0:00

Today's episode is sponsored in

0:02

part by Robin Hood, Airbnb,

0:04

open-phoned rocket money, and indeed.

0:06

With Robin Hood Gold, you can

0:08

now enjoy the VIP treatment receiving

0:10

a 3% IRA match on retirement

0:12

contributions. To receive your 3%

0:14

boost on annual IRA contributions,

0:17

sign up at Robin hood.com/Gold.

0:19

Hosting on AirB&B has never

0:21

been easier with AirB&B's

0:23

new co-host network. Mind

0:25

yourself a co-host at

0:27

AirB&B.com/host. Openphone is the

0:29

number one business phone system.

0:31

Build stronger customer relationships and

0:33

respond faster with shared numbers,

0:35

AI, and automations. Get 20%

0:37

off your first six months when

0:40

you go to openphone.com/profiting. Rocketmoney

0:42

is a personal finance app that

0:44

helps you find and cancel your

0:47

unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and

0:49

helps lower your bills. Sign up

0:51

for free at rocketmoney.com/profiting.

0:54

Attract interview and hire all in

0:56

one place with indeed. get a

0:58

$75 sponsored job credit at nd.com/profiting.

1:00

Terms and conditions apply. As always

1:02

you can find all of our

1:04

incredible deals in the show notes

1:06

or at Young and profiting.com slash

1:09

deals. Yep gang, 2025 is a year of

1:11

change for me. I'm single and there's

1:13

nothing tying me down to Jersey anymore.

1:15

And so I'm looking to set up

1:17

residence in Texas or Florida and I've

1:19

got to stay there at least six months

1:22

in one day so that I can save

1:24

on taxes and switch up my dating pool.

1:26

Now it's a toss-up between Miami

1:28

and Austin. I'm super familiar with

1:30

Miami, but I haven't really explored

1:32

Austin much. And with so many

1:35

entrepreneurs raving about it, I've at

1:37

least got to test it out.

1:39

So I rented a beautiful home

1:41

on Airbnb with my business partner

1:43

this winter so that we could try

1:45

out Austin and see if it's the right fit

1:48

for us. Now, I don't really know what I'm

1:50

going to do in terms of the city I'm

1:52

living in next year for most of the year,

1:54

but I do know. The thing is, when it

1:57

comes to hosting my place on Airbnb, I don't

1:59

want to worry about the hosting part. I'm

2:01

so busy with my company and my

2:03

podcast, and now dating is also a

2:05

full-time job. But now, with Airbnb's new

2:07

co-host network, I won't have to worry

2:09

about it. That's right, hosting on Airbnb

2:11

just got a whole lot easier.

2:14

With Airbnb's co-host network, you can

2:16

hire a high-quality local co-host to

2:18

take care of your home and

2:20

guess. Vet it on Airbnb, co-hosts

2:22

have knowledge in the hosting space

2:24

and can help get your investment

2:26

properties set up for you. Imagine

2:28

having somebody who can handle reservations,

2:30

guest communication, and on-site support so

2:32

that you can handle other things.

2:34

Now, while I'm busy finding myself

2:37

a cowboy, you can go find

2:39

yourself a co-host at airbnb.com/ host.

2:52

Welcome back young and profitors. Have

2:54

you ever wondered what separates successful

2:56

small businesses from those that struggle

2:58

to gain traction? Today on Yap

3:01

Classic, we're showcasing an interview I

3:03

did with Donald Miller, the host

3:05

of the Business Made Simple Podcast,

3:07

as well as a best-selling author

3:09

and CEO of story brand. In

3:11

this episode, we unpack the Secrets

3:13

of Building, a thriving entrepreneurial venture.

3:16

This conversation was back in 2023. It

3:18

was the third time that Donald came

3:20

on the show. and he had so

3:22

many incredible tips for building out a

3:24

small business. We talked about

3:26

everything from crafting the perfect

3:28

mission statement, when to be

3:30

financially transparent with your team,

3:32

and why most businesses fail

3:35

today. He also explained why you should

3:37

think of your business as an airplane.

3:39

Okay gang, make sure your seats

3:41

are back and tree tables are

3:43

in their full upright position because

3:45

this episode is about to take off. So

3:49

Donald my team tells me your new

3:51

book how to grow your small business

3:53

has already sold more copies in a

3:55

pre-sale than any other book that you've

3:57

ever written so that's incredible and I think

4:00

It's a hot topic, right? The economy

4:02

is not doing so well. I think

4:04

a lot of businesses are struggling. So

4:06

let's begin there. Why are so many

4:09

small businesses failing? Well, I'll tell you

4:11

how it all started for me, and

4:13

it started with failure. So failure is

4:15

only a bad thing if you let

4:17

it take you down, but if you

4:19

let yourself learn from it, you can

4:21

get somewhere. I actually 11 years ago

4:23

lost all of my money, my entire

4:25

life savings in a bad investment. sold

4:28

so I was sitting on a pile

4:30

of cash, put it into an investment,

4:32

woke up one Monday morning and my

4:34

entire life savings was gone. And it

4:36

was devastating. Eleven years later, I had

4:38

a $17 million company with more than

4:40

50% profit, 30 employees, and life was

4:42

very, very different. And one of the

4:45

main reasons it was different, and one

4:47

of the main reasons I think businesses

4:49

either succeed or fail, is I 100%

4:51

took 100% ownership of my career in

4:53

my life and my business. Everything that

4:55

negative happened, I took ownership of, everything

4:57

positive happened, I took ownership of. I

4:59

didn't trust other people to make me

5:02

money anymore. And by that I mean

5:04

agents and speaking managers and then the

5:06

market, none of that stuff. I took

5:08

ownership of it. And so as you

5:10

talk about the economy struggling, that's the

5:12

economy. Your economy is different. So the

5:14

economy has factors like trade wars with

5:16

China, the war in Ukraine, all those

5:18

kinds of things. Your economy is hardly

5:21

affected by any of that. It might

5:23

be slightly, but most of us is

5:25

hardly affected by any of that. It's

5:27

actually more affected by our attitude. And

5:29

if we take ownership of our economy,

5:31

our economy can do incredibly well. So

5:33

as I went from $0 to $17

5:35

million, I did a rough count, Hala.

5:38

I think I did 572 things wrong,

5:40

and I did six things right. So

5:42

the book, How to Grow Your Small

5:44

Business, is about the six things I

5:46

did right. So the book really walks

5:48

through and I turn the six things

5:50

into six steps that you need to

5:52

overhaul your business and optimize it for

5:54

revenue and profit. And I just laid

5:57

it out so nobody has to make

5:59

the 570 mistakes that I made. Yeah,

6:01

and I love your work Donald because

6:03

you always just like tell things in

6:05

a way that's easy to retain. You

6:07

write so clearly, it's no flaps. So

6:09

I was reading through this book and

6:11

I'm like, this is great. I want

6:14

to align like everything I do with

6:16

my business or this book because I

6:18

also have a small business. Let's go

6:20

back to this question of why businesses

6:22

fail. You talk about an S-curve in

6:24

your book. And essentially it's a growth

6:26

pattern that a lot of small businesses

6:28

fall into. So can you explain to

6:30

us what an S-curve is and what

6:33

we need to look out for? Yeah,

6:35

well the S-curve explains why most businesses

6:37

fail, and they actually fail because they

6:39

succeeded. And here's what I mean by

6:41

that. Nobody gets into business to run

6:43

a business. They started a business because

6:45

they loved their customers, they loved a

6:47

product, they wanted to be financially free.

6:50

That's why we start a business. If

6:52

that business takes off, the business owner

6:54

then finds themselves doing something that they

6:56

never thought or never even imagined or

6:58

didn't realize they were going to have

7:00

to do and that's run a business.

7:02

So the S-curve is you love this

7:04

product, it starts taking off and you

7:06

start going up and up and up

7:09

and then all of a sudden you're

7:11

hiring people, you're trying to figure out

7:13

health care benefits. you're dealing with customer

7:15

service, all of a sudden you're taken

7:17

out of the sweet spot you were

7:19

in when the business grew and you're

7:21

put into a different role and that

7:23

role is running a business. And almost

7:26

none of us have any education. Even

7:28

if you've got a master's degree, even

7:30

if you've got a master's degree in

7:32

business, you don't know if you've got

7:34

a master's degree and you don't train

7:36

you to run a business. And so

7:38

we don't know what we're doing. And

7:40

because we don't know what we're doing.

7:42

We're doing. And because we're doing. And

7:45

because we're doing. And because we're doing.

