Service Based Business Society Podcast

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:22:22
Unknown
And so whether it's your social media scheduling tool, whether it's your business operations system, your CRM, your bookkeeping, your team, every time you switch a widget, if you think of all of these different pieces as widgets in your business, if you think of taking out one widget and adding yet another widget, there is a time, a delay of success.

00:00:23:00 - 00:00:58:11
Unknown
Oh my gosh. We're back. We are back to season three and super excited to be back recording. Have so much to share. So many new amazing guests coming this season. Ultimately, it is going to be our most epic season yet. One of the things we're talking about this season is truly the back, the behind the scenes of a business and the struggles of being a business owner and the real life stories.

00:00:58:11 - 00:01:19:07
Unknown
And I want to I want to first start off by sharing something that happened that was super unique to me, and it ties into a guest that we have coming up this season. I'm so excited to have her, but I wanted to chat a little bit about the clarity on who you are, the clarity on what you do and this kind of ever moving target.

00:01:19:09 - 00:01:45:05
Unknown
Because one of the things we know is that with technology and the rapid availability of information, that information turns over so fast. Like if you think about even ten years ago and think about how long it took for information to become available, something new, something exciting and that rapid speed, the reach, the global reach that is now available.

00:01:45:07 - 00:02:11:12
Unknown
Gary Vee talks a lot about this. You know that ultimately we are at an amazing advantage. We have this opportunity because we have an ability to reach every part of the globe in a way that we never could before. So we have this opportunity. But what challenges is it presenting us? And one of the things is, you know, just so we start to feel like we know what we're doing, we know what our business does.

00:02:11:12 - 00:02:34:19
Unknown
We know our system, we know our process. We know all of these pieces. Then we're harmlessly scrolling on social media or chatting with a business connection, and they say, Hey, have you heard about this? Insert new thing? And if you're not super confident and committed to what you already have, if you're not super involved overt in what you already have, it's sometimes difficult not to get distracted.

00:02:34:19 - 00:03:00:04
Unknown
You know, I'll be honest. It's something that comes up for me, you know, and it all depends on your you're social media algorithm. We've talked in past seasons about how, you know, you have to be careful the information you consume online and that your algorithm is only showing you things that it thinks you want to see. Yesterday I was on my own personal Facebook and someone someone asked a question, Hey, are you using discord for your customer communication like discord?

00:03:00:04 - 00:03:24:14
Unknown
And I ask the question. I said, Hey, what makes discord be your recommendation? Because when I think of discord, I think of like gamer streaming chat. That's what I think. I don't think of like business agency customer portal. And so he and I went back a few times and we were chatting about it and he said, totally. He said, The interesting piece is that a lot of the gamers streamers that were so amazing on Discord have now entered the business world.

00:03:24:14 - 00:03:40:02
Unknown
They've shifted their businesses. They're in the business world now, and so they're still using this tool that was, you know, amazing to them for the first part of their career. And so they built out some features. And whenever part of me wanted to run out over there and check out Discord, I'll be honest, I've never use discord today in my life.

00:03:40:02 - 00:04:08:14
Unknown
And I thought, hey, no, hold down, Don't get down in the weeds. I also had an offer come across, you know, Adam, someone saying, Hey, this software is amazing. You should be selling it. And I said, Nope, Nice. Now I am not selling that software. It is a great software. Super cool. And I'm going to make it. I'm going to recommend it to a couple of connections that I have that would be great at selling this software, but I'm not selling it.

00:04:08:14 - 00:04:30:12
Unknown
I'm staying out of the weeds. And I could tell he tried to do a little bit. Well, you know, it would be great for your audience then, you know, you really have to offer them all these things. And I said, Nope, we have simplified and simple is what sells. Fancy gives so many more possibilities for failure. And when it comes to simple, people need to know what you do.

00:04:30:14 - 00:05:07:13
Unknown
And if every time something new comes along, you're like, Ooh, maybe it's me, maybe it's for me. You, John. You spend so much time, so much time getting started with something new, because every time you switch something, there is time to get up to speed. And so whether it's your social media scheduling tool, whether it's your business operations system, your CRM, your bookkeeping, your team, every time you switch a widget, if you think of all of these different pieces as widgets in your business, if you think of taking out one widget and adding yet another widget, there is a time a delay of success.

