Onward Nation

Good Morning Onward Nation – I'm Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and your host.

Thanks for coming back — it's an honor to have you here, Onward Nation — and this episode is going to be a solocast…where it's just you and me…taking a deep dive into a topic where I've been answering a lot of questions in my daily calls and meetings with business owners just like you.

In addition — several weeks ago — we aired Episode 936 which was my interview with Shay Rowbottom — one of today's foremost influencers on how to crack the LinkedIn code in order to gain more visibility and to build community.

And the feedback we received from you, Onward Nation made me think it was time to focus a solocast around LinkedIn — but in a super specific way so that you could walk away with specific strategies and steps for filling your sales pipeline with an abundance of right fit prospects.

My thought is — that if you and I could have that type of strategic yet tactical discussion…and we could do that in August…you'd have one more arrow in your lead gen quiver and be ready to make the remainder of 2020 as fruitful and profitable as possible.

So that's what you and I are going to cover in this solocast…how to effectively use LinkedIn like a pro so you and your team can generate a steady stream of well-prepared prospects so that you have a full pipeline as we step into the final 4-months of the year.

Before we dig in…I want to first make sure that we have a brief discussion around expectations.

Generating leads is not hard work…in fact…it is simple work…especially when you have the right recipe to follow, which I am going to share with you in full transparency in this solocast.

But…just because the work is simple does not mean it is easy.

In fact, I can almost certainly guarantee that you or someone on your team will be frustrated at the beginning because you don't see immediate success.

You may even pound your first on your conference room table and wonder why the results are not better — or — you may get upset at your sales team for what seems to be a lack of productivity.

The key is — to get out there and start testing for yourself the recipe that I'm going to share with you in this episode.

You need to get as many at bats as you can. And if you strike out — to realize that that's okay — that that's too be expected — and you get up, dust yourself off, and you step back into the batter's box to get ready for another swing.

Because the more at bats you have — the more opportunities you have to make adjustments — to make improvements — and to perfect your swing.

Case in point…let's take a look at Derek Jeter…arguably the greatest New York Yankee to ever wear the pinstripes.

Jeter is a lock to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer with his long list of impressive accomplishments including five World Series Championship rings

But…what most people don't know about Derek Jeter is that of all players in Major League Baseball history, he is number 12 on the all-time list of total strikeouts.

In fact, Jeter struck out 1,840 times during his 20-year career.

To say that another way…there have only been 11 people in the history of baseball who struck out and failed more often than Derek Jeter.

So in baseball terms, Jeter failed 1,840 times – but yet – he continued to get up there – to take another at-bat – and he kept on swinging.

And through it all – he recorded 3,461 hits, which is 6th all time and he finished 11 of his 20 seasons with a batting average of .300 or better.

A Hall of Fame resume to be sure.

He never got up to the plate – struck out – and then headed back to the dugout and said, "Well, Skipper — I guess I don't have what it takes to play ball after all. Thanks for having me but I'm hanging up my cleats."

To minimize your strikeouts — I'm going to coach you through the right recipe for success…so that you not only have the ingredients you will need…but…you will also have the process so you know what ingredient to blend in and when.

That way — all you need to do is follow the recipe and then rinse and repeat.

Sound fair?

First…some quick words as to why we love LinkedIn as much as we do…and why it should be the cornerstone of your lead gen strategy.

There are approximately 706 million LinkedIn members — yes, 706 million.

And according to research done by Hubspot — LinkedIn is 277% more effective than Facebook and Twitter at generating leads. And 79% of marketers see LinkedIn as a very good source of leads with 43% of marketers saying they have sourced at least one customer from LinkedIn. And B2B marketers shared with Hubspot that 80% of their social media related leads came from LinkedIn.

Next…want to guess the average number of LinkedIn connections for a CEO?

930. Interesting.

Why?

Because if 930 is the average — some are higher — some are lower — but you tend not to get 930 connections by accident — you work at it — so if someone has 930 connections — it is likely intentional.

Meaning, LinkedIn is a platform that he or she values — and a place where they spend time — that is great news for you.

Okay, next…some additional insight into why you should care about LinkedIn…27 percent of all members are between the ages of 30 and 49…and another 24 percent are 50 to 64 years old…and 13 percent are over the age of 65.

So to say that another way…over 64 percent of LinkedIn members are over the age of 30…and 38 percent of total members earn $75,000 or more per year.

Bottom line…there are 706 million people on LinkedIn…64 percent of them are over the age of 30…and 38 percent earn more than $75,000 per year…with the average CEO having 930 connections on the platform.

All of that speaks to your opportunity of finding and connecting with the prospects who can fill your sales pipeline, Onward Nation.

Okay — let's press forward by reviewing the seven ingredients within our recipe.

Our recipe for how to effectively use LinkedIn to fill your sales pipeline consists of seven core ingredients.

I'm going to share the full list with you — and then we will go back and dissect each one.

Ingredient #1: Improve your LinkedIn profile by adding video / audio clips, value proposition, etc. to your Summary.

Ingredient #2: Import your existing email list in LinkedIn and send connection requests.

Ingredient #3: Build your prospect list using LinkedIn's advanced lead gen tools like Sales Navigator.

Ingredient #4: Send InMail messages to your top prospects — and be sure to speak the language of your "client avatar."

Okay — let's dive in and go tree-by-tree so you can see all of the tactical ingredients of this recipe.

Ingredient #1 is all about making sure your LinkedIn profile is not just good — but that it is excellent — dare I say optimized.

Why does this matter?

Because when you send InMail messages as part of Ingredient #4…the very first place your recipients — your prospective clients will go to learn more about you — is your LinkedIn profile.

And if your profile is sparsely populated with value propositions, your connections count is low, you haven't taken the time to include a quality profile picture, you have zero recommendations, etc. — then it looks like you don't care.

And if you look like you don't care — they won't either — and they won't respond to you.

Maybe your InMail was just spam — you are ignored — and they move on.

Or, if you take the time to include audio and video clips, Slide Shares of recent presentations you delivered, links to articles you have written recently, blog posts, recommendations from current clients — it not only takes advantage of all the profile building tools that LinkedIn provides you — but — you also visually demonstrate your thought leaderships and expertise to your prospective clients — and that is a very good thing.

Now when they receive your InMail message as part of Ingredient #4 — they move from skeptical questions like "Why did she send me this?" to "Oh, interesting…they would like to talk with me? Awesome."

Think of your LinkedIn profile as your personal landing page and it needs to be excellent — just like everything else in your business.

And — at Predictive ROI — my team and I have been experimenting with long-form LinkedIn posts…typically about 800 to 1,000 characters…with a bold headline that includes a search term…and we have seen Google indexing this content and ranking well in search results.

