DFW Rockstars

One easy change to the website, and conversion rates increase 20% - 50%. Use that confidence boost to increase marketing, and revenues were up 400%. Say that out loud. What would a 400% increase in revenue do for your business? It's simple, it's inexpensive, and it works. Take a listen!

Justin Shelley 

My concept when I started this podcast, DFW Rockstars, is around two things: 

I think all of us, every human on the planet, they have something to offer me. They're smarter than me at something. They have an experience that I can learn from. I believe that about everybody on the planet. So I'm a big believer in community and relationships and leveraging each other's experience. All right. So that's, that's one.  

Richard Gibson 

I would love to see that one, right? Yeah. 

Justin Shelley  

There's nobody that I know that came up with a business plan executed on it and went right where they projected, they were going to go.  

Richard Gibson 

No, everyone falls. They fall a lot. And hopefully if you fall on your face, you're at least going the right direction. It's when you fall on your rump and don't get back up, but you got to learn to get back up. And I think that's part of what you're helping do here is finding people to help you get back up and keep going, because you can't win every time in every business idea. Right. You know, you know, I hate to use baseball as an analogy to use it, but would you rather have someone that gets on base every time they get to bat or someone that hits a home run, you know, 20% of the time, which batting 200 for home runs is an amazing, right? Yeah. That's amazing. So would you rather have someone that gets on first, every time at bat batting a thousand to get on first or batting, you know, 200 to get a home run? 

Justin Shelley  

I mean, we want to, we want to get there every time, right? 

Richard Gibson: 

I think so. Yeah. You guys, that gives you, you know, cause that's the strategy you want to do and because you can't have every business ideas, a home run. 

Justin Shelley: 

And not only that, but the execution's never going to be perfect. The forethought, the strategy that you thought was going to work isn't I mean, hell who saw COVID coming, right? Let's beat this dead horse. 

Richard Gibson: 

Well, there are a few people that have been saying we were due another pandemic. They didn't see COVID itself, but they saw a pandemic coming true, you know, but you know it, but it's going to be like every other pandemic is going to circle the globe at least two times. Right. You know? And, and that's what we're going through as the second one we've been able to, as they say, flatten the curve, but at what cost. 

Justin Shelley: 

Yeah. Ooh. Now you're going to get me fired up. 

Richard Gibson: 

Well, yeah, me too. 

Justin Shelley: 

Cause that's not what we're here to talk about today, but that is my Oh, nothing gets me lit more than that. What the CDC refers to as excess deaths, suicide rates, you know, all this stuff that we're not even talking about. As we try to control something that is largely uncontrolled. 

Richard Gibson: 

Oh yeah. All's we're doing is mitigating. 

Justin Shelley: 

Right. Which is fine and mitigate away, but at the cost of what we've got to do a cost benefit analysis. And, and so few people do that.  

Richard Gibson: 

I'm not a real political guy, but poor governor Abbott. Yeah. I mean, try to make rules for a state this size. I mean, what's good for DFW metroplex. Doesn't work for Alpine, Texas. Doesn't work for Tyler, Texas. And so, you know, what he's doing is giving guidelines to the local ones to try to make the decisions. But then you have the problem, like when this was early on, you know, like you have a city, like Plato decides they're closing everything down and then the city right. North of, at Frisco, this is all we're not closing anything down. All right. And so I think that's where governor Abbott did actually an excellent job of saying, okay, here's the criteria. So like now with the hospital beds utilization over a seven day, rolling average being above 15% for COVID patients, we have to roll back. The, okay. That actually made sense to me, but going to zero and closing everything down, I really feel for people that had to, you know, suffer through all that. 

Justin Shelley: 

Well, and you and I are fortunate enough to be an industry that didn't get just shut off. 

Richard Gibson  

We didn't get shut off, but it Affected us back in april. 

Richard Gibson  

You know, I'm seeing it is like the faucet turned off. I don't know. 

Justin Shelley 

No. Cause that was right at your primary tax time. That's the primary tax preparation man. 

Richard Gibson: 

Government moved that late July to July. Um, okay. That's all right. That'll be good. That's nice. Oh wait, are these people are going to come in? Are they not going to come in? I just don't know what's going to happen. 

