0408 | Scott Joseph [PART 2]

And we're back with part two. Here we go. EA interviews, episode 408, inspiration, transformation, success stories and the imperfect action round. Seven days a week, join Mario Ficcini for today's Expert Authority Effect interview.

They have families, they have other responsibilities that are probably more important to them than your company. And so.

Sometimes that can be a tough.

Especially if you're a new entrepreneur.

I don't know if everybody fully understands that and gets that. And so you've got to be willing to do a lot of the work and lead by example.

A lot more than you think. I think some people in their head think I'm going to be an entrepreneur and then I'm going to eventually hire these people and they'll just do all the stuff and, and then I can.

Walk away and do nothing and they have an idea. I agree 150%. And I would add in. Some of the best things that have happened are because I care so much and I'm emotionally invested.

Yeah.

I will also, admittedly, I will also admit some of the worst things that have happened are because I'm so emotionally. And it's abs. Don't. It's just business. Don't take it personal. Are you kidding me? Do you know what I've given up and done over the last decades? You're going to tell me to not take this personal? You're lucky if I don't hit you with a hammer in the head when.

When a good employee quits. And let me. And let's just say I'll. I had an, an executive assistant that was with me for, I want to say about 10 years. And by the way, I have not been able to replace her since and it's been 10 years. So yeah, it, it's. She was phenomenal.

And.

When. And she left for the right reasons, by the way, because at that time I was holding her back. Not intentionally, but looking back now because she's achieved so much, I'm so happy for her.

But at the time I didn't feel betrayed or. It wasn't like an anger towards her. It was hurt because I truly. It came out of nowhere for me. And.

But it is A, it's 100% emotional. It's. There's no way around it. I just think. But as long as you're aware.

Yes.

That it's not the same level of emotion for, for no matter how close this employee might be or how, or, or their level of responsibility or how good they might have it, it's not the same level of emotion. For them as it is you and. And therefore you have to. And when I said I was trying to transition out. Right. And I knew that it was time for me to take on something else and put something body else in charge. Well, I'm no longer leading by example here at J L.

But I have so many.

But you did before you transition out. So that way when the transition happens, it's the right transition. It's not just you looking cool, going, oh, I hired someone to take over, and then two months later you go, oh, they're doing a bad job. Because my question at that point is, well, what are your trainings and operate standard operating procedures, what did you have in place? And did they catch the vision for the next three to five years?

Correct, that's right.

Usually it's, oh, I hired someone, they said they're going to be good and they're not. Well, you gave them nothing to run with or any structure.

Yeah.

Whose fault is it really? Okay. Well, yeah, of course it's not you.

No. That hits close to home because for my software that I designed to build WordPress websites automatically in under five minutes.

It'S over 10 years old now. And my lead programmer, like, literally just in the last few months.

I mean, he's been working with me for a decade and he's been doing more and more stuff. And I'm very excited for him, very happy for him, and I have someone new in place and I'm excited about where that's going to go, but it was a shock and I'm like, what do I do? You know what I mean? It's like a decade. And, you know, we started off and, you know, it was fun to do the ideas and everything, and then it just got so streamlined. It was effortless, but I'm happy to say he's doing well. And again, you know, I'm not going to try and compete with Amazon right now because he's working on their stuff. So on your next prime delivery. He may have had something to do with it from the programming infrastructure, but our last call we had, he gave me in about 25 minutes, gave me an idea of where I could take the thing for the next 10 years. And the computing and the coding that's available now, that wasn't even around 10 years ago. And I'm just like, we can go from doing 100 sites in an hour to a thousand. He's like, we can do a thousand sites instantaneously.

I'm like, by. By the way, that executive assistant, the trip I just went on was monumental in helping me arrange in. In advise me on. Make sure you do this, this, this, this and this. Because she's welcome.

So, I mean, what I'm hearing is you're still in touch with her and you still have the relationship.

Oh, the relationship's great. Yeah. The.

That's awesome.

Yeah. And she works for a person I've actually had on. She works with someone I've actually had as a guest on. On our show. And.

He'S the reason I went out. Out to Monterey. He was the one that talked me into going and thank God he did. It's. You know, I'm very thankful for it. So. But he stole her sounds. But he did steal her.

