Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Steve Calascione, Founder of Success with Class

Episode Date: October 25, 2023

Hailing from Staten Island, NY, and now nestled in central Connecticut, Steven Calascione AKA Steve Class, is a force in the entrepreneurial world. With adventures spanning over 30 countries and depths explored as a passionate scuba diver, his zest for life parallels his business acumen. In just three years, Steve founded and propelled three service-based businesses beyond the million-dollar revenue mark. Yet, his greatest pride lies in “Success with Class”, his coaching agency. Guided by experience and drive, Steve’s mission is clear: to pave the way for emerging entrepreneurs, ensuring their journey to success is as riveting as his own. Dive into Steve’s narrative and discover success achieved with true Class.Learn more:https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-calascione-7121b3a8/https://www.instagram.com/steveyclass/Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-steve-calascione-founder-of-success-with-class

Welcome to influential entrepreneurs, bringing you interviews with elite business leaders and experts, sharing tips and strategies for elevating your business to the next level. Here's your host, Mike Saunders. Hello and welcome to this episode of Influential Entrepreneurs. This is Mike Saunders, the authority positioning coach. Today we have with the Steve Kalashone, who's the founder of success with class. Steve, welcome to the program. Pleasure to be here, Mike. Really excited. Thank you for having me too. I always love when you can look at someone's website or business name or email address and kind of surmise the story behind the name. So success with class. I'm excited to hear what you're doing. But get us started first with your background and tell us a little bit about your story and how you got into the industry.

Absolutely. So I worked in corporate America basically my entire life for more than a decade. I did. the tried and true path of, you know, go to school, get good grades, graduate top of your class, get that corporate American job. And honestly, I wasn't surrounded by any entrepreneurs. And that's kind of what I thought the golden ticket was of success of climbing the corporate ladder. And I dabble a little bit into real estate, bought an investor property here and there, but that was really about it. I was working in Midtown Manhattan. I'm originally from Brooklyn, New York. And right around COVID, as that was occurring, I was in the event planning. industry and events in general. And as you can well imagine during COVID,

that one way does occur. Yeah, everything gets shut down. I get laid off. My wife, who is in the travel industry, also gets laid off. And she's six months pregnant. So that's the pony up phase where I'm like, what am I going to do here? We have no income coming in, got a mortgage, got a baby on the way, no health insurance, nothing. I need to act quickly and directly. And that was kind of the beginning launches of, okay, I already have a real estate business, sort of. I only have three investment properties. I'm really good at hospitality from my 10 years working in that industry as a sector. How can I combine this and really scale it to the way no one else is doing? So I took a quick scan around my environment and I realized that property management was a

fearful industry to get into for the uninitiated. People think of late tenant payments. They think of contractors, you know, taking advantage of them, taking a firm a ride. And I know where there is fear, there is opportunity. So I use my real estate expertise and my sales background in hospitality. I launched New England property management. And that was kind of the kickstarter to get the ball rolling to build that industry. And I had no connections, no referrals, no build and network. So I decided to go the Google ads route and just really create a killer funnel to try to get leads into the door. And lo and behold, I created a really compelling offer.

I started almost instantly getting some traction in the New York City region and slowly scale that business out to the point where we actually just sold just a couple weeks ago, I'm proud of say. And there's a lot in between here and now, which we can certainly get into. But that's a brief synopsis of how I got started in industry of almost a forced necessity. And thank God I did, Mike, because I would have still been in corporate America. You know, sometimes it takes that shove that we don't plan or have no control over. Like, for instance, I'm not going to get into my story, but my story is the exact same way as yours coming out of corporate America.

But it started in 2008 when the whole economic crisis housing hit because I was in the mortgage banking industry. And it's like, uh-oh. And so that started my story. But guess what we both did. You and I both did this. We took a bold step. we applied Tony Robbins Knai constant and never ending improvement. You take a step, you take a step, you learn, you tweak, you iterate, and then you improve

and improve. And then now look what you're doing here with success with class. You've achieved a certain level of success with class. And now you're teaching people. Now, does this mean that you have attained and will never improve again? I don't think you would think that. You're pretty much saying to people, hey, let's go through this jungle. I've got a 10-foot swath of path here with my machete.

I'm clearing the way, follow me. And we're going to do it together. And I'm going to point out the pitfalls of where I've learned from. And I think that is, to me, the epitome of true leadership in the sense of coaching and encouraging and motivating people. So I just love that origin story. Yeah, thank you, Mike. I couldn't agree more. You know, ever the learner, every day I try to obtain some knowledge.

I didn't have the day before. Yep, exactly. So now you have scaled three companies. You've sold this when you're getting ready to take your, you know, now your level of success with this new venture success with class. What is success with class? I mean, obviously it is, you know, striving to be successful, but is there a certain methodology that you follow that you then will be teaching your clients and students?

