James Schramko Podcast

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Video highlights:

00:14 - When there’s ambiguity...

00:29 - Don’t obsess on THIS

01:01 - Where to tie the impact of the pay

01:38 - How to remove conflict

01:54 - To have stability

Need help in formulating a better pay plan? James can help you. Get coaching HERE

Download the PDF transcription and 5 Rules for Formulating a Pay Plan

Transcription:

James Schramko here, and today's tip is around how you pay people in your business. Now, I've got five rules that will make things easier for you when you're coming out with a pay plan.

Simplicity is key

The first rule is it must be simple. It's got to be simple to understand because if there is any ambiguity, this can cause you, or your employee or contractor a massive heartache and loss of energy.

"Ambiguity causes massive heartache."CLICK TO TWEET

Reward what you want

Two, you've got to reward the results you want. There's no point paying for something that you don't want. A lot of people obsess about paying an hourly rate, but what you're buying is one hour. It doesn't necessarily stipulate a particular result that you'd like to get for that hour.

"Why pay for something you don't want?"CLICK TO TWEET

So have a look at other ways you might be able to pay people. Maybe you can pay per project. That way, they can complete the project in whatever time they like. But you get a specific result. Always reward what you want, and this is especially important if you have sales people.

Pay for ability

The third rule is that the result you want has to be able to be impacted by the person who is impacted by the pay plan. There's no point having a team budget percentage payment that the team members can't actually impact. It's not their fault if something happens to the business outside of their control. So when you actually pay them on that, that can be very disenchanting and they can lose motivation. Again, the more directly you can tie the impact of the pay to the ability to the employee to impact that pay, then that is better.

Have a fair pay plan

Fourth, it really should be fair. Anything that is out of alignment for too long won't continue. If you don't pay the right amount, or if you pay too much, one party is going to be upset and it's going to lead to conflict. So to remove conflict, have a fair pay plan.

Sustain rewards

And number five is ideally, you can sustain this reward mechanism for some time. That way, you have stability, you build up loyalty, you have consistency, and a lot of people who are contracting to you or they're basically employed to you are going to look for that stability. It's going to provide a nice bedrock to have that employee-contractor relationship.

So hopefully, you've enjoyed these five tips on how to pay better and get a better result in your business. If you do this, you will find it's a pleasure working with the people around you. That people know exactly what they will get paid, and they know how it works. And the system,

Get better results in your business by applying these five simple business tips on how to pay people.

Grow your business more effectively using the smart, simple principle of One Layer Back.

In the video:

00:16 – Is this where you’re at?

00:55 – What OLB is

01:30 – The payoff of OLB

Learn more about OLB when you join SuperFastBusiness membership

Download the PDF Transcription

Transcription:

Hey, James here. I promised to make some videos this year. So today, I want to talk to you about the OLB strategy, which is going to help you a lot this year. So what does OLB stand for? I’ll get to that in just a minute.

What’s your current situation?

So the current situation that you may be in this is that you’re handling stuff like your emails, and your email broadcasts and stuff directly. Maybe you’re also editing and creating your content and then syndicating your content directly, maybe even running Facebook ads. Maybe you’re mucking around building your own website and leadpages. Maybe you’re handing customer support via inbox.

What is OLB?

If you’re doing all of these things, then you’re very, very direct. You’re going to find it hard to scale. These things don’t really scale. What I suggest you do is you go the OLB, which stands for One Layer Back. So now, you transfer all these things to somewhere else.

“Transfer the things that don’t scale.”

CLICK TO TWEET

So for example, emails and support and looking after customers should be done through a support desk. So that’s one layer back from you. You should also be dealing with a team. Your team should be building your website or an outsourced supplier. And your team should be sending email broadcasts, and your team should be editing and syndicating content. So I deal with them in Slack and in GoToMeeting. So I am one layer back. OLB – One Layer Back.

“Focus on what you really want to do.”