So — you've undoubtedly heard people talk about "optimizing" your LinkedIn profile for search…yep, it's a thing.

Okay — this is going to sound self promotional…and hopefully you know me well enough now to know…that I'm only mentioning this to give you a good tangible example.

Go to LinkedIn and look me up — send me a connection request…and you will see illustrations of each step I just shared with you.

Now on to Ingredient #2 — import your existing email list into LinkedIn and send connection requests.

To make sure we're on the same page here — I'm talking about taking your email list — the list you communicate with often — consisting of customers, prospects, your full community of email subscribers — people with whom you have a relationship — and then uploading that list into your LinkedIn account and inviting them to connect with you on LinkedIn.

But why?

First…when you increase your number of LinkedIn connections — your network and credibility grows. Instead of having several hundred connections — you move to several thousand or more.

And the next time a prospective client checks out your LinkedIn profile — they may see the larger number — and for some people — the larger the number — the more impressive and more credible.

Second…your number of 1st-degree connections in LinkedIn impacts the number of prospects you will be able to see during Ingredient #3 of this process — when you use LinkedIn's Sales Navigator tool.

To cement this into place — let's quickly review what LinkedIn defines as 1st degree, 2nd degree, and 3rd-degree connections.

A 1st-degree connection on LinkedIn is — let's say you are listening to this solocast — you like what you hear — and decide to send me a connection request on LinkedIn — and by the way — you should totally do that!

Anyway — when I receive the request — I personally accept it.

And so you and I become 1st-degree connections. Rock solid awesome!

Now, here's what's interesting. My nearly 27,000 1st degree connections instantly become your 2nd-degree connections. And all of my 2nd-degree connections become your 3rd-degree connections.

Again, why is that important?

Well, back to my connections…my 26,000 1st connections theoretically extrapolates out to a total network of 680 million people when considering 1st degree, 2nd degree, and 3rd-degree connections.

Yes, 680 million…which means I can roughly see just about everyone in LinkedIn.

HOLY BANANAS!

I can search through a huge number of people during Ingredient #3 in finding our ideal prospects we might want to reach out to.

So, Onward Nation, building your number of 1st-degree connections is essential to your success on LinkedIn — and uploading your email list and sending out connection requests is a quick and easy way to boost your connection count — and the size of your network — with a couple mouse clicks.

Very powerful.

Here's how you complete the step. And unfortunately, LinkedIn does not make this process very intuitive or easy. But — hang with me…here's how you do it.

Click the "My Network" tab in the main navigation. You will then be taken to a screen that on the left side reads "Connections" at the top left column all the way down to "Hashtags" as the last open in the left menu.

Click on the first option…"Connections."

From this screen — this is where it gets wonky.

On the far left…you should see an option that reads… "Your contact import is ready. Connect with your contacts and never lose touch."

And you should see a button underneath that reads "Connect".

Click connect.

Next you will be taken to a screen that shows a list of a whole bunch of people from your contact list, etc. that are on LinkedIn…and LinkedIn is offering to send a bulk connect request to them.

Click the little check box in the upper left — and then the blue "Add Connections" button and by doing so — you will invite hundreds if not thousands of new people into your network.

Awesome…but we're not done yet.

The next screen will give you a list of people who you know who are not yet using LinkedIn…and LinkedIn is asking you for permission to email them on your behalf to entice them to join LinkedIn.

To me — that feels a bit yucky — so I recommend that you click the "Skip" button.

Okay — then finally…we have almost arrived to what I actually wanted to show you.

When you skip the last step…you will receive a screen with a headline that reads, "Didn't see anyone you wanted to invite?"

Well — at the bottom…in hard to read gray text…is a link that reads "Done for now."

And when you click the "Done for Now" link…the magic happens.

You will be taken to a screen where you can do several things…you can connect LinkedIn to your email service and it will pull out your list of contacts for you…awesome.

Or — from this screen…you can also upload your email list and send connection requests to all of them instantly.

BOOM!

Okay, back to lead gen and Ingredient #3: How to build your prospect list using LinkedIn's Sales Navigator Tool.

Sales Navigator is a premium version of LinkedIn — but and my guess this happens to you a lot, too — I am often offered the opportunity to upgrade from the Free version of LinkedIn into one of the premium versions several times of year.

And when we have a major biz dev push or campaign taking place — we definitely make the upgrade. But for maintaining your profile and sharing your thought leadership content — LinkedIn's free version works just fine.

So let's do a quick tour of Sales Navigator.

From within this powerful tool…you will be able to search through your entire network of connections using several powerful filters, such as:

• Keywords
• First Name
• Last Name
• Title
• Company Name
• Location — or mile radius from your office or location

And then you can take it deeper and make your searches more refined by including your prospect's years of experience, their function within their particular company, seniority level, what they are interested in, company size, and so forth.

By taking the time to get specific about your prospect — you leverage LinkedIn's database — to deliver back to you a list of prospects who match your criteria and you eliminate the time wasting of sending direct mail to a purchased list and hoping for a better result outcome than the last campaign.

So let's say that in your first attempt — LinkedIn returns a list of 100 people.

You can then click on the profiles of each person (see — Ingredient #1 is really important) and from their profile — you can better determine if he or she is a good fit for your lead gen efforts.

If yes, add the person and their details to an Excel or Google Sheet so you can keep a running list of who you have reached out to…and no…LinkedIn does not offer any sort of automated CRM functionality.

This is tedious work — I get it — but — it is also where the rubber meets the road in the success of your business and it will fill your sales pipeline.

Okay, so I'm going to assume you did all of the work you needed to do up to this point. You have built a solid profile — you expanded your LinkedIn network by leveraging your email list — and being smart — to also reverse the process and cross-pollinate your connections back into your email list…and now…you have mastered the Advanced People Search tool with the resulting outcome being — a highly targeted prospect list — perhaps the most targeted list you and your sales team have ever had.

So now what?

Ingredient #4 is next.

Crafting your InMail message and sending it to each of the people on the list you just created.

There are seven sub-ingredients, if you will, that make up the InMail message…and they are:

• Include the first name of the recipient in subject line
• Your first 255 critical characters need to be awesome
• Speak to your "Avatar"
• Include credibility indicator(s)
• Include a client testimonial
• Include a call-to-action – reason for your prospect to reply to your message
• Include your email signature

In today's show notes — I included an actual InMail message — a template — you can use to create your own.

Please use it.

My Predictive ROI team has sent thousands and thousands and thousands of InMail messages on behalf of our client's lead gen efforts — as well as for our biz dev — and the template we included in today's Show Notes is the resulting outcome of all that testing and hard work.

You will dramatically shorten your learning curve by using the template.