Absolutely. And I'll give you a quick background on the name of class. So I was a DJ for about 10 years. And as we quickly had a pow-wow before we hit record here, my last name is a tough Italian last name. And I noticed people having difficulty pronouncing it. So a buddy of mine named Anthony, he gave me the name Steve Class. He said, you're a pretty classy guy. We kind of merge your last name a little bit there.

And it's stuck. So I figured, yeah, carrying out the name was a cool concept that's been 10 years in the working. But to answer your question, basically I earned my battle scars. I went through this crazy journey of entrepreneurship of highs and lows, making every mistake you could imagine underneath the sun and building out these three businesses. And it really wasn't until just two years ago

that I noticed the system I implemented that I started at the scale. And that system comes in with having a really killer, purpose-driven sales and marketing funnel, where you're capturing someone's attention based on their pain points and building out a system that speaks to what their specific needs are. And the way I've done that is particularly into property management saying, I know that you're fearful of having eviction. We offer eviction guarantees.

I know you're fearful of potentially handling a bad contractor that's going to take you for a ride. We have our money-back guarantee that our contractors are vetted and preferred. So I built up this rapport in insurances before they even get on a phone call with me, based on this marketing campaign and having these really good, video sales letters or VSL letters that have gone out once someone submits an inquiry on our website. And I did that with intentionality. And as far as scalability purposes, I implement something that I would call cross-selling. I noticed as I was building out my property management company that was paying outside vendors multiple six figures to issue in this case repairs. So I would pay a handyman, a carpenter, a plumber to help during a turnover when a tenant moved out.

And I said to myself, huh, I bet I can internalize this based on the amount of money. I know I'm already paying these gentlemen and bring this in-house. And I did that by finding an excellent operator who happened to me, my father, who was in the construction in the 30 years experience. So I tapped into my own network here. I said, look, Dad, I can handle all the sales and marketing. I'll set them up for you to knock them down. And I encourage any other business owners listening if you can find a really good A-level player operator in any sphere of business that you want to expand on, that's been my key to success.

So instead of me giving strangers multiple six figures, now we were created a multiple six figure business overnight because we just switched off the faucet on them and turned it on for us. Yeah, the need was there and the money was already going out. You may as well put it in your pocket and have qualified, vetted people that probably was even delivering a level of service a little bit better. because you know the value that your dad or whoever that, you know, someone would pick. So I think that's a stellar point. For sure.

And you build out the hardest part in any relationship with a new client is the no like and trust factor. And if you already have that by building out that no like and trust when you first get a client onboarded, it's much easier now to sell them on a secondary product that is within your company's wheelhouse. So you can skip all the relationship side of it because you already have that really core foundation. And I was like, hey, by the way, we can control this process a lot better now by internalizing it. Are we good to kind of use our own contracts as do this work? As long as you're up front with them, 99% of my client said yes. And away we went off to the races.

So now you have one company feeding into the other. And that naturally led to a third company, which was real estate brokerage, because now I'm already imagining the property, already doing the construction. And the life cycle of real estate is that occasionally people have to sell or they want to cash out, especially in this market. which in the Northeast is still quite hot. So we open up the brokerage. And that's part of the core three that I teach and espouse to my coaching clients when we're really aiming for

is creating that really great sales and marketing funnel to then implement to get your foundation. And once we perfect your one product, then we can start expanding on your other products or services to really up the ante on any service-based entrepreneurs out there. And I would even suggest, based on what you just said, how do you know what the next offering would be?

Well, you listen. You listen to your current clients and you hear update, feedback, more pain points, and you're like, oh, yeah, that is frustrating. Hey, why don't I just fix that for you? Well, what do you mean? Well, if I could do blah, blah, blah, whatever.

And if you're fixing it for this client A, then you now can replicate that to all your clients because if client A has that problem or that need or that pain, then most people would. So I think that is spectacular. I want to dive in just a little bit deeper on where we're talking about here, pain points. So if you are launching something for a specific target market and you personally think, oh, the pain points are, you might be a little myopic and think, you know, the pain parts are

XYZ, but in reality, until you do a specific outbound research to your target audience, you might discover that there's some pain points that are like way more beneficial. How do you coach your clients to discover those pain points so that you can start building authoritative content around those to provide the solution? What a great question. And I would say there's two factors. And they both involve listening and gathering feedback. Yeah. I would say, number one, if you're having what I call a discovery call with a potential client and you're in front of them on a Zoom, maybe it's in person, rather than beating your own chest and saying how cool you are, like I'm the cool kid in the block.

