I used to use back in the days when laptop batteries
didn't last a super long time, and there wasn't
Wi -Fi everywhere, is I would go to a cafe with
my laptop and no power adapter and knock it on
the Wi -Fi. And I'd have a little sticky note
with like the one to three things I had to get
done while I was there. So typically where I
see business owners get blocked, growing from
a solopreneur to what I call a true business
owner, is in a few areas. One of those, but here's
the really important part. Finding out if people
actually want to solve the problem with the solution
you have in mind. What if the way you've been
told to grow your business is exactly what's
keeping you stuck? Jeremy Shapiro has spent over
25 years helping entrepreneurs break free from
burnout, uncover hidden opportunities, and scale
in ways that actually create freedom. He's a
serial entrepreneur, a mentor to business owners
around the world, and the author of the brand
new book, Your Business Growth Playbook. In this
episode, Jeremy shares the proven strategies
to get unstuck, scale profitably, and design
a business that fuels your life instead of training
it. If you've ever felt stuck in the grind, this
conversation might just change everything. Hey
there. Look, my hope is that the Thravo journey
meets you exactly where you are and helps you
rise into who you're here to be. It's 2025, and
this is your year to thrive despite what the
world is throwing at us. And our desire is that
our conversations inspire you, bring clarity,
and give you a reason to breathe deeper. So our
ask is that you take a moment to subscribe, download
the episode, and follow us on your favorite RSS
platform. Your support doesn't just help the
show grow, it helps build a space that's rooted
in your evolution. And that means everything
to me and the TTJ team. Now... If you're ready
to go beyond the episodes, come join our private
Thrive Wheel journey discussion group on Facebook.
We're walking through a 22 -week series built
to anchor each week in intention, purpose, and
meaningful connection. I do so look forward to
hearing your voice and can't wait to see you
in the group. But for right now, let's get into
it. back to the Thrivable Journey. I just want
to first welcome Jeremy Shapiro. He is coming
back for the second time here on the Thrivable
Journey podcast. Jeremy, we just had an amazing
conversation. How are you doing today? I'm doing
great. Thank you so much for inviting me back.
It's great to be here and see how well and wonderfully
the podcast has grown. Thank you, man. And thank
you for just who you are and the things that
you're showing up. for entrepreneurs and people
in general, you are a gift and I appreciate that.
And before we dive into business growth and strategies
that you have to share, I really wanna ask something
of everyone who's listening, which is, what does
thriving look like for you right now in your
work, your health or your relationships? And
if that's a question that you can't answer, just
ponder on that as we go through the conversation
with Jeremy. And, you know, as we always start
with an intrinsic kind of reflection question,
Jeremy, how do you personally define thriving,
both in your business and in your just life?
You know, it's funny, we do something In our
family and in business and at the table and with
friends and before vacations and everything Which
is this one question that's so close to what
you're asking right there Which is how do you
define success and we picked it up from a friend
of ours years ago? when we're gonna be going
away to a lake cabin for a weekend and It was
such a good question because when you figure
out what success looks like you can know if you've
hit it And if you don't have that conversation
ahead of time, then at the end of a trip or the
end of a meeting or the end of a conference,
the end of a, you know, whatever you can walk
away and start ticking off the boxes of what
didn't happen and what you missed or what you
wish could have been. And so when you don't know
what you want or what success looks like, you'll
never know if you're there. So I just want to
acknowledge you asking that great question of
our listeners and of me. It's so good to know
what that means. Yeah. And what I, what I gather
from what you just stated is like success looks
different for everybody. Like you have to define
what that is for you. And again, it just looks
different for everybody, right? Yeah. So it could
be a matter of, you know, one person saying,
you know, look, it's important to me that, you
know, I get a hike in and someone else is like,
I want to make sure, you know, we have big family
meals together. And someone else says it's important.
We get to, you know, play games. And once you
know that, you know, if you make that thing happen,
everyone's had a great time. And everything beyond
that is, you know, it's gravy, right? And if
you're going to a conference, right? When was
the last time you went to a business conference
with no plan? And you walk out afterwards with
ideas and feeling inspired, but like, was it
a success? Right. When you go in with a plan
of like, look, I want to meet 10 new partners
and I want to find 30 new prospects or whatever
it is. Right. You then know what it looks like
and how to get from here to there. So it's great.
But to answer your question. In terms of how
do I know what thriving looks like? For me, a
lot of it comes down to a measure of how time
is used and how restricted or unrestricted my
time in a given day is. And so thriving for me
means having an optionality and knowing I get
to choose what my day looks like and build the
business and build whatever else I'm doing around
the schedule that matters for me. around the
schedule that works for you. So, in our culture,
and I would say the American culture, people
have tied success to burnout. How can we separate
the two so that, you know, like we don't have
to be burned out to acquire success for ourselves?
How do you separate the two? You know, there's
a lot of folks who I think have an identity with
how busy they are. Right. And we've all got these
friends. You have a social conversation with
them and they just go into list mode of all the
stuff going on and how quadruple committed they
are at any given time. And on the one hand, that
seems like a badge of pride, right? To be able
to show I'm so busy, I'm falling apart of the
seams. Right. But when you think about the inverse
of that, how good of a job do you think people
are doing at any one of those things? If you're
with your kids and also looking at your phone
and half responding to an email while also on
a call, are you fully present on that call? Are
you present with your kid? Are you writing a
good email? You're probably doing a terrible
job at all of those things at the same time.
So if instead we become less busy but more intentional
with how we spend our time, and we do simple
things, we talk about time blocking. And being
undistracted for a period of time with a single
objective of what you want to get done in that
time period, you can do meaningful work in bite
-sized chunks with every one of those, quote,
shipping or delivering value. So yeah, we can
be busy and wear that as a badge of honor. Or
there's a lot of folks who are quiet about what
they're working on. And they're intentional about
what they're working on. And then, and they're
not wearing that as, you know, as a success symbol,
but they're successful in their own right. And
I think for a good reason, because they've chosen
to take back control of the time and how they
spend their time. So a couple of things showed
up for me when you said that there, there are
what I, what I started to do was on Sunday nights
before my week starts. So even though It really
doesn't matter, because a week is a week is a
week to me. Monday's a Monday. It's not the beginning
of the week or whatever. But on Sundays, I really
begin to block out how my days go. Because I
have businesses, what I want to do is create
spaces to where I'm intentionally focused on
that specific thing at that time. You know, I'm
not overlapping, you know, the the the the businesses
or whatever it is, but just mentally I'm focused
on what that one thing is. That then gives me
space just to be free freed up for that moment
said I'm not thinking about twelve different
things at one time. I'm just that's my space.
That's my block for that one thing and then I
focus on it and it it helps me out. It helps
me out. completely. What do you say to people
that, you know, that are not necessarily they
they don't, what would you recommend for people
to do if they have multiple things going on at
one time, so that they can begin to live that
hustle free burnout kind of life? You know, the
idea of trying to balance a bunch of the plates,
or in our case, right, multiple businesses is
a very possible thing. Right? Uh, so I've been
in business now almost 30 years as a serial entrepreneur,
always in the service of other entrepreneurs.