One last point about the InMail and the template you will see in the Show Notes — there is a reference to "speaking to your client avatar." And yes, we have a recipe for that, too.

If you go to our free Resources Library at PredictiveROI.com/Resources you will be able to download our free workbook on how to create your ideal client avatar.

Having and mastering this knowledge is a must in writing effective InMails.

Before we close out for today…I'd like to leave you with a couple of important thoughts.

Now that you have learned the recipe – and have seen the typical result outcomes – there are two questions you and your team need to answer.

First…how will we take immediate action based on what you learned here today?

How will you apply it right away to fill your pipeline?

And that leads to the ultimate question.

Are you committed…or are you just interested in having a steady stream of well-prepared prospects flowing into your sales pipeline?

Being committed means knowing exactly how much new business you are seeking, from what sources, and having a strategy in place to fill the pipeline to get it.

Let me share a quick story about Coach Nick Saban from the University of Alabama – who, in my opinion, represents the epitome of being committed.

Alabama is consistently one of the top-ranked teams in college football each year. They were the 2015 National Champion and played again this year for the title but lost to Clemson.

Coach Saban's reputation is one of precise detail and process.

And once he uncovers a "recipe" for success…he uses it over and over again.

But he also freely shares his secrets without fear that his competitors will be able to duplicate his results.

How is this possible?

Case in point…my good friend, mentor, and three-time guest on Onward Nation, Don Yaeger, interviewed Coach Saban as they considered writing a book together.

During one of Don's visits with Coach, he asked if there was a secret formula or recipe that gave Saban an edge to recruiting the best talent out of high school year-after-year.

Coach told Don that his recipe is simple. He committed himself to watching every single play that any of their 85 scholarship athletes every played while in high school.

Every play…so he could evaluate talent, effort, and other qualities.

Let's just think about the magnitude of that for a minute.

Alabama has 85 scholarship athletes…who likely played at least 2-years of high school football…at 10 games per year in high school…and many high school players play both offense and defense during a game, so let's call it 100 plays per game.

All totaled, Coach Saban watches film on 170,000 plays to make his recruiting decisions.

It is an overwhelming number, right?

How could anyone do that? But Coach Saban does.

And the resulting outcome is that Alabama is consistently the best on the field each year.

So Don asked him, "Coach…aren't you worried that if we put your secret recipe into this book that people will steal it from you?"

And Saban looked at Don and said, "Nope…not worried at all. Because no one is going to be willing to put in the same amount of effort that I am willing to commit to our success."

Don't give up

So my hope is that you don't leave this solocast thinking – yeah, I knew LinkedIn could do that. My challenge to you is…but is your business doing it?

And as Tony Robbins says…"A real decision is measured by the fact that you've taken a new action. If there's no action, you haven't truly decided."

So I hope you will decide to put this sales pipeline-building recipe into action and then please drop me a line and let me know about your success.

So with that said, Onward Nation…

I want to say again, thank you for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here — your time is sacred and I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.

However our daily podcast fits into your daily routine — I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today's top business owners.

Remember — now's the time to double down. The data is on your side.

Onward with gusto!

The subscription model is a must for every industry and organization these days to keep members in the loop. Robbie Baxter will guide you through the process of creating one and the pitfalls you need to avoid.

Robbie Kellman Baxter has been advising entrepreneurs on business strategy for 20 years. Her clients have included solopreneurs and venture-backed startups as well as industry leaders such as ASICS, Netflix, Electronic Arts, and The Wall Street Journal. She has worked with nearly 100 organizations in over 20 industries on growth initiatives.

A sought-after writer and keynote speaker, Robbie has presented at top universities, associations and corporations, as well as to corporate boards and leadership teams around the world. Robbie has created and starred in 10 video courses in collaboration with LinkedIn Learning on business topics ranging from innovation to customer success and membership.

As the author of The Membership Economy: Find Your Superusers, Master the Forever Transaction & Build Recurring Revenue, a book that has been named a top 5 Marketing Book of the Year by Inc.com, Robbie coined the popular business term "Membership Economy". Robbie's expertise with companies in the emerging Membership Economy extends to include SaaS, media, consumer products and community organizations.

Prior to launching Peninsula Strategies, Robbie was a strategy consultant at Booz-Allen, a New York City Urban Fellow and a Silicon Valley product marketer. Robbie received her MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and graduated with honors from Harvard College.

• Why membership and subscription plans are becoming ubiquitous across almost all industries and types of organizations
• What key trends Robbie is identifying around the subscription model, and why subscriptions offer greater value to customers even for physical products
• Why embedding a "forever promise" into your long-term strategy is vital for helping you refocus your business, and how to achieve product/market fit and scale your model
• Why periodically reviewing how you are delivering on your promise is necessary to ensure that you're doing so in the most effective way
• What common pitfalls to watch out for, anticipate, and avoid when setting up the subscription model
• Why a "dashboard of metrics" can offer you better insights into where your opportunities for improving engagement can be found
• Why identifying your problems and challenges using intentionality and strategy is the secret to providing great value for your membership
• Robbie shares the story of the founders of LinkedIn's first business, a dating website, and the issues they had with a "short term promise" business model
• How to navigate the infinitely complex issue of pricing, and how to change your pricing in a transparent way
• How to avoid the trap of "subscription fatigue" with your customers by delivering the right amount of unique value, and why hiding your cancel button is a huge mistake

• The Forever Transaction by Robbie Kellman Baxter: https://amzn.to/3hLjsNh
• Website: https://robbiekellmanbaxter.com/
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/robbiekellmanbaxter
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/MembershipEconomy/
• Twitter: @robbiebax
• Learn about proper pricing when creating the subscription model for your business

• Sell With Authority book written by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner
• Predictive ROI Free Resource Library
• Connect with Stephen Woessner on LinkedIn
• Listen to this related podcast about the subscription model with Sandra Martini

Forging connections has always been important for Chad Heeter in building his reputation in the real estate industry. It's time to learn of its importance and how to apply it to whatever industry you are in.

With over 20 years of real estate experience, Chad Heeter is building a family-run real estate investing company based in beautiful Buena Vista, Colorado.

Chad Heeter grew up in a Kansas City real estate family. At 7 years old, he was pulling weeds and picking up trash around the 30+ rental properties that his dad owned. Soon, he was promoted to mowing lawns and painting. Years later, Chad continued on his own, purchasing and rehabbing his own rental properties. After his wife, Elizabeth, passed away in 2017 after 16 years of marriage, Chad needed to focus on raising his children on his own. He decided to get back into real estate investing, something he could manage while the kids were in school.

Not long after, Chad was introduced to Chris Prefontaine and the National Property Team. He's proud to be forging connections with this incredible group of investors who are working to build win/win relationships by solving problems that many home sellers face, as well as helping home buyers achieve their dream of owning a home.

