Authentic Business Adventures Podcast

By Draw In Customers Business Coach James KademanBusiness Entrepreneurship Marketing Careers

Authentic Business Adventures Podcast episodes

March 19, 2021 How Do You Recover a Business From Covid? – Ep155
Noelle Stary - 20 Lemons - A Marketing Company
It's been over a year since Covid became a household word. This has caused some businesses to suffer, some to thrive and all of them to be challenged in ways that could not have been easily predicted.
Noelle Stary owns a marketing company, 20 Lemons, as well as a co-working space called The (Co)Working Space in New Jersey. So she has had to work through the pandemic with very different perspectives from different businesses.
Listen as Noelle and I discuss the keys to thriving now that the pandemic can no longer be used as an excuse for businesses not performing like we believe they can.
Also, be sure to check out Noelle's book, Marketing Moxie.
Enjoy!
Visit Noelle at: https://20lemons.com/

[00:00:06]
You have found
[00:00:07]
Authentic Business Adventures, the business
program that brings you the struggles
[00:00:10]
stories and triumphs and successes
of business owners across the land.
[00:00:14]
Past episodes can be found on the podcast
link at DrawInCustomers.com.
[00:00:18]
We're locally underwritten
by the Bank of Sun Prairie.
[00:00:21]
My name is James Kademan, entrepreneur,
[00:00:23]
author, speaker and help for coach, to
small business owners across the country.
[00:00:27]
And today we're welcoming/
preparing to learn from a second time.
[00:00:31]
Noelle Stary, the founder of 20 Lemons and
the author of Main Street Moxie. Noelle,
[00:00:38]
how are you doing today?
I am doing great.
[00:00:40]
Thank you so much for having me back on.
[00:00:42]
Yeah, this is exciting because it's been
[00:00:44]
it's been a changing time
almost on a used to be daily level,
[00:00:49]
but I imagine now it's more weekly.
I have to tell you.
[00:00:53]
So to your point, I feel like when I've
[00:00:55]
been working with people,
they generally have been saying, hey,
[00:00:58]
I can figure out what I'm
doing today and this week.
[00:01:01]
And now I've got people telling
me here are plans for the summer.
[00:01:07]
We have progressed from like a month,
[00:01:09]
a week or a day to like saying this is
what I'm doing the next three months.
[00:01:15]
And it's been pretty exciting.
That is cool.
[00:01:17]
I'm going to call that progress.
[00:01:19]
Yeah. Maybe. It's interesting.
[00:01:22]
Earlier this morning,
I had a company try to sell me on a phone
[00:01:25]
system, which we were,
I'll call it, lukewarm on.
[00:01:29]
But one of the things one of the caveats
[00:01:31]
with the they wanted
a three year contract.
[00:01:34]
Oh.
And I'm like, no, no.
[00:01:39]
One, because contracts of any term,
I kind of.
[00:01:45]
That's 1985 stuff and three years? I'm like,
[00:01:49]
who knows what's going
to happen in three years?
[00:01:51]
Yeah.
[00:01:52]
And the guy's like it's not a big deal if
you have to get out of the contract,
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you only owe us half of the value
of the contract remaining.
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That could be thousands of dollars.
[00:02:04]
So.
[00:02:05]
So anyways, it's interesting that someone
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had the stones to ask that,
but whatever all the power to them.
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Yeah, great.
[00:02:13]
How has 20 Lemons been doing?
[00:02:16]
20 Lemons, we're a full
service marketing agency.
[00:02:20]
We've been busy.
[00:02:21]
You know, I, I had put out
the book that we talked about last time,
[00:02:27]
Main Street Moxie back in January
and some point around January
[00:02:32]
2021.
You know, I was talking to business owners
[00:02:35]
and they were essentially either saying,
I'm 30 percent up, I'm 30 percent down.
[00:02:40]
I can't handle the stuff
[00:02:41]
if we're up, I can't handle
the stuff we're down.
[00:02:45]
And I would say that,
you know, I'm talking to business owners
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now and they're saying I'm ready
to start doing some long term planning.
[00:02:54]
Hey, we're still a little down,
[00:02:56]
but my team is stronger or hey,
we're a little bit down,
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but I've situated my new products and I'm
[00:03:03]
clear that we're changing our market
space over the next nine months.
[00:03:07]
And so
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I feel like people are getting some
clarity for like where they want to go.
[00:03:14]
And they are absolutely
investing in driving forward.
[00:03:21]
No one's sitting, no one sitting
[00:03:22]
on their hands like
there's no one that I'm talking
[00:03:26]
to that said, I'm just keeping
status quo and everything's moving.
[00:03:31]
Tons and tons of change is happening
[00:03:35]
on on daily, weekly, monthly basis within
businesses to try to push things forward.
[00:03:42]
Yeah, interesting.
[00:03:44]
You know, it's funny you say about the people
that are just sitting on their hands.
[00:03:48]
Any time I talk with those people,
[00:03:50]
I'm like, I don't need
to talk with you anymore.
[00:03:53]
It's like, you kind of bring me down.
Yeah.
[00:03:56]
When you're when you're talking about just
[00:03:58]
sitting idle and just
watching what happens.
[00:04:01]
Right.
[00:04:01]
Like you're just watching
a kid on a diving board.
[00:04:03]
Let's just see how this plays out.
Right.
[00:04:05]
Yeah.
Yeah.
[00:04:06]
You need to be active the master of your
own destiny kind of thing.
[00:04:09]
Yeah.
Yeah.
[00:04:10]
I'm seeing tons of traction
happening all over the place.
[00:04:14]
All right.
Yeah.
[00:04:15]
Different media channels or marketing
channels than were previously?
[00:04:19]
Yeah.
So interesting.
[00:04:22]
I think social media has been like,
[00:04:25]
let's kind of start with a conversation
around social media.
[00:04:27]
Social media has
[00:04:30]
during this process gotten noisy.
Right.
[00:04:34]
Like a lot of people that weren't
[00:04:35]
on social said, I need to get on to social.
Changes have been happening on Facebook,
[00:04:41]
on, hey, we're not
giving out as much data.
[00:04:44]
We're cutting down.
[00:04:45]
We're giving more we're
putting privacy back in.
[00:04:49]
Facebook has? Facebook. Really? Facebook.
[00:04:53]
Like from an agency standpoint,
I think management of Facebook, managing
[00:04:59]
client accounts has
become more challenging.
[00:05:03]
They really and it's kind of a really
[00:05:05]
interesting perspective for a spin,
if you think about it,
[00:05:09]
what they're attempting to do
from my my opinion,
[00:05:13]
what they're attempting to do is they're
saying, I don't want there to be what's
[00:05:18]
occurring or I don't want there
to be fake news occurring.
[00:05:21]
I want to make sure that everything is
[00:05:22]
kind of coming authentically
in real time from someone who's engaging.
[00:05:28]
You know,
we're seeing certain things where videos
[00:05:31]
that you're putting on one platform
can't be utilized on multiple platforms.
[00:05:36]
Really? They want the content that you're
showing to be authentic to their platform.
[00:05:43]
And so in one sense,
[00:05:46]
they're trying to drive the user to have
more loyalty and not really just say,
[00:05:52]
well, I'm on twenty platforms and I'm
just repeating data all over the place.
[00:05:57]
Right.
Yeah, so, so, so it's changing this
[00:06:02]
ecosystem where you want to be,
where people are talking.
[00:06:06]
Let's even talk like what's do you know
what the hottest new social platform is.
[00:06:12]
Clubhouse, I heard so many talk about
[00:06:14]
Twitch today, but. So I'm seeing tons
of action happening on Clubhouse,
[00:06:21]
so like Clubhouse. What's clubhouse?
James.
[00:06:27]
Just gave away my age here.
[00:06:29]
I'm going to invite you to Clubhouse.
[00:06:32]
So clubhouse is kind of a platform
[00:06:34]
that allows for people to jump
in and out of audio chat rooms.
[00:06:39]
So no video.
So here we're all Zoom fatigued.
[00:06:42]
Oh, my gosh.
[00:06:44]
I can't jump on to more video chats.
[00:06:46]
I don't want to do it.
[00:06:47]
You have an opportunity here to kind
of say, hey, I want to see who's talking
[00:06:52]
about small business marketing
on Clubhouse and different chat rooms
[00:06:57]
open up and you can jump in and you
can listen or you can chime in.
[00:07:01]
I have colleagues of mine that are are
[00:07:04]
running chats and people
come and they listen.
[00:07:07]
And so it's like an engaging environment.
[00:07:11]
I it's kind of new.
[00:07:13]
I mean, we have we are not
[00:07:15]
we are not managing or working
with clients on Clubhouse,
[00:07:18]
but we are working with clients that are
utilizing it themselves at this point.
[00:07:24]
All right.
[00:07:25]
Who who or what type of business would be
ideal for that Clubhouse?
[00:07:32]
So people that I've seen on Clubhouse
[00:07:34]
right now, I have an event
planner who's on it.
[00:07:37]
So they're talking about upcoming trends.
[00:07:39]
How do you run parties outside?
[00:07:42]
How do you run socially distance parties?
[00:07:43]
How do you handle corporate training
[00:07:45]
events when people are
getting back together?
[00:07:48]
A second person that I know that's very
[00:07:49]
involved in it, she's
in the meetings industry.
[00:07:52]
So, again, same industry
to people in the same industry.
[00:07:57]
I have a book publisher that's starting
to look at it and dabble on it.
[00:08:02]
Some of the early adopters,
I think they've kind of mentioned they're
[00:08:06]
like so-and-so invited me
to be on a panel on clubhouse.
...
1 hr 5 min
March 11, 2021 How to Start an SEO Company – Ep154
John Vuong - Local SEO Search
Running a business can be tough. Often the most challenging part is marketing. How do you get people to know that your company exists, so that you can tell them what you do, so that they are aware enough of you to actually buy from your business?
Marketing is what can make or break a company. If no one knows you exist, it doesn't matter how good you are at what you do.
So what's the solution to the juggernaut of a problem? One option is to hire a professional with a proven track record to help build your audience, your brand and your business by bringing you customers through the marketing channels that fit your niche.
That alone can be a challenge. How do you make sure that the marketer that you hire can do all that they promise?
Listen as John Vuong, of Local SEO Search tells us how he started his web marketing business and helpes get businesses found.
Enjoy!
Visit John at: https://www.localseosearch.com/

[00:00:11]
You have found Authentic Business Adventures
[00:00:08]
the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes
[00:00:09]
of business owners across the land.