I've almost always had multiple businesses running
at the same time, right? Sometimes different
teams of people that need to be managed different,
you know, customers, different projects, different
product plans, different, everything between
the businesses. And there are a lot of ways to
approach it, but the cognitive load of shifting
between tasks is high, right? You think about
what it what it takes to ramp it back up and
get your mind focused on the new task at hand.
And then how all that bursts and goes away when
your phone dings or someone walks in your office
or something comes up. And then you shift gears
to what that is and that change time is taxing.
So when we get in that focus time on one thing
at a time, we do a better job overall. And more
importantly, we can get the more meaningful projects
done. So when we talk about prioritization or
categorizing what needs to get done, there's
a few ways to approach that. But if we use the
Eisenhower matrix, for example, one of my favorites,
one of the categories that you think about is
the do now, which is where most entrepreneurs
live. This is the firefighting mode. Everything
is always to the growing list in front of you
and you have to do it all. But one of the other
categories, which is a do later category, is
really where the bigger opportunities are. Those
are the things that can change and grow the business,
but the things you've got to schedule, right?
You don't come up with your bigger strategic
plan for the year in little 30 second bites of
time. That's something that needs concentrated
focus time. You don't come up with your next
product plan in little bite size pieces, right?
So when you think about the things that really
move your business forward, that takes dedicated
blocks of time. So just like you're doing, it's
a practice I use as well, which is blocking out
the time ahead of time. And figuring out in this
meeting I have with myself, the one to three,
I'd say max things I want to get done. And so
a strategy I used to use back in the days when
laptop batteries didn't last a super long time.
And there wasn't Wi Fi everywhere is I would
go to a cafe with my laptop and no power adapter
and knock it on the Wi Fi. and I'd have a little
sticky note with like the one to three things
I had to get done while I was there. And so the
distractions of the office or home or anything
else were gone because I was in a physically
different environment. Right. I also knew what
the definition of success was. So I knew what
I had to get done. And I also had a limited time
window before the battery died and or before
I just had to get home or the cafe closed or
whatnot. So it was. You know, a self enforced
do or die moment of what had to get done during
that time. So at some point you've got to ship
it as business business owners. Like the good
news is we're we're our own boss. We can call
the shots. We can set the deadlines. But the
challenge is we're our own boss and we can move
the goalpost and change those timelines. Right.
That is so many business owners get used to this
idea of like, oh, I didn't get it done. I'll
just try tomorrow. That undone to do item just
keeps getting kicked down the road. But if you
had a flight to catch, you'd make that flight,
wouldn't you? If you had a meeting with someone,
you'd show up to that meeting. So somehow we're
able to show up to things when there's an external
place, person, accountability, and so on. And
yet we don't have that self -respect to do that
for ourselves. And so start flexing that muscle
and building that habit of setting out to accomplish
a certain thing in a certain block of time. And
then you become a machine. You become used to
it. You build that habit of setting a place in
a time and a task and getting it done. And it's
the important work, not just the fire of the
day. Right. Show up for yourself, right? Bring
the integrity of your word, not only to help
other people, but for yourself, like bring integrity
for you and show up for you so that your business
can move forward and grow as a human being. Right.
Yeah. The question I really want to ask you is
this. Well, there's a lot of questions I'm going
to ask you in this conversation. But you've worked
with entrepreneurs, and this is your deal. You
are an entrepreneur for entrepreneurs. And I
find myself almost finding myself falling in
this trap, which is you see solopreneurs fall
into when they fall into one that's just trying
to grow their business, and they're always in
it. What do you see as the most dangerous trap
for solopreneurs that are trying to grow their
business and become entrepreneurs? Yeah, so being
a solopreneur, by the way, is great, right? And
that's a really good starting point in your business.
Now, can you grow to a seven figure business
as a solopreneur? Like, yes, you can. But that
also means everything is going to block on you.
So typically where I see business owners get
blocked, growing from a solopreneur to what I
call a true business owner, is in a few areas.
One of those is in this idea of letting someone
else do something, whether it's a VA, a part
-time contractor, a part -time employee, full
-time employee, a team, whatever, right? It's
this idea of letting go of certain things that
you're just used to doing or that you should
do. and allowing someone else to do those on
behalf of the business so you don't have to,
right? So sometimes there's a fear of letting
go. Other times, it's just a lack of systems.
If you haven't documented how to do the things
that you do, you might not get the result you're
looking for when someone else steps in to do
that, right? So step one, I usually advise folks,
is to start to document, like, where do you spend
your time? What are the repeatable things that
you do again and again in your business? that
maybe you don't have to block on you, right?
So for many business owners, that can be things
like bookkeeping, right? Customer service or
customer support, onboarding, right? Any of these
kinds of things that are the same again and again
and again, you can document down. So first step
is to just document what it is that you're doing.
Then follow your own system and you'll realize
that things you're doing you forgot to write
down or the things you wrote down that you don't
actually do and so on. And then you can bring
someone on and hire them for the role of running
that system. When you have hires or team members
you bring on and it's unclear to them what they're
even trying to do or they're supposed to do or
what that measurement of success is, like we
were talking about, that makes it difficult for
them to know how they're doing what they're supposed
to do. But if during the hiring process, you're
going over what the systems and responsibilities
and definitions of success are, they'll be able
to know if they're doing a good job. You'll be
able to know if they're doing a good job. But
more importantly, they'll be able to get a consistent
result. And you won't be the one responsible
for doing that every single day. That starts
to move you towards that freedom, so that your
business can grow and be less dependent on you.
And you get to step out of that hustle space
that maybe you're used to being in as a business
owner. Right. You know, you said freedom. I have
a question here. What can anyone learn from entrepreneurship
about designing a life that supports freedom
and purpose? Think about that. But here's, here's
another area I want to go into. So with business
now, you have a lot of people who start the business,
you know, back in the day, you would start a
business with a business plan. Now, there's a
lot of entrepreneurs that I know of and partly
me, that really have an idea. You kind of write
it down and you try to go after it, but there's
no true business plan, right? And I'm talking
really in the world of digital businesses and
online businesses and things like that. Before
we get into your book, what do you say to those
people who are entrepreneurship minded, But they
don't know back in the day when we used to create
a business plan, an actual business plan to draw
from to grow our business. So the plan is important.
It doesn't need to be as formal as a 20 page
slide deck, right? Back in the day. Right? Personally,
I'm a fan of just organizing my thoughts in a
document, right? Just a bullet list, a few indentations,
just getting stuff out of my head and into a
document. helps me to just organize what I'm
going after. But I'm really a fan of like shipping
an MVP and delivering some value as early as
possible. So like my development processes, typically
I have a hair brand idea. I think it sounds neat.
