Scott Duffy: How To Jumpstart Tour Income?, Episode 41

Good morning, everybody, and welcome. Welcome to what now with Scott Duffy, presented by SAP. Concur. I want to thank all of you for joining from wherever you're watching or listening. You can join us each day and watch live on Facebook and YouTube and all across the Internet. You can listen throughout the day on DASH Radio or you can download the podcast. I want to thank all of you for joining. It has been a very, very, very busy morning. There's a lot of news I want to share with all of you today. We have some good news that's come out and it is a good thing to hear good news these days. And so I can't wait to share some of that with you.

I got some news on my favorite show, my favorite binge show through this, this whole. This whole crisis period. Tiger King on Netflix. I got some new news on that. I got some new updates on my favorite movie, Top Gun and Top Gun 2 Maverick. It is set for release. They have a date now, which is really exciting. So anyway, in the midst of all this craziness, all this crazy stuff that's going on out there and all the bad news, I want to share with you guys some good news stories and some fun today, and I'm really looking forward to having a good time. So again, this is Scott Duffy and you are watching or listening to what now is Scott Duffy presented by SAP. Concur. And if you're hopping on for the first time, Facebook, on YouTube, if you're listening live on Facebook, on YouTube, on Instagram, on Periscope, if you could just do this, if you could drop in your name into the comments, the industry that you're in, and some of the challenges that you're having or any questions you have so that I can use that to shape the rest of this show around you. And like I said, we have a lot to talk about. It's been a really busy morning. So here we go. Good morning. My name is Scott Duffy and this is what now with Scott Duffy, presented by SAP. Concur. I want to welcome you from wherever you're listening. You can tune in each day at 10am Pacific Time to watch the live broadcast on YouTube and Facebook or listen throughout the day on Dash Radio or download the podcast. This show is for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and those thinking about starting their own company. It's for people affected by this economy. Maybe they lost their job, they were furloughed, or they saw all their consulting contracts canceled. It's for people who are asking the question, what do I do now? And how do I come through this on the other side even stronger. Now, our focus yesterday, you know, I've been gone for a couple of days while we get ready for an event that we're getting set to announce taking place on May 21. Mark your calendars for May 21 from 8am to 12 midnight. We have got a heck of a lineup, a heck of a show for you. And so I've been, I've been gone for a couple of days really working on that program and getting it ready. And as a result, yesterday when I came back, it was all about a reset. It was all about resetting our minds, resetting our bodies, resetting our focus, getting really clear on where we are today. Coming kind of in this market. We talked about stimulus programs, government programs that were available for you, places that you could find cash and find capital to help you to operate your business. So that was really what yesterday's show was about. And if you didn't get a chance to see that, I encourage you to go back into, to watch or to listen to that replay today. What we're going to focus on is three of the most important and fastest ways to push new products into the market and generate cash. Because today cash is king for businesses out there. Cash is like oxygen. And so that's going to be our focus. And this is, by the way, this is, this is going to be a great show for people who are pivoting or maybe they've lost their job or they're concerned they're going to lose their job or maybe they're a consultant that saw a lot of their consulting contracts disappear or they're seeing their customers like what they need or they don't need shifting like back and forth so quickly. And they're wondering what do I do now? What do I do in order to create the best products and services, to start generating revenue as quickly as possible. They're asking themselves, how can I move further, faster and with far less capital than I ever imagined by dressing these, these consumers needs. And so that's what we're going to talk about today. But like I mentioned, we got a big show and I always want to start with the news. So today the number of global cases of COVID has passed 3.1 million with 227,000 deaths around the world. Now in the United States, the number of Deaths has passed 1 million. I'm sorry, the number of cases, 1 million with just over 60,000 deaths. Now, what's crazy is new data came out today from what is shown to be the most Accurate report reporting data source through our government which states that they now see the number of cases jumping from 60 to 100,000 deaths by the end of the summer, which is pretty crazy. And if you take a look at places that have already started to open up, we're already starting to see an increase in the number of cases and hospitalizations. Pretty trippy. Now the good news is in virtually all western countries we have seen a flattening of the curve over the last week, week and a half. And so that's really good news.

But here is, here's the rough stuff and here's what we're seeing today. New unemployment figures came out this morning and they show we've now passed 30 million people in the last seven weeks. By the way, it was seven weeks ago today that the market crashed. Seven weeks ago today was what they now refer to as Black Thursday. And since then, 30 million people have filed for unemployment. Now that number was higher than estimated. So you're seeing an impact today in the stock market as a result. And that likely pushes the standard number that the government uses to calculate unemployment, what they actually put out there at about 22%. A 22% unemployment rate. During the Great Depression we peaked at about 26%. But when you take a look at real unemployment figures, so you stuff all the things back in that the government takes out to make it look a little bit. Rosie, it looks like we're close to 30% unemployment in the United States right now, which is absolutely amazing because we were at 4, 4% just seven weeks ago. The highest number of unemployment right now. New claims is coming out of Florida, California and then Georgia, in that order. Now, in the meantime, states are starting to open up. There are 13 states that have reported that have reopened and another seven states that have announced a date to do so in the next week or so. So that is great news and it couldn't come at a better time because number one, we are all getting so stir crazy and number two, we've got to get back to work. So with these new states opening back up, that means about a third of the country is going to be back at work now here in California, where I live, I'm in Los Angeles today, Governor Newsom just yesterday laid out a four step process to get this state reopened, which is super cool.

