EntreLeadership - #239: Top 10 EntreLeadership Podcasts of 2017

Starting point is 00:00:06 helping business leaders grow themselves, their team, and their profits. This is Andre Leadership. Now, here's your host, Ken Coleman. Coming to you from the Music City, this is the broadcast of leaders, by leaders, for leaders. Thank you so much for joining the conversation. Well, this is my favorite episode of the year. It is where our team gets together, and let's be honest, the team is, Eric, producer, myself, Will the Engineer.

Starting point is 00:00:34 and we don't let Will the engineer say a whole lot because he's kind of new. No, I kid, but we love this. And I think this is a great exercise for anybody as you look back on the year and you say, what were the best things of the year? So we do this in the form of a broadcast and what we feel like were the best conversations, but you can do this in any level of your business. Hey, what were the best wins, the best sales, whatever it is. This is a great exercise.

Starting point is 00:00:59 So we're going to give you 10 excerpts of our favorite conversations, There's no particular order as you hear them. It's not a ranking. It's just this is what we felt was such a big win for our audience based on your reaction. And then after the excerpts, you're also going to get one of our Main Street Leader conversations, a little bonus excerpt from those conversations that we have had over the year. Now, one note, and I'm going to walk you through this. We're going to get right to this.

Starting point is 00:01:28 I'm going to walk you through what episode it is. But if you're new to us or maybe you joined us halfway through, and you hear the episode, but maybe you forget because you're running, you're driving, wherever you're doing whatever you're doing. Snowplow, I guess nobody's cutting grass this time of year. But the point is, we have links to all these episodes that we're referencing in the show notes. Just go to Entreeleadership.com, click on podcast, and you'll be good to go. All right, let's do this.

Starting point is 00:01:55 Up first, well, this is beautiful. How do you not start with Seth Godin, one of the most, I think, brilliant thinkers that, the world knows in our current time. I mean, the guy's just so, so smart. Episode 2.10. And this is a great clip to listen to as you are about ready to step in to a new year. Embracing change. This conversation is a great wake of call. I want to stay here for a second on what you just said, this idea of picking the $20 bill up, paying attention to what's going on, patterns for the small business owner or just any business, owner in the game of business. How is that a competitive advantage? How can they turn that concept

Starting point is 00:02:41 into a competitive advantage to make sure they're paying attention to patterns in their own space? Well, you know, you use the phrase game of business and I'm really glad you did because the people who are followers of Dave who come to events like these have decided that they are playing a game in the sense that they would like to move up. They would like to roll double sixes, that they would like to change things. And that's a very tiny portion of the world's population. And this explains why it's so difficult to get people to learn things now that learning is free, now that learning is widespread. Access to learning is there, but people are still standing there, tapping their foot saying, yeah, but if I can't learn it in three seconds, I'm going on in the next thing. And I think where this brings

Starting point is 00:03:32 is back to the $20 bill stuff, you know, two university professors, I think they're from Duke, are walking down the quad, and they're both economics professors, and they pass a $20 bill lying on the ground, and the first professor walks right on by. And the second one asked the first one, who's a professor of free market economics, why didn't you pick up the $20 bill? And the guy says, well, it's obviously fake, because if it was a real $20 bill, someone would have picked it up already. And that's the story we tell ourselves when we don't want to engage with ideas that stress us out, when we don't want to engage with the possibility of change. We tell ourselves the story, well, it can't be any good. I should just go back to my day job.

Starting point is 00:04:15 When in fact, your day job at this level is to change your day job. That's what you're supposed to be working on. How do you learn a technique or see a pattern or sign up for course that's going to change the way you deal with people or money or processes or inventory because the only way things are going to get better is if you do them differently. Change creates an environment where you're not an expert. So if you don't like the feeling of incompetence, you will fight the feeling of change. And we see this all the time. We see this in the high school principal who's new on the job or the high school principal has been there for 30 years. In both cases, that person says, well, we don't do it that way around here.

Starting point is 00:05:02 They're saying that not because they don't care. They're saying that because they like being competent. And if you hire people to be competent, why are you surprised that when you bring change to the office, they push back. You hired them to be competent. And so my argument is if you acknowledge that change opens doors and takes you where you might want to go, or even if you acknowledge that change is out of your control and it's going to happen with or without you, then getting comfortable with the feeling of being incompetent is one of the most important things you can do. So that's huge. And so leaders have got to keep putting themselves in a position to, I guess it's liberate the people on the team. Hey, you're going to make some mistakes because we're going to a place we've not been before.

Starting point is 00:05:52 That's really embracing the messiness. Is that what you're telling us? Well, it's a big part of it. And we end up because people are afraid, misdefining mistake, right? So what happens is someone becomes sloppy, someone becomes disrespectful. And they say, hey, boss, you told me I can make mistakes. Well, no, we both know that's not the kind of mistake we meant. The kind of mistake we mean is the generous one, the brave one, the one that leads to learning. Then when you're using your best judgment and it turns out your best judgment is wrong, you've just learn something and now your judgment becomes better. That's the kind of mistake we're talking about. So if you look at a hyper-success successful company like Starbucks, Starbucks was in the music business, then they weren't. Starbucks was in the bakery business, then they weren't. Starbucks was in the business selling wine at night and then they weren't.

Starting point is 00:06:43 These are mistakes. So is that a good thing or bad thing? Well, if you measure almost anything about Starbucks, it's easy to acknowledge. It's a good thing because overall their hits are better than their misses and they thrive. Or if I look at someone like John Hammond, the great ANR guy from the music business, he discovered Aretha Franklin and Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan in one career. But what people don't mention is the 250 artists he discovered who were total clunkers. So what do marketers do?

Starting point is 00:07:20 what we do is intentionally cause a change to happen in someone's state. We make them feel seen, or we make them feel like they are part of something, or we make them feel like they're taking a risk and swinging through the air, that we get to choose what state we are trying to cause. And I think we've got to be clear that that's what we're doing. Up next, Chris Beres-Brown. Now, this is fun for me because we love introducing you to people who maybe you've never heard of. Now, some of you may have heard of Chris, but the reality is I had never

Starting point is 00:07:54 heard of Chris. And we get presented all the time, Eric and I, with books and publicists are hitting us on a regular basis. By the way, I got to say this. Eric, the producer, is sitting literally three feet away from me today in the studio. We're in our new Entree Leadership Studio. It's fantastic. I love it. So he's not behind the glass. He's right here. So I might talk to him a little bit, which you may not hear him very well, but he's literally three feet away. And he smells fantastic, by the way. So we get, what would you say, Eric, three, four emails at least a day or every couple of days from publicist pitching us on stuff. Okay. So we get this book from Chris. So in episode 181, we discussed escaping a life on autopilot. This was a conversation that I really enjoyed. It was so refreshing and so many of you loved it. Here's a big challenge. Do not let wonder digress. Well, I've spent many years now helping big businesses get better at creative leadership so that they can think more differently, more dynamically about the future.

Starting point is 00:08:57 And what I've realized over the time is you can't really be a good creative leader unless you're a conscious leader. And so many of my clients, they wake up in the morning, they probably check their mail in bed, and they carry on doing so as they brush their teeth. And the next time they are conscious and aware of who they are and what's going in their world is actually when they're back in bed in the evening. because life is just going so fast, they're just on a train. And it just struck me that actually it was very, very difficult for me to get these guys to be really good at creativity unless I got them to be more conscious, more alive, and more awake.

Starting point is 00:09:29 And I realized that actually so much of our life is actually dominated by habitual thinking and habitual behaviors that I figured there must be a way to break out of that. Yes. I think what we need to be able to do is leaders that stand back and say, what's needed here, which is my favorite question for a leader. and it's impossible to do that when you're running at 100 miles and out. Personally, what I would do is I would have times of day to change gears. So if in doubt, one of my favorite creative techniques, which we have now exported to the likes of Coca-Cola and Nike and Unilever and all these people,

Starting point is 00:10:01 and they love it, is a walking-talking creative technique where you just go out in a pair. One of you rants about the issue that you're having ideas on as the other one just listens. And if you rant for seven and a half minutes flat out really, really fast, Eventually, you run out of conscious story and you start to say stuff that comes from your subconscious. Now, when you're talking, it might be rubbish. It might not be true. You know, it might not be smart at all.

Starting point is 00:10:25 It doesn't matter. Every now and again, you'll say something interesting and you'll notice that because you have a physical reaction. Those are the things you write down. And I can guarantee if you do that, you will get a better perspective really fast. You will get some insight. And a lot of you will find you get ideas more readily than sitting in any room with a flip chart having a brainstorm. So go for a walk. All right.

Starting point is 00:10:43 So go with somebody who can record the thoughts alongside of you because it's a rant. It's just dump your brain until you're done. Exactly. And all you need to note down is three or four things that you say in that seven and a half minutes that could be interesting. You don't need to know why they're interesting. You just know they said something that created a reaction in you or in them. Are we strict on the seven and a half minutes? Do you know, a lot of people say, why seven and a half minutes?

Starting point is 00:11:07 It does sound very scientific. But what we tend to find is 10 minutes. people tend to run out of energy. So that's a bit too far. If you do like three, four minutes, you often don't run out of conscious story. So we know that it was seven and a half minutes. If you push it hard enough, most people have enough time using their subconscious and therefore making more stuff up. So seven and a half minutes seems to be the sweet spot. But I encourage the listeners to just experiment and see what works for them. I'm going to tell you something right now. I'm making a note. I'm telling Eric the producer right now that I'm going to do this. He

Starting point is 00:11:39 and I are going to go on some walks, and I cannot wait to rant for seven and a half minutes. I'm curious about this, though, is there something about that first three, four, five minutes where that's superfluous and then somehow it comes out, or do you also get some great stuff early on? I imagine it's not exclusive to later in the seven and a half minutes, correct? It's not exclusive, but what tends to happen is with any project you're working on, you have a conscious story in your brain. And obviously, your conscious brain is anywhere between, you know, five and maybe 10% of your overall processing.

Starting point is 00:12:10 So whilst you're telling that story, you're only accessing a small fraction of your genius. So it tends to take a little while just to get through that. And then I kind of liken it to taking a cork out of a champagne bottle. If you speak fast enough, eventually it goes pop. And then the subconscious bubbles up, as it would in champagne. And every now and again, it's a bubble that's interesting. Every now and again, it's no use whatsoever. it does often take a little time to get the call count. I am beside myself right now. I am so excited.

