Creating Positive Change

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Welcome to the Legacy Leavers series on Success Secrets Exposed. Tune in live every Tuesday at 7 PM Eastern time or Wednesday mornings in Australia on W4CY Radio and Talk4TV. The series showcases experts, changemakers, and disruptors leaving a lasting legacy with those sharing their

Good morning, good evening, and g'day to you all, and welcome to another episode of Success Secrets Exposed. Our topic today is creating positive change, and our guest today, Alexi, is an entrepreneur, a business advisor, a sales and marketing coach, and the owner of a digital marketing agency. And Alexei is passionate about helping others create better businesses. His methodological approach involves assisting business owners in establishing well-defined objectives, improving their sales process, and achieving growth through the implementation of marketing strategies and optimal business practices. And his legacy is to create positive change in people's lives using a smart approach to business and problem solving. So please help me welcome to the show Alexei.

Good morning, guys. Thanks for having me.

Thank you. Lovely to see you again. And thank you for joining us. You're an absolute wealth of wisdom. Whenever I've read or listened to you, I'm always blown away by the incredible practical insights. So thank you very, very much for joining us.

Thank you. Hopefully we'll be able to share a few of these insights today.

I'm very excited to be doing that today, so thank you. I'd love you to start, if I may, just by telling us a little bit of your backstory, because I know you have multiple businesses, which in itself is impressive because of the level of opportunities and growth that those businesses have had. So can you share a little bit of your business backstory that brought you to here?

Sure. Well, I finished my degree in e-commerce back in 2004, and back then e-commerce didn't really exist. And for me, it was really a bit of a roller coaster to get into the industry, which was actually changing and growing very, very rapidly. So I basically got myself into website development and a little bit of Google Ads back then, and they just sort of started in Australia. And since then, I have worked with some of the leading Australian marketers as well as some top brands to help them get better results through smart marketing. Now, what I mean by that is A lot of people are looking just to understand what their competitors are doing and try to replicate it. Very few go with the innovative approach. And we basically like to look at things very differently and experiment with a lot of things, which is where we come up with certain results which are very, very different from your average. And I guess fast forward to 2024, I do run a few other businesses, some bricks and mortar, domestic cleaning, smoke alarms, as well as obviously my advisory, which is called Better Business. where I help businesses grow through smarter marketing and understanding sales and marketing a little bit better.

Yeah, beautiful. And with Your Better Business, obviously that's your podcast, and you also run workshops around that in your local community from what I understand.

That's right. In fact, we've got one coming up this Friday.

Oh, there you go. And they looked— again, doing my cyber stalking like I'd like to do— and they look like they're packed with a variety again of different types of business owners. So that's where that problem-solving and that innovation is coming in that you've got this collaboration and tacit knowledge of shared information across a variety of different businesses. Is that your general approach with the innovation element there?

Well, absolutely. Look, we work with very different types of customers. So our portfolio ranges from professional businesses, medical professionals, online stores, and people who specialize in niche marketing. And I love working with that. For me personally, if I find a niche in a business and make that bigger, I think that's the easiest way to success. And we can probably talk more about it.

Yeah, that's, that would be great. I'd love to dive into that a little bit more. Now, as I said to you this morning, when we were just offline, you surprised me and excited me when you talked about personality profiling, because it's always been a bit of a love for me and a bit of a curiosity for me. So can you explain the importance of personality profiling as it relates to business and personal development?

Well, where do I start? It's such a big topic. I came across, I came across a program called Wealth Dynamics back in 2010 when I lived in Melbourne. And what really fascinated me is that no one really told me anything about flow before. So one thing that a lot of people are really failing to achieve is flow within their business, whether it's to do with processes, whether it's to do with people, whether it's to do with a clients or staff. And I found that personality profiling was really quite simple, yet very key to actually getting all your ducks in a row. And what I mean by that is, if you align a person with the right sort of task within your company, these people will not only enjoy what they do, they basically really grow and really fall into what they like and become a true expert. And I find that is really the missing piece of the puzzle for a lot of businesses where someone just hires a person plugs them into a particular role, doesn't do any personality profiling, and then over time finds out that that person is not motivated, that they don't like what they do, they don't get along with everyone else. So for me, personality profiling was, was really a stepping stone to building a good team and understanding everyone's strengths and weaknesses in order to align them with the right task. For me personally, personality profiling was, uh, you know, a really big, um, insight in order to understand myself a little bit better, because while I am a very creative person, You know, according to my profile, I'm not very good at finishing, which is where I need the team. So a lot of people really need that why. They really need to understand their why in order to do better. So for me, personality profiling has worked in a lot of different ways.

