0485 | Rick Elmore

Hi, my name is Rick Elmore and I'm the founder and CEO of Simply Noted. And you're listening to EA Interviews.

EA Interviews, episode 485, inspiration, transformation, success stories and the Imperfect Action Round. Seven days a week. Join Mario Ficcini for today's expert authority effect. Interview marketing is important for your business, but how well are you doing it? You might think it's all online. You may know about some of the things offline, but what are you doing to utilize it? I am super excited to have none other than Rick Elmore on today's episode. Founder and CEO of Simply Noted. He has a proprietary technology to have handwriting messages and he's. There's something he told me right before this that I can't wait to jump into. But how well are you using this? Do you know it exists? What are you doing for it? We're going to jump into all of this and more.

Right?

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I'm feeling pretty good, but I'm trying to stay cool down here in Phoenix, Arizona. It's been over 110 for like 30 days straight.

Wow. Hopefully you have air conditioning in a pool and some ice cubes.

Yes. Yeah, we do have a pool. Thank God.

That's fantastic. I'd be underwater the whole time sleeping with a scuba tank.

I want to ask you about marketing because so many businesses, they've heard about it, they know about it, but I don't think everyone does it as well as they could. Would you agree?

Yeah, I think people try to dabble in some things and when something doesn't work as well as they want them to do, people tend to give up. But with, with like everything in life, you know, if you stick to something, you know, especially marketing, because marketing grows exponentially, it works out well in the end.

What are your thoughts on offline marketing and online marketing?

Well, with my background I would think offline marketing is much more important. You know, I did a lot of the, the face to face stuff, go to events, go to trade shows, go to networking meetings. Even though that's not like some traditional ways of marketing. That's what I kind of cut my teeth in. But as I've grown a business over the last five years, I know how important it is to get online and offline marketing and sales like tools to work together because you can leverage one that's great. But if you can leverage both efficiently, it's going to be, it's going to, you know, 10x your results.

So with that being said.

Why did you decide to create a offline marketing killer service and product?

That's a great question. So I was in court. Well, my background's in athletics. I played college and professional football in the NFL for just about four years. Got done and jumped into the court. The corporate world.

A lot of success in the corporate world. Number one or top 1% or top five sales rep in the company for about six years. But there just was like an itch I couldn't scratch. So I went back and did my mba and this is really, really where my life changed. I was in a marketing class speaking of marketing, about 12 months into my program and I had a marketing professor say that handwritten notes had a 99.2% open rate. And I just thought that statistic was so incredible. Especially after his lecture talking about all the other marketing rates, I had like 4%, 12%, 18%. He says, hey guys, you know what works better than ever, if not better than ever, is a good old fashioned handwritten note. Mailbox are empty, everybody's going digital. It's a great way to stand out. They're personable, they're authentic and they have a 99.2% open rate. So I thought, hey, that's a no brainer. Like I grew up in the world without cell phones. You know, we used to handwrite all the time to our friends. I saw a box of notes from friends. I've keepsakes like, I bet if I can automate this or scale this for businesses, there'd be a business idea here. So I got a pen plotter from China early 2018 and sent some test handwritten notes to some doctors and the response rate was just absolutely wild. Got about 500 doctors on a mailing list that never worked with me. Basically like pitch them an idea, ask them to lunch and these doctors would call me back and say, Rick, like first off, this is cool. No one sends me a handwritten note anymore. Like this is awesome. Like let's schedule a meeting and talk about this. So when I used to knock doors and cold call and send emails and hit them up on Digital like and everybody ignored me. The handwritten note cut through the noise and got them to call me back. And from that simple 500 piece mailer my quota was like $50,000 a month. I sold $280,000 in like six weeks. 28 grand a commission. And my like life changed. The entrepreneurial seizure moment happened. And fast forward six years since then. We have 400,000 users on our platform. We've developed, developed the world's only purposely built handwriting Robot. We have six pending patents, 11 full time employees. It's changed my life. You know, I going to qualify for the Inc 5000 this year. So it's been a whirlwind of fun. Thank you.

And I mean that alone is a huge success story. But you also mentioned former NFL. I mean you're doing that killing it with sports. Why jump into entrepreneur and taking all this risk?

I so I think it's very personal. I think people who are like true, like true entrepreneurs are born that way. You just have like itches you can scratch, like you want to try new things, you want to build, you want to create, you want to solve problems. And I tried to the corporate thing. My parents were small business owners. They like very small companies. Like one dad was a contractor and my mom did like medical billing. But it gave them the freedom and flexibility to be very active with our family. So they went to all our practices, all our games, never missed anything. And I loved how involved they were. And me and my wife who I've been with since 2006. So what is that like 17 years? Yeah, 17 years. We have children now. Thank you. And I wanted to be available and be the parent and the father that my parents were, you know, for my kids. Plus I wanted to change the direction of my family going forward forever. I was the first person to go to college.

You know, first person to go play professional sports. And I wanted to be the person who changed the direction and lifted, you know, the, the foundation of the Elmore name so our kids and our grandchildren can start on a higher platform and just have better opportunities. So I, my why is so incredibly strong and my passion, my desire, my perseverance to push through problems or it's just I would hate to compete with me because I just. You can't beat somebody who just never quits. And you don't quit. If you don't quit, you're going to figure out the problem as long as you show up and work out it every single day. And that's the only reason why I've been able to do this sales and marketing athletic background. I have a sales and marketing background in athletics, but I've started a software, robotics and industrial automation company with 00 experience. And yeah, it's been really cool.

Sounds like you like figuring stuff out like I do. And I can relate on the personal front too. Dad had a business and I remember distinctly many times one of them, we were on the back porch, it was a sunny day, ready to go on the boat and everything. The phone rings, you know, oh, we, you know, he was a marine surveyor and you know, we want to check the calendar. And I was like, dad, phone call. He looks, comes back. I was like, why didn't you take it? He goes, I'm busy. And I ran back in, looked at the calendar, there's nothing for two weeks. I'm like, you don't have any appointments or clients or anything? He goes, we're going here on the boat, I'm taking you and your mom to dinner. And I'm like.