Starting point is 00:12:42 Chris, I've just named it. This is going to be in the name of my process. I'm going to throw it out there. Tell me if you like it. You can be honest. And the listeners, you come over there. But I'm going to call it, it's time for me to bubble over. Oh, there we go. I'm having it. I mean, I've been calling it to talk it out, but you're doing much better than me. I think so. I've got to tell you, I'm a little proud of myself right now. And equally as excited to try it. I think this is fantastic, Chris. I got to tell you, I'm absolutely out of my mind excited. Eric, we're going to call it bubbling over. It's time for me to bubble over, and we know what that means from now on.

Starting point is 00:13:14 So there it is, folks. Come up with your own phrase. I think this is, so you're saying you've done this with, you mentioned Coca-Cola, other big-time companies. These people are doing this regularly, and they're getting results. It's a fantastic way to start processing on any brief. We use it when we're cracking something that's difficult. We're using it when we have, you know, a client that can't quite articulate what their brief is. It's a fantastic way to get things moving.

Starting point is 00:13:36 And I wrote about this in my first book back in 2006, and it is still a staple of the work that we do because it's so human, it's so natural. You need no planning, no preparation, off you go. Okay, one thing before we get to our next excerpt, this little bubble over thing that I kind of was just brainstorming in the middle of the conversation, here's what we'd love for you to do.

Starting point is 00:13:59 If you have tried the bubble over technique, or as you listen to this, you go, I think I might want to try this. And you do try it. We want you to let us know. We'd love to hear how you're using it. What has come of it? This is the feedback we love because we want to celebrate you. So just go to entreleadership.com slash podcast and go to this episode, the compilation best of episode here. And put your comments there in the show notes. Up next, Jock Willink. This was episode 2.20. The discipline advantage.

Starting point is 00:14:35 And by my calculations, Eric, Jocko has made best of two years in a row. Is this true? That is true. Only one. Okay. So if you don't know who Jocko is, retired Navy SEAL commander, this is a guy. When we talk about life and death, he actually understands what this means. It's not something we experienced in the movies.

Starting point is 00:14:53 This guy gets it. He has a very wildly popular podcast as well. Jock Willink. This is our conversation with Jocko. I want you to talk to leaders right now about developing other leaders. What can we learn from the military about preparation, readiness, teaching, guiding, pushing out there, letting them begin to lead on their own so that you're constantly moving men up the ranks. I think that's something that we can really admire and take from the military.

Starting point is 00:15:22 So in a corporate or small business setting, what can we learn from the military on? Developing leaders. If I want somebody to step up into a leadership position, I'm going to put them in a leadership position. I'm going to move them up. I'm going to bring them to a spot, probably just outside their comfort zone, maybe even just outside their capability, but I'm going to put them in a position where they're going to start to lead things.

Starting point is 00:15:44 And if you want to develop leaders, put them in leadership positions. That's what you do. And I'll tell you what, this doesn't only work with the good guys, your front runners, your high potential people. I've done this with problem children of mine in the past, guys that weren't performing well, negative attitude. you know, thinking that they could run things better. I said, oh, well, you know, you got an attitude like you can run things better.

Starting point is 00:16:06 That's great. I need people that can run things better. Why don't you step up and take control of this next mission? And we'll see how that goes for you. And I'll tell you what, one of two things is going to happen. Either one, they're going to realize that it's a lot harder than they thought. They're going to get humbled and they're going to ask for help, which is a positive thing. Or they're not going to ask for help because their ego gets in the way.

Starting point is 00:16:27 And they're going to fall flat on their face, which is also humbling, which is also a cure for arrogance and bad attitude. So both those solutions work out pretty well. Okay, I love this. I want to stay here for a minute because I want to play the cynic. I absolutely agree with what you're saying. But we get people listening and watching right now, they're going, wait a second, Jock, they're not ready.

Starting point is 00:16:51 I don't know if they're ready. You're telling me to put them in there in leadership and I don't know if they're ready. Why? Yeah. Now, of course, when you put it, them in there, you monitor, you pay attention. You're not, you're not putting them in there, you know, shut in the door and let me come back two weeks later and see what happened in the, in the office. No, that's not what I'm talking about. But you do need to give them enough to

Starting point is 00:17:12 room to maneuver, enough room to learn. You can't just be the easy button. And the first question, you know, when I was a task unit commander, so when I was in charge of two seal platoons, so, you know, sometimes my platoon commanders would come in and ask me a question, you know, hey, hey, jockel, how do you think we should, we should do this operation? Or what do you think I should do with this guy in this situation? And I said, get out of my office. Go figure that out. You're a platoon commander. Go figure that out. You tell me what you want to do and come back and I'll tell you if I

Starting point is 00:17:39 agree with you or not. And that is the way you train people, because if you're the easy button for your team, guess what? They're going to get trained and conditioned to use that easy button. And not really going to come to you with everything, they're also not really learning to make decisions for themselves. So even though you're playing a little devil's advocate, the solution still holds true for sure. You want to be a lot. you want to get these people into those leadership positions. Again, do you want to risk huge capital or clients that, you know, when I assign a guy to lead a project, that's a huge client that we've never worked with before and I want to knock it out of the park? Would I assign a new leader

Starting point is 00:18:14 to take that job instead of the experience one? No. But if I had a small client coming on board and, you know, we didn't see much potential, but I wanted to give these guys, you know, a shot, I would put a new guy in charge of that. And then I'd go ahead and closely monitor him and make sure that if he was going to fall flat on his face, I wouldn't let him do it. I'd maybe let him step out of the lines a little bit. Then I'd bring him back in the lines and make sure he's moving forward. I love the approach of what you're giving to us because it goes back to the first part of our conversation, which is buy-in. When you send that platoon leader back out and say, you come up with your own plan, then tell me your plan, then I'll speak into it. What you are doing

Starting point is 00:18:51 is you are empowering that young man to begin to use his unique perspective, his skills, through his way he sees things. And now all of a sudden you've got a stronger hole because you've got multiple voices when you really need them. Is that right? Am I learning that there? Am I connecting the dots? You're absolutely learning it right. And there's an added benefit to this. If you come up with a plan, when you bring it back to me, I have a detached look at it. I have a higher altitude view. I'm going to see things that I wouldn't have seen if I had been in the room, staring at the maps and the charts this close. I'm not going to see everything.

Starting point is 00:19:32 But when I let you plan it, it's like, you know, everybody watching football on Sunday afternoon up in the stands, they see what the coach should be saying, when they see what the players should be doing. Because they're not in the game. Of course, it's different when you're in the game. And that's the same thing with planning missions and planning operations and planning projects.

Starting point is 00:19:49 If you get so close into the game and you're on the field and you're shooting and moving or you're blocking and tackling yourself, you can't really have the very. that you need as a leader to make the call and see things that the guys on the field aren't able to see. All right, folks, we can't talk about our best of 2017 episodes without talking about the resources, the tools that the Entry leadership team has given you. They're absolutely free.

Starting point is 00:20:14 We give you one every episode. And so what were the ones that were the most popular? Simply put, you engage the most. The feedback was, hey, this helped me a lot. And so we're going to give a bundle. away. So one download. It's not a real bundle. It's a digital bundle. We're going to give you the top three resources. One is the Entre Leaders Guide to Delegation. Now, Jocco just talked about how important it is to understand and execute properly when it comes to delegation. The second tool, leadership growth

Starting point is 00:20:46 assessment, how to develop leaders within your team. This is a systematic chart and resource to help you assess your team and future growth. And then the third resource, the ultimate Entree leadership reading guide, 50 books, every small business owner needs to read. Now, one caveat, you don't have to be a small business owner to want to read this list. You just want to be better. This book list is fantastic. So all you got to do to get this digital bundle, text one phrase, no space right here, 2017-2017, 2017 Tools, 2017 Tools, 2017 Tools, Text that one phrase to 3344. Text that one phrase to 3344. 3344.344. Or if you'd like, just click on the link for this great digital download in the show notes at at entreleadership.com. Go to this episode. Shut it down. Episode 216, Rescue Your Business. Our next

Starting point is 00:21:44 excerpt comes from John Taffer. This is where I took Will the Engineers Shut It Down button and had honestly, entirely too much fun. But I loved it. you did as well. Of course, you love the conversation, not me messing around with the shut it down button. But honestly, who doesn't need a shut it down button in their life? So, you know, when we talk about practical takeaways from conversations, this one was just chock full. If you've ever seen the show, Bar Rescue, well, then you know who John Taffrey is. If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor, go see it. But this conversation was a lot of fun. And again, really, really practical. And in the interview that you're going

Starting point is 00:22:24 to hear, John provided a great exercise for restaurants to conduct with very limited budget allocation. It's really brilliant. It's called the Red Napkin Program. And even if you don't have a restaurant, there are principles in this exercise that you can learn from. You will enjoy this. When you walk into a situation, I love this, four days you're shooting. Yeah. And there's an untold amount of interruptions. So it's really less than four days. Yes. So you're in there. What are you looking for? And here's why I'm asking this question. Because I want for a moment for our leaders and business owners who are listening in right now, folks, when we're listening to John, I want you to take what he's saying and then translate it to you.

Starting point is 00:23:06 I want you to put on John Taffer glasses, if you will. So, John, when you walk in day one, you know you've got a failing situation that you're trying to help turn around. What specifically are many upfront, very important items that you're looking for? Well, you know, there's the basic things in a bar business. obviously you can walk in and there can be an odor that tells you everything. Right. It can be a visual disaster that tells you everything. But, you know, the first two things I typically look at is organization and structure.

Starting point is 00:23:37 And that might surprise people. But if there's a structure and an organization, that tells me there's an engaged owner. If there is no structure, no organization or no standards, that tells me I have an unengaged owner. And every failing business has a failing owner. So I always land at where is the individual failure within this business model. And let me take a second to define standards if I can because often we don't really understand what a standard is. A standard is a measurement's performance that are qualifiable.

Starting point is 00:24:10 This is what I want you to do. Quantifiable. This is when I want you to do it. And verifiable, I'm going to make sure you do. And those are the elements that in fact define a standard. If you don't have all three, then we have nothing. I'm going to go to a question from Jason. And I thought for a moment, John, that I was going to ignore this question and go with some others.

Starting point is 00:24:29 But it's so specific. And I think it's so realistic for the small business owner. Jason says if you have $15,432. I love that he went to $432,000 to spend on advertising marketing for the year. So that's not a lot of money. Small business here. where would you recommend he spend that money? Well, let me share a couple of things we did

Starting point is 00:24:56 that few people really talk about in a restaurant business. If somebody comes to a restaurant for the first time and has a great experience, the statistical likelihood of a second visit is under 40%. If you come to that restaurant a second time and have another flawless experience, the statistical likelihood of the third visit is about 42, 43%.