I want to buy it myself. I get all excited as
entrepreneurs do. And I get the ideas down on
paper and then I do a little research to see
what the marketplace is like. And sometimes I
find there are businesses that serve that space
I didn't even know about that would totally solve
the problem of doing a good job. So that tells
me, hey, it's not a great business idea. It's
being solved. I can go pay someone else to get
the solution I want. Right. Other times I'll
see that their company is trying to solve it
and doing not a very good job or they don't have
the angle I'm looking for. And so that tells
me there might be an opportunity. Ideally, I
find out that like no one's solving this and
it's an unsolved problem. And that's really great
because that can be a good opportunity. But here's
the really important part. Finding out if people
actually want to solve the problem with the solution
you have in mind. And so, you know, I think back
to there's this really high -end mastermind group
that I was part of and I had an idea for a business
that would solve a need that my business at the
time had. And the question was like, do I go
start this new business to solve my current business's
plans? Because that would like distracting me
from my current business. And maybe it's not
a great idea. So who knows? So. They're informally
literally back of the envelope idea a few notes
jotted down. I started asking around like, you
know, here's what I'm thinking of doing to build
for myself. Like is does this have legs? Is this
a good idea? And the feedback I got was like,
no, it's a terrible business idea. But like I
would totally buy that from you. When can I start
paying you for that solution? And I'm like, wait
a minute, I'm hearing two things, right? The
key complaint from folks was that it was too
small of an addressable market. Which was fair.
It was a really, really small niche. However,
like most of these folks were in that niche.
So what I was hearing was I was going to be solving
a problem that a bunch of us had. It just wasn't
a huge market. It wasn't going to be, you know,
a nine, 10 figure business. Here on the Thrival
Journey, we talk a lot about not just surviving,
but thriving. And a big part of that for me has
been understanding my health on a deeper level.
That's why I partnered with Livegood and brought
it under my company, Orion's Health. Not just
because I believe in the products, but because
I've seen what they can do firsthand. I've walked
through some hard health chapters in my life,
including cancer and a kidney transplant. And
I know what it feels like when your body's working
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It's part of my mission through Orion's Health.
to help people thrive in body, mind and spirit.
Of course, of course, always, always, always
consult your physician before starting any new
supplement or health regimen. Your body is unique
and your health care provider should always be
part of the conversation. The links are in the
show notes. Now tap in and take your next step
toward thriving. But it absolutely would have
customers. And so I knew I had people who'd be
interested in beta testing or giving early feedback.
So I was able to ship a really early version
that I could start using and these folks could
start using and get it to the point where it
was ready to share with the world. And the day
I launched, all those existing beta customers
of mine were able to become paying customers.
So before I had any expenses for the CRM or for
marketing or any of these things, before any
of those expenses came due, I already had new
revenue coming in the door from customers who
had been using the product since before it was
ready for release. So I tested the earliest version
possible out to validate it by doing some research,
revising the product based on what the market
was looking for so that when I launched, it was
cashflow positive since day one, which is a theme.
Almost all my businesses, I look to find how
I can be cashflow positive on day one of launching
the business. And the only way you do that is
by shortening the cycle to test your idea out,
to validate against real potential customers.
And then C, is that true based on if they're
actually willing to, for real, pay for the idea
you have and get it off the ground? And that's
a model I've used again and again. Yeah, that's
a great approach. I mean, you've been doing businesses,
what, you're like 10? High school, I had my first,
I would say real business then, meaning generating
revenue, building out a team, you know, scaling
up a business, systems, and all the things we're
talking about. But ever since then, yeah, almost
30 years now. So that's, that's a great approach.
Um, for people, cause you know, I think people
get the idea of wanting to start a business.
They don't really know if it's a problem that
should be solved. It may be a great idea or something.
Some people may want what they're trying to create,
but it may not just be, it may not be a business
business itself. Um, so testing is a really.
really good solid approach to, you know, figuring
out for themselves. And I want to differentiate
there, though. There's a difference between like,
you know, focus groups, right? And true testing,
right? The difference is like a focus group or
asking informally gives you a signal. You're
on to something. Someone's like, Oh, yeah, sure.
I would buy that or oh, that's a valuable idea
to me. That is a good positive signal. You're
on the right track, but that's still very different
than when someone puts a credit card down and
actually transacts with you. So for me, that's
always a good signal. I had a business, even
before the one we were just talking about, where
we were getting the website online. We weren't
even ready to accept credit cards and take orders.
And we had people like buying. And we weren't
ready to start delivering. And so that was this
really encouraging signal of people were already
starting to buy from us. And the product wasn't
even fully launched. The website wasn't even
fully online. To this day, I still have no idea
how they even found us. But we were getting real
customers who were then circling back after purchasing,
hey, when can I get access to the service? And
it was great to get that early validation. So
look for not just the market research question,
but actual customers to transact and buy. That
is how you know you've got an interested customer
base. There you go. You have been an employer,
not an employer, but an entrepreneur, excuse
me, for entrepreneurs for quite some time. And
one of the main, one of the reasons why you're
here today is because you have, you've been working
on your book and it's not quite out yet, but
you've been doing something that I've kind of
been a part of and you've been really getting
feedback. And I'm shifting this way because this
is basically what you're doing with the book
as as you just described getting feedback and
Really creating something that is valuable to
people entrepreneurs and people alike and this
is the your business growth playbook and I'm
gonna look at Before I go into some of the things
you have because of the way that you approach
putting your book out, you've gotten some feedback.
One from one of our mutual partners that we know,
which is Alex Sanfilippo from PodMatch, and it
says, your business growth playbook is exactly
that. A playbook for smart business owners that
helps them avoid the hustle while achieving greater
results. Jeremy, you. is helping entrepreneurs
step out of the struggle and into scale. And
there's just many, many, many other reviews that
I've gotten praise for your book. And first of
all, it was cool to be a part of it. And from
the book itself to the the cover book and the
cover of the book and everything. What inspired
you to write the book? And did you write it just
for entrepreneurs or who did you write it for?
Yeah. So first of all, thank you for asking that.
It's been an incredibly educational journey.
Before you and I hopped in the studio, we were
having a conversation and just talking about,
you know, personal growth, all the things we
learn, right? We're all students of life growing
every day, sometimes not knowing where the journey
will be until we jump in there. So if we look
back, let me ask a few of your questions here
together. The idea for the book has been there
for a while, right? There's strategies I've been
using with clients and with businesses and in
my own businesses for almost 30 years. And I
realized when I look back thematically that there
was like the same playbook of strategies I draw
from. There's three variable formula, and there
are strategies that you can use to improve each
one of those three variables in the equation
to increase overall revenue and profits in a
business. So when I looked at that playbook that
was in my mind, I realized I could codify this.
I could put this on paper. And that way, when
people are feeling stuck in their business and
wanting to get back to growth, there's something
they can read that's tactical that they can go
use. There's a lot of books, and we've all read
these, where they get you excited with the why,
and they may even get into the what, but then
they kind of hold back and don't actually tell
you the how. And as a reader, I always found
that frustrating. You get all hot and bothered
and excited, and then you don't have anything
to do with that energy. So for me, the books
I've always loved are the tactical ones that
show me what to do and tell me the how. So that
was really, really important for me to have in
this. And this is why your business growth playbook,
has that word playbook in there. This is like
a playbook. You can flip through the section
you need, use one of the strategies, rinse and
repeat. And so as I got into this whole book
writing journey, I learned a ton. One of the
things was we talk in business about having your
ideal customer profile, your ICP, or knowing
who your ideal customer is. This lets you adjust
your marketing copy to them, your products, your
services, your languaging, your everything. And
so for a book, that's the same thing. But in
book writing parlance, that's what we call your
reader profile, knowing who it is you want to
read your book. So I knew who that would be,
which, to your question, is an established business
owner. They've seen success. They have proven
sales process. People are buying their product.