Can'T do that with the job. That really stuck with me and many other things. So great to hear that. Love the reasons you're doing it and it's pretty cool what you're doing. How many people did you say in the platform now?

So we have over 400,000 users on our platform who come to our website organically every single month. And I owe all of that to my online and offline marketing knowledge. I used to hire SEO companies. I went through two different SEO companies and the results were terrible and I knew I had to learn it myself. So I, I'm self taught using Coursera and YouTube and you know, SEO tools like Ahrefs and I've mastered Google Ads. Like when you spending tens of thousands of dollars on ads and you're not seeing that, you know, cost per acquisition going down and just going up and you're just throwing away money, you want to solve that problem. So I've become really well at managing our Google Ads account and then just social email. We have a call center. I mean I built a call center in Mexico that we use direct mail through handwritten notes. So we're talking about like full circle.

Yeah, you're really bridging that online and offline. And I wanted to start off with that because so many people are like, they talk strictly online, online and then bash this and vice versa. And I'm like, are you guys nuts? All of this works when you get it working for you. One reason I love publishing books for people, it's physical. It's a great justification to do something physical. You know what I mean?

Yeah.

What you want to know? Anyone listening? You really want another email?

No.

No, you don't. You really don't. And the way that I look at mastering all different facets of marketing, number one, it gives you social proof or it gives you confidence in yourself as a entrepreneur business.

Oh, pause for a second there. Pause for a second there. You said social proof.

I'm just saying it gives you social proof as an entrepreneur or personal proof that you know how to conceptualize a problem and solve it multifacetedly versus just being like a one angle type of guy. Because we all know in marketing and sales there's seasons of success and seasons and failures. There's peaks and valleys. So when SEO is working, ads probably won't be working. And when cold calls working, maybe email's not working. So you gotta attack your problems from every angle. So those peaks and valleys kind of go down to little waves and you can manage, you know, the, the inbound of clients coming in more predictably.

Great advice, great advice. I want to talk to you about the offline specifically approach because it sounds like we could do a short mini, mini training on online SEO and all this. I just got to ask, why do you like Ahrefs over Semrush?

I've never used Semrush. I just. Okay, I'm the type of guy. It's like if it works and you've used it. Yeah, it's just like I know there's a new tool coming out every single day or every single week, especially now since AI has come along. But in order to become really efficient in something, you have to spend time on something and learn how to use that tool. And if you know how to, you know, it's like if someone gave you a Phillips head screwdriver but you don't know how to use it, that Phillips head screwdriver is worthless. But if you know how to master that tool, that tools can become invaluable. So I've spent a lot of time investing in that platform and learning how to use it. So I would say I know how to use it better than 90% the users, which makes that platform that much more valuable to me as a user.

That is a great expert authority effect insight for anyone listening, rewind that. Because that was an off the cuff question. But that is so true. There's people that are always jumping to the newest, hottest thing and it's like, stick with what works, master it. Like you just said. So thanks for the honesty. I was just Curious more than anything because.

You have extra. You sound like you have more of an extensive knowledge than some people who are SEO people. So clearly, even if you don't, you clearly figured out how to make it work for you.

Yeah, it's just that that's the social media or what is it? The social media marketing agency or small. Yeah, you know, some of these guys are just happy to make $5,000 a month and they just want to coast, you know, and like they get a couple clients and they can work two or three hours a day, they're happy. I obsess from eyes up to eyes down and if I can't find people to match that energy, like I can't work with them, you know, and I'll pay what they ask, but I expect, you know, results, you know, and people are just, eh, if it works, it works. And I just can't work like that.

Good for you. Good for you. Setting the standard high like that. So now I want to transition now that we established offline is good, because it is. And if you disagree with that, you can stop listening and go in a hole or maybe something nicer. Was that out loud? Whatever. Listen to the experts. So let's talk about offline here because I feel like there's, we're drowning in online stuff now, especially with AI and I have nothing against any of it. We're doing all of it too. But let's kick it back old school and do the. I remember auto dialers, I remember cold calling, I remember doing a lot of the stuff you were talking about. I'm 100% on board. Why do you think it's a lost art and explorer? Explain to me or teach. Teach us how we can use it more effectively, especially with. Simply noted. Because I love thank you notes. I did them for people who got the limited edition of the book and I think more people should be using them. And you have a unique way of doing it.

Well, I think if in order to be successful you have to, number one, study your competition, study the industry, study the business to figure out what's going to help make it work. But you can't compete where everyone's competing. There's a great book, I think it's called the Blue Ocean Strategy. Right. You can't compete where everyone's competing. Where technically it's a red ferocious. Right. So everybody's competing in the mailbox, everyone's competing on ads. Right. If everyone's competing in the same space, it's going to drive cost up. People are going to start becoming Blind to it. Like, I don't even see ads anymore when I'm on social, because it happens so much. I'm trained to not look at them because they're so. They're happening so much. So you gotta zig when other people zag. And that's what I try to do is like, number one, I observe what other people doing. Is it working for them? How many other people are doing, doing it? How crowded is it? Can I get in here before it gets too trendy and too crowded? And if I can, I'll get in. Otherwise, I try to do things that are different because it seems more authentic and it doesn't come off as markety or as spammy in our industry. For our industry alone, you know, with our call center in Mexico, I spend an hour every single Wednesday updating and going and training their. Their new script. And it's not just a pure cold call. They're trained to call and build a relationship.

Team of closing.

Let me pause you.

You're good.

You said you go there an hour every Wednesday?

Yeah, I'm sorry. I had somebody just try to Skype me, and it probably just cut it off.

That's okay. You said you go there an hour every Wednesday to update?