Yeah.

I mean, it.

But it works out.

Another thing that's been hard for me is like, you get it to a point where it's like, oh, my gosh, everything's running smoothly. Then I of a sudden, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And it's like, holy smokes, Mario.

So if anybody's listening, I need a really high quality executive assistant. All right, so this will be a.

You know what I'll do? Feel free. If you have an application or somewhere, I'm happy to put in the show notes to redirect straight to you.

Well, if they go to. You'll have J and L Marketing in there in the. In the link. So yeah, they could go to the career section there. Okay.

Yeah, happy to do. I mean, I would love for you to say, yeah, I've had her for 10 years, 10 years from now and says result for this.

They can also reach out to me, you know, private message, whether it's on LinkedIn, Instagram or Facebook. So.

Yeah, and I'm really enjoying this because I think it's a lot of the behind the scenes, you. A lot of people don't share because it's not always, oh, look, it's glitz and glam, but at the same point, it's the reality. And it's why I wanted to talk about it with you because there's so few people who can talk about it at this level for the period of time in detail.

Well, you know what? You go. I'm going to go back to your first question because you just said something that triggered a thought.

Okay.

How do you know when you need to move on? Or how do you know? You know, in the beginning when you're working on something, you really.

Things don't work out. It's frustrating. You know, not everybody said. Not all the clients or prospects say yes to you. You have all kinds of problems and issues with. Whether it's.

People not doing what they're supposed to or somebody leaves you, or all the different challenges and obstacles, barriers that come with a business or a process or service, whatever. But when you're, when you're doing the right thing, those type of things don't stop you from continuing to put in the, the 60, 70, 80 hours, 100 hours a week. Right. Because you're working towards something that you really love. When all of a sudden.

Those frustrations, those same obstacles and challenges and barriers, you don't feel like working on them.

I think that's a sign that you need to take a step back and look at. All right, what am I doing here?

When you're no longer willing to put up that fight. Not, not in a give up way, but you know, you know, just a.

It's. It's time. I, I think and I, for me, like, I, it was just became some of the things I used to be excited about. Bored me.

I totally get that.

Yeah.

You know, it's one reason I started the show. I've said, I've said it, but not a ton of times. After I lost dad in 2017, I was younger than I was now because it's after 2017 for anyone listening that didn't get that little loop. And I was really like, I've accomplished a lot. I'm excited about it. I'm nowhere near where I want to be. But I didn't feel like I'm just getting started. I literally was like, do I want to do this? What am I doing? Why am I here? I like just went and slowly it was. And I had this epiphany at church just a few days ago because it was so surreal with the guest speaker we had in. It reminded me of 2017 because it was 2017. I was sitting in the front row at church and the speakers going, are you honoring God in your work? And I'm like.

Kinda, you know, I'm like, I'm kind of doing the like what everyone does by go. If I'm being honest with myself here, I'm going, not as much as I could, not as. And I just started thinking about it and what came from that is God gave me the vision to go. You did acting, you did modeling, you've done speaking. You like this, this, this, this, this and this. You've helped dozens of people with their shows. From my marketing company, I've done a ton of video. This is my background special effects animation. But it was always this little, oh, Let me do something cute for you. Let me do something cute for you. It was never this like laser spear where it's like, look what I can do. I am awesome. I can help you. And just take that confidence I never had, I guess I could say never had that true confidence to go, yeah, this is me.

I think I was segmenting it myself just because it was like my natural state is let's have fun and humor and stuff. But when I got serious, I go, oh my gosh. The last literally 20, 30, 35 plus years was.

Even when I was a kid, there was stuff that I've incorporated. I go literally everything I've ever done thinking that was my career path. You know, the only one has just went. And same thing with publishing. It's why I redid the book and everything. I go, I've been doing this so long. But I never did that laser spear focus. The second I did it was like, oh, maybe I should have done this a little bit sooner. I used to joke about it but you know, the things, the path you're on leads you to where you're going in the right direction. I always knew I was on the right path, but until I took realized it in myself and went, this is what I need to do. This is what I can do with the rest of my life. Oh my gosh, thank you. I was like, my mind just went from I'm sad, I'm depressed, this sucks to I'm still sad, this still sucks. But there's a whole lot more people I can help. And now I really am just getting started. I have 70 more years now. What? I'm not going to sit around and just stare at the wall. And I started putting the pieces in places and that's, you know, that's what led it to me because I was like, I can't do, I can't do what I was doing for another 10 minutes, let alone 10. 10 years. And 10 years would have been nothing. I literally have 70 plus left. 8,000, whatever.