[00:00:08]
We are underwritten locally by the Bank of Sun Prairie.
[00:00:14]
My name is James Kademan, entrepreneur,
[00:00:16]
author, speaker, and helpful coach to small
business owners across the country.
[00:00:19]
And today we are welcoming/preparing
[00:00:22]
to learn from John Vuong the founder
of Local SEO Search. John,
[00:00:27]
how are you doing today?
I'm doing great James.
[00:00:30]
I'm excited to be on the show today
and really excited to get share some
[00:00:36]
stories and insights to you and your
[00:00:38]
audience members. Yeah. You know, I'm excited because
[00:00:42]
SEO, search engine optimization, is a challenging thing for any business
[00:00:50]
I mean with the name
of your website alone.
[00:00:53]
I think you
probably hit high on the ranks right there.
[00:00:56]
Yeah, so key words are very important.
[00:00:59]
But, branding yourself as someone
[00:01:01]
that actually knows what they're
doing is more important.
[00:01:04]
So we just position yourself as a leader
[00:01:06]
in the industry. So let's start with when
you first got started.
[00:01:10]
How long have you been
doing this on your own?
[00:01:12]
I so I started this agency 8
years ago. 8 years ago already? 2013, yes.
[00:01:21]
Alright. And prior to that, I actually was doing advertising sales
[00:01:24]
and I dabbled in traditional advertising,
print media, magazines, directories and I
[00:01:31]
was dabbling in to online affiliate
performance-based,
[00:01:35]
but then I stayed at a very stable size
larger company called Yellow Pages.
[00:01:41]
Oh, I remember those. I was there for five years also doing
advertising sales and found where I wanted
[00:01:50]
to continue and pursue
my business career and life.
[00:01:56]
And what made you decide
to jump ship from sales?
[00:02:00]
What's a universally Yellow Pages jumping
[00:02:02]
ship from the Yellow Pages specifically I
can understand why but sales universally
[00:02:08]
you can make some decent money as
a salesperson. Yes you can definitely, but I also found where I
[00:02:15]
really wanted to pursue
my passions as well.
[00:02:18]
I gravitated toward working with only
business owners over the years.
[00:02:23]
I work with thousands of business owners
[00:02:25]
and usually local in scope anything in the
Yellow Pages directory and every single vertical
[00:02:30]
I was able to meet these business owners
on a personal level and I got to really
[00:02:35]
understand what their troubles were
their struggles and their stories.
[00:02:40]
I like why did they pursue their dreams
and they really focused more on community
[00:02:46]
relationships and understand
the foundation of the how to run a proper
[00:02:50]
business and people forget about
that in this digital world, right?
[00:02:57]
They forget about the service, the relationship
[00:02:59]
piece the understanding of pricing, competitive analysis, UPS,
[00:03:03]
like all these things that really matter
and it took not just years and maybe 5 or
[00:03:12]
10 years, but sometimes it took
generations to harvest a really successful
[00:03:17]
business. So, people need to understand what it
takes to be a business owner, entrepreneur,
[00:03:24]
community leader, and now, you know
now that I've been doing it for 8 years,
[00:03:28]
I reflect on what my challenges were
[00:03:32]
when I first started and it was a lot of
struggle, a lot of pain, a lot of time
[00:03:38]
in and not really focus on my strength
right and now I've got a grown over
[00:03:45]
the years to get better to harvest
my strengths and really amplify my message.
[00:03:53]
So what made you decide to actually go off
on your own was it because you saw what
[00:03:58]
all these other business
owners were doing.
[00:03:59]
And you decided.
[00:04:00]
Hey man, I want to I want to ride
the rides they're riding kind of thing.
[00:04:05]
Well, me being a sales rep, I was listening and hearing
from Frontline their pin points.
[00:04:15]
And as you know the phone book itself
with no longer getting a decent return
[00:04:22]
on investment people are spending a lot
of money not getting the type
[00:04:25]
of lead count or source
and quality that they once did.
[00:04:28]
Because as you know, internet, Google kind of started
becoming the focal point.
[00:04:38]
Because I don't know if people the younger
Generations specifically understand
[00:04:44]
that the internet internet
sorry didn't always exist.
[00:04:48]
Like it's just mid-90s onward
and it's been evolving ever since.
[00:04:53]
Yeah, so it's interesting even to think eight
[00:04:55]
years ago YouTube was available,
but it wasn't what it is now
[00:05:00]
as far as search goes and social media
[00:05:03]
was a thing, but it wasn't
this much of a thing.
[00:05:07]
Yes, so it's evolves.
[00:05:09]
So it's interesting to see I
guess just point it out, right?
[00:05:14]
Yeah definitely because as you know,
like Google how to replace what
[00:05:19]
Yellow Pages did very well which wire is
ready to buy seeking out information or
[00:05:26]
services or products like you
were category in the phone book.
[00:05:31]
When what somewhat was ready to buy they
[00:05:33]
picked up the phone book delivery once
a year free to your home now,
[00:05:37]
it's Google on your smartphone device
tablet desktop and laptop in its stool.
[00:05:44]
Really SS book does internet prices
[00:05:46]
of body has picked up with all these
energy that are just happening.
[00:05:53]
You're as it progresses
technology advances.
[00:05:56]
Now, it's becoming be going out a Iran
[00:06:07]
green and things are automated.
[00:06:08]
However, people still
want to be in control.
[00:06:11]
They want to know and seek out information
themselves and they don't want to get
[00:06:16]
pushed and there's a difference
between Yellow Pages vs.
[00:06:21]
Google and social media vs.
[00:06:24]
Advertising in traditional media like
magazines Brokers newspaper pliers.
[00:06:33]
Now, it's all digital format Wright radio
[00:06:42]
was podcast TV was now YouTube,
you know, it's all the same.
[00:06:53]
More analytical tools that can monitor
in track and custom Behavior Target Target
[00:07:00]
every ad out there, but they forget still
takes a business person a solid foundation
[00:07:08]
of running a business to be successful
[00:07:10]
this owner frustrated and Google was it
[00:07:24]
sold Beats, right there's ads and there's
organic very similar to Yellow Pages.
[00:07:31]
The white pages is more Brandon keywords,
[00:07:34]
and I didn't really know
how to do it myself.
[00:07:39]
So I went and focus on my strengths
that begin which was sales.
[00:07:43]
I went out there so long until I was able
[00:07:47]
to then hire team and learn
and make a lot of mistakes and.
[00:07:53]
Hire more people fired all our
people made more mistakes.
[00:07:56]
I figure out who I really wanted to be
[00:08:09]
known as and who I really wanted to Target
at the ideal cuz you said the word was
[00:08:18]
for Google and I'm like
that's that's an ass man.
[00:08:21]
That's still a beast.
[00:08:22]
That is tough to understand.
[00:08:24]
Sometimes I say I say always Foundation
[00:08:32]
understand the basics of running a good
[00:08:36]
business and everything
will take care of itself.
[00:08:39]
Picture of love to believe that would love
[00:08:43]
to the team that you have now how many
[00:08:47]
employees do you have 30 30 employees
[00:08:54]
and there was formed because
of the gaps and we specialize in SQ.
[00:08:58]
So for us it's more the pillars,
[00:09:01]
there's content dragon's tooth
on the graphic design Thursday the link
[00:09:08]
Builders there so many different paper
focus on being a boutique agency that did
[00:09:18]
everything regarding to ask you
[00:09:20]
and not touching at North America.
[00:09:29]
There's some in UK and Australia.
[00:09:31]
How do people find you.
[00:09:36]
Yeah, so for us it's just doing good work
wear tomorrow and doing this stuff
[00:09:41]
which is helping branding myself and just
educating people write the more you're out
[00:09:49]
there giving advice and helping others
either like you or not and just like any
[00:09:57]
form of branding podcasting youtubing book
publishing a blogging website article
...
1 hr
March 04, 2021 Build a Lawn Care Business – Ep153
Bryan Clayton - GreenPal
In my experience, there are two businesses you can start and almost start printing money. Lawn Care and Cleaning Services are those two industries. The funny thing is, that growing from a one person show into an established, reputable company with employees and all of the things that go along with having a real business can stop some people from turning their job into a business.
Bryan Clayton started out cutting lawns to pay for college. Then he built his company and sold it. He became the go-to guy in Nashville for lawn care.
After selling his company, he started a new one to help lawn care professionals get business. This was a genius move, since time spent marketing your business is time not spent directly bringing in revenue. With YourGreenPal.com, Bryan has created a system for homeowners to find the lawn care professionals they want AND get the lawn care professionals connected with the homeowners. Peanut butter, meet chocolate.
Listen as Bryan explains his entrepreneurial journey from cutting grass for cash to getting the lawn care industry nationwide a smooth operation.
Enjoy!
Visit Bryan at: https://www.yourgreenpal.com/

[00:00:14]
program can be found at the podcast
link at DrawInCustomers.com.
[00:00:18]
We are locally written
by Bank of Sun Prairie.
[00:00:21]
My name is James Kademan, entrepreneur,
[00:00:23]
author, speaker and helpful coach to small
business owners across the country.
[00:00:27]
And today we are welcoming/
prepared to learn from Bryan Clayton,
[00:00:31]
the CEO of GreenPal,
the Uber of lawn mowing.
[00:00:35]
So, Bryan, how are you doing today?
I'm doing great, James.
[00:00:38]
Thanks for having me on.
Thanks for thanks for coming on here.
[00:00:41]
I am curious, what is the Uber of lawnmowing?
Yeah.
[00:00:45]
So GreenPal is an app that anybody can
download to order a lawn mowing service.
[00:00:50]
So rather than having to call around
[00:00:52]
on Craigslist or Facebook or Yelp,
you can just download GreenPal.
[00:00:55]
You'll get hooked up with a great lawn
mowing service in less than a couple
[00:00:58]
of minutes hire them
the come mow, your grass.
[00:01:00]
And if everything goes well,
you can just set it and forget it
[00:01:02]
for the rest of the year and everything
that happens in the background magically.
[00:01:06]
And so it takes a lot of the pain points
of finding a good lawn mowing service
[00:01:10]
and paying them and just
manages it all for you.
[00:01:13]
Been at this, we're around eight years.
Eight years? Been been at it for eight
[00:01:18]
years we're an eight
year overnight success.
[00:01:20]
We have over several hundred thousand
homeowners using the platform to get their
[00:01:24]
grass cut and doing 20 million
dollars a year in revenue.
[00:01:27]
So we started off very, very humbly,
[00:01:30]
just me and to my co-founders
hacking away on the project.
[00:01:33]
We ended our first year
in 2013 with 20 customers.
