Authentic Business Adventures Podcast

Kari Warberg Block - EarthKind

On Value Beyond the Basic Use of a Product: "And a funny side story to that, when the product first got on the market, we were known as, having a product that saved marriages."

Mice are seemingly everywhere.  This is especially true if you live or work near a field or open space for the rodents to expand their population.  But what if you're not interested in the typical chemical and lethal options for dealing with these pests?

Kari Warberg Block, founder of EarthKind, discovered a problem, didn't like the available options for dealing with that problem, created a better solution and built a business on that solution.  That alone in the story many entrepreneurs have lived to tell.  Kari's story, though built around a dirty subject, has no lack of great insights and valuable stories for you.

Kari shares her journey from dealing with a stubborn mouse infestation on her farm to developing a groundbreaking non-lethal pest control product. Inspired by her father's work as an entomologist, Kari set out to create botanical repellents that deter pests without harming them. Her products, Fresh Cab and Stay Away, are now available in over 35,000 stores across the U.S.

We'll explore the intelligence of rodents, the environmental impact of traditional pest control methods, and Kari’s strategic approach to business growth and maintaining cash flow. Kari opens up about the personal sacrifices and challenges she faced, including a federal court battle and the intricacies of EPA registration.

Listen as Kari explains how she found a need, created a product, built a business and now makes the world a little bit better.

Enjoy!

Visit Kari at: https://www.earthkind.com

 

 

Podcast Overview:

08:29 The rodent problem.

12:11 Mice destroyed 400 tomato plants surprisingly.

16:09 Failed remedies, discovered barkless tree mystery.

25:35 Proven success despite initial skepticism and competition.

29:25 Rodents relocated from factory to racetrack concessions.

35:27 Debt-free growth through savvy cash flow management.

41:28 New CEO manages; leader focuses on strategy.

46:59 Dad transitioned to successful, people-focused businessman.

50:21 Compassion and conflict drive truth and excellence.

54:50 Report mistakes to improve, not blame others.

01:02:49 Know customers; seek referrals for success.

Podcast Transcription:

Kari Warberg Block [00:00:00]:

Then they'll come in your house and, you know, garage door's open. They're like, oh, let's go. Garage door's open and run-in, and they'll be able to find dog food or warmth. And people don't even know when they've invaded the house until it's too late because they're so sneaky.

James Kademan [00:00:17]:

You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and strengths and successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found On the podcast link found at DrawOnCustomers.com. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie, Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service, as well as The Bold Business Book. And today, we're welcoming slash preparing to learn from Kari Warberg Block, the founder of EarthKind. And Keri, I am excited to talk to you because you are venturing into an area of business that I didn't even know existed. So I'll just have you tell the people what EarthKind is, and we'll get this party started.

Kari Warberg Block [00:00:58]:

Well, great. I'm happy to be here with you and, appreciate appreciate everything here. I'd love love to share this story. We're an innovator in the category of pest control. Before my company came along, 98% of everything sold to control a pest was a poison or a kill method. Being a mom, having kids, having pets, that didn't sit so well with me when when it was my job to control pests on our farm. So I invented a brand new way to control pests that would basically deter them rather than lure them in, kill them, and have to clean them up. So it had never been done before, successfully anyway.

Kari Warberg Block [00:01:40]:

So we were the first to do it. That was 18 years. We just kinda like an adult now. I guess the company is an adult. We're in about 35,000 stores. We're in almost all cities across the country. You can find our products under 2 brands. Fresh Cab is a brand.

Kari Warberg Block [00:01:58]:

Stay Away is a brand. We sell into rural. We sell into urban. We sell into the government space. Yeah. That's that's what we do. So the product, basically, what it is is, it's almost like an old fashioned sachet. And, on the farm, I just wanted something simple that would keep pests out of my stuff.

Kari Warberg Block [00:02:21]:

And it turned out the magic ingredients was really the botanicals that went inside that that are grown on farms. So you you place our little pouches in and pests leave, and, people have come to depend on them.

James Kademan [00:02:36]:

Well, that is cool. I can tell you we had a mouse problem in our house the past couple years, and I went to war. And we're talking the simple mouse traps with little peanut butter and stuff like that and Calls and, the sticky traps and the green blocks. And I remember looking I think I was looking specifically at the green Block. The that's a poison. And I was trying to figure out what is actually in this stuff. And those are some of the longest words I've ever seen. And just typing those into a search engine

Kari Warberg Block [00:03:13]:

Yeah.

James Kademan [00:03:14]:

There's a lot of x's and z's, and just trying to go and dig and figure out what what is it that I just bought and who came up with this stuff. So can you tell me why or just, I guess, the history if you know it of the the poison and why Sure. The market seems to be more of a poison and kill rather than a deter?

Kari Warberg Block [00:03:36]:

Yeah. Well, the the easy answer is people wanna get rid of the pest. They wanna do it in the fastest and the cheapest way possible. So that lends itself really well to some type of a chemical where you kill the thing. It it it was it's just very commonly used and people have become to make it a habit. They're just they see something, they step on it, and they kill it. They don't really think about the what that pest does for the, environment, so to speak. On farm, I saw that.

Kari Warberg Block [00:04:08]:

I was thinking about that. On the farm, if I would have used poison, I could have had lost our dog, could have lost an eagle, which would eat the rodent. So the downstream effects of using that poison didn't sit well with me. I also had the great fortune of growing up with an entomologist. My dad was a specialist in rodents. And even though I took this business out to the world after he had already, you know, passed on to his next world. It was, quite an experience growing up with an entomologist. I saw all kinds of I saw trials.

Kari Warberg Block [00:04:45]:

I saw all kinds of bugs and insects and rodents and you name it On little Calls, some right next door to my bedroom, kind of freaked me out. I never wanted to be near them. I never wanted to see them. I never wanted to touch them. I never wanted to deal with them. And, he loved the things, but yet he made all his money by killing them. And there was this this rub because, you know, I'd say, why do you have to kill them? I thought you loved them. He's like, well, that's the business model.

Kari Warberg Block [00:05:14]:

That's how it is. And so it was only natural for me to ask the same question. Why do we just have to kill them? Why can't there be an a nonconfrontational peaceful way to do it that was effective? And so that's really what I brought to market. This is it really just started in my heart EarthKind to solve a problem for another lady just like me on the farm that's probably getting her butt chewed out because she didn't protect the equipment and it's all full of mice now and messy. And, and a funny side story to that, when the product first got On the market, we were known as, having a product that saved marriages.

James Kademan [00:05:57]:

Oh, wow.

Kari Warberg Block [00:05:58]:

Proud of that because you know the problem is painful. It's just you seems like no matter what you do, you can't get rid of the darn things. And it's so it's it is the hardest to control pest that there is. And, they're very, very adaptable. They're smart. They can get in through like the size of a dime. But what's kinda scary about it, and you probably saw these stats and, you know, wanted to make sure you got a solution that could really truly get rid of them for your family, is because 8% of all household fires are attributed to rodents chewing on wiring.

James Kademan [00:06:38]:

Really?

Kari Warberg Block [00:06:39]:

Experts say it's up to 20%. Yeah. 6000 dogs, according to ASPCA, die each year ingesting rodents that have eaten some type of, poison.

James Kademan [00:06:53]:

Wow.

Kari Warberg Block [00:06:54]:

The list goes on and on and on. So rodents are nothing to mess with. So taking this task on was pretty monumental because nobody had ever done it before. Taking a botanical alternative to control, public health risk pest. Yeah. So I had to take it all the way to the federal EPA. I had to work on policy. It had to get licensed in all 50 states twice at the federal level.

Kari Warberg Block [00:07:26]:

And coming from somebody who had, no background. I wasn't an entomologist. My dad was, but he was dead. I didn't have any experience in the industry. Wasn't a PhD. Didn't have any experience really developing products. So I've had to learn all of these things along the way to get the business to where it is today, to make life a little easier for people like you that have that horrible problem and really On use,...

John Dwyer - Institute of WOW

On the Best Strategy for Success: "Prove to people that you can help them by actually helping them."

We all need to market our businesses, but we also want to have fun.  Did you know that often, the most fun in marketing is also the most successful?

John Dwyer of the Institute of WOW takes this to another level and shares some incredible marketing insights to get your brain thinking of ways to market your business.

We'll explore fascinating case studies—like how a sweepstakes promotion catapulted an Australian resort’s occupancy rates and how a turf farm sold three miles of grass in just three days. Get ready to hear about boosting business with Facebook contests, running successful B2B promotions, and even hiring Jerry Seinfeld into a hugely successful campaign for an Australian bank. Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting out, John Dwyer’s marketing insights will offer valuable lessons and inspire you to embrace a "why not" attitude in your business pursuits.

Listen as JD explains, in simple, easy to use action steps, how you can market your business.

Enjoy!

Visit JD at: TheInstituteOfWow.com and https://getmorejd.com/

 

 

Podcast Overview:

00:00 Interest rates affect consultancy fee negotiations.

09:47 Join forces to sell holiday vacation vouchers.

14:51 Discount is 10%, disguised as gas promotion.

16:06 Insurance covers big prizes; stimulates product sales.

21:37 Offer landscapers premium beer for lawn work.

27:53 Inappropriate promotion idea involving deceased relatives.

35:27 Ugly fence contest generated many new leads.

42:04 Lobster Cave grew by collecting customer details.

47:59 Room given free; resold at various prices.

51:24 Help people by actually helping them first.

55:21 Answering all calls increased revenue by $15k/week.

Podcast Transcription:

John Dwyer [00:00:00]:

Look. I'm a digital marketing agency and deal with a 25 year old. But if you need heart surgery for your business, and you do, let's just say it was heart surgery for you, we do actually use the guy that just came out out of medical school, and he's 25, and he says, listen. I've never done this heart surgery before. I've learned all about how to do it at at college. I'm gonna give this a hell of a good shot. Okay. Or would you give it to the guy with a few wrinkles that has been around the block a few times who says, look.

John Dwyer [00:00:24]:

I can do this in my sleep.

James Kademan [00:00:27]:

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 in the podcast link found at drawincustomers.com. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie, calls on call extraordinary answering service, as well as the Bold Business Book. And today, we're welcoming slash preparing to learn from JD of the Institute of Wow. And today, we are talking marketing. So JD, how is it going today?