7:47

The relationships we used to have with

7:49

customers are now strained because we turned

7:51

those over to account executives. We ended

7:53

up... following hard times a little bit,

7:55

so we end up giving 90-day terms

7:57

to a customer in order to get

7:59

bigger profits, then we ran into a

8:02

cash flow issue and you know what

8:04

happens after that. You just kind of,

8:06

you bomb. So that's the down part

8:08

of the S-curve. Now that's where those

8:10

65% of businesses, that's where they crash

8:12

when they hit the ground. The rest

8:14

of us though, we do something. We

8:16

figure out how to run a business.

8:18

We figure out how to install the

8:21

systems and processes and processes that are

8:23

necessary in order for a business. to

8:25

not hit the ground but actually come

8:27

back up and start climbing again. Those

8:29

are the 35% of businesses that actually

8:31

make it and go on to make

8:33

millions and millions of dollars. So those

8:35

systems and processes are what this book

8:38

is about. It's the six systems and

8:40

processes that you need to install in

8:42

your business in order to avoid crashing

8:44

your business. It will teach you how

8:46

to run a business so that it

8:48

is a predictable dependable revenue machine. I

8:50

love that explanation. Thank you so much

8:52

for covering that. Before we get into

8:54

the Six Steps, I want to talk

8:57

about your experience because we see you

8:59

now, you're leading a $17 million company

9:01

like you were just saying, you're hosting

9:03

one of the most popular business podcasts

9:05

in the world, you're a business guru.

9:07

But when you first started your business,

9:09

you were actually drowning in your day-to-day.

9:11

So I want to do a little

9:14

bit of comparing contrast. What was Donald

9:16

like day one or like year one

9:18

of his business? How did you spend

9:20

your time? And then let's contrast to

9:22

this to Donald now with his six

9:24

steps, all the knowledge, all these like,

9:26

you know, you've had so much experience

9:28

since then, and you have a whole

9:30

framework around running a small business. So

9:33

what was your day to day like

9:35

year one versus now? Well, about six

9:37

years ago is when my business really

9:39

experienced the transformational moment. It happened in

9:41

my driveway. Before then, I'll get to

9:43

the driveway in a second, but before

9:45

then I was what I call diving

9:47

for dollars. We were just trying to

9:50

find money anywhere I could get. If

9:52

you paid me to speak, I'd go

9:54

speak. If I could get a book

9:56

contract, I'd get a book contract. I

9:58

put out an online course and people

10:00

would buy the online course. Anything... I

10:02

could do, I would do. And that

10:04

started getting very successful, true to the

10:07

S-curve, the initial rise in the S-curve.

10:09

And we got to about three and

10:11

a half million dollars or something like

10:13

that. People were loving my marketing framework,

10:15

the StoryBare and Framework. We were consulting

10:17

with giant brands, Proctor and Gamble, Ford

10:19

Lincoln, even the NSA and the government.

10:21

We began, we began consulting with. Everything

10:23

was going really well. I had a

10:26

mentor, who is still a very good

10:28

friend. His name is Bill. And Bill

10:30

scaled up his company, his father's company,

10:32

into the billions, and then took some

10:34

of that money and bought other small

10:36

companies and was mentoring some of those

10:38

CEOs. He didn't buy my company, but

10:40

he was mentoring me nonetheless. And I

10:43

mentioned him, I'd love for my business

10:45

to get to a little bit, and

10:47

I mentioned him, I'd love for my

10:49

business to get to a hundred million.

10:51

We were standing in my driveway after

10:53

my business to get to a hundred

10:55

million. We were standing in my drive.

10:57

I'd looked back at me. And I

10:59

said, Bill, what's going on? He said,

11:02

Don, in order to hit $100 million,

11:04

you were going to have to, quote,

11:06

professionalize your operation. That's what he said

11:08

to me. I'd never heard the phrase,

11:10

professionalize your operation before, but it rang

11:12

absolutely true as it's ringing true to

11:14

almost all of your listeners right now.

11:16

What it said to me was, what

11:19

Bill said to me basically was, you're

11:21

making it up as you go along.

11:23

And he also said this, he said,

11:25

Don, if you leave this company, the

11:27

company's going to go down because you

11:29

haven't installed the systems and processes necessary

11:31

for somebody else to come and buy

11:33

this company and run it, right? And

11:35

that rang so true to me that

11:38

I spent the next about three to

11:40

four years figuring out what the systems

11:42

and processes needed to be and how

11:44

the company needed to run. And the

11:46

framework that I came up with is

11:48

actually really simple. And that's kind of

11:50

what was missing in the market. Everything

11:52

was very complicated. It took more time

11:55

to sort of professionalize your operations through

11:57

other systems. than it did to actually

11:59

build your company. You spent more time

12:01

working on your company than you did

12:03

catering to clients, which doesn't work. You

12:05

know, you lose money that way. I

12:07

wanted it to be really simple. And

12:09

the metaphor that I came up with

12:11

after I did all this stuff when

12:14

I was trying to sort of have

12:16

a controlling idea to bring it all

12:18

together was the metaphor of the airplane.

12:20

And every commercial airplane has six very

12:22

important parts to it, and they have

12:24

to work together. The leadership is your

12:26

cockpit. The people in that cockpit need

12:28

to enter. data into the flight computer

12:31

that says where this airplane is going.

12:33

Everything is reverse engineered from that leadership

12:35

in the cockpit. The right engine is

12:37

your marketing and that that marketing needs

12:39

to produce thrust to get the plane

12:41

moving. The left engine is your sales.

12:43

It needs to produce more thrust to

12:45

get the plane moving. The left engine

12:47

is your sales. It needs to produce

12:50

more thrust to get the plane moving.

12:52

The body of your airplane is your

12:54

most expensive heavy part. That's your overhead.

12:56

and your overhead needs to stay lean.

12:58

That's why when you get into a

13:00

smaller commuter plane, you're ducking your head

13:02

because they need that thing to be

13:04

small and they're squeezing you into those

13:07

tiny seats, and then the fuel tanks

13:09

of your airplane are your cash flow.

13:11

And if you can actually keep the

13:13

six areas of your airplane or your

13:15

cash flow, and if you can actually

13:17

keep the six areas of your airplane

13:19

in proportionate, those are going to be

13:21

economic coordinates. You've got to clarify your

13:23

marketing message and run a really good

13:26

sales funnel. That's going to get your

13:28

ride engine humming. You've got to be

13:30

able to invite customers into a story

13:32

and close deals. And I've got a

13:34

formula for you to be able to

13:36

do that in your sales. You've got

13:38

to have products that are extremely profitable

13:40

and in demand. Those are going to

13:43

be your wings. You've got to manage

13:45

your team so it's lean, efficient and

13:47

productive, which is an incredibly hard thing

13:49

to do. That keeps your body of

13:51

the airplane thing to do. Get very

13:53

clear optics on your cash flow so

13:55

you never run out of cash or

13:57

get surprised by a tax bill or

13:59

can't make payroll. If you can do

14:02

those six things, your business is going

14:04

to do just fine. Holly, you've interacted

14:06

with as many business owners as I

14:08

have. I'm sure there's times when you've

14:10

walked into a business and they have

14:12

a really nice facility and they're handing

14:14

you all sorts of swag and 20

14:16

minutes into visiting their business, you have

14:19

no idea what they do because they

14:21

can't state it clearly. And you're asking

14:23

yourself how in the world of these

14:25

people making money? and you realize they're

14:27

not making money, they're actually just living

14:29

off private equity or venture capital money,

14:31

and all they're doing is living off

14:33

somebody else's dollars and this plane is

14:35

going down. It looks successful, but it

14:38

isn't successful. I have zero interest in

14:40

helping anybody listening to the sound of

14:42

my voice look successful. I have no

14:44

interest in that. I have enormous interest

14:46

in you opening up your bank account

14:48

and seeing a ton of money. That's

14:50

what I'm interested in. And so these

14:52

are the basics of how to actually

14:55

run a successful business without lying to

14:57

ourselves. This is how it has to

14:59

be done. Yeah, and so back to

15:01

my original question. I guess when you

15:03

first started your business before you had

15:05

this six-step framework, the business really revolved

15:07

around you. That's why you were drowning

15:09

every day. Too much. So what's the

15:12

problem when you can't actually be pulled

15:14

out of your own business and the

15:16

business revolves too much around the owner?