Well, first off, it would have been a shame with hair like yours not to do some modeling. But the it's still phenomenal. I don't know how old you are, but that is, I envy it because you know, you can see I'm thinning out now, but I'm gonna give you your fifth one and I can't believe I did not think of this first. It should be number one and you alluded to it is focus. I've been posting about it non stop here.

Oh, I know it took you Weeks.

Yeah.

And so glad to see it won out.

Yeah. Oh.

Focus is greater than time. Time is greater than money. Right? What with a lot of entrepreneurs where they struggle or fail at, they get lured by a bunch of shiny things and fads and. And they start allowing those distractions to keep them from doing the type of activities.

That will actually move the needle and get them closer to achieving their goal. And so there's focus on that. There's your own mental focus. It's easy for you to. To. You know, one thing I do in the morning.

I've got a pretty strict routine in the morning. And I think if you listen to a lot of successful people, most start their day a certain way. And I'm not saying that there's one way to start the day, but one thing that, for me, that's very important. You know, I get up early.

I do not pull out my phone.

And hit social media right away. And the reason I don't do it is it. It over stimulates me. And when you become overstimulated, it's very hard to go back and focus on the things that you have to do. All right? To move the needle to get to your. To get closer to accomplishing your goal. Because they. There's a lot of. There's. It's very difficult for the things that have to be done to be more stimulating or enjoyable than scrolling through a bunch of Instagram reels that are entertaining you. Right. And you can just get lost in that. And the reason you. I don't pull out my phone is because I might be going through and see a reel that I need to comment on or pay attention to. Maybe it's a friend I want to help support. Could be my own company stuff. But the problem with reels is, right, once it's done, it goes to the next reel, and the next thing you know, you're just down this rabbit hole of. Of reels, and you can't break away. And so it just numbs you and. And it's bad for your mind. So, you know, I get up in the morning early, drink a lot of water. I start with my cup of coffee to get things going and, and get my mind sharp so I'm not feeling tired.

I. I go out on my front porch, I pray, I read scripture, I write down something I'm grateful for in. In a journal, and then I start working on projects. All right? I'm not someone that can exercise early in the morning. Morning. It's not sustainable for me. I've tried it. So I Work out at noon. All right. But that's a reward for me as long as I get a project or two done that I want to work on before that time. And by the way, I think most studies show your, your mind is sharper in the morning than it is as the day wears on. So a lot of times I'll go into social later in the day, make my comments, my likes, respond to people, answer my direct messages, private messages, what have you. But I, I found that I'm much more productive when I start my day off with something that's very calm.

And grounded for me and peaceful and, and so I, I start every day like that.

And then I dive in. So focus would be your fifth, but I would rank it number one.

Okay, we can do that.

Yeah.

No different than editing a book.

That's right.

Just get the ideas out, rearrange them. But yeah, Focus, I would have to say, is a great one. And I love that you shared the morning routine too. Let me ask you that in regards to the morning routine.

Yeah.

Is there a specific time that is the keeper of all success? If you wake up at this time, you're successful. But if you wake up at this time, you're not?

No, not for me. I think it's, I think that's, I know there's a lot of people out there that push, I'm up at 4, I'm up at 4:30, I'm up at 5, I'm not up at 4, I'm not up at. The only time I'm up at 4 is to use the restroom. So, you know, at my age, that's, that's what happens. So.

You know.

If I'm up at 5, I'm up, and if I'm up at 5:30, I'm up at 5:30. But usually I'm, you know, I'm never sleeping past 6.

6:30. Okay.

But that's just me.

I, I think I, I think if you read something about Jeff Bezos, his mornings, he doesn't even take meetings until after 10 because it says his mornings are important to him. He likes to relax and start his day off, you know, in a, in a, in a thing where he can, he doesn't take meetings before 10:00am and, and so, you know, if he's not taking them before 10, I, I'm, I'm assuming he's not waking up at 8:30. So, you know, he, he's waking up early, but he's filling his day with things that are just more productive for how his, I think everybody's different, you know, and.