But what got them to where they are now, isn't
getting them the next step, right? They've plateaued
and they want to get back to growth and they're
looking for that breakthrough. Like how do I
get back to the exciting growth that was so fun
and supportive and energizing earlier on in my
business and isn't working anymore, right? So
I flushed out that profile and then I did this
editor process we've been talking about. I reached
out to my audience and I asked like, hey, Here's
what I've got for my reader profile. How does
this resonate with you? What did I miss? What
do you like? What don't you like? And so on.
And I got some really great feedback about a
word being confusing or something not being well
-defined enough. So for example, I'd originally
said this was for founders. And then I had someone
say to me, look, here's founder A, right? They've
got a nine figure business and a hundred person
team. And here's founder B, they've got one person
on their team. Are they both going to use the
book in the same way? Like, is that who you're
writing for? And so I took the feedback to heart
and sort of dialed in all these little pieces
for exactly who this is. And then this whole
publishing process, writing this book for the
audience has been iterative, just like we've
been talking about with like this MVP of a product
and incrementally shipping. Instead of just creating
a book and shipping it to the world and hoping
people like it, I've invited folks to join me
on that journey and get early access to that
manuscript. and start giving feedback and reading
the entire manuscript and telling me what's confusing,
what's been helpful, what their thoughts were,
what they would change, what they didn't like,
what was slow, what needs more. And so having
that feedback before it's ready for an editor
was so, so valuable. So by the time it went to
an editor, I had a manuscript that had been read
by my ideal reader that I'd already gotten the
feedback on. So now... with a physical book in
hand, it's not a first draft. It's been refined
by my ideal readers in mass and perfected me
and then gone through editing and then actually,
you know, gone and shipped. And the other piece
that which I love is all that early feedback
I've been getting through that process. These
are early reviews. These are people who have
enjoyed what they've read and want to share that
early feedback with me, which I'll tell you,
they the entrepreneurial journey can be lonely
at times. Right. Especially in the publishing
space, we think of writers out, you know, by
the lake, typing a typewriter overlooking, you
know, the dock, right? Right. It's always so
the writers are always idealized as a solo pursuit.
And so to have people providing feedback has
been so supportive and encouraging along the
way. And it's validating to know that my message
is resonating and that this has been helpful
to people. And that's really helpful to get a
launch just right. Yeah. extremely different
than, and I say extremely different because a
lot of people say, turn your podcast into a book,
but you turn your book, which is not out yet,
it will be here this September, correct? But
you turn your book, your playbook into a podcast.
And like that was opposite of what is pretty
like not written, but, you know, kind of state
it. So what made you do that? As opposed to,
you know, the other way around. I don't think
you had a podcast. So that's one thing. Yeah.
So, you know, I've been invited on to and been
a guest on, you know, well over 100 podcasts
and very often hosts will ask me like, well,
how come you don't have a podcast? Right. And
it's not something I was looking to do per se.
I've had ideas for podcasts. But, you know, when
we're talking about time blocking before, right?
It's important to know what it is you want to
create and build and what the time commitment
will be for that. You know, I'm known for saying
no to a lot of things, but when I say yes, I'm
saying yes, 110%. So like, I do a lot of great
volunteer work, which the prize for that, by
the way, is you get asked to do more volunteer
work, which is wonderful. And I appreciate being
asked, but I'm really clear on like, if something
is in my area of genius, then yes, I'll make
the time and I'll be amazing at that. But if
it's kind of off base, you're just looking for
a warm body, like there'll be better people who
can do a better job and can commit the time,
like save the ask for when I can really over
deliver and be, you know, be really great with
that. So in the same way, while working on the
book to also then be putting together a podcast
and running my businesses and so on, didn't make
a whole lot of sense. And the direction I wanted
to go with the podcast wasn't really congruent
with what I was working on with the book. But
over the summer things sort of gelled and I realized
that you know I now have people using these strategies
that I have in your business growth playbook
in their own business and I know people past
clients and people I've worked with mastermind
members and so on where they have used the strategies
that I talk about in the playbook before is codified
and They've seen great success and breakthroughs
in their business. So That's when I realized
it kind of clicked. Oh my gosh. What if I bring
people on to talk about their journey as a business
owner where they got stuck and then how they
broke through because I'm a tactical guy. I like
the blueprint and the plan, but I also know a
lot of people really like the stories and seeing
that the journeys and identifying with other
people who've been through what they're going
through because you know, we listen to podcasts.
We hear people's stories and we say, oh my gosh.
That was me too, or I hope that'll be me or I'm
glad that wasn't me right like we can suddenly
Connect with stories in a whole nother level
and this is you know my way of bringing these
these tactics to life Through people's real -world
stories or breakthroughs in their very own business.
Yeah, you talk about the the left brain the right
brain in the intro or the The first chapter.
I'm not really sure Expound on that a little
bit Yeah, so some of us connect with stories
and we, you know, like a fable, right? Like why
do fables exist and why do these stories that
have been around for hundreds of thousands of
years persist? It's because there's stories that
are passed down verbally and then, you know,
written down and so on that that teach a point.
This is how we used to teach us through stories
because we remember the emotional connection
we have to the stories, right? Right. There's
the saying, you know, facts tell stories sell.
Right. You know that the sale is made emotionally,
but then justified logically. So for me, like
I enjoy a story, but I tend to make decisions
far more logically. And I want to see the playbook
and the tactics and all that. Right. But I also
know that I'm not necessarily my own reader,
which by the way, for our listeners, there's
a really important lesson. Recognize that typically
in your business, you're not your own customer.
Right, you have so much more knowledge in the
stuff you specialize in than your customers probably
do and you can't always speak at your level because
that might not be where they are and you also
By definition of you doing the thing you're doing
would not be the kind of person who would buy
the thing that you're offering So just remember
that you're serving an audience. That's not you
and you got to speak to what works for them So
stories are a great way to make a point And then
you can reinforce that. So one of the things
I do as an author is at the end of each one of
the tactics in the playbook, I've got an action
box. And it sort of sums up everything you've
just read and puts it in the tactics that I like
at the end of a chapter in the form of a few
questions. This is like the coach and me coming
out. I ask a few questions that get you thinking
about what was just covered in that chapter.
So you can read the story. You can see the examples.
You can relate to a tactic. And then I give you
the thought question to either inspire you to
write down the action item of what you'll do
or if you to journal about or for you to really
digest what you've just taken. Now that's important
because you're actually not only reading and
reading is great reading this fundamental, but
you also get the the tactics like you saying
to really apply some of these strategies and
one of the strategies that you talked about.
is let's talk about the first chapter, which
is the biggest obstacle to growth and profit.