00:05:07:15 - 00:05:24:11
Unknown
And so we must stay focused. We must be clear on what we are doing and we have to try and, you know, keep out the noise. But here's where this gets challenging. Here's where the you know, you got the little person on the left shoulder and the little person on the right shoulder. Here's where they disagree. Take something like chat came out.

00:05:24:11 - 00:05:42:23
Unknown
Lots of people started playing with it and adopting it. And if you are not using it, are wasting time. And I say actually, there's obviously a lot of different of these tools. You know, I tools on the market. But here's the thing. If you have not even investigated it, you are behind. So here's where we have to separate these two.

00:05:43:02 - 00:06:00:02
Unknown
This is this is how I do this in my own business, in my own life is I because I love I could nerd out for days. I'm looking at new tech, new software, new systems, new pieces, and I really try to break it down. And I actually have a note in my phone with links to all sorts of things I want to come back to.

00:06:00:03 - 00:06:22:23
Unknown
But what I do is I, as I am seeing things, I set aside time and it's usually on personal time. It's not business time. Like it'll be like when I'm, you know, hanging out, waiting, like if we're, you know, waiting for a ferry or sitting, you know, waiting for one of my kids at practice or, you know, the time where I'm kind of like doing the doomscrolling on social media and I really try to lean into those pieces.

00:06:23:03 - 00:06:41:18
Unknown
What was that thing I was looking at? What is this thing? You know, And I use that time to learn more about, but I don't jump. I just learn. One of the things we changed this year for season three on the podcast is we've changed our editing tool. And so historically, season two, a little bit of behind the scenes here we would record.

00:06:41:20 - 00:07:02:18
Unknown
We recorded in Riverside highly recommend recording in Riverside, and but what we would do is we would export all those clips and we would send them to the video editor and we would send them to the podcast editor and we would be downloading, we would be upload like files, video files take a long time and we would be uploading those to Google Drive and we would the time consuming process.

00:07:02:18 - 00:07:24:09
Unknown
But what we realized is Riverside has a Adobe premiere direct export. Adobe Premiere has some great tools for podcast editing. You can see you can do your podcast, you can do your video, you can do your short form clips. Adobe Premiere also launched a text editor similar to the script. And so now in just one export can do all of these things.

00:07:24:09 - 00:07:39:00
Unknown
And so we made this transition. But I want you to know the amount of time that went into thinking about whether that was the right thing on my own personal time. It's crazy because I see things come up all the time. This is what you should be doing with your podcast. This is how you should be scheduling your social media.

00:07:39:00 - 00:07:58:12
Unknown
This a and a good sales pitch. I love a good sales pitch. It's funny, I was at a workshop a long time ago with a very talented sales coach and he was talking about how he loves to buy because he loves a good sales pitch. He wants to see how it unfolds. He loves to purchase things and whatnot.

00:07:58:12 - 00:08:19:19
Unknown
And I don't know about you if you have purchased and are collecting those like $47 products you buy on social media, like the courses, the templates, the downloads, some things. I'll be honest, I've never opened after I purchase. Terrible, but the funnel of the messaging is so good and it's low cost. So you know, not to get distracted on that, but I love the sales process.

00:08:19:19 - 00:08:40:23
Unknown
I love to purchase things. I love to see how it works. But we have to think of that. That to me is more of a hobby. That is my hobby. And so I do all of these research and things and then when it comes to my business, I decide, is this the right thing? We don't make a change unless it is one of those things that is absolutely, undeniably better.

00:08:40:23 - 00:09:07:22
Unknown
I don't always get it right. We definitely don't always get it right. In fact, this last year we made the transition and it was you know, you've you've heard me talk about client experience, the importance of clients, the importance of client experience. And we made an investment in our bookkeeping agency client experience. We moved to a new task management system, bookkeeping focused, supposed to be amazing.

00:09:07:22 - 00:09:25:01
Unknown
We tested it, we played with it. We made sure it was the right thing. And you know what? It was not the right thing. We had more frustrated clients in the four months that that system was live than ever before. And so what did we do? That's one of those we need to move quickly. And why am I sharing all of this?

00:09:25:01 - 00:09:45:05
Unknown
Why am I giving you this? What feels like contradictory advice? Because I want you to really think about the objectives. I want you to think about the objective. I want you to decide when it matters, to move quickly and when does it something that you should really take the time like I said, I have a list on my phone of all these things I want to come back to.