John Dwyer [00:00:57]:

Thank you very much, James. And so that, they, whoever's watching or listening to this doesn't think that I've got a completely weird name. My name is John Dwyer, but I get the initials JD all the time. And as I said to you before we started the recording, I get lots of other names, but we won't go through that.

James Kademan [00:01:11]:

Yeah. Right. Right. JD's cool. JD's cool. So Institute of Wow, I'm excited to hear this because I I looked at your website, all the marketing stuff you have going on. Let's start with the big story that you have on there with getting Jerry Seinfeld to work with you at a bank in Australia.

John Dwyer [00:01:27]:

Yeah. And, James, that was about a dozen years ago, and, I've milked milked the daylights out of that, of course, as one would. And, I remember on one occasion in the 3 years that I went back as a force to New York to get Jerry to, you know, film the TV commercials and so forth, I said to him on the 2nd year that he didn't have a website at the time. And I said, oh, can you imagine the amount of t shirts and caps yeah. You could sell. And he looked at me and said, do I do I look like I need to sell any capsule t shirts? And I said I said, probably not. You've got more money than god. And, and he said, besides, why would I need a website, JD? I looked at yours.

John Dwyer [00:02:00]:

I'm on there more than you. So, anyway, I, I guess, I had looked at, but how that came about, it was that I had a client down under where a direct response marketing company, and we called the Institute of Wales. So, it's all about, you know, showcasing to businesses how to wow factor their products or services to get people interested in buying them. And, on this particular, occasion, this bank down under was trying to take on the big boys. They were a challenger brand trying to take on the Wells Fargo. And that'd be like a little corner store taking on Costco. You know, you're not gonna win on price. So you've gotta win on having a wow factor.

John Dwyer [00:02:34]:

Some sort of, you know, distraction that's gonna get people not to look at the price. And so, therefore, I introduced them to a travel company that I was doing some TV commercials with. And, yeah, we came on TV, for 3 or 4 years and Facebook and and, you know, Insta and a whole lot of them. We said, get a home loan and get a free vacation. The thing went nuts. And in the 1st few years, they took an extra $15,000,000,000,000 worth of home loans.

James Kademan [00:02:58]:

Wow. And

John Dwyer [00:02:59]:

this this idiot who's on your show didn't charge a percentage of the results. I just I got a consultancy fee. So I'm a moron. Yeah. And so around about 4 years into it, we said, look. Why don't we take it up a level? And I won't bore you with all the details, but, I contacted George Shapiro, who was Jerry's manager out of Beverly Hills. And, I said to him, would Jerry like to be a larrikin and stand outside a fake bank and, you know, basically tell everybody to get a home loan, get a free vacation? I thought it would be a chance at a million, but as it turned out, George Shapiro is a bit sarcastic and cheeky. He's just passed away about 12 months ago, but he was very sarcastic and cheeky, and and I'm I'm a bit that way too.

John Dwyer [00:03:35]:

So we got on pretty well. And to my surprise, he came back and said, yeah. Jerry thought that'd be a good idea. Let's do it. Nice. And so for 3 years, we had Jerry standing outside of fake bank. I say fake, he lives in, you know, New York. So therefore, we went to a little country town called Cedarhurst.

John Dwyer [00:03:50]:

We found an empty shop, and we built the Greater Building Society, you know, fake branch there. And he stood outside with people walking past, not taking any notice of him. Obviously, they were actors, you know. And, he was doing gags and just saying, you know, get home now. Get a free vacation. And when you put Seinfeld next to something like that, boy, it just took off. It was unbelievable. The, yeah, the figures just went through the stratosphere.

James Kademan [00:04:11]:

Isn't that incredible? So that time, were you smart enough to get a percentage? Or is that

John Dwyer [00:04:16]:

just something for you as well? No. I've never been smart enough to do any of that. James, obviously, I'm a complete idiot. Yeah. All all jokes aside, that what the bank did say, look, they can't do things like that because whilst it was a stunning success story, the reserve bank, you know, if if the reserve bank decides to drop the interest rate because of, you know, you know, circumstances, then, of course, you know, they can't go handing out percentages to people because it was really just because they dropped the interest rate. I I I said to them at the time when I, belatedly requested, you know, a review of my, consultancy fee, I would drop it in lieu of getting a percentage. They they said to me, yeah. Well, you know, if the reserve banks drops at half percent, people are gonna come in and get a home loan.

John Dwyer [00:04:57]:

It had nothing at all to do with you. I said, we can build in some variables. We can build in some variables. It was all too late.

James Kademan [00:05:04]:

Yeah. Burner. So but it worked. The marketing worked.

John Dwyer [00:05:08]:

Yeah. Look. It was just incredible. And as it turned out, when because Jerry had only ever done 2 advertising campaigns before in his career, which was American Express and Microsoft, and this company's a little bit smaller than those 2, it was headline news. I mean, when the news broke, it was on 6 in Australia, it was on 60 minutes, and it was on all the current affairs shows and the today breakfast shows, you name it, it just went nuts. So just in the 1st 2 days, they picked up about $4,000,000 worth of free advertising.

James Kademan [00:05:35]:

Wow. That is cool. That is super cool.

John Dwyer [00:05:38]:

Yeah.

James Kademan [00:05:39]:

So let's back up a step to when you first got in the game of the Institute of Wow. When did you go off and decide that you're gonna start your own business here in the marketing world?

John Dwyer [00:05:49]:

Yeah. Well, I was born in the 1800, and so therefore, I've been doing this for a little while. And, yeah. So when I left school, I did the college thing. I did the advertising, you know, degree at college and, learned nothing, of course, because, you know, you had all these colleges and the actual teachers, the full time teachers that never done anything themselves. And so luckily, in my early twenties, I got a job in the, marketing department of a big supermarket chain in Australia. There's there's 2 of them, and one of them is called Woolworths. I know you guys in America had Woolworths at one stage, but this is not the same thing.

...

Joe Rare - Level 9 Virtual

On Using Technology With a Purpose: "What they wanna do is use the data that they can capture to improve the experience they deliver to you."

We each have a to-do list that is seemingly miles long.  On that list, somewhere, is to market our business so we can grow.  But you also have all of the day to day minutiae to take care of.

Joe Rare has been an entrepreneur for years and has survived and evolved his brands to help elevate other businesses.  Through Level 9 Virtual he has found a way to hire, vet and assign projects to help other entrepreneurs get their to do list whittled down.

Like any serial entrepreneur, Joe also has another blossoming business, VisitorMatch.  This is a business designed to turn casual website visitors into prospects, and then into sales.

In this candid conversation, we get to learn more about Joe's expertise in visitor tracking for small businesses, where he lays out cost-effective strategies focusing on target advertising and data-driven approaches. This includes a captivating explanation of how pixels and in-market data can efficiently connect businesses with potential customers without breaking the bank.

Joe also brings to light the intricate processes behind hiring and training Virtual Assistants (VAs), with a special focus on the high-quality talent from the Philippines. Plus, you'll hear about his dramatic financial turnaround, lessons learned from managing remote teams, and the pitfalls he's faced from regulatory challenges in his previous ventures.

Listen as Joe shares some best practices for hiring, as well as what the future of marketing can do for your business.

Enjoy!

Visit Joe at: https://joerare.com/

Level 9 Virtual - https://www.level9virtual.com/

Wedding Booking System - https://weddingbookingsystem.com/

VisitorMatch - https://visitormatch.com

Premier Vacation Partners - https://premiervacationpartners.com

 

 

Podcast Overview:

00:00 Realized potential to start a VA company.

04:17 Marketing agency failed due to unsustainable overhead.

07:48 Government and finance are interconnected, influencing everything.

10:11 Global orders vanished; money held since 2014.

14:17 Learning risks as supplement entrepreneur too late.

16:50 Training ensures outsourced team members' success and retention.

20:19 Managing remote teams was challenging pre-video conferencing.

22:57 Philippine team: Loyal, passive, not proactive, aggressive.

28:00 Verify actions, conduct background checks, contact references.

30:19 Full-scale recruitment process through ads, filtering.

32:27 Embracing failure accelerates growth and success.

36:34 Gives free honeymoon with wedding venue booking.

39:40 Collect personal data using IP or pixel methods.

43:54 Data collection enhances user experience and value.

47:00 Plan to leave social media, delay kids' use.

50:35 Most male marketing discarded before entering home.

52:08 Target active searchers; use in-market data.

Podcast Transcription:

Joe Rare [00:00:00]:

And then once we did it with 1 batch of of growth, it's like, well, now we know we're going to grow again. So just replicate it and then replicate it and then replicate it. And that's kind of how we we built.

James Kademan [00:00:13]:

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 DrawInCustomers.com. We are locally unwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie, Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service, as well as The Bold Business Book. And today, we're welcoming, slash preparing to learn from Joe Rare of Level 9 virtual. So, Joe, how is it going today?

Joe Rare [00:00:41]:

Oh, it's good. Thanks for having me.

James Kademan [00:00:42]:

I appreciate it. I'm excited to learn more of what you got because when you reached out, we got virtual administration stuff. We got some call answering stuff. We got some stories about the pandemic and how you gotta I'm gonna dare use the word pivot. So Yeah. Let's just start with day 1. When did you start level 9?

Joe Rare [00:01:01]:

That's up for debate. We we can't figure out what the original date was, which is sad.

James Kademan [00:01:07]:

But I mean to us, we wouldn't know.

Joe Rare [00:01:09]:

Right? Yeah. I mean, kind of the way the company started was I learned about outsourcing and using virtual assistants back in the, you know, 4 hour work weekdays. Right. Tim Ferris introduced that

James Kademan [00:01:19]:

way back when.

Joe Rare [00:01:20]:

Yeah. So 7, I think it, you know, or so, was when I learned about it. And November of 2008 was when I hired my 1st virtual assistant full time. And then I've had at least one, if not a team working with me every single day since that day. And so I've figured it out. I it's how I build businesses. I leverage, you know, virtual services. And and, so that's really been kind of the backbone of how we actually operate businesses and how we build companies.

Joe Rare [00:01:50]:

And so, I was you know, I had a team of VA's. We're running a business and my clients are saying, well, how do you get your team? And I'm like, well, here, this is how I do it. And I started giving a telling everybody and all of my clients. And finally, one of my virtual assistants came to me and said, Hey, Joe, you do know that you could charge for that, right? Like, you could have a virtual assistant company. And I was like, Yeah, but I don't want to do that. And so then she actually brought me. She goes, This is how many people you've helped sign up for VAs just over the past year. And I started looking at the numbers.