Yes. So every Wednesday, you know, I spend time with our call center. We work on their script. I hear what's working, what's not working. And their job is 100. Their job is to start a conversation and gain interest. It's not to try to sell or close. All they've got, all they do is they report back to us who's interested, and we follow up and close. But, you know, what people normally do is like, hi, are you interested in selling your house? Right. And that immediately comes off as very pitchy and salesy. And for our team, we train them to reach out and say, you know, we're a partner in this industry that does direct mail. You know, can we speak with your cto? And that more sounds like you're coming from authority versus salesy and pitchy. Right? Like, we are the leader in this space who does handwritten mail. Can we please start talk with like, your cmo, your cto? And that comes from more confidence. And, you know, some people don't like it, but the response rate there, they can hear it in your tone of voice, and they can, like, respect the confidence and they're more willing to work with you versus when you just come with them. Hey, like we do to handwritten direct mail, can we help you with this project that comes off a Little bit more asky, if that makes sense.

It does.

So, yeah. So we try to train our guys to speak with confidence, authority, authority versus permission. Like, you know, yes, yes.

Not saying you shouldn't get people's permission to market to them, but when you're sounding like a supplicant going, oh, do you mind if I talk to you about this? And that. That's a lot different than, hey, I have a solution to your problem. You want to hear.

You're giving. Yeah. You're giving them permission to say no when you're saying, hey, can I, you know, can I tell you about this? Right. Versus asking to talk to this person? Right. And yeah, and it sounds like you've.

Talked to them before, too.

The first three years. Our first three years, yeah, for sure. But our first three years, I. I was the main cold caller for simply notice. So I know all the reasons why they say no, what works, what doesn't work. So, yeah, so when you. When you come from them from a position of confidence and authority, it gains. They give you more confidence in who you are versus like, oh, this guy's a nobody, or they're a nobody. When you. When you call them, say, hey, you know, we're the leader in this space. Who does this. We partner with other, you know, non profits. Can we please speak with your. Your cto? They say, no, no problem. You mind letting me know who that is so I can send them an email? Like, you just. You gotta politely. You know, it's a dance. It's a dance. You know, like, cold calling's an art, you know, if you gotta kind of hear it. But yeah, what I'm saying is, like, you can't ask. You kind of got to be confident, you know, you can't ask for their permission. You gotta ask for the meeting. So anyways, where we're going from is like blue ocean, red ocean. If people are competing and it's. It's super, you know, red and. And everyone's in that space. You got a zig when everybody else zags. And that's why we try to do what we're doing with the handwritten mail, because there's just nobody doing that nowadays.

I was gonna ask. I gotta make a joke. You said zig. Zig versus zag. That's kind of a football analogy, too. Is that some NFL secret?

Yeah, exactly. Third man. Yeah, you gotta zig and cross patterns and get the defense to run into each other and then. Zach. All right, exactly.

So tell me more about. So you get them on the call and then they. You get. Get a hold of their cto, cmo, whoever it is, and then how do you approach them with the benefits of simply noted?

Well, right now, I mean, three years ago, we would have just sent them a handwriting sample kit so they can get our product in their hand. It's not until they get our product in their hand where the light bulbs really go off. But now with, you know, all the work we've done in SEO and like, how we've optim our Google Ads, we really only respond to inbound leads. Like, those people are more like ready to buy. They have intent. And again, we're trying to attack from every angle. I still do the outbound just to help with the lead inflection in case, you know, we're slow, and other avenues. But really it's about getting the product in their hand. When they see it, touch it, feel it, and they're like, no way. This is actually a real handwritten note. We can tell them we can automate it based off of any trigger they want in their CRM, payment platform, whatever software they use. That's when the business owners. Yeah, business owner, that's. Those CTOs, that's when they get really excited. They're like, all right, like, now I can trigger sending a handwritten card just as easy as sending an email. And they're just like, you know, they're, they're. Their mind is blown and they get really excited.

Tell me more about this, the specifics. So if you're listening and you don't know the benefits of this, just think about, do you want more emails or do you want. Want cool stuff in the mail? The answer is cool stuff in the mail. What do you have for choices like, can I pick out the card? Can.

Can you do everything customizable? That's the thing. That's the. Your stationary, your card design, your handwriting, your signature. Automated. Like that. And that's. That's. Yeah. So you can automate a birthday card. Automated thank you card. Automate. I'm sorry. An apology after an issue like tag gets cleared up in your CRM after purchase. I mean.

Annual reminders, all this stuff. You just got to set up the workflow.

And do you have all the cardstock options to choose from or do you offer the option if I say, you know what, there's these thank you cards that I really, really love. They've been working. Well, can I send them to you and then you load them up?

Well, what you would do is just. We could technically do that, but you won't Once you see like the whole card library we have or what you have at your disposal, you can create your own card. We have a really cool integration with Canva. So like, literally you can like really integrate and with Canva and design the perfect card you want.

You use their API, didn't you?

Yeah. That's cool. Yeah, that's really cool.

So I, I was kind of asking generically, but I was also asking specifically. I do have a black and gold thank you card. I mean, it literally says thank you on it. It's not like there's a whole lot of text on it, but matte finish, I think it's like 100 or 110 point. So you have this extensive catalog. You pick out the stuff too.

Yeah, we have about a hundred card options, but 90% of our clients use their own cards. I mean, we're completely vertically integrated here. So if you were to design your own card on our website, it literally gets sent to our printing press. Our printing press is a $200,000 printing press, the same printing press you would, you would use at a commercial printer. And we print it immediately and then we run it through our handwriting robots to write it in your handwriting and then quality control it with the human. Put in an envelope, put a real stamp. You know, we don't put any of our branding on it. Nobody will ever know you use our service.

You don't have a giant shutterstock logo on the back. Oh, was that out loud again too?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, man.

I'm talking a whole lot today.

They're good. I just. Oh, you know, you get it. And you're like, oh, wow, it's kind of cool. And then someone's like, oh, I wonder how they did that? And you flip it over and go.

I know, yeah, we don't do that. I just think that defeats the purpose.