The thing is, I really don't think people care here in California from what I've seen. And yesterday I went back and forth between my home in LA and my home in Newport beach, which is an hour south. The freeway was packed. When I got to Newport, it was packed, stores were open everywhere. And so I think that what we're seeing is a lot of people have just decided that they can't wait any longer and they are going back to work in businesses or reopening. I know in kind of this area where I live in Newport Beach, I've talked to several business owners that have reached out to their employees or have recently gotten PPP or Eidl money. And they're planning and they're telling people that they had let go or they had put on a temporary furlough, that they're going to be back at work starting Monday. And so that's just something that I've heard from several people in the last 24 hours.

Cars everywhere. And the other thing that we're hearing this morning, right before I hopped on this broadcast, I saw that President Trump is reviewing a 17 page plan that was presented by the CDC for him to present as a plan for reopening the rest of America. And so I would expect that we would see that released or announced on, on the weekend. He tends to give this kind of news on Sunday. So I would expect on Sunday he rolls out his plan for, for reopening America, which is, which is going to be a great thing. I want to give, I want to give a big shout out to Mayor Eric Garcetti. So Mayor Eric Garcetti here in la, I really think he's been one of the best leaders in this crisis. I know for a fact it in Los Angeles, LAX airport Traffic is down 95%, which is amazing. Our biggest industry, entertainment, is completely shut down. I mean, there isn't production taking place anywhere. All the studios are closed. It's really crazy. And on top of that, there's research out at LMU that shows that 55% of the employees, people here in Los Angeles, 55% are now unemployed. So it has not been easy here in la. But I think that Eric Garcetti has done a great job in, in terms of his leadership. He was the first person, he was the first government figure in the country to create a stay at home order. He actually announced his later that day, Gavin Newsom did in California. In the following day, the same thing was announced in New York. He was the first government official to ask everyone to wear masks and to require masks. And then that was followed up by the state and other states. And yesterday he announced something that I think is so important for all of us to get back to work and to feel safe. Eric Garcetti Announced that Los Angeles is now going to offer everyone in the entire city, regardless of how they feel, free COVID testing. Now, that is a really big deal because in order for all of us to feel safe, to feel safe going back to work with a bunch of people, to feel safe going into a restaurant, to feel safe going into a movie theater, to feel safe going to a sporting event, I think we want to know that the people that are coming in are healthy, that they don't have this thing that's so infectious. And so, you know, we've heard for the past several weeks that the most important thing to get people back to work has been testing. And I think it's amazing that again, Eric Garcetti is first. Yesterday he said, anyone in LA that wants to get tested, regardless of how they feel, that testing is going to be a mail made available and it's going to be made free. Super cool.

What's also interesting is that seven weeks ago, it's actually. So today's a Thursday. It was Wednesday night. So seven weeks ago in a day that was the day that really this whole thing became real. Real. That was. That was actually the night that the NBA Rudy Gobert on the Utah Jazz was confirmed positive for Covid. It was the night that the NBA, as a result, decided to suspend its season. It was the night that we heard that Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson were. Had tested positive for Covid. That was the night that it seemed like everything changed. And the next morning, seven weeks ago today, is when the market crashed. And it's so interesting because the NBA played such a pivotal role that evening, and today we're hearing from the NBA that they're making plans to shut down and to cancel their season. And what I heard from people at, who run athletic departments at two universities yesterday is most universities are planning to cancel their false sports. And we're going to hear about that about that real soon. I also spoke to somebody who was involved in a major pro stadium redevelopment project. And what they told me in the last 24 hours is they just don't see a way. They don't see any way to be able to open up professional sports and professional sports stadiums until there is some type of universal testing method.

That they're able to give to everybody before coming into an event. And. And the reason is they are so afraid of the liability attached to having a big event and that event creating a big outbreak. And so, you know, it's just. It's just a crazy time. It is a crazy time that we live in.

And I wanted to share this as well. Again, I said there was a lot of news this morning. We heard about unemployment, but also I just want to highlight this disconnection between Wall street and between Main Street. And I think it's important to continue to hit on because it's really super easy for all of us to look at what's happening on Wall Street. And, you know, most of us, if we turn on the news or we open up our news site, you know, whether you are a Drudge person or a Huffington Post or a CNN or CNBC or Fox or whatever it is, the news is one of two things. It's really positive around the stock market, or it's really negative around other things like Main street and big industries, like. Like travel and stuff like that. Here is what's crazy. Here's what's crazy. I feel this. I mean, I don't know if you're with me. I feel this. Like my entire live event, event business is. Is gone. It's destroyed right now. Like, as soon as this shutdown happened, you know, my. My primary thing was built. It was. Was a live event business. I have the best event that I have ever had in my life. It was the most successful on so many levels, including financially. And that was in February and in March, everything canceled out. And I don't know if you guys had those kinds of experiences where maybe you were moving along, right? You were having the time of your life, your business may have been doing the best that it ever been. And then, boom, this thing came out of nowhere. It completely knocked you off course, and it wasn't for any fault of your own. Well, here's the thing.