Joe Rare [00:02:19]:

I was like, that's a real business. Oh, and so I said, all right, well, if you guys will run it, I'll I'll help build it. And so we built the business, but it was only to service our clients and let them have VAs. And so when we did that, it was doing fine. And and then I just, you know, I shut down one business and kinda restarted. And I thought, hey. The way that I did that, I could scale the virtual assistant business using the same model. And I kinda figured out how to do some things very, very kinda without me involved.

Joe Rare [00:02:50]:

And as soon as I figured that out, the virtual assistant company exploded. And, so that was, you know, kind of we're somewhere around, like, 2016, 25th, somewhere in there. Yeah. And so So you

James Kademan [00:03:03]:

did you have a different business that you needed the VAs for then?

Joe Rare [00:03:06]:

Oh, yeah. A marketing agency. Yeah.

James Kademan [00:03:08]:

Oh, you did? Okay.

Joe Rare [00:03:09]:

Oh, yeah. So I've had marketing agencies. The first set of VAs I hired, were for my ecommerce business back in 2008. Had that ran that until 2014, which that was great. And I got to travel and just kind of screw around. And I was, you know, kind of living this nomad lifestyle, you know, like I was sharing with you offline. And it was great and it was fun. And then, you know, the the one piece of advice I didn't follow with the 4 hour work week was don't sell ingestibles.

Joe Rare [00:03:40]:

And I sold ingestibles and it was a supplement. And then the FDA, one day decided that, you know, homeopathic products were not gonna be allowed to be sold. And so I woke up one morning and my, my, merchant account was shut down and out of business instantly. So we started taking checks in the mail, which was awesome. ACH transfers, wire transfers. We started doing all that just to keep it going for a while longer and then realizing I'm not gonna fight the FDA. I don't stand a chance. And then I moved on and, you know, people started asking, well, how do you how did you get so many customers? And how did you do that? I was like, well, I'm kinda good at marketing.

Joe Rare [00:04:17]:

So I opened a marketing agency because why not? And, you know, got some some good clients doing that. And then, that business, we just got bloated. I think I was listening to too much Gary v, and, you know, we gotta have a 1000 employees. And so I put 27 US employees sitting in desks with computers and ergonomic chairs and all the all the stuffs, and nobody had a bad back or any of that stuff and found out that that's super high overhead. And if the business doesn't grow and it's not, you know, able to sustain itself, it can implode really quick. And so the quick quick ish version of that story was I had a business partner in it who was supposed to be developing business. He was he was the BD guy and decided not to bring any new business. And we had about 40% of all of our revenue tied up in 2 clients, and they both happened to cancel within, like, a 3 week period.

Joe Rare [00:05:12]:

And we were in the we were in the red, like, instantly. And I went, oh, okay, this is bad. But I'm an optimist. I'm a serial optimist. And so I thought, no big deal. Right? We just replace the clients. We replace the revenue. It's gonna be great.

Joe Rare [00:05:28]:

And months months go by, and I'm burning my own personal cash and debt to pay payroll. Wrong direction. Right? Wrong direction. And I'm taking all that, and I'm eating it. And my wife's not happy with it. And, you know, things aren't working out. And then so finally, we shut the business down. And so Close it up.

Joe Rare [00:05:46]:

Yeah. Fired 27 people. Like, I I got sued for my office lease, because I owe I still owed 3 years on my office lease, which is, like, $180,000. So I got sued for that, and I had a judgment. And and, you know, I went and I settled, and we got all that taken care of. And then I was, like, I I I'm an entrepreneur, though. I can't go work for somebody. I'll die.

Joe Rare [00:06:08]:

And so I said, alright. I told my wife, I said, sorry,...

John Tarnoff - Reinvention Group

On Realizing You May Need a Change: "What often happens in mid career is that you kinda look around and go, what are you doing now? What's the purpose of all this?"

If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always got.  That rings true even more as you think of changing your career.  But how do you change your career?  How do you shift your skillset to fit a new job that you feel you'd be better suited for?  What job do you work at to be happy?

John Tarnoff is a career transition expert.  He has been on some wild entrepreneurial journeys from Hollywood to the dot com era in the 90s.  Now he is helping his clients find their dream job.  This insightful conversation with career strategist and executive coach, John Tarnoff begins with his job experience and paints a picture of what he has learned to help others.

John sheds light on the ever-evolving landscape of job hunting and professional development. From the critical importance of a robust LinkedIn profile to the inherent flaws in traditional job application processes, John offers practical advice for job seekers at all career stages. We explore effective networking techniques, the power of a compelling career narrative, and strategies for tackling employment gaps.

Listen as John shares his perspectives on the unique hurdles faced by older professionals and provides actionable tips for navigating job interviews with untrained recruiters. We discuss the value of vulnerability, maintaining a positive team culture, and leveraging your "superpower" to stand out in the professional world.

Enjoy!

Visit John at: https://johntarnoff.com/

 

 

Podcast Overview:

00:00 Opted for Flash over 3D for animation.

06:18 Conversational database mimics shallow human interactions.

12:32 Entertainment relies on franchises, pre-sold material.

19:03 Adapting growth mindset crucial for career progression.

23:54 Job struggles for older professionals; interview issues.

30:32 Prepare interview team: coordination, training, focus.

36:34 Define superpower, build community, ensure thought leadership.

43:49 Consider past experiences to identify fulfilling elements.

49:06 Enhance LinkedIn to uniquely showcase your skills.

50:31 AI inflates job applications; prioritize building relationships.

01:00:50 Embrace passion; no need to force conversation.

Podcast Transcription:

John Tarnoff [00:00:00]:

Number 1, define your superpower. What is the particular set of skills, experiences, attitudes, preferences, values that you represent, and what do you deliver with it?

James Kademan [00:00:16]:

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 on the podcast link found at draw On customers dot com. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie, Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service, as well as The Bold Business Book. And today, we're welcoming slash preparing to learn from John Tarnoff of the Reinvention Group, which we are gonna be talking about careers and career transition. So, John, how are you doing today?

John Tarnoff [00:00:47]:

Doing great, James. Thanks for having me on your show.

James Kademan [00:00:50]:

Yeah. You know, I'm excited to chat with you because as an entrepreneur, I get the the luxury, we'll call it, of hiring people. And it is it's rare that I think about what it was like on the other side to be the interviewee. And I saw your name come across, and I was like, when was the last time that I had a job interview? And I thought, when is the last time that you had to go through all these things that people that aren't entrepreneurial have to go through. And it's it made me kinda pause and think, like, what what do they have to go through? I don't even know what the world's like now on that side of the table. So let's just start out with what is Reinvention Group, and then we'll take it from there as far as careers go.

John Tarnoff [00:01:35]:

Great. So Reinvention Group is my career coaching and executive leadership practice, which I've been doing now for the past, 12 years. And it, throws out of a kind of a long and checkered career as an executive in the entertainment business here in Los Angeles, where I worked for multiple film studios, worked on my own as a producer, pitching projects, getting films made. And then I took a kind of a 8, 10 year sabbatical out of the business into technology in the nineties during that famous tech bubble. Had a start up with a partner. We kind of rode it up, raised all the money, got our product out the door, had some big deals. And then in 2001, when the market tanked, we tanked along with it, and I was fortunate enough to find myself back in the entertainment business. But in more of a people role, which is really what set up this, more consulting On approach to, career coaching and executive coaching that has led me to where I am today.

James Kademan [00:02:42]:

That is cool. John, I didn't know I didn't know you were involved in the tech bubble thing.

John Tarnoff [00:02:46]:

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I had a little startup called Talkie, and we were doing artificial intelligence before it became fashionable. We were doing little animated characters for customer service that had a natural language database, and you could design this little bot for your website and, ask it questions and get answers. And we did this so we had a big signature deal with Sprint to create a customer service character for their website. And, and then we were launching around the time that the market crashed. Sprint was going through all sorts of stuff. We launched it, and then it all it all just kinda went away.

James Kademan [00:03:30]:

Dang. So you're talking I mean, I'm trying to think. Late nineties into 2001. Is that the the Microsoft's paperclip guy? Is that kind of that vintage?

John Tarnoff [00:03:40]:

We used to get we used to get teased a lot, about about Clippy. And, you know, I I forgot what what our analogy was, but we were saying that, what we were doing was to Clippy, you know, the way a a supersonic jet is to the Wright brothers.

James Kademan [00:03:57]:

Alright. So, I mean, now we're talking I'm gonna go down this rabbit hole a little bit because I'm so curious.

John Tarnoff [00:04:03]:

Sure. It's a fun one.

James Kademan [00:04:05]:

So right now, AI chips, NVIDIA, blah blah blah blah blah. Right. Cycle. Back then,

John Tarnoff [00:04:11]:

what were

James Kademan [00:04:11]:

you using for processors back then?

John Tarnoff [00:04:13]:

Sure. So that was one of the big challenges was to do this in an economical way. The the AI was not so much the issue as the animation. And we started out doing this. We're thinking we're we're gonna do a 3 d engine, and and there was a there was a technology at the time for games called 3 d FX, which was a kind of a very prominent, graphics card that was in use. And we were initially designing our graphics side for the 3 d FX card, and we had a 3 d developer working with us who was saying, you know, how am I ever gonna get this into a downloadable client that people are On be able to just put on their computers and and and run this thing? He said, why don't you just he said, I'm I'm I'm about to fire myself. Why don't you just do this in Flash? So you remember right? So you remember Flash was this animation engine from Macromedia that I think Adobe had wound up buying, and it was very economical. It was very small.

John Tarnoff [00:05:09]:

It would it came preloaded on pretty much every computer back in the day. So we we created a flash client that made this instantly available on most every computer, and so you could log on to our website. This is how we got the Sprint deal because we went to Kansas City to this customer service executive's office. We plugged On to the wall with our laptop, and we got this character to have a conversation with her over dial up. Over dial up? Over dial up.

James Kademan [00:05:44]:

Talking 56 k On a lucky day.

John Tarnoff [00:05:47]:

It's that. It's that. And so so that was the that was the kind of the the, the the lucky accident of going and doing it in Flash. We were able to demo to anyone anywhere. The AI side of it was a lot lighter to work with, because we weren't doing the kind of wait. This wasn't this wasn't real AI. This was pattern recognition. Right? This was really based on some of those early pattern recognition engines that had come out of MIT.

