The Exchanges

Q get in trouble are the ones that think they're the best with it, right? And so, I want to talk about, I want to talk about a couple of things. You can kind of pick which one. Uh, I want to talk about either the pumpkin plan, or I want to talk about clockwork, or I want to talk about beacon. Do any of those speak to you in this?

A Yeah, they do. So I'd say pumpkin plan to start. Um, what I did just to give context, it's one of the books I wrote, uh, and it's the runner up to profit first in popularity. What I did was I hired a business coach before business coaches really existed. This is back in the nineties. And, uh, he came into my business and said, day one, we're going to go to a pumpkin field. I'm like, what? He's like, you gotta understand biology. Cause there's this thing called biomimicry. And when you study what mother nature's figured out, She's pretty freaking smart, and she spent a lot of time figuring things out. You can copy those strategies, and usually they have a more, a better success rate than something that's artificially engineered. So I went to a pumpkin farm, and studied colossal pumpkin farming, and sure enough, it works for business too, so that's the context.

AI assessment note: “Yeah, they do. So I'd say pumpkin plan to start.”

Q Do entrepreneurs Do entrepreneurs sell enough to their customers? Are most entrepreneurs scared of selling?

A They absolutely do not sell enough, and they don't sell the right way. I actually believe MVPs are not the right way to sell. So an MVP is a minimum viable product. I think that's too far advanced. We do a technique we call sell the tell. What we do is say, so we, I was a co-owner in a manufacturing business for a while, that we made leather products, sheaths specifically for knives, and instead of making a prototype and seeing what was out there, we simply Announce our audience. We're thinking about making a sheath, and it's gonna have this feature and that feature. Are you interested in buying it? But we ask the most important question. If you are, put down a deposit now. People speak the truth through their wallet. I was actually thinking about doing a conference at my old high school, but to pull it off, we needed 250 people there. We reached out to our audience. We had 75 people put a deposit down, and we said, no, this isn't gonna go, and refunded their deposit. Ironically, Prior to that, uh, our marketing team said, why don't we just ask? We had over a thousand people say, oh, I'm in. That's amazing. And if we acted on that, we would have blown money and embarrassed myself at my old high school.

AI assessment note: “They absolutely do not sell enough, and they don't sell the right way.”

Q That's so good. Um, let, let's talk about, um, distraction a little bit. You have a lot in multiple of your books, I think I'm referencing the pumpkin plan more here, but how do you personally decide when to double down on an idea versus when to call it a distraction and cut it?

A Yeah. So, um, I, I, we generally look at a revenue threshold, because that's just a, a shocking metric to many small businesses. We generally say, if you're not generating ten million dollars doing your one thing, you haven't arrived yet, you're not good enough yet. For most businesses, that's about point oh, one percent of the market cap. So, it's nothing. Yet most businesses said, oh, we're doing 300,000 in revenue, I should diversify and do more things, and it starts diluting you. It's all about the efficiency game. That's where we focus. The second thing is we just do diagnostics with AI. It's so easy now. Just look at the customer base, what they're consuming, what's the profitability per product, and we just focus in on those few things. I think businesses pursue diversification too quickly because we hear if you're diversified, you're safe, you're protected, but it also stalls growth.

AI assessment note: “if you're not generating ten million dollars doing your one thing, you haven't arrived yet”

Q invested in the business here. I, um, you know, I hired a new person, but I found that if we don't become better, our business never gets better. And so I'm curious, you've been in the sort of educational business for a long time. Do you still have coaches and mentors? How do you think about investing in yourself as the entrepreneur and getting better? Is that important to you?

A Yeah. So wickedly important. Surprise. Um, what I do is identified what is the role that I enjoy the most, meaning gives me the most joy. But first I had to eradicate myself from doing it. So let me explain. I get the most joy from being a spokesperson for my brand, ok? Um, I realize that requires a lot of public speaking, and I realize if I'm the only person doing it, I become the linchpin for my business. So, first I educated about 50 people on speaking on Profit First. In fact, there's like three Profit First keynotes going on today, and I'm not doing any of them. So that's the first thing, so I'm not necessary. Then I said, okay, I own the business, and I want to do what gives me joy. I'm not going to sit on the beach and stuff, so I'm going to reinsert myself, I want to be the best spokesperson I can. So, uh, I go to improv classes. Uh, I study comedy. Um, I, I look at, what, what do my contemporaries do? And most people sit behind a dais and, like, they just, like, that's the one thing I can't do. I have to be different. So, um, I study theatrics, performance, all those things constantly. I have a speaking coach who comes to my events and critiques me, sometimes live. Like, he'll be doing signals. He'll sit in the front row. He's like, Like we have these hand signals, like, oh gosh, hands out of your pocket. Um, named John Bates. Um, yeah, so I, I, I very much invested in…

AI assessment note: “I have a speaking coach who comes to my events and critiques me”

Q is they, they sell demographically as opposed to really nailing their avatar. Like, I've never met a 45 to 65 year old male 40% of the time, and 60% of the time a woman. I mean, these days, who knows, but historically, no. And so, you know, I really like this idea of, What are the characteristics of this type of avatar? And then how do we go after that?

A Yeah. And look for the congregation points. So when I'm targeting a market, I'll say, is there an association for this? Um, you know, this is what I'm selling B to B. Is there an association? Is there some kind of meetups or something like that? Uh, for example, maybe I'm serving, uh, pilots, retired pilots. Well, I'd say, is there a retired pilot association? Which actually I know there is. So that's an opportunity. They're already congregating. But if I look for Single moms who hate their mom. That, that demographic exists, perhaps even in this room, but they don't, do they have a meetup club? Maybe not. If, if they don't have a congregation point, you have to assemble it yourself. It is the most exhausting, time consuming effort. It rarely fails. So when someone says, I have a niche, it's, you know, I sing, serve single moms who don't like their moms. I mean, that's not a niche because you have to now assemble them together. But if you're serving the airline retired pilot association, I know where they're going. They may have a dedicated podcast. And you insert yourself there, and they see you ubiquitously. They see you everywhere.

AI assessment note: “look for the congregation points. So when I'm targeting a market, I'll say”

Q Do you think entrepreneurs should ever have multiple businesses before they do 10 dollars in revenue?

A I, if I say no, I'm a hypocrite. Um, so I've, I've many businesses that aren't doing ten million dollars, but I don't run them. So I think people on misunderstand a business owner is. In fact, when, when people ask me what you do, uh, in addition to author, I don't say I'm an entrepreneur, even though it's my favorite word, because entrepreneurs become so bastardized. There's pundits that say, oh, entrepreneurship's hustle and grind. It's, you know, work your ass off. That is not what entrepreneurship is. You were sharing something that I hope people took notes down. Six percent, you said, of the world population runs a business. The back, I'll give you the data behind this because I'm really into the numbers. 17% of the population ever attempts to start a business. So if you think about kindergarten and the, you know, 20 kids in your class, 17, three kids, maybe four kids, ever attempt to start a business. 20% ever start a business and after five years are doing it on a profitable, sustainable basis. That's three percent. So the six percent who are running a business, Three, half of them are actually pulling it off after five years. That's how the math works. Which means, If you ever thought about who is the weirdo in your kindergarten class, it was you. You're a weirdo. Some, some messed up part of your mind is like, oh, I can start a business and make money. The number one j…

AI assessment note: “I've many businesses that aren't doing ten million dollars, but I don't run them.”