Yeah, it really does. Tell me about some use cases. So for someone listening, let's talk like about an entrepreneur in the office or any specific verticals you've had the biggest successes with.

There's two main use cases to attract and retain clients. So for attracting. So if you have like a good list you want to reach out to, the open rate so high, it's so different. If you have a marketing mind, you can use call tracking numbers, QR codes driving a landing page. Get them to sign up for something.

Yeah, you can integrate with pearls.

We integrate with a QR code generator. So you basically just go to our website. It insert. You can click the insert QR code, put your domain there. Whatever it is and then it automatically dynamically inserts it. Or you can create your own QR code offline and just upload it yourself. So there's a bunch of ways to disconnect cat. But for attracting the open rate so high, you know, we have a lot of company like non profits, you know, for fundraising, political campaigns, for fundraising, home service companies because the ticket rates are so high, car dealerships because the ticket rates are so high, they'll send handwritten notes to try to drive new business, bring new clients. But retaining, just saying thank you. And I think this is what most people like. And I, I'm, I, I will like die and take this to the ground like the best way you can grow your business. And there's been study after study, there's a Harvard Business Review study talking about this, that if you just say thank you, give your clients a better customer experience, make them feel appreciated, you're going to lower your customer churn rate year over year on average anywhere from 5 to 25%. And then your year over year revenue is going to grow 25 to 95% by just making them feel appreciated, by just saying thank you. Not just like hey, thank you. Here's 10 off your next purchase. They'll know you're just trying to get them to buy more. Just say thank you. Automate a birthday card, send them a holiday card. Three touches a year. We have an unlimited plan for 99 cents a card, $3 a year for each client. Wow. And watch your business grow. It's like it's, and it's like it's so hard to get people to like everybody wants to focus on attract and direct mail and marketing. But it's like just say thank you. Like if you have 10,000 clients, how much revenue is that pushing to your business every single year? Like how much spend $3 on that person a year, you know. And it's really hard to get people to realize that no matter how many studies and case studies we shove down there, they just want to use it for marketing. But attract and retain are the two biggest ways.

There are so many applications for this. I know we could go for hours at like specific use cases. What would you say are the top five niches you see across the board that are just drawn to your business?

I would say it's relationship driven industries. So with a relationship driven think like real estate, mortgage, insurance, nonprofit, where people have a choice, right in the service, there's a lot of options out there. So I think the relationship driven industries are a no brainer you know, home service, it's very transactional, it's very competitive.

You know, I would say those are the five for sure. So real estate attorneys, every time we work with an attorney, it's always like a marketing campaign. So. Yeah, but I know attorneys spend a lot of money marketing.

Let's say it's relational too. I mean if you, if you can't stand who you have, that's going to be a little problematic in court.

Yeah, yeah.

And also I think it would depend on what, what type of attorney they are. I can see how certain ones.

Might lend themselves better to.

The, the product and service.

Yeah. I mean if you have a choice.

If you can choose between them and someone else, if, if your scenario provides the choice, I could see how it would be beneficial. But if you're stuck with someone for unsavory reasons, then probably doesn't matter. You just.

Yeah, I wish I had a better response for this. I can only think of a few attorneys that we've worked with over the years, but I can go through our website. You know, I don't really see what orders they place online, but just personally I just known they've used it for like direct mail, like marketing and I can't really come up.

Oh, so it's not really the retention of the clients. It would just be more getting their name out there, keeping it out there, there.

I'm sorry I said.

So for the attorneys it would be more like less on the retention necessarily and more on the just market and.

Getting their name out no matter what. Yeah, we try, but they're always, they're always about, you know, marketing and, and acquiring new clients. So.

Yeah.

So you already have a wealth of knowledge you're sharing with us and I appreciate that. But why don't we spin it to competition? Because.

Why can't I go out there and just go buy a machine? What about someone else who's doing it also? How do you stack up against them?

That's a great question. So if you're looking for a partner in this space, there's really only two real companies in the US that are doing this full time. I know there's a handful of others, but they started, they, where they're at right now is where we started, you know, back in 2017, beginning of 2018. What they do is they get these pen plotters, they put it on the table. There's no paper feed. You have to use three or four third party plugins to get it to do what you want it to do because it's not a purposely built writing robot. It's literally jailbroken. To use third party softwares to push this gantry and plotter to write like a person. It's not efficient. I mean that's what I did in 2017. It took me like two months to put together 500 handwritten notes and I had my entire family helping me. So I mean it was not cost effective. Very slow, very painful. And then we went to like an auto pen and just it wasn't, you know, it wasn't meeting the standards of the clients who needed something that looked genuine.

Back then. I would try to say it looked like a person wrote it, but if you really looked at it, it looks like a robot wrote it. There's. It's just tons of patterns. Tons of patterns. It's using old technology, it's using old software. I mean a's would look the same. Like it had restrictions to what you can do within the handwriting styles, limitations to scaling for like every six or seven machines you had, you had to have a new computer which wow, it was not good. So that little tried to ask you can even.

It wasn't even a five or ten even number. It was just.

Yeah, because it was, it was like duct taped software together. Wasn't purposely built software. It was built off of a Microsoft platform. So like I could. Yeah. So we had no choice. We had to build our own handwriting robot and I. We use machine. We own our own, we build our own boards, we build our own mechanics, we built our own software. We have a machine learning handwriting engine that we've built. We have six pending patents on our robot. Our technology is built to be the best in the world. And I know I mentioned this before you, but this technology will outlive me and will be like global, you know, 10 years from now or 15 years from now. We have plans to sell it. We know people have already reached out to buy it, but I hope you're around such an amazing 15 years.

But I get.

Well, I'm saying. Yeah, I'm just saying like you know, 100 years from now, if people are still sending mail and they want to do a handwritten. This machine will be around. It's just that incredible. The patents on the design, the patents on the utility, the patent. Yeah, it's all, it's. It was done methodically. So I think the best case or the best thing to do is just request a sample from us and really just get it in your hands so you can understand and then maybe request some samples from some other companies. But Other companies, you know, they're. They're real estate agents trying to do it on the side to make some extra money, you know, or it's a print company that has a couple of these in the back of their office that try to do it as their clients need it. But people who are fully dedicated to, you know, creating this. This product, you know, evolving this product and making a product that, you know, at least I can be proud of. I don't. I. Yeah.

