stock market's rigged.

Jason Brown [00:04:02]:

I felt like they know my number. They're like, when it gets To 5, don't let it go up. Send it back down. Like, I felt like it's

James [00:04:09]:

the man who's gonna do it. We gotta send a dive. Dive. Dive.

Jason Brown [00:04:12]:

Exactly. I felt like it was a dude behind the curtains, like, Send it down. So it fell down to 4. Again, I'm like, it's rigged. It's gambling. There's no way you can make money in this. That's why they need your Social security normally opened an account, so they can tell the big players when you're in, and not let it go there. That's what I thought.

Jason Brown [00:04:31]:

So then it goes back up to 5 again, and I said, I've seen this before. So I said, I'm gonna get out at 5 and break even. It failed now on the 4 I got back in and went back up to 5. I got out actually made $100.

James [00:04:44]:

Hey. Nice. Now we're talking.

Jason Brown [00:04:46]:

Right. So what I didn't realize was that pattern was called a channel in stock. And so now I'm like, what are the patterns out there that exist that I don't know? So I studied these patterns, and now I'm, like, getting really good with my $500, making $100 here and there. So I'm like, how do I get more money into the machine? So I got a scholarship to Wayne's Mike Ilitch School of Business, Wayne State University here in Detroit, Michigan. I had a academic scholarship. I knew if I applied for student loan, because all my friends were getting their student loan refund checks, and they were spending it on clothes and shopping. And so I was like, I wonder if I could get a student loan, and they would double pay the account. I knew I would get the refund.

Jason Brown [00:05:25]:

So I applied for a student loan. The A scholarship paid tuition. The student loan kicked in, but I got the refund check of 10,000. I put it in the stock market. I grew it to, like, 100 and $20,000 as a 21 year old college student.

James [00:05:40]:

Wow.

Jason Brown [00:05:42]:

So here's what happened. I drops out of school now. I'm like a Junior, going to my junior year, I drop out of school. I'm like, I'm making more money without working for anybody else, without a degree. Why would I finish school? I'm 4 times day trading. I make $100,000 a year. Year 3, I'm gonna buy a condo downtown Royal Oak, Michigan for half $1,000,000. I risk a quarter $1,000,000 trying to make half $1,000,000.

Jason Brown [00:06:08]:

I'll lose it all. I'll blow up my account. I have to move back home to Detroit to to my mom's house with bars on the window. I had to sell my car. I had Alexis on 20 inch rooms. I'm living the ultimate bachelor life. And so I had this crazy idea To go full circle, you said, what is the Brown report? I had this crazy idea. I said, I'm gonna record myself Making the money back, and I'm also gonna share the lessons I learned along the way from losing that much money.

Jason Brown [00:06:39]:

And that's how I started my YouTube channel called the Brown or in my website. It was really just a way for me to be accountable to myself and document making the money back. Because I Say, well, what would Warren Buffett do? I'm like, if Warren Buffett quits, he no longer becomes Warren Buffett. He no longer becomes a billionaire. And I'm sure he lost, $2,004. So or a quarter 1,000,000 in my case at that point. And so I said, let me just document myself making the money back, and that's Literally how the brown report got started. Just be reporting on making my money back

James [00:07:12]:

from start. So how long ago, let me ask When you're in school, let's talk about the 1st 100 grand you bumped up. Over So what was the course of time there? Was that a couple years, or is that months?

Jason Brown [00:07:23]:

So, This is about, you know, I graduated high school in 99. I grow the account maybe 2 years later, so we're talking, like, 2000 no. I'm sorry....

Crystal Sadik - Tripple

Real Life Advice You Can Use: "And so this is a way for the young to engage, maybe getting advice, maybe getting answers. It's almost like a Reddit, but better because the person that you're getting information and advice from is actually in that field with experience, and you're able to look and see, oh, this person has 20 years of experience In the area that I've asked the question.  I really feel like this is a genuine answer that I can trust."

