hello everyone welcome to another google
hangout I’m really excited to have with
me a special guest very mult Barry and I
are both speaking at the sage summit
that’s coming up in at the end of July
wow it’s coming up fast you like 27 to
30 s Barry is having a session and he’s
joining us via audio today to answer
some questions and talk about a session
so very welcome aboard thanks I’m just
joining you this is not smart enough to
get the camera on so there you go I’m
nothing session and technology that’s a
good thing you have other areas of
wisdom uh talk to me about getting
unstuck what what do you what what’s
your session going to be all about well
you know there’s a lot of small business
owners that start business start
companies and their business justice and
where they want it to be and their stuff
they’re making a living but it’s not
successful as what they they wanted it
so I hope I’m getting stuck in a series
of different areas or the biggest place
that their stuff is around sales and
marketing you know they have a problem
where they only do sales and marketing
when they have no business but it’s just
a business Evan they stopped doing sales
marketing got them there so I helped me
get unstuck in that area at the summit
I’m simply talking about a couple
different areas one is how healthy is
your business what are the 10 steps you
gotta go through to get your business
and better play succeed and the other
one which is a companion is the 10
biggest money wasters in your business
love it can you I mean I have time to go
through all 20 things but can you give
some highlights well as far as that you
know your business health you really
have to look at cash flow every single
company Evan goes at as a business for
one reason that’s because they run at a
cash and Rose businesses unfortunately
don’t monitor what their cash flow is
profit is not cash flow so we talked
about how effectively to do that cool
and what about what about money wasters
where people losing money God you know
one of the biggest money wasters in
people’s businesses they go out and they
do search engine marketing without
getting some expertise some help you
talk about the best way to lose 500
bucks isn’t at the roulette table it’s
by doing Google AdWords without knowing
what you’re doing I like that man
so true uh you know I was told juice in
the meeting with somebody and he stuck
and I was thinking about hey you know
what I want to run the situation by
Barry she wants no I’m talking to you uh
he’s a different situation when he’s run
his business for about 20 years he
teaches kids athletics helps build their
confidence will teach them skills and
he’s feeling I don’t say bored but like
he does what he does you know it’s it’s
been consistent it’s not taking off he’s
starting to have other interests now
we’re starting to do other things um
well you know it’s kind of stuck right
he’s feeling kind of stuck I think in
the business I’m personally what kind of
advice to give someone like that well I
would ask him tell me your definition
now of success because it may have been
different than was previously but also
asking about his passion what does it
really lie does he really have the
passion to keep going and doing what
he’s doing he may not if he doesn’t then
really it’s time to get out either sell
it or hand it over to other folks
because it will show up in his idea to
get success because him to passion
anymore it’s gonna be tough I do you
think people hang on too long oh you
know that I mean so yeah cuz it every
major athlete does right yeah that’s
true man because I do i do old some
brokering of some businesses and it
seems like every single time we get to a
point where selling a business and we
have a letter of intent the company is
going through a quarter of bad times you
know they just waited too long to sell
and I think a lot of I mean the
successful businessperson Evan you know
if they say they knows what the hold of
me knows when to fold them I admire the
business people that know when to get
out so somebody’s thinking about getting
out what what you know what process
should they go through how do they know
how do they have that self-awareness to
move aside so you know has your
definition success change you still have
the same passion that you had previously
the third thing is okay let’s say you
flip the keys to somebody else what are
you gonna do the next day for a lot of
people scares the out of them right
and why aren’t you doing something else
you’re not doing something else do you
don’t know what to do and it’s easier to
stay what’s really going on here yeah i
remember when i sold my first business
was a software company mm-hmm i was all
excited like yeah woohoo we still
it and then I had I was depressed i got
to know what to wake up on you the next
day i sell business for people like
question always what do you do the day
after the business closes after you sell
it what are you gonna do if then have a
good answer they’re probably not ready
to sell the business right got it and
then back to a point you made earlier
you’re saying that a lot of
entrepreneurs when they’re first
starting out they do the sales and
marketing and then they take the foot
off the gas and maybe they get too stuck
and running the business and no longer
like feeding the pipeline what’s the
solution is it hiring people is it just
a renewed focus on it how do you get
people out of that funk I think that you
have a systematic approach to sales and
marketing we have systems in a lot of
other parts of our business systems and
how to service a customer systems on how
to produce a product systems on how to
do our our our finance people don’t have
sales and marketing systems right people
don’t want to be sold to they want to be
