Building To Scale

Tom is the founder and CEO of Fancy Awesome, an Austin-based Analytical Marketing Agency that specializes in Amazon advertising and store management, paid search, and social advertising, as well as video advertising, and web site development.

With a business model tightly intertwined with 3rd party services, Tom discusses the challenges he has faced over the years while still achieving steady, seven figure growth. By building a model focused on “testing” new ideas on a small scale before larger investments are made, he has been able to build and grow a successful team and company.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsRoDlcxaS8

Key Takeaway: A growing, successful entrepreneur journey leaves a trail of failures in its wake. If you take the mindset of “fail quickly”, you can learn and adapt before investing heavily in new, unproven projects and markets.

Lessons Learned:

Fail Fast – Launch small scale efforts to test the market before investing in building out the complete solution. Leverage technology and SaaS offerings to launch and test new ideas quickly with minimal cost and risk.

Build with Balance – Sales and operations (and finance) are all critical aspects of your customer flow. Do not overengineer one area, leaving other areas of the business weak.

Evaluate (and re-evaluate) your Pricing – Continue to track and monitor the pricing and profitability of each product or service offering to ensure that they are a good investment of resources.

For More Information:

Fancy Awesome @ https://fancyawesome.com/ (https://fancyawesome.com/)

LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/company/fancy-awesome/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/fancy-awesome/)

Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/FancyAwesome/ (https://www.facebook.com/FancyAwesome/)

LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-howell-8b56a040/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-howell-8b56a040/)

At 22, Mary started with a Fortune 1000 Payroll/HR company at just $13/hour in an admin role, but quickly acquired the skills and training required to advance into mid-market sales. She rapidly found success by listening to her clients and always looking to solve their needs, putting their agenda before hers.

Now, Mary is the founder and CEO of two firms – Sales BQ and House of Revenue where she and her team build unshakeable revenue foundations designed to scale by focusing on all aspects of the revenue engine — marketing, sales, customer success, and RevOps.

Through her journey, Mary learned many lessons the hard way as entrepreneurs typically do. One of biggest struggles she found was the need to hand off tasks that she could do herself if given a 100-hour work week, but now realizes that both she and the business will be better off if she delegates.

Key Takeaway: Identifying all the tasks you are doing and break them down to identify what you are really good at, want to do, and have the capacity to do. Then, set a deadline and work to move everything else off your plate.

Lessons Learned:

The 100/75 rule was a big wake up call for me as a CEO as I started hiring my first employees. Once I learned it and followed it, the management of new team members and expectations for performance ran smoothly.

Learning how to price for our services and experiencing slim profits until the pricing model fit both expenses + margin and the premium the market was willing to pay. This was a tough lesson learned, but now we are more profitable than ever before.

I am a wife, mom, and CEO - the first 2.5 years were made of great sacrifice and my family paid the price - the pandemic shut down allowed me how to have a 9 am - 4 pm workday, be present with my family, and still be higher revenue and more profitable than we've ever been!

For More Information:

Mary Grothe - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marygrothe/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/marygrothe/)

Web Site - https://www.houseofrevenue.com/ (https://www.houseofrevenue.com/)

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/houseofrevenue/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/houseofrevenue/)

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/houseofrevenue/ (https://www.instagram.com/houseofrevenue/)

Twitter - https://twitter.com/HouseofRevenue (https://twitter.com/HouseofRevenue)

Marques was drafted into the NFL in 2003 as an offensive lineman and after 5 years of playing in league, decided to retire and pursue a career in construction and contracting. At the age 27, Marques founded a construction company called Kayden Premier Enterprises which grew rapidly for the first six years. Then, in a matter of 90 days, the business went bankrupt, losing almost 2 million dollars on one project.

During his darkest hours, Marques pulled himself together, got a part-time job as a custodian and with hard work and determination became an inspirational keynote speaker, executive coach, best-selling author and marketing leader, helping to build the success of others.

