Beyond 8 Figures

Sharran Srivatsaa

Sharran Srivatsaa is the CEO of Kingston Lane, a push-button technology execution platform for real estate. Sharran is a serial entrepreneur, sought-after keynote speaker, and a respected thought-leadership resource for publications such as The Wall Street Journal, SUCCESS magazine, Huffington Post, and Forbes.

What income range does Sharran have, and where does it come from? (2:21)

• Sharran exited a business around the 8 figure mark, although he is not allowed to disclose the final sales amount due to selling to a public company. 
• He chose to share some of the other exciting stats.
• They owned a real estate brokerage which Sharran fell into. 
• They grew it to 10x the size it was when Sharran started in five years. 
• They had over 600 agents and did about 3.6 billion in top-line sales, which were about $83 million in revenues, and they had 22 offices. 
•  By the end of 2017, they had been acquired by a public company out of New York called Douglas Elliman.
• It was the largest transaction Douglas Elliman had ever done. 
• Even though the sales number is a $3.6 Billion number and the one published the most, Sharran wants people to know that that is not what he walked away with. Gross revenues for the firm were $83 Million. 

Was there a unique way that Sharran acquired customers? (7:20)

• At some point, the business was in red ocean waters. 
• It is a commoditised business, and everyone believes a brokerage is a brokerage.
• You have to figure out whether you are going to get clients and hand leads to your agents or how you are going to get great agents and support them. 
• You have to figure out your business model from the start. 
• The industry is primarily based on an agent to client relationships. An agent to client relationship is tough to displace. 
• Sharran did not go down the path, worried about how he was going to acquire new clients. He decided to instead focus on how he would build an operating model that can support an agent trying to gain more clients. 
• This was the core value proposition of the company. 
• So for the first six months, it was all about how to get to the heart of building a value proposition. 
• Sharran wanted to be able to give a one-sentence pitch to clients which would make them like the offer they were getting.

How did Sharran get a foothold in the market? (37:17)

• Sharran has no people on the ground. They started building a partner model. 
• They have someone in every country, promoting them. 
• They have a major real estate network in Australia which had a substantial real estate conference.
• Sharran was there as a keynote speaker, and that grew into a 3D keynote that eventually developed the brand. 
• They found the right kind of person to become partners with.
• It could be a portal, a coaching company, or even another brokerage, but it’s mainly about helping with the delivery of your service. 
• In Australia, there are no buyer side commissions, so the company quickly realised that buyers are not taken care of in Australia. 
• There is no incentive to look after buyers in Australia because they are not getting paid. 
• It ruined half of Sharran’s original pitch about understanding agents well. 
• Therefore learning local market nuances is super powerful.

What does Sharran recommend entrepreneurs do to address a shortage of listings? (42:14)

• You have to have a singular focus which is what you wake up and obsess about every single day. 
• You need to have a cadence of accountability.
• You have to have a fair process that drives good results. 
• A lot of entrepreneurs will hack stuff.
• Teles’ singular focus was recruiting agents that were selling at least ten homes a year or more.
• They incentive their agents even more by saying if you get seven or more listings a year you get 52 days off in that year. 
• Sharran would also tell all his sales managers and recruiting managers the same thing. 
• Once Sharran managed to get the employees on board, he could deliver the service. 

Teles

Teles Properties is a full-service, luxury real estate firm headquartered in Beverly Hills. They have 21 offices strategically located in California’s most prestigious markets. From the highlands of Carmel to the island of Coronado as well as a presence in Boulder, Colo. Recognized for four consecutive years by the prestigious Inc. 500|5000 lists as one of the fastest-growing private companies in America, Teles has become an industry disruptor, attracting top broker talent and elite leadership from invaluable and complementary sectors such as marketing, technology, finance, and law.

Resources

Connect with Sharran: LinkedIn

Teles Properties: Website

Beyond 8 Figures: Website

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Colin Wayne is a 30-year-old Millionaire from Huntsville, Al who has accomplished more in the past 10 years than most will in a lifetime. To include being a prior Army Combat Veteran, Former Top Fitness Model with 50+ Magazine Covers, Social Media Savant with over 3.6M followers across Social Media, Husband, Father of 3, and currently an Entrepreneur scaling his company, Redline Steel into a Billion Dollar company within the next decade.

