Episode 185: A More Profitable Product with Jason Van Orden

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Oh, my God.

And theme.

I need time. Any movie, probably a favorite. But a favorite movie?

I don't know. All right, Terminator 2. For me, I would be the bad guy. The. The guy who's a cop, but he, like, this morphing metal guy. He's pretty badass. And he beats up Schwarzenegger a lot. Yeah, I mean, Schwarzenegger wins in the end. Yeah, but he does beat up Arnold Schwarzenegger, which I don't have a desire to beat up Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Yeah.

But I think it'd be kind of cool. What about you, Christina? Kelsey, for God's sake, we're sliding in here. We don't have much time.

I'm just gonna pick the last movie that I watched, which is Moana.

Okay. Moana. What's that like about the marijuana trade?

Are you kidding me? It's the Rock and I don't know.

It's a Disney movie.

It's like, in the South Pacific Islander.

Yeah, and the ocean chooses her to save the land. But whatever. I would be Moana.

Okay, you would be the Rocket Leagues. What about you, Kelsey?

I keep thinking of, like, Alice in Wonderland. Something very fantastical. Like, I like. Ooh, you know, just out of this world.

Would you be, like, the main actress or whatever? Like, you'd be, like Alice.

No, not necessarily. I almost would prefer not to be.

You wouldn't be the queen. Oh, you'd be one of the flowers. Or, like, the bunny rabbit.

Yeah.

So what happened just now is this is a psychological test. Your ego rating is a 7, which means you're basically pathological Christina.

Oh, great.

Okay, cool.

And yours is a one, which basically means you're a weirdo.

And what are you?

No.

Surprise.

Perfect. It says it comes up perfect.

Oh, you're perfect. I don't think you're allowed to monitor these anymore.

All right, let's get rolling.

Well, you know what? You're listening to the Profit first podcast, episode 185.

Perfect. Here we go.

185. That's crazy. Welcome, everybody, to the Profit First Whoa podcast. I'm your co host, Chris Christina Boldak.

And I'm the host, Guy Mike Michalowicz, joined in studio by the co host, the co host Kelsey Ayers.

Hey, everybody.

And you, my friends, you're listening to the Profit first podcast where we're kind of coming in skidding here. We had some technical issues, but we're off to the races now. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Back to you.

Oh, thank you. So you can listen to us on tunein radio, itunes, Google Play, and of course, stitcher and profitfirstpodcast.com. what else is going on?

I think I cursed it. I think I cursed it because I was doing that. Oh, in the beginning. You guys. Like, is it broken?

Release air.

What's the funniest noise? Like, what's the most technical sounding noise you can make where it will confuse people? Like, can you make a noise that sounds. There used to be a guy, a comedian that could make all these different noises and he was on Police Academy. Ever see Police Academy and whatever. He would just make all these different noises that sounded like a electronic noise.

Oh, that's cool.

I don't know.

I don't have any special talent for that. I feel like at the worst, most inopportune times, I make odd noises.

Oh, really?

Not on purpose.

Like bodily noises.

No, like, she does it in the huddle every morning.

Like a.

Yesterday I had.

I was on an airplane. I was on an airplane. I had a nose whistle kick in.

Yes. Yeah. Like, stuff like that.

Nowhere. Yeah. The waitress. The waitress. The waitress. Flight attendant. Steward is steward. Can you say any more?

I don't know, actually. Flight attendant.

Flight attendant's like, what would you like to drink? And I'm like, the whole time I'm talking to the person next to me. Where are you flying from? Where are you going? Stuff like this. Well, yeah, I'm going here. I'm going for a speaking engagement. Great. The flight attendant's like, would you like, you know, some of these potato chips and what would you like to drink? I'm like, I'd like a. Like, the whole plane, like went silent. Everyone's like, you know, the flight, the. The pilot comes back like, we're losing oxygen. Something's going on.

Oh, my goodness.

That's what I've been up to. Do we have a community shout out?

We got Some stuff we do have a community shout out. This goes out to Stephanie Vanterpool.

Thanks, Stephanie. Yeah.

Short and sweet, she says. Do you know that in four months of using the Profit First Home system, which is her modification of the Profit First Home name, she has paid off two large debt accounts, line of credit and credit card, one of which hasn't seen a zero balance in seven years. Congratulations, Steph.