Yeah, beautiful. And I found Wealth Dynamics very, very early on, and the StrengthsFinder. And I found those 2 together from a personal insight perspective. For me, when, as a business owner back in the day, when I really couldn't articulate what I actually did, because you know, I just did it instinctively. It was in my head. And the actions that I created, I found that, that, that understanding was the understanding of helping, helping me articulate what it was I actually did, and then move forward with the businesses. And then, as you said, getting the right people in the right spots in the team makes a huge difference. So I was very excited to see and have that conversation. And obviously, you've recommended the ones that you tend to utilize the most. And is that something you bring into the, into your business strategy as well when you're working with them so they can open up have that same insight and get the right people on the team, etc., as well?

Well, absolutely. First of all, it's very important to understand who you're dealing with in terms of clients. So investing $30, $40, $50, I'm not sure what Wealth Dynamics is these days, is really something that allows you to start a different conversation with the customer. Because in reality, a lot of people would approach me saying, hey, we want a better website, we want to do a better marketing campaign. And when I ask them the question, like, what are you actually looking to achieve? a lot of the time they don't really think about it. And to go deeper, personality profiling really works well in order to really understand what their fundamental goals are and what it is that they actually want out of the whole exercise. And I believe that not only creates a better conversation with the customer but also helps them understand themselves a little bit better as well. So, you're really approaching the situation from more than just marketing or sales.

Yeah, beautiful. And obviously, when it comes to the strengths and weaknesses, and you talked about staff understanding their strengths and weaknesses and the lack of motivation when the wrong person is in the wrong spot. If you've got that aligned differently within a business, then that motivation and inspiration tends to come in differently. How do you— because I'm just curious from that perspective, when you're working with that business owner as it relates to getting the team aligned, getting those goals, their goals, and then, you know, aligning the goals of the business with the team members. How do you find aligning the activities as it relates to the strengths and rejigging of business? Is that something that you work on as well within your business?

I guess to a degree, to a degree. Look, I think you have to understand, first of all, what you're actually wanting to achieve within your company. If you want someone to be in a particular role and really be successful, that's one thing. But if you want those individuals to really strive, really, really grow, and become an expert, you really need to understand that there are 3 fundamental parts to becoming an expert. First of all, they really need to learn something. They really need to have a skill and be good at that skill. Secondly, they need to be able to apply that skill. And finally, they need to be able to teach somebody else. That really makes them a true expert, a master, if you like. And I think understanding their profile is really the fundamental part of the whole thing. So you can align them with the right activities. You can understand their style of learning. You can understand who they basically best they're speaking with. Because, you know, you get this quite a lot where some people drive someone within the workplace absolutely crazy. Like, they just don't get along. And there's nothing to do with the, you know, the personal side of things. It's really more to do with the foundational side of things. And look, while you can't keep everybody happy, you can create an environment where people can work synergetically. So that synergy is really something that you'd want to achieve. Yeah.

Yeah. And that synergy, as you also said, the synergy and the learning and then the ability to pass on that learning through, through the teaching is also a great way to be able to scale businesses, etc., as well, because you're actually passing on the knowledge versus keeping it as an owner in your own head first, but then passing the knowledge on and the skills and development of a staff member that they can then pass that on. You've not only enabled yourself to duplicate yourself or replicate yourself, But you're actually doing that with your team members, which is where I would imagine the growth comes in as well.

Yeah, yeah. Well, look, you'll find a few businesses quite naturally would appoint someone to a senior position based on how much time they spend in the business. And look, that may work. But sometimes there is a bit of a conflict because that person may lack a particular skill or direction overall in terms of becoming a leader. Now, leadership and personality profiling go hand in hand. But you really need to understand the style of leadership that that person will be taking on board. And look, while personality profiling is fairly accurate, there are a few unicorns, if you like, where people behave a bit differently. And this is where you really need to understand exactly what those people's goals are, because from your business perspective, you may want a leader. From that personal perspective of a person that you're trying to position like that, they may have potentially different problems and different goals. So you really need to align the two together to get the outcome that you want.

Yeah, beautiful. And then that obviously then moves on to the clarity of goals within the organization, which is obviously something you very specialized in getting to the nuts and bolts of what someone's wanting to achieve. So let's have a look and let's have a conversation around why it's so critical to have these clear goals for the business, but also the people within the business.

