Sell With Authority

On this episode of Sell With Authority, we have a very special guest joining us for an encore interview. If you’re meeting him for the first time, Raul Hernandez-Ochoa is the Founder of Do Good Work, a digital growth consulting practice dedicated to helping agencies, business coaches, and strategic consultants achieve profitable growth.

Now, some of you may remember Raul from episode 57, where we discussed creating a client attraction system. But during that conversation, we stumbled upon an unexpected topic that piqued our interest — productizing a service offering. It sparked memories of my own experiences back in 2002 when I served as the director of business development for an agency.

I can distinctly recall endless discussions within our management team about the incredible potential of productizing aspects of our daily custom work for clients. We dreamed of cracking that nut — the ability to relieve the pressure of starting our profit and loss statement from scratch every month, heavily reliant on billing for time and materials.

Service optimization is a crucial aspect of enhancing operational efficiency and ensuring the delivery of high-quality services to clients. Imagine the possibilities — providing clients with faster and potentially more affordable off-the-shelf solutions. And if we cracked that nut, we could potentially reduce the amount of custom work, leading to fewer cost overruns on our estimates. The ultimate goal was to bolster our bottom line and increase profitability.

Perhaps you and your team have had similar discussions. Maybe you’ve already cracked that nut or are exhausted from banging your head against the same wall repeatedly. Either way, I have great news for you. Today, Raul is sharing his invaluable insights and experiences, guiding you forward with the successful productization of your service offerings.

• The importance of service optimization in productizing services to match the expectations of what a client wants from you
• The advantages of packaging solutions that you already have productized to create a unique presentation for a right-fit prospect
• Raul’s framework for productizing a service
• Some of the pitfalls that get agencies face early on in the process and ways to maneuver them
• How to streamline productizing a service

• • Find Raul Hernandez-Ochoa and his insight on service optimization on his website.
  • LinkedIn Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dogoodwork/
  • LinkedIn Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dogoodwork/
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/rherochoa
  • Growth Plan Book: https://dogoodwork.io/growth-plan
  • High-Impact Resources for SWA Listeners: https://dogoodwork.io/swa
  • Productive Profits Book: https://www.amazon.com/Productive-Profits-Founders-Scaling-Impact/dp/B085K5S5XZ
  • Listen to additional insights about service optimization on SWA Episode 57: How to Create a Client Attraction System, with Raul Hernandez-Ochoa

On this episode of Sell With Authority, I am excited to welcome special guest expert David Kreiger, the Founder of SalesRoads — a remarkable sales outsourcing and appointment setting firm. Get ready for an enlightening conversation as David and I dive into the realm of utilizing AI as an integral part of your sales process.

But hold on, because we’re not just talking about incorporating AI for the sake of it. No, we’re tackling a crucial aspect—how to leverage AI while preserving the human touch that makes your sales process truly exceptional.

It’s a tall order, but an essential one for us to discuss.

I assure you that the insights, best practices, and wisdom David shares today are transformative. By applying these strategies, you’ll accelerate your results, break free from the feast and famine cycle that often plagues agencies and consulting firms, and propel your business development efforts to new heights.

• How to harness the power of AI and blend it into your sales process — and — how to blend it in at your own pace
• Challenges that arise when an agency lacks sales fundamentals
• Sales fundamentals that you and your team need to have in place before implementing AI
• The connection between sales team performance and agency success
• Strategies for blending automation and personalization effectively
• Ensuring a high-touch experience while leveraging AI in sales

Resources:

• Website: https://www.salesroads.com/
• LinkedIn Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidkreiger/
• LinkedIn Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/salesroads/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/kreigs

Additional Resources:

• Predictive ROI Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/

On this episode of Sell With Authority, I am excited to welcome very special guest Michael Hague. Michael is one of Hollywood’s top script consultants and story experts. He helps writers, speakers, entrepreneurs and filmmakers increase their impact and grow their businesses by telling better stories. In addition to his consulting work, he has conducted workshops for over 70,000 participants worldwide, sharing his invaluable expertise.

