Brett Trainor Unplugged

By Brett TrainorBusiness Entrepreneurship Education Self-Improvement

Brett Trainor Unplugged episodes

February 04, 202036. Today’s Buyers Are In Control, Here's How to Be Prepared
On this episode, we welcome Pam Didner. She is an author, speaker, podcaster, adjunct professor, marketing strategist and a Fortune 100 Marketer. She leads a boutique-consulting firm that trains, coaches and provides strategic guidance on audience development, messaging, editorial planning, content creation, media buys and social media outreach on a global scale

Key #LessonsInGrowth:
Who do you hire first, sales or marketing (the answer might surprise you)?
The power of word of mouth referrals
How startups should think about sales enablement (and what is it).
How to think about and execute account-based marketing (ABM)
Why there are only TWO types of qualified leads. and buyers are buying on their own schedules, not yours!
39 min
January 28, 202035. How Persistence, Intuition and Relentlessness Propelled a $10 Million Business
On this episode, we welcome Ricardo Regalado, the Founder and CEO of Rozalado Commercial Cleaning Services, plus 3 other companies including his latest venture Route, an end to end software platform for service providers.

Ricardo shares his personal journey from buying his uncle’s franchise commercial cleaning business where he and his wife were working 18 hours a day to a soon to be $10 million company that was featured on Inc. 500’s fastest growing companies, which is a rare feat for a cleaning services business.

Key #LessonsInGrowth:
How scaling to $1 Million was different than from $2M to $4M and from $4M to $7M.
How he successfully balanced family and business (he has 17 family members working in the company).
How he was able to scale from 5 employees to over 300 and keep the culture.
How intuition, persistence and relentlessness were the key drivers of success
Plus numerous other words of wisdom for entrepreneurs
58 min
January 21, 202034. How Podcast Guesting Can Drive Substantial ROI to Your Business
On this episode, we welcome Kelly Glover, founder of The Talent Squad.

The Talent Squad is a boutique podcast agency that book podcast tours for entrepreneurs. Kelly started podcasting in 2007 and has an 18-year track record working in media and talent management. Kelly knows what producers want because she's been one! With a background in commercial radio, Kelly has walked her talk and hosted her own syndicated radio show, worked as a talent agent, celebrity interviewer, and has produced award-winning podcasts.

Key #LessonInGrowth:
Podcast guesting, yes, it is a thing, is an unbelievable opportunity to jump start growth (if you are prepared)
Why launching your own podcast is a long tail growth strategy while guesting is a shorter term strategy?
Podcast guesting- it is not about you, it is about the audience
Size doesn’t always matter when pitching a show- make sure you can add value to the audience
How to effectively pitch to guest on a podcast- hint- the key is to make it easy for the producer/host
How to repurpose your podcast guesting episode content for maximum impact

Website: http://thetalentsquad.com/
57 min
January 14, 202033. How the “Barefoot Spirit” Propelled the Founders of Barefoot Wines from a Laundry Room to the Board Room of E&J Gallo
On this episode, we welcome Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey to the program. Michael and Michael & Bonnie are the founders of Barefoot Wine, America’s #1 Wine Brand. Their New York Times Business Bestseller, The Barefoot Spirit, is now required reading in more than 50 schools of entrepreneurship

In this episode Michael and Bonnie shares their remarkable journey from a laundry room of a rented farmhouse to the boardroom of the world’s largest wine company, E&J Gallo and how that journey paved the way for their future endeavors and the creation of a new category of audio books called Audio Theater.

Key #LessonInGrowth:
The Barefoot Spirit equates to an entrepreneurial mindset (West Coast Style)- opportunistic and problem solving
Not being an “expert” on insider allowed them to ask dumb questions to break out of “this is how it has always been done” mentality
Consistency in the wine/product was a differentiator to the current model.
Why 500 Cases of Wine/year was their top priority
Leveraged outsourcing and partners to scale the business
Leveraging grassroot tactics and community level brand building helped accelerate acceptance and growth.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/bonnieharvey/

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mhoulihan/

Website: www.thebarefootspirit.com

Website: www.barefootaudiobook.com/

Click here for a free audio episode of The Barefoot Spirit.
1 hr 7 min
January 07, 202032. How Co-Founders Turned an Idea into a $100 Million Business
On this episode, we welcome Phil Hollyer to the program. Phil is the Co-Founder, former CEO and now Executive Chairman for Bounteous. Bounteous creates big-picture digital solutions provider that helps drive growth for their clients.