How Colin started out. (5:01)

• Manufacturing was something he had zero experience in.
• Prior to getting involved with this business, Colin wanted to partner with a guy who offered a marketing opportunity.
• At some point, Colin made his partner an offer to get 51% of the business if he was able to do six times the revenue of what his partner was making. In which he backed out when they got to that day.

Getting into doing steel decor. (14:34)

• He was working out at the gym with a good friend of his, and he showed him a steel baseball figure with a name engraved into it.
• Colin figured that he also wanted a gift like this for his own son, he phoned, and the opportunity showed itself.
• Colin and the owner that did the steelwork developed, spoke, and built a business plan, once again, Colin made the same proposal, and for a second time, the other party backed out.
• He decided to get his own equipment the very next day even though he didn’t know what he was getting himself into.

How Colin scaled his business. (22:19)

• He officially started his business in 2016 when he completed the big purchase order.
• They had three or four employees full time doing 50 to 60 orders per week. It was noting substantial, and he could only pay the bills and not himself.
• Colin used Facebook marketing which helped with the boost. He continued to do soft scaling for quite some time.
• They used different channels to market so that they don’t solely depend on just Facebook alone.
• They are launching other brands to stretch the LTV even further like selling candles as well.

Advice for someone wanting to scale or potentially exit a business. (48:13)

• Colin’s biggest advice for anybody wanting to get started is to execute.
• Don’t let the fact that you have zero experience stop you from doing what you want to do. Believe in yourself and in your abilities to move forward.
• If you continue procrastinating you might end up regretting that you did not take initiative, simply execute what it is you want to do.

Redline Steel

Redline Steel is a customized decor manufacturing company inspired by design and relentless innovation to bring a level of quality unprecedented to what's been seen in home decor. They are proudly veteran owned and operated and 100% manufactured in the United States.

Resources

Connect with Colin: LinkedIn

Colin Wayne: Website

Redline Steel: Website

Beyond 8 Figures: Website

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Steve Layton is the founder of the furniture business The Layton Group. Supplying furniture to large Australian retailers such as John Cootes and Harvey Norman since 1998. Layton started the business in Hong Kong in 1990, exporting furniture to Australia, the US, and Europe.

Layton’s new, reworked venture Sofa Brands is a three-way supply and retail agreement with Italian furniture business Calia Italia and leading Chinese furniture retailer, De Rucci, which has more than 2000 stores.

What was the first transaction for Steve? (13:39)

• The very first transaction would have been a container of sofas shipped to Auckland in New Zealand.
• The tough thing was finding the factories, finding the manufacturers, finding the product, and then developing the product.
• Back in the day, they had to be on the ground, shaking hands and making relationships with the Chinese manufacturers.

How did Steve go about hiring his first employee? (20:51)

• The first hire was in Hong Kong in 1991.
• They had the shipping person who handled all the logistics and the paperwork for the export.
• They had a PA who was handling all his travel and various other things.
• The people they focused on most, which they spent most of their money on was quality control. They had four quality control inspectors based in China.
• Steve believes that focusing on good quality products from the start is what helped his business grow. 
• They did not own the manufacturer; they were only developing the product and then sold that.

Roland’s mistake which ended up making everything move faster? (7:12)

• They committed to material back in 2009, which was a new material called bonded leather.
• They put together a collection of furniture, presented it to one of the biggest retailers in Australia and they took it up.
• Everyone was telling him that he can’t use that material since no one would be interested. However, it became a $12mil category of leather material.
• By taking such a big risk, it ended becoming a huge success.
• Since the pivot, the IP that they have, and the business models that they're actually growing is going to have a real value.
• There are huge upsides on average transaction values now, as they’re racing back up to the middle and having the exclusive production and distribution rights on the two big Italian brands. 

The Layton Group

The Layton Group has been one of Australia’s premier furniture supply and manufacturing businesses, supplying furniture and homewares to the majority of Australia’s largest retailers since 1998.

Resources

Sofa Brands: Website

Beyond 8 Figures: Website

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Roland Frasier talks about business from an equity and acquisition standpoint. He also shares how thinking outside the box can bring success and fulfillment in the business world.