Stephanie Vanterpool. Good job. That's amazing.

It doesn't get old. Keep doing it.

You're funny. It doesn't, it doesn't. You know, it'll come back and it'll be funny. So, Stephanie, congratulations to you. That's awesome. You know, there's a chapter in Profit first called the Profit First Lifestyle.

And.

And you're not alone. Other people are taking that and modifying it. So we want to hear what you're doing and driving profitability in your business.

Is there like a number that other people can call to to let us.

Know there is a number.

There's success.

Yeah, but yeah, we want to hear it. Is anyone calling our number?

No, they are actually asked Ben. I just didn't get the memoff and.

Ben is killing me. He's killing me. How many messages do we have on there?

I don't know. Now I have to check.

Yeah, we're like, oh, the number. So just so our listeners are in. Like we thought our phone number wasn't working. Like no one's calling our shadow line. What's going on? Well, we have this intern who happens to be dating my daughter. That's how he got the job. Like he was a shooting. Like we actually have a pretty thorough interview process. It's not easy to get a job here, even as an intern, as an unpaid intern like Jackson was. Yeah, he had to go through some real trials and tribulations.

He was awesome.

He was awesome. Everyone's here is awesome. There's one person who's a little more having a little more difficulty working here. It's Ben, my daughter. But he had an in.

Yeah.

And so we thought no one was calling our 844 number. Which by the way, so everyone knows you can call 844-876-7221. There's this fabulous pre recorded message from us. You can then leave a message about your success with Profit First. And we thought we weren't getting messages and now apparently we are. We are.

We aren't getting the message.

Yeah, we're not. So everyone, let's give us a shout out. Ben really joined him. If he even got it. Okay, great. Well, please. So call right now, 844-87-6-7221. We want to hear your shout out to profitability, how you're doing, and plug yourself a little bit, and then we'll play it on air.

Yeah.

All right. Is there anything else?

We have to talk about our fantastic corporate partners.

Oh, my God, they are fantabulous.

You had to add the laughers.

I did, because no one else was laughing. So they are apparently Fundbox, who I actually have to call Joanna. Like, what the hell's going on? She's like, oh, yeah, we are sponsoring. Oops, we forgot we got straight.

Let's sort it out.

Sort it out. Receipt. Bank, Definitely. And Nextiva. Definitely. And the nextiva app. It's official. We now have it. I just have to go through a testing process and procedure, but we. We've been lined up with it.

Yeah. In five months, you'll have a phone call.

Yeah. Ben's scheduling it, so who knows? So we're on top of that. And we'll give you more details on our sponsors in just a little bit. Now let's get to the meat and potatoes of today's off the rail episodes. Jason Van Orden has helped thought leaders translate their ideas and expertise into online content, courses and systems. And I know what you're thinking right now. You're like, you know what? I should take my stuff online. And so many people try it, and they do it, like, haphazardly. They don't know what they're doing. It's poorly executed. And then I think, well, maybe online business doesn't work anymore. You know, this is the frontier of the future. This is where profitability is at. You've got to do it right. And that's what Jason's done. He's got over 13 years of doing consulting and research in this space. He's launched more than 60 online products. He started his own podcast back in 2005. He's had over 10,000 students go through his online training. Like, listen, this guy has been there, done that. The one thing you probably don't know about Jason, he met his wife in a band.

That's awesome.

Yeah, I love that.

They've been in four bands together and recorded five albums and everything from jazz to classic rock to alternative stuff. All right, Jason, welcome to our show.

Welcome.

Hey there, guys.

It's so nice to be here.

Yeah, so nice to have you.

Yeah, it's good. It's good.

So.

So you have four albums out there or five albums out there?

Yeah. I mean, I guess it depends what you mean by out there, but, yeah, there's. Yeah, five albums have been recorded, and if you know where to look, they're. They're there somewhere. At least in my attic. At the very least in my attic.

So you. When you joined the band, that's how you met your wife? She was already in the band, or vice versa?

Yep. We originally met in a jazz band, and then a few years later, I invited her to be in my rock band that I was in, and that's kind of when we started dating. And then we had another two bands after that together. So, yeah, lots of. Lots of bands in my. In my past.