These are all my features. This is why you should hire me. Be quiet. Listen. Ask pointing questions of like, what led you to have this phone call with me? What are you experiencing? In my industry, it could be maybe dealing with an eviction. Or maybe they're a real estate investor.

You're looking to expand their portfolio. Whatever the avenue happens to be, let them tell you, not you tell them. Because if you're, the more poignant questions you can ask, the more you're going to be peeling back this onion to get to the core problem. Because what I have encountered with other business owners on my coaching service is that everyone thinks they have a lead generation problem. But when you really start asking these questions, it's not the lead generation of getting clients in the door. Maybe it's the fulfillment or maybe it's the conversions. But until you start asking those questions, you're not going to have a clear-cut answer. And number two is if you're starting out of split testing, split test your ads, split test your cold outreach and your email marketing.

you'll start to see what has the bigger open rates, what gains more comments, what gains more traction, then that's the gem you need to say, aha, I'm on to something here. Let me pay a little bit closer attention to this. You know,

and I think it's like, like you said, it might not be a lead gen problem. It might be something else that it's like, oh yeah, and I would submit to you that it's a credibility issue. And there's a lot of solutions there,

and I provide credibility solutions. But here's what I would suggest that you are, or an observation that I'm sure you agree with, which is, when you listen and ask those questions, when you're asking pointed, deep, insightful questions, people don't feel like you're selling them. They feel like you're engaging them and asking their opinion. And when you can say, oh, that's a really good point. You know, what's important to you about whatever that is?

And then you're, okay, yeah, that's really good. And if you can go a few levels deep, not 27 levels, because now it's like, come on, and let's just talk. But if you can go, hey, Steve, that really is a great point. Now what's a point about that? And you get a couple three levels deep. Now all of a sudden, you realize that, you know, this one thing that they said surface level is not the real driver and the mover of the needle. The mover of the needle is so that I could take care of my kids because my dad lost his house for closure when I was 12 and I don't want that to happen to my kids.

Oh, now I've got something to really talk about. Exactly. Now there's meat on the bone, so to speak. I love that analogy, Mike. And it's also, I think of sales in this way, too. You shouldn't have to twist someone's arm to buy your services. It should be so intrinsic, so natural that they can't wait to use the service because you uncovered that problem that now you have the solution for because you went through

the notions of actually caring about your clientele and building this relationship. So I couldn't agree more with your statement. You know, have you ever heard of Jeffrey Gidimer, the speaker and writer? I haven't, but I'm going to definitely look him up after this. is done. Okay. So Gitomer, G-I-T-O-M-E-R. He's known for saying people love to buy, but they don't want to be sold. They want to learn enough about your thing and they want you to teach them enough about it with some good content, whatever that might look like, right? You know, videos or podcast or writing or whatever the case is, they want to research it and wrap their head around it so that then when they ask you some questions

and you aren't pushy that they can make a buying decision, but they don't want to be pushed and sold. And I think that's a huge piece that too many people are pushy and they use outbound techniques, not inbound techniques. And there's nothing wrong with outbound marketing, but pushy sales techniques, people don't relate to. And that doesn't mean that you just show them what you have and then, okay, call me if you need me. And then six months later or nothing, you need to be present and teach. But I think that it's that mentality of teaching and educating and being their advocate and going, hey, here's some things to consider. And now they can make that buying decision. I think the image of the used car salesman of that sloppy, ill-fitting suit is unfortunate that a lot of people have that idea for people in the sales industry.

Because as soon as they hear sales, that's the image that's produced in their mind. So our job is great entrepreneurs is to take that image away and really build up that no like and trust factor with our clients. And the only way we're going to do that is by uncovering what the real problem is and then building out a solution together. So they look forward to working with you to solve this problem. You know, you said no like and trust a couple times. And that resonates with me because in some of the work that I do with clients, I teach people how to really dial in your competitive advantage and then know who exactly your target audience is. And then I say, okay, let's talk about some strategic alliances.

And I explained it this way. Who already has the KLT factor with your target audience? The no like and trust. Because if you want to go after whatever, plumbers, architects, whatever the case is, and yeah, you can go directly to find them and open up conversations and all of that. But wouldn't it be so much more powerful to find a strategic alliance that already has the no like and trust with hundreds of those people? Now you're working both angles. And I think that it really is because Bob Berg is a wonderful writer.