• How Chad is the third generation of his family to invest in real estate, and how he got bitten by the real estate bug as a kid helping his dad with his own business
• How losing his wife to cancer in 2016 caused tremendous and painful challenges for Chad and his family, and how real estate has been the ideal vehicle to help find himself
• How Chad initially connected with master real estate investor and coach Chris Prefontaine through his Smart Real Estate Coach podcast
• Chad shares a painful story of his then ten-year-old son giving his sick mother water using a syringe
• Why Chad believes there's value in sharing his story of loss and hope with others and forging connections
• How the global pandemic and uncertain economy has impacted Chad's investment business and the broader real estate market
• How Chad's home sale model creates a powerful option for business owners and other self-employed professionals that may even make them more money than a traditional sale
• How buyers can build their own equity in a property while they're getting their finances in order to buy, giving business owners a proven payment track record as well
• What Chad would say to those who may be skeptical of a real estate "terms" deal structure, especially business owners who may be looking to buy or sell
• What important lesson Chad learned from a mentor about asking questions, forging connections, failing, and keeping going despite obstacles

• Website: http://buffalopeakpropertysolutions.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chadheeter/
• Learn more insights on forging connections by getting to know more about Chad

• Listen to this podcast with Mark Faust on forging connections and why it's important for growth
• Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
• Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
• Stephen Woessner's LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/

Mark Willis is a man on a mission to help you think differently about your money, your economy and your future through his financial planning strategies. After graduating with six figures of student loan debt and discovering a way to turn his debt into real wealth as he watched everybody lose their retirement savings and home equity in 2008, he knew that he needed to find a more predictable way to meet his financial objectives and those of his clients.

Mark is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER, a two-time #1 Best Selling Author and the owner of Lake Growth Financial Services, a financial firm in Chicago, Illinois. Over the years, he has helped hundreds of his clients take back control of their financial future and build their businesses with proven, tax-efficient financial solutions. He specializes in building custom-tailored financial planning strategies that are unknown to typical stock-jockeys, attorneys, or other financial gurus.

As co-host of the Not Your Average Financial Podcast, he shares some of his strategies for investing in real estate, paying for college without going broke, and creating an income in retirement you won't outlive. Mark works with people who want to grow their wealth in ways that are safe and predictable, to become their own source of financing, and create tax-free income in retirement.

• How Mark and his wife entered the 2008 recession with six figures of student loan debt and how Mark recognized the urgent need to make some big financial changes
• How our financial habits have turned upside down as we stopped saving money and instead went into significant debt
• How our need for new financial planning strategies resulted in Mark's "Bank On Yourself" strategy, and how Bank On Yourself works
• Why one of the most important and fundamental realizations Mark came to is that our money behaves differently depending upon where we put it
• Why liquidity is critical to help you get through challenging times, and why keeping your capital in the right place can help you prepare for the next economic crash
• Why high cash value, dividend-paying whole life insurance is the secret ingredient in steady, predictable growth in your portfolio and can give you immediate access to cash
• How you can borrow against a policy and it will continue to grow as if you hadn't borrowed funds from it, allowing your money to do two things at once
• Why borrowing money against your insurance to pay for something is actually better than paying cash
• What key considerations make an insurance policy a powerful financial asset for your business and your family at the same time
• How your policy can be a "warehouse for your wealth", housing your money outside of your business but not away from your business
• Implementing financial planning strategies to allow your money habits a restart

• Website: http://nyafinancialpodcast.com/
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/marklakegrowth/
• Listen to more financial planning strategies with Tim Austin on Mark's podcast

• Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
• Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
• Stephen Woessner's LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
• Check out a related podcast about financial planning strategies with Joey Mure and Russ Morgan

Susan Baier has been a marketing strategist for over 30 years and founded Audience Audit in 2009 to help organizations understand their best audiences based on attitudes and needs rather than just demographics or purchase behavior. In early 2020, Susan partnered with the team at Predictive ROI and embarked on an initiative to gain better insight into the attitudes and perspectives of professionals who follow experts or thought leaders in order to evaluate the ROI of thought leadership.

Stephen and Susan discuss several of the key findings from the research in this encore interview.

Study parameters: custom quantitative attitudinal segmentation study of 325 professionals. 250 respondents came from a panel of professionals in a range of industries, with the remainder from Predictive ROI's own contacts. All respondents indicated that they follow "someone you consider an expert on a business topic or industry".

The ROI of Thought Leadership study had an overall margin of error of +/- 5.4 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.

• How Susan and her team conduct studies and use the organic data they have collected to identify common, shared attitudes between respondents and identify patterns
• Why the research revealed 4 attitudinal segments (Trusting Followers, Jaded Skeptics, Discriminating & Engaged, and Self-described Experts) and why these segments make it critical to consider the specific problems you intend to solve for your audience and how
• How the information discovered through the study can be used to better identify, reach, and be helpful and relevant to your audience
• How the results indicated that 62% of people surveyed would be more likely to recommend a business service provider if that provider is also a thought leader
• What key lessons the results from the survey offer about the ROI of thought leadership, marketing, and their impact
• Why trust is an even more vital component for connecting with your audience and all four attitudinal segments within your overall audience
• Why saying that you're a thought leader doesn't mean you actually are, regardless of your audience or your content, and why trust is the determining factor
• Why it is important to remember that you can't be an expert at everything and that you need to focus on your niche
• Why navigating times of crisis successfully requires a "relentless focus" on your target audience and being helpful
• How tailoring your message to each of the four distinct groups can help you engage your audience better and can help your message resonate
• Susan and Stephen also discuss how to plant your flag of authority based on the research findings — so that when you share your expertise it lands with your audience in the exact right way because you will have built a content strategy that keeps you from saying the same thing as everyone else

• Download the free Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report: Trust and the Coronavirus
• Website: https://audienceaudit.com/
• LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/susanbaieraz/
• Learn more about the ROI of thought leadership by reading this blog from Audience Audit

• Sell With Authority book written by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner
• Predictive ROI Free Resource Library
• Connect with Stephen Woessner on LinkedIn
• Learn what's the ROI of thought leadership by reading this blog from Predictive ROI

Jeffrey Madoff is the founder of Madoff Productions, based in New York City. Madoff is good at developing creativity, and is considered a storyteller and incisive interviewer. He has used those talents to help position major brands such as Ralph Lauren, Victoria's Secret, Radio City Music Hall, Harvard School for Public Health, Weill Cornell Medical College and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts to name a few.

Madoff began his career as a fashion designer. He was chosen one of the top 10 designers in the U.S. then switched careers to film and video production. He has since expanded his reach to include teaching, book and playwriting, and theatrical producing.

