Episode #562 - The Importance Of Developing A Business Plan with Matthew Pollard

Welcome to this edition of the Million Dollar Mastermind podcast. This is where we pick the brains of high achievers from all walks of life and get their hard earned real world insights on winning. I'm your host, Larry Wydell.

How did you get daisy chain into five different being the difference maker with five different companies before you were 30 and then what decision did that lead you to? To where you're doing what you're doing now?

Yeah, so there are a couple of really good answers to that and I'll try and answer the most.

And by the way, can I see your passport that allows you to live in Chapel Hill because you know, you have to apply for Chapel Hill. So many people want to get in.

You know, I was going to, you know, it's an interesting, like Chapel Hill is a wonderful area, by the way, and there are not enough homes in this place. So you're 100% right. That is true. But I will say that when I look at Daisy Chaining, that series of businesses and where I am today, it really came down to. Because one of the things I've learned is through differentiation, niche marketing and sales systemization, you really can create a rapid growth business out of anything. I mean, that's what I've learned. You can create a rapid growth business out of anything. There's nothing worse than having a rapid growth business with customers you don't like in a business you can't stand, though. So the thing that I will tell you is especially the telecom business, which is a great example of that, is if somebody had to mention another call rate to me, I mean, it was like nails on a chalkboard by, you know, by year three. And I just realized that I really needed to feel. Now, don't get me wrong, I could say that if I can save someone $100 on their phone bill and a dollar saved for some people is like $10 made. So I could really get behind that. I was changing the success rate of small businesses. Come on. Really? Was I? So the thing that I can tell you is I always cared more about making a difference. So I fell into sales and door to door, I moved into running my own telecommunications company because that's all I knew. So of course that's what I founded. But the problem that I had is I just felt like it wasn't filling my soul. And what I found. It's funny when, I mean, you were talking earlier about, you know, people that you. Actually, I was talking earlier to the found one of the people that works for Nvidia, the technology company, right? The CEO of that company, been the CEO for 20 years. He founded the business, he loves what he does, but he feels totally connected to that. For me, what I found is that when I got that business I was like the challenge was great. I started the business. I mean it was the number one brokership business to business cell phones in the country. Sure, that for my ego was great. I made incredible money. I live in multiple cars, fancy apartment, all those things that you'd expect from somebody that was making great money. I was miserable. I remember in 2007 I won the Young Achiever of the Year award, which is a pretty award in Melbourne, Australia. And I remember going home and going, if that's what success looks like, you can keep it. I hate this. So what I found is that I develop happiness by seeing happiness and change in others to feel like I, what I was doing not just made money, but was purposeful. And so what I, what I did and my, you know, the last business in Australia was an education company. We taught, you know, tradespeople how to rapidly grow their, their businesses. And you know, we had three and a half thousand students and you know, we were fastest growing, you know, educational fac, you know, in the country at that time. But the thing is, when I got here, what I realized is as soon as I grew a business to a certain size, I stopped being able to have contact with lots of people. And all of a sudden I would spend most of my time running the systems and the product which when you're running a big staff business, you have to do. So when I came to the United States, I made a different decision and I didn't. I stopped taking pride about what my revenue number was and I stopped taking pride on how many staff and how many offices I had. And I said I want to take pride in, in how many people I impact and I'm going to focus on this thing called profit. And so what I really looked at is how could I have the biggest impact? And what I realized is that usually people throw stuff at a problem, right? So they grow and they just hire more staff and more staff. What I realized is by having a different mindset and saying instead, how do I automate this? How do I systemize this? How do I create a process flow that doesn't actually require people? What I've realized is that I can have such a higher level impact with far fewer staff. And it all comes down to, and I'll really make this clear. So if you can't articulate the value of what you Provide. When somebody's politely listening for two and a half, three minutes in a networking event, you can't automate and systemize that. But in today's digital world, once you can articulate that clearly in the fractions of a second that people give you online, you can use technology, psychology and strategy and automation to get your ideal clients to chase you. Now, what was the tipping point for me? Well, my whole ego, if you like, was connected to the fact that I understood how to create sales systems and I understood how to get a business in a highly established industry that in a lot of ways was commoditized. Right? They everyone, it's just like, you know, everything's the same. It's like an accountant says, I'm an accountant. And I realized that I could differentiate that message, pick a niche that was relatively untargeted, that I was passionate about, build a sales system and create a rapid growth business. Simple. But because I'd learned how to be a salesperson, I thought online was kind of a joke. As a matter of fact, I'm almost embarrassed to say this now, but you know, people would come to me about SEO or you know, pay per click advertising and I'm like, why would you just not go and walk into their business? Why would you not just, you know, pick up the phone and call them? Well, that was because I was either scared of it or my ego was telling me, no, your entire self worth now is connected to the fact that you know how to do this. Well, when I got to the United States, I had this realization. If I build direct marketing companies, retail stores, like I knew how to do, if I did that in America and I had 50, 60 staff, that was going to make it much harder to come home to visit my family. So I went, you know what, I'm going to focus on a much smaller number of staff. I'm going to focus on dispersed staff from all over the world. So I get the best talent, not just the talent within driving distance. And I'm also going to focus on automating the whole thing and getting the message online. And I knew nothing about online. And what I found is when I started, started to research that like sales, it was actually, you know, there was a lot of systems out there. But what I found, and to your point about having this podcast, there were a lot of fake, a lot of fake mentors out there or there were people that had kind of content that conflicted with each other. Like I remember reading certain things and I'd be like, this directly conflicts with this but it's written by the same person. So I reach out to them and they'd say, oh yeah, yeah, focus on this one. But we haven't been able to pull that one down because that gets the most website traffic on Google. Oh my gosh. So finding out all of these answers.