So since you play both jazz and rock, I got to do the classic joke. Here it is. Jason, do you know the difference between a jazz musician and a rock musician?

It sounds like I should, but I'm not sure.

A jazz musician plays a million chords to three people, and a rock musician plays three chords to a million people, which, ironically, is very true.

It is pretty true.

It is true, right?

Yeah, totally.

All right, so let's get to the awkward business at hand here. Let's talk about going online with products. You've launched over 60 products. Were those all launches for your own products, or have you helped other people? Just tell us the background on that.

Yeah, both. I mean, a lot of those are my own, because for the first decade online, well, I guess I was launching my own products, and then through my online training, people were learning also how to go and launch their products. But then actually me participating in other people's launches. Yeah, there's probably been about a dozen of those as well over the last couple years when someone's managed to talk me into helping them with their product launch.

Now, a lot of our listeners, maybe they have some online stuff. A lot have traditional stuff. Can anyone do online? Or is this reserved for the elite for you who kind of understand the technology in the space?

You know, I'd say now the technology in the space has gotten so much better, thankfully, that really, the barrier to entry is quite low. And it's really the opposite of what you just said. I mean, here's how I like to think about it. A couple years ago, I came up with this term the long Tail of impact and Influence. And I don't know if your listeners are familiar with the book called Long Tail, but the very quick explanation of that is a site like Amazon has taken us From a reality 20 years ago where a small bookstore could only carry so many titles, only the ones that would actually sell the blockbusters, right. Well, now we've got like infinite shelf space on a site like Amazon. And yeah, you got the blockbusters, but guess what? Like those tens and hundreds of thousands of book, others books, some that only sell, you know, one a month actually, you add all those up and those sales and the people they reach far outweigh the sales of, you know, those blockbusters we normally think about when it comes to online courses. Now, over the last 15 years, thanks to things like podcasting and better technology and it's easier for people to grow an audience, so on and so forth, we have this long tail of influence and income, which means the mother of two in Austin, Texas, who has a very difficult pregnancy and goes through bed rest and all this stuff and then afterwards approaches me and says, I want to start a podcast and tell my story. And now she's seen as an expert for African American women with high risk pregnancies. Right. So how niche is that? But it's not the elite, it's anybody that has a story, method, message that they want to share has the means to do so now. Which I think is just awesome.

It is awesome. So let's talk about the niche of African Americans with difficult pregnancies. I know nothing about that space. How do you validate that something that niche, there's going to be enough demand there to deliver a product, particularly an online product.

Yeah, well, you know, I think it's. In her case, I think she just felt so compelled to tell the story one way or another, even if one person heard it, that she went ahead with it. And for some people, that's the case. Turns out within a year she had women in Ireland and Oman and, you know, all over the world contacting her saying, thanks for sharing this message. But certainly if the goal is something more profit based, you want to make sure that it's actually a viable income stream for you. What I usually tell people is, you know, start looking around at, I mean, you can go to Amazon and see, are there, are there books on that topic that are selling? Is there a magazine or a trade journal or something out there kind of related to the topic? Has somebody else launched a similar course? I mean, that's always validation. If somebody else has done it and you can, and it looks like they're selling, like that's great. That means that there's an audience there buying. And if nothing else, I say, hey, look, if you can go and get 3, 4, 5 people to pay you for some consulting on this particular thing, then that validates the idea. You Just made a bunch of cash. You learned a bunch by consulting these people, and now it's go and make the course. Because sales by selling, you have validated that there are people willing to pay money for it.

So what I heard is I call them congregation points. You said with the trade journal, maybe there's conferences out there, that there's this community already congregating. Clearly they're looking for information. If they're congregating so you can sell to them. I get that. I love. I never heard that before. Of consulting first. My question, though, is how do you get started? And let me just kind of play out a scenario. We can use Kelsey's business. Kelsey manufactures jewelry. She sells it to through trunk shows and stores.

Those boutique stores.

Boutique stores. Can a business like that go online or that there are certain businesses that just are limited and can't?