He is an adjunct professor at Parsons School for Design, teaching a course he developed called Creativity: Making a Living with Your Ideas. Every week Madoff has a conversation with a guest from a wide variety of fields, from artists and entrepreneurs to venture capitalists and business leaders. A book about his class, entitled Creative Careers: Making a Living with Your Ideas, is being released June 16, 2020 by the Hachette Book Group.

Madoff has been a featured speaker at Wharton School, NYU Steinhardt, North Carolina State, SXSW Brazil, Vision Summit, Rise: Barclay's Bank Accelerator, XRB Labs, Mastermind Group, Google Next and many others.

His nonstop journey in developing creativity allowed him to write and produce a play based on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame legend, Lloyd Price. Its world premiere will be at People's Light Theater in May of 2021.

Madoff graduated with honors from the University of Wisconsin with degrees in philosophy & psychology. Madoff was also on the wrestling team, which combined with his academic studies prepared him for a life in the film and theater business.

• How Jeff got involved in the design and manufacturing of clothing, and how his career journey and consistency in developing creativity taught him key lessons he was able to apply to other businesses as well
• How Jeff's New York experience began with a buying position for the company he worked for
• How Jeff overcame the fear of moving to New York and starting out with no job or housing, and why he chose to take a chance on himself in spite of the risk
• Why not being paralyzed and instead having the courage to pivot and go after what you truly want, especially in light of the global pandemic, is critical
• Why Jeff felt compelled to write his book, Creative Careers, and why he chose to name his book after the college course he was teaching
• Why Jeff believes "creativity" deserves a much broader definition than it gets, and why he defines it as "the compelling need to affect change"
• What key concepts Jeff wrote about in his book, including learning how to overcome obstacles, developing creativity and enhancing your perseverance
• Why Jeff views his parents as his most important mentors, teaching him how to value people and treat them well
• How a great early work experience taught Jeff important lessons about business and leadership

• Creative Careers by B. Jeffrey Madoff: https://amzn.to/3fwcuLk
• Website: www.acreativecareer.com
• Website: https://madoffproductions.com/
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/b-jeffrey-madoff-5baa8074/
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/acreativecareer/
• Be inspired on developing creativity by getting to know more about Jeff

• Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
• Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
• Stephen Woessner's LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
• Read this related blog about developing creativity from Perry Marshall

Mike Makredes is from Fresno, California and is working in the real estate investment business. He has been in sales all his professional life, and currently working in the Ag industry for the largest melon, broccoli, and corn grower in the US. He handles sales for over 12 million cases ($150 million) of produce per year.

• How Mike's family's sacrifice, splitting up the family to move to the US from Greece to build a better life for their kids, pushed him to build a legacy for his family
• How the residential real estate market today differs from the market after the 2008 crash, and how Mike's real estate investment business has evolved
• Why now is a great time to sell your home, even despite the global pandemic, as some markets are at all-time highs and supply and demand seem to be stable
• Mike defines a "terms deal" and explains how it benefits sellers while also helping buyers who wouldn't necessarily qualify for a mortgage loan today
• How Mike and his team value residential property, and how the added time a buyer receives from a terms deal can help build up their credit and a positive track record
• Why business owners specifically often find it challenging to prove their ability to pay a traditional loan, and why terms deals may be ideal for home-buying business owners
• How selling a home through terms can save you as much as 9-15% of the value of your house that you would lose through fees and commissions by selling traditionally
• Why a staggering 80% of people wouldn't be able to prequalify or qualify for a traditional mortgage right now
• How Mike's terms business allows him to market to a much larger buyer pool than sellers would be able to through a traditional real estate agent
• Why "rent-to-own" often has a negative connotation, and how Mike and his team structure their deals to benefit and protect everyone involved as much as possible
• How you can be a part of a real estate investment business and achieve extra income

• Website: http://mtmpropertysolutions.com/
• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/michael-makredes-8359211aa/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/MTM-Property-Solutions-Inc-1410920649238036/
• Want to be part of a real estate investment business? Watch these videos first!

• Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
• Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
• Stephen Woessner's LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
• Listen to this related real estate investment business podcast with Hunter Thompson

Good Morning Onward Nation — I'm Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and your host. Thanks very much for taking the time — please know — it's always an honor to have you here.

Today's episode is going to be a solocast — where it will be just you and me exploring a topic with some real depth. And this episode is Part 2 of the solocast from several weeks ago that I entitled, "How to Market Your Way through the Crisis."

If you missed that episode — click here to listen to Part I.

I will start off with a quick refresher of the highlights from Part 1 and then we will take a deep dive into what I wanted to share with you today so that you can continue marketing your way through the crisis — and — to put yourself in the very best position possible to come roaring out the other side.

In Part 1 — I shared a number of 3rd-party research sources that showed the importance of not freezing in place as a result of the crisis…how to keep you imaginative skills running at full capacity…and…that the companies who came roaring out of the last 6 recessions where the ones who made progressive decisions and were not prevention-focused.

The progressive companies smartly reduced operating expenses in order to boost financial efficiency — and — 75% of the companies did not reduce the workforce because they realized that to do so…would mean cutting into the muscle of the operation and would negatively affect their ability to come roaring out…when the economy was on the rebound.

Instead — the progressive companies doubled down by making significant investments in R&D, marketing, equipment, facilities, and a variety of other strategic investments. I shared multiple examples back in Part 1…Episode 933 in case you want to look it up in your listening app…and again…the link is in today's show notes.

We also took a deep dive into the forms of marketing where progressive companies made their investments. Because what they didn't do was spent loosely on advertising or other sorts of broad promotional tactics. Instead — they focused their efforts around strategies that would help them build trust in their brands…plant their flag of authority even deeper in the niches and industries they served.

Which was super smart and synced up perfectly with the recent research study that my Predictive ROI team conducted alongside our research partner, Susan Baier, founder of Audience Audit. There is — without a doubt — a direct financial correlation between your authority position and financial ROI.

And much of that is due to the critical importance your prospects and clients place on TRUST.

So let's peel this back a little bit more so we can explore it.

We are entering the era of the authority. While you may already be tired of the phrase of "thought leader", the truth is there aren't that many of them…and there are even fewer occupying that status in the niches you and your team serve.

Thought leaders don't write content that any other agency, coach, or consultant could claim. Thought leaders don't write about anything and everything — and thought leaders don't compete on price.

And their time — your time — is now. Why am I saying that so definitely?

For the last 20-years — the global PR agency, Edelman has conducted research that examines who and what consumers trust and how that trust influences buying behaviors.