educated what kind of system can i put
together that i can create a
relationship with someone so when they
have the pain that I saw I’m there when
they’re ready to buy you got to be there
when people are ready to buy that’s
really the key and that’s about building
relationships and to me that’s a lot
about content marketing or social media
to stay in front of them so they
understand the pain you saw so what if
I’m mom you know so I’m i have a
restaurant I have a salsa dancing school
I have you know I’m doing my thing and
I’m not necessarily good at social media
I may be scared of it I don’t know I
don’t know how to make it work i may be
hired somebody and I did what you did
you know what you said I spent five
hundred dollars of google adwords and it
sucked what is it do i need to learn
that scale is that a necessary skill now
to be an entrepreneur can i outsource
add what do you think i think that you
can’t outsource the content but you can
outsource the tool so in other words the
content that i want to deliver was
through email or social media is all
right let’s say I’m a salsa dancing
school right it’s like you might send
some says here the health benefits of
dance right you’re not going to sell
them on attending your school here’s the
health benefits of dance this how
dancing improves your relationship with
your spouse stuff like that you have to
come with the content the system by
which it gets delivered you can
outsource that but you need to know what
the content is from your side I think
that’s very very important obviously you
have to respond to and interact
whatever prospects and customers when
they have questions are coming on
whatever you’re doing yeah I mean a lot
of people to it say well I don’t know
what to write I don’t know what content
to put out there I don’t know what
people want to read but in reality it’s
answering questions that are already
coming in day and day out from their
customers right like that how would you
get it you’re going when people sign up
one of the questions they have about
dancing about doing salsa what are the
issues they have just talked about that
hey you know in a restaurant you can
talk about all sorts of different kinds
of things right why do people come to
restaurants right they come to socialize
they come be good food they tried got
new different kinds of things there’s a
zillion things you can do we’re getting
a questioning from Indrajit who wants to
be financially free and is in the IT
space your thoughts on chasing an
opportunity that’s hot versus doing
something that you’re excited about and
trying to turn into a business yeah I
would say that if you’re trying to chase
an opportunity that’s hot you probably
already missed it right once it’s hot
you’re probably behind you’ve got to
have the passion because remember Evan
being in business is not about what
you’re doing but it’s really about who
you’re doing it with you gotta be able
to groove on the folks you’re working
with because ultimately it’s not about
the idea it’s about how are you and your
team going to execute it and if you know
the passion for and if you know the
skills you’re never gonna be successful
so so this is my anger cheats watching
live now he’s asking the question and I
guess you know he he’s in IT he wants to
start a business he wants to eventually
be financially free what what advice do
you give him for starting this company
well the first thing is what is
financially free really mean to him
right what is his goal for success does
that mean I need to make a hundred
dollars a week I need to make a million
dollars a week and where where does that
go the other part is you have to think
about what can you solve and who has the
money to solve the pain you can’t just
say hey I really feel like I want to
open up a restaurant i really want to
salsa running business what is also
running a salsa dance business what pain
do you really solve and who is the money
solving you’ve got to answer that
question first Evan before you do
anything else because if you don’t
you’re never gonna have customers got it
now there’s a lot of people I see two as
they’re growing their business they you
know they start doing everything
themselves
and then and then they end up hiring
people to try to grow and then you see
them kind of plateau a lot of is because
they end up doing things that they don’t
necessarily want to do anymore you know
their management team maybe that wasn’t
what they signed up for they’ve lost you
know some of the passion for their
business or they’re not doing this house
they really love doing and they plateau
and they grow to a certain size and then
it’s a growth growth growth and then
it’s like stop stop stop and it’s just
flatlined what what advice do you give
to them well I think a lot of small
business owners first of all don’t know
how to build a team a lot of more self
stars are used to doing things
themselves and that’s why they’re able
to start a business but they’re never
able to transition Evan out of the hub
and spoke kind of business where
everyone works for them or even if they
don’t work for them they make all the
real decisions is something that’s a lot
more hierarchical because if you don’t
have leverage through your employees in
your business you’re probably not in a
business you just have a job and if
you’re not the person so for example I
was really good at running businesses up
to 10 million dollars and probably 50 or
60 people after that I had no interest
it just got too bureaucratic I handed
over someone else or sell it hmm ya know
what you’re good at much not good at hmm
so so are you the guy and this is just
curious you the guy who starts the
business are you you take over business
and improve the systems and build it to
