MBA952 Your Most Important Asset in Business + Free Ride Friday!

Hey there. Today is Free Ride Friday, so make sure you hang on to the end of the episode to hear who won this week's free ride. Every Friday we give away a lifetime membership to one of our programs. This week we're giving away easy course, our 30 day course on how to create and launch an online course in 30 days. And all you got to do is leave us an itunes rating and a review to enter our weekly random draw. Every Friday, we randomly draw somebody who's left us a review and they win a free ride. So if you haven't left us a review yet, do that now so you can enter the draw next week and every week after that. All right, let's jump into today's episode. Hey O. Welcome to the Hundred Dollar MBA show, your daily dose of business goodness to become a better entrepreneur with our daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of the hundred dollar MBA, a complete business training and community online over at 100mba.net and in today's episode you will learn what is your most important asset in business. Every business must have value, must have a set of assets, whether it's a great product, great service or the location of your business. But all these are not the most important asset in any business. Without this number one asset, you really have no business now or ever. It's an asset you can carry on regardless if you do well in this business today or you move on to a new business tomorrow. And I want to discuss with you this asset in today's business, how to cultivate it and make sure you're growing this asset every day. I wish somebody told me this about 15 years ago when I started even thinking about business, I thought it was just all about the product or the service. But it's a whole lot more than just that. We're going to take a deep dive and cover a lot in today's episode. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. Today's episode of the $100 NBA show is supported by Big Questions with Cal Fussman. Have you ever wondered how Kobe Bryant became an Oscar nominee? Did you even know he's an Oscar nominee? These are the kinds of questions that Cal Fussman gets answers to. In his podcast, Big Questions with Cal Fussman, best selling author and Esquire columnist Cal Fussman talks to people who've lived extraordinary lives. From Kobe to Dr. Oz to Tim Ferriss. These are really deep, thought provoking conversations and you'll end up with burning questions answered and a few new ones to think about. Subscribe to Big Questions with Kal Fussman now in your favorite podcast app, like Stitcher or Apple Podcasts. So what's your number one asset when it comes to your business? And it's very simple. It's the relationships around your business. Let me explain. You have no business if you have no audience, if you have nobody to speak to, nobody to sell to, even then you really have no business. You're just speaking to yourself. So the people that you communicate with, the people that are your potential customers, the people on your email list, the people that visit your website, the people that go to your webinars, these are relationships. These are people that you're trying to build trust with. That's one aspect of the people around your business. These relationships are so important because once you build them, they're pretty much there for life unless you do something to break that relationship. So regardless if your business goes out of business or your product just turns out to not be a good idea and you move on to a new business, you can carry that audience through. You can get those people to take a look at what you're doing new, what you're doing next. And I'm going to go a little bit deeper on that topic in a moment. But what are some other relationships around your business? Well, it's the people you meet around your genre, around your market. I actually like calling them friends. Your friends around business. And these people are not necessarily your customers, but the people that you meet at conferences, through Mastermind groups, through online groups, Slack groups, forums, things like that. These people are awesome because they become lifelong friends. And they're there for you when you need that help, when you need that promotion, when you need that support, when you need that advice. You never know how things are going to turn out in the future. They might be great and you sell your business and decide to retire, but then you want to move on to something new. You need their help as well. Things might go south and you have to start all over again. That's a possibility. And those relationships are going to be key when you need the most. So that's another group of people around your business, relationships around your business that are important. What about your competitors, People that you compete with? That's a relationship as well. And they're an incredible asset to you. Yes, an asset. Yeah, maybe you're competing, but there's no reason to be enemies. Hey, I run a podcast in the business section, the business category. In itunes. I have a lot of competition. If I'm enemies with everybody, I'm gonna have no friends. So a lot of people that are, quote, unquote, my competition, people like John Lee Dubas, like Pat Flynn, like Jordan Harbinger, like Noah Kagan, they all have business podcasts, but we support each other because we know that if more people listen to podcasts, the better for all of us. So