Growth Mode

Checking off boxes doesn’t always mean that you’re getting things done. Both Kevin and I have dealt with these struggles, especially toward the beginning of our careers.

Early on, I couldn’t afford to pay someone else to do things for me. So, I taught myself how to do them–editing videos, clipping audio, making graphics, etc.

Yes, I was sort of forced to do these things, but it got to the point where I felt as though I needed to know how to do these things–and how to do them well. Because if I didn’t fully understand them, then I couldn’t pass them off to someone else with the proper vision of what I was looking for.

Perhaps some level of my ego dripped into this. But regardless, I needed to get some stuff off my plate. Thank you, Kevin…for essentially teaching me how to do so.

The truth of the matter? I didn’t need to know how to do the extra stuff. I was distracting myself.

A lot of the time, you need to just let other people do what they’re good at. Their product will show their skill; you don’t need to know the ins and outs of every goddamn thing there is. 

Sometimes, you’re just wasting YOUR time–and that time is simply far too valuable to the expansion of your business.

Links

1. Website - https://successchampionnetworking.com/
2. YouTube Video - (available soon)
3. Blog - (available soon)
4. Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/SuccessChampion

Mentioned in this episode:

Success Champions Networking

If you want to grow and scale your business you need to be getting into great conversations with other business owners that can help you take your business to the next level. Joining an online business peer group like Success Champions provides access to a select pool of successful business people from around the world, each having a well-established network who trust them, who want to introduce you to people that can help you build the business of your dreams. So once you get to know your fellow members and they’ve gotten to know you along with your services and ethics, the conversations you get into will multiply!

Over the years, I’ve struggled with getting all of the proper business development activities into play. Knowing what to do, when to do it, and how to execute often comes down to our struggles with the sales process. Why? Because there’s so much learning that needs to be done before we become good at making sales.

Here’s my thing: Most people don’t struggle with the final sales conversation, right? They don’t struggle when they sit across from somebody and get the chance to tell them about their products or service. There’s usually a relationship or bond built by then.

So once you have that bond, then it’s not as hard to get somebody to say the magic word…”Yes!”

What do I see as the hard part? Starting the sales conversation–getting the wheels to turn.

Links

1. Website - https://successchampionnetworking.com/
2. YouTube Video - (available soon)
3. Blog - (available soon)
4. Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/SuccessChampion

Mentioned in this episode:

Success Champions Networking

If you want to grow and scale your business you need to be getting into great conversations with other business owners that can help you take your business to the next level. Joining an online business peer group like Success Champions provides access to a select pool of successful business people from around the world, each having a well-established network who trust them, who want to introduce you to people that can help you build the business of your dreams. So once you get to know your fellow members and they’ve gotten to know you along with your services and ethics, the conversations you get into will multiply!

Get it together. Personal accountability will impact and change all aspects of your life for the better.

Early in my printing career, I was still trying to figure out this whole sales thing. I landed a small account with a tech company where I was printing business cards and brochures for them–wasn’t a big project. They were never really going to be a big client.

At the time, I didn’t know what it was like to work with a client from idea to creation–from print to production to evolution.

We printed the job for the client and I never took proofs to them so they could approve the artwork before we finalized it. I simply went to my company and said, “Here’s the artwork,” they set it up to go through the printing press, and we printed it.

Why am I telling you this?

Well, what I had no knowledge of was that in setting up the final graphics, our designer had mistakenly moved one of the images around and covered up a couple of words. We had already printed the final brochure and delivered it to the client.

Before I get into my full explanation–full disclosure–I was young, ignorant, dumb, and didn’t know any better.

So the client calls me up and says, “what the hell is this?!” He wants me to come by his office and he wants to show me what he’s looking at and why he’s pissed. So I drove over there. I didn’t know how this mistake happened and I basically told the guy, “Look, either my art department screwed something up or you guys gave us a bad file.”

That made the guy RED in the face…I’m talking full-blown tomato.

He shows me the email he sent me originally and there was nothing wrong with the artwork on his end. Again, young and dumb, I didn’t know what he wanted me to do about it. We already delivered the final piece to them.

I made my way back to the office, spoke to my boss, and explained the situation. I told her what I said to the client about how our art department probably screwed it up. My boss? Now she is red in the face. For different reasons, yeah…less-so anger, but still…oh boy.

She goes, “Let me teach you a lesson about life in business. People will never forgive a company for making a mistake, but they’ll always forgive an individual. And if you ever throw one of our staff under the bus again, saying they screwed up without taking ownership of it yourself, then we’re going to have a significantly harsher conversation than we’re having now.”

Wow.