[00:01:38]
Half of them were my friends and family.
[00:01:40]
Here we are, eight years later,
[00:01:41]
have several hundred
thousand people using the app.
[00:01:44]
Very cool.
Very cool.
[00:01:46]
You know, it's interesting.
[00:01:47]
I have a call answering service and we answer phones
[00:01:49]
for a few landscaper lawn mowing people
and generally speaking, by,
[00:01:57]
May,
[00:01:58]
they're telling us that somebody calls
for service, just tell them we're booked.
[00:02:01]
Yeah. That's as far as lawn mowing goes.
It's very common.
[00:02:05]
And then you get to your point.
[00:02:07]
My first company
was a landscaping company.
[00:02:10]
I started out I started a lawn mowing
business in high school as a way to make
[00:02:14]
extra cash stuck with that business
all through high school,
[00:02:18]
all through college, over a 15 year period
of time, built it into one of the largest
[00:02:22]
landscaping companies in the state
of Tennessee where I live.
[00:02:25]
Got it
over ten million dollars a year
[00:02:26]
in revenue, built it over 150 employees.
[00:02:29]
And in 2013, that company was acquired
[00:02:32]
by one of the largest landscaping
companies in the United States.
[00:02:34]
So building that company from scratch,
just me and a push mower to
[00:02:38]
150 people,
hundred trucks going out every day.
[00:02:40]
Yeah. I learned a lot about
[00:02:42]
the landscaping business,
how it works from the inside out.
[00:02:44]
And to your point, yes.
[00:02:47]
People to make a living mowing yards.
They're busy.
[00:02:49]
They're on a lawn mower every day.
It's hard to reach them.
[00:02:51]
It's hard to get them on the phone.
[00:02:53]
It's hard to get them to quote
your your need for you.
[00:02:55]
And so our app takes care of all
[00:02:57]
that and actually helps the smaller
service providers that might be just
[00:03:00]
getting started, helps them really
get going and making material income.
[00:03:05]
Yeah, it's interesting because there's
[00:03:07]
other when I talk to other people about
lawn mowing services and all that jazz,
[00:03:12]
you'll hear the the typical stories
that you hear with a lot of
[00:03:16]
service businesses, I guess,
where somebody showed up for a little
[00:03:20]
while and then they all of a sudden
just ghosted, they stop coming
[00:03:23]
no call, no show, no response,
or they'll show up
[00:03:28]
and maybe their employees kind of did a
not so great job or it's just cumbersome.
[00:03:34]
I guess it's interesting that your
platform kind of gives it more
[00:03:38]
of a corporate feel as far
as a trustworthy foundation.
[00:03:43]
So that there is because I imagine
there are reviews and stuff like that.
[00:03:47]
Absolutely.
Yes.
[00:03:48]
It's like an accountability
layer that that is. Right.
[00:03:50]
And it's almost like,
[00:03:53]
you know, it's almost like this is a boss
in a pocket for service providers.
[00:03:57]
They're just getting started.
Don't really know how to run a business.
[00:03:59]
And so.
To your point.
[00:04:01]
Yeah, the case of the
disappearing lawn guy is real.
[00:04:05]
They show up for maybe a month
and then they just disappear.
[00:04:08]
They jump off the face
of the earth. Our our app,
[00:04:11]
our platform enables homeowners
to sidestep all of that.
[00:04:13]
You can read reviews on on what people say
about them or how often they show up
[00:04:18]
on time or how many
transactions they've done.
[00:04:20]
How often do they get booked
for a second lawn mowing.
[00:04:22]
So you can make an informed decision
on this is why I want to work with and not
[00:04:26]
just have to take like a shot in the dark
and hope you get somebody good.
[00:04:30]
It really does solve a lot of problems
on the introduction and also making sure
[00:04:34]
that they show up on time
for months and years to come.
[00:04:37]
The other side of the transaction.
[00:04:39]
Why we really do what we do
is for the service providers.
[00:04:43]
That's really my background it's really
where our passion lies and like giving
[00:04:47]
them a platform to plug into to where they
can just work really hard mowing yards.
[00:04:52]
But everything was it relates to getting
new customers bookkeeping,
[00:04:56]
getting paid on time, optimizing your
route, keeping everything organized.
[00:05:00]
It just happens for them.
[00:05:01]
And so that's really why we exist.
It's really our purpose.
[00:05:04]
And our passion is to give these small
business owners a platform to plug
[00:05:08]
into to where they can just grow their
business and work hard doing it.
[00:05:11]
That is the part that I love about what
[00:05:13]
you have going on,
because it's two fold, right?
[00:05:16]
There's talk about the customers trying
[00:05:18]
to find a service provider,
which you solve that with.
[00:05:20]
That's what I would consider to be
fairly easy as long as you can.
[00:05:25]
You as a business can get in front
[00:05:27]
of those customers. The back end,
where all these service providers,
[00:05:31]
we see that every day,
where they just don't know.
[00:05:35]
They don't know what they don't know.
[00:05:36]
So their business, invoicing, scheduling,
[00:05:40]
all that kind of stuff is just like,
oh, I need to do that.
[00:05:44]
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
[00:05:45]
And that stuff is hard to learn
[00:05:47]
on the fly, especially when
you're mowing yards all day.
[00:05:49]
You're exhausted.
[00:05:50]
You don't want to do bookkeeping
when you come home at night.
[00:05:52]
So it's our job to enable that that hard
[00:05:54]
working lawn care service provider to just
spend time with their family on the nights
[00:05:58]
and weekends, not like passing out fliers
or or spend it doing emailing out invoices
[00:06:04]
and all the stuff that they
typically would have to do.
[00:06:06]
So that's that's really our purpose.
[00:06:08]
That's that's why we exist.
[00:06:09]
And it kind of stems from my fifteen
years in the business.
[00:06:13]
You know, it's hard to make
a living mowing yards.
[00:06:15]
You wake up at the crack of dawn every
morning, you sharpen lawnmower blades,
[00:06:19]
you do all that you're
working for two hours for.
[00:06:21]
You've made a dime.
And and then you have to, like,
[00:06:24]
sweat your butt off all day doing really
taxing, taxing, physical, hard labor.
[00:06:28]
And then, like I was mentioning at night,
[00:06:30]
...
55 min
February 25, 2021 Competitive Gaming
JD Uhler - XP League
JD Uhler has been helping kids work computers for quite a few years now. He owns CodeNinjas in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. Teach your kids to code. That's some great advice that will guarantee a lucrative career. Actually, it may make more sense for coders to teach your kid to code. That is where CodeNinjas comes in.
Add into that the XP League, which JD manages. This is the world of competitive gaming for kids where you have some serious competition you can watch, or play, from anywhere.
These kids practice, learn, teach, grow and even condition themselves to be the best gamers possible. Listen as JD explains the ins and outs of kids coding, as well as competitive gaming.
Enjoy!
Visit JD at: https://www.xpleague.com/

[00:00:06]
You have found
Authentic Business Adventures,
[00:00:08]
the business program that brings you
the struggles stories and triumphant
[00:00:12]
successes of business
owners across the land.
[00:00:15]
My name is James Kademan, entrepreneur,
[00:00:17]
author, speaker and helpful coach to
small business owners across the country.
[00:00:20]
And today we're welcoming/preparing
[00:00:22]
to learn from JD Uhler,
the league commissioner of XP League,
[00:00:26]
as well as the co-owner
of Code Ninjas Sun Prairie. So JD,
[00:00:29]
how are you doing today?
[00:00:31]
Great, I'm doing well,
thanks for having me on.
[00:00:33]
Awesome.
Yeah, thanks for being here.
[00:00:35]
So let's start with XP League.
[00:00:38]
I have to apologize because outside
[00:00:40]
of your email address,
I've never heard of it.
[00:00:42]
So you can just tell me
or tell us what it is.
[00:00:45]
Yep.
So XP League.
[00:00:47]
So I am the league commissioner
of the Madison Division of the XP League.
[00:00:51]
It is in the US and Canada.
[00:00:53]
It's a youth e-sports league
for ages 7 to 15.
[00:00:57]
So elementary middle school
[00:00:59]
in Sun Prairie we have upper
middle school up to ninth grade.
[00:01:02]
So we have the cut off before they get in
the 10th grade or they can drive a car.
[00:01:06]
That's kind of what we talk about.
[00:01:08]
And so, yeah, it's competitive video
games. Competitive video games?
[00:01:12]
So playing them or creating? Competitive
[00:01:15]
video games or they're
playing against others.
[00:01:18]
Oh, interesting.
So.
[00:01:19]
Yep.
All right.
[00:01:20]
It is.
[00:01:22]
Is it limited to a certain type of video
game or is it just whatever you got?
[00:01:27]
We limit it to games that are appropriate
for the 7 to 15 age group.
[00:01:32]
OK. So we do not do Call of Duty.
[00:01:35]
People want to know if we do Call of Duty.
[00:01:36]
We don't do that,
but we do do Overwatch,
[00:01:40]
which is a team of six game, Fortnite
squads, which is a team of four,
[00:01:46]
and then Rocket League,
which is also a team of four.
[00:01:49]
And then we're adding more
games this year yet too so.
[00:01:51]
All right, interesting.
[00:01:53]
So my buddies and I back
in the day we used to play Halo.
[00:01:56]
Yeah.
[00:01:57]
Online and I was terrible because I
didn't really play it that often.
[00:02:01]
My buddies were good, but we always
joked that they weren't Internet good
[00:02:06]
because you go into a room and I
would get smoked in five seconds.
[00:02:11]
Yep.
[00:02:11]
And my buddies would
maybe last two minutes.
[00:02:14]
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
[00:02:15]
Which is that in five seconds.
[00:02:18]
But I'm like how are these kids this
[00:02:20]
good.
[00:02:22]
The equivalent
to Halo or Quaker or something like today.
[00:02:27]
Because I am old school too, first
generation gamer as they call us.
[00:02:31]
But now
like Fortnite.
[00:02:34]
Yeah exactly.
Yeah.
[00:02:36]
Fortnite is the is like super popular
of course and that's a battle royale
[00:02:42]
format when you play it on the Internet
and battle royale, meaning you,
[00:02:47]
you get up from an airplane and
you parachute down to a place and then you
[00:02:51]
have to be the last one
standing and then you win.
[00:02:53]
So it's like, oh, all right,
winner take all type of thing.
[00:02:58]
What we've done at XP
League is change that.
[00:03:00]
So we've changed into a team game.
[00:03:02]
So you actually have a team of four
[00:03:04]
that drops down into the world
and plays against another team of four.