After you pass, what becomes of your stuff, as well as your digital legacy?  What becomes of all of the things that you liked, enjoyed and shared over the years with your friends and family?

Crystal Sadik, co-founder of Tripple, has the answer.  We all will pass, and Tripple has made itself a one-stop shop to create your will, as well as a place to cultivate your digital memories that goes well beyond social media.

Listen as Crystal lays out things to be aware of and take care of before you pass, so you can leave a lasting legacy for those you care about.

Enjoy!

Visit Crystal at: Tripple.social

Podcast Overview:

00:00:37 Triple: The world's 1st social legacy app

00:05:42 Independent platform with integrated sharing capabilities.

00:13:55 Introducing a new genre in digital legacy.

00:16:49 Simplifying app design through meticulous effort.

00:23:09 Social features draw users into platform

00:31:20 Taking idea to reality: right time, feeling.

00:32:57 Limited initial work, lucky finding passionate team.

00:36:53 Expert advice platform connecting young audiences.

00:39:35 Growing product interest among millennials and moms.

00:44:22 Surprisingly easy: Apple and Android versions.

00:52:18 Direct upload from photo album to Triple. Photos, videos, words.

00:53:52 Data curated, looking at significant growth.

Podcast Transcription:

James Kademan [00:00:02]:

You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumph and successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found on the podcast link found at draw in customers.com. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie. And today, we are welcoming slash preparing to learn from Crystal Saddiq, the COO and cofounder of Triple. So Crystal, how are you doing today?

Crystal Sadik [00:00:29]:

I'm well. Thanks. How are you?

James Kademan [00:00:30]:

I'm doing very well. Let's just to start out, What is Tripple?

Crystal Sadik [00:00:37]:

Well, that's a great question. So Tripple, which actually stands for Time Ripple, It's the world's 1st social legacy app. And, you know, that's We're a new type of app in a new type of space. And so I think the best way to Sort of summarize what is triple is to think to yourself, how would you like to be remembered? If you think about Your grandkids, your future grandkids, and you ask yourself, how do you want them to remember you? Is it for your your good deeds? Is it for your knowledge, your work, your memories, photos, videos? All of that really is what comprises somebody's legacy. And the digital legacy is really just the digital makeup of A person's legacy. And and that includes their digital will. You know? The digital will is is is a component of The entire legacy of the person. So Triple is is really an app that allows a person to Create and curate throughout their lives and build on their legacy.

Crystal Sadik [00:01:57]:

In some ways, It resembles a lot of social media apps in the way that you get on. There's a feed, you connect to friends and family, you post videos, you post photos. But the thing that makes Triple different well, there's a few things. One is that when you're there, you know that you're there with the intent of Building your legacy. You know, I mean, if you ever got on social media or Instagram, you may not go into it thinking, Oh, these are the photos I want my great great grandchildren to see, especially maybe some, yes, maybe less curated, Type of application. And so Triple is meant to be something that's very curated. And and and it's nice because you can also, really, Personalize the information on the app. It's also a place where you can record your life's memories.

Crystal Sadik [00:02:52]:

So You can go in and create future messages for friends and family. You can go in and Record memories in, a daily journal prompt called a CAST question. You can write them down. You can put in, a voice recording of your answers. And and, of course, you know, one of the biggest things I think about Triple is it's a way to Slowly and steadily build your digital will over time, and it's free. There's that little

James Kademan [00:03:25]:

Wow. That's so that's quite the introduction. I have to figure out all the questions that I have to ask you here to organize this a little bit. Let's start from the end moving backwards. So Okay. Let's just say that I get on triple and I die.

Crystal Sadik [00:03:41]:

Yeah.

James Kademan [00:03:42]:

How do my kids, spouse, whatever, how do they get access to my triple account to see all the stuff that I wanted to share?