If you take a look at people on Main street, like, street like me, people who are my friends that are restaurant owners, people who are my friends and other businesses that if they go to work here in Los Angeles, the city is threatening to turn off their electric and power. Like. Like, if you're any one of us and you turn on the news and you look at what's going on the market, it's like, what the hell is happening out there? Why is it. Why do I feel like this? But apparently the rest of the world doesn't, right? Apparently, Wall Street's. Here's the thing, and this is crazy. So this is the last day of April. April is going to close. The market is going to close. This is going to be the best month the stock market has had since, like, 1990, 1991. That's like 30 years. That's decades. The best month that the market has had in decades. Absolutely incredible. The S&P 500 standard Porsche 500, a representation of the market is crazy. Almost every company that's listed on The S&P 500.

Has decided to cancel its forecasting for the next year. So they're not telling you how they're going to do for the next year because they don't know. Their earnings, for the most part are way down. And The S&P 500 is only down 15%. It's absolutely crazy. And today I heard that some of the money, the stimulus money that was set aside for small business, by the way the government defines a small business, is a business with 500 people or less. But some of the money has now been. They're pushing out to bigger businesses. They're actually pushing some of our stimulus out. Today, it was announced to bigger companies, up to 15,000 employees. Are you kidding me?

So here's the thing. There is a huge disconnect between what's happening over there and what's happening in the real world with us. 80% of companies in the United States are small businesses. Like true small businesses, businesses under 20 people. 80% of the companies in this country not only have under 20 people, but most of them are actually one and two person companies. They're solopreneurs, right? They're mamapreneurs, dadapreneurs, all these different kinds of preneurs. They're sole proprietors. They're people like you and me. And we are the ones that are being impacted.

But we will get through this and we will come out stronger. And the thing is, we just need to know what it is that we need to do. And I think that's it. We need to know what we should be focusing on and what we need to do in order to come out of this thing even stronger and start generating cash today. So before I get in to that lesson in the things that we can do to generate cash the fastest today, there's two more things I want to hit on. And the first is this. I just kind of want to shift the energy. Something's a little bit lighter. So my favorite, my favorite binge show of this entire pandemic period has been Tiger King. It's been Tiger King. I don't know if any of you guys have seen Tiger King, but I love that show. Totally entertaining on Netflix. Last night, Last Dance, the show Last Dance passed the Tiger King as the number one show on Netflix right now. So for me, that was. I couldn't believe it because I had so Much fun with that show. I highly recommend it. Watch, watch Tiger King. Second thing, if you haven't watched it and you want to laugh and you want to feel good, check out John Krasinski. You know John Krasinski from From the Office and from Jack Ryan on Amazon prime and Independence Day and so many other movies.

Krasinski is doing a show called Some good news on YouTube and some good News is awesome. What he does is he gets on there. He's done like virtual proms. He surprises people and calls them at their homes. And he has a huge team of people that are just looking for stories to make us feel good, to give us some good news. He is out there finding really amazing gems. And in a time where there can be so much negativity, there can be so much anxiety, there can be so much stress, you know, we all knew we all need a little bit of lightness. So I really recommend John Krasinski Some Good News. It is on YouTube. Go check it out and go have some fun and get yourself a laugh in. And by the way, if you have seen or you've watched anything funny in the last few weeks, would you put it in the comments? Because I could use some funny. I could use me some funny. So if you could throw what it was, you got a favorite movie. There was a comedy special, something like that. I would love. I would love to see it. So.

Real quick, what I love to do is I love to say hi to a few people that have jumped in today. Number one, want to say hello to see the Thompson. Patrick Carney, always good to see you. Craig Collins, Ron Siegel, it is so good to see you. I hope you're doing well. I hope the show's doing great. Jim Blakemore down in Texas, always amazing to hear from you. Tim Slevin. So, Tim Slevin, that is awesome to hear. So, Tim Slevin, by the way, Tim, we've got to get you on. The show is just amazing at talking to companies and teaching them how to sell more, develop, process, scale their sales. Tim ended up using Cabbage, it looks like, which is something we talked about on the show. The tip worked and his loan should be processed soon for the ppp. That is awesome. If you are trying to get a PPP loan and you're having trouble, you haven't heard anything back. There are companies like Kabbage now. Kabbage was a business that was a lender that.