we have each other's backs. And because of that, I'm on their show. And sometimes they come and guest teach here on our show. And, hey, they give great value, just as I try to give as much value as possible on their show. Yeah, by me doing well on their show, it helps their show, but that's okay. And yes, they're my competition, and yes, I want to beat them. I want to be on top of them. I want to outrank them. I want to have a bigger and better show, but it doesn't mean I can't work with them. I can't have a relationship with them. And that competitive spirit, it's great. And I learned that from sports, really grew up playing basketball, where when you're on the court and you're competing, it's, you know, you want to win and it's. You're very competitive, but off the court, and just in general, we're still buddies and I still respect you for your game. Game, recognized game. They say that in basketball, so you have to recognize the fact that, hey, they're good, too, and that's okay. That kind of rivalry pushes each of us to be better. So, yes, you heard the cliche relationships are so important, but it's the truth. The relationships you have around your business and is your biggest asset, without it, you have nothing. How do I know this? Because I had nothing at the start. And you have to start building those relationships slowly. I had no email list. I had no followers on social. I had no podcasts and no listeners. I had nobody watching my videos. I had no visitors to my website. I didn't know anybody in my marketplace. I didn't know any of my competitors, and it was so tough. And to be honest with you, I didn't have a business yet in my hands. Yes, I might have had a website and a brand name and something for sale, but no one was buying because I didn't build that foundation. I didn't build the relationships around my business. Now, obviously, the first group, the people that will be listening to me, they'll be interested in buying from me. And the customers that we have, those are Big deals those are. That's a big relationship and that's a huge asset. So you really want to make a serious effort in cultivating that relationship constantly. Back in 2014, when we launched our software program, Webinar Ninja, we beta launched it to 250 people. We wanted to see if people are really interested in this program, in this software, if people want the solution. And I didn't just post it to the public. Those 250 users came from a very small email list I had when I started the $100 MBA program. These people I know by name, I recognize their face. If I see them at a conference, I'm going to stop and give them a hug. These are my friends really, because they really got my back at the start. But I wouldn't be able to start that software if I didn't have an audience, if I didn't have that relationship, if I didn't build that trust with that group of people who really weren't interested in software, meaning that I didn't actually have them on my email list based on that. But I said, hey, I'm building something new, guys, what do you think of this? And those who are interested, bought. So having a strong audience and cultivating that audience really helps you have a strong business. Regardless of where you go as an entrepreneur, whether you launch a new program, a new software, a new product, even a new marketplace, you're going to have intersection. If I got into golf, say for example, and I really got really good, and I want to start coaching people who are beginners, I'm sure there's lots of people that I know in my audience that are into golf or want to get into golf. So if I did launch that business, I would have somebody to talk to. You see where I'm going here? That is so valuable. Having somebody to talk to about what you're offering, about your business, about getting feedback is priceless. That's your biggest asset. A lot of people tell me if I'm starting all over or if I'm starting fresh, what do I work on first? And I say build your audience. Start a blog, start a YouTube channel, start a podcast, something. Build your audience as quickly as you can and as soon as you can, because this is really your business. Because they will tell you what to build, they will tell you what they need, they will tell you what problems they want solved. Now, I'd be lying to you if I told you I did this alone. No one builds a business alone. Yes, I have my co founder and my wife and my Partner in life, Nicole. But we both had to rely on other relationships to help open a few doors. This is how the world works. People like helping each other out. I'll give you a perfect example if you go to the first few episodes of the $100 MBA show, the first, let's say 20. We have a few guest teachers on there, and they're not huge entrepreneurs, they're not big names, but they're great business people. And they were my friends. These are the people that I built relationships with when I was coming up as an entrepreneur. And I need a guest. I needed some guest teachers to fill those spots, and they were happy to help me out. I didn't have any other solution other than go to my friends. And I was happy to do that because they were solid and they gave great lessons. But imagine I didn't have those relationships. I would be stuck. I would have to cold call people and it would be really hard to get the ball rolling. Sometimes when you're getting started, you just need to get certain people in place just to get started, and