Well, I actually have a client right now that works with me who teaches other jewelry makers how to sell their jewelry online now. So, yeah, I mean, I think there's always some kind of interesting. You know, and I have another friend who was just telling me about one of her clients. It's like Bible journaling is the niche. So there's often very creative ways. And people today, they've learned that they can find a solution, a community, a place to go or information, or just the right person to follow for whatever their interest is. The Internet has been around long enough that now they know. It's like, hey, and even if we look at TV and our entertainment, we have so many options now in every aspect of our lives. We're just used to going, whatever my little niche interest is, you know, I can go and find the podcast or whatever to follow on that. So there's, you know, I think that people would be surprised, the demand that they can find even in. Even in the smallest places.

So then how do you get it in front of an audience and, well, whatever. How do you get. You understand that question? How do you get in front of an audience? I mean, you come up with this online product, it sounds like it's a low barrier to entry, but how do I get people even aware I exist when the big names are already out there circulating?

Yeah. And, you know, I think the ideal situation is if you are taking. You're taking something that you've already done through maybe consulting or maybe you've been a keynote speaker or you've written a book about it or. So the point I'm making is that ideally there is some kind of customer base or following. Maybe it's a small one. But one of the best things you can do is go and sell what we often refer to as a minimum viable product. So it's not even like the whole doctored up and nice and polished and perfect videos or anything. I mean, the last course I launched, my minimum viable product was basically a bunch of files in Google Docs. It was like I sent Google Docs for people to fill stuff out to help them think through some strategy stuff. I sent them a few video links from my Google Drive that I'd uploaded videos. So you just go with the quick and dirty and ideally turn to whatever sphere of influence you already have. And even if that's a couple degrees away, it's like telling your network, hey, I've got, you know, I'm launching this thing. I'm doing a beta or a charter, you know, version of it. Here's the ideal person for that. Who do you know that might be interested in this kind of thing? Here's the outcome that I want to help deliver to people. I've got this process that I've refined for a while and now I'd like to turn it into an online program. So that's the ideal situation is you're actually kind of working within a realm where you have some contacts or existing customer base and now you're providing something new to them. But if you are starting from scratch, total scratch, I think the answer to that, one of the best answers. There's a lot of answers I can give, but one of the best answers to that question is go find the online community where those people are already hanging out and start engaging with them and providing value, whether that's in Facebook groups or LinkedIn groups or, you know, whatever other, you know, places that people congregate. And, you know, pretty quickly you can start being seen as somebody who's adding value and showing up. And you can start identifying pretty quickly people that you might reach out to one on one and go, hey, I appreciate our interactions. I've got this thing I'm working on. Would you be. I'm looking for some beta testers. Would you be willing, you know, I'm providing it at a lower price here because it's the first time through, but you're going to be getting very direct access to me as I refine this thing and build it out. And that's another great way to bring people in for a first launch on a new course.

Do we need to kind of build up our own name? Do we need to become kind of the authority or expert or Can I, you know, if I'm new to the market, I'm trying to get the word out. Do I have to first build Mike Michalowicz as a recognized expert in this space, or is there a way to just move a product without me having to build my own kind of online Persona?

Yeah, I don't think you have to have your own online Persona. I mean, a lot of the people I work with do or want to create a personality based brand where they are seen as an authority. However, you know, let's just take anybody with some kind of, you know, practice in their local, you know, town or city. Whether they're, you know, let's say a divorce lawyer or, you know, financial professional or, you know, acupuncturist, whatever, you can use this as an additional way to serve your clients. So if people are coming in every day for acupuncture and you know that a lot of the people that come to you are, let's say, I mean, I don't know, maybe I chose something that's out of my like, purview of what I understand, but I'll just. So forgive me if any acupuncturists are listening and I like totally get this wrong, but say a bunch of people are coming into your acupuncture practice and you know, there's a particular, I don't know, health issue that a lot of them are coming in and. Or you notice that you're maybe attracting a lot of pregnant women who are coming for acupuncture. And so, you know, that sense, you might go, hey, I could maybe make a little course that talks about, I've got this, you know, nutrition regimen that I use or have recommended to people. Or I've got these other things I could recommend to pregnant women that they could be doing between our, their visits to me or even maybe once I know that their pregnancy, they've had the baby. Is there some kind of information, you know, with your knowledge of that stems from your knowledge of acupuncture, that it's like, hey, I've got this course now that I could, that you could buy and you don't have to come in and see me anymore. And so it becomes this additional way to add value to people that you're already attracting locally to whatever practice or small business you have or, or people show up and you know, they're. Let's say I'm trying to think of an example off the top of my mind, but let's say you're in a practice where you're getting a lot of leads and some of them just aren't ready yet to work with you because maybe they've got a few more things I's to dot and T's to cross and they need to. And then they'd be ready to work with you as a professional.