I shared some of the results of their special March study during my Market Your Way Through the Crisis webinar several weeks ago…

But if you weren't able to attend — you can find the free replay here and I also included the full slide deck…all 199 slides that I used. No email required — happy to share it with you and your team.

Some of the biggest takeaway's from Edelman's research is that consumers assign a high level of trust to people they believe are "just like me."

When you think about how ratings, reviews, and influencers affect their audiences — you can see the power of that belief.

Now — it's also important to not get hung up on the fact that the study involved 33,000 CONSUMERS from 27 countries.

First off — that's a huge sampling of people — and second — even if you are selling B2B — which my guess is you are — people are people…so if people put this much emphasis on trust in their personal lives…you better believe they behave the same way while at work making even larger buying decisions.

But — here's what's interesting.

Edelman's research isn't about celebrity influencers. Edelman is documenting the rise of the common man and woman influencer. It's noteworthy because it gives statistical validity to the idea that real people as influencers and the impact they can have on behalf of their business.

The research asked participants to rank what attributes made an influencer believable and trustworthy. The relatability of the influencer was nearly twice as important as the influencer's popularity. In other words…when consumers see themselves in an influencer, they were far more likely to follow and trust that influencer.

So — it's not about having a million followers…it's about being someone you can relate to and connect with.

For this very reason — if you've been avoiding putting together a content strategy where you share your depth of expertise in your niche — I recorded this solocast just for you — so that you rethink that decision.

Onward Nation — the data is all on your side.

Now — let's continue to peel back the curtain to get a look at some of the attributes of someone who is a true authority.

If you were asked to think of an authority on any subject, who would come to mind? What about them designates them as an authority? What's true about them? And what does someone have to do to earn and keep the title of authority?

My co-author of Sell with Authority, Drew McLellan, CEO of Agency Management Institute, and I would argue that there are 10 Truths to someone being seen as an authority.

Let's do a quick review…

Truth #1: They have a focus area or subject matter expertise.

Truth #2: They don't just repeat what everyone else is saying.

Truth #3: They have a public presence where they share their expertise.

Truth #4: They don't stray from their area of expertise—think specialist versus a generalist.

Truth #5: They aren't equally attractive to everyone. In fact, they probably bore most people to tears.

Truth #6: They're significant—which is different from prolific—in terms of content creation.

Truth #7: They don't create any generic content that someone with far less knowledge or experience could have just as easily written.

Truth #8: They're perceived as an educator in some way.

Truth #9: They have a passion for their subject matter.

Truth #10: They have a strong point-of-view, which is the foundation of all of their content.

A true authority has something specific to teach us, and they want to be helpful or illuminating.

They're eager to share what they know because they have a genuine passion for it, and they don't fear giving away the recipe to their secret sauce (or so it's perceived).

That confidence and generosity are contagious. Their expertise is something specific groups of people (their sweet-spot prospects) are hungry to access.

So Onward Nation — to call them an expert, a thought leader, an authority, a sought-after pundit, advisor, or specialist…doesn't matter. They're all words for the same thing — a trusted resource who has earned that trust by demonstrating and generously sharing the depth of their specialized knowledge over and over again.

Now — let's hook this back to the Edelman research for a moment.

Want to know what made an influencer even more compelling to the research participants?

The one attribute that ranked higher than the trust we have in "people like me" is the trust we have in highly educated experts. The only three groups of people we trust more than people like ourselves are company, industry, and academic experts.

Why?

Because experts are often afforded the highest level of confidence and trust because they have a depth of knowledge in a specific industry or niche.

So why in the world wouldn't you capitalize on that, Onward Nation?

Instead of writing generic content that look like every single one of your competitors, which is what many agencies, coaches, and consultants do because it's so much easier and they feel compelled to create something and don't want to invest the time necessary to go deep, deep, deep.

Or — they feel that they should be paid to share their smarts and don't want to just give it away for free.

Ouch.

My hope is that as we get started in this solocast — my words are serving as a very loud battle cry for you. My hope is you see that now is the time to share your smarts and to double down on being helpful to your niche.

Now is the time for you to jump into the trenches alongside your prospects and clients — who are just as concerned as you are about everything going on — and to begin giving away the best of what you've got — and when you do that — you will build so much trust that it will be difficult for you to contain it.

There's a huge upside for you and your team to do this now. As I said earlier — there are very few thought leaders (and even fewer in the niches you serve)…which means if you can still be one of the early adopters if you commit and boldly step out into this strategy right now.

Okay — now let's turn our attention toward Part 2…how long will this effort take — and — how do you go about doing it?

Drew and I are often asked, "How long does this take?"

The answer is yes.

Meaning — we can't give you a precise time frame for you because it's different for everyone.

There are many factors, including:

The consistency of your content creation The quality of your content — are you saying something fresh or just repeating old news? The amount of time and effort you spend promoting your content The hunger of your audience. Some are starving and will gobble up everything you share, others will only consume the tastiest of offers

But — building your authority position is clearly not a get rich quick scheme. At a minimum, you should count on it taking six months to a year before you reap any significant benefit from your efforts.

By year two — you should be dancing a jig at how well it's working.

And by year three — you should be well-established as the authority you are.

On occasion — a single podcast episode, video, or book will catapult someone into the spotlight and earn them a huge payout. But that's the exception, not the rule.

Don't count on being the exception or you risk being super disappointed and it could derail all of your hard work.

So — I'm going to make an assumption here…that all of the data I have shared with you during Part 1 of this solocast…as well as the 75-minute webinar that I taught several weeks ago…along with everything shared up to this point in this episode has shown you the very significant upside to you doubling down and building your authority position.

If so — awesome — so let's turn our attention toward some of the key things you will need in order to make that happen.

There are three essentials to building your authority position.

And they are: 1) narrow niche, 2) a strong point-of-view, and 3) being findable in multiple places.

Let's take a closer look at each.

Narrow is Gold

The first essential in creating an authority position is recognizing that the narrower your audience, the better. It allows you to be quickly discovered and identified as someone your target audience needs to pay attention to, all because you're speaking their language.

Ultimately, this means you can build an audience much faster. Once you've built the audience, and you genuinely know them and what they need, you can provide additional value by creating products and services you can sell.

If you choose to keep serving everyone as a generalist, you can still absolutely monetize a more generic position of authority (say you're a business coach, for example), but if you want to get to this more quickly, you need to be ruthless in terms of focus.

I agree — it seems counter-intuitive.

Most business owners focus on quantity in terms of audience. Many believe they need a massive audience to hit their sales and financial goals.

But — the data shows that this isn't true.

You're actually in a much better position if you're in front of the right micro audience where nearly everyone is aligned with your ideal client avatar. Would you rather speak directly to 100 of your right-fit prospects…who are perfectly aligned with your ideal client avatar — or — be on stage in front of 10,000 people where there is zero probability that any of them are your prospects?