[00:03:08]
And the last man standing of those eight,
the team with the last man standing wins.
[00:03:14]
So it's a team game.
[00:03:15]
We actually have to team
up to beat another team.
[00:03:19]
All right.
So that's what that's all about.
[00:03:22]
It's all about team sports.
[00:03:23]
And we play seasons rather than events.
[00:03:26]
A lot of people are used
to these like every quarter.
[00:03:29]
There's like a pop up event
that has like five hundred people.
[00:03:32]
Well, this is like a team of four, like in
your local community that you play with.
[00:03:36]
You get a rapport with your team,
[00:03:38]
you build teamwork and you have
a coach and you get better and better.
[00:03:42]
And then you compete against teams all
across the country, California
[00:03:47]
to North Carolina, to Ottawa,
Canada, and back to Madison.
[00:03:52]
I'm just picturing a lot of Mountain Dew
[00:03:53]
instead of Gatorade is the kind of thing
That is interesting.
[00:03:57]
So the kids are coached.
Yes.
[00:04:01]
Yes.
So who is the coach?
[00:04:03]
Yeah.
So we have
[00:04:05]
we have all of our coaches are certified
by the Positive Coaching Alliance.
[00:04:09]
Okay.
[00:04:10]
The PCA also certifies Major League
Baseball, NBA, college coaches.
[00:04:17]
And we're the first E-Sports
[00:04:22]
brand or on in the PCA.
[00:04:25]
So we have like E Sports
have certified coaches.
[00:04:28]
All right.
[00:04:29]
So they they are
we have like a head coach.
[00:04:33]
That's like a hired position.
[00:04:35]
He's like our head coach.
[00:04:36]
So he coordinates all coaches.
[00:04:38]
And then our coaches are. Full time job?
[00:04:41]
He's like, yep, he's like
a full time job with us.
[00:04:45]
Wow.
[00:04:46]
So he does like coaching guides and
you works with those coaches on being
[00:04:51]
a better E-sports coach or just
coaching techniques dealing with.
[00:04:55]
And these are kids.
[00:04:56]
So sometimes it's their first
opportunity to be coached,
[00:05:00]
especially in E-sports,
is probably definitely the first time.
[00:05:03]
And so like at the beginning level,
they have to be good with kids about like,
[00:05:07]
OK, you've never played soccer before,
you never played basketball before.
[00:05:10]
Well, you've never
played Over Watch before.
[00:05:12]
So we have to get to the
basics of how you play.
[00:05:15]
What are the controls, what's the goal?
[00:05:17]
How do you work as a team?
[00:05:19]
And like the advanced players are like
[00:05:22]
thirteen, fourteen, fifteen
year old they already know.
[00:05:24]
And so they just need to get drills done,
[00:05:26]
become better technical players
and come become better communicators.
[00:05:30]
So that's what the coaches
focus on at the different levels.
[00:05:33]
And our coaches are we have dads,
[00:05:37]
the coach that we train
and get the certification.
[00:05:40]
We've got college students,
we've got high school senior captains of
[00:05:46]
the Edgewood High School overwatch team
that are coaching.
[00:05:49]
And those are like assistant coaches,
[00:05:50]
we call it, because they're really there,
because they know the game so well
[00:05:54]
and they're on they love it because
they're on a path to an E sports career
[00:05:58]
in playing, coaching, streaming,
which we know is the gateway to getting
[00:06:03]
into STEM jobs and computers
and automation jobs in the future.
[00:06:07]
All right.
[00:06:08]
When you say a career in gaming,
are you talking the kind of the YouTube
[00:06:12]
kids that go on there and play the game,
comment on it and then, yeah,
[00:06:16]
there's so there's professional E Sports
players that are making multiple.
[00:06:20]
Multiple.
Multiple million dollars a year.
[00:06:22]
Now New York Times has an article about
[00:06:25]
how much money they're making,
which is professional level sport money.
[00:06:32]
That's just one thing, though, because
[00:06:35]
there's also the business of E sports,
which is every job you can think of,
[00:06:39]
just like an NFL team or
an MLS team or whatnot.
[00:06:43]
They've got a whole group of people
behind them doing a promotion, doing
[00:06:50]
equipment,
[00:06:51]
even like there's a chef for the team,
things like that, to be eating healthy.
[00:06:57]
Yes.
[00:06:57]
I'm just picturing like, here's
a bag of Doritos and a frozen pizza.
[00:07:01]
Yeah, that's exactly.
[00:07:02]
And that's what we're trying to change
the the way that's looked at because.
[00:07:05]
Yeah, like I literally have an energy
drink by me here too, with rock star.
[00:07:10]
But
[00:07:12]
but for EA Sports playing, I mean,
[00:07:14]
it is grueling because you can be
in a tournament all day long and all
[00:07:17]
night, especially at the pro level
where it's like, you know,
[00:07:21]
bathroom breaks and bad
eating habits come into play.
[00:07:25]
So at a young youth level, we teach them
healthy eating habits.
[00:07:30]
Fitness, even carpal tunnel is real,
[00:07:32]
...
55 min
February 24, 2021 How to Train Your Employees -Ep151
Andrew Schmitz - Co-Founder of Proceed.app
Every employer has to train their employees. It can be tough, time-consuming and challenging to figure out how your new employee learns. How do you train your employees while making sure that you cover everything, get it done so that the new employee can understand the training and make sure that you can repeat the process?
That's where Andrew at Proceed.app comes in. The rule in business is to systematize everything, and Andrew and his team have done that with employee training.
Listen as Andrew explains how they created a system to help employers train employees. Even to the point of not being worried when an employee fails to show up or quits. As long as you can find a person able to do the job, your training through Proceed.app can make sure that replacement employee gets up to speed quickly and efficiently.
Enjoy!
Visit Andrew at: https://proceed.app
Want to hear more? Hit it: [themo_button text="More Business Podcast Episodes" url="https://drawincustomers.com/category/podcast/" type="standard"]

You have found Authentic Business Adventures,
the business program that brings you the struggles,
stories and triumph ant successes of business owners across the land.
We are underwritten locally by the Bank of Sun Prairie.
My name is James Kademan, entrepreneur,
author, speaker and helpful coach, to small business owners across the country.
And today we're welcoming slash preparing
to learn from Andrew Schmitz, co-founder of Proceed.a pp.
Andrew, how are you doing today?
Hey, I'm doing well. Thanks for having me on,
james. T hanks for being on the show.
I'm excited because I love talking
to people that got essentially software making the money
It's like an endless multiplier, which I love.
So, yeah, no, I agree.
I love software for that very reason as well.
Yeah.
There's there seems to be a lot of companies that are doing OK
with software, so I think you pick the right niche.
Yeah, well, we'll see.
We'll let the audience decide, I guess. Yeah, that's fair.
That's totally fair.
Why don't we start with you telling us what is the app?
Yeah, happy to.
So that app is a cloud based mobile app and browser app.
Basically, businesses use us to create
standard operating procedures, training materials, safety instructions,
work guides and other forms of operational documentation using photos and videos.
So we call ourselves a visual knowledge
management system and we help businesses, train employees, support employees,
all that jazz through visual operational documents.
All right.
So it sounds like if I understand this correctly,
the problem that you're solving is essentially people were either messing up
or misunderstanding would have given company was doing or is doing or employees
were just not being trained very well or efficiently, is it?
Exactly. So the the kind of problems or challenges
that we help businesses through, they kind of vary.
But at the end of the day, if you're
depending on people doing things with their hands,
we're a more efficient and more thorough way of showing people what to do versus
telling them what to do with text based documentation.
And as it turns out, sixty five percent of humans identify as visual learners.
Yet the minority of our operational documents are text based.
Sure.
So we we like to say sixty five percent of humans are visual learners.
Well, sixty five percent of your employees are most likely visual learners.
So why not use visuals to train them
to capture the knowledge that they know about your business as well?
So holding on to institutional knowledge or tribal knowledge, but
more importantly, just being really quick in terms of how to show people what to do
versus having them read manuals and binders that sit on shelves.
All right. I just picture the kid that got hired
at McDonald's that's just thrown in some back room to just watch these videos.
Yeah. Yeah.
So food service like McDonald's is
definitely an industry that we play in the industries that we we
probably have more traction in our manufacturing facilities.
All right.
As well at fabrication centers and distribution centers, logistics.
So they're usually like really highly
technical positions and jobs that have a lot of knowhow and technical knowledge.
And we just make it easier for them
to create standard operating procedures and training materials.
You know, the thing I think about, James,
something that I bring up often when talking about that app is
if you had to create a standard operating procedure on your shoes.
Right.
What words would you type into Google Doc to make that happen?
Kindergartner,
I mean, it's such a simple task, we all know how to tie your shoes,
but like, what words would you use to describe that process?
It would be really difficult.
It would it would be extremely difficult. Yeah.
I'm just thinking now I got a kid
that I've been trying to teach him to tie his shoes for two years now.
Yeah. And he does it every time he does it.
I look at his shoes and I'm like, those aren't tight.
Yeah. I'm going to be a shoe when, you know,
whatever if you had to text him and I know he's he's two years old,
but if you had to text him instructions, like what words would you use.
Right. Boy, screw it, get Velcro.
It's way easier to to capture that process using visuals.
And it turns out the same is true in a lot of business operations.
You know, it's easier to take photos
and videos to show people what to do than it is to sit there and try to think
of words and type words onto a piece of paper that maybe one person will read
one way and another person will read another way.
Sure, you avoid the misinterpretation as well.
Exactly.
So these are kind of the problems that we help businesses with.
It's more efficient, it's more thorough, and it's easier.
You don't have to be a videographer, photographer to do this stuff.
It's easy in the mobile app.
It capture everything directly in the app.
There's no file management if you know how to use like Facebook or
social media platforms, you know how to use Pursey.
Not at all. Right.
So that's in a nutshell,
kind of some of the issues and problems that we have with.
So how long have you got? How long have
you are there business partners involved? Yeah, yeah.
So I'm really fortunate to have two awesome business partners,
Darren and Mike.
They are the technical and the sales
and products, what we call product owner and so project manager.
But sales, marketing and then product owners are my rolls.
But yeah, Darren and Mike are on the team.
We've been launched for about a year at the end of January
and twenty twenty was when we brought our system online.
So we've had a fun year of events and growth and we twenty twenty I think
for a lot of business owners was way more than we bargained for.
So
but we were able to make it through and had a lot of positive growth,
learned a lot about our business and about our customers.
So yeah. But yeah, we've been around for about
a year and Darren and Mike are my business partners.
