Podcasting Secrets

Alan Hald is an inspiring and successful futurist. He co-founded and served as chairman and president of Micro Age, which he helped grow into a multi-billion dollar Fortune 500 company. He has an MBA from Harvard, with an emphasis in entrepreneurship, and he is the founder and manager of American Law Firm Funding. 

More than two decades ago, Alan was one of my advisors when I was a 25-year-old CEO of a publicly-traded SaaS company. In today’s episode, we are going to discuss Alan’s entrepreneurial journey and how he found success through identifying business tectonic shifts. 

Alan’s Entrepreneurial Journey

When Alan was newly married, he could not get a job for six months, so he and a friend followed their passion for future studies and started the Phoenix Chapter of The World Future Society in 1973. “The idea of passion is a strong motivator and extremely important to being effective and successful in business,” Alan said. “The key thing to me is to identify something you do have passion for.”

While Alan had a passion for futurism, he realized he also had to look for patterns in the marketplace if he wanted to prepare for his future as an entrepreneur and earn a living. 

“You really have to look at underlying patterns that might give you a hint as to how the world is changing and how new opportunities because of that might be created. In other words, you must change the way you look at the world by identifying patterns and then project those patterns into the future,” Alan said. 

In the early seventies, Alan watched the market and identified several patterns relating to social behaviors and technology creating unique emergent needs and capabilities which, as they converged in the near future, foresaw a business tectonic shift. The first pattern he noticed was the coming of age of baby boomers. This generational shift meant more people that were growth-oriented individuals were entering the workplace. Baby boomers wanted to work with others in society and were very involved in communication. That led Alan to notice the second shift of microelectronics. He did not quite know what it meant yet, but he knew microelectronics was changing everything. 

Alan saw the emergence of new, personalized communications capabilities enabling many-to-many communications which later became social media and near-instantaneous access to all information which he called the playground of information; today it is called Wikipedia. The enabling pattern catching his attention was the microtechnology revolution and the 1975 introduction of the personal microcomputer kit. It was a eureka moment, the dawning of the computer revolution and the information age, the birth of a new market, a tectonic shift that would transform the economy and society unlike any other.

Alan made a commitment to engage with those shifts and started a computer store with a business partner in 1976, the first computer store in Arizona called the Byte Shop, which became Micro Age. It grew 10 fold over the next three years, stumbled in the 1980-81 recession, recovered by 1983, and nearly doubled in size each year for nine years breaking $1 billion in 1992, which ultimately became a $6 billion company with 6,000 employees when Alan left the company in 1999. 

As entrepreneurs, we can follow a similar path as Alan. We can identify our passions and motivators, look for emerging patterns, and apply our current knowledge and skills to a new industry or opportunity. 

Find Motivators 

Many times, we may hesitate to act on our ideas because we feel we have no resources, but really, we are lacking motivation and passion. 

“[Entrepreneurship] is not a resource-constrained activity. It's a motivation constrained opportunity,” Alan said. “You may feel you can see an opportunity you know you can engage in, but if you don't have the motivation to actually take action, it's [just] an idea, and 20 years from now you will regret having never done it.”

What propels us to act on our ideas? Alan explained that passion is one of the greatest motivators. If we are passionate about our businesses and enjoy working every day, we will be more likely to pursue an idea and take advantage of an opportunity. Instead of pursuing something we hate, we should strive for opportunities we are passionate about. 

We do not need a lot of resources to make an idea successful. For example, Steve Jobs started Apple by building the first computer in his bedroom and garage. “[Success] doesn't require a lot of resources. It requires a lot of motivation, and the ability to address failure and view it as an opportunity to succeed,” Alan said. 

For Alan, his motivation was his passion for involvement in dramatic business shifts and his desire to make a change in society. For others, their motivation could be providing for a family, a desire to innovate, to help others; Whatever the case, we need to find something that motivates us to act. Without action, our ideas will only remain ideas. 

Identify Emerging Patterns and Shifts

We should reexamine the world and see if we can find emerging trends and patterns around us that could create new tectonic shift opportunities, large or small, provided the endeavor can be self-sustaining as the market develops.

Alan created a billion-dollar company because he was able to identify and leverage patterns and tectonic shifts in the marketplace. He noticed the coming of age of baby boomers, a generational shift, and the trend towards microelectronics. Based on these two shifts, Alan took his background in business and started a computer store that eventually became a $6 billion company. 

I did something very similar with Adoption.com. I had some background with adoption, and then the Internet came out. I saw a tectonic shift that could help my business community if I put the two things together. I found a way to take the internet and leverage it to help the adoption community. When we are looking for tectonic shifts, we can take something that is transforming a different industry, and find a way to leverage that same shift to transform our industry. 

