Brian J. Pombo Live

Brian goes over principles, strategies and tactics and how they can work in your business.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fpPo-z0I14

Transcription

Three action items that can screw up your business.

Hi I'm Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

I'm holding a pen, I've got this here, it's already written in, I'm not going to write too much more on it than I could think of. And the reason is that I've already recorded this, well, I attempted to record it, I attempted to put this together and went through a very nice talk to a camera that wasn't recording. So here we go again.

Not that you need to know that.

This, what is this all about you, you've probably seen multiple things like this before, this is a remake of a video that I did when I first started the show.

And I have to keep going back to a lot of these principles, to reinstate them to keep everybody on track. Because not everybody sees your stuff all the time, we talk about that a lot, too, that's kind of a principle when it comes to content marketing is not everybody sees everything.

So you have to repeat yourself, I'm going to tell you about this because it is so useful. It is so important when you're dealing with any type of organization, or you're trying to accomplish anything with other people that you understand these different areas.

And this all has to do with an action within your business.

Now, this can work anywhere to this isn't just business, any type of action, any type of when you're attempting to reach some type of a goal when you're trying to build something, that these type of things are important.

So let me explain them to you real quick. These are principles, strategies, and tactics, everything that you do, or talk about, fits somewhere in here when it comes to your business. Let's start at the bottom.

People do these in different ways but I'm going to deal with the importance.

The level of importance is on the bottom, the important part that you need before everything else is your principles to your business.

Now, we talked about principle yesterday in terms of truth and something that's very solid, and something that's very noble.

This is more of how you translate that into your business, where are you going with your business, what's the point of your business, more than likely, those are the ideas of your business that are not going to change. There are certain pieces that will not change, they may adjust over time in terms of your understanding of them.

But the idea is they're solid, they're the foundation of your business. That's what a principle is, that's and you're not gonna you don't need a lot and they don't even need to be written down.

But they do need to be understood, the ideas need to be understood, and they need to be understood by anybody that is working within that business that is working with you on a regular basis to do these other things, strategies are the next level strategies are plans, any type of planning whatsoever, short term long term, the idea is that they don't last forever, strategies do not last forever.

So you can't just fall in love with a strategy and hold on to it. But you do need to stick with it long enough to see it through. A strategy has a beginning, middle, and end a strategy is we want to achieve blank.

So this is how we're going to get here from point A to point B, that we got to get from one place to the other strategies, the roadmap.

Thoughts on commonsense and why truth is available to all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RraE8X3n6Hs

Transcription

The dead-on principle crucial for your success.

Are you ready for it?

Hi I'm Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

I'm not joking, I'm saying this is crucial and it's amazing how few people actually talk about this, including philosophers and people that you would think would, would really need to talk about this type of thing because it is the basis.

Honestly, it's the basis for all western civilization.

You wonder what it is?

It's real simple.

It's talked about, well, it's talked around a lot. I mean, people toss it around a lot, but they never discussed what it really is, in its most simple context.

The term is common sense.

But what does common sense mean?

I looked it up on Wikipedia, at least at the time that I looked it up, has a great paragraph, and I don't have it in front of me.

So that shows you how well prepared I am, I don't have it in front of me.

But they have their first paragraph where they discuss common sense is pretty darn good and it comes down to this concept.

Here's the debt on principle, and see if you can see how all how this breaks out to eventually meaning success in business. Because if you do not believe this, if you don't believe it's possible, you can't have success.

If you do believe it's and you will never find happiness.

If you do believe it's possible. If you believe that that's, well, obvious, then you need to live by it on every level.

If you live by it on every level, you'll find success and happiness and everything all comes back to the same point.

What's the point?

The point is that actual truth exists, and it can be known, and it's not learned.

I talk a lot about books here. You know, I was talking about this one.

Well, wasn't this one, I was talking about another one of Russell Bronson's books the other night. It's not the book that teaches you. The book is a reflection of light if you can say that.

As if light was coming from that, you know, the moon doesn't give off any light, right?

The moon is reflecting the light from the sun. Okay, books don't…that's why you can read a book and say I don't get it.