About Roland Frasier:

Roland Frasier, a serial entrepreneur, co-founder, and principal of multiple rapidly growing companies, possesses an extensive background in diverse industries, ranging from e-commerce and e-learning to industrial machine manufacturing. With a remarkable track record of founding, scaling, or selling two dozen businesses, Roland is currently the CEO of War Room Mastermind, advising over 150 companies on digitally-centric growth strategies. Additionally, he serves as a principal in several prominent ventures, including DigitalMarketer.com, Traffic & Conversion Summit, Praxio.com, Plattr.com, TruConversion.com, and Real Estate Worldwide.

His relentless passion for business and deal-making is reflected in his book “Zero Down: 5 Proven Steps to Quickly Acquire Businesses + Unlimited Leads for Zero Money Out of Pocket“, where he provides entrepreneurs with practical strategies to acquire businesses without relying on personal funds or credit.

For a comprehensive book review, check out this page.

In this episode, Steve, Mary, Richard, and Roland discuss:

• Getting started with equity
• How to invest for a good return
• What risks are good to take, and which are dangerous
• How to acquire a business

Key Takeaways:

• Choose a business where you would do what you’re doing for free and find another job to earn money to allow you to do the business you are starting. And… try to find a business that you can sell for a multiple of sales and not a multiple of earnings. SaaS companies are currently one such business
• Taking a risk on a deal to invest can grow your return if you manage your time well
• It’s better to invest small in the beginning, then invest everything later and lose it all
• Keep yourself open to all opportunities and what they may present you

Connect with Roland Frasier:

• Facebook: @rolandfrasier
• Website: http://www.rolandfrasier.com

Follow Beyond 8 Figures:

• Website: Beyond8Figures.com
• Twitter: @beyond8figures 
• Facebook: Beyond 8 Figures
• Instagram:@b8fpodcast

Affiliate Disclaimer: Some links in this episode are affiliate links. If you make a purchase through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Rest assured, we only promote products/services we believe will benefit your entrepreneurial journey. 

Dan is the founder of Growth to Freedom, ProsperityBasedLiving.com, creator of Millionaires Mindset, bestselling author of Bootstrap Business as well as A Champion in the Making: Awaken the Champion Within Your Life, Business, and Relationships, and more.

Dan is a Dad, Thought Leader, Humanitarian, Angel Investor, and Business Growth Specialist. Dan started his first company at 22 years old, has owned multiple companies, and has over 22 years of experience helping businesses grow exponentially.

How did Dan get started? (2:35)

• Dan says that it has been quite a journey. 
• Dan has always been fascinated by direct response marketing since the late ’80s.
• He worked in a direct mail company before starting his own company that he built up. 
• The company ended up not doing too well because Dan was young and didn’t understand enough about being young, dumb, and made a bunch of mistakes. 
• Pre Internet, they were able to take messages and put them in the mail, and people would respond and send them money.
• They would also put ads on TV and people would respond to those and also send them money. And so it was with radio as well.
• Dan build a version of a business, and after a bad breakup with a business partner, Dan had to regroup. He got into the seminar business.
• He started to learn about selling from the stage and event model type businesses. 
• He then started a company where they sold business opportunities, and he found it enjoyable. 
• He loved watching people start up their businesses, taking their dreams, and creating freedom for them and their families, and making a difference in the communities they plan to impact. 
• While doing that, Dan was also notating the experiences into a journal so he wouldn’t forget where he came from. 
• He journaled certain strategies into one particular journal, and a friend saw it and asked if he could check it out. 
• Reading it, his friend said that he should consider turning it into a book.
• This was in the mid-’90s, and Dan was not sure how to publish a book or even write one.
• But he decided to go for it and published his book all by himself, the first few sets of copies cost him something like $50.

What did Dan do next? (5:52)

• TV was not like it is now. Now it is relatively inexpensive to start a TV production facility compared to back then. 
• Dan decided to go to the other section, which was radio infomercials. 
• He created a Radio Infomercials business where he took 30-minute presentations he had that converted to generate leads that fed to the audience. 
• This was in the late ’90s to early 2000s. What would then happen is that these would feed into the education programs through an automated teleseminar. 
• Today these are called quite a few things, including a webinar.
• Dan figured out how to merge different technologies to automate it. 
• They hit a winner when they saw that they could create leads for almost no cost. 
• Dan started to mass-air his product on all different networks, including ESPN, before it was famous. 
• They were generating thousands of leads which drove into their automated teleseminar process to sell their education. 