Wow! Well, that is a huge topic within itself. I mean, the whole goal-setting side of things seems straightforward, and if you just ask the question once, Majority of people say, oh, look, we want more money, we want to do better, we want more revenue, more profit and whatnot. But in reality, the goal of a business, especially for small businesses, is really aligned with what the business owner actually wants lifestyle-wise. So whether they have a family wanting to spend more time and look, let's not forget why a lot of businesses start a business in the first place. They typically want more freedom, they want more flexibility. And then if you talk to someone 5 years later, once they started the business, like, hey, when's the last time you had a holiday? I haven't had one in a long time. So I think the whole goal setting conversation really needs to go through a few iterations and you really need to understand exactly what lifestyle the person behind the business actually desires because sometimes that's completely misaligned whilst other businesses are living the dream. Like there are businesses that are wanting to travel and they're able to align what they do with that too. So the whole goal setting side of things really needs to begin with the business owner's desires of what they actually want to achieve out of the business. And also take into consideration a lot of the things that they currently have. Where are they situated? Do they have a family? Is there someone else in the business that's basically impacting their decisions? And a lot of these things really need to be taken into consideration because you may want to be actually setting a number of different goals for the business, for the business owner, and maybe also for the family behind that particular business as well. Because husband and wife may have a different situation and different desires from the business, and then the husband as the business owner may want something different. That's the trick of aligning the whole thing. But one thing I tell you for sure is I love telling my customers to book their holidays first before they start focusing on the business, because you'll find that that's the last thing they typically do. So my advice to you is if you're setting goals, first of all, set a goal of how many holidays you want to have a year and when, and then basically focus on the business to make sure that you can wrap everything around it.

Yeah, beautiful. So set those big rocks into play, into the calendar, into play first off. Yeah, great advice. And something that's so fundamental and so simple to do, but, you know, most, most business owners— and I'm putting my hand up for that— is guilty for not actually doing that. Yes, you plan a holiday and then something happens and you go, yeah, I'll just bump it out a little bit. So you're not there in that perspective from not aligning the business and the personal goals together to be able to create that as well.

Absolutely.

Very well said. Yeah. And you've also talked about I'm going to come back to— you referred to the 96.4% principle, which was a new one to me because most people have heard about the 80/20 rule. So can you elaborate a little bit as it relates to goal setting and your methodology of the 96 to the 4%?

Look, the 80/20, the Pareto principle is fairly straightforward. And I think a lot of business owners and a lot of people, especially that come across numbers, would know It's a pattern that basically comes up just about everywhere, which is where, you know, 20% of your services deliver 80% of your results and so on and so on. Or, you know, you're the average of the 5 people that you spend your time with, you know, 1 out of 5, 80/20. Now, a lot of the time people sort of accept that part and don't really drill down any deeper. But when you're dealing with numbers, you'll find that within the 80/20, you'll take the 20%. And if you do the 80/20 on that again, you'll find that it'll break down into, you know, that top 4%, which is a fifth of the 20. And if you basically take the whole thing into a bigger equation, you'll find that it's really that 4%, whether it comes to people or when it comes to activities, that really gets you the big results. And it's very difficult sometimes to focus on that 4%. So what I advise my customers is to actually try to understand that because the 80/20 is fairly easy to do. Okay, these are my services, these are the ones that that are profitable. Let's drill down deeper and understand why or how these particular services are making these things profitable and how can we actually change them to make things even better for you. That's where the 4% comes in. It's not rocket science, but it does take a lot of time and number crunching in order to really identify it if you're a numbers person, or it does take a lot of creativity to understand that because people like myself, we get carried away with our creative side. It's like, oh my God, you know, there's a 4%, what can we do there? The idea really is to slow down and look at the numbers and look at the actual activities with a cold head and try to understand exactly what the pattern is.

Yeah, beautiful. And I think you've said the key phrase there when it relates to those people that aren't familiar with numbers or haven't dived into this perspective before. It is a case of actually slowing down and not trying to rush through it. It's taking the time to gain the numbers and then actually work out what the numbers mean and where the opportunities are. And this is obviously something that you excel at as a relates to the opportunities that you help your clients identify as it relates to all of their niche opportunities as well. So I'm happy for you to dive into that.