I mean, I understood all the words, I understood what they were saying, but it just doesn't ring true. It doesn't, it doesn't hit anything. And either it does or doesn't, that's I was why you could take the same book years later, reread it, and get something out of it.

Because there's something else that's opened up.

It's that common sense is something internal. You recognize truth, when you hear it, it has, you know, we say it has a ring to it, or, you know that rings true, that whole concept, people talk about the AHA experience, ah, I get it, I get it.

And it's only after hearing about something or coming in contact with something or just having it show up while you're taking a shower.

You get something and it comes out of nowhere and all of a sudden you get it.

You may have heard the words tossed around but the words just symbolize the concept and that's that all truth is knowable.

A case study example on using postcards to advertise in your business.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLZJWOrVXPw

Transcription

Postcard marketing tips.

Hi I'm Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

I want to talk a little bit about postcards specifically for marketing. This is one of these oversized postcards and kind of talk about the direction you can go, just a few tips that you can work with here.

So one of the things is if you're using any type of direct mail postcards, you just have to think about the person on the other side who's receiving it, and what their thought pattern is and you got to think about it for yourself.

For one thing, it's the thing about postcards, you notice that nobody really sends postcards anymore, like personally, one on one you don't see them that often.

Maybe you do.

I don't see it that often. You could still purchase them from some places, touristy areas will still sell postcards, but it seems like most people buy them for themselves and rarely send them anymore.

But maybe it's just me, I'd love to find out from you,, do you still get postcards?

It's tough to send a postcard and not have it be known to be a commercial right off the bat, right?

The real question is that the trick that I think when it comes to a postcard is can you hold back what the postcard is about or can you say what the postcard is about so quickly that they read it?

Real quick they get the point, they can read more if they want, but they're already left with something with that first sentence, those first few words are they getting the idea, if you've got a deeper idea, then the best thing to do is to hide what the postcard is about.

So it actually means the opposite of what you would think it would mean. It means fewer pictures, fewer graphics, fewer things that will give away, and more words.

Because it causes people to have to read more words, to get to the point because not a lot of people, most people are not going to throw something away right off the bat.

Now if they see it's a postcard, it's got a bunch of words, I know a lot of people will just take it and toss it.

But there's going to be a number of them, specifically depending on which words are the biggest on whether those words attract them further.

So if you're looking to get a certain sector of your market to pay attention, then you got to make sure those biggest words are the words that are going to catch their eye that calls them.

And so this is an interesting one very typical of postcard marketing. But there are a couple of good things on here.

So the first thing I look at is what are the things that draw my attention?

And the real question is, is whether they want the things to draw your attention or not?

So the first words I see on here, if you can see it, well I could put it sideways to get a little closer to you. But those of you who are listening to this aren't going to be super useful but you might be able to glean some items from it you go over to BrianJPombo.com and watch the video, actually see the postcard.

It says free installation. That's one of the largest things that I see right off the bat on all windows and patio doors. That's the first thing that jumps out at me.

Secondarily, I would say up here and kind of cursive writing it says end of the summer sales event.

Thoughts on tough times in life and the value of patience with others.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhrXydjDfWk

Transcription

Tough times are meaningful.

Hi I'm Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

Oftentimes I'll come up with ideas for things for us to talk about, from a book or something that's sitting by near me, or something that's been going through my head.

Today I've been going through a process with a close friend of mine who's going through a very tough situation. And this situation is not something that can relate to, it's overly personal, very deep, and invisible to most everyone.

And if you're not going through a situation like that, then you got to realize that a whole lot of other people that you're running into, are going through something like that behind the scenes, even if they're not making it obvious if you are going through what.

First off, chances are you're not going through a situation like that. And if that's true, you just have to be aware that other people maybe.

You may not know who is who. And you got to be patient with people, and let them go through their process and don't hold it against them. Because they're a little this way or that way.

You can acknowledge it, but you don't need to make a big deal about it.

If you are going through something like this, I'll attempt to pass something along, that will reflect back somewhere deep inside, if at all possible, it's tough, it's really tough when you're going through it to hear anything or see anything, or catch any positivity from any direction.

But if you can think back at all, if you can add any reflection whatsoever and think back to other times in your life, when you were in a deeper dark, you were also in a deep and dark place.