If you don't have people putting that.

Much effort into it. Well, I think people will have pride in it because it's like, they think it's cool, but, you know, they're just using old technology that looks like a robot wrote it. But, like, I've literally sacrificed everything for six years, put every dollar back in this company. Over a million dollars has gone into developing this technology, and we've built it to be the best. So if you want something that actually look like you wrote it, request a sample so you can see what I'm talking about and request something from somebody else. You know, we'll get it. We'll get it to you in two or three days. Somebody else is going to take two or three weeks. There's this going to look like. Has patterns. Ours is going to look like a genuine person wrote it.

So I got to ask the technology side of this, because all of that sounds fantastic, and I know exactly what you're talking about. By the robotic handwritten thing.

How do you add deviation and variance so the A's don't all look the same? So. Or make you a common one. Is the.

I'm not a handwriting recognition person, like, FBI thing, but I know that they study the curls, the weight. You can see where they, like, stop writing the word. And there's usually a little bit more of an ink blot on there.

I. I know it gets very complex. So.

Yeah.

How do you add that all in?

We basically have you fill out some, like, sheets. I mean, it's gonna feel like you're in kindergarten again. We write out your numbers, your letters, your punctuations, whatever, everything a bunch of times. And then that's where our team just gets started. We actually.

And is that physical or like you send a package in the mail?

Yeah, yeah. You'll just write it on some paper, scan it and send it back to us. And we'll get. We'll get to work in creating it. But this is what separates Simply Noted from everybody else. They can try to do this. They're going to be limited to you know, a couple hundred variations in the handwriting style, we can build unlimited. So if you want, you know, a thousand days, a thousand Bs, a thousand Cs, we can do that. But we take it so much.

Our handwriting engine.

Let me pause you again. Something happened. You said a thousand A's.

Yeah, I'm just saying we can take as much data that you give us and put it into our handwriting engine that uses machine learning and it actually learns how you write. It doesn't just take your A and place your A randomly throughout how it writes. And that's what every other solution does. So it learns like how fast you write, it learns how tight you write and learns your ligatures, how you connect naturally to other letters, the natural spacing between your letters, and it learns how you write. So it's not technically going to write like your A, it's going to write how you would write an A. And that's the machine learning and handwriting engine that we've designed that nobody has. And that's going to be one of the patents that we're filing for. So that's the secret sauce, outside of the mechanical components. But the software behind this is magical. It's incredible. And that's what's going to separate.

I'd argue that's part of the secret sauce. It sounds like you and your team are the secret sauce, but. And you're just going to make this.

Better, Obsess about this. Yeah. And that's why we couldn't improve anything before and we have full control of what we improve now. So we take inputs from our, our team or from our customers and we constantly improve. We can never do that. And the feedback when people see the, you know, the machine I showed you before this, it's just, it's exciting and that's, that's what helps me push through those hard days because we are self funded, no loans, no debt, no investors, company. So for you, you know when you're writing those big checks for, to solve big problems and you're having a slow month, you're just like, you know, hard to sleep.

So it sounds like every entrepreneur sounds like it's worth it and it's going well and I'm happy to hear that. But it sounds like you can really customize it. So it's not the letter A, a thousand variances and it's picking one, it's actually learning it. So I'm just going out on a limb to say it's safe to say you can also adjust the leading and kerning for all of this too. It's not just like it's written on two line paper that we had in grade school.

Exactly. So I mean we, it learns how you write. Do you write up, do you write down? Do you write in a wave? How tight are your lines? How tight are your words? How tight is the space in between your letters which is called kerning the ligatures. Do you connect your letters? How often do you connect your letters? What letters do you connect? Which ones you don't connect? Do you press harder at the start of a word versus the end of the word? I mean it's incredible. I mean it's just. This is the stuff. We've overthought it. We've even created our own pens. Like I didn't, I didn't show you this but like we've created our own pens. Like.

The pens we use, they're off the shelf. Pens only wrote like 60 or 70 notes and we had to stop our machines all the time. So we worked with an engineer here to manufacture a number one, a new pen cartridge.

Pen cartridges are vacuum sealed. Art is pressure sealed. So pens, when you write over time, they won't actually write and use all the ink because the vacuum doesn't push the ink down. We designed the pen cartridge to be pressure sealed so it just pushes the ink constantly down so it will use all the ink. So we have more ink, 300 more ink. Plus it can write through every cartridge. So it's like we've over engineered this because my, my idea was always built to sell. Right like this. I wanted to sell this eventually because I knew this was going to outgrow me.

That's another good point. Built to sell.

I listen to their podcast basically, I mean every week. So I, I probably listen to everyone in their episodes because I, I really. That's our, that's the last thing we have not done. My last thing I want to do is simply know how to sell it. We've done recently got the business terminal or the, the business journal is 40 under 40. Just the inc 5000. That was one of my goals and now my last goal is to sell it. Built a handwriting robot. So it's like that's my last goal is to sell it.

Can you hold that pen up again? Yeah, that looked awesome. I only saw it for a split second.

So this is a brass. Brass.

It's kind of hard to show you, but show you here the difference.

And you didn't just build a new pen. You like took into account, you systematically figured out like vacuum seal versus pressure.

Yes. So this is a normal pen cartridge. This one's ours. Ours has 300% more ink. It's just a lot of wider. I don't know if you can see that. Yeah, ours is pressure sealed. This is a vacuum sealed. This one sometimes will stop writing when it only writes a little bit because of how the. The pressure or the vacuum seal is done.

So you could even argue it's more than 300. Because if that's 300, based on the fluid ounces and it stops at the last 10 or 20%.