Justin Shelley: 

I had not contemplated that.  

Richard Gibson: 

It's just, you know, little regulatory change changes, everything you plan and budgeted for. And so it was like, you know, we're sitting here with the complete unknown what's going to happen. And then you've got people sitting at home saying, you know what? I think I'll start reading and figuring out how to do my own taxes and which was fine. But I had several people that said they started doing that. And that's why they came back. 

Justin Shelley: 

Absolutely. I played that game because it's like, yeah. Oh, have you read these instructions? This is why we pay people to do stuff. Exactly. 

Richard Gibson: 

You know, it's like, if you are comfortable doing it, then do it. It, it, it, there's nothing wrong with it. But if it's not something you are, have a propensity to do, don't. 

Justin Shelley: 

Agreed a hundred percent. So, on this subject, right. We're, we're dealing with globally, we're dealing with a challenge that very few people saw. There was, there was no plan in place. We're all scrambling.  

I was interviewing another gentleman a while back and they kind of said, well, this is really just normal. If you think about it, because business, like we said, there's no straight line to success. Everything about running a business is, or really life is about pivot. It's, it's taking your best guess acting on it. If, and when it doesn't go the way you plan, figuring out your next step.  

So, one of the things that I like to talk about on this show is the greatest pivot point you've dealt with the biggest challenge, the curve ball that was thrown at you, that knocked you off your rocker, um, that you, you had to get back up from. So, what was the point, if you could boil it down to the worst, the, you know, the, the most gut-wrenching challenge you had to deal with in the business world. 

Richard Gibson: 

All right. Well, I'd like to commend you on that. Great segue. Now that was, that was very good. Almost professional life. Now for me was the

7 Steps to Grow your Company's Revenue Using LinkedIn with Mark McIntosh 

Mark is the founder of RevGrow.com, a B2B lead generation and revenue growth firm headquartered in the Dallas-Fort Worth area with regional offices nationwide. Helping businesses grow revenue with proven strategies.  

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Resources 

 
Visit their website – www.RevGrow.com  

Schedule a time to talk with mark on his calendar - www.ScheduleACallWithMark.com  

Show Notes 

There’s no straight line to success 

[3:00] - Tell me something, one of your most significant challenges in your career. 

Mark shares a couple of roadblocks that changed the trajectory of his career 

• In 2011 I came to DFW on a business trip, first time ever to Texas. I was doing some calling to DFW and Texas and knew there was something unique.  What I didn’t know when I came to Texas on that 3-day business trip, was the second day it came upon me that I needed to uproot the family and move to Texas. Try explaining that to my wife, we had three kids they were all 10 and under.  
• Two months later we made the move to DFW. 
• The biggest challenge, which I realized rather quickly, is how important those 15 years in the Midwest were. My entire network, everyone I knew, knew me, it was all based there. 
• I came to DFW in 2011 without any contacts or connections in any real significance or volume. I was coming into the market from scratch. And that was a big hurdle to overcome.  
• That time period, although it was one of the most challenging, I’ve had, it was also one that I can point to as being foundational to what we’re doing now. Because I developed some systems, process and strategies for leveraging LinkedIn to not only get in front of more prospects out there but to do it in a more scalable way.  
• An example of a very big challenge in my career that has turned into a blessing because it really forced me to rethink and figure out how in the world do I come to a new geography, from complete scratch, turn that into a workable situation from a sales development and marketing situation. 

[7:00] - You said you came to DFW, you found the people friendly, then you said you learned you had to move... Was that a lightbulb moment or kind of forced on you by an employer?  

• Mark say, no I wasn’t forced. I made the decision to move on my own. Which made it a more difficult sell on my family.  

[9:00] - You said two words “scalable” and “repeatable” those are huge.  

• If you were to give me the formula as simple as possible what would I do on LinkedIn to build up a base that I want to sell into? 