You may also be able to have the perspective that you got through it. And you actually got a better perspective. And things worked out in a better way because you survived it and moved on.

Now, maybe you can't, you can't get enough distance away from your situation to do that. But if you can, it's a true statement.

Whether you believe it or not. It's absolutely true. That bad times, bad situations, downright dark situations that you're in, have a purpose.

That purpose is oftentimes greater than the greatest situations you've been in, or the highest situations, or those periods that you just felt ecstatic. The bad has a way of bringing out more good than the good does.

So it's weird how that works, a paradox of life. But it's absolutely true bad times, can create great scenarios.

And so what you have to do is survive and find perspective, find a steadiness somewhere, find a stillness that you can back off away from the situation that's going on in here because it always coming back to what's happening here.

And if you can pull away from that and find that, you'll be able to find that little kernel of positivity in it. I don't know if that means anything to you. Obviously, most people won't even hit on but if it does, it may not hit today it

This may come rolling back in your mind. And you won't even remember who said it. But I just wanted to pass that along because it's on my mind. Hopefully, it helps somebody somewhere.

So that's all I've got for tonight.

I've got a book, 9 Ways to Amazon-Proof Your Business when you do kind of clear your head a little bit and move forward.

Brian touches on various books and examples to help get you mind going to discover you companies "Hero's Journey."

Books Mentioned today

The Hero's Journey - by Joseph Campbell

Expert Secrets, by Russell Brunson

Building a Story Brand - by Donald Miller

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4-_DYvMmEk

Transcription

The business hero's journey.

Hi I'm Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

I want to talk a little bit about the hero's journey and how it applies to business.

What is the hero's journey, the hero's journey is a concept that was really made popular by a guy named Joseph Campbell.

He wrote a handful of books, including one called, The Hero's Journey. And you find out more about that you can also watch the old PBS interview that Bill Moyers did with him, which is an interview slash documentary, because, they show a whole bunch of the things that he's talking about as he's talking about them.

What Joseph Campbell talks about, is that in all mythology, regardless of what country it comes from, regardless of what culture or how long ago it was, every form of mythology eventually goes back to a very simple structure, and a number of different stereotypes that that end up coming out.

But its goal goes to a story structure, he calls the hero's journey, which is all about a hero starting along a process, having guides to help him beginning in one spot and ending up in a better spot, and going through all this conflict in order to get there and meeting up with all these interesting characters along the way.

And that every myth out there, and I know I'm not doing it justice, just by explaining it, but if you understand the hero's journey, that's the simplest way to understand it is through the original Star Wars trilogy, with Luke Skywalker going through the hero's journey.

That's a great way to do it and it's one that he used over and over again, and that what's funny is that the Star Wars story was based on Joseph Campbell's ideas, and how and applying it to a space opera.

And so how does that apply back to business, though?

Well, there's been a lot of people a lot smarter than me that have already taken these ideas and apply them back to business. And if you understand that, when it comes to human psychology, and it comes to ideas that are kind of ingrained and built into our brain somewhere, that it doesn't, it really doesn't matter.

Whether it's art or anything else, it comes back into business, because business is about psychology, it's about explaining something to a human, and you got to go through the brain material to get there.

Then one of the best ways to do it is via story, especially if the hero is the person who you're talking to the potential customer or the potential client.

One of the I've got two really good sources for this that I'm going to recommend. And I've recommended these before, this is expert secrets by Russell Brunson.

The entire book is basically about the hero's journey, and something that he calls the Epiphany Bridge, which is the point at which the hero was going through and has an epiphany, and then decides to do something in a different way.

He talks about he actually got lots of little stick drawings here where he shows that hero going from one point and going through conflict and eventually ending up there in desire and that all business can be explained this way.

Jobs are available like never before and yet people are still not going back to work.

Thoughts on starting your own business and a few books to checkout if you're looking to go that direction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe7CB1mD8aQ

Transcription

Should I own a business?

Hi I'm Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

This is a question I get often is, should I own a business?

Maybe it's other people asking me. And yeah, I think it's a question on a lot of people's minds right now.