Throughout his career, Michael has worked on films featuring renowned actors such as Tom Cruise, Reese Witherspoon, Julia Roberts, and Morgan Freeman.

How to be a good story teller? Today’s discussion focuses on the power of storytelling. Michael shares insights on how you can connect with your clients’ issues and challenges through stories that are informative, helpful, and devoid of self-aggrandizement. By employing this storytelling technique, you can effectively teach valuable lessons while forging meaningful connections.

We also explore the importance of identifying the right ponds – the specific areas where your ideal clients gather. When you align your stories with the appropriate business problems and share them in the right contexts, you increase your chances of being invited to share your smarts with your target audience. This strategic approach allows your stories to become what Michael aptly describes as “stealth marketing.”

The insights and wisdom he shares throughout this discussion will equip you with the necessary tools to tell compelling stories, as well as incorporate stealth marketing into your agency, how to be a good story teller and attracting a steady stream of right-fit clients.

• Michael’s definition of stealth marketing and how to implement it to build a connection with right-fit prospects
• How can we get the right-fit prospects on the hero’s journey and celebrate the victory with us
• Michael’s philosophy and goals when standing in front of right-fit prospects
• The six-step process Michael recommends for how to tell a story
• The power of sharing the hero’s inner journey as well as their outer journey when telling a story to connect with the audience and how to be a good storyteller.

• • Learn more about how to be a good story teller by tuning in to this episode of Michael Hauge: 8 Steps to a Great Story, with Michael Hauge
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-hauge-823b5791/
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michael.hauge.96
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/michael_hauge
  • Michael’s Story Mastery Resources: https://storymastery.com/shop/
  • SWA Episode 53: How to Find Your Ideal Clients, with Stephen Woessner
  • Onward Nation Episode 184: 8 Steps to Tell a Great Story, with Michael Hauge
  • Onward Nation Episode 250: Living in Fear to Living Courageously, with Michael Hauge
  • Learn more about how to be a good story teller, and you can find Michael’s article here

I am so excited to welcome back Juliana Marulanda for an encore interview on this episode of Sell With Authority. If you’re meeting Juliana for the first time, she is the Founder of ScaleTime, a renowned agency consultancy with an impressive track record. Juliana and her team have helped over 500 agencies transform into lean, mean, profitable machines.

Juliana was our guest expert on the podcast just a few short weeks ago, and as we came in for a landing on episode 60, I asked her immediately if she would come back for an encore. I totally put her on the spot, and she said yes.

Effective SOP implementation ensures that businesses have a standardized and efficient approach to their operations, leading to increased productivity and streamlined workflows.

In this episode, we dive deeper into Juliana’s S.C.A.L.E. framework, which we began exploring in our previous conversation but needed more time to cover fully. We will also explore how AI tools like ChatGPT and effective prompts can supercharge your efficiency, incorporating the principles of effective SOP.

For additional context, Juliana was one of the experts at the Build a Better Agency Summit in Chicago that my team and I attended in May. She led highly attended breakout sessions where attendees were captivated by her insights and hands-on experience in using AI to streamline the process of recording standard operating procedures (SOPs) by a staggering five times faster. By mastering SOPs, businesses can eliminate repetitive tasks and focus on scaling their operations.

• Why implementing effective SOPs will streamline operations
• Focusing on an effective SOP within Juliana’s S.C.A.L.E. framework involves navigating through the outlined steps.
• How to go from operator to owner
• How Juliana and her team teach leadership differently than other consultancy firms
• Effective SOP  importance and how Juliana and her team teach leadership differently than other consultancy firms. Juliana’s recommendations for effectively leveraging AI tools for SOPs

• Website: www.scaletime.co
• Learn more about effective SOP by tuning in to this podcast by Juliana Marulanda: Tackling common project management challenges
• LinkedIn Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julianamarulanda/
• LinkedIn Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/scaletime/
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/scaletime/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/julianamarula
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/scaletime
• The ScaleMap Diagnostic: https://discovery.scaletime.co/scale-map
• Delve deeper into effective SOP by visiting Juliana on this website as she discusses “Driving Success: Mastering Agency Management”.