Starting point is 00:25:16 If you come for a third visit, the statistical likelihood of a fourth visit is now over 70%. Wow. So smart restaurateurs market to three visits, not one. Because three visits can get you into a lifestyle cycle. And think about it. You've been to many restaurants.

Starting point is 00:25:33 You've had a wonderful time. But, you know, it just didn't get into your life cycle. So you never went back again. You would, but you just don't think about it. It's out of sight out of mind. So what we do is, you know, the average cost of a new customer through traditional media, and it varies by market. It can be anywhere from 20 to 100.

Starting point is 00:25:50 $20. When you start advertising in traditional newspapers, traditional radio, traditional television, et cetera, gets expensive. So what we do is we put together a three-step program. We call it the Red Napkin program. Let's say that you have the best tacos in town and they're famous. We would actually create a postcard. We have the best tacos in town.

Starting point is 00:26:12 We're so sure of it, present this for a completely free taco. You look on the card. It doesn't say you have to be with somebody making extra money, no restrictions, none of that. You come in with the card. As you enter the restaurant, the hostess says, Hi, have you been here before? You say, no, it's my first visit. Once she sits you down, she puts a red napkin in front of you. You're a pretty smart guy, can you look around the room? Everybody else is white napkins. You got a red one. You ask the waiter when he comes to the table. Why do I have a red napkin? Ah, we always like the tag new customers. So welcome. We're really happy

Starting point is 00:26:42 to have you here for your first time. And you say, I'm here for my free taco. You have the free taco. As you're getting ready to leave, the manager comes up to the table. He knows because you have a red napkin. Says, how's the tacos? Absolutely unbelievable. You know what? You got to have our burrito. I write on the back of a business card.

Starting point is 00:26:59 $5 off burrito. Come back, please. Now I connected with the customer he leaves. Higher statistical likelihood of a second visit because of that handwritten business card for the $5 off burrito. Three days later, he comes in for his free burrito. Everybody knows second visit on table 104

Starting point is 00:27:15 because he has a burrito card. At the end of that visit, manager hits the table against us. How was it? It was great. I am stuffed. Outstanding. He goes, you know what? Next time I want to buy a piece of cheesecake. Here you go. Now they've come three times and the statistical likelihood of a fourth visit is 72%. Think about this. The free taco, let's say, cost a dollar. The $5 off burrito was break even. And let's say the cheesecake was a dollar. So with the postcard, I spent a total of $3 for a new customer. But two of the $3. I didn't spend until they come. Now, people get addicted to discounts and media is very,

Starting point is 00:27:55 very expensive. If you use this three-visit approach and target a few hundred people in your marketplace, you completely change the sales dynamic of your restaurant. That's the way to market a restaurant. Yes, it is. And boy, boy, is that not budget-friendly as well, folks. My goodness, that's a brilliant, brilliant plan. For his $15,000, he could really target, you know, or 5,000 local people, get them in three times and change the entire course of his restaurant. Yeah, I once heard Seth Godin refer to Kevin Kelly, who's a futurist, and Kevin Kelly wrote a long article on this idea of 1,000 true fans is all you need to succeed in any business. I mean, let's just boil that down to this example.

Starting point is 00:28:37 If you're spending that 15,000 and out of it, you get 1,000 true fans of your restaurant. You are winning big, yes? Oh, absolutely. And today, through social media, if you're good, you go into their social media pages and you connect with their friends and you build a whole online community, which brings me to another interesting topic. There's three things to marketing almost any business. And when I was young, Ken, I had an experience that changed my life. I was general manager of a hotel, small holiday in hotel. And I was struggling with labor costs and marketing costs like everybody else's in an independent business too.

Starting point is 00:29:12 And every month I'm trying to shave an hour off labor and trying to shave energy costs and I'm fighting and I'm fighting and fighting under expenses. And somebody walks in and guys, gives me this idea for a promotion. I did it. Make a long story short, my revenue went up by about 30%. And for the first time, I didn't have a labor cost problem. I didn't have a marketing expense problem. And I learned when I was about 24 years old that revenue cures everything. everything is cured by revenue.

Starting point is 00:29:44 So I became a revenue nutcase at a young age, Kent. So when I take a look at revenue and marketing in almost any business, there's only three things. New customers, customer frequency, and how much they spend. That's all we've got. So the program that you and I just described, A, got them through the door and established some frequency from them. But the average business, and I'm speaking in a broad stroke sense here, if the average business can increase customer transactions by one time a month, that's about a 12% increase in revenue.

Starting point is 00:30:19 We don't work frequency as a separate thing, and new customers is a separate thing. And spend is a separate thing in the independent business world. And that's a real disadvantage. We need to know that. A, how many people coming through my door clicking through? If that number isn't going up, then I have a serious problem. Two, how often do they walk through my door, click through, buy my products, etc.? Three, how much are they spending every time they do?

Starting point is 00:30:46 If I don't know those three questions that you're not managing revenue, you're just accepting revenue. Wow. Like I said, 1,000 true fans is all you need. What a great challenge going into 2018. Big thanks to John. and that is so worth rewinding, listening again and sharing. Could you imagine, by the way, John Taffer in your business for four days? The only thing that would make John Tafer following you around for four days better

Starting point is 00:31:16 is if I was following John and I had to shut it down button. All right, up next, David Allen, maybe the most enjoyable voice of anybody I've ever interviewed. Just going to throw that out there, a little small distinction there. episode 184, getting strategic with your personal productivity. All right, so this is basically round number two for systems, this time for your productivity. And when it comes to time management, David Allen is on the Mount Rushmore. He's a scholar when it comes to systems.

Starting point is 00:31:49 High-level executives are paying this guy a lot of money to help them organize their lives. As David says, your head is a crappy office to hold ideas. So if you implement the weekly review that David discusses and prescribes, your life will change. So take note of this really valuable wisdom. How do I get things off my mind so that I create space internally to be free to focus on what I want to focus on the way I want to focus on it? Yes. The cognitive scientist has basically just validated what I discovered 30 years ago and have validated for thousands of hours working with some of the best. and brightest people on the planet, which is your head is a crappy office.

Starting point is 00:32:35 It's just a crappy office. It's so true. You keep things in your head. Anything you've got just in your mind, whether that's, should I get a dog or should I buy the company? And if that's only in your mind, you will give it either more importance than it deserves or less importance than it deserves if it's in your head. It will bang around like a pinball and a bad pinball machine.

Starting point is 00:32:54 Your head just is not designed for that. Your head's for having ideas, but not for holding them. Most people work, but don't realize that they're. is an art to work. Managing the flow of life's work is really what this is about. It's not a one-time time management tips and tricks, but it's really about how do you manage through your life and all the stuff that you wind up being involved in and, you know, staying clear of it and not creating residue. Yeah, hey, I want to interrupt you. I want to interrupt you and tell the audience one thing. This is a call out of this chapter because it's so beautiful what you just said. You say you can only put your

Starting point is 00:33:30 conscious attention on one thing at a time. If that's all that has your attention, your in flow. Sorry to interrupt, but I wanted to interject it in there because that's what you're driving at. Right. And the problem is, is most people are trying to do something, but something else is bugging them. Something else is bothering them. Something else is on their mind. They're worried about it. They're taking home to work. They're taking work to home. They're taking one meeting emotionally into the next. I mean, people are walking around with just this the old cartoon, the old pig pin, you know, that just walked around with this cloud of stuff just going around. I mean, people are just, that's my experience with most professionals out there.

Starting point is 00:34:05 They're just walking around all those flies buzzing around in their brain. And I just figured out the algorithm about how you quiet that noise without actually having to finish those things, but you have to be appropriately engaged with them. So creating appropriate engagement is really how you get into flow. Yeah, let's stay there for a second because you, Chapter 8 is all about reflecting, keeping it all fresh and functional. So teach us a little bit on this idea of reflecting because it's one of the major points in the book.

Starting point is 00:34:32 Ken, quite frankly, it is the biggest need for executives, for senior people, for entrepreneurs is to give themselves time to stop and hold the world back. Walk around the Rose Garden, stare at your day, we'll figure out your life purpose. Yeah, that's good stuff to do too. But I'm talking about more of an operational kind of a review. That's probably the most lacking thing.

Starting point is 00:34:51 You know, I talk about the weekly review is we've discovered over all these years is probably the most critical kind of a view to build in. All that really backs itself back up to. Well, what am I trying to do? Is this part of the bigger game? What's the importance of this to me?

Starting point is 00:35:05 Do I allocate resources to it? And how do I do that? And so that requires some sort of a reflection process. Now, anybody who looks at their calendar is doing a reflection process. If you looked at your calendar and say, oh, I got this interview with David Allen, you just step back and did some version

Starting point is 00:35:19 of a lift up a little bit, look across space and time, and say, okay, here's now where I need to be and what I need to be doing. That's a reflection process. But a lot of people review on a daily basis. They look at their calendar and they look at their to-do list, et cetera. And a lot of people have big goals and so forth in a longer horizon. But it's that in-between thing, all those projects that most people have in terms of

Starting point is 00:35:42 checking status on that, how are you doing about hiring the VP, how are you doing about planning the next vacation, how you're doing about reorganizing your senior team? And those kinds of things, which we call projects, that are going to take more than one step to get closure on and stepping back and reviewing that inventory. And most people listening to this have somewhere between 30 and 100 of those things that we've seen over all these years. Very few people have that list or have that inventory. And very even fewer people are actually looking at that on a regular basis and keeping that current. But man, that makes such a difference. That's a game changer in terms of you feeling comfortable about your priority decisions.

Starting point is 00:36:19 So you don't have time to think. You need to have already thought. That's right. You need to have built in a thinking process. We suggest a two hours a week. You know, you really need to close the door and stop doing social media. Stop. Don't answer the phone.

Starting point is 00:36:33 Don't check email. Take two hours and step back and take a look at the inventory of all of your commitments, all the stuff that's going on, check status on all that. Easier said than done. You know, it's quite a habit to build in if you don't have it already, but a critical one. All right. The other Chris that I did not know about prior to his book coming across my desk, Chris Voss, episode 180, negotiating as if your life depended on it.