The first step to identifying tectonic shifts is to consistently look for them. How do we change our mindsets so we can recognize them? The patterns are there, but it's all about how we perceive the changes. The trick is to step out of our box and look at things differently. 

One of the key ways to find these tectonic shifts is to look at failures, problems, or challenges, and then flip them on their head and find the opportunity that exists in those challenges by finding and creating a solution. We do not need to find a shift that is earth-shattering and world-changing, but it needs to cause large transformations.

We can ask ourselves, “Is there a need that isn’t being met?” This could be a current need or an anticipated need.  It should impact a group of people, or even better, an entire industry. Once we recognize the needs, we need to do the research to understand them and find a solution we can offer. 

Apply Current Skills to New Projects

After we identify the shifts happening in the marketplace, we must act. 

“Once you see [patterns] you're going to have to evaluate them in some way, but don't be discouraged if you think you don't have the skills or the experience or the understanding,” Alan said. “What you know now can be completely applied to something new in the future, if you only spend some time to understand how that works. Once you understand how something works, all kinds of traditional skills, experience, understanding, and knowledge can be reapplied to emerging future activities.”

Even though Alan knew nothing about computers or electronic kits, he used his passion and vision to drive him forward to act and pursue an idea he was not 100% sure about. Instead of sitting on his idea, he started to figure out how he could use his current knowledge to help him. 

“I really knew nothing about computers. I knew nothing about building computers, but I was excited about it, so I was open to learning,” Alan said. “I didn't really have to create new skills. I had the skills ready; I just had to reapply it to how things were changing.”

Alan took the knowledge and skills he developed in growing a business and applied it to a new emerging industry to help propel him towards success. 

Key Takeaways

Thank you so much Alan for sharing your stories and insights with us today. Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode:

1. Sometimes we may hesitate to act on our ideas because we feel we are lacking resources, but really we are probably lacking motivation and passion. 
2. Passion is one of the greatest motivators. If we are passionate about our businesses we will be more likely to pursue an idea and take advantage of an opportunity.
3. We should look for underlying patterns and business tectonic shifts in the world and other industries that might give us a hint as to how the world is changing. 
4. One of the key ways to find these tectonic shifts is to look at the biggest failures, problems, and challenges, and then create a better solution.
5. We can take our current knowledge and skills and apply them to a new emerging industry to help propel us towards success. 

Connect with Alan

If you enjoyed this interview and want to learn more about Alan or connect with him, you can find him on LinkedIn.

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This is Entrepreneurs of Faith, a Sunday episode of Monetization Nation. I’m Nathan Gwilliam, your host. In today’s episode, we’re going to discuss ways we can embrace adversity and have the attitude of, “Come what may.” 

Come What May

In 2008, Joseph Wirthlin, an American businessman, and the religious leader gave a sermon titled, “Come What May, and Love It.” In his sermon, he shared a simple, yet powerful message he learned from his mother. 

When Wirthlin was a young boy, he loved to play sports. After a tough loss during a football game, he came home feeling discouraged. His mother listened to his story and said, “Joseph, come what may, and love it.”

When we experience hardships and disappointments we have to learn how to pick ourselves back up and move on. While we can’t control what trials we encounter, we can control how to react to them. 

“[E]very life has peaks and shadows and times when it seems that the birds don’t sing and bells don’t ring,” Wirthlin said. “Yet in spite of discouragement and adversity, those who are happiest seem to have a way of learning from difficult times, becoming stronger, wiser, and happier as a result.”

As entrepreneurs, we need to learn how to continue on after failures and adversity. There will be times when we lose an investment, a partner betrays us, or a client falls through. Yet despite these setbacks, we can find ways to smile and move forward.

How to Embrace Adversity 

As we experience adversity in our businesses, we can find ways to embrace it. 

Learn to Laugh

Wirthlin said the first thing we can do is learn to laugh. He asked, “Have you ever seen an angry driver who, when someone else makes a mistake, reacts as though that person has insulted his honor, his family, his dog, and his ancestors all the way back to Adam?” Instead of cursing at the world, we need to learn to laugh at these small hardships. 

Laughter can help reduce stress hormones, release tension in our muscles, increase endorphins to boost happiness levels and reset the brain to be more positive (Source: University of St. Augustine). As we laugh in our companies and stressful careers, we will actually improve our state of mind and enter into a better mindset to continue on despite adversity. 

“The next time you’re tempted to groan, you might try to laugh instead,” Wirthlink said. “It will extend your life and make the lives of all those around you more enjoyable.”

Having a sense of humor is a trait many great entrepreneurs have. For example, Elon Musk has a sense of humor about failure. When SpaceX finally reached one of their goals, they posted a blooper reel showcasing all the mistakes they made along the way, including failed engine sensors and a collapsed landing leg (Source: Entrepreneur). They even posted a video titled, “How Not to Land an Orbital Rocket Booster.”