Did a lot of small business lending, credit lines, things like that. And what Cabbage did is it really got hit when this Market crashed and they, in fact, they closed down. They furloughed everybody for a little bit, and then they came back and they came back strong. And what they decided to do is reposition and help companies to go and help companies to get their PPP funding. And so it looks like Tim used that service and it helped. And that's awesome. Hey, also, again, I keep recommending lendio. So I have a number of friends that have used Lendio. You apply once it gets submitted to 300 banks. So I recommend that you check out Lendio. Again. It's one bank. They push it to many. If a bank ends up taking and doing your loan, they cancel the loans with everybody else. So that is super good. Good. Here we've got a Facebook user that's saying that the name's not coming through. If somebody currently receives unemployment insurance funds, can they also be qualified to file for pandemic unemployment assistance, or is it one or the other? I will find out the answer to that question for you today, because I really don't know. So I'm going to call a friend of mine over at the SBA and we are going to get the answer to that question. Okay, good. That is a great question. I will find out the answer. Bobby Joe Cook, awesome to see you again, Helen. Great to see you as well, Helen. You wrote a question yesterday. I'm going to answer that today. Ron Siegel. A 1% increase in unemployment equals 10,000 additional suicides. So we can expect 140,000 additional suicides.

All right, let's talk about this for a second.

So I don't think that I've shared this.

On the air, but let's get real, because that's my mission here, is to talk about the things that people don't normally talk about. My mission is to be as real and share it all, all of my experience with you. So I want to talk about two things in suicide. So the first thing I want to talk about is about a week ago, maybe week and a half ago, I was driving from LA to Newport, and I was on Figueroa Boulevard in la and somebody jumped out in front of my car to get hit.

And I am a hundred percent.

100% certain they were trying to kill themselves.

And I stopped my car, I skidded out, I went into the next lane. It created a chain reaction to the right of me of other cars, and I just stopped. It was like a movie. I just stopped up against the guy's leg in his side, and he looked at me and he put his hands on the Hood and he looked so disappointed.

That was last week. That was last week. Yesterday we were talking to somebody involved in the transit industry, and I want to say who it is in the northeast, and we Learned of over 30. I think the number was 34 mothers that were holding their kids that jumped in front of trains in the last two weeks. So, like, that kind of. Vaughn. Like that kind of thing just doesn't happen.

Personally. In 2008, 9. I've shared with you guys my story about how the market crashed. I lost all this money. I went 400, 000 in debt. I talked to you guys about how hard it was, how I pretty much lay. I lost my business. I laid in the fetal position for a year in the corner. I like, I didn't know what to do. And I've shared with you guys how tough it got. And I shared with you how I just kept getting deeper and deeper and deeper into this hole. And.

It got to a point where I became really suicidal. And I'm not going to tell the whole story today, but I tell it for the benefit of everyone who is having a hard time to know that you're not alone.

I pulled into a church parking lot in Newport beach, and I was really close to making some really bad decisions. And at the very last minute, I called a suicide prevention line. I called an 800 number. And it was such a crazy. I was so upset that, honestly, I don't remember a lot of it. But what I do remember is not long after I was on the phone, other cars pulled up and knocked on my window. And.

What I know is this.

What I know is that when times are tough, it's really easy to feel like we're alone and to feel like we're isolated and to feel like we're the only people that are going through these things. And what I want you to know is that you're not. What I want you to know is that you're not alone. Whether you're a person that's trying to figure out how to save or being forced to close down a business, or you are unemployed or furloughed, you're a consultant or sole proprietor, you lost your contracts, and you're.

Sitting in your house these days and you're just like, what am I going to do tomorrow? I'm supposed to pay the rent. You know, I got to buy food, too, or I. I'm supposed to pay the rent, buy food, and make payroll this week. How am I going to do it? I just want you to know I know what that feels like. I know what it feels like to get in this kind of endless loop in your head of negativity. I know what it feels like to be really close to doing some really stupid. And the thing is that when you're in a certain mindset, it's really.

Hard, if not impossible, to think rationally. And I always have had a problem with people that have judged other people that took their lives. Because unless you are really in a really depressive state, it's really hard to know how unrational that person could be at that time. And so what I want to say is this. There's a lot of people out there right now that are having a hard time. I hadn't planned on talking about this today, but, you know, Ron brought. Brought up suicide today.

How it's impacting other people. There's a lot of people out there having a hard time.

Let God, let spirit flow through you and just keep reaching out to people. If, if there are people that, you know that have kind of really disappeared or gone off the grid, those are the people to reach out to first. Just ask them how they're doing. If they don't sound good and they won't admit it, don't let them get away with it. Just call them the next day. Because sometimes that's. That's all that it takes. Sometimes that's all that it takes is knowing that somebody out there cares. It's sharing your story also and, and helping them understand that they are not alone. It is. It is all those types of things. So, again, I hadn't planned on going here today, but I think it's really important. So I'm going to keep talking about it. And with the event that we're doing on May 21, again, 16 hours of original programming, it is the top entrepreneurs, celebrity entrepreneurs, the top entertainers, top athletes in the world, all getting together to share their. Their stories and what they're doing today to come to get through this and get through it stronger, to help us to see the vision to getting through the other side. Because some of the most. The hardest part is not knowing how to see through and to get how to see to the other side. And so.

And so, and so one of the things that we're actually gonna be talking about is this topic. So again, I. I don't. I'm not trying to bring anybody down or anything like that, but what I am just trying to do, again, communicate, is that you're not alone. Reach out. This is a time where people need you and me and all of us, more than. More than ever. And, Ron, that is a crazy statistic. Every 1% increase in unemployment equals 10,000 additional suicides. So with the additional 1% increase we just saw, that's 140,000 additional suicides that are going to happen here in America.