Starting point is 00:37:00 I'm going to go ahead and tell you this, whether Eric the producer likes it or not, this was my personal favorite. And not in any other way than just I really enjoyed, I'm always learning on behalf of you folks. When I meet you at live events or we communicate online, you tell me many times it's the highest compliment that I could get, that you feel like I'm learning the same time you are. And by the way, that's true. That's very authentic. It's why you feel it. This one was my favorite.

Starting point is 00:37:26 I was looking for opportunities to negotiate. I even thought about getting a police scanner and inserting myself into some criminal situations to see if I could help. And my wife thought that that might not be a good idea. I think you can tell I'm very disappointed about it still. But anyway, Chris Voss, former FBI hostage negotiator, gave us some incredible. radical tactics that you can learn from. It was very hard to choose what we're going to play for you. So we're going to give you what we give you.

Starting point is 00:37:56 And by the way, the entire Ramsey Solution Sales Team is going through this book after it aired. So this is a great book. Just a little note here for your sales team. You don't think that at first, but it really, really is. So here you go. Some keys to unlocking expertise from someone who has literally had to negotiate for another person's life. Well, you become the smartest person in the room.

Starting point is 00:38:19 when you start tapping into other people's brains, you know, when you realize that collectively, if I can steer the thought processes, then if I understand who's doing the work and where the burden is, I will look like the smartest guy in a room. And that boils down to very strategically timed questions, open into questions, which sounds ridiculously stupidly simplistic. And that's what I love about that, because you can really sandbag some people, if need be. How am I supposed to do that is the ultimate, said innocently, of course, said innocently, is the ultimate way to stop somebody dead in their tracks. The charging rhino of the assertive negotiator is coming at you with his head down and getting ready to impale you and you stop them. They're so perplexed by it. I do exactly

Starting point is 00:39:09 what Bob did. He kind of, he looked at me and he kind of blinked for a couple seconds. He was puzzled. No idea what I've just done to him. I've stopped the rhino in his tracks. then I proceeded to ask innocently, deferentially, there's great power in deference. You know, I ask him, look, how am I supposed to pay if I don't know my son's alive? And I know where this is going, and I know that I now,

Starting point is 00:39:33 I burden him with the problem. Burden the problem creator with the problem. They feel very empowered by it. I mean, that's how you become the smartest person in the room. You, first of all, you don't want to be the guy who wants to show off. You become the smartest person in the room by understanding a strategy where we immediately tap into everybody's brain.

Starting point is 00:39:53 They feel included. They feel empowered. They have no idea that you're actually in charge. The other side's dying to talk. They're dying to have their say. And, you know, they love us when they're talking. Now, the secret to gaining the upper hand in a negotiation is to give the illusion of control. And the very control-oriented person, and most negotiators are horrified if they're not talking,

Starting point is 00:40:17 because they feel out of control. So I'm like, all right, so I'm going to guide you. I'm going to let you have my way. I'm going to let you talk yourself into my gig. And I'm going to need to keep you talking, which means I'm going to need to be comfortable letting you talk and understanding. I'll do different things.

Starting point is 00:40:36 One of the things that I love the most, and we kind of get into it very quickly in the next chapter is this mirror technique. Now, mirroring is not mirroring body language. You know, if you're sitting there with your right hand, to your chin. I'm not going to put my right hand to my chin. A hostage negotiators mirrors a little different. It's so simple. Nobody thinks it'll work until they try it. And then some people are addicted to mirroring. And it's repeating the last three words of what someone has just said. What someone has just said? Yeah. What someone has just said. Repeating the last three words

Starting point is 00:41:07 of what they just said. And there are certain ways that I can't explain why the brain functions this way, but it creates a bridge. It creates a connection. It gets the other person, want to keep talking. And they almost can't help themselves. And the bank robbery that I negotiated in, we had a guy on the other side who was absolutely determined to give away no information to keep the upper hand and to escape at the end of the day. And I started mirroring him and he couldn't stop himself.

Starting point is 00:41:36 He was probably the most manipulative negotiator I ever came across, maybe tied with the most manipulative guy. And every time I mirrored him, I said, you know, we found a van outside. And he says, I don't have a van. I said, you don't have a van? He says, yeah, well, you chase my driver away. I said, I chase your driver away? He says, yeah, well, when he saw the police, he cut and run.

Starting point is 00:41:58 What he just did in that conversation when I mirrored him each time was he did what we call vomited information, which told us about a third accomplished that we had no idea at that point in time was even involved. And which means also by telling us about this third accomplice, he gave us a third accomplice, he gave us another witness against him, which was the last thing he wanted to do. But the mere technique got him talking, and he couldn't stop himself. I've actually seen, I heard somebody do this a long time ago to Howard Stern, so I thought that was interesting. So this is perfect.

Starting point is 00:42:34 Let's fast forward in the chapter five. It's entitled, Trigger the two words that immediately transform any negotiation. And here's the subtitle, which I actually think is so much more powerful. How to gain the permission to persuade. I feel like that's where we're at in the conversation. Now we're down that path to getting permission, emotional permission, intellectual permission from the other side to allow us to persuade them, whether we're selling or buying, we're persuading. So how do we do that?

Starting point is 00:43:04 Yeah, and those two words are that's right. And that sounds amazingly unsatisfying to hear that's right from the other side. you know, when we want to hear yes, you know, we're dying for yes. And the original chapter of the book was actually, yes is the last thing you want to hear. What do you want to hear first? You want to hear that's right. I mean, you know, getting us back into presidential politics, whichever side of the aisle that you were on, when you were watching the presidential debates, when your candidate said something that you completely and totally agreed in, you pointed at the TV and you said, that's right. That's what we say when we're completely in line with the speaker, with the person that we are communicating with.

Starting point is 00:43:49 We don't say, the flip side is, we don't say you're right. Your right is what we say to someone that we're trying to maintain a relationship with, but we just want them to shut up. And, you know, one of my favorite talks, because, you know, whether we're focused on small business owners, whether we're focused on people that are just rising stars that are dying to get better. I'm sitting at a dinner the other night, and the head of a company says, man, and I just met him that night. I had no idea who it was. He says, oh, my God. He said, I bought your book. It says, you have no idea how you saved me.

Starting point is 00:44:22 I'm sitting around talking with my senior executives the other day because they are not executing the way that I wanted them to execute. And I'm laying out the strategy. And in the midst of laying it out, one of the senior guys looked at me and said, Tim, you're right. and he said if I didn't know what that really met, I would have thought I would have met my objective and they would have gone out and executed. Instead, what I realized when they said, you're right, they were saying to me,

Starting point is 00:44:50 Tim, shut up, we can't take it anymore. And we're not going to change. It's what a husband says to his wife when he doesn't want to change. He says, honey, you're right. And she leaves them alone. It's what we say to people when we don't want to change. And understanding the difference between you're right and that's right is the difference between getting off the durable wheel

Starting point is 00:45:11 and getting on to moving your business, your life, your career forward. Because when somebody says, that's right to you, and you have to be willing to articulate it from their point of view, at that moment of time, we've got the moment that Covey always wanted us to get to. Stephen Covey always said, seek first to understand, then be understood. When the other side says to you, that's right, you have met the first threshold. They feel you understand them,

Starting point is 00:45:40 and they now have given, open your ears, and given you permission to show them a new way. By the way, I don't know if any of you movie hacks out there felt like Chris sounded like Christopher Walken. Boy, I tell you, really fun. The only thing we're missing now is some cowbell. All right, moving on. While some of you are trying to figure out that reference,

Starting point is 00:46:01 we go to our next excerpt, Bob Bodine, Episode 186, the power of relationships. So you're learning so much. And when you think about communication techniques, you need to be balanced. And relationships in your inner circle are the greatest resource you have. We underestimate the power of our inner circle, the power of our relationships at our own risk. So this episode got a lot of feedback. And this guy, Bob, if you don't know who he is,

Starting point is 00:46:29 one of the most influential people in the job search for coaches, athletic directors on the Division 1 level, no matter the sport. This guy is a big deal. Sports Illustrated, named Bob, the most influential man in sports you've never heard of. So, you're going to hear a lot of potential numbers and value

Starting point is 00:46:48 from those close to your life, and this time you'll never underestimate them again. This conversation will have huge impact if you allow it. The power of who. You already know everyone you need to know. Now, we're going to unpack that subtitle because that's a huge thought. Maybe the biggest

Starting point is 00:47:06 thought in the book. But Bob, here's what's great about this book, because so many people, we've got a bunch of go-getters that are listening in here, and they want to go get it, and I think, oh, I got a network, I got a network, and I network, and I hate that word, and I think you probably do, too, based on what I read. And so here's where we're going to start. It's not about the network, is what you simply say. And I'm going to fast forward to first chapter, and you introduce this idea of a who friend, okay? And there's a great power in a who friend. So I want you to describe it. What is a who friend? So even when I, when people were talking about the power of who, that kind of confused them. They were all like worried about that. And I said, so I would have called it the power of relationship or friendship, but we have 5,000 people on Facebook or our best friends. That's right. So we have no idea about what friendship is. That's right. I mean, we're just texting people and most people are graduating college and they're going to go out and do a LinkedIn strategy. Right. To a bunch of people we don't know and they don't have to know anything, but they're going to want me. Oh, sure. They're going to help me out. They're going to get me. the job of my dreams.

Starting point is 00:48:07 All of this stuff is crazy. Who? I pick that word because these are the people who matter most in your life. Friends are just totally different than acquaintances. Friends help you now. Acquaintances wish you well. It's so good. Come on. That's it. It's really interesting when you look at the top 1%

Starting point is 00:48:23 they do everything totally different than the rest. That's right. Okay. And what do they do? Well, first off, they had good mentors. They had actually good education. They actually didn't buy into this world system called networking. Networking. Let me get this correct. Is that like face this website,

Starting point is 00:48:37 sending out business cards to strangers? Right. Sending dear recruiter letters. I get 52,000 resumes a year. Yikes. Dear sir, to whom it may concern, dear recruiter. Now, dear recruiter, that's an oxymorne, right? Right.

Starting point is 00:48:47 I don't know you. It's so true. Come on. Seriously, you'd send in your stuff. I get coaches, though. They're going to send me in some aspects of, like, videos of themselves. Right. I'm not watching your video.

Starting point is 00:48:58 I mean, I don't know who you are. That's exactly right. You have to know someone who knows another person. 87% of all jobs are placed by one friend. Wow. Why? Well, because references, endorsements, and testimonials are your greatest allies. Exactly right.