Absolutely. Well, look, we've found that, you know, with majority of small businesses, the 4% is typically the actual sales process. So if you're going to look at the time aspect, and look, you can look at it from numbers, time, and everything else. If you look at this from the time aspect, you know, which amount of time is the most impactful for a business? And typically you'll find the majority of business, in majority of business, it's the sales process. So if you're gonna take the 4% of the business, the sales process has got the biggest impact. This is where you could change everything around very, very quickly. And this may sound crazy because marketing is my background, but I have transitioned into sales probably over the last 5 years and have started focusing on that more. Because if you're looking for a quick win, imagine turning one customer into a repeat buyer. Imagine if you could turn a transaction of $1,000 into $5,000, and that's what the sales process is really all about. If you can really drill down specifically on that and understand which gaps or which particular problems you are fixing with your sales process, you're able to have a much better conversation. I'll give you an example. One of our really good customers is a business that does asbestos and roofing. Now, I advise them to ask the customers about the motivation behind the actual inquiry, which sounded a bit strange at the time. But look, if you talk to your customers and try to understand exactly why they're making the inquiry, you'll actually uncover a few interesting pain points that you didn't know about before. So in their case, it was someone's actually looking to get rid of asbestos to put in a new roof because they're actually doing an extension to the house because they're expecting a baby. So there's like a whole story behind the thing. Now you've got a timeline. Now you've got a whole motivation. Now you understand the story and you're able to connect so much. And that's that 4% that really creates a bigger impact where a business comes in and solves one of the problems and brings in a partner business to solve the rest of the problems and positions themselves as an authority. They get a great Google review, they get a great testimonial, they get a good referral afterwards. And that's what I'm talking about.

Yeah. And that in itself has gone from a transaction to a transformation for that customer. Yeah, and I'm just— we'll pin it and perhaps come back to that. But I also— you've also mentioned on some, um, the partnering, um, aspect, which I know is something very strong from you, is, you know, finding the right and specific partnerships which can really create leverage for a business as well. So with that example, um, and as you said, it sounded so simple that it was just a couple of key— it's just a couple of quick key questions to ask a client. But do you find with business owners that it's so simple and so close that we actually forget to do that very often? Ask those couple of extra simple questions to enhance that sales experience and conversation?

Well, absolutely. Yeah, we tend to fall into this conversational mode where we don't really lead the conversation. We just basically jump in with whatever the customer gives us. And in reality, we need a bit of a framework because if you go through a framework, you ask a set of questions, you can uncover a lot of different aspects about the customer that you didn't know before and really make sure that your product or service really connects with those. Yeah, look, it's a big topic asking the questions because asking the right questions typically gets you the right answer. And this is where sometimes people don't even bother really understanding the motivation or qualifying the conversation. And what I mean by that is majority of inquiries you like to get would be like, Hey, how much is it for X, whatever service you provide? And the reason why people ask that is because they don't really know what else to ask. They don't know enough about your business. So you answering that question just based on that very limited information actually doesn't do anyone any service. So if you're able to qualify that person better and understand exactly when they need it, what specifically they're after, what their situation is, and so on, you'd be surprised how much more you can uncover.

Yes. Yes, and as you said, you're actually then highlighting all of the additional opportunities, not only for yourself, but to create more of a transformation for those clients. And as a result, as you said, you get the rave reviews and the repeat buyers and the advocate clients that keep sharing the great experience that they've had with their friends, etc. So you grow a very, very different business.

Absolutely.

Do you have a similar example of somebody that's got an e-commerce store in that perspective? So we've gone from a bricks-and-mortar conversation where you can actually have an exchange dialogue, but you also work a lot with e-commerce. Do you have an example around that?

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I'll give you a couple of multi-million dollar tips if you like. E-com, the issue with e-com is obviously it's very transactional. A lot of the time there's really no personality behind the actual store. And look, if you found a niche and you're priced well or potentially have got an exclusive product, great. Otherwise, you really need to think about how you can make your store really stand out and provide a better service to the customer. Now, obviously timing is huge. A lot of people are happy to pay more for receiving a product faster. So offering things like express shipping and so on works really well and it's fairly straightforward. I'm sure majority of e-com owners, if you're serious about your business, would run that. Free shipping makes things even better because for some reason, even if you make the same price as a product plus shipping, but a more expensive product and free shipping, free shipping always wins. It's just human nature.

I love free shipping. Free shipping.

People love it. Yeah. But most importantly, what I recommend a lot of my customers is put a phone on their website because a lot of e-com don't have any phone numbers. There's no way to quickly inquire with somebody. So what we do for a lot of our customers is we actually connect them with VAs in the Philippines and get them a local phone number where people can actually call someone and talk to them about the actual product. So we train those VAs specifically for the business, and that really creates a competitive edge. And if you are serious about your online store, you will find that the customer just wants to speak to someone to qualify a few things and sometimes understand whether you're real or not, because if they haven't really come across your brand before, they may be not trusting you so much because it's really a trust exercise. But having that phone number and having that human voice really, really works well.