A lot of people, you know, due to the fact that there's a lot of options out there for employment.

But have you wondered why so many people were at home?

Well, yeah, we've talked about it before, obviously, the fact that unemployment has been extended, and a whole lot of other benefits have been raised, that would allow a person to stay home more comfortably than ever before. I mean, that absolutely helps.

But there's also, I've found in talking to the people that have not gone out and gotten a job, that there's a huge dissatisfied faction with working in general, as an employee.

And if you're a business owner, like me, you know what that's like because it's a reason why you're a business owner, in many cases, is that you just like that better than having a job. And pretty simple to see that.

So if you're in that situation, or if you know somebody that's in that situation, then you might want to pass this video on to them. Because it's a good thing to start this conversation is whether business ownership is right for you because it's not right for everybody, right?

It's not for everybody.

So let's talk about this, let's break it down a little bit.

First off, you got to ask yourself, What are you hoping to accomplish with business ownership, that you can't get with a job?

Because currently, right now, I'm recording this in September of 2021, the job market is wide open, you can get a whole lot that you couldn't get before, and get paid a whole lot more than you couldn't get paid before. In many cases across the board, there are jobs available of all types.

So what are you looking for, you're looking for something probably a little different, you're looking to possibly be your own boss, make your own hours, do anything like that. And there are some misnomers to that.

But if that's the case, if you're looking to make your own hours and do your own thing, and possibly you have an idea that you want to get out there, and you see business ownership as the way of doing it.

That's great, that those are all good starts. But there's a whole bunch of drawbacks to all that that you have to know about right off the bat.

And so I'd highly recommend that before you jump, fully, absolutely engaged into business ownership, get at least a part-time job to pay the bills to help get keep your head above water, especially if you have any form of debt whatsoever, you want to keep paying that down and just keep moving forward even if you have enough.

Currently, having something that kind of takes up most of your time is useful in actuality. And having a little bit of time on the side, in order to begin building a business is going to be great. And I highly encourage you to go into business. If you think that's a good thing.

Couple of things you may want to try out first, try out part-time businesses,

Thoughts on inflation and addressing the concern of raising prices on your products and services in these times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FBQf4MV9Zo

Transcription

Inflation and your prices.

Hi I'm Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

Today I want to talk about your business. And a common question that I've been getting lately is, Should I raise my prices, especially with inflation going through the roof?

So what's inflation?

Okay, so first off, let's just all get on the same page, when we're talking inflation, when we're talking about is that the value of the dollar is being depressed, and which makes everything go up in price.

So everything all at once is going up in price. So most things are going up higher, you're just paying more for a whole lot. And there's a whole lot of reasons about what goes into that I'm not gonna get into the economics, or all the arguments about what causes it, but it is happening, we are paying more for everything.

So should you feel guilty about raising your prices, because aren't you going along with the process, if that's the case if you can go along without raising prices, and it doesn't make a big deal to your bottom line?

Fine, go for it, that is not an argument. But if you're feeling the crunch, really bad, and it's going to come down to laying people off or doing a whole lot of other things that you just don't want to do that maybe even cutting back on the quality of your product or service.

That's not a negotiation. For me, it is things are prices are going up, prices are going up, you can't take responsibility for the fact that prices are going up.

In the end, it comes out to be a very simple conversation. And this is one of the things that as I started parsing this out, in my mind, I'm like, you know, this really comes out to the most basic concepts.

But it's one of those things that we don't talk about, especially in America, if you're in America, these types of things we usually don't cover. Because it's not seen as good to be raising prices, like we should be really fighting, raising prices.

But you know what, here's how you got to see it as a business owner, and we're going to talk about the consumer. But as the producer, as the person that has something for sale, your job is to make the most amount of profit for yourself, for your investors, for any other owners that you have involved anybody that you owe money to or what have you, your job is to make that money and as much of it as possible for as little resources as possible. resources include time, it includes capital, it includes time for others, and includes employees, all these things, all the things that it takes to make whatever it is that you're selling, your job is to get the most for the least.

And you say, Wow, that's really rude. That's really slimy capitalism and so forth.