CLICK TO TWEET

The benefits

So now, I can focus on the stuff that I really want to do, which is make the occasional video, do the occasional podcast, and then I give it to the team and let them do it. What does this mean? It means I can run my business from a mobile phone. I don’t need to have editing software, I don’t need to know how to use my CRM, I don’t need to know how to build a website, because the team is doing all of that stuff. I can outsource the help of a Facebook expert. I don’t need to know that either.

I need to actually get rid of all of these tasks. I need to be one layer back from the action so that I can focus on the high-level stuff.

So I hope you have more OLB for your year.

If you enjoyed this video, let me know, so I might make you a few more.

Grow your business faster and smarter with expert help from our community

Enjoyed this episode? Be sure to comment on iTunes.

In the interview:

00:57 - Some background on Kevin

02:47 - What it means to go deeper

05:51 - The highest level of achievement for an email

09:33 - In other words, get real

11:35 - A couple of useful tactics

13:07 - Building performance material

14:49 - Do videos help you connect?

19:41 - How Kevin’s Uber video came about

23:31- Do you have to be a performer?

24:44 - When content is shallow

28:12 - One out of ten videos...

29:33 - Behind Kevin’s driving videos

34:16 - A quick recap

35:46 - James’s podcast record

37:47 - How to avoid being douchey

See Kevin's SuperFastBusiness Live presentation inside SuperFastBusiness membership

Download the PDF transcription

Transcription:

James Schramko here, welcome back to SuperFastBusiness.com. And today I have my very good friend, Kevin Rogers from CopyChief.com on the line. Kevin?

Kevin: James, it's exciting to be back with you.

James: It is. You've been on this podcast before, so we will link to the previous episodes. And you also spoke at SuperFastBusiness Live, and your presentation was a stellar success, because in that presentation, you delivered a card system, a framework that one might use to develop a good sales copy approach. If you're starting from scratch, or you've got to come up with an offer, you could go through that card system and step-by-step map out a compelling sales offer, which was really well received. It's available as a recording in SuperFastBusiness.com.

One of the things that made that training so good, it was hilarious. You delivered it so well because you're quite funny, and there was one line in there that I particularly loved that I'll save for listeners to discover when they go through that training.

But lately, you've been developing your communications to a whole new level. That's why today, we're talking about how to go deeper with your customer base.

Kevin: Yeah. It's great topic. I think, it's one of those things that when you kind of crack the nut on it, and you start to get the level of feedback that we appreciate, those of us who have worked really hard to crack this nut, it's invigorating. And suddenly, you never have to struggle for what to say. When we've got too much in our heads and we have these inhibitions about reaching out and communicating, all that goes away, and it just becomes like a great conversation at a bar or a coffee shop or something, right?

James: So let's just get a little clear on this. When we say going deeper with our customer base, what does that mean to you?

What it means to go deeper

Kevin: Well, for me it means that I can feel it when I write something. So I'm a copywriter. So oftentimes, it's me sitting and writing that these moments happen. Although I'm working more and more with live video and posting spontaneous video, which we can talk about, but for me, here's what I realize - I had this revelation recently that I'm all about performance. That is what fuels me.

So for instance, you mentioned me speaking at your event. That was very exciting for me to travel to Australia, to be with you and your members, and when I have something on the books like that, I'm excited for a month. From the minute I book it, and especially,

Copy Chief’s Kevin Rogers talks about audience connection - Tips for better communication, how to make it, what can break it, and some examples of deep connections he’s made.

Presentation highlights:

01:32 - How focused are you?

03:12 - A 4560 percent growth story

05:58 - Is more really more?

09:29 - Rocking the 100-hour work week

10:39 - The wake-up call

12:41 - Toppling some big assumptions

15:10 - What can be dumped?

20:12 - Thinking bigger

21:11 - Using proven frameworks

23:10 - Improving on the webinar model

25:51 - What apps can do

28:26 - Where Jarrod’s at now

29:22 - The four steps that did it

Grab your ticket to the SuperFastBusiness Live event and see what Jarrod is doing in 2017. Also hear from other inspiring speakers

Download the PDF transcription

Transcription:

James: Our next guest is one of those really interesting individuals. Do you ever bump into someone who’s got so much more talent and ability than they even realize? You ever find that? I speak to a lot of people, I’ve coached people for many years, I travel a lot. Occasionally, I trip over someone who has got spectacular, super power abilities, and they don’t even realize it, kind of like a Cinderella story.