[9:40] - Mark gives the formula “7 steps to grow your revenue using LinkedIn”: 

1. Position your personal brand by creating a client-centric profile. Key to step #1 starts with the headline: what you do, who you work with, and most importantly how you help them. That’s your value proposition. 
2. Develop a content strategy. Tip on content is giving your best stuff away free.  
3. Using LinkedIn search and other resources outside of LinkedIn to find your high value prospects who fit your criteria.  Start narrow and the sooner you can niche down the better off you’ll be. 
4. Build your data base. Focus Quality Over Quantity 
5. Set up your messaging machine. The key here: Develop messages that are value-add and non-salesy messages. Then, develop a system and process for sending out your messages. 
6. Develop a system in a way to manage all these. We recommend doing it outside of LinkedIn 
7. Continue to nurture those leads so you get the call when the time is right.  

[18:15] - Justin is going to try this and put it to the test. I’ll report back in a few weeks on what I’ve done. Hold myself accountable. We’ll be back in touch 

[19:00] You’ve given us the formula... final thought on why do I need to do that? 

• The bottom line is we’re all focused on running our business and doing things we love to do and do best. The real value is we do it for our clients so they can focus on what they do best.   

Justin says anyone listening to this can hold him accountable to put this formula to the test!  

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Resources

If you have questions for Tony, he can be reached at 972-409-4311

For IT questions, contact Master Computing at 940-324-9400

Show Notes

[1:50] - Let me Introduce today’s guests.  

• In studio we have Andrea from Master Computing and Tony from Insperity  

[2:45] - Tony, you reached out to me on LinkedIn and at the time I was just looking for people to connect with and I kind of asked what you did and what’d you tell me?  

• You told me you help small businesses that want to grow. Help them run better.  

[3:50] - Tony’s bullet points of the main ways he helps businesses. 

• Payroll 
• Onboarding 
• Recruiting 
• Compliance 
• Taxes 

Whatever it might be for someone who is great at one thing and wants to start a business in that thing and maybe they don’t have too much an idea in the other areas. 

When you have questions or concerns or maybe there’s something you’re not comfortable with, that’s when someone like Insperity comes in and help you make sense of some of those issues. 

[5:50] - Tony, tell me a little bit about a significant challenge you’ve delt with in your professional career.  

• Tony started with Insperity March 16th of this year (the week most businesses started sending employees home and shutting their doors) 
• I was in the office 2 full days and a half day before COVID lockdown. 
• Significant challenge - he started a new career among the pandemic. 
• In addition to starting a new career in pandemic he is also planning a wedding in October. 

[8:14] - What was your Initial reaction when you started your career 2 days prior to the lockdown?  

• Terrified. 
• Deeply concerned for my well being, not from a health standpoint but for a career standpoint. 
• Because, like I mentioned, my intention for this job and being a business performance advisor was to truly be involved in the community. That’s the Insperity mission. I didn’t want to just be a stranger over the phone cold calling businesses.  
• Hard to do that when you can't meet business owners. So, I sat there really concerned, new to any sort of undertaking like this. Before I worked tutoring children in math and running a math learning center. 
• So my focus really was in I need to build relationships however possible. LinkedIn became a huge resource to me.  

[13:05] - What do you expect will be the long-term value of having to go through that for your career moving forward? 

• Being seen right now, being here on this podcast with you. 
• Be a resource and provide value for small businesses. 
• Long-term, been fortunate enough to build relationships, meet people, and engage with them in a way that’s more organic and not so sales focused.  

[15:00] - Timeout to give Tony a shoutout:  If you have any of the issues that Tony takes care – weather it’s HR, Payroll or group health Insurance - give Tony a Phone Number is 972-409-4311  

Shift gears - Value we can add for our listeners –  

[16:10] - My question is, as you’re going out and meeting with people, whether it’s LinkedIn conversation, zoom meetings, or whatever. What do you see as the #1 fear, concern or problem that your clients or potential clients are dealing with?  

• We have this PPP Loan, it helped a lot, it’d be great if we don’t have to pay it back. 
• What do I need to do to make sure that it’s not the case? What do I need to have prepared? What are the steps I need to have done?  
• There is 5.2 Million outstanding PPP Loans as of last week. 
• This represents about 15-20% of all small businesses in America.  
• And that’s about $520 Million dollars in loans.  

[26:20] - As a non-finance professional, if someone were to ask me in a state of panic, what they need to do about this PPP Loan – My advice would be: Take a breath.  

