Beyond A Million

Alex Charfen is an entrepreneur, author, speaker, and coach who has helped thousands of entrepreneurs with 6, 7, and 8-figure businesses grow and scale.

He went from declaring bankruptcy as a real estate investor in 2007 to building a certification program for realtors that put his business at No. 21 of the Inc. 500 list in 2011.

The company's revenues grew from $500K to $9.9M in 4 years, forcing him to create systems and frameworks that could handle rapid growth. Before long, he was approached by other entrepreneurs who needed help creating structure in their own businesses.

This experience eventually led to his current company, Simple Operations. As the Co-Founder and CEO, Alex now shows entrepreneurs how to simplify their business operations so they can make an impact in the world without having to do it all themselves.

In this episode, we're talking about the processes and systems for creating structure in your business, so you can scale it without breaking it. We talk about planning, communication patterns, leadership, and more.

Key Takeaways with Alex Charfen

• Find out how Alex went from bankruptcy during the 2008 housing crash to building and scaling an 8-figure real estate certification business.
• The 3 disciplines Alex uses to build structured companies that scale.
• Do big audacious goals demotivate your team? Alex explains why setting realistic goals are the key to explosive growth.
• How to eliminate ad-hoc communication and constant interruptions with your team so your entire business can operate more efficiently.
• Tactics for staying focused in a world that's fighting for your attention.
• Delegating an outcome vs. delegating a task. Shift from transactional management to transformational leadership and achieve leveraged results for your business.
• How your environment affects productivity and performance.

Subscribe to the Podcast

We hope you enjoy this episode and that you find some golden nuggets within this interview. Trust us, it's there!

If you want episodes delivered straight to your inbox, consider subscribing to the show and we'll email you each time a new episode is released!

Thanks for tuning it & keep being awesome.

BAM! 💥

George Bryant is a digital marketer who's helped thousands of entrepreneurs scale their companies by focusing on building and nurturing relationships. Mike Dillard described him as the "single best marketer in the world right now."

His approach to scaling is centered around improving the customer journey. He believes converting new customers is an easy path to growth when you're just starting out, but to truly scale, there has to be a bigger reason for customers to come back for more.

In this episode, we dive deep into George's principles for mapping a better customer journey.

He explains how to avoid turning your company into an "anti-marketing machine", so you can push past major sticking points and scale beyond 8 and 9-figure businesses.

Key Takeaways with George Bryant

• Understanding the customer journey and what he thinks prevents a lot of companies from scaling beyond 8 and 9-figures.
• The 4 buyer types that George believes are needed to scale any business.
• Does your customer retention suck? Discover what could be screwing up your customer journey—and what to do instead.
• Why do people talk about certain products and ideas more than others? What makes things go viral?
• The biggest mistake e-commerce companies make when a potential customer abandons their cart.
• How to triple or quadruple customer LTV.

Subscribe to the Podcast

We hope you enjoy this episode and that you find some golden nuggets within this interview. Trust us, it's there!

If you want episodes delivered straight to your inbox, consider subscribing to the show and we'll email you each time a new episode is released!

Thanks for tuning it & keep being awesome.

BAM! 💥

Henrik Johansson is a serial tech entrepreneur and expert at scaling startups. He has built 5 venture-backed companies to date, including the promotional products company, Boundless, which he grew into a $100M business before getting acquired by Zazzle.

Now, as the co-founder and CEO of Gembah, he's leading the world's first global marketplace for product development that allows anyone to create new products from end-to-end.

Henrik has repeatedly built world-class teams, culture, and scalable processes/infrastructure, so I really wanted to talk to him about his overall experience.

In this episode, he shares the story of how he built Boundless into a 9-figure business—including how he navigated the perils of the 2008 market collapse with no funding.

We dig into the world of VC-funded companies, the power of cultivating strong relationships, major roles/responsibilities of a CEO, and how he turned an internal piece of software into a completely separate entity before getting acquired.

Key Takeaways with Henrik Johansson

• What to do when the markets shift and your VC-backed company loses its funding?
• The importance of building relationships early on with potential buyers of your startup.
• How does the role of a CEO differ between bootstrapped and VC funded companies?
• How Henrik's company leveraged an internal piece of software to spin-off an entirely new VC funded business.
• Starting Gembah, the world's first global marketplace for product development that allows anyone to create new products from scratch.

Subscribe to the Podcast

We hope you enjoy this episode and that you find some golden nuggets within this interview. Trust us, it's there!