Aaron Carter, so good to see you here today. Sarah, good morning. It's great to see you. Steve Mellon. Steve Mellon is my old college buddy. We're fraternity brothers.

When I was trying to break through in San Francisco, I used to sleep on Steve's couch. And Steve Mellon is so incredibly inspiring. Steve got stomach cancer and fought through, and he almost died a couple of times as a result. And one of the things that Steve shows and demonstrates is absolute gratitude. And he's constantly reaching out to his friends. And I'll tell you, one of the things that we've done is we've put together a group. We meet once a month now on. On a Wednesday. And what we do is we do a zoom call. It's our zoom call, like cocktail party. I know people have zoom fatigue right now, but what we do is we kind of force and shame all of our friends to getting on this, all of our fraternity and our college guys, and, and. And we check in and we focus when we check in on sharing light stuff. And so that might be a model that you want to do. Just a way again to stay connected, because we will get through this stronger, but only if we're stronger together. That's the thing I learned that we can change the world, but we can't do it alone. We can only do it together.

So I want to take a look at a few more of these comments here real quick. Helen.

You made a comment yesterday that a fellow business person said they heard that you reapply for PPP now because there's a new program.

And is that true? Is the one time deal if you apply or do you have to apply again? What I can tell you. What I can tell you is my experience with the Eidl, where I did have to apply again when the program was updated and the website was updated. What I can tell you is that with a ppp, I've reached out to a couple of people and there's not a clear answer. So what I would do is I would stay connected to the bank and ask a bank or Tim Slevin, who was on today, had success with Kabbage. Reach out to kabbage.com k a B-B-A-E.com reach out to Lendio and they will Know the answer and they will help you.

Helen, also, it looks like you're saying here that you were able to get your PPP check last week and listening helped. So thank you so much. And you used Umpqua Umpqua bank and that was amazing. They handled it flawlessly. So everyone looking Umpqua bank again, stay with our local banks and our community banks. Sarah, Duchess, Sarah Lakin, great to see you again. And I want to say congratulations on your wedding and it's great to meet your husband Ryan, who's watching now too. So thank you so much. All right, again, if you're having any challenges in your business, in your industry, in your launch, whatever it is, please drop your questions in. I'll do my best. I'm looking at a whole bunch of different social channels and so I'll pull from, from all of them that I can. Now I have a question here from Yvonne Scott. We're having a redirect the type of products we produce and who we offer them to. We're going to get into this right now. The customers are coming to us looking for something we currently do not do because they know we've adapted. We've always adapted. We're not sure where to get the money to purchase the machinery and the computer programs needed. We are a woman owned home business run by husband and wife team. We want to do things the correct way. And I've been laid off from my full time, basically breadwinner job. Okay, so many awesome questions. Let me unpack this because there's like four, four or five different things here. So the first thing, congratulations on being a women owned and women run business. I have a call today with, with the people who run Red Backpack. That is Sarah Blakely's charitable organization. So Sarah Blakely is the founder of Spanx. She is the youngest self made female billionaire in the United States. And when this pandemic hit hit, she started a fund, she put $5 million into it to help support women owned businesses. And one of the things that we did is we jumped in. I jumped in and suggested people go there to apply. Well, here's the thing in talking to this group, what I've learned is, you know, they didn't just receive 5 million in requests, but like over a couple hundred million dollars in requests. So there's a lot of people that are looking for capital right now and they think that they know how they want to use it. Okay, so firsthand knowledge. Here is the trick about launching products during a pandemic like this or during a global Downturn, financial downturn, Consumers needs are going to be like a pinball. They're going to be constantly changing. So what somebody told you they needed four weeks ago and what it is that they need today in many cases is going to change, or at least the application of how they're going to use this is going to change.