Starting point is 00:49:13 So you'd actually go with someone you didn't know. So we've been taught at businesses, small businesses all over the country that friends in business are taboo. Right. So let me get this correct. We're supposed to work with people we don't know and don't trust. Right. And I hope it works out. You know, made off strategies, Ponzi schemes.

Starting point is 00:49:32 No, listen. No, I have to know someone who knows you. I'm going to hit you square between the mouth. Here it is. You already know everyone you need to know. If you had 100 friends, Ken and I have 100 friends, well, we don't have 200. We have 10,000. Your friends have friends. And all you need out of this aspect for your next job is one. So good. All right. So now we're going to move into something you talk about in the book that I think is absolutely brilliant. You touched on it with the 100 friends, the 100 whos. You have a strategy called the 140 strategy.

Starting point is 00:50:07 Now, explain how the 100 and the 40, what do they represent? And then I'll do some follow-up questions. So this is a brilliant like McKinsey company type strategy. This is so far. This is the way God creates things. I gave you some who. And in your life, you're going to get anywhere from one to 100 people who come into your life for a reason or season.

Starting point is 00:50:26 And they actually have skills. They like you. You like them. You speak on the same kind of frequency. You have a moment with them. They might have moved somewhere else, but once they take in a place in your heart, they never leave. And they always want to help you. That's your who.

Starting point is 00:50:40 So now the question is, what do I want in life? So it doesn't matter what field you're really doing. And that's how I use executive search. I identify 40 people who would like to do this job, who I think are qualified. And then I ask my hundred, okay? And don't just talk about, hey, if you're looking for a job, there's 40 PR firms. There's 40 sales companies. There's 40 of everything.

Starting point is 00:51:02 And then there's 40 people in that company you report to. It's all online. Right. If you're trying to do some business, the person and the name of the person's online. And everyone's done the research for you. Wouldn't it be amazing? Wouldn't this be a shocker of the world if you asked your who, the hundred, if they knew any of these people? Right.

Starting point is 00:51:21 The odds are, they do. And they will open a door for you and get you in the meeting. So listen, meetings are over in the first five. minutes. Yeah. And see, how long would you wait? It would take you years. So I did the study just, that's so funny when I first started out the power here, that there's 5,365 people that know me. It took me 5 million miles on American Airlines to do it. Right, right, right. Then I did a study of whose touch my life or giving me a business. Oops, 87. Wow. So I took like stupid off my forehead. Right. And I focused in on my 87, the people were given. And my business quadrupled.

Starting point is 00:51:56 So that's the magic in this form. This is. This formula. This formula. is that you're who were given to you to help you, but they can't help you because it's kind of this Jerry Maguire thing. Remember the football thing? He said, help me help you. How could I help you if he didn't tell me? Wouldn't it be logical that you'd identify 40 things you want to do with the 40 people and watch how God works and opening up the fact that he has some people? He's got some peeps for you and these people are going to open up doors. If you came into a room with my 87 and they're all amazing, you're 87, you know, are fantastic as well. But my 87. Yeah. Why would you want to be friends with them when you know me? Just ask me and I'll open the door for you. Exactly. So this is a portal. Yes. This is a transportation around mountains and speeds.

Starting point is 00:52:40 Why would you do that when all of a sudden I've already done it for you? Big lesson here that I'm learning folks and I like to share stuff with you as I'm learning from our guest. We have this nature to go wide, right? Keep going. Keep prospecting. We're going wide, wide, wide. And you're telling us it's not in the width and how far you're going to look. for some new contact. It's in the depth of going to the people that you know, but we've got to have

Starting point is 00:53:03 the discipline to go deeper with these people. Right. That's the issue. So you hit on something fantastic, and that is goals and dreams. Everybody's got lots of goals, but get your dreams. There's two words that you have to be consistent and disciplined. Oh, I like that. And so there has to be some consistency. And see, this also starts in your personal friendship. So men over the age of 35 stop adding friends. Why is that? Because they keep their old ones and then they're friendly. So we've taken this whole thing on friendship and now we're calling people friends that are just friendly. So we damn glad to meet every single person. That's true. And then by the time we do it, we say, hey, so I have people all the thing. They go, hey, you're my who. And I go, so what's my wife's

Starting point is 00:53:47 name? Have you, you know, been over to my house for a barbecue? Yeah. No, no, you're not my. But you don't need to necessarily be my who. You just need to have one of my who be, your friend and I'd still do it for you. The crazy part of this whole process is we're thinking the 1% gets something great and we don't. The answer is, God made no mistakes. The people you were given, if it was just a grandma, she's going to open a door for you. How many people out of the 10,000 do you need to get your dream? One, I like the odds.

Starting point is 00:54:18 So today, men over 35, they just stopped doing it. Okay? And then men over, men over 60, they give up their old friends. And so now they just focus in on their family not because they want to or they didn't. Here's a crucial piece of success. Your friends help you get business. If you had one friend, this is what your grandfather told you. You're blessed.

Starting point is 00:54:38 I mean, one friend. Oh my gosh. I mean, if you had three, you're rich. 12 change the world. This model's been around forever. Jesus had 12 friends three close one best. Everyone knows who he is. 2,000 a year later, the guy still signed a new recruit still doing deals.

Starting point is 00:54:53 Now, listen, I don't do business. business, okay, with just trying to do clients. I do business with people I love only. So there's not anybody in the NFL or, you know, the university I do work with. They don't come in, hug me, tell me they love me. They do it. I don't do any business just based on RFPs. I know someone who knows another person will introduce me to my job. I mean, if I could get a small business owners and understand this, you and I, I have a small business you have one. We should be doing business with our friends. And our friends should help us in every way possible get all the other pieces of business. And if we'd all share and do all the things and do this reciprocity where we're giving and we're

Starting point is 00:55:32 loving and we're grateful. And I'm telling you every day, I can't tell you. Now, when you do business with me, I don't want you to give me a break on the fee. I want the whole thing. Why? Because you're my friend. I need you to make as much. I know you have a family. I know you have kids. And the answer is, I'm going to be good. Why? God takes care of all that for me. If I do this right, it's transformational. wouldn't we share all this? I'll introduce you this. I'll introduce it. I'm just going to help you. What happened to that? You know where it is? We've broken down the basis of friendship. We're not friends. And the answer as soon as you decide, but we've been taught not to do friends. The top 1% does everything with family and friends. I mean, crazy. Why would that happen there

Starting point is 00:56:13 when you'd expect they don't even need any of that? Because they understood a thing that everybody else needs to do. Stop talking. A bunch of people we don't know. Our friends in InfusionSoft have done so much for us, and they give you great resources every episode as well. So if we combine what Bob said and what Seth Godin said, about 1,000 true fans, InfusionSoft is a very valuable tool, growing customer lifetime value. This is a worksheet, growing customer lifetime value. Now, Bob warned us if we go to the next client and we don't stay connected to those already a part of our tribe, it can be a real oversight.

Starting point is 00:56:53 In this worksheet from InfusionSoft, they're going to cover 50 cost-effective ideas to expand or to begin the process of wowing your customers. Why? To get repeat sales and referrals. So think about it. What money have you been leaving on the table? Because you're not winning with repeat sales and referrals.

Starting point is 00:57:14 So to get this great resource, click the link in this episode, show notes at entreleadership.com, or of course, go to, infusionsoft.com slash customer wow. That's infusionsoft.com slash customer wow. Up next, one of my favorite new authors, and again,

Starting point is 00:57:32 found out about this guy because of this amazing program and the opportunities of the books that come across my desk. Ryan Holiday, episode 193, battling ego. Wow. You want to talk about episode that stepped on my toes. Ouch. Still have a couple of toenail issues, but if I talk about toenails any longer, they'll cut this from the program.

Starting point is 00:57:52 So this next excerpt is really important for anyone that is on purpose, on mission, and you're going, going, going. And sometimes we have to be careful that our passion doesn't become this personal ego issue. We've got to remember the why and not think about who in terms of us. So this is a great reminder to stay grounded. It's wrecked the careers of promising young geniuses. It's evaporated great fortunes and run companies into the ground. It's made adversity unbearable and turned struggle into shame.

Starting point is 00:58:26 It's named ego, and it is the enemy of ambition of success of resilience. It is an internal opponent warned against by every great philosopher in our most lasting stories and countless works of art in every culture and every age. Ryan Holliday in the book entitled Ego is the Enemy, you fight to destroy it. It is a haunting book for anybody that has a heartbeat to do. anything that matters. This is must reading. It's from the back of the book I just read, and Ryan, let's just start there. What a great statement. Why this book? I read a lot. I read a lot

Starting point is 00:59:03 of self-help books. I love them. I love philosophy, history. But what I found is that almost every great work is sort of telling you how awesome you are. You can do more. You can be amazing. I think that's important, but one of the ironies is most of the people that pick up those books don't need to hear that again. They need to be warned against ego, against arrogance, against overconfidence, these sort of things. And I've seen that in my own career. I was the director of marketing in American Apparel for a long time. I watched a company that was once worth over a billion dollars, you know, go literally to zero. I watched the founder lose something like a half a billion dollars, his own personal wealth. So I've seen what that unchecked ego can do. And so I wanted to

Starting point is 00:59:48 write a book about that because I felt like it really hadn't been done before. The way to be successful is, you know, not to do what you see in the movies, which is to be this brilliant whiz kid or to play the office politics, but it's to actually find where you can contribute in an area that no one else is contributing and not care about credit, right? If you can make yourself indispensable to the organization or particularly to one person in the organization, that's what I've found. is so great strategies. All right. We're going to jump ahead.