If you want episodes delivered straight to your inbox, consider subscribing to the show and we'll email you each time a new episode is released!

Thanks for tuning it & keep being awesome.

BAM! 💥

Trevor Mauch is the Founder and CEO of Carrot—a SaaS company that makes it easy for real estate investors and agents to launch a website focused on driving traffic, converting leads, and closing deals.

Carrot currently has 8,000 customers and generates about $13M/year.

In this episode, Trevor shares a ton of entrepreneurial wisdom, gleaned from pushing through the pain of various stages of business growth. You'll learn how his focus and strategies shifted as his business hit $1M-$3M, $3M-$10M, and beyond the $10M mark.

We also talk about building a brand that connects deeply with your clients, delegating tasks by prioritizing energy over profit, and why Trevor turned down a $65M acquisition offer, despite feeling overwhelmed trying to get to that next level.

Key Takeaways with Trevor Mauch

• A unique approach to delegating tasks that will allow you to create a business you love instead of one that drains you of your energy.
• Is selling your business actually going to make you happier? Find out why Trevor decided to pass on a $65M acquisition.
• A simple question you can ask to solve complex business challenges and scale to new levels of success.
• Why Trevor paid over $600k for the domain Carrot.com.
• How to infiltrate the minds of your customers and get them to think positively about your brand every day.
• A helpful tactic to identify client dissatisfaction and reduce churn.

Subscribe to the Podcast

We hope you enjoy this episode and that you find some golden nuggets within this interview. Trust us, it's there!

If you want episodes delivered straight to your inbox, consider subscribing to the show and we'll email you each time a new episode is released!

Thanks for tuning it & keep being awesome.

BAM! 💥

Today, I'm speaking with Brian Beers. Brian is an entrepreneur who took his small family automotive repair business from $5M to $26M in sales. The company operates Midas franchises throughout the Philadelphia area and grew from 6 to 25+ locations in 5 years.

In this episode, Brian shares how he scaled, primarily through owner-financed acquisitions. We talk about how he targets prospective sellers, builds relationships, and negotiates and closes deals with no outside capital.

We also dig into his investing philosophies and the vehicles he uses to save on tax and deploy his money across a diversified portfolio.

One of the things I appreciate most about Brian is his ability to look outside his industry for answers. Entrepreneurs often get stuck in their own little world and lack new perspectives that could take them further faster.

So, while you may not own an auto repair company, the principles discussed for building and scaling a business are still very applicable.

Key Takeaways with Brian Beers

• Scaling a family-run auto shop from 6 to 25+ locations and $26M in sales.
• How to structure and negotiate an owner-financed acquisition deal.
• Buying up the competition by developing relationships and building trust with potential sellers.
• Using 3rd party financing programs to make payments more affordable for buyers.
• The 4 factors Brian uses to evaluate an investment—and why he's particularly bullish about protecting his time.
• How to avoid working on unplanned tasks by creating a "not to-do list."
• Why the best way to learn about investing is to have money on the line.
• Putting a team around you that can help create a strategy for building wealth.
• The pros & cons of using cost segregation to accelerate depreciation.

Subscribe to the Podcast

We hope you enjoy this episode and that you find some golden nuggets within this interview. Trust us, it's there!

If you want episodes delivered straight to your inbox, consider subscribing to the show and we'll email you each time a new episode is released!

Thanks for tuning it & keep being awesome.

BAM! 💥

Ryan Levesque is an entrepreneur, bestselling author, adult LEGO enthusiast, and Founder of The ASK Method®—a 5-Time Inc. 5000 company that has generated over $100M in online sales across 23 different niche markets.

I'm talking with Ryan today about The Ask Method, QUIZ Funnels, the software he created that's used by 30M people worldwide, helping them to scale their businesses.

Ryan has built and scaled his own companies through these methodologies, creating an email list of over 4.1M people, and helping multiple brands achieve 9-figure exits.

In this episode, we dive deep into the QUIZ Funnel methodology. You'll learn why it's so effective at generating low-cost leads, increasing conversions, and collecting data that can help you better sell and serve your customers.