You know what business has that? Every business.

Right, right.

And so now you're on a flow and I ruined it.

What if you had a course that actually prepares them to be ready to work with you rather than kind of like, we'll come back when, you know, you've got this, this and this. It's like, well, okay, sell them the 50, 100, $500,000, whatever course. So not only are you preparing a customer for the, you know, for, you know, be ready in the future, but you've now added an additional income stream. Right.

So let me play out a little bit of a scenario. So I get a call. We have an organization here, it's for accountants and bookkeepers. Teach them how to become consultative around profit. So they could call and say, you know, I have a brand new practice. I'm not established yet. I need to get my first 10 or 15 customers on before I do anything. So are you suggesting I can make a say. Hey, I have a course for that said how to get your first 15 customers.

Yeah.

And then offer that. Yep. That's genius. So yeah, that's genius.

Absolutely.

Ironically, I went to see my. I have an acupuncturist. Now that sounds kind of weird. I have one. I'm not at that level. I've gone to an acupuncturist. I'm still the. I've gone. She's mine. She's mine. She's my, you know, my dedicated acupuncturist because I got a foot injury from running and she serves everybody. Like every pregnant women come in there, weight loss, like, you name it. She's like, oh, I've had people for this. And she's like, it's kind of tough to have a regular stream of inbound customers. I guess. One suggestion I'm hearing Jason's, I could go to her and say, you know, if, if you want to serve runners, I'm in the running community. There's. I couldn't find acupuncturist who specialized in running. Why don't you commit yourself to that category and you could have a swath of customers.

Absolutely.

Is that kind of what you're suggesting?

Oh, yeah. And what about. It's a counterintuitive thing and it's something that a lot of professionals and small businesses, a mistake they make is they cater to too many people. But it's exactly right. Like if somebody has a running injury and they go to a site and it says, I am the acupuncturist for runners. You know, runners and triathletes and, you know, so, like that category of people. Yeah, I mean, it's foregone conclusion. You're like, yeah, I'm going to that person. Right. So, sure, yep.

But what about all the other people? So, you know, she had one runner come in, but 99 other customers are all over the space. If she dedicates to runners, is she going to abandon or lose all those other customers? And that might be too hard. What about that?

Yeah, I mean, clearly there would need to be some kind of transitional period. And yeah, that is tough to make those kinds of transitions. And sometimes it does mean obviously planning ahead. Sometimes it might mean you do as you're rebranding, maybe you do have to have some cash on the side to kind of bridge things over as you're making that shift, because you know that on the other end, it's going to increase sales and revenue. But you can also just make that decision of, let me test again, minim, viable product or even minimum viable service offering. Maybe she does talk to you and go, hey, well, how could I test this out and see if there is a demand for me to get more runners in here? And so she starts talking to the runners that are coming into her practice and like, okay, where do they hang out locally? Where can I maybe get this offer? And so you can just make that decision to kind of start getting in front of those people with that specific message without necessarily changing the shingle on your business to say, I'm now only for runners. But my prediction is pretty quickly you'd have to go, okay, now I am only for runners because I'm rapidly getting people that are coming to me just for that.

How do you stop the overwhelm of that, though? Like, if you go to make that transition and you're not quite ready to let go of your old clients, but you want to take all these new ones, how do you handle that without overwhelming yourself or triple booking yourself, so to speak?