Yeah, and I think people have to realize that too. I know some scenarios where people got divorced. They got the kids. The kids are important, as they should be. And so what they did is the mornings were with the kids and they didn't. They actually, they lived on the east coast and the whole business was built on the west coast because of the time zone difference. So they got ready with the kid in the morning.

Then when they're at school, started doing all the sales calls and everything, built the whole company during school hours and then spent time with them. So the kid didn't know any. I'm like, that is so awesome.

That. Well, you've just brought up something that's very. There are specific situations where you have to have a routine at certain times, because that's what, you know, in, in that situation, that's what it takes. That, that's exactly what it takes. If I wasn't able to work out at noon and I couldn't do it late in the evening, you know, when I was single, I'd work out after work after hours, and I do it on my way home. I wouldn't go home first or I'd never get back to the gym. I do it on the way. But, you know, after you get married, you can't do that. You could, I guess, but I, I felt guilt. I didn't feel good for me because I. I felt like I was being selfish with my time. Right. I could be home with the kids, I could be home with my wife, and instead I'm at the gym. So I do that at noon, you know, and that's why it's sustainable for me. But to your point, Yeah, I think that you just gotta. I think everything's different. Depends on your situation and what circumstances that you're dealt and, or that you're dealing with. And you. And you have a great plan. Like, some of my best work comes two in the morning. I, I mean, I. You, you're in book publishing business, right? I mean, you can't tell me that some of the best writing doesn't happen between 11 and 3, 3am when no one else is up disturbing you. All right? It's just 100% quiet.

It's, it's. The beauty of nowadays is you don't have to go away in a log cabin and have every scenario perfect. It's like I've been at a red light and an idea hits me. I've been in a waiting room. There's times I have intentionally sat down here and went Nuts. And there's other times I was just on the boat, sitting on the patio, whatever the case is going, I have an idea. You know, I'm not on my phone, I'm relaxing, but when the idea hits, you gotta go document it.

Yep.

Put in basecamp or whatever. And, you know, when I get back to that mode, incorporate it. Integrate it. That's, you know, whatever the case is. But it's like, I. I think parts of every single one of my books have been written in hot tubs.

Yeah.

Love it. Your ideas are the same. So this whole thing, like, we need to do this formal thing, like, like, are you kidding me? Let's go to a cabana and floating around all day. Like, I guarantee you we'll come up with some good stuff by dinner.

Yeah, no, I agree 100%.

But hey, you know, the success article says this, so I have to follow it to, like.

I, the, the only thing that I've. I, I said that's strict for me is what I will not do in the morning, and that. That is, I will not pull out my phone. Right. That's not going to be the first thing I'm looking at and.

But you're missing the news.

Yeah, I don't, I don't. By the way, I pay no attention to any news at any time of the day.

I know. I'm teasing.

Yeah.

It reminds me of the. What's the movie? Office Space. He's like, well, Bob, I wouldn't say I've been missing it.

I, I don't. There is zero news that comes through. I'm very protective of what I put up here.

Same here. I, I actually, it's why I have everything in basecamp. As far as urgency stuff, there's times I don't even check the email till midday, and I'm like, okay, let's see. It could be anything. And I have them segregated out. So, like, nothing's really even attached to my personal email. So that way, when I see you emailing me, I know it's important and I'm not missing it or something for the show or something with publishing or the software. And it's just like, I know. So on all these lists, that's no different than a Facebook newsfeed. Yeah, I have a Facebook newsfeed eradicator. I don't get the newsfeed on desktop.

So, as a matter of fact, when I'm live streaming the show right now, if I were to try. If you say, check out the news feed. I couldn't. It did. Nothing comes through.

So I point as far as, you know, I've got the iPhone, so they got the news app. Right. I have blocked every. Every. Anything political, any channel, any publication, anything on that phone that's political has been blocked by me. I get none of it because it doesn't serve me. It doesn't. It puts me in a bad mental spot and it doesn't change. It's not changing how I'm voting. It's not changing. So why am I putting it in? Why am I. You know, your brain only has the capacity for so much information, right? So you can. The. The more.

