Matt Gartland Shares Four Tools to Help You Save Time and Make Money

A lot of entrepreneurs I see just overwhelm themselves by trying to do too much too quickly because everything is so readily available and quickly accessible and relatively inexpensive. Also, at least to get started, people just lam themselves into 20 different tools and then they can freak themselves out. Maybe you only should be focusing on like two or three different things so be more limited and more sequential, I think in terms of adopting new tools.

Today we've got Matt Gartland with us. He helps early stage entrepreneurs develop and monetize their audiences while also helping them determine and implement the tools needed to scale this is the Launch youh Business podcast because we know starting a business is challenging, but it doesn't have to be confusing. Each week we'll give you the tactical advice and the necessary tools to scale your business without feeling burnt out. Terry I'm Terry Rice, business development consultant and staff writer here at Entrepreneur Magazine. Let's dive in. When I first started my consulting business, I made a very common mistake. I confused action with progress, meaning I was doing a lot but not making any meaningful progress towards my business goals. And one of those actions was buying lots of stuff, random tools and apps that I thought would just magically transform my business. Some were relatively cheap, some were absurdly expensive, but none of them delivered the outcomes I was looking for because I wasn't even clear on the outcomes I was looking for. Today we're going to help you avoid that mistake and we're joined by Matt Gartland. Matt is the co founder of SPI Media, which stands for Smart Passive Income, and the co founder of Fusebox. Beyond that, he advises several tech startups. He's also an expert when it comes to operations, pricing, finance, product development and and customer experience, as well as empowering marketing and sales. Today we're focusing on the real tools that you actually need to run your business. This way you can focus on impact instead of chasing a bunch of shiny objects like I did. These tools will help you scale while also preventing you from wasting your time, energy and talent. During this chat, you'll learn how to get over any fear you may have around using tech tools, which one you should use to scale your business, and how much you should spend on them. Let's dig in. Matt, thanks so much for being here. I know if I had talked to you when I first started my business, I would have saved myself a lot of time, frustration and made more money. So I'm glad you're here to help everyone else. Now, I'm already familiar with your work, but would you mind introducing yourself sure.

I'm Matt Gartland. I'm an entrepreneur, investor and advisor to a couple of different tech startups. My main project right now is with my good friend Pat Flynn. We're co founders in SPI Media, which is the SPI brand that a lot of creators and entrepreneurs have come to love over the last decade. So we are really trying to help early stage creators and entrepreneurs, small business owners, really develop their audiences and figure out how to monetize their hard work through their own engagements online.

You make a very clear distinction between a creator and an entrepreneur. Can you unpack that distinction?

Absolutely. It's so oftentimes these skill sets and these mindsets do reside within the same person, but it is a composite set of skills and aptitudes and experiences that I think we have to think about as divergent things. So on the creator side, that is in fact a certain proclivity to writing and creating really valuable knowledge and educational material. And really that thrust to, I think to build audience in a way that is potentially oriented around social media or fan based relationships. Right. That is at least where kind of the term creator has stuck to kind of be the new gold standard for this all encompassing idea of writers, bloggers, podcasters, YouTubers. Right. Whereas an entrepreneur, especially if we draw from say the tech side of entrepreneurship, these are folks that are really thinking about capitalism and thinking about, you know, the, the enterprise and thinking about, you know, how do I build something of value that can grow and the economics behind it and potentially investors, whether they be big or small. Right. And especially in our world on the SPI side, you know, where a lot of folks come into this digital entrepreneur space, you know, they, they come to that through the lens of creator. Right. Or being a creative, because they see others, you know, really putting themselves out there, you know, through social media engagements and starting to build a following in some capacity that's helping other people. And that's amazing. But in what we have seen, and certainly my analysis, kind of being more on the business side, you know, is that for creators to really be successful and if in fact they do start from sort of a creator mindset in a skill set sense of being a creator, they need to work on the business skills, they need to work on the entrepreneurial skills around how do I run a company, how do I grow this thing? So that's the distinction that I have. But I absolutely believe that especially early stage folks that certainly aspire to maybe just keep their business small and be solo funded, they're not maybe going the tech route they really should work on both sets of skills. So be both a creator and an entrepreneur.

So thanks for that distinction. I think where I messed up early on in my career as an independent consultant is this. I focused way too much on the entrepreneur side and not nearly enough on the creator side. So having videos, content, lead magnet, stuff like that, and I think if I had done that first, it would have been a lot easier. Because when you have that content out there, it's working for you in the background even while you're going about your day, right? You could be watching your kids working out, whatever it is. But when you have content, people already know, like and trust you before they even get on the phone and it makes it much easier to get a sale. As an entrepreneur, I agree.