Yeah, beautiful. I'm going to go back about 10 years ago when we had an online store, my ex-partner, and we had a phone number on there. It was a 13— not done as well as what you were doing, but it was a 1300 number where they left a message, but we were able to jump on that very, very quickly. It was Whoever was home type scenario. People were always genuinely surprised, A, that we actually called back, and that we called back really, really quickly within a couple of minutes, no more than half an hour. The number of sales that we created through having that conversation versus that person leaving a message or doing a hang-up, because as you said, they just had a simple question and they hoped that they could get that answered by a human, and that just made all of the world of difference in that sale. sales process. So yeah, great insight. And obviously done so much more— I'm going to say much more humanized with having the virtual assistant staff that can do that job so well and be that immediate person on the end of the phone. What a great strategy. Well done. And then we've talked a little bit around the niching. So I'm going to ask you, in your eyes, because I literally saw your eyes light up when you talked about the niching. So it's obviously an area that you're very passionate about. What does that mean and what do you achieve with that element of niching? Because obviously that's a big word like marketing is. We all hear that we need to niche, but let's hear your thoughts and your ideas around what that means and what the opportunities are.

Well, foundationally, once again, it's this 96/4 principle where you're really just zooming into something so small. And what that really helps you achieve is, first of all, less competitors or no competitors. It allows you to position yourself as a specialist, which is where you can charge a lot more for being that specialist. And if you think about it, if someone specializes in something and solves a problem for you, you're very likely to refer them in the future for a particular thing as well. Because, you know, while a lot of people love the whole jack-of-all-trades setup, they don't really get as many referrals based on the fact that they do things, you know, average. You really want to make sure that if you refer someone, they are the expert, they're really good at something specific. And that's typically how half of the referrals are done. It's almost like, do you know somebody who does X? And it's like, yeah, I know this guy. He's really good at that. Talk to him. And that typically eliminates the whole price situation altogether because you're just after quality. That's the biggest thing. And I think when it comes to niching, the real challenge is to understand your point of difference. Like once you found a niche within your business and you may have, let's say, 2 or 3 competitors, straight away the number of competitors shrinks Because whether you're doing Google Ads or whatever advertising, you'll find that there's not as many competitors right there. The next challenge is really understanding what the point of difference is because a lot of businesses sound very similar. Hey, we do this, we do this fast, we don't charge call-out fees or whatnot. And that's where the whole challenge really starts to appear. Now, that's a huge topic within itself, but when it comes to positioning within a niche, It's really more about understanding your delivery and specifically the connection with the product. So things like guarantees work really, really well, and that actually puts you in a completely different category as well, where no other business can really compete with you based on that guarantee.

Oh, wow. Again, something so simple that, again, majority of us don't think about. Now, the only recollection I have with guarantees is when you go and do courses, etc., they're guaranteed that you're going to get these outcomes or you're going to find this information, but you're able to do that with bricks-and-mortar types and online businesses with that as well.

Well, absolutely. And look, I was just at a conference a couple of weeks ago where we had a pretty good conversation with the key speaker there, Mel Emery, whom you may know, the father of direct response marketing in Australia, by the way, taught by the great Dan Kennedy. And he said, look, majority of businesses, if you ask them, you know, okay, if a customer is not happy with your product or service, what are you going to do? They say, what do you mean? Like, well, would you take their money? And they say, well, no, we won't. So if you're going to do like a money-back or, you know, we don't charge you unless you're satisfied, that will be true. And majority of time that seems to be the case. People are very reluctant to do that though because they think, oh my God, you know, I'm going to attract all these people. But at the same time, they're forgetting about the fact that they're going to attract so many more other people, like the actual good customers through that exercise. And in reality, if you're not getting many refunds, you're not marketing hard enough. That's the truth about it.

Very true. That would fall into those numbers again too, wouldn't it? Yeah, beautiful. And you talk a lot— oh, sorry, we've talked a little bit as it relates to collaboration and the opportunities that can come out of collaborations as it relates to marketing and business growth. So obviously when you've been able to niche down and you've got your, you know, your USP and you know exactly who you are, That makes it much easier just to work out who comes next and who comes before you. Is that the type of partnership scenario that you generally suggest to your customers, or do you have some other insights or strategies around the right types of partnerships and referrals and those sorts of things?