In this episode, Marques reveals one of the biggest challenges that stood in his way with every business venture he faced – himself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYTy7xmwzq4

Key Takeaway: Know when it is time to fire yourself. As a business leader, you must build a team around and then listen to that team. You do not have all the answers and the longer you make it all about yourself, the more likely you are to fail.

Lessons Learned:

Learn from Your Mistakes – Only the fool continues to do the same thing while expecting different results.

Delegate to the Right People – You hired your team for a reason; leverage their expertise and build a team.

Know when to Pivot – Have leading indicators and always be aware of changes on the horizon to be able to pivot sooner rather than once it is already too late.

For More Information:

· PIVOT @ https://learn.elevate.ac/courses/marques-ogden?ref=bda269 (https://learn.elevate.ac/courses/marques-ogden?ref=bda269)

· Marques Ogden @ https://www.marquesogden.com/ (https://www.marquesogden.com/)

· LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/marquesogden/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/marquesogden/)

· Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/marques.s.ogden/ (https://www.facebook.com/marques.s.ogden/)

· Twitter @ https://twitter.com/marques_ogden/ (http://twitter.com/marques_ogden/)

Noah Zandan is the CEO and Co-Founder of Quantified Communications, and a pioneer in applying behavioral science to help people become extraordinary communicators. He is on a mission to improve the communication, connection, and lives of millions of people around the world.

Under Noah’s leadership, Quantified Communications has become the leading firm in combining behavioral science, AI, and experiential learning technology to help people enhance their impact, improve their interactions, and establish greater human connection. Quantified Communications works globally with everyone from CEOs of Fortune 10 organizations to International Leaders to TED speakers, to tens of thousands of future leaders including college and graduate students, teachers, veterans, and scientists.

As Noah describes it, he could have gone at it alone, building his business. Instead, he chose a different route, surrounding himself by experts in different areas – building a board of advisors early on that he could turn to for advice and expertise.

Key Takeaway: Leverage experts to build a better business – as Noah states, when it comes to building a business, there are simply things you do not know and having a board of experts available dramatically strengthens the business, allowing you to grow faster and stronger.

Lessons Learned:

Focus on Core Values – Define your core values early and utilize them as a lens in all aspects of your business to view people, business decisions, and everything else through.

Three Steps to Hire – When looking at new employees, they should be evaluated in three areas – capability, passion, and fit. Ideally, they match all three areas.

Power of Structure – A business operating system, EOS in Noah’s case, creates organization consistency and patterns to enable better transparency and performance.

For More Information:

Quantified Communications @ http://www.quantified.ai/ (http://www.quantified.ai/)

LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/company/quantified-ai/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/quantified-ai/)

LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/noahzandan/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/noahzandan/)

Twitter @ https://twitter.com/nzandan (https://twitter.com/nzandan)

Casey Stubbs is a 9 ½ year United States Army Veteran and married father of nine. He is an entrepreneur, a leader in his local church, and is a successful business owner and trader. That, however, was not always the case.

Casey’s compelling broke-dad to seven-figure trading education business story will captivate and inspire you. He loves to share his failures with others because he believes that is where the most growth and character-building takes place. Casey is dedicated to helping people from all walks of life fulfill their financial dreams, while also achieving financial freedom. Helping others is at the heart of all that drives Casey on a daily basis.

Key Takeaway: While a strong pattern of accountability and feedback is critical for productive, efficient growth – operating without a strategy and longer-term plan will diminish your results.

Lessons Learned:

Track and Measure Everything – If you do not know your numbers, you cannot make informed decisions moving forwards.

Always Have Goals in Mind – With a goal, a purpose, a plan in mind, you can have a strong team from an execution standpoint and still miss the mark.

Create Accountability and Feedback – Have a system of feedback loops in place to constantly evaluate and adjust your course of actions based upon what was successful and what was not.

For More Information:

· Trading Strategy Guides @ https://tradingstrategyguides.com/ (https://tradingstrategyguides.com)

· LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/company/tradingstrategyguides/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/tradingstrategyguides/)

· LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseystubbs/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseystubbs/)

· Twitter @ https://twitter.com/caseystubbs (https://twitter.com/caseystubbs)

Chad Burmeister is the founder and CEO of ScaleX.ai whose mission is to help Founders and CEOs increase revenue by focusing on the only two things that matter in sales – increasing frequency and competency.