And one of the stories that you that you that
you used in here was the story of the wagoner
in Hercules. Yeah. I really like that. Can you
expound on that for people so that just expound
on that? And then I'll ask later. Sure. So we've,
we've heard the phrase, you know, feeling stuck
in a rut before. And you know, I sort of I knew
what that meant, but when I was researching putting
things together for the book and found the story
of Hercules in the Wagoneer, it all clicked for
me. So the story is that there's this guy out
there. He's got a cart with his two oxen are
pulling it and he's going along on this road.
And what do you know? But the cart sort of veers
off the road, the oxen or lettuce tray, who knows?
And the wagon gets stuck in this little rut on
the side of the road. And, you know, the wheel
is, you know, jammed up there. And so this wagging
or the guy who drives this wagon gets off and
is, you know, all distraught because he's literally
stuck in a rut and praise to Hercules. And he's
like, ah, like, help me out. Like, I'm stuck
in this rut. So Hercules comes down and looks
at this guy who's who's done nothing to fix his
problem. Right. He's gotten into a situation
that he didn't necessarily put himself into that
was out of his control. But instead of doing
something about it, he just stops and sort of
throws up his hands literally to the sky and
is like, help me out of this rut. So Hercules
is like, come on, man, like you didn't even do
anything. Like, did you urge your oxen to pull
the cart to try and get it forward? Did you lean
in and put a shoulder into the cart to kind of
push and help help them out? Like, do something,
right? Take action and then I can help you out.
And so the wagoner is like, oh, OK. And so he
leans in and pushes the cart forward. He's like,
come on, Oxen, like, let's go and urges them
while leaning into the cart. And then with that
effort, and then we imagine some help from Hercules,
the cart is freed and is on its way. And the
big takeaway for me in all this is there are
things out of our control, whether that's a changing
marketplace or changing customers or just the
trends or politics or whatever that you don't
control. What we can do is choose how we react.
What do we do in that situation? What is the
action that we take? Because our best ideas Those
don't drive change, right? When we go to a conference,
when we hear a speaker, when we watch a video
or hear a podcast and we feel great and we feel
inspired, that's good. But then what do you do
with that? What's the action you take from there?
And so if you take your ideas and then put it
into action, that's how you see a result. If
you lean into that cart and you push it and urge
those auction forward, well, that's how you drive
change is by doing something. So whatever book
you read, whatever podcast you listen to, however
inspired you are, make sure you write down like
what your action plan is and what you plan to
get done. And then actually put it on your calendar
and block the time to accomplish those things
and get them done. It's good to feel good, right?
And it's good to feel inspired, but take that
inspired to action, make that action and expire
and expire inspired action. And I think that's
probably when you have so much to look at and
about Bart it was so much information um sometimes
I would assert that people don't know what next
action to take whatever it may look like but
I think that um you put it together like put
it together really well it's like you know get
your boxes and and and really technically look
at what's the next very next step for you to
get you know, the next thing done. And, you know,
one of the, you talked about the, where is that?
Oh, shoot, where is it at? I think it's shiny
object, right? The shiny object entrepreneur,
where the entrepreneur is like, you know, ooh,
that looks good, ooh, that looks good, ooh, that
looks good. And pretty much all that ooh looks
good. It could be good, you know, for particular
person that's looking for a specific particular
thing but we need to get focused on you know
what the next step is for us in moving the needle
so that we can create growth and you talk about
plateau as well um can you just go into uh go
just go into a little depth about the shiny object
uh mentality and really stopping to Really create
something for yourself so you can move your business
forward. Yeah, I think there's three sort of
gates that every entrepreneur has to get through
to have a business right and to really be an
entrepreneur because look the truth is Entrepreneurship
isn't for everyone like it really is for a select
few weirdos out there that should be doing this
right and that's okay the first thing that I
see commonality of entrepreneurs is we See the
problem out there We see the gap in the marketplace.
We see what could be better. Whereas I think
most folks just accept things that face value
for what it is. We see, you know, a problem in
an experience that we have as a consumer or that
we have in our life. And so that's sort of that
first thing that we see the opportunity. We might
be accused of by, you know, friends or spouses
or family members, whatever of being distractible.
Right. You know, squirrel, you can get distracted
by the shiny. Right. And that's often said as
a negative, but almost every entrepreneur that
I've worked with or connected with has that aspect.
And that's because we see the opportunities.
Right. Whereas others are just tunnel vision.
We see the opportunities. That's sort of one.
The second thing is that we have an idea for
a solution. We see a gap in the marketplace.
We have an idea for a marketplace that can be
served. But then that second thing is we know
what we can do with that. So while some other
people might see the problem, they'll complain
about it. They're not talking about a solution.
They'll just talk about the problem. We entrepreneurs
see the problem and create the solution. So that's
two things. But none of that matters without
the third piece here. And that third is that
we take action. Some folks are paralyzed by taking
action. And so they'll see a problem. They'll
create a solution for it. But then they do nothing
with it. And until you actually do something
to bring your solution to market and solve that
problem for people, it's just another idea. And
none of the rest of it matters. And so that comes
back to what we're talking about before, which
is take action, not just see the idea, not just
have the solution to it. but do something with
it do something with it let's talk about that
a little bit because i think that there are a
lot of people who not a lot but there are people
that see the problem and see a solution to the
problem but they won't take action like you said
um what's stopping them do you think it's just
fear or um just the lack of understanding of
what to do next. What do you think that is? Because
I know that there's somebody listening that may
be in that situation for themselves. Yeah. So
a big piece of it that I see oftentimes is the
fear piece, right? And that's usually the fear
of the unknown, right? Or the self -doubt of,
can I do something with it? Right. Oftentimes,
The reality is just gets relegated to the back
burner. You feel inspired, you have an idea and
then like life comes calling and you're back
to the job and the family and the other obligations.
But if you're committed to doing something with
it, then it's a matter of creating that plan
like we're talking about and starting down the
path towards executing that idea and bringing
it to market. And the truth is you're not going
to have all the answers, right? No matter how
many times I launch a new business, I'm always
starting it with a whole bunch of unknowns. Right.
Exactly. When you when you leave the house, you
know, in the car, you don't have all green lights
the whole way. You don't know where every construction
is going to be every crosswalk, every, you know,
dog crossing the road. You leave anyways and
you start down and along the way you find out
like, oh, there's construction and there's a
red light and oh, school school's going. So traffic
is, you know, a little slower on the crosswalk
and so on and so on. But that doesn't stop us
because we have comfort with the fact that when
we get out on the road, we'll figure this out
and we'll get there. Right. And so it's about
bringing that same confidence into launching
a business idea, knowing you don't have all the
answers, asking for help, taking that next right
step, whatever it might be, and knowing you'll
uncover things as you go. When I first went to,
you know, to publish my book, I put pen to paper,
and man, I was confident three, four weeks, I'd
have this thing print to PDF on Amazon and like
the book is done. That's it. And boy, each step
of the way, I got a little deeper and realized
that no, there's intentionality that goes into
writing this and getting that early reader feedback
and getting designs done and working with an
editor and so on and so forth. Things I didn't
know to look out for until I jumped in the deep
end. So you got in. Yeah. Yeah. Every one of
my peak life experiences when I look back has
always come from saying yes to a dumb idea. from
jumping in with both feet saying, yeah, let's
figure this out because that bigger picture thing
we're talking about, that sounds great. I don't
know how I'll get there right now, but I am committed
to whatever that bigger idea is. So for listeners,
if you've got that idea for a business, right?