15:18

Well, the problem is your business isn't

15:20

worth anything. You know, if somebody comes

15:22

to buy your business, one of the

15:24

first questions they ask is what happens

15:26

when you leave? What somebody wants to

15:28

see if you want to value your

15:31

business at four, five, six, seven, eight,

15:33

X, Ebitda is they want to know

15:35

that you can go to Turks and

15:37

Kekos and lay on a beach for

15:39

two months and never answer your phone

15:41

and the business gets stronger. That's what

15:43

they want to know. So the problem

15:45

in my life at that time was

15:48

this business depended completely and totally on

15:50

me. I was the guy who was

15:52

actually necessary for this business to to

15:54

go and grow. Today we have close

15:56

to 800 certified facilitators coaches and guides

15:58

who go out and teach these frameworks.

16:00

left we would need a new host

16:02

for our podcast. And that's about it.

16:04

We would need a new host for

16:07

the podcast and quite honestly I think

16:09

we could find a better one pretty

16:11

easily but I'm not willing to give

16:13

up the job at this point. So

16:15

we're way further along than we were

16:17

about four or five years ago. Yeah

16:19

so with this analogy of the plane

16:21

I'd love for you to explain the

16:24

rule of proportions. Why is it that

16:26

we sort of have to look at

16:28

everything at the same time and make

16:30

sure we're being balanced and not just

16:32

focus on one area and another area

16:34

at a time? Let's look at the

16:36

airplane and talk about the airplane and

16:38

talk about the airplane analogy as a

16:40

decision-making filter. We know that we've got

16:43

a good sales team, there's a couple

16:45

people who are selling a lot of

16:47

stuff for us, it's really great, but

16:49

we've got this product and we're getting

16:51

many calls. That's a common problem in

16:53

a small business. So we decide, okay,

16:55

we need a customer service representative. The

16:57

customer service representative is for a really

17:00

good one. You're going to pay between

17:02

$60,000 and $80,000. You're going to be

17:04

right in there. You want somebody who

17:06

can grow and run a management, manage

17:08

a customer service team. You're going to

17:10

go ahead and spend a little more

17:12

money on that. That money, you've got

17:14

to say, okay, is that money going

17:16

to the body of the body of

17:19

the airplane? a normal customer service, they're

17:21

going to save you some sales, they're

17:23

certainly going to save you some negative

17:25

chatter, but it's pretty hard to put

17:27

that money on the wings or the

17:29

right engine, the left engine. So what

17:31

we're going to do is we're going

17:33

to say, well, we're going to pay

17:36

you a base salary of $50,000, but

17:38

we're going to give you some incentives

17:40

for every retainer purchase that is a

17:42

subscription service that sticks around, who we

17:44

know calls you and talks to you

17:46

or chats you or chats you or

17:48

chats you. We're going to give you

17:50

10% of that. And we think you

17:52

can save X number of sales a

17:55

year, which is going to get you

17:57

to between $65,000 and $85,000. What did

17:59

we just... We just put a

18:01

big chunk of that person's salary

18:03

out of the body of the

18:05

airplane and out on to the

18:07

right and left engine. And we

18:09

can spend a lot more money on

18:11

the right and left engine than

18:14

we can on the body of

18:16

the airplane. You know, whenever you

18:18

go into a business and they've

18:21

got this great facility with really

18:23

beautiful furniture and all

18:25

sorts of great swag,

18:27

everything that I just mentioned. Hala,

18:29

let's say that you and your friends

18:32

are going to do a great week

18:34

in Hawaii and you buy the

18:36

plane ticket and you're at the

18:38

airport and you walk out on

18:40

the tarmac and that plane has

18:42

a giant body, two tiny little

18:44

wings, some little rubber band propellers

18:46

on each of the wings and

18:48

fuel is is pouring out of

18:50

the fuel tanks onto the tarmac.

18:52

Are you getting on that airplane?

18:55

No. No. That's what so many businesses

18:57

look like like. And people don't

18:59

realize it's happening. They're, well, I hired

19:01

my uncle, well, we clearly need a

19:03

new logo and some swag. Well, let's

19:06

create this website that isn't very clear

19:08

and doesn't actually close sales and it's

19:10

kind of passive aggressive. All those decisions

19:12

are how you engineer a really horrible,

19:14

horrible airplane. If you look at

19:16

every single business in history that has

19:18

crashed, what you're looking at is an

19:20

airplane that wasn't engineered very well.

19:22

I love this analogy. It really does

19:25

help you get a framework to kind

19:27

of think of it intuitive. I'm sure

19:29

that as you're making decisions, if you

19:31

learn this framework, you'll start to remember

19:33

these things and not try to make

19:36

your plane crash, you know, do everything

19:38

you can to keep it flying. That's right.

19:40

I agree with you. That's how we

19:42

got there. In 17 million, there's a

19:44

lot of you. That's how we got

19:46

there. In 17 million, there's a lot

19:48

of people listening, have a bigger company

19:50

than that. That's how we got there.

19:52

In 17 million, there's a lot of

19:54

people. And even anybody in the body

19:56

of the airplane, we're trying to figure

19:58

out how to incentivize. you to actually

20:00

have you participate in the profitability

20:02

of this business so that you

20:05

can make more money. Let's hold that

20:07

thought and take a quick break with our

20:09

sponsors. With Robin Hood Gold, you can

20:11

now enjoy the VIP treatment receiving

20:13

a 3% IRA match on retirement

20:16

contributions. The privileges of the

20:18

very privileged are no longer exclusive.

20:20

With Robinhood Gold, your annual IRA contributions

20:22

are boosted by 3%, plus you

20:24

also get 4% APY on your

20:26

cash and non-retirement accounts. That's over

20:28

eight times the national savings average.

20:31

The perks of the high net

20:33

worth are now available for any

20:35

net worth. The new gold standard is

20:37

here with Robinhood Gold to receive

20:39

your 3% boost on annual IRA

20:42

contributions. Sign up at robinhood.com/gold. Investing

20:44

involves risk. 3% match requires Robin

20:46

Hood Gold at $5 per month

20:49

for one year from the first

20:51

match. Must keep funds in IRA

20:53

for five years. Go to robinhood.com/Boost.

20:56

Over eight times the national average

20:58

savings account interest rate claim is

21:00

based on data from the FDIC

21:02

as of November 18th, 2024. Robin

21:05

Hood Financial LLC member SIPC.

21:07

Gold membership is offered by

21:09

Robin Hood Gold LLC. Yeah, bam,

21:11

when I first started this podcast, believe

21:13

it or not, I had an all-volunteer

21:15

team to help me out. But as

21:18

my business took off, I needed to

21:20

hire a lot of new people and

21:22

fast. It soon became pretty overwhelming because

21:24

I had to sort through piles and

21:26

piles of resumes, conduct countless interviews, and

21:28

you know how it goes hiring is

21:30

a pain. But then I discovered the

21:32

easiest way to hire the right people

21:34

quickly. I found Indeed. When it comes

21:36

to hiring, Indeed is all you need.

21:38

Stop struggling to get your job post

21:40

seen on other job sites. Indeed sponsored

21:42

jobs helps you stand out and

21:44

hire fast. With sponsored jobs, your

21:47

post jumps to the top of

21:49

the page for your relevant candidates,

21:51

so you can reach the people

21:53

you want faster. It makes a

21:55

huge difference. According to Indeed, sponsored

21:57

jobs posted directly on Indeed have

21:59

45... more applications than non-sponsored jobs.

22:01

Plus, with indeed sponsored jobs, there's

22:03

no monthly subscriptions, no long-term contracts,

22:06

and you only pay for results.

22:08

How fast is indeed, you ask?

22:10

In the minute I've been talking

22:12

to you, 23 hires were made

22:14

on indeed according to indeed data

22:17

worldwide. There's no need to wait

22:19

any longer. Speed up your hiring

22:21

right now with Indeed. And listeners

22:23

of this show will get a

22:25

$75 sponsored job credit to get

22:28

your jobs more visibility at indeed.com/profiting.

22:30

Just go to indeed.com/profiting right now

22:32

and support our show by saying

22:34

you heard about Indeed on this

22:37

podcast. Indeed, on this podcast. Terms

22:39

and Conditions apply. Hiring, indeed is

22:41

all you need. Hey Appam, launching my

22:43

LinkedIn Secrets master class was one

22:45

of the best decisions that I've

22:48

ever made for my business. And

22:50

I didn't have to figure out all

22:52

the nuts and bolts of creating a

22:54

website for my course. I needed a

22:56

monthly subscription option. I needed a chat

22:58

capabilities. I needed a laundry list of

23:01

features to enable what I was envisioning

23:03

with my course. But here's the thing.

23:05

All I had to do was literally

23:07

lift a finger to get it all

23:09

done. And that's because I

23:12

used Shopify. Shopify is

23:14

the easiest way to sell anything,

23:16

to sell online or in person.