So it is really important right now that we do. I'm going to say three things. Okay, so let's talk about this. Three things to answer your question, to help us adapt and to generate cash as fast as we can and ideally not have to go and get money from somewhere else in order to be able to finance our pivot. So important. So the first thing is we've got to determine who it is that we want to build for. This is like the place that we have to start. We really have to get clear on who our customer is going to be. Because here's the thing right now, if you try and solve everything for everybody, you will connect with, with no one and nobody. So it is more important than ever to niche. Niche is super important. Another reason that niching is important is it is so crowded out there. Everybody is on social media, everybody's on, on social media with their live stream, with their marketing, with their new product. It's really hard to stand out. So if you have a general mass market product, it's going to be even harder for you to connect. What you really need to do is super niche down the niches. Right now the riches are in the niches. You have to super niche now and go deep because the deeper you go in a specific area, the further you'll go faster and with far less capital because it will be easier to market in a niche and get word of mouth to help you get sharing, social sharing help you to get that, to get the word out there. So super important. Now how deep do I go in thinking about a niche? I think I may have shared this before in this program is, you know, I had, I made a big mistake when I first tried to niche out and go from like a mass product to a niche product because I had to pivot. What I did is I was given access. I owned a list. I actually partnered with somebody. I got access to this list. There were 20 million people on this, this email list and they all came through the same place. All the people that got onto this list had called a Christian call center that collected money for televangelists. Crazy. Don't even ask me how I got into this. So imagine you're Joel Olsteen. On a Sunday, or you're TD Jakes, or you're one of these big televangelists and you say, call this number to donate or call this number to come to a service or call this number to buy your holy water or whatever it is. You would actually call into this Christian call center that would say, hey, this is TD Jakes. How can I help you? So anyway, over time, they developed this huge list over years and they said to me, we want you to market to the list and we'll split the revenue with you, the profit with you. So I said, sure. So what I did is I came up with an idea. I said, I'm going to test an offer. And by the way, it does not matter. It does not matter what the offer is, because if I go mass with an offer and there's a million people that are going to get this email, there's no way I can't sell a whole bunch. So by the way, you can't just email to a million people. I didn't know that either. Right. So, hey, by the way, just because you were successful in one area does not mean that success will seamlessly transition into another area. So when you transition into that other area, it is incredibly important that you find role models and mentors that are already in that area and they're super successful to help guide you in there and then just add what it is that you bring and some of your best qualities to that thing. So I didn't do that. I learned. So what I did is I set all this stuff up. We had a small team and we came up with an offer. And the offer was to buy some kind of like, diet thing. And we sent it out to a million people and guess how many people responded and bought. It was actually, it was in chunks of 250,000. So first of all, within the first five minutes, every ISP cut us off, right? So we were just completely cut off for spam. That was the first thing. The second thing is that not one person from the entire list bought anything. Bought anything. It was crazy. So what I did is I reached out, I said, okay, this isn't right, Scott. What I did is I decided to follow my own advice and I reached out to some friends and I said, who is the smartest person at the world at figuring out what to do with this? And I was introduced to somebody named Ben Morris. And Ben Morris is one of the great data analyst people in this country. He does back in data analysts for like Walmart and other big, big boxes. And What Ben did is he put those 20 million names into this, these three databases, national databases, and they spun it out. And then the databases broke it in 100 buckets. And then from there we broke it into 10 most common characteristics. And from there Ben said to me this, he said, it's not the size of this list, it's the quality of the list and how well you target in your messages. So he said, because this is a Christian list, let's create a target customer avatar and let's create your target customer. Let's name her because it's a Christian list. Christina. So we named her Christina. Tell me about Christina. So we said, Christina's 35 to 55 years old, she's married, she is an empty nester, her kids are all off to school. But instead of having two people, she has three people that live at the house. So that means Christina is probably a caretaker, probably caretaking for a family member. Christina loves pets. She loves dogs. She doesn't just love big dogs, she loves small dogs. And we went on and on and on. What happened was we came up with 50 different things to describe Christina. And guess What? There were 250,000 Christinas in that list. 250 out of 20 million. And so what we did, because we really knew who this person was, we knew who she was, what she thought about, what she cared about, what her needs were, what her wants were like, like her passion, the things that turned her off because we knew all this stuff, we developed a super incredibly targeted marketing campaign for Christina. And what we sold were pet products, small dog products. And guess what? We sent out small to a small sample of that list and absolutely killed it. And that was when I really first learned, and really first got it this idea that the riches are in the niches today in this market. It's incredibly important that we decide to go solve a problem for one person in a big market. And if it's a big market, it will be a big opportunity. And stay focused on that one thing, that one person, that one target. And the reason is if you really get to know that person, it's going to save you a ton of money. It's going to save you money and it's going to save you time. Because if you're talking to that one very specific person, what they want and the way that they want it is going to be very clear and consistent. How you have to deliver it, what they're willing to pay for it is going to be really clear and consistent. And the further you get off that Target, the more the mixed messaging to you making your product, and so the more time and money you're going to waste. So the first thing you got to do is get really clear. I say develop your inner Christina. That's the first way to start getting money into your pocket faster. For less money today, get really clear on the target. Number two, focus on one hammer and one nail. Many of you have heard me tell this story. The biggest mistake that entrepreneurs make when they launch or they pivot is they focus on too many things at once. So I call this hammers and nail syndrome. And here's what I mean. If I gave you one hammer and one nail, and your job is simple, all you have to do is bring that hammer back and drive that hammer into a piece of wood like, you really nail that one business. Now, the odds are you're going to miss the first, the second, the third time. But eventually, I'm gonna bet on you, eventually you're gonna nail it. So let's say give you two hammers and two nails, you got a problem. Who's gonna hold the nails? Let's say you find somebody crazy and stupid enough to do that. Think about this. You got, how hard is this? You gotta hold one hammer in each hand and bring them back at the same time. You gotta strike at the same time, and the odds are you're gonna miss the first, the second, the third time. You may never get it right. Let's say give you 10 hammers and 10 nails. You get the point? You see, the biggest mistake entrepreneurs make is they focus on too many things at once. So now more than ever, what I say is this. Don't focus on everything. Focus on delivering one thing, really nail that one thing, and then move on to the next. So we're going to be really clear on our target. To help save time and money, we're going to focus on giving that target one thing. And the reason, again, one thing is so important is I shared with you that during these times, during uncertain times, what all the data shows is that what people think or they say they need tends to change a lot. And so if you go and you build a lot, you do a lot, you invest a lot, look, most people think that more is better. More, more, more. I think more is more money, more time, more risk, more headaches, more bullshit you don't need. And so what I say, what I suggest is, again, focus on your one customer. Focus on doing one thing right next. Get it out really fast and get it out really dirty, and get it out really Cheap, that's what you do. And get it out often. Here's the thing, when.