When we have a sense of humor and learn to laugh, we will be encouraged to try again even after the most devastating failures. 

Keep the Big Picture in Mind 

Whenever we experience adversity, we should keep the big picture in mind. We may be stuck in a rut on the road to a much greater destination. Wirthlin calls this seeking for the eternal. 

“You may feel singled out when adversity enters your life,” Wirthlin said. “You shake your head and wonder, ‘Why me?’ But the dial on the wheel of sorrow eventually points to each of us. At one time or another, everyone must experience sorrow. No one is exempt.”

We need to understand that no one on earth has lived or will live a life without any pain, disappointment, or struggle. If we can remember this, it won’t feel like the end of the world when we hit a roadblock. Instead, it will feel like another hurdle we can jump over to continue on our journey.

“Learning to endure times of disappointment, suffering, and sorrow is part of our on-the-job training,” Wirthlin said. “These experiences, while often difficult to bear at the time, are precisely the kinds of experiences that stretch our understanding, build our character, and increase our compassion for others.”

As we keep the bigger picture in mind, we will recognize that adversity is only temporary. 

Trust in the Lord

Having faith and trust in the Lord will help us learn to accept and embrace adversity. We can know that the Lord would never give us a trial He knew we couldn’t handle. Each hardship in our lives has been given to us for a reason. 

Proverbs 3:5-6 (KJV) says, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

As we trust in God, he will help direct our paths and bless us. 

Kenton Lee is the founder and inventor of the “shoe that grows.” He created a shoe that expands five sizes so that it can grow with an impoverished child for over five years. He has helped send more than 100,000 pairs of shoes to children in over 90 countries. However, this success didn’t come until after six years of adversity.  

“[W]hatever God was calling me to, I really felt like I could do it, but I knew it wasn’t going to happen overnight,” Lee said. He continued, “People often ask me, ‘Why didn’t you quit? Didn’t you get so discouraged during those six years trying to work on this idea?’ We had a lot of ups and downs and a lot of rejection and failure during those six years. As people asked me that, I kind of said I never got discouraged really because my expectation wasn’t that this was going to happen overnight.” (Source: Technology of Work)

Lee kept the bigger picture in mind over the six years and continued forward with trust in God. He believed that God would help direct him down the path he needed to take. Sometimes we just have to do the best we can and then leave the rest in God’s hands. 

Look Back at Our Accomplishments 

A great way to overcome adversity and keep a positive mindset is looking back at and express gratitude for our previous accomplishments. It may feel like we go through failure after failure when starting a new business, but if we look back at where we started we may be surprised to see how far we’ve come. 

Arthur Godfry, an American radio and television broadcaster and entrepreneur, was able to do this in his career. He said, “Looking back on my achievements, it is fair to say that I am extremely proud of what I have done and accomplished so far.”

Godfrey went through much adversity in his life. Early in his career, he suffered severe injuries in a car accident. While he was in the hospital, he listened to the radio hour after hour, and when he was released, he got into radio and eventually got his own morning show on CBS radio (Source: New York Times). Godfrey didn’t let his adversity stop him from progressing. He continued moving forward, looking back on his previous accomplishments, and being grateful for where he was. 

Refuse to Give Up

We shouldn’t give up just because we experience adversity. 

Soichiro Honda, the founder of Honda Motor Co., Ltd, said, “Success is 99% failure.” At 15 years old, Honda left high school to work in an auto repair shop. He eventually opened his own branch and while working at the shop, he created automotive parts for Toyota, but they were rejected (Source: Quality Logo Products). However, he didn’t let this rejection stop him.

When gas became scarce after World War II, he created a small 2-stroke motor that would need little gas to operate. Now, Honda is worth about $52 billion (Source: Macro Trends). 

As we go through adversity, we should find an opportunity for growth. 

“I do believe that the way we react to adversity can be a major factor in how happy and successful we can be in life,” Wirthlin said. “If we approach adversities wisely, our hardest times can be times of greatest growth, which in turn can lead toward times of greatest happiness.” 

Key Takeaways

Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode:

1. Let adversity come and choose to embrace it. 
2. We should learn to laugh. Laughter can reduce stress hormones, release tension, boost happiness levels, and reset the brain to be more positive.
3. Whenever we experience adversity, we should keep the big picture in mind. We may be stuck in a rut on the road to a much greater destination. 
4. As we trust in God, he will help direct our paths and bless us. 
5. A great way to overcome adversity and keep a positive mindset is looking back at our previous accomplishments. 
6. As we go through adversity, we should find an opportunity for growth. 