23:18

It's the home of the number

23:21

one checkout on the planet. And

23:23

Shopify is not so secret secret

23:25

as shop pay, which boosts conversions

23:27

up to 50%. That means way

23:30

fewer cards get abandoned and way

23:32

more sales get done. If

23:35

you're into growing your business, your

23:37

commerce platform better be ready to

23:39

sell wherever your customers are scrolling

23:41

and strolling on the web in

23:43

your store in the feed and

23:45

everywhere in between. Put simply, businesses

23:48

that sell more sell with Shopify.

23:50

Upgrade your business and get the

23:52

same checkout we use at YAP

23:54

Media with Shopify. Sign up

23:56

for your $1 per month trial

23:59

period at shopify.com slash. profiting. And

24:01

that's all lowercase young

24:04

and profitors. That's shopify.com

24:06

slash profiting. Go

24:09

to shopify.com/profiting to

24:11

upgrade your selling

24:13

today. shopify.com slash

24:15

profiting. So let's dive in.

24:18

You gave a great overview of

24:20

the six steps. It's leadership marketing

24:22

sales, products, overhead, and operations. And

24:24

the last step is cash flow.

24:26

So let's dive into some of

24:28

these steps. I want to dive

24:31

into leadership, which you say is

24:33

the cockpit of the airplane. And

24:35

leadership is basically in charge of

24:37

getting everybody to an end destination.

24:39

Your business needs to have a

24:41

clear mission. And so a lot of

24:44

people, they don't have a clear mission, right?

24:46

That's something that they're missing. When they first

24:48

started, like I'll give myself for an example.

24:50

I have a company, yeah, media, we scale

24:52

to $7 million in three years. And this

24:54

year we're on track to do eight million

24:57

dollars, which is amazing. And so my company

24:59

is doing great and when I first started

25:01

it was a team of volunteers and we

25:03

were so tight and everybody had a mission

25:05

and I was hand training everyone and everything

25:08

was great and then year one it was

25:10

like boom we blew up to 60 employees

25:12

and it's like all of a sudden like

25:14

things weren't as smooth anymore like we're still

25:16

running a great business but it just wasn't

25:18

like before like things just like happened like

25:21

magic because we were so aligned everybody had

25:23

the same values all that kind of stuff.

25:25

And so now I'm actually resetting my organization.

25:27

I just went through a whole workshop where

25:30

we set up new core values, we're having

25:32

a new mission, all these things that you

25:34

talked about in your books. I'm like, oh

25:36

my gosh, this is just so relevant to

25:38

everything that I'm doing right now. So let's

25:41

talk about mission statements first. You say there's

25:43

three components that make up an effective

25:45

mission statement. I love this because I'm

25:47

literally developing my new mission statement now.

25:49

And the first component you say is

25:51

containing. three economic objectives that you can

25:54

actually measure. So I'd love to understand

25:56

why three, is it only three, can

25:58

it be more than three? Why three?

26:00

And why do we need to have

26:02

some measurable objectives in our mission?

26:04

I think the best formula for

26:06

a mission statement is we will

26:09

accomplish X by Y because of

26:11

Z. We will accomplish X by Y

26:13

because of Z. If you can, write

26:15

that down. Because it really will align

26:17

your entire team. The X, we will

26:19

accomplish X, are three economic objectives.

26:21

And the challenge is, we've got

26:24

to figure out the three ways

26:26

that we make money the most.

26:28

What are the three ways that we

26:30

make the most money? Most businesses somewhere

26:32

fall in line, but in that Peretta

26:34

principle of 80% of their money comes

26:36

from 20% of their products. 80% of

26:39

the money comes from 20% of their

26:41

audience. It's almost true for every business

26:43

out there. Those 20% can usually be

26:45

defined with three economic objectives. Now I

26:48

only give you three, not because you

26:50

only have three, or because I only

26:52

want you to have three. I give

26:54

you three because the human brain has

26:56

a limitation and it's usually three priorities.

26:59

It's very hard for a brain to

27:01

prioritize more than three things. It can

27:03

do four, it cannot do five. So

27:05

three is very important, not because any

27:07

other reason other than your brain is

27:10

just not going to focus on any

27:12

more than three things. So you want

27:14

to figure out what are the top

27:16

three ways you make money, then you

27:18

want to have numeric goals. So when

27:21

I say we will accomplish, here's our

27:23

actual mission statement at business made simple.

27:25

We will have 500 certified coaches, 900

27:27

certified marketing guides, and 18,000 people inside

27:29

of our online platform. That's it. By

27:32

January 1 of 2024, because every

27:34

small business owner deserves an education

27:36

in growing their business. So here's

27:38

what's really cool about the three economic

27:41

objectives. The second we stated and wrote

27:43

in our mission statement, the three economic

27:45

objectives, we had a filter. It was

27:47

the next day we were in a

27:49

meeting and we were about five minutes

27:51

into talking about an initiative when somebody

27:53

raised their hand and said, hey guys, this doesn't

27:55

have anything to do with our three economic objectives.

27:57

Do we still want to do it? And everybody

27:59

in the room. just went, actually, no, we're

28:01

wasting our time. Because those are the

28:03

three ways that we make the most

28:05

money. We're talking about something that's actually

28:07

not going to make us much money

28:10

at all. We just had a customer

28:12

bring it up and we're trying to

28:14

answer the customer question. We need to

28:16

just answer the customer's question saying, we've

28:18

decided not to do that. So you

28:20

get a filter. That alone will cause

28:22

a massive sort of forward thrust in

28:24

your organization because now everybody in the

28:27

organization is trying to support three things.

28:29

Then the why we will accomplish X

28:31

by Y because of Z. The Y

28:33

is actually your deadline. I recommend setting

28:35

a two-year deadline. You can go three

28:37

years. Anything beyond three years is not

28:39

going to motivate anybody. So we set

28:41

our goal over a year ago, and

28:44

now we're about, what, 10 months away

28:46

from hitting it, and we're on track

28:48

to hit it. So what a deadline

28:50

does inside of a mission statement creates

28:52

a sense of urgency. You say, Don

28:54

mission statements don't have deadlines. You know,

28:56

you're right. Most large corporations don't put

28:58

deadlines in mission statements because those corporations

29:01

have mission statements written by lawyers on

29:03

behalf of shareholders. You don't have a

29:05

team of lawyers and you don't have

29:07

shareholders. You have the luxury and it

29:09

is a crazy luxury and it is

29:11

a crazy luxury that you should take

29:13

advantage of, of writing a new mission

29:16

statement every two or three years. And

29:18

usually an admission statement, all you're going

29:20

to do is adjust X and Y

29:22

and that's really it. If you don't

29:24

like it as a mission statement, just

29:26

call it a mission statement, just because

29:28

of Z. Z is the why it's

29:30

the reason that you're in business. And

29:33

it's usually customer-centric. We are doing this.

29:35

We're going to accomplish these three things

29:37

by January of 2024 because, and then

29:39

you want to state the problem that

29:41

your customer has and how you're going

29:43

to state the problem that your customer

29:45

has and how you're going to solve

29:47

it. That mission statement aligns your team.

29:50

And first of all, it's memorable. Every

29:52

single member of my team knows that

29:54

mission. statement, you've forgotten the mission. So

29:56

that mission statement is really really key

29:58

and it's the first part of your

30:00

leadership. Those would be the economic coordinates

30:02

that you're entering into the flight computer.

30:04

Yeah. I really like this framework because

30:07

I think giving some measurable things that

30:09

people can align to, it helps people

30:11

understand their progress. Like guys, we are

30:13

way off our target and we have

30:15

only this amount of time to get

30:17

there and we better hustle and step

30:19

on the gas. So I feel like

30:22

it gives people a measuring stick in

30:24

terms of how they're doing towards the

30:26

mission. We're usually, like you said, missions

30:28

are usually like vague. and fluffy, they're

30:30

just sort of like directional. This is

30:32

like very specific, which I think anything

30:34

more specific is going to get people

30:36

closer to an actual goal. That's right.

30:39

And then you align your team around

30:41

those objectives and people know whether or

30:43

not they are winning or losing. When

30:45

you actually state three economic objectives, your

30:47

whole team knows in real time whether

30:49

or not you're hitting them, whether you're

30:51

behind them, whether you're ahead of them.