So what I'd like to do, instead of me sharing the sort of tips that I could share with you for you to go and work on your business, I want to show you what happens when you take some of the concepts and ideas from my way of looking at things, and you apply it. Just a regular school teacher, who's a bit geeky. I'd like to introduce Jarrod Robinson, the world's only and greatest PE Geek.

Jarrod: Thanks, James.

How focused are you?

Alright, really appreciate the opportunity to speak today, but I need some help first, and that's going to come from all of you in the audience. So if the answer to the question that you're about to get asked is "Yes", you simple just need to stand up in the spot where you are. Understand that? Pretty simple.

OK, the question is, stand up if you've actually had a moment in your business or your life where you've lost focus, where things seem a little bit out of control. (Audience laughter) Stand up.

(Audience stands)

OK, good. Probably got the desired effect that I hoped for. This is absolutely what my business struggles with, and I think we all sort of definitely struggle with it. And my contention is, the reason we lose focus is because we're doing too many things. And to emphasize that point, what I want you to do is to grab your right hand and put it on your left ear, so you got to work out what that one is first, and then make a point with your left hand and tap your nose. So just like that, really simple. And literally, all you need to do is uncross your hands and do the opposite. And try and do it as fast as you possibly can. (Audience laughter) Take a seat.

So as I look around the room, I mean Ezra poked his eye. It's a really simple task, but when you add more layers to it, it becomes really quite hard. And I think it's exactly the same with our business. You know, we add more things, and we don't necessarily see an improvement. And this is what I'm going to share with you today. More specifically though, it's how I've been able to grow my business by over 4,560 percent, bit of a weird figure.

But it's all come back to this idea of doing less and focusing in on what actually really matters.

And it's the story of then...

Hear the real-life story of the principles and business case study that turned one PE teacher’s business and life around.

Presentation highlights:

01:51 - The concept of flow

03:04 - The most profitable business model

05:40 - The idea of The X Journal

12:13 - Buried jewels

14:10 - When you’re over-ambitious

17:26 - The wrong type of work

20:41 - THIS is critical

25:15 - 4 amazing interview questions

28:50 - When your cup is full

36:05 - Focus on one task

37:34 - 21 tactics

Catch other world-class business experts in person at this year’s SuperFastBusiness Live

Download the PDF Transcription

Transcription:

James: Our next guest is a contrarian. He's a movie buff. He is a highly intelligent person. He's memorized every single person at this event's name. Seriously, he can do that. He's one of the smartest people in Australia according to the IQ test. His whole job was helping students pass exams. But today, he's going to help you be more productive with some counterintuitive productivity tips. Please welcome Dan Dobos.

[Audience applause]

James: Thank you.

Dan: Thanks, James. I don't know anyone's names.

Alright. So, the biggest wave surfed prior to 1996 was seven and a half metres.

But around 1996, something interesting happens, and from then on, people started surfing much bigger waves. So today, the biggest wave is around 30 metres.

The biggest gap, which was jumped prior to 1990 was around 12 metres.

And then at around after 1990, something interesting happened.

People started jumping a lot bigger gaps.

And today, the biggest gap is about 70 metres.

The interesting thing that happened was that this concept of flow was discovered.

Basically, it allowed elite athletes to really get into the zone and to take things to a much, much higher level. The interesting thing is that it's not just something that athletes can use. It's something that you can use when you are working in your business. So what caused this difference? It's all about flow.

What is flow?

So what does flow really mean? Some characteristics of flow is that you're only doing one thing.

You're totally absorbed in it.

It's effortless.

You forget yourself doing it.

Time distorts. So you might be working for 3 hours and it only feels like 15 minutes. Or we've had cases of mountain climbers who are falling and time just slowed down. They manage to quickly catch a rope. So time totally distorts.