that 10 million dollars in an exit where
do you fit in I mean to the starter or
the guy that comes in after the first
couple hundred thousand dollars but then
once it’s ten million dollars I’m not
the guy there’s very few people that can
do it all the way I mean you look at
these bielefeld billion dollar
businesses it’s incredibly rare right I
mean coming from the venture capital
business myself that was something we
always looked at was is this CEO going
to be the guy who’s gonna take us all
the way and if not is you know he or she
willing to be replaced and go to a CTO
or some other role in the company are
they willing to step aside put their ego
aside right I gotta ask you what’s with
the warrior the warrior this is Guan Yu
he is uh yeah there’s a there’s a famous
Chinese book called The Three Kingdoms
and he’s one of the legendary characters
he’s considered a god in China and I
used to play this video game with
friends and I love playing Guan Yu and
he has a sword this kind of long sword
here called a gwan dau seemed after him
he was such a big guy that he had to
have a custom designed for him and so
for me it’s just a reminder to uh not
always just do what everybody else is
doing and if you are not happy with the
way things are to create something on
your own so he created his own sword
because all the other swords didn’t work
for him and instead of trying to make
those work for him he did his own thing
and so I yeah plus this thing is
ginormous and really heavy to give you
scale like wow that is and it when I
went to China to get it I was like
lugging it around and so I had to do
something special with it so great
that’s a quick story yeah I love that a
little bit about you your little self
awareness piece there what you’re saying
here I’m the guy a ticket to 10 million
but not further and then knowing when to
fold them knowing when to hold them that
way you can get a good return on your
investment and not kind of hold on for
too long and the business starts to
crumble underneath right right exactly I
love it so I can’t know every employee
in the company I’m not interested so
it’s nothing and then you go find
someone who is interested with and
there’s something there’s a lot of great
guys there those guys or women I have an
interesting model that i use for trying
out new projects i like trying out a
whole bunch of different things and i
try to build it to the point where i can
either outsource it to somebody else to
run like if i lose interest in it can i
give this as somebody else to run over
it’s not making money then i kill the
project like they can’t support somebody
running it and i don’t want to do it
anymore I just kill it uh what are your
thoughts on experimentation and try new
things and trying to you know you get
excited about something just doing small
starts and tests instead of trying to
build up proposals and making it take
forever what are your thoughts and kind
of trying out new ideas you know it’s a
very difficult question heaven because
there’s some be said about you know Eric
raises the the Lean Startup right that a
Minimum Viable Product but sometimes
it’s too minimal to be
payable right right sometimes the
entrepreneur because which such starters
we have tends to start too many things
and not focus on something long enough
in order to be successful so there
definitely is that kind of balance and
there’s no one right answer but it for
all this stuff as soon as you can get
that p2p that path to profit as soon as
you can get real customers paying real
money that’s where you want to get to as
quickly as possible so and maybe that’s
the million-dollar question but how do
you know when you should throw in the
towel on your idea when you know you’re
giving your office not working out you
know maybe you don’t have your minimum
viable product yet how do you know when
you’ve reached that point you know I
don’t think there’s any right answer
that but you have to look at three
different things one is you saw the
passion for what you’re doing if you
still the cash flow you know to actually
keep it going right and then the third
thing is what L if I flip this thing
outside what else could I do with it all
right you have to consider those three
things really in tandem with each other
because one of them is going to be a
restraining factor so would you mean to
have the money or the passion to keep it
going got it and then so what’s another
way you think businesses need to get
unstuck I’m a common problems that you
see across all sorts of different
businesses yeah I mean we talked about
sales and marketing we talked about
leadership another place you get unstuck
is that people confuse being busy with
being productive I mean people are doing
stuff but the question is Evan what
stuff are they actually doing they don’t
get this stuff done people pride
themselves Evan how busy they are they
think of is erm you know this is great
i’m really really busy well i don’t care
about being busy did you get the stuff
done every single day that really is
going to move the company forward and
how do you make sure you get that stuff
done and obviously it’s by limiting the
internet limiting the interruptions i
just had lunch with a guy right first I
had lunch with them he must have had in
the 45 minute lunch you must had 10
interactions on his phone and therefore
he didn’t really get the max out of
having lunch with me nothing having
lunch musée me great but he didn’t get
all he could out of this very moment I
think that’s a problem because we live
in a attention deficit disorder
society right we’re interruption based
so this is the advice I have for people
is night before decide the two things
that you want to get down the next day