John Tarnoff [00:06:18]:

You may remember a a bot called Eliza, which was this therapy bot that was started, at MIT. And we were kind of piggybacking on a number of developments that come since then, to, to kind of create this, this, conversational database. And, what we brought to it, and I I don't wanna go into too much, you know, of the rabbit hole, but what we did because my partner and I kind of came out of the media, business, and he on the computer game side and me on the film side. And we came up with this this kind of half joke of which we used to pitch, where we called our system artificial stupidity. And the the idea behind that was that it followed the patterns of cocktail party conversations where you get into a conversation with someone. If you don't wanna talk about something, you switch the subject. Right? There are all sorts of strategies that you use to be able to keep a conversation going without necessarily getting into any depth or detail. So we programmed the system to be able to do that.

John Tarnoff [00:07:24]:

So when a character didn't know the answer to a question, it would change the subject, and it would have multiple pathways to change the subject if it kept if it kept coming back to that topic. Eventually, the character would say,...

Carolyn Jahnke - Athena Legal Solutions LLC

On the Spirit of Entrepreneurs: "In the entrepreneurial world, we all know that there's plenty of room at the table for all of us. And so we're happy to share all the horrible mistakes we made doing it, and so that you don't go through that pain."

Business owners will need to meet and use a business attorney at some point in their entrepreneurial journey.  Whether you need advice to make sure you follow the rules, or you end up with a customer that skipped paying you, attorneys are a fact of life as an entrepreneur.

Carolyn Jahnke, the founding attorney of Athena Legal Solutions has found this need and brought to small business the solution they need. Carolyn shares invaluable legal advice for small business owners, delving into important topics like LLC formation, the complexities of filing requirements, and the impact of the Corporate Transparency Act. She offers practical strategies for protecting your business, from trademarks and copyright to risk management and client contracts.

Carolyn also opens up about her journey from corporate law to running her own firm, highlighting the significance of networking, referrals, and building connections within the local business community. With a special focus on helping women entrepreneurs, Carolyn's firm aims to provide wisdom and comprehensive legal solutions in a flexible, supportive environment. Tune in to gain insights into managing legal challenges, understanding the nuances of intellectual property, and the importance of legal structures in safeguarding your business.

Listen as Carolyn explains her legal philosophy of how to help small business owners, as well as how she built her law practice to help others and keep her schedule where she wants it to make sure she can enjoy life.

Enjoy!

Visit Carolyn at: https://athenalegalsolutionsllc.com/

 

 

Podcast Overview:

05:10 Uncertainty in podcast success and hypothetical scenarios.

09:07 City says business can't operate in neighborhood.

10:37 Consult your accountant for personalized tax advice.

13:23 Most people are good; legal letters persuade.

18:21 Food entrepreneurs often have extensive industry knowledge.

19:29 Discussing business risks and trademark considerations.

23:26 Trademarks protect service-related symbols and sounds.

27:11 Copyright changes invalidate existing registration; frequent updates complicate.

29:12 Business value critical for using AI-generated content.

32:27 Surprise seeing own book listed as used.

37:23 Legal helps businesses balance goals and risks.

40:26 Proof of ownership required; combats money laundering.

42:00 Law introduction delayed; lawsuits followed implementation.

45:47 Confused about money laundering form complexity.

48:59 Entrepreneurs collaborate; corporate competes for position.

Podcast Transcription:

Carolyn Jahnke [00:00:00]:

Like you don't have to form an LLC, right? Like that's not.

James [00:00:03]:

You do not. That is true.

Carolyn Jahnke [00:00:04]:

You do not, right? So you could choose to leave all your business and personal assets intermingled. But now you're putting your personal assets at risk if something happens in your business and vice versa.

James [00:00:17]:

So Yeah. Is that

Carolyn Jahnke [00:00:18]:

a risk you On take?

James [00:00:21]:

You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggles, stories, and triumphs and successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found at draw in customers dot com. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie, and today, we're welcoming slash preparing to learn from Carolyn Jahnke, the founding attorney of Athena Legal Solutions. So Carolyn, how is it going today?

Carolyn Jahnke [00:00:46]:

Good. How are you?

James [00:00:47]:

I am excited. We're talking business law.

Carolyn Jahnke [00:00:50]:

Always exciting.

James [00:00:51]:

So right? What could be more exciting than that?

Carolyn Jahnke [00:00:53]:

They're like, oh, the lawyers.

James [00:00:54]:

Yeah. So let's just start with what is Athena Legal Solutions?

Carolyn Jahnke [00:00:59]:

Sure. So we are a virtual law firm. So we don't have an office. Oh. And but we have attorneys in Wisconsin and Illinois. And so not having one of those big fancy offices allows us to have a lower rate. And we primarily focus on serving women entrepreneurs. So helping them protect, grow, and then harvest the value from their business.

Carolyn Jahnke [00:01:18]:

So, and you know, doing a business is hard. So having somebody who can be an advocate and a cheerleader in your corner is Yeah. Kinda what we're there for.

James [00:01:26]:

Alright. And tell me, how long have you had this?

Carolyn Jahnke [00:01:28]:

This is 5 years.

James [00:01:30]:

Oh, nice. The big hurt. The big hurdle. Yep.

Carolyn Jahnke [00:01:33]:

Made it made it to 5.

James [00:01:35]:

Nice. So what made you decide I gotta start this law firm?

Carolyn Jahnke [00:01:39]:

I have a passel of kids.

James [00:01:41]:

Okay.

Carolyn Jahnke [00:01:41]:

I have 4.

James [00:01:42]:

A pass

Carolyn Jahnke [00:01:43]:

what did you say? A passel?

James [00:01:44]:

What is a passel?

Carolyn Jahnke [00:01:45]:

A whole bunch. Okay. A whole bunch of kids. Whenever I say 4 Legal, like, oh, 4 kids.

James [00:01:49]:

Yeah. I come from a family of 5. So I know So

Carolyn Jahnke [00:01:52]:

it's not that big.

James [00:01:53]:

That's not, it's a lot.

Carolyn Jahnke [00:01:56]:

Yeah. Yeah. So I have 4 kids, and I was working corporate and working, you know, 80 hours a week. And I was like, my oldest is gonna graduate in 5 years, and I am gonna have missed it all.

James [00:02:09]:

Oh, okay.

Carolyn Jahnke [00:02:10]:

I'm never gonna see him or them and be part of that experience. And so I had a chance to kinda go out on my own and Yeah.

James [00:02:19]:

I was

Carolyn Jahnke [00:02:19]:

like, well, I wanna do something on my own, but I don't know what. And then this kind of fell into my lap because people started calling me. They were like, hey, we heard you're not doing anything right now. Could you help us with this contract?

James [00:02:30]:

That's funny. Could you, We heard you're bored.

Carolyn Jahnke [00:02:34]:

Yeah. With 4 kids. Alright. So I was like, oh, sure. Like, I can help with that. And I yeah. I can help you start a nonprofit. And then Call of a sudden, I was like, this is a business.

Carolyn Jahnke [00:02:46]:

Alright.

James [00:02:46]:

This isn't the business I was gonna

Carolyn Jahnke [00:02:48]:

go into, but this is great. And it helped me kinda refine my love of the law, helping small businesses. Because, I mean, these are people putting it on the line every day and really getting a chance to, like, dig in and help them. So which is different than, you know, a corporate.

James [00:03:04]:

So corporate, what type of law were you doing with corporate?

Carolyn Jahnke [00:03:07]:

So Business, what I do now.

James [00:03:09]:

Okay. Just on a larger scale?

Carolyn Jahnke [00:03:11]:

Just much larger scale.

James [00:03:12]:

Okay. So when you would work on something Mhmm. At the corporate side, would it be you and 50 other attorneys or something like that? Or

Carolyn Jahnke [00:03:20]:

Yeah. Like, if there was a big acquisition, there was all the people who had different specialties who would work on it. But the last part of my career, I was in a start up within a large corporation.

James [00:03:28]:

Oh.

Carolyn Jahnke [00:03:29]:

So I was, like, managing the legal. And so I coordinated with all the other lawyers to say, here's our risks. I need to pull you in because you're an expert here, maybe On employment law or you're an expert in, you know, IT or something. And so

James [00:03:43]:

Alright. Yeah. So what type of law do you focus on now with Athena?

Carolyn Jahnke [00:03:47]:

Business. Business. So business. So thinking about how you form your entity, thinking about contracts of every single kind, bringing on employees, trademarks, copyrights, and then we also do estate planning now.

James [00:04:01]:

Oh, you do?

Carolyn Jahnke [00:04:01]:

Okay. To kinda do the full circle because we kinda felt like we were leaving clients. You know, we'd be like, oh, we can help you all the way to here, and then they had to go off. And so

James [00:04:11]:

now I can tell you when I was chatting with my attorney, I don't know, a year or 2 ago, something like that, we're talking about this stuff and that stuff, forming LLCs, taxes, s corporation. And he kept saying you gotta talk to your accountant about that. Yep. Gotta talk to this other attorney about that. Gotta talk to this person about that. Like, what do you do? Ordinate. Yeah. General On, very expensive general contractor.

Carolyn Jahnke [00:04:38]:

Yeah.

James [00:04:38]:

And so I appreciate those that can do it all under the same umbrella.

Carolyn Jahnke [00:04:43]:

We don't do it all. I will say

James [00:04:44]:

that. We don't do it all. We don't do it all. We don't do it all. We don't say exclusively all. But a lot or enough where we can say when we're targeting I remember talking to my attorney specifically, trying to think about there's different businesses that I have going on. I'm trying to figure out how do I arrange those Oh. Under which LLCs, and then which ones are taxed as whatever.

James [00:05:05]:

And And just figuring out the best way set there's we're talking about privacy.

Carolyn Jahnke [00:05:09]:

Oh, yeah.

James [00:05:10]:

And then what happens if I get hit by a bus? Mhmm. What happens if podcast explodes and we get 10,000,000 viewers in On episode? Like, certain Business. And he was like,...

Walter Kinzie - Kinzie Foods

On the Appreciating the Opportunity: "How did I land on the stage where I'm literally giving the cue for the transition of power to happen, and one president leaves office as another president goes? And I I was directing that moment in history."

There are a few defining moments in our lives as entrepreneurs.  The phone call that was the driver for a row of dominoes falling that caused you to end up in the perfect spot.  Maybe even meeting the right person at the right time.  Walter Kinzie of Kinzie Foods has reflected on those moments and has learned to cultivate them.