OK, so how did you guys come up with this
idea? Were you at a job and you're like, oh my gosh, the training here is terrible.
Well, I'll tell you this.
So I've been an entrepreneur for as long as I can remember.
I mean, at least not maybe not in the official sense,
but I've always loved solving problems, building things,
seeing if I can make enough value for someone to give me some money in return.
A similar to I'm sure you, James.
So I've been doing that kind of stuff for a while.
I had a business in middle school, actually, a genuine business that I grew.
...
1 hr 1 min
February 12, 2021 How Live Your Dream Job As a Writer – Ep150
Peter Egan - Writer and Columnist for Road and Track and Cycle World Magazines
Everyone has a hero of some kind. Someone they look up to or admire. Someone that inspires them. For me, that someone is the great writer, Peter Egan. You see, Peter has the uncanny knack for putting into the written words the feelings and thoughts that drivers of great cars and riders of beautiful motorcycles have as they progress through their journeys. To express thoughts and emotion as Peter does is a characteristic that is rare in any writer, let alone an automotive journalist.
Taking this a step further, it was Peter's writing that inspired me to write my first book, The BOLD Business Book. He will inspire you as well.
Listen as Peter explains his journey of decades to become a renowned and prolific writer in the world of pistons, tires and oil. He went from being broke and broke down on a motorcycle cross country trip to inspiring thousands with his writing. Lucky breaks or the universe doing all of us a favor, whatever happened, we are all very fortunate to be able to read the writings of Peter Egan.
Enjoy!
Visit Peter at: https://www.amazon.com/Peter-Egan/e/B001I9OL5W
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#rt-tooltip-481654420 .rt-tooltip-bottom:after{color:#ffffff;}#rt-tpg-container-481654420 .read-more a{border-radius:px;}#rt-tpg-container-481654420 .rt-img-holder img.rt-img-responsive,#rt-tpg-container-481654420 .rt-img-holder,
#rt-tpg-container-481654420 .rt-post-overlay .post-img,
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#rt-tpg-container-481654420 .rt-post-grid .post-img,
#rt-tpg-container-481654420 .post-img img {border-radius:px;}Stuart Faught (Mini Horse): 90?Day $100K SaaS FlipListen NowTerence Leclere (Metaforyou): Immersive Guest Engagement SecretsListen NowMatthew DuBoise (Carolina Coops) From Craigslist Hustle to National BrandListen NowInjury Law SecretsListen NowAdvertise in the Right SpotsListen NowMergers and AcquisitionsListen NowHelping Abuse VictimsListen NowPR through Press ReleasesListen NowHer Sovereign WayListen NowFrom Passion to Fashion – Max RetailListen NowHunting and TravelListen NowBuilding a Junk Removal EmpireListen NowHow to Use Cost SegregationListen NowData Driven Real Estate InvestingListen NowIV Bars to ReenergizeListen NowThe Power of PRListen NowBreaking Barriers to LiteracyListen NowHow to Own a CampgroundListen NowHelping Entrepreneurs Buy HomesListen NowNavigating Insurance PitfallsListen NowWhat is Thai MassageListen NowHow to Stage a HomeListen NowHow to Get a KetubahListen NowExpand Your Biz InternationallyListen NowLearn How to Play Golf BetterListen NowHow to Invest in NotesListen NowReal Stories of Legal Struggles and SuccessesListen NowMind and Body WellnessListen NowGio’s Garden – Respite, Therapy and Resources for Families with Special Needs ChildrenListen NowBuilding Your Personal BrandListen NowDisneyfy Your Business for SuccessListen NowUnderstanding Health InsuranceListen NowUnlocking Hidden RevenueListen NowTimeclock SoftwareListen NowBe a Podcast GuestListen NowWhy a Virtual CFO May Be Just What You NeedListen NowBecome a Authority by Becoming an AuthorListen NowSpanish Immersion Daycare and PreschoolListen NowMarry Money and Opportunity with Real EstateListen NowThe Business of Micro GreensListen NowFed Up FoodsListen NowLearn to See, Learn to PaintListen NowProperty Investing InsightsListen NowThe Financial Backend of Property InvestingListen NowHow to Make a Living With Your ArtListen NowHow to Be An ElectricianListen NowSolving Veterinary Clinic Chaos: Inside the World of Vet Receptionist Remote Call ServicesListen NowHow to Update Your Kitchen CabinetsListen NowThe Elevator of WealthListen NowHow to Use AI for Video ShortsListen NowBusiness Credit For Small BusinessListen NowHow to Be a Mentor with Big Brothers Big SistersListen NowHow to Build a Charcuterie Board BusinessListen NowMarket Your Business with Human DesignListen NowHow to Find a Property ManagerListen NowThe Founder of HAROListen NowGet Into FlowListen NowUse Live Video for BusinessListen NowBuilding a Nearshore TeamListen NowCreating Safe Skincare ProductsListen NowThe Passive Income GuideListen NowHow to Start a Veterinary PracticeListen NowHow to Keep Kids ActiveListen NowDress For Success Made
1 hr 8 min
February 04, 2021 How to Be Your Own Bank – Ep149
Sarry Ibrahim - Financial Asset Protection
If there is one thing that is tough to talk about for most people, it is death. That's probably a good thing. In the spirit of good things is also talking about life, and the fun things you get to do while living.
What if we were to combine those topics and add in some money and business talk combined with investment strategies? This is where Sarry Ibrahim comes in. Sarry is a member of the Bank On Yourself group and owner of Financial Asset Protection. Sarry preaches to people about using whole life insurance to create sustainable wealth over time.
The beauty of using life insurance like this is that you can borrow against it. That is to say, if you invested in a whole life insurance policy, as Sarry is recommending, once the value reaches a certain point, you can then essentially be your own bank. You can then fund your business, or do other potentially money making things with this borrowed money.
My rule is to never borrow money for something that will not pay for the opportunity cost of that borrowed money, so I wouldn't recommend going out and buying a boat.
Listen as Sarry details the how and why of building your wealth through whole life insurance on this episode of the best business podcast.
Enjoy!
Visit Sarry at: https://finassetprotection.com/
Want to hear more? Hit it: [themo_button text="More Business Podcast Episodes" url="https://drawincustomers.com/category/podcast/" type="standard"]

[00:00:06]
You have found
[00:00:07]
Authentic Business Adventures,
the business program that brings you
[00:00:10]
the struggle
stories and triumphant successes
[00:00:13]
of business owners across
the land. Coming to you.
[00:00:16]
Well, we're just wherever we are,
[00:00:17]
right? Sarry, I don't even know where
you are today. Where are you at?
[00:00:21]
Hey, James, I'm actually
in Chicago, Illinois.
[00:00:23]
Awesome.
[00:00:24]
OK, well, you're not that far
just by Madison here.
[00:00:26]
So we're we're both
in the somewhat frozen tundra.
[00:00:30]
Right.
[00:00:31]
Past episodes
of the Authentic Business Adventures
[00:00:34]
podcast, just as a reminder can be found at
DrawInCustomers.com/podcast.
[00:00:39]
My name is James Kademan, entrepreneur,
[00:00:41]
author, speaker and helpful coach to small
business owners across the country.
[00:00:45]
And today we are welcoming/preparing
to learn from Sarry Ibrahim,
[00:00:49]
a financial professional,
a member of the Bank on Yourself
[00:00:52]
organization and the owner
of Financial Asset Protection.
[00:00:56]
So, Sarry, how are you doing today?
Hey, James.
[00:00:58]
Good, good.
How are you?
[00:00:59]
I'm doing very well.
I'm doing very well.
[00:01:01]
I'm excited.
[00:01:02]
And I guess I'd be lying if I said
I wasn't a little bit curious.
[00:01:07]
So let's just dig right into it.
[00:01:08]
What is Financial Asset Protection?
The business?
[00:01:12]
Yeah, definitely.
[00:01:13]
So we are a financial services
firm located in Chicago, Illinois.
[00:01:16]
Pretty much what we do is we help
clients build safe, predictable wealth.
[00:01:20]
A lot of our clients are business
owners and real estate investors.
[00:01:23]
We don't typically work with mutual funds
or index funds or the stock market.
[00:01:28]
We typically work with a little known
[00:01:30]
strategy that is secure and has
guaranteed and predictable growth.
[00:01:35]
All right.
So pretty much kind of started.
[00:01:37]
This company has been around for about five
[00:01:39]
years, but during that time, actually,
the way I got into this whole
[00:01:44]
organization and everything was through
Medicare, I was a Medicare consultant
[00:01:47]
and I was working with a lot of retirees,
people who were like 64,
[00:01:50]
65 years old and pretty
much merging onto their own plans.
[00:01:53]
And I was there consultant at that time
[00:01:55]
and one of my clients asked
me about life insurance.
[00:01:58]
He's like, hey, you're a broker, right?
[00:01:59]
Could you help me with life insurance?
[00:02:01]
And I told him I had my license,
[00:02:02]
but I wasn't really sure exactly
of the intricate parts of life insurance.
[00:02:06]
It is like he wanted life insurance
[00:02:08]
that also had cash value in it, like
a savings account that grew over time.
[00:02:12]
And I wasn't really sure
of what he was referring to.
[00:02:14]
So I told him I would do research for him.
[00:02:15]
I get back to him and I did.
[00:02:16]
And I went to Amazon and I searched
for books about life insurance.
[00:02:19]
And then came across this book called
The Bank On Yourself Revolution
[00:02:22]
by Pamela Yellen and pretty much talks
about this strategy called the Bank
[00:02:26]
on Yourself Strategy or the bank on yourself concept.
[00:02:29]
It's also similar to the
infinite banking concept.
[00:02:31]
Pretty much it's using an insurance
product to build up wealth over time
[00:02:36]
and to not have to worry about the stock
market, to not have to rely on banks.
[00:02:40]
And also, while you're doing this, you
can become your own source of financing.
[00:02:43]
So that's what we do and that's
what we help clients do.
[00:02:46]
Interesting.
[00:02:47]
So you're dealing with Medicare
at the time you were how old is this guy?
[00:02:51]
He was like seventy
around seventy years old.
[00:02:53]
And he's coming to you
looking for a whole life policy.
[00:02:56]
Yeah.
So that's a good question, actually.
[00:02:58]
Good observation.
So it's hard to do that when you're around
[00:03:01]
seventy years old, but it's still possible
you can still underwriting is a little bit
[00:03:05]
less strict when it's when you're
working with single premium cases.
[00:03:09]
That's where it's like a lump sum case
[00:03:11]
into a life insurance policy,
like somebody is rolling over a 401k IRA.