• • Predictive ROI Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources
  • SWA Episode 60: Free up 30 Hours Using an Agency Management System, with Juliana Marulanda

I am thrilled to welcome back to this episode of Sell With Authority the brilliant Hannah Roth. Hannah is our very own mad scientist and strategist here at Predictive ROI.

She is no stranger to our community of rock-solid awesome agency owners and strategic consultants, as she consistently shares her expertise through various platforms like open-mic Q&As, 2-day Intensives, Teach & Do sessions, and our Facebook group. This marks Hannah’s fourth appearance on the Sell with Authority podcast, with her previous insightful contributions in Episodes 35, 48, and 54 — all of which I highly recommend adding to your must-listen list.

What truly sets Hannah apart is her unwavering dedication to being relentlessly helpful in all her interactions with our audience, whether in-person or virtually. Every time she takes the stage, her curriculum is meticulously prepared with one overarching goal: to provide immense value to our community and right-fit clients.

How to build an email list for free? Let me set the stage for what we explore. I can assure you that the issue and challenge Hannah helps us tackle today has likely hindered your results, or left you feeling like you’re trying to grow your business with one hand tied behind your back. We delve into the critical topic of building an email list — more specifically, how to accomplish this from scratch without relying on paid ads or complicated technology.

Holy Bananas – it’s one of those episodes where you ask yourself, “What in the world was that — because that was awesome!”

• How to build an email list for free: Gain context around siphoning an audience.
• What happens when you approach an audience with intentionality behind the strategy
• How to build an email list for free: Learn why showing up as helpful will grow your sphere of influence.
• Potential opportunities to get in front of other audiences
• The advantages of deepening relationships by providing helpful, informative, and actionable information

• • How to Siphon Other’s Audiences Into Your Own Framework
  • Predictive ROI Frameworks Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-roth-387a6b223/
  • SWA Episode 35: Stephen Woessner in the Hot Seat, with Hannah Roth
  • SWA Episode 48: Sales Closing Techniques Without Feeling Like You’re Closing, with Hannah Roth
  • SWA Episode 54: Turn Ranting Into Revenue, with Hannah Roth

Learn cash flow management— On this episode of Sell with Authority, I am excited to welcome guest expert Craig Cody. He is the Founder and CEO of Craig Cody & Company. Craig and his team are renowned tax strategists who help business owners maximize their tax savings legally and effectively.

And in full transparency, Craig is our tax strategist here at Predictive. He and his team deliver off-the-charts results for us and all their clients.

Learn cash flow management to ensure that your business operates smoothly and efficiently, maximizing financial resources and minimizing unnecessary expenses. We’ll dive into the world of proactive tax strategies, discussing the common financial concerns, pain points, and major issues business owners face. We aim to equip you with the knowledge to keep more of what you earn and implement a proactive tax strategy that aligns with IRS guidelines.

My conversation with Craig is crucial because all your hard work and dedication mean little if you pay more taxes than necessary. Craig’s insights will help you design 2023 in a way that ensures your efforts truly pay off for you and your family.

• Insights on how to learn cash flow management and the tools Craig recommends for creating big impacts right away
• Why documentation is key
• What the Augusta Rule states how to take advantage of it
• Advantages of Safe Harbor 401 K plan and learn cash flow management
• Details about Craig’s upcoming informative webinar, What is Keeping Agency Owners Up at Night: Tools for Managing Cash Flow

• Website: www.craigcodyandcompany.com
• Learn cash flow management and gain further insights with this Article entitled “Saving Your Income Through Proactive Tax Planning”
• Learn cash flow management by listening to Solocast of Craig– Top 5 Actions to Keep More Money in Your Pocket
• What is Keeping Agency Owners Up at Night: Tools for Managing Cash Flow: https://craigcodyandcompany.com/qa/
• LinkedIn Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigcodycpa/
• LinkedIn Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/craig-cody-and-company/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CraigCodyandCompany
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/craigc2742

• Predictive ROI Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources

Juliana Marulanda is joining the latest episode of Sell With Authority, and our focus is on agency management systems. Juliana is the founder of ScaleTime, a renowned agency consultancy that has helped over 500 agencies achieve lean, mean, and profitable operations.