00:09:45:05 - 00:10:07:10
Unknown
I have a, you know, in Facebook. I have out you know, you can save things on Facebook. You click the same thing. I have a saved list of future opportunities saved because I know that if I don't save them somewhere, they'll be cluttered the mind. But I want to be able to come back to them when the time is right or when I've decided, Hey, I don't know if our tool that does X is really serving us to the best ability to.

00:10:07:12 - 00:10:26:16
Unknown
Now I'd like to spend some time and research what might be better. Well, now I have my list in my phone of of possible options. You know, I have some, you know, my saved list on Facebook, all these sexy things. So when it comes to doing a pretend upgrade, researching something new, all of these types of things, you know, speed is not necessarily your friend.

00:10:26:16 - 00:10:48:22
Unknown
If your system and your process is working really well and by working really well, I mean you are hitting your objectives now that you are afraid of change, not that you don't have the time to really evaluate, but rather if it's working like a well-oiled machine and then just keep running and just keep doing what you're doing, but spend the time and know what is available.

00:10:48:23 - 00:11:10:20
Unknown
Knowledge is power. We've talked about it before, having this knowledge about what are the opportunities, what are the options. It can offer incredible value to your business. And then based on those objectives, you must decide what are we going to do? What are we moving ahead with? What are we not looking at? You know, I was at a business lunch and we were talking about chat.

00:11:10:22 - 00:11:26:06
Unknown
Now there are if you want to hear all about chat repeated and it's amazing benefits. There's a million podcast episodes. Every single person out there selling some kind of chat, you know, these are the prompts, these are the best. But here's what you know. First off, just go play with it. That's how you're going to get what you want.

00:11:26:11 - 00:11:49:12
Unknown
And about I was chatting with a business owner, big business owner. They do a lot of sales and you know, we were talking about how chat, tea or any kind of text review generator could help their business. And I want you to know that over that lunch that business owner is now saving $48,000 a year in labor costs $48,000.

00:11:49:12 - 00:12:08:21
Unknown
Now, yes, they have a big business, but $48,000 in profit. Added back to the bottom line is that's a big profit chunk for any business owner. Absolutely. Any business owner, big smile, whatever. And so we laid out that plan over lunch, did some testing and decided, hey, to roll it out on a pilot. And, you know, they carried on.

00:12:08:21 - 00:12:26:19
Unknown
Had they snoozed on something like that, that would cost them. But here's why they were quick to move. Here's you know, and we're going to break this down because you're saying to Arianna's telling me, you know, just just wait. Put it on the list. She'll come back to it. And now she's saying, well, had they snoozed on there, it would have cost them money.

00:12:27:00 - 00:12:51:05
Unknown
But here's why The role that that I the chat app is doing is something that they were trying to hire for and could not find the right person. Their team was working overtime. Their team was behind. Their team was really struggling with hitting deadline. People were feeling guilty about taking vacations. People that the culture of what was going on had become a problem.

00:12:51:05 - 00:13:14:16
Unknown
And so they're trying to hire, they're trying to hire. They can't hire, they can't find anyone that that to do that job. And so instead of negatively affecting this team, the deadlines, you know, the turnover of information, all of this, rather than doing that, they added this piece and and effectively have become so much more efficient that the team is now ultimately better.

00:13:14:17 - 00:13:35:00
Unknown
You know, they're more relaxed, they have more capacity, they're feeling good. And so in that moment, that is when, you know, things are no longer working like a well-oiled machine. We can't make changes just for the sake of changing. We can't change our mission. We can't change our business offer, we can't change our branding. We can't change our messaging just because we kind of felt like it.

00:13:35:00 - 00:14:01:04
Unknown
I mean, we can, but there has to be a reason. And you have to decide when. Because so many times I see business owners who are just getting some traction and then they change. And then what's worse is you see those same business owners now sharing that like personal, vulnerable part of them on social media, which, you know, is not necessarily always my strong suit, but they'll say like, I'm so like I'm really trying to find my way.

00:14:01:05 - 00:14:20:13
Unknown
My offer is unclear and I don't really know what I'm doing. I've seen all three of these things in the last week and you say like, Whoa, what? I want to but I want to spend my money with you. If you don't have clarity on what you do or you're like flopping like a fish, are you? Does that does that make me want to confidently spend my money with you now?