And I also agree with, especially with just how the technology has been advancing over even the last five years right online that potentially leading with content, leading with audience building pursuits and mechanics to find I daresay market fit being a buzzy term from the tech community is more advantageous so that you're not investing potentially too much time and energy and even financial capital or other resources into establishing your small business and trying to get that up and running. If there isn't a community there for you or an audience ship or as you say, starting to build potentially a customer base that knows, likes and trusts you and is willing to then invest in you in some way.

Let's hop into a quick break here and when we come back, we'll cover the specific tools that you need to grow your business. Just Get Started if you've ever looked for tips on launching a business, just get started seems to come up a lot. And while that's vaguely motivational, it does not provide any real direction. Because the next logical question for anyone would be, well, how do I get started? What specifically should I do? Well, if you're looking to quickly start a business without the confusion, risk and pressure of doing something entirely new, I've got a solution for you. It's called the solopreneur's Fast Track, a step by step process on how to start a business using the skills you already have and actually enjoy using. So let's say your favorite part of a previous job was email marketing. You'll learn how to start a business offering other companies advice on how they can improve their email marketing. Or maybe you are really good at integrating complicated tech tools. You can help other organizations do the same thing without the need to bring on a full time hire. So the main point here is that everything you need to Start a business is already within you. You don't need a cool website or fancy tools. And by completing the course, you'll also discover a simpler approach for attracting clients with without using complicated funnels or cheesy sales tactics, you can finish it over a weekend and start making money in as little as 30 days. You'll gain the clarity and confidence you need to start your business and receive a one page business plan so you can immediately apply what you've learned. Get started today and receive a 20% discount by heading to TerryRice co. Fast. That's TerryRice co. Fast. We're back with Matt Gartland. We've been talking about how important it is to know your audience and now we'll discuss the specific tools needed to grow your business and how to get over any fear around implementing those tools. Let's jump back into it. So Matt, let's pretend that someone out there listening just quit their job. They've been working in corporate for the last X years and they're just done with it. But all they have is a laptop and a dream. What other tools do they need to start their business?

Yeah, great starting point. So first would just be where do you want to capture your knowledge? So if you are a knowledge based entrepreneur, a creator, how are you developing those concepts? So you know, you need some sort of like, I dare say word processing is a very dated term but like, you know, where do you go to do that? Chances are you might have a like a Gmail email address. You know, go to Google and just start really thinking about how you want to structure a lot of your content development, you know, in writing to get your ideas out there before you start jumping into any other more sophisticated form of content development tool, certainly ones that you would even then need to pay for. Notion is another great example. It's more modern. I do believe they have a free tier, I personally like it to where you can do a lot of your content development, start to develop your blog article concepts, start to organize your podcast, maybe framework or concept. Notion is really cool because you can do more again kind of no code like data sets and stuff like that and can kind of get nerdy about it. But even if you just, you know, go to Google because Google has, you know, an amazing suite or you could pay like, what is it, five bucks a month for like Google Workspace, right? If you want to kind of pay for that more kind of businessy version, just start using those sorts of like very simple, you know, platforms to start getting a lot of your ideas and A lot of your knowledge organized. You don't need to go anything to anything super complicated. The next thing would be is sort of a combination of yes, absolutely, your email list. Because if you're going to, you know, be online, even if you're a merchant selling, you know, T shirts, right, and you're going to end up maybe on Shopify one day with your E commerce store, you don't necessarily need to jump to E commerce first. Maybe you want to again build your audience first. So, you know, look to build your email list and increasingly there are platforms that allow you to have like a very easy one page landing page so you can put sort of your domain against it. But ostensibly it's still, you know, an email marketing system behind the scenes. Right. ConvertKit's a great example for that, especially for creators. Mailchimp has something very similar. Just sort of explore the ESP space, the email service platform space and there's a range of options out there. But from my own experience, ConvertKit, Mailchimp are two really good creator friendly, either inexpensive or they have a free tier option for folks that are just kind of just stepping into it. And the third thing I would say is to at least start researching. Not necessarily like jumping right into it, but start researching where you may want to build your foundation as a creator. If you have a vision in mind to be a course creator and have a lot of, you know, information products like courses, start researching those just to kind of have an understanding of where you're going to build. Because down the road, and Terry, I'm sure you've heard this from other folks you speak with is when we talk about tech stacks, it gets really, really tricky and difficult and potentially expensive to re platform. So if you start to put your home base somewhere and you spend a lot of time there on that platform and you invest a lot in there, potentially re platforming from like, you know, option A to option B later, it's going to be difficult. So you want to be really thoughtful about kind of where you're going to put down your roots, whether that's, you know, teachable for online courses. Podia is another option that's out there that has a lot of different elements for like content creators for like how you might build a digital business. If you have membership community as a part of your interest to sell membership subscriptions. Circle's a great option. But the general point being is do some research first because your switching costs are going to be profound later if you were to ever make that choice.