Yeah, I mean, that's just. You just have to plan for that and know that, I mean, again, you just start small with the small test of, like, okay, let me see if I could get free four more clients that are runners. And I mean, if you find yourself in a situation where some test you do for getting in front of runners and all of a sudden you do find yourself with like 20, 30, 40 eager leads. Well, the first thing you do is you raise your rates and now you, you know, now you're in demand. I mean that's one of the best things you possibly could. And you, yeah, you don't, you gotta make sure you have good systems so you don't triple book yourself. But yeah, you go ahead and double your rates. Now if you're getting, if all of a sudden you're getting that influx of people and that's just going to actually make you in even more demand. Right. But I think it's actually probably as long as you. Yeah, I mean ideally you have good systems in your business, at least enough not to get yourself into. I mean that's a good question. I think for any business to ask is like If I had 50 new leads tomorrow, what would I do? And actually start being ready for that right now. Right. Because I mean ideally you should be trying things out where, who knows, at some point all sudden something does hit and you find yourself in greater demand.

Yeah. Hallelujah. There used to be a commercial, UPS commercial. I don't know if you saw this company, this fictitious company sets up a business online and they launch the business and all of a sudden that first order comes in. There's like six or seven people huddled around this computer and they all cheer. Yes, the first, first order then. So there's relief, right? Because before they're all anxious, then the second and third order comes in a few seconds later and they're like, yeah, yeah. And then like 50 orders come in and they start like high fiving. But then it becomes a hundred orders and the first person like kind of the sweat starts building up and then you see it start cranking a thousand orders and everyone's like, oh crap. And then of course the commercial's like, well, thank God you have ups. We can do the shipping.

Right.

So that's a long buildup to. Not a question. I do have a question though. We're a little bit crunched on time. Can you give us a summary of actions if someone wants to go online? Jason, what are the things they should do now or look into to make their existing product or offerings onto an online viable product?

Yeah. So the first thing to do is to identify what is the pain or the problem. The specific thing that you want to make some kind of online offering around. And we've pointed out a few different things. You can look at whether it's kind of an on ramping type thing, whether it's an additional service after the fact, whatever, supplementary to whatever you already do. And excuse me. And so again, I think you can keep this super, super simple. Don't you don't want to go. I'm a big fan of small bets, easy, low risk things that just to see if something's going to work. There's some great services now that make it easy to provide an online course type experience if you want. Teachable.com is a very popular one here in New York City where you just sign up for a service and they'll host your videos and they help you put it all in order and make it look really nice and people can come and buy through their site and they get a login and it handles all that for you so that all you have to do is, is create some content, whether it's audio, like we're doing here with the podcast, whether you might be doing a bit of video or there's an argument to be made for you could arguably sell something that's nothing but a bunch of checklists and templates that could be worth thousands of dollars to the right business if they have the right processes and templates that you know are going to work for them. And so that's kind of the process of something you'd be looking at. But I think even one thing I love about selling digital courses and programs is you can sell them before the fact you could even find, start talking to people and say I'm going to be making this thing. Would that interest you? I'm looking for some beta testers. I'm going to be making it over the next couple months and would that interest you? And just tell them here's the process we're going to go through, here's the outcome you're going to have by the end. And, and you don't have to have even created any of the content yet. Like you know in your mind what you're going to be doing with them and, and, and you sell it and you sell it in advance. And now maybe you set up either, you know, a very popular video conferencing application now as Zoom. I think it's Zoom us, you know, so you could even do, hey, this is going to be eight calls over eight weeks. It's going to be an hour call each time. I'm going to cover some kind of key principle, answer your questions, give you your next action, steps to, to do. And so you're basically getting paid to create the thing. So you're finding five people or 10 people, however many in advance to pay you and go, hey, you know what? That does sound like something I need. And then you go, great, we're going to start next week. And, you know, and now you're, you know, you're creating this content through video calls, you know, over the eight weeks, whatever, and then by the end, you can record these. And now you've got those recordings that you could sell as, you know, an online program next time you've got somebody that comes to you with that problem, like, hey, I've got this course over here that you can buy if you'd like. So that's one of my favorite ways to do it, is pre sell it, deliver it as some live calls online with something like Zoom us record those. It allows you to sell it, test it, get paid to make it. You're validating it before you even spend any time setting up and creating a course, because people are buying it first. That would be my recommendation.

Wow, Jason. Yeah, there's no excuse not to do it, and I think any business can do it. Jason, before we let you go, where can our listeners get more information about you and your organization?