Join Entrepreneurs of Faith

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In the last episode with Evan Stewart, we discussed how to build a successful business by focusing on quality before we focus on monetization. In today’s episode, we’re going to discuss how we can build better relationships with ourselves, our customers, and our partners. 

Relationship with Ourselves

To turn our business goals into a reality, we need to build a strong relationship with ourselves. Evan shared five areas that complete a whole person: personal, financial, spiritual, relational, and professional. As we focus our time, resources, and energy on improving ourselves in these five areas, we will begin to get into the right headspace for success. 

Personal: How do we feel about ourselves when the door closes and we’re alone? Our personal headspace and attitude about ourselves have a huge impact on the success of our businesses. If we aren’t confident and competent in who we are, our customers and employees won’t believe our value either. 

Financial: Inc. completed a study in 2016 that found people are willing to take as much as a 32% pay cut to be happier in their workplace (Source: Inc). “I believe that what you earn and how you earn it is just as important. You want to earn a million dollars, great, but how you get that money is just as important as the money that you actually receive,” Evan said. We need to focus on financial security while balancing our personal happiness. Where do we find fulfillment? How can we balance fulfillment with our financial needs?

Spiritual: We need to know what we believe in, what our morals are, and what we value. As we understand this, we should align our business values with our personal values. Otherwise, we can experience internal conflict that can have a large negative impact on our business.  

Relational: The relationships we build with those around us are key to the success of our businesses. We need the support of others in our lives for encouragement, strength, and motivation. “Relationships are some of the most important things that you can focus on at any stage of the business because the people close to you will be the reason you succeed,” Evan said. 

Professional: In our businesses, we should maintain a professional attitude with our business associates. We should also be professional in the way we set goals and use our resources to maximize profit in our businesses. “Your workplace needs to inspire, fascinate, and motivate,” Evan said. As we do this, our life should significantly improve because of the time and work we put in. 

Evan said, “Clarity doesn't come unless you look at those five areas and know how you're dividing your time.” He continued, “At a high level, I believe that these five areas, in particular, provide a fundamental framework for you to look at how you're spending your time. I recommend touching them on a weekly basis and saying, ‘Okay, I need to make sure that I'm spending time, that I'm investing energy and resources, in these five areas every single week to make sure that my life stays in a good flow of balance.’” 

Relationships with Our Customers

We need to focus on building relationships with our customers so they feel valued and appreciated. With Obsessed Academy, Evan focuses on helping his clients establish those customer relationships so they can find success in their businesses. 

A fundamental principle Evan believes and teaches is, “a transaction is a byproduct of a vested relationship and not the goal of a relationship.” Instead of focusing on a transaction, we should focus on connecting with our customers. As we build referral-rich relationships, our company will have greater success in scaling and becoming profitable. 

Our sales and goals are achieved by having a conversation without a motive. One of the mistakes professionals often make is focusing on their motives and forgetting to have a conversation. 

If we want to create a repeat customer, we need to focus on the relationship and the conversation. The relationship will not be built on transactional goals. “When you can just have a conversation, at some point a solution will arise, and at some point, there's an opportunity to dive deep into what you really need. And we can position our products or services as the solution. Then there's an opportunity to do business there,” Evan said. 

Relationships with Our Partners

We need to be cautious with the relationships we choose to build in our partnerships. Evan’s biggest setback stemmed from bad partnerships.

“I thought that I needed help. I thought I needed a partnership. It really stemmed from an insecurity, actually,” Evan said. “I wasn't confident so I got into these business partnerships with people where I would work very, very hard, and there would be disparagement in labor and results versus my partner who didn't share the same moral or work ethic.”

Sometimes we may enter into a partnership because we lack a good relationship with ourselves and feel the need to rely on someone else. This can cause major problems in the future. While partnerships can be beneficial, Evan encourages us to be very careful about the partnerships we choose to enter. If a partnership fails, we not only lose past opportunities we could have had if we weren’t in the partnership, we also lose time as it could take us one to two years to get back on our feet and adjust our businesses.  

“You have to be very hyper-aware and audit the relationships that you're working with. Just because somebody is excited to work with you doesn't mean that you're the right person. Sometimes you're looking for help when in reality you need time,” Evan said.  

I had made a similar mistake earlier in my career. I didn't believe in myself enough, and I thought I needed to hire people or bring on people to do things for me which resulted in a waste of energy and potential lost opportunities. We’ve got to realize as entrepreneurs that we have the capabilities to figure things out. We have to have faith in ourselves. 

While we can get help, it doesn’t mean we can’t do everything on our own. We shouldn’t have to give up equity in our business or hire someone to give them control of something that we are very capable of doing ourselves. 

“If you're looking at a partnership, [know] 50/50 partnerships never existed. They just don't exist,” Evan said. “There's always someone that's putting out more effort over here and driving more results. There's always a disparagement.”