And figuring out, can I get your opinion on this? I mean, you've opened up a can of worms here. You know, early on, I forget what it was. It might have been about learning about podcasts or something, but there was the thing or how to get successful on Facebook or whatever. You know, this is early on and somebody written a book, it was on Amazon. 65 Ways to Grow your business, grow your followers on Facebook or whatever. It was Twitter, whatever. So anyway, the way I work is I always try. This is my go to method. I've always used. I sort through who is whoever I can find that's at the top or near as closest to the top that in whatever it is I want to learn or to do. And then I, I move heaven and earth to talk to them directly. And then it's amazing how many people you can get for a one hour consult, say, look, I can't, I don't have time to wade through all this stuff. The other, I just want to talk to you. Doesn't have to be long. I'll pay you whatever you want to charge, but I need from the horse's mouth. So anyway, we got the guy who wrote the book a 65 fake. It was hip. It might have been number one at the time. You know what he said, oh, I'm not doing any of that stuff anymore. I'm doing this. And I thought what? I mean, this is the thing about the fake experts. And you're like, I always feel like I don't have time to do it. And plus I've been to so many meetings in my life, I cannot stomach sitting in another meeting and listen to someone else talk. I don't, unless he's a comedian. Very funny, not too vulgar comedian. Then I can listen to it. But anybody else, it's just I've listened to too many speakers. And so the idea of going to a social media convention conference, you know, south by Southwest or something or you know, any of these things where they have lots of speakers lot I think told, you know, to grow the podcast, to grow this stuff, you need to get to some of these, go to the biggest ones, the biggest events, mix and mingle. And I'm sure there's, you know, you make the contacts. I'm sure there's a great benefit from that. But I'm also sure I'm suspicious that you also have a lot of people who have a lot of old information that they're trying to put out there and they're going to speak, they can spin a great story. You know, we went out there and we did this, that and the other, but all with old news. And by the time you try and use any of that crap, you know, Google, they've changed all their algorithms of what they're going to feature. Instagram, my son has got a retail company. If he puts out something about his bodybuilding, a post like instantly 7, 800, 2000 likes or something, if he puts something like an ad, run a special for the weekend for an ad, he'll have like three people get to see it because Instagram buries it, you know, and unless you pay for all that. And so the deal is they're changing the rules all the time and the world is flooded with fake experts. And that's why I'm trying to cut through on this podcast some of the film out there, like, what's the real deal? How can you get to the bottom line? And how did you get to the point of finding out what really worked in that arena where you could make your breakthrough as you went to online marketing or online content?

So the answer is, did I wear.

You out with that long.