Chad’s focus with ScaleX.ai is rooted in the believe that artificial intelligence can increase revenue, eliminate repetition, and make selling more efficient and effective. The ideas that Chad brings throughout the episode are key to growing and scaling a business – in his case via AI.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o293QB6rFsQ

Key Takeaway: Delegation is key – whether it is through AI or other people, by trying to maintain a grasp on every task, especially the ones that are tedious and undesirable for you, you limit the growth potential for your organization.

Lessons Learned:

Sell First, Deliver Second – Prove out your ideas first. In the case of ScaleX.ai, we sold the concept first to validate the need and market fit before building out the full solution and doing “real” marketing.

Leverage Automation – Automating tasks and processes ensures that not only do they happen the right way and the best way each time, they also happen much faster than can be done by hand. When applied to tedious tasks like data mining, it is simply more efficient.

Hone in on Your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) – As you build and evaluate service offerings, make sure you always keep your ideal customer profile in mind. Ensure your customers meet your values and culture.

For More Information:

ScaleX.ai @ https://www.scalex.ai/ (https://www.scalex.ai/)

LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/company/scalex-ai/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/scalex-ai/)

LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/chadburmeister (https://www.linkedin.com/in/chadburmeister)

Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/chadburm (https://www.facebook.com/chadburm)

Ray is an award winning Filipino-American entrepreneur who grew up in Turkey and lives in Mexico. His business, LiveLingua.com, is one of the top online language schools in the world and the only one in the top 5 who did not get millions in venture capital to start.

As Ray describes it, he is the type of entrepreneur that sees a need or an issue, checks to see if anybody else is solving that need, and then asks why not me? Ray is the embodiment of the entrepreneurial spirit – getting knocked down several times – first by the Spanish Flu, then by Google’s Penguin update – and yet he and his wife have persevered to have one of the top online language schools.

Key Takeaway: Hire for growth – as Ray states it, while you can do just about everything in your business, the reality is somebody else can do 99% of what you do better and faster. Make sure you are focusing on what only you can do and hire for the rest to be able to grow.

Lessons Learned:

Be Comfortable Being Uncomfortable – The entrepreneur life is not for everybody. Being an entrepreneur requires risk and perseverance to get up when knocked down.

Do Not be Afraid to Hire – You are not the only person who can do X in your company.

Re-Invest in the Business – If you personally take and spend every penny you make from your business, you do not have a business, you have a hobby.

For More Information:

Live Lingua @ https://www.livelingua.com/ (https://www.livelingua.com/)

LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/company/livelingua/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/livelingua/)

Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/LiveLingua/ (https://www.facebook.com/LiveLingua/)

LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/raymondblakney (https://www.linkedin.com/in/raymondblakney)

Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/raymond.blakney (https://www.facebook.com/raymond.blakney)

Val King is the CEO of Whitehat Virtual Technologies, a technology services provider focused on helping clients deliver a great productive end user experience anywhere in the world their staff needs to be to get work done. Doing hundreds of projects a year and managing or supporting thousands of employees around the world, Whitehat is focused on that last 18" between the screen and the end user, because that is the gap where technology investment becomes business value and productivity.

In building out Whitehat Virtual Technologies, Val and his team stacked one great year of growth on top of another – right up to the point where they hit a ceiling, and nothing worked. Up to that point, they had simply been throwing more time against the issue … more hours for more customers = more growth. Except, they ran out of time.

As a technology services provider, their focus was on building systems for their clients. They took this same idea and started to systematize their own business, allowing them to be more efficient with the hours spent, break through the ceiling they were facing, and grow to new levels.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaCgnO-HLIE

Key Takeaway: Your business will hit a wall directly in line with the management structure you have in place. It can temporarily grow past your ability to manage it, but it will rubber band back if you do not raise your game to meet the growth.