Walter shares his dynamic journey from organizing landmark events, including the 2017 presidential inauguration, to building upon his aunt's legacy with an incredible barbecue sauce line.  Walter opens up about his initial forays into event planning, the pivotal moments that shaped his career, and how he leverages his vast experience to ensure unparalleled client satisfaction.

Walter also shares his entrepreneurial pivot into the world of gourmet barbecue sauce. Discover how a personal passion project evolved into Kinzie Foods, blending meticulous product development with a strong focus on premium customer experiences. Leo offers insights into his strategies for direct-to-consumer sales, the importance of quality packaging, and the philosophy behind creating a memorable brand.

Listen as Walter shares the business tips to help you make those magic moments happen.  Prepare for an incredible interview with a dynamic entrepreneur.  Maybe enjoy some BBQ while you listen.

Enjoy!

Visit Walter at: https://kinziefoods.com/

 

 

Podcast Overview:

00:00 Accidental business started with barbecue sauce gifts.

05:45 Started small, grew rapidly, expanded to flavors.

14:26 Twist top ensures clean barbecue sauce experience.

15:55 Targeting gourmet home chefs with diverse products.

22:15 Prioritizing quality and customer experience through investment.

26:16 Product for foodies excites more than essentials.

35:19 Family recipe requires precise cooking for flavors.

41:28 Dad orchestrated community show in small Kansas town.

43:22 Determined to produce presidential inauguration someday.

47:45 Countless decisions create meaningful, memorable events.

54:46 Networking chain leads to directing presidential transition.

01:01:30 Drive-in concerts brought joy during COVID shutdowns.

01:04:22 Band behavior reflects management's communication failures.

01:09:02 Artist flopped; cover band quickly salvaged event.

01:15:10 Helped produce first CFP national championship game.

Podcast Transcription:

Walter Kinzie [00:00:00]:

And I made a, I made a commitment to myself that night on 2 things. Number 1, I verified that I absolutely did wanna put on concerts for a living, but number 2, also told myself I'd never let myself or anybody else limit how high I could go.

James Kademan [00:00:15]:

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 in the podcast link found at draw in customers.com. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie, calls on call extraordinary answering service, as well as the Bold Business Book. And today, we're welcoming slash preparing to learn from Walter Kinsey of Kinsey Foods. And, Walter, before I get you going here, I just wanna let the audience know Walter has done way more than, I'm gonna dare say most of my guests, certainly more than me. So I'm excited to talk to you. Walter, how is it going today?

Walter Kinzie [00:00:57]:

Man, pleasure's all mine. I'm grateful for this opportunity. And, you know, it's going it's a great day. And, you know, it's a interesting day in America, but, Yeah.

James Kademan [00:01:07]:

It is.

Walter Kinzie [00:01:08]:

But, you know, across the board, I'm seeing a whole lot more optimism and excitement than, than maybe heartbreak. So I'm encouraged by that and, and really, really happy that, there seems to be at least some resolution. That's the interesting thing about elections is so much of the day after isn't about who won or who lost. It's also just about that that process is over, and we know what the path forward is.

James Kademan [00:01:33]:

And Yeah.

Walter Kinzie [00:01:34]:

Anyway, it's it's a it's, overall an optimistic and great day in America.

James Kademan [00:01:39]:

Yeah. It's, I don't know. I I treat it like a car accident where you finally got the estimate.

Walter Kinzie [00:01:45]:

That's right. That's right. So I've been

James Kademan [00:01:47]:

waiting for the day from the insurance company. We've been having this looming over our head, causing all kinds of turmoil, I suppose, depending upon how much you wanted to be open to the turmoil or not.

Walter Kinzie [00:01:57]:

Well, so many things in business and in life. It's it's you just gotta put one foot in front of the other every single day. And, but there's always relief when you at least know what the path forward's going to be. And Yeah. And, so there's, there's significant metaphors that absolutely apply in business and in life when, when you look at kind of the conclusion of what we're seeing right now in America.

James Kademan [00:02:20]:

Yeah. I suppose it's just like the, the sales thing. Right? You'll take a yes. You'll take a no, but the maybes are the worst.

Walter Kinzie [00:02:26]:

The maybes are the worst.

James Kademan [00:02:28]:

Now whether it's a yes or no for what you're, what you got, that's, you know what it is. So acknowledge, improvise and move on.

Walter Kinzie [00:02:34]:

In retail, it's called a be back. And those are the the as Ted lasso as the show Ted lasso, says it's the hope that'll kill you. It, in retail, it's that be back. That's like, oh, I bet they'll be back. And you just wait, you wait, you wait, and then you never see it. And it's

James Kademan [00:02:49]:

I've never heard that before. I gotta check

Walter Kinzie [00:02:52]:

that out. That's awesome. Yeah. That's

James Kademan [00:02:53]:

right. So So let's start with Kinsey Foods. Walter, what is Kinsey Foods? Well, I

Walter Kinzie [00:02:58]:

it's a, it's been a fun business for us. It was a company that was started by accident, frankly. It was I did not set out and say, I'm just gonna revolutionize the barbecue industry. It was purely accident. And so my my background, I grew up a farmer in Kansas, And, my dad put on a concert at our county fair when I was 7 years old, and I told him right then, this is what I'm gonna do for a living. And we can spend as much time or as little time today talking about my history in in kinda large scale private public events. But for the last 20 years, that's what I've done, produce concerts and and memorable moments around the world, including a presidential inauguration, that I'm very proud of. The, 4 or 5 years ago, I started handing out barbecue sauce as a gift to my clients.

Walter Kinzie [00:03:51]:

Whether you hired me to to throw a gig for you or if you were a celebrity that that we hired to work the the the event, We wanted I wanted to give a gift to these people that, that showed that I put some time in it, and it was an intentional gift. It was a a gift and that that I made. And, you know, fortunately for all of us, I'm not very good at crochet or anything like that. So Here's your

James Kademan [00:04:15]:

sweater. Right?

Walter Kinzie [00:04:17]:

That's right. I grew up I grew up on that on that little farm in Kansas. I grew up, you know, eating my aunt's barbecue sauce. She had a flavor that was just so good. And and like so many of us, it was my aunt. So we loved it. But also, you know, we all have that that family member that makes something special that when your friends try, it's like, you know, it's special because you love that person, not because it's great. And so, you know, we always loved it, but you never knew what we had.

Walter Kinzie [00:04:42]:

Anyway, I I started handing it out 4 or 5 years ago as gifts About 15 or 16 months ago, you know, we started getting phone calls, people asking for more of it, and I was flattered and very proud of it. You know, it's my aunt's deal. And so I was very proud of it, but we gave it away. Then about 15 or 16 months ago, I went to my wife one day in June and said, I can't do this anymore. Like, we I literally had, like, almost 200 bottles to make over the weekend to just then Just to give away. Just to give away. And Well, that's that's

James Kademan [00:05:13]:

going beyond side hustle.

Walter Kinzie [00:05:15]:

Once they once they said, you know, you know, we love this. Can I get more? I was just flattered. So I did it. It just kinda started compounding on each other. There's a little restaurant in Texas that was serving it, and it just become too much. And so, I figured the polite way, to tell people to leave me alone would be to put a price tag on it, something that would make sense. And so and and I really wanted them to leave me alone. I did not wanna do this, so I put a great big price tag on it.

Walter Kinzie [00:05:45]:

And and lo and behold, our 1st month, we had 600 bottles to make, and it was just like, oh, man. And then I was hopeful that they were buying it because they've been mooching off of me for so long that they'd buy it once and then leave us alone, but then Or is it curtsey? That's it. The next month, we had, like, 1800 orders to fill, and and we were getting unbelievable feedback. That's the other thing. Once someone starts paying for something, they feel like they can tell you what they think of it, which feedback is a gift and I treated it that way. And, and with that now, you know, is an expanded, flavor profile where we don't just have the one flavor anymore....

Tara Ingalls - Tingalls Graphic Design

On the How to Focus On a Specific Target: "What area of your business do you want to see move forward? And be very specific about your goal."

Businesses need to market to survive.  They need to market well to thrive.  But how is a business supposed to market online when there are so many channels and an audience that flows from platform to platform?

Tara Ingalls, on her third exciting visit to this podcast and founder of Tingalls Graphic Design, brings a wealth of knowledge from her 25 years in business. Our discussion dives deep into the intricacies of advertising, contracts, and the ethics and challenges small businesses face in digital marketing. From navigating misleading SEO services to harnessing AI in design, Tara shares both her personal experiences and professional advice.

We'll also explore the power of social media, with Tara emphasizing platforms' roles in customer service and engagement rather than just sales. She'll share her strategies for leveraging Facebook and LinkedIn effectively, while also shedding light on the importance of setting clear marketing goals and having a robust digital presence through well-optimized websites.

Listen as Tara offers a glimpse into Tingalls' unique company culture and her distinctive management style, proving that prioritizing employee well-being can drive productivity.

Enjoy!

Visit Tara at: https://tingalls.com/

Digital Marketing Partner Checklist: https://tingalls.com/tips/2023/09/digital-marketing-partner-checklist/

 

Podcast Overview:

04:21 Focus on one platform; it's not a sales tool.

06:48 Social media affects behavior and consumption habits.

12:14 Boost strategically using analytics; spend wisely.

12:58 Review insights regularly to boost engagement.

17:36 Set clear, measurable, time-bound marketing goals.

21:08 Instagram isn't ideal for targeting older demographics.

24:15 Companies overcharge small businesses for inadequate services.

28:49 Set clear goals when hiring a marketing company.

30:29 Include clear rates, tools, timelines, and commitments.

33:02 Clarify reporting: layman's terms or technical jargon?

36:45 Generative AI enhances images; ethical clarity needed.

41:53 AI generated content replaces traditional design work.

45:05 Websites cheaper than Tingles would terrify me.

48:07 Ensure logo uniqueness with Google image check.

51:52 Tingles 3-month hands-on internship for designers.

55:37 Seeking easygoing, adaptable team member for growth.

58:04 Prioritized well-being over business during COVID.

 

Podcast Transcription:

Tara Ingalls [00:00:00]:

I was on the phone, with somebody doing a marketing consult and found out that they're paying a company out of state for, about $52100 a month, and they don't know whether that's translating into business for them.