Flesh it out, right? Start getting some feedback
from folks. Figure out what that next step is
to validate that. But more importantly, look
at what you can do to get it to market and have
someone say yes to being a customer, right? You
get a few of those. And you start to get the
momentum and you start to validate the idea.
And next thing you know, you look in the rear
view and you've got a business and you've got
customers and you've got a product and the rest
of the stuff you can figure out as you go. Yeah.
Don't be scared to put yourself out there. Well,
I think a lot of people are so addicted to the,
you know, being accepted factor and you gotta
forget about that. The first one to accept it
needs to be you, right? The rest of the world
would catch up with you. Right. You have a quote
I've never heard before. Um the secret of getting
ahead is getting started. The secret of getting
started is breaking your complex overwhelming
task into small manageable task and then starting
on the first one, Mark Twain, right? And that's
kind of what we're speaking to like no matter,
you know, like you said, what size of the business
it is like really just get started and don't
just don't fear the unknown. Yeah. Just put yourself
out there. Yeah, I mean this we've we've probably
all heard the phrase like how do you eat an elephant?
You know one bite at a time Yeah, I didn't hear
that before and then somebody posed that question
to me and I was like One bite at a time. I just
figured that out. But it's just so funny that
I've never heard that saying before but that's
the only thing that came to mind Yeah, well we
look at anything we want to do right and especially
if it's bigger it can be overwhelming So when
you break down to like what is the the minimum?
piece of value you can ship that you can get
out there to move things forward. And so when
we talk about heading out to the coffee shop
or your separate workspace, whatever it is, and
having an idea of the one to three things you
want to get done, none of those are these big
overwhelming tasks like launch business. That's
a big fuzzy thing. But when you break it down
to what is that next thing I can do, you can
get that done. And so you've been with me on
this book publishing journey, for example. So
it's like, great. Well, what are the bigger things
I need to get done? Well, we've got to finalize
the book title. That's kind of important. A lot
of things block on that. That's a manageable
task. But even within that, it's like, all right,
well, what's the formula for success of what
a good book title is? All right, what's the research
that needs to get done to figure that out? What
are the keywords we're going for? Who's the reader
profile? It all sort of backfills to, aha, let
me. Sit down and dial in my reader profile and
get that locked in and get some feedback. Let
me write an email out to my list and ask a question
about this thing and get that done. Let me do
the research on this thing and finish that up
before I walk out the door and get that done.
Right. And each step of the way is the next thing
you can do that moves you forward. If you think
about like the compartments in the submarine,
right. As you go through each one of those compartments,
you turn around and you turn that watertight
lock behind you and you move forward. Right,
and then you can open that next one and step
through that and close that one up But if we're
not actually finishing things Then we're just
starting a thousand tasks and until they ship
and they get out there. They don't have any value
So we actually get things done and ship them
and get the value back Yeah, and that that Speaks
to scaling business as well, right? Yeah, very
much. Yeah and you talked about there's a story
that you used. What was it? There was someone
and I wanted to kind of shift into your your
your mastermind. So that's why I use the story.
There's a story of someone in the mastermind
that didn't know how to play. Their businesses
has plateaued, and they didn't know how to scale
it. But they talked to someone in the mastermind.
And this is what I want to talk about, which
is Get yourself connected with other entrepreneurs
that are doing things like you or better than
you or just safe. I can't even tell right now.
They're facing the same problems and really wanting
to grow their business as well. And entrepreneurship,
the journey can feel uh lonely right but there
are ways to really include other entrepreneurs
in your journey you were in their journey so
that you can continue to move forward would you
and you have a um a uh the mastermind and i can't
see it's not it's the bay is a baby it's not
bay watch bay area mastermind yeah bay area i'm
sorry i didn't write it down on my note so it's
bay area mastermind and you have i'm sorry But
you have other entrepreneurs that really are
really growing from your mastermind. And can
you talk about maybe a story that you can share
that someone has really grown or got a great
outcome from being in your mastermind? Yeah.
So you touched on this idea that I talk about
a lot, which is the journey of entrepreneurship
is lonely. And whatever the journey is that you
are going on in your life, whether it's becoming
a parent for the first time, whether it's caring
for an older family member, whether it's launching
a business, whether it's learning to ride bikes,
whatever it is, find or create your community
of other people to be around you who are also
on that same journey, but naturally will be at
different steps or having different experiences.
Because that's how we learn about not just the
things that we want to learn about, right? We
don't just get answers to questions we have.
We learn about things we didn't even know existed,
knowledge we wouldn't have had before, right?
So like knowledge kind of falls into one of three
categories, right? There's the stuff you know
you know, right? The things you confidently talk
about, the things that you can teach on, the
things that you can have a really great conversation
around, right? There's the things you know you
don't know. These are the categories of things
you search online for. The things that you ask
people about, that you seek out mentors and experts
on, that you find books and courses on, and so
forth. Because you know you don't know it and
you want to find an answer. But the huge giant
part of that pie chart is the stuff you don't
know you don't know. So when you surround yourself
with people on a similar journey, that's where
you find out about all this, is by hearing them
share their stories about what's going on, the
challenges they're facing, the accomplishments
they've had. And you understand about pitfalls
that You might have narrowly avoided and he didn't
even know it, right? Or that might be ahead of
you on this path and you start to get, you know,
answers to questions you didn't know you have.
And that is where I've seen growth so often.
So I think one of the stories you're alluding
to is, um, you know, we had two business owners
across the table from each other in very different
businesses, right? One had a brick and mortar
retail store and one had an e -commerce business,
right? So one's like fully in person and one's
fully online. They've both been growing their
business and seeing success. They have customers
buying from them every single day. It's like
that's not a problem, but their growth only got
them so far. And by being in that room and talking
about what was going on in their business and
the wins they were having and so forth, there
was this really interesting knowledge transfer.
So the e -commerce business owner was hearing
about this brick and mortar retail store who
was using direct mail. They were sending out
physical mailing to people to get them to come
into the store. And that was working. Every time
they would send mail out, people came in the
store and bought, and they could look at how
much was spent on this and how much new revenue
came in and see their return on investment, their
ROI on the direct mail campaigns. Now, the e
-commerce guy is running an online business and
using pay -per -click and ads and digital media
and all these things to bring customers in and
using email very successfully, but hadn't even
looked at direct mail, didn't even know the term,
wouldn't have even known how to start with that.
So if you don't even know a channel exists, you
can't go looking for answers because you don't
even know the right questions to ask. And on
the flip side, this brick and mortar retail store
owner wasn't even collecting email addresses
of customers. There was no email list. There
was no email marketing to be done. simply by
these two business owners sharing the strategies
that were working because this e -comm guy would
send an email and money would come in. He could
look at his earnings per click and all these
stats and metrics that the retail store owner
had never heard of. And so just by sharing the
strategies over the course of the month between
the two meetings, the e -commerce store owner
used the best practices that they learned about
and bought a list of people who'd never heard
of the business before, created a mail piece,
worked with the mail house, sent out the direct
mail campaign, had new business coming in from
new customers in a totally, you know, blue ocean
of opportunity, right, and was able to share
the results. That brick and mortar retail store
owner came back in excited to show that they
were now collecting email addresses from customers
when they came into the store and building out
their list, permission based list. They were
sending out emails and when they sent an email
out, customers came in the store and bought.