00:14:20:14 - 00:14:45:18
Unknown
No, it doesn't. It absolutely doesn't. And, you know, so couple pieces here. Number one, you know, sharing personal, vulnerable information online, you have to remember who is listening to it. How is it providing value to that person? You know what I'm sharing the story about the fact that we made this change to this piece of software in the bookkeeping part of our agency and and that it didn't go well.

00:14:45:18 - 00:15:06:12
Unknown
And we have made a change. That's not that's not me being uncertain. That's me saying, hey, along with our values where we say customer experience is always important. Yeah, I think I think we might even have a podcast episode in season one talking about like titled that, talking about why that is so important to us. Along with that value, we say, Oh my goodness, we got to make a change.

00:15:06:14 - 00:15:26:02
Unknown
Our customers are not happy. So what do we do? We go all in on making a change, getting up to speed, making sure that that is new. That is where that like slow go delay, not an option. But we have to decide why. What is the objective? Is it in alignment with supporting our end objective? We talk about it.

00:15:26:02 - 00:15:45:05
Unknown
We say, you know, what is that? What is the overall objective and what are these decisions contributing to it? Because just because you tried something and it didn't really work the first time, it's not a reason to change everything, guys. It's small changes. It's little pieces of changes. It's it's deciding when big changes are required because it's not all the time.

00:15:45:06 - 00:16:06:17
Unknown
It's not every new piece of software. It's not every new, you know, influencer on social media saying, Hey, you could do this and you could do that. In today's day and age in 2023, our options and possibilities are endless. There is no perfect something for one size fits all, but the fact that you do it one way and someone else does it another way and they have this great tool that's great.

00:16:06:20 - 00:16:26:04
Unknown
Keep an eye on those things. Knowledge is power. No what is available to you. But just because something is available doesn't mean you should do it. I saw someone recently sharing about how you could build a funnel on Canva and I said Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Canva has, you know, is an incredibly diverse platform.

00:16:26:04 - 00:16:47:06
Unknown
They have some amazing pieces. They have some, you know, recently you can like really even do like video editing and Canva crazy. And, you know, just because something is available doesn't mean it's what is the most perfect thing for you? What I build my funnels in Canva. Well, someone built their funnels in Canada and be successful. Yes, but it's important to recognize does that support what you're doing?

00:16:47:08 - 00:17:04:04
Unknown
Should someone who has no funnel, who has no ability to create a funnel, they you know, they've invested in Canva and now they want to build a funnel and they don't have anything to invest in a new software that is specifically for funnels. Should they build the funnel in camp, Usher may be an option to you. It's there.

00:17:04:04 - 00:17:30:00
Unknown
It's you're already paying for it. But what I take my business that has multiple funnels running on a different system and say, Hey Kamba now has this, I should move over there. No I wouldn't. And so it really comes down to always keeping the objective in mind as we've talked about it now are two full seasons. We're back for season three and we're still talking about keeping that objective in mind, knowing what each part of your business does to contribute to your overall objectives.

00:17:30:00 - 00:17:49:21
Unknown
Someone was talking to me recently about social media content on Instagram, and you know, for months we had been talking about they have never had a client off of Instagram. Their Instagram truly helps them build a brand authority. They are well known in their area. The content they put out is very beautiful. It's a very esthetic focused industry.

00:17:49:23 - 00:18:12:13
Unknown
But, you know, it wasn't necessarily their their Instagram is not client generating, which is okay. It serves another purpose. They have received multiple press opportunities through Instagram. They have you know, they were on a local television station based off of Instagram content they had posted. So like, is Instagram serving a purpose? Yes. Is it providing them sales now?

00:18:12:13 - 00:18:34:06
Unknown
So when someone reached out to them and said, hey, we need to make these changes so that you can generate sales off of Instagram, is that something they need to jump on at this moment? I wouldn't say so. Could they in the future? Is it something make it evaluate? Yes. So it all comes back to what is the objective, whether we're talking marketing, whether we're talking bookkeeping, whether we're talking operations, optimizing fashion, it doesn't matter.