Key Takeaways with Ryan Levesque

• What is The ASK Method®, and how can it help you serve 1,000+ people a day on autopilot, 365 days a year.
• How to explode your lead growth and business revenue with high-converting QUIZ Funnels.
• SnackNation Case Study: How a physical eCommerce brand used QUIZ Funnels to target higher quality leads, cut their sales cycle in half, triple revenue, and double their average order value.
• QUIZ Funnel best practices you can use to accurately diagnose and prescribe the best next step for your audience.
• Bootstrapping Bucket.io—the most powerful enterprise-level software for building QUIZ funnels.
• How does Ryan use QUIZ Funnels in his own business as an acquisition strategy?
• How to drive traffic to a QUIZ Funnel and what you can do post-quiz to segment your market and serve up solutions that serve them at the highest level.
• Why Ryan closed down a mastermind that was generating $2M/year in revenue—and how doing so led to 5X growth for his business.
• Knowing when to replace technology and processes no longer serving your business.
• The new era of online advertising and understanding how to use zero-party data to attract higher quality leads.
• Why the default state of being online is in a state of distrust for the first time in history.

Get FREE Access to Ryan's Quiz Funnel Workshop

Ryan is giving you access to his Quiz Funnel Workshop. The cost is normally $100, but Ryan is giving it away to our audience for free. Visit QuizFunnel.com/BAM and enter the coupon code BAM at checkout. Ryan only runs this workshop once per year, so you will definitely want to act on this soon.

Subscribe to the Podcast

We hope you enjoy this episode and that you find some golden nuggets within this interview. Trust us, it's there!

If you want episodes delivered straight to your inbox, consider subscribing to the show and we'll email you each time a new episode is released!

Thanks for tuning it & keep being awesome.

BAM! 💥

Today, I'm chatting with my friend Jeff Hays, who is an award-winning filmmaker who has been producing films since the early nineties.

Between his production company, Jeff Hays Films and his film studio, he pulls in $20M/year with a nimble team of 20. And aside from a few projects early on, all of his work has been self-funded.

Jeff first gained national attention in 2004 with Fahrenhype 9/11, a response to Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11. He's released many other documentaries and multi-part series throughout his career—some acquired by major companies like Lionsgate and NBC.

What's fascinating about Jeff is the way he monetizes. Generally, independent films don't make a lot of money. It's just not very lucrative. But Jeff is doing things differently…

In this episode, I dig into the unique business model that allows him to make millions off his films—and how he then leverages existing buyers to sell other people's products, generating even more money on the backend.

Key Takeaways with Jeff Hays

• The million-dollar launch strategy Jeff uses to monetize his films—and how he generated $250k in 10 days with a film that people could access for free.
• How Jeff leverages affiliates to build awareness, grow his email list, and make even more money selling other people's products.
• How far should you scale? Jeff explains the anticipated risks of growing beyond his current $20M/year revenue.
• Mapping a path for employee success and happiness.
• Jeff distills real wealth down to 3 key components—and money has nothing to do with it.
• Identify your operating values so you can make better decisions.
• Does true altruism even exist? Consider "rational selfishness" instead.
• Why all the best films are sales letters.

Subscribe to the Podcast

We hope you enjoy this episode and that you find some golden nuggets within this interview. Trust us, it's there!

If you want episodes delivered straight to your inbox, consider subscribing to the show and we'll email you each time a new episode is released!

Thanks for tuning it & keep being awesome.

BAM! 💥

Gary Nealon took an existing cabinet business online, flipping an antiquated industry on its head by selling direct-to-consumer.

Before exiting, RTA Cabinet Store went from $30k/month to $42M/year and became an Inc 500 company due to its 1,504% growth over 3 years. It also made the Inc 5000 list 7 years in a row.

It's worth noting that Gary's first business failed miserably, he was swimming in debt, and was told that selling cabinets online wasn't possible.

With no plan and no budget, he needed to convince people that there was a better way to buy cabinets.

I sat down with Gary to find out how reinvented an entire industry. You'll learn his scrappy approach to building online traffic, his framework for developing a relationship with customers well before they're ready to buy, and the marketing strategy he used to cut customer acquisition costs and boost conversions.

We also dig into the tech solutions he created that removed logistical problems for vendors, ultimately leading to a much bigger acquisition deal.

