The 17-37 Rule + Review Culture

Business brain episode 678 for Wednesday, August 27th national just because day 2025.

Greetings.

Folks, and welcome to Business Brain, the show where we take some ideas, some of yours, some of ours. We crunch them, we dissect them, we use them to tune our business brains so that we can each keep on living those charmed lives. Our sponsors include bitdefender.com brain. That's where you can go to keep your small business safe with Bitdefender Ultimate Small Business Security and save 30% while you're doing it. And also, Jerry AI BusinessBrain Car Insurance Made simple. And finally, on your side, drivers who save with Jerry save, on average, 110 bucks a month. We will talk more about that, I know, in a little bit. For now, back here in Durham, New Hampshire, I'm Dave Hamilton, and I guess I'm back.

I've been around a few minutes, a few places, but today I am in Lafayette, California, and I am still Shannon Jean.

Yeah, I was.

How you doing, man?

I'm good. It's good to be back. We got back last night. I was in Dallas for podcast movement, and then. And then I flew directly from there to Toronto, where the family spent about five days doing a bunch of things. The. The. The anchor for the trip, if you will, was I told my kids 20 years ago after I saw Oasis at Madison Square Garden that I would take them to see Oasis. And it took 20 years and a trip to Toronto, but we did it, and we got to see Oasis. Half the show was in the pouring rain, and it was epic.

It was.

It really was. Oh, man, it. Yes, it was great. I. I think the rain made it better. We decided that the rain made it better.

Yes. It's a mental thing.

Charmed life, man.

Absolutely, dude. Absolutely. And those. That adversity brings you together, right. Because you're fighting. And I've been to sports sporting events where it's freezing cold or pouring rain and you're just kind of hunkering down. We got this. We're gonna stay here. You know, that kind of stuff.

Yeah, there's some.

There's some.

There's magic lessons here. Yeah, it is.

It is magic.

And it was. It was per. When the rain started, the people in Toronto knew it was going to rain. We were at a store earlier that day. They're like, bring your raincoats. And so we. We got back to our Airbnb or whatever. I want to talk about Airbnb, actually, a little bit later in the review process. Yeah. But we. We got Back, we all looked at our various weather apps on our phones that we've come to trust, and there was like maybe a 10% shot and 0 inches of rain. So we were like, ah, we don't need our raincoats. Halfway through the show, the rain starts. So I look at my phone like, all right, let. Now let's just. What's the reality of this? And I realized that it, like, the gods were on our side. The rain ended during their last song.

Oh.

Which was really nice because we had a long slow walk to get out. And so we weren't just like. Because that would have been. I don't think that would have been as. As easy to make pleasant as the concert in the rain. I mean, listening to Oasis play and everybody sing live forever in the pouring rain. It's goosebumps. It does.

It is. It does me goosebumps right now.

Same. Yeah, yeah. So anyway, so that's what we did. We flew back last night. But yeah, it's.

That's awesome.

Yeah, that's good. Yeah.

Yeah, that's.

You. You did something interesting and. And you are building a new business here. I am your consulting business. I'll call it that because I don't know what the. I don't have a better term.

Shifted.

Yeah. But you've got your masterminds and your courses and your one on one consulting that you do, like all of this stuff and you added a little twist to it that something told you to do.

Yeah. So I've been, you know, I've never run a community and online community, so I wanted to figure out how to run one and I've talked about it on the show. So I was like, okay, I'm just gonna. I'm gonna start figure it out. And it's grown a lot. We're coming up on 1200 members, and it's just a, you know, it's only five bucks a month. It's just a. Get people in the door and help them. They're learning how to be entrepreneurs. But the hook is buy stuff at auctions that's really inexpensive and resell it and change your life. But in a sense, in essence, it's entrepreneurship.

Right, Right. But with a specific.

Yes.

A specific business model.

Yeah. Reselling.

Which is. Which is what it turns out you have a lot of experience and expertise with.

Yeah, yeah. So it's great. I'm loving it. I'm learning. I always say this on the show. I'm learning the most. I'm learning the most here by all these people that are Signing up, trying to figure things out.

Sure.