Links

1. Website - https://successchampionnetworking.com/
2. YouTube Video - (available soon)
3. Blog - (available soon)
4. Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/SuccessChampion

Mentioned in this episode:

Success Champions Networking

If you want to grow and scale your business you need to be getting into great conversations with other business owners that can help you take your business to the next level. Joining an online business peer group like Success Champions provides access to a select pool of successful business people from around the world, each having a well-established network who trust them, who want to introduce you to people that can help you build the business of your dreams. So once you get to know your fellow members and they’ve gotten to know you along with your services and ethics, the conversations you get into will multiply!

Building a business is hard, I'm not a salesperson and a lot of other things we say may be the exact things that is holding us back from going bigger in business.

Links

1. Website - https://successchampionnetworking.com/
2. YouTube Video - (available soon)
3. Blog - https://successchampionnetworking.com/the-biggest-lies-we-tell-ourselves-in-business/
4. Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/SuccessChampion

Mentioned in this episode:

Success Champions Networking

If you want to grow and scale your business you need to be getting into great conversations with other business owners that can help you take your business to the next level. Joining an online business peer group like Success Champions provides access to a select pool of successful business people from around the world, each having a well-established network who trust them, who want to introduce you to people that can help you build the business of your dreams. So once you get to know your fellow members and they’ve gotten to know you along with your services and ethics, the conversations you get into will multiply!

I started my own Facebook group in late 2017–toward the early stages of my business. At the time, I had no idea how to be a business owner. But with the crazy idea of starting a Facebook group, I figured I’d have a better time finding other business owners and bringing them together.

The goal? To collaborate and collectively learn how to build our businesses together!

The problem? As I started bringing more and more people in, they were asking me questions. And all of the sudden, I found myself teaching when really I wanted to be the one learning!

Let’s just say–from being able to buy and sell everything under the sun–you can build one hell of a community and tribe out of your Facebook group. Kevin always thought that I started this group because I’m lonely and needed friends. Thanks, Kevin…point one goes to you.

But this is how Success Champions really got the ball rolling…by creating a hub and continuing to bring in more champions.

Links

1. Website - https://successchampionnetworking.com/
2. YouTube Video - https://youtu.be/4kheCHY4yhk
3. Blog - https://successchampionnetworking.com/how-to-use-facebook-groups-to-grow-your-business-part-2/
4. Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/SuccessChampion

Mentioned in this episode:

Success Champions Networking

If you want to grow and scale your business you need to be getting into great conversations with other business owners that can help you take your business to the next level. Joining an online business peer group like Success Champions provides access to a select pool of successful business people from around the world, each having a well-established network who trust them, who want to introduce you to people that can help you build the business of your dreams. So once you get to know your fellow members and they’ve gotten to know you along with your services and ethics, the conversations you get into will multiply!

Early on in business, you’re trying every tactic under the sun to drum up business. Me? I started off doing a ton of research into Facebook groups and what the best practices are within them.

During the same time of all this research, my dumbass was trying to create my own MailChimp campaigns. I’d gotten to the point with MailChimp where I’d screwed it up so bad; it just wasn’t functioning or firing properly. In a moment of rage and pissed-off-ness, I let my guard down and put a post out in a group of veterans asking: “Can anyone tell me how to use MailChimp…I’ve completely broken it.”

As soon as I put that post out there, the sharks started circling. People were jumping on my post and pitching themselves/their companies to me. But there was one guy who didn’t pitch at all. Instead, he wrote this 12-page freaking dissertation explaining the many ways that I could fix my MailChimp.

It was so fascinating to see someone tell me how I could fix it without even having to hear any sort of pitch. So I slid into the guy’s DM’s and said, “Alright dude, let’s jump on a Zoom call!” We spoke on Zoom and some of the first words out of the guy’s mouth were, “Hey– I don’t do MailChimp. I use another program called Ontraport.”

He helped me figure it all out. I thought I was ready to take it from there…aaaaaand six months later I had it all screwed up again. I reached back out to the guy and felt like I had no choice but to hire his butt to come in and save mine.

Who was that dude that helped me? My now good buddy and genius of a partner. Kevin Snow.

Let’s hear what he has to say:

Links

1. Website - https://successchampionnetworking.com/
2. YouTube Video - https://youtu.be/4xgjxn_8ilk
3. Blog - https://successchampionnetworking.com/how-to-use-facebook-groups-to-grow-your-business-part-1/
4. Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/SuccessChampion

Mentioned in this episode:

Success Champions Networking

If you want to grow and scale your business you need to be getting into great conversations with other business owners that can help you take your business to the next level. Joining an online business peer group like Success Champions provides access to a select pool of successful business people from around the world, each having a well-established network who trust them, who want to introduce you to people that can help you build the business of your dreams. So once you get to know your fellow members and they’ve gotten to know you along with your services and ethics, the conversations you get into will multiply!

Kevin has a client that consistently sends him their competition’s marketing content. His client is struggling to come up with what their actual product and services need to portray. In reality, they’re struggling with their brand’s identity.

Although in some cases it can be meaningful to be aware of your competition’s positioning, it should not be a driver for how you do business. Instead of getting stuck looking at what everybody else is doing, look at what your clients are doing.