He wrote the book Go Giver. And he's known for saying all things being equal, people want to do business with those that they know like and trust. Well, if everything centers around that from your approach, your demeanor, your teaching, your education, now that sets the stage to close the sale. But in reality, I would like to mentally take a pen and cross out the word close the sale because in reality, it's opening a relationship. Absolutely. And it's going to open a continuous relationship where hopefully it's not just transactional, where you're going to have these clients for hopefully years to come because your service keeps getting better and better and keeps expanding on what their specific needs are in that moment and time. That's the main goal, because you want to have this relationship now for five to ten years. Because as we know, client acquisition costs can be very pricey, as opposed to keeping a client and retaining them for a life cycle is much more beneficial. for a business owner. Now, you've mentioned a couple things like VSL and funnels and follow up. What are your thoughts around once you've articulated your solution to the problem your

target audience has? And then you've given them something, whatever it is, whether it's a video or a checklist or a blueprint or a webinar, whatever the case is, follow up. You know, we've heard it before, fortunes in the follow up and follow up until they buy or die. What is the frequency you recommend and the longevity? that you recommend. Absolutely. So let's assume this is a new inbound lead that comes in. I would say you build out a six to seven day purposeful campaign where it's videos of the owner or

whoever the BDM is of your company showcasing what your company is about, how your services can help this entrepreneur, whoever it is that your end user is, because we're building up that relationship before we get to that golden discovery call. And it should be a seven day campaign of, here are five common problems in your XYZ industry, and this is how we solve them. Or these are the number one three mistakes that, you know, plumbers make in their services. And it's just value add, value add,

without any ask in return other than to book a call with our team to learn more about the services. Once you have that and they're able to book the call, and let's say that they need more time they need to think it over, they need to speak to their partner, whatever it happens to be, that's not a problem. you better also have that follow-up campaign afterwards where it's constant value ad.

So rather than emailing someone saying, hey, do you think over my proposal and having that dry follow-up? Like, hey, here's a quick recap or our discussion. This was the problem that we uncovered. Here's three helpful tips to improve your problem. So you're going the extra mile of just kind of constantly building up that relationship and value add. And eventually, they're going to get sick and tired of your emails and say, hey, no, thanks. I don't have the income or the money or whatever it is. this, maybe this isn't the problem, or you're going to get them as a client.

And that's how you're going to really double those conversion rates, though, by constantly showing that. Because if you're good at follow-up, intrinsically, the client's going to know, like, hey, if they're this good at getting me as a client, they're probably going to be this good at fulfilling my need on the back end now. And that might be more subtle, but you're rather than just like, hey, great, I'll speak to you soon. And then six months later, you send like a follow-up email. What's the expectation now if I actually user service? Is that what it's going to be? That there's no real.

Are you too busy for me? Exactly. Exactly. So you're setting the tone immediately is what I always recommend of how this is how our business operates. And it needs to be valuable content. It needs to be, you know, like you've said, purposeful, intentional. It shouldn't just be junk and it shouldn't be daily or every other day. It needs to be something where you're just front and center and staying in touch with people.

And we can dive into the weeds of open rates. but one thing that I've also always said for years, a lot of people get bunched up about metrics like open rates on an email campaign. And I say it doesn't matter what the open rate is because if you are emailing someone and they see their inbox and they're going delete, delete, delete, and they see that split second, that email from you, they know who you are. And even if they delete it, they thought of you for that split second. And then at some point, they're going to open it up and then the next time they're going to read it, then the next time when they're ready, they give you calls.

So it's all about just keeping in touch. and you never know when someone is in a moment in their life where they're going to use your services. And I've had it where it's been two years of constant progressive nurturing campaigns before I actually hear back from the client. And they'll say, hey, I've been following your content for two years now. But my partnership just broke up with me. And now it's an ideal time to use your service or product. And it's like, wow, if I didn't have that. Good thing you stayed in touch.

Exactly. Yeah, glad we had this conversation going. I didn't even know you were following me, but thank you for your support. And just a lot of people, especially in service industries, they just don't have it. They operate off of referrals. And there's so much that's missing out on the marketing side and the sales side. And that's kind of what my core message is, is I know I can get you from here today. If you're stuck at 100K, there's a path forward to get you to a million dollars in gross revenue.

If we just tweak some of your systems in place. Well, Steve, it's been a real pleasure chatting with you. If someone is interested in finding out your systems, your proven systems for success. What's the best way that they can reach out and connect with you? So I'm going to give a great offer to any listener right now. I'm actually just about to release a book all about this stuff we discussed. It's called Service Business Mastery. So if you find me on Instagram, it's a Stevie Class. It's S-T-E-E-E-Y-C-L-A-S-S. And just DME, Mike Sothers MBA, or just Mike? How about that? I'll know it's from this show. And I'll send you a free PDF copy of the book. And then we can continue the conversation from there.

Awesome. Well, thank you so much. It's been a real pleasure chatting with today, Steve. It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. You've been listening to influential entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders. To learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes, Visit www. www. Influential EntrepreneursRadio.com.