But flip it on its head. Okay, let's look at it from the consumer standpoint, nobody ever says that the consumer is greedy, because they want the most amount of resources for the least amount of money.

It's the same thing. It's only in reverse. There's no difference between the people. Because I'm a consumer, in some cases, and in some cases, I'm a producer. In some cases, I'm selling in some cases I'm buying.

And the same with most people, most people are producing something. Now they may not be producing it on a retail level. Most people aren't business owners, they're not producing stuff on a retail level,

Did you know Popeye endorsed more than just good old Spinach?

Brian looks back at an old commercial of Popeye promoting Wheatena cereal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph4SfUPjTr8

Transcription

Popeye and your business.

Hi I'm Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J Pombo Live.

What does Popeye the sailor man have to do with your business, let's talk about it a little bit, shall we?

Popeye, what's he known for, right?

He's known for being strong to the finish because he eats his spinach. And so his spinach gives him superpowers that allow him to beat up Bluto or whatever bad guy he's up against.

And in a sense, it became a quasi endorsement of spinach even though it was somewhat accidental, and started out in the comic strip.

What's funny is that you look at a little bit of the history of Popeye and I just know a little bit of this weird stuff from other fascinations that I have that I fell into this. And the reason why I'm bringing this up is we were watching Popeye on HBO max with the kids, the old black and white ones, which are fabulous to watch.

But regardless, it reminded me of a lot of this background story and that he didn't start out eating spinach. He actually started out every time he would rub the head of the wiffle hen, which was another character in the comic strip that Popeye started on which was called thimble theatre.

He would give him extreme luck, and that luck ended up becoming more of strength over time. But that's where the concept came from.

Then from there, he would eat spinach once in a while. And they showed that and then they grab that when they started doing cartoons, because Popeye starred in the comic strips, and then he went to the cartoons.

So they started doing that in the cartoons where he would eat spinach. And that would give him his power. And that would allow him and that became the theme in every flippin cartoon every once in a while you see one where they weirdly, don't have it in there. But most, you know, nine times out of 1090, probably 99 times out of 100. Popeye, or sometimes another character will eat spinach and win the day because of that special tie-in.

Now, the fact that this was almost like an endorsement deal was not lost on marketers of the day. And so what they did was they had a radio show that was sponsored by with Wheatena.

Wheatena is a breakfast cereal. You don't see it as much around anymore, at least not not not where I live. But I think the brand is still out there. And what it is it's kind of a whole wheat Cream of Wheat style. Or Farina or Molt-o Meal style thing.

So it's um, it's whole wheat in it, it's got a lot of extra stuff in it. It's a little different, a little more hearty than your typical Farina cereal, and they had a radio show.

And it was Popeye, it was Popeye on the radio. And I don't even think, they had the same people who did the voices and everything but they did the show. They had to change the song because instead of eating spinach, he would eat Wheatena Cereal.

Wheatena is his diet. He asks you to try it with Popeye the sailorman.

And so it's a really funny thing.

So throughout time, Popeye hasn't only eaten spinach, but the same theme came through every time is he get into trouble he's is a good guy who get into a situation he couldn't get out of getting into trouble. Usually, the bad guy was was either picking on or grabbing all of Oilve and taking her against her ...

Brian shares the value of a random day off he had after attending Sketchy Soirée, put on by Sketchy Ideas Podcast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRwqmrMVwk8

Transcription

Take one day off?

Hi I'm Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

I asked this as a question is taking one day off an option for you?

If so, if not, it should be hard to find a way to get in a scenario where you can take one, take one day off, and I'm not saying your usual day, I'm saying a day you're not used to taking off. Take that one day off that you're not used to taking off that no one's expecting that you're going to have to reschedule meetings and everything else, take that one day off.

I'm not saying completely waste the day I'm telling you go do something with it, go work in the yard, go for a drive, do something doesn't have to be productive, but doesn't have to not be productive either.

So where this is coming from today was one of those days I had a meeting this morning that I went to that was that was really good, very productive, thought provoking.

And in my and my friends over at the Sketchy Ideas Podcast put it on and you go check out their stuff. It's a great podcast.