How did Dan and his team keep up with the growth? (7:42)

• In the process of building the leads, they required more people to supply and support them. 
• They needed people to talk to the people receiving their leads and enrol them. 
• They quickly outgrew their 400 square foot office. 
• They started with 4 people in the original office. They rented an adjunct space next to their first office, which added another 300 square feet of space. 
• They grew to include 10 more people working for them and started to build the online filament to their teleseminars. 
• Other employees generating leads mused about parlaying the eduction to be able to provide it to their clients. 
• So these people would hand over their leads to Dan increasing his number of them. 
• The team grew from 10 to 40 rapidly, which is when Dan realized that the business was starting to become a little overwhelming but was amazed by what they had accomplished at that point as well. 
• Panicking at projected growth data, Dan did not want to have to hire more people and so he jumped to thinking up solutions. 
• He started to work on copy online. He was convinced you could take a sales message and put it online.
• With some help from people who joined the company a little later, Dan managed to eventually pull it off. 

Prosperity Based Living 

In this new power program, Prosperity Based Living™. Dan Kuschell gives the specific tools, resources, and strategies that he's used to transforming the lives of others who truly desire to begin immediately to attract abundance, wealth, and prosperity.

Resources

Connect with Dan: Website

Prosperity Based Living: Website

Beyond 8 Figures: Website

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Melissa Krivachek has been honored with enthusiasm for training people, groups, and organizations over the globe who wind up lacking energy, losing cash, and feeling lost in the everyday cycles they've made for themselves, their organizations, and families. 

Beyond the ability to create systems, scale, and develop teams as well as increase bottom lines and help people with discovering genuine feelings of serenity Melissa has been given various awards, handling her on the front page of Evolution Magazine as their Top Power Player Under 40.

What helped Melissa to grow the business? (9:46)

• Everyone should find themselves a protector, a guard dog, someone that's going to keep the doors shut for you, accessing clients that aren't in your realm of expertise.
• She has a CEO that does a phenomenal job of telling people when Melissa can’t do certain things.

Melissa’s definition of fun, doing sales. (14:01)

• She believes that it is a conversation that people have.
• Melissa is more interested in finding out what the other person is like so that she can put emphasis on that during a sales conversation.
• In company culture, people spend way too much time being serious and not enough time doing the things that bring them joy and fulfillment.
• Melissa has done tons of things with her clients such as going skiing, running and splashing in puddles, etc. 
• If you can create an experience for someone from start to finish, they're much more likely to spend their money on your company.
• Other business owners that don't quite make as much revenue, generally don't know what fun is since they are just stuck in the mundane task of trying to figure out how to generate more revenue.

Melissa’s advice for business in terms of starting scaling or exiting? (28:43)

• Melissa advises not to look to do things for yourself and your own division of revenue, you must look to do things for other people.
• The first thing you do is to find something that makes you happy, then the price tag should not matter.
• The better energy that you have, the more you can do with it. You can contribute to charities, you can be philanthropic, you can give back and just do good.
• Melissa makes sure to fulfill her promises, she does not set goals, instead, she sets requirements.

What's the overall vision in terms of revenue around the first year? (33:21)

• Melissa is already cash-flow positive, it is well over 10 million
• It is important to get out of startup mode as quickly as possible, which is only achievable if you have money to invest back into companies.
• The majority of salespeople do not have great sales talents.
• The second category is people that might not be the best at sales, but have experience with it.
• These are people that Milisa knows she can call and sell tickets to.

Melissa Krivachek 

Melissa Krivachek runs her own business which is in business and sales. She does financial analysis, total business evaluation as well as helping you to develop management roles. It is important to organize the workflow and to outsource low-level tasks. In order to maximize the cash flow, she also focuses on hiring the right people and helps you to develop daily routines.

Resources

Connect with Melissa: Instagram 

Melissa Krivachek Companies: Website

Beyond 8 Figures: Website

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Viki Winterton is the founder of Expert Insights Publishing, home of best-selling and award-winning books and magazines, where visionaries and those on the rise come together to create immediate impact. 