Yeah, you just go to JasonVanOrden.com and this is the kind of strategy I like, helping people who have a specific method or message or idea that they like to communicate on the Internet through online programs and online content. And, you know, we get really specific on what is it that you offer that's special and how can you get it in front of the right people and package it up in a way that creates diverse new income for you and expands your reach and your impact with your expertise at the same time. And so just come to jason vanwarden.com if you want some more ideas about how to do that.

Awesome, Jason, thank you for these insights and everyone listening. There is no excuse not to do this. Visit Jason's site. We'll have it in the show notes. All right, Jason, we're going to let you go. We'll see you later.

Thanks, guys.

Bye, Jason.

Thank you.

Bye. Bazinga. Yeah, he nailed it. He nailed it. I know. I'm a little r. I get a little panicky when we come in skidding into a show like this.

We'll get through.

Yeah. And then my mom was just calling. I know. So I'm a little nervous now. I don't want to pick up the phone, but I have to, so. Oh, my God. All right, so let's. Let's wrap things up here.

Yes.

We'Re Going to talk about. Yeah, we're going to summarize what we learned. We got a little listener mail from a trucker. Is it from a trucker?

No, this is not from.

My favorite community is our trucking community. Really? Because, you know, shame on me. Every time I drive down the highway and you see one of these 18 wheelers kind of blowing by, I'm like, what are they listening to? Country music. I'm very. Which I love. I love country music. No, but I think they're. They're listening country music. Most of those men and women, they're listening to exceptional podcasts. A few of them are even listening to our show, which is not necessarily exceptional. But, you know, when you. When you go through all the other good podcasts, you kind of go down the food chain. You get to ours, our bottom feeders.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you for feeding on the bottom.

I know. But you know, we love you. We do love them. And. And some of these folks have started businesses.

Yeah.

This show has inspired truckers to start businesses. That should be our tagline.

Yeah.

We inspire truckers.

I think we might be niching it.

A little bit too far. Yeah. Are you a long haul trucker? Do you want to start a business? Listen to our Profit first podcast.

It's not a bad idea.

Oh, it also says brackets. You have to be tired of country music because. Okay, so let me thank our corporate partner to make this show a reality. Christian, punch me. Oh, you're fast.

You're welcome.

Fundera. No, they're not even a sponsor. Fundbox. I still have Fundera on here. Fundbox Invoice financing. You know, you have those invoices that are due to you. Fundbox releases the funds to you in the moment on the spot, and then you can collect the funds as you regularly do from the client. Return of fund box. Great. Short term cash flow thing. Management thing thing. Receipt bank. That's another good thing.

They're great.

Yeah.

Receipt bank. You can scan in your receipts, sync it up with QuickBooks. We're having problems with QuickBooks and it's syncing with TD Bank. But that's not Receipt Bank. Receipt Bank. Have we ever had a problem with them?

No.

No, never. So Receipt bank, all these receipts you get now, you can scan them in. You have to legally track all your receipts now. It's fully automated. And then last but certainly not least is Nextiva voice over IP phone system. And they just released Next OS. This is their CRM that blows away CRMs.

Can't wait.

AI artificial intelligence built into it, it can respond for you. Someone sends an email like, hey, I have a question. What phone number can I reach you at? It says the phone number. You can't.

You can't reach me ever.

You cannot contact me because our intern's name is Ben and he doesn't listen to our effing voicemail. Otherwise, you're good. All right. Pitney Bowes is the industry leader in mailing and shipping solutions. No matter what you send or how often, Pitney Bowes has the solution that precisely fits your needs for weigh, print, mail and save. You and your business will save time and money when you print postage. And you won't need to wait in line at the post office anymore. You know I'm talking about. You also won't need to worry about putting the correct amount of postage on the letter or package you're sending. Happened on January 21st. USPS mailing and shipping costs went up again. But you'll save $0.03 per letter with a Pitney Bowes solution. These discounts are not available at the post office. Beat the increase. Don't stand for it, my friends. Whether you're sending a letter or a package, you'll be paying less and saving money. If you're using a Pitney Bowes sending solution, plans start at just five bucks a month. For our listeners, Pitney Bowes is also offering a free trial, so you're sure to find the solution that's right for you and and your business. Now, here's the deal. You gotta take one simple action. Go to their website, but go to the website with profit first it. It's pb.com profit first. And there you'll learn more and you can try out the system for free. Now, don't forget, terms apply and you gotta see the site for details, but go right now to pb.com profit first. And we thank them for sponsoring the podcast. Christina, why don't you go first? What'd you learn today?