You put a product into the market, what you find is you may be in direct contact with the target customer. They may say, this is what I want and this is how I want it. You've asked the questions you were supposed to ask. You did it perfectly. You really nailed it. You went and you built exactly what they wanted, the way that they said that they wanted it, and you put it out there. Buyers are liars. What happens is when they get this product into their hands and they can start to use it, either you're a sandwich maker and they taste it. You are a, you know, you're. You're a person that does hair and they see how you do do their hair. You know, you're, you've developed a technology product and now they're using the technology. What happens is once they're doing that thing, the way they see that thing changes, it changes. Sometimes a little, sometimes a whole heck of a lot. When I launched my company, Smart charter, in 2006, we were solving a really simple problem, right? We were just trying to put in one place, aggregate supply and demand in the private jet business. You saw planes and you wanted something, you could do a simple search and see what private jets were available.

And so that was. Was kind of like an online directory is what it was.

And then what happened was we did a deal with Virgin. They bought the majority of the company, we rebranded it, we said, we're going to make it bigger and better and more awesome. And so we thought, what would happen if we could create real time buying, just like Expedia, but for private jets. So we aggregate all of the supply, all the jets, we aggregate all the demand, just like Expedia, into one place, the one marketplace. You do a search, you see what you want, boom, you buy, you run it online. By the way, try running a $250,000 credit card online. That's a trick. We can talk about that later. So here's the thing.

We went out to customers, we went out to people that were spending a lot of money chartering private jets. And we asked them, what do you want, though, and how do you want it? And we built that. We built exactly that and we put it into the market, and guess what? Nobody used it. Nobody used it the way we. They told us they were going to use was crazy. What they wanted, what they told us they wanted is they wanted to be able to go in and they wanted to be able to do a search, see what they wanted, click a button and buy right there. That's they wanted. But when they started to use it, what happened was they got really nervous about processing that much money online. And they got really nervous. They had questions that they just wanted to feel like an extra level of, like that they were safe buying this particular plane in charter. Right. They wanted to ask us, like, we see it all here on your website, but who is the person flying the plane? And what does the safety rating really mean? And does the bathroom really look like that? Like, these are the kinds of questions. So what we learned when we got it in their hands was that they wanted something different than they thought they wanted. But we had built all that. So. And by the way, when we launched, it was right. It was right in 2008. So the market was starting to crash, and so their needs were changing as well. Okay, so here's what I'm saying. I'm saying get really clear on who you're solving a problem for. Focus on one thing, one problem, one simple thing doesn't have to be the hardest thing, should be the simplest, the minimum viable product. Do that, really nail that thing. Get it out fast and get it out cheap. Right? And get it out quick. Have it be dirty. I think today having your product 65% ready is good enough. The graphics are 65% ready. The interface, the sandwich, whatever it is, 65% is good enough. The rest of the money and the time that it would take to get to 100% isn't worth it. What you need today in this really rapidly changing market is fast feedback. And get that fast feedback and forget everything that the person told you before you built it, and get that fast feedback. And then pivot, iterate, adjust, adapt, do whatever it is that you have to do in order to get the product there, where it is that they say that they want it. Okay? And then when you're 65% of the way there, give it back to them. And then when you get close, then what you do is you really work on that product market fit. So I'm giving you this, this is what I want to charge you and see how it works, and see how it works with a couple people. I'm going to charge him nine bucks. I'm going to charge, you know, him, you know, $25. I'm going to charge that person a thousand. I'm going to charge that person 10 and see where the product market fit is. And then when all that comes together, then you can tie it up in a bow. So this goes Counterintuitive to everything I was taught when I was in college, before I dropped out, when I was, you know, younger. Like I thought I had to like really like make it right before pushing it out. But that's not the economy in the world that we live in today, right? The number one job of every entrepreneur has nothing to do with business. The number one job is to protect yourself financially. So if things take longer than playing don't work out, this plan goes sideways, you can adjust, boom. And you can bounce right back. So as it relates to our product, this is how you launch today. Get really clear on who the target is. Focus on one thing, really nail that one thing, then move on to the next. Get that product out fast, early, dirty and cheap. 65% of the way is good enough when people have it in their hands. Be great at listening, Be great at listening. Watch them use it, have them play with it, have them eat it. Like, you know, if they're eating your food, what is the real reaction that they have? You know, in your gut if they like it or they don't like it, like really, really be out there and be insanely great and incredible at getting this feedback. Then iterate and then go to a couple different people and charge different things, have different pricing models and see, don't tell them and see which one works. And then when you got all that straight, you got your target, you got your one thing and it's, it's the way they want it and they're using it in that way. And you figured out what the, the pricing, the product price fit, product market fit is, then you tie a bow on it and then you pushed out to the market. And the thing is, this shouldn't take a long time to do. And that's the beauty of the 65% rule. The beauty of the 65% rule, which pre pandemic was 85% rule, but now it's a 65% rule because none of us have that much money anymore to wait to 85%.