• As Finance professionals, both of you, would you give different advice? No. Take a breath. Relax.  If you’ve been documenting everything, you should be good. 

[28:07] - Which brings me to my next question. You hear “document everything” all the time, but to my knowledge, when we do things in QuickBooks, run payroll, etc. We are already documenting everything.  

Is there anything we need to be doing differently to document this stuff for the Forgiveness process? 

• On the Payroll side, probably not.  
• Where you may need some additional looking into, or more complex reporting is if you had to lay some people off then bring them back how does that affect your full-time equivalency. 
• If you did have any legitimate firings, or workers who refuse to come back to workplace due to COVID. You want to make sure you have that in writing and on record because that’ll apply to the SafeHarbor which affects your full-time equivalency as well. 
• That’s just a lot of words to say they want to make sure that what happened, during the PPP covered period reflects accurately on your reference period. 

[29:15] - Dig in a little more. Let's say that a company had a full-time salesperson that they hired prior to the COVID pandemic. And that salesperson didn’t do their job right, then COVID hits, and in that scenario a boss decided to let that salesperson go? It wasn’t about pandemic, it was about lack of performance 

• Tony says this is where recording everything all the time, not just during pandemic, does you a lot of favors.  

[31:15] - Justin asks Tony “If you were handling HR for this hypothetical company, is that something Insperity would have gotten involved in?” 

• Absolutely. Part of the great service team you get as an Insperity client, includes an HR specialist.  
• So, they can answer those hard questions, and make sure you have policies in place to not only document those things but make sure what you're documenting applies to your policies. 
• This way, when it comes time to fire someone, it is a legitimate firing. Not just an act of inconvenience due to COVID as some may try to spin it. 

[33:45] - One thing I’ve learned a while back is that in the recession, that’s a great time to find good people.  

[34:05] - Tony’s words of wisdom for fellow business owners, fellow professionals, people trying to muddle through situation we find ourselves in right now 

• Like you said, in a recession you find good people.   
• It's tough right now for a lot of businesses. Just stay optimistic. Take care of your people. 
• It’s maybe not time to grow, but it is the time to look, there are good people available. Maybe time to reflect on the performance of your employees. 
• With the slow down, there's been more opportunity for businesses to take that look and see where there’s room for improvement. Where maybe th...

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Hello everybody this is Justin Shelley CEO of Master Computing in the Dallas Fort Worth Metro coming to you with episode 2 of DFW Rockstars. This one is personal.  

First, we’re going to talk about why I call it DFW Rockstars. This is about overcoming, talking to people who have delt with significant challenges in their lives, have had levels of success, and telling their story. Sharing how it is they overcome and how it is they achieve greatness. That is the theme of DFW Rockstars podcast. 

 
In business we talk a lot about how there is no straight line to success.  My guest here today might prove that theory wrong just a little bit. In fact, he is the best example of ‘straight line to success’ so far.  

2:10 – Justin shares a powerful background story to start us off. It speaks to why running is so awesome because it’s all about proving to yourself you can do things that you didn’t think you could do. He talks about moments in early childhood that crushed him. And lead to this belief system early on in life, that he couldn’t do things... 

4:40 - The turning point to this belief system he had: I decided that I was going to run distance. I got to the point to where I could run a 5K.  I instantly started thinking “What’s next?” so I kept running, I completed a 10k, 15k, 20k, and kept thinking “Okay, what’s next?”  

Huge goal of Justin’s: I want to qualify for Boston that’s a huge goal. Meaning it is very out of reach right now.  I knew this was never going to be an option for me if I couldn’t stop getting injured. So, I grabbed myself a physical therapist. Now that’s where I introduce today’s guest.  

8:00 – Justin introduces his physical therapist and guest on this episode. Steve White of Dallas Run Clinic.  How I found out about Steve is by googling “Physical Theripist Running Dallas” and Steve was the first one to show up.  

Website: https://www.dallasrunclinic.com/ 

Do you do remote, if people are not in the DFW metro? 

• The PT work I can do anyone in the state of Texas 
• In terms of performance coaching, I can do anyone in the US or world. 

How to get in touch with Steve: Email, phone number, form submission. 