before you open up your email before you
look at your voicemail before you you
know before you look at social media get
those two things done they should take
somewhere between an hour an hour and a
half and then you’ll know you’ll Dale
been productive no matter what happens
get those things done first and that
works out really well for me because at
least i know when i try my computer I’ve
already been successful for the day
that’s it it’s awesome advice hard to
implement right there takes a lot of all
right so how do you how do you train
that how do you like I said the illicit
berry that makes so much sense I want to
do that and then they wake up when they
check the phone and there’s something to
expel me at your phone don’t check your
phone your thumb doesn’t go to bed with
you first of all you leave it in a
separate place you don’t leave it in
your office to put it in the drawer you
come in right your people know that your
first hour and half day is yours you go
and you do your stuff it takes an
incredible amount of discipline and a
curl amount of practice but after you do
it for 21 or 30 days you can really
relax into it now I’m not always
successful right I would stand back
eighty percent successful I still have
slip-ups right or someone calls me or
whatever happens but you got to have
that kind of mindset well and that’s
great to know that you know it’s like
nobody is one hundred percent perfect
and you might fall off track but it’s
still viable perfect i’ll talk to Donald
Trump you know I mean come on this is a
big question coming in he wants to talk
about business models I would work for
an online business what are your
thoughts on online business models well
you know again just because you build it
doesn’t mean people are gonna come right
a website really means nothing how are
you going to get chosen how are people
gonna find you and then choose you I’m
not so caring about them choosing you
because again if when someone has the
pain and the money if you’re in the Navy
pile if they’re one of three sites
they’re going to go to to try to find
the product you’ll get chosen through
the time that’s a great success thing
but how are they going to find you and
the key there is how do you make sure
that they actually do find you where
they hanging out to solve their pain and
that’s not so easy to figure out or
sometimes not easily from a financial
standpoint to get in front of those
against that question really needs a lot
more detail depending what he’s doing
yeah i mean i also found to that your
your model your ideas change so much
from when you start and it’s about
getting as close as you can to your
customers and seeing how can you better
solve their pain as you were talking
about how can you solve the problem
solve their pain and that will change
your business model and change your
approach and maybe change the product or
service that you sell because you’re
solving a need but the issue really is
is you can’t be everything to everyone
right people want to do that because
they want the money they won’t have some
kind of fan of success you gotta really
decide fairly early on what are you
going to do for the customer and what
just isn’t in your gig yeah i love it
i’m looking at the questions coming in
Frank is talking about selling info
products digital products do you have
thoughts suggestions experience on that
yeah I mean I sell info product to sell
videos over my website but again you
just you have to build a reputation and
you have to build a reason why people
would want to buy from you and you have
to get there when they’re in the pain
and they think of you and it takes a lot
of patience a long time to build up an
information marketing kind of business
because you see all these incredible set
stories ugh i launched the product makes
million dollars it takes a long time
yeah I agree and I think a lot of people
create these products and try to get
them out there and sell them and they
don’t get results and and their
responses well the product needs
tweaking and they keep working on the
product and work on the website we’re
really just there wasn’t enough people
actually interested in it you don’t have
a big enough name have even done enough
marketing it yet don’t work on the copy
and tweaking headlines if only a hundred
people are visiting the page absolutely
cool well I know we’re bumping up the
clock you know thank you so much for the
time that you’re spending Barry and I
are both going to be talking at the
safety summit it’s July 27 to 30th I’m
talking about how to deal with haters on
social media Barry’s gonna share some
nights on social media are there there
there uh I guess you look fitting that’s
a commercial for something that the sage
is sponsoring at the summit know which
fine I’m going to a commercial for
rule breaker awards okay sponsoring it’s
a it’s an awards conference that myself
and reva louis on ski and Mike Micallef
it’s all are gonna be speaking on
tuesday night at sage summit at seven
o’clock we’re gonna be honoring 19 small
businesses that broke the rules to get
success and sage is one of the big
sponsors for the event and Evan I’m
hopefully gonna convince you to be there
and give out some of those awards cool
man yeah i’m speaking I think on the
Tuesday so hopefully we need to get out
some of those awards yeah I’m happy to
put sedo I’m happy to bring anger test
be done yeah for everybody watching
normally the price is eight hundred
dollars to get in but there’s a coupon
code in the description where you can
get it for 99 bucks so some great you
I’m going to be there areas going to be
there and hopefully we’ll see you there
so thanks Barry for the time really
appreciate brand and I’ll see you in New
Orleans great thank you but I take care