Good you put into it, the less room there is for bad.

But that's the opposite. So if you're filling it with a bunch of bad and consuming too much news, which is all bad, typically, because it's all sensationalized to get us to pay attention, click, read, watch whatever.

It. You're not leaving enough for the good. It's like a gallon of milk. You know when you got a gallon of milk and. And it's water, right? Let's say, or gallon of water. All right? And you got that neck. And as you pour it, you hear the gulp. Gulp. Well, what that gulping is, it's the air, the negative coming in, forcing the water out. And so as more air comes in, less water. And so it's the same with your brain, good and bad info. And so I, I just make sure I, I try to be conscious when, when bad stuff's entering so I can stop it.

Yeah, 100%. Because the best hours of the day are once you get going. And I think too many people just don't have a routine, don't get ready, or they come into the office regardless of location, they're just not prepared for. It's like when you get there, you should be ready to attack and everything, but then also know how to step away. So when you're out of that and I'm talking mindset, you can relax. So it's not like you feel bad. It's like, hey, I'm happy with the.

Quantity and quality of the work I put in today. I'm smirking because it's actually from the office. They're trying to leave and the boss is keeping them there four hours after in St. Patrick's Day. And anyway, but they're just like, you have to know how to differentiate. And, you know, some of the times I've gotten the most aggravated, it's like I want to keep going. I. I've argued with sleep before. I want to Keep going. I want to keep going. I'm on a roll. And you're in that flow state, and it's like, yeah, you are being more productive because you can go a day and a half, like, in flow better than a week around, sitting around, and having 15 interruptions. And it's like, yeah. So I love everything we're sharing. I don't even know what time it is, but I feel like I should ask you about the wheel of whatever so we can do a little bit more. I could talk to you for hours, like we've already done. But if you have a few more minutes, I do want to.

Sure.

I.

Get this. Here we go. It's usually in front of me. I forgot. So the wheel. Whatever.

Yellow or black?

Black.

Yeah.

Okay, so it landed here.

So my question for you is.

How do you know.

I was gonna ask you about a location you've never been to. I want to ask you something deep, and you're given such good detail, but, like, how do you know when it's time to go, okay, I'm gonna do this big trip, or I'm gonna do a big travel thing, or I'm gonna do this.

Event that I've always wanted to do. Like, actually pursue your dream. Not the dream of I want to have the business. I want to have this. But, like, do.

Buy a private jet. Buy that car. Buy that thing. Like, how do you know when it's really the right time? And is there anything in particular.

That you do before you do that, or do you just go out and do it?

I'm pretty much a just do it guy. The. My. My work life balance is integrated. I can tell you right now, if it wasn't for my. My. Some of my friends and family and just some of the activities that tend to go happen that. That more social functions seem to happen more on the weekend, because most people are off on the weekend. I wouldn't know my Monday from my Saturday.

So I work every day. I play every day. Yeah, so I work every day. I play every day.

But as far as the jets, we got two. And you know how I decided to do those? I put it off. Put it off, put it off. Because I'm thinking, I'm not spending money on that. And then I had someone that actually knew more about them than me said, well, you can. This is what happens with your taxes on this. And when you charter it, you can make this. So those are not expenses for us. Those are profit centers.

And I. I don't know if everybody understands it now. If you're just buying it to fly around in it. You know, I, I use it maybe two or three times a year. It's not like every time I'm flying, I'm flying private. It has to make sense for me. And there, there's a convenience weight and.

And.

Cost of benefit ratio.

Correct. And, and so, but for the most part that things being chartered out to people and it, it makes pro. It makes money. So cash flows very well, both of them. So I, I would encourage anybody to look into that. But it's like anything else right now. It's not the best time to buy.

Something like that. Only because supply and demand is not the.

They're probably going to come down here in about 12 months.

What about, what about the vacations and like long family, extended family trips and stuff?

Well.

I know you said you have it integrated, but let's go back.

I have never.

I've never taken like that month long trip. All right. Mine I've never done.

I haven't been comfortable enough to do that yet. The, in the sense of.

Oh, this is interesting. What would that take for you? Because, like. Well, why not?