Yes, I. Who. Who we. Who really cares about that are the big corporate clients. When they come in and they tour facility and they're trying to compare us, and they try to compare us to some other company. And like, sure, if you want to compare us, like. Like, you have to come see it so we can show you. Anybody else can be whatever they want to be online. They can say there's something, but they're not. We know what they're using. Nobody's doing this. And when they come in, it just.

You literally built.

You're so obsessed. Yeah. Like, you are obsessed. Like, you are. And that's like. That's my background. I'm a competitive athlete. Like, I will compete until my heart stops beating. It's just built into my DNA.

That's awesome. I w. I wish there was more people like you, honestly, because I think there's a lot of people who have a good business or they're a little bit along the way, and they just. They're sitting on a gold mine, but they never just push it or they never take it to that level that just not. I don't even want to say the next level, because everyone says that it's like, just blow it out of the stratosphere. Yeah.

Because it's scary and it hurts. Like, you know, stress, you know, not sleeping and the responsibility can overwhelm people, but.

True. But I would also argue the vision. Okay, so it's stressful and all that, and you have to get through that. Sure. However, they never even see it. They never even try.

Yeah. I think it's. They're conditioned. Society's conditioned to. To tell you to be safe and not take the risk and do what everybody else does. And I'm telling you, as an entrepreneur, five years in building the company we have, when I tell them I'm a business owner, like. Like, it still makes them feel uncomfortable. Like, they think I'm like, you know, like, doing some weird voodoo stuff. They don't. Like, some people don't respect you. They're like, oh, you're an entrepreneur. Entrepreneur. Like, oh, you should just get a normal job. I'm just like, if you understood 1% of what it takes to get this boat. Yeah, it's working, keeping it running, you know, paying payroll, paying marketing, building a product, innovating, like, like it would give you a heart attack. So I just think the majority, you know, we're, we're basically.

If you can hear about how they, we gotta back up again. You said it would give you a heart attack if you just knew 1%.

Yeah. I'm just saying if, if you know the people who judge entrepreneurs or don't respect entrepreneurs, like if they really knew what it takes, you know, everything that goes into it, paying payroll, marketing, innovating, having a product, servicing a product client, all that stuff, like you're responsible for it all. But I, what I'm saying is that what the problem is is that everybody is conditioned to be an employee. You go to school, you do an assignment, the teacher tells you what to do. You go through a system. Freshman, sophomore, junior, you go from junior employee to middle management to upper management. Right. Like you're just trained to do that. So, so to be an entrepreneur you got to be a, an innovator. You gotta be ambitious, you gotta be a crusader, you gotta be a little crazy, you gotta be willing to deal with pain. But 99 of businesses fail. Like, I don't know if you read, you know, the Built to sell or e myth, you know, is it 80% of businesses fail in five years, 99% of businesses fail in 10 years. I mean every business eventually fails. Think about it like if they don't evolve and adapt, they get bought out. There's no need for their product. So I think.

Or lack of exit planners.

Yeah, that's why I was like, I'm, I'm trying next couple years, you know, let some big software or marketing company come in and acquire this so they can take it and do bigger things. Because it's going to outgrow me for sure. We're going to need more space, more capital equipment, more employees. And it's, you know, you're going to have to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars at once. Not over time or a million dollars at once. And I, I don't have that money to put up front. I don't. This is all self funded.

Maybe in the next few years you will, and then you can get even more and not sell it to them, but retain 51% of it and still get Whatever you want.

Yeah.

I hope so too.

You got a great heart, passion, all that stuff. And I love what you said about the entrepreneurs. I recently had to correct someone. I don't know if I should have, family member, closer circle. But it was the whole real job comment. Yeah. Seriously, I didn't back down in high school. Like, I'm sure as hell not doing it now. And it wasn't towards me, it was someone else. But I still was like, look, no, we're going to fix that. Right, right now. Yeah, it's definitely.

I don't even want to say skill set. You have to have a heart. I think if you were to sum it up in one word, it's like.

80, like 80% of the economy runs off a small business. That's entrepreneurs. Like 80% of the jobs out there are provided by entrepreneurs. It's not like, you know Tesla, you know, Ford because they're big companies. But if you look at the economics of the United States, it's 80%. It's somewhere between 70 and 80% of all jobs are provided by smaller private businesses. It's not these conglomerates. Yeah. And that's what you gotta realize when you trade in.

When they started, it may, they might be a conglomerate now, but you look at the original story, it's like, there you go.

Yeah. The risk takers, the innovators, the visionaries.

Oh, come on.

Hour a week job for.

It paused and I said, you said the risk takers. I said in the visionaries.

Yeah. And I'm saying the entrepreneurs, they trade in that 40, 40 hour a week job for an 80 hour a week job or a 100 a week job. So yeah, it's, it's, it's definitely not a fake job. If that, as that person said.

I'm gonna have to really bite my tongue. Okay, moving. What's the next part like? I, we could just riff on that. You're awesome. I'm gonna ask you this.

Yellow or black?

Black.

Nice.

Because I'm wearing black.

I was gonna say matches my hair. I did notice that. I actually thought you were gonna pick that because you're in it so black.

What other business ideas do you have? There's no way you have that.

That's where. No, I do. I have tons. And that's why I'm excited for, with the future. Because when you become an entrepreneur and you build a business like you go from your tunnel vision and the world becomes like so clear and you just have bigger ideas. And what we thought was big three years ago is so Small. I think that's somewhat appliable to everybody. But I just feel like, you know, whatever I do next is going to be 10 times bigger than this. And I do have ideas, you know, but it's going to take, you know, the right people. And that's one thing I have learned too. It's like you got to have, no matter how good you think you are, you're going to have a really hard set ceiling. If you don't have great people around you, you really need to have a great, you know, I have a cto. Somebody can rely on their who runs all the tech. I have to have a great engineering team. I have to have a great reliable product team. And it takes all facets of these people to work together to move downstream or keep this boat moving forward. And that's what the hard next step is, is finding that next group of great people to start something even bigger. And I don't know, I mean, I do know that with all my knowledge, with ads and SEO and building websites and project management and all the technology we built, you know, there's, there's just something bigger coming and I'm excited for that. And I, I, I'm, I'm kind of seeking it, like I want to know what it is.