So they were adding on incremental new business
just by leveraging strategies they learned about
in the room that they wouldn't have had the questions
of the language to even ask about. They came
in looking to solve a problem that was top of
mind for them. And what they really got was so
much more value by hearing from others sharing
about what's going on in their business and what's
working well. How does a person that is in a
digital business that may be sending out or trying
to accrue emails but not getting the same result.
What steps would they take? To get better results
with their email or to expand beyond that channel?
To get better results with the email. Yeah, so
if we want to nerd out on email marketing, a
common challenge I see is what we call congruency.
And this, by the way, applies to all your channels.
You look at where someone first is exposed to
your ad or your brand or something. And the whole
journey they go through to becoming a customer
and going through your new customer journey.
At any point that you lose congruency in your
messaging, in your marketing, or any of that,
you're going to have a drop off. So there's an
incremental process that I use in looking at
any funnel to find the worst performing parts
of it, improve that, rinse, repeat, and so forth.
When we do a funnel evaluation, every funnel
has holes in it. And that's actually OK to a
certain extent. But there's different strategies
we take to fix it. So in your case, if the example
you're talking about of emails not getting the
engagement, the first point is when someone signs
up or opts in to be on that email list. What
is it that got them to even give you the email
address? And what was the the tacit agreement
you had for why they get on there? Right. So
a classic mistake I see is like somebody opts
in to get a newsletter and then you've got like
a hard sell email to sell something that's like
a different brand. There's totally not congruency
there. They wanted a weekly newsletter and you're
now telling them, hey, go buy this thing from
somebody else. There are ways to do that, but
you've lost congruency there. Your highest open
rates will be on the weekly newsletter they signed
up for. Or someone buys and they're purchasing
from you as a customer and they intentionally
tick the box that says, yes, I want to receive
offers from you by email. And then you follow
up with an offer. Well, they wanted that. They
were looking for that. And so you're delivering.
So that'll be a higher open rate. All right.
So there's what the agreement was to what the
email is about. But the first point of contact
on the email is that subject line. Is that subject
line matching what you said they would be getting?
And then does the subject line flow into what
the email is about? Is there congruency between
the subject line, which is the promise of what
they get when they read the email? and then the
actual email body. And then we go from what's
in the email body to what's the offer or the
next step if you're bringing them to your website
to buy now, to sign up, to do whatever the action
is, your call to action, your CTA. Is that congruent
with what the text is? Then they get to the landing
page for that. Is that congruent with the email,
with the subject line and so forth? So you can
see at any step of the way here, if we don't
have congruency, people are gonna drop out and
you'll have a low conversion point along that
step of the way. Folks, that was worth $1 ,000
per word. So I hope that people really look at
that, listen to that. Because, I mean, that's
what we get, what people get when they go to
your mastermind group, when they look at their
business and other people's business in areas
that their business is working where the others
are not. You talk about unknown unknown in the
terms of variables. Is that what that speaks
to or what is that exactly? Yeah. So the unknown
unknowns is really just when you hear from others
about what they're working on, right? We generally
break everyone's hot seat down to like what's
working, what's not and where you need help,
right? So when people share about what's working,
these are the wins. There's so much to learn
from people sharing about the things they knocked
out of the park because they're sharing the best
of the best. What got a result? And generally,
you can translate that into your business and
also get a positive result. They also share about
what's not working. And so you learn maybe what
not to do. You generally also can provide some
feedback and ask some good questions. And then
where they need help is usually when people come
in is looking for that big answer is what they're
looking for. But here's what I find interesting.
When people join us for the first time, They're
usually coming in to answer one big question,
right? Usually they're feeling stuck and they
want to get back to growth or something's not
working. They want an answer there. But the pages
of notes they get when they leave the room is
not from their hot seat or around that one question.
It's from what everybody else was sharing. So
for our listeners, wherever you are in life and
business and so forth, find a way to surround
yourself and create or join a community of people
also on that journey. That's where you find out
about all these big unknown unknowns. And also,
when you go and you pick up books, you and I
are both avid readers. This is one of many bookshelves
we have around, full of books. I enjoy buying
books and consuming books and learning from them,
because I often learn so much when I pick up
a new book, much more than I ever thought I'd
get just from that cover alone. But you don't
know until you get the book, and you still don't
know until you crack the book open, and you still
don't know until you actually go through that
book. Each one of those is an incremental step,
getting you closer to getting value. But you've
got to take those individual steps. Individual
steps. You have a ton of knowledge and a ton
of skill that people can really learn from. But
what lessons from your book that people can apply
now or when they get your book? from who anyone
who wants to thrive and not just entrepreneurs
but you know people who may feel like they're
plateaued in their career yeah what can go ahead
so uh you may have had this experience yourself
where there's a book on your bookshelf you you
find yourself drawn back to you know years many
years later and you crack it open and you start
reading it again and you're like oh like who
came in here when I wasn't looking at like put
this new chapter in like this wasn't here the
last time I read the book and it absolutely was
it just didn't speak to you at that time in your
life it didn't mean something to you you didn't
need it right so when you go back and you reread
a book again you find there's new value there
right when you go back and you listen to a podcast
episode you heard before and you're just at a
different place in life or in business there's
there's more value there than you got the first
time right so yeah so don't always view something
as one and done You can go back to courses, books,
the knowledge you've brought into your life.
There's so much untapped knowledge in there.
Go back, rinse, repeat. And I was really intentional
when I put your business growth playbook together.
To have this broken out, there's three big sections,
one for each of the three variables in my formula.
And within those are tons of strategies that
can adjust the lever in each of those three pieces.
So when you go through, take an iterative approach.
Right. Apply one tactic, get a result. Right.
Measure it is really important. And then come
back and apply a different strategy. And we repeat
this. And there's a story I share in the book
about the British cycling team. They were terrible.
They consistently lost as a cycling team on the
global race scene for decades until they brought
in this new head coach who was all about what
we call incremental gains. So he tests little
things. to get a result. Some things worked,
some things didn't, but it was all these little
small things. But each of these little changes
can make a 1 % difference. And when you start
stacking these little 1 % differences, whether
this was his players washing their hands before
they eat. Sounds simple, but wouldn't you know
if you're a competitive athlete and you get sick,
that can set your training back weeks. And so
it seems like a small change, but like... Does
having the team wash their hands before they
sit down and eat make a difference? What do you
know? It does. Little thing about changing nutrition
or changing hydration or changing what they fuel
and when. Changing the seat position, the seat
height, what they use for wheels and bars, all
these little, little variables, they were always
testing, looking for these little 1 % gains.