Well, I've got, I've got little ones, so that limits it to summer. Summer months. Okay.

Everyone's pretty much off June and July, so.

Yeah, it's a good question.

You only need one of them.

That would be fun. Most of my vacations and trips are all like seven days, 10 days, the longest two weeks, depending on where I'm going. If I'm going to Hawaii that, you know from, From Louisville, that would be a two weeker. But yeah, a lot of them are seven days.

Did we just identify a stretch goal?

Yeah, well, it doesn't need to be a goal because I think I'm just gonna. It's a good idea.

I mean, it's not like you couldn't. You just said you have two jets.

Yeah, well, you have. I don't need them to go where I don't need to go there, but it's a great idea because, you know, I could.

It won't happen this summer because I've got a newborn, but the next, it can definitely happen without feeling actually. And it would work. I'm going to sell myself here. Would actually work out much better because then I wouldn't feel the pressure of, of when you're living there with the newborn. It's just a different location. Right. It's not like the hassle of packing everything up and. Yeah, yeah, I like that.

Okay. I knew something good was going to come to that. But that's the thing, is because the rewards.

I've never thought to do it.

Yeah. What was it? I think it was Robert Kiyosaki. He said, until you can take six months off and your business doesn't crumble, you don't have a business. I'm like.

Wow. And I heard that 20 years ago. I'm like, I need to hire at least one person then. And I think that was one of my first hires. I was like, if someone's going to be running this, they got to let at least get someone older than me in here. I was like, wow, that really stretched me six months.

Yeah. But that's.

It's that reward of, I think people, you know, like, we talked about that time, freedom and the freedom to do what you want. And it's like, oh, I'd love to be flying around doing whatever I want, whenever I want.

Okay.

Well, you can build a business to get to that point.

Yeah.

But what holds us back from when it's at that point?

It's such a great thing, because I. I've. You know, I was skiing last winter, and I remember this. I was riding up the lift with someone that, you know, was sitting there saying, yeah, we're going here, then we're going here. We're going here. It was a month and a half. And I remember thinking, God, that's a lot of skiing. What the heck do you do? Right? But, you know, I've just.

They own all the resorts.

But, you know, I said it at the beginning. Right. I am learning to get comfortable.

With the flexibility I now have.

Okay.

And so to answer your question, why I have not done it, I probably never just thought it was something I should or could do, not because the business would crumble.

I just think that there's still. There was still that control part of it and just this guilt of, like, leaving it.

I'll give you one more, and then I'm gonna thank our sponsor and we'll come back for the imperfect action round. But again, congrats on the newborn.

You've got 18 to 20 some years of.

I would absolutely be going, okay, we can do this and this and this. Like, how fun is that?

No, you're right. In fact, it's less of a hassle to spend a long period of somewhere versus packing up and pack it back for. For that.

So I guess I'll put the cherry on top. I was going to ask you, where's someone where. Somewhere you'd love to go that you haven't. Well, do you have Any other left or have you done?

I have not. I've not been. I've. Most of my travel has all been Caribbean, Hawaii, Mexico and that type of stuff. So I'm going over to Europe next. We'll be in Italy next summer, so. Looking forward to that.

Nice.

Yeah, very nice.

Okay, well, like I said, I could talk to you for hours. You're awesome. But I'm going to thank the sponsor. We'll come back for the imperfect action round. You've heard me say every business needs a book, including yours. And it's true. And that's why I'm launching my new book@eapublishing method book.com so you can learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. But you know what, don't take my word for it. Take it from a few of my authors like Lori, I went from having.

An idea and a possibility to actually.

Getting my book published.

Or Catherine, thank you for making my mom number one best selling author. Or Mary Alice, what he got done for me in three days regarding my book launch.

Unmanageable John Cody.

I've worked with Mario over the phone and online and he's been very helpful in getting me where I needed to go with promoting my books.

Rocio, there's no way in the world I would have been able to do this with somebody else again. I've attempted it in the past. It didn't serve me. As a matter of fact, I ended up more frustrated than anything. So this has been a very seamless process.

Adele, if you're looking for an amazing.

Business coach, I highly recommend Mario Ficcini or Bill Benner.