So I'm looking forward to seeing it too because there's something about you that's clearly I, I could tell first 10 minutes of this, even before we start, I was like, there's no way this is the ending point. But so cool to see the machine, the patents. Congrats on all of that. We have to thank our sponsor. But I have to ask, this is 100% for me. What are you using for collaboration?

Like what, what type of collaboration?

You had mentioned the different teams and setting up the right people. What, what tools do you use for collaboration? Like software wise or behind the scenes? Clearly you have some c. I'm a.

Huge Google Sheets guy. No, I'm a huge Google Sheets guy. I lived in Google Sheets during my MBA and I know formulas upon formulas, how to set triggers to when someone's completing something, they click a button within a row and somebody sends an email. Yeah, so like Google Sheets, you don't.

Use something like Basecamp?

I don't know. And it's probably because I'm not trained on it. And again, it goes back to my Ahrefs thing. I was trained on it. I know how to use it, I know how to adapt to it, how it works with Zapier, like how it works with a webhook how I can integrate it with an email. So. So, wow, impressive. That's just like. Yeah. But if there's something better and someone can show me and improve it, I would spend more time on it. But I'm not gonna, you know, ooh, shiny new tool and get distracted, you know. So it's been working. I can track, you know, when projects started, when projects are getting done, the notes, who worked on it, when they said it was done, what updates they were done. It's. It's just very easy to track it down. A timeline for me.

My good friend and Facebook's ad manager, Victoria, she loves spreadsheets too. I'm gonna have to make sure she this. I thought with everything you're doing, you've got to be. I was wondering if it was base camp and wondering if it was one of the others. Kind of blown away. You're doing all this from sheets. We have a lot of sheets for buckets.

Yeah, it's buckets and tabs. Like you don't throw everything on one tab, you know, it's like her. Yeah. Still, that'd be a nightmare.

It's impressive. We use them a lot for the show show. This show production. But wow, there's clearly more. I don't know about that. We're going to thank our sponsor. Thanks for answering, by the way. We're going to thank our spons and come back for the imperfect action. 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@eapublishingmethodbook.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.

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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 Ficini or Bill Benner.

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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 for the imperfect action round. Rick, are you ready to take imperfect action?

Absolutely.

Three questions for you. 60 second or less answers. The first one is what is the fastest path to the profit?

Learning from your mistakes. Making a lot of mistakes early, but not big mistakes. There's this cool analogy I've probably told on every single podcast I've been on. It's the bullets and cannonballs example. I don't know if you've heard this. I think it's by good to great Jim Collins.

It's that if you're on a pirate ship and you have one cannonball and you're in the fight for your life and that one cannonball has to save you. So think of it as like your budget, right? All your money, right? If you're going to fire off that one cannonball, you got to make sure that when you fire it, it's going to do the most damage and save your ship or your business. So what you do is you do a bunch of little test shots and you line up that cannon. So when you do use that big budget, you know it's going to be done well. So that's what we've done really well. Managing risk. We've taken a lot of risk, but small risks and made sure that when we were ready to take the big risk that we were going to not miss.

I have not heard that analogy. I just like bullets and cannonballs. That is awesome. It's a great analogy and very true. Number two, what is the biggest problem you see your prospects making and the fastest way for them to fix?

Took me 5 years to realize this. You know, I, I, it's kind of a good thing and a bad thing. I wanted to learn everything for the first five years for personal growth and have a deep understanding for my business. But seeking help, I was, I don't know if I want to say I was too prideful to ask for help. I wanted to prove that I can do it myself. But when I have problems, understand that there's smarter people out there that can help you solve them faster. So paying consulting is a good thing, like, especially if that person is qualified to solve your problem. So if you want to overcome problems.

The hard thing for someone to know is know how to ask the right questions. And I think that comes over time. So if you know how to ask the right questions to solve your problems, seeking a consulting agent or a.

Recommend doing that, I'm gonna have to.

We're gonna have to roll back it. You said seeking a consulting agent.

Jan is saying the hardest problem in. The hardest thing about, you know, seeking a consulting agency, a cult, a consulting agency, is knowing what questions to ask. And that comes over time from understanding your problem. So being five years in, I know I have a deep understanding of all the problems that we've been struggling with for years. So now when I seek consulting, I know the questions to ask because I know the problems they can solve and how they're going to affect our business. So I would definitely recommend the first year, second year, you know, try to, try to learn. But before you pay 25,000, $50,000 for consulting, you know, because, you know, the real people are going to ask for that. But I would definitely ask for help and get help because they can save years or help or save you, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars. Seriously, like in mistakes.

That's great advice there. It's definitely more people should be looking for the help and more people. I've, I've said very similar about the learning It. You know, I can't tell you how many people I've seen or just, you know, they get all excited about something, they have a new idea, they start talking about it, try to sell it, and then immediately it's like they're trying to hire 30 people to outsource the process. I go, you don't even know your process.

Yeah.

Do you think someone for four steps removed is going to know it? Especially for what you're trying to do it for? They're not hiring the. You know what I mean? They're looking for the cheapest people to do it, to leverage time and money and all this. I'm like, you don't know your process, and they don't know what the heck's going going on. They've never done it. That's why you're getting them for that. Best of luck. So great advice, great advice. Number three, what's the best way to maximize customer lifetime value.