30:53

And by the way, if you're behind

30:56

them, it bothers everybody, which is exactly

30:58

what you want. you want this bothering

31:00

everybody. So they're going to come to

31:02

you and say, hey, can we either

31:04

adjust the economic objectives or what's our

31:06

plan to fix them? Or if you

31:08

didn't have economic objectives, nobody would even

31:10

know that there's anything wrong with the

31:13

business. And you wouldn't have anything wrong

31:15

with the business. And you wouldn't have

31:17

those that instrument data on your dashboard

31:19

to be able to know that you're

31:21

actually flying upside down and heading straight

31:23

toward the ground. So those three economic

31:25

objectives are, you're not confused. Yeah, so

31:28

this is really good advice. How about

31:30

getting this mission statement to stick within

31:32

the organization? Let's say you've got over

31:34

20 employees, you're not able to one-on-one

31:36

explain it to everyone, what are the

31:38

ways that you can distill this information

31:40

to get it to stick with your

31:42

workers? Well, one of the absolute hardest

31:45

things to do is to get a

31:47

team aligned around the economic objectives of

31:49

the organization, and we have a framework,

31:51

it's actually on Chapter 5 of the

31:53

book to help you do that. And

31:55

the framework is five meetings that you

31:57

want to have with your team. And

31:59

some of the meetings will happen every...

32:02

Some of that meetings happen almost every

32:04

day. Some of the meetings happen once

32:06

a quarter. But those five meetings are

32:08

the all-staff meeting, the department stand up,

32:10

the personal priority stand up, the quarterly

32:12

performance review, and then you will have

32:14

an occasional revenue meeting also. The three

32:16

economic objectives and the mission statement need

32:19

to be talked about during every all-staff

32:21

meeting. You actually open up the all-staff

32:23

meeting with those three economic objectives. That

32:25

happens on Monday, once a week. Then

32:27

the next meeting is your department stand-up.

32:29

The three economic objectives get repeated at

32:31

the department stand-up. So you are instilling

32:34

these economic objectives in every single team

32:36

member. Then also at the department stand-up,

32:38

the five priorities of that department, which

32:40

have to serve the economic objectives, are

32:42

also discussed, and the team in about

32:44

15 minutes discusses whether or not they're

32:46

hitting their five priorities so that we

32:48

can hit these economic objectives. Not only

32:51

that, but in the personal stand-up that

32:53

every single employee has with their department

32:55

leader for about 15 minutes, they discuss

32:57

their five priorities that serve the department's

32:59

five priorities that serve the three economic

33:01

objectives. So you are constantly, constantly, constantly

33:03

meeting talking about what the economic objectives

33:05

are, what your department is doing to

33:08

hit those objectives, and what every person

33:10

is doing to hit those objectives. And

33:12

if you actually install those meetings into

33:14

your organization, It's impossible to forget where

33:16

we're going and why you're so important

33:18

to actually help us achieve where we're

33:20

going. What about the business owners who

33:22

are scared of being like transparent? Because

33:25

I could imagine that there's a lot

33:27

of business owners that are like, I

33:29

don't want to talk about our financial

33:31

goals or what we're making, especially with

33:33

like maybe the lowest level employees and

33:35

things like that, what would you say

33:37

to them? I personally am a fan

33:40

of not hiding how many orders came

33:42

in. I don't want to hide any

33:44

of that. The reason that small business

33:46

owners don't like exposing the numbers to

33:48

their team members is because it exposes

33:50

the fact that the company is making

33:52

millions and the team members making $40,000

33:54

and all they see is that disparity.

33:57

But the way you actually get around

33:59

that or get over that is you

34:01

actually give the entire team a really

34:03

great economic education. So you actually say,

34:05

look, you know, we're making $2 million

34:07

this year. Our overhead is about $1.2

34:09

million. That means there's 800,000 left and

34:11

we're going to give half of that

34:14

to the government. So that's $400,000 that's

34:16

left. we have to put X amount

34:18

in our rainy day fund. So at

34:20

the end of the day, this is

34:22

about what I make, and this is

34:24

about what you make. But if you

34:26

can help us make more, and if

34:29

you have ideas to help us make

34:31

more, your salary will go up as

34:33

well. And I just love teaching all

34:35

30 of my employees how a small

34:37

business really, really works. They, by the

34:39

way, know. They pretty much know exactly

34:41

what I'm making, which is a lot

34:43

of money. They also know that we're

34:46

incredibly generous with that money. They know

34:48

that we bought a building that houses

34:50

the business. That building is incredibly expensive.

34:52

Yes, it's an asset that my family

34:54

will be able to own 50 and

34:56

60 years from now, but I don't

34:58

get that cash. I bought that building

35:00

so that we could all live inside

35:03

of this building. I just don't hide

35:05

the numbers. And then if somebody gets

35:07

upset about that and resents that, they

35:09

don't belong on my team. Or if

35:11

they get upset about that and resent

35:13

that, I sit them down and I

35:15

say, would you like to run a

35:17

business? Because if you leave me and

35:20

you run a business, I will do

35:22

everything I can to help you because

35:24

I want you to experience this too.

35:26

Let me tell you what also happens.

35:28

Everything stops this too. Let me tell

35:30

you what also happens. Everything stops with

35:32

you. If that business fails, it's your

35:35

fault. The government doesn't come for my

35:37

employees. They come for me if I

35:39

don't pay taxes. There's an enormous amount

35:41

of risk in starting a business, but

35:43

if you can make it work, it's

35:45

worth it. And I will help you

35:47

do it. But at this point, you

35:49

work for me, and I need you

35:52

to produce more. And that conversation, why

35:54

not just tell them the truth? I

35:56

think one of the reasons that Americans

35:58

feel like victims, especially the generation behind

36:00

me and the generation behind them, are

36:02

not going to make as much money

36:04

as their parents, is because they don't

36:06

actually understand how money works. And I

36:09

want to teach everybody I can. This

36:11

is how money works. And I don't

36:13

want anybody excluded from being able to

36:15

participate. It's high risk. It's high risk.

36:17

It's high stress. But if you want

36:19

to go for it, I'll help you.

36:21

Preach, Donald, Preach, that was great. So

36:23

let's talk about core values, sticking on

36:26

leadership. So like I said, I'm doing

36:28

a lot of core values work. We

36:30

just came up with our new values

36:32

at Yep Media. So we're scrappy hustlers,

36:34

we're obsessive with excellence, we step on

36:36

the gas. Together we win, we have

36:38

all these different headlines that we created

36:41

for our core values, and we did

36:43

a lot of work around it. And

36:45

I'm really excited to roll it out.

36:47

So why do you think core values

36:49

can help unite a team and how

36:51

can they help leaders actually make decisions

36:53

more quickly as well? One of the

36:55

great things about core values I think

36:58

is it helps you define an aspirational

37:00

identity. This is who we're going to

37:02

be, this is who we're going to

37:04

be, people who care about each other,

37:06

have each other's backs. Those are core

37:08

values. And so when you point to

37:10

core values, you're basically pointing to what's

37:12

expected. And if somebody says our core

37:15

value is integrity, if you caught a

37:17

bank robber in mid-bank robbery and you

37:19

said, explain to me why you're doing

37:21

this, I promise you they're going to

37:23

defend their integrity. These rich people have

37:25

all the money and I'm taking it

37:27

to whatever. They're robbing a freaking bank

37:29

and they think they have integrity. So

37:32

it's just too vague. So I like

37:34

core values, but more than that, I

37:36

like two other things. Key characteristics and

37:38

critical actions. Now key characteristics are the

37:40

characteristics that you need to have in

37:42

order for us to hit our economic

37:44

objectives. If I run a pet story,

37:47

I need you to love pets. If

37:49

we run a software company, I need

37:51

you to obsess about the easy, simple

37:53

user interfaces. And so now I know

37:55

who to hire. I'm not just hiring

37:57

somebody with integrity who loves animals. So

37:59

those key characteristics are more true to

38:01

your team than they are to anybody

38:04

else. It's where you actually dial down

38:06

into the uniqueness of your culture. Now

38:08

critical actions go even further. Critical actions

38:10

are the things that we are all

38:12

going to do together to hit our

38:14

economic objectives. If I have a restaurant

38:16

and one of my economic objectives is

38:18

we're going to sell 35% for every

38:21

client for our customers to come to

38:23

the restaurant, 35% of them are going

38:25

to get a dessert. Well we're at

38:27

15%. So what we're going to do

38:29

is we're going to say our critical

38:31

action is we ask every single person

38:33

eating have you tried our world famous

38:35

brownie. We're going to ask every, and

38:38

so as soon as you make that

38:40

a critical action, guess what's going to

38:42

happen to your brownie sales? They're going

38:44

to go way up. So if you

38:46

have three core values, three critical actions

38:48

and three key characteristics, your entire culture

38:50

changes, if you go to Chick-fil-A, a

38:53

fast food place in the American South

38:55

and they're spreading all over, and you

38:57

say thank you, they say my pleasure.