Look, I guess that's a good way to look at it. I mean, find out who is, you know, who your client is likely to approach before you and after. That's probably a good way to look at it. But I like to look at it from a perspective of, you know, find businesses that you have got the same clients with and who you're not in competition with. Because a lot of the time you'll find that there are a lot of businesses who have exactly the customers that you're after and they don't really offer anything as close as, you know, what you offer. And what's interesting is once when you start talking to these people, a lot of the time the biggest mistake I'm finding is Businesses are trying to sell absolutely everyone. Hey, you have an opportunity to talk to someone, you start selling. Don't sell, just educate them. Tell them about what you do. Tell them why you're different. Tell them specifically who you're after. And I found that when you have conversations about partners, 2 partners, you're actually going to get clients out of both. And this is crazy, right? So if I talk to, let's say, a social media company and say, hey, look, we're actually looking for partners specifically when it comes to, let's say, Google Ads or consulting and stuff. You know, I'm after these sort of people. Do you know anyone? They're like, hey, hang on a second, I'm over here, I want to talk to you, I want to be your client. And it's like, man, that wasn't really my motivation, but you end up having a customer as well as a referral partner as well. And in my opinion, a lot of partners really want to know what sort of service you provide from the inside in order to be able to refer you and build the confidence. So I'm not sure if I answered your question, but yeah.

Yeah, no, very, very true. It's that they've tried it before— sorry, they've brought it Before— getting tongue-tied this morning— they've brought it before they've referred it. So they've actually had the full experience. They understand what it is that you're actually doing, as well as having then the ability to have a true and honest conversation about their own experience, as well as the insights of the organization there in that perspective too.

Yeah, absolutely.

And one of the things that you like to talk about a lot, and I've picked this up a number of times, is this the process of continuous improvement. So can I ask you to expand a little bit on your perspective of the continuous improvement process?

Yeah, okay. Well, that's an interesting topic. So look,

today,

probably once again, if we're going to take, you know, a population of any country, we'll find this 96/4 approach where 96% of people don't want to have any more education in their life at all, whether it's school, university, college, you know, whatever it is they basically have done with the whole thing, and they just want to go and move on and enjoy their life and work. Where in reality, I find that what really sets apart those really successful people, not necessarily business owners, is this continuous development where people always pick up new things. They want to learn, they want to attend seminars, they want to, you know, watch educational videos, they want to follow people. And it's really more about understanding that there is a gap, and it's about provoking this hunger for education, if you like. You know, you really want to make sure that you are on the path where you understand that there are so many things in the world that you don't know about that can really change your life any day. And this is what I like to, you know, promote in my business. I find that every business owner should really have a title of CIO, which is Chief Inspiration Officer. I find that a lot of people are really lacking inspiration, motivation, and education. Those are the 3 things. And if you're just going to feed someone education by itself, it may get a little bit boring. You've got to motivate the people around you as well because not everyone can do it. Let's be honest. Some people are really, really good at motivating people. Others are not. But what sits above the whole thing is inspiration. Yeah. You can either lead by example. You can either find real case studies that help people understand the situation better. and inspire them to do better. Because at the end of the day, if you look at every single transaction, whether you're buying something or doing something, it's about change. You were here, you've done something, and now you're here. And that's exactly what, what this world is about.

Beautiful. And as it relates to the motivation and education with— and the inspiration from within that team, you've taken that leadership role. How do you transfer that excitement or curiosity to team members to find their own inspiration, motivation, and education? Do you have any tips on that?

Look, I don't think there's one specific recipe. And I think you really need to understand that person a little bit better. Because while one recipe may work for one person, it will not work for another person. So once again, I think that personality profiling, which, you which may sound difficult, but in reality, it's not if you have a fairly small team. I like working with teams that are, you know, 5, 6 people where you can really connect with everybody. If you've got a team of, you know, 50 to 100 people, it's a different conversation. And you really need to make sure that you appoint managers or leaders to lead smaller groups. It's almost like in the army, you know, there are exercises of smaller units, which is where people bond quite well. But to answer your question, I think it's really important to understand that everyone shares the same values and is able to have fun with the similar sort of things. Because if you're able to create that team culture, you're essentially approaching the whole thing from another situation altogether. Because a lot of people get too serious when it comes to work. Let's be honest, everyone just falls into this mode. They don't smile, they just really busy. And you really need to break that pattern. You really need to make sure you activate these people through social exercise, which is where I believe that doing things like beer o'clock, let's catch a couple of beers on a Friday afternoon, is really key to getting through to those people.