00:18:34:06 - 00:18:55:15
Unknown
You know, it's interesting little bit of a case study, if you will, threads, threads launched on Instagram. Well, it's like their Instagram sister platform, brother platform. However, we're going to be politically correct. And it had an astounding number of users in like the first week, more than any social media platform to date. And and so we, you know, lean in and we say, well, why?

00:18:55:16 - 00:19:18:02
Unknown
What's interesting is that it has almost immediately died off and it may come back, but let's let's dive into that. What does it mean, though? Did I go and grab a thread McCown on day three. Yes. Why did I do that? Because I could immediately see that everyone was talking about it. And if I know if I think back, when are people most successful on a social media platform?

00:19:18:02 - 00:19:40:07
Unknown
When it's new, when no one is, You know, think of some people on Tik Tok who had no social media experience, nothing. They had no nothing who are now have you know, I've heard they're made millions of dollars on Tik Tok. Most of those people started at the beginning of Tik Tok when the algorithm was learning who, what, who, what people liked and all of these things.

00:19:40:07 - 00:20:02:00
Unknown
And so did I go grab an account? Yes. Do I recommend that you grab one? If you haven't, you could. Here's why. It's less critical for threads because it's linked to your Instagram. So if you have an Instagram account, you have a thread account, you just have to activate it. But interestingly enough, you cannot delete your threads account without deleting your Instagram account.

00:20:02:00 - 00:20:17:02
Unknown
So people, a lot of people who jumped on there, that wasn't necessarily well known on the first little while, people jumped up and they start talking and then they say, Well, how can I delete this now? And they said, Well, you can't unless you delete your Instagram. People have had, you know, years and years developing their Instagram. So they're like, why do I want to do that?

00:20:17:04 - 00:20:37:14
Unknown
But this whole piece of threads was not there was no focus on sales, on threads. This is the self interconnection platform. Let's face it, people, let's really talk about it. People are here to make money. I mean, break down your online activity. Sure. I share pictures of my family with other family, friends, that type of thing. We share some business stuff.

00:20:37:14 - 00:20:59:03
Unknown
We share some funny stories, we share some. But ultimately, if you're doing business in the online space, you're not really going to spend a huge amount of time doing any one thing that doesn't either make you feel good or make you money. So a lot of people jumped into threats huge, more than any social platform to date. But they you know, a lot of engagement has died off now.

00:20:59:07 - 00:21:21:08
Unknown
And so people were, you know, chitter chattering, making connections, doing that. Now I'm just sitting I'm sitting and I'm waiting and I'm going to see for me, it's it doesn't seem like something I it's not something I enjoy. It's not bringing joy to me. And at this point, it's not bringing money to me. So, I mean, I might play around in the future, but at this point it's now on the list, it's on the shelf.

00:21:21:12 - 00:21:39:07
Unknown
And so, you know, I encourage you to do the same with the different pieces of your business. Does this support bringing me joy or bringing me money? And if it doesn't do either of those things and it doesn't support the end objective, it is not a critical widget to your success. It might be time to put it on the shelf.

00:21:39:07 - 00:21:59:10
Unknown
So, you know, this season we have, like I mentioned, an incredible guest right now, more tangible tips, more inspiring stories, going deeper. You know, when it comes to setting goals, I always say avoid bigger, better, more. But it's not tangible. No one knows if they made it. Is it bigger? Is it better? Is it more very hard to know?

00:21:59:11 - 00:22:25:18
Unknown
Not quantifiable, But when it comes to this season of the podcast, we are bringing more and it's more in a way of impact that doesn't always quantifiable. So here's where you know, this season three episode one is a bit of a contradiction. You know, we need to snooze. We need to strategically snooze on things that do not serve our objectives, stop flopping like a fish, because all you're doing is diluting your success.

00:22:25:19 - 00:22:51:15
Unknown
You need to be strategic and laser focused on your success and only do the things implement the new technology, take advantage of new opportunities that move the needle for you and your business. Not someone else's business, but you and your business. Evaluate opportunities based on your strategic plan and your laser focus on success and what that means to you and your business guys.

00:22:51:15 - 00:23:12:07
Unknown
I cannot wait to dive into season three with you. We're back. It is going to be bigger. It is going to be better. It is going to be more. It's not just a goal. It is a mission. When it comes to the podcast, guys, that's all for today. And I can't wait. We will see you next week and then.