James [00:00:14]:

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 in the podcast link found at draw in customers dot com. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie, and today, we're welcoming slash preparing to learn from Tara Ingalls of Tingle's design for the 3rd time. Mhmm. That's how awesome of a guest you are.

Tara Ingalls [00:00:38]:

3 Pete.

James [00:00:39]:

3 Pete. So welcome to the show.

Tara Ingalls [00:00:41]:

Thank you for having me.

James [00:00:42]:

Thanks for being on here. So tell me a story. Let's just start with the the beginning, way back when.

Tara Ingalls [00:00:49]:

You always have me start in the beginning.

James [00:00:51]:

I know. Well, just for the people that weren't lucky enough to watch the first two.

Tara Ingalls [00:00:53]:

So I shouldn't look at the camera? I should look at you? No.

James [00:00:55]:

Just look we're just chilling.

Tara Ingalls [00:00:56]:

Okay. We're just chilling. Okay.

James [00:00:57]:

So what year did you start your business?

Tara Ingalls [00:00:59]:

So I started in 2000. So we'll be celebrating 2000. Yes. So we'll be starting, we'll be celebrating our 25th year in January. Super excited about that.

James [00:01:07]:

That is

Tara Ingalls [00:01:08]:

awesome. Quarter Century started when I was 8.

James [00:01:10]:

I just raced through my head, like, 2,000. Okay. We're talking internets, 5, 6 years old.

Tara Ingalls [00:01:15]:

Yeah. Right.

James [00:01:16]:

Social media is not even a phrase.

Tara Ingalls [00:01:17]:

And coding websites with HTML.

James [00:01:20]:

Oh, my gosh.

Tara Ingalls [00:01:21]:

I learned it from a book.

James [00:01:22]:

It was great.

Tara Ingalls [00:01:23]:

It was great.

James [00:01:24]:

No Dreamweaver. No. I mean, Photoshop, you're splitting stuff up. Right?

Tara Ingalls [00:01:28]:

Little bit. Yeah. Photoshop and Illustrator are out for sure. InDesign was just coming on the market to compete against Quirk Express, which I was extremely proficient in.

James [00:01:36]:

Quirk Express. Oh, my gosh.

Tara Ingalls [00:01:38]:

Cork Express. Yep. Wow. So all my designers that I hired were all InDesigners. And so, you know, I held out as long as I could. But now I don't do any of the layouts. So Alright.

James [00:01:49]:

I

Tara Ingalls [00:01:50]:

don't have to worry about it. Oh. Hands off. I'm done. Alright. Yeah. But that, yeah. So 2,000, I got married and my name changed from my t hallum, which was my email prefix where I worked, and it changed to tingles.

Tara Ingalls [00:02:03]:

People thought that was very clever and fun. Nice. So I started freelancing on the side. And then in 2001, actually, shortly after September 11th, I quit my job and started freelancing full time.

James [00:02:16]:

Wow.

Tara Ingalls [00:02:16]:

Yeah. And just been growing exponentially since then. Primarily working with small businesses, startups, nonprofits. I love working with nonprofits. And then we also work with larger companies that don't have graphic designers on staff that have a marketing department but don't have, like, that graphic design skill set, we can come in and we can help, them out. So Alright. Yeah.

James [00:02:38]:

So in 25 years Yeah. The landscape of graphic design has probably changed a lot. It

Tara Ingalls [00:02:43]:

has a lot. It's so

James [00:02:44]:

The programs. Yeah.

Tara Ingalls [00:02:45]:

The So much more digital than we used to do about 25% web and then, you know, 75% print work and trade shows and sales collateral and all that kind of stuff. Now I would say it's probably completely flipped on its head. We're doing I mean, my firm is doing probably about 75, 25. So 75% website work, digital, digital social media creation, digital marketing ads, that pay per click, that kind of stuff.

James [00:03:11]:

And then

Tara Ingalls [00:03:11]:

but our bread and butter at Tingles has always been logo design, sales collateral, like high end branding, like the look and feel of a brand. How does a brand wanna feel? What is their messaging strategy? Who's their target audience? Those kinds of things is what I specialize and focus on as the owner. Alright. And then the designers really take all of that and, you know, spice it up with some amazing design work and

James [00:03:34]:

Nice. Yeah. Tell me a story about the social media end. Because 2000, social media is not a thing. Yeah. Now social media is definitely a thing. Yeah. You get 50,000,000 platforms.

James [00:03:45]:

Yeah. You get different audiences on each one. You have different ways. I don't even know all the all the variables.

Tara Ingalls [00:03:53]:

It's I can hardly keep up.

James [00:03:55]:

I had somebody ask me, what's my Instagram handle? And I'm like, dude, I'm over 40.

Tara Ingalls [00:04:00]:

I don't

James [00:04:00]:

have an Instagram handle.

Tara Ingalls [00:04:02]:

Handle? It seems like such an old school.

James [00:04:04]:

Or whatever.

Tara Ingalls [00:04:05]:

Yeah. I mean, the Snap Talk, I'm not on those. I you know, it so my advice when it comes to social media is to do the legwork to understand which one of the platforms your target market is on and then do that one really well.

James [00:04:21]:

Okay.

Tara Ingalls [00:04:21]:

And then, you know, maybe have 2 other ones that you also have a presence on that might be the 2nd and third. But if you pick 1 and you do one really well, you know, that's gonna be your best bang for your time and, you know, for your dollars. The the problem with social media is that people think that it's a sales tool and it really is not meant to be that. It's meant to be, you know, a way for, to me it's like a it's like a customer service Dropbox in a lot of ways where people can, you know, they have the ability to send you to write reviews both positive and negative. They have the ability to comment on anything you post positive and negative. And it's so it can be, you know, somewhat of a, you know, unless you're not unless you're managing on a regular basis, people will start to feel like as a business owner, you're not engaged. You're not really using the platform unless you're commenting back and things like that. So a lot of people will say, oh, I'm on Facebook but I'm I don't get any business from it.

Tara Ingalls [00:05:18]:

Well, that's not the point. The point is to use Facebook specifically to manage your relationships with your customers and your potential, prospects and not necessarily like 20 25% off, you know, if you sign on now, things like that. So Oh. I mean, the scope of of Facebook has changed considerably. Even I'm having trouble getting my my following to engage, comment, and like, and share on our posts and things without having to pay for it. And so I feel like that's completely shifting now and the algorithms for

Beth Skogen - Beth Skogen Photography

On the Having the Eye for Beauty: "I think everybody's beautiful. Everybody."

There is no such thing as an entrepreneur with just one idea.  Beth Skogen is a living embodiment of that fact.  Beth has a compelling journey that began with an internship at the prestigious VII Photo Agency in New York. Since starting her own photography business in 2009, she's captured authentic moments for businesses, families, and individuals, emphasizing original imagery over stock photos.

Beth's entrepreneurial spirit extends beyond the lens. This is where it gets very interesting.  She's also the founder of the Vegan Sausage Fest, an event that offers plant-based food creations as a delicious alternative to traditional meat-heavy festivals. Held on Memorial Day weekend, the festival has grown from a shared dream with her friend Lauren to a community event attracting over 1500 participants.

Beth’s dedication to a vegan lifestyle even led her to start a vegan cycling team for RAGBRAI, a seven-day annual bike ride across Iowa. Her team, Powered by Plants Cycling, ensures that vegan participants have access to nutritious meals while on the road.

Listen as Beth details how she built her photography business and rolled with a few changes, as well as how she started other ventures targeting a healthy lifestyle.

Enjoy!

Visit Beth at:

Beth Skogen Photography: https://bethskogen.com/

Powered by Plants Cycling: https://www.poweredbyplantscycling.com/

Vegan Sausage Fest: https://www.vegansausagefest.com/

The Vibrant Veg: https://www.thevibrantveg.com/

Heartland Farm Sanctuary: https://heartlandfarmsanctuary.org/

IG: @bethskogen @poweredbyplantscycling @vegansausagefest

 

Podcast Overview:

04:43 Learning photography licensing; met photographers, inspired.

09:10 Internships helped transition to documentary photography business.

12:14 Friend documented birth; inspired me to photograph.

16:02 On-call birth duties caused scheduling conflicts.

18:37 Guiding options for hand placements during photos.

20:01 Helping people feel beautiful and comfortable photographed.

23:53 Ensure hair, bangs, and necklace placement correct.

28:00 Love capturing portraits and family life moments.

32:02 Volunteers chop salads, feed and muck stalls.

34:24 Volunteer or donate for Pasture Pals updates.

37:17 Laura Montalbano accepted my culinary request.

40:32 Planning campsites and unloading supplies for RAGBRAI.

41:54 Many food options, scarce healthy vegetable options.

45:23 Unique bao bun: Asian slaw, Sriracha aioli.

50:42 Loved the unique bean patty at bar.

Podcast Transcription:

Beth Skogen [00:00:00]:

This isn't the best side of my face. And my response to that is, well, let's do both, and you'll get to choose later because you never know.

James Kademan [00:00:11]:

You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Download downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found at draw On customers dot com. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie, and today we're welcoming slash preparing to learn from Beth Skogen of Beth Skogen Photography. So Beth, how is it going today?

Beth Skogen [00:00:36]:

I'm good. It's Thursday.

James Kademan [00:00:38]:

It is Thursday. I'm excited. I'm excited because I've known you, I think, since a long time when there were not so many digits in the 2000. And people said 10 years ago, and you thought you're talking about the nineties. So let's start with Beth Skogen Photography.

Beth Skogen [00:00:54]:

Mhmm.

James Kademan [00:00:54]:

What do you take pictures of?

Beth Skogen [00:00:58]:

I photograph people. Okay. Let's see. I photograph for businesses. I take branding photos, lifestyle photos. I also photograph families and interiors, and a little bit of video.

James Kademan [00:01:10]:

Alright. What is the you said branding photos? What are those?

Beth Skogen [00:01:13]:

Yeah. Branding photos. So, a business, in order to share what they do and tell their story, they need imagery. So, I come in and document basically anything that they do.

James Kademan [00:01:26]:

Alright. So they're fixing typewriters?

Beth Skogen [00:01:28]:

Sure.