In this episode Phil shares the Bounteous journey from a 2-person startup to a high growth company that has been featured in Inc.’s fastest growing companies. Bounteous now has over 300 employees and is closing in on the $100 million in annual revenue.

We go deep on how Dominos became one of their first customers how their partnership launched both companies to the next level, especially in the digital revolution in the early 2000’s.

Questions we answer:
How Phil and Bounteous were pioneers in creating a virtual organization
How working with a couple of large, enterprise customers, Ceridian and Domino’s proved to be the right strategy
How Bounteous was at the center of the digital revolution with Dominos
Why they chose a Horizontal vs. a Vertical focus on growth- broad vs. niche
Why Human Resources was a critical focus early on
The power and constraint of unicorn employees
42 min
December 31, 2019 31. The Storm Warrior: Applying Lessons from Surviving a Category 5 Hurricane
On this episode, we welcome Christine Perakis to the program. Christine, AKA the Storm Warrior, is a serial entrepreneur, business coach and author.

Christine’s first entrepreneurial venture was a fragrance company. Since then, she has started, grown and expanded 9 others as well as advised 100s of clients on five continents.

Her remarkable journey includes surviving two record-breaking category 5 hurricanes, including the first one that left her buried alive for nearly 24 hours and forced her to survive without electricity, running water and telecoms for a couple of months on an isolated adopted-island nation.

The leadership and resilience lessons that she learned have been incorporated into her next book, The Resilient Leader, which is being released in 2020.

In this episode Christine offers strategies that anyone can use to weather the inevitable storms of life and business and come through thriving.
39 min
December 24, 2019 30. Why VA’s Could be the Missing Link to Your Productivity
On this episode, we welcome Victoria Tretis to the program. Victoria is a former executive assistant that became a virtual assistance before starting her current company- VA Matchmaker.

VA Matchmaker helps take the confusion and complexity of using virtual assistants. She matches entrepreneurs with the skill set they need.

In this episode Victoria breaks down the What, the Why, and the How of using remote resources to drive efficiency and value in your growing organization. She also provide tips on what not to do.

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/victoriatretis

Website: https://www.victoriatretis.co.uk/
46 min
December 18, 201929. How to Go from Apprenticeship to a $7 Million Business w/Matt Morse
On this episode, we welcome Matt Morse to the program. Matt is the Founder and CEO of Precision Today. They are a Chicago based plumbing services company that started over 25 years ago.

In this episode Matt lays out a blueprint for scalable growth. He shares what worked and what didn’t work during his growth journey. Even though this is more of a traditional main street type of business Matt really is a modern visionary on how to grow a company in the digital era. His company enjoys a 4.9/5.0 Google review rating with over 1380 reviews!

Key take-a-ways:
Top priority is creating an employee centric culture
Always have a plan!
Why buying out his co-founder was the right strategic move
Expansion for expansion sake is not always the right move
Hiring folks that aligned values to company vision
Transitioning from the day-to-day operations allowed the company to thrive
Plus many additional lessons

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://www.precisiontoday.com/
47 min
December 10, 2019 28. How to Leverage Storytelling as a Competitive Differentiator w/ Jo Johnson
On this episode, we welcome Jo Johnson to the program. Jo is known in Australia and Worldwide as the Content Coach. She turns Experts into Thought Leaders - one story at a time.

She raises the visibility of entrepreneurs and small business owners through using the art of storytelling. Aligning your Brand values with effective storytelling is a powerful combination that can energize your customers to take action.

In our really informative conversation, Jo breaks down what, why, and how to incorporate storytelling into all aspects of your business.
44 min
December 03, 201927. Helping Entrepreneurs Become the Best Version of Themselves w/ Gregory Skeete
On this episode, we welcome Gregory Skeete to the program. Gregory helps entrepreneurs and business owners to 'engineer' their best selves and systematically achieve results that are both successful and significant while maintaining their ideal work-life balance and lifestyle.

Gregory’s unique background has allowed him to provide a unique and powerful perspective on how entrepreneurs can become the best versions of themselves and not only transform themselves but also their businesses. This was a really interesting discussion.

Questions we answer:
Why you need to build your business “with the end in mind”
Why process and documentation are fundamental to scalable growth
Why benevolence is important for the entrepreneurial journey
Why inspiration is better than motivation

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/gsskeete

Website: https://www.gregoryskeete.com/

The Exact Instruction Challenge (PB&J Instructions)
54 min