[00:03:15]
The underwriting behind that seems to be
could be a little bit less strict.
[00:03:18]
But yeah, typically life insurance,
[00:03:20]
you want to get that when you're
younger years to get better rates on it.
[00:03:23]
Sure, because I imagine
[00:03:25]
a policy for 70 year old guy is ten
thousand dollars a month or something
[00:03:30]
like a 70 year old guy dying isn't like,
[00:03:32]
oh my gosh, get the front
page of the newspaper ready.
[00:03:37]
I don't know what the average lifespan is,
[00:03:39]
but I imagine for a guy, it's in the
neighborhood of seventy two seventy four.
[00:03:43]
Yeah.
[00:03:44]
Typically in that situation they would be
doing like a single premium case,
[00:03:48]
like rolling over like four hundred
thousand dollars and he would instantly
[00:03:51]
have like six hundred thousand
dollars life insurance.
[00:03:54]
That's, that's a typical case
with somebody over the age of 70 or even
[00:03:57]
over the age of sixty five
doing one of these policies.
[00:04:01]
And then is he at that point,
is he also receiving a monthly nut?
[00:04:06]
So no it's actually at that point he'd
be paying up the whole policy.
[00:04:09]
It's like buying a house in cash.
[00:04:10]
He'd be pretty much buying it all up
[00:04:12]
and then not have to pay
anything on top of that.
[00:04:14]
But he would have liquidity.
[00:04:15]
He'd be able to borrow against that cash
[00:04:17]
value at any time and then still
have it grow, still have it grow
[00:04:21]
even when he borrowed that money.
[00:04:23]
Imagine you have a savings account
that's earning you five percent interest
[00:04:27]
on it and then you want
it to access that money.
[00:04:29]
If you access from it,
you would interrupt the growth of it.
[00:04:32]
Right.
[00:04:33]
But if you borrow against it,
let's say you could borrow against it
[00:04:35]
and then pay like two percent interest
on that loan that you borrow against it.
[00:04:39]
You can still get the growth in the policy
while being able to use that money.
[00:04:42]
That's kind of what this
whole strategy is about.
[00:04:44]
It's about growing the wealth.
[00:04:45]
And then when you want to access it,
[00:04:47]
you borrow against it
from a different source.
[00:04:49]
So that way you're not interrupting
the growth of the of your money.
[00:04:53]
Oh, interesting.
All right.
[00:04:54]
We just you brought up a couple of things.
[00:04:58]
I'm like, wait, what? First of all,
[00:04:59]
what a savings account that's paying
five percent because I want to find that one.
[00:05:04]
Exactly, yeah.
[00:05:06]
The one that I have is like point zero one percent.
[00:05:09]
That's pretty typical.
[00:05:10]
Yeah, I don't think there's any savings
[00:05:11]
account that's paying five percent
interest right now. And then,
[00:05:14]
yeah, and then you mentioned that you can
[00:05:16]
essentially borrow against your
investment without losing.
[00:05:22]
So let's just say just for easy numbers,
[00:05:24]
I say I got a five hundred
thousand dollar investment,
[00:05:27]
I want to buy a boat, whatever.
[00:05:29]
So I pull a hundred thousand
dollars out of that.
[00:05:32]
I'm not reducing the interest earning
power of my five hundred thousand.
[00:05:36]
Correct, exactly.
You're borrowing against it.
[00:05:39]
All right.
[00:05:39]
So tell me, I guess just help
me understand how that works.
[00:05:43]
Yeah, definitely.
So we are
[00:05:46]
pretty much what we're talking about here
[00:05:47]
is using a whole life insurance
...
57 min
January 28, 2021 How to Market Your Business On a Budget – Ep148
Ross Kimbarovsky - CrowdSpring.com
Nothing brings truth to the mantra, "It's a small world after all," like technology. With the dawn of the internet and email, we have essentially brought the masses access to, well, the masses. That is to say, you as a business owner could have a designer create a logo for you in whatever corner of the globe they happen to hang out at.
The challenge, of course, is knowing what designer would do a great job for you. Add in the challenges of value and payment and suddenly the designer across the street looks more accessible.
But what if you could get more done, easier, with your design needs and have multiple options to choose from? Suddenly the designer across the street looks limited, expensive and somewhat archaic in nature.
Ross Kimbarovsky has essentially brought high quality design to any entrepreneur with internet access. As an entrepreneur himself, he has solved one of the many challenges those starting businesses may face. In this case, the challenge has much to do with how your business looks to the world. Basically, what is the face of your business?
Through CrowdSpring.com, Ross brings those in need of some design easy, affordable access to that design. He made the deal a no-brainer by having designers compete for your business based on their designs.
Listen as Ross explains the joys, challenges and solutions that starting his business, CrowdSpring.com has brought him and the world.
Enjoy!
Visit Ross at: https://www.crowdspring.com/
my personal site
https://rosskimbarovsky.com/
crowdspring small business blog
https://www.crowdspring.com/blog/
Twitter
https://www.twitter.com/rosskimbarovsky
https://wwww.twitter.com/crowdspring
LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosskimbarovsky
Our blog has a ton of resources and deep pieces on important topics. Here are a few highlights from the blog and our site (where we also publish long-form content) - some mentioned during our conversation:
Complete guide to building a strong brand identity
https://www.crowdspring.com/blog/brand-identity/
Complete guide to branding
https://www.crowdspring.com/blog/branding/
Complete guide to rebranding
https://www.crowdspring.com/blog/how-to-rebrand/
Complete guide to writing a business plan
https://www.crowdspring.com/how-to-write-a-business-plan/
Complete guide to starting a business
https://www.crowdspring.com/how-to-start-a-business/
Guide to marketing psychology
https://www.crowdspring.com/marketing-psychology/
Complete guide to how much custom design costs
https://www.crowdspring.com/cost-of-design/
Want to hear more? Hit it: [themo_button text="More Business Podcast Episodes" url="https://drawincustomers.com/category/podcast/" type="standard"]

[00:00:03.680]
You have found Authentic
[00:00:04.120]
Business Adventures, the business program that brings you
[00:00:06.320]
the struggle stories and triumphant
[00:00:08.820]
successes of business owners across the land.
[00:00:11.320]
We are locally underwritten
by the Bank of Sun Prairie.
[00:00:13.720]
My name is James Kademan, entrepreneur,
[00:00:15.680]
author, speaker and helpful coach to small
business owners across the country.
[00:00:19.280]
And today I am excited because we are
going to welcome/prepare to learn
[00:00:24.240]
from Ross Kimbarovsky,
founder and CEO of CrowdSpring.com
[00:00:28.480]
The interesting thing is
Ross has so much going on that
[00:00:33.360]
we're going to try to cram as much
content as we can in the short time.
[00:00:37.200]
So, Ross, how are you doing today?
Good.
[00:00:39.360]
Happy to be here talking
with you and your listeners.
[00:00:41.960]
Yeah, yeah.
This is super cool.
[00:00:43.720]
So let's start just basic foundation here.
[00:00:46.400]
What is crowdspring.com?
[00:00:49.160]
So Crowd Spring was a company I started
we launched in 2008.
[00:00:53.640]
I started working on in 2006.
[00:00:55.480]
So we've been a business for 12 years and
over two hundred twenty thousand
[00:00:59.720]
creatives, designers and namers have
helped entrepreneurs, small businesses,
[00:01:04.760]
agencies and non-profits with everything
from logo design to packaging design,
[00:01:09.240]
web design, product design
and naming businesses.
[00:01:12.920]
We ultimately were able to reduce pricing.
[00:01:16.040]
Great design does not have to cost
tens of thousands of dollars.
[00:01:19.240]
Project started two hundred ninety
nine dollars, including our fees.
[00:01:22.080]
And the beauty for small businesses is
that we flipped the model upside down
[00:01:26.200]
instead of picking from bits and proposals
you pick from actual designs,
[00:01:30.280]
custom designs for your new business
or for your existing business.
[00:01:34.560]
So it changes the way you hire designers
upside down and gives business owners
[00:01:39.160]
control. Interesting, you know,
it's your when you reach out
[00:01:43.880]
to me, the coolest thing or I shoudl say you're
[00:01:47.000]
your admin or
whatever reached out to me.
[00:01:49.680]
I looked at the website and I thought, oh,
man, I come from a graphic design
[00:01:53.780]
background where I went
to school for graphic design.
[00:01:56.480]
I ran with it for a couple of years.
[00:01:58.000]
Then I decided that sitting on a desk
that long wasn't my cup of tea.
[00:02:01.760]
But it's interesting how I mean,
that was early to late 90s.
[00:02:08.120]
It's interesting how graphic design has
[00:02:10.680]
changed just the purchasing of it,
let alone the creation of it.
[00:02:15.200]
Well, part of it was part of it was
driven by just change in the tools.
[00:02:18.840]
It used to be that tools were not
accessible to to regular people.
[00:02:23.960]
You had to be a designer.
[00:02:25.120]
You had to use sophisticated tools.
[00:02:26.680]
And of course, when you got to computers,
computers were expensive originally.
[00:02:30.520]
And as tools became more accessible,
[00:02:32.840]
not just in graphic design,
but photography is a great example.
[00:02:36.160]
There are phenomenally gifted amateur
photographers who whose work is on par
[00:02:41.660]
with some of the best
photographers in the world.
[00:02:44.360]
But as soon as the tools became available,
digital cameras became more affordable.
[00:02:49.520]
People started photographing
things and designer the same way.
[00:02:53.600]
So there's a wealth
of designers around the world.
[00:02:56.320]
We have a community of two
hundred twenty thousand.
[00:02:58.320]
They come from 195 countries.
[00:03:00.240]
And where it used to be, you had to work
as a designer for a design agency.
[00:03:04.240]
Today, if you have talent
[00:03:06.920]
and you're able to create great design,
you can live anywhere,
[00:03:11.680]
you can be anyone and you can work
with some of the world's best clients.
[00:03:15.680]
That is so cool to talk about
gig economy, holy cow.
[00:03:19.240]
Well, very much so.
[00:03:20.120]
And I mean, there are lots of industries
that move in that direction.
[00:03:22.960]
But but but it opens up the world
to to both sides because think about it.
[00:03:26.760]
For small businesses,
one of the biggest challenges is actually
[00:03:29.553]
what motivated me
to start Crowd Spring.
[00:03:31.240]
One of the biggest challenges for small
[00:03:32.920]
businesses is, is how do you find
a designer or a design agency?
[00:03:36.920]
And when you do,
how do you make design affordable?