It was it's one of those things where all these scenarios happened at the same time where I had, I normally have a day where I work out on my property. And that day, it looks like it's gonna be raining.

The rains coming very early tomorrow morning and I needed to lock a whole bunch of things down. It was not a choice of mine. If it were up to me, I have a whole pile of things that need to get done.

But I took the chance to just go and do it. And it was helpful for me to be able to walk away and do the things that needed to get done.

So I didn't completely blow the day. Not that there's a time for blowing the day but this was not one of those, I got things done that need to get done.

I can exchange time later, if I still have stuff that needs to get done business wise, I can get that done during a time when I would have normally been outside so I can switch things around. It's okay.

And I'm giving you permission to do the same thing. Okay, I'm giving you a blessing to do it. Go do it. It's helpful for you to shake things up once in a while.

I'm not a person that's, that's heavily structured. But any type of structure in my life does tend to take hold after a while habits or habits and sometimes breaking even good habits temporarily.

I just said one day I'm not saying, take all them off, you still got to get work done. But take one day off that you're not expecting to and I think I think you'll be happy with the results. I'd love to hear how it goes for you.

If you ever do this, or if you're planning on doing it come back leave a comment wherever you're watching or listening to this or go to BrianJPombo.com find this post and comment I'd love to hear hear from you. That's all I have for tonight.

Simple idea with the simple things in life that make the biggest difference.

Go check out my book. It's a whole bunch of simple tips, 9 Ways to Amazon-Proof Your Business. Ways that you can overcome competition in your industry.

Whatever it is, go to AmazonProofBook.com for a free copy.

That's all I got for tonight. Hey, have a great one.

We'll see you tomorrow. Get out there and let the magic happen.

Brian talks about a section talking about primary aim in your business from Michael E. Gerber's book, E-Myth Revisited.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsaW714L1Rk

Transcription

What is your primary aim?

Hi I'm Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

We'd like to talk about business concepts. But what are business concepts, but people concepts?

So we talk a lot about, yeah, human life and psychology and everything else. And I tried to tie it back into business because I'm a business investor, always looking for new people to work with.

If you're looking for an investor, if you're looking for help in your business, please go look me up, I'd recommend checking out my book. First, it'll kind of give you an idea of my philosophy where I'm coming from.

It's called,9 Ways to Amazon-Proof Your Business.

You can get yourself a free digital copy at AmazonProofBook.com.

I'd like to welcome you back for those of you who are returning, you can you may notice a little bit of difference, a little different look, today, I've got a brand new phone on which I'm recording these.

And so we've I think we're coming out through and 4k at least we're recording it in that.

If you're listening, you may not notice a difference. But if you're viewing it, you're probably noticing that it's a little brighter and probably a little clearer.

Why am I bringing up primary aim?

Primary aim was a concept. It's a it's a term that was mentioned in this book e myth revisited. I'd like to thank my friend, my new friend, Joel Daniels for the posts the other day he had a LinkedIn discussing chapter 12, which is all about the primary aim you see how yellow these pages are, there's an old book.

I've got this old copy and I love what he says about this, because this is very similar to what we were talking about before, about having dreams and so forth. Having things that you're looking forward to that is this book, The Dream manager, we talked about that a couple episodes ago.

And this is the same concept, it's only talking about in a slightly different way.

And I love just the first few paragraphs, actually, the first few pages of this are great, but I'll read you a couple of the paragraphs from this first.

From the first part of this chapter, he says I doubt that by now, you'd be surprised to find out that I don't believe your business to be the first order of business on our agenda, you are, nor will you be surprised to hear that I don't believe your business is your life.

Though it does and can play a significant important role in your life. Your primary aim is Excuse me, I jumped ahead. But before you can determine what the role will be, you must ask yourself these questions.

What do I value the most?

What kind of life do I want?

What do I want my life to look like to feel like?

Who do I wish to be?

Your primary aim is the answer to all these questions and then he goes on and talks about different questions you can ask yourself in different ways you can identify what your primary aim is, what's the primary aim, it's just the idea of where you're headed, you know, most people, and he discusses this in this chapter, that most people don't have a conscious idea of where they're headed.

And even though they may have something down deep, they're not conscious about it,