No, no. So I, I followed all that because there's a lot of it that I agree on and I, I, I'm going to give you the exact steps that I follow because it is not what most people do. Most people either hire someone they perceive as an expert, which that person may have been an expert six years ago, but they are not today. And worse, they may still be an expert, but they may not have updated their knowledge for the last six years. And that's worse than. So a lot of these people that let's I would say were once experts, not fake experts in that case is that they are not constantly updating their knowledge or following the changes. And that's a problem. The Facebook person you talked about, well, when he wrote the book, he was an expert, but the industry shifted. You know, even digital marketer is constantly updating their suggestions and they can't keep up. So you do have to make sure that the expert that you're using is not only relevant, but relevant today. So what you want to be doing is checking. Don't ask for a testimonial, ask for a testimonial. Somebody they've worked with recently. Right. So you get an understanding of who that is. But what I also find is the people that want to get and hire someone, they don't do enough due diligence. And what I mean by that is if you don't know how to intelligently ask questions, you should not be hiring someone yet. So how do I go about doing this? So when I make a decision, and.

Don'T get me wrong, oh, I just.

Want to cut the.

One of the advantages for failure and falling in your face. You learn what you don't know, you know, it becomes very clear I've got to figure this out. So now you know what question you need to ask.

Go ahead. Absolutely. And so this is the thing. What I have discovered is that I To hire someone and get a good result because I need to know what questions to ask to work out whether they're amazing, they're going to lead me the right path, or whether I'm going down an old path or whether or not I'm going through a. They just have no experience whatsoever. I'm buying an online program that's not the right fit for me. So here's what I do. I go through this phase where the first thing I do is I go into everything, assuming that everything is possible. I know nothing, and I'm willing to try everything on. Now, just because I'm willing to try it on doesn't mean I'm willing to accept it. And I'll explain the difference, right? So what I then do is I will then, depending on the topic matter, do self assessments, I'll listen to and I'll, you know, I binge things like the Pat Flynn podcast every single episode, right? I, I listened to things, I found people that I was interested in and then I churned through them, you know, some of their blog posts. Now, this sounds like a lot of work, but it doesn't take a lot of time. And the amount of time that it saves you is ridiculous. But I go through this period, my team calls it me going down through going into a rabbit hole, right? Because I decide there's something that I've decided that I must know, then I go down a rabbit hole and I consume podcast episodes. I can consume blog posts. These days, I call it my any idiot with a camera face. Where I go on YouTube and I'll watch all these videos by all these people. I haven't got a clue who they are, but I'll understand all of the content matter. What it's about is understanding all of the ideas that fit in that box, then what I'll do is I'll educate myself enough not to be able to do it, but to be able to ask great questions. Once I've done that, I will then pick a maximum of three people that have books on the topic that were published in the last two years. I will then churn through those books and I listen to them on three times, speed in audible. Australians speak quickly. We listen fast too. Then once I've done that, I will pick one of those and I will book a phone call with them. Or I may book a phone call with all three with the decision of picking one. But then what I will do is I will get on a phone call and I am the worst sales call in the world. I will ask you every question. I read your book and I was wondering about this and how does that apply to this new algorithm change that I just saw online? And what I realize is most, most people don't have the answers to that. Right. Eventually I get to a point where I'm like, well, actually it's changing too fast and most people aren't getting up to date, so I have to do it myself. Or this person's amazing. I'm hiring them. And I'm always blown away at how little the person that actually knows what they're doing is charging compared to the person that's charging 10 times as much that actually haven't, hasn't done it for themselves in a very long time. But they've got this online course. But here's what I then do, actually. So let me take you back to that, because this happened when it was social media and this was the most hilarious. I would get on a call and I would ask them questions. I'd ask about algorithms, I'd ask about technology that they're using, and I would ask about whether or not the social media platforms had an issue with using those technologies. And I would start asking all these questions and they'd then start responding. Know the answer to that or let me get back to you on that one. Or you're. You, you obviously have a lot of experience in the industry. And I'm like, if people think that I have enough, a huge amount of experience in the industry just by asking questions, how bad, how poorly educated must most customers be? But if somebody answers all of my questions and gets me to a point that I feel like they know more than I do, which is actually tough, even though I've only got this surface level knowledge a lot of people don't have. Tick that box. But then I know they're worth every dollar.

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