[00:03:40.120]
Because agencies historically have charged
[00:03:42.320]
tens of thousands of dollars
to help businesses with design.
[00:03:45.480]
And then even if it's if it's somewhat
affordable, how do you ensure that what
[00:03:49.920]
you get is actually good quality
that you're going to be happy with?
[00:03:53.040]
Because if you're getting one or two
[00:03:54.430]
pieces of design and you have to choose,
that's not much choice.
[00:03:57.880]
And those are the problems we set
out to solve initially because I was
[00:04:02.520]
frustrated as a consumer,
as a business owner looking to get custom
[00:04:07.720]
design, I was frustrated that it
was expensive, it was inaccessible.
[00:04:12.200]
It was hard to find I had
problems transferring files.
[00:04:17.560]
And I also had a tough time
communicating with designers.
[00:04:20.120]
So you're a designer when you hire
designers, you know the language
[00:04:24.320]
that they speak and you can communicate
these things or you can do it yourself.
[00:04:28.000]
But most business owners
are not designers.
[00:04:30.400]
They don't speak the same language.
[00:04:32.120]
And this is where we thought we can help.
[00:04:33.960]
So we thought we could solve
every part of the problem.
[00:04:37.840]
For a business owner looking
to hire designers and agencies,
[00:04:42.560]
give them custom design at a fraction
of the price they used to pay.
[00:04:45.640]
And and this is this is the beautiful
part, is open up
[00:04:49.680]
the world to all of designers everywhere
because you're no longer restricted.
[00:04:53.840]
If you're in Manhattan,
only working for clients that are next
[00:04:57.040]
block from you, you can work with the
client anywhere, whether you're in
[00:05:00.120]
Manhattan, or you're sitting on a mountain
in Katmandu. That is awesome.
[00:05:05.800]
That is so cool.
It's interesting
how I guess what you have
[00:05:08.780]
going on, it sounds like from a
couple of different directions
[00:05:12.080]
...
1 hr 12 min
January 20, 2021 How to start and Run and Undercoating Business – Ep147
Ernesto Jamie - Madison Auto Protection & Rustproofing
This is a country that loves cars. As it turns out, in some places, like Wisconsin, have an environment that attacks cars. Salt, road debris and a plethora of other culprits attack out cars and cause them to rust and, arguably worse, tough to work on. The best prevention for this issue is to either buy a new car every year, or protect what you own.
Ernesto and his crew at Madison Auto Protection & Rustproofing makes the choice to protect what you have an easy one.
What sets Ernesto's business apart are two distinct things that most business could learn from: 1) A quality product above all else and 2) A level of service above all else.
Most businesses like to believe that they have the best, but we all know that is not always the case.
Ernesto has brought customer service in the automotive world to another level.
Listen as Ernesto details how he started his business and what has allowed him to receive accolades from his clients that are driving hundreds of miles just to use his services. The man knows how to protect cars.
Enjoy!
Visit Ernesto at: https://madisonautorustproofing.com/
Want to hear more? Hit it: [themo_button text="More Business Podcast Episodes" url="https://drawincustomers.com/category/podcast/" type="standard"]

[00:00:06]
You have found
Authentic Business Adventures,
[00:00:08]
the business program that brings you
the struggle stories and triumphant
[00:00:11]
successes of business owners across
the land.
[00:00:14]
We are locally underwritten by Bank
of Sun Prairie and as you know,
[00:00:18]
past episodes
of Authentic Business Adventures can be
[00:00:21]
found on the podcast link
at DrawInCustomers.com.
[00:00:25]
My name is James Kademan, entrepreneur,
[00:00:27]
author, speaker and helpful coach, to
small business owners across the country.
[00:00:30]
And today I am excited
[00:00:33]
because I am welcoming/preparing
to learn from our Ernesto,
[00:00:37]
the owner of Madison Auto Protection
and Rust Proofing.
[00:00:39]
And he's got a sidekick here, Lester.
So are Ernesto,
[00:00:43]
Lester, how are you guys doing today?
Pretty good.
[00:00:45]
Very well.
Awesome.
[00:00:46]
Awesome.
So let's start Ernesto, with you.
[00:00:49]
What is Madison Auto Protection
and Rust Proofing?
[00:00:52]
Well, it's a company we use.
[00:00:54]
You know, we protect cars.
[00:00:55]
That's what we do, is we take care
of the customer and protect their cars for.
[00:01:00]
All right.
Rust in Wisconsin.
[00:01:02]
So I have to apologize because when I was
[00:01:05]
let's call it 16, 17 years old,
I get my first car.
[00:01:08]
Yeah. I didn't know that
[00:01:10]
they just rust just
by existing in Wisconsin.
[00:01:14]
Yeah.
[00:01:15]
So I learned that.
[00:01:17]
And then I found that you can
get these cans of undercoating.
[00:01:20]
So I was just
I was annihilating the bottom of my car
[00:01:24]
with that stuff and I think I did
more harm than good with that.
[00:01:28]
So it took me a few years to realize
[00:01:29]
that there was actual professional
companies that undercoat your car.
[00:01:34]
So can you talk about why people
undercoat and what it is?
[00:01:38]
I guess the material and stuff like that.
It also depends on materials.
[00:01:41]
You know, during the years I learn,
[00:01:44]
it's like you say, you know,
different materials of work and stuff
[00:01:47]
that don't work, like,
for example, like rubberized on a car.
[00:01:51]
And that's one of products that
[00:01:53]
looks good, but it doesn't
perform the way it should.
[00:01:55]
All right.
So that's one of my one of my experiences
[00:01:59]
on the area of rust proofing cars
that I know what actually works.
[00:02:03]
OK.
[00:02:06]
So let's say if a car works.
[00:02:09]
It was different from anything else.
[00:02:11]
Ours is not rubberized.
[00:02:12]
So it's a self-heal product.
[00:02:13]
And we do have two different
products, which is. OK.
[00:02:16]
We apply them on what you car
can can be applied to. Gotcha.
[00:02:22]
So let's say for like for example,
like a truck like yours.
[00:02:25]
Yeah.
Which is the one with these was like rust
[00:02:28]
free with an older truck,
which is we can do the process of wax and oil.
[00:02:32]
Yeah.
I went
[00:02:34]
I drove a long ways
to get a rust free truck.
[00:02:36]
I had to find one. In Wisconsin
they don't exist.
[00:02:39]
Yeah.
So something like that.
[00:02:40]
You know, we can apply the wax and oil
[00:02:42]
for the first coat will be wax.
[00:02:43]
And on the second is an oil base,
which is, you know, the
[00:02:48]
the oil base is what actually
really works in the long run.
[00:02:52]
But that product would
[00:02:55]
wear off on time.
[00:02:57]
So by applying the wax and oil, you can
keep the oil longer on the actual.
[00:03:02]
Yeah.
OK, so the wax goes on first.
[00:03:06]
Yeah, the wax goes on first.
[00:03:06]
OK, and then there's a second
application of oil on top of the wax.
[00:03:10]
Yeah.
OK, you mentioned self healing.
[00:03:13]
Yeah.
So how does that work.
[00:03:14]
So let's say if you apply the
[00:03:17]
rubberised on the coating,
if you have friction on the frame,
[00:03:21]
there's nothing you can do
with that, it doesn't work.
[00:03:23]
This is the way cars are built.
[00:03:25]
They're going to have friction
[00:03:27]
and that the friction, the friction,
a crack your coating.
[00:03:30]
So that's, that's how you actually have
[00:03:32]
the rubberized
higher product it will crack
[00:03:36]
and would let the water go into the
between the trulock and the metal.
[00:03:41]
And like you just say, you know,
it will make more harm than good
[00:03:44]
in the long run because
the moisture will just not dry.
[00:03:47]
It will stay there.
Yeah.
[00:03:48]
It will start eating up the metal.
Oh, so it essentially gets trapped.
[00:03:51]
Yeah.
[00:03:52]
So you're when you spray that stuff
on there over the course of time,
[00:03:55]
you're essentially creating
places for water to hang out?
[00:03:58]
Pretty much. The opposite of what you're
trying to do. Especially with the brine
[00:04:01]
here in Wisconsin,
you know, and especially
[00:04:04]
the spray so much that stuff is so liquidy
[00:04:08]
it will just stay there and
[00:04:10]
eat the metal so, so. Interesting.
[00:04:13]
Faster than other state. I had
a Jeep Wrangle TJ
[00:04:16]
that I was spraying just so much
undercoating on there
[00:04:20]
and I drove it in the winter one year and
that frame almost didn't exist anymore.
[00:04:26]
Yeah, that's. It was crazy.
[00:04:29]
I thought it was I thought I was
protecting it, but apparently I was harming it.
[00:04:34]
Yeah.
Because he was what it was doing was
[00:04:35]
just dropping everything.
Sure.
[00:04:37]
Interesting.
Yeah.
[00:04:38]
Wow.
So you know, so going back about our
[00:04:41]
process, you know, that's why
the waxing oil is so affective.
[00:04:44]
So let's say with the friction,
you're not going to have that cracking.
[00:04:48]
All right.
The oil will heal the wax sometimes.
[00:04:52]
Yeah.
So that's that's what's so good about it.
[00:04:54]
That's cool.
Yeah.
[00:04:55]
And you do a reapplication every year.
Yeah.
[00:04:58]
So we do a touch up
[00:05:01]
just to make sure everything is
nice and covered. OK, because over the course
[00:05:05]
of time, yeah, because this is
nothing that's forever right now.
[00:05:10]
You got to you got to see the truth when
you're playing,
[00:05:12]
when you print any product, you know,
nothingness, you need maintenance.
[00:05:15]
And everything is just like you think you
[00:05:17]
can't get all your chain three thousand
miles over five thousand miles.
[00:05:21]
So you got to get you under
by taking care the same way.
[00:05:24]
So it's the same thing.
[00:05:25]
Interesting.
[00:05:27]
So let's talk about how you
got into this business.
[00:05:29]
Yeah.
So how long have you been doing this?
[00:05:31]
I stopped doing this since 2004.
[00:05:34]
OK, it's been a while.
Yeah.
[00:05:35]
All right.
Yeah.
[00:05:36]
How did you get that first gig.
[00:05:39]
Oh we're just like, hey,
[00:05:40]
nothing would please me more than
hanging out under car spray, you know?
[00:05:43]
And I was like working with cars.
[00:05:45]
OK, all right.
[00:05:46]
You know, I move to United States in 2002.
[00:05:49]
OK, so, you know, I work in a catering
business for a couple of years.