I have to agree with Kevin. Maybe I’m a bit extreme when it comes to competition, but to be honest, I just don’t care what they’re doing or who they are.

Links

1. Website - https://successchampionnetworking.com/
2. YouTube Video - https://youtu.be/2bJPM0jMqt0
3. Blog - https://successchampionnetworking.com/stop-worrying-about-your-competition/
4. Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/SuccessChampion

Mentioned in this episode:

Success Champions Networking

If you want to grow and scale your business you need to be getting into great conversations with other business owners that can help you take your business to the next level. Joining an online business peer group like Success Champions provides access to a select pool of successful business people from around the world, each having a well-established network who trust them, who want to introduce you to people that can help you build the business of your dreams. So once you get to know your fellow members and they’ve gotten to know you along with your services and ethics, the conversations you get into will multiply!

If you’ve been in sales for any given amount of time, you’ve ended up in a spot where you sold something you didn’t really care about. For me, it was commercial printing. I sold it for seven years and sure, I had an amazing run. If you needed a business card, a magazine, tech pub, etc. I was your man.

I just didn’t feel like THE man.

At the end of the day, I didn’t want commercial printing to be the beginning of my day anymore. I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t excited to get up and go to work–until I realized ink on paper just wasn’t my thing–and that’s a problem when that’s what you’re selling.

When I launched my own company and started selling my own stuff, sales got so much easier. I started to enjoy selling again. Kevin feels the same way.

You have to believe in what you sell or it’s going to come across that you simply don’t. If you don’t believe in the value your product brings or the capacity and capability of your company to provide its service, then those are big issues. No matter how good you are at faking it, you’re not going to be excited when you’re talking to your client and you’re putting yourself in the position to have nothing behind what you’re saying–also a big issue! In turn, you’re not going to enthuse the client! BIG ISSUE!

You want your clients excited. You want them to see opportunity.

Have conviction. Be careful though! Having too much conviction in what you’re selling might just upset people. You don’t want to be the person that everybody just wants to shut up.

Links

1. Website - https://successchampionnetworking.com/
2. YouTube Video - https://youtu.be/iAqLr7013wY
3. Blog - https://successchampionnetworking.com/have-conviction-in-what-you-sell/
4. Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/SuccessChampion

Mentioned in this episode:

Success Champions Networking

If you want to grow and scale your business you need to be getting into great conversations with other business owners that can help you take your business to the next level. Joining an online business peer group like Success Champions provides access to a select pool of successful business people from around the world, each having a well-established network who trust them, who want to introduce you to people that can help you build the business of your dreams. So once you get to know your fellow members and they’ve gotten to know you along with your services and ethics, the conversations you get into will multiply!

Until I ran my own company, I wasn’t aware of how many excuses I used when doing sales. As a salesperson, if you’re in a slump, it’s easy to make justifications and excuses.

• I can say the leads are no good.
• I can say the economy is out of whack.
• I can blame marketing.
• I can blame competition.

But I shouldn’t.

I never saw these as excuses.

I thought they were facts.

I was wrong.

When you run your own business, there are no excuses allowed. Success is your doing and so are your failures.

Links

1. Website - https://successchampionnetworking.com/
2. YouTube Video - https://youtu.be/V7sT7kLq5aU
3. Blog - https://successchampionnetworking.com/stop-making-excuses/
4. Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/SuccessChampion

Mentioned in this episode:

Success Champions Networking

If you want to grow and scale your business you need to be getting into great conversations with other business owners that can help you take your business to the next level. Joining an online business peer group like Success Champions provides access to a select pool of successful business people from around the world, each having a well-established network who trust them, who want to introduce you to people that can help you build the business of your dreams. So once you get to know your fellow members and they’ve gotten to know you along with your services and ethics, the conversations you get into will multiply!

Every company needs versatility. With versatility, comes a team. Each team requires many people working hand-in-hand while specializing in their own specific fields for the betterment of that team.

The right team is there for the following reasons:

• Referrals and introductions
• Helping you carry your brand
• Take your name and message to the masses

We have an acronym for how to find your Champions. Ironically enough, it’s…CHAMPIONS!

Links

1. Website - https://successchampionnetworking.com/
2. YouTube Video - https://youtu.be/96i8H2GKExI
3. Blog - https://successchampionnetworking.com/finding-your-champions-means-finding-growth/
4. Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/SuccessChampion

Mentioned in this episode:

Success Champions Networking

If you want to grow and scale your business you need to be getting into great conversations with other business owners that can help you take your business to the next level. Joining an online business peer group like Success Champions provides access to a select pool of successful business people from around the world, each having a well-established network who trust them, who want to introduce you to people that can help you build the business of your dreams. So once you get to know your fellow members and they’ve gotten to know you along with your services and ethics, the conversations you get into will multiply!