Crystal Sadik [00:03:51]:

Yeah. That's a great question. So there's a lot of things, that will happen when you first get into triple. You will select a next of kin, And you'll start linking and connecting to family and friends like you would for any, regular social media app, for example. Now let's go back a little bit and talk maybe about your will. Let's say that you get on to Triple and really all you wanna do is have a Free way to make yourself a nice digital will. And our wills are completely legal and completely binding. So You can get on and make a perfectly acceptable legal will, on triple for free.

Crystal Sadik [00:04:29]:

So let's say you get on there and do that. You are gonna identify who are your next of kin and you're going to link that with Triple. And every time you Sign an item to somebody. You're going to put in that person's information so that is automatically released to that person upon your passing. So it's all automated. It's all automatic. And and it's something you can do piece by piece. Each time you go in, you add to it.

Crystal Sadik [00:04:59]:

And the best part is it automatically updates a legal PDF file that you can send to your next can send to your lawyer, send to whomever you like. So it's all very simple. It's designed to be something that, anyone can do. It's Very easy. It's stress free, and it's all automatic and automated.

James Kademan [00:05:21]:

Alright. So if If I understand this correctly, and I have to apologize because I didn't pick up on this, right away, this sounds like it is its own social media platform as well as some of the other social media platforms. I guess, kinda I don't wanna say absorbing, but,

Crystal Sadik [00:05:39]:

Yeah. So it's I don't

James Kademan [00:05:41]:

know what you wanna say.

Crystal Sadik [00:05:42]:

I would say that it's independent. It can be integrated. So you can Answer a cast question on Triple and share your answer on other social media platforms, for example. But it's its own independent platform, and, we wanted that to be the case for a few reasons. You know, we we wanted to have a a Place where you can, interact differently than you might in other social media environments. And we wanted it to have a place where because it's your legacy and because of some of the information you're leaving, you may wanna really be selective about What you share and with whom. So for example, let me tell you a little story. When we first started making the app and we were, We were live, and we were sharing the app with friends and family to get feedback.

Crystal Sadik [00:06:35]:

One of the questions is, who is your favorite uncle? That was a that was a cast question that came through that I had answered. And I'm not going to share that answer with you today, but Let's say I did share that answer on Triple, and I didn't put the answer in private mode. I shared it with everyone. So that really Brought about some conversation amongst my family members. And, so if I had wanted to, I could have Answered that question, in a private mode so that I could look back and access my own memories, but maybe it's not shared with everybody. I could share that information with, just my husband or just my sister. You know, I I can be really, Specialized with who I share photos with, who I share recipes with. And so it it really allows me to Be, you know, able to interact with it differently than I might in other platforms.

James Kademan [00:07:34]:

Alright. Tell me about what's coming to mind right now to me is when you compare this from my point of view. Compare this to some of the other social or most other social media platforms. I would argue from what I have seen that a lot of those are not necessarily authentic. People are putting a front of how they want the rest of the world to Right. Believe their life is. Where this sounds like you're actually presenting this to people that know how your life is, so they'd be able to be like, that's not exactly what you have going on. So is that authenticity I guess, do people maintain that, or does it fall in the trap of what a typical social media platform is where Everything's unicorns and rainbows.

Crystal Sadik [00:08:18]:

So, I think with Triple is yes. It it You can be as authentic, as you want because you can really curate what you post. If you have a 1,000 followers, you know, you or if you've connected to a wide swath of people, You can still post a very personal photograph of your family and only share that information with your family. And so it's a way to be very authentic, but also, you know, do some of the more generic things that you may wanna do. Can do, you really both at the same time. And Alright. And that's, you know,...

Lukas Selman - Using Trashcan Assets for Sales

Telling It How It Is: "The conversations that are happening in chat are literally happening in your own voice, and your own voice is literally the one you trust the most."

Sales is often a messy word.  Some would describe sales as gross, sticky, and just makes people feel a bit queasy.

But sales gets a bad rep from bad sales people.  Sales itself is necessary for people to be informed and make a great decision.