hangout I’m really excited to have with
me a special guest very mult Barry and I
are both speaking at the sage summit
that’s coming up in at the end of July
wow it’s coming up fast you like 27 to
30 s Barry is having a session and he’s
joining us via audio today to answer
some questions and talk about a session
so very welcome aboard thanks I’m just
joining you this is not smart enough to
get the camera on so there you go I’m
nothing session and technology that’s a
good thing you have other areas of
wisdom uh talk to me about getting
unstuck what what do you what what’s
your session going to be all about well
you know there’s a lot of small business
owners that start business start
companies and their business justice and
where they want it to be and their stuff
they’re making a living but it’s not
successful as what they they wanted it
so I hope I’m getting stuck in a series
of different areas or the biggest place
that their stuff is around sales and
marketing you know they have a problem
where they only do sales and marketing
when they have no business but it’s just
a business Evan they stopped doing sales
marketing got them there so I helped me
get unstuck in that area at the summit
I’m simply talking about a couple
different areas one is how healthy is
your business what are the 10 steps you
gotta go through to get your business
and better play succeed and the other
one which is a companion is the 10
biggest money wasters in your business
love it can you I mean I have time to go
through all 20 things but can you give
some highlights well as far as that you
know your business health you really
have to look at cash flow every single
company Evan goes at as a business for
one reason that’s because they run at a
cash and Rose businesses unfortunately
don’t monitor what their cash flow is
profit is not cash flow so we talked
about how effectively to do that cool
and what about what about money wasters
where people losing money God you know
one of the biggest money wasters in
people’s businesses they go out and they
do search engine marketing without
getting some expertise some help you
talk about the best way to lose 500
bucks isn’t at the roulette table it’s
by doing Google AdWords without knowing
what you’re doing I like that man
so true uh you know I was told juice in
the meeting with somebody and he stuck
and I was thinking about hey you know
what I want to run the situation by
Barry she wants no I’m talking to you uh
he’s a different situation when he’s run
his business for about 20 years he
teaches kids athletics helps build their
confidence will teach them skills and
he’s feeling I don’t say bored but like
he does what he does you know it’s it’s
been consistent it’s not taking off he’s
starting to have other interests now
we’re starting to do other things um
well you know it’s kind of stuck right
he’s feeling kind of stuck I think in
the business I’m personally what kind of
advice to give someone like that well I
would ask him tell me your definition
now of success because it may have been
different than was previously but also
asking about his passion what does it
really lie does he really have the
passion to keep going and doing what
he’s doing he may not if he doesn’t then
really it’s time to get out either sell
it or hand it over to other folks
because it will show up in his idea to
get success because him to passion
anymore it’s gonna be tough I do you
think people hang on too long oh you
know that I mean so yeah cuz it every
major athlete does right yeah that’s
true man because I do i do old some
brokering of some businesses and it
seems like every single time we get to a
point where selling a business and we
have a letter of intent the company is
going through a quarter of bad times you
know they just waited too long to sell
and I think a lot of I mean the
successful businessperson Evan you know
if they say they knows what the hold of
me knows when to fold them I admire the
business people that know when to get
out so somebody’s thinking about getting
out what what you know what process
should they go through how do they know
how do they have that self-awareness to
move aside so you know has your
definition success change you still have
the same passion that you had previously
the third thing is okay let’s say you
flip the keys to somebody else what are
you gonna do the next day for a lot of
people scares the out of them right
and why aren’t you doing something else
you’re not doing something else do you
don’t know what to do and it’s easier to
stay what’s really going on here yeah i
remember when i sold my first business
was a software company mm-hmm i was all
excited like yeah woohoo we still
it and then I had I was depressed i got
to know what to wake up on you the next
day i sell business for people like
question always what do you do the day
after the business closes after you sell
it what are you gonna do if then have a
good answer they’re probably not ready
to sell the business right got it and
then back to a point you made earlier
you’re saying that a lot of
entrepreneurs when they’re first
starting out they do the sales and
marketing and then they take the foot
off the gas and maybe they get too stuck
and running the business and no longer
like feeding the pipeline what’s the
solution is it hiring people is it just
a renewed focus on it how do you get
people out of that funk I think that you
have a systematic approach to sales and
marketing we have systems in a lot of
other parts of our business systems and
how to service a customer systems on how
to produce a product systems on how to
do our our our finance people don’t have
sales and marketing systems right people
don’t want to be sold to they want to be
educated what kind of system can i put