And trying to figure out how to run a community and how to keep it vibrant and interesting and all that kind of stuff. Right. Because you don't want churn. You want people to stick around, which is. We'll talk more about that in future episodes as I learn more about that. But one of the things that, you know, they sign up, it's $5. Right. Well, so that's great. And we're getting going. But as I was watching and reading and learning more about the community, I came across an interesting statistic or some sort of. Yeah, I guess.

Guidance.

Yeah, some kind of guidance. I said, hey, when people sign up for things, and there is this window of between 17 and $37 that if you add an item that is. They think is valuable.

Sure.

Whether it's a physical product, whether it's a piece of digital content, whatever, the likelihood of them adding that to their checkout is very high. Right. I said, okay, well, I have some. I have a lot of.

Really?

What? Good content. People love it and all that kind of stuff.

That's not a ton of money. I mean, it needs to be valuable, actually. Valuable.

Yes.

Yep.

Yeah. My whole concept is I'm adding way more value than the cost. That's. I'm always trying to do it. It's like the $5. Hey, it's incredibly valuable to connect with over a thousand people learning the same thing, despite anything that I may do, just being in a peer group like that. Very valuable. Yeah. So I took a piece of content that I have been selling. I've sold it before, and on gumroad and some other stuff, and I. I tweaked it a little bit, added a few things, and I basically created this beginner's guide to Costco liquidations, buying their excess inventory, customer returns, and. Yeah. And I said, I've never even.

No, just even. As you say, the subject of this, it seems like a. There is huge opportunity there because Costco doesn't want to hang on to this stuff. They don't need to get top dollar for it. They need to get out.

Yeah. Their biggest problem is getting rid of it in an environmentally conscientious way. Very, very important. And recouping whatever investment they can. Right.

Got it.

And that.

Okay.

And that's, you know, typically 10 to 20%. Okay. So. Yeah. Very low. And so there's opportunity there. I like this tremendous. So I priced this thing at $29. I said, okay, I'm just going to try this and see what happens. I Put it in the. And if you're watching on YouTube, you can see my checkout page@shannonjean.com mastermind and I added this thing. It says, get started. Now. The Costco liquidation guide will give you a head start as you get familiar with the reseller Mastermind. This one time $29 fee is only available during sign up. That's the only time you can buy this.

Yes.

And I turned it on. You know, there was. I had to figure out how to do it. So I watched a tutorial. Like, I did this thing, okay. Link this offer, yada, yada. I love Kajabi, by the way. That's where I host this community. It's fantastic. And I turn it on and I think maybe 10 minutes later I checked my email and it was like. And within the first seven days, I sold a thousand dollars worth of these little mini courses at $29.

A thousand bucks for a checkbox. But I want it. I love this and I love that there's this thing between 17 and $37.

Yes.

That there social experiment going on here.

Yeah, Somebody way smarter than me figured that out, right?

Yeah, exactly. They were already using it on us. Like, it's fine, of course. But I think the most valuable part of this whole thing is where you said, I didn't know how to do it. I watched a tutorial. You almost threw that phrase away. But folks, if you want to know the secret to Shannon Jean success, it is that you are able, no matter what you're doing, no matter how much success you've had, no matter how much money you make, you always have a beginner's mind. And you absolutely learn, because I'm a beginner.

Once again. Once again, I am a beginner. I don't know zero about, you know, running a community, but I'm like, well, I'm going to figure this out. And it's fun. I love it. That's the best part of being entrepreneurship, in my opinion, is getting back to being a beginner again. I love it.

I know. I.

Yes, I freaking love it.

And so, and that's your lesson, folks, is, is you don't strive to be an expert. Strive to be a beginner. And you will succeed because nothing's in your way at that point.

That's a. That's a T shirt. Don't be the expert. Don't be the expert. Be the beginner.

Oh, I like that. All right, we will. We will get to work on making those T shirts. And we really do need to open up the, like, talk about Something that's easy to do.

I'm learning how to do this too. So I'm gonna come. I'm doing merch for the mastermind because people have asked it.

I mean, we.

So we'll.

Yeah, we do merch for my other podcast like this.