Starting point is 01:00:21 Page 195, maintain your own scorecard is the name of the chapter. What's the challenge? Well, the challenge is to have your own definition of success. You know, Warren Buffett, one of the wealthiest men, most successful investors who ever lived,

Starting point is 01:00:36 says, look, you've got to live by an inner scorecard, not an outer scorecard. And that's true, right? He could do all the research on a given company or a stock, make a bet. And then, you know, the company could go bankrupt

Starting point is 01:00:47 or there could be a natural disaster that damages a company or the CEO could die. A number of things could happen that would on paper make it seem like that was not successful. But if instead you're motivated, was this a sound investment based on the information that I had at the time, it is successful. Again, working with coaches and athletes, what's so refreshing about sports is you have to come to terms with the fact that you could do everything right and lose. right in the course of an 82 game basketball season a team that's at 500 is going to lose 40 games right so losing 40 times is humbling and i think for the rest of us who don't do that you don't have such a clear definition of success and failure at a job or as a entrepreneur you can feel like because something didn't make money or it didn't get the critical reception that you wanted

Starting point is 01:01:40 that it's a failure and that is a recipe for unhappiness you have now decided that somebody else gets to decide whether you were successful or not. And I think you want to get away from that if you can. For those who maybe have a little bit naturally larger ego, is this a myth? Is anyone's ego larger than another? What's driving that? And just curious for you to just got to, I just want to you to theorize on that for your own thoughts on the way to get a true mirror. I think it has to start with, what is my ego? What's my default ego? Is that? Well, look, I hope this doesn't come across as like, I wrote this book about ego because I don't have one and I'm telling people not to have one. It's, it's that I think actually the more ambitious you are, the more you're trying to accomplish,

Starting point is 01:02:26 the more there's going to be a little ego there. You've got to have, you've got to, if you think you can do these crazy things, like, think about how crazy it is to want to be president, right? Like to think there's the most powerful man in the world and that you deserve to be that person. In a way, that that's all ego. But we also know that being egotistical while you're in office is a recipe for being really bad at that job. And I think that's true for all things, right? To think that at 20 years old as a college dropout that I could write books, there's a little ego there. But when I'm sitting alone at my computer trying to write, if my ego is telling me that this is the greatest thing,

Starting point is 01:03:05 that's ever been made that I'm God's gift to humanity, that the world is going to receive this work rapturously, I am doing that work a massive disservice. And so that's why I think ego is so bad. It's not that being confident is bad. It's that being egotistical is bad. Just as having crippling self-doubt or feeling like you're a loser and that you can't do anything, that's bad too. So what we're trying to get is somewhere in the middle where we've got an honest, accurate understanding of what our strengths are, but we're not blind to our weaknesses either. And we're careful and we have clarity around that. That's what we're trying to accomplish. That's really good. You said something at the top of our conversation about your time at American Apparel. And you kind of referenced a pretty

Starting point is 01:03:51 big fall without, you know, again, we're not looking, this is not, you know, National Enquirer leadership podcast. Give us a sense, because we have a lot of people out there who are listening that are running businesses, some several hundred employees, some, you know, 10 to 15. Something happened there and you referenced it. And again, this speaks to ego because you touched on it. Give us the warning sign. What happened in that situation that we can learn from? Well, clearly it was a lot of factors. Some of them were market-based. Some of them were personality. Some were leadership. But I'll say one thing that struck me is sort of, I feel like I kind of made myself a student of that story and that trajectory quite a bit. One thing that always struck me is that on its face, the company is an

Starting point is 01:04:36 insane idea, right? It's like, hey, we're going to make our own clothes in America. We're going to pay people a reasonable wage. We're not going to do branding. We're going to do our own advertising. We're going to do all this stuff. And everyone said it was crazy. And then it worked, right? And to a degree, that's kind of entrepreneurship. It's like, everyone says you shouldn't do something. You do that thing. And then you're successful. So that's great. That's inspiring and motivational. But the problem is you want to make sure that you don't take from that the wrong lesson. You take from that that, hey, we're playing with fire a little bit here, that we challenged expectations, that it was an uphill battle, that we got through it because we were creative and we did the work and all this stuff. Or do you say, nobody else knows what they're talking about.

Starting point is 01:05:20 I'm a genius, right? And I think there was a little bit of that in American Apparel. It's like when you get so used to bucking every single convention, you lose track of where the line. is what you should do and what you shouldn't do, what's reasonable, what's unreasonable, what the analysts and the investors are advising versus what you want to do. And so you want to make sure that, like, look, sometimes when everyone tells you that you're wrong, they're wrong. But often, when everyone says that, hey, that's a really bad idea, they're right and you should listen to them. And so I think that what ego can lose is the ability to discern good advice from bad

Starting point is 01:05:57 advice, conservatism from being a hater. Not everyone who tells you not to do something is a hater. Sometimes they really are looking out for you. You absolutely have to have a network of people who are willing to challenge you, and we're willing to push you to be better, who are willing to tell you when something you're working on is not up to the level that your other work is. I think that's very important. And there's another thing that I like, I think it's a quote from Hemingway when he was talking to F. Scott Fitzgerald about reviews. And he says, basically, if you you read the good reviews, you got to read the bad reviews too. So you can't just let the stuff you like go to your head. You also have to go out there and actively seek out that criticism.

Starting point is 01:06:37 Another way to think about it is like, if you're the smartest person in the room in most of the rooms that you're in, you're not challenging yourself. You're not staying in that student mindset. And you're going to start to naturally feel like you're the smartest person around because it's true. And so I think you want your inner circle to be filled ideally with people who are better than you. By the way, a little point here coming out of the conversation with Ryan, if you're the smartest person in the room, you're not in the right room. There you go. You can tweet that.

Starting point is 01:07:10 Big question. Coming out of that thought. So what rooms do you need to be in? Who do you need to be hanging around? Let me give you a little something I like to call the proximity principle. It's my principle. I made it up for the Ken Coleman show. I don't think I've, have I told these good folks about the proximity principle on entree

Starting point is 01:07:28 leadership? Here's the proximity principle plays right into what we're talking about here. The idea of if you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room. In order to do what I want to do, I got to be around people that are doing it and places it is happening. So, big challenge. What room do you need to be in? Up next, oh my gosh.

Starting point is 01:07:47 This is like, I don't know who's more popular with our internal entree leadership team, Simon Seneca, who's up next, or Pat Lanchione, who we've had on 273,000 times. Simon Seneca was episode 204, Entree Leadership Summit, bonus one. So there you go. This is a great follow-up to what we've just heard from Ryan Holiday, because Simon challenged our audience at the summit in 2017 to the school bus test. Now, Eric, the producer, went gaga over this, thought it was a mic drop moment. on behalf of Eric the producer,

Starting point is 01:08:25 I give you Simon Sennel. What is your purpose? What is your cause? What is your belief? Why did you start your business in the first place? What is your why? You've got to get that front and center.

Starting point is 01:08:37 That's the thing that inspires people and that's the thing that will give them their marching orders on how to build the business. And here's the best part. Here's the best part. As soon as I said the why, you knew what decision to make without me having to tell you trusting my gut.

Starting point is 01:08:53 That's called scale. the clearer you can put your why into words, the more easily anyone in your company, assuming they believe what you believe, can make the right decision without you in the room. And the true test of a successful business is the school bus test, which is if you got hit by a school bus,

Starting point is 01:09:14 would the company survive you? If you got hit by a school bus, would your people want to continue to grow the business without you or they all go and look for other jobs? That's the true test of a stable business. I think the single biggest mistake that most leaders make is they think they have to know all the answers, and if they don't, they think they have to pretend that they do. And there's this weird thing that happens to us when we find ourselves in a leadership position.

Starting point is 01:09:42 Sometimes we worked our way up through it, and sometimes we just got dropped into it, that we think we have to be the leader. We have to act like the leader, whatever that means. And giving someone authority over their work, accountability, over their work? People rise to the occasion. It's amazingly powerful, as opposed to thinking that you have to make every decision. In fact, I can promise you, I know how things work in here. How many of you in the breaks are on your phones, checking your emails, checking in? Okay, there's no quicker way to undermine trust of your team than thinking that you have to double

Starting point is 01:10:13 check and recheck everything that's going on at work today. I like blue. Go with, you know, seven, you know? So they're making decisions and you're interrupting them with random emails. Or worse, you're demanding that they tell you, as opposed to saying, hey, guys, I'm going to a three-day off-site to learn how to be a better leader. Okay? Let's hope I learn something, right? I trust you guys got everything. If there's an emergency, I trust that you'll fix it to. Don't send me anything. Right? There's no quick way to undermine trust on your team than to demand or expect that they have to check in with you while you're away. Let them make decisions. Let them own it. A point here. The lobby,

Starting point is 01:10:59 at Summit was quite a bit different, as you might imagine, during the break after that talk. I didn't see a whole lot of people, Eric, on their cell phones. Good stuff. And by the way, when you're at an event like this, or any event, where you've got somebody really bringing the heat, there's change that happens immediately. It's not the immediate change you need to get all gussied up about.

Starting point is 01:11:21 It's did the change stick. Sustainable change. Just a little preaching there for me, because, hey, I fall prey to this too. How do we sustain the change? changes that we begin to experience at a live event, making them habitual, not just emotional. See, what's happening at a live event is that you're experiencing some emotional change in buy-in. But then it's got to translate into habitual change.

Starting point is 01:11:48 By the way, I've got to mention Summit 2018 almost sold out. I'm so excited. Going to be in San Antonio, Texas, Seth Godin, Condoleezza Rice, Alan Mulali, Dan Kathy, and so many more. calendar is still open on May 20 through 23. And you want to get really serious about growing. You'd love to come to an entree leadership event. It's our flagship event. So much fun. Great community. Just text Summit 18. That's just one phrase, no space. Summit 18 to 33444. That's 33444. Up next, Mel Robbins, episode 208, five seconds to a better life and business. Great book, great little idea. had so much fun breaking this down, and I'm a big believer in this, had been doing my own version.

Starting point is 01:12:33 The tragedy is I didn't come up with a book idea with it, and Mel did. So there you go. Folks, you've got to act on it when you feel you've got something where you got to throw it against the wall, and she did. So there you go. But listen, folks, we really, in all seriousness, we had great response to this. People were changing habits. They made hard decisions. And one listener, Joe Bailey, who's an archer, some of you have no idea what that is.

Starting point is 01:12:56 that's a professional bow and arrow person. One of my best pals, you know, in Bill Hampton, his next door neighbor is a professional archer. Yeah, it's very exciting. I always duck when I run outside, though. So anyway, this was really, really exciting, fun episode. Joe Bailey, who's an archer. He used this focused, and he won the 2017 IBO Traditional World's Championship.

Starting point is 01:13:21 He credits part of his success to the truth and the concept that Mel Robbins drops in this excerpt. All right, so let's dive into this rule. Break it down, take our time, because it really is simple but profound. So what is it? What is the five-second rule? Let's just start there. When I tell you what it is, I don't want you to dismiss the rule based on its simplicity

Starting point is 01:13:46 because the results that you will achieve with it are mind-blowing, deep and profound and lasting. So the moment that you have an instinct, that you should do something, or you start to hesitate because you start to feel afraid or you start doubting or overthinking. That's when you use the rule. Moment of hesitation, a moment of an instinct to move forward. Start counting backwards, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and then move. It's really that simple. Now, one of the reasons why the rule works, and yes, you do need to count backwards,

Starting point is 01:14:17 you don't have to do it out loud, but you do need to count backwards 5, 4, 3,21, to yourself, is the rule, believe it or not, I discovered it by mistake, the rule is, a form of metacognition. Now, metacognition is a fancy word that basically means brain trick, brain hack. You can use tricks to outsmart your mind in furtherance of your higher goals. And so when you count backwards in a moment when normally you'd overthink or you'd procrastinate or you'd listen to your fears or you'd start to think, think, think, when you start counting backwards, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, you're doing a number of things at once.