38:59

That's a critical action. When somebody says

39:01

thank you, the critical actions you say

39:03

my pleasure and you position yourself as

39:05

the servant of the person that you're

39:07

actually talking to in a humble way,

39:10

those are the sorts of things that

39:12

create a culture and you need at

39:14

least three critical actions that one, stimulate

39:16

your bottom line and help you achieve

39:18

your economic objectives and two, actually support

39:20

and empower your culture to be defined.

39:22

You say there's three kinds of leaders

39:24

that you normally find at the top

39:27

of successful small businesses, the artists, the

39:29

operator, and the entrepreneur. I thought this

39:31

was fun because I have three main

39:33

executives on my team and I thought

39:35

we... each fit in those buckets and

39:37

I thought that was exciting. So tell

39:39

us what those mean. That's why you're

39:41

doing so well. Yeah. Normally if your

39:44

business gets past four or five million,

39:46

you need to have three people, three

39:48

personalities and they're very different, helping you

39:50

run the team. So once your business

39:52

gets past, again, three or four million,

39:54

these three personalities are necessary in order

39:56

for the business to actually grow. And

39:59

this is what, if there's three people

40:01

on your leadership team, I hope you

40:03

have one of each. And one is

40:05

the artist. And by artist I'm not

40:07

talking about like a poet or a

40:09

painter. I'm talking about somebody who obsesses

40:11

about products. They love the products. They

40:13

love making them. They love supporting them.

40:16

They love marketing them. They love marketing

40:18

them. They love marketing them. They love

40:20

talking to customers about them. They love

40:22

improving them. They love talking to customers

40:24

about them. They love improving them. The

40:26

operator is not going to help you

40:28

do is manage the team. They're going

40:30

to help you manage the priorities and

40:33

manage the people and make sure everybody's

40:35

working really hard because the artist normally

40:37

doesn't like to do that. They want

40:39

to obsess about the product. And then

40:41

the third personality is the entrepreneur. And

40:43

the entrepreneur looks at what the artist

40:45

did and looks at what the team

40:47

is capable of doing and says, how

40:50

can this machine make more money? Period.

40:52

If we segment an audience and send

40:54

them this sales funnel, then we can

40:56

make more money with this. If we

40:58

actually run a live webinar, we'll collect

41:00

more leads and we'll do this. The

41:02

entrepreneur is thinking of that way. If

41:05

you have an artist, an operator, and

41:07

an entrepreneur on your leadership team, you

41:09

are going to win. And here's what's

41:11

actually very interesting. It doesn't matter if

41:13

the artist, the entrepreneur, or the operator

41:15

is actually the CEO. It doesn't matter.

41:17

If you look at somebody like Tim

41:19

Cook, he's an operator. The company has

41:22

done extremely well under both of those,

41:24

but I guarantee you surrounding Tim Cook

41:26

are really... good operators and or well

41:28

he's a good operator. Surrounding Tim Cook

41:30

are really good entrepreneurs and really good

41:32

artists. So you need those three personalities

41:34

in the cockpit of your airplane using

41:36

the metaphor of an airplane to run

41:39

your small business. You need those three

41:41

personalities in order to really scale the

41:43

company and reach its full potential. I

41:45

really like that analogy. It's really cool.

41:47

So the second step is about marketing.

41:49

We're not going to cover that guys.

41:51

If you listen to episode 120, which

41:53

I'm going to replay on this podcast.

41:56

Me and Donald cover the seven-step story

41:58

brand framework in detail. So it'll be

42:00

right on the feed for you guys,

42:02

easy to find, episode 120 will be

42:04

a yap classic. So check that out

42:06

and we're going to move on to

42:08

sales because offline, Donald told me that,

42:11

hey Allah, we got to talk about

42:13

sales. He said, I can really help

42:15

your audience if we talk about sales.

42:17

So you said step three, left engine

42:19

of the plane is the sales step.

42:21

And in this step, you have to

42:23

make the customers a hero during the

42:25

sales pitch during the sales pitch. From

42:28

my understanding, you actually didn't like selling

42:30

when you first started your business. So

42:32

why didn't you like selling and then

42:34

how did you learn how to sell

42:36

more effectively? Well, I didn't like selling

42:38

and I've learned to like it because

42:40

I basically stopped selling and I started

42:42

inviting customers into a story and I

42:45

realized I didn't have to sell anything.

42:47

All I had to do is make

42:49

my offer extremely clear and I sold

42:51

a lot more of whatever it was

42:53

that I was selling. You know, the

42:55

problem with sales training and sales education

42:57

is you don't get adoption. Big companies

42:59

play millions and millions of dollars to

43:02

bring in sales trainers and up to

43:04

70% of their sales force will ignore

43:06

it. They're only getting 30% adoption, if

43:08

that. And so I don't love the

43:10

idea of sales training. What I love,

43:12

though, is to teach all sorts of

43:14

sales account executives, all sorts of small

43:17

business owners. I love teaching them a

43:19

formula to do one specific thing, and

43:21

that is this. Write a follow-up email.

43:23

to a customer that will close the

43:25

deal. So let's say you spend a

43:27

day with a customer. Maybe you were

43:29

at a workshop and there were 5,000

43:31

people in the audience and a bunch

43:34

of them gave you your email address.

43:36

Whatever it is, what you want to

43:38

do is you actually want to go

43:40

back to your hotel room or go

43:42

back home, open up your computer and

43:44

you want to email whoever you just

43:46

had a conversation with, a email, and

43:48

this is what the email needs to

43:51

do in order to close the sale.

43:53

First, start with the problem. Earlier today,

43:55

we talked about how we all struggle

43:57

with X, and I know that can

43:59

be very painful. Start with the problem.

44:01

Step two, position your product as the

44:03

solution to the problem. Nobody has to

44:05

deal with this anymore because we have

44:08

created X. And if you buy X,

44:10

your problem will be solved. That's step

44:12

two. Step one, define the problem, step

44:14

two, position your product as the solution

44:16

to the problem. Step three, give them

44:18

a three-step plan to buy it. Now,

44:20

three-step plan, don't overthink it. In order

44:23

for you to engage this, all you

44:25

need to do is... Have an intake

44:27

session with me where we talk about

44:29

it. Second, I'll give you a custom

44:31

strategy on what I think you should

44:33

do. And three, if you want to

44:35

move forward, you and I can move

44:37

forward. You want to remove the cognitive

44:40

dissonance by giving people baby steps. Then

44:42

step four is actually to paint the

44:44

negative distance by giving people baby steps.

44:46

Then step four is actually to paint

44:48

the negative stakes. Step five is positive

44:50

stakes. However, with my product, this is

44:52

the life that you're going to experience

44:54

and here's how great your life will

44:57

be. And then finally, step six, ask

44:59

for the sale. I think you should

45:01

buy this product today. It's the right

45:03

product for you. It's the right product

45:05

for you. Click here and enjoy this

45:07

special offer. Let me just summarize it.

45:09

Start with the problem. Position your product

45:11

as a solution. Give them a three-step

45:14

plan. Paint the negative stakes. Pay the

45:16

follow-up. you will close way more sales.

45:18

Not only will you close more sales,

45:20

but you will have just learn how

45:22

to sell. And the way you learn

45:24

how to sell is you find out

45:26

what the customer's problem is and you

45:29

position your product as a solution. If

45:31

you do it five times in an

45:33

email, you will never have a sales

45:35

conversation again. That's the same. That's the

45:37

same. Again, you will never have a

45:39

sales conversation again. That's the same. For

45:41

instance, if you work at a mattress

45:43

store, because we work at a temper

45:46

seal to train some of their sales

45:48

people, you know what brought them in.

45:50

They're looking for a day that they're

45:52

looking for. They're looking for. They're looking

45:54

for. They're looking for. If you say,

45:56

what do you hate about your current

45:58

mattress, they're going to say, well, it's

46:00

too soft in the middle or it's

46:03

hurting my back or it's too warm

46:05

at night and whatever, and you say,

46:07

great, I've got three things, three mattresses

46:09

here that will solve that. Let's take

46:11

a look at them because they're at

46:13

different price points and they're going to

46:15

solve that. Let's take a look at

46:17

them because they're at different price points

46:20

and they have some different points. That's

46:22

how you sell. That's how you sell.