And yet, when it comes to business development, most business owners toss out a huge net, hoping that the right species of fish will swim in so we don't go hungry.

Intellectually, we get it, yet our choices often suggest we're still focusing on quantity, not quality.

Here's the reality — you don't need a million downloads to get your podcast sponsored.

You don't need to speak at 50 conferences to have someone walk up and ask you some questions that lead to a proposal.

And you don't need to be on the bestseller list to use your book as an amazing biz dev tool. You just don't.

Most agencies, coaches, and consultants get this completely backward.

They create broad, generic content as opposed to something that captures the interest of their ideal prospects.

The content is fluffy and doesn't invite anyone to ask questions or lean in to learn more.

But if you were to hone in on your specific audience and ignore the rest of the world (remember, one of the traits of an authority is that most people could care less about their content), the audience does lean in. They do ask questions, and they will eventually put you on a shortlist of prospective partners to consider.

And when you do it exceptionally well, you will be the only one they consider.

You Need a Strong Point-of-View

Here's what we know for sure. Your industry (no matter what it is) and the world around us are both experiencing change at an unfathomable rate, and it's only going to get faster.

How you communicate nowadays, at best, is on the fly.

But the one thing that will not change is that unique cocktail that defines our authority position.

It's the combination of our area of expertise with the strong point-of-view we apply to that area of expertise. Our point-of-view is what we know to be true, and it's this truth that defines how we approach the work and how we add value.

For example, Predictive ROI's point-of-view is the most agencies, coaches, and consultants go about sales in the less productive, most painful way possible. They get thwarted by gatekeepers at every turn. As a result — they cannot build long-term relationships with their Dream prospects.

When we layer that point-of-view, on top of our knowledge and expertise around how to grow an audience, nurture leads, and increase sales by helping our clients Sell with Authority, it's easy to see how and where we can be of help. It tells us who to serve and how to best serve them.

That's evergreen. You and your team should have a similar combination.

You need to have an opinion about the work you do on behalf of your clients. You need a strong point-of-view about the marketplace, your audience, or your product or service.

As you fight for a prospect's attention, you must differentiate yourself.

You've got to plant a flag in the ground and claim ownership. You need to stand out against the sea of competitors. That authority position—your area of expertise plus your strong point-of-view—becomes the flag you plant.

It's you laying claim to what is uniquely yours—the ability to serve a specific industry, niche, audience, etc., because of what you know and what you believe.

It holds you firmly in place no matter what else changes. It becomes part of your differentiation equation. And you need both halves of the whole.

Without the point-of-view, even industry-specific content becomes claimable by others. Granted, it narrows the field, but there are certainly others who work in the same industry or niches that you do.

If you can take your content (blog posts, white paper, podcast interviews, etc.) and swap your competitor's logo for yours without anyone noticing, your content isn't as unique to you as you'd like.

That's what we mean by claimable.

But don't get too finite about this. I'm not suggesting you're going to create an authority position no one else can replicate.

Odds are, no matter what your authority position, a handful of others could claim it, too. But that's your goal—a small handful, rather than every competitor out there.

Just to be clear, your point-of-view is the truth you overlay onto your niche or industry-specific expertise. It's an insight that influences the work you do.

The ideal scenario for building your authority position is one in which you have the one-two punch of a point-of-view paired with that narrow audience or topic area. That's a powerful combination.

You can carve out a more superficial authority position with just one of the two elements, either a point-of-view or niche expertise, but the consequence is, if you're going to only include half of the one-two punch, you're going to share your unique position with more competitors.

At some level, you probably already know what you point-of-view is — but you don't recognize it as such. Odds are, you either take it for granted because you talk about it so often, or you just need to dig a little deeper to find the gold in what you're already teaching, talking about, and using to build the recommendations you make to clients.

You just have to peel the onion back several layers to get to something that's genuinely different enough that you can own it.

You Can't Be a One-Trick Pony

Essential number three is that an authentic authority is not a one-trick pony.

Meaning — you can't create content so narrow it only works on one channel. An expert doesn't have just one book. Or just a podcast. You can't place all of your bets on one horse (or pony).

The problem is that whatever pony you rode in on is not going to be the popular pony forever, and you can't rely on all of your prospects consuming that specific channel.

You need to be more findable, which means you need to have your authority-positioned content in more than one place. If you're going to build an authority position — you have to answer the question, "How does my point-of-view come to life across multiple channels?"

Your goal is to create the impression that you're everywhere. The good news is that it doesn't take that many channels to make that happen. You need a cornerstone channel and some cobblestones.

When Drew and I wrote about cornerstone content in our book, Sell with Authority, what we meant was content that's big and meaty, so it can be sliced and diced into smaller pieces of content—what we call cobblestones.

The definition of cornerstone is that it is the first stone placed. If you were constructing a building, you would carefully set that first stone because you know all the other stones will be set in reference to the cornerstone.

When you take that cornerstone content and break it up into infographics, quote cards, blog posts, tweets, guest appearances on someone else's podcast, etc., that's your cobblestone content. The combo of your niche expertise and your unique point-of-view should be woven into every piece of content you create.

In some cases, it will be overt, and in other cases, subtle. But it should always be present to some degree.

Some experts or influencers try to be everywhere, but that stretches them pretty thin pretty quickly.

All you need are a few channels spot-on for your audience that you consistently feed with new content. You need a single cornerstone and at least two or three cobblestone channels. From there, you can use your social media channels to spotlight both.

Just remember, your cornerstone is the primary channel through which you consistently deliver useful content that helps your audience do their jobs better. And it needs to be meaty enough that you can slice and dice it into multiple cobblestones.

Think of the cobblestones as info-snack-sized pieces of content like a quote graphic featuring your podcast guest that someone might stumble upon and be interested in enough that they are led to your cornerstone content. New York Times best-selling author Jay Baer shared the importance of info-snacks during Episode 305 of Onward Nation.

You need both cornerstone and cobblestone content.

But you don't need dozens.

Cornerstones, by their nature, require a much more significant time investment. Which means you don't have time to create too many.

Far better to do one exceedingly well than to stretch yourself too thin, and better to be consistently present in a few places as opposed to occasionally showing up everywhere.

And — you want to build something you can sustain for the long haul, and unless you're going to make being an authority your full-time gig — it's better to start with one.

Your cornerstone, and at least a few of your cobblestones, need to be built on media you own and control, not on someone else's platform. That might be your website, a book you write, research you conduct, or your own podcast series.

You can use channels like Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn to highlight your efforts, but your cornerstone content shouldn't be housed there. You don't want to go to the effort of creating content only to have some third party (like Facebook) decide to take it down or charge people for accessing it.