I can't make a higher recommendation for than to work with Mario Ficini. He has been great for me and right now I won't work with anybody else except for Mario.

Hey, their words, not mine. Visit eapublishingmethodbook.com to get your copy and I look forward to hearing your transformation as our next video success story. Once again, that's eapublishingmethodbook.com.

And we are back with the imperfect action round. Scott, are you ready to take imperfect action?

I think so.

First question for you. What is the fastest path to the cash or profits?

What is the fastest path to cash or profits?

Yes.

And you can't just say sales or sales and marketing.

When you say. I would say referrals. Okay, I. I would say referrals. Faster closing times.

You've got third party or you've got social proof Right out the gate with people that they trust and have relationships with. If you're doing a good job with your product or service, I think if you, you folk, that doesn't mean you have one, one line of leads coming in, one stream of, you know, referrals coming in from only one lead source. I think you have to have multiple ways to try and get those referrals. But if all you did was focus on referrals, I think that would be the fastest way to growth.

I like that. That's a good one.

And it's the least expensive.

Yeah. And it goes right back to that network.

Yeah.

You know, you're being nice to people, they're going to reciprocate.

Yeah.

Number two, what is the biggest problem you see your prospects making in the fastest way they can fix it?

Prospects. So potential clients.

Well, because we're in the digital marketing world with paid media, you know, search, display, discovery, paid, social, I think most of them don't understand, they don't have a true strategy. I think if you are asked most business leaders, marketers, or anybody managing any type of marketing spend what their strategy is, I think the common answer that you would get most frequently is, well, we spend this much in search, we spend this much in social, we spend this much on display or discovery, whatever it is. But that's not a strategy, that's just a segmentation of your budget. A strategy would sit there and be.

Like a profit and loss statement.

Correct. A strategy like, you know, let me take auto, for example. We do a ton of business with auto dealers and then auto manufacturers. So.

Right now they don't have inventory. Right. So you've got to reallocate funds and you have a strategy to acquire vehicles, use vehicles that they can sell. They may have certain models that they want to do. They might want to have a certain strategy for client retention. It's not about the channels you're using. It's about the strategy that's going to help you achieve the goals that you want to achieve. And then the channels are just part of, you know, you're analyzing and optimizing the spend where you're getting the biggest return on, on the dollar. And that just dictates what channels and, and how much should go to. What the. But what is it? What is your actual strategy to get there? I think is the biggest mistake they made. They just, they lack one.

Yeah. And what I'm hearing again is it's not any one thing. It's that deeper meaning that's specific to what your goals are. And what you, where you're looking to go, it's not so and so said this, so and so said this. So that's why we're doing it. It's. We're doing this specifically because we know the open rate of email is 86% versus this is 26%.

That's correct.

You know, in direct mail, I don't, I'd love to ask you what, what's the highest you've ever seen in a direct mail campaign? In terms one or two, like the response rate. Have you ever seen direct mail in the 5 or 10%?

Oh, yeah.

Like on a, on a big, in a big way, though.

The average is 2%. The average is 2. But have I seen 5? You know, I don't know if I've ever seen 10. I've definitely seen over 5.

But, you know, to me, it still goes back to what are you trying to sell and why? What are you trying, what are you trying to accomplish? And then what are the best channels to, to approach that? Where's the budget that needs to have that? But how are you setting it up? And especially in the digital world where you, your account structure has to be set up based on your, what your goals are. Right. And, and so, and I think that's where the strategy falls short. I think there's a lot of templated cookie cutter stuff out there.

100.

Yeah.

I know people that sell email and bad mouth direct mail, and I know people that do direct mail and bad mouth email. It's like, why wouldn't you use them in conjunction?

Yep. Correct. Yep. Listen, direct mail works very well right now. You're not competing against a lot of, you know.

15, 20 years ago, you came back from your mailbox with, with a stack 6 to 12 inches high. You know, now you're lucky to get what, three or four pieces of mail a day?

You're, you're. It's easy to grab attention with direct mail right now. You're not competing against anybody now you've got to weigh the cost. I think there's. But that goes back to the strategy too. Right.

There are certain segments from an audience that I wouldn't target with direct mail. Invite, you know, in some. That make a lot of sense too. So it just depends on, on the message and the offer and.