How to build the best agency management system? At Predictive, we’re continuously looking to refine what we’re doing financially, make process improvements, meet other agency owners who are doing it well — and, in short — to learn new things we can put into place that raises the bar of excellence inside Predictive, with a special emphasis on the best agency management system.

Every year for the last 8 years — our team attends the annual Money Matters workshop that Drew McLellan, CEO of Agency Management Institute, teaches. There’s a metric that Drew shares during Day One that hasn’t changed — year after year — and in my opinion — it’s one of the most important metrics to running a profitable agency because if owners could get it right — they would have the time, space, and capacity to get everything else right inside their shops.

Here it is: owners should allocate 50 percent of their time toward business development.

It can be a huge struggle to prioritize this aspect because of operational demands.

And that’s why I’m excited for you to learn from Juliana today. We are going to talk through what that agency management system should look like and how it should run.

Juliana offers insights into implementing an agency management system that can unlock 30 additional hours per week so you can have the time, space, and capacity to get serious about creating the helpful content for your audience that you KNOW you want to create and to BUILD the authority position that you know will ADD VALUE to your agency — and —help you build and scale more quickly through the best agency management system.

• Why most agency owners become the single point of failure
• Why it actually cost the business money when the owner is stuck in the weeds
• The math behind figuring out the effective hourly value to the business
• Steps to uncovering and fixing operational gaps
• How agency owners can reclaim 30 hours per week through building the best agency management system, providing practical insights for time reclamation and operational efficiency.

• To learn more about how to build the best agency management system — go here to listen to Part 2 of our conversation with Juliana.
• LinkedIn Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julianamarulanda/
• Learn more on how to build the best agency management system from Juliana’s blog post entitled “Mastering Process Optimization”
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/scaletime/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/julianamarula
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/scaletime
• The ScaleMap Diagnostic: https://discovery.scaletime.co/scale-map

• • Predictive ROI Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources

AI copyright law—I am so excited to welcome Sharon Toerek back to the Sell With Authority podcast. If you’re meeting Sharon for the first time, she’s the Principal of Toerek Law and the host of the rock-solid awesome podcast The Innovative Agency.

And in full transparency — Sharon is Predictive’s wicked, smart intellectual property attorney. Over the years — she has brilliantly helped us protect our intellectual property so that as it evolved and morphed into revenue streams — we were ready.

In Episode 52 of Sell With Authority, Sharon broke down how to protect your intellectual property and turn it into revenue streams.

Today, Sharon is back for an encore episode where we will explore the legal implications of using AI to create content for client projects. We discuss copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property rights and consider several questions that arise when using AI-generated content.

Sharon brings her expertise to discuss AI copyright law in the workplace. Her advice will help agencies navigate the challenges surrounding AI and protect their intellectual property.

• Are there legal implications to using AI to create content as part of a client project
• Who owns the content generated by AI
• Questions agencies should consider regarding AI copyright law, trademark, and IP rights
• What happens when AI-generated content is modified by an agency as it relates to intellectual property rights
• How can clients be assured that the content, campaigns, or brand they have as a result of working with an agency is truly theirs

• Website: legalandcreative.com
• Learn more about AI Copyright Law and find Sharon here
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharontoerek/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/SharonToerek
• The Innovative Agency Podcast
• Learn more about AI Copyright Law by listening to our first interview with Sharon Toerek

• • Subscribe to our new “Sell with Authority” podcast. Learn how to attract a steady stream of well-prepared prospects into your sales pipeline and convert them into right-fit clients. Everything you need to move further faster is shared in full transparency. Go here for all the episodes.
  • Order your free copy of “Sell with Authority” in paperback or Kindle. Honest — no hoops to jump through. All you need to do is go here and enter your mailing address. No credit card for shipping. Nothing.
  • Join our free “How to Fill Your Sales Pipeline” Facebook Group. Over 1,300 agency owners just like you are looking to move further faster by sharing best practices and what’s working for them. But — as Susan Baier recently said, “It’s not about the numbers, it’s about the SMARTS contributed to this wonderful, generous community!” Go here for details.