So how  do you make sales and avoid the gross part?  One option is using your trashcan assets.  These are contacts you have made over the years that you lost touch with.

Listen as Lukas Selman explains how to turn your trashcan assets into new sales for your growing company.

Lukas lays out a step by step plan to grow without cold calling or even reaching out to people that don't know you.  It is a sure fire way to make sales for your business.

Enjoy!

Visit Lukas at: lukasselman@gmail dot com

Podcast Overview:

00:03:59 Anxiety surrounds unknown phone calls; chat-based sales preferred.

00:05:48 Chat sales changed dynamic, written word influential in conversations.

00:12:43 Expensive phone calls, cheaper chat support.

00:18:06 Increase revenue by investing in subscription-based businesses.

00:22:25 Companies with unused assets are leaving money.

00:34:47 Low ticket offers, high ticket campaign investment.

00:40:07 Don't fear targeting SaaS companies internationally.

00:54:11 Access, Google domain, CTA, email, funding, profit.

Podcast Transcription:

James [00:00:01]:

You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Saint Prairie. If you'd like some downloadable audio episodes, which you probably do, you can go to draw in customers.com, Click on that big old podcast link, and lo and behold, hundreds of episodes all for your listening enjoyment. Today, we're welcoming slash preparing to learn from Lucas Selman. I love this. A young driven guy who found love and will be moving to Lebanon. So, Lucas, How are you doing today?

Lukas Selman [00:00:36]:

I'm doing very well. As you can see, I don't know if you can see the sweat here, but it's about 35 degrees here in Spain.

James [00:00:43]:

Alright. Celsius, of course. Yeah.

Lukas Selman [00:00:46]:

Yeah. Celsius, I have, like, 3 fans on me right now, but, man, it's the it's hard. So Alright. I'm I'm apart from that. I'm I'm I'm happy. I'm I've had my dinner and, ready to rock.

James [00:00:57]:

Nice. So you are currently in Spain now. Is that right?

Lukas Selman [00:01:02]:

That's right. I'm in south of Spain in, a town called Marbella. That's, in In a place in Spain called Andalucia, which is very near to Morocco, to Portugal. So I know I I know there's a lot of expats right now in Moving to Portugal. Yeah. You know, just across the side is Marbella, which is south of Spain. So I I've been here for a couple of years now, and, I love it, man. I've yeah.

Lukas Selman [00:01:27]:

I've built a life here, for the past few years, and, For any for anyone thinking of, moving or doing some expats, looking to Spain, is really, really the Welcome to, foreigners, and everyone speaks English. It's an amazing place.

James [00:01:45]:

Alright. Very cool. Very cool. So Lucas for the listeners at home. Right? Lucas reached out to me because he said he had 2 breakthroughs in the last 3 years. One is he's learned how to run 100% chat based sales with 0 zoom calls or strategy calls, such as funny. And I love this. I'm very interested in this curious because I just, I have come from a trade show, working with, veterinarians, veterinarians, vet techs, all that kind of stuff.

James [00:02:19]:

And it's interesting because that is very nice crowd, But a very you broadly speaking, pretty introverted crowd. So it was tough. We were working a booth her. I was working a booth that we had for the call answering service. And it was interesting because I was thinking I'm gonna talk to this guy tomorrow, today across not having to deal with this, which I mean, it was good times. It was fun, all that jazz for me, but I'm more of an extroverted guy. But I was thinking it would be nice to have employees do something like that. And in the end, if it's easier to make sales, broadly speaking, you can make more sales.

James [00:02:54]:

So that's always good. So we'll be talking about that as well as you mentioned that every 7 figure business has what you call trash can assets, which piqued my curiosity. Absolutely. And he said, there's list of leads that never converted the email list that's gathering dust. We all have those past low ticket customers that haven't ascended to a higher tier. We got those too. So I'm excited to learn about both of these. So let's start with the chat based sales because that's, that's exciting.

James [00:03:25]:

Nothing happens until sales made.