The thing about it is this is the way and it should be fast. The key about it is it's fast, it's not pretty, and it's not perfect. If you just do that, that is a great start for helping you to pivot. And it doesn't matter if you're out of work and you're looking for work or now you're a new entrepreneur, you never thought you would be in this position. You're a company that has 500 employ and you're being forced to Pivot. You're a company that has 10,000 employees, and you're being forced to pivot. The formula is the same. The formula does not change. Now, maybe if you're a bigger company because there's more brand reputation, potential reputation risk, you're not going out at 65%. You're taking it further. But. But, you know, you know, where you fit kind of in this, in this spectrum.

Nobody have any questions on that. I'm curious, does any of that resonate with you?

The thing about what I'm sharing is everything I'm sharing I didn't read in a book. Everything that I'm sharing from earlier in this program, talking about my favorite show on Netflix during this pandemic, to.

Calling an 800 number because I was about to make some bad decisions around suicide years ago, to really understanding what to do and what not to do when launching a product in a company like this and finding revenue fast. I didn't read about any of it. It's all based on my personal experience and the experience of the other amazing people that I get to interview and I get to talk to as part of my network every day, whether it's lessons I pull from, from, you know, Gary V. Or Barbara Corcoran or Jesse Itzler or.

Brandon Burchard or Tony Robbins or Damon John or these people that are out there that are killing it. You know, what's amazing.

Is how everyone is sharing information right now, and no one believes that they've got the genie in the bottle. And so what's happening is people who are the best of the best at what they do, they're the brightest. They're the ones that are the most on top of it. What they share is a passion for learning, and what they do is learn as a community. They're constantly sharing what they learn with others. You know, if you talk to me one on one, the. The odds are, you know, and these days, you know, what you're hearing is, you know, hey, how you doing? I'm always going to ask you, what are you learning today? I always ask that question. It's how I start my calls. What are you learning today? I don't even ask how you're doing, yet I ask, what are you learning today? And then the second thing I want to know is, what do you need right now? And what are you willing to pay if, Like, I might not be the person to do it, but what are you willing to pay if either I can get that to you or refer you to somebody who can, because it's not that. Here's the thing. I know a lot of people that are great at doing amazing things, like all of you. And so if I know what somebody needs and I know one of you can do it, I want to refer that person to you. And here's the thing. When finding cash today, remember, it's not about just coming up with our own brilliant idea. I mean, we're Gary Vee saying to me, he said the biggest mistake he thought entrepreneurs made is they disrespect the market. And I said, what does that mean? And he said, disrespecting the market to me means that the entrepreneur thinks that they know better. They think that they have the idea. The idea is in the customer or the prospect's head. It's the entrepreneur's job to get it out. And by the way, there's a huge difference between being an entrepreneur and being an innovator. An innovator is somebody that knows how to create and develop and invent new things. That is so much different than an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur is somebody that knows how to monetize innovation. They monetize innovation. That is a huge difference. As an entrepreneur, you don't have to invent a thing. You don't have to reinvent anything. You don't have to. You just have to know how to monetize it. That's it. And so, you know, I think that's kind of where we find ourselves today with regard to product launch. I think that.

As I look ahead to May, today's the last day of April. Look ahead to May. I think May is going to be a really interesting month for all of us. I think there's going to be, you know, a lot more people unemployed. I think there'll be a lot of people getting back to work. That's great, too. A lot of people get into work. I think there'll be a lot of people in the month of May that are finally able to see the effect of PPP money getting to their accounts. Whether it's the business that's able to bring people back or the employee that's able to start getting paid again. I think we're going to start to see more Eidl money hit people's bank accounts. I think that states are going to start to catch up with unemployment. So people who have filed and haven't heard back are going to start to get those checks. I think that's all amazing things. I also think that out of the next month, we're going to see a different kind of beauty and the beauty is going to be coming from entrepreneurs, people like you and me, people maybe who never even thought of themselves as an entrepreneur and they're being forced into this position. People, businesses, small businesses, big businesses. We're about to see, as a result of the severity of this crisis, innovation at the same level, if not more. We are going to see innovation and new ways of doing things and new solutions and just new ways to live. New stuff is going to emerge. So you give an entrepreneur a really big problem and not enough time to solve it. It is amazing to see what they can do. And that's what I expect to start seeing in May, is some incredible innovation and people like all of you that are monetizing this innovation. And that's going to be an amazing thing. We are out of time and I want to thank all of you for joining today. My name is Scott Duffy and this is what now with Scott Duffy, presented by SAP Concurrent. You can tune in each day and watch the live stream on YouTube and Facebook. You can listen throughout the day on Dash Radio nationwide or download the podcast.

I want to thank SAP concur for all of their support and leave you with this thought every day that we will get through this and we will come out stronger, stronger together. Have a wonderful day.