46:24

Hello, young, and profitors. The start of

46:26

the new year is the perfect time

46:28

to get organized, set goals, and prioritize

46:30

what matters most. For me, a top

46:32

priority this year is my financial wellness,

46:35

which feels more important than ever. The

46:37

richer I get, the more cheaper I

46:39

get, and I want to save money

46:41

and just see my money stack. And

46:43

thanks to Rocket Money, my goals feel

46:45

achievable. They show me all of my

46:47

subscriptions right in one place, and they

46:49

help me easily cancel ones that I

46:52

forgot I've been paying for, which happens

46:54

more than you think. Rocket Money also

46:56

pulls together all of my spending across

46:58

all of my different accounts so I

47:00

can clearly track my spending habits and

47:02

see where I can cut back. Rocket

47:04

Money is a personal finance app that

47:06

helps you find and cancel your unwanted

47:09

subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower

47:11

your bills so you can grow your

47:13

savings. With Rocket Money, you can easily

47:15

create a personalized budget with custom categories

47:17

to help keep your spending on track,

47:19

and you'll get alerts if bills increase

47:21

in price, if there's unusual spending activity,

47:23

or if you're close to going over

47:26

budget. Rocket Money will even negotiate lower

47:28

bills for you and deal with customer

47:30

service so you don't have to. Rocket

47:32

Money has over 5 million users and

47:34

has saved a total of $500 million

47:36

in canceled subscriptions, saving members up to

47:38

$740 a year when using all of

47:41

the app's premium features. Cancel your unwanted

47:43

subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster

47:45

with Rocket Money. Go to Rocket money.com/Profiting

47:47

Today. That's rocket money.com/profiting. Rocket money.com/profiting. You

47:49

know, it's interesting, Hala. I just spoke

47:51

at 250 sales reps for a big,

47:53

probably 1.4 billion dollar company. 250 sales

47:55

reps in the room. And I said,

47:58

hey, raise your hand if there's a

48:00

customer that hasn't made a decision yet.

48:02

You've been interacting with them, but they're

48:04

sitting the fence. 250 hands go up.

48:06

That's a sales rep's job. So everybody

48:08

in the room had that. I said,

48:10

open your computer. We are literally going

48:12

to write them an email right now.

48:15

And we spent the next hour formulating

48:17

250 emails. I said hit send, and

48:19

then I needed to get off the

48:21

stage because I had a flight. So

48:23

the chief revenue officer got up, said,

48:25

Don, thanks. And I rolled my bag

48:27

out of the back of the door.

48:29

Got a call two days later to

48:32

my staff. And it's not because we

48:34

coerced the audience into buying anything. It's

48:36

not because we manipulated anybody. What those

48:38

customers were doing were sitting the fence

48:40

because they didn't fully understand why they

48:42

needed that product. And every sales rep

48:44

in that room made it clear. And

48:47

now they tasted that success. I'm sure

48:49

they've made tens of millions now because

48:51

that was over a month ago. And

48:53

they're starting to have very different sales

48:55

conversations and sending out very different presentations.

48:57

That formula works for follow-up emails, works

48:59

for in-person conversations, works for keynote presentations,

49:01

works for elevator pitches, works for proposals.

49:04

That's the formula you want to use

49:06

to close sales. This reminds me of

49:08

something that Erica Duan came on my

49:10

show, and she's a workplace productivity expert.

49:12

And so much of our communications are

49:14

digital now. So much of what we

49:16

do in our work is reading screens,

49:18

reading slack, reading email, and she says

49:21

that writing clearly is the new empathy.

49:23

It used to be that speaking clearly

49:25

was the new empathy, and listening was

49:27

the new. Now it's writing clearly is

49:29

the new empathy. You can't write, especially

49:31

a response email, if you've already started

49:33

a conversation with somebody, you can't write

49:36

a good email without having done a

49:38

very good job listening. If I said,

49:40

hala, you and I had a great

49:42

conversation, congratulations on your 8 million. I

49:44

think that's incredible. I heard you when

49:46

you said you have 60 employees and

49:48

things have gotten more chaotic. I felt

49:50

your pain. Chapter 5 of my new

49:53

book will walk you through five meetings

49:55

that will completely revolutionize your staff and

49:57

when in about three months you won't

49:59

feel that pain anymore if you run

50:01

these five meetings. That's me listening and

50:03

saying, well, here's the part of my

50:05

product that would solve hollows problem. You

50:07

start doing that, you're going to sell

50:10

a lot more books and a lot

50:12

more leashes for dogs and a lot

50:14

more nutritional supplements or whatever it is

50:16

that you sell, you're going to sell

50:18

a lot more of them. Yeah. So

50:20

let's talk about the language of sales

50:22

of sales a little bit. Why do

50:24

we need to think in story and

50:27

how do we speak in story when

50:29

we're trying to sell to potential customers?

50:31

Well, story is the universal language and

50:33

when you're having any kind of conversation,

50:35

whether it's getting together with a friend,

50:37

to catch up, or it's a sales

50:39

conversation, or even if it's a conversation

50:42

with your therapist, what your brain is

50:44

doing the entire time is trying to

50:46

organize events into the structure of story.

50:48

Your brain is subconsciously figuring out who

50:50

the hero is. what the problem they're

50:52

up against is, how they're going to

50:54

get out of that problem, what the

50:56

happy ever life will look like if

50:59

they do get out of that problem.

51:01

So because most people are not actually

51:03

very good communicators, it's very hard to

51:05

figure out what the story is actually

51:07

about. But if we actually lay out

51:09

our communication in the form of... story.

51:11

The person that we're talking to doesn't

51:13

have to use any mental bandwidth in

51:16

order to understand what we're talking about.

51:18

And that gives the brain a really

51:20

pleasant feeling because the brain doesn't have

51:22

to work hard to organize the information.

51:24

We tend to follow leaders who are

51:26

able to do that and we tend

51:28

to buy products from account executives who

51:30

are able to do that. Can you

51:33

give us an example in terms of

51:35

speaking in story versus not? Like just

51:37

I don't know if this is too

51:39

hard to do, but like if you

51:41

were to sell something. trying to sell

51:43

it in a way that's not with

51:45

the story versus one that is. Well,

51:48

we've worked with a number of politicians

51:50

on the Republican and Democratic side. I'm

51:52

not a Republican or Democrat. I find

51:54

myself pretty much squarely in the middle

51:56

and don't really like either party because

51:58

I think they're destroying the country. But

52:00

I've gone in and I've helped some

52:02

folks. And, you know, a few elections

52:05

ago, Hillary Clinton's tagline was I'm with

52:07

her. Okay, well if I'm with her,

52:09

the story is about her, it's not

52:11

about me. I don't know where we're

52:13

going, I'm with her, but I don't

52:15

know where we're going, I don't know

52:17

what we're trying to accomplish, I don't

52:19

know what's in it for me if

52:22

we get there, in fact I don't

52:24

even know where there is. She did

52:26

not effectively invite people into a story.

52:28

And so it's not that people liked

52:30

Donald Trump more, it's just that they

52:32

didn't show up in the polls in

52:34

the polls to vote for her to

52:36

vote for her. She had an the

52:39

polls to vote for her. Donald Trump

52:41

also wasn't all that much better. He

52:43

also had an incredibly low turnout, but

52:45

he just had more people than she

52:47

did. And then you have Joe Biden

52:49

later on, who's running against January 6th.

52:51

He's running, or he's running, or he's

52:54

running, not against January 6th, he's running,

52:56

not against January 6th, he's running, not

52:58

against January 6th, he's running against the

53:00

spirit that led to January 1st. in

53:02

which they, they, they, they, they get

53:04

to be the good character winning the

53:06

day to experience a better life, people

53:08

are going to tune you out. You

53:11

will see examples of that everywhere now

53:13

that... I just said it. Yeah, so

53:15

then the main principle of this step,

53:17

Donald, is to make the person that

53:19

you're selling to the hero of the

53:21

story. Can you just talk to us

53:23

about that a little bit of like

53:25

how you position somebody as a hero

53:28

when you're selling? Yeah, well, you know,

53:30

the reality is you probably talked to

53:32

people, Hala, and I may have been

53:34

one of them at some point because

53:36

I'm not perfect, but you probably talked

53:38

to people and you've felt like the

53:40

story was all about them. and it

53:42

really wasn't about you, and we might

53:45

call that person a narcissist or something

53:47

like that. That's because they see life

53:49

through a prism, and the prism is

53:51

they are the hero trying to win.

53:53

But the reason that that rubs us

53:55

wrong, because it really shouldn't rub us

53:57

wrong, but the reason that it rubs

54:00

us wrong is because them winning is

54:02

not helping you win. In order to

54:04

sit here and listen to this person

54:06

who's all about them winning, means that

54:08

you don't get to win, scenario. What

54:10

we're actually looking for is somebody who

54:12

enters into our story and helps us

54:14

win. So let me give you an

54:17

example. Let's say you're at a cocktail

54:19

party and you meet two people who

54:21

do the exact same thing. The first

54:23

person you meet, you say, what are

54:25

you doing? The first person you meet,

54:27

you say, what do for a living?