Lukas Selman [00:03:28]:

Okay. Alright. Well yeah. Okay. Let's start with let's start with, So I I you know, I'm I'm I'm 28 years old, and, I don't know if you noticed, but the the the The more we get into the future, the more anxiety, is linked to phone calls. I don't know if they it it's it's like this in the US. It's like this in Europe. It's everywhere.

Lukas Selman [00:03:59]:

People right now, when they receive a phone call From someone they don't know, just anxiety builds up, and they they automatically get their guards up. It doesn't matter if it's in sales or They they're expecting a call from from their bank. If you if you notice, more and more resources from the big institutions, banks, car dealerships, governmental institutes are driving much more into chat based consultancy, you know, sales and, and customer service. People are responding better to chat, right, overall. And that's been my experience. And from the people I've talk to, that's been their experience too. And the cool thing about chat based sales I mean, when I say chat based, it's literally text. So So what what do I mean by that? Everything that has to do with, you know, Telegram, Messenger on Facebook, LinkedIn, you know, SMS, whatever.

Lukas Selman [00:05:02]:

The the the good thing about the good thing about chat based sales, especially 2 components. Number 1 is that one of the one of the key figures, keystones of sales is is hiding the sales process. Right? So what I mean by this, it's, a workshop is not a workshop. It is actually a sales training. It's a sales environment. Discovery call is not a discovery call. It's a sales meeting, and we can go on and on and on. Right? And the thing is, as markets mature, you already know that booking a demo, booking a discovery call, booking a breakthrough session, Booking a a call, it's linked to sales.

Lukas Selman [00:05:48]:

It's linked to okay. I'm gonna get I'm gonna get, you know, sold on, which is not bad in in and of itself, but human nature, we do get our guards up. Okay? So in my experience, when I started to incorporate chat based sales entirely and and solely, It kind of flipped the dynamic between myself as a salesperson or myself as a business owner and the per and the person on the other side Because and I'm gonna go into the psychology of how I do sales, but I just wanted I just wanted to bring some nuances on, you know, the overall, like, theme that encompasses chat right now. And that is if you think about the written word, when I when when you read something, even if I write it, You are reading it with your own voice inside your head. So the conversations that are happening in chat are literally happening in your own voice, And your own voice is literally the one you trust the most. So when you hear a solution, when you hear a good sentence, when you hear a good message, When you read it in your own voice, it's subconsciously, more welcoming, if that makes sense. Okay? Apart from that, you know, having, you know, your tab open, you can literally have 15 conversations at once. The record I have for 1 whole day is 48 conversations because I run a campaign.

Lukas Selman [00:07:18]:

At the same time, I run a camp I'm gonna explain to you how How I do what I do and and, you know, the 3 step process. But I bay I basically blasted out an email, very short email. I call it the handraiser email. Basically say, hey. You know, I got this. We've had this result. Would you like to look into it? Let's have a conversation, and, just reply with a yes if you want more info, and we we get a conversation started. So a bunch of people do their hand raisers.

Lukas Selman [00:07:48]:

Right? And they they slid into my DM, so we we start a conversation. And then I have, like, 6 hour window where I'm just focusing on 48 people at at the time. And I do have a VA. I do have a t pay people in my team that are helping me, But that just allows me to compress time frames and not book 1 hour, sales calls with 1 person each and every time. It allows me to expand my bandwidth in in in such a good way. What else with chat? Also, good thing with chat is that apart from it not being very intrusive, people respond to it when they when they have some time. People respond. It's not like you are putting them in the spot.

Lukas Selman [00:08:34]:

It's very although it's personal, they They don't see me in the other end as a human, so to speak. It's it's more like They're speaking with with someone on the other line, but they don't know who it is in terms of I'm not looking directly at them and waiting for them to make a decision. So that's like the over overarching, you know, psychology behind chat and why I love it so much. Am I saying, you know, a video call is nonexisting and you don't need it. I'm not saying that. Absolutely. Time and place for everything. Right?...