together that i can create a
relationship with someone so when they
have the pain that I saw I’m there when
they’re ready to buy you got to be there
when people are ready to buy that’s
really the key and that’s about building
relationships and to me that’s a lot
about content marketing or social media
to stay in front of them so they
understand the pain you saw so what if
I’m mom you know so I’m i have a
restaurant I have a salsa dancing school
I have you know I’m doing my thing and
I’m not necessarily good at social media
I may be scared of it I don’t know I
don’t know how to make it work i may be
hired somebody and I did what you did
you know what you said I spent five
hundred dollars of google adwords and it
sucked what is it do i need to learn
that scale is that a necessary skill now
to be an entrepreneur can i outsource
add what do you think i think that you
can’t outsource the content but you can
outsource the tool so in other words the
content that i want to deliver was
through email or social media is all
right let’s say I’m a salsa dancing
school right it’s like you might send
some says here the health benefits of
dance right you’re not going to sell
them on attending your school here’s the
health benefits of dance this how
dancing improves your relationship with
your spouse stuff like that you have to
come with the content the system by
which it gets delivered you can
outsource that but you need to know what
the content is from your side I think
that’s very very important obviously you
have to respond to and interact
whatever prospects and customers when
they have questions are coming on
whatever you’re doing yeah I mean a lot
of people to it say well I don’t know
what to write I don’t know what content
to put out there I don’t know what
people want to read but in reality it’s
answering questions that are already
coming in day and day out from their
customers right like that how would you
get it you’re going when people sign up
one of the questions they have about
dancing about doing salsa what are the
issues they have just talked about that
hey you know in a restaurant you can
talk about all sorts of different kinds
of things right why do people come to
restaurants right they come to socialize
they come be good food they tried got
new different kinds of things there’s a
zillion things you can do we’re getting
a questioning from Indrajit who wants to
be financially free and is in the IT
space your thoughts on chasing an
opportunity that’s hot versus doing
something that you’re excited about and
trying to turn into a business yeah I
would say that if you’re trying to chase
an opportunity that’s hot you probably
already missed it right once it’s hot
you’re probably behind you’ve got to
have the passion because remember Evan
being in business is not about what
you’re doing but it’s really about who
you’re doing it with you gotta be able
to groove on the folks you’re working
with because ultimately it’s not about
the idea it’s about how are you and your
team going to execute it and if you know
the passion for and if you know the
skills you’re never gonna be successful
so so this is my anger cheats watching
live now he’s asking the question and I
guess you know he he’s in IT he wants to
start a business he wants to eventually
be financially free what what advice do
you give him for starting this company
well the first thing is what is
financially free really mean to him
right what is his goal for success does
that mean I need to make a hundred
dollars a week I need to make a million
dollars a week and where where does that
go the other part is you have to think
about what can you solve and who has the
money to solve the pain you can’t just
say hey I really feel like I want to
open up a restaurant i really want to
salsa running business what is also
running a salsa dance business what pain
do you really solve and who is the money
solving you’ve got to answer that
question first Evan before you do
anything else because if you don’t
you’re never gonna have customers got it
now there’s a lot of people I see two as
they’re growing their business they you
know they start doing everything
themselves
and then and then they end up hiring
people to try to grow and then you see
them kind of plateau a lot of is because
they end up doing things that they don’t
necessarily want to do anymore you know
their management team maybe that wasn’t
what they signed up for they’ve lost you
know some of the passion for their
business or they’re not doing this house
they really love doing and they plateau
and they grow to a certain size and then
it’s a growth growth growth and then
it’s like stop stop stop and it’s just
flatlined what what advice do you give
to them well I think a lot of small
business owners first of all don’t know
how to build a team a lot of more self
stars are used to doing things
themselves and that’s why they’re able
to start a business but they’re never
able to transition Evan out of the hub
and spoke kind of business where
everyone works for them or even if they
don’t work for them they make all the
real decisions is something that’s a lot
more hierarchical because if you don’t
have leverage through your employees in
your business you’re probably not in a
business you just have a job and if
you’re not the person so for example I
was really good at running businesses up
to 10 million dollars and probably 50 or
60 people after that I had no interest
it just got too bureaucratic I handed
over someone else or sell it hmm ya know
what you’re good at much not good at hmm
so so are you the guy and this is just
curious you the guy who starts the
business are you you take over business
and improve the systems and build it to
that 10 million dollars in an exit where