Oh, oh, I tried to hit the.

Come on. Why isn't it playing?

So what'd you learn today? Thanks Me? Validation. Just kind of. I mean, you have this idea, you're not sure if it's gonna go as plain and simple. Is there someone else out there doing something similar and is successful with it? If so, then what are you waiting for?

Kelsey, who also goes by Kelly.

Apparently, it's my alter ego, guys. She's smarter and funnier. So my big takeaway is that I'm really grateful that we live in the time that we do. I love that there is the option to create your own programming so that you can share your gift with the world. And I love that. Anybody can do it. You know, like he said, there's very low barriers anymore and you can do it. And I like the idea of asking for beta testers, I think is a really wonderful way to build a network and to share it. And, you know, it's just, it's obvious, but I feel like a lot of people don't do it.

Yeah, I like that a lot. I agree. No barrier century. You know, I try to stump them with your business because you have a traditional business. You manufacture jewelry and then send it to stores. I'm like, you can't online that. And he's like, oh, teach him how to make jewelry. I'm like, okay. So if you don't think that your product as it is is something that can be converted to online educational, you can always teach how you do what you do right, regardless what you do. So if you're a long troll. Hucker, hucker. If you're a long troll. Oh, my God. Yeah, I'm losing my mind. I really. I gotta get out of my mind because when the phone rang, I was done.

Yeah, exactly.

If you're a long haul trucker, you could actually teach how to become a long haul trucker. Or you could teach the process of making a business while also having a.

Career or how to entertain yourself while spending long hours on the road.

You can make a whole series of like, listen to the Profit first podcast. Skip this episode. But you know, interesting. So I think anyone can do it. There's no excuse not to do it.

Yeah, I agree. I agree.

Okay. All right, we're good. Do we have anything else to talk about? Oh, listen, cut that off. Sorry, real quick.

This is from Francisco Hernandez from Cisco Custom Engineering. He has a whole story here and it kind of skim through. He just read Profit first and damn, he's buying it. He's buying the whole system. He is new to the manufacturing business, specifically in precision. I'm sorry. My God. It's because I'm rushing Precision CNC Machining. But he wants to know, Mike, what do you recommend on income coming in from an employer? Does he disperse that from the four accounts per the percentages?

Yeah. So this works into my whole long haul trucking conversation. That if you have a career and you're starting a business, what about the money coming in from your career? Can you use that Profit first? The answer is no. That money comes in is to support your lifestyle and you Know what? Yes, you should save up personally so that if your business takes time to get afloat that you have some money for you. But if you insert into the business your represent, that's artificial income that the business didn't generate. The business has to be profitable on its own. So if you've other income sources, they never go into the profit first system. Only income from the business itself goes into profit first. So you can see what it takes for the business to stand on its own. Okay, now we can get out of here.

So. Yep. We want to know what you learned from this episode. If you learned anything from our crazy banter today. Leave us a comment or a rating. Itunes, stitcher, tune in radio, any podcaster and of course prop first podcast.com and then go to proffers professionals dot com. Why?

Why? Because we have hundreds, and I can legitimately say hundreds of members throughout the globe now who drive profitability in businesses just like yours. Their accountants, their bookkeepers are coaches and they're driving profitability Business. Business like yours. If you want to make your business more profitable than ever before and you want the guidance of a professional, these are people that I've personally certified in this process. So here's what you do. Go to profit first professionals dot com. Check out our brand new website and click on find. Fill out the little form there. We'll hook you up with the profit first professional. These are all independent business owners. So then you'll connect with them, you work with them and you know what they'll do? They'll drive properly in your business. Big time. That's right. Bazinga. Big time. All right, a little bit zany today, a little bit rushed. We'll be good next week.

Yeah.

All right, we'll catch you all later. Bye, everybody. Bye.