Your point about the switching Cost is brilliant because I think sometimes people will stick with things they know are subpar just because now you're busy, you're in the trenches and it's like, do I want to make money today or do I want to like go from wix to Squarespace? It's like what, you know, what's your option?

Yeah, and yeah, website builders, I mean, those are some great examples. Email service providers, again, are a great example. And you know, not to throw shade at any, any brand here, but you know, I know a number of friends with very significant audiences that are on really legacy, if you will, like old school email systems from, you know, the early 2000s that haven't caught up at the times, but know it's, it's a risk, especially if you're dealing with like your, your key asset for a lot of us is the email list, right? To be able to migrate that and have that go well and not have potentially churn or drops or you burn your list or, you know, horrible things can happen. So yeah, being really, really thoughtful is, is a key kind of almost strategy to being successful online.

So let's pause here and do a quick recap of these three foundational tools. The first is a tool for planning and capturing your knowledge and it can be as basic as your Google Drive folder. I initially did everything from account management to prepping my taxes in Google Drive and I still use it on a regular basis. Next up, what tool will you use to build your email list? This is so important. I see far too many people focus on tools to manage their social media but completely neglect building their email list. The goal of social media should be to get someone off of social media and onto your email list. So make sure you're prepared for that. Lastly, what platform will you use to make money? If you're a course creator, you can use tools such as Teachable or Thinkific. But if you're focused on E commerce, Shopify or even Amazon could be a better option. At the end of the day, do your research and select which product works best for you and your needs. This will give you a solid starting point. For some of you, just getting started may be the biggest challenge. Maybe you're a bit apprehensive about technology in general. If so, Matt has a message just for you. So we all know automation is important. There's all these tools and apps that can help us scale our time better and get better outcomes. But what are some of the roadblocks or what's some of the apprehension you see from entrepreneurs into actually Using and implementing these tools.

Yeah, I think that's a great paradigm to step into because so many people are quickly coming into contact with these things, you know, as they, you know, start to pursue their, their dream business in whatever shape or form that is. And I think about this at least two, if not kind of in three ways. One is a collection of mindset sort of gaps or traps that I'm not a developer or I don't have a technical background, so I'm never going to learn how to use these things or learn them well. So there, there's a certain, you know, barrier to entry that's just in a headspace where whether it's an email marketing system, whether it's a no code building website tool, that there's even a resistance that they've created themselves to being able to even step into that and really being interested to potentially learn this stuff. So certainly there's a collection of mindset problems that are unfortunately blockers and it's unfortunate, increasingly so, because the tools are easier to use today than compared to two, three, four years ago. The whole no code movement is a real thing where it's, you know, lot of these interfaces are drag and drop. You don't need a software development background, you don't need to be a coder to use. So creative or creator oriented entrepreneurs can start to use these tools. And the whole movement toward making the tools more user friendly is for consumers like us that are creative first and don't understand all the programming languages that are out there. The second, I would say, is that a lot of entrepreneurs, creative entrepreneurs online, think that they have to use all the tools or especially all the mediums. So if we think about all the forms of content that you can produce and publish, from, you know, YouTube videos to podcasts to blogs to just your website at large. A lot of entrepreneurs, creative entrepreneurs I see, just overwhelm themselves by trying to do too much too quickly. So if you're stepping into this space and you are a consultant and you're maybe trying to work on an online course, maybe you only should be focusing on like two or three different things. Build your email list, number one, have a website number two, maybe a website number three, and then in the background, like maybe start tinkering with an online course. So I think just overwhelmed just because everything is so readily available and quickly accessible and relatively inexpensive also, at least to get started, people just lam themselves into 20 different tools and then they can freak themselves out. So be more limited and more sequential. I think in terms of adopting New tools. And then the third, I think, challenge a lot of people face is just not being curious enough to learn it themselves. I think that curiosity, which is another form of just creativity at large, like, get interested in this. These things aren't inherently scary or difficult or dangerous or any of that. So I think if you lean into it with a curiosity to learn a little bit on how these technologies work, how to link your email marketing platform through to your website, being a very basic example, I think a lot of people actually realize that it's a lot of fun. You need to kind of start to realize how this stuff works.