do you fit in I mean to the starter or
the guy that comes in after the first
couple hundred thousand dollars but then
once it’s ten million dollars I’m not
the guy there’s very few people that can
do it all the way I mean you look at
these bielefeld billion dollar
businesses it’s incredibly rare right I
mean coming from the venture capital
business myself that was something we
always looked at was is this CEO going
to be the guy who’s gonna take us all
the way and if not is you know he or she
willing to be replaced and go to a CTO
or some other role in the company are
they willing to step aside put their ego
aside right I gotta ask you what’s with
the warrior the warrior this is Guan Yu
he is uh yeah there’s a there’s a famous
Chinese book called The Three Kingdoms
and he’s one of the legendary characters
he’s considered a god in China and I
used to play this video game with
friends and I love playing Guan Yu and
he has a sword this kind of long sword
here called a gwan dau seemed after him
he was such a big guy that he had to
have a custom designed for him and so
for me it’s just a reminder to uh not
always just do what everybody else is
doing and if you are not happy with the
way things are to create something on
your own so he created his own sword
because all the other swords didn’t work
for him and instead of trying to make
those work for him he did his own thing
and so I yeah plus this thing is
ginormous and really heavy to give you
scale like wow that is and it when I
went to China to get it I was like
lugging it around and so I had to do
something special with it so great
that’s a quick story yeah I love that a
little bit about you your little self
awareness piece there what you’re saying
here I’m the guy a ticket to 10 million
but not further and then knowing when to
fold them knowing when to hold them that
way you can get a good return on your
investment and not kind of hold on for
too long and the business starts to
crumble underneath right right exactly I
love it so I can’t know every employee
in the company I’m not interested so
it’s nothing and then you go find
someone who is interested with and
there’s something there’s a lot of great
guys there those guys or women I have an
interesting model that i use for trying
out new projects i like trying out a
whole bunch of different things and i
try to build it to the point where i can
either outsource it to somebody else to
run like if i lose interest in it can i
give this as somebody else to run over
it’s not making money then i kill the
project like they can’t support somebody
running it and i don’t want to do it
anymore I just kill it uh what are your
thoughts on experimentation and try new
things and trying to you know you get
excited about something just doing small
starts and tests instead of trying to
build up proposals and making it take
forever what are your thoughts and kind
of trying out new ideas you know it’s a
very difficult question heaven because
there’s some be said about you know Eric
raises the the Lean Startup right that a
Minimum Viable Product but sometimes
it’s too minimal to be
payable right right sometimes the
entrepreneur because which such starters
we have tends to start too many things
and not focus on something long enough
in order to be successful so there
definitely is that kind of balance and
there’s no one right answer but it for
all this stuff as soon as you can get
that p2p that path to profit as soon as
you can get real customers paying real
money that’s where you want to get to as
quickly as possible so and maybe that’s
the million-dollar question but how do
you know when you should throw in the
towel on your idea when you know you’re
giving your office not working out you
know maybe you don’t have your minimum
viable product yet how do you know when
you’ve reached that point you know I
don’t think there’s any right answer
that but you have to look at three
different things one is you saw the
passion for what you’re doing if you
still the cash flow you know to actually
keep it going right and then the third
thing is what L if I flip this thing
outside what else could I do with it all
right you have to consider those three
things really in tandem with each other
because one of them is going to be a
restraining factor so would you mean to
have the money or the passion to keep it
going got it and then so what’s another
way you think businesses need to get
unstuck I’m a common problems that you
see across all sorts of different
businesses yeah I mean we talked about
sales and marketing we talked about
leadership another place you get unstuck
is that people confuse being busy with
being productive I mean people are doing
stuff but the question is Evan what
stuff are they actually doing they don’t
get this stuff done people pride
themselves Evan how busy they are they
think of is erm you know this is great
i’m really really busy well i don’t care
about being busy did you get the stuff
done every single day that really is
going to move the company forward and
how do you make sure you get that stuff
done and obviously it’s by limiting the
internet limiting the interruptions i
just had lunch with a guy right first I
had lunch with them he must have had in
the 45 minute lunch you must had 10
interactions on his phone and therefore
he didn’t really get the max out of
having lunch with me nothing having
lunch musée me great but he didn’t get
all he could out of this very moment I
think that’s a problem because we live
in a attention deficit disorder
society right we’re interruption based
so this is the advice I have for people
is night before decide the two things
that you want to get down the next day
before you open up your email before you
look at your voicemail before you you