Contact page: https://www.dallasrunclinic.com/contact  

YouTube Channel: dallasrunclinic  

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2INt-PDye9-b8_MWFW5Y4Q?view_as=subscriber  

Steve talks about the resources on his YouTube Channel. He has all the exercises that he uses for Rehab and performance coaching. Check out these FREE resources!  

15:30 – Justin shares how one thing that drives him crazy about Facebook groups and running communities is people are constantly asking for advice for injuries....  Steve, in 30 seconds, why should you NOT go to Facebook or reedit to diagnose injuries?  

• You have to know your source and where this info is coming from. They are just sharing advice on what worked for them.  

Justin ran 5 marathons with improperly diagnosed  

I ran 5 marathons with an improperly diagnosed injury. I highly recommend going to a SPECIALIST for whatever your sport / activity is.  

One of the things that really stood out to me about your business is, #1 is your specialty, you went straight to this specialized version of physical therapy. This is one of the things you did right from day 1.   

18:00 – Tell me a little bit about the name of your business, why that matters, how you set this up and where you learned it. 

• Name: Dallas Run Clinic  
• He wanted the name of this business to portray that it was more about PT but very specific. Niche specialty.  

19:45 - My point: I googled “Dallas Run Physical Therapy” and you are the 1st one that shows up. Then we’ve got Facebook and more Facebook. The name of the business matters, the fact that you dialed it in to this niche market matters. 

20:45 - Let's talk a little bit about business (pretend we are living under normal circumstances) and running a business.  

23:55 - Tell me about the single most challenging thing you’ve had to face as a business owner 

• Steve: Personally, being a one-man operation, I think it’s hard not having anyone to turn to and ask advice, questions, and make some of these day-to-day operations. I think sometimes, I guess it’s almost like some kind of endurance race. At the end of the day, you’re in it and you’ve got to get to that finish line or endure whatever is in the way. All kind of by yourself.  
• So I’d say the hardest part of it is being in it alone, but in some ways that has perks as well.  

25:55 - I agree, that lonely is a really good way of describing that.  So, what have you done to power through or overcome this? 

If there’s anyone out there contemplating starting a business, what are some tips you have for them Steve? 

30:00 – Steve shares some tips for dialing in your vision, marketing, strategy, stuff like that: 

• On a basic level, stay on brand. 
• Venn diagram your set of individual skills (I.e. physical therapy) blending with something you're passionate about (I.e. running) then find that center of the Venn diagram to focus on. And don’t get distracted by the other things.  

34:45 - Justin asks Steve to tell us what an avatar is and describe his avatars by name: 

• An avatar is creating your ideal customer, naming them, detailing all these qualities 
• Steves avatar: Rachel & Conner  

Rachel ran competitively then got into the working world and became a consultant and   

Conor was an attorney age was low 40s 

• The whole idea is who do I want to work with and who would be a good fit for my brand /my niche. Truly get inside your customer, your target audience. 

38:00 - I’ve talked about my own experience early in life, I’ve realized that I have to believe in myself but also recognize my limitations. When I hired you as a coach and PT I was looking forward at a goal. What are the things that are going to prevent me from running the Boston marathon?  

41:00 – Parting message to the audience 

When I hired you, I was looking to remove these obstacles. I feel like a l...

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I hired Vince Lujan to perform for my son's memorial service. I thought I was hiring a musician. Turns out I added a member to my family. My tribe. If you need a musician, Vince is your guy.

https://www.vlpband.com/

• Live-stream music for any event
• Virtual appearances
• Music video production
• And, when COVID backs off a bit, live events of all kinds

https://jtaband.com/

• Religious services
• Youth ministry
• Music ministry training
• Praise and worship music

Show Notes
Justin Shelley with Master Computing here on the inaugural episode of DFW Rockstars. In this first episode I interview a local musician, the musician that played at my son’s funeral. 

This was a business transaction. I paid him for a service. But what really stood out here is that never did it feel like a business transaction. Instead, I instantly felt like family. 

I could not be more excited to introduce today’s guest Vince Lujan [1:40]

He is an incredible musician who (like all of us) had to quickly figure out how to handle the COVID lock-down. It was sink or swim. He decided to swim!