Yeah, well, well said. And I do, you know, we've got that, I'll call it the rest, the resting work face. And we also, we all step into that so easily when we get that tunnel vision. I remember my sister being here when I've had my office out in the lounge room at different times, and she sort of looks at me, no, Sally's got the focus, the focus face on, leave her alone. Usually I'm sort of doing something intricate. But it's very easy to overcarry that face and that, those actions into the everyday area of the business, which then, as you said, you sort of lose that inspiration, motivation, and the fun creeps out of it. So it's great that you brought that, bringing the fun back in and understanding people from there. Now I'm going to shift gears and come back to the title of our topic today, which was creating a positive change, because you have a book coming out, or you're working on a book of the same title. So I'd love you to share a little bit about your inspiration around writing this particular book.

Yeah, well, my book is called Better Business That Works. And the tagline is actually creating positive change, which is what I like to use as my motto, because I find that everyone needs a reason. And for me, It was a bit of an aha moment when I was working on the title, but I thought the title wasn't as good without a tagline. So that's where creating positive change comes in. I mean, look, I listen to a lot of different podcasters and there's one specific gentleman, Rob Dial, who I follow. He runs a podcast called The Mindset Mentor and he's got a tagline which is, you know, make it your mission to make someone else's day better. And I thought, you know, that really describes quite well what he's tried to do. And I thought, you know, I needed something very, very similar. And then I look back at what I was doing and I found that creating positive change is really what I specialize in. Now, in my book, Better Business That Works, the aim of the book is really to help business owners realize that every business owner wants a better business and a business that works because a lot of the time the business just feels broken. There's no flow in the whole thing. And it's about making sure that you can shift from where you are right now towards where you want to be. And, you know, consider everything that's in between

that. Beautiful. And you've used that word flow again, which I love. So from the perspective of a business owner, and you've just highlighted a common phrase that I hear a lot, is that, you know, business owners will feel like their business is broken. And if we can't— and they're all aspiring to get to that flow state. Have you got some insights or some steps or some tips that you can provide them as it relates to help finding that flow? And where does that start from that perspective if you were to step it out for them?

Well, I think there's a number of different flows within the business. I mean, everyone obviously understands cash flow. If it's flowing, everything's good. If it's not flowing, there's a problem. And I think that really is an easy one to understand. There's people flow as well, making sure that people are able to talk to one another, pass on tasks, understand the hierarchies in the business, and create a flow that way. I think there's also a flow of the actual synergy, if you like. If you come to a synergetic environment, and I'm sure you've been to offices where it's just pleasant to be there, whereas you come into some other office and it feels like, I feel almost intimidated by the environment there. So I'm not sure what to call that one. Maybe some sort of energy flow of But I want to make sure that there is a momentum within the business. And the whole idea of the business, where it's a well-oiled machine that works really without the business owner. So one of the things that you really got to look into is making sure that you extract yourself from a job that you created for yourself and become a true business owner, which is where you allow other people to follow a set of processes. without your involvement, because that's really what a lot of people are looking to achieve. And I find that too many business owners think that, hey, I'm a business owner, where in reality you're self-employed, you create yourself a job, you don't have that flexibility of taking time off, and everything really is bottlenecked onto you. So the starting point for the whole flow is really to understand the basics and the fundamentals of how to achieve that in the business. Robert Kiyosaki's Cashflow Quadrant is probably a really good way to start looking at that situation. Although it mainly talks about money, I think it does touch on a lot of things in relation to your role in the business as well. I'm not sure if I've answered your question because this is a very, very big topic and there's probably a few aspects to it that we need to consider.

Yeah, and I know we've covered lots of big, big topics, but I do, and I've done that very intentionally because of that, your ability to inspire and give people insights in that really easy, common understanding language. So Thank you for doing that. And I do believe you did answer the question because flow is more than just the one dimension. It is all those dimensions in a business. It is that energy, the shared energy between people in the office. Plus, it's that energy that you, you know, a new person feels when they walk into the room. And only yesterday, we were at an event and walked into an office area there. And as soon as I walked in, you could tell that someone had had an argument or something was going on because you just literally walk straight into this, that the feeling of that hinky feeling, or, oh my God, I really don't want to be in this room. And that, you know, inhibits flow. And as you said very articulately, it's— there's all those different types of flow. Mm-hmm. And it's not just always focusing on, you know, the cash flow, but it's also the energy flow. And maybe the resilience of the person. And as you said, also transferring the knowledge so you're actually not— you can work your way out of the business. So you've passed on those skills as well.

Yeah, absolutely. I find that when it comes to flow, a lot of people think it's like some sort of an end product. Well, it's actually a journey, like what you're working

on.