James Kademan [00:01:29]:

You talking to them fixing typewriters? Or

Beth Skogen [00:01:31]:

That has not happened. But Or

James Kademan [00:01:32]:

if they, I don't know, squeeze orange juice or something like that. You're taking action shots of them squeezing orange juice. Yep. Okay. Yeah. So instead of them using clip art or stock photos

Beth Skogen [00:01:43]:

or something? Yeah. A lot people, so easy to go online and save an image, which you should never do, because you could get into some serious trouble. You should hire a professional photography. And then if if the licensing is all accurate, you can use those images as you wish for your own marketing.

James Kademan [00:02:03]:

And it's actually your or those are actually yours. So it's your company, your

Beth Skogen [00:02:06]:

people? Uh-huh. Uh-huh. It's your people. So when you look at, let's just say a financial firm, and there's a group of people in a row, who knows if those are the actual people?

James Kademan [00:02:17]:

Alright.

Beth Skogen [00:02:17]:

Yeah. You wanna look at a business' website, social media, and know those are the people that you're actually gonna be

James Kademan [00:02:23]:

working with. Alright. Well, that's cool. Yeah. So what let's go way back. Wait. What year did you start?

Beth Skogen [00:02:28]:

2009.

James Kademan [00:02:29]:

Okay. So 2,009, let's look at 2,008. Oh. What were you doing in 2,008? Way back when?

Beth Skogen [00:02:37]:

When? I was graduating from college in 2008.

James Kademan [00:02:40]:

Alright.

Beth Skogen [00:02:40]:

I went to the University of Iowa. Nice. And I majored in journalism and art. So I focused heavily on photojournalism and Call in love with photographing people and just documenting

James Kademan [00:02:50]:

life. So let me think. 2008, were there still dark rooms in 2008?

Beth Skogen [00:02:54]:

There were. I learned, how to take photos on film and develop film.

James Kademan [00:03:00]:

Nice. Yes. I remember taking photo classes in college and going to the dark room and playing with developing pictures and thinking, I'm gonna have a dark room in my house. Mhmm. And are they a thing anymore?

Beth Skogen [00:03:13]:

Some people still do it. I feel like there's, some photographers that specialize it

James Kademan [00:03:15]:

specialize in doing that,

Beth Skogen [00:03:16]:

and and a little bit yes. Okay. But not many. They still do calligraphy and churn their own butter, so we're not. Mhmm. Okay.

James Kademan [00:03:24]:

Yeah. Got it. Makes it, like, even more special that they do it because not many people

Beth Skogen [00:03:27]:

do it.

James Kademan [00:03:31]:

Yeah. I remember you could have fun with it developing certain areas of the photo more and different and I guess kind of the fun was you didn't know what you're what you actually took a picture of Mhmm. Mhmm. Until you put it in a little chemical and you're like, oh, yeah. That's my thumb.

Beth Skogen [00:03:45]:

Yeah. So Yeah. You can't just click away and try to get all sorts of shots. You have to be very, intentional with your, 24 film.

James Kademan [00:03:55]:

That's right. Alright. Yeah. So how did you go from graduating college to starting your own photography business?

Beth Skogen [00:04:01]:

Yeah. I feel like well, after college, I, I did 2 internships. So I, took a internship at 7 Photo Agency, which is out in New York.

James Kademan [00:04:12]:

That's the name of it. Uh-huh. Okay. Not 7.

Beth Skogen [00:04:13]:

Roman numeral 7. Oh. Photo agency. Okay. They're a group of photojournalists, in this collective basically, and they're all over the the world doing different assignments. And so, I wanted to work at this agency kinda behind the scenes. So it was more of the business aspects of the photography world, licensing images, magazines would, let's see. Like, New York Times Magazine would ask for images relating to a story.

Beth Skogen [00:04:43]:

And so we'd go through the archive of all of our photography' images and pull certain ones that would make sense for that story. And then weeks later, we would get that New York Times Magazine and see those images that we sent them to use to license and, scan in the tear sheet, which was really cool to see that whole process. Yeah. So I wanted to learn the the behind the scenes of the licensing, the images, and how that all works. So that was really cool. And I got to meet a few other photographers at the time. There were maybe, like, 11 or 12 photographers, at the time. And it was so cool because in college, we in photojournalism class and working for the newspaper, we looked at the 7 website and looked at those photography' work to see what was considered good good work.

Beth Skogen [00:05:31]:

And, like, yeah, it was great. So it was like a dream come true. It was really, really cool.

James Kademan [00:05:36]:

So then you got to be the person that was taking the photos that other students got to look at and see.

Beth Skogen [00:05:40]:

I didn't I didn't photograph for them. I was just in the office. Yeah. I was doing a lot of metadata, file naming. So a lot of the behind the scenes that I do in my business now, I learned from the agency. Okay. Yeah.

James Kademan [00:05:56]:

So tell me about the metadata part.

Beth Skogen [00:05:57]:

Yeah. So, when I, take photos, I bring them I they're on the memory card. I bring them On the computer, upload them onto my computer, onto multiple hard drives,...

Hannah Hammond - The Firm

On the Power of Having a Solid Team: "I think if you are your authentic self and you are putting yourself out there, then people who align with you are are gonna reach out to you and be like, I wanna work for you."

Real estate investing is one of the best ways to grow your wealth.  But where do you start and how do you invest in real estate?

Hannah Hammond was a self-made millionaire by the age of 25, has invested in residential and commercial properties, started her own real estate brokerage firm and has build a lending company to help get deals done.  On top of all of this, she happens to be an incredible person to chat with.

Like the best entrepreneurs that find success, Hannah has taken on the mission of learning more so she can share more, helping other entrepreneurs and inspiring almost everyone that is lucky enough to meet her.

Listen as Hannah shares her story, from starting and building her companies and the challenges she faced along the way.  Problems are a sign of life, and it is the grace that Hannah has shown as she navigated these problems that helped her grow into the powerhouse she is.

Enjoy!

Visit Hannah at: KashedLending.com and https://realestateatthefirm.com/

 

Podcast Overview:

00:00 Wanted wealth, found guidance in "Rich Dad Poor Dad."

06:11 Retired lender offers private loans in Arizona.

09:38 Managing a fund requires more diligence now.

12:22 Transitioning from microloans to broader real estate funding.

13:37 Small loans have higher interest; larger loans lower.

20:20 Seeking balance beyond work-focused identity through meditation.

21:46 Authenticity attracts aligned talent through social media.

27:05 Commercial real estate sales down significantly post-COVID.

28:57 High prices persist; real opportunities require recession.

32:57 Had to self-manage finances for better outcomes.

34:03 Started own brokerage to handle both markets.

38:05 Hire values-aligned, entrepreneurial, independent, self-led individuals.

42:54 Real estate remained my consistent career path.

44:25 Partnerships are challenging; independence feels compromised.

48:08 Sharing experiences organically attracts interested individuals.

50:54 Driven by healing childhood trauma and self-worth.

56:18 Assistants handle comments; direct messages prioritized.

Podcast Transcription:

Hannah Hammond [00:00:00]:

I think if you are your authentic self and you are putting yourself out there, then people who align with you are gonna reach out to you and be like, I wanna work for you. And you almost get, like, a cult like following.

James Kademan [00:00:15]:

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, Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service, as well as The Bold Business Book. And today, we're welcoming slash preparing to learn from Hannah Hammond, the founder of HB Capital and The Firm RE. So, Hannah, how is it going today?

Hannah Hammond [00:00:45]:

It is awesome. Thank you so much for having me here today.

James Kademan [00:00:48]:

Yeah. I'm excited to talk real estate with you because, well, it's a shifting market, but shifting in different ways that I didn't necessarily expect with interest rates going higher and then kinda lower and all that. So let's just start with the foundation here. Tell us what you do.

Hannah Hammond [00:01:05]:

Yeah. So I, I'm here local in Arizona, and I own a real estate brokerage called The Firm, and we do commercial and residential purchases, sales, leasing for our clients. And I also have a national private lending company. So we specialize in offering bridge loans to real estate investors so they can acquire value add assets at a discount, get quick cash, do their capital improvements, and then they generally will refinance us out within 12 months with a conventional loan.

James Kademan [00:01:33]:

Nice. Let's chat about the way beginning. How did you end up getting into real estate?

Hannah Hammond [00:01:39]:

So, I came from a family that didn't have a lot of money and wasn't very entrepreneurial, and I really wanted freedom in my life and was very drawn to, my best friend who had a lot of wealth and her parents her her dad owned a large company and, real estate portfolio, everything like that. And, I just started researching, like, how to build wealth, how to build, how to make a lot of money ultimately and how to have freedom in my life. And I found Rich Dad Poor Dad by Ryan Kiyosaki.

James Kademan [00:02:11]:

The Bible of Real Estate Professionals. Right?

Hannah Hammond [00:02:14]:

Exactly. Yeah. So, he's, he's a good friend today, and that book was kinda my lifeline as a child. And I decided I was gonna be an entrepreneur, and I was gonna be a real estate investor. So at 18 years old, I signed up for real estate school, and here I am 10 years later.

James Kademan [00:02:30]:

Wow. At 18, you signed up for that. That's pretty insightful.

Hannah Hammond [00:02:33]:

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. I think, by 18, I bought my first property. I sold a few $1,000,000 worth of real estate and started doing the renovation value add, and the ball just got rolling.

James Kademan [00:02:45]:

Nice. How tell us about that process. Because I imagine when you're 18 and you go to get a loan, the bank is gonna say, what do you want? Or something like that. So I imagine that had to be a challenge.

Hannah Hammond [00:02:56]:

Exactly. Yeah. I had no no credit, really, no money other than the commission, and I had just sold. Fortunately, my very first deal was a $1,100,000 commercial property. It was a lot

James Kademan [00:03:08]:

At 18.

Hannah Hammond [00:03:09]:

Yeah. And I, it was the only person that showed up to the open house that I held for another agent at my residential brokerage office. So talk about, manifest destiny and

James Kademan [00:03:21]:

Yeah. Right?

Hannah Hammond [00:03:21]:

Hard work. Yeah. So I got that deal, made $36,000 and was able to use that. My very first condo I bought was $76,900. I still own it today. It's been cash flowing about $2,000 a month over the past 10 years. It's, you know, gone up over time, but I always have done, the short term, midterm furnished rental with it. And so I've always been able to cash flow a lot more than traditional.

Hannah Hammond [00:03:46]:

And, my mom helped me tremendously at 18. She cosigned on that loan. It was like a $50,000 loan. It was not a huge loan. And I did have you know, I got a credit card right when I turned 18, and did all the credit card tricks of, like, you know, put a few $100 on it, very low of what you're able to spend, and then just pay it off right away. I did that so I had a, like, a little tiny bit of credit. And, I think I was almost almost 19 by the time I closed on it, and then she cosigned and and helped me out and that got the ball rolling. But, I quickly learned that my own credit was never gonna get me very far, regardless of how good it was.