If we choose to enter into a partnership, we need to remember that in reality, there is no such thing as a perfect partnership. Someone will always be giving a bit more than someone else. If we come to a disagreement, our entire business plan could fall apart. No two people are ever going to agree 100% of the time. Someone has to be able to step up and make that decision. Otherwise, the company is stuck in a state of paralysis. 

“You've got to have a leader. Every army has to have someone leading the charge forward,” Evan said. If we're looking at a partner, Evan recommends:

1. Do everything you can to not give up equity in your company. 
2. If you have to give away equity, do it in a way where you can still retain control. 
3. Have an exit strategy in mind and on paper in case things don’t go as well as we hoped. 

Instead of trying to split our business evenly, we need to have one person take charge. The split could be 60/40 or 80/20. Whatever the case, someone needs to own enough of the company to be CEO so when we have differing opinions on decisions, that person can make the final call. We should keep decision-making authority. 

Key Takeaways

Thank you so much Evan for sharing your stories and insights with us today. Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode:

1. As we focus our time, resources, and energy on improving the personal, financial, professional, relational, and spiritual aspects of our lives, we will begin to get into the right headspace for success. 
2. A transaction is a byproduct of a vested relationship and not the goal of a relationship.
3. If we enter into a partnership, we should remember to do everything we can to avoid giving up equity in our company, stay in control, and have an exit strategy prepared in case things don’t go as we hoped. 

Connect with Evan

If you enjoyed this interview and want to learn more about Evan or connect with him, you can find him on LinkedIn or visit his website at evanstewart.co. You can also listen to his Obsessed Podcast for more insights from him. 

Want to be a Better Digital Monetizer?

Please follow these channels to receive free digital monetization content:

1. Get a free Monetization Assessment of your business
2. Subscribe to the free Monetization eMagazine.
3. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation YouTube channel.
4. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation podcast on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. 
5. Follow Monetization Nation on Instagram and Twitter.

Share Your Story 

How could you build a better relationship with yourself? Please join our private Monetization Nation Facebook group and share your insights with other digital monetizers.

Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/142-how-to-manage-business-relationships/ 

Most of the time we have to lose money before we can make a profit in our businesses. 

Evan Stewart is the founder and chief evangelist for the Obsessed Academy and helps others build a life they can be obsessed with through private events, his Obsessed Conference, and his Obsessed Podcast. He has become a world-renowned life and business strategist who builds success by first losing money. 

In today’s episode, we’re going to discuss how we can build a successful business by focusing on quality before we focus on monetization. 

Evan’s Entrepreneurial Journey

Evan came from a family of entrepreneurs. When he was growing up, instead of wondering what type of job he would pursue a living, he thought about what service he could provide to others. 

In college, he jumped into real estate, had the opportunity to scale his business, and became the top 1% of realtors in Texas. His real estate company became his first step in learning and growing on his entrepreneurial journey. With so much success, he discovered a new passion: a passion to help others achieve that same success he did. He began to meet great people, build relationships, and eventually started Obsessed Academy where he helps consult entrepreneurs in building a successful business. 

“The core of everything I do comes down to this ideology that individuals deserve to be inspired, fascinated, and motivated by where they live, where they work, who they live and work with, and how they live and work,” Evan said. “We can all be the best version of ourselves. . . . People have so much potential in them to do incredible things to impact the world and make money around what they're doing.” 

From the examples of his parents, Evan learned that entrepreneurship is all about relationships and service. His parents helped teach him to recognize a healthy relationship with great communication and systems in place so that issues in one area don’t affect another area. Evan’s relationship with his parents helped him identify healthy relationships not just in his marriage but also with employees, partners, and customers. 

One of the greatest lessons he has learned throughout his journey is to focus on people. We shouldn’t be focused on money but on the relationships, we can build and the people we can serve. 

Don’t Focus on Monetization

Evan’s best monetization strategy is to not focus on monetization. 

“Don't focus on monetization,” Evan said. “I'm not saying don't be profitable. I'm not saying don't focus on sales or money, but I'm speaking specifically to those that are looking at building as much profit as possible in the early stages. [Instead] focus on quality first, and monetization second, and after your product becomes the market standard, switch.” 

Instead of only focusing on making a profit, we should focus on providing as much value as we can to our target audience and customers so we can build relationships and build our credibility. This strategy will help us achieve the greatest lifetime value out of our customers.

If we try to be profitable right off the bat, we likely won’t. Starting a business often requires risks and investments. We may have to spend three years building our business without any profit, but if we are focusing on quality, we will eventually see a great return on investment in the long run. 