Who your audience is.

Yeah, it's one of my favorite things with book publishing is you can give someone a book, you can mail a book. It's a physical, tangible product. It's a direct mail piece also.

Yep, that's right.

Number three, what is the best way to maximize customer lifetime value?

Well, first, know what it is.

You can't maximize something until you actually determine what the lifetime value of a client or customer is. So.

I think that's a good question.

Will never leave.

I love this question. And, and here's why I. Every business I've been a part of, I, I mentioned earlier Jay Abraham. I'm a big, he's cool student of his. And if you listen to his three ways to grow a business, it is increase your active client base. All right? Increase the frequency of how often those clients are buying and then increase the average transaction value. It's a very simple formula, but if you take your, your active client base now and, and let's say it's a hundred, and you just want to grow at 10%. So at the end of the year, I want 110 active clients. It's 10% improvement. It's not a big ask right now. There's a lot of strategies that would go into that. You can't lose them as fast as you're acquiring new ones or you break even, right? So you've got to have good retention.

Things in there built in. You're. So you're re. You're trying to retain more and you're trying to acquire more. So now I just want to grow 10. Now I'm at 110. If I increase how frequently people buy from me, if they bought, you know, three times a year for me, and now they buy 3.3 10 improvement. All right? If someone averages the average transaction values for easy math, $1,000. And now I average throughout the course of a year, 1100, a 10% improvement.

Over the course. If you do the math on that. And I don't care what vertical you're in, if you do the math on that, that's a 33% increase in, in, in top line in gross, in gross profit. Now, if you go to people and you go to your business, your, your business leaders and you say we're going to grow 33% this year.

You'Re probably going to have some people that shake their head or start doubting, if that's possible. You focus on those three things and you just do 10, 10 and 10, it will come up to a 33% impact. So the quickest way to optimize lifetime value is, you know, you're not optimizing lifetime value by, by acquiring new. But if you have good retention strategies and you focusing on getting to buy more often from you, what other things can you Cross, sell and upsell. That can also raise the average transaction value. If you just focus on those three things. I think those are the easiest way to optimize your lifetime value.

Really, really solid answer. Love it. I agree. Jay's. Jay's great. And I remember hearing that stuff too. But so many people think, like, you know, what's the best way to do. Oh, I should do an email campaign.

Yeah.

Well, one, a single can't. I'm going to behave here. This has been going so well.

I know that's just a tactic. Yeah, that's my tactic.

Yeah.

Right. Yeah.

So I have enough snark in the book, but trying to behave here. So.

Is there anything else you'd love to share that I haven't asked? I know you have your wealth of wisdom, but this is it. Unfortunately for now.

Oh, man. I think we've. We've covered a lot. It's been an honor being on the show. I appreciate it.

Oh, the honor is mine. I'm so glad you could do it. And I know it's extreme value. I literally, I have no idea what time it is, but I feel like we've gone just.

I've missed a meeting, but I'm going to explain to him, hey, I, I was on a cheese. I was on a show. But it's all good.

Well, with that, I won't ask you anything else. Great to see you and.

Oh, I will ask you something, but I got to turn this off first. It's been an honor to talk to you again. And how do I close this off? Expert Authority World, help me out here. What do I do? Okay, Expert Authority World, here's another great episode. See on the next one and you know there'll be more, so. All right.

Expert Authority World, we have another great episode here today. I'll see you on the next one. Have a great day and God bless.

You're already the expert. But have you transformed your expertise into a tangible asset that will generate qualified leads while increasing profit for you 24 7? And if so, how well are you promoting it? With my new book, the Expert Authority Effect Publishing Method, I take you through my process step by step. Visit eapublishingmethodbook.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction, lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. Visit eapublishingmethodbook.com to get started. Now, once again, that's eapublishingmethodbook.Com thanks for listening to today's episode. I would love to know what you enjoyed most from it. If you haven't done so already, I invite you to connect with me on my new LinkedIn. You can go to it directly at eainterviews.com LinkedIn Once again, that's eainterviews.com LinkedIn. Lastly, check out the full eainterviews.com site for complete show notes, the full interview video experience, links to the resources we mentioned, and more. Have a blessed day and I'll see you on the next one.