You just got to do it.

It's just. We just have to do it. That's really it. Yeah.

Okay.

So we will. We'll do it. I want to talk about this thing that I. I realized after we checked out of our Airbnb in a minute. But right now I want to talk about our sponsors, starting with Bitdefender, a global leader in cybersecurity. Did you know scammers are getting better at what they do every day? And for small business owners, everything. Our sensitive client information, contracts, invoices, lives on our computers. Let me put it this way. If I lost access to my laptop tomorrow, I'd be in real trouble, right? Every detail about my business, every piece of data, it's all there. And that's exactly why I love Bitdefender Ultimate Small Business Security. It's an all in one cybersecurity solution designed specifically for small businesses. It protects everything. Your team's devices, your passwords, your online activity, and even checks for leaked info on the dark web. You can install it yourself. It's refreshingly simple. You can add your team in minutes, and now everybody's devices are covered. Whether they're in the office, at home, on a public wi fi in Canada, it doesn't matter, right? Small businesses are easy targets. We don't always have time to worry about cybersecurity. But Bitdefender makes it simple. Keep your small business safe. With Bitdefender Ultimate Small business security, save 30% when you go to our link. Bitdefender.com brain that's B-I-T-E-F-E-N-E-R.com brain bitdefender.com brain for 30% off. And our thanks to Bitdefender for sponsoring this episode. All right, now I have a question for you. Would you rather spend an entire weekend assembling IKEA furniture without instructions or shop for car insurance? Yeah, exactly. That's how bad insurance shopping used to feel. Well, until our sponsor, Jerry arrived. Jerry makes the whole process seamless. You just answer a few simple questions once, and Jerry quickly compares quotes from 50 plus top rated insurers. No endless forms, no hopping site to site, no sales calls. You get real personalized options you can trust. Plus 247 support. They'll even cancel your old policy for you, which means switching is actually painless. And Jerry doesn't stop there. They proactively alert you to rate changes in your state so you know when to reshop. It's like having a proactive car insurance assistant in your pocket without the awkward need to feed it snacks. Jerry has already helped over 5 million customers shop smarter for car insurance. If you're ready to protect your business, your family, and keep living your charmed life, Jerry could help you too. So stop needlessly overpaying for car insurance. Drivers who save with Jerry save, on average, $110 a month. That's more than $1,300 a year. So before you renew your policy, do yourself a favor. Download the Jerry app or just head to Jerry AI BusinessBrain. In just a few minutes, you can compare quotes and coverages side by side from up to 50 top insurers. Jerry Car Insurance Made simple. And finally, on your side. And this is all based on drivers who switch saved with Jerry. Over the past 12 months, over 20% of drivers who switch with Jerry found a monthly premium of $87 or less. Not all drivers find savings. Again, it's Jerry AI BusinessBrain. And our thanks to Jerry for sponsoring this episode. So, like, I had to offer that disclaimer legally with Jerry. I'm starting to think. And I totally get it. I'm. I'm behind it. I understand what the culture that we're in. We need all that 100%. Great. And I'm sure, actually really eager to kind of check out Jerry.

Yeah, me too.

Yeah. I feel like every time we go somewhere to read, go online to read reviews, there needs to be a disclaimer that. And maybe we need to put this. This disclaimer in our minds that.

Okay.

Everyone knows that Reviews Start at 5 and go down from there.

Oh, yes. Invert.

Yeah. Because if you don't have a five, you know, I was going to leave a review for our Airbnb, right? And we. We rented a townhouse in Toronto. Great location, great place. It had three bedrooms. It had four floors. You know, it's a skinny little townhouse or whatever. Totally fine. Everything was great, and I would stay there again. However, a lot of, like, little repair things. It. If it were my house, and I'm not really a handy guy, like, but if it were my house, I would have fixed five or six things, each of which would have taken me ten minutes. I would. I would have clicked fix the clogged drain in the Shower, Sure. One of the other shower doors didn't close right, but it just needed to be adjusted. It was obvious what to do. One of the door handles to like the patio was a little bit janky and you felt like you might break it when you were opening the door.

Yeah.