Appreciation? Give them great customer experience. I think in today's day and age, having a great product and a Great service is just absolutely foundational. Like ground level zero. Like that's not going to help you win. There's, you know, we're not unique. Like there's a competitor for every service. Especially if this, if that service can make money, there's going to be other people that open businesses just like you. You got to make sure that person feels appreciated. Going to make sure that person feels like you value them. It doesn't matter if I was at Stryker Strauman. My, my past medical sales life, my best clients are the ones that I invested the most time in. Went to dinners, went to lunches, went to happy hour, invited them over on the weekends. It's that time to make sure that you're developing that relationship. And that cus. And that experience is like, you know, can't be touched. Right? Because how you win business is how you lose business. And this is what people forget. If you win, if you win on price, you lose on price. If you win on relationship, you lose on relationship. So I really think that in order to make sure that your clients are having the best experience and they're staying loyal, you're going to increase that lifetime value is to focus on the relationship. Because if you don't have a product or a service that's top notch, you don't even have a fighting chance to even get started on increasing lifetime value. So have a great product, great service and focus on building that relationship. Because that relationship's going to last decades. Doesn't matter if it's in the current business you're in. I see it now. I'm 35 people I knew 10 years ago how they're helping me now, you know, you know, 10 years later in a different career. So build that relationship. Make sure they feel appreciated. Did. Tell them thank you. Tell them how much they mean to you. Stay top of mind, you know, and watch and just seriously watch like it's, it's. You're gonna watch that leaky bucket syndrome. All those holes in your, in your pipeline are gonna start plugging themselves because you're gonna stop losing clients because they're not gonna get that type of focus from anybody else.

Wow, that was, that was powerful right there. Great expert authority effect insights. I just gotta ask. I have not heard that, that ever or. It's been a long two decades. You win on price, you lose on price. You win on relationships, you. I, I've always leaned on the relationship side myself since day one. How do you not lose on the relationship? Is that like you just do something completely foolish like I would say the relationships are a lot harder to lose unless you're doing something completely just stupid. It price. You're. You're at vault, you're vulnerable 24 7.

This is what I have learned in my. On 13, 15 years of being in the business world. If you have that great relationship with a client and they're not happy about something, they'll come to you and talk to you about it, versus going to your competitor and switching. Like, hey, man, this guy's in here. He's offering me a lower price. Like, they'll come to you and talk to you about it versus going behind your back and switching. Right. And then it isn't foolproof or isn't foolproof like we. I've spent so much time with people and put so much time and energy, and it just didn't work because you just don't click with the person. Right. Like, you can try your best, but some people won't be receptive to it. So I tend to try not to worry about that. I. I want to err by trying to develop that relationship. And if they're not, do the right things, but don't. Yeah.

Realize it's not really 100 of the time.

Exactly. If someone's not being receptive to it, don't. Don't let it hurt your feelings. Right. But just try to manage your expectations. And, hey, this person doesn't want to hang out. This person doesn't want to go to dinners. This person's not receptive to my text messages or me checking in. Be self aware. Right. Self awareness is key in business and. But just try to develop systems and processes that allow you to scale it. So if you have a way to send them an email and check in, have a way to send them a text message and check in, have a way to a. Send a handwritten note and check in. Call them once a month. Hey, how you doing? Haven't heard from you. How are the kids? You know, don't always be about business. Right. It's.

Oh, man, so close. We're gonna have to roll back one more time. You said not about business. The kids.

Yeah. I'm just saying this. People don't do this. They make it always about business. Like, interact with them on Facebook, like, oh, man, that vacation looked awesome. How was it? Ask them about it. You know, so take. Put a human element into your business, and just people are just so. They just don't want to do it. So I think it's easier than ever to. To win, but you have to be Methodical about how you do it.

Great, great, great advice. Gotta ask about books, being a publisher, what we've talked about a few. What, what books would you recommend for Expert Authority World?

So I just read Traction. I'm really trying to figure out how to scale this business and it has to be through killing the king, getting rid of me. The business cannot go through me. Developing systems, operating procedures.

Basically trying to position this business as like a business in the box that's ready to sell, that's really hard. So just Red Traction, you know, we're doing weekly meetings, that type of stuff. I'm a huge person in self education. Coursera has been great for me. It's like 100 bucks a month. You can go learn a new skill certificate, one to two hours a day, four weeks, you know, three days a week. Coursera has been good. YouTube's great.

Again. Podcasts. I know we're on a podcast right now, but one of my favorite podcasts has been built to sell.

You mentioned that.

Because I know I mentioned that before, but it's just, you know, I'm trying to sell my business and I'm listening to people who've done that before. So if you're trying to build a business, you know, listen to podcasts like this to get insider advice of how people have done it. So I'm huge about obsessed about things I don't know. I think the, the more you learn, the more you realize you don't know anything. So like you want to learn even more. So that's kind of like where I'm at, my life. So I'm excited because I've become so self aware and I have.

I think I cut out again. I'm sorry. But I, yeah, I became so self aware of what I didn't know and what I know now, what I possibly could know, which is now giving me more momentum to want to learn more. So there's tools out there, they're free. You just gotta have the ambition, the discipline to do it. And a lot of people, that's where what stops them is. The roadblock is ambition and discipline. It's not getting the help, it's just being consistent with the help.

Very good. Thank you for everything you've been sharing. Where would you like people to learn more?

Yeah, I mean, if you want to learn more about. Simply noted. I, I tell everybody, just request a free sample. We'll send you a nice big sample kit. I mean, it's a 10 by 13 package with a ton of stuff in it. Even if it's not for, you know, always the holidays, like the holidays are coming up. Everybody in business sends holiday cards. But now let's do it in your handwriting, right? So if you want check it out, go to simplynoted.com it's S as in Sam I M P L Y noted.com and just request a free sample or connect me on LinkedIn. I'm very active on LinkedIn. It's like my main social media and I'd be happy to connect with you guys there.

Excellent. Well, thanks for everything you've shared. It's been a pleasure and look forward to staying connected and learning more. Honestly, I'm on LinkedIn too. Just had our LinkedIn coach help me with my own personal profile and I've been doing more myself so that's a good one.

Awesome. Well, thanks for having me. It was great to be here.

All right, Expert Authority World, we have another great episode here today. I'll see you on the next one. Have a great day. 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 247 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. More. Have a blessed day and I'll see you on the next one.