Lessons Learned:

Systematize – Processes are your friend if you ever want to spend more time working on your business than in it.

Delegate – You cannot be everything to everyone. Figure out what you are good at, what you want to dedicate your time to, as you do not have any more of it.

For More Information:

Whitehat Virtual Technologies @ http://whitehatvirtual.com/ (http://whitehatvirtual.com/)

LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/company/whitehat-virtual-technologies/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/whitehat-virtual-technologies/)

Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/whitehatvt/ (https://www.facebook.com/whitehatvt/)

LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/valking/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/valking/)

Twitter @ https://twitter.com/whitehatvt (https://twitter.com/whitehatvt)

Tom Bronson is the CEO of the Mastery Partners, a consulting firm focused on helping business leaders plan and execute their exit strategy when it comes to their business. Tom has a long history of buying, building and then selling businesses, so he has all kinds of stories to tell.

One of his great analogies is when you are driving along the highway and see that guy on the shoulder backing up because he missed his exit. In Tom’s words, do not be that guy when it comes to your business.

The reality is that we will all exit our business in one manner or the other at some point. The topic of our discussion here is to look at what needs to be done in your business now – even if you don’t have a specific exit plan in mind – to ensure that that sale or transition goes as smoothly as possible and gives you the best value possible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6BMfuVcKQY

Key Takeaway: Growing and scaling a business is challenging, but too many business leaders focus on the immediate picture without considering the long-term goals when making decisions and plans. Even without a specific exit goal, you can still make decisions and build a foundation today that will make your business that much more valuable in the future when it does come time to exit.

Lessons Learned:

Plan Your Exit – Most business owners fail to plan for their exit - 74% of business owners have NO exit plan at all. That is part of the reason that 83% of all attempted transitions fail to reach the finish line.

Scale Matters – The value of your business is directly related to the ability (i.e. the foundation, the processes, etc.) of your business to scale.

Good Business Planning – Exit planning is simply good business planning.

For More Information:

Mastery Partners @ https://www.masterypartners.com/ (https://www.masterypartners.com/)

Maximize Business Value Podcast @ https://www.masterypartners.com/podcast (https://www.masterypartners.com/podcast)

LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/company/mastery-partners/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/mastery-partners/)

Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/masterypartners/ (https://www.facebook.com/masterypartners/)

LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-bronson/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-bronson/)

Twitter @ https://twitter.com/TheTomBronson (https://twitter.com/TheTomBronson)

Callum Laing is the CEO of the MBH Corporation with more than two decades of experience in starting, building, buying, and selling over half a dozen businesses in a range of sectors, including recruitment, sport and lifestyle, information technology, and telecommunications. He has published two best-selling books on business, has interviewed and published more than 700 interviews with entrepreneurs and sits as High Commissioner to the World Business Angel Investor Forum in Singapore.

Callum works with entrepreneurs dealing with what he calls the “scaling paradox” … the company is too small to have access to big contracts and as such, because they do not have access to big contracts, they remain small. Callum and his team over at The MBH Corporation take a different approach to scaling through acquisition, while leaving the original company as it is, just with a bigger footprint.

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

Key Takeaway: Growing a business can be challenging when you do not have the size and resources to compete with bigger players in the market. Acquisition is a way to address this, but there are different ways to go about that as most entrepreneurs do not make good employees, especially in their own company.

Lessons Learned:

Be Careful of Free Advice – Be careful when it comes to “free” advice from somebody that does not have any skin in the game. All too often this leads to chasing shiny objects and taking you out of your core focus.

Invest in Peer Groups – Being able to leverage the expertise of peers can provide resources and information that might not otherwise be available to entrepreneurs while at the same time remembering point #1.

For More Information:

MBH Corporation @ https://www.mbhcorporation.com/ (https://www.mbhcorporation.com)

LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/company/mbh-corporation-plc/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/mbh-corporation-plc/)

LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/callumlaing/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/callumlaing/)

Twitter @ https://twitter.com/laingcallum (https://twitter.com/laingcallum)