Viki is also a multiple #1 International Best-Selling Author and Award-Winning Publisher, founder of Bestselling Authors International Organization, Write Now! Broadcast and Write Away, Write  Now!, the global community where writers find everything they need at each stage of their journey

How involved was Viki in the firm? (2:41)

• When Viki hit her 20s, she started working part-time for an ad agency between her modelling gigs.
• There was a fierce desire to be more in control of life.
• Modelling is somewhat manipulated by a lot of different factors.
• When you get to the age of 24 it is time to retire, for a lot of models, which Viki decided to pursue.
• A lot of recruitment and general advertising was done during the time that there was a bad recession.

Who were Viki’s partners at that current point? (5:06)

• She acquired a number of other smaller agencies and then approached a full-service agency about sharing a space and sharing their creative department.
• Three years later the owner of that department was interested in Viki’s part and made her an offer to acquire her portion of the agency.
• He ended up buying her portion of the agency for the big sum of $12M.

How her business grew and what Viki would’ve done differently (7:12)

• Since she was so young, all of Viki’s energy was going into billing and getting bigger numbers.
• As they grew, they had to take contracts several times, which almost doubled their size. This meant that they also needed to nearly double their headcount.
• In her mature years, she could see people planning for growth without planning how to grow.
• If she would have had any regrets, it would probably be that she tampered with their growth to be a little less dramatic.
• When they acquired two businesses, she would have changed that, some of the people would also change along with the business, because it would’ve resulted in the way that the business was run.
• When Viki initially worked in the business, she loved it, but as it got bigger she realized that she preferred a more entrepreneurial background or environment.
• In this day and age, it would be wonderful to talk about profitability as there is a movement behind that. Those in bigger businesses or those starting out should be looking at profitability.

Viki’s advice for entrepreneurs? (32:44)

• First and foremost you must follow your bliss. If you do what you love, everything comes naturally.
• All information is free on the internet and people have access to this information to make their business successful. But one thing they can’t replace is passion and the bliss that they find by doing what they are passionate about.

Expert Insights Publishing

Expert Insights Publishing has helped more than 100 companies, experts, writers, and entrepreneurs to successfully define their dreams and their businesses to achieve success for over 30 years. They are a 23-time #1 International Bestseller and award-winning publisher.

Resources

Connect with Viki: LinkedIn

Expert Insights Publishing: Website

Beyond 8 Figures: Website

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Beyond 8 Figures, Steve, Mary & Richard sit down with Mitch Russo founder of Timeslips Corporation who exited for 10.5 Million dollars.

About Mitch Russo:

Mitch Russo, a seasoned entrepreneur, began his remarkable journey by founding a software company in his garage, which he later sold for a staggering eight figures. Collaborating with industry titans Tony Robbins and Chet Holmes, he successfully built a 25-million-dollar enterprise. At the core of Mitch’s philosophy lies the belief in nurturing client relationships and the importance of sharing knowledge and experience with others.

Renowned for his expertise, Mitch Russo has authored a collection of influential books that offer tremendous value to business owners and entrepreneurs. Among his notable works are “Power Tribes,” “Coach Elevation,” and “The Invisible Organization.” These comprehensive blueprints empower readers to achieve exponential growth, elevate coaching sessions, and establish thriving virtual companies.

For detailed reviews of these exceptional books, please visit: Power Tribes, Coach Elevation, and The Invisible Organization (Book Reviews)

In this episode, Steve, Mary, Richard and Mitch discuss:

• How Timeslips Corp got started and the process for getting it off the ground
• The importance of PR, Marketing, and Sales in the Technology Business
• How and why the Timeslips Certified Consultant Program got started
• Things Mitch learned from Timeslips Corp and how he is using them in his projects now

Key Takeaways:

• Stay focused on your client’s needs, deliver it better than anyone else and you have to win.
• Always ask yourself what can you sell next after you’ve made the first sale.
• Figure out your vision, stay the course, but be willing to adapt.
• It doesn’t happen the way you think it will. Learn from what didn’t work.

Connect with Mitch Russo:

• Website: http://www.MitchRusso.com

Follow Beyond 8 Figures:

• Website: Beyond8Figures.com
• Twitter: @beyond8figures 
• Facebook: Beyond 8 Figures
• Instagram:@b8fpodcast

Affiliate Disclaimer: Some links in this episode are affiliate links. If you make a purchase through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Rest assured, we only promote products/services we believe will benefit your entrepreneurial journey.