It's a very prolonged process. And it doesn't just start or stop. You either have it, and then you're able to sort of build on that. And you can see how it changes over time as well. I mean, look, We've gone through some very dynamic times of the economy, business, how the market behaves. So you need to make sure that you understand how to adapt because your flow just won't keep going the same way with all the changes that are going around you as well. So you've got to really keep your finger on the pulse.

Yeah, very well said. One more deep question. Knowing what you know now, what would you do different or what would you tell your 18-year-old itself to do differently?

Yeah, you know, it's an interesting thought. We all, I guess, catch ourselves thinking about it, even though I'm not sure how practical this exercise is. But I must say, you know, invest in property. Property by far has been one of those things that has been growing like crazy. And my first mentor told me that, look, you got to be able to, you got to be able to learn to pay yourself first, and then you know, get into property as, as soon as you can. I got into property at the, uh, wrong end of my 20s, I must say. But from the return exercise, that's probably been the most successful observation, uh, by me. Now, if we're talking about money, if we're talking about, uh, I guess, uh, you know, staying on track and developing and learning to be more successful, I would highly recommend start exploring and never really stop exploring. So if there's a seminar in your city, if there's someone else, you know, coming to present some sort of a figure that achieves something, I would definitely highly recommend going and checking out what they've got to say. And a lot of the time you'll find that you may spend $40 or $50, but that will actually create a huge shift in your life and give you insights to, you know, to what's likely to happen in the future that you would have never thought about. I mean, there's a great book by Benjamin Harvey, who's a student of Dan Sullivan, one of the best strategic coaches in the world, called Who Not How. And I think having access to those who is really the key. So what I would recommend is, you know, whether it's seminars, whether it's events, whether it's, you know, jumping on a podcast like this one, get access to your who sooner. And if I was obviously my 18-year-old myself, I would give myself that advice because there's so many things I would have learned sooner. And I can only dream about what I would have achieved by now.

Yeah, yeah, very, very well said. And I think that, for me, what I've heard for myself out of what you've shared is that, that is to continue that curiosity— curiosity of self, how can I improve self; curiosity of how can I do things better, or what, what, what are the new opportunities for me. Obviously, there's stacks of new opportunities. We're in a world that is changing at such a fast pace, but the ability to remain in that curious space so you can take all of your gold nuggets and stack them into your toolbox and implement them when the timing is right and all those sorts of things. So beautiful. In closing, how can people get in contact with you? And do you have any closing comments or statements that you'd like to share with the audience today?

Look, if anyone wants to get in touch with me, my website is alexei.com.au. There's a summary of my podcast as well. You know, you and I did one probably about 12 weeks ago or so. So you can find that one with Sally if you're listening to the recording, and you can get in touch with me through that website. In terms of closing, you've mentioned the word opportunity. Now, I find that's probably the one thing that a lot of people don't understand. And let me explain. You know, we obviously are all born, you know, very different genetically. We've all got different talents. But I think one thing that really makes it different for everybody is the opportunity. Now, we're presented with many opportunities every single day, and it's really just about taking the, the chance of using that opportunity to create a change in your life. Now, I find that a lot of people are just basically sitting at home. They're too much in front of the gadgets and stuff. They completely misunderstand the word opportunity. My advice to you is get out there, find more opportunity, meet more people, and make sure you take your chances to apply that opportunity whether to your business or your life, to create a positive change.

Well said. Brilliant. Thank you very, very much. Thank you everyone for listening. We've had an incredibly deep conversation with lots of great deep questions with Alexi today, some incredible insights. There is a wealth of knowledge and information on his website with blogs as well as his podcast. And if you're in the Brisbane area, obviously you You've got workshops, etc., there as well. And do you have a planned date for your upcoming book?

Not just at this moment. I found myself making a couple of additions since the first draft. So yeah, stay tuned, but it should be out soon.

Yep, that's called seizing opportunities just right there. So yeah, brilliant. Again, thank you everyone for joining us today. It's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you, Alexei, for sharing so much insight with us today, and we will look forward to seeing you again on another episode of Success Secrets Exposed. Till then, see you later.

Thank you.

Remember, if you want to be sought after and sold out, as well as being known as the obvious expert in your industry, you need to speak with Sally, our host of Success Secrets Exposed. Sally is the founder of Monetize Your Content Content, a done-for-you content marketing agency that helps you be easy to buy. See you next week on another episode of Success Secrets Exposed. Tune in live every Tuesday at 7:00 PM Eastern time or Wednesday mornings in Australia on W4CY Radio and Talk4TV. Hmm.