54:29

And they say, well, I'm an at-home

54:31

chef, you know, I come to your

54:34

house and cook. You'd probably have a

54:36

really kind person. Two hours later you

54:38

meet somebody and they do the exact

54:40

same thing charge the exact same amount

54:42

of money and have the exact same

54:44

quality food. And you say what do

54:46

you do? And they say well you

54:48

know how most families don't eat together

54:51

anymore because they don't have time and

54:53

whenever they do eat together anymore because

54:55

they don't have time and whenever they

54:57

do eat together they don't eat healthy.

54:59

I'm an at-home chef. I come to

55:01

your house and cook so your family

55:03

can sit around the table, look each

55:06

other in the other in the eye,

55:08

actually. Really good for you and it

55:10

also tastes it good. Who's gonna do

55:12

more business chef one or chef two?

55:14

Chef two of course Chef One told

55:16

their story, Chef Two invited the customer

55:18

into a story in which they could

55:20

play the hero, buying their product in

55:23

order to experience a climactic scene. That

55:25

is always going to win. So one

55:27

last question on sales, and then we're

55:29

going to close this out. So something

55:31

that I read in your book that

55:33

I thought was really interesting, and it

55:35

reminded me of something that Jay Samet

55:37

taught me a long time ago, or

55:40

Jay Abraham actually is the one who

55:42

taught me about it. He's like a

55:44

big marketing guru. whose products and services

55:46

they want to buy them from you,

55:48

but you actually feel like it's not

55:50

a good fit for them. You'll actually

55:52

not sell something even though you can

55:54

sell it. Why do you do that?

55:57

I do that to protect my reputation.

55:59

And also, that's the selfish reason I

56:01

do it. The other reason I do

56:03

it is because they're not going to

56:05

get any value out of this. To

56:07

bring me in for a day, we

56:09

do these things called strategy sessions where

56:12

I either come to you for a

56:14

day. for me to take a day

56:16

and not write a book, the opportunity

56:18

cost on that is very high. So

56:20

what we promise people is that, look,

56:22

I will only do this if we

56:24

really believe that easily, easily, easily, easily,

56:26

easily, you can make a 10x return

56:29

on your investment. So if you're going

56:31

to pay me X amount of dollars

56:33

to be here, we need to talk

56:35

on the phone and make sure you

56:37

can make a 10x return on there

56:39

on your investment. So that means do

56:41

you have emails, a list of emails

56:43

that we can email? Is your website

56:46

pretty messed up so that we can

56:48

fix it in a day? Can we

56:50

write some emails? Can we come up

56:52

with the three economic objectives? Can we?

56:54

We need to get a massive, massive

56:56

return. Well, I've never had to write

56:58

anybody a check, but I do guarantee.

57:00

But I've never had to write anybody

57:03

a check, but I do guarantee you're

57:05

going to write anybody a check, but

57:07

I do guarantee you're going to write

57:09

anybody a check, but I do guarantee

57:11

you're going to write a pretty enormous

57:13

amount of money, so incredibly well. It's

57:15

like I can't improve on what you're

57:18

doing, you're doing well. Or, you know,

57:20

you haven't released the product yet or...

57:22

like you've got this function on your

57:24

team or you know whatever. But if

57:26

I look at it and go, yeah,

57:28

you've got a great email list, your

57:30

website is very unclear, we're going to

57:32

make a ton of money when we

57:35

clean that up, we're going to write

57:37

five emails, they're going to make you

57:39

a truckload of cash, let's go. Then

57:41

we do it. Then we do it.

57:43

Let's go. Then we do it. So

57:45

there's people who I say, I can't

57:47

do it for you, and people who

57:49

I say, look, look, look, you, you,

57:52

you've got a honor system here, you,

57:54

you got a honor system here, you,

57:56

you got to, you got a honor

57:58

system here. And I'm going to write

58:00

you a check for whatever you paid

58:02

me. And the main reason I'm writing

58:04

is I never ever want anybody to

58:06

say I lost money on Don Miller.

58:09

I just don't want him saying it.

58:11

So I'll give you your money back

58:13

so you can never say that. I

58:15

think that's one of the ways I've

58:17

built a little bit of trust in

58:19

the business community. Because the bottom line

58:21

is the bottom line. And we've got

58:24

to make you money and I'm in

58:26

the business of making you money. I

58:28

think you do that to protect your

58:30

reputation to protect your reputation. So, you

58:32

know, your job is to find the

58:34

people who have the problem you solve

58:36

and sell them something. And if you

58:38

find somebody who does not have the

58:41

problem you solve and they want to

58:43

buy something from you, I think it's

58:45

our responsibility to sit down and say,

58:47

I don't think this is going to

58:49

work for you. And I never ever

58:51

ever want anybody to buy my product

58:53

and not have it work. Yeah. It's

58:55

all about integrity. And by the way,

58:58

when you have clients that are unhappy,

59:00

they talk. It's just a drain for

59:02

everyone. But then on the other hand,

59:04

if you have a perfect fit client

59:06

where you solve all their problems, they're

59:08

so happy. They're telling all their friends,

59:10

they're referring. It's just such a more

59:12

positive experience also for everybody on the

59:15

team. So I really think it's a

59:17

great point that you're on the team.

59:19

So I really think it's a great

59:21

point that you made. So Donald, thank

59:23

you so much for coming on the

59:25

team. So I really think it's a

59:27

great point that you're small business. Keep

59:30

your receipt, you know, they email you

59:32

a receipt and if you just copy

59:34

that number, that receipt number and go

59:36

to grow your small business.com and enter

59:38

your receipt number, we have a bunch

59:40

of free bonuses that we're giving. away.

59:42

One of them is a pass to

59:44

the online sales script where we will

59:47

actually, you can type in your sales,

59:49

follow up email, and I will color

59:51

code it for you so that you

59:53

can see where you're talking about the

59:55

problem, where you're talking about the product

59:57

is the solution to the problem, where

59:59

you're talking about the three-step plan, negative

1:00:01

positive stakes, and call to action. You'll

1:00:04

actually look at it in for color

1:00:06

to see where you're talking about all

1:00:08

these parts to make sure it's going

1:00:10

to close the deal. That's free when

1:00:12

you buy the book. Just grab the

1:00:14

book and then go to grow your

1:00:16

small business.com and give me your receipt.

1:00:18

I think this is going to be

1:00:21

one of those classic business books. So

1:00:23

I highly recommend that you go get

1:00:25

it. I'm going to be digging in

1:00:27

way deeper than I have. I've really

1:00:29

only read it like high level. So

1:00:31

I can't wait to really go deep

1:00:33

on this book because I know it's

1:00:36

going to be filled with so many

1:00:38

gems. Donald, what is one actionable thing

1:00:40

our young and profitors can do today?

1:00:42

Our young and profitors can do today

1:00:44

to become more profitors can do today

1:00:46

to become more profiting tomorrow? Set three

1:00:48

economic objectives. We talked about it at

1:00:50

the beginning of the podcast. What are

1:00:53

the three ways that you're going to

1:00:55

make money this year? And give me

1:00:57

numbers. We're going to sell 400 of

1:00:59

this. We're going to sell 80 of

1:01:01

this. We're going to sell 25 of

1:01:03

these. Whatever it is, give me three

1:01:05

economic objectives and then reverse engineer your

1:01:07

entire strategy to hit those. Awesome. And

1:01:10

what is your secret to profiting in

1:01:12

life? actually more like four o'clock. I

1:01:14

go home and I spend time with

1:01:16

my daughter and my wife and I

1:01:18

don't think about work and my wife

1:01:20

and I talk about work for probably

1:01:22

an hour a week and that's it.

1:01:24

I have a life outside of work

1:01:27

and I love it. I know you

1:01:29

put family number one by far. It's

1:01:31

one of the things that I respect

1:01:33

most about you. And where can everybody

1:01:35

learn more about you and everything that

1:01:37

you do? Well if you want to

1:01:39

see pictures of my... Daughter who's incredibly

1:01:42

cute and my wife is incredibly beautiful

1:01:44

and my dog who is a feisty

1:01:46

pain in the rear end who keeps

1:01:48

us humble Donald Miller is my Instagram

1:01:50

handle love to love to see you

1:01:52

guys there awesome. Well, thank you so

1:01:54

much Donald Always a

1:01:56

pleasure. Thank you you so

1:01:59

much, Hala. Wonderful

1:02:01

to talk to you.

1:02:03

to you.