[00:05:54]
I mean, you're in business.
Yeah.
[00:05:56]
Oh, wow.
OK, so 180s gets there.
[00:05:59]
Yeah.
So I always knew that when I work it
[00:06:01]
because it does mean a new country and,
you know, new surroundings.
[00:06:07]
So you don't know what's going on right
now, plus the language barriers there.
[00:06:10]
So it's going to showup.
[00:06:13]
One of my brothers is not working in
a place where I work for
[00:06:19]
12 years.
Oh, wow.
[00:06:21]
OK, yeah.
So he's the one who got me into the job.
[00:06:24]
Gotcha.
All right.
[00:06:25]
So that was my position now is
I start working on other stuff.
[00:06:30]
Rossborough think,
OK, that's what I was doing.
[00:06:32]
So did you know anything about rust
[00:06:34]
proofing, so to speak, before you got
together to kind of learn on the job?
[00:06:39]
I didn't know anything about what I was
[00:06:40]
...
1 hr 24 min
January 14, 2021 How to Make Passive Income on Amazon -Ep146
Eric Wulterkens - Kings Ridge Media
Did you know that the used market for books and CD's is alive and well? I didn't, so I figured I would get Eric Wulterkens from King's Ridge Media on the podcast to chat about his business.
You see, Kings Ridge Media sells used books and CD's on Amazon. Eric also helps others find ways to use Amazon to sell their products. Passive income is often the best kind of income.
It was interesting speaking with Eric about how he started his business and how it has evolved over the years.
Listen as Eric shares us some secrets of selling on Amazon along with some insights into starting your own business.
Enjoy!
Visit Eric at: http://kingsridgemedia.com/
Want to hear more? Hit it: [themo_button text="More Business Podcast Episodes" url="https://drawincustomers.com/category/podcast/" type="standard"]

[00:00:08]
Adventures, the business program that brings
you the struggle
[00:00:10]
stories and triumphant successes
of business owners across the land.
[00:00:14]
Today, we are welcoming/preparing
[00:00:17]
to learn from Eric Wulterkens,
president, owner,
[00:00:20]
founder of Kings Ridge Media. Eric,
how are you doing today?
[00:00:25]
I'm doing wonderful.
How are you doing?
[00:00:27]
I'm doing very well.
I'm excited because, Eric,
[00:00:30]
I know your main gig is to help
people sell stuff on Amazon.
[00:00:34]
Is that right?
Pretty much, yes,
[00:00:36]
I'm also a seller on Amazon myself,
but it's really turned towards
[00:00:41]
aiding other sellers
and building their businesses.
[00:00:44]
Sure.
[00:00:45]
So an interesting thing happened this year
where it seems like everybody stopped
[00:00:50]
going places and they just
ordered stuff online.
[00:00:54]
Sometimes when I look at my front porch,
[00:00:56]
I believe that my wife is slowly
keeping Amazon in business.
[00:01:00]
But I look at other front porches and I
feel like, oh, I guess she's not alone.
[00:01:06]
So apparently there's something to do,
something powerful with that platform.
[00:01:09]
So let's just start with.
Yeah.
[00:01:13]
Let's start with how you got
started in this whole game.
[00:01:16]
Well, I started about 13 years ago.
[00:01:19]
It basically kind of to give
the short, short version of it.
[00:01:25]
A friend of mine
if anybody out there remembers when there
[00:01:28]
used to be used CD stores and music
stores out there my a friend of mine
[00:01:34]
approached me and said,
we should really start one of these.
[00:01:37]
He's like, I've seen what the one
in our local area was doing in sales.
[00:01:41]
And he says, it's phenomenal,
blah, blah, blah.
[00:01:44]
So we kind of started down the road
[00:01:46]
of looking at starting one of these
stores and we got into it.
[00:01:51]
We ended up going to a franchisor.
[00:01:53]
We went through the meeting of sitting
[00:01:54]
there talking to him about
starting one of these stores and
[00:01:58]
a couple months into it,
in the planning process of it,
[00:02:02]
I realized that while
my friend was a very would be a very good
[00:02:07]
employee for the store,
that if we were going to really start
[00:02:10]
this, it was going to be
all on my shoulders.
[00:02:13]
I was probably twenty four at the time and
spending the hundreds and hundreds
[00:02:19]
of thousands of dollars it would
have cost to just start
[00:02:22]
this store was overwhelming to me and I
eventually said, I don't want to do this.
[00:02:27]
And we had accrued a lot of inventory
to start the store at that point in time.
[00:02:34]
And he said, well, when am I going
to do with all this stuff I bought?
[00:02:37]
So initially I went to him and I said,
well, why don't we sell it online?
[00:02:42]
He had no interest in that.
[00:02:45]
So then I ended up just buying all
[00:02:46]
the inventory from him,
and that's kind of what started it all.
[00:02:51]
Wow.
[00:02:52]
So are we talking
old TVs and stuff like that?
[00:02:56]
No, it was just media.
[00:02:57]
It's just books and books and CDs.
[00:03:00]
OK, so there's still probably a space
issue of some kind, right? Yeah.
[00:03:03]
Anyway, when I say it was a lot,
it really wasn't a lot.
[00:03:07]
I mean we had just begun that process.
[00:03:10]
So I mean a month in,
[00:03:12]
I mean there was thousands of items.
[00:03:13]
There was not thousands
upon thousands of items.
[00:03:17]
All right.
[00:03:17]
And you acquire these one by one or
pallets at a time or? It was
[00:03:23]
mostly what it was,
was just buying like big lots,
[00:03:26]
finding a person that was just trying
to offload their entire collection.
[00:03:30]
And we would just buy that collection up
[00:03:33]
going to I mean,
literally going to rummage sales and
[00:03:37]
buying the entire everything they
had at a rummage sale for. Wow.
[00:03:43]
Beat they love seeing you.
[00:03:47]
Get my weekend back.
[00:03:49]
So. So so your initial plan was to set up
[00:03:53]
a brick and mortar retail store,
just reselling stuff.
[00:03:58]
Right.
All right.
[00:03:59]
All right.
[00:04:00]
And you figured, I guess,
what area was this in? Was this Appleton?
[00:04:05]
Yeah, it was up in Appleton.
[00:04:06]
OK. Where we were going to do it.
[00:04:07]
So it would have been in direct
competition with the place.
[00:04:11]
We were seeing how much they were doing
because they were also in Appleton.
[00:04:14]
So.
All right.
[00:04:16]
And they were selling stuff as well.
Yeah.
[00:04:19]
Yeah.
[00:04:19]
OK, it would have been pretty
much the same type of store.
[00:04:23]
Interesting.
[00:04:25]
So so just side note, are,
is that business still in business?
[00:04:32]
No, that business probably
went out maybe two years ago.
[00:04:35]
OK, so.
Alright.
[00:04:36]
So from retirement or from the whole
brick and mortar thing?
[00:04:39]
Honestly, I don't know.
[00:04:40]
I would assume, I would assume that it was
[00:04:43]
just time, you know,
the market had shrunk that much.
[00:04:46]
All right.
[00:04:47]
That it just wasn't
worth having it anymore.
[00:04:49]
Interesting.
[00:04:51]
So that long ago,
[00:04:54]
eBay was probably a big thing back then.
Right?
[00:04:57]
Right.
[00:04:58]
And honestly, I, I
messed around with eBay a lot.
[00:05:02]
I never have had a lot
of success with eBay.
[00:05:06]
When I first started,
[00:05:07]
we started on a website called Half.com,
which is no longer in existence now,
[00:05:13]
but it was actually owned
by eBay at the time.
[00:05:15]
And Half.com was basically eBay's version
[00:05:18]
of a store that only sold
CDs, DVDs and books.
[00:05:24]
And that's what we are focused in.
[00:05:26]
So we just put everything on Half.com
and started there.
[00:05:30]
And then a few years into it,
Amazon kind of came onto the scene. Amazon
[00:05:35]
was always there,
[00:05:36]
but it really came on the scene and and I
said and somebody had told me that if
[00:05:43]
if you're doing books,
you should really be looking to Amazon.
[00:05:46]
So then I looked in Amazon,
started selling books on Amazon,
[00:05:50]
and then pretty much everything
moved over to Amazon.
[00:05:54]
Oh, that's awesome. So at what
point, how long ago are we talking?
[00:05:59]
2005.
[00:06:03]
OK. So probably a year and a half into it
[00:06:06]
was when Amazon really became like,
OK, this is where we need to be.
[00:06:10]
All right.
[00:06:11]
Oh, so 15 years ago you got
in the Amazon trade. Yep.
[00:06:15]
So I would say that's
that's some strong foresight.
[00:06:20]
So you've probably seen them change
quite a bit over the past 15 years.
[00:06:24]
Yogya, big time.
Big time.
[00:06:26]
And and in fact, I like a lot of people
[00:06:29]
will ask me when they say when they hear
that I focus mainly in books,
[00:06:33]
in the media, they're like,
why are you in that space?
[00:06:37]
Like, it's such a dead space.
[00:06:38]
And and the reason why I'm in it is
because back 15 years ago
[00:06:44]
when you wanted to sell on Amazon,
that's the only thing you could sell.
[00:06:47]
They had opened up their
marketplace to any other items.
[00:06:52]
So so I started in what they were doing.
[00:06:55]
And I've never I've played
around with leaving that.
[00:07:00]
Category one, never enough to the margins
in books are so much greater than what you
[00:07:06]
find in the other categories, that it just
never made sense to me to make the jump.
[00:07:11]
Nine So.
[00:07:13]
So 15 years.
[00:07:14]
You're 20 mid 20s.
[00:07:18]
So how does it feel?
[00:07:20]
Well, let me back up a step.
[00:07:21]
When you had this inventory and you
[00:07:23]
decided to sell, it was the idea that I'm
just going to sell this stuff and get
[00:07:26]
a job, or is the idea that I'm going
to sell this stuff and use it
[00:07:29]
for a launching point to launch my own
business without this other clown?
[00:07:35]
So, yeah, I guess I would
say that it never really
[00:07:39]
never really crossed my mind
that it would turn into a business.
[00:07:43]
It really didn't.
I
[00:07:45]
had all this stuff and I said,
I'll buy from you.
[00:07:49]
And I was just going to start selling it.
[00:07:50]
And
[00:07:53]
I was actually very slow
on taking that leap where I became
[00:07:57]
a business where I would consider it,
especially going full time business.
[00:08:02]
...
59 min

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The business podcast designed for entrepreneurs and small business owners to be inspired by, listen to, enjoy and take some action from.

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