I love the focus on shifting your mindset here. And here's something else to try out. Instead of saying, I have to use these tools to grow my business, try saying, I get to use these tools to grow my business. That way you'll see all this technology as a viable resource. And if you think about it, just 10 years ago, you would have needed a team of people to manage some of these tools. These days, you're in a much better spot. But another real concern is the cost involved. Some tools cost nine bucks a month. Others cost much more. So I asked Matt, when you're just starting out and not making any money yet, how much should you spend on these tools?

I love the question. Finance is a big part of my life. I run finance in addition to a lot of things for all of my companies. But you may not like my initial answer, which is that it's flexible, right? But it should be consistent with your budget. So the first thing I would really recommend for any entrepreneur, you know, kind of heading into this space, is to build a budget and then have that budget inform really, you know, which tools, you know, should I, or could I potentially and responsibly, you know, invest in using and going with potentially some more premium, you know, options, or a higher tier with more, you know, capability, more integration options, something like that. What I find to be problematic, especially for folks just starting, is they're making choices without a compass, right? That they're making choices, financial decisions without any sort of guideline. So something that I have done certainly as a part of my company's SBI being one of them, and then have tried to teach a little bit, even though SPI is largely about audience building and what we teach there, I have some content actually on SPI that helps teach, like cash flow management and pricing and how to build budgets. And it's through that lens, I think, then that can really help entrepreneurs, even with very, very small budgets, understand what should my tech stacks be in the early days and then if I can perform well and I can start to get some affiliate revenue or some coaching revenue or a composite set of different things, then where can I potentially reinvest some of those earnings right back into my tech stack and potentially grow that. So I really would encourage a lot of folks to think about their budget pretty early on in the process, not just for the tech piece, but by including of the tech piece for how they want to kind of get their business up and running. But beyond that, you really don't need to spend a lot, right? For Dropbox or any sort of file hosting system, it's been a race to the bottom for years in terms of cost. So things are really, really cheap now for storage, so you don't need to spend a lot for data storage. You can use the whole Google suite for free or for cheap. At a certain point in being a mature business owner, probably go buy a domain and have a business email address and probably get on Google workspace and spend five bucks a month or whatever it is for that, but still pretty cheap. And then a lot of these audience building tools again have entry level pricing or basic options where you don't have to spend a lot more than $5, $10 a month. So trying to say under $100 a month is I think a good initial barometer. But I would again absolutely say, you know, use your overall budget to inform a number that's right for you.

I appreciate the straight answer here and I'm sure everyone else does as well, and I know that can change based on your budget and your business, but it's a good number just to initially wrap our heads around. So thanks for that. And before I let you go, I do have one more question. What's a tool that's incredibly important but almost everyone forgets to purchase?

The non sexy technology is the answer. So, so much Terry of the conversation, and it just deservedly so is focused on the marketing software, right? It's things to help you build your email list or publish your podcast, right? Or you know, develop your video following on YouTube. But the business systems are so incredibly important, especially if and when your business starts to gain traction, right? So the one that I highlight the most is Gusto, because we use it and we love it and there's other platforms out there, but it's essentially for a digital based business or as you start to scale, if you're sort of a remote based company and you have staff, it's sort of your digital office. So Gusto has payroll. It facilitates benefits at any point in time where you may want that for yourself and your family. Or again, if you get to a point where you can hire people onto your team and provide them benefits, you know, there's integrations there to have that sort of a platform in place as a part of the business infrastructure. Right for for a an online small business is of paramount importance to help, you know, with finances, to help with regulations, to help with even taxes and these things that like a lot of creative people will kind of, you know, maybe reel at a little bit, but you know, get ahead of it now so that you don't have a spooky tax bill, you know, next year.

I can definitely vouch for the fact that you do not want an unexpected tax bill. It happened to me after my first year and it was not pleasant at all. Using a financial planning system will also help you better project revenue, which can ease some of the stress and anxiety that can be involved with running a business. So to recap, you need four tools, one for planning and storing your knowledge, another for building your email list, one for selling your product or service, and lastly managing your finances. Fortunately, you can still get all these tools for under $100 a month. So take some time, do some research, and if you need more guidance, be sure to check out the show notes. I'll see you next time. Apply what you've learned on today's show. You'll find the show notes and more resources at Terryrice Co. Podcast Again, that's Terryrice Co. Podcast, and the best way to support this podcast is by subscribing, telling a friend, and leaving a review. Also, you can get more tips by following me on Instagram @TerryRice or follow me on LinkedIn. This episode was produced by Josh Wilcox of Brooklyn Podcasting Studio and edited by Dan Lardy. Special thanks to my wife, Dominique, for keeping our kids relatively quiet as I recorded. Thanks again for listening. I'll see you next time.