Evan’s Obsessed Conference is not a profitable event. Yet. He mapped out a 10-year plan for his event to lose money in the beginning while they focus on the quality of the experience and relationships. They currently have an 85% audience retention rate because they are providing so much value to their customers with little cost. He does this with the long-term game in mind. Because he is building strong relationships with his customers now, later, when thousands of people attend his event, they will be more willing to spend money on an event they already know provides value. 

We can make a profit by losing money in the short term first. If we're in the business of positively impacting lives, we will be much more likely to monetize in the long run. “The best data [to look at] are . . . the businesses that have grown significantly because of your relationships together,” Evan said. 

Are we here for the short run or the long run? While some businesses can find success in the short-term run, most businesses find more success by making long-term goals. If we are aiming to be successful in the long run, Evan encourages us to ask ourselves, “How can we minimize profit right now to focus all our needs on the quality of our services and relationships with our customers?” 

Most companies make a goal to earn as much money as possible right off the bat, even before they have validity, history, credibility, following, and a customer base. Instead, we want to focus on building credibility, relationships, and quality first, before we focus on making a profit. When we do this, we are much more likely to see exponential growth down the road. 

If we look at some of the biggest and fastest-growing companies of our business careers, the Googles and the Amazons, we will find they followed a similar model: quality first, profit second. Google didn’t focus on monetizing for years, they built reach. Amazon did the same thing. They operated for years without making a profit. They focused on reinvesting back into their company to provide the highest quality and greatest value service they could. As a result, Google and Amazon are both in positions where they have tremendous value and influence.

“Look in the mirror and [ask], ‘Am I doing this for me and overcompensating for an insecurity, or am I doing this because this is a mission distribution method for achieving some type of greater mission?’ That's the question we need to be asking ourselves,” Evan said.

Charge What We’re Worth

After we have focused on building the quality of our products or services and establishing relationships with our customers, we need to determine what to charge. How do we set the price of our products?

Evan wrote an article, “How to Charge What You’re Worth Without Seeming Like a Jerk.” In it, he wrote, “There are two simple answers to this question: one, ensure you are up to date on industry standards and norms in your market. . . . Take some time to do your research so you’re aware of where you stand. Two, gather data every single time you win or lose a sale. . . . ‘Your market worth is what a buyer is willing to pay is common knowledge among sales professionals. Ensure you’re collecting this data.”

When we are determining our prices, we need to look at what our competitors are offering while also paying attention to the value our customers perceive our products or services to be worth. Evan recommended that when we choose our prices, we should really be competing for better quality over the lowest price.  If we try to have the lowest price, we will almost always be beaten.

“If you compete on price, you're going to constantly be shopped out to the lowest bidder. If you compete on quality, then you'll never have to justify your price,” Evan said. 

When we charge our customers based on high-quality services and products, we will be able to charge more since we are providing better value. It is worth it to reinvest in better customer service, get more team members, and pay for higher quality team members so we can provide better service to our customers. It's an ascending spiral. As we increase our value, our customers will be willing to spend more on our products, even over a cheaper price. 

“If you believe that quality is important, then charge what you're worth, and then prove that you're worth what you've changed through the experience with the customer,” Evan said. “You have to prove why you're charging that or the market is going to reject you.”

While making a profit is essential for business success, we should still focus on the customer’s needs. How can we build relationships? How can we provide value? When we prioritize quality and value over profit, monetization will come naturally. 

Key Takeaways

Thank you so much Evan for sharing your stories and insights with us today. Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode:

1. Instead of making profit our number one priority, in the beginning, we should focus on providing value to our target audience first. We want to focus on building credibility, relationships, and quality first before we focus on monetization. 
2. When we are determining the prices of our products and services, we should look at what our competitors are charging while also paying attention to the value our customers perceive our products or services to be worth.
3. As we increase our value, consumers will be willing to spend more on our products, even over a competitor with a cheaper price. 
4. When we prioritize quality and value over profit, monetization will most likely come naturally. 

Connect with Evan

If you enjoyed this interview and want to learn more about Evan or connect with him, you can find him on LinkedIn or visit his website at evanstewart.co. You can also listen to his Obsessed Podcast for more insights from him. 

Want to be a Better Digital Monetizer?

Please follow these channels to receive free digital monetization content:

1. Get a free Monetization Assessment of your business
2. Subscribe to the free Monetization eMagazine.
3. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation YouTube channel.
4. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation podcast on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. 
5. Follow Monetization Nation on Instagram and Twitter.

Share Your Story 

How do you provide high value and great service to your customers? Please join our private Monetization Nation Facebook group and share your insights with other digital monetizers.

Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/141-how-to-make-a-profit-by-losing-money/ 

Welcome back to another episode with Ali Schwanke. In the last episode, we talked about taking the path of the most resistance along with Ali’s entrepreneurial journey, B2B vs B2C content marketing, and quick wins. In today’s episode, we’ll discuss why content marketing is so powerful and Ali’s tips for successful content marketing.