Starting point is 01:14:54 number one, you are taking action because counting backwards is an action. Number two, you are interrupting the patterns of behavior that get encoded in the interior part of your brain is habits. Habits of worrying, habits of doubting yourself, habits of procrastinating, habits of overthinking, habits of blowing things off until you feel like it. And when you start counting backwards, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, you actually interrupt the pattern. And finally, and this is the really wide. cool profound part when you count backwards 5 4 321 to yourself it requires focus you don't do it all the time it's not something that you just kind of on autopilot you catch yourself counting backwards when you stop the action and go 5 4 321 you are forcing your prefrontal cortex to awaken

Starting point is 01:15:49 and the prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that you need in order to change. The prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that is active in functional MRIs when we're teaching people new behavior, when somebody is doing deep and strategic and slow thinking, and when somebody is acting with courage or taking a risk or doing something new. And so essentially, the five-second rule is a brain hack that turns off the part of the brain that sabotages your success and activates the part of the brain that makes change and courage and confidence easy. And so when you understand that there's only a five-second window between all the wisdom and

Starting point is 01:16:36 the knowledge and the urges and the shoulds that could change your life and your business forever and your mind killing those things, now you have the secret to success. You have the secret to productivity. You have the secret to sales. You have the secret to confidence. And so it's all about moving in those small moments on the inner wisdom that's always they're talking to you. It's a self-monitoring tool.

Starting point is 01:17:00 And there's a huge trend in Silicon Valley right now for mindfulness. And if you read Tim Ferriss's book, The Tools of Titan, the one thing that every single billionaire that he interviewed in the book share in common is they all have a mindfulness practice in the morning. The five-second rule is a way to. train yourself to have instant focus and mindfulness and self-monitoring. I mean, the reason why people meditate is because it trains you to be able to control your mental state and your mindset. That's why people do it. And this is a rule that you can use at any moment. Like, I use it in

Starting point is 01:17:39 business negotiation all the time, all the time. Because if you let your emotions kick in as somebody's trying to undercut you, you're not going to be powerful. Yes. I want to spend the rest of our time with what you call your favorite section of the book. It so happens to be mine as well. And it's a bold promise that you lay out there, but you deliver. And it's entitled, How to Become the Most Fulfilled Person You Know. Now, I'm going to read just a section, folks, from page 191. You say that we will be able to explore deep and meaningful connections and relationships, and there's some amazing stories in this section. And so I want to tee you up to maybe share one of the stories from that section

Starting point is 01:18:24 because I think at the end of the day, the big payoff of all of the valuable things that you've already touched on is this idea of fulfillment. And this little rule gets us to a point where we can get to a place of true fulfillment. And I just believe, Mel, and I know you agree with this, that fulfillment is what everybody's truly chasing in their soul, even if they can't articulate that. Fulfillment is what it's all about. Share with us a story from this section. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:18:53 Look, they've done so many studies on fulfillment, on satisfaction, on the meaning of life, and at the end of the day, it comes down to relationships. And life is not about thinking. It's about living. And the thing that's interesting about, particularly this section of the book and the section about relationships is, how scared we are of one another, how often we're just not telling one another. You know, I think one of my favorite stories, though, and I'm going to get really choked up talking about this,

Starting point is 01:19:27 it was one of these instinct moments where somebody had seen me speak and they wrote to me and said, hey, you know, I just heard you. And something tells me that you would love to check out the memorial page for a guy named Josh. 29-year-old kid who was killed by a hit-and-run driver in New Orleans on New Year's Eve last year. And he said, I think there's just something about this page that will really speak to you. He's the kind of person you talked about. He's the kind of person who thought it and said it. He's the kind of person that lived fully.

Starting point is 01:20:04 And I went to that Facebook page and wouldn't you know, the first post at the top of that page, and this is totally random because he had sent it like three days before and I was just catching up on email, the first post at the top of the page that morning was by a woman named Mary. And Mary wrote this story. She knew Josh. She was very good friends with the family. And Josh and her son had grown up together. And she wrote this story about how at Christmas time she had seen Josh across the way at a store like a Target. And she commented on, you know, and it was a classic Josh moment. He was laughing and smiling and he had on a Santa Claus hat. He was home from wherever visiting his parents.

Starting point is 01:20:46 She thought, oh, there's Josh. I got to go say hi. And then she stopped herself because she thought, oh, gosh, I look like crap. And I got my sweatpants on and I'll catch up with him later. And then she saw him again at a grocery store like two days later. And again, she saw him and wanted to go over and say hi. But she stopped and she thought. And what she thought is, oh, I don't want to make a scene.

Starting point is 01:21:13 He's far away, so I'll have to yell. Well, she finds out three days later that he had been killed. And she writes about how she really regrets the fact that she stopped herself. And she stopped herself from the silliest things, and she'll now forever think about it. But what she took away from it was that she now was going to be more like Josh. and she tells the story about how she was at the store the other day and saw a lady that she hadn't seen in a while whose parents were sick or something and she had that same instinct where she wanted to connect her wisdom was telling her and she went to go oh i'll wait and then she said nope i'm doing it and she yelled hey mary you know and so what also happened is i decided i wanted to include josh in the book because it's this really important point that all you need to do is say it. That's what human connection is. We're all dying to feel connected to one another and yet we hold back, we edit ourselves. We don't say it. I mean, I could

Starting point is 01:22:20 point to a million examples of it and I contacted Josh's mom to make sure it was okay. And she shared with me a bunch of screenshots from the night that Josh was killed. And right before, literally an hour before they lost him, Josh had sent his parents, you know, a text. that said, hey, before the new year, I just want you and dad to know how much I love you. And she said, to me, I will cherish that text forever. And that's exactly who Josh was. He thought it and he said it. And at the end of the day, that's all that relationships are.

Starting point is 01:23:00 If you have an employee that's not doing well, instead of, like, judging them, stop and ask them how they're doing. Ask them what's up. You know, if you feel disconnected from your spouse, say it. If you see somebody you love, who cares what you look like, say it. Like, that's what life is about. It's about these five-second windows that contain all the magic and all the opportunity and all the joy in your life. Wow, really heavy stuff, but important stuff for us to consider. Are you disconnected?

Starting point is 01:23:34 Just think about it. Who are you disconnected to? two that you, A, know you should be connected to, or B, you want to be connected to. Life is really, really short. It's amazing to me. The greatest life change, I believe, happens when people really confront death, either through a harrowing experience or a near miss or just focused, intensity to say, hey, how would I live if I had 30 days left or 60 days left or six months left? Great stuff here. And the five-second rule really works. Told you at the top of the program.

Starting point is 01:24:08 We were going to give you a bonus excerpt, a Main Street success story, somebody like you, amazing listeners. This actually comes from episode 228 with Donald Miller, where we focus on how to double your revenue. And we just love bragging on you amazing entree leaders. This particular excerpt features Victoria Claussen. She is, in fact, the embodiment of the American Dream, an immigrant that came over from the Ukraine, who really walked through a lot of struggles as she started and built her business. She is the example of what we mean when we say that you small business leaders are the backbone

Starting point is 01:24:47 of the economy. Check this out. My name is Victoria Klassen. I am coming from Baltimore, Maryland, and I own a floral design and event decor company. I came to America from Ukraine in 1997, in August of 1990. So I just celebrated my 20 anniversary here. Woo-hoo! When I got my first job in a flower shop here in America, I started working and I was working there for a couple weeks. And I started doing some flower designs. I never designed before, but apparently this was something that I found out about myself.

Starting point is 01:25:27 The person that did the flower processing quit. And because it was the latest hire, the owner said, I want you to go and do processing until I find somebody. I said, okay, that's fair. I'm there a week. I'm there two weeks. I don't see any activity. No interviews, nothing. So I came to her and I said, listen,

Starting point is 01:25:47 with all you respect, what's the timeline looks like? Because I'd really like to go back to designing. And she said, you know, I just thought about it. And I'm not planning to do that. I'm not planning to hire anybody. It's more comfortable for me to just keep you there. And I said, well, this is not what I want to do.

Starting point is 01:26:06 I would say I need to find another job. If you want, I can stay until the end of the week until you look at somebody. And she said, no, you don't have to. You can live right now. And I said, okay. She said, I want you to understand something. You are nobody and you're never going to be anybody.

Starting point is 01:26:28 You are an immigrant, and I gave you a chance, and you should be grateful for the opportunity you have and not be too ambitious. And I turn around and I quit. And I remember walking home, I had to take a bus and a metro on the bus, and I was crying. And I just could tell me myself,

Starting point is 01:26:50 just watch me. Just watch me. And I remember like about five, six years after that, I was doing the bridal show and I ran into her main designer who was doing the smallest room in the castle and I was doing the largest room in the castle.

Starting point is 01:27:06 And I came to him and I just said, Hey, Ron, I'm Victoria. Do you remember me? He's like, oh, yeah. Good seeing you. And I came home when I was like, Now I first met Victoria, literally as she walks onto the stage

Starting point is 01:27:23 with Donald Miller, myself, at the Entry Leadership Master's series, and we walked her through her website in front of the audience. I mean, this is, you talk about vulnerability, that was it. I was really proud of her. A really brave thing to do.

Starting point is 01:27:36 So this is part of Donald Miller's feedback for Victoria. So everybody give Victoria a hand. Hi, Victoria. Welcome. Okay, so I've never seen any of these websites. They asked me, do you want to study them? And I said, no, because I want you to be able to experience me looking at them from an outside perspective. One of the reasons I do that is because we struggle with the curse of knowledge.

Starting point is 01:28:03 Curse of Knowledge is a phrase created by Leila Fever. He wrote a wonderful book called The Art of Explanation. And Lila Fiber says, if knowledge worked on a scale of 1 to 10, you understand flowers and whatever you do, which I'm about to find out, at a level 10. I mean, you know what you're doing. You have a PhD in flower. And I don't, right? I just need some flowers. So we intuitively know we've got to simplify this message because people aren't as smart as we are in our field of expertise.