those people will help you get people that you don't know. Once I had a few examples of what a guest teacher lesson is like from my friends, I was able to reach out to bigger names, people that I've never met before. And I can email them and then say, hey, here are some examples. And they see some solid lessons and they're on. There's nothing wrong with that. And of course you can reciprocate and help them out. So you gotta make a conscious effort to constantly meet new people. Try to go to meetups, be part of groups, and be open to meeting people in your marketplace, whether they're competitors or not. Guys, I got more on today's topic. But before that, let me give love to today's sponsor, Earth Class Mail. One of the first things you got to do when you start a business is acquire a business address. You need it to register your business. You need it to open up a business bank account. You even need it to register for email marketing. Yes, you need an address on the bottom of your email marketing newsletters. But if you work from home, like a lot of us do, you don't want to put your home address and have your customers show up to your door. And you don't want to spend the extra money every single month on having a business office. This is where earthclass mail comes in. They hook you up with a swanky business address, and all the mail that gets sent there gets scanned and uploaded to your account. In the cloud, that means you never have to check physical mail ever again. You could see it anywhere, anytime, from your phone or your laptop. Pretty cool. So cool. We signed up. We absolutely love it. And we've been using Earth ClassMail for over a year now. And Earth ClassMail wants to hook you up with a free month so you can get started with your business address. Just go to earthclassmail.com mbamonth and use coupon code MBAMONTH. Again, that's earthclassmail.com MBAMONTH Coupon code MBAMONTH now, the reason why I say this is your number one asset in business, the most important asset is to remind you that this is a priority. This is something you have to work on. You have to ask yourself every week when you get to work, when you start working on your business, what am I doing to build that? These three areas of my relationships around my business. Am I doing anything to cultivate and nurture the relationships I have with my audience and customers? Am I doing anything to cultivate relationship with some of my competitors? What about the people in my marketplace, my peers, people that I look up to? You're not going to see an absolute immediate roi. But just like anything that has value, it takes time and you don't really see the results right away, but it's going to be there for you when you need it. And you're going to be thanking me that I told you to do this. It's very important to remember this, so you may want to put it on a post it note relationships, how am I building question mark and just put it on your monitor or on the wall next to your computer or buy your mouse pad. The point is, is that you gotta be always focusing on this because as you're growing your business, you gotta grow this asset because like I said, they go hand in hand. All right, that wraps up today's lesson. But today's episode is not over because it's free ride Friday. Let's see who won this week's free ride to easy course, our 30 day course on how to build a online course in 30 days and launch it. It's a $500 value. Somebody's gonna get it for free. We do this every Friday, so leave us an itunes rating and review so you can enter the draw. Let's see who won this week's free ride. And the winner is Chelsea from Wall. I'm assuming that's Washington state, or maybe it's Western Australia. But Chelsea from WA says, I love this podcast because it's easy to digest at any point in your day. I'm making a list of all the episodes I should refer back to in the future. Thank you Chelsea for that awesome review. That five star review. You rock and you're today's Free Ride Friday winner. That means you win a lifetime membership to ezcourse our $500 course on how to build an online course and 30 days. Just email me at omar100mba.net so we can hook you up with the free ride. Every Friday we do this guy. So leave us an iTunes rating interview so you can enter the weekly random draw. Thank you so much for listening to the Hundred Dollar MBA show. Before I go, I want to leave you with this Building relationships is one of those kind of soft skills that we don't really think about. It's not like marketing or statistics or sales where there's some tangible numbers, but you can break it down to numbers as well. Like how many people will I add to my email list today? How many people will I connect with and build my relationship with in my marketplace in this week? How many people this month will I be in touch with so I can still cultivate the relationships that I have? Break it down to numbers to make it easy for you so you can make sure you're on top of this. Make sure you tune into Monday's episode. We have a special guest teacher, Rob Ross and big time entrepreneur for founder of staff.com and timedoctor.com and he's going to be talking about remote teams, how to manage and scale a remote team over 60 people. It's definitely doable. It's his area of expertise. If you want to hire the best around the world but don't necessarily want a physical office, you got to tune in to Monday's episode. Until then, take care. Sam.