know before you look at social media get
those two things done they should take
somewhere between an hour an hour and a
half and then you’ll know you’ll Dale
been productive no matter what happens
get those things done first and that
works out really well for me because at
least i know when i try my computer I’ve
already been successful for the day
that’s it it’s awesome advice hard to
implement right there takes a lot of all
right so how do you how do you train
that how do you like I said the illicit
berry that makes so much sense I want to
do that and then they wake up when they
check the phone and there’s something to
expel me at your phone don’t check your
phone your thumb doesn’t go to bed with
you first of all you leave it in a
separate place you don’t leave it in
your office to put it in the drawer you
come in right your people know that your
first hour and half day is yours you go
and you do your stuff it takes an
incredible amount of discipline and a
curl amount of practice but after you do
it for 21 or 30 days you can really
relax into it now I’m not always
successful right I would stand back
eighty percent successful I still have
slip-ups right or someone calls me or
whatever happens but you got to have
that kind of mindset well and that’s
great to know that you know it’s like
nobody is one hundred percent perfect
and you might fall off track but it’s
still viable perfect i’ll talk to Donald
Trump you know I mean come on this is a
big question coming in he wants to talk
about business models I would work for
an online business what are your
thoughts on online business models well
you know again just because you build it
doesn’t mean people are gonna come right
a website really means nothing how are
you going to get chosen how are people
gonna find you and then choose you I’m
not so caring about them choosing you
because again if when someone has the
pain and the money if you’re in the Navy
pile if they’re one of three sites
they’re going to go to to try to find
the product you’ll get chosen through
the time that’s a great success thing
but how are they going to find you and
the key there is how do you make sure
that they actually do find you where
they hanging out to solve their pain and
that’s not so easy to figure out or
sometimes not easily from a financial
standpoint to get in front of those
against that question really needs a lot
more detail depending what he’s doing
yeah i mean i also found to that your
your model your ideas change so much
from when you start and it’s about
getting as close as you can to your
customers and seeing how can you better
solve their pain as you were talking
about how can you solve the problem
solve their pain and that will change
your business model and change your
approach and maybe change the product or
service that you sell because you’re
solving a need but the issue really is
is you can’t be everything to everyone
right people want to do that because
they want the money they won’t have some
kind of fan of success you gotta really
decide fairly early on what are you
going to do for the customer and what
just isn’t in your gig yeah i love it
i’m looking at the questions coming in
Frank is talking about selling info
products digital products do you have
thoughts suggestions experience on that
yeah I mean I sell info product to sell
videos over my website but again you
just you have to build a reputation and
you have to build a reason why people
would want to buy from you and you have
to get there when they’re in the pain
and they think of you and it takes a lot
of patience a long time to build up an
information marketing kind of business
because you see all these incredible set
stories ugh i launched the product makes
million dollars it takes a long time
yeah I agree and I think a lot of people
create these products and try to get
them out there and sell them and they
don’t get results and and their
responses well the product needs
tweaking and they keep working on the
product and work on the website we’re
really just there wasn’t enough people
actually interested in it you don’t have
a big enough name have even done enough
marketing it yet don’t work on the copy
and tweaking headlines if only a hundred
people are visiting the page absolutely
cool well I know we’re bumping up the
clock you know thank you so much for the
time that you’re spending Barry and I
are both going to be talking at the
safety summit it’s July 27 to 30th I’m
talking about how to deal with haters on
social media Barry’s gonna share some
nights on social media are there there
there uh I guess you look fitting that’s
a commercial for something that the sage
is sponsoring at the summit know which
fine I’m going to a commercial for
rule breaker awards okay sponsoring it’s
a it’s an awards conference that myself
and reva louis on ski and Mike Micallef
it’s all are gonna be speaking on
tuesday night at sage summit at seven
o’clock we’re gonna be honoring 19 small
businesses that broke the rules to get
success and sage is one of the big
sponsors for the event and Evan I’m
hopefully gonna convince you to be there
and give out some of those awards cool
man yeah i’m speaking I think on the
Tuesday so hopefully we need to get out
some of those awards yeah I’m happy to
put sedo I’m happy to bring anger test
be done yeah for everybody watching
normally the price is eight hundred
dollars to get in but there’s a coupon
code in the description where you can
get it for 99 bucks so some great you
I’m going to be there areas going to be
there and hopefully we’ll see you there
so thanks Barry for the time really
appreciate brand and I’ll see you in New
Orleans great thank you but I take care
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