Starting point is 01:28:33 What we do is then we take level 10 and we scale it down to about level six, because we've seen. simplified our message because we want to reach more people. That's a great effort. The problem is people buy between levels one and two. So from two through six is the curse of knowledge. We're talking over their heads. We're not speaking to their actual needs. And what we're going to see, I haven't looked at any of these websites, I guarantee you we're going to see the curse of knowledge happening. But it's hard for you to see because you're so smart. You have to get a dumb guy to look at your website. And so that's what I'm going to do. Okay. So this is the first time I've seen it. a couple things I noticed right away. One is the top right corner of your website is your

Starting point is 01:29:12 dominant real estate. So right here, we need a buy now or order flowers or whatever you do. So we need that right there. Instead, we have Connect. I don't know what Connect means. Right? And I didn't come here to connect. I came here to buy flowers. So when you say Connect, I say dating service. Now, if it takes me calories, my brain is going to fill in categories lightning fast. You can't stop it. You cannot stop your customers' brains from thinking. They see Connect, they go dating service. Now you have to deconstruct the fact that you're not a dating service, right, in order to construct the fact that you're doing something else. Now, probably most people wouldn't go dating service, but I see Connect, I think dating service. What I really want to see is buy flowers or order

Starting point is 01:29:56 flowers or something like that. Okay. Now, I see this. The first thing you probably see is Victoria Claussen, and no offense, I'm sure you're a wonderful person, but I don't know who Victoria Claussen is, but there she is. And then floral events. So floral events are events that are put on for flowers. So it's where flowers get together and have events together and talk about what sort of petals are you going to wear to that wedding. I was thinking about wearing red. I notice you're wearing red. It's March. Is it okay? Are we the wrong flowers for this month? Okay, obviously I'm being very facetious because I would imagine, though, that you bring flowers to weddings to bank, is that what you do? We design events. You design all of the events. You would do more business

Starting point is 01:30:40 if you said we design events. Honestly, you would see an increase in business if you said, we design beautiful events, right? That's it. That's what you sell. You sell a beautiful event. Now, that's physically what you sell, but I'm actually not looking for just a beautiful event. I'm looking for a beautiful event that impresses my friends, right? We design beautiful events all of your friends won't believe it, or your friends won't believe the beauty or whatever. So flowers are part of it or not part of it. They are part of the...

Starting point is 01:31:12 Big part of it. A big part of it. But it's floral events, but it's not like for the rose parade or anything like that. You can see why I'm confused. Okay, so we have a mantra at Storybrand, if you confuse, you'll lose. So what you want to do is you say, here's what we do. We design beautiful events. What's in it for me?

Starting point is 01:31:28 You know, everybody will be impressed, or it'll be the event of the season. What you're offering me if you say the event for the season, by the way, is an identity. And something that I want that's even more powerful than a beautiful event is I want to be a kind of person who is known for having a beautiful event. In the book, it's called selling an aspirational identity. And it's really important for you. These events are expensive, right? So we worked with a wedding coordinator who starts at $1 million. That's her fee.

Starting point is 01:31:57 So she only does like 10 a year. Poor thing. scale up is difficult. And so what she's really selling is an identity that this thing is going to be flawless, beautiful, there's not going to be a problem, but every one of your friends from Senator So-and-So to Kid Rock is going to come to this thing.

Starting point is 01:32:20 I'm kidding about Kid Rock. I don't know if he's ever been doing. But they're going to come to this thing, and they're going to think this person does amazing events. So we want to get that in here. So probably when we scroll down after we say, you know, something about we help you host a beautiful event. Then here's the other thing that immediately someone's going to say,

Starting point is 01:32:37 if you say, we help you host a beautiful event or we help you do a tour, they're going to say, oh, well, you don't do food service, whatever. So you actually want to overcome that right away. Everything from food service to this. So that means we need to send out some customer surveys. And we need to find out what is the resistance, right? Do you do everything for the event? No.

Starting point is 01:32:55 You don't do the food. Anything visual. Anything pretty. Okay, so we will help you make a beautiful event. anything that will make your event beautiful from chairs tablecloths to navigants to flowers to whatever you want to list all of that stuff because i'm giving you split seconds to fill in categories of the problem that you help me solve and within five seconds i need to know all i've got to do is caller and everything visual is going to be taking it literally i'm going to take a shot i'm going to call

Starting point is 01:33:20 the caterer i'm going to call the entertainment and i just have to take a shower after that right yeah okay so what did i just say you'd scroll down and you'd say We will make your event beautiful. We do with everything visual at your event. All you have to do is call the caterer and maybe some entertainment and take a shower. We'll handle the rest. You see, now you just did the math for me on what my part is in this really easy thing. And you've offered me a beautiful aspirational identity that everybody's going to come and think Don Miller puts on beautiful events.

Starting point is 01:33:49 So we want to get that kind of copy in there. Here's the great news. You've done so much right. One, it's a gorgeous website. Thank you. Nothing visually, I don't think, needs to change. It's fantastic. made so few mistakes that people make. There's not a ton of text on here. Nobody reads paragraphs

Starting point is 01:34:05 on websites anymore. They scan websites. They don't read them. This is a scannable website. You have who we are and who we are not. I didn't read that yet, but that's actually confusing. So I would actually say schedule a consultation or give us a call. I would probably get rid of those things. The other thing that I would add to this website, and it may already have it, you can tell me, I would add a lead generator. So I'm looking around, there are six people that I'm trying to choose between to make my event beautiful. But you've got a lead generator, five things that go wrong in expensive events, or five ways people waste their money. You're probably more higher in than that. But you see what I'm saying?

Starting point is 01:34:49 Something that I'm going to give you my email address. I give me my email address. You give me this four-page magazine article-style document that's beautiful. It says the five mistakes people make when they're hosting an event. You've officially, if I read that document, you've become my guide. I've just spent an hour with you, and I spent four seconds with your competitor bouncing off their website. Who's going to get my business? You are.

Starting point is 01:35:10 And then you're going to send me over the next two weeks even more help through an email. Then what happens? You're in my phone. And I'm getting an email. I'm not even reading it. I'm swiping in it and I'm deleting it. But I'm not unsubscribing because that PDF was so valuable. But what are you doing?

Starting point is 01:35:24 You're reminding me that you exist. And now it comes time because Betsy's saying, Don, make the choice. The event is coming. And who am I going to call? You? Because you branded yourself in my mind, offered to resolve my internal problem, offered me an aspirational identity and done it with crystal clear language. So I would get a lead generating PDF.

Starting point is 01:35:44 I would capture email addresses. I would send them five or six emails. You should see I would think business double just from that. The great thing is the website itself is a 15 minute fix. It's just text. You just need to change some text. I would remove Connect. I would say, schedule our service or something like that.

Starting point is 01:36:02 I would make it a different color on the top right. I would add a lead generating PDF, and I would think you would do really well. And the rest of the story. So Will the Engineer went on Victoria's website later that day and noticed several adjustments. So she went right to it. I don't know how it happened. I don't know if she got on the phone or the programmer. I don't know what happened, but they made some changes right away.

Starting point is 01:36:24 And several weeks after that, we followed up with Victoria to see how her growth as a leader has been progressing. It has been a couple months since the event, and here is how she's winning. Victoria, good to have you on the line. How are things going? Everything as well. Thank you so much. All right, so this is fun. You were at our Entre Master series.

Starting point is 01:36:49 You're on stage with Donald Miller. I got to know before we get into some of the details of what you've done since that day. Was that a nerve-wracking experience to get up in front of everybody and let him dissect your website? Good. So you were there, of course, for all of EMS. And I'm just curious if you'd share. I know that Eric, the producer, told me you had a couple of major wins or changes that you've made as a result. And we love sharing those stories.

Starting point is 01:37:34 So what's one of the major changes you've made? Well, I would say working together, we pretty much wrote me in front of her about this and tell her that, yes, I care about my bottom line because if I don't, if my bottom line is not happening, I care about my bottom line because I care about every single person that works on my team. That's what keeps me up at night to make sure that you guys have jobs, you guys have opportunities as well as I do, because to me it should be a win. It's really hard for them to see the big picture.

Starting point is 01:39:18 And for me personally, spending up for myself, yes, what I do, I am proud of what I do, because that's the right thing to do. I think about my national experience. You all have been such a that that's real. And, you know, you do it in such a genuine way that it gets to the heart. So thank you. Awesome. Well, Victoria, I know you're busy.

Starting point is 01:40:12 I know it's the holiday season, so we're going to let you get back to it and to your team. but we appreciate you being a part of our tribe. And thanks for sharing openly with us about some of the changes you need to make and the changes that you did make. We appreciate you very much. Well, that's why we do what we do. We're all about helping you grow yourself, your team, and your profits. Hey, listen, some of you are listening in right now, and I don't want to miss the opportunity for those of you that are actually in a really tough time. I don't know what the situation is.

Starting point is 01:40:44 I don't know if it's personal, professional. I don't know if it's a combination of both, but you're heading into a new year and you're literally just hanging on. You're going, when will 2017 end? And let me tell you something. You've made it. You've made it here. Don't quit. Hang in there.

Starting point is 01:41:01 Franklin Delano Roosevelt, one of the most, you know, I would say accomplished or revered presidents in the United States history once said so profoundly, when you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot, and hang on. and that's what we want you to do. We're here for you. How can we help you? Call us, get on the website, get the number, get a hold of somebody on our coaching team. We're here to help you. We have a great community. Get to an event this year. We'll put our arms around you and encourage you and equip you. So it's been an unbelievable year, but I don't want to just celebrate, celebrate, celebrate without encouraging some of you who may just need that out of boy, out of girl to hang in there. Well, unbelievable. It's kind of sad, actually, but it's also exciting because I love new stuff and a new year is right around the corner.

Starting point is 01:41:50 I just want to say a big thank you to several people who you don't hear their names when we do each episode. One is our executive producer, Blake Thompson, who oversees everything that goes out publicly over the video or audio waves from Ramsey Solutions. He's a big part of what we do. listens to every episode. Becky Powell, who spearheads so much on this program, getting our guest, the content, the tools that you get free every episode. She's driving that important train. And then, of course, Eric the producer, my engineers Will Rudder and Jim Bab, who make this thing so seamless, and I want to thank them as well. So, as I say and as I mean, as I sign off on each program, on behalf of Eric the producer, our engineers will rudder,

Starting point is 01:42:41 Jim Bab, and of course, the entire Entree leadership team. Thank you so much for listening. We'll talk with you again very soon.

EntreLeadership - #239: Top 10 EntreLeadership Podcasts of 2017

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