But those have this compounding effect that they
build on each other. And then you look in the
rear view that just by testing things out, you
can move forward a little bit at a time. So come
back to your business growth playbook, apply
tactic, right? And then rinse and repeat. Don't
be afraid to try things because that's how you
find out what works and what doesn't. And it's
okay if something doesn't work. It's better to
fail fast and learn that and then come back and
apply something else and go from there. If you
fail, fail fast, fail fast and just bounce back
with the experiments. I think you did talk about,
you have three levers, levers, levers, however
you wanna pronounce it in your book. I didn't
know if you wanted to go through that real quick
or if you wanted to, it's good. If not, it's
okay. We can touch on a high level, right? Yes.
When we look at this really important... a metric
to look at in any business. I don't care what
kind of business you have, this metric matters.
It's customer lifetime value or CLV. And this
is what a customer is worth revenue -wise to
your business over their lifetime of doing business
with you. So whatever business model you have,
there is a customer lifetime value there. And
you may think, but I only have one transaction
with a customer and that's it. Well, I've worked
with many businesses that could only transact
one time. And we found a way, many ways, to increase
that customer lifetime value. And there's three
variables that go into that. Improve any one
of those. You multiply F by A by Q. If you improve
any one of those, that's a multiplicative result.
You are multiplying the impact. So for example,
a simple strategy most folks overlook is this
idea of raising your prices. It feels silly.
But when you raise the price, that raises how
much someone spends when they do business with
you. And what so many of us forget is that the
price we charge is a perceived value that we
have in our mind that a new customer doesn't
know about until they see us for the first time.
So whatever pricing model you have is probably
stuck in years ago when you set that pricing
model up and you never thought to revisit. So
what would happen if you were to increase your
prices? Well, first, you've got to become comfortable
with that idea or step out of the comfort zone
and do it anyways. But then we test. I'm not
saying go to all your existing customers and
say, guess what? You're going to pay us more
money now, even though as consumers, we're used
to companies doing that regularly. So you can
do that, but you can test it out on your landing
page. Split test your traffic. Some of your traffic
sees a different price, and some sees your traditional
pricing. And does that change things? What I
can say is experimentally, very often, changing
your pricing doesn't often impact the conversion
rates, which means you've left money on the table
for all the time it took you to become comfortable
with the idea of raising your price. Now, you
can't raise it beyond a certain limit. And we
don't know what that is until we experiment because
then you do start to hurt conversions. Sometimes,
though, a price increase actually increases conversions
because of a perceived value. Your customers
view you as a more premium brand. So all that
aside, If we just take simple numbers, and let's
say you've got a subscription business. Let's
say you charge $40 a month, and your profit margin
is $10. So it costs you $30 to service this customer
that's paying you $40 all in, and your profit
margin that you clear off, that's $10 a month.
Easy numbers. Let's say we experiment, and we
bring that for a new customer to $50 a month.
That's not that big of a deal. We have a 25 %
price increase. That's not huge for a new customer
who's never seen your business before. They probably
wouldn't know or feel a difference. So let's
just say you have the same conversion rate. But
what does that mean for the profit margin? It
costs you nothing more to get that customer or
to service them. So even though the overall price
only went up 25%, your profit margin just doubled.
It went up 100%. Now you're seeing $20 profit
a month instead of the 10. meaning you could
actually convert far fewer customers and still
have the same or more profit in the business.
So your gross sales can go up incrementally,
your profit margin can go up dramatically, and
you can have a smaller customer base to serve
while you're making more money overall, right?
So that's like a simple change you can make that
many business owners overlook in their business.
That's detail. And I think that anybody who's
listening and that has a subscription business
or just a business at all, that has product where
it could really like just take that little piece
right there and apply it to their life and start
to see conversions and higher profit mergers
for themselves. And we could go on and on and
on. And I want to first appreciate your skill
and appreciate what you bring to a conversation
and and to people's lives right it it really
makes a difference if you would just sit and
listen to what you have to share it really um
it really makes a difference for entrepreneurs
and people who are just probably and would you
you will use the word plateaued in their lives
or what have you um but as we come to a close
on on this session um What's one thing that's
on your heart or your mind that you would like
to share as your last words on the podcast this
time? Because I'm sure you'll be back. The world
can be a big scary place, and it's mostly full
of unknowns. There's very, very, very, very little
we actually know about the world around us, right?
And that's okay. We have all survived that as
humanity for a very long time. You can too. Don't
let that fear of the unknown get in the way of
you stepping out the front door in the morning,
of launching that business, of trying out that
new sales channel, of taking a chance on a business
partner or a new product idea or whatever it
is. We've all heard nothing ventured, nothing
gained. There's a lot of truth in that. Just
be mindful of how you mitigate your risk because
we can never really eliminate risk. We can just
mitigate it. Take that step boldly forward, understand
how to mitigate your risks, but be okay doing
something to ship some incremental value out
there to grow yourself personally or grow that
business. But take action is really what that
all comes down to. But take action. Jeremy, I
can't thank you enough for coming back on the
podcast and sharing your insights or skill. You're
just, you're just. we're with all and understand
of business and business growth and in your book.
People just need to get it when it's when it
when it comes out, but people can get the first
chapter now and how do people get in contact
with you and get that first chapter so they can
begin to really shift their their business? Yeah,
so if you head to yourbusinessgrowthplaybook
.com, you can actually get access to the book
early. We got a PDF out to you so you can see
what this book is. You also find pre -order links
online as well as order links for our listeners
listening later on to buy the book. But for sure,
we talked about funnels. When you come to yourbusinessgrowthplaybook
.com, that's your opportunity to opt in to get
early access PDF. be part of our community of
like minded entrepreneurs and business owners
and start that relationship to get you unstuck
and back to the growth that we all deserve. Yeah,
I love it. And it's been an eye opener and just
a way of raising my understanding of businesses
as well. Just being connected to you and what
you have again. I mean, it's it's It's amazing.
So just know that for yourself. And I'm sure
you do, but just know that from my perspective,
that's what you have to offer. So Jeremy, thank
you for being here on the Thrive Bowl journey.
And I wish all success to you and your book.
And as we always say, let's make thriving our
new normal. And we'll see you next week. Love
it. Thanks for inviting me on and always great
chatting with you. Absolutely. Absolutely. Before
you go, I just want to say thank you. Thank you
for being a part of the Thrabull journey. Every
time you show up here, you're choosing growth,
clarity, and the deeper work of becoming who
you're meant to be in this world. And if you're
ready to reconnect with what truly lights you
up, I created something powerful that can help
you. It's called The Empowered Path, Seven Days
to Reclaim Your Purpose and Passion. It's a beautifully
designed guided workbook that walks you through
a week of powerful prompts, clarity building
tools, and real mindset shifts. Now you can get
instant access to it today. It's a small investment
for a huge return. Your energy, your clarity,
your alignment. And if you want to take it deeper,
check this out. I'm offering a limited number
of free 30 minute purpose coaching sessions.
No pressure. No pitch, just space for you to
reconnect with your direction, your gifts, and
what's next. So you can grab the guide and book
your session at the link in the show notes. Let's
not just go through the motions. Let's really
walk this path on purpose. I appreciate you.
And like we always say, let's make thriving our
new normal. And I'll talk to you soon.