Hannah Hammond [00:04:26]:

And so that's how I found out about private lending, which is now the business I'm in now. And I found out about them by starting to use private lenders for my own real estate invest investments because the banks were an absolute nightmare. And as an entrepreneur, you know, we write everything off. We depreciate everything. And so it's, just a nightmare to try to get bank loans.

James Kademan [00:04:48]:

Yeah. I remember when we tried to get our first house, I had my own business. I'm sorry. 2nd house. I had my own business, and the banker just said, don't we're not even gonna look at your income. We're just gonna look at my wife's income. And I'm like, what? I think I make more than her. Yeah.

James Kademan [00:05:07]:

They're like, small business. No. Look at w two. We want w two's kinda thing.

Hannah Hammond [00:05:12]:

Exactly.

James Kademan [00:05:13]:

So it was interesting, but whatever. That's the that's the game that they have. Tell me about that financing and, the private, private financing, I should say, because that's a world that I just actually got introduced to. I'm gonna say relatively recently that I didn't even know as much of a thing. I knew of outside financing besides banks, but I didn't know it was I didn't know that it was as spread out as it is now. So tell me a little bit about that.

Hannah Hammond [00:05:39]:

Yeah. And that's the exact reason I just, started the debt fund because, it's an amazing way for investors to make really high returns and keep their cash very liquid. And if they have a self directed IRA, then it's also tax free. So it's been amazing for me. I absolutely love being the bank and same concept. I didn't think I could ever be the bank. I thought only banks could be banks, and I didn't think banks could be individual people. And if they could, I thought you'd have to be, you know, Uber super crazy rich or billionaire or centimillionaire or something to even think about that.

Hannah Hammond [00:06:11]:

But I, knew this guy local to Arizona, and I ended up using him for a private money loan, started chatting with them, and he said he had saved up $10,000,000 over the course of his career. He was kind of a retired, older gentleman, and he's like, yeah. I just, you know, get referrals from friends and family in Arizona, and I know real estate well, and I lend them, you know, up to 75% loan to value on their fix and flips. And I just charge them interest only, a point a month, and, they pay me off whenever they like, and that's it. And I'm like, okay. Well, that sounds really awesome. And so I, hired an attorney, kinda learned everything I needed to learn,...

Leo Kanell - 7 Figures Funding

On the Power of Having a Solid Team: "If you're going to grow and scale something that is making money while you're on vacation and sleeping, then you got to have great leaders."

Money makes the world go 'round.  This is especially true in business.  As your business grows, you may need to leverage money as a tool.  How do you get funding for your business?

Leo Kanell, founder of 7 Figures Funding, explains how the business financing world works.

We explore essential topics like the importance of maintaining a healthy business bank account balance, leveraging alternative lending options when traditional banks fall short, and the evolving landscape of virtual events and content marketing in B2B environments. Leo also shares valuable insights on sourcing and retaining quality employees, the significance of personal and business credit scores, and the nuances of effective incentive structures in sales.

We'll hear inspiring success stories, such as a beauty salon owner who expanded her business thanks to 7 Figures Funding, and gain practical advice on managing cash flow, fostering a positive company culture, and continuous learning and improvement for business growth. Whether you're a startup or an established small business, this episode is packed with actionable insights to help you secure financing, build strong credit, and thrive in today's competitive market.

Listen as Leo explains what you can do to ensure that if and when you need funding, you have the right things in place to make it easy to get that yes from a lender.

Enjoy!

Visit Leo at: https://www.7figuresfunding.com/

 

Podcast Overview:

05:07 Return on loan matters more than interest rates.

07:14 Helping overlooked businesses thrive financially and succeed.

12:49 Keep your bank account and taxes in check.

14:48 Personal score: 720+; Build biz credit with three.

17:31 Dun and Bradstreet boosts your business credit.

22:49 Virtual events and videos are game-changers now.

26:09 Top performers don't always make great managers.

30:23 Misaligned incentives made financing operations inefficient.

32:47 Make sure you're getting quality, cash-boosting clients.

37:55 Pick smart banks for better business perks.

39:37 Fintech platforms make getting capital super easy.

43:04 Cash flow tool helps small businesses thrive.

48:01 Great leaders, keep learning, handle cash flow issues.

Podcast Transcription:

Leo Kanell [00:00:00]:

The magic number is 25,000. So a lot of the time strategically, we're going to be able to get a client, you know, 4 or 5 lenders who each give them $25,000 And that's usually the magic number.

James Kademan [00:00:16]:

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 in the podcast link found at drawincustomers.com. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie, calls on call extraordinary answering service, as well as the Bold Business Book. And today, we are welcoming slash preparing to learn from Leo Kanell, the CEO and founder of 7 Figures Funding. I'm excited to have Leo on the show because today, we are talking money in business, which are 2 things that well, they go hand in hand, and they're a lot of fun. It's what we're doing here. So, Leo, how is it going today?

Leo Kanell [00:00:55]:

James, going awesome. Excited to connect with the audience, and there's no doubt about it. Business is an adventure.

James Kademan [00:01:02]:

I was just reading on your website. It's talking about cash flow, which is essentially the lifeblood of business.

Leo Kanell [00:01:07]:

For sure.

James Kademan [00:01:08]:

Let's start out with what is 7 figures funding.

Leo Kanell [00:01:11]:

Yeah. Great question. So, for the last decade, we've been, serving small business owners. There's 30,000,000 of them across the country, and most of the time, banks and lenders ignore them when it comes to the financing needs that they have. And so we've created a a marketplace of options with, 0% interest options up to as long as 18 months, lines of credit, equipment, commercial real estate loans, and, even SBA, direct SBA in all 50 states with some unique SBA options. And so our our deal is somebody needs to be guaranteed they're getting the best option to grow their business, and that's why we included and built this marketplace with the best options.

James Kademan [00:01:51]:

That is awesome. Now tell me, SBA, I know a lot of well, some banks that really don't delve into that. So how big of a deal was it to get that as part of your

Leo Kanell [00:02:02]:

It it was a big deal. And more importantly, like the last 2 years, SBA actually started to make programs that were much quicker and easier. I mean, we've all seen the nightmare of, oh, it takes months. And and I remember one of the first SBA loans I did was for a a gas station in San Diego. It took us 11 months to get that deal done, absolute nightmare. And that's typical of SBA. And they have now streamlined a lot of those programs in the last 2 or 3 years since COVID. And so we've got a much more what we call the SBA express loan that it can get done in about 4 to 5 weeks.

Leo Kanell [00:02:35]:

And that's been a very solid program for small business, to be able to get a $150,200,000 loan with an affordable payment. And and so yeah. It definitely been a journey. Haven't always recommended. But for the right business, it can be a great option.

James Kademan [00:02:50]:

I love talking lending in business because interesting when I'm coaching or teaching business planning classes, I say the funny thing about getting money from banks is that you have to prove that you don't need the money.

Leo Kanell [00:03:03]:

Sure.

James Kademan [00:03:03]:

You have to give them all the stuffs, collateral stuff, and show that you have good credit history and all this kind of stuff. It always seemed like I get it. They wanna be paid back. But on the flip side, if we really had everything that you possibly need, we would need your funding. So tell me, who is your ideal client with 7 figures funding?

Leo Kanell [00:03:23]:

Yeah. Our ideal client is, is a small business owner probably doing less than $5,000,000 a year in sales who needs financing to grow. That's probably about 30% of our business, but 70% of it is somebody who's new. Like, you've been in business less than a year or 2, maybe even prerevenue, and you're looking for start up funding options. And so we work with a lot of business coaches, consultants, and trainers get their clients access to capital, And that's where 90% of our business comes from is those relationships with those, those who are in the trenches, helping new businesses grow. And so we get them access to that financing.

James Kademan [00:04:01]:

Nice. So tell me a story about interest rates. Those have been on top of people's minds, didn't pandemic when they were crazy low. And I guess a year ago when people assume that they're crazy high, but relatively speaking over the decades, not that bad. Now they're coming down a teensy bit. How does that affect what you do or what you offer?

Leo Kanell [00:04:21]:

That's a a great question. Without a doubt, if you're dealing with commercial real estate or or equipment financing or even SBA loans, those are oftentimes tied back to, prime interest rates. And prime interest rates are, you know, around 8%, maybe now down in the in the 7 and, 3 quarter percent range. And so it certainly has an impact on secured stuff. But for most business owners, they're different than consumers. Right? If you're a consumer, will you go get financing for your home, for your car? I mean, it's it's a place to live. It's a way to transport yourself, but it's not necessarily generating you income. If you're a business owner and you need a loan or line of credit or whatever it is to get your business off the ground, oftentimes, you can turn that into a 2, 300% return.

Leo Kanell [00:05:07]:

So whether you're paying, you know, 6%, 8%, 15, 20%, as long as you're making 2 to 300% on that money, which most business owners are, then you're coming out okay. And a few percentage points here and there isn't going to make a big difference. The bigger issue is are you generating a return in ROL as we call return on loan, return on line of credit. And that's the bigger factor for businesses. So businesses ultimately are less impacted by rates. Now you start dealing with monster businesses, you know, big tech companies, companies like GE, and you start talking about financing 1,000,000,000 of dollars, which they need to to grow their business, and it can absolutely be a big deal on their cash flow. If you're a company like Walmart or Amazon where your margins are much, much tighter, financing rates go up and every big business is using financing, you know, contrary to popular belief. Oh, they just have cash for everything.

Leo Kanell [00:06:04]:

No. They're they're all using financing and 60 90 and 30 day windows to be able to stretch out their cash and increase their cash flow. And so even those big businesses, Walmart has over 5, 600 lines of credit at any one time, so they're much more impacted. You know, an interest rate change can be worth 1,000,000,000 of dollars for them.

James Kademan [00:06:23]:

Got it. So let's talk about you in this business specifically. How did you end up in the lending business here for small businesses?

Leo Kanell [00:06:31]:

Well, my, background was, was in mortgages back in the day before the 2008, 2009 recession. And so I I had that background of getting homeowners financing and investors financing for single family properties, multiunit properties. And when the recession hit, well, that business really dried up very quickly....