While you don't want to build your cornerstone content on a media channel you don't own, that doesn't mean you don't want to be on other people's channels.

If your cornerstone content is targeted and tied to your point-of-view, and you're consistent in creating smaller pieces of content from that cornerstone, you're going to get noticed.

That's all you need to get invited onto other people's channels.

One of the key elements about being an authority is that you don't want everything to remain on your owned channels. You want to leverage other people's spheres of influence, and when you appear as a guest on their show or whatever channel they own and control, now they're endorsing you, telling other people how smart you are, and introducing you to an entirely new audience.

That amplification expands your audience exponentially once you have built the foundation that earns the invites. But they will roll in, in a variety of ways.

You'll be invited to:

• Speak at conferences
• Be a guest on podcasts
• Write bylined articles for publications
• Sit on a panel of experts
• Serve on a board
• Write a regular column
• Teach a class
• Be part of a webinar series
• Be interviewed as a source by the media

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

On occasion, your cornerstone channel will shift. This shouldn't be because you're getting bored or are indecisive. It should be driven by your audience, reactions to your efforts, and potentially, media consumption trends.

The content itself doesn't shift, but how you deliver the content might.

When I started executing this authority strategy for Predictive ROI, book writing was my cornerstone channel. I was creating a lot of content for publications and was being published in publications like Forbes, The Washington Post, Inc. Magazine, and other media about once a month.

And much of that content was sliced and diced off of my books on search engine optimization and social media that I wrote while I was teaching at the university.

But then in May 2015 — when we ran into revenue challenges at Predictive — and that pushed my team and I to launch the Onward Nation podcast as part of our pivot.

And the growth of the podcast quickly eclipsed my written content and took over as our cornerstone content channel. And then we have added some cobblestones into the mix with our YouTube channel, weekly emails for our community, as well as conference presentations. And — we've even worked the cornerstone content process backward…with several episodes being instrumental in helping me write our bestselling book, Profitable Podcasting…and after 3-years…is still one of the best selling podcasting books on the market.

For a complete breakdown on how to create cornerstone content — I encourage you to go back to my solocast in Episode 676 of Onward Nation.

Okay — let's come full circle and bring this in for a landing. Nothing about this recession has been — or will be easy. To come roaring out of it on the other side will take a lot of hard work, discipline, and generous spirit in doubling down to be helpful.

But if you do — the data is on your side. If you take this time and commit to building your authority position…you will put yourself and your business in the best possible position when the sun begins to shine once again.

This is the time, Onward Nation for you to grab hold of those silver linings — they are there — if you're willing to look hard enough.

Thanks for taking the time to be here and for sharing a portion of your 86,400 you have today…with me.

I'm grateful and I look forward to you being back for our next episode.

Until then — double down — and onward with gusto!

As I was mapping out and thinking through this episode — I wanted to be sure the content would be super helpful as you continue to find the silver lining that COVID has created for all of us.

Because what's especially challenging about COVID actually isn't just the uncertainty — it's that the uncertainty…is a continuously moving target.

We've all seen so much ebb and flow to what is taking place — and because of that — your team, your clients, your audience, your vendors…all of your stakeholders…are looking for guidance. And…dare I say — they're also looking for leadership. In fact — some are desperate for it.

Because of that — I invited bestseller author and leadership expert, Steve Farber to come back for an encore interview.

Steve and I are going to focus this conversation around how his Extreme Leadership principles can help you and your team navigate your way through COVID — or any crisis for that matter — and come roaring out the other side.

And what I love about Steve is he asks the tough questions — and those questions are asked out of love — but they also might make us squirm a bit in our seats.

And sometimes getting uncomfortable is the point.

Because here's the reality, Onward Nation.

The data is clear…if you and your team double down and make progressive decisions…if you invest in the right areas while ensuring your operating as efficiently as possible…you will find the silver lining to COVID and you will come roaring out of this recession just like other companies have done after the last 6 recessions.

The silver linings are there — IF — we're brave enough to look for them and courageous enough to step into them. All of which requires Extreme Leadership from you as the business owner.

• Steve shares what he means by Extreme Leadership Principles, and he shared why he named his methodology Extreme Leadership
• Why too often we use "leader" as a position title rather than a descriptive term for the person filling that role
• How the LEAP methodology powering Steve's Extreme Leadership is composed of four principles: cultivate Love, generate Energy, inspire Audacity, and provide Proof
• How love, energy, audacity, and proof are invaluable leadership tools that can inspire your team to new levels of success
• Why the entire LEAP leadership framework is powered by the first principle of cultivating love first and foremost
• Why it is important to learn as much as we can from the challenges and changes brought about by the global pandemic and then find the silver lining amidst the chaos
• Why leaders demonstrating love by connecting with their teams during this difficult time is critical
• Why being open, reaching out and being a receptive listener can help you build profound relationships
• Why it is important to decide now what we want our businesses to look like five years from now in a post-pandemic world
• Why too often when the present becomes challenging, business leaders forget about preparing for the future

• Website: www.stevefarber.com
• Website: www.extremeleadership.com
• Love Is Just Damn Good Business by Steve Farber: https://amzn.to/2BHiu5u
• Twitter: @stevefarber
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/stevefarber/
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stevefarber/
• Learn how to find the silver lining by reading this inspiring blog from Steve

• Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
• Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
• Stephen Woessner's LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
• Listen to this related podcast on how you can find the silver lining during a crisis

Before he became a company president, John Robertson was a Colonel in the U.S. Air Force who oversaw an $8 billion program. Today he coaches C-level executives on how to take advantage of the coming future tsunami of artificial intelligence. This is his way of focusing forward and in embracing future innovations that leads to progress.

• How John's career began with joining the Air Force after college, before progressing into the business world and real estate
• How the 1985 economic crash brought John's business to a screeching halt and left him $2 million in debt with no way out
• How John came out of financial disaster through perseverance and intentionality, and how he now teaches others to prepare for the future by focusing forward
• Why John titled his book "Focus Forward Leadership" after realizing that business of all size often struggle to focus on future progress
• Why maintaining discipline and using quarterly meetings to map your plans for the future are critical steps you can take to stay focused
• Why business leaders often struggle to be clear in communicating exactly what their goals and expectations are and what results they are looking for
• John shares five key action items from his book "Focus Forward Leadership", and he shares why these key action items will make a difference in your business
• How the numbers "4, 12, 365" are the keys to ensure you're focusing forward on your goals without getting distracted by the day-to-day
• Why consistency is vital for every role within your organization, from the CEO down to frontline employees

• Website: www.focusforwardleadership.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Focus Forward Leadership by John Robertson: https://amzn.to/31AFoWH
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