Why is content marketing so powerful?

Content marketing equips customers with the power to make what they feel is their own buying decision. Ali gave an example through real estate and buying a car. She said, “I was never a home buyer in the days when you didn't have access to the MLS listings. I was never a home buyer where I had to go to the office and have someone sit down and put house offerings in front of me. I've always been in the age where I go online, and I look at the neighborhood that I want, and the realtor to me just feels like a person that I have to go through to get to the house.” 

“Content marketing is the same way. Every industry now feels like that. I can go buy a car, but how much do I know what I'm doing when I buy that car? That's where content comes in. So if I feel like you've educated me to the point where I feel like I know enough that . . . I'm not being tricked or duped in the sales process, then I'm [going to] have a good buying experience, and that's what content facilitates.”

Top Content Marketing Strategies

Here are some of Ali’s top content marketing strategies.

• Focus on Thought Leadership or Search-Driven Blogging

Ali was working with a company that was doing strategic planning. They were writing articles that were very interesting to their audience, but they weren't getting much traffic from a search engine perspective. Ali said, “The tip that I often tell people is there are two different types of blogging. Most companies don't know that they're actually doing one or the other, and they don't really know what camp they're in and why.”

Ali explained that a search-driven or SEO-driven headline for a blog might say, “5 Ways to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile.” To find this blog post, someone might type in “how do I optimize my LinkedIn profile” and that blog would come up as an answer. 

In contrast, Ali said the thought leadership version of that title might be “5 Ways You Bombed Your Last Interview Because Your LinkedIn Profile Sucks.” She explained, “No one's gonna search for why your LinkedIn profile sucks, but they might stumble upon that on social or if that's in an email newsletter.” When they do, they’re going to ask, “Did I really bomb that interview because my LinkedIn profile is so awful?” and then read the article.

“When it comes to deploying written content you have to understand which camp you're in because each one of those has different strategies.” Ali told the company she was working with that “the only way they're going to get more traffic with sexy thought leadership-driven content is to find other audiences to leverage.”

• Be Consistent

To get into the baseball Hall of Fame, a player’s average needs to be about .300, which is three out of 10 bats. If you think about it, that’s not very high. But it is the consistency of showing up to play the game that matters. 

“I think a lot of times,” Ali said, “companies or marketing directors will look for the home run type of content, saying, ‘The last few blogs that we wrote didn't go over really well,’ but some of the success of what you're going to see is simply by showing up every single week.”

In addition, she said, “When you stop publishing content, people start asking questions. And when people ask questions and you're not there to answer the questions, they make up their own stories.”

• Focus on the Customer

In order for us to have content success, we need to use the words our customers use and write about the things they face—not the things we want to talk about. “There's this Venn diagram of . . . the things the customer cares about and . . . the things that your product or service can solve for them.” 

“Where those two meet together is where your content should be, because if it's not if you write just about what they're having problems with, you'll get a lot of traffic and not a lot of conversions. If you just write about what your product is you [won’t get] a lot of traffic.”

“Those two together are the hard part because sometimes the CEO or the product team will say we should write about this, and the marketing team has to be able to say, this is where we stay if you want content marketing to actually pay off.”

• Promote, Promote, Promote

Ali said, “It is equally important to promote as it is to create.” She explained, “If you were going to err on the side of consistency and you can't keep up with every week, I would much rather see you publish a one really great piece of content a month and promote the heck out of it. That means your one piece of content might be a really great guide, a really good blog post, or [a] really good video, and it's reshared on social, it’s put over on Medium, it's shared over on Buzzsumo, it's put out as an infographic, etc. You've repurposed it and reshared it so that you have all of this kind of groundswell. It's not just like a new thing every week.”

• Customize Our Webchat

Webchat can be complicated. “If you have a software company or a solution that has more of a self-guided journey [for the customer] to [make a] purchase, there is a need for a chat to be part of that. But I see too many companies that have a one-size-fits-all chat solution like, ‘hey, here I am, chat with me,’ whereas chats are really supposed to be the place where you think ahead of the questions that someone would have relative to the information that they're viewing.”

For example, if someone’s on a software company’s pricing page, the chat might say, “Do you have any questions about pricing?” Ali said, “Those [customized chats] are typically things you need to develop from looking at your analytics, looking at what people are asking you, [and] using that data side to really inform the creative. But chat is powerful. . . . You don't need to throw it on every page of your website.”

• Have a Customer-Centric Marketing Strategy

A customer-centric marketing strategy assumes that we're going to find out what's most important in the customer’s mind. Sometimes we assume we know a lot about our audience. For example, we might ask customers, “how did you hear about us?” They might respond with “a friend told me” or something like that. 