We are going to look behind the scenes at what you do who you are. But my hope is people will spend a few minutes on your websites and get to know you professionally. So, take a minute and visit  

[4:10] – Background and further introduction

[4:40] - Justin shares one thing he has learned through the 20+ years of being in business in one way or another.

Justin: One thing I’ve learned is that the quality of your technical work, your product, does not necessarily determine if you are going to be a success or not… It really is, how good are you at running a business?

[5:15] – Justin: Tell me the 3 most important lessons you’ve learned in running a business

Vince: Networking is what you call it, but if you just see it in terms of that and don’t see it as relationship building then you tend to get left behind. 

[9:37] – Vince: It all comes down to relationship. 

Personnel management – It all comes down to relationship. 

How do you take care of the people you work with, so they’ll take care of you?

Learning how to do that and maintain that, moving forward, is a very important thing. Learning how to take care of the people that you work with so that they’ll take care of you, personnel management.

[11:45] – Justin: Your theme is relationships and you truly do practice what you preach. 

[13:10] - “Pre-COVID lock down…What did the day in the life of Vince Lujan look like?”

[15:50] - “What were your thoughts, just as the headlines start hitting? PRE lock down.”

Vince shares a story about a guy who is a Guitarist by day and English teacher by night via online. 

[19:30] – “At this point, your live business effectively evaporates. What did that do to you emotionally?” 

[19:45] – Justin shares his emotional journey throughout all of this going on in the world: 

“Coming off the loss of my son, I was in this emotional funk that I cannot even describe. Then COVID hit. So that was kind of my journey. It wiped me out…” 

[20:10] – “What was that journey like for you as that realization hits that it’s over as far as the immediate future for your business?” 

Vince: I had just done another interview piece and feeling great for myself in terms of being able to survive and thrive. Then this hit. And it felt like my identity was just thrown away.

[21:50] - How do you bring value to clients and people online and online virtual format? 

Vince shares his struggle with that. 

Justin: Talks about the different journeys but similarities: While I got to continue my business for whatever reason I couldn’t, emotionally. 

I felt like I was sinking – great analogy – sink or swim

[25:24] – Justin share a side note story how he watched his father get laid off as a teenager. 

*Back to Sink or Swim *

[26:25] – Justin: Talk me through that Vince. You know when we were prepping you mentioned you got to a place where you kind of had to put a deadline on yourself to create an event, advertise it, and see what happens.  You were going to try it. Talk about that process:

Shares story

Technology barrier that I needed to overcome. Things I needed to be able to do.

Knowing what you want to have but how can I do this? 

How can I achieve the result I’m going for when at the time I didn’t even know how to approximate that you know? – [28:48]

Get online and fail forward

You were going to do it, do or die. You put that date without knowing what was going to happen. 

[30:45] - Vince: Going back to that first question you asked me: what are the 3 things you learned? The next is just learning, always learning, how can I learn new ways. I’ve been in this for 20 years, seen the music industry change in a crazy way since I first got into the music industry.

You’ve got to do SOMETHING. Maybe you didn’t know what the right answer way, but you had to do something. 

[32:52] – Justin: I’m intrigued by the parallels in our journey here. Because while different, that’s where I was too. I knew I had to do something. I run and IT Consulting firm. I didn’t know what to do but I knew that I couldn’t, emotionally for my own mental health I couldn’t stay home and do nothing, so I started doing a series of webinars. 

My challenge quickly became – how do I advertise them?

In just taking the step in doing something, it’s crazy how much your outlook, and skill set will change. 

We failed Forward. – Vince’s term 

[34:40] – On May 7th. The outcome of going through this nightmarish situation we’ve all been through, what would you say is your accomplishment you are most proud of as a result of COVID 19 and the lock-down?

Vince: The ability to feel like I have value again or feeling that can present value in this environment and I’ve found a way to survive and now thrive in this environment. 

[44:55] – Vince shares his greatest accomplishment:

Talking about figuring out how to survive and thrive in this completely different environment and feeling like I am worth it again. I can contribute, continue to operate, provide a service and quality in this completely different environment. 

[45:30] – “None of us want to go through a shitstorm. But we always (assuming you’ve put some effort into it) come out stronger, better, more prepared afterwards.” 

You are a great exam...