Sustainable competitive advantage example — On this episode of Sell With Authority, I am excited to welcome Susan Quinn. Susan is the president and CEO of Circle S Studio and the author of the forthcoming book, “Best In Class Experiences. Does your Business Show Up or Stand Out?”

Susan has decades of expertise in helping companies differentiate themselves from the sea of sameness and achieve best-in-class status. She and her team recently completed a landmark research study on what it means to be considered best in class. Susan is sharing the traits of high-performing, best-in-class companies and how those traits help companies weather a crisis.

We also take a deep dive into the three attitudinal segments that Susan and her team uncovered from the research respondents, and how those segments are similar and different. In sustainable competitive advantage example ,we will talk about why that data matters to agencies like yours and mine.

Sustainable competitive advantage example? Best in class companies don’t just compete, they stand out. Susan provides her recommendations for how an agency can create a best-in-class reputation. Think of practical and tactical action steps. Applying what Susan shares during this episode will give you the insights and next steps you need to build your best-in-class reputation.

• How Susan defines best in class
• The most important ingredients in the recipe that separates a company from competitors
• The “9 traits of high performing best in class companies” and how they help companies weather a crisis
• The three attitudinal segments of the research respondents and how those segments are similar and different
• Susan’s recommendations for how an agency can create a best-in-class reputation
• How having a reputation for being best in class impacts a company’s recruitment and retention strategies of top talent
• Studying industry leaders and their sustained success provides a sustainable competitive advantage example, guiding businesses in crafting strategies that stand the test of time in competitive markets.

• Learn more about sustainable competitive advantage example by navigating this website, and you can find Susan Quinn here.
• Delve deeper into the sustainable competitive advantage example further by reading this article from Susan Quinn.
• LinkedIn Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanquinn01/
• LinkedIn Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/circle-s-studio/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/circleSstudio
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/circlesstudio/
• Download the WHO Framework here to “find & identify,” “emotionally and logically connect,” and “niche deep dive.”
• Our fastest agency new business strategies are detailed in our Sell with Authority book. Order your free paperback or Kindle copy here.
• Why pivoting your agency niche will help you sell better (Interview with Drew McLellan for the Build a Better Agency Podcast)

On today’s episode of Sell With Authority, I am joined by Raul-Hernandez Ochoa. Raul is the founder of Do Good Work, which is a digital growth consulting practice that helps agencies, business coaches, and strategic consultants achieve profitable growth.

Raul and his team have a track record of helping clients 2x to 5x their revenues by applying their productive profits strategies. He has a depth of expertise in helping clients productize their services, which makes it easier for a prospective client to say yes and begin working with an agency, or perhaps open an entirely new market, or new revenue stream for the agency.

Additionally, Raul has expertise in encouraging clients to embrace and incorporate AI into their business models. We are exploring the principles of growth and scaling in the digital age.

• Why the key to growth and scaling isn’t always about growth for growth’s sake
• The importance of aligning clients to marketing, product, and operations
• Raul’s insights on applying productive profits strategies to achieve 2x to 5x revenue growth
• How to avoid commoditization and instead position unique value propositions to right-fit prospects
• Raul’s three-tier approach when it comes to looking at acquisition or designing acquisition models
• Two really big topics we will cover in Raul’s upcoming encore interview

Resources:

• Website: https://dogoodwork.io/
• LinkedIn Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dogoodwork/
• LinkedIn Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dogoodwork/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/rherochoa
• Growth Plan Book: https://dogoodwork.io/growth-plan
• High-Impact Resources for SWA Listeners: https://dogoodwork.io/swa
• Productive Profits Book: https://www.amazon.com/Productive-Profits-Founders-Scaling-Impact/dp/B085K5S5XZ