All of these things easily fixable for probably total less than 100 bucks and maybe less than two hours, including the trip to Home Depot or whatever they have in Canada. And it would have been like all great. So. But I, I can't put that, like, I can't account for that in the review because I would stay there again. So five stars. The other problem, four stories. The main floor that you walk in. Kitchen, living room, whatever. Bottom floor had like laundry, which was awesome. And a bathroom. And then the one floor up had two bedrooms each with doors and a bathroom. Top floor was the master suite with a deck, a bathroom, bedroom, no door. Oh, sound. It is visually private up there, but sound. You could hear a conversation two floors down because it was kind. But not a spiral staircase. But it was like the staircase was this, this thing in the middle and there it didn't get separated left and right in the house. So if you talked in the bottom floor, you heard it on the top floor and vice versa. So if somebody got up to make coffee at 8 in the morning, you'd hear it. Yeah. If you didn't sleep with earplugs in, you heard it. And it's like, I want to include that in the review now. Thankfully, Airbnb lets me do a five star review and then have a little comments. Yeah. And so I did. I came up with a way to say we would stay there again, because I would. But I would have liked to know that. You should. Here's what you need to know. I didn't mention anything about the repair stuff that I sent to them. I'm like, if you just stay there one night and maybe that's a separate piece of advice for people who do.

You do need to stay at your own. Your own places.

You got to stay at your own place. Yes.

I'm going to one of ours this weekend and I know it's exactly right. Oh, I'm gonna. Here's. My wife and I, we just share a note and everything you find.

Yes.

Oh, we need to fix this. Oh, the table is wonky. Oh, this is. This screen is busted out. Or this doesn't close. Right. And then I. We just take care of them while we're there as all the little things, you know?

Yeah.

Little things. Because in your own. You said something I, I would disagree with.

Okay.

When you said in your own house you would fix them, it would take 10 minutes. And I think, in my opinion, in your own house, you would live with that stuff for decades. That's fair, because that's what we all do. We're like, oh, I'll deal with that later. I'll fix this, whatever. And we just learn to jiggle it.

Yes, it's the jiggle it.

Oh, you got to jiggle that lock. Jiggle the toilet handle. Whatever. I'll get to it. I'll get it this way.

Oh, yeah, that's right. That reminds me, one of the toilets didn't flush right either. But you figure it out.

That's right.

Yeah.

Yeah, you figure it out. So that I will tell you when you have a guest go stay at your house that doesn't know the ins and outs that jiggle it doesn't work. It's not the right way. You can't put a note and say, just jiggle this and it'll work fine. And, and so you find that by staying it. The other thing I, I do like that you said was you told them privately about these small issues. And we make that same request of our guests. Listen, we of course want your five star review, but we know things aren't perfect and we were not the last guest to stay there. So I won't know about things. Right. And Right. We would love for you to tell us privately about any little inconveniences, upgrades or maintenance items that we could look. And I told them, just be proactive.

I told them about the shower. One was kind of an issue. And I'm like, looks if you. Well, it was clogged. And so like, oh, that one.

Yeah.

This was going to cause a problem. Like, it was really.

Yeah, it sucks. And standing in the water, it doesn't feel right. It's no way to take a shower.

No. And so I said, look, I, I didn't bring a screwdriver with me. If you have one, I can, I can take a look at it. And, you know, I'm sure it'll be 10 minutes at, you know, at most. And, and they said, great. The garage is normally off limits to our guests. Feel free to open the garage door.

Nice.

And go find a screwdriver. There was a shower and a bathtub with a shower in this bathroom because. And I didn't do anything because they said, but be careful because the glue around that drain. No, when it's not holding right. It leaks into the dining room. And I'm like, oh, no, no, I'm not involved in any of that.

I'm out.

That's right.

Yeah. I mean, we keep a big jug of like liquid plumber in underneath each bathroom sink. So when they. Somebody you say, oh, next time we get up, we're going to physically clean it. But in the meantime, just pour this thing out and try to, try to get. Because what people want is, I think is the wreck to be recognized and to be like, oh, thank you so much for telling us.