But what if we asked, “what was happening in your life at the time that you found our solution?” They might say they just moved or got married or the license expired for the software they were using before. With this kind of question, we can understand what's happening in our customers’ lives and find out how to help them better.

• Repurpose Content

Ali had a client who sells services to dealerships do some original research. “One of our clients had done a research report, which is a powerful strategy, but it's one that's definitely a lot more uphill than it is downhill.”

“They surveyed everybody there in the dealership . . . and came out with some findings and actually created this . . . [about] 30-page report. Out of it, they produced infographics, produced videos, [and] were able to link it to case studies.” 

Ali said, “What that created is this evergreen opportunity to get mentions and guest publications and raise the level of their thought leadership. It's been continually producing leads for them since we created it. So I think back to that idea of [how] one powerful piece of content has paid dividends, [and] all of their blog content then is being derived from this one piece. So it's really powerful when you do it the right way.”

• Use Content as a Relationship Builder

Ali has another client who is producing a podcast as a way to build relationships in their industry. She compared it to real estate, saying, “If you're a real estate agent, and you know that title companies, lawyers, attorneys, estate planners, [etc.] they all work with people who may need new house options for buying and selling.” 

“So in a sense,” she continued, “what they're doing is creating a podcast for those folks to build a relationship. So they're using the podcast as a relationship-building tool to then drive them into the funnel to learn more about what their company does. So I think content can also be a really good relationship builder, as well as a content engine.”

• Be Creative to Make B2B Video Marketing More Interesting

We might be thinking how do we make B2B video marketing less boring? Well, Ali gave us some examples and ideas. 

She described a company that did a video explaining the concept of video marketing. “They were comparing it to baking a cake,” she said. “And it was so well done, and so I think it sticks with me to this day because it was using an analogy that everyone is familiar with.”

We can lean on popular concepts or pop culture and have fun with our videos. We can also study things from other industries like documentaries or shows and movies that seem like they would be boring and see how they made them exciting.

• Bridge the Creative and Analytical

Ali described two groups in marketing. The first might say, “I'm just gonna pitch really crazy ideas and see if the client likes them.” And the second might say, “I use data to make decisions, and there is little room for creativity. I have to do what the data tells me.” 

“I firmly believe there's an intersection between the two of those,” Ali said. She gave an example of going after the search “how to monetize my business.” 

“Let's say that it's dominated already by companies that have really good content. So, you could either attack it from a, ‘I'm going to make much better content than them,’ and better is going to mean an emphasis on better questions, [going] further in-depth, [having] visuals, [etc.]. Or [saying], ‘What are the other ways I could attack this from a data perspective? It looks like they're not ranking over on YouTube, or they don't have any content on social [media] about this.’ So using that analytical mind to find the gaps that you can dig into. And then the creative pieces: ‘How do I not only answer that question but I also entertain them?’”

“Look at what's happening outside your industry. Don't look for examples in your industry. Go see what's happening. . . . I'm sure there's a lot that you can learn from looking at what's happening in manufacturing and how they do it on Nickelodeon that you could pull into your creative process to really bridge that gap.”

Key Takeaways

Thank you so much Ali for sharing your stories and knowledge with us today. Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode:

1. Content marketing allows customers to be informed about their purchase decisions.
2. Choose to focus on thought leadership or search-driven blogging, so we can know how to promote our content.
3. Be consistent. Sometimes showing up to play the game is the most important thing with content.
4. In our content, we should focus on what the customer cares about and how our product or service can help them with that.
5. Regardless of how much content we’re putting out, we need to make sure we promote, promote, promote.
6. Our web chat should be tailored to the specific pages it’s on; it doesn’t need to be on every page of our website.
7. To understand what's happening in our customers’ lives and find out how to help them better, we should have a customer-centric marketing strategy.
8. We can make good use of our content by repurposing it.
9. We can use our content to build relationships with our audience.
10. B2B video marketing can be fun and creative when we draw on popular concepts, pop culture, and more.
11. Use both data and creativity to inform our content marketing decisions.

Connect with Ali

If you enjoyed this interview and want to learn more about Ali or connect with her, you can find her on LinkedIn or Twitter. You can also check out Hubspot Hacks on YouTube or visit her website, SimpleStat.com. 

Want to be a Better Digital Monetizer?

Did you like today’s episode? Then please follow these channels to receive free digital monetization content:

1. Get a free Monetization Assessment of your business
2. Subscribe to the free Monetization eMagazine.
3. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation YouTube channel.
4. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation podcast on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. 
5. Follow Monetization Nation on Instagram and Twitter.

Share Your Story 

Have you used any of these content marketing strategies? If so, how did it go? Please join our private Monetization Nation Facebook group and share your insights with other digital monetizers.

Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/140-10-content-marketing-strategies-to-up-our-content-game/