Key Takeaways with Gary Nealon

• Using Craigslist to build awareness and drive sales for a direct-to-consumer cabinet company that nobody knew about.
• How Gary built tech to remove logistic inefficiencies for his vendors so he could ultimately maximize profits and get acquired for much more.
• How to reduce customer acquisition costs by selling products around data you own.
• Tools and tactics for creating SEO-driven content at scale.
• Landing a deal with HGTV and leveraging it to target new customers.
• How to use online forums and groups to quickly establish trust with prospects.
• How to fast-track your business success by knowing your strengths/weaknesses as a company.
• Why your ads are bombing on certain platforms but performing well on others.
• How to get in the minds of your consumers well before they're even thinking of buying.
• Gary's strategy for acquiring small companies that he can add value to and scale. Don't miss how he incentivizes brokers to bring him deals before anyone else.
• How to effectively use personality tests to make better hiring decisions, identify team strengths, and improve overall communication.

Subscribe to the Podcast

We hope you enjoy this episode and that you find some golden nuggets within this interview. Trust us, it's there!

If you want episodes delivered straight to your inbox, consider subscribing to the show and we'll email you each time a new episode is released!

Thanks for tuning it & keep being awesome.

BAM! 💥

Today, I'm talking with Cole Gordon—an 8-figure sales trainer and the founder of Closers.io. In 2 years, he scaled his own sales team, went from 0 to $2.5M per month, and now helps others do the same.

His company is broken into 2 divisions…

The first is The Sales Team Accelerator, which helps entrepreneurs—like Tony Robbins, Frank Kern, Dean Graziosi, Jay Abraham, and 400+ others—recruit, hire, train and manage their sales teams.

The second division is Remote Closing Academy, a certification program for aspiring salespeople who want to develop the skills needed to get started in an entry-level sales position.

In this episode, I talk to Cole about this unique business model and uncover exactly how he builds high-performing sales teams at scale.

You'll learn how he sources the top 1% of talent for his clients, interviewing tactics for successful hiring, and how to eliminate objections before the close.

Cole also shares a complete breakdown of the sales process he uses to get buy-in from prospects and close sales.

Key Takeaways with Cole Gordon

• How Cole's company attracts and recruits the highest quality sales reps for his B2B clients.
• Building the biggest distribution of online remote based sales teams for entrepreneurs - about 2k applications and over 400 1-on-1 interviews per month.
• The social media funnel strategy Cole uses to recruit entry level sales reps into his certification program.
• How to use group interviews to identify standout performers.
• 3 key criteria you can use to evaluate quality candidates.
• 7 beliefs your prospect needs to have before they buy.
• The step-by-step sales process Cole uses to get prospects to say yes.

Subscribe to the Podcast

We hope you enjoy this episode and that you find some golden nuggets within this interview. Trust us, it's there!

If you want episodes delivered straight to your inbox, consider subscribing to the show and we'll email you each time a new episode is released!

Thanks for tuning it & keep being awesome.

BAM! 💥

Chris "Mr. Moneyfingers" Haddad is an online copywriter and marketer who stakes claim to sales letters and VSLs that have driven over $700M in revenue.

After getting fired from every job he ever had, Chris found the world of direct response copy and quickly realized there was money to be made.

He was writing copy for all kinds of a-list entrepreneurs. The only problem was that everyone was getting rich but him.

So, he decided to build a company of his own under the pen name Michael Fiore. His alter ego went on to become a relationship coach, 3X bestselling author, and legendary copywriter in the relationship advice niche.

In today's episode, I'm talking with Chris about his unique approach to writing irresistible copy that converts. You'll learn the storytelling framework he uses to double his clients' conversions, tactics for creating deep connections with buyers, and how he went from getting fired as a greeting card writer to starting and scaling a 9-figure online business.

Key Takeaways with Chris Haddad

• How Chris went from getting fired as a greeting card writer, to building a 9-figure direct response copywriting business.
• The storytelling framework Chris uses to sell more—including 3 powerful case studies that have driven millions in sales.
• Tapping into human drivers (like pain and fear) to write copy that connects and converts.
• Why the phrase "if it's too long, nobody will read it" is complete bullshit.
• How Chris rapidly took over the relationship advice niche on Clickbank.
• Launching a $6k copywriting course that made him $700k in 2 weeks.
• 3 reasons Chris decided to build his copywriting business under a pseudonym.
• The key to building lasting affiliate relationships that make you more money in the long-term.
• Why long-form sales letters almost always outperform short-form content.
• Find out what the consumer wants, then create the product.

Subscribe to the Podcast

We hope you enjoy this episode and that you find some golden nuggets within this interview. Trust us, it's there!

If you want episodes delivered straight to your inbox, consider subscribing to the show and we'll email you each time a new episode is released!

Thanks for tuning it & keep being awesome.

BAM! 💥