The communication I have stayed in. I mean, I can't count how many Airbnb I stayed in and nothing is perfect. Like there's no such thing. But what separates my five star review from I am contacting Airbnb for a refund is the. The host communicating with me. If they communicate, we're good.

Yep.

I had one in Montreal years ago where it was a, like a company representing the owner or whatever. And no one had stayed in this place, I guarantee it. Yeah. Yep. Because it was missing some obvious things was like, if you stayed one night this place, you would have made money as opposed to you gave us half price because Airbnb told you to, you know.

Yeah, yeah. And like, I agree with you, our vacation rental business and you really, even if it, you just have one, you need to run it like a business. It's not a side hustle, it's not your cat, it's not your cabin that you rent out. That. That's the wrong mentality. But I would say with our vacation rentals, 75% of the success and five star reviews is because my wife Renee runs it and communicates like, that's it on it, man.

Gotta stay on it.

You read the reviews. Renee was amazing. Renee took care of us. Renee let us do this. And Renee figured out, you know, we had one not to. Not to make this about it. It's all Airbnb. But we just had one recent where as the people were leaving, they got in a car accident and I got a phone call and we were out walking our dogs or something like that, and I got a voicemail. She said, can you please call me right away? And I'm like, oh, because I'm always.

Worried, like, what's wrong with the place? Yeah.

Yes. What did I. What's house is going to be bad for me? So she says, we got in a car accident and I'm thinking, this is our mountain house. I'm like, did you like roll into the creek or something? But it turned out they got Hit out on the road as they were leaving and they had to walk back to the house and they wanted to be sure they could stay there for a while. And we were like, of course, stay as long as you want to. Nobody's coming in for a week. And da, da, da. But that good communication. Where our phone numbers right inside the door. Mine, my wife's and our property manager. So if you have a problem, you call us. Not Airbnb or VO or whoever, because I'm going to solve it, you know, as best I can. And so that, that's how you. Great reviews and.

But I, but I, I, to get. I, I actually love this. And we're going to talk more about this because I'm about to become a property manager. Owner.

Nice.

Owner. Manager, probably initially. And then, you know, we'll, we'll hopefully farm it out eventually. But, but this idea that five star reviews is where we begin at the five is the problem. I agree. If, if. And you can't do it on any existing platform right now because everybody has five star reviews.

Yep.

But I think if the platform started you at three out of five and said and instructed you, here is the baseline. This is the norm.

Three is such a failure, dude. That's the problem. If you're putting it out. Yeah.

Right. But if the platform could somehow convince everyone that three is okay.

Yeah.

Right. Three is the baseline. If it was exactly as you anticipated, please give it a three star review. If the host went above and beyond or the place was even better. Right. If it was better than you anticipated. Now go up to four. Or possibly perfect, which is five, but five, like, they should ask you, when you choose five, are you sure that this is a five and maybe not a four? Right. Like, because that would like. I can't get anything out of looking at the stars on a review. It's. It's worthless.

Yeah. We've had review. Review inflation.

Right? Yes. But there's no doubt about it. But there's a ceiling. We've inflated to the ceiling and we're stuck there. And that's the problem. Review inflation. That's why I love this.

We should add seven stars.

Sure.

And it automatically. There's. Everybody has five.

Everybody gets five.

There's. And there's two more.

Yes.

Above that.

Yes.

And that way you normalize. Like, oh, okay. So. But the.

It's gonna inch up. It's gonna be.

In a couple years. We'd be like, you know, we need nine.

Nine. That's right. Need nine. All right. So folks, anyhow, we've been going too long. So it. We're just gonna. We're just gonna move on. But please go to BusinessBrain show review and leave us a free five star review.

Yes.

Five. Five. You hear that? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Five stars. Yep.

When you leave that review, you get entered to win a MacBook that we're giving away in just a few months. And the odds are great that you're going to win this thing.

Yes.

Once you leave the review, send an email to feedback businessbrain show so we can track your review to your email. And it'll be the best promotion contest you'll ever enter in your life.

I agree. I. I can't think of something better. So. Five star review. BusinessBrain show review